WIP: Chumbondas #4; WIP: Riders for the TEDF Horses

TEDF? What the heck is that? Tamsin's Equine Development Facility of course!


Chumbondas

This afternoon I did the ground work on the bases - base coat (Khaki Grey 880), wash (chestnut wash with a little bit of the black wash added) and dry-brush (Khaki Grey 880 and Iraqi Sand 819 in equal parts). I started taking pics when I spotted that the battery was almost out - I want to get some close up shots before I do the Klear/ink step, then they'll get a matt spray in the morning.

Riders for the TEDF Horses

I took a couple of pics showing their current primed state. I'll make a start on painting them tomorrow - boots and trousers first, then glue them onto their horses before painting the rest of the detail. I'll also be putting in the lances at this stage.

The 4 riders which broke at hip or knee

Other Projects

Well, in between various bits of painting I'll also need to start work on prepping my "Alan" light horse and Scythians. I might also prep some of my SF figures so that I've got something to switch to if my painting mojo flags again from doing lots of ancients. I haven't decided which ones yet - my Chewks from Khurusan could be a fun side-project, but there aren't many of them so I'll probably need to do something else as well - my GZG New Israelis perhaps?

Seb's to blame!

For me not posting yesterday. Well, partly anyway - I've got to share some of it for having posted about my temptation to give in to the dark side and go for FoG:R, which gave Seb the opportunity to tempt me into going to CLWC to look through the rules and the army lists, and me to succumb to temptation.

So, last night I went to CLWC, had a delicious curry, a couple of drinks and a few enjoyable hours chatting and watching others play games. I don't feel too bad about it though as I had spray-primed the 60 riders before heading off to work.

Unfortunately, on the way home I started feeling a bit off-colour and when I woke up this morning was aching all over, shivering and had blocked sinuses. As a result I've not done much today, just a bit of drybrushing - the gunmetal grey on the command group riders and the final weathering/highlighting on the Chumbondas. Hopefully I'll be in a better state tomorrow and able to make good use of the weekend for painting etc.


Did I mention?

Succumbing to the temptation of FoG:R? When I got back from the club last night I ordered the rules and 3 army list books (Trade and Treachery; Wars of Religion; Duty and Glory) plus a couple of the Osprey Essential Histories (Thirty Years War; English Civil War) books. Luckily for me, they aren't due to ship until 13-18 April so it is quite likely that I will have completed my Sarmatians and Scythian allies before I make any decisions on which FoG:R army to go for.

I should be able to get plenty of painting done over the Easter break - a whole 7 days off work! (I work for a university - they give us longish breaks a couple of times a year as compensation for having to work with mad professors. Or maybe just to save money as they can switch off the boilers, saving fuel, for a few days?). I'll probably get my Alan and Scythian light horse prepped and primed ready for painting over the next couple of days to ensure there is plenty ready to go under the brush during my Easter marathon.

A few updates

WIP: Chumbondas

Just did a little bit on these - Hull Red detailing on the weapons. Tomorrow I might do a little more - some black/brown wash into the eye sockets and a final very light dry-brush to highlight/weather the belts, weapons etc.

WIP: Sarmatian Command Group Figures

I've decided for these that I will try a different approach from my normal painting style - the riders will get a more detailed effort - base, wash, highlights for the cloth areas; the armour will be done as black base, Gunmetal Grey drybrush, Oily Steel highlight.

To this end, I've just done the black base coat for the armour.

WIP: Riders for the Horses

Counting the 2 lancers that broke at the hip during the prep phase, I've got 44 lancer figures and 16 armoured  bowmen almost ready to go. At the moment they are soaking in a tub of water/washing up liquid. I'll be rinsing them shortly, then letting them dry out overnight.

I've decided to abandon the crazy thoughts I'd had of rigging up some kind of holder for painting them - they'll be spread out on some card, spray primed on one side, flipped, spray primed on the other side. I'll then paint the bodies below the neck before gluing them to their horses and finishing the painting.

After these, 60 more lancers to prep, prime and paint, and then my Sarmatians are complete (although I might want to do a couple more command groups).


Remember those mis-delivered books?

I never did do an update about that. Basically, City Link were incredibly unhelpful and told me to contact Amazon, and that if Amazon wanted to try to reclaim the costs of the books they were welcome to try.

Amazon on the other hand were incredibly helpful, said they would send replacements and would mark them to be be delivered by Royal Mail. Unfortunately, the books were all out of stock (I'd ordered the last ones that were in stock) so I've had to wait.

3 of the 4 books arrived today (by Royal Mail), with the last one due within the next week. Hurrah!


Pics (lack of)

3 days, 3 posts, zero pics - I promise I will post some tomorrow, but there's not much worth showing you right now.


OK, Who was it?

That planted the seed in my mind that has been germinating for a few weeks?

You know who you are, so 'fess up!

As if I haven't got enough in my lead pile, book pile and such like, I've got an urge for Pike and Shotte gaming, probably FoG:R as that's what is played by most people at CLWC.

I thought the urge was under control and could be resisted, but after work I popped into Waterstones to see what might make a good prize for my 100 Followers draw (which may get rolled into my mumblety-mumbleth birthday draw as that is only 2 weeks away) and somehow ended up leaving there with 3 Osprey books:
Elite 179 Pike and Shot Tactics 1590-1660
MAA 457 Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years' War (1) Infantry and Artillery
MAA 462 Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years' War (2) Cavalry

Guys and gals - I'm counting on you to save me from myself! Please post comments to reinforce my urge-control and stop me doing this!!

Oooh!! Shinies!! and Grrrr!!

The figures I ordered from Donnington last weekend have arrived in the post today. Just to recap, they are:

"Alan" type:
24 light horse bowmen

These will be first up for prepping and painting once I've done 36 armoured lancers. This will give me all the figures I need for my Early Alan army for Campaign.

Scythians
General, standard bearer, cataphract/armoured lancer - command group
12 cataphracts/armoured lancers
24 light horse bowmen

These will provide a "Later Scythian/Saka Allies" contingent to use with my Sarmatians and potentially with several others. There's no rush for me to get these done, so they'll go in the queue to be done after all my Sarmatians are finished.



Grrrr!!

Last night, after posting, I carried on with figure prepping. Part of the prepping involves gently splaying the legs of the riders so that they will actually sit properly on the horses. In the previous 150 or so riders I've done this to, there has never been a problem. However in the last set of 24 there were 2 that decided to break off at the right knee (and the lower legs pinged off somewhere, so are lost) and another 2 that broke off at the right hip. Looking at the break points, there are lots of tiny bubbles in the metal which suggests that water or air got into the molten alloy as it was being poured.

The 2 figures missing their lower leg can be hidden when I base them, so not really a problem there, but I'm going to have to do some nifty stuff with the ones that came off at the hip (pinning, filling, carving/sculpting down the filler). Mind you, I do potentially have 2 spare lancers from the strips I was painting up for command groups, so I could use those in the battle groups.

100 Followers!

Welcome to Anne, the 100th follower of this blog! Great to have you on board hun! :)

Well, it seems to be a tradition on blogs to have a prize draw/giveaway at such milestones, so I'd better follow suit. I'll take a look through what I've got that I could use as a prize (or prizes) - watch out for the post announcing the draw.


WIP Update

Rather than doing any painting this evening, I've made a start on prepping the riders to go on all those lovely horses I've just finished painting. So far I haven't managed to stab my fingertips with a drill bit, but I've got another 30 or so lancers' hands to drill holes through.........

WIP: Chumbondas #3

Last night I did the second drybrush with Iraqi Sand. This actually came out quite stark when it had dried, so I repeated the washes to tone it down (for the black wash I used a bit less black and added some brown to the mix).

Pics when the washes had dried:

Today I painted the base coats of the equipment and weapons. They still need to have some detailing done as well as highlighting. After the highlights, I'll go straight to the Klear/ink coat. Mind you, it might be a good idea to paint the ground colour and drybrush it before I do that step ;-)

So, pics with equipment and weapons base coats done:

WIP: Chumbondas #2

Having finished the horses (woopee!!!) I took a little time this afternoon to show the Chumbondas some love. First up, they each got a heavy dry-brush with 1 of 6 colours, jumping forward 1 place on each strip:

I'd forgotten that one of the colours I picked for this step (Vallejo MC 978 "Dark Yellow") has a greenish tinge when it dries. OK, a bit more than a tinge. The last time I'd seen that effect was on one of our golden retrievers following a soak in a canal following having rolled in fresh cow poo (she slept outside that night!!).

I don't think it will look too bad when the figures are completed though - the wash stages and second drybrush should tone it down.

I then applied initial washes, again 1 of 6 colours, but this time jumping back one figure on each strip. With the 6 different basecoats, this has given me 36 different combinations of colours (ie, no 2 figures the same).

If you look closely, you'll see that these guys have very bushy beards. The illegitimate offspring of Chewie and a member of ZZ Top?

For the next stage they will all get a light drybrush of Iraqi Sand 819, but I want to let the washes dry completely first.

I've also decided on the colour scheme for weapons and equipment:

Hunting Horn - German Camo Medium Brown 826
Straps - Middle Stone 882
Bags/Pouches - USA Olive Drab 889
Weapon Body - Dark Grey 994
Weapon Detailing - Hull Red 985
Weapon Barrels - Gunmetal Blue 800
Pauldrons - Hull Red 985

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #11 - horses finally finished!! Woohoo!!!!

I didn't finish them last night as I was having a lot of trouble concentrating for some reason. Anyway, I finished doing them about an hour ago, so here are some pics:

(if you are thinking "didn't she have more strips of horses than this?", yup - there are more strips, but I'd removed the ones which would not have any "white" markings)

It was definitely more difficult to do the facial markings at this point rather than before having painted the bridles. Some of the blazes/stripes have ended up not looking as good as they should.

I'll probably do a bit of work on the Chumbondas this evening, just to keep them happy - to misquote C3-P0 "I suggest you let the not-Wookies have some paint".

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #10

I did get the bridle decorations done this evening, but the markings (socks, blazes etc) will have to wait until tomorrow evening. Almost there!

Now has anyone spotted an idiotic error in my painting sequence?

Need a clue?

*cough* leaving painting facial markings until after I've already painted their bridles!

OK, so stars and partial blazes/stripes won't be an issue, but if I want to do full-length blazes or stripes it will be more awkward. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to be careful with those.

No pics, but a bit more painting done

I wasn't feeling quite so knackered this evening when I got home from work, so I cracked on with painting the horse decorations. I did start off by doing the tassels and the bridle decorations, but that got confusing (one set jumping forward one place for each colour, the other jumping back one) so I quit that and just did the tassels. The bridle decorations will get done tomorrow, and maybe the markings (socks and faces) if I have time.

Given that they are very nearly complete, I suppose I'd better get cracking on prepping the riders. I think I've worked out how I'll get them painted before attaching them to the horses - glue them onto nails and stick the nails into a block of styrofoam.

Quickie update

Shinies! 

The figs I ordered from Black Hat have arrived (the not-Wookies and not-Ewoks). Unfortunately, the not-Wookie "Yeti Infantry" are a lot smaller than the not-Wookie "Chumbondas" that I got from Wargames Supply Dump, so I won't be able to use them in mixed squads (and probably not together). I guess the size difference was to be expected - the Chumbondas are 20mm size-not-scale, the Yetis are 15mm. I think the Yetis may be yet another race for my eventual solo SF campaign.

I must say that I was very pleased with the service from Black Hat - very quick processing and delivery, plus good communications.

Painting update. 

I was knackered last night so didn't do any painting, and was slightly less knackered tonight so I didn't want to do anything too taxing. Therefore I just painted the ground colour onto the bases of the horses. The decorative bits and markings will probably be done over the next 2 evenings.

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #9

It's good to have my mojo back! :)

I got a lot more done on the horses than I'd expected (and planned) to today. Not only did I get all the metalwork done (bits, buckles, tack-decorations), I also got all the saddle cloths painted.

Here are two pics, as you've been such good followers (and I have been a naughty blogger, not posting any for a few days):

For the saddle cloths, plumes, tassels and bridle/tail ribbons I've selected 9 colourful paints. That should ensure that no two horses have the same colours for saddle cloths and decorations.

Still to do: tassels, plumes, ribbons, ground colour on bases. I might even manage to get that done by the end of Tuesday evening.

Edit: oh, and socks and face markings need to be done as well

Eeek! I'd better make a start on prepping some of the riders!

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #8; Brushes; Shinies Ordered

WIP:

Tack is now completed on all 81 non-barded horses. Later on I'll make a start on painting the metalwork (bits, decorations on the tack, etc).

My mojo seems to be coming back!! :)

Brushes:

There has been some discussion of brushes on a number of blogs that I follow in the last few days. I think it was Big Lee who kicked this off with his "slap self around head" post after buying some GW brushes for his travel painting kit.

When I returned to gaming about 10 months ago, I was initially using cheap-ish Revell brushes, but soon found that they lost their points and went ratty quite quickly. That made me decide that I should try some decent brushes from art shops.

The first ones I tried were the Pro Arte Acrylix range. These have synthetic fibres and quite long handles. They held paint adequately, but the tips did start to curl after only a short time.

I'd seen a fair number of figure-painters blogs, websites and YouTube channels where they were recommending Kolinsky sable brushes from various manufacturers, particularly Da Vinci and Winsor & Newton Series 7.

At my local art suppliers, Jacksons in Stoke Newington, I was able to get a few of the Da Vinci Maestro series (1, 0, 2/0, 3/0) but they only had a 1 from the Winsor & Newton Series 7 at the time. I tried them and I liked them. They retain their point well, the paint flows smoothly onto the surface you are painting and they don't seem to be going ratty even after several months of hard usage.

The main difference between the two ranges is that the Winsor & Newton Series 7 seems to hold more paint than the Da Vinci Maestro series. Overall I prefer the Winsor & Newton brush, so I bought a couple more (0, 2/0 and 3/0) from London Graphic Centre in Covent Garden yesterday.

A note on Kolinsky sable brushes:

These are designed for use by watercolour rather than acrylics artists, so care needs to be taken when using them with acrylic paints. You need to ensure that you have thinned the acrylic paint to a milky consistency, otherwise it will tend to get drawn up into and clog the ferrule, causing the bristles to splay. Rinsing the bristles frequently whilst painting (I tend to rinse after every two paint loads) helps to prevent this from occurring.

You also need to clean the brushes thoroughly after every session, preferably followed by use of a brush preserver/restorer.

Remember: look after your brushes and your brushes will look after your painting.

Shinies Ordered:

As I've been a good girl, not ordered much metal so far this year and I'm getting close to finishing the Sarmatian cavalry, I decided to splash out a bit on lead. I also need some more cavalry (ZOMG! more horses?!?!?) -
* 24 light horse for when I use the army as Alans at Campaign in May
*Scythians - 24 light horse, a command group (noble, standard bearer, heavy lancer) and 12 heavy lancers/cataphracts for use as allies for my Sarmatians (nb - can also be used as allies for a few other armies in FoG).

The above have been ordered from Donnington

I also wanted to add some more not-Wookies to the Chumbondas I've started painting up. I've ordered a couple of packs of Yeti Infantry from Black Hat along with a couple of packs of their Tolero Infantry (not-Ewoks) for games in my SF solo campaign when I finally get round to it. Why the not-Ewoks? Let's face it - what better annoying race is there for shooting to bits as stress relief? (Note - Ja Ja Binks and C3PO may be just as or even more annoying, but are individuals not races!!)

Along with these I ordered some more flex-steel sheets (for lining box files) and magnetised MDF bases from Tiny Tin Troops. I've got 3 box files that need lining and once all the cavalry are finished (including the stuff I've just ordered) my stock of bases will be almost gone.

I've still got my 15% discount voucher for GZG from their December offers. I need to decide in the next 2 weeks what I want to use it to buy.

ugh?

"Followers

We're sorry...

This gadget is configured incorrectly. Webmaster hint: Please ensure that "Friend Connect Settings - Home URL" matches the URL of this site"

I just noticed this. You were there five minutes ago, but when i refreshed you had all been stolen/killed by Blogger.

Any ideas how to rescue/resurrect you?

Edit: Ahhh, so Google/Blogger have been changing things around to do country redirects and in doing so have  changed me to a ".co.uk" addy from a ".com", but failed to take account of the fact that followers etc will be linked to the ".com" addy.

Apparently they are working on a fix.........


Edit #2: it seems that adding "/ncr" after the ".com" takes you back to the old format and resurrects your followers!!! It also resurrects the "edit" button for posts, which also disappeared on the ".co.uk" version

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #7; WIP: Chumbondas

The horses: painted the tack on a few more strips of horses earlier this evening, before uploading the "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" photos to my computer and then to Flickr. Here's a quick pic showing a few strips.

Tonight's strips take it to half of them done for this stage. I'm aiming to push myself to do all the remaining strips tomorrow evening.

The Chumbondas

I decided to make a start on these, getting the base colour for the fur done. I've used 6 different brown shades for this.

To maximise the variety of colourings, my intention is to use 4 different highlight colours (to be drybrushed on) and 4 different washes. At that point I'll have to sit down and decide about the detailing colours - weapons, shoulder guards, straps and bags/pouches. Given the limited variety of poses, I'll probably order some "Yeti Infantry" from Black Hat to create decently mixed squads.

Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - Part 2

More pics on Flickr

I've finally uploaded the photos from Monday's game of Ironclads to Flickr, but here are a few teaser pics:

The RN at the start of the game. I have command of the frigate Phoebe ahead of the line, and the Defence bringing up the rear.

The French invasion fleet at the start of the game

The big ships of the RN make contact with the French

This contact was accidental as our admiral forgot the burning battery was not moving and turned into it. The battery was sunk by its second ramming, but the RN ship was entangled and got taken down to the deeps as well.

Ship positions at the end of the game

The rules we use at CLWC are written by one of our members, Alan. They are quite quick to pick up, and make for a relatively fast game, even with multiple players each controlling multiple ships. On Monday we had 8 players plus the umpire, with something like 18 ships all told (there might have been more if the game had continued as the French invasion fleet were due to have reinforcement ships coming on table).

Quick update

I've been feeling a bit crap the last two nights when I've got home, so haven't done any painting. I did manage to get the Chumbondas spray-primed on Tuesday morning though, so they are sitting on the table waiting to be painted up once I've finished the horses. Hopefully this evening I'll be able to do the tack on some more of the horses.

Rum, Sodomy and the Lash - Part 1

After a quick trip to Modelzone to pick up some paints I wanted, I headed up to CLWC for a multi-player game of Ironclads.

The scenario was a French invasion attempt on England in the late 19th Century. I ended up on the British side (I think being seen eating battered sausage and chips earlier persuaded the umpire that my culinary tastes were not suitably Francophile). As Commodore "It's short for, errrr, Bob!" Kate I had commanded of our scout frigate, the Phoebe and an ironclad, the Defence.

Good fun was had by all, the invasion attempt was repelled but the French scored a minor tactical victory.

I took pics, so will try to post them tomorrow night (and hopefully they'll refresh my memory of events for a decent AAR).

Has anyone seen my painting mojo? Campaign FoG team tourney

I don't know what it is, but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to paint right now. It could be that I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. It could be that the number of horses I have on the painting table is subconsciously daunting me. It could be that after two months of painting Sarmatians I've hit a boredom factor. Whatever it is, it's annoying me as I have all those horses still to complete.

In case it is just boredom, I've decided to take a mini-break from the horses and other Sarmatian stuff (well, once I've finished painting the horse tack - 18 done, 63 to go - it takes ages to do this step as you are trying to avoid getting the leather colour onto the horse flesh) and paint up something else from the lead pile.

Looking through the various bags, I realised that the Chumbondas from Wargames Supply Dump* which I bought late last year would make a good, quick, fun set to paint up so I've given them a quick clean up and they are now drying. With the weather having warmed up, I should be able to use sprays again (woohoo!!) so might get round to priming them tomorrow morning.

The figures are very nice sculpts, no mould lines and the only flash I found was little nubs on the underside of the bases which barely justify getting out a file to remove them. The bases already have texture and are the same size as the washers I'd normally stick them onto - the only reason to put them on washers is for transporting them in magnetised boxes. I'll probably decide later on whether I'll bother.

*I didn't include a link to their website as it is "under construction", but they are trading - you just need to email them at wsd50@yahoo.co.uk


Edit to add: I knew there was something else!!

Campaign FoG Team Tourney

The club were looking for two volunteers to join our second team for the FoG:AM team tournament at Campaign in May. So I volunteered. This tournament looks quite an interesting set-up. It's held in one of the halls in a big shopping centre in Milton Keynes, with 3 games on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday. You play as teams of 3, with each member playing one of three themes (1 classical ancients, 1 early AD, 1 medieval) with a limited selection of army lists that you can choose from. As the classical ancients slot was taken, I looked at the other two lists and noticed that the early AD included the Early Alan list. Hmmm, the Alani were one of the Sarmatian tribes. A quick look at the relevant book showed me that I should be able to use my existing figures quite easily, although I will need to get some more light horse (which I was planning to do anyway).

This should be an interesting experience I think...........

Quick update

I didn't get much painting done yesterday, mainly as a result of getting engrossed in reading Battlegames and Miniature Wargames. All I got done was the eyes on the horses, which isn't worth taking pics of at this point.

Once I have got my Sunday chores done, I'll have to crack on and do some more painting. At least I won't have the distraction of glossy mags to tempt me away from doing some work!

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #6; mis-delivered(?) Amazon package

Last night I did the final bits (at this point) on the barded horses - blinkers, bits and ground colour. The washes will be done once the riders have been painted and attached. A couple of pics - not sure how well the metalwork will stand out on the group pics, so I included a close up.

As I had the metallic paints out, I also did a little bit of work on the command group figures, but only took close-ups of a couple of them:

This evening I will be cracking on with the non-barded horses. I need to do the tack, metallic bits, saddle cloths and decorations (plumes, tassels), plus the ground colour on the bases. Once they are done I'll move on to prepping and priming the riders, and painting up the command figures.



Mis-delivered(?) Amazon package

I ordered 5 books from Amazon last Saturday, opting for first class postal delivery. For some reason, Amazon decided to split the order such that one book would be delivered by Royal Mail, the other 4 by City Link. The one delivered by Royal Mail arrived safe and sound on Tuesday. I still hadn't received the other package by this morning, so I checked the tracking system on City Link's website which said it had been delivered on Wednesday. I checked with my neighbours and none of them had seen it.

So, I decided to call City Link to see what was going on. On my first call the automated system failed twice to "hear" my consignment number correctly then put me through to an operator, who may have accidentally cut off the call immediately after picking it up, and I was diverted to the customer satisfaction survey, first question "Using the buttons 1-9, how successfully was your issue resolved?". Hmmmm, my issue wasn't resolved at all, but it wouldn't let me answer "0", so having tried that twice, I hung up and immediately called them again.

Yet again, their automated system couldn't "hear" my consignment number correctly, but this time I did get through to an operator. He informed me that the driver had posted the package through the letterbox and taken a photograph of this.
"It's a white door, with the letterbox halfway down."
"Well, my door is blue with the number 29 at the top in brass numerals"
"Oh"
"The next house up, #35 has a white door, with "35" in blue at the top, and I think #17 also has a white door"
"ahhh, maybe it was delivered to them. Can you check with them and then call us back if they don't have it?"
"OK, but what will you do if they don't have it?"
"We'll schedule our driver to return and try to recover the package, but that won't be until Monday at earliest"
"OK, I'll check and call you back in a few minutes"

Having checked with my neighbours, it hadn't been delivered to either #35 or #17, so I called back. This time, thanks to a serendipitous coughing fit, I flummoxed the automated system and got put straight through to an operator. Only I didn't get put through as it was after midday when they close on Saturdays. Grrrrrr!!!!

So, I went back to the website and submitted a query/complaint, requesting in the "how would you like the issue resolved section" the following:
1. For the driver to attempt to recover the package from wherever he mis-delivered it and for them to arrange with me for safe delivery
2. Failing that, for City Link to obtain replacements from Amazon and arrange with me for safe delivery
3. For them to email me a copy of the photo allegedly showing the delivery being made.

If City Link fail to get me my books, then the complaint progresses to Amazon for using such a crappy company for deliveries.

I still can't understand why Amazon decided to split the order in that way. For previous orders of the same size, they have split the books between 2 Royal Mail packages which have both been successfully delivered. Whenever I've used the "super saver" option (ie, free delivery) which has been by City Link I've had no end of problems, which is why I always opt for first class delivery these days as that should be by Royal Mail (at least they *normally* deliver to the correct address and if they can't deliver it because the package is too big they will leave a card so that it can be collected).

On a brighter note, my subscription copies of Battlegames and Miniature Wargames both came in the post this morning, so I will be having a good read of them this afternoon.

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #5

I did a little bit more work on the barded horses today - painted the reins and saddle cloths. For convenience I used the same colours for both on given horses.

Here is a pic.

Just the metalwork (blinkers and bits) to do, and the ground colour on the bases, which I should be able to finish tomorrow evening. After that, it will be onto the non-barded horses, which I should complete over the weekend.

I guess that means I'll have to start prepping the riders (being careful not to stab drill bits into my fingertips while drilling lance-holes through the figures' hands)

A short update with pics

Feeling a bit knackered tonight, so I've decided not to do any painting. I have taken a couple of pics of the barded horses from last night though:

While uploading the photos from my camera, I realised I only took a couple of pics of my game on Monday night.  I was playing a 650pt friendly against Simon, my meatheads vs his Pyrrhic army. I'd won the initiative, picking steppes, and was lucky enough with dice rolls to manage to block the awkward terrain pieces. We had some intriguing moments that required us to call in a more experienced player to check that what we were doing was correct.

Here are the 4 pictures I did manage to take:

Deployments 

End of Simon's first move

End of my first move

Errr.... forgot to take any more photos!

"But what was the outcome?" you ask. Rather unsurprisingly, my Sarmatians lost. In some respects, it would be better with this size of game (650 pts on a 3' x 4' table) for me to lost the pre-battle initiative and get first move; the downside is that the terrain is likely to be against me. I think this size of table favours mainly-infantry armies with some light horse - there isn't really enough room for cavalry to make use of their speed and manoeuvrability.

I think my Sarmatians may do better on a larger table with a higher points value army, which would allow the possibility of bringing an allied contingent of Scythian/Saka light horse.

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #4

Just a quick update as I didn't post on Monday, having got back from a friendly FoG game fairly late.

This evening I have been painting the barding on the 39 horses which have it, plus on the barded horses of my command groups (48 total).

When I finished it was too late to faff around taking pictures, so you'll just have to wait until tomorrow. I haven't made my mind up yet about what painting I'll do tomorrow - it would make some sense to finish off the barded horses (bits, blinkers, reins, saddle cloths, plumes, ground colour).

WIP: Tamsin's Equine Development Facility #3

The horses got their washes today. That leaves the following to be done:

• eyes
• barding on the barded horses
• horse tack
• metalwork 
• saddle cloths/blankets
• decorations (tassels, plumes)
• earth colour on bases

Here are a couple of pics. You might not be able to see much change from yesterday, but the differences are more obvious in real life.

The dark greys have worked much better this time than the last ones I did. However, I think I've got the overall mix of colours a bit wrong - far too many whites and light bays/duns/chestnuts. Too late to change it now though.

2012 BSB Spring Tour, 3rd leg result

It's still too painful recalling the ignominy of my 25-0 defeat for me to write up a proper AAR, so here are some pics.

Quick notes:

Tim "the Madaxeman" won the pre-battle initiative and selected hilly terrain. We ended up with 2 steep hills, 1 gully and 3 areas of brush. Fortunately the hills and gully were out of the way on the table edges. Unfortunately 2 largish areas of brush were along my rear edge, making deployment awkward.

"I bet those Chinese light horse will sweep down the edge quick smart while we spend several turns trying to get out of this rough ground?"

The unfeasibly huge glass of ale the Sarmatians meatheads had looted on their way from Qin to Western Han China

The BSB tour banner, with the 2nd leg result helpfully added to inspire ("are you sure about that?" Ed.) the meatheads

"I was right, wasn't I?"

"ooh, finally! Now, what's the betting they start shooting at us while we're still in double line, giving them a + POA as we're protected not armoured?"

"Errrmmm, what's the betting we get charged, lose the impact and melee (if it even gets that far), break, then burst through those light horse behind us?"

"Pretty damned likely I'd say!"

"Hmmm, I have a horrible feeling about this..........."

"Yup, they charged us, broke us at impact, we burst through the light horse"

"It was even funnier when the light horse broke and burst through us"

"How come they've only got a red "fragmented" marker?"

"I think Tamsin actually managed to get a decent dice roll and rallied them"

"One more turn and we'll be in single rank!"

"But they probably won't be shooting at us by then!"

"Bleedin' Nora! Lost to crappy levy and they've disrupted us!"

"I hate to say this, but I think those light horse will charge us in the flank and fragment us"

"Don't worry - the battle must be over by now - look at all those broken units of ours"

I suppose at some point I should update the tour banner and take a pic of it.