Catchup, a book and a German Exercise.

Well it's been a while. For those waiting for a post-show report on last weekend's inaugural Scottish Battlefield's Trust wargames show, one has been written, but is not likely to appear on here, but rather will be cross posted from the Helion & Co. publishers blogHelion and Co. publishers blog website. All I can say for now is that it was a barnstorming success, and that this has almost certainly warranted a return in the New Year. Better get planning.

For those of you possibly connected to Helion Publishing, Devereux's regiment of the ECWS or are frequent followers of Wars of Louis Quatorze, might have noticed the recent cover for yours trulies debut publication. This will cover the development, implementation and reality that can be gleaned from military manuals of the period such as Ward, Bariffe and de Gheyn and how they were enacted on the battlefield, while equally using their deposits to highlight individual units and landscapes within the battlescape. Already available to preorder from Amazon-as well as the accompanying journal article , published 15 August, with an official launch also being held at the Century of the Soldier Conference in Shrewsbury, which I'll be attending. Keep an eye on this series as they are also producing a range of wargaming and specialist publications through this logo, hopefully a number of which I will be reviewing and playtesting on this blog.

Meanwhile, painting has been slow, with article writing, preparation for the Prestonpans Show and painting for the Lion Rampant tournament in April taking precedence. However I did manage to buy further forces for my Restoration project last week and a World War II Bolt Action battle (the first in a while) on Tuesday night at the club. Wanting to playtest the new additions to my German Army, (a Puma and FW190) and having rushed there, myself and my gaming partner Paul decided to fight an engagement from very late in the war Wehrmacht/Volksgrenadier against Waffen SS. I didn't manage to take many photos but this is the result. I do feel as if he and myself have very much become engaged in an arms race, both in terms of troops and terrain,(he's currently painting a Panther and putting onto the table some very nice ruined buildings, walls and 4Ground MDF Fencing-myself [diverting from other projects I might add] starting work on a bunker, a series of tank traps, an industrial complex and a number of ruined buildings-quite a set up I should think by the end) Here is the result//

A PanzerIV inches its way onto the battlefield, providing cover for advancing infantry and making itself heard. Against raw Volksgrenadier this should be a cake walk

Meanwhile, on their other flank German Infantry are held down in a firefight with German infantry in the ruins. The Howitzer very much proved the king of the battlefield that day, inflicting meagre, but effective casualties on their opponents. It even sucked up all the antitank fire from the Puma, forcing it away from the main objectives-no mean fete.

PanzerIV reigns supreme...not for long. Two shots fired into the Stug before its wrath was bought to bare, its 88mm gun making mincemeat of its more manouevrable foe.

The first game where we've included aircraft, my new FW180, more than makes up for its points cost. With four autocannons and two HMG's it virtually anhilated an entire squad in one term, and make for some fantastic dicerolling, with its speed meaning it is virtually impregnable to anything but the best antiaircraft fire. However, despite the number of casualties I inflicted and the number of units pinned, it was not enough to carry the game, me losing by two points, a lot better margin than previously. Maybe some more aircover is needed... :)

A 15mm FOGR game between 1650 New Model Army and Royalist Covenanter/Scots was also being played out and looked very impressive, the Scots having the worst of the action. Although I didn't see much of the action, it did seem an innordinate number of units was routing from the field, but did look very impressive. With the amount of interest currently being shown in the period at the club at the moment, really eager to get going again in gaming this period once April is past.

Next week a possible SYW Kings of the Battlefield report

Objectives for 2016

So a bit late I know, but thought it would be a useful endeavour to cover what I actually plan to do wargaming wise and timetable projects for this year. Since the New Year a couple more projects have come to the fore, so this is expanding on existing projects.

1. Lion Rampant Army for Earl of Mar-Using Perry Miniatures Plastic HYW miniatures, this will be a lowland Scots late medieval force for the Claymore Rampant wargames day event being held by Claymore Castings. Predicted end of project 22nd March

2. ECW-With the spate of English Civil War rules being released including The Kingdom is Ours, Bicorne Miniatures, Baroque Impetus, The Pikeman's Lament, En Garde and the Pike and Shotte Supplement, a working army for the period is essential. Other projects keep on getting in the way, so a finishing preliminary date pushed back from originally is May 1st. 

3.May Zulu-Forming forces for the The Men Who Would be Kings rules for the Zulu Civil Wars, this has been on the painting books for some time, hopefully being expanded into the Zulu wars/Boer Wars at a later date. 7th October

4. 17^th century-Scots government Army for the Pentland/Covenanter Risings/Killing Times. Expected time for finishing, new year.

5. After this occasional work throughout the year will also be put into building a series of earthworks and other terrain features such as 4' walls, a gate and breech, minefields, Rommel's asparagus, vinyards, pontoon bridge, tank traps, marsh, Bulwarks 3’, Damaged sconce, Minehead, Industrial Complex, Winter trees, Winter bushes, ravelin and batteries.

In between, there is a thought towards building a small Border Reiver force. But I think this timetabling is a good way of keeping track of where projects are going.

Mini Mania-Napoleonics and WOTR

Apologies once again for lack of blog updates. The upcoming publication is taking up blogging time and not much has been happening. Hopefully in the coming weeks towards the Prestonpans Wargames show, blog posts might increase.

Anyway, quick update on what I'm up to. Currently finishing off Spitfire for some aerial cover for Bolt Action and just started painting a Lowland Scots Army based on the forces of Earl of Mar for The Battle of Harlaw 1411, for Lion Rampant for the Claymore Rampant event in April, run by the chaps at Claymore Castings. More photos naturally anon.

Anyway here is another selection of past painted materials.

I used to work as a Volunteer and Uniform assistant at the Royal Greenjackets Museum in Winchester, a goldmine with its Waterloo model for any military modeller and wargamer if there ever was one. Luckily they sold the old Suren Tradition of London 54mm figures, which are beautiful and are on my shopping list sometime in the future. Depicted on the Retreat to Corunna, it depicts the ragged nature of campaign uniform in Spain 1809. Again very pleased with the facial features, hope this is a project will return to imminently.

Part of the ongoing 1/72 scale Huge Napoleonic project, these are Italeri 1eme Dragoons, cracking sculpts. Although the image is not particularly good, am very pleased with the Eagle and Guidon, although naturally, these were not often carried on campaign.

Being Portsmouth born and bred, Nelson's naval campaign's were naturally going to pop up at some point. Forged in Battle's 1/3000 scale Napoleonic ships totally do the job. Hoping to expand to the British Navy sometime later this year, these depict the Franco-Spanish fleet of Villeneuve for Trafalgar. While the sculpts do not have the detail of say 1/1200 Langton's, they have a certain charm and the lack of having to rig anything is a bonus in my book. Probably going to be used for Osprey's recent "Fighting Sail Rules

Following on from this is my Army for Lion Rampant. Created for use in the Glasgow Phoenix Wargames Society club project last year, based upon the 1460 Towton campaign during the Wars of the Roses (untrue to form I lost more battles than won). Using a combination of Perry's 15th century Infantry (by far my favourite miniatures company, particular as some of the faces are quite familiar in the reenactment world) and Irregular Miniatures, my force was based around Warwick the Kingmaker's retinue. Called "The King Rat" by the likes of David Chandler, Richard Neville and his ilk Salisbury and Westmoreland basically acted as the powerbrokers in Machiavellian British 15th century politics, back sliding everyone and very much under their banner prelonging withdrawal from the Hundred Years War in France, while deposing, deposing and then reimposing the monarch in the form of Henry VI and Edward IV respectively at St Albans, Northampton, Towton and finally with his death and dismemberment at Barnet.  Certainly for a further painting reference, If you are not using either Osprey's or Europa Militaria books as painting guides, a top class further painting guide is the Kingmaker Exhibition at Warwick Castle, depicting Warwick's household and Retinue preparing for the battle of Barnet, the costuming and dummies being respectively done by Ninya Perry (the Perries wife) and Gerry Embleton, of Osprey and reenactment fame. Well worth a look.

Armour, where possible has been painted using gloss varnish, a military modelling technique I think works quite well. Above is pictured a captain holding aloft the family banner for the de Neville's, rather than the more apparent Bear and Ragged Staff

Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick himself. The Gothic English harness he is wearing has not been painted at all. Instead the armour has been burnished using a pin head in a pin vice, to allow the base metal to shine, then briefly around edges, mail and gauntlets been washed to highlight and then coated liberally in gloss varnish-a technique I think will continue to be used due to how impressive it looks.

You might have noticed that not all the soldiers in my army actually wear the colours or livery coat of the Neville/Warwick Household. Serving as a means of differentiating within the rules for Lion Rampant army lists (2 retinued units, 2 yeomen units) as well as within real life, these soldiers in blue coats actually represent the Windrush Frei Compagnie, as often depicted within the Medieval Siege Society. Returning from the wars in France and the continent during the 1450's as a Free Company of Routiers, without employment (and certainly around the time of Jack Cade) they started ravaging the Suffolk lands under Warwick, who was forced to pay them to stop their excesses. I think this quite clearly matches the clear mercenary attitude towards the makeup of medieval armies. I am currently considering matching them with a further army (two is always better than one, means someone has something to play) for a game based around the 1480 second battle of Bannockburn/Sauchieburn/Richard III's failed campaign in Scotland, again using converted Perry's (ability to be used for later Flodden), watch this space/