Perry Plastic Knights

Just a quick photo update of the figures I bought at Claymore 2012 - or some of them, at any rate.  These are the two boxes of Perry Plastic 'Mounted Men at Arms' - and very fine they look too!  I've gone for about two-thirds with lances (although there are enough parts for you to do them all that way, if you choose) and a third with hand-weapons like swords, axes, hammers, etc.  That's Twenty-four figures in total, which is enough for anything from about 6 bases in something like Impetus or two units in Hail Caesar or the like, without it looking at all unrealistic.  

I've decided I'm going to spray the horses down with a brown aerosol (the riders aren't yet glued on) and the knights can then get painted/sprayed metal along with a few bits of barding (horse-armour, basically) and glued into place before the final touching-up.  I'm making an effort to adopt more of an 'army-painter' method throughout, as I always tell myself I'll just do it by hand and then come to regret it halfway through!

Buying Boxed Sets

I was recently consumed with  angst about the state of my painting kit, and was pondering buying a big set - 'Bluebear Jeff' and 'Ubique Matt' were kind enough to give some thoughts (thanks guys!) and as they rather confirmed some things I'd thought myself, I've restricted action to a rather more restrained purchase of some individual paints and a couple of good brushes.

On the subject of big 'boxed sets' however, I have also found myself pondering my next gaming move now that things are finally settling down.  Current ones are easy, as the outstanding purchases are the 1/72 boxes necessary for the 1815 French army at Waterloo, and finally to complete the Prussian one further down the line.  I've been progressing the painting on the Anglo-Allied army, and as finished units begin to appear it makes sense to run their enemies in tandem, so at least a few little scraps can be played.

Besides that, the other obvious one is the 1/72 Union Army of the Potomac, which will be needed to go on the table against the (nearly completed!) Confederate force.  After that however, what next?  I change my mind on future projects roughly every week, but you've got to start somewhere and see if the same idea keeps bobbing up in your mind over the weeks and months.

One future project I want to do is more WW2 stuff.  I've also been torn over time between doing high-level strategic stuff in Pendraken 10mm, or doing 28mm tactical games.  Things have been complicated recently by Warlord Games releasing the 'Bolt Action' tactical-level rules, in the same style as Black Powder & Hail Caesar, to compliment lines of figures they do.  Also, it's part-written by Rick Priestley, who was the games guru that created most of the Games Workshop things that first introduced me to wargaming.  From reading reviews of the mechanics online it also appears to be a kind of descendant from the old WH40k Epic games, which I absolutely loved back in the early 1990s.  So, there's that to ponder.

Bolt Action has also got Warlord offering big 'army deals' for the armies as starter sets, which is pretty tempting.  But, in a strange twist of fate, this has also happened elsewhere.  Perry miniatures are now doing their Wars of the Roses figures in 'army deals' which they used to only do for ACW and Napoleonic ranges (or maybe they've been doing it for ages - I only noticed it had been added recently.)  I know that more WOTR figures might possibly be completely mad, given how many I already have done and painted.  Then again, the 'Bloody Barons' rules have proved to be a lot of fun on a few try-outs, and let's be honest: how many wargamers have you ever heard complain that their armies are too big?

Anyone got some advice about paints?

A little request for help from other wargamers out there: can anybody recommend a good range of paints for modelling miniatures, and specifically a good starter set?  

This has come about from me trying to get back into a regular painting habit after months of house-moving upsetting the system, but now I've made a terrible discovery - most of my paints have settled and separated, or are nearly depleted!  Obviously after the months away I've come back with a fresh pair of eyes, and can see that the paint collection I've used before now (mostly Games Workshop paints, simply because a nearby Hobbycraft stocked them and I could get them easily) is actually greatly diminished, being very old and run-down.  In short, barring a few odd paints here and there as 'refugees' I need to buy myself a starter kit to get up and running.  

Also, sad to report that my brushes are in dire nick - I'll need to get a new range of good modelling brushes at the same time, making the overhaul complete!  So, what do other people out there use?  Is there something you'd recommend, or a 'starter' set you know of that's available somewhere?  Any and all suggestions are most welcome!

Desert War Pictures

It has now been about a month since moving house and I posted a back-to-normal message, which turned out to be massively over-optimistic!  In the last four weeks, getting the house up and running has proved to be quite a big task, and playing a game has proved to be quite beyond me.  I have managed to set up about three or four games but not played anything more than a few turns before having to pack up again because it was taking up time and space which is currently needed elsewhere.  

Still, things shall improve with time, non doubt.  For the benefit of posting anything other than this brief message, I've dug out some pictures of an old WW2 Western Desert game I played ages ago and never got round to posting - a bit of easy eye-candy, and hopefully a sign that I can get the big campaign going again before long.  

Dug-in Brits

An Italian division in prepared positions

British and Italian Armour clash in the open

Close-range tank battles

A German Panzer Division

Brit infantry attack out of their fortified lines, as Italian tanks attempt to flank them

German and British mobile forces play hide-and-seek through the rocky outcroppings

Claymore 2012

After many weeks away, I've returned!  The long enforced pause from moving house is over, and once more I can get gaming, painting and blogging.  


The new house is still a mess of boxes, and most of my miniatures are packed away in storage for the time being, but they'll soon be back in action.  I decided yesterday to celebrate a week of tough work by treating myself to something I rarely get the chance to do: attend a wargames show!  This year I went to Claymore 2012 in Edinburgh, hosted by the South East Scotland Wargames Club (SESWC.)  I had last been about a decade ago, and never managed since - but this time I even managed to cajole/persuade/prod a gaming buddy to go along with me.


The two of us had a great time, although I suspect more me than him (he's more into board games, and the emphasis was very much more on miniatures gaming than I remembered from the past) but the main thing I noticed was the size of it all - the whole thing took up two large halls and also a third bring-and-buy room, which would suggest to my (admittedly naive) eyes that the hobby is in good health north of the border.


So, I treated myself to a few things.  Here's the haul!  

The main thing I got was a pair of Perry Miniatures' hard-plastic Mounted Men at Arms.  This is not really required for WOTR games, as mounted troops make somewhat infrequent appearances and are effectively a novelty on the battlefield.  However, I intend to increase the scope of the collection to be a more generic 'Late Medieval' collection, allowing things like Burgundian, Swiss, French & Italian armies to be created - probably as part of my fictional campaign-world.


Beyond that, the next big thing was me buying an entire Baccus army in 6mm.  I've looked at it online many a time, but not I own a Greek Hoplite army pack.  The single pack holds an amazingly impressive set of 528 infantry and 33 mounted.  The brilliant display-bases of 48 figures packed into a dense phalanx on top of a 6cm by 3cm base was the clincher.  I also got a pack of precut MDF bases, which actually have black edges (something I've not seen from Baccus before.)  


Other purchases were to bulk up my 'miscellaneous' collection of scenery.  I got a pack of eight trees from 'S & A Scenics' which will do for both 28mm WOTR games, as well as 1/72 plastic figures in my Waterloo & ACW collections.


Speaking of ACW, the last packs I got were from 'The Baggagetrain' and consisted of half a dozen resin breastworks - each about 6cm long and showing 2 or 3 logs interlocked in a zig-zag, with mounds of earth to the front.  For a developing ACW collection and ambitions to recreate the 1864 campaigns, field defences like this will be critical, and I'm glad I no longer have to make them!


Other honorable mentions:
Pendraken, for making the WW2 Eastern Front in 10mm look appealing
Warbases, for their superb bases with penny-sized indents (could the WOTR armies be about to get a new basing system?)
Kallistra, for giving me a chance to finally see their Hexon terrain boards and get what the fuss was about.
Plastic Solder Company, for producing the WW2 ranges that very nearly had me buying models for a company-sized force to do games of 'I Ain't Been Shot Mum' - thank god they'd sold out of the Panzer IV boxed-sets, and I could talk myself out of it!  


More blogging, of a more regular nature, will hopefully resume from now on - possibly even more, once I've worked out where to put my new 'Man-Cave!' 

Progress on the Workbench

The Entire Anglo-Allied Force

Waterloo progress of a rather 'dull' sort.  There are generally two ways I approach painting:  
One way is to paint up a unit and complete it, then start another, then another, until it is all finished.  The other way is to paint like a production line, doing the same thing on a whole pile of miniatures (all the coats, all the boots, etc) to bring the whole lot towards completion.


For a fair time, I used to try to always do one or another, and typically wound up feeling guilty when I found myself sacrificing one method for the other.  I have however recently been pondering things and am now much more forgiving of mixing these two methods up.  This is really down to me belatedly recognising that each one has distinct advantages and disadvantages, which vary whatever one is most suitable, depending on the state of the 
project.


Option one is quite good for getting a sense of progress, and correspondingly gives a little boost of enthusiasm - very valuable in a big project, where it's easy to have the initial spark of inspiration begin to wane after a time.  However, seeing a unit through to completion over and over again can also kill off the 'big picture' of a project, and encourages a bit of tunnel vision to creep in.  Also, after seeing a fully-finished unit complete it can be a hard thing to go back to another group of undercoat-only models and start all over again.


Option two is unquestionably faster.  It moves large numbers of figures towards completion in 
a few bold moves, and keeps the whole force moving forward (i.e. cuts off the temptation to dump parts of the project and scale back.)  However, it's painfully thankless for long periods.  Who ever walked away from a painting table after 2-odd hours of work, with precisely no completed figures to show for it, and felt happy?  

Closer view - mainly Cavalry & Artillery

After a bit of pondering (this wasn't some high-minded intellectual musing, I should add - more 
like some daydreaming which went on a bit too long) I decided that the general rule should be the option 2 'production-line' method, but regularly broken up with bursts of 'through to completion' painting to keep enthusiasm high.  I've recently finished a burst of 'option 1' painting which has produced my first try-out bases for all arms of my Napoleonic Waterloo army, and even my first full division of infantry.  However the box of base-coated models on strips of card is alarmingly vast, so I think it's high time that I knuckled down for some 'production-line' painting to try and get all the models with at least the base-colour of their uniforms in place.  

The whole lot

The end result:  behold!  The entire Anglo-Allied army coat-coloured at last, and now only the painful process of doing all the black areas.  Covering heads & shakos, shoes, cartridge boxes, Brit backpacks, bayonet-sheaths & various other straps here and there, it's one of the most infuriating paint-colours to apply.  Still, once this is done it gets progressively easier, I'm happy to remind myself.  

20mm Generals!  Wellington, Orange, Hill & Uxbridge

The finished articles, including some artillery & cavalry I didn't get to photograph before!

Rules I've Recently Bought

There's been a rules explosion (a "rulesplosion?") here, recently.  Cut off from tabletop gaming by the demands of packing up to move house, I've found myself roving the internet and finding all sorts of rulesets I'd otherwise not have found.  As a result, here's a little round-up of recent acquisitions for possible future projects.  Some are here already but some are still en-route through the post.  

In no particular order:

This one is one I've had my eye on for a while, due in no small part to the Geektactica blog showcasing it and making it look amazing.  Plus, I may even be able to tempt a friend into some occasional games, due to the 'skirmish' type of games needing only a very small outlay of figures.  

 This is quite similar to the above, but in a Retro Sci-Fi setting.  This is (from a first glance at the 'rapid launch' rules taster) similar to CinC but appears to have much more RPG-style characteristics.  Also, the range of miniatures out there for Retro Sci-Fi is surprisingly large and impressive!

Next up is 'Condottiere' by Foundry Miniatures.  This looks like a one-stop system for rules and campaigns, which has had interesting 'chatter' doing the rounds.  It should be an easy adaptation for my large stock of wars of the roses figures to branch out into generic 'Late Medieval' warfare.  Speaking of the Wars of the Roses...

 This is a set of rules by Peter Pig, and it turned up on various lists across The Miniatures Page forums as a strong recommendation for a WOTR rules set.  Trouble is, no amount of searching on the internet seemed to turn up a decent review or any large amount of info.  Eventually, I decided to buy it and give it an experimental whirl - it also apparently contains quite a bit of background info, scenarios, etc. so it's not a complete shot in the dark.  

 And now for something completely different!  I've often heard about how the game 'AK47 Republic' was very good, and as I was ordering Bloody Barons off Peter Pig, I decided to take a punt on this and sling it in the cart as well!  

I'll see about putting up a review of the rules once I get a chance for a proper look through them all!