Rifling Through

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95th Rifles on the Dusty Road. Some bossy fellow points the way.

 

Well, it’s been a minute or two, but I’ve been a-hobbying lately, and have managed to finish off the 95th Rifles for my long-suffering Lasalle Light Division project.

95th Rifles in Line, 43rd Monmothshire advances along the road. Bossy fellows abound.

With this regiment out of the way, I only have to paint up the 1st Cacadores, and I’ll have my core force completed. The 1st is mounted up on tongue suppressors, and ready for priming, so perhaps early September will see the completion of the first, core, stage of this project (there are additional supporting forces to be painted).

The astute observer will notice that I’ve knocked together a miniature terrain board for photographic staging. I used this exercise to try out some new-to-me techniques, including using sifted dirt and tile grout for a ground base. I think the ground work looks pretty fantastic. The finished product is a good representation of an arid area, and the ‘scale’ of the dirt works well with the figure scale. One thing is certain: you can’t beat the price and availability of dirt!

I’ve borrowed/stolen some techniques from Luke Towan’s excellent model railroad YouTube channel. His tutorials are well worth a watch, and are sure to inspire some new ideas, even if the techniques aren’t directly applicable, without modification, to the rigors of a wargaming table.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

95th Rifles in Line, 43rd Monmothshire advances along the road. Bossy fellows abound.

95th Rifles on the Dusty Road. Some bossy fellow points the way.

 

 

 

End of the Year Wrap-up

It’s been an interesting year. I dove into the wargaming hobby headfirst in late 2011, with the intention of developing forces and terrain in 1/72nd for WWII skirmishing. That objective lasted about 2 months, at which point I began to branch out in subject and scale. For instance, I’m currently trying to do WWII in 1/285! Other interests include 1/72 Napoleonic Skirmish, WW2 air combat in 1/600, 28mm dark ages and medieval skirmish, 28mm old west, 15mm sci-fi, and I’ve even started messing about with some old 25mm fantasy miniatures that I’ve had since I was a kid.

The impact of all this dithering about is that I’ve played exactly one game of historical miniatures in 2012, and it was pitifully small (though quite fun). I’m not too upset-I really enjoy being able to chase whatever hare crosses my path modeling/painting-wise, but I’d really like to do more gaming in 2013. So, here in bullet point form are my goals for 2013.

Finish company level forces (German and British) in 1/285 for WWII gaming by mid-January.
Decide on a type of terrain for 1/285. I’ve been waffling back and forth between some sort of sheet/pastels system and more formal boards.
Build the 1/285 terrain and put on a full WW2 game using Too Fat Lardies rules, I Ain’t Been Shot Mum v3.
Finish platoon level sci-fi forces (Khurasan Feds vs. As-yet-to-be-determined foe) by June.
Build a modular terrain system for 15mm gaming and play some Tommorrow’s War using the aforementioned sci-fi minis.
Once these two goals are complete, I’ll consider myself free to pursue other miniatures gaming interests.
What are the chances of me adhering to these goals? Practically nil. We’ll see, though. I’m actually pretty close on the 1/285 stuff. My Germans are 75% painted, and my British armor and a company of infantry arrived in the mail last week, so the barrier of having the figures has been crossed.

A few pictures of some things I’ve been working on in the last couple of months follow.

I have no idea what manufacturer they came from, but I love these 25mm fantasy sculpts. The fellow on the right is far from finished, obviously.

I have big dreams of suckering the local gaming club into trying out miniatures wargaming through Old West skirmishing.

Perry Brothers Crusaders and some Foundry Vikings. I’m not sure what to do with these guys, and obviously I’d have to buy more figures (and shields!) regardless of the rules.

GHQ armor, and Adler German Infantry. You’re looking at a platoon of Stugs, a couple of Pak40s, and a platoon of Panzergrenadiers with some additional elements.

This is where I’m at with my German forces

Adler infantry, GHQ armor.

I struggle painting Napoleonics. I have a half-dozen unfinished Voltigeurs that are driving me nuts!

Hey, It’s the 19th Century!

A Smattering of Paint

I haven’t been totally lazy of late, but I still haven’t gotten back to my WWII stuff. This post will show that my gamer ADD is in full effect. At this point, I’m embracing it, rather than fighting it!

Knuckleduster Miniatures

First up are three 28mm cowboy miniatures from Knuckleduster’s (USA) line. These minis have oodles of flavor/attitude, and were pretty easy to paint. They do have oddly small feet paired with oddly large hands, but the proportions don’t look crazy at table distances. My girlfriend painted the guy on the far right, and I have to say that she did a much better job on her first miniature than I did.

Some of these are intended to be characters from movies and TV shows. I think the guy on the left might be Eastwood from Pale Rider, but I’m not sure about the other two.

Italeri 95th Rifles Officer

Next we have a test painting of an officer from Italeri’s British 95th rifles in 1/72nd. Painting figures in ‘true’ 1/72nd, compared to the overly large Valiant minis that I’ve been doing is quite an adjustment. They’re tiny! I’m guessing that the 95th rifles are one of the easier Napoleonic units to paint, and even they are fairly finicky and highly detailed (even if you can’t tell on this overly-dark mini). I can’t wait/dread getting to some of the more exuberant units.

Both of these groups of miniatures were done using the ‘dip’ method. I’m really not satisfied with this batch. They’re murky, murky, murky – even in these photos, which have had some pretty significant levels adjustment in Photoshop. The minis look OK at a few inches from your face, but at table-top lengths they turn to dark blobs. I’ll go back and highlight these guys and see if it helps, but I need to work on brightening up my painting!

The Workbenches of August

All apologies to Barbara Tuchman, but these are the things I’m furiously working on at the end of August:

Toeing the Line

I must admit, a bit of gamer ADD has set in over the summer, but I haven’t been totally irresponsible to my stated WW2 skirmish goals! I’ve been putting together Academy’s 1/72nd “Light Vehicles of the Allies and Axis” over the past week. The kit includes a Jeep (w/.50 cal machine gun mounted), Kubelwagen (top up, or down), a funky motorcycle with treads, and a ton of 55 gallon drums, ammo boxes, and jerry cans.

Academy’s “Light Vehicles of Allied & Axis” is a beautifully made kit.

This is an inexpensive kit, but even so, you don’t get a tremendous amount for your wargaming dollar. I’m used to getting a couple of tanks with my Armourfast and Italeri quick-build kits, and even though there are three light vehicles in the Academy box, somehow they don’t measure up. I’m guessing it’s because the kit doesn’t really contribute to completing a combat unit.

I do think the kit is a good bargain for a scale modeler. You can build one jeep, one kubelwagen, the motorcycle thing, and then you’re given enough of the stated accessories to adorn the vehicles and contribute significantly to a diorama or two. The kit is extremely well done-flash is almost non-existent, instructions are clear, and everything fits together marvelously. The vehicles are maybe a little fiddly for wargaming-I don’t see the mounted .50 caliber on the jeep surviving very many games, for instance. I have my doubts about some of the lights and other bric-a-brac on the kubelwagen, as well. I typically don’t base vehicles, but I’m considering it for these guys, just to try and keep them intact.

All that said, the only real problem with this kit is that no drivers, passengers, or crew are provided. You’ll have to source them yourself and hope they fit. HaT does manufacture various sets of ‘tank riders,’ which might prove useful. I’m going to order a set of the Americans, which are my most immediate need, and see how they work. Looking at the sprue, I’m going to have to kitbash a driver, somehow, as all the figures are carrying some sort of weapon in their hands.

I could have been a bit more careful in planning the build and making painting easy on myself. For instance, I never should have mounted the seats in either of these vehicles before painting. I don’t anticipate TOO much trouble, though. It will all come out in the minwax wash. Ahem.

Waste of Time, or Time’s-a-Wasting?

So, I bought these beautiful metal 28mm Vikings nearly a decade ago. I purchased the things over E-bay from a seller in England, and I can’t, for the life of me, remember who the manufacturer was. Maybe Wargames Foundry? In any case, they were never painted (I never managed to get anything painted back then), and have been languishing in a cardboard box for the better part of this century. The recent spate of Dark Ages games like Saga and the two Dux has inspired me to dust them off. They’ve been cleaned and primed, and may actually get painted before my other projects. It would be nice to have a short break from olive drab and dunkegelb! It’s satisfyingly easy to get chainmail to look good!

I’ve had these 28mm Vikings for years, but have never painted them. The time has come.

I’ve ordered some Perry Brothers Crusaders, which will serve as Normans, and I may use Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games to do some skirmishing with these guys until (and if) I settle on a set of Dark Ages rules. I’m pretty excited to put my hands on sculpts by the vaunted Perry Brothers, though the sculpting quality may be wasted on my meager painting skills.

A Dysfunctional Relationship in the Making

Napoleonics. I don’t know much of anything about the Napoleonic era, except for what you can learn by reading the Aubrey-Maturin and Sharpe novels, but looking around the blogosphere, I find the panoply of brightly colored figures to be nearly irresistible.

Scratch the ‘nearly’ part, as I’ve bought a couple of boxes of Italeri 1/72nd Napoleonics, and I plan on doing some skirmish gaming with them using either Song of Drums and Shakos by Ganesha Games, or Sharp Practice by Too Fat Lardies. I’m sure I’ll be starting out with SoDaS, because working up to the number of figures that Sharp Practice (which I’m really really really excited to try out!) is suited for is going to take a significant amount of time. I can’t imagine how the hundreds of grognards that game at division or corps level manage it!

Lovely Italeri 1/72 Napoleonic French Dragoons

In any case, I’ve cleaned up a few 95th rifles and French Dragoons, and I have a box of Zvezda Voltigeurs winging their way towards me as I type.  Maybe I can get an opponent interested in this era with some SoDaS play.

The detail on these Italeri British 95th Rifles (1/72) is amazing.

I think it may be somewhat frustrating to do Napoleonic skirmish in 1/72. The figures don’t have a tremendous amount of personality, and I haven’t found a good source for individual figures. An immediate problem is that there are no decent dismounted French dragoons in plastic, and they’re essential for the Sharp Practice scenario book. I’m sure there are some good 1/72-20mm metal figure makers out there, though, and I’m guessing/hoping I could use them to fill in the gaps.