Sunday, January 31, 2010

so much for new years resolutions

well not done very well on the resolutions, which is probably typical
anyway at last have posted again
not a huge amount to say except to update on how things are going on the painting front.
first off painting wise have been really rubbish but have succeeded in rebasing an entire ECW army which took most of the winter. i have a few things to finish for them such as a saker gun and a couple of command bases
next up are the usual 4 battalions of AWI contientals and militia (2 of both) and 3 regts of ACW rebs charging.
i have also based and put together the 40 models (for £15 i might state) from perry which i have to say despite being a bit fiddly to put together, they took me over a week in between baby cuddles and work. however they are beautiful models with plenty of range of character whihc i have based individually for now, but any further sets i get will be based on 40 x 40mm bases to use in larger scale wargames
also due to a regt of french dragoons which i have been stimulated to paint by matts repeated superb brushwork.
hand in hand with this goes the new delivery that arrived on saturday which was a battalion of beautiful austro-hungarians from helion. these are the first i have bought despite drooling over the figures they produce for some time. again matts constant updated website (better than mine) has inspired me to branch out from the franco-prussian war. i will be basing these as a 20 man unit (ratio 1:50) to give a regular 1000man battalion. i hope that i will be able to paint these fairly quickly (although on past form that may not be the case).
finally i wanted to advertise one of my christmas presents from the lovely wife. This is the book by andre jouineau part of the LRT editions range in France. this book is labelled as number 1 so hopefully that means they will be expanding the range to cover other elements of the army of Napoleon III. this first volume covers the grenadiers and voltiguers of the garde. at 64 pages with 55 colour plates in the now familiar computerised format covering all ranks and troop types. overall i am very impressed with this book it is produced in a very clear format with clear illustrations to help the wargamer and painter. however the most fantastic feature of this book is the fact that it is written in both french and english, allowing for a clear understanding of the complex details often part of military history books. for those interested the book is available for £18.50 from caliver books. ISBN 9782917747049

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Friday, January 1, 2010

New years resolutions

well a good christmas and new year was had by all. some nice things were in my stocking (mostly bought by myself on the behalf of relatives)
new arrivals included a box of the lovely new Perry miniatures wars of the roses platics, the new Battlefront vietnam range, some lovely pre-painted rivers and a few books, including the 1859 ruleset from bruce weigle and the new garde imperiale grenadier and voltiguer book by andre jounieu.
so with the new year it is customary to make some resolutions, so here we go
1. complete projects before starting new ones (although as far as i am concerned no army etc is ever totally complete)
2. make a concerted effort to dig into the lead mountain
3. game more often, including going to wigan wargamers club whenever possible
all this obviously has to fit in around a fulltime job and 6 week old baby but hopefully i will be able to achieve some of these goals