War of 1812 Canadian Provincial Light Cavalry

As mentioned previously, here are the "spare" four Perry plastic British Light Dragoons in Tarleton helmets painted up as Provincial Cavalry, based on this illustration:

Seems like this unit was dissolved in August 1813 but I am sure they will appear in later actions in our versions of the war!

Here are three images of the four figures completed. As it was a small unit I may only do two more figures - a command element, which can be purchased separately from the Perry's

My Wargaming Boatyard

Part of the reason my painting has been so unproductive in the first few weeks of 2019 is that I have also been working on producing some Napoleonic flatboats (as mentioned in an earlier blog)

I completed one of these today (minus the crew who will have to be sourced or created - not sure which or how yet!)

The second boat is also constructed now and at the under coating stage, so I took the opportunity to photograph this at various stages throughout the afternoon.

In addition, working on boats inspired me to drag out the Viking longboats I made 5 odd years ago - I think they have hit the table top once!

So here are some images relating to boats I have created to support my wargaming activities. I have it in mind to build a larger Napoleonic era vessel - Brig or Ketch etc (a frigate is TOO big!) and have downloaded some info from the net to assist in this aim - watch this space!

First up - the Viking Fleet:

 This (I think ) was the first longboat I created - I even put some crew on the first one! (Shadowforge Valkyies)

 The main hull shape was created using off cuts from 1800 x 100mm fence palings I had lying around

 On the first one, I made the "dragon head" from a tea/coffee stirrer - not the best material

 The tiller was made from similar material . (By the way, I placed the boats on a cheap plastic weave "tarpaulin" I dragged out of the garden shed - it actually looks quite convincing as the ocean!)

As production increased, I dispensed with the crew.....mast and cross member are from kebab skewers

The sails I created on "Paint" and printed off at work. 

By the end, I had developed a better method of creating the figureheads, involving carving pieces of trellis wood and an electric drill!

Above - this was the inspiration - a much more complicated version using balsa wood etc - too much hassle for my liking. I created all these vessels at zero cost, using bits and pieces I had lying around at home!

And so on to my current boat building project

 Below is the first stage of the second flatboat I created today

Next three images just show the gradual evolution of the boat as internal planking is added.....

When I was at this stage, I cut five strips of scrap booking card about 5mm wide

Here is the boat with the first two layers of planking glued in place

Below, completed model, including another Victrix gun, ready for under coating

This is the first model (which has been sitting at the stage above for about two weeks!) undercoated and with three layers of browns dry brushed on the internal wooden planking

The exterior with a rough drybrush coat

The finished product

The name of the ship is from a novel I read recently, involving marines landing in Spain etc - cross between Hornblower and Sharpe!

That's it for tonight - the four War of 1812 cavalry in Tarletons are finished too, but I will leave them for a few days to allow visitors to see this post!

FINALLY - War of 1812 14th Light Dragoons Completed

These are the Perry plastic figures my son got me for Christmas - a month to paint ten figures - that must be some kind of record - and not in a good way!

I have redone the images twice but they are still not the best - but at this time on a Sunday night, I cant be bothered trying a third time - especially as I have put them away between each session and had to get them back out of the box after looking at the first set on the PC. Not only that, but I managed to delete one of the images without moving it from my phone to my folder on the PC first - so one of the elements is not included in the "close ups"

Oh well, here they are. I have started painting the remaining four figures wearing Tarleton  helmets, for use as Canadian militia cavalry....they are two thirds done already so they may turn up here tomorrow or the next day!

War of 1812 British Flatboat

As a mean Scotsman, I cannot bring myself to part with the best part of $NZ100 to purchase and fully crew one (or more) of the beautiful Perry models - so I decided to have a go at creating my own.

Following are a few images of the first result - I am reasonably happy with this and I think it should come up looking quite nice once painted. I have plans to purchase rowing sailors from Brigade Games to crew it and then I just have to figure out how to come by marines or soldiers as the passengers...I may end up using the Perry models for these!

First I drew up a plan based on research on the web

The initial base and stern

Left over cannon barrels from the Victrix Napoleonic British Artillery set

The woodwork is constructed from wooden tea/coffee stirrers

The planks were made from stiff "scrap booking" card (appropriated from my wife) cut in a single strip about 200mm long and 5mm wide - 4 or 5 were layered one over the other to give the effect of caulked timber. A small howitzer was added to the prow and tiller from card to the stern.

War of 1812 British Light Dragoons

To be fair, I painted these between Christmas and New Year, but I have been trying to maximise the number of comments on my blog, so have left my first game report up there for a week to make sure I got as many as possible!

Everyone has their own painting style and many are better than mine I am sure, but as I was painting these Perry plastic cavalry as the 19th Light Dragoons, I decided I would take three of four "Work in progress" shots, and here they are:

I firstly under coat with black the dry brush with white, to show up as much detail as possible. Then add the main block colours

 Tidy up and paint silver 

 Base colour for the horses

 Add reins etc, highlight horses body and touch up the bit etc with silver

 The two figures based from three different angles....

So lets see how many comments I can get this time - going for a target to beat of 4 (plus my replies =8)!

I will wait till the weekend before my next post :)

First Game of 2019 - Russian Civil War using "Red Actions!"

Last night, Chris, Nick and I attended Julian's residence for our first get together this year. I finally got to use most of the RCW figures I painted about a year ago (I think - may be longer!) as Julian had finished off enough of his White force to make up a reasonable opposition

The rules we chose to try for this period were "Red Actions!", a free download from "The Perfect Captain" website.

These rules have a number of unusual features, including cards giving all the stats of different troop types, and some of the nomenclature is unusual - a morale test is called a "Fear" test in some circumstances or a "Serious" test in others etc. Movement is also unusual in that the sides dice each turn for initiative and then move one unit each, back and forth, until one side or other has used an action for every unit in their force, then the side with more units gets to move the remaining ones all together without the other side being able to react.

Julian had set up a test scenario of around three units of White infantry, each with a supporting HMG, two cavalry units and a field gun, defending a village surrounded by forest, whilst the Bolshevik attackers had six infantry units, with three HMG, three cavalry units, two mortars and an armoured car. Each side had one on call aircraft that could appear on a 5 o6, then stay over the table for the next three turns, then leave and not return.

The game took a LONG time as we were just learning the rules and I think we got a few things wrong, but they seemed to work ok and we are looking forward to giving these rules and figures another outing soon!

Here are some images of the action:

 The Red centre - Austin armoured car, naval infantry, HMG and conscript infantry

 The foremost of the defending White infantry supported by an HMG

 Some of the Red unit cards showing all their stats

 Two of Nicks White infantry units redeploying to their right to counter the Red advance

 The threat Nick's men were moving to oppose

 Red Naval infantry firing from the edge of the wood at the White unit in the first image above - these sailors are females from Hinterland.

 The White aircraft came on first, strafing both one of Chris's Red cavalry units and my armoured car.

 The third and final attack by the White air force - more "Terror" markers for the Red cavalry!

 One of Julian's White cavalry units charged home against Chris's conscripts defending a wood and won the combat, pushing the infantry back

 The Red air force intervenes - strafing the victorious cavalry, causing them to lose a base AND rout off towards the village!

 Nick withdraws his one unit of White infantry in the face of two Red units supported by cavalry and an HMG

 The Red plane makes a second strafing run against Julian's infantry

 General view of the centre of the table - the Red Naval infantry advanced out of the woods but instantly took lots of hits and were forced to pull back again!

Close up view of the Red cavalry - they are Old Glory WW1 Russians - most of the other figures are Copplestone or Brigade Games Back of Beyond/RCW.

Final view of the Red advance on the left flank.

By this stage we had been at the table for nearly five hours - with 45 minutes for dinner - so decided to call a halt. Neither side had a clear advantage - the Reds had lost the armoured car to a direct hit by the White field gun and also lost an HMG. The Whites had a couple of units down a base and still had one more round of airpower that may have removed their field gun - so if we had carried on, the extra numbers the Reds had may have taken the day, but the Whites were better quality, so it was no sure fire thing.

A fun game and quirky, interesting rule set with some unusual twists - EG close combat, both sides calculate their "Fighting Value" by multiplying the Attack value on the card by the number of bases, then you calculate the ratio of the attacker to defender EG 30 points to 20 points would be 3:2. then you roll 2D6 and read off a results chart. A low roll generally favours the weaker side, which can be attacker or defender obviously and a higher roll favours the stronger side.

Look forward to getting these troops on the table again soon!