New movement trays

About a month ago a friend and fellow miniature gamer from my World of Tanks clan(I'm a Deputy commander in the [CARD]1st Canadian Armoured Reconnaissance Division)  put me in touch with one of his friends.  this guy has a laser cutter, and does custom stuff for his local gaming scene.  I should probably also mention that both of these guys live in the US, and I live in Canada. I only mention that because I find many times, in situations like these, some  Americans don't like shipping internationally.

I was looking to get some pieces cut to make movement trays for my skirmish cavalry(which are on GF9 pill bases).  so i discussed the idea with him and he game up with what you see here.

Finished trays with a pair of laser cut bits as-is.

I put together an order with 3 other guys. I bought 40, and between the other 3 guns there was another 80 added.  WE picked the order up form a US PO box just over the boarder last week, and i finished off 3 by mounting them on 1.5mm(1/16") plastic.  The pill bases fit perfectly.  I'm very pleased with the final product.

In other news,  after 2 months of waiting my local hobby store(not the Local gaming store, the actual model/RC/train store) finally got in my order of O scale   Spanish roof tile.  So now I can get going on the rest of my Spanish village.  I can't yet finish the Spanish church, but the grave stones will be ordered next time J & M miniatures puts in an order to Renedra.

Mor Peninsular Buildings

well last week I got back to college. any gaming stuff i do will probably slow a bit in pace.

 anyway, Sunday and Monday(I have most of Monday off), I finished the 3rd base of my Spanish village. these are 2 of the larger buildings in the village(only the church is bigger at the moment)

One thing I'm going to have to do is change where the roof braces are.  I usually place the braces to both reinforce the roof and make them snug with the inside edges of the end walls so that the roof does not slide around.  as you can see from the Coach house-type building the roof is lopsided.  I misjudged the braces on the one side of both buildings.

anyways, the church will be next, but I have to wait a few weeks, as i ordered a set of Renedra's Gravestones from J&M Miniatures to finish the graveyard. I'm also waiting on a local store to get in more Spanish roof tile sheets to finish off the other 4 or 5 buildings. in the meantime if i have any spare time, i may just paint a few peninsular figures.

The Beginnings of a Spanish Villiage

I have long been building a series of Spanish  buildings.  I posted WIP pics of a Spanish church in May 2001, and in July of this year I posted pictures of my WIP  Peninsular war Spanish village.

the Spanish church has largely been on hold until i could find a set of suitably Spanish grave stones.  as such i decided to try and get a few bases complete, and test out the texturing and colour scheme. I finished detailing and painting the small house  and yard, and the larger Spanish Hacienda.

Getting some terrain has long been a sticking point for really starting my peninsular war skirmish project. now that i have some buildings and one or 2 more bases on the way, i can realistically start thinking about getting more figures painted.

Small House  & courtyard with front rank gun team

Large hacienda, with Victrix British ambushing Victrix french.

Hacienda from the opposite angle

 I settled on a mixture of water, white glue, durabond 90 and fine balast for the texture. this is a modified recipe that i used for the rock outcroppings i made way back when i started the blog 2 years ago.  the druabond dries hard as rock, and the white glue makes it less prone to chipping. the combination is  very durable. you would not know from feeling teh courtyard walss that they were made out of foamcore.

For the large hacienda, i still need to put some plants in the planter in the courtyard.

I almost have another base ready to be textured, and if i can find some  more O-scale Spanish roof tile i can have 2 more ready to go, plus maybe a town hall.  the church will be last because i have to order some suitably Spanish graveyard accoutrements.I'm also looking at buying a nice set of doors for the front of it.

Ottoman reinforcements

After bolstering the ranks of the electorate army last week, i decided that i needed to do hte same for the Turks. I've had most of these miniatures kicking around for a year, I just didn't have any motivation to paint them.

Sunday night I painted the last 8 tufecis skirmishers, and another officer. These figures are of course The Assault Group miniatures. I highly recommend them for anyone doing Ottoman Turks. the price seems a little high , but the quality is second to none, and shipping is free.

The freshly painted Tufecis Skirmishers(TAG minis)

all 3 groups of tufecis with 3 officers in the lead.

Next up i decided to finish off the 3rd  group of Timarli Sipahis. these would be the feudal Sipahis. once again, these are The Assault Group miniatures.

8 new Sipahis.

all 24 Sipahis in 3 ranks, with command in the lead

I decided that I am going to field them in 3 ranks of 8 (each rank a group)  because lets the Lancers make up the entire front rank, while the other 2 ranks are  swordsmen. another interesting thing is that the musician is actually an extra TAG polish trumpeter.

I have eventual plans to expand the Turks with a unit of 24 light cavalry(haven't decided between Delhis or  Akinjis), 2 unit of 24 Levent infantry and, after all that,  unit of 12 Sipahis of the porte.

Giving the Electorate Some Love

so starting on Monday I began working on the remainder of the Metzger Kuirassier regiment for one of my Sharp Practice Imagination armies, the Electorate of Lustigzollern - Großgesaß. I had an officer and one squadron of 8 figures.  this week I've polished off the remaining 2 squadrons of 8 figures and the remaining 3 command figures. everything but Colonel figure  are crusader Austrian cuirassier figures. the colonel figure is a Front rank Austrian Curiassier officer.

the Metzger Kuirassier regiment with command front and centre.
Colonel Metzger at the left and Rittmeister Szólát at the right.

and tehn last ngiht i decided to finish of the battallion artillery contingent. i had 2 guns and 8 crew painted already, but i needed to finish the limbers and ammo carts. the guns and crew are Crusader austrians, and the  limbers and ammo carts are Front Rank.

Battalion artillery contingent of the Kurfurst regiment

Some people might ask why the battalion gun crews are all in artillery uniforms instead of some being in the parent regiment's uniform.  In the Electorate army, battalion guns are actually from a special light artillery company in the artillery arm. This artillery company is parceled out to the regiments upon the beginning of a campaign.  during peace time, they train with both the infantry regiment they are assigned to, and with the company in batteries.  this has come in useful in the field, as the battalion guns can be detached and from a light battery of their own if need be, and still be effective. but to do so, it was decided from the start that they need to be self-sufficient, and cannot rely on additional manpower from the regiments. thus the battalion guns are manned entirely by the artillery arm.

French Brigade and Russian Beginnings

It's been about 3 weeks since i last posted.  Ive taken up reenacting(war of 1812) this summer, with  the 21st US infantry, Treats Company.  my location is well suited to 1812, since I live right in the middle of  "1812 country".  I joined a US unit, because there aren't enough reenacters of US units  in Canada, and I have friends in the unit.

Anyway, I've had 2 weekends in a row with reenactments that soaked up a lot of my time(this last weekend being teh Seige of  Old Fort Erie, and all-weekend affair).  and  in between them i did a rush job on a trio of 40K  Baneblades for a friend.  I also got another squadron of Metzger Cuirassier mostly done along with a few more curiassier command for my imagination army.

Also I finished the french brigade. Actually I finished painting it about 2 weeks ago, I just hadn't grassed the arty and 2 infantry units until this morning.

Full Perry French Brigade

Close up on Artillery battery and Brigade commander

These are a commission for a friend.  i was paid for this(and another unit each of line and skirmish, 24 figures, to come) with 2 Warlord Russian starter armies.  unfortunately I'm going to have to wait until i can get command to start painting my Russians.  i was rather horrified to find out i had 192 Russian musketeers with no command!  In the past with other plastic sets, the command were also in plastic(like the ECW battalion starter army) so i just assumed there would be.  i mean, who would want 96 musketeers with NO command?  so I'll have to make a order direct to Perry Bros. for 18(!) command sprues. on the plus side, it does mean once i acquire the perry command,  i wil only have to add my artillery and jagers to finish off the corps.


Speaking of Russians, I did start painting a few and re-testing colours for Russian green.  to do this i painted a perry Russian high command set.   One of the first things i thought of when i heard the Perry's were doing russians was that i would finally get a good command vignette.  and to not dissappoint, the perry's scuplted a scene from  the battle of Borodino, which appears on hte back cover of the F.-G. Hourtoulle book about the same battle.

the characters pictured are as follows from the left: General Wilson(Britsh Observer) General Yermolov, General Barclay de Tolly, General Osterman-Tolstoy, General Kutuzov, General Ouverov, General Kutaissov, and Colonel Toll.

Perry command vignette picturing a scene from Borodino

These figure were spectacularly sculpted.  After having painted some french command which I though were a little rushed in their sculpting, these were an absolute joy to paint. I hope the Perrys sculpt some russian jagers in forage caps skirmishing. I need about 32...

hte next army command stand I'd like to get would be Foundry's Napoleon & staff(at Borodino).  it has Napoleon looking decidedly unhappy, with arms cross and feet up on a drum.

over teh next few weeks I'm probably going to be working mostly on imagination stuff, with perhaps a little tangent on some peninsular war British.

Peninsular buildings and Continental french

I haven't posted in almost 3 weeks, but that's mostly because i hadn't finished anything until late last week.

2 weeks ago I started back in on some peninsular war buildings. I'm building a Spanish town to skirmish in.

I've posted pics of my Spanish Church WIP. I haven't done any more work on this one yet. I need to get some Headstones for the grave, but until then I don't really want to put any more work into it if i can't finish it. I have leads on some nice gravestones though, so stay tuned...

in the meantime I've been working on a few bases of buildings. they are in varying states of completion.  the first is the most complete. all i really need to do it make some doors, put the texture on the walls, and paint/base it.

12x12"  Spanish courtyard & buildings.

I've added some  bits of stone brick on the walls. when i put the  texture on, it will go just over the very edge of the plastic brick, and make it looks like the stucco is cracking and falling off.

Next is the smallest base so far.  this is a small  house and yard, with a home-made lean-to.

small house with lean-to and walled yard. bases ix 8x12"

this one is almost at the same stage as the first one, except it still needs some stone brick sheet placed around the house and walls.

the last one(so far, there will be 1 or 2 more) has the buildings done but needs walls for the courtyard, and 2nd floor, as well as the aforementioned stone brick sheeting.

last base so far, on a 8x16" base.

iv have one or 2 more bases still to do, but i ran of out tile roof, so I have to wait until the local store (Dundas Valley Hobby) gets more roofing tile in.  I also have a 2nd set of pieces for the church which I think I will modify into a Town hall with a square in front.

Next, are the things I actually finished.  these are units that are part of a commission for my Friend Derek. he wanted a French army to fight his Austrians,  so here are the first few units.

1st Battalion 2nd infantry regiment, in greatcoats.  Perry figures,
with Victrix Old Guard Grenadier Command

1st Battalion, 8th  infantry Regiment, Perry figures

Skirmishers & Brigade commander, all perry, with the hornist
arm from a victrix box.

Since we generally do our armies for around 1812, i have done these with hte pre-1812 flags, since most units didn't get or use the 1812 patter standards until early 1813, after the end of the Russian campaign..

I have 2 more line units and a battery of guns, to finish the first brigade of french. I should be done by the end of the week.

Terrain and commanders

a few weeks ago I was in Toronto at a store called Meeplmart an I picked up a GW modular hill for about $22 CDN + tax.  so at the end of last week i got it painted up, and I flocked it yesterday.   I think it turned out nice. I'm looking forward to adding a second set to complete the hill, and adding one of the smaller 1-peice hill.   I took a few pictures with some peninsular war officers I painted several weeks ago.the french one is a perry miniature and the other 2 are Victrix Peninsular war Colonels.

 At the same time I finished the hill, I also finally finished my GW Forgeworld Warhammer Siege works.  this is a huge winding 24"  redoubt that only costs about $65-70CDN ( 41£ ). I got it during one of my friend's bi-annual Forgeworld orders. it is a lovely piece! i have yet to find  anything of comparable size and quality for that low a price.  That's quite a surprise since it's coming from GW-based company.  my only complaint is that there aren't enough gun points, but it is meant for renaissance-fantasy  so i suppose only one gunpoint makes sense. I'm probably going to get a 2nd one and scratch built a few more straight sections with firing points to do a big  Redoubt for my Russian army.

the Full Forgeworld redoubt pictured with  my Baden artillery

the Left flank of the redoubt

the gun point

And finally, a close up of the Victrix Peninsular British colonels pack, complete with  British pioneer.

French Gun Team

So over they weekend i got on the painting of my french gun team, which as pictured earlier, has a limber team and caisson team.  this is for my somewhat-sidelined peninsular war skirmish project, using Sharp practice.  this is the first Item I've done for it, and it's also the first time I've used tufts for basing.

Full gun team from Front Rank

The front rank  artillery equipment is really fantastic .  The horse teams even come with bendable wire to attach the horses to the limber. the wire is unfortauntely un textured, so I painted the rope texture on.

It's also the first time I've tried a more arid basing scheme, including the first attempt at using tufts.  it turned out ok, although i couldn't use as many tufts as i wanted. it gets expensive.

a "Little" Interlude

one of teh guys in my napoleonic gaming group was over a few weeks ago, and i was showing him some stuff, including a tray of Micro Armor USMC vehicles.

US Marines moving onto the field, escorted by a V22 osprey that my friend refused to NOT put out!

a few days later he inquired about buying them a few days alter, and we agreed on a price.  then we scheduled a game for this evening. so i pulled out some of my soviet forces, set up a 4x4 table(much too small) and tossed some dice around.

a soviet mechanized infantry company advance across a field, supported by T-80s

we used a system my friend(who just graduated from the Royal military college of Canada as an armoured lieutenant) wrote 4 years ago. he called it fireteam, and it is a 1:1 scale battalion level game. it combines the best elements of Sharp Practice, Piquet Field of Battle, and a an earlier attempt at a micro armour set of rules.  it is a card driven system, with cards like Piquet:FoB(move all, move one command group, fire cards) but  used more in a Sharp Practice-like manner( both side's cards are combined in one deck, and played in the order they are drawn. the turn ends when the 2nd "fire all card" is drawn)  the deck, along with the single combat chart that he developed for all the weapon mechanics( 14 columns, 10 rows, not too complicated) make for a system with some Fog of war but not so much that you pull your hair out(IMHO).

Soviet BMP-2s carrying mortar teams, who decided to sit the battle out
(we both forgot to deploy our mortars)

the rules are 12 pages long, and about 1/3rd of that is detailing the artillery and air strike rules. the author and his brother used their ongoing military training to tweak the rules to be both fun and moderately realistic.

two platoons of soviet infantry advance in BMPs under the watchful eye of 3 T-80s

anyways, the game is optimal for a 4x8 or 6x8(or longer) table, so a 4x4 was a complete bloodbath. we played one turn and the game was over. my opponent was a little apprehensive about the card system but really warmed up to it once he shredded my soviets.  it also doesn't help that i haven't pleyed it in a few years, and did a poor job of balancing the forces.  now doubt those Capitalist  pig-dogs will get their come-uppence next time !

HUMMWVs with TOWs preparing an ambush.

Selling the marines was a good idea, because now i have someone to play against!  and maybe I'll one day paint up my larger German force.