Upcoming Wargaming Conventions, Pro-or-Con 2025 September 27th

        One of the sure signs that Autumn is here and the local "convention season" has begun is the annual Pro or Con wargaming convention. This event has been running for simply ages and is always a fun and friendly convention. Three sessions of games, an expansive Flea Market, on site food and drink (adult beverages as well after 1500hrs), a raffle and a low entry fee combine to make this a superb way to spend a Saturday. Mark your calendar now and be sure to get there early so you can look through the Flea Market before play starts.Several local Brick & Mortar stores will be in attendance to expand the ways you can spend your hobby dollars.

       You can look at the scheduled games and pre-register at Tabletop Events. 

       This event will run from 8am to 11pm at the Elks Lodge at 31117 Plymouth Road Livonia MI.

Taking A Break From The Ponies, or, Chainmail Blessings

 

 

grrrr!, there are thirty-six of these as well, at least they only have two legs apiece! 

       Having gotten the basecoat on all of the cavalry, and some shading done on the Knights Hospitallers horses I needed a break. I know myself well enough not to step back entirely from a project lest these remain unfinished for decades so I grabbed the knights and got to work on them. First order was to paint any exposed flesh then to coat all the areas of mail with flat black ( and the fabric on the Hospitaller Knights as well). Next was a medium wet-brushing of the mail or armored areas to lay down a basic metallic coat. After that had been given a chance to dry I came back and started touching up the shield faces and any clothing that had been splashed with black of steel. This is where I stand now, next is highlighting the black uniforms of the Hospitallers. Wish me luck.

Let The Drudgery Begin! Starting painting thirty-six cavalry horses

 

       I know it is my own fault, I built all of them at once, and thus they all need painting at the same time. To top it all off I have decided to paint some as Hospitallers and some other as Teutonics, one in white and the other in black. Both are colors I find difficult to paint, particularly the white. Happily the rest are subject to the usual palette of colors which will reduce my boredom.

       And no, The Muse is not singing, this is sheer bull-headedness that is driving me.

Good Heavens, what have I done?

 

        So, I found three boxes of Fireforge Middle Ages knights and sergeants while rummaging around in The Vault. I briefly thought of just pushing therm back into the dusty corner that I found them but I remembered the old saying "Cemeteries are full of people that thought that they had more time". I sighed and moved them to the head of the Painting Queue. I spent a couple of hours cleaning them up and assembling the minis last night. Now all I need is the motivation to paint all thirty-six of them!

Wot's that then!

        You know the feeling, a little whisper in the back of your head. A nagging idea that you've forgotten or misplaced something. That sneaking suspicion that, even though you can see that you have finished the job, something isn't right. Yeah. Ever since I finished my Middle Ages figures a few weeks ago I had that feeling. A shadow at the edge of my vision. Just yesterday I found out why.

        As I was sorting things to bring to Pro or Con to give away  I began moving boxes in the depths of The Vault, particularly in the Heap of Embarrassment when I found an oddly light box. "What would have possessed me to put an empty crate this far back into the corner?" was the thought that passed my mind as I opened it up and found these guys lurking inside.

 

thirty-six more figures, mounted no less, sigh 

I reviewed them ages ago and had it in my mind that I had given them away

       Now I have to track down The Muse and chain her to my workbench so that I will these done before the end of the year....

"To the moon, Alice. To the moon!"

        If you are old enough to recognize that quote I hope your arthritis is doing better than mine. A friend, Zhodani Commando, called recently asking if he could get me to handle a rush-job terrain feature. He is planning on running a campaign game at Pro or Con on the 27th of September. Normally I prefer more than two weeks notice but the job seemed simple enough; he needed a bit of moonscape, steep hills to block line of sight and provide safe areas to maneuver. I agreed and drew up some sketches of the hills that would meet his needs (see below), he gave it the "thumbs-up" and I was off to the workshop.

 

I try to make terrain in a way that allows it to be used in more way than one

 

quatering the hill allows for two hills at the edge of the table 

or one larger one on the playing surface 

Just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you

        This one is for my buddy Housemartin.

 

"The Lady of The Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. 

That is why I am your King!"

And "POOF" it's gone

        I have been on a painting bender for the last three months (as much as I hate painting, I absolutely refuse to play with un/semi-painted minis) grinding out forty mounted figures and 153 foot minis. I do try to answer The Muse on the rare occasions that she calls to me and I get the urge to paint. Largely in an effort to get through as many of my unpainted minis as I can before I die (an impossible task, to be certain). But, today, the fickle nymph that she is, she has moved on. I sat and looked at a tray full of primed Gauls, paintbrush in hand, paints arrayed all around me, and .....nothing. Not even a hint of any energy to apply paint. I guess that the Gauls will have to wait; the poor things have been waiting for literally years! 

       On the other hand the itch to make some terrain has fortuitously matched with a request from a buddy for some "moonscape",  bleak hills and craters and such. I guess it is just time to shift gears.

Better Markers for Midgard, Part II

        Pleased as I was with my markers for Heroic Actions in 15mm I decided to further explore markers for other aspects of the game in a less scale-specific manner. I recently built several boxes worth of Middle Ages Knights and foot soldiers and one of the hidden bonuses of plastic minis are the "spare bits", these would provide basic components of my markers. Stamina Hits and Shot Markers are two of the most common ones that will be used on the table (I made some shot markers using spare arrows but they are proving fragile during use). I gathered up spare shields and quivers for this little exercise then cut a bunch of 20mm squares out of matte board and got to work.

 

I went with square markers to distinguish them from the Heroic Action markers

there are loads more shields, I used small ones starting out

small blobs of Liquid Nails form the base of the build

 

I smoothed the glue with a wet fingertip (no licking! I'm watching you!)

once a skin had formed on the glue I stuck the shields down on the base

 

quivers were stuck down in a drop of TiteBond,

I decided to give an upraised sword a try as a Charging/Following-Up marker

 

once it all had a chance to dry a quick visit to the paint shop and they were ready

the arm rising out of the ground holding the sword seems a bit out of Monty Python

I may have to re-think that

        This is an experiment, we are currently using casualty caps (very unsightly) to mark Stamina Hits and small cubes in red and green for Shot and Charging markers. It remains to be seen if we are organized enough to keep the markers with their relevant units during play. Small loss if they don't work out, but as they are essentially free, a great bonus if they do.

A wee bit of painting, 25mm Hinchliffe Middle Ages spearmen

        I had a few hours to kill and was trying to avoid any big projects but the Muse wouldn't leave me alone. Forced as I was to find something to paint I dug these elderly warriors out of the Mountain of Shame and gave them an Old-School style paintjob to match the figures that I painted thirty years ago. Then I based them up for Midgard and sent them to their barracks.

 

simple figures from a more simple time

 

the dark faces are an artifact of the lighting, not an overly energetic application of wash

 

I will have to scrounge up a flag or two for them

Taking The Whip Into the Shop For Some Work, or, Middle Eastern Re-Armament

        The Housemartin is a fearless buyer of things via the internet and his eagle-eye had spotted many a deal over the years (especially painted figures, he likes painting no more than I). On occasion this can backfire as things are mislabeled or dishonestly presented, but on the whole he has done very well. The biggest risk is when the minis are turned over to the attentions of the USPS or UPS for shipping; any sort of misadventure can befall even the most carefully packaged goods. Recently he came to me with an Assyrian heavy chariot that was much worse the wear from its travels to see if there was something that I could do to bring it back into service. And so, I says to the lad, we'll take a look.

 

honestly, I've seen worse

Making the markers more attractive

        One of the aspects of Midgard that some people object to is the use of markers to indicate Heroic Actions and types of status. We have been using small colored cubes to represent such things on our gaming table. It occurred to me that using markers more in tune with the rest of the painted minis on the table would be less jarring and add to the enjoyment. As I was once again rebasing minis onto Midgard bases (out of the Jon Williams Memorial Collection, R.I.P.Little Jon!) I had some spare minis. I decided to base individual minis on pennies to use as markers for Heroic Actions (instead of the blue cubes that we have been using up until now).  I think That you will agree that this is an improvement.

 

notice the blue cubes near the Command Stands, how unsightly!

 

 

now, instead of blue cubes, there are actual attendants!

SO much more attractive

 

       I like this development and am now trying to come up with similar markers to use instead of the ones currently employed. Little piles of skulls for Stamina hits?  Bloody swords for Charging/Following Up? Empty quivers for Shot markers may be to hard to model......

Artaxerxes Triumphant, Midgard in the Ancient World

 

 

in a fabulous display of cunning cunningness Artaxerxes directs his troops to victory

         Having presented The Housemartin with his new commander we decided to put him to use directly. Basing our armies on the venerable WRG army lists we both drew up forces to reflect our understanding of the historical armies. Housemartin chose Later Imperial Persian while I went with Later Hoplite Greek. A die roll decided that the Greeks would be the aggressors so the Persians deployed first. Below you will find a photo of the armies deployment.

 

you will notice a tiny hillock under the Persian Emperor,

 this has no tactical value but is there simply to grant him the proper level of grandeur

Wargames Atlantic Medieval Shield Decals

       I just picked these up (sad to say a few weeks too late to go on MY figures) and they look great! brilliant colors, crisp lines and specifically designed to fit on the shields of Wargames Atlantic minis (they would most likely work on a lot of other companies products). If your painting skills are anything like mine you will rejoice in the idea of not having to try to paint heraldry on a shield less than a half-inch square. Another big plus is that these are water-slide decals so there won't be any fussing about with those bothersome dry-transfer decals! Just remember to paint your shields white and put a coat of gloss on the shield before you apply the decal and you will be good to go.

       My only complaint is the set of "battle-damaged" decals.  Knights would avoid being seen with such under any circumstances aside from mid-battle. Shields were inexpensive and knights kept back-ups, particularly if jousting. Additionally, if I felt the desire to have "battle-damaged" shield on my minis I could easily enough create the effect on my own with a razor-knife and a dash of paint.

UPDATED: Cool old minis Xerxesbates the distractions!

 

       I would love to blame some medical condition for my gnat-like attention span but I must admit it is the product of a near total lack of discipline. Having dug out some minis from the Mountain of Shame I foolishly decided to catalog them. Seemed like a nice, orderly sort of thing to do as long as I had them all out. What a mistake that proved to be! Half-remembered projects from years (decades!) gone by left me nostalgic for the days when Hinchliffe was the King of Minis and hordes of new releases were announced monthly in the British wargaming magazines. 

          Then I stumbled across this pack (actually there are TWO of these, The Lord alone knows why I thought I needed two, I no longer recall). All bets were off and the cataloging project fell away like leaves in the Autumn. I NEEDED to paint this set-piece for my buddy The Housemartin (he being in possession of a Persian army).

 

unlike the freak depicted in The 300, 

Xerxes was actually a pretty chill dude who liked to dress in the latest fashions

Roman around in The Vault

        Recently a friend of mine asked if I might have a few figures that would double for Roman Auxiliaries, certain that there were some stashed in the bowels of The Vault I started mining through the Mountain of Shame. After thirty dusty minutes I had found the two boxes of miniatures that were squirreled away in the back corner behind the piles of crated ammo. Along they way I finally found the box that contains my collection of (as yet) unpainted elephants and I stumbled into several trays of partially painted minis. The cobwebbed recesses of my memory could not bring to mind why I had set these aside in their unfinished state and, having nothing on my painting bench at the moment I decided to put brush to them and finish the job.

 

the Gauls will be the next group to go under the brush

Stop Russian Me! Fireforge 28mm Russian Foot Soldiers

 

 

I reviewed these guys ages ago

       In between cavalry units I knocked out these guys. It seemed like they were finished in an instant (probably because there weren't any horses to paint). The box provides 25 miniatures which translates to three Midgard bases with one spare figure to act as a commander. I assembled the figures but left the shields on the sprue to simplify painting of both the figure and the shield. The only downside is the raised pattern on the shields; while it eases painting you end up trapped two patterns provided.

 

I included a smattering of archers because the Russians used a fair number of missile troops

 

 

the remaining figure got promoted to Boss

Good Knight Sir! 28mm Conquest Medieval Knights Painted

 

I reviewed these minis on this blog quite some time back

       The unrelenting bug to get all of my Medieval minis assembled and painted caused me to plow through these in fairly short order. The assembly of these was very straightforward as the shield arm was already attached and there was very little flash to clean up. Again I posed all of the with lances held upright to ease storage and game play (despite the urge to use some of the huge selection of alternate arms). In comparison to the Wargames Atlantic knights they are a bit less detailed but there are sixteen in the box and the horses are simply beautiful.  

 

I rather wish that I had painted the whole mass of cavalry at one time,

 I could have mixed and matched the models on the bases for better variety

All About 'Dat Base

 

my new Rus sub-general

 

       Recently a few folks have asked about how I base my minis (and said kind things as well!) so I thought that I would do a quick step-by-step on my method. This technique requires no special tools or expensive supplies and will provide you with enough basing to take care of the average gamers lifetime. A bag of playground sand, a small box of kitty litter, few pounds of aquarium gravel and two quart jars of Woodland Scenics should set you up for life.

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Medieval Knights, from sprue to painted and based

 

the box front, some good ideas for painting

 

       Another addition to the growing stable of excellent minis from Wargames Atlantic is this set of Mounted Knights 1150-1320. After the Normans had established the lance-armed and armored knight as the essential expression of Western Combat in the late 11th century development slowed. Armor gradually became more comprehensive but remained almost exclusively chain mail over a padded undergarment, helmets grew in size and protective qualities and the lance became heavier. 

       This set reflects that evolution. In it you will find twelve mounted knights covered from head to toe in chain-mail armor (very well rendered) riding horses covered with a protective caparison. The knights are cast as torsos with legs having the heads and arms all cast as separate items allowing a huge array of posing options. The horses are cast as five pieces; the body split lengthwise into right and left halves, a tail, a head and neck and finally a set of reins. All of this is molded in medium hard gray plastic and exhibits excellent detail, no flash and very few mold-lines are present. Of course there is a wide variety of heads for the knights from a simple cloth cap to the complete head-encompassing Great Helm.

 

 

the back of the box more ideas for poses and paint

Rich Uncle Pat takes us to sunny Spain!

 

OK, so it was Spain sometime between 1936 and 1939, 

not so great as a vacation spot right then

 

       Rich Uncle Pat has been working on a Top Secret Project since last Fall. Today we were given a peek behind the curtain and what a surprise it was! He has managed to assemble and paint both sides of the Spanish Civil War (including the Condor Legion and the Italian Volunteer Corps!) up to Divisional level including vehicle and air assets. All in 15mm, mostly Peter Pig and Minairons, truly beautiful minis all enhanced by his painstaking paint-jobs and carefully constructed terrain. 

       Housemartin and I were the lucky members to get to play with these troops the very first time. The rules were "For Whom the Dice Rolls" from Wargaming For Grownups Publications. The rules have a very interesting variation of card-driven activation which took me a turn or two to really get the hang of but, once the system had penetrated my foggy old brain, it all made sense and played quite well.

From Package to Playable in 48 hours: RAFM Colonial French Infantry or The Hazards of Nostalgia

        Over the Fourth of July weekend I got some of the Usual Suspects together for a game. Being as it was the day after Independence Day I ran a condensed version of the Battle of Monmouth. The minis involved were Trunkmonkey's British and my American Rebels, mostly products of the venerable RAFM range, the rules were our One Brain Cell Rules which play fast and smoothly. We had a jolly old time and the Americans won! 

       As I was putting the minis back into the storage bins it occurred to me that I had (somewhere) a good many more of those RAFM figures stashed in the Mountain of Shame. I went and dug around in the deeper regions of the Mountain I found a dusty box of minis, to my surprise I found that I had nearly a brigade worth of French infantry. I smiled as I remembered the days of hustling home from the Hobby Shop with my little bag of figures and then rushing through painting them so they would be ready for the next weekends game. No subtle shading or highlights, just simple block-painting and basing on a strip of balsa wood and then off into the fray! I wondered if I still could manage that speed. I took four cards of minis, one command, one of grenadiers and two of line infantry and set them on the workbench thinking that I would give a go.

       The next morning was bright and hot so I cleaned up and hot-glued the minis to their painting bases. The heat of the day meant that the primer dried in quick order and I sat myself down to start painting. To my pleasant surprise in less than six hours of painting time I had finished the unit and transferred them to their gaming bases. No fancy ground-effects or flock here, we were going Old-School, just a coat of Hauser Medium Green and they were ready for the table.  

 

I could probably have gone nuts and painted shadows and highlights,

 but to my eye, these sort of Old-School minis look best with an Old-School paintjob

 

besides, painting that last batch of Middle Ages figures had 

really worn down my desire to spend time with brush in hand

 

 

 

       Now I have to decide if I'm going to drop everything and head down the rabbit-hole of finishing up the rest of the RAFM minis, sigh.

Happy Birthday USA!!!

   249 years ago we decided to sever our ties to the past and engage in an experiment in crafting our own system of government. This experiment continues to this day. To my mind it has been tremendously successful despite many stumbles along the way and I look forward the celebrating our 250th  next year!

Have a happy Fourth of July everyone!

Marching into Midgard

        If you are one of the hardy souls that has been following my blog for any length of time you are aware of one of my biggest anathemas; rebasing. Taking figures off of bases just to attach them to new bases is, to me, a criminal waste of time. Fortunately my gaming group's new favoritestest (yes, that is a newly coined word, and I hold copyright) new rules is Midgard. This set thoughtfully allows the use of minis based for any system and only requires consistency in the basing method. It was a significant factor in the adoption of the rules as almost all of our miniatures were based in compliance with the venerable WRG 6th Edition rules. All we did was group together four bases (arranged two by two) and declare it a Midgard unit. Measuring sticks were then made to correspond with the frontage of the formation and we were off to the races. 

       There remained but one issue, I had hundreds of figures that were individually based for various skirmish games. Playing with these was problematic because they didn't keep a consistent frontage and were constantly getting knocked down. I had to confess to myself that it had probably been most if a decade since I played skirmish games and was unlikely to return to that any time soon. That moment of reflection out of the way I began cutting bases to glue the minis into proper formations.

 

first up was a group of Victrix Greeks that I had painted for some long-forgotten rules

 and which hadn't seen service since they were painted back in 2020 

 

 

next up were my Mounted Sergeants from Wargames Atlantic,

 I had to trim away the bases to get them to rank-up on the Midgard bases 

 

next up was the foot soldiers that I had just finished, they got the treatment because I have several hundred individually based Medieval from my castle siege game already 

Wargames Atlantic 28mm Mounted Sergeants from sprue to painted

 

 

the front of the box

       A new(ish) release from the prolific stable of Wargames Atlantic is this set mounted sergeants from the early medieval period. I got this set from the good folks at Michigan Toy Soldier, who also have the full Baron's War set which provided the miniatures and the set of rules at an excellent price. As is to be expected from Wargames Atlantic the miniatures are cleanly cast in medium gray plastic. They are detailed and well proportioned with natural poses. The chain mail is well rendered as are the padded gambesons. There are a host of heads wearing a delightful variety of headgear.

 

the back of the box with some nicely painted minis

We Sergeants Three..... Erm, perhaps a few more than three, 28mm Wargames Atlantic Foot Sergeants

 

 

now that I'm looking at him in a photo I see that I'm going

 to have to go back and fix the Old Man's face, that crooked mouth is killing me!

        The last part of my mass-build of the Wargames Atlantic Sergeants/Peasants sets is this group of spear-armed sergeants. My intent while building them was to get an "alike, but not the same" posing and equipment. To add some variety I used some of the unarmored peasant bodies to reflect poorer soldiers and made the rest using mailed/padded torsos. Once again the huge assortment of weapons and arms holding them made this a simple process. The color scheme is a nod to the year I spent in Cub Scouts (before I was expelled, but that is another story) with strong blues and rich yellows providing a pleasant contrast. The crisp detailing on the minis made painting less of a chore than I had thought it would be, only the sheer number of them slowed me down.

Smelly Peasant Types...more Wargames Atlantic Middle Ages 28mm

 

 

please excuse the unfinished bases, I haven't decided if I am going to make

 sabot bases so that I can use these in skirmish games or larger bases for Midgard

       At the bottom of the social and military pyramid were the serfs/peasants. Often forced by circumstances (or their feudal overlord) to take part in the squabbles of their "betters" their main objective was to survive and return to the back-breaking labor of farming. They had little in the way of funds to spend on armaments so often they were armed with modified agricultural tools. Under just the right circumstances they could be effective, but most often they were just there to do the grunt work and buff numbers. The Wargames Atlantic set provides a huge number of options for posing and arming the minis so you are spoiled for choices when building your force.

 

I should have mentioned this in the last post,

 the shields are all left blank white while I seek decals for the heraldry

 

 

 

       And this is for The Housemartin: