A Random Update

Busy, busy, busy....

There's been loads going on this February, but nothing especially new or finished enough to deserve a blog post all of its own. So here's a quick mixed bag post.

There were a few games of Blücher with my new Prussians...

I have nearly the full first two corps for the 1813 campaign done. The third corps will need another order from Heroics and Ros, but I put that in by email last week.

In that order I also looked at my next 6mm project, English Civil War and managed to get a large lot of unpainted H&R ECW minis on eBay. I've been planning how to base these and I think I will be using 30mm square bases, three to make a regiment, with command markers on 20mm squares meaning that the troops can count for either side as needed. I trialled this layout last night. I have a lot to do before I get round to these!

Here's what I have in progress on the workbench. Note that I still use glue and filler rather than acrylic sealant for the bases of the artillery. You can also see the Slaanesh Hellship I need to get painted for the Man O'War tournament I'm going to in a few weeks.

The large hill/mountain is well underway for Arroyo Molinos at Hammerhead. I just need to add some additional details. I got a couple of games in with it as well.

I did think I might get chance to do the 1/1200 Spanish Napoleonic ships I've had for a couple of years, this after a couple of very enjoyable Fighting Sail games. But no, other things have jumped in again. I "need" to get some 6mm Marie Louises painted for the French 1813 army!

Habour 1/1200. Napoleonic Naval, etc... Part 3

So, the plastering is complete...

I've given it a light sanding to smooth the plaster a little especially where buildings will be placed and glued sand on areas to texture it.

Habour 1/1200. Napoleonic Naval, etc... Part 2

The extra buildings from Brigade Models arrived on Monday and I set to putting them in place. At first I thought they were way to small in comparison with the Langtons and whilst to a degree I think that is true I have managed an arrangement where I don't think that's too bad.

In order to get the buildings to sit flat on the slopes I've glued some pieces of card into areas I cut out of the polystyrene.

Last night I applied some filler to the polystyrene to make cliffs and smooth out the hills. I've decided after that to add two higher bits to the top of the hill. These will have filler applied tomorrow night.

Habour 1/1200. Napoleonic Naval, etc... Part 1

About 3 years ago I built myself a piece of coastline with a castle on it for use with 1/1200 Naval games, including Man O'War and Fighting Sail.

Soon after completing that I decided I enjoyed doing it so much that I'd make an extra bit of coast which could be used with the first to make a large island or separately on the edge of a sea board. I decided that I really wanted to try a harbour this time. I ordered some buildings and harbour walls from Langtons and then did nothing with them for 3 years.

Finally I've got around to starting work on it. Things are progressing well with the basic structure in place. The buildings are all just placed in position at the moment as I keep thinking I need more. I did a second order to Langtons and at the moment have an order with Brigade Models for even more. I hope they mix in all right!

I have added in some boats and a brig to populate the harbour. Here's what I have right now. Remember all the buildings and ships, etc, are just placed on at the moment. I will paint them all before gluing on.

Work in progress shots:

Initial Harbour plan

Planning the hardboard cutting

Polystyrene and hardboard cut and glued

Harbour glued in place

Fill in the town street area

Try out placement before deciding more buildings were needed, again!

Naval Fortifications

I spotted these 1/1000 Naval Forts on the Brigade Models stand at Robin earlier in the year.  I bought them with the intention of using them as "Shoreforts" for use with Man O'War. A bit nicer than the cardboard templates in the game.

When it came to painting them up I did my usual Google search and found that someone had managed to put cannons on them. These are not usually supplied, but I eventually found them in the "ACW Coastal Forts" section of the Brigade Models shop, here. They're lovely little cannon and despite being obviously too late a design for the fortresses certainly add something.

On painting the forts I could see striations in the surface texture which indicated that these are originally 3d models, despite being cast in resin.

Anyway they painted up lovely and fit in great in our Man O' War games (and also in Napoleonic Naval). I just wish I had reason to buy more of this little scenery. Brigade have such a wonderful range!

120 Gun French Napoleonic Ship 1/1200

With more games of Fighting Sail expected soon I decided it was time to get the last ship of my French fleet completed.

She's a 120 gun 1st Rate ship from Langton's. I do love putting these together, they're quite a bit of effort, but the effort put in really is rewarded well with the final product.

This was the first ship I built according to the guidelines in the assembly guide that Langton's sell on their website. Previously I'd been following a article from a very, very, very old wargames magazine.

I also spent some extra time researching it online. I'm really pleased with how this one has come out.

My entire fleet...

Next up is some Spanish...

Two Months...

Just over two months since the last post... oops!

Well to be honest it's not because I've been lazy, more that I've been exceptionally busy. A lot of this was with non-wargaming stuff. i.e. re-enactments of various types. However there have been a few notable Wargames going on in that time. A quick run-down...

A Lion Rampant game with Ed. A favourite game of ours, but one I've posted photos of before. This decided me that I really needed to get some animals for my farms and village. These  have bought from Warbases and am actually just about to start painting.

A new game in the last couple of months has been Warpath: Firefight. We've played it a couple of times at the club and also demoed it at Derby World Wargames. I really like the game, but either I'm a superb player (doubtful) or the balance isn't quite sorted out for the Plague. I needs some mods I think.

It's been fun getting this table together, but tremendously easy. The buildings are from Deadzone and the boards & hills actually date back to games of Battletech and Starship Troopers I ran at shows many, many, many years ago.

I got a new display cabinet for my miniatures... The less used ones that I still want to see. The idea was that this would make space for me to make a display board for my Kings of War armies, but that project has been shelved for the time being.

I did remember finally to take photos of the bombed out church that my son Brendan made for his school project last year!

I got a game in of Fighting Sail with Ed and that prompted me to get my last French ship painted and rigged. See the next post for photos of that.

And of course there have been a few games of Kings of War including two tournaments, Battlemasters and Clash of Kings. Both enjoyable events that I took my Abyssals to. I now have plans to extend my Wars of the Roses army.

But yes... most of my efforts in the last two months have been re-enactment and bicycle related...

Those are just about finished now... and since it's out-of-season I'm hopefully going to be back on track with modelling.

French Napoleonic 80 gun ship

So the last of the unstarted 20-year-old langton ships in my collection has finally been finished. This is an 80 gun French 3rd rate.

And here she is with the rest of my little fleet. I plan to add a 100 gun 1st rate ship to finish off and then start another nationality. I fancy doing Spanish. Of course all that will require another order to langtons.

Edit: Since posting this I have been reliably informed that in fact the hull is British. I'm not sure how that has happened since I don't think I ever bought anything British from Langtons. Also the braces are rigged incorrectly. 

Well she's going to have to stay as she is and be a captured British ship. When I get my next batch from Langtons then I'll get their new rigging guide which has come highly recommended and hopefully then such mistakes will be a thing of the past.

First game of Fighting Sail

Today we had our first game of Fighting Sail. The Napoleonic Naval rules by Osprey..

There were three of us playing and with the mix of ships we had available I came up with a scenario where there were 4 British ships pursuing 4 French ships. The British had to capture or destroy one of the French ships before it escaped off the other end of the table.

The third player was a pirate with a couple of Frigates and a Brig. We were not allowed to shoot at him until he attacked us, showing his true colours. His objective was to capture one of the French or British ships.

Lighthouse and Cannon

So a few days since my last post. Time for an update.

In that time I've completed this 1/1200 lighthouse. I was planning on completing it for Sunday, but with a short-notice Man O'War game booked for tomorrow night I thought I'd get it finished early.

Before the lighthouse my War of the Roses project continued. This time with this lovely Perry cannon.

Misc progress

So tonight I was supposed to be painting this Wars of the Roses canon. Well I did as you can see...

But then I was drawn back to Napoleonic naval and I started work on this Langton's lighthouse.

Then glancing up at the shelf I spotted something in a box... Was that another Langton's ship unfinished from 20 years ago? Yes! 

The writing on the bottom says "80 gun" and I assume it's a French ship as I didn't build anything else 20 years ago. It is a three decker and the main mast is oddly significantly closer to the mizzen than the foremast. 

I guess I'll have to add that to the queue then!