Another busy night. AWI forces are shaping up

Well the paint brushes were going last night. I managed to finish the basing on a large block of figures. Let's start with my rebel forces.

Here we have the 36 GAJO painted militia miniatures that I bought. I got these based on #10 washers. Hopefully my ordered sabots from Litko will fit these well.

Next up is some Provincial troops. I had painted up some extra New Jersey Volunteers. While I had the time, I based them last night.

Unfortunately, I broke the bayonet off of one of them. I still have a six more of these guys on painting sticks to paint up but I am holding off for now as I already have 3 groups of 8 ready to go.

Then there was a group of eight Delancey Brigade troops, an officer and a musician.

I have at least another group of 8 of these guys on painting sticks. I think there may be two or three unpainted groups in the drawer. Anyway, I have two full groups painted up and that is good enough for the moment.

Next, there is the British Legion cavalry. I needed some cavalry support for my Brits so these were a natural for the Southern Theater in 1780. I have another 8 of these fellows on painting sticks. i also have two standard bearers and two buglers. None of those extras are painted yet. They came out pretty good. I need to get an officer looking figure. Any ideas for a single figure?

these are really nice Peter Pig figures. Very happy with them. Just need some leadership.

Last up is some British Regular artillery. These are more Peter Pig figures. They have nice artillery and crews that are militia, regular and Continentals. They are just great.

Well that is it for last night. Well, that I took pictures of anyway. I also painted up a Rebel officer to represent Francis Marion. I used the description of Marion where he was described arriving at Gates' camp in early August 1780. In William Gilmore Simms book on Marion The Life of Francis Marion, he quotes the son of Major John Hames as to Marion's appearance:

"He was dressed in a close round bodied crimson jacket, of a course texture, and wore a leather cap, part of the uniform of the second regiment, with a silver crescent in front, inscribed with the words "Liberty or Death.""

I think it is coming together. I need to apply some clear varnish and base it still.

Sabot Base Problem Solved? or Litko to the Rescue

My thinner styrene attempts at sabot bases is a failure. I have one that almost works and five more that don't work. Therefore, I am scrapping that. Now I need another solution. So I sent a mail to Litko and they responded with a link to buy them in about 20 minutes! I have now placed an order and we will see what they come up with.

Did some more painting last night. I now have some miniatures that are close to being done. I started finishing the bases on 36 militia. Then bases on some 8 Delancey Brigade troops and two NJ Volunteers. I might finish them off tonight. Once the sabots arrive, then the whole mess will be ready. I did more work on my log cabin tavern as well. That could be ready as early as this weekend.

What does this mean for me? I should be able to start playtesting scenarios from my Marion book by the end of the week. I just need a catchy name for it. Any suggestions?

New toys arrive - Free figure up for grabs.

I indulged in a little retail therapy and just got in the first few items. I bought some industrial MDF buildings on Ebay. They just arrived. The buildings filled my cubical with this wonderful woodsmoke smell from the laser cut mdf. They came in a package with two smaller packages withing them. There are a total of five buildings in the lot. I got them at a great price but the shipping was a bit high. More than the buildings. My only gripe - NO INSTRUCTIONS. I will email the vendor and see if he has anything.

Next up is the first part of my order from Brookhurst. I ordered six packs of figures from them but only three were in stock. The one I was really waiting on came in. The Scots preacher from the ECW. I love the pose. He is waving a book about in one hand as if he is preaching up a storm. I can really use him and the dog. The scot lancer on the other hand, I have no use for. Anyone want him? Let me know and I will ship him off. Nice figure but I am 99.9% sure I will not do any ECW armies anytime soon. I need to know my limits.

the other two packs are command packs form British Light Infantry and British Legion Infantry. Since I just finished off my British Legion cavalry, I need som infantry to go along with them. Unfortunately the three packs of infantry were the part that did not make it yet. Oh well. They will show up.

Still waiting on my copy of Sharp Practice v2. I have my PDF so I good to go, but just want the book. And the cards. And the markers. And the chips. Quick update. looking at the British Legion command pack and the Light infantry command pack, I have extra figures here too. I will only need one officer for the British Legion infantry. I only intend on painting three groups of these fellows. So I have two officers up for grabs here and two musicians. Then I have six different officers for the light infantry. That leaves four that I don't need. I am getting lazy and will only paint one of each pose. One I will use for my New Jersey Volunteer Light Infantry and the other for my Delancey Brigade troops. I don't like my existing Delancey officer so it will be a good replacement.

Messing About with CreateSpace

Well, I just started to look into using CreateSpace to make a hard copy of my book In the Name of Roma. The interface is dirt simple that even I could figure it out. The problem is the price. As a full color book with a glossy cover, the thing came out to a minimum price of $37.48 US. That is without any royalty for me. I need to fool around with the properties on it as I doubt that this would be useful to anyone else. I am sorely tempted to try to see if I can do this for some of my other scenario books even if it is to just print a copy for myself. For a hard copy of a scenario book, what do ya'll think is reasonable?

Weekend Painting - AWI Again

I managed to finish off some more figures and get a good running start at some more.

First up is an eight man group of the Delancey Brigade. I started painting these up way back when I wrote This Land Divided. I had them at a 25% complete state since then and just finished them off this week. I did find that the thinner styrene sheeting that I used for my Sabot base did not work as well as the thicker sheeting did. The figures are not in as securely. I have another three incomplete sabot bases that i will probably abandon until I can get thicker styrene for.

The picture came out darker than I had expected it to. I need to figure out what I am doing wrong. May have to try to take some outside during the day sometime.

The next piece up is an outhouse. For the terrain that I am working on for my Marion campaign book, I needed a few out buildings as well as some larger pieces. I managed to paint the tiniest piece of terrain that I could and still say I did something. It is an old JR Miniatures cast. I found that I have another four of them in my drawer. Once that I started on has a big chip out of the side and will have to be thrown out. The others remain languishing with most of my other terrain.

Then lastly, I painted up and ink washed some British Legion Cavalry. They still need some matt varnish and basing but they are painted. They have only been on painting sticks now since Peter Pig launched their AWI line. They will be a great support element whenever I can finally get in a game.

I was not done with painting with these. I am also working on some old Blue Moon FIW buildings. I have a two story log cabin that I am putting together. I am trying something different. I did a black undercoating. Then I sprayed it with some brown camo paint that I had in the garage. The idea is that I can try to save a step with the spray. We will see how that goes. This building will represent a tavern that will appear in one of the scenarios.

That is it for this time. Hopefully, I will have more to show shortly.