Artillery piece of the month: Elizabethan Sea Dogs' cannon

Slightly late again for the May artillery piece. This is a more recent purchase from eBay and is designed to give some punch to my Elizabethan Sea Dogs as they roam the Atlantic looking for trouble. They are Mike Owen sculpts for Wargames Foundry's sadly short-lived Sea Dogs range.

More pictures on my Swashbucklers blog:

http://wargamesswashbucklers.blogspot.com/2010/06/sea-dogs-cannon.html

More on WW2 Norway

Norwegians by Valkyrie

Several people have commented that they would be more interested in the less usual WW2 fronts rather than Normandy or the Eastern Front. Well, I was just looking at TMP this evening and saw a post about the 1940 Norwegian campaign and a firm who were going to make some Norwegian figures. It turned out, as I feared, that these were 15mm, but someone else posted a link to Valkyrie Miniatures who do make a 28mm Norwegian range.

http://www.valkyrieminiatures.co.uk/

The figures look a bit crude compared to the Mike Owen ones but, hey, who else is likely to make Norwegians? I do like the prone figure too. Not enough manufacturers of modern figures do prone figures; given that is a common firing position in modern warfare.

I have found a picture of a Norwegian infantryman in my trusty Blandford Military Uniforms of the World so no excuse not to get any I suppose...

Gerbirgsjager by Brigade Games

Here is a picture of Brigade Games German Mountain troops which do look nice. The postage is a bit steep from the USA but there you go. I have also now acquired the Osprey so this is looking more and more like a proper project (another one!).

A small WW2 Diversion...

Artizan Designs 8th Army

I've always been slightly dubious about gaming World War 2 (or indeed any "modern" conflict) and still feel slightly queasy about people who build, for example, large SS units for the tabletop. However, as I have said before, both my father and uncle fought (actually fought) in World War 2 and this, added to the two WW2 novels I have just read, got me searching around in the lead pile for the pack of Artizan 8th Army figures I bought in a sale at one of the shows a year or two ago.

Thinking that the Norway campaign (which my uncle fought in) might make for some good skirmishes (having just read James Holland's The Odin Mission) I also ordered the Crusader Rate of Fire Rules as a pdf, although, sadly they seem to involve counters; which I detest on a wargames board. Maybe I will use the Great War rules instead as the Norway campaign had very little armour (none on the British side) so we are really just talking about infantry and artillery. I also ordered a squad of early British infantry from BEF Miniatures which arrived very quickly.

BEF's excellent early war British Squad. Seven rifleman (including an NCO) and a Bren gunner.

Mike Owen sculpted both the 8th Army and the BEF early British but they are somewhat different in style. With the BEF figures he went for more proportional rifles which makes them look much nicer than the over-sized guns and (especially) bayonets on the 8th Army figures. However, it's a small range so I will have to look for things like machine guns elsewhere. Crusader Miniatures do early British although they don't have the characteristic chest-carried gas mask cases which the BEF ones do.

For the Germans, Crusader do early WW2 figures (including MG 34 teams) and Artizan do figures in greatcoats (although the Norwegian campaign was in April and May it was still quite snowy). The figures I am really interested in, however, are the Brigade Games German mountain troops, which will be an unusual alternative.

The Artizan figures are easy to paint but I did have some trouble finding suitable paints in the Humbrol range. As a reference I have Brayley and Ingram's excellent Khaki Drill and Jungle Green which poses people in genuine WW2 uniforms. The nature of photographic reproduction being what it is, however, meant that in different pictures the uniforms the troops wore in North Africa looked completely different. I suspect mine are a bit too dark but it was either that or much too pale. I am happier with the colour of the webbing which definetely had a green tint to it. Here I mixed some Humbrol 72 (khaki drill) with Humbrol 120 (pale green) for the right shade. I have now based the rest of the 8th Army pack and have already started the Norway British (I've now painted their skin and the uniform base colour since I took this picture). Finding the correct colour for them was much easier, Humbrol 26, but theire is a surprising difference from my current tin and the one I am used on my WW1 British.

Although I am not going to get that many figures done for May I have quite a lot nearly finished so in the next week or so I hope to complete my Great Northern War Russian Command, my Elizabethan gun and crew, a couple of Norman Knights, some more Zulus and Zulu War British and my Wars of the Roses cannon.

Not painting in Switzerland...

Sir Henry Havelock: hero of the Indian Mutiny

Well, here I am in not very sunny Geneva with a lot of health ministers. This is a shame as my painting was going quite well lately. I finished a Gripping Beast plastic Viking test figure and will put up something next week on my Dark Ages blog. Not entirely convinced, I have to say.

Almost finished as well is the long awaited Musketeer Miniatures Great Northern War Russian command figures I bought at Salute and, likewise, I hope to have these on the blog before the end of next week. I'm also working on some more Zulu War figures, a couple of Fantasy pirates from Black Scorpion, some Foundry Swashbucklers, a Perry Wars of the Roses cannon, some Crusader Normans and my first Immortal Miniatures plastic Greek. The usual focus, in fact! Basically, I am trying to finish some of the figures that have been sitting on my desk for far too long. The Norman knights have made an appearance because we have been doing Hastings as part of Guy's common entrance revision and I enjoyed painting the Wars of the Roses mounted figures recently. I used to hate painting mounted figures until I discovered that if I stuck the figures on the horses before painting it was a lot easier.

I didn't have anything on my camera's card to illustrate this entry with except this bust of Sir Henry Havelock which is tucked away in the basement of the Lord Mayor of London's official residence, Mansion House. The bust is by William Behnes who was also responsible for the statue of Havelock in Trafalgar Square (which Red Ken Livingstone wanted to replace with something more ""relevant"). I took this picture a few weeks ago when I took Charlotte on "take your daughters to work day" and I arranged a tour of the Mansion House for her.

Anyway, given the paucity of pictorial material available to me it leads quite nicely on to my contemplation of Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny range which is coming along very nicely; with new British Infantry, Gurkhas and Highlanders out (oh, no more tartan!). Also very welcome are the first scenic items which include some houses and we are promised parts of the walls of Delhi soon. The latter has helped crystallise what part of the war I want to concentrate on. Street fighting in the city fits more with the skirmish nature of the figures, I think. Anyway, it will be back to my Mutiny figures once I have cleared the current figures I am working on.

I notice that the first of the Great War Miniatures Crimean War figures are out and hope that I can resist these. I am still thinking about the Matabele figures but they are really too similar to Zulus to think about at present and I still have a lot of Ngoni to paint too.

Currently I am reading the novel The Odin Mission by James Holland which I picked up in the airport on the way out here yesterday. Its an OK time waster and those who say it is a World War 2 Sharpe are spot on but the war in Norway makes an unusual World War 2 setting. Militarily, it seems quite accurate even including the German Panzerkampfwagen Neubaufahrzeuge VI which was used in this campaign, where it performed rather poorly.

The original Panzer VI: way before the Tiger. Photographed in Lillehammer in April 1940

My Uncle Keith served in Norway with the Sherwood Foresters before transferring to the Airborne Division later in the war so I am, yet again, toying with the idea of getting a few WW2 troops for a skirmish game (The Two Fat Lardies rules for WW2 seem quite popular at Guildford). Failing that the Warhammer Great War rules would probably work for a platoon level game.

Right, it's time for a Martini I think. Let's hope my lovely new friend from Guyana is in the bar!

Artillery Piece of the Month: Zulu Wars Hale Rocket team

Well, one day late for April's artillery piece of the month but here it is. Empress Miniatures Hale rocket team with a couple of 24th Foot soldiers to assist.

More about it here:

http://zuluwargames.blogspot.com/2010/04/royal-artillery-hale-rocket-team.html

Mini Bosworth

Mini Bosworth with the battlefield Guy made: an exemplary lesson in minimalism

My little boy Guy had to do a presentation on Bosworth at school and suggested that the battle would be easier to understand if he could put some figures on a battlefield. Originally I had thought of putting some 15mm figures on some stands or maybe getting some 6mm figures for this. In the end, however, we were running out of time and given that I had already got quite a lot of the old Foundry figures painted we decided to use those; with each figure representing roughly 500 men. I had most of the standards and banners to hand and a few hasty repainting jobs put figures into the correct livery.

Henry Tudor and his standard bearer William Brandon who was killed by Richard himself whilst charging to attempt to reach Henry.

What I didn't have was any figures to represent Richard III or Henry Tudor as mine is, at present, an infantry only army. So Dave Thomas' stand at Salute was our first port of call on Saturday and we picked up the Richard and Henry character sets. These contain the character plus a standard bearer and a herald. The presentation was on Tuesday and I realised that I wan't going to have time to paint all six figures so I just went for Richard and Henry and the two standard bearers.

Henry Tudor

I filed, based and undercoated them on Saturday night. On Sunday I painted Richard and Henry and got the standard bearers done on Monday, thereby breaking my record for fastest painted purchases from Salute! The two standards are included in the Perry Plastic infantry box.

King Richard III who according to Shakespeare rode his grey White Surrey that day. Although a pure white horse would have been more appropriate I wanted to have a go at a more complex grey coat in preparation for some Sudan figures I am preparing.

I really enjoyed doing these and will fast track some of the plastic infantry now. My figures are painted as the Earl of Oxford's force so I will paint the first batch of plastics as Norfolk's troops. I also bought an artillery piece but didn't get time to do that but have started work on it so maybe it can be artillery piece of the month for next month (this month's is the Zulu War rocket team from Empress Miniatures, which is nearly finished).

Richard III and his standard bearer Sir Percival Thirlwall who, although unhorsed and having had both legs cut off, continued to hold Richard's standard aloft until he was killed

Guy's presentation (he also did an excellent powerpoint) was so good he was awarded a headmaster's commendation for it! Well done Guy!

Salute

BigRedBat's amazing Zama game

I''m a bit late with my thoughts on Salute as I have been working flat out on painting the Perry Richard III and Henry Tudor figures for Guy's presentation on Bosworth at school tomorrow.

These were my main targets to buy and I also picked up a WotR gun and crew but didn't get time to paint it. Nevertheless, I am pleased that I painted Richard, Henry and two standard bearers in a day and a half. They are now packed up in a box to go to school so pictures will have to wait; but suffice to say, I am now very keen on the Wars of the Roses again. It's a popular period at Guildford Wargames Club and I would gues that maybe as many as eight of us have a WotR army. I will do a few plastics next.

I didn't actually buy anything at the Perry plastics stand (i've got four boxes to paint already!)and it was so busy I missed the fact that they are going to do plastic Mahdists! Hooray! More on my Sudan blog in a day or two on this.

Busaco

I didn't think it was a classic Salute. Parts of it seemed a bit empty but I believe that there was actually a bigger hall this year which may have explained it. Also, I didn't think there were any really stunning demonstration games to look at. There were some very good ones but I thought the standard of scenery (which is what I mainly look at) was a bit down this year. My favourite was the Battle of Busaco game which had one of the best rendered hills I have ever seen in a wargame. BigRedbat's Zama was amazing, from the figures point of view, and I was very pleased to have seen it in real life having followed its building over the last six months or so. I was glad to see that both the aforementioned games won prizes for best scenery and figures respectively. I also liked the Grand Manner/Gripping Beast Dark Ages game.

Dark Ages by gripping Beast and Grand Manner

I was so busy working on a presentation on Saturday morning I totally failed to check which issues of the various wargames magazines I was missing so I could pick up back numbers. Oh well, I can do it after the fact, I suppose. I also forgot to note down the WI and MW cds I had got so couldn't get any more to fill the gaps and enable me to get some of the binders off my shelves and into the loft.

I missed a couple of stands completely even though I meant to visit them: Battlegames, so I could renew my subscription and Mutineer Miniatures so I could get some Gurkhas. Really annoying that, but that's what happens when you don't make a list!

I was pretty restrained this year. Other than the Perry WotR figures I bought the following:

Things on my list:

Two Zulu War cannons and the Rorkes Drift personality set from Empress Miniatures.
A Great Northern Wars pack of Russians (complete with the new command figures at last).

Gripping Beast plastic Vikings. They look very compatible with the Foundry ones. Again, I have started painting one and will do a review on my Dark Ages blog later.
2 boxes of Immortal Miniatures plastic Hoplites (one box was for a friend of my sister's). Are these the most gorgeously presented plastic figures ever? More on the Spartan blog on those.

Things not on my list:

A pack of Great War Miniatures German uhlans.
A Black Scorpion naval captain for Guy's Pirates of the Caribbean project.
A big pack of New Line Designs new Mycenean pikemen. These are completely compatible with my Foundry figues and it still lingers on as a project I want to do.

Things I failed to find but wanted.

Foundry Darkest Africa Belgians. Dave Thomas didn't have any Foundry figures on his stand this year, apart from a few remaindered blisters.
A Miniature Wargames binder; they haven't got any and are redesigning them so they won't be available for sometime.

So, not too bad. Traders who I usually get something from but who weren't there include Copplestone, Grand Manner (a shock that one) and Realistic Modelling Services (I usually buy some of their trees).

No Nazis this year , thank goodness, just some silly Dark Ages re-enactors (who reminded me of that film Faintheart). Not so silly were a couple of chaps in some beautifully realised early World War 1 German uniforms. The quality of their equipment was exceptional and I took a picture of their pack as reference material.

Guy enjoyed the radio controlled tank game and the giant model panzers again. His favourite game was the attack on the Roman hill fort one.

Lastly, it was a pleasure to meet up with Matt, of Waterloo to Mons, again and hear his latest plans for his Schleswig Wars range. I am working on some of his Schleswig soldiers at preent and they are lovely little figures. Fortunately, I am enjoying painting again at the moment and have a bit more time now that I am not commuting into London quite so much.