Merry Xmas and happy New Year

Belated as per usual but I have been on banks Peninsular since Xmas Eve and have only now got internet at the holiday house in stunning Timaru. As such I don't have any figures or paints with me so it will be a week at least until I can get painting again. I plan to have fun with my family at Caroline Bay, sit on the beach and get as much sleep as I can.

Have a safe new years everyone.

Below are my 15mm Peter Pig Ansars and Tribesmen, a photo I found on the camera !

Pics

 So finally I got the camera out and have taken a tonne of pictures which I will post over the next few days. It was a really nice day today but I didn't get a chance to take any pics outside which is why my late night pictures are pretty poor. I'm in a pretty bad mood at the moment so my commentary will be brief.

I'm getting into some more 15mm Napoleonic, I started these guys 6 months ago and I have forgotten what unit they are (Idiot!). The figures are Old Glory Wurtenburgers but I must have had grand plan to make them something else (and never noted what I was doing - Idiot !). The figures are undercoated and ready for shading and the works. (I'm painting 12 at a time)

I also found a very very very old unit of Italian Grenadiers so I have touched them up a little and hope to base them this week. They look fairly tired in this photo so hopefully based en mass they will smarten up  a bit.

 My flagsofwar standards also arrived so these have been glued onto the bases. Once the glue is set I will tidy the flags up by touching up the gold edges of the flags to make them more realistic instead of paper printout looking.( The unit is the 83rd Pennsylvania )

 I have also just about finished another two stands, a few corrections here and there will help...

 as well as some more shading on some faces.......

 Close up of the Colour party. Foolishly I didn't check my figure positioning when making the bases and I wish I had of uses another officer figure as his clone is on the other side.

Christmas Surprises

So November 4 I ordered another box of Perry 28mmm ACW from caliverbooks, Until I received this order I held off on the ACW painting (Added of course by my shaky thumb), a week later I was also tempted by a Peter pig 20% discount and some Irregular Miniatures 15mm Jungle animals. These were my xmas presents to myself and I left it at that.

Peter Pig arrived promptly as always, Irregular arrived but no Perry............so I placed it down to a small delay certain parcels get from time to time. I then took advantage of a mightyape.co.nz deal and ordered some Flames of War desert buildings - they contacted me and said it would be 2-3 weeks until they could send - which was fine for me - I'd get my ACW and then after Xmas some FoW - Everyone is a winner or so they say :).

They are pre-painted, yes its a little lazy of me but that's what money os for.

Mmm Dec 7 and still no Perry...........so I contacted Caliver and they apologised as my order was processed but nothing happened to it - BUGGER. Then a knock at the door and there was a FoW Desert Building package from mightyape being delivered 4 DAYS after ordering - HUZZAH. So I guess the Positive and Negative forces of wargaming luck have shown themselves today.


So I now need to make another Caliver order for some ACW and a box or two of 28mm plastic WSS figures that two people talked me into getting (well to be honest they only mentioned it, I talked myself into it very quickly.)

I have also tonight done a nights painting with no shakes - things are looking up. Hopefully I will have some pictures up.

The Twitch !

What is happening at the moment. Not a lot, I seem to be suffering some sort of nervous twitch in my left thumb which makes painting and holding figures steadily almost impossible. I did try however, but I would go to paint an Ansar’s rifle, twitch just as brush bristles touched led and then end up painting brown on his clothes. I had to revert to basing  (for spraying) and  undercoating new figures and painting the base coat on completed bases but based figures suck up a lot more space than when they are new in a bag so I’ve actually run out of storage boxes. There has also been some grumbling in the camp by my civilian camp followers about the space I am taking up in the kitchen, and I have been warned that a mutiny may occur.

Before the dreaded twitch I was going all out to finish my 15mm Zulu and Dervish armies and I made some headway, but alas I am now laying low until I can’t paint twitch free again. The Dervishes are Peter Pig and they are such a nice figures, I  whinged to myself that one of the figures had flash on the front and back (I’ve never seen flash on a PP figure before) so got out the old knife and pruned away. I then decided to engage my brain and realised as this particular tribesman was nude, then perhaps the “flash” at the front was actually his crown jewels and so I only pruned the flash at the front. I guess I just assumed it was flash and didn’t really have my 15mm figure penis check mind set on.

So I am currently just reading blogs and doing paperwork for solo campaigns I intend to run. One of those campaigns is to redo my Jaxonia Ubongo campaign as the last time I did it I seemed to have tremendous luck. On rereading the rules I found I had made a few mistakes and left out jungle encounters completely, but as I now have a bag of Jungle animals from Irregular Miniatures it looks like gorillas, crocodiles and various others beasts will also pray on the poor soldiers.

Its pretty boring with a twitchy thumb !

First ACW based and 15mm Altenguard Army.

So seeing as though have a tonne of stuff painted but not based properly I thought I'd spend the next session sorting some of this stuff out. First off I found the 28mm Russian 1812 Horse Artillery, filled my paint tray with dark brown and then proceeded to drop the first figure in head first - %&$^&!.

Then I did it again (%&$@! x 2) and gave up on the Napoleonic as I needed to clean two figures and it gave me the hump.

So I have based the first four bases of the 29th Pennsylvania. The standards are in the post at the moment, and when they arrive I will finish the pole as well as sort out Officer and NCO chevrons etc. I've gone for a plain old grass scheme with a few weeds and clumps of brush, typical sheep country !.

So I have another 20 figures to paint from the first box and the second box to go.

I then moved onto a 15mm Rally Round the King Army - Altenguard (basically based on 100YW English) - lots of bows, a few men at arms and a commander, I based the Brethren (Religious Paladin types) Knights as well as for some reason they were in the wrong box.

 I also noticed that the spears\spikey points all need fixing - yay. I also need to adorn the pike with a standard of some type.

Unfortunately I was a bit robotic now and accidentally based 3 Goblin Archer stands in the same grass theme so I called it a night there as I wanted to give them a rock\cave based theme. Looking at the RRTK boxes I have the following to finish.

Goblin (Bases to be flocked)
Border Kingdoms (Norman)
Elf
Dwarf
Imperium (Roman)

If less is more, then more must be awesome.

So onwards and upwards. I have been quite busy on the painting table, but rather lazy taking photos.

I have started to paint the bases of my 20mm Japanese, and then realised I have never done jungle bases before so will need some different decor. This is quite good timing as I need some tufts and flowers etc to make the lads below look pretty on their bases. The figures (16) are only 60% done as I still have to add the final shade\highlight layer, blanket rolls, brass n boots and head wear to go. The faces will also get a slight wash in some places, especially elephant man on the far left hand side.  only 56 to go :). My blues are quite light, but I'm happy with it, I have spent some time in museums around the USA in my traveling days and that good old blue uniform did vary considerably. I spent a lot of time in Alabama too over the course of a few years but rue the day I didn't buy that kepi in that trinket store.

And you can never have a Napoleonic 15mm army without Italians ............

So hopefully I'll bash out the rest of these Unions lads over the next few weeks, and I need to finalize my Peter Pig order. I've often wondered why he never seemed to advertise specials, but now I seem to have been in on a lucky discount draw and have got a hefty discount for one order only - HUZZAH !

Magpie !

My daughter ended up with Viral Pneumonia which meant a few days in hospital, then lucky for me I was then sick over the long weekend with said virus. So finally after 10 or so days off I have got the paints out again. I also squeezed in a game for the Rechburg Dynasty (http://rechburg.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/battle-of-ulrichstein.html) in which I tried my hand at carrying a positions with the bayonet enforce. The only thing I carried was  a crap load of crap dice - I was rolling 40 odd dice in a turn and was getting maybe 2x 6's, while Barry '6's' Taylor seemed to not get anything apart from a 6. Such is life - I took a chance and relied on luck and ended up with a bloody nose.
Painting
I shall endeavor to finish off these ww2 Japanese, I thought I needed figures but found a large bundle of SHQ 50mm mortars so was able to finish the first battalion. Below a 4 Company battalion, with attached weapons company and Regimental assets (MMG and 75mm gun). The figures are a mix of Airfix, Esci, Italeri and SHQ. I also need to plan how I decorate the bases as it will be jungle themed which I have never done before.

 I have split the figures into two types of uniform - a jungle green of sorts and the good old "Japanese uniform\ochre. So far I have only finished the Jungle green outfit, I should have enough for a full regiment (3 battalions) all up and then I can start on the KNIL\Aussies.

 What ho ! I found this stand in my Napoleonics - I cheeky vignette of a Aristocrat and his buxom Friend. I need to sort out my pirates and get some games on (Job number 1000000 in my list of things to do)

 Talking of things to do - what are these below............

The Rebel Barracks team are planning a 28mm Gettysburg Re-fight next year and I am tempted to join in. I don't plan to have a 28mm ACW army (as 6mm, 15mm and 1/72 are enough !) but I have always fancied these figures (Its those bloody Perry\Victrix Napoleonic that started this) so I purchased a box to see how they fare. Just like the Napoleonic Perry - very nice to paint (of course my Napoleonics are sitting half done after 2 years cough cough). So I'll paint a box for the entertainment ;)

Take care.

Pickup game and blogger issues

Blogger 
I've spent the last 24 hours re-following quite a few blogs that seemed to get wiped off my list when I upgraded to the latest version. It was a pain in the ass but as blogger is free I wont moan too much but it was fun reconnecting and seeing what others are up to(Was also a good reminder to renew my Lone Wolf subscription).

But the new Kaptcha routine is manure extraordinaire. I can barely read anything and I have excellent vision ! but I guess my dated laptop doesn't help things.

Game
On Thursday evening Barry and I played a pickup game to test out fighting in horrible terrain, as well as try out a pint value system for the VLE Ruleset.

I created  a mixed Spanish force based on the First Division at Bailen with highly inflated morale states though. My goal was simple, advance straight ahead and slog it out on the hedgerows, which turned out to be pretty hard. Below is the table, lots of hedges, fences, walls and hills and wonderful 15mm troops of Barry and my own collection.

 Barry's Bavarian Division advances towards the Spanish Guard.

My attempt at a killing blow, I managed to concentrate 3 brigades at one point and all that was facing them was a sole French battalion. Even the Spanish couldn't stuff this one up.......

 Which they promptly did. We simply couldn't seem to hit anything with musketry\shell so 3 brigades simply charged the French lines. This then prompted some severely bad dice rolling on both sides in which we were rolling 8 or so dice each and not getting a single hit. However a Spanish battalion near the northern farm got a little wobbly, and then ran for the hills. Several battalions around it didn't take this as a good sign and motivation dropped and my attack stalled and then in the next two turns some fancy french artillery fire broke several units and I retreated. All the while it was a good game, attacking bad terrain is difficult but even if you make it you are then a poor dice roller things are not going to end up very well.

Command Decision

So I was trying to find a hedge-trimmer charger in the garage that I thought was on a shelf next to the wargames storage area and low and behold I find my CD rulesets in a box. I have the good old 2nd edition that I enjoyed for many good years (not that 3rd Ed that no one seemed to like) and a large tonne of figures of various nations that I have stored away for some future date.

So rifling through a few blogs I find some OOB for the Early War pacific (KNIL, AIF and IJA) and I notice that I have all the figures needed for some units. So as I paint the SYW figures up I will do a few ww2 figures at the same time. The good thing about CD in the pacific is that the forces were so small and armour are so rare that I don't need to make 50 odd vehicles for a single game !.

The bad thing is all those nifty plastic Aussies, Esci Japanese are out of production :( so I cant readily get anymore.

While I was looking I also found 28mm BTD Germans and Russians,  some Panthers and about 3 unmade 1/72 StugIII, 2 Pz III that I should really sell or trade as I need to odd infantry gun for the IJA and KNIL.

Revell SYW

A quick post as I have finally based two units of my plastic 1/72 French Army.

Below is Inf Regt, 100 better known al Lally's Regt. I think I started painting the 4 years ago and they have finally been based. The uniform I have done is completely wrong of course as when I painted them they were an "Imaginations" unit so I simply found a French unit that I like the Flag of (The Irish Regts mostly had red uniforms). I simply painted the flag on the figure and have yet to add the 3 corner Crowns as the first corner was a simple test as to how it looked.

 And the next unit IR29 or the Bourbon Regt with lovely white coats. These were undercoated in white GW primer, washed in black and then painted . There is always something appealing about plastic figures, basic, light, varied and of course cheap.




So looking at my available figures I have the following to complete:
2 Grenadier Units
3 Infantry
1 Light Infantry
4 Milita\Guerilla \Angry Townpeople.
3 Cavalry
4 Battery of guns


Cheers
Paul

An Unexpected Journey !

On Monday evening as I was putting the bins out I remembered that I had some plastic sprues that I had promised to Archduke Piccolo (http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.co.nz/). So a phone call later I had arranged a visit to the Archduke's home on Tuesday night. Often when you enter Chateau Piccollo you can't help but be motivated by the hosts enthusiasm and creativity for wargames.

After seeing the scratchbuilt naval forces(http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/more-on-naval-warfare-in-jonos-world.html) I was very tempted to try some of mine, seeing that I had everything necessary to make them.

So yesterday I knocked up the following three ships in around half an hour, and as I painted some SYW 1/72 I threw some paint on them to see how they looked. Two cruisers and a (carrier of sorts) - all based on ice cream sticks and made out of Eraser, glue gun sticks and bits of sprue. They were thrown together rather quickly and the paint job was very fast just to add some colour but a good test run if i wanted to create some more. Out of scale of course as that front turrent looks like it houses a

Karl-Gerät ! and drastically out of balance.

 The Harbinger Class Cruisers.

 The carrier "Reluctant" and I'm very tempted to make some Swordfish to go with it.

 Look at those guns !

And my French SYW 1/72 figures. Bourbon Infanterie (IR 39), the paint job is unhistorical seeings its the first French of this period I have ever painted but I really like the look of them - Very tempted to go find that box of Front Rank French and Indian war figures I have !

Plastic Fantastics

So finally some action on the camera front and on my painting table, I went to get my "plastics" box out and I found a Imagiations unit on top. So here they are - a yet to be named battalion. I've decided to paint the rest of the figures as they were intended, AWI as Im interested in that period and didnt see a reason why I needed to do it in 15mm.

On to the Confederate Plastics, First off the rank was some CSA Italeri  Artillery crew, very crisp figures to paint much like all Italeri sets.

The first of the new Italeri battalions. I purchased the figures in 2006 and have only gotten around to sorting them out properly.

And a blast from the past. One of the second generation battalions I purchased in 1998 from Revell 9I think) to complement my ESCI forces. They still bear the original paint jobs and I have no intention of touching them up, these figures bring back some great teenage memories of game after game against Ion.

And even older. The original CSA army painted when I was between the ages of 13 and 16 (23 odd years ago). Mostly Esci figures, shame they are OOP but they did good things for 1/72 wargaming. I have re based them but again I wont touch the paint job, they have held up well through the 3 decades they have sat in a box.

Some handpainted flags from a newer set, I think Ive done rather well on these, I typically don't like moulded flags (They are usually tiny !) but these I like as they seem a good size.

The rest of the Italeri figures in various stages of finishing and a final Esci unit that needs some new bases.

And my most recent arrival courtesy of Richard Shields, a swag bag of Airfix ACW artillery, 16 guns and all the crew. Such classic figures so I thought it prudent to start my Union forces off with a classic unit.

Normal Service to resume soon

My laptop was caught in a crossfire between user silliness and a 2 year old temper tantrum. I still don't understand how said user managed to corrupt windows when they were trying to load trademe via internet explorer but then again females are odd sometimes.

Never fear I have restored it to factory settings but its has taken me an age to restore all my goodies onto it. Will post some pics of what I have been up to soon, apart from painting 1/72 plastic ACW and AWI figures I have been on holiday AND sick at the same time.

more soon..

Work Bench - All Things Zombie

Hi,

So yet another small project I have are some zombie games - a mix of Modern and 18th Century zombie Apocalypse to simply act as solo entertainment. As part of this I am slowly gathering figures and terrain to make the kitchen table game area look  a little more populated. 

Below is an older building that I yanked out of the box and touched up, next to it is a QRF Stagecoach I had laying about that will be a prop for a game. I picked up the shed off trademe and I'm not sure who made it.

My 18th Century games will will be a rip off of the Sleepy Hollow genre where some local town gets terrorised by nasty dead things - will the townsfolk survive, will the Militia make it through the night ? Who knows. I'll be using All Things Zombie for this to see how it all runs (With a few tweaks of the rules).

For the modern zombie genre I have found my Old Crow sciFi APC and have finally weathered it a little, next will be some insignia\numbers so it can be used as some special military vehicle that comes to save the day, or get turned into zombie food.

And where would a zombie game be without an assortment of vehicles ?
Below are some 1:87 (HO) scale cars I bought off trade me for about $8 each and they fit 15mm perfectly. Not toy cars (Matchbox\hotwheels) as they are too big but proper Railway \ car models that I took a fancy too. I Merc SUV, Local Sheriff squad car and finally what will be my personal (Well my 15mm persona's) luxury car. I have a few more floating about, as well as picking up some 15mm modern scenery from "The Scene" who just had 20% off sale. I don't have too much urban terrain so cant recreate a city but I might bases the games in  a rural area.

The rest of the terrain mound - Railway tracks, Telephone poles, tree etc etc.

For the 18th C zombie games I have all the figures already - AWI and Pirates for the "Humans" and 15mm.co.uk zombies for the undead. For Moderns I have (To paint) a mix of survivors, cops, military, scientists and rednecks that I'll use, from Rebel Minis\Khurasan and "The Scene".

So yet another project I starting to think I'm Obsessive Compulsive or simply a magpie. I think I'll try a solo ww2 game this week to use all this stuff.

Work Bench - 6mm

Hi,

Hayden and I have managed a few more 6mm ACW games to play test "Black Powder" and they have gone really well. We started using Polemos rules and at first they seemed fun but then we basically had 3 crap games and spent 99% of the time simply trying to move but since we made the switch to Black Powder we have had 2 really enjoyable games, bloody but enjoyable. I hope to take the camera next time but I keep forgetting as the table looks really good.

So I decided to finish off my 6mm Union troops and scenery that I had going so when my last small order from baccus arrives everything will be completed quickly. I just need some Kepi skirmishers for my Sharpshooters, some cavalry and a few more generals and I'm all set.

 Below is the church I semi finished last year and then used in some games. I have finally gotten around to weathering and "sprucing" up the base with foilage etc etc. While its a masonry UK church, I'm not too fussed it won't be historically accurate as we will still "shoot the shit out of it" anyway.

My small Zouave Battalion, I don't have a specific unit in mind but simply painted them and handpainted an Irish Standard, instead of the usual 60x30mm base I split them into 2 30x30mm bases so they can act as smaller battalions. I have also painted 2 skirmish stands (behind them) for when they deploy a skirmish line. Since we moved to Black Powder I now have a use for the skirmish stands that came with the army pack.

The last few Regular US line battalions glued to their bases, 6mm baccus figures and handpainted flags. I do have some printed flags somewhere but I have no idea where, so I simply painted my own and in 6mm they take about 10 mins. I quite like these figures to paint, very easy and while these look a little rough compared to my first units from 30cm away you cant tell.

So only 1 Inf Regt, 2 Sharpshooter, 6 Guns and 2 Cavalry to go !

Balin's Tomb

Hi,

I thought I'd use Song of Blades for a refight of Balin's Tomb in 15mm. Balins tomb is simply an A4 piece of grey card surrounded by some walls and at one end a gate. I'll spare you the deeper Brokeback Mountain moments that the LoTR movies portrayed between Frodo and Samwise and I'll just focus on the action.

"you fool of a took !" Bellows Gandalf !
The game starts with the fellowship trapped in the Tomb, the heroes at the front and the halflings cowering at the back squeeking like church mice. 12 Goblins start in the tomb, with 2 d6 arriving every 4 activations, and then on the 12th activation Mr Troll arrives. If the Fellowship kill the troll the Goblins run for it scared silly. Easy ?

It begins.....

Boromir (With the large Red Plume) and Gandalf stand at the front giving all sorts of slicing and dicing to the Goblins launching through the door. They stood there for several activations beating all sorts of hell out of any Goblin that came close enough. Feeling left out Aragorn (Bottom left) advances while Gimli (Skyblue) charges in shouting "AND MY AXE". Legolas of course is looking pretty yelling "AND MY BOW" shooting arrows at.......nothing as he keeps missing.

Activation 4 sees a horde of Goblins arrive and Gandalf and Boromir can't stem them all. A few lone Goblins break the line and try to run down Gimli who knocks both down with his axe with ease. Obviously he is feeling a little peeved at Goblins killing Balin, so he gets a little worked up about it all and procedes like a kitchen whizz through the Goblins.

The Goblins, seeing that horrible little dwarf killing like its going out of fashion decide to rush Aragorn and Gimli and surround them, while a brave little Goblin (Bottom left) runs forward to get Merry ready for lunch. Things seemed to be going really easy for the Fellowship........

 Oh dear - Aragorn falls in battle knocked to the ground by vicious Goblins, Gandalf runs back to assist but it is too late. Aragorns falls to the floor bloodied and beaten, the gloating Goblins continue on to try and take down the dwarf. Legolas does his hair, and then shoots off a few more arrows somewhere pointless. The combat seems to see-saw for some time now - Goblins arrive and die rather quickly but in the hallway a big orrible troll is coming this way. Activation 12 is almost here......

 In walks the troll with another horde of Goblins, and they are feeling pretty good now they have a big lad with them. Well he (The figure) isn't that big but then again he is stooped somewhat low. Big and touchy though and he wants to stomp some humans.  Boromir, Gandalf and Gimli get ready for the onslaught, Legolas eyes everyone up intently and then whispers some Elvish gibberish.

 The troll activates and charges forward, whilst the Goblins have a great turn and surge forward in a large wave. Gimli kills 3, while Boromir begins an epic fight with the Troll. Gandalf assists Boromir while with a timid cry "For the Shire" the hobbits charge forward, Frodo leading the way (In his elegant Green cape) past the useless Legolas who is prancing around looking flash.

 Gimli however doesnt get much help, he doesnt need it - this is his meat and potato's ! Legolas continues to miss everything that moves and just as he decides to draw his sword and help, valiant Gimli takes a blow to the head and falls in battle under a mass of Goblins.

  More Goblins surge forward, the Troll knocks Boromir over and then hits Merry like a tennis ball across the tomb. Things are starting to look pretty bad for the Fellowship - 3 down and Goblins are everywhere. Boromir regains his feet and then he and the  Troll slug it out like Rocky Balboa and Dolph Lungren while the Goblins keep trying their luck.

 The final blow below ! Samwise sneaks up behind Legolas and ruffles his hair, Legolas loses the plot and starts shooting Goblins like some form of chain gun whilst Boromir cripples the Troll and Gandalf steals the kill .

At the sight of their might champion falling the Goblins run for it and the fellowship count the cost. Its turns out to be pretty good as I roll on the Personality Injury table. Aragorn is found under a pile of Goblin corpses alive but with a head injury (Next encounter he rolled the Fearless attribute due to his head shakeup). Gimli has a nasty wound that will reduce his potential for a while (- 1 Quality) , while Merry is perfectly fine as he survived the Troll treating him like a golf ball.

The rules were fun though if you get a good run of activation you can kick the enemies ass. 24 Goblins and 1 Troll fell in battle to the 3 goodies. I didn't like my solo mechanic for activating the Goblins *Roll a d6 to determine how many activation dice to roll* so I changed it half way through and it seemed to improve things a little. The troll was tough, hard to activate but tough and he lasted a long time until 3 of the Fellowship (Boromir, Gandalf and Pippin) tag teamed him.Like the movie the Fellowship make it through a little bloodied and the Goblins die like the good movie extra's they are. Legolas sat there for 80% of the game while the Hobbits knocked off a few Goblins but without the heroes of Middle earth there it would have been Hobbit pie for tea at Mrs Miggins Goblin Pie shop.

I'm half tempted to try the Bridge at Helms Deep now where (Movie) Aragorn and Gimli (Book) Aragorn and Eomer (I think) jump on the bridge and stem the tide of assaulters. But I will try this again with Warrior Heroes once I get the OOB sorted out.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.