Mid Year Musings

As June careens to an end, it is once more a good time for a wargames butterfly to take stock, review what has been and announce plans that have very little chance of being fulfilled and every chance of being abandoned by this time next year.

First of all, the projects line-up. In no particular order I have:
15mm Seven Years War - Austrian, Prussian and Russian.
15mm World War I (1914) - German, French, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and British
15mm World War III (Team Yankee) - Soviets and West Germans
28mm Gallic Wars - Romans and Gauls
28mm English Civil War - Royalists and Parliamentarians
28mm French and Indian Wars - British and French
28mm Star Wars - Clone Wars and Rebellion periods
28mm Marlburian - Allies and Bourbons.
28mm Peninsular War - French and British
28mm Dark Ages - Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

Alongside these are the Superheroes and the 'Song of Broken Legions' figures, plus a few DBA armies, all of which I am not really counting as major projects. In each case painting a force will take 1-2 weeks. Of the above list, the Marlburian Pikeman's Lament project is close to complete and the Star Wars collection only needs some decent rules. I'm about halfway towards completing the painting on basic 24 point forces for Gallic Wars Lion Rampant. The Seven Years War Austrians and Prussians are finished (although I'm looking at adding to the Prussians), and most of the Russians have been bought and are awaiting my birthday to be opened. Everything else is in various states of unfinished/barely begun.

The English Civil War in particular is turning into something of an obsession. The plan is to wargame this in the Grand Manner, with forty strong infantry regiments and plenty of squadrons of cavalry. The project itself is designed to have an 'old school' feel, and although I'm using Warlord Games' range of plastics, they are being coated in gloss varnish and the horses are being painted with the oil wipe technique. I have also experimented with the old school basing of using a sand-glue mixture for texture, painting them green and then drybrushing with yellow paint. But I can't make it look good, so I have reverted to using static grass and tufts. Nevertheless, it is succeeding in fulfilling its premise of being 'an army given to me by an elderly uncle whose painting techniques have not moved on from the 1970s'. That is the aesthetic that I am looking for.

Cornet and companions. The banner is completely fictitious. The two forces are destined for an imagi-nations style campaign in a fictional English county.

And from the other side it really shows off the oil wipe technique on the horses. These test figures were put together by John a while back and he forgot to put the pistol holsters on them. I'll fix that at some point.

As to rules, I considered getting the George Gush Renaissance rules, but with my penchant for keeping it simple, I am going back to Warhammer English Civil War. Figure removal, an easy system to use and plenty of dice throwing (that might not be necessary if the rules were streamlined, but doesn't actually bother me at all) as well as being familiar are all positives for me.

I've been picking up a few books to add to my collection on the ECW, and I'm developing quite a library. I've also been reading Michael Arnold's 'Stryker' series of novels for a bit of inspiration.

ECW collection so far. Any must-haves that I'm missing?

So my current priorities are going to be completing the Marlburians, the Gallic Wars, the Seven Years War and the English Civil War. Let's see if I can stick to that list.

Secondly, I started the year in a great burst of wargaming activity, spurred on by the 6 x 6 challenge. I then managed to maintain some momentum, playing out some DBA and Seven years War games, but June has seen no further progress. I did play a game, but it wasn't on my list of six games to play. Hopefully the holidays coming up will see things pick up in July.

Third - painting for others. I've finished Craig's painting and have moved on to Geoff's which is just about all done. I still need to paint some Napoleonics for John, Samurai for Dan and German grenadiers for Craig in the second half of the year, so I'll be working through these as well as my own collections.

Sitting on my painting table right now, these are the last dozen figures for Geoff, nearing completion

It will be interesting to revisit this post in December and see what has changed.

Nate