Peninsular War: Spanish Militia

 I have added a few more Spaniards to my Peninsular war collection. These are from Eagle Miniatures (except the guy with the axe, who is form Eureka). They are quite well sculpted  with quite fine 'realistic' proportions, and well cast, with minimal mould lines. The are quite slim and match the Eureka and Perry miniatures figures rather well, although seem a bit slight compared with Victrix and Warlord Games. These can represent a  Spanish Militia or perhaps part of a guerilla band. 

Frostgrave Barbarian

Sven is a Northern Barbarian and an axe for hire in Frostgrave. He doesn't seem effected by the freezing temperatures despite he lack of suitable attire. It is said that the men of his tribe have the blood of frost giants running in their veins. 

This is another Heresy figure- two parts this time but well enough cast to go together without too much fuss. he is huge too- standing head and shoulders above the Heresy knight I painted- he not different scale- just huge!

Frostgrave: Templar Knight

 Here is another addition to my growing Frostgrave bands - a Templar- with his two handed sword and heavy armour. This figure was from Heresy and was lovely to paint. I have a special love of single piece miniatures (as oppressed to multi-part moulding) so I was really pleased to see when this one arrived that All I had to do was stick it on it's base and paint it. 

I just need to add some snow to his base with white plaster filler and he will be good to go off on his adventures. 

Adobe Buildings

I am making good progress on my mud brick buildings. I have painted two of them and I am very happy with the outcome- I feel I was justified in my belief that the little boxes I made all those years ago were at least as good as anything I could buy. I have added a few bits of scrubby plans and flowers to the bases too, as they looked very bland otherwise. I think it is these details that make all the difference. I still have to finish painting the large compound.

I also remembered that I had bought three prepainted adobe building cheep on ebay a while ago and I wondered if they would look any good next to my own scratch build ones. They are made from MDF and have been covered with a rough textured paint. the doors and windows stick out as they are just stuck on to the surface of the building. They have lift of roofs and are quite roomy inside. I decided to make a test model first. I used a craft knife to trim the corners and the edges of the walls so that the whole thing has a more rounded and organic shape that is important for mud brick building (I think that this is one of the problems with using MDF to make adobe buildings- they are not supposed to have sharp corners and edges). I will be adding a wall and an out building to the structure, and maybe a porch or something to hide the clunky front door. A little ally way between the buildings and a back gate adds to the interest when gaming too. 

French and Indian Wars: More Animal Markers

  Here are my other three animal bases I will use as Hidden Unit Markers for games of Songs of Drums and Tomahawks and Muskets and Tomahawks.  The  big bear is from Warbases, and the cubs are from Ral Partha (I think). I am not sure if the cubs are meant to be 28mm cubs or 15mm bears, but either way they fit the job nicely. The wolves and the Wood Bison are from Warbases.  

French and Indian Wars: Wild Animal Markers

"Hey Sarge, did you see that bush movin'? Maybe there is one of them Injuns or Frenchies sneakin' up on us?"

"Don't be squeelin' like a yella belly. That 'ain't no Injun. Sure that's just a fox rustlin' in the leaves lookin' for varmint."

Both rules sets I use for French and Indian wars requires the use of 'Blinds' or hidden unit markers to show the whereabouts of hidden troops as they stalk their way through the forests. Songs of Drums and Tomahawks suggests that you could use bases with woodland animals on to add a funky looking bit of detail and make the game look less abstract. I thought that was a rather nice idea, so after a ferret though my lead mountain and a foray on the internet I set to work making six wild animal markers. 

The fox and the white wolf are from Warbases- actually they are both supposed to be wolves but I painted the fox differently to give me more easily recognised differences. At this scale it doesn't make much difference. The cougar is from a pack Pulp Citizen gave me- I am pretty sure they were Ral Partha. 

Work in Progress: Adobe Builidings

Wow its halfway through January and this is my first post...not good. In part I can blame real life for getting in the way, and the crummy grey English weather that has meant it has been difficult to take any photos, but there is also a degree of procrastination too. 

That said I am planning to show you some of what I have been working on for the last few weeks.  Today it is these adobe buildings that I am currently working on. Mr Pulp Citizen might recognise the basic structures as being those we used to use for 40K for many years- I made them about twelve years ago form foam card. The rounded edge was achieved by mixing DAS air drying putty with PVA glue to make it sticky then rolling it into a sausage and smoothing it onto the rounded edges- it was a very tactile and messy job but very satisfying. The result is rock hard and very durable- as you can see these buildings have withstood a fair amount of bashing about and game play, as well as some poorly considered storage solutions (such as chucking them into a box with no bubble wrap or packaging).  

In order to revamp these little old buildings I have given them new doors, new bases (from Warbases), added matchstick beams sticking out of the walls and the blue foam walls. Blue foam is an easy material to use to make adobe building as it is easy to shape into curves by using sand-paper to file down the edges. 
These buildings will see use in the planned Soviet-Afghan war a few of the guys down Earlswood have got planned. They could also be used for Ultra-modern wargaming (Black OPs or Force on Force), Mexican cowboy games, WW2 syria and parts of India for my 18th century games. 

Useful.

2015 round up

December has been hectic with my work, my wife's work, Christmas and so on. I have managed to get some games done, and have painted a a good pile of figures, but the light has been poor in the UK for photos. As soon as we have a bright day (when I am not at work) I will photograph what I have been working on in December and post them. Expect a storm of Frostgrave minis, some Peninsular war minis, and some other random odd and sods- including 50+ 15mm Napoleonics which I painted by accident before I realised that they were supposed to be 10mm. Doh!

2015 saw my usual painting frenzy continue unabated. I haven't totalled up how many, and certainly a lot of what I have painted hasn't made it onto the blog, but I think it must be over 300 figures again. I would like to think that the lead pile is shrinking a little but there is no evidence of that. 
At the end of 2014 I said that my priorities for 2015 would be Napoleonics, Fallshirmjager, and Home Guard, all of which I have been working on during the year. The Fallschirmjager is completed, and I have painted most of my Home Guard figures (although I am tempted to add another couple of squads and some support weapons). The Napoleonic project is ongoing and I will continue to plod on painting new units as the mood strikes me. I have painted about 40-50  for this project this year. All in all I think that is a big pat on the back for me for sticking to projects and not getting too distracted. 
The other plan for 2015 was to paint smaller easily contained projects with a dozen figures or so at the most. Pulp city, Dead Man's Hand, War Machine and On the Seven Seas were all named, but of these projects I have yet to draw any to a game-able point. I did start Frostgrave as a short project but that got a bit out of hand, as I have now painted over 32 figures and lost of scenery and I have yet to play a game. I have also finished two small crews for Freebooters Fate, but would like to expand these a bit next year. The other highlight was painting Carl's Zombiecide minis for Zomtober- that was hard work but they were lovely to paint. 

Part of an on going Napoleonic project

A completed WW2 projects!

A half completed On Seven Sea Project that has yet yo see the light of day...

So what for 2016? Well as I have already said I intend to continue to add to my Peninsular War collection, only 2016 will see more French and their allies added to to the mix so I can get larger skirmish games in using the Sharp Practice. I will also add more to my Home Guard army so that they become a usable army for Bolt Action. I also intend to finish painting my crews for On the Seven Seas.
My Big idea for 2016 is the 18th centruy. I intend to add to my my French and Indian wars range (starting with the French and more civilians/militia), then expand the gaming world by relocating the 18th century British and French troops, and sailors from my On The Seven Seas collection, to India to fight Indian troops (real Indians this time, not native Americans) with Clive of India. This will mean I can use my figures in several different settings. I also intend to use my old Wargames Foundry Zanzibari slavers as Arab Mercenaries as well, so I will have lots of options. I will be making some Adobe buildings which will be useful for a whole range of other projects form Afghanistan to Mexico.


Other definitely  planned projects are (in no particular order)...

1. Pulp Citizen and I are going to embark on a Drop Zone Commander project, starting hopefully in February. 
2. An Ancient Celt/British army in 28mm, on multi-figure basing
3. Mujahideen for a 'modern' project with some of the guys down at Earlswood
4. 10mm Napoleonic Spanish/British/ Portuguese 
5. More Frostgrave, Scum and Villainy, 

Other Pipe Dream ideas are...

1. WW2 Syria with British, Commonwealth and Free French Forces against Vichy France
2. Mexican Revolution
3. 1848: A Very Victorian Civil War

Wish me luck, I think I am going to need it.