New Sharp Practice Army Lists

So with the kind help of Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies fame, I've managed to put together army lists for the South American Wars of Liberation to go with the realease of the wonderful new set of rules "Sharp Practice 2."  The list give you many variations for both Patriot and Royalist forces fighting in the Northern Campaigns of Simon Bolivar in Colombia and Venezuela (1817 - 1824)

You can find them here:

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=5829

Coming up next will be photos of the two armies from these lists and some first games.

I have some new figures out

If anyone is interested, they can view some new figures that I have released, over at my Orinoco Minatures blog: http://orinoco-miniatures.blogspot.cz/2016/02/llaneros-and-other-packs-now-available.html

If I have time, I'll try and get some painted up for the Analogue Hobbies Painting challenge.

British AWI Casualties for the Analogue Challenge

So here are a few pictures of my recent entry into the bonus round of the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge. These are all from the Perry Miniatures plastic box set of British Infantry for the American War of Independence.

 

 These were figures which I wasn't sure how to use, until I saw a number of different blogs where people had used figures as casualty counters (usually with an insert for some dice). This always seemed a bit fiddly to me, so rather just paint the tally onto the base and turn the base according to the total. All figures are 4 to a base, so it's a very easy way to keep track, and when to remove bases. I do hope you like them.

My Analogue Hobbies Challenge heroes Theme entry

 So the two-week theme came around again in the Analogue Hobbies Challenge. I was really glad to get this one in as it was touch-an-go whether I would succeed due to a very busy month at work.  The two figures in question are from Gripping Beast's 28mm Romano-British/Arthurian range. They are painted up to represent Artorius himself, plus hero/sidekick Lancelot (he of the mask).

I did enjoy painting them, and even had a go at painting the shield design on the masked figure. The shield pattern is from LBM with a bit of paint to blend it into the shield.  I have to say that I much prefer the cast on shields. I really find that the separate shield you have to glue on for the other Gripping beast figures are poor on detail and do not paint up that well. As with all glue on weapons and shields on wargames figures, they seem to pop off with a certain regularity.

I had intended to do more figures for this round, but as said, time was in short supply. I hope to put up the additional figures over the next week.

Chaco War photo shoot

Just trying out a new setup with the new miniature photo studio, a bit of terrain and the new Chaco war figures. The idea is to try and represent the "Green Hell" of the Chaco Boreal, which was dry jungle, scrub and cactii. I took these snaps about 20 minutes ago. I hope you like them.

New Chaco War figures

  

Just to let you know, a new range of 28mm figures have been released by Orinoco Miniatures. You can read more about them on the Orinoco Miniatures Blog

 

I think the war is really facinating and has great wargaming potential. Anyway, I hope you like the figures.

Roman Limes Watchtower continued

So I really got in to the modelling groove last night once all had gone to bed, and calm descended on von Browne mansions. Carrying on into the wee hours, I managed to get through nearly all the stages of constructing the Roman Watchtower from 4GROUND Models.

As I mentioned yesterday, this pre-painted model is excellent, the quality of the parts and how they are laser cut is first rate. That said though, there are quite a lot of parts to put together. The construction is not fiddly, though with some of the longer beams and supports you have to be careful when removing them from their frames as they can easily bend or snap (e.g. in the picture above I had to re-glue one of the long beams).

There are three main sections to construct in this model: the base/cellar section, the mid tower/sleeping quarters, which also support the observation balcony, and finally the upper floor of the guard room, with a door onto the balcony, and supports for the roof. (Above and below you can see the three sections before gluing the balcony onto the mid level supports).

 

Above a close up of the balcony and trellis guard rail. The detailing really is superb.
Below you can see the three sections fitting together, and finally with the balcony glued on.

 

 

The final stage was to construct the roof. I found this the most awkward bit, as the piece did not really have a tight fit. It took a couple of attempts to get it right, and then physically hold in place while the glue dried sufficiently. Below you can see the finished article, and some images of the detailing inside the guard room and sleeping quarters. You can also appreciate how many joists and supports have to be glued into place.

 

 

 

 All that's left to do is to sand and detail the base, and then glue the entrance ladder in place.  I can't praise the model enough, and this will be a great addition to my wargaming table.

A little Xmas present to myself

Now just having survived two Christmas days with kids and in-laws (though they are very nice people), it's great to sit back, glass of wine and cheese and crackers to hand. Of course Christmas is really focused on the children, young and old, so as a treat I ordered the 28mm Roman Watchtower from 4Ground (along with some Roman carts). This arrived 2 days ago and was opened today, and a lovely piece of kit it is too.

It comes pre-painted and laser cut into smooth hardboard. As you can see from the various pictures the detail is perfect; really a pleasant surprise. This will be part of the growing Dux Britanniarum campaign at the club, specifically for one of the main raiding scenarios for the Saxons.

Above you can see details of the roof, exterior walls and flooring. The roof now seems to come in a terracotta red, rather than the slate grey advertised. It still looks great though.

Above doors and first floor walls. Below the balcony flooring and trellis guard rails.

This will be thrown together in the coming days in between some frantic Analogue Hobbies Challenge painting. I'll post up more shots soon on the construction of this lovely model, and see if the instructions are any use (thoughts of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" spring to mind...). Now back to the cheese and wine...

New Spanish Infantry with an ink wash

As promised, here are the new Spanish Infantry after an ink wash to bring out the details. I'll be painting these beauties up for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I hope you like them.

The figures can be purchased directly from our webstore here:  

http://www.orinoco-miniatures.com/

More "ammunition" for the Painting Challenge

So the Czech Post Office has been busy this week. Various reinforcements for the painting challenge arrived during the week. I was especially pleased to get some inter-war tanks and tankettes from Warlord Games. Above you can see the Vickers  twin-turreted tank and two Carden-Lloyd tankettes (the fore-runner to the Bren Carrier).

 Also, thanks to the boys and girls at UPS (below), I received a large 17kg box of metal loveliness from my casting service. This includes nearly 1000 figures for the new Spanish packs from my South American Wars of Independence range. I'll ink up some of these and post up the pictures later on so that you can see the detail. Needless to say there will be a lot of these painted for the challenge (along with British Legion and Gran Colombians).

I also received two large packs of some new figures I've had produced. These will be launched in the coming weeks as I don't want to muddy my marketing waters with too many releases at the same time. I think it will be a range that people will find slightly unusual but I believe will like (from a fascinating conflict). Any guesses... :-)

Now I am just looking forward to getting started. I'm still painting stuff, but this is not challenge related as I have to get images from the figures range up on the website, so you'll see a few painted shots of the new figures over the next week. Roll on 15th December!

Getting ready for the Analogue Hobbies challenge

I thought I'd just post a quick update on the priming orgy that's going on in Wilde Goose Mansions at the moment. A nice rule, that is, in the challenge, where all the figures can be prepped and primed before the painting onslaught begins on 15th December.  Prepping is a chore at the best of times, so it's good that this can be dealt with beforehand, and not spoil the painting mojo.

I have put myself down for 1000 points which works out at about 200 x 28mm figures. Now as part of our project to run a small Battle of Austerlitz scenario, I already have about 6 battalions of Austrians and 12 battalions of French (plus artillery) to paint up, so this would easily get me over my quota.

Into the mix I've thrown a side project of late WW1 Brits and Germans, which I'd also like to get finished. I also have quite a lot of the Orinoco Miniatures figures primed, but I aim to paint some of these up before the competition (for marketing purposes), the rest will be painted during the competition.

Now I've been fiddling around for a few months trying to find a decent approach to taking photos of miniatures at home. Needless to say, I am not happy with the results of my efforts. So below is an experimental purchase that I hope will allow my figures to see the light of a decent photograph, and be used for all the painting challenge submissions... wish me luck.