Donnybrook: More Opportunities...

You'll have to excuse me for going on yet again about a set of wargames rules that have not been released and for a period for which I have yet to paint a figure, but the world moves in strange ways...

Last night I decided to do a little more research on the Franco-Thai War 1940 with the cunning idea of seeing what could be found by using Siam in the online searches rather that the more correct Thailand (the country's name since 1937). This somehow opened up articles on the Siege of Bangkok between the French and Siamese in 1688 ie. smack in the middle of the Donnybrook period. So not only will any French troops for Donnybrook be useable in Europe, America, Africa and India, I could also use them in South East Asia!

Obviously this meant looking up what Siamese troops of the period looked like and whilst this has not been very fruitful, the two pictures I have found suggest that generic South East Asian Dyak pirates and some C19th Chinese may work as good proxies as well as provide enemies for C19th opponents.

Closer to home I picked up a copy of Sedgemoor 1685: Marlborough's First Victory by John Tincey for the Kindle costing 99p (a bit of a saving on the £16 plus for the paper copy!). My current Donnybrook thinking is to have a couple of regular units and a generic rebel/militia one that can see service in both the West Country and America so this should be a useful read...

Donnybrook: Beneath the Lily Banners

I had hoped to get some painting done this weekend but life conspired otherwise and having driven up and back to London to take Saul to a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo last night I have spent most of the day slumped half asleep in the armchair watching the TV!

I did however purchase a PDF edition of the League of Ausberg's Beneath the Lily Banners, their mass battle set for the same period as Donnybrook. Whilst I have no intention of playing mass battles in this period I do like a good set of rules and it is chock full of painted soldiers and background stuff that will prove extremely inspirational.

I also bought a pile of Warfare Miniatures period flags in the North Star sale as they are half price. I probably have bought far too many but what the heck! Barry Hilton at Warfare has boxed up the order I made on Friday so I might start painting this week.

I have decided to paint some up as Coldstream Guards as they saw action in Tangiers and America as well as Britain and will double up as other units.

If you want to know more about the period I recommend checking of the League of Ausberg blog which is full of really interesting articles and lovely painted miniatures. I am spending far too much time there at the moment! :-)

Help Produce A Modern British War Film...

I think most UK wargamers will have, at some time or other, moaned about the lack of British war films, especially when Hollywood reinvents British heroes as American, or casts Brits as the bad guys.

If, like me, you have decried the lack of a new British war film it is now time to put your money where your mouth is and support Kajaki - a Modern British War Film on Indiegogo. Hopefully this will come to fruition...

Kajaki - Indiegogo Pitch Film from Pukka Films on Vimeo.

Donnybrook: The Madness Begins...

So Donnybrook is available for pre-order and will ship at the end of the month. The plan to buy my figures from the classic Dixon Miniatures has gone up in smoke as I decided to order a pile of figures from Warfare Miniatures having been seduced by the photos on their website. I probably should have waited for the rules to work out what I need but I have picked a mix of generic infantry which will do for starters.

WLOA1 Musketeers Firing (photo Warfare Miniatures)

I've only dipped my toe into researching the period and am trying to restrict myself to the 1660 to 1685 period (well maybe up to 1697). From an English perspective, aside from the obvious areas such as the Monmouth and the wars for and against the Dutch and French, there are also conflicts in Ireland, India, North Africa, America (the Bacon Rebellion sadly not being about bacon...) and of course against Pirates...

WLOA2 Musketeers at Ease (photo Warfare Miniatures)

Given the small forces needed (20 to 50 figures a side), their multiple usability (many units can fight for different countries) and that even non-European enemies such as the Moors and Native Americans will have uses beyond this specific period.

Got a good feeling about this...

An Interesting Colonial Diversion (aka French Chocolate Bar Trading Cards...)

The internet is a wonderful thing for getting you to go off on completely weird tangents and lose hours of time!

Yesterday I was reading the Osprey MAA on Louis XIV's Army, which I picked up to improve my knowledge on the period 1660 to 1700 with a view to picking up some Dixon Miniatures for Donnybrook. I was only a couple of pages into the book when I read that the French army was sent to Madagascar in 1666. Ooh, interesting I thought and went off to Google about it.

I found diddly squat but did get rather distracted by the late C19th French Wars in Madagascar (thinking dual use with the Dahomey French) and then I discovered some images of these lovely period trading cards from bars of chocolate...

The images I found initially where quite small so of course this necessitated me trying to find larger ones on Google.fr with some limited success. I'm not sure how many are in the set, one page seemed to indicate at least 20, and it is a shame that they are so rare as I really like them.

I also found some other illustrations in magazine periodicals from the period and am planning to hunt down more. The Hova (Madagascan) army is really interesting looking and it will be interesting to see what figures can be used for them if I decide to expand the Dahomey project...

More on the Donnybrook plans another day! :-)

A Different Kind of Madness...

And some people think our playing with toy soldiers is weird... :-)

Many, many more here.

Land Ironclads: Aurorean Martian Contraptions and Infantry

The Aurorean Martians, being introduced into Land Ironclads via the forthcoming Belgian supplement, are based on the race of Martians that appear in George Griffith's Astronef scientific romance and are not related to the Wellsian Olympian Martians that invaded Earth in the original rulebook. 

The race Griffiths described is technologically advanced to a point of stagnation and I was not sure exactly what look to go with until I discovered these wonderful looking models in Irregular Miniatures 2mm SF range, with their vaguely "Art Deco" look. These models are IKSF11 Alien Scout Vehicle and will see service as Aurorean Camros class contraptions.

I have realised that I have based the models on a land ironclad bases (40mm deep) not a contraptions one (30mm) and will correct this asap.  I am going to order some other Irregular models from the same range to use as Aurorean land ironclads.

For the Aurorean infantry I wanted to avoid both the close order look of the European colonial infantry and an irregular native look, so have used Irregular's IK1 Infantry Section from their C20th range. I think it looks ok and provides a contrast to the human troops shown yesterday.

2014 Painting Target: 29/1000

Land Ironclads: Nova Belge Infantry and Artillery

As SWMBO will testify I am a messy worker and that goes as much for my painting area as anything else. Under the detrius I re-discovered undercoated and based units set aside for the Belgian Land Ironclads project which I have been pondering on and off whether to paint all white (the Belgian tropical uniform) or green/grey (the Belgian Peking Legation Guard uniform). As I have been pondering for over three years I thought I better make my mind up!

As the British and French will wear red and blue respectively for operations on Mars in Land Ironclads I decided to go with the green/light grey uniform, rationalising my choice that no one will find contradictory details of the Nova Belge Legion anywhere... :-)

As well as two understrength battalions I also painted up an artillery battery, pictured here alongside one of the Charlotte-Ameilie land ironclads I painted in 2011...

2014 Painting Target: 22/1000

Warhammer: Black Trolls

I found these two trolls hiding under Lead Mountain and decided that, although they are not my favourite models, I would paint them up with black skin as an experiment.

The miniatures are both long OOP Heartbreaker Hobbies models released as part of their Fantasy Miniatures line in 1994 and sculpted by Tim Prow.

Rummaging in Lead Mountain resulted in the discovery of a third Heartbreaker troll, a Sedge Troll from their Magic: The Gathering line, which utilises the same body so will be painted up similarly to join this pair...

2014 Painting Target: 13/1000

Cheap Modern/Near Future Wars Armour

You may have seen on Jim's Wargames Workbench that book remainder store The Works* were selling a "British Armoured Tank" kit that made a reasonable approximation of a Challenger II, albeit sporting some kind of railgun instead of a cannon... Whatever, it looked useful for 28mm scale moderns with a bit of work, or near future SF with a bit of imagination.

Intrigued I popped into the Bristol store this morning and after some rummaging around found not only the "British Armoured Tank" but also "American Armoured Tank" (and Attack Helicopter - an Apache, Special Force Helicopter a Black Hawk and Stealth Plane an F117). As they cost just £2.99 I bought one of each.

To call them basic is a bit of an understatement but they are reasonable approximations of the M1A1 and Challenger II, even if the latter will need a new gun and the former some filling under the gun mantel.

I'm considering painting them up form my stalled modern English Civil War project, adding some stowage, camo netting etc to disguise any obvious shortcomings.

* Edit: I've just noticed that Jim picked his model up at The Entertainer. I'm not sure why I read that as The Works yesterday going there today to find them. Weird...

Dahomey War: Fon Female Warriors III (aka Amazons)

As the ink wash on yesterday's Thralls was drying I decided to progress the remaining final eight Dixon Amazons for the Dahomey project that had been sat on the workbench for nearly a month. A couple of hours later and they were pretty much finished, the bases being completed late last night...

These have been fun to paint and the block paint, Army Painter shade wash and then highlight approach has been quick and effective...

The complete unit about to ambush some French!

2014 Painting Target: 11/1000

Empire of the Dead: Vampire Clan II

Kicking off this year's fun and games I spent some time yesterday working on the three Thrall figures from West Wind's  EOTD02 - Vampire Clan...

I wanted to paint them in black cloaks and red scarves to reinforce the vampire link, painting the rest of the clothing in some mix of brighter gypsy style clothing. I'm not 100% sure I have got the effect that I was looking for but I am happy enough with them.

2014 Painting Target: 3/1000

The Thousand Figure Challenge 2014...

Looking back through the blog I am clearly useless when it comes to New Years Resolutions so for 2014 I am setting myself just one objective - paint one thousand miniatures!

Last year I set myself a target of one a day and managed to paint 509 by year's end. I ummed and ahhed about setting a target of 500, maybe 730 ie. twice last year's target, but in the end I have decided to think big and set myself a target of 1,000.

Same rules apply, one figure equals on singularly mounted miniature, vehicle or base of small scale models. I might be being over ambitious, possibly insane, but it is something to aim for.

Some of the things you may see in 2014 might include...

2014 Painting Target: 0/1000