Turcopolen rebased

I spared some time to rebase my Teutonic Turcopolen in pairs on 40mm x 60mm bases rather than individually on 30mm x 40mm.
It means they can either be used closed up with a frontage of 120mm

or dispersed with a frontage of 180mm. Figures are Strelets originally painted in 2009 (link).

Also based at the same time were four mounted bowmen from other Strelets sets

Scottish Light Cavalry

One of the War of the Roses sets from Redbox covers these Scottish mercenaries. However their first outing will be as Polish Medium Cavalry for Tannenberg.


The only distinctive Scottish feature is the targe carried by most of the figures

Scythians rebased

I'm quite pleased with the way these have turned out. On the original basing they looked far too consistent with all the identical poses, but now the contrasting colours seem to dominate


The figures are Rospak hard plastic from their Greek light infantry pack


I modified some into horse archers with a upper body swap with the Greek cavalry.


Typically I found the missing 20 figures when I was putting these away.

Reworked Tartars

Some "old" Tartars I have rebased to provide the Lithuanian light cavalry for Tannenberg

This give me three units of horse archers for the Polish/Lithuanian right wing


I had originally painted them to provide support for my Ottomans (link1, link2), but they are better suited to this period and although they were based to my current standard it was the wrong size so it had to be changed.

On the workbench - January 2020

A bit of an odd month as I'm way for some of the time and I need to get things ready for the Tannenberg 1410 game for Vapnartak. Typically the extra figures I have ordered have not arrived yet. So I need to work on some other bits instead. I'm also working on a plan for the Persian Army to give the most flexibility for different rule systems.

• Rebasing Rospaks Scythian Archers and Horse Archers to become Persian vassals.
• Rebase Tartars for Tannenberg
• Polish Commanders for Tannenberg, as the bulk of the army will be generic figures
• More "medium" cavalry for Tannenberg
• More Turcopoles for Tannenberg

Plan for 2020

There is one big project for 2020, which is to build an ancient Achaemenid Persian army and two minor ones, which are fleets for Cruel and Black Seas. For the remainder it is completing what was left from 2019. On shows, it will definitely be Vapnartak, York in Feb; WMMS, Wolverhampton in March; Phalanx, St Helens in June and Recon, Pudsey in December. At Vapa I'll be running a Tannenberg game for the Lance & Longbow Society.

In detail

• An Achaemenid Persian army, I've about 200 items already purchased
• Cruel Seas - British/German/US flotillas of 6 boats each, plus some merchant ships
• Black Seas - a small Dutch fleet (something a bit different from the norm)
• Medieval – More WOTR longbow/bill units, mounted archers, cavalry, Scottish cavalry and extra Crusader foot
• Renaissance – Russian Stoldatski, etc. using up the Strelets bonus figures plus Galleys
• WW2 – bits and pieces (I'll try to avoid buying more)
• SYW – More (French?) Cavalry, British guns
• WW1 – increase/rebase Germans for 1917 and add some French
• 28mm – “skirmishing” WSS figures to provide more opposition for my pirates and Spanish
• Terrain – more buildings, fences, balkas/wadis, vines, etc.
• Organise the forces for the Lance and Longbow games at York, which will be Tannenberg 1410 and possibly Montgisard 1177 at Recon

Review of 2019 - part 2

Painting output was 2,330 items, which compares well with 2, 508 last year given my health problems.

Period	Total	Main items
AWI	676	Dominated by the rebasing project
Revolution	420	Increasing the size of my British, French and Mameluke forces in Egypt plus some Austrians
Napoleonic	329	Early Spanish Forces, a French Hussars brigade, and sorting out the “French” artillery
Colonial	273	Foreign Legion and Rifs, plus Ox Wagons for the Zulu War.  Also rebasing my rifle armed Zulus
WW2	232	Free French for Bir Hakeim
WSS	148	Spanish Colonial Force (28mm) and French League of Augsburg infantry
WW1	101	Increasing and rebasing British Infantry for 1917
SYW	81	Hanoverian Infantry
ACW	36	Whitworth and Parrot rifled guns with crews
Medieval	24	Burgundian Artillery
Terrain	10	Just movement bases for my Spanish Colonial Forces

Type	Total	Main items
Infantry	937	Always the largest, covering most of the periods above.
Rework/Rebasing	852	Dominated by AWI, but also Russian Artillery and Zulu Rifles.
Gunners	153	Tidying up forces, especially French Napoleonics, WW2 Russians and some ACW and Colonial.
Cavalry	135	Napoleonic Spanish Cavalry & French Hussars, Rifs, Mamelukes.
Riders	62	Limber riders, German AFV crews, plus figures needing the horses below
Other figures	46	Sailors to tow British in Egypt limbers, bailed US tank crews
Artillery Pieces	34	As per Gunners
Commanders	32	Extra SYW and AWI figures to double up the command stands.
Horses	30	Spanish cavalry horse swaps, donkeys for Foreign Legion and camels for French in Egypt limber tows.
Tanks/AFVs	11	Soviet Shermans and Winter Panzer IIIs
Limbers	14	Mainly the Napoleonic French replacements
Terrain	10	Just movement bases for my Spanish Colonial Forces
Wagons	10	Zulu War Ox Wagons
Equipment	3	A couple of 120mm mortars and a FFL Hotchkiss
Vehicles	1	Light Dragon carrier

Stash reduction
Thanks to some efforts to restrain my purchasing and some sales the stash is now at 6,447 items compared to 7,747 last year and 6,964 the previous year. A great success and I hope it continues.

Finally a big thanks you to all those who commented on my blog through the year

Review of 2019 - part 1

A difficult year, it started well, but then progress almost stalled after I was unexpectedly catheterised. Once I had my prostate operated on and I got back to normal, I made some good progress so overall my painting output has been quite reasonable. The noticeable effect was that I couldn't work on any terrain, I usually do this in the garage when the weather is better. Overall output of 2,330 items, more on this in part 2.

Shows I managed to attend were Vapnartak, WMMS, Phalanx, Bovington, Britcon and Recon. I would have liked to attend more, but I just wasn't available at the right time/place, in particular it would have been nice to get to Partizan. The shows were all enjoyable, four were with the Lance & Longbow society, WMMS with SOTCW and Bovy as an normal visitor.

Gaming, most miniature games I played down at Deeside Defenders were Battlegroup and the Dan Mersey rules and I enjoyed trying a lot of varied armies with Patriots and Loyalists. Other evenings were filled with RPG, etc.

Progress against plan

• Continue tricorne rebasing (just AWI now) plus extra/replacement cavalry units - all done
• Medieval – More WOTR longbow/bill units, mounted archers, cavalry, Scottish cavalry , extra Crusader foot - not started - carried forward to 2020
• Renaissance – Russian Soldatski, etc. using up the Strelets bonus figures plus Galleys - not started - carried forward to 2020
• Revolution – doubling up my French and British forces in Egypt. One Additional Austrian line unit plus another in Austrian style uniform (Baden?), Maybe replace Springwood grenadiers?. - All complete, plus some unanticipated work on my Mameluke army
• Napoleonic – work on the Spanish, continue the cavalry, acquire more early infantry, Tidy up French artillery, especially limbers, Pavlov Grenadiers - All complete
• WW2 – bits and pieces (I'll try to avoid buying more), but I will buy and work on some Free French for Bir Hacheim - In general I managed to restrain myself, However I still have various oddments lurking at the back of the painting area.
• Interwar - Rifs and more French Foreign Legion - All Complete
• SYW – Hanoverian Infantry Brigade, more (French?) Cavalry, British guns - Incomplete, the Hanoverians were completed, the rest carried forward to 2020
• WW1 – increase/rebase British - Just completed in time
• WSS – French Infantry (Mars)- completed
• 28mm – “skirmishing” WSS figures to provide some opposition for my pirates All complete along with some artillery and cavalry to accompany them.
• Terrain – more buildings, wadis, vines, etc- not started, the only "terrain" worked on was some movement bases