Latest From The Workbench

 Well it has been a couple months since I posted any painted stuff. I have had these guys done for a few weeks but just hadn't got to taking any pictures . In fact, I am getting ready to start basing a huge Sea Peoples army and some other 20mm WW2.  Anyway lets get on to what's done now.

First up some Myceneans!

All these guys are from the old Bull Dancer range. They are 25mm rather than the popular 28mm, but, they are really nice sculpts. I have the ones shown here, and about 10 others I had painted previously. My yearly pleas for more have mostly fallen on deaf ears, that is until this year. My plea on TMP was responded to by the original owner. He said the masters were in the hands of Ral Partha Legacy. Contacting them, I found out that they are in fact working on new molds and some fixes to some of the masters. So there is some hope that I can get my hands on more of these guys fairly soon.

These two guys are from Footsore Miniatures. The one on the left is a promachos, and a lochagos on the right for the Mortal Gods range and they are cast in resin. Now I'm not too sure how big a fan of resin that I am, but these were really nice detailed figures and they have some sturdiness to them.

Next up some mounted Dead of Dunharrow.

This just about completes my Army of the Dead, just need to get ahold of a banner bearer. I have plenty of warriors, the king, and the three hunters so I can almost call this one done.

I have also been working on terrain 

I have been working on some of the 4Ground terrain I have bought in the past. These are part of the Japanese Gates and Fencing pack. super easy to assemble, and prepainted. I have to take a moment to talk about the basing material. I used the same material on these fences as I did on everything posted above it. It is the Mediterranean Soil mix from Lukes APS. This stuff looks great and has a great mix to it. I will certainly be using this stuff for my 28mm figs in the future.

Last up this time around is the Third Prussian Corp for the 100 Days campaign.

These guys are all the old TTG line now manufactured by Alternative Armies. I am doing this project and basing for Napoleons Battles. The two exceptions to the NB basing scheme are the artillery (I hate those skinny bases the guns hang off of), and the cavalry (Just cut them in half, so two bases equal one in NB). This is a nostalgia project more then anything that will morph into the Peninsula as well. Third Corp included the Russo-German legion troops. I did them in Russian uniforms, may or may not be accurate but it is a definite break from the boring Prussian uniforms. Flags for the line units are from fighting 15s, the Landwehr flags are all downloaded from Warflag.

Well that is all for this time. Hopefully I'll have another post soon.

Napoleonic Battle AAR - The Battle of Gorodechno

 Last weekend was June 18, known in wargaming circles as Waterloo day. A group of us celebrated the day with a Napoleonic wargame, featuring no British, and astonishingly, no French. Yes, it was an Austro-Saxon force fighting the Russians near a little town called Gorodechno. This battle was fought along Napoleon's southern flank in his invasion of Russia. 

Here is a map of the battle.

Three of us were Russian while the others all took Austro-Saxon commands. The initial setup looked like this.

The Russians lined up on ridges facing Austrians and Saxons doing the same. The rules used are a homebrew set but fast playing and fun IMO, I'm not usually one to enjoy homebrew sets, but after a couple goes with them I do like them. The Russians were to hold the main east/west ridge for 10 turns then scoot off to the east (far end of the table).  Most of the battle was static for a good portion for the Russians. About half my command faced off against the Austrians across the river, the other half facing the forces coming to take the main ridge.

The east end saw a huge swirling cavalry melee, going back and forth the whole game. The ridgeline just pounded away at the advancing Saxons for the required 10 turns. The Austrians across the river just fired artillery at me, to good effect.

The advance on the ridge.

Unfortunately for the Russians, though we held the ridgeline for the required time, the cavalry battle sealed the Russian escape route, and their fate. While we had some cavalry, it would not be enough to reopen the escape route. Overall a really fun game done in 4 hours . I had thought I took better pics that this. I guess I was too caught up in the action. Thanks for stopping by!

Wrapping up 2021

Well 2021 has left us, I'd almost say thankfully. It was a fairly productive year as far as painting goes. I did not get to do much travel, and did not attend too many functions in the area. But, things are looking up for 2022. Plans are in the works to go see the Auschwitz: Not Long Ago, Not Far Away exhibit here at Union Station in Kansas City. I'm not sure I will ever fit in visiting the actual site, so I suppose this would be the next best thing. The community I live in has a book club, and late this month they will host Jonathan A Jones author of Moonlit Mayhem about Quantrill's raid on Olathe Kansas in 1862. I am pretty excited about that for sure.

Tentatively, in lieu of overseas travel, I am contemplating a road trip across the southwest US and at least up through Colorado, maybe up to Little Big Horn and Mt Rushmore. Not quite sure, it is still in a vague planning stage, if you can call it that.

Gaming did not see much action. I did participate in an online Carnage & Glory campaign of Jackson in the Valley. I was Jackson and another guy was Ewell. We did come out victorious, though the campaign battles mostly occurred in the north of the valley and none where they really occurred. It was fun, despite all of us trying to figure it all out. I would gladly do it again.

The last few months have put me in touch with quite a few gamers so FtF gaming is looking promising for the year. I got contacts for historical minis, Middle Earth SBG, and ASL (which I have never played). I picked up a couple of the ASL starters so I hope to learn enough to play at the next event. I have picked up a few good solo board games as well, so there will be that. Probably the main roadblock is the state of my basement room and lack of a gaming table. I have always been more of a solo board gamer so I need someplace to set up a game and leave it. Thus I need to get the room cleaned out and a gaming table set up. That is high on the priority list for this year.

Painting went extraordinarily well. I finished a total of 2877 figures on the year. I am really hoping to hit 3000 this next year, but we will see how things go. I am guessing I will be busier in the coming year so painting won't be my only (hobby) activity.

The figures break down as follows;

351 - 15mm  Prussian Napoleonics for my 100 days project

642 - 15mm figures for my Mexican American War project

275 - 20mm WW2 Early War

271 - 15mm SYW

336 - 15mm War of Spanish Succession French

378 - 15mm ECW

408 - 15mm Ancients

216 - 20-28mm figures for various skirmish games

I am quite happy with my production last year. I am hoping I can do a bit more this year and see the end of some of these projects. This is a good place to show off the latest stuff I have completed. First up, is a chunk of my ECW project.

This comprises a large portion of my Royalists with a few Roundheads thrown in. All the figures are Essex and they are based for Baroque. Many of the command groups had cast on flags. Now I really hate painting them but I worked it out and they turned out ok. What I have left for next year is mostly the Scots, and some personalities for both sides. 

Next up, Napoleonic Prussians

This group of Prussians completes the 1st corps for the 100 days. They are figures from the Brickdust range by Alternative Armies. You may remember them as the old TTG line. They are one in the same. They are all based for Napoleon's Battles. I did make a couple changes to the basing. I split the cavalry into two 1x1 bases instead of the normal 1x2, and, I did the artillery on 40mm square instead of the 1-1/2 x 1 bases. I really hate the artillery hanging off the back of the artillery base, so I decided I would put them on bases they fit on. Interpenetration of units can be handled during the game.

Well last but certainly not least, we will take a look at my hobby goals for the last year and see how I did, as well as setting new ones for 2022

Here were last years goals

1. Continue my Mexican American War Project
2. Continue my Early WW2 Project
3. Continue my ECW project, maybe complete it
4. Start my WSS project
5. Continue my 100 days project
6. Start doing my 15mm ancient armies

Well it looks like last year was pretty successful, I managed to make substantial inroads on all of the items above, as you can see by the numbers I listed above. I was able to complete a Skythian army and half of my Ptolemaic army. And this last month I made some good progress on my Yorkist War of the Roses army. All of the other projects are much closer to completion. So with that in mind, what are my goals for the current year? Well here goes;

Continue the Mexican War project, possibly finish it

Continue the early WW2 then transition to SCW

Complete my ECW project (I have the rest in hand, probably get it painted this summer)

Continue the WSS project (next on board for late winter are Bavarians, Danes, and Wurttemburg)

Paint the 3rd corps for my 100 days project then transition to doing my Albeura project

Continue my ancient armies (should have the Yorkists and  Ptolemaics done by mid February and my Tibetans started)

Paint 2 Middle Earth SBG armies. I have enough to do Mordor, Rohan, Minas Tirith and the Army of the Dead. I am thinking Minas Tirith and Mordor will be the first two.

I also plan to game at least a couple time a month, we will see how that goes, but, I am excited to get back to gaming. It has been much too long since I did it regularly. Well that's it for now I have a couple more posts planned, one on the March Field Museum in Riverside, CA and, more painted minis. I am looking forward to a great 2022. I wish you all a great year!

A Late Update For March

I wanted to post this at the beginning of May but I was in a bit of a social media funk. I couldn't really focus on how I wanted to present this bunch and instead of fighting it, since this is supposed to be fun, I just set it aside for a while till I felt more into it. So without further ado, here are the minis I did in March.

Mexican Hussars - Minifig

3rd Mexican Line Cavalry

2nd Mexican Line Cavalry

Members of the 8th US

Mexican Jalisco Lancers

Mexican 7th Line Cavalry

I made another good dent in my MAW project. I think I am about halfway through at this point. Lots of cool stuff to work on still. Most of my Mexican regulars are done, I think I have three more cavalry units, the light infantry, and guards. At that point it is all militia. The US is in good shape as well. Most of the regulars are done, just a few more units and then it is all militia.

I recently sorted my ECW project, and prepared to wrap it up. I am basing the armies on Marston Moor for the rules Baroque. Baroque has bases that are 120mm x 40 or 60mm. They do allow for breaking the unit basing up if you like. I opted for that with the three 40mm bases. Figures are all Essex. I need to pick up some Scots, but between what I already have on hand this project is on its way to completion. I haven't really gotten going on it as yet. These units were already primed so I stuck them into the queue. I'll get flags on them once I get more into the project.

Next up are some Prussian Landwehr. These guys had been set aside and forgotten so I fit them in. Figures are TTG from Alternative Armies, flags are from Fighting 15s. Based for Napoleons Battles. These wrap up the landwehr for corps 1 and 2 during the 100 days. Next up is the balance of the line, cavalry, artillery and officers for the two corps.

Here we have some Blood and Plunder figures. A handful of native Caribs and their African allies. Interesting figures to paint. I Googled some images of Caribs they are not overly dark, so I felt the Reaper Bronzed Skin triad worked well. They are nice figures with a decent amount of detail on them. Definitely looking forward to more of these.

While I am making some good progress on my major projects I am still filling in with some of my 28mm stuff. Here is an eclectic mix.

Clan War Dragon Clan Togashi Hoshi

Clan War Oni no Tadaka

Samurai from the Warring Clans Range

Fireforge Teutonic Infantry, Shields from Battleflag

Gripping Beast Byzantine Emperor

As you can see it is quite the mix. But, it is nice to break up the bigger groups with some fun odds and ends and parts of smaller armies.

Next are some more skeletons from the Skull and Crown KS 

Some skeleton pikemen armed with Northstar pikes. This is a great line of minis and I plan to get more of them at some point. Still have a unit of halberdiers to paint up. The general figure is really cool and he was fun to paint.

Lastly a few more 20mm Germans. Some more of the SS, which just about wraps them up, other than some support weapons (AT and IG). Also we have a few later period Wehrmacht types thrown in. My next post will expand on those. Figures are all FAA.

Well that is all for this post. I have pictures for the next one already so I may get those posted in the next couple weeks since I seem to be getting out of my social media funk.