28mm medieval pikemen

I picked up some 28mm Black Tree Design spearmen at the club auction two weeks ago that Dave hand converted to pikemen. I decided to paint them up and add them to my 28mm DBA/HoTT French medieval army.

I thought they painted up quite easily, especially with a pre-established colour scheme for the army.

The also seemed to fit in well with the Zvezda plastic archers.

Up next: Tuesday is club night and I have a couple of projects sitting on the bench awaiting paint (15mm AWI and 28mm handgunners). I'm not sure which to tackle first and I've been distracted by playing Civilization IV on the computer.

15mm AWI Army

I managed to finish half of a 15mm DBHx AWI army this weekend. I'll get to the other half later this week. These are 15mm figures from the Age of Reason line produced by Old Glory USA. First up is a cannon with crew.

I then did six bases of continental line. The colours are a fictional and I need to find a flag for the command stand.

The quality of the figures is really quite impressive. Click on the picture below for a zoom. The faces have details more common for 25mm figures.

I also did four bases of state troops, again with a fictional colour scheme.

I have a bunch of dragoons, light troops and some militia to finish up. I wish I had a bit more pose variety but this was a trade and came with only the one bag of line.

Up next: Some 28mm medieval pike are drying on their bases. Then probably back to the rest of the AWI army. Then maybe back to some 28mm hand gunners for the medieval army--I'm not sure whether to use these as psiloi or base them up as units of shot for a very early DBA-RRR army.

28mm Misc

I've had several 28mm medieval and ancient bits awaiting some fine tuning and I moved three of them off the painting table today. First up was a siege engine for the IV/84 Burgundian Ordonnance army. The catapult is from Zvezda's 1/72 medieval siege engine kit while the trooper is a 28mm Zvezda fantasy figure.

The Zvezda siege engine kit is very useful and would work for either 1/72 or 28mm. The kit also contains a scorpion that I have recruited to my Roman army by adding a few Wargames Factory republican Romans. This will allow me to morph the Marian Romans (II/49) to Early Imperial Romans (II/56)

Finally, I worked up a hero general base for my Burgundian Ordonnance army if I want to use them with HoTT. These are Zvezda 28mm fantasy figures. The fellow on the left is holding a sword, the blade of which you are seeing edge on. This angle hows some of the folly of Zvezda's over-engineering of these figures.

Yes, you can give the guy any weapon you want but, by making us glue the blade and hilt to the handle of the sword, you are pretty much guaranteeing the damned things are going to be off-plumb in one direction or the other. I used sticky tack to hold this and took a lot of time to line it up but, short of some sort of jig, I can't see how I could get this one straighter. %#&$(*^@

Up next: I have half of a 15mm rebel (errr... patriot, sorry Dale) AWI army done and drying. I also have five bases of 28mm medieval pike almost painted--these will help my medievals morph a bit more. Thereafter, I might go back for more 15mm AWI. I also have a skeleton head I need to finish up for a fellow.

More 28mm HoTT/DBA camps

I was cleaning the basement last week (i.e., moving stuff from one pile to the next) and I unearthed an old 1/72 Airfix castle (I think Dave gave this to me but I wouldn't swear to that--might also be from Bruce?). Anyhow, I almost tossed it into the recycler and then though I could make some 28mm camps from this.

A few minutes of cutting and breaking and viola, two partial castles to use as camps. The camp pictures above and below (with some 28mm HaT Anglo-Danes conversions) is a legal DBA camp (as far as I can tell).

The camp pictured below is a legal HoTT camp (and could be used in DBA if you hung some of it over the edge of the board although I've never seen anyone at our club balk at a camp).

You can see a bit of damage on the left side of the picture below (late night cutting to make it fit on the base) that I need to fix. Maybe some climbing ivy. Also, I think these could use some troops to garrison them, although that reduces their utility.

Up next: I'm making slow progress on some 15mm DBHx AWI guys. I may push up some 28mm seige engine crews so I can complete those bases. Thereafter, who knows. There is quite a stack of 15mm armies to be done. And I won some 28mm medieval guys at the silent suction I may do quickly to morph my medieval army some more.

EWG Club Night

Last night was club night and, at one point, the body count was 16 which is a great turn out. We also ran our annual(ish) silent auction which raised about $365 to defray gaming fees. Not only were some folks lucky enough to win bids on new gaming stuff, Jonathan was just plain lucky:

Dave hosted a game of Black Powder Napoleonics for I don't know how many guys. Eight maybe? Helluva a game to watch! All in 1/72 plastics.

I played with Mark, Chen, Terry, and Devon in Bruce's gangster's adaptation of FUBAR. Here you can see the god guys about to get greased in game one. A dead simple system which seemed to work with no fiddling and little referencing.

And here are the baddies who had a rougher time of things in game two. A bit of an odd level of abstraction but might feel right in WW2 with multi-figure bases in each unit and area terrain.

Scott and Chris played a game of Twilight Struggle.

Up next: Some finished HoTT/DBA camps. And some 15mm AWI guys are on the painting table. Work will take me away the next few days so likely a larger update next week. I'm also sorting through my silent auction wins.

Age of Sail Ships

About four (?) years ago, I picked up a bunch of collectable ships (sold like baseball cards and then built) for the Pirates of the Spanish Main game. I ended up with about 45 ships that look like these.

Towards the end of my interest, several new varieties of ships (like the schooner below) also became available.

I based these up on steel. I gave several rule sets a try (including Bruce's homebrew "Steady as She Goes") but none quite recreate the fleet action that I wanted so I put these on a shelf. Rather unexpectedly, I came across another lot of about 45 ships and bought them on impulse. Many are similar to those above but some are from newer expansions to the game.

There are a couple of galleys with oars (pirate ships, by the look of them!). There are also a couple of junks (aptly named given the construction difficulties they pose).

Then there are some outriggers. And then things get pretty weird. For example, there are various sea monsters and ships with Captain Nemo-like inventions such as the "pincer" ship below with claws to hold its prey.

I built all of my new ships last night while watching the election results. While basing will take some time, it re-interested me in naval combat so I'm looking for a set of rules that would allow me to fight fleet actions. Suggestions most welcomed! I have downloaded GMT's Flying Colours rules to have a look through.

Up next: Some 28mm DBA/HoTT camps are done and drying. And I have a 15mm AWI DBHx army on the painting table (lord it is big!). And tonight is the club and our auction.

28mm Anglo-Dane DBA army

I completed a 28mm Anglo-Dane (III/71) DBA army this weekend using HaT Industries new(ish) line of 28mm El Cid hard plastics. This army below requires one box of heavy Spanish infantry and one box of light Spanish infantry and ran me $28. When the El Cid cavalry issue, it should be possible to morph this into various Frankish armies as well.

The big push this week was to get a bunch of 4Sp done. The light Spanish infantry box provided most of these.

As I noted in an earlier post, the figures aren't that great but you can improve them with painting and the price is right. The close up below is the result of a black undercoat, some careful block painting and a dip. It won't win a golden daemon (!!) but it is good enough for gaming.

I also did two bases of psiloi. The slinger figures are a mix bag. The rear pose is good. The front pose is the pits, showing off some of the weaknesses of one-piece sculpts.

I also did bases of 4Bw and a base of 4Cb. These were extra figures and allow the army to morph or will act as shooters in HoTT.

I've had a couple of questions of scaling. The picture below shows the HaT (centre) alongside GW Bretonnians (left) and Zvezda Empire (right). The height is the same--the big difference is the heft with the HaT being much more realistically proportioned. Sorry the picture is slightly blurry.

Up next: There is club night on Tuesday (with our annual silent auction). I have two 28mm camps in process--just need some basing work. And I have just spray primed a 15mm AWI army that I have for DBHx and have been dithering on for a year. Mark wants to try some gaming so I'll get these done. Also primered are the remaining figures needed for Roman and medieval siege machines.