Bad photos, birds and cats.

In my new found enthusiasm for taking photos I have unfortunately forgotten a simple rule of the whole process - using the focus ! So alas a raft of images are now ruined due to my forgetfullness but I have learned my lesson.

The closest thing to a photo is below with another 2 French line units ready to be based. and the Tri-colour placed on. My Waterloo progress is full on as per usual - only 3 more units to complete and then finish off the artillery and generals and that is the figures all done. Then it will be a week of basing and the whole French Army is complete.

So far this year I have:
Repainted -  60 odd old figures.
Painted from new  - 300 or so French.

Never again ! ..............well not until the Prussians\Russians.

The only photos that turned out any good were non wargame related.
Bird on a roof (yet to be identified)

 Cat in a box.

28mm HAT Nassau Troops

Hi,

My painting continues for the Waterloo refight. Unfortunately a sudden family illness had me at the hospital a fair bit last week and then for the past few days staying away from home looking after a family member.  One thing I did manage to sneak into my away kit was a tonne of soldiers and paint  !

Apart from household duties of cooking\cleaning\entertaining visitors I did manage some time to paint and it was quite relaxing. I have painted another 78 French infantry and also started a test figure for the Nassau Regiment I am providing for the allies. Recently I picked up a few boxes of HAT 28mm figures and they are quite dandy little things so I am going to use the French Voltigiers for the Allied Nassau troops who wore the French uniforms.

Below is the first test figure - Easy to paint and I am really happy with the output. They are going to look splendid ! As the uniform is made up of very simple colours it was a breeze to paint and I am looking forward to the rest - the same with the Legere. Things get complicated for the rest of the french of course - white breeches, coats, lapels, lace, shako cords etc etc  so its nice to have a simple uniform to take care of.

Hopefully by the end of this week that will be the French Infantry completed and I can base them up and get some decent photos.

Still left to do is:

1 British Foot, a tonne of French Artillery and some generals.

To Guard or Not To Guard ?

The Christchurch Wargaming Club is hosting the Waterloo refight on June 20th and as such I am providing Reille's Corps and some parts of Kellerman's cavalry. This amounts to something in the order of 1000 figures which I am busily sorting out. Afterwards I am tempted to sell someone of so I will how that goes but the problem is I am quite attached to some of them - oh well I can sell them when I'm older !



Only one of these is an Imperial Guard unit - a minifig Foot Chasseur unit of 24 figures. I was never going to include the Guard at all but there is that feeling deep down that I should at least have a few.

So at some stage in the next while I will try and pick up 24 Grenadiers, 24 Middle Guard, 2 guns and most likely 12 Chasseurs a Cheval. Victrix look like good candidates currently as their Middle Guard is due soon.

I have also taken the plunge and ordered two of the latest Prince August moulds for Waterloo British infantry and Nassu troops. I have always wanted to try casting my own figures so now I will get the chance. The newer moulds are more detailed I guess but this project is more to satisfy my own experiment than get some finely detailed troops. I'll get some model quality metal to try out and then look at melting my odds and sods bucket.

PA537: 25mm British Foot Guards Moulds #2    

PA542: 25mm Netherlands: Foot Chasseurs Moulds #2

 

The odds and sods bucket is made up of the following:

 

• Broken front rank from the earthquake ((maybe 10 or 12)
• 25 Minifigs limber horses (Why did I buy these again ?)
• 15mm TTG Napoleonic figures .

Of course I will be testing the metal melting process first and not mixing makes of figures as the metal content will differ I'm sure.

Waterloo practice games.

On the weekend of June 21st I will be taking part in a Waterloo refight using general de brigade. So my vast french forces are under rennovation and rebasing in order to get them ready.

I shall be Reille's corps and I have enough figures (1000 I think) for the entire Corps plus some brigades of cavalry. It shall be a spectacle indeed and I am looking forward to seeing my vast legions march forward.

The nightly sorting and painting of Minifigs, Hinchcliffe and Redoubt getting ready for the big day.

As such we need some practice games so yesterday Chasseur and Archduke Piccillo and myself visited the club to get used to the rules. The game was a small British force under attack from a slight larger French contingent. The starting view from the Westphalian lines below.

 I wanted to see how french columns fared against British line and artillery -  So straight up the guts at was......drums beating, flags waving in the wind.

The artillery decimated one column but the other two pressed on into the guns, forcing the gunners to flee. A satsifying result !

On the left flank Marks French Columns surged forward towards to 69th Foot.

Countless times the steady volley fire of the 69th forced back the French columns. Over a series of turns they forced the French back until they finally retired.

The right flank cavalry finally see off the British mounted contingent and secure the day.

 

 The Chasseurs no doubt about to warm up on the pursuit of the british.

 

The result a french Victory but a good try out of the rules. Hopefully another practice game will take places I want to test some of the finer mechanics of the rules to get ready for charge at the British lines.

More 25mm French

Hi,

Work and a family illness have meant my time has been spent in other places or my mind at least. I've been working a lot recently in my spare time plus I was in Melbourne so I spent a night painting figures last night and I am all the better for it.

More work on my French for Waterloo. I need to do another 4 or 5 units in 6 weeks.

 I also picked up some HAT 28mm Light infantry to bolster my forces for Waterloo.

 They are tall but slender figures - they match Hinchliffe well for size but not Front Rank. I have started painting a test figure - he is half done currently. They will make excellent Light troops for Waterloo !

Several great Hobby shops in Melbourne stacked with loads of figures that are hard to get here in NZ. Was a great experience !

First Solo Game of THW Nuts

Tonight I decided to play a game - A WW2 skirmish in 15mm. Two hour Wargames Ruleset Nuts comes with some introductory missions to help you get used to the rules. So I played the first mission - 4 US Paras attempting to take a farmhouse from some German Infantry. The US leader was my "Star" (ie: Its me !) while the Germans were lead by a Veteran NCO.

 After knocking all the papers and figures off the table Snowcat enjoys the heat from the fire.

 After catzilla struck I then set up the table a second time. For this game I changed the scale from inches to centimeters. Below is the area - 40 x 40 cm, two woods (Cover), a house, some hedge and my old bocage. (I had the wrong box of cheap chinese trees so the bases are white)

 The US - Lt Jimmy Cotton with Privates Able, Baker and Charlie.

 The Germans - Sgt Stiener with privates Dorfman, Conrad, Engles and Gunner.

 The cast from Allo Allo also arrived in for a photo opportunity.

 The setup - US Paras make the tree line while German Sentries wander about the farm. The rest of the German squad are *somewhere* that will be determined on the first shot.

 As the Paras come into sight Dorfman passes an In Sight Reaction test and promptly drops Pvt Baker with a round. Private Charlie's doesn't react well to this and he legs it for deeper cover.

 As the firing starts the random dice roll determines where the rest of the German squad is. Oh dear, caught in the open trying to get to the farm - they are in trouble already.

 Lt Cotton reacts with venom spraying his Thompson all over the farm house. Dorfman and Engles are both killed in this initial burst,

 Private Able then managed to kill Pvte Gunnar as he lumbers his LMG across the open ground. This  forces Stiener and Conrad to bolt for cover......in opposite directions. The Sgt makes the house while Conrad dives into the trees.

The next turn is quiet - lots of shooting but no hits though Conrad fails a reaction and runs from the front line.

 Sgt Stiener reaches the upstairs floor and sprays his MP44 at the US line. Will he hit ?- he need to roll high !

 Oh dear - 3 sixes are all hits on Lt Cotton. By some small miracle he survives the hits but is stunned so cannot do anything. Private Able then wounds Sgt Stiener and he is out of the fight, Private Conrad assumes the worst and runs for the hills.

An enjoyable game ! The rules seemed easy to pick up - the version I have are quite old so I picked up the newer version after playing these and will try them out. Some of the reaction tests seem unclear and I know the newer version has some major changes. Hopefully once I am back from Aussie I can get another few games in from the "Blood Upon the Risers" campaign book.

 The casualties were Private Baker (US) was only wounded as was Sgt Stiener (GER) but alas for him a POW camp was calling as Conrad left him all alone.

The random placement of the LMG team screwed the Germans. If they had of been in the house deployed, or deployed in the woods it would have been a tough fight for the US but luckily for the paras they caught them with their pants down.

Always good to roll some dice !

New Camera Joy

I'm having great fun with this camera as now I can take photos anywhere and anyway I please.

In between Turks I painted a space marine off a GamesWorkshop Youtube clip. I played a single game of 40k in 1996 - I can't stand the game but I have 20 Space Marines simply as I wanted to paint them. I've yet to master a decent lighting system for my photos yet.

 Next are the 100 or so Hotspur french for the Waterloo re-fight. They have been undercoated black and have had the dry brush of grey on the black bits as per Chasseurs Painting guide. I am following this for a large task to see if I can save any time or better my own processes.

 As such for Waterloo I need 14 Generals. So the old classics are being retouched and below is an old figure. I don't know the make - it almost looks like Hinchcliffe.

2 minifig Guard units ready to be blacklines (Im not repainting these guys - just a subtle blackline)

 And I found a bag of these lads. Very old figures and I have yet to determine the make.