Foundry French Artillery Crew & Officers - Finished

Their blue uniforms are a bit darker than in the photo - due to the flash. Only need to paint up the two officers' horses. The Foundry horses looks like ponies next to the current Perry ones - still nice though.

Again, these figures are for a buddy of mine; who traded me several packs of Foundry Russian Cuirassiers - that should be my next project.

WAB Early Dark Ages Campaign Kick Off - 3/3/12

We kicked off a WAB Early Dark Ages Campaign today at The Game Matrix - only a few of us were able to make it - although a few others managed to swing by later. Pat L. is the GM and has prepared a great scenario. We all started out with a 1,500 point army using the new Armies of Antiquity list. Ron showed up with Vikings, James had his Early-Byzantines, Pat had a brand new (still in lead attire) Thematic Byzantine army (mainly Crusader Miniatures), and I morphed by Norman army into another Thematic Byzantine army. I scored the highest roll off to start the campaign and chose to take on Pat's army.

Taking good advice from Pat, I changed my second rank of cavalry to be armed with bows. I also fielded a foot unit with thrusting spears and darts. Now the darts sound really good on paper - no "to hit" penalties for movement or long range (12" range), yet I don't recall them causing any enemy casualties. This was due to a combination of my usual bad die rolls and the darts' strength 2. At least they had something to do during the Shooting phase. Our game ended in a tie - we both had suffered unit losses, yet retained possession of equal parts of the battlefield.

I didn't get a chance to watch Ron and James' game - but it ended with James' Early-Byzantines defeating their Viking opponents. I only managed to take one decent photo of their game. I did see that James did some serious cavalry maneuvering, as he had units all around the all-infantry Viking army.

I'm looking forward to our next meeting in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, more folks will show up for that one. Now back to painting up some Napoleonics.

Foundry Napoleonic French - WIP

Started on a few Foundry French Artillery crewmen and a couple of mounted officers. These are figures I'm painting up for a friend; in exchange he gave me some Foundry Russian Cuirassiers and a few French mounted officers.

Since their uniforms are basically all dark blue, they should be completed rather quickly. They are nice figures and although slightly shorter overall than the current Perry sculpts, as well as Victrix, they should still fit in nicely with them.

Here are the Russian Cuirassiers.

The riders themselves don't look too bad next to current Perry plastics; However, the horses are noticeably smaller. I plan to mount them on GW-type plastic bases for added height. Otherwise, I don't see any problems with them next to the Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers. I also plan to get some Perry plastic Russian infantry once they're released - supposedly later next month.

Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - Completed

Well I broke down and used a hair dryer to speed up the Minwax drying time - it seems to have worked as the Testors Dullcote is pretty flat. Added some highlights to the green coat, as well as a little black-lining around the chest straps. The mitre plates and bayonets were dry-brushed with gold and silver - just to make them a little shiny again.

My buddy will be giving me some Foundry Russian Cuirassiers in exchange for painting a few figures for him. Hopefully, they won't be too small next to the Front Rank guys. Eventually I'll also add either some Warlord Games or Old Glory 2nd Edition line infantry - or wait for the Perry plastics.

In the meantime, these guys will hang out in their barracks and let the British fight the French.

Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - WIP +1

Gave the remainder of the grenadiers a brush-on stain of Minwax Tudor Satin. Once the stain dries overnight they'll be given a finish of Testors Dullcote, followed by some highlighting of the coats. The mitre plate will also get a dry-brush of gold, and the trousers a dry-brush of white. Then they'll get based on 40mm square Litko plywood stands.

Prior to the stain they were given a production-line block paint job. I used a darker green than the first test figures.

Tomorrow I'll meet my buddy Pat L. at The Game Matrix to pick up some plastic Ancients he asked me to help glue together for a Lydian WAB army he's building for Adepticon in April. He's giving me some plastic stuff in exchange. Pat just returned from Strategicon where his Early-Macedonian WAB army was undefeated - and incidentally beat Jeff Jonas' Ptolemaic army. Pat is tireless and is running a WAB Dark Ages Campaign for some of us here in WA State; he's also going to GM a WAB "tournament" at Enfilade! in May. Although I've really come back to playing, and enjoying WAB, I do plan on running a largish Trojan War game using Hail Caesar. I hope to have that project up and running after Enfilade!

Front Rank Pavlovsk Grenadiers - Test Figures

Decided to try using a white undercoat - thinking the Minwax stain would darken the final product appropriately. It looks okay, but I'll go with a darker green on the coats for the rest of the figures. These are Front Rank figures that I won off of ebay for a great price (about half the normal cost). No highlighting has been added to the basic block painting prior to the dip. Here is how they look after a finish of Testors Dullcote.

The stain didn't black line the straps as well as I wanted, so I'll likely go over these areas. I also gave the metal areas (mitre plate and musket barrel) a wash of black first. The Vallejo Gold didn't cover the white undercoat that well at first.

Anyway, the sculpting and poses really simplify painting - no hard nooks and crannies to get to. Here's an interesting surviving example of a grenadier cap; with musket ball holes, presumably.

Front Rank Chasseurs a Cheval - Completed

Here they are - based two per on 50X50mm squares. I added a bit of highlighting after the Minwax stain - the green looked too plain if not.

I really like their simple, yet elegant poses; very nice looking in ranks. The horses' tails are a bit long, so I had to bend them to the sides to allow the second rank.

This unit will replace the Cuirassier/Carabinier unit for the Salamanca game. I hope to get a Front Rank Lancer unit in the future - either Polish or Dutch.

WAB AoA Gaming - 2/18/12

Several WAB gamers made it to the The Game Matrix today; including Old Bob all the way up from Oregon. At first I was going to play Bob, but then switched to take on James R.'s Hussites with my Late-Japanese. Adrian ended up taking on Bob's Macedonians with his Medieval English.The Japanese took a beating from the Hussites. The Japanese didn't have anything in their army that could destroy the wagons. With the crossbowmen and handgunners manning the wagon, it was an impossible task for the Japanese.

A decimated unit of Retainer spear did mange to reach a wagon; however, hardly anything could be done to the Hussites behind their well-defended position.

Soon all four Retainer units, two each bow and spear, were destroyed - mostly by long range fire from the Hussites in their wagons. By turn 5 it was declared a Hussite victory; practically all of the Hussite units were still intact, and only the Bushi infantry remained in strength. Even the Bushi cavalry had taken a beating - again from long range covered fire.

On the other table, it appeared Adrian's English were getting the better of Bob's Macedonians

In spite of the feeling like the Takeda at Nagashino, it was still a nice game day - two diverse WAB games being played simultaneously, as well as a large Martian game also going on with most of the NHMGS regulars. It was very nice to have Bob make it - considering he drove up from another state! We plan on more games in the near future - WAB and others too.

Front Rank Chasseurs a Cheval - WIP

Nursing a bad toothache I focused on the Front Rank Chasseurs I recently won off of ebay. This time I'll wait a day or so for the Minwax stain to dry completely before spraying with Dullcote. Luckily I'll be playing some WAB tomorrow so I won't be tempted to use the hair dryer on them.

Prior the stain they were given a pretty basic block paint job; the black parts were given a little bit of dry brushed highlights. I had started to shade some of them, but stopped after I realized it would take way longer than using the stain. For rank and file guys like these, I've found that once in formations a basic paint job looks fine.

I like how most Front Rank cavalry have the saddle and carbine attached to the figure - this not only speeds up painting, but makes for a sturdy gaming model.

Warlord's Maximus and War Dog

Finally finished this set; I had to take a bit of a break as I had a minor medical procedure (let's just say it's part of an exam for those of us 50 & over), as well as still nursing a pretty bad toothache. Anyway, the horse is really nicely posed and sculpted. The rider, Maximus Overdrivus, isn't bad, but seems to be lacking some details. The facial features and the armor embossing are hard to make out. To be fair, very little of the face and armor embossing are exposed in the first place. The head and helmet do seem a bit undersized though; maybe that's the look the sculptor wanted - to exaggerate the the body size and sword. The dog is very nicely detailed, but I think the pose with the legs all drawn in doesn't look as dignified as it could've been otherwise.

Once again I couldn't wait for the Minwax stain to dry overnight on the horse. I used a hair dryer to speed up the time and sprayed with Testors Dullcote. As you might be able to tell, the horse still has a sheen to it; maybe the stain underneath is reacting to the spray coat. It won't really matter much on the gaming table though. Speaking of which, tomorrow is another day of WAB gaming. I could take the EIR army too - now that the general is finished. One more thing, I see that Blogger recently started using a comment verification code that is hard to make out - so if it gets to be pain to leave comments, I understand. Best, Dean

Late-Japaneses WAB Army - Rebase

I went ahead and rebased all of the Retainer bowmen and most of the Retainer spearmen. The bowmen are on metal washers that came off of the Victrix stuff that were rebased onto Litko squares. Initially, most of the bowmen and spearmen were on 40X40mm squares - I was thinking that they'd be used for Hail Caesar, but this way, they can be used for WAB also.

The bowmen will be used in Open Order formed units and the spearmen, having upgraded to pikes, are Close Ordered. I spent a long time cutting CD cases for movement trays, but decided to just use some plasticard. I don't plan on having edges to the trays, except for the front.

WAB Gaming with a Tournament Veteran - 2/11/12

Had a great time gaming - actually being schooled - by longtime gamer and tournament veteran Pat L. Pat was kind enough to share some of his vast WAB knowledge with me before heading out to Strategicon next week. Pat brought his Macedonians (with stand-ins for his Scythian cav - still on the workbench). I again used my Late-Japanese army.

We threw a few ad hoc terrain pieces on the table that The Game Matrix has on hand. I won the roll to start the game and opted to go first. Again our armies were capped at 2,000 points in anticipation of Enfilade!

My Japanese had Bushi cav and spear on their left flank and two each units of Retainer spear and bow in the center and on the right flank.

In Pat's turn, he maneuvered a few of his Macedonian units around, as well as firing, unsuccessfully, his bolt thrower. Pat taught me a lot of useful moves, and formation changes with both Close and Open Ordered units. One of which was to have my Bushi in Open Order reform into two ranks to best utilize their massed-missile fire.

My Retainer unit with pikes did some damage to his Companion wedge - enough to make the unit flatten for their turn of combat.

The Macedonian phalanx on their left defeated a Retainer pike unit in combat; not helpful that the Retainer unit only had two ranks and aren't allowed a standard. They were within 12" of the Japanese army general though - who had a Leadership of 9. However, they rolled double 6's and ended up routing off the table. Due to their breaking, the general rolled and passed, but two other nearby Retainer units ended up rolling 10's! Another Retainer unit in the center ended up losing in combat to the remnants of the Companion wedge. The Bushi cav and spear on the left held up well with their BS and WS of 4 - not to mention the Lords in each of the units.

 

At the end of Turn 6, it was declared a Macedonian Victory - they had most of their infantry units intact and also controlled most of table.

As I mentioned, I really picked up a lot of tips and tricks from Pat. After the game he gave me some detailed pointers for the Japanese, as well as other armies, I plan to use in future games. One thing I plan to incorporate right away is the use of generic movement stands. This would, for me anyway, make formation changes more readily implemented during a game. Specifically, with nicely edged and flocked movement trays, I tend to want to leave the unit as is during the game, come what may, regardless of the tactical advantages otherwise.