The American Civil War in 10mm

Now then,

After much discussion, and in true democratic fashion, taking it to the vote, our small group has decided the group project for 2017. It is to be the ACW in 10mm. No Particular battle has been decided on yet so everything will be generic initially.

The Plan is to put on a club demonstration game at the Battleground show in Stockton next year. The thorny subject of basing has seen lots of discussion, and we have (sort of)..almost agreed on 25mm x 20mm for the Infantry, so as close as possible to the Fire and Fury basing system as possible.

I have painted up my first 2 Regiments of Union troops, a little early I know, but there is nothing wrong with stealing a march on the Rebs!

My part in this grand plan is to collect a few brigades worth of troops for each side, so in addition to the more generic looking troops seen above, I plan on painting up some troops to represent the Irish brigade. Interesting because of their distinctive flag.

Im looking forward to really getting into the period in the new year, and am currently reading as much as I can, and watching plenty of documentary's as well.

Anyway,

Cheers for looking,
Steve

Austrian Landwehr

Now then,

The first painting of the new year!

Carneville Friekorps.

Carneville Hussars

The Carneville Freiorps were the smallest unit in the Austrian army, I have boosted them up, reasoning that I havent got enough militia units, so it doesnt really matter....

Hussars are a small cavalry unit, and the jagers are classed as a standard sized unit.

The Prague City Landwher. I dont think this unit was involved in the fighting on the Danube in 1809, however I had models spare and this unit fits! Its also something a bit different.

The Vienna Volunteers. I have done 2 Bns of these. I have used a bit of artistic licence on the flags. I have used SYW Austrian flags, just to make them look a bit different! I think they look pretty cool with green flags....

And thats it for now. I have 2 Cavalry batteries on my painting table, I wont lie, im struggling to motivate myself to paint the limber teams......

Austrian 6mm Page

Cheers for looking,
Steve

6mm Napoleonic update, and a bit of EPIC too!

Now then,

I have been generally plodding on with various bits and bobs this week, normal score really, im totally unfocused and cant stick with one project at a time....

First up I have done the movement trays I got from warbases a few months ago.

I have made a base for each of my line infantry Battalions, each with their own unit label so there is no confusion who is who during the heat of battle!









 Terrain update!

I have made a couple of small hills, and painted up some MDF templates to use for my woods, put together with my other stuff im thinking they look ok. I must remember to put a piece of paper in between the hills though, as the heat over here is making them stick together, hence the bits of damage on the tops of the hills....

Here is an Austrian Infantry brigade, complete with supporting position battery, in their new movement trays, with the Artillery taking advantage of the new hill.

The Brigade from the rear showing all the units labels, and annoyingly, the heat damage on the hill...

Close up or Infantry Regiment 46, in Battalion masse, holding an important road junction.

EPIC!!

Ive been continuing with the Epic stuff as well, the Novamarines are nearing completion, finally.

 Bike company, 3 detachments of bikes and a bike mounted commander. The Commander is a conversion as is the bike itself.

2 Units of Imperial Robots. I had to have them in a different colour scheme, as the blue and white is getting tedious!

I have also painted up a test base for my Tau force...

Bloody difficult to paint, these figures are tiny, and have loads of detail...

EPIC PAGE

Thats about it for now,
Cheers for looking,
Steve.

Cant see the wood for the trees?

Now then,

This weekend has seen me in a frenzy of terrain making (or just making a mess, if my wife is to be believed). To be fair I did drop my flock tub no less than 3 times, once spectacularly covering myself and everything else in the stuff....

Being clumsy aside, I managed to get this lot done:

First of all, I reinforced the edges of the boards with Green tape to protect them.

6mm Scale Trees

These are cheap trees bought via Amazon from China, a few quid for 50... Cant go wrong really. I should have toned down the green a bit, but they are done now.

15mm Scale trees

These are homemade trees, made out of wire and clump foliage, then dunked in watered down PVA and then the (for some reason hard to keep hold of) Flock.

The end result here is that I reckon both sets of trees, now that they are done will work fine for both scales, what do you think?

Hedges.

These are homemade, out of scouring pads, cut to shape then dunked in the PVA and then flocked. They work really quite well for 6mm, and at a push 15mm too. Thats good because I just don't have the space to store loads of terrain in different scales.... I'm pushing my luck already...

Here is my Terrain setup so far.

Whats next?

Well, for my 6mm I have these that need painting up.

Models - Total Battle Miniatures

For my 15mm, i'm going to order some pre-painted MDF buildings from 4Ground. I'm thinking the timber village set, and maybe a few fences and walls.

The inspiration for this board comes from my favorite Osprey book, Aspern and Wagram 1809. These pictures here....

Cheers for looking,

Steve

Terrain tiles

Now then,

Waiting for stuff in the post can be frustrating. Especially when your on leave, and have planned to get loads of painting done, and forgotten to order bases..... So my projects have stalled a bit. My own fault, My options are to punish myself by watching daytime TV, or be a bit more creative..but what to do?

So im sat in the Garden, enjoying the Cyprus sunshine, when I have a thought (rare as that may be). I have 4 TSS terrain tiles upstairs. But they are desert ones that I bought for playing Crusades games etc. What I really need is some terrain for my Napoleonics, and for Bolt action. Now on the other side of these terrain tiles they are blank......

So a quick woodbine later, and I'm off to the local paint shop. I bought a big pot of mossy green paint, and a few random tester pots, (about 10 euro). Here's what I came up with!

The sight that confronted my wife when she got home from work.... 

So these are the backs of the TSS desert tiles, painted first with the moss green, then while still wet, using the tester pots, random fields are painted on in different shades. It turned out much better than I expected if Im totally honest, and in total took me about an hour to get all 4 tiles painted!

Once dry Iv'e continued working on them, so when the lad got home from his mates house this is what greeted him in his room! (no one is safe from the geekyness in my house). Although he did say or rather mumbled that "they look alright" High praise indeed from James the moody arse teenager.

So next Im going to get some trees sorted out, and some hedges (ill have to make 6mm and 15mm versions of these).

Ill post some better images when ive got some trees etc done, and with some troops on. has anyone got any cunning ways of making hedges?

Cheers for looking,
Steve

IR 51 Splenyi

Now then,

I Have got my latest units done, IR 51 a large Hungarian infantry regiment, in the 1809 campaign the regiment was quite under strength, but still fielded 3 battalions.  I have chosen to represent it with only 2 Battalions, but at full strength. Just makes things easier....

Anyway, here they are!

Thats the last of the line infantry done,

The Austrian army is slowly but surely getting there, with a few gaps here and there, namely Hussars and artillery with some more commanders and 4 Battalions of landwehr to do now. Unless of course I add a reserve division, Kurrassiers and Grenadiers...hmmm

The full Austrian army can be seen here - Austrian 1809 page

I know I said it was Austrian 6mm month, but ive ran out of bases for them, so ill be cracking on with something else for a while, then back to the Napoleonics next month!

Steve

Grenzer Regiment 8 and 13 Done.

Now then,

I actually finished these two units of Grenz light/irregular infantry off last week, but have been too busy to get them photographed etc...

Here are the newest additions to the Army of Austria!

GRENZ REGIMENT 8






GRENZ REGIMENT 13






Another 2 units done, these guys are a welcome addition, as irregular light infantry, they should prove to be very useful in an army almost devoid of skirmish capable troops.

Next on the painting table are IR51, a large Hungarian infantry regiment.

The full army can be seen here - Austrian 1809 Page

Cheers for looking.
Steve

March is Napoleonic 6mm Month

Now then,

With getting all my Bolt Action stuff finished off, I thought id turn my attention once again to the 1809 campaign, and get some more of the Austrian army done.


First of all I've had a look at the basing, always a bloody problem, and decided to rebase the skirmishers, for no other reason than it makes them easier to store...

I have rebased some of my Jaeger's, so now have the unit in 2 different formations, formed up and in skirmish order.

So onto the basing. For some reason I always struggle with how to base stuff, be it Napoleonic or Ancient armies.  Black powder has made this a bit easier, as units are classed by their "general" size. So we have tiny units, small units, standard units and large units.  frontage sizes for the units are the only things that are important, depth doesn't matter.

From back to front - Large infantry unit, standard unit, small unit, tiny unit.

Tiny unit

The only tiny unit I have in the army is the Carneville Freikorps, a very small unit numbering 240 jaegers, and 120 or so Hussars. I have done the Infantry formed up and in skirmish order, depending on the situation. The Hussars are just 2 bases of Hussars, and are a separate tiny unit.

Small unit

Small units will be 4 bases strong, the only small units I have at present are the Rosenburg Chevauxledgers. A light cavalry unit.

Standard unit

The mainstay of the army, most units will be standard sized, consisting of 6 bases.

Large unit

The large units are more of a problem. For the infantry I have made the large Hungarian Bns large, but still with 6 bases. The bases however are sightly larger, with 8 figures per base instead of the normal 6.

The Cavalry large units will have 8 bases.

Artillery Batteries

All the artillery batteries will have 3 guns, and 3 limbers, although the guns may be different calibers or howitzers.

Why so many bases?
Infantry formations are the reason the units are made up of a variable number of bases, depending on their size. I considered basing whole units on 1 big base, but then how would the different formations be shown? I suppose counters could be used, but that doesn't do it for me. For me the whole point of gaming with miniatures is the look of the thing.

 Line

 Attack column

 Battalion Masse* ( A formation unique to the Austrians, a solid block of infantry able to withstand cavalry attacks, but horribly vulnerable to artillery fire). Rear 2 bases facing rear so as not to confuse it with an attack column.

 Square

March column

So whats next?

First of all I've got  all my light troops done, namely 2 battalions of Grenzers. They just need basing up, photos maybe tomorrow.
Then I'm going to get another large unit of Hussars done, ive been putting off doing them because to be honest they aren't the easiest of figures to paint, but are really worth the effort.

Next in the queue is infantry regiment 51, Splenyi, a large Hungarian regiment, but with only 2 Battalions, which im going to attach to the Advance Guard Division.

Still lots to do, including landwehr regiments, lots of artillery, and a heavy cavalry brigade!

The Austrian army can be seen in more detail here - Austrian 1809 Page

Cheers,
Steve

2013 in review

Belated seasons greetings,

I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year, and of course managed to get hold of all the goodies you asked for from Santa.

Having just returned from the depths of winter in Scotland, I now have time to have a look at what i've managed to do hobby-wise over the last year, and of course list my plan of action for the coming 12 months.

2013 has seen me start this blog, with 18000 odd hits its doing ok, and many thanks to the 51 people out there who follow the blog.

I've generally be distracted by the new and shiny, as I cant seem to keep focused on any 1 project, perhaps its because I don't actually get any gaming, and don't have that need to get a particular unit or model done. That's my excuse anyway.

So, this year I have completed my Crusader army for Impetus, and with the addition of some command stands, now have the option of playing Hail Caesar too.

Click here for a look at the Crusader army -

CRUSADERS









To oppose the Crusaders I also finished off the Muslim forces of Saladin. I have yet to add any command stands for HC, but I plan to sort that out this year.

Click here for a look at the Muslims -

Muslim Forces





Next I started the long process of re-basing all my Greek and Persian armies, originally based for DBA. Whilst re-basing them, I also took the opportunity to add to the collection, so now I have two sizable armies for Impetus.

First off I have the Greek army, based around a core of Spartans. With the addition of a sizable allied contingent, this is probably my favorite army.

click here to see more of the Greek Hoplite army



To take them on, I have also started a Persian army, although I have been distracted along the way and have a few units to complete.I have a feeling that this army will be pretty big when finally finished, another job for 2014!

Have a look here -
Persian Army




If that wasn't enough, the 6mm Napoleonic project has chugged along, although very slowly. Having decided on a set of rules to use (Black Powder), there is some rebasing to do, and alot of painting before my Austrian army is ready for battle. The planned French army has failed to materialize, but will at the very least be started in 2014.

Have a look here for the masses of tiny Austrians - Austrian Army 1809


OK, onto the distractions! 

First off was my foray into 28mm Sci/Fi with the Pig Iron system troopers. I collected a platoons worth of them for use with Tomorrows war, although they have never been out of their box since being painted.


To have a look at the European Drop troopers, look here - Drop Troops









Next up is the Germans for Bolt action. Another distraction, having read some good reviews I decided to get myself the rulebook, and then decided to get a German platoon, but in 15mm. These still aren't finished either as i got bored painting German camouflage..... However, they are very close to being finished, so another job for 2014!!

To see ze Germans click here - BOLT ACTION Germans







Finally, since about September, ive been tinkering with Epic, and have painted and converted quite alot of 6mm marines and vehicles. I don't know what it is about epic, its the first real wargame I played many moons ago in the early nineties, but its still cool.  I just really enjoy painting the little buggers!!!

Here's a link to my epic page and here's a link to my "blog" over on the Tactical command site

-EPIC page
Yorkies 6mm painting log



2014?

So, whats the plan for the next 12 months? Well I cant rule out any random distractions, but my plan is to finish what i've got first and foremost. In no particular order, here's what I plan on getting done:

• Commanders for the Muslim army
• Commanders for the Persian army
• Lots of Persians!
• A Theban contingent for the Greek Hoplite army
• SS Troops for my Bolt Action German force
• Vehicles for Ze Germans
• Soviet forces to oppose said Germans for Bolt Action.
• An Anglo Danish warband for SAGA, to oppose the Vikings I finished a while back. SAGA 
• Finish off the Novamarines and start on their adversaries, The TAU for EPIC.
• Continue with the Napoleonic project, Finish the Austrian forces and make a start on the French.

So, lots to do this year, and barring any major meltdowns, I shouldn't start anything else............................who am I trying to kid!

Have a good new year!

Steve