Steeple

So here it is, the completed steeple, seen in place on the tower of St. Aimless the Confused,* parish church of Much Giggling in the Hay.

Those fine chaps of Sir Rick Astley's** Regiment of Foote guard the church from incursions by those naughty iconoclastic sons-of-fun, the Parliamentarians.

Each of the four faces of the steeple has a small window made from rectangles of coffee stirrer cut to shape and shaved into wedge shapes so as to fit the sloping sides. The windows were painted on. The stripes marking planks, tiles, slates etc. didn't make it through the painting stage but enough showed I was able to go over them again with a sharp pencil. The cross atop the steeple took a bit of doing. A thin strip of wood provided the bulk of it, with the two arms being glued to either side to present a flat profile. I inserted the end of the cross into a small bead, pushing enough of the stem through to go into the apex of the steeple. Once glued in place I painted it all gold.

* Patron Saint of the Permanently befuzzled.

** Sir Rick Astley's a thoroughly reliable officer. He'll never give you up, he'll never let you down...

Yes, I need more temptation...

I need more temptation today! 

Those fine fellows at Pendraken Miniatures have released the first photos of their upcoming Indian Mutiny range. The first batch back from the sculptor are the greens for the Indian contingent and very fine they look too! If you're interested in gaming the period in 10mm, take a peek.

I can see an order winging its way to Middlesborough next year. As for rules, I read good things about the Bloody Big Battles (BBB) set for late 19th century gaming. Do any of my readers have experience with these they can share?

Pendraken announces new Indian Mutiny range.

The Storming of Jhansi.

Those lovely chaps at Pendraken Miniatures have announced the master list for an upcoming Indian Mutiny range. This is a period I've had an interest in for some time, but never got around to it as other periods demanded attention. The release date is sometime in 2018, hopefully before Salute. 

Autumnal ECW action - Much Piddling in the Woods

That stern Puritan General Temperance-and-Prudence-Shall-Be-Thine-Watchwords Knott raided deep into Royalist held territory. He brought fire and sword to the Malignant believers in the Divine Right of Kings, smiting them hip and thigh, even. Now, with Autumn drawing on, Knott's on his way back to friendlier climes and winter quarters in the bucolic village of Much Piddling in the Woods - but the Royalists are snapping at his heels...

...Or they would be, if Sir George Moutebank can persuade them to get their act together.

The scene of the coming battle. Autumn's spreading her golden gown.

A goodly beginning for Parliament. Knott leads Montagu's regiment of foot on the final straight to the village.

Sir Allen Apsley's regiment of foot make an appearance on the south road. Now the race is on.

Sir John Norwich's Regiment of Horse gallop by to screen the troops on the road.

Their counterparts, Sir Chas. Gerard's Regiment of Horse gallop up.

Eager to confront the upstarts, Sir Charles forms his regiment into line.

General Knott peers at the oncoming Malignants through his spyglass. Knowing he's almost certainly outnumbered, he wonders - Will I have time enough to reach the village and safety?

Sir John's and Sir Charles' regiments square off against each other. Much Piddling in the Woods lies in the distance beyond the river.

Sir John's regiment begins a caracole maneuver against their rivals. Hits are scarce, but the overall effect is unnerving to the Cavaliers.

In the distance General Knott leads Montagu's regiment beyond the crucial bend in the road between the two woods. Whatever happens now, his infantry should be safe. The artillery follows on at a more leisurely pace.

The caracole continues to baffle the Royalist horse. Sir George Mountebank joins his cavalry and tries to get them to charge, but to no avail. Impatient at the delay, Sir Allen Apsley's regiment moves past the cavalry's flank.

The stalwart pikemen of the Earl of Essex's Lifeguard formed the garrison of the village. They welcome their comrades as Montagu's regiment passes over the bridge. General Knott peers through his spyglass back down the road. His cavalry are doing good work, but may need guidance. 

Finally, Sir George persuades the Cavaliers to charge...

General Knott joined his Trotters just in time to encourage a gallant counter-charge.

A bloody encounter ensued, to the detriment of the pusillanimous Royalists. (The red token denoting a Hit is about to be replaced with the deadly white token denoting a Casualty). 

Montagu's regiment lines the churchyard walls. The tardy artillery make their way over the bridge. Much Piddling in the Woods is safe for the army to winter in.

Eschewing the caracole, Sir John's regiment gives their opponents a good pistoling. Although the Royalist artillery and Bolle's regiment of foot fume at being screened by their own horse, Sir Allen Apsley's regiment is about to alter the equation.

The right flank sleeve of Sir Allen's regiment gives fire against the Parliamentary horse, causing some damage.

General Knott decides discretion is the better part of valour and leads his horse away down the road to the village. A triumph for Parliamentary arms!

* * * *

All figures are 10mm Pendraken Miniatures. Fought to Victory Without Quarter rules, the game was noteworthy for the amazing number of poor dice rolls on the part of the Royalist cavalry. Even the presence of their C-in-C wasn't enough to persuade them to charge for several moves (There's not much that can be done when the dice score fails consecutively to rise above 4!). When the Malignants finally managed to stagger into a charge against their rivals, the Ironside 'trotters' previously held in such contempt handed the Royalists their flowing-lock'ed heads to them on a platter.

The cards were drawn at random, and the sequence favoured Parliament quite enough in the first few turns to make their reaching the village with most of their force intact a certainty.

It was a quick, fun game, and gave me the chance to put my new Autumn-foliage trees on the table. I hope to be able to add to the ECW forces in the next few weeks. Watch this space...

The Earl of Essex's Lifeguard pikes.

What it says on the tin. I painted these pikemen on and off during the week, and they're now based and ready for action.

Of course they lack the 'sleeves' of musketeers that form up on either flank, but they'll serve for now. It illustrates the problem of buying multiple figures in packs - there are always figures left over after the units have been assembled. I get around this to some extent by varying the number of figures in a regiment. It gives the randomness found in unit strengths of the period where recruitment was inadequate, and losses through battle or, more often, sickness had accumulated.

Lazy Sunday

A thoroughly disturbed night means I'm feeling too out of it to do much today, although I'd hoped to run a solo ECW game featuring my new Autumn coloured woods. Instead I dug out a batch of Pendraken Miniatures 10mm armoured pikemen left over from the previous painting session and set them up on the painting block.

These chaps will form the pike companies of the Earl of Essex's lifeguard. I don't have enough musketeers to form the requisite 'sleeves' of shot at the moment, but should be able to get them when I place another order in a month or two, all being well. In any case, once painted these chaps will go to reinforce the Parliamentarian army of General Temperance and Prudence Knott, stalwart champion of Puritan values against the dastardly Royalists under Sir George Mountebank.

Victory Without Quarter trial run

Having a bit of spare time this afternoon, I decided to try out the Victory Without Quarter ECW rules in a solo game to see how they run with my Pendraken 10mm figures.

Because it's a try-out there's not much finesse involved here. It's a case of lining up both sides and having at it. Lacking casualty markers and such I used poker chips, blue being hits, red being casualties, and yellow appropriately enough marking shaken units. So, on with the action, where fervent Royalist Sir George Mountebank challenges Puritan General Temperance-and-Prudence Knott.

Both sides square up to each other in mirror formations

The Royalist cavalry advance, to be met with fire from the trotting Ironsides

Both regiments of infantry advance, masking their artillery. The Royalist cavalry suffer a casualty from severe pistolling

Casualties mount, the Malignants become Shaken, and the Ironsides attempt a charge...

...which connects!

Musketry from both sides. Montagu's Regiment takes more hits than their opponents but shrugs them off

Break! In a reversal of the normal pattern, the Ironsides send the Royalists packing

With the Ironsides merrily dispatching their foe, the foot of both sides come to push of pike. The Royalist general feels lucky in spite of a casualty...

...but his luck turns sour and the foot break, carrying him off with them.

On the whole I like these rules. They offer a quick and easy game without much record keeping. In this run-through I covered everything from cavalry charges and firing and melee, to infantry and artillery action. Once I get some more units, I'll move on to run a mini-campaign. The world has not heard the last of Sir George Mountebank and Temperance-and-Prudence Knott...

ECW artillery and generals

The last ECW figures are safely based up, which is a relief after the warping shenanigans of yesterday. Here are two light guns with teams and limbers, with four generals to the left of the photo. I chose a generic orange-red shade for the gun carriages, as this seems to have been a popular color going by contemporary accounts. There's so little concrete information about this and other aspects of the ECW, it's as good a guess as any. One of the limbers lacks a driver, as he wasn't included in the order. Pendraken are good at rectifying such things so it'll be sorted in the fullness of time. I'll fix the limbers to the horse teams next, using the thin string shown bottom-right for the traces.

Behind them is a work in progress house, the first in a batch of 17th century buildings I plan to make. I used two layers of 1/2 inch foamcore, one wider at the top to get the jettied effect of the period, and clad them in thin card. The paintwork was done with basic craft acrylics, and the timberwork was done with a Sharpie marker pen. It's so much easier and less fiddly than using a brush. I've yet to add brickwork chimneys, doors, and crosshatch leading on the windows. First, I'll go make a cup of tea...

Sir John Norwich's Regiment of Horse - and an update on Google changes

The first Parliamentarian cavalry rolled off the painting block today. Sir John Norwich's Regiment of Horse is based up and ready to take its place in the fight against the 'Divine Right of Kings.'

Next up will be the artillery for both sides in the shape of light guns and teams.

* * * *

Incidentally I've noticed a few losses among followers to this blog lately, and I admit I was puzzled by it. Have I become so boring people actively unfollow? Thanks to the estimable Stokes at the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog, all is explained.

It appears a few changes have taken place in the world of Google blogging. Since January 11th this year you must have a Google account in order to follow blogs through the Google Friend Connect service. If you follow blogs with Yahoo, Twitter, Orkut or other Open ID services you'll lose your subscriptions to blogs via Friend Connect.

If you'd like to continue receiving updates on this and other blogs, you could follow Google's suggestion and sign-up for a Google account and re-follow. Thanks!

Sir Allen Apsley's Regiment

A snowy day here in Ohio, and another regiment for the ECW forces - Sir Allen Apsley's (Royalist) Regiment of Foote. For some reason I keep thinking of them as Sir Arthur Askey's Regiment. Perhaps their battle cry would be "Hello, playmates!"

Lacking any information about turn-backs and so on, I've painted them with blue cuffs. The base work will come next. A regiment of Parliamentarian cavalry and the generals for both sides have taken their places on the painting block. All I have to do after that is paint up the artillery for both sides in the shape of a light gun apiece.

50,000 hits!

It's been a while since I last posted here, and I see that sometime in the past few days the hits on my wargames table blog has passed the 50,000 mark! I seem to be doing something right.

Progress is being made on the ECW collection, and I have the pikemen of Sir Allen Apsley's Royalist regiment about finished.  All they need is a coat of matte varnish and they're ready for basing.

Work on the N-scale bridge is also progressing.

Like the river sections I made earlier this is based on a piece of clear acrylic plastic. The bridge is a combination of card and wood. The ground work either side is drying and I've put some paint down to act as an undercoat and to seal the sand to the spackle. The next steps will be to ensure there are no gaps under the bridge and to pour the Envirotex Lite.

* * * *

A discussion about Chris Peers' Death in the Dark Continent rules on the Lead Adventure Forum has reignited my not-too-dormant interest in Colonial African gaming. I'm well aware Captain Fred Pike and the men of the Barsetshire company have been in limbo for too long. I have a few scenarios in mind, but the most interesting one needs a few bits of new terrain. Once my current project is off the table I'll see about making them.

A Mass of Malignant Cavalry and the Beginnings of a Bridge

A quiet beginning to the New Year here in NW Ohio. I completed Sir Charles Gerard's Regiment of Horse for the Royalist army, the first cavalry unit of my ECW collection. They only need the base work to be done to be finished. Normally I find cavalry a chore to paint regardless of scale, but these painted up nicely.

Sir Allen Apsley's Regiment of Foot is on the painting block. They're a red coat regiment from the King's Oxford army to go with Bolle's blue coat regiment.  

I also made a beginning on an N-scale bridge to complete my river sections.

Apologies for the quality of the photos. Our camera batteries died so I had to use the new tablet we got for Xmas. Its imaging quality isn't as good as a camera. The brickwork looks a lot pinker than in real life.

I photoshopped a section of real-life brickwork, scaled it to my needs then printed it off on regular paper. This I cut out and stuck to sections of corrugated card. I'll use more card to form the road bed and arches which will also stiffen the sides, and apply more brickwork to the road side of the parapet. Once these steps are done I'll attach it to a section of clear plastic and build up the terrain either side to match my other river sections.

Bolle's Royalist Regiment of Foot

Another weekend, and another regiment added to the ECW collection. This is the Royalist Bolle's Regiment.

I arranged them with the same frontage as my Parliamentary foot, but with fewer numbers to reflect the poor recruiting and equipage of the Royalists in the earlier war. Since I've been painting and basing figures in singles and pairs for some time for the VBCW collection, I'd forgotten what a pain in the fundament basing close-order figures is!

Currently, I have Royalist cavalry on the painting block. A look over the remaining ECW lead pile shows a typical problem with buying multi-figure packs: I don't have enough of some infantry figure poses, and a few too many others. There are enough for another regiment of Royalist foot, but not enough for another Parliamentary regiment. I think I'll need as many packs again to make up a reasonable size force. Ho hum.

Progress with the river sections is slow but steady. I hope to finish them before the month is out. I'm impressed with the Envirotex Lite. It's relatively easy to work with, and the drying time isn't too long. The pack I have is a few years old, and it sat unused in storage in a freezing-cold garage for months, yet it's still perfectly fine. It's a bit expensive, but I think it's worth it.

Edward Montagu's Regiment of Foot

The first of my ECW regiments is now based and finished - Edward Montagu's Regiment of Foot for the Eastern Association Army of Parliament.

Some of my new thistle teasel trees stand in the background.

In spite of my best efforts I've had a spot of trouble with the card bases warping, so I'll revert to using plastic card in future.

The next unit is on the painting block in the shape of the Royalist Bolle's (later Sir George Lisle's) Regiment of Foot. Described as having the blue uniforms typical of the King's Oxford army, it's a moot point as to which shade of blue they wore. Their modern Sealed Knot descendants wear slate-blue, so I'm going with that and slightly lighter blue breeches and montero hats for contrast.

A nice find came my way yesterday at our local Habitat for Humanity store in the shape of three two-inch-thick slabs of pink insulation foam. They cost me a buck, and the money goes to a good cause.

Most if not all of this stuff will go to making rugged upland terrain for my Colonial/VSF gaming. I've got some scraps of wood and bark which will do nicely for rocks and rocky outcrops to break up the regular outline of the slabs. For a look at what a master can do with such items, check out The Mad Guru's Maiwand Day blog.

Edward Montagu's Regiment of Foote

The first unit to roll off the new painting block is done and ready for the base-work to be applied. Here's Edward Montagu's Regiment of Foot, of the Eastern Association.

 

These are Pendraken Miniatures 10mm figures. I did think the russet uniforms would make for a boring-looking formation, but on the whole it works en-masse. I did mix musketeers in caps with those in broad-brimmed hats, and painted a few figures with britches of muted blue, black, greys and so on. The armoured pikemen break things up some more. The pikes are mounted on one base for convenience, and have a first and second rank of eight figures. The command is in the rear rank along with two unarmoured pikemen. I stuck with a musketeer to pike ratio of 3:2, which was fairly typical of the early war.

Next up on the painting block is a Royalist regiment of foot. I'm thinking of making it Richard Bolle's (later Sir George Lisle's) Regiment. Their flag was white, but details on their coat colour vary - some sources say red, others blue. As they were part of the King's Oxford Army, I will plump for blue.

The Royalists had a hard time recruiting and equipping their troops. A Royalist foot regiment would typically have a musketeer to pike ratio of 1:1 if they were lucky - some units went into action with clubs and billhooks. I'm going to noodle around with the number of figures and see what looks good. I want to reflect the period, but I don't want to make Royalist regiments too small to take on their Parliamentarian equivalent.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day once more here in the US. We'll be heading over to friends soon for the traditional meal.

Wargaming-wise, I'm making progress with painting the ECW figures. As mentioned before I'm building up the Army of the Eastern Association, and I chose to begin with Edward Montagu's regiment of foot. The musketeers are now finished and in the early basing stage, and the pike and command element are on the painting block and undercoated.

I did put an officer with the musketeers, but decided in the end to keep with just the one command element, which explains the missing man space at the rear of the right-hand base.

Montagu's regiment was issued russet uniforms. Now, I always thought russet had a lot more of a reddish tint than it subsequently proved to have...

Let's face it, it's bloody near khaki, and not the most exciting colour for a uniform. I decided to break things up a little and have some figures wearing muted blues, greens and rusty black here and there, and it seems to have worked.

I did toy with the idea of having the command element as a separate base so they could 'lead units into battle,' but decided for convenience to base them with the pike block. The pike block itself will be a single base and have a frontage of eight figures three ranks deep, with the commander, standard and drummer in the rear rank where they'd naturally be in the course of battle. In the ECW the better armoured troops were placed in the first two ranks and that's what I'll do, with a couple of unarmoured pikemen in the rank with the commander.

Painting block for 10mm figures

We have a dusting of snow on the ground and the garden is put to bed for the year. Having a bit more spare time now I thought I'd make a painting block suitable for painting 10mm figures, specifically my shiny new ECW collection. The block I already have is best for 15mm-28mm figures, and those poor little 10mm blokes look lost on it.

It's a simple design, based on one a friend of mine uses. Take a block of scrap wood, drill a series of holes in it, fill holes with a number of galvanized nails, and glue the figures to the nail heads using a hot glue gun. The nails make it easy to grip and maneuver the figures to get at all angles with your paintbrush. Bob's your auntie's significant other!

This block will take 45 nails, but I'll typically use fewer than that to allow a bit of handling space. The inaugural batch of figures to grace the block are musketeers for a Parliamentarian regiment of foot. These are Pendraken Miniatures.

I'll paint these up as Edward Montagu's regiment of the Eastern Association, which was raised in Cambridgeshire and issued with russet-red coats. Being early-war Parliamentarian they'd have roughly a 3:2 or 2:1 muskets to pike ratio, which I'm going to represent with 24 musketeer figures to 18 pike, including the command element.