WSS - Artillery

My assault on the lead, plastic and resin pile continues. This time I picked on a box of  War of the Spanish Succession Artillery by Wargames Factory.

I don't recall what the price was but I expect it was about £18. Wargames Factory products are now being marketed by Warlord Games and this box has not appeared on their store website yet.

In the box you get two identical sprues.

Each sprue includes a mounted officer with alternative arms, 4 gunners also with alternative arms, a gun with two barrel options, some barrels and a bucket etc.

The horse and the gunners are not moulded with bases.

Fortunately some bases are included in the box.

I had to do some drilling and pinning before painting them.

Here is how they turned out.

Here is the mounted officer waving to the troops. He has an option of a sabre if you wanted him to be leading a charge.

I have painted the gun crew to represent British Royal Artillery before they changed to their blue uniform.

They are individually based so I can represent crew casualties if need be. The top layer of the gun base is 2 mm thick plastic card. I marked and cut out the squares where the crew stand. The crew bases are 20 mm square so the cutouts are 21-22 mm square to allow some clearance. I then glued a layer of steel paper with the green side upwards over the entire base. Finally I peeled off the covering sheet underneath and covered the entire base with magnetic tape sticky side up. The two sticky layers together helps counteract any warping of the magnetic tape. The texturing is a variety of plaster, pebbles and sand.

I have glued the gun directly to the base as artillery was not limbered up and moved about much in this period. Note the differing effects of the pebbles, sand and tufts on the base.

I chose the 8 pounder barrel option as opposed to the 12 pounder.

Note the special tufts with white flowers. I got mine from Warbases.

Vapnartak 2016

I'll be driving down to York this coming Sunday. Why, you all ask?

Vapnartak, of course.

I hope it's not like this.

It should be like this.

http://www.yorkwargames.org/Vapnartak.htm

I will have to be up by at least 5am, have my first round of medication, get washed and dressed and have breakfast, have second round of medication, fill the car up with assorted buddies and head south by 6am.

Weather permitting we should arrive around 10am to catch the show opening, should be free entry for an old codger like myself. Purchase plans include a copy of British Grenadier from Caliver, some plastic AWI from whoever, some AWI metal from Kallistra and some magnetic things from Trevor Holland.

Vapnartak in York is a great show for meeting up with some of my English friends who think York is way up North, bless them. I dare say I will bump into a few Scotsmen while I'm there, can't get away from them at all.

Will I meet any of my blogfriends while I am there? Who knows. Catch me if you can.

We should be leaving just after lunch so that the drive back up North is in as much daylight as possible. The Southern (Rebel) Haggis get a bit twitchy on the border as darkness approaches.

Revolutionary Quandary

My next big project is going to be the American War of Independence or the Revolutionary War, AWI for short.

I have never done the AWI before (can't think why as I seem to have done almost everything else).

My first quandary is what scale or size of figures to use. There is an enormous choice, some of which are listed below. I have used a standard line infantry unit as means of measure.

Warlord Games, 28 mm, £18, free postage, 24 close order figures, 6 open order figures, flags, bases, can pick them up at most shows.

Perry Miniatures, 28 mm, £20, free postage, 36 close order figures, flags, bases, can pick them up at most shows.

Kallistra, 12 mm, £6 (£5 in multiples of 6), 32 close order figures, no flags, bases, only at certain shows.

Pendraken, 10 mm, £4.50, 30 close order figures (pack), no flags, no bases, only at certain shows.

Baccus, 6 mm, £5.50, 96 close order figures (4 units), no flags, no bases, only at certain shows.

No clear option here but the smaller sizes are cheaper per figure, no surprises there, but tend to not come with flags or bases.

I know that there are other manufacturers and ranges to consider but I'm trying to keep it simple for the time being. I can always add others in further down the road.

In 28 mm a standard line unit could be 24 figures strong and based on six 40 x 40 mm bases making a unit 240 mm wide.

12 mm equates to 32 figures and four 40 x 20 mm bases making a unit 160 mm wide.

10 mm equates to ~30 figures and four 40 x 20 mm bases making a unit 160 mm wide.

6 mm comes in at 24 figures and one 60 x 30 base making a unit 60 mm wide.

My table is 6 foot by 4 foot or approximately 1800 mm wide. A single line of close order infantry units across the table will be: 28 mm - 7.5 units, 12/10 mm - 11.25 units and 6 mm - 30 units.

Smaller sizes, bigger armies, fairly well known across the hobby (yes, I know, it brings in smaller tables too).

Being an old age pensioner and grand-dad to be makes the budget something to consider.

28 mm, 7.5 units at £18 each totals £135.
12 mm, 11.25 units at £5 totals £56.25.
10 mm, 11.25 units at £4.50 totals £50.63.
6 mm, 30 units at £5.50 for 4 units totals £41.25.

At the end of the day I will probably sample more than one of these options. Apologies if my arithmetic is dodgy.

I have been painting 28mm Napoleonic units for charity sale over the last couple of years and now that the big anniversary of Waterloo has passed it may be a diminishing market. I am quite likely to pick up some Warlord/Perry AWI boxes next weekend at Vapnartak. They will make excellent charity sale objects if I decide not to keep them for myself.

Kallistra, hmm, they didn't easily jump into my awareness for AWI. I have an awful lot of their Medieval/Fantasy figures. I'd best not get any more in the short term.

I wouldn't rush into getting some Pendraken AWI at the moment. I have an absolute ton of their Seven Years War offerings so I am quite familiar with them as a manufacturer.

The Baccus 6 mm figures are intriguing, are they big enough to differentiate Continentals from Militia, I'm not sure, I might pick up a pack or two for a trial run. I have a lot of Peters ACW figures so I am familiar with their tiny size and an appropriate painting style.

The last part of the quandary is what ruleset to use. Black Powder is one obvious choice but I'm not sure about the AWI add-on (Rebellion). At the other end of the rules spectrum there are Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames options and his Horse and Musket generic set.

Are there any other rulesets that I should be considering. My main requirements being simple to learn and play, one versus one, solo, and no massive games.

Roman Praetorian Guards

A recent transaction included a little brown box of metal figures.

I would have included a photograph of the little brown box here but didn't as it was a little bit shy!

The contents turned out to be a dozen Roman Praetorian Guards.

They are partly painted, probably in enamels given their age and would be heading for the stripping pot if I were to be keeping them for myself. I am concentrating on Greeks, Macedonians and hopefully Persians so they don't fit my selections, my budget and my timescale.

Would anyone like to have them? Free if you pay the postage. Donations to my Combat Stress charity fund are always welcome but not essential.

Researching the figures leads me to believe that they are made by Garrison and were made as early as 1972 going by a catalogue listing online. They might be a bit earlier.

http://www.vintagewargamingfigures.info/files/Garrison%202012.pdf

They are listed as 20mm figures from the Roman period 60 AD. In fact they are 25mm from foot to eye as scale creep goes back as far as that.

RE2 Praetorian Centurion crested helmet and cloak

RE8a Praetorian Standard Bearer

RE4 Praetorian Guardsman half armour, pilum, shield, cloak and crested helmet

I will be at Vapnartak next weekend as well the little do in Prestonpans the week after if a direct hand to hand transfer is appropriate.

David Bowie RIP

"Space Oddity"

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown,
engines on
Check ignition
and may God's love be with you

[spoken]
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Liftoff

This is Ground Control
to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule
if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating
in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past
one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much
she knows

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead,
there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you....

Here am I floating
round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do.

I Have Nothing To Say

Keeping in line with a recent T-Shirt conversation here is one which I should purchase.

Actually I probably have quite a lot to say but now is not the time.

I am quite busy, painting another Old Guard unit, some Union Cavalry, a WSS British Guard unit, making some Heroscape streams and bridges, reading a book on the AWI, emailing a Spanish flag making company about an error on their products and generally guddling about.

I have identified all the shows in 2016 that I plan to attend including Crisis in Antwerp (and we are taking our women), booked a months vacation in the Sunshine State for a much needed dose of Vitamin D.

How is everyone else?

What shows will I bump into you at?

Candidates are Albanich, Vapnartak, Carronade, Claymore, Border Reiver, SKELP, Battleground, Targe and Crisis.

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year Everyone

2015 has been a year of Ups and Downs for me.

I started with a 'Down' after an overnight trip to see an out-of-hours doctor as my stomach pains were really really bad.

Then there was an 'Up' as my youngest daughter got married.

Another sort of 'Down' as we had to postpone our annual trip to the Sunshine State.

A couple of  'Ups' followed as I had two good charity trading shows (Carronade and Claymore) which boosted the funds greatly.

To keep things in balance I had a really bad 'Down' with suspected Meningitis and then a little 'Down' with my gall bladder being removed.

I suppose the general trend is now 'Up' and I'm doing everything I can to keep it so.

My hope is that 2016 will be a year of many 'Ups' and no 'Downs'.

Happy New Year Everyone.