Saturday Update-Finally..A Head to Head Comparison

Dang...you woulda' thought that I was having a root canal by the length of time it has taken me to get this far on this unit. Geez...it's only 16 or so figures. The picture on the right is where the unit is at this point. I've put together a head to head gallery at Flickr. Please click here or on the title to take you to the gallery.

ALL THE BLUE FIGURES ARE WARLORD MINIATURES. THEY ARE THE MINIATURES WITH THE IN PROGRESS BASES AS IN THE INSET PICTURE

The unit is being based at this point. I've borrowed (stolen in a gamer's fashion) Clarence Harrison's basing style. It's simple and once it's dry is robust for fat war gamer fingers, dropping on the table, etc. This unit needs another24 hours for the basing sand and rocks to dry. I won't paint them until Monday afternoon at the least. I use Clarence's formula to the T. The bases get painted with Vallejo's Beasty Brown (I won't waste money on crappy GW paints-ever), let dry, painted again with a diluted Elmer's School Glue mix and dipped into mix of Medium and Light Woodland Scenics ballast (brown). The brown paint makes the places in which the ballast didn't stick invisible unless close. I then use a bright green static grass (again NOT GW) to work in on the bases. Clarence advised me to use a camouflage type of pattern so multiple bases go together well. Again, advise well taken to heart! It works and looks good.

Let's take a few moments to discuss head to head how Warlord compares to Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry figures on the game table. As previously blogged, the Warlord figures look consistent with the other manufacturers on the game table. That's OK with me since I've got more to paint out of the box set. The OG figures are curiously chunkier than the Warlord (a little more well fed perchance?) and are a tad easier to paint. As has been blogged before, both sets of miniatures take my "git 'er done and don't Richard around with the project" style of painting. This may disturb more sedate and organized painters but; it works and looks PDG on my game table. Has for years!

In my opinion, Warlord figures will not mix well with OG, Dixon, nor Renegade but should mix quite well with Perry since these figures are on the scrawny side of 28mm anyway. I will paint another regiment or so plus some F'Lorne Hope to add to the collection. They do look fine when built into solely Warlord units. Funny how that works eh? It's a vast British conspiracy right? The Warlord figures just don't have the deep "cuts" (folds?) necessary for producing large amounts of contrasts on the figures. I'm not disappointed but probably just lazy...I would rather not do the Dallimore glop and paint every single musculature like a Rubens painting. I want to get things started, get things done and have units look good on the table in a reasonable time frame. Putting Warlord figures together is an extra time irritant for me. I knew that going into this mini-project. Would I buy more? I don't know. I want to see their cavalry just to see if I can paint plastic horses using my 30+ year old oil rub method. Hope Rustoleum primer sticks to horse's butts like it did to the musketeers.

For an inexpensive (relative term in any hobby) way for gamers to get started or add units quickly to an existing collection; Warlord ECW figures may be something to consider. I'm an old school lead junky and like the weight of figures on the table. I'd also paint Warlord figures if I was doing a demo game in which I didn't want my primary collection to get abused by fat, stinky war gamers with greasy hands from eating at Mickey D's.

We have a news spot here in Dallas called "Deal or Dud". I'd rate these figures a deal but if they don't get painted and still played....their OWNER is a DUD!

Wednesday Update

Am plonking along on this little project. I've completed the base coat colors for the regiment and have brushed on a light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut stain.

Here's a list of the colors I used for the regiment. Only Vallejo acrylic paints were used.

Face:Beige Red
Hats: various shades of Beasty Brown (Game Color), Tan, Orange Brown, Saddle Brown, Red Brown.
Feathers: One was painted with...get this...Ral Partha Gold Yellow. I STILL have about 6 bottles of the old stuff. Hasn't crapped out on me yet. I've got to go to Sherwyn-Williams and get a pint made up since I can't get it anymore. The fifer's feather (say that five times fast) was painted with some Liquitex Medium Viscosity Red. I had the tube laying around, found it under a pile of crap and said..hmm...oughta work!
Uniform Coats: Prussian Dark Blue
Cuffs: Liquitex Medium Viscosity White. Another ancient bottle of paint. It's a 4 oz. bottle and I've had it for years. I think it's majic and refills itself sometimes.
Pants: Some Prussian Dark Blue, British Tan, Yellow Ochre, Russian Green, Medium Sea Gray IIRC. I don't worry much and just paint them where they lay.
Shoes: Various browns..see above and add some Snakesomething Game Color. It's a weird in between light and dark brown. Pretty cool color. I've used it a lot for the ECW project for belts, shoes, horse tack, horse hooves, horse tails, etc. You should buy a bottle and give it a go.
Socks: Light grey, Howard Hues (uh huh...more classic paint) Concrete and an odd color just to not stay bored!
Armor: I use a bastardized Dallimore technique of Black base coat, Vallejo Brassy Brass first dry brush, Vallejo Oily Steel for highlights. This works great with a light coat of Minwax!

Overall, so far so good. I'm still not overly in love with these figures. I like figures that are "cut" deeper with more relief. That type of figure just fits my style.

I had high humidity-white finish-itis tonight. I sprayed the unit with Floquil Figure Flat (yeah..I've still got 12 cans) and didn't pass the "stupid test". I know better than to spray figures flat and leave them out when the humidity is high. No worries, I resprayed them and brought them inside. Uh huh...my spouse has gone to the other side of the house, my dog doesn't love me and I'm sure my feeble senior's mind is getting fried by the fumes. At least the unit is getting painted right?

I paint by the unit and don't dick around painting one figure at a time. Life's too short not to throw figures on the table. My technique is simple:

1. Hot glue the figures on strips of cardboard about three fingers wide. I don't touch the figures, the cardboard is more comfortable than trying to paint on stupid Popsicle sticks and is cheap in "mass quantities".
   
2. Block paint the figure
3. Light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut (NOT A DIP..DIPPPING SUCKS!)
4. Highlight the figures with a traditional highlighting technique. I use a mix of Foundry's glop on each highlight method and a softer complimentary color highlight. I don't know...I paint by the seat of my pants! Whatever fits the figure works for me and they turn out cool for the table.

I should be done with the unit tonight and will get them hot glued (it's a standing joke in my gaming group) to stands. I'll take pics on Thursday and suffer the slings and arrows of not having them based. I know there are several folks that want to see just the size differential and could not give a rat's behind about how they were painted. Well...you'll just have to wait until Thursday won't you!

Warlord ECW Under Construction Update

I've finished the basic tones painting on the entire regiment (16 figures). I've just brushed on some Minwax Royal Walnut stain. I don't want to argue the merits or demerits of Minwax. I don't dip my figures and the light brush coat seals, shades and gives the figure the tone that I want and like. They should be dry enough to flat coat and the highlights will be painted (face, flesh, highlights, any lowlights as well).

Keep checking back, I'll have some pics Wednesday night and definitely will put them side to side with my OG/Dixon/Perry stuff. They're pretty big...larger than the Renegade officers I've got in several regiments. We'll see, my jury's still out and it's weird to work with figures that don't weigh anything.

Warlord Plastics Part 1

I finally got around to getting out the Warlord plastic ECW box set on Sunday, 9/27/2009. I'll blog a "blow by blow" on how they paint up, my opinions (based upon 30+ years of wargaming and painting experience), how they stack up to my other infantry regiments (a mix of Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry).

My regiments are 16 figures strong. I know others play larger regiments and some single based (Warhammer ECW?) figures. I play Might of Arms ECW. It is a variant of Bob Bryant's Might of Arms rules I put together because I liked the system and my gaming group understood the mechanics. I'm not going to waste a lot of time espousing/explaining why I use them. Just suffice it that I like them. Period. End of Story. Now to the figures!!!

The plastic that is used is the equivalent to most Games Workshop plastics I have built in the past. It's not gunky, soft nor does it feel or look cheap. Most of figures have a minimum of flash and mold lines. I was able to trim up some of the mold lines but; they just aren't a problem. The figures remind me a lot of GW plastics in the way they go together and the chunky "Imperial Guard-like" features such as the face and hands. I chalk that up to plastic figures.

It took me the better part of an afternoon to put these figures together. I figure that's because I'm a klutz or just a schmo that is used to working with metal figures. It was a little off putting however because I'd much rather be painting than
assembling. Will quit whining...I bought them to see how they worked so there! There were a few variants in hats, arms and the way weapons were carried. A couple of things that bothered me was the length of the arquebus in relation to the figure plus the modeling of the musketeer's hands. They look rather large in comparison to the rest of the figure. The pikemen are OK but the tassel thing on the end of the plastic pikes is a distraction. I wasn't there to know if it was historically accurate, so; I'll just paint it and shut up. I'm not hip to plastic pikes or flag poles so my jury's still out on how they will fare in a fat war gamer environment.

I've decided to clip off most of the bases as they are pretty large. I also will leave a couple in the original size to see if they'll take basing a little better.


Over all, I'm OK with these figures so far. They're a far sight less fiddly than Victrix. I almost swore off experimenting with ANY plastic figures because of THAT experience. For war gaming, these figures should do just fine. What are they? Inexpensive, and a fast way to build a regiment or two from a single box. In fact, I'm planning on painting two regiments and using the rest as a "Forlorn Hope" (fodder). I wish that Warlord would have packed 48-64 figures to a box set. That would fit my thinking...more figures on the table is better!

Above is the sniper from the "specialist" blister pack. I know Might of Arms doesn't have any way that this guy can fit in but; I'm going to build some "event cards" into the game to spice it up a bit. This guy WILL get his shot! There's another figure in the blister pack that looks like he's holding some type of instrument, firebox or something nasty with which to determine who "is or who is not a witch" Now, all I need for that one is a pond and some rope.

Keep checking back, I'll post up in progress pics and comments on how this mini-project is going. Now, what I REALLY REALLY want is some decent two winged Polish Hussars. I've got some TAG figures but they're only single winged and the distributor my vendor uses is hit or miss. Alright...I digress...I'm done for this episode.

I'm Ready to Run and Play A Fall ECW Campaign

I've been kicking around doing an ECW campaign for several months since completing the first phase of the ECW project. I've read my old copy of 1644 (the red cover version) and the recent Warhammer ECW rules. Both have a mini-campaign included.

My thinking is to use K.I.S.S. as the guiding force for this campaign. I don't want to get into long and drawn out sieges. My main aim is to get the collection on the table and fight field battles. I like the simpler map campaign but want to include a little flavor to the campaign like Scots intrusions/duplicity and the same duplicity of the guys down south of Scotland. I'm not sure how many players I'll get. I figure maybe 1 or 2 players at most. Our group frankly doesn't know the English Civil War, is not very motivated by pike & shotte period. I don't know if I should go ahead and build the campaign or keep looking for some better campaign systems. I've got Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios, Wargaming Pike and Shot, and that crappy Napoleonic Campaign book by Hoplite Research.

I want to not fall into these traps:

• Long, drawn out campaign season. That kills campaigns
• Complex economics. Players want to put toys on the table and not be bankers IMHO
• Sieges. I would rather fight a field battle outside a city rather than waste an evening trying to reduce a city and then attack it. Just a personal preference
• Painting more figures. I've done enough and want to concentrate more on painting vignettes, preachers, bishops, and artillery emplacements. I don't think any of our group will paint ECW other than Cameron (painting Scots). We'll see..am not holding my breath however

Any pearls o' wisdom on putting a quick ECW campaign season together would be appreciated.

ACW Labor Day Bash!

I took a break from ECW project to play a larger scale ACW game on Labor Day. We called it the Labor Day Bash! We put on the classic Fire and Fury scenario 'Hooker's Attack". We had seven 7 players and put over 276 infantry stands on the 12x6 table. We played until the 10:30 AM turn and left the game up in the Rat Palace III for conclusion. The figures pictured were painted by Eric Wood, Clay Smith, Allen Eldridge, and Steve Miller. A great day was had by all.

Several requests have been made via TMP to see the Rat Palace and the terrain we play upon. You'll need to go through the slide show. We're blessed with great terrain, a super venue, patient spouses and a solid group! Enjoy the show and the Rat Palace II!! If you want to see a larger pic set, click on the title; it will take you directly to Flicker show.

I thought Plastic ECW Figures Would Be Cheaper

I bought a box of Warlord ECW Pike and Shot on Saturday at Area 51 hobby shop. I also picked up a Warlord Medium Artillery set. On a lark, I picked up a Xyston 15mm army box to see if I could still paint 15s? Walked out $100 lighter.
I thought that the plastic stuff was going to SAVE me money. Guess not. I've never paid $27.00 for one gun and 4 crew. Total BS. That gun model is going to my collection instead of on the wargame table. Way too expensive for everyday gaming.

Rant over now!

ECW Project Virtually Completed!

I'm down to the barrel scrapin' on the ECW project. I've got two units of Folorn Hope (1 per side) to get done. It shouldn't take long. There's only going to be 12 figs in the units. I'm going to paint them with multicolored jackets to represent "volunteers" for the Folorn Hopes. The last painting task is to paint the Royalist officers and King Chuck I. Almost there!

NEXT PROJECT??? Finish out the Saracens for my 1st Crusade collection. The Franks are already done. Just need to get spears, pennants and flags together.

MILLER'S STUPID QUESTION FOR THE DAY:
I want to paint "silks". I remember an Armory line of "silk paints". Does Armory still produce this paint? If not, will Vallejo's metallic addition work to make a silk color? Any pearls 'o wisdom would be appreciated.

Now...on with the next project. Galleries will follow.

ECW Might of Arms at Skirmish '09 and at the Rat Palace

Gallery Link Here

I put on a Might of Arms variant for ECW at Skirmish '09 Games Day and at home last night. The games played smoothly. MoA is a quickly learned, easily taught, bloody, fast play set of rules for Ancients penned by Bob Bryant. I adapted the rules for ECW because of those reasons. As a result, multi-player games played on my 8x6 standard gaming table can be played to conclusion in less than 2.5 hours.

Skirmish 09 game was no exception to this rule. The rules were taken up by the players (most of whom had never played either ECW nor MoA) and were going strong in two game turns. I didn't get to see the result as I had an emergency and went to the E.R. in the middle of the game. The game looked quite even with the Royalist forces giving the Parliamentary forces a drubbing from fire. I've dumbed down the cavalry factors and adjusted cavalry charge ranges to simulate the differences between trotters and gallopers. The melee factors for cavalry have been adjusted to compensate for the "gentry" vs. the "proles". Some people would like to see more detail. The beauty of the rules is its simplicity but subtlety.

Last night's game was also fast and furious (in a 17th century sort of way). Both sides deployed a single battle line supported by two flanks of horse. I didn't say anything but was looking for a second line as reserves and also to provide supporting fire. The Royalist cavalry swept the Roundhead Train'd Band cavalry from the field in short order and exposed the flank of the Parliamentary battle line. The Parliamentary player turned a brigada to face the threat and came under a pummeling from artillery. It seemed as if the Roundheads were in trouble! Things are not always what they seem when playing MoA! The center and right flank were hotly contested with push of pike combined with laying on of musket butts. Both sides wore each other down over several turns. Again, neither side had a second line. No reserves would prove to be a tipping point. The left flank was the hero flank. Hesselrig's Lobsters were struck in the rear as they attempted to charge the flank of an unsupported Royalist regiment. They then turned and hammered the Parliamentary cavalry. I've included a -1 for facing Cuirassiers/Lobsters(not the crustacean variety). It worked just fine in this instance. The Parliamentary cavalry commander took a pistola shotte to the cabeza and promptly fell off his horse. The rest of the cavalry took morale tests and did not leave the table. The weight of numbers began to take toll on the beleaguered Lobsters. Being worn down and shaken, they could not stand. Their rout began the cascading morale effect for which MoA is known. Units began to go shaken on both sides as multiple morale tests weakened their resolve. The center push of pike was decided when shaken units on both sides began to fail morale and were removed from the table. Look for the blank area in the middle where the center used to be. The fight was tooth and tong! Both sides wore each other out and both sides left the table en masse. At the end of the day, the Royalists held the field with cavalry while the Parliamentary forces were whittled down to a shaken artillery unit and a shaken infantry unit. Terms were struck and the Parliamentary forces were allowed to leave the field with full honors. Such is the fortuna of war!

What did I learn from both these battles?

1. I need to paint more figures! (Duh). I've got 6 regiments of foote per side and 6 regiments of horse per side.
2. The game needs a mechanic to "add weight" into melees. I want to add regiments of horse and pack them into melee so I can get a visual scrum. I'm thinking that players should be able to add regiments into the fight (not getting charge bonus) on the second/subsequent turn of melee. This would add weight of numbers. On the flip side, MoA cavalry melees are usually sharp and relatively conclusive quickly. My jury's still out and will need more games to see.
3. Larger table space. 8x6 is fine for a two person game. The cavalry is free wheeling in this game. I will move to a 12x6 or 16x6 for multi-player games. Again, need to paint more figures.
4. Limiting terrain. I need to consistently use the terrain rules and use more hedges, enclosures, rock walls, etc. I'm of two minds about it however; in my historian's mind, terrain was found that suited the armies rather than hindered movement. My table is 3D, players should be able to see what is what and how the terrain may limit movement. I played these two games to test the rules however and kept the ancillary stuff out. I wanted to get to conclusion and see if people liked the game.
5. GMB Flags are the BEST! They set my collection to the next level! Worth the $100+! My cavalry guidons will follow. This will be cool...highly recommended!

Order of Battle: Royalist
4 Regiments of Foote-2 muskets per pike (18 figs per regiment)
6 Regiments of Horse-Various grades-including one Lobster regiment because it was painted
2 Medium Gonnes
1 Galloper (light) Gonne-I have the model and made up the rule for it. Gotta' get it on the table!
1 Dragoon Regiment (8 figs mounted and dismounts)

Order of Battle: Parliamentary
4 Regiments of Foote-2 muskets per pike (18 figs per regiment)
6 Regiments of Horse (9 figs per regiment)
2 Medium Gonnes
1 Dragoon Regiment (8 figs mounted and dismounts)

Might of Arms ECW Game

I've run out of time trying to fix Victory without Quarter for multi-player games at Skirmish 09 Games Day next weekend in Plano, Texas www.dfwirregulars.com . Steve Bidwell and Scott White were gracious enough to come down to the Rat Palace III and work through a mod. of Bob Bryant's rules-Might of Arms. MoA is our ancients game of choice and an ECW variant was on the Yahoo Groups files. We tweaked the melee and shooting modifiers and came up with a crackin' multi player game that's easy to teach, learn and plays well.
I have not given up on Victory without Quarter and will tweak/play it in smaller games after Skirmish.
Will update the gallery next weekend. I've finally completed:
11 Regiments of Foote (18 figs per regiment)
96 Horse
6Medium Gonnes
2 Light or Galloper Gonnes
2 Regiments of Dragoons (8 figs per regiment)
Command figures
It's been a hectic six months to get this done....but it's done and ready to play.

Next project...star forts and field works!