My Wargaming Week 10

For the second week in a row I've ended up having to have time off work, and off painting! The gastro bug had no sooner passed than I got a cold that managed to remove my voice. It is really hard to teach when you can't talk, although I did try!
Anyway, I did manage to get some stuff finished. First up:

A dozen German dragoons for John's WWI armies.

A bit of a close up with the officers

And the troopers. All of these guys were painted to 'high wargaming' standard to fit with the existing collection - that is with 2 tones of paint and some ink washes.

I did some painting for myself as well. This is The King, or as I like to call him, Evil Elvis - he's a gang leader and one of Captain Kiwi's bad guys.

Speaking of the Captain - he had a make-over. He is no longer looking at the sky and he now has some clubs to beat people around with. Just like Daredevil, except he has a utility belt like Batman. He could be called Bat-Devil. Except he has a Kiwi  emblem on his chest. Whatever - he's kick-ass! Watch out Evil Elvis.

 In other news, My collection of Practical Wargamer magazines nears completion with the arrival of these five from Caliver Books. I only need a few more issues and I'll have the whole set, but if Caliver doesn't have them in stock, who would?

1993 is completed!

In the same parcel, a Zvezda Lee for my 1944 14th Army turned up. I only ordered one to see what it would be like. It is simply the best Zvezda tank I've ever put together. Recommended!

And 3 Battlefront Honey Stuarts for the Japanese. I had to order a whole box of five, but I only need 3. The Japanese tank commander was kindly donated by Craig.

 I also lost a machine gun from my Japanese MG platoon. I picked up the element and forgot that it wasn't glued down. The Machine Gun fell off and after pulling out the stuff in the cupboards and searching all around, I think it went down the inside of a metal pipe which is bolted to the floor. I emailed Battlefront about a replacement, but they don't have any in stock, so if anyone out there has a spare 15mm Japanese MG, or knows a good place to buy one, please let me know.

The Punic Wars DBA armies arrived back, in exchange for painting John's cavalry.

Also showing up today, an order of random Heroclix figures from Troll and Toad. The figures on the bottom right will join the Marvel/DC collections; the figures at back right will join the random civilians that are kidnapped/rescued/endangered in scenarios; and the figures on the left are for conversions into NDC characters (that stands for Nate Dan Comics).

My time off has given me plenty of time for reflection, and I've come to the conclusion that less is certainly more. As a bit of a Wargames Butterfly I've looked at dabbling here and there, and rules like DBA and One Hour Wargames only encourage this. But I've been reading through the old Practical Wargamer Magazines and decided that maybe what I really want is to do a few periods and do them well. To that end, I've narrowed down my wargaming focus to the following periods/games:

1. Punic Wars, using Big Battle DBA.
2. The Great Northern War using an adaptation of Neil Thomas' Introduction to Wargaming rules for Pike and Shot. (I can still pull out a few units for OHW games as well). It will have about 15 - 20 units a side.
3. The French and Indian War using Muskets and Tomahawks. The only historical period in 28mm. This is the project where I want to spend lots of time on making the figures and terrain pretty.
4. World War I using the rules featured here for 1914, and Flames of War for 1918.
5. World War II using Flames of War - both the Eastern Front mid war and Pacific.
6. Superheroes using Clobberin' Time.

For most of these periods, I actually need to buy more figures, but not a huge deal more. If I can focus, the goal is to have them all painted and ready for the end of next year.

Nate