Leven Miniatures 6mm Smock Windmill

I've had this model for a couple of months even though it is only just released. Mike over at Leven Miniatures is a real gent and I get the chance to buy some of the soon to be released items from his per-sale stock. This is stock that is testing the moulds not that the buildings are in any way less perfect than the standard sale items. Indeed I imagine once Mike is happy with the products these models enter stock. I think it is a case of testing the moulds for ease of production (release of models and any extra wear on the mould. I.E no production snags. Anyway I get the buildings a bit early and Mike gets to use the images I send him on his site so both of us are happy.

I instantly liked this windmill, I've been after one for awhile. Peter from Baccus used to do one that was just perfect but he sold off the range a few years back but the buyer has never released any of the range so it looks lost to history. This one though is not a bad replacement at all, it fits for the ECW, though that Baccus one was perfect, and also it a great fit for our Napoleonic games outside of Spain. Indeed I can see one of these babies making it onto the Waterloo boards.

The windmill comes as a four piece kit, the base, then the wooden body with the rails, then the cap (my brown bit) and last the sales (these have a couple of copper wires running through them which is an excellent touch to add strength at an otherwise weak point.

This windmill is another great price at just £2.50 a model and is well worth the cost. The casting was very clean and required no clean up. One section of the sale had a little extra resin which I left in place as I was trying to get it all painted up quickly but beyond that it was perfect.

I love the texture that Mike adds to his buildings and this one is no exception. If you look at the image above you can see the cap (what is this bits name anyway?) has had a light drybrush for a nice textured finish and the hand rail and walkway both have enough raised surface to help bring the worked effect to the wood. Whilst this is great for when you want this finish it can be a nightmare when you don't. This makes the wood panelling of the windmill so much the nicer as this is nice and smooth and fits the bill for a well finished windmill. A bumpy surface would have spoilt the end result.  

The windmill stands 50mm to the top of the cap excluding the height of the sails so is reasonably commanding in height. I have mounted mine on a 60x60 base with a 30x60 and 30x30 base on top of this and finally another 30x30 base on top of these to give it a hill kind of effect. All told I think I spent a little over two hours in total on the whole project but if I had spent more time I would have carved out the bases a little to break the corners more. Not that it is fully finished as I plan to add a horse and cart and a few civilians to the base just for more interest.

I used my new basing system on this base and added a nice hedged road to just finish it off. I have to admit that I am not a little happy with how it turned out. I base painted the wooden boards with off white then painted  fairly this normal white over it, the effect was to highlight the wooden boards and it has a slightly irregular finish to the boards that suits the mill without it looking scruffy. The bottom section I went with several coats of white so it's uniformly white, I figure it's easier for the chap to paint than all the way up to the top.

I have also recently finished another Regiment of Prussians so will run a post on how they were based up to answer a recent question regarding how I base up the new guys.

Baccus Open Day and Joy of Six

Last year, Lee and myself went over to Baccus HQ for a tour of the workshop where Baccus figures are made. This was hugely interesting and you can check out our day here. 

This year Peter is again putting on the same event and if you have the chance to go I would fully recommend that you go. Due to space constraints places are limited so it's best to contact Peter as soon as you know you can get over.

It's two or so hours well spent and really gives you a good understanding of how Baccus and other companies make the figures and what it takes to go from a lump of green stuff to production runs. My wife took the place of one of the guys who could not make it and had a great time and tended to ask better questions than the rest of us just as Peter had prophesied before the event (curse her).

By this point you should have an idea if such an event is of interest to you but I have to say that even though I knew I wanted to go and thought I knew what was coming it was a real surprise at how much I enjoyed the day. Indeed not only was the journey home filled with a three way conversation about various aspects that caught each of our interest but the train journey to the Sheffield Irregulars and Baccus show the following day remained a continuation of the debrief. In fact the two days ended up being the highlight of all the con's I went to that year.

By the way, I am not suggesting to go to this if you are not interested in the hope it will interest you, what I am saying is that if you think you want to go you will find it ended up being so much better than you expected. So much so that some people go back for second helpings in following years. I also talked with Matt (who had been in a previous year) and he also had tales to tell. It's great that Peter opens up the doors, even better that you get a cuppa (and a bicky or two if you look like you will part with cash) but of course Peter knows what he is doing. Not only do you get a feel for the history of Baccus but through the time spent at Baccus HQ you get to feel the product. Most of us seemed to leave with either those extra items required for the ongoing project or like Lee and myself (the following day) a whole new project as this was where Lee finally caved into my desire to do ECW in 6mm not his favoured 10mm, not that he has yet painted a single figure for this (hint hint).

So if all the places have not gone get yourself into the fun, oh and the evening brings more fun with a curry for those who can make it. I think next year we may go back if only for the curry night.

The Smell of Powder explained.

I have been asked to give a bit more detail on the rules we are working on so I thought why not?

The basic idea is pinched from two rule sets for two different periods. The basic frame is set round Polemos with a bit of Impetus thrown in. I liked the bidding system of Polemos and I have used some of the basics from Polemos but not so much that Peter from Baccus has reason to get annoyed with us. Impetus lends the actual movement system to the rules as in the throw a die to get initiative. In the end we did not go for pips or bidding for units to move, whilst I liked it I felt in larger games we would do better to simplify back towards Impetus command. 

After a few games the whole Polemos and Impetus feel were left behind and now a lot less is left that can truly be directed to either system though some of the rules show their birthright.

The Aim.

A set of rules that had the feel of a Napoleonic battle but also was a lot of fun. My biggest problem was how the Polemos rules just did not give me that feel of a Napoleonic game. The big problem was down to bases. To play the basic rule set Napoleonic General de Division you only used 60x30 bases. Column's just are impossible and straight away I knew I would have a hard time accepting this. Worse you can't form square, instead it's deemed that the Battalion commander formed the square if they beat off the enemies cavalry. i.e. the system is far more generic than I like. I soldiered on and played a few games but had an issue when Lee stated he was no way playing THOSE rules. Seems he was ahead of me, then Matt also stated he would not be looking to play them again though the good news was he had another set of rules he liked. The bad news is that he has stuck with the 30x60 bases. Clearly something had to be done and the lack of funds meant buying yet another set of rules was unlikely to be the direction I was going to go in. Napoleonic Marechal d'Empire the other half of the Polemos rules at least used 60x60 bases so it could be a possibility but again neither Mat or Lee looked promising opponents and Barry was OK what ever we went for. 

So in the end I thought, try taking what I really like from other rules and work from there. Quickly though the basic rules started to depart from what I thought would be what I wanted. I liked the idea that formation did not matter, after all who wants three different bases for each unit and given the scale we were looking at but I did not like losing control of forming a square but the answer to that was a few games away.

Scale.

I wanted the games to play big, at least twenty unit's per side but as many more as possible. I have always wanted to paint up the French and allies for Borodino, so ideally it would work with such a force in mind (yep insanity runs in the family). Time and ground scale I was happy to fudge. Originally I went with the Polemos movement and firing ranges but most of these have been replaced to try and make the game flow better. Not so that it will distort our idea of reality just to make a result that much quicker.

Stats.

I have always liked the idea of morale leading the way in games, something that seems to have become more popular in recent years (I stepped away from the hobby for 15-20 years) so of the three stats any unit has (artillery have just two) Morale is the king pin. The stats are Firepower, Cohesion and Morale with Cohesion also counting as morale to a point.

Firepower

This is also your melee ability and is effected by various factors such as Veteran troops, reduced or full cohesion, cover etc. The higher the number the greater the ability to inflict damage. Fire tables are designed so as to give such as the British line Battalion an advantage over a French Line Infantry Battalion but if it comes to cold steel then the tables are switched. 

The melee table is far more bloody than the firing table, this is not to say that more casualties are caused in melee, more than a result is often gained with a bayonet charge even with a lower number of actual casualties. What is assured is that one or the other opposing formations will buckle and have their morale badly effected. 

Cohesion.

The number that is most likely to change, mostly downwards but it can be recovered with leader intervention.   Originally it was set around 4-5 now it's 2-3 though it is possible to be higher. If your cohesion drops to zero you start to retreat and without intervention will retire from the battle. Leaders rallying back cohesion can stop the rot but multiple rolls may be needed to get them to a point of being safe to go back into the line. Drop to -1 or more and the unit breaks and routs from the field. 

Morale.

When ever your called upon to test for cohesion loss (or on occasion morale loss) it's your morale you need to roll equal or under. Same with regaining cohesion or forming square. Right in the middle of this is your ability to roll that morale level or below.

So the three numbers that represent these traits are what makes up the heart of the game and what makes it so different to the earlier mentioned rules. Indeed as far as I know no other game uses these figures as have been made for this set of rules.

Fire V Melee.

Firing tends to whittle your enemy down slowly (but can be quick with good rolls by the firer followed by bad rolls by the attacked) whilst melee tends to quickly reduce the staying power of one or both sides and as such is more of a gamble, though the side with the advantage in minus mods or with support tends to come off the winner most of the time.

Attacking into built-up areas is a chore, battles for large areas tend to swing one way then the other and absorbs fresh units and spits out worn down Battalions one after another, still it's great fun.

Army and Formation Control.

The player who commits units into one attack after another or the player who insists that the position has to be held to the last man soon finds they are seeing formation after formation quit the field even though the enemy has had more units routed. The difference is that the clever player does not have the same Divisions or Corps carry the brunt through the game. The player that will have reserves in the right place and also send them into the battle whilst recovering the cohesion of battered formations is the player that will win most games. Of course you can't always pull formations out but just removing the odd Battalion so it does not get routed even if it does not get to recover can be the difference between keeping a formation in the battle or losing it for the rest of the game even though nearly 50% of the formation is in tip top condition.

I can't stress enough, use reserves and rest worn troops when you get the chance. First a Regiment or Division starts to retreat, then the whole Corp then the army. Sometimes you just have to halt that attack even though you have punched holes in the enemy line, so much relies on having the fittest troops at that critical moment. Often both sides have fought each other to the brink in an area, but the guy who has a fresh formation already on the way to join that scrap often wins the ground. A good opponent will recognise the danger and give up the ground if it gets the weakened force away from danger and behind fresh troops.

Initiative and turn sequence.

Often this seems to be a less than important at the start of the game but soon enough you have the difficult choice of trying to activate the formation that has a killer punch or that formation that needs to fall back or form squares against the attacking cavalry.

Both sides choose who to activate and roll a D6, the player who rolls higher gets to move their chosen formation. +1 if it's cavalry and +1 per turn the unit was selected for initiative but has failed to activate (max +2).

So it's possible one side will continue to fail to get the jump on their opponent even with the modifiers. Sometimes you may have a great +2 mod but need to swap your chosen formation due to events on the table. This rule quickly became a favourite of the players, mostly because f the indecision it tends to cause!

Certain Generals or situations can also add extra bonus points for certain commanders whilst the standard rule will always leave one player unable to move the last formation that could be activated whilst sometimes it could be far more dependant on historical events or command structure of certain formations.

Army Lists.

Through the three stats each unit has, national differences can be highlighted, such as

British advantages in a firefight

French ability to punch home a column attack

Russian's ability to absorb cohesion loss but ease of losing said cohesion

Whilst special army rules can model the armies into realistic modes

British Cavalry once charged must continue to charge available targets until they loose a combat

Austrian initiative suffers a -1 and two formations will not activate if opponent has activated all it's formations.

Of course the above are just possible flavour adding ideas and sometimes just do not fit the battle whilst plenty more can be added just to suit the battle being played.

Rather than go for straight point system battles we like to sometimes have a side outnumbered but the other side needing to achieve an objective that requires the extra troops. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the battles designer.

As such the army lists will just have a list of troop types and values for up to strength units and suggestions on how to deal with reduced strength units.

Conclusion.

The rules are written with the idea that the players have at least a basic understanding of how a Napoleonic battle played out and can put together both sides in the battle. What's more the rules are directed at those who play for fun and not some form of win at all cost mentality. I am sure the rules have loopholes in them and we are trying to close them but not to the point of writing out a thick tomb that tries to cover all possible ways of sleazing a win. If you find yourself on the other side of the table to one of these then my advice is find someone else to play, it's not just the rules at fault.

A few things make these rules different, the combat tables are more boardgame than figure game and are better for it in my mind. The system has the best of Igo Ugo and simultaneous movement meaning that it's rare one player is doing all the movement whilst the other player sits and waits. 

Does it play like a Napoleonic game? We think so and have introduced it to a very experienced 28mm Napoleonic player and he seems happy with the rules so far but needs more play before he wishes to commit to stating he likes them.

On the other hand, Lee and myself have played quite a few games now and feel we have something that works for 6mm, and works better than any other 6mm Napoleonic rule set to date.

Sure I have missed points to do with the rules and these will be picked up either via comments or in future AAR's. I am really looking forward to turning these loose on the gaming public in the future.

Condensed Battle of Albuera 16th May 1811

Or another run out for our Napoleonic Rules. Yes I said our, no longer do I think my rules given the input from Lee. It would be wrong to think otherwise. Lee has done a great deal to shape and reshape parts of the rules and whilst Barry was in at the start was quite agreeable to how the rules went so few changes happened. Only the Artillery were shaped by Barry's influence and until recently they have remained constant with little change. Only now are they starting to be fiddled with but even so the core of the artillery rules remain constant.

Before we get into the game it's a good point to talk rules. I have already mentioned I am planning making these rules free to those who want them and one of our bunch has a program to turn the word doc into a snazy PDF. I will be taking him up on his great offer to do this so you can expect photos of our figures to be splashed about in the rule set. What else we need to do is re-write the rules so that they are understandable to those who have yet to play them as well as finish the army lists etc.

I am leaning towards just using the one set of army lists for the quick play version but adding a not in the appendix for how to play a greater detail game, indeed I think the rules could stand up to being played to 15mm and would still work.

No major changes were made to this version of the rules before play but a number of minor changes happened due to the game. We also set up a few trial changes that should have a greater impact on the rules for the next game. These will further speed up the game but the jury is still out on if they will be kept, watered down or removed.

I just took a segment of the battle rather than the whole thing, mostly as we just don't have all the troops to fight it yet. We need to get the Spanish and the Portuguese. Iberia is such a rich area for the Napoleonic Wargamer I would imagine it's one of the most popular settings. 

Anyway the action that we depict is the battle around the town itself and some of the flanking hills. Lee is not aware what battle we are playing so the trick I am planning will be a surprise.

My French set up hard right facing the town in depth. Obviously my plan is to smash through the British holding the small town, this is always a tough job but given the numbers it's possible.

All my cavalry cover my infantries left flank. I have more cavalry than the British but he has the best quality so a battle between the cavalry could go either way.

Lee takes the bate, the infantry behind the buildings are actually in the town defending the front edge. The troops in the town and those in reserve behind it are frozen in place and unable to move until late in the game.  All other troops have freedom of movement. This is to represent the British Divisional commanders refusal to move from the town or move his reserves as he thought his location was the focal point of the attack when in fact it was a diversion.

The far right of the British position, note the woods are fairly open and olive trees so even mounted horse can move through them but you can only see two base widths (musket range) into them.

The truth is somewhat different. I move the whole rear ranks to the middle and left of the boards. My real aim is to take the hills making the village a death trap as the British will not be able to retreat from it. Lee is fortunate that his cavalry are formed up so as to be able to take advantage of their strength but his light infantry formations are weak and vulnerable out in the front.

First blood goes to Lee as he forces the 21st Chasseurs to drop a level of Cohesion. Under the new army lists this is a big deal as another level drop will cause them to withdraw. With the advantage of numbers I can just sit this one back and remove the cohesion loss with a commander (if I roll equal or below the morale, in this case 8)

We have doubled the number of guns for a battery over the last couple of games and now they tend to do a fair bit more damage. Now you have to respect them and added to the reduced cohesion you really don't want to sit in front of them for a whole game, well chances are that you won't sit in front of them all game, well not with the same troops anyway! Lee was making good use of his guns as one after anoother of my units lost cohesion to them.

The British Light Infantry make a stand refusing to form square before I charge in. Some excellent firing saw one Dragoon regiment get mauled on the way in, even losing a morale level. Did the infantry not realise they were supposed to die? The second Dragoon regiment started with just a couple of squadrons so had a lot less hitting power but got into the Brits without loss but would have to also fight the supporting Light Battalion.

The British cavalry responded against my Infantry on my far left. I tried to form square, one Battalion refused whilst the second formed such a ragged square they would have been better staying as they were. The same result for both as they were routed from the field! I at least had caused the British lights to also retire from the battle as two of the units were put to rout

My second line was about to get charged by the British cavalry who were not being slowed down from the previous charges as they still had to take any cohesion loss. I formed another square and again rolled just enough to get them to form, which means another disordered square, that's not good. My guns had a great position to hurt the British cavalry but they failed to case a single cohesion loss, I guess seeing them ride through two Battalions of infantry was putting the wind up them.

At this stage my phone stopped taking pictures but did not bother to tell me! The guns were charged and the canister failed to stop the cavalry in it's tracks losing me the guns, however they did manage to drop the cavalry charging them a cohesion level.

As you can see from the photo above the British had carved a path right into the centre of my left flank but this was also their undoing as I now have them bottled up. Lee started the game with three regiments of cavalry and soon had his light dragoons routed. Once I had one of the two heavies in retreat the cavalry was a spent force and soon sent running. Of course if he could just rally the retreating unit back he would be back in the game though very vulnerable. I did not give him the chance, routing a second regiment to make sure they could not come back.

Next up for my cavalry was a nice little rest as I recovered cohesion and made them effective again. A core part of the rules is the ability to regain cohesion and commanders who can or do take units or formations out of the front line to rally them back tend to do better in the game than someone who want's just one more charge. 

My infantry on my left flank was still a fighting force but all the Divisions had taken enough lost battalions that attacking was becoming a bit dangerous. My only realistic strategy was to attack the remaining British Infantry in the centre with a combined attack. Use the cavalry to force the British into squares and then attack with the infantry. 

At about this point the rain started, it was so heavy that only guns could fire and then only at a range of 4 base widths (I think). Lee spotted his chance and attacked out of the town (finally being allowed to move them). Strangely I felt at this point he would have been better staying put. Just before he made contact the rain stopped and I was allowed to fire into his advancing troops. I managed to force a few cohesion loss and in the following few turns diced him good and proper. In fairness I had the inside track at this point in the combats and so Lee really needed the luck not me.

So quickly Lee was in a position that he needed to retreat back to the Town and use the fresh troops he had to hold it whilst his spent battalions recovered. I was making no progress on my left at this point as I was slow to recover my cavalry and was still bringing the infantry back into usable formations.

So we called it a draw and it more or less finished as the actual battle did. If we had played on I am fairly certain I would have won the battle in the centre, which in turn would have allowed me to trap the last of the British in Albuera. This though was all subject to dice and time, neither could be counted on so a draw sounds fair enough to me.

The rules stood up well. I was tearing my hair out about the squares as I just could not get them to form. The only bright spot was this was down to horrendous dice throwing on my part. Squares can indeed be very dodgy to form but that tends to be when the enemy cavalry are up close and supported by infantry and or guns. Forming square whilst being charged is asking for trouble!

Post game we discussed what we wanted to change to make them better, below is the changes.

Added a long range to the guns. This is the same as skirmish fire, just on the 2FP table and low odds but whilst all guns have the same distance for effective range (eight base widths) the long range is gun dependant.

Move distances and charges have been increased. Not everything but most. This will get troops into action quicker and at the same time allow some sweeping moves. I am not sure I like the extra distance as is but we need a few battles before we make further changes (maybe need a little shaving off?)

Artillery firepower has been reduced. The reduced cohesion and increase in guns in a battery seem to be a stage to far. Guns will be just a little less dangerous but you still will not want to spend too long under fire from them.

Cohesion Levels. The idea of lowered cohesion worked, the game was far tighter than previous games and it looks like the rules will work with a larger number of units, as in much larger. The real test will be when we try a game with thirty to forty infantry units per side with guns and cavalry to match. That will be a game to test not just the rules but a whole lot more.

Lee has been talking about putting on a display game next year just to try all this out with the added pressure of punters asking questions and hopefully taking copies of the rules away! The bonus in this is that we do not have to move away from what we are doing for the following year as it's linked to the battle and the truth is that if we don't have the troops for the proposed game we won't be doing Waterloo the following year as we will be well behind by then. So news on that to follow.

NEW Baccus 6mm French Line Painted

Finally got these finally based and photographed. I painted up the twenty four line figures at Triples on the Sunday. Actually that's a little over simplified. I actually painted them most of the way to completion whist on Dr Mikes painting tables.

Twenty Four French Line Infantry and four Skirmish figures.

I still had the shako cords, facings and pompoms to paint. The Voltigeurs were painted at home from scratch. The line I painted at Triples were donated by Peter for the use on Mikes stand and differ from a bought pack as they don't have any Elite amongst them. Pity that, as it means I will have to paint up some more.

Close up action.

The whole painting and basing of the one battalion took about two and a half maybe three hours and was painted to the much quicker method that Dr. Mike recommends. Don't compare the painting to the Adler as it's not fair as such as the skin just gets one flesh tone without the red leather first coat and so only the nut brown ink is used on the flesh. Still the skirmisher figures are so very much better than the originals.

The view I want to see of my French!

The detail is certainly more crisp than their predecessors and they paint up some what faster and cleaner. As you can see from the picture above the bayonet and musket are much more defined. Also the shako cords are much easier to paint, so now I am painting them. Mike started these with a grey undercoat (Halfords) and then added a black wash. Nett result was very little black work on the figures, these means such as the shako have a better look about them (I touched them up a little with Black Grey (Vallejo 862).

Grenadiers = right hand man.

If you look carefully you can see the chin strap on the rear figure above. Equally you can leave it alone, yep that's what I choose to do. I also never do the coat tails but the detail is there if your that insane.

View from above, still using old style basing on the French.

So what are my thoughts after painting them up? Well it's no surprise that it's a vast improvement. Not that the old ones were bad, they were not good but not actually bad. These though are something else. I can see the lions share of my French will be new Baccus, that is slightly worrying given the number of infantry I already have. 

I still have five battalions of old Baccus waiting to be painted up as allies, these will probably remain as allies, but I can't give any indication on when they will be painted up. At the moment I just have eyes for the new boys in town and of course those Prussians given the amount I still need to paint.

The new French will stand out against the old, mostly because of the shako cords and skirmishers but given the ease of painting their numbers will grow with ease.  The pose remains the same though, which is a blessing for the all uniform camp but there are reasons Peter prefers the musket held at the side pose and it's all to do with durability. I did find the old Baccus bayonet vulnerable to breaking off, these are more sturdy but looks a little bulky to my eye. But the chances are that it will remain in place through many a campaign.

I don't score out of ten but to give you an idea based on my recent Baccus compared to Adler posts, these figures go a long way towards willing in much of the tick boxes Adler achieves without compromising the Baccus advantages. Are the as nice as Adler? No, but they have enough character that you don't mind being seen with them. So no ugly sister to your mates date issue here. 

Baccus are at Partizan this weekend so if it's a good opportunity to grab yourself some Baccus if you have the chance to hit the show.

Next up is the early French in Bicorne, I should do two battalion's, one as they are intended and the second as Guarde de Paris. You will have to see how it plays out.

News tomorrow will be of the coming shows and soon after that an update on Project Waterloo,

Pimping and Prizes

Yesterday I got home from work to find a nice little package awaiting me from Seb. of Back to the Mini's fame. You may remember that I won this

Well I was home just long enough to eat before rushing out to Lee's for a test game of our rules but did of course open up the package and have a quick look at the book. It will certainly be the next book I read and looks just the primer I need before moving on to painting those Romans (when I get a spare moment that is). So a very big thanks to Seb, your a gent Sir.

Another giveaway has come about. James at Exiles Wargames Painter is about to celebrate three years of blogging so in the grand style that seems to be in (wonder where it all started LOL) he is offering a brilliant table of prizes to pick from. I have my eye on the British 6mm Naps or the painted force by James (so tempted to get him to paint up some 6mm French for me).

You get extra points for coming up with a limerick (I seriously hope my wife does not read mine!) and of course extra for pimping.

I really advise to get over there it's well worth it.

On the subject of my giveaway I am happy to say that Mr. Lee has finally received his toys via Wayland Games so await to see just what he creates.

One last word on my giveaway. Rosemary & Co. sponsored the giveaway with two £25 (a bit more I think) of series 33 brushes which was so very nice of them. When I informed them of the two winners details they did no more than send them a second prize in the form of £25 and a $30 gift certificate. How good is that? So a great big thank you to Rosemary the owner and all round good egg.

HMG Matt Varnish

I have mentioned before how highly I regard Vallejo Matt Varnish. But on the recent trip to Triples I only managed to score one can as Lee made off with the other two tins. But late in the day we stumbled on a trader selling a strange looking can and given one can was not enough......

Actually one of his selling points was that Leon from Adler used his spray. So I bought a can and was quick to test it that evening. I was happy enough to buy a second can on the Sunday and so I suppose I really ought to tell you about it.

HMG are a British paints supplier and the name is not a gadget name for our small hobby. They are a large company from what I can make out and a small division of the company makes hobby related products but mostly for the model planes and such. The only supplier I have found so far is Figures In Comfort Ltd. You know the guys who make the figure carry cases for the rich players amongst us ;-)

At the show the cans were priced at £8.50 but on line they are £8 at the moment, maybe you can bag a bargain or two. Aerosol cans are no longer allowed to be shipped abroad and now have to be sent by carrier (though the last one I ordered came by Royal Mail). So unless you track down a supply in your own country this review is just for mainland Britain.

The spray arc is reasonably tight and well directed, so it goes where you point. Army Painter spray always seems to spray to one side or the other, never straight ahead. It also is a really fine spray so it settles well across the figures. This has a lot I think to do with this.

The little yellow box sticks out the front of the nozzle and the hole is pin hole sized. This allows for the nice even mist like spray. Not that it comes without problems if not used properly. Due to the small hole it can be prone to clogging if you spray for long lengths or don't invert and run a short spray to clear the nozzle. In fact when the chap selling me my second can realised I had already bought a can he opened a draw and gave me the extra nozzle in case I had a problem. He also said that it did clog you can often clear it with white spirit but I am guessing if the worst comes to the worst you order a fresh can from them and ask for a replacement nozzle. I certainly will if I ever have to break into my spare.

The varnish dries 100% flat matt. None of this slight shine to it, the colours of the painting really show through the finish. I would say the figures look better post spraying than before, how often can you say that?

Drying time is a bit of a downer though. The can says 5-15 minutes between coats which may well be correct but the figures remained sticky for over a hour when I sprayed them up and the ones sprayed about an hour ago are still tacky (I am going on touching the base not the figures). So if you in a hurry, not the best can to reach for, but the rest of the time it seems the perfect spray for me.

Figures In Comfort are at Partizan next weekend so if your going to the show it may well be worth picking up a can or two. If you do, do me a favour, tell the guy you read a review on a blog and that's why your buying the can. No need to mention my blog, I just want suppliers to realise just how useful blogs can be to their business. At the moment blogs remain a fairly untapped resource for hobby suppliers and I'd like them to utilise us more.