On the Workbench: 6mm Lutheran Seminary, City building & Redoubts

Two more buildings completed for Grissburg, one also for Gettysburg:

A city (hall) building and the Lutheran Seminary of Gettysburg fame. 

The 6mm figures illustrates the size of these buildings. 

Another view of the Seminary. Both buildings are from Total Battle Miniatures. Although the design of TBM's buildings make them easy to paint, the Seminary was a pain.... all those windows! Satisfying in the end though.

Continued -

On the Workbench: 6mm ECW Hopton's Bluecoats + more 2mm Austrians

My first English Civil War foot regiment has been completed. This is Hopton's Bluecoats with a 2:1 mix of Muskets to Pike. Figures are Baccus and the same basing method has been used as most of my 6mm of artists card 15mm x 15mm. 

The lighting annoyingly has changed the hew of the blue. The first photo is the most accurate. My limited photographic skills have failed to correct this unfortunately. 

Continued -

ACW 6mm: The Battle of Front Royal

FRONT ROYAL

23rd May 1862

This scenario is taken from the Guns at Gettysburg Scenarios Book 4 "Stonewall". 

Background

Jackson, reinforced by Ewell's command, sought to force Bank's army from its position at Strasburg by outflanking his position at the northern end of the Massanutten Mountain at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah. Covering this approach was a Federal garrison under Colonel Kenly.

Victory Conditions

Confederate: Capture 2 bridges intact.

Union: Prevent the Confederates from achieving their victory conditions.

ORBATS

Table size 3'9" x 2'3"

Figures: 6mm Baccus

Rules: Guns at Gettysburg

An overview at the start of the battle with initial dispositions. 

Continued -

On the Workdbench: 2mm Austrians and buildings

The 2mm buildings needed for my test game have now been completed along with 2 more Austrian brigade bases:

The buildings are by Brigade Models and are larger than Irregular Miniatures although they are more in scale with the figures. 

I based them on 80mm x 40mm, 40mm x 40mm and 40mm x 20mm mdf bases to provide for a modular style approach. They can be small hamlets up to a small town in size. 

At some stage in the future I will add more to the collection but this will do for now. As originally intended, the 2mm project will move to the background with a continual, but slow, production line under way to complete the figures required.

My attention now switches back to 6mm with an ECW foot regiment primed up. I will then be taking a close look at my WW2 requirements. The arrival of Blitzkrieg Commander IV has provided the spur to get another game on the table to try them out.

Blitzkrieg Commander IV has landed

A pleasant arrival in the post today was this little gem:

I will avoid reiterating the story behind the withdrawal of BKCIII which can be found on the Pendraken Forum link on the right. Leon at Pendraken did a sterling job of getting it rewritten and as a purchaser of BKCIII this was sent to me as its replacement.

Therefore, my WW2 projects will progress from BKCII to IV. I have had sight of the Beta version and I liked what I saw. Any fan of BKC will almost certainly be pleased with this and brings up to date the production values present in most rulesets these days. A QRS is provided on the Forum together with other optional extras. This will continue to expand over the coming months.

My plans for a WW2 game will be moved forward to give these a try out soon.  

On the Workbench: More Medieval buildings, 2mm Naps and new deliveries.

On my return from holiday I found some very welcome home parcels:

In the foreground my largest 6mm Baccus order to date. Zulu Wars and ECW mark the start of those projects plus more Spanish Napoleonics and some river sections. Top right is a Heroics & Ros order which almost completes all the figures and vehicles I need for the Landing on Rhodes. There is more stuff also for Op Market Garden.

The unopened packages are buildings and earthworks from Total Battle Miniatures for Grissburg (Nap campaign) and Gettysburg. A few paints, some D10's and flock completed the collection of goodies. 

Unfortunately real world matters restricted my wargaming since return but I did manage to complete these that had been started before my break:

A couple more medieval buildings and another 2mm Austrian brigade base. A slightly different configuration from my previous bases and again represents a 3,500 strong brigade.

These represent the last of the medieval buildings for now and I intend to concentrate on completing the terrain required for Grissburg. The 2mm will continue in slow time including various buildings. I have also prepped an ECW regiment of foot. Could not wait to get started on these being one of my all-time favourite periods that has had little attention over recent years. 

On the Workbench: More 6mm Medieval Buildings + Battle of Front Royal Preview

Tomorrow I shall be heading off on holiday for 8 days and today saw my final wargaming input before the break. 3 more buildings completed for ECW and WOTR:

They are, left to right - Market Cross, Large Warehouse and Timber Building. Yet more from the Total Battle Miniatures walled town set.

The table for the next ACW battle, Front Royal has been set. I ran out of time to play the game or place figures so will cover the battle in detail on my return. This is though the first outing of my 'upgraded' rivers, new run run offs/small streams, and new railway track. Examples of these have been on my 'On the Workbench' postings. So for my final blog posting for over a week I thought I would provide a preview of the battle, or more accurately, a view of the battlefield containing these new features.

Continued -

On the Workbench: 6mm Citadel and Church

A couple more buildings have been completed for the 6mm ECW, WOTR and Napoleonic campaign projects. These are again from Total Battle Miniatures "Walled Town Set".

These are the citadel and church. 

I have begun laying out the table for my next ACW battle, 'Front Royal'. This will be the first outing for my refurbished rivers, new streams and rail tracks. I had been hoping to play this battle out before I go away on holiday next weekend but it does not look like I will get the scenery finished in time. I do hope though to get the board set up for a preview before I abandon my wargames room for a few days.

On the Workbench: More 2mm, Medieval buildings and new streams.

More 2mm bases have been completed this week. This time it is Austrians:

These are the first Austrian bases. As you can see I have been experimenting with formations and base groupings. Rather than have generic standard bases I am aiming to very roughly represent the varying sizes of different brigades. This will be based on a 1:20 figure ratio. In the examples above, the massed columns on the left represent 3,500 men, as does the centre base. The base on the right is 3,000. 

In this scale the challenge is making each figure stand out. For the French I painted a blob of grey on the tops of their shakos. For the Austrians I have added a dash of gold/brass representing the front of their helmets or can be shako badges. 

Also for 2mm, I have completed my first buildings. These are from Irregular Miniatures and consist of a small village on the left and a farm.

Continued -

On the Workbench: The First 2mm Napoleonics

My first test bases of 2mm Napoleonics have been completed:

The large round base on the left is a Corps Commander with the smaller round base being Divisional. The Brigade command is amongst his troops on the Brigade base. 

I agonised over the appropriate basing method including what colour to paint the base edge. Given the small scale I was conscious that it would be all too easy to overwhelm the figures whereas they needed to 'pop'. I have ordered a lighter shade of Woodland Scenics fine turf green to blend in more with the textured part and to further enhance the figures. Or at least that is what I hope it will do!

I also plan to vary the number and size of units on a brigade base to represent the various numerical strengths. The 10 skirmishers on this base represent SK2 value in Grande Armee and future bases will have 5 representing SK1 and obviously none for SK0. I settled on a 50mm x 30mm base (2/3 of a standard Grande Armee base) with artillery being based on 25mm x 25mm. The bases are 2mm thick mdf from Warbases.

So the verdict of 2mm! It certainly requires a rethink on painting styles, even from 6mm. I initially painted these what I thought was a light shade of blue only to discover that they looked  dark from any distance! A 2nd coat with a touch of white added to the blue made a big difference. While for me it will never replace 6mm, as a means of creating large armies cheaply and quickly, they do the job for me.

To see the true potential of 2mm I invite you to take a look at the 'Roundwood's World' blog (a link is on my blog list). His ECW siege of Portsmouth game is a work of art and beyond my capabilities!