An Extra Figure

So in the middle of painting Austrian and French Artillerists I took a 8 minute break to paint a Clan War figure I had laying around.

Not kidding eight minute paint job. It took longer to get the ballast on the base than it did to paint the figure.

Looking Ahead to 2012

As October 15th comes to a close I am looking ahead to next year. Gaming wise this year has been a disaster to say the least with a total lack of time and ability to push lead minimized by the personal issues that have haunted my footsteps. But the end of a number of issues is in sight, there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and it doesn't appear to be an oncoming train. So yes I have thought about my projects for next year.

I will be running two games at Con of the North and partcipating in a couple of others. The first game is a 25mm Brother against Brother Scenario for my 1861 (Early War) collection of figures I am painting up. The second game is a 25mm Horse Musket and Gun scenario featuring my French and Austrian Collection in one of the lesser know battles of the 100 Days Campaign, la Suffel. So I am busily painting up figures for both of those games. In addition I am working on adding enough terrain to make those an interesting as possible and still be playable. No Roman Hedges in my future.

My next project is my 1862 Battles on the Peninsula game I am looking to run, hopefully at a spring ReCon. I am working slowly on figures for that as well. My plan is to use the ACW variant of Rank and File, but if Horse Musket and Gun works I may just stick with that in effort to not teach people too many rule sets.

Speaking of Horse Musket and Gun I plan on doing far more work on that over the winter. Many discussions with Kelley and what's left of the group in Stuttgart really made me reconsider how some of the mechanics are working. The result of these email exchanges have lead me to consider making two rule sets rather than one. The First Rule Set is for Mass Battles the second is more of smaller skirmish (small action not 1 to 1) game. I have been trying to combine the two into one game and honestly I think that has been my problem.

With that in mind I am going to attempt and run what I hope will be a large 25mm Napoleonics game on Saturday June 16th. My goal is to have a table 30 to 40 feet long and 3 five foot wide sections as the field of battle. That is a lot of space, the question is do we have enough figures and more importantly enough players to make it worth while.

On the figure side of that question, I have just shy of a Corps of French Infantry, light Artillery, Command and Cavalry. I will be adding 6 more battalions of painted French from the Old Glory Painted, leaving me short six battalions of Legere for a French Corps and a Division from the Second Corps. Artillery well I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy some more figures, probably a mix of War Games Foundry and Old Glory 1st Edition. Legere however is a tough question, I wouldn't mine some of the Plastics, but man are the poses hideous. In the Vitrix I figure I would be throwing out 1/3 of the figures.

I also have a division of Minor and by Minor I mean minor, French Allied. You got to love the minor Confederation of the Rhine states. With them and the other figures I am planning on buying that should give me two full French Corps. Fitz has a Division of French, short Artillery. Keith and Violence both have a Brigade of Bavarians. Joel Gregory has a French Corps.

On the Allied Side I have a workable Austrian Corps. Fitz has a Russian Corps, short Artillery, Joel Gregory has two Prussian Brigades and a mix of Austrians.

Jim has informed me he has 300 to 400 unpainted Prussians, BJ and Ray have decided to paint Russians and I have way to much unpainted and half-painted lead.

So if we get everyone to show up it could be well worth while game. Especially as a couple of other players hem and haw about participating.

I am also painting up a good deal of Austrians and Swedes for the Era of the War of Austrian Succession. Yeah I know Swedes foe the Hat's War, I love punishment. I have a good Start on an Austrian Brigade and Swedish Battalion. I am hoping to try a game of BaR by the end of next year. As a continuation of this I have a French Brigade and a British Brigade technically for the F&IW but who's counting.

I am really taking a long hard look at my AWI collection and wondering what to do with it, as the Wilderness Wars Rule seem to be too fundamentally flawed to continue with and I have way to many figures painted. Maybe a BaR variant?

Well off to bed, after listing a small sample of what i will be working on for 2012, and I am already looking at 2013 with reverence and awe, as the 200, 150, and 70th anniversaries. I see Gettysburg, Leipzig and North Africa in my future.

The Plan for November

As I continue to concentrate on 25mm figures I have decided I need a plan or at least a theme for each month in an effort to convince me to paint more figures.

For November it is 25mm Napoleonic Artillerists. Or maybe Artillerists in General, but for now Napoleonic Artillerists.

On the Napoleonic Front I have about 100 Austrian Artillerists and 24 French Artillerists laying around waiting for paint. Obviously I don't need 100 Austrians but a good 40 wouldn't hurt. I am going to have to pick up some additional French Artillerists, but I guy has to do what a guy has to do. For the Seven years war I have about 30 Prussian and 30 Austrian Artillerists

Maybe I can convince my friends they two need artillerists painted and November is the month for it.

Accomplishments for the Weekend - Part 2

My second project for the weekend was to paint the remaining 9 of 10 Swedish Jager's in Schwarter's Company for the Seven Year's War.

Again an easy figure to paint, starting with a black primer, Snot Green for the pants, shirts,and jackets, White, burnt umber for the undercoat of the faces, bestial brown for the muskets, snakebite brown for the leather, a couple of flesh colors, bleached bown for the gloves, gun metal, and brass highlights. In all each figure took about 10 to paint once the Snot Green was completed.

Accomplishments for the Weekend - Part 1

I almost completed my son's new Tau Empire Fire Team. Eight of twelve Tau and both drones completed.




The figures were extremely easy to paint, while not Games Workshop magazine quality, it still a very acceptable finish.



I started with a black primer, used Africa Brown for the hoofs, Brunt Sienna for the lower legs, than used vermin brown to highlight the skin, leather suit (nor sure what it actually is.) I then used Vomit Brown for the Armor and Weapons. Followed by highlights of Brass and Red. With some Bleached Bone for the straps and unit markings.

For the Tau Skin it was a fairly simple procedure. I started out with a slightly waterred down Shadow grey over the black primer. I than dry brushed on a 50/50 mix of space wolf Grey and and water. That's it.

The figures look well together as a goup and pretty sharp singally.

Some Bad Pictures

The first is a picture of Schwarter's Company of Light Infantry from the Swedish Army in the Seven Year's War Era.



























The Second Picture is Swedish Artillery, Light Artillery Battery of two Cannons, from the era of the War of Austrian Succession until the Seven Years War.























The third is 12 of 16 figures (need more bases ) of the Liv Company of the Narke-Varmlands Infantry Regiment for the Era around the War of Austrian Succession. They wore red pants during the Seven Years War.






















Yes someday I will figure out how to take pictures of figures, obviousily not today, but someday.

Tau Empire

Gunther has asked if he can play Warhammer 40K, well more exactly he has asked to play that cool looking game with guys in space suits (Space Marines) that has Monsters (Chaos) and Aliens (Tyranids) that the boys were playing with at the Source. I should add tha most of the figures were just primed and not painted.

So we spent a few hours looking over the website and looking at boxs and Gunther has decided on an army from the Tau. Not wanting to be another guy with half painted or only primed army I decided to buy the figures one set at a time and only after that set gets painted will i get another set.

The first set was a Tau Fire Team, which includes 12 Troopers and 2 Drones. I have completed the first 2 troopers and one drone this evening. I have the second drone primed and still have to assemble the other 10 troopers.

Swedish BAR

Yeah Yeah I know I am supposed to be Austrians, while I am painting those too.

I completed the LivCompany (16 Figures) for the Swedish Regiment Narke-Varmlands in 25mm for our BAR 1741 project. In addition I completed 4 of the 8 Figures for the Command Section, and the 8 Artillerists and 2 Cannons, plus the Regimental Officer and Brigade Commander.

For Narke-Varmlands this leaves 4 Figures for Command and 32 Figures for the Second Two Companies.

I also got all the Figures for the Dalarnas Reigment (2 Battalions) which is the mate Regiment in the Brigade. Plus just because I own the Figures every mad jack of the Swedish Jagers will be covered as well.

On the Austrian Front I completed the First Company of the Carl Lothringen Regiment only 120 more to go for them.