Battle of Malakoff

I have posted a bunch of photos over on our group blog of the Battle of Malakoff that we fought on Wednesday night.

15mm using Volley and Bayonet rules.

Go and take a look!

Valiant British Infantry

Painted up some of the Valiant British Infantry to kick off 2014.
 These guys came to me via a trip over the Alps and across the plains of Canterbury from Paul the Plastic Warrior  (Thanks again mate).
Due to Paul's kindness these guys brings my British force up to a total of 52 fig's. Add these to what Gav has painted and we have enough to play some Bolt Action games!

A few Brit's to add to the force.

Mortars should be handy.

Some of the commanders.

I have never been that keen on covering my freshly painted figures with an ink wash of some sort. I have been using a flesh wash on flesh and washes on armour etc for some time now but not over the whole fig. Somehow the first lot of these guys needed something so I decided to try the GW dark brown ink " Devlan mud". I am happy with the result, it seem to work well on these guys. However I am now due for another bottle and at the price for this stuff I decided to have a go at making my own. I followed Pat Smith's recipe, he of Wargaming with Silver Whistle fame.
What do you think.

Left hand fig is done with GW wash and the right hand one with mine.

Left hand one here is mine. My wash is a bit lighter than the GW wash but I think this gives me more control as I can always give them another coat.

Here the two left hand figs have my wash on them and the right hand dude has the GW wash.

Thought it was about time I pimped our groups blog.Southern Strategists If you haven't taken a look please pop over and have a quick look about. Not too much to read(most of the posts are from me) but a few photos from our games.

Black Powder A.C.W.

Another game with some of the lads.

This time it was an American Civil War game. More or less equal sides with each player commanding a Brigade of infantry and a couple of guns.

Rules were Black Powder.

This was an opportunity for Brad and Clinton to try out the rules with their freshly painted ACW troops.

 Martin's Union boys awaiting orders to advance.

 Both sides were looking to capture both the hill and the farmstead.

This was the position at the kick off!

 Both sides ready to move off. Confederate above, Union below.

Rebels crossing the river on their way to taking the hill.

General Brad's Texans! With no flag to encourage them forward they refused to advance any further.

General Clinton's boys lining the fence.

The Union won the race to the farm and soon occupied the area.

The hill remained in question as both sides chose to stand back and try and weaken the other with mostly small arms fire before charging over the top.

Another look at Brad's Texans. (They did look very nice)

From the Union side.

Bringing up the big fellas behind the hill.

Mr Lee directing things from the middle of a ford!

The Rebel centre.

The Rebel yell went up as the Confederates surged forward to attack the farm.

Shortly afterwards they surged straight back and right off the table! Leaving a great big hole in the Rebel lines. This was to leave the Reb's having to withdraw to fight another day.

Union troops celebrating their win over the Confederates.

 Big thanks to Martin for acting as umpire for the game.

Jungle buildings (part 2)

I wasn't completely satisfied with my first attempts at making some jungle buildings for a fellow gamer.

  A month or so ago I happened to come across some plastic matting stuff in a 1,2,3 Dollar shop. After painting it I then glued it to a frame made from bamboo skewers. I cut around the windows and doors, joined the wall sections together and made a roof from a piece of card. The roof was then covered in plumbers lagging material. Once this was dry I washed the lagging with watered down PVA and brushed the stuff  to get it into line. For the platform I used some small dowel and more skewers.

As with the others, the roof comes off and the raised platform is separate.

I borrowed some of my mate Gav's Japanese troops for the photo shoot. You can check out his other stuff at Ogilvie VC. Tell him that it is about time he posted some more stuff.

On the ground.

Inside view.

The lot so far.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

A Vikings Raid!

Got together the other day with a couple of others for a bit of a Dark Age bash. A Viking raid on a Saxon village was the name of the game. With the Vikings rushing ashore trying to capture the civilians and livestock before they can get to the safety of the fort with all their worldly goods.

 The Vikings have hit the beach and in the foreground the locals are busily trying to get their livestock moving in the direction of the fort!

 The fort end of the table. This is where all the Saxons want to be, with enough troops to man the walls.

 The village end of the table. The Vikings have come to gather up some sheep, chickens, geese  and cattle as well as a few potential slaves.

 The ship's crew await the return of the raiding parties.

 The local lads looking defiant!

 The Vikings catch up with the Saxons on the road between the fort and the village.

 Some of the locals arriving at the fort along with some of the livestock.

 The Vikings now outnumber the last of the Saxons that have not yet made it back to the fort.

A fair number made it to the fort but most of the livestock had to abandoned to the Vikings. The casualties were about the same for both sides but this left the Vikings in command of the area and able to round up the stray animals and a couple of civilians in their own time. Once these were safely on the ship the Vikings were then free to ransack the village for anything worth taking before setting the place on fire.

All in all it was a very pleasant afternoons gaming . Thanks boys.