31/08/2007

On the workbench (September)

Another awkward month for planning purposes, I'm on jury service so I don't know how much chance I will get to paint.

I certainly plan to complete the Maya to fight my Conquistadores, then I think I will continue with the WSS theme and work on some artillery and cavalry.

I have also decided to resurrect the Frundsberg theme and at least build one infantry and cavalry unit for the Frei Stadt for the WSS who will be acting as part of the Imperial army.

I’ll also continue with the background job of tidying up my Napoleonic Prussian army. It’s looking like I need more artillery and Landwehr cavalry, so I need to check how much and whether I have enough in my stash.

Will

WSS Austrian Infantry

Given I was away for some of the month, I surprised myself with my output this month. I exceeded plans and moved on with the beginnings of my War of Spanish Succession Austrian/Imperial army. Initially I intend to build the army to fight the Ottomans, but if it progresses OK, I'll expand it and add some Western European opponents.

First - Infantry Regiment Hoch & Deutchmeister


Second - Infantry Regiment Wendt


The figures are the excellent Zvesda Peter the Great Russian infantry, a pleasure to paint, although I wish they would use a lighter colour plastic.

Will

Spanish Guerillas

These Spanish Guerillas are for my Napoleonic skirmish games. They are the latest HaT figures based on pennies to give them extra stability. I made two versions of the Priest, one with and one without a weapon depending on his role in the game.

The other guerilla figures in the pack were very thin and spindly and with the new very soft gluable plastic used by Hat they flex drastically. I may use these for an ordinary skirmish unit to add to my Spanish infantry brigade.

Will

27/08/2007

A blast from the past

Just found this picture from the early 70s of the Bath Wargamers in action. I'm second from right. I remember it being a hot sticky evening and the game was AWI fought using our club rules (loosely based on WRG) as part of our Saratoga campaign.



Will

26/08/2007

Springwood Models - Napoleonic figures

Springwood figures first appeared in 1972 as a single set of 24 figures made up of 6 each of French, British, Russian and Prussian line infantry (top row), there were no officers, musicians, etc. They were made in hard plastic (polystyrene).

This was followed by an upgraded version of the first set slightly higher with better detail plus two more sets covering the other major troop types.



Top row - originals British Line (as Portuguese legion), French line, Russian Line, Prussian Line,

Second row - second range - British Line, French Line (LHS with plume removed as fusiliers), Russian Line, Prussian Line (as Reserve Infantry).

Third row - second range - Austrian Grenadier, French Grenadier, Highlander, Brunswick Legion

Bottom row - second range - Bavarian Line, British Light (as Portuguese Line), Austrian Line, Landwehr (wearing clogs).

Rear view


I'm still looking for a few more to fill in some gaps in my armies so please contact me if you have some to sell/swap. I've still got left over British line(first range) and Highlanders.

Will

25/08/2007

1st Silesian Line Regiment

One of my "background" jobs has been rebasing/tidying up my Prussian Napoleonics. I've now completed all the existing infantry, but I still have enough figures for another few battalions left.
The front three battalions are the 1st Silesian Line Regiment (IR #10). The figures had originally all been Jaegers, but I replaced them with the Hat and Revell figures which are far more suitable for skirmishers than the Springwood figures.

Next is the three battalions of the 2nd Guard Regiment and in the back the 2nd East Prussian Grenadier Bn and a Neumark Landwehr Bn (Airfix).

With this increase in line units the Prussians are now a bit biased towards line units so I will have to paint the rest up as one of the Reserve Infantry Regiments, probably the 9th (IR #22 in 1815)

Will

23/08/2007

Renaissance Cossacks

Moving onto a new army, here's the beginning of my Cossack host. Only the infantry and guns so far but the cavalry should be produced in plastic shortly.

The figures are the foot cossacks by Orion, which include guns and crews
I have split the infantry figures into either skirmishers (3 per base) armed with muskets or "horde" (5 per base)

They should be quite flexible figures as they can be used as generic eastern europeans from the Renaissance right through to the Napoleonic wars. I will use them with/against my Poles, and as Ottoman balkan levies fighting either the Austrians in WSS or the French in Egypt.

There are also quite a few specials, which I will use with the command elements when I get around to them. Can't wait to buy the cavalry now.

Will

19/08/2007

Sdkfz 250/1's

These are the two 250s that I bought at Claymore made by Frontline.
Frontline are promising some more variants, so I'm not sure how many more to buy.

Will

Turkish Janissaries

I've finished two units of Janissaries using the Zvesda Janizaries. I intend to use these across a wide range of periods from Renaissance through the WSS to the French in Egypt. The problem for most of this is the lack of other plastic figures suitable for the ottoman army, but various manufactures have promised to produce some.

Typical, once I photographed the unit I noticed that I hadn't painted the beard on the command figure.

Will

13/08/2007

On the workbench - August

It's going to be a short month, given a week away, but there are lots of figures on the bench.

The Janissaries are nearly finished, just the officers, etc to complete.

I've started on the foot cossacks and artillery from Odemars, these will be dual purpose units for use in either the Renaissance or against the French in Egypt/Syria.

Then there are a number of Spanish Guerrillas that I've started given that I'm painting other irregulars means I can add odd colours as i go on.

Finally I must assemble and paint the two Sdkfz 250/1's I acquired at Claymore (and decide how many more I need!)

As part of updating my Napoleonic Prussian army I've also started repainting some figures as a silesian infantry regiment

Will




12/08/2007

I'm back from Scotland/Claymore

I've just had a week off in Scotland, given the poor weather there, my wife and I have spent most of our time in the lowlands, on the one good day we climbed Ben Ledi. Most of the rest of the time was spent on coastal walks and cycling.

On the Saturday we had a day off in Edinburgh, absorbing the atmosphere of the festival and for me escaping to the Claymore show. Claymore is a bit like Delft, a good friendly show, there was very little in the way of what I consider interesting games being put on (but this might be a quiet year from my perspective). The bring and buy was almost a scrum and despite my "best" intentions I picked up a bag of figures to complete my second US airborne battalion for Rapid Fire and a copy of Steel Inferno by Michael Reynolds. The former turned out to be a very useful purchase as in addition to 2 complete packs of Esci US paratroops and an Airfix half track, there was a complete pack of Revell British Paratroops and a pack of Revell US Ardennes Infantry, just missing some heavy weapons, all for GBP 3.00! The latter book is a great read/reference and seeing it for GBP 3.00 it was an obvious purchase.

I also picked up a couple of the Frontline Sdkfz 250s from Under the Bed (their entire stock), they are lovely models and I can't wait to build/paint them. I resisted the LVT-2's but they are very tempting.

Part way through the week we cycled into Edinburgh on the Union Canal and I found Wonderland models, I thought this sort of model shop had ceased to exist but here was a real one, unfortunately I'd already stocked up on my requirements. see http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/

Arriving home I found a packet from Steve with a donation of some left-over plastics, My plan is that the SYW cavalry will become part of my resurrected Frundberg Frei Stadt army and the TYW limber will be used for my renaissance cossacks.

Will

01/08/2007

Italian Askaris

I had a few figures left over from my French Senegalese project so I painted them up as Italian Askaris for use in either Ethiopia or Libya. It probably means I've committed myself to buying more to build a full unit, but they do look nice.

Since it is nearly dark I tried using flash and the just fill in flash to see the difference. For both photos my painting lights were on to reduce the shadows.

1) Just flash
2) Fill in flash
Certainly the second gives better colours, but the first is a crisper image.
Will