Following the success of the Bravance Parade, I have been working my way through the armies photographing them on an i-Phone which gives much better pictures.
They were well received on the VWC so I shall start cataloguing the armies on the Blog. While WIP pictures have been posted previously, the quality an clarity were limited.
I present the Kingdom of Argozia; this army caused me the most difficulties in designing uniforms as I wanted to avoid too "Russian" a look to them. The flags came easily and early on but tying it altogether took much longer.
The Army arrayed a bird's eye view.
King Ludwig II
The heir - his half-brother Prinz William Henry
Army commanders L to R: Viceroy of the East Erzherzog Anselm Holz-Weide, Earl Marshall Ritter Gottfried Linde, Viceroy of West Herzog Gottfried Beilstein
Corps commanders Lto R: Friedrich Kalk Graf von Oberwesel, Karl Wermutkraut Graf von Bodenfelde, Gebhard Klappe Graf von Winkel
Division / Column commanders
Guard Du Korps Guard HC
Guard Infantry regiments I, II and III (Grenadiers)
Heavy Cavalry L to R: Wittlich Cuirassiers, Mesenich Dragoons and Vohren Chevaux-Leger
Light Cavalry Rahden Hussars and Ockfen Uhnlans
IX and X Combined Grenadiers
Musketeer Regiments I to IV
Musketeer Regiments V to VIII
Legion of St George
Zwitscher-Schreke Freikorps
Garrison / Artillery Fusileers
Arillery
As before standard plastic Spenser Smith figures from C18th range with lights converted from Napoleonics and ACW. All personalities are my own Fimo /Sculpey one-off creations mounted on various plastic horses (which I have come to name "Grotesques")
Even better than seeing them on the VWC Neil, an excellent display of Spencer Smith eye candy pure inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThank you for brightening up a wet Sunday.
Willz.
My pleasure Willz. Just photographed the Estavian Imperial army.
DeleteNeil
Very fine parade, indeed, Neil!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan. The i-Phone takes very good photos even for a ham fisted amateur like me. Amazing zoom quality and I'm glad to see m painting stands up under close up scrutiny!
DeleteNeil
A lovely collection, nice to see the whole Argozian army, splendid!
ReplyDeleteDonnie, thank you. I will post the Arcadian and Estavian armies in the same format once I get time.
ReplyDeleteNeil
A splendid parade! Particularly like the grey and green on the gunners.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fine looking army, Neil - not too Russian, not too Austrian, not too Swedish - just right. Nicely balanced, too between all arms and first line with 'other line' troops.
ReplyDeleteI do like the colours as well. All agog to see the OPFOR!
Cheers,
Ion
Thanks Ion! I took a long time to settle on a lot of the units. The guard cavalry were based around a German - Russian unit - the turquoise facings. Likewise the gunners were an early sketch. The guard infantry were influenced by the Russian guard and Charles Grant's VFS guard regiment.
DeleteI sketched a flag that I used for the guard when first planning the army, but later played around with the colours for the other units.
I had a sketch of infantry in dark green faced light green and then saw something similar used by John Preece for jagers ( now in Stokes' army), and as I couldn't come up with anything else, used that. The other variation was from an Australian blogger and his Imagi-Nations.
To tie it all together, I tried to limit the palette of colours with green predominating and compatible colours.
Neil
Thanks Andy. The gunners are in white faced green, it may be the green of the felt or the dullness of the day changing the colour. The light cavalry look very green - more green than normal - I needed to upload that photo twice as well!
ReplyDeleteNeil
Aye. Maybe the felt/light. White looks good as well 🙂
ReplyDeleteOddly Andy, I had an idea for a cavalry unit in grey faced light green for any potential expansion to the army.
DeleteNeil
A very nice parade units.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter. It's quite impressive to get them all out of the boxes.
DeleteNeil
Always good to see a parade Neil…
ReplyDeleteAll the best. Aly
Thanks Aly! I find it inspires you to continue with a project when enthusiasm is flagging.
DeleteNeil
Fantastic looking Army Neil. I really like your personality figures - they're full of character.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm the first to admit that some are a little ropey, but then the characteristics I've diced up for them are a bit ropey too!
DeleteI wanted to use "Willie" figures as in the Wargame, but back then were difficult to obtain and had a limited range of personalities. I remembered an article by Peter Dennis on using Fimo and so hit on the idea of "all plastic" for the army. Finding plastic toy horses clinched it. Some of my later creations are much better. The advantage is that they are all unique!
Neil
Wonderful to see that you have a great force to complete the imagination wars. I think you have some great officers and personalities there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe. Argozia is army number 3. So far I have painted 6 armies with 4 more to do plus extras - about two armies this size in total number of figures.
ReplyDeleteThe personalities were from seeing Charge and the Wargame and being very influenced by Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign.
The game gives the name of a monarch for the 4 kingdoms and that's it. I therefore created ruling houses and nobility for the four kingdoms, the Estavian Empire and the eight minor states and gave them characteristics along the lines of "Setting up a Wargames Campaign" by Tony Bath, tweaked slightly for C18th ideas.
I'm hoping to test a solo campaign then see if it would work for remote players.
Neil
Lovely army, Neil! They look grand on parade.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean!
DeleteThese are fantastic, Neil and highly inspirational! I love the character figures too, they have an avuncular charm. V&B unit/base sizes work well for larger figures, I think ( slightly counter-intuituve?). Have you got enough to run a game yet??
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was initially uncertain of my Fimo sculpts but have grown to like them; I confess I like some better than others! Even though one is not supposed to have favourites among your children....!
Units on a single base requires a conceptual leap from "normal" multiple or single bases. Once you do make that leap, it opens up all sorts of possibilities and shifts in your viewpoint . Where the base size for a unit is the important thing, rather than number of figures or representative scale, it means you can design the size to meet your table. So if limited in space, construct the base size to match, including depth, and then use however many figures you want....
While I have more than enough figures for a game, I'm not yet ready to play one! There are various reasons. Firstly, terrain for the project. I need to build various card buildings and revamp or create other terrain. Secondly, I'm limited at present to the dining table which is generally unavailable (there are vague plans afoot for an alternative). Lastly, I want to ensure I have all the basic forces painted before I start the campaign. I want to try a solo campaign to get the mechanics sorted before I consider inviting players to control states remotely.
I have considered refighting Lobositz.......
Neil