Bunker Hill

Aztec Eagle Warriors

2012-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

I've finally started my Impetus Aztec army as I felt this is the perfect year to do so with the heavy Mesoamerican mythology prevalent in the news,discussions and programs this year. If some of you are not aware the Mayan prophetic calendar runs out in December this year and supposedly the world with it. So, looks like I'd better do it this year or.......;-).
The army will be based for Impetus which I believe is perfect for this both in gaming style and the basing. Impetus allows one to really explore basing and I love this aspect as I find it really fun part of modelling and painting. I'll of course be doing the Spanish as well for the Aztecs to battle at some point.
The figures are from Foundry which are the only ones I'm collecting for my Aztecs. Sadly, the range is from one of the discontinued lines Foundry has without any real good reason decided to end.( see my rant here for more on my opinion on this) Happily I already collected most of what I needed before the discontinuation and the rest I got off the forums. The primary reason I collected for this period was because of the Foundry figures for this range which are just wonderful and the other was to keep practising painting in colours I normally don't use.
The unit presented here is of Eagle Warriors or rather Eagle knights advancing through some ruins directed by their captain which may be familiar to those who have followed my blog as I originally did him as a single model. The ornate back banner was something worn only by captains/leaders and was a conversion piece with the banner coming standard and the banner bracket holder self made.
The small platform and stairs are self made and the bushels/bushes are from Heki. I mostly used Foundry paints and some Vallejo and MIG pigments for weathering.
Thanks for viewing!:-)

Confederate Signal Station

2012-01-27T05:20:00.000-08:00

My latest unit is a Confederate Signal Station that I saw earlier on the Redoubt Miniature web site and knew I had to have it! I can't say enough how much I like the figures for Redoubt's ACW range!
I thought I would paint it up for the competition and snag a few quick point's ......... but that's not how it happened at all! As usual I completely underestimated how long it would take to do this which in fact turned out to be quite a bit of time indeed!
Last confederate unit I used army painter and so on this I wanted to see how it looked without army painter and I prefer it without and so won't be using it again on my confederates or any ACW for that matter. I did use MIG pigments again to weather the rocks and tower and the signal flags are hand painted. Also need to add if I haven't before the new Foundry ACW paints are superb and well worth buying folks!
The Confederate Signal Corps was unofficially first started under the leadership of Edward P. Alexander for a brief period before officially being made a separate branch on April 19, 1862, under chief signal officer Captain William Norris consisting of one major, 10 captains, 20 lieutenants, 20 sergeants, and 1500 men. In addition a signal officer was given to the staff of each corps and division.
While not as large or as well equipped as the Union Signal Corps it did function in a very similar manner of battlefield observation, intelligence gathering, and artillery fire direction from their elevated signal stations using platforms and aerial balloons. Unlike their union counterparts who had access to electric telegraphy (due to the limited resources) confederate signallers had to rely on flags or messengers to relay information.
Another distinct difference between the two signal corps was that confederate signal corps also included espionage as part of their mission. This included undercover missions behind enemy lines and a network of agents running from Richmond to Canada. Because of this records on their activities and their going ons in the war are quite sketchy as most records were burned or otherwise disposed of to most likely protect information and people.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company-Redoubt Miniatures

Covering Time

2012-01-23T04:22:00.000-08:00

I've changed the header and the blog side bar to better reflect what this blog has become which is to say more historical themes in general rather then period specific. I started the blog off AWI themed, but it's obvious it's morphed into a whole lot more and so I thought I should reorganize the blog to better reflect this. I hope you like it and for you AWI fans I will be adding more along with the other stuff so no worries there.
Currently working on some ACW material and a semi secret project to revealed soon so stay tuned.:-)

Playing Favourites

2012-01-19T03:55:00.000-08:00

This is going around starting with Grimsby at Too Much Lead followed by Steve at Steve The wargamer , Ray at Don't throw a one , Sarge at Sgt Steiner's Wargaming Blog and Lee at BigLee's Miniature Adventures so far. I find it very interesting to read about what other fellow gamers really like and thought I would contribute.
Basically your given a set of topics generally wargame related and talk about what your favourite in each of these is or what interests you a great deal. Always feel free to add more topics is my understanding.

I'm a notorious history and wargaming butterfly so this could be a long post folks.....pull up a chair and kick your feet up and try your best not to doze off!

Wargames Period- It's no secret I'm interested in just about everything, but no question ACW reigns supreme in my world! A special mention should be given to the North American conflicts, Sengoku Period Japan, WWII and the Dark Ages.

Scale- For many years 28mm has dominated my scale preference for both wargaming and painting and it still remains so on the painting preference, but in the last year or so 15mm has really started to pick up speed on the wargaming front. It's quite difficult to paint entire armies in 28mm and so 15mm will be picking up the slack more and more. I suspect 28mm will still remain on top, but not nearly as much as before.

Rules- A bit of a tricky one but I'd have to say Warhammer Ancient Battles and Fire and Fury have dominated this category for most of my tabletop gaming years. WAB has since tapered off and is largely but not completely replaced now by Impetus. Fire and Fury however still remains strong and FOW has also seen quite a bit of action too I should add. I could list quite a few other promising games like Operation Squad,Lasalle, British Grenadier etc., but I'll leave it at that for now.
I don't like reading rules and view it as a necessity, but I do like collecting them, reading the fluff and getting inspired by the pics and so well made picture packed rulebooks will grab my attention.

Board Game- I really don't play very many of these but Axis and Allies 1939-45 special variant I played quite a bit and some risk.

Rant- Wargames Foundry about 7 to 10 years ago was producing some of the most outstanding miniatures on the market packed full of talented sculptors that read like a who's who of sculptors that have since moved on to make their own superb companies or just moved on. To this day some of the lines they made are still the best, but sadly for reasons unknown Foundry is constantly retiring the old lines and replacing it with new and IMHO inferior ones. I sincerely hope they stop doing this and retain what old stuff they still have and more then that reintroduce the old figures again and get some new sculptors while they are at it!

Figure Manufacturer- This is very difficult as I like a great deal of miniatures from different companies for different periods and for different reasons which makes for a very unwieldy list. So, I'll just list a few. To view all companies I like view the side bar of my blog under Miniature Companies links. Generally speaking I prefer what I call painter friendly miniatures where the figures detail is bit more raised and flat making it easier to paint and slight exaggerations are fine by me if it looks on purpose and not by accident.
28mm:
Since ACW is my best loved period I start by saying the Redoubt ACW range is high on the list.

A few more companies that dominate my collections, but by no means are all the figures that I collect from:
Artizan
Perry
Foundry

15mm
Legio Heroica(Probably the best 15mm I've ever seen)

Others filling up space in my room:
Battle Front
Old Glory

Opponent- I game with friends at our club and enjoy playing with several making picking one too difficult.

Books- Single book is Shogün by James Clavall
I've read it like 5 or 6 times and even tried to learn Japanese! .......not very successfully however.

Series is Bernard Cornwells Arthur -Simply the best version I've ever read of it and would only want to see it in a film form if the same effort was put into it as was put into the Lord of the Rings otherwise leave it be as I wouldn't want to see it screwed up!

and George R.R. Martin Song Of Ice and Fire- The best fantasy I've ever read, but closely followed by Steven Erikson Malazan series. Happily they did make a mini series films on it and actually a good one so far!

Historical Book- Anything by Bruce Catton who IMHO I believe to be the greatest civil war historian of all time. Some may argue other historians are more accurate, but my answer to that is I like my history similar to how I like my art and miniatures in that it needs to inspire more then anything else without of course going to far off the mark.

Sci-Fi- Generally not a big reader of this, but I did really like Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series.

Films- Another very difficult category of which I could list a bucket, but I'd say my all time favourite film is rather a Documentary series by Ken Burns titled The Civil War which I believe to be the best civil war documentary ever made, and not only that but also the best documentary of all genres ever done.World at War gets a nod of course after that of course.

Feature length Historical-Last of the Mohicans(1992) probably does it for me. Atmosphere and casting were perfect. Gettysburg also is often in the dvd player.

Feature length drama- Shawshank Redemption followed closely by The Usual Suspects. A little off subject, but while I'm here......

Fantasy - LOTR and Arnie's Conan was pretty cool now wasn't it.

Mini Series- Shogün and maybe followed by a promising Game of Thrones.

Comedy- Blazing Saddles or Airplane of which both almost cracked a rib. Another one off subject, but wanted to add.

Sci-Fi- I'd have say Star Wars had a a huge impact on me as a kid that I've never outgrown and the whole Jedi concept I find extremely fascinating . The Alien trilogy comes in hot on the heels Of Star Wars with Aliens in particular.

Art- Angus McBride and Don Troiani inspire me to no ends and Frank Frazetta remains to me the greatest fantasy artist of all time. Pictures shown top to bottom Angus, Troiani, and Frazetta.

Forums- Since I started blogging I spend much less time on the Forums then I used too, but I do often check into http://sweetwater-forum.de/index.php (German) and http://www.lead-adventure.de/
(English) on a semi regular basis. For other forums look on my listing on the side bar.

Blogs- That's easy all the blogs I follow inspire me each for it's own reasons and I highly recommend checking them out! However, I would really be remiss if I didn't give a special mention to Giles Alison of Tarleton's Quarter.
Simply put he's the whole reason I started blogging in the first place. I saw his blog listed in GdB forum one day and clicked on it and that's pretty much where Bunker Hill was born after that. If your a fan of AWI wargaming then you'll know Giles is synonymous with it. His posts are composed of a combination of beautiful painting and equally superb background notes that make it the gold standard.

Paints- My favourite paints are between Wargames Foundry and Vallejo. I intermix the two, but I'd say generally Foundry for Horse and Musket and earlier and anything later Vallejo would dominate the colour palette. I use others of course, but these two reign supreme for me.

Miscellaneous-
- Tank- Tiger I any variant will do.

- Colour to paint- Rather then one colour I would say earth tones are my comfort zone.

- Table size-Really depends on the game, but 5x8 is pretty comfortable.

- Plane- Fokker Dr.1 followed by the Stukka dive bomber.

-PC Games- I don't play that often any more but many an hour were spent on these:
Battleground Civil War, Medieval Warfare V1, Steel Panthers , Civilization, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Resident Evil 1, Eldar Scrolls III Morrowind and Vampire Bloodlines

I can't think of anything else and thanks for making it all the way through!:-) I think many of these subjects are worthy of individual posts as I'd like to add much more to many, but tried to keep this post manageable!

4th Alabama Regiment

2012-01-12T01:26:00.000-08:00

The 4th Alabama was part of Laws Brigade of Hoods Division during Gettysburg and like most of Hoods division saw heavy fighting.
The 4th was organized at Dalton, Georgia and then later mustered into service at Lynchburg Virgina and attached to Bee's brigade which went on to fight the First Battle of Bull Run where Bee gave Stonewall Jackson his famous name and actually took command briefly of the 4th after it's colonel was severely wounded before himself becoming mortally wounded. Soon after the battle the 4th was transferred to Laws brigade.
The 4th Alabama fought in virtually all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia with a notable exception of Chancellorsville. They fought in the battles of First and second Manasas(Bull Run), Seven Pines, First Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Boonesboro, Sharpesburg(Antietam), Fredricksburg, Suffolk campaign, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Wilderness, Spottslyvania, Hanover Junction, 2nd Cold Harbor, Siege of Petersburg,
The regiment surrendered 21 officers and 202 men out of a starting total of 1422 men at Appomattox Court House of which 240 died in battle, 100 of disease and 408 discharged or transferred.

Additional information:
http://myweb.cableone.net/mpenny1842/law'salabamabrigade/lawalabrigade/regiments/al4th/index.ht

http://history-sites.com/~kjones/lawsbrig.html

A Marker of the regiment at Gettysburg:
http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Confederate/AL4.php

The miniatures themselves are Sash and Saber 25mm and are really nice and full of character which I really like.In fact I liked them so much I ordered a couple more regiments!
Unlike the Union I figured confederates would probably work quite well with AP so I painted them using it plus adding some extensive highlights. I found after I added the AP it was difficult to tell which brown and greys I had used and so hopefully I didn't mess up! I'm pleased with the results, but still unsure. I'm going to try a regiment or something without AP as I'm really not saving any time adding all the additional highlights that I do. Also, I'd like to do a comparison of confederates with AP and those without to see if any time was saved and which looks better.

If you read my last post the next two photo's highlight what I meant by how I have re-based my ACW for Fire and Fury, but still flexible to be able to adapt for other systems.

Thanks for viewing!.-)

Miniature Company-Sash and Saber

"What Was I thinking!" and blog changes

2012-01-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Have you ever started to base an army and then realize after a few units you really did the wrong thing? Well that's happened to me now with my ACW in 28mm. Let me explain.
The first historical wargame I ever played was Fire and Fury back in the very early 90's and I just loved it and therefore collected a very large 15mm Old Glory army for both the North and South and have enjoyed many games with it over the years. To this day Fire and Fury remains one of my favourite games.
Well the past year I started collecting ACW for 28mm and even though I thought the new Fire and Fury Regimental game was fantastic I figured the figure count was still too high for 28mm as I wanted 4 figures a base as it's more visually appealing and is ideal for Guns at Gettysburg and Black Powder rules.
It's after I finished a few Union regiments and started on my Confederates I realized what was I thinking!!!! To build ACW armies that excluded my favourite rules for this period that being Fire and Fury was a huge mistake! Simply put that won't do at all! I started to think how could I build my armies to be both practical and include all the rule sets I wanted to play?
My solution is 2 figures on a 40mm wide x 20mm deep base. This would allow me to play the large scale games of fury and fury where the stand count and flexibility needed is high and I will still be able to play Guns at Gettysburg and Black Powder by simply placing two stands together one behind the other . I do lose some of the visual appeal of course, but I feel it's worth it.
So it looks like I need to re-base my units, but luckily it's not too many.:-)
The other subject was my blog which needed some things done. The first one was a new face lift which is obvious as I've gone with the very dark grey which I really like the contrast it gives to the pictures and the blog background itself and the second was a label restructure. My label list was getting a bit long in the tooth and crowded and so I decided to compact things into groups for easier viewing access. My only wish is that blogger would make a sub group within the labels where a viewer could go into a label and be given a list of sub groups within to access exactly want he/she wants to see. Maybe one day that will be possible and frankly I'm surprised it isn't available already.
Happy blogging and back to the painting table!

M4A1 Sherman Tank Platoon(76mm)

2012-01-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

Starting off the New Year with "one" of my new projects a 15mm US Tank Company for FOW. These here featured are M4A1 Shermans with a larger 76mm main gun then standard M4's 75mm and were used to take on those feared Tigers and Panthers the Germans had at the time.

Unlike my troops I like my vehicles well and truly dirty and fully in the campaign look. I should say by dirty I mean lots of dust, rust, oil and damp earth, but not clumps of mud. In Europe they have this reddish clay that I tried to represent and hopefully I succeeded to some extent.

Compared to painting my German tanks where you have to constantly check what your doing to make sure your camo looks right I found painting American tanks simply relaxing and well......fun.:-)

More stuff to come soon and yes folks I finally racked up some points on Curt's painting competition! Speaking of the competition I'm like the guy who shows up with a canoe at a speedboat race! The leaders miniature output is nothing less then blitz on a brush, but that's ok as I'm just really happy to be apart of something and enjoying seeing what everyone is doing. No question I'll do this as often as Curt runs it!
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company-Battlefront FOW

Some Hovels and a look back on 2011 plus Project list for 2012

2011-12-30T03:47:00.000-08:00

There is something about Hovel terrain I really like that makes them one of my favourites. When one thinks several companies make better sculpts and the clean up needed on Hovels is often quite bit to get them up to snuff one must ask why do I like them so much then? I suppose you could say they are very cost friendly, however that's not it, but rather I'd sum them up as certain quaintness about them that I find extremely charming that gives a feeling of I just got to have that.
The buildings I did here are from their 15mm battlefield series which are a Ruined Church, Factory Chimney, Coal Shed and Industrial Building. After the clean up they were fun to paint up and really take weathering very nicely. I plan on getting more from the series and already own some others from other sets in both 15mm and 28mm. I also plan on picking up their awesome 28mm Hougoumont and La Haye Saint Nap sets one day!
Miniature Company- Hovels

Well the year has gone by so lets take a look at my 2011 project list and see how I did. As always I never complete nearly as much as I like, but with that in mind I think I did ok or even passably good.

The review of 2011:

-Paint a new Brigade of 28mm American AWI towards my BG Guilford Courthouse project-30% completed- At 30% I'd have say I missed the mark by a good measure, but still managed something which is good. So a generous incomplete for this.

-Paint a Brigade of 28mm Union ACW for GaG- 90% completed- At 90% that is a success! I only need to paint the commander then the brigade is finished. Of course I can increase it's size at later date if I wish.

-Paint a Brigade of 28mm Confederate ACW for GaG- Nothing is nothing so zero here.

-Paint 550pts. of US Airborne for Disposable Heroes- 100% completed- Total success!! Actually I even did more points then that and plan on adding more at some point!

-Paint 550pts. of Fallschirmjäger for Disposable Heroes- 25% completed- Hardly did anything here so incomplete.

- Build, buy and paint terrain for Disposable Heroes- Errr zero...

-Complete my 15mm FOW Fallschirmschirmjäger army-70% completed- Pretty darn good and so a minor success here. A couple units more and then should be where I want to be.

-Paint up a 2000pts WAB 28mm Mercenary Spanish Christian army for El Cid- 100% completed- A smashing Success even if it was arduous at times! I plan on adding some infantry to this at some point, but for now it's finished.

-Paint a Basic Impetus Arab Ayyubid army for Impetus(evt. 300pts or more)-10% completed- Oh dear, way under par on this! I do really need to pick up the tempo!

- Build, buy and paint terrain for 15mm.- 40% completed - Well... I did some so a minor success here, but again really need to do more.

-Complete a small warband for Chaos in Cairo- 40% completed- For such a small amount of figures to do 40% is a pretty darn low and so incomplete on this.

-Paint a few Zombie survivors and zombies for DWA- 70% completed- I would call this a success as I painted enough to game with, but still room for more of course.

- Build, buy and paint terrain for 28mm ACW- Err, bought the terrain and..well umm..ok not acceptable.

-Renovate and remodel Hobby Room- 75% completed- Even at 75% this is a huge success as I really just need to do a few more things and it will hit the target completely!

- Construct movement bases for Impetus for armies already based for WAB-I knew there was something I was supposed to do........zero.

Another thing about 2011 is the sheer amount of rules and supplements that I purchased. I have never bought so many in one year before resulting in I haven't fully read half of them!

Providing the Aztec's get it wrong and we are still here in 2012 I have quite a few projects planned which is not surprising from me!

Planned Projects:

- BG AWI(28mm)- Last year I only managed a regiment on my 2nd American Brigade and so I need to add a couple more to finish off the brigade.

-GAG Union ACW(28mm)- Virtually finished my first brigade with only really needing to do a commander to be done, However I might add a cannon and another infantry regiment to it if the mood takes me.

-GAG Confederate ACW(28mm)- Really need to get a brigade of this done. I'm looking forward to painting these guys as earth tones are in my comfort zone of painting which usually means a relaxing stress free painting session. I tend to favour the brown tones(butternut in particular) and so expect my confederates to have slightly less grey then many others do. Hopefully with the completion of this brigade my friends and I can pool our troops together for some Guns at Gettysburg gaming!

- Read all the rules and supplements I bought in 2011!- With the explosion of wargames hitting the market coupled with others I've wanted to try plus all the deals has quite literally buried me in rules thus I haven't had a chance to read all that I purchased in 2011. So many games to look forward to!

- Fallschirmjager Operation Squad(28mm)- FJ's are very hard to paint and so my outlook of attaining a force needed to play DH looked pretty darn grim to do in any reasonable time.......until I discovered Operation Squad which uses far less miniatures! Where I before needed about 40 miniatures I now only need about 11 or so leaving me only a few to paint. So I'll be able to actually play them while I build up for larger skirmish games.

- Build, buy and paint terrain(15/28mm)- Painting up terrain is just as important as painting your miniatures I think. You can have very nicely painted miniatures, but if your terrain isn't equally as nice it can spoil the whole effect. I've already purchased quite a bit and already have a good start on the painting, but much more still needs to be done.

-Fallschirmschirmjäger(15mm)- Already have large chunk of this finished for FOW and just need to do a couple more units and I'll reach my target of around 1750pts or so not including tank support. I also plan on using my 15mm stuff to try out TFL "I ain't been shot Mum" rule set.

-Shimazu Samurai for Impetus(28mm)- After years of procrastination I've finally decided on the rule set, clan and approach to painting them. I can really see this really jumping into it's own as I'm not only just interested in the Samurai, but their enemies as well to include Warrior Monks, Koreans and of course other Samurai. As matter of fact the Japanese interest me in several periods to include the entire Medieval period, Japanese/Russian conflict, Boxer Rebellion and WWII.

-Arab Ayyubid army for Impetus(15mm)- I got a weak start on them in 2011, but I plan on picking up the pace in 2012 and at least paint up a basic army and with some luck actually completing 300pts. worth. So far they have been interesting and fun working with so much color!

-Chaos in Cairo(28mm)-One would have thought with just a few miniatures I would have finished it, but as always something came up. With just a little luck I should be able to do this.

-US Tank Company(15mm)- With my hobby room I've become much more focused on collecting armies for both sides of a given period so as to insure I have an army available for guests to either use or to subsidise their armies with. With the miniature count low and painting complexity not too difficult I see this project standing a very good chance of seeing completion.

-Late War British WWI(28mm)- Thanks to Sindney over at Roundwoods world I started to seriously look at WWI and so picked up the Great War series of books at WH. The combination was just too much for my weak mind to resist and so I decided to jump in! My plan of approach is to start at squad level collecting and playing until I have sufficient miniatures for larger skirmishes. Looking forward to painting a few and with the earth tones of the British it should be a comfortable start.

- Put in a new wargames table and buy some wall hangings- It would be nice to get a permanent table into my room next year instead of the folding tables I'm using now. I also need to pick up some historical weapons to hang up on my walls to compliment my pictures and complete the look I#m going for.

-Paint up squad or so of Natal Carbineers(28mm)- The Zulu War does interest me, but isn't a huge one of mine, however it is a favourite period of a friend and so I'm supporting his interest by collecting some Natal Carbineers and some Boars that I happen to like and will use in his campaigns.

Other Projects that may get started :

-French and IndianWar(28mm)- I've been wanting to do some French Marines and Indians for quite some time and they could easily end up going into the planned projects, but for now they will remain on the maybe projects pile.

-French Naps(28mm)- Well I've decided how I want them to look and how I'll paint them, but this would be a major commitment and so not sure yet if 2012 is the year for them. As always I'll let the winds of mood and time decide.

-Aztecs and Spanish for Impetus (28mm)- If I start them it would be slowly with only a base or two. This would be more of a painting project then a gaming one. I really would like to paint this as the mini's for this period are some of the best Foundry ever did which will be the only ones I use for this project.

-Italian Wars for Impetus(28mm)- Like the Aztecs and Arabs it gives me a chance to step out of my comfort zone and paint lots of color for something different and one just has to like the looks of huge pike blocks!

-SCW(28mm)- Again something I'd like to do and with all the squad level games out it might not be to difficult to start and so this could get moved to the planed projects.

-Romano British(28mm)- Another army I've been meaning to do, but I just can't seem to fit them in. I really want to as Bill has done superb work on them, but just don't see the time yet.

- Praetorian Romans(28mm)- Need to be re-painted and possibly re-based as well and as of now I just not in the mood to do so.

- Assyrian's(28mm)- No longer sure which rules I want them for or if I want to do any more biblical armies at all. For now this stays on the back burner.

-Ancient Germans(28mm)- Pretty much tied in with the Praetorian Romans and so if I do one then I'll do the other. So far, they will remain on the maybe list.

-ECW(28mm)- Just can't seem to decide if I want to sell them or paint them. For now they will sit on the lead pile.

-El Cid(28mm)- Since I only have mounted figures completed I really need to add some infantry to the force, but other projects take precedence.

-Moors(28mm)- Another army that's been on my to do list for a number of years. Maybe this year I'll actually do it. Time will tell, but for now didn't make the planned projects.

-Ironclads(28mm)- Still thinking of doing this someday, but haven't quite worked out how.

Thank you for following my blog and for reading this long winded post! Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-23T04:43:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I wish to thank everyone who follows my blog as I really appreciate it! I'm really happy I've met so many folks who share my passion for wargaming and always look forward to reading what everyone is doing in our hobby.
I hope your stockings are bursting with lead!
New Year and a new look for my blog!
Next week I'll give a year in review and a new project plan list for 2012.

19th Indiana Regiment Iron Brigade

2011-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

The 19th Indiana were part of what the confederates called "That d*mned Black Hat brigade!" before everyone began calling them the "Iron Brigade" because of their Iron resolve not to back down from the enemy even when under intense fire or pressure. This resolve almost lead to their utter destruction at Gettysburg where it suffered 1200 killed & wounded out of 1900 engaged with some regiments hitting 75% and 80% casualties. Although the brigade was arguably the Unions finest brigade that was ever in the field and sustained more causalities then any other in the course of the war to back that up one must say after Gettysburg the brigade was never quite the same again, however even after that it did still remain an elite formation until the end of the war.
The 19th like the rest of the brigade was composed of western state soldiers that instead of fighting in the west fought in the east wearing the distinctive Hardee hat, frock coats and white gaiters that made them stand out in the army of the Potomac where sack coats and kepi's were the norm.
The 19th Indiana was mustered into service on July 29th, 1861 at Camp Morton in Indianapolis Indiana. The regiment served in numerous campaigns and battles including Brawner Farm, 2nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam(suffered heavily here), Fredericksburg, Fitzhugh's Crossing, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Laurel Hill, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and it's sieges, Weldon Road and Yellow House. Not including those lost from sickness and disease the regiment lost 5 officers and 194 enlisted men killed/wounded from battle before being mustered out on July 28th, 1864 with those remaining joining the 20th Indiana.

A monument to the regiment can be seen here:
http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/?p=425

More info. on the 19th Indiana:
http://www.19thindiana.co.uk/

Home page of the Iron Brigade:
http://www.ironbrigade.net/index.html

The Iron Brigade as a whole consisted of the 2nd Wisconsin, 6th Wisconsin, 7th, Wisconsin, 19th Indiana and the 24th Michigan. I probably will do another regiment from them with my eye on the Sash and Saber version in the future.

The miniatures are from Redoubt which I believe make the best ACW miniatures on the market followed by Sash and Saber and Perry. While the Perry's probably make the most proportionally correct ACW mini's they are not very painter friendly and sometimes can be a bit static and this is where Redoubt really excels in that their miniatures are not only painter friendly but really pack tons of character as do Sash and Saber which I happen to really like!
I tried a few new things out with these. The first being the coat which I used Foundry Union Blue A, B but then used Deep Blue C for a final highlight as I felt Union Blue C was too dark. I saw Giles do something similar with his French and liked it. The other thing is a tried a new base color as the reddish brown wasn't working for me any more.This new base is more of a grey earth tone and I quite like it. I'm going to also try out a real earthy brown on another regiment and see how it works.
I was just able to finish this unit tonight in time to have my desk cleared off for tomorrow which kicks off Curt's painting competition where I already have a unit primed and ready to go!
As always thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Redoubt

Operation Squad

2011-12-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

A game out of Italy formally titled Operation World War II, but has since changed to Operation Squad from Warlord Games is probably the best skirmish game I've ever played and that's saying something. These Italians keep making games I like a great deal with Impetus for my Medieval/Ancients and now this for my skirmish games.

The rules are extremely easy to learn and play great straight from the book without any need to modify, however they are also constructed in such a way that house rules can also be added without any difficulties at all if you want to adjust them for your gaming tastes, terrain or particular environment or scenario you have in mind. They have enough lists to get you going from all the major powers(3 each) and if something isn't there you want it wouldn't be difficult to come up with your own as the formula they use is pretty simple.

It's designed with 28mm gaming in mind, but of course you could play it at whatever scale you wish with some tweeks. It uses between 10 to 15 miniatures per side with initiative deciding the order figures are activated. Once initiative is decided by a roll a player activates a figure by declaring an action and then the opponent declares a reaction. This continues until either a player chooses not to react or 3 actions/reactions have been declared. The actions/reactions are then resolved until completed and then another set of actions/reactions are done etc. until all models are finished and thus ending a turn.

Weapons have a set number of dice per shot with additional dice for modifiers and the defender gets a sort of saving throw with x number of dice plus additional dice for modifiers for each shot. IMHO , because of how the modifiers work in the game you get a very satisfactory and realistic game of squad level tactics that is neither too quick nor too slow to complete(roughly 2 hrs or so).

These rules are designed for WWII, but can easily be used for any period using fire arms that you care to play with only a few modifications. To me this is very exciting as I'm a slow painter and wargaming butterfly on top that which makes it difficult for me to collect for games as it takes me quite some time before I have enough painted to do so. This game now makes it possible for me to collect several different theatres in WWII plus diverse amount of other periods I care to try. Now, when I paint 10 or so figures they will see action right away and not months or even years later after sitting on shelf waiting for enough figures to be finished so I can play whatever system I'm collecting for!

Also, the table requirement isn't big which makes building and collecting terrain for it inexpensive and relatively quick to do. Of course the game could be expanded in size if you wish by simply doubling the squads, but again these rules are not really designed for larger then squad level play with probably 2 squads a side being the very maximum.

The book itself is soft cover with about 45p. all color on high grade paper with inserts that can photocopied or removed and used if you wish. The layout could have been better in finding things for the occasional question, but fortunately you won't really need to after a couple games. They should have added more fluff and pics for the price they are asking which is quite a bit for a small book, but lucky for them the rules are good enough and so it's well worth it. When one views it at just a bit more expensive then Disposable Heroes(another fav of mine) which is only black and white on cheap paper then it's even easier to swallow. This isn't the most detailed set of rules for low level WWII skirmish games I've played, but it sure is the most fun!

They also just released a vehicle supplement for you heavy metal fans to be used in your games which I haven't had a chance to try out yet:

Lot's more rules reviews to come as I purchased a truck load this year!!

2nd Annual Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting challenge

2011-12-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed following Curt's Painting challenge last year on his very nice blog which you should visit if you have not. So, when he opened up a second Painting Challenge I jumped on aboard to enjoy being part of something different within our community. All the rules and guidelines can be found within the link by simply clicking the picture. I don't know if he's taking more entries, but it's fun to follow even if your not in the competition which I found out last year.
I don't have a hope of placing as I'm not the most prolific of painters, but I am hoping it does spur me on to get more figures painted then I normally do and more importantly just to be apart of it and enjoy watching what other folks do....oh.... and watch Fran and Ray banter each other!
I'm not sure what I will start with as my mood changes like the breeze, but I do have some prospects in mind with Samurai, Arabs or ACW being likely, but by no means certain!
It all kicks off on the 20th and so visit Curt's blog and give him some support as he will have his work cut out for him of which I have no envy! Now I need to pick out a Viking......and the sock of cash for bribes...errrr expenses that is.:-)

A period too far?

2011-12-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

Just like Larry this happens to me all too often, but I find myself doing less impulsive buying since completing my hobby room. I know, many would be surprised at that statement given the way I jump around, but it's true. I've become more of a focused wargames butterfly then a random one. I know that's a contradiction in terms, but let me explain.
I used to see a period or rather army I liked and would simply buy it without a thought if anyone else was interested in the period that I gamed with or if I even liked the historical opponents of the army I was collecting. With a growing interest from my club in historical wargaming I've begun looking at armies asking if anyone else likes the period I'm interested in. Also I ask what they are interested in and see if that works for me as well. This has influenced my collecting quite a bit of late.
The other factor is my hobby room where I have started to put on games in it and plan to do more on a progressively more frequent basis. With this in mind I've realized when collecting a period I should collect for both sides in which I'd happily play either side so when I have guest I have an army they can use or add to their existing forces for bigger games.
I also want to be more focused on my large army projects in narrowing the periods and leave the skirmish games for multiple periods. Easier said then done I know, but I have begun to put this into effect with some success.
I'm not saying I will never collect an army again that only I like, but I for sure will think about it first before I buy it which will help me not having useless armies occupying space like for example my:

Trojans- Great looking army, but limited historical opponents which makes finding players having a Mycenaean army of their own rare and also if I built one myself finding someone to play it difficult which in the end made this not a good choice and what's even more sad is it's completely painted!

ECW- Living in Germany has made local interest virtually non-existent. If they are interested in the period it's usually the TYW which I'm not interested in!

Imperial Romans- I collected and yes painted it for a quick army starter and have discovered I just really don't like Imperial Romans and like the later ones in particular Romano British arghhh!

Early HYW English- Really like the army, but not at all interested in collecting their opponents and nobody around me wants to either.......:-(

Assyrians- Great looking army to collect, but again no interest in collecting their traditional enemies and nobody else is either. I may still paint them up, but with so many other projects that will get used makes this unlikely.

Aztecs- Not much interest around me, but I still may stubbornly do them as they are just flat out cool!

As always, focused doesn't mean one period with me as I need room to jump, but rather a narrowing of periods. As they meet the criteria of club interest and I like both sides these periods look like they will get a lot of attention from me:

ACW
AWI
WWI & WWII
Naps
Crusades
Samurai

I will be doing more of course, but the above look to be big on the list. I'll give a project list for the new year later as usual. Just thought I'd share some of my recent hobby thoughts.:-)

Fallschirmjäger 8cm Light Mortar platoon(15mm)

2011-11-24T05:05:00.000-08:00

Hi folks revisiting my Fallschirmjäger for FOW and finished up a platoon I've had half finished for quite some rime. These are some light Mortars which are essential to all FJ forces as they can provide the quickest and fastest means of suppression allowing for rapid deployment of their forces or stop attackers from overwhelming their defensive positions.

I'm having quite some fun painting right now as I'm bouncing around between subjects which keeps me at the painting desk when I have time. I still have plans to add more to this force whenever the mood takes me again. I also attained a very large American Airborne and Tank Company for FOW so stay tuned for that.:-)

As always thanks for viewing!:-)

Miniature Company:FOW Battlefront

FOW Game and a couple wall pictures

2011-11-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

"KAAA.... BOOM....BOOM"
Hanz felt the concussion of the the two Pak 40's firing almost simultaneously but as a veteran of nearly constant action over several years he was used to it and so kept his binoculars trained on the advancing British Churchill's to check the effect of their fire . A slow smile turned his normally stern lips into a upward turn as he saw two Churchill's explode in a fountain of burning lead and smoke. This caused the remaining tank to go in reverse and leave the field which Franz noticed seemed to be what the British were doing across the entire visible sector. He knew they would be back, but for today they held their position and that was good enough for him.
He could remember the glory days of when he actually was a Jäger jumping out of planes and doing the job of a Fallschirmjäger, but those days were long gone which found him replacing his chute for a spade. Now his only concern was keeping himself and his men alive and for today at least it was by and large a success.
"Ok good work gentlemen now clean the barrels, set a watch and get some food inside you and what rest you can as the English will come knocking again tomorrow."
With that he lit a cigarette and wearily set his back to a tree and began writing his AAR.

I invited a couple friends over to my house for a FOW game to have a game and show off my new room.
We played 4000pts using the Fortress Europe lists with Mixer playing A British Rifle company vs Scnugg(Panzergrenadiers) and myself Fallschirmjäger.
I won't give a blow by blow account, but rather a brief report of the battle.
Things started well for the British when virtually 2 platoons of Schnugg's stugs and 2 platoon's of infantry were shredded in a aggressive attempt to pressure the British. After this the Germans pulled back and started an air and artillery duel where they began inflicting some casualties.
The British decided to take the initiative and go on the offensive and this is were things started to really go wrong for them as the Germans were weakened , but far from out of it. A combination of artillery, MG fire, anti-tank, a small Tiger offensive combined with infantry stopped the Brits cold and eventually broke their army.
In fairness to Mixer he could have sat back with his Brits and probably stood a far better chance to win, but since this was a friendly game he kept the game fun and went on the counter offence. It didn't help him much that he rolled pretty darn abysmal while doing it and we as a whole rolled quite good for the second half which all coupled altogether spelled doom for the Brits.
I had a great time playing and really enjoyed the company and hope to have them back soon.
Here are few quick pics of the game. The pics didn't turn out all that well as I need to polish my in game photography skills, but hopefully it gives you somewhat of an impression of our game.

I used a cloth blanket that is spray painted to get ground color texture. I still need to work it up some more, but I'm happy in the direction it's going. I vastly prefer cloth to any other playing surface as you can place hills underneath to give more subtle changes to the elevation and it's kind to models plus easy to manipulate. I also use sand for roads as it looks more natural in both in color and how it lays out on the board compared to modelled ones in my opinion. The hedges and fields are still raw and need some color foliage added to give better depth which is on my to do list along with some buildings and such. I also plan to base some of my trees in groups and leave others as singles. No doubt plenty of work yet to do on my terrain, but it's progressing as I see more what needs improving.
Here a couple pics I added to my walls of which Troini's 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg takes pride of place as I like the pic a great deal and it's my home state.

Thanks for viewing!

General blog update

2011-11-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Folks

I thought I would just give a general summation of where I'm at in the hobby so you don't think I've gone off the deep end!

When doing the El Cid project I had to meet a deadline. This put me in a position where I had to paint something when I was often not in the mood to do so which really had me frustrated! I absolutely hate being constrained and forced to paint something when I don't want to and therefore I was often miserable at the painting desk during this period! Of course it's nice finishing a project, but for me not in that fashion. I want to finish projects when I'm ready and not some predetermined date. This hobby is all about enjoying yourself and I will not put myself in that position again. I now only agree to do projects on a loose basis where I can back out gracefully or at least extend the agreed upon finish date if needed.As to events then only agree with something I'm finished with or I'm largely finished with already.

So many may be asking that's all fine and dandy Christopher, but what has that got to do with the blog? The answer is expect to see extremely radical swings in projects on this blog as I jump around all over the place like kids with free tickets in Disneyland!Freedom!!!!!!! That's right folks, I'm going to paint whatever strikes my interest at that particular moment! If you see a period you like and I drift off somewhere else then don't be concerned as I'll be back on it for sure at some point. Yes siree I'm not the best gent to tell you how to start and finish an army in reasonable amount of time, but I guess the good thing is I'll usually have something different on each post. Ok, I'm reaching, but it's something.:-) Right now I want to do a multitude of projects all at the same time and my painting will reflect it more then usually! Basically I'm giving an excuse for the eclectic nature of this blog and my inability to keep focused!

Happy painting out there!!:-)

Arab Lancers

2011-10-31T02:12:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the repeated post on this, but I was having some troubles posting it in correctly.
My first Impetus base finished! I mentioned awhile back that I would be doing a Saladin Ayyubid dynasty army for Impetus and here is my first unit. Sometimes I mention doing projects, but then don't get back to them for a bit and this is one of them.
This unit represents Kurdish, Berber or Syrian Lancers that I group into Arabs for ease of reference. I really enjoyed painting this unit as I got a chance to explore color and look forward to doing some more. The miniatures are 15mm Legio Historica and are really fantastic sculpts and have quite a bit detail that really adds to the painting time, but is worth it in my opinion.
I was going to go straight for a 300pts force, but changed my mind to a Basic Impetus army to start with because of less units to paint, quicker to start gaming our Crusades campaign at the club, and a loosely planned project with SG over at the super Conquering the Lead Mountain blog here. After having a BI force completed then I'll build the army further to 300pts, 400pts. etc for standard Impetus gaming.
Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Legio Historica

Shimazu Samurai

2011-10-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating doing Samurai for many years, but haven't started them due to not having the right rule sets or lists, intimidation of painting them and just not finding the clan that really nailed it for me completely. All that has changed now with Impetus which I believe is a perfect rule set for Samurai and the Shimazu clan that totally fits the bill for me. As to painting intimidation I've decided just paint them and see how it goes instead of worrying about it all the time.
Recently I've seen fantastic Samurai armies coming from folks like Saxon Dog, Fig Man 1, Hetairoi Wargames and perusing the awesome pics on the Perry site again has really restarted my imagination for the period.
I'm not saying I'll be starting them immediately, but they have moved up on my to do list into the top 3 with ACW and Arabs. Since I don't have a imminent project due I'll likely be jumping around mostly between these three projects for the foreseeable future with a few things else here and there.
Why choose the Shimazu clan? The reason is I really like their background as an underdog clan that is tough as old boots. While they are not a tiny clan or even what I'd term small, they are also not what I'd call a super huge clan either and this really appealed to me as I like the smaller or less well known clans more then the really big well known powerful ones. The clan will include allies from the Arima clan which is a small clan they teamed up with to defeat another larger clan. The colours and mons from these clans I also like. Some good information on them can be found here:
http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Shimazu_clan
http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Arima_clan_%28Hizen%29
It will mainly be under the leadership of Shimazu Yoshihisaand and his very capable brothers
http://wiki.samurai-archives.com/index.php?title=Shimazu_Yoshihiro
The picture featured above isn't the Shimazu clan, but is a picture I like and so I featured it.

1st North Carolina Militia

2011-10-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

This unit has been sitting on my desk well over half done for quite along time and I felt I should finish them up and set them in my cabinet where they belong and so I did.
This is my impression of the 1st North Carolina Militia although they actually probably looked a bit more shabby then this as I perhaps have too many uniformed soldiers in the line and their clothes are in relatively good shape and not ragged which they likely were.
Information on these units is pretty sketchy to say the least and so I'll just give a general background. Excepting one North Carolina militia which held it's ground at Camden all the rest ran away with many not even firing a shot in anger and so General Greene was hoping to get a bit more from them at Guilford Courthouse and he did. They actually managed some sniping and even a volley which did inflict casualties on the British before throwing down their equipment and running. Since Greene really didn't expect more from them and they did inflict some damage he was content if not happy with their performance.
As to the painting I've continued on with the muddy theme as with the previous units and mixed up military and civilian equipment using mainly Foundry colors. Since I didn't have the time to make a flag or order one I used the free online flag's from http://quindiastudios.blogspot.com/2011/10/flag-monday_10.html in which he has done a fine job, but it seems my printer needs more ink as mine came out a bit faded. Giles also did one of his militia standard bearers getting shot before I did which I think lends itself naturally to this figure and something I kept in mind.
As you can see these are done using black lining and all eyes painted in which I seldom do these days any more as it's extremely time consuming and so I'm not sure if I'll continue to do that on my next AWI unit, but since the rest of the army is that way I'm not sure if it will look right if I don't. Just need to chew it over for a bit. The next AWI unit I'll do will probably be Continentals, but as to when I cannot say just yet.
Thanks for viewing.:-)
Miniature Company- Foundry and Perry miniatures

Wainwright Battery #1 I Corps

2011-10-07T00:45:00.000-07:00

I'm modelling my armies under the command structure at Gettysburg for both sides. This is my first artillery piece for the period and is a 3" rifled parrott gun.Information on each battery under General Wainwright at the time of Gettysburg is a bit sketchy except for perhaps Lt. Greenleaf T. Stevens and so I'll just number them battery #1, #2 etc. for ease.
Wainwright was commissioned a major in the 1st New York Artillery on October 17, 1861 and rose quickly through the ranks.
He was chief of artillery of I Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg where he helped repulse the Confederate attacks on Cemetery Hill and exchanged volleys with confederate artillery prior to Pickett's charge.
In 1864 he became chief of artillery of V Corps and also attained the rank of Brevet General which he held until the end of the war.
He was an author as well writing "A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861–1865" where he discussed his opinions on various generals he served under and experiences he had to include engagements and how to use artillery.
I was pretty keen to try out the new Foundry ACW paints, but didn't want to do a whole regiment before trying it out and so opted for an artillery piece as a test run. The Union Blue does come out authentically dark, but I'm undecided if it's perhaps too dark as I prefer a bit of a zing to my miniatures. The Union Blue Trousers came out great and so no need for a second thought on that. I'm looking forward to see if the confederate colors work out just as good. For the cannon body I tried Foundry's French Gun Olive Green and thought it too bright and so instead went with French Dragoon Green which I quite like.
Next up Iron Brigade!
Thank you for viewing.:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

Progress on my hobby room

2011-10-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

Here it is so far!

I've just put in some new display cabinets and shelves . The floors have been scrubbed to almost new and the walls and ceiling are also repainted.
One of the shelves backboard you may have noticed is missing and that was because it arrived torn and so I'm waiting on the replacement.

I've also put in some new overhead lighting that has really brightened up the room.

I also completely reorganized a large storage cabinet with extra shelves. It's a closed cabinet for items I don't wish to be seen as it's largely modelling supplies and bits and bobs.

As you can see the walls(especially the wall behind my photography table) need some adornment and so I just ordered some military scenic prints to spruce up the walls a bit in order to give it a better gamer/history buff feel to the room in addition to the miniatures and books.

I have a bathroom attached to the room where I still need to buy a closed door shelf for it and some new towels and such.
Next large project for the room is putting in a custom games table with closed doors for storage underneath instead of the folding tables I'm currently using. I'll probably do this in November or December I figure.
So far I'm very happy with the room and feeling pretty excited as it's nearing completion.:-)

Argentoratum tournament in France highlights

2011-09-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

Ok been back from the WAB event in France, but for personal reasons I wasn't able to post right away. The event was quite fun and I got to meet new people and some old friendly faces which is always really nice.
The event itself included both teams and individual players. All participants played side by side and vs each other, with awards being given to the top team and top individual player. There were also awards for best painted army and most amusing player.
Three scenario's were used in which in each player wrote down which scenario he wanted to play. After being written down the players then turned over their paper and if both picked the same scenario then that was one played and if each picked a different one then the one that wasn't selected by either was the scenario played . It worked out rather nicely I think.
Since no guidelines were given or even suggested for this tournament the focus remained on results only. Because of this it should come as no surprise that armies where of the "no holds barred" type. Basically, a lot of powerhouse armies folks.
Forgive me if I blow my own horn a bit, but it wouldn't be complete story of my experience if I did not. I didn't expect my El Cid army to do very well as it was a themed army and really quite fragile . It was capable of being dangerous of course and quite quick , but very vulnerable in to missile fire , unsupported frontal assaults and a few others. However, when all the dust settled my army finished with 2 major victories,1 minor victory, 1 very,very minor victory and 1 crushing defeat which in the end and to my surprise was enough for me to win the individual tournament.:-0 To top it all off the very talented gent over at Hobby One http://hobbyonenews.blogspot.com/2011/09/para-us-pour-roe.html judged the best painted army and picked mine which I was extremely grateful! At this point I was feeling a little sheepish, but very happy of course.:-)
After all this one might think I can't wait for the next tournament, but the truth is tournaments are not really my thing any longer mainly due to the the emphasis placed almost exclusively on obtaining results which even if games are done in a friendly manner there is still an underlying tension present that is higher then non tournament games. I'm not saying I will not ever do another tournament, but let's just say if I never do another that shouldn't come as a surprise either. I much prefer campaign weekends where a period is selected and sides are made and a story of a sort is told and not just bare bones results. Basically in campaign games, each game will effect future games and your faction. I think the future of wargaming for me will pretty much stay in club games, campaign orientated long term games or weekends , demo and participation games and special events.
I'll give a brief explanation of each game. I don't remember the points and so I'll just say the result in a overall way:

Game1 vs Saxons- I actually played a nice young woman named Julie Plages. Having a woman is rare to have in wargaming and we even had another there! Fortunately, she decided not just deploy in a tight shieldwall where I would have had little hope of doing anything against, but instead went for the offence to have a fun game as she put it which allowed my faster moving cavalry to outmanoeuvre her slower moving infantry and destroy her units in a piecemeal fashion. A Major Victory.

Game2 vs Early crusaders(Normans basically)Xavier Bourdier Normans had nice mix of cavalry and infantry with some missile support. He advanced his skirmish cavalry too far forward where I was able to catch and destroy it which opened up a whole flank and pretty much had a domino effect and eventually led to his army being routed. We fought this on a winter table where the snow kept sticking to our hands which was irritating.A Major victory.

Game3 vs Lombards(?)Gregory Berva fielded this army I believe and it was probably my most exciting game which came down to my Bard leading his Caballero Hidalgos fighting his General and form of Norman knights you could say where the winner would decide the game. I passed several harrowing and lucky break tests, before I was able to bring another unit of Caballero's in his rear which wore him down and eventually broke his unit and saved my army. A minor victory.

Game4 vs Italio Normans led by Matthieu Permentier(?) Remember when I said my army had some fragility problems......well this was a prime example. If one were watching this game and decided to get a drink before we started then they would have missed the game as it was over that quick! In the scenario he was able to deploy far forward which didn't give me any wiggle room and so his general's unit carrying nice shiny lances ran over my generals unit in very short order causing the rest of my army to remember they left something in the baggage camp. Crushing defeat.

Game5 vs Bretons led by the very jovial and really fun guy Pierrick Floc'h. Here I received a taste of my own medicine in dealing with highly mobile and difficult to pin down cavalry. The game was very tactical, but still done in a easy going and friendly manner. We were unable to finish as time ran out, but since we were playing for the individual tournament winner a draw wasn't an option and since I had a few more points more then he did and so I was granted the very, very narrow win.

Here are a few pics I took of the event. They were done quickly and so not the best, but you can see a few of the players, armies and the tables.

Unexpected

2011-09-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but I was at a tournament in France and when I got home I got the phone call everyone dreads and heard that my loving and kind father who I loved very much had unexpectedly passed away which pretty much left me shattered for a few days. I've managed to start keeping myself busy in order to stop myself sinking into a black hole of depression. I can't paint yet, but I have started work on my hobby room which is busy work that's helps me not to think too much. I know the grief will lessen in time, but will never completely go away. I'll miss him very much.
I thought I would show the mess that is my hobby room to show you I'll have plenty to do with cleaning up, replacing shelves, new lighting and repainting walls. I'll take some more pictures when I'm done.
I also have some pics of the event in France and will post them tonight or in the next day or two.

Caballeros Attacking

2011-09-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

The last unit finished for the event!!!!! (pant, gasp,.......I made it!) This last instalment for the event project is a another unit of Caballeros who have now thrown their throwing spears and have drawn their swords for close work to finish the attack.

Again, like the other unit of Caballeros they have a smaller standard compared to the Caballeros Hidalgos whose role is pure shock troops. The smaller standard allows them to move quicker as they try to break up enemy formations with javelins and then when the enemy is disorganized they launch their assaults which is more in the traditional method of Iberian fighting rather then Caballeros Hidalgos adopted Frankish style of fighting.

As with the rest of the army I mixed Christian and Moorish looks together to give that Iberian feel to them. I continued using AP with highlights and hand painting shields and banner.

Completing this army was much tougher then I thought it would be, but I'm happy I pushed through and finished. I thought painting cavalry would be less models to do, but in reality it's really two models which doubles the figure count. I'll eventually add more to the army, but it will be infantry!! After now painting 64 cavalry models I won't be painting any more 28mm horses for a little bit and that's for sure! I'll do a full army picture when I get some time.
As always thank you for viewing.:-)
Miniature Company- Artizan, Perry, Conquest Miniatures

Caballeros Hidalgos on the charge

2011-09-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

This is my latest instalment of Caballeros Hidalgos for my El Cid army with some more of the noble sons of Spain now pictured here on a full tilt charge led by an inspirational cantador featured on the black stallion with a small guitar strapped to his back.
A cantador was a form of bard that would sing stories of knightly adventures and virtues which was to help inspire the knights to exert themselves to feats of valour.......and sometimes it worked and sometimes not.
Again the models are done with AP with extra highlights added except shields and banner which are completely hand painted from start to finish.
Just one more unit of Caballeros to go and that will complete the army for the event. I'm struggling to get it done, but I think I'll make it.
In 2 weeks I get to start back on my ACW! Today is my birthday I enjoying looking at my new mini's and to try out the Foundry ACW new paint range I got!
Thank you for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Perry, Artizan and Conquest Games

Ironclads

2011-08-29T07:01:00.000-07:00

As some of you readers might know the American Civil War is my favourite period not only in land warfare, but navel as well. Basically I think Ironclads are just flat out cool! The steam powered engines combined with bolt on plates just looks great. Really love the atmosphere it gives off.
I would like to collect a few in 28mm, but the only ones I know are Redoubt which are a bit pricey and most without pictures. However, the ones I did see did look really nice.Does anyone have pics of the Redoubt Ironclads not shown on their web page? I'm also wondering do any of you know where I could view some other companies 28mm Ironclads. I'm looking for rules at this scale as well to use them with and would appreciate any pointers in that direction.:-)
I should add that I will use scaled down models like almost everything is done in 25mm or it would be far too big! Most ships will measure between 20in and 30in long and 5in to 10in wide.
I really and I mean really would like to get back to painting my ACW material, but my current El Cid project has me tied down until mid September as that's the deadline for an event. To be honest I'm finding it tough going painting this project as my heart just isn't in it right now and it feels more like a job then a hobby at the moment.:-( Of course I'll be happy when I'm done and did it, but still......... Anybody out there in or been in the same situation to commiserate with?

More Jinetes

2011-08-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Just finished up this new unit of Jinetes. Just like the other unit of Jinetes I kept the clothes simple and the shields as well to show their status as a rung less then the Caballeros. As with the other units I continued to Mix in Moors and Christians to maintain the theme.
Now going back on to some Caballeros again which in total gives me two units to go and a month to finish. It's going to be tight, but I think I'll make it.
I still want to drift back into other projects, but I've managed to remain focused so far.
Thanks for viewing as always.:-)
Minature Company-Crusader, Artizan, Conquest Miniatures

British Grenadier Deluxe Edition by Eclaireur

2011-08-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've finally got my hands on it and to say I'm impressed with the new deluxe edition of British Grenadier would be a huge understatement! In my opinion it's the most beautifully made wargames book I've seen to date and the one I just bought isn't even the gentlemen's edition! I felt I didn't deserve that as I tend to not treat my wargames books with the best of care. However, had I known just how nice this was going to be I might have reconsidered and gone for the gentlemen's edition in spite of my dodgy handling of books.

On to a little description. The cover is hardback made in a lovely glossy deep brown with a fine cursive script featuring the now famous British Grenadier of the previous rule set. The inside jacket and pages use an aged Betsy Ross Star Spangled banner as the background rather then just plain white. The pages are of high quality and superb binding from what I can observe.

The book is lavishly illustrated with inspiring full coloured pictures of figures, battle scenes, drawing and painting. Many fine figure painters work is featured in the book , but a large percentage of them are by Giles Allison whom I consider to be the foremost figure painter of this period and who's body of work in terms of scope and standard of excellence sets the bar. He's the main reason I started the period and blogging a few years back and I strongly recommend visiting his blog at
http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/
Basically, the format and presentation of the entire book just exudes period feel like nothing I've seen and makes you feel like humming Yankee Doodle as you read it!

British Grenadier is set in the American War of Independence and can be played in several scales from 6mm to 40mm with 28mm and 15mm being the most common. Basing is generally multi-figure with an average of 4-6 infantry per base and 2 cavalry if at all present as this war was dominated by infantry with cavalry being a pretty small percentage.

The rules themselves are simulation in nature and quite sophisticated where the author tries to present you with the difficulties of commanding troops in North America and does an excellent job of doing so. They deny you full command of each troop forcing you to use well thought out battle plans and making you judge when to use your limited command options to achieve the best effect. Moving formed bodies of troops was difficult in this theatre and the rules reflect this very well indeed.

This isn't a beer and pretzel type of game as it takes time to develop, but still isn't overly burdensome in record keeping and charts either where a few tokens will cover most of what you need, because of this the game flows very nicely once you have the feel for the rules. It's also not a tournament type of game and is best suited for club play and Demo's as it's mainly centred around historical engagements where scenario conditions decide the victor. British Grenadier already has 3 published scenario books and includes 4 scenario's in the rules themselves to keep you busy a plenty, however if there is something you wish to do not already covered the author gives a guideline on how to do so.

If your looking to get into AWI wargaming then I can think of no other rule set better for this period and I strongly recommend that you should pick up a copy. You can get a copy from Caliver Books http://www.caliverbooks.com/

British Grenadier has a forum that is well supported by a great bunch of knowledgeable and nice group of gentlemen that will answer most any question you have. They helped me a great deal when I got started(and still do!). The forum can be found here http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewforum.php?f=13

For those who already own a copy of the previous British Grenadier and don't think they need the deluxe version then think again!! The new version has some new rule changes that reduce arty effect and improve the chance of a successful bayonet assault and a few others, but mainly it's just so well done it's worth it!!!!

I wish I had time to work on some more AWI as I'm now chomping at the bit to do so, but I have a priority project I must complete first. Five star inspiring stuff folks!

Added a page to my blog

2011-08-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

I've added a new page to my blog which can be found underneath the heading picture titled Project status for 2011.
I added this so that interested viewers can see what my various projects are that I'm doing for the year and how far along I am in each one which is usually in over my head!!
I think these page additions are pretty nice and quite useful useful. I'll probably add a few more in the future.
Still working on my next unit so no pics yet.

Since posting some have asked after the link to do this. For those interested it can be found here:

http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/02/create-pages-in-blogger.html

Thank you for checking in.:-)

Jinetes

2011-08-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Finally was able to finish this unit as the deadline of mid September is getting closer. It's been hard to keep on track as I keep wanting to drift back into my ACW and start my Arabs for Impetus, but I'm trying to keep focused as time is getting short!
This is a unit of Jinetes who were arguably some of the best light cavalry in Europe during their time in history.
Since the nobles tended to join units of Caballeros I tried to place an emphasis on their status as less wealthy common men who either through preference or lack of monetary means served in the Jinetes. For this reason I left off adding flowing garments that were not modelled on and kept the shields plain and mostly unadorned. Like the rest of the army I kept a Moorish and Christian mix with them.
Even with the faster style I've found it's still difficult to paint cavalry in large amounts, but hey, only 3 more units to go.........gulp!
Miniature Company-Crusader, Artizan, Conquest Miniatures

Impetus Magazine

2011-07-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Lorenzo at Impetus is thinking of doing an Impetus magazine probably in full color pdf to PC format and I would very much like to see this happen.
He is thinking of including in it historical background information which will include army lists, tactics, painting/assembling of Units, event reports, tutorials, clarifications plus probably more.
If like me you would also like to see this happen then visit the forum underneath this topic and voice your support!

http://impetus.forumsland.com/impetus-about2744.html

For me Angus McBrides Vikings celebrating comes to mind at this possibility!:-)

Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty for Impetus

2011-07-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've recently purchased a large amount of Legio Heroica's fantastic Muslim range for the Crusades. All the miniatures from this company are superb and probably the best 15mm I've ever seen. This is my first planned Impetus based army and I'm looking forward to doing it in between my El Cid and ACW projects.

This project idea started when two of my friends(Mixer and Jadwig) started collecting this range with Mixer collecting The Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusader army and Jadwig Fatamid Muslims. I was very interested in the miniatures, but not the rules they planned to use which was Fields of Glory which I personally find to be as much fun as watching paint dry on a damp day. So, I declined to start any armies for it until..............IMPETUS came along! These rules I found to be very exciting and this was the motivation I needed and so I set about convincing my friends to change the rules from FOG to Impetus.

Since I already own a Viking/Saxon and Norman armies for FOG(hence my experience at FOG) I blew the dust off them and invited my friends into giving Basic Impetus a try using these armies that only required a few very easy modifications to use. After two games Jadwig is on the fence and Mixer likes it and I'm very, very happy with the rules. This weekend we have a planned 300pts normal Impetus game on the blocks and with the additional rules I believe there is a good chance to swing Jadwig the rest of the way over the fence and further grab Mixer's enthusiasm.

The catch is that when they give a FOG a try I agreed to also participate so they can decide between the two systems. My fingers are crossed that they won't like FOG(Really, really hoping they don't!) and decide to remain with Impetus.

I really like Legio Herico's Crusader Kingdom range, but since I already have a Norman army that can easily be used as Crusaders I thought it more prudent to collect Saladin's Muslims first which is hardly a chore as these are just as equally superbly done and I'm also going to have fun with all the color and not to mention they can fight either of my friends armies or join Jadwigs Fatamid's and battle the Crusaders!

My approach will be to emphasize strong colors, clean painting and keep the intricate designs on clothes and such under raps as the effort doesn't pay out at 15mm. I want the army to look very vibrant and colorful on the wargames table and so I'm hoping to pull it off.

Not surprising I'm a huge fan of the film Kingdom of Heaven!

Thanks for reading

Caballeros

2011-07-11T04:17:00.000-07:00

Here is my next unit for my El Cid project that's due for an event in September. A unit of Christian Caballeros(includes both nobles and common knights).
Once again AP with highlights added afterwards. All shields and banners are completely hand painted. Like the Caballeros Hidalgos I modelled on some following robes to really emphasize their Spanish/Moorish background and mixed in Moorish figures to take it a step further.
These Caballeros use the over arm attacking technique and therefore are more suited for exploiting gaps in enemy lines unlike the Caballeros Hidalgos which use force of direct assault to break enemy lines. To reflect this I kept the unit standard a small banner in keeping with their need for quick assaults when a gap opens.
I also included the Crusader El Cid figure that I painted up as a bishop to give the unit some inspiration. He of course is the one with a cross on his shield.
Thank you for viewing.
Miniature Company-Perry,Artizan,Crusader,Conquest Miniatures

Hail Caesar

2011-07-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

I gave this opinion on the WAB forum and thought I would share it on my blog.
I've been reading HC and so far my opinion is.......I'm impressed! I like the mechanics of the game, orders and blunders mechanism, and the ability to design battles and armies as you see them reflected in history. It does require an emphasis on game building which I find very nice.
While I do enjoy points driven gaming(WAB, Impetus etc.), I equally enjoy the freedom to design armies and battles free from points limitations to better reflect a more historical gaming experience(simulation gaming in other words HC ,F&F BG etc.)where battles were seldom fair and therefore requires one to design scenario goals and objectives to level the field rather then abstract points.
An interesting point about HC is it's geared towards multiple players that can be played with just 2 players while most other systems are designed for 2 players that can be played with multiples. This should not be over looked as large battles will run very smoothly with HC as that's it's comfort zone and requires very little adjustment.
This type of gaming is ideal for club/group gaming or demo games. If your a little weary of the tournaments and want to try a change of pace then Hail Caesar is something to try.
Generally it's designed for large games due to the high figure count, but will still work with moderate sized armies.
If your a small sized collector say in 10mm or 15mm this system will actually give you the rule set to take advantage of large collections that you otherwise couldn't fully use them all and for the 28mm gamer a chance to really pool a lot of miniatures together with friends and not worry if you have too much as the rules allow for adjustments in scenario's and unit capabilities to help off set any large disadvantage to one side or the other.
If your looking for absolute fair then this isn't for you, but if your looking to just play your miniatures with some freedom and let history design your armies then I really recommend HC.
Another point is I really like Impetus and HC easily accommodates the basing which is nice. I'm a huge fan of Impetus basing, but was always concerned it made playing other systems difficult, but not so with HC thus any army I base for Impetus I can use with HC as well which avoids any army becoming to narrow in possibilities.
Also, I heard Rick has published some lists in the yahoo group. I personally hope that's as far as it goes and no more lists are added or ever published. Lists will eventually replace players freedom and in the case of HC I think that's not a good thing. Many games have lists and that's good, but I also like games without them and so I hope HC avoids this.

2011-07-03T14:13:00.001-07:00

I think El Cid with Charlton Heston was a fantastic film full of great characters and superb cinematography and costumes. Heston gave a great performance and Sofia Loren is lovely on the eyes. It's loaded with a lot of inaccuracies I won't bother to get into, but what it does is inspire and this in my opinion overrides any of this.
As I mentioned after finishing my ACW regiment that I had needed to start working back on my El Cid project as I have an WAB tournament "Argentoratum" I'll be attending in France in September. Because of this, expect this project to dominate my unit posts until then.
Currently I'm 70% finished with my latest regiment, but since I'm generally not a fan of putting out WIP's you'll need to wait until I'm finished before I post. Of course this does put space between unit posts, but I like posting finished units and not half completed ones I've discovered. However, I don't mind following other blogs that include or don't include WIP's.:-)
Thank you for your patience and I'll post the unit as soon as I can.

Impetus

2011-06-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

First impression is two thumbs up! However I'll start with a small critique.
I received the main Impetus rulebook 2 weeks ago and imho I think it needs an aesthetic update to come on line with the current rule book's hitting the market. It needs to be hardback and the photo's updated. Some of armies/units looked quite good, but too many didn't show the great basing potential Impetus offers in diorama type basing which anaesthetically is such a strong point of the system . However, I'm happy that I bought the rules.:-)
Some of the translation was a little dodgy, but since I'm dyslexic resulting in my writing also being dodgy even in my own language and the book originally in Italian I'll give that an understanding wink and a pass.
That said the rules are easy to understand and are not overly complex. The structure of armies and organization seems very good and flexible with an emphasis on results over process which is nice for game flow.
It offers an Impetus Bonus rule which is another nice factor of the game where you receive this on charges when Fresh(no wounds suffered) and not disordered which will make players think about when committing their best troops. To early and they will wear out too soon or too late and your army will already have suffered too much damage to come back.
Today at our club we played Impetus for the first time using the Basic Impetus version to just get a feel for the game before moving on to full Impetus later on. This leads to the other nice point about Impetus is they offer both a free scaled down version with the option of buying the full version.
Any ways, I had a great time and really enjoyed the pace of the game and unpredictability built into it. Results were fast and furious and packed a lot of drama.This was a very welcome change from FOG with it's grinding approach that I quite frankly find boring. I also believe it to be superior in play over DBA/DBMM because in view DBA/DBMM are to slow to react to changing situations and single dice rolls deciding everything. Of course that's just IMHO, but it is how I feel.
We played Normans(my friend) vs Saxons(me) which at first I thought might not have that many tactical decisions as the Saxon player will generally start in shieldwall. However, during the course of the game situations came up where the Saxon player had to decide if he wanted to take advantage of situations by moving. So, what I thought might be a static game, actually turned into manoeuvre. In the end the Saxons prevailed, but I think the Normans could equally have won on another occasion had the dice been a bit nicer to the Normans.
I'm looking forward to more games and hopefully my friends at the club will play some more games. They want to try FOG which I will accommodate, but hopefully like me they will end up preferring Impetus.
There is no doubt Impetus will become my 15mm game of choice and will also join the ranks of top 28mm games I play for sure for Ancient and Medieval gaming . Really enjoyed this game folks!
Sorry, no pics, but I'll try to remember next time.
I also just received Hail Caesar in the mail! :-) However I'll leave that review for another time.

104th New York "Wadsworth Guards" Infantry Regiment

2011-06-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is the second half of the Perry plastic ACW box set with 2 Foundry miniatures added and two wonderful GMB flags that I praised about earlier. It's been a bit since my last miniature post, but I admit I struggled to finish this regiment. The poses of these miniatures are just a bit too static and it doesn't help that I don't like the weight and feel of plastic miniatures either. They turned out decent enough, but I need more then that to keep me coming back to the painting table to finish. I won't be buying any more of these infantry box sets. I've also looked at the cavalry box and feel little enthusiasm and likely won't bother, but the horses do look good. However, that said the Zouave box does look quite good and I'll give that a go later even though it is still plastic.....

I might be turning my attention back to my El Cid project as the September dead line is drawing near and that needs to be completed. Any ways, back to the unit.

This regiment is the 104th New York "Wadsworth Guards" Infantry Regiment from the Army of the Potomac,I Corps,2nd Division of the I Brigade during the Gettysburg Campaign. The regiment was organized in Albany New York and was mustered in the service between the years September, 1861, and March, 1862 under Colonels John Rorbach,and Col. John J. Viele.

The regiment saw action at Cedar mountain, Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare gap, Bull Run, and Little River turnpike,South mountain, Antietam,Fredericksburg,heavily engaged at Gettysburg, reserve at Chancellorsville,Mine Run campaign, Wilderness,Spottsylvania and Appomattox Court House.It was mustered of service on July 17, 1865, having lost during its term of service 5 officers and 85 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded; 2 officers and 145 enlisted men by disease and other causes, a total of 237.

You can read more on the regiment here http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/104thInf/104thInfMain.htm and see a monument at Gettysburg here http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/NY/104NY.php

Thank you for viewing.:-)

Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

Leipzig 1813 Museum

2011-06-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone I just got back from a couple days at a family swim park with my family at a place called Tropical Island which is located in a huge dome structure that is in-closed and therefore can be used year round. It contains two very large pools, sauna's, restaurant, children's park plus much more. Here is more about it.

http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/visitors.html

On our way back we stopped by Leipzig so I could see some of the old 1813 battlefield

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leipzig

and visit the Monument to the Battle of the Nations which is a memorial monument to the battle of Leipzig in 1813. The monument is huge and stands at 91meters and is made of concrete with a granite facing. It's the tallest monument in Europe and includes 500 steps to the top! Fortunately it now has a small elevator/lift that will take you up 75% of the way leaving you roughly only 25% of the way by stair which is still a work out.;-)

As to be expected the sculptures are impressive although outside in bad need of a good cleaning which is currently under way. Restoration began in 2000 as massive clean up and repairs needed to take place and is expected to be finished in 2013 the 200th anniversary of the battle. Already the inside looks pretty darn good and the outside hopefully will look the same for the anniversary. More info here and better pics then mine turned out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Battle_of_the_Nations

The part I enjoyed the most was the 1813 museum with all the authentic Napoleonic apparel, weapons manuscripts and a very large diorama of the battle in 1/72mm. A panoramic view can be seen here of the diorama and some of the museum:

http://www.stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/site_deutsch/forum1813/panoramaansicht.php

Here are a few pics I took inside the Museum. Really fantastic genuine articles on display to see here and a must see for all you Nap buffs! I really wish I knew more about the age of Napoleon as I'm primarily into the ACW, but even I appreciated what I saw and was very fascinated. I plan on doing some Naps in the future and found this quite inspirational.

A cannon:

Napoleons Death mask.

Some Pistols, Swords, Sabres and Muskets

Some great Helmets and Hats

Very nice Cuirassier armor:

uniforms:

saddle:

Napoleons statue where he stood during the heaviest of the fighting:

A big gun salute

2011-05-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

I just hit a milestone of 200 followers today and I would sincerely like to express my gratitude in following my blog. I read every post and really appreciate the time you the reader take from your lives to support my fascination in painting and wargaming miniature soldiers. I'll be off the net for a couple days so please don't think I'm ignoring any comments or other folks blog entries as I'll answer as soon as I can which will be shortly.
Until then happy wargaming, painting and of course blogging.:-))

All the best
Christopher

GMB Designs

2011-05-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well I just got my first 20 or so packs of GMB designs flags for my ACW project and let me say they are stunningly beautiful flags and well worth the 3.75€ I paid for each pack. Yes, they are expensive, but for their quality I really don't mind paying the price as they are easily worth that in my opinion. No question they live up to and exceed the hype. They will be my go to flags of the future for sure. Here's the link:

http://www.salespartners.co.uk/

Also on the hobby front I just placed an order from a company I stopped buying from directly years ago, that being........Wargames Foundry. Up until just this order I've been buying my Foundry stuff from other retailers, Forums or e-bay.
Many may ask why did you break your wallet this time? They answer is they finally pitched a deal I could accept in which I got 30% off a discontinued series with a further 20% off of figures online rebate giving a total of 50% off! I bought the "Dashing Confederate cavalry regiment" that I've had my eye on for awhile as I really like the figures. I also really like Foundry's detail brushes, but never wanted to pay their ridiculous P&P charges for items under 70pounds! Since buying the regiment at such a reduced cost still put my order at free shipping I treated myself to the brushes and some paint pots too.
This time I feel I got my moneys worth as the figures under the deal are more in line with other companies current figure prices and their brushes and paints are IMHO excellent and worth what they charge without a mark down and so don't mind paying full price on these. :-)

94th New York "Bells Rifles" Infantry Regiment

2011-05-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

As I posted previously one of my friends is playing the Union while the other the Confederates and so I therefore opted for doing both sides . I was going to any ways as I like both sides. I thought I would start with a union regiment first to get the ball rolling.

Since I don't want to just call my regiment entries " Union Regiment Generic" or "Confederate Regiment Generic" I've decided to name each regiment and post a matching historical flag set if possible and give a bit of history if their is some which most do as the ACW period is remarkably well documented.

I haven't received my GMB flags yet and so with the 94th I'll use what came in the plastic box. I couldn't find their exact state flag and so thought no harm done using the box example.

This regiment is the 94th "Bells rifles" Infantry Regiment from the Army of the Potomac,I Corps,2nd Division of the I Brigade during the Gettysburg Campaign.
The 94th or "Bells Rifles" was recruited in Jefferson County and was mustered into service at Sacket's Harbor March 10th 1862 under the command of Henry K. Viele as Colonel.

It saw service in Gen. Pope's Virginia campaign and later rejoined the army of the Potomac and saw service at South Mountain, Antietam,Fredericksburg, Gettysburg where it suffered it's highest casualties from combat, Mine Run Fiasco,Wilderness campaign, Cold Harbor, Totopotomy, White Oak swamp, Weldon Railroad, Petersburg Siege, Five Forks and finally Appomattox Court House. It was mustered out of service in Washington on July 18, 1865. The regiment lost 116 KIA and 138 from other causes. In addition 37 died in imprisonment.

The regiment has a monument located at Gettysburg and for those seeking further information on the 94th I recommend this lovely site http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/reghist/civil/infantry/94thInf/94thInfMain.htm .

On to the miniatures. These of course are the Perry plastic American Civil War box sets figures with the addition of a couple Foundry figures. My overall opinion is they are not bad if a bit too fine for my tastes, but are a nice way to cheaply bulk out your armies. Personally, I'll probably paint up the 2 boxes I already own and then move on to metal figures as I really do prefer that. I like dynamic figures and the Perry plastics are just a bit too stiff if you get my drift.

Some of you may have noticed that one stand has only 3 men and not 4. This is on purpose as it allows for the building of off number regiments for Guns at Gettysburg. Most units in the lists are divisible by four 12,16, 20,24 etc., but some do not and are 14,18 etc. and this allows to build for that. But, of course I can still and in most cases will still play it as a full 4 man base. Also, I went with 40x40mm bases which leaves perhaps a bit too much room for these slighter and less dynamic Perry miniatures, but when I mount my more animated and larger Redoubt I think I'll be happy with the extra room.

Right now I'm doing white backgrounds until I build up some ACW terrain and then I'll do a mix of white backgrounds and scenic shots together.

On to the second half of the box which will be a firing line.

As always, thank you for viewing.:-)

Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

American Civil War picking up steam

2011-05-16T04:20:00.001-07:00

Just to give an update. The American Civil War is picking up steam at our club with two club members joining me in gaming the period. Since it's my favourite period I'm very happy! One will be collecting Confederates and the other will be collecting Union. I prefer rebels, but also like the Union so I'll be collecting for both sides. I'm almost finished with my first regiment and will post when finished. More coming soon!

Rolling up the Stick (DH's AAR)

2011-05-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday a friend and myself played a game of Disposable Heroes.I must apologize for the bad pictures and not having more close ups which is my fault. Of course I also forgot to take more pictures after the game got started which is again my fault. Also, as you can see we need to work on our terrain some more as the road we have just isn't up to snuff and our buildings just to generic.
He played an elite German Grenadier platoon composed roughly of:

HQ
2 full rifle squads
Sdkfz 222
Mortar squad

vs my elite US Para platoon:

HQ
extra Machine gun team
2 full rifle squads

The scenario we played was titled "rolling up the stick" which is para drop scenario somewhere in Normandy. The scenario starts with the para's landing their team sections through a dice attempt for on target. Then the Germans enter on 3 board edges. The goal of the game is for the paras to reach a rally point and survive 6 turns, the Germans attempt to block this by capturing the rally point or wiping out the para's.
I won't describe each turn but give a few highlights.The para's managed to land 3 out 5 sections on target which was great, but after that things just went down hill for my valiant, but doomed para's as one of my sections landed off table causing half to be casualties. My bazooka never hit his sdkz 222 which in turn wiped out the depleted squad. I did manage to take out a few Germans, but more less my para's got shredded and pushed off the objective by the very determined Germans. Not a successful para drop in results, but no question a lot of fun in terms of a game!
My impression of Disposable is that it's easy to understand and flows very nice. We still need to work on the vehicle rules, but that shouldn't be to hard. I'm really looking forward to my next game and getting my para's back into action.

Some battlefield pics

One of my platoons that landed in a wheat field

My friend's Germans cowering...errr taking up position behind a wall that is

His German command moving to occupy the building

Perfect landing

My para's holding the rally point..... temporarily

Airborne Command and Mortar Squad

2011-05-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Just finished my command and mortar squad a few days ago and now getting around to posting them. At this point I'm ahead of my friend on points and so I'll take a break and paint some of my other back logged stuff while he catches up to me. We also managed to get a game in of Disposable Heroes. I'll post some pictures of that if the pics come out.
As always thank you for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Artizan Miniatures

Command

1st LT.(Platoon Leader)w/ Thomson, 2nd LT. w/ Thomson, Platoon Sergeant w/Greasegun, Radio man w/carbine

Platoon Guide w/M1 Gerand, Trooper w/M1 Gerand, Sniper w/scoped Rifle, Attached 30. cal MG Team

Mortar Squad

Sergeant w/Thomson and radio, Trooper w/M1 Gerand, Trooper w/M1 Gerand, Trooper w/M1 Gerand, M60 Mortar operator and assistant

M60 Mortar operator and assistant close ups

Who me....an award you say!

2011-04-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

The award has these easy to follow rules:

1.Give a thank you and link back to the person giving you the award.
I've just been nominated for The Stylish blogger Award by the very kind Hein over at http://av-priest.blogspot.com/. Thank you very much Hein and please folks go visit his very nice blog!

2.Share seven things about yourself others may not know.
-I'm a total night owl as is my Mother, Father, Brother and Daughter.
-Pizza tops my list as the most tasty dish(wish my waist liked it as well!)
-I'm an absolute fan of epic Fantasy and in particular of George R. R. Martin and Steven Erikson's works.
-I'm a terrible speller(So bad my wife corrects it and she's German!),to add to my embarrassment my writing is so poor with forgetting things I've become an edit addict. :-0 I guess a slight case of dyslexia doesn't help either.
-My favourite mini series and book I might add is James Clavell's Shogun.
-My dream is to rent an RV and visit all the major Civil War battlefields in America.
-I watch a great deal of news on the TV.

3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
In random order.

http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/-Stunning blend of history and modeling
http://minimike-ministories.blogspot.com/- Wonderful painting(really like the ACW)
http://saxondog.blogspot.com/-Awesome ECW among other things.
http://lonelygamers.blogspot.com/-A wealth of periods covered arrayed on great tables
http://geektactica.blogspot.com/-Superb Gothic/Horror adventure wargaming
http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/-Amazing amount of well painted mini's on each battlefield
http://warcabinet.blogspot.com/-Lovely boards with equally lovely mini's.
http://tankgirl666.blogspot.com/-Great WWII Japanese
http://paintingshed.blogspot.com/-Super AWI modeling
http://theleutnantsdiary.blogspot.com/-Great RCW and other things.
http://lead-mountain.blogspot.com/-More nice painting.
http://docphobossdiary.blogspot.com/-Super painting.
http://flintlockandtomahawk.blogspot.com/-Fantastic F&IW blog!
http://macpheesminiaturemen.blogspot.com/-Just a great ACW blog.
http://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/-Great tables!

If you don't see your blog listed it's just that I ran out of room. I like all the blogs I follow and keep up to date on each and so please don't feel left out. Some of course are not listed as they already have several nominations!

4.Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award
I'll do my best to make contact.

Clash of Empires

2011-04-27T03:48:00.000-07:00

Just got my copy yesterday. It arrived damaged which didn't please me, but I tried to set that aside in my observation.
Clash of Empires is a rule set designed for playing the Ancient Period right on up to late Medieval and is a successor game to Warhammer Ancient Battles. This has largely came about due to the poor support from FW/GW in handling WAB and the pages of Errata.
The book is a nice hardback with lots of useful diagrams and pictures. Easy to read and understand with a very nice summery at the back. Worth buying for sure.
However, to be fair when comparing the look and layout of this book to WAB2 here is my opinion:

Cover of the book- WAB2 looks better.
Pages-Grainy feel and somewhat cheap. WAB2 superior quality in this.
Art work- Again, vastly prefer the WAB artists and artwork
Photo's- Yet once again, WAB2 has superior photographs without any blurred images and dark pictures found in some picks in COE. Generally, the armies shown in WAB2 are better painted then in COE as well. Not to say there are not some really nicely painted mini's in COE which there are!
WAB2 is more expensive then COE, but this is justified by the higher quality.

As we know, looks are only a part of the package with the rules themselves the other.

Here is a quick observation of the rules themselves:

I Like:
-Basing similar to WAB2 makes easy transitions between the two games, however I wish they would have followed WAB2 exactly even if they say it's not important to avoid any confusion.
- minimum unit size
-Abundance of helpful diagrams
-Oblique manoeuvre
-Interpenetration of units allows for ease of movement
-Impetuous/Reckless troops(an extra rule that makes controlling some troops more difficult and adds flavour)
-Massed fire not allowed vs chargers or units with rear rank in woods
-Disruption(extra element not found in WAB that adds an extra level to the state of troops)
-Bonus to combat for closest unit to General( nice that the general can effect combat in units he is not personally in)
-Limited amount of skirmish units(very nice, as I hate clouds of skirmishers)
-Easily understood and mechanics similar to WAB
-Nice summery

I Don't like:
-Centimetres instead on inches!!
-Maximums on unit sizes.(I personally like to decide that)
-No BSB(I like a BSB to steady the line)
-Rolling to kill/Wound after armour saves(Prefer the WAB2 order)
-Only one character per unit
-Unit standards and musicians having no effect in
combat
-Prefer percentage to slots when choosing my
armies

Undecided(must play test):
-Discipline tests(Tests you have to make before making certain manoeuvres)
-Forming square as that's really not a typical ancient
manoeuvre, but could be good for play.
-Intercept(Allows cavalry and chariots to intercept flank and rear charges)
- Concerned it may be to easy to kill characters in close combat(2 wounds on a unit and roll a d6 and character is killed on a 1)
-Much, much more that will come to light after playing

Overall, on the basis of rules I don't think I will change from WAB2 to COE as my primary Ancients game even with FW/GW mistakes as I still think WAB2 is a great game. But, for sure I will add COE to games that I play and why not I say as basing similarities makes hopping between the two pretty painless!

Year of the the Rules

2011-04-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'd have to say this year looks to be the year of buying rulebooks and supporting material to rival a third of my miniature expenditures. What's even more surprising is a great deal of it is core rules! It's bordering downright overwhelming!

So far I've already purchased just this year alone:
Lasalle
Regimental Fire and Fury
A House Divided
Guns at Gettysburg
SOTR
Numerous Source books and Osprey's

Making it's way to me as I write this:
Heartland Scenario Book
British Grenadier Scenario book 3

On the to get list that's already been released:
Black Powder
Hail Caesar
General de Brigade deluxe edition
General de Brigade scenario books
Impetus series(I have the basic)

On the to get list when released:
British Grenadier deluxe editionClash of Empires
War and Conquest
Kampfgruppe Normandy(if the reviews are tops)
Blücher(if it's released this year)
Stonewall(if it's released this year)
GASLIGHT Compendium

What's even more crazy is this list will grow as more things are added not yet published or announced yet, plus some I forgot to mention!!:-0

2nd Airborne squad Finished!

2011-04-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Just finished up my 2nd Airborne squad and this time added some US and Airborne decals from Company B and I like them. The helmet decals were to big and so I left those Off. Command and some support up next. Thank you for viewing. :-)

Rifle Section w/Sergeant with M1 Carbine, Bazooka Gunner and Assistant, Trooper with M1 Garand

Rifle section w/2 Troopers with M1 Garand's and 2 with BAR's(one will go to the other squad)

LMG section w/ Corporal with a Thomson, Trooper, LGM Gunner and Assistant

Close ups of LMG Gunner and Assistant

Miniature Company- Artizan Designs

Added a couple fun polls

2011-04-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

Added a couple running polls to my blog on the side bar to see where wargamers collecting habits tended to be. I tend(not always) to fall between quite a few and recorded history for range of periods and embarrassingly completely buried and still ordering more for completions! :-0
Thank you for joining in!:-)

Lasalle

2011-04-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

Just played my first game of Lasalle(Napoleonic wargaming) Saturday night using our clubs old 1/72ndNap stuff. We played the Liberation period with me controlling the French and my friend the Prussians. I got my can kicked through a combination of bad rolls, bad tactics and a serious ineptitude in using my artillery advantage and so my verdict is..... I really, really enjoyed the rules! Easy movement, interesting change up in game sequence and combat resolutions generally being quick and decisive..........just how I like it!!
The result of all of this of course will be me placing a very large order to the Perry twins for my French army to support the Emperor.
Vive l'Empereur!
In the meantime back to my Airborne and F&F ACW.
Honour Rule Set

Marauder Minataur Lord

2011-03-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

Putting up another mini I did before he disappears from my collection.

BTW if anyone looking to buy these Beastmen miniatures I've posted plus a few others then check out this link in the Lead Adventures Forum bazaar.

http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=27732.0

Even if your not interested in my offer, you should visit the site as it's very nice!!
Miniature Company-Marauder Miniatures

Some Beastmen I did in the past

2011-03-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, these guys have been some excellent dust collectors for some time and I thought it was time to put them up on the actioning block. However, I did put some work into them at one point and thought it would be a shame not to keep a memory of them and so I'm posting them here. I hope some of you like them.

Marauder Dragon Ogre

Shaman

Wargor

Beastherd

Miniature Company-Marauder and Citadel GW Miniatures

2nd Airborne squad AP added (WIP)

2011-03-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Base colours are blocked in and Army Painter has been applied. Next up is adding the highlights and matt coat to turn this shiny brown/green rabble into something like a proper fighting force. If your curious the letters on some of the bases is to remind me which shade of brown I used on the pants as sometimes it's hard to tell after AP is added.
Miniature Company-Artizan Miniatures

2nd Airborne squad (WIP)

2011-03-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

Here is my second Airborne squad all primed up and ready to go. Added a Bazooka to this and some Bars. As you can see I use a white undercoat when using Army Painter. I also ordered some decals from Company B that I'm pretty excited to see how they add to the miniatures.
Miniature Company-Artizan Miniatures

US Airborne Squad 1

2011-03-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is my first squad for my US Airborne Disposable Heroes project. They are Artizan miniatures and very fun to paint as is the case with all Artizan miniatures.
The goal was to get a platoon painted up and playing in a short time and so I used army painter. However, please remember I added a couple of highlights to these and so they are in effect fully painted miniatures.I skipped adding any identifying patches as that would add quite a bit of time to the painting process.
I went with the early paratroop uniform that was used right up to D-Day as I like the light shade and varying tones to include the patches at the joints. This was because the material was quite thin and so the para's added extra padding to the parts that wear and tear the quickest.
I'm pretty happy with the results and I hope you like them too.
Thank you as always for viewing.
Miniature Company- Artizan Designs

Sargeant with M1 Carbine and Troopers with M1 Garand's part of Rifle Section

Troopers with M1 Garand's(one will get replaced with a BAR in the future) part of Rifle Section

LGM section to include Corporal with Thomson, Trooper,LMG .30 cal gunner, Assistant Gunner

It's here!

2011-03-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

Regimental Fire and Fury just arrived in the post today shown below. Wow !! The book looks just fantastic and I'm more then pleased.

Looks to have nice rule adjustments as well and the eye candy is wonderful. After looking at the army size requirements I've realized I'll need to stay at 15mm to play this still as the both the army sizes and board sizes needed are beyond my ability at 28mm for this rule set. No worries as I have plenty of 15 ACW. It's all Old Glory and needs some touch ups (as I did all this many, many years ago) and re-basing to a standard size of 3 per base instead of the 3-5 I did earlier which makes aligning difficult. I'm inspired folks!
For 28mm ACW I'll use Guns at Gettysburg rule set as that's seems more prudent.;-)
Airborne remains my top focus, but in between drying times and project completion I'll start re-working my 15mm ACW and then later down the road start up the 28mm ACW.

US. Airborne project added

2011-03-06T02:52:00.000-08:00

My friend at our club has begun late war Germans for Disposable Heroes(platoon level gaming) which has me quite excited as I've been asking him to do so. This gives me the chance to start a US Airborne platoon (Artizan miniatures) I've had my eye on for some time and have collected for.
I'll probably paint them with army painter and highlights as they are both ready made for that type of painting method and it's quicker allowing us to game sooner.:-)
This will push back Chaos in Cairo and Fallschirmjäger to a latter date, but don't worry for those interested they will still get done at some point.
Originally I had plans to do Fallschirmjäger, but I realize they will take far longer then I first thought due to the complexity in painting them. Also, another friend I originally made plans to game Disposable Heroes with is doing British Commando's and he is also having a difficult time in production rate which combined with me put Disposable Heroes gaming possibilities to a virtual stop. However, this has all changed since another friend joined and started Late War Germans giving me a chance to switch to Airborne for the moment thus greatly speeds things up and I expect some gaming to start within the couple months. Of course, I'll be posting my Airborne units as I finish them.:-)
As a note we played our first zombie game yesterday and had a blast. So, I count the zombie project goal a success now that it's painted and gamed to a playable level, but as all projects the door is still open for more additions when in the mood.
As we gamers know a project is rarely ever finished, but is rather counted a success when enough is painted and games are played.

Zombies # 3, 4, 5 , 6,7 & 8

2011-03-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a little bit, but I have been painting. Here are some more all purpose walking dead for our survivor's to deal with. These two zombies are my attempt at doing black skin tones after they become a zombie. As you can see the bald zombie is the exact same miniature as a previous zombie, because Hasselfree didn't have another zombie I asked for and so sent me a double. I thought his features looked equally good as a black or white zombie and decided to do one of each.

This zombie is another attempt at doing a green tone to the flesh on a bit more greener then before. I call him the Frankenstein zombie as that's what it reminds me of.

This one here is a zombie with a pale blueish tone to the skin. I still need to do more work on this as it's come out a bit too blue, but hey it's a zombie and so getting his tones right isn't exact and is flexible for the painter. Also, added a bit of weathering to his clothes as suggested by Doc for darker clothing.

Help! Police!....Wait a sec I changed my mind!
These two police officers are not Hasselfree miniatures, but rather Cold Wars. The sculpts are not as good as Hasselfree with the proportions needing some work for sure, but they do have character and the company has a large selection to choose from which is a bonus.

All in all not the best work I've of done, but I admit painting zombies isn't my thing as I like painting the survivor's. Well, that's my sorry excuse. :-)
More zombies coming at a later date.
I hope your enjoying them and thank you for viewing. :-)
Miniature Company- Hasselfree Miniatures/ Cold Wars

Regimental Fire and Fury

2011-02-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

Regimental Fire and Fury was released last year and I've just got around to ordering it do to first trying to clear my project loads, but have given in and decided to order it. I was going to wait until next year, but I really can't! I'll talk more about the game, but first I want to give some background on this period and what it means to me.
If some of you were curious as to what is my favourite period in history is, then the answer is the American Civil War. It's the period I've studied and read the most about in my life.
I was first introduced to the American Civil War when I was about 12 years old perusing a friend of my Fathers home library while visiting, who just happened to be a history teacher btw and grabbed the nearest book out of boredom. As fate would have it, I happened to take arguably the single greatest volume written on the subject by the greatest Civil War historian ever in my opinion for it's broad appeal. The book was The American Heritage Picture History of The Civil War by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Bruce Catton.

I remember I was fascinated by the fantastic map pictures of battles in action and the massive wealth of wonderful pictures. This caused me to be curious what this was all about. Now comes the brilliance of the author in that he was able to write in manner that was both understandable for a youth and to capture his interest while at the same time provide an overview that satisfies an adult reader as well.
I read the book several times and continued to read other books on the subject from time to time.

The next event was when I was about 20+ years ago when I saw Ken Burns documentary The Civil War and that just blew me away.

Not only is this the greatest film documentary ever made on the American Civil War I personally think it was greatest film documentary ever made period with The World in Flames coming in a close second. Let's just say at this point I couldn't get enough of this period and began reading other works from Catton(more in depth works of his) and also Foote another fantastic historian who btw was featured in this very film.

It was at this point I first started Military wargaming using rules. My first set of rules was using Fire and Fury in 15mm using old glory miniatures. They revolutionized wargaming colour book formatting and had me drooling over it. The rules themselves are and still are best ever written for this period.

I've been playing the game ever since. Some of you may be asking why haven't we seen your mini's for this? The truth is I painted these miniatures so long ago that the painting is just awful and needs to be redone and really not worth posting. Also, I'm not that keen on painting 15mm any more as 25/28mm is my preferred scale and where I'm most happy these days. True, I do still do some 15mm, but on a much reduced miniature count and nothing like the vast amounts you need to play Brigade level F&F and so I'll just keep using my old stuff.

Now that you know some background you will understand why I'm so excited Regimental Fire & Fury has been released.......I can now use my favourite rules in 25/28mm!!Yes!!!! I know other rule sets have been released for this scale, but I wanted F & F which I knew was being play tested. I plan on using Perry and the older Foundry range. Expect to see in the future quite a bit of ACW coming up on this blog! I still intend to do most of my planned projects, but ACW could very well slip in this year at some point and no question feature regularly in the following years.
I'll discuss more about the rules themselves in another post. Until then keep your powder dry and thanks for reading.:-)

Palin (Zombie Survivor)

2011-02-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

GRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....Vroooooom.....Yes! It's still got gas in it!
I really like this figure as I do most all of Hasselfree miniatures. A kid with a chainsaw..... Oh dear is what comes to us parents minds, but still admittedly funny on a fantasy only basis and a must have figure. When I first looked at the miniature what came to mind was a kid in hunting clothes even if that wasn't what the designer had in mind. I've always thought it amusing when hunters put on camouflage clothes and then bright orange jackets and caps defeating the whole purpose in one go. I understand why they have the bright orange stuff is to avoid being shot by other hunters, but what I don't understand is the camouflage clothes. Maybe, it's just for their mind set.

The other thing you may have noticed is a lack of gore that would obviously come from using this shredder on zombies, but truth be told while I do think a kid with a chainsaw is a fun model and cool, I'm personally not comfortable covering children in blood and so no blood. For me the image I have is he was being chased by zombies and found this in the back of a truck just in time and happy it works as he starts the chainsaw in exultation.

More zombie stuff to follow and thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Hasselfree Miniatures

Zombies #1 and #2

2011-02-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

This is my first crack at painting post apocalyptic zombies or modern zombies. These guys have been an experiment in several ways, this being painting zombie flesh and blood which I have little experience and last is full up painting without using any black lining. For anyone who hasn't painted blood, it's much more difficult then one would think I've discovered. Like I mentioned, blood is a tricky one to paint and I needed to do some research in how to go about it. The thing with blood is colour and amount to be applied is very much a judgement thing and so trial and error are the order of the day. Another thing I found difficult when painting blood is a psychological one in that applying it over areas you just carefully painted is nerve racking as you really don't want to mess up!
The first few zombies will be the Hasselfree generic zombies as I work out flesh tones and blood, before moving on to their character zombies with the idea being if I mess these up I won't be too disappointed.

This first zombie above is a pretty nice sculpt for a generic zombie and looks as if he has been well and truly chewed on before becoming a zombie and so he is pretty bloody. I don't like to put on as much blood as possible on a model, but rather only as much as the model demands to make it convincing. The result on this guy went pretty well for a first time I think and so I'm happy, but still more to learn of course.
In regards to flesh tones I first wanted to start with a greenish flesh and later try some blueish ones on another set. I don't like the zombies with flesh tones so green they look more like green aliens then dead flesh and resolved to take it easy on the green. However, I think his flesh came out a bit too "healthy" and so on the next zombie coming up I added a bit more green.

No black lining works for this period I think and so I'll continue that method for the rest of the zombie project.

This next zombie above isn't a very good sculpt which is not normally the case for Hasselfree miniatures as they usually have excellent sculpts,that said this model is still worth owning. One thing I noticed was that blood doesn't look as effective on darker clothing as it's more difficult to show the transitions in colour blood undertakes. In the future I'll use more light colours when appropriate.
I added a bit more green to this ones flesh, but still noticed I need to a little more and so on the next "green" zombie as I've come to identify them in type I'll add more.
The bases are asphalt street colour with some grass/weeds growing through the cracks. I'll leave the more detailed bases for zombie survivors.
Thanks for viewing !
Miniature Company- Hasselfree Miniatures

Let's talk about paint bottles

2011-02-08T06:53:00.000-08:00

I was going through my paints yesterday evening(I have over 400+bottles of Vallejo,Foundry GW etc.) and confirmed my long standing suspicion of the quality of the GW bottles as progressively worse for the most part except their foundation paints. I must have threw away about 30 bottles of paint in which many were never used as they were all dried up! Needless to say I was less then pleased as I did pay for them at some point after all.
Nowadays, I use Vallejo more often as my paint of choice as well as Foundry, but I also do still use GW paints as well and this is why I'm doing a little rant on them. I know they often have complaints heaped on them, but they usually deserve it with their prices on their products and paint bottle quality.
This has prompted me to talk about the quality of the paint bottles I have and give an opinion on them.I'm not talking too much about the paints themselves, but will add some comments on it, however the focus will be the bottles. I as always welcome all other thoughts on this and will modify the post when things are brought up I didn't think of. :-)

The above first generation GW in the soft plastic bottles and lids. The pigment is a bit too thin and getting the tops off is a bit of a pain and not user friendly. Also, if you didn't watch out you could knock over the bottle and watch your paint run, but on the plus side the paint will last for years and years. Most of these bottles I've had since the early to mid 90's! Since I'll gladly give up user friendly for my paints not drying up these get a thumbs up.

Second Generation GW paints in a slightly harder bottle and soft lid. Same analysis as the first generation and so a thumbs up overall.

Third Generation GW paints and probably the worst ever over all . Ok, here they did improve the pigmentation, but that's it folks. The top was a royal pain to open after excess paint would eventually dry it shut. The paint in the bottle dried up soon after opening and eventually would dry up even if you didn't open the bottle! Being messy and knocking them over also something to deal with. Frustration and loss of money on this.These type of bottles made you think GW bottled them in these just so you would have to continue buying more on a regular basis. Two very big thumbs down!

Forth Generation GW paints.Not much better then the third.Only better because the lid doesn't dry shut, but even that's not much better, because it drips down onto the lid when you open it ruining what little seal you do get from these bottles. So, almost a carbon copy of the 3rd generation giving it a two big thumbs down.

These GW Foundation bottles are a big improvement over the others with very nice pigmentation and user friendly. They went back to the soft bottle and lid which no doubt has prolonged the shelf life of these quite a bit, but for some reason still not as long as the original bottles, but diffidently a substantial improvement.. Why they don't put the standard colours into these bottles as well is anybody's guess.Still need to be careful not to knock them over. These do rate a nice thumbs up though.

These Armoury paints are nice with good pigmentation and quite a bit of paint for your money which is a real bonus. However, the bottle isn't very nice. The lid can be a real bastard to open when the paint dries around the rim and the glass bottle can give you an ugly accident if it breaks making you nervous when using and storing. Easy to knock over do to being too long and tall which is not good. Because of the bottle it gets a thumbs down. I haven't purchased paints from them in quite awhile and so they may have changed the bottles since then.

Ral Partha makes a very nice paint with good pigmentation, a healthy amount of paint for your money and the bottles are in a nice soft plastic. The problem is the lid in that when it dries these can be super hard to open and will give you a few choice words when trying to open it. Also, like many must be careful not to knock over. Still, overall a thumbs up.

Tamiya paints are a real pain in the behind and I wouldn't use them if for not the fact that they can give some really awesome results on some things. These paints really are for modellers and not wargamers as they are very unfriendly paints. Some of the positive in these paints is the excellent shelf life,plenty of paint for money and some super realistic results be can achieved with these, and is resistant to being knocked over due to a wide base. Now for the negative........they smell terrible, dry quickly out of the bottle and the lid can be a pain to open when paint dries on the seal , in addition the glass bottle can be nasty if it breaks. Also, your brushes must be thoroughly cleaned after using these paints or they will be destroyed. Based on the bottle and the difficulty in using the paints it receives an over all thumbs down. Basically, I use these for very specific things and that's it.

Howard Hues paints have nice pigmentation and have some great colours for the American Civil War period. Wide base gives resistance to being knocked over as well. The problem is the lid can be difficult to open when the paint dries on the rim. They also switched from glass to plastic which I like as it reduces breakage. These deserve a thumbs up.

These are some really super paints with outstanding shelf life and superb pigmentation(at least the older releases). One of the few times I don't mind paying a lot of money for the paint.One bottle will stretch a very long time making any investment well worth it.The lid can be a bit inconvenient,but only a very little and soft bottle and top is super convenient in terms of prolonging the paint,storage and virtually shatter proof.Do need to mind being knocked over though. I use this paint a great deal and is only rivalled by the next entry coming.Two very,very big thumbs up!

Vallejo paints are in my opinion the best on the market and the brand I use progressively more and more where I can see it may become my exclusive choice of paints.The pigmentation is nothing less then superb and gives an unrivalled tonal quality. The bottle comes in the best type which is a soft plastic making it almost accident proof and offers outstanding shelf life .Another fantastic feature of these paints is the nozzle on it which allows for controlled amount of paints used and best of all the paint in the bottle is exposed to very little air when the lid is off extending the paints life even longer. Also,another huge plus for these is knocking over these babies is no sweat as the paint stays in the bottle thanks to the nozzle. I prefer the nozzle, but Vallejo also made it so you can remove the nozzles if you so desire which is thinking of all painters taste. This makes the bottle the best on the market as well. If I had to say anything negative is that once the paint is out of the bottle it tends to dry quickly and so keeping the paints on semi damp surface is needed, but this is more then off set by all the positive factors.Two thumbs way up and I mean way up folks!

Mean Green Machine

2011-02-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

I just finished painting up these Orcs for a friend of mine at the club for those curious to see what I've been up to. It's part of some of the miniatures I sold to him of my painted stuff and the rest is going on e-bay as I already have too many fantasy armies(6 still) and decided I wanted to reduce the armies to a more manageable amount and get a few coins for my hobby room renovation.
The first one is a Orc Warboss on the classic Wyvern which I think is much better model then the new one. The second one is a Orc Boar Boyz unit.Both were painted up to table top standards and my friend was happy with the result which is what counts.
A note on Fantasy battle 8th edition in that I think it's the best version since the 3rd edition.The 3rd edition was great because it was still geared primarily for adults with army composition needing to be built up requiring work on the part of the player, but allowed lots of flexibility.Any ways, back to the 8th edition. After the 7th edition I was fed up and ready to throw in the towel as I was weary of the character,magic and skirmish dominated tactics.The 8th edition now places the emphasis on units and blocks of troops with magic still being deadly,but manageable and even allows players a decent chance to win with no mages which was very unlikely in the old system unless you were Dwarf player which is self explanatory.Close combat also is much more fun with both players now getting a chance to get their punches in with a real feel for massed combat( I like to roll dice which helps too! ). But, the true strength of the 8th edition is game flow with just runs very smooth.It has it's broken parts still of course namely war machines being too strong and terrain being over simplified, but the positive IMHO out weighs the negative.
Now they just need to update the army books to work within the new system as some armies are very powerful and others hurting. Hopefully,they support this version with proper army books and not screw them up.Also, wasn't smart of GW in letting Rick go, but now he's free for historical games which is even better! While I do like the new 8th edition WHFB, I still prefer historical wargaming if given a choice.
Ohh, another thing in that I'm happy I already own the armies I need and so won't have to worry about buying anything from GW( shudders at the price which is still ludicrously high ) and since I don't play tournaments if I do want model or two I'll buy something similar from another company.
Ahh, now I can get back to painting my planned projects, but I might do some of my personal fantasy stuff if the mood takes me here and there.
Impetus fantasy also looks interesting, but that's only food for thought with no plans yet for it, but.....one never knows. :-)
Miniature Company- Games Workshop

Researching and updated blog with some new gadgets

2011-02-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, just letting you know the reason for a pause in regular posting (excuse list that is).Currently I'm doing some research for a painting project where I'm trying to work out the best colour options and method of application(zombie flesh and blood) . Also,I will try an alternative painting technique on just a few miniatures to see how it goes (full painting with no black lining). Surprisingly,the research consumed more time then I thought.In addition,I've been painting up a few miniatures for a friend.
Soon, regular posting will resume with some AWI, Chaos in Cairo and Zombie material followed by more El Cid.

I've added a few more gadgets to my blog.

Blog list-For some reason of an mental brain drop I failed to add a list of the blogs I follow and this has now been corrected. I went with 10 showing to keep it user friendly,but you can just hit list all button to see all of them. The listing shown will always be by the latest updates.When viewing the complete blog list you can see it's quite a hefty amount,but I really do enjoy reading and viewing what other's are doing. :-)

Top 10 member-I thought this would be a nice way of me giving recognition to readers who currently read my blog the most. Please don't worry if your not in there as I won't feel slighted in the least as it's just a fun gadget for interest and not to be taken overly serious. Gadjets are fun after all! :-) Also, you have to sign in to get on the listing and this allows for persons still wanting to view my blog anonymously or unrecorded to continue to do so.When signing in just use the normal account you use for the blogging and you won't double follow,but even if you do it's not important, but just passing on the tip.

Popular Posts- Thought I'd throw that in there for those curious to see what folks are viewing the most on my blog.

Thanks for reading!

Jimmy "High Flying" Jameson(Chaos in Cairo Character)

2011-01-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

Jimmy "High Flying" Jameson
Status-Party Sponsor
Date of Birth-1904
Current Date-1926

Jimmy is the son of George Jameson a very wealthy business man from an old aristocratic southern family from the state of South Carolina. Jimmy was expected to follow in the family business of running a very large peach plantation ,but of course Jimmy had other ideas.

Jimmy's passion in life has always been aviation since he was a kid right on up through his adolescent years and young adulthood. He hungrily devoured stories of the Wright Brothers ,WWI aces Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen(Red Baron) , William "Billy" Avery Bishop, and Edward "Eddie" Vernon Rickenbacker while all the while dreaming of one day flying himself.

Through his fathers pressure Jimmy headed of to Yale University at the age of 18 to receive his education. While there Jimmy tried to give it a proper go and even joined the men's rowing team where he excelled and to his surprise also discovered he liked to write a bit. He started writing short stories(about flying of course) and keeping a journal. He tried to pay attention to his studies, but he just couldn't stop thinking about flying and so left Yale at 20 to seek a flying school of some sort and began his dream of being an aviation pilot like his heroes of the air.
In no time he found a local "Barn storming" group (stunt pilots) where he proved to be an amazingly apt pupil and learned how fly in very short order. In fact he was so talented his teacher was heard to remark "I wish we had him in the war as life would have been a heck of a lot easier in our troop". Soon, Jimmy was an active member travelling with the group and putting on stunt shows, selling air plane rides and even doing some crop dusting to help out local farmers. Life was grand ...... until his father showed up and forced him to quit by insisting he return to Yale and finish his studies.

Jimmy returned to Yale feeling depressed ,but not seeing much choice. When he was 21 this all changed one Friday when reading a National Geographic in the Library on Egypt and it's new postal service. It seems they had an air postal service running and were looking for qualified flyers. This was just the break he needed!
Jimmy headed straight to the bank and withdrew a small fortune in savings that he was entitled too from birthright. This was all easily accomplished without problems due to him being of proper age .... ohh and a little thing about also having a note he forged of his fathers signature approving the withdrawal that is!

Jimmy was off to a life of adventure and Flying! He also read about tombs and artefacts being found and studied in Egypt which might prove interesting to do on his non flying days. Now aged 22 he promptly boarded the closest available liner and headed to Cairo.

Later, Jimmy did become a famous pilot, but that is another story, because for now his adventures in Egypt is our topic at hand.

A side note in that Jimmy will be the narrator in the adventures of the group when I begin them and will be done in Journal format from Jimmy's perspective as inspired by Jason on Geektactica.

Miniature Company-Coppelstone Castings

Caballeros Hidalgos(Spanish Noble Knights)

2011-01-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned earlier I would be starting a Christian mercenary army for the El Cid/Reconquista period for WAB.See my notes under El Cid labels for more information on this army.This is my first unit of Caballeros Hidalgos(Noble Knights) who were the cream of the Christian armies consisting primarily,but not exclusively of the wealthy noble born.
Like I mentioned they have a very Moorish flair to them to represent their cultural make up and their various employers they fought for both Christian and Moors.
The General is naturally the grizzled veteran on the white charger.I decided to grey his hair and even add some white to represent the hardship of years of hard campaigning.The army standard is carrying the large Lion banner which represents the commanders personal heraldry.The other knights are his personal bodyguards and most loyal supporters.
The army is done using army painter,but with added highlights which costs significant painting time,but is still faster then black lining and doing the eyes.However,I will add that the white charger,white bits on the horses,shields and banners were all painted normally.All shields and banners are hand painted and painted in a uniformed colour scheme as I wanted the army to look as if they are all part of the same force,but varied the designs to still retain their individuality.With the bases,shields and banners in uniformed colour I was able to paint the clothes in different colours without losing an army identity and still stay somewhat within period background.
I did some minor conversion work in helmet adjustments and adding more length to their garments to try and give more of Spanish knight feel to them.
Another choice common to Spanish for this period is a heavy red and yellow,but I preferred to go with a deep red and off white as I like the more mellow tone as I hope some of you do as well.
Also,I mixed up several companies for this army as I wanted the variety for this one.
Thank you for reading and viewing. :-)
Miniature Company-Artizan Designs,Perry Miniatures,Conquest Games

Miss Kitty Zombie Survivor

2011-01-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned at the club we have caught the zombie fever and are itching to sink our teeth(pun intended) into the genre.A combination of films,games and Hasselfree miniatures hooked me.Everyone in the group will collect a few survivors and some zombies to start.After we have a few painted up we will move on to doing terrain.We will start off with some free rules and maybe pick up some commercial ones.
This is the first of my Zombie Survivors Miss Kitty who looks pretty harmless....that is except for the twin 9mm's in each hand!My impression of Hasselfree miniatures up close is.........fantastic!!!!They are true 25mm and therefore on the small side.When holding them one sees they are very finely sculpted and delicate miniatures with superb detail and very clean.
I'm not that experienced in painting female figures as I'm a newcomer to pulp/horror genre with most of my experience in historical or warrior/monster fantasy, and so I really hope I did this figure some justice.I really enjoyed painting her and will do some more females in the future for sure hopefully improving as I go along as I really need more practice.By this I mean painting male skin and female skin is very different as the transition in tones on females needs to be more smooth or she will look too harsh and buffed out which wasn't what I wanted for her and probably most other female miniatures.
More post apocalyptic zombie stuff to follow along with some soon to see El Cid,AWI and Chaos in Cairo.
Miniature Company-Hasselfree Miniatures

Happy New year! and my 2011 Projects list

2010-12-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

First off I'd like to say a pre-emptive Happy New Year!I hope 2011 is a great year for everyone and my best wishes to all.
The weather we are experiencing really does make one sympathetic for the troops that fought at Valley Forge!
The year 2010 was a decent year in project painting,but not stellar.I'm hoping for a more productive year in 2011.My overall goal like most wargaming painters is to complete more and buy less which is always difficult,but I hope to do better then usual this time.This is primarily for two reasons with the first being to reduce the lead pile of course,but more importantly I want to save a few coins to renovate my hobby room from what is now more a less a storage room with a table and cheap metal shelves to a first rate gaming room.This will be quite expensive and so I'll need to put in some overtime at work and cut back some on expenditures.I'm hoping to start the renovation in September/October 2011 and I'm very excited to see how my dreams will turn out.

So,my project plans for 2011 are(crossed fingers):

Will do for sure due to club commitments or personal:

-BG AWI-Due to the fact I've met another gamer interested in this period I now have additional motivation to paint this period as I'll actually get to game it!I don't expect to get a great amount completed as this period is difficult to paint and so progress will be slow,but there will be progress nonetheless and even some gaming. :-)

-DH Fallschirmjäger(28mm)-Fortunately this project does not require a lot of miniatures which is a blessing due to the difficulty in painting these troop types and since I already have a decent start I have high hopes to finish enough to at least start to game with them.

-FOW Fallschirmjäger(15mm)-Half the project is already completed and so I stand a reasonably decent chance to finish this one.

-Chaos in Cairo-This project stands an excellent chance of seeing completion as the miniature count is very low and the terrain not to difficult to either build or obtain.

-WAB El Cid Christian Army-Since I plan on cutting corners with a this army and the fact that it's all mounted resulting in a lower miniature count should see this one completed.

-The Dead Walk-Yes,we have been bitten by the Zombie bug at our club and will be gaming this next year.Films,TV series and Hasselfree miniatures tipped me over the edge.Again,miniature count isn't that high with each member painting a few Survivors and a handful of Zombies plus card terrain gives this project a very high probability to see it completed.We have decided to try some free rules first and then perhaps some others as well.I have to say this project is easy to generate interest across the board at the club probably due to the fact that killing zombies is very appealing to everyone!!(LoL!)

-Hobby Room- As stated,the most important project in 2011 and I just really hope things come together to see it happen!

-Read More books-Not really a miniature project,but something I've wanted to get back on track again.

Other projects on the lead pile that may get started:

-TVG F&IW Indians-I wasn't sure if this would go in the planned or not as I would really like to do it,but decided the others are more important.

-DH Finns-Really like the mini's,but need a Russian opponent.

-SCW-Love these Empress mini's,but again no opponent so staying in the lead box for the moment.

-WAB ECW-A huge collection,but again no interest at the club and so staying on the back burner.

-WAB Ancient Germans-One of my friends is collecting Romans and so depending on his progress could see this moved into the planned projects.Fantastic Foundry sculpts btw.

-WAB Praetorian Romans- This army is actually painted,but really needs an overhaul and so again largely depends on my friends progress to see if I move it up.

-WAB Assyrians-Lovely Foundry sculpts and very nice colours makes this army very attractive to start........and my Trojans need somebody to fight!

-Impetus Aztecs-This is largely a painters project where the fantastic basing system of this system has inspired me to build a very colourful Aztec army using the outstanding Foundry Aztec range(their best range IMHO).However,since this is a personal project I couldn't place it in the planned as I feel I should do commitments first,but you never know.........

-Impetus Samurai(both 28mm & 15mm)-This is both a personal project and vaguely planned one with a friend.The reason it's not in the planned is what the reason always is.......procrastination.I'm not sure what type of Samurai I want to do with a pleasing uniformed look or a more historical approach of wildly contrasting colours and mons etc..also,I'm not sure if I want to start on Samurai or Sohai Warrior Monks first as I'll being doing both.Also,the high level of difficulty in painting this has me concerned as well.

Not yet on the lead pile,but thinking of.

WAB WOTR-A friend is collecting this period and I'm interested in doing an army with Warwick the King maker,but again project overloads and attempting to save money has me waiting.

WAB Swiss/Landsknechtes-Italian Wars and the colourful period is very attractive,but is a serious commitment in terms of painting requirements in both amount and difficulty which keeps this on the thinking about list for now.

Zulu/Boar Wars-Empress sculpts keep me thinking!

Japanese WWII -Fun to paint,but no club interest in terms of gaming has me holding off on this for now.

WAB Romano British-Would really like an army for this,but waiting to see if Bill at Musketeer does any as he said he will.If Bill makes this line then this will be a buying exception and will move to planned projects.

As you can see I'm a really bouncer in terms of interest and have my greedy fingers in plenty of pots and so there is no end to my to do list.

Very Best Wishes,

Christopher

More Fallschirmjägers(28mm)

2010-12-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some new pictures of my growing Disposable Heroes Fallschirmjäger force in 28mm.First up is a team firing a MG 42 on an assault.I really like the dramatic posing of this team as it gives a great impression of a moving assault,but I imagine the FJ holding the MG up might not hear very well for a few hours!The other is a FJ with a FG 42 assault gun that was designed specifically for Fallschirmjägers.It was light weight assault rifle and was one of the most advanced weapons of the war and influenced subsequent assault rifles in the modern era.However,it only saw limited use in the war.
Miniature Company-Artizan Designs

Fallschirmjäger MG42 Team in a mix of Sumpmuster(Marsh/Water) 44 and Splittermuster(Splinter)camouflage

Fallschirmjäger with STG 43/44 in both Sumpmuster 43(Marsch/Water) and Splittermuster(Splinter)Camouflage

Fallschirmjäger Command Group(15mm)

2010-12-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

Adding some pics of my FOW Fallschirmjäger while still waiting for my package!Every company needs a commander and here is mine going from left to right and front to rear.
CinC,2ndC,Tank Hunter Team #1,Sniper,Tank Hunter Team #2 as shown above.
Next up for these will be a light mortar platoon.
Miniature Company-Battlefront FOW

A few close ups.

Johnathan Tinsdale (Chaos in Cairo Character)

2010-11-24T12:14:00.000-08:00

Johnathan Tinsdale
Status-Senior Party Professor(Stone Expedition)
Date of Birth-1864
Current Year-1926

Professor Tinsdale of Cambridge University is a Brilliant teacher and scholar of Archaeology with a specialisation in Egyptology and archaic languages who has authored several acclaimed works and is considered amongst the best in the field world wide.About the only thing that rivals his love for the past is his daughter Elizabeth herself a professor and an up and coming scholar of some repute in Egyptian mythology and language.

There is a hitch though in that he is also considered to be a few marbles short of a bag,but we will politely say he is a known eccentric.The reason is because he tends to wander off in thought in the middle of lessons deep in thought leaving the class waiting minutes or even the entire class period for him to continue and as of late has even begun talking too himself to include asking and answering questions out loud which has given the board of professors much concern indeed.

If the professor's mental state can be called into question his physical condition cannot.For a man of his age,he is a remarkably fit at 62 years old who could easily keep pace with any reasonably fit 40 year old man even though he likes walking around with a cane that isn't needed at all.He also happens to be a very good shot through his trials as a young British officer in the Anglo-Egyptian War where he was wounded twice and received honours.However,this is a subject the Professor doesn't much like to discuss and will happily turn the conversation to what he does....all things related to past civilizations.

Recently Professor Tinsdale published a book on ancient writing that supported the belief of long dead Egyptian Pharaohs would once again walk this earth and that secret cults were set on taking advantage of powerful relics to seek control of regional governments.Professor Tinsdale took the view that these things are true and felt a warning needed to voiced and these activities to be promptly and thoroughly investigated.

Well,with the professor's strange behaviour and now the release of this book was really all too much for the Cambridge board of Professors and Professor Tinsdale was politely,but firmly asked to take a paid indefinite leave.However,out of respect for his standings the board publicly announced Professor Tinsdale was taking a leave of absence for specialized study on a new source book and to their regret they must let him pursue this goal.

Professor Tinsdale is not a bitter man nor one to sit on his laurels and so took the extra time to research his favorite topic that being the location of Ramses the great.Through research,guess work and study Professor Tinsdale believes he knows the location,but understands he cannot do it by himself and thus contacted his old friend Jack Stone who he met while on a dig.Jack was more then happy and said he would get things started and organize the expedition.

Jack is fortuitously already in Cairo exactly where the professor needs to go and so books a ticket on the next liner to Cairo accompanied by his daughter Elizabeth who is also keen on finding this tomb.While travelling they noticed or believe they noticed shadowy individuals following them.This has continued even after meeting Jack where they are all waiting on the arrival of their sponsor.

Miniature Company-Coppelstone Castings

More Fallschirmjägers(28mm)

2010-11-21T16:08:00.000-08:00

A couple more Artizan Fallschirmjäger's for my Disposable Hero's FJ platoon.

Fallschirmjäger in Splittermuster(Splinter Pattern) with MP40

Fallschirmjäger with in Sumpfmuster(Marsh Pattern) camoflage with Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon.

I'll be adding more FJ's when I get time.I did these while waiting on my El Cid order which still hasn't arrived.I also finished another character for Chaos in Cairo,but still thinking up the background so no pics of him yet.Plenty of logs in the fire.
Miniature Company-Artizan Designs

El Cid

2010-11-12T02:34:00.000-08:00

Coming soon..a friend and myself will be playing armies for WAB2 using this Supplement.I've been wanting to play the period for years,but the timing was never there,but now I've finally ordered my Christian army and just waiting for it to get here to start building and painting.My friend is collecting Andalusians.
It's going to be an all mounted force that is mercenary in nature where at times it found itself employed by Muslim Taifa Kings ,but more often then not in the employ of the Christian kingdom of Aragon between the years 1090(King Pedro) and 1135(Alfonso I) covering both El Cid's period and the early Reconquista under Alfonso I "The battler".The time line,personalties and armies involved,plus the look is my favourite for this period.
The General is Christian by nature and for using the lists in the book,but after that it's going to have a real mix of Christian and Moorish cultures in appearance to reflect their various masters over the years.It will start off with the various Caballeros and Jinetes and I'll add some military orders to the list when playing the Christians during Alfonso's period.
I'll be using various miniature company's together to include Conquest Games,Artizan,Perry ,Crusader and perhaps some Gripping Beast as well.
When this is finished I'll do a Almoravid army using largely Artizan and Gripping Beasts fantastic Moorish collections.
If your asking how I'll ever finish all this......army painter or the normal method and just not painting the damn eyes!

Jack Stone(Chaos in Cairo Character)

2010-11-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Jack Stone(aka Leonard Hurtbottom)
Status-Expedition Leader(The Stone expedition)
Date of Birth-1890
Current Year-1926

Born in Minneapolis Minnesota USA to a brick layer father and a waitress mother.The Hurtbottom's lived in a state of semi-impoverishment in the inner city where life could get hard at times.Habitually picked on for his name led to young Leonard to engage in fist a cuffs on a regular basis often with older,bigger and crueller children.Tired of receiving a beating Leonard joined the local gym and learned the sport of boxing.Soon the tables turned and the taunting ceased as Leonard engaged the biggest tormentors he could find in a bit of back room brawling leaving them all in bruised heap.Leonard in fact became so good at boxing that at the age of sixteen he became a junior state champion and something of a neighbourhood celebrity.

In collage Leonard joined the men's rugby team where he looked to be a rising star until a confrontation with the coaches son caused him to be removed from the team.... over yes you guessed it an insult/tease to his name whereby the coaches son had to spend a few evening in the local infirmary.

In 1912 Leonard joined the French Foreign Legion to see the world as he put it.When the Great War broke out Leonard had risen to the rank of captain where he saw action on both Somme and Verdun among other gruelling battlefields.During the war he was awarded many medals including the highest Legion d'honneur.

After his entire company was wiped out at Verdun due to an incompetent commanding officer ordering Leonard's company to assault a near impregnable machine gun position over open ground leaving him a badly wounded sole survivor.This caused him to return in a fury whereby he beat the man senseless.

Not wanting to execute a national hero for fear of the demoralizing effect it might have Leonard was quietly demoted to a lieutenant and sent on garrison duty to North Africa/Egypt to command a very small undermanned remote outpost.When not fighting off the Turks and renegade Arabs it was here that he learned the study of archaeology and acquired a fascination with the occult from celebrated British professor Tinsdale who was conducting an archaeological excavation who was to later join Leonard in many future adventures.

After the war Leonard resigned his commission and changed his name to Jack Steel so as to have no record hanging on him and also tired of the trouble his name caused.It was from here that he started his life as an adventurer, investigator and artefact seeker of both historical and occult objects.

It was actually Leonard who discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb,but John Carter wanting the glory for himself had him drugged and kidnapped and held in a basement in Cairo.Leonard escaped by being able to trick his kidnappers a into believing he was having a heart attack and feigning unconsciousness whereby this lured them into the basement where he sprung into action and overpowered them.However,by then the damage was done and nobody believed his story.

Disgusted Leonard left Egypt for adventures in the Himalayas where he accrued some fame,but that is another story.In 1925 Jack as we will now call him as this is his preference returned to Egypt with rumours of Ramses the Great suspected tomb location being found by his old friend Professor Tinsdale.The problem was funds were low and a mysterious group was shadowing their moves and making things difficult thus bringing investigations to a standstill.....that is until Jimmy arrived and this is where the story will begin.

Miniature Company-Coppelstone Castings

Chaos in Cairo

2010-11-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is a pulp skirmish game by Blue Moon Manufacturing that I'll be starting with a friend.The background is more or less during the mummy serials and movies set in the 1920's Egypt.It includes archaeologists/adventures,monsters,cultists and fanatics all battling for their own goals.
Each "Warband"(Group) is made up of between 5 and 10 miniatures which is nice as it keeps the figure requirement low as I have several other projects on the go.The real work is in scenario designing,storytelling and terrain making for the various locals the campaign takes place in .
I'm curious to see where this goes as it's not my traditional wargaming format,but does allow me a break to just enjoy painting different things and letting my imagination has some outlet.
I must add a certain Jason(http://geektactica.blogspot.com/) fantastic work in this type of gaming had a huge influence on getting me interested in this,although his setting is in the Gothic Vampire and Werewolf movies using Chaos in Carpathia rule set from the same company.I will be using some of his ideas for inspiration.I just hope my storytelling will be just half as good as his and I'll be happy.
As their is no rush to finish this I'll be releasing posts when I have material finished or seeking general advice.

I'll be playing an archaeologists/adventurer warband(good guys?) and my friend will be playing cultists of The Cult of Set(bad guys?)Basically,I'm trying to recover ancient artefacts,arcane knowledge and unearth tombs for science,education....... oh and of course some small fame along the way.;-)While my friend wants them for personal power to further the aims of his group....something along the lines of control of state and perhaps beyond by the mysteriously evil nameless ones.
When ready,I'll start my posts with character introductions and then terrain making updates and eventually on to the scenario's themselves to include game results and some hopefully half decent attempts at story telling.The story telling will be done in Journal form as Jason did as that really seems to work very nice.You really should check out his blog,but please don't hold me to the same standard or I will likely disappoint.
See you in desert!
Cheers
Christopher

Fallschirmjäger MG42's Machine gun platoon(15mm)

2010-11-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Adding some more pics of my growing FOW Fallschirmjäger army.This is a much needed addition to keep those allies heads down as MG42's can really lay down the fire power in a rapid volume.
Miniature Company-Battle Front(FOW)

Fallschirmjäger Pak40's gun platoon(15mm)

2010-10-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

Another unit added to my Fallschirmjäger to deal with any tank surprises.I'm kind of in a rush to finish some more Fallschirmjäger,because I'll be in a tournament end of next week and it's going to be tight.
These guns are large enough to deal with most armor the enemy will bring.I wasn't sure if I was going to camo up the guns,but decided to paint them up in the standard field colors straight off the line.
Next up is a machine gun platoon and then the headquarters.
Miniature Company-Battlefront(FOW)
Christopher

Japanese scout surveying the land

2010-10-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

An interesting thing about this scout is his grass/reed camouflage jacket.These were often used as a "raincoat" by Japanese fishermen and farmers,but was taken and used by the military for it's camouflage potential.

Miniature Company-The Assault Group

Japanese scout taking a quick glance

2010-10-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

An interesting note Japanese scouts is the often also acted in the role of snipers,but how the Japanese employed them tactically was different from their western counterparts.The Japanese when acting in the role of snipers were a form of rearguard were their primarily mission was to slow the advance of the enemy until eliminated, while western snipers often acted as hunters of a sort with mission objectives of hit and run with a get in and get out plan of action .

Miniature Company-The Assault Group

Japanese scout in the bush

2010-10-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with the Japanese for the moment.So far,it's been fun experimenting with them as it's something different.I hope it's proving enjoying for some to see.I've now tried a darker green shirt and pants for a different combination and will continue to mix up the lighter and darker styles together.

Miniature Company-The Assault Group.

I'm back!

2010-09-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,
I just returned from a 3 week vacation back home in Minnesota USA visiting family.All blog activities will resume shortly.I'm still not over the time change yet,but that will pass.
I'm itching to get painting soon(so much to do) and also curious as to what everyone has been up to.:-)
If your curious that's my home states flag and is often called "Land of the 10,000 lakes" as we have so darn many.It's a beautiful state and I enjoyed the visit,but it's always nice to be home again.

Cheers,
Christopher

2010-09-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

This is my first Japanese WWII figure and it's made by the Assault Group(TAG) and they are quite some nice figures and paint up very nicely.I plan to use them for Iron Ivans "Red Sun,Red Death" rule set.

Helen(Tank Girl) got me interested in starting these guys with her wonderful Japanese.I really liked how she did them and so I used quite a few of her tips on uniforms(Thanks Helen!)and added a few things of my own.Just like Helen I prefer the Southern Theater of operations in the Pacific like New Guinea,Burma, Philippines, Singapore and similar places then the small islands campaigns which will result in my Japanese tending to include quite a bit of greenish tones and such.
First up is a Japanese scout armed with a Japanese made sub Machine gun the Typ 100.He has green pants and a khaki green shirt with some leaf camouflagelage added .I plan on working on various tones of khakiand green to give different looks as I believe they may have presented this appearance.
Miniature Company-The Assault Group

Cheers
Christopher

The Green Devils of Carentan(Fallschirmjäger in 15mm)

2010-09-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello folks this is the project that has had me busy for the past couple of weeks as they are very difficult to paint.I thought 28mm Fallschirmjäger were hard......well think again Ladies and Gentlemen!I spent quite a bit of time pulling my hair,gnashing my teeth and cursing enough to make Blackbeard blush!That said I am pleased with the end result and that in itself gives you more motivation to do some more.
These are 15mm Fallschirmjäger and are based on the same unit as my 28mm Fallschirmjäger only for Flames of War.So the background is exactly the same if you want to read again up on their history.
I also painted them similar and again took some artistic license by adding Luftwaffe blue pants and helmets here and there along with Splinter pattern,Marsh pattern and the standard German Field gray.However,this time I left off the Tropical pants.Some have gaiters and others do not as was typical of late war Fallschirmjäger units.
Some of you may have noticed I also painted up a weapons canister which by this time they were no longer doing active para jumps,but I included one as it both adds to the atmosphere of being Fallschirmäjer and for a sense of completeness.
Of course I didn't take the highlights as far as my 28mm as they are quite a bit smaller,but I still did add some for depth.Painting the drops was quite tricky,but I'm happy how it turned out.I also experimented on the metal on the weapon's by painting it in a gun metal gray that I'm very happy with and will continue to do.I've gone a bit crazy with the pics and I hope you will forgive the indulgence,but it took me forever to do and I'm feeling a bit happy at the end result.I'll be adding more to this army later,but now I have to paint up a few 28mm Japanese I promised to do.
Note on the base:The pictures are a bit brighter then real life where the models blend in more.I did this to get get a better contrast between the ground and the figures.The result is a base that looks more reddish then it actually is,although it does have a brown reddish tinge to it just not as intense.Miniature Company-Battle Front

Cheers
Christopher

The Rising Sun

2010-08-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

As you can see one of my upcoming projects will be Japanese related.I plan on doing the Japanese in WWII with an idea of basing them off the "Teishin Shudan" which were Japanese paratroopers.It's a rough outline and I need to do more research first before anything is completely decided.The time period will take place during and after the Philippines campaign where their uniform was basically the same as other Japanese infantry as they already discarded the paratroop look as their role became more as elite light infantry then as para's.
Some may be asking why Japanese WWII and the answer is threefold.The first is due to Helen Bachaus( http://tankgirl666.blogspot.com/)wonderful WWII Japanese which got my attention to this not often seen troop type.Some helpful hints would be nice Helen.:-) The second is the HBO series The Pacific which did a fine job of portraying the gritty reality of combat in this theater.Last but not least is TAG's offer of free miniatures to painters who will paint up some TAG miniatures and send the photo's in.With all three of these factors I just couldn't resist.As if that's hard to do.
For those following the German Fallschirmjäger in 28mm this is not a replacement project,but rather in addition to.I'm currently painting 15mm Fallschirnjäger while I'm waiting for ANGRIFF which is a DH supplement to figure out the platoon organization before continuing one with Fallschirmjäger in 28mm.Basically,just a short pause.The Japanese project will start small and I'll see how it goes if I want it to grow into something larger.

Cheers
Christopher

Eagles on the move

2010-08-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Now that I worked out the camo schemes for my Fallschirmjäger I now opted for a group shot.This represents half of my first squad with the other half still in production.
Here the obergefreiter(corporal) is overseeing the placement of the squads MG 42 .The scene is taking place somewhere in Normandy.

Corporal in Splittermuster(Splinter Pattern) & Sumpfmuster(Marsh Pattern) camouflage.

MG 42 Gunner in Sumpfmuster 43'(Marsh Pattern)

Assitant MG 42 gunner in Sumpfmuster 44'(Marsh/Water pattern)

Jäger in Splttermuster(Splinter Pattern)

More is discussed on previous posts regarding each Jägers uniform for those interested.I'm currently working on the second half of the squad add will posts results when completed.I hope some of you are enjoying this project and thanks for viewing.:-)
Miniature Company-Artizan Designs