Building of the Week - More Medieval Buildings

I have a bunch more of the Medieval House A and B from Leven Miniatures each costing £2.50 so I painted these two up whilst I was working on the Farm House and Barn for last weeks post. I still have four of these under-coated waiting their turn as well as three of the larger houses all of which will take a turn at being part of the Quatre Bras and Waterloo games then at last they will be added to my growing town project by permanently being glued to the bases. They will still be used for the town but instead of fixing them I will just paint the bases round them.

Same method as before but I used different colours to last time as I really want a ramshackle group of buildings as they will eventually form the cramped inner town/city of older buildings.

The summer sun is bleaching them a little but it was really cold so did not want to hang around too much trying to get it right as the wind was a touch bitter  ;-)

Here they are along with the original two. These are based on the 60x60mm bases though the new ones will be on a larger base with more buildings so as to make a centre piece with other bits and bobs on it.

With the Challenge starting tomorrow you would expect me to be backing off the buildings but I still intend to do some work each week though I have had a side project turn up that is a little different but you will have to wait till next week for more information on that.

I still have a load of prep work to do for the Challenge as I have the Last Stand themed challenge to prime after spending the morning cleaning them and converting some of the figures, more Roman's waiting cleaning and Matt game me a box of Gripping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen that I might try and get pressed into the Challenge but first I need to get those Romans sorted. Not that I have decided what will be the first submission yet! I guess I had get myself in order.

Adler Prussian Hussars and the last painted figures before the Painting Challnge

Ok so these are the last figures you will see from me before the 4th Annual Painting Challenge kicks off in a few days time. I actually started these a couple of months ago but got sidetracked as I wanted to cover the new cavalry by Baccus but once I started these again there was no stopping me as they were a lot of fun to paint.

As mentioned in the title, these are Prussian Hussars by Adler, the first on show being the 3rd Hussars which at Waterloo were in the 2nd Corps Reserve Cavalry formation. These have a nice deep blue uniform and like the other Hussars I painted some of the most colourful of the Prussian Army. 

As always with Adler the figures are full of movement and several poses helping to make it a fluid unit rather than the attack of the clones. Unfortunately though they do not do an officer figure which makes the inclusion of a standard bearer rather strange as they did not carry a flag!!!

Great detail as I have come to expect and given that all other Prussian Cavalry are fairly drab in uniform it was rather nice to be able to have the extra uniform detail to work with for a change.

the 4th Hussars were part of the Ist Corp and were actually part of the 1st Infantry Brigade so expect these boys to try and help force squares for their supporting infantry to deal with. I rather like the brown coats.

These had cuffs and collars in yellow, not the easiest colour to work with but Vallejo Flat Yellow usually helps out as it did here. 

Yellow braiding as well, what more could you want from a uniform? The colour of all the plumes is an uneducated guess which most of all came down to if I thought white or black would look the best.

6th Hussars were part of the IV Corp and in the Cavalry Reserve so will be used to try and bring the French to heel or chase stragglers away from the battle depending on how well the battle is going for the French.

Being a bit of a show off I could not leave this picture out of one of the troopers. The sculpting of the figure is superb and now I can see even more detail I had missed! Last year I joked about buttons on a 6mm figure but it looks like they are there to paint!!!!!

Unfortunately this does come with a price, broken swords are a hazard of Adler and this regiment started with one broken but lost another during the painting process. Only time will tell if this will become a issue that will strip them all of their swords, I can but hope not.

The 8th Hussars was a composite regiment made up of at least three other regiments so had a real mix of uniforms but I felt this would not work over just 9 figures so went for an all black force. Again these are IV Corp.

I even had a go at painting the skull and crossbones on some of the Shako's which came out good enough to leave in place. I really like these guys with the black/grey uniform, red cuffs and collars and white braiding, rather striking.

Another bloody broken sword, well they have the same problem with 28mm but at least they can replace with pins.

All four together which is how they will stay till I prepare for the big game unless they come out to play in another game first.

And from above. So that's your lot until my brush gets a new bunch to play with

Chatter Behind the Bike Shed - Competitive Edge

One of the things I like about basing up figures and the like is that it leaves the mind to wander off where ever it wants. Whilst mine was doing so I fetched up on the memory of a post by Tamsin regarding here recent performance at the World Wargames Championships and then turned to the looming Analogue Painting Challenge possibly because we are running partners as last year we raced each other to the finish line where I just pipped Tamsin through not having to get up the next morning for work  ;-)

Anyway back to Tamsin and that run of play at the Worlds. Seems Tamsin had a great time and she certainly looked the part when I met her at the show. Well she had a great time apart from ONE opponent. From reading her posts I would say anyone she played after the joker would have seemed a true sport. What grabbed my attention at the time and what I was thinking as I scattered sand onto my base was that Tamsin suspected the guy of out and out cheating. Even having different measure sticks that would measure long or short dependant on the need of the time. Whilst almost all wargamers I am sure would never do such a thing I wonder if the one's doing so think about what they are doing and how do they rationalise it? For instance did that turd think it was up to his opponent to check out his measuring sticks so it's their fault if he used these? Or is it simply a competitive edge in his warped mind? 

ASL is an amazingly complex set of rules that in reality you do not need to know that many rules to play but greater knowledge certainly gives you an advantage. I think it's a fair comment that if your opponent fails to take advantage of a rule you should not feel the need to inform them of said rule, especially in a competitive game. However I often do so as to increase both sides enjoyment of the game and to hopefully help to make future games that much better. However I have witnessed players allowing someone to use a rule wrongly (firing main armament whilst crew exposed with one man turret) whilst it suited them (opponent keeps missing) but once they get a hit inform them they can't fire the gun as crew exposed. On the first attempt at firing the more knowledgeable player should explain you can't fire whilst the commander is up in the cupola and that he needs to get back inside the turret and load the bloody thing.

Again you can excuse your actions citing in this case A0.2 which states mistakes in the past have to stand. Mistakes yes, but when you know your opponent is using a rule incorrectly and you don't point it out your cheating mate.

Most games rely on a honour system between opponents and lets face it often you know your opponent so it's got to be a fairly low act to cheat yourself to a win. Another wargames related pastime is the soon to start Painting Challenge. Curt has always insisted we Police ourselves and whilst this is the only way to do it, it's ore than a little possible to cheat your way to victory by wheeling out fully painted units left right and archive but really why would you? Recent sledging had the very accidental upsetting of one of our fair crowd about his style of priming with lavish jokes about using many colours of primer that resulted in a finished figure. Of course this was supposed to just be good natured leg pulling but it was ironically the upset parties high level of fairness and good play that made the fun into a group of rather abashed boys (and odd girl). If last year is anything to go by this is one event that is more about the journey than the finish line, the friendly banter and support we all get and give really makes the event a joy to belong to.

Well these last few units are not going to finish themselves and I still have a few evenings of prep left in me so until tomorrow, have fun.

Stocking up on the Basing Materials

In a bid not to loose momentum once the Painting Challenge kicks off I have bought some much needed grass tufts as I was getting rather low. These were bought from Tajima1 on the recommendation of Andrew Saunders via a recent post. So I ordered a couple of boxes and was rewarded with a e-mail within about six hours saying that they would be mailed the following day and a couple of days later, here they are.

I went for wild grass and small green grass tufts. They look fine and I will on the back of looking at these a couple of other sized tufts which I will try and get on order in the next day or two as I will need some of the larger tufts for the 28mm figures.

The wild grass is shown with the 6mm Baccus gun I recently painted up and I think will work as small tufts for 28mm figures and standard tufts for the 15mm figures.

So thank's Loki I am fairly sure you will manage to part me from more cash as the challenge goes on. So if your in the UK you can get packs for about £6-7 including postage. Outside the UK you need to add £1.50 for three or less packs. Ordering more than three? Well then no postage charge is added. The box these come in is a nice sturdy box that will survive the postal system and is a nice neat small box that is easy to see what you have left and when you need to get more stock in.

All in all a great addition to my painting armoury and as these are self adhesive it may save on the splashing round of the god old PVA.

Landwehr Cavalry Bought Painted

From the rather nice Blog Con gains pile is these Landwehr Cavalry that was part of the pre-painted collection I have been posting about. All I have had to do with these was remove them from their original bases and rebase followed by a good going over with Matt Varnish. These have suffered a little more than the infantry. For starters horse's seem to break off their metal base very easily and out of these forty five figures I have had to glue four in place sans base and a further three have been discarded due to the same issue. Nest up is less noticeable using the 4 foot rule, that being the gloss varnish had pooled between the rider and mount and as such look a little ugly and the matt varnish has not hidden this but really it's a minor irritant at worst.

At the end of the day I have another five Landwehr cavalry regiments for the big game and given I need a fair few it's certainly a  good thing that I have them. I still have a few more to paint up but without these I would be close to double figures. 

The usual staggered lines are evident in most cases but due to the fragile bases I felt the need to have them supporting each other more than usual so the lines are a little better than some of the more regular regiments I have painted up.

I have a lot of Hussars to rebase and this will in fact give me more regiments than I need as I am in the final stages of painting up four Hussar regiments for Waterloo but as these are specific regiments I am happy I had started these before picking up the painted stuff as I really like the variety that these guys will bring to the Prussian cavalry for Waterloo. For the most part you can forget the Prussian Blue look but more on these towards or over the weekend when I expect to have them finished and shown off.

Baccus and Blacktree Delivery

I actually got the Baccus late last week and the Blacktree on Saturday but other posts were more urgent so have been pushed down the list.

Of course the Baccus figures would have come all that bit sooner if I had, errm paid for them!  Ooops sorry Peter. It's a good job my e-mail enquiry regarding an update on my order was polite given as usual it was my fault the figures were yet to be sent. Dosh sent and here they are, two packs each of French and Prussian guns.

The new French 12pdr's on the left and the old style Prussian guns. You can see the attraction of one cast guns but I am not so convinced we can really appreciate how clever it is. These may get across my desk during the painting contest but if not they will get done sometime over the next twelve months as I don't actually need them till 2015 but well you know....

The Blacktree figures on the other hand are expected to feature somewhat heavily in my Challenge points haul as I need to paint these up to pay for some of the toys I hope to get next year and bring me back into the black for this year. The figures arrived eight days after ordering so rather impressed as the Black Friday sale was on.

Above we have the eight basic Russian figures from the mixed lot you get when ordering riflemen. I did however request no figures lying down in this batch and was happy to see this request fulfilled. I have already had a couple of these figures when I have ordered before but no problem as they are rather good figures.

Four Russian snipers finish off the set and these I have also painted a couple from though previously you got two upright and two lying down, for me this is a better set. 

I also went for 2 packs of Germans and I have to say several of these have really got me wanting to paint them as they are just great looking figures. None of the figures have me wanting to pass them buy and I can even see me getting a small force of several nations to add to the Fins and Early Russians that I will end up keeping to play against Lee and of course include my Son and Daughter in if they want to try something different to the cowboys.

Last up is the German special packet that includes the Sniper I had to repaint. It will be interesting how I fair painting him for the third time. I do like this pack and I may actually keep the rifle grenade guy for myself this time.

So that makes another 24 Blacktree WWII to go with the 40 odd others I have in a stash, some prepped BEFORE last years Challenge so I hope to get those done as well. All are now cleaned up and primed in white and ready to go. I am almost ready for the Challenge to start right now but want to get what I have on the table finished and have four clear evenings to do this before being out on Friday for a game.

I still have some prep work to do though. The last stand all needs cleaning, some conversion fork and undercoating then that's ready for the last two weeks of the challenge. I still would like to get more of the Roman's cleaned up and undercoated but that may be wishful thinking from a painting point of view. Not that it matters as I will just continue to paint them post challenge anyway. 

Other than that I think I won't do much more prep, maybe some more 6mm but they are quick to do so not really a time saver but I will get some of those Finns and Russians primed if they arrive before Sunday as I really want to get some of these all painted just as soon as I get them as they are such new castings.

Gothridge Manor ChristmasPresent

I received a few packages yesterday and as I am a little edgy with Christmas getting closer and not wanting to spoil the surprise of my Secret Santa or Santa Clause everything comes to me via Cath. 

Turns out the wife was ahead of me on this having been in on the act of getting this gift to me without my knowledge. Seems The Happy Whisk and The Angry Lurker had all been involved in the cunning plan.

Tim the man behind the great blog Gothridge Manor has sent me copies of each of his excellent The Manor, his one shot adventure Knowledge Illuminates as well as his two shorts, the Mini Manor and Where is Margesh Blackblood? I already have all five Manors and Knowledge Illuminates as I had either bought them or Tim had already gifted the PDF's to me. I was quite happy with the PDF's but having the real deal in my hands really is a massive upgrade and I am very happy to have received these. As for the two mini books, well The Mini Manor will give me a few more ideas for things to be inserted into my campaign whilst Where is Margesh Blackblood is a must to insert into the campaign at some point as I really like the idea and the way it is presented. Indeed I like how Tim thinks (Not sure I would like to live next door LOL). I have already used bits from a number of his work, a mix of colour encounters or happenings and two mini adventures that fitted in perfectly to the start of my campaign with plenty of other possibilities to add in future sessions with little tweaks to change to my setting.

Anyone who runs a fantasy roleplaying campaign really should grab some or all of these items as Tim is the man when it comes to adventure hooks and chance encounters. Knowledge Illuminates is not the best first item buy because if the adventure does not fit your world it's limited in it's use, though you would still get something from it.

On the other hand any of The Manor's will be a feast of ideas and opportunities. The Manor issue 5 has just come out so I now have to wait impatiently for my next fix.

So thanks Tim for the great gift, I am reading and re-reading all the great material and looking how to fit it into future games best.