Winter nights.

Well like many the snow put paid to my business trips this last week so I set to and painted some more figures.
I've started on my next Albion Regiment and have 22 line now finished and example of which is below;

In addition I also finished a few characters who now await their bases to be finished.
The first is the man himself Charles de Comyn

Then we have Rupert Gibb, the CO of the Albion Light Infantry

Finally Mdme de Bournville, a lady companion to Charles!

Apologies re the pics, better ones will follow at some point.

Fiasco - I'd rather be painting

Today saw me steal away to the Fiasco show at its new venue Saviles at the Armouries at Leeds,
I've been going to the Leeeds show for more years than I care to remember and have always looked forward to this.
Today was the trial of a new venue which I liked very much, but what's happened to the show? 5 possibly six games, a fair few traders yes but nothing to hold me there for any length of time, after an hour I was done, £4.00 to get in, £5.00 spent!! more spent in petrol and not a good day.
On the painting front I have started another Albion Regiment, 12 figures done and then I've run out!!! an order has been placed with Minden and hopefully reinforcements will arrive shortly, poor logistical planning.
Hopefully pics next week.

Progress

Well although I had aimed to completely retire last December I'm still working, mainly to be able to continue to buy loads more of Franks excellent Minden Miniatures.

 These are some pics of the completed Normandie infantry in the display case, standards and flock still to be added, but proof at last that we are up and running again. The drummers were a pain but once in the grove they came out ok. (Please excuse the Jason and argonauts in some pics)

 The two opposing Regiments living harmoniously in the cabinet, when the next Regiment is completed ( another Albion foot unit)  I will have to find another cabinet or send the men into secure quarters.

A close up of the drummers, don't look too bad!



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  I thought I'd start on some of the characters, so at left we have General Morbier, as you can see still on the painting table hence the background. I'm plannin on finding a coach that I can paint up in Comyn household colours for the General.

Foundry figures for those that are interested.

These pics show Albions General McLean almost ready to lead the Regiments into action, in the background is the Col. ( as yet unnamed) of the Normandie foot.

So with luck and a fair wind the mojo is back and we can at last see the armies starting to mobilise for real.

Woe betide the butterfly effect

Well another prolonged absence and whilst I may claim overwork it is only partially true. I was due to retire but they keep enticing me with new projects, that leads to more money and that leads to more wargames projects. So what's been happening? Writing the background for Scotia Albion has continued unabated, characters are fleshed out, a little more history has developed, and some strong minicampaigns prepared, just haven't painted the figures (well a few)

I just find my mind wandering and I end up with six or seven different projects on the painting table, I have drifted back into fantasy (blame my son), drifted into ancients (blame me), drifted into VBCW blame Robert at the club.

A sample of what I have been doing is below;-

These are pic of my Magnesia project, always loved pike and elephants. Guess I've painted a couple of hundred of these chaps so far!

This is Lord Guisboro and his body guard from my just started Very British Civil War project!!!

Here is Phillip d'Olley Minister of War, see I have done some Scotia Albion!!

Finally Richard Stark, assassin and spy extrodinaire. If I had painted nothing but my 18th Century there would be a full scale war going on, but that is life.
I have two regiments completed and after my Holiday in September my next Scotia Regiment hits the painting desk.

I think in the mean time I will use the blog to report my progress on all matters gaming in this mad world of mine.

Partizan and so much for a New Resolution

Well don't make promises you can't keep and what started out as a positive affirmation certainly hasn't held true!! The painting plods on but I do hope for an upturn soon and Sunday saw a colleague and I travel to Partizan to put on a demo game (ppor pics shown). The show as usual was v.nice with lots of good games and a nice selection of traders. This year the catering was abysmal, not enough staff and no draft beer!!
Our game was next to Grand Manner and Dave Bodley has been soooo busy, so although I didn't intend to but much I ended up with a load of resin and excitement about what he's bringing out soon.
As to the game an AWI bash, however with on;y two of us we had loads of people wanting to talk which meant we only got 5 bounds played!! The high point being my freshly painted Hessians firing two devasting vollets at close range and crippling the Continental Regulars.

Rules used, as usual, JohnBull/Patriots by The Perfect Captain - a jolly good set of rules.
Hols are in two weeks but I do try and promise myself to keep updating. I have eventually got enough people ready to play the AWI campaign I had mooted in January and we will be starting upon my retrun.

A New Year, a new resolution?

Like many, the best prepared plans went more than slightly off target towards the end of last year. The painting schedule almost ground to a halt due to work commitments but the enthusiasm continued unabated.

So its a Happy New Year to every one. The resolution is to update the blog on a fairly regular basis and if its not with painting progress at least with my thoughts or with reports on my other 18th century diversion of the AWI.

I have attached a few photos from a recent game I staged at my local club in an attempt to drum up some new recruits. Rules used are from the Perfect Captain and I have to say I feel they play very well and give good feel for the period.

This particular action was a Guilford Courthouse type game with the British trying to stop their opponents loading supplies into wagons and exiting off the board. Random arrival etc made for a very exciting game. Unlike most of the my previous games with these rules the British managed to avoid taking heavy casualties and the British Generals managed to defy all averages delivering some extremely crippling volleys at the most oportune moment.

In this particular case a British victory, whilst I'm painting my other armies I'm planning on running an AWI southern campaign in the New Year to see if the British luck holds.

All the best for 2010