Napoleonic progress

So, it's been a while but bear with I'll catch you up.

So, still in lockdown here in the UK as most of you will know, but I do have international readers. Still working at home, only going to the shop once a week if that. I'm going a bit stir crazy if I'm honest, but hey I'm sure we all are. Working at home has taken its toll, not having been prepared for this, I've been working at the dining table on a solid dining chair. Fine for sitting eating your dinner, or painting for a few hours in the evening, but not really suitable for all day working. One day working all day, then an online Pathfinder roleplay session, followed by a couple of hours painting and I worked out I spent around 16 hours sat in the same spot. Needless to say, my knees gave in. A couple of days later I had what looked like two filled water balloons in the middle of my legs.
Not being able to do your hobby when you are stuck indoors under lockdown makes it even less fun, but at least I could catch up on some of my Netflix list. A weeks rest however and work to the rescue with a more suitable work chair safely delivered and I am back up and about.

Before my stupid self inflicted injury, I did however get quite a bit of painting done including some things for my on going Napoleonic project.

A while ago I treated myself to some character models to paint in between rank and files models. I actually didn't paint this until after the other items I am showing below as a completion treat. I find sticking a character between the repetitive painting tasks helps motivate.

Wellington and Copenhagen fron Front Rank

I've been toying with the following idea now for a while and I finally got the parts required. For my Napoleonic rules I wanted to create models to represent a Zombie French regiment. I ordered some standard zombie sprues from Mantic games and then raided my bits box (and had some donations from the Illustrious Opponent as he has a French force). There are parts from Perry and Victrix I believe. I thought I would show you photos in progress to show how much of a mix of parts the models were.

regiment bases are your friend when making zombies

I'm sure a couple of them look like they are trying a dance routine

I'm particularly proud of this one dragging his drum

Next up I've completed some Prussian infantry, I managed to get a good system going painting them on strips with blu-tak to get some good speed painting going. I've got a couple of boxes of these to paint so I'm not going for super-detail, they just need to look good when there are in ranks on the table.

Perry Prussian infantry

All bayonets currently still intact (I'm sure that won't last with my clumsiness)

Prussian Jaegers from Perry

The last show I went to ( when was that? I've lost all sense of time, was it a couple of months, a couple of years?) I picked up the following as part of a pair. His bowler hat wearing friend is still on my painting table. I'm not going to use them for their intended purpose however. I think he will make a great brawler in the Old West. He is 28mm scale but actually represents more like 7"

Henchman from Crooked Dice

Next up are a couple more character miniatures from Front Rank. They are listed as civilians but I shall certainly not be using them as standard civilians. Note one is dressed slightly more flamboyantly than the other? Yes, may I introduce to you, Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell.

Wellingtons own practising magicians

I made an order recently to Black Hat miniatures to fill out some gaps in my paint pallette. It's a paint range I have used for many years, picking it up at shows from various traders but I've never bought direct from the owner. My paint purchasing I must admit is not very organised, when I go to a show I forget to take note what I need and just make random choices (I'm never going to run out of red) or I get lazy and if I need one colour, I work in town, so I do admit, it is easy to pop to the local GW at lunch time and pick up that one pot (shh, don't tell anyone, I hate myself.) so this is the first time in a while I have made a concerted effort to spend a good chunk of change and sort out my paints. (and throw out all the dried out ones.)

Well, I was intrigued by a product on their site for shading. I have often used inks and washes but never an all over shade. So, I added the below to my order to give it a go. I've used it on most of the models I've shown in this post. You just paint your model in block colours then paint the whole model with the shade. I'm probably teaching you all to suck eggs, but I've got to say I love it. I'd probably not use it for special characters (I didn't use it for the whole of the Wellington model or the final model of my blog below.) but for quick repetitive painting, it's the bees knees. It's called dark brown, but I find it gives more of a brown/grey shade to the model. It has almost a gelatinous texture and goes on like a wash but somehow has a semi-transluscence that means it matches the colour it sits on. They do a lighter one too if you like your models a bit brighter.

And finally...

Illustrious Opponent and I and our regular Pathfinder group are trying something new. We are embarking on a new adventure with new characters starting at level 4. My previous character being a dwarf bezerker, I wanted to try something completely new. Our crew are to be employed in the local Navy so I volunteered to be the ships wizard. Meet Zachariah the Great.

Zachariah is available for Life Day celebrations and Coming of Age Ceremonies

Now I know what you are thinking, we aren't actually meeting up, don't panic. The sessions are still being played via Zoom. I just found building and painting a model really helped to "create" my character. Some people can draw and have done so. My drawing skills are limited to stick figures and tracing, so actually getting to make Zachariah really helped me imagine him ready for our first session.
He is mostly made up of bits from the Frostgrave Wizards sprue with a tricorne from a Warlords AWI militia sprue. Then his staff has been given a burning sphere I had in my bits box that I believe was from a GW wizard and so was the swirling mist he is stood upon. Needless to say his favourite spell will be Glitterdust.

Anyway, that's all for now. Stay safe, keep painting and please feel free to comment below.

The show that never happened

As you probably know as I write this I should be delving into my post Salute shopping spoils as I'm sure you all expected to be too. At least we can know that the Excel centre is being used for a useful role in this current crisis as it has been converted so quickly into a temporary hospital. We sometimes forget how resourceful our armed forces can be and once again we are in their debt.

So hobbywise it's been a bit quiet at Chez Lead. My normal painting area is now my work desk during the week, so paints only come out at the weekend. I have got some painting done though, including some quality time with the youngest painting his own toy soldiers at the same time. Firstly something I finished a while ago.

I've painted up my cheap GW magazine models and put them on square bases. I've gone for a muted colour scheme to give a ghostly appearance.

Next something that has been on my painting table for some time now. I'm like a stuck record sometimes going on about my Napoleonic project. Well, I've finished something for it.

Prussian Cavalry from Front Rank

Field Marshall Blucher from Front Rank

Comandante Moreno - from Bad Squiddo

I don't normally photograph unfinished, but I'm proud of this civilian from Front Rank. Anyone got a sudden desire to eat some fudge chocolate?

I'm tempted now to get some Spanish Infantry, although I really should paint the giant pile of Prussian infantry I have before buying any more Napoleonics.

I've also finished another Bad Squiddo model. I bought Athena to use for Ospreys Of Gods and Mortals with some Spartans I already have.

Athena - From Bad Squiddo

It is difficult to know what to do in this troubled time. The obvious things, stay indoors, only shop for essentials are easy to do. But what about keeping the economy going? Should we be mail ordering? If we don't keep buying from the little companies, will there be anyone traders left for us to come and see at Salute 2021?  Games Workshop have shut down shop for the time being, (bad timing as they have suddenly become Hollywood cool, see here.) but a lot of the other companies are still trading. I obviously want to continue to support the trade, I'd believe a day at Salute for some companies pretty much keeps them going the rest of the year. I also don't want to expose my postie to unneccessary risk, however. Like most of yourselves I'm sure, I have a lead pile to get through already so I am going to concentrate on clearing down my to do pile, but also I have made some purchases to keep me out of mischief.

Heroquest, in, space....

I bought myself a copy of Star Saga, a bargain from Mantic Games, half price at £25. I'd thought about buying this last year when it was full price. Firstly, although my wife is fully supportive of my hobby, she probably won't want to play this with me, so the one player option seemed like a good idea for isolation time. The box is crammed with miniatures including this lovely chap that I will definitely find use for in other systems.

 

So spiky just holding the model hurts.

The box also comes with a whole load of scatter terrain pieces that I have already made a start on painting. They will come in handy for use playing Rogue Stars or Reality's Edge as well. Not too shabby a purchase really.

Just a couple of the loads of pieces of terrain you get in the box

I have treated myself to a new lamp which has yet to arrive. My daylight bulb finally gave up the ghost and to be honest it was a good excuse to go LED as I have been sweating under the heat of the old style bulb for a few years now. If I'm going to spend my summer stuck in doors painting I'd rather not boil when doing it.

For those worrying about the Illustrious Opponent, he is doing okay. I'm sure he won't mind me mentioning he got a care package the other day from his family that consisted of an Easter egg and about ten airfix kits to keep him from being bored. (Should take him less than a week.) We see each other on Zoom once a week for our group D&D session and I keep him up to date on my Napoleonics, he keeps me up to date on his WW2 painting. 

So, stay safe all. Look out for each other (from a distance). I love that to me this hobby has become more than just the painting and the games. Online I have found a group of likeminded individuals that chat about more than just the hobby. I think in this unusual time using our hobby to keep in touch with the outside world is good for mental health. If you're stuck indoors and want to talk toy soldiers then get in touch, sometimes I think this hobby is more than just playing with lead.

Make terrain and scatter

I have been painting a lot of brown this week. When you have an old west town in 28mm you have to invest in multiple shades of brown. Oh but the brown I have been painting. This week I have been painting scatter terrain. It's an exciting one, folks.

Now bear with me dear reader, this post is for the hardcore wargamer. I am going to deep dive on this one and compare the different price points I recently purchased for adding to my gaming table. Before I start, let me add that when looking for terrain for my table I have to consider a few things.

• Storage. Space is limited in my home, so if it is large, if it folds down all the better, although in this case I am buying small items, so if they fit in my handy terrain drawer, brilliant.
• Price. We're all on a budget, I don't need to explain this one, if it's going to be pricy, it better be really nice.
• Useability. If an item is less period specific, ie I could use it for Napoleonic, WW2 and futuristic gaming, then it is actually worth triple its cost to me. Also, am I going to regularly use it?

As you may know I enjoy a game of Legends of the Old West, a 28mm scale skirmish game in the old west. Like a lot of skirmish games, having some cover on the table significantly improves the game. I have a significantly sized cowboy town for this game, but most of the table consists of Sarissa precision building kits (which usefully do flat pack down for storage) and then nice open streets. Time to give my cowboys some cover to duck down behind. All these items were purchased at Colours wargame show unpainted and were not given free for reviewing.

So, the first items I bought were from Iron Gate Scenery.  Each pack cost me £2.50 and contained five of each, crates and barrels. Now these items are 3D printed and if you look closely, you can see the horizontal lines of the printing process. Now, they are clearly advertised as such, but I obviously didn't notice this in my showday excitement. I don't have a 3D printer myself, but I do know people who do who could probably have printed something up something pretty similar. The detail isn't high end, but that is reflected in the price and these are good choice if you need to cover a lot of table on a small budget.

We go slightly up quality to a set of large crates from Grendel. I purchased these from Coritani Magnetic Displays. I have shown some terrain I have painted from this company on my blog before here. They sell their sets unpainted or painted. (It is very tempting to pay for them painted but although I am a terrible painter, I am tighter with my money.) The large crates are three identical "piles" or "stacks" of crates cast in resin for £8. They take paint really well and the detail is pretty good. The resin is a little brittle, you have to be careful not to drop these, they chip really easily. Obviously being identical they may look weird next to each other, but I think spacing them out with the rest of the terrain will work.

Finally we've gone slightly exciting. I picked up the food supplies basing kit for £10:

and the cargo supplies for £16 from Bad Squiddo games:

Now these are obviously slightly pricier, but the detail is awesome. I'm a terrible painter, so I've not done them justice, but you can make out carrots, sausages and lettuce in the food supplies. They are all cast in resin that takes paint really well and isn't brittle at all. The basing kit I have obviously stuck on my own bases through choice, they separate really well if you want to use them for details on a diarama or the base of a model. I couldn't afford to fill my entire cowboy town with this range of scatter terrain, but it definitely will come in handy for a few different game systems.

So, there you go, I told you it was an exciting one. I think I'm going to have to choose something nice a colourful for my next painting project. Put the brown paint away for a bit. Maybe something neon and cyberpunky...

Getting my soldiers on the table

Regular readers will know that I have been painting Napoleonic British in 28mm. Now as we all know, these models are not just intended to sit in a foam tray in a cardboard box, I need to get them on a table. As this project has been going on for some time now, I have had time to look into and purchase various rules. Painting Space Marines then playing with them is easy, you buy a copy of Warhammer 40,000 and away you go (although these days there is the argument of which version of those rules are best, if you aren't playing in store, why not go back to 2nd edition? I loved the Dark Millennium add on rules.)
The problem with historical wargaming, or maybe the advantage, is that there are countless rule sets out there. 

As my models are 28mm scale and I learnt to wargame through warhammer, I really wanted to play something closer to 1 model equals 1 man than 1 equals many. Now, obviously this is not actually practical unless we go to a skirmish level, using something like Sharpe Practice or Chosen Men. The problem with these rules however, are that I really won't get a full table of models without meaning the game will take days to play. 

Going up scale, we have Warhammer Historical, Waterloo. Now it has Warhammer in the name, surely this will feel familiar, after all I am a massive fan of the Legends of the Old West Warhammer Historical rules too. These rules feel like what I am going for, but they are just slightly too complicated. We played them, but I just couldn't get my head round TAC points and when models are removed as casualties. It left me and my fellow gamers scratching our heads, wondering if we got it right or not. Also, the first models I painted were my British Riflemen (I will openly admit all my historical wargaming is heavily influenced by totally inaccurate fictional versions from movies and tv.) These rules meant I would only be fielding about 8 models from my lovingly painted green jackets.

Neil Thomas has written an excellent set of rules called One Hour Wargames, which have a chapter on the Napoleonic era. These are excellent rules but a little basic for what I want to do. That is obviously their intention and I will probably use them at some time when I do only have an evening to play. Especially as they are also designed for the smaller table. I also feel these rules would easily scale up to a larger table and are simple enough to not slow down play. I do however want to have a little bit more complication by including some congreve rockets. (Wargaming has to be fun after all, what's more fun than misfiring rockets?)

My own crude Congreve rockets conversions

All this leads to one conclusion, I am going to have to write my own rules. What I am looking for is something that falls between the rule sets I have. Another reason is learning wargame rules is hard, it is very difficult to learn a set a rules from reading them. Just like boardgames, we all find it easier when someone else shows us. It is extremely difficult to to fully convey the authors intention in a readable rulebook.

 If I write my own rules using methods my local wargaming group already understand, we will more likely spend a day enjoying a wargame, than constantly referring to the text of a book written by someone we have never met. The age of the internet has helped this a bit, authors can now easily answer queries via the internet. One of my favourite current rulesets that I have taken the effort to learn is Rogue Stars from Osprey, mainly because the author Andrea Sfiligoi is so willing to discuss his rules on Facebook. But nothing is more useful than having the author of a ruleset in the room to immediately answer a query, interpret his intentions or fill a gap in the text.

This did at first seem a daunting task. The most I have done so far is write extra "houserules" for systems already in place. As I have mentioned in previous blogs I have written my own sci fi version of Advanced Heroquest and a WW2 version of Warhammer Legends of the Old West. I have been confident that these would work as the hard job of the bare bones of the system is done for you. This would be more of a challenge. Luckily help is at hand.

This book comes in very handy. The authors are experience wargame writers. The book won't do the hard work for you, but it answers a lot of questions I had when I first thought about writing my own rules. It not only goes through the mechanics of writing rules but also how to identify the language of rules writing. If it is something you have not done before it is a tricky writing style to master. All I have to do then is some playtesting, but that is the fun bit.

And finally....

Now I am going to talk about something that the purists will baulk at, so if you like your wargaming perfectly historically accurate,(surely you have realised by now that is not me.) look away now.

Seriously, I don't want to upset you.

You aren't going to like this.

Right, now the grumps aren't reading I'm going to make a suggestion. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a time for historical accuracy, the educational benefits are clear to see, but sometimes wargaming has to be a bit fun. So I have taken some inspiration from this humongous tome.

You could break a toe dropping this book.

If you haven't read the book, Mr Norrell goes out with the British army to see what he can do in the Peninsular wars. After being ignored by Wellington for a period, he eventually assists the army mainly by magically conjuring up nice flat roads for them to march on, then removing them afterwards so that the French cannot take advantage. I love the idea of having a Gentleman magician on the table, accompanying the Officers in doing what he can to stick it to ol' Boney.
Obviously I need to give the French something equivalent. Now, in the story there arent any magic users on the French side, but I came up with the idea of giving them a Necromancer, perhaps a mysterious bearded stranger from Eastern Europe? He could raise up units of recently deceased Imperial Guard to shuffle across the battlefield. I just need to purchase some Perry plastics and maybe some Mantic zombie sprues. It's been a while since I've done some kit bashing...

Why did I decide to paint kilts?

How I learnt to love painting redcoats.

My Grandfather, a veteran of WW2, didn't really talk about his experiences during the war, something I really don't blame him for. The one story I do remember him telling me was of when a bomber returned from a sorty with it's hatch not fully closed, the offending obstruction being an unexploded bomb. A very long piece of rope tied to the release mechanism and lots of fingers crossed and the crew and the plane survived to tell the tale.

 

Why I am telling you this? Well, although he really didn't want to remember his wartime experiences, my Grandfather did introduce me to historical wargaming. I learnt to play chess against my Grandfather, an excellent teacher, he got the exact balance of being a challenging opponent, but not putting me off the game. I still have the copies of Stratego and Campaign that we played and I was entrusted to take home with me. (I wonder now if he already had them or bought them with the intention of gifting them to me after our game.)

We built an airfix Hurricane kit together (I later discovered he had been a mechanic of the real thing.) and then one Sunday afternoon out came a box of humbrol paints and the Battle of Waterloo in 1/72 scale. My Grandfather had painted some of them already, and he showed me how to very carefully paint more. (Including leaving them on the sprue for ease of handling, a habit I still to this day know is the right thing to do, but yet still get over excited and unclip and glue before painting on many an occasion.)

So, I was dispatched home that night with the box of paints and soldiers with the promise that I would finish them under parental supervision.

  

Fast forward 20 odd years and I'm perusing the wares at a wargame show. My wargaming colleague is buying some French 28mm Napoleonics from Front Rank miniatures. This reminded me of the promise I made to my Grandfather and so my first purchase of this period is made. I may not have finished the 1/72 models, but I would paint a Napoleonic army of some sort. This very slowly done task has taken me at least ten years. (I am a very slow painter and get distracted by new shinies all the time.) My final task was painting Highlanders in their finest Black Watch tartan. It has become a bit of a running joke in my wargamers group and my long suffering wife rolls her eyes at the mention of them, but finally I have finished them. 

My Dad has since found the original airfix set for me, although even I admit I might struggle to get them done (as my father in law admits, an increase in age correlates with an acceptance to give up on trying to paint smaller and smaller scales.) but I would like to think that if my Grandfather were still with us, he would appreciate the achievement and accept that I had at least performed the promise in spirit. I won't pretend to be anywhere near expert level at painting, but I like to think en masse they look impressive enough.

 The models are a mix of Front Rank, Perry and Vitrix miniatures. The Front Rank models being metal have that great feel of weight and durability. I could not however have afforded this entire army without buying some of it in plastic. My wargaming gang have yet to decide on a rule system, I would say this is the era I have the most rulebooks for and yet we still may end up writing our own.

(Now, no-one tell my wife about the unpainted Prussian army in my to do pile.)

One Hour Wargames

I'm sure I'm not the only wargamer who has found his available time for dice rolling and painting shrunk a bit for a few years following the arrival children. For this reason I gratefully received a gift for Fathers day of the above title, One-Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas from Pen & Sword books. My wife is one of the few people that listen to my ramblings about the needs of a wargamer and so also knew that I struggle to find something I can play on the limited size of our dining table that unfolds from a three foot square to a staggering three by six foot rectangle.  The two selling points of this book then, play a game in an hour on a three foot square, jumped out at my wife as perfectly suited for me.

From Ancient and Dark Age, right through to the Machine Age and Second World War, this book presents a simple ruleset that is tweaked for each period to enable the player to play a simple wargame for a desired moment in history. Each chapter starts with a brief explanation of how the fighting styles of the period are represented in the rules and how the unit types are simplified into between two and four types. Obviously we are looking at finishing a game in an hour, so this is a very simplified system, the rules for a unit size just stating the size of the frontage, it is up to the player to decide what scale models they use and how many they squeeze into the unit. All units have the same capacity of damage of 15 hits.

After the rules there are 30 different scenarios, some based on real battles. This is the section of the book I will find the most useful, not just for this rule set, but I can imagine they will be extremely transferrable to Warhammer, Kings of War, Rapid Fire, in fact any gaming system.  Nobody wants to repeatedly just play "pitched battle" over an empty battlefield all the time. The author takes great care to mention where his inspiration for each scenario came from, a real encounter or another author. (The Godfathers of wargaming Charles Grant and Donald Featherstone receive a couple of name checks.)

Of final note, my youngest offspring has already begun to have a keen interest in Daddy's wargaming (He has already begun "Thundercoating" and painting his own toy soldiers) so I have started to think about how to introduce gaming to the boys. This book is the perfect tool. The simplicity of the rules are perfect for them, I don't want to be constantly referring to tables and rulebooks (I myself am terrible at remembering rules and always find wargaming easier when a "third player" is on hand with a rulebook.) small minds wander easily as we know.

There is also that one last use for this book. You know sometimes you just want to get your entire collection for a period on a table, just for the shere magnificience of it. Your club want to demonstrate a massive Napoleonic war game with everyone's models on the table and you havent got a week to play it in. This system I am sure will easily scale up for this purpose. This book is going to get well thumbed.