Getting Ready for Spartacon2022

 

 

the Japanese forces gain two  more bombers and another Claude

       I am (as always) in a rush to get things squared away for Spartacon 2022. I have added a few more planes to the Imperial Japanese forces and have another Polikarpov I-153 to complete. Then all that remains is to print up a couple more data books and ensure that I have enough flight stands. With any luck I can get it all sorted out and run another test game at Bastion Gaming Center this coming Tuesday, 4JAN22 at 6pm. I will be running this game in the morning session using my Red Stars and Rising Suns rules.

Warlord Games Napoleonics

 

 

cavalry and cannons individual castings well detailed for single-piece models

 I am left to wonder if the infantry come in blocks like the ACW stuff

       I just picked up the latest issue of Wargames Illustrated and affixed to the front was a sprue of Warlord's latest offering; plastic Napoleonics. To my delight and surprise they appeared to be 15mm figures! So I got home and dug out a few of my 15mm figures for a quick size comparison and my suspicions were confirmed, they match nicely with the Minifig 15mm figures in my collection. Mind you, they are probably a tad small by "modern" standards where it is easy to find figures marketed as "15mm" that tower nearly 20mm tall, but they would be an easy mix with my existing armies.

chariots

 

Upcoming Gaming Events; Spartacon 2022, Lansing Michigan

        It is hard to think about but Spartacon is just a month away. This has been a very good local convention for despite being plagued by what I will gently call "Weather Events". You can see the game schedule and also sign up to host games at the Tabletop Events site. I will be bringing my Red Stars and Rising Suns WW2 air combat game with a scenario that pits a Japanese air raid against a Russian air base and the Russian fighters trying to protect their homeland.

A Few Chosen Men

        I have had the Osprey Rules "Chosen Men" lying around my house for a number of years now. I picked them up on the cheap at a gaming convention flea market table but never got past a quick read-through until last week. This was mostly due to the fact that I didn't have any painted 28mm Napoleonics until this past October. That has changed and I now possess enough troops to stage a tidy little skirmish. To that end I rounded up some of the usual suspects and ran a simple scenario "Take and hold the village" with the forces coming from opposite directions and the village sitting in the center of the table.

        Having a (very) limited selection of troops for the French side I gave them four ten-man Guard Chassuers squads and a Lt. Colonel to lead them. Facing these brave lads was a polyglot assortment of Prussians; one ten-man squad of Schutzen, a twenty-man platoon of Regular Line Infantry, a ten-man squadron of Dragoons and two twenty-man platoons of Landwehr, all commanded by a mounted Captain . This meant that between the two sides we would see most of the troop-types envisioned by the rules and a considerable variety of morale and drill.

 

right off I liked the alternate-unit movement,

 it gets away from the nonsense associated with I-go/U-go systems 

here we see the game a couple of turns into proceedings, 

the marching is ending and shooting is about to commence

All Flocked Up!!! The Guard Chassuers based and ready for battle

 

 

they took forever but I think they look pretty snazzy

 

       With the holiday season pressing in from every direction I took advantage of a "slow day" and finished these guys to clear the bench for further work. Technically they still need flags and their fanions painted but they are close enough for now. Some of these lads will star in this weekend game so I really did need to get them sorted. Their cousins in the Grenadiers will have to wait as I have some other commitments to honor before I can even start gluing the Grenadiers together. Formed into two "Large" (in Black Powder terms) battalions these guys will get all sorts of Special Rules that I will struggle to remember during a game.

 

maybe I can dig around and find something that isn't mostly blue to try painting

 

they certainly look like they are ready to sort out my Prussians

New Rabbit Holes....

 

two battalions of Chassuers of the Guard (soon to be followed by two battalions of Grenadiers)

       Having completed my Prussians I needed to find something to keep the mojo going. I had started these while waiting for my guns and artillerymen to arrive but they had gotten shunted aside once the Prussians arrived. With the Prussian brigade finished and no French yet available to fight I decided to get these folks out and finish them up. If Napoleon's Imperial Guard isn't up to facing the might of Prussia who else stands a chance, right? 

        I had first thought that the fact that they were wearing all blue and overcoats would make this a snap. How wrong I was! There is a confusing mass of white belts worn on the outside of the overcoat as well as a mass of fiddly little details all of which needed painting. It took a whole week to sort through all that but here they stand, just needing facial hair and sword-knots to qualify as completed. I learned a few things finishing these so the Grenadiers should come along a little bit quicker but I'm not figuring on a completion date before the end of the year on that. For now I just need to bang together some bases and it is off to the flocking table!

 

 

initially I used Citadel Levadon Blue contrast paint for the base coat but it cannot stand handling 

and I was constantly repainting wear points as I worked, eventually I had to shoot the whole mass with a matte spray just to get the paint to stay on the model as I handled them during painting

 

once I had switched back to my standard Americana paints things went more smoothly;

the backpack, cartridge box and sword belt all have their own set of belts and straps

all of which are white over the very strong blue color, many coats were required

 

they looked quite a raggedy bunch until the very end when things began to pull together

 

       When I undertake the Grenadiers I am going to force myself to paint the heads and backpacks as separate items before gluing them to the figure. This may sound odd but, given the mass of belts that are present on both sides of the figure (a good many of which run under the backpack) it seems that not having to maneuver around the extra details would making painting slightly easier. Once I get them finished  I will post my observations.

Gaming Update, My Place 7pm December 4th 2021

 Like the title says

Be there