Pass in Review: Northeast Indians Figures for Horse & Musket Games

(Image: "Three Lions," Getty Images, F&IW Society, Lake George) 

Back in January I had fellow gamer, Reynor Padilla, paint about 20 North East Indians, from Brigade Games. He did an excellent job on them.

Up close, they look fierce!

Here are a couple pics of East Woodland Indians: 

Here’s a pic of several Delaware Indians: 

And here’s a mixture of tribal Indians I had painted as special characters: 

These figures are now part of my slowly growing French and Indian War/American War of Independence collection.

I have several rule books available. 

At this point I’m not sure what rule set I’ll decide on.

The choices are--

Muskets & Tomahawks

Song of Drums and Tomahawks

Rebels and Patriots

 Sharp Practice  

And, Wiley Games Fistful of Lead's  Horse and Musket Series 

No matter what rules system I decide to use, I intend to enjoy seeing my figures on a game table. 

Pass in Review: Last German Vessel in Cruel Seas Collection (For Now)

(Image from:  Warlord Games)

 The last Kriegsmarine vessel I painted and assembled was the marinefahrprahm, or “F-lighter.”

Here’s how the pros at Warlord Games Shipyard painted the F-lighter:

(Image: Warlord Games Kriegsmarine Marinefahrprahm)

Here’s a port and starboard side views of my vessel:

And here’s a fore & aft oblique view:

I painted the hull and superstructure with The Army Painter’s “Wolf Grey.”  I decided to paint portions of the deck two shades of brown to represent wooden planking.  I don’t know if F-lighters had any wooden decks.  I just wanted to add some color other than various shades of blue and grey. 

This brings my Cruel Seas “ship building program” to the halfway point.

Along with the German Kriegsmarine vessels, I finished my Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) craft and vessels for the Soviet Navy, which includes one American “Lend Lease” sub chaser.

I’m currently working on 10 USN PT boats.  After these are done, I’ll start working on my British Royal Navy vessels, leaving the Italian Regia Marina as the last Cruel Seas faction to be assembled. 

It’s taken me 15 months to get to this point.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to send more vessels “down the slipways” at a quicker rate from now on. 

Pass in Review: Lighthouses for Cruel Seas

(Image from video:  Great Lighthouses in England)

 Lighthouses, the picturesque structures dotting coastlines the world over, date back to antiquity.  

The necessity for safe navigation often over-rode military operations, so there's very little information about the role of lighthouses during wartime. 

In my quick Google search extensive research on this subject, I came across two instances of raids, or attacks directed at lighthouses during World War II:

The Estevan Point Lighthouse Attack by the Japanese submarine I-26, 

and the British commando raid against the Les Casquets Channel Island Lighthouse during Operation Dryad.  

But the lack of anti-lighthouse actions didn't stop Warlord Games from providing some colorful terrain to include in tabletop battles.

Here's an example of their "typical Atlantic" lighthouse paint-scheme:

(Image from:  Warlord Games/Product/Lighthouse)

And one with an alternate style:

Two official scenarios include lighthouses, even though they're not the objectives:

Operation Chariot, and 

The Battle of Sukho Island.

Lighthouses in the Mediterranean Sea had a slightly different look, like the Cabo de Palos lighthouse in Spain:

(Image found on Storyblocks)

And here's Warlord Games version of a "typical Mediterranean" lighthouse:

(Image: Warlord Games/Product/Mediterranean Lighthouse)

I bought both styles, feeling I'd need a break from painting and assembling miniature ships.  Both models come in two pieces that can be easily trimmed and superglued.

Compared to painting ships, the conical tower lighthouse was fairly easy...

...the most difficult part being the cupola, lantern panel and gallery as identified by this cut-away schematic:

(Image found on Pintrest)

It took me two attempts to paint these features.  I found it best to wait until I could focus exclusively on specific sections as opposed to attempting to include them in an overall paint job.

The Mediterranean Lighthouse on the other hand was one of the most difficult figures I had to paint, particularly the base.

I rarely use white in my painting projects and I found it an unforgiving color to work with.  I'd mis-stroke painting the window frames, trim and shutters.  This would require multiple coats of white paint to cover up.  

After several coats of touch-up work, I quickly settled for finishing the building at "tabletop quality."

Here's a front view of my finished Mediterranean Lighthouse:

And here's the back view:

I'm not quite done with my lighthouse work.  I currently have a ruined version of the a ruined "Atlantic style" lighthouse, by Warlord Games, and a ruined Mediterranean version on back order.

While I'm satisfied with my work on these, they were difficult enough for me to paint.  So I'll most likely contract-out the job of painting the ruined versions of these two figures to other gamers.

Pass-in-Review: Reaper Bones Fantasy Miniatures

 

Some years ago, I bought the Learn to Paint Kit: Core Skills, by Reaper Miniatures, during a “fly-by” at one of our annual Enfilade!  (This year’s convention was cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pademic). 

Well, I finally got the kit’s three plastic fantasy figures painted—but it wasn’t by my hand, or with the kit’s paints.

I had the three figures, along with several other Reaper Miniature figures, painted by my friend Peter.

Here’s the results:

1. Orc Fighter, front view...

...back view:

2. Animated Skeleton Archer, front view...

...back view:

3. Paladin in Plate Armor, front view...

...back view:

While Peter painted the figures, I added a couple minor modifications.  

Since the figures are lightweight plastic, I superglued the bases to washers, heavy stands or even pennies to give them better stability and balance.  Then I painted and flocked the entire composite base of each figure.

The cave entrance backdrop is from a picture I downloaded and printed, but I can’t remember where I got it from.

The cave floor is actually the reverse side of the WH 40K Kill Team Starter Kit’s game board.

Next up will be another short post about my American Old West figures.

So stay tuned partner.