Field of Glory V2 - Recent Comments

Whilst reading the most recent post on Phil Steele's "Ancients on the Move" blog I came across a slightly worrying comment:

"Our first 8 Doubles games [of FOG V2 Ancient & Medieval] produced just 1 decisive outcome and sadly a whole day's wargaming [at Triples, Northern League round 2] did not add to that total.   Despite rattling through as many turns as we could in a losing second game, it still did not reach a natural result within the 3.5 hours.  The earlier game was a 10:10 draw with only 2 units broken on each side (of the 30 or so on the table).  V2 continues to disappoint in this respect and I am losing interest I think."

From an experienced wargamers like Phil this is a worrying comment.  I'll be interested to see if this is a general  trend and is reflected in the average points scored. Outright wins result in a five point bonus so more draws should mean a lower average score.  I'll do some digging and report back.

Islamic Persian Camel Gunner

I am never going to make progress with my Renaissance Persian army if I keep getting distracted.  My latest distraction came about whilst reading the Field of Glory lists for the Moghuls & Persians.  Both have camel mounted light artillery!  This was too unusual not to investigate.  The end result is this test piece:

It's an OTC10 Ottoman Camel Gunner from Donnington.

Islamic Persia - Progress Of Sorts

In January 2008 I started a slow burn project to paint an Late Islamic Persian DBA army.  The idea was to have an army that would do for both the medieval (Timurid) and Renaissance (Persian) periods. I've now decided to go for a 650 point Field of Glory Renaissance (FOG R) army.

Doing a bit more research has shown me that an early Moghul army is also a possibility.  This all means the project keeps getting bigger but I am steadily completing one battlegroup after another.  More importantly I have finally settled down to painting the heavy cavalry.

The main drawback with these has been the quilted armour which I want to paint in the colours and the patterns of the period.  In October I made a bit of a breakthrough by finding a way to speed up painting the tiny quilted squares.  I've just finished a commander element featuring Shah Tahmasp I.

Painting Tips #7 - Varnish Recovery Technique

I've written before about improving commercial matt varnishes. Despite this there are still occasions when I have the odd "less than ideal result" usually just before I apply one of the fixes I've uncovered over the years. 

One such occasion occurred this morning whilst varnishing some 15 mm Swiss halberdiers for my renaissance French army. The problem was only obvious on the red and blue jackets of the figures which retained a slight satin sheen.

Experience has taught me that another coat of Matt Cote doesn't help and, for some reason I can't fathom, neither does using other varnishes like Windsor & Newton Acrylic varnish.  I know some of this is caused by the nature of the final paint layer (all Vallejo in this case) but I usually get around this by matting susceptible paints with a touch of talc - see Painting Tips #5 & #5a. In this case the paint layer was a true matt so the problem must be with the varnish mix: it's now been diluted with a touch of white spirit ready for next time.

Even so the Swiss still needed a true matt finish.  By far the best way I've found to date is to use Flat Future.  This mix of Tamiya Flat Base X-21 and Future floor polish is well known in modelling circles and I followed the recipe given by FichtenFoo for a Flat/Dull finish:

As I wanted to "repair" or refinish the figures, I simply painted the 30:70 mix of X-21 and Future on to the affected parts.  I used the Flat Future mix sparingly, almost wet brushing it on, to avoid it pooling.  If used in excess the "super flat" mix I have at the moment can leave a white residue in folds, and silvery flakes on flat surfaces. This is why I don't use it as my varnish of choice.

Its main advantage is that it dries really quickly and you can see one portion dry matt before moving on to the next; even on 15 mm figures. The strength of the Future layer is a nice additional feature. It drops the colour intensity a notch but that's to be expected as matting anything reduces the light reflected from the surface.

Let me know if this helps you.