28/03/2024

Kings German Legion Infantry - rebased

The first batch of my Napoleonic British infantry to be replaced was my Kings German Legion Infantry Brigade. In addition to rebasing I also added in the missing command figures from the HaT Napoleonic British Command set. This also included carefully swapping over the old hand painted flag to a new standard bearer.

24/03/2024

Napoleonic British Cavalry rebasing - complete!

A lot of debate on my part about the rebasing of this large unit of Light Dragoons, in the end I decided on a compromise, the originals were all Airfix RHA officer figures and looked very old style as they were all the same pose. So I decided to mix in the Strelets British Cavalry in Egypt set. But I still kept all the common rider poses in one unit, but mixed up the horses.
At the front of the pair is the new 14th Light Dragoons with mixed horses, followed by the older 16th Light Dragoons. To the left is my new 26th Light Dragoons for Egypt in 1800 with their French grey uniforms again containing a mix of figures

Ideally if I had thought to purchase another box of the British Cavalry in Egypt when they were available, they would have been far better.

18/03/2024

WMMS 2024

A big fail for me as I forgot my camera and my phone, so I had no way to take pictures. Luckily "Tales from GHQ" did take pictures of some of the games (link)

However I did manage to get a Hungarian army for next month's DBA competition, though I will need to add some extra bits to cover the later version of the army we are using.
The only other purchase was a box of Revell Siberian Riflemen which will hopefully complete my Soviet army for Winter WW2.

17/03/2024

Brunswick Cavalry rebased

I think I originally built this unit at 1:30 scale hence the three units of the 2nd Hussars and the Uhlan unit. They were originally painted with enamels so I did have problems with paint flaking as I worked on them necessitating some repeat rework.

16/03/2024

British Hussars rebased

This needed quite a bit of work as each of the 7th, 10th and 1st KGL Hussars were 16 figure strong units. Luckily with a bit of historical fudging I created 6 different units.
The "newer" units of each pair are at the front, from right to left
* 15th Hussars became the 10th by adding yellow facings
* 7th Hussars becane the 18th by adding white facings and a light blue busby bag
* 1st KGL Hussars became the 2nd by adding white facings
My 7th and 15th Hussars were probably created shortly after Airfix released the figures in 1972 and they needed a lot of work to get them up to a passible standard.

15/03/2024

Starting up the 3D printer again

Slight change of emphasis for the latest batch, I am concentrating on printing Waco gliders for friends and filing in the space on the plate with the other bits and pieces I need.
As this was my first print after the winter I have a couple of problems to sort the Unic P304 somehow lost its front wheels and the glider fuselage had some distortion. The glider stl is a modification of the M Bergmann original and if anyone is interested in using it just leave a comment and I will send by email.

14/03/2024

Napoleonic Spanish Artillery

Although I already have two guns and crews for my Spanish, thses are in a later uniform and I felt I needed some more suitable for the early war. So I added a couple of foot guns and one horse gun using the HaT 1806 Prussian Artillery. The Horse Artillery are particularly striking and was based on a similar unit on Olicanalad's Games (link)
I will work on the limbers once I have 3D printed some mules and oxen.

12/03/2024

Hospitaller and Templar Knights

A unit each of Hospitaller and Templar knights made from the Strelets Crusaders in oriental dress, which I think is more suitable for those staying longer in the middle east.
This makes my Hospitallers and Templars into small retinues of one unit each of knights, mounted sergeants, foot sergeants and crossbowmen.

06/03/2024

WW2 Japanese SNLF

February catch up part 2 - Many years back in the mists of time I painted some Japanese infantry and copied a picture I had. Being older and somewhat wiser I realised that the only units with "green" uniforms were the Special Naval Landing Forces. So having kept the existing figures I added enough extras to make a full platoon. Hopefully it will come in handy for various island hopping games and if not it can always be used as an extra platoon for big games.
I tarted up the old figures and the extra figures are Strelets and hopefully they look fairly consistent.

04/03/2024

Livonian cavalry

First part of catching up with February's painting, two units each of Mounted Sergeants and Turcopoles to support my Livonian Knights (Sword Brothers)

03/03/2024

Hammerhead 2024

A snowy trip across the Pennines on Friday morning followed by gaming in the pub set the scene for our Beacon Club trip to Hammerhead. This meant we arrived fresh and rested at the show. A large breakfast also meant there was no need to stop for lunch. As the show is orientated around participation games there is less eye candy, but the following is what caught my eye.

Paperboys trees, quite effective for something so simple to store.
Cowboys v's Dinosaurs using "What a Cowboy"
Wars of the Roses
Toonkreig - "Kelly's Heroes"
I've seen a lot of these on sale as STL files, but it's alway interesting to see them in the fleash to get the full comic effect.
Age of Sail - nice coastline
Another "What a Cowboy" game, this time set in 1756 French & Indian War
Conquisadores fighting through hordes of Aztecs
Nice terrain and ships
One of the armies for the BDA competition - gives me an idea of what I need to do to upgrade my 6mm DBA armies
Libya in WW2
Another "What a Cowboy" based game, this time set in Victorian Britain with Sherlock Holmes attempting to foil a plot to blow up a lighthouse. Andy and I joined in and all had a great deal of fun playing the game spiced by its random events. I am pleased to say the good guys won as I was playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson
By then it was time to depart, somehow I ended up with zero purchases.

02/03/2024

On the Workbench - March 2024

Phew, just back from Hammerhead, so once I have got started again I will be working on
  • Napoleonic Spanish Artillery in their early uniform - already started
  • Hospitaller and Templar Knights for the Crusades - already started
  • Rework/Rebasing my remaining Napoleonic British/Brunswick cavalry
  • Purchase and paint a 15mm DBA army for an upcoming Italian Wars DBA competition - couldn't find anything suitable at Newark today
  • start rebasing my British Infantry
  • maybe restart the 3D printer if it is warm enough
I'll post up my pictures from the show and the SNLFjust finished before I left shortly