British Legion Cavalry

My first miniature post of the year begins with AWI in the form of the British Legion cavalry. The British Legion otherwise known as Tarleton's Legion or Tarleton's Raiders is an American Loyalist formation that is a combined force of both infantry, cavalry and light artillery. The Strength of the legion varied but at full strength it stood at 250 Cavalry and 200 Infantry. The Legion fought in numerous engagements, anti- guerilla missions and punishment raides to include the siege of Charleston, Monck's Corner, Lenud's Ferry, Waxhaws, Camden, Fishing Creek, Wahab's Plantation, Fishdam Ford, Blackstock's, Cowpens(Losing all their infantry here), Cowan's Ford, Tarrant's Tavern, Guilford Courthouse, Francisco's Fight, Gloucester. The British Legion was disbanded on October 10, 1783 with most of it's members settling in Nova Scotia Canada.

Banastre Tarleton is probably one of the most controversial figures in the war with many believing him to be a murderous commander while others think he is a victim of propaganda. Just to give you an idea of some people's opinion of him think of Mel Gibson's The Patriot and the brutal British commander in the movie is supposed to be based on Tarleton. A lot of this stems from what is reported to have happened at the Battle of Waxhaws. This engagement resulted in the catch phrase Tarleton's Quarter. My personal opinion is that it was a civil war of sorts especially in the south with a lot of bad blood so I think both were pretty ruthless in dealing with each other and atrocities were likely committed on both sides, but I think Waxhaws either through fact of events or propaganda ramped things up a few notches and both sides took revenge killings on each other when the mood and opportunity struck. I feel I need to add that as the commanding officer Tarleton is responsible for his troops as he instilled both discipline and code of conduct. One must say Banastre Tarleton was a very effective cavalry commander either through tactics or ruthlessness or a combination of both. Whatever your opinion on Banastre Tarleton from murderous thug to brilliant cavalry officer you have to admit the man could design an excellent hat! He designed the Tarleton featured on these gents and as a matter of fact everyone liked it so much all light cavalry adopted it in the British forces.

As a Southern Campaign enthusiast this unit was a pretty much a must do as the Legion was so active in the war there plus my collection is in desperate need of cavalry to run some particular battles. When painting the unit I pretty much used Don Troiani's painting and description of the regiment down to the horses being a mixed lot of what they could get their hands on. Equipment I kept as uniformed as possible as I feel cavalry were better equipped and found it easier to maintain it.  I enjoyed painting their simple, but rather elegant uniform and of course the Tarleton hat's which are my favourites of the war. As you may have noticed I couldn't resist playing up the bad guy image and mounted the commander(perhaps Tarelton?) on a black stallion.:-)

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

Looking back on 2014 and looking forward to 2015

A happy me in front of Lee's Memorial

I don't ever keep a count of how many figures I do per year as my count is usually not high enough to warrant that, but I may give it try someday if I feel my painting output sees a strong enough push to make that worthy of talking about. Anyhow 2014 followed the usual pattern of wanting to do much more then I actually get done so same old story on that front. Gaming has seen a bit of slump with perhaps one game every 6 weeks which I hope to improve on in 2015. The highlight of 2014 was without question my dream visit to Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields which surpassed my expectations. I promise to post up more pictures soon. If you have not gone and are an ACW fan then it is a must see!

My projects plans for 2015 are:

Strong Contenders
AWI- Continue on with this as I  actually have decent amount of figures that makes playing this period easier and easier. I would say another 4-6 units of cavalry and infantry will see a lot of scenario's open up. If I do more then that will just be icing on the cake. I must say Black Powder's Rebellion has really opened up the possibilities here. I can say with a very high degree of probability that this will see good progress in 2015, but as to everything else below......

ACW- I will probably do more as this period is dear to me, but I cannot decide if I want to make a serious push in 28mm or 15mm. Need to chew on that a bit.

FOW WWII- I will add more to my growing American Tank Company and perhaps do some Germans as well, but haven't decided if it will be Luftwaffe/Herman Goring or regular Grenadiers.

Moors 28mm Impetus- I really must get started on this as my poor Spanish Crusaders are tired of playing cards waiting for a fight. We shall see....

Germanic/Late Romans 28mm Impetus/Dux Britt./Dux Bellorum-  I kind of view this as all one project and I would be surprised if I didn't do anything here so I would put this in a close second after AWI in terms of likelihood of seeing progress made.

Vikings 28mm- Continue on with the laborious task of re-basing for SAGA and Impetus.

Possibilities

WWII 28mm- Will maybe do some Japanese and I may also do some Germans, but honestly I might not bother as my friend Nick has plenty of that making it a bit unnecessary.

Swiss 15mm- Lovely Legio Heroica figures, but still thinking it over if it will see paint this year.

Teutonics 15mm- More lovely Legio Heroica which actually makes sense doing a snow theme for once.

Sudan 28mm- I've been thinking of this for sometime and have now began to collect the figures....will they see paint....good question.:-)

FIW 28mm M&T- Need to do a few more French and Indians and then start on the British.

All of the above is subject to change with things dropped and others added as I put the B into butterfly in terms of painting habits.

After family and health my resolutions are to spend more time painting then reading blogs, forums and planning new purchases. Last year I did better with the forums, however the extra time I accrued didn't go into painting but went into reading yet more blogs, and planning new purchases. It's fun and all, but doesn't help with getting things done. This year I hope to get the balance right.

Happy New Year!

Anti-Aircraft Artillery (self propelled) Platoon

Adding to my 15mm FOW American Tank Company is an Anti-Aircraft Artillery (self propelled) Platoon consisting of 2 M15 CGMC and 2 M16 CGMC halftracks. In the new version of FOW air power is positively deadly and if your running a tank company you really must have air protection or you run the risk of being wiped out. I prefer the older air power version as I feel new version is to powerful, but others complain the older was too weak so I suppose getting the perfect balance isn't that easy.

I did the vehicles with some battle damage and had some fun with the weathering which is my favourite part in painting vehicles. I lost two crew members for the guns and looked all over, but cannot find them(Grrr). I'll just consider the platoon short staffed waiting on replacements.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Battlefront

Armored Field Artillery Battery and Analogue Painting Challenge

That's right it's that time of year again for Curt's here Analogue painting challenge which is becoming a traditional annual event in the wargaming blogging community and something I always look forward to. Curt in his wisdom has now even devoted a blog to it here.

This year I will be be doing the challenge "old school" style which is to say I will not be participating in the painting themed challenge rounds which give bonus points for entering and will instead only receive points for each model painted. The themed challenge rounds are more or less a loose painting competition which is not to say that is a bad thing at all and is in fact an enjoyable part to view, but for me the Analogue Painting Challenge is to get figures painted for my armies which leaves me little time for distractions like the bonus themed rounds although I will cheer them on.:-) With all my points being "hard points" I'm very curious to see if I can make my goal of 500pts.....I hear some murmurings of "when pigs fly"....

Ok now some comments on the photo's. This is my latest edition to my long..long.. time FOW US Tank Company that was originally supposed to be something quickly done and on the table so I would have something to do while I painted up Airborne. Well....that's still the plan just taking much longer then I thought!!

Anyhow the unit is an Armored Field Artillery Battery consisting of 3 M7 Priests , 2 M2 Halftracks and M4 Sherman Spotter tank. The command and staff can also be on foot, but I've chosen to have them mounted and see how that goes. I eventually plan on increasing the size of the unit, but for now this will do just fine. I'm never completely sure of myself when painting vehicles and always feel out of my comfort zone, but I do enjoy weathering vehicles!:-)

As to what's next I think it will be more stuff for my tank company, but that can always change as I'm ruled by mood in what I do and am never sure what exactly I'll do next.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Battlefront   

Vikings #2

I just haven't had much time to post this month for various reasons, but finally getting one in. I've been painting and have report to write so more things coming when I get more time. These are some of my re-based Vikings that I've been working on for SAGA and Impetus. Vikings are among my favourite periods well actually all dark ages is.:-)  

The figures are all Foundry and the flag is LBM.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Wargames Foundry

Battle of Belmont 7th November 1861

The battlefield as the two armies prepare to clash.

A few weeks ago(yes, I'm that far behind on my blogging material) one of my friends Sascha and I had an ACW game using the Black Powder rule set with the 66% range/movement effect rule in place and Bill's alternative turn sequence . We took the scenario from a GaG scenario book which was easily adapted to fight BP. The scenario is a relatively small one with one large Brigade divided into two smaller brigades for each side. The battle was very early in the war and fought between green regulars and militia with smoothbore  muskets and a small amount of artillery. Both sides were given the "freshly raised" special rule to reflect their green status and in addition the confederate militia were given the "unreliable" special rule to further show their lack of regular drill plus Union general Grant was given the "High Decisive" quality attribute. The union were also given a higher command rating. A historical description of the battle can be found here.

Sacha took command of Grant and the union forces and I of Pillow and the confederates. Because of the small size each army each regiment really counted and Sascha's first attempt on my flank resulted in a complete route of one of his regiments which really put him on the back foot for the rest of the game. He also had a couple issues moving his forces together even with Grant's abilities due to some unlucky rolls which just made things harder for him. While my command abilities were less then his I had to make fewer commands as I was playing the defence which in the end cancelled out his superior command rating. Sascha made some brave attempts on my flanks, but they were all repulsed and eventually the confederates mounted a counter attack which more or less rolled up the union left flank breaking the union army. It seems this time the rebels changed history.

The game was great fun and Sasha was a real sport who continued to try until his army could do no more. The key to the game is if the union can get superior numbers on to the extended confederates and defeat them in detail before the confederates can stabilize their frontage. Unfortunately Sasha missed a couple command rolls and lost his first assault badly which put him in bad spot as I was able to consolidate my troops thwarting his efforts.

We are both looking forward to our next game together, but that could be awhile due to Sascha's job taking him out of town during the week and family on the weekend so it's likely to be holidays and vacations when I get to see him again.

Thanks for viewing!

Union forces ready to launch what will be a fatal assault for them.

Confederate's guarding the camp preparing to advance.

Repulsed on the right the union probes the left.

Confederates launch a counter attack!

Union left flank beginning to turn.

Confederates hold in the center and press on the union flank eventually crumbling it.

Union forces try one last assault on the confederate left and are thrown back in disarray at which point the order to withdraw is given by the union commander to those who already haven't.

Late Roman Cataphracts

Decided to finish up this unit for my Impetus Late Roman army. Cataphracts(cataphractarii) of any kind are one of my favourite troop types of ancient armies so it comes as no surprise I enjoyed doing this unit. I based them up pretty tight with six to the base as I wanted to give a solid impression like an armoured steam roller.

I painted them up in violet colour as it accentuates their elite status and kept the armour low key as I didn't want it shiny bright, but still a little flashy with a mix of bronze and metal. The figures are done with ap and added highlights and shields are hand painted. The figures themselves are Foundry and still among some of the best cataphracts IMHO. More of this army to come.

If your thinking I've switched off AWI well I haven't as a unit is on my desk, but the problem is I have few other projects as well that I want to do too like these Late Romans for example! I usually prefer to do one unit at a time, but it seems I'm painting several at the moment! I'm just going with the flow and seeing where my paint brush takes me rather then over thinking it.:-)

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Foundry Miniatures