Wednesday 26 February 2014

Another quick update


I have sorted out an Excel program which does all the number crunching of my Mongol Project for me. Here is the latest as of February 28th. So now all I have to do is keep it up to date and then copy it across each time. Isn’t technology wonderful?

Nationality
Manufacturer
Troop Type
Units - Inf
Units -Cav
Figs -Inf
Figs -Cav
Mongol
Irregular
EHC Keshik

1

21
Irregular
MC/HC

3

63
Irregular
LC

7

84
Pendraken
HC

1

21
Pendraken
LC

1

12

Total

13

201







Chinese
Irregular
HC

1

21
Irregular
LC

3

36
Irregular
HI
3

130

Irregular
M/LI (X Bow)
3

84

Irregular
M/LI (Bow)
3

60

Irregular
Rocket
1

8


Total
10
4
282
57







Khwarazmia
Irregular
HC

3

63
Irregular
LC

3

36
Irregular
MI
1

30


Total
1
6
30
99







Poland
Pendraken
HC

3

60
Pendraken
MI levy
2

60

Pendraken
LI X Bow




Pendraken
 Inf Peasants




Pendraken
LI Bow
2

30


Total
4
3
90
60








Grand Totals

15
26
402
417


Cavalier Show in Tonbridge

Last Sunday, 23rd, I went to the Cavalier Show in Tonbridge, the annual show of the Tunbridge Wells club. This is a show I haven’t been to since the very early 1980’s and if I remember correctly it was in a school back then. This time it was at a venue known as the Angel Centre, only five minutes walk from the bus stop. Yes, I can catch a direct bus from Maidstone to Tonbridge. Had a really good time, some nice games on show including a 28mm plastic Marlburian ‘Tabletop Teaser’ by my old club –going waaay back when to the 70’s and early 80’s- the South East Essex Military Society, SEEMS, using a sheet of the increasingly popular faux teddy-bear fur laid over some contour-creating foam shapes underneath. The figures were from Wargames Factory, nicely painted and they used a very novel gun smoke idea. The basis was cotton wool but they had teased it out into an open bell shape so as to look like a smoke ring at the end. In the centre of the ring was a representation of a cannon ball. Very effective. More information on the club can be found here at https://www.google.co.uk/#q=south+east+essex+military+society


Another game that I noticed was a 10mm version of Kohima from the North London Wargames Group using the very nice range of Pendraken figures.
I happened to mention that they seemed to have missed off the most iconic area of the battlefield, that of the Tennis Court, and was politely informed that as the battle was almost in scale, the front was seven thousand yards long and the Tennis Court would be on the next table! That will teach me to act like an anorak! The gentleman I spoke to –Hertsblue on the Pendraken Forum as I found out a little later- who also told me that the game was part of an ongoing campaign series they are running at shows and that the next game would indeed feature the Tennis Court. Good stuff.


I also had a chat with Mr. Badger from Pilum Painting –a WD3 Forum member whose stall was displaying some nicely painted figures, all at what I thought to be reasonable prices for the finish.  More information here http://www.pilumpainting.co.uk/
I also met up with another mate from way back when in Southend, we had a great chat for several hours and are arranging a game at my gaff in a few weeks hence.
Brilliant.

Now some random shots of some of the other games on display.
From Deal Wargames, a good  WW II Far East beach landing.



The Tonbridge club put on a Napoleonic naval version of the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent using the lovely Langton ships. Don't see many naval games at shows, nice one. www.westkentwargamers.dyndns.org/‎


Obviously there were other games but for some of them my camera got a bad attack of the shakes or the lighting wasn't good enough...bad workman and tools blaming, sorry. A small American/ British War of 1812 scenario with what looked like a few 28mm battalions a side run by Richard Partridge, another  old colleague of mine from back in the day . More information on the nice little chaps from a company I'd never heard of can be found here: 
   
A 15mm Great Northern War fought on snow terrain by Crawley Wargames Club, www.crawleywargamesclub.org.uk/‎ an Ancient Spanish game in 15mm with some brightly painted figures and a nice town by the Essex Warriors www.essexwarriors.org/‎ and a large early WWII 15mm with French facing off against Germans. 


Tuesday 18 February 2014

Back on Track


I must admit a bit of artistic licence here. As I mentioned in the Templar post (Latest Polish above), the unit was to be made up of one Templar base and two guest knight bases. The problem was that I have been unable to find the names of any guest knights so I had a look at this site
and chose some at random that I thought would look good together. Therefore we have representatives of the Sax family (yellow and red vertical halves), Lupfen (blue over white horizontal halves), Castell (red and white opposite quarters) and Ellenbach (yellow and green opposite quarters). Knowing my luck none of them were anywhere near Poland at the time but I like them. 
Once again there are figures from different ranges here. As well as some of the later medieval, the chaps with the kite shields are from the Norman range with the shield bosses filed off. I even went mad and converted a couple by exchanging shields.
As well as the usual base shots, I have taken a picture so that you can see what the whole unit looks like together. Personally, I think these are amongst the best 10mm I have ever painted and I am well chuffed with them.
Next up, the rest of the Lubomirski levy and then the first unit of LI archers.








Monday 17 February 2014

Sorry, but it's another brief diversion.


Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m supposed to be painting Polish but I couldn’t really resist this one. The new Pendraken Chinggis Khan, Great Naccara and qara sulde. (Qara sulde translates as black standard and was used in times of war whereas qara cagän translates as white standard and was used in times of peace.) 
The figures themselves are a joy to paint although I think the camel’s legs are a bit long for a Bactrian camel. The raised part of the base is made from two small pieces of garden type slate glued together, the edges were surrounded with small stones to create a slight curve and it was all smoothed out with some filler. Again, I have painted little dots on the clump foliage to break up the base and add a different colour to the mix.
The piece has been entered into the Pendraken painting competition.


Just thought I'd let you know, the other two bases for the Templar unit are just about to have the dry brushing on the bases done and that will be that  unit finished.

Saturday 15 February 2014

Amazing! It worked.

I usually stick figures down on strips of wood to paint them and for ages I have been using a glue gun to stick them down. This was all very well on 15's or 25's where the weight of the figure is an overriding factor, but the little 10mm chaps aren't that heavy, the bases are comparatively small  and on top of that, I was getting through a fair number of glue sticks in the process.
  A couple of days ago I was wandering around the DIY section of our local Poundland when I had one of my Light Drizzle moments, (in other words possibly a good idea but not exactly a life changing Brain Storm, hence Light Drizzle). I purchased the item in question, tried it at home and it works a treat. What is it? Double sided sellotape. One side gets stuck to the strip, peel off the backing and Robert is most definitely your Mother's Brother. Works like a charm; 10mm infantry are happily stuck for the duration of the painting.. So for the outlay of £1 you get three reels of the stuff and I am using it in roughly 6 inch lengths. I don't know how long each reel is but I'm guessing that it's at least 3 feet, possibly 4.

Still on a wargaming front, I'm off to Cavalier 2014 in Tonbridge Wells next weekend. It's reasonably local now -only half hour by bus- and a show I haven't been to for at least 28 years, in fact about the same time that George Gush published his Renaissance Armies book! Looking forward to it and I'll put in a report in a future post, probably with some pictures.

Thursday 13 February 2014

The First Infantry Unit


This unit is from the Lubomirski estates which were all in the Kraków area of south eastern Poland. The family had residences/holdings/lands in approximately sixteen places so I have made this an amalgam of some of them –with sixteen villages there might even be enough for another unit later on.
I have used a mix of Pendraken ranges here, the armoured figures are obviously from the medieval range but I have included some of the Saxon range for some variation and to give the impression of a reasonably well equipped unit, but with some not so.
The clan charge on the shield is the same as that used by the Drużyna clan and also the town of Szreniawa near Poznań.






Monday 10 February 2014

Latest Polish

This isn’t a complete unit...yet. Trawling through the internet I found that there were 500 troops from the Order of the Knights Templar present at Liegnitz, broken down into 3 Templar Knights, 83 other mounted troops and the rest were infantry from the Templar villages in the area. I have translated this into one base of Templars and the other two of guest knights and their sergeants. I may well do the infantry as another foot unit. Now I know that this isn’t historically accurate but I like it.
So, the first base is complete and the figures for the other two are mostly finished. But flippin’ eck, they don’t half take a time to paint! When you think of medieval knights the first thing that springs to mind is armour, in copious amounts. Not true, especially for the mounted types on caparisoned horses. Painting quartered shields, tabards and caparisons takes time...a lot of time, even more so in 10mm.

But anyway, here it is, the Templar Knights base which I’ve also entered into the Pendraken Painting competition. As soon as the others are done I’ll post them as well.



By the way, my mate of Jace Photography took the pictures because my little point and click is not clever enough on close in focus even with the 'macro' enabled.






Monday 3 February 2014

10mm Mongol Project –painted so far


Just thought I’d take the opportunity to update anyone who is interested in the running total of the armies I have for what I am calling my 10mm Mongol Project. This has been running for several years now –on and off- but it’s only recently that the painting mojo has returned with a vengeance. It’s getting so bad I’ve even set up an Excel file to record when, how many and in what scale I have painted in any particular month. For January it stands at 64 cavalry and 17 infantry, split between Mongols and Polish. 

Here is a table outlining all of the complete units I have painted so far. I will update it as and when more are completed, probably on a monthly basis.

  Nationality
Manufacturer
 Troop Type
Units
Figures
Mongol
Irregular
EHC
1
21
Irregular
HC
3
63
Irregular
LC
7
12
Pendraken
HC
1
21
Pendraken
LC
1
12

Total
13 cav
129 cav





Chinese
Irregular
HC
1
21
Irregular
LC
3
36
Irregular
HI
3
130
Irregular
M/LI (X Bow)
3
84
Irregular
M/LI (Bow)
3
60
Irregular
Rocket
1
2 +crew

Total
4 cav/12 inf
47 cav/331 inf





Khwarazmia
Irregular
HC
3
63
Irregular
LC
3
36
Irregular
MI
1
30

Total
6 cav/1 inf
99 cav/30 inf





Poland
Pendraken
HC
2
40

Total
2 cav
40 cav






Grand Totals
25 cav/13 inf
315 cav/361 inf