The older you get, the quicker time passes!

Well, flippin' heck, don't time fly when you realise you haven't posted anything for a while...a long while; very remiss of me. Life is moving on and the French-Italian Wars project is coming on slowly, so far I have:

2 units of 15 gendarmes
2 units of 48 Landsknecte pike
1 unit of 44 Swiss pike
1 unit of 40 Italian pike
1 unit of 15 Italian mtd knights
1 unit of 30 Italian dis-mtd arquebusiers
1 unit of 30 Spanish Sword and Buckler types
1 unit of 9 Stradiots

Each of the units is made up of 3 40x20mm bases and all are from H&R.

I've also now got about 95% of my WWII Early War British, German and French armies at 1:5 divisional strength but I am holding back on painting them until the French-Italian chaps are finished. This should take me up to the end of the year if everything pans out.
   However...
   About a year ago I was contacted by Stephan at Rapier Miniatures (known as Fredbloggs on the LOA forum) and asked if I had any research on the Mongols for an upcoming range. (Silly man, asking if I had any research on the Mongols.) Anyway, long story much shortened, the other day a package arrived from Rapier and inside were two of their Small Armies of Mongols. They were almost begging me to paint them and seeing how lovely they looked I offered to paint some for his trade stand so here are some taster pics. All are cklickable for a warts-and-all image.

 Army command

 L/MC firing bow

 L/M Cav with lance

 Unit command

 LC/MC loading bow

 Armoured chaps on armoured horses

 As above pianted as keshig

Now of course, I have a slight dilemma, do I carry on painting the Renaissance chaps, change to WW II or think blow it, I'll go with the Mongols. Seeing as I already have a Mongol 6mm army in Irregular I reckon they can wait and I will carry on with my plan for the year. But, if Rapier bring out Russians, Khwarizmians, Polish, Hungarians, Cumani, or Song Chines I might have to re-evaluate my position. 

   One thing that should ber mentioned is that we are going back to Wormhouldt in a couple of months for another break and, knowing me, I will be all fired up (pun unintended) for my Early War project. Enough of this idle chatter, I'd better get a wiggle on with the Rennaisance to get as many done as I can before the hol.

Over a month without painting but...

I've just checked my painting log and the last entry was on December 11th last year and it's now the end of January which means I have gone over a month without picking up a brush.
   But as I've said before, if I'm not painting I'm normally doing something of a wargamey nature and this time is no exception. In the post before last I mentioned finding my Books folder on a stick and that's what I have been doing, finishing off the draft copy of my book; completed it this morning with a grand total of 55,340 words. Now I have the unenviable task of proof reading and fact checking for the second  draft.
Watch this space for more updates as they happen.

As a generalisation, wargamers can get inspired for a new period by all manner of things, reading a book, watching a film...you know what I mean and I think you have a rough idea where this is going. Yes, sure enough, my trip to Poland has rekindled my interest in the Husaria of Renaissance Poland. I already have a fair wedge of information on the period and even -back in my Hamlet Models booklets period- wrote a booklet on them. So, long story short, I've ordered a Battlepack from Pendraken as a starter...just to see how it goes you understand.
   I've actually given this idea a bit of thought and concluded that any foreign troops i.e. reiters and the like will double-up as 30YW or ECW with a standard change, likewise with any MPM (Musket/Pike/Musket) units. In fact a lot of the opposition troops could also come under the MPM umbrella using the same standard swop. At a battle not far from Gdansk there were even 3,100 Landsnecht which gives me a starting point for other Reanaissance armies, if the mood should take me.

Husaria and Cossacks on the same table, what's not to like?

Aaaannnndddd, I have ordered a few more bits and pieces for my 6mm FPW forces to even them up a little.

New Project.

Once the conservatory was finished and the Battle of Garston compleated and packed away, I was scratching around for a new project. Unfortunately all my 6mm WW II campaign information was on the old drive which I am hoping soon to be be able to access but until then...

Rummaging around listlessly I came across an unopened jiffy bag which revealed some H&R 6mm Flemish Persians (Achemenid sounds Flemish anyway so over the decades the word has stuck). Further investigation in Narnia revealed another acquired bag full of  H&R 6mm Sassanid Persians and Alexandrian Macedonians (don't ask, I have no idea). So now I have the starts of three different armies.

I am going to base them on 40 x 20's coz they look quite nice on that size and you get 3 LC and 6 EHC on a base...I haven't got any further than that yet although by now the Magic Wash on the Sassy LC should be dry so a-varnishing I will go. Pics next time.

Pictures as promised.

Been relatively quiet here on the wargaming front due to the weather which has been absolutely delightful and far too pleasant to spend hours in Narnia painting tinies, at one stage the thermometer in our conservatory registered a whopping 38 degrees. Notwithstanding that, I have painted another four battalions (16 blocks) of my FPW Germans, finished 20 of the 35 blocks of Goblins which will be e-bayed when finished, aaaand also took some pictures of the samurai due the ongoing elusiveness of the earlier shots. Hope you like them.

 British World War II Western Desert (all Irregular Miniatures)

Samurai from the Takeda Clan, again all by Irregular Miniatures. The sashimono are accurate renditions of the real ones -or as accurate as I could get in 6mm!

Putting my money where my mouth is.

I thought it was about time that I actually showed you some of the Mongols that I am forever pontificating about.
Firstly in 6mm -all Irregular Miniatures. (Picture taken from an earlier post on the blog.)

Now in 10mm. Most of these are Irregular from wwwaaayyy back and I've not long finished the last of the light cavalry for the second tumen. This is a picture of a single tumen in battle order with the HC at the fore to start with. The LC would soon move through or around them in sequence to bombard the enemy. When the commander deemed the time was right he would send in the HC while the LC continued to harass the flanks and rear of the enemy. At the rear of the formation  is the tuman-u-noyan next to the base of remounts. (The commander and his retinue are from Magister Militum...I think). I have two tumat made by Irregular; this one is at almost full strength of nine units while the other is smaller with only six units of LC and 2 of HC. The third -and still under construction is by Pendraken and will consist of four units of LC and two of HC. In the future I will get some LC to round it off a little more.

This second pic shows the LC on the move. The front centre two units have opened out into a line to pin the enemy frontally while the two flanking units move around the flanks. The remainder of the LC move up to support either manoeuvre. The HC are now at the rear of the formation but are ready to move in any direction.

My 15mm Mongols -by a number of manufacturers- are under a repaint order and a total of 28 out of 130 or so of them have been finished.

In 25/28mm again a number of manufacturers are represented including Irregular, Curteys, First Corps and Warrior to name but a few. Below is a selection. 

Next time I will post some pictures of the opposition armies.

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

Something I just had to do

You know when you get an urge which won’t away until you’ve sorted it? Well I have just sorted one. Earlier this month, in fact last week, I had a package drop through the letter box and inside were my figures from the brand spanking new Pendraken 10mm Mongols range.  Now I know I said this bit was all supposed to be about the Polish but... the new chaps were an itch that I just had to scratch.

If you fancy 10mm Mongols then you can’t go far wrong with these. The detail is great, attention to detail is good and the poses are quite dramatic for the scale. This first mingghan is the first of two heavy cavalry mingghat units. This will be slightly smaller than the other two with only 2 HC and 4 LC mingghat making a total of 101 cavalry in this, my third tümen.

The Polish are coming along apace as well. I have two-thirds of the next nobility unit finished and as well as the final third from that I have started on the first of the infantry levy units. The rest of the army turned up earlier in the week so in total there will be 240 infantry and 85 cavalry in this army when it’s all finished..

On another note, I was quite chuffed with MWBG this month...I was mentioned three times. Not only because of the last in the first series of Mongol articles that I have written but also in the Editorial and also my name was used for the Pendraken quiz.

So, here it is.

Derby purchases

Just thought I would share with you my purchases this year at the show.

Figures
5 x 6mm Irregular WWII German nebewerfer plus tows for Das Reich
5 x 6mm Irregular WW II Russian 76.2 field guns plus tows
1 x 10mm battlepack of Irregular Ancient Gauls/British (100 pieces)plus 3 extra chariots, (making 12 in total), and some more warband to make up the numbers.
3 x 10mm cohortes of Romans (1 regular, 2 auxiliary) (90 figures)
3 x 15mm Irregular Sassanid Persian bolt throwers
30 x 15mm Donnington Sassanid Levy infantry
5 x 15mm Donnington Sassanid cavalry (general, standard bearer and 3 guards)
9 x 15mm Museum Miniatures Mongol LC. (I do like these figures, one piece castings, good variety of positions, full of animation and movement -hmmm, might even end up with a whole tumen of them later.)
6 x 10mm Pendrakan Roman bolt throwers

Bases and Terrain
Proper green paint by Vallejo for WWII Russians
3 x bags of different coloured thick flock powder and a set of 7 brightly coloured tiny bits to make flower heads from. Looked good on the Sheffield Irregulars stand. I admit it, I had a go and it seems to work okay.
6 x Timecast 6mm Russian Front buildings (for a bit of variety).
2 x packs of 14 pre-cut MDF bases
2 x pack of round bases for generals (got 2 because it was a BOGOF deal).
The last two items are from a company called Warbases, nice blokes, good deal. Unfortunately, you'll have to Google it coz I can't get the linky thingy to work.

Books
Plus what I considered to be a real steal from one of the bookshops there, a mint copy of Great Battles of the Civil War by J. Macdonald for £5 ( do your own conversion if reqd.)