Heading Into Fall

 We are well into fall and it has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been as busy painting as I have been all year. Haven't gotten back to gaming, but, I plan to once I get back from visiting my family in a couple weeks. This time we have the continuation of a couple projects and the start of a new one. 

The first project on tap is the Mexican American War

There are some US line infantry, US Artillery Infantry, and some regular artillery. The infantry is all Old Glory 15s, with flags from TVAG The artillerists are Minifig with either Musket Miniatures or Old Glory 15s guns.

Most of what I did this time around were Mexicans, finishing all the rest of the regular infantry units except the Zappadores, they will be next time around.

Mexican Light Infantry

Mexican Fijo Battalion

Mexican Light Infantry

Mexican Light Infantry

San Patricio Battalion

Mexican Line Infantry

Grenadiers of the Supreme Power

Mexican 4th Light Infantry

Most of these guys are Old Glory 15s, except the Grenadiers, Musket Miniatures, and the San Patricio, manufacturer unknown. I wasn't too concerned what I used for them. They fought as artillery at Buena Vista, then fought as infantry at Churubusco, where they were captured, tried as deserters by the Americans, and executed. Once again, flags are all from the TVAG collection.

Next are some more Zanla types for Bush Wars

These guys are pretty easy to paint, its just a matter of how much I want to do civilian cloths and how colorful they should be. They are all Liberation Miniatures, available from RH Models

The next project is a new one that I just started, but, its genesis is probably around 25 years ago. When I first got into miniatures in my mid 20s, there were few ways for people to learn about the hobby and what was available out there. So, The Courier became my main source of information, with MW and WI added in as secondary sources. One advertisement in the Courier really caught my attention. It was for the Editions Brokaw line of WSS figures. I have to say I knew almost nothing about the WSS, other than what I had read about Blenheim in Charles Grants book The Wargame. But for some reason these really got my attention. This period was not one of interest for the group I was in at the time so no action was taken by me. Fast forward about 15 years, or more, and I saw someone selling a huge lot of Editions Brokaw WSS figures. Of course I jumped at the chance and ended up with a good deal of figures. Fast forward a few more years and I had decided on the Age of Honour rules, so I knew then what I needed to run the battles I wanted to play. I found I was really short of French, but a plea on TMP connected me to someone selling a pile of French figures. So, I finally got going on these guys in August.

I was really excited to get going on these after waiting so many years. I do need to go back  and trim down my flag staffs, I always seem to make them too long, as opposed to the oft too short flagstaffs that are cast on. What's a guy to do.

These next guys came with the last group of French I bought. I was looking at them for the longest time knowing they did not match the EB figs but not really knowing what they were. However I did an image search for EB figs and there they were. But, what were they?

Well, they ended up being Peter Laing 15mm. I did not know they even existed. They are not EB but I went ahead and painted them because I probably won't be able to find anymore EB, and I really think I am a bit short on my French. If not I'm sure they will still see some action. They don't have quite the heft of EB but they fit well none the less. Finding uniform info was a bit difficult but there are some decent online resources. Baccus has some WSS painting guides that are free PDFs, and the Project SYW group has started a Project WSS site. The info on the French, which all these units are, is a bit sketchy still but is still worth a look. Flags on most of these (all the cav, most of the foot) are from Maverick Models I have a couple things to note about Maverick. First you can buy flags individually rather than sheets, ending up like I usually do with a bunch of excess flags. It was nice to be able to get only what I wanted. He will size them to meet your needs. He actually emailed me, noting that I was a new customer, making sure that the flags, as ordered would be the right size. Good customer service, and a quick ship, following the usual 2 week delivery time I have been experiencing from the UK.

That's all I have for this round, it was quite a bit. Next time will be 20mm WW2 Belgians, more 20mm Bush Wars, 15mm ECW and some 28mm Dark Ages.

Take care of yourself, and keep gaming!

Closing In On The End Of Summer

 Well summer is coming to a close, and it looks like the heat and humidity is going to start coming down again. Not that it has kept me from painting, but it does make it hard to get things primed. Probably be able to do that again next weekend. I have been making steady progress painting through the summer and I should be able to continue it through the rest of the year. So, without further ado, here we go....

First up is the first half of my Ptolemaic army I got in the War & Empire Kickstarter by Forged in Battle They make some really nice ancients in 15mm and they have a Dark Ages line as well. 

Thorakitai

Thorakitai

Thureophoroi

Agema

Colonist Cavalry

Got a pretty good start on this army. I'll probably finish it up later in the year, once I drill out hands and glue in pikes on 96 phalangites, something I need to do soon. The figures have nice detail and there is a decent variety in each pack. I discovered while going through the figures for the army, that I had neglected to get skirmishers. Not sure how I managed to forget them, but, I did. Thankfully Noble Knight had a pack, so I did not have to pay crazy postage for the one pack I needed. I had also discovered, while digging through the KS figures, that they had given me two sets of the stretch goal commanders. That meant I had two models of Porus on an elephant. Since I already had generals for that army I paired them up as another unit of elephants! One can never have too many elephants in an Indian Army.

I also found out I was a figure short for my Skythian generals, so out of the generals mentioned above, I pulled out a figure of the Sassanid King Shapur. Figured he looked suitable for the part. He is the one on the far right. My Ancients are all based for Impetus.

Next, I got back to a project I had started a couple years ago. I was having them painted by Hoard Painting back then, when I had more money than time. Now since it is somewhat the opposite I picked up the brush myself to finish (or get closer to finishing) the project. I wrapped up the French cavalry and Artillery, then got started on the Saxons.

I was also taking inventory of the project and realized I had no Russian artillery painted. I thought I had at least gotten the crews done, but nope, they were all sitting there waiting to be painted. I had just passed them up. I also had a few Prussian guns I needed to add.

Other than a few command stands this completes my Prussian, Austrian, Russian, and French armies. I still need to do about half the Saxons, the British and their allies, and a handful of Bavarian allies for the French. Most of the figures are Old Glory 15's, the Saxon Artillery is all Minifig. They are all based for the Age of Honor rules, a supplement to Age of Eagles, which is a cousin to Fire & Fury. The could also be used for Frederick's Battles, the Napoleons Battles offshoot. Either way I'm covered.

I did a couple unrelated batches. First some Zanla/Zipra types for Bush Wars.

I remember getting a suggestion from a member of the FB Bush War group to give one of them a gold lame shirt. I did not do that but I did mix in some "civvies" These guys are all 20mm Liberation Miniatures.

Last, but not least, are a few Landsknechts in 28mm.

I really hit a roadblock with these, mentally. Not so much the colors, I used Pinterest to find Landsknecht images and saved them in a folder. Then just went down the images for color schemes. Really quick and easy. The actual painting is what got me. I have the same issue when doing samurai. I usually get past it once I get into the painting, but this time I couldn't shake it. So Instead of fighting it, I finished these and set the rest aside for another time. Probably use these for a Lion Rampant/Pikemen's Lament style game.  I do have to give a shout out to Athena Miniatures I had purchased these on a Kickstarter. After many delays and problems, the original owner had sent my stuff, but, to my old address,evem after I had notified him, and he had acknowledged my new one. He had sold the line to Athena, who picked up the banner and got me my stuff on their dime. I can't say enough good things about a miniatures company like that. Especially since it was a rather large order .

Well that is all for this round, next time I'll have a special project that I started in July, as well as some other goodies I hope you are all well out there, and just keep gaming!