Sunday post #5

 This week has seen progress on a new project namely Chain of Command in 10mm. Diving right in with a pint sized campaign inspired by the Tactical Painter's wonderful AARs of his own exploits in Normandy. I'm not doing Normandy though at least not yet but Belgium in 1940. To be precise the Gembloux Gap campaign from TFL.

Progress has been relatively slow as I had to go stay with my dad for a bit as mum was having surgery and his luddite phone couldn't cope with the covid visiting medium i.e. video chat.

So far I've managed to finish a hamlet's worth of buildings and almost finished the German platoon and a support piece, I'm waiting for some paint to arrive from Pendraken. Next up will be the French platoon and the construction of a card railway platform and station.

Selection of buildings and defences

German command and supports

French platoon and supports

The buildings are a mixture of Timecast, Battlescale wargame buildings and Total Battle Miniatures the troops are Pendraken. Support vehicles are a mix of Pendraken and miniature figurines from Caliver I may also add some from magister militum later on.

I intend getting some force morale boards from Sabotag3d Wargame Accessories along with some similar boards for Infamy Infamy, which I also intend to do in 10mm.

Thanks to The Mad Tin Hatter for the name check and the introduction to the 10mm scale.

I will edit this later to add photos.

30 days 30 miniatures

Or in this case just over 30 strips of Baccus 6mm Romans.

These form the start of a To The Strongest Roman army circa 300 CE. Two units of Auxilia and one of Cataphracts. The Auxilia are veteran, as denoted by the command element being out front. The dice holders are to track strength, empty for full strength and a black die for down to one strength point. This rear portion of the base may be used to show more info such as ammo and lance totals and possibly a unit name. I have been quite taken by the system of magnetic coloured pins on steel paper used by Miles of Lair of the Uber Geek.

Apologies for the lousy photos but I was giving alfresco photography a shot given the lovely weather, only it was a bit too bright and too hot to linger around trying to sort out the shadows. The figures are based on 80x40mm minibits bases from Pendraken, and will be used on a 100mm grid. Rather uncharacteristically I appear to only have unarmoured Roman foot in the surface layers of the lead mountain.

Another month with no post

No not health issues just lacklustre performance on my part but as no one reads these musings but me, honest I do, it doesn't really matter.

So what has happened since May, well not a lot. I finished enough of the Baccus ECW figures to try out the Montgomery scenario in the For King and Parliament rulebook. It went fairly well with a glorious victory for the King in no small part due to the rebel cavalry foragers not returning till the last possible moment.

Game start

Game end

Card decks

I sent off the 10mm Fantasy figures and bridge to Joshua Project HQ and was pleasantly surprised to see the good old Royal Mail nail the delivery by beating the paid for 48 hours target.

final unit of orc archers and the worse for wear bridge

To make a change from the ECW figures I started some Baccus late imperial Romans, cataphracts are a pain. I may do these under a 30 days 30 miniatures challenge, but upping the ante slightly by making it 30 days 30 bases. Obviously that will entail more than just the Romans, I also have some 10mm Arab light cavalry from Pendraken on the painting table two bases for To The Strongest and one for ADLG. Plus the newest project 1940 Chain of Command in 10mm using the Gembloux Gap pint sized campaign. Then back to the ECW. So could be a busy month at least work is still alternate weeks in and out.

Monday with a week in work ahead

Which of course may slow things down a bit.

Latest batch of figures is prepared and understated. I'm experimenting with a black undercoat for half of these units and may retry the dot and line technique if I can be disciplined enough.

Two shows in two weeks

So I haven't had a lot of time to paint or blog, but I have managed to get to two shows. First up was the excellent Hammerhead at Newark, many have waxed lyrical about the venue and why not its light, airy and with a ring of traders surrounding a wide range of participation games.

The loot pile is quite restrained for me but one good thing to note is no additions to the lead pile, just a few accessories, a rule book, some additional reading material and some steel paper and mini magnets from Coritani as I have an idea for a fold away board game table. Something like the Agincourt game that did the rounds last year in construction but plain with the steel paper in the corners and the magnets to hold down the non mounted maps a lot of my games have.

Secondly was today's trip to WMMS another good venue although we could all do without the annual fire alarm. The venue has improved its catering options this year with a coffee franchise and additional seating. Yet another figureless haul but before you congratulate me on my restraint you should know I have a Baccus order winging its way to me. Contains some more WOTR billmen and archers, some great war French and some of the newly sculpted war of Spanish succession generals.

So impulse buys included the new Peter Pig ECW rules(mainly for the scenarios), some scenic items for Muskets and Tomahawks including a great canoe, some counters, more reading material and some ACW buildings from Leven Miniatures. The items from the actual shopping list were a few Roman and Medieval tents and couple of siege towers also from Leven.

Finally it should be noted that I have achieved a milestone of sorts in that, all be it behind schedule, I have finished the first command of Yorkist troops for Tewkesbury. I give you tricky Dickie and his crew.

The next command is started indeed you can just make out some of it on painting sticks there in the background, but already done are King Edward IV and a unit of dismounted men-arms.

On the painting table for this week are two units of archers and one of billmen and a unit of great war French all in 6mm, some 28mm Indians, the long awaited 28mm Saracens spearmen, a mounted Saracen warlord and a dismounted Saracen warlord that I have lined up as a gift for a friend.

And just out of shot the Discworld librarian, oook!

Skipped a week

It was my father's birthday last weekend so we went up north to celebrate, both parents doing well though missing being able to play golf due to the wet weather. Of course this meant I missed doing a post and didn't get a lot of painting done.

I have found a standard for tricky Dickie so that stand is now complete the first stand of infantry for his command is part way through the basing process. Requires some dry brushing and static grass and a flag, but at least I know where that is this time.

Also at this stage are a battalion of French early WWI infantry, which had been loitering at the back of the painting table.

In the background you can see the feet of a unit of Mohawks for the British in the FIW, which will be this week's project along with the remaining two battalions of the French WWI regiment.

Did you miss me?

Ok so we missed a week, it was uneventful painting wise as I had a bad back, but I did manage to finish both the French and Tricky Dickie although he still needs a flag, which I have somewhere but can't find.

I have started the first base of billmen, but got sidetracked by the many feet and teeth of the luggage and the salute 2015 figure

Neither of whom are quite finished. The billmen are being painted up in the livery of Lord John Howard, they were going to be Walter Devereux's men but I ran out of white.

What other projects are lined up for this year?

Well as you asked and in no order other than this is how they came to mind we have:-

• WWI in 6mm using Great War Spearhead II;
• Romans vs Sassanians again in 6mm;
• Rebasing my 6mm Napoleonic armies for March Attack rule set and filling in any gaps, I'm hoping to be able to use the same bases for Blucher;
• Thirty Years War armies for the Warre Game rule set, these will be 6mm and on reduced base sizes to cater for my small game space;
• ACW probably using the Altar of Freedom rules.

On the plus side no tearing hurry to build the mean streets of Clampetts City, New Mexico, so I can get on with the Yorkists. The only thing to fear now are the displacement activities which this week have included :-

• Xmas jigsaw, luckily this is technically the better half's project so only an advisor on this one.
• The new Star Wars movie which is much much better than the prequels.
• Work, ok so more of an essential activity than a displacement one but I often find it comes home with me and I end up doing more research in the evenings.

Also managed to get in two games of CnC Ancients on Friday evening, as well as games of Ticket to Ride UK expansion, Wombat Rescue and Colt Express on Saturday, all of which were great fun.

All of which means that I have yet to complete the first unit of 2016, but fear not the redoubtable Duke of Gloucester and the FIW French militia are only a few strokes of dry brushing and a grass application away so should be finished tomorrow night. Which is close enough to on schedule for government work.

New Year reinvigorates a jaded gamer

 So with the New Year upon us it was time to tidy up the work bench, which took surprisingly little time mind I would not want to open the cupboard doors. What took longer was deciding what to paint. I have bottled it a bit by by going with clearing what was in a part painted stage on the desk already. So we have:-

• a 12 strong unit of French militia for muskets and tomahawks;
• An 8 strong unit of Arab spearmen for Crescent and Cross;
• A dozen or so French and German test figures for WWI in 6mm;
• A unit of word knights including a Richard of Gloucester command element for L' Art de la Guerre(AG) again in 6mm.

The latter will form the start of my first project of the year, which is a Yorkist army for the Battle of Tewkesbury. For a while now I have been taken by the Peter Pig word rules but my main gaming scale is 6mm and I just couldn't get my head round sourcing and painting up all the bits and bob's you need to make the s rules work. So following the purchase of AG I had a brain wave I have used the scenario in the Peter Pig rules to provide the AG army lists for Tewkesbury. I hope to finish the Yorkists by March so I can purchase the Lancastrians at either Hammerhead or WMMS.

I am hoping to be able to post progress updates on weekly basis so watch this space on a Sunday evening. Of course the plan, such as it is, may not survive first contact with the real world. The first hurdle will be how whacked I feel after what looks like being a hectic day in the office tomorrow. The second will be a visit to friends next weekend because if Nige is all fired up about his Xmas wild west loot then I may have to build some of the 4ground stuff I have in the buildings pile for a game of the old occaisionals in the first quarter of the year.