Last one before Christmas

At this time of year it seems to be usual to look back at what has happened over the year, but I'm not going to do that.  It's not been the best year, so I'm drawing a line under it now and looking forward.  In two days it's Christmas, a time for families, happiness and good cheer etc.  More importantly(at least to me!) it's my birthday as well.  The less said about the number of years the better, the scariest thing is that I am the youngest member of the Monday Night Group and I am beyond the age that I considered "Old" when I was a teenager.

Speaking of Christmas, I believe that my Secret Santa arrived this morning.  Postie gave me a box from Germany that was promptly whipped away by my wife and hidden before I could get any more details than that.  So, whoever you are that sent it, thank you in advance.

Ah well, looking forward to things I want to do/start/finish next year.  I have decided that I have enough platoons for Chain of Command now, so that has been put on the back burner of the painting table.  I am still going to get some more for Fighting Season, but not immediately.  I am also planning to get my ever expanding lead mountain/plastic pile reduced, so planned purchases are limited.

Projects I plan to do are
1 - 28mm Crusader period.  I already have some Fireforge figures purchased for this, additional units will be needed but not until I have painted the ones I have here already.
2 - Dragon Rampant.  I am getting the rules for my birthday and aim to recycle some of the Lord of the Rings figures to play it.  Little or no purchases needed for this.
3 - 28mm Fighting Season.  I have a British platoon(Airfix figures) and some unpainted Americans(Empress).  The plan is to get the rest of the American platoon and then look at getting some insurgent types.  Also I have several Airfix vehicles to make up as well.
4 - Kings of War.  I have been put onto this set by an old friend in Plymouth who has started playing them at the Plymouth Wargames club.  I have so far only had one game and that was using historical figures with no magic, but it was an enjoyable game.  I have dug out my old Warhammer figures now and am looking at dusting them off and having a go in the new year.  Again, little in the way of purchases are needed although, as you will see, I have bought a few figures and painted some of my lead mountain for it already.

So, that's the plan.  Shows that I intend to go too are Penarth, PAW, Legionary and Partizan, plus at least two Lardy Games Days.  That's health and finances allowing of course.

So that's the plan.  The last of this years painting has also now been done.  I am planning a major reorganisation of my painting pitroom between Christmas and the New Year, so painting time will be severely limited.  What I have got painted up are 20 of my old GW Dwarves plus 4 new Reaper figures from eBay.

 First up are 10 old GW dwarf warriors, 6 with spears.  If I ever see any cheap I will get some more of the spear figures as a unit of them would be useful in Kings of War.  I did used to have over 30 of them many years ago, but when Warhammer was rewritten and Dwarves had no spears anymore I (stupidly) sold them. 

 
Next up are ten more Dwarves, but armed with rifles this time.  Lovely figures, I really enjoyed painting these up.














First of the Reaper figures is an Earth Elemental.
 This is a big figure, the base he is on is 50mm square and he is wider than it as you can see.  I have painted it up in a style that I saw online, I think the mixed rocks look is nicer than just plain grey or brown.  This is the "new" addition for my old Dwarf army, the Stone Priests can summon elementals to fight for them and they are pretty tough.








 

Finally, 3 Reaper werewolves to join my Vampire Counts army.  They will make a change from the usual skeletons and offer a fast moving and hard hitting unit.  I have attempted to paint them up in three different wolf-like colours.  From the left we have a black one, a grey one and a brown one.  I am fairly happy with them, so they will do.

So, there it is.  I am off now so it just remains to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll see you after Hangover Boxing Day.  Hope you all have a good one.

Down, but not out.........

I'm still here, unluckily for some.  Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been struggling for a while with being ill for so long and it all got on top of me for a few days weeks months.  Still not back to normal, but things are better than they have been for a while.  Still being sick, still got stomach ache, still feel like crap, but I am off to University College Hospital in London on Thursday to see a new specialist so hopefully things will start to get sorted sooner rather than later.

Right, enough of the miserable crap and on to the important things.  Wargames!

I have struggled to get much of anything done since my last post back in June.  My concentration is sorely lacking and my patience has left the building.  I have "made" myself do some painting, but really not felt like it to be honest.  I managed to finish off a Warlord German Grenadier platoon that I had started back in June. These are nice figures and paint up easily, even with my level of skill.

I also got an engineer squad and attendant Sd251 Hanomag done.  The figures are Warlord again, but from the early war set with metal "pioneer" bits added.  They look the part and the extra bits do make them different from the usual infantry figures.  The Hanomag is by Rubicon and is a cracking model.  The kit comes with parts to make the engineers Sd251/7, the ambulance variant (Sd251/8) or the command Sd251/10 with a 3.7cm PaK gun.  I can't recommend this kit highly enough, it's a beauty. 



 Then it was onto something new.  The bunch of reprobates fine upstanding chaps that I game with on a Monday night are play-testing the forthcoming "Fighting Season" rules by Too Fat Lardies.  These are designed to cover the more modern insurgency(post 2000) conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan and are based on the Chain of Command system, but with many differences to allow for the less rigid style of combat.  So, I have been looking at getting some figures to play it and it worked out damn expensive.  I did plan to do it all in 15mm, but the lads all moaned about it being "too small for their ageing eyes to see" and "28's look better" and so on.  So 28's it is and, in my humble opinion  the best figures out there are Empress Miniatures and Eureka Miniatures.  Sadly both are a bit out of my price range at the moment.  So I looked about and came up with a cunning plan, at least for me it's cunning!  As I like to have enough forces to play the game at home I didn't need to worry about matching in with other peoples stuff so much.  I came across this blog and saw the 1/48 models from Airfix's "Operation Herrick" range and was sold.  A quick scout on eBay and a few models were winging their way to me. 
The initial purchase was an infantry patrol box and a Landrover Patrol box, which gave me 16 figures and a Snatch Landrover.  The figures are more realistically proportioned than wargames figures, but are close enough to the Empress figures that they will do.  Then a bargain appeared on eBay and I ended up ordering two more boxes, a bit larger but a lot cheaper.  These boxes gave me the extra figures I needed to make a full platoon, so here they are.  Three sections of 8 men, plus a command group of 6 and 3 "extras".  Not too bad and I am pretty happy with how they have come out.

The other bits in the bigger boxes included a pair of Landrover WMIKs, so I put one of those together as well.

Here are the 2 Landies, ready for action.  I had picked up the vehicle crew box as well, which gave me the crew for the WMIK and a spare figure for the Snatch.  Airfix models have certainly improved from my youth, the level of detail on these kits in amazing, even down to the mesh in the glass being replicated with decals.  I have some stowage to add to these from Red Zebra Models.  Very quickly delivered and beautifully cast, they will add that "lived in" look.

The final part of the boxes contents is a Lynx helicopter!  I was a bit concerned about this model as it is rated as a "5" for difficulty and it's been a few years since I have made anything approaching that level of complexity.  The instructions and parts are great though and it went together really well I think.  The WMIK was quite a complex model with 57 steps and 80+ parts, but the Lynx blew it out of the water.  There are 100 steps in the instructions and over 200 parts, plus over 150 decals.  I have modelled it as landed and with one door mounted GPMG.  It was quite a job to get it done, but I am fairly happy with it and hope it will be off use as an objective or something in the game at some point.  And yes, I do have another one to make at a (much) later date.  The price was too good to turn down, each box (8 men, 1 WMIK and 1 Lynx) cost £15!  An Infantry Patrol box(8 men) is about £10, so the price was definitely right.

Still to be made is the 2nd Lynx, another WMIK and I also have a Jackal to do.  And I would like a Warrior at some point....or maybe two. ;-) 

So there it is.  I will post again soon with a few pictures from the little bit of gaming I have managed over the last few months, but that's your lot for now.  Catch you all later.

Damn you Insomnia.......

So here I am again, its 2.16am and yet again I can't sleep.  Stomach ache and vomiting does not a good nights sleep make.  At least I have been productive this morning, so it's not been a total washout.  I have been beavering away on some Allied type jump off points for my 15mm WW2 forces.  I made some German ones earlier this year so thought I should really have a go at some for the Allies.

I have had a couple of Baueda supply dump style bases for some time now, so they have finally been painted.  There is nothing on them to specify which side they belong to, so they are generic jump off points now.

I am also making a couple of themed bases, so have been busy painting up some assorted figures and vehicles.  I should(hopefully) get them stuck to their bases before I go back to bed, it depends how much longer they take to dry properly.  Then I will finish them either tomorrow evening or Thursday, so there will be another update with pictures to come then.

To keep you gong, here is a picture of the few bits I did get painted last week, ready for use at Legionary.

I modified my "official" Too Fat Lardies jump off points to make them a bit more modern.  Basically I cut off the WW2 weapons and replaced them with more modern NATO weapons.  One has an SLR, one an M16 and the last on has a Carl Gustav.  I also painted up a few old(Mongrel Miniatures) and a few new(Empress Miniatures) figures to give the Russians some support options apart from tanks and BMPs.  There is an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher, a Kord hmg(which fills in for a KPV hmg) and an 9K111 AT-4 Spigot anti-tank missile team, all from Empress Miniatures.  These are joined by five Mongrel Miniatures figures from the 10th Company packs.  A nice selection of bits to add to my Cold War collection.  I am just waiting on a delivery of SPG-9s and DShKs from Eureka Miniatures now. 

Right, I'm off to see if the vehicles are dry, then it's off to bed.  It's now 2.30 and I should really try to get some sleep.  I hate being wide awake at this time of night as it will totally screw up tomorrow for me as well.  Catch you later. 

More VBCW!

Since the last update I have finished all my VBCW figures! Well, all the ones I have so far anyway. Below is a new, expanded lineup of the forces that will be fighting for the King in the Torbay area!

Added to the force are the Highlanders, from Musketeer again. They will form his Lordships personal bodyguard, with some form of close combat bonus hopefully. The only downside to them is the lack of a Lewis gun figure, but you can't have everything.


The first squad of the local yeomanry, using Musketeer WW1 British. While not as experienced as the Scots, they do get a Lewis gun as fire support.




The second squad of Yeomanry. I do like these figures, Paul Hicks is a cracking sculptor, I just wish he would do a moving Vickers team!




And speaking of a Vickers team, there is one of them to give some heavier support.






Then there is the real "Heavy" support, an 18pdr field gun from Renegade Miniatures. The crew tower over the Musketeer figures, but the price was right and they painted up nicely.





Command and control has also been improved with the creation of a command group under Major B. Lunder!






The mobile reserve, some converted Perrys ACW cavalry. Tally-Ho and all that. Unfortunately, in their first outing, they came across some machine guns and were shot to ribbons.






The despatch riders, the final 2 Perrys figures with different heads and nice red coats. They are supposed to be members of the local hunt pressed into service as messengers.




The Irish Brigade, just for some variation away from khaki. Nice, even if they don't get on with the Scots.




The Engineers Guard, who man the steam tanks, steam trucks, steam boats and steam trains. Some of these vehicles have yet to be purchased, but the plan is there! Their lack of machine gun is made up by having a nice submachine gun, ideal for boarding actions and the like.
The first militia squad, making up with spirit(s) what they lack in experience.


The second militia, as quantity is a quality all of its own.



The third militia, lacking a machine gun but with a few shotguns instead.





His Lordship with a few loyal retainers, including his chauffeur and the local policemen. The trusty elephant gun as been taken out of retirement and is used to put down those damned uppity commoners!




There is also the Steam Tank Truck, as seen before. The armoured support has been joined by a true Steam Tank now, once painted it will appear on here. Well, there they are in all their glory.

It's been a while.......

Since I posted on here, but I'm back!

I am still struggling on with painting 15mm Napoleonics for my brother-n-law! To say that they are not my favourite thing to paint would be an understatement.

The current flavour of the month amongst the group I game with is the Very British Civil War. I have had a bit force for this for some time, but will hopefully get the rest painted now the planning for a campaign is underway. I am in charge of the Royalist faction, led by the Earl of Devon and controlling Torquay. Our opposition includes Facists(Totnes), Communists(Teignmouth), Anglican(Newton Abbot), Devonians(Paignton) and the Navy(Dartmouth).

Here are the few units I have painted.

First up is a unit of "Regulars", representing the local yeomanry who have stayed loyal to the King. These are WW1 British from Musketeer Miniatures.



This is the first Militia unit, from the Musketeer "Irish War of Independance" range.




The second Militia unit looks a lot like the first, but has a different Lewis team. Same source as the others.





Milord, his Chaffeur and some shotgun armed militia make up the last of the painted foot. All but Milord are from Musketeer, while himself is courtesy of Steve.






The last painted unit(sort of) is "Stinky" the steam-truck-tank. A badly converted model-of-yesteryear steam truck, with metal plating around the cab and railway sleepers protecting the flat bed area. The usual weapon carried is a Vickers MG, but recently a 37mm ships gun has also been sighted on the pedestal. Don't you just love magnets!

So that is the painted force so far. Still to be painted are (all Musketeer unless it says otherwise) a unit of Highlanders(veteran bodyguards), another unit of regulars, a unit of boatcrew/railroad crew(Empress Miniatures SCW Assault Guards), a unit of Irish settlers, another unit of Militia, a regular Vickers HMG, a Command Section and an 18pdr field gun(Renegade Miniatures). I also have a 1/48 Hawker Fury biplane to provide air cover.

All in all, not a bad force, I just need to get the rest painted!