RP No110 The 95th Rifle Regt of Foot

My first entry into this years Analougue Painting Challenge, earned me 120 points at the time, putting me into 5th place, that was before Christmas, I'm now in 14th!!! Some of the guys'n'gals must have been painting while eating their Christmas dinner!!!! 

At the moment the Challenge is being led by Miles with 475 points, as I said I'm in 14th and poor Fran has yet to put in an entry!!! Lazy Git! Although he's busy painting away down the table from me, of course that means I'm back at work, boo hiss!!!! Only two nights though, so its not that bad, although one of them is of course New Years Eve!!!!

Anyway, the figures are from Front Rank and have been sitting in my "To Paint" pile for far too long, I do have more and will be painting the 60th and maybe a Kings German Legion unit as well.

"In 1800 The Experimental Corps of Riflemen was formed, eventually becoming the 95th (Rifle) Regiment of Foot in 1803.

Riflemen were different, in many ways, to the soldiers that made up the bulk of the British Army. Instead of the classic 'redcoat' and white crossbelts worn by most infantrymen, the Rifles wore a distinctive 'greenjacket' and black leatherwork. This was the first attempt at camouflage by the British Army and was a reflection of the very different role expected of this brand new soldier, who was encouraged to make use of his surroundings.

Of course the other most notable difference between a Rifleman and most of Wellington's Redcoats was the weapon he carried, the Baker Rifle. Redcoats were generally issued with the 'Brown Bess' musket, capable of wavering accuracy at 75 yards. The 'Baker' was able to hit a man-sized target 200 yards away, and there are legendary characters within the regiment such as Tom Plunkett who achieved accuracy at 400 yards using a Patched Ball. This accuracy was down to a combination of the weapon and a revolutionary new training initiative."

Happy Christmas 2012!!!

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

From 

Don't throw a 1

Hmmm?

My favourite Elf!

Gentlemen, start your brushes........

And Tamsin!
Well today's the day!!! 

The 3rd Annual Analouge Painting Challenge has begun!

I'm sitting at work, (yes at work!!) busy painting away, Fran's off thank God, that's only another 10 days to go before I see his ugly mug again.
I've been here since 5:30 ish cleaning up my new arrivals
 lots of 15mm Peter Pig WotR pikemen who will become Scots and
join King James' army for the Battle of Flodden.

They're all cleaned, unfortunately not undecorated yet, so I've moved on to
what will be my first painted units for the Challenge.

Two companies of the 95th Rifles

in 28mm not my usual 15's

As some of you may well be aware, (yer right!!) t'was I who won last year's Challenge???

 I'm not expecting to be so successful this year as our venerable Master at Arms Curt has 

changed the points system and downgraded my beloved 15mm figures.

So I'm pushing for a top 5 place and think It'll be tough to reach my 

personal goal of 2800 points, that's a hell of a lot of figures?

Good luck to all my fellow Ronin 

but remember

"In battle, if you you make your opponent flinch, you have already won."

Miyamoto Musashi

Ronin no 34

RP No 109 NYW/Jacobite Raperees

Recently on the League of Augsberg Fighting Talk forum, there has been a lot of talk about the up and coming supplement for Beneath the Lilly Banners, which concentrates on Ireland during 1689-1691. I can't wait for this to be released!!!!  There has also been talk of individually based figures for a new skirmish based set of rules for the period.
With that in mind I painted up 24 Rapereers, Raper what? I hear you ask???

From our good friend Wikipedia:

Rapparees (from the Irish ropairí, plural of ropaire, meaning half-pike or pike-wielding person) were Irish guerilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side during the 1690's Williamite war in Ireland. Subsequently the name was also given to bandits and highwaymen in Ireland.

I chose not to base my Raperees up singularly, as with 15mm they can be a little fiddly to handle, (check out my FIW battle reports!) So instead,  I based them up on 20mm round bases, three to a base. I think It still gives them a distinctive skirmish look. 

As no manufacture makes specific raperee figures, I trawled through Essex's website and bought a few random looking Irish and Scottish packs from their Medieval and Renaissance ECW ranges and some packs which are meant to be Monmouth's Rebels.

Only two pics I'm afraid, all the other I took didn't come out at all well!

RP No 108 NYW/Jacobite - Lord Louth's Foot

Another unit of Jacobites for the Boyne period, although It's unclear if this regt fought in either of the 2 main action, the Boyne or Aughrim. The figures are once again from Essex minis and the flags were made by your truly. I found little info on the regt apart from the two snippets below.

Though the Plunketts were deeply involved in the uphevals of the 1640s and 1689-91, they survived with their lands intact.  Lord Louth, a royalist supporter, was taken prisoner in 1642 and was outlawed for high treason, later forfeiting his lands under the Cromwellian land settlement.  When Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, most of these lands were restored to Lord Louth and to his son, Matthew.

The accession of James II gave new life to Catholic aspirations in Ireland.  Matthew Plunkett, the 7th Baron Louth, joined the Jacobite cause in 1689 and commanded an infantry regiment at the seige of Derry.  He was outlawed and exiled, and died in September 1689.  The 8th Baron Louth, Oliver Plunkett, was only 21 when he succeeded to the title in 1689.  He joined the Jacobite forces and was outlawed, and was in Limerick at the surrender in 1691.  He was pardoned under the Arcticles of Limerick.  He was made secure in his estates and eventually managed to prove the reversal of his grandfather's outlawry for rebellion in 1641.  In October 1695 Lord Louth took the oath of fidelity, but his refusal to take both the oath of royal supremacy over the church and a declaration against Catholic religious practices and beliefs, prevented him from sitting in the House of Lords.

"English Historical Documents 1660-1714, by Andrew Brown"

There happened no winter action of any note between the Catholics and Protestants troops on the frontier of Ulster, except two or three. On the 24^th November Captain Christopher  Plunkett of Lord Louth’s regt, was sent with his company of Grenadiers,  by Major-General Boissleau from Dundalk  to take Newry, an open town then garrisoned by few of Schomberg’s army. He marched in the night-time and by dawn of the day he made himself master  thereof by the slaughter of a few enemies, and he was going to plunder the place, which was furnished with a good store of money, and had horses and black cattle, the captain received an order from the Major –General to retire immediately to his quarters. What reason there was for  this order we have not been informed, otherwise than that the first design was only but to show the rebels that the King’s frontier garrison was watchful and bold.

A very nice little pressie was poked through the letter box the other day from fellow blogger and good all round chap, Clint from down in the deepest darkest depths of the Medway towns. Myself and Fran received
a little box of chocolate goodness, which I'm afraid didn't last too long. Fran thought he had more chocs than me, but I'd already eaten two by the time the camera came out!!! Cheers Clint!!!!

Finally I've been working like a Trojan all night, cleaning up and gluing together bloody Gripping Beast bloody plastic Vikings, I wanted to make some command stands for my Vikings, so I've been drilling out hands for standards. All I can say is NEVER AGAIN!!!!! I've only made up 14 of the buggers and I've had enough, its taken me hours and I'm not a happy chappie,  its lead all the way from now on. I knew had have a funny turn with them and I was right! Now I need a drink, shame its only tea, now where's that Irish git, its his turn to make the tea, I made the last one and...............

3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challange

Ronin number 34 reports:
Curt, over at Analogue Hobbies is up to his old tricks again. The 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will be up and running on the 20th of December. Curt's really got his work cut out this time though, with 47 painters taking up the challenge, I'm not too sure Curt's going to have a lot of time to paint anything this time, with the 47 of us, I think his bum is going to be stuck to his computer desk sorting out all our entries!!
I'll be going a little Scottish for the Challenge this year, but most probably not until the new year. I'll be buying 2 Scottish armies in 15mm. The first will be the rather small Scots army for the Battle of Killikrankie in 1689. The other is the Scots army for the Battle of Flodden in 1513, now I already own a Scots Flodden army, but its really a Scots Common army posing as a Flodden army, so it needs replacing!! I'm not 100% sure of what the figures will be, perhaps a mix of Essex, Peter Pig, Donnington and Frei Corps???

In the meantime I've still got some NYW figures left, so I'll bore Fran to tears again and paint more of those up. And I've been trying to glue the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings together as well, oh the joy of it!!!!! I've also got some 28mm, 95th Rifles to paint up at some time too. These and a few others are for Battleaxe, so will be up for sale at a later date, I know Curt would rather have figures just for our own collections, but he has said its ok to add these figures in (I talking to you Fran!!!)

Some of you may recall (he he) that it was me who had the honour to win last years Challenge and I'll do my damnedest to try and retain my title, but its going to be really hard as Curt's changed the points structure, there are less points for 15mm figures this time around, which truthfully is fairer in the 28mm guys, so its gonna be hard slog.

I racked in a massive 4940 points last time, it would be nice to beat that score, but I can't see it myself, so I'm gonna plump for a figure of 2500-2800 points. With my figures mainly being 15mm, that's a bloody lot of figures!!!
Now all I've got to do is find a 25mm Ronin figure from somewhere????

So good luck to all involved, even that lying manure spreading Oirishman Fran!!!!

Talking of Fran, I've been off work for 10 wonderful Franless days, oh the bliss!!, trouble is I'm back to work tomorrow night with you know who!!!!!