Playing Favourites

Dean over at "Too Much Lead" started it and Steve at "Steve the Wargamer" carried it on, but it seemed such a good idea I thought I'd pitch in too.



Period
By genre it is "Horse & Musket". If the musket uses black powder and there are men on horses then I'm generally fine with it. Specifically though I would narrow it down to either the early 18th century or the Napoleonic period. But my heart is always going to go back to the War of the Spanish Succession because it has the colour, pomp and splendour of the 7YW without having to worry about that all light skirmisher malarkey. (The Great Northern War runs it a very close second for the reasons below).



Scale
28mm. Is there any other really? Big battalions with figures of a size that have presence on the table top.



Rules
None. I have no favourite commercial rules. I am of the opinion that after thirty (ahem!) years of gaming the rules I use are the ones that I'm comfortable with but am willing to try new ones as they come about.



Manufacturer
Musketeer (now through Gripping Beast). Bill has produced a range for the Great northern War that I just love. They have a character, presence and style that makes me just want to paint & play with them. His figures are the reason that the Great Northern war is my second favourite period (and the margin between the WSS & GNW is cartridge paper thin because of Bill).



Boardgame
Scrabble. I'm not a great one for military boardgames & I've always disliked games where the outcome involves calculators and complex mathematics (Avalon Hill & SPI for example). But Scrabble is a game where the family can play and expand their word base. (My kids would say that I like any game where I win but that's not true - entirely!).



Club
There is and always will be only one. The Grimsby Wargames Society. I know that we are blessed with a multitude of benefits (premises, tables, scenery par excellence from Messrs Taylor & Hamilton, periods galore) but the real secret of the club is the membership. Friendly and welcoming and always willing to let others join in.



Inspiration
This is the first of the "Desert Island" options. Which movie would I watch over and over again? A question and one that has proven to be difficult to answer. There are several movies that I would watch every time they are on TV (Dean chose "Zulu" and Steve "Last of the Mohicans" both of which I would agree with). For me though it is probably "The Longest Day". Will any other war movie have a cast list like that?

Book

Another hard question. I read a lot of books and probably average one every ten days or so (I've read three since Christmas!) but rarely do I go back and reread one despite me having shelves groaning under the weight of paperbacks. But one that I have kept since my early teens and have read more than once is Terry Brooks "The Sword of Shannara" - the first in the quite epic Shannara series. Yes it's formulaic and yes it's a little predictable but I like the way it flows, the character descriptions and the way that is set in our future (okay you don't find this out until much later in the series).

Art

Richard Caton Woodville. When I was young one of my happiest memories was spending time with my maternal grandfather looking at the book "Deeds That Thrilled the Empire". It is a volume dedicated to the stories behind the medals won for valour and gallantry by the British & Commonwealth forces during the Great War and it is richly illustrated. But is Woodvilles illustrations that drew me - wild eyed horses and men in action that cannot but fail to impress. Add in that he is also responsible for many of our more magnificent war memorials how can you not like them?

This weeks Painting is....

...an eclectic mix of a multitude of genres.
First is a Persian commander. A unique figure only available for the first 1,000 purchased copies of the "Rise & Fall of Persia" supplement for Clash of Empires (http://www.clashofempires.co.uk/). An excellent sculpt that will make a fitting commander for the elite troops I have planned. Size wise he is taller than all the other ranges I've figures from apart from Wargames Factory.

Next is another command group, this time from First Corps. The general in white should have a shield attached to his left arm but I removed the cast on locating lug just to give me some variety in the various command bases I'm creating. It's not quite clear from the photograph but I am really pleased with the faces for these figures. All done using a three tone system and no washes.

The command figures were followed by ten Old Glory Persian light cavalry. For these I used a wash only technique. Block painting and then Army Painter dips (strong for the horse & mid tone for the rider). With Old Glory choosing not to give the horses the top knot and some extra harnessing I've decided to make this satrapal cavalry from the western part of the empire. Not much difference in ability but it will distinguish them from the cavalry brought by the King of Kings to face Alexander.

Of course having started one regiment of Swedes I've carried on. Another twenty four man unit of Swedes has been rebased.

Okay there are only actually twenty figures in the unit but they are based to represent twenty four. I did this for two reasons - one it allows me to create more units from the figures I've already bought (does this mean I've got more to buy?) and I thin they look better for allowing some space on the bases. What do you think?

I said the painting mix was eclectic. I've also painted a pirate figure from Hasslefree Miniatures. As with all of Kev's figures the sculpting is exquisite and of such fine proportions it is hard not to like it. I gave him a Royal Navy coat no doubt thieved from one of his victims. Liberal use of washes and dips to finish this figure. He's of the right stature to fit in with the Black Scorpion range very nicely.

Finally there is a Predator figure from Heresy Miniatures. I have no idea why I bought this nor what I'm going to use it for, except to say it did take my fancy at the Derby Show two years ago (yes he's sat on the workbench for that long!). He came with several options of hands and weapons, including having the shoulder mounted weapon in a firing position (but with giving him the open spear and wrist blades this seemed inappropriate).

Right now on the workbench are ten more Old Glory light horse and twenty 40mm French Colonial troops for the French Indian War project.

And the first figures for 2012 are?

A battalion of rebased Swedes for the Great Northern War.
I also took the opportunity to reduce the length of the pikes. The Swedes had, on the books at least, pikes that were 8m in length and quite frankly they looked ridiculous. So taking that the pikemen in the English Civil War were not adverse to loping off a few feet from their pikes, I reduced them by a quarter.

Sounds drastic but I think the end effect is far better and more balanced.

For the bases I wanted a cooler look. Cooler as in temperature at least. So white polyfilla and once dried topped with pva and dried sand in patches. Burnt Umber wash, Vallejo Green Olive dry brush then sand (masonry paint from B&Q) and finally a dry brush of white to try and show a little frost. Finished off with winter tufts of grass. I kept some of the old green static grass and foliage in places to try and simulate an early spring or late autumn feel.

Hope you like them. More to come soon.

The Last Figures for 2011

The final figures to be completed for 2011 are more recruits to venture up the Ohio valley to take on the French & their Indian allies.
All are Sash & Sabre 40mm figures.

Painted with block and wash with a few highlights.

Mounted on mdf bases from Warbases and using flock to represent summer flowers.

The figures are dressed in a variety of coats, hunting shirts and buckskin as befitting the militia troops raised ad hoc by the local government in the absence of regular English troops (most of whom were further north on the shores of Lake Champlain).

Overall theses were hard work. Easy to paint but take an awful lot of preparation with flash & bad casting causing some of the figures to be slightly out of alignment where the mould has slipped. Only thirty more to do!

That concludes the painting for 2011. Early in 2012 will see more Persian cavalry completed along with the last of the American militia (as above) and the first of the rebased & reorganised Swedeborg troops for the GNW. Watch this space.

It only remains for me to wish each and everyone one of my readers a very Happy New Year!

A Face to the Future and the Past

Like so many others in the hobby, the time between Christmas and New Year is a time for reflection and to consider what the future may have in store.
2011 was in so many ways both a disappointment and a surprise.

Disappointing because for a whole variety of reasons my participation in the hobby was curtailed to almost nill. I've only blogged about two games that I organised at the club. I think I may have been involved in a couple more but overall it was a very poor year for me to get figures on the tabletop. Report card D-

On the reverse of that of course was the success of our club outing to Sheffield Triples. I may not have played many games but that one game had the Wow! factor in bundles.

Surprisingly the lack of gaming time did mean that I had excess time in the painting room. Not only did I get the entire WSS project rebased in time for Sheffield I also revamped the Wars of the Roses collection as well. Add in the completion of the Scottish Civil War army and a hefty chunk of the new Persian army, it was probably the best year I've ever had for painting. I think that I've painted or rebased something like a 1,000 figures this year (400 in the Persian army alone to date). Report Card A+.

So what about the resolutions I made for 2011?

First was to rebase the Great Northern War project. Not even started that. A whole year with hardly any activity on that score. Report card F.

And I say hardly any activity because I did break the second resolution I made. that was not to spend any money on new figures. Not only did I buy some more shiny from Musketeer but I bought an entire Persian army! Report card F.

Overall score for the year has to be a C-. Improvement needed on the gaming front and the Great Northern War project.

For 2012 I can see the completion of the Persian army. I have sixty horse figures to complete and that will be that. The GNW may get a figure purchase boost with Bill bringing out those excellent command figures and artillery crew and I'd like to think that with the Persians being finished I can concentrate on actually painting them!
What I don't see is the purchase of whole projects for the next year. The odd few (hundreds?) of figures but not the numbers that I bought this year. There are no plans for another large army in the pipelines. Yes I know I've said it in the past but it's true. If it hadn't been for Hail Ceasar and the plastic ranges available for the Persians that wouldn't have happened this year either. (No one is planning a revolutionary new set of rules that will tempt me are they?).

I also want to complete some of the other projects that have been hanging around for a long time now. 15mm Austrian Napoleonics being the prime candidate. Half of them are based and painted, of those that are painted only half of those are on bases I like. There is still an entire division of foot to paint and a Kuirassier brigade to complete.
The 40mm FIW set up will probably amble along for a while too. I've got thirty figures in the box to paint but in no real rush to do so. A few purchases at shows next year if nothing else takes my fancy is all I'll commit to right now.
With Victrix bringing out some early war French Napoleonics I am considering revamping the French Napoleonic army. Another couple of battalions would balance it out nicely. Most of it is from Elite and whilst they look okay I know I can achieve a much better finish now then I could when I painted them twenty years ago.

So I think 2012 will be a year for repair and renovation rather than new arrivals.

Whatever it may bring I can only hope that it will be better than last year for gaming.

The Last Post (before Christmas)

Laid up with not a lot to do except get a bit of painting when the wife isn't looking (she doesn't like me trying to get into the loft with only half a leg working).
And that bit of painting was to get 12 Persian light cavalry from Immortal Miniatures completed.
This time, and for speed, I used an entirely dip based methodology. White or grey undercoat for the horses with various shades of brown on top. Then Army Painter Strong dip.
The riders were black undercoated, block painted and then dipped with the mid shade dip before highlighting. The only exception being the white armour which was painted on top of a grey undercoat after the dip (only because I don't like the way the white shades to brown if done before).

The figures themselves are one piece castings and are just lovely.

And that my friends is that.

Time now for one more day at work, cook the turkey, open that bottle of Glenlivet 12 year old malt and give a toast to you all.

Merry Christmas.

To the Forks of the Ohio

Several years ago I posted some photographs of 40mm Indians that I bought on a whim. The intention then was to start a French Indian War project but I had really no direction or aim with it.
So I purchased some more of the Sash & Sabre range - provincials and Canadians - to go with the Indians. Bought a while and left in the big blue box.

Forgotten until I read Harold Coyle's "Savage Wilderness" recently. Coyle sets his story against four characters from the colonists, English regulars, French regulars and the native Indians. These four characters interact with each other during the struggles from Washington's first attack along the Ohio, to Braddock and ultimately Quebec.

Having read the book I think I'll base the skirmish to start with Braddock because the provincials here have begun to adopt the more informal dress rather then the uniform of the Virginia regiment and to devolve into ranger companies.

Starting with Braddock also lets me have English regulars in full European dress or to move into the later attack on fort Carillion where the dress was adapted for the continental style of warfare.

These are the first six figures of the 20 bought but fun to paint.

I've tried to use a variety of figures in hunting frocks and semi uniform. The last figure wears the full tunic at least with tricorne edged in black silk (using Mollo's "Uniforms of the Seven Years War" from Blandford as a guide.

The figures have suffered from being in storage. The muskets are badly bent and have proved just about impossible to straighten properly. Quite a bit of flash as well and in some cases hard to remove. Overall though I really enjoyed painting them.