250 Followers Prize Draw

Well, I've reached that magic number, so it's Prize Draw Time again.

On offer is me painting (to a decent wargaming standard) 72 points of your figures:-

15mm:  foot = 3pts, mounted = 6pts
25/28mm: foot = 6 pts, mounted = 12 points

I'm willing to paint up figures at other scales or even vehicles, buildings but if you're the lucky winner and want those we'd need to reach agreement on what is equivalent to 72 points.

The Rules

1. You must be a public follower of the blog
2. You must comment on this post (how else would I know you've entered?)
3. Errrmm, that's it

Good luck and thanks for following!


****EDIT TO ADD!!!****

In a fit of enthusiasm, I completely forgot to tell you the closing date - 6pm UK time on Thursday 6 September.

Update 29/8/2012

No pics this post I'm afraid.

Update on my Donnington order

Damian emailed me yesterday to let me know my figures had been cast, picked, packed and should have been posted today - they should be with me by the weekend hopefully, so I'll be able to prep the ones I'm taking to paint at the TUC Congress in plenty of time.

I now really need to sit down and work out the figures I need to order to complete my Swiss army (particularly as the guy from the club whose army I've borrowed will want them back at some point).


30YW Camp Bits and Ambush Markers

I've started prepping these - I'm in no rush to complete them though.

Base Painting

I've spent the last couple of evenings painting up batches of bases ready for use as units are finished. I've still got a load more to do, but I've run out of the paint I use for this - need to pop into B&Q tomorrow for a couple more tester pots.

The Tufty Club....

....has been joined by the rest of my 30YW figures. Hopefully that will improve their performance on their next outing. Now all that's needed is for me to lug the lot of them to the club so that I can deploy them in battle order and do a photo shoot of them en masse.

I did take a trip to 4D Modelshop after work yesterday to get the tufts and picked up a couple of other bits I needed/wanted at the same time.

Getting Close....

....to another Prize Draw. Back when I did my last one I had hinted that I'd do a "painted by Tamsin" job on reaching 250 followers. Well, I'm at 249 followers, so I expect it will only be a matter of days before I have to live up to that pledge. Gulp!

WIP: 30YW Blue Reiters #4

And they really are finished - based, gunk dry-brushed, matt spray varnished, tufted (not taking any chances)  and flocked.

So, here they are the final unit of my initial* 30YW army:

* see the rhubarb after the pics

So, having completed all of these guys, I've decided to go ahead and order some more 30YW figures to bulk out the army and allow for more options. The order includes enough cuirassiers to take me up to 6 regiments; enough dragoons for 2 more bases; 2 more artillery pieces and crews; 6 artillery limbers; pikemen and musketeers to make up my three 6-base regiments to 9 bases each; enough musketeers and command figures to make up two 6-base musket-only regiments; and enough "Croat" light horse for 3 regiments. I've been told they should ship next weekend, so they should be with me in time to get some prepped up to take to the TUC with me - probably the musket-only regiments.

I also spotted I was running low on certain sizes of base, so I placed an order for some more, along with some other base sizes I am going to need.

Post Battle Revelation

Looking at the figures I used in my first game of FoG:R last Monday, I noticed something:

The units which performed well (even above and beyond expectations) were all tufted and flocked. 

The units which performed miserably (I'm looking at you, you useless cuirassiers!) were only flocked, not tufted.

Aha! Maybe it had nothing to do with crappy generalship after all - those units were simply lacking the magic of tuftiness.

So, I've got 36 bases of foot and 12 bases of cuirassiers to add tufts to before my next game (plus the 4 bases of Blue Reiters which will be tufted and flocked today). Looking at my packs, I need to get some more of the Late Fall ones, so I'll have to make a trip to 4D Modelshop tomorrow. Once the whole army is tufted, I'll do an "en masse" photo-shoot for you.

WIP: 30YW Blue Reiters #3

And they're finished! Well, the painting is.

Last night I did do the dry-brush of metals with Oily Steel. For the helmets and cuirasses I also gave them a thin coat of black ink wash.

I did 2 sessions today. This afternoon I did the horse markings, horse tack, saddle cloths (Dark Prussian Blue), ground colour on bases, faces (Flesh Base), breeches (Field Blue) and jackets (Dark Blue), This is how they looked at that point:

This evening I have managed to do the following:

Boots

Gloves

Facial hair

Scabbards and powder flasks

Sword sash (Dark Prussian Blue)

Collars

Metalwork (sword hilts, bridle)

Touch ups

So, here they are before I do the Klear/ink coat. It's too late for me to faff around with basing, so I'll do that in the morning. I should have them tufted and flocked by tomorrow evening.

Another FoG:AM Tournament?

On Friday I received an email from a couple of the guys from the club asking if I'd be willing to be the 3rd person on their team for the Derby tournament at the beginning of October. After my experience at Campaign in May, I'm definitely up for it. Given my track record, I'm guessing they must have been turned down by a few people before they scraped the bottom of the barrel and came to me!

So, the meatheads* shall ride again!!! Onwards to seek unfeasibly huge glasses of Ale**!!

*my Sarmatians/Alans

**a running joke which started with this post 

WIP: 30YW Red Dragoons #3

And they're finished :-)

After varnishing them, I spotted that I'd missed the white trim on the front of the jackets so quickly did that before tufting and flocking them (I'd dry-brushed the basing gunk last night).

So, here they are in all their glory:

I'll do another WIP post later tonight to show progress on the reiters.

WIP: 30YW Red Dragoons #2; WIP: 30YW Blue Reiters #2

Not part of the WIP:

Sad to hear that Neil Armstrong has died aged 82. A sad loss of an inspiring figure.


WIP: 30YW Red Dragoons

Almost finished - just need to dry-brush the basing gunk, spray with matt varnish, tuft and flock. That was quick work, and the unit will be finished tomorrow.

Now, when you see the pics, you'll probably be wondering "why the heck is she calling them "Red Dragoons"?" Well, take a look at the cuffs and trim - they're red!

WIP: 30YW Blue Reiters

While the Klear/ink was drying on the dragoons, I did a little bit of work on the reiters - black basecoat for the helmets, armour and musket barrels, and Mahogany Brown on the musket stocks. I will probably do the Oily Steel dry-brush on the armour etc before heading off to bed. Tomorrow I will definitely get the horses finished and should get a decent way to completing the riders.

WIP: 30YW Blue Reiters #1; WIP: 30YW Red Dragoons #1

Crikey! 3 posts in a day!

Just a quick WIP post to show what these units have had done so far.

Both units:
Horse basecoats
Manes, tails, cannons, muzzles shaded black for bay horses
Wash shading of horse flesh

Dragoons:
Horse markings (socks, blazes)
Saddle cloths
Horse tack
Faces and bare hands
Black undercoat and Oily Steel dry-brush for gun barrels
Yellow Ochre basecoat for flag and sashes

I'm going to leave it there for tonight. Given that it's only 6 foot and 4 riders, I should be able to finish these at least to the point where they are based and gunked tomorrow.

WIP: 30YW Artillery 2nd Batch #3

And they're finished! Two more big guns to commit long range gunpowder-fueled violence upon my enemies!

I did notice when I was reviewing the pics a few hours ago that I'd forgotten to do the stocking ribbons and a couple of the faces needed highlighting as they'd been over-darkened in patches by the Klear/ink. I've now done those corrections.

Looking at what other troops I might want to add to my 30YW army, I've come up with the following "wish list":

2 or 4 more artillery pieces and crews (the Danish list allows 4 medium guns and 2 heavy guns; the German Protestant allies allow 2 more medium guns - BOOMtastic!)
a couple more 6-base pike and shot regiments
extras to upgrade my current 6-base pike and shot regiments to 9-base "later tercios"
1 or 2 shot-only regiments
2 or 3 more cuirassier regiments (the Danish list allows 3 Danish cuirassier units, 2 German mercenary cuirassier units and another 2 if I take German Protestant Allies - that's a lot of heavy-duty cavalry, but there's no way you could take all of it even at 900pts due to the minima for other troop types)
some halberdiers for units of Danish marines.

None of these are immediate needs. I still need to clear more of my leadpile (the Scythians may be looking accusingly at me, but they're in a drawer so I can't tell) and next purchases will be the figures I need to complete my Swiss.

I've made a start on the dragoons and the reiters - I'll do a WIP post later on.

Upcoming New Releases From Ground Zero Games

Just got this email from Jon at GZG:

"Hi all,

Six new items are almost ready for sale - just making last couple of

production moulds today, all being well they should all be uploaded

to the store tonight (with pictures!). Three new packs of 15mm

figures (2 for the Crusties plus a new pack of NAC Power Armour) and

three new V15 range 15mm vehicles - all special-purpose variants of

our popular and versatile GAUNTLET II hover APC.

Here's what we have, available for ordering as soon as they are up on

the store:

SG15-X15 Crusty Armoured Heavy Infantry support weapons - 3 each

of 2 different figures, one with heavy railgun/launcher and one with

heavy plasma projector, to give fire support to the Crusty Armoured

Infantry (SG15-X14). Supplied with 6 (optional) separate backpacks.

3.00 GBP inc. VAT (2.50 ex-VAT for non-EU customers) per pack of 6

figures.

SG15-X16 Crusty Non-Combatants - 2 each of 4 different figures:

adult carrying large case on back, adult kneeling over box, adult

standing with bundle under arm, juvenile carrying cylinder. The

latter two figures may be used separately OR posed with the juvenile

holding the adult's hand (claw?).

Produced in response to many customer requests, these very versatile

figures can be used in many ways - civilians, refugees, scavengers,

equipment porters/bearers or as additional crew and ammo carriers

for Crusty heavy weapons teams. 3.00 GBP inc. VAT (2.50 ex-VAT for

non-EU customers) per pack of 8 figures.

SG15-A23 NAC Power Armour (new sculpt) Support Weapon Troopers -

2 each of 3 different figures, with rotary autocannon, HAMR

anti-materiel railgun and HVAT missile launcher. Supplied with 6

separate jump packs. 3.00 GBP inc. VAT (2.50 ex-VAT for non-EU

customers) per pack of 6 figures.

V15-82D Gauntlet IIT Hover MICV (turretted version of Gauntlet

APC, with 3 gun options included - twin light autocannon, light

fire-support mortar and plasma cannon). 7.50 GBP inc. VAT (6.25

ex-VAT for non-EU customers) each.

V15-82E Gauntlet IIR Hover FDC/Comms Van (raised-roof version of

Gauntlet APC with comms array, as command post communications van or

Fire Direction Centre for artillery and AA units). 7.50 GBP inc.

VAT (6.25 ex-VAT for non-EU customers) each.

V15-82F Gauntlet IIS Hover Field Ambulance (unarmed, raised-roof

version of Gauntlet APC with rear loading doors). 7.50 GBP inc. VAT

(6.25 ex-VAT for non-EU customers) each.

Thanks for reading - more to come soon!

Best,

Jon (GZG)

www.gzg.com"

Nice to see the Crusties getting some new stuff and it is great to see some non-human civvies on the market.

WIP: 30YW Artillery 2nd Batch #1

OK, so I didn't post pics before going to work this morning, mainly because my cold has overcome me and I was feverish and all my muscles were stiff and achey. So, I decided to just do a single WIP post this evening.

This was how I left them last night:

As you can see, the guns themselves were pretty much finished at that point; I just needed to touch up the metal.

This evening I've actually managed to finish painting the crews and accessories as well. They've even had their Klear/ink coat and have just been based.

As the gunk is still drying out, I'll do photos in the morning once they've been dry-brushed and matt varnished. Tufting and flocking will probably be done in the evening.

Right now, I'm trying to decide which to paint up next - the dragoons or the reiters? Those are my last two units for the army for now. Then it's the camp pieces, the ambush markers and the casualties for use as cohesion markers. I'd better start prepping them.

AAR: My first game of FoG:R

Yup, I've finally got round to writing it. I was giving my 30YW Danish army their first run out against Clive's Later Imperial Spanish army.The big difference between our lists was that Clive was able to field better quality troops than me - quite a lot of Superior and Elite foot, plus some Elite cuirassier-equivalents. He also had more artillery than me, including some heavy guns.

My army consisted of 3 x 9-base "Later tercios" of foot, 2 x 6-base foot, 3 x 4-base cuirassiers; 2 x 4-base arquebusiers, 1 x 3-base dragoons and a 2-base battery of medium artillery. For generals I had a field commander and 3 troop commanders. I'd had a few points left over, so had used them for some field fortifications.

Clive's army had 1 x 2-base battery of medium artillery, 1 x 2-base of heavy artillery, 6 x 6-base foot, 4 x 4-base cuirassiers. I think he had 4 troop commanders as generals.

I won initiative. For both of us the only terrain type was "agricultural", so we selected our terrain - a difference between FoG:AM and FoG:R is that you have more compulsory terrain (2 pieces per player) in the latter. Between us we had selected several enclosed fields, 2 gentle hills and a couple of areas of broken ground. Most of it seemed to end up in my half of the table, mainly along my rear edge and in the corners. Unfortunately, this restricted my deployment zone somewhat.

Positions after 2 turns. My initial deployment got a bit messed up by the locations of a couple of the terrain pieces. I compounded this a little by moving troops in the wrong sequence - if I'd moved my cuirassiers first, I could have got them into play much quicker and avoided getting shot at by Clive's dragoons. 

Clive's dragoons had managed (along with my crappy death rolls) to kill two bases of my Blue cuirassiers. On Clive's far right, a unit of cuirassiers is making a flanking march. Oh - you see that unit of foot in column? They were (supposedly) "Elite" but caused great amusement (for me, not-so-much for Clive) by failing their CMT to get into line several turns in a row. He'd had to put them into column at deployment because otherwise they would have spilt over into the outer 12" of the table where foot can't deploy.

Fed up with being shot at by Clive's dragoons, my blue cuirassiers charged them, forcing them back into the enclosed field. My own dragoons finally decided to move forward out of the safety of their field fortifications to deal with Clive's sharpshooters

My dragoons finally engaged Clive's, but not in time to prevent them killing another base of the Blue cuirassiers, causing them to auto-break. This musketry duel was to last several turns.

My Green cuirassiers have just charged into One of Clive's cuirassier units. Unfortunately, they have friends alongside them, so I was going to be down a dice in the melee. At this point, they have already lost 2 bases - 1 more and they're dead meat....

Ooops, within a turn, my Green cuirassiers had also been autobroken, and my Red cuirassiers were down a base. Clive's heavy artillery had finally caused a casualty.

Meanwhile, over on my left flank, my arquesbusiers were manoeuvring to block the flanking march by some of Clive's cuirassiers.

Clive's cuirassiers charged. Despite having a POA advantage at impact and in melee, as well as being better quality (Superior vs Average) my arquebusiers beat them in both, caused a base loss and dropped them to fragmented. Just a second - didn't they have a general with them? Where did he go?

Aha, there he is - in the dead pile!

Meanwhile, back over on the right of my centre, Clive's cuirassiers have broken my Red cuirassiers. One of them ran straight into one of my 9-base later tercios. The other managed to pursue my fleeing Reds into a space where it was able to turn and get itself into a position that could be very awkward for me....

As you can tell, my general in this combat really doesn't want to see what is going on, having already seen what happened to all my cuirassiers.

My Red arquebusiers move into an overlap position in the melee on my left flank. It shouldn't be long until those cuirassiers crack and flee. Clive's tin cans seem to be rallying a bit - despite having only 2 dice, they managed to win the melee and drop my Green arquebusiers to disrupted.

Back in my centre, a forlorn CinC is wondering where the heck the 2 later tercios he'd brought forward have gone....

The 6-base regiment of foot are wondering how long it will take Clive's foot to charge in and kill them too.

Errmm, this isn't looking good for the last later tercio - Clive's curiassiers move into position for a rear charge (as a leter tercio, there was no point him trying to charge them into my flank as it wouldn't have counted as a flank charge).

You will notice that the cuirassiers who'd pursued into my foot have disappeared - I'd managed to break them! However, one of his foot regiments had charged in to join the fray.

"Excuse me chaps, but just how have you not managed to destroy those cuirassiers? You've got 5 dice against their 2 dice in melee. We really need to move on and smash up his foot PDQ!"

Too late - my dragoons have finally lost their shooting duel (which lasted several turns) against Clive's - that was the last unit he'd needed to kill to cause my army to rout.

All that is left of my centre - a 6-base regiment of foot about to be charged by 2 (somewhat depleted) regiments of Clive's, and the last later tercio fighting foot to the front and cuirassiers who have charged them to the rear (which had dropped them to fragmented).

My unit of the match: The Green-Blue Regiment of Foot, which destroyed one unit of cuirassiers and gamely took on a unit of foot to the front and cuirassiers to the rear.

My most useless units of the match: my useless bleedin' cuirassiers - all dead within a couple of turns!

Clive's unit of the match: His cuirassiers on my left flank who stoically defeated the odds and held off my 2 units of arquebusiers for several turns.

Clive's most useless unit of the match: his "Elite" foot who spent several turns trying and failing to get out of column

All in all, this was a fun game and a useful learning experience. I still need to get my head around the differences between FoG:R and FoG:AM. The main thing I have learnt is that I need to get my deployment and move sequencing right. Also, that I probably need more artillery on the table.

On that last note, that decided me on my next unit for painting - I've made a start on another 2 guns and crews this evening - I'll post WIP pics tomorrow morning before I go to work.

Apologies for any drunken incoherence and typos....

....or not as the case may be ,-)

Well, all I can say is "thank goodness I didn't plan to do any painting tonight!". Just as I was about to shut down my computer, my boss asked me if I fancied joining him and a couple of others for a pint. Well, 4 pints of Deuchars IPA, a few shorts and a curry later I'm home and (drunkenly) posting for you.

Results of my first FoG:R match: I lost. Big time. All 3 of my cuirassier units destroyed within a few turns; 2 units of reiters/arquebusiers spending several turns failing to break a FRAGMENTED unit of cuirassiers.

All-in-all, pretty much what I'd expected. The usual f***-ups by me with deployment (still thinking FoG:AM) which messed me up a little in the first few turns; crappy dice when I needed average-or-better dice; blah-di-blah; rhubarb, rhubarb. I'll try to do a proper report tomorrow when I'm sober (I've got plenty of pics which should help to distract you from crappy write-up).

Toodle pip!

WIP: 30YW Commanders #6

Was I complaining about the hot weather? Well, I'll extend a partial retraction on that as it did have a benefit. Last night, the basing gunk dried much quicker than normal allowing me to get not just the dry-brushing done, but also the matt varnish spray, tufting and flocking!

That's right - they're finished!!!

I took some pics before I went to bed, but left the re-sizing to this morning. It was at this point that I realised I'd forgotten to do a rear view shot. Well, if you're good boys and girls I'll try to remember to take a shot this evening when I get back from my game of FoG:R.

In the meantime....

WIP: 30YW Commanders #5

Almost there! The detailing and Klear/ink coat are done; the figures have been based (using the basing gunk to attach them as that trick had worked for another unit). Later on tonight I'll dry-brush the gunk and perhaps even do the matt varnish spray - that way if I get up early enough tomorrow, I might be able to get tufting and flocking done before packing them into the box file for tomorrow night's game.

Now that my army is very nearly finished, I probably need to get some flags done for them. My plan has been to do some up with non-serious mottoes based on nationality (lots of pastry/bacon references for the Danish; song titles for Saxon) but in the interim I may get some of the proper ones from Maverick Models.

WIP: 30YW Commanders #4

It's too hot to paint! But I've done a bit anyway - the following steps have been done today:

Hair
Hats (including highlight dry-brushing)
Collars, hat feathers and drum skins
Belts and scabbards
Sashes
Touch-ups of clothing
Touch-ups of horses

This just leaves some minor detailing to do tomorrow (metals etc) and then I can give them a Klear/ink coat and get them based. I won't have all the basing stuff done before I use them for my first FoG:R game on Monday, but they'll be good to go as they are.

Oh, you want pics? Typical!