On the Workbench: AWI British Line, American Militia and Commanders

Hobby time has been in short supply over the past month. Trebia is on the tabletop and being played through, albeit slowly! 

More progress has been made on my AWI project and I felt it was time for an update. All the British have been completed and the final batch of around 100 Americans are being painted. Lexington & Concord require a little over 600 figures. A small action in 6mm!

4 battalions of British Line infantry. These represent large units in Black Powder. With my basing system, I have settled on 4 bases = a small unit, 6 = standard and 8 = large.

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On the Workbench: AWI

A new project! I have Assassin's Creed III to blame for this. Playing the game reawakened my previous interest in this period which had ceased when I disposed of my 10mm collection. 

This originates back to my school days when I found a book in the school library covering the battles of Lexington and Concord. It fired my imagination which I attempted to recreate on the tabletop with Airfix WW1 Americans standing in for the militia and Napoleonic Highlanders representing the redcoat juggernaut.

The inevitable happened and a batch of 6mm figures was acquired from Baccus with the intention of playing through Lexington and Concord once again. You will find a previous game on the blog using those 10mm figures. The original orders of battle for that game are being used but doubling up on the figures. 

In between reorganising the Napoleonic French infantry into standard 36 figure battalions I have commenced painting the AWI forces involved.

The grenadier battalion drawn from various regiments. It can be broken down to 2 or 3 units for the battle.

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On The Workbench: Italian & German WW2 Ships

 Refurbishment of 1/3000 scale ships painted eons ago continues. All here are Navwar.

Andria Doria

Fiume (Zara class cruiser)

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On The Workbench: River Sections

A long overdue task, now underway, was to complete the refurbishment of my original Purbeck Terrain river boards. The river banks have previously been improved which had been painted to a basic standard. This was done by adding texture including random rocks etc.

An example of a 9" x 9" board with textured river banks. The task now is to repaint the river to make it look a little more realistic.

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On the Workbench: 1/3000 WW2 Royal Navy Ships

More progress has been made refurbishing my collection of models painted decades ago. Hence the rather random nature of the ships completed. British ships have now received their refit and the Italians and Germans are next in line.

All are 1/3000th scale Navwar models.

Left to Right: Mauritius (this was a new model and may make an appearance in the "Defending the Malay Barrier" campaign), Newcastle and Belfast.

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On the Workbench: Punic Wars, WW2 Naval.

 More additions to the Carthaginians for Trebia have been completed along with several more refurbished 1/3000 scale ships.

Only 2 bases will be required for Trebia but with an extra pack in the unpainted pile it needed to be done. A little more uniform in appearance than I originally intended! As with nearly all my 6mm figures they are from the Baccus range.

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On the Workbench: Ancient Spanish Cavalry, Japanese Floatplanes, Royal Navy Ships

Time for an update on what I have been painting this year so far. Starting with figures for the Trebia project:

4 bases of Spanish Heavy Cavalry. All figures are 6mm Baccus, 10 figures to a 40mm x 30mm base. A base of Italian allied cavalry was also completed having discovered I was one base short!

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On the Workbench: Punic Wars

Some decent headway has been made this year on the Trebia project. Plenty yet to paint but these are the latest on the painting table:

Republican Romans

These will be representing 2 legions for the game but in future games can be one or part of a legion.

Baccus do not provide separate models for the Principes lumping them together with the Hastati without chainmail armour. I merely painted armour on the figures and although not ideal, in this scale it is not too obvious unless you look very closely. It makes it easier to differentiate them from behind.

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On the Workbench: Busaco - French Allies

 Another project completed and ready to play is the Peninsular War Battle of Busaco. 

Originally I intended to include the entire battlefield but after a re-appraisal I thought 'why' when all the action was confined to no more than 2/3 of it. Concentrating on the main action has reduced the number of Portuguese in particular that need to be painted so saving a little time.

With the Anglo/Portuguese forces completed it just left several battalions of French allies:

I apologise for the quality of the photos, which includes the other posts of this batch of "On the Workbench". I do not have the luxury of lighting from all angles and have to rely on a strip of 5 adjustable lights mounted on a strip on the ceiling of the garage. I made some adjustments including with the camera and it was only when I had transferred the photos to the screen that I realised all had not gone to plan! 

On to the details of what has been painted:

Legion du Midi.

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On the Workbench: US Airborne

 The US Airborne for the 505 PIR is now complete and is the subject of the next game.

All figures are of the new Heroics & Ros range and the orders of battle are taken from the Rapid Fire 'Market Garden' supplement. This represents the full regiment of 3 battalions.

I have covered this in previous blogs but a reminder here on converting RF orbats to BKC. It is relatively straight forward with each stand representing one platoon. With regard to the number of figures it is roughly RF + 50%. Or a ratio of 1:10. For vehicles the ratio is 3 in BKC for every 2 in RF. No change for artillery.

On the Workbench: Rorkes Drift

The start of a short series of "On the Workbench" covering painting and modelling undertaken over the past few months.

I will begin with completion of Rorkes Drift which signals the end of the preparation phase of this project and the action is now ready to be played.

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On The Workbench: WW2 Late War German Infantry + Wargaming Update

Firstly the latest painting progress. A long overdue attention to the Market Garden project - Groesbeek Heights.

Almost complete prior to basing.

The finished figures. Laid out in their battalion formations suitable for BKCIV and Rapid Fire Reloaded. The only complete battalion is in the centre. That on the left is awaiting its HQ base, on the right the HQ and support company. The top right is the beginnings of a 4th battalion and on the left a Divisional CO and FAO. All battalions will be brought up to strength on completion of the next batch.

Figures are a mix of Heroics & Ros and 2D6.

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On The Workbench: Pony Wars Terrain

More terrain pieces have been completed for Pony Wars. My first use of cork bark was used to make rocky terrain pieces which will also form rocky passes.

My terrain modelling skills are basic to put it mildly and much of this was trial and error together with guidance from various Youtube videos.

One side is sheer rock face with the rear sloped to allow access for the ambushers!

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On The Workbench: Pony Wars

A few weeks ago, prior to my splurge on painting ships, I completed all the figures for Pony Wars with the exception of 4 cannon and crew awaiting a new Baccus order. In the meantime I will use artillery from my ACW collection to plug the gap. There are a total of 1,150 figures in the collection.

What follows covers the entire figure collection:

Mounted Braves. 480 have been completed, 120 short of the number recommended in the rules. 

Mounted Braves

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On the Workbench: WW2 Aircraft Carriers Part 3

 The final batch of ships before returning to figure painting is now complete.

Two Essex class carriers and the lead ship of the Bogue class escort carrier. All Davco.
Back left to right: Intrepid, Bogue
Front: Essex

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On the Workbench: WW2 Aircraft Carriers Part 2

 The latest on the carrier progress - a quick update:

I have for the most part worked in batches of 3 ships and here is from top to bottom, Shokaku, Zuikaku and Junyo. All Navwar.

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On the Workbench: WW2 Aircraft Carriers

With the blog having switched to a nautical theme over recent weeks, I post here an update on naval painting, in particular aircraft carriers. I have purchased some flight deck decals from "Flight Deck Decals" (link on the right) which really are superb. They do require some trimming to fit as closely as possible the Navwar models and many are also suitable for Davco. The current naval painting bug has inspired me to crack on with aircraft carriers in particular to utilise these decals.

Royal Navy carriers (all Navwar) from left to right:
Top row; Hermes, Ark Royal, Glorious
Middle row; Ameer, Victorious, Furious
Bottom row: Biter; Indomitable, Eagle

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On the Workbench: Pony Wars - Natives completed

The compliment of Native Americans has been completed, albeit 120 short of the 600 mounted figures recommended in the rules. Having seen advice that 480, or even 360, should be enough I have decided to leave it at that. There will be tepees and Bison to be painted up in due course.

The completed Natives. On the left is a pack of dismounted Braves and a pack of villagers. 

The most recent figures just completed. A pack of 120 mounted Braves.

Prior to the Natives, a pack of Settlers and Civilians was completed. The wagons had been done previously.

This is the bulk of figures finished with just a few odds and ends to complete the figure painting aspect. There is still a fair amount of terrain to finish so a little way off yet before I can get this on the table.

In the meantime it is back to Napoleonics with Portuguese for Bussaco. On the subject of Napoleonics, the butterfly has taken effect once again and figures have been purchased for Austerlitz. My interest in this battle originated from a game on my old Commodore 64 in the 80's and is one I always intended to play. I had considered 2mm (see my posts on this scale) but now reverted to 6mm. The plan will be to use General de Brigade rules but a unit will be a brigade rather than battalion at a figure ratio of 1:40. It will require some adjustments to the rules which I shall be working on soon.  

On the Workbench: Pony Wars Settlers and Civilians

I am acutely aware that my blog posts are becoming a little rare of late! A combination of real world commitments and, dare I say it, a lack of wargaming mojo. I have the Roman invasion of Britain battle on the board but it is progressing at a snails pace. I do though try and maintain some sort of momentum in painting and modelling. Even if it is only half an hour during the morning.

To that end, here is an update on what I have been working on. Since January it has all been terrain, ships and planes. This is probably just about the longest spell where I have not painted any figures. A couple of weeks ago I decided it was high time that I made some progress on other projects. First up was Pony Wars. 

A complete pack of Baccus "Settlers and Civilians" beckoned and here is the completed figures prior to basing. They have received a gloss coat so a little shiny! My aversion to large bases means that basing will be a rather protracted affair, especially as they will, for the most part, be in singles or doubles. 

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On the Workbench: Iron Age Hillfort

There has been a lull in my gaming allowing me to concentrate on terrain in preparation for forthcoming tabletop action. An additional reason being my holiday abroad for a couple of weeks from this weekend and did not want to leave a half-completed game on the table for this duration. 

With regard to terrain. I have completed a batch of buildings for Gettysburg and I am cautiously optimistic that I have enough. All being well that will be good to go this year.

Another long overdue item is the iron-age hillfort for the next action in my Roman invasion of Britannia campaign:

I normally shy away from scratch-building terrain unless there is no other option. Mainly because of the time it takes and my limited ability in producing good looking pieces. 

The walkway behind the palisade is 15mm wide allowing for the accommodation of my 15mm deep bases. So far it is shaping up ok and miraculously without warping of the softwood base. It is being built in slow time alongside the painting of Japanese warships (in the background) to keep my sanity intact with the gluing of numerous toothpicks. It is actually quite therapeutic doing it this way!

Another priority for terrain on my return will be to add to my desert collection for both my WW2 North Africa campaign and Pony Wars. All this has meant figure painting has come to a standstill following the completion of ECW units for Edgehill. It will be a miracle if I manage to complete my target for the year!