KGL for SDS!

Recently I finished 11 x 28mm King’s German Legion infantry from the Napoleonic Wars. These are Brigade Games miniatures and will be used for skirmish games. Once again these are a commission for Cory and finishes off my efforts in 28mm Napoleonics for now. I’ve never much liked the stovepipe shako, preferring the Belgic style but these have come out well enough.

The background is the painted scene given to me by my mother-in-law as a birthday gift. Its designed specifically for use as a background when taking photos of miniatures. I’m still getting the hang of the lighting with my new setup so to my mind these are not the best pics but they’ll have to do for now at least.

Cheers,
Millsy

Spanish Napoleonic Skirmishers

I've been busy of late knocking off some commission work for a mate as part of my submissions for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I've got some KGL infantry I've 99% finished to show but they will have to wait until they've appeared on Curt's blog. In the meantime here are some Spanish I finished a little while ago but forgot to post...

The first batch are some guerrilla characters on foot. These sculpts (and my painting) are based on the illustrations from Osprey’s Elite 108 - Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War 1808-14.

The second batch are Don Julian Sanchez lancers 1810-12 from the same book. We had to go with whatever we could find regards the sculpts but have matched the uniform as close as possible. Lovely sculpts but some of the most fiddly mounted 28s I've ever painted. I do love their horses though. Certainly amongst the best going around IMHO.

Something interesting to note regards the photos – the mate who commissioned the work bought me a pair of rechargeable folding LED lights for my birthday, specifically so I can take photos of minis indoors regardless of time of day or weather. It’s quite late in the arvo here and pouring with rain so pretty drab and dark for daytime, yet these photos have come out jolly well for a first go. Hardly any Photoshop retouching needed at all. I think once I get the camera settings worked out they will be a great tool and I thoroughly recommend them. I imagine similar lights are available in most countries.
Cheers,
Millsy

Song of Drums & Shakos AAR Four

Last one for a while we promise! [Ed]

Having plenty of time Matt and I reversed the mission and I took the French with the deployments very similar.

However the French activation rolls worked beautifully with a very good group move enabling the group to move twice.

Matts activations were slender and he did nothing to support the two soldiers on the bridge and the subsequent French moves enabled them to shoot and wound one guard, storm the bridge and then assault the British Sergeant.  This was the first time we had made a close combat assault and it was quite deadly with the Sergeant killing the one attacker.

Follow up turns though had him knocked to the ground and he then received the bayonet for his troubles.  The remainder of the British were consolidating at the wall.

With no guards left the French stormed the bridge but became piecemeal in the rush but fortunately despite some fire survived relatively unscathed.

The two forces continued to exchange fire and despite losing three troops along the way the French managed to consolidate close to the British.

Again the French survived some close shooting and poor British activations and then primed for an assault with the French officer failing to kill the knocked down British bugler.  A subsequent activation though had a French musket shoot and wound the British Officer at close range which meant the British fled off the board and relinquishing the large stocks of wine and ale to the victorious French forces. 

I tried a couple of triple roll activations in this game and they came off very well and Matt was unlucky with his double rolls.  It was great to play one of the scenarios and also to get some troops into hand to hand combat for the first time.

I had recently bought some Conflix buildings and had only just completed my Hovels bridge so was very pleased with the table top.  Another couple of great fun games and I look forward to many more.

Cheers,
Adam

Song of Drums & Shakos AAR Three

For this game I used Assault on the Farm scenario as the basis and dropped the defenders from 10 figures down to 10.  This was another game with Matt, the wargaming novice, and for this I started with the British defending the bridge and Matt attacking with Matt winning the initiative.

French deployment was as below.

And the British.

As Mat had the initiative he went but had problems activating his troops and so can on piecemeal while I started well and formed a nice three layered defensive position.  The Brits had obviously only just arrived at the bridge as they had not yet had time to plunder the Tavern!

Matt came on and I started some desultory fire.

Eventually Matt got his troops lined up properly and things were starting to fall into place when Private Tomkins in the corner of the wall fired a deadly shot and wounded the exposed French Officer

With the loss of the Leader the French went to pieces and in the subsequent fleeing move lost another three troops and the remainder were scattered.  The French Sergeant was able to rally the troops sufficiently to try and come on again but with only just 75% of the starting force.

Being outnumbered the French suffered at the weight of British shot and were soon down to 50% casualties ending the game.  The British officer did very little this game with at least the last 5 activation rolls failing but lead by the Sergeant at the bridge he was not needed.  Obviously he was casting a wanton eye over the large amount of liquid stock and working out how much he could sell it to the rest of the Battalion for!

A very enjoyable game and Matt really must learn to not put his officer out in the open!

Cheer

Song of Drums & Shakos AAR Two

I was lucky enough to have a second game with Matt less than 24 hours later.

The French started very well with some good activations to move forward and set up a nice deployment.

This game soon developed into a stand up and shoot it out brawl as you can see above and it was very much the turn of the British to win as they outshot the French who lost the 6 soldats to 1 private.  Matt employed a different strategy with his dice and predominantly went for single die rolls to ensure he could activate as many troops as possible while I was a lot bolder and generally went for 2 die.  Unfortunately for me I rolled many double fails on the first one or two activations so passed the play to Matt frequently.

Unlike Eric who is a wargamer, Matt is not at all but is happy to play for some light entertainment.  I am happy to say that Matt, Eric and I all very much enjoyed playing the game and picked it up very easily.  All of us are very happy to play some more and it will be fun to get some Riflemen and other types of troops painted.

Now that I have played a couple of games I have been looking at how powerful troops with Quality 3 and Combat 3 & 4 are.  I have had my Perry Riflemen figures arrive recently and I am very keen on getting them painted and giving them a try but I must question the Q4 and C2 for them.  I also think that the author of the rules must really like the Scottish troops because they are Q3 and C3 which I think is more appropriate to the Rifles.  But Eric is keen on the Highlanders and I have my Rifles so we will hopefully be able to give them a go on the table and be able to make an informed opinion later.

French Old Guard being Q2 and C4 will be really nasty so it is fortunate they are so expensive and you can get almost 4 British Line Infantry (104 points total) for the one Old Guard Grenadier (93 points).

I also have put together my essential gaming equipment now too with my cotton pom poms for shooting markers, appropriate dice and measure sticks made out of bamboo kitchen skewers.  Gaming on the 4’ x 4’ tables with my 25mm I am happy to use the larger ranges and the Short Medium and Long are simply the Red White and Blue.  Nice and tiddly albeit somewhat of a cliché! 

Cheers,
Adam

Song of Druns & Shakos AAR

Well Eric and I managed to get the first game of SDS in last night using all of the figures previously painted.  The mission was just a basic set up each side and have at them so we could get our heads around the rules.  Both sides played with the same stats and I set the table up in no particular design.  Eric won the toss for who would get the initiative and we decided French or British and table edges by the simple measure of which was closest to you when you sat down.  No over thinking here!

You can see the set up of the table and both forces here

I should point out early that we started at around 4.30pm and finished around 6pm so you will see the battleground getting progressively darker.  You will also see a dark omen on the table with my dice showing two ones!

Fortified by a good coffee each we started with Eric having the initiative and rolling quite well to activate his troops.  Handed over to me it started very well with my officer taking the lead and giving a bold En Avant to his trusty band grouped together.

And that is all that happened.  Poor Etienne was left for several turns standed by the barrels with his troops obviously not hearing him for about three activations as I continued to get 2 failures.  I think after the event reading the rules more closely I could have had one move but I didn’t pick that up.  Meanwhile half the British force was marching nicely forwards and taking ground.

Finally I had some success and was able to move forward my left flanks but as you can see the British were coming up in force and the French right flanks were stuck in their starting positions

It was all going swimmingly well until the French opened fire and wreaked havoc.  The British Officer was struck down wounded with a private and another private was knocked down.  The British right flank was in disarray!  You will note the white pom poms used to indicate who had fired.
With the British losing their Officer an immediate morale test was taken and they fled.  One bolted completely and the rest were scattered badly. 

The French were feeling very pleased with themselves and even their right flank started moving up.  The British were able to rally but the French firing line soon took their toll and the British were down 4 men with no loss to the French.

But steely in resolve the British Sergeant soon rallied his men and sent them forward to seek some revenge on the French.

Both sides moved forward and then started to exchange fire and the superior weapons skills of the British began to take its toll and soon the French had lost 3 Voltiguers themselves for the loss of another Light Co private!  After some knock downs and recoiling the French weight of numbers began to tell and the British lost another soldier bringing the game to an end with a French victory.

Both Eric and I really enjoyed ourselves and even though we just played a very basic move and fire we were able to pick up the rules very quickly and with only one rule book.  I really liked the activation method and the game can twist and turn quite viciously at the wrong moments.  The British had generally really good activations to get the troops moving while the French were just plain diabolical!  But then once in musket range the French found their mojo and were quite deadly although no triples were rolled.  We both played reasonably conservatively and generally went with 1 or 2 die rolls although the odd three was rolled generally to no great success!  But we both had fun and are keen to play again no doubt getting much better with the rules as we go.  Thumbs up for SDS from us.   One thing that we did was use the 40mm ranges so 100mm, 160mm and 240mm for S,M & L which worked well on the 4’ x 4’ table.  Using a single tape measure was a bit irritating though and I have since got some bamboo skewers which I have painted suitably.

Cheers,
Adam

Song of Drums & Shakos French and British Project Part III

All done now and I think they look better for the dip and the basing. Sure they are not great works of art but are solid and more than enough to have some fun games with. You can see the effect that the dip has made the white and obviously it works better on colour. But for these Peninsular veterans they now have their 'knees brown' or more specifically their trousers dirty!

Going British and French may be a bit clichéd but I have traditionally steered toward the 1809 and 1812 campaigns with Confederation troops to back up my French so the Brits are a new direction. Besides a redcoat is always good to try and recruit players who are only really familiar with Waterloo.

Just a broader comment on gaming supplies I have to say that my mind is most boggled with the variety of gaming supplies available these days. Again perusing a WSS I saw some decals coming out for Highland kilts, sock tops and dicing for the bonnet! Amazing what you can get these days and that is before we even consider the range of figures for even some of the more eclectic periods. All great stuff.

The next big step is the game of course and I will have to organise one of those soon.

Cheers,
Adam

Song of Drums & Shakos French and British Project Part II

So after my model building session I have completed the painting step. I used Vallejo and Games Workshop paints and did just basic block colours - no highlighting and no shading. The figures painted very well and it helped that they were mounted on individual bases. Not having really painted British before I didn't realise how much easier they are to paint than the French. The French always look great with the colour, plumes red piping but I seem to have a love hate relationship painting them. I love the finished look but struggle with all the details sometimes getting bored quickly. Worth it in the end though as a unit of French infantry always looks good to my mind.

I have become a convert to the Army Dipper method of painting and have been very satisified with the results so far. I did around 150 War of the Roses figures (Perry) with this method and was very happy and have also used it extensively on my 15mm Flames of War armies. This will be the first time I have used it for Napoleonics though and this will be interesting as there is a predominance of white which of course my other figures did not have.

I have only read recently in WSS 59 I think that there is some sort of debate whether the 'dip' method is sort of cheating and a easy way out. Having painted eyes in my youth, done the three layer method and spent eons lavishing effort on figures I have come to the conclusion that I can't be that bothered anymore! That and my eyes are not as good as they used to be. If I have a philosophy on painting these days it is very simple. I like bold colour, I try to paint as neatly as possible and I standardise the basing of my figures.
Being a gamer with vast hordes of figures I also want to get my armies on the table to use so the dip seemed a good option to me. Having used it now for at least 3-4 armies I am a strict convert.

Some things to remember though. Even with a new tin, I use the middle tone, make sure you give it a good stir to get the pigment well mixed it. Don't just shake the tin but give it a good stir. I had an experience with an Orc that I dropped into the tin, I have have done that 3 times now!, and even though I gave the tin a really good shake the figure was caked in brown mud.

Secondly I now paint on the dip with a old brush and before I do that I use turpentine to thin the mixture a little. The give the figures 24 hours to dry before hitting them with Dull Cote or other matt to suck the gloss out. I am not a fan of shiny figures.

As you will see from the pictures the painting is very basic and I have shown the flat faced British as well as a comparison to a Frenchmen for head size.

So the figures are quite dull and not that great so we will see next what the dip and some attention to the bases will reveal.

Cheers,
Adam

Song of Drums & Shakos French and British Project

One of our allies in the West is getting into Song of Drums and Shakos which the same system we use for Napoleonic skirmish games. Adam is going to do an ongoing review of his forces as he builds them up. Here's the first instalment...

I have received my copy of the Ganesha Games 'Songs of Drums and Shakos' and decided I would finally crack on with a couple of small forces to play with as it looks like a fun system.

For those of you who are not familiar they are a skirmish set of rules which are about 400 points a side which translates into roughly 8-12 figures per side obviously depending on the quality. Eg a basic French and British Line infantryman are worth 33 points each. There is the rules set called Songs of Drums and Shakos (which has the rules a couple of scenarios and lists for the big nations of France, Austria, Britain, Russia and Prussia) and a supplement called More Songs of Drums and Shakos which add lists for the rest of the nations and a few more scenarios and rules.

I bought the rules from Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?type=&keyWords=Songs+of+Drums+and+Shakos&x=8&y=4&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=) which was the first time I had ordered from this mob and altogether the rules cost me a total of $35 for the both of them. I ordered them while in Melbourne and was very pleasantly surprised to have them arrive quite quickly. I also really like the look of them and have pored over them since getting them.

So I had the rules and I know from Mike and from Mark, my other mate, that there were a pretty good set of rules and of course they won an award at Origins so they are highly regarded.

I had of course a substantial collection of figures already painted and would just need re-basing but I decided that I would start from scratch as I not only want some French and British but I had some of the relatively new Victrix figures which I had bought some time ago.

I decided that I wanted to light infantry forces for both sides and I had also purchased the Light Infantry heads blister from Victrix. I have seen the pictures of the painted Victrix stuff and they look really good and of course they are very good value for money compared to the metal ones.

After a basic white undercoat I will do the basic colours and then intend to use the army painter dipper which I have become a big fan of. I can still do highlighting and shading but these days I am far more inclined to use the army painter dip which I have been more than happy with. I used the Army Dipper white primer and I am not happy with it. I found that it sprays a bit spotty even after a good shake and is a bit gritty in application - you can see the spots in the image. Love them or loathe them I find the Games Workshop white primer the best and would not buy the Army Painter primers again. I have the black as well and that is slightly better but will change back to GW. No saving in price these days anyway.

I built the British first and used the Peninsular War Flank Company box to get the right shoulder decorations. The various bits came off the sprue easily enough with a set of clippers and not too much in the way of tags to trim. Flashing was very minimal being just a touch on the backpacks and water bottle strap. In terms of the arm placement on the sprue the matching left and right weren't too bad but think they could be better placed as the pairings are not that obvious - to me anyway. The left and right are separate and I must admit to a bit of fiddling get them to sit right which was irritating. I much prefer the Perry Brothers style with both arms and weapon all attached together. Less variation but not as frustrating glueing together.

The metal heads were cut of the sprue and with just a little flash they were ready. I tended to glue all the plastic together and then put on the heads. I used Liquid Nails but you can use superglue. One thing I noticed with the metal heads is that they seem to be small compared to the figure and this seemed to stand out particularly before they were undercoated. They don't seem as bad undercoated but they still small. This was particularly noticeable when compared to the French figures which seem big headed in comparison. The British heads also seem to make the figures chinless which again makes them stand out from the French. Perhaps the normal line plastic heads will look better.

One thing in the rules that you need is a Sergeant and Victrix does have two figures which can be used for the command. In the British box one is obviously the officer in hessian boots and the other in trousers which is the one I used for the Sergeant. The only problem I see with this figure though is that they have a sword moulded onto the left leg which is not appropriate for the NCOs. I should point out that I have the Centre Co box as well and this has a left arm with pike. You could choose a normal figure for the NCO but you would not have the sash on the figure. The Light Infantry Sergeants didn't carry a pike though so I have given mine a musket which you can see second from the left. In the blister for the heads you also get the left and right arms for the Light Co bugler although they only come in one pose.

When doing in the French I found the left and right arms match not very intuitive and had some fiddling around to get them right. It should be pointed out that the French box has 60 figures in it including the Elite Company figures unlike the British range which has separate boxes for the flank and centre. The selection of head is good and you have about a dozen Grenadier bearskins and the same of long plumed shako heads. Being a Voltiguer section I decided to give my boys all tall plumes as they look better than way. Given the body of the figure is more of a campaign figure I should probably have gone with a more basic shako but I like plumes! As I mentioned earlier the French heads are bigger than the British metal ones and are much better proportioned. I could rip off the metal ones and put the plastic ones on but they are the wrong design having a shako plate not the bugle.

Aside from the arms I found the briquet (hanger and bayonet combo) on the sprue frustrating to get off. It is a thin piece of plastic and yet has been attached to the sprue in a tight spot with some 4-5 attachments. I managed to get them off OK but they could have been made easier to do. One thing to note is that with the limited number of figures you will end up using non elite company bodies for them. You can tell this as some have the crossbelt which had the briquet off it and some don't. I didn't do a separate French Sergeant figure as he will be painted differently to make him stand out.

The poses of both sets are OK for the skirmishing poses that I want and I am sure they will be better for the centre company marching pose. But I have 12 figures per side with Officer, hornist and Sergeant and 9 privates/soldats. The few kneeling figures I quite liked though.

Building just 24 figures though was a slow and fiddly business and one that I would lose a bit of patience with if I was doing larger units. On that experience alone I would opt for the metals but I will wait until I have my figures painted before offering a final verdict. Having built a heap of Perry War of the Roses figures (120 or so) I can say that experience was a better one and much prefer 3-4 pieces to glue rather that the 5-6 with Victrix. Yes they are value for money per figure but glueing them together too some 3-4 hours for just 24 figures. Maybe I am just too slow doing it but cutting off fiddly bits of the sprues was not as easy as the Perry or GW stuff I have done. 

So that was my initial impression and the next steps will be painting. As I said I will do basic colours and then brush on the Army Dipper. This worked very well for the Perry War of the Roses stuff so I am happy with the method.

Next instalment will be painted figures and I will measure them up to some of my other ranges for a size comparison.

Cheers
Adam

Spanish Walls and some Vegetation

We're playing our very first game of Song of Drums and Shakos tomorrow. We've got quite a bit of nice 15mm terrain but not so much for 28mm so I have spent some time (quite a lot as it turned out) putting together a set of stucco walls.

They are made from a core of foam board, based on MDF and topped with (appropriately I think) card leftovers from the Carcassonne board game. The pillars are balsa of varying thicknesses and there are a few bits like a plastic door and crest over the gate. The whole lot was coated in a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and Polyfilla, trowelled on with a craft knife. Finally they were given a number of coats of paint and dry brushed, then flocked and "vined" til I got the effect I was looking for.

In total there are 6 long lengths including two gates (one large, one postern), 2 short lengths, 4 corners, a single end piece and 2 ruined end pieces to allow for a broken section. All up there is roughly 3 feet of wall and it can make a number of different sizes enclosures. I can see it being used as a town or villa wall or perhaps protecting an orchard.

Finally, here's a collection of cacti and trees to show what can be done with the cheapest of starting points. These all come from kids Cowboys and Indians sets but with a lick of paint and basing they stand up well I think.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for a battle report and a few pics from the game...

Cheers,
Millsy

The Grand Duchy of Eyesore

These are the last of the figures I've been painting for myself for Song of Drums and Shakos - Napoleonic Polish infantry in 28mm from Old Glory.

I hope I don't offend the sculptor if he ever reads this, but these are amongst the worst figures I've ever painted. They are both proportionally and anatomically out of sorts in so many of ways. They really are an eyesore. The fact that they got painted at all is due largely to the fact I needed them for a game and they were free.

The flag is wrong too - it belongs to a French Line regiment but I've not found a free one anywhere that suits. If you know of somewhere I can get one please let me know.

The list works out as follows (using Vistula Legion stats and costs):

1 x Line Infantry Officer - 54 points
1 x Line Infantry NCO - 51 points
1 x Standard Bearer - 36 points
1 x Drummer - 16 points
4 x Line Infantry Regulars - 168 points
2 x Line Infantry Grenadiers - 84 points
Total - 409 points

Anyway, tell me what you think. Maybe I'm judging them too harshly...

Cheers,
Millsy

French Napoleonic Chasseurs à Cheval

This is a half squad of Chasseurs à Cheval, also for Song of Drums and Shakos, again all Front Rank Miniatures in 28mm. I'll switch them in with other troops for variety and to give myself some scouting and fast troops.

1 x Light Cavalry Officer - 84 points
3 x Chassuers - 117 points
Total - 201 points

Comments welcome as always.

Cheers,
Millsy

French Napoleonic Chassuers à Pied

This is my first squad (French Chassuers à Pied) for Song of Drums and Shakos, a Napoleonic skirmish rule set from Ganesha Games. There are eight figures on the roster totalling 405 points, all Front Rank Miniatures in 28mm. I made up some stats for the hornist based on other troop types. The full list is as follows:

1 x Light Infantry Officer - 82 points
1 x Light Infantry NCO - 66 points
5 x Light Infantry Chasseurs - 210 points
1 x Light Infantry Hornist - 47 points
Total - 405 points

Remember to click for large pictures and don't be afraid to comment!

Cheers,
Millsy