Saturday, 5 December 2009

Painting log: Jönköpings regiment

And the boys in blue with the red facings and stockings (hi, Koen :) ) are done. They're currently recovering from their layer of gloss varnish (read, the varnish is drying). That finishes four of the five battalions with Roos, the final one being the second battalion of the Dal regiment.

Pictures to follow as and when the basing is finished (more on that anon).

That puts this month's painting total at 19 points (the 19 figures of this battalion), trumping last month's abysmal 12 points in the first week of the month. That said, while I did not paint much last month (essentially just the Celtic cavalry of which you can expect photos tomorrow), I did work through a huge backlog of basing figures. I based three battalions of Swedes, one of [Bavarians](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000335.html), some Celts and Romans, and a whole bunch of [modern microarmour](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000343.html). Giving points for that would be cheating though, as I already 'scored' those figures after finishing their paint jobs. So I am now left with the moral question of when to score the figures: after the paint job or when they are fully based. I suspect the latter will result in a more accurate reflection of what I can finish in a certain period of time (the entire idea behind the painting point thing), so maybe I'll have to switch. We'll see.

Next up (having just been basecoated) is the second battalion of Bavarians. I'm going to paint this in two lots of twelve as opposed to one of 24. I did the first as one lot of 24 and I suspect that is partly responsible for my drop in painting output afterwards. So let's see what happens with this lot.

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Modern British follow up: painting the little beggers

Who would have thought that a long distance shot of some speed painted microarmour would elicit not one but two queries as to how they are painted? So, Benoit and BartD, this entry is especially for you :)

First up, a close up (really close, I used a macro filter on the lens of my camera) of an infantry stand and a Challenger I. In their neighbourhood on [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/people/robartes) you can find two extra pics of three stands each for comparison.

Modern British infantry closeup

Modern British armour closeup

These pictures link to the Flickr photo pages where, as always, you can select 'All sizes' and then choose the 'Original' view for a really embarrasing close up view of proceedings.

Both the tank and the infantry have been painted with literally only three colours. Of course, I cheat a bit and take up some of the colour of the base onto the tracks of the tanks and onto the infantry, so I guess there's four colours :).

For the infantry, the colours and mode of application are:

* Foundry 27A Storm Green shade. Heavy drybrush with a brush easily twice the size of the figure
* Foundry 5B Fleshtone. Dab on the faces and hands
* Foundry 34C Charcoal Black highlight. Paint on the weapons

For the armour:

* Foundry 27A Storm Green shade. Heavy drybrush.
* Foundry 34A Charcoal Black. Paint on camo streaks - about three to four per vehicle, fairly large
* Vallejo Beige (the number has worn off the bottle :) ) - light drybrush all over

When I do the bases, I use the dark brown for a heavy drybrush (well, wet brush actually) across the tracks and suspension of the armour, and take up the final drybrush colour of the bases (Decoart Hobby Karamel, a beige-ish colour from the local crafts store) in a light drybrush across the infantry.

And that's all. That's how to paint half the world's firepower in a few hours.

As to base sizes (Benoit's question) - I base everything on 1" square bases, except stuff with long barrels, which I base on bases long enough so that the barrel does not overhang the base (to try to avoid the all too common spaghetti barrel problem). In the case of the Challengers and Bravehearts, that's a 40x20mm base from my DBM days.

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Modern British update

I spent most of the last few painting sessions finishing bases for a lot of the things I painted in my mad painting spurt a few months ago. That includes the expansion of my Modern British - here they are all laid out neatly in their storage box:

Modern British 1:285

Off the top of my head, there are:

* 4 Challenger tanks
* 4 Challenger II tanks
* 3 AS-90 Braveheart SP artillery
* 13 basic Warrior IFVs
* 8 improved Warrior IFVs
* 2 Swingfire AT vehicles
* 2 mortar carriers based on FV.432 APC
* 1 Cymbeline radar direction finder
* 2 FV 432 APCs functioning as HQ's
* 1 FV 439 signals APC functioning as HQ
* 4 TUM trucks
* 16 infantry platoons
* 4 AT missile stands (Milan)
* 4 AA missile stands (Blowpipe)
* 4 mortar stands
* 6 sniper stands (no idea what to do with them)
* 1 Harrier
* 1 Lynx AT Helo

And I'm probably forgetting a few here and there. Even then, although on first look it seems like a fairly reasonable amount of troops, there's probably more firepower (if not manpower) there than most of the worlds other armies combined.

Still in their blister packs awaiting paint are 10 Chieftain tanks, 10 Spartan IFVs, 10 FV.432 IFVs, 10 Landrover jeeps and a final Lynx.

Monday, 16 November 2009

Crisis 2009

DSC_0332.jpg
Eddy Sterckx, Bart Vetters, and Phil Dutré overlooking their underwater game at Crisis 2009. Note the presence of several glasses of Ramée.


Crisis 2009 (held in Antwerp, November 7) again was a very nice event, and definitely the highlight of the wargaming calendar in the low (and not-so-low) countries. Not only was there the usual mix of traders, gaming clubs and old friends, but the whole was doused in a nice and friendly atmosphere. Instead of giving a long and exhausting list of games and traders present, go and take a look at the photo reports: here and here. The underwater scuba-diving game is the one we presented as a demo game.

So, how did I experience the con?

1. It is usually very hot in the venue. This year, I went in a light cotton shirt, no heavy sweaters or jackets as in previous years. As you travel light, you should also go to a con light.

2. Arrive early. As a game organizer, I had early entry, and was there by 8.15 (doors open at 10.00). That allowed me to unpack without too much trouble, and take the time to organize our gaming table.

3. An original game - such as underwater combat with scuba-divers, fighting sharks while photographing whales - attracts a lot of people, but doesn't make you win a prize for best game :-)

4. In order to win a prize, you have to put a lot of work in the presentation of the game (look here). Something we cannot do anymore, so we must go for original concepts. From now on, I will be known as an avant-garde wargamer, who will redefine wargaming as we know it, and will only be appreciated many years after his death :-)

5. So, what did I buy? A gelatinuous cube, Featherstone's Lost Tales, The Annexation of Chiraz, The Wargame Companion (yes, I'm a fan of Vintage Wargaming), some river terrain pieces, and the extension to the boardgame Ursuppe.

6. I drank a lot of beer. 6 Ramées is not a good idea when you still have to drive home.

7. It's always a lot of fun ...

Monday, 9 November 2009

Painting log: Celtic cavalry

That's 6 old Wargames Foundry Celtic cavalry done. Together with 6 more which I painted a *very* long time ago (they are from my first ever army - a 25mm DBA Celtic army. Ah, the memories) they form a 12 man cavalry unit reinforcement for my [Celtic army](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000197.html).

Pre basing pic:

Celtic cavalry

The front rank are the newly painted figures, the rear rank the over a decade old ones.

I tried something different wrg glues on these figures. Normally, I glue the riders to the horses and the shields to the riders using super glue. On these, I used hot glue (which I also use to fix the horses to the bases, but I do that more often). I had expected there to be horrible blobs of solidified glue splurting all over the place, but I'm pleasantly surprised as to this: no blobs and everything sticks quickly without the need to do the press-together-for-twenty-seconds-and-then-find-out-if-it-sticks-to-the-figure-or-my-finger routine one does with super glue. Recommended!

That brings this month to 12 painting points. Next up are some more Swedes (finally), this time the Jönkopings regiment.

Monday, 2 November 2009

Swedish infantry

Right, I've been bragging about the Swedes I've been painting, but haven't yet put up good pictures of them. Here's the first three battalions of Karl XII's army at Poltava. They're three of the five (technically, six, but I'm representing the two battalions of the Västerbottens regiment by a single one as they were only the size of one combined by the time of the battle) that ended up with General Roos in the losing battle at the redoubts and Yakovetski woods:

Dalcaria (or Dal) Regiment

Dalcarian (or Dal for short) regiment, first battalion.

Västerböttens regiment

Västerbottens regiment (two amalgamated battalions).

Närke Värmlands Regiment

Närke-Värmlands regiment, 1st battalion (the second went on to the main infantry line).

The figures are from [Musketeer Miniatures](http://www.musketeer-miniatures.com), the flags are hand painted (Dalcaria), Little Big Men (Närke-Värmlands), or scanned from the Höglund book (Västerbottens).

The figures for the next two battalions (Jönköpings and second battalion of the Dalcarian) have arrived last week, so they'll be slotted in the painting queue soon.

__Update__: corrected Västerbottens spelling.

Sunday, 1 November 2009

The painting slump has started again

Well, a new month has started so it's time to check on last month's painting total: a meager 15 points. I finished fifteen Warlord Games Roman auxilia (that I had started the month before) and started on 6 Celtic cavalry, which are currently still on the painting table. A long way from my intended 70 points per month.

I've long given up trying to analyse why my painting output drops occasionally, it's one of those things that seem to go in cycles. I'm sure that with Crisis coming up next weekend, painting will pick up again.

One thing I will say, is that I find the Celts harder to paint than the more uniformed types I've been painting lately. There's a distinctive reluctance on having to go back to an area you 'have already painted' to fill in stripes and checkers and stuff. At least with uniformed troops, you need to touch a brush only twice on each region (base colour and highlight). And that is as it should be :)

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Bavarian Temptation

Why, oh why did Foundry lower prices on [these](http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/xmaswinter/BIGBATBAV/1/index.asp) to something only a bear's whisker north of 1€ per figure?

OK, I already own one of these armies (and one unit is [already painted](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000335.html) ), but with a second one I'll have just about the entire Bavarian army of the period at a 1:30 scale.

Tempting, very tempting...

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Painting log: Roman auxilia

To augment my growing plastic Roman army, I just finished a unit of 15 of [Warlord Games](http://www.warlordgames.co.uk) new [plastic auxilia](http://shop.warlordgames.co.uk/plastic-imperial-roman-auxiliaries-1945-p.asp).

While I like their legionaries, I'm not an undivided fan of these auxilia (which is a bit of a shame, as I've got 4 boxes of them :) ). They are nice figures, but they have a few drawbacks. One of them is that it is virtually impossible to build them differently than intended - the seperate arms are so specific to each pose that it leads to extremely silly results when you combine them with the body of a different pose (spot the auxilia with the extremely small arm in upcoming photos). Secondly, the spears they are armed with are plastic, and just in handling them while painting I already broke 3 of them - I shudder to think how much they will suffer in a game.

That said, this month's total is now 15 points. Last month, I got up to 62, just shy of my target of 70 per month.

Next up is 6 metal (old Foundry figs) cavalry for [my Celtic army](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000197.html).

Saturday, 3 October 2009

Book Review: The River War by W.S.Churchill

Spending some time abroad without any form of communication to the outside world (no internet, tv, or even radio), is always a good time to catch up with reading some books that have been sitting unread on the bookshelf for too long. So it came I read 'The River War' during my latest holiday in Corsica. 'The River War', written by Winston Churchill in 1899, chronicles the Nile Campaign of the British Army at the end of the 19th century. It describes in a fluent style the rise of the Mahdi and the Dervish Empire, the murder of General Gordon at Khartoum and the reconquest of the Sudan by the Anglo-Egyptian force under General Kitchener, culminating in the battle of Omdurman, in which Churchill himself took part as young officer of the 21st Lancers Cavalry Regiment.

The story reads fluently, and one is easily transported back to military campaign that happened over a century ago. As a wargamer, I often judge a book on military history by how inspired I become to recreate the events on the wargaming table. 'The River War' did not dissappoint me. During several reading sessions I regularly dreamed up several scenarios, along with grandiose plans of purchasing large quantities of figures for the period. And although I realize such initial enthusiasm wears off after a while, it is a strong indicator of the vivid descriptions present in the book.