A bit more progress with Eagle Rampant

With marking 55 assessments and finishing off Geoff's commissions not much has been done on Eagle Rampant since my first playtest. However, last week I managed to finish off my first 2 units, one of Roman Legionaries and one of Upgraded Gallic Warriors.

Legionaries in their 2 deep line in order to claim their drilled bonus.

Typically disorganised Gauls

I'm hoping to get through a solo playtest of a couple of scenarios I've put together this weekend. Joining me in working on Eagle Rampant is Mike from the Single Base Wargames Blog. He is doing Early Imperial Romans, but we are planning on collaborating with playtests and the creation of unit stats. The header picture is his work.

Nate

Giveaway winners

I assigned each entry a number, including the pimpings on other blogs. My daughter rolled the d20 and the cat acted as scrutineer (and had fun knocking the dice around afterwards) - and we have our winners:

'I really don't care one way or the other - will you just feed me?'

First number rolled was a 4, which was Ray! Yes his luck is unbelievable! His first choice was the Franco-Prussian War rules.

Second number out was a 6, which was Rodger. His first choice was the painted Sigurd and Thrudella.

Third number out was 4 again, but that had gone, so the next roll was - 4! Ray, what dice gods are you praying to? But then a 10 came up, which is Tim Knight. His first choice was gone, but his second choice was the first issue of Practical Wargamer.

Congratulations guys, and thanks to everyone who took part. Since the giveaway we've welcomed another 9 followers and crept tantalising close to that 50,000 hits mark.

If the winners can e-mail me at my hotmail dot com account - Natholeon is the first part @ that address - and I'll get your goodies off to you.

Cheers

Nate

Beware the Ides of March...

...If you want to be in to win in the blog giveaway! The fateful day will be arriving in my neck of the world in approximately 3 hours, and the draw will happen 12 hours hence. Just leave a comment and trust to the luck of the D20.

Natholeon's blog giveaway - better than being stabbed 23 times!

The Imperial palace also took delivery of something eagerly anticipated today:

Primer, paints and playthings!

Hopefully I can paint the figures as nicely as Barks has.

Nate

Seventeenth Century Generals

And the last of this batch of figures from Geoff is finished. This time it is two 28mm Front Rank generals from their Late Seventeenth Century range. If there was only one range of figures in the world, I would choose Front Rank. Not only do they cater for this period which is one of favourite, but their figures are wonderful to paint. It is strange that I don't own any, but this is my retirement dream -  two late 17th Century 28mm armies made with Front Rank figures. Unsure whether I'd want to do 9 Years War or the Sedgemoor campaign, but I have plenty of time to think about it (another 25 years)!
Anyway, here are the pics:

I realise that I still need to highlight the sword, so I'll get onto that tonight.

The second general holding his baton. I think it may be bent from this shot - I hadn't noticed that.

A view from side and rear for completeness.

I'm not sure whether these are meant to be English or French (or something else) so I haven't painted any ciphers on the saddlecloths yet. I've also matt varnished them since taking this picture so the light won't reflect off them so strikingly.

Nate

Don't Selous out!

Here are the latest commissions for Geoff - Eureka Miniatures Selous Scouts.

All nine figures

Tracker backed up by some heavy firepower

Making their way through the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean savannah (I'm assuming they have savannah...)

Another bit of heavy firepower.

Aside from not knowing much about the topography of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, I did quite a bit of research on these guys. My initial plan was to paint half of them as black troops, as there was a high proportion of black soldiers in the unit. Unfortunately none of the figures had the facial features or short curly hair that would make them look authentic, so this is an all white unit. I've got quite a few references from my old War in Peace magazines for the camo scheme and the colours of the singlets and shorts, and these came in handy.

I have to admit one major failure though. The sculpting is so fine on the faces that I couldn't paint the whites into the eyes. I gave it a shot, but they just came out looking like they had gone blind. I hope Geoff can forgive this.

And now that I've posted this, the blog giveaway will have slipped off the top of the screen, so make sure to check it out!

Nate

100th follower - Blog Giveaway!

Welcome to the 100th follower of this blog, Mike of Single Base Wargames, and at the same time the 101st follower, Ubique Matt. I haven't made a habit of welcoming new followers, preferring to follow their blogs and link to them back here, but passing 100 is a bit of a milestone, so thank you to all who follow (and those who don't really follow anymore but who still pop up in the followers list) my rather erratic ramblings as I bounce from project to project.

I've really enjoyed being part of the blogging community of wargamers, and have managed to win a few blog giveaways over the past couple of years. First was Tim Knight's giveaway at Heropress where I won the Icons superhero roleplaying game. Then Dan Mersey's giveaway in January last year where I won three brand new Osprey Adventures books. In July last year I received Warfare in the Ironclad Age through the Canister and Grape blog. Lately I have had the fortune to win Captain Arjun's February giveaway over on Cor Blog Me which consists of some Colonial rulebooks, including Ever Victorious Armies which I had been looking for a while back but is now out of print.

So I've been waiting for an occasion to give something back. Initially I was thinking my first 100,000 views, but at the rate I'm going that could be a couple of years ago. So then I thought, maybe the first 50,000 views. But again, it seems my ramblings are not attractive enough to get me over that line any time soon. So 100 followers was the new benchmark, and here it is!

Now, what to give away?

Foundry Sigurd and Thrudella in poor lighting because I realised I didn't have a picture of them and snapped it in a hurry.

First option - genuine Natholeon hand-painted Sigurd and Thrudella made by Wargames Foundry. Have you ever wanted to own a genuine bit of Natholeon painting but can't find the six figure price tag*? here's your chance.

Nineteenth Century shenanigans

Second option - rules for the Franco-Prussian War. They Died for Glory and La Defense Francaise which was produced by Wargames Foundry.

More Franco-Prussian War? I sense a theme here...

Third option - the very first issue of Practical Wargamer magazine - my favourite wargames mag of all time and a constant source of inspiration. This is a mint copy - if by mint you mean it looks like it could have been used to wrap up some small sweets. But it is all there and holding together pretty well.

What do you need to do? Leave a comment stating which prizes you would like in order of preference. Then I will roll a dice to decide the winner. Given my dice rolling, getting in early so that you are a low number is probably a good plan. As I am a shameless exhibitionist, I will award extra entries to anyone who advertises this on their blog and then links back to here, and then tells me about it in the comments section. I will decide the winners on the Ides of March, because that has always been a pretty lucky day historically speaking.

Nate

* calculated in Zimbabwean dollars c. 2010

More Samurai civilians

My latest commission work for Geoff.

Some angry peasants.

More peasants with poor dispositions

Ahh, some gentle townsfolk, including a guy so ugly he has a basket on his head.

Son, did I ever tell you about the time...

Nate