end of year finish to a couple of Austrian units

Finally got a couple of Seven Years War Austrian infantry units flagged and flocked before the year end.  Not too bad.  I've now got the flag effect I wanted. 

And the artillery. 

I'm happy to have made a start on my Seven Years War stuff, though I've now a slight reservation about my usual patches of grass effect. I wondered if I might be better just flocking the whole base, but I'll think some more on that.  For now, it's a good start.   

And ongoing work on the 28mm British.  Finally got the chaps into the Bren carrier and the machine gun crew mounted on their base.  The base has been given a coat of khaki round the figures.  I'll do the rest of the base another time, finishing the khaki then highlighting it with sand and a cream colour. 

Roll on 2018, when I might get the British finished.  

More ongoing stuff - 15mm Austrians and 28mm British

Christmas greetings to all.  I hope you're all having a peaceful time and can look forward to a healthy and prosperous new year.  

Gaming activities continue here, though the painting of many figures is not quite finished.  

The first units for my Seven Years War Austrians are essentially finished. I just have to add paper flags and flock. I'll try to finish them this year!  

Another project that's come back to mind are my 28mm British for Bolt Action. They've remained in a semi-painted state for a while. The basic paint job has been good enough to push around in a game, but I'm going to try to get all 60 or so figures finished so they look the part.  

Here I've started to paint the many straps and packs that the British infantry have around them.  

These 3 chaps see me experimenting with colours for the wood work. At the left is a dark brown paint over the green brown I sprayed all the figures, then the centre rifle has a sepia wash, and on the right is a flesh wash. I've decided the brown paint is out for this bit.  I like the sepia wash, though the slightly more reddish tone that comes from the flesh wash does have an appeal. I'll test a lighter highlight later.  

And the rest of the figures.  I'm afraid the jolly spiffing old RAF spotter chap will likely be last to get painted. 

Hopefully I'll get a few more finished before the new year. 

new project and ongoing stuff

Just when I thought it was safe ... after last weeks game I decided to put together some plastic Saxons that I got from a friend some time ago.  That then led to me ordering 4 boxes of the Gripping Beast plastic Saxons and Vikings.  

Here's the test figures so far.  But the big decision at this point is whether to go for 20mm or 25mm circular bases.  Most of the figures (all headless) are on the 20mm sabot bases from Warbases. At the front is one chap of a plastic 25mm base.  

The 20mm option is attractive, particularly as I have the sabot bases, but I do like the bigger 25mm bases. They are also the same size as those for my Wars of Roses figures for Lion Rampant. Decisions, decisions.  

And ongoing stuff - the Seven Years War Austrians move along slowly. Two infantry units are pretty much finished and will mounted in two ranks later.  

More later ....

Last week at the club - a dark ages variant of Lion Rampant

Here are some pictures from our game on Thursday.  All the terrain, 28mm figures and QR sheets were provided by one chap who's thinking of writing an article for a magazine on this game (though not necessarily our specific game). The forces were Normans against Vikings, Saxons and Welsh. 

The setup was eight 24pt forces set up near the number counters on a random basis.  The letter counters were the objectives, with the sides having different objectives. There were only 4 of us playing as other chaps had work shifts or family stuff, so it meant we took 2 forces each. I had Normans. 

First the overall table near the start. It was about 8 to 10ft x 6ft. 

And some closer views.  There were peasants defending the villages and fields. They were controlled by the referee and they were hostile to both sides.  Also, we know that units should remain 3 inches apart, but ... who cares, we're here to get stuck in and have a good game.  

Here's my Norman knights after a tussle with some axemen.  The unit is now down to 3, though my leader has survived so far.  

The single horseman is the remnant of my unit of mounted serjeants. He is off the table next turn.   

A final view towards the end of the game.  The end result was a draw, though I don't think we cared that much.  

The game was great fun and well worth the effort.  It was good to see such a big table and I hope we can do something like this again.