Cheating

So, I've got a new scale (6mm) and a desire not to increase my mountain of unpainted lead/plastic/resin. The other clever, sensible , intelligent half (well you never know who might be reading) suggested that perhaps I would like to get troops painted for me.

My pride (such a better word to use than pig headedness) immediately rebelled at the concept, after all I enjoyed painting even if I progressed at a pace that could only rival a snail or particularly lethargic tortoise.

Then I tried painting the little... miniature masterpieces.

Before I knew it I was on EBay searching for 6mm painted Napoleonics. There were a couple about at a reasonable price and after paying for some samples I settled on sennacherIb33.

These arrive loose so I do have to base them myself but this means the basing is consistently [insert your chosen adjective here].

Mostly I have been doing Russians (all figures are Baccus):

Dumfries March 2017 - Part 2

With the next weekender coming up, I realised that I hadn't posted all my photos from the last one! I'd like to come up with an excuse other than work and the twinnage but, alas, I'm not that imaginative.

So here's a few shots of the Caribbean expedition. Watch out for photographic evidence of the first BLB unit ever to be routed by the local fauna (my die rolling as ever knew no shame).

 

 

 



And meanwhile back in not so Merry England...

July and August Progress

Well that was a quick couple of months and I've just noticed I didn't do a count for July.

So here's one for the last two months - the 40K theme for this year continues to dominate.

Painted:
6 Chaos Marines
1 Cypher (renegade Dark Angel)
20 Imperial Guardsmen
6 Imperial Guard heavy weapons
3 Donnybrook BS project

Purchased
Nothing, nada, not a jot. I didn't even make Claymore, so no impulse purchases there, the hobby being sacrificed to attend a toddler party (there were balloons and cake, all the bribes I need).

Monthly Trend: +36
Yearly Trend: +70

A trooper from the Donnybrook BS project

It's All About the Base

Of course basing is all down to the rules you are planning to fight your battles with. I'm sure you will be unsurprised to discover that at the start of the 6mm project I owned several sets:

• Napoleon
• Waterloo
• Republic to Empire
• Blucher

And since embarking on the venture have added two more:

• Polemos
• Et sans Resultat

Of these I have only actually played one, Republic to Empire and that's only because I haunt The League of Augsburg's weekenders and one day games. These have been played using 28mm on huge tables but conversion shouldn't be difficult.

Waterloo looks fun (betraying the GW background, again) and Blucher deals in base widths for distance so you can easily adapt it (the rules default to standard playing card dimensions).

Polemos is designed for 6mm but is stringent on basing and Et sans Resultat actually adapts to the size of the bases (effectively if a small battalion is on this size of base then use this scale).

I didn't want my basing choice to prevent me from trying every set out and so went for something that could easily be put into a selection of sabot bases, 20mm x 20mm.

Ready for Republic to Empire

Or Polemos

Or Blucher

For the bigger bases I went in for some decoration adding officers, skirmishers and so on. For the Blucher ones I can even have two units on the same base to give it more of a brigade feel.

There's also some space for unit tags.

Unit Name and three ranks

Two squadrons

With skirmishers

I also decided to make some of my French units a bit more close order than they would normally appear, giving them three ranks instead of the standard two. Not sure if I will continue with this as it does make the enterprise more expensive given the way Baccus (my 6mm pusher of choice) package their troops.

So I have rules, units and space... now to get to a fight!

28mm Romans

Way back in the mists of time my other half being fed a steady diet of Rome, I Claudius and Spartacus, kindly bought me the Hail Caesar starter set Conquest of Gaul.

These stoic chaps have spent three and a half years on the sprue before I finally got round to assembling them.

I wanted to get these done quickly.. They were swiftly undecorated with Leadbelcher spray which after a wash of black ink and quick dry brushed highlight did for the armour.

Red was a base coat, wash and edge highlight, anything brown met the same fate.

I cheated on the shields and bought some transfers from Warlord and gave them a light ink wash to dirty them up a bit.

Basing was kept simple, the base was smothered in GW texture paint - Stirland Mud - and then flocked with a little cheap leaf litter.

There was also a little scorpion to do.

I now have 60 Celts to do!

The 6mm Solution

Regular perusers of this blog will have noticed a slight trend forming (ok two slight trends but I'm ignoring the 40K bit for now), the appearance over the last year or so of 6mm Napoleonics.

Up until now I have pretty much stuck with 28mm with the exception of some 15mm for Flames of War. But I have limited space to campaign, at a stretch I can set up a 12X6 table in the room formerly referred to as our garage (I know this is riches to many) but even at that size it's not going to be able to be transformed into Borodino or Austerlitz at that scale.

And that's before I get to thinking aout the figures required and the time needed to paint them - a constant source of moaning on these virtual pages.

So, I finally came to the conclusion that much as I love the pomp and well turned heel of the modern 28mm figure, if I want to recreate conflict in the grand Napoleonic manner then I would have to think small.

About 6mm in fact. This would give me a reasonable groundscale to fight the most famous Napoleonic conflicts at home.

28mm Perry French Infantry and 6mm Baccus Russian cannon

Now I needed an excuse to get another mountain of lead past the better, smarter, purse-string holding half (a bit of indiscriminate flattery just in case she happens upon this article). Don't get me wrong the better half is very supportive of my hobby, partially as it excuses her dalliances with all things cross-stitch but mostly as it keeps me in a small controlled space where interaction with her friends and our neighbours is minimised, along with all the associated embarrassemnt that brings. The better half's main concern was,like most in the hobby, I spend much more time buying and painting miniatures than I do actually playing with them. Things get painted and then boxed away on a shelf without a chance of every answering a bugle call or more likely just get shelved and left unbuilt.

So I made a deal, I would indulge this diversion if I could purchase pre-painted units. I identified a couple of painters on eBay and after getting samples settled on one. This has proved a good way to build the collection, for a modest (in hobby terms) outlay I can receive a few ready painted battallions and all I have to do is base them and get them on the table.

Part of a Waterloo test set up in the garage. Figures Baccus, cloth  Cigar Box Battles

Tricky bit over I thought; basing them, that sounds easy, then I made the mistake of looking on TMP for some rational deabate on the subject...

June Progress

A little reversal in June, some progress made with the completion of a long shelved Roman project but there were more GW purchases (are there any help groups out there?) and a collection of figures for my top secret Donnybrook project (which believe it or not is even sadder than the 40K addiction - if you don't believe me stay tuned!).

Painted:
32 1st Century Romans including a scorpion.

Purchased
10 Astra Militarium Steel Legion
31 Donnybrook BS project

Monthly Trend: -9
Yearly Trend: +34