Watching the Paint dry

They think it's all over.....

2011-12-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

It is now.....

So with painting points at an all time low..

And the winter being spent reboxing and sorting out what figures I actually have, I have invisibly bought a card game.

Yesterdays club night saw the seal being broken on Shadows copy of BLood Bowl Team Manager. Liked it, can see huge potential and have now bought it off of eBay.

And the bonus is I don't have to paint anything!!

Seasons greetings

Cheers Shaun

Plastic fantastic -history schmistry

2011-10-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Well didn't go to SELWG, petrol vrs no spending money would of meant a poor return for my hard earned pennies.... So went to see "Real Steel" or rocky the robot And " three musketeers" which was much fun, good to Titus Pullo again.

So i have over the years acquired a few boxes of plastic figures, never full priced and usually impulse bought. So what to do with an eclectic mix of bits n bobs...

1box of French napoleonic hussars
2 boxes of French napoleonic heavy cavalry
1/2 box of French napoleonic dragoons
3 boxes of perry napoleonic French infantry
1 box of perry British napoleonic infantry

2boxes of perry ACW cavalry
8 boxes of perry ACW infantry

on top of this I really want to get some of the Ansar tribesmen and zouaves.....

Then i got to thinking..... Didn't the Indian army of 1840s dress in napoleonic uniforms? Wasn't that only 20 years before the ACŴ ... Whose uniforms were bought from european warehouse sales.... So could there be a little bit of mythstory here.

Rules will be black powder, so units of 18 foot regulars, 6 cavalry and 24 irregulars, single guns n crews.

So maybe Sittingbad wasn't the last napoleonic battle fought after all and if it's a fantasy European force the colours can be .... More erm, colourful and the poor invaded far eastern country can be a mix of regular and tribesmen.... Very nappy meets colonial and i don't need to get more figures other than the Ansar and zouaves, which i will only end up buying anyway.... Weak willed hobbyist.

Anyway back to painting warmaster orcs and goblins for impetus bases to fight my Pendraken Romans ... Just making do with the figures available again

Kings of war 2nd edition... An unwarranted attack on the hobby

2011-09-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

It's been ages, where have you been? Oh it was me ... Yeah well I'm back now for a bit, well a post maybe..

So i picked up lots of mantic figures ages ago and played the throw .. Er I mean give away rules at the time, didn't liked em, tweaked with the aid of Rich and just sort of ignored them... The figures are lovely tho, dwarves and skellies, what's not to like

Now i have been lulled into buying a 2nd edition set.... Mugged is a word, never mind

Things i like about them..
Units are bought and fight as units, no figure removal
Units look like units... Well maybe not the 5 man line... But the 10 archer and 20 spears do
The stat line is easy to remember and works well
The Igo ugo works ok to a point... See below
..... Done

Things i don't like,
no player interaction.. No armour saves, no morale save... I'm hit, I'm hurt and then I'm told I have routed.... I want my dice rolls back!!!!
Army composition... Geared towards abuse by 'those' kind of players... Legal army of 5 spear units and 5 dragons.... Or vampire cavalry armies dealing death and healing off of the same dice rolls... Broken!!!!!
No army moral leading to benny hill style chase scenes as units attempt to pillage the last victory point from the clutches defeat...

This isn't a review by the way it's just a rant... No point in denying it... And I am sure there will comments of don't play them then :) but well after years of being in a hobby of ever diminishing returns and around a year of painters block .... Combined with a total loss of funds I find myself at an impasse, ironically a chess term not lost on any one that's played KoW using a clock timer....

looking back the melaise set in when i was made redundant, but 15 months later something has to change surely... No I didn't call you Shirley, grow up. I think this has been followed by the release into the hobby of some severely half arsed rulesets *coff-foundry-coff*, some over priced figures that were supposed to be the poor mans saviour... 1£ a go for a plastic foot figure?? Really??? and to top it off going to shows to be inspired and well leaving feeling the need to just end it all... No not suicide, just one big bring n buy hit with all my figures, buy a board game And join the number crunchers... But even then the stuff would just get knicked of the bring and buy stand... Theiving tw@ts had my stuff three years ago and I still ain't forgiven them... Or maybe eBay so i can feel really ripped off as I post off my paint figures at less than lead costs....

I must tho, at this point, say thank you to all the blogs i follow as i do read most of your posts... And it is comforting knowing that the hobby isn't dead yet... Also to all the forums I browse over for there continued efforts to spread the hobby... I know this post isn't nice reading, altho maybe it raised a couple of titters in places I just needed to say something is all, an icebreaker if you will to get back into making posts.... Like the Titanic of posts maybe.

Cheerio, shaun

Bored games....

2011-02-05T06:03:00.000-08:00

Oops I meant board games ;)

Have picked up Command and Colors Napoleonics.. 2games and 2losses but fun still :)

still playing Operation Squad... Not looking forward to Club Tuesday as it's back to 5150....

Have signed up to help Rich demo game at Hammrhead show, might dig out some bring n buy stuff.

Cheers Shaun

Fffffffff sake ..... !!!!!!

2011-01-31T11:23:00.000-08:00

Well I am in funk still, the doldrums.... And I can't seem to shift it, 7 months maybe?

Have managed to pump out some 15mm SciFi bits and pieces, but nothing much really...

Am playing 5150 but not liking it at all this time round...
Have bought Command And Colors Napoleonics with a view to more table top battles... Didnt mind playing Battlelore at the weekend, wonder if I should get the new anniversary edition of Battle Cry....

Have stuck n prepped some 28mm WW1 Renegade Brits to do as Guards for a VBCW. Havent done the Germans yet to use as BUF assault troops... Or jagers for the Anglican League troops...

And don't get me started on the 10mm Impetus stuff or the 28mm Kings of war stuff from mantic.... Or rebasing my GW fantasy stuff to use on impetus sabot bases.... Greer and arghhh just can't be @rsed to do any of it..

Oh and war-games factory have said the WSS infantry will be sent soon.... Meh whatever

Anyone want to buy a hobby? Must collect tho as shipping may cost ya more than the lead/plastic/wood mountain

Rant and moan , rant and moan

Cheers Shaun

Testing from the iPad

2010-12-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

Maybe this will work to help me blog more !!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

44 down, 260 odd to go

2010-11-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

Two posts in a month, wondes will never cease :)

Well i managed to finish some 15mm SCiFI figures from GZG, some sort of yanks in space types. Black Flak jackets, grey jumpsuits and white helmets, yes its the rebel alliance :) as suggested by my 11 year old son Craig. GZG Alien Mercs to follow and PEndraken 10mm Aliens all based for skirmish using the yahoo group 'gears of war' ruleset FUBAR, easy enough set with some nice ideas that lend themselves to house rules, and they are FREE :)

off to Warfare at Reading Saturday... Inspiration needed still... need to get to 1000 PPs by January 1st

Shaun

two months to go..... oops

2010-11-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well after two weeks of training I finally start at my store tomorrow. No more 2 hour drive home thru London traffic.... 12 mph is not what my car is built for, hopefully tomrrows journey will take closer to 12 minutes as its only a couple of miles :)

Still havent found my painting keen tho...

Projects i should be painting are :

10mm American civil war
15mm Sci Fi
28mm Ancients - Dark Ages
28mm Fantasy armies

Stuff i have brought recently include...

28mm Conquest Normans Plastic :)
28mm Plastic WSS Infantry from WargamesFactory
Lots n Lots of multi slot bases (plinths as my mate Bob calls them) from Warbases.com

I really cant seem to shift this painting block tho......

I recently dropped off some painted AWI figures to an old friend Ron Ringrose, he usually rebases them to fit in with his main armies, when we realised that this is the third time he has bought my AWI collection, as we looked over his various collections I could pick out figures I have painted over the last 20 odd years.... one day I will keep some for me.... maybe. The figures were mid battle on his impressive battlefield in the 'garden shed' wargames room, photos will apparently be online curtesy of Joe Dever at some point, Inspiration and Desperation in equal measures tho.

Cheers Shaun

new beginnings...

2010-10-15T04:49:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

Am starting a new job on Monday.... am sure the end of my hobby draught will follow quickly after that.

I have realised I paint to de-stress from work, no stress = no inclination to paint.

SELWG here I come, please please please inspire me......

cheers Shaun

blink.... 2 months? really

2010-05-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

Well that went quick,

Work is nearly finished, got the redundancy money (pfft... thats what 15 years loyalty is worth?) and am now on temporary weeks work emptying the last stock from the warehouse.

I have also been busy doing commission work and finally finished some ancient units that were for sale at Salute, along with my AWI stuff .. i will get to keep some oneday!! Anyway managed to break evene on the day and stil have some bits left to sell on ebay or at bring n buys at coming up shows.

Also bought some unit bags from Renegade to try and turn over for a small profit.

Gaming has been slack of late, but mostly 'FLying Lead' moderns and VBCW.

and LAPR season started well, cold event, low turnout but did manage to get very, very drunk :)

cheers Shaun

BUFs n Stuffs..

2010-03-09T15:09:00.001-08:00

Hi, here is a picture of the newly completed but yet unvarnished BUF force for our little diversion into the British Civil War. The force currently consists of Captain Richard Gryphen, Dick to his mum (he has no friends obviously ;)) and his right hand man Sgt Filtcher. Cpl Pointer is usually found hanging with Pvt Victors and Pvt Lodder on the HMG, while Ensign Logg carries the Totem for the force. Pvt Lewis is armed with a drum fed LMG and then all the rest rifle armed. The system 'Flying Lead' uses WYSIWYG for equiping forces, so its pretty easy to work out who has what in the game, quality n skills add to the generation giving the Officers n specials qualities beyond the regular troops, altho with such a newly raised force there game quality means they do little but run away!!

The figures are BUF from Musketeer Miniatures, in 28mm.

The preview shots are of MM Gardia troops, painted as English Police.

A Reaver casting, 28mm Necromancer, painted as Al'Istar K'Rawlee, British Occultist Leader.

A Copplestone Future cop, 28mm, painted as Prime Minister Mosley.

and a gaggle of Copplestone Gangster Dames, 28mm, painted as scenario props ;)

All will be revealed !!!!

Cheers Shaun

Cavalier... VBCW?

2010-03-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Well the first show of the year occured and a new mini project has been started, kinda..?

Well 'flying Lead' is still flavour of the month and while at the show i saw the Musketeer Miniatures figure for a 'Very Britich Civil War'... men in skirts and fascists? I'm in!!!

So 90£ later i have core forces for BUF, Regulars, Scots convernantors and Anglican League units... plus some sailors i will wedge in :)
Rich (of the surfer shack blog, and author of flying lead :)) picked up some figures for his Cornish Seperatists and a bag-o-vehicles :) let the Lead Fly i recon.. game one saw my BUF handed their arses by Birtie Wooster... so all is cool with the world :)

Regrets, yeah i didnt buy the bags of WW1 brits and Germans (and maybe french !!) from the Bring n Buy, money is tight to be honest, but i think i could of managed to justify it in the long run.. probably...

So IF the owner of those figures ( i beleive they were Foundry) wants to get in touch with a view to maybe a swap of figures, or Services... or cash if they prefer still ... feel free to leave a message :)

cheers Shaun

Moments of Clarity... then back into a blury reality

2010-02-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

HI all,

Really being inspired by this to do something with my abandoned SYW Prussian n Austrians...

http://http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2010/02/french-attack-fort-harilon.html

While not a player of HOTT I have DBx'd and I do play games using the Songs of Blades Engine, I know its still a game of 6 n 1's but somehow I feel less agreaved at loosing my rookie cops to gangster on a skateboard, yeah i still rolled a 1 to Richards 6, but... he is on a skateboard!! how cool is that!!

The base sizes also fit in nicely with Impetus, if i am ever allowed to play those again.

I Rebased all my ancient Romans onto 50x25 GW bases last year, not keen on rebasing again, making 12x6 sabots and having more units appeals, altho more appealing is just doing it in 10mm..... gaaaaagh

I mean looking at all my figures, projects and just WTF boxes of lead n plastic makes me wonder when i will actually get around to finishing anything anyway. I like 25mm figures, it is really what the hobby is all about.. isnt it? tho?

BUT the 10mm units look cool too, and make a 6'x4' table for 25mm figures, into the equivalent of a 18'x10' for 10mm units....

I have mostly used 8cm by 4cm bases for my 10mm Roman based in 3 ranks of 10 figures, looks mighty meaty... then my 15mm Romans are based in 3 ranks of 6, same sized base... then the 25m Romans are esentially on a 10cm by 5 cm base... oh which have i played with the most... hmm none of the have really been used more than three times anyway!! and who do they fight, well the only ones not invovled in civil war actions are the 15s which can take on the Barbarian Warbands... too much DIVERSITY still after around 6 years of purging, painting and purging again..

With the impending doom of redundancy I find myself thinking of resale values and streamlining the collection yet again, the 25mm units I am feeling may need to be sold on for now as much as it pains me, I know I can replace them one day, with Lottery winnings or something. Painted 15mm doesnt really have a resale value that i have found, but i have so little of it that to catch up with the grand scale stuff might costs more than it is worth, also there is hardly any of it with paint on!! The 10mm was bought n painted quickly to keep.... is pretty much complete and not in need of being added to either.

so what floundering projects do i have to possibly sell...

AWI Brits n Americans... around 600 figures in units of 24, 12 or 6 horse - 95% finished
Ancient Romans.. around 400 figures in units of 24, 12 or 6 horse - 95% finished
Ancient Allies n stuff.. around 300 figures - unpainted
Franco - Prussians ... around 1000 figures - 20% painted
Napoleonics... around 300 figures - unpainted
ECW ... around 300 figures - based n undercoated
GW 40k stuff ... around 600 figures plus vehicles - unpainted, some BNIB tanks but old
GW Fantasy ... around 600 figures
Warzone Plastics ... 240 figures - unassembled
Warmachine Khabdor ... 100 figures - painted by my mate Jon
Hordes Skorne .. BNIB 8 boxes of core units

40mm Lord of the Rings figures .. pre-painted around 1200 figures, including mounted
12mm MechWarrior - pre-painted clix stuff

15mm Romans
15mm Warband
15mm Suleucid
15mm Rennaisance Italians n French
15mm Fantasy Elves n Undead

and then there is the age old problem of where is best to sell it, i guess the new season of shows is comming up, bring n buys maybe, if i had more followers i could flog them straight off here

still if i am sat on my arse doing nothing else than painting figures its still constructive in the long run...

i've rambled..

January Painting

2010-02-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

From my logs...

8 x 30 figure 10mm Old Glory 'Dutchy of Warsaw' Infantry units
4 x 30 figure 10mm Old Glory 'Nassua' Infantry units
4 x 8 mounted figure 10mm Old Glory 'British Light Dragoons' Cavalry units
4 x 8 mounted figure 10mm Old glory ' French chassuers' Cavalry units
2 x 12 mounted figure 10mm Old Glory ' French Carrabiniers' Cavarly units
3 x 8 mounted figure 10 mm Old Glory 'French and British Hussars' Cavalry units

all based for use with either LaSalle or BlackPowder

7 bases of 15mm Samurai based for Impetus but being used with BP Ancients - 56 figures

so 640 figure... rounded out to 222 Painting Point at 3 per 1 for 10mm and 2 for 1 at 15mm

no 28mm's painted this month tho

Purchases included old glory 10mm figures, more paint, wotr 25mm perry plastic and 2 board games; Descent and Small world... both aimed at playing more games with my son at weekends, altho i cant see why they wont become an evening option with Richard or indeed at the club nights.

new camera, test shots

2010-01-31T11:26:00.001-08:00

here is a 25mm perry plastic, 10mm old glroy lancer and 28mm GW orc...

its a samsung 10.2m pixel on macro lense....

62£ from CEX second hand shop.

old camera was a coolpix 500 ... guess it will have to do..

Shaun

Rules...

2010-01-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

A quick post on rules we are playing currently, starting with the most played...

Black Powder, this is not a review but a list of what i like about them...

They are fun, a bit of a no brainer really...
the command pips is a simplified version of warmaster, roll 2d6 under the command value and let the troops fly across the table, no micro measuring and angles rubbish, just get them in and dont spare the bayonets!!
The units stay on the table til they run away, no figure removal to slow the game down or loose figures to drop on the floor!!
D6s.. lots of them
the use of on table markers and damage pips for casualties, no off table grids to tick the boxes off of... "which unit was that? oh have you got a rubber.. piece of bread? anything?"
simple army morale and break rules that are realistic, well to me anyway

These rules are just so generic and adaptable that we have retrofitted them into ancients and fantasy using our old warmaster bases.... worked really well.. we play these for the fun factor

LaSalle

Fun - igo ugo activations, but the reserves can be a pain to arrive, army builder is very useful
D6s - for everything, by the handful.. nice and easy, roll to hit, roll to save... cry when the unit rolls 4 or less on two dice...
Units on table - these are multi-based to change formation, prefer the 'Grande Armee' approach of one stand but this is for smaller battles, will wait and see what 'blucher' does...
Markers - again am liking the disorder marker and casualties pips, its so easy and convenient
Army Morale - 33% loses and you roll over the turn number, sorted!! simples!!
hmmmmm, same reasons as BP really, except i win more with these rules and they are purely Napoleonic in feel... playing the period feel to them, not just a game of toys for some reason, we have used the army builder to make the black powder games more Napoleonic and less 70s airfix army.. ie British highlanders and scot greys vrs French old guard and Cuirrasiers!!

Songs of Blades and Whatevers....

These are the current choice of rules for Skirmish action.... Drums and shakos for sharpe, fear and faith for zombies and soon 'flying lead' for future wars stuff i am collecting... the concept I like here is very DBX, in the opposed dice rolls and doubling kills, simple and fun and quick!! oh and D6s and a very very nifty and nice activations sequence...

Battlefield evolution

WW2 company actions covered here... d6s, fun, simplistic... think there is a trend forming... we are supposed to be starting a pacific campaign at the club with these rules and as i cant be canadian i opted for ozzies, the rules can be very brutal in a 40k way, in that i move and you can shoot the shit out of me way, but they work better than everything we have tried so far... and that list is long!!!

BAsic Impetus and IMpetus...

Want to play this more than i do.... currently just building forces for it, even if they are being pushed into playing BlackPowder with... i like the hit on 5s n 6s thing with these rules, it worked for me, also the unit diarama stands are great, the stats worked well and allowed for some nice match ups with my romans and barbarians, altho the urge to add magic was never far away!!

DiscGame

THis was a simplefied version of warmaster i made to take to LARP events, but ended using with my son to play at home. It ironically seems to be a mix of DBX activation, warmaster unit stats and LaSalle morale, played on a grid 6x8... i wrote them 5 years ago on 5 index cards!! have now finished 4 complete armies and have 8 more in construction or half painted, GW plastics on 7cm disc bases from GW. I have lately been tinkering with them but not sure they needed it...

Rules - the future

One thing i have noticed is we (ie me and rich) do like to get rulesets and have a little tinker with them, so much so that Ganesha Games new rule set 'Flying Lead' is actually written by Rich becase he tinkered so much with a playtest set he was given that he basically re-wrote it for them!! I think that is why we have gravitated towards Black Powder over LaSalle, its just a less rigid set of rules, allowing the game to flow, like a sunday league referee that allows the 'play on' after someone has just been stabbed in the box. We like to play a game and enjoy that, not bluster about the rules in minute detail, protractors out and moving troops to the nearest thou on an imperial ruler!! life is to short for that type of game or indeed player, the hobby is supposed to be about having fun .. innit tho? eh?

Shaun

Happy New Year....

2010-01-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

well it is my first post since... oh whenever and a day ago...

2009 - managed to limp in with 1005 Points of figures painted...
95 % finished my 28mm AWI project...
95% finished my 10mm Zulu project..

Benched the Ancients 28mm Project...

Started a 10mm Napoloenics project...

Going through the painted figures list i see a variety of distractions and huge month long gaps of non- productivity, all due to the stresses of RealLife... think i will Keep RL off of here, its about the hobby, innit :)

oh I started a new hobby too... Referee training for Roller Derby, skating at 40 years old after 22 on flat feet was interesting, but i am getting there eventually, so that is now three hobby distractions to keep me occupied in what is already a busy schedule. Oh yeah i turned 40 too, and started a diet.. current loss is 10lbs thanks to xmas excesses which brought me back down from nearly 20lbs lost!!! was a good xmas tho :)

Rules we currently use are....

BlackPowder
Impetus
LaSalle
and DiscGame which i play with my 11 year old son ... he has skaven and the ability to roll 6s like he had a pact with the Horned one himself.. well knowing his dad he may well have..

oh midlife crisis alert... getting new tattoo's to grow old distatefully with....

2010... well get a job (currently being made redundant in May)

buy new camera as mine is missing still... maybe the ex,ex took with her when she left...
find new clients that want 25mm figures painted at 2.50£ per figure in monthly bundles of 40
learn to trust 'Bring n Buys' again, or work out how to use Ebay profitably...

breaking new ****** the recession is over***** well thats ok then...

Shaun

gotta wear shades....

2009-08-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Another month another blog I guess. Painting has slowed, but preparation work has taken place, with more Napoleonics for Pat going onto the table, meanwhile I have build the Perry Plastic British and French, then set about the Victrix French box, OMG what a nightmare in comparison to the Perrys. The poses don’t necessarily build a marching unit either, and I do like my French to be marching to glory, while the British firing poses makes sense., still have the Victrix British to build….. not sure what to do with them either, probably skirmish games. The perrys I think I will keep for making into the start of my big Napoleonic collection tho, which is very much on the back burner till there are more plastic options.

The new victrix Highlanders look too good not to get some sooner than later….

But the French heavy Cavalry from Perrys looks like the next purchase, especially if I do take the ACW stuff and Imagination it… thinking of doing something with the old Grande Army rules and Based units similar to the Impetus sizes, so approx 10cm by 5cm for most units, with 4 cavalry or 10 infantry, with officer, drummer or standard bearers on the bases giving bonus to activation. Which would give me around 25 bases of infantry and 6 of Light cavalry to play around with straight out of the boxes… so no dent in the wallet just yet, oh and with Victrix having British Foot and Horse artillery boxes available inside the year will mean adding cheap artillery is going to be easy.

Need to start shifting some of the painted stuff I have been getting thru, just not sure on what is going to be the best way forward, not liking Ebay or trusting Bring n buys anymore… any suggestions welcome! With my job (well me really) receiving a redundancy notice I will need to either generate some painting orders or sell my stuff to bring some cash in, hobby will move to the back boiler for a while, still the packages look nice and will cover the mortgage for a couple of months, hopefully the job market will improve next year too…. If not then there will be plenty of painting time… see looking on the bright side there!!

take care all

Shaun

EG-TNG (Enfield Gamers - The Next Generation)

2009-07-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well the swan song evening of pewc saw me playing Rich in NW Europe again... I took the US figures against the might of the Werhmacht, so as to not offend my American fans by loosing i gallantly allowed the figures to double as French..... win win situation i thought, until i won... then hurriedly had to make them Morrocans instead.... pesky dice just wouldnt fail me, Am starting to enjoy 'Force on force' too.

June saw the painting desk return as i mopped up some half painted and pre-prepared AWI figures i have had lurking around for a couple of years, 270 Painting points i am shocked. 24 figure units being churned out every 3 days! 6 figure cavalry unit in an evening? madness

Following TMP figures of the new Victrix Highlanders and Perry Hussars... swoon.. cant wait for these... but Perry Cuirassiers first tho... still not sure what to do with them all tho. So far the Perry British and French are all based on pennies ready for skirmishes with 'Song of Drums and Shakos' but really only keen on the activations bit of the rules, rest is DBMesque... migth need to have a fiddle about.

Also have a lot of Perrys ACW figures, so might do a little imaginations thing with those and the spare heads from the Napoleonics boxes, probably end up looking like Carlist stuff!!

Laters Ox

the pheonix from the pewc.... ewww

2009-06-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well Ponders End Wargames club or PEWC ( pronounced Puke) has folded.....

But we have managed to negotiate the same venue for the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, from 7 til 11, for gamers based in Enfield to come along too.

No membership, just 4£ for the evening, using the boards and terrain, or just the tables for card gaming, or even the study for a little Roleplaying...

http://www.enfieldgamers.co.uk/

is the new community site...

Oops...

2009-06-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well failed miserably all three counts so far... at least the painting is picking up

So much has changed, but i am back painting now, and its tri-corns ....

have dug out my old American Revolutionary (or Independence, if ya prefer) and am ploughing my way thru them, done the Loyalist, British Line , Grenadier's and Lights... for a 180 figures this year and am now starting on the Continentals, pictures may happen when i get flags for the boys to wave about.

On the gaming front have given up on FoG, and am just getting back into Impetus hopefully.

But the club has up n died on me... Ponders End Wargames club is no more... as it became financially enviable. The last remaining players feeling it was time to move on.... sort of, so the club is dead, Long Live the Gamers? Irregulars? or whomevers... we are going to change the name, cut the costs of the website, reduce down to 2nd n 4th Tuesday evenings and hopefully increase our numbers back to at least a regular 10, its not Over cos the fat lady aint singing but it has come to the make or break solutions before the bank roll turns red... so if you are local to Enfield and are free why not come along, theats Enfield, North London in the UNITED KINGDOM..... for those in the wider community of the net...

I will be updating more often too as the new website is going to basically be a link to all the 'not members' blogs .... confused, yeah me too

2009 The Pledge

2009-01-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, well last year was a nearly ....

I did manage to paint over a 1000 points of figures... from some WW2 10mm thru to 2 40mm LOTR figures... so all good., but mostly my painting was for other people or bring n buy sales (flea market) so hopefully this year i will keep more of what i paint, so AWI is probably my best bet and easiest start for the year... also i need to finish all the nearly done ancient units, thats nearly 200 painting points for free!!

Didnt manage to keep up the weekly blogs entries....

Didnt manage to put up a photo of everyhting i painted....

So this year i will opt for 1000 figure again, a weekly update and some photos.

Thanks to Iron mitten, Der Alte Fritz and Paintermeister for all the inspiration over the past year of hobby trials and tribulations.

I'm back.....

2008-12-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

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

Happy Jedi Day - may the forth be with you

2008-05-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

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

meh.....

2008-04-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

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

Frustratingly slow work.... and reduced hours

2008-03-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

public answer to maccwar's query

2008-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

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

635 - 738 Painted this year

2008-02-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

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

515-634 Napoleonics for Sale

2008-02-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

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

Playing the long game...

2008-02-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

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

February 77 - 124 (467 - 514)

2008-02-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

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

February 1- 76 (391-466)

2008-02-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

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.

This weekend i have mainly been sleeping in a castle

2008-02-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

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.

http://www.castlewales.com/stbrivls.html

187-390 Painting Points for January

2008-01-30T12:07:00.000-08:00

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

145-186 PP YTD

2008-01-23T03:48:00.000-08:00

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

The Ready Room - Production Line Painting

2008-01-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-20T14:26:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-20T14:22:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-20T14:17:00.000-08:00

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 !!!!!

2008-01-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

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

Project 2 - Rebase completed

2008-01-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-01-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

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

Project 2 - Roman Civil War

2008-01-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

77-132 painting points

2008-01-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

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

Uk Big Battalions Game - and a Project

2008-01-10T09:11:00.001-08:00

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

Skavenbergers, march on!!!

2008-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

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

1-76 Points

2008-01-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

well there are the first 76 figures, still havent set up my photo taking area, so you get my sofa cushoms too.

many

Projects....

2008-01-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Well probably only 3 people that read this… but hello anyway.

Last night saw the completion of the first 76 ACW figures for Pat, and thus the opening 76 points for this years target, picture to follow, as I am at work and not at home. 76 Union figures from Dixon, no 2 figures the same… hard work, just 12 Berdans left and 36 Rebels to paint, and that’s Pat surrent batch done, then its on to some Redoubt ACW for Mike, (actually his 9 year old son, Zac) nice firing line figures and some (12) rebels for Mikes side. ACW seems to be taking off again last year, even more so with this years expected Perry release of Plastics.

Reading Undead Johns blog (where do my friends get their nicknames from) he talks of finishing projects as part of this years ‘to do ‘list. So I thought of all my unfinished projects.

1. American War of Independence (3rd time around) This period always draws me back, I paint lots of units then sell them…… then collect them again, currently I am swinging towards finishing them and selling them on, again.

2. English Civil War (1st time around in 28mm) This was inspired by WECW release, I thought I would get 2000pts of Parliament from Old Glory and then someone from the club would join in…. well they didn’t and I never did get further than basing and undercoating, did ponder if I could wedge them into the Seven years war project, but I think it just a little too far out, guess I will finish then and sell by the unit too.

3. Franco-Prussian war (1st historical figure owned) Well when I was 20 I was made redundant form work, so I treated myself to a several bring and buy finds, and then a massive Foundry order followed, I think I have around 2000 figures all in (infantry cavalry and artillery) I even painted lots of figures for each side, back in the late 90’s but then nothing, probably 20% painted in total, lent them to ‘Wargames Journal’ for a photo shoot, so rebased them…. Really don’t want to sell them, not sure if there is a market even? Will keep and paint up for Retirement as they were my first ‘Historical Armies’.

4. Romans (1st Ancient figures owned) I got these for a set of rules that required all 10 cohorts at 24 figures on the table…. Then came Warhammer Ancient Battles and I discovered I had a 10,000pt Army, who knew? Still have Cavalry and Pretorians to paint, did paint all 10 scorpio tho, very scary looking when lined up next to each other. Will finish them some time and Keep, not sure if I could do a Germanic tribes army big enough to match them, at 4 pts a figure I need 2,500 half naked barbarians…. Hmm, mebbe one day, in plastic from the Perrys (WISHLIST stuff) oh yeah arnt Wargames Factory bringing some out in Plastic 15£ for 48 figures… so that only a 750£ bill for the infantry, hope they are one piece castings!!!

5. Seven years War (Mythical Duchies) This only started last year and have painted the first unit only, still not sure what I am doing here to be honest, really liked the idea of Fantasy Musketeers and all that, but it has been increasingly soured by various Forum threads and bit n bobs, will carry on for a year, do the UK Big Battalions Bash in Grimsby and then see what I want to do, carry on or sell it on. To Be Decided.

I suppose these are the main projects still outstanding (20 years in one case) then there are the other figures I got…..

6. 10mm Gaming., Ancients, SYW, Napoleonics and WW2 and Fantasy. Well I got losts of stuff here as it is dirt cheap but little of it is painted (except all the SYW stuff which is completed) I got Romans again, Macedonians, Persian and Greeks, War of the Roses (both side) I got Chaos and High elves…. Really don’t know what do with it all, Keep and Paint I recon.

7. 15mm Gaming. Ancients mainly. Waiting to see what Ospreys ‘Field of Glory’ is like, will prolly paint and sell, but their aint any money in 15m painted figures, mebbe just bring n buy the lead and stick to 10mm stuff. Dunno. To Be Decided.

8. 15mm ECW, Peter pretty figure for ‘Regiment of Foote’, still bagged. Oh dear!!

9. 15mm Victorian Sci Fi, Peter pig German, British and French from Lancashire games, fond memories of my 28mm Redcoats n Zulus (long since sold) and a chance seeing of a game at Salute many years ago. Bad choice to start this. sell or finish n keep, To Be Decided.

10. 20mm Sci fi, all painted, never use it…. Would sell it if there was a market.

11. 20mm Plastic Ancients, none painted, never use it….. cant paint it (too bendy) and only own half of it…. Just taking up space now actually. No resale value.

12. 20mm WW2, the funky new hard plastics from … someone….. not sure why this happened, I blame Rich. Still boxed.

13. Warhammer Fantasy, lots n lots….. paint and keep, mebbe fight the Romans with it?? No resale value in it.

14. 40K. Marines and Imperial Guard, lots n lots…. Paint it and keep for when Craig (son,9) wants to try it all out I suppose, again no resale value.

15. 40mm Lord of the Rings prepainted figures, 1200 odd figure bought in bulk when they ended the manufacture, softish plastic, had grand visions for this stuff, have done nothing with it since I opened the blister, no resale value.

16. Heroscape, bought 9 basic sets for the terrain, got lots of spare duplicate figures to do summit with, no resale value.

17. Mechwarrior, clicky bases from Wizkids, got a box of stuff I don’t play with anymore, no resale value.

18. Warmachine, Khador and Skorne, one fully painted by John, the other in its box, really nice figures, couldn’t get into the rules tho nice but not for me, don’t want to sell but can see it happening soon. (lucky john gets half the profits if I do sell them!!)

19. Various bits of Napoleonics, ACW and Ancients 28mm and some in 40mm to paint for the bring and buy sales.

I do hope I haven’t forgotten anything as this seems to be an awful lot, please bear in mind this is after 3 years of rationalising and downsizing, I have left around 40 box files of stuff in various states of finished and bare lead (probably is lead too!!) from a starting point of 120 box files plus various over full carry cases.

So all you guys that thought you had a problem, it isn’t really that bad after all.

Cheers Ox

Painting...... mostly ACW

2008-01-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well painting continues on the Union for Pat, Pledge points mounting up already.

JP, the Seven years war are for want of a better plan, all going towards the Duchies of Skavenberg or Saxe-Nweilintz, the first unit are white coated, trousered and gaitered, with a red collar, cuff and vest, while the companies are denoted by pompoms of white with a colour dot, red, yellow, blue and green.

Picture will follow once i flock em, still waiting for the local seamstresses to provide a pair of flags tho.

Next order expected from the US in the next couple of weeks. 360 more Infantry plus 10 mounted officers. Bank managers says i can order some cavalry for Easter..... nice.

cheers

Ox

2008 - PLEDGE time

2008-01-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

ok, last years went well so i will do it again.

1. paint 1000 28mm figures

is that enough?? maybe a commitment to the blog?? ok, well lets try a

2. post a couple of messages per week

3. post a picture of most of the figures i paint.

As i usually paint in Units, altho of late all the ACW is unbased, and these are usually then for sale, it could generate some sale away from the bring and buy!!! ya never know

well thats should be enough, and i might even have gotten rid of enough figures that i could total what i have left, hmmm, probably not.....

approx.
500 Seven Years war (10% painted)
1000 Franco Prussian (25% painted)
350 AWI (30%)
300 EWC (10%)
400 Romans (70%)
400 Naps, EIR and Greeks to paint to sell (24figure units)
lots of GW 40K and Fantasy figures - Marines/Imperial Guards and Elves
plus mebbe a push to finish my DISC Game... fantasy thing, a few armies (20 to 40 figures each) left to paint.

then there are the 10mm
Warmaster Fantasy Armies
Ancients - Greek, MAcedonian and Persian
WW2 - British, German and US - '44 Europe

theres probably more.... dont want to look anymore

Happy New Year

Cheers OX

2007 - pledge to final update

2008-01-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

ytd 1094 x28mm
December added
48 Austrian Grenadiers24 Austrian Militia8 French Carabinier (16)24 French Old Guard52 Seven Years War Austrians30 ACW Yankees
so 194
giving…. 1288 for the year
so exceded my PLEDGE by 288 28mm Figures, and 365 Bases of 10mm, cleared the overdraft so that i am actually in the Black, cleared some space, created a painting area and will soon have a wargames table again, after xmas decorations come down….. same again next year methinks.
happy new year to everyone
cheers OX

ACW for Max

2007-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

test picture

also a painting order WIP

Raise high the white flags.... hmmm, mebbe a diferent colour??

2007-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

Greetings from General von Ramstein,
to his most excellent Count deMoney, Royal Treasury.

Well the recruiting Sergeants have been out again, even before the current batch of Skavenbergs finest men have even been given there uniforms for the coming years service. Although the first Battalion of infantry have been seen performing drill along the banks of the River Odour, still wearing their civilian garb!!! The organisation seems to be in companies of 120 men, with 4 such companies fielded under the Colour Party of the Colonel.

(first 48 Austrians are based waiting for an undercoat)
(next order has been sent off to RSM for 6 more bags of muskets)

The first of the mounted troops have also been active, although there mounts are too young for service yet, they have been designated at ‘Dragoons’.

(Still bagged n tagged)

The Artillery train are also lacking in essential equipment to construct their machines of war….. a Corps of Engineers might be required for Service.

(Still bagged n tagged)

Reports coming in from the Saxe-Nweilintz borders are that their recruiters are also active, our spies have found documents that state that grenadiers companies will be integral to a field Battalion…. Sheer madness from our Military advisors point of view. Recruits over 6’ are placed into these units, ‘all brawn and no brains’ was one of the dismissive comments made. Their Artillery seems to be ‘under construction’ also, but their Cavalry seems to outnumber ours 3 to 1, although of varying quality and use, again their mounts are too young for service.

(troops still bagged n tagged, along with Artillery and Cavalry)
(next order has been sent off to RSM for 3 bags of Muskets and another of Grenadiers)

I hope this message finds you in good health, and of better cheer, Please inform his Majesty that the first uniforms will be arriving in the next few weeks, we have been assured by the manufacturers.

In Service,

Ramstein

older and wiser?

2007-09-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

well 38 now.... wrote one word in my diary for today, simply put 'bugger'

painting ACW cavalry now, 28mm order for Pat in Lincoln, ex North London wargames group, nice guy.

Reading, latest Battlegames, GW article so far, used to work for them in a store, nuff said.

PEWC and the latest 7yw playtest went well, had much MUCH more fun witht he Heroscape rules, still bigger battles than i wanted for the campaign, but was good fun. The cavalry aint as hard, stuff tends to break and disappear quickly, basically its bucket'o'dice rules, 50/50 to hit and 66/33 to save, introduced some special bits for abilties, but it was good.

Prepped the Naps for painting, and am working on the OOBs for 1815 campaign, its gone the way of WW2 for us again, early war.... that would be April 44?? start at the end and dont worry about the begginging....

so i think this is the 12th post for september, which means i have hit the Pledge .... same again next month..... hmmm a picture, bugger

keeping it real..... hmm, NO

cheers ox

Deep Fried Pretsels

2007-09-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

or TEAM PRIDE, TEAM BLITZ......

Well the trip to Sheffield was good... London Blitz beat Coventry Jets 14 to 6

tight game that was equally won by the Defense as the Offence

Plus 4 can of Black spray from GW Leamington Spa, double result, as they closed down GW Enfield

and tonight is club night again, 7yw again this time with HEROSCAPE rules, just to make sure we are not missing out on summit with the Command N Colours card activation, bit more wargame than boardgame.

reports and pictures to follow

ok guys i know you all want pictures, but i aint a pc genius. its more luck than judgement.

Keep 'em peeled..... hmmm No

Cheers OX

Pledge points

2007-09-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

well, just realised withthe finishing of the 7yw armies i am just shy of the 1000 figure mark

650 28mm figures

325 bases of 10mm (approx 5 figures per Base)

975 Pledge points Year to Date

ACW is now base and undercoated Black

hmmm, need a catchy sign off for these blogs i suppose... will try a few out

Thats all folks... hmm NO

Bringin Paint to a figure near you.... hmm NO

Keep the pointy brushes.... hmm NO

When will it end?? hmm NO

cheers OX

ends and beginnings

2007-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

well for Tuesday club night i finished and based the 7yw, we played 2 more test games, then i realised i had overloaded the bonus' for cavalry..... quick rejig i think, but all is good

and the last bits arrived from old glory for the napoleonics.... 1815 british, with a polish artillery crew, methinks they sent a 607 instead 0f a 507, d'oh

have also got the waterloo oob from wikipedia, will play it as one base per battalion, so each hex is a brigade.... even then it is gonna be a big table and lots more figures, might just play stylised version of it with what we got, plus some dutch belgians and prussians, and double the french... hmm paint this lot first tho

back onto painting orders now too.... 28mm Dixon ACW cavalry have just snuck for quick turnaround for Rivermead in November, or mebbe SELWG.

COlours..... ouch

2007-09-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

ok, dont tell the bank manager

went to colours, picked up some more ridge bits for the HEXON11 terrain and some trees and some lay on roads.....

then picked up the 3 units of Hussars from Pendraken.... wish i had ordered the Cuirrasiers too

Then it all went wrong.... looking at the 10mm Napoleonics at Old Glory, tried to make a call to make sure i DIDNT NEED them.... call failed to connect... walked away... walked back.... walked away, called again.... no answer.... walked back.... oh bugger..... 1815 Napoleonics, Infantry, aRtillery and Cavalry.... put it on the plastic, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me

then i left the show, so now i play Napoleonics again i guess, still at least this time i got a painting buddy for this project

nearly finished the 7yw Light infantyr now.... dismounted dragoons to go, plus the new hussars and a couple of more cuirrasier for the White army - Skavenbergers (Austrians)

MUST paint some 28mm Naps for the Bring N Buy at Warfare in NOvember, and then do the PAinting Orders

cheers OX

CALvaree get a lick

2007-09-14T00:05:00.000-07:00

Well, i have just had a half day off to dog-sit...... indeed

on the up side i have painted the following units of Cavalry.

Bosniak Lancers unit
DeathsHead Hussars unit
3 units of Light Blue Dragoon
3 units of White Cuirrasier

3 units of Green Dragoon
Bearskin Mtd Grenadiers unit
2 units of Flashy Hussars

all 10mm figures, 12 figures units - or 168 cavalry, 336 figures.... or 84 points towards the Pledge

just the Pandours, Jagers and Milita to go then.... plus this weekends shopping...

dont tell Graham.... must paint some Naps next

PEWC and a Game of 7YW

2007-09-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well Tuesday came and so did the club meet, 7 oclock armed with the 2 armies and the new HExonII terrain, rich and I set off for a battle.

Rich has played most periods but looked at the funny Napoleonics figures and decided to just charge with his Cuirrasiers and Dragoons.... we adjusted the musket fire to a better in game range and feel, The charges came in and did some damage, then got shot off.... then my white army infantry advanced, with my cavalry into the Garde Korps of the blue army and fell apart, final score was 10 points to the blues and 7 to the whites, the game had 10 infantry, 3 skirmisher and 3 artillery per side, and 8 cavalry per side, took around 2 hours to fight and felt good, whether it was historical i dont know..... Rich now wants to buy some Scots Greys and Imperial Guard to start building up a waterloo game in 10mm....

MUST look up how battle actually evolved and if this could fit into the mould.

Painting the 10mm White and BLue army cavalry

ignoring the 28mm painting orders

going to Colours at Newbury Saturday...... Old Glory will be there as well as Pendraken, bugger

Blue army should be called Saxe-Nweilints or Lintzers
White army should be called Skavenberg or Burgers

pictures i know, but that is cos i a lame and th GF is at college this week...... always excuses, did i mention i work 9 til 5..... i know its another excuse.... new laptop.... erm, cant find camera.....

cheers OX

Unit Statistics and Gridiron UK

2007-09-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

well not much painted since Wednesday, the Austrian Line units are now completed as are the Artillery stands, nothing new started despite all the best intentions last night, watched 'Hells Kitchen' trying to work out who they were, decided Rosie Boycott was voted off... Kelly is that Kelly LeBrock of 'WeirdScience' fame, dunno??

Created some statistics for the 7YW game next week in a BattleLore/Memoirs style

Line Units
Bases: 4, commanded
Moves: advance 2 hex and Battle or advance 1 hex and give Reduced Fire or stand and give Fire
Stationary Fire:4 3 2 1 causing hits on Colour and Bonus Shields
Reduced Fire: 3 2 1 causing hits on Colour and Bonus Shields
(range is the 4 3 2 1 bit - so that at range 1 hex you get 3 dice, then at
range 2 hex 3 dice, ect)
Battle (Melee); 4 dice

Grenadier Units
Bases: 4, Commanded, Bold, Stubborn, Aggressive*
Moves: advance 2 hex and Battle or advance 1 hex and give Reduced Fire or Stand and give Fire
Stationary Fire: 4 3 2 1 causing hits on Colour and Bonus Shields
Reduced Fire: 3 2 1 causing hits on colour and shields
Battle (Melee): 4 (+2 at full Strength, +1 at half Strength)* plus shields vrs Foot
Bold = Auto fight back ( no support required)
Stubborn = Ignor all push backs from FLAG dice rolls
Aggressive = adds shields to hits in melee vrs Foot

more units cards exist for Artillery, Line units with Grenadiers company, Light units, Legion units (mixed Cavalry and Infantry), Lancers, Hussars, Dragoons and Cuirrasier

The rules will work as per the cards activation system, but where the units are all commanded, an attached or adjacent command figure may be ordered to move all the units, but only the number of units on the activation card may Fire or Battle...... it makes sense if you play any 'Command and Colors' system.

Well the weekend means summit is happening, Sunday is the Playoffs for the BritBowl, so we are off to Finsbury Park to see the London Blitz, who should win thru to BritBowl at Sheffield on the 23rd. My mate has signed us up for the pre-season rookie traingin, me a 38yo GridIron Rookie, only shadowed by Rich, a 43yo Rookie.... well sort off, i played it 20 years ago befor i played Rugby and Rich played it til 8 years ago for various teams around the world, from Liverpool to Tasmania, but 8 years off havent been kind to either of us, hmmm how much weight can i loose in 2 months?? not as much as i have put on in 8 years of Lard abuse.

laters ox

Newark and PEWC

2007-09-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

Well, Sunday we (me n Rich) went to Newark for Partizan II, a nice show we tend to try and travel to at least once year, i had been avoiding Kallistra all year but to no avail, i fell of the 'no spending wagon' in a big way..... and now i own a 6'x4' table of HexonII terrain, with the new slopes, a hill pack and some very new 'sea' tiles.... and some bases for the last of the 10mm 7YW to completed the sticking together of the last units of OLD GLORY Austrian Hussar.

Painting up the cannons for the 12 artillery bases and finishing the last few colours of the Austrian Infantry.

PReparing the Cavalry and Light Infantry for painting this week

Ignoring the 28mm NApoleonics i should be painting (sorry Graham)

Tuesday night, is games night ( http://www.pewc.co.uk/ ) played two massive games of Battlelore using the warmaster figures, much fun and enjoyment, won one and lost one... lost is an understatement, it was a massacre, still i did send a boy to do a mans job, says I 'charge the cavalry on that flank....' meaning all the cavalry into as many units as possible, smashing up formations and causing mayhem.... so he sends off one unit of weak cavalry (not the heavy Knights) to attack the enemies hardest unit, when he bounces he then refuses to attack anymore... two moves later when he is smeared across the battlefield he turns and says to me ' I wish i had attacked earlier... ' who knew..... actually I DID..

Mebbe i should start 2 new blogs for the 7yw stuff....maybe later

cheers ox

September Pledge

2007-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

One Blog - Two Pledges

The Yearly Painting Pledge - 850 figures completed (650 x28mm and 200 Bases of 10mm)

Septembers Pledge, Post at least 3 times a week and get some Pictures up of the Painted 10mm 7YW

Oh yeah, and have a 38th Birthday on the 27th of September..... yay, sort of

Football Season Starts

2007-08-11T03:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah i know its called soccer.... but i dont mean the Premiership

We were sent a copy of THW (Two Hour Wargames) GridIron rules, its unpublished and will probably stay so, but it is what the guys wrote first of all and then developed all the rest from (5150, ect) . So we obviously combined it with all the lovely new hex terrain from the HeroScape boxes that keep appearing in the boot of my car... WOW we gamed for 10 hours on Thursday, came up with a Campaign system which basically breaks the game down into 3 hour sessions, with 4 sessions to a complete game.... 2 games to the Season... so it would appear we know have a Thursday night Football session planned for a couple of months, first tho we have to draft our teams from the pool of players generated. Much fun is being had here so far, a real 'Old School' feel of fun, players already have nicknames, stolen from history 'the fridge' 'jellyfish'.

On the painting table are the 10mm Austrians still, less than 200 to finish now, the Pendraken stuff arrived and is mostly based for painting, lots of Pandours, Jagers, Cavalry and unit of Jacobite Highlanders, along with some militia unit from the packets of trrops i accidentally ordered instead of Hussars, D'oh... still need to buy 3 packets of Pendraken Hussar and the commands for the Old GLory Cavalry...

Graham collected the latest batch of 28mm Napoleonics i have painted for him, just anoth 350 to go by Christmas then he will drop off some more.... all praise the Pledge.

The Pledge is going well... end of month7 and 750 28mm figures (or equivalents) are painted and finished, 5 months to go.... 1000 is almost certain to be reach by the end of September at this rate... could i really make 1500 for end of the year.... the bank manager would be pleased if i did.

oh, pictures.... well we had a to buy a new laptop (screen failed on the old one.... so throw it away as a new one is cheaper to buy than the old one is to repair, go figure) and all the pictures are on the old one.... so the pictures will come along soon.

cheers Shaun

ok, quick update

2007-07-26T12:31:00.001-07:00

Finished .... 350 10mm Prussians
Started....... 350 10mm Austrians

Finished the Country and Army builder charts
Started the Character generation charts

NOT started the 30mm RSM figures
or the painting orders
HAVE started the hex rules

Played 2 games, went well... changed it now tho

Played mostly Hersoscape at club, want new Marvelscape from the US, specially in Walmart dollar prices.... not UK import prices

Also want my pendraken 10mm order to arrive in post to finish building up the little armies....

PROMISE to take pictures...... create pretty 'how to...' files for the creator stuff and post in SOCDAISY files....

cheers Ox

PS the picture is of my LARP character, he is called Ook McFook, he is in the Loren Trust system and in the Bears Faction, he wears a kilt...... drinks cider and mead, fights with a two handed axe or a sword an sheild..... all round good chap

RSM95 Order arrives

2007-07-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ok I know, I dont post as much as you would like, especial if your initials are JP....

Well, work progresses on the 10mm Old Glory

and the RSM95 figures have arrived, with a final payment to HMGovt of £30.91, bringing the grand total in at £166.10, or 57pence a figure, for what are really nice castes, next order will be for 10 bags of infantry and some mounted officers.

So now some reading has happened and the figures are infront of me.... i need to finalise my choice of Unit size and how i am gonna be basing the little fellows. The problem is when ever you ask an OSWargamer they only say "there is wrong way...... " which is al very liberating and also frustrating.

Overall Unit size is 48 troops and mounted Colonel with the Standards on a seperate Base
The Blue army will be 3 companys of 12 musketeers and a forth of 12 Grenadiers
The White army will be 3 companys of 16 musketeers
Cavalry will be in 4 figure squadrons
Artillery a single gun with 6 crew

Infantry 20mm square dividual bases Or 3 figures on a 50mmx25mm
Cavalry 50mmx25mm individual or multiple
Artillery 100mmx 100mm when deployed..... oh, Limbered..hmmm there is a thought

I like to use GW plastic Bases usually.... but i have doubts for this project

Ihavent written the rules yet, so that wont help

and i have just picked up Heroscape from Argos (£7.99) and the mechanichs are so simple they are almost Old School.....

So comment please, espcially if you can help.... my gut raction is to go for singles on the Infantry and pairs on the Cavalry

ox

baby steps

2007-06-25T09:11:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

Well it’s been a while so I thought a quick update was in order.

The work to create my Imagi-Nations has taken a few faltering steps forward, firstly they are named as Saxe-Nweilintz, a Prussian based force and Skavenburg, an Austrian based force. The second step has been the nearly completed Nation Generator which will provide the map, terrain and forces available to each of the Countries created.

Still to do are the National characteristics of the nations and then the Character generator, to provide Officers and officials for the governing and ruling of the Nation.

National characteristics – was thinking of the different ways that each nation fought in this period, but without a huge amount of period knowledge this is proving a little difficult

Prussian – had the ability to MANUEVRE better than most nations
Austrians – not sure – some sort of larger units
British – some sort of firing bonus – but not sure
Russian – usually some sort of Morale bonus

That covers most aspects of rules… Movement, Firing, Morale and unit sizes

Character Statistics – these are used in game but also to provide some role-play aspects to the army…

Leadership – this will be battlefield prowess
Political/Power – this can be used for campaign moves??
Appearance – this could influence the Political test, but also it could detract too
Intelligence – not sure here, but I am sure it has a use
Wealth – definitely caused more problems in this period
Health/Age – could influence much, also for assassination attempts

Each factor could give a modifier for different tests in the game.

Figures –
The 10mms are coming along nicely and will be ideal for CnC based hex game.
The RSM95’s have been sent and the payment taken in GBP’s, with each figure working out at 50p for foot, 1£ for cavalry and 1£ per gun….. So this hits the VFM button, so just need to see the figures in the metal to see if I am happy on style.

Rules –
Horse n Musket 10mm Command and Colours based rules, coming along fine so far
OSW – maybe WAB style rules……. With some Magic…

Birth of a Nation.... not quite

2007-06-09T15:20:00.001-07:00

The brain works in mysterious ways, the wargamers one even more so.....

So to creat a fictional country sounds simple, i got these figures and they are this.... these figures are these.... i want this and i want that...... but then i started thinking....

Why are the armies similar but not the same?
Why do some countries ally with others?
Does topography build the army? or a countries wealth? or its politics?
and is this relavent to the period?

So I sat down and looked how countries of this time are made up. What troop types were available from the countres area's, what supplies are needed to keep an army in the field. Then i started to make up a chart with dice rolls to determine what a country could provide in men and material. Then i provided education, which led to stats for command figures.... each extra factor leading to another idea for inclusion.... it all sort of logically flowed together... then a points system unrolled for a rule set i have yet to adapt....

so i sat down with a pen and paper and rolled up a Duchy, a Grand Duchy no less... with 6 States of various sizes... lots of towns and a couple of Fortresses, followed by an education system unsurpassed in the known world, and over half covered in mountains, which when i began recruiting troops led to an army of well led Pandours, Hussars and Artillery, with mainly Mercenary Infantry units....... all seems feasable, just didnt think i would be Count Dracula

Better get those dice rolling again....

The Plan

2007-06-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Hi all, after much thought i have come up withg a plan...
I game primarily in 10mm and 28mm, and as such all my scenery is
geared towards these figure sizes, so while veiwing all the blogs for
inspiration i was drawn to the RSM95 figures for both style and price
(hopefully, after import duties and shipping).
I wanted to create 2 armies, as i appear to be quite some distance
from any fellow Imagi-nation players, based around Prussian and
Austrian figures, each of 12 Infantry unit, 6-8 Cavalry units and 3
Artillery units. So i placed my order via the web for 4 bags of
infantry, 4 bags of cavalry and 2 bags of artillery and sat back to
wait and work out the painting plan, at my current rate the 2 armies
would be completed by 2010, i realised this wasnt very NOW
generation...
So after a quick phone call to Andy at Old Glory 10mm on Monday and a delivery on Wednesday, i now have the figures for 10 units of
infantry and 4 cavalry and 3 artillery per side in 10mm. Following a
quick paint around I will play with these using a variantion of
BattleCry (Command and Colors rules, played on a Hex Grid), while i
paint up the 30mms to my usual standard and try to recruit someone in the area for some Old School Gaming with CHARGE! type rules.
So the decision of scale was eventually not to decide, so just need
to create 2 countries, pick a colour, a flag and a symbol, base up
the strips and get em on the field.....
also after all the blog talk i thought i would also attempt to start
one of these too, so that not only will i post up the progress of my
Imagi-nation but also the progress on the TMP PLEDGE that i started
in January.... 650 25mm figures so this year, shame they arnt mine
but it does mean i can buy in some more RSM95's.....
cheers Shaun