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..