Some Progress

ACW - Terrible Sharp Sword
I finally got the miniatures dipped and sprayed with the anti-shine spray. I have finished off 3/4ths of my Infantry Company. I have three officers (a captain and two lieutenants) and two NCOs as Big men for this company. I have six painted and based groups of eight men. I still have another two groups of eight on painting sticks. Of these most are ones I need to repaint. Enough with words, here is what they look like.

This is an overhead shot of the troops.

This is a closer view of the one complete platoon.

I also have some Union troops painted but not based. These were the Union Zouaves that I purchased off of Ebay. I am very happy with these minis.

Dark Ages Skirmish
I also have painted up my first few Dark Ages 15mm miniatures. I am doing a Saxon army circa 300 - 500 AD. Here are the first few that I have.

These are some of what will be the command elements. The overall leader will be the fellow with the raven shield. I hope to buy some more of these exelent minis from Splintered Light Miniatures in the near future.

Next up are some of the cannon fodder for the shield wall. The bulk of my troops for my Saxons (and for my Romano-Britons too) will be unarmored spearmen.

In the end, I hope to have some 48 unarmored spearmen, some 12 armored spearmen, and a few mounted Saxons for color. I purchased the personality pack and will start on those soon. Two very nifty shaman types in there. One of whom is jumping around with a large snake. There is also a bare chested giant. Very fun miniatures from a great line of minis.

Ah the weekend

Well another weekend approaches. The hobby plan for the weekend is to base up the painted Zouaves that I have purchased. They add some color to the table top.

Other than that, I may finish off some more Confederates that I have left to do. I did not get as much done as I thought I would the other weekend.

I also purchased one of the scene kits from Woodland Scenic's subsidiaries. I want to experiment around with it to see what I can do. I might play around with that as well.

I did purchase some more early saxons from Splinteredlightminis.com. They added some mounted Saxons to their inventory that looked very nice. The shipping was about a day turn around (the owner lives just 30 minutes from me). I also picked up the Saxon personality pack. If I stray from my ACW, I may paint some of these up.

In terms of writing, the scenarios for Terrible Sharp Sword are coming along nicely if slowly. I have 14 scenarios fleshed out for August to December 1861 in Longstreet's area and a scenario for the midwar that occurs in Green Hill, Tennessee. That and a campaign background for use with the Lardy campaign system for TSS.

The Greenhill scenario is more humorous than serious. The Union army sent a Brigade sized force to engage a company of Confederate militia that was guarding a still in the back woods of Tennessee. The Union army seized 40 kegs of liquor (read moonshine) in their daring raid that scattered the raw recruits defending the still. I am tempted to create a new card called "Revenuers!" for the scenario. The scenario needs a miniature equipped with a banjo as a musician. Does anyone make one in 15mm? If so, please let me know. I need to buy it.

New Miniatures

I just bought some painted miniatures - some ACW Union Zouaves. These are beautiful and an excellent ebay purchase. Not ideal for TSS as there is only 15 riflemen and I needed 16 of them. The lot also came with 2 drummers and three officers. The painter's talent far exceeds my own and I will have a rough time getting a figure to match his paint job.

So, anyone have a spare OG Zouave in a fez so I can flesh this unit out?

Painting Time!

I have a nearly free night in order to get some work done on my miniature backlog. I sorted through my AWI and ACW miniatures that I still have to paint. Once I recovered from the shock of the numbers, I settled on finishing my ACW Confederates. I have eight more infantry to paint and about 30 or so to finish basing. Then all 64 of them need the Army Painter anti Shine spray.

Next I will be base coating the horse holders, horses and artillery crew.

Once those are painted, I have to retouch 16 Confederate Cavalry. That will give me an effective Confederate Terrible Sharp Sword force of 8 groups of infantry, two groups of cavalry and a single gun.

Hopefully, I can knock out most of this tonight.

Happy New Year

2010 was a pretty good year with a few games and some painting accomplished.

I am hoping to get a 2011 kicked off with a scenario set for TSS. Hopefully a few more games as well. I am looking forward to painting up my Blue Moon Miniatures buildings in January. That and finishing off my Confederate and Union Infantry units.

What is everyone else working on?