Hobby distractions.

I'm meant to be painting Zouaves for the clubs ACW project, but in true gamer form I got side-tracked by something else.

I had bought a set of Warlord Games Napoleonic Highlanders, a nice enough box with 24 figures at the charge. However there was a lot of bent and broken muskets and bayonets, now I can't fault Warlord Games customer service, replacements came pretty quickly, but I had already been soured so sold these metal figures and bought 2 boxes of Victrix plastic Highlanders, one centre Coy. and one flank Coy. box.
And it is these that distracted my painting efforts the other night as I assembled a unit of these instead.

The flank Coy. box came moulded in a different colour if you're wondering......

I assembled these as if they would be in a square, with the front rank kneeling and prepared to receive cavalry and the 2nd rank firing, between the 2 boxes you get 8 kneeling bodies so the addition of a piper and Sgt. help flesh out the front rank to 12 figures.

The figures are as nice as any you will find and as far as I'm aware are the only plastic highlanders on offer, you get 60 figures per box, though only 4 standard bearers which limits the number of units you can produce. The flank and centre Coy. boxes differ in the moulded on 'wings' for the elites, which is a nicer touch than having to glue on extras as with Warlord games plastic British, and also sabres rather than claymores in the officers hands.
A big grumble, and one that I would agree with, is that some of the parts are too fine and easily broken, in fact some parts are pre-broken, namely the muskets, bayonets and swords, though I have a broken standard pole out of the box too. (Though these may get replaced with steel rods at some point.)
Also the finials being moulded to the poles will make attaching standards a bit tricky, again these may be replaced.

A nice box though and if you can suffer the fragility of some parts you could make at least 3 units of highlanders for the price of 2 metal units.

Not that civil.

So the group I game with from time to time has agreed to get into Black Powder. Huzzah!

But not Napoleonics…..never mind, it's a start and I reckon Napoleonics will follow.....

(I've also found another group that play historicals, but have only met the virtually due to this coronavirus thing that is happening.)

They didn't chose the AWI either, for which I have a box full of the now defunct Wargames factory sprues sitting in a box in the shed.

They've chosen the American Civil War, in 28mm, inspired by one of our members working on Perry Miniatures "Battle in a Box" starter set with his dad. A conflict I always envisioned, if ever playing, playing in a smaller scale than 28mm. And I say if ever playing as the period doesn't really grab me, despite some great films covering the period, with Glory being high on my list of all time favourite war films.

So as the Perry brothers where in lock down until last weekend Renedra miniature dispatched several "Battle in a Box" sets to various addresses in Northern Ireland, mine being one of them.
And what a box it is....

The princely sum of £95 gets you a flat A3 size box crammed with grey plastic sprues and some green plastic bases, over 170 miniatures are alleged to be in this box, alongside some simple rules penned by Alessio Calvatore, whose name you might recognise.

This is the sight that greets you on opening the box, a load of plastic sprues vying for your attention from behind a painting guide and the small set of rules mentioned earlier. So what do you actually get? I found it difficult to find out so hopefully this will help someone out.

Two Generals, a choice of headgear, arms and some epaulettes to add. Even an extra head should you decide to cut the head of the model. These sprues are unique to this box set. (Running total figure count = 2)

4 Confederate command sprues, each sprue contains an officer and a drummer plus a set of arms to make a standard bearer from the next sprue. (Running total figure count = 10)

13 sprues of Confederate soldiers, in 5 poses with enough arms to make them all either carrying their muskets at the "right shift" or charging, a good choice of head gear. One of the figures has a separate cartridge box and it is this figure intended to be turned into a standard bearer. (Running total figure count = 75)

4 cannon and 3 sprues of crew. This is the only cost cutting in the box, there are no limbers supplied for the artillery and only 4 crew figures per gun, and while this matches the metal packs you would buy from Perry Miniatures it is at odds with the plastic artillery set which supplies the limbers and 6 crew per gun. Some instructions for these would of been useful, even if only to help identify each type of gun supplied. (Running total figure count = 93)

4 sprues of American Civil War Infantry. These are the generic, either side of the conflict, infantry first released by the Perrys. 12 figures per sprue, most in single poses and parts to make a drummer, standard bearer and officer in a frock coat. And again a mix of head gear. Quick to assemble and easy to paint. (Running total figure count = 141)

4 sprues of Zouaves plus 2 sprues of Zouave command, same poses as the Confederate infantry above and I rather suspect one was sculpted from the other. A nice unit to break the monotony of painting greys, browns and blues. (Running total figure count = 165)

And finally 3 sprues of Cavalry, these can be assembled as either side in the conflict. (Running total figure count = 177)

Also in the box is a farm house, over 4' of snake rail fencing and a selection of bases, though the bases are the size needed if using 15mm frontage per infantryman and 20mm for cavalry.

So a jam packed box, which in Black Powder terms will give me 6 standard units of infantry, 1 of cavalry and 4 batteries of artillery, enough to get started though a second box might not go amiss.

There's a picture of me under procrastinate in the Encyclopedia Brittanica....

...or there should be.

I have been doing wee bits and pieces now and then including starting into Napoleonics, which was sort of inevitable now that I am closer to 90 than being born.

I had a load of 15mm figures from Napoleon at War which was abandoned by its creator for some reason and traded away 1/2 of it for a big box of Warlord Games 28mm stuff. And after sorting through that, and despite preferring the Peninsular era, have decided to do the 100 days campaign and concentrate on the battle at Quatre Bras as my focus for building both sides of that engagement, only having to add Rifles and Highlanders so far.

I even got a Regiment painted, I have decided to play with regiments rather than Battalions for the time being.

I decided that speed rather than display quality painting was my goal here so have used contrast paints, I reckon I could churn a unit out a night if I get the chance to actually sit and paint, but 2 young children and a dog sort of limits me still.

Despite focusing on Quatre Bras (Is Trois Bras a garment worn by Martian prostitutes?) I also started building a farmhouse based on La Haye Saint. Using plans provided by wargames Illustrated to accompany issue 358, which I managed to nab before they went behind a pay wall...

I am planning to do a tutorial on how I make and detail the small barn which principles will apply to the whole set of buildings.

Finally....

Just finished putting some paint on my Bonnedig from my Welsh faction for Saga. Basing will be done once everything else is painted.

Not the prettiest things I've ever painted but they pass the 3' test, and believe it or not it was all done with that single brush.

My new mancave gets erected this weekend so hopefully more hobby time is coming my way, and it'll be nice to have some where to prime figures again. Though it'll be a while before I get the electric sorted.

Not doing nothing...

...just not doing anything exciting.

Hobby time has been at a premium the last 3 weeks or so, and what time I have spent has been pretty boring.

I magnetized some bases.

I rebased some 15mm Spartans.

And I got some 6mm Visigoths ready for priming.

But most exciting I actually got a game of Saga in. My unpainted Welsh, against Garry's Steppe tribes on a table with no terrain and a rising tide....not ideal for the Welsh. But this was my 1st game of Saga in about 10 years so it was good to have less to think about.

I obviously lost, an obscene set of shooting took my mounted Hearthguard out of the game very early on and with Garry's superior movement and no way for me to counter meant that he could bide his time to strike at the opportune moment. Though I did get off a successful taunt which was nice. Learnt some lessons and am looking forward to getting some more games in.
(And completing the painting of this force.)

Romanes eunt domus!

So last night I decided to put off finishing painting my Welsh Bonnedig unit that's taking far too long to complete by digging out the Early Imperial Roman army that I bought back in the days before there was even any Northern Wasters. ( A gaming group from N. Ireland that liked to travel to Warhammer world for WFB tournaments.)
These had been bought via Wargames Foundry and their "Collections". In fact I remember their packs being £8 for 8 foot or 4 mounted figures, this is now £12, probably still not as good an investment as Lego. (Seriously 80s Lego was a better investment than gold, if you didn't play with it.....)
I had originally built this army for Warhammer Ancient Battles in their 1st incarnation using the sample army from the back of the book as the base. A small part of me regrets selling on all the WAB books that I had, and I had them all, but then I remember how much I sold them for and what I spent the money on so it's not to big a regret, and I probably still wouldn't have any opponents.
My rule set of choice is now Clash of Empires from Great Escape Games and true to their WAB inspired roots the EIR list is presented in the core rulebook, though of course I also posses the 3 source books they also have produced.
So armed with the old school pad of paper, pencil and calculator. (But not that old school as my smart phone stood in for the latter.) And only using figures I already possess I beefed up the small looking units from the WAB list and ended up with the following.

• General
• Sub commander on horse
• 24 Legionaries
• 20 Legionaries
• 20 Legionaries
• 24 Auxilaries
• 10 Archers
• 8 Javelinmen 
• 2 Scorpio
• 5 Equites Cohort
• 10 Allied Gallic/German cavalry.

Though if I drop 2 archers and 3 auxilaries I can afford a 2nd sub commander, or one to join the Gallic cavalry.
I would like to pretend I built this army around a battle plan, but those who know me would know I don't play games that way preferring to fit my plans to my armies but I feel this list is pretty solid if a bit light on skirmishers.
Now to get the Ancient Britons out and see what I can come up with for them.
(And virtual cookies for anyone correcting my Latin....)

Putting the "pro" into procrastination.

Not much done this week, I actually set up my stuff to paint thinking I would at least get this one unit finished, then watched a 2 hour documentary on triplets who had been separated at birth. I bad do e a bit through the week though and even magnetised the bases of these so I can transport them in my old school army transports.

Hopefully I can get these finished tonight while wifey watches Casualty, it's an exciting cross over with Holby tonight so I hope I don't get distracted.

Some old paint.

When Saga was 1st released Arkham gaming centre was in existence and I snapped up the chance to play Dark Age stuff without painting loads of Saxon shields. Got a few games in, though my priority at the time was Flames of War, though when the demise of Arkham happened games of Saga seemed to dry up.

I had seen that Saga was getting a 2nd Edition and that it was getting some action in Coleraine, so deciding if nothing else happened I would have something to paint. But who to paint, I hadn't seen anyone mentioning the Welsh so decided they where the boys for me. I even started to paint them last summer getting the flesh base down and not much else.

I also decided to use the Wargames Foundry paints I had bought at least 12 years ago and was really happy to find them still in a useable condition.  These come in "triads" of a shade, mid tone and highlight, lending themselves very well to the kind of paint job we done before we were told to do 17 layer of highlights.

So that's the look I've gone for here, the blue and green still need highlighted up but you can see the effect on the linen and ochre parts. And the thinking here is they're never going to be on display so the 3' rule is in full effect.

There's a cream for that....

So.
I have the gaming itch again.
GW have dragged me back in. (40K is sooo sparkly at the moment.)
But I'm stopping at 2 Armies, OK maybe 3, yup definitely no more than 3 GW armies...

And there's other shineyness about.

I have some Saga stuff to get painted, in fact I've started, they're Welsh but that's OK.

And I've 15mm Greeks that need a system. L'Art de la Guerre (ADLG) seems to fill that need, of course I don't have enough Greeks so I need more. And then I'll need some other armies to fight, War of the Roses is sort of calling me here.

I still have 28mm Romans and Britons from when I wanted to play Warhammer Ancient Battles, Clash of Empires is my new choice of ruleset for those, as well as the Saxons and Vikings I've accidently bought lately. Maybe some Hail Ceaser for comfort.

And then there are the board games, so many board games, but not enough time to play them all.

I haven't really decided what direction this blog will go, probably just my incoherent ramblings and odd girly squeeee over something I find cool. Some tutorials will no doubt appear, some projects will be started but never completed.

Some weeks will get a post, some months may not.

It's not going to be a magazine for all that's new in the gaming world, too many people already doing that. It's just my way of telling people what I've been up to in the limited time left after a more than full time job, a healthy list of DIY and 2 young children have had their share.