A Little Light Painting

Last weekend I finally managed to get to my painting desk without freezing my toes, fingers and other delicate bits off.  On my board was an eclectic mix of:

15 - Chinese warband (one has presumably gone astray).
50 - Renaissance figures (some Transylvanians)
10 - Sci-Fi goblin types (in need of repair)
38 - Daleks (in various stages)

The warband only needs some dry-brushing and basing. The goblins shouldn't take much longer either.  Hopefully that means photos will be forthcoming - weather permitting of course.

Two more projects are sitting in my living room - Romans & Egyptians.

You know how it is - you research the army list, check your own stock and make a list of shortfall items. With good intentions you go to shows and pick up the figures you need - then you loose your notes.

In this case it was a 15mm Early Imperial Roman army (DBM) that I was collecting.  Realising that one of my fellow players already had an EIR army I decided to alter it to Middle Imperial Roman.  In the meantime DBMM lists came out  At this stage the project was shelved until I, literally, fell over it.

The bare metal only gives a vague indication of the units that I was trying to build.  So it's back to the drawing board.  This time I will keep a hard copy of my proposed army.

The 20mm New Kingdom Egyptians are already painted and based for Armati.  My intention was to re-base for Impetus.  Simples!  Not so as Impetus army lists are hard to come by.  I checked the lists for the 'Extra Impetus' magazines (why am I thinking RIP OFF?) without success.  The only available list seems to be in the 'Basic Impetus' section.  Reluctantly I will have to spend time on the Forums!

Vapnartak Booty

The weather held off for my trip to York (it didn't snow until I was almost home).  Traffic on the outward journey was OK but coming back I soon got off the A64 - two lanes trying to carry far too heavy a load.

The show itself was very crowded; £2 levy on the cash machines; £2 for a simple cup of coffee and parking on mud.  Still I didn't have to pay for entry (being an old codger).

My 'shopping list' included 15mm Thracians, Chinese, Colonial Portuguese & Middle Imperial Roman.  What I actually purchased was:

12 - Thracian Noble Cavalry
12 - Thracian peltasts
8 - Legio Lanciarii  [upon getting home I realised that I needed 24 figures, not 8]

In addition:

1 box - HaT 8059 - Persian Heavy Infantry
1 box - HaT 8076 - Persian Medium Cavalry
1 box - Hat 8057 - Persian Light Infantry
1 box - Call to Arms 1/32 Royalist Musketeers (S3)
1 box - Call to Arms - 1/32 Pikemen (S2)
1 box - Call to Arms - 1/32 Royalists v Parliament (S1)

The first 3 boxes will go towards my Mede army for Impetus.
The last 3 were a whim - but at 50p per box I could not resist.

Quite a number of the WDW crowd were there and I met up with a few old friends.  Sadly one of them informed me that his wife had been diagnosed with early onset alzheimers.  This placed my minor niggles about the show into perspective.

Experimenting with New Rules

My new year's resolution was to get more painting done.  Unfortunately the weather has not been co-operative.  My painting room is much too cold and it's impractical to relocate. 

So what have I been doing?  Well I have now read through 'Irregular Wars' for the second time and made copious notes.  I even prepared for a trial game by cutting out 30mm x 30mm squares and marking them appropriately. 

I decided to strip down the game to it's bare mechanics - so discarded random army and terrain selection - along with the chance cards. 

On the kitchen table I made a few, preliminary, moves until some of my fingers turned white.  Back in my living room (the only warm one) I cut out some 40mm x 40mm squares.  All I need now is relief from sub-zero temperatures!

Progress on the wargaming front is obviously going to be very slow for a while.

Xmas Cheer

Not a lot of it around this year - I'm full of cold - coughing, spluttering, etc.  Such is life!

On the positive side being out of circulation has meant that I have done quite a bit of reading lately.

Border Reivers: proved interesting if a bit unsatisfying (like most Osprey books I find).  The Currours will no doubt be converted in due course.

Irregular Wars 2nd Edition:  really a heap better than the first edition.  Can't wait to try out the rules.  Optional cards are way too expensive though.

Not wanting to mess about with re-basing and considering that my 20mm plastics are already set for DBA-RRR, I went in search of  the 'unused' Meso-American 15mm figures.

It turns out that I have:
             a considerable number of Aztecs (mainly Tin Soldier and Minifigs);
             some Tupi (Grumpys & Gladiator), Maya (Gladiator ),
             plus a few Incas(Minifigs) & Eskimos(MY Miniatures).

Can't help feeling that there may be some American Indians somewhere lurking about (also MY)!

European opposition is sadly lacking though - only some Wars of the Roses figures that could be press-ganged into use.  Hopefully Vapnatak will provide the answer!!!

Anyway ..... although I do not celebrate xmas for those who do may I wish you all a

      MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Returning from Recon

"4 plastic Blue Dice,

3 pots of paint,

2 boxes of soldiers .....and...

a book on Border Reivers."

My booty from Recon 2014:

Now that I have given up on Armati I'm looking to re-base my New Kingdom Egyptians, Trojans & Sea Peoples/Philistines for Impetus.  Depending upon what is needed whether I draft these figures into an existing army or use them as the basis for a new one - time will tell.

At last I managed to find this book on the Bring & Buy (at £4).  Only read a few pages so far but it looks interesting.  A DBA-RRR force created from Curours (plus head-swaps) seems possible. 

The 2nd Edition of these rules (pdf) came into my possession earlier in the week.  A huge improvement over the previous version - but a lot more pages to read.  I'm almost tempted to buy the book when it comes out!

Purchased on the weekend before Recon, at the Halifax shop.  These useful figures will go into my 'stock pile' until they are needed.


Finally Monday saw a DBM battle between Polybian Romans versus Axumite Abbyssinians in Arabia.  Again we managed to face off our camels & light horse against his Light horse (Numidians this time).  The enemy threw a "1"  to make their ally unreliable.  Sensing victory our hordes advanced.  Light Horse Harry (Chris) quickly threw a "6" to get his command moving and avoided contact for most of the game.  After 3 hours we declared a draw with fewer than 10 casualties per side.

Another Quick Note

RL getting in the way again - folk dancing & computers.

Been calling at least twice a week lately - something to do with xmas no doubt!
Also had to build a new computer as the previous one was burning out the CPU (ouch!).

Still I did managed to put a bit of paint on lead today - tidying up some Irish kerns [Ps(I)] that I hastily painted for a recent game ...... plus starting on their 'wealthier' brothers [Ps(S)].

Renaissance figures are definitely on the back burner, along with the WW1 East Africans.

Hopefully with the festive break (which I don't celebrate) I will find time to catch up on the painting front.

No doubt this Saturday's trip to Recon (Pudsey) will mean even more bare metal and/or plastic going into the unpainted pile - Ho hum!

WW1 in East Africa - Pt.3

Here are the last 2 pictures of my Brits in East Africa:

Officers, NCOs, machine-guns and an artillery piece (from various sources).

Some Indians & Arabs (ex Mahdists) plus Brit mtd officer.

On the DBM front this week Patrician Roman faced off against Late Roman (Eastern) - yet another Roman civil war!  Terrain meant that one-third of the board was never used.  The Patricians deployed all 4 commands in one half of the table with 2 in front of 2.  The Later Romans were more strung out  and their first dice stalled their allied command.  In spite of a determined advance in the centre the LR camel command was hit by other camels (supported by bows) and broke.  It was only a matter of time before sufficient casualties were caused to take out half the army.  a 10:0 win to the Patricians.