Epic ACW and back to some Bolt Action

The blog has been quiet for a couple of reasons - house renovations mean I don't have a hobby room ready yet, but also it's been busy and I have fallen out of a blogging routine. However, I should keep it up if for no other reason - it helps me keep track of projects!

I finished enough Epic ACW to run a Kernstown battle scenario in Black Powder in a couple of weeks with some new gaming buddies. Here they are:

960 Union infantry with guns and cavalry:

Plus another 600 Conferates:

I have also fell in with a weekly Bolt Action group, and have so far managed about an even record of winning and losing (actually more draws than anything else yet). But this has inspired me to do a few new models to reinforce my Soviets:

And I am still doing ASOIAF - even though I have nobody to play it with, here are the Boltons (Neutrals)

:

Even more Epic ACW

Working towards hosting a game later this Fall:

220 Rebs with a couple of guns

And another 220 Yanks

More Warlord Epic ACW

 Two sprues of blue boys here, only 1,900 figs to go:

Last of the free folk and some Epic ACW

 Here we have some War Mammoths - which are great models but complete rubbish in ASOIAF, and some Thenn Warriors to round out my Free Folk for now.I think they were designed for contrast paint!

And three frames of the Epic ACW starter set from Warlord games. 300 done, another 2100 to go! But hey - troops on strips paint up pretty quick. I used contrast paints on the Rebs and conventional style on the Yanks.

More Northag, Flames of War

 Some additional bits of helo support for my 10mm Cold War stuff:

 

Gazelle scout helicopter

Lynx attack helicopter:

A pair of Hinds

Recon Sdkfz 250s

A Royal Warden for my 40k Crusade army

88mm ATGs for Flames of War

Recon platoon for Flames of War:

BattleGroup Northag

Well, almost a full month since my last post - in that time I finished off Jonathan's Ancient Britons:

And the British starter for BattleGroup Northag - these are 10mm scale by Plastic Soldier Company:

As well as the Soviet starter with some extras:

These models I would describe as cheap and cheerful - the material is a rubber-plastic-resin which holds reasonable detail, but is also prone to carrying some flash and mold lines which are hard to remove - but by the same isn't noticeable at 2-3 feet. 

I am looking forward to trying out the Northag rules, I think they have some nice crunch (like the WW2 version does) but they are also more streamlined, which I like even better.

Building hedges and other stuff

With my move to 28mm I decided to upgrade some of my terrain, starting with building new hedges from cork, furnace filter, and flock.

Here's how it went - I think the pictures tell the story:

Cutting cork base

bevel the edges

cheap furnace filter from Home Depot

hot-glued to cork base

cut to look hedgy

brown spray paint near the base

green spray paint the bushy part

spray adhesive and flock with dark green coarse turf

and some light green

mostly done - turf still loose

dilute white glue - spray and soak, repeat

finished sturdy product

And some updates on painting progress:

10mm command stands for Byzantine and Arab Conquest armies

Some new 28mm ruins

Another Warlord titan for Adeptus Titanicus

More 28mm Ancient Britons for Jonathan

A P-47 for Bolt Action air support - Academy models 1/72 kit

And a somewhat better weathered M-10 tank destroyer, this time using Vallejo mud 

And my last regiment of 1/72 French Line infantry!