Perry Napoleonic French Skirmishers

Here they are ready for the gaming table - skirmishers from the two sets of Napoleonic Infantry. 

I clipped off the longer coat tails from the 1807-14 set.

The figures from the 1807-14 set are a bit more slender than the earlier released 1812-15 set, but still mix in well together.

Along with earlier painted figures, these will be more than enough for multi-player skirmish games. Next up are the Line Infantry figures in marching poses - which should make painting them in more of a simpler production-line method. I also picked up a box of the Perrys' recently released Duchy of Warshaw Infantry. It was ebay at a good price, so couldn't pass it up.

Perry Napoleonic French Skirmishers - WIP

Finally started on the Perry French infantry. Working on the skirmishers first. These will be Light Infantry Voltigeurs and Carabiniers. They're a mixture of the 1807-14 and 1812-15 sets.

Museum of Flight Game Day - Bushy Run One Hour Skirmish Wargames

Just got back from another great annual game day at the Boeing Museum of Flight. Looking back at my earlier posts, I've been going to this event since 2009 - I skipped a couple years in between, but made most of them. Anyway, a great way to hang out with old friends in a wonderful venue - not to mention out of the rainy Pacific NW weather. There were four games in the morning period, and four games in the afternoon - my Bushy Run game being in the latter period. 

Our gaming group used to be located directly below the Blackbird, but for some reason we were bumped from the area now occupied by scale modellers. We're located to the right of the plane now - to be honest, it was kind of dark under the plane and the new area is a lot brighter.

Here are shots of my game. There were six players total; three each for the British and Indians. The British managed to get their three pack horses, along with several troops, off the table for a minor victory. The Indians for their part managed to kill off a unit of Highlanders - thus making the outcome a bit of a draw. All the players, some of whom played the rules for the first time, all said they had a good time and enjoyed the game.

Start of the game with Rangers and 60th Lights leading the column; 42nd Highland Grenadiers behind them, and 77th Highlanders bringing up the rear. The 77th took most of the casualties - mainly from hand to hand fighting.

The Indians had the fast movement trait increasing their basic move to 9" instead of the usual 6".

The Indians and the Grenadiers both had the Bruiser trait which made them deadly in hand to hand.

Early in the game, with Indians moving into the woods. EDIT: I just noticed how crappy these draw cards were.

60th Lights and Rangers making good progress along the trail, but taking a few hits from musket fire.

Some of the other games in the morning and afternoon period.

This game was used with adjustable flight stands on rollers.

A Guadacanal air combat game.

WW1 air combat game. It's always nice to have games related to the museum.

This was a bombing run type of game.

Blood and Plunder pirate game.

Viking raid game.

Again, all in all a great way to support and enjoy the hobby. I plan to run a Peninsular skirmish game using One Hour Skirmish rules next. Until next time, wishing you all the best.

Elite Santa With Missiles And His Bellicose Elves

Perry French still were put on hold after getting a few resin figs in the mail recently. Needed to update my Christmas Dragon Rampant warband. Here's Santa as an Elite Foot with missiles and his Bellicose band of elves.

All of the figures were picked up off of ebay.

My first attempt at Tiger Stripe camo on the elves came out looking a bit more like lizard camo, but good enough for a game day.

These will be used at our annual Christmas Rampant day at Bruce Meyer's (of Company B Miniatures) place next month. I was shamed into building a new warband after seen some of the efforts of others attending the game day.

Perry And Victrix Napoleonic French In Greatcoats - WIP

Since it's been so long that I painted Napoleonic figures, wanted to warm up on a few easier uniforms. Using a few of the spare Perry guys in greatcoats, and a couple of spare Vixtrix figs, started with the old black undercoat method Doug Hamm (Dots of Paint blog) introduced me to years ago. Basically black undercoat with details sparingly added leaving "black lining". Anyway, these are going to be added to a unit of Middle/Young Guard Fusilier-Grenadiers.

EDIT: Completed the two stands of 4-figs each. They are pictured below on the flanks of the command stand.

WIP pics below:

Here's how they started out with the black basecoat.

Less is more when adding colors to the basecoat.

Next up are the guys without greatcoats - lots of piping, cuff and collar facings, and buttons!

A New Project - Leipzig (Or Something Like It)

Having 10 Russian infantry battalions and 6 Austrian ones, wanted to supplement my French with a couple of boxes of Perry French. Although, I have about 12 battalions of French infantry already, wanted to try out the 1807-14 set. Also, even though I have several units of the 1812-15 set, hadn't painted one up as Line infantry, and also wanted to do up the unit without greatcoats. Of course, I have to add a few Russian and Austrian cavalry too.

I just got the Osprey book in the mail today, and the two Perry boxes yesterday.

Besides these having the earlier coat with long tails and open lapels, they carry their muskets in a higher position than the 1812-15 guys. I think the latter are in "attack march"? There are a few more figures left on sprues since I use only 24 for infantry battalions.

I had a couple of leftover figures from earlier boxes - but still needed one more figure without a greatcoat, so the guy behind the officer is from the 1807-14 set. Again, a few leftover figures - all in greatcoats.

Comparison between the 1807-14 and 1812-15 sets; the guys in lighter gray are from the 1812-15 set. The 1807-14 guys look slightly taller than the earlier produced 1812-15 set. That said, they still mix in well together.

Command figures from both sets. The six figures on the left are from the 1807-14 set, which include eagle guards and a sapper. I added carabinier helmeted heads to the eagle guards.

Skirmishers from the two sets. I managed to swap some of the arms from the 1807-14 set onto the 1812-15 set. Plan to base these on washers and use them in skirmish games (like One Hour Skirmish Wargames).

For record, the 1812-15 set is much simpler to put together, basically just backpacks need to be glued on. Skirmishers and command figures have a few more separate parts. The 1807-14 set have separate arms and backpacks (which include the coattails of the coat). Some would consider this a drawback, but if you stick with just the marching poses, like I did besides the skirmishers, they go together fairly quickly. They do have separate heads wearing shakos with enough uncovered for the entire unit. There are bearskins for grenadiers, which I chose not to use, and shakos with tall plumes and cords for elites, which I did use both the grenadiers and non-skirmishing voltigeurs. One other thing, the flags which come with the 1807-14 set are a bit undersized. They include some for a few foreign regiments (all in the earlier lozenge pattern). You could scan them and resize them, I suppose. Well, so much for now with my return to Napoleonics.

Perry AWI/18th C. Horse Drawn Carts

Painted up these carts today. Ordered them a few weeks ago, intending to use them in my Bushy Run scenario. However, after I ordered them I read that the British left the carts at a station prior to the attack, and only used packhorses due to the difficult terrain. Note to self, always research beyond Wiki. 

Anyway, I can use them for Napoleonic stuff too - Peninsular, especially. I am going to use the drivers for the Bushy Run game, though.

Nice figures as expected from the Perrys.

Looking forward to hosting the Bushy Run game using One Hour Skirmish Wargames next weekend. Until then, wishing you all the best.

Battle of Bushy Run - One Hour Skirmish Wargames

Just wrapped up a great playtest for the Bushy Run game with One Hour Skirmish Wargames. Since there were only two of us, we kind of left a few of the units untested, but got enough good ideas for the game later this month at our annual Boeing Museum of Flight game day. Gave the natives the incentive to attack with the Special Capability of Bruiser. This gave them an extra draw card for both attack and defense. It was brutal, they ended up killing off enough of the Rangers and Highland Grenadiers that had both units fail their Morale tests at the end of turns. Plan to give the Grenadiers this trait for the next game. The natives also had the Fast capability of an additional 3" of movement. Otherwise, another good day with the rules.

British relief column marching west along Forbes Road to Fort Pitt. In the lead are small units of American Rangers and 60th Royal American Light Infantry. They are followed by 42nd Highlanders (Grenadiers), and 77th Highlanders.

In the woods, waiting in ambush are Delaware, Miami, Shawnee, Wyandot, Mingo and Ottawa warriors.

My buddy, Gene, ran the native - to good effect!

Natives have the Bruiser trait getting to draw the best of 3 attack cards to the defending Grenadiers 1 card.

Rangers and 60th Lights about to get the same Bruiser treatment. Cover doesn't give them another card during close combat - only for shooting. Note: the Grenadiers in the background are already dead.

The game was called a native victory after destroying two out of three British units.

On another note, I rebased all of my Napoleonic skirmishers on washers. I hope to use these same rules with them in the future. A lot of the figures were originally on washers years ago, so a return of sorts.

No fingers were damaged during the rebasing - I'm getting good at it (although it's not something to be proud of).

So much for now. Thanks for stopping in and wishing you all the best!

Preparing For The Battle of Bushy Run

It's been awhile since my last post, so figured I'd do one about what I've been up to lately. Have a playtest next Friday of a Battle of Bushy Run scenario using One Hour Skirmish rules.

This will be the first day of the battle, while the British were still marching along the trail towards Fort Pitt with relief supplies. I may do the second/final day of the battle sometime in the future. Needed a few more trees for the scenario as the battle took place in the woodlands of present-day western Pennsylvania. Found a nice set trees on Amazon which sized up well for 28mm. Only thing needed was fixing them to bases. They come ready to be put into sleeves, but I chose to use exopy putty and base them individually on 60mm round bases.

My cheap Amazon airbrush actually worked (after thorough cleaning) to paint the trunks and bases.

This is how they came in a bag of 12. Next to them are some pack horses picked up from ebay - using several of them for the scenario.

As I also plan to run this game at our annual Boeing Museum of Flight game day next month, I wanted everything able to be set up and torn down quickly. This especially so since I have the afternoon period, and we have to be out of the museum NLT 5:00pm. The afternoon period runs from 1:30-4:30pm. Thankfully, the rules are fast play and should be done well within the time frame, I hope.

I dug out an old gaming table cloth - it's actually the very first one I ever used. It's from JoAnn's, and close to 20 years old. Haven't used it in a long time, so instead of using separate pieces for the road, I went ahead and spray painted the road/trail on the cloth directly. This will make set up and tear down of the table even quicker. I actually cut off about a foot from the long edge to make it 4'6" wide. One thing noted with the recent skirmish rules I've been using is the movement rate making it hard for troops to get where they need to be. For the scenario, the natives will be able to enter the table on the long edge lined with trees, as well as the short edge at the far end of where the British are marching towards. Basically an L-shaped ambush by the natives.

Plan to have a 4-player game, but can accomodate 6 players if needed. Currently there aren't many games scheduled for the afternoon period, and we usually have a good number of attendees. For troops, the natives will be in 6-man units, as well as Rangers and 60th Royal American light infantry. The main body of the British will be two 12-man units of Highlanders (one unit being grenadiers). The astute observer will note that the facings for the Highlanders should be blue (42nd) and green (77th), but reusing the figures from my Louisbourg game when they represented the 78th Fraser Highlanders with buff facings.

Anyway, just wanted to update the blog and let you all know what I've been working on. Until next time, best wishes and good health to you all.