No I have not suddenly turned into Peter Frampton. ;-)
Rather I have begun painting. The artillery park and the skirmishers arrived yesterday, along with Marshall Ney.
Napoleonic Austrians are definitely not all white. There's all those colourful unit facings ;-)
Actually Grenzers and Jagers are not white at all, but brown and grey, and blue besides. So for that matter are the artillery crew, they do have white paints though.
I have discovered a couple of new bits of knowledge concerning Napoleonic Austrians. The first is they had a terrible record. Could this be due to wearing high visibility white uniforms? Second the artillery included a large proportion of Handlangers whose job it was to manhandle the guns. They wore the same uniform as the gunners, but with light blue instead of red facings. Get how I am painting all those guys with trail spikes? The third thing I have learned about austrian artillery concerns painting them. My ochre paint stinks! Really. It is an old bottle Polly-Scale model railroad colour and it has a distinct aroma.
I also realized I forgot to order extra guns to place behind the limbers. Not a big problem, a 4-horse limber eats up enough base size as is, I can always place a gun base turned backwards behind the limber base. Much though I love impedimentia I am not ordering amunition wagons, etc - yet.
Still looking forward in anticipation to the arival of infantry and cavalry....
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Buiding a Remedy....
The waiting is the hardest part of starting a new project. My artillery park has shipped, which means I should be able to start on it Monday.
In the mean time, I realize I have very few suitable buildings for Europe. A google search for cardstock model buildings brought me to a delightful Swiss site. At least I think it's Swiss, I don't read German and the google translation is spotty. The point being that it has over 40 historical buildings free for download as card models.
The buildings represent many of the buildings from a village or town, as well as some farms. Perfect for C18 and 19 Oobleckistan. I am not sure exactly what scale they are. The site mentions using them with N and Z scale model trains, and I am printing them at 89% to fit US letter paper. The result looks to be somewhere between 6mm and 10mm scale judging by the size of doors etc. I plan to use them with 15mm figures, and hope that they look ok. I base my 15s on Litko 3mm bases, so I will probably need to invest in some MDF to base my town sections on, just so it doesn't look too much like Gulliver's Travels. Buildings and scenery to scale with either figures or ground scale never look exactly accurate anyway, so...
Here is the link to the buildings: http://www.grundschule-pretzschendorf.de/Werken/Weihnachtsberg/weihnachtsberg.html
I'll post photos as soon as there is something to show.
In the mean time, I realize I have very few suitable buildings for Europe. A google search for cardstock model buildings brought me to a delightful Swiss site. At least I think it's Swiss, I don't read German and the google translation is spotty. The point being that it has over 40 historical buildings free for download as card models.
The buildings represent many of the buildings from a village or town, as well as some farms. Perfect for C18 and 19 Oobleckistan. I am not sure exactly what scale they are. The site mentions using them with N and Z scale model trains, and I am printing them at 89% to fit US letter paper. The result looks to be somewhere between 6mm and 10mm scale judging by the size of doors etc. I plan to use them with 15mm figures, and hope that they look ok. I base my 15s on Litko 3mm bases, so I will probably need to invest in some MDF to base my town sections on, just so it doesn't look too much like Gulliver's Travels. Buildings and scenery to scale with either figures or ground scale never look exactly accurate anyway, so...
Here is the link to the buildings: http://www.grundschule-pretzschendorf.de/Werken/Weihnachtsberg/weihnachtsberg.html
I'll post photos as soon as there is something to show.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The Thirty Days begin...
One month from today on 6 February our club will be having a Lasalle Tournament. Nothing like an actual scheduled game to get the fires moving.
So begins the "Thirty Days" project, Napoleon had One Hundred and look where it got him ;-) Surely I can do better than exile?
The first step is of course army selection. After a brief bit of scouring for recomendations I have determined the following: 1: The army will be 15mm (my favourite gaming scale). 2: The army will be Austrians as that and Prussians are what is lacking at the club. (Prusia just doesn't grab me.) 3: I will be using the "Avant Garde" list with a cavalry support option.
I still need to decide which cavalry support option will be using so I can order figures. Then the waiting begins... In the mean time I can happily research Napeonic Wargaming Tactics, learn the rules using proxy bases, etc.
My Austrians will feature a large number of Hungarian rather than German troops, and definitely will include the fashionable helmets. These two features will lend them well to Imagi-Nation play as well as saving me from an all white army.
I will prime in white and paint the hands, faces and guns first, just in case....
This is not cheating. I once played most of an F&I game at the club before I noticed that the Indians had simply been primed white and given a wash of brown ink. No actual painting at all...
So begins the "Thirty Days" project, Napoleon had One Hundred and look where it got him ;-) Surely I can do better than exile?
The first step is of course army selection. After a brief bit of scouring for recomendations I have determined the following: 1: The army will be 15mm (my favourite gaming scale). 2: The army will be Austrians as that and Prussians are what is lacking at the club. (Prusia just doesn't grab me.) 3: I will be using the "Avant Garde" list with a cavalry support option.
I still need to decide which cavalry support option will be using so I can order figures. Then the waiting begins... In the mean time I can happily research Napeonic Wargaming Tactics, learn the rules using proxy bases, etc.
My Austrians will feature a large number of Hungarian rather than German troops, and definitely will include the fashionable helmets. These two features will lend them well to Imagi-Nation play as well as saving me from an all white army.
I will prime in white and paint the hands, faces and guns first, just in case....
This is not cheating. I once played most of an F&I game at the club before I noticed that the Indians had simply been primed white and given a wash of brown ink. No actual painting at all...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
I'm Back!
Well it's been a few months since I posted here. I wish I could report on all sorts of juicy gaming activity, but that's just not the case.
I've accomplished very little gaming or painting during the past year, but this year I hope to change that.
My semi-local wargames club has gotten me interested in Napoleonics. They have been playing Lasalle in bothe 15mm and 28mm so I now have the possibility of regular opponents and the motivation to actually paint stuff that comes with that.
I have been given to know that Austrians and Prussians are the most under represented in teh club. So I will be doing Autrians. 15mm is my scale of choice between the two in play. (I would actually prefer 6mm, but takes what I can gets.)
When the promised Victrix plastic Austrians are released I will do a small 28mm force of those, before then it will be 15s.
Yes, I know, neither Austria nor Prussia has much of an interest in Oobleckistan. So I will also be doing forces for the Russo-Turkish war of the period. A perfect match for our long suffering Oblask, and the Russians can certainly be used for more mainstream Napoleonic games.
The way I figure it, if I relocate the 19th Century version of Oobleckistan from the shores of teh Caspian sea to the shores of the Black Sea, near Moldavia, thus putting it at the confluence of three empires, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottoman Turks, I should be able to do semi-plausable "what if?" games involving all three powers. Thus enabling me to play Napoleonics, avoid the ubiquitous French, collect my main interest the Russians and secondarilly the Ottomans, while still having reason to field my Austrians for more than just club games.
And with the fairly static appearance of Ottoman troops (at least as far as my local opponents know)I can field them for both 18th and 19th century games.
At last a wargames project to really sink my teeth into....
I've accomplished very little gaming or painting during the past year, but this year I hope to change that.
My semi-local wargames club has gotten me interested in Napoleonics. They have been playing Lasalle in bothe 15mm and 28mm so I now have the possibility of regular opponents and the motivation to actually paint stuff that comes with that.
I have been given to know that Austrians and Prussians are the most under represented in teh club. So I will be doing Autrians. 15mm is my scale of choice between the two in play. (I would actually prefer 6mm, but takes what I can gets.)
When the promised Victrix plastic Austrians are released I will do a small 28mm force of those, before then it will be 15s.
Yes, I know, neither Austria nor Prussia has much of an interest in Oobleckistan. So I will also be doing forces for the Russo-Turkish war of the period. A perfect match for our long suffering Oblask, and the Russians can certainly be used for more mainstream Napoleonic games.
The way I figure it, if I relocate the 19th Century version of Oobleckistan from the shores of teh Caspian sea to the shores of the Black Sea, near Moldavia, thus putting it at the confluence of three empires, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottoman Turks, I should be able to do semi-plausable "what if?" games involving all three powers. Thus enabling me to play Napoleonics, avoid the ubiquitous French, collect my main interest the Russians and secondarilly the Ottomans, while still having reason to field my Austrians for more than just club games.
And with the fairly static appearance of Ottoman troops (at least as far as my local opponents know)I can field them for both 18th and 19th century games.
At last a wargames project to really sink my teeth into....
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Plastics!
It seems that at long last we may have the option of doing WSS (and GNW) in 28mm plastics. Wargames factory have been posting lovelly WIP shots of a generic WSS infantryman, and hinting at such extras on the sprue as Pikes, krapus, and command bits. The figure is a steady workman like chap, clean and easy to paint.
Hopefully cavalry and artillery will follow the success of the infantry.
In other new figure news, Eureka have put into production 15mm miquelets. This allows for the war in Catalonia to be done with proper figures. Granted they are only in 15mm, so 6mm, 28mm, 20mm and 40mm gamers will still have to convert. But what fun to see a new subject for this period in any scale.
The Oblask will likely be recruiting some of both these lines and I hope to have some painted examples up soon-ish.
Meanwhile as tsar Peter is fond of naval and maratime affairs, I think I shall have to draft a ship or two.
Hopefully cavalry and artillery will follow the success of the infantry.
In other new figure news, Eureka have put into production 15mm miquelets. This allows for the war in Catalonia to be done with proper figures. Granted they are only in 15mm, so 6mm, 28mm, 20mm and 40mm gamers will still have to convert. But what fun to see a new subject for this period in any scale.
The Oblask will likely be recruiting some of both these lines and I hope to have some painted examples up soon-ish.
Meanwhile as tsar Peter is fond of naval and maratime affairs, I think I shall have to draft a ship or two.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Mujahideen!
OK, it has been forever since I updated this. Real life has overtaken fictional for a while.
Currently being possesed of a bit of an enthusiasm for Moderns (Ambush Alley and Force on Force in particular) I have been working on painting up Insurgent forces for the Oobleckistan breakaway from the crumbling USSR. To that end I am currently working up a number of Afghan figures. I have discovered through the joys of image search that Mujahideen from Chechnya look almost exactly like those from Afghanistan. As I have not been able to find 15mm Chechens per se, and nobody is ever going to make Ooblecks, I am using Afghans which are widely available. The key is to paint them in a mix of traditional garb and Soviet kit. I have yet to decide on teh final mix but they will be sprinkled amongst my Rebel Minis "Masked Gunmen" and perhaps the odd Russian to provide the Oobleck forces. Oobleck uniforms are a brown-green tannish colour giving a nice contrast to Soviet green. Tanks, vehicles etc are primarilly Russian although I may add some bits of foriegn kit.
Watch for photos and battle reports soon. I also hope to be able to add some C18 forces soon.
Currently being possesed of a bit of an enthusiasm for Moderns (Ambush Alley and Force on Force in particular) I have been working on painting up Insurgent forces for the Oobleckistan breakaway from the crumbling USSR. To that end I am currently working up a number of Afghan figures. I have discovered through the joys of image search that Mujahideen from Chechnya look almost exactly like those from Afghanistan. As I have not been able to find 15mm Chechens per se, and nobody is ever going to make Ooblecks, I am using Afghans which are widely available. The key is to paint them in a mix of traditional garb and Soviet kit. I have yet to decide on teh final mix but they will be sprinkled amongst my Rebel Minis "Masked Gunmen" and perhaps the odd Russian to provide the Oobleck forces. Oobleck uniforms are a brown-green tannish colour giving a nice contrast to Soviet green. Tanks, vehicles etc are primarilly Russian although I may add some bits of foriegn kit.
Watch for photos and battle reports soon. I also hope to be able to add some C18 forces soon.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Breakaway!
Mean while in the late 20th or early 21st Century...
Oobleckistan has joined the breakaway republics from the former Soviet Union. I am using Oobleckistan as backstory for games of Amush Alley and Force on Force.
Currently painted 15mm forces include 32 Ooblecki "freedom fighters" these appear as both insurgents and regulars depending on the scenario. They are Rebel Miniatures Armed Gunmen and Fedayeen Warriors and Modern Insurgents. The latter two are actually the same pack with two different names, but the same stock number.
15 Dark Water Security Contractors, Rebel Minis Civilian Contractors.
A Soviet Motorized Rifle Platoon, troops from QRF and BMPs from Old Glory
And assorted civilians, embeded news crew for WNN-World News Network, rioters, zombies, and zombie hunters from all sorts of sources.
For civillian vehicles I use Matchbox, Hot Wheels and similar. They are slightly large, closer to 20mm scale, but widely available and cheap!
More vehicles, buildings and battle reports to come. And for the 18th century work procedes on amassing enough toys to actually do something with. Perhaps a Gloire scenario with 28mm figures would be the ticket?
Oobleckistan has joined the breakaway republics from the former Soviet Union. I am using Oobleckistan as backstory for games of Amush Alley and Force on Force.
Currently painted 15mm forces include 32 Ooblecki "freedom fighters" these appear as both insurgents and regulars depending on the scenario. They are Rebel Miniatures Armed Gunmen and Fedayeen Warriors and Modern Insurgents. The latter two are actually the same pack with two different names, but the same stock number.
15 Dark Water Security Contractors, Rebel Minis Civilian Contractors.
A Soviet Motorized Rifle Platoon, troops from QRF and BMPs from Old Glory
And assorted civilians, embeded news crew for WNN-World News Network, rioters, zombies, and zombie hunters from all sorts of sources.
For civillian vehicles I use Matchbox, Hot Wheels and similar. They are slightly large, closer to 20mm scale, but widely available and cheap!
More vehicles, buildings and battle reports to come. And for the 18th century work procedes on amassing enough toys to actually do something with. Perhaps a Gloire scenario with 28mm figures would be the ticket?
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