French Carabiniers, 1812

Another unit for Black Powder that was partially finished, and needed wrapping up. A couple of the figures were done, and I just needed to round out the rest of them.

All are Perry Miniatures, 28mm.

-Scott

The Black Watch, 1776

Well, I finally finished something. I told myself that I HAD to knock this little unit out before I moved on to anything else, seeing as how they’ve been sitting half painted on a shelf for about a year now. Rushed through it a bit, just to get it done, so it’s nothing amazing, but it is finished. Probably. <whew!>

The flags are GMB Napoleonic Era 42nd that I had lying around for a few years, heavily repainted, so they’re not perfectly accurate. I’ll replace them with Flags of War flags the next time I make an order.

On a side note… I swear I will never paint another kilt again

42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot “The Black Watch”, circa 1776. 28mm Perry Miniatures, based for “Black Powder”.

-Scott

Where I’m Going with my Gaming (So I Can Actually Finish Something)

So I am painting again (Yay), and should have some stuff finished relatively soon. But I decided, for a number of reasons, to change up how large I’m making my units, the rules I want to play, etc. I laid it out in a message to my friend and holder of what will someday @ MArshal Murat’s Closetbe a mass of destroyed Russians once I get my French army finished, Scott @ Marshal Murat’s Closet (slightly editted)-

So I’m considering not worrying about “Waterloo” so much as my standard rules for Napoleonics, and adopting Black Powder, using the scale I decided on for Black Powder AWI-

Base size of 40x40mm with 4 figures for infantry
50x50mm with 2 figures for cavalry
1 gun plus limber – a battery

With unit sizes of-

Large- 6 bases
Standard- 4 bases
Small- 3 bases
Tiny- 2 bases
And skirmish units compromising individual figures in the amount conforming to unit size.

I have a few reason for doing this
.
1- Money. I can’t afford to do large armies any more, and I don;t see that changing in the near future, so I want to be able to make the most of what I have right now.

2- Wanting to play!!! If I keep doing these huge units, the truth is, I’m never going to have an army playable for anything, I recognize now my painting patterns, and the truth is, if I keep these big unit goals, I’m never going to finish. My interests wander to fast, both in what I want to paint, and when I want to paint.

3. Quality- Im always going to be a painter at heart. If I can’t paint stuff to the best of my ability, within reason, these being armies and not single figures, then I’m not going to like the finished product, and, again, I’m going to lose interest before finishing.

4, Terrain. The less time I need to spend on units, the more time I can spend putting together quality terrain, which we really need. Plus, quality, realistic terrain, to me, will perfectly balance out the small sized units on a game table.

5. The rules themselves. Waterloo is a lot fun, but it can be cumbersome with the big units and need for space. Black powder seems like the perfect rules for all these eras you and I are interested in, and just a fun, dynamic, and short way to play.

If I do this, then I have a playable French army right now (though I’d add a few more command figures to each unit…. a weeks work), with 4 battalions of line, 4 or 5 squadrons of horse, and an artillery battery., ready to go. And one that can be expanded into Jerome Bonaparte’s entire division very quickly, which I already have enough plastics on my shelves to complete at this scale.

And the Black Powder rules give the perfect ability for me to do this not only with Napoleonics, but with every other era the rules cover. (Except ancients… whenever I tackle those Greeks, well, the Phalanx needs to be BIG   )

Any thoughts?

At any rate, this will allow me to actually get something finished and start doing some gaming soon, hopefully.

-Scott

British General, American War of Independence

Finally finished painting something, a British General, circa 1776,  from the American War of Independence. A small project a couple friend and I are doing, putting together some small armies based on the Orders of Battle from the 1776-77 New Jersey campaign.

After finishing this, boy can I tell I’m a few months out of practice painting. It’ll work, but I definitely need to get back into the swing of things. This’ll do for a start, though.

This is a Perry Miniature, 28mm.

Time to Start Painting Again.

Well, it looks like it’s finally time to start painting again. Thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of my friends, I dusted off the tub full of Napoleonic miniatures, and started doing a little assembly. I have a couple ideas, using a couple different techniques, in mind-

Finish my artillery battery for my Napoleonic French “Waterloo” army (limbers for each gun as well as an ammo wagon, so it should look pretty cool on a game table)-

And maybe put together a diorama-

And my friend Scott S. and I are also discussing doing some medieval armies… some Hussite War stuff perhaps. One thing I WON’T be doing is painting for the next convention’s painting competition (unless I can get something done for our club’s army competition, which I doubt). That in itself has gone a long way to souring me on the hobby.

I figure if I post progress now and then on my blog, I might actually follow through and finish something. So, we’ll see how it goes…

-Scott

Need Some Motivation

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything having to do with painting. There has been so much going on in my life the last few months, that I just haven’t had the time, energy, or motivation to paint. I do find myself occasionally looking over my miniatures, both painted and unpainted, wistfully, wondering when I’ll feel the urge to pick up a brush again, but still haven’t felt any impetus to do anything about it.

I did enter a couple of things in the last TactiCon painting competition, notably the Dutch Blue Guard, but I was very disappointed with the results, which managed to push me back even further from painting (I had though it would give me a charge to paint some more). I’d like to enter something in the Army Competition at GhengisCon in early 2013. It’s organized and judged by my gaming group, and it fits more along the lines of the type of painting I do, but if I don’t start cranking something out soon, that won’t be happening either.

So basically this post is a whole lot of nothing Thinking out loud, I suppose. And letting everyone know that I do intend to get back to it, eventually. Thanks for your patience.

-Scott

Russian Army List and Downloads for “Waterloo”

As you all know, Warhammer Historical Wargames is no more, and has stopped producing and supporting historical games. However, before the demise of WHW, Mark Latham, author of Waterloo, was working on a new army list for Russia, which he hoped would be made available as a free download at some point down the line. We were asked to playtest the list, but sadly Mark never got to release it in any official capacity, so he said we could use it as we saw fit. We’ve had it for a while, and are pretty happy with it, so we decided to post it here for everyone to enjoy.

This list is in no way official, nor is it endorsed by Games Workshop, or the now-defunct Warhammer Historical Wargames. It should be treated as a work in progress – feel free to use it, and have fun with it.

I have created a downloads page with the Russian Army list plus the public downloads made available for “Waterloo”. The link to it is at the top of the blog, under the Header photo, and also in the “Galleries” section on the right hand side of the page. You can also find it directly here- “Waterloo Downloads” .

-Scott