SYW Prussian Fusilier Regiment #39

Today a 23 figure battalion from Prussian Fusilier Regiment #39 marches off the painting desk as work on 18mm projects continues.  Figures in today's line up are Blue Moon foot led by a Eureka mounted colonel.  The Blue Moon figures are AWI Hessians pressed into service for the King.  This battalion of the 39th carries the colonel's color. 

The sister battalion for the 39th is in work and should be mustering out from the painting desk soon.  With several successive weekends out of town and away from the workbench, production has slowed tremendously but activity is beginning to pick up once again.  Lots of figures on the workbench including the fielding of a few battalions of 28mm Napoleonics from which I received a little help.

On the gaming front, not much action at the gaming table outside of a couple of boardgaming sessions.  One planned for today, in fact.  The Combat at Foz de Arource remains set up on the table with thoughts of running through the scenario a time or too before packing up in anticipation of the next hosted game. 

Montcalm & Wolfe: Quebec Falls!

British storm Quebec Fortress

Wolfe's ambitious siege of Quebec successfully breached the fortress walls and Montcalm capitulated.  Montcalm and the survivors were allowed the honors of war and marched out of the fallen fortress.  For details on the attack and capitulation, please visit Peter's Grid Based Wargaming blog.  Peter's recounting of the siege operations is a fine example of conducting a siege in the mid-18th Century.

With the loss of Quebec, Montcalm, one regiment of Regulars and one regiment of Militia march out from the city.  The Cayuga are recruited to the British cause and move to Fort Oswego to join Amherst.

For the French portion of June 1758 turn, more than one activation is needed to reposition forces after the loss of Quebec.  Rolling on the Command Table, an '8' is rolled giving the British one additional activation and preempting French activations.  When it rains it pours!  Faced with more than one option, the British decide to pursue Montcalm in an attempt to destroy his force before it can reach the relative safety of Trois Rivieres.  Not wanting to risk his entire force to the potential ravages of attrition, Wolfe leaves one regiment of Regulars to garrison Quebec.  Realizing his militia cannot outrun Wolfe and his party of regulars, Montcalm turns to face his pursuers.  Game 16 in the series will be the pursuit and catching of Montcalm in the woods west of Quebec. 

Pursuit of Montcalm:
OB:
British: Wolfe (A4D4), 3 x 5-6 Regulars
French: Montcalm (A4D4), 1 x 5-6 Regular, 1 x 3-5 Militia
Terrain: woods with clearings.

Will Montcalm make good his escape?

Austrian IR#10 in Helmet

Work at the painting desk continues to focus on 18mm units with a recent pattern of alternating between 1799 and SYW projects.  This stop in the cycle presents a three battalion regiment of Austrian IR#10.  These 39 figures comprise Battle Honours foot with mounted AB Miniatures' colonel.

While I often grumble (how else would a true grognard respond?) about tackling this number of figures at the painting desk in one tranche, I overcome that emotion and often line 'em up and paint an entire regiment anyway.  What seems a chore during the painting process turns to satisfaction once three battalions march off the desk in tandem.  

Work and frequent travel have reduced motivation to trudge down into the game room for an evening painting session lately.  Still, figures continue to march across the workbench.  Despite this bit of malaise and with mid-year fast approaching, my 2018 painting goal is well in hand.  By the end of June, 630 of my 900 figure goal will be garrisoned in the "finished" pile.    

Proving the lesson of painting moderation is a tough one to control, three battalions of French ligne will follow the two battalions of Prussian  fusiliers next off the painting desk.  C'est le guerre!

I Have Found It!

A replacement for Dullcote, that is.  For several year now, I have been lamenting the inconsistency and "failure to flatten" of Testor's Dullcote.  See my earlier ramblings on this topic at Reliability of Primers and Dullcote.  Prior to the last four or five years, Dullcote was my dulling agent of choice.  It rarely failed to take the sheen off of my freshly painted figures.  But then something changed.  The packaging changed and my suspicion is that the formulation changed too.  That I could not prove.  Was the Dullcote having difficulty knocking the sheen off figures stained with MinWax?  I could not be sure.  All I knew was that results were inconsistent.  So I began a hunt for an alternative.  In every case, I returned to Dullcote and hoped for the best but the hunt never stopped.  

Several months ago I came upon Rust-Oleum's Clear Dead Flat in a Big Box hardware store.  "Dead Flat" certainly sounded promising and my expectations were set high.  Having applied this in various weather conditions, my verdict is that this product is NO WHERE near dead flat.  It leaves a satin sheen as do most matte clear topcoats.  Very disappointing.

Recently while browsing Dick Blick in search of a replacement Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush, I came upon W&N's Professional Matt Varnish.  After reading a few reviews, the product looked promising.  Given that this product is about a third the cost per ounce of Dullcote, I figured what do I have to lose?  Not much really.  My hobby closet holds many a half empty bottle of matt varnish that has failed to meet expectations.

Well, when the order arrived, I grabbed a stand of figures that still had the Dullcote satin sheen and gave them a spray with the W&N matt varnish.  The results were incredible!  Dead flat!  I have not seen this level of dead flattedness since the days of using Floquil's Figure Flat about twenty years ago.  Next I grabbed a unit of recently "dipped" figures.  Again, absolutely dead flat was the result.  Splendid!  I have found a new dull coat.

The only issue now is that I have become accustomed to figures showing a slight sheen...

SYW Pr Cuirassier RGT #10 - Two More Squadrons

Two more squadrons from Prussian Cuirassier Regiment #10 Gendarme trot off the painting desk.  While I awaited a resupply from Eureka Miniatures for Prussian hussars in busby with which to bolster the Prussian army at Zorndorf, a dozen cuirassiers went into the painting queue and emerged on the other end completed. 

As I have mentioned many times before, Eureka SYW cavalry are my favorite for the this period in 18mm.  Unfortunately, once commits to fielding Eureka cavalry, no other manufacturer compares favorably with respect to size.  Eureka cavalry are real monsters.  Big and beautiful.  Also in work for the SYW project is a regiment of two battalions (46 figures total) of Prussian fusiliers.  Rather than Eureka, this time I chose Blue Moon.  

Speaking of a Eureka resupply, that package of reinforcements arrived in yesterday's post.  A lot of stuff in the package primarily figures for the SYW and 1799 projects.  Looking over a potential OB for Rivoli, early French horse artillery ought to be recruited into the painting queue.  Several more Austrian infantry battalions are in the queue as well.  Always lots to work on.

WWII Spearhead in HO

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a WWII game presented in HO scale.  Many ROCO Minitanks, Haswegawa, Fujima, Airfix, and other models crowded the landscape.  Not since my youth have I seen HO and 1/72nd armor deployed upon the field of battle.  In my younger days, I had a large collection of plastic models for my own "Little Wars" situated primarily in North Africa if I recall correctly.  Great memories.

Soviets ready for the German counterattack

The action on this day featured two German formations attempting to thwart a Soviet breakout from a bridgehead.  The Soviets began the game with most of their forces deployed but concealed on the German side of the river across a broad swath of table.  The German plan of attack was to bypass all of the Soviet prepared positions on the Soviet right and drive down the center towards the village with one formation while the second formation attacked the Soviet left.  This strategy proved disastrous to the Soviets since Soviet commanders had planned for a German drive directly into the awaiting formations on the Soviet right.  With poor chance to change orders, the bulk of one Soviet formation lay motionless and unengaged for most of the game.  Brilliant German plan!  

Jon's German column drives on the Soviet Center

Bob's German column advances against Soviet left

As the German left column swings around possible Soviet defenses on the German left, Soviet positions pop up from concealment to harass the attackers.  Having exposed their positions, the Germans call in mission after mission of artillery to suppress or destroy the Soviets.  Some missions were successful; others not so much.

Germans make a left hook toward the objectives

With great success on the German right, the Soviet defense begins to crumble on that flank.  Those not killed outright in the assault stream toward the rear.  In the center, tank duels are frequent and casualties high.  Fortunately for the German center column, they dish out more punishment that they take.  The Soviet armor formation astride the road dissolves.   

Traffic jam!

After one or two more turns of heavy Soviet casualties, the Soviet's capitulate.  A major victory for the Fatherland!

Soviet positions collapse

The rules in use for this game were WWII Spearhead.  While I played Spearhead a few times many years ago in microarmor, I recalled very little of the actual game mechanisms.  The Sequence of Play seemed straight forward and not too complex.  With a veteran umpire at the helm, the game progressed rapidly and smoothly.  Moving from my recollections of Spearhead in microarmor up to a game in HO was a new experience.  Shocking too.  Visually, the closeness of the models in HO I find not as believable as I do in microarmor.  Vehicles hub-to-hub is a rub.  I need to sit down and read the rules for the author's perspective on this visual disconnect.  My preference would be to field fewer models on the table in HO to reduce this visual clutter.  Traffic jams were common in this game with many models having little space to move or deploy.

Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable half day out at the gaming table.  I look forward to doing this again.  Until then, I have rules to read.

Austrian Light Infantry in 1798

Work continues on the 1799 project with the mustering of one battalion of the 2nd Carl Rohan Light Infantry Battalion.  The light pike grey uniform with white webbing is a welcome change from fielding battalion after battalion of the White Menace.  The white over grey provides a good contrast too. Three battalions of the white-coated, Austrian line infantry are working their way across the painting desk.  So, the 2nd Carl Rohan offers but a small respite.

For a change of pace, the 15mm foot figures are from Battle Honors rather than the more usually seen AB Miniatures' figures.  While the Battle Honors figures were sculpted by Tony Barton, they are somewhat slighter in stature than his later AB Austrians.  Very fine figures nonetheless. As always, the mounted colonel is an AB.  The Austrian line infantry, mentioned as in work, are Battle Honors figures as well.  Purchased from 19th Century Miniatures at a hefty discount, I doubled down and ordered two more bags of these figures at 30% discount.  I real bargain!

Also working across the painting desk are more 18mm SYW Prussian heavy cavalry and 18mm SYW Prussian fusiliers.