Saturday, June 18, 2011

WSS Cavalry in 28mm plastics Redeux

Wargames Factory have decided to release their WSS cavalry a lot earlier than previously imagined. Check out the news here. At 12 figures to the box, these will cost approximately 25% of the current rate for a similar model in metal. I am chuffed!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mustering the Troops, Part IV

Just a quick note. The first battalion off WSS infantry is nearly finished. The bases are on the way, and when they arrive, I will base the troops and do any final touch ups. Here is the final paint job for this unit.

I placed a small order for Front Rank officers and standard bearers, which arrived yesterday. Here they are, before I prime them. The officers will be used as brigade commanders and I will use a FR standard bearer in each of my battalions. The standard bearers I assembled will, instead, be used as pikemen.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Little General's Club: June Game

This month, we played an ACW game, the scenario was the Wilderness/Spotsylvania. It was a great game, with plenty of action. The following battle report was written by the umpire, Bryan.
Phase 1
The battle of the Wilderness.  My son, Grant and myself were the Confederates who were "pre-programmed" with "triggers" that would cause them to activate.  The Union army was led by Neil as General Grant ably assisted by Jeff as Meade.

 Spring time march in the wild

They decided to bring Sheridan and the Union Cavalry Corps (Richard) across near Piney Branch Church.  They were met by the Rebel Cavalry near Todd's Tavern.  The rebel cavalry was ably led by Grant who promptly dismounted and then joined into a massive battle against charging union cavalry. 
Union cav approaching the far crossroads. For most, this would be their last morning.

 A.P. Hill advances his corps
 Jubal Early attempts to cut the main road
 Longstreet's lead elements and the rebel cavalry
I switched up the deployment of the Rebs with AP Hill along the Orange Turnpike and Jubal Early along the Orange Plank RoadLongstreet came up the unfinished railroad.   Longstreet took some of the union cavalry brunt and Richard didn't realize he was in a "L".  The union Cavalry was caught in the apex and took a hard beating.  The rest of the union army marched hard to try to clear the Wilderness area End of Phase 1
 Warren (Justin)'s lead division as they are about to earn their place in Valhalla
 Hancock's men advancing with rapidity.
 Burnside's troops, who first started up the wrong road, but quickly turned onto the correct path

Phase 2
 Justin's boys following their new orders
Warren (Justin) came down the Germana Plank road, but got orders from Meade (Jeff) to stop and deploy his leading division at the Wilderness Tavern.  Burnside (Duncan) came flying over to try to rescue Sheridan.  The rebel Cavalry met him squarely at Piney Branch Church.  Both sides then fought it out with the rebel Cavalry keeping the IX Corps back. 

Phase 3
David, playing as Hancock, marched via Ely's Ford and then came down to Orange Plank Road.
Hancock and Early got fully involved between Wilderness Tavern and Orange Plank Road.
 Hancock coming to relieve the pressure in the center
AP Hill came up and got into The rear of Warren's column back closer to the Germanna Ford.  In the mean time Sedgewick's corps was following behind Warren .  Michael played Sedgewick alongside Jeff who, as Meade, took ovler the rearmost two divisions of Warren's column.

Phase 4
Longstreet (Bryan's son, Grant) helped hold the attack from David as well as keeping Hancock and the IX Corps back.  He also forced the Union Cavalry Corps to flee from the field  field..  He was the overall winner of the game.

 Longstreet piles in as Hancock reaches the crossroads

Early got his ass kicked by David, but did a fairly even up battle against Warren. Warren had two divisions that were pretty much ravaged.  Early had 2 brigades that were at full strength and one that had taken just one stand of loss, everything else was beaten up pretty good with two units completely destroyed.  David declared an individual winner with Justin getting a draw.  David did some damage to Longstreet, and a lot of the damage to Early.  He got a win.
 
Jeff (Meade) repulsed AP' Hill's flank attack and had the rebs running at the end of the game along with Michael, both got a win. [actually, it was all Michael as Meade was further up the road].
Sedgewick (Michael) gets hit in the flank while on the march, but he quickly recovers and sends the rebs packin'
 A.P. Hill's final position. My Zoaves in the center-right are about to meet their maker at the hands of massed artillery.

Overall all union players got a victory as the casualties were about even with the rebs taking just a few more casualties than the Feds; 20,000 to 17,000.

I used a very old rules set called "Fast play American Civil War."  It was very good and fun.  The same set I used for our eye-level games.  I need to make a couple of minor adjustments to it, but since I held the rules and didn't let anyone else have them it wasn't any problem. 

For everyone there, and those who weren't, I did the game the way I did--the entire club against my pre-programmed opponent-so that we could have an umpire completely in control of the rules and the club could play with everyone on one side.  This eliminated all of the minor problems, and I think everyone was overall very happy with the outcome of the game or with how the game was played.  I thank everyone, that was a very fun game to umpire and partially play in.

At the end of the game we were fighting from the Germanna Ford all the way down along Brock road, then up Catharpin Road to Piney Branch Church. 


The scale was 1:200.  At this end we had nearly the entire Union and Rebel Armies on the table.  Every Corps was at least partially involved in fighting.  The table had plenty of trees and lichen, as well as some of my rail fences along with roads, streams, and buildings.  At 1:200 that meant that we had 850 stands on the table.  I think that meant that we had something like 1900 figures enaged in the game.  I know the Rebel army was fully engaged with at least a like number of Union troops, somewhere around 400-500 stands were being counted into combat in the last turns.

Thank you to everyone for your sportsmanship.  Also, thank you for your gamesmanship.

Big lesson.  Being in skirmish order reduces casualties significantly in the game.  Being in skirmish order gets your ass kicked in close combat.
Changes for the next game--
Artillery crews, and they will abandon the guns when their morale faails
More potentiial leader casualties
The umpire(s) will keep the melee and shooting charts.

Note from Justin: What Bryan does not mention was that my two lead divisions of six brigades faced approximately twelve to thirteen rebel brigades from two different corps. At the end, I had lost 54 out of 60 stands of infantry, with one lone stand routing off the table...only that one brigade failed morale, the rest stood and died. Of the three Union corps on my side of the table, mine took the brunt of the assault and was stuck in to the very last.
 Almost all that is pictured here falls upon just two of my brigades.
 First Division defends the flank and cover themselves in glory
 The sounds of the rebel yell are now heard
   The is the aftermath of the large push by the rebs. My last brigade of the first division is left to defend the line. The center brigade is totally gone and the left brigade (which is out of frame) has taken 60% casualties, but remains stuck in, with a single stand left at game end.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Mustering the Troops, Part III

Even with my sons here, I was able to get in a little late-night painting done on Saturday and Sunday. 
 
Using the colors pictured at top, I began work on the drummer, whose coat would be the same as the facing color for the rest of the battalion. The pic on the above shows the results after the first two colors have been applied.

 These are the colors I used for the leatherwork, but I am not quite sure it looks right. I think I may use the Vallejo Buff as only a highlight, in the future, as the uniform plates I am using as a source indicate a much more yellowish-brown for the buff coloring than what the Vallejo Buff paint gives (looks too cream colored, imo).
 While there is entirely too much light in this pic, you can still see how the leather appears. I worked to keep the painting of the parts consistent, meaning I always painted the different faces in the same direction on each model.
 Sorry that this is blurry, but I was fighting with my camera at 2am. It is just another look at how the leather turned out, as well as the green on the cuffs.

 These are the colors I used in order, from left to right, for the coats (and drummer's cuffs). I mixed Vallejo Lemon Yellow (because that is the only yellow I currently have) 1:1 with GW Blood Red for the final highlight on the coats and drummer's cuffs.

I have since chosen to paint the legwear as trousers and hose. I hope to post pics of that later, perhaps tomorrow evening.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Weekend Update

Well, I did not get the painting done as I had wanted. I awoke with a migraine on Thursday and was pretty much out of it all day. I did place a special order for two bottles of the Reaper drying retarder, to help with my painting multiple models at a go.

I contacted Barry Hinton at The League of Augsburg and purchased the .pdf version of 1st edition Beneath the Lily Banners. Man, I really do like these rules (thanks to Ray). I hope to buy the 2nd edition rules later this summer as I expect any improvements or changes add to the experience of the game.  Dealing with Barry was a joy and I highly recommend for anyone to deal with him.

I have gone through most of my storage boxes, some paint leaked on a number of things, other models were broken...alas...and have to inventory the loose metal and loose plastic sprues. So, in a week or two, I should have an extensive list of Warmaster, Mordheim, Warhammer, 40k, Man O' War, and Lord of the Rings in order to sell them off.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mustering the troops, Part II

I just have not been able to find my paint brushes, so I went ahead and spent some of the dosh that I made from selling part of my collection of GW miniatures. I ended up getting five of the GW paint brushes from the Crazy Squirrel. I have always preferred the GW brushes to any other hobby brush manufacturer. I have (still in a box somewhere!!) GW brushes that are about twenty years old and should I find them, they will be quite useful.

Sorry that the pic is a bit dark, my hobby lamp needs a new bulb (I dropped the lamp..sigh). But if you zoom in on it, you should be able to see well enough.

The above pic shows some primed models in the back, with the front models having a bit of GW Scorched Brown applied at about a 1:1 ratio (water:paint).

I have not painted historical miniatures in a long time, and my last painting project was a Warhammer Khorne army. I essentially started this WSS infantry in the same way as I did the Khorne warriors; except, in this case, I used Vallejo Flat Red (because I don't have very many of their paints, yet) in addition to my normal GW palette.
 Here is a slightly better pic, which shows the scorched brown.
I use scorched brown first, because it is a warmer base for red than is black. If I had had GW Vermin Brown, I may have used that instead, because it is still warmer...but a bit more orange for my taste. Everywhere that is going to be flesh colored, red, wood, or brass, I painted a single coat of scorched brown. 
From left to right, GW Red Gore, + Vallejo Flat Red, + GW Blood Red.
In the above pic, the far right figure also has a small highlight of GW Blood Red mixed 1:1 with Vallejo Lemon Yellow.  If this were a personality figure, I would have gone two more grades of highlighting.
 
Now, I know that many of you are wondering why I primed these figures in black. Well, they would be far too bright for me if I had primed them white...and I know that a lot of you would suggest I give them a wash or a dip to make them dingy. My answer is I get about the same effect by just priming them black. 


I decided to paint the cuffs and backs a dark green, which I will have to go purchase....sigh. The leather will all be buff, but I have Vallejo Buff for that. I just am not sure what I will use as a shadow and highlight for buff.

One thing I did notice about these figures is that there are actually two different poses for the single piece model. The coat is creased slightly differently and opposing feet are shifting. 

I really need to sell more of my GW collection as I need a better hobby lamp (one that sits on the table instead of clamps on), about a half dozen more paints, blue tack, and bases (!).  I can get a few of the paints tomorrow, but have to wait on the rest of the items on my list. 

Aside from that, I hope to have this unit almost completed by this time tomorrow.