Thursday, February 29, 2024

Painting Peasantry - 3

...and a library sale find.

Some progress on the desultory painting process on the peasants for Lion Rampant. The last batch of twelve out of sixty is on the painting block, and finally the end is in sight.

A visit to our local library monthly sale turned up a little gem in the shape of Aircraft of the RAF since 1918 by Owen Thetford. As soon as I picked it off the shelf it opened to the page on one of my favourite aircraft, the DH9A Ninak. It was fated that i should buy it for the princely sum of $1.


Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Painting Peasantry - 2

Some progress on the peasantry. The first batch of twelve is done and ready for the base work. 

I gave these a double dip in the gunk to get the proper hard working, hard used grungy peasant look. For some reason, perhaps the pervading damp weather, the matte varnish turned out a bit shiny. I might give them another go over when the weather's warmer.

The next batch are on the painting block, ready for undercoating. 

Lying face-down to the right is the 'War Doctor,' a present for my Whovian wife.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Painting Peasantry - 1

I've made a little progress on the peasantry for Lion Rampant. Given I have sixty figures to paint up I am breaking them down into batches of twelve.

A slightly blurry image of progress so far.

I prefer to use a mid brown undercoat for most figures these days, as it's more subtle than black especially for irregular troops like these with mixed coloured clothing. 

As usual I painted in the faces and hands before moving on to blocking in the clothing. Thanks to my archaeologist daughter's expertise on historical fabric dyes I can get something approaching the authentic garb our ancestors wore.

Monday, January 1, 2024

Happy New Year! And...


Some figures. 

These chaps are the peasantry contingent for the Lion Rampant First Barons War collection.


They have four basic poses - pitchfork, axe, hatchet, and club. I might convert a few to bidowers (light infantry). There's an extra chap in one pack, so I'm thinking of making a small vignette of a woodcutter.

Monday, December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, one and all! 

 

I hope you got some nice shiny gaming related presents. My batch of Blue Moon 15mm peasants/Jaquerie for the First Barons' War arrived a day early, so I'll be working on cleaning them up and painting them over the holiday. With luck I'll be able to game more this year, and the new figures will take their place on the tabletop - where in a fine old wargaming tradition for new units they'll probably get trounced. :)

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Library booty

Our local library had a sale recently at which I picked up a couple of pieces of treasure.

The first recounts the adventures of all Royal Naval VCs of the First World War - including Norman Holbrook, commander of submarine B11 that penetrated the Dardanelles and after whom a town in Australia is named. The second is a famous book on the Siege of Malta and details the naval and mercantile operations to relieve the island.

* * * *

After a bit of thought, instead of expanding my ECW collection I decided to round off my 1st Barons' War array with the addition of two packs of Old Glory Blue Moon range Jacquerie figures. They'll make up several bands of peasantry and some of bidowers (light infantry). I dropped onto these at Noble Knight Games for a little over half the retail price, which is a welcome bargain.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

A Slight Diversion

Model railways - my other hobby. What with all the strife in the world filling social media and the news every day it's nice to work on something not military-related. 

A few years ago I was lucky enough to drop onto a whole HO scale starter layout including locomotive, rolling stock, an oval circuit of track for only $10 at a Salvation Army shop. I've tinkered with it on and off over the years, and this summer I built a row of shops. These are very much still a work in progress, needing basing, signage, and some touching up and varnishing to stop the printed brickwork from turning into a mess through unexpected moisture.


The centre ones of these came from
building templates from a street in Illinois, which I took and adapted. The tower on the left and the green-roofed building on the right I totally scratch built. I may or may not install lighting. We'll see.

Of course I need townsfolk to populate the future community, so I ordered a batch of 100 figures off e-bay. 

They're made in China of hard plastic and come in a reasonable variety of poses. Two things became clear immediately - a lack of ethnic diversity and a surprising choice of clothing colours, most quite garish.

Luckily it doesn't take much to do a little cut-and-shut work in rearranging limbs, and the plastic takes ordinary craft paint quite easily. 


If there's sufficient interest I may set up a separate blog to cover my occasional fumblings and stumblings through the model railway hobby. Do NOT expect ultra-precise prototypical 'button counting' work. I don't roll that way. ;)


Saturday, November 11, 2023

We will remember them.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.



Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Change of plans.

In light of the horrific situation in Palestine I've decided against starting a WW1 Middle Eastern collection. It seems too near the knuckle to game a location that's currently seeing so much bloodshed. I've decided instead to expand my existing ECW collection to a size more reasonable to game with. It'll basically mean adding to each side three or four regiments of foot, a regiment of dragoons and perhaps another cavalry regiment apiece too.

Oh sh-t! The colonel's here!

Friday, October 6, 2023

It's been a while...

A busy life and dealing with long Covid suppressed any desire I had to game over the summer months. Now the cooler weather's here I'm thinking of starting up again, perhaps with a new 10mm project, perhaps by expanding an old one. 

As a nod to the potential new project I recently bought Allenby's Gunners...

The blurb...

The book tells the story of artillery in the highly successful World War I Sinai and Palestine campaigns. Following Gallipoli and the reconstitution of the AIF, a shortage of Australian gunners saw British Territorial artillery allotted to the Australian Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rifle brigades. It was a relationship that would prove highly successful and Allenby's Gunners provides a detailed and colorful description of the artillery war, cavalry and infantry operations from the first battles of Romani and Rafa, through the tough actions of Gaza, the Palestine desert, Jordan Valley and Amman to the capture of Jerusalem. The story concludes with the superb victory of Megiddo and the taking of Damascus until the theater armistice of 1918.

Smith Covers the trials and triumphs of the gunners as they honed their art in one of the most difficult battlefield environments of the war. The desert proved hostile and unrelenting, testing the gunners, their weapons and their animals in the harsh conditions. The gunners' adversary, the wily and skillful Ottoman artillerymen, endured the same horrendous conditions and proved a tough and courageous foe.

* * *

I've yet to start in on the book, but it sounds promising. There are a number of blogs out in the blogosphere which are inspirational, such as:-

Grid based Wargaming

Michael Scott's WW1 Blog

Although Michael hasn't posted anything on this project for a while, it's still inspiring stuff. He bases his gaming on the Too Fat Lardies If the Lord Spares Us rules set, which I plan to use as they lend themselves to solo play.

So, I might begin a new period in this interesting theatre of the Great War, with its eclectic mix of units types and terrain - plus Lawrence of Arabia! Or, I might continue with my ECW collection, expanding from the handful of foote and horse to something approaching a worthwhile army for both Parliament and Royalists. Decisions decisions...


 

home page uniques