Oops...

...this might stymie painting progress somewhat for the next few weeks! 

Been dipping into Witcher 3, not a series in familiar with but damn it looks good.

May Painting Progress

Happy Sunday everybody. It's been a while since I posted but I'm happy to report further progress on the Sudan project. It'll be very tight to get everything done, but I'm comfortable I can put a game without everything: some bits are just icing (or even the cherry on top). 

First up, a bunch more Sudanese Bazingers. This is the Perry command pack. Painted as before - two different colours on the robes, and a fairly motley collection of other equipment. 

Here they are with the rest painted during AHPC V. A bit command-heavy, but a decent sized unit for me. 

I've also done up some casualty/shock markers, using the ubiquitous dice frames. I wanted to do more but have run out of frames, so need a restock. I've a couple of Britsh ones on the paint table now. 

Two are actually converted as the Perry's Sudan range only has Beja tribesman casualties, simple head swaps to replace the distinctive Beja hairdo. You may see that the ones falling in action at the back also have some bullet impacts on the base to add to the dramatic effect - using Curt's simple but effective method.

That's most of the minis I want to get done, but I'm well behind on the terrain. Happily it's a bank holiday weekend here, an opportunity to make some progress, starting with smashing up some rather large bits of cork bark that I picked up. For those of you wondering about the SCW project that I had been making decent progress on, that's still on ice. I've a small batch mostly finished that I may well wrap up if the fancy takes me, but the bulk of it is on hold until next month. 

Salute: The Games

I realise I'm a week late on the Blogoshpere, but here are the games that stood out to me as I whisked around the Salute hall. I didn't take down the details and don't have a programme to consult so few credits here I'm afraid. Having seen everyone else's, I clearly missed some corkers!

The hall before the crowds descended...



...and the crowd - quite a queue snaking in a whole unit.



7TV's lovely Ghostbusters game



An awesome AWI fort game, with six gorgeous ships. It won best in show I believe.

Beasts of War's Assault on Hoth game - looked a bit unfair on the Rebels!

Napoleon's Last Gamble(?) - the Assault of the Guard at Waterloo. A very striking table and lots of very well painted 28mm Napoleonics. 

Wargames Illustrated (easy one to credit :-) ) Simon De Montford must Die!

A striking fantasy naval game: I liked the choppy seas that they'd modelled. 

The Wyvern Wargamers/Kallistra game that I helped to run for the day. Is was the First battle of Ypres, 1914, the assault of the Prussian Guard on the British positions.

And from the German perspective. As the game played out, the Germans penetrated the British slit trench in three places, with much lighter casualties than historically.



Simon Miller's To the Strongest!, table, Bloody Cremona. Great terrain and miniatures as always.

A demo table of Osprey's Black Ops

Two Blitzkrieg Miniatures tables for their upcoming ruleset 'Panzer Battles'. Bit heavy on the tanks for me (what is this, FoW?) really nicely painted though. Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps



And Battle of the Bulge

Hawk Wargames display game - a lot of lead on the table



A VBCW game? Nice scenery

Oshiro Modelterrain's gorgeous Japan table - a highlight every year.

And that's your lot! A good show, but as with most, it feels like there's too much to see. That's for a paying punter, manning a table meant a very long day, though we each managed to get away a few times to whisk around the hall. Worth going once again, thanks to the a Wyvern lot for the offer, I don't think I'd have made it otherwise.

On a separate note, Ray of 'Don't Roll a 1' has a rather smashing giveaway going, so head on over there if you don't like any of the dame stuff as me. 

More Commanders for the Sudan

With the focus on the SCW platoon, it had slipped my mind that I'd offered to put on a game at a Operation Market Larden 3 at Wyvern in early June. Not only that, but I've the esteemed Mr Roundwood playing  one of my sessions. A panicked list of what I should get done in the six or so weeks before that set me off: it was time to get cracking.

I started with a couple of 'nice to haves': two more Commanders or 'Big Men' in Sharp Practice terminology. The first being a mounted Egyptian officer.



Fairly standard stuff and a quick paint, I gave him a darker blue uniform that my officers in units. When I get around to him, the Egyptian C-in-C will wear black.

I'm also a bit light on Mahdist emirs, so fished out another from the lead pile. This was probably one of the original packs that I bought a few years ago, no idea why he hadn't then painted yet. 

Not much to say: he's in a colourful patched jibbeh that's sculpted on the Perry emirs.

Next to paint are some more Bazingers, then I've quite a bit of terrain for the rest of May. I would have liked to finish the highlander unit, but I just can't see me having the time.

After the creeping worry hit, I also got started on the necessary cards and Blinds for Sharp Practice. Using an excellent free texture from borealnz on Flickr (thanks for the tip, Mr Roundwood!) and some era-specific images, voila:





They'll be printed and laminated. I've finished the generic cards, it's pretty quick once you have a template made up. Next up is to make the cards for each Big Man.
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