Short Update

 I had high hopes this week of getting lots done and squeezing in a game, unfortunately between problems with my leg and it’s associated blood clot and getting a head cold off my grand daughters then the plans have largely been scuppered.

However I managed to complete a few bits and as the wife is going away on Saturday for a week my stall is set out to fight Guildford Courthouse using Live Free or Die with a couple of tweaks from Loose Files and American scramble. It’s a reasonably sized engagement with pretty much all troop types in the one battle. I shall report on this over the weekend.

As to what’s got off the bench Battalion Grubenhagen completes the 1st Hanoverian Brigade and I’ve just started on the first unit of Belgians.

Using the Warlord Epic Rifles they will be passable on the table.

Because of the slowdown of the painting due to the head cold I thought I’d have a go at building a 10mm ship I’d purchased from Stonewall Figures.

It’s a 28 gun frigate and comes with crew and guns, designed for Napoleonic I aim to use it for AWI so whilst the Marine figures aren’t suitable the sailors are passable. The challenge was in the assembly as there are no instructions! I contacted Mark the owner of the company who helped as best he could but told me when he acquired the company the ship templates didn’t have any instructions.  The pieces are all numbered and in essence you start at one and go from there.!

There were a few chewy moments and there is only one photo of the completed model. The hardest part is going to be working out the length of the dowels for the masts.!

I also received a couple of books the first is ( I think) a fairly old Osprey - Boston 1775 and covers Lexington/ Concord and the action around Bunker/Breeds Hill. 

The second is a pretty weighty tome and one which at first glance looks very impressive

My first coalition project is still trickling along in the background and I think this is going to be extremely useful. A further update once I’ve looked through. 

AWI and epic progress.

 I was quite surprised that it’s been a couple of weeks since I updated my blog! Where does the time go.

Anyway following on from my last post and my comment re the desire to do some of the early actions I’m America then my progress on the 1768 uniformed figures has gone quite well ( considering I’m painting other things as well). So far I’ve managed to paint three units, based them and ordered the flags from Maverick. One unit just had its bases inked today.

I’ve found a style of painting that I’m comfortable with and which is pretty quick. I always gloss varnish the figures before applying a Matt varnish but I usually do that in batches so these little chaps are awaiting that process.

In addition as you can see I’ve been making a lot of fences, again they’ve had the sand applied and inked today so I can get them dry brushed etc over the next couple of days. The fences are from Blotz and I think they work pretty well. A lot of the pieces I pushed out between the rails I’m keeping for when I start making the flèches for the Bunker Hill game. 

Speaking of Bunker Hill Mark Nichipor ( My Brave Fusiliers blog) contacted me and provided me with a lot of information on the layout of the redoubt on Breeds Hill, it’s size etc and the units that were deployed there. A great help so thanks very much to Mark. From my days of doing demo games it came as no surprise that the size of the redoubt compared to groundscale would require some fudging so internally the redoubt will end up being about 10cm by 4cm which is around twice as large as it should be, but because of the size of the battle I can accommodate that without it distorting the rest of the field. So busy drawing up a scale plan at present.

I am really hoping I can find time to run a test game of Little Wars Tv Live free or die rules. They’re based upon Andy Callan’s Loose Files and American scramble and after having read both sets there are a couple of things the Little Wars team dropped that I may reintroduce, we shall see.

Finally I’ve been pressing on with the Epic Quatre Bras project, initially I was focussed on using DBN, which I still intend to do, but also decided to build forces to use Keith Flint’s  Shadow of Eagles. Keith uses a standard 4 bases to a unit and I intend to use 1 epic bases to two of his. So notionally a base is around 300 infantry or 200 cavalry. It does mean a couple of units (British Guards, Nassau)will be three bases and I will most probably allow them to ignore the first hit received to reflect their size and not t overpower them so much within the framework of the rules.

So I managed to finish the extra bases for the Guards Brigades and started on the 1st Hanoverian Brigade, 4 battalions are complete and the 5th is almost done 😁.

For one of the units I used MSC miniatures stl files. Available from Wargaming 3D. There are a lot of files now available for epic scale and I got a chap at the club to print me the British in shako’s to use as Hanoverians. They are on slightly thicker bases so to keep the height difference to a minimum I’ve based them on thin plasticard and left them on a 5 figure frontage. I think they will work fine and I have already had printed Brunswick troops and Dutch line and militia. We shall see,

I’m busy working on standards for these chaps. 

So all in all a fairly productive time and that’s not mentioning the 28mm WOTR! 

More next week.

AWI muster.

 As the day has been one of constant rain since 9am I took myself off into the loft room to finish off some basing and painting. Whilst watching the rain fall I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how much of my 10mm AWI I had painted and what needed doing. 

I was pleasantly surprised by how how much I have done. There are lots of bases need finishing, standards to be issued and flag edges to be painted.

I’m tempted to do a Bunker Hill game which I believe I can fit on a 4’x4’ but that does mean I need to paint some 1768 British (started).

I apologise for the photos but poor light interfered I shall do better ones soon.

First up the American ‘rebels’

These chaps really are pretty much done I had far more than I thought! However a battalion of light infantry some continentals in brown coats and a few more light guns wagons etc wouldn’t go amiss 🤣

Now onto the Kings Army

These chaps are very much outnumbered! I need to paint some more regulars both for the Southern campaign and in 1768 dress. I would also like to do Trenton this Christmas if possible! In the past I have used the rules by the Perfect Captain which I found to be excellent, I still use their army organisation charts for campaign games. However I’m quite keen to try Live Free or Die by Little Wars TV which are an adaption of Andy Callan’s loose files and American scramble. Except my one base equates to their two as they use 25mm square and I use 40mm frontage.

I’ve also decided moving forward ( bit late really) to base the regulars in 8 rather than 10 unless early or German.

Anyway that was a pleasant surprise, just need to locate what buildings I have. Fencing has been ordered from Blotz. And the printer will get warmed up for the earthworks for Bunker/Breeds Hill.

Keep safe