ECW 15mm progress

Well despite my two nights a week away from home, and my epic commute, I'm still getting on with my ECW 15mm figures.

The latest batch to be completed are mainly horse. 

There's a mixture of three quarter armoured cuirassiers (6 bases worth including command) some ordinary Pistol armed cavalry and three command bases for a DBR army.

As well as these, there are three foot command bases (30mm dia. Bases) for Pike and Shotte commands.

I downloaded some flags from the Internet and printed them off. Stuck with PVA to florist wire flagpoles  they are quite serviceable at this scale.

I think I've finally Sussex how to paint convincing horses. I bought a very orangy brown Vallejo paint (name escapes me at present) that I painted the horse in. Then washed in Vallejo Sepia Dip followed by tail and mane painted in black. I added a white blaze on the nose and an occasional "sock" here and there and the finish looks ok. It was quick to do as well.

The mounted command bases also had grey and white horses (as recommended by Phil Barker in DBR). One base has a figure that looks like a partially armour clad Charles I.

The others, a more random looking command figure.

All in all I'm quite pleased with these as the army' s getting bigger by the week. In fact it'll be two small armies or one larger army. And as stated before, it should work with DBR or Pike and Shotte.

Next job is to finish my remaining foot. About 9-10 Pike bases (some with command figures) and my remaining Peter Laing Musketeers (again with Command).

That will leave a few Dragoons and a motley mixture if Scottish Cavalry and Scottish Warband figures to do. Then I'll have to work out how many additional figures I'll need to purchase.

Til next time... 

15mm Falklands War

I'd bought a few more packs of MJ Figures 15mm Argentinian Army a few years ago at Crusade, Penarth. I'd then put them in a box and forgotten about them....

I'd bought the special forces, dug in infantry and the 105mm Light Gun.

The dug in figures are in two packs. One with 14 half figures the other two large and two small foxholes. These foxholes hold comfortably ten of the half figures and I built two additional milliput foxholes for the other four.

The figures are nearer 18mm and are full of character, if sporting a rather eclectic mix of weaponry.

I'd also bought from eBay some QRF British 1980s infantry, 81mm Mortar teams and Scimitar Light Tank.

To give the Scimitar some competition I'd bought a a Peter Pig AML armoured car.

The QRF figures don't look too good. In fact they reminded me of the old Peter Laing figures of the 1970/80's. However painted up they look just fine, if a little small alongside their MJ companions.

I've based them for CWC and added gravel to the bases to give them a more rocky appearance.

QRF also do Milan and GPMG SF teams to complete my battalion and their Vietnam era 50 cals and mortars will make good Argentinian forces.

I'd better get on with it and order some....

15mm Falklands War Buildings

I rediscovered my unpainted MJ Miniatures figures the other month a decided it was time to get them painted. At the same time I discovered some free to download Falkland Islands buildings by http://cardmodelsbytony.weebly.com/falklands-buildings.html

They are a collection of OO scale corrugated iron houses, church, shops and shacks. There's even the ambassador's residence fought over during the invasion.

I printed the PDFs off at at about 75% full size so they would be ok for 15mm. 

After printing I laminated the sheets before cutting them out carefully with a knife and steel ruler. I then lightly scored along the fold lines before gluing them together with UHU general purpose glue.

Once completed, I glue them to mdf bases and texture the ground around the foundations. Afterwards the ground work is painted and the white areas of the buildings (score lines, underside of roof etc) painted to match the main colour.

Finally I spray them with Matt varnish to eliminate the shine of the laminate sheet. The buildings are colourful, authentic, easy to build with loads of variety and make into robust little terrain pieces.

I've experimented printing at 50% to use with 10mm figures and this works fine.

Take a look at the website, there's even a model of the Iranian embassy for your SAS figures to assault!

An Apology!

To all my Blog followers.

I thought it was odd that I no longer received any comment, but being a bit of an IT Numpty I just assumed no one was commenting!

I discovered this evening that the feature had been disabled and was awaiting my input!

I have now gone back through and replied to every comment:-)

Doh!

Keep commenting guys, it's great to know what you think.

All the best

Tim

What's New

Well for a start I've recently changed jobs! This has left me travelling around 150 miles a day as we still have to sell our house to move nearer. Whilst this is a bit of a pain, the plus side is Colette says I can have a dedicated wargame room in our new house!! Can't wait.

I have been doing a few bits and bobs while we wait.

Namely painting up some 15mm ECW figures.

I've loved this period for ever but have still to find a set of rules I really like. I've got Pike and Shotte (by Warlord Games) which looks hopeful, and I've also been reading up on DBR.

These figures are all being based so as they coul be used for either set (infantry on 4x2cm and Cavalry on 4x3cm with Artillery on 4x4cm) they would also suit FoGR for that matter. With movement trays I could also use them for other sets too.

The figures are quite a mixture of manufacturers. I was given a tub of loose figures about 30 years ago, that when sorted out looked like there was at least one ECW army......but no musketeers.

I bought these (and four artillery pieces) from Peter Laing, who at that time lived just outside Hereford. Then I forgot all about them and they languished in the garden shed until I rediscovered them a month or two ago.

Now I've decided it's time they were finally painted and based and these are what I've finished so far. I estimate I'm about halfway through them with probably 15-20 cavalry bases and the same of infantry still to go. I think I'll still need some more musketeers and some standing dragons to complete things and I think I'll try some from Warrior Miniatures as they're only 21p a figure.

Watch this space.

Mars Attacks - the Miniatures Game

For Christmas my lovely wife bought me some very wargames orientated pressies!!

The Hail Caesar - Invasion of Gaul Starter Set and Mantics new Mars Attacks game.

Whilst the 28mm Ancients are still boxed awaiting "project time", I've made a good start on the Mantics figures.

The game represents good value for money to my mind. At Firestorm Games, Cardiff, you can buy the boxed set for £45. For this you get a printed 2'x2' paper play may (there's a rubber version as an add-on), rule book, counters, dice, 40 or so 30mm plastic figures and a large selection of modular terrain pieces. In fact everything you need to play the game.

The figures are ready assembled and moulded in a brightly coloured softish plastic. There's a little flash here and there, nothing too bad and some of the weapons are a little bent. I tried the old hot/cold water treatment to straighten these and it appeared to do the trick. Sadly the next day they were back to where they started. So I've decided to live with them.

Before painting them, I washed all the figures in mild detergent, let them dry and then primed with Skull White spray. They take acrylics well and whilst slightly flexible the paint doesn't appear to be coming loose.

There are 9 US Squaddies wearing full combats, MOLLE equipment and armed with a mix of current US infantry weapons. Detail is really rather good, and I painted them in straight plain green for speed and they came up looking the business.

The human Heroes are a mixed bunch of males and females, young and not-so Young and even include a time travelling knight in armour! All are armed and the sculpts are very characterful.

The Martians really are cool! They are based on the collecting card/movie version and look fantastic. They're quick to paint up (turquoise blue and emerald green with appropriate washes.) and look great. There are even little vacuum formed clear dome helmets to fix afterwards. 

If anything, these are the sets biggest let down. They simply don't fit very well. A quick search on the internet confirms everyone's having the same problem. Not sure if Mantics will do anything about this or not?

One partial solution I found on line, is to place a helmet tightly on the end of a large paintbrush handle and then, using a sharp knife, carefully trim around the base of the helmet to remove the flared edging. Do take care of you give this a go, but early evidence shows this to improve things so the helmet can be successfully attached to the Martians collar with PVA glue. Be very careful as you don't have very much material you can remove before the helmet becomes too short to fit. Trial an error is key to success!

The terrain pieces are mainly sections of ruined brickwork. These then clip together with little joining pieces. There is also a selection of other items - waste bins, mail boxes, barricades, roadsigns, fences etc...

Whilst nicely designed and moulded, they have been rather roughly removed from their sprues and look a bit ragged in places. Shame really.  Painted up, they look really good and will be useful with all sorts of other games (Bolt Action etc) so will prove very popular.

I've nearly finished the painting and have yet to try the game. YouTube videos of play look fun so I'm looking forwards to giving the figures an outing.

HOTT, Thunderbirds Army Completed

It is done, the Thunderbird army is finished.......and I'm very pleased with the outcome!

Eleven elements making up the 24AP.

Thunderbird 5 - a Airboat General @3AP

The Mole - Behemoth @4AP

Thunderbird 1 - One of three Flyers @2AP each

Thunderbird 2 - Flyer

Thunderbird 3 - Flyer

Thunderbird 4 - Water Lurker @1AP

Five U.S. Soldier bases - Shooters @2AP each

Tracy Island - the Stronhold.

Can't wait to try them out......

Crusade 2015; Penarth

My fourth visit to Crusade this weekend. One of three shows that are easily reached in a day (Reveille and WMMS being the other two) from where I live.

A nice little show that follows a fix formula each year based in Penarths leisure centre. There is the main hall split equally between traders and demo games, the bring and buy together with living history displays, and a DBA regional competition in one squash court and historical lectures in another.

Some good looking games this year and more activity in them than previous years. There's nothing worse than a demo game tha grinds to a halt at the end of the first move and spends the rest of the day surrounded by sandwich munching wargames....

The bring and buy looked to be well supported, but I'm not sure how much stuff was moving. I visited four times and kept seeing the same stuff. I did however, give in to temptation and buy a Navwar Napoleonic 1/3000 starter set for £3 and ten medieval mounted plastic Knights for £5. The Knights I have discovered were for a now defunct game called Ex Illis and whilst not the worlds best sculpts, will paint up ok for my Lion Rampant retinue.

The DBA competition seemed to be well supported and hopefully , Martin (who I'd met at BarnHott) will do well.

Richard Clarke, and his sidekick Nick, were running a tutorial game of Chain of Command. This was good as it might encourage me to get on and try the rules I bought on the day of release!

I also took the opportunity to meet the guys from Castle Gamers of Bridgend. With my pending job move, these guys will become my new opponents later in 2015!

Altogether a good day out.

HOTT Thunderbirds Progress Report

Progress is going well. I found some very good reference material on the Internet which has made it easy to get that authentic look. I've chosen to paint the bases a more yellows sand colour than usual to better suit the nature of a Pacific Island.

I will ultimately add flock and clump foliage to the bases as befits a more tropical location.

With a following wind I think these should be finished early next week. It's amazing how quick I can do things when I'm enthused. I'm clearly not cut out for painting large numbers of troop in the same paint scheme :-(