Skirmishing Guard Chasseurs a Pied - Victrix

Another small unit of skirmishers for Black Powder. These were left-over figures from the Middle Guard set painted up a while back. The set comes with grendadier and chasseur bearskin head sprues, as well as the shako heads.

Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue works well for the base coat of the clothing. Varying amounts of white added to the blue are used for the highlighting.

The Guard greatcoats were generally of higher quality than those of the line; including piping around the collars and cuffs. They have an elegant look which rivals full-dress, IMO.

There should now be enough units of foot skirmishers for a cavalry-centric game.

Up next, well after I do some home-owner repairs, will be the Perry cavalry - Scots Greys and French Lancers. Until then, wishing you all the very best during the holiday season!

Victrix British - KGL LI and 71st Highland LI

These are two small units of skirmishers which I hope to use as infantry support, along with Rifles and Voltigeurs (also in small units), in a mainly cavalry Black Powder game.

KGL LI on the left and 71st Highland LI on the right. I quite like the look of buff colored straps and belts - as on the 71st.

The majority of my other British infantry are in stovepipe shakos - but I rather like the later Belgic shako too. Particularly the cords and side plume.

Painting British are a bit simpler overall than French. The latter having a lot of piping and lapel work. However, painting French elite fringed epauplettes are much easier than painting British wings.

Before starting on the Perry cavalry, I may work on some leftover Victrix Middle Guard for a small unit of skirmishing Chasseurs a pied. Thanks again for dropping by and wishing you all a great December!

Napoleonic Workbench Update

Started on some Victrix British Light Infantry yesterday, while awaiting the arrival of Perry Dutch Lancers and Scots Greys. The stovepipe shakos had the brass plates scalpel'd off to allow the diced band to represent the 71st Highland LI. The others are in "Belgic" shako with green cords and plume. They'll both be in 6-man units to represent small units of skirmishers.

I checked the mailbox in the afternoon, and wouldn't you know it, there was the Perry package.

As usual the figures were in small boxes with synthetic wadding which tends to stick all over the figures.

Note the Colonel Colbert figure in the center - he's a one-piece casting which the Perrys make sometimes (e.g. the Choson Korean cavalry). I normally paint horse and rider separately, so I'll have to think about this one.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and just wanted to show what's in the paint queue. Napoleonics are much like the Mafia - "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Victrix Greek Light Cavalry

Here are two units of 6 figures each for Elephants Rampant - a local version of Lion Rampant which I've yet to playtest, but shouldn't be took drastic of a change from the core rules. I like these rules because of the low number of figures needed - no more than 6 for cavalry units, and at most 12 for foot units. These particular cav units are broken down into one with earlier hoplon/aspis shields and the other one with later spindle-type shields. All shields have LBMS transfers.

Spare helmeted heads from the Samnite set are used for the some of figures in the earlier unit. They could both be Tarantine cavalry, and all are armed with javelins.

The horses were speed painted using spray paint for the basic colors and then given the Minwax stain treatment. The oval bases are from Litko and very nice for skirmish gaming, IMO.

Per the rules, these are classed as Yeomen with javelins - losing the bows and costing 1 less point per unit.

Another very nice plastic set from Victrix with a lot of head/helmet options and enough shields of each type for a 12-man unit. There is even a musician arm holding a trumpet/horn, which I chose not to use.

Again, the LBMS transfers were very easy to apply and gave no problems whatsoever.

I don't know when I'll get these guys on the gaming table, but they're ready to take on all comers. :)

Until then, I'll take a break from Ancients and start on some Napoleonics again. I just picked up a few sprues of Victrix British Flank Company figures which I hope to paint up as skirmishers. Thanks for stopping by and best wishes to you all!

Victrix Greek Archers & Happy Thanksgiving Too!

Enjoying a day off from work thanks to Turkey Day. While my wife was doing the cooking, I managed to finish up the unit of Greek Archers which will support the Epirote Warband being built for Elephants Rampant. Next up will be Greek Light Cavalry.

The figures in two bodies types. One pose allows the right arm to either draw an arrow from the quiver worn on the back or holding an arrow in a down position. The other pose has the right arm already molded onto the body as if drawing an arrow to fire - which looks sort of odd as there isn't an arrow fitted to the drawn bow.

I used four basic colors for the tunics - and added hem stripes to the white one. The tunics have nicely sculpted folds for highlight. Helmeted heads from the Light Cavalry and Samnite sets were used on some of them.

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This unit completes the foot troops for the warband which will also have a unit of cavalry and an elephant (one of the Aventine elies I already have).

Instead of the traditional turkey, we decided on Dungeness crab and tempura - shrimp and sweet potato.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Boeing Museum of Flight Game Day

Just got back from a great game day held at the Boeing Museum of Flight hosted by NHMGS care of Kevin S (A Gamer's Tale). I've missed this great event held in at an equally great venue for the past few years. This year was great and the sunny weather made its appearance through the multi-glassed great hall.

Kevin has kept up a great connection with the museum staff and manages to get NHMGS members free passes for the day. Today's event was somewhat unique in that we shared the area beneath the SR-71 with another hobby group - IPMS scale modellers. They were the ones who actually sat beneath the Blackbird.

A view of the main gallery before the museum officially opened. We were able to get in an hour before. 

The F-4 Phantom was the centerpiece of an ongoing Vietnam War display.

"Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night"

Jeroen K. —Micro Armor-1944 Soviets vs. Axis—The Russian attack

Wings of War by Tom C.

Thuds Over Hanoi by Damond C. These were based on the same Air War rules used for the WW2 game I played in last week. I ran a pair of F-105's while the escorts were F-4's and Wild Weasels. Once again, I managed to reach the end of my run unscathed. I turned my planes over to a buddy for the second phase to the target site as I wanted to cruise around the museum to take pictures.

Kevin and Dave S's Wings Over Malta game. Again, please see both of their blogs to see more images and descriptions of the games and museum - A Gamer's Tale and Naval Gazing.

Scale modelers table with mostly 1/35th and 1/32nd scale models - the guy in the red shirt painted all of these - he also told me he used to be a gamer and still has a lot of Rocco tanks - many still in boxes. He said he wasn't planning on selling them just yet.

Close up of Vietnamese SAM's.

This was a display of large-scale flying aircraft by yet another hobby group.

The WW2 annex.

Great War annex.

I always like checking out this huge zeppelin - I think it's around 1/48 scale or large - judging by the figures with it.

Damond and Lawrence's game near the end of the game - bombers about to drop their load onto the primary target - a bridge that just wouldn't go down.

Scott M's Star Wars Armada game

Chris B's —Battle of Coronel

Lawrence's What a Tanker game in the second period. The Jagdpanzer IV which I ran in the foreground. It eventually took out my buddy Jim D's Sherman after several rounds of shooting. 

I actually liked not being directly under the Blackbird as in years past. It's kind of dark under there and harder to see stuff.

All in all a great day at an excellent museum - to top it off the special at the cafeteria today was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, a nice primer going into Thanksgiving!

Victrix Armoured Samnites Completed w/LBMS Shield Transfers

The LBMS transfers arrived yesterday, along with a set each of Victrix Greek Light Cavalry and Greek Archers. I hadn't used these transfers in years and wasn't sure how easy or difficult they'd be to apply. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy they were to use. The hardest part is cutting the transfers out, and even that wasn't too much trouble. Granted, these shields didn't have center bosses so a bit easier than those I would guess. Anyway, here are the figures from one box of Victrix Armoured Samnites - 24 in all with two commands. I hope to use them as two units of 12 "Warriors" (classed as Yeomen) each for a version of Lion Rampant called Elephants Rampant.

Although I like to base figures 3 or 4 to a stand, I chose to base them as singles for local Elephant Rampant skirmish games. They're on 3/4" (approx. 20mm) fender washers which give a nice weight to the bottom of the figures.

The warlike Samnites having a go at each in the absence of proper enemies.

I quite enjoyed painting up and "decaling" these figures, the first Ancients I've worked on in a very long time.

I'm looking forward to starting on the cavalry and archers. That is unless the Perry Napoleonic cavalry arrives. I want to finish them up as soon as possible to host a play test of the "Eve of Waterloo" scenario in the new Black Power rule book. So much for now, thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Wings Over Malta Playtest

I was honored to be part of a playtest game run by fellow-blogger gaming buddies Kevin S. (A Gamer's Tale) and Dave S (Naval Gazing). It was an air war game with Italian bombers escorted by German fighters with several targets within the harbor at Valletta. I ran one of several bomber flights and managed to reach my primary target unscathed, avoiding flak and enemy British fighters. For a great review of the game please see Kevin's blog linked above. The planes were all hand-painted by Kevin, although he admitted to using decals for some of the markings. He also supplied the excellent looking gaming mat made by Tinymats.

That's my flight of Fiat BR.20 Cicogna (Stork) bombers on the far right of the table edge. A great choice as the British Hurricanes all came on table from the far left side of the table. The other bomber flights and Me. 110s were basically a blocking force for my bombers.

Our German fighter escorts tangling with the enemy Hurricanes. The game used die activation for players - lowest die going first.

The bomber flights being attacked by Hurricanes. My buddy Scott ran the bomber flight in the lower right and he took a lot of damage to his trail aircraft. One of his planes had to release its load of bombs prior to the target. Eventually he caused minimal damage to his target - a floating dry dock.

My flight, closest in the picture, just about to reach the target (warehouses) totally untouched by enemy fire. My buddy Jim's flight taking the brunt of enemy fire - note one of his planes trailing smoke.

The game was declared a minor victory for the Axis - no bombers were destroyed outright and having caused enough damage to some of their intended targets. This was probably only the second or third time I've ever played an air combat game, and it played very quickly and smoothly - thanks in large part to Dave's excellent GMing. The rules are based on David Manley's Airwar 1940. The actual game will be hosted next Sunday at the annual Museum of Flight Game Day. Kevin has coordinated this event for many years; I think he connected with the museum way back when, being a longtime educator with the state. I've been to several of these game days in the past, but this will be my first in a few years and looking forward to the games as well as putzing around the museum.