Hammerin Iron

Been working hard to tart up my Hammerin Iron ships. This is Peter Pigs ACW Naval game which is a fast play hex based game with buckets of dice. I have had most of the ships for years but have spruced them up with a wash and a drybrush. I have also pianted up the tokens for the game in nice bright colours! These indicate various bits of damage done to your ship. Self explanatory really!

This is my collection stored in a 4 litre Really Useful Box. These are great for storing all your wargaming impedimentia. If you look out for deals they can be picked up really cheaply.

I have also added a few new ships. Two are here. First is the CSS Tennessee. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Tennessee_(1863) One of the best Rebel ships in the game.

Here is the USS Sassacus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sassacus_(1862) A really nice looking model.

Cant wait to get these into action.

Painting

Well I am painting. Halfway through some AWI Indians, militia and also a limber for my CWB Rebs.

I am at Alumwell on Sunday and have an order for Hessians and cowboys placed and have vowed I must paint some figures by the end of the week to at least make a dent in the pile beofre I collect my new order.

Excited that there is an AK47 Reloaded event planned for September as well as STaB's annual PBI and CWB days listed for May and September respectfully. Hope to get to at least two of these.

I've added the picture of Martin demoing Washingtons Army just for the sake of adding a picture as I cant seem to get into gear to take pictures of my own stuff.

I am seriousley thinking of doing some ebaying in the next few weeks, mainly my Games Workshop stuff for which any sort of passion has drained away altogether. It will add some serious funds for hobby purchases, but not sure what I want to spend it on. The next two releases from Peter Pig are Hammerin Iron and Squarebashing. They are two classic games from the RFCM stable, both of which I have figures for. There maybe the odd purchase here and there to fill gaps, but nothing too onerous on the finances. Cowboys is a small expenditure project as will be pirates when I eventually get around to them.

So what period will be on the cards for next year? I suspect Peter Pig will have a complete new range on the cards for 2012, but I have no idea what. If I was asked to speculate how about the following half dozen periods:

1. US Mexican War

2. Further Colonial (maybe big battle Sudan)

3. Ancients (doubtful)

4. Crimean (also doubtful)

5. Maximillian Adventure

6. Sci Fi (possibility as Martin said he wanted to have another go at this following the sale of the old range)

7. Revisit of Hey you in the Jail?

Ok thats seven. I'll check back in 12 months time on this post to see if my powers of foresight are anywhere near the mark!

more soon...

Painting

Yes I am painting again. Sorted out the painting station. I have made the ground breaking decision that all the paints I use most frequesntley will be stored together in a small box so I dont have to scrabble around each session and waste valuable time.

I must have around 200 pots of paint, maybe more. But of those, I use half a dozen on most figures I paint. Black, white, leather brown (Cote d' Arms colour)almost all browns, chainmail, flesh and buff. At the moment I am painting AWI, so reds and blues are also in the mix. The blue is GW's Ultramarine blue which I am using for Continental's. I use the same blue for my ACW Union, which when coated with Army Painter Dark Shade, comes out just right. Years ago I would agonise over getting the right shade of blues or reds or similar. Now, so long as it comes somewhere close I really dont mind. The red I use is I think called scarlet red from Vallejo. Using the Army Painter means I need a bright red otherwise it gets lost under the dark shade.

My mojo is definately returning. I am currently crossing my fingers that a new project may be coming my way at the end of the week. I wont say anymore until the deal is done. I am also thinking of getting the table set up and playing a few solo games just to keep me ticking over until the new year when I may get to the club or play some mid week games.

The AWI range at Peter Pig has grown nicely over the last few months with more Militia types as well as ragged continentals and now the Hessians! Trenton anyone?

Peter Pig are currently in the midst of playtesting a new version of Squarebashing which Martin has graciousley involved me in despite my lack of time to contribute to. Intriguingly listed as the game for Salute is Hammerin' Iron. At Warfare speaking to Nigel he let slip that a revision of Hammerin' Iron was in the works. So, its looking promising for the new year. I've also been having hankerings for Pieces of Eight action.

Went to see the new Harry Potter the other day. Very good, but quite dark and gritty in places. And, as I am only on book 4, the story is a bit lost on me. But recommended nonetheless.

Next some pictures coming as once again I promise to increase the photographic content of the blog.

More soon...........

Thoughts

I have been painting more Wars of the Roses this afternoon. I have now painted over 1,500 15mm Peter Pig figures this year. Not sure I'll ever paint so much again as I did have a large back log. I have now virtually completed two projects, with them both stretching their neck for finishing line. The Samurai have the generals, 2 maku and some casualties left to do (all basecoated). The WotR have three units of retinue and 1 unit of horse to do, of which I have still to buy the last two retinue units. These are part of Norfolks command on the Yorkist right at Towton. In the scenario from Bloody Barons Norfolk comes on as reinforcements and in fact is not guaranteed to come on at all. I just now the first time I run the scenario Norfolk will be no where to be seen but it wont do to NOT have the figures just in case.

My painting was accompanied by the 'View from the Veranda' podcast which is part of Meeples and Miniatures. With the host Neil Schuck and Battlegames editor Henry Hyde discussing a hobby centric topic, I can highly recommend it to pass the time between coats of paint. This afternoon it was episode 2 discussing the morality of wargaming. Not something I have ever struggled with personally but an interesting debate all the same. There is a link in the sidebar to Neils podcasts which are informative and an excellent break from Radio 5 Live, particularly if Victoria Derbyshire is on!

So, Zombies. It seems you cant move on the Miniature Page for a new company releasing a range of Zombies. Now, I have played my fair share of Warhammer fantasy, owned a large Vampire Counts army and played Zombies!! which IS a great game. But, similar to the Cowboy fad, the Darkest Africa fad and the Pirate fad, zombies seem to be big at the minute, mixed in with the Pulp genre and Wierd War 2 type games. Never say never. Wargames Factory have some very nice zombies but they are not in my scale. I imagine in 15mm any civilian type figure could be painted as a zombie. a 'Shaun of the Dead' style game would be fun, maybe with old AK47 style mechanics or using some of Matthew Hartleys 'Riot' rules. With a wait between now and Peter Pig releasing their AWI rules and figures, maybe I could make my first foray into rules writing. Others seem to enjoy it, but most of them seem to be

a) More intelligent than me

and

b) More knowledgable on militairy matters than me

However, who can say they know more about fighting zombies than I do? mmmmmm........

Paint Fest

Last night Keith came around to see for himself the wonders of''Army Painter' (AP). We sat and shot the breeze for around four hours talking wargaming, films, wargaming, figures, painting,wargaming....you get the idea!

Anyway, I demonstrated the effect by slapping a bit of paint straight onto some Peter Pig Roman Legionairies. No undercoat, a bit of red on the shield and tunic, a brown strap, gold on the shield boss, flesh.....then slap pn Army Painter. After around 10 minutes of painting I had done 8 of these.

So, no undercoat. No basecoat. The metal bits on the figure are the bare metal covered in AP. Keith nearly fell off his chair. "Its the future and I have tasted it!" he said.

So he got to work on some Warhamster High Elves. Although I grew a beard in the time it took him to paint two bases including the command base below, I think he was please with the result.

Meanwhile I had painted a whole Viet Cong army for 'Men of Company B' (ok only 36 figures, but not bad!).

To finish the night Keith got to work on a High Elf General on warhawk.

Which I think you will agree turned out nice! I painted a unit of 18 Confederates for 'Civil War Battles'.

The end result for me for the evening was :

8 Roman Legionaires

3 Ancient Germans

18 Confederate infantry

1 boar (!)

36 Viet Cong.

Keith did a unit of archers, along with what you see above. Later today we are going along to Stafford Games to buy some more of this mystical product. I still have about half a tin left, but it wont hurt to stock up!

No bids on the Orcs yet!

Civil War Battles in a day!

At Brixcon I was discussing with a few people my intention to try and paint a Civil War Battles army in a day using the 'Army Painter' dip method (actually, brushed on).

Well Wednesday and Thursday my wife was away so it was a perfect opportunity to give it a go.

First things first, a nice cup of tea.

On the telly, some inspiration in the form of Ken Burns 'Civil War'.

And in front of me a tray of lovely Peter Pig figures. All nice and shiny and waiting for some paint. 195 foot figures (including markers for the game) and 7 mounted (officers and generals).

First things first. Spray the figures with the blue spray paint from Army Painter.

Next comes actually isong a brush!