Necromunda Odds and Ends, Baby 'Thulhu, and RE-Based War or 1812 Militia!?

A few other things rolling off the workbench this week (in addition to the re-based Lion Clan Army for Dragon Rampant)...



Four additions to the Necromunda collection. First (going from left to right of the picture) is some Hive Scum - another experiment with Contratst® paints (I think the miniature may have been from Kryomek...?). Next is a Rogue Doc - ostensibly for my Delaque gang (hence the dark trench coat) - y'know, if they ever get out of the negatives for Reputation and can hire a hanger-on. He has hair because she's just a hanger on and not a full gang member... She's got a medical bag slung over her shoulder (which you can't see in this pic). The figures is from Wargames Foundry. Next is an old Citadel Imperial Guard Medic. I thought he could be used as a Rogue Doc as well - did him in Old Necromunda regimental colours - figured he probably joined up, got all the kit and training and then deserted and fled to the under hive. Finally an old Citadel Necromunda Scavvy. the figure originally came with plastic arms which I do not have... so the arm with the knife is from a Drukhari wych and the shotgun is actually from a Warlord Games US marine plastic sprue a friend gave me.



Baby 'Thulhu - Awww! Idn't he Cyuuuuuute? I think it came in a pack of creepy familiars from Reaper miniatures...?



Finally some re-based 1812 militiamen. I modelled and cast and painted these almost eight years ago, and recently came to the realization that I am not likely to ever play with them on those big multi-figure bases.... I MIGHT actually get around to playing Dan MErcy's Rebels and Patriots, and, while there is no basing standard, and I COULD have just played that with them as is... I like playing Dan's games with individually based figures.

I'll likely do the same to all my Napoleonic figures at some point. I'm never going to have enough of them to play any serious big battle games. Might as well get some use out of them with a game I MIGHT actually play!!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Um...?

More Necromunda stuff...?

Or....

More re-based Legends of the Five Rings armies for use with Dragon Rampant!

1812 Militiamen and Great War Royal Artillery

As promised here are the War of 1812 Militiamen I made. As with the British Infantryman I had a lot of miscasts – I’d cast over twice as many as I’ve painted here (and some of these even have flaws). I think I figured out what the issue was and hopefully next time I get to casting I won’t have so much trouble!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


1812 Militiamen modeled, moulded, cast and painted by yours truly.


Unlike the Regular Infantry which I am basing 8/base, these fellows I’ve decided to do 6/base. Mostly because as militia I imagine they weren’t drilled as well as the Regulars and their lines would be a little more loose.

These could really be from either side of the border, but in my minds eye I imagined them being from Upper Canada…



This is a Renegade Miniatures early Great War Royal Artillery 18-Pounder QF Field Gun. I have a second one on the work bench… I’d tried to do them both at the same time, but got bogged down on fht efirst gun and just wanted to finish it up quick to keep the momentum going… hopefully I’ll keep it going enough to get the second gun finished…

Anyone know what type of shell that gunner is holding?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a PILE of Great War Highlanders that I finished up last night. You should be able to see them posted at Analogue Hobbies shortly… What those Jocks need is an officer. Renegade doesn’t (currently) make any Highland officers. I do have some spare Renegade British Officers and I was thinking I could paint one in trews. Can anyone out there confirm or deny that Higland officers did such a thing…? I’m pretty sure I read in Wellington’s Highlanders that officers in kilted regiments during the Napoleonic era often (or were even required to?) wear trews – because they often had to ride horses. Was this regulation/tradition carried on into the Great War…? I may just do that anyway… of course I’d probably have to do some converting as all those officers are in SD caps and the Highland officers would probably have worn Glengarries or Balmorals…

Ugh… too… many.. late… nights… I’ll post them tomorrow… and then I’m going to have to take a break from the late (like up until 2am) nights… I gotta slow down and pack myself here… (although it would be cool to finish up 1000 foot figures this year – only ~150 to go… seven days… 20/day….? I COULD probably do it… of course it would mean ignoring my family for the week…)


On the workbench I do have some more 1812 British Infantry and Militia (had a bit better success with the second lot of casting.

I also have some 20mm WW2 stuff I was admiring TimmyD’s entry to The Challenge and thinking I didn’t have much to finish up my (re-organized and re-based) Para battalion.

That second Royal Artillery 18-pounder is also still sitting there and has been joined by some Great War German Casualties is also


Happy Whatever To Me...

Two of my biggish orders arrived today! There's Renegade - mostly Great War Stuff and a few marching Napoleonic British - and there's North Star #2 - a couple of ready made armies for some game or another that I'm going to use to make a DBA Greek Hoplite Army and some Warlord Games partisan types... Huzzah!

I don't even want to think about how that's going to rack up my "purchased" column for this year, though...

Sample 1812 Infantryman

As I mentioned in the previous post I finished up some moulds of the first batch of 1812 infantry and got casting them last night. Unfortunately all of the British regulars were miscast – the one, below, was the least messed up so I primed and painted him anyway just to see what he’d look like. (I’ve sorted out the casting issue and should be cranking more of these out shortly…). Before I get to basing and presenting entire units I’m going to have to make a flank company figure, an ensign, and an officer… and maybe a drummer…?

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


War or 1812 British Infantryman (41st Regiment of Foot) - modeled, moulded, cast and painted by yours truly…


…and the backside…

Well, obviously, I ain't no Perry Brother... but when there's a hundreds of them on the table in dense formation... who's going to notice?!

The militiamen I have didn’t turn out quite as bad – I should have a stand or two of those painted up shortly (of course they will be posted over at Analogue Hobbies first as part of the 2nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some more Great War Jocks on the workbench and ready for painting… but they may be eclipsed by these War or 1812 figures….

As mentioned I also have some sculpting to do (flank company figure, ensign, officer, drummer, etc…)?

Hey, I just realized it’s five years ago today that I started this blog… This is the 811th post.

1812 Masters Update

Coming along very nicely…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


well as nicely as can be expected from a lunk like me… (judge them not too harshly until you see them cast, painted up and marshaled on the table in the hundreds!)

anyway… hopefully at least the British infantryman will be done shortly, as will a couple of the generic militia. If the stars are right I should hopefully start mould-making this weekend and start casting up a storm next week – Huzzah!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of this master/mouldmaking and casting buisiness…

1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots) – Finished!

Well… Sort of…

For DBA-X I’m organizing my battalions into three stands, and so for that purpose this unit is complete. As with the 42nd Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Regiment) I painted earlier this year, I plan to do another two half stands so these could potentially be fielded as a 32 figure unit in Black Powder (just ordered the additional Center Company Marching figures from Renegade Miniatures last week – curse them and their 5 for 4 sale…). Anyway…

These are the 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots). They had been stationed in the West Indies from 1801-1812 and at the outbreak of the War with the United States of America were sent to Quebec. They later saw action at Sackett's Harbor, the capture of Fort Niagara, Longwoods, Chippawa, Lundy's Lane, Fort Erie and Cook's Mills. Part of my Long Range Plan is to do Chippawa and/or Lundy’s Lane in 2014 for the bicentenary… These guys may not see much action for a while.

(I suppose if anyone were to show up with some French opponents that need a flogging I could pretend they were the Third Battalion – which fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots). The miniatures are from Renegade Miniatures.

I know I said I'd wait until the Analogue Hobbies 2nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge was one... but... I'd finished one stand and once you get going on something it's hard to stop... and if you do... it's sometimes hard to get it going again. It's not like I have a shortage of historical miniatures to paint over the next three months...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The next Redcoats you likely see here will be of some of my own sculpts for the War of 1812 – they’re coming along nicely – but probably a week or two off…

The workbench is more or less cleared off… I’m feeling like getting some sculpting done.

Battle of Queenston Heights

(a little more prattling about plans for next year…)

As I’ve alluded to in previous posts I’m planning on doing some sort of big game of the Battle of Queenston Heights for the bicentenary on October 13th next year. It’s a long way off, but I’ll have a lot of painting and terrain making to do so it’s good to start planning these things well in advance (the trick is not to plan them TOO far in advance so that you lose interest or forget what the hell you were trying to do in the first place…).

I’m still doing a bit of reading

I’m using the scenario from Bruce McFarlane’s excellent Red Rocket’s Glare as a starting point and currently planning to use DBA-Hx to play it. The scenario may be altered (though it seems pretty straightforward) and the rules may change based on playtesting (when I get to that); There’s Black Powder and Ever Victorious Armies… but it’s a start.

In the RRG scenario it gives Orders of Battle for two different levels of play. I’m currently working with the idea of one company (from the “small units scale”) being one stand in DBA-X. So the orders of battle would look something like this:

British

49th Foot - 1 company/stand
49th Foot Light Infantry (Rifles) - 1 company/stand
41st Foot - 3 companies/stands
Lincoln Militia - 5 companies/stands
York Volunteers Militia – 2 companies/stands
Mohawk Indians - 1 company/stand
Heavy Fild Guns - 1 battery/stand
Light Field Gun - 1 battery/stand

Americans

13th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
6th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
28th US Regulars - 3 companies/stands
16th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
20th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
17th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
18th New York Militia - 3 companies/stands
Pennsylvania Militia - 3 companies/stands

For regulars I was planning on mounting 8/base and 6/base for militia so I will need:

British Regulars – 40
British/Canadian Militia – 42
US Regulars – 72
US Militia – 90

I’ve started modeling some figures to cast my own infantry. Since that first post I’ve made a mould of the doll, cast half a dozen and started working on some variants.

The Indians I already have (from the Seven Years War project that fizzled – but will one day be revived!!) and I recently painted some Napoleonic Royal Artillery that could stand in for the guns if I didn’t find something else.

War of 1812 Infantry Sculpt Update

Last week…? Maybe…? The days they are just flying by... It seems like it was forever ago, but it was probably last week (maybe it was two weeks...?) that I make a mould of the 1812 infantry doll and I’ve been working on a few new masters of regulars and militiamen. Here they are:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The chap in the middle is a British Regular (from the 41st or 49th Regiment of Foot). The other fellow with the beginnings of a stovepipe shako (on the far right) is going to be a US Regular infantryman. The rest of them are going to be militia. I’m probably going to do a few more militiamen as well (different jackets).

They’re a bit crude… but when there’s 220 of them all painted up pretty-like on a table full of beautiful terrain… no one will even notice…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Maybe some Elves… or maybe I’ll just go ahead and finish up the 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots), I mean it’s not like I have any shortage of other historical stuff to paint for the 2nd Annual Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge… I had just figured I should get a few fantasy things out of the way because I’ll be focusing on historicals for three months… but there isn’t that much fantasy stuff I really NEED to get done right away… so…

Game Plan 2012

Starting a little early… But it is getting close to that time of year when I look back over what I did this past year (and I’ll do more reviewing as the end of the year draws ever nearer in December) and start to look ahead to next year and try to do some long range planning. I recognize it’s hard to do planning that far in advance because… well… I have a short attention span and interests change…

Here’s a brief view of what I’m thinking about for the next year….

Right now most of my active gaming is Fantasy role-playing and skirmishing. I’m running two separate Savage Worlds Fantasy campaigns using the old AD&D DragonLance modules (one for the Saturday Night Savages and one for my kids and their friends. I’d like to keep that going – though now that I’m getting into it I keep getting “itchy feet” – wanting to ditch the DragonLance and start up a new campaign in a fantastical setting of my own design… Anyway… want to keep the Dragon Lance campaign(s) going and stay moderately focused on fantasy stuff. With the “big kids” we seem to be getting through a module a month – so it’s going to take a year to play the whole campaign (with the not-so-big kids… its taking a bit longer…)

I’ve also been getting in a few games of Hordes of the Things and DBA.

As most of my Fantasy stuff is “Dark Ages-ish” (rather than “High Medieval”) this feeds into working on some Dark Ages stuff – in particular; finishing up the last of the Dark Ages DBA stuff. The only complete army I “need” to finish is the Pre-Feudal Scots. I have some options and extras for a few of the other armies… and I have enough figures kicking around for a complete second (and THIRD!?) Viking army that I could paint up… if I ever felt the urge…

Anyway, I thought I’d try hosting a couple DBA/HOTT campaigns in 2012. One in February (for my annual wargaming birthday bash) and one in June when Amanda and the kidz go to visit the Outlaws.

DARK AGES DBA CAMPAIGN WEEKEND

I am setting a tentative date of February 25th for the Dark Ages DBA Campaign Weekend. At minimum I will have six armies ready; Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Welsh, Irish, and Scots. If I had time I wouldn’t mind getting additional Anglo-Saxon (or Anglo-Danish), Viking or Norman (West Frank) armies ready… but we’ll have to wait and see…

Normally we’d start the evening before with a get-together and a big battle game to get things started… but the Saskatoon Branch of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is having one of their events that night… so… We’ll have to wait and see… If anyone’s actually traveling from out of town for the game weekend I’ll probably ditch the Dr. Sketchy’s plan…


HORDES OF THE THINGS CAMPAIGN WEEKEND

June…

Around mid-June Amanda and the kidz will be heading east to visit her folks. I can’t remember the exact date, but around mid june I’m going to host another Hordes of the Things campaign (I ran another one in June Three Years Ago). This one could potentially be bigger. In addition to the six Dark Age armies (which could be used in HOTT – in fact for most of them I have made some fantastical options for HOTT). I’ll have Romans, Elves, Orcs (at least two armies worth), Dwarves, Samurai, Centaurs, and probably a couple others that could be fielded…. More on that in the new year.


And the rest of the year….

THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS

With the Bicentenary coming up I’ve gotten to reading about the War of 1812 and an getting pretty excited about doing a Battle of Queenston Heights game in October (Maybe at ToonCon…?) More detail on this one to follow, but I’m already starting to model (and cast!) some of my own figures for this one! Huzzah!


I’ve even worked out a painting schedule to get what I need done for those first three events next year… (at a reasonable rate of about 15 foot/week – which is a little less that what I’ve been averaging over the last few years – since I started keeping track of such things).

Hopefully I'll get in some board gaming too. I'd planned to host a board game afternoon once a month but only managed to get in two - Warrior Knights and Age of Conan (and one evening I got in a game of Chaos in the Old World)... Maybe I just have to make it a set day (like the first Sunday of the month) and that way folks can set that time aside a show up!! Set up the schedule NOW!


2013 and Beyond!

I’ve been thinking about other events I could work on over the next couple years. If the DBA and/or HOTT campaigns go well they will likely become annual events. I’m thinking I’d like to have a big games day three times a year (February, June and October seem to work) two of those would be HOTT/DBA campaigns, the other would be Big Battles! Here’s a few ideas I had for games to run over the next couple years:

2013 – Chateguay and Chrysler’s Farm

2014
Summer (July) - Chippawa and Lundy’s Lane
Fall (October) - First Ypres

2015 – Vimy (add Third Division – Building on the Vimy Game I ran at Mayday a few years back which focused on the Fourth Canadian Division’s attack at the North end of the Ridge)

2016 – Vimy (add Second Division)

2017
Spring (April) - Vimy (add first Division making the Complete Corps – for the 100th anniversary of the battle!)
Fall - Paschendale

2018 – Hundred Days… Amiens, Canal du Nord, Hindenburg Ling, Mons….

After that…? Who knows… Hopefully in there I’ll find some time to do some other new DBA/HOTT armies, though for some of the campaigns I’d like to do (ECW, Rome, Diadochi, Peloponnesian War, etc) I’ll probably need to devote the better part of a year…

is this madness...!?

1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots)

First stand of Royal Scots for the War of 1812. These chaps were in Quebec in 1812 and later saw action at Sackett's Harbor, the capture of Fort Niagara, Longwoods, Chippawa, Lundy's Lane, Fort Erie and Cook's Mills. I have the rest of the battalion primed and ready, but I think I’m going to hold off on them until the 20th (so they can be counted for the 2nd Annual Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge). In the meantime I have a couple fantasy-ish things to finish up because after the 20th it’s going to be all historical all the time (well… MOST of the time) until spring!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are from Renegade Miniatures. I picked them up last year during the 5 for 4 sale (which is on again now…). I have Two other regiments worth which I think I’ll do as the 8th and 89th Regiments of Foot.

I’m working on modeling some of my own figures for the War or 1812 – including some British in stovepipe shakos. The newer shako (that the above figures are wearing), as far as I can tell, hand just come into use in 1812 – so I’m not so sure the 41st or the 49th would have had them by the time of the Battle of Queenston Heights in October of that year (despite a very popular painting of the mortally wounded sir Issac urging his troops – wearing the new style shako- on..)


Injured Royal Scot. The figure is from Front Rank Figures

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some Elves and probably some blathering about my plans for 2012 – and the next six years or so... (I’ve been doing some lllllllloooooooonnnnnnnngggggg range planning – which at times seems pointless considering my attention span… or lack thereof…).

War of 1812 Infantryman Sculpt

Here’s where my latest sculpt is at…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


(plus a few of the others I’m working on in the background…)

No, he’s not balding, I’ve left the top blank to add different hats (shakos for regulars and top hats and wide brimmed hats, etc for some of the militia).

I was thinking I might make a mould at this point and cast some dolls. Then I can add different hats to the dolls and have them holding muskets in a variety of positions (mostly marching), add haversacks and canteens and maybe knapsacks on a few… then make moulds of those and cast by the dozens! Huzzah!

I thought I might even cut of the cartridge box and turn the bayonet scabbard into a sword scabbard and make an officer figure…? Maybe even some ensigns…?

I may or may not add cording on the front of the jacket - perhaps just leaving that as "paint-on detail", keping them just a bit more generic...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More pics of the modeling…? I totally cleared the workbench of painting projects – planning to only get out ONE at a time (so as not to get so easily distracted…. We’ll see how that works out…).