The Battle of Winnersh Landing

Wayne, Christophe, Richard and myself.

This week I have been working away from home for a few day, last evening was spent painting Spanish Civil War figures in my hotel room, this evening I popped over to meet Wayne and Christophe at the Reading Wargames Club who meet in Winnersh Community Centre to play a game of Black Powder ACW using Christophes extensive collection of 28mm figures.

Checking the blog archive, it was January last year when I last played Black Powder ACW, so I was likely to be a little rusty, but I was going to be tonight'd expert.

Christophe has got a few more Confederates than Union so they would be trying to break through the Union lines. Wayne and Christophe played the Confederates, Richard and myself the Union. The forces involved were:

Confederates
General: Staff 9, Hight Independence, Low Aggression
(Christophe) Brigadier Staff 8, One elite 5+ Regiment with Rifled Musket, five Regiments with Rifled Musket, one Rifled Battery
(Wayne) Brigadier Staff 7 High Independence, One elite 5+ Regiment with Rifled Musket, five Regiments with Rifled Musket, one Smooth Bore Battery

Union
General: Staff 8, Hight Independence
(Myself) Brigadier Staff 7, One Elite 5+ Large Regiment with Rifled Musket, one Elite 5+ Regiment with Rifled Musket, one Regiment with Rifled Musket, one Rifled Battery in redoubt.
(Richard) Brigadier Staff 7 Low Decisiveness, One Large Regiment with Rifled Musket, three Regiments with Rifled Musket, one Rifled Battery

Waynes troops advance against mine

The Confederates took first turn and Waynes troops surged onto the table towards me, Christophe failed to give an order so Wayne was on his own. The Union troops were like rabbits in the headlight and did not manage to react at all. Again Wayne surged on and Christophe again failed his order, the Confederate shooting was desultory though. Stirred into action my large unit moved up behind a wall supported by the two smaller units and started engaging the rebels to great effect, Waynes front line was now disordered.

Christophe now made an appearance and surged towards Richard preventing him from competing the manoeuvre to support me against Wayne. With a rebel yell the Confederates to my front charged but my close range volley was devastating and the disordered rebels broke and fled from the ensuing combat. With his superiority in numbers Wayne was able to keep feeding fresh units into the hard fight and although I broke or shook four of his Regiments, breaking his Brigade my Brigade was also shaken. It was all down to Christophe and Richard on my right.

Wayne and I in a struggle of mutually assured destruction

Having lost a regiment to long range fire Christophe continued his advance into point blank range and soon two of the Union Regimenst had been shattered, and things were looking bad as four Confederate units were pouring fire into three Union ones, it then started to fall apart, one Union Regiment took excess causalities and failed its Break Test while another Blundered, charged into the Confederate lines and was destroyed by the closing fire and subsequent Break Test.

Christophe pushes on to carry the day

In such a blaze of glory the game was over, both Union Brigades had been Shattered, but we were able to inflict grievous casualties on the victorious rebels.

Great game!

All the figures belong to Christophe and were painted by him.

SCW in Hook

Following on from and in response to Toms 'Saxons in Swindon' post, I find myself in a hotel in Hook for a couple of nights.

I bought along a few models, paints, tools, glue and a daylight lamp and have spent a productive night in the hotel room.

First up I have assembled what I purchased from Ebay as a Force of Arms Chevrolet M37/T-26 Armoured Car but on closer inspection and viewing this page it is actually a Force of Arms BA-6 with one set of wheels missing!

No problem though it will still be supporting my Republicans. I'll get this primed when I get home.

 I have also added another bit of support for my Nationalists, an Empress Pz IA that mate James donated to the cause. I just need to paint the crewman and get some weathering done.

Finally, I did the highlights on nine armed 1930's civilians that I think are all from Musketeer Miniatures range, but I did pick them up second hand ages ago, so could be wrong on that. Despite a bit of tweed and carrying Lee-Enfields and Lewis Guns once the bases are done they will drop into my Republican Militia.

Apologies for the shonky photos, the iPhone really is not up to this task.

Moroccan Regulares for Chain of Command

Enthused by the recent Spanish Civil War Chain of Command games that I have been having with James it was time to build a force of my own.

James already has quite a bit of SCW stuff so I did not want to duplicate any of his forces so I chose to do a platoon of Moroccan Regulares. The figures are all from the Empress Spanish Civil War range.

I painted them as follows:

Trousers: 824 - German Cam. Orange Ochre.
Shirt: 976 - Buff.
Puttees: 881 - Yellow Green.
Coat / rolled coat: Some 881 - Yellow Green.
Coat / rolled coat: Some 875 - Beige Brown striped with 921 - English Uniform.
Flesh: 875 - Beige Brown.
Carbine stock: 875 - Beige Brown.
Sash, Tarbusch : 875 - Beige Brown then 926 - Red.
Turban & shoes: 837 - Pale Sand.
Leather equipment & soles: 940 - Saddle Brown.
Beards & tassel on tarbusch: 950 - Black.
Metal fittings: 950 - Black.
Rifle Butt: Brass

After the base coat a wash of Vallejo Sepia Wash was applied and then highlights:

Trousers: 824 - German Cam. Orange Ochre then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Shirt: 976 - Buff then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Puttees: 881 - Yellow Green then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Coat / rolled coat: Some 881 - Yellow Green then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Coat / rolled coat: Some 875 - Beige Brown then adding 837 - Pale Sand, The 921 - English Uniform were just painted over and not highlighted.
Flesh: 875 - Beige Brown mixed with 860 Medium Fleshtone then adding a little 918 - Ivory
Carbine stock: 875 - Beige Brown then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Sash, Tarbusch : 926 - Red.
Turban & shoes: 837 - Pale Sand then highlight with 918 - Ivory
Leather equipment & soles: 940 - Saddle Brown then adding 837 - Pale Sand
Beards & tassel on tarbusch: 862 - Black Grey
Metal fittings: 950 - Black 950 mixed with Gunmetal Grey: 863
Rifle Butt: Brass

I did the bases with small patches of coarse grit and filled in with pumice gel painted Field Drab, once dried this was dry-brushed first with Dark Sand and then Pale Sand. The edge of the base was cleaned up with Field Drab then small patches of tuft, cork, clump and static grass were stuck on.

Here are some extreme close-ups:

La Legion and supports for t'other James

Far too many mates called James. This week I have been painting some Spanish Civil War Nationalists for James W, as opposed to the James M who I painted the Mk VI for.

In total he gave me 19 figures from the Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil War range to do for him; a Guardia Civilia Officer, twelve Foreign Legion and two medium mortars with crews, they are all painted in pretty much the same colours:

Trousers, jackets, puttees, great coats - German Uniform
Shirts - Light Green Blue
Knapsacks - Tan Earth
Straps - Black
Piping - Red
Shoes - Pale Sand
Flesh - Medium Fleshtone
Stocks - Beige Brown

Once base-coated I gave them a wash of Vallejo Sepia wash and then re-did the base coats and added highlights.

I have done nothing with the bases, James will see to that so that they match the rest of his force.

Troop of Mk VIB Light Tanks

I've already posted the MkVIB that I did for James, I also have done another troop of 1/56 BlitzKreig MkVI Lights for myself, this time in Caunter effect.

The colours used were a basecaot of 50:50 Vallejo Dark Sand & US Tan Earth, Basalt Grey and Light Sea Grey. I then painted the interiors Stone Grey. The tracks and exhaust were painted with a mix of Saddle Brown and Gunmetal Grey. The whole thing was then washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash and then the basecoats and highlights re-applied.

Once dry I weathered using Tamiya Model Master and added Perry Miniatures crews.

The antennae are bristles from a plastic broom. The names are entirely made up.

Light Tank Mk VIB for James

As part of our ongoing East Africa project James asked me to paint him up a Light Tank Mk VIB  mine would be in Caunter ( see other article ) but James wanted his in plain old sand coloured.

These are lovely 1/56 scale models from BlitzKreig Miniatures.

The basecoat is a mix of Vallejo US Tan Earth and Dark Sand. The tracks and exhaust were painted with a mix of Saddle Brown and Gunmetal Grey. The whole thing was then washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash and then the basecoats and highlights re-applied.

Once dry I weathered using Tamiya Model Master.

Holiday Cottage Painting update day 7

The final day of our Cornish Cottage vacation, no painting at all this morning as I had a lie in and stayed in bed until 08:15!

Victoria soon turfed me out though as we had a booking at Fifteen Cornwall for breakfast at 09:30. We were there in plenty of time and were seated at our table at 09:15. We had a fabulous breakfast watching the tide crashing in at Watergate Bay.

We had a drive into Newquay and then along the coastal road back to Padstow, picking up some Cornish Pasties on the way for our tea.

I realised that I had not posted a picture of my holiday workbench, so here it is a bunch of paints in a 4L Really Useful in the window bottom, an upturned Really Useful lid with a cutting mat as my painting pallet, my daylight lamp and Samsung Tab 3 for reference and playing 6 Music throughout the day.

Eagle eyed readers will notice Carcassone and Guillotine too, for the record I just won the Holiday Carcassone tournament, but Victoria thrashed me at Guillotine.

On to the painting update for today, Firstly a Mk VI Light that I have done for James Morris for our East Africa campaign games.

I have also done three of my own, in Caounter this time. I completely re-painted the light grey as the last lot looked too blue.

I have also been painting Nationalists for James Woodward today, firstly a pair of medium mortars.

And a section of six Legionaires:

Neither of these two groups have photographed that well though and the figures are packed up for the journey home so I'll not get a chance to re-do the photos.

Well, this is the end of the last holiday painting updates. No doubt more pictures though when I get the tanks crewed. weathered and aerialed and the bases done on my Moroccans.