I reserve the right to change my mind!

 

I have been mulling over the Thirty Years War project I would like to do. I had tried painting a free sprue of Epic Pike and Shotte but didn't really get on with them.  I also bought a test box of the 28mm Pike and Shotte plastic figures.

On Monday I tried assembling the 28mm plastics and got so frustrated with them (I really don't get on with multi-part 28mm) that I threw them in the bin in disgust!

Then I had a look at metals and realised it was going to be far too expensive for the size of games I wanted (circa £40 a unit).

I have been playing around with washes to paint some fantasy and boardgame figures so wondered if perhaps I could use that approach on smaller figures.  I bit the bullet and bought a box of Epic Pike and Shot Battalia for the 30YW on Amazon (£7 a unit - much better!) and they arrived Tuesday morning.

Got them undercoated and started painting on Tuesday - finished today.  I think thay look fine!  They are pretty quick to paint and, once you decide to treat a spue like one 28mm figure, you can gloss over the detail you aren't going to see anyway.

25mm WSS French

 

Test paint of one painting strip of Minifigs 25mm French Marlburians - trying to get a colour I like.  Happy with them so on to the other 19 in the unit..

First 40mm AWI Game

Having managed to finally finish painting enough figures for a 24pt force for each side for Rebels and Patriots, I finally played a game with the figures at the club on Monday against Martin.

Martin took the British and I took the Americans.  We played an encounter game as it was the simplest and Martin initially had the best of the movement and firing.  Things started to turn when his grenadiers charged and stopped at the bottom of the hill enabling my Militia unit to charge them.  They lost the melee but did cause some casualties on the Grenadiers before fleeing the field.

After that, things started to even up and Martin's luck changed with one of his units even firing on the commander's unit at one point (double - one blunder roll).

It was close but I finally broke the Grenadiers and then Martin had a turn in which he failed to roll above 4 on any rally roll and two more units went and it was an American victory.

Fun game and really nice to get these on the table.  We discovered afterwards that Pat the the club has some 40mm French Indian Wars so we are planning to use those as well for another game.

More 40mm AWI

 

I have finally finished the last 2 units of 40mm AWI Americans (which double up to a 24 figure unit).

I now have enough figures painted for a small 24pt a side Rebels and Patriots game which I have booked for next Monday at the club.

Fencing Finished

 Finally finished off the AWI Snake Rail Fencing for the 40mm collection.  Might add some flocking/stones to the bases but they are done for now...

Snake Rail Fencing

 

As I am getting close to having enough 40mm AWI painted for a game, I decided it was time I started on some scenery.  I need a fair amount of snake-rail fencing to give the battlefield that "american" look and so bought a few packs of wooden dowels from Amazon and set to work on designing some fences.

The above is my first test piece shown with a 40mm Continental.

After that, I cracked on and have finished just under 12 feet of fencing.

Now (once it stops raining) I need to prime, paint and then finish the bases.

40mm AWI Continentals

 

12 more AWI Continental infantry finished.  These have been sitting on the painting table nearly done since the start of the New YEar.

24 more to finish off in white facings which will hopefully get done soon.