AHPC11: The Obliette: 6mm AWI British

 One of my personal goals in this year's AHPC is to paint up as much 6mm as possible, in a variety of era's and settings.

Because I have a lot of the little guys, and I find that the AHPC isn't a good project finisher per se, but it is a great project starter as you navigate the challenge map.

To that end, I began at last on painting some of my AWI british by Baccus Miniatures which have been lying around here for 7 years now, and did a few odds and ends to have a good starting point and idea of colourschemes and all.

This small kick off force as such consists of 3 stands of infantry numbering 16 soldiers each, 3 stands of 3 dragoons, two mounted officer stands and a cannon.

All in all, accumulating into 52 infantry models, 13 cavalry models and a man-handled gun, good for 40 points in the challenge and 20 bonus points, totalling 60 as such.

2.11.0.0

2.11.0.0

Unboxing Hot and Dangerous Rebecca the Red Coat

A range of 28mm and 54mm pin up models produced by polish company Wargamer Games Studio LTD (the guys from the 15mm By Fire and Sword range) that I backed on Kickstarter, I'm opening the sets and making short unbox video's on them.

The second figure I'm taking a look at from my 3 figure pledge, is red coat Rebecca, who will make a superb vignette or objective counter for the FIW, AWI or 7YW games.

Thanks for watching!

Historische Oorlogen 08: Amerikaanse oorlogen

So yesterday evening I sat down and watched this DVD I picked up last week for a measly euro.

Part of some collection of all sorts of historical characters and battles (I watched the Napoleon one as well a while ago), it contains 6 documentaries of around 45 minutes each from History Channel.

You know, that channel that when animals could still talk actually aired documentaries instead of Storage wars, Luggage wars and more of those set-up find and sell treasure humbug all day long...

The first DVD contains two documentaries on the AWI, being one of the winter camp of Valley Forge and how George Washington made an army from his mob.  The second one detail the "father of America" himself, from his humble beginnings to his presidential instatement.

The second DVD is one about 4 battles in the ACW, from the Civil War Battle series of History.  Containing Shiloh, Antietam (with a great focus on Meagher of the Irish Brigade), the Wheatfield on day 2 of Gettysburg and finaly Cold Harbor.

While the AWI documentaries are a bit "bland" if you are looking on actual battle information, the ACW Wheatfield one was for me the gem of the set.  Most tend to focus on the first moments of the battle, aka Bufford's heroic stand-off, or the very last, actually rather anti-climatic day with Pickett's doomed charge.

Not a bad buy at all for that money!

The Haul Report 116

Well, today would have been a blank episode for the first time in many months.

No orders came in, though there is one I`m seriously feeling about ranting, no trips to hobby stores or conventions, no sales at the club...

But then I was walking around with Noshi in Antwerp and we went inside a store called Cash Converters just to have a look.

Inside there where literally masses of DVD boxes, and where priced a single euro.  I snatched up this one from one of the racks, and though the inner "clips" for the discs are damaged (I`ll exchange the box one of these days) there was no way I was letting this one slip by.  heck, it`s on the viewing menu somewhere this week, perhaps even tonight.

A double disc, it features battles from both the AWI (Valley Forge and a story about Wahington), and four from the ACW (Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg and Cold Harbor) each being around 45 minutes in playtime.

Just don`t mind the backtext, as not only do they get the years all wrong (Cold Harbor in 1854 instead of 1864), they even managed to switch the wars around for the index on the back...

Turn: Washington's Spies season 3

Now that I benched through the third season of Turn, I`m all set for when the new series starts in a few weeks time.

And this year had some serious changes going on...

The main character, Abraham Woodhull aka Culper, is restricted to Setauket due to the events for season 2, and as such he has recruited another agent in York City itself.  This allows his little spy ring to continue operating right under the noses of authority...

And there is big trouble as the "redcoats" of Major Hewlett are at odds with the Queen's Rangers of captain Simcoe, the latter hellbend on getting his hands on Rogers, the former commander of the Ranger's.  The spy ring plays this well, as both sides set out to get each other, while they can continue informing Washington with information gained.  But then Abe's father sells him out...

In the meantime, the english spymaster, major Andre, has fallen in love with a girl in Pennsylvania.  However, in order to further his cause, he is forced to enlist her, and loose her in marriage, to another man, one he hopes he can enlist and inform him on american movements.  This is none other then general Benedict Arnold, who is out to seek his honour restored and finally be compensated with the money he is owned by congress.

In the end, both sides central spies are being caught out, but the end is very different for each of them...

Turn: Washington's Spies season 2

The second season of the AMC historical drama series, set against the background of the American War of Independance.

Telling the tale of how a group of friends became involved in an espionage ring, and how they reshape the working of intelligence for the Continental Army, this season is based around two central storylines.

One the one hand there is the main story of how Abraham and major Hewlett are both captured by the respective enemies, and the struggles their allies go about to free them from their predicament.
The second main storyline is how Washington himself runs his army, fighting his inner demons while handling an inside plot to assassinate him.

Surrounding these events, which takes the story as such farther away from Setauket itself, are the efforts of mayor Andre to enlist more continental generals to his spy-ring, and the return of captain Simcoe who replaced Rogers as head of the Queen's Rangers.  This doesn`t go down well at all with the latter, making him a wild card in the deck of intrigues.

A really good season, and stronger then the first, this was a joy to watch.  Now I`m going to bench season 3 as well, in order to be prepared when season 4 arrives this summer.

And enjoy this bloke a bit more...

What I painted in May 2017

The first full month back in the painting hobby, and it was quite a decent production, in general thanks to a couple of long weekends and a heat wave from which I hid inside.

And all that resulted in no less then 65 miniatures getting painted.

Now, for the regular tabletop figures, I aim to do a "2 tone" colour scheme, and I won`t be painting eyes anymore, they would end up crosseyed anyways then lol.

The first things I finished this month where some figures for the small Daughters of Khaine force that I`ll eventually finish, but there is no pressure on them.

The next thing that got finished was my first "true" regiment of the new life, with the AWI British Line Infantry, numbering 24 strong.

Bit of an ego bump, as they got picked up over Twitter by an actual Royal Welsh Fusiliers museum.

Suited for the same era, though technically a French-Indian war blister pack, are these armed colonists.

The main "job" though this month was painting up the 25 models of the Irish starter band for SAGA, consisting of 4 points of troops and the warlord.

Now I need to expand with another 2 points on those, and I got my first "battle worthy" force completed and I can go look for picking up a game left or right.  Nicely on schedule for july / august as I`d hoped when I restarted in the hobby.

Next month, the main target is a first regiment for my ACW corps, so time to crack out those blue paints :-) .

23rd (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot

I finished painting my first "complete" historical unit since getting back into the hobby today, in the form of a set of British Line Infantry by Warlord Games.

Suitable for use in the AWI (or well, sometimes shortly before and after), these redcoats number 24 men.

And now I`ll take you along some work in progress pictures as I was building them.  The box contains three sprues and a leaflet with flags for various units, and I went for the blue facings on these guys.

Putting all the pieces together for each figure... yes, it`s a model kit at times.

The set allows you to make either 24 Line, 24 Grenadier, or 30 Light infantry, and I went for the Line.

So that means these 6 guys are put aside for painting when I start the second box in the future, which will be Light Infantry.

Undercaoting, flesh base and the metals with an armour wash.

The next session mainly put the red on the coats.

More base colours are then painted, this was during the Eurosong contest, and with the Sky grey the contrast comes out nicely.

Time to start adding highlights, like Bone on the pantaloons.

Every colour now has a second layer for highlighting, so this makes the painting part on the figures themselves done.

Pink sand, cheap and nice to cover the bases in...

The bases are then painted over Goblin Green.

All it needs is a coat of Matt Varnish, and the flags added.

The regiment is now completed and ready to go in the cabinet as the basis for the force.

Hope you like them!