The Italian Wars collection – so far

I’m not sure when I started painting Italian wars figures, probably around 13 years ago I think. Anyway I thought I ought to get all my Italian wars painted figures on the table. Its really been a slow-burn project with good recent progress. The initial attraction was kindled by seeing those early pictures in Wargames Illustrated in the 80s and I took the plunge when Artizan brought out their Landsknecht range about 13 years ago. I’ve been adding units slowly but recently finished off a large quantity of cavalry. I’m still not sure where I’m going with this, I think I’ll add another 3 units of Milanese foot from Perry Miniatures, paint up some more generic crossbowmen and add some more heavy cavalry for the imperialist side. Lots of questions remain – do I have enough cannon? I know I need to get more flags particularly for the Old Glory Landsknecht and I’ll work on changing flags for what is now the OG French Pike. Will Perry miniatures plastic knights look out of place here?

Eureka Gendarmes in the foreground

On the other side 4 Colunellas of Artizan Designs Spanish foot, 24 pike, 12 sword & buckler and 12 Arquebus

Pete’s Flags

Perry light cavalry

Casting Room Gendarmes

Spanish guns flanked by Steelfist and warlord command, backed by Perry Milanese and Artizan pike

Perry Stradiots

Perry heavy Italian infantry as Milanese

Old Glory Landsknecht

These need flags

Black Bande in red on the left

Pete’s flags are so eye catching

Artizan Swiss and Perry bear vignette

Artizan Swiss

A 96 figure blovk painted up in 24s with several years between each

Bright heavy cavalry – what’s not to love about the Italian wars!

Wargames Foundry Gendarmes

Steel Fist & Eureka Miniatures

Wargames Foundry

Steelfist Miniatures lead the way witha Foundy command group nearby

Warlord Games metal pike 7 plastic missile troops

Artizan Landsknecht

Artizan Pike

Arizan Missile troops

Artizan pike advancing

Old Glory French pike

Lansknecht by Artizan looting

Next thing I need to do is get myself sorted rules wise, get some flags on the OG Landsknecht and find a way of using temporary or removable flags so the OG ‘French” pike can become generic. I have a few more light cavalry from Casting Room Miniatures to paint along with some Perry plastics which will include a lot of generic missile troops and then 3 more units of Milanese and I might be finally done.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge roundup

As is now usual I’ve not been posting much these days other than perhaps on Facebook but have been very productive in my painting efforts. That’s because I’ve been taking part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Essentially this is a superb blog run by Canadian gamer Curt Campbell. Every year he runs a painting challenge over the Northern hemisphere winter season from December to March with the idea that you set yourself a target of figure points you wish to complete in that time. This year was the 14th annual challenge and the third one in which I’ve taken part. http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-14th-annual-analogue-hobbies.html

This year I set myself a target of 2000 points (for example a 28mm foot figure is worth 5 points and a mounted figure worth 10 points). As is usual with my painting I got sidetracked and painted things I’d not originally intended. My main focus was to attempt to paint as many cavalry for the Italian wars as I could but also add some units to existing armies and put some pain on my 3D printed buildings. In October I succumbed and bought a 3D filament printer so I could print off my own buildings. I’d bought some STL files from a fantastic company called Printable Scenery https://www.printablescenery.com/. For the low sum of $60 each I purchased the files in their Norman king and Norman Country Kickstarter. Each contains an amazing array of walls, buildings and ruins and I started printing off some of these in October last year.

I’m pleased to say that I managed a weekly entry in all but one of the weeks of the challenge and decided to display the photos below. My first few weeks of entry are summarised here in my last post https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/. For some inexplicable reason this didn’t make the top or most recent post in the blog and until I spotted this I was in danger of repeating myself!

One of the themes was meant to be a work of art and I had just the thing- Napoleon Crossing the Alps by David

A Wargames Foundry Model of Napoleon Crossing the Alps given to me by one of my sons

The painting commemorates Napoleon’s epic journey leading the army across the Alps in 1800. I read that though Napoleon chose the scene, he refused to attend any sittings. Apparently David was instructed to show him “calm, mounted on a  fiery steed” and consequently ended up asking his son to sit on the top of a ladder in order to capture the pose but was apparently able to borrow the uniform that Napoleon had worn at Marengo. I had originally seen this on a trip to Vienna in the Belvedere.This a little different from the one I saw in the Belvedere though as it seemsthat David actually painted five versions (story here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps ).

The link above advises that the version at the top of this post showing Napoleon in the red cloak is the 1803 version and was delivered to Milan but confiscated by the Austrians in 1816 being finally installed at the Belvedere in 1834. My hallway picture just above is apparently the 1801 version.

Sticking with single entries I thought I’d show an old Langton’s Miniatures 1/1200 Napoleonic frigate that I bought more than 25 years ago. I had not got around to painting this and tackled and painted it recently – tackled I think sums it up, there was much swearing as I tried to rig it

Oddly enough I’ve never played a game with these despite having around 15 ships for 25 years

Next up some Perry plastic bowmen painted up as Welsh but I think these could do for both 100YW and early Italian wars

Sticking to Perry Plastics for the moment, I added some crossbowmen painted up as Swiss to support my previously painted Swiss Pike and then some generic Italian arequebusiers with lots of stripes

In my last post I showed some pictures f the early Medieval Welsh figures from Footsore miniatures I’d painted. I was going to say I finished the remaining figures but have just bought a few more!

The archers

All together

More recent figures

The cavalry

The champion, leader and standard bearer

Hmm I’ve only just discovered the gallery option here on WordPress having laboriously uploaded individual pictures up to now!

Next up some Casting Room Miniatures Knights/heavy cavalry and Wargames Foundry Gendarmes

Painted up as Imperlists

very little painted horse armour

Running away

Flag from a Perry plastics box

Later on I painted a second lot and fully intended thee to be less “gaudy ” than their French Gendarme counterparts

I’m not sure how many Foundry Gendarmes I have now but I do love these figures and plan to add more

Flags by Pete’s flags, maverick Models

That’s it for the figures but what I really enjoyed was painting the Norman castle

There are multiple possible variations

Baron’s war figures attack

a partly painted ruin version of the stone fort

King’s quarters

easy storage

The stone fort

Blackrock stables

A tower variant

corner tower possibility

tower comp

Royal gate

King’s gate

stone keep

Stone manor

The number of wall and tower variants are amazing and each comes with a ruined version

Well apart from a cat huntress from Badgers & Burrows Miniatures then that’s it. A productive 3 months I think

The whole array

A bit of a wander – off the workbench 2024

Now half way through February I suppose it’s probably a bit too late to wish you all a happy new year, and shameful really that this is my first post of 2024.

I do have a good excuse though, work has been busy and I’ve spent most of my spare time trying to get my entries for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge completed, photographed and posted. This is an annual challenge that runs through from December 21st to March 21st of each year. https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/.

In the Challenge you generally set your own points target and score points by completing figures (a 28mm infantry figure is worth 5 points and a mounted figure 10 points etc) and also claim extra points from completing bonus themes. This is the third time I’ve taken part and at the time of writing I’m well into my 2000 point target. This year there are more than 80 participants and its a very pleasant, friendly and supportive group from all over the world. A few of in the “down under” Friday posting group also have a virtual paint and chat on a Tuesday evening which is really enjoyable. Credit for this goes to Millsy our posting minion.

So here I am today at a beachfront batch in Whangapoua on the Corommandel Peninsula typing away rather opening pots of paint as I have a week off.

My principal challenge aim was to make progress by painting a large number of cavalry in my Great Italian Wars project. Somehow (I blame Victrix) as usual I got sidetracked and have wandered off into other older projects, some of which I vowed I’d completed. As I suppose every wargamer knows, a project is never completed!

I subsequently spent the early days of the challenge over the Christmas holiday period painting horses en masse about 70 of them initially as I prefer painting these in large batches. I think I have about 24 left at the moment waiting to paint the riders

First units to be completed were some Artizan Designs Black Guard

Eventually I’d like to add another 24 infantry and cavalry to make this contingent for my El Cid project a strong force

By the following week I’d inexplicably wandered off and painted some dwarves

An avatars of war figure ext to an old GW dwarf

I had a productive week and also managed some Victrix plastic Norman cavalry and crossbowmen

Mixed basing to keep my ruleset options open

The third week of the challenge saw the arrival of some Spanish light cavalry for the Italian Wars. Casting Room Miniatures are not the greatest looking figures but in the end turned out quite well> Some figures do seem to come to life when painted despite looking unpromising when undercoated.

Running away

Week 4 entry meant a return to Victrix plastic Norman cavalry again – the sets are so versatile, these were light cavalry put together for a generic unit for the Reconquista

The following week was a bit of a jackpot with a lot of flocking!

A flock of sheep from First Corps

This time more Victrix Norman heavy cavalry put together as Moorish or Andalusians

There’s a nice feeling of movement in Victrix cavalry horses I think

I also finally got some paint on my first Medieval Welsh foot – Hearthguard and Welsh Knights. These were given some plaid cloaks to denote their more elevated status compared to spearmen (this last week’s entry further down below)

Champion, leader and standard bearer

Footsore Welsh Knights

The same week saw the appearance of Richard Lloyd’s recent Bloody Miniatures cavalry release. These really are lovely figures but I based them singly though suspect I’ll change this in time to multi-based figures when I add to them.

The Lobsters

The Flashing Blades

The Moss Troopers

The Troopers

The first week of February led to the arrival of a second cavalry unit for the\Italian Wars – light cavalry with a Venetian standard – again plastic but this time from Perry Miniatures. These guys are wearing rather funny hats that were said to be fashionable but peculiar to Italian armies at the time. Called a Mazzocchio they were apparently stuffed rolls of fabric worn over the Barbute of the time.

First one through the church door boys gets to drink the communion wine

With this weeks entry this brings me up to my painting efforts to date

Firstly the lower classed Welsh spearmen I mentioned above

The hand painted shield meant to look like a dragon but is more like a dog is hidden at the back

The only problem with Footsore are bendy spears

Next a few cavalry that were finished to add strength to earlier painted figures

Finally my first unit in a new project – the 100 years war. Needing a female figure for some bonus points I’ve started the project back to front. My first figures are a command vignette featuring Joan of Arc, metal figures from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt range. In time I hope to add more units from Perry Miniatures along with Scottish fro Antediluvian Miniatures and French and English from Claymore Castings. I’m hoping to be able to find a duplicate use for some in both 100YW and WOTR

Plastic pavisiers

Last of all a solitary figure from the Burrows and Badgers range by Oathsworn miniatures – I have no intention of playing this game but couldn’t resist buying a few figures for the pleasure of painting them

Bricks and Mortar – A castle at last

I’ve been remiss in not posting any updates in the past few months but I’m hoping to rectify that in the next few weeks as the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge starts in a few days. This will mean that I’ll try and produce something hopefully a new unit every week for next 3 months. The only problem is with all that painting and basing blogging time is again at risk of being neglected.

Some time ago I got sucked into Footsore Miniatures Barons War Kickstarter and while painting and collecting these the thought occurred to me that a medieval army needs a home. Furthermore I thought that it was only fitting and proper that such a home really ought to be a castle!

I looked at various options and even considered scratch-building one but I don’t particularly enjoy modelling and some commercially available models were eye wateringly expensive before even contemplating the added cost of posting them to NZ. Then I saw this video on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNymSvkhOHo&list=PLEYbpEflCP_rGOHU7njcan4G9mxWPXIDI

Its a great channel, he’s a very clever and entertaining chap who is regularly to be found on the plastic Crack Podcast. Many of his interests coincide with mine and consequently I placed an order for a few of the plastic kits from Tabletop Workshop. (Available from Northstar Miniatures https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=291&page=1

As is usual they sat around for a few months and then I started to put them together but before long I went and bought quite a few more walls and another tower and ended up with this lot. I actually brought some back from Partizan this year. Some years earlier as an impulse buy I’d bought a Renedra tower and had picked up a Ziterdes square tower that I have since incorporated to give some variation

The Renedra tower sits behind the wall and the Ziterdes tower is on the right

The next step was a permanent baseboard but the Knauf boards I’ve used for hills in the past no longer seem available in NZ so I had to settle for some polystyrene and had to reduce its height to match taht of my current TSS boards

Cutting the river/moat was laborious so I decided to melt my way through!

The usual PVA and sand and grit mix next

painted and drybrushed with my usual colours

Now with added flock

A touch of base colour now added

When I poured the Woodland Scenics realistic water I thought this is taking an age and loads of filling – that’s when I discovered that using a hot pipe to melt the polystyrene hadn’t been a good idea as I’d gone through the boardd and the water was escaping and stuck it to my work table! I had to saw it off

Here’s a closer look at the Ziterdes stuff

Winos will want to know that’s Rockburn Stolen Kiss Rose in the background!

Finally this week I got around to the drybrushing and finishing

So there it is, hopefully I’ll get another post in tomorrow showing some recent figures I’ve finished off

Victrix Plastic Fantastic & Footsore Valleyboys – Off the workbench August 2023

Just a quick post I think to highlight a few more wanderings. At the moment I’ve made a start on another Spanish Colunella for the Italian Wars, it would be good to make another inroad into the Italian wars project. I’m finding it hard to concentrate on one period again at the moment but have about 48 Artizan Designs figures just started. I think this unit will largely be a mix of red and yellows.

I’m pleased to have finally painted some SYW Austrian artillery, its a project that has lost all its impetus I’m afraid and my feeling is that I need to get it finished and then consider selling them off as I seem to need the space

Crusader Miniatures Austrian SYW artillery

The artillery pieces are all from Fife & Drum Miniatures

Next up the Plastic Fantastic that are Victrix Miniatures. This pack of Norman infantry is very good value at 60 figures/pack. I’m a little worried that the spears might prove to be brittle but I’ve not broken one yet.

It’s not easy to get 6 figures on a 60 x 60mm base so some are in fives

The figures are so nice I’ve just bought 2 packs of cavalry and a pack of the new crossbowmen

There are a nice variety of poses and mix of armoured and unarmoured

Plus the odd dodgy haircut!

I’ve managed to get 8 bases with 5 or 6 figures /base and another 18 on individual bases. The 2 basing styles reflect my uncertainty about what I’m going to do rule wise.

My thought are that I can use these with Lion Rampant, NMTBH variants, TTS or Hail Caesar to take on Saxons, Vikings, be used to supplement El Cid and even Crusaders. I also like the idea of them taking on my newly painted Footsore Welsh, my Valleyboys

Footsore Miniatures Early Medieval Welsh cavalry from the Kickstarter I backed

I’ve not made a start on the foot yet

Y Ddraig goch!

Nothing like a bit of tartan

I got carried away and painted them all differently in the end

well I figured that they would be well dressed being the Hearthguard after all

The more I look at Mediaeval figures the more I like what I see, there are some superb figures out there with the added bonus of lovely flags. The problem is that as I paint I’ve been listening to too many Medieval based historical fiction audiobooks. I find myself wanting to do it all- the Barons war, 100YW, WOTR, Longshanks in Wales and Scotland, Normans is Sicily….

Partizan 2023 and Travels

I’m on the road at the moment having combined a Danube river cruise with a visit to family in the UK and a visit to Partizan 2023. Unfortunately our stay in the UK was a pretty short one, we stayed with my brother & sister in law at Chepstow and I managed a brief overnight stay in my old home town for a catch up with my sisters

What a breakfast view, Chepstow castle from the outlaws

I made time to take a close look at the Cenotaph in my old home town

I managed one bad round of golf with my brother in law playing with borrowed clubs taking 12 holes before I hit a decent drive. Had a good few walks and I was surprised to learn how rich the local history was around Chepstow & Monmouth. Found an old Norman church while walking a part of Offa’s Dyke

As we walked I had some inspiration for future games, Welsh vs Normans and later vs Edward III’s forces

Nearby Tintern Abbey will also have to feature in any Medieval Wye Valley game

In less than a week we’d made the journey to stay at Lincoln for the w/e of Partizan. What a superb place, regrettably I just didn’t have time to see the castle, we planned it but my wife tipped and fell injuring her ankle and this coupled with the need to get to Birmingham airport on time to fly to Budapest scuppered our plan for a quick visit on the Monday morning

Lincoln Cathedral

Then on to Partizan

Look nobody in front!

This is where I announce my proud boast – I was first in the queue at Partizan having got up early, I felt that having travelled the furthest, being first in was a matter of honour, of course that should have been combined with being the last to leave along with being peniless and in need of assistance from an haulage company to carry my loot.

I didn’t do too badly with the latter and I did stay until the bitter end

Some Artizan Black Guard, Berber Cavalry and more bits for a castle from Northstar, along with more Foundry Gendarmes and Perry miniatures Italian infantry and a few WOTR command figures

We are going to need an extra suitcase for the return journey as I’d also had deliveries of Total Battle Miniatures 15mm buildings and some Bicorne ECW foot delivered to the outlaws beforehand

The first thing I did was to visit Dave Thomas’ stand to get some Perry Miniatures metals for the Italian wars and then onto Wargames Foundry where I picked up some more Gendarmes – I did this quickly in order to make sure they wouldn’t run out of what I needed – er I mean wanted.

What I really enjoyed was catching up with a few mates and having a general chat but its a shame I missed a few.

I decided I wouldn’t do justice to a show report but took a few pictures from a few select games

I loved this James Morris’ Norse mythology game, battles against the Frost Giants

The following pictures are from the stunning Lardies Arnhem games

The attention to detail was stunning

Though Rich was demonstrating What a Cowboy and wasn’t at this game I did catch up with him for a chat later and somewhere along the line had a good chat with Henry Hyde

Loved the bright colours here – Battle of Laswaree from the 2nd Anglo – Maratha war, put on by the Boondock Sayntes

What a castle

Impressive village in this WWII game, I cannot recall who put it on I’m afraid

Loved the look of these ECW cavalry – they really caught my eye so I took a photo – Warlord Plastics I understand and one unit from Barry Hylton’s League of Augsburg range

Its always good to see a VBCW game

First Corps had a stunning display, showing off the first day at Gettysburg

Flat terrain at Simon Millar’s game but look at the troops in the next few pictures

Unfortunately for some the elephant gun was not invented at this time in history!

Obviously there was a lot more superb stuff on display but the above pictures were just a few of my favourites. I just didn’t feel I had the time to take more pictures of the other games, something I regret now! Hopefully I’ll make it to Partizan again in 2 years!

At the risk of inducing boredom here are a few pictures that I’ve taken during our trip from Budapest to Amsterdam

Budapest Parliament at night

A chat with the emperor in Bratislava before moving on to Vienna

Napoleonic Murals HGM Vienna

Austrian Napoleonic paintings HGM Vienna

Austrian Napoleonic paintings HGM Vienna

30YW armour

A few funny hats -SYW Mitres

That’s where I think I’ll end for now, I won’t add any further pictures from the Vienna Military Museum as I’ll just repeat myself from my last visit https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/vienna-museum-of-military-history-heeresgeschichtliches-museum-part-i/

We passed a load of castles yesterday on the way through the Rhine Gorge, if I get a chance I might just post a few pictures in the next few days for some future castle-build ideas

Crusaders, Saladin, El Cid & Normans all mixed up somehow

This is what happens when you paint and collect with no discipline and the “oh look shiny” attraction takes over

All a bit of a mix I’m afraid

What started with an intent to collect 2 armies to wargame the Crusades has taken a few odd twists and turns and is again all over the place

It all started with a visit to the Salute show many years ago and a visit to the then Musketeer Miniatures trade stand (now Footsore Miniatures). I just loved the look of their Arab cavalry and bought a few units

Musketeer Miniatures light cavalry, can’t believe I painted the eyes

MM heavy cavalry

The Ghulams in the foreground were also a must

Then it sort of got out of hand

Now with added Blacktree Design

Blacktree Design Cavalry in the foreground

The Perry Brothers get in on the act with these Seljuk horse archers

Down by the rivers of Babylon….

Where there’s cavalry there’s also Camelry!

Gripping Beast heavy cavalry except they’re quite light really as they’re plastic

It would be rude not to have Black Guard Hashim cavalry and all of a sudden we’re in Spain

So before you know it the project now includes Spain and the Reconquista

I’ve just bought another Black Guard unit from Artizan, I’d like 4 units I think

I just love Artizan Designs Arab range , they’re sort of Moorish!

The foot sloggers with more Gripping Beast plastics in the foreground left metals on the right

Mainly Artizan + a unit each from Musketeer, Perry & Blacktree Design with 3 units of Gripping Beast, mostly plastic

Deus Vult….

the faithful… and very frightened

A real mixture of figures

Footsore Norman Crossbowmen defend the walls

More recently I bought a few Normans, followed by a fort from Grand Manner (and added some home made extensions)

Yes I know, there would not have been one of these in Palestine

Clearly the above photos illustrate my iron will and ability not to deviate from the original project the crusades – yeah right!

Original Perry Crusaders now joined by Footsore Norman Cavalry

Hmm how come Breton light cavalry make an appearance?

If that’s not bad enough there are now plastic Victrix Norman cavalry and infantry in the painting queue and some Conquest games Norman Cavalry. I’m also looking forward to the appearance of the promised Victrix Norman Crossbowmen

This has definitely got out of hand, Crusaders moving on to Reconquista, Normans in Sicily, a fort to keep Footsore Miniatures Medieval Welsh out and a potential scrap with Vikings and Saxons…

Ohhh look shiny…..

The Great Italian wars – an update on a slow burn project

I don’t think there’s any doubt that I’ve neglected the blog of late but perhaps more worryingly have also lost touch with some of the usual blogs I follow. This has been because of time constraints and the fact that I enjoy painting so much more than gaming or writing about painting and gaming. I’m hoping to rectify this in the next few weeks.

The reasons for the lack of time have been multi-factorial but don’t get me wrong its not all been hard work, I’ve really enjoyed myself taking part again in this years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge again.http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/ It runs from December 21 to March 21 each year and this is the second time I’ve taken part. It essentially works as a shared blog run by blog owner Curt Campell where a wonderfully supportive group of people strive to meet painting targets they set for themselves. Its a fantastic idea but boy, does it eat up your time particularly when like me you set yourself unrealistic targets for completion in each week.

This year I decided the thrust of my main effort would be to make some progress on my Italian Wars project. I think I painted my first unit way back maybe as long ago as 2009 and have quietly been adding to the project. The following are a series of pictures showing my progress to date though the first picture shows some Old Glory Landsknecht that I painted a few months ago including the Black Bande

I started off painting some Perry Miniatures Mounted Crossbowmen, at the moment they’re a bity generic and don’t have a flag, I’ll paint a few more soon and add some Command stands and flags from the Perry Miniatures Light Cavalry box

Somewhere along the line I realised that both my Swiss and Landsknecht pike blocks needed more missile and close order support so bought and painted more arquebusiers and halbediers from Artizan Designs

No support here

Next up the Landsknecht Halbediers

Artizan Pikemen with Steelfist Command on the side

Steel Fist Landsknecht command

The halberdiers

Perry plastic crossbowmen painted up as Genoese not English

Perry Miniatures western Stradiots with bow and lance on plastic horses

Perry Swiss bear mascot vignette

Perry Italian clergy

Montefeltro Duke of Urbino

I rushed these Perry Italian Command and wish I’d added to the horse furniture

A Florentine Command group – Flags by Pete’s flags

Imperial Command group including Maximillian

Next up Wargames Foundry French Gendarmes

an example of Renaissance Camouflage – the precursor of pea-dot cammo!

Next up I moved onto Spanish and have painted my first Colunella of Artizan figures. At the moment these are 48 figures strong, made up of 24 pike, 12 arquebusiers and 12 sword & buckler

Flags by Pete’s Flags and the Spanish Cross from Flags of War

Sword and buckler

the firepower

Just 3 more Colunella to paint now!

Last unit up are Perry Miniatures Italian Heavy infantry, painted up with Milanese flags and an attempt at freehand shield vipers

So that sums it up, most of what I produced for the challenge except for some AB French Young Guard and both Oathmark and Westwind Dwarves

Pour Encourages les autres! – 15mm Napoleonics on parade

I wrote this draft post in December and promptly forgot about it. I only discovered it whilst composing another today!……..

I’ll let it run as originally planned then

I’ve really enjoyed listening to a series of podcasts by Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly http://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/ – his latest can be found here and is an interview with the author of “Leipzig – The Battle of Nations” written by Rohan Savaranamuttu and sold by Helion https://www.helion.co.uk/new-military-history-books.php?sid=09e0f36c91f2ebffb4d1227388aaeb8f (well it was his last post when I began this draft!)

The podcast can be found here on Podbean https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-34-rohan-saravanamuttu-wargaming-leipzig/and like his others is well worth a listen while you paint. In fact of all the podcasts two of my all time favourites were recent ones where Ken interviewed Giles Allison and Carlo Pagano in another

Listening to the one on Leipzig took me back to an article in an early edition of Wargames Illustrated called “Lets Fight Leipzig”. This was a siren call to me all those years ago and got me wanting to play big games.

Even in 15mm I thought the costs were prohibitive even then and I recall how I would but 5 packs of say line cavalry that came in fours, add a command pack of 3 figures and then find an officer from some other rage like Jacobite or Battle Honours to make them into a 24 figure unit and keep the cost down! I could not afford to waste any figures by buying extra packs of command and not using them!

Gradually over nearly 40 years my collection of 15mm Napoleonics has grown and so has my confidence to allow friends and acquaintances to get a glimpse of my nerdy hobby. Last weekend we had the work Christmas Party at our house and this meant close to 60 people would be coming.(remember I wrote this in December!) Not only did I allow them access to my games room but actively encouraged it by having a spot prize for the person that came closest to guessing how many figures were on the table.

I know its basically a Napoleonic traffic jam and not a game but I thought what the hell and lined up some Austrians, Russians and Prussians to face off against my French with their Saxon, Bavarian, Duchy of Warsaw and Wurttemberg allies. Of course both the Young and Old Guard also get in on the act and make an appearance

The other intention in doing this is to put a few photos on various Facebook groups to encourage others contemplating doing big games as my experience shows that if you just chip away quietly it all comes together!

The near side where Austrian forces hold the hill and seem to let the Poles march past and over the river whilst the light cavalry protect their flank

The far side where the Prussian uniform blue blends into the darkness

Clash of the heavies between Russian and French cavalry

Smart looking fellows these

Looking over a Wurttemberger’s shoulder

Russian infantry columns supported by light cavalry

Duchy of Warsaw troops debouch from the village

Duchy of Warsaw infantry ( Old Glory) seek new glory crossing the river in column of march

The Young Guard march down the river valley

Te Russian Minifigs Guard

They stand behind their more illustrious AB brothers

Prussian AB cavalry lead the way followed by Hussars

If the Russian cavalry push from behind the infantry have to go forward!

Russian AB infantry up close and personal

These lancers look a bit outmatched

There are even more Russians behind

Austrians wait in line and are also waiting to have their bases textured

Grenadiers and Grenz stroll down the river bank

This is what lays ahead for those grenadiers

Good old Minifig Wurttemberg troops -the 7th line Regiment Von Neubronn lead the way ahead of the Kronprinz Regimentf

Minifigs Old Guard Grenadiers standing around getting old

Over this period of time I’ve also been fortunate enough to acquire a reasonable collection of buildings- you can never have enough- at the time of completing the post I have to confess to having bought a few more. I was fortunate to visit Partizan 2023 and knowing I’d be in the UK I ordered some Total Battle Miniatures 15mm buildings. I have to say my all tome favourites were those sold by ” The Drum” (now OOP) in pictures 7 &8 above

Hougoumont under attack – buildings from Tiger Terrain

Tiger terrain are ideal buildings having a reduced footprint

Where there’s a Hougoumont there’s a La Haye Sante – again by TBM

Tiger Terrain’s La Haye

A mixture of TBM and JR Miniatures

Borodino church from Noble Knight games

Spanish buildings prior to when TSS tiles were refurbished, a mix of JR and The Drum buildings

Buildings from Hovels Spanish range

Probably my favourite buildings of them all, the Spanish church and convent/monastery from the Drum

Well searching out those old pictures of my wargames terrain has kept me occupied for a good time – I’m currently cruising on the Rhine as a write. I guess I should now finish the other post I started before finding thois old draft!

A home made desert coloured caulk terrain mat

I’ve had a few busy months with work but thankfully I’ve also managed to paint quite a bit, recently its been mainly Vikings and Normans and before that I finished off my Footsore Baron’s war figures. I’ve also just finished the Norman Fort I bought in the Grand Manner Buildings bare resin sale. I just need to finish some basing and when more shield transfers arrive from LBMS I’ll complete them and take a few pictures.

Despite the fact that I have a large 15mm Napoleonic solo game set up on the table I’ve been distracted and only played a few turns.

A fictional Peninsular encounter

Lots of Minifigs in action

these are my basic terrain boards, I need some desert type terrain

The inevitable distraction has been my effort to make an acrylic mat for my Pony Wars and Crusades games and I made a start on this a few days ago beginning on the afternoon of the recent Matariki public holiday here in NZ. My recent Pony Wars post highlighted the poor quality of my base cloth and I’d long ago promised myself that I would rectify this. My 28mm Arab and Crusader bases reflect the arid terrain that I assume they mainly fought over and will not match the base terrain I have above. I have this thing that figure bases should ideally match the terrain boards on which they sit.

This was played pre-tarting of TSS terrain boards

I’ve since added another unit of Artizan Black Guard and some Gripping Beast Moors to this army

This picture is better at shows the way these figures are based

Consequently having bought a plastic backed drop sheet, lots of Selley’s acrylic caulk, some test pots of paint to match Vallejo Flat Earth and Iraqui Sand shades, isopropyl alcohol and some grit and builders sand I set to work

I had earlier watched different YouTube videos looking for ideas and mechanisms, there are so many but this one gave me the basic ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5W4FKqRbSs&t=22s

Working on the garage floor did not do my knees any favours!

This is when I discovered its easier to mix the paint with the caulk before adding the sand!

I basically mixed 2 tubes of caulk with a set amount of sand and brown paint but even then got quite a variation in colour

this is about 2 tubes of caulk worth

This is when I ran out of caulk and made a quick dash to the DIY store!

The end result after about 4hours of work – my mat is around 12 foot x 5 foot in size

This shows the variation in colour with each new batch of mixed caulks of caulk

I left this to dry and the following day I finished off the edges and re-caulked any areas where the base cloth showed through

A few days later I drybrushed with the Iraqui Sand type shade and also repainted my old Pony Wars hills

How this for storage – a 12 x 5 foot terrain mat

In the end it was much easier than I had expected, does not seem to peel off though maybe time will tell, the caulk gives it some texture and is the main thing that I see missing with the commercial mats that seem to be available.

In the end that leaves me pondering whether I should make another with flock and replace my terrain boards, it would certainly take up less storage space. Time will tell