maandag 28 oktober 2013

A Napoleonic game in a friends house.

Since a few weeks I'm participating in a Napoleonic game with loads of 15mm figures.
We (3of us) are replaying Eylau, with loads of toys.

The battle was fougth in februari 1807 in bad weather between Napoleons French forces and the Russians. There were also some Prusssians involved, which have not yet reached our table edge.
They are dearly needed though (I play Russians), as the Russians are getting some bloody noses!
We have now played three evenings, but schedules prevent us from playing again in the coming weeks. It will probably be end of november before the game continues.

Table size is 1.80m on 3.00m. That is 18 TTS tiles, 2' square each!
A few pictures may better show the scale of the game.









You might find Napoleon himself in some of the pictures. He is wearing his grey coat and riding a white horse.

WIP & some painted scenery.

I painted some scenery last week. I needed a short break from the successor phalanx I'm currently painting.

First piece is an ancient Greek olive press. This model is made by Dave Bodley from Grand Manner.
It is a lovely piece, very quick to paint. Even by me!
Link: http://www.grandmanner.co.uk/Olive_Press--product--618.html
It will soon see service on a wargames table in one of our games.
The Foundry figure is added for scale.


The other thing that got painted recently is 75 cm fencing and the animal shelter from Perry's Medieval Cottage.
http://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_62&products_id=2715
The cottage itself is yet to be painted.


The Phalanx unit I'm working on is from Gripping Beast's Polemos range.
At first I thought there were hardly any differences in the miniatures, until I started painting them. They look very similar to each other, but there are differences!


Maybe differences are not very clear from this picture, but I'll post better pictures when the unit is finished.
I plan (and have bought) to add LBMS shield transfers for the first time. Let's see what that gives.

vrijdag 11 oktober 2013

The last of the Greek skirmishers.

Just a short message and a few pics this time.
Well, I am cleaning out shelves of unpainted figures, and here are the last of the skirmishers I had lying around. I don't think I will need more in the future. I now have well over 100 Greek / Macedonian skirmishers!

Here are the last sling armed Greek psiloi. As always with my ancient armies, they are based on 3 cm x 3 cm bases, some doubled up on 6cm x 3 cm. Models are  Crusader Miniatures (from the Spanish range I believe, but not sure).
If it seems to you that the bases are floating just above the table, that is because there is also a strip of magnetic sheet underneat.


I also painted the last two javelin armed psiloi (Foundry Miniatures). I found them in between some Thracians and Skythians. I realy should clean out all my drawers and see what else is packed in the wrong place.


As you can see, I tried another background and lighting for these pictures. I am still not happy with them, the lighting must become better next time. The pictures are better though, I believe, but more tips are welcome (thanks Tim!)

I will put up a few pictures next week of an ongoing Napoleonic battle we are playing at a friends game  room. We are replaying Eylau in 15mm with over 1000 miniatures a side. And reinforcements still need to come on table! More on that next time.