Misc 28mm medievals

These two fellows have been hiding in the tray under my paint carrousel for some time. I'm not sure where they came from (a trade with someone--but whom?) but I decided to haul them out and finish them off. They are 28mm plastic GW LotR figures.

I often find myself short of bases to represent generals and whatnot in games so these fellows will do the job just fine.

As my back has been a bit sore, I spent some of last night examining my collection and pondering the future of my 6mm AWI collection. I have AWI and War of 1812 armies in 1/72--does it really make sense to have element-based units in 6mm as well? I love the look but they haven't gotten much play recently. Hmmm.

Up next: I have some 25mm Star Wars guys that I'll work on as my back loosens up. And I have 25mm Carthaginians to clean up and prime as well. I'm hopeful I can play, rather than host, a game tonight at the club.

28mm Vampire Counts

I finished a small batch of twenty-one 28mm GW Vampire Counts which were for a commission. My instructions were along the lines of "make them look fresh out of the ground" which I took to mean dirty and ghastly.

Ranking these fellows up reminded me of why I don't like stand removal games! I'm going to have to add dome weight to the standard bearer!

I was quite happy with how the wood turned out. Two layers of paint and a wash added some nice texture. I see a couple of the bases require some touch up.

There is a bit too much red showing in this photo--most of that is actually a rust colour. Otherwise, these went well--GW figures generally assemble nicely (which they should, for the price). A white primer, followed by a wash, detailing and another wash is usually all that skeletons require.

There was also a Finecast Resin commander. I spent quite a lot of time detailing him and yet, after the wash, all of the detailing is basically lost due to the incredible definition of the sculpts. Huh. Oh well!

Up next: I have 28mm medieval foot fellows drying--some extra figures to serve as commanders or whatever. I also have some 25mm Star Wars troops underway and Tuesday is club night. Next up I may give some 25mm Carthaginian troops a whirl.

25mm AT-ST

Things have been a bit slow this week as I work through some painting and have been distracted by the good weather. I did manage to complete a 25mm AT-ST for Jessica's Star Wars armies. This was a pre-painted plastic model that I re-assembled (having broken off a foot during debasing), washed and based.

The scale is pretty much spot on and I have based it for HoTT. It is likely to get more action in a Memoir adaptation, though so the basing is mostly about looking pretty.

You can see it scaled against some 25mm West End Games metal troopers and a 32mm Titanium Series walker. Below you can see the hatch detail better.

Up next: I have 21 28mm skeletons nearly done. Just finishing the painting and will then wash and base. I also have the remainder of Jessica's Star Wars guys on the paint table--a mix of droids, bounty hunters and Jedis. We have the club this Tuesday which I'm quite looking forward to.

AWI Maurice

Bruce hosted another game of Maurice last night. This time we played an AWI game that was roughly Brandywine (1777). You can see the game board from the American view below. To allow a vaguely historical development, the Americans were constrained from deploying on the right (north) side of the board and the British got two free moves to simulate the night march.

Bruce largely developed his attack historically, charging his cavalry forward. They would eventually bag a gun but then died themselves. I spent much of my first turns trying to deploy to address his attack.

We then had a slugging match on the north side with casualties about even but the British slowly pushing the Americans back. There were a few exciting moments (churned up ground became swampy, a unit went out of control) but Bruce suddenly bagged two of my units and then I was in the soup.

I again redeployed, this time pushing the militia into the line (on the right) while holding a hill on the left and maneuvering my cavalry.

A fair bit of shooting ensued and I charged, first with my last unit of line (on the hill on the left) and then with my cavalry. His grenadiers withstood both attacks and eventually my hardy militia gave the ghost and we were forced to retreat.

Overall, a nearly flawless game that largely recreated the historical outcome without it being predetermined. There were a couple of points where I could have won but eventually Bruce's weight and patience were telling.

Up next: I have some 28mm skeletons primered and underway. I also have some 25mm Star Wars figures underway. And the club is next Tuesday.

Dragon Lord 1/600 ships

I was asked to paint a few more 1/600 ships from the Uncharted Seas line. These are Dragon Lord ships and the paint scheme was specified by the owner. The red is darker in person.

There are two large and two small ships. The smaller ones (below) had a very nice set of sails. My instructions were to do a two-tone (green fading to yellow) job on the mast and then paint the "veins" red.

I tried a couple of approaches (stripes, wet blending) to get this effect and eventually gave up--it just confused the line of the ship so I eventually just did two shades of red for the masts. I think this is a better look overall.

The detail on these ships is again amazing. I wish the sails had been cast at a bit of an angle (yes, they are schooners, but these arrangements don't really make sense from a sailing perspective). Even a 10-degree twist left or right would have dramatically improved the look of the model. The way the sails were manufactured didn't really allow me to do this manually.

That grousing aside, they are very pretty models with amazing detail and almost no flash to clean up. Spartan Games really has done a great job here.

Up next: I have 21 Vampire Counts under construction on my work bench and I hope to get in a game of Maurice with Bruce tonight. I will probably turn my attention to some Star Wars figures later this week.

Reforestation efforts

After much delay, I finally sat down to spruce up (so to speak) my aged trees bases. These fellows usually sit on an area marker or in a hex so are designed to be moved around to accommodate unit placement.

There are 38 of these (I think I've lost two over the years) and the base is cork with a washer on the bottom for weight and magnetic purposes. Then I put on some flock and then some trees.

I think I originally made these back in 2005 or 2006 so they have had some heavy use. Several bases were down to only a few trees. I replenished the forests with pieces I had in my terrain box.

There are basically three kinds of trees. The spruce are pipe-cleaners that GHQ used to sell. The clump foliage is on woodland scenic trucks. And the light coloured, column-linear trees are part of a dried flower that I chopped up.

These are meant to be generic trees. Most of my gaming is set in North America so I was going for a rocky east-coast look with a mixed forest. I think these fit the bill.

Up next: I have four 1/600 ships about half painted an I hope to finish these by early next week. I also have a game of Maurice with Bruce on Wednesday and there are some 28mm vampire count figures to build.

Monday's mail brought me a copy of the new game 1812: The Invasion of Canada by Academy Games. The game is a Risk-style area control game with card-driven activation and dice reminiscent of Borg designs. I took it out to Bruce's for our usual "off-Tuesday" games and we managed to learn the rules and fight the game to conclusion in 68 minutes.

Here you can see the opening moves and the British have punched south through the Niagara Penisula. This was mostly to spoil an expected American attack and gain some victory points quickly. The game can end any time after the third round of play, depending on how the cards shake out and what the players do so an early lead can be helpful.

In retrospect, this may have been overly aggressive as the Americans punch back by mid game. It did, however, focus the American attention on the Niagara frontier and meant there were few troops to be spared for adventures in Michigan.

There was quite a fight on the south side of the St. Lawrence and the Americans eventually managed to capture Montreal (ack!). In the meantime, the British looped around the far side of Lake Erie and drove south. I think we were both quite aggressive in the game and the final outcome was a narrow British victory. You have to watch that Bruce because he is cagey!

Overall, an interesting game. One level more granular than Columbia Games' War of 1812. The dice mechanics are fascinating, forcing very difficult and often counter-intuitive choices about casualties. The cards work well. We both thought that this might be one of the few games that actually works better with five players (so there is some intra-team bargaining) than with two players. But the dice mechanics are very tight and compelling.

Up next: I've finished replanting my trees and they are drying. And I have some 1/600 ships ready to prime. I'll be a bit quiet this next bit as I attend to a couple of other engagements.