On The Workbench.

Suffering from hay fever I have been confined to the house, so I thought I would get on with my Piedmontese Bersagliere. My Italian War of Unification 1860 project has been on hold for quite a while now , but having spent the last few weeks doing medievals for 'Lion Rampant' I feel in need of a change . The figures are of course by 'Irregular'

Brunswick Carabiniers Regiment 'Prince Ludwig Ernst' .

I've finally got the last of the Brunswick cavalry cast up and painted , this has been delayed by doing other things and then my gas bottle ran out,  however I've got these last 6 figures done .The regiment had originally been Dragoons but in 1759 it was given new uniforms and designated as Carabiniers .

I then turned my attention to the regimental command , here is the regiments commander and trumpeter . The uniform of the musicians doesn't seem to be recorded , so I decided on reversed colours for the coat and added lace to the coats arms . The regiment was called 'Prince Ludwig Ernst' in 1749 and I assume it carried this title on.

I also cast up a Kettle Drummer and Standard Bearer , again reversed colours for the drummer . The Standard Bearer is more appropriate for the Prussians - but I've never used this mould before so this was the chance to try it out . The Standard for this regiment isn't known so I took a guess and used the white horse and crown from the infantry colours . It's a relief to get this unit done as it's been on the go for over 6 months .

Terminator - Bits And Pieces.

Getting on well with suitable bits of scenery for my 'Terminator' game, some MDF ruins off EBay and a few oil drums from my 'Necromunda collection revamped .

I also got 3 toy cars from our local 'Pound Shop' to use as terrain pieces and I suitably distressed them .

I fixed them to bases and added 'Tetrion' filler and various bits of debris , glued some sand over it and sprayed it black.

I then dry brushed it dark brown and high lighted with a lighter shade . I also added a bit of wear and tear to the car models.

Have started painting the miniatures - here are 3 of the 'Terminator' machines .

Here are 3 of the human resistance fighters . The figures are plastic and come with separate arms which can be clipped onto the bodies (I glued mine) , these are painting up really quickly so I'll soon be ready for a game . 

Bright Shiny Things ! .

Ah ! the cursed  " Bright Shiny Thing" syndrome has struck again ! - I must admit I have a very low tolerance to resisting it . So when I saw that 'Warlord ' were doing a 'Terminator' game based on the new film I was intrigued ! , when I found out that Alessio Cavatore had written the rules I was hooked ! . I've always been a fan of the 'Terminator' films ( had the 'I'll be back' teeshirt !)  and a game based on them made it a certain purchase ! . So I've bought the box , read the rules , started painting the miniatures and converting some of my old Sci-Fi terrain . I will be using my new 'Battle Board' to play it on - watch this space - " I'll be back!" ............. 

Mahratta War Command Figures.

These figures have been sat waiting to get painted for ages ! after the rather fiddly conversion work ( see http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/a-bit-fiddly.html ) it's nice to see them finished ! . Above we see Major-General Arthur Wellesley and Aide and a couple of Brigadiers for the British - all converted Mini Figs 15mm .

The Regular Battalions of the Mahratta army were trained and officered mainly by the French and so I decided to paint up a couple of bases for the Brigade commanders for these .

There seems to be very little information how these officers dressed - if they wore native or European uniforms ? . I decided to use figures from the Mini Figs 15mm Napoleonic Revolutionary range , the mounted officer may be Napoleon (?) . The foot officer I decided to give a standard bearer as well to fill up the base better . I'm in the process of painting up some more of the Mahratta regulars which will appear here when finished.  

"Now What Are You Up Too ! ? "

The title of this entry to my blog is a quote from my wife when coming home from work on seeing my new 'Battle Board' ! . My wargaming colleague 'S' - who is the proprietor of 'S & A Scenics' had expressed an interest in a couple of the boxed games I was getting rid of recently and instead of paying for them I suggested he could make me some terrain . The idea of my 'Battle Board' is not original - I use a old fashioned folding card table to paint on and have occasionally gamed on it , but being under 2' square it's a bit small and things get knocked off into the waiting jaws of the dog ! . So I thought why not a 2' x 3' board with sides on it to prevent this happening ! . My own attempts at woodwork are limited to creating firewood - so I approached 'S' with the idea , he improved on my design and above is the finished article - with cats of various sizes to give scale . My initial idea was to use it for my 'Necromunda' project but it will accommodate any smallish skirmish game  such as 'LOTRs' or 'Songs of Blades and Hero's' . I've added the warning tape to help with the futuristic look of the thing and am now deciding on the colour scheme for the interior of the board , I'll report back with further developments . 

The First Of The Piedmontese .

I'm a bit late in updating my blog this week , due to having to repair a wall and some fencing in our garden and redecorating the bathroom - where I tend to do my photography as I find it has the best lighting conditions in the house (strange but true !?) .I've finally made a start on my Piedmontese to fight the Papal army in Italy in 1860 , above are the 1st Battalion 9th Infantry Regt. again using one of the generic figures from Irregular.

I'm afraid the colours have run in the photocopied flag when varnished (something that has not happened before !?) and will have to be replaced . The rather impressive ruin behind them is a fish tank decoration bought cheaply at a car boot sale .

On The Naming Of Cats.

A question has arisen (mainly from my immediate family) on the subject of the name of our newly acquired kitten 'Hugo '. He came 'pre-named' by the rescue centre - his mother's name began with H so all her offspring hence got names beginning with H ! ( I believe he has a brother Harrison ) . I have a rather undeserved reputation for giving cats odd and/or obscure names (see our other cat Hodge) so Hugo has no connection with the 19th century author Victor Hugo ! , they bear very little resemblance to each other - Hugo on the left - dead author V. Hugo on the right and when presented with a copy of  Les Miserables he simply chewed the corner of the book - this being I think down to kittenish behaviour rather than any literary comment !

On wargaming side of things I'm busy finishing off the last of the medieval figures for 'Lion Rampant' and have even started my Piedmontese army for 1860 Italy - photos of which shall appear soon . I've also purchased some rather nice MDF scenery for my Necromunda project the first small tower pictured above. 

A New Recruit .

I'd like to introduce a new member of the team - 'Hugo' , he is the replacement for our oldest cat that sadly had to be put down in the New Year . He seems to be settling in having well and truly put the dog in his place straight away , here he is giving 'Lion Rampant' a once over - starting him on some easy to learn / fast play rules.

Disaster - Then Triumph !.

Further to my idea of playing Necromunda again I started looking for the rule books - and couldn't find them ! ? - Disaster !! . Think they may have been thrown out in one of my draconian clear outs ! . Oh dear ! . Then I was looking on my bookshelves for something else and I came across a hard backed edition of the rules ! - had to sit down and think "where the devil did I get this book from ?". I finally remembered I'd got it cheap when our local model shop sadly closed down about 10 years ago , so I'm rereading it and sorting through my terrain to see what I need .........