Workbench Thursday

Apologies that its been a while since I gave regular updates,  lots going on and I thought retirement was all about relaxation and doing what you want!!!

Saxe's cavalry are now all based and just need the bases finishing and the figures matt varnishing. Still painting more British Line!

to the right there's some 15mm ancients for Big Battle DBA - this time the army of Spartacus and in the back ground some Perry plastic ACW - couldn't resist their battle in a box so I'm seeing how quick I can paint them using base coats, wash and highlight!!

Battleground show at Stockton on Saturday which I'm looking forward to- last show of the year for me.

A small Naval diversion.

In between all the painting and sorting out I came across a box containing my Langton Napoleonic ships bought some years ago.
I did complete four of these with all the rigging etc but it was quicker to paint a unt of 28mm figures than do one ship.
I then came across Model J ships - http://modeljship.com/en/
  Julian the proprietor is a master at his craft - he paints, rigs and bases the ships ( only Langton) so after much thought I sent him 3 British ships from my original Algeciras project.
They arrived today :)

I am over the moon with these. Check out his web site - he has started doing resin forts as well, now I know he's not cheap but you get value for money and one ship is still cheaper than a unit of 28mm.
Beautiful stuff - some Spanish will be going off for the treatment! shortly.

Johann Sebastian Rae

When the AMG forum members met up at Partizan to do the two large battles based on the prelude to Waterloo. John Ray had very kindly sculpted and had cast a small vignette which he gave to the participants as a nice commemoration of the event.

I have pondered for a while how best to present this.

For those that have seen my workbench then you know I generally like to have a lot of pieces on the bench.

Eventually it all came together in the small display, I've used the Landau from Westfalia Miniatures, the horse holder from Black Hussar, a couple of Foundry figures, a dog from warbases and of course the two figures sculpted by John.

So here we have Johann Sebastian Rae the Grand Maester of the Guilde arriving in the DUchy of Comyn to examine how they are spending his investment in the war against Albion.

As an aside I also invested in some of the excellent desk organiser pieces from Hobby Zone in Poland,
the result is I have tidied the desk and for me, at least, I'm organised. They are excellent pieces and from order to delivery took about 9 days. First class in every way.

Workbench Progress

Slight change of pace. I finished the  Forged in Battle - War and Empire Macedonians for BBDBA a couple of  weeks ago but just gor round to finishing the basing etc.
Nice figures and paint up reasonably quick - using ink washes to speed up the process - next up Spartacus!!!!

 On the 18th Century front nearly finished a Minden Marshall - painting as Saxe in his regimental colours also doing some samples of the Princes Lifeguard as both the Lifeguard and the Garde Ecosse,to the right is Cumberland - thought it was about time I got him finished.

Sad News

I have learnt today of the passing of the extremely talented illustrator Bob Marrion.

My deepest sympathies and thoughts lie with his family.

I think the majority of us will have admired his work in magazines and books that sit on our shelves, he will be missed.

Casting machine, vulcaniser etc for sale.

Just a small off the wall post. I'm looking at selling my Tiranti casting machine, it has 6" plates and and all the accessories it came with.
To go with the machine is a vulcanising press with a 6" pan and a Seba 5kg melting pot.
The Tiranti and melting pot are both 3 years old, the press is about 10 but still works well.
Blank discs as well.
Since I now get all my figures cast by Griffin it's easier for me to stick conversions, parts etc in my moulds to them rather than make my own.
If you're interested or know anyone who may be then get in touch.
Thanks

Chotusitz - The Wargame

Last weekend I was invited up to Charles Grant's to take part in a weekends gaming for a forthcoming book. My opponent for the day was to be John Dougan who would take command of the Austrians and I was to be Frederick!

We had been kept in the dark of the battle to be fought and upon arrival I was given briefing sheet etc. and the armies were deployed. Whilst I recalled the name of the battle I couldn't recall the details and neither could John so we both too to the field with no prior knowledge.

Because of the future publication I am not going to provide any details of the game or declare the outcome!!

The photographs below are all of the initial deployment and early moves so as not to give anything away. Suffice to say it was close fought and a cracking weekends gaming.

Charles and Liz , as usual, were excellent hosts and John a worthy opponent.
On to the pics.
                            The scene upon arrival the Austrians on the right - 14 battalions of Infantry, 5 1/2 Regiments of cavalry and 5 guns against 6 Battalions of Infantry, 5 1/2 Regiments of cavalry, 4 guns and some battalion guns ( to arrive in the centre Frederick and 8 battalions of Infantry)

 A closer shot of the Austrian army from their left flank

 The Prussian forces from their right flank

 Chotusitz village and the Prussian cavalry on the left flank negotiating the marsh and seeking to deploy as quickly as possible.

 The Prussian cavalry launch a major attack on the cavalry on the Austrian left seeking to gain an early upper hand and delay Austrian deployment

 Another shot of the Prussian right flank cavalry moving forward

 Battle is joined on the Prussian right - the Austrian cavalry hastily turn to meet the attack

 The battle is hotly contested outside the village.

Enough said the rest you will have to read and see when Charles' book is released :)

Workbench Thursday 3/9/2015

I guess it's going to be autumn before I get back into weekly updates :(
However whilst you may not be able to see it there are gaps on the workbench although to be fair they've been filled this morning by the arrival of two painted British battalions from Mark Allen
the green faced unit will be Fleming's 36th and the buff Regiment the 27th (Inniskilling).
Whilst they sit on their bases letting the glue set I will get the standards ready for issue. This will bring me up to 9 battalions of the 16 needed for Culloden so we are now past half way :)

From Bench to table

The first two units completed off the bench - just short of 100 figures.
Barrells Regiment which took the heaviest casualties at Culloden now based and ready for action, the Standards are by Flags of War and I stock them in the shop.

The Suren Grenadiers as I said before were purchased more from the nostalgic point of view however I have contemplated keeping some odd units back for use in the Albion campaigns - I saw the standard on the warflag site its a Medieval one 'The Guild' and hence a kernel of an idea -troops supplied by the Guild to ensure the money they have loaned to various states is being spent wisely and to good effect in the struggles, so the Grenadiers are the first of 'The Guild' to march.

Assault on the work bench!!!!

Over the last three weeks my son and i decided to sell all our GW fantasy figures so much of my spare time has been taken up taking photo's, listing etc. part of me was quite sad as there's lots of good memories tied up in them of the games we had.
However as my son pointed out with his plans to move to America that's all they would be, the armies would just sit on the shelf and all we would have are the memories!!!
So better to sell, spread the joy so to speak and we keep our memories - looks like he's got quite sound reasoning.
Any way this clear out also leads to the decision to have an assault on the workbench - tidy and organised aren't two words that feature on my bench. However I have decided this month to go full on, base figures that have been sat there for months and try and get as many of the figures painted and off the bench as possible.

Barrel's regiment - a recent addition is done and bases waiting the paint. The old 30mm Suren Grenadiers I bought some time ago, the paint job was good in parts but flash had been left on the legs and some parts of the figures not painted fully.

I didn't fancy stripping them right back as I'd bought them more from the wargaming history perspective than the gaming side and whilst deciding what to do they've sat at the back of the table for best part of a year!! Any way the decision was to base them and tidy the paintwork up as best as possible - yes I've left the flash on and to be fair whilst it goes against the grain unless you examine the figures closely you can't see it on the figures where its present.

So lets see what the next week brings as gaps start to appear on the bench!

Late update - Lots done

I really need to catch up with the posts but its been busy on the Crann Tara front and with my good lady wanting a few days away then time to access the PC has been limited.
A bit of a cornucopia of goodies really
First up to regiments of French painted by a colleague for me, just finished basing today. The flags for De Clare are painted by Mark Allen, the flags for Languedoc are purchased from Maverick flags.

 Not having time to do Napoleonics in 28mm ( other than a bit of skirmishing) and been quite taken with the Blucher rules thought I'd paint and base a unit for the rules in 20mm! - Dutch Belgians, 24 figures on a Blucher base, once I've finished them off will put up some more pics.

 Finally my 36 element Macedonian army for DBA3 is still progressing - light Cavalry and Thessalians . Figures from West Wend/Forged in battle.

So all in all not a bad couple of days work. My wife is back at work tomorrow so apart from cutting grass its a painting day :)