A lonely chapel

I managed to get some painting done this week. It is the lovely Iron Clad Miniatures chapel. This is a small chapel that could not hold more than a few people inside. Something that might be found in a remote farming community. I tried to paint it so that it looks like an abandoned building that has not been used since 1929.

Other than it being tiny, I really like this chapel. It turned out better than I thought it would. Ideally I would like a larger church building for my east front games. But this should do with the existing rural buildings that I have.

Another Great Game at Gigabytes.....

....to bad I could not be there. Mark ran another one of my Sharp Practice scenarios from "This Land Divided". It features a meeting engagement near Little River Georgia where South Carolina's Colonel Andrew Pickens and Georgia's Col John Dooly faced off against some raiding Loyalist Militia and their Cherokee allies. The game came out bloodier than history but nearly the same result. A few more big man casualties than history as well. He has posted the pictures on his flicker account and the link is at the bottom of the post.

Mark's Flickr Site with Game Photos

Someone's doing a giveaway.

Loki's Great Hall Giveaway. To celebrate 2 years of blogging, Loki's Great Hall blog is doing a give away. It seems interesting and worth checking out. I just did.

East Front Terrain

I just received a wonderful box on my front door this morning. It contained 4 east front houses and a barn that I purchased off of Ebay. These were intended to match some previous buildings that I had purchased from the same seller. The seller does not sell them on Ebay painted any longer, but a quick e-mail exchange and he was willing to have them painted for £2.00 each. Waiting on Royal Mail and USPS the package arrived today.

First, lets look at what I had already bought.

They are based and have removable roofs that you can place miniatures within. I really liked these and have used them in my Dux games as well as stand ins for Dark Age buildings.

Next is the barn. I really like the barn and it actually is nicer than the picture on Ebay. It has a small shed to the rear and both the shed and the barn have removable roofs. It also has removable doors as do the earlier houses. The doors in this and the other two houses have trouble staying in place. If jostled during game play then tend to fall down. This worked well during a game of Dux when some Saxons were raiding said building. Otherwise it is a pain to reset. This is the only negative to these buildings.

The other 4 buildings are nice but not as nice as the first two. They do not have removable roofs or doors. They are not based as the others. I will probably have to make one to keep them the same height on the table. Still, for the price, it was well worth it.

All in all, this is a great leap forward for me in getting some of my scenarios done for my CSIR campaign. If I can ever gather the courage, I will paint up the remaining ruins that I have to have urban terrain as well. Who knows, that might actually happen.

New Toys!

Each time a package comes in the mail, I see myself in the scene from Toy Story 3 where the large group of toys greets the newcomers to the preschool. "New Toys!"

The postman brought in my latest ill gotten gains from the internet. First off is a Peter Pig Order.

I purchased lots of dead figures. First up: dead Italians. These all look fairly generic with most lying on their backs. There are two laying on their sides. The equipment is almost generic enough to be used for any WWII army. Very happy with this pack. Given my penchant for wanting to play Italians, I may need a few more packs.

Next is some dead WWII Russians. These have three figures with PPSH submachineguns. That seems like an unlikely number of dead guys with SMGs out of a packet of 8 figures. There are only two with Mosin Nagant rifles (the long model 91 and definitely not the carbine version). The remainder have had their weapons stripped away by someone looking for additional gear (or so it seems to me). Everyone is on their back except the two with Nagant Rifles. Still a good purchase.

Next up is the new Viking range pack 9.19 - A Bit Dead.

These were not pictured on their site so I bought them sight unseen. At first I thought I bought the wrong pack as almost all of the miniatures are still standing. The closer I looked at them, I realized what I had. These were minis that had suffered fatal wounds but not yet succumbed to the wounds. It is an odd assortment. There are three fellows who have a pair of arrows jutting from their bodies - one in the neck and one in the chest. The guy has one hand on each arrow and is either attempting to pull them out or keep them from wiggling. I have no clue what to do with these guys. In Dux Britanarium, the skirmishers have proven themselves to be deadly in my games but not enough to turn folks into pin cushions like these poor guys. The next three all look like they are advancing with sword in hand and crouched. They have a splintered shield which looks cool. It took me a while to find their wound which was a large axe buried in their backs. I fail to see how this guy is still able to stand. I may attempt to remove him from his base and post him flat on the ground. Also might try to remove the axe from one and just use him as a big man as it is a nice figure. The last two are the gems of the pack. They are on their knees with a spear poking through their bodies. Now these two are useful casualty figures. They will definitely be on my table to mark the falling of my Saxon Elites. The two kneeling guys appear to be in Chainmail. The arrow struck fellows have some kind of padded armor and the three axe slain have no apparent armor. This pack has a bunch of character and for the Peter Pig Longships rules, it probably makes great sense. For casualties for Dux Britannarium, not so much.

My last purchase was some Cowboys. I picked up a pack of dead gunmen from the "Hey You in the Jail" line. There are perfect for what they are - dead cowboys laying in the street. They will be used in playtesting of the "Tin Star" rules from Lard Approved. Fun rules. I also grabbed the Sheriff personality figure. I have the Bad Bob figure already. These are nice as they come with a mounted figure, a standing figure and a dead figure. I was disappointed that the sheriff is also carrying a double barreled shotgun - just like Bad Bob. I was hoping for a pistol. The casting is very nice. You can clearly make out the tiny sheriff's star on the figure's coat. His deceased form has him laying on his stomach with his shotgun across his back. Huh? How did that happen? Did he throw the shotgun up in the air when he got shot? To make things more interesting, one hand is behind his back. Maybe the sheriff was doing a trick shot behind his back when he was killed? Other than being goofy looking, I like the figure pack. This one gets 4 of 5 stars.

Other than my procession of the dead, I also picked up a wonderful small chapel from iron Clad Miniatures.

As you can see from the Italian officer next to it it is a small thing but just the deal for a small village. I was happy with the building and it will one day make a nice addition to my east front terrain. Hopefully, I will have some better pictures of painted stuff the next time around.