Desert War Progress

Full steam ahead on the Desert War Italian and British Armour. All that is required now is to paint the bases and flock them in a desert style mix of sand and light colours.

Stuarts,A-tanks and Portee are Frontline War gaming 20mm, Matilda is matchbox I recall(20 years old at least), Crusaders are Airfix or matchbox (20 years at least), Valentines are PSC and CV33's are S-Model.

 Below all the axis infantry is on the paint tray ready for basing. (While I did not need D.A.K I did them anyway (3 Battalions Worth)). The stands in green are my original Esci figures from 1994 😁.

 

 The Blackshirt stands for some of the better quality Italian units. (Caesar figures of which I have another box to complete)

 The Italeri Italian 120mm Howitzer, this thing is massive.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start basing them and get them done and then move onto finishing the DAK and British.

New ACW 20mm Regiments and clearout.

Merry Christmas and New Years to everyone.

My daughter fractured her elbow on the 27th so the holidays have been slightly underwhelming for her but all in all she has been in good spirits and pain free. I have not had a war-game in a long time but painting has restarted as I no longer wear the wrist brace.So I have been working full time in getting my ACW Union troops ready for some small skirmishes (using Archduke Piccilo's solo campaign as motivation.).

I finished the figures and then use Matt Gloss spray on them , leaving them to dry in the garage. As the sun caught the figures it was a brilliant view -  Long lines of gray, sky blue and red all based and ready to go, I was quite chuffed  to be honest and I am not sure if it is simply having finished a large batch or my love of bright colours.

The figures are a mismatch of makers  and I painted one from each maker, with perhaps another 8 other units to complete (Mostly Airfix and Italeri). I have not named any units yet as I was too busy painting them.

 Revell Infantry Regiment.

 Esci Regiment.

 Airfix Artillery Battery. (I have not separated the single bases yet)

 Airfix Generals. (From Artillery Set I recall).

An Italeri Zouave unit and a good old Airfix Regiment.

A little tidy up to do and then straight into the box to make 7 Infantry Regiments ready. I will then varnish and base the Rebels up and have a small game.

Motivation is abundant here at the moment as I am also working on Command Decision 1/72 WW2 figures - more to come !. But I have also finally decided its time to clear some stuff and make room and fund other needs.

Most likely to go will be the Mantic Elf army I purchased 1 year ago (and painted 20 figures), my 6mm WW2, most likely 15mm Colonial (Unpainted) and a pile of space marines I have gathered over the years.

Cheers

ACW Basing options

Wow 21st of Jan and I have made 6 post already - I'm really enjoying this burst of enthusiasm and activity. I'm deep into another Saxon unit and will have that finished tonight - I usually paint  50 figures in anyone go but I cut that back to 24 for this last two Saxons as I have other things to do. Once these two are complete I have two French Regiments to do which will take my grand total of French Infantry to 3 units (out of 25). Then its the French cavalry's turn to be re-based (and horses painted properly).

A brief interlude into ACW.

I have been looking at Regimental Fire and Fury recently and then at my current figures. Those that survived my original ACW armies were based matching Archduke Piccolos rule-set (Blue and Gray I think) on 35mm x 15m bases. Since most of the forces destruction I have purchased new figures but I have noticed that fitting the older style base is an issue. Airfix and Esci figures fit fine as they have smaller bases but other brands and the poses suit those bases. Some Italeri, Revell and IMEX however have larger bases or the poses often seem to be facing forward so the base is width wise instead of the old classic height wise (Firing figures like the red shirt rebel on the right hand base)). This results in only certain figures fitting together well on a base.

So a new plan is needed I think as I'm not happy with the way the bases work on the new figures.

The following picture is of 3 different basing option (using some unpainted figures).

Right is the original 35mmx15mm, middle is 35mmx30mm and left is the F&F 20mm recommended size 1 1/4 " x 1".

 

The newer options really only have 2 figures frontage that I think works well space size, but it simply blows away my current units. My units are all individual Regiments from the War (eg: 10th Alabama) so moving to a F&F basis of stands will take away that individual basis and also wreck havoc with my current organisation. I could aim for a default F&F unit size of say 6 or 10 stands but this then causes issues.

eg:  10th Alabama is 24 figures (8 ranks of 3) currently

Options - 

• Do nothing and just trip the figure bases to fit (For F&F two older bases can combine into 1 FF base.

• If I re-based for Fire and Fury - I could go for an average size of 6 stands (24 figures) to keep the individual feel and then have a load of generic stands to plug the gaps if larger units are needed or simply go for units of 10 and adjust\remove per ruleset used.
• Bases ESCI\Italeri on the old bases (making figure combos fit) and then use the IMEX\Revell figures for FF bases for a small force.

It is something I shall have to ponder over as it seems like a lot of effort.

More plastic fantastics.

I had hoped to achieve a lot this week but I have managed to pick up a cold which has curtailed things a great deal. I am off to Melbourne on Friday night for most of next week so hopefully I'll get to visit the great Victorian Hobby Centre and pick up some figures unavailable in NZ or simply have a good nose around in a fully stocked hobby store.

In the meantime when I was bored I painted some 1:72 Napoleonic to use for the odd Skirmish games.

Italeri British.

Quite a nice pack this one, the figures are a lot skinnier than the French counterparts.

 Italeri French

Another nice set , the figures are chunkier than the old Esci ones I used to have. They paint up well and really look the part.

 And the first repainted figure of my Hinchcliffe Saxon Jaeger as  testor. I haven't had the motivation to start the other 99 figures.

I've also been sorting out some other little piles of lead. Basing 6mm figures for solo wargames and then a white spray undercoat.

Cheerio

Plastic Nostalgia

So after the ACW game at David's house a long time ago I found some of my plastic ACW figures and decided to give them a whirl. The paint jobs are crude, the basing is simply brown paint with green flock but that is what my ACW armies have always been (Since I was 12) and that is the way I like them (Such an odd-fellow aren't I) as my first ever war-game was an ACW game so it has that nostalgic feel about it.

A Revell Union limber, horrible piece of plastic to pit together - Very soft plastic that glue won't stick to so it took me ages to get it ready.

 The matching artillery piece which I quite like.

Revell US cavalry. I dragged these out and painted some up. Horrible figures as everyone is either facing left or right.

 The dismounted troops (Amazing to get Mounted and dismounted in the same pack) are a lot nicer. I have the uniforms with too much yellow on them but they match my 25 year old unit)

And that Me109 that I bought a  long time ago. It hasn't had a good life, its been dropped several times (.........oh pretty plane daddy .......thud) and my paint job is crap but its the first model plan I have made in some time so beggars can't be choosers).