28mm Renaissance Pike

With cooler weather and sunset coming earlier, I've been spending more time in the basement painting. These 28mm pikemen (from the Perry Late Medieval box) are the first to roll of the production line in awhile.

I've tried to paint these as early renaissance German pike (are these landsknechts?). Thus a slightly less flamboyant colour palette and fewer feathers and whatnot on the helms than these more Italian fellows.

I think the pikes would benefit from one of them having a colourful banner attached to the top so I may add a tinfoil banner to each base later on.

I appear to have gone a bit overboard with the flower motif. Perhaps a flashback to the wall paper in my dad's foyer during the 1970s. I am continuing this motif with the next set of figures though for consistency.

Up next: I have 9 crossbow and 9 shot figures almost painted to flesh out the orbat of this army. Add in the mounted and artillery (here, here and here) I did earlier and a few skirmishers and I think the basics are here. And I still have a huge set of GW Empire to make a more Italian army.

PIck-up DBA

It has been a slow week on the blog as very nice autumn weather and few gardening demands have distracted me from things gaming. But I swung by Bruce's place last night for some pick-up DBA. I am building a 1/72-scale Macedonian army with some figures from Tim in Saskatoon and wanted to give the army a try so Bruce pulled out some old 15mm figs he had.

First up we played Indian versus Alexandrian Macedonian. I believe I won this game by mowing down Bruce's pike with my elephants although I think he bagged my general in the process. Nothing like an ugly win to whet the appetite.

In game two, Bruce demolished my cavalry and then set upon my elephants. At the same time, I had his general in the soup for several turns (door closed, fighting in woods, being shot at in woods, being shot at from behind) and I could not freaking kill him!

We then switched to an Imperial Alexandrian army versus some Persians. I got lucky and drove two of Bruce's cavalry stands of the board to secure my left flank and managed to avoid complete destruction on my right. Then my pike and elephant block finally engaged his spear and won the game for me.

Up next: I have some 28mm renaissance pike that are based and drying while I am working on some crossbow and shot units to join them. After that perhaps I'll start on this 1/72 Macedonian army. I'm closing in on 1900 figures painted and would be keen to top 2000 by year end.

Last of WW1 British for awhile

I based the last of the WW1 British figures I will be doing for awhile. I still have a fair number to do but need a quick change of pace so I don't bog down.

These are support bases for the 1/76 WW1 Airfix figures I have. There are three MG stands. Not bad models given they are 40 years old!

I also did one base of mortarmen. Most of the artillery in this army will comprise onboard artillery pieces or army-level artillery barrages (modeled with explosions--maybe steel wool?).

Up next: I am painting twelve 28mm Perry late medieval pike as early renaissance Germans. And I've build another 18 crossbow and shot troops that I will prime this evening.

September 20 Club Night

We had 11 guys out with four games running last night at the club. Dave hosted a game of Victory without Quarter, an ECW ruleset he has been reading up on. The gist was the attacker had overwhelming numbers but a traffic issue while the defender had to trade space for time to get reinforcements on.

We used Dave's lovely 28mm figures and Terry attacked while I defended. The card draw initiative system meant I watched quite a lot until my reinforcements showed up. I figures I was hooped early on but managed to sneak a narrow win. Very narrow, in fact. Terry was a pretty good sport about it given how he controlled the game throughout.

Behind us, Mark pitted his Night Goblins against Scott's Daemons in some WHFB. This sounded like it was going to end in the Daemons' favour after one of Mark's fellows ate some poisoned mushrooms.

Elliott and Kevin played some Warmahordes using some lovely Gale Force 9 terrain.

And Bruce hosted Chen, Andy and Jonathan in a refight of Cheaspeake Bay using Man of War. I believe we're seeing a collision between two of Andy's ships in this picture while Jonathan's ship squirts out of the way.

Up next: Some WW1 support weapons and then onto some 28mm early renaissance.

Even More WW1 Brits

Well, when you're on a roll, you want to let it ride so I continued to paint Airfix WW1 figures, finishing off most of the infantry bases for my 1/72 HiTT British army.

First up are four bases of two-man sniper teams. These would be classified as lurkers, I think.

I also did three bases of standing rifles, each with four figures.

And I did two four-man kneeling rifle bases. There are a few other figures laying around but this gives me 11 or 12 bases of infantry so I think I'm good.

Up next: I have three WW1 MGs and a mortar team painted. I just need to wash and then base them. Underway I have a box of Perry 28mm late medieval pike, crossbow and shot troops. Should be enough for three bases of each type and will add some depth to my early renaissance German armies. The pike are built and the rest are ready to build. I thought a change of pace would be in order after all of this WW1 foot. Then I will likely return to the Great War for artillery and some German foot.

More WW1 Brits

I moved a few more bases of WW1 British off the painting table last night. More of the old Airfix figures organized into monopose units.

I have five more bases of rifles currently under way as well as four bases of snipers (lurkers?). I also put the base coat on a small box that will be a command bunker (i.e., a camp) for both sides. I just need to see about putting together some additional features to make it look realistic.

Up next: More 1/72 WW1 British. Maybe I'll put together the artillery I have for each side this weekend for a distraction. And the club is Tuesday night.

Chesapeake Bay

Bruce will be putting on an age of sail game at the club next Tuesday and we playtested it last night. The rules are a slightly modified version of man of War from 1983 and they play really well.

The battle was the first have of Chesapeake Bay from the AWI, where the French drove off the English which trapped a large army at Yorkton (I think). The British are on the left and the French are on the right in these pictures. The game opened with the lines moving into range. The French managed to get in front of the British which caused an interested curving towards the left of the battle.

The battle then broke into two melees (foreground and aft). The foreground saw a British ship strike early which pretty much determined the outcome of that fight. In the aftground, the British lead ship is surrounded and fire poured down onto it. Alas, the French could not hit anything at the beginning of the game (nine shots and nothing hits!). This was a much more even fight where both sides were stuck in.

It looked like a French victory as the shooting dice swung the other way but the British fought back and a series of strikes late in the game gave the British a marginal victory. A good time and the game easily accommodates four players.

Up next: A bunch of WW1 Brits are in various stages of painting and basing for HiTT. I'll then need to look at this box of stuff Tim sent to see what should follow.

First WW1 British Troops

The first infantry units of my WW1 British HiTT army in 1/72 are now done. These are some old 1/76 Airfix figures that I got from Mark in trade. Like many old sculpts, there is a lot of detail but it is relatively inaccessible to brush.

After much fretting, I decided "screw it, we'll see what happens" and primed black, blocked in the colours and dipped. The end result turned out much better than I thought it would.

There are two bases of six infantry each in marching poses. The frontages are 60mm and I put six figures on a base because, well, I had a dozen and four looks too sparse. In my mind, there are green troops marching up from the rear to reinforce the line. Later bases (with more active poses) will have four figures per base (casualties being what they were).

For 40+ year old sculpts, there is a nice amount of detail. I didn't pick some of it out (e.g., pack clasps) because I was going for a relatively simple paint job (there are a lot of these figures!). I also ended up sealing the hell out of these figures (three coats of Future) because I fear paint chipping on the riffle barrels.

Some of the figures I am painting now have quite a lot of flash. Some I have carved off (above the waist). The rest I have left alone (around the putties) and we'll see how that looks. It is inaccessible and the soft plastic can be hard to trim. Below you can see my troops turned out with the "rest" of the army so far.

Up next: I'm off to game with Bruce tonight. On the painting table are about 10 more units of WW1 British infantry. I'll then shift to some horse artillery and support weapons. I see I'm over the 1800 figures painted threshold, aiming for 2000 this year!

Happy birthday to me!

On my 41st birthday, a package from Tim in Saskatoon arrived, containing his end of our MJ4YJ (My Junk for Your Junk) trade and I couldn't be happier. It contains a lovely hodge-podge of 1/72 WW1 figures (mostly Emhar) which will fit right into my WW1 HiTT armies project.

It looks like there are later war British and German troops as well as support weapons plus some artillery for both sides. What I need now are some cavalry units and a German tank plus I will build some special units (wire, gas clouds, etc).

There are also a bunch of 1/72 ancients in here and another box is on its way to complete our trade with some more/172 ancients. I expect I can create a DBA army out of this to auction off for the club. What a great birthday; thanks Tim!

Up next: My first 1/76 WW1 British troops are being based and a second, larger batch are being painted. A third batch lies waiting my attention. I also apparently have a 15mm cowboy commission en route but has not yet arrived. I'll slot that in at the top of the list when it gets here.

More 1/72 AWI Americans

I'm slowly working my way through my boxes of extras. These are the last of my 1/72 AWI Americans. There are some sprues of British left and perhaps some extras for a camp. Beyond that, I'm done!

Nothing special here. Mostly some Imex extras that didn't necessarily make neat units while I was painting the bulk of the troops.

I ended up tossing out a fair number (40?) troops where the poses or scaling were just too awful to bother with. I don't normally do that but life is too short to paint crappy sculpts.

Up next: I have a bunch of 1/76 WW1 British on the go and have my first two units nearing completion. The rest of the forces have the flesh done and I will block in the colours over the course of the week. After that--who knows.

Edmonton IFV Show

I took my daughter to the Edmonton IFV show at the HMCS Nonsuch yesterday. It is fun that she still thinks this stuff is cool to do with dad. I expect that will end shortly but I'm milking it for all it is worth now.

We arrived early (around 10am) and the hall was a bit spared for displays. We did see some amazing vignettes. Above is a Panzer 4 on the Russian front. And below is another Panzer 4 on the western front. It looked as if the fellow was modelling all version of this tank as there were many others.

This Russian tank was quite cool and had a very effective bit of staging. Reminds me of Matchbox kits as a kid. There were also track links from various tanks, helmets and shells. It was fun to explain to Jess how the shells worked.

She was fascinated by the torpedo out front the Nonsuch as well as the wooden model of the original Nonsuch inside the entryway. The we toured the working vintage military vehicles (e.g., a gamagoat) that were out front.

There were also more involved dioramas, such as this Berlin, 1945 ones. Truly, amazing model skills. Useless from a gaming perspective but amazing work nonetheless.

Up next: I have some 1/72 AWI Americans I will base this afternoon. And I have some 1/76 WW1 Brits underway. I'm doing these in small batched of 12 or 16.

Star Wars and WW1 units for HoTT

I finished up some units this week for various HoTT armies. First up are some Imperial Scout Troopers on speeder bikes for my Star Wars armies.

These are old micromachines. They are a tiny bit small compared to the West End Games figures that comprise most of the army but they are a better fit that the giant titanium series speeder bikes I presently have.

All they needed was a wash and some basing and off they go to shoot up some Ewoks. I'm quite excited by these Star Wars armies and will likely use them at MayDay next year.

I also have a base of rebel bikers. I'll use all of these in HoTT and likely classify them as riders. I have snow speeders classified as flyers so that makes some sense to me.

I also have a base of WW1 biplanes for my HiTT army. These were a kind donation from a TMPer (including decals!) and are 6mm. I think HiTT classifies these as fighters.

Up next: I'm off to the Edmonton international AFV model show this morning with child in tow so I hope to have some pictures of that to post. I also have some 1/72 AWI guys being based (the last of the Americans) and I have primered a bunch of 1/76 British WW1 troops. Need to figure out uniform and webbing colours for these fellows (brown? green? khaki?).

Last of the 15mm Greeks

I finished off the last 16 Greeks from a 15mm DBA commission. These are Xyston figures and spears. The owner will base these to match an existing basing scheme.

Overall, I think they look fine (although I'm always amazed by what I can see when look at a 4x or 6x image). I struggled again with these decals some--aligning them can be tricky as you can't see through the backer paper. And then some of the shields showed the decal line when I washed them to seal it so I repainted them with the decal in place.

It is interesting how a slight change in my production line causes unexpected wrinkles. I usually glue shields in place, spray prime and seal so there are multiple layers of adhesion. For these, I did the shields separately to allow for the decaling and glued them down. A few have come off so I've gone back and re-adhered them. Hopefully a tight bubble wrap will keep everything in place during shipping.

Up next: I have some Star Wars speeder bikes with the bases drying. Ditto some WW1 biplanes. I am basing some 1/72 AWI figures and I will look at spraying some WW1 1/72 Brits tonight.

EWG Club Night September 6

We had eight players out last night, including two guests. The guests brought their own game of DBA, using lovely 1/72 plastics.

I'm not sure how this game turned out but we hope they will return next time!

Dave provided colour commentary and Mark's Night Goblins took on Scott's Tomb Kings. In related news, there is a Tomb King army available cheap for anyone who wants it.... None of my pictures turn out of the Warhammer game.

Bruce, Terry and I played five games of Pandemic. Yes, five games. We lost three almost right away because of a snafu in the discard pile. When we finally figured that out, we lost one close one and then one a game, but only by the thinnest of margins.

Overall, a good game that we were happy to finally beat. I'm not sure we could really do this on the legendary setting.

Up next: The last of the 15mm Greeks are awaiting shield decals that I will apply today. Then I have some speeder bikes for my Star Wars armies. Then onto finishing the 1/72 American AWI troops I have. After that maybe some 1/72 WW1?