Cuirassiers

If you listen very carefully you can hear the clatter of tiny hooves on plywood. This sound heralds the long awaited five bases of French WWI Cuirassier cavalry. 

They make a splendid edition to the three and a bit companies of poileu and the battery of Artillery  who I am close to completing. I am looking forward to getting these guys finished. This project has been going on far to long. 

It is to be hoped that by the end of the week we can get them all done and dusted with a big reveal in the form off a blog post.    

Imperial Romans come up against Galatians

Right lets give you guys a battle report. It has been a while since I wrote up a report from one of my games for the blog. On Thursday night I fielded my early Imperial Romans against Alan's Galatians. I won the terrain and optioned for hilly. Nevertheless, in the set up I isolated my light troops by placing them to far over on the flank in an effort to protect a poorly placed camp. This was clear at the end of the game having lost a battle group of light foot and my fortified camp.  

My basic strategy was to attempt to keep the attention of the enemy with a battle line of superior legionnaires accompanied by a couple of battle groups of  cavalry who can pile in  at the appropriate moment to cause mayhem on the enemy's right flank. This was fifty percent successful with the Contonii lancers making short work of one warband  which allowed then to come in to the right flank  of his main battle line. The plan was very close to coming off. However, on reflection while my cavalry left me slightly flat footed. Despite being a little disconnected I felt I could prevail. 

When it came down to it was a game of nip and tuck. Alan killed one of my commanders and then in the following round I kill one of his. I dropped a cohesion level at one end of the melee while Alan dropped a level at the other end. I break a unit of his in the impact phase, he breaks a unit of mine in the melee round. 

At the end of the game I was sure I could edge it with a charge to the rear of the end of his battle line. Alias my brave legions charged in carrying a disrupted marker and lost the impact and double dropped to broken and ran away giving Alan a well deserved victory nine points against four.   

   

Hunnic Camp

Over the summer months I have managed to fit in a good bit of wargaming. Back in May I took part in my first wargames competition which was Campaign in Milton Keynes. I really enjoyed this first experience of competition gaming it was good fun. CLWC had a big contingent and we all went off for a curry on the Saturday night. For my first competition I was very impressed by Milton Keynes Wargaming Club’s organisation of the Show, which hosted the local shopping centre outside a branch of John Lewis it provide a spaciious and bright environment for gaming.  I look forward to going again next year and defend my last place.   

I have managed to have a few games back in CLWC mainly concentrating on Field of Glory and in recent weeks I’ve even won a couple games conclusively, by more than by a couple of points. This I assume, is a sign I am improving. 

Another effect of this flurry of Field of Glory activity was that I bought myself an other army which I am currently working on to the detriment of all other projects. I opted for an Hunnic army made up predominantly of Light Horse backed up by shooty cavalry which provides me with different challenges to the Early Imperial Romans and their steamrolling legions. Tim, over on the Madaxeman has a good article on running a Light Horse Army.   

I opted for Lurkio figures. on the bases that they provide ready made armies ad their figures look absolutely fantastic.  But more about these guys in later posts.  Today I wanted to introduce you to the newly created army camp.  I opted to use six individual 40x40mm bases to give a touch of flexibility to the camp.  I hope you enjoy seeing the project developing. I hope it continues to developing!

World War 1 Early French

In the build up to the centenary of World War I, I am painting up a French army to recreate some of the early battles on the table top. I opted to go with 10mm scale because it seems a good compromise between scale and cost. These guys are Pendraken figures and they offer really good value with a starter army costing around twenty quid.  

In the usual fashion they have been painted with acrylics with a dry-brush over the top and a touch of oil paint.

So far I have managed to paint up three companies of infantry and three batteries artillery. I'll keep slogging  along!

Templar Kit

In an effort to keep the momentum of posts up here are a couple of shots of the weaponry with will adorn the crusader figure.

They were a real joy to paint. To finish it off it could do with a little bit of weathering to give it a a slightly more worn look.  

I suspect it might be easier to do that once the various pieces are mounted on to. As usual they has been painted with acrylics with oil washes. 

  

By Popular Demand

Please allow me to introduce another project, this has been languishing on my work bench for far too long.  Over the last few years I have been working this figure on and off. Nevertheless, I am determent to put the finishing touches to this figure before the winter sets in.  In an effort to inspire on to yet greater exploits with the paint brush I have taken some progress pictures.

The figure is from the Romeo 90mm range and is cast completely lead. He has been painted  with acrylics with exception of the face which was done with oils. With the complexion I have been attempting to represent a northern European face which has been weather beaten a sunburned in the harsh climes of the Holy Land.  The face should convey a mixture of discomfort and zealotry in keeping with a Knight Templar and his environment.  In terms of inspiration for the characterisation of the figure I used Brendan Gleason’s performance of Raynald of Châtillon in the film Kingdom of Heaven. 

The clothing and equipment has all been done in acrylics with a very light oil wash on some of the leather items in an attempt to give them a sight sheen.  The most challenging part getting  the white right.  Naturally when you paint something white you never use white.  Starting with a black primer I slowly built upwash after wash of off-white and ivory for the iconic Tunic.  

               Opting for bright yellow to paint the scarf tied around the figure’s waist, serves a couple of purposes, firstly to break up the monotone mix of whites, browns and reds. It is also representative of a looted item from an enemy. The bright colour is to indicate the comparative cultural superiority of the Muslim society of the time. This concept is also to ties in with the head garb the crusader is wearing, which imitates the local keffiyeh. 

Inventory of Sloth

Well it's been a while since I have written for this blog consistently and I could bore you with various excuses about work, holidays, new phones, sloth and lack of inspiration, new computers.

Nevertheless, it is possibly time to give a little up date on the world of half done things I have previously mentioned on this blog. 

If you like it is an inventory of sloth:

The first offender is my North Irish Horse Sherman this is so close to being completed it is almost criminal to leave in this state. 

Next is my duelist Malatesta who was an diverting holiday project back at Easter I suspect progress will  have to wait until next Easter's getaway.

 In addition this crusader has been hanging around on the nearly finished shelf for years now...