Painting and a game!

Ade D came over for a days gaming yesterday. The plan was for some Warmachine in the morning followed by Piggie action in the afternoon. He arrived just after 10am and dice were rolling before 11. We played 35pts, Ade using his new Mortenabra Cryx army against a list I've wanted to try for a while using Captain Kara Sloan with all the guns. Things worked out well for me with two quick games ending in round 2 with Sloan shooting Mortenabra between the eyes on both occasions.

We then had lunch with an impromptu jam session, Ade on my Ukulele and me on guitar. The original plan was PBI to be followed by Hammerin Iron. Ade fancied HI first and so we set to with Ade playing the Union Admiral He neded up defending. This left me as the Reb admiral, attacking which can tend to be a tough gig. In the new Hammerin Iron (2011) players must buy a navy consisting of 6 ships AND a fort. If you attack you don't get use of the fort. If you defend you lose one ship from your fleet. I had three ships on at game start to Ades one, but from the start things went poorly as I couldn't catch his lone ship (the USS Signal) and by the time I was down river, Ade had a couple more ships on table, one of which was the Monitor. Without going into the gory detail, at the end of the game I had one ship left, the wooden clad General Sumter. I had barely scratched the Union fleet. Final points tally was 67 to Ade and 0 (ZERO!) to me.

 I have played many Peter Pig games over the years. I've lost more than I won. But I have never failed to score a single point! But it was a great game. Once refreshed on the rules the game went along at a fair old pace. It even got me looking at which ships are missing from my collection! 

The first picture shows the first turn with the USS Signal making a run for it from the oncoming Reb fleet.

 Early game action, with I think the General Bragg stuck on a sandbank and under fire from the Union fort.

Late game action. By this time the Tuscalloosa had been blown sky high with a boiler room exploded. My shore battery had been destroyed and most of my ships were battered.

I have used Army Painter dip for years. It has always given me the result I want and I must have painted thousands of Peter Pig figures with it. There are downsides. It costs around £18 per tin, it wrecks your brushes and it leaves your figures with a gloss finish meaning they need matt varnishing for the table. I still have several pots and will no doubt continue to use it. However I have been experimenting with Games Workshop washes, namely: Agrax Earhshade, Reikland Fleshade, Seraphim Sepia and Nuln oil. These are respectively a dark brown, reddish brown, light borwn and black wash. What is interesting is that they tend to sink into the recesses of the figure but don't overly stain the top surfaces similar to other acrylic based hobby inks/washes. I have been really pleased with the results and for the moment favour them over the Army Painter dip. They are water based for a start. Plus they dry in no time to a matt finish. The cost pro rata is probably similar to Army Painter but it doesn't feel so bad paying a couple of quid or so for a pot that will last some time.

Anyway, this afternoon, taking advantage of an empty house I cracked on and managed to paint 3 Regiments of Foote, 1 Regiment of Horse and some dragoons for my ongoing ECW project. I now have 15 Regiments of Foote, 8 Regiments of Horse plus guns and dragoons painted, but not based.

First picture is the dragoons. All of these figures were seen back in February having been sprayed in various base colours. These 6 dragoons were sprayed blue, had details painted on and then washed with Reikland Fleshade.

The afternoons work. I varied which wash to use based on the base colour. I think all of these were done using either Reikland Fleshade or Seraphim Sepia.

A closer look at a foote unit. These were actually sprayed white and then given various colours of coat, breeches and equipment to represent a hastily formed regiment. These were also washed with Reikland Fleshade.

I'm really pleased with the result. Its easy to go back with another wash or to touch up a colour that has darkened too much. I might even try a short tutorial with pictures to explain better how I go about things.

I also painted three STUG IIIG's which came with the Flames of War starter set that I picked up a while ago. Not sure why I bought it now, but I am making use of the vehicles. I followed the tutorial on YouTube and they look ok. No pictures I'm afraid.

I might get some time tomorrow afternoon for a bit mor painting. I'll try and get some more pictures up.

More soon...