Reinforcements and Rituals or my Journey Back to Painting: Epic Light Artillery for the Swedes!

Since my eye surgery, I’ve set myself a new goal: spending at least 30 minutes every day on my hobby. The idea is to get back to my previous painting level—or at least somewhere close to it—through consistent daily practice.

I’ve also decided to cut back on social media. After spending eight hours in front of a screen at work, my eyes simply need a break. Instead, I’ll be focusing more on this blog and plan to share a fresh update every Thursday.

Kicking things off, I have some reinforcements for my Swedish army for By Fire and Sword: some light artillery. Once again, these are the fantastic models from Warlord Games’ Epic Pike & Shotte range.

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15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: First Cuirassiers done

Warlord's Epic box "Thirty Years War Cavalry" includes 2 Cuirassiers on each of the 3 sprues and while a total of 6 isn't enough for a full unit, it's at least a starting point.

Until I have more, I'll either replace 2 bases in a unit of 'Mercenary Reiter' to represent them as 'Armoured Mercenary Reiter,' or use them to increase a unit size from 'S' to 'M'.

Let's take a side-by-side look at how Epic scale stacks up against 'true' 15mm minis—specifically those from Wargamer.pl.

In the center, we’ve got a unit of 15mm Reiters. To their left are the Cuirassiers; I decided not to bolster their bases with cardboard since they already stand about 1mm taller than the standard Epic cavalry. Speaking of which, on the right, you can see the Epic cavalry with their bases bolstered by cardboard strips, following the method I shared in my previous blog post here: Mixing Epic with 15mm?

As you can clearly see, it’s not just the height difference that stands out—though it’s certainly there. The real clincher is the overall volume. The 15mm figures look significantly beefier and more massive compared to Warlord’s much more slender Epic scale minis.

Personally, I’d steer clear of mixing Epic and 15mm within the same unit, but on the tabletop, they actually play quite well together—especially if you keep a few centimeters of 'breathing room' between the regiments/units as seen in the following picture:

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15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: More Mercenary Reiters

And here they are - the pictures of another finished unit of "Mercenary Reiters" this time consisting completely of cavalry from Warlord's Epic "Pike&Shotte" range:

As you can see, the operated eye is still causing me some problems – in this case, I overlooked some mould lines, which are then clearly visible when painted.

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15mm Swedes for the late TYW and the Deluge: Mixing Epic with 15mm?

I'm continuing to expand my Swedish forces for ‘By Fire and Sword’.

Having already completed the basis for a ‘Field Skirmish Force’ last year, I now need to expand it to a ‘Garrison Skirmish Force’ and later the corresponding ‘Task Forces’.

I still had a box of ‘Thirty Years War Cavalry’ from Warlord's Epic range, which a friend had given me years ago and which now came in very handy.

Fortunately, the figures in the Epic Pike&Shotte range are slightly larger than those in Warlord's other Epic ranges, as the following size comparisons with BFaS figures from Wargamer.pl show:

Wargamer-Dragoner - Warlord Reiter - Wargamer Reiter - Wargamer Command

It is clear to see that even within the original BFaS ranges there are significant differences in size. If you place cardboard strips under the bases of the Epic figures to even out the height, you can use them without any problems.

However, I would avoid mixing Epic and other figures within a unit, as this is quite noticeable because the Epic range is much more ‘delicate’.

For picture of painted Epic and a comparison with 15mm from Wargames.pl check my Blog post here:

https://utgaards-blog.blogspot.com/2026/02/15mm-swedes-for-late-tyw-and-deluge.html

And the same goes for the infantry ranges as well, especially as even 15mm ranges differ in height:

Epic - Wargamer.pl - Totentanz - Totentanz

Warlord Epic and Wargamer.pl 15mm go well together but are both significantly smaller than 15mm Totentanz Miniatures.

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Trying to paint Oak Leaf Typ A camouflage on 15mm

I tried my hand at an Oak Leaf Type A camouflage scheme on 15mm figures for the first time – a test run for one of my main projects in 2026.

The figures are from Battlefront, the jackets are painted as Oak Leaf Autumn, and one of the helmets as Oak Leaf Spring.

Conclusion for now: it's still too early for such details, I need to train my hand-eye coordination much more after the operation, but the result is at least acceptable.

I also need to choose stronger contrasts, at least for 15 mm.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the completed Panzerschreck team:

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Painting: Civilians and animals for 15mm and 28mm

In order to continue adapting to the new circumstances after my eye surgery, there is only one thing that really helps: practise, practise and practise some more.

As I still had a couple of civilians and animals on my to-do list.
Since these mostly serve to decorate the gaming table and therefore tend to remain in the background, they seemed to me to be the most suitable objects for practice.

I tested different colours and techniques, focusing primarily on training my spatial vision – let's see what ultimately proves to be the best long-term solution for me.

Fleeing 15mm civilians with a really big dog to guard them!

A shepherd whose dog is currently grooming itself 😎

15mm cattle

Pigs and piglets for 28mm - the piglets can be used as pigs for 15mm too!

My shepherd at work.

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Terrain: Making templates for my 15mm buildings out of scratch

This is my first post of the new year, so I would like to wish all my readers a happy, prosperous and, above all, healthy new year!

When I moved to Bavaria and switched from 28mm to 15mm (and 10mm), I wanted to keep my buildings playable, as I was used to with my 28mm buildings before.

However, this quickly proved to be very impractical at a scale of 15mm and smaller, as they are simply too small and awkward to handle, especially when my preferred multi-bases come into play.

So I created templates of the floor plans and storeys, used wooden strips to represent the walls, and voilà, you can now easily place and move figures in buildings and immediately see which figures are positioned where – without having to constantly remove roofs and storeys.

A small and quick craft project that didn't strain my eyes and marked my start to the new year in terms of my hobby.

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