Big Box of Requiem Arrives!

As Wendy promised, the big box of Kickstarter Empire of the Dead: Requiem arrived from West Wind today and I spent most of my lunchtime rooting through it and trying not to drool too much! :-) There are a lot of lovely miniatures here though I haven't added up how many in case SWMBO reads this! Suffice to say Lead Mountain is now substantially higher!

Of course I need a plan to paint them and rather than jump in and paint the ones I like best first I have decided to paint them one pack at a time, in code order, starting with EOTD-01 Gentlemen's Club and working my way through.

Additionally rather than dedicate a month to Empire of the Dead I will slot packs into gaps in other projects to help relieve any monotony that might strike. Well that's the plan...

I have decided that all the miniatures will be based on urban cobblestone or paved bases, as I have done with my previous Victorian figures, so today ordered a pile off Fenris Games as I only had seven left which I have used on the Gentlemen's Club.

(Africa Month) Fon Male Warriors III

I received a nice phone call yesterday from Wendy at West Wind letting me know my Empire of the Dead Kickstarter pledge was on its way and thanking me for my support. I thought it was a really nice touch to ring customers and our chat has got my brain swirling with Victorian London scenery ideas (not helped by watching Ripper Street last night either...).

Anyway back to Africa Month and another four "just finished" Fon for the Dahomey army from Foundry Darkest Africa Ruga-Ruga and Tribesmen packs. Great figures...

The remaining eleven are coming along nicely, but I have run out of the Beasty Brown paint I use on the bases. Hopefully Antics will have some...

(Africa Month) Fon Male Warriors II

On a bit of a roll (shame it's not a bacon one!), with four more Fon using Foundry Darkest Africa Ruga-Ruga and Tribesmen for Africa Month!

Painting has been quite straightforward, a drybrush of Vallejo Dark Fleshtone over a black undercoat. The clothing and equipment is blocked in, washed with the Army Painter ink, then highlights drybrushed using the original colour. I'm painting the clothing in batches so whilst they look similar in groups of four, they will be enough variation in the whole unit.

(Africa Month) Fon Male Warriors I

Africa Month continues apace with the first four of King Béhanzin's Fon army now painted and based (the Fon are the inhabitants of Dahomey).

Yesterday I had a rummage in Lead Mountain and found 23 musket armed African natives, a mix of Foundry Ruga-Ruga and Tribal Musketmen. I'm not 100% sure on how suitable they are for Fon, but they are not dissimilar to the Dixon figures so they will do.

(Africa Month) French Foreign Legion in Dahomey VI

The first miniatures for Africa Month are the final four Dixon legionnaires painted and based.

I've enjoyed painting this grubby specimens up and will spend this afternoon hunting through Lead Mountain for some Fon opponents...

And here is the full unit bursting through the African jungle as they advance on Abomey...

November is... Africa Month!

Painting the Legionnaires for Dahomey service has rekindled my enthusiasm for all things African so I am going to declare November to be Africa Month!

The primary mission will be to dig out some native types from the piles of Darkest Africa Foundry miniatures I have and paint some up to shoot the French, though I will probably order a few Dixon Dahomey figures for theatre specific flavour (come on, who doesn't want a unit of Amazons?)

Aside from that I want to build a few more jungle terrain pieces to go with bits I made last year.

And depending on time I do have some other African related stuff in Lead Mountain and Plastic Hill that could do with some TLC (who said Zulus?).

French Foreign Legion in Dahomey V

Finished the penultimate batch of Dixon Legionnaires this morning...

The final batch of four are almost finished, just the bases needing finishing off and then the  unit will be complete.

French Foreign Legion in Dahomey IV

Another three Dixon Miniatures legionnaires for service in Dahomey or Madagascar (or as occurred to be me today, Venus!)

The remaining seven are almost finished so hopefully the whole unit will be complete by the end of the week. I just now need to buy some Dahomey warriors (and maybe some Venusians!!)

Game Over Man?

I guess most of you have seen the news that Prodos Games will be producing an Alien v Predator miniatures game. Fortunately, despite the name, it is not based on the AvP film, but the wider franchise so not only will there be different kinds of Aliens and Predators but also Colonial Marines.

Prodos have been drip feeding sneak peak images which I am finding somewhat tedious but they have released some pics on their Facebook page which show some of the resin miniatures as well as a size comparison with some other miniatures. According to a post at AvP Galaxay, Prodos are planning a Space Hulk type boxed game this year (that seems a tad optimistic) with further releases in the new year.

Much as I loved the background and whilst I would have been all over this a decade ago, I'm not sure whether I will be rushing to pick this up. It will be interesting to see what Prodos do with the licence and how the game and miniatures measure up when released...

French Aeronef Officer

Back from Belfast, an enjoyable evening as well as a visit today to the Titanic Museum which is excellent and well worth a visit if you are in that neck of the woods. Three recommendations, book before you go, do the guided tour of the area outside the museum and allow a good three hours to see all the galleries properly...

Anyway, back to things miniature. Whilst painting the Dahomey Legionnaires I pulled out this miniature which, if I recall correctly, is a Foundry Darkest Africa figure...

The original intention was to paint him up as a naval officer for Dahomey. However that would have involved stopping painting and doing some research so he transferred from Dahomey to the Martian Front and into the service of l'Armee d'Aeronef (so I could paint him how I liked).

I just need to find some suitable French sailors to follow him now. I suspect some Franco-Prussian War or Boxer Rebellion range will provide these...

 2013 Painting Target: 446/365

French Foreign Legion in Dahomey III

Four more Dixon legionnaires have been painted up for the unit...

I have made good progress on the rest of the unit but am popping over to Belfast to see God is an Astronaut this evening so there will no further progress until Monday evening.

2013 Painting Target: 445/365

Gandalf the Black!

I meant to finish off my Dahomey Legionnaires today but fell asleep in from of the TV(!) so a complete lack of progress hobby wise. However I did come across this wonderful picture by Benjamin Collison, and it got me thinking...

I was wondering about alt-historying The Lord of the Rings, maybe having Gandlaf the Black with Gondor in his thrall up against the free peoples? Possibly a three way bad guy fight between Gandalf, Sauraman and Sauron? What if Frodo had kept and used the ring? Could be fun and all you'd need to do is paint a Gandalf black.

The (not quite) Half-Price (but still rather good) Sprue Sale...

Warlord Games have a half price individual sprue sale going one at the moment. The normal cost of a sprue depends on what is on it, but for WW2, the Bolt Action plastic infantry sprues are normally £5.00, reduced to £2.50 during the sale. Of course the price of buying the sprues individually is more than if you bought the boxed set from which they came but the sale still offers a good saving on the normal RRP.

Each box contains five infantry sprues and three weapons sprues which in sale terms equates to £16.25 compared to the retail price of a box costing £22.50 (so a saving of just under 30% which isn't too bad).

As a man who can't resist a bargain I decided to avail myself of the offer and have purchased the equivalent of the British, German and US Infantry boxes, adding in an extra sprue of US weapons to give me enough Garands as well as a couple of sprues of Zulu War other ranks British to finish off what I need for when I get back to that project.

I'm not a 100% decided on what I want to use them for. The Germans are late war so definitely 1944-45 NW Europe and Ostfront, but they might do Italy and possibly Tunisia at a stretch depending on the models. The Yanks are really 1943-44 period, I don't think they don't look scruffy enough for 1945 but Tunisia or Italy looks promising. I'm not sure about the British models and will wait to see whether they could do anything other than NW Europe 1944-45.

Whatever, it is a good offer! :-)

Scarecrow Returns!

I've just finished Matthew Reilly's lastest novel Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (or as the Americans call it Scarecrow Returns).  Sometimes you need a book that allows you to check your brain out and just be entertained and Reilly does that. He will not win a Booker Prize and the literati will turn their noses up at his efforts but I enjoy them.

If you are unfamiliar with his work he writes over-the-top Hollywood popcorn SFX heavy action movies as books. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger, the villains are preposterous, the plots unbelievable, the heroes death-defying (well, most of the time) and there are lots and lots of explosions, stunts and gunfire.

Take the latest book, a renegade army of terrorists takes control of a secret Russian Arctic base and threatens to set the atmosphere on fire using a captured Soviet doomsday weapon*. Oh and the hero has just an hour to stop them!

Yes, they are silly, but they are entertainingly silly and that is all Reilly wants to do, entertain. He does in spades.

I'm not sure if the books would wargameable, I suppose 7TV would be the way to go as opposed to Force on Force, but you would have some great fun doing it.

If you haven't read a Scarecrow book start at the beginning with Ice Station. You don't need to have read the previous three books (and novella) but they are also great fun and they are referenced in the Army of Thieves...

* now that is what James Bond plots should have, not lost laptops!

Colonial Jungle Warfare on the Tabletop

Whilst painting the Dahomey Legionnaires, I have been pondering on the difficulties of jungle warfare and what type of game would best recreate some of this difficulties. The classic image of colonial warfare is hordes of spear armed natives charging the thin red line. The  Second Dahomey War (and the Ashanti War) are examples of European Victorian armies fighting against an elusive musket armed enemy in dense terrain, which seems to have more in common with the fighting in Vietnam, than the battles against the Zulus or Fuzzy-Wuzzies...

I did dabble with Dahomey a few years back using some 20mm Esci plastics and The Sword and The Flame. Whilst I love the rules for the fun game they produce I got the feeling that the battles were fought around the jungle terrain, not through it.

It has occurred to me that Dahomey (and Ashanti, another fascinating campaign) should not be treated as just another Colonial game, but maybe more as a Vietnam type game. Of that period there was a set (Bodycount?) that had all the players on the Free World side and the (elusive and rarely seen) Viet Cong controlled by an umpire or tables

I'm going to give this some more thought, but my initial hunch is that games of campaigns like this are better served using mechanisms designed for modern asymmetrical warfare, as opposed to traditional Rorke's Drift type rules.

French Foreign Legion in Dahomey II

Inspired by everyone's kind comments regarding yesterday's three legionnaires, I picked on three more Dixon Miniatures to subject to the Army Painter Strong Tone ink wash last night...

It is a terribly easy way of getting a decent effect, and whilst not the same as the same company's dip, it provides a great grubby look for on campaign miniatures.

Technique wise, after allowing the wash to dry (I slightly water it down on very light colours like the white to thin out and prevent unrealistic dark pooling in creases) I will lightly drybrush some items such tunics and helmets with the original paint colours to add a bit of relief.

For these miniatures I have not done that with the white, preferring to leave it stained and dirty looking...

In addition to the Army Painter ink wash I also used some Flames of War Brown Tone ink wash. I had thought it to be the same, just relabelled, but it is a slightly darker, less warm brown than the Army Painter one. I use this sparingly at the bottom of the trousers, on the rifles and around the edges any webbing.

2013 Painting Target: 441/365