6mm Prussian Landwehr by Adler

 With most of my painting time now used for none wargaming projects it was nice to take a step back into an old project and paint up some more Prussians for my 100 Days Prussian Army. I say 100 Days as these did not even show up at Waterloo as I have all those already painted.

As per most of my Landwehr we have Baccus skirmishers and Adler for the main body. A few of the bases also have mounted generals to add interest.

Three battalions leading the way, 4th Westphalia 1st Corp Second Brigade, only nine battalions of the Corp made a showing at Waterloo, though some cavalry and guns did. Of the infantry I only have nine reserve and three Landwehr battalions to complete the infantry as well as a regiment of cavalry and two guns then one Corp is fully finished. 

The 4th Corp just needs four cavalry regiments painting to be finished but that's because most of that Corp was at Waterloo. I have the figures to do most of the remaining units to have the lot painted up. The fact I will never need all these units for any battle remains a mute point now. Given the amount of money needed to get all the units I don't have I simply don't see the point of not doing them all.

The 3rd Elbe Landwehr regiment from the second Corp, 8th Brigade. This needs six battalions of Reserve Infantry three regiments of cavalry and four guns (2 batteries) to complete. Third Corp is the one needing the most work with 21 battalions of Reserve or Landwehr infantry six regiments of cavalry and six guns including a horse battery. These will probably be the ones finished last, well unless Lee suddenly wants to fight a battle that these were in!!!

I know it's kind of pointless painting up all these battalions when in many of the cases I can just sub a different battalion without much chance of being pulled up for using the wrong battalion based on collar or cuff being wrong but at least I can fantasise about using them all in a sweeping campaign.

I also painted up a couple more command bases. At some point I need to check how many I have so to make sure I can supply enough for any battle. Our rule system requires a fair few. Next up for this army is a couple of cavalry regiments but they are being bumped down the list as other projects need work doing on them.

Project FINISHED, well for now

I now have everything painted I needed for our display game we was going to be running at Joy of Six a couple of years ago. Given we had to cancel our game the final painting had been set aside but I finally just got on with it. I am not sure if Lee is in the same position, if he is then maybe we could be running it at next years Joy of Six if Pete has space.

I needed four more units of Greek type Peltasts and a fairly basic paint job as it's the mass effect I have been going for with these armies. These can also be used with my Persian army that is FAR from finished.

I also needed the correct elephant units so here is my Seleucid models. These are more imposing than the ones that would be in a normal Macedonian army, it's all in the towers you know.

 I also needed two more Scythed Chariots for this army. This gives me six so maybe one will get something done? All models are Baccus as all my Ancients are. Not much clean up required and easy to paint. Always a plus when you have had as many as I have had to paint.

I would like to say this is the whole army but I have another about twenty units on top of those set out there. If I was to use this as the basis of my Persian army then I probably need to spend another £500 plus in castings to do it justice. I don't have plans to do so at this point but if we do the display game we have planned and Lee gets to spend the day "chatting" about it I can't promise I would not be going home with a few army packs worth to get it started.

Three Baccus British Heavy Cavalry Regiments

I managed to paint these three in a day and base them the following day. Seem to have some of my old speed back. These are for my son's Peninsular army. Whilst they were there they actually did not really get involved in much fighting and when they did it was hard for them to actually get anyone to stand against them as the French cavalry by this point were in a poor state through lack of suitable remounts etc.

Front left we have 1st Life Guards and alongside the 3rd Dragoon Guards and at the back Royal Horse Guards, or The Blues as they were known.

Typical set up, nine figures in a unperfect line to suggest the start of a charge. 60x30mm bases with the sand and masonry paint mix dry brushed to give more colours and static grass and tufts applied. I really spoil that boy ;-)

Rear views, I really like Baccus as you can paint or ignore detail dependent on your style and it does not take that much effort to put together a fairly reasonable looking unit.

I still have plenty of figures left of Joseph's to add to his force. More infantry, light dragoons but need to get some horse artillery at some point.

These were prepped for the Analogue Painting Challenge I dropped out of not last year but the previous one so were well over due. I have manged to prep a bunch so I may have a reasonable run and quite a mix of projects.

Baccus French Napoleonic Infantry

It's been quite awhile since I last painted any French infantry so it was nice to sit down and do them. I thought I had quite a few standard battalions left to do but turned out I only had four left to do so added the last two in bicorn as well.

I bought one small blister pack of French Bicorn when Baccus released the new codes. One battalion was painted up straight away and I did a second one as Paris Guard in red uniform. These will most likely be the last bicorn wearing French infantry I will do as my army is all shako wearing.

I painted up three of the battalions as line as you can never have enough. Lee also has a large number but if we ever get round to doing one of the bigger battles battalion for battalion I am confident we will still need to paint up a bunch more.

The other battalion of course is light infantry, I don't even know how many of each I own anymore, never mind the cavalry so I will have to get them all out and have a count up.

Whilst I am now out of standard French infantry from Baccus I still have a fair few battalions in greatcoats and Grenadiers both with and without greatcoats. I also have extra skirmisher figures that will be added to smaller bases for games where skirmishers had a bigger role than we allow in our rules.

On top of the Baccus I still have most of a Adler army pack I bought via Dave D all those years ago. Still my unpainted figure count still is over 3,000 though breaching this number is within site. This of course does not include the figures Joseph has that I have yet to paint for him as well. I am purposely not adding them up!!

Talking of "The Boy" we have managed three games of Command & Colors Napoleonic during the lockdown and will be getting another one in soon. This will be the last one from the base module so looking forward to playing more from the other add on's.

Isolation Painting Challenge Gets Me To Finish

A great idea (not mine) was to form a Facebook group for painting whilst in isolation and I decided to join as it looks like my place of work will be closed down for a few months (or more). This I hoped would spur me on to get more painting done but in fact I seem to be riding a reasonable bubble of enthusiasm so double score.

However whilst I was still feeling the wish to finish off part painted projects Matt P was good enough to get me to pull out three phalanx's that needed just one little job doing.....

Yes, sticking little sticks in far smaller hands! It takes about 30-45 minutes to do 96 figures worth, that being one block. These are of course Baccus 6mm boys and are meant for a game Lee and myself were going to run at Joy of Six a couple of years ago but things got in the way and we could not finalise the game and the project ran out of steam. I plan to attempt to finish this off whilst I am off work along with plenty of other projects.

So This brings the total to 25 blocks, that's 2400 figures and that's a lot of bristles! I hope to get round to showing off the whole army as it stands as it should look quite impressive. The general perception is that 6mm works out costing less than other scales but this little lot at todays prices comes in at £180 for castings. That said I would not be so mad as to paint up that amount of units in 15mm!! This project is all about creating a mass effect so I really look forward to being able to pit this mass against Lee's thin Roman line.

Adler French ADC's

I actually finished these with the Prussians but I had started them about 3-4 years ago so way too long in the finishing.

The main reason for the slow pace has been the lack of real need for these guys. I simply have so many I have as many as I would require in any game we have played so far but if we ever get round to playing a really big battle I may still need more so I may need them one day.

All told this gives me another four command bases for Division or lower commands using our rules. Of course if I use another rule set I may need even more command bases or need messenger stands. 

As you would expect from Adler these have so much detail that you feel you need to keep going. Better detail than some 10mm castings. It really has taken too long to finish these and the fact I still have so many more unpainted makes me smile. Many of my extra command will find their way onto infantry bases whilst I will continue to add to me command bases as well.

I actually have a sizeable amount of Adler French castings I bought via Dave D at the first Blog Con and far more Baccus that still need to be painted. My plan is to paint up some of the French Baccus infantry and get them sold on as I can't see me needing THAT much more French infantry given the quantity Lee also owns not that it will stop me painting up some for myself at the same time.

Leven Miniatures Blood Bowl Stadium

 

Mick at Leven asked me to paint a rather large 6mm building for him, no rush he said, take your time.. he said...…

Well I did that right enough. No real excuses other than Mick made it real easy to allow it to slide. Eventually though I finally did get it done and Lee delivered it at Joy of Six (I had to work). It's not yet up on his website but I suspect it's available if you email him.

It's Leven's interpretation of a Fantasy American Football pitch first envisioned by Games Workshop as Blood Bowl. A game I really enjoyed when it came out way back when. I have even been tempted by an old copy I saw at a show, fortunately I managed to resist as I have far to many distractions as it is.

I did not quite get all the pieces to fit right when I built it up because I made the mistake of trying to do the basing at the same time. A real shame as when I dry placed them they fit perfectly together with no gaps at all.

I knew how I wanted it to look right from the off. The main focus was always the roof as I wanted to try and match the roof I painted on a wizards tower for Mick a few years back. Since taking the photo's Mick wanted flags adding to the tower tops, these I did as bright red pennants on pallet paper and attached to brass pins. Unfortunately I did not get round to taking any pictures but I felt they were a nice touch.

6mm Napoleonic Prussian Artillery

To follow on from the last post on French SYW Artillery I felt I had to go with my latest addition to my Prussian Napoleonic Artillery.

I don't need a massive amount more artillery for my Prussians in total so these are a bit of a tidy up. All four guns and crews are Baccus, the limbers are from Commission Figurines and the horses and riders are Adler. Yes the bits box was raided!

The Adler bits were actually bought ready painted  but were missing some of the limbers (some were used as wrecked ones on bases due to damage) so I broke into a pack of Commission Figurines as I can still use the horses etc without the limbers.

As you would expect these did not take much time to paint up and are now tucked away in a box awaiting future play. Problem is that I have enough for Waterloo which is about as big as my Prussians are likely to get for a long time yet. However my Prussians are not really about painting for a game so much as I have them and want to carry on till I have enough for the whole of 100 days campaign and possibly then look at earlier campaigns, who knows. Whilst it's fun I will continue to paint the odd unit or battery up.

At the moment I have the last of the infantry and cavalry for our game for Joy of Six in a couple of months. The plan is to have them all finished before the end of this month and then sit back and enjoy painting just what I want, expect a right mix of toys.

Three Prussian Landwehr Battalions

I continue to expand the Prussians for the 100 Days Campaign with the three battalions of the 3rd Westphalie from the I Corp, 3rd Brigade. You Napoleonic experts will note that these did not get to fight at the Battle of Waterloo itself but did take part in the campaign. 

These for the most part are Adler figures but as Adler do not do a skirmish figure for the Landwehr I have used Baccus for these. I have painted up the three battalions in column as Adler just don't base well and the spacing is all wrong to have them in a two deep line though I sometimes do the Prussians in a three deep line.

As often mentioned here Adler do excellent little figures, the animation and detail make them a joy to paint but a devil to clean up. When I am finished my Prussian army will be about 80% Adler, whilst my French are about 90% Baccus. Maybe one day I will get all of both armies out and take a group shot.

I think of the Adler infantry for the Prussians the Landwehr are the nicer figures. With the mix of blanket roll and bread bag these are more interesting. Of course painting a few thousand of the buggers does take the shine off them.

I don't see me finishing them all off in the next twelve months, nor even probably in the next twenty four but you never know. I don't have much left to do with regards the Cavalry or Artillery it's mostly infantry and possibly a few command stands but with other projects also demanding time I will have to make a conscious effort to keep these ticking over.

Baccus Slingers

For Project Magnesia I need a few units of slingers so added these to my Christmas wish list. Santa was kind and along they came with the three pike blocks, three elephants and a couple of scythed chariots. The phalanxes are painted and based just needing the pikes adding (like that's a five minute job!). The rest are still in their packets, maybe next week.

Very basic paint job so really quick to paint. Rather than the usual nut brown ink I washed in Nuln Oil which gave a more Mediterranean flesh tone and stopped the white tunic's going reddish brown. You get two poses so a little bit of arm bending helped flesh these out a bit. In To The Strongest these are the weakest units out there and have a very limited use and survival prospect, I wonder how they will do against Romans?

For the game I think I need two units so have plenty here. I also kept a few back to add to the elephant bases as escorts to make them more interesting.

This leaves me the last few peltasts to paint up along with the elephants and chariots. I have also made a start on the Gallic cavalry unit that will complete all the cavalry for the game. I still have to check if I have enough phalanx units, it's possible I need two more units which will be a pain as I feel I have done enough already. Still with only a couple of months to get everything sorted I need to really get my head down and get done.

Not Dead Yet, Christmas Based

Hello and welcome back to the Blog with No Game. It's been awhile and as I stated before I went off the air I was in need of down time. Unfortunately it's far harder to just get on with a fresh post rather than just keep on not doing. I have instead through a lot of energy into my ASL blog that had previously suffered this blogs fate. Now at last I feel the urge and ability to post on. So where better to start than a couple of very nice Christmas gifts.

I received enough figures for me to base up four units of peltasts, these will be used for the game Lee and I will be doing either at this years Joy of Six or next year dependant on painting and opportunities to play. As you can see these are a colourful bunch and I will be using them as guides and inspiration for the other peltasts units I need to paint up.

As you can see lots of detail went into painting these guys and they will fit in very nicely with the rest of my army. These are Baccus figures and will be part of my Seleucid army that is pitted against Lee's Romans.

I also got enough figures for four units of Gaul's, these are the same models as I bought, though my version I clothed so now I have both options. I really like the shields too.

These boys are a bit fresh as you can see from behind, or should I say from their behinds. So too very nice gifts that have now been based for a couple of months awaiting photo's. Mostly I can blame the weather but more than once I had the opportunity to take the pics but cried off.

The good news is that I have also taken pics of the other finishes. Most of these have been finished a month or two though until last week I had not painted anything since end of February but just finished off three battalions of Old Guard for my French Naps. Next on the desk is two regiments of SYW French cavalry for The Boy, these are Lancashire 15mm and come in at sixteen figures a regiment so I may be at them some time.

Baccus 6mm Cataphracts

With Joy of Six tomorrow I thought I had better show some recently purchased and painted 6mm figures. These are from Baccus and will be used in our display game next year. You see some nice symmetry goes into these posts LOL.

These were a quick paint as I am putting in less detail in the figures than I would do if they were my Napoleonic's as with these armies we are going for the mass effect rather than neat crossbelts etc.

Given this objective we need some splash of colour which is provided by the standards and cloaks. In the game I think I will be using five units so I actually have two more than I will need for that game but it's possible that we will do the game again at a later date but double up the units, a lot depends on other possible projects or if we need more for other games.

These amount to three cavalry boosters, or fifteen regiments of Napoleonic cavalry, yep that's a lot of horses. Other than some Gallic cavalry I think I have all the cavalry I need for the game, most of the rest of the painting will be another eight or nine pike phalanxes and a fair few peltast units.

Lee will also have Cataphract's in his army but not as many. I also have plenty of heavy cavalry as well so as you would expect the Romans will be making more use of their infantry. It should look rather OTT with massed pike, loads of bow and wings full of cavalry and yet more infantry whilst a force of about a third of mine faces off. Some special rules are already in progress for the game but we have yet to start playtesting so fingers crossed.

I had enough figures left over to make four command bases a couple of which will get used in the game but the others will hopefully get used in other games. At least now I have quite a few options for command.

As mentioned we have Joy of Six tomorrow and whilst I do not have a shopping list I have been looking on the Leven website and I have an eye for a few more buildings and yes I do plan to get going on painting some of the ones I already have stashed away. Indeed I am rather looking forward to getting on with it.

I may or may not buy more Baccus tomorrow. I should get the last of the pike but will probably swerve those and get the other packs I will need so possibly generate a big push to get everything finished before this year ends.

Mostly though I want to take the time to look at all the games and actually see Joy of Six at my leisure rather than the dash round I normally get when putting on a game. So if your there I look forward to bumping into you and just chillin'

Persian Satrap Cavalry Part 2

The second post on my Persians is a little different. These are of course my 6mm Baccus Persians and these give me a total of eight units of Persian cavalry so enough to start thinking about playing games.

I went with mixed colours for these two units rather than mostly singular in colour. The usual 18 figures to a base to give them some mass effect.

Like their bigger brothers these were actually started during the challenge and were left with only the horses finished so it felt a bit of a drag finishing them but I was glad to finally get them finished up.

Die holders built in as I remembered to do it! These will be the last units painted for this army for awhile as I need to concentrate on my Seleucids. However some of the units will actually be used in the Persians as well so it's not all Seleucid. Nor will it all be Ancients as I still plan to blend in a few Napoleonic units from time to time.

I also finished off three command bases for the Persians. I will need more but I will also be using Greek sub-commanders as well.

This leaves me with eight 6mm figures needing finishing at some point started during the challenge. This will happen in the next month or so I guess if only to get them off the table. In the meantime I have started painting up some 15mm figures I had prepped for the painting challenge but did not get further with. A side effect of extra prep is that I have a number of units ready to paint though I will be working on others that still need prepping. Hopefully I will get more into painting again. This mornings painting certainly was enjoyable.

With that I should be back to normal on blogging, I have a few computer games to talk about so it won't just be figures etc.

Persian Chariots

I have done very little painting since the challenge finished and what I have done is not fully finished. You can blame a couple of new computer games and the kids being off school for the most part. Burnout from the challenge is far less a factor. As I am working the whole of the bank holiday don't expect things to improve by much.

I still have a couple of posts worth of challenge entries to write up so lets start with Darius King of Kings. Actually he will be used as other Persian commanders as Darius was brown bread by the time the Persians took on Alexander.

The model and the casualty are all from Baccus and comes as a three piece kit for the chariot as does the scythed chariots that follow. All were a bit of a pain to glue together.

Being the army C-in-C he gets a larger round base. This is normally done to show it is the overall commander but in this case it should be obvious. I have more Persian command on the table at the moment, just one of the bits started before the challenge finished.

Bought for my Persians these scythed chariots will also see game time with my Seleucids in the display game we will be doing next year. I have copied the crashing chariot I did in 15mm so very long ago.

These gave me the opportunity to use bright colours so I jumped at the chance. Not that my Persians are exactly dull.

I could not resist smashing one of them up. If the figure was removable I would have done something different with him.

My original plan was to have three chariots as a single unit but the width of the chariots made it impossible. I then swung over to each model is a unit but I am rethinking it to two models equal a unit. If I settle on this I will need a further three models. I doubt I will make a final decision until we have playtested a few games. The final choice will probably be down to how they play out and look in those games.