Defenders of the City

 

Next off the workbench (at last) are 50 Minifigs French Marlburian infantry for Dendermonde - they have been hanging around getting closer and closer to being finished for quite a while. 

This brings the french forces to somewhere just over 150 defenders.  The allies are somewhere around 100 so far I think.

Lots more to go - but probably onto guns and crew next to help with working on the siege lines.

Painting Update

 Two very different sets finished this week:

 

 First attempt at French vehicles and some french camouflage .  The two trucks are Frontline Wargaming Resin, the Laffley 20 and the bus are 3d prints.

There is a lot more to follow this with a whole bunch of french tanks and more transport.

I also finished 10 flying Kraag Warriors for Space 1889 for a friend's collection.  They are painted to his spec (so gloss) and awaiting their final bases so I can finish them completely.

Next up I need to finish some Marlburians and then maybe some more TYW Epic and even some 20mm Sudan seem to be beckoning...

Rethinking Epic Thirty Years War

 

I have been having a long think about my TYW Epic project and came to the conclusion that the units (at 180mm wide) are just too big for my playing area and are going to result in lack of manouevre in any games.

I looked into possibly splitting the sprues in half and came across Dartfrog's blog  ( https://dartfrog06mm.blogspot.com/search/label/TYW ) where he has gone through the the same exercise and I am impressed enough with the results to decide to copy it and to base everything on one base for a unit. These should still work with Through the Square Window (which I think are my rules of choice) as they don't use stand removal.

This way the units will be 3.5" wide which is only about 90mm.

I have put together a test Scottish in Swedish service unit first to check how it look but the sprues split surprisingly easily, and I think the results once painted don't look any different from normal wargames distances.

The first test piece for TYW rebasing:

 

Painted in 3 hours (2 hours while not watching Traitors last night and this morning at 6am when I couldn't sleep).

 

Happy with the look and there is something wonderfully tactile about hold a whole unit like this in your hand....

Also I have ordered a whole load of Scottish and English musketeers from Peter Pig to add to the stands to make them look a little bit busier and more dynamic with some skirmishers out the front.

It also means that the 3 Swedish units I have finished will suddenly be 6 units (once I have painted another couple of strips of pike)

There are few reasons for going with this change, one of which is the realisation that I don't have the time to produce everything I want to get painted and on the table and smaller units take less time to produce.

I like the idea of a single base unit for Pike and shot - it eliminates some of the problems which arise with sets like Black Powder and Pike units targeting musket units  and lets you abstract the unit’s abilities into a single unit.

I think I am over my desire to produce really big units for the look of it - I use 12 figure units for my Napoleonics and my 25mm Franco-Prussian and they look fine to me, let me put on the size of game I want on the normal 6 x 5 table we have at the Guildford Club and fit more easily into my games room.

My main opponent away from the club prefers games that last 2 hours rather than 3 or 4 and playing on a smaller table lets me play the same game and get a result without reducing everything to 6 units a side.  I would prefer longer games but manage to get 3-hour games at the Guildford Club and occasionally at home.

I also have half an eye on using these for a hex based rule set or on grids which is something I have moved to for some periods  - the games are quicker, remove problems to do with wheeling, etc.  A single base unit less than 4" wide will fit on my command and colours mat or on Hexon if I went down that root.

Lastly, I actually like the look of the single base units over the very wide standard Warlord Black Powder unit.  I never had any intention to model exactly the ratio of Pike to Shot in each unit (been there, done that with Forlorn Hope) - I am happy just changing the unit's stats to match the firepower, melee, etc.

Through the Square Window rules use 30mm stands to make up units (with 6 pike and 4 musket stands in a Tercio) so I could have gone that way with this, but I find small stands too fiddly.  I like the look of the Tercios games I have seem in style which uses bases like this - but dislike the use of order cards for every unit, which I think would slow games down massively.

I do realise that quite a few people don't like the look or the abstraction, but everyone can choose their own solution. 

 

Rationalising

 

Not managed to paint or assemble anything in this last week.  Made a start on painting some Space 1889 Martians for a friend but only got the flesh done.

I spent some time trying to work out how to fit all the WW2 stuff I am currently basing and the associated vehicles in the storage space I have for painted figures and realised that I needed more space and even then where will the Marlburians, AWI and Epic TYW go when I have them done?  Painted stuff takes up so much more space than neatly packed away bags of figures that fit into drawers and small boxes.

So, I finally made a tough decision and decided to sell my GW LOTR collection.  I started collecting the figures in 2002 when they came out and have amassed quite a few for playing Kings of War now - mostly picked up second hand at Bring and Buys when the figures dropped out of fashion before The Hobbit films with a few purchases on Ebay and a number painted up from new when I first started (and GW prices were merely eye watering rather than eye-gouging).

Sadly, my main opponent for KoW and LOTR at the club, Pat, died last March and I haven't played a game since.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest amongst the rest of Guildford to play anything bigger than Lion Rampant or particularly play fantasy.

I have come to the conclusion that it is more sensible to concentrate on Frostgrave for my Fantasy itch as it requires far fewer figures, gives me an excuse to get the Reaper bones figures I have painted up and I have already made a lot of scenery for it.

The LOTR take up 12 boxes, so quite a lot of space on the shelves - maybe 500-600 figures I thought.

Having photographed them all and listed them on Facebook there are 908!  which includes counting mounted, trolls, etc as 1 figure (I have 32 Warg Riders! and lots of Rohan, etc).  

It may have got out of hand  (is 170 goblins too many?).

Anyway, sales are starting to come through - I've sold 73 figures so far and cleared a fair amount of money already with some other pending sales and I managed to clear out two bisley cabinet drawers of 20mm ACW and move them into 2 of  the empty boxes which frees up the drawers for French WW2 vehicles.

What doesn't sell on Facebook after a few weeks will go on ebay priced for a fairly quick sale and hopefully most of it will be gone by the end of Feb.

WW2 Resin and 3d Prints - clearing a backlog

 

Been working on some vehicles for the 20mm WW2 French and downloaded an stl file for a Laffly 20 TL from Wargaming3D as no one seems to make one in resin or metal.  The file is beautifully detailed and so even at 28mm it won't print the open topped model as the windscreen and steering wheel are far too fine for an FDM printer even without scaling the model down to 1/72.

Fortunately they do a closed model and this prints okay.  First test 3d print below.

Windscreen is a bit odd - I need to try adjusting the angle of print to see if that improves it.  I can sort it out on this model with some paper or card covering it or fill it.

I have also been trying to get all my Frontline resin models assembled but haven't been able to undercoat them due to the rain.

SDFZ10 german transport awaiting their primer

Mix of Somuas and H35s awaiting their primer

Three 3d printed isobloc W240 buses used by the French and Germans.  These are from a file on Thingiverse.

I am currently assembling some armoured cars and a couple of civilian trucks which just leaves some German tanks to do.

Also, heads up that Tim at Frontline is retiring and the last day for new orders is 26th February. 

I have just ordered more french tanks, some sdfz70s  (and some Char B1s from Early War Miniatures as he doesn't make them).

Eric Knowles' French WW2

 

Slowly painting some more Marlburians and waiting for the rain to stop so I can do some undercoating. In between that I decided it really was time I took a look at the French, German and Belgian WW2 collections in 20mm that I bought 2.5 years ago and that  have sat in a drawer ever since.  They are all figures from Eric Knowles' collection that I bought through David Crook.

I have started rebasing the French initially, so here is a French Battalion rebased and waiting for the bases painting and flocking.  There is a fair amount of 75mm, 175mm and 155mm support artillery to also sort out and some trucks to sort as well.

I have about the same amount of French Colonial troops to rebase as well and sort with all the support elements.

These should let me play the various French scenarios in the Rapid Fire Blitzkrieg books once I have assembled and painted about another 15 tanks! (I have 3 French tanks at the moment...).

I'd really like a couple of buses for transport as well.

25mm Minifigs SYW Army

 

Finished rebasing my 25mm Minifigs SYW French.  This is the last of the large collection I bought last year that is now all rebased and supplemented with some figures from Ian Hinds.

total of 12 Infantry, 2 cavalry 2 guns and 10 commanders.  I need to add more cavalry and arillery but will supplement with Austrians for now.