Cross that one off the list ...

OK... DBA 15mm Spanish army, courtesy of Corvus Belli, done!!! I've struggled with my eyesight and painting over the last year, so most of 2009's effort has been 28mm GW figures (those Dwarfs), but I actually managed these 15mm figures pretty well (although as it's holiday time I've had the luxury of painting in bright daylight. I think that that has helped).

I layered the paint on these figures, and this is especially obvious on the shields. I'm not quite sure if the final result is the effect I wanted, but I'm not redoing them. And those shields are likely to be the death of me anyway, as I am having trouble keeping them on the figures, despite the use of good quality Superglue... we'll have to wait and see how they withstand game play.










So .. cross that project off the list. Now on to those ANZAC heavy weapons from Hat.. they've been waiting for a while, then the VSF British HotT army.. ever the optimist, eh???

Progress with the Spanish.

A quick up-date on progress with the DBA Iberian Spanish army.

You can tell it's holidays - when else would I have time to do this. The bulk of the painitng has been completed, with straps, boots, weapons, and horse furniture to be done, before finishing the bases. I think they'll be ready for the Woolston DBA tournament on 10 January.








I was especially pleased with today's acquisition: this fine looking piece for use as the army's Camp. I am aware that the Spanish at this stage were certainly not some group of 'hairy barbarians', and I have been wondering exactly what I should use as my camp.

A visit to a local aquarium shop yielded up this little beauty: a ruin, admittedly, but suitably splendid all the same, I felt.

Middle East scenario .. the Es Salt raid.

It's been a while but I finally got around to posting another WW1 scenario to 'The Great Adventure'. The scenario (The End of the Es Salt raid) was sent to me by Eric Spicer, a WW1 'gaming colleague who has authored most of the Middle east scenarios on the web site. It includes Australian Light Horse and NZ Mounted, as well as an armoured car and a couple of Light Cars.., on the ANZAC side, and plenty of Turkish infantry opposing them. The battle was ample proof that despite the decline of Turkish arms and influence later in the war, Turkish soldiers were still capable of giving allied forces a good 'bloody nose' in 1918.



The scenario provides good excuse to buy and paint up some of the new HaT Australian Light Horse figures, if you are 'gaming in 20mm. I must get myself organised and get some more of these great figures painted and ready to fight.. Andy's Turkish infantry are waiting!!

Next new project..

Another new project, but this time one that shouldn't take too long to complete. At the October Conquest tournament, I won a 15mm DBA army, one of the pre-packed armies from Corvus Belli - the Iberian Spanish. I hasten to add that there was no talent involved there.. a random draw for those who didn't win a place, and the army was kindly sponsored by Corvus Belli, after approaches from tournament organiser Keith McNelly.

With the DBA tournament at Woolston on 10 January, I really need to get these guys painted, so I've made a start. The photos provide a little insight into the messy nature of my painting table...oooopss!!!





Normally these would be mounted individually on large 6" flat head nails (using blue tack) to provide an easy way to hold each figure, and then painted before basing. However, since the figures aren't based 4 to a base, I've decided to try to paint them pre-based. I reckon that with only 3 per base I can get to the figures reasonably easily with a paint brush. We''ll see.

So, they have been cleaned of any flash (not a lot), with washed with detergent and warm water, based, and sprayed with black undercoat prior to starting the painting.

I'll post pictures once they are finished.

Wargamers of certain age...

Wargamers of a certain age will doubtless have noted the recent sad passing of perhaps one of our more famous 'comrades in scale', Edward Woodward.

Woodward most probably came to your attention in his television role as David Callan, spy and hit man with a conscience. However if you are a wargamer of a certain age you are quite likely to have vivid recollections of Woodward engaging in his screen and personal hobby as a wargamer, watching him in episodes such as 'Act of kindness', or latterly in "Callan: the movie" engaging in a napoleonic campaign or, in the movie, playing ACW battles over terrain created by the late Peter Gilder.

At the time of his death I resisted the temptation to make comment, but I guess some could argue that no wargames blog would be complete without some acknowledgement of his passing.

'Gamer Bob Cordery has recently made an interesting and nostalgic post on Woodward, and a quick Youtube search will reveal some nice little snippets from Callan episodes.

Thanks for the inspiration Mr Woodward!!!

BAOR expansion...

It seems to be Spearhead season again, and I've been thinking a lot about Modern Spearhead, as well as playing a few games, and even catching up on some painting. I've had the vehicles and figures to complete another Mechanised Infantry battalion in the BAOR for well over a year, but other projects have taken precedence, until this week.

A game against Keith a couple of weeks ago, and another game yesterday (here's a link to Keith's write up 'Chieftains and Choppers - 1982' on his blog), prompted me to get these guys finished. This battalion is mounted in Saxon APCs, which identifies it as a Mechanised Infantry battalion in an infantry division.

Here's the full battalion of fighting stands (no support stands at this stage) as modeled in Modern Spearhead.

Angel Flyers take on the Elves...

Another saga in the round of HotT games, this time with two armies facing opponents for the first time: Lorraine's Angels, and Adrian's Elves. Lorraine was busy, so I had the homour of commanding the Angels.

The Angel army is all flyers with:

1 x Aerial Heroine general

2 x Airboats

6 x Flyers

The Elves boasted:

1 x Magician General

1 x Paladin

3 x Flyers

2 x Shooters

3 x Spears

The battle began innocently enough with the Elves defending and taking first turn. They were however left pretty well unmolested and able to deploy as they wished as I managed to throw a 1 for PIPs for the first three turns - those Angels were going nowhere. This first photo shows the Angels right flank with the Aerial Heroine supported by 4 flyers. The Angels had deployed the two airboats on the left, supported by the remaining flyers.

Adrian had deployed his Paladin on his right, a long way away from the Magician in order to avoid the "purer than pure" influence of the Paladin on his Magician. The Paladin and flyers went straight into action. attacking the Angels left. The first combat saw the Paladin eliminate an airboat.. high factors combined with a '6' made quite an impression!! Early Elven magic had also driven an angel flyer to flee from the battlefield.

One of the Elven flyers suffered a similar fate with a '1' vs a '6'.. whew!!

Finally getting some movement PIPs, the Angel Heroine attacked the exposed flank of the Elven left wing, supported by a flyer. Initially however the Heroine was repulsed buy this '1' vs '5'

The Elven Magician was exposed as a result of a successful round of combat.

Finally the Aerial Heroine confronted the Elven Magician General. Even a '1' vs '4' wasn't enough to save the Magician, and that was the game.

Here's a nice close-up of Adrian's Elven Paladin.. nice work. It was the first time we had used a Paladin in battle.. very powerful troops.. ouch ... Certainly saw my airboats off!!