New Project: AWI for Sharp Practice

Sometime back in September i started painting up the American War of Independence miniatures I have had sitting around since just before I left Ontario. I used them as a test bed for using GW contrast paints.

generally speaking, I really like the contrast paints. I wish their coverage was a little more universal across the line though. some are go on way to heavily, and do almost no shading. and some are way too week. weak enough you might as well just use a army painter wash.

That said, the Black Templar(Black), Dark angels Red, Apothecary White and Skeletal Horde(off white/light tan). Dark angles red is perfect for black powder era British red coats. i use 3 parts Talasar Blue to 1 part Ultramarine Blue for Napoleonic french/AWI American coats.  for green coated troops I'll be using 1 part Dark Angels Green to 1 part Ork Flesh. and for brown coats I'll be using 1 part Snakebite leather to 1 part Cygor brown. These mixes tend to give me a colour I like, with the right tone and amount of coverage(shading and highlighting) I'm looking for. they go on in basically one coat and save me a lot of time.

Fife and Drum British artillery, Perry everything else.

New york VOlunteers(3rd American Rgt.), Perry Plastics

British 62nd Regiment of Foot.  Perry metal minis

(left) Maryland Continental Infantry
(right) Pennsylvania Continental Infantry

(back) Perry Ammo cart and Fife and Drum 6Ib Cannon,
(Front left) Perry Amusette team
(Front Right) Pennsylvania light infantry

(middle)Deployment points, (Front)moveable deployment
points, and (back) Mule train

I made some Deployment points out of some Wizkids Deep Cuts barrels and crates.  i added in some TAG muskets and swords, some buckets from the Fife and Drum artillery accessories, a a few extra hats from the Perry plastic boxes. the mules are also from the Wizkids Deep Cuts RPG minis line. there are some fantastic little bits of scatter and scenery. I used some casualties from the AWI British plastic box to make the moveable deployment points.

I'm particularly proud of the Continental light infantry Amusette team I kitbashed.  This is actually one of the Perry Jager Amusettes. I cut off the tricornes and affixed some spare Continental light infantry caps in their place. I wanted an american amusette because i know that the Virginia state Armoury and nearby Rappahanock Forge made amusettes for the American army. in fact 6 still exist in collection in the US to this day. but absolutely no one makes a team in 28mm.


I do have more planned for the AWI project.  I have more green coated Infantry, the Kings Carolina Rangers, to paint.  I also have 16 more Continental infantry in light caps.  I also have 2 Fife and drum Limbers for the 6Ib cannons and a pair of Fife and Drum 3Ib grasshopper guns and limbers. i also have enough figures left to make another unit of American infantry, something in brown coats. I'm doing the green and brown coats for a splash of colour.

Finished Imagination Army: the Electorate of Lustigzollern-Großgesaß

 About 2 years ago I started playing Beneath the Lilly Banners. I put on a bit game at the Mayday convention(in... May).  For the game i added larger cannons to my existing 2 3Iber crusader teams, as well as finishing off the line infantry. I also painted the full regiment of Osterhaagen Dragoons.

Map of the Electorate

Earlier this year I also finished off  2 Converged grenadier battalions, 2 more 3Ib cannon teams 6 pandours and 8 jagers.

Electorate Artillery Park.  4 3Ib cannons and Crew by Crusader,
2 6Ib cannons, Crew, and carts/limbers by Front Rank

24 Köztársaság Pandours by Crusader, 6 Mounted Pandours from
Front Rank, and 8 Perry Hessian Jagers.

2 Battalions each of Traugott Regiment(left) and Fenstermacher
Regiment(Right). Front Rank figures.  1 Crusader Converged
grenadier battalion at the back

Kurfurst(left) and Kurprinz(right) Regiments by Crusader miniatures.
Converged Grenadier Battalion in the rear, also Crusader)

Metzger Cuirassier(left) by Crusader. 
Osterhaagen Dragoons(right) by Front Rank.

 At this point, I may reorganize the cavalry command figures into a command stand stand for each regiment, and I need to purchase a a pair of limbers to finish off the artillery.  I also have some Allied troops  for the Aquilonian Army(small nation to the East of the Electorate) using Eureka Arquebusier de Grassin. 

Long Time No See!

well I'm back for what is hopefully not another few and far between post.

I've been fairly unmotivated to post since I moved to Alberta.  The Historical gaming scene in edmonton is much smaller then I had grown used to in Hamilton, Ontario.   For a while some local guys and myself tried to host a monthly game day at the clubhouse in my condo subdivision, but after 2 years we weren't making enough money to break even on the rental fee. so we shut it down.  the local cons are almost entirely devoted to Mainstream and tournament related games like Warhammer 40K , Kings of War, and Bolt Action. 

I have discovered Beneath the Lilly Banners for my Imagination armies. Its a great set of rules, and the 3rd edition makes it a little easier to use armies from a slightly later period.  they released the  eastern wars supplement, With Talon and Claw, which introduces some Polish and Ottoman specific rules, both of which are armies I use in whole or part in my Imaginations.

For the One small historically oriented Convention we have in Edmonton, MayDay, I always help out and host a big game as well as smaller games.  I've run  a 10 foot napoleon game using Field of Battle, Imaginations using Muskets and Tomahawks and Beneath the Lilly Banners, a Big Chain of Command Battle of France game.  I've used all of these to get some serious work put in on  the related projects.


I've Expanded my Ottoman army substantially to include more heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and non-Janissary infantry. My Electorate  army(imaginations) is all painted, and i only have a few figures left for my Polish.  I've expanded my 28mm WW2 collection to include French Cuirassier Portes, German Schutzen, and more tanks and support teams for both sides. I've also reorganised my Soviets into early war squads to fight the Japanese I've added, with tanks for both sides.

I now have a 28mm Napoleonic Prussian brigade painted, with a 2nd one waiting to be painted.  sadly there is no one I've found who seriously plays big battle Napoleonics here, so all the unpainted stuff I have for that project has languished in its boxes.

I've also recently  begun painting my long awaited AWI project for Sharp Practice.

I don't have decent pictures of all of this available yet, but here is some pics of my Ottoman army as it stands now:

Ottoman Akinji light cavalry, TAG miniatures

Ottoman Artillery.  TAG guns and crew, Front Rank carts and Limbers

Ottoman artillery from another angle

Timariot Sipahis, TAG minis

Janissaries, TAG Minis

Levant, TAG minies

Tufekci Skirmishers, TAG minies

Ottoman Command Stands, Tag Miniatures

TAG Sipahis of the Porte, TAG miniatures

I still have 1 unit of Sipahis of the Porte(Kapikulu) waiting to be painted, and I've added a large bombard with crew to the artillery recently, but no picture yet.

Here's to hoping I post more often!

Reactivating in 3, 2, 1....

So It's been quite a while since I posted anything on my blogs. after moving out here i found it hard to game.  I worked evening(2:30pm -11:00pm) and all the local gaming(that I find interesting) was happening  on either Tuesday or Wednesday nights.   I wasn't painting because i lacked the motivation of regular gaming sessions.

last October I decided to start collecting some Necromunda stuff, and that got me back into small batch painting.  i wasn't seriously painting and it often took me a month to finish 10 figures.

in April I was approached by a (very)local gamer, Jonathan who was in the same predicament as i was.  he was no longer available to game on weeknights.  We set out to organize a small group to meet in St Albert once a Month, on a weekend.  we had our first meeting on the last weekend in April.  We played a game of muskets and tomahawk using my Imaginations(The Electorate vs Polhynov) and some army lists and rules amendments I had fleshed out before leaving Ontario.

i realized the week before that i had no skirmishers  and very few cavalry for the Polhynov forces so i painted another 8 heavy cavalry and 16 skirmishers before the game:

2nd squadron of Polhynov Husaria  using Front Rank WSS horse Grenadiers

Polhynov light infantry using  OG Polish Dismounted Dragoons

Polhynov light infantry using  OG Polish Dismounted Dragoons

 the cavalry annihilated each other (sadly no pics) and the infantry did much the same. but the  Electorate forces were the first to start falling back so we called it in favor of the Polhynov forces.

Polhynov battle line

The Electorate line advances

the electorate let loose a volley and the Polhynov line retreats, and the light infantry make for the house.

half the Köztársaság Pandours gives covering fire while the
other attempts(successfully) to set the house on fire.

 

 

Polhynov line re-consolidating.

The game was quite successful.  the rules amendments worked and the the generic"Imaginations" armylist I developed for more European style combat(including more useful cavalry) seemed to work out quite well.


i also committed to running a big Battle of Kulm refight ( done a few years ago at Hotlead) on my new 12x5" mat  that i documented on the blog last year. I decided i would paint up the previously missing Prussian forces for the game.  That post will be coming in a few days.

Cheers!

Making a Mat Part 2

So today I knocked the flock off the mat.  I decided I should really spray down the mat with Dollar store Extra Hold hair spray.  It's a fairly common cheap way of keeping the grass on a large scenic base or, in this case, mat.  The down side is that 2 hours after spraying the entire thing down, my basement still smells of hairspray...

Anyway, so here are the picks taken after I banged off the flock and sprayed it down with cheap hairspray.

Close up of a denser area of Grass

Close up of a Sparser area of Grass

 Then I set up a bit of a table for Napoleonics, to see how it looks. I think it turned out pretty well. here are some pics.

I'm satisfied with out it turned out.

 Someone on commenting yesterday's post mentioned ironing the cloth before hand. I wish I had thought of that before  beginning, as either are 1 or 2 places where the sheet was folded  that are visible.

In the future if I make another one, I think I'll stay away from the drop cloths. they have thick seams tunning down the middle where they joined 2 pieces.  these were a bit hard to hide.  I figure that if I time it right I can get a piece of 5 foot wide canvas (or similar material) that has no seams and requires no ironing for maybe $10-ish  more.

so that is one more project out of the way. I look forward to getting a few guys over for a game!

Making a Terrain Mat

Since I moved to Edmonton last fall, I haven't done much Historical gaming.  Part of this is the group that is here, but part of it was also a combination of my looking to do something different.  However, my favourite period is Napoleonics, and I like big games.  I had the table space but  I did not have a larege enough game mat to  play a big Napoleonic game.

I set out to make myself a 12x5' game mat to host big napoleonics on.  my biggest hurdle was getting the scenic grass i wanted.  I Picked up a shaker of Scenic Express EX881 Summer Grass blend  "flock and Turf"  last spring while i was at Cold Wars .  the stuff is a mixture of coarseness's   of flock and turf  but the green is a nice bright green like the original GW Static grass.   it's really nice looking. 

the problem with scenic Express Products is they are not distributed in Canada, nor does scenic express apparently ship here either.  while searching the internet i found a website called Model Train Stuff  which sells scenic express Products.   I ordered 4 "Eco"bags of 48oz grass.  their estimated shipping time was 2+ weeks, but it arrived in less then 10 days!  The service was good, they let me know when it shipped and provided a tracking number.  I'll definitely consider buying stuff from them again.

anyway, I also bought myself a new Phone, which i used to take the pics of the mat making process. but before I began I wanted to test it's usefulness at taking pictures of miniatures, so i stepped over to my display case and took a single shot of my small ECW collection, and this was the result (of one try only). I was quite satisfied.

The earl of Essex and company. all Warlord Games figures.

anyway, on to hte mat making.  I decided to go with a process i have raed about of several blogs and post on The Miniatures Page.  you take a peice of cloth (in this case a Canvas Dropcloth form home Depot) and coat it with a combination of Acrylic Caulk with latex, Latex paint, and some sand.  then before it dries you cover it in teh flock/grass and pat it down.

Here is a lsit of everything i used:

4x48 oz  Scenic Express "Flock and Turf" Summer Grass Blend (plus shaker I had around, $60)
12x 300ml DAP Alex caulk( a contractor pack, $25)
1x 1 gallon of CIL flat brown paint( $30)
1x Everbilt 12x9' canvas Dropcloth($36)
1x 5 gallon orange Home Depot Bucket.($4)
4x handfuls of concrete sand
1x random piece of plastic from  window blinds i found in the back room(to stir, Free)


Total cost in Materials was $155 CDN.

I did not include the sand because i didn't use much (4 handfuls?)  and it's from a 10KG bag of concrete sand i bought like 8 years ago for another project.  but a bag of the sand will run you about 10-15 bucks.

I doubt you could by a 12x5 mat for that price.

Matierials

first i laid out the dropcloth on my table, and cut it down to a little over 5 feet wide.  the Cloth is actually  about 3 inches short of 12 feet.

Cloth laid out and cut to size

Next I grabbed my caulking Gun and squeezed all 12 caulking tubes into the bucket.

Empty caulking tubes(right) and their former contents(left)

I then added a little less tehn half a gallon of the Brown paint and started Mixing.  I added 4 hand fulls of sand, one at a time, after teh caulking and paint ad been thoroughly mixed.

Mixed caulking, paint and sand.

Using a pair of Latex Gloves, i  spread the mixture over the dropcloth by hand. if you put it on too thin you see the texture of the canvas.  but it doesn't need to be really thick either. the dropcloth had some seams in it is i made it thicker around those to help hid them.

Mat partially grassed.

I then began sprinkling the grass on the mat by hand.  I didn't want full coverage, but at the same time i don't want a lot of the caulk and sand to show through, since it won't be dry brushed or have any depth. but you still want some showing through.

the Mat fully grassed

the total time from laying out the cloth to finishing the grassing was about 2.5 hours.

I'm pretty pleased with the results so-far.  The mat is still drying as i write this, so I'll post again when the mat is dry and i can get some closeups of the final result.

A Prussian Conundrum.

lately I've not been painting much, but what i have been painting has been mostly sci fi. But last night's Lasalle game( battle report is in the works), got my Napoleonic juices flowing again.

I was hit by another bout of insomnia last night, so i decided to pull out some Perry Prussians to paint.  I completed half a battalion(including the command) and realized I had no flags to use for them. so I set about looking for suitable bits to make my flags.

the research is a little sketchy. i was mostly relying on pictures on warflag with a few places cross referenced.

1st east Prussian infantry, 2nd battalion?

The first 2 flags I've done are teh 2nd battalion of the 1st  and 2nd East Prussian Regiments( 1st and 3rd infantry regiments, respectively), i think. The 1st battalion flags(Avancier fahne?) seem to be essentially inverted colours. so the 1st east Prussian 1st battalion flag would be white field instead of black,  teh eagle would be gold, with the white around it black.

2nd East Prussian Regiment, 2nd battalion?

the order of battle I'm using for the force i chose is the from the Battle of Leipzig.  Army of Silesia, Prussian I corps, 2nd Brigade. under the command of General-Major Prinz Karl Von Mechlembourg-Strelitz.  depending on the source there are 2 or 3 battalions each of the 1st and 2nd East Prussian regiments.  but in my research on flags I've only seen mention of the 1st and 2nd battalion. so which flags would the 3rd battalion use?

Unfortunately I'm currently unemployed so my sources are a little lacking at the moment. any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

Settled in Edmonton and New Room Set Up.

I've been in edmonton for 2 months now.  Things are starting to settle down a bit.  I've managed to get most of my gaming stuff unpacked.  and i've picked up some display cases and shelves to equip my " computer cave".

the 4 utility shelves arranged along the 12 foot wall. 
my  computer desk is in the opposite wall at the end.

The week after we moved into the new house,  Home Depot was having a sale on black plastic utility shelving.  $27 per unit.  I grabbed 4. they are 18" deep and 36"(3') long. they fit perfectly on one wall, as the wall is 12' long.  nearly all my miniatures, terrain, and supplies fit on them. On the opposite wall there is an alcove that is 6' wide, and 32" deep.

The Alcove, After furnishing

I picked up 2 Detolf display cabinets a few weeks ago form Ikea.  I was back down in that area last week, so I picked up a pair of Dioder lighting kits.  This past weekend I was in Canadian Tire and they had a bookshelf on sale that perfectly fit the space I had left over.  My books finally have a home!

so with that my little room is complete.  I bought 4 folding 6' x 2.5' tables, which i can set up in the main basement area(rec room) for games.  My only problem at the moment is that i don't have a gaming mat big enough to cover all the tables.  So now i have to come up with a plane for a 5'x12' gaming mat!  Always a major project in the works!


I have done some painting in the last month.  I painted up a unit of 8  foundry continental Infantry for the forthcoming  AWI project, using Muskets and Tomahawks.

first unit of the 2nd Pennsylvania regiment

 I've found after several playtests that using the "varied" unit sizes in the main book doesn't work well.  Because of the way the rules represent firing,  a max sized unit of 12 line will crush an 8 man  of rangers, or any other irregular force(other the light infantry).  sure, irregulars have better firing, but if the line unit has 50% more fire, the better to-hit is irrelevant.  now this is more pronounced in the more irregular forces (rangers, Couriers de bois, various riflemen, militias etc)which are limited to max units of 8, or sometimes 6.  i know many of these units are supposed to be weaker then line units, but in many cases they were not, specifically in the north American theater, where la petite Guerre was so common.  but the morale system, coupled with the high casualties rate from fire, cripples units of 6-8 in often a single volley.   my simple solution is just to keep everything in units no larger then 8(few units can be smaller then 8 anyway). this levels the playing field, and lets the point system balance all other differences, in my opinion.