A Roman Interlude

I started putting together my Warbases 15mm Roman buildings. In a word, they are great. I got one of the villa sets. It comes with the main villa house, two towers and two long stores. Oh, and a pool. I have one store left to put together. It really looks good. I want to update the roof with plastic tile sheeting I think it will really make it pop. The second building that I bought was the mansio. This is a very complicated build but it looks excellent. I am still trying to figure it all out. their website has instructions for it but they are for the larger 28mm version. There are somethings that didn't make it to the 15mm version such as door hinges. But that does not matter to me.

The biggest aid I have in assembling this is a tray i bought that has magnets to help keep corners square. I forget who I bought it from but it is a huge help. It has allowed me to build my MDF terrain without worrying that my joins will be crooked.

On another track, I started to paint the chicken coop. Lots of interesting details modeled on it. Especially the chickens.

Working on on Terrain

I picked up some railroad terrain pieces a while back and I started to work on them. The first up is a chicken coop. It is an interesting model. It seems like it could be useful for the East Front in 1941. It is more of a dilapidated shack than anything else. It has lots of character and a half tin, half wood roof. It comes with a number of chickens as well. However, the chickens are tiny compared to the 15mm chickens that I bought from Donnington miniatures. I am still trying to sort out in my mind what to do with them. At this point, the coop is primed and unassembled. I think I will have to paint it before assembly given how it goes together.

Next up is a piece I actually finished. It is a dock from 6 Squared in Canada. Mad Padre Mike recommended these guys a while back. They have a limited selection of 15mm offerings but they are great. The dock is a lovely piece that I actually like better than the 4 Ground piece I did earlier. However, it is not long enough for what I want. But it is too nice not to paint up.

I am very impressed with the scatter terrain that Warbases did in 28mm for Chain of Command. So I have been on the lookout for something similar in 15mm. So shopping around on eBay got me some rail road terrain that looks like it will fit the bill. A rabbit hutch, dog houses, a smoke house, a corn Crib and small barn will all be useful for the AWI, ACW and the eastern front. Some might see service on my table top for a Normandy campaign as well. Hopefully, I can work on these this week.

Terrain Expansion

I just received in my 4 Ground Corduroy Bridge. In looking at it online, I came to the conclusion that it would actually make a very nice warf or dock for my pirate game. Having just assembled it, I still think so. I bought the bridge and the expansion for it. It should do the job.

In addition, I have finished assembling the Star Fort Miniatures 15mm Russian Watermill. It is a really nice building. I had a few issues with the kit. The chimney was missing and the dowel that you mount the water wheel on was missing. The dowel has been replaced by a length of straw that fit perfectly. I need to fill the end in and paint. The chimney was not a big deal. The roof covering needed to be cut to accomodate it. I just did not cut it. So you can't tell that it was supposed to have one. The roof is removable. It is a really nice addition to my east front terrain.

Now I just need to get moving on painting this stuff. I did receive my Peter Pig order. I have more pirate gun crewmen to flesh out my three man crew I currently have. And I have my seated government troops for the ships boats. I figure I will paint two as militia and two as regulars. That should be enough to give the impression of what I want. In addition, some late war German WWII mine sweepers, US Engineers and some Soviets with SVT rifles made their way here. That should close a few gaps I have in my Chain of Command Supports.

UPDATE:

Here is the finished stuff.

Terrain Building

I managed to finish three deployment points for my Pirate forces. These are sound plywood bases textured with latex caulk and sand. The palm tree was one that was broken off of a piece of inherited Burma terrain that I had. The chest, boxes, barrels and bags were from an order I placed a while back to ... honestly, I can't remember. Donnington maybe? It came with an order that included chickens, pigs and goats. Not that description is particularly helpful. Anyway, I like them.

Then, I started on some terrain that I had forgotten about. Last year, I went on a buying binge and picked up a number of MDF terrain pieces. Reading the Vis Lardica blog about his recent purchase of the Red Vector terrain, I remembered that I had bought the Russian Village pack. I rooted around my cupboards and found them. They went together very easily. I did not even need the instructions. The houses are rather nice. I will be texturing the roofs to make them look like they are straw. I found some useful instructions on the Red Beard Baron's youtube site for that. The thatching would cover up the roof joins nicely. Paint will fix the wall joins. The nice part is, the way the buildings are constructed, the buildings have lift off roofs. Except for the livestock pen.

I also picked up some Starfort Miniature's building at that same time. The one I am eyeing to build next is the Russian Watermill. I will work on texturing the bases of these current buildings first. And getting them complete. I need to figure out what I will use for pirate tavern and some houses. I think I have some AWI shacks that could possibly fit the bill. We will see.

Painting Progress #8

I finished the basing for my latest sets of pirates. The more I look at the museum miniatures blunderbuss carrying troops, the more I dislike the figures. While their boarding pike wielding fellows were not bad. These look more like Orcs than Pirates to me. They might have been better if there was some variety in poses.

Anyway, here is what I have managed to finish up over the weekend.

I am starting on some deployment points. I have been struggling with what to do. For one, I am doing an "X" marks the spot with a palm tree. I have some terrain items to work on as well.

Painting Progress #7

Managed to finish the dead pirates this morning. Also finished off the Peter Pig Rowing Pirates pack. They came out pretty good.

I have my Eureka rowing crew do work on. I want to get the steersmen finished next. I placed the one figure on one of my Sea Dog large rowboats and he fits rather well. I have two more rowboats to work on from Old Glory. There are two other possible steersmen in the pack but neither seem to be good.

Then I have some terrain work ahead of me. I want to look through what I have. I know that a matt is needed. Just need to figure this out.

Rock the Casbah

I love finding reports of games that people have played with supplements that I have written. I stumbled across one such report on Rob Avery's wonderful Vis Lardica site. They played a game of Rock the Casbah and made a wonderful table that is well worth looking at. They captured the tension of the game well with unpredictable civilians and the possibilities of danger around every corner.

Check it out here.

Painting Update #6

I have finished my third group of pirates for my game in November. I now have three groups of them and an artillery crew. I still have some dead pirates to paint up and some row boat crews from Eureka and Peter Pig. Those are all nice to have and not have to have. I also ordered some more figures from Peter Pig. Sme pirate gun crew and seated soldiers.

Here is the work so far. Just some basing to do and they are ready for action. my next step will be building a matt for the game. In the end, I want the table to look like this:

This is an island shore line with a pirate settlement built on it. I have the ships all painted up already. I should have enough row boats for it as well. I need to build a table as well. I have the materials for it but just need to finish. Hope to have more later.

2017 Santa Clause

Hey howdy hey, it is that time of year again. If you had been by Ian's blog (https://walladvantage2.blogspot.com) you will have seen the news that he is not doing the Secret Santa this year. But we are going to press on with the Santa Clause.

The Santa Clause 2017

Since Ian has kicked off the Secret Santa already, it is time to get rolling with the Santa Clause. If you were with us last year, you know how this works. If not, here are our ground rules:

Rule number 1:
To enter you need to either have a blog or be a regular follower of this blog (or Ian's) already. This is to give confidence to all involved that everyone will follow through to the end. If you have a blog and don't follow this one it's OK to join in. (I would still appreciate it if you did follow)

Rule number 2:
The idea is that each person involved buys a figure or figures to the value of less than £5 and paints them up to fit in with what the target blogger wargames or collects. Best would be some kind of command for the bigger scales but maybe a unit or two of such as 6mm or a building or... you get the idea.

Rule number 3:
Please try to send out your items so that they will arrive by December 20th in plenty of time for the big day. I will send out who you have on September 30th.

Rule number 4:
Please post on your blog about your participation. The more we can get on board, the more fun for all of us.

Rule number 5:
This is not intended to be a cheap alternative to Ian's Secret SantaTM. Instead it is a great opportunity to send and receive something that will be special BECAUSE it's a one off from a fellow blogger. Not that you have to limit yourself to something useful, feel free to paint up something that will just sit aside the painting desk or study etc and just give pleasure.

Rule number 6:
When you mail your package to your target, lets add "SC" into their name so that they know they received their Santa Clause gift and not just something else that they happened to have ordered and promptly forgotten about. For example, the name should be listed as "Bob SC Hope". This will give us the opportunity to place it under the tree with the care that it deserves.

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So that's the idea, it is another great way to connect with your blogging friends and get something really exciting at Christmas. I hope that this year will be as great a success as last year. Ian's wife did a fantastic job with it and from what I can see, everyone had a great time. If you are interested, please leave a comment here with your blog address. We need to be able to look and see what you are interested in. Then shoot me an e-mail to chrisstoesen at gmail.com. I need to know where you are located as well so I will need a mailing address to send to your Santa Clause recipient. I will cut off the registrations on September 30th. That's it folks, lets get this going! I hope to see all of last year's participants back involved. It was a great time.

Painting Progress #5

I finished up with the 8 Pirate Musketmen. That gives me two groups of 12 pirates completed. Three pirate officers and a three man gun crew also completed. I still have eight pirates with blunderbusses and eight with pistols left to do. That will give me another group of 12 pirates with four to spare.

In the picture are two groups of 8 Spanish Regulars that I finished a while back but have not based yet.

Time Passes as I forgot to hit post.

Well I finished off 24 pirates, 3 pirate gun crewmen, a gun, three pirate officers and 16 Spanish Regulars. They are all below.

Painting Progress #4?

OK, I have no idea how many painting progress posts I have made thus far and am too lazy to look it up.

I managed to get 8 more pirates painted up. They are awaiting an ink wash and varnish just like the pirate officers that I finished last post. I finished the Museum Miniatures pirates with boarding pikes. They are a bit boring in that they are all one pose. A guy holding a pike level. I tried to vary up the colors on their clothes and skin to make them different. They painted up pretty quick but they are boring minis to me. i will have to mis them with others to make the groups interesting.

Next up is a group of 8 pirates with muskets. This is the Peter Pig Pack and they come with three different sculpts. All are nice and should be fun to paint. If I hurry, I might yet knock these off tonight. We will see what happens.

Also received a pack of AB Miniatures Naval boat crews. Very nice miniatures. There are 12 oarsmen and two fellows that could be steering and a guy who is kneeling that may be a gun crewman for a bow mounted carronade. It also has the carronade. I needed the steersman figures. But given the number of rowboats that I have, I can probably use all of these. Oh, it also comes with a rather nice rudder for those ships without it molded on. I am looking forward to having these done.

Lastly, i got in my order from Gaming Models for my Second Kharkov project. Three Matilda IIs in Russian Green and three Valentine IIIs in Russian Green and a German PZ IV f2. All in all, very happy. I will repaint but that is just me. The PZ IV needs to be in early war gray anyway.

Painting Progress #3

I managed to get some painting in. Painted three Pirate officers and three pirate gun crew. I need to find two more crewmen to go along with the three that Rebel Miniatures provides in their set. May get the unarmed Peter Pig Pirates pack to supplement their numbers. Then use some of those to make steersmen for my rowboats.

I still need to give them an ink wash but I was going to wait until I have some more done and do a large bunch at once. At this point, I have 14 pirates ready with another 36 to go. Next on the desk is some Cold War US and Soviets again.