Zombtober (Week 1, Figure 1)

 Only managed to get one zombie done in the first week of Zombtober. But 1 is better than none. He is a single Wargames Foundry Wild west Zombie gunfighter. Unlike most horde zombies he is armed with an antiquated rifle a holstered pistol and even a sheathed knife. If he can use them is another matter of course.

 Most of the paint work was done with washes  as I wanted a really dirty and grimy look. Not really too much more to say about him. Just your average ho-hum run of the mill wild west zombie with a gun. He fits in with the others I have done and the horde slowly grows larger.

I know it's hardly a horde but it does continue to grow and expand and by the end of Zombtober should be over 20 metal figures. which should be more than enough to discourage a player or two.

That's todays very brief update. Just touching base really and as week 1 of Zombtober closes at least I can put something up which is relevant to the event. Even if only 1 figure. The painting table continues to be cluttered with a variety of projects in several scales and will no doubt be worse after SELWG>

I shall do my usual club report on Monday. Tomorrow we are playing an ACW game with two new members. Graham and myself and the two new members Ian and Matt. I have no idea what the rest of the club will be doing so it will be nice to see what's going on when I get there.

That's it for today. Have a good weekend and next update on Monday.

Cheers Clint

Yet More 10mm Samuari.

 As you can see I am still working on my 10mm Samurai armies (not even half way yet!) So if you are not bored by them yet I think you will be by then end.

Today we have two more units a Samurai foot unit all carrying swords. It is a shame they are all in the same pose, I would have liked some variety but as I only have one type of samurai I am limited to what I can do. In the future I will buy different packs that way the army will look more vibrant.


The second unit is another 4 bases of Ashigaru Arquibusiers. Painted exactly the same way as before they have a very uniform look. For Ashigaru I prefer a uniform look all in the same pose and all painted the same way. On the table top they all like they belong, yes I will do a group shot another time, but I need to do a few more units before it will look worthwhile.

I have several other things part painted so with luck I might have something different to show next time. 10mm 15mm and 28mm including historical and zombies. I will not predict what will be next though it will all depend on what I feel like in the next few days.

So until Friday when I do my next update take care, have fun and get some paint on some figures.

Best wishes Clint

Battle of Worunzov Road

I was delighted to accept an invitation to play a game with the Rejects> This would be the 2nd game at Posties Shed of War and while my knowledge of the Crimean war.....Charge of the light Brigade, Mary Secall, Charge of the Heavy Brigade, Florence Nightingale, et al was severely limited to the level of the average man in the street I was again made welcome and comfortable and made to feel at home and at ease. Postie droped pieces of paper on the dining table and I selected the closest one. Ray took the last one, the last one left. Ray had been saying before the game that he did not want to play the Turks. So as luck would have it Ray got the Turks. The Moral of the introduction is never ever say what you don't want as it improves the chances of selecting them!

My initial setup

Arriving in the shed of war all the troops were already in place and we took our positions and Postie gave us a briefing. The Battle of Worunzov Road was set 2 days after the  Battle of the Chernaya (click the link to get the Wiki of the battle). The basic briefing is that the Russians were keen to put the defeat behind them and attacked the weak allies flank. Ray gives a better synopsis HERE! I suggest you read it as it will make a lot of my waffle clearer. There was no pregame special rules or opportunity to discuss plans and tactics.



Rays Cavalry.

I was the Russian 2nd in command opposite Rays Turkish force. Both Russian commanders Responded to the set up by moving everything as fast forward as we possibly could. 8 inches at 15mm figure scale is not at all bad. My Cossacks sprinted away on my left. Light irregular horse I needed them to scout and probably die finding Rays hidden reserves. They managed the first but avoided the second. Rays Cavalry charged them and they fled as far as it was possible for them to go without leaving the table well out of the way and then regrouped. Job done as far as I was concerned. This allowed me to move up my 2 units of Hussars ready to engage Rays Horse.

Opening moves

The Turks and Sardinians started to use their artillery but to little effect and the whole Russian line moved forward yet again. I managed to move my artillery to the high ground and by the third turn had got them set up so they could fire over my troops heads and into the defending troops. 

Russian artillery set up at last

Cavalry pre Charge

2 moves from contact. By that I mean of course one normal move and one charge the turn after. After the normal move I elected to fire the front ranks of the Russian columns despite the fact that I would need a 6 on a d6 to do any damage. If I played the game again I would probably hold my fire as predictably this had little or no effect on the defensive line. It did however make me feel like I was being aggressive and taking the battle forward. Ray held his fire, as he hoped that the first shot advantage would be worth just getting a single shot off. One good shot as opposed to two less powerful ones.



In these rules you have to write charges down before you carry them out. In this turn almost everything charged. There was a little discussion as I had my Cossacks charge into the rear of the Turkish cavalry who were also charging my hussars who were in turn charging the Turkish cavalry.

The Clash of Cavalry

Thump! we all rolled dice and while I rolled High Ray did less well. I was able to win both cavalry battles, take both standards and kill or capture the Divisional commander.

Cavalry Battle Aftermath

At this stage Rays cavalry were all gone and I still had 2 units of Hussars and 2 very small units of Cossacks. Evidently this is the best that the Russian cavalry have ever done in the shed of war according to Postie. I have no knowledge of this but must state I was very pleased with the result. I had expected to loose one if not both clashes but sometimes luck goes with you.

The infantry pre-charge

When it came to the Infantry pretty much everything charged the thin line of defenders. Mostly it went my way as I was able to bring 2 units in column against each line unit defending so I did have the weight of numbers. As mentioned above Ray had decided to hold his fire till the last minute. While it was effective it was not strong enough to stop the attacks going in. The Turks, under Ray, did OK with one unit defending a hedge managing to push back the two Russian units who attacked and take their colours, one routing and one falling back.



And after the charge.

I did have a Cossack unit which failed to motivate and thus failed a morale check. The following turn only due to bad dice Ray failed to inflict any damage so on the last turn of the game they would have managed to slip away.

At this stage though every division on the board was in need of a morale check due to routers. Everyone passed and we played one more turn. Nothing much changed in the overall battle and the allies conceded.

Last Turn

Conclusion: There are a number of lessons to be learned.

 Big hefty Russian units can soak up damage while small Turkish and Sardinian ones cannot.

All reserves from all sides should be brought on as soon as possible.

Light Artillery is not as effective as the firer would hope. And has a much shorter range that I would first expect.

There are of course a number of personal observations about the people as opposed to the rules (myself Included), that I will not share. nothing negative more concerned with play style and preferences. They are probably because the others knew what to expect from the rules while I was far less familure with them.

Overall a decisive Russian Victory. 26 points to 6.

That's it for today I hope this came out readable and coherent. There is no guarantees of that though. I shall post again on Thursday. Until then take care and have fun. All the Best Clint.

Post Script: I am a winner! Many thanks to Anne O'Leary for her blog giveaway and Yippee I won something!

Waterfall started. (WIP)

It is clear that doing the waterfall for the TAR7AN board will take a while. I did not want the water to be clear and factory finished so I decided to "Texture" the water. To create the rippled water like effect I decided to drip yatch varnish on to the Perspex. I have to do one drop each day and allow the rest of the time for it to dry. It is now beginning to take up a more natural finish. At this stage I feel It is about half way there. Which will mean a few more weeks of dripping. 

That's it for today, very quick as I will be going to play a game with "Posties Rejects". Therefore the next post on this blog will most likely be a battle report. I have a few clues as to what we might be playing, but until I arrive I cannot be sure. The only thing I will predict is that Postie will put me in the thick of the action as he thinks I did not get too much of a game last time.

Ok folks hope to see you Tuesday. Have a god couple of days. All the Best Clint

The peasants are revolting!

 I am sure it is little surprise to anyone that here are a few more 10mm Samurai figures from Pendraken . This time peasants with bows. No back banners this time but a single Samurai figure in each unit. The Samurai figure is to designate a command stand should I need one as I don't see too many peasants of this period being all that inclined to get involved in any battles without a little encouragement. I might be wrong in this regard of course but as I was 2 figures short of my ideal this seems to solve the problem in the easiest way.

You may have already noticed that one group has blue/grey hats and the other group has brown/tan hats. Again this is just to simplify the identification as I do intend to have one army predominatly in grey/blue (as the Ashigaru of the last blog post) and one army in red/brown. These colours will not extend to the actual samurai figures as they will have clan Mons on the Sashimo back banners sufficient to identify them.

The last Picture shows both units together just because someone would be bound to ask. When I get a few more units done I will do a group shot of the whole army but at present there are not enough completed to warrant a picture of that nature.

My next scheduled update would be Sunday but as I shall be visiting "Posties Rejects" on that day I might have to wait until Tuesday to get back on the schedule. OR I might do a very brief TAR7AN board update early Sunday morning it all depends on what time I get up what the boar is drying out like and if the weather is any good. Mostly it depends on if I can be bothered.

So until next time take care and hope to see you soon. Cheers Clint

10mm Samurai Started!

I think I might have reported that a club member passed me some 10mm  Pendraken Samurai. Having been inspired from both a number of sources and reasons I have very quickly started to tackle these. I shall go into the reasons and inspirations another time as they are fairly involved.

The figure themselves are a pleasure to paint and as long as I don't get side-tracked (we both know I will) I can see these getting finished quite quickly. (Well quickly for me that is).  While I do not at this stage have a rule set lined up I have decided to base them with 4 stands to a unit on the same size bases as for DBA. If nothing else I will get a couple of DBA armies bashed out in pretty quick time! I (along with many others) don't like DBM and to be honest the figures are a little late for the medieval period. I might have a look at FOG Renaissance or, which is looking most likely create a set of rules myself. In no way do I consider myself an expert on this period but I know what I want the rules to do and knowing what I want from a game might make this easier than chasing around for the "right" set of rules.

Anyway onto the figures. These are clearly Samurai as they are mounted. I think that the area needed to graze a horse would restrict anyone other than a Samurai or lord to have the area required to keep a horse. They are on a 40mm frontage and 30mm deep (60,thou0 platicard sheet. Only 3 figures to a base so 12 figures in a unit. Pendraken sells them in packs of 15 so while 4 horses would fit on a base it just made more sense to use 3. Yes I am tight fisted! I would have liked more Sashimono back banners but at least one on a stand is enough to get the idea. As you can see I have settled on the 4 diamonds motif as it is the easiest to paint. (And I like Easy when it comes to 10mm figures).

For the Ashigaru (light feet) infantry armed with Aquibusiers. These are on 40mm by 20mm bases with 4 figures to a base. Again as with the Cavalry I went for convenience rather than struggling to cram figures on bases. While more figures might look better 4 is enough to give an idea without being too many to eat up all the figures in one go. Unlike the Samurai the Ashigaru have been given uniforms and have a very standard look to them. I have used a single Sashimono for the unit so we can see which stand is the command stand of the unit. I have no idea if I will need command stands in any rules I create, but it does look better in the box!

There are still lots more to do so expect to get very bored looking at more of the same in the next few days. I shall attempt to update this blog on Friday or Saturday, as I will not be available to blog as normal on this coming Sunday. So until next time I hope you have found something of interest and I look forward to talking to you soon.

All the best Clint.

September Skirmish 2013

 Let me start by saying I had a fabulous day everything went well, there were no problems and we arrived in time and set up without any distractions. The first two pictures are of the game the club and myself put on. The scenario was that the British fleet (controlled by Graham and myself) were blockading a Dutch port and the Dutch were trying to get a merchant fleet out. Dutch I know someone will say that's an unusual choice! The reason being that Graham had not got any Spanish turn cards with him. Anyway who cares, Peter and Rob were the bad guys! The game went well but you do not put a game on at shows with the main aim of getting a result but of meeting and talking to fellow wargamers, discussing rules, figures and other related things. That side of the day was very busy for me and greatly enjoyable. Every time I stopped and chatted the other guys took over my ships and carried on playing. (Or when talking to Fran (Angry Lurker) at the start of the day they did try to keep me involved. ) I can't say I was paying too much attention, but I did have a plan and was determined to stick to it. The plan being that I would cover the left side of the board. Graham had his own plan, a more aggressive plan as it turned out!

Cutting a long story short Graham split the Dutch fleet and pulled off some good dice rolls while I blocked the path and managed to halt the merchants on my side of the board and get in a few flukey shots which did things like start raging fires or disrupt their command of command or stop them being able to steer. I did get through most of the game without much damage and when Peter and Rob had the choice of targets always seemed to select Graham. Which I was very happy about, talking to people does have it's advantages you see. The final result was that Peter and Rod conceded mid afternoon both with very battered ships barely afloat or steering and with about half the Dutch fleet de-masted. Graham was pretty badly mauled but still able to fight, move and steer. Other than the Dutch ships we would have captured I would had we continued been able to snag a couple of merchants as well so all good prize money from the Admiralty and enough to keep my captains in comfort for a few years to come.

 


Other games at the show are as follows.

The London Privateers did a WW1 Game about the Falkland Islands. A club that only play naval games which I found interesting.

SELWG actually had three games there but as a bigger club I can see the reasons for this. The first was a WW2 Game. A slight change from the norm as it was set in the Pacific as opposed to Europe. Nice looking and the guys were chatty and friendly.









There second game was a 28mm English Civil War game. I know nothing about and have minimal interest in this period. I could get tempted into it but only at a skirmish level and it would need to be about witch hunting or something equally unrealistic. So for me this is a wargames period I am not likely to venture into. As such I did not get too much of a chat with these guys.






A Dystopian Wars game. Again I did not chat with these guys, yes I'm a wargames snob and if it does not interest me I just can't be bothered. The reason this game does not appeal to me is that it seems to be trying to do too much, land, sea and air steam-punk. Just one of those areas and I could get interested. The Spartan games models are nice yet somehow leave me cold. This game at the show also left me cold. They simply had too much on the table. This just leads to an unfocused free-for-all.










Peter who runs the "Gamers Hub" only 19 years old and bags and bags of enthusiasm always puts on a Warhammer game usually 40k but this being Fantasy. A really nice guy and I think if he retains that level of enthusiasm will become very well known in wargames circles.













The Third SELWG game was "Saving Captain Windsor" an Afghan war 28mm skirmish participation game. The guy in charge did admit they signed in as a different club because 3 games by one club at such a small show would have been a bit much. I think that speaks highly of the guy frank and honest and if other clubs don't want the space more power to them.







 Some 40k game going on I was running out of time so I did not stop for longer than to take the picture. If nothing else it does show diversity in our hobby. It looks pretty good and in my youth I would have been interested, but now I am approaching "Crusty-hood" it simply does not!













Paul and Ian from "Crush the Kiaser" doing a WW2 game for a change. Russian Front Mid to late war judging from the tanks involved. Had a nice chat with the guys about a Game idea I want to explore and perhaps put on at Broadside '14. There is a future blog post on about this proposed game so when I fail to get any painting done I will fit it in there.






Medway Wargames Club (Dave and Paul) put on a game of Dust Tactics. It is a game they have put on at the Rainham club a couple of times and while I have not played it yet I may well get around to it in the future. It is just one of those games which costs a lot from what I have seen. So while I might have a go my pennies will be going elsewhere.






The last game I have seen at a couple of shows but somehow it still does not register to chat with the guys and find out more. I feel I am missing out but sometimes you just budget you time better. I shall try to make an effort next time. There was also a bring and buy, a painting/modelling demonstration, re-enactors and traders. I had a deep pockets day and the traders suffered I was only parted with £9.60 in total so I will not be doing a "Loot Post!" this time around.

Overall a nice diverting day out with a few really good chats with some decent chaps. And that was the best part of the day for me. On that final thought thanks for reading I hope you found something of interest or amassment and if so I'll post again in 2 days time.

Best wishes Clint.

Rowes Brigade compleated

 Still working with the Baccus miniatures 6mm War of Spanish Succession Here we have 3 more units which represent the three remaining units which make up the brigade.

In order they are "Sir Clifton's Regiment of foot" with red facings as with all the units flags to be added when I purchase them as they are commercially available from the manufacturer.




"Scots Fusiliers" commanded by Brigadier General Archibald Rowe. They carried no regimental colours but did carry the kings colours into battle. Red cuffs but yellow facings. I must confess the small mitres were a guess for colours, but I thought the yellow most appropriate. At 6mm (1/300th scale) it hardly matters anyway as I know my players will just identify them by the yellow stripes on the lower edge on their tunics. I felt the need to put the yellow stripes on to distinguish them from the above unit.


"Earl of Bath's regiment of foot." As you can see these have yellow cuffs which the Scots fusiliers do not have. Commanded by Lieutenant General William North.

All three units have a little bit of touching up to do but they are sufficiently finished to box up and put away until I get the flags.

The Final picture is of the complete Brigade. Five foot units each of about 580 men (some slightly larger and some less). As ever there are more units to do, but this makes Rowe's Brigade of the Blenheim Column which was commanded by Lieutenant General John, 1st Baron Cutts of Gowran.

I shall continue to grow this army intermittently but not immediately. So expect some updates in the future. Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be running a game at Skirmish wargames show in Sidcup Kent a small friendly show  with about 25 traders many of which deal in plastic toy soldiers for toy soldier collectors as opposed to wargamers. It is however local and as such worth the time and effort. I will do a show report on Monday. Until then take care have fun and treat yourself to some chocolate...... you know you want to!

All the best Clint

2 Viking APC's

I have finally managed to get round to these two Viking APC's for my Afghanistan game. I know and fully except that such a modern conflict is not to everyone's liking and that is your choice and I respect you for it. For those newer members of the blog this was a game I put on about 2 years ago.

Here is a link VIKING APC to a wiki of the vehicles in real life. I add it because this vehicle is not typically seen on news footage. That being the case it is possible that you may not be aware of them. I am not sure if they are currently serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan (2013) but as the game was set in 2008 prior to the change in rules of engagement I am informed that they were present at that time.

The terrain is from the game mentioned above. This is just one of the boards but it shows a variety of cover opportunities from crop fields and mud-brick walls to fully functional compounds. These boards might be getting another lease of life over the winter months, but now is not the time or place to talk about it as I have to check with a couple of people over the weekend to see if the idea has legs.

Anyway both these Vikings are from Grubby Tanks (GRUBBY) formally part of the Britannia Miniatures range. They are resin single part castings and thus require no real assembly. They do come with 2 crew and a machine gun and gun shield in white metal as well as a  hatch cover for the rear top hatch. I did one with hatch open and one buttoned up. This gave me the greater variety.  The only7 disappointment I had with these was that the boxes and bags moulded to the top of the passenger compartment. The disappointment only comes because they were exactly the same. If they were not cast in the same one piece resin It would have been easy to add items to more personalise the vehicles. Should I get another of these I will, which I am tempted to do as it would then allow me to transport a platoon of troops, I will add extra baggage and tarps to create some variety. And that is my only quibble with these vehicles. Other than a Chinook helicopter kit I have waiting to be started that should finish all my forces for the Afghanistan game. I have no idea if I will ever make the Chinook and if I do where I will keep it so do not expect it to feature in the near future.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found something of interest. I will post again on Saturday but for now I feel the need to go back to the painting table and do some 6mm stuff! Cheers Guys talk soon.

Another 3 Pinkertons.

I promise this is my last 3 Pinkertons. Again by Artizan Designs these are another three in their Wild West range. All very nicely cast and sculpted with a few light mould lines and very little flash. Despite my photography you can see that I have settled on a very limited palette of colours in order to unify the figures. They are totally in keeping with the other figures I have done and should now give me enough figures in dusters or long coats to satisfy my usual players at least in the short term. Given the long coats it was a very quick painting exercise as the coats did tend to conceal a lot of detail beneath. Which meant that once the coat was painted very little extra work needed to be done. Just the kind of figure I like. Overall reasonably happy with the results, they could have been better but by crickey they could have come out so much worse. So I'll settle for that.

One of my players wants more Mexican Bandit types and I am happy to say I do have some to paint up, but not quite yet. Not that I pander to their whims I have myself noted my lack of those types of characters in my cowboy figures box which has lead me to purchase them but as yet not open the blister pack. With luck I can get them done by Christmas as I have a few other things I want to do first.

Talking of which one of the guys at the wargames club has gifted me some 10mm Samurai figures. (very nice of him). I am now looking for a good set of rules for this period if anyone knows of any. I would be looking for a simple set to play big battles with (ok starting with small battles and working up!)  I have looked at the Peter Pig set but they seem to leave me cold and seem very much in the same vein as "Bloody Barons" his War of the Roses rule set. And thus I feel it would be the same meat but with different gravy! Hail Ceaser/Black Powder is about the feel I want but more focused on the Period and less generic. So If you have any suggestions I would be delighted to hear them. If not I may have to write my own, you have been warned!

That's it for today. Talk soon all the Best Clint.

Amazon

Nope nothing to do with online retail! It is a lot to do with the latest figure I have managed to bash out. Again a Reaper Miniature in 28mm she is considerably more slender than the male barbarians but to my mind better proportioned more realistic and in a fantastically dynamic pose.

It would have been very obvious to paint her with blonde hair but I went for a dark brown simply because I felt the blonde option was far too clichéd. Also if you actually look around a class of 10 year olds you will see just how rare a natural blonde really is. I don't know about you but "bottle blonds" don't fit my idea of barbarians! Far to Hollywood!

I want to mention the chainmail bikini again completely Hollywood and more a sculptors fantasy than a historical reality. I can proudly boast that I have known a woman with a chainmail bikini many many years ago and that it was reputably "not very comfortable" I'll let you use your imagination as I feel sure it will be totally accurate. And did require it's very own gambeson!

I went for a very stylised shield design. It did take me a while to work out a suitable horse design. I had decided on a horse motif as I wanted something more feminine than most of the shield designs you would normally see. No Axes or Scorpions or the like and by equal measure I did not want anything completely girlie! I did recall (either rightly or wrongly) that the Skythian women did used to fight and it is speculated that is where the Greeks came across the idea of warrior women. I also remember reading that the Skythians had a fondness for red leather. Which did inform me of the shield colours.

Overall as a fantasy figure I must say I do like her as long as we can forget the history and clothing inaccuracies. She will definitely find a place along side the other male barbarians I have painted in the last couple of months.

I have overtime every day this week so I have no idea how much painting will get done so I will sign off now and rush straight to the paining table and try to get something finished. Until Tuesday take care paint figures roll dice have fun and generally enjoy yourself. All the best Clint

Those magnificent Dwarves intheir flying machines....

 No excuses but it has been a struggle to get anything done this week. None the less I did finish 2 Dwarf Gyrocopters. These are from Kallistra and part of my very slowly growing 10mm dwarf army. I did buy a job lot of blisters about 3 years ago. Buying them as a job lot I did not get too much say in the contents typically it had a little of everything odd and "exciting" but not the best selection of core troop types. There were some of course but then there were also a couple of packets like these!

In most fantasy wargames settings dwarfs have technology of some sort to counter the fact that they have no spell casters. All my life I have steered clear of collecting dwarf armies for this reason. I have nothing against them just that I felt that if you did not want to use magic you might as well not play fantasy games and stick to ancients. I am at long last coming round to having Dwarves and actually quite like them not I am getting older. Perhaps I feel I have more in common with them!

Anyway these are painted in blues to fit into the rest of the army which is still small in number but I do have a couple more blisters to paint up so I suspect they will get a little larger. By the time I do get them done of course it is doubtful that I will have an opponent at the club, but such is the speed of my painting and the fact that I get side-tracked so easily. Oh well I may have to think of an opposing army for them myself!

I have the day off tomorrow so I hope to get some painting done then. I have several things started but nothing near completion. I have overtime all next week so time to think but not so much to paint. My current thinking projects are about the show game for Broadside 2014, about creating a set of rules for Samurai wargames (I have yet to find a set I like, but you can anticipate some Japanese figures in the near future) and about other wargames ideas which both flit into and out of focus on a daily basis!

so until Sunday take care, have some fun and I look forward to seeing you soon. Best Wishes Clint