Buono Estente Oxford 2012 !

There is a veritable flurry of activity on this website this week as two sets of photos get immediately followed up by FOUR match reports, where the Imperial Spanish take on Transylvanians, French , Swedes and more Swedes in a themed TYW competition in which I was the "Catholic" half of a pair - with my team-mate being the Protestant. 4 games against Protestant armies was the result...

See how the forces of the Infante did    in this near incomprehensible (other than to anyone who remembers the Fast Show) report.

Scorchio!!

Acies Edizioni TYW Generals

I've actually finished some of the massive lead mountain that has been clogging my desk for a while - and Much to Martin at Vexillia's delight no doubt, the first things to be done are from his newly acquired/distributed range of Acies Edizione TYW figures.

These are at the bigger "18mm" end of 15mm - they tower over some Peter Pig figures I am also painting right now - and whilst they look a bit bland in the bare metal they have actually surprised my by how well they finish up and take a coat of ink.

These are a combination of the infantry and mounted command sets, although I had to drill out the flagpoles for all of the figures as the metal that they come in is quite soft making the cast-on flagpoles totally unworkable. The drilling was pretty easy to do - well presuming you have a Mini Drill

The mounted command set includes Wallenstein and Tilly apparently - however these two chaps are generic mounted trumpeter and flag carrying blokes

This looks more like a famous person. The infantry have been painted in yellow with a red sash, probably when I was thinking I might have them finished to be commanders for a Spanish army I used in a competition earlier this year....

This flag is one of my favourites from Alex Flags 

The inking is using Army Painter Dark tone - I bought it accidentally as I had used Strong Tone before. It seems to me more "black" rather than just being a darker brown compared to the Strong Tone - not ideal for these figures, but it does work well on white/grey horses I think.

This is a Saxon flag from the Grimsby Wargames Society site 

Slightly shiny finish - I ran out of Testors dullcote halfway through the spraying session 

This chap looks very much like my 28mm Tilly figure

I base the figures before painting them - unusually these were undercoated in white, largely to bring the yellow colours up more strongly than compared to a normal black undercoat. The base is painted in a matchpot tin of  emulsion from Homebase - much cheaper than buying real paint !

For some reason everyone in the TYW had a moustache

and finally...

Here they were just before being Army Painter'ed and varnished ..

Britcon 2012 - 6 Match Reports

Yes, the epic widescreen version of Britcon 2012, with 6 separate reports as the Thirty Years War French (and Geermans, and Dootch) take on all comers, most of whom turn out to be Swedish. 

10,000 words, 250 photos, the same old crap jokes and irrelevant picture captions .... it's all still there in one of the most well thought out and easy to follow sets of battle reports ever published on this site! 

What on earth have I been up to...?

With a month or so since the last post, here's a random selection of the many painting projects that have been filling my time instead of adding content to this site.

As diverse as WW2 Japanese, TYW Germans, Italian Wars Swiss and Falklands-era British, there are a bunch of photos of figures to prove I've actually been doing some gaming related stuff recently...

(PS - the Links Page on this site has been updated and tidied up too) 

All the rest of the photos...

The Warlord Games 28mm TYW project is now done and dusted. The final set of photos are here. I now am the proud owner of  the following units:

• 24 Cuirassiers
• 48 Other Horse
• 12 Mounted Harquebusiers
• 20 Croat Light Horse
• 72 Spanish Tercio Foot
• 156 "German" Pike and Shotte
• 4 Regimental Guns (Falconets)
• 4 Medium and Heavy Guns
• 8 Bases of Dragoons
• 4 Generals
• 1 Baggage Camp

(Just a tiny degree of "project creep" there then....)

Almost the end... 28mm TYW

The last batch of my mega plastic and metal painting project have now been finished - and here's a few pics. I will try and get round to showing off the whole lot over Easter..

Testudo Figures available in the UK

I just received the following email from Pete Dalby - good news for anyone who likes Testudo miniatures! 

"I’m delighted to say that Giuseppe Rava of Testudo Miniatures has very kindly agreed to let me distribute his excellent miniatures in the UK.

His 30YW / ECW figures are arguably the best available in 15mm.  They are to Renaissance what Xyston are to Ancients.   If you’ve not seen them before I’ve created albums on Photobucket where you can see the figures in all their glory.

In bringing these figures to the UK market I have looked at the pricing of similar quality figures – Xyston, Corvus Belli, Venexia, Mirliton etc – all of which are at the top end – versus the staple of the UK wargaming scene – Essex.

The good news is that my prices will only be pennies more than Essex per figure – and cheaper than all of the other manufacturers I’ve mentioned.

If you’re playing or collecting in this period – you deserve to have figures of this quality – so treat yourself.

This is a new venture for me and initially I will not have a website.  I am just about to place my first bulk order and it would be great to hear from you on what figures and volumes you might be interested in with no obligation.  Please email me at peterdalby@talktalk.net   If you are interested in the other Testudo ranges please let me know.

You can view the full Testudo range at their own website here:

http://www.g-rava.it/opere/testudo_30_anni_eng.htm

My prices per pack will be as follows:

Foot (10 figs) - £3.60

Foot Command (12 figs) - £5.20

Horse (5 figs & 5 horses) - £4.00

Horse Command (6 figs & 6 horses) - £5.20

Personalities (5 figs & 5 horses) - £5.20

Artillery (2 guns & 6 figs) - £6.00

Pack of 40 – 50mm wire pikes - £3.60

All packs contain a mix of poses.  Pikemen do not come with pikes.

The only other cost to you will be UK postage which will be via Royal Mail and commensurate with the weight of your order.  I will invoice you via Paypal.

If you’re still not convinced check out these photos from Mark Kernan of TheOneTree painting service – all using Testudo figures.

http://www.fieldofglory.net/warsofreligion/earlythirtyyearswarswedish.htm

I hope to hear from you soon – go on – you know you’re worth it!

Cheers

Pete"

More 28mm TYW / ECW Figures

Some work in progress shots of the Warlord Games (and others) 28mm army - this time, Cuirassiers, casualties Mounted harquebusiers and baggage.

It's almost finished....

More TYW Pictures

Yet more 28mm Warlord Games plastics now painted ! The Armypainter Quickshade really works well on these, even if I say so myself!