Summer Doldrums

Summertime gaming activities have slowed dramatically.  With better weather, much time has been spent out on the bike getting miles in on the road rather than at the gym.  July painting totals still showed good progress but August totals will take a precipitous drop.  

15mm Narvik Project:

One more French H-39 and one Panhard were added to the Narvik project.  Also completed 1-1/2 companies of chasseurs alpins. 

First Half 2011 Painting Totals

Terry invited me to a game on Friday. Ahead of a long holiday weekend, unlikely to be called away for work so I accepted. Terry offered several choices: Field of Glory, Regimental Fire and Fury (ACW or MAW), Shako, or Brigade Fire and Fury. Since I'm working on a unit of Romans to be based for FoG, I opted for that option. I believe John Meyer will be joining us.

Yes, John Meyer and I faced off at Terry's on Friday. Egyptians vs Persians. My Egyptians were able to put to flight the Persian right flank and then turn inwards compromising their center. Although Meyer's morale was broken before the Persian right completely collapsed, he threw in the towel when one Egyptian unit of chariots poised itself to attack the center from a flanking position. I re-read the rules this week in preparation for the game but FoG still leaves me unimpressed. I'd want to like these rules but the mechanics continue to seem burdensome and not too elegant.

18mm SYW Project:
The two squadrons of Austrian dragoons and Swiss foot are finished just in time to count towards the June painting totals.

15mm Narvik Project:
The following armor for the Norwegian front have been completed: 3 x French Panhards, 3 x French H39s, 3 x Germans PZ II. When I pulled the Peter Pig French alpine infantry, I came across one Peter Pig H39. That single model is in the priming queue. Joining the PP H39 in the priming queue is one Battlefront French Panhard. With those, I think I've exhausted my supply of 15mm armor.


Painting Tallies:
June witnessed good production from a variety of periods. Once again, the SYW project saw four squadrons of horse and one battalion of foot completed.

Thus far, through June, I've painted 767 figures and 13 pieces of equipment. The SYW project added 154 foot, 72 horse, and 12 command figures and is becoming quite a large collection. I really should get them on the table for a game.


Annual Painting Tally for 2011 (through JUN)

Era	Scale	Type	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
American War of Independence	15mm	Infantry	19
Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland	18mm	Infantry	26
Italian War of Independence	15mm	Cavalry	12
Italian War of Independence	15mm	Infantry	84
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Artillery	12	4
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Cavalry	12
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Command	10
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Infantry	58
Napoleonic Wars	28mm	Infantry	20
Punic Wars	28mm	Cavalry	10
Punic Wars	28mm	Infantry	48
Punic Wars	6mm	Cavalry	12
Punic Wars	6mm	Command	30
Punic Wars	6mm	Infantry	176
Seven Years War	18mm	Cavalry	72
Seven Years War	18mm	Command	12
Seven Years War	18mm	Infantry	154
WWII	15mm	AFV		9
		Totals	767	13

Projects Update and Albuera

Don, Scott R, and I joined Scott M. for the christening of his new house to wargaming. Scott set up the Battle of Iuka in his living room and we gathered for a day of good gaming and camaraderie. The battle was played using Scott's figures and Regimental Fire and Fury. A nice recap can be found on Scott's blog at http://macpheesminiaturemen.blogspot.com/.

As in many of our games, it takes a few turns to reacquaint ourselves with the rules. One aspect that we didn't pick up on in this game was leader casualty checks. I wager that at some point during the game, 80 percent of all units engaged rolled a '10' and went "low ammo". With all of the low ammo forcing 10’s we rolled, we should have had a number of leader casualty checks. In the heat of battle, we may have forgotten that a leader w/I 4 inches of a unit hit with a ‘10’ takes a leader casualty check. Given that, our Iuka game may have seen the ground littered with killed and wounded leaders. May not have impacted the outcome but it might have had local impacts. 


18mm SYW Project:
Work progresses on two Austrian dragoon squadrons. These two squadrons will muster as squadrons 5 and 6 of Dragoon Regiment #7, Batthyany. Also on the painting table is battalion #2 of the Swiss regiment, Diesbach. The dragoons are Eureka and the Swiss foot are Blue Moon FIW French. 

15mm Narvik Project:
In the recent Warweb order were two bags of 15mm armor. Both bags were from the recently released Command Decision French armor models. I ordered one bag each of three French Panhards and three Hotchkiss H39s (with the short barrel). My goal for this weekend is to assemble and paint these models and complete the three Panzer II's I've had sitting in a partially finished state. Since the picture I have of the H39 in Norway shows a solid light color, Scott recommended Panzer Dark Yellow for the French paint scheme. A trip to the local discounter, White Elephant, yielded only Afrika Mustard. That color will be close enough for me. Oh, I cleaned out WE's supply of Dullcote as I often do on my resupply runs. The guy behind the counter quipped that I must be the one that messes up his inventory by buying all of his stock on a periodic but infrequent schedule.

Working on these models got me motivated to pull six bags of Peter Pig French alpine troops to prime and place into the painting queue. 

Still awaiting a refight of Albuera but below is a picture of the game table with the battlefield setup. The first picture shows the battlefield deployment viewed from the north while the second picture shows the battlefield from the east. Both pictures depict the deployments around 0930am at the time of the French assaults against the Spanish.


Battle of Albuera: 

Projects Update and Cost Comparison

Orders from Renegade, Brigade Games, and Warweb arrived. Renegade sent an e-mail stating that prices are rising (once again) and that orders paced before June 20th will be at the old rate. New rate for regiments may be up to BP19.95. That is a substantial increase from the current BP14.95. Just last year regiments were offered at BP11.95. Still, including shipping Renegade offers a good value. I recently calculated the post-paid cost per figure (on a 24 figure basis, before the price increase) as: 

• Renegade: $1.43
• Crusader: $1.90
• Aventine: $2.03 

Given the unit cost above, Renegade would get the bulk of my business with Aventine running second. With Renegade's proposed price increase, I may look more towards Aventine since their models are quite stunning. Eliot from Renegade says that shipping rates to the USA will likely drop with the price increase. The current shipping rate to USA is 40% of order value which usually is quite close to actual shipping charged. 
After much too long, the group is finally meeting at Scott's new house for a RFF game of Iuka on the 18th to christen the game table. Rumors are that Don and Scott R. will be driving up from Nez Perce for the weekend festivities. 

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Two battalions of Austrian foot are finished. Now, the 7th regiment musters its full complement of four battalions and IR17 has battalion #1 completed.

18mm SYW Project:
Two more Prussian cavalry squadrons are on the painting table. Again, I will be fielding the 5th squadron from each of Dragoon Regiment #2 and Dragoon Regiment #4 .

28mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
One 24 figure unit of Renegade Principes have been completed with LBM shield transfers. The Renegade figures are slightly chunkier, heftier, and a bit taller than the Aventine Romans but even with close side-by-side scrutiny, the two manufacturers' figures work nicely together. The Crusader figures are about the same size as Aventine but the body proportions are less anatomically pleasing. To my eyes, the arms on the Crusader Greek hoplites appear too short. Aventine and Crusader could be mixed within the same unit and perhaps Aventine and Renegade too. I will likely keep them in separate units and from a tabletop perspective all three will look good.

Projects Update

We spent Mother's Day weekend in Joseph, Oregon at Wallowa Lake. Joseph is an arts and crafts hub especially for bronze work. At last count, three bronze foundries operate in the small town. Many of the corners along Main Street display large bronze statuary. One of these is a rendition of a Nez Perce' warrior on horseback accompanied by his wild dog. As the picture below illustrates, this is no household bronze statue.

Nearly one month from my last post but a lack of entries does not mean I've been slacking. In painting production, a number of projects witnessed progress as seen from the Monthly Painting Tally. Of course, much of the count was consumed by the 6mm project but added to that were 44 28mm figures.

6mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
Basing is complete on all 6mm ancients. Added to the collection in May were 96 Libyan Veteran infantry, 48 Roman Triarii, and 30 mounted command stands. Each command stand contained three "Roman" mounted officers. I didn't have sufficient figures to paint two stands of Triarii so I ended up with 1-1/2 stands painted. All figures were Baccus. To further the project, I ordered a hex template for painting hexes onto either fabric or a flocked gaming map. My plan is to spray one of my green, flocked game maps with a hex overlay for use in Command and Colors.

28mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
Although hesitant to embark on yet another project, I completed the 24 Aventine Principes and really enjoyed painting them. These 28mm Ancients may only be a slight dabbling in the period rather than a full project. I tried LBM shield transfers for the first time and really enjoyed the ease at which they could be applied. With the LBM transfers, the shields look fantastic.

Following the Aventine figures, I have on order Hastati and Principes from Renegade and Greek Hoplites from Crusader. I've always wanted to paint a unit of Greek Hoplites and now will be my chance. For all of these units I ordered LBM shield transfers. Perhaps, I can field the Greeks as Carthaginian Greek mercenaries.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
The battalion of French line infantry from Brigade Games is complete along with two Front Rank skirmishers that I omitted from an earlier battalion. These Brigade Games' figures painted posed no painting frustrations and I took advantage of Lon's Memorial Weekend sale to pick up another battalion of French and enough figures for two battalions of British. I've not seen the British in-hand and look forward to their arrival. The British have separate heads so the look of the battalion can be customized.

18mm SYW Project: 
Two Prussian cavalry squadrons were finished in May with one squadron each from Cuirassier Regiment #6 and Dragoon Regiment #11. Both squadrons will muster as the 5th squadron of each.
15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Two squadrons of Sardinian light horse are complete and will muster as the 1st ans 2nd squadrons of the Aosta light horse. With no Italian cavalry available in Old Glory's 1859 range, I substituted French Chasseurs d'Afrique. The French chasseurs match closely to information I have on the Piedmontese light horse including the tall shako and greatcoat thrown over the saddle pommel. On the painting table are two battalions of Austrian foot. One battalion will be painted as the 3 BN 7th foot to complete the 7th infantry regiment and the second battalion to be named later.

May 2011 Painting Totals:
A varied mix of era and scales are represented in May's painting totals. With 260 figures, May represents my best output YTD. As seen below, four different periods in four different scales. My believe is that this variety allows me to maintain painting focus without becoming bored.  

Projects Update

With Spring coursework completed and no travel plans until later in the month, hobby life is beginning to return to more tranquil times.

18mm 1799 Italian Project:
On the painting table are 26 AB Austrians in casquet. Very finely sculpted figures with nicely detailed faces. Actually, these Austrians have some of the best 18mm faces I've seen! These 26 figures (24 foot and 2 mounted officers) will become two battalions of IR Frelich under Kaim's command at the beginning of the campaign in Northern Italy.

18mm SYW Project:
Twelve Austrian hussars from regiment #34 are complete. These Eureka figures will be mustered as the Dessewfy Hussars with light blue dolman and pelisse. Both the Austrian and Prussian hussars, to my eye, lean towards the two dimensional sculpt and some of the poses are definitely long and lean. The galloping horses don't fit on the 30mm depth of the heavies and must be based on 40mm squares. I rationalize the extra frontage and depth for the light horse as representing the more open formation that their real-life counterparts would have maintained on the field. Additionally, the light horse are based in half-squadron strength rather than the full squadron strength of their heavier brethren.

15mm American War of Independence Project:
Rebasing artillery and cavalry begins. I rebased all of the infantry onto Litko bases but never made it to progressing to the artillery and cavalry. With so few of these bases in the collection, this mini-project should be completed rather quickly. My initial thought is to base two horse on a 40x30mm base and one gun and three crew onto a 40mm square base.

Projects Update

I won auctions for a few items on eBay recently. Most notable, is a collection of 6mm rivers from JR Miniatures. NIB sets containing a good assortment of shapes, including,

• 1-#3402 - River Y
• 1-#3403 - River Ford
• 1-#3405 - River Turn
• 1-#3406 - River Curve
• 1-#3408 - River S Curve
• 2-#3420 - River set

Nice looking pieces that appear quite durable. I would have preferred more straight sections but the collection is a welcome acquisition. The addition of these pieces will allow me more flexibility in scenario layout.

Command Colors Ancients/Napoleonics:
The CCN games continue. Although Scott was unable to attend, Kevin, Dylan, and I will met Friday evening for two battles. We missed Scott's rules' expertise but those are the vagaries of war. Game One was a continuation of Kevin and Dylan's Waterloo game. Kevin's expert use of the French artillery blew big holes in the British defenses exterminating enough British units to take the win. Game Two saw Dylan and I face off in Rolica (Second Position). Despite managing to squeeze the British through the narrow ravines on each flank and threaten the French defensive positions, the firepower of the batteries and lights destroyed enough of the attacking British to take the game. This is an interesting puzzle for the British. How do you advance up three narrow defiles and attack the strong French positions at the top of the ridge in a coordinated fashion? Clearly, I failed in the first attempt. Rolica deserves a second chance.

15mm Napoleonic Project: Albuera
The final two regiments of Spanish foot are ready to be fielded. Now, all participants for La Albuera are mustered and ready for battle. Of course, the allies will be without artillery limbers but so be it.

18mm SYW Project:
Both Austrian cuirassier squadrons noted in the earlier post are finished. Picked up a resupply of Eureka Austrian and Prussian foot from Scott at our game on the 9th.

6mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
Basing the Baccus 6mm collection continues and I painted 12 Spanish cavalry that I had laying around. One correction from an earlier posting: The base size is actually 24mm x 45mm rather than the 30mm x 45mm I noted. Of course, elephants are mounted singly on a 25mm x 30mm base. On order from Baccus are a small assortment of 2nd Punic War figures from their retooled range. I'm getting a bit excited about getting these forces together for a miniatures version CCA. While not my longest running, orphan project, this Carthaginian collection began in 2002. With a little luck, these 6mm ancients will see the table top in 2011. Not quite 10 years between concept and execution but pretty close.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
Work begins this weekend on the sample battalion of early French from Brigade Games. The facial features and bicornes on these figures really provide much character. Looking forward to seeing these painted. In addition to the 16 Brigade figures on the production line, are two Front Rank French skirmishers that I had neglected to paint in fielding an earlier battalion.