Progress, of a kind anyway.

As I'm sure my loyal reader will recall I've set out to rebase, again, my 1066 & All That collection to play small Hail Caesar games here in GHQ. I started with the Saxon force as you know, needing to add new figures to the collection to get up to the number of bases/units Phil and I had decided on to play the game. I thought you might like to see how it's all progressing to date ~

A base/unit of Huscarls with Dane Axe.

A base/unit of Thegns.

A quick shot of the halfway stage in the rebasing project. Six bases/units of Saxons, three command stands and three bases of bow armed skirmishers.

Today I finished off these three bases of Saxon skirmishers with spears/ javelins.

 

I've also completed the two bases/units of Saxon Medium Archers. 

That leaves me with three bases/units of Ceorls and a base of Mounted Warriors to complete the Saxons for now. I'm painting the last two Mounted Warriors at present, so I'd hope to have it all done this week. Then it's on to the Normans!

Who Doesn't Love A Parade?

Paul couldn't make our game arranged for today as he's still in Taffystan with the Druids. So I thought I'd entertain myself with a few group shots of the Hanoverian contingent of my SYW Allied army, a parade if you will. You will have seen all of these before as individual units, but this is their first public appearance as a whole in GHQ ~

The gallant Hanoverian contingent of the Allied army muster for inspection.

The infantry muster three line regiments, a combined Grenadier regiment, and a Light Infantry element with gun & crew. All Figures are from Front Rank bar the two command foot figures from Wargames Foundry.

You can see the two Foundry foot figures used here as a Command stand for the infantry.

August Friedrich von Spröcken has his portrait captured for posterity by the artist D'Alimore.

The cavalry arm of the Hanoverian contingent in the Allied army, all from Wargames Foundry of course, and bar the Lückner's Hussars a gift from Jon.

The next phase of my SYW expansion project will be using mostly Crusader Miniatures and Eagle Miniatures figures. I'm not quite certain as yet which nationality the figures will represent. I have a total of three infantry regiments, two cannon & crew, and three mounted officers, the latter from Wargames Foundry,in the Lead Pimple at present to form another contingent for my Allied Army. Meanwhile I'm still working on rebasing my Saxons for the '1066 & All That' project. "Oh Joy, Oh Rapture!" as Gilbert may have written...

Coming Over All Arty-Farty?

Last month you may recall we went mob handed to WMMS, the Alumwell Wargames Society's annual show. I went without a list of potential purchases of any description. I didn't buy all that much either, apart from three bags of Greek's from Colonel Bill's for my three grandsons. While furtling through the various bags of SYW types I came upon this artist figure from Wargames Foundry. I think it was a limited edition figure back in the day, celebrating Kevin Dalimore perhaps ~

I made the artist's easel from a couple of Warbases window frame and a punched out window blank. The dog passing comment on the artist's work is from Body's Bits at Redoubt Enterprises. The portrait of August Friedrich von Spörcken I downloaded from the internet and scaled down to fit the easel. You may recall his 28mm version earlier in the year ~

I hope that my little whimsical diversion from hordes of Hanoverians has at least interested, and perhaps amused, the occasional visitor even if nothing else has...

Lückner's Hussars

Even though my Lead Pimple is modest by many fellow hobbyists' standards I do sometimes discover figures in there I had forgotten about. One such group of figures were six Foundry SYW Hussars. Truthfully I have no recollection of when and why I bought these, but being on a roll after completing my small Hanoverian contingent for the SYW expansion project I decided to paint them up to represent Hanoverian Hussars and give the Allied army a bit of Light cavalry. I believe these were sculpted by Mark Copplestone back in the day. They include a guidon bearer in the command pack, even though it seems my choice of unit was one carrying none! I codged something up for them by way of a Hanoverian cavalry standard from another regiment ~

I painted these using the Henry Ford technique. What, you ask? The production line principle, all six on the go simultaneously, a method I'd not used for many a year, usually preferring to work on two mounted or four foot figures at a time. They are done now anyway, so I really must get on with the bases of the Saxons and Normans...

Hanoverian Grenadiers

I have had a fair wind behind me on the painting front these last few week's, so I decided to bite the bullet and paint up the Hanoverian Grenadiers I have in the Lead Pimple. Although I have only painted three Hanoverian infantry regiments, and don't plan any more, I have four bases of Grenadiers. This follows a suggestion by Spanner over on the LAofW forum board to form a converged regiment of Grenadiers. Here in GHQ we are a bit free and easy when it comes to the size of Standard units, usually 5 bases but occasionally 4 {We use 6 or more as Large units}. Although Spanner very generously offered to make me some transfers for the mitres I decided to have a stab at painting them myself, having studied examples of fellow hobbyists' work on the net. The results are a bit mixed in my view, but given hand, eye and age issues I'm satisfied with the outcome.

The figures of course are the venerable Front Rank, now owned by Gripping Beast down in Evesham. Pre-Pandemic we used to visit the factory shop occasionally while on a day out with Phil and Di, but I've no idea if they are open to visitors now though. As I understand that Front Rank orders are cast up to order rather than filled from stock I've not thought of a visit anyway, but you never say never. Anyway, that leaves just six Foundry Hussars I've discovered in the Lead Pimple, so I may work on those next. 

As you may recall though I'm also rebasing my '1066 & All That' collection to use in occasional small Hail Caesar games in GHQ.  That means some new figures, especially Normans, and while Phil will paint the Normans as and when they can be fitted around his own and his commercial work, I will paint the new Saxons and do all the basing. All that means you can also expect to see the usual game reports punctuated by Dark Age painted units periodically for a while. First task though is cleaning up and spray undercoating the latest Foundry order which arrived last Friday.

Toy Soldiers 0 Real Life 1

For this week's Tuesday game Phil and I had settled on giving the Medieval aspects of the new Hail Caesar rules a run through using our joint Italian Wars collection. Between us we could field four divisions replete with their commanders. Everything was moving along smoothly, Phil throwing his usual poor dice at critical moments, and a win for Cesare Borgia's army looking increasingly likely when we broke for lunch. Cue a phone call for Phil and a family health emergency and that was it for today's game: Real Life 1 Toy Soldiers 0... So, just a few pictures from the five moves we did play ~

The left flank of Cesare's army is held in place by the menacing presence of the Papal Guards to their rear.

The centre of the Florentine army is it's heavy pike blocks supported by halbadiers and swordsmen.

Cesare's Italian Light Cavalry menace the flank of the Florentine pike blocks despite suffering losses from fire from their flank.

On the left the Knights of both armies clash in a bid to carry the flank and threaten the enemy's centre.

The Papal army has the better of the combats, with two Florentine units fleeing the field having failed their morale checks 

With its left fatally weakened the Florentine centre falls back on the pike. Their right can make little advance through broken ground and exchanges largely desultory fire with their Papal opponents.

The scene after five turns with the Florentine left falling back in the face of losses and the steady advance of Cesare's right divisions.

As I said, real life intervened at this point, so we determined to replay the game in a fortnight when Phil will next be here in GHQ.

Hoodlum Hooch Hokkum in Howardville

An occasional run out for a part of my Pulp Adventures collection featured in the most recent game with Paul here in GHQ. Captain Watson and his 'boys in blue' from the Precinct House vied with the mobster Don Bicclione and his Family over the movement of a shipment of moonshine from the outskirts of Howardville to the dockside Speakeasy. Just a few snaps taken during the game which I hope will give a sense of the riotous amusement the game provided ~

The Fleets in port it seems which means more business for Don Bicclione's Speakeasy unless shore leave is cancelled. The USS Paddock is tied up and the crew are anxiously awaiting much needed R&R.

The 'mean streets' of Howardville busy with its citizens going about their daily lives unaware of the violence and mayhem about to be revealed in their midst 

Captain Watson marshalls his forces outside the Precinct House. Reporters of the Howardville Bugle are on hand to capture the moment for their readers.

Don Bicclione's men are ready to load the shipment and speed it on its way to the Speakeasy. Their hideout/warehouse is in a quiet quarter where the neighbours certainly won't disturb them.

The streets of 'Chinatown' are unusually quiet. Perhaps the Blue Tong have got wind of the shipment and have their own plans for its destination?

Wherever the illegal hooch finishes up you can be sure it will be beyond the financial reach of these down and outs who have made their home on an abandoned lot.

Captain Watson has sensibly deployed his machine gun on the Precinct House's roof giving a field of fire all the way to the harbour.

Officer Dribble seems blissfully unaware that the mob are just above his head! He need not have worried, Sergeant Moore and his machine gun have the drop on them.

The Police car and it's passengers come under unexpected fire from the mob in their roadster. One offer falls in the hail of bullets, another death in the line of duty!

Despite their surprise at the unexpected attack the Police return fire. In the hail of bullets the monsters are cut down and their roadster burst into flames!

Sensing a chance to be a hero Officer Desch has reached the rooftop and surprised another group of mobsters. He kills one in his initial assault but then sensibly retires as the Tommy guns spit their bullets all around him.

A second roadster and it's load of mobsters join the fray but are soon neutralised by the Police fire. They die in the exchange and their car is a smoking wreck. The consignment though and it's escorts are close to their destination. Can Don Bicclione's men pull this off? Sadly not, as a hail of bullets destroys the engine of the truck and wipes out the accompanying mobsters...

In a final gesture more mobsters led by O'Toole rush the Precinct House armed only with clubs, knives and iron bars. Officer Brecher takes aim with his BAR but miraculously no mobsters stop a bullet! It's all too late though for the Don. Two of his close associates are gunned down and his consignment of moonshine is burning in the truck fire!

The game was played using Bolt Action rules over six turns. After a slow start Captain Watson got the measure of his task and saw it through to a successful conclusion despite the best efforts of his dice. The buildings are all from Old Glory bar the warehouse which Phil scratchbuilt. The figures are from Bob Mutch's Pulp Figures range. The USS Paddock I built based on a piece of UTT* with the upper housing and main gun from MiniMe. The vehicles are from all sorts of manufacturers such as Lledo, Corgi, Days Gone By and so on.

*UTT - Universal Tourist Tatt, sold the world over.