Cold War Ideas...

I was looking around at the available STL files for some figures to use as Sandinistas. I found some on Wargaming3d. There is a maker named Miska Miniatures that does some Cuban figures in caps. These are ideal. They have a pack that has a squad in it. Included is a squad leader, an RPG gunner, a PKM gunner, a RPK gunner and four riflemen. For variants there is another pack with three riflemen. He has a 3rd pack that has some helmeted figures. It is another squad but the squad has helmets except for one figure. This looks less useful. I probably would not pick those up. I would like an officer figure but I may have to use some figures from Peter Pig to supplement. I suspect the the figures would be set up for 28mm and would need to be shrunk. I suspect that it could cause some issues with the weapons.

I just took another look. They do have a command element with an officer, an RTO, and an additional rifleman. They also have a guy with a scoped rifle and a beret. Not sure why it has a beret. But he looks cool in sunglasses and a cigar. There are also some support weapons. The gun grew with the AGS-17 look good as does the DSHK team. I would need to add some riflemen to complete out the crew. They also have an ATGM team with a mix off caps and helmets.

If I can get these to shrink down to 1/100th scale, this may be the way to go. I think I would get the three rifleman pack to do test prints with before going full in with this.

British Legion Infantry - Second Group

I was able to get some painting time in over the weekend. Not much, but enough to finish off the second group of British Legion Infantry. They still need to be based, but I have them painted and added some Army Painter Quick shade to them. I am happy with them. I have one more group to go, plus another group of dismounted cavalry to do. The dismounted cavalry could serve as a skirmish group as well.

I also toyed with my new bases. I rebased a group of Militia using the v3 of the militia bases. These came out well. I think this will be the look that I want. The group will be somewhat looser than the Provincials and Regulars. I will just need a bunch more of these.

Lastly, I started to place my Georgia Continental Line on painting sticks. I have two groups and some command elements. I also found some unpainted civilians that ended up on painting sticks. These will fall lower on the priority but the miniatures just looked like they would be fun to do.

So things are actually moving on this project. I am looking forward to getting to the cavalry. In the British Legion picture, you can see the Bugler's horse started to get attention. The problem was, I started with the wrong paint on its front leg. It will take some work to get this to look right.

Henry Turner Miniatures

I went ahead and purchased some models from Henry Turner on My Mini Factory. I picked up the Continetal Starter Army, the casualty pack and the Irregular Cavalry. the Cavalry pack is a bargain. There are four different poses of a number of different troop types including British Legion. He also has dead horses, hats and discarded rifles in the pack. These all could be interesting to add to various scenic bits for the table. Possibly something to decorate my rather bland shock marker dials.

I have made a few tests to try on my replacement printer. I will hope that things work well. I have a selection of British Legion casualties for my first print. We will see how it goes.

With my purchase, I will have plenty of options to round out my Mounted Militia as well. The pack comes with 45 different variations. There are poses for trotting, standing and galloping horses, each with multiple poses of riders. The Continental Dragoon pack has a similar number of poses. The artillery pack come with a 6 pounder gun. One without a base and one with. The crew has 11 different crew members including a fellow who could be a battery commander with a telescope. Of all of the artillery packs I have seen, this is the only one that has a pose with a fellow covering his ears. To me, this seems like the only sensible person in the crew.

For the Continental Infantry, there are a number of really nice options. Several different poses for each: firing, at the ready, loading, marching. Enough to make unique looking forces that look like they are moving in unison without being robots. Using the rule of threes, you can easily have one group of 8 marching, another at the ready and a third firing and loading. The foot command gives you figures for NCOs and officers. There is plenty of like here.

The starter army comes with mounted officers as well. There are multiple poses here as well. I will likely pick up the British Regulars as well. But I want to wait until I at least finish off my British Legion that I have on painting sticks now. I am interested in how these print out and if the bases will work with my new basing system that I have worked on. These may send me back to the drawing board. I sure hope not.

To keep my mind on the British Legion, I am reading an article on the Battle of Biggin Bridge - April 14, 1780. Given that the opposing forces were elements of the Continental Dragoons, that may be my next force to paint up.

3D Printing.... resumes?

Well, I have heard from Phrozen's customer support. The LCD on my Sonic Mini 4k is dead. The Sonic Mini 4k is also discontinued with no more parts available. So I have a paperweight. While this is bad news, I had a friend who has the same printer. He was looking to upgrade to a much larger printer. So he sold me his and all of his accessories. I now have a replacement. The hope is I can get it home and try it out this week. With the printer, he has included all of his accessories for the printer. Among them.... a replacement LCD! I am really looking forward to getting this up and running.

I am trying to focus on a single project for the moment. I think this will likely be things related to my British Legion AWI project. Once I get my current minis painted up for the British Legion, I will be looking into Henry Turner's miniatures to supplement out anything I am still lacking. What he does not currently offer are British Highlanders in trousers. That may be possible with the blender files he has but I lack the software to use them. What I was excited to see was his militia cavalry. I may get these sooner rather than later. The woodland Indian command is also interesting. I think it would be interesting to have some leaders to representy the Catawba (Rebel Allies) and use my existing ones to represent the Creek and Cherokee (British Allies). But first we need to see how they match up with my existing miniatures.

I am trying to work my way through Tarleton's account of the months leading up to the fall of Charleston in May of 1780. The scanned copy is not easy to read and he seems to brush over some details of actions the legion was part of but he was not directly involved in. Likely, I will need to rely on other sources for that. Most of the books I have cover the period after the fall of Charleston. I am keen to look at what the Legion was doing before.

Early Timeline

What I have seen is that the British Legion didn't fare well in the transfer from the Northern Theater to the Southern. A gale had sunk their horse transports. The British had sent 90 transports from New York to Savannah to mount operations against Charleston. Due to severe weather, the fleet was scattered. One ship transporting Hessians ended up dismasted and made landfall in England! Several ships were lost, including a vessel carrying the heavy siege artillery, Russian Merchant. Encyclopedia.com's entry for this vessel lists it at a 243 ton merchant vessel. Not only were there seige artillery, but some 4,000 muskets for arming Georgia Loyalists. This limited effective operations against fortified outposts occupied by the rebels.

On January 24th, 1780, some transports were captured by the Rebels. Aboard the transports were forty light Dragoons of the British Legion and and Bucks County Light Dragoons as well as seven or eight officers (O'Kelly, Vol 2, pg 23). There was the tack for forty horses. Aboard were also two horses. Given the lack of horses that the British Legion had, the loss of the two horses were probably felt more than the tack that was thrown overboard.

It seems that the Legion cavalry, as it was, landed near Beaufort, SC. While the Infantry had reached Savannah, GA. The two would reunite by Mid March.

---------------------------
O'Kelley, Patrick. 2004. Nothing But Blood and Slaughter: The revolutionary War in the Carolinas. Volume 2. Blue House Tavern Press.

British Legion Reinforcements

I ordered two figures from Stone Mountain Miniatures to complete out the British Legion group that I bought from Old Glory 15s. The miniatures themselves are really nice. The riders are cast onto the horses. I am of two minds on this. Separate horse and rider allows you to paint them separately and I think I can do a better job that way with my painting. However, with it one piece, there is no gaps between the rider and the horse that can look strange if they don't fit correctly.

This gives me two groups of British Legion Cavalry with command elements and several big men. I will have three groups of British Legion infantry and a group of British Legion Skirmishers. I also have a light gun with British Regular artillerists for suppport. Once this force is painted, I will be looking at doing some games set in South Carolina following the British Legion in the back country. I have a copy of Tarelton's account of the Revolution somewhere. The British Legion often operated with detached groups that raided across the back country. Such as when Christian Huck's groups raided the back country until they were caught.

Hopefully, I will have a chance to paint this week. Last week was tied up with Thanksgiving festivities and a honey-do list.

Singling Revisited

My Singling book went on sale today at Wargame Vault. I am now 7 sales away from having sold 50 copies of the book. The book has not performed as well as I would have throught it would. Still, I am happy with it and it was fun to work on and playtest. I want to thank everyone who purchased a copy and those who have reviewed it. It is much appreciated. It is possible, that by days end, it may reach Copper level. I am very pleased with this.

https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/540383/battle-for-singling-dec-6-1944

Reinforcements for the British Legion

My order from Old Gory 15s arrived. I am pleased with the miniatures with only some minor gripes. The pack of Continentals came with two miniatures with bad bayonetts. The command section is one flag bearer, one officer and one drimmer. I will get two full groups of infantry and five other troopers. With the two bad bayonetts, that leaves me with three extra figures. Still it will be the core of a force. If I can find similar miniatures from Peter Pig, I can make a group with those to round out the force.

The cavalry was much better. I will not get a full group from the pack. There are 6 troopers, an oficer and a bugler. I will need two more figures to round out the unit. These have already made their way to painting sticks.

Brookhurst Hobbies came through again and delivered my Dismounted Dragoon Command. These match well with the Legion foot command. There are three figures that can be used as big men. They strike me more as NCOs rather than officers. Then there are three buglers and two standard bearers. These are less useful. I will likely only paint up one of each of those.

Lastly, i had an eBay purchase that was rather disapointing. I found some mounted militia. There were five in the bag. I thought this would be a good start on a second group of mounted militia. But they came with one broken off its base and two more with broken rear legs. Leaving only two good figures of five. I am not sure I have the skill to fix these.

I based the two foot buglers and the two officers for the British Legion Infantry. The pictures were pretty bad so I am not including them. I am currently eyeing some other eBay auctions that may help me fill out the second group of my British Legion Cavalry. But I am holding off for now.

British Legion and base experiments

I think the 11mm square bases are working. The 15mm miniatures fit on the bases and fit well.

The infantry poses work. The concern was, will they fit in the Movement tray and if not, what do i need to change? Well, I tried them and they fit.... so far.

Depending on the pose, you may have to shift some figures to the front or back row depending on how agressively they are leaning forward. I really like the look of these miniatures in this more compact base. If you compare it with the larger US Penny bases I had been using, the miniatures have the optical illusion of being much larger. The miniatures on the penny bases below are Old Glory 15s. They are close to the same size as the Peter Pig British Legion troops.

I think I will stick with the 11mm bases for infantry going forward. Getting them printed is very cheap. Probably not as cheap as a US penny was. I am will on my way with the 2nd group of British Legion Infantry having made a bit of progress last night.

I still have a bunch to go.

Including some additional horse holders and officers.

I have yet to work on a movement tray for the British Legion Cavalry. They are still all individually based at this time. But that is for future me to worry about. I will press on and try to finish these miniatures off before the next Ohh Shiny moment strikes.

Sharp Practice - AWI British Legion

Weekend summary

I just got in my version 2 of my 3d printed bases for AWI Sharp Practice. I received 2 movement trays and about 20+ bases. I will be using this to base my British Legion infantry/Dismounted British Legion Cavalry. I messed about with these in Tinkercad. The first version was a 9.5mm square base. These proved to be too small for the miniatures. I enlarged this to 11mm square. If the miniatures fit, the next step will be getting the movement tray correct. I have a milimeter gutter between each space. This may put the miniatures too close. Still, it will give a better close order look than the existing US penny basing (19.05mm diameter base).

I think I will still base the Big Men on US pennies to set them appart from their men. The cavalry basing is still not sorted. I have some bases on the existing British Legion Cavalry group. I may make a movement tray based on the existing base.

Tuesday 11/4

The first group is now mounted on the bases that I had printed. They fit and I am very happy about that. The bases are thin at just a single milimeter in height. The trays are 2mm deep and have holes that are 1.5mm deep. That leaves room to work with. Since the glue was still drying, I have not put them into the movement trays yet. I will still need to base the Big Men for this. The second group has started to receive some paint and is going well. The pants and jackets are done. The boots, belts and hats are next. For the crest of the helmets, it is supposed to be black. What I have done is used a dark gray speed paint on it to make them stand out a bit. Probably not correct but it looks good so far.I am thinking I have about 3 more hours of work to complete out the second group.

Wedneday 11/5

Besides the one in progress, I have two other infantry groups left. In addition, I have 4 horses and two horse holders that I undercoated last night. One of the groups will be used as skirmishers. I am trying to decide what a skirmish movement tray should look like for them. I will paint the group of 8, knowing I will likely not use two of them with the skirmish group. I also undercoated the mounted officer for the force. I have a standard bearer and a bugler for the force as well. I am trying to decide if the bugler and standard bearer should be part of the group of 8 cavalary or be separate figures. It will really depend on the miniatures I am waiting for from Old Glory 15s. The pack is labeled as 8 cavalry but it does not state if there is command elements or not. If there is command elements, I will end up using a standard bearer or a bugler to fill out the group. We will have to see. I am guessing that both the OG15 and Brookhurst orders will come over the weekend.

Planning

Once the British Legion is complete, I have 2 other forces to sort out. The priority will be my militia. Currently, I have a large swarm of militia troops painted up but on various basings. None of which I like. If the British Legion project goes well, and I like that basing, I will duplicate it here. The goal of the Militia is to have 9 groups of 10 militia. Two groups of 6 militia skirmishers and two groups of 8 Mounted Militia. I currently have one group of mounted militia. I have been looking at expanding that. While the rules for the Mounted Militia do not have them needing horse holders, I thought that the Scouts Pack from Peter Pig could work well as horse holders. For mounted leaders, I have a miniature of Francis Marion as he appeared in Hillsboro, NC when he presented himself to the Continentals following the fall of Charleston. He wore his SC Continental cap and had a red coat. He made quite the impression. I would like another mounted Big Man for the Mounted Militia. For skirmishers, I bought some skirmishing militia with rifles that never made it past getting a base coat. Those will need to be painted.

The second force is some Continentals. My plan is to base them off of the Georgia Continentals under Colonel Samuel Elbert. These would be in hunting shirts. I cannot find any reference to what the regimental colors would have looked like thus far. I will likely do some variant of a liberty flag for them. I purchased a pack from Old Glory 15s that I plan on using for them. The pack should give me two groups of 8 and some command elements. Once they are painted, I will look and see if there are any additions I want to add to these men. Keeping them at just 2 groups works as they would be working in conjunction with militia.

Next, I want to revisit my Provincial troops. I have plenty more on painting sticks in addition to the ones that are painted. Again, basing is the issue. I have one unit that is based in groups of three and a few individuals. Then another based on small washers. The ones on washers look better but I don't have any movement trays for them. The goal is to make them consistent. Their upgrade will be dependent on the British Legion project.

I will try to get some pictures tonight so the next post will be less boring.

Algernon Pulls it Off - Over the Isonzo & More

Algernon

I finished with the three scenarios I was working on for February 18, 1916. These are interesting battles that are completely unfair to the Italians as they have no fighter escorts. Yet, despite being outnumbered, the Italian held their own. I decided to send these to TFL for the Christmas Special. We will see if it makes the cut. So far I have not heard back from them.

Sharp Practice

Managed to get some painting done. I have a full group of 8 British Legion Infantry done on a painting stick. That with the two buglers and two officers. I have 3 more painting sticks full of the infantry. I am going to continue to work my way through them. Once they are done, I will work on the Horse Holders, and the mounted officer that I bought (Peter Pig through Brookhurst). I am still waiting on order from Old Glory 15s.

I am debating getting some Highlanders from Peter Pig. There is really only one pack of infantry, advancing. I'd like some variation. I have been looking at the Eureka Miniatures line of AWI figures. My concern is that they would be significantly larger than the existing miniatures that I have.

Cold War

Over the weekend, I had a great conversation with a vet from Operation Golden Pheasant (March 1988). I started thinkings about how to apply this to a Cold War game. I had an idea for something like a pint sized campaign with a Sandinista patrol moving across the Rio Coco into San Andrés de Bocay. The Sandinistas begin fighting against Contra rebels and possibly some Honduran troops before US troops arrive and engage to push them back across the river. I am looking at the different militias from the Peter Pig ranges. This could be interesting. I am leaving this as a possibility as i read more up on the operation.

I have US troops and some Soviets that I can use as Cuban advisors or more regular Sandinistas. I would need some more irregular units to field as Contras and Sandinistas. Anyway, it is just a thought. I will probably stick to Europe for my Cold War efforts. But it could make for an interesting game having Sandinistas dropped off by Mi-8 helicopters to head in to attack a Contra base.

Thirty Years War

I keep looking at the thirty years war. I want to game this in a skirmish game. I have looked at the Sharp Practice variants for this but am still not certain if this is what I want. I'd like to have some pike and Shot as well as dragoons. I have some figures but have not painted anything yet.

Sharp Practice - AWI Painting

Managed to paint the two officers and two buglers for the British Legion Infantry. It took quite a bit of time to get these done. However, I am pretty happy with the job so far. I will give these an army painter wash and see how they look afterwards. This will determine how I approach the rest of the infantry. I will work in batches of 8 figures so that when one strip is done, I will have completed a group for Sharp Practice.

I am not sure if the green I am using for the jackets will match the cavalry that I already painted. I am happy with the progress so far. After taking the picture of the two officers and buglers, I realized that I am missing one of the buckles for the officer. At least that is an easy fix.

Also on that painting stick was an officer in a tricorn. I have not figured out what he will be yet. As such, his coat remains unpainted. I started on my first group of British Legion Infantry. I figure these have another hours worth of work left before they are in a similar state. The infantry is going faster than the officer and buglers were. I have hope that I can finish these troops off by the end of November.

My mounted officer for the British Legion still needs a base coat. As do the horse holders and horses. I am still waiting on my order from Old Glory 15s. I am keeping my fingers crossed that those do not have command elements to them.

Singling Scenario Release Update

The release has been going well on the Singling scenario book so far. The book is half way to copper status on WargameVault.

For whatever reason, I never posted the cover. I came up with two of them. The one above is the one I went with. The one below is the initial cover that i took from a historical photo.

As before, they are available on either PayHip at $5 and at WargameVault for $6. On the PayHip site, is also some STL files for some of the building parts in 1/100 scale. Those are pay what you want.

Thanks again, everyone for your support.

British Legion Continued

I spent a few minutes last night working on my british legion miniatures. I just received my Peter Pig order from Bookhurst Hobbies. These added horse holders (2 mounted men and four horses without riders), officers (one with a Tarleton Helmet) and a pack of standards and buglers mounted. This really gave me two more standards and buglers than I actually need. These made it to be glued on painting sticks last night. I also finished painting the jackets and pants of my foot officers and buglers. I painted some boots and the helmet. Then I was done for the night.

I suspect that it will take a while to get these finished but I am very happy with the progress.

This week, I should received my order from Old Glory 15s. I ordered a British Legion Cavalry pack. I am uncertain how this will go. I am hoping that it will provide a full group of cavalry. They are not advertized as having command elements. I am hoping they will match up well with my Peter Pig miniatures cavalry. If it comes with command figures, I will have to order some additional Peter Pig packs top complete out the second group of cavalry.

Also from OG15s, I placed an order for Continentals in hunting shirts. This is a pack of 24 miniatures that includes command figures. I am hoping to get two groups of 8 out of this plus some big men. These will be used to model Colonel Samuel Elbert's Georgia Continentals for the Battle of Briar Creek.

In looking at the Battle of Briar Creek, I was wondering if this could be broken into 3 separate actions for Sharp Practice. Each side had three columns that faced off against one another. Elbert's Continentals and some Georgia Militia stood their ground in the center and were faced by the 71st Regt of Foot (Frasier's Highlanders). Elbert had North Carolina Militia to either flank. Some of the militia was steadier than others.

The scenario that I had just uploaded on the PayHip store for the House on Horseshoe Bend, the commander of the Rebel Militia there was one Colonel Philip Alston. He was one of the Regimental commanders at Briar Creek. His men broke and run very early in the battle. He was captured and later paroled. He would be captured again at the action at the House on Horseshoe Bend.

Anyway, this is getting me excited about Sharp Practice again.

Sharp Practice - Painting

I managed some work over the weekend. I managed to base coat all of my British Legion infantry, a group of militia rifle armed skirmishers and a militia artillery piece and crew. I also had three mounted figures that I undercoated that I have not figured out what I will do with. On Saturday, I had just a few minutes and started to paint the green jackets of a couple of the British Legion figures.

I also painted the horses of the mounted figures. Using the Army Painter speed paint on the horses is really working out for me. I like how the horses look and hate painting them much less. So much so, that I am looking forward to the Old Glory British Legion mounted figures that I have ordered.

I also managed to base coat a Caproni Ca.3 bomber and a another Italian aircraft. At least I am getting some progress here.

I also received my new hill material that I will use going forward. I purchased some exersize mats. There are four 6' x 4' mats. They come in 2' x 2' squares. My original ones were 1' x 1' squares. I should be able to mix and match them and have at least 3 large mats that can be cut up for different shapes. I am looking forward to using these.

There is some brand new resin that i need to try out as well and see if i can print the bases that I was working on. That is it for today.

Algernon - Over The Italian Front and More

Algernon

I spent some time on the scenarios for the Italian front. I think I have them the way I want them. Three separate sscenarios for historical actions all around the Italian bombing effort on February 18, 1916. The Italians are attempting to bomb a factory in what is now modern Croatia. Researching these proved a challenge as there is contradictory information on-line and the books I have are sparse with information. Overall, it shows my need to get more miniatures. I still need at least two more Caproni Ca.1/3s and another pair of Fokker A.IIIs. Before I do that, I want to paint my pair of Hansa-Brandenburg C.Is and the two Italian Bombers that I have. I also have two Neiuport 10s and a Neiuport 11 to paint. These are now back out on the painting table.

Sharp Practice

I also have my AWI back out on the painting table. While i look for a better movement tray and Basing set up, I decided that I will also finish off some troops. I am starting on my British forces first. Namely finishing a complete force of British Legion troops. I have 1 group of 8 British Legion cavaly that is painted and based. I do not have a movement tray done for these. I also own a large number of infantry/dismounted dragoons. This is four groups of 8 men. I have glued these to painting sticks so far. I also have two leaders and a trumpeter. But the force still lacked a mounted leader and the force lacked some figures. Last week, I bought the Peter Pig Standards and Buglers pack, the British Mounted Generals and the Dragoon Horse Holders. This will give me the mounted officer that I need. And it will give horse holders for when the cavalry dismounts. That should arrive next week sometime.

That still left the force light on cavalry when the cavalry was the main feature of that unit. With the War in the Americas sale from Old Glory 15s, I made a purchase of a pack of British Legion Cavalry today. Based on the description, this should give me another 8 figure cavalry group. While having a 3rd cavalry group would meet with the rule of 3s from Rich, I will make due with this. Once painted (my guess is 2030 or there about), I will have 3 groups of 8 infantry with two big men and two groups of cavalry with one big man and a single group of skirmishers. Also some horseholders, a musician and a standard bearer. That works well.

But the sale had me look to model Colonel Samuel Elbert's Georgia Continentals from the Battle of Briar Creek, March 3, 1779. From what I have found, these men wore hunting shirts. Old Glroy 15s had a pack with command. If I am right, this will give me two groups of 8 men and some big men. This will be perfect. I already have plenty of militia. Elbert's Continentals and McIntosh's Georgia Militia held on long after the surrounding North Carolina Militia had fled the field. Those that were not killed were captured.

Once I have these painted, I will be looking into getting some Highlanders to represent the 71st Rgt of Foot. That is a future item at this point. I do want some other Regulars for the British to serve as the 60th Regiment of Foot. I want to round off my existing miniatures first. Also on the future buy list, are some Contientals for the Southern Campaign. Specifically the Maryland Line troops.

I also am taking a look at my old Camden campaign that I wrote for the first edition of Sharp Practice and redoing it for SP2. As well as my Augusta campaign. Both would be fun to revisit. Anyway, good to stay busy.

Sharp Practice Rebasing Continued - Crown Forces

Instead of cleaning my resin vat and printing some samples to play with, I picked up some glue and fixed all of my British Legion Infantry to painting sticks. I have a single group of 8 cavalry painted so far but no big men for the cavalry. All of the figures are Peter Pig. this will provide 3 groups of 8 infantry and one group of 6 skirmishers (or an additional group of infantry). I have two figures for big men (both waving pistols) and two trumpeters. I also found a milita gun team and a group of militia riflemen that I need to paint up.

On the old TwoFatLardies site, Rich once talked about his imaginations force for the Seven Years War forces. This set of articles was an excellent primer on how he intended for forces to be set up a Dawns and Departures campaign. While I could always choose from the options in the Core rulebook, I really wanted to have something that fit the campaign between Augusta and Savannah from January to March 1779. I am having trouble finding it on Archive.org. The date range is April-May 2016. Rich talks about the rule of 3s. This includes infantry groups and their leaders. He notes that having 3 leaders is a little overboard but the reasoning is to give variety.

So for my British Legion force, I have with the miniatures above 3 groups of 8 Provincial Infantry and 1 group of 6 Provincial skirmishers. What is missing for the force? Well, in looking at my British Legion Cavalry, I have no leaders.

Appologies for the poor overhead picture. It was cut out from a larger image of the Provincials that I had painted up. I would love to have two more groups of British Legion Cavalry. That would be an ideal. But for the moment, I will just have them as a support option. What I need is a mounted Cavalary leader. There is a suitable figure in the British Generals pack of a fellow in a tarleton helmet. Or at least it looks that way to me. Next is a horse holder. Peter Pig just so happens to have a Dragoon Horse holder that should do. Brookhurst Hobbies in Califormia has a stock list of Peter Pig miniatures and into the cart they went.

This gives me a British Legion Force of 3 groups of 8 Infantry with 2 leaders, 1 group of 6 skirmishers, and 1 group of 8 cavalry with one leader. The bugler and standard bearer are probably not too useful other than something colorful to have around. Since the British Legion rarely fought alone, I would likely supplement them with either two groups of militia or two groups of Provincial Infantry.

For my Georgia Campaign, I am looking at the forces that were raised on the British Side. At the battle of Briar Creek, there were several regular Army units such as 16th Regiment of Foot (at least a light company), 60th Regiment of Foot and the 71st Regiment of Foot (Highlanders). Of the regular units, I really want to model the highlanders. Peter Pig does some highlanders in trousers which was more likely to have been seen in the Georgia winter. This is on the future list. As part of Prevost's army, elements of the 4th Battalion, Royal Artillery Regiment were present. I have a single gun and crew painted up for the Royal Artillery. Unfortunately, I only have four crew for it. I do have a fifth crewmen that is only undercoated.

For Provincials, there was elements of both the New York Volunteers and Delancey's Brigade. I have suitable miniatures for both of these. Especially since both were operating in South Carolina in 1780. Of painted miniatures, I have four groups of 8 infantry for the New York Volunteers. Three of these are Lancashire miniatures in marching pose. One is Old Glory (i think). For them, I have a color party, two officers, two drummers and a mounted officer. Some are based on small washers and others are based in groups of three. All of which I want to change. Delancey's Brigade has two groups of 8 infantry with a bugler and an officer.

For both of the provincial units, I have plenty of spare figures on painting sticks to make skirmishers and additional infantry groups. I also have some spare officer figures that I can use. Three of which I have on painting sticks already. I probably have enought to add three more groups to both units. So some skirmishers will likely happen at somepoint.

For Loyalist Militia, this is more interesting. The militia can go for either side in the conflict. I have six groups of 10 militia painted and based on pennies. I also have an additional two groups of 8 long service militia painted up. There are four big men miniatures as well. In addition, I have two drummers and a fifer for the militia. I also have a single unit of 8 mounted militia. On painting sticks, there is so much more. I have a group of 6 rifle armed skirmishers. I have a militia gun and gun crew and plenty more militia that are primed on painting sticks. Since the militia is shared between both Crown and Rebel forces, I never can have enough.

So a plan is forming. Now to see if I get get my printer going and make the movement trays and bases that I need.

Sharp Practice - 15mm Basing

I really like my 15mm AWI collection. I have a large number of painted militia figures and a decent sized force of Provincials. I started to make some Continentals but never completed them. what I have never been happy with was how they were based. I have most of them based on US pennies. I have some movement trays that I have purchased (possibly warbases?) that are nice, but the miniatures are spread out and don't have the look of formed ranks of infantry that I am looking for. Not knowing what I really want, I decided to jump on to Tinkercad and play around with the bases. THe US penny is somewhere around 18mm wide. Once the figure is based on the penny, the width may be different depending on how careful I am with the basing job. The movement trays match the group sizes of 8 or 10. I didn't have any skirmish trays. Nor have I figured out any suitable basing for cavalry.

So I started to play in tinkercad. looking at my miniatures, I think I can get a standing infantry figure on a base that is just a bit under 10mm x10mm. Then create a tray with holes that will fix a 10mm x 10mm base. I am going to attempt to print these bases off and see what it looks like. The Regular infantry trays are 4x2 and the Militia trays are 5x2. This gives each group its own tray, I also made an experimental skirmish tray assuming the skirmishers are using the same basing. Instead of a rectangle like the others, this is on an oval with the figures placed irregularly so they didn't look to be in formation. I continued on and made an artillery tray as well to keep the gunners on the same base as the gun as well.

Cavalry I still need to sort out. I tried something similar just bigger for the cavalry. These are 4x2 trays. I have no idea if i will like this experiment or not.

I just purchased some new resin in the hopes I can get the printer up and running again. I have no idea if I will be able to work on this and I need to clean my resin vat before anything can happen. Hopefully it will be back up and running in short order. If I can get that up and running, I am eyeing some Henry Turner figures to round out some holes in my collection. I am trying to get this sorted out to game Briar Creek (March 3rd 1779). Lets see how this goes.

Singling Scenarios Released

The Battle for Singling was fought on December 6th, 1944. A reduced company of infantry and tanks launched an attack against the town of Singling, France. The Americans believed they were attacking a different town. The town was defended by a battalion of German troops with armor support in the form of Panther tanks and self propelled guns (likely JadgPanzer IVs). The Germans had been fighting non stop and were attempting to recover in the town. The infantry put up a poor defense but the armor fought hard against the American attackers.

This scenario set will allow you to play the battle as three distinct scenarios using the Chain of Command rules or using the What a Tanker rules. Each provides unique challenges to the players. The games are intended to be played simultaneously with players from each table choosing from a limited set of support options with the ability of troops to move between tables to support one another.

You can pick it up here. I have some STL files for some of the custom buildings I made for the scenario. I may throw those up for free on the payhip site as well. The back five pages of the book has pictures of the buildings that are still standing in the town today as well as some modeling suggestions for how to build some of the more distinctive buildings in the town. Don't forget to use the coupon code 55thLapAround to get 50% off this title or anything else on my Payhip site this month (October 2025). It is also available on WargameVault.

Setup for Scenario 3 of Singling and other Things

I am finally finishing off the SIngling campaign. The third of the three scenarios is almost set up for a play test over the weekend. The last scenario is a fairly simple one with German armor attempting to move on the town center and the US armor on the outskirts trying to stop them. Hopefully, this will let me finish this and be able to release it soon.

Sharp Practice has started its pull on me again. I am looking at the January to May 1779 period in Georgia again and wondering if it would make for an interesting multi-player game similar to Thomas' Star of Bravery. I am looking at the possible factions and how to address them. There are so many groups operating there that it presents some colorful options. There is the recently victorious British Regulars in Savannah who took the city in December 1778. The Provincial Units that were raised locally and brought in as support as well as the loyalist Militias. The Militia units were from East Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina as well as Georgia locals. On the other side, there were the Continental Army stationed in South Carolina that operated across the Savannah River. The Georgia State Line troops had largely been absorbed by the Continental army. And the County Militias. Wilkes, Richmond and Burke Counties had very active militias that opperated up and down the Savannah River area and some times further south towards Sunbury, Georgia. Operating with part time troops, the militia of both sides struggled to keep their numbers up. Often men flocked to more popular leaders. When that didn't work, sometimes more coercive methods were used to build up the numbers. With men fighting on one side then another depending on whom had more power to force service in his local area.

This period of the war included some significant battles such as Kettle Creek and Briar Creek that could make for interesting conclusions to the campaign. However, I am not sure how to pull this off yet. I am looking at some form of map campaign based on the excellent Campbell Map of 1779. This map covers Georgia from Savannah to Augusta. It does not include Wikles County which lay just to the north. It will be interesting if I can pull this together.

October Birthday Sale - New Item - Other things

Birthday Sale

Well, it is October 1st 2025. In a few days I will have had my 55th lap around the sun. As normal, I will run a birthday sale on my scenarios on my PayHip store. The coupon code to use is: 55thLapAround

I had hoped to get my Singling scenario book complete before the sale. But that is dragging on in playtesting. Hopefully, it will be available this month. If not, I will launch it here as half price for a while before moving it to WargameVault.

Sharp Practice

What I did do is work on another Sharp Practice scenario. This does not fit in with the other scenarios that I have published with TooFatLardies. It is a stand alone scenario that may become part of a larger book. I ran across an article on a small action fought on July 29th, 1781 in North Carolina. My focus has been Georgia and South Carolina to date. In reading the scenario, it seemed a perfect scenario for Sharp Practice and had the oportunity to include some fun things. The forces are small with just around three groups per side with less than 31 troops per side. There really is no hero of the story other than Temperance Alston who managed to save her kids and stop the fighting. I have listed the scenario for $2.00 on the site but with the coupon code above, you can pick it up for $1.00. Once I have play tested it some (which will be after the Singling scenarios release) I will reupload and increase the price. Here is the link to the scenario: https://payhip.com/b/cqMtg

Hobby Purchases

I periodically scan eBay for items that could round out some of the terrain or miniatures that I currently have. My river terrain that I am using is from the old JR Miniatures line. I have the full set of 6mm, 15mm and 28mm muddy rivers. These are nice as they give some size options for what I want to represent on the table. Even though I have the sets, you never can quite have enough river sections. i found two straight pieces of the 15mm rivers on eBay still in their original packaging. I made an offer and they are on their way to me. Very pleased. Never can have enough trees or rivers.

I am on the look out for some odds and ends to complete out the winter troops for my Americans and Germans. I have plenty of Infantry. I would like to get some BAR armed Americans so I can field a force other than armored Infantry. But since those are just a few figures, I will probably get miniatures from 3D Breed and print them myself.

Algernon

The facebook group for Algernon Pulls it Off has inspired me to revisit my WWI aircraft. I have a scenario set that I am working on for it based on the Austro-Hungarian pilot Heinrich Kostrba of Flik4. The scenarios are largely done but my game table is still covered with Singling terrain. It is another project on hold.

Singling - Western Side of Town

I ran a playtest of the west side of town using What A Tanker. The game was great fun. The Americans had a difficult time even though they outnumbered the Germans. Unlike the historical battle, the Americans were able to effectively fight back. Part of this was due to some very poor die rolling on my part for the German armor. I still need to replay the game using the Chain of Command Rules. I expect it will play slower but still be a fun game.

This is a view of the table. The hill dominates the table. There are two bunkers on the table but are both facing away from the direction of the attack since they were part of the Maginot line defences. The Germans were deployed on the table in the bottom left corner while the American entered from the right hand side. The American advance went historically up till the first shot. Due to poor dice rolling, the Germans failed to take out the lead American tank. After that, things slowed down considerably. The Americans had three tanks damaged and one was completely knocked out. I really like the What A Tanker rules.

Here is a view up the hill that the panther had from its hull down position.

Need some help

When using snow flock from Woodland Scenics, what is the best way to clean that up from your game mat? Is there a good way? So far I have managed to get snow flock all over the room attempting to clean up. Would love some good ideas.

Playtesting the central attack on Singling

I managed to play a Chain of Command variant of the central table of the Singling scenarios. I had a great time. The US Infantry advanced largely up the main road as the US Armor and infantry historically did. The German infantry was more agressive than they were in the historical battle. The German Armor did very well and knocked out two Shermans and were forced to abandon one of their vehicles. My intention is to replay the sceanrio as a What a Tanker scenario.

This is one of the pictures I took of the game. The Germans moved forward from their jump off point to take up a position in a courtyard near a giant pile of poo to attack the Americans.

I think I will tweek the scenario as a result.

Singling Book - ACW Book

Playtesting is progressing. I have started the wrapping up of the images for the game. I have a few more playtests to go. Too many things going on to be able to finish this out lately. I hope to have this ready for release by month's end. I am very close.

I have sent an initial copy of the ACW book to the author of Dawn of Iron to review. I am also slowly building up all of the needed models. There are the newest elements of the fleet.

This is 3 prints of the USS Commodore Perry to represent the Commodore Perry, Hunchback and Morse. Then two prints of the CSS Jeff M Thompson to stand in for the USS Commodore Barney and USS Shawsheen. Then a print of the USS Harriet Lane and a print of the CSS Tuscarora (to stand in for the CSS Seabird).

I still need some standins for the following US Ships:

Ship	Image
USS Isaac N Seymour
USS Ceres
USS General Putnam
USS John L Lockwood	No Image Found
USS Henry Brinker	No Image Found
USS Underwriter
USS Stars and Stripes
USS Philadelphia
USS Southfield

Search for Models - 1/600 ACW Naval

I am looking for suitable models for several ships for my ACW naval supplement. I have 9 vessels that I have not found a suitable stand in model for or an actual model for. I have reached out to two manufacturers of STLs for the period and am waiting to hear back. HEre is what I am missing:

Ship Name	Dimensions	Notes
USS Ceres	108'4"x22'4"	Sidewheeler
USS General Putnam	103'x22'	former tug
USS Henry Brinker	82'x26'7"	screw steamer
USS Isaac N Seymour	100'x19'8"	sidewheel tug
USS John Lockwood	114'x24'	sidewheeler
USS Philadelphia	200'x30'	sidewheeler
USS Southfield	200'x34'	double ended sidewheeler
USS Stars and Stripes	124'3"x34'6"	screw steamer
USS Underwriter	170'x23'7"	sidewheeler

I am currently having some models printed that I own but have not been able to print. The Jamestown is one I had not only printed but had fully painted. Then I dropped it and it shattered. I also am having a Wabash done (upscaled USS Minnessota) and a model of the Forrest. I have the models to play most of the scenarios that I have written. Some of the larger ones are missing a few ships that I outlined above. I hope to start playtesting these soon.

North Carolina Sounds - 1862 - Dawn of Iron Scenarios

I have done some more work on the my Mosquito Fleet book. I think I have all of the scenarios fleshed out. There are at least seven scenarios in the book. With the help of the rules author, I have managed to get ship stats on most of the vessels. I have finished with all of the maps. I still haven't found suitable models for all of the ships that are in the scenarios. I have narrowed them down a bit recently. I have reached the point where I can start playtesting the scenarios that I have for them.

I am really looking forward to trying these out. I may change the activation for my games to be card driven similar to Kiss Me Hardy with each ship having a move and fire card. Then use the rest of the Dawn of Iron rules as is.

Singling

The town is really coming together. I took pictures over the weekend but always have issues with things in the background of my images that make them look bad. I started to mess about with some photo editing tools and produced this.

Definitely better than the shelves and other stuff in the background. This is a view of the school house and building 28 on the right and buildings 8 and 9 on the right. I will add some additional snow to this and see how hard it will be to clean up. Not sure if it will stay on the rooftops. That is left to be seen.

Terrain Complete for Singling

I managed to complete building 12 over the weekend. This is a damaged row house that US troops occupied the attic of and used the holes in the roof to shoot a bazooka down onto the German Armor in the street below. I went with one of the color schemes mentioned for the town with a tile roof. The visible roof frames are cut up sprues from the other MDF pieces of the model. I am not entirely happy with it but it works.

I have the table now set to get some playtesting in on the scenario for the center of the town. I am getting really close to being done with this. Here is an image of the central portion of the table. Visible are buildings 8, 9 and 10. Also the large pile of horse dung in the center of the courtyard. Also visible are the school and building 28 in the upper right hand corner. The courtyard to the left is where there American tanks were located and exchaned shots with German Jadgpanzer IVs after destroying part of the wall. It is not very clear in the image, but there is an elevation change running behing the school across the top portion of the map. Building 28 is on the upper level of this.

Anyway, this is a very promising start. I need to figure out a way to take better pictures and have a backdrop from which to place behind it so my shelves and other hobby stuff is not seen,

Building 12

I have started assembling the buildings that I bought on ebay. There are 8 separate buildings that can be put together and joined. I did a pretty good job of putting these together except when gluing them together in a row, I of course messed up and glued one in backwards. I also put one of the wall facings in backwards on another building. Again, very frustrating. However, I have four of them put together as a rowhouse. I used spare sprue from the parts and made a roof support to create a bombed out version. Then tiled the roof. I need to do some more with the roof but it is coming along much quicker than I thought.

I have taken some cutters and cut holes in the supports where it is not covered by the tiles. I think it is coming together.

I also ordered some paint for my 1/144th aircraft for Algernon Pulls it off. I started painting on the scheme that I wanted for some Nieuport 11s. I realized after starting that the scheme is more appropriate for 1917 than 1916. While disapointed, I still like the scheme. It is an interesting comparison between the 3d prints I received years ago from Shapeways and the modern prints now. The newer resin prints are not paint sponges requiring many coats to paint. The details are clearer and better. It is really interesting to look at.

No pictures of the Nieuport 11 so far. I may take some later once I get the rest of the paints in.

Building 12 has arrived, Scenario Writing and the Summer Scenario Sale

My missing eBay order arrived last night. This is a set of 8 row houses with some sidewalk in front of it. While the buildings are very nice and the parts fit well together, this was not exactly what I was looking for. The scale seems off with my other 15mm buildings. They seem almost better suited for 10mm miniatures rather than the 15mm miniatures that I am using. I need to fully assemble one before making the final determiniation. I was looking for something closer to what I purchased from Sarrissa. I would like to have a ruined roof section on it to allow troops in the roof area to shoot down onto the street below. I am not sure this will be possible with this particular miniature.

I have a stand in that I am currently using. It is an older solid cast structure. Possibly an old JR miniatures model. It just doesn't have the foot print size that I am looking for. Hopefully, once assembled, the new building will work out. If not, I will reach back out to Sarissa and place an order. I think I found a few things that would work but be more expensive.

In my excitement about possible Chain of Command games, I looked at some of my order miniatures and that gave thought to my older scenario books. This led me to look at the Ustilug scenario book. It strikes me that this needs to be redone. First, I have a reference to the TooFatLardies website that is now broken since their website change last year. Since those were a free order of battle sheet that they published, I will end up including some of that data into the scenario book for simplicity. I also want to add some images of some games to it as well. To that end, I have started doing a photo search of the town and the countryside on Google maps and street view. The town is drastically changed from the war. The town was heavily shelled in the opening hours of the war and not many original buildings remain. There are a few. Part of the issue is finding the right names go Google as the town had Polish, German and Ukrainian names for things. All of these may or may not change when going from English as a starting point. But that is half of the fun. I did find a church that seems to be in the right place with a cemetary next to it. It is very well maintained so I am not sure if it is the original Orthodox Church or a replacement from after the war.

The best map I have found is a 1:25,000 scale map from 1938. It is titled Special Edition XII.1940 4538/4. The map appears to be in both German and Polish. It is better than the 1:100,000 scale map that I build the scenarios from but still not as ideal as a 1:10,000 scale one. But I have yet to find it. My old go to source for maps of the Ukraine was wwii-photos-maps.com. The site is gone but he has moved all of his materials to an FTP server. You can get to it with an anonymous loging using something like WinSCP. The site is jccalvin.ddns.net on port 21. Still a great resource for all parts of WWII. It is a treasure trove. He just has very few 1/10,000 scale maps.

Also I just put up a sale on my Payhip Store. Use code SummerSale2025 for 50% off until July 15th 2025.

Chain of Command 2 Playtest 1

I got in my first game on Sunday. I played the Attack and Defend scenario from the main rulebook using my new scenario for Singling. It worked great. I used the historical forces for the US troops as the attacker but a full Panzer Grenadier Platoon for the Germans. That was probably a mistake. The US forces were the historical remnants of two platoons whose combined total was less firepower than a normal single paper strength platoon. The action ended up being a tank engagement as the scenario is designed for Big Chain of Command with each side having an armored unit and an infantry element on the table. I really liked the Final Countdown. I ended up using a shock marker dial for the final countdown. The game had fairly historical results with even fewer casualties. I miscalculated the German support points and short changed them a bit. I really don't think it mattered that much. I plan on running some more games on this table to get a full feel for it before finalizing it. But it was great to finally play a game again.

The primary action was between the armor. The US Infantry came close to the Jadgpanzer IV in the town center spotting it in the smoke. The armor then engaged it ineffectively causing it to retreat. Similar to the historical outcome. The US tanks never made it close to the courtyard with the horse dung. The US infantry siezed the objective marker in the church. One accomplishment that I had was getting to play with completed fencing for Building 28. The fences received a very basic paint job. I made a mistake with the metal work. I should have painted it black. Instead I did a silver and then put a rust wash on it. Not 100% happy with it but it will do.

In looking at it, I am not 100% sastisfied with the chimneys on some of the buildings. The ones where I just went with a black chimney, i need to revisit. I might brick them or at least paint some kind of stone work on them as they look off compared to the rest of the building. I also need to up my jump off point game. Using an unpainted wooded 25mm base just seemed bland. It worked but is bland. Overall, I am pretty happy with how this is turning out.

The last big part of this is the elevations. I am sold on the idea that the excersize mats are the way to go at this point. I have a 6'x 4' matt currently under this. I need two more identical ones that I can do surgury on them to get the look I am going for. The hope is that this will prove to give me flexibility to design multiple hill terrain options. The matts come with an edging piece so you don't have a puzzle piece look on the sides. This edging should be able to be cut as a slope to avoid an oddly stair stepped look under the ground cloth. It is still on the to do list.

Singling - Next Steps

This project is getting really close. I still have not received building 12 even though it was ordered on May 7th. I have an existing building that I can use as a standin. It is not as large as I would like but will do.

I am missing the fences around building 28. These are still being painted. I just got some basing on them last night.

They need the iron bars painted and the wall itself painted. I should have made details in the walls but it will do. I also need some walls on the west side of buildings 9 and 10. These featured in the battle as the tanks had to run over and shoot through them (litterally) in the battle. I have some taller generic walls that I plan on using.

Lastly, the large pile of poop in the courtyard of buildings 8,9 and 10 is missing. THis is painted up and ready to go but I have no idea where I put it. And I forgot to look for it last night.

The only other missing item is the elevation. I am not sure how to accomplish this yet. The terrain elevation plays an important role on two of the three tables for this scenario set. i would like to get two more sets of floor mats that I use for basing. These come with nice edge pieces that hide the puzzle piece look that it would otherwise have. I think I can use those to arrange the table the way I need. Also, if necessary, I can pin items down through the cloth into the floor mats. I will have a trip to Home Depot soon.

Singling Progress - Getting Close

At this point, I have all of the US Infantry painted up. I am missing a pair of soldiers armed with SMGs and a winter 60mm mortar operators. I have the spare figures to serve as crew. All are now based and ready. Here is what I have so far:

HQ with a Platoon Leader, Platoon Sergeant and a Bazooka team that can be taken from any of the other squads.

The Headquarters Squad

First Squad (this is missing an additional man with a SMG.

Second Squad (this is missing an additional man with a SMG.

60mm Mortar Squad. The mortar and crew is a stand in from my other US Infantry. The additional crew are winter troops.

The LMG Squad

This gives me a nearly full platoon of US Armored Infantry. I will not need it for the scenario as the units were severly reduced. As shown before, I also have a full German Panzer Grenadier platoon. They also had casualties so would be reduced. This gives me more than enough to game.

Where are we with terrain? Well I am 90% done with Building 8. I made significant progress on this building over the weekend. I had an old Impudent Mortal 15mm L shaped building. I wrapped it in brick paper and added some tile roofing. Then I used some old windows and doors that I found in a drawer. I want to do more with the chimney but am not sure what I will do with it.

Lastly is the school. I was able to get some paint on it over the weekend. I still have to paint the details such as the door and windows but it is coming along. Another couple of hours of work, and I will be ready for the scenario. By this weekend, I will start running games on this terrain.