Project Waterloo, The French by the Numbers

Whilst I was pulling the units for the Quatre Bras playtest I thought I may as well check out what I have ready for the Waterloo game and of course from that work out what I still have to do. Best start with the French as I am in happy street for the Prussians.

I have painted up as French (excluding the 12+ battalions not painted as French)

37 Line Battalions

10 Light Battalions

11 Hussar Regiments

6 Chasseurs Regiments

1 Lancer Regiment

5 Dragoon Regiments

5 Cuirassier Regiments

24 Guns and crews

8 Limbers

13 command bases

This leaves me a shortfall of 

15 Line Battalions

10 Light Battalions

3 Lancer Regiments

1 Cuirassier Regiments

4 guns

5 command bases

Given I have five Line Battalions almost finished on the table and four guns and crews already painted but needing basing I am not at all in bad shape.

I only have 12 battalions of Baccus castings but have others on order which will surpass the shortage though I also have them covered by Adler castings.

Lancers I will get from Baccus with the infantry but again have these covered by Adler

The Cuirassiers will be Adler castings I have in hand and I also have the command bases already part painted so need to just finish these off.

The Prussians are even closer to being ready so from a figure standpoint I am very comfortable. Lee is not that far behind me, though many of his still require basing but we have 13 months left before we hit the early deadline it's fair to say we are confident on reaching the goal we set nearly two years ago.

I am planning on cracking on with getting these all finished off and surpassing the target, after all we have plenty of other battles to fight that make Waterloo look a bit on the small side.

Friday saw more talking than fighting and we got to discuss further the terrain for the battle. Due to the Waterloo game not needing to travel Lee is greatly in favour of doing just three boards for the game. That is three 6x6 foot boards! This means the length has been stretched by two foot to the original plan but allows more ground for the Prussians to be in play. Lee wants to also lay a 2 foot deep set of boards behind the main table to allow further line up and thus have more play area but I am hoping I can convince him the extra 32 square foot of board is excessive, after all we will have 96 square foot of table as it is! So if you know someone who would want these boards when we are finished, they may well be for sale soon after the game. 

Building of the Week Triple Points

I actually thought I would end up with more done if truth be known as all three of this weeks output were well on the way but three nights away from the painting desk leaves you with a bit of catching up not that it took that much effort to finish.

All three buildings have already graced the table and blog more than once but as I will be needing a lot more buildings for Project Waterloo expect to see even more over the next twelve months as some of them are perfect for use in the large villages and maybe even some of the farms.

First up we have MED06 Large Medieval Town House £2.50 from Leven Miniatures here I have painted it up rather dingy, the one featuring on the Leven website is rather cleaner looking. Long term this building will end up in my slum part of my wargames town where it will finally end up post the Waterloo Project. 

I went with wooden tiles rather than slates, these look far less shiny in real life and less of a match to the walls of the building. As I have said before this is a great building that can be slotted into most games from Medieval through Napoleonic. Quick to paint up and solid in detail, it's a reasonable size and well worth the price tag.

Also from the Leven Medieval range is MED03 Medieval House A which has a third story, though it's in the loft so it's a matter of a couple of MM taller than the previous building and also costs £2.50 I think this building actually took longer to paint up as the wood frame is more involved adding time to paint these up.

Still it did not take that long and I really like this one and House B as they have plenty of character, more so than the Large House above. Problem is that it costs the same price as the first house which whilst not bad value still leaves me head scratching given that it's very close to half the weight of the large house. Please understand though it will not and has not stopped me ordering more of both the House A and B to supplement the Large Town House. Indeed I have three more already prepped along with one more large town house so no way am I put off.

I've already also painted up two each of the FAC01 Fachwerkhaus Type A (again £2.50 each) so this is the third one and will be used mostly in battles in Germany and Austria, though outside contracts will be taken ;-)

This one has softer coloured wood than the others but I want them to not look like carbon copies and these take quite a bit longer than the other two buildings which you can see from the complex wood work. I really like them but they can be a bit of a pain to paint which I have to ignore as I have eight more of the two versions left to paint as it stands.

Here they are all together to give you an idea of their respective sizes the Fachwerkhaus Type B is actually bigger still and is a real bargain at £2.50 and can be found here. 

So I am slowly clawing back the weeks of no production and hope to still make 100 buildings in the year, I have lots to do to make the target though.

Not the last post on 6mm this week, but the last on 6mm figures. Yet more spares from the Adler bargain that needed a little help becoming full battalions. In this case Voltigeurs and command figures, but I did not have enough Adler skirmishers to kit out all four battalions with four figures a base so made do with just three on them with one even having to do without!

The Voltigeurs were painted pre-challenge so had to wait three months for me to finally finish them whilst the command is made up of five figures, two colour sergeants, a drummer, office and standard bearer. By finishing off these loose ends I was able to get a total of seventeen battalions finished in the three months of the challenge.

That's a good chunk towards the Waterloo requirements and by the early part of next week I should have another five finished that I have on the table at the moment. Not actually sure exactly what I need to still do but I have to prepare my troops for what I hope is the last Quatre Bras practice game based on the final tweaks before we turn our attention to putting the Austrian, Prussian and Russian stats to the test for our rules. 

This will be the first full dress rehearsal for the Joy of Six though Lee has some unfinished bases awaiting the skirmish elements adding and I will have to use one base of figures from Lee, but for all purpose this is finished except maybe a few tweaks and maybe a few more buildings being painted up. 

That's quite a good feeling but if we were not at the point we are at the moment alarm bells may have to have sounded as we would have to be behind for Project Waterloo which is well on track even if the boards have yet to be started. Not that I am worried as Lee has shown how fast he can do those boards.

7th Line and 26th Reserve Regiment Adler 6mm Additions

Anyone remember Blog Con? Of course you do, but do you remember that I bought a load of Adler figures via Dave D? A mix of unpainted French and Polish and in painted yet more French (early and late) and Prussians. Well Adler supply army packs with 30-40 figs a battalion whilst we use 24-32 figures so I ended up with a lot of figures without command (Prussian and French) so I went to my bits box and found out some spare colour bearers, for some reason I seemed to have the required officers and drummers or at least mounted officers so I made up three battalions of Line and another three of Reserve.

I found the correct flags for the 7th Regiment but alas my Baccus stash did not have this regiment amongst them but one of the spares would work if I repainted the white to green so this is exactly what I did. The 1st Battalion has the green cross whilst the one above shows the 2nd Battalion. I really like Baccus flags as you can get some great movement in them and I really like the look of a wind ruffled flag I captured in this one.

The 7th was not actually in the fighting at Waterloo, instead it was at Ligny (part of I Corp) so will not get to come out and play during the Waterloo game but could still get an outing before the big day and is destined to get play during other big big games we will play in the future.

The 26th Reserve, or by this point really the 26th Line Regiment is part of II Corp and is the only Regiment of Kraft's 6th Brigade that did NOT fight at Waterloo but again these guys will give me depth for other games and will really help in rounding out the full OOB for when we revisit the 100 Days with some form of what if scenario. After all I still need to paint up a further 54 battalions on top of the Waterloo commitment if I want to have all the Prussians of the 100 Day campaign!!

5th Westphalia Landwehr Baccus 6mm

After painting up a bucket full of 28mm WWII it was great to get back to painting up some of the 6mm part of my mountain. In this case Baccus Landwehr and of course these are for my Waterloo Project.

Here we have the 1st Battalion of the 5th Westphalia, a regiment that was part of II Corp under the command of Pirch and is the Corp that had the most troops on the Waterloo battlefield. Fortunately I have most of the battalions painted up for this Corp's, well the ones that took part at Waterloo. I still have three regiments to paint up, one reserve and two Landwehr for this Corps and they will be all done. In fact after these I will just have four Battalions in total to paint up for the Prussians, though I still have some more cavalry, guns, limbers and command before I can say done. I will probably buy caissons for both the French and the Prussians just to have them as points of interest on the boards when we play.

2nd Battalion, the flags are pure conjecture and given the shortage of suitable Baccus flags in my box I went with some that had been found on the internet. The field caps the Landwehr are often shown wearing have a green trim for the 5th Westphalia which at the time of painting did not seem to stand out but looks bright enough in the pictures so I am happy with them.

The Fusilier Battalion of course lacks a flag, though for Waterloo I really ought not to have standards for ANY of the Landwehr but I am using the excuse that I will be using them for other battles as an excuse to keep the colours flying on the other battalions.

All three ready for action

Baccus paint up nice and quick and I have to say I really had fun pulling these onto the table and working on them. The speed you can go from bagged lead to finished model makes them a joy to work with. Of course I still have a massive pile of Adler Prussians as part of my lead pile and these will still get painted up, possibly for Ligny but certainly for the prior wars that make up the Napoleonic period though they will have to take their turn with the Polish and lots of French that I own and the Spanish I plan to get once we have Waterloo put to bed. Given I am working on five French Battalions to go with the seventeen I finished in the challenge that may be sooner than you would think!

Last Stand Final Bonus Round

I had great plans for the final bonus round but with the end of the challenge coinciding with my taking a new job (whilst still doing the old one) and being ill and my birthday and.... Well you get the picture.

So in the end I went totally the other way and have painted up just one figure, this being a rather special figure to me as I know the sculptor. None other than our own blogger Panzer Kaput and what a fine figure it is.

The figure was given away as a door prize at a Partizan a couple of years ago but at that time I had no use for it but I recognised a good looking figure. The figure is of a Kelham Hall Monk for the Very British Civil War but I later thought I could use it for a Createn Monk who joined in the fight against the invading German Paratroopers and I hope the helmet will pass as a Greek soldiers taken up by the Monk.

The robe is great and allowed a lot of playing with shading but he also has loads of kit to make him more interesting. I really like the mix of equipment as it really adds to the idea that he has just thrown himself into the action.

So in the end the figure went from Lead Pile Blues to inspired choice and changed my unhappiness of the final round to feeling really good about what I could submit.

Welcome Return of Building of the Week

Last few weeks have conspired against me to make sure the building of the week has missed it's slot so today I come at you with two of the new Leven offerings.

The first one up is one of the newly released products, this one DAM01 Damaged House at £2.50 and it's a pleasing little wreck of a building and should be popular with the more modern gamer.

It's a gem with some nice detail built into the building but with the level of damage and style of building looks to be suited just to WWII and onwards though maybe also WWI though I think that is a bit of a push.

As I am often saying of Leven, it's got good texture so is easy to work on and paints up reasonably quickly. I like how the tiles end in a realistic stepped fashion whilst on the other side it's more abrupt. Roof beams also poke out of the tiles and can be worked on to show burnt sections etc.

The tiles pick out nicely and the wall section that has fallen into the wreckage was a great touch. More derbies can be added to the interior or the exterior if you mount the building for a more complete finish but it finishes as is fell enough.

I have added nothing but paint to this rendition as it's for Mike to display though I have a gun battery I want to be cut loose with. I would really like to see more of these collapsed buildings adding to the range as I think they add a great deal to the table and would love to see a few for each period or collection, I guess that will depend to some extent on the success of the two he has released.

Next up is a yet to be released building, the Shotgun Shack for the ACW collection though it will also wok all the way to modern and Zombie Apocalypse. It's a fairly straight forward  model to paint though I used a few washes for added effect. The bricks with Nuln Oil and the cream or ivory slat panelled walls with a heavily watered down Sepia wash.

Again this is for Mike and is fairly close to the images he sent. As all the others Mike does not want these on bases so nothing to really set them off. Not that I am unhappy with them, not at all but it does mean I could get both finished in a morning of painting. I only have five more to do from start and one to finish off the buildings supplied to paint. As for my building,s well I still have far more than in sane but that's me.

Next week expect to see a few of my buildings finished as we get closer to the Quatre Bras game but I have at last also started the work on the train layout that I have been sent to get on the go. This I will do a progress report on as it's a good few sessions.

Baker Company Kickstarter Arrives

My kickstrater figures arrived Monday but I was kind of busy so failed to blog about them but at least I have had the time to have a good look at them since. I was really pleased to finally get them and whilst later than originally expected consider that I am still waiting for the Arena Rex kickstarter to arrive which won't be any time soon and is a year late with no new date given. I think it is better to leave the date blank if they have no idea but at least they are now making updates more regular and I can see that progress is being made. 

Reports from Baker Company were far more regular and informative and I know I would have had my figures sooner if not for the loss of the casting machine. But that as they say is another story. What you want to know is what do I make of them?

I will start and end with the most positive, the tanks. Being at the end of the first round I am one of the ones rewarded with getting bits from phase two with phase one and one of these items is the T-26 which is a small tank compared with the mediums that were to follow but it's still a reasonable size. The detail and casting of the model is great and comes in five parts as the Turret Hatch can be left open or closed. It would be great if Gavin can be convinced to do a few flag waving dudes as these machines were radioless.

A later photo shows the track detail and another close up shows the rivet heads that must have made these an absolute joy to be inside, or not!!! I am no total tread head but I rate this kit very highly and look forward to getting it painted up and on the table. I have decided to keep most of my vehicles and just sell on the Finn stuff that Lee and I agree are extra to our needs. Between us we will have a great Russian swarm in tanks and other such vehicles.

Lead wise I have had a little over 100 or so figures though it does not look as much from the box they came in or the photo above. First imprecision was a little negative and it's easy to see the issues that have been raised. Sure these are no Black Tree or Artizan and the lack of defined detail that comes with greatcoated or snow smocked infantry adds to the overall look of being a little less than one hoped

How ever it is just as easy to miss the details that give these character, no not all of them as some are certainly on the weak side but others have things going for them. I will need to get some of these painted up just to see what I make of them. First thoughts was that they looked small for 28mm, and that was a surprise given that the main reason of their introduction was to replace Baker Company 25mm figures.

Well fear not as on pulling two random figures out of respective piles shows the BC (on the left) is actually slightly larger than the Russian on the right. Proportionally the BC figure looks out of sync with his right hand the size of a bucket!

Another Finn from another pack and as you can see he is a good size as well. A fair few of the figures are on small bases but that's OK as I will be mounting them on 2p pieces. They are also malleable allowing the poses to be changed a little in a few cases which will be nice.

Overall I am less happy than I had hoped on deciding to fund but not so that I wish I had not bothered. On the contrary I am happier than I expected to be and I think they will serve us well and I will probably back the following Balkan and Norwegian kickstarters as well.

Thrown in with the ordered items was this T-26 twin turreted tank which was really cool present from Gavin I assume for the delays and speaks volumes about his commitment. My main concern has been that this kickstarter has ended up costing him money rather than generated any and certainly his new kickstarter is not anywhere as generous even if it's still a good deal but more on this further on.

The T-26 twin MG comes with the two turrets mounted on a deck panel that will need some work to make it look correct but it looks well worth making the effort to do this well.

It's not just a straight swap out either as the two bodies of the tanks have a number of differences and as such are a great addition to the range. I really like what Gavin has managed to do with these and it makes the decision on backing another of his kickstarters easier.

Given that he has just launched one that's probably no bad thing, but this one is more or less just a vehicle one and as such it comes will steeper price points. The NEW KICKSTARTER has already raised £4,000 in it's first day and has just thirteen left to go. It has a nice array of vehicles, mostly trucks and works out for the most as £20 per vehicle. This is no bad price and in some cases the vehicles will come with crews. Time will tell if Gavin brings in more incentives beyond choice of vehicle though I do think he should also offer a larger pledge allowing you to buy more than six vehicles which is the largest commitment you can do at the moment. This would be particularly useful for groups of players but given that nine vehicles look to be available by the end you can't get one each of the vehicles without adding the extra's as add on's (though that is still £20 per vehicle.

Gavin is offering early bird incentives allowing you at the moment to get six vehicles for £105 not a bad opportunity at all.

Post Birthday Recap

OK the Painting Challenge has now come to an end and we can all take a break if we wish and I guess think and blog about other things. I'm not painting anything tonight, simply because I am off out to celebrate a couple of mates Birthdays, oh and mine too  ;-)

I always get either a lot of hobby related stuff or money, well this year it's been a bumper crop. I just thought I should brag blog about it and say a big thank you to all my family who have plied me with goodies.

Three ASL scenario packs, one with a map board. Also on the way is an Action Pack that has a bunch of scenarios and several of the new shaped boards which are always fun to get.

A rather thick tomb I picked up at Heroes with the birthday money I took along given before the event  ;-)

Proper brush cleaning soap which I believe is really good and much better than the liquid one I have which I suspect is doing more harm than good. Why bother you ask? A clue at the top of the image.

The luxury gift that Cath got with the soap was four Series 7 Winsor & Newton brushes ranging between 1 and 000, have yet to paint with them but I have had one out of the tube and it's got a great balance. Really looking forward to trying them in anger. I just need to make a few changes to my paint rack for position then I will get at them. I still have a few new Rosemary & Co brushes and will continue to use them as they are great brushes but I really wanted to try these as well. I think they won't make up the bulk of my painting time but will be used for all the fine work and finishing.

I also have some cold hard cash which in part needs spending on some new paints as I am running down on a few and want to look for some more different colours. I also will be splashing on more Baccus when the infantry come out and need more bases and.....

Lets just hope I have some left in time for Trilpes.

Dave D's Gift

Some of you will already have seen these lovely painted figures that Dave D gave me and the kids a few weeks ago. I did not want to show them on my blog until they had been submitted to the Painting Challenge or shown up on Dave's own blog.

Dave on hearing that my son was pushing for a shotgun guy to be painted up by dad, was very kind and painted up not one but two guys with the most formidable weapon. Dave of course did not stop there as he also provided the guy in the middle. 

I really like this guy, that goaty is just brilliant. The colours and stance really go well together and I hope I can learn something from Dave's style.

This guy though, well he is sure to be part of my posse for sure. He is so striking and looks as hard as nails. Not that I have actually had a chance to play yet as the kids get all the action.

This guy is just plain mean, don't let the wavy hair fool you, he has gunned down defenceless opponents in each game he has been used!!

All three setting off for some mischief I suspect, I still have the figures I bought off Dave to paint up but they are at least on the table ready to go. So again a big thanks to Dave, I owe you a beer at Spring Con

Stocking Up on Black Tree Miniatures

Just before jetting off to one of the hotspots in the UK for last weekend I took delivery of a small order from Black Tree as they had a 35% off German WWII and I knew I would be selling down on a lot of my snipers and had orders for more of the Russians in snow smocks so it was a good excuse to buy. Service was quicker than ever with them arriving within two days of order, another tale of good service to add to the previous good experiences.

I have painted all of these Russians before except possibly bottom row second on the left and bottom right. Good looking figures all that will paint up rather nice and not a bad pose between them. Though I plan to have a short break on painting these up as I have missed the 6mm I know these figures will draw me back to them.

By comparison the German's in greatcoats have never graced my desk and I am less impressed with the figures. Once they are cleaned up and undercoated I have a feeling I will like them more but a few of them have shortened rifles where the metal has failed to get to the ends of the mould which takes a little off them but at least they should be fairly fast to paint up.

I also ordered something else that I can not show on the blog until it has been reviled in one of the roleplaying sessions as I would hate to spoil the surprise.

On the subject of surprises I have been coming home from work expecting a nice sized package from Baker Company as the last figures were quoted as going out on Monday as Gavin now has a working casting machine. Well if your still waiting then it may well be that Gavin is yet to send out as the date has ended up being a little early. I had an e-mail tonight in reply to one I had just sent asking about my figures letting me know they will be sent out tomorrow so I hope to see them Monday if the wind is in the right direction. Of course I will show them off here.

Heroes 2014 Aftermath

I guess the fact that I have been back home for four days and not posted gives you an idea of what it was like. I actually did better than I thought, though it has left me really tired and struggling to get up in the morning. Hopefully by the weekend I will be recovered. Was it worth it? you bet! I plan on doing a full report on my ASL blog sometime soon as more than fluff here would be wasted I think.

Well I did not need anything I did not take and it's fair to say I also did not need most of the things I did take but it's great to have it on hand just in case.

I used plenty of different national counters including the Japanese and Chinese but not the Italian's or French, I even got the black SS counters on the map. Map boards of course was used with a wide selection but none of the map sheets got on the table though as mostly I played the smaller scenario. Next year could be the year of the map.

I learnt I was doing a couple of things wrong whilst showing another very experienced player he had been getting another rule wrong. I also played a good player who had only played a few others in the past and was getting a number of rules mixed up which really highlights the need to play as many opponents as possible.

The best part of the weekend was connecting with old mates not seen for three years and making new friends along the way. Too many good guys not at the event but hopefully they will be there next time. In fact attendance was down on last time I was there which is possibly a blessing from a space point of view but again hope the figure goes back up a little at least.

I got in nine games which is a fairy respectable number given that I made eleven the last time but James managed to get thirteen games in over what was effectually three full days as we arrived Thursday lunch and left about the same time Sunday. Anyone who has played ASL will know what a massive achievement that is and is in fact the record for games played at a UK tourney and whilst he played two scenario's that were quick short games he also played a couple of five hour games and did not have a lot of time off the clock. Next year he plans on playing a game or two with plenty of meat on them.

Twelve Hours Till Heroes

Well in just twelve hours I will be packing the last items into the car ready to get off to Blackpool for Heroes, a Advanced Squad Leader Tournament that pulls around sixty players of the old Avalon Hill boardgame. Not everyone though joins in the tournament, they either play monster scenarios that will take four days to play or lots of smaller friendly games. Not that the tournament tends to be played in a less than friendly manor most ASL'ers are an amiable group with laughter coming from all sides.

I will look like this on Sunday!!

I am one of those none tournament types and plan on playing smaller catch games all weekend and given that my nephew is also doing the same as well as Martin or swearbox as he is known in our house I won't be short of opponents.

So as I packed the car earlier I considered the amount of kit I was loading and thought it might be worth listing here.

Over 100 boards, the playing area is made up of these 8x22" boards can be as little as half a board or upto and beyond five of them

Eight paper historical map sheets that cover such places as Stalingrad to Normandy, I have a lot more but only taking what I need.

Thirteen boxes of counters, or shall we say THOUSANDS of counters, all punched and none clipped.

About Fifty scenarios selected from over three thousand which made picking the scenarios fun in itself

Sixteen precision dice, these are Backgammon Professional dice costing about £5+ each but are almost perfectly square and balanced, ASL'ers are precious about such things.

Three sheets of plexi glass to put over the boards so the maps are fully flat (each sheet for different numbers of boards)

Devils Sperm to hold boards, plexi and overlays in place. Actually it's Museum Gel, specially made for holding exhibits in place and not leaving marks but my name is cooler

Custom made dice tower to add to the random effect of expensive dice

Every official overlay to change the board layouts (that's a lot)

Four Binders of Rules and lots of charts, boy does the game need rules!

Cotton thread for LOS checks (two spools as you never know)

Tweezers for getting counters out (Guns and Vehicles) again two pair

Pack of cards for off board artillery chits, yep that would be two packs (miniature)

Sniper Reminders as they are fun (and I hope to sell some as well as supply some for the winners)

Then I have to drive over to pick up James and he has to add the same again (well most items)

So are we crazy or what?

Baccus 6mm Generals The New Castings

I have had these for some time now, so I must apologise to Peter for taking so long to get them painted. As anyone who follows this blog will know I have been painting up a lot of 28mm WWII of late, a trend that will run on for a little while though I plan lots of other diversions along the way.

Also worth pointing out the Elite Light Cavalry and Lancers have just been released, I will of course be buying these in the next few weeks or month as I am waiting till the new Infantry in 1812 uniform and infantry in greatcoats become available.

Back to the subject in hand, these are the new Baccus Generals and Marshals from their new pack NFR11 which costs £3 for a pack of 15 figures. These are certainly a major upgrade on the original figures. Whilst this pack does NOT include Napoleon himself (the original had 3 or 4 I think) it does have a much wider range of figures with little repeats. The originals frustrated me with the lack of choice so now I am much happier with the choice.

All the figures are mounted and most stationary, though I have made one horse stand on just it's back legs. I would have liked more in motion but I do accept that generals over all just stand about watching ;-)

The figures are quite detailed with a number clearly holding telescopes though the two I like the most is the one wearing a cloak nice and wrapped up and the one holding his hat at his side. 

Typical of a Baccus figure they are sturdy and will take a hard pounding, paint up quickly and have all the detail you need. However they don't have all the detail I want. Adler take full advantage of that extra 1mm (or 2!) and their command make use of this huge advantage. True they are far more delicate and take much more time to clean up and paint so at the end of the day it's very much a personal choice which to go for.

Taking all this into account I still give these figures a huge thumbs up and if you already have a complete Baccus French army it may well still be worth buying the new command to replace your old and what ever French Army you own it's worth adding these new commanders to it.