Quote of the day

Yesterday my wife said to me " Why don't you mow the lawn while the grass is short"

Maybe its just me, but if the grass is short don't you just leave it alone? I like every other wargamer have plenty more important things to do. I mean at the time i was prepping up my Belgian horse artillery battery. So whats more urgent, mowing already short grass or painting up some cannons?

Anyway me being the dutiful husband had to put down the fun stuff and grab the mower.

Luckily it didn't take to long. now wheres my paintbrush...?

New from Perry miniatures

I have been concentrating on other periods lately, although i had finished my second batch of 14 Nassauers.

But when you see fantastic figures like these being released it throws you right back into the fray.

Grenadiers a Cheval of the Imperial guard

Dragoons of the Imperial guard

I am sure you will agree inspiring stuff!

Hopefully new pics soon of what i am working on including some more command bases destined for eBay.

Victrix Austrians

uh oh...

Victrix announce their Austrian plastics for 2011and damn they look good link

The 1809 campaign has got to be one of the best for us wargamers and I can see myself filling my shelves with these bad boys.
Lets hope they decide to box them up with the mounted officer and 48 foot. Then if you want 60 man battalions or 36 man you can just swap 12 out and everyones happy.

Right back to painting Nassau before it is to late.....

Man flu....

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been working hard on commissions and just when i think i am getting on top of it and can crack on with the Nassau, i am stricken down with the dreaded man flu.
Lemsips and lay ins should sort me out and i will hopefully be back on my painting table very soon.

the future....part 1

My "wargaming space" clear out continues at a steady pace. I have decided to be ruthless with my lead mountain and i have restricted myself to six draws of unpainted lead. Each draw will house a different project. This is a five year plan, but being as fickle as any other easily distracted wargamer, where the mood and my imagination takes me, i am sure to follow.

So here it is in order of importance

PROJECT 1. NAPOLEONIC 1815

This is where i am spending most of my hobby time right now. The 28mm Napoleonic wargamer is now truly spoilt for choice when it comes to figures and rules. Over the last few years Perry miniatures Napoleonics range has kept growing at a fantastic rate. With the new golden age of hard plastic figures upon us having huge armies is now something we can all reasonably budget for. This was one of the reasons I got back into Napoleonics in the first place. I have had a seven year break after selling off my massive Austrian and French 1809 campaign armies, which i created using AB figures 15mm range.

So with that in mind, how comes the regiments which I am starting my new collection with are all metal figures? it would of been much cheaper and simpler for me to buy and paint up half dozen British and French battalions using the box sets available and just add the plastic cavalry regiments. Especially now Perrys have announced their British hussars plastic box set.


But, no. That would be far to easy...
What really caught my imagination was reading "The Battle of Quatre Bras" by Mike Robinson. A fantastic book which I literally could not put down.
So I have plunged headlong into recreating the forces involved in this confusing, exciting and very messy battle. Luckily for me there were some very interesting and colourful regiments involved. being your typical Englishman and proud, I shamefully no next to nothing about our allies in the conflict, except that they were just there to make up the numbers......
So when I am not changing nappies or painting I am educating myself by researching the Dutch, Belgian and German armies of 1815.

PROJECT 2. DARK AGE ENGLAND

I already have an army of hairy Norwegians which I have gamed with regularly over the past few years, it is currently and slowly evolving into a Hiberno-Norse force with the addition of some Gripping beast and Crusader Irish.

I have recently bought WAB2 and look forward to my first game using the army under the new rules on the 23rd October. We are playing a what if? scenario. What if Hardrada had beat Godwinson at Stamford bridge and made his way south to face Billy the bastard.

I will write up a detailed battle report on my rather forgotten blog link

To be continued....

14 down 29 to go....

Well its taken me over a week, but i now have 14 green coated Germans finished.
I would like to say the next lot will be quicker now i have my new bulb. But sadly I need to concentrate on finishing some commissions over the next four weeks. That will then give me only one week to paint, varnish and base all 43 Nassauers plus 4 Dutch guns and their crews, if I am going to remain on schedule for SELWG. Here I will be treating myself to the next purchase on my list. Its a big one, again with two different languages. They will look stunning but may well be the Napoleonic wargamers equivalent of a King Tiger. Not that I am getting to excited thinking about it!
First I have work to do.

lights, camera, ACTION!

Well my new bulb turned up safe and sound, so now i can crack on with the next batch. In the interim i have had a major clear out of my wargaming area and made myself a new worktop which is 8' x3'. This will allow me to have a permanent set up for photography, so to test it i took a few pics of the jagers now sporting their freshly repainted chin scales.

During the clear up I have been harsh with my lead mountain and there will be lots of various stuff going to on eBay or the bring and buys soon.

I managed to get a few productive hours of painting in last night. 14 of the 2/2 NU now have skintones and green. Hopefully today i will be able to finish them off and start on the next batch of 14. Splitting them up in this way it wont feel like to much of a slog completing these large units. once they are all finished i will then base them all at the same time to make sure the basing colours match.