Painting Ronin Boxing Day

Well I made it to "sunny" Morecambe, I did spend 30 mins on the brushes before setting off but as soon as I arrived Dad only had eyes for the newly painted FIW figures. After we had a spot of lunch Dad and I retired up to the wargames room for a short game of Muskets & Tomahawks.
I took the a french force of Regular troops and Indians we were tasked with guarding the local civilians. Below is my force:

And this is the field of battle 1/3 of my force was to be held in reserve, I selected the regulars to be held back leaving my 3 units of Indians and the civies to man the homestead. Two units occupied the two houses and the others took up positions around the yard.

I was opposed by evil British Light troops and Rangers, commanded by the Rvd P Brewerton.

I guess you could see it was going to be my day when my reserves appeared on the very first turn, they also got the first activation card so marched up the road towards the homestead.

The next activation was my Indians so I put them all into vidulance (over watch), this meant that when the British lights slunk out of the woods my Indians in the house opened fire, spilling first blood.

The Brits/Rangers got the next few activations so were able to take up position over looking the corn fields and at the back of the house. The rangers committed a vile act of shooting the poor civilians but failed to cause any injury.

On my next Indian activation I charged all units out of the houses and towards the enemy, one unit was able to get into hand to hand combat with the light Infantry killing another one.

That brought the first turn to an end, the second started with the indians charging back into the lights and killing one more this proved too much for the remaining troops who fled and hid in the corn fields. By now the rangers were closing in on the flanks and the ranger officer made a reckless charge into the nearest Indian unit throwing his tomahawk, he succeeded in killing one causing the rest to flee in fear.

My Regulars by now had formed a line and were threatening the rangers flank, causing them to pull back from the french and Indians pressing the position.

My luck was in today because a dice role at the end of turn two, meant the end of the game. My task had been to keep the civies alive which I did and Dads was to scout every area and retreat which he failed. Victory for the French
Victorious French General.

Painting Ronin Christmas Day

I hope you have all had a great day and the you got all you wanted from Santa. As you can see I did not give myself any time off the painting.

I did not complete anything today but pushed on well with the Hussars and Highlanders and the FIW civies are almost ready for a good dip.

I am getting lots of fun out of these highlanders these are by far the best figures I have painted from Redoubt Miniatures. Tomorrow I head of up to my Mum and Dads for a few days, it does mean a short break from the painting table. I will though be playing a few games with my Dad (gasp, I can see the headlines Brewerton actually plays wargames) what I plan to do is carry on with the diary with a few game reports and pictures of our wargames room.
Peace James

Painting Ronin Christmas Eve

Evening all,
                Hope your day has been quiet and that you have not had to brave any shops. I have had a productive day on the brushes. I finished the Cannon and the squad of Canadians plus the Indian Scout, all have been photographed and sent off to Curt so expect them after the holidays.
I still have a full table to keep me out of mischief.

I asked you last night to think about why you paint wargames figures. I know for some it is just so you can play wargames with painted figures, but for some of us this part of the hobby can be as much fun as the games. I love painting, I have not always painted for some periods my paints have been packed away while other hobbies got in the way but always they come back out. I think what keeps me coming back is that I am good. My belief is that every one has a skill they excel in for me it is painting little lead figures. A few years ago I thought my skills might lay in the top end display figures but I soon found I lacked the patience to spend hours and hours painting just one small part on one figure. I know why these guys only paint a dozen figures in a year, but for me I love painting units and armies. More than that I find the whole thing relaxing I sit at my desk with music playing and chill out. When I started out it was a CD on my Ghetto blaster (one of only two CD's I owned) now I have over 12 hours recorded on my smart phone, but either way it is my personal form of meditation.
 Anyway enough talk let me show you my current WIP, we have the Highlanders still, the SYW Hussars and a new group of FIW civies.

I have also sorted out the SBS of my painting of horses which you can see below the figure to look at is always the one on the left of the two.
 1. Dry brush whole figure with a dark brown.

2. Paint the lower leg in dark grey.

3. Dry brush the lower leg with light grey.

4. Paint the hoof light brown.

5.The hardest bit is now to paint the horse's muscle in a dark flesh, if I am painting leaders I tend to add a light colour to the flesh and highlight the flesh. But for rank and file this is enough.

Hope some of you find that helpful.

Peace James