Playing Favourites

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

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

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)

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

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!

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

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