Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts

17 Dec 2015

The Great British Bacon-Off

We're back to FoGR and some more Renaissance action as the Early Danish Army sizzles its way in several extremely bold, and a number of even rasher (see what I did there?) battles at Warfare 2015.


The army attempts to contest the leaderboard and emulate last years victory with a series of unfashionable Reiter units and some well-stuffed pikemen. Is the bacon worth the slicing - time for you to decide in these 4 battle reports

4 Dec 2015

ADLG in London - 3 Reports with Hannibal in command

The inaugural Central London ADLG 1-dayer saw Hannibal commanding the Carthaginians in 3 games of L'Art de la Guerre, against the forces of India, Rome and Macedonia.


See how Hannibal fared in three fully-photographed match reports, including the usual mix of rules hints and explanations, dubious captions and withering post-game analysis from Monty Hannibal, Pirate Hannibal and Viking Hannibal

7 Nov 2015

15mm Ancients - ADLG resurrects the painting urge..

Having become increasingly enamoured of ADLG, I finally got around to buying and painting up some proper Carthaginian cavalry and elephants recently, have fudged both types with dubious Greek proxies and morphs for pretty much the best part of, erm, mumble mumble years.

The 200 point format of ADLG means you have an army with just 20-25 elements (around 35-40 bases in old DBX/FoG money, with infantry being 2-bases and cavalry, elephants and psiloi being singles), so adding an odd element here or there to an existing army is a simple way to tart it up a bit.
The pictures of both are now included in the 15mm gallery - sadly Corvus Belli are no longer being produced, but I think that Martin at Vexillia still has a handful of the elephants on sale.




Both will be making an appearance this weekend at a 24-player ADLG event at Central London - how long they will appear for in the battle reports is an entirely different question!.

30 Aug 2015

On the workbench....

Every now and then I remember that this website is basically a blog (and there is in fact a Blogger version of it was well), so this statement is true in a very literal sense as well), and so perhaps sometimes I should just make some entirely self-indulgent posts about what I'm up to right now.

So, in between updating this site and doing various BHGS things, I also am attempting to finish the following painting pile:

  • 2-3 x 28mm Swiss / Landsnecht Kiels for FoGR (including Arquebus "wings")
  • Updating some of my 15mm Greek & Cathaginian elephants with new versions for ADLG
  • A 28mm Oliver Cromwell (because one can't have too many 28mm Renaissance generals..)
  • 8 x 28mm Norman/Christian knights for Saga, plus a priest..
  • 2 bases of baggage to go with the Landsnecht Kiels
  • A pack of Mainforce 6mm modern British infantry 
  • A 15mm PBI WW2 Belgian army which has been stuck at the stage of being based and undercoated for about 8 years... 
  • 20-odd bases of 15mm Renaissance American Indians for FoGR
  • Another 10 or so bases of Eastern shot in 15mm for FoGR 
  • Casualties for the above... 
  • Oh, and casualties for the Kiel..
  • Boxes and barricades in 28mm for Malifaux
  • 20mm WW2 Us Heavy Weapon teams, for CHain of Command or Bolt Action
  • 4 x 15mm Scythed Chariots (no idea...) and 4 bases of 15mm Carthaginian Heavy Cavalry
  • A full 15mm Scots Renaissance army, to be everything from Covenanters to Jacobites
  • Loads of 20mm WW2 Germans, who are based and undercoated in Uniform Grey, but that's about it so far. 
  • Some 10mm ACW Union troops that I was donated (I already have far too many..) 
  • 5 x Modern Russian 6mm T90's - cheap GHQ in a bring and buy that I couldn't resist
  • 2 x 20mm WW2 buildings (MDF) to assemble
  • 16 bases of Polish/Russian Renaissance Shotte - undercoated, but now becalmed... 
  • A 10mm WW2 landing craft 

and that's all before I start thinking about rebasing stuff for different rulesets, or selling things on eBay..

How on earth I find time to update this website who knows !





25 Jan 2015

The Danes at Warfare 2014 - top table action!

The last event of 2014, and the Early Danes get yet another outing at FoGR down by the banks of the Thames in sunny (cold and dark) Reading.


In four thrilling match reports they take on everyone in the world, from the Indians to the English, all whilst doing their very best to shoehorn references to bacon and Carlsberg into the narrative at every opportunity....and end up doing surprisingly well !


Lots of pictures, some barely-relevant YouTube videos and some very odd things to buy from Amazon as well all grace the reports - so, grab yourself some pancakes and maple syrup, pull up a chair and dig in!

18 Sept 2014

The matt varnished Shermans & Churchills

As promised in the previous post, the finished articles are here:  Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Shermans, 15mm Churchills, and Battlefront Bren Carriers all painted in Halfords cammo green.


This really has nailed that "bronze-green" effect I was hoping for!


PSC US infantryman based on a penny for scale.


Not quite sure what's gone awry with the varnishing on this flank of the tank, it's not as obvious in real life as on this photo.


The top decks look great to me - the "puddled" Army Painter varnish on the one in the foreground's read deck is something I'm quite happy about actually - maybe it could have been brushed out a little though?



And the Churchills... again a great result IMO


I am toying with the idea of a final drybrush, but the details already "pop" so much I'm not sure if that would be too much..?


The colour that's been achieved is pretty much perfect IMO


The early version turret AVRE. Several of the transfers have ended up showing their edges, which is annoying as this normally doesn't happen with my "two layers of clear gloss" technique - maybe my gloss poly needs replacing - or maybe they were just old transfers?


For essentially a one-piece casting these track assemblies are fantastic - well done PSC!


The drybrushing really picks out the stowage boxes too.


Morer slightly odd effects on the big blank flanks of the Shermans here - but again, not as bad in the real world, and in some ways quite good to have it so irregular (ish). The driver's face has done really well here.


 With a PSC infantryman in the foreground


The Battlefront bren carriers.


A final close-up of a rather smug chap - probably waiting for his cup of tea! Make sure you saw the first post too in this two-part series.

14 Sept 2014

Using Halfords Matt Cammo Spray on WW2 vehicles

Halfords is a well known (if you are in the UK) cycle/car accessories retailer, and I am a signed-up and committed user of their range of spray paints for both white and black undercoat.

Recently they have offered a 3-tone range of "cammo" paints, including a khaki which was used as a base coat for these fellows, and also a Dark Green. The Dark Green looks pretty ideal for that difficult-to-achieve WW2 Allied AFV colour, so having some 15mm PCS Churchills, 20mm Plastic Soldier Company Shermans and a handful of Battlefront carriers to paint, I thought I'd give it a go.


Here are the Churchills - these are really well detailed kits, that go together very well and also give you options for a variety of vehicles, including cast and welded turrets and a couple of AVRE options. The Bren carriers are in the background. The spray provides a deep and very matt green finish, but as there is no matching paint pot, you have to be very thorough with getting good coverage.

These are the three PSC Shermans - I sprayed the tracks (which come separately ) with Army Painter Leather brown, which I also use as a base colour for the PSC US Infantry, which are having some heavy weapon crew added to them at the moment (in the background). The heavy weapon teams share the odd/inaccurate Y-shaped braces of the infantry..


The Sherman models are really well thought out for wargamers (as opposed to modellers) needs. They go together really easily (apart from some small gaps where the tracks join at front and back) and feel very robust - someone has thought about these as bits of kit which will get a lot of handling, and designed them accordingly. 

The "shiny" patches are where I have put a patch of gloss varnish as a base coat on which to add waterslide transfers at a later stage - adding a gloss base coat under each transfer and then sealing it in with a further gloss coat before the final matt coat really does wonders for removing the outline/edge of the transfer on he finished model.


Here they are again, this time with Allied stars on them. I think I may have gone overboard with the stars, having them on turrets and hulls, but it adds a little more life to these models anyway.


Here are the Churchills, with some fairly serious drybrushing going on. They have transfers from the Battlefront Allied Armour sticker set. The unit insignia are probably not appropriate for Churchills, but beggars can't be choosers. They will fight with my PBI PSC British Infantry


Very few of them ended up with space on the turret for one of these formation markings.


The carriers, with the little Battlefront blokes peering out.


Churchills again, showing the great detail on the rear decks.  For such simple models to make they come out really well.


I then gave the whole lot a liberal washing with Army Painter Dark tone (the strongest one). I think this will tone down a lot once I get round to doing a matt coat, but right now I am wondering if I will need to do another set of drybrushing.


The carriers - again with probably inappropriate unit markings!


Front view of the Churchills.


And the Shermans. I'm quite optimistic that the mix of base colour and Army Painter will end up as that sort of bronze green that WW2 vehicles seem to have in the real world.

About a week later I managed to Dullcote them and add the finished pictures to this site - see them in this post.

26 Jun 2014

Match Reports of The Dutch at Campaign 2014

In a report spanning 5 pages and almost 10,000 words, you can revel in the exploits of possibly the blandest army ever to take the field on this website, the Dutch (of the 80 Years War - no, me neither) as they duplicate their World Cup heroics and take on a limited themed pool of other similar but generally better armies in a competition in which the last army to be used was the decidedly non-dull Pirates.


Have a look at whether lots of average troops can actually take on lots of Superior ones - and be amazed at how infrequently a 35 point ship can feature in 5 consecutive battle reports.

Wake up and Smell the Edam !!

26 May 2014

15mm PSC Infantry being painted

I bought a box of Plastic Soldier Company's new re-tooled WW2 British in 15mm recently. The box is excellent value, with three full platoons of figures, including light support weapons all in one box - almost 150 figures!

I decided to paint them up "on the sprue" as an experiment - and here is a full walk-through of that process, showing the paints I used and some photo's of the finished articles as well :









23 May 2014

By Fire & Sword Ottoman and Polish Commanders

At Salute 2014 I picked up a lot of stuff I didn't really need - but this sort of fell into the "might be able to justify" category - commander packs from Fire & Sword for Poles & Ottomans.


Admittedly it was as much about seeing what these figures looked like in the flesh as any real need to add more generals to these two underpowered FoGR armies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much "stuff" each pack comprises. 6 Generals/officers/Musicians, wire spears (pretty long...) which are the pointed type, plastic bases (for By Fire & Sword rules I guess) and some nice high resolution flags on good quality paper.


The figures are now undercoated and added to the painting queue - from first impressions they are a bit lanky and the horses are the same, but the detail is very good if a little fine compared to some of my other figures. Pictures to follow when they are done (don't hold your breath..)

16 May 2014

Lists from The National League FoGR Competitions

Mine and my opponents lists from The National League (Campaign) are now published on the FoGR Wiki. You have:


(hint - the Dutch one came first... and last in the period!)



26 Apr 2014

Donnington Louis XIV Infantry

Today, for your delight and delectation, we present a series of photos of a Louis XIV era infantry unit using Donnington figures, in the final stages of being painted and based:


This is the unit just block-painted. I've not really got a particular army to use them in as I have a very full Essex Miniatures Louis XIV army, but I just liked these figures. Potentially they might be some sort of Jacobite unit in an otherwise Scottish/Irish army?


This is after adding the coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the middle one in the range)


The figures are from Donnington's WEC ranges, sold as singles.


I tend to paint a base coat of a patch of dark brown underneath the apostles, and then almost drybrush them on in a linen colour. With the Army Painter as well they can really "pop" out quite nicely.


That rogue 28mm priest keeps sneaking into the shot on the far right, doesn't he..?


This appears to be after they have been matt varnished, this  time with a brushed-on Testors Dullcote. With just one unit on the production line, spraying is a bit of a waste so the brushed-on Testors is a better option



Now with the base colour painted in. I am half-tempted to put an ink wash over the rather bland bases, however this would mean reverse engineering an awful lot of figures so perhaps not... Anyway, they are now starting to look almost finished.


And this is with static grass added


A nice colourful unit, with a reasonable variety of figures and poses.


And a final close up of the shooters.
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