Followers

Saturday 27 February 2016

Revenge for the Rebellion

In my AWI Project I expect to be playing a few different sets of rules as well as using a few different sizes of figures.

Here is one of my Kallistra 12mm units of Continentals. Four bases, 40 x 20, 8 figures each.


One of the rulesets I plan to use is British Grenadier which uses markers for Disruption Points.

I made a few, fifty in fact.


What are they made of?

Little coins covered with some scenic material.


What was my revenge?

Well I used these little coins that even the beggars in Chicago don't want.


How are they used, well like this.


Unobtrusive aren't they!

What did it all cost?

Fifty little coins, (gravel, sand, paint, varnish, static grass, clumps) all from stock, so 50 cents.

Bargain.


Sunday 21 February 2016

A Sheep, a Sheep, a Kingdom for a Sheep

Well, I got myself a sheep.


Actually I got more than one.


Wait a minute, I'm sure I got more than two.


Sorry, no, there's more.


Nope, more!


Keep going.


Any more?


What's that? Is it a black sheep?

No, it's Angus, he's a bull.

Sheep. £1 a pair from Irregular Miniatures.

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/indexes/25mmindex.htm

Great service, quick delivery, cost effective, customers are flocking to them (intentional pun).







Hanoverian Top-Up

Some time ago I painted a Hanoverian Regiment for a friend.

Here they are:


They are a 40 strong unit made up from a 36 figure box and another 4 figures from a 'Crisis' freebie sprue.

This gave the owner/player an option to field a 'large' unit of 40 figures or two 20 strong 'smaller' units. I was subsequently asked to make it possible to add a command stand so that the second of the two smaller units had their own colours so I bought a few more figures to do so.

There didn't seem to be an option to purchase a Hanoverian Command sprue so instead I got a Prussian Landwehr Command set and modified them. This entailed filing away the Prussian insignia and converting an officer with a sabre into one carrying a colour.

http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/napoleonic-prussians/products/napoleonic-wars-prussian-landwehr-command-1789-1815

I bulked them out with a few more rank and file Hanoverians.


Fortunately the Hanoverian box set contained several different flag options including a yellow second colour. The owner/player can now field two 24 strong units each with their own command base and colours.

I also did a third battalion of French Grenadiers of the Guard.


In my usual style I made one base capable of deploying into skirmish order.


I see now that the 36 figure box sets have been replaced with 24 figure box sets. I wish I had that option available before I started these.




Sunday 14 February 2016

Old MacDonalds Farm

Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!




Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some cows,
Ee i ee i oh!
With a moo-moo here,
And a moo-moo there
Here a moo, there a moo,
Everywhere a moo-moo
Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!


Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some pigs,
Ee i ee i oh!
With an oink-oink here,
And an oink-oink there
Here an oink, there an oink,
Everywhere an oink-oink
Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!


Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some sheep,
Ee i ee i oh!
With a baah-baa here,
And a baah-baa there
Here a baah, there a baa,
Everywhere a baah-baa
Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!


Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some goats,
Ee i ee i oh!
With a meh-me-eh here,
And a meh-me-eh there
Here a meh, there a meh,
Everywhere a meh-me-eh
Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!


Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some chickens,
Ee i ee i oh!
With a cluck-cluck here,
And a cluck-cluck there
Here a cluck, there a cluck,
Everywhere a cluck-cluck
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i oh!


Old MacDonald had a farm,
Ee i ee i oh!
And on that farm he had some dogs,
Ee i ee i oh!
With a woof-woof here,
And a woof-woof-woof there
Here a woof, there a woof,
Everywhere a woof-woof
Old MacDonald had a farm
Ee i ee i oh!


Thank goodness Old MacDonald didn't have an ark, I would be here forever.

Farmyard animals by Warbases.

http://war-bases.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=131_156&page=1

Painting and basing by me.

Since I'm expecting to be a grandfather later this year I am getting used to posting for the younger generation. (I do have some younger generation readers already, don't I?).


Friday 12 February 2016

Kallistra Continentals

Here is my first stab at the Kallistra Continentals.


I'm not too impressed with them, I think I used too bright a blue for their coats.


They are useable and they pass my 4 foot rule.

I'm happier with these coos.


These Grenadiers wait patiently.


As do these WSS units.


Just started these guys.


Will post some more soon.






Sunday 7 February 2016

The Big Buy at Vapnartak 2016

OK Guys, here's what I got at Vapnartak this morning.

3 boxes of 28 mm Perry Continental infantry.


Each box has a command sprue, 4 figures, 2 rifleman sprues, 4 figures and 6 rank and file sprue, 30 figures. That's 114 figures but only 3 command elements making three 38 figure units. Too big for me.



If I buy another 4 command sprues and 5 riflemen sprues that makes 140 figures but crucially 7 command elements allowing me to make seven 20 figure units. Probably a lot nearer my requirements. Time to do some mail order.

I took pity on Pete Berry and cleared him out of AWI packs for the day. These will give 16 units each of 6 mm British and Rebels.


I'll do a more detailed breakdown of the packs in due course.

I got 6 packs of Kallistra 12 mm AWI Continentals and I hope to get at least 6 units of Continental infantry out of them. See my later comments on unit breakdowns.


I added a few more bottles of paint to my collection.


Finally I bought a set of British Grenadier rules which came highly recommended to me from a number of directions.


I need to study their requirements for a number of things, unit sizes, figures sizes, base sizes, number of figures per base, compatibility with Black Powder, scenario requirements and probably a few more things when I get there.

Finally, finally, I got some farmyard animals for Old MacDonald, formerly known as my old chum Dave (although he constantly reminds me that he is not as old as me).


So, what do you think of my approach to my new period AWI?

I aim to get a better understanding of the pros and cons of this over that. I get a better understanding of what I want for myself. I get some units which I should be able to sell for charity if I don't keep them for myself. I might be able to help others answer their own questions in this area.

Win, win all round.

On the down side I got my photograph taken with these guys.









Thursday 4 February 2016

Pinning Plastic Cavalry

Someone recently asked for a tutorial on pinning figures. There are probably dozens of them out there on the interweb. Never mind, here is my way.

I started with a box of WSS cavalry from Wargames Factory.

In the box there are four sprues of multi-part riders, lots of parts but only enough legs for three riders. Lots of arms, lots of heads, lots of equipment. I'll detail them in a later post.


There are also three sprues of horse bits, four horses per sprue.


Also included are 12 bases.


The horse sprue comes with four left horse sides, four right horse sides, four heads, four tails and four saddle blankets. You will use all of these.


The riders sprue comes with three pairs of legs, thirteen torsos, sixteen heads and umpteen arms and weapons and fiddly bits. You will not use all of these so the unused bits will boost your bits box.


The eight half horses are unique and can be assembled in a variety of combinations.


As you will see some of them will stand freely and some of them won't hence the pinning requirement.


Using a mini drill bit in a pin vise carefully drill a hole up through the hoof and as far up the centre of the leg as you can manage although 5-10 mm will probably do. You will know if you are about to drill too far as the plastic will start to turn white-ish at the point of exit, stop when this happens.


Do this for each leg that comes into contact with the ground or near enough. Legs in the air will not get pinned.


Get some soft wire. I used the wire from a spiral bound notebook but a paperclip or copper electrical wire will do. As long as it is thin enough in comparison with the horse leg and the same size as your drill bit it will be fine.

Cut short pieces of wire and using liquid polystyrene cement glue them into each of the holes. Don't be afraid to fill the hole with cement before inserting the wire, any excess can be wiped away.

Your horses will now look like this.


Position each horse over a base and mark the positions of the wires. Drill these holes right through the base. Some of the holes will be at an angle depending on the particular leg.


Fill these holes with cement, apply more cement to the wires and the bottom of the hooves and place all the wires into their respective holes. Press and hold the horse to the base firmly for a couple of minutes until the cement is fairly firm. Add more cement if need be. The hooves will be partially hidden by your scenic bases so it doesn't have to be particularly tidy as long as it is firm.


Add more cement to the protruding wire underneath the base.


At this point I would leave the models overnight so that the cement is as fully cured as possible. The next step is a bit stressful and you don't want any glued joins to come undone.

Snip off as much of the protruding wire as possible and then file the remaining stump flush to the underside of the base. This is where the wire being soft comes in handy.


Any remaining weakness in the joins can receive another treatment of cement. I cover the underside of the base in magnetic tape so any untidiness there will be covered up.

The horses should now stand freely, if not you've mucked something up somewhere, fix it now.


It's a simple case here of adding the heads, tails and saddle blankets. I boo-boo'd here in that the horses tails were meant to be inserted before the horse halves were glued together. A quick trim with a modelling knife sorted that.


I cleaned up any remaining mould lines and filled any gaps with liquid cement. Clever folks would perhaps use modelling paste but I didn't.


I built up a trio of riders, simple swordsmen in a charging pose. There are lots of options on the sprue which I will detail later but it will be possible to model cuirassiers, standard heavy cavalry, dragoons even as well as officers and musicians.



I think they are coming out quite nicely, can't wait to get the rest of the unit built up. (Yes, I spotted the mould lines that I missed earlier)