Getting things done - February wrap up

Quick post this morning before heading out to the first show of the year Hammerhead....

Keeping up with the theme of getting stuff done, the last of Arab foot figures for the Crusades project.

These are from Gripping Beasts metal range, I followed the theme of the previous unit and given these chaps a more uniformed feel, still keeping with the occasional flash of Green or Purple. Spears have been swapped out to steel pins, far tougher but that little bit of jeopardy when you pick them up.

Shield Transfers are from Little Big Man Studios although I did have to a scalpel to a couple of banners to make shield transfers fit two of the mini's who's shields were oval shaped.

I suspect this will be used as Heavy Infantry with Lion Rampant and the more uniformed approach separating them out from their lighter comrades.

March should see the Christians hitting the paint table and hopefully the last of the Muslim cavalry.

If you are heading up to Newark today the Wyre Forest Club is running a game so feel free to drop by and say hello.

Gripping Beast - Arab Cavalry

Well here we are again...

The Cotswolds day seems a long time ago, but following the mantra of getting stuff done back to the remainder of the Gripping Beast Cavalry. They were prepped and under coated in bulk but have been staring at me across the room for 4 months... other projects kept pushing ahead of them. Time to bite the bullet.

Yet another light cavalry archer unit, get skirmish troops to pester the Christian column on their trek to the Holy City.

Next up a heavy cavalry unit with shield transfers from Little Big Man Studio. 

The shield transfers really bring the figures to life and are well worth the money. 

Finally the last of the Gripping Beast plastics are complete, they do go together really well, nice sculpts enough detail to standout, but not to much to slow down the painting.

Another couple of mounted units to go in metal, but next up some Black Guard types, I am hoping they can be turned around rather quickly, given the limited colours.

Welcome to the Jungle.

Somewhat behind on posts of late.

The UK weather and the Christmas take over of my gaming space has slowed the production line, the Christmas elves have filled the garage with decorations and storage boxes, no sneaking off for a few hours gaming for at least a month.

I will have to content myself with prep for future projects and the growing pile of bare metal, not helped by guys at the club constantly coming up with new temptations to distract me.

Modern Africa looks to be back on the agenda for next year, with ideas floating around for Somalia through to the Congo or UN operations against the various warlords or factions across several states in the mid 90's.

I still had some Africa militia types tucked away and this was just the nudge to get them table top ready. I opted for a more formal uniform for these types to represent government or paramilitary types.

Figures are a mixture of Spectre miniatures, Gripping Beast & the Assault Group, making for an eclectic group of fighters.

The last remaining metal is a group of 'operators' - Special forces or PMC's.... which could be quite useful in future games.

Hopefully back in the swing of things in the next couple of weeks.

The Battle of Ascalon 1099 - Cotswold All Dayer - Part 2

Last Sunday saw the annual trip to Cirencester and the Cotswolds Wargames Day held this year at Big Battles. It's always an enjoyable affair with some great games on offer in a very relaxed atmosphere. Great to see some old friends and meet new gamers. The only downside you never get enough time to chat with fellow gamers.

Big Battles is a great venue Derek and Andy who run the venue have a real passion for the big game talk about a hobby that turns into a business definitely worth a trip back to perhaps one of the large games. You can find their details here. Home - Big Battles

After 8 weeks we had amassed quite a large collection of Arab forces they lined up outside the walls of Ascalon to turn back the Christian hordes. They did look great very clear lines against the fractured Christian commands.

We split each of the Christian Commands into 4 distinct commands each with. 2 Elite Knights, 2 Elite Foot, 2 Heavy Infantry and 2 Skirmish Missile units.

Honour Points were awarded for the following feats.

Slay Vizier Al Afdal                                    3 Points

Slay an Arab sub commander                     2 Points

'Burn their homes' destroy the main tent    2 Points

Destroy the Greek Fire                               1 Points

So what of the game, as the Arab player we threw our cavalry out on the flanks looking to strip away the skirmishers amongst the Christian ranks, however we did not factor in the fact that their Infantry would be quite so aggressive who waded into the heavy cavalry who whilst able to counter attack we too few in number to maintain a one for one exchange.

The light cavalry managed to slip past the Christian line but far from the general command their were unable to get under order enough to make an impact.

When the Christian knights made their way to the front who they drove back the remaining cavalry the path was clear into the soft underbelly of the infantry but despite wiping out many of the archers and light spearmen they were too few in number to strike the final blow.

A close run thing but a marginal Arab victory - one might argue :-)

A fantastic days gaming with everyone involved from start to finish just as a large game should be. Well worth the nightly efforts of getting the figures on the table.

I did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked around the other tables but there were some fantastic games on offer, you can see a number of them here on Paul's and Steve's blogs.

Cotswold Wargames Day 2024 | movealongnownothingtoseehere

Wargames With Toy Soldiers: 1685 - 1985: Cotswold Wargames Day 2024 (wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com)

Gripping Beast Archers & reinforcements arrive....

It's amazing what the motivation of a big game does for your painting mojo although it is starting to feel a little like a job. Another batch of Gripping Beast miniatures for the big game on Sunday, thank heavens they lack some of the finer details and are only armed with basic bows and daggers it does allow you to churn out quite a few.

We shall be using Lion Rampant so these will make up 2 additional archer units, plenty to keep the Christian forces occupied.

Thanks to a good friend of mine who seeing the rate of expansion of the Islamic forces very kindly offered a swap his bare metal which was on the to do list for some of my WW2 collection giving us both fresh projects to be getting on with. 

I am so grateful but so many extra cavalry.... I really need to think about picking periods with less mounted figures.

These coupled with  a fresh order from Footsore with yet more cavalry will see me painting Crusader types from now until Christmas, let's see how many I can get through over the next 5 days.... 

Gripping Beast Arabs - 40 become 6.

Another week and the last of the Gripping Beast Plastics are done.

With the various options on the sprue I have been able to create 6 whole units from a single box, all really useful for the forthcoming Lion Rampant outing. The original batch generated 4 spear units, now for additional options.

First up with the addition of sword and shield a completed unit of Warriors, they mix in well with the Footsore Miniatures and the odd Blacktree which I had repurposed from other projects.

Then a unit of 6 archers to support the Spear ranks.

Next up more cavalry.... The clock is ticking the Christian forces are done and every extra Arab model will make the Christian job that little bit harder.

Outremer Arab Spearmen

Back to Outremer. 

Having decided on the plan for the next all dayer - It turns out we might be woefully short of Arab foot types. 5 weeks nothing like deadline to focus the mind.

Not usually a fan of plastics for gaming, I tend to lose bayonets and spears during regular game play, but you can't argue with the value for money. Gripping Beast offer 40 figures for £25.00 - 62p a figure can't be bad.

The box contains 8 sprues with enough to make a mixture of spear, bow and sword armed units together with command elements horns etc.

The Sprue contains 3 round shields and two teardrop so plenty of mix for the various units, while there may not be obvious leader types they are very useful to fill the ranks of generic warriors.

Good quality casts with minimal mold lines and and they detach really easily, limbs are pre-molded carrying spear or sword so construction is minimal.  

The Gripping Beast figures fit in well with other manufacturers hidden amongst the masses are a bunch of Footsore and some Black Tree Design

The shield designs are from Little Big Man Studio such a good time saver.

Next up more cavalry.

Arab Infantry for Operation Exporter.

You can't beat a day on the brushes.

I picked these up from Gripping Beast to make up the postage when I brought some Islamic shield transfers (honestly) these are from their WW1 Ottoman Range but I figured they would be fine for Palestinian Militia for Vichy French forces.

They compare reasonably well to the other ranges of Perry and Warlord, the officer is from the Perry Range. The rifles are slightly thinner than the other manufacturers and are a little weak near the bayonet, one to watch out for.

A useful addition to the French forces.

All aboard the camel train...... Infamy Infamy Support Options and Ambush Points.

Last of the 'infill' pieces before diving into the Kings of Bronze project.  The goat herders and camels are from Gripping Beast and will be useful for both the Napoleonic and Ancient projects in the Middle East.

I had a near miss with the matt vanishing due to the humid conditions, stupidly I thought 5.00am might have been ok but unfortunately they had a little bit of misting on the crook and staff of some of the figures, fortunately I caught before doing the entire figures so reverted to brush varnish and did a quick over paint to correct them.

The camel's are slightly thinner than their Blacktree counter parts, I will post up a comparison in the coming weeks, each is weighed down with carpets and fabrics so are rather generic. These will be perfect for support elements or objectives in both Infamy Infamy and Sharp Practice.

I hate goats more than horses, I started with a mix of browns and blacks for the goats, but I struggled to recreate the right mountain goat feel, so in the end reverted to white with a grey/black undercoat. Perhaps now more sheep than goat but the overall effect is fine.

I added 7mm dice frames to the stands so they can be used to denote shock markers or the differing ambush points in Infamy Infamy.

I have tried a different basing style to what I have done previously adding in a little more rough terrain with rocks and boulders with a hint of greenery to make them suitable for the terrain within the Nile Region or Bekka Valley in modern day Lebanon.

Originally I started out with railway modelling ballast mixed into the sand mix, but found it to be rather small and even so opted for the real thing adding after the base was complete. I picked up a sample of 6mm -10mm sandstone chippings for £3.50 from a mail order quarry (who knew?) more than enough for the entire project and a extra's for a quarter of the cost.

I am pretty pleased with the effect and the grass tufts break up the mass of yellow on the table top.

Next up the first of the Hittites....

Highway 255 - Galicia 1914 WW1 AAR Part 2

A bright Tuesday morning,  the sound of birds chirping is broken by the sound of marching boots, the Austrians are on the move looking to break the Russian Bear.

The Table at 10.00am the view the Russian side.

Both sides push forward their blinds looking to seize the best firing positions and early opportunities to gain the upper hand.

Johnny Turk - opps sorry the Bosnians - are unmasked in the rear fields by a keen Russian observer in the farm house over looking the cross roads, a great vantage point for spotters.

11.00am German cavalry scout the left flank only to be halted by Russian infantry who have already reached the farm complex.

The Russian right flank, Infantry and HMGs posed to repulse and advances from the Austrian lines.

11.20 am Austro Hungarians and Bosnians push down their right flank and highway 255.

The cavalry seek cover within the meadow pinned by the massed ranks of Stotic Russians.

12.30 - Dead lock apart from a long range HMG dual casualties are light as both sides probe for a weakness and await reinforcements. The clock is ticking three and a half hours to go.

The Austrian reinforcements start to arrive.

1.00pm On the Russian left a strong flanking moves satrts to develope with the Naval brigade advancing against a single section in the farmstead, Austrian blinds start to enter the table.

Meanwhile an Austrian probe in the centre is repulsed with heavy casaulties.

2.00pm  yet more Russians flood the left flank. Pressure starts to mount on the Austrian right and still no Russian Cavalry in sight.

The Russians start to buckle on the left as Bosnian Artillery puts them under fire and more infantry begin to filter through the fields.

2.30 pm Austrians are forced out of the farmstead having faced odds of 5:1

2.45pm A secondary defence line is formed in the stone walled field but still the Russians press forward.

3.00pm The Austrian right starts to crumble, repeated Infantry attacks forces the Infantry back, whilst Russian cavalry pours down Highway 255.

A HMG team valiantly deploys in the road looking to stem the advancing Russian cavalry.

The mighty Cossack horde.

The Russian left forces the stone wall and whilst sustaining heavy casualties drive the Austrians back with several shock points.

The Austrian HMG lets off a stream of lead but it is unable to stop the charging cavalry and are ridden down, wiped out.

The cavalry are forced to retire, but their work is complete.

The second wave of cavalry pushes further down the road, hitting the latest wave of Austrian reinforcements, who take to their heels.

3.45pm the Austrians surge forwards on the left flank but time was running out and with cavalry now moving to counter the attack will make the Austrian attack hard going.

4.00pm A Russian victory, the crossroads are clear of Austrians and Highway 255 is open.

A great days gaming, played using Mud & Blood from the Too Fat Lardies, the perfect balance between skirmish gaming and big table tactics all wrapped up in 6 hours.