July Painting Update

So it's that time of the month again, time to review.

Lets be honest, I've spent most of July as a job hunting house-husband. This means that between the usual activities, there's been a lot of time for painting. The latest with photo's is my first line infantry unit for the Peninsular; the 9th East Norfolk:

Yes, more Perry mini's. They are an absolute bugger to paint too. It took around 15 hours to paint the 24 of them. As someone used to the level of detail on GW miniatures and the level of uniform on ancients ,this represented about twice the effort.



They are based initially with March of Eagles in mind, But I understand that 'Napoleon' from Wargames Foundry uses the same convention of 40mm square bases. I suspect that they'll work for most other rule sets, though at this point I haven't a specific set in mind.

Obviously, I haven't done the standards yet. It seems the 9th had a generic enough standard, but as I haven't been able to prove that yet, I'm waiting until I can see some evidence.

Subsequently, I've painted a Spanish Junta unit, which was considerably quicker; being based on French uniforms, with less fiddly lace. And I've noted the hundred-plus WW2 figures I've churned out. Pleasingly they've all sold for my hoped for prices, making me enough to invest in more models (sigh! inevitable, though I did use some of it to pay real bills instead).

So what are the totals?

I make it as:

• Bought: 326
• Sold: 111
• Painted: 343

Therefore I've added 232 figures to my own collection this year so far. In terms of ratio's, it's took a massive dip since last month's high water mark, when I'd pretty much run out of models to paint. But thanks to my free time I've at least managed to keep the painted total above the bought, and it would have been a lot better if I'd not succumbed to some cheap Victrix figures, from Northstar.

Blunt's Spy.

Neil managed to get the base coat on some of his French this week; and came up with a scenario to boot. We tinkered with it a little as we went along, but it began based on one of Sharpe's many skirmishes.

The French were holed up in a Spanish farm, hunting a spy, unbeknowst to them, Riflemen, under Lt. Blunt, had found the French; but unaware of the spy were going to ruin everyone's day by torching the farm and killing the Frogs! The spy himself managed to make a run for it, and the game began at that point, with the spy and the firing party running away from the burning building, whilst the French sought to get the papers they needed and withdraw.

Too add to the complexity (perhaps too much for a short game) it was getting dark, and our activities were likely to alert both local Spanish patrols and the French main body.

In the end Lt. Blunt tried to save the Spy, once he realised he was about; but the French just managed to snatch the papers. Their local losses were severe, And at one point it looked like they would be cut off by the arrival of Spanish Junta troops. But the appearance of a Company of French (or at least their vanguard) and the onset of night, meant they were able to slip away. A good fun game; though already we are getting too ambitious. Our second game, and yet we used over forty figures, in a skirmish!

Elsewhere my eye was taken by an ancients came in the far east somewhere. The club is going through a phase of playing Impetus; a set of rules I don't know, but seem well received so far. I hope to try them soon...

Ambush - Elfbush!

I'd arranged a game with one of the club regulars for Warhammer on the pretence of playing something other than a typical stand up fight. With that in mind I consulted a book every wargamer should own for inspiration:
Duly I used the Ambush scenario. Now it was to have been a match between my Dwarves and James' Chaos warriors; but on the day a first-timer turned up with a Wood Elf army, looking for a game. As we were the only Warhammer in town, I took on the role of Umpire and let them get on with it.

The deployment and rules were essentially as written by Mr Grant.


Though it became apparent straight away that despite his orders, the Wood Elf player was going to look to fight the enemy wherever possible. Though the wagons they needed to escort of the field were looked after a little, they moved too slowly to reach safety, and the best fighting force of the Elves was moving into the trees to find the Chaos warriors.

Find them they did, but they could easily have outrun them instead. As it was, losses and the repelling of Dryad attacks caused one wagon crew to panic and rout back into chaos' hands.

By nightfall (game end) the other had not made it off the table. Though locally the Chaos warriors were beaten soundly, they had done enough to stop the Elves from escaping with their prize.

I think James was surprised, and his opponent disappointed to find the game was declared a draw.

War of 1812 - Artillery crew

As you may recall I showed a photo of what looked like unarmed infantry the other week, with the US 17th. Well, they are now finished, and so without further ado, the US Light Artillery detachment:

The figures are some simple but creative conversions on the Perry British. Mostly it was trimming the spare belts and straps away (tedious, but worth it), Clipping off cartridge packs and water canteens to kit them, and adding swords from the unused 'Waterloo period' parts. The shako's were the Waterloo period officer models, but due to the limited numbers available to me I used a Bicorn for the officer, and a bare head.

Cutting a musket or two away to produce empty left hands was necessary too. And this led to a rather appealing look for the officer, clearly consulting his watch to time the opening of the barrage!

Lastly, two of the figures were done as artillery train guards, not a complex job at all.

The uniform incidentally is based on photo's of American re-enactors in Artillery uniform of the period. I have to assume their research is rigorous and accurate, as all I could find on the net was them!

As for an artillery piece for these chaps, the Cannon from my Dogs of War army (which itself was originally from an English Civil War rummage box) will serve for now; though in time a more appropriate gun will appear, I'm sure.

Future plans?

It's not the end of the month yet, so not time for a painting update really. But I considered what I had left to do and what I wanted to get on with a bit of late.

I signed up to the Leeds Nightowls painting challenge, with the grandiose declaration of producing a Anglo-Portuguese army in the next twelve months, starting from August. Personally, unless I go back to France again, I think that is a shoe-in. But what else did I have kicking around to do. Well a quick assessment says the following:

• Two 24 man British infantry battalions
• Two 24man French infantry battalions
• 18 man Ottonian Frank infantry unit
• 8 man Ottonian Frank cavalry unit
  

That totals to 114 infantry and 8 cavalry; before any additional purchases are required.

Purchasing desires? I wouldn't be a wargamer without any of those, but I have to keep in mind a) the Pledge - dont buy more than you paint/sell, and b) my present state of abject poverty. Still in the long term I boiled it down to four themes:

Napoleonic British; mostly Victrix at first.

ACW; Union artillery and command. A small element, mostly to round out what I've got as a little army rather than anything grander.

War of 1812; a dozen militia and 6 or so Dragoons. To give scenarios plenty of variety. Spare British models will be seconded to America for personalities and extra units.

20mm WW2; German or otherwise - these are my earning stream on ebay at present! Alas I've run out of supplies to paint.

Ancient Sparta. I'd no special interest in revisiting these until I saw previews of the new Wargames Factory Numidian infantry set (AKA Generic Light Infantry 500bc-100ad). I quite fancy a pack of these (28 figures for $20) to knock up a unit or two of peltast types. They may even produce an allied Hoplite unit at a pinch.

So until I next go for a rummage in my stores (80 miles away) that's what I'll be working on.

More 20mm for eBay

These things are so easy to do!

Once you get in to a routine with painting, it is easy to crank out the goods; especially when there is an incentive of generating a bit of money. Last weeks Italians sold instantly, maybe I'll do the same with these chaps:

26th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, made from the Valiant Miniatures sets. Took about 12 hours over four days.

Bases are a little bright perhaps, but they look nice and crisp.

A platoon or so of the 77th Division, US Army in the Pacific 1945. Made up of oddments really, so not much attempt at replicating a full Rapid Fire battalion.

Airfix US Marines. These were always one of my favourite sets of plastic 20mm models, the animation of the figures is just lovely, so natural. Thanks to a near total absence of kit, these guys probably took less than three hours to paint!

Right, I'm off to the pub, for the first time in ages, hooray!

Sawyers Bridge: 1814

So hurrah, I managed to get my first Napoleonics game on in double quick time. Now it's not 'In the Grand Manner', but it is a start; me and my opponent Neil, did our best to raise the standard high in terms of presentation, even if the actual figure numbers were low.

I've been writing some rules, for skirmish gaming the period (which once finessed will appear on the blog for one and all to use). The requirements for the game as a consequence were a small table and a handful of models. As can be seen above we used a huge 4 foot square layout of farmland around a critical bridge.

Lt. Blunt of the 60th Rifles (played by Neil) had orders to seize the Bridge to allow a larger attack by the British to develop. The bridge was thought too far from the main lines to be of any importance and so the defences were light, only a platoon of Line infantry, divided into several bodies, not all in the area of the bridge immediately.

However, time was of the essence so only a scratch force could be spared from the 60th too. Blunt's men advanced in pairs toward the bridge, forsaking fire for closing the range and making an early attack on the bridge itself.

The Americans for their part suffered losses in their piquet on the bridge, whilst their relief patrol deployed to the fields south of it.

The American sergeant did a reat deal to stiffent the line, making good use of his Spontoon to run through two riflemen on the bridge. However when Blunt's cavalry sabre met the pike staff, the sergeant came off the worse.

A final fusilade and charge from the field almost carried the surviving rifles; but Blunt was able to hold his men and in the end the remaining Americans scattered. An opportune moment meant at least that they could retreat without being fired upon by the British.

Ah well, so I lost; but I've had several victories lately so that's no problem. As for the rules, well, it's early days yet but their system of command checks to perform different actions and alternate unit nominations seemed to work well enough; only a few tweaks and some clarifications are really needed.

As for the look of the game, I'm glad to say it drew many admiring glances and favourable comments. Hopefully we can keep this up!

Next time it'll be Neil's own French facing the deadly fire of the 60th.

Battle of Imchogi Farm

After several years of peace, hostilities flared up on the disputed border between Lbotu and Ntumtuland. In the border region of Cwhanginki, farms owned by the Ntumtuese minority were being razed to the ground to provide grazing land for the local Lbotu population. Ntumtuland military forces moved to protect the interests of its’ people and in response to the aggressive use of the Lbotunese regular military to enforce land reallocation, sent in troops.

And so, it was my first game of AK47 Republic in some two years. I took the role of The Ntumtulanders, in their characteristic dark green equipment, whilst Colin took on the role of the Lbotunese and their somewhat hotchpotch forces.

It was Colins’ first actual game, though he had read the rules several times apparently, he found himself in defence and deployed his available forces sensibly enough; and selected my table edge as per the rules. As I however knew the values of the three objectives I felt I could win the game simply by staying close to my deployment zone and awaiting reinforcements.

Ntumtu mechanised infantry advanced on the hills north of the Cwhanginki farmstead; whilst a militia artillery battery deployed in the forests to it’s east. The enemy responded with a concentration of fire on the mortars and was able to force them to withdraw. However by this point, the Lbotunese armoured car squadron had been destroyed, and Ntumtu reserves were outflanking the Lbotunese Township from the far north.

Both sides called upon armoured support and militia infantry to support the attack; but in the end nightfall put a close to the action, and this saw the Ntumtuese able to claim victory, having secured the contested territory in the north and west, leaving the Lbotunese unable to protect the population of the Township. In the following days it would be those people who would find their homes burning…
So it was a win for me, but more importantly, Colin enjoyed the game, and found the rules playable and entertaining. In AK47 nothing is ever certain, and this game was typical of that. Had it lasted another turn, Colin may well have won.

I understand a third edition of these rules is due out soon, I wonder though what really could need changing in them. I’ve never had any complaints with the first edition.

Kerching!

A quick one this; I painted up a unit of Italian infantry over the weekend; made up from various oddments in my collection of plastics.

Simple enough chaps with a neat but basic black wash technique. 35 models in total.

Sold within hours of going on ebay to a regular client for £35. Pretty satisfied with that.

Especially as there is another unit, this time US infantry in the Pacific, in the pipeline.

If this does show anything though (other than, look I sell stuff!), it's that you can take up this hobby fairly cheaply. One box of the Waterloo 1815 Italian light artillery, married with a pack or two of their Italian infantry (I'd suggest one each of the Folgore and El Alamein sets) for example will provide enough pieces for a couple of battalions of Rapid Fire troops, plus support. Enough to get an army started for about £12.

Of course there are plenty of options when you go down such routes; and your chosen rules may have an influence. But in these days of excellent plastic figures, and wargame specific models for a few quid each. There is no reason why you can't assemble a small army of 20mm WW2 models - perhaps a hundred infantry and two to four tanks - for the price of one box of Games Workshop* plastics. It's not as if the free rules aren't out there, and there is no need to paint anything at first; or ever in the case of some gamers ;-)

In short, this little project got me thinking. Maybe it should you too?

*Other overpriced fantasy gaming companies exist, and they could all be tarred with this same brush.

1812 – The Bluecoats are Coming.

Next off the press is a unit of American infantry for the War of 1812. This s only a small unit, intended for skirmish gaming and so they aren’t based in multiples and don’t contain the more obvious command luxuries.

The unit is the 17th US regular infantry, who saw service in Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie. The information on the uniforms came from the excellent Blandford Press ‘The United States Infantry – An Illustrated History 1775-1918’, which features loads of information and of course illustrations.

The figures are of course the Perry plastics, but to take on the role of American troops they needed a number of modifications. Firstly their packs all needed amending. I cut off the blanket rolls and re-cut the straps across the tops of the packs; then the rest was a simple repaint to represent the blue cover over the blanket. The Shakos were basically the same as the Peninsular War pattern, but are always featured lace, which the Perry’s do not. This was a simple fix however, using thread and superglue to construct. The biggest job however was the work to create and officer from the spare sergeant; lots of trimming to avoid belt straps leading nowhere.

Slightly out of focus there, but you get the idea.

The painting took a fair while too, the variety of details were interesting but meant that every time you thought you were finished there was a bit more to add. Of note are the very dark coats of the regiment, achieved by over-brushing deep blue over pure black.

So now there are opponents for the riflemen; and next up, aside from an actual game with them, is this little group of figures; with a very particular role to fulfil.