Some Renaissance Figs

Today's paint jobs.

First some Spanish pike, complete with frothing priest which will accompany my Spaniards. A bit of stereotyping but why not. Wargames Atlantic Conquistadors and Foundry/Casting Room “command”. The plastics are ok....some pieces are a bit smooth and lack detail while others give a bit of an ape like look to the finished pose. Based together though they look ok and I've got enough with two boxes to give me two bases of pike, the shot to go with them and to make up some halberdiers/bills and Spanish cavalry using the Perry WOTR Light Horse set.

I will add a flag from the rather excellent 80 Years War Facebook group. It has flags for Spanish units which are rather colourful, correct for the period and a change from the usual red and white. 

We'll see how long the plastic spears last.....

Next some rescued Empire Pistoliers. Tails repaired, armour calmed down, mounts retouched and plumes repainted.  Citadel bases trimmed off and dremelled down in thickness, then the figs fixed in place with a mix of superglue and pva to give a strong flexible bond between the plastic and the mdf. I have some redoubt figures on order...(will see how long they take to turn up!), but I'm hoping they're a good fit size ways as these are nice figures, particularly the firing pose, but I'm two short for a unit and I don't want to pay the daft prices they go for on eBay.

Have to say I’m really enjoying painting renaissance stuff and am working my way through the 2nd and 3rd Tudor Art of Warre books from Helion and their One Faith, One Law, One King book on the armies of the French Wars of Religion which arrived today. I have a core of pike, shot and mounted figures now to which I am adding units to give the army a flavour of one nationality or the other as well as interchangeable flags. I have my eye on some nice resin figures as French. 

We had a game at Oldmeldrum Wargames Club last week using Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames with a few mods by yours truely. We will give them another go this week - weather permitting! I'll take some pics this time. 

The Other Partizan

I was lucky enough to get to attend the Other Partizan today in Newark. I'm glad I did. The standard of display games was both outstanding and inspirational. 

I've taken pictures of just some of them - the ones which I particularly liked.

The Gothenburg Gamers: Russo-Turkish no it's not the Crimean War

Lovely figures. A mix of mainly foundry with a few other ranges. It was nice to see another aspect of what we know as the Crimean War, this time focusing on the Turkish war in the Balkans. 

The League of Gentlemen Anti-Alchemists. Garibaldi in Sicily

Using Gringo 40's lovely Redshirt and Neapolitan figures. 

Boondock Sayntes - 28mm Mughal game. 

Such detail! Wall paintings, dancing girls, fountains, elephants! 

Like a Stonewall WGC - Spanish Reconquista.

An astonishing amount of 3D printed figures and wonderful citadel. Had a good catchup with Tim Whitworth about rules and various things. 

Bramley Barn Wargames Club Elizabethan Ireland Game.

A wonderful selection of figures from different manufacturers pooled to make the the two sides in this game . Had a good chat with Roger about figures and rules and the period in general. 

Other games 

WW1 game

Medieval game with lovely castle.

Games I missed....

Buried in the middle of the hall was the Perry Bros Franco Prussian War. I saw it but it was busy and I didn't get a chance to look in more detail or take pics. !!!

The Iron Brigade's lovely winter fantasy game complete with hanging icicles...so chilly atmospheric.  Chatted away but forgot to take snaps...Doh!

I managed to catch up with few folks which is always nice. I enjoy the social as much as the spectacle, if not more.

I acquired some loot too. Wargames Atlantic WW1 Brits and Conquistadores, Perry Mini's Renaissance light horse and some of the new Ottoman irregulars and some bits and pieces for other armies and times. Not a lot, but just what I wanted to collect. 

Partizan is the best of all the shows I've been to. It is so because of the quality of the display games. They are collectively head and shoulders above anything else I've seen. I shall be back. 

"....And then one day you find ten years have got behind you...."

I don't know what made me look, but I made my first post 10 years ago apparently. I hadn't realised and I missed the date.

Gosh. 

Stepping back in time my Napoleonic rules are still being used - Graham H and I used them in September this year. I did collect SYW armies - not the Reichsarmee or Brunswick's army but, British, French, Russian, Neapolitan, Spanish and an "imagination" army, the Archbishopric of Hoegaarden. The Bara refight seems a lifetime ago and that video...oh dear! 

Well I wonder what the next 10 hold.  

Partizan is next weekend, I think I will treat myself to something nice. 

Franco Prussian War

To Forres last Sunday for a chat with Graham H about a future project and a Franco - Prussian game. More about the former another time, but our Franco Prussian collection is getting large and whilst we wait for the Perry's to build up the range I now have 3 Divisions of French infantry whilst Graham's got about 2 Divisions of Prussians. We both need cavalry and artillery more infantry.

That didn't stop us having a game though, to test my home made rules which are a pastiche of bits of Osprey's blue book activation and other mechanisms. A few tweaks are required, and we worked out a way to represent off table artillery which helps give the battlefield the right sort of depth and the Prussians the ability to plaster the French, and negate the power of the Chassepot...although they still need to take the ground. 

Piccies below from what was a rather nice day.

The Battle of Portlethen - 1780

Whilst looking for an ex colleagues new business I stumbled across an account of a skirmish between Scottish Fencibles and French Privateers in 1780. Couple this with 6 hours in a train and I wrote a wee skirmish scenario for it. 

You can download it on the Free Stuff tab, along with an earlier scenario I wrote as an addition to the Sugar Islands Campaign book. 

Sunday was a sunny day so I had a quick play test in the garden. Let's just say things didn't go well for the Fencibles!