A brief diversion

On my front doorstep (which we never use and hence what follows) a few weeks back was a parcel that had come to me from the UK. I opened it and it turned out to be the copy of Duncan Head's "Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars". I had ordered it in February and promptly forgotten about it. I am sure it arrived with all despatch and had waitied there patiently for me to notice it.

A pleasant surprise you may say, and indeed it was. Even more surprising was the fact that the snails had deigned merely to nibble lightly upon the envelope before nicking off in search of some lettuce instead.

 Well, I was flicking through it today - these books are extremely flick-friendly, you understand - and what a treat it is. Three-paragraph battle descriptions, sections on the composition and descriptions of the Armies and so on.

Then you come to Ian Heath's illustrations. There are 188 of them.

Fair use, yeah Ian?

I invite you to admire them and then ask yourself why no-one seems (that I can see) to have picked up on their "look" to do a range of 30mm miniatures. The only thing with which I can compare them is the work of the German flat engravers. Such clean lines. Such nice anatomy. Such uncluttered simplicity.

UPDATE - OK there are these from Garrison:

Rose Prestige Greek - buy them in huge quantities, they are gorgeous.

But that's about it so far as I can tell. Someone... anyone.. please!

How Much is Enough?

I was home with a nasty head cold yesterday, so after Amy had taken the kids off to creche, I slept most of the morning. Rising at lunchtime (oh, how bohemian of me) I decided to make good use of my time and get some more painting done.

I ran through the next five Landknechts and Spanish then prepped up the next three figures for painting. What fun.

Later in the day I bought a Me 109E-4, one of the lovely new-tooled Airfix kits. No good reason for it - I was just in a Battle of Britain sort of mood.

Looking for a place to start building it on my workbench led me to try to clear things up.

Oh dear.

No room.

And my storage spaces are pretty well fully utilised.

Now, this ghastly situation has resolved* a looming cloud of gloom.

No further major projects?

Perhaps. I could see a time where I'd dabbled with most things that interest me. I have WAS/7YW armies for Europe and North America. I have fair sized WW2 forces for North Africs and Barbarossa (and aren't the new Miniairons T-26s nice?). I have the various incarnations of the Duchy of Alzheims' armies for the 16th, 18th and 19th centuries. There are Warhammer Dwarves, Melniboneans, Pan Tangians, Riders of Rohan, High Elves of the First Age. There are huge numbers of Egyptians (160 and counting) and Mahdists (300?). There are various odds and sods of British Colonials in Home and Foreign Service Dress. There are a few dozen Britains 1914 French. There is a large chest of drawers stuffed with plastic model kits - were I an honest man I would also admit to the plastic tubs stacked in the car port filled with various kits and bits. I forgot the 25mm Tradition ACW collection. You klnow, the one I actually have the odd game with!

There is even a largeish stash of Napoleonic lead for the eventuality that I ever go to the Iberian peninsula.

Do I need to add to all this? Will I ever paint those Xyston galleys? Or the dozen or so Langdon ships that I have in baggies to go with the HMS Agamemnon (74) and the HMS Lydia (26)?

Can it be that I cannot conceive at this time of adding any new projects to this lot? Sure, some projects may gain an extra branch - most likely the 7YW Brits getting some Jacobites to brawl against at Prestonpans - but entirely new growths? I'm starting to wonder.

So there you go - perhaps my Slovaks and Landsknechts are the end of the road for me. Nothing is ever certain in life, and I feel that there are Ancients lurking there somewhere, but I feel that this may yet come to be.

*In the sense of brought into focus.

Back-of-the-Envelope-Doodling

Landsknechts:

Let's say we build a regiment of 50 of them. Going on Ross's ratios (sounds pretty official, eh?), that's 5 guys with two-handed swords and halberds; 10 with arquebuses and 35 with pikes. Seems a bit - to borrow a word - fecky to me.

What about 60 figures? 6 with two-handers and halberds, a dozen arquebusiers and 42 pikes. That seems a bit better, especially the arquebusiers. But it could be better for our close-quarter specialists.

Moving into danger territory, now. 80 figures. 8 guys with two-handed swords and halberds, 16 arquebusiers and 56 pikemen.

It might look a little like this:

        PPPPPPPP
        PPPPPPPP
        PPPPPPPP
        HSHSHSHS
        PPCCCCPP
        PPCCCCPP
        PPPPPPPP
        PPPPPPPP

AAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA

P=pike, H=halberd, S= two-handed sword, C="command" and A=arquebus.

Even more dangerously, I'm starting to look at figure poses. Common sense would dictate having the pikes more or less in the vertical position. But then I saw this:



Pinched fron the Tradition of London catalogue.

Life can be just so damned cruel, can't it?

Meanwhile, I've a thought bubble that I'll inflict upon you all. If wargamers strive for realism in their games, do fantasy gamers strive towards (whilst admitting that it's a chimera, a will o' the wisp, even) magical realism?

I'll stop bothering you now.

Heckenfeur

Or:

The disorganised ramblings of a tired mind.

A few nice toys bumped their way into random corners of the garden this week, courtesy of Australia Posts' parcel delivery service. I think I am on first name trems with most of their drivers.

Among them were sufficient Castaway Arts Egyptian Infantry to flesh out a fourth TSaTF unit - I'm intending to use them as skirmishers who'll pop in and out of the square at need. lovely clean castings as ever and sterling service as usual from Mr Webb.

Also on the pile are some lovely Willie 21st Lancers. These castings are rather better than some I have had from Tradition Scandinavia in the past, so I'm hopeful for the rest of their part in my Colonial plans! So, 16 of those, but I will build the unit up to 24 or so castings. The idea is to build a "dioramic" unit which when laid out will represent the 21st's charge at Omdurman. I'm wanting to get a lot of movement into the unit through careful figure selection - the horses will play a big part here - I'll be using either Spencer Smith "Classic" range horses with a few extras bought in from the Tradition range. Expect the odd  Ansar to share the bases with them! That's the plan. Let us hope the execution is up to it!

What else? I bought a pair of Le Creusot Long Toms fm the TVAG website. Part of the Richard Houston range of guns, I snapped them up the moment I saw them and have an eye on their 4.7", 3" and Pom-Poms. It's a bit crude in places  - especially around the wheels, but nopthing that can't be overlooked. I'm thinking of getting a bunch of the Willie Boers and with a little arm-bending, produce something like this:

Again, that's the plan - the proof will as ever be in the execution.

All of this leads me by circituous means to the following observations:

Got many grand plans that have led you into a severe case of overreach recently? I'm looking especially hard at YOU, Imagi-nations! Here's the life-cycle - The blog is announced with a fanfare on the OSW site or on TMP. It has a span of a few weeks or months or a year as one company of the 16-regiment, Charge!-styled army is painted, photographed, named (with many a ponderous pun) and abandoned as it all suddenly seems too hard. The bubble bursts and the blog disappears.

I fear my own version of overreach. I call it Grand Designs gone wrong. I fear I may be rather prone to this megalomaniacal  tendency. Too may "big" projects on the go at the same time = too little appreciable progress on any one of them. Stagnation, frustration... you get where I am going here.

My other observation. why is it that we feel so constrained by "historicity" in some periods, and so little by it in others? Do we feel constrained by it at all? I certainly have no compunction whatsoever with regard to my Duchy of Alzheim (ahem, Bavarian) and Imperial (ahem, Austrian) armies, yet I do with my FIW armies. I feel free to mingle units from different battles and even different campaigns in my colonial forces, yet might feel the need to be rather more rigid were I ever to get into Napoleonics. Maybe it's what we have fed back to us by the hobby-at-large. Maybe it's what we feel the need to do to be taken seriously by other gamers? Maybe it's just that Grant and Gilder "allowed" us to take things more lightly in these periods - certainly I've been happy to take my queue from them.

I think an interesting discussion might be had on the topic.

What do you think?

Bits and bobs

 Just a few bits and bobs today. As you can see from the picture above, I've taken delivery of some Amera vac-formed terrain. In my case, five straight and two curved sections as well as a nice little bridge and a forked section. They all butt up neatly against each other so, so far so good. All the work will be in the painting I'd think, so I'll see how I go. I've probably got something like two metres of river - surely enough?

Side-note - I wonder how they'd paint as roads?

 In painting news, I'e finished glossing the heck out of these Spencer Smith "Classic" Franco-Prussian War French. The coats are a bit darker in reality - blame the flash photographer! I have decided to paint the rifle-toting arms seperately before fixing them to the torso in future.

Apart from that they were lovely to paint - surprisinly unencumbered by extraneous detail and a nice subject. I used a semi-washed style with these on a white undercoat again, but was unable to resist doing some highlighting. Some habits are very hard to break. I felt the black lining worked quite well to firm up the definition of the figure.

Sometimes it's not worth posting a comment on a blog!

I've been called a lot of things on the Internet before, but this is a first!

Looking back and looking forward

Sleepless at a quarter-past-midnight, I've decided to get out of bed and write myself to a standstill.

Looking back over the past 12 months, I am as ever somewhat amazed at how much I have acheived on the one hand, and how little I have actually finished on the other.

On the credit side of the ledger, I have been very productive; taking the Spencer Smith project, I have either bought or painted nine regiments of foot, six of horse and a pair of batteries all of which are in a state where I would not be ashamed to put them on a table and play a game with them. On the debit side, I have yet to do so! Likewise the "Old School ACW" project - I spent most of 2010 getting theresources in place and have so far played exactly one game with them.

While I am being hard on myself, there is the "1565 Project" which in my usual style got off to a flying start and is now little more than a disjointed collection of (albeit nicely-painted) bits.

I suffer from a lack of an opponent and a regular close peer group (sorry online world, but you're just not the same as the real thing!) who would keep me better stimulated. I'm sad to report that I find solo gaming both a bore and a chore. Note - join a club! This is a state of affairs that I really need to address to move forward.

On the positive side (and looking forward) I am currently involved in a group project to put three (!) demonstration games on at CanCon 2013. They will be Isandalwana, 55 Days at Peking and a yet-to-be-finalised action from the Franco-Prussian War - the last I am especially hopng to be deeply involved in as I want the chance to paint some of the Spencer Smith "Classic" FPW figures.

Equally on the positive side, I am fizzing with enthusiasm for my Willie Landsknechts just now. Whether they will develop into a "proper" army or just a collection of stuff I like... well, let history be the judge of that. If nothing else, at least they will tie in with the figures I have for the "1565 project". Or maybe that may morph into some sort of Wars of Religion beast.

Again, on the plus side, I have just about finalised a deal on some old Ral Partha Renaissance/Condottiere figures. And, yes, I do realise that this is doubling up something terrible. Nonetheless, these are really lovely sculpts and do I really need a reason? True 25mm by Ton Meier. They look like Swiss and Landsknechts for the most part that I have an eye on to mess about with for the early Italian Wars. I am seriously thinking of turning them into DBR armies as they would fit the basing really well. The small army sizes for DBR mean that I could create 3 or 4 factions should campaigning appeal.

A final mooted project would be a Willie Old West Cavalry versus Indians grand skirmish. Again, I love the figures and I am certainly NOT thinking of the Little Big Horn. Really. Not.

No, really.

Once a Knight...

I'm taking a little break at the moment from painting hordes of ACW soldiers and putting a little extra time into painting up a few figures for my "Great Siege" collection. what you see below is my basic cavalry figure, a mounted Knight of St John. Visual references are few and far between, so I've gone with what feels like a reasonable representation based on an Osprey plate from (I think) "The Warriors of the Cross" or the "Knights of Christ" or some similar title and the cover of the issue of Practical Wargamer featuring the Siege of Fort St Elmo.

Note that the lance may well be just a little too long, but I think it looks better that way.

Willie Spanish Mounted Arquebusier from the Spanish Conquest range with added 10cm steel lance and a Castaway Arts shield.

Same guy, different view.

I am discovering a renewed interest in painting and will probably spend the next few weeks painting a few comrades for him. And some opponents.

In other "news" - Is it just me, or is the blogosphere irrevocably doomed with no hope of recovery?

Now I have your attention, I just wanted to ask what's the deal with these "Stylish Blogger Awards" people are nominating each other for? Do we realise that these are structured pretty much like chain letters - everyone nominated is invited to nominate a further four blogs for the award. Therefore, to get one's own award, one has to finger another four folks.

Let it go on for long enough and everyone will have one which rather detracts from the cachet, does it not?

Really, how can getting an award under these circumstances be anything other than meaningless.

Post Script, I do have other issues with the blogosphere that I may explore at a later date.

Post #401

Bit of an update, OK?

Action on two fronts, as it were. As of today I'm finished the painting of the European troops I need for la Belle Famille. They are the New York Provincial Regiment, and mighty fine they look too in their green coats. I converted (slightly) a British drummer by putting a greenstuff "bearskin" front on his little cap to give him a little interest*. I like the way they look, being all in a firing line, nine shooters and nine loaders with an officer and the drummer keeping them in line. More than I need for the Battle, but I think that I'll come up with a use for them in the context of the wider Niagara campaign. That has been my idea for building this collection; over-do things for la Belle Famille in the hope that the greater campaign will turn out to have been well served.

This is what passes for planning in the Duchy of Alzheim!

I promise, promise, promise to get some photos up soon in support of my previous post, but time and circumstances have been against me. I can't promise when I can make good on this, but I certainly intend to. DoA has been something of a neglected child of late, though my conscience niggles and niggles at me.

On the topic, I've just gotten home from the hospital here. The Duchess is in the process of being induced and, without bothering you all with the details, we are waiting on the moment. It's late and I'm very tired and looking at being at the hospital again tomorrow morning at 7 am and waiting for her to go into labour. She's been waiting for things to get on since about 2 this afternoon, so we have spent a very boring and very LONG day doing not much of anything.

I did take the time to look at the latest White Dwarf and look long and thoughtfully at my 50 or so mounted Riders of Rohan and go "hmmmm, tasty". Is anyone else inspired or is it just me? Are the rules good or rubbish? All answers published in the pixels of this august journal.

Now, a beer and bed. I hope I don't get a call at 04:00; I may not be at my best.

* A little interest is a good thing. I am inspired to hack the heads off Grenadiers now and transfer them to highlanders with the greenstuff treatment. Voila - 42nd Regiment Grenadiers for Ticonderoga - someday..!

Heckenfeur

It is with a rather guilty start that I noticed the amount of time that has elapsed since my last post. Still as they say, it's a hobby, not a job, and so...

I'm still here and as usual painting far more than ever I game, which suits me well enough, although I do have a little Sword and the Flame bash lined up for a couple of weeks from now. That the game will be between Anglo-Egyptians versus Mahadists is about all that has so far been finalised, so I suppose there will be more as we talk it through.

Continuing along the Colonial front I have finished my first TSaTF unit (20 figs) of Victorian infantry. They look very smart; I'm pleased with how their red tunics came out. Red is a colour I normally struggle with a bit, but this has worked pretty well, despite Games Workshops' dreadful Mechrite Red bought in the hope I really would be able only to put on one coat of it over my black undercoat. I had to bulk it up rather with my trusty Vallejo paints to get an even enough coverage, sadly.

Still, they are done and I've moved on with my reward which is to paint the first four figures of the Victorian cavalry. The castings were most unpromising, just being really quite unattractive sculpts with poor location points for their seperate sword arms. I hope superglue will be enough to hold them on, and that a good paint-job will lift the poor chaps up a bit. Still their horses have painted very nicely and only need a shot of spray varnish to finish them off.

I actually went a bit overboard with the horses and painted seven of them - but I'm cheating and regarding this as preparation for my next "reward stage" which will be converting a couple of Cavalry to a mounted Infantry Colonel and his rather glittering ADC.

On the topic of rewards, I think I remarked in an earlier post that the "Defence of Melbourne" project would be soaking up about 60% of my hobby time this year. At the time I'd not really thought too much about what the rest would be, but now I know.

I've enough Grenze castings from DPC to finish of my Croat forces for the Strudelberg game (whenever that may happen); along with them I also got a couple of bags of Austrian German infantry who I intend to paint up per the test shots I did a while back with the red pants. Too gorgeous.

This ought to see me with some leftover Grenzers. Hm, what to do, what to do... I am thinking of cutting them up and trying to create some pose variants - after all, DPC only offer three - including the ropey Officer/NCO type wearing the cloak with an un-pleasing looking sword being freely brandished. Secondly, I think the cut of the Grenze uniform is not unlike that of the Hungarian infantry during the War of the Austrian Succession, and I'm doing to try my hand at producing some. Ulp! That's about 20% of my hobby time.

The remaining 20% will be taken up with some of the new Eureka Sumerians. This is a period of history that has always exerted a strong fascination for me and I am looking forward to getting some of these minis and really getting to grips with them. I'll review them when I have them to hand and talk about the project when it has gelled a little more.

What else, what else? I was moaning before about the poor quality of the GW "Foundation Paints". Let's go on and suggest that GW get out of the paint game and just stock Vallejo - or someone who does quality paint! Furthermore, have we seen the packs of plastic bases? 20mm and 25mm and 40mm and then the horse bases all in one pack! I guess I won't be buying any more of those then - Litko, here I come!

Heckenfeur

Getting the painting wobbles…

I’ve spent most of the past week painting a few old Willies and some Stadden command for IR 35. I had been wanting to be doing a really good job on these figures; not only do they cost an awful lot of money, but they are also my beau ideal for toy soldiers.

The upshot of the whole experience has been to convince me of a few things.

Firstly I’m a choker.

You know whaen you want to do a really, really, really good job painting figures and then just can’t? This happens to me every time I lay my hands on some particularly beautiful or coveted or expensive castings. All of a sudden I am a sausage-fingered idiot with a four-inch brych trying to paint the cross-belts on a 30 millimetre figure.

Sure, and I can paint just fine on any figure I have decided I don’t care about. Perhaps a solution lies in this direction? Perhaps I ought to get good and drunk before I touch my next Willie?*.

Which leads me in a near-perfect segue on to the new Willies.

I have only briefly seen the new ones – incautiously ripping open the mail one afternoon last week to discover my birthday present (roll on March 22nd!) – and admit to some mixed emotions on seeing them.

I have always really liked the older Willie castings for the light and graceful style of their design, but was getting very tired of trying to repair some really shocking imperfections in the castings which for the asking price were really unacceptable.

To me the new Willies are very much based on the old masters, changed somewhat and improved in terms of the research behind them and the fact that the old moulds look to have been re-made from the “new, improved” masters.

That’s all to the good, but (and this is going from a five-minute peer through the plastic baggies) it looks to me that the castings still have certain faults. These are not as bad as in the old range to be sure – I have a couple of French Infantry with lower arms attached by a metal “thread”, and British drummers with no fore-arms – but I saw at least two castings of the 32 I bought with significant pits in the backs of the figurines.

At GBP12.95 per eight castings (or about $AU31!) I’m not too sure as to whether I ought not just wait on Minden Minis or even just buy RSMs!

Has anyone else bought any of the new Willies and seen this problem? I’ll do a more thorough review when I can get my hands on the figures toward the end of March.

UPDATE: I recently bought and started to assemble some of the new customisable GW movement trays.

Initially, I thought that these were a great idea - customisable movement trays that you can size in 20 or 25mm units. Then I started to assemble them. Why (oh, why) are the edge pieces that you glue onto the traysides and front not themselves made in lengths corresponding to multiples of the 20 or 25mm units that make them up? Am I being obscure/silly? It makes sense to me to make the "edges" in - say - 75 or 80mm lengths.

Oh, and instead of providing "corner" pieces, why not just bevel the ends of the "edges"?

Is it just me, or do they seem to be quite bad examples of design?


*fnar, fnar, fn-a-a-arrrr!