Assault Group Appreciation

I mentioned the shirt in my last post as a good thing that happened in June. Something else that I really appreciated, beside Fran's awesome shirt, was this magnificent little 28mm pasha/sultan guy that came in the post from The Assault Group.

I can't recall how I learned about it, but I participated in The Assault Group's recent promotion (still running, as far as I can see from their website), to like them on Facebook and receive a free mini of one's choice in return. This sort of marketing is done all the time by big corporations, but for a small miniature manufacturer, it struck me as both creative, generous, and risky.

I wasn't familiar with TAG but, like everyone else, I can't resist a freebie and took part in their promotion. I had requested a German WW2 figure for my Weird War project, but I was delighted to get this fellow from their Renaissance range, as he will go well with an Ottoman army I started collecting some years back as an adversary for my SYW Russians. Besides, it seemed churlish to go back to TAG and say you sent me the wrong free figure. He'll do just fine.

Accompanying the figure was a letter from Pete at TAG, thanking me for my interest, and giving me a 10% discount good for one year at their webstore, or "indefinably" (I think Pete meant indefinitely) if I wished to contact him directly.

So thanks, Pete. I really admire what TAG has done with this promotion, I like what you've shown me of your products, and I will definitely buy some figures off you using your kind discount. I recommend TAG to the good readers of this blog.

Cheers, Mike

Not A Sausage In June, But A Nice Shirt

It's been bloody forever since I touched a paint brush, except for yesterday, during my lunch hour at work, so maybe that, and today's post, counts as breaking my slump. Travel, work, and a touch of what the medievals called accidia, or in good old fashioned English - sloth, have kept me much from the hobby. My painting project in June was to paint the fence around my backyard, which was in an appalling state, and all had to be scraped first. Well, still has to be scraped, really, since I've only managed to do one side, working the odd hour in the evening or all of the Monday of the Canada Day weekend. It's not great fun, and I'd rather be prepping little men, but when it's done at night, a beer and a half hour playing baseball on the PS3 is all I'm good for.

The scraped fence thus far. Anyone want to come help? There's a beer in it for you!

One good thing that happened in June was a shirt exchange with Fran, The Angry Lurker, who had designed some smashing shirts for his group of UK gamers, Posties' Rejects. There is a bit of a Canadian connection with the Posties, because my fellow Canuck blogger, Curt, of Analogue Hobbies fame actually made it over to the UK and played in a game with the Posties this spring. So when I proposed to Fran that I swap him a quality Canadian Forces shirt for a Posties shirt, I felt it was appropriate to have Canadian Chapter put on the back of mine.

Me with the shirt. Definitely the handsomest of the Rejects. Again with the fence!

Such a lot of silver hair. I didn't think I was that old.

Old, and mad.

This shirt goes into a special part of my wardrobe, beside Hot Lead red staff shirt and a rare Too Fat Lardies golf shirt. My son tells me that only an enormous geek would collect wargaming shirts. I tell him I'm not that enormous. So hopefully I'll get the chance to wear this shirt at a game or two soon, and that getting this post up will break the chains of lethargy and get me back to my paint bench ... in an old shirt, because I'm sloppy with paint.

TQD Castings British Infantry Part Two

Here's the second part of this post, the fellows from the TQD pack Brit/Commonwealth infantry carrying supplies. Several of these poses will be useful for troops advancing and patrolling.

Chap with Sten gun carrying a large satchel. Looks like an NCO type.

My favourite figure, and in my opinion, the best paint job of the lot. I think he shows the high end of this range, which at its best rivals anything from AB Miniatures, which to me is the gold standard for 20mm WW2 figures.

Anyone who has carried a full army jerry can, fetching fuel or water, over any significant distance, can empathize with this guy.

More dill weed as helmet camo.

The group moving up to the front.

And of course an officer comes along and gives them a change in orders.

So that's the lot. As you may have guessed, I am a fan of TQD stuff. They are small compared to some figures in the 20mm range, especially Raventhorpe and Valiant, but they are very nice minis. I also bought a section of late war Germans and hope to paint them soon. Those who dislike slotta type bases may want to stay away. I often base figures in groups at this scale, but it's useful to have some individial figures for skirmish gaming, and special roles (messengers, leaders, etc). The fellow with the jerry can raises some interesting possibilities for a resupply mission. I am considering glueing washers to the bottom of the bases to give them some weight on the table and allow them to stick to magnetic sheets in storage.

TQD Castings British Infantry Part One

Recently (well, February), I mentioned that I was going to take a chance buying some figures from TQD Castings, a line of figures made under the UK's CP Models banner, because they make a 20mm padre figure, which happens to be the scale I do WW2 skirmish gaming in.

The pack (TQD-BR3) I wanted includes an officer in shirtsleeves, a dispatch rider, and a padre. Done and dusted, I said, and ordered them. At the same time I ordered a five figure pack (TQD-BR3), a useful looking set of British infantry, none of them looking especially in a hurry, that could be useful to flesh out scenes or show infantry moving up to the front.

So here's the lot, set up besides some vehicles from my collection:

The officer figure. He's cast with his sleeves rolled up, and since I've worn a battledess tunic and don't see how you could ever roll up the sleeves on that garment, I decided to give him a cream coloured shirt rather than a standard issue khaki one - maybe his wife sent it to him. I'm planning to use him as Lt. Denis Audet in my Platoon Forward games, which are chronicled on this blog. If you're wondering about the vegetation on his helmet, it's bits of dill weed from the herb cupboard. I dried crushed basil flakes, didn't work.

The dispatch rider, who to my mind looks like he's directing traffic. I'm not too happy with his lips, he looks like he's blowing someone a kiss. Perhaps I should fix it, or find a pretty 20mm French young woman figure for him to be looking at!

And the padre figure. If it seems that the finish on this figure looks a little, well, bumpy, you're right. Once the black spray paint I was using as a primer had dried, I was horrified to notice that it had dried in a somewhat granular form. I scraped as much of it off as I could, but I was quite upset because he was the reason I bought this pack. However, from a distance, he doesn't look too bad.

So what to do with a padre figure on the tabletop? Still scratching my head on that one. Thanks to one of Sidney Roundwood's posts, I am thinking that I could use him as a first aid man for skirmish gaming where first aid rules are allowed. To that end I thought about painting a red cross on the satchel, but too much of it is covered by his arm. Perhaps I should go back and give him a Red Cross armband. There's a thought. Here's the good padre with some AB Miniatures casualty figures from my collection.

Ill put up the other figures tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for looking, it means a lot to me. Cheers, Mike

The American Civil War Day By Day

There are a number of sesquicentenial (175 years if you're wondering) anniversary blogs tracking the American Civil War, but one I discovered today and wanted to flag is this labour of love by a talented amateur historian, Allen Gathman, Seven Score and Ten: The Civil War Sesquicential Day By Day. A quick glance of some recent posts shows that it covers an interesting gamut, from military to social and racial history. Fans of the Civil War should bookmark this blog.

Renegade Miniatures Confederate Infantry Officer

Two posts in one day is unheard of for me here, but as I was using a rebel colour palette to do the dismounts in the previous post, I opened up a package of Renegade Miniatures Rebels (Skirmish 01) and dug out this officer to give him a test paint. I also sorely more single based Rebel officers for Terrible Sharpe Sword skirmish gaming.

At first, because his hat is so big and so low over his face, I wasn't going to give him eyes, but I relented at the last minute and I think it was the right decision. I like the somewhat staring look, it goes with the set of his mouth (yelling a battle cry? screaming orders to keep the line straight as the shells come in?) and it reminds me of one of Secundus' excellent caricatures at Iron Mitten.

The tunic is medium gray with a black wash and then drybrushed in two lighter shades of gray. I find I am moving away from drybrushing and using a layered effect more and more frequently, as I like the precision it allows, but here I think the drybrush is ok.

I quite enjoyed painting this fellow, and I'm looking forward to getting the rest of that box onto the painting table. However, some unruly Irish chaps, shouting Erin Go Bragh or something like it, pushed their way on first, claiming seniority in the lead mountain, and they are destined to be the second regiment in my Irish Brigade project.

A rare view of a Confederate back.

Sash and Sabre Confederate Cavalry Dismounted Command

At the start of the year I committed to the Guild Wargamers year long build project to doing several batches of 28mm ACW figures, including a regiment of Confederate cavalry, including both mounts and dismounts. The mounted chaps have been done and posted here for a while now, as were some of the dismounts, but I had delayed finishing the dismounted command. That project is now complete. Here's the complete dismounted unit.

The dismounted unit is a bit of a dog's breakfast. The sturdy looking chaps holding rifles and carbines are mostly Redoubt, but the smaller fellows are from the ancient RAFM Missouri guerrillas blister, which I bought, well, a long time ago. The four figures in the command group are Sash and Sabre's CS8 four figure Reb Cav Command pack. Sash and Sabre makes true 25mm figures and advertise them as such. In an age of scale creep, their figures compare well to Foundry's line, but are noticeably smaller than Redoubt or Renegade, but they have their charm.

Sash and Sabre commander, a modern D'Artagnan wannabe, leans into the camera, exuding charm. This same pose has devastated the belles of Charleston on many occasions. Followers of my Bluffsburg play by email campaign, meet Col. Romney Wagner.

There's an interesting story behind these figures, which reflects well on S&S and so I want to tell as a thank you to them. I had ordered S&S' reb artillery crew pack and received C9, the cav figures, in error. Christopher at S&S was very kind about allowing me to keep these figures as a freebie, and shipped me the right figures. It was more than a few emails between the two of us, and it probably cost him more time than the order was worth, but he made it right and I am grateful to him.

S&S standard bearer, obviously a fan of General Burnside's whiskers, holding a GMB banner, protected by one of those Missouri Guerilla figures I mentioned. On the left is another S&S figure, a sergeant, based individually. He will be a useful fellow in Sharpe Practise / Terrible Swift Sword games, I think.

Commander with his S&S bugler. I tried for a very motley quality to the uniforms of these fellows, to suggest a mid or later war ad hoc medley of uniforms, but I wanted the bugler to have a proper cavalry jacket with yellow piping.

Another view of the S&S sergeant. Of the four figures in the pack, I think he's the best. I find S&S figures are a little hit and miss in the crispness of their detail, but this fellow really stands out. The pose is very dynamic, he looks like he is shouting crders in the heat of battle, and has a tough veteran's aura about him. My photography isn't kind to him, but I even managed to get something of a wood grain on the furniture of his carbine, something I'm just starting to figure out. My favourite figure of this batch.

And another view, just because.

I will note as I close that Mad Padre Wargames ticked over 30,000 page views this weekend. Yes, most of those were mine, but I am very grateful to those of you who follow this blog, I enjoy your company and encouragement, and I know that putting my work up here makes me a better painter, so thank you for that. Blessings, Mike

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