The Other Project

Last weekend I was back home to celebrate my Brother's birthday. We had chance to trial the rules for the other main project of the moment - 10mm scale WWII. The theory is that dropping rhe scale means more transportable and a smaller board so easier to play across a dining table. I was initially sceptical as I don't get as much joy out of painting smaller scales, but it does mean we can both get a sizable game with few cute-looking tanks onto a smaller table.

For rules we're using Baptism of Fire 1, which we once tried out with 20mm models. Despite a very badly structured rulebook, we did quite enjoy the rules after a few games getting them straight in our heads. It plays heavily on morale and can be quite brutal, but seems quite realistic. We plan to stock with it for now.

Been off this week and will be until Tuesday, using a little holiday to supplement all these Bank Holidays in the UK. So since returning home I've been applying paint to Tommies as well as some fortifications to keep them safe. I'll post some pics when I've done a small force. The deadline is 21st May for a fully-painted platoon, support and terrain for a few games.

Monster painting session

Phew, manage most of the evening painting, trying to push through and finish the 42nd Black Watch I've had on the workbench for a couple of months. I'm within touching distance of finishing them, probably tomorrow.

I reckon they take 20-30 hours per batch, this one of only 6 models. Highlanders are at the upper end because of the free-hand detail on the socks, kilt and bonnet. I paint with a very neat style, I've tried to step away from this at times but rarely been happy with the results. Unfortunately I'm actually quite messy, so need to do a lot of tidying and correcting mistakes. Still, these Highlanders are arguably my best work to date and I'm pretty chuffed with nearly a full unit finished - will be a while before I itch to do more!

British 95th Rifles on patrol

The first Napoleonic unit I finished was, of course, some 95th Rifles. I think the reason I've kept at the Naps was a childhood of watching Sharpe. So, probably like most British players, when I sat down to paint I started with the Rifles. Here they are patrolling a Peninsula road:

Perry Plastics with metal command. I've six more plastics already prepped, half of them converted to add variety. I'm sure I'll finish these up soon: they take about half the time to paint compared to Redcoats!

Terrain-wise, at the back is an Architects of War hedgerow - a novel way of basing trees and for an all-inclusive kit I thought it was well-priced. The road is from Terrain Warehouse, I was much less happy was these, they are quite wide and deep and I felt they needed quite a bit of tidying up to make presentable. But it is pretty solid, and well priced at £30 (in postage) for 6 foot of road with various curves and junctions. Finally, at the front is some carved up coir matting as a wheatfield, a trick I picked up from one of the blogs I follow.

Delayed, but finally!

Well, I've been a poor blogger. It's a week since my last post and I've still not posted the pics of the Light Dragoons I mentioned many weeks ago. In the meantime, I've had my first visitors (welcome!). To make amends, after enjoying the lovely weather this afternoon I set up a board and some terrain backdrops to photograph my 28mm Naps, which I intend to post up over the coming week. 

So, first up, the 1st Kings' German Legion Light Dragoons 9th Light Dragoons:

With limited reference material, I had to be a bit imaginative on the command's uniforms, so they may be inaccurate. Even more so, we've been collecting Peninsular forces and these Perrys are intended for the Waterloo campaign. However, I disregarded this, mostly because I prefer the shakos to tarletons and the range of poses is superior from Perry compared to say Front Rank. In my defence, I'm not too fussy about getting everything exact, after all, I'm out to have fun and enjoy painting and gaming, rather than fret over uniform details. After taking this shot, I also noticed a slightly bent sword in the second rank, frustrating!

Oh, the buildings and walls are from Hovels. I highly recommend this UK-based company, they sell a number of ranges and although perhaps not as fine as other manufacturuers, they are solid pieces, very reasonably priced with excellent service.

C&C final turn

To follow up, one turn before our opponents conceded defeat.

A run of three cards allowed us to smash the centre, spearheaded by the elite Guard Grenadiers. At this point, we were 5-1 up on VPs and the French withdrew in some disarray. To be fair, the dice gods were in our favour, allowing the bold central move to come off. The left fared worse, you can just see French Hussars harrying our flank.

I recommend C&C, if you accept it is slightly abstracted version of Naps, which is fine by me! I prefer it to Memoir, partly for being much more colourful.

Commands and Colours

Over the weekend I got a game of this Napoleonic board game I'd heard good things about. Thoroughly enjoyed it, the game played out in under 2 hours including setup. We played in pairs, a novice and someone who had played before. I think we had the advantage as I am a fan of Memoir 44, which C&C is a more detailed version of.

The initial setup, my Brits and Portuguese face the French rearguard holding the central hill.