Hooker and Mc Cellan

General McCellan

Continuing the ACW figures for Matt I have finished 2 command stands. Bother are Union Generals. General Hooker and General Mc Cellan. I may have miss spelt them but you will get the idea.

They may well represent both me and Matt in the Club campaign. Neither of these generals was considered very good but that said they are definitely better than me!



General Hooker

The figures are a mixture of Peter Pig and Frei Korp aand as well as the general and flag bearer they also have an aide de camp on the 40mm by 40mm base.

Talking of bases these are clearly not in my normal style as they have been created to fit in with Matts Union Army, just like the Berdan's sharpshooters I showed a couple of days back.

Well that's it for today. I am currently working on a big submission for the analogue painting challenge. In addition I will be going to my first show of the year on Sunday. Yes of course I will take a camera (and spare batteries) so expect either a loot haul or some show pictures on Monday. Talking of loot I have no huge plans and really not much in the way of a shopping list so I am not expecting to get very much (Famous last words).

So until then take care have fun and paint some figures.

Cheers Clint


Opps!

Yes I admit it, I have neglected my blog recently. Part of it is the schedule for the analogue painting challenge which means I am only allowed to post once day a week for the challenge. But most of it is me being lazy. So I am giving myself a talking to and getting it sorted out.

Berdan's Sharpshooters!

Correct I have been painting some ACW figures for my friend Matt. So today and maybe to change our luck in the ACW campaign at the club we have a new unit.

Based for the Peter Pig rules of "Civil War Battles" on 30mm square bases there are 8 full stands. And 1 half stand (15mmx30mm). For a total of 26 15mm infantry from "Blue Moon". I have tried to emulate Matts basing style and not my own as a single look to an army is better than having everything on different bases and looking like a patchwork quilt. So the bases should fit in quite well with what he already has. I will admit I did chicken out and did not put the yellow bugle badge on the top of the kepi. That was just too fiddly for me, If I was to do them again I may attempt a simple yellow splodge but I may keep them clear of that. As trying to do it accurately and without a transfer I would personally in the "Too hard" basket. Yeah maybe that makes me a wimp but until I see anyone do better I just don't care.

Since painting these I have found out that they are well known amongst Re-enactors who all seem to want to be just that little bit different. I find that attitude very understandable as like wargamers they are in a niche hobby so to some extent value their identity and thus a "cookie cutter" unit with strikingly similar uniforms may really not be for them.

This picture swiped from the internet shows what the unit looks like when portrayed by re-enactors. Being blunt they probably have more interest in the look of the uniform than "Joe Average" wargamer.

Looking at their uniform it looks like mine are a little on the dark side but that is not a huge problem as the green will stand out on the tabletop where everything else is either blue or grey.

The Above mentioned "Civil War Battles" do require casualty markers. So these are a few by Peter Pig. Again painted in the green of the unit just for completeness.

Thanks for looking today I will strive to be more regular over the next few weeks.

All the best to you and your family.
Cheers Clint

WSS finish, or is it!

 Well I have managed to finish my WSS figures.
And here are the last batch. (Well not quite, there are always room for a few more.)

Having had a few moments to rummage in the lead mountain I found enough troops to complete 2 cavalry units. So One British and one French.


Additionally I found a couple of gentlemen officers and 4 extra foot figures so I thought it would be rude not to get these finished as well. Well I had the paint and brushes handy and Like I said it would be rude not to!

I will admit I did find an extra gun and crew, but I was missing a wheel so I thought best not at this stage. Besides "Black Hat" miniatures are usually at the Cavalier show so I can pick up a few extra bits and pieces should I need to. So other than a spare wheel if they have one, I notice they also do a sedan chair. Let's be honest who does not want a sedan chair in a game. Hell I would have one in a zombie game if I thought I could get away with it!

I did make one mistake though. I made the trumpet player British. These gives me 2 British and no French so I think it will be re-painted pretty soon. No reason the French can't make a loud noise as well. So I had better get on with it soon.

The flags for the British were in the army pack that I bought. The French were home made. I just looked at typical flags of the period and went for  something fairly generic. If I went for the flag of a specific regiment I feel that the figures would be only used for that regiment. Thus it would become a fantasy game if they were used in a different battle or region. So If they were at Blenhiem for example they could not be in Spain, but by keeping it generic they can be used anywhere even in America for Queen Anne's war if I felt like it.

So thanks for looking today I hope you liked what you saw. I will do an AAR for the game at the club next time out.So until then take care have fun and paint some figures or play a game or better yet do both.

Have fun, take care and I hope to see you soon.
All the best Clint

WBQ 3 and my contribution.

 

Yes I know "How Very unlike me!"

Well in this current edition of WARGAMES BLOGGERS QUARTERLY

I have an article! Yes this is me who most self respecting school masters

would hardly trust with a crayon.

Maybe that's another story

 and just to let you know wax crayons do not taste good.

 

Well you all know the drill.

Click the link Below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4vBkPK8I4yjRS1VXzloQk53RFE/view

 

(the Link Above!)

And it should take you straight to it.

 

Then ignore everyone else's article

BUT

Read mine and then come back here and leave

Pleasant comments or not.

You may want to just use my contribution as loo paper.

As most of you will have followed the game anyway so nothing new there.

Future game?

Looking to the future however. You will note that I am already planning the next game. It is all in my head at the moment but it is worth saying that I am thinking of WW1 air war flying among the clouds somewhere over Flanders. So If you are wanting to play start reading "Biggles" and watching films like "The Blue Max" and growing your moustache! I will start making the scenery after the challenge ends and also start getting the planes then. I will take requests about which side you would rather be on closer to the time. I envisage each player to be in control of a single plane and as there are no radios it really will be every man for himself.

 

But more of this AFTER my shopping sprees at Salute! And when I start building as you should know by now I will do a walk through of what I build.   

More 28mm Sudan

 Yes I painted these up for Matt. They are 28mm Perry Miniatures Egyptians circa 1882 ready to battle the Mahdi. The rankers are in white uniforms and officers are in Navy blue. When I say white they are actually painted cream ,then cream and white mixed and highlighted in white. Just painting them pure white would not allow for any highlights so I started with white primer and the applied the cream just so it was not patchy.

There are 2 officers, 2 musicians and 2 flag bearers each with a different flag. The flags were bought in and are paper. I made the mistake when attaching these of not making them flow the same direction. By the time I realised the glue hard dried and it was too late to change it. You can all imagine me kicking myself!


The  chip on the second flag bearers base is repaired now. So do not fret about him. They are all based on 2mm MDF round Bases and then filler is applied to get rid of the "step of the metal figure base. It takes a little longer but it really is worth doing as it gives a much more professional result.








The other 18 figures are all marching. At first look they are all the same, But a closer look reveals several differences in the figures. Simple things like a moustache or clean shaven or the tassel on the fez (You may if you wish call it a tarbush), but I will use the word Fez just because Dr WHO says that Fes's are cool, and that's good enough for me.

Thanks for looking today. And with luck I will post again soon. I am currently painting for eBay sales so it may be a mixed bag for the next week or so. But it is just as likely that I will give up and carry on with my own things but I am hoping to get a little money together for the local show in a couple of weeks.

Take care of yourself Clint

Harpies

I'll admit it was an eBay whim. Well not quite but almost. I have had the "7th Voyage" rules for a long time and the "Songs of Blades and Heroes" rules as well so It really was only a matter of time before I got some critters. They were cheap and easily available from a well known seller on that very famous internet auction site. I had never painted any before so it was a simple click and bid we all know the format. And suddenly I have 5 semi naked Harpies.

They are of course Foundry 28mm figures but these were not well cast or sculpted. I am not saying I could do better myself, I KNOW I could not. I am just saying when I think of foundry I tend to think of brilliantly cast and sculpted figure. But if the price was right I would get some more and many others from their Greek Myth range. Just not straight away.

Once I had decided on a dark purple for the wings all the fur/hair would be "Blonde" just to reinforce the contrast. I am happy with the result as the skin wings and fur all look very different without becoming dark. If I do get some more I will change the colour scheme and go for various shades of brown I think. But that may well change on the day I pick up a brush!

Of the five models 3 are clearly different species. One has their arms attached to the wings, another has human legs while the rest all have bird legs.

Now as I contemplate what I will do next I wonder should I do some stuff to sell on eBay (US Paratroops FOW 15mm Company) or even to start a completely new project (20mm Yom Kippur war). Both of which I have the figures for fo It's just a matter of selecting one and getting on with it.

That's it for today folks. I have sent 2 lots of to the Painting challenge so they should get published this evening. And WBQ should be out in about 2 weeks and my article has been accepted and I am now planning another.

SO JUST for FUN. I am thinking of doing cartoons of Wargames Stereotypes. Therefore what Cliché game players can you Name. Here are a few to get you started,

Rules Lawyer.
Painter,
Historical Know-it-all
Fantasy weirdo!
Sci Fi Geek.

And many many more.

All the best Clint

How to lose a campaign Part 2

 Yes we have at long last started an ACW campaign at the club. Foolishly I was appointed the Union General in charge while Tim is the Reb General. It is a fictitious campaign so don't go saying things which may or may not happen as time goes by. It is also a small campaign with both land and riverboat battles. And this is the story of how I loose the campaign part 2!

As we were again defending the Union were allowed to set up the terrain. Which we did with a ribbon of woods and fencing that we hoped to use as a "Stop Line!" We had a farmstead on the right to defend and a road entrance on the left to defend. Given that we had a disaster of a starting set up where the only thing that worked in our favour were the terrain stayed the same. Each and every unit was to start quite chewed up or not on the table MOST was just not on the table. As most of our units have to be 6 bases in total the option of losing D3 stands from each unit before the game  starts is really quite harsh. Still I had the cavalry and the right wing with the farmstead to defend and Peter and Matt the left and the centre when or even If the troops turn up.

The above picture shows all the troops which did turn up in time. 2 units of Cavalry (both 4 stands each) and 3 Artillery pieces. That's all we had to defend with.

These are all our troops which did not turn up at the start of the battle. As you can see not the best start and with so much off the table we really did have to drip feed any reinforcements to where we would need them. At least that was the plan.

 Luckily in the first few turns our support did start to arrive in bits and pieces. And Peter decided to fortify as best he was able the entrance area. (And not get the troops where they were needed). But hey ho his troops and I do try not to leap up and down and interfere with subordinates by micro managing.

 Matt Brings an artillery unit to reinforce the farmstead. It was either that or leave it exposed and unsupported. So I am glad he did so. As the Rebs commanded by Scott move in and then stop outside my long range but within his. Oh well other than abandoning the farm nothing I could do about that.

 I dismount my second cavalry unit to give enfilade fire should the Rebs charge in. This restricts the artillery but as it is now damaged by counterbattery fire it was no longer on top form.

 Eventually the Rebs do attack and drive my skirmish line of dismounted hosemen back deeper into the farmstead. But at heavy losses to them and not so heavy losses to me. Matt and Peter both get more troops on and while the Reb Cavalry move to encircle the farmstead are brought under fire and driven off.

Peter decided to flank march. He succeeds but then his troops are no where near his commander and can't receive any orders. so in desperation (while still in march column) launches an assault on Tim's Rebs who are in an attack line. Well while I will admit nothing of any value is achieved without risk and that it could have been glorious the chances of success really were against him. Yeah guess what. he lost two units from the game and it is unlikely that we will ever get them back in the campaign. Which really hurts. Pete is a "Murdering officer"

 More Rebs assault the farmstead so my second unit of cavalry mount up and ride off. The Artillery is lost another unit in the campaign I can't see us ever getting back. But I hold the farmstead. And one of the reb units will at least need time out of the line.

The countdown clock ends the game and we tally up the Victory points. We have 51 victory points but lose as the Rebs have 67 Victory points. We are not out of the campaign just yet but another loss like that and we might as well be simply because we cannot replenish our losses. We will still have fresh troops next battle but hardly any choices of what we can field. Still it's a game.

15mm Apaches

Well it hads been a while but I have at last finished my 15mm Apaches. At least until I buy some more. Which you never know may happen in the future but at present I have no plans to do so. 

Anyway here are 8 bases of 3 figures each. Based on 30mm square bases and while I did originally get them for "Hey you in the Jail!" rules I suspect they will now be used in another set. Oh come on we all want to play cowboys and Indians like we did when we were kids. And these should enable me to do so.

The figures are "Frei Korp" available from QRF in the UK. Unfortunately they have stopped doing shows for the time being so until I get the strong desire to continue this the project is on hold.

I did finish the bases with little chippings of cork bark as well as static grass to give a broken ground look to them. You will also notice a feathered headdress on the command base. Obviously Apaches did not wear headdress like that but for a game purpose it does work to designate a command stand. And sometimes we do have to break the rules just a little.

I have kept the colours mostly to yellows greens and reds on these figures and given them a "Flesh wash" all over to dull them down and make them match the earth colour of the base they are on. It's not brilliant but it does seem to work.

Thanks for looking today. I will try to get the club campaign AAR done on Wednesday. All the best Clint

10mm zulu's started.

 I have started my Zulu horde. These are al 10mm Pendraken and Newline Design 10mm colonial Zulus.

They really were no fun to paint, not that they are bad figures  just that they are monotonous. So much brown and white. And not a lot of other colours at all. I could have painted the shields in different colours but as I want them to represent the tribe that attacked Rorke' s Drift, that tribal force only used brown and white cow hide shields. Pure black or black and white or pure white shields in various combinations were used by the main body of troops to attack at Isanwanda but as my mate Tim is building the drift it would be wrong to paint the shields different colours. At least at present as I need to get a few, quite a few, more done first.

Here is a second batch. My eyeballs were not quite bleeding just yet. So I decided to limit it to a mere 36 this time. 

All the figures are for "Blackpowder" and are mounted on either single bases (3 figures to a stand) or double stands (6 figures). This should allow me to adopt some suitable table top formations when a game starts. And also to fit neatly round any terrain that I need to. But I admit it's still a lot of bases to move.

I have several hundred more to do so I expect by the end you will be as bored of them as I am. So I am having a weeks break from them and come back to them next week. which means you can expect to see more in a fortnights time (I hope).

That's it for today's update I hope you are having a really good day. Take care and all the best from me.

Cheers Clint

Anti-hero Lucifer.

Well the "Entrance Fee" for this years catalogue painting challenge is to paint base and send Curt an "Anti-hero". For doing this Curt will make a small dotation to a charity. So in a way we all come out of it as winners.

But I was struggling to come up with an idea for an anti-hero. I finally looked it up on google and they have a list of fictional anti-heroes. So I picked one I thought I would like to do. And inspired by one of my favourite artists (Gustav Dore) I selected Lucifer from Milton's Paradise Lost.

In the poem Paradise lost Lucifer is a charismatic, sophisticated erudite individual. Who believes that God has favoured mankind over Angel-kind. And as a result leads the angels into rebellion against God.

It was first published in 1667 and follows two story archs, one about Lucifer, the light bearer, and one concerning Adam and Eve.

 The figure is part of the "Lucifer's War" range of figures by West Wind Productions. To be honest it is supposed to be Gabriel but I thought it was a better figure than the supposed "Lucifer". I went for the typical black and red as I wanted the figure to be more menacing. If I had settled on white DOVE wings and not CROW wings the figure would look more Angelic in our contemporary view. Likewise If I had selected a blue palette for the clothes that would also look "wrong". So the colour choices were pretty much given to me by our current understanding of who and what devils and angels are.

As a 28mm figure this was a great deal of fun to paint. As mentioned above the colour choices were pretty much preselected so I started with a white undercoat. This was to allow the Red to stand out and not look dull. It did mean that I would have to paint a lot of BLACK though. The wings were painted 3 times with black ink over the white primer in an attempt to get into all the details of the feathers and yet leave the top edges slightly clear of colour. I did not quite work, but It did come close enough.

Other then the cloak the hair and the wings nearly everything else was metallic. So I used both gold and silver to offer some variation. I usually have problems painting gold but have found "ARMY PAINTER" to do an acceptable version of the colour I wanted. I did a top highlight after all other painting was finished with WH SMITHS poster paint gold as it is brighter and sharper. The problem with poster is if it gets wet again it is likely to run into any recesses. But as I was to top coat it all with thin coats of spray varnish I was happy (ok nervous) to risk it. For the silver I started with "Boltgun Metal" and added layers of Mithril Silver mixed in larger and larger amounts with the afore mentioned Boltgun metal and Highlighted with the silver again at the last.. Which is my normal way of doing steel.

The model came on it's own octagonal slotta base. But the pose it was very leaning forward and standing on a pebble. So I got rid of the pebble with some snippers and went into the garden and selected a flint of about the right size and dimensions. The flint was a food fit so I added cork chips around the base and painted the whole lot a random muddy brown. Added white to the mix and dry brushed to make the rocks look weathered. The figure fit the flit with no work at all, sometime I just get lucky so I superglued and green stuffed it in place and to hold it strong. And the jobs a goodun!

And below is Gustav Dore's Illustration of Lucifer from Paradise Lost. he looks far more thoughtful than the miniature which goes to show his many and complex sides.

That's all folks. Thanks for looking and take care. I hope to see you visit again soon. All the best Clint.

Civil War campaign start.

Yes we have at long last started an ACW campaign at the club. Foolishly I was appointed the Union General in charge while Tim is the Reb General. It is a fictitious campaign so don't go saying things which may or may not happen as time goes by. It is also a small campaign with both land and riverboat battles. And this is the story of how I loose the campaign.

The figures are Matts and Grahams and the terrain is also Graham who is the referee. We have set the campaign in a river valley in the "Eastern Theatre Mid war period. Using the Peter Pig "Civil War Battles" rules we went through the "pre-Game" and the Rebs were attacking the federal homeland. So the first game was a Union defence. Gulp!

 We, Peter, Matt and Myself had to set up first and as there were 3 objectives one of which was in the confederate starting area and the other two closer to our starting position we had to leave the right hand 1/3 of the board hanging open in the air. (Thems the rules). The Confederates took advantage of this and had half their force attacking that sector and cavalry attacking our left wing.

Above you can see the rocky outcrop which was one objective. Centre of the board .And our open right wing. Peter took the left wing and Matt the centre and guess who was on the right. Yeah me!

 Peters left had a lot of troops that did not arrive in time for the battle but would roll each turn to come on. The bad news is that due to the pre-game the confederates had cut the road and thus making the roll for reinforcements harder.

 I did have some troops to move into the open right flank. but I kept one unit in the farmstead as they had better cover there.

 Well that plan did not work, Scott and Gary sent three units against the one in the farm and then charged with a veteran Red Infantry unit. My troops thought better of it and ran away without much of a fight! They skidaddled so far and fast that they went of the table never to be seen again. (Maybe they will come back in the campaign and maybe they won't as I will have troops that don't run that need bolstering! Time will tell!)

 Peter on the left also had trouble. Because he had troops just arriving Tim was able to use his cavalry like paratroops and take an objective and try to hold it until his foot could arrive.

 I went marauding with my cavalry on the right. While the cavalry did take a bit of a beating they are only a raw unit I was able to tie up twoe of Scotts . infantry units and a gun battery in the process.

 Matt (my side) and Gary( the confounded Rebs) slogged it out in the centre trading blows in a tit for tat manner. This kept on all game with little give or take and it really was a slogging match.

 This is when my Cavalry broke and failed a morale check. They only had to retreat and not flee the table so I was quite content as they had kept Scott on the right flank busy for most of the game.

 Scotts Veteran Reb unit that had taken the farm were closing up behind my blue boys.

 My Federals were able to get one round of shooting into the rear of Scotts Infantry who had not recovered from seeing my cavalry retreat battered.

 Matt still slugs it out with Gary. Matt launches a charge and the charging unit is not able to push through. they get thrown back with lots of casualties.

 Scott gets another unit onto the rough hill objective but stalls just outside canister range. And they start to suffer because if I can't fire canister I will fire something else.

 Meanwhile on the left. Peter forces Tims cavalry to mount up and leave the church objective. Straight into Peters cannon which was able to fire canister! That dealt with half of Tims cavalry!

With a swift move along the road I was able to bring my union forces behind Scotts troops on the rough hillwhile I battered it with my guns and Matt brought a raw unit into the line (It had only arrived 2 turns before)!

And then the game ended. Victory points were awarded and the final score was Confederates 47 points Federals 46 Points.

Which means that I have lost the first territory in the campaign.

Next weekend at the club the campaign will continue as the rebs push further north!

Thanks for reading. I meant to post this yesterday but time just got away from me. Have a good couple of days and I will post again soon.

All the best Clint