Thursday 4 December 2008

I'm back.....

Well its nearly over i guess.... that was a quick busy year. Full of twists n turns in the real world, suffice to say it was mostly not good for painting lots of figures.

I was also pretty gutted after the Colours show at Newbury to be the victim of having figures stollen and given very short reply from the organisers, so i find myself NOT wanting to paint for bring n buy sales now, my friend Bob will have a stand at Salute so maybe i will paint some up for then.

Still on the painting rack are Romans and Greek ancient figures in handy 24 figure units.
Still on the preperation block are Napoleonic French and Italians troops.

Recent purchases are the new Plastic Napoleonics from Perry and Victrix, hit n miss.
New 20mm ww2 Normandy Germans , yum
and i may have fallen completely off the wagon and bought a load of Westwind Gothic horror pieces, and the entire Pirate range from Black Scorpion. oops

Monday 5 May 2008

Happy Jedi Day - may the forth be with you

Well another rubbich month for painting

only manged to finish 18 Artillery crew for Mike and 39 for Pat... nothing for me again, so 57 in total not bad i guess.

Went to Salute, got some 20mm Valiant GIs, just the one box tho... wish i had gotten more, cant wait for the new Germans.

Also bought some of the new Perry Miniatures ACW.... they are very pretty, the cavalry are just possibly the best i have ever seen, got 8 boxes of infantry and 2 of the cavalry.... I think i will be doing ACW again somehow. Hope there next release is either NApoleonics, in which case i will have to really think hard about the rest of my future hobby or Seven Years War would be good. They are almost certainly gonna be summit blackpowder to go with the new rules comming from warlord games written by the Nottingham wargames Mafia.

My review of 'Beneath the Lily Banners' went up onthe wargames journal site, guess that makes me a published author..... next up will a sort of campaign/hobby/painting article, in the style of the GW foramtted 'Battle of 4 gamers', should be fun.

Hopefully I can finish some of the 170 odd figures that are sooooo nearly finished, switching to Ancients may not been my best idea as abreak from Muskets, live n learn.

Cheers Shaun

Wednesday 16 April 2008

meh.....

Well, i have been ill... well, had the lurgy that is sweeping Britain, but i may be out of the other end of it now, I have managed to paint 7 Generals and 5 building, I have started 144 Ancinets figures too, but not finished any... so no Salute Mega Bring N Buy payouts for me... meh

Will attempt to finish the 18 Artillery Crew for Mike, will drop them off to his 20mm ACW game at Salute.

Mainly been playing FOG, but now have found 'Impetus' known by us as TIG or The Italian Game, will be doing something for Wargames Journal in the near future involving TIG, tho it will in 15mm.... so Romans in 10mm, 28mm and now 15mm... to go with the free plastic one i got with WI this month, which looks ok to be honest, a bit on the slight side, if say that Front Rank figures are stocky then youll get what i mean.


Did a revue of 'Beneath the Lily Banners' for the Journal this week, wont spoil it for you all here, just to say i dont think my revue will dent the sales of these rules, shame my figures are just behind the period, still with a bit of tinkering i might get way with it.

off for food, cheers

Shaun

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Frustratingly slow work.... and reduced hours

I told you all it would happen...

I have started painting a unit of 24 roman velite and a second of 24 Thracian peltasts, the first look finished except shields, and the second are taking forever as they are all diferent colours, hate irregulars...

I have also only been able to get in around 10 hours of work this month so far, as i have been playing'Field of glory', Rich is happy and convinced they are us and good, i am still thinking they are too slow, maybe the spate of boardgames has removed my ability to appreciate the grind of a real wargame, i dunno.

I have been mostly basing up ancient units for the my mythical Roman campaign, allies now exist for Spanish troops, Africans and warbands from Gaul and Germany, i also found my chariots i had in storage, 5 foundry chariots are mid construction, didnt find a Boudicca tho, so she is on the shopping list from Salute. Still wainting on my elephants from Newline too.

Hopefully should be able to get thru this painting slump and get 10 units ready for the Bring and buy, then i will crack on with the last of the painting orders. Then i will push at the Tricorn boys, the whole reason for here!!!!!!!!

cheers Shaun

Saturday 1 March 2008

public answer to maccwar's query

Hiya
Should probably put up things like manufacturer and scale. do'h

The Romans are all Foundry, 28mm. I would have purchased these around about 5 years ago, they were based and sprayed black in January.
The Acw are a mix of Dixon and Redoubt, 28mm. Painting Orders.
THe Napoleonic are Elite and Newline Designs, 28mm. Painting orders or Bring n Buy.

To be honest i really dont know how i am getting this much done, well i do know, its all down to hours served, thats 2 hours before work, and then 3 evenings of 4 hours and then usually another 8 hours over the weekend. SO around 30 hours per week on average. on top of a 9 til 5 job... and yes i am tired now, and have had a weekend off so far, altho my son wants another painting lesson with some orcs he found of mine. Also the time available will now be reduced as my GFs college courses are ending, also the Larp season will start in full force reducing time down again, the winter months (September to April) will be more productive for me than the summer ones.

Not having to set up/take down the painting station has increased productivity, also the non based painting orders sped things up and i owe the roman figures their shields, so a leeeeeetle bit cheaty. On average i prep 4 units at a time all the way thru to black, then i paint in pairs, so at between 48 and 96 figures completed a week this soon adds up.

I will be doing some 10mm soon, i count these at 1 PP per 5 figures painted. The figures are for use with 'Field of Glory' which we are grinding our way thru slowly, but having just read that dadie&piombo have a new set out for Salute 08, using large bases of troops and single pieces which take markers, have ordered some as they claim to be Fast Play.... FOG plays in 4 hours at a minimum so far, not encouraging for me..... dragged up on 40k and Warhammer, I need my rules fast, fun and furious, from turn 2 i need blood and turn 6 i am expecting to see some distinct winner, we could always go back to Warmaster, which i did like a lot to be honest.

I was gonna do some Magazine reveiws, but i am too harsh a critic i'm afraid.

Wargames Illustrated is still pretty
Wargames - Strategy and Soldiers is still hit n miss (even with pictures of Graham Wards Austrians in it, yet again uncredited figures painted by me... altho around 10 years ago)
and BattleGames is still informative.

Still miss the Journal tho, Rich is still waiting for Neil to 'hand over the reigns' but its been 6 months now....... ho hum

Please feel free to ask any more questions, might start doing aerial shots of the painting table at the start of play each day...

cheers shaun

Thursday 28 February 2008

635 - 738 Painted this year





Well that finishes February's painting, 48 Auxilia, 48 Preatorians and 8 commands, for a total of 104 figures.

so that is 350 for the month of February.
and 740 for the year so far.

What have you missed.... well i went to Cavalier, sold the 3 French units and various bits of unpainted stuff and went and spent it all on NEwline figures for the ANcient Armies, 10 units of Infantry, 4 units of cavalry, 4 units of French to paint to sell at Salute and 4 Elephants, Yay.

cheers

Shaun

Friday 22 February 2008

515-634 Napoleonics for Sale





THe figures are by Newline Designs and come in 24 figure bags, giving a mix of command, flank and centre companies. The flag is from warflag.

Bases are 60mm across and 20mm deep with 4 figures on each. I put these on the bring and buy at 60£ each, the last lot of Austrians and British all went last year, the french i had painted didnt even make it through the door at one show.

Painting point wise i have another 56 points waiting from the Romans, but need to flock and sheild them, if i get the flock done i will suffer the sheild missing to count them in, or else i will wait til next month and have a shield-athon for all the Romans on Project2

Cavalier at Tonbridge on Sunday should provide me with more Ancient figures. Field of Glory arrived so i will try painting up some units or BattleGroups for those rules instead of WAB, then if WAB player buy erm they can just put them on Sabots or use casualty markers, hell at 2.50 a paint job they can afford to rebase them.

cheers shaun

Saturday 16 February 2008

Playing the long game...

Well Hammerhead last Sunday was a bit disappointing to be honest, nice show, excellent BringNBuy, but i couldnt get any Ancient figures as it has completely gone over to Fantasy and SciFi figures...... NExt Sunday is Cavalier at Tonbridge, there WILL be Elephants.

I have been painting, despite the lack of posts, but havent finished anything, i have 48 PReatorians awaiting there flock and sheilds, meanwhile the a further 72 Napoleonic French are getting their base colours to be sold next Sunday hopefully, which should fund the Ancients Purchases. Want to add an Egytian Axeman unit to the Roman Eastern Army and as it is my world i was gonna add an Indian Army. So that is 144 Painting Points waiting in the wings and a pretty big shopping list for next weekend.

'Field of GLory' hasnt shown up yet, but Amazon say Tuesday. Will see how that effects my painting schedule. From initial read ups i think these rules will prove to be just the right mix of what i like to play, just need to fit the games into the 3 hour playing slots i have. I think my choice for a 50mm frontage for the my Ancients will mean i wont play in many torunements, but if i place then on Sabot bases it shoul be ok, but for private games on a 6by4 i think the bases should be ok, 18 figure Roman units tho instead of 24..... will have to see.

HAve also started playing some games against my 9 year old, he is very lucky on the dice, which is why i hardly ever win. He uses his Skaven Ratmen Army in the game i created for playing at LARP events, i called it 'Warleader' and the armies are multiple figure, based on 70cm GW circuar bases, while the board is an 8 by 6 grid. I have created armies for most of the Fantasy forces available in GW Plastic, and themed each army to fight diferently. Will post some pictures on here sometime.

Cheers Shaun

Saturday 9 February 2008

February 77 - 124 (467 - 514)



These are the last 2 units of cavalry for Graham from my 'spare' figures. These are French Napoleonic Chassuers 'a' Chavel, one unit is red faced, while the other is yellow. Colourful and will be gone come Wednesday, gone to be with the rest of Grahams figures, mostly painted by me over 20 years of orders.

This leaves just 4 units of 24 French 'Old Glory' figures to be painted as Danish troops and 18 Union Artillery on the painting order book, then its back to prepainted figures for Bring n Buy tables at shows, or sold off of here i suppose once i post the unit as finished and for sale.... another use for the blog i suppose, just dont think i have many uk based viewers.

Tomorrow is first of the annual treks to Newark, around 250miles round trip, to the Hammerhead show, have to drop off an order for ACW and hopefully pick up the last from Pat to complete his latest project. Also will be picking up some Ancients 28mm figures for the Roman Project, African Allies including elephants. Might even pick up a 'Field of Glory' ruleset in advance of the cheaper preordered one off of Amazon, which i could then sell on to one of the club guys, splitting the diferance on the 2. Wont get any Campaign books tho. Will wait for those.

Wish i could get ahold of the new plastic ancients figures too, especially the warband celts..... patience is a virtue i guess.

cheers Ox

Monday 4 February 2008

February 1- 76 (391-466)




Painting for Graham has progressed a little further too, finishing a French gun Battery I started last year, Bavarian Garde Du Korps, Heavy Cavalry and then a Unit of French Cuirrassier.

Sunday 3 February 2008

This weekend i have mainly been sleeping in a castle

Well the LARP season has started with a visit to the Dragons, its a hard life being a Diplomancer for the Bears Faction, booze and laughs and trip to Wales to watch them win the rugby.....
This is my front door..... my bedroom was the top left...
This is the view from my letter box..... The Patio, or courtyard....
The back fence, the neighbours are welsh dont ya know..... and they were revolting
Giving something back to the peasants.. 1887 renovations, well the place was built in 1208, rebuilt in 14 summit and is now a Youth Hostel.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

187-390 Painting Points for January

The first of my Saxe-Nweilintz Musketeers arrive in there new uniforms, with first of the horses from the Royal Stables.
They have been marching so much the grass has been worn away..... honest !!!!!
These are for me.... to go to the UK Big Battalions game at Grimsby in October.... 25% of my commitment to the cause is completed.
Austrian Lancers...... Lances to follow
Its a different unit...... honest !!

Told you it was..... and you didnt believe me, shame on you !!
In addition to these 290 points painted, I have also finished a 100 point Rebasing Project for my Romans, which have now faught their first battle in 3 years.
Bringing January to 390 Points.
I have also managed to prep a further 22 units for painting next month (24/30 figures each)
Thanks must go to Wanstead Evening College for giving me 3 evenings a week for painting and to my alarm clock for getting me up 3 hours before i start work so i can get an additional 12 hours painting, so 30 to 40 hours per week..... this will slacken off once the college courses finish and the GF wants more 'together time' but then September comes its back to school and back to the brushes.
On a news front, Wargames Factory have announced thier initial release of Ancient figures in hard plastic, but only in America and not much yet, but they are now linked to Ospreys Field of Glory this should expand quickly, just doubt that they will be available for 15£ over here, especially if old ~Glory get them... theyjust change the dollar sign for a Pound sign and pocket the exchange rate.... might import some while I still can.
Cheers Shaun

Wednesday 23 January 2008

145-186 PP YTD





These are the latest batch winging their way to Zac, the back row are shirt wearing Rebels.

These are going unbased again. Next on the block are are 24 Austrian Uhlan for Graham and 54 Prussian 7YW for me..... oh and some Roman bits need finishing

Cheers Shaun

Sunday 20 January 2008

The Ready Room - Production Line Painting


Well that was a busy few days, rebased 9 units of 24 figures, 4 units of 12 figure, 2 units of 6 cavalry and 10 artillery. Repainted 144 tunics and prepred the last 12 Cavalry, 144 infantry and 6 bases of Command figures, mounted and foot, to be painted up over the next 2 months to fill out the ranks and reduce the lead mountain, before the new recruits arrive.
These are racks i use as a production line for my painting schedule.
On the left are a Bunnygirl American football team and a unit of GW Imperial Guard 'falshirmjager' troops.
The top box, based and not undercoated are 4 units of Old Glory French to be painted as Danish troops and 2 units of Chassuers a Cheval, 96 Infantry and 24 Cavalry.
The bottom box has 2 units of Cuirrasiers, 2 units of Austrian Lancers and a units of hussar, black undercoated and a Battery of French 12 pounders.
The books are my Blandfords, but i also have a lot of Ospreys and many others, altho none of them seem to have the pictures i need of the troops i am given to paint.
The process i use for painting is pretty much what i have learnt over the past 20 odd years, 12 years ago I was painting badly, dry brushing everything, using any old paint and the brushes i hate to think. So i slowed down, and painted the best i figure i could, it took over an hour and had highlights, eyes and all the correct colours, with buttons and everything a French voltiguer, i sat back and couldnt see the eyes or the third highlight. So i revised it a little and started working on my speed...
The figures are based onto card, usually 3 figures in a single rank and the base is then covered in a sand mix, then left to set. I usually base up 4 to 6 units at a time and then paint then in pairs or three's of the same colour, usually 48 to 72 figures in a batch (cavalry count as 2), becuase this is the most if can fit into the figure space on my paint tray!! but also i can usually get a colour done across those figure at a sitting.
Once dry i spray undercoat in Black, usually on a stick or board, ensuring the undersides of the figures are properly coated, as well as the sand base.
These are then left to dry before the base colours are added to the clothing, darker then needed to provide a shade between the black and the final highlight. Bestial brown is then painted over all exposed flesh areas and hair, picking up any woodwork at the same time. scorched Earth is painted over the base surface.
Next come any metalics, then the highlight on the flesh, and a Graveyard earth drybrush over the base, covering the edges. The final stage is the flesh, which is Dwarf Flesh, then Elf flesh highlights, followed by touch ups and quality control.
Once all 6 units in the batch are completed then i flock the bases and add a flag (www.warflag.com) to finish the unit, then a spray of GW Purity seal.
Recently i have taken on paint only orders and started to paint for sale units on the Bring n Buy at various shows, this has further reduced the Lead mountain.
Then its back to the start and base up more units...... the never ending cycle of painting.
At which point i am off to paint the flesh on 145-184 (ACW 28mm figures for Zac)
Cheers Shaun

Yellow Army

The current forces from Egyptus, the emporers' old right hand man, comming to claim the Empire for himself.
The Marines are comming..... lock up your sons!!!!!!

The auxilia to augment this will be Numidian skirmishers, Light cavalry and Elephants, north african stuff.

cheers Shaun

Green Army

This Army is going to be based around a Renegade Commander, a battle leader.... comming to save the Empire from the weak control of the Senate, and extravegant excesses of the Egytus forces. They will need sheilds first tho.
The completed force will have 2 added warband, the Skavenii and Lintzii, along with a cavlary unit or two.
The current auxilia, these may be replaced with more ethnical warband types.

A veiw from ground level.... experimental by me.

Red Army so far


The complete Army that will form into the Romula Legions, need to add the command stands, Preatorians and some more Auxilia.


The core force are these 3 Cohorts of Legionnaires..... nice.

A unit of Auxilia spear.

A unit of Equittes and the Scorpio bolt throwers, there are 2 lots like these in the force so far.

The command will incorporate red and represent the senate.

cheers Shaun

133-144 For ME !!!!!


Newest Roman Auxilia for the Egyptus Legions.

When i had finished i showed them to F, who said 'blue and green should never be seen'..... WTF do i know about fashion, might highlight up the blue into a white.

cheers Shaun

Friday 18 January 2008

Project 2 - Rebase completed

Well the RSM95’s are now Nationalised Brits….

Having paid £41.23 to the government, following the £180 pounds to DPC for them, bringing in 360 infantry and 10 mounted officers a grand total of £222 or 58.5p each. These troops will flesh out my initial purchase of 4 bags of infantry, and provide the Colonels for the first 10 units.

Last nights efforts on the Roman front saw a big push on rebasing the remaining Painted figures.

24 figure Cohort with (new) unbleached Linen tunics (no shields yet tho)
24 figure Cohort with (new) unbleached Linen tunics (no shields yet tho)
24 figure Cohort to be repainted in Green tunics
24 figure Cohort to be repainted in Green tunics
24 figure Cohort to be repainted in Green tunics
6 mounted figure Cavalry unit
6 mounted figure Cavalry unit
24 figure Cohort of Praetorians, to be painted from fresh

All the bases are now cut for the remaining stands and the figures counted and sorted into their units and command groups.

Added to shopping list Barbarian Auxilia cavalry unit 6 figures.

Next job, probably sometime this evening is to start sanding the bases of all the units in preparation for a Bestial wash, and a graveyard earth dry brush…. Sunday should see a flocking for the lot….. with Monday as an over run if I am slowed down by the weekend’s excesses. Might recruit Craig into doing the sanding of the bases, at 9 I feel he should be used as cheap labour, although I fear it will cost me dearly in the long run.

Cheers

Ox

Thursday 17 January 2008

Project 2 – a journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

Well the first batch of re-basing, repainting and repairs has started for the Roman forces.

24 figure Cohort in Red tunics with red shields
24 figure Cohort in Red tunics with red shields
24 figure Cohort in Red tunics with red shields
12 figure Auxilia Archers
12 figure Auxilia Archers
12 figure Auxilia Spear – need to add shields
12 figure Auxilia Spear – need to add shields
12 figure Auxilia Spear – need to add shields
10 Scorpio bolt throwers – with 2 crew each – need to repaint 6 of the crew tunics
16 figure skirmish unit of slings
24 figure Cohort in Blue tunics with blue shields (repainted from red tunics)

The scorpio’s are based weapons and crew on a 50mm x 50mm stand.
The close order troops are based 3 per stand, 50mm frontage and 25mm deep.
The Skirmishers are based 2 per stand, 50mm frontage and 25mm deep.

Having sorted through my unpainted figures I find that I am short on Auxilia Archers, with only 24 but am up on Auxilia spear, with 36 painted and a further 72 in the box.

This evening should see the repainting and rebasing of the Easter Cohort in unbleached Linen tunics with a yellow shields, have test painted one shield (over the current red one) and it looks okay, the yellow transfer showing through.

I should also get the 3 cohorts rebased for the green army, although I doubt I will get them repainted, will also try to rebase the old cavalry and start to base up the unpainted sculpts onto their new stands.

So having looked at the box of figures I have a little shopping list for extra’s.

3 Elephants, with howdah and crew
36 figure warband for the Skavenii
36 figure warband for the Lintzii
12 figure Eastern Auxilia Archers
16 figure Eastern Auxilia skirmisher (javelins I think)
12 figure Eastern Auxilia Cavalry (numidians??)

Hopefully all Foundry to match, good job I am going to Hammerhead in Newark on the 10th February, I can sell some stuff on the bring and buy, might see the guys at Newline if they attend as I don’t know if Dave Thomas will be attending the show, failing that I can try gripping Beast or at Old Glory. All pretty much Army compatible, but not in the same units thought.

This should give me 3 Armies, if pointed out with the normal upgrades in Warhammer Ancient battles, of around 3000pts each, or with all the spare bits thrown in and more officers… a single 10,000pt Army. Not bad for what is gonna be probably 3 weeks work, spread over the next 3 months, using figures I haven’t gamed with for in excess of 2 years. Shame I don’t play WAB anymore!!!!!!

So as this is digging into my yearly total of Painting points I feel I should be getting at least something for the repaints/rebasing effort…. The unpainted figures will count themselves in, so no worries there.

Rebase a unit of 4 (12figure) = 2pts
Rebase a unit of 3 stands (6mounted figures) = 2pts
Rebase a unit of 8 stand (24figures) = 4pts
Repaint and Rebase a unit of 8 stands (24figures) = 8pts

Giving the Rebase/repaint side of the project a respectable = 100pts
With 200 odd points to follow from the newly painted units to complete the Project.

Blimey a 300 point Project…. That’s some peoples yearly painting programme. I will post pictures on Sunday evening of the armies as they appear then, based or not, painted or not…. JP I am sure you can wait til then, and before you ask this will not effect my Seven years war painting, but I can see it effecting the ad-hoc painting for the ‘bring n buy’ sales tho, my main 3 collectors are keeping me ticking over nicely for orders coming in so far this year, so not too worried about my own lead mountain just yet.

Cheers

Shaun

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Project 2 - Roman Civil War

Ok, this is straight nick from Iron_Mitten, so thank you.

I have from years ago 10 Roman Cohorts of 24 figures, painted and based (but not shielded) for WAB, so multiple and individual bases, with these are 16-20 painted Cavalry, around 60 Auxilia painted and 10 bolt throwers The unpainted are around another 24 cavalry, 60 Auxilia and 48 Preatorians.

All the Legionaires are painted in red and the auxilia are in blue, cavalry are blue with yellow shields. Each Cohort has an attached Scorpio bolt thrower with crew.

So following on from my query to iron_mitten they use WAB rules and have based their figures on 50mm frontage bases, close infantry 3 per base 25mm deep and Loose 2 per base 25mm deep, with skirmishers 2 or 3 per base 50mm deep base, Cavalry are 2 per base 50mm deep, while the army command are on a 50mm square, bolt throwers I didn’t ask, but assume a 50mm square, warband are 6 per base 50mm deep. This all seems to be a nice way to go forward.

I play a lot of different rules systems, from ‘command and colors’ board games to WAB and this basing system will fit in with all of these, also it will enable a quick playtest of the new ‘Field of Glory’ rules from Osprey.

So there are 3 Armies from different area’s of the Empire, one from spain, one from Rome and one from the East…. I need eastern auxilia, meh

Ok, so I don’t know everything I need to about Ancient Rome, History or Political or much at all, but I do know wargames and have run campaigns and with the new found concept of fictional History I recon I have some ‘wargamers’ licence on this one.

So I was thinking of an Army from North Europe/Britain, using Green as a colour, 3 Cohorts, with bolt throwers, some Auxilia and then warband allies, mebbe some Chariots and Cavalry. The second army would be from Rome, using the red painted troops, again 3 Cohorts, with bolt throwers, Auxilia and skirmishers, little cavalry but bolstered by the Preatorians. The third army from north Africa, painted in Yellow/unbleached Linen with Tribal Allies, Eastern Auxilia and mebbe an Elephant (woohoo), with a unit of blue Marines too. Now if I keep it Ancient Mythical I can use some slightly out of period troops like Spartans or Peltasts etc for auxilia/allies, like they are doing on the Hypoboria blogs.

Just remembered ‘The Lost Regiment’ series of books by Forschen, set on a different world where humans are plucked from our planet throughout history and settled as ‘farms’ for the flesh eating orcoids of the planet….. all nice and peaceful until the Americans show up!! Anyway, so I could transpose the action from earth to that planet, or not…. Ugh, brain hurt. Ooh Egyptians..!!!!

Figure first, then rules, then campaigns…. But am enjoying the background stuff too, bonus I guess.

Cheers Shaun

Monday 14 January 2008

77-132 painting points








These are the last of the Order for Pat, 12 Berdans and 36 Rebels plus 4 mounted officers.




I beleive they are being based singularly, so to leave a distinction between the 24 figure Rebel unit and the 12 Rebel skimishers, i have painted the unit with white bread bags and the skirmishers with Black.




next 42 points should be here for the weekend as i have 3 painting nights this week curtesy of the GirlFriend (F) being at her evening classes full time this week, plus tomorrow is PEWC club night so will get a game there.




Have been trying to get them to do a WAB/Fantasy big battle day one big table, 8' by 24' with a battle and a siege on it, but as usual the naysayers are booing the idea..... oh well, never mind then.

Cheers Shaun


Ancients - inspiration

Hi all,

found a blog that has turned me into a bit of a fanboy, its in the links and is iron_mitten.

very pretty and very well done....

now i want to rebase my Romans and repaint as 2 armies, mebbe even 3 add some irregulars and pretorians...... then a warband army which wont cost 750£, still not sure on the WAB rules tho, but as a start it will get me playing til 'Filed of GLory'is delivered, tested to destruction and the sold on, and i then write my own ancients rules as is the case with most things.

so i think i have found a quick turnaround Project 2

cheers Shaun

Thursday 10 January 2008

Uk Big Battalions Game - and a Project

Projects seem to be the order of the blog these days, I trawl around a few blogspot sites and the main theme seems to be people setting up their up coming years project.

As you see from the previous post I have a few Projects on the go, from these I cant seem to choose which one to concentrate on for the year. Seven years war should be my main push, but to be honest I have become disillusioned with the whole idea!! Nothing major has completely put me off, but lots of little niggles which just tend to leave a sour taste for the forth coming big battalion battle in Grimsby on the weekend of the 11th/12th October.

Project 1. Skavenberg and Saxe-Nweilintze

These 2 mythical countries are my setting for battling the Tricorn era, I have both Armies in 10mm fully painted except for maybe a few more Cavalry units, although I might just move a Cuirassier from one side to the other and be done with it!!
The plan is to build these Armies in 28mm figures, using RSM95 figures from DPC in the USA, each Infantry Battalion/Regiment being a unit of 48 Ranks and a 6 figure command stand, each Cavalry Regiment being 2 Squadrons of 12 Figures and a command of 2 figures, then Artillery will be by the Gun.

A modest push to get units finished will be my main Project for the next 9 months should give me some finished figures to take along, especially as I made a minimum commitment ot the game.

1st Btln 1st Regt – von Krump (white jackets, red facings, white lace) completed
1st Regiment ‘Fire Brigade’ – von ???? (blue jackets, red facings, white lace) January
2nd Btln 1st Regt – von ????? (white jackets, red facings, yellow lace) February
2nd Regiment ‘Del Montes’ own’ – (Blue jacket, Orange facings, white lace) March
Skavenberg Dragoon Squadron – (green jacket, red facing) April
Saxe-Nweilintze Hussars Squadron – (Black jackets, white facings) April
Saxe-Nweilintze Cuirassier Squadron – (white jackets, red facing) May
Saxe- Nweilintze Dragoon Squadron – (light blue jackets, yellow facings) May
4 Artillery – (1/2 black jacket, red facing) (1/2 brown jacket, red facing) June
Gren Btln 1st Regt – von ???? (white jackets, red facing, bearskins) July(extra)
3rd Regiment ‘the wannabee’s’ – (blue jackets, yellow facings, white lace) August (extra)
Guards Regiment ‘die hards’ – (black jackets, yellow facing) September (extra)
Staff officers – October

A Battalion a month seems ok, with the 3rd Regt, the Grenadiers and Guards units falling off the list if I am struggling and expanding the Cavalry Squadrons to Regiments if I get the figures for myself for Easter.

There that’s a project 1…… so Project 2?? Hmmm let me think

Cheers

Ox

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Skavenbergers, march on!!!









The troops are the first RSM95s i have painted, they are Austrianesque, but not historically accurate, so count as my first unit, 4 companys of 12 figures, witha command stand... the dark brown square is amounted Colonel, who is currently in the post from the USA.
The dog is out of scale, his name is Leo.
cheers
Ox