Mantic Undead army

I have done a bad thing, and not stuck to my 2011 plan. I don't know how I could have been this weak. I have ordered the undead army set and a death king's cabal. costing a total of £54. I have been looking at mantics stuff for a while, but this is the first time I have bought any of their stuff.

They had a 'one day only' offer or scam as I would call it, if it were on sofas or something. Anyway I bought the stuff and got free shipping and 15% off.

So I can spend Easter, building the undead horde. The army set come with an amazing 110 models, compared to the 50 the GW undead box of the same price comes with. I got the 4 characters as well to lead them on. These can take on my warhammer empire army, using either the warhammer rules or the kings of war rules.

I went for undead, as I've never been a fan of elves, and I already have some GW Dwarfs (from scull pass). The mantic Dwarfs don't look like they would fit in next to the GW ones, so it's either start from scratch with the dwarfs or stick with GW.

This all means I now have Human, Orc/Goblin and now undead fantasy armies.

Looking at what I have to build and paint, its a flipping long list. But, funny things happen during holidays and I paint at a rate of knots. I think I'll probably set myself a challenging time limit to get the undead army ready for the battle field. After that there is still the empire knights, battalions and battalions of War of 1812 stuff, and god know what else.

Speaking of 1812, I got a load of Militia models for christmas from old glory and another company who I can't remeber the name of. I now have about 3 battalions worth.

Anyway, till next time...

15mm Travel Wargame Set.

WTF 15mm scale?!? Now normally I only buy 28mm tall toy soldiers, because I enjoy painting them in that size, (I have a sneaking suspicion I would really enjoy painting even bigger figures). I have dabbled in the dreaded 1:72 plastic figures, which I don't enjoy painting 'cus it just comes off when the rifle or ankles bend during the course of normal use, there are also several reasons I have gone off them, another reason I only normally do 28mm is because they have a visual appeal when painted. But all this what scale is best argument is not something I'll bore you with now, (maybe another time, eh?). My general opinion is just collect what you like the most, it's your hobby, but more importantly your money.

Anyway, so how did a 28mm fan, end up with a 15mm collection. Well it all started out when I had an idea, to have a 'travel' wargames set. This is because I live in two places, part of the time in England and part of my time in Wales, every few months I need to travel between these two places. And I like to take some miniatures to game with between them.

So what I needed was a travel game set, like you see for monopoly or Scrabble, the travel version of the game. Not to play on the train or back seat of the car, but to play on a bed side table, or a coffee table any small corner of flat space.

The first thing was to write down the criteria for a travel wargame.

• only needs small area to play
• quickish game, (no more than a couple of hours to finish)
• entirely self contained in one small box (all the pieces, dice, terrain, etc.)

So I googled 'travel wargame' and it came up with nothing usful. So I searched 'small wargame' and found this LINK ...

Scott's Brigade

Here is another unit I painted over the Christmas holidays, It represents one of the Regiments in Winfield Scott's Brigade on the Niagara in 1814. Scott couldn't find enough blue cloth for his Brigade, so they got grey colour coats.

The officer has however got a blue coat this is because the officers bought their own uniform. The drummer has reverse facing colours as was the norm, however as the proper uniform of the unit should be blue coat, red facings, so the drummer has the reverse of that, not the reverse of grey on grey. Which wouldn't work anyway.

Here is a private, I filled off the Shoulder 'puffs' and lace on the cuff off the jacket, for correctness. The US army gave up on fancy uniform details later in the war, when it became obvious they could not uniform the whole army properly.

These go along side another US unit already painted in grey to form my representation of Scott's Brigade. I just need to make Towson's artillery battery to finish the brigade off.

Till next time.....

Colonels War of 1812

So ages ago (some time last summer), I bought the Victrix British colonels pack, and painted them. They are currently acting as generals for my British and American armies for the War of 1812.

That above is the British colonel, and below is the American one. They are both on 40mm round Games workshop bases. I haven't decided wether to base proper cavalry (these are command stands) on 40mm rounds (AKA lord of the rings style) or on the 25mm x 50mm rectangle bases (warhammer style). This is somthing which I will ponder on.

Also in the pack comes this sapper, I decided to paint him up as British, but have not yet decided what regiment he will join, hence painting on him has stalled.

Till next time...

And so past 2010, and 2011 began....

2010

Another year come and gone, where does it all the time go?
Looking back at 2010, I bought a lot of little soldiers, and even painted a few of them too. I pushed forward on the Warhammer and 40K fronts, with the battle of skull pass bringing goblin reinforcements, meaning I could have reasonable fights against my Empire army. The dwarfs sit painted but unused gathering dust, I might sell them on ebay if I ever get round to it, focusing on just The Empire and Orcs and Goblins for fantasy battles. For 40k I painted up some scouts of my space marine army.

But there has been a major advancement in the War of 1812 project, with several units painted (pics to follow) and some more awaiting on the painting table. The finish line is now in sight.
On a new battle ground I painted up some15mm figures for ambush alley games, more on this in a later post.

2011
So, on to my plans for 2011 presented here in a list in order of priority.

1. Finish all War of 1812 miniatures that need painting
2. Glue together the empire knights and general, and paint them
3. Glue and paint Wargames factory Shock troops
4. Do not buy more soldiers until above is done. This is The Prime Directive
5. Post more blog posts than I did last year (i.e. post more than 14 posts)
   

Other more general goals include a big tidy up and sorting out of what I've got and maybe even selling some of it on ebay.

Next time; a shed load of picture of all the troops that got painted in the Christmas Holidays...

War of 1812: still to come (Part 2)

Here is my planned army for my US force for 1812. This list is based on Major General Brown's force at Lundy's Lane 1814.


1st (Scott's) Brigade (all in grey coats)

• 9th/25th Infantry
• 11th/22nd Infantry
• Artillery
  

2nd (Ripley's) Brigade (all in blue coats)

• 21st infantry
• 1st/23rd infanty

3rd (Militia) Brigade

• Militia
• Militia

Artillery and Cavalry

• Artilery
• Artilery
• US Light Dragoons

So 2 regular brigades (one in grey, one in blue) a milita brigade, and a few guns and a squadron of dragoons. units in blue I don't yet have.

War of 1812: still to come

I've been thinking about what I want when I finish my 1812 collection. My idea is that it's roughly based on the orbat of Lundy's Lane. My infantry battalions are 12 men strong, cavalry 6, and artillery 1 gun with crew.

For the British Brigades (note these are not purley historical)

2nd (Light) Brigade

• Glengarry Light Infantry
• Canadian militia (good quality)
  
• Light Dragoons
• Artillery
  

1st (and 2nd) Militia Brigade

• Canadian militia (poor quality)
• Canadian militia (poor quality)
  

3rd (Morrison's) Brigade

• 1st/8th/48th foot
• 89th foot
• Artillery (Congreve Rockets)
  

1st (Scott's) Brigade

• 8th/104th
• 103rd foot
• Artillery

Now a few explinations; this is only based on the British force at Lundy's Lane, it is not the actualy orbat, it is designed as a gaming force bassed on historica ratios.
This force give 2 regular British brigades, a Light infantry brigade, and a militia brigade, fairly repersentive of Lieutenant General Dummonds army. The two historical militia brigades have been combide into one as both where only about 300 strong. Units in red are ones which I haven't yet got.