Terrain Tuesday: A 6mm Church

I've been making a determined effort to go through the half-finished projects started before my move last winter, and am making good progress.  Here's a 6mm church for my wee Napoleonics figures.

The buildings are from STL files for an Austrian or Bavarian village, designed by a friend of this blog, Thomas Brandsetter.  You can find the link to get these files (for a very reasonable price) at Thomas' blog here.  The church is modelled on the famous church fought over at Aspern Essling.  I painted it grey to suggest solid stone, but a more accurate colour scheme would probably be off white or cream to suggest plaster over brick.  I've included a little house from Thomas' village set as the parsonage, and I added some scratch built walls made from balsa.  The trees came from a Woodlands Scenics model railroad set that I probably paid too much for.  The base is a 4" square piece of MDF from Warbases.  I like how Thomas has provided two possible superstructures for the steeple.  I chose the onion dome style because it's very evocative of eastern Europe.

The stand can serve as table dressing or could be a terrain objective that can be garrisoned and fought over.  Here two French battalions attempt to evict some resolute Austrian grenadiers.

I would happily recommend Thomas' STL file set, they are far cheaper than some and as you can see they look fine for small scale games.  These models were printed on my now defunct Elegoo resin printer, but I've since printed some on my FDM Bambu printer and they came out just fine.

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+
 

Foundry 28mm 18th Century Russian Pandurs

 Back in March I had the opportunity, thanks to my mate James, to pick up a pile of 18th century figures from Foundry at a reasonable price.   They are slowly making their way off the painting desk and being mustered into service.

I was pleased that the sale included these 12 Pandours to give my Russian army some scouting and skirmishing potential.   Here they are complete with their cute little boots.  With two musicians, they probably won't be able to sneak up on their foes, but at least they'll be entertained.

They're painted according to a Knotel plate depicting the 3rd Pandur Regiment from the Kronoskaf website.  The two pistol packing officers give them a slightly comic, piratical look, and as with most Foundry figures, they have a some individuality in head poses.  They're single based for kleine krieg games using Sharp Practice, where skirmish infantry are usually in six man groups.  Painted mostly using Foundry paints.

Scouting the woods for pesky Croats and Friekorps, or perhaps a delicious wild boar.

Cheers and thanks for looking.

Blessings to your brushes,  

MP+

Trouble In Golpen Und Burpen: A Napoleonic Game Using Sam Mustafa's Blucher and Scharnhorst

Hello friends:

I've been dusting off my 6mm Napoleonics collection, which is predominantly French and Austrians, and decided to revist Sam Mustafa's Blucher rules.

Sam's rules include an elegant little mini-game called Scharnhorst, a campaign system to give tabletop battles some flavour and context.   It works best with two players, as there is some fog of war built into it, so I recruited two of my friends from the Anglo-Irish Napoleonic Brain Trust.

This is Sam's Scharnhorst map of a generic slice of Southern Germany, which has cunningly been renamed as the Electorate of Golpen und Burpen.   The Elector, Hans Joachim von Smolhausen, has somehow managed to stay neutral until 180X, when the Austrians cast covetous eyes on it and it's thriving burlap sacking industry.  General Konrad von Smettana and his Army of the Moldau are tasked with capturing the Electorate.  Warned of these intentions, Marshal Ferdinand le Gros, dubbed by Napoleon "the grossest of the gross", is alerted to assemble his Army of the Southwest Elbe.   

In Blucher terms, both armies are in the 200 point range.  One is slightly larger than the other.  Before the game begins, both sides secretly choose how many of their cavalry brigades they will commit to reconaissance.   The side with the most brigades doing recon gets to go first and gets to choose which edge of the map they will enter from.   The side with the lower number of committed brigades goes second, and must enter from the opposite map edge.

The Austrians choose to commit more of their cavalry brigades than the French and so choose to enter from the north side of the map, in four columns.  Each column can have one to eight brigades, and the opposing player may not learn how many or which type until one of his columns is adjacent, in which case a player can scout or can declare a battle.

At the end of turn 1, the Austrians have entered the map from the north.  On turn 1 both columns have a movement allowance of three MPs, so there won't be any contact.  The Austrians seize the town of Niederheim and the village of Wunsberg.   Seeing their advance, Marshal le Gros takes the unusual step to bring his force, in three columns, all onto the SE corner of the map.   Looks like he might be hoping to concentrate all of his force against part of the Austrian force!

Nice counters, aren't they?  They're plastic chits from Litko, very sharp.

In another day or so I should hear back from both players as to the second turn moves and we may have a battle!  Stay tuned.

Cheers and blessings to your die rolls,

MP+

Wednesday Workbench

I was mightily distracted by the Brewers-Dodgers game (go Brewers!) but I did manage to get some horses (for cossacks and Napoleonic generals), some Foundry 28mm Pandours, and a 3d printed 6mm terrain piece into the basing depot.  Mrs P continues to mend nicely from her shoulder replacement surgery and has started physiotherapy.   Hope all's well with you.

MP+

Terrain Tuesday: Aspern Parsonage from 3D Print Terrain

 Hello friends:

Not much hobbying to report.  Mrs P went into hospital on Friday for a shoulder replacement (she is a poster child for arthritis and had an injury thanks to two adorable but demonic Border Terriers) so after many months of pain and immobility it was finally her turn to go under the knife.  It seems a sign of our age that she was besieged with advice by friends who have had joint replacements - take this supplement!  don't skimp the physio!  do this exercise!  The surgery was successful, she came home on Saturday with a sizeable (but not huge) incision, a sling for her arm (at least six weeks of not using her wing) and a cool machine that pumps ice water through a sleeve that fits over the shoulder.   I'm managing to get the minimal requisite of parish work done, while getting the odd half hour of paintbench therapy in and keeping an eye on post season baseball (I'm rooting for the Papal White Sox).  Mrs P is plucky and deterimed to put her new shoulder to use, so the extra effort as caregiver is worth it.

Well enough about me.   Some time ago when this blog was more of a thing, I decided on a feature called Terrain Tuesday.   So here's what I've been working on, and pretty much ready to call it done.

This is a print from one of the 28mm sets of STL files from 3D Print Terrain.  It's the parsonage that is part of the Aspern Essling church.   It printed in several sections, and there wasn't a clean fit between the roof and walls, so I had to use some caulking to fill in the gaps, which are still somewhat noticeable here.

However that's just a small grumble.  All of the files I've seen from this designer are top notch - I bought their 6mm Napoleonic line of buildings and now that I'm moving into a larger scale for black powder I wanted some buildings that would work for 18th and early 19th century Europe.  I'm sure it's immaculate on the inside, thanks to a brisk no-nonsense housekeeper who looks after the absent minded pastor.  I lived in a parsonage for a while, but the squirrels drove me out.

Now that the parsonage is finished, I can turn my attention to the church! 

Thanks for looking!  I see that my last post on lead figures got a lot of comment, so I need to go through and answer your comments.   Hope all's well with you all.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Napoleonics Thursday - The Slow Decline of Metal Figures

Recently the historical gaming community (including the author) were shocked and a little dismayed to learn that the people behind Gripping Beast were retiring and would soon be closing the business.  Fair enough, I'm thinking about (and sometimes longing to) retire myself.  Their announcement expressed the hope that someone would come along and buy GP and the various lines it's taken under its wing.  In the meantime, they encouraged gamers to get in their orders soon and that they would be announcing a cut off date in the near future when "we will have to turn sales off so that we can finish everything outstanding and get the last parcels out the door befor we turn off the lights". 

I have no idea if it would be profitable or even wise to take over such a business.  The price of metal alloy continues to increase, postage rates, heating, and power costs increase constantly, tarrifs and regulations make shipping more complicated, moulds wear out, and there are so many more options for gamers now in 3D printing or from all plastic outfits like Victrix.   God bless Foundry and the Perry Brothers, among those still committed to making metal figures, but I do wonder how long they'll be around.

I'm enough of a curmudgeon that I still have a soft spot for metal.  The very first Napoleonic figures I painted (badly) were old metal Minifigs from the mid 1970s.  I love the feel of them.  My collections include metal and plastic units (which would drive some folks nuts) but I always prefer the metal guys.   One of the reasons why the GP annoucement saddened me was that I'm especially fond of Front Rank, and wanted to ad some of their 28mm Napoleonic range to my collection while it's still available, so a purchase has been made.

Here are two figures from the FR Naps line.   They have a pleasing amount of detail, but are on the small side for 28s and perhaps they show their age a bit.

And here is a 28mm figure from MC Miniatures that I recently printed on a filament printer.   The detail isn't terrific (the white filament tends to hide the detail) but I think it will be okayish once painted.  Took about thirty minutes to print, the file cost about $4 US and I can print as many as I want.  One can see why the economics are stacked against anyone wanting to revisit the Front Rank Naps line.

And then there is the attractiveness of 6mm for mass gaming.  I know Baccus is still going strong and I have a pile of their metal figures, but I'm just finishing the basing on these 3D print figures and it didn't take me long to get a brigade (or division depending on the scale of the game on the table.  

These are strips from MC Miniatures done on my old and not missed resin printer, again about $4US for the file and you can print as many as you want.

Finally, next to the big lad are these wee voltiguers, also 6mm MC Miniatures, done on my Bambu filament printer, and surprisingly detailed.

So what do you think?  Are metal figures an endangered species?  Are they a relic of a bygone time, like rotary phones?  Would you miss them?  What do you see happening in the hobby?

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

I 

Wednesday Workbench: Generals and Cossacks

 

Currently on the messy workbench:  three Foundry 18th century cossacks and two Napoleonic generals, French and Austrian, both Front Rank figures, and their respective horsies.

There are some 6mm 3D prints fresh off the machine that just snuck into the shot, but I'll save them for another day.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+