Plans....

I was just thinking about starting a new era, and well, this is my thoughts about which one I might choose.

Firstly, the period would need to be something that would not need too many minis, mainly for costs, but also for the amount of time it would take me to get to playable armies. Also, I would have to be interested in the history of the era. Another point would be that the era was quite different from my current ones, (people might shoot me at this point), but the American civil war is quite similar to naps. I mean in both there is a lot of forming lines and fireing volleys of muskets at each other. My top list at the moment is:

A) English Civil War.


I love it! I'm really interested in it historically and there are warlords plastics as well. But, it is still a bit muskety. And, all those pike don't translate well into skirmish games. So, no.

B) American Civil War.


Like above, cheap plastic models available, I'm interested in the history, there's Nate Starbuck. But again still basically muskets.

C) Zulu War.

Plastics, check. Interesting, check. Nice uniforms, check. Small armies, check, good for skirmishes. And of course the British can be used in other colonial settings. (or in fack I will use my 1812 British, as I'm not that fussed about exact uniforms, A red coat is a read coat.) Not only that, it good for a bit of soloing like with the zombies. But, I just can't face painting loads of Zulus, if ever get over this fear, I think this is way I will go.

But alas, I'm holding back the flood gates, or rather the debit card for now. I might start something new in the future. However, I have lots still to do on my existing projects. First, for the war of 1812, I want some cavalry and Indians for both sides I reckon about £50 should cover this. For 40k I need various bits and bobs for my Imperial Guard and some chimeras, so that's probably at least £50 if not more. Then for the space marines I need at least one rhino, plus other tanks and a couple of squads need filling out. But, top on my list now is WHFB, I want to bulk out my empire with 10 more spearmen, a 30 man unit of swordsmen, as well as a regiment of knights. God know how much that will cost, hundreds of pounds!?! Then I want some mantic dwarfs, to build my dwarf army into at least 1000pts.


But before any of that buying, I have three cannons, and about 36 men from 1812 to paint. It looks like those Zulus are at the bottom of a long, long list....

Upper Canada Militia

This is my just finished unit of the above in 1813 regulation uniform, according to my osprey book, they had green coats and red facings like so. The Canadian militia was (as far as I gather), uniformed where possible exactly as British regulars, although this was quite often not possible, as red coats could not always be found, particularly towards the start of the war. So many were issued green coats, but others just turned up in their civilian clothing.

I wanted a unit of generic unit of Canadians, and decided on green coats as opposed to red, to make them stand out as Canadian militia and not just another British unit, also it adds a different colour to the gaming table. Depending on the battle, I will use these as poor or average quality troops, whatever really. You will also probly notice they are dressed as light company with wings and green truft on their shakos. This emables them to be used as light infantry when I want. But also as just line militia as quite often militia units where uniformed and even equipt as light infantry, but with no training or expierience using light infantry tactics, they could act like nothing of the sort. So all in all a very useful wargames unit.

The officer you notice has got a red coat, I figure that he, providing his own uniform, would be able to buy red cloth for his own jacket at least.

Next time, I should have my victrix British Colonel painted up. After that I have a box of the victrix artillery waiting for me to glue it together, but that's still some time in the future yet...

Space Marine Scouts

This here is my space marine scout squad, the newest addition to the army. I've tooled them up for close quarters; half with shotguns and half with bolt pistols and knives. As the rest of my space marine armies is quite shooty. Also I have converted the sergeant, to have a power weapon, for a bit more killy-ness. Tactically the general idea would be to infiltrate and maybe assault some weaker unit, or act as a speed bump.
They are painted in the colours of my (as yet un-named) chapter, with silver amour and red shoulder pads, The cloth then has an urban style camo pattern, of codex grey base with shadow grey 'Y' shapes, and white spots in pairs.

My space marine army grows rather slowly as I only get excited about 40k when I have a game, (not that often) and then I buy a unit. This lot I bought at easter, but didn't finish paiting them till just the other week. Next for my marines will probs be a tank of some sort, although which one I have no idea (heck, I dont even have the codex). But before that I'm currently working on a 12 man unit of Canadian militia for 1812...

Tangents...

I'm sure most wargames have this problem; with so many cool mini's and historical periods as well as sci-fi and fantasy, which again have many alternates games and themes etc. It can be hard to resist buying as many as possible. Thus ending up with lots of half finished armies and projects for which you lose interest.
Well this is me all over, I now try to focus on my main interests; The war of 1812, Warhammer and 40K. True to this I haven't bough anything for anything other than these 3, since at least Christmas (8 months!). These 3 fulfill my need to kill evil orcs and undead etc, kill evil aliens and to have a proper historical setting in which to do hard core research into, refight historical battles and play skirmish games.
Saying that, my warhammer collecting breaks down into The Empire (my main army), orcs and goblins and dwarfs, For 40k I'm collecting imperial guard, space marines as well as small side armies of Tau and orks. Thank sigmar, 1812 only has two sides!
Anyway, The Tangent:

STAR TREK!

This here is a prime example, I got these off a man called matakishi, anyway he has a nice website, but I saw these thought ahhh cool, and bought them. They then sat in a box for about a year, till I painted them just the other week, but even now they are painted I don't have a use for them. Still, they look nice on the shelf, and I do enjoy a spot of painting.
They where however a bastard to glue together...