All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Well it has been a tad quiet on the blog front recently, for which I apologise. However I have been rather busy working on a variety of different things. All of which prevent me from logging on here.

The reenactment season had already begun and I spent the Easter weekend at two different events at Kentwell Hall and Kenilworth Castle. Both good events for completely different reasons.

At home I have two or three different projects that I will post some pictures of in the next few days.

Firstly I have been blackening my 15th century armour. I have completed my Barbute (helmet) and have nearly finished the right leg, right gauntlet and left arm. Some bits need reassembling. This summer I will be the Black Knight, and just hope it doesn't get too hot.

Secondly I have been working on my Brig, armour rather than pirate ship. this is a huge task. It will have 180 plates of steel riveted to black velvet by 1400+ rivets. The armour plates are being shaped at the moment to fit my curvy form. this project I hope to have finished by the end of June. So time is pressing.

Thirdly my gaming energies have had to be redirected. I was working on a 40mm pirate project for Salute 2012. Unfortunately (for the South London Warlords and gamers), a good friend of mine is getting married mine on the same day as Salute and I am performing the ceremony, in a strictly secular way. The wedding is to be a Steampunk affair and this year instead of building wargames scenery right now I am building full scale Steampunk scenery so it can be used for photos on the day. there will definitely be photos of that, but I cannot reveal anything until after the event as the happy couple have not seen any of it yet:0)

So here a couple of photos of toys that won't be at Salute 2012:0( They might make it in to a WI article about Blackbeard though, If I can get it written.



Sash and Saber 40mm pirates. Smashing. Lots more to come. And new scenery too. Watch this space.

Right I am off to try to finish a F&IW article for WI. Only a few weeks late.
Cheers
Reverend Timmy

Post Salute2011 F&IW photos

Ok, so some of the photos I took at Salute were terrible so since then I have made an effort to set up some scenes and try to take some reasonable photos and these are some of the results. There are more but I will probably hold onto them as I intend to produce a little Spirit Of The Game site called Tomahawks and Bayonets.

British Officers contemplate their next move.

Ant's terrific gun and crew (really AWI figs but painted for a few years earlier)

Huron and Courier de Bois sneak across the waterfall while British Light Infantry keep an unaware watch out.

A small British column marches past the Phillips' cabin.

A Conestoga wagon trundles along a frontier trail.


Courier de Bois and Huron indians cover the main column of marching French Infantry.


British Light Infantry engage a warband of Indians across Swallowtail Creek

All the figures here are from Sash & Saber miniatures (from Old Glory Uk in the UK) Brits painted by Ant, French and Indian by me. All scenery is by me.

Salute 2011

Salute 2011 was the first outing for our 40mm F&IW game. It was particularly satisfying as I bought the figures for this game at Salute 2010 so in a year we had completed an entire project, probably a first for me.


Salute 2011 turned out to be a great event. We got everything painted on time (just) and the new scenery was ace, I was delighted with the how the waterfall turned out. We got through a lot of games. The table above was split into three separate sections which meant we never waited for more than three players, before we could start a scenario. This year I even managed to see some of the show as we arrived early and got set up in record time. The only downside was that most of the pictures I took were shocking, so I only have a few here. I will be setting various pictures up at home soon so watch this space. I also will be giving them to Old Glory / Sash & Saber so they can use them on their sites.
The Phillips' cabin under attack by Huron and Courier de Bois. This scenario played out very well and was won by players on both sides during the day. The cabin got lots of attention from photographers roof off and on:0)

The middle scenario with the Conestoga wagon was the one I was worried about as it was untested and looked pretty tricky. So we tried it out first thing with me taking the role of the British and mainly thanks to Mike's terrible dice rolls I proved it was possible to win. However, the Brits didn't manage another win in this scenario, mainly due to some odd choice of what to do with the wagon. Trying to run down injuns with an ox drawn wagon is not advisable folks.

We didn't win any prizes (nevermind) no gimmmicks, no fantasy elements and only a skirmish game, however we did get loads of favourable comments and many old faces came and played and had a great time. Roll on Salute 2012. More 40mm games I think. Much thanks to Ant, who painted all the British and Mike who, as always, played the role of Spirit Of The Game logistics Corps.

Better photos to follow and hopefully some WI articles too. Watch this space.

SALUTE 2011 Just round the corner.

Right a couple of months ago I had a schedule! Then life happened. Now it's to Hell with the schedule just get it all done. Nine days 'til Salute and work is coming on, but it's gonna be tight. (Same as always)
Progress has been made though.

One third of the table, the completed part! Under playtest. Middle section done, Large rocky outcrop and waterfall needs completing for part 3


The frontier farmsted under attack from Injuns and Courier de Bois, from a playtest. (Something that has not really happened before Salute, before:0)


The Conestoga Wagon from Sash & Saber miniatures, one of the reasons for my little rant about lack of photos on websites. Great model, very detailed. NO INSTRUCTIONS or pics on the website. This bit is ready for the scenario in the middle section of the table.

Still to do then... Paint 10 French Infantry, 7 Courier de Bois, Finish 8 Huron warriors. Oh and that bloody great waterfall. Nine days... loads of time.

See you at Salute.

And I finally finished the Wargames Illustrated Articles, looking forward to seeing End Of Empire in print.

F&IW update

Right a quick one with SALUTE2011 progress.

The Cabin is pretty much finished, and I am quite pleased with it. The lid comes of to reveal a fully detailed interior. Plenty of room for figures indoors. Now working on a Conestoga Wagon. First playtest later this week:0)
Furniture from Eureka miniatures or scratch built. food and other items a collection of Eureka, GW and others.

Salute 2011 Here I come!

Never before have I really planned four months ahead for a war games show. But now I have:0) I booked my table at Salute2011 in August, and wrote a speculative blurb about a 40mm French & Indian War game. Today it took shape.

I managed to get a game played today, an achievement in its own right these days. Ant one of my re-enacting wargaming buddies arrived at my house with some painted F&IW British figures and I broke out the Indians and Courier de Bois figures I have painted so far and within a short time we were skirmishing in the forests of up state New York.

We played a simple raid type scenario using the Legends system. I keep threatening to write my own skirmish system for this type of game but there really is little point Warhammer Historical’s Legends/GW’s LOTR system is pretty much the ultimate skirmish system in my opinion, apart from tweaking for stats for different troops and making sure the weapon rules suit the kind of game you want there just doesn’t seem any point messing with anything else.

The figures we us are mostly Sash & Saber 40mm figures with a few Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company figures as well. I was delighted to find that most of my existing terrain collection worked very well and with only a few additions in the future we will have everything we need for playing F&IW games.

Anyway the upshot of the game was that, I LOST:0( my French & Indians were beaten by a bunch of rangers and local militiamen. However it was great fun game, which led into a discussion about exactly what we are going to do for Salute. By the end of the session not only did we decide what the game would consist of, we had come up with a painting schedule (Yeah, I know!) and a modelling plan, and rough dates for when we will TEST? each part of the game.

Who knows it might even go to plan. I will be chuffed if it does as it will be a game produced in a year. We bought the figures at Salute 2010 and hopefully will have everything finished for Salute 2011. We will also aim to supply Old Glory UK ? Sash and Saber with some photos for their websites. Now I wonder if OGUK would like to sponsor us, we need some British Infantry and a Wagon afterall.

Make sure you come back and see how the plan progress.

Sorry about the quality of the photos they were taken in a rather ad hoc manner in dying light. I will try and take some better ones next time.