Aren’t You A Little Short For A Gladiator?

I’ve had these Museum 15mm minis laying around for a while now and I thought they would be good to practice on before the Eureka Miniatures 15mm Naps turn up.

The paintjobs are simple but effective.  The photos bring out every blemish and missed brush stroke so you’ll just have to trust me they look better in person.

 

 

 

The obligatory “comparison shot”.

I bought these way back when I picked up a copy “Red Sand Blue Sky” from Two Hour Wargames.  I’ll have to drag it out and have another game or three, once I finish the skirmish table that is.

Building the Skirmish Table

After a trip to Bunnings I was ready to start building the skirmish table.  The plan originally was to make the table 600mm square but the materials I got were already pre cut to 600x900mm and 900mm long respectively.  I really didn’t want to make any extra work for myself and decided to leave the board as is.  The extra space will come in handy for 28mm skirmish games.  Besides the lengths of pine were exactly the same length as the particle board.  Not surprising since they’re supposed to be 900mm long but a lot of the MDF stuff from Bunnings is often 4-5mm larger in any given direction.

 

The lengths timber of timber came with a useful but annoying watermark that needed to be sanded off first.  Three of these were really easy to do but the last one must have taken a good 15 minutes worth of sanding to remove it.

The first side is on, wood glue and three bugle screws should keep it in place.

The lip around the edge looks high in the shot below but once a terrain board is in place it only sticks up about a centimetre or so.

 

Almost done, each of the short sides are also screwed into the end of the long sides to give the corners extra strength.  When this is done you’ll be able to pick up and carry the board by the edges without worry of them breaking free.

The two holes are so you can poke up from below to help remove terrain boards once they’re in place.

 

I would have stained the edges and sealed the particle board but the weather today was terrible.  I’ve got a few pieces of particle board and MDF laying around so look at getting some terrain boards made up soon.

15mm Skirmish Terrain

One thing that rears up every time you start a new scale is the issue of terrain.  Sure I already have some stuff that would work ok but most of what I have will be out of period or slightly too big (28mm) or too small (10mm).  Luckily most of my buildings are pdf/cardstock so all I need to do is reprint them at the appropriate scale.  I’ll wait until my miniatures arrive before I make any decisions about trees and hedges (I’ve made enough of them lately anyway).

The one thing I can start on now though is the terrain boards.  Just about all the skirmish games I play recommend an area of 60cm square (2 feet in the old measurement). 

So the plan it to make a 60cm game board with a raised lip that holds the boards in place and rogue dice on the table.  Simple enough and shouldn’t cost much to make.  The only dilemma I have is what size should I make the terrain boards?  Option 3 (30x30cm squares) offers the most flexibility but there’s more “join lines”.  I’m not sure if this will affect the aesthetics of the board.  I’ll flock all the boards so that should help hide the joins but they’ll still be noticeable.

I’ll probably go with option 1 to start with and have a river flow through one corner of the board.  I’ve always wanted to make some river sections so this will be good practice.

Alright then I’m off to Bunnings.

What? Another Scale… in Another Period

Yep, 15mm and Napoleonic's.  I’ve had the rules for Ganesha Game’s Song of Drums and Shakos (SDS) for a while now and had neither any miniatures or interested opponents.  I’d get a bit of attention at the club when I’d mention Napoleonics but I’d always lose them when I mention that SDS was a skirmish game.  Apparently that’s a dirty word in the Nap community.

Anyway when Mick mentioned an interest in the game I jumped to it and ordered some miniatures.  We eventually went down the 15mm path for a few reasons:

• Price: cheap, nuff said.
• Availability: there is just so many manufacturers to choose from.
• Small usually means easier to paint.
• Smaller playing area (and less terrain), maybe 3 feet square for most games.
• Mick already had some.

So I did a little reading, did some thinking and placed and order with Eureka Miniatures.

1812 Russians

1 x Mounted officer
3 x Musketeer/Jager, advancing
3 x Musketeer/Jager, firing and loading
2 x Musketeer/Jager, march attack
1 x Standard bearer (senior NCO)
1 x Musketeer drummer
2 x Kurassier, charging
2 x Kurassier
1 x Kurassier officer

Peninsula British

1 x Rifle officer
1 x Rifle bugler
3 x Rifleman, skirmishing
3 x Rifleman, marching at trail
1 x Mounted officer
1 x Highland piper
1 x Highland infantry officer
2 x Highland infantry centre company, marching, shoulder arms
2 x Highland flank company, skirmishing

I was going to get some cavalry for the British but they’re really just my second army and when I say these guys I just had to get some.

Can’t wait for these to arrive, and being just a few hours down the road I should get them mid next week.  Which should give me time to get them cleaned up and based ready for painting next weekend.

Storing All The Star Wars Minis

My week at home with the kids has kicked off to a great start.  Finally managed to get some plants planted in the garden we've been working on for far too long, and I've actually been able to spend some time doing some actual wargaming, woo hoo!!

I've been busy with a few things, first is I've been able to get a spot playtesting a new game from Ganesha Games called Songs of ShadowSea.  It's a stand alone supplement based on their Song of Blades and Heroes system and is being written by Dragonblood Miniatures for use with their range of miniatures produced by Cavalcade Wargames.  Played a few games so far and I'm pretty impressed with the system, especially the way they've tweaked the rules to manage magic and artifacts.  I've been using proxy miniatures for my games (hence no photos or AAR's) but I think I'll have to pick up a couple of their Dark Mariners miniatures, wow they look nice.

On the Star Wars front I've finally managed to get all the miniatures sorted, boxed up and packed away.

No seriously look here they all are all packed away in boxes labelled by faction and troop type.  A lot of mucking around but it's a lot easier to find that damned Jawa box when I need it now.

And speaking of storage, here's a shot of the shelves my wife managed to win in an auction for me.  Most of my stuff all in the one spot and in an orderly fashion too boot.

I'm hoping to get a few more Star Wars Commander bases made up this week and with a little luck I'll see if I can wrangle someone into coming over and giving the current rules a run through.