Lots of New Greens

 Richard Ansell just sent me photos of the next set of greens heading my way,

Civilian militia marching and skirmishing, female homesteaders fighting and some nice French regulars in turn back coats charging.

A few more Prussians.

 In between preparing an article for the Wargames Annual and doing battle with companies who don’t want to refund money when they don’t supply goods I have found a little time to further the SYW Command and Colours project.

3 more bases of Prussian infantry - I’m using one base to a battalion and where I can get the extra standard bearers then my intention is to base up as shown to represent a two battalion regiment this also gives options for other rule sets.

The third base were the left overs!

One of the main reason of usin flats was to let me incorporate the little vignettes etc that they are so fond of doing. To that end I decided to make a series of smaller bases to use as garrisons for buildings, towns etc and also to represent assaulting troops attacking fortifications etc.. initially I’d hoped to use 40mmx30mm bases so four bases took up the same area as a normal base, that didn’t work so it’s 40x40.

You will see what I’m trying to achieve and the reason for my comments in the photos below. These were already painted and I’ve just tried to do a little work on them to tie them in with the rest of the figures I’ve done

Guess I need some walls to use those ladders 😁. I’ve also started work on the cards used in C&C Tricorne although I still may use the Ramekin ideas from Prometheus in Aspic’s  blog which replaces the tactical cards with chits. Lots to ponder.

Few figures for sale

 As my own range of figures for the French Indian War gains momentum I will gradually replace the figures I’d already painted from the excellent Galloping Major range

First up I have 32 Canadian Militia and a Huron character.

Looking for £150 that includes UK postage - will post overseas at cost

Off the bench this week - ( Reinforcements for the Mohawks and more flats!)

This is my third attempt to post, apologies in advance if my text suddenly gets underlined! I’m finding that once I post photos then all the text gets underlined and I can’t remove it!

Anyway I finished basing the Fife and Drum Mohawks that we’re painted for me by Steve Allen, they’ve come out nice and once I finish the Huron’s I will have enough pieces to have my first try out of the new edition of musket and tomahawks.

I also picked up some bits and pieces from Berliner Zinnfiguren - they operate a flea market on their site and I bought some Generals and Hussars for a very fair price. I also bought some grenadiers for effectively the cost of unpainted figures. The grenadiers need a little touching up but overall very useful additions. I tried an idea re putting a name plate on the bases - I did this with the Hussars but I’m not keen so may resort to something else! 

I’m pretty much set now on the basing as being 80x60 to use with the Command and Colours Tricorn idea I have and I’ve started making notes for the rules and cards.  Also looking at bases to represent garrisons etc as I want to be able to maximise the dynamics of the ‘ flat’ figure.

This is worth a little watch it’s a link to a German news item on the new owner of the Kieler flat figure range ( some 11000 items in the range) You don’t need to understand German to be suitably impressed by his house and displays. I have some pieces on order from him

https://www.mdr.de/video/mdr-videos/d/video-395754.html

Finally the local club has reopened, now I haven’t been yet. Our club is run in the lounge of the pub and quite rightly the owner has put quite tight restrictions in place, so you can’t wander between tables, table service for food and drinks and no more than 4 to a table, part of my enjoyment for attending is the ability to go and chat and see what others are doing so without being able to do this then I’ve decided not to attend, apart from that I still think it’s all a bit too early as recent activity in Aberdeen has shown.

Finally I got notification that Salute is scheduled for the 10th April next year, will it happen? 

Bearing in mind the Nightingale isn’t due to be decommissioned until the end of March then this winter is certainly going to be an interesting one if this damned pandemic spikes again, even more importantly will Vapnartak happen at York in February? I’m thinking under the current climate no or if it does it certainly won’t be in the format we know.

Moan over - back to the paint table

This week off the bench.

well I’ve finally finished the 30mm flats and made lots of notes on rules, figures etc.
I’ve enjoyed doing these and look forward to doing more.

Steve finished painting the new Mowhawk figures, I’ve started basing next up is the Provincials need a couple of units finishing before Richard finishes sculpting the civilians

I like these guys my FIW collection is growing quickly and I think I need to get Richard to sculpt some more British regulars in cut down coats etc and seated troops for boats!

Back to some more Highlanders this coming week. With the cancellation of the other Partizan it gives me a little longer to get the Culloden game finished but I’d rather stick with it and try and have it done by October. 

Also been notified Salute next year has been brought forward to the 10th April! The Nightingale ( as far as I know) isn’t due to be decommissioned until the end of March let’s hope it’s not needed! and even then I’m still not certain how shows will be received early next year.

Keep safe

A bit more C&C and a touch of nostalgia

Last week saw my son and I continue our AWI foray using the Command and Colours game.
On this occasion we started with Grant’s attack at the Battle of Long Island.  In effect the British were attacking to pin the continentals whilst their flank attack developed ( the flank attack is another scenario)
I should have realised how this game was going to go when the British pre bombardment destroyed 50%of my battery, the early cards played showed the British were going to push on their right.

 Co-ordinated attacks all along the British line gradually pushed me back and off the main ridge line, my son managed to keep his troops and commanders in contact allowing him to maximise any type of line command cards.

 Despite me having decent command cards in this game my dice throwing was little better than average whilst as you can see the British were having success.

 This continued throughout and it wasn’t long before the Americans were forced to concede defeat.

The photos above and below show the casualty stacks! Couldn’t hit a barn door comes to mind for my forces. Who needs a flank attack when you can destroy all before you?

Finally a wonderful piece of nostalgia found this on the dear Tony Blair blog.

http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2020/07/hinchliffe-models-promotional-film-from.html

It is well worth a watch and really underlines how successful Hinchliffe models were in their heyday, I could just never do their 28mm figures justice - I also wonder what happened to their large scale figures - did sky tree get them and not sell them?

Peter Gilder makes an appearance and I had the pleasure in meeting him on a number of occasions, quite a few times over the gaming table when playing WRG Ancients and he brought his wonderful Sassanids and also when he offered me 8 castings for 1 when he acquired my one battalion of Painted Greenwood and Ball Napoleonic British infantry and I ended up with 240+ Hinchliffe Prussians which I never finished painting! Halcyon days?

Feeling a bit ‘flat’

There are only so many tartans you can paint before you need a break.
Paul Robinson - Grimsby Mariner on his blog had gone back to his SYW project using flats and of course that got me thinking!

I’ve had some flat figures for some time but never brought any to conclusion - my original thought was to use the ancients to do a Greek -Persian conflict using a Command and Colours set up.

Anyway I decided to paint a ‘base’ worth up.

Not come out too bad I think! I like the idea of doing mini vignettes etc and they’re quicker to paint than rounds!
That then got me thinking of the SYW whilst I’m painting Jacobites,Saxons, British and French I can never see me painting Austrians and Prussians so I’ve started a couple of samples hope to have them done by Wednesday

Quite enjoying the short break.

Tomorrow more AWI gaming with my son