Brae Heeland Laddies !.

Well I've got the first two units done of my Highland army , each of six bases which will count as a 'standard' unit under 'Blackpowder' which I will be using to play the actions of this period.

Was going to use four figures to the base but because of the rather dramatic poses of some of the figures I decided on only three . Sorry for the rather blurry photos .

In all fairness to the figures and the rather quick paint job I shouldn't be showing such up close shots which show a multitude of sins . I think the tartan has come out not to bad and like many things in life looks better the further you get away from it .

The entire Highland army so far , I need to do some command bases for them and will do a unit of Government troops next to make a change from tartan.

Thoughts On Tartan .

Faced with the prospect of painting a couple of hundred tartan clad figures I thought I had best do a bit of research , so I bought the above book which has a modern take on the Highland army and it's dress and accouterments . It's very interesting and a must for anybody interested in the subject and quashes lots of the perceived myths on highland dress . Of course the tartan we see nowadays is a product of the Victorian resurge in interest in all things Scottish and there was no such thing as Clan tartans , but it could be quite bright the dyes used were imported so bright red and blue are okay  .

This is the sort of thing we are after.

NOT this !!!!

A modern re-enactor  , notice that the tartan appears rather 'jumbled' and not very apparent - which is GOOD when you have a lot of 1/72nd figures to paint , remember these will be viewed at a 'wargaming distance' of about say two feet (2') . The socks are complicated - BUT they appear grey/blue at a distance . So you say - 'all this is Tony making excuses to get around painting to much detail on the figures ' - Damned right it is ! - I've got hundreds of these b****rs to paint ! .

No ! not a photo of the author , that jacket could be a bit of a trial to get right so it may be reserved for leaders and officers . Have got a number of figures done and have just gloss varnished them to protect from paint flaking and then a matt coat and I'll take some photos to show the results .

On The Table At The Moment.

Busy gaming the second of three linked games using my Tex-Mex figures and 'Sharp Practise' . Here Col. Fannon organises the Texian militia in defence of the town. I've started to play mini campaign/ linked games were one battle leads to the events of the next and will be using this over a series of periods and rules.

David Crockett directs the fire of his skirmishers from the roof of a adobe building . The Texians did badly in the first game fleeing the field under the aggressive assaults from the Mexicans .

However after an initial successful attack on the mounted Texian cavalry which they drove from the table their cavalry is driven back by Crockett's riflemen - the CinC is wounded and then had his horse shot out from under him .

The commander of this infantry formation was killed and another officer had to dash across to try and get them motivated .

The overall situation , the Mexican attack has stalled as their officers are taken out of action and their units are becoming demoralised as they take casualties from the Texian militia . Enjoying playing 'Sharp Practise' as it's all about unit and force morale rather than casualties and drawing the cards from the activation deck is perfect for solo gaming.

Gaming From Yesteryear .

A couple of photos of the late great actor Peter Cushing shamelessly pinched from Facebook .

He was a collector and gamer of 54mm figures and seems to have used 'Little Wars' to fight his battles. 

The First Battle Of The Gaming Year.

I thought the first game of the year would be  SYW-ish using my home cast 40mm figures and Batailles of the Ancient Regime (BAR) rules . Here we see the Prussian force coming onto the table , the mission for both armies is to capture the village and the game will last eight moves.

Prussian Cuirassier emerge from the woods.

The enemy - a Saxon force .

The Saxon force deploys , Hussars to the right , the new troop of Cuirassier form up outside the village whilst the elite Liebe Garde move down the road.

A similar force of Prussians , Hussars move around the right flank as one troop of Cuirassier deploys the other charges down the road into the village .

My new Regiment of Fusiliers which count as raw this game .

The Cuirassiers clash in the village street , as the other troop of Prussians rout the Saxon Hussars .

A prolonged melee ends in a draw and both forces retire to rally.

The Prussian Hussars charge the Saxon Guards and suffering heavy casualties - rout , not a good day for Hussars ! .

With time running out and both cavalry forces spent the Saxon Foot charge the Fusiliers .

The Prussians are driven back - but their moral holds and in the last move they manage to cause enough casualties on the Saxon Garde to force them to retire .

The stricken field , a Prussian win but at a cost . A great game to start the year and it reminds me how much I like these simple rules and their card activation system is perfect for solo play.

Raising The Clans .

Well I've been a busy boy and got about sixty Highlanders cleaned up and base coated black , it's been a sunny day here so I thought I'd get them ready whilst I could . 

Improving Jacobites .

Whilst battling a case of 'man flu' I have been not doing much modelling but when I was feeling a bit better and able to sit up with a tartan rug tucked around me I had a tinker about with the boxes of Highlander for this new project . One of the problems was that a fair few of the figures hadn't any targes (shields) , so resorting back to a technique I first saw in the Airfix magazine about 50 years ago and used a 'dot punch' to cut out some circles from card which luckily are just the right size and glued them to the required figures .

Here's another few , I have coated the card with super glue to help with stiffness and once sprayed black they will look like part of the original figure . In the background you can see my trusty 'targe maker' , a more professional blogger would have cropped these photos and eliminated the sight of all the junk on my painting tray. 

For those pesky spearmen I resorted to cutting down their spears , carefully splitting the ends and inserting a piece of plastic milk container which I then trimmed to size to produce a 'Lochaber' axe , again with liberal amounts of super glue to hold things in place . They look much better now and I'm pleased with the results . I've got one or two other things to finish off and then I will go into mass production of Highlanders .

New Year Challenge .

Well I did a total of 1,117.7 miles last year - I didn't start till the end of January 2018 so this year I'm going to do it all over again . For some strange reason the chart for recording the millage and promotional leaflets aren't available till the end of the month , but I started this morning with a pleasant walk by the river of just over 3 miles - s only 997 miles to go ! .