Sharp Practice: French Vivandiere

 A Vivandiere is a camp follower of the French army during the Napoleonic war, officially licenced to sell goods to the soldiers. I am not sure where I bought this one, as I just found it somewhere in my lead mountain. Which is a shame because she is quite a nice little figure. I painted her with GW contrast paints, which I am quite pleased with,

Sharp Practice: Portuguese Allies Finished!

Last Christmas I got a Napoleonic War Portuguese force of my lovely wife and daughter and thought it would be nice to try to get it painted before this Christmas.

I know- a radical idea!

Anyway, ably assisted by GW new navy blue contrast paint and some zenithal highlight undercoating, I was able to smash out the remaining three groups to complete the project (minus the cannon and crew which are currently absent without leave).

This force now consist of four officers, three groups of line infantry, one group of grenadiers, one group of Cacadores in line formation (with muskets) and one group of cacadores with rifles in skirmish formation.

French Napoleonics- painted for Ebay

Last week, while tiding my man cave, I came across a pile of unpainted French Napoleonics, some of which were left over form my french/irish forces and some I think I got free in Wargames Illustrated or perhaps at Salute one year. Anyway, one thing the all had in common (and the reason why they remained unpainted) is that they were all in great coats and had wet weather covers on their shakos. As my French and Irish Legion are being painted for the Peninsular War I didn't think the great goat look was what I was going for. I have painted a few as pickets for a jump off point, but I didn't need all these. 

I decided to paint then and put them on ebay, hopefully to generate some much needed Christmas money. I had just bought some of GW's contrats paints and wanted to try these out too. 

I put these together and painted them in a couple of nights. they were quite fun to paint as the great coats covered lots of teh 'pain in the ass' detail normally associated with Nap stuff. 

I found the contrats paints to be a mixed bag. The white is next to useless, although I will practice some more with it to see if I was using it wrong. The red and dark brown are great. I also use the navy blue on my Portuguese too, and found it easy to use, although I felt it was a bit flat and ended up adding more highlighting anyway. 

Anyway. These are on Ebay now if you want them...a nice Christmas pressie for yourself or loved one- ready for the Russian steppe or Waterloo?

Wargamer Show (West Midlands)

Sunday saw me going to the Wargamer show in Birmingham. It was the first year I went. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was practically on my doorstep and so it would have been rude not to attend. 
It was a small affair, but with a good selection of retailers. Including Warlord, Ainsty, Mighty Lancer Games, Colonel Bills and Lasercut Architect. Unfortunately as it was so close to Christmas and Black Friday I was unable to spend as much as I would have liked (that said, I still spent over double my intended budget). 
The participation and display games were of a very high standard, and I managed to get a game of Gaslands in (my first game) which was really cool. I was gaming with two experienced players, and they talked me through the rules, which were surprisingly easy to pick up. 
The attendance did not seem to be that great, and the whole affair felt quite quiet. this could be because the event was at a new venue this year, or perhaps because it was so close to Christmas. Most of the retailers were complaining that business had been poor (but ten they always seem to be complaining about that at every show I have ever been to). On the plus side I got to browse the stores in relative peace compared to the crowds of Salute. 

My Advent Calendar

I love advent calendars. I love the build up to Christmas, and the excitement they bring as the big day gets closer and closer. As a kid we had card ones with little windows you could open that revealed a little picture related to Christmas. My brother and I used to fight over who got to open the window. Then came chocolate advent calendars! Oh my god! The game was changed forever. The picture calendar was replaced by a tiny slither of chocolate. Advent would never be the same, and those picture advent calendars became a thing of the past. 

This year things are a little but different. I am trying to lose some weight, as the big, bearded wargamer look isn't working for me anymore. I didn't really want chocolate ones. I joked with my wife that someone should make an advent calendar with wargaming figures inside instead of chocolates. 

  "Why don't I do that?" she said. 

  "What do you mean?" I asked, somewhat bemused

  "The kids have a wooden bus advent calendar in the loft. Why don't I get some figures and fill up the draws of the bus. You get one a day until Christmas."

Wow! This must be the best advent calendar! Ever!

Today's advent surprise was a roman slave girl for my Rome collection. Nice!

Gaslands Cars

I picked up a couple of sprues of Gaslands accessories from Northstar and a box of Hot Wheels cars to try them out on. I really enjoyed modeling and painting these bad boys, but I can't see me ever playing the game as I don't have much time to game any more. I have decided to sell them on ebay...so if you know someone who would like them for Christmas...

I have lots more cars and lots more bits on the accessories sprues so you can expect to see some more in the future. 

Zombtober Week 3: Finished Zombie Horde

No posts last week because I was very busy with work but this week I have finished 10 more zombies for my Last Days in Paradise: A Caribbean Zombie Apocalypse. This brings the total to 28, just 2 short of my intended goal. I think I am going to call that a day, although I still have two more based and sprayed, so I am sure I will finish them at some point. I am sure 28 should be enough. 

I plan to try some solo games out using the Seasons supplement. This will allow me to test the rules and have a bit of fun. 

This is my entire horde shambling across my desktop. I like the way teh Mantic zombies look dynamic, but till

Zombtober 2019: Week 2

Nine more zombies finished for Zombtober this week (including the one that fell off its base last week) bringing the total to seventeen so far. These have been painted for my Last Days in Paradise campaign, a zombie apocalypse based on a Caribbean island. As such, I have reid to paint these zeds as if they were afro-caribbean. I have tried a variety of different painting techniques to get different skin tones.  

The one think I love about Zombtober is seeing how so many other bloggers are progressing with their zombies and survivors. There are a lot of Walking Dead survivors being painted this year, which is great, as they are lovely models. When Pulp Citizen, Simon Q and I came up with the idea many years ago I did not think that it would still be going strong and inspiring people to paint zombies in 2019! Well done everyone, especially Simon for getting us all organised. 

VBCW Big Game (Herefordshire)

A few pictures from today's Big Game in Herefordshire (not so big as there was only five of us there). 

The Communist and the royalist/fascist were both trying to 'tax' the same area of Herefordshire to replace losses incurred in recent battles. The local farmers had other ideas.

The game started surprisingly peaceful, with both the communist and the government forces not wanting to antagonise the well armed farmers, preferring instead to do battle using proxies in the from of unallied forces (the police, the AA, some well armed rugby players) to influence the farmers.

Things took a sharp detore when two platoons of german paratroopers (umpire controlled) dropped onto the battlefield with orders to eliminate the communist leader, Colonel- Commissar Professor Winters.

Some of the farmers, lead by Farmer Giles, unimpressed with foreign Johnnies dropping into their farms unannounced and uninvited, switched sides and started shooting at the Germans and their fascist allies.

The Communists and Farmer Giles managed to hold off the combined forces of the Government, the Fascists, the Germans and a treacherous, greedy farmer who sided with them. When it became clear that Farmer Giles' farm house was undefendable, the Communist fell back to a solid defensive position behind the farm. 

Reluctantly Colonel-Commissar Professor Winters gave the order for an orderly withdrawal. The Communist had acquired a fair amount of bootie (I mean voluntary contributions to the workers cause), and even rescued forces sweetheart Vera Lynn from the clutches of the Fascist regime. All this and they has only suffered a single casualty, killed by a bouncing exploding rugby ball. 

Not a bad result really. 

Farmer Giles and his family sadly lost their farm house, but Professor Winters gamely arranged to send them all to one of the CPGB's many luxurious re-education facilities. 

A van belonging to the CPGB Voluntary Contributions Unit- charged with redistributing wealth. 

Some unallied rugger buggers

The AA with their new tank. (Another unallied faction)

A firefight breaks out between the Royal Main the AA as both sides start using the unallied factions as proxies in the battle. 

Sergeant Thomson of the Voluntary Contributions Unit of the CPGB stops a passing vehicle and inspects it for contraband. After a small voluntary contribution to the communist cause most of the vehicles were allowed to continue on their way. 

Meanwhile some of the Communist round up wildstock to take. All in the name of the workers of Great Britain, of course. 

The BBC film plucky Communists assaulting the AA tank with nothing more than a crowbar and a Molotov cocktail. 

I wonder if the roadside assistance will be able to fix that!

Boy scouts set up a roadblock and search a cadbury's can. Unfortunately for them it was empty!

One of the farmers had a Flame tank. It looked impressive but it was crudely built. 

Colonel-Commissar Professor Winters and his command section. 

A solid defensive line blocked the fascist advance and allowed the Communist to retreat in good order with their bootie.