Progress Report

Still revising my DBA-RRR 30YW armies.  Plenty of painting done but little actually finished.

Modified dragoons base for German Catholics - thought I would show the rear view this time!

On my painting tray are:

1 x 3 Cv   harquebusiers (Danish)
2 x 3 Kn   Bernadine cavalry (French)
1 x 2 Sk   snipers (Free Cossacks)
1 x 2 Lh   Croats (German Catholic)
1 x 3 Cv   Feudal horse (German Protestant)
1 x 3 Cv   German mercenary reiters (Swedish)
1 x 2 Lh   German mercenary harquebusiers (Swedish)

This gives you some idea of just how many changes I have had to make.

Hopefully I can get these oddments painted up for the September game but it is not looking good - time will tell.
 
On the club front I played another game of Saga - this time a 3-hander - Bretons, Welsh & Jomsviking.  It struck me that it was far too easy for the Jomsvikings to get their Wrath up to 6 (and keep it there)!

There was a DBM game going on between Lysimachids & Seleukids.  As expected the pikes never got into contact.  Lysimachus lost one wing to enemy horse but had bottled up the enemy right so tightly that a draw was offered and accepted.  All par for the course.

ECW Cavalry & War Wagons

When did we loose control of deliveries?  How has the balance of power tipped in favour of the workmen, delivery companies et al?  I seem to have spent a lot of time this week just waiting around for people to turn up!  [OK rant over].

Three items from Hannants (can't complain about their service at all) - one repeat and two new:


ECW CAVALRY

 New release from Waterloo 1815 - Cromwell's Cavalry (ECW)

Only 4 poses is a bit limited - even though one of them has an alternative arm.  

The figures are on the small side but fit in well with Revell.

Let's hope that more cavalry are forthcoming!

WAR WAGONS

So far I have collected:

 1 x Orion 72039 Hussite War Wagon and Command - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1920

2 x Zxezda 8064 Zaporozhian Cossacks - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1640

1 x Mini Art 72010 Housits / Hussites - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1178

Included in the Mini Art box was an exploded diagram - Well Done Mini Art!

It's a great pity that Orion didn't think to do the same.

It remains to be seen which bits I take from each set to construct my Polish War Wagon.  

Watch this space.....

Dragoons

According to DBA-RRR my dragoons should be..."mounted on a 40x40mm base with 3 shooters and one figure holding horses, or mounted on horseback in the rear."

Well...setting aside that I use 20mm figures (not 15mm as per the rules) I had previously just put 3 shooters on a standard base.  This meant that they were not obviously distinguishable from other foot troops.

Looking around my spares trays I found some old Airfix Napoleonics:

On the left - Revell artilleryman (I seem to have a lot of spares).

On the right - Airfix Napoleonic Cuirassier & horse

After the 'chop-job' these bits went back to the spares box.  The horse with arm attached - plus armless artilleryman were brought together.

A bit of arm bending, some filler and a paint job later 3 of the 4 new dragoon units.  Now the trouble is...when you photograph your figures you see the faults that ordinary sight doesn't.  The one on the right needs more filler as the arm and shoulder have slightly parted company....Ho hum!

German Protestant 30YW

I can't believe that it has been a month since I blogged - think I had better make a weekly contribution from now on.

Anyway here is the bulk of my new DBA-RRR army:

3 x Pi, 1x Dr, 1 x Art

4 x Sh, 2 x Pk

I still need to modify the Dr stand, create 1 x Cv and a general's base.  Note the thick MDF bases - makes the units much easier to handle - well worth the money.

Talking of DBA-RRR I noticed that v1.21 of the army lists contained quite a few changes so I went through my existing 10 armies only to find that I needed to make a lot of alterations.  Apart from artillery being split between CAN & GUN the number of Pk elements has been severely reduced.  Only 3 armies didn't need modification.

No DBM match on Monday so I played Saga for the first time - Vikings versus Welsh.  It was a steep learning curve with plenty of mistakes on both sides.  I had 2 figures standing at the end including my Warlord.  It was an interesting game but neither of us thought that it was particularly historically accurate.

Paint Table Oddments

Maybe I have a strange way of painting - but it works for me.  I usually have one main project on the go plus a number of 'strays' at the tray edges.  When I have a little paint left on the brush (especially browns) a 'stray' or two get leather work done.

 Over time a group of figures gets near to completion - so I finish them off - and here are the latest oddments:

Greek hoplites (Old Minifigs) fronted by Regular peltasts (Tin Soldier).

A real mixture of 'Arabs' - on the left 4 bases of Almughavars (Minifigs)

         - on the right 4 bases of cavalry (unknown)

Current main project is 20mm 30 Years' War Germans.  

The latest version of the DBA-RRR army lists meant that I had to remove 1 x Pk and replace it with 1 x Sh (for the Imperial Catholic army).  The unwanted Pk can go towards building a German Protestant army.

At the edge of the board are 10 x Carthaginian 4h chariots (STILL) plus sundry others.                 

Parcels - part 2

You wouldn't believe how many attempts I made to take these pictures!  The riders fit badly on their mounts and the bases are not wide enough to be stable (sigh!).

 Lithuanian Tartars

Polish Lisovchiki

Yesterday's DBM scrap was between Later Muslim Indian and Anglo-Danish.  The game started late and, in spite of a Welsh flank march arriving, resulted in a draw.  

Still it was better than last week's debacle where I did everything wrong - positioning, army composition and dice-throwing.  My Medieval Portuguese went down 0-10.  Such is life! 

Parcels Galore!

Saturday 7th June - two parcels arrived.

The heavier one was from www.wargamestournaments.com with my custom MDF bases (60mm frontage).  These are destined to smarten up my Renaissance DBA-RRR figures making them easier to handle and less liable to breakages (I hope).

The lighter parcel was from Emodels:

and.....

I found an interesting article on the Lisovchiki:

http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/lisovchiki-v-moskovii-1607-1616

Scroll down for the English translation.

As soon as the figures have completed their 'chemical treatment' and I have trimmed them up I will post pictures.