Spanish on the March

Feb22

I finished the battalion leaders of my Spanish foot for my Louisiana project and thought I’d share them. I think they look nice for aging and pretty simple figures.

The Louisiana Regiment is completed except the last of the four companies is short two figures. They’ll be on my first figure order of the year. Pretty simple stuff, some white with some blue. I allowed them a grenadier company

A photo of all four companies of the Louisiana Regiment .

Followed up by a picture from the front. I’ve done the round command base for the battalion commander that has so caught on here. I like the effect, and it’s a way to get a regimental flag in when a company wouldn’t have carried one. The Louisiana Regiment was a uniformed militia unit. It was likely under strength as almost all Spanish militia units were. The Spanish colonies all suffered from a lack of settlers, and hence soldiers, in their colonies in the 1790’s.

Newly painted command stand for the Louisianans

The Hiberneans were an emigre Irish unit that spent some time in the Western Hemisphere. I figured Spanish regulars could be called in to deal with American saber rattling, but units might have to be cobbled together. The Hiberneans will be joined by two more Spanish companies in their traditional white uniforms sporting a bit of piping. The blood shows up better that way.

Hibernian Regiment all in red.

All figures are the RSM miniatures from Dayton Painting Services. The uniforms are probably a bit outdated for the period. They could be slimmer with smaller cuffs. Even so, I like the figures a great deal, and they were quite fun to paint. I have two more companies (22 figures) to paint to finish out the two battalions.

Skittles

Feb20

Nothing major to report, but I have been doing some things that might be interesting.

War of 1812 update

Mark and I met on Saturday to do a brief walk through of our two War of 1812 scenarios. Mark is running Sackett’s Harbor, the British attempt to destroy the crucial American naval base on Lake Ontario in 1814. I pulled out my figures for my Bladensburg scenario. Both games suffer from a similar problem. There are crucial choke points in attacker’s line of advance (in both cases British) that were quickly overcome before advancing to the most important phases of the battles. Having run Bladensburg twice, and failed in the early stages of the battle, it was important to have a sense this was easily doable within the rules.

It seemed to play out easily in the Sacketts game. It will require some will and interest on the part of the British at Bladensburg not to fight everything directly in front of them, and seek to maneuver instead. Smart British players will save much time and manpower if they seek the vulnerable American flanks in the first and second line. We also talked through some other ideas for Bladensburg. There are revised rules for the Regimental FnF for militia that makes them much more vulnerable to mass panic. We tried to come up with some ways the British may have to struggle a bit. One suggestion was to require the British to roll for fatigue each turn, due to the long march and intense summer heat that historically laid out more British soldiers with heat stroke than actual battle casualties. Simple ten sided die roll with a 0 causing fatigue and a loss of -1 on the maneuver chart. After turn six, a 9 or 0. Mark and I also discussed a random events die roll to punish/benefit each side. Not quite sure of the particulars, but I do have some ideas.

Still working on table dimensions. Not sure whether to go eight feet wide and seven and a half feet deep, or vice versa. It really does require the right amount of depth. I hope to set up the game, just a set up, not a play test soon.

Enfilade pre-registration up and running

We fired up the website for online registration of games and admission on February 12th. For information on the convention, you can go the the NHMGS website. If you’re interested in attending and wish to pre-register or host a game you can visit the Enfilade website.

I’m still making some final decisions but I believe I’ll be running three games:

Friday Night: Thunderboats! I’d like to try to have the picklefork boats I bought at last year’s convention for this game, but I’m not sure I’ll be ready. Am really going to try however.

Saturday Morning: Bladensburg. If I can include the same tables from Friday night in my preparations I’ll set up Friday night. It will take some time, so I think this time is the best option for me.

Sunday: The Burr Conspiracy-or something like that. This will be a six player game loosely based on Aaron Burr’s plot to carve out an empire for himself in Texas in 1805-6, combining elements of role-play and combat.

The figure count

I’m trying to stick to my plan to paint about 400 figures this year. This minute I’m at 56 figures, which is pretty good for this time in February. I’m finishing up some command bases for my Louisiana project. I’ve pulled out my half-finished 1/600 scale WWII ships for the Raid on St. Nazaire, and my hope is I can finish all eleven in the next few days. After that I’d really like to tackle one more mounted unit for Louisiana, but I suppose I should really tackle the previously mentioned hydroplanes. They’ll take some time to assemble and find appropriate 1970’s color schemes.

The really good news is that I haven’t purchased any new figures. Not even the cool AWI plastics from the Perry Brothers, or the very spiff highlanders from Kings Mountain Miniatures. Stop tempting me Doug, I won’t stay clean forever.

Purchases

No I haven’t bought any new figures in 2014, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t spend any money. I took a look at Rich Hasenauer’s set-up for Bladensburg and concluded I need some awesome, but cheap, five rail fences. So I took advantage of free shipping at Architects of War to pick up some Renendra five rail fences. There are about 20″ per pack for $6.40. I bought six packs, and they look good. Haven’t started assembling yet, but that will happen soon.

My most recent purchase, however, is the new Osprey Campaign book on the Chesapeake Campaign in the War of 1812. Normally I wouldn’t even mention it, but I took a chance and ordered the Kindle edition from Amazon. I haven’t read the book from cover to cover, but I have poked through a couple areas of interest. I have the Kindle app for my iPad which is much better than my old Kindle original edition. I can easily see the color pages, and the maps are re-sizable. From what I can tell, the book takes pains to recount some of the smaller actions which would be quite interesting as semi-skirmish games. I’m not sure I entirely trust the Orders of Battle in the book–the Bladensburg strengths seem quite off. The cost for the Kindle edition was $10.16 versus $16.71 for the paperback from Amazon. I’m not sure if I’ve decided whether the savings is worth it. I do know I’ve maxed out the storage on my tablet, so I’m now faced with the same problem with my e-reader as I have with my bookcases–gonna have to send stuff some items to the cloud.

Hey I have been doing stuff!!!

Feb11

Yeow, it’s been a while since my last post. Mostly it’s because I haven’t had a lot to share, but I have been doing stuff. Knowing when to post and when not to is always a tough decision to make, but I think it’s important to have something valuable to say.

But I’ve been painting stuff. I wrapped up the two companies for the Hibernia Regiment from my Louisiana project. I like them a lot, and they’re fairly easy to paint. They are RSM figures from the Dayton Painting Consortium, single poses, a unit of fusiliers and a unit of grenadiers. Unlike most Spanish units they are red, red, red. Red jackets, red waistcoats, red trousers, red cockades. They have green cuffs but no collars or facings. Maybe it’s because they are Irish “wild geese.”

15mm Byzantine heavy horse-no horse armor so Belisarian. I think they’re Essex figures due to the bendy kontos.

I also dragged out some figures from the distant past-or at least it seems that way. I used to play a lot of DBA. It’s a game I still enjoy when I’m playing with the right folks, and the guys who play a lot of DBA in the Puget Sound area are a lot of fun. One of my favorite ancient armies are the Early Byzantines and I’ve owned them several different times. My very first ancient army was an Early Byzantine army from strip Minifigs 15mm figures and played with the Milgamex Ancient Warfare rules. I have the earliest of the Byzantine armies (III 4a for those of you playing at home,) but without enough figures for all the CV options. I also knew I had all the lance armed heavy cavalry figures festering in my garage for about a decade, so I dragged ’em in the house and painted them. Nothing special, but that’s 21 Byzantine cavalry figures I know longer have to worry about not painting.

I also have a whole bunch of unpainted 54mm figures. I began this hobby by painting 54mm figures when I was 12 years old. Not well mind you, but that’s how I started. Over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of these figures and even larger pieces I hope to spend some time painting.

54mm Abraham Lincoln figure by Imrie Risley.

The first figure I took on was an Imrie Risley figure of Abraham Lincoln. IR figures are pretty simple and straightforward, though they can be ill-fitting with arms not quite meeting shoulders properly. The Lincoln figure is simple and straightforward, and the separate arm holding the stovepipe hat fit well with a little filing. The real challenge was making Lincoln a little interesting. No fancy uniforms with gold braid or outrageous equipage for the Railsplitter. He wore black. His hat was black, his hair was black, so the challenge is to give enough shading so there is some contrast. I used a craft (Delta Cermcoat) black and mixed it with gray for shading, though I probably could have just used a commercial charcoal gray. Just enough to get a contrast in the large, raised areas and the wrinkles. I used a gloss varnish on his silk hat and didn’t like it. I may have to look for a semi-gloss. He was known for his tanned face, so I used the Reaper tanned skin and highlights, which worked well. Just could not seem to get the large, dark eyes, that are deep set. Don’t think the miniature has these quite right, and I couldn’t quite pick them out.

My next adventure in 54’s will be the old Monogram miniature of an American Civil War Berdan’s Sharpshooter. I actually painted this figure once upon a time, when I was 14. Painting the figure was fun, and with little extra to do, was fairly easy and fast.

I’ve managed to make it out to a couple of miniatures games. I played an evening of DBA at the Game Matrix in early January and hope to make it back soon. Chris Ewick is hosting the games every Tuesday night. I’m going to try to get out for weeknight gaming a couple of times per month. I also made it over to Gig Harbor for one of Bruce’s WWII skirmish games. It was much fun, and I really enjoyed the game and the company. My goal is to get out more. Next scheduled game is a walk through of a pair of War of 1812 games on Saturday the 15th.

Starting the new year off right

Jan13

An overall glimpse at a portion (the tidy corner) of my painting table. The nearly finished Hibernia Regiment fusiliers, the barely started Grenadiers and the 54mm Abraham Lincoln in the background.

We’re nearly two weeks into the new year, and it feels like time is racing by. Even so, I feel like I’m in one of those creative zones, when I can’t wait to paint in the evening, and on the weekends I can easily put in three or four hours a day. I’m nearly finished with the fusilier company from the Hibernia Regiment, an Irish “wild geese” unit that served in the Spanish army, and periodically made its way to America. They appear quite different from the other Spanish units because of its red coat and yellow tricorne lace. Eleven figures.

A tighter view of the Hibernia figures front

Another view of the Hibernians from the back

I have the Hibernia’s grenadier company next up on the painting docket, and then I’m goind to take a quick little departure from Louisiana. I’m going to paint up the 54mm Imrie Risley figure I’ve had of Abraham Lincoln for some time. I glued him to a base and primed him up. I’ve begun working with the black base coat that will be most of his attire. The challenge is to take this simply dressed figure and somehow make it come to life, either by focusing on his face, or lots of shading and highlighting. I’m not quite sure which route to take.

Imrie Risley’s Abraham Lincoln. I’ve only just begun working on Abe. Expect to see a finished version and more 54’s as the year goes on.

Unfortunately my excellent progress may be a bit stymied for a week as we cruise into deadline. Probably no painting Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Saturday Lorri and I take some time away, board the dogs and spend Saturday and Sunday in the little town of Stevenson down on the Columbia River.

Painting for fun: General Gordon’s Last Stand

Jan5

Side view of Gordon’s Last Stand vignette by the Perry Brothers. The photo was taken without flash and more accurately recreates the lighting for Joy’s painting.

When I was 18, and a sophomore in college, I bought Omdurman by Philip Ziegler. I was taken by the British struggles to mount the expedition that avenged the fall of the Sudan to the Mahdist forces in 1885, and particularly the difficulty in fighting the Mahdists in 1883-1885. As I said in an earlier post, I knew something about the conflict from the movie Khartoum with Charlton Heston and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Before I’d read Ziegler’s book I’d read the chapter on General Charles Gordon in Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians. I’d come to admire the man and his ability to work with native troops, respect their ways and accomplish great things with very little.

Gordon and the Sudan inspired one of my earliest wargaming projects. Some of the first 25mm figures I purchased were Hinchcliffe highlanders for the 1898 campaign. I actually paid someone to paint them as Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders, as they appeared at Omdurman. I bought 15mm Peter Lang miniatures for the period. In the 1980’s I put together a sizable British and Mahdist army for the period. 25mm Ral Partha figures, 25mm Minifigs, and even those Hinchliffe Highlanders made it on to the table. We played with Lynn Bodin’s Imperialism rules. I wonder where those figures are now?

When Alan and Michael Perry split off from Games Workshop and Foundry to begin their own ranges of historical miniatures, I became immediately interested in their Agincourt to Orleans and American Revolution ranges. Though they also included a very nice range of miniatures for the Sudan, I swore them off. Pretty figures, but not one of my core periods, and therefore, I chose to stay away. But one day in perusing the lists under Sudan Extras at the Warstore, I ran across a couple of interesting items. There was a heliograph team, and something called General Gordon’s Last Stand.

General Gordon’s Last Stand by George W. Joy.

I recognized the Last Stand. It was a vignette based on a painting I knew well. The painting is General Gordon’s Last Stand by George William Joy from 1893. The painting depicts Gordon standing on the top step of his residence, pistol in hand, quieting the mob of Mahdist soldiers come to dispatch him and appears in Ziegler’s book. This scene figures crucially in the last scenes of Khartoum. The dervishes have overpowered the half-starved garrison and are searching for the Governor General. They come into his residence courtyard, a bloodthirsty mob, shouting for his head. Gordon takes his place before them, and for a moment he holds them in his quiet gaze, they are stilled, and their weapons fall to their sides. But one man breaks the spell and hurls his spear into Gordon’s chest. He falls, is beheaded, and is lost to the mythmakers.

I’ve owned the vignette for several years. It’s a special order item and must come from England. It took considerably more than four weeks to get it. I decided to assemble and paint it during the Christmas break.

The vignette comes in several pieces. The stairs of the residence comes in resin. There are the two railings in metal. There are four figures in metal, including Gordon and the three dervishes. You can see, in comparison to the Joy painting, the impossibility of duplicating Joy’s work while making it doable and affordable. So the vignette is basically cropped from Joy’s depiction. The painting shows many more of the Mahdist soldiers in the foreground as well as Gordon’s men in the background.

The first challenge I had was trying to figure out how to work with the pieces. I decided to mount the whole business on a circular Litko base 75mm in diameter. This ended up being a bit too large, but workable. Before fixing the stair piece to the base, I coated the disk with Liquitex modeling paste. It’s an acrylic material I believed would bond quickly to the resin staircase. I was right. The staircase itself required some trimming, easily done with a sharp X-acto knife.

While giving some time for this to dry (acrylic materials dry quite quickly,) I had some decisions to make about further assembly and priming. The top of the staircase, a metal piece required gluing. Despite some handy guides in the piece, it didn’t fit properly and required some trimming and puttying to get a seamless bond. I also decided to trim and glue the General Gordon figure into his position on the staircase before priming. There are pegs for his location that fit pretty accurately. Done and done. The remaining figures were posed a bit of a quandary for me. The three Mahdists had to fit together into extremely tight spaces on the stairs. It was going to take some doing. I assembled them and hand-primed them using Liquitex Gesso.

One of the problems I knew I was going to have was reproducing the feeling of Joy’s work. The painting is very dark. Gordon is dark and backlit by light. The Dervishes pop into the painting because of their white jibbahs, and I knew I would not have the light on dark feeling working for me. So, I did the best I could.

I started painting the staircase with Ceramcoat Ivory, which gives it a slightly yellow color, and dry brushed it with antique white. Not sure it makes a big difference, but there is lightening in places. After that I began painting Gordon. He appears almost black with a red fez and red shirt in the painting. I painted trousers and jacket with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. The fez was painted Vallejo Flat Red, and the shirt I painted Vallejo Vermillion. I highlighted the jacket and trousers with a mix of the DPB and light gray. This worked better than the Vallejo Prussian Blue or mixing the DPB with white. The tonal differences are there, but not as stark. I used Reaper Tanned Flesh for his skin tones, and Ceramcoat Antique Brown for his hair, sideburns and moustache. I think I did manage to get his eyeballs in there with some blue-gray.

While I was waiting in between bouts of painting Gordon I primed the three Dervish figures. I also painted the long railing and glued to its place on the wall. The railings I painted Ceramcoat Territorial Beige, which is a nice medium brown color.

The three Mahdist warriors are tricky. The figures themselves are fairly easy. They wear white jibbahs (a loose garment made from coarse cotton cloth, covered with patches,) and two wear turbans. The positioning of the soldiers on the staircase is critical. All three of the figures have pegs to help position them in holes cast into the staircase, but the position of the holes are not correct. The figures have no bases, so holding them properly to paint them can be tricky. So these are the complications in working with them. Having said that, they are quite nice and relatively easy to paint.

I chose the standing spearman to paint first. In the painting, his back is to the illustrator and he is closest to the wall. His position is critical and he should be glued first on to the staircase. He is the only black warrior. As I stated earlier, I primed all the figures with Liquitex Gesso, which is a white chalk-like material. Then I went over the jibbah with Ceramcoat White, two coats. Next, I painted the flesh using Ceramcoat Burnt Umber, which is a wonderfully rich dark brown and highlighted with Spice Brown. I used black for the hair, which is probably a little shorter than it should be and dry brushed it with Ceramcoat Charcoal. Though historically the jibbah patches could be quite bright and multi-colored, those in the painting are limited to red and black. I used vermillion for the red patches for its brightness. It’s important to get this figure first. The two semi-prone figures on the staircase won’t fit the narrow area properly if this figure takes more than the allotted space.

The remaining dervishes are Arab and I used Vallejo Medium Skin Tone for their flesh. No beards and their faces are sort of hidden from view. The swordsman is closest to Gordon and the elbow peg fits into the notch in the staircase. Nothing else special to mention. With all three dervish figures, I used a light gray paint to show creases and the outlines of the cotton belting. I probably could have used a lighter color, but I wanted it to be clearly visible from a distance. The vignette will be in a display case, and I would like to be seen without being handled. The final figure, the prone spearman was a little trickier. The contours of the steps are built into his body, and there is a peg on his elbow. No way does that peg fit into the staircase notch provided. In fact the painting shows this figure at the foot of the staircase, so I ended up cutting the peg off his arm. After doing this the figure fit fine.

A second view of Gordon’s Last Stand. The positioning of the Mahdist warriors on the stairway can be tricky.

I’ll close with this. I’m an out-of-the-box kind of miniaturist. I tend not to plan ahead and don’t like to go to a lot of extra trouble. I think the vignette as I’ve approached it works fine. The Joy painting shows many Mahdist soldiers in the foreground and it certainly would look great with a few of the Perry Nile Swordsmen and Spearmen to fill the space. Not what I need to do at this time, but an interesting idea.

General Gordon’s Last Stand was a different kind of painting experience for me. It was a pleasure to work on and I enjoyed it very much. Recommended.

2013, the Year in Review

Jan1

London War Room Cuera mounted Spanish militia. Used on the frontier mainly to fight Comanches and Apaches, they are a large mounted element in my Louisiana project

It’s been a different year for me. I tend to be fairly reclusive and hide in my house up on the hill. Well, that didn’t change, but even so it’s been an interesting year.

My most important measure of the year is always what did I get done vs. what did I buy. Normally I’m a pretty careful purchaser of lead. In years past I accumulated big piles of lead against future projects. Bladensburg is an example of this. I bought four boxes of Victrix figures three years ago, and only just finished almost all of them. I have more painted Hundred Years War figures than any of other era with about 700 figures painted. But I have at least that many unpainted. So, as with many of my friends and miniature wargaming colleagues, I’m a figure whore. I’ve been better over the years.

I have painting goals of 400-600 figures per year. These get harder to reach every year. I tend to spend a little less time painting each year. In years past I’d guess I painted an hour and half a night 320 nights per year. A bit longer on the weekends. I would guess I’m down to about 250 days of painting per year. Why? My work schedule-newspaper deadline nights makes it tougher. I have more fatigue–I don’t sleep particularly well many nights so I’m just too tired to paint. Some nights I’ll just plop myself down in a chair and read. But there are times when I really, really enjoy what I’m painting and I’ll paint until I’m just too tired to go on. 7:00-9:00 p.m. is my painting prime time, but I often am all in by about 8:30. I’ll have the Mariners on, unless I’m really frustrated with them, or the season is over, or be watching something on Netflix and just paint away.

I didn’t keep up with my painting log this year. Tried, but just fell off the wagon. My guess, however is that I didn’t meet my goals. I believe I finished the year with about 350 painted figures. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is the fewer hours devoted to painting. Another is that I only paint 28mm figures now. No more 15’s, so no more cheapies. I count a figure as a figure. No bonuses for mounted figures, no bonus for extra size or extra effort. A tank, a 1/285 airplane, a cannon model, a terrain piece are all equal to a figure. So I fell short of my goal.

I’m going to keep my painting goal for 2014 right at 400. I’d like to think my painting can be equal to about one figure per day. I fully expect my work will be mostly 28mm figures, but I may reinvigorate my DBA projects and try to at least paint a few of the six or seven armies I have. Most of all my time will be spent working on my Louisiana Project. I probably have about 200 or so figures left to paint. I find them pretty fun to do, and they paint up fairly quickly, even the mounted figures. However, I don’t have a deadline with them. They don’t have to be done until they’re done. It will allow me to drag something else out to work on, whether those are my Irish Civil War figures, some AWI units, my 1/600 ACW ships, or something else. My Enfilade obligations are largely painted, though I still have a bit more fiddling to do for Bladensburg.

Cuera were multi-armed with lance, shield, carbine and pistols. So burdened, they were often unable to keep up with their more lightly armed enemies.

Two items I definitely want to work on aren’t particularly wargame related. A couple years ago I bought the Perry “Death of Gordon” vignette from their Sudan range. I love the movie Khartoum and admired the G.W. Joy painting the vignette is based on. It is something a little bit different to work on, and I’m preparing it on my work table now. The other item I really want to paint is a 54mm Imrie-Risley figure of Abraham Lincoln I’ve had for quite some time. I actually a lot of the “big boys” stowed away for quite some time, and some day I hope to paint them in my dotage. I’m an admirer of Lincoln. He is my favorite president, both for his principles and his ability to work within a greater understanding of what was needed to get things done. Because Lincoln dressed very simply, usually in black, the challenge will be to bring life to the figure.

Something I didn’t do a great job of is managing my buying this year. I was pretty good until August. I earned some extra money for my work at J-Camp, and I promptly started spending like a drunken sailor. Figures for the Louisiana project, the Perry Volunteers of Ireland, some War of 1812 Americans, command figures for the British for Bladensburg, and more I can’t even remember. My goal is to at least break even with figure purchases-no more figures purchased than painted. I don’t know if I did that this year. I purchased some figures for Bladensburg, but many were for sheer spec, and I don’t like to do that. My purchases should be for “just in time” production purposes and I feel like I failed.

These figures are armed with carbine or escopeta. These figures are a bit crude, but highly paintable. I really enjoyed working on them.

I have a couple of New Years resolutions. The first is to set some painting goals. I would really like to finish all of my Louisiana figures. There’s not really a deadline on this. I’d like to run a game at Enfilade, but honestly I probably already have enough figures to do it now. Realistically I’d like to have everything done by Drumbeat in September. I have nearly all the figures to do this. I think I need a few more of the mounted Cuera militia, and a few more foot officers. I think this also leaves me some time to pick away at some other painting along the way. I have an AWI unit or two I’d like to paint. Maybe some of my Irish Civil War figures. Ships. Planes. My dance card is wide open.

My second resolution regards game play. I don’t do nearly enough. Mostly it’s my choice, so I am putting my choices out on right now. I want to play at the Game Matrix DBA nights twice per month. My hope is I can morph that into a bit more than DBA, focusing on DBX gaming. I’d love to, for example, play Sluys again. In addition I’d like to commit to playing on the NHMGS game days the third Saturday of the month. These are absolute musts for a couple of reasons. First, I need to get off my damned hill and get with my gamer friends. Don’t know why I’ve been so reclusive. I also have way too much time and energy invested in my projects to not be playing with my figures. I know I can do better. It’s as though I’ve just become a bit of a hermit.

In any case, 2014 is shaping up to be a good year, and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m resigning from my NHMGS duties.

Dec21

I announced on the various yahoogroups we use for messaging that I will be resigning my NHMGS duties at Enfilade. This includes the role of president, my position on the Board of Directors, and the director ship of Enfilade. I knew the Enfilade position was up, and I have successors lined up, I’m giving up the other positions as well.

I tried this before a couple years ago, fairly unsuccessfully, but this time it will happen and I will be done. No hard feelings, I’m not unhappy, but it’s one of those things I just need to give up and use the time for more important things.

I’ll give you a for instance. I feel obligated to attend every event, if possible and I feel tremendous guilt for not attending events like Tactical Solutions across the state. Not only that but I feel obligated to host at least one event at every gathering. I’d love to just show up and play in somebody else’s games. Give Black Powder a try, or Galactic Knights, but honestly I feel compelled to host games because I feel they are needed (and sometimes they are.)

Don’t get me wrong, my time as president has been very worthwhile. I’ve met guys I’d never had known without my office. I’ve hung out with our guests at Enfilade. I’ve made friends I might not have met otherwise. Much of the time it’s a pretty enjoyable role. But it does take time at times, and I feel like I just don’t want to give it up or deal with some of the extra hassle the job occasionally requires. It’s time an energy I could put into my projects, playing games or getting some exercise.

In any case, I feel less responsible for the future of NHMGS when I tried to make my escape three years ago. I am convinced someone of quality will take over because it’s needed and I am done.

Counting down to the end of the year: A look ahead

Dec19

With the Bladensburg project behind me, I’ve been working on the Spanish-American Project. To make it easy, lets just call it the Louisiana War. I’ve managed to acquire quite a few figures for this project, and I see myself putting most of 2014 working on them. I’m not quite sure how many figures I have, but I think when it’s all over it will be something like this:

Spanish Forces

6 X 10 Spanish regular infantry units

2 X 12 Spanish grenadier units

3 X 10 Spanish dismounted militia units

1 X 10 Spanish colonial dragoon units

3 X 10 Spanish mounted militia units

1 X 10 Mexican Hussar unit

2 X 10 mounted Comanche warriors (Spanish allies)

2 X 10 dismounted Comanche warriors (Spanish allies)

12 X 10 Chickasaw warriors

4 sections Spanish light artillery

2 sections Spanish heavy artillery

This is a lot of stuff, and quite a bit of it is painted, but very little, like none, of the Spanish horse is ready. The units provide the maximum flexibility for scenario making. Some would not be combined. For example, the Chickasaw would not be combined with the militia or the Comanches. In any case, there is plenty here to develop some scenarios. Spanish uniforms remain nominally the same for the entire period, except for the Mexican Hussars. It’s unclear this unit was ever raised to replace the frontier militia or Cuera soldiers. It was suggested, but it isn’t clear the proposal was ever adopted before Mexico gained her independence.

Americans

12 X 12 Regular Infantry

8 X 10 dismounted militia (included rifle armed)

2 X 10 U.S. Dragoons

3 X 10 mounted militia rifles

4 sections light artillery.

Americans are pretty much same-same regardless of when or where they fight. There are some serious changes that occur throughout this period 1797-1810. After the Treaty of Greenville that ends the Indian campaign in the Northwest Territories, the army economizes. The light infantry and light battalions go away. The uniforms stay roughly the same for the regular infantry throughout the period, keeping red facings only, and the colorful designations of the sub-legions going away. The army organizes the infantry into three regiments, downsized to two during the Jefferson administration (1801). The light dragoons likewise retain their colors until Secretary of War Alexander Hamilton designs them a new uniform in 1797. Their uniforms, issued in 1798, are green. Green. GREEN. With black facings and yellow lace. Go figure. They retain these uniforms until Jefferson disbands the dragoons altogether in 1801. Rifle units are re-introduced to the army in the latter part of this period, but their uniforms are odd, so I’ll likely avoid them.

I’ve included some photos of some of my newly painted units. These are the green-coated American dragoons I mentioned. the lighting for these photos was poor, so I apologize for their darkness. The are the Wayne’s Legion dragoons by Old Glory. They do quite nicely. I used German Luftwaffe Camo Green as the base color. It’s a lighter green than the picture shows. The flag is all hokum. Nobody knows what a U.S. dragoon flag looks for this period. The earliest recorded U.S. cavalry flag following the Revolution is for a militia dragoon flag in 1819, and seems unlike most other cavalry flags. Thankfully you can’t see it in the dark. I went with a mid blue flag with scroll work similar to War of 1812 infantry battalions in red. It’s possible I’m just wasting my time doing a flag at all, but one of the figures does carry a pole for a flag. I actually really like the way these turned out.

These two units represent the grenadier company and a fusilier company from the Luisiana Regiment. This was a trained, disciplined militia unit raised in the New World. They are RSM figures cast under license by the Dayton Painting Consortium. They are simple, straightforward units, as most Spanish units are. They tend to be white, usually with colored facings, waistcoats and trousers. The Spanish militia in North America were chronically understrength. My regiment will consist of four companies including a grenadier company that is a bit larger than the fusiliers. The Lusianans are now complete. The next regiment will be a mix of two companies from the Irish Hibernian Regiment in their red regimentals and two companies from another militia unit.

I’ve primed my first mounted militia unit. I plan to complete it during the Christmas break. I’ll post photos when I’m finished.

Figure Review: Fife and Drum AWI British Guards

Dec8

This Christmas my wife and I are trying something a little bit different with our gift-buying, including allowing each of us to buy a gift for ourselves that will be wrapped and put under the tree. I opted for figures. So I put together an order for some British Guards from Fife and Drum Miniatures.

There is something magical about Fife and Drum. I don’t know a ton about them, except they were conceived from the prominent war gaming mind of Jim Purkey of Lake Forest, Il. You may know him as Altefritz on TMP. He’s always offered considerable knowledge of 18th century military matters including the 7 Years War and the American Revolution. I became aware of the Fife and Drum range when he launched a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund his range of Hessians for AWI.

Line companies, including one fairly mangled bayonet. But, I think I can fix it.

Guards light infantry company, including an NCO figure.

I have units from many different manufacturers in my AWI collection, but I chose Fife and Drum for a couple of reasons. First, I know Jim chose to depict his figures in the non-traditional cut down uniforms adopted for the 1777 campaigns for Philadelphia and Saratoga. These and the slouch hats replacing the tricornes work well for the South, 1779-81. Second, I admired his work assembling this range, seemingly from scratch, and I wanted to support his effort.

I need the Guards for Guilford Courthouse and Weitzel’s Mill. Two battalions of 24 figures each was their game strength. I ordered the first battalion. Unlike any other range, Fife and Drum offers flank companies specifically for the Guards. Because these companies were active at places like Weitzel’s Mill, it’s nice to have unique figures with their peaked caps and horsehair crests. Though the Guards are offered in several positions, I chose the firing line. These come with figures priming their muskets, and figures firing. The command figures are a bit problematic with the officer shouldering a musket and the drummer in the Guards range. I had to add the standard bearers from the line infantry.

I really like the detail on these figures. It’s quite good, but not over-done. The simplicity of the uniforms should make them easy to paint. The faces will be hidden by the large hats. Posing is pretty simple, without a variety of head and arm positions. These figures will look very uniform on multiple figure bases, which is quite a nice departure from the Victrix Napoleonics I’ve been working on.

Comparison between Fife and Drum figures and Perry miniatures from the same period. You can see they are about the same height but the Perry figures are beefier.

A comparison of Fife and Drum figures and Front Rank grenadiers. Yep, the Front Rank guys are big. Bill Stewart always called them corn-fed.

If the Fife and Drum range has a flaw, it is in their size. I have figures from Perry, Old Glory, and Front Rank in my collection, and they aren’t going to match well with any of them. It won’t deter me from using them, or ordering a second Guards battalion, but it’s important to acknowledge the difference. The Fife and Drum figures are 28mm tall, but their physiques are pretty slight. Compared to the Perry 23rd Regt. figures in the first comparison photo, they seem fairly small. The second picture compares the F and D guardsmen with the Front Rank grenadiers. We’ve always considered them robust, compared to the other ranges.

I’ll close with a shout out for the customer service I received. I e-mailed Jim on Black Friday about my order. He responded within an hour or so. I sent him my payment that evening, and he had my figures out to me on Saturday. They arrived by US Mail on Wednesday. I live in Washington State, so a pretty painless experience. Shipping was only $4.

Very nice figures and superb service. If you can live with the size differential between manufacturers or if you are entering this period, I would easily recommend this range of miniatures. Cost per figure is $2, about the same as Perry.

The Story of Loafing Friday

Nov30

Americans have it all wrong. The day after Thanksgiving now has this commercial connotation of Black Friday. Piffle. I wouldn’t go near a commercial venture today unless they were giving away free packs of Perry AWI figures, and maybe not even then. Since that isn’t happening today, or any other day (sigh), I’m staying home. Like most Americans, I am off until Monday. Saturday and Sunday I have plenty to accomplish on my calendar, but today I’m determined to do almost nothing that isn’t restful, relaxing and fun.

This means painting. I’m gonna work on the last company of the Louisiana Regiment, and take some pics as I go.

It’s also going to be a movie day. I picked four movies to watch between now (about 10 AM) and the time I go to bed (about 10 PM.) My goal is to have an awesome day, doing little that isn’t fun, and a little lazy, and try to finish my 11 figure unit of Spaniards.

My first movie was 1964’s Zulu. I love this movie; it’s absolutely one of my favorites. Based on the 1879 defense of Rorke’s Drift by about 100 British soldiers against 4,000 Zulu warriors, the movie is 2 hrs. 16 min. of intense action. The performances by Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Nigel Greene, and others give the movie considerable life. It’s almost the perfect movie about battle because it’s scope is limited to such a small space with a handful of defenders. We get to know the characters well. The movie is aided by a strong score by John Barry, and stirring narration by Richard Burton.

The movie has flaws. The first is the treatment of the Zulus. Though the movie does begin with a look glimpse inside Zulu culture and a tone of respect, the native defenders of Zululand rapidly become little more than faceless, menacing, bullet catchers. I know, very 21st century PC perspective. The other flaw is that the movie is not filmed on location. That is a bit of a problem because the actual mission station sat on a rock ledge that gave a tremendous height advantage to the defenders, and terrifically complicated the attackers’ challenge. To be sure, the British were under intense pressure, but the Zulus lost as many as a 1,000 soldiers, while Chard’s command suffered 15 dead and 10 seriously wounded.

Even so, Zulu is a fine movie, one of my top five of all time. I chose it first because it fit into my time slot well. The movie would be finished just as the Apple Cup came on.

Unfortunately we can’t control what we can’t control. About half an hour into the movie, as Jack Hawkins is being locked up for interfering with defense preparations, I got a phone call from an old friend. It was great to catch up and make plans. Unfortunately it also took 22 minutes and messed up my carefully constructed schedule. It also distracted me and led astray enough so that by the time I was done dorking around on the computer, I had enough time to finish the first half of Zulu before the big game came on. The attacks had begun, but the hospital was still intact.

At 12:30 my figures had progressed to this:

Things are coming along. I’ve finished all the shoes and completed the buff belts and haversack (you can’t see) and a brown strap that runs along the belting. In the background you also notice I’ve popped the grenadiers off their Popsicle sticks and glued them to their individual bases.

12:30, time for the Apple Cup. I cop to being a Husky fan. I loved the Don James era, and respected Jim Lambright. I attended school there-not as an undergrad, but I did some post baccalaureate work there and my MA is from UWT. It’s been tough to love them since Neuheisel became coach. But I like Sarkisian and a lot of the Husky players. They’ve had a tough year and their losses were against good teams. I figured that if they could run the football and keep Cougars quarterback Connor Halliday off the field, they’d win. If not, things would at best be interesting, and at worst quite ugly. WSU is improving, offensively and defensively. These ain’t Paul Wulf’s Cougars.

I started the game painting in my den. But by the middle of the second quarter, and things going decidedly awry, I moved my stressed out self to the living room, plopped myself in my recliner and watched the rest of the game there. During commercials, I took care of the last of the Thanksgiving clean up. I ordered 24 AWI British guards from Fife and Drum Miniatures, and I made an order for Litko bases.

By half time I was pretty discouraged. WSU was handling the UW running game, and Keith Price turned the ball over twice. There were times when Halliday looked very sharp, and the Cougs had a halftime lead. In frustration, during the break I moved stuff from the garage out to our new storage shed.

After the halftime break the world seemed to right itself a bit. Bishop Sankey started to get some telling run yardage, and Keith Price connected on some key throws. But it wasn’t until Halliday tossed his second interception late in the fourth quarter that I felt confident enough to head back into the den to wrap up Zulu-Hook’s ferocious defense, burn the hospital, slaughter the Zulus in front of the redoubt, Bromhead is ashamed-and plan for the next movie.

By the time the movie was over, the Spaniards moved along a good deal.

I’ve finished all the belting, the cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards and sword cases.

Time to take a break for dinner. Thanksgiving leftovers, of course, one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. Quick too.

Time for episode two of Loafing Friday Movie Madness, and I’ve chosen Khartoum as my next flick.

I have a special fondness for Khartoum. My parents took me to see this in the theater in 1966, and I’ve always loved it. It’s the story of General Charles “Chinese” Gordon sent to evacuate Egyptians from that Sudanese city in the face of a massive Islamic uprising. Led by the charismatic Mahdi, the tribesmen promise death to those who oppose them. Gordon was sent, without the promise of aid, to get all foreign nationals out of Khartoum, and the movie is the story of his ultimate failure to do so and his death.

They don’t make movies like Khartoum anymore. Shot in a variety of locations, with plenty of action, from the slaughter of William Hicks’ column in the beginning of the movie, the attack on the Camel Corps desert column at Abu Klea, to the final assault on Khartoum itself, the movie is an example of 60’s epics at their finest.

Yet the real strength of the movie, and what sets it apart from most of Khartoum‘s ilk, is the performances. With Charlton Heston as Gordon and Lawrence Olivier as the Mahdi, there is a natural struggle between two outsized egos. Add Ralph Richardson’s role as the perpetually flummoxed Prime Minister William Gladstone, and there is more than just scenery and shoot ’em up to draw you into this film. Add to that Frank Cordell’s magnificent, if occasionally bombastic score, and the 2 hr. 11 minute movie flies by.

As I explained, things don’t always go according to plan. My friend Tim called to check in on my recent run of bad luck. As usual, we discussed a wide range of topics, including the Apple Cup, WSU (he’s an alum), Christmas, and books we’d like to read. Our phone conversations are never brief. But this was really important because I got a superb idea for what to get him for the holiday. Unfortunately, it also meant dashing out of the house to Target to take advantage of a Black Friday special.

Alas I broke my own Loafing Friday rules. Thankfully I found what I needed right away, and was able to get in and out in about 20 minutes.

I dashed back home, watched the Nile fall, Khartoum assaulted and Gordon killed by about 9:30. Unfortunately that was about all I had energy for.

I didn’t get done with my unit, but I did finish a lot. Tomorrow I’ll try to wrap up the shading, faces and other goodies I need to complete, as well as starting all the basing for the two Spanish units and the French knights. After that I’ll begin working on the first of two American dragoon units. I also didn’t finish my movie list. I hoped to watch Breaker Morant and Gallipoli too. So it goes. Sometimes we just have to live with our choices.

Despite some plan changes that kept Loafing Friday from meeting the full lazy experience I envisioned, it was a pleasure. I enjoyed the football game, saw some movies I love and made pretty good progress on the movies I wanted to see. Beats Black Friday any day. This post was entirely done on my iPad and I apologize for the small pictures and any other goofiness that may have occurred as a result.

A Gamer's Tales

Chronicling this miniature wargaming life

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