New Follower Friday

It's Friday, and following the tradition I started last Friday, I want to welcome new followers to Mad Padre Wargames, with my thanks for showng an interest in what I do and have to say. We have two new followers this week.

Welcome to a follower with the splendidly business-like name of "The Wargamer", who owns four blogs, including Wargame News And Terrain. I haven't had time to visit this or the other three blogs, but WNT looks mightily interesting and a useful place to glean intelligence about the hobby.

Welcome as well to the crazed genius behind the blog known as Dux Homunculorum. I regret that I've come late to this splendid blog, and that over 240 people beat me to following it, so I don't know as much about Dux as I'd like to. I gather he works at a school, knows who Brian Blessed is (always a good thing in a gentleman), has an intriguing taste in haberdashery, is a dad, a prolific and skilled painter, and is generous. I can vouch for the generous part because I was absurdly pleased to learn today that won a prize in his recent contest to celebrate 200,000 pageviews! It appears I am the proud owner-to-be of a set of rules, "Disposable Heroes" by Iron Ivan Games. Huzzah!

Speaking of contests, there are only days left in my own contest. I misspoke myself in a previous post when I described it as the "100K/100" contest. In fact it is the "50K/100" contest, to celebrate 50,000 pageviews and 100 followers. If you haven't yet entered, you simply leave a poem of any sort in the comments. The poem has t be connected in some way some content on this blog. As an incentive, here's a look at the progress I'm making on the prizes to be offered. Three winners will be chosen at random, and there will be an extra prize for the poem that Mrs. Padre likes the most. And if you are counting and seeing five figures in the photo, one is already spoken for, and I'll say more about that on Sunday.

Work In Progress: More Russkies On Horsies 2

Yikes. Several weeks into this project, with the 20 March deadline of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge almost here, and I'm still struggling with it, even after the end of my self-declared February Is Russian Month project. After a weekend off, during which I searched for inspiration by driving by Hussar, Alberta en route to Edmonton (executive summary, don't make a special trip, there's not much there), I am trying to get these fellows finished. If you missed the previous posts, they are a unit of 12 Front Rank SYW Prussian Hussars which I bought a long time ago for a Russian SYW army I was building. I always intended to paint them as Russians, and Curt's painting challenge was a great incentive to retrieve them from the lead pile.

Here are Privates Yuri Blogginsnik and Oleg Leadovitch, modelling the intended uniform, a sharp combination of yellow, red and black. It's reasonably close to the plate depicting a Hussar of the Serbski Regiment in one of the Osprey books on the Russian army of the 1700s.

Here's the view from behind. I think I will have to drybrush the black fur trim on the pelisse so that the contrast with the yellow isn't so start. The yellow jacket also needs a light ink wash and then highlighting. Thank you James M for the suggestion to use yellow ochre as the base colour, that was helpful.

As you will have noted, progress on the horses has neen slower than on the troopers. I think I made a mistake in undercoating the horses in white, or at least in not darkening the white undercoat with a black wash before the base colours. I think I have several hours to just get the horses into shape, before I even start the tack and harnesses, and at the rate I'm going I'm lucky to get an hoiur a day in. As my friend Howard commented in an email today, 28m figures can be pretty but they can also be a PIAT to paint properly.

Also, you will notice in these pictures that the bottle caps have gone. These figures are heavy, and the white glue I use to keep them on the caps is not up to the strain when I tilt the figures in my hand to paint them. I've had several painful drops, but fortunately these Russian lads are of tough stock.

Work In Progress: More Russkies On Horsies

February is Russian month is winding down, and these chaps are taking up most of my time at present. Front Rank 28mm Prussian Hussars that are being pressed into Russian service. The paint scheme is quite attractive: yellow pelisses with red piing and black fur trim, red and black headgear, red trousers, red and yellow sabretache, powdered whigs. I am still experimenting with yellow. I bought a bottle of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow for the job but the shade seems off to me, not bright enough. I then tried Americana Cadmium Yellow which is alarmingly bright. I may try a blend of the two next.

The goal remains to have them finished and based before the Analogue Painting Challenge ends on 20 March. These aren't the kind of figures I can speed paint. Even though the Front Rank line may be a little dated, they are beautiful sculpts, and deserve some time and attention, though I still question the return on invested time in painting this kind of figure in 28mm. I could likely turn out a division of Napoleonic cavalry in 6mm in the same period of time. But ... they are pretty.

The Mad Padre 100/100K Contest!: There's Still Time To Play!

As valued readers of this blog will know, I announced a contest exactly a month ago when this blog hit two milestones: 100 followers AND 100,000 page views. As I described it, the contest was as follows:

Write a poem (free verse, rhyming couplets, haiku, sonnet, limerick, rap) about something you've seen or read about anywhere in this blog. If you're shy, you can simply email it to me at madpadre atsymbol gmail dot com. If you're bold, you can show your creativity for all to see as a comment to this post. You have until Sunday, 2 March, to come up with something. Since not all poets are created equally, I will choose the three entries at random. In order of their selection, the first, second and third winners will get to choose one of these miniatures.

The miniatures in question. As you can see, I've made a little progress since 25 Jan, and I need to get a shift on and finish them and get credit for them with Curt for the Analogue Painting Challenge. The figures are a WW1 British dispatch rider (Great War Miniatures) and two adventurers from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures.

Prizes will be chosen from submitted entries at random, though Mrs. Padre will cast her discerning eye over them and pick her favourite for a fourth SUPER BONUS PRIZE. Now, a number of you have minged and whined about how your'e not good poets, you're not very clever, blah blah, snivel snivel, etc. Milords and ladies, there are three prizes to be picked at random, so you can write something like "I like Mike's Blog / As much as my dog" and you're in - only you can't use the blog/dog poem, that's just an example. So no excuses. Get on it.

Since Mrs Padre and I will be away this coming weekend, I am pushing the deadline back to SUNDAY, 10 MARCH. So far there are four entries posted. If you want to play, leave a reply here or email them to me. Now, back to the paints. I'm thinking a brunette for the explorer lady and a crisp white shirt for the chap in the pith helmet.

New Follower Friday

It's Friday, and it seems like a good time to say hello and thank you to the nice and interesting folks who have signed on as followers of Mad Padre Wargames.

Michael Awdry, from the UK, is one of my fellow brush ronin in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Michael's entries to the challenge have featured some beautifully painted Colonial figures. I have to say, I've never seen anyone paint a finer camel. His blog, 28mm Victorian Warfare, is fascinating and is kindling my interest in this period.

Danjou's Hand, from Mrs. Padre's birth state of Georgia, USA, runs a fascinating blog, Tabletop Diversions, where he writes good and thoughtful stuff about RPGs. He also has one of the coolest monikers out there.

Monty Luhmann is from St. Paul, Minnesota, and runs the blog Twin Cities Gamer. Monty and I have shared some emails on our mutual interest in the Ottoman army and on the SYW rules Maurice. He's a helpful chap and a talented painter.

Thomas Richardson - sorry, mate, your Google profile doesn't say that you have a blog. If there's anything you'd like folks to know about you, please reply and I'll add it to this post. Glad you're here regardless.

Pete, who also goes by the intriguing handle of Puggle Monster, is a regular on the Guild Wargamers site, and blog at SP's Projects Blog, where he wages "A futile fight against entropy". Pete does interesting things with modern wargare and knows his way around a T34 tank.

Sarge At Arms is a new blogger,and is the son of JackSarge, a follower and friend of this blog. Sarge Secundus shows great promise as a painter, and his first blog post shows some creative uses of old Airfix figures.

Howard Han is a friend of mine and colleague in the Canadian Forces. He's recently started World War Two gaming in 15mm, and has an impressive collection amassed already. I hope he won't mind if I mention this collection of his figures. Howard, you need to start a blog, buddy. If you're in the Ottawa area and looking for opponents, sing out here and we can connect you with Howard.

Finally, a shout out to Krista Johns, a young lady of indomitable spirit, a kickass army wife, and creative spirit. Krista isn't a follower, but she did leave a very clever poem as an entry in this blog's 100 Follower and 50K pageview contest, which is more than most of you sorry mooks have managed to do. There is still time to get your entry in, so whaddya waiting for? Krista's blog, Flat-Out Whimsy, chronicles her gutsy recovery from a pretty horrific accident. Krista could use some followers, fellas. She's good people.

Thanks again, all. I woudn't do this without you.

Die Kosaken Kommen! February Is Russian Month Continues

For my sixth entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I decided to steppe up my game and do a large entry. These seventeen bad lads are 20mm World War Two Soviet Cossacks, in soft plastic from Revell. I am fairly sure they are out of production now, because they don't show up on the Revell website.



I chose to paint these fellows as per Plate E in the Osprey Men-At-Arms 216, The Red Army Of The Great Patriotic War. The red kubanka cap with white cross on red shows that they are Kuban Cossacks. Those splashes of colour, along with the blue trousers with red piping (as per the Revell box art) will give this unit some death or glory swagger amidst my drab Soviet hordes.



Command stand. The CO sweeps the steppe with his binos for unsuspecting fascists while his aide has dismounted to hold the reigns of his boss' horse. I never noticed this, but the review of this set on the Plastic Soldier Review website points out that the standing figure is way out of proportion to the other figures, I'm not going to let that bother me, they make a good command stand all the same. Actually the PSR entry gives this figures good marks for variety and historical accuracy.



The designers of this set cleverly cast the capes separately, so they could be fitted on the figures once removed from the sprues. For the most part they went on without trouble, though for several figures I had to use putty to hide some gaps between the cape sections.



The charging figures are quite inspiring and ferocious. I opted for round bases for all these figures, on the theory that charges would be pretty ad hoc and irregular affairs, and not the boot to boot and knee to knee formation that the traditional square base implies.



The pack includes one figure firing his rifle, so I decided to base him separately. He can be a lone scout for the rest of the unit.



I am curious to see what these fellows will get up to on the tabletop. Last month I was preaching here on my blog about how reconnaissance actions are not well represented in wargaming. I can imagine these Cossacks engaged in scouting, supporting partisans behind the lines, and raiding German rear echelon units, so I have some ideas for games with these mounted Ivans.

Now, speaking of mounted Ivans, back to those SYW czarist hussars. I can hear balalaikas and drunken singing coming from my painting bench!

The Resurrected Armies Project: Coming In April

It's been a quiet weekend at the Mad Padre's painting chapel at the edge of the frozen prairie. Work continued on my 1 to 1 scale terrain painting project. It will be a while yet before I get a posting message from the military, allowing me to put my house on the market, so we are putting the time to good use getting it ready for showing. A colleague who came by this weekend pronounced the house as "cottagey" (not really sure what that means) and liked the original woodwork, so I am hopeful that we will get the right buyer who also likes "cottagey" homes. In other news I completed a unit of 17 Soviet WW2 Cossacks in 20mm on Sunday, continuing the theme of February as Russian Month, and got the pictures off to Curt for the Analogue Painting Challenge. If you're not tracking the Challenge, I'll show them here in a few days. On the painting bench as of last night are a unit of 28mm SYW Prussian hussars, who have already been told that they are being painted as Russians. I've told them they'll get the same schnapps ration, only in vodka, so they're good with that.

Speaking of the SYW leads me to this photo.

These chaps came out of a box a few weeks ago, in which they have languished and been bashed around for over a decade and four moves. They are the command stands from a Russian Seven Years War army that I put together in the 1990s, as I believe I've mentioned here before.

They are all Front Rank figures, with the exception of the stand on the left with the red flag, who I think are Falcon? The flags are all hand painted, but as you can see at the back of the photo there is a set of flags for the fabled Apcheronski Regiment which I ordered from GMB out of curiousity, and which has also languished in a box for some time. The infantry to go with these fine fellows is in a box, I visited them last recently and they are all doing fine, but restive and eager to revisit their faded glory.

Now I am, as those of you who visit my other blog (the God blog)a preacher, and right now, like preachers everywhere at the start of Lent, I am thinking ahead to Easter, and that has lead me to think of what I am going to call The Resurrected Armies Project.

(Icon of Christ raising the dead. Raising the lead rhymes, and is hopefully not too impious.)

So here's the plan. Sunday, March 31 is Easter Sunday. By then the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will be over and my focus ("my focus" is a bit of an oxymoron, but bear with me) will no longer be on cranking out new figures. My main painting focus in April, during the first four weeks of the season of Easter, will be on retrieving my neglected and half forgotten armies, fixing them up as needs be (some major flag work on the guys in this picture, for example), painting whatever new figures for them I have stashed away over the years, showing them to you in their resurrected glory, and finally, and most importantly, getting them on the gaming table.

The armies I am thinking of for this project are:

1) Seven Years War Russian army (28mm) - fix the command stands, paint three mounted Foundry generals for them, as well as a unit of Dixon Tartar light horse

2) Late Renaissance-ish Ottoman army (28mm) - this army was previewed a few posts back when I showed off the mysterious love slaves that folks helped identify as possibly Essex Cossacks. There are a lot of figures here that need remedial painting if not stripping and redoing. Also there are two cannon and crew to paint and finish, as well as a mouth watering unit of The Assault Group Spahis of the Porte to paint. Once done, they'll take on the Russians in a test fight of the Maurice rules

3) Soviet army (20mm) - a lot of this is old old stuff, plastic ESCI infantry and badly painted tanks in the wrong colour, so repainting and rebasing will be required. There are some FAA Black Sea sailors to be found and repainted, and if I can unite these resurrected Ivans with the ones I'm painting for February Is Russian Month, then I can do Battlegroup Kursk in 20mm while I work on building up a 15mm Red Horde

4) Medievals (25mm) - my first love. These figures haven't seen the light of years for 20 years. They need some love, and there are some new unlainted. figures in a box that I need to I visit, a unit of half painted pavisier spearmen, etc. James Manto's Blood and Chivalry rules will be just the thing for these dusty figures.

This may be an overly ambitious project for one month, and if necessary I'll carry it into May, since there are seven weeks of Easter this year. If I can get even two armies back on their feet and in play, I'll call it a victory. So, gentle reader, can I entice you into this project? Do you have a mothballed army that you feel guilty about neglecting, and would like to resurrect to new life, glory, and great battlefield victories? You are welcome to join me in The Resurrected Armies Project.