NEWS FROM THE FRONT

Short Update

2012-05-15T16:56:00.003-07:00

Not much to report have been too busy with life and death. I have at last completed some much needed artillery support for my First Carlist War Isabellino forces, they currently only have the erratic support of the Royal Marine Rocket Battery.

Isabellino Horse Artillery

I have also completed some more German airborne figures for Dave Jackson at Offensive Miniatures, below are pics of the latest heavy weapon support packs, check the Offensive Miniatures website, these are for Dave's personal collection so may not be what you get in the packs

PAK40

120mm Mortar

I also have four more figures for Dux Britanniarum nearly complete, so I will hopefully post pics next week. No games due to my work load and Dave been away in sunny Cyprus, hope to get over to GHQ next week at some point for a game.

TTFN

Duo Enim Dux Britanniarum

2012-04-26T17:07:00.001-07:00

I have managed to complete two figures for the forthcoming dark age rules from Richard Clarke, more info hereToo Fat Lardies Blog and here Sidney Roundwood's Blog.

A Decurio

A Commanipulare

Figures from Musketeer Miniatures, bases from Warbases and shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios.

Also on the painting bench, for myself a First Carlist War Isabelino horse artillery gun and crew, the crew are done and the gun is about halfway. Commission wise, German fallschrimjager PAK40 and 120mm mortar and crew, some more Great War Scots and a Crimean War Russian sailor battalion, I have not seen any painted pics of these on the web so here you go

I have only managed to fit one game due to my hectic work schedule this was a Anglo-Zulu War game over at Dave's, report and pics here Tales From GHQ

Last Saturday was time for the annual visit to Salute, I thought there was quite a buzz this year that even the vastness of venue failed to evaporate, the games were mostly of a very high standard too, as always there were several little gems that were easily missed, I always make a point of printing out a floor plan and marking the games I particularly want to look out for.

Well that's it for now, its late and I have to be up to go to the Foundry open day in six hours!

TTFN

Hanging In There

2012-03-30T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hi folks not a lot to post this time I have been a tad busy earning money, painting during the day and doing some temporary work at night together with my usual casual short circuit motor racing work at the weekend. This will no doubt continue at least until my good wife can find further employment having being made redundant due to relocation. I have managed a couple of games over at Dave's, the results and splendid pics can be seen over on Dave's nice little blog Tales From GHQ

Here are some pics of the rather nice German Fallschirmjager produced by Offensive Miniatures. Painted for the personal collection of the head honcho.

80mm Mortar

Tripod Mounted MG42

Jagers Prepare To Advance Under Mortar & MMG Covering Fire

Squad Light MG

TTFN

Pyddle Down Manor

2012-03-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

I have completed the Hudson and Allen manor house for the ECW collection of my good friend and wargames opponent David Bickley aka Obadiah Bickleigh. I must acknowledge Painterman for the colour inspiration.

It will no doubt also feature in our 1940 Operation Sealion games at some point too.

Take care

WMMMS 2012

2012-03-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

As I was not at the raceway today I was able to attend the above show again this year with Dave, had a splendid time. Did not spend much really, some bases from the great guys at Warbases, some paint and some tufts, also delivered some commission work, pic below of some Marlburian dragoons.

There appeared to be a really good turnout, certainly seemed as good as last year. Around 50 traders, to cater for most gamers needs and some really nice games on show too, where are the photo's you may ask?

Did they turnout very well?

Please don't ask which numpty left his memory card at home in the PC's card reader! I think at times that age is catching me up a little to fast.

TTFN

3rd Century Romans

2012-03-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

Bought these superb figures by A&A Miniatures has a retirement project, but of course I could not resist painting a couple to see how they looked and ended up with these, shield transfers from LBMS of course. Based up for Impetus as this is the only rule set for which I can see me getting enough painted for games.

Off to WMMS on Sunday, hope to take some decent photo's but will not be holding my breath, as I will not be posting any that detract from the games don't hold yours.

TTFN

Early Great War Stuff

2012-03-05T11:48:00.001-08:00

Below are some pics of my latest figures painted for the joint 100 year anniversary project with Dave.

3rd Battalion, 48th Infantry Regiment "Von Stulpnagel" (5th Brandenburg)

Machine Gun Company

Battalion Command

Some artillery support
To balance things up here are some Scots I have been painting for an ongoing commission

And finally, some much needed reinforcements for my late war German forces

All figures are from the excellent ranges by Great War Miniatures.
TTFN

Lapsed Again

2012-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

Oh well started off OK. Sorry for lack of posts, a heavy painting schedule, raising money for Salute by digging out unused items, photographing them and putting on EBay, which is dash time consuming together with various domestic and family matters and also due to lack of photo's and all my games since the First Carlist War bash taking place at GHQ where you can see reports of my victories and losses and nice photo's of Dave's toys, click here Tales From GHQ.

Despite all the above I have managed to finish an early Great War German battalion and a base of 3rd Century Romans for Impetus, just need to do the bases and then I will post pics together with some of my latest commission work in the not distant future I hope.

Bear with.

Game 2 - 2012 - First Carlist war

2012-01-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

The second game of 2012 here at OHQ was a First Carlist War game using Black Powder rules. Dave took command of the Isabelino's this time, his force consisted of 2 battalions of the British Auxiliary Legion with a Royal Marine Rocket Battery attached, a battalion of Spanish Line and a battalion of Spanish light infantry together with a squadron of line cavalry. I commanded the Carlist force of four infantry battalions, a squadron of lancers and an artillery battery.

The Carlist artillery battery was "dug in" on Rawnsla Hill together with an infantry battalion, which in turn was protected by another battalion to its right flank.

Dave began the game by advancing the Spanish line and light battalions into the corn field, unfortunately they did not follow the instruction to form line once there and so became an easy target for the Carlist artillery stationed on Rawnsla Hill.

There must have been some mix up over on Dave's right as the British Auxiliary Legion appeared not to receive the order to advance

Meanwhile their Carlist adversaries began their advance but the lead battalion had to form square due to the threat from the Isabelino cavalry tasked with supporting the British Legion.

Finally the one battalion of British Legion commenced their advance, encouraged by this the Isabelino line cavalry prematurely charged the Carlist square, as you would expect this was repulsed by the steadfast Carlist square but not without loss, indeed the Carlist brigade commander had to join them to steady them. Meanwhile the Isabelino line and light battalion charged the gun battery and Carlist battalion on Rawnsla Hill. Fighting there began in earnest, but became a side show to the tussle on the left of the Carlist line, some surprisingly accurate rocket fire coupled with fire from the now advancing BAL caused the Carlist square to become disordered and shaken the Isabelino line cavalry seized the opportunity and charged again this time destroying the square but, becoming shaken themselves were not able to follow up their success, and falling prey to fire from the supporting Carlist battalion were themselves forced to break. Meanwhile around Rawnsla Hill one of the Isabelino battalions was destroyed and one of the Carlists also, leaving the remaining Isabelino battalion the unenviable task of assaulting the earthworks again, in the event they were seen off by the combined fire of the artillery and infantry battalion. Over on the Carlist left the Isabelinos without cavalry support and the threat of the Carlist cavalry were unable to advance on the remaining Carlist battalion so quit the field. Although we only had four battalions and one cavalry and artillery unit a side on a 4x4 table the game lasted one and half hours, so although the Black Powder rules do come into their own on large tables and with several brigades smaller games are possible and certainly enjoyable.

TTFN

Completed Stuff 2012

2012-01-18T16:20:00.000-08:00

Just a small post, more to follow the weekend or sooner. I have at last completed my uhlan unit for a joint 1914 project I am doing with Dave, the target is completion for 2014. Dave has completed the Brits, just awaiting Aly and Dave to add some more bits to the range and hopefully I will have my Germans done too by the time new items come out. We will be writing our own rules for the 1914 period based on the ones we had published in Wargames Illustrated a few years a go.

I have also been busy with commissions below is an artillery supply waggon (Front Rank) for an ongoing War of the Spanish Succession commission, I have also done some early Great War Brits (Great War Miniatures) and some rather splendid Napoleonic cavalry I cannot elaborate on these as they are not yet on release.

My next post will be a write up of game 2 - 2012 here at OHQ, a First Carlist War set to using Black Powder rules..

TTFN

Game 1 - 2012 - The Great War

2012-01-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

For the first game of 2012 at OHQ a Great War game using "Through The Blood and The Mud" was decided upon, given the time of the year the only game we could play was one from the "Winter Sports" article in the Too Fat Lardies " 2010 Christmas Special". The mission diced for was the Bunker Demolition.

Lt. Reginald Rawnsley leads the way with engineer Burton Joyce and a bomber section under cover of darkness.

The British had managed to create three gaps in the German wire which they did without alarming them, Lt. Rawnsley sent Cpl. Oxley's rifle bomber section over to the flank to give covering fire when needed.

Sgt. Stan Stafford Lewis gun section advance along side Lt. Rawnsley's section to take and hold the German front line trench whilst they locate and destroy the MG post. The Germans failed to spot most of the British movement during their advance, indeed both groups were able to enter the front line trench and over power them.

While Sgt. Stafford's group attempted to silence the third German sentry the Lt. lead his group down the German communication trench to locate the MG post.

Whilst the section kept guard, Burton Joyce began to set the demolition charge, meanwhile feeling that something was not quite right Feldwebel Max Lehrmann left the comfort of the command dugout to investigate, heading towards the nearest troop dugout thereby missing the chance to discover the demolition group. Over in the opposite trench section Cpl. Willie Liecke emerged from the troop dugout with his section and soon encountered Stan Stafford and his section a fierce melee then ensued with Liecke's men being forced back. Meanwhile Burton Joyce had set the fuse for the demolition charge, time to withdraw, but disaster struck the fuse had been set to short, BOOM! six of Lt. Rawnsley's group were hors de combat and Burton Joyce seriously wounded, Lehrmann had also alerted the other German section. Rather than follow up the retiring Germans, hearing the explosion Stafford lead his men out of the trench to make their way back to the British trenches knowing, that Oxley's rifle bombers would cover their withdrawal. The remnants of Lt. Rawnsley's group knowing that time was against them leaped out of the remains of the bunker (or maybe they were blown out) and went top side rather than risk meeting opposition in the communication trench, this was perhaps the better option has they would have been helplessly outnumbered. It did come at a cost though, losing another two men in the process and leaving Rawnsley to carry the wounded Joyce out into No Mans Land. Lehrmann ordered his men after them but they were slowed up by covering fire from Stan Stafford's section's Lewis gun, this gave time for Rawnsley to put a decent distance between himself and his pursuers.

Over on the other side the Germans were still being held at bay by accurate rifle grenade fire, finally the German reinforcements arrived but by the time they reached the forward trench line the British were either in their own trenches or near to being.

Capitan Weiss is not a happy kaninchen and has ordered an immediate retaliatory attack on the cursed Englanders (our next outing in the Great War of course, need to get a few more Germans painted up first though). There you have it, a rather brief report on what was a more challenging and involved game than it seems in my report, if you play TtheM&B and don't have the special I highly recommend you get it, its worth every penny even if you don't use any of the other excellent pieces in it.

TTFN

A Splendid Gift

2012-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I was given a rather splendid book by my long time friend and wargames opponent, David Bickley (if you have not already done so check out his blog - here ). It is entitled "The British Legion, A Tale of the Carlist Wars" by Herbert Hayens, published in 1898.
I have not had chance to read it yet, only snippets, but it seems like it will be a great read, spying, battles etc. a 19th century Sharpe novel perhaps? More when I have read it.

The Front Cover

An illustration

Yesterday evening at OHQ we played our first game of 2012, a seasonal Great War game using "Through The Mud And The Blood". I will post some pics and a short report at the weekend, here is a teaser

TTFN

Another Year Over................

2011-12-31T04:19:00.000-08:00

Well here we are a year to the day since I started this blog, where did all those months go I wonder? and what have I done? Outside gaming I have attended four weddings and a funeral, no pun intended just a matter of fact, two were my good friend and wargames opponent Dave Bickley's son and daughter, Matthew and Ruth, the other two were my son and daughters friends weddings, my son was best man and my daughter head bridesmaid and wedding planner. The funeral was my brother-in law "Ted" mentioned in an earlier post. I was lucky enough to be able to go on holiday twice, to Tuscany in June and Cyprus in October and also had several weekends away, some wargames related with my wife, Dianne, Dave and his good wife Sue and two "working" ones as well.

Sienna

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival

Kyrennia, Northern Cyprus

Dunster Castle

Wargaming wise I am informed that I have not lost as many games than I believe, although I am not convinced of the statement. On the painting front I have no idea what I have painted for myself, probably more than I think, perhaps I will keep a check next year. Commission wise I still have plenty in pipeline which is a good thing has my wife takes her redundancy in January, so things will be a little tight in the coming weeks. At least this will hopefully curtail any mad plans to start a new project, don't need one really has I have in the "lead mountain" First Carlist War, Spanish Civil War, Late Medieval, 3rd cent Imperial Roman, Early and Late Great War figures together with various bits and pieces left for Back of Beyond and Darkest Africa. I also have more Ironclad trenches to complete and air support for the SCW and Great War to build and paint. Thinking about it that's the next three years sorted!

I hope people find my blog interesting, I have got up to 46 followers now so I must be doing something right. I will endeavour to post on a more regular basis in 2012.

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR, TTFN

Christmas

2011-12-23T18:04:00.000-08:00

A Merry Christmas to all and may God bless us every one!!!

A U-Turn

2011-12-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

My Wars of the Roses project has stalled of late, why? Well to be honest trying to decide which retinue and what flags or liveries was becoming a chore, I would decide on a livery then couldn't find standards or it was on a sheet with the rest that I wouldn't use, I was also concerned that games would get a little samey, perhaps that is true of any period but none the less over the last two weeks I have repainted and based my retinues. Not wanting to give up on the 15th century, I have decided that Lord Rawnsley upon picking the wrong team at Bosworth has swopped the family plate for his head and with a few loyal retainers as gone to the continent to ply his trade. Not sure where he will end up, most likely candidate will be Italy as I have mediterranean building for my SCW and Carlist War stuff and I also have the Foundry Condottiere rules which look fun, purists beware not wanting to fall into the same dilemma as the Wars of the Roses this maybe more likely be Hollywood medieval than history as I want to get the fun factor back.
Any thoughts on this madness are welcome, in the New Year I plan to concentrate on finishing my Carlist War stuff so I have plenty of time to reflect on how this goes forward.

Here are a few pics of the reworked figures

Another Diversion

2011-11-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

I have recently been re-basing and sprucing up my Back of Beyond, Red force and as a antidote to painting Crimean Russians, Marlburians, Napoleonics I thought that I would paint up some more that I had never got round to doing, BIG mistake I have now got the Russian Civil War bug, dug out and started more, so quick and easy to paint, no lace, no facings and minimal equipment, also got some Musketeer Russians at Warfare to start a White force, as I already have some Copplestone ones. Shouldn't be really starting with this considering all the other periods I still have on the go, but at least I only have to paint the one side. I have also painted the freebies from this years Partizan shows.

White Partizan Leader, actually Nestor Makhno, Anarchist Leader from Brigade Games

1938, the Royal Couple strike a martial pose for the Royal photographer.

Visited Warfare on Sunday, this is the quietest it as ever been I thought, I understand that it was busier on the Saturday until after lunch when the Marie Celeste effect I mentioned in a previous blog entry took place. Great for punters to be able to get around but must make the traders consider whether they can afford the costs of two days, difficult times. I did my best has I mentioned above I got some Musketeer Russians from Gripping Beast, some more trench sections from Ironclad, John mentioned that he is on with the bunker again I look forward to seeing that in due course, I also got the Osprey on Red Armour in the Civil War from Caliver, all courtesy of EBay sales, always put my money from these back into the hobby, thanks folks.

Some bad news and good news I have got some Christmas work, this will make up for the close season at the Oval Racing circuit, good times. But it means working nights so gaming may be a little sparse in December has I also need to keep my commission work going at the same time, bad times. But at least I will be able to afford Christmas dinner : -)

Take care, till next time

Lifes Ups And Downs

2011-11-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Wow another month gone. At the beginning of October I made the annual visit to the Derby Worlds, on my own this time as Dave was flying out to Oz the same day. Quite a good one I thought, it did appear a little quiet but then it did not appear to have the same afternoon desertion rate that I have noticed in shows of late. Picked up more figures to paint and two more potential customers, didn't get much for myself just two packs of Perry Wars of the Roses figures off Dave Thomas and some bases from Warbases, I also intended to get a couple more trench pieces for my Great War project from Ironclad but forgot my list.
A week later and it was off to Cyprus for a week, didn't venture out much mainly a chill out visit, this was our fifth visit so we have pretty much seen most of the sites, it was my birthday on the Friday so we booked an excursion to the occupied north, visiting
Famagusta

Bella Pais Abbey

Kyrennia

On our return we learned of the sudden death of my brother in law the previous day, made all the more sadder as it was my sisters birthday too.

Edward Ernest Blower "Ted" 1943-2011, a good man to have at your side, RIP.

Games wise have managed to fit in two games with Jon, an ACW game at Jon's with his superb figures and terrain, using Black Powder rules, and believe it or not I won! a rare occurrence for me and Black Powder. Here at OHQ we played a World War II Eastern Front game using Rapid Fire, another win for yours truly, Jon just didn't get the rub of the dice all game really. I have not managed to paint any figures for myself this month so here are some in game shots of the Eastern Front game.

The Germans view of the approaching Red horde from the ruined farm

Soviet armour crosses the train track

Soviet armour fans out to attack the German positions

Little Kate prepares to give supporting fire

The Red's receive their first loss

The Germans lose their Stug III, whilst the Reds lose another T34 to the German Tigers

Overview towards the end of the game, at this point it was looking obvious that Jon's Soviet forces would not get the required Tank and Infantry company to the road by turn ten and fulfill their objective.

The Soviet attack on the right flank is bought to an halt also.

Till next time after my visit to Warfare, another game with Jon and who knows I may even have painted something of my own to show.

Mine! All Mine!

2011-09-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello valued readers. What have I been doing since the last time I posted? First off have had a few days away, I work most weekends for a local short circuit motor sport promoter so do not have much weekend time with the good lady. We decided to pay another visit visit to Cromer where we had many enjoyable holidays when the children were young, to have a fish and chip dinner, quite mad you may say (if you have had the pleasure of fish and chips from Mary Jane's Restaurant you will understand). We did of course stay for more than one night, we took in a trip to Norwich and visited three National Trust Properties, I also took the opportunity to visit as many 2nd hand bookshops as possible, where I managed a good haul. I got 2 Blandfords, Uniforms of the Retreat From Moscow and Uniforms of Waterloo, Military Dress in the Peninsular and Almark's French Napoleonic Lancer Regiments all for the princely sum of £16 not bad I thought for painting reference.
Get on with the wargaming part you may add, gaming wise just the one game a Seven Years War game over at Dave's using Black Powder and the Last Argument of Kings supplement, which certainly makes manoeuvring in SYW games a lot more interesting, best part is I won a Black Powder game! There will be a short respite on the games front whilst Dave is away in Oz, but I hope to get a least a couple of games in with Jon at some point.
Painting wise I have actually completed a unit for myself, hence the title, I now have a second Wars of the Roses retinue, Gloucesters and a base of mercenary handgunners. Block painted, dipped and highlighted up, pics below

Must get back to painting for food now, take care till next time

David Bailey, I think not.

2011-09-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well I was going to accompany this entry with pics of our Great War set to using "Through the Mud and Blood" featuring my Great War terrain boards, alas the colour balance was that far adrift even Photoshop couldn't get them looking half decent, oh well better luck next time. As much as I would like to make boards in the style of http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/ ( if you haven't visit Sid's blog, do so, its excellent), I do not have the storage space, so I have put towelling on the B side of three of my boards and sprayed them with brown shades as well as green, the effect is quite acceptable, on top I will put my Ironclad Miniatures trenches, shell holes, barbed wire etc. Pics when I get a better camera. How did the game go, well despite a great deal of hesitation from Dave the British player, my German defenders were eventually overrun, sorry again for lack of photo's. This week we played a game of Hail Caesar over at Dave's, again another loss for yours truly. My two divisions in the centre steadfastly refused to advance, meanwhile my troops on the flank were destroyed one by one, allowing Dave's cavalry to envelope the rear of my tardy forces.
Again commission work is impacting on my own painting, I have however completed another base of Wars of the Roses billmen, a base of early Great War German uhlans and two late Great War British bombers so that I can now field the representative number in the bombing section, a total of 6 figures for myself this month :-(. I cannot post without putting up anything, so here are some shots, using my wifes new Nikon S3100, from an ongoing War of the Spanish Succession commission.
Dismounted British Dragoons, more pics on my website in the photo's section

All figures are Front Rank, based for "Beneath the Lily Banners" the client will add a guidon.

Till next time.

Cry Me A River

2011-08-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some water shots as promised, my end stops worked a treat, so no crying involved really.

Call me Slarti

2011-08-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks on top of my painting schedule I have also been building some terrain for Matt, Matt wanted some aesthetic but multi-purpose terrain that could be stored in a relatively small space, we therefore went for flat boards so that Matt could place his own roads, woods etc on top, I would make three larger hills, also to be placed on top. We went for poly boards mounted on MDF for ridgidity, this would be covered with green towelling suitably sprayed with car paint, Rover Brooklands Green, Applejack and Ford Daytona Yellow respectively. Some of boards would also have patches of grass matting to represent more broken terrain, marsh etc. The only sculptured pieces would be the stream, this again would be made to be configured two different ways for variety, I glued the poly boards to the MDF as per the others and carved the shape of the stream that Matt desired, this was then coated with Polytex, painted a suitable colour to match as far possible the bases of Matt's figures, I added a few stones, driftwood etc. I then used Woodland Scenics Realistic water to fill the stream, I stopped off the ends by staple gunning a piece of card wrapped in cling film and then sealed the edge with clear silicon filler to stop the Realistic water running out the ends. One bottle has been enough to put on four layers. To give the illusion of more depth the bottom of the stream was painted a darker colour in the middle and on the outside bends where the water tends to be deeper, I also painted it a lighter colour at the two fords to give a shallower effect, I am just waiting for the final layer of water to dry before taking of the stoppers, keeping my fingers crossed they will come off OK.

Here are some WIP shots

The stream marked out.

One of the plain boards, unfortuneatley the camera has washed out the subtle shading given by the spray.

One of the hills, with twin peaks

The towelling is wrapped underneath and staplegunned to give a flusher fit with the boards

Hill in place on the board

The stream polyfillered and painted

The stream boards

Detailing

The end stopped off for filling with the water

Broken terrain piece

I will add more pics of the finished stream and an overall shot later.

There you go, not on a par with the fijords but I hope this will be of interest and show that you can have handsome looking and at the same time versatile terrain.

TTFN

Bits and Bobs

2011-07-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Its been a quiet month on the gaming and painting front on account of my good wife dragging me off to Tuscany for a week and then down to Devon the week after. Prior to going off I managed to win three Wings of War dogfights against Dave, since I have been back I lost a rather close Late Roman Civil War encounter at GHQ using Hail Caesar and last night lost again here at OHQ playing a Spanish Civil War game using Brigadier 38. I also paid a visit to GHQ to help Dave take the last few photo's for his latest rule set for the Indian Mutiny "The Devils Wind", these are now at the printers and will hopefully be with the main sellers in time for Claymore.
Again my own painting as taken a back seat due to, thankfully, being very busy with commission work. I have however now completed my 4th Carlist battalion and just need to finish off the light company for a 4th Isabelino battalion and I just need to paint 2 figures for each side to complete a cavalry unit. I have also completed a PzI for my Spanish Civil War Nationalist forces and inspired by Saxon Dog http://saxondog.blogspot.com/ started on my 3rd Cent. Romans which was to be a mid 2012 project, not just Dave really as I also read "Lion of the Sun" the third book in Harry Sidebottom's "Warrior of Rome" series whilst I was away.

Here are a few shots of some of the things I have been painting

Front Rank British Marlburian Foot, a commission. The customer is adding the flags

A Spanish Civil War Nationalist PzI. Empress Miniatures

Third Century Romans, these were block painted with strong tone dip brushed on and then highlighted back up. Figures from A&A, shield transfers LBM (a God send for painters of Ancients) the arrow is from the Perry WotR plastics box.

TTFN

Time Flies

2011-06-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Phew a month gone already, a very busy one I'm happy to say, getting figures completed to deliver to customers at Partizan. Speaking of which, a very quiet show, is this a sign of the times or just due to Triples moving to the week before? None the less I still enjoyed the show, particulary pleased to view some of the games that were at Salute in a venue with a bit of a soul, OK the catering could be better, can't fault the bacon butty though, and it can get a tad dismal in some of the darker recesses, but it is still my favourite show(s).
Painting in June has continued a pace (yes Dave your 3rd Nellie is underway), lucky enough to be blessed with a good amount of commission work so will not be out on the street just yet. The downside does mean that my own projects are suffering, although I have completed another two Wars of the Roses bases and I am on the last bases for a 4th Carlist and Isabelino battallion. If you have visited my EBay page you will see that I have abandoned my Post Apoc and Pulp World War II projects to concentrate on my historical and semi-historical projects, I will have more of these up after my holiday.
Still getting the weekly games in too, have mostly been playtesting Dave Bickley's http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=94&page=1
latest colonial set, for the Indian Mutiny. We have had some cracking games with these, and yes the natives can win, even with me commanding them, the rules use the same basic mechanisms from Dave's previous set and yet are completely different in many respects, if that makes sense. These should be available in the near future. Also had a game using Hail Caesar which I enjoyed a great deal, much better than WAB imho, yesterday we played a Back of Beyond game using "Brigadier 38" http://solwaycraftsandminiatures.webs.com/books.htm although designed for the Very British Civil War "period" they seem highly suitable for our 1940 Britain Invaded and Spanish Civil War games also. Speaking of a VBCW here is a BUF staff car I made using a Models of Yesteryear 1912 Rolls Royce, the driver is a Foundry Darkest Africa explorer with a Empress SCW head and a hand with cigar grafted on from a spare figure in the bits box, the commander is a Musketeer Miniatures figure.

Sorry for the picture being out of focus my camera seems to have given up being able to do close ups, but it could just be me of course. TTFN

Wars of the Roses

2011-05-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics (sorry but I'm crap at photography) of my fledgling WotR collection. Perry plastics, with Citadel Six livery decals, based on 60x60 bases from Warbases for a little versatility whilst still being able to make up little vignettes. The yellow and green liveried troops are my ficticious retinue of Lord Rawnsley, Geoff at Citadel Six kindly changed the colour of the hart from argent to or for me, these are painted using the three colour method, whilst Gloucesters bowmen are brushed on dip and highlighted.

Encounter at Casa Rawnsla

2011-04-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night at OHQ we had another Spanish Civil War set to using Triumph and Tragedy rules, both sides entered the table from turn one based on the unit order system used in the rules. The Nationalist forces were stronger in figures but lacked any automatic weapons, which with my usual dice throwing was probably no real disadvantage. The Carlist units using the fast move order, quickly seized Casa Rawnsla but did not have time to fully take advantage of the cover provided due to the timely arrival of two Republican International Brigade units, a prolonged firefight ensued but with the arrival of an Anarchist unit and poor marksmanship from the Carlist Militia units the tide turned against the Nationalists. Meanwhile on the right flank the poor quality local Falangist militia sat safely behind a wall taking shots at the advancing Anarchist militia, giving covering fire to the Legion unit attempting to turn the flank. Legion v Militia you would think a one sided contest and yes it was, but this is me of course. With the Carlists all but decimated on the left and the loss of the Legion on the right a win for Dave and the the Republican force was recorded. I am not sure if we were playing the rules correctly but it did seem that rather than retreat units would if they passed the required morale test would stand and continue to take the punishment, or perhaps it was just how the dice fell. Here is a little photo montage from the game, sorry if they are a little fuzzy but they are in action shots after all :~)

Carlist militia take up position in Casa Rawnsla

But not before the International Brigade arrive to spoil the party

Anarchist Militia advance on the left flank

Falangist Militia deploy to counter

La Legion attempt to outflank the Republican forces

Republican forces surround Casa Rawnsla

I think all is lost Coronel