So I made some more progress on the historical wargaming project no one asked for- the Great Northern War! It’s gonna be great, and hopefully it will get people interested in this corner of history largely forgotten outside of baltic countries. But more on that later!
Right now, I finished up a block of pikemen by Baccus miniatures for the swedes. One of the interesting things about the GNW is it is one of those transition conflicts between the early modern armies of the 30 years war into the rank and flank musket blocks in operation through at least the Franco-Prussian war. As such, you find some interesting infantry and cavalry units, such as pike blocks, still mixed into the major combatants.
I thought I would do a brief run down of the process, which goes pretty quick but is producing pretty good regiments.
Step 1: The strips are glued to a strip of wood with a little superglue. I hit the strips with a bit of watered down gesso because it’s cold outside, but a spray primer would do well.
Step 2: hit them with a watered down black acrylic paint- somewhere between a wash and a real layer of paint. This leaves a bit of decent looking black for things like the hats, and defines the volumes.
There is a good Osprey book on Armies of the Great Northern War which is a well reference. Baccus also ships their army packs with a handy paint guide. Here I am doing the Vastemansland regiment.
Step 3: dark blue for the uniforms
Step 4: put in white for the details that need it, but also put down white where the yellow is going to go!
Step 5: paint the correct trim areas yellow for your regiment, paint the coats light blue.
Step 6: paint the pikes (or muskets) brown with silver metal bits
Step 7: Pop off the strips, then glue two deep to a 20mm by 20mm stand, using superglue. Use spackle to smear over the base to blend it in. These are plywood bases but metal or plastic would work great too.
Step 8: Cut out paper banners (need to print some if you dont have them, Baccus ships with a nice set), bend them around in half and stick using modge podge. Then wash over the outside with modge podge, flexing it to get it in place.
Final step: Pain the base brown, then use modge podge to affix static grass (for a summer-fall battle look). A bit of snow would also be appropriate for various battles as well, though most of the campaigning was not in the winter of course!
Excited to grind through the swedes, then on to the russians!
-BS