Amazon Psiloi!

The bulk of my Amazon Army arrived this week from Wargames Foundry. This army was, ostensibly, to be for my daughter to play with (As Amanda already has a Army of Warrior Wimyn of her own). I thought the girl would be all excited – seeing as how she’s all about the Greek legend and pretty excited about… well… y’know… GIRLS… (Every story we read she makes up her own version involving only women…) But when I presented the idea to her, though she thought it was pretty cool, she decided she’d much rather have her own army of undead…

Well then…

Fair enough… I’ll be getting started on those straight away! But in the meantime, here are a few Amazons…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)



This will be a stand of Psiloi (when playing DBA… not sure what I’d classify it as in HOTT…?)



I did the rest of the pack based individually for skirmish gamin’

Here’s what the army will eventually look like (including all options)

1x Hero or Knight General (Amazon Queen in chariot)
1x Magician or Cleric (Priestess at altar – alternately this could be the “camp”)
6x Spear (Amazon Hoplites)
2x Bow (Amazons Archers)
1x Auxilia (Lighter Spear-armed Amazons)
1x Psiloi (the Amazon slingers above)
1x Cavalry (Amazons on horsies)
2x Light Horse (Amazon archers on Horsies – one stand is actually Skythians)

Plus there's a fair few left over for skirmishy/role-playing adventures

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:


Gosh there’s a lot of crap on the workbench… and this is AFTER a big clean-up… There’s Greek Hoplites… There’s Amazons… There’s West Franks…. Undead… Queen Victoria with a double-barreled shotgun… Egyptians… and a pile of other stuff that’s snuck on there at one point or another that I thought I’d quickly finish up… and then didn’t…

When in Rome…

Just to keep you all guessing…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are some dead and dying Romans from Black Tree Design to use as casualty markers for my Early Imperial Roman DBA army.


Some Roman Sentries from Warlord Games to occupy camps or Built Up Areas…


A Roman Medicus plying his trade.


This vignette is also from Warlord Games.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to the Greeks… or Egyptians… or, who knows… maybe I’ll paint up one of those Roman armies I’ve got kicking around!? The second batch of Egyptians just arrived today so I have the complete army… Now I just have to PAINT them… always the tricky part that…

Or there is those last two Soviet AT guns… or all the West Frank Knights still crowding the back of the workspace…

Egyptians

Back at it with a few new Egyptians…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This will be an element of Psiloi in a New Kingdom Egyptian DBA army. Figures are from Wargames Foundry


Same sort of stuff on individual stands for skirmish gamin’


Also from foundry…

Now those of you that have been following for some time and been playing close attention will probably have noticed that I never use plastic bases. Never. Ever. I just don’t. And so you are probably wondering why on earth I’ve painted this guy and based him – not only on a plastic base – but also on a square one (something else I never do with individually based figures)… I’m not entirely sure either…. Something to do with having way too many command figures and not knowing really what to do with them and while up late one night earlier this week (perhaps a bit too late) I had some crazy notion of basing up the spares and painting them to sell (and while I never used plastic or square individual bases… I do recognize that many, many others do…) - so I guess I do know why I based him so, I’m just not entirely sure how I got him painted when there’s so many of my OWN figures needing painting…!? And really who’s going to buy a SINGLE dude like this!? Shipping him alone would cost more than any sensible person would pay (luckily, most wargamers – myself included – are far from being “sensible people”…).


Not Egyptian. Not Foundry, either. A lady the Warlord Games Greek civilian pack.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have a bunch more Egyptians on the workbench… a few Greeks… some West Franks still lurking in the back…

I get that all systems tend toward entropy...


But I never cease to be amazed at how quickly my game/project table can become cluttered with... everything... Better get tidying - we're back to Savage Saturdays tonight!

20mm WW2 Soviet Rifle Regiment

Well… most of it…

I really only did this to wrack up a lot of points for Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge… mostly… A month or so ago I briefly had a notion I should have another go at Blitzkrieg Commander and while the notion has, for the moment, passed, I did get excited about organizing and finishing up (if not playing with) a few of my 20mm WW2 forces. The Russian Rifle Regiment seemed the easiest to do… so I tried to get most of it finished…

Some of these have been painted previously…. Most were finished up this last week….

We shall start with the Regimental Assets…

(Do keep in mind most of the element/stands represent platoons)

First of all I should have a Regimental HQ stand… but I don’t… I’m thinking I might pick one up from SHQ Miniaturesat some point (under their “Russian Vehicle Crew” they have a pack called “ RT40 Staff Group, Infantry, Tank Officers being Briefed” that might fit the bill).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)



Regimental AAMG Platoon (I think this was from FAA).

This was based some time ago and doesn’t really conform to the current basing system (80mm frontage). I’m kind of torn about whether to rebase this or not. As an Anti-Aircraft element I don’t really think of it as having a “front” and thus all side should probably be equal… but an 80x80mm base for these two guys!? Seems a little HUGE!?

I do like the fact that with the bigger bases there is the the potential to make mini-dioramas on them. Perhaps if I could find (or convert) some Soviet infantry men running and ducking for cover I could have them all scattering away from teh gunner as though an airplane is flying directly at them to strafe and the fearless AA gunner and the pilot are going to have a little showdown...


Regimental Reconnaissance Company - one Foot, one Mounted Platoon. The foot are from Platoon 20. The mounted I have no idea where exactly the minis came from... Combat Miniatures...? Maybe...? with plastic horsies from Eagle Games...?


Regimental Pioneer Platoon – also Platoon 20. Some Orders of Battle I’ve seen claim there was a Regimental Pioneer COMPANY, others just a platoon... All I currently have is this platoon... so I'm going with the OOBs that said only one platoon... (until I find some more Soviet Pioneers!)


Regimental SMG Company. There should be 3 platoons. I have only the two at the moment. The one on the left is made up of figures from Platoon 20, the platoon on the right are all from Plastic Soldier Model Company.


Regimental Gun Battery. Two platoons of 76mm Infantry guns all from Plastic Soldier Model Company

There should also be a Regimental Heavy Mortar Company (with 120mm Mortars)... but I don't have those yet... I’ll probably pick up a few from Platoon 20 at some point.

I should also have a Regimental Anti Tank Battery (with 45mm AT guns)... I DO have those (well, two of them…), but I just didn't get to painting them...

Then we have the three Rifle Battalions of the Regiment….


First Battalion (Rifle companies). These are all from Plastic Soldier Model Company


Second Battalion (Rifle companies) These are also from Plastic Soldier Model Company.


Third Battalion (Rifle companies) The two files on the left, one of the CHQs and the Battalion Command stand are older assorted plastic 1/72 models (Revell, Italieri, etc). The file of the right (and two of the CHQs) are metal Platoon 20 figures.


The Heavy Machine-guns. The three platoons in the front row are plastic figures (from Revell, Italieri, etc), The two in the rear are metal Platoon 20 models

Now, here's where I get a little confused... More than a few of the OOBs I've seen state that each battalion had a complete company of Machine-guns (three platoons each) AND each Rifle Company had an HMG platoon, in addition to it's three rifle platoons... for a whopping SIX platoons of HMGs per Battalion (compared to nine rifle platoons in the battalion) and EIGHTEEN Machine-gun Platoons in a Regiment... Is that for reals?! Or is that wishful thinking on behalf of the Soviet general staff!? I have only five at the moment... guess I need to get a few more! I'll probably just pick up four more at some point and have three per battalion...


The Mortars – Plastic 1/72 on the left, Platoon 20 on the right…

Again, according to most OOBs I've seen the Soviets apparently had a Mortar COMPANY per battalion - three platoons serving NINE 82mm tubes! Compared to one platoon in each German or Commonwealth infantry battalion!? So I need another SEVEN for the Regiment at some point - if I ever care to kit out the force with their full authorized strength... to start with I'll probably pick up ONE more and give each battalion a single platoon...

Not part of the Rifle Regiment… but Russian and could potentially be attached to make an even BIGGER force…


Soviet Naval Infantry (from FAA, I think)

At some point I wouldn’t mind putting together a tank force… company… battalion… possibly from an independent tank brigade for supporting these infantry… Those Palstic Soldier Model Company fast-assembly T-34s look awful tempting…

I didn’t take a picture of the entire force as… well… the entire force isn’t complete. It thought I’d at least finish up those AT guns I have before I take a picture of the works all together!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Gosh… I don’t know… what to do now…? Space Ships? Greeks? 20mm WW2 Germans for my Soviets to steamroller!

20mm WW2 Odd items

A couple odd items for my various 20mm WW2 forces

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are Canadian 6-Pounders and crew. The guns are from RAFM and the crew, I think, are from FAA.


Casualty marker – some plastic 1/72 figures… I’m not sure of the manufacturer… Italieri, maybe?


A German officer – to use as a Forward Observer element. Also a plastic 1/72 figuresof unknown manufacture… If I had to guess, I’d say Revell…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More 20mm WW2 madness…

What I Actually Painted…

So here’s what I actually painted to finish up that Imperial Russian Infantry Brigade (plus a couple other things I finished up…)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These were not included in the Imperial Russian Infantry Brigade… because they’re ostensibly WW2 partisans (or “Spies and Saboteurs” as I believe the pack was called…) from Black Tree Design. Honestly though, they'll probably see action all over the early 20th century... The guy with the pistol, camera and book especially looks perfect for some Cthulhuesque Pulp Adventure Action...


Tsarist/Russian Imperial Army officers from Brigade Games.


Fourteen Russian Riflemen to finish up the various battalions of the Brigade… the figures were modeled and moulded by John Bertolini and cast and painted by myself.


Dead and dying Russians to use as morale failure tokens (from Old Glory).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More of what I painted over the last week….

Game Plan 2012 – Second Quarter

Well with the Dark Age DBA Campaign and the Analogue Hobbies Spring Thaw Painting Challenge all over with it’s time to take a look ahead and see what I’m planning for the rest of the year…

According to the original 2012 Game Plan I was planning to run a Hordes of the Things campaign in June and the Battle of Queenston Heights in October. I’d also planned to play a number of Board Games, of which I have managed to play NONE!?

Currently I am still planning to run a Hordes of the Things campaign in June some time, but it will likely be a smaller affair with a few select individuals – that I may actually PLAY with! All previous campaigns I’ve only ran the show and acted as referee. I figure if I invite a very small group of people I can trust not to argue about rules and stuff I wouldn’t have to feel the need to maintain that position of “un

As for the Battle of Queenston Heights… Well… We’ll see where we’re at in June after the HOTT campaign and see where we want to go.

Board Games…? Pffft! I have no idea when I’m ever going to get around to those… I just can’t seem to find the time! Weekends and evenings just seem to be too busy with other regularly scheduled activities.

Other Recent Ideas, Plans, and Distractions…

Vimy!?

I had thought I might try and dig out the Vimy Stuff and get the terrain fixed up to run a game on the 9 April 2012 – it’s Easter Monday – as it was on 9 April 1917 when the Canadians attacked Vimy Ridge… But that’s less than three weeks away and there’s a LOT of work to be done to fix up the terrain… so unless there was a great outcry of interest for this… Anyone…? Anyone…?

Ongoing DBA/HOTT campaign

John, I think, had suggested a regular ongoing HOTT or DBA campaign – which I would be all over – but again, finding the right people, and having them all be able to play at the same time on a regular weekly… or biweekly… or monthly(!?) basis…

Savage Worlds Campaigns

Adult Dragonlance - this is what I had been running through the fall and winter on (Savage) Saturday Nights and had been going pretty good for a while… but we haven’t played in over a month… partly due to preparation for the Dark Age DBA campaign… partly due to other s being away or busy with other things. I’ve been losing steam on this…

Kids Dragonlance - A campaign I’ve been running for my kids and a couple other homeschooled kids. There have been some interruptions to this campaign as well… we did get back at it a couple weeks ago, but missed last week as I was dreadfully ill… I bought all those darn Dragonlance books – I’m darn well going to run the campaign to the bitter end for at least ONE of the groups!

If I had any sense at all I’d just get back on the horse and get the Saturday night one going again – running the two campaigns simultaneously would ease my game prep workload as for I only have to prepare once and get two games out of it…

Kids Greek Myth!! My kids are super stoked about Greek Myth right now… and Foundry has conveniently released a line of Greek Mythology figures… of which I’ve ordered a few (well… MOST…). I’ve also been working on some Greek Hoplite armies for DBA as well as some individual figures for Savage Worlds Skirmishin’… so I’ve been thinking about starting a SECOND campaign for them to play in… just not sure when… and with whom… Perhaps it will be just for the kids, or perhaps we will recruit some new players…

Adult Mythos/WW2 Ghostbusters meet Gangbusters…!!! Christian brought my attention to Achtung Cthulhu! - which, I’m not about to run out and buy… and if I did (or someone else bought it FOR me…) I’d really only use it as fluff reference for a Savage Worlds campaign… but it did get me thinking about relaunching a reloaded version of our Cthulhu Campaign or the Weird War Two Campaign… I’ve been thinking about the Cthulhu campaign quite a bit for a while now – instead of even attempting any sort of classic horror campaign (as there has been nothing horrific about the campaign so far - since nobody seems to be able to take any of the Saturday night games remotely seriously!?) I thought I’d relaunch it as a Two-Fisted, Guns-blazing Gangbusters-meets-Ghostbusters, Over-the-Top Pulp Comedy Adventure campaign…

I’d actually picked up the Call of Cthulhu’s Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign book and even picked up some mountaineer and polar explorer figures and some Gebirgsjagers ages ago and was planning pretty much the same thing (as Acthung Cthulhu) - making one of the rival explorer groups NAZIS!? Shortly after that the campaign would catch up with and cross over with the Weird War Two campaign... which would become a whole lot weirder...

Of course that doesn't take place until The late 1930s... and we left off the campaign in 1922.... I'd plotted out a timeline of all the Cthulhu Adventures I own through the 20s and 30s.... and there were many...

So many games to play… so little time…

PAINTING

Well what to get painting then…? a few of the things weighing heavily on my mind at the moment…
Greek Myth – when they arrive…
DBA Hoplite armies! Acouple of them to run a campaign!
DBA Egyptians (just bought some during the recent Foundry sale…)
DBA Nubians? (don’t actually have any… but they’d be a good historical opponent for the Egyptians and relatively small and quick and easy to paint up…)
Space Ships – I don’t know… I just feel like painting some…
20mm WW2 Germans (Heer and SS), Canadians, Paras?
28mm WW2! Because a lot of it is so close to completion… and the whole Weird War Two thing…
28mm Great War!? Since I finished the Russian Infantry Brigade and recently played an Ever Contemptible Victorious Little Black Powder Armies (of DOOM!) game… and had a lot of fun!
Finish up some stuff to sell off…

Hmmmm… the 1812 stuff didn’t even get on that list… maybe I should can the idea of Queenston Heights for this year and plan for a Greek Hoplite/City State campaign for the fall!

SELLING STUFF

I’ve been thinking (for a looooong time) it’s time to start getting rid of some stuff… Some of it I’ll never use.. some of it I might… but I’d rather have something else and I have limited space…
HOTT Elves and Orcs
15mm WW2 8th Army, DAK, Early War Germans
Isengard HOTT army?
Rohan HOTT army?

Imperial Russian Infantry Brigade

I’ve been painting up a storm this past week, trying to rack up a few more points for the Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge… and, while I won’t show you the individual pics of what I finished (lest I incur the wrath of CURT!) – a few of the things I painted, finished off my Great War Russian Infantry Brigade…

This force was finished at one point… Then I re-based it… then I re-based, and re-organized it and in the process realized I was about 20 figures short of two full regiments… and really only because they’d be quick and easy to paint, I decided to finish those off this week. So here’s what we’ve got…


(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This is the whole force. Two regiments of four battalions, plus a few machine-gun detachments, supporting artillery and attached cavalry…


The Tsar and family (and an orthodox priest)

The Tsar and his family are from West Wind Productions and the priest is from Brigade Games


The two Regimental Commanders. I think these were both from West Wind as well – part of the old “Cowboy Wars” line, if you can believer that – I think the pack was called Russian Hunting Party #2… or something like that…


1st Regiment.

The Regiment is made up of four battalions of fifteen figures each. Why fifteen? Well because the rules I’ll most often use are a mash up based on Contemptible Little Armies and Ever Victorious Armies (and a few others too) and the units in there are between 8 and 18… and originally I’d had units of 13... but the current storage drawers I have fit ten of these guys across. Three rows is 30 – two units of fifteen. Ten seemed too small… 20 seems a bit big… Fifteen..


2nd Regiment.

The rank anf file soldiers in these two Rifle Regiments were modeled by my friend John Bertolini


These are the officers of the battalions above. The four on the right are from Copplestone Castings. The next four are from the same Brigade Games pack as the Orthodox Priest above, and the last one is, I believe from Crusader Miniatures (stragely enough, once again, from a “Wild West” line – I think the pack was called “foreigners”!?)


A pair of “Snipers” for more Pulp Adventurey games… These were form the same West Wind/Cowboys Wars pack as the Regimental Commanders.


A standard bearer. Modified one of John’s castings. I have a second one with just the pole, if I ever get around to making a flag for it, each of the Regiments can have one - to follow their Regimental Commander around. For now This fellow will follow around whatever is acting as Brigade Commander…


The Machine-gun Detachments. The two on the outside are from Old Glory, and the one in the middle is from Coppelstone Castings.

I might like to get one more... That way I'd have a nice even two per regiment... maybe someday...


The Guns (one GUN, rather). I do have a second one to assemble and paint up some day… The model and crew are from Battle Honors.


The Cavalry. Could be fielded as two smaller forces of 8 or one big one of 16… painted up as Cossacks from two different hosts… don’t ask me which ones, I can’t remember… The men were modeled and cast (and painted, of course) by myself. The Horses were bought – Hinchifee, I think…?


Some dead and dying Russians for morale failure tokens. These are from Old Glory


Incase I ever decide to use the force as elements of the Asian Cavalry Division – this is Baron Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg and a his bodyguard (figures from Coppelstone Castings)


Ungern-Sternberg on foot. A frightful sight, is he not?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some pics of what I painted over the last week. You should probably be able to see most of them over at Analogue Hobbies by now.

RAF Fliers, Ancient Civilians, Modern Merc

An odd assortment of things today…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are RAF (or RCAF) fliers from Black Tree Design


Ancient Greek Civilians, also from Black Tree Design.


Ancient Egyptian Priest from Wargames Foundry


And finally... a Modern merc/agent/contractor from, I think, Devil Dog Design.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Some WW2 Soviets… probably…