Thursday, March 24, 2011

Saxon Sea Raiders and British Naval Infantry

More stuff has been finished! I was going to title this "Saxons and Salty Seamen" but....that would be ........wrong! :)

One of the plastic unarmed Saxons (Wargames Factory) done as a standard bearer. Not bad....
Foundry armored Franks/Saxons done as Gedriht (pronouced "Yedrict") the Saxon's Lords hearthguard. The Leader (Atheling), standard bearer and musician for this unit are almost done.

Figures put in ranks

Close up from one side.....

And from the other! You can see one of the shields has a decal.

British Naval Infantry for the Sudan, 1884-1885
These are Copplestone figures

Looks good with the Army Painter dip!

" Forward men!"

"Looks like Fuzzy-Wuzzys !"

These Copplestone Naval Infantry were a bit better to paint than the crew for the Gatling Gun (Perry Miniatures) as the Copplestone were not modeled with canteens. I was unsure how they would look after using "Army Painter" dip, due to the uniform colors and the straps and pouches being black, but after the spray of Matt, they look quite good, IMHO.
The Saxons, by Foundry (gotten via The War Store at a reasonable price) were easy to paint, except for the shields. I seem to have a issue with free-hand painting shields. My skill is "so-so". I am going to try Harold's system for painting shields, attaching them to small wooden dowels. this should make handling them easier and turning the shield during painting a breeze. Once this unit is finished, I need to do 2 units of 15 (Leader-Standard-Musician-Warriors) and one more unit of skirmishers (8 I believe) and I will have my 750 point starter "Saxon Sea Raider" force done. However, I have a lot more figures (Wargames Factory, Crusader and Gripping Beast) I can paint so I can field a larger force. At some point I need to get cavalry as I can use these figure to represent Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon Army as well.
I am avoiding any new projects in order to get what is on my plate already done. I will have all the 20mm Solothurn anti-tank rifles done for my FoW Italians (Bersaglieri) in the next few days. I believe I need one more 47mm anti-tank gun, but it should be quickly done as I have several gun crews pre-painted. With this done, my Bersaglieri will be up to spec and ready to rock-which means my next FoW Army, my Late War German Heavy Tank group will be up on the production line. And after them, Early War French!
TTFN

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

OK, I've Been Lazy....

and not updated since, like forever! Anyway, the February game convention - Orccon 2011 went very well for me indeed, both Saturday's and Sunday's games. Sorry, no photos this time but I promise to try to update more often.


The two above photos are of, I believe, the first Napoleonic game I have ever played in (WAB, now this!?! What is next..) at the HMGS Day at Aero Hobbies this March. It was Frank's South American game and Frank and I played against Mark and had a very good time indeed!

Last Sunday, March 13th, Harold and I went up to Dave's Toy's & Hobbies (Whitter) and had a quick 750pt WAB game and then ran a game for 3 of the locals to show them and anyone else who wanted to watch, how WarHammer Ancients was played. The highlight of that game was the Pict's war dogs holding up a unit of Saxons, with many dogs howls and bad Scooby-Doo imitations being done (mostly be me). A "All Historicals Day", once a month there is in the works to have more people learn & play WAB and I can run "The Sword and the Flame" now and then as well, as many people sounded interested it that. Good. I will help keep me going and painting!

The Naval Infantry unit is almost finished, with photos to follow.

TTFN