On the workbench - January 2025

yes another year starts and unlike a "usual" year end there are a lot of unfinished bits so here's a picture of some of the remnants

So I'm working on:-

• Plastic 28mm Female Gunfighters - now assembled and base coated
• Two units of Napoleonic Prussian Cuirassiers - after some trouble they now have swords added, and the horses are painted
• A single crew of the Spanish Brigade Maniobrera Horse Artillery - now underway and two crews instead of one
• Some Lord of the Ring style figures - now base coated
• Robert Marion, The Swamp Fox - base coated
• An extra Napoleonic Russian gun crew - well underway
• The test Aztecs - base colours applied
• Lettow Vorbek and askari command stand - underway
• and then.. start work on Napoleonic Spanish round hat infantry

In the meantime attempt to sort stuff out to go on ebay, which can be found here (link)

Plan for 2025

I still do not have a particular objective for this year, but I am clear on what I will work on until I get some inspiration

So this year I will be working on the following broad themes:

1. Enhance existing armies
2. 3D printing terrain (FDM)
3. 3D printing vehicles and figures (resin)
4. Continue to clear out all unwanted items, including painted figures
5. Enjoy Games & Shows

Amplifying the above:

1. Enhance existing armies - already planned are

• Continue rebasing the French Napoleonics
• then I will start on the Austrians
• 28mm Female Gunfighters
• 5 units of Napoleonic Spanish round hat infantry (1 of which will be skirmishers)
• 4 units of Napoleonic Italian line infantry
• 3 units of Napoleonic Young Guard skirmishers
• WSS Danish Cuirassiers
• Hanoverian limbers for the SYW
• Some Spanish medievals for the El Cid period
• plus the figures listed below to be 3D printed

2. 3D Printing Terrain (FDM)

• Test printing a Horsa using FDM
• Vietnamese hooches
• Western European buildings
• Spanish/Mediterrainean buildings
• New bridges (all eras)

3. 3D Printing Vehicles & Figures (Resin)

• Napoleonic Saxon and Westphalian Infantry
• Napoleonic Russian Artillery & Gunners
• Napoleonic Polish Lancers, French Guard Horse Grenadiers and Chasseurs a Cheval
• WW2 Russian paratroops
• Gradually replace existing diecast and other poor quality AFVs in my collection
• Working on more figures with the Resin printer using the more robust resin I have found

4. Continue to clear out all unwanted items, including painted figures

• Re-assess each existing period, army, and units to consider if I am really going to use them
• Maintain stash (figure and plastic bits box) at 3 crates and hopefully reduce the numbers
• Consider the future for my 1st version Springwood figures as I have the capability to replace them with more compatible figures to the 2nd edition

5. Gaming

• Continue supporting the Beacon Club and attending as many weekend events as possible
• Try to attend the same number of shows as last year

Review of 2024 - part 2 - painting breakdown

Painting output was 3,084 items, which was a record output for one year, but like last year, it does contain a substantial amount of rework/rebasing, over 50%. The quantity of 3D printed material was 419 items. Now breaking it all down.

Period		Notes
Napoleonic	2,370	Completed rebasing the British, Portuguese Spanish and Brunswick armies. The French and Allied rebasing is well underway about 70% complete and unlike the British I have also replaced some whole units with 3D printed ones. Finally I skipped ahead and replaced my Austrian Commanders and also my Russian limbers.
WW2	339	Heavily dominated by painting loads of figures and vehicles I have 3D printed in particular the Horsa Gliders, and Renault/Opel buses. I also rebased/reworked my Russian winter infantry and my Japanese SNLF.
Medieval	238	Mainly taken up with painting Saracens plus a few Crusader figures for the Mongisard game. Plus rebasing a couple of units of English archers
ACW	56	Rebasing Indians and some mountain men for use with Rebels and Patriots and ACW wagons
SYW	37	Prussian light troops all 3D printed
Revolutionary Wars	24	French and British dragoons for Egypt 1800
Terrain	9	Extra terrain needed for the Montgisard game - bedouin tents, stream fords and n oasis
WW1	8	A couple of Model T Fords, replacement hulls for my Lanchester armoured cars and Russian Putilov field guns
Renaissance	2	A gun and crew for the ECW all 3D printed
Grand Total	3,084

Type		Notes
Rebase/Rework	2,187	Mainly Napoleonic British, French and allies but also Medieval, ACW and WW2
Infantry	494	Again mainly Napoleonic British, French and allies, various WW2 to make up units, Saracen Infantry and Prussian Light Troops.
Cavalry	138	Saracen cavalry and French and British dragoons for Egypt
Gunners	67	Napoleonic British, Portuguese, Spanish and French Old Guard foot artillery. WW2 Russian gunners and an ECW artillery crew
Commanders	20	All Napoleonic, British, Austrian, Brunswick, Bavarian and Wurttemberg
Riders	34	Napoleonic Russian limber riders, WW2 French vehicle drivers and WW2 Russian limber drivers.
Limbers	31	Replacement Napoleonic Russian limbers were 3D printed and paired up with existing limber teams. A few extra Napoleonic British limbers, Limbers for my Spanish again 3D printed and finally 3D printed WW2 Russian Limbers
Horses	20	Oxen for Napoleonic Spanish limbers and horses for WW2 Russian Panje wagons, all 3D printed
Vehicles	18	A variety of buses, US 6x6 beeps, schwimmwagens, French light cars and a couple of Model T Fords, all 3D printed, except a pair of Latils
Tanks/AFVs	17	All 3D resin printed; US M8 scotts, British Light Reconnaissance Cars and Crusader gun tractors German SWS with wurfrahmen and then Staghound, Daimler and Lanchester hulls to replace some which were being to explode.
Artillery	16	Gribeuval Guns for my Napoleonic Spanish to replace the British ones I had been using, WW1 Putilov field guns WW2 Russian 152mm guns and a tst print of a WW2 British 5.5in gun
Buildings, etc.	8	Bedouin tents and stream fords
Other Items	7	Loads for WW2 Russian Panje Wagons and combat cameramen
Aircraft	4	Horsa gliders
Engineers	3	British Napoleonic Sappers
Equipment	1	An extra WW2 Russian Mortar for winter
Grand Total	3,084

Finally a big thanks you to all those who commented on my blog through the year, your comments help to keep me motivated.

Review of 2024 - part 1 - progress against plan

So I have ended the year with 3,084 items completed, however about two thirds of those were reworking/rebasing so maybe not that great an output.

Compared to my much looser plan than usual I have done the following:

1. Rework/Rebase as many figures as possible - good progress for this year, but still plenty to do
2. Enhance/Add some new forces to the collection - I ended, as I began, with no clear idea of what to start next, but tempted by several skirmish level games in 28mm.
3. Maintain or ideally reduce the stash - had several purges on ebay, but missed out on a final purge for this year because of family issues, But the size of stash rose from 3,760 to 4,132 as I have printed a lot of Napoleonics for painting shortly
4. Exploit the 3D Printer - Very happy with my final run of the year using solvent based 8K resin for figures, I'll certainly do more next year. The Creality FDM printer I bought for terrain wouldn't work and neither would its replacement and I subsequently received an Elegoo Neptune for Christmas which works so terrain will be in the plan for next year
5. Enjoy Games & Shows - I think I completed an almost full schedule of visits to plenty of shows.

Amplifying the above:

1. Rework/Rebase as many figures as possible.

• Start on the Napoleonics (this may take a couple of years to do) - I made a start on the British last year - I've completed the British, Portuguese, Brunswick and Spanish plus my figures for skirmish games. French are substantially completed
• WW2 Winter Russians - Completed
• Early War German Fallschirmjager - Completed

2. Enhance/Add some new forces to the collection in no particular order

• 15mm DBA Italian wars army (for the forthcoming inter-club tournament) - bought a Hungarian army but it didn't have all the necessary options, so I sucessfully used some borrowed "Florentines" for the games - This project is now shelved and the Hungarians sold off
• 28mm Female Gunfighters - not started yet
• Add a unit of WW2 Japanese SNLF - Completed
• Extra units for the Crusades - Completed
• French Dragoons for Egypt 1800 - Completed
• Modify the SYW Austrian Grenz to use for Prussian Frei Korps - I bought some specific figures and have just completed them along with some Jagers
• Some extra Aztecs for skirmish games - not started yet, but I have trialled a couple of 3D printed figures
• Various figures and terrain need for Montgisard 1177 - completed and sucessfully ran the game at both Vapnartak and Phalanx, but I now need to think of a new scenario to offer
• WW2 BEF infantry (I plan to 3D print the extra needed figures, etc.) - I decided that the print files available were not good enough so the project has been shelved.

3. Continue to clear out all unwanted items, including painted figures

• Re-assess each existing period, army, and units to consider if I am really going to use them - Sold off my Boxers and Wind & Lion colonials among several others
• Reduce the stash (figure and plastic bits box) from 4 crates to 3 - Although I successfully reduced to 3 crates but there is still more to do particularly as the number of items in the stash rose from 3,760 to 4,132 as I have printed a lot of Napoleonics for painting shortly
• review my 1/300 collection and decide its fate - Cleared out all my old WW1 and WW2

4. 3D Printing - the bulk of my immediate needs have been printed so I will work on

• gradually replace existing diecast and other poor quality AFVs in my collection - some progress - but more to do
• components for houses and other terrain - not started yet - I was hoping to use the FDM printer for this - so this will be in my plans for 2025
• work on how to make/modify files to meet my specific needs - Quite happy with my skills to modify files, I've enhanced my 1/80 Waco and I've created a similar bath-tubbed Horsa glider that has printed OK and now been painted, plus verious figure conversions

5. Gaming

• Continue supporting the Beacon Club and attending as many weekend events as possible - Completed - only two weekends missed due to other commitments
• Attend at least as many shows as last year - The list of shows completed are Vapnartak, Hammerhead, the Easter big game, Phalanx, Attack, Other Partisan, Reveille and Recon.

Last of the Old Year - Napoleonic Bavarian and Wurttemberg commanders

Just to finish off the Bavarian and Wurttemberg rebasing for 2024 here are two Bavarian and one Wurttemberg commander.

There should have been two Wurttemberg commanders, but the second is now waiting for me to print a mounted figure to accompany him like his Bavarian counterpart.

Extra transport for my WW2 French

For my 1940 French I found I needed four extra staff/reconnaissance vehicles. I sourced these by acquiring some Latil cars from Early War Miniatures and then a friend provided me with the STL files for the Laffly V15R.

The Latil field car from EWM with a 3D printed driver added

The Laffly V15R with crew that I digitally added before 3D printing.