10mm Pendraken ACW basing. And a little quick tip.

Hi all.
I managed to make a start on the 10mm ACW minis from Pendraken. I will post some close up photos but first I wanted to show you all my new basing technique. I started doing this with my British Napoleonics.
Once I have decided on a base size(25mm x 20mm) I then make the mixture up.
This consists of ready made polyfilla and PVA glue. Mixt with equal measures. I then use Vallejo dark brown and squeeze in a few drops. I then use an old school glue applicator to mix up the mixture. You may need to add more drops of paint to get a darker colour but as the mixture is white I suppose you could add any colour? Desert? Fantasy purple land? Whatever takes your fancy.

Step 1

Step 2 the mixture

Step 3 base ready, 25mm x 20mm

Step 4 a small amount applied to the base. You may need to add more if the miniature bases are thicker. Pendraken miniatures have a very thin base.

Step 5 add the miniatures in the desired way and lightly press them down in to the mixture. I have failed to paint the miniature bases before adding to the base on this occasion. I recommend you paint the miniatures base before adding to make this easier. 

The amount you need to mix is up to you, the polyfilla will start to set in a short while so best to mix up small amounts at a time. I hope this has given you some ideas. More photos to follow of the finished bases.

10mm Pendraken ACW for Fire and Fury

Hi all. It's been a while I'm afraid as I have been busy at work.
Mrs H kindly got me some Pendraken ACW armies packs for a new project. I ordered them at the beginning of the week and they arrived very shortly after. I called Leon to see how long it would take and he could clearly hear I was another desperate Wargamer that needed another project to add to his pile of lead. He sorted my order out very quickly and a heavy padded envelope arrived the same week.
I purchased both army packs and some additional packs like zouaves, dismounted cavalry and more guns. The miniatures are very good and a pleasure to paint. The detail is clear and very little flash. Well done Pendraken.

As you an see it was a fairly large order and I can't wait to get started. I will keep you posted. Many thanks.

15mm Old Glory British Napoleonic Battalions.

Hi All
7 battalions done. I need flags and flock to finish them off. Overall quite happy. I might still touch up with some highlighting before the varnish. So here goes.

I have based them on 40mm X 30mm MDF bases to protect the bayonets. The 3 base battalions are 24 figures. I have done 2 battalions with 32 minis on four bases, maybe Foot Guard?

This is the first battalion. I based them with PVA glue and polyfilla. I added some vellajo dark brown in to the mix. It would have been very hard to paint between all those little legs. Sorry the picture a little dark, I might replace them.

This is the second battalion. I had a go at the South Essex at the front. I used some old glory rifles for Sharpe and Harper. I hope you like them. Thanks for looking.

ACW Pendraken project

Hi All
I have finally made a decision and purchased enough Pendraken figures for my planned ACW project. I decided to use 10mm Pendraken due to cost and 6mm just being too small to paint and enjoy it.
After discussing the project and scale with my good friend Rusty and seeing the fantastic game at Heston and Ealing wargaming club I was hooked.
Here's a pic of the minis all bagged up.

I would also like to add how helpful and quick Pendraken were, I asked them if they could possible deliver in a ridiculous short time and they did. Very good customer service and I will happily purchase from them again. Sorry Baccus I'm off.

Reinforcements

Reinforcements for my Napoleonic Brits

Flank companies and some heavy dragoons. The mix in well with the old glory. I will add some comparisons soon.

15mm British Kings German Legion Old Glory

Another battalion completed. This time I done 30 with blue facings. I think they look better in 5 stands? Overall really pleased with them and it only took 1 day and an afternoon.

Lighting is quite poor. Photo has been taken late with my iPad.

A single stand to give a bit more detail. I think I need to highlight the metal and the faces. The wash has not done a lot for the faces. Overall quite happy. They look good on mass.

so far

15mm Napoleonic Battalion Old Glory & Blue Moon

1st Battalion is completed. I know I could have done more to them but with another 10 battalions to paint and then the French, I decided to stop. They didn't take to long to be honest. And I really enjoyed painting them. I do feel its a little small? Maybe 1 more base? Old glory minis, 30X30 bases, 6 minis to a base. I might add 4 skirmishers that sit on the end?

15mm Napoleonic British Old Glory

Hi All 

sorry for the lack of blogging I have been away to Las Vegas during the summer months and wargaming has been put on the back burner. I have managed a few games at Heston & Ealing wargaming club. Mostly Napoleonic, as the club was gearing up for the battle of Talavera.
So I have finally made a start on my Old Glory Napoleonic British that I picked up at Salute.
Overall the flash was not that bad.

I'm trying a new painting plan. Normally I prepare and undercoat the entire army ready for painting. This normally leads to me having burn out and not completing the task. This time I'm going to paint them as a unit. I will be basing these for Black Powder. 30mm X 30mm 6 minis to a base.  The second picture is going to be a large battalion of guards.

As you can see I have a range of command figures added to the battalion. I start by painting the bases, this is very important as you don't want to ruin your paint job. Next all the black parts, hats, bags & boots. Then grey trousers, great coats. Brown for the gun. Skin. Then the white straps. Boltgun Metal for gun parts and swords. Finally a wash, nuln oil for the grey and the gun. Agrax Earthshade wash for the rest of the mini. Once this is fully dry the mini is a little dark so i will highlight with the original colours. final pic is after the shading wash. this was completed in 3 evenings. I will add a finished close up asap. Thanks for looking

15mm French Napoleonic

Hello all.
I wanted to have a go at painting some 15mm Napoleonic before jumping. A friend kindly gave me a load of 15mm Old Glory campaign French. I took my time and researched the uniforms before going made. I completed a battalion for Napoleons Battles, I did not base them so he could match them to the rest of his forces. First attempt so be kind.

picture does not do them justice, i used an iphone. pictures a little blurry but you see some of the detail. and now for the reverse

The lighting and camera does bot show the highlights i'm afraid but overall i was happy. sadly i did not have any matt varnish. so i used gloss varnish. not happy with the result but my friend will matt varnish them once he has based them all.

way to shiny for me but i will wait to see the finished product. i really like the Old Glory figures they have lots of character and detail. i will get a full photo of the battalion when their finished. thanks for reading.

Help!

Hi all. I started this blog to highlight my wargaming exploits, so far I have not added any of my Games Workshop stuff. I have been wargaming for years off and on. I originally started by shopping in  Games Workshop back in the early 80s. It was the original store in Hammersmith London.
However I have lost interest in my preferred game 40K. I still have a huge Space Wolf army, Black Templar, Chaos Space Marine and Imperial Guard, I will add some photos soon. But I don't know what to do with this lot? As you can see its undercoated matt grey and some even have a split red and black style going on, sadly they are now just taking up space.
Shall I dump them on eBay or start a new project? The original idea was to have a bespoke chapter that I could use for any codex, all I needed to do was change out the characters and sergeants to give them some character.
At the front of the pic is an entire jump army for the blood angels and loads of terminators for another drop force. I still have a load on sprues including about 20 Dark Angel veterans. I also have a bitz box that's better than a GW store.
Please let me know what you think I should do? It seems a shame to just get rid? I suppose the funds could be used to finish my Napoleonic projects and start Some American Civil War forces.
Thanks for looking
Alans

Command & Colours Napoleonic

Hi all
I recently got hold of a copy of Command @ Colours Napoleonics. I have heard a lot of good things about this game so I finally got a copy.
Lots of people have already done a review of this game so I will try to add a review after my first game. Before that happens I need to to put the stickers on the wooden blocks.

 I sorted the blocks out into the armies and sizes. No surprise here blue for French, Red for Britain 

and brown for Portugal and now the stickers 

As you can see lots to do.. I managed to do them all in a couple of hours, must have been all the sticker albums I had as a child. That's enough for now, I will add a review ASAP. Many thanks for looking.

Old Glory 15mm Napoleonic British Light Infantry Skirmishing with Command

2nd post for the Old Glory Napoleonic British army I'm starting.
This time it's light company skirmishing. £15 for 50 miniatures. Once again enough for 2 units of 24. I might make on and use the rest for skirmish stands. So here's a pic of the minis I got in the pack.
Top row is the command miniatures. Standard bearer, drummer, bugler, officer(I have not cleaned hi up yet his sword should not be connected to his stand.
Second row is the light troops. I have only shown the different poses, as you can see you get quite a few.

Once again very pleased. Although there 15mm they have lots of detail and plenty of character. I prefer this to loads of March attack in the same pose.

I hope this helps. Many thanks for looking.

Old Glory 15mm Napoleonic Highlanders with command

Hi all. I'm starting another project lol. 15mm Napoleonics. After searching the web and talking to fellow gamers I decided to pick up some minis at Salute 2014. After browsing the stands I settled on Old Glory miniatures from Timecast. The variety of poses and clean sculpts done it for me. I have always preferred the individual look as a posed to identical minis. The chaps at Old Glory were very helpful and let me look at the different packs before buying. And I got 9 packs lol. Various line troops as well as some scots and cavalry, and a pack of guns.
Sadly pictures of Old Glory miniatures are hard to come buy so I have opened the packs started to clean them up and thought I would help others with some pics of the units.

Below is a picture of the different models I got in this pack. £15 for 50 miniatures. Which is perfect as I want units of 24.
 The top row is the command figures. I got enough for 2 full commands iPad pics sorry
The second row is the line troops in the different poses. The camera doesn't do them justice but gives you an idea of the different poses. I only bought 1 pack of scots so I can only comment on these and I love em.

For scale I put an miniature next to a ruler.

15mm foot to eye and again I am very happy with the detail. Can't wait to sling some paint at these scots. I hope this was helpful. Take care and see you soon

ACW Fire and Fury Easter Bank Holiday game.

Hi all
I had the opportunity to get involved in a 2 day ACW game as part of my membership to The Heston and Ealing Wargamers club. The game used roughly 5000 miniatures on a board 22' x 6.1'. The rules used were Fire and Fury and the miniatures were supplied by just 2 club members. Our host is long time gamer and ann all round nice chap. All of the miniatures were fantastic and it was played in a purpose built gaming cabin. The cabin has a kitchen area and a toilet as well as storage for a massive range of miniatures in different scales and periods. The fridge is magical as well as it never ran out of beers and soft drinks.
On to the pics the table before the forces arrived.

My force 1st and 2nd corp

Moving forward to hold the centre

This was the biggest game I have ever played and it was fantastic.

I did ok at the end of the first day but the union took a beating on the second day. For more info on unit losses and pictures head over to the Heston and Ealing Wargamers website

http://www.hestonandealingwargamers.org.uk

One more pic

Flames of War tank battle, with a twist.

Hi all. I managed to get a game in last night with a mate so I thought I would do a battle report.
We used my Flames of War miniatures. A mix of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company (PSC)
Points were set at 2000 points using Blood Guts and Glory. I wanted to try the jumbos and easy eights, confident veterans. also reluctant trained Germans to get a load of german armour on the table.
Mission was a straight up fight 2 objectives each and a small town to fight over.
Now for the twist.... We used the Bolt action turn system, which is the highlight of that game.
The Forces
German
HQ 2 panthers
2X Panzer IV J platoons( I had to use the H model as they are all PSC)
2X Stug platoons
2X Panther platoons.
US
HQ 2 M4Sherman's
3X platoons of 1 Jumbo, 1 Easy Eight( had to use Firefly's as my easy eight box from Battlefront had no barrels)  2 M4's (1x platoon had 3)
4 M18 Hellcats. We have only been playing FoW recently so have not looked at the recon rules so to replace the tank killer security section he used 3 Stuarts. I realise this was a serious downer for the US player but tough lol.
The deployment

German deployment

I placed a platoon of Stug's and Panzer IV's on my right to hold my objective and the rest of my force on the left. As I had more platoons I could set up my Panthers after the US had deployed. The Germans kicked off with a move forward on both flanks trying to keep concealment from the terrain however 2 of the 3 Stug's bogged down. German fire was ineffective so on to the US. They moved forward on the left and destroyed the 1 Stug in operation causing a check that the reluctant Germans
failed and they retired from the battle. First blood to the US. The US had several juicy targets but after 16 shots from the hellcats over 2 turns they could only bail 2 Panthers. The return fire over the 2 turns destroyed half of the squad and forced them to move. The Germans moved forward across the entire front trying to put pressure on the US and overpower them with numbers. The Panzer IV platoon in the centre was dangerously close and the US moved forward to make them pay. 5 hits and the Germans needed 5s to at least get bailed.

And again my fantastic dice rolling leads to another rant from my regular opponent, if he ever gets lucky with the dice I would have no chance lol. The Panzer IV's last for another turn but are now facing fire from 2 platoons. The panthers now advance and start putting a heavy toll on the us right. 1 more turn and they would be on the objective with nothing to stop 2 platoons. The US move forward 

the Stuarts to get flank shots but only manage to bail the Panzers in the centre.  The Panzer platoon on the right stop their advance and destroy 2 Stuarts. It's all or nothing time for the US. The 1 remaining Stuart makes a headlong rush for the objective on the German right flank. This has been left undefended! The Stuart parks on the objective and awaits the final shots of the game.

The Germans have 2 Stug's and the C,C to poor fire into the Stuart. Both Stug's pass their bogging checks in the wood and about face and destroy the Stuart ending a great game.

Overall the Bolt Action turn system made for an exciting game. It was a quick game as we only used tanks but very entertaining. The reluctant trained Germans were very lucky with all of their bailed checks and continued to fire every turn. However every morale check was failed. Could easily have been a different story. Thanks to my mate for making it an enjoyable game.

Being unable to move your entire army and hammer a single platoon every turn made for a more tactical game. I would suggest you give it a try.

Final pics of the battle field 

The German left flank. 2 Panther platoons bearing down on the objective with very little to see them 

off.

The right flank shows the Germans have pushed too far forward leaving the objective open for the Stuart to park on.

Final comment, I need a bridge for my new streams. I hope you enjoyed the first battle report

Nam

I have finally worked out how to get the pics from my tablet to blogger.
Here is another couple of pics of the Nam stuff. I have put most of it together and given them a black undercoat.

As you can see I have been busy. Sat in garden and put these together due to the resin. Glad I did them last weekend as it as not stopped raining. 5 slicks, 1 medevac, 2 Hogs, 2 Cobras and 2 loach's.

This is the armoured part of the army. 12 M113's 3 Sheridans, 2 Pattons, 1 rifle platoon and a machine gun platoon. I will base another platoon shortly. I have not looked up the points on this whole force, but I normally like an army with options. I can't remember ever getting an army to a list.

Flames of War Vietnam

Hi all. Another week so another project. This time I have started on my order from battlefront. I will add more pics as the army comes together. But here are some pics of my helicopters

Overall it was quite easy to put together. Most of the metal parts had to be bent in to shape before attaching. The magnets are included and I suggest you take the time get them all the same so your not struggling with stands.

So here's all 6 enough for a full air cav and a medevac. More to come as I'm now working on the hogs and cobras. 

Update time. US armoured almost finished, time for some decals. I always use Microscales Micro Sol and Micro Set. No need for instructions as you can see them on you tube. I used battlefront decals from the blister pack and various boxes. Miniatures are from Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company.

And for the close up.

As you can see you do not get the shiny finish. Ok 25 more to do. Let me know what you think

Back again with another review. This time Battlefield in a box Streams. Picked these up at Salute 2014. Sadly I have been unable to get the rivers so I made do. 2 packs of flock as usual and 6 sections of streams. the water could have had a little more colour but I will add that later.

The sections are well packaged and fit together well.

For the size comparison I have added a MERCS miniature, Flames of War stand and 6mm Baccus British Napoleonic foot. as you can see it will offer no challenge to a 28mm miniature but smaller scales will need to ford the stream. Overall really pleased however the lack of stock of rivers has made me pick these up.

Bastogne Church

Hi all
Happy Easter. I have been busy so I apologise for the short delay in posts.
I recently visited Salute and picked up the Bastogne Church from Stafford Games. Small plug for Stafford games, Roland has been very helpful with my requests and gets the items sent quick and safely every time. On to the review.

At first I thought the paint job was a bit poor, but looking at the box pictures its not too bad. It will need a bit of touching up but overall I am pleased. It will add a centre piece to my table.

The reverse side. I will have to get a priest from the Peter Pig range to fit on the steps.

It stands over 8.5'' 21.5 cm high. 8'' long 20.5 cm.

American Airborne in the Church for a size comparison. 

Overall really pleased with my purchase. It will need a bit of paint on the edges of the roof but it feels sturdy and will look great once surrounded by the other houses from Battlefield in a box. Cant see anyone shifting infantry from this bad boy. let me know what you think.