Whats New

Well I have been ion beijing for a month so not a lot has happened.

But recently in a break from painting endless napoloeonics my 8th Army 20mm has risen from the ashes.

Bought some figs\vehicles from Skytrex,Brittani,SHQ and Frontline. Patched up some airfix vehciles and organised my infantry.

Pics to come.

Scenarios for wargamers

Howdy,
Been doing some great painting and some great war gaming with Ion and James. Ion very kindly lets us game at his place due to the lack of time at weekends.
Last night Ion and I played a Breakout scenario from Scenario's for war gamers - it involves an Austrian raiding force trying to get out of a territory while the locals (German Allies) rally all troops to get some retribution.

Below
Top - 24eme Chassuer arrive on the scene and survey the action - the next turn they charge the Austrian line who stayed in line and survived.......just. (some awful dice from me)
Bottom Left- The total view - Germans on all four flanks. The bulk of my force is stuck behind the bridge (river unfordable)
Bottom Right- The Westphalians take the river bank.

The game ended with an Austrian Victory as they managed to get most of their force away though I gave several units a good pasting.

More Painting

I'm getting to paint everynight which is good and quite theraputpic. Sitting in the warm painting and watching TV is quite relaxing to me.

Finally tidying up the Westphalian Guard Grenadiers and the 1eme Westphalian Cuirrassiers.
Then :

2emeSwiss and Saxe-Weimar Jager
4eme Swiss and Westpahalian Jager
Making and Painting my guns and limbers
My final lancer unit
And then tidying up everythnig else I have missed.

So all in all a good collection - 2 Grenadier, 1 Chasseur, 7 Line, 3 Light, 2 Cuirrassier, 2 Dragoon, 2 Lancer, 1 Chassuer and 4 guns.

is a campaign in the offing ?

The Wargames begin

Finally a chance to wargame midweek that is close to home.. Ive been busy as hell and as I'm off to Beijing I will have less time.

A poor pic (from my mobile) of game between James (Austrian) and myself (french) with Ion umpiring (as we were play testing some new rules). I lost the game but gave it a good crack - my plan was basically charge forward in column and not stop for anything.

My westphalian standard bearer

my 14th Cuirrassier officer painted 12 years ago

I am slowly learning how to take photos and edit then using picassa. Here are some better shots.

Below are my Westphalian Chevaux Leger Lancier - the westphalians only had Chevaux Leger' so this unit didnt exist - but I have a surplus of lancer figures so I made them anyway. Horse still have to be finished.

Next is my British Officer from Redoubts "Last of the Mohican's" set. Still a little touchip needed.
My Illyrian leger bugler by Redoubt. Not a good photo, Redoubt Nappy figures are quite rough compared to Front Rank\Foundy but I quite like thier character.
My front rank Hessian ErbPrinz regt. My last posts have been calling them Prinz Wilhiem - I got a little muddled up. FR made a boo boo on my order and I received 16 voltigeurs instead of fusilier. So the fusiliers will ahve white plumes to ake them "fancy".
My last FR artillery officer - a little tidy up needed and then all I have to do is make the guns.

Redoubt Lancers (My Westphalians)A bad photo of two prinz Wilhiem Grenadiers
Another bad photo of my 4th Swiss Eagle Bearer

There has been a painting frenzy on recently but in the last few nights I have found I have been gettingf sidetracked painting other things.

I have also found I cant take photos to save my life.. My place also suffers from horrible lighting issues, my fantastic lamp has dissapeared into oblivion, our blinds need fixing and so on and so on.

I have just about finished the Prinz Wilhiem Regt - only cockades, chin straps, buttons and plumes to go, plus some other minor tidy ups. The cuirrassier riders are almost done and then it will be the horses. I have bought Kevin Dallimore painting guide and gt some good tips for horses so will see how that goes. Westphalian Guards are half done and I seem reluctant to make the effort to do them. This is due to the fact I have painted two CSA regiment (italeri figures and some cav), undercoated some 28mm WW2 french, painted two indians and started another company of the 24th foot (SYW). I've also started painting my Lienster regt for my fictitious SYW nation (Revell figures). I also picked up some foundry 1812 Russians to see what they will look like (yikes I have alot of figures). Am also startng to paint (in drabs oif 2-3 figures at a time) my Croation light inf and my 4th Swiss.

I need to paint this in April

27 Westphalian Guard Grenadiers (Mixture Foundry and some unknown figures off ebay)
27 Hesse-Darmstard "Erbprinz" Line Infantry (Front Rank)
27 Westphalian Line (Front Rank)
12 Westphalian 1st Cuirrassiers (Redoubt)
12 french-Indian Wars French Infantry (FR)

I have some pics of the line lancers buut forgot my camera.

Also need to sort out my Standards

So I have got some new figures and am painting away - the redoubt lancers look great so will have some pics soon,

I managed to undercoat some 200 figures last week so all; has gone well. The hardest part now will be the painting.

Feb Update

- Am back from the USA and have some new figures - more Redoubt Sudan Range.

paimted a Foundry Marshall and have also painted two Front Rank French line arty crews and started the Lancers - made a mistake on the saddles so need to clear that up but I have to say they look damn good.

Pics to follow.

Photos of New Figures

Right - My new 25mm Redoubt Line Lancers - lead lances (aarrrgh) but I like the figures. I have never painted a lancer figure so this should be fun.

Top: a Redoubt french artillery officer - I picked up two howitzers from Doug at Miniature Service centre during one of his specials - I also picked up two limbers which will suit the 30 or so limber horses I picked up off trademe

Left - Some new Indian War French from Redoubt. They almost look exactlly like Front rank Figures so will blend in easily. His musket and bayonet are extremely long - longer than the french lancers lance

And finally my preacher for my Indian Wars Skirmish figures - Front Rank civilian pack.

My new 28mm Front Rank Westphalians - (poor lighting sorry) - I undercoat black and do shading etc. They have come out really well - just about 200 to go now. Flag is GmB

Some CSA troops I painted on a sick day - Italeri 1/72 that I tried drybrushing - they came out well so I painted 2x 24figure regts. Havent bothered doing the face detail.

Some Spanish Essex 15mm Nappies I painted about ten years ago - still have bucket loads sitting in a box somewhere

Finally have some pics and they are quite poor - bad light, bad angles and a bad photographer.

A New Start

A New Year a New Start
Like most of my projects I started with a hiss and a roar and then it petered out into a slight whimpering ha ha ha.

I am going to offload my WW2 1/72 stuff as after visiting my grandads grave I decided that I will never play Germans again.

I painted a load of CSA and they look alright - its easy to paint 1/72 figures- so easy in fact I did 4 regts in a day. They look quite good - they look similar to the figures I painted over 15 years ago.

I have picked up some more 25mm french dollies made by redoubt - compared to Front Rank and foundry they are quite small but I like the figures so I thought what the hell. I also picked up some old Hotspur french 25mm (they arent made anymore after the designer was killed in a bike accident)) to finally finish the brigade I started 15 years ago (Yikes)

The figures were 40% off through a contact in the US. The size compares to Hinchcliffe but have more detail and the poses are varied - I quite like them.

So I picked up 2 Line Bns (of 24 figures), 1 Voltigeur bn, 2 guns and 1 Line lancer Regt aswell as some various hincliffe and hospur figures to compliment existing ranges. So yes my army will have avast contrast of Front Rank giants next to smaller Redoubt but I like the variety.

I'll be bringing my camera in on Monday to add some pics (finally)
(I also added some more 15mm french from deflatermouse.)

Am off to the States on thursay so who knows what shops I will find over there.