Advance to Base

I have been given some excellent advice for acquiring crew figures for my Gallows, Guillotine and Trebuchet.

I will probably try and get all the necessary figures from Irregular Miniatures in due course.

Having said that I would be happy to offer them as is to any prospective purchasers as they do not meet any requirements for my Orders of Battle.

I have based all three models as shown below.

I will bring them to Claymore so if you are interested then respond to this blog post with your offer bearing in mind that their RRP's are £9, £9 and £10 respectively.

The first decent offer(s) will secure their purchase(s), buyer collects.

Note the cow carcase as ammunition.

Figure not included.

Crew Call

Recently I have been previewing various items from the Warbases product line and I have become a little bit stuck so I put these aside for a while.

I am short of crew(s).

Let me explain.

This is their gallows. I added a hang mans noose made from a bit of twisted wire.

Yes, the trap door opens.

This little switch operates the trap door, assuming you don't glue it shut by accident.

Here's a 28mm figure for scale.

http://war-bases.co.uk/ACCESSORIES/WAR-MACHINES?product_id=1236

This is Madame Guillotine.

Note the lifting rope I added (from twisted wire).

And a 28mm figure for scale.

http://war-bases.co.uk/ACCESSORIES/WAR-MACHINES?product_id=1072

And a real war machine, the Trebuchet.

Ropes made from twisted copper wire and ballast in the counter-weight from gravel.

This is a big beast but then I've seen a real one and it was a big beast too!

http://war-bases.co.uk/ACCESSORIES/WAR-MACHINES?product_id=1250

You will have cottoned on by now that I do not have suitable crew figures for these great little kits.

Building them was easy but crewing them is proving a little more difficult. This is where I need your help.

For the Gallows I obviously need a hang man and a dangling corpse and maybe a priest with prayerbook.

Madame Guillotine would be enhanced with a headless French fop, his detached head, a Revolutionary executioner and maybe another fop in waiting.

The Trebuchet, perhaps, a few Medieval engineer types, nationality not critical.

I look forward to your many and varied suggestions.

How Many More?

France Weeps Again

Work In Progress - July 2016

Golly, over half a year gone already.

Here's where I am today with some of the projects.

Regiment De Berry - for my French force in the French & Indian War. Figures by Crann Tara, bases by Her Majesties Mint and sabots by Warbases.

This officer is separately based for Sharp Practice Two.

The rank and file are also based separately but form a group on a sabot.

Compagnie Franche De La Marine by Warlord Miniatures awaiting their sabots.

A mixture of white and blue uniforms, not sure why.

A Leader for my French allied Hurons.

A trio of High Elf spearmen based for Warmaster saboted for Warband.

High Elf archers providing some firepower.

A UK Penny, magnetic. They cost 1p in the UK.

Warbases MDF 1p bases, non-magnetic, £1.60 for 25.

MDF 1p base with embedded magnet adding 10p.

All three on a sabot.

Guess what will happen if I turn the sabot over?

The MDF 1p bases with magnet installed are a great solution for those of you without magnetic coinage.

Sabots and Magnets

My latest change in the way I do things is use sabots and magnets as supplied by our good friends at Warbases.

A sabot looks like this:

This is a 4x2 with 1p (UK) slots and precut magnet holes. Ideal for an 8 figure group in Sharp Practice.

Here are the magnets, 5mm wide by 2mm deep, same as the holes in the MDF. They are small and powerful. I would be careful putting them near a credit card or any other electro-magnetic storage device.

This is a sabot with magnets installed.

As it happens the first one or two times I used these the magnets were slightly smaller than the holes so I secured them with a touch of superglue. This time I had to gently enlarge the holes with a small round file as the magnets wouldn't otherwise fit in. They did not need glued.

This is a completed sabot base (2x2 for Black Powder) with figures based on UK one pennies which are steel centred.

Matching up the terrain on the pennies with the terrain on the sabot marries the two together.

Tipping the sabot over does not dislodge the figures.

Nor does turning the sabot over.

The beauty of this technique is that you can have the same figures mounted on 2x2's for Black Powder and 4x2's for Sharp Practice. Just change the sabot. If you have a ruleset which requires 3x2's just make more sabots.

Woodland Indians - Hurons

If you go down to my woods today you'll sure get a big surprise.

Well I did.

I actually finished a unit, first time for at least a couple of months. Amazing what a touch of laziness tempered with a lack of focus and a four week holiday in the sun can do to you.

So, here are a group of 12 Huron Indians sans leader as part of my Sharp Practice French 1755 force.

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=18&zenid=41b630253e13b125a522a9bdf72fea3f

Figures by Galloping Major.

http://www.gallopingmajorwargames.com/index.htm

Painted by my good hands, mucked up by my bad eyes.

Figure bases by Her Majesty's Mint, sabots by Warbases.

http://www.royalmint.com/home

http://war-bases.co.uk/

Note the embedded magnets.

What do you think guys?