O.S. ACW Reinforcements

 

A couple of years ago I bought a lot of plastic Spencer Smith 30mm ACW figures and I have just got around to painting some of them up.

 

Amongst them were some plastic Uhlan type cavalry - from their Napoleonic range (?) , I decided to convert them into the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry or Rush's Lancers as they were better known, by trimming the czapka into forage caps . 

 

 

Being plastic they were a bit of a problem to paint but a couple of coats of yacht varnish sorted that out . I have some more plastic cavalry which I will be painting up as Confederate 'Black Horse' cavalry .

 

 

 

Old School SYW Campaign (1st Move)

 

Well the campaign has begun after a trouble start because of problems with my Internet ! Grr bl***y technology !. Please click on the above map to enlarge , the white squares are the positions of Austrian forces and the blue Prussian ones . Both sides have objectives but their enemy don't know them as yet . My wargaming colleague 'S' is in command of the Austrians and 'A' the Prussians .I am using the campaign system from Grant's 'The Wargame' and the movement rates are as follows -

 

Each of the small squares equals a 1" , looks like there could be some actions on the morrow and these will be played out on the table top .

 

Return of a Old Friend

Been sorting out some old rule sets for disposal and came across my copy of DBA version 1 , I sold all my DBA armies years ago as I had stopped using them and flicking through the rules was struck by the elegant simplicity of them (before the morphed into DBA 2.2 or whatever they are now !). I began to think I should start playing them again - simple and fun for solo games and a campaign system too !. I decided I would rebuild my Greek Hoplite armies as I seem to remember having some cracking games in this period . I have chosen Chariot Miniatures Greeks and have got enough to do a Greek Hoplite, a Spartan and a North Greek Army , 'A' was kind enough to pass on some unwanted figures as well . I've dug out my relevant Ospreys and have made a start of painting them (the great thing about DBA was always that you did not have to paint masses of figures), after painting 30/40mm figures going back to 15mm is a bit of a re-learning curve and I've decided to go with shield transfers as well . Here are the first few bases painted.

O.S. F.P.W. Prussian Jaegers

 

After some delay I have finished off the initial order of Spencer Smith F.P.W. figures.

 

 

With these Prussian Jaegers this gives me 3 units plus a gun per side - enough for a small skirmish !.

 

 

I have enjoyed painting these figures and when monies become available will send off another order for some cavalry .

 

 

A S.Y.W. Campaign.

A wet Bank Holiday and 'home-alone' (my dearest working) so I have been playing on the computer designing a campaign map using 'Paint' . We will be using the Grant campaign system from 'The War Game' and my 30mm Spencer Smith collection .

 

Please click on it to enlarge , I am hoping to get a couple of my gaming friends to be the Prussian and Austrian commanders and to publish the various moves of the campaign on this blog . I have tried running this type of campaign before - with varying results ! - maintaining order between the opposing commanders is a problem and keeping on top of the paper work are a couple of the troubles when running a campaign !. Hopefully using the computer to store the moves and maps will make it easier. Too be continued.

More Bronze Age Warriors.

 

I have taken some more photos of my North European Bronze Age collection , above a selection of various warriors in combat .

 

 

Skirmishers - skirmishing ! , mainly Foundry but with the odd Warlord figure (I think?) thrown in . I did quite a few conversions as there are not many variants out there.

 

 

Bronze Age Warlords with added plastic skulls and trophies.

 

 

Warlords in chariots .

 

 

A domestic scene- again Foundry figures , the cows are Gripping Beast , I have some pigs as well to paint up for this era . I have found that photographing these figures has got me interested in this period again and I am planning to paint up the few remaining figures I have . 

 

 

 

 

Bronze Age Warriors

 

Quite a few years ago or little group were into 'Warhammer Ancient Battles' rules and I must admit they revitalised or 25mm Ancient collections , this was also the era when 'Foundry' did some amazing army deals - really cheap ! (how times change). This prompted me to purchase 2 Bronze Age European armies , not the most popular choice but at that time I was actively involved in archaeology and this era fascinated me as it still does .

 

 

I did a lot of research into the dyeing and textiles preserved on various 'bog bodies' to get the right colours (there are a series of books by a Danish professor with wonderful name of  P.V. Glob !) and painted them up .Sadly they have not seen action for many years but I still  hold them in great affection, perhaps sometime in the future I will dig them out again and use them.