The Boy goes Roman

My wife mentioned the other day that our son had the opportunity to own a Roman shield that the school was throwing away, would it be OK? Further discussion included I could hang it on his wall or door. To be honest I was all up for it from the start, anything that promotes his interest in history, especially military gets my vote.

Fast forward 24 hours and I get home to this! A full size replica with a brass boss, the rear and edge covered in faux leather with a handle built into the area behind the boss.

The school had moved to new buildings and whilst it was moved across it was then tossed in the skip as it was no longer used. Not sure about mounting on his door but it was well worth saving and The Boy is still jazzed about it.

Prussian SYW Command

Whatever rules we finally settle on (yet to play a single game) we need command stands and as most rules have similar requirements I thought it safe to base up a few commanders.

First up some from the Lancashire Games Prussian command pack with both a niggle and a thumbs up. The niggle is that the only Prussian Generals, ADC's etc is this pack of 7 models that includes an unmounted horse. The issue being that as only two of the figures are mounted you can't just buy a few packs and make up your command bases. I either have to buy from the other nations or buy from other suppliers. Being as I already have bought Timecasts Old Glory Prussian command it's a mute point for me.

However all is forgiven as the quality and character make them a must have for my tabletop. They tend to be a bit on the slim side when compared with the rest of the range but that's not a big issue. I love the little diorama of having a messengers horse held whilst he offers Fredrick a rolled up dispatch.

This will make a nice centre piece for my army, I have used all but the Hussar from the set. He was painfully thin and was just one figure too many for how I planned the bases but he may get on a future base.

But this one steals the show for me. I will be using this one for an infantry brigade. The commander is sat on a tree stump whilst a subordinate pays his respects, possibly before delivering an order from Fredrick to get off his backside and get his brigade forward.

Not the best pictures and I have struggled all week to try and get something worth showing as the weather has been rain or bright sunshine.

My last base is populated by Old Glory figures mentioned above. I have already used a few as battalion commanders so knew they painted up well. These I like as a brigade command, again I like these for infantry though for tonight's game them may have to command my cavalry.

I am not a fan of the rider and saddle etc. as one cast with the horse as a second that Old Glory sculpt them in but others feel differently so it's just a matter of taste.

So three command stands all painted and ready for their first game. Hopefully the next game will see at least another one or two bases painted of command and possibly yet more troops. I have prepped my first heavy cavalry and hope to get them started any day. Still need to have a crack at grenadiers but it's fair to say the army is starting to take shape. OK tonight will see too many bare lead figures on bare bases but that should just get me to paint up more ready for the next bash. I still have a big bag of untouched infantry and guns to keep me busy so expect rather more in the coming months.

Dicing With Death

With the Joy of Six just under two weeks away I had a bit of a brain wave. Why I did not think of this before I don't know but there it is.

As you will know I have started to put little dice cells on the bases of both my new Napoleonic and Ancients 6mm bases but I literally have over one hundred bases without these convenient cells on them. Lee has no such markers so we often have units with a die perched on them and subject to falling off leaving us sometimes trying to remember the score on them.

So how about taking a 1p gluing a cell to them and then the usual basing technique to the rest of the top of the penny. A nice small marker that can be used for any base too small or missing said marker.

I have done (I think) enough for our demo game at Joy of Six. I hope to get a few bits done for the table just to add a bit of interest to the game. Above all I am looking forward to using the rules at a live event and seeing the reactions. The Boy and Lee will be doing the most of the playing whilst I mostly sort out the rules and chat around the bloodshed.

Looking forward to seeing more of the games as well. Looks to be some terrific ones on offer. That and the traders, wondering if I can get one of the 6mm Sceptic badges for a discount on purchases LOL.

Leven Farm Tile - The Buildings

Oh it's been a long time since I last painted any buildings but I have been working on this project in the background for some time. As many will know I do like to produce building groups on tiles with farms being quite popular. 

So no surprises then that these three buildings will be made into a 17th Century farm which will be used for our ECW games but also for the Napoleonic games. The buildings are from the excellent and ever growing ranges of Leven Miniatures these all from the Medieval range and quite suitable for later periods.

This one will be on a tile 240x120mm and is based on an idea I have had running through the old noggin for a few months now. I hope to get it finished in the next week or maybe two depending on the amount of hobby time I can allow myself.

Wednesday saw me with rather more than expected when I woke up about 1.30am having forgot my night time meds (despite my reminder alarm!) not able to stay in bed and too late to take them I set too at 2am and painted till Cath got up at 7. The result was three 26 figure Persian Levy units painted and just needing basing plus some work on the buildings above. Good job I have Wednesdays off work and I even had time to do other hobby stuff but by 10.30pm I was more than ready to call it a day. 

China Trees

Some may remember me buying a bunch of trees from China a year or so ago. I picked out the ones that would work with 6mm and put the rest to onside where they have sat ever since. A couple of weeks ago I pulled them back out of a box and have started to base them up for use in 15mm games.

The smaller tree's used for 6mm look better than their larger brothers as the plastic growth looks a bit too plastic but for the price they work good enough for me.

A true 15mm scale cavalry unit to show the scale. I have around another twelve I have yet to base which will give us a nice low price option on trees to go with the others that are available so if we need a good sized wood it's covered.

That still leaves me with over 100 6mm Leven Miniatures trees to base up. These are much better quality as the trunks and branches are wire allowing me to change their shapes and the greenery is far more realistic.

 I suspect I am not the only one that manages to forget such tasks and need to set time aside to do them. It's not that I don't enjoy doing as I do but still they keep being passed over.

Joy of Six - Warning Orders July 17th

I went over to Lee's last night so we could reorganise the units we will need in just over three weeks time for Joy of Six. Many of you will remember that last year we put on Project Waterloo that saw every battalion, battery and cavalry regiment that saw action up to about 6pm on the table. You can find the report here. Our plan not to do anything this year as we could not get an ancients game sorted in time was changed when Lee talked himself er, US into putting on a game. Given our choices we decided on using a quarter of the boards (six foot by four) and refight the attack on Hougoumont. 

Action from last years attack.

This will make use of the excellent Leven Miniatures building set and trees as well as a rather small proportion of our troops. I will be fielding about 35 units to Lee's allied 20 odd. However in a change to last years move and talk display rather than actual game we should have time to actually play the game as well so our finished rules will finally get a public outing. Lee and The Boy will be doing most of the playing whilst I will try and cause upset by talking to anyone foolish enough to get close. Last year we and my mate Matt's bunch were the big games so it's nice to take a back seat this year.

Looking forward to meeting lots of you there though so hope plenty turn up. I still need to get my order into Leven as they have released a bunch of new buildings that are rather tasty.

Post setting up the game and sorting out a few wrinkles we sat down to discuss games and new projects etc and whilst most of the chat went the way I expected I was in for a few surprise twists.

It can not be a surprise to anyone that getting a few games of Black Powder SYW games under our belts as soon as possible was at the top of the list. Look for a game in the next two weeks with a mix of painted and primed figs as we both battle towards a respectable force. I like BP so it will be good if we hit it off. If not then it's off to Osprey but lets wait and see.

Lee now is almost done with Napoleonic's. OK what I mean is that Lee now has almost all Nations in 6mm Napoleonic's and his painter has been churning out figures at such a rate he has thrown some 6mm Confederates at him to pad out the returns to keep from quite finishing his collection. Not that he has the Prussians as I have enough for the whole 100 days campaign. I am so relieved we went 6mm. The only question now is which battles to go to first. We can almost fight any battle from the period at Battalion level though we still need to do some work for a few of the really big or exotic ones (such as Egypt) so between SYW battles we will get a few of these going again.

Ancients, Lee has a few good armies in 15mm that have not graced the table in a couple of years whilst I have played Matt a bunch of times, mostly with my Persians. Hail Caesar will be the rules with Lee and myself happy to move away from Field of Glory. Not that HC is a lock, I just have a fair bit of experience of them with Matt and Kev's Cabin.

Give me a few months and I will have enough Persians in 6mm to give my Macedonians something to chew on. Lee is also extending his 6mm Romans so we can start work on our 6mm Ancients rules as well.

Lee also wants to get on with his Saxon's for Saga and given I have enough figures for about fifteen points we can get a game or two of this going to give him reason to get going.

The biggest surprise is how far Rapid Fire has fallen down the list. Lee continues to buy out the world reserve in figures and vehicles etc but his lust to play has dropped off for now. Of course that means nothing, as soon as we meet up next time he will be pushing for a game of this. 

Until a few months ago we were managing a game at worst every other week but his work has been really busy and real life industries had kicked in but as half the battle is organisation and habit we are booking game time again ahead of time and you can bet within the next two to three months all of the above will have been played at least once.

Casualty Marker 1st Hussars

Old Glory supply a standard bearer in their SYW Prussian Hussars which is a shame as the Hussars did not carry standards! Rather than waist it I decided to paint it up and use as a casualty marker. I can only hope not to need it too often.

We are creeping ever closer to getting a game in with the SYW. Lee has based up some cavalry and infantry as well as painting up yet more. I have yet to base up more than one heavy cavalry base as I don't want to base up too many before painting them.

At the moment I am basing up three command bases and three 6mm British Napoleonic British for The Boys army. Close behind these are three bases of 6mm Persian bow units. Only then will I get back to the SYW with one or two cavalry regiments and a couple of grenadier battalions. I also need to get started on The Boy's French SYW, it seems I have my work cut out for me.

Talking of other projects I mentioned recently I plan on starting the Polish for Project Russia 1812, well so far nothing has been ventured but in a Lee kind of way I also have some French artillery limbers, caissons and guns, though some will be painted up as Italian so as to finish off my Italian commitment to Project Russia 1812. So something is coming towards finished I guess.