Happy New Year!

Aside from my five year hiatus from blogging, I thought I'd start it up again with documenting some miniature wargaming. I am experimenting with adopting Keith Flint's wonderful set of Seven Years War centric rules 'Honours Of War' and using it with my Napoleonic collection.

With a little tweaking,  it worked out OK. Not for me however...My son and I used a scenario from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames rules set. The scenario was inspired by number 30,  "Last Stand". My son played the Russians who occupied two fortified hills with his back to the river. His force consisted of 5 infantry units, one artillery battery and three cavalry units. I played the French with equal amount of units.

Since I was designated as the "Attacker", I  moved first. Starting with a cavalry action on the French left. It didn't take long for a the French to drive off the Russian two cavalry units. Thankfully, I picked one unit as 'Superior' before the game stared. That played a decisive move along with some good dice rolling. After that, it went down hill for the French. It war far from a "last stand" for the Russians. I was about to get my butt wooped.

Yeah,  attacking fortified positions, no matter what rule set you use, is never a good idea. The French payed a hefty price for this maneuver. They persisted however. But after a few volleys of musketry and blast of cannister at close range, it was a done deal. Even when rallying, the French could not overcome the Russian's strong positions. 

The French carabiniers were poised to exploit a potential French breakthrough, but alas, the infantry were driven back and broken.  The battle was too one-sided at that point and lost for the French.

The game lasted about an hour and a half. Since it was my third game with this set, there were some moments of page flipping for rules clarification. Despite the loss, it was a fun game.  Any time I get to roll some dice with my son, it's a bonus. As for the rules, I think with some tweaking, it can be adopted to other "horse and musket" periods. If your looking for an easy, quick playing ruleset, you can't go wrong with Honours Of War. I have to say, this rules QRS is one of the better layouts out of all of the other Osprey blue book series titles I own. 

Big ol' pile of heads and armatures for the St. Privat project.

New Project- Structure Layout

This is the rough layout of the St. Privat Cemetery/Courtyard. A structure diorama builder I am not. I'm going to try and keep it as simple as possible. Not all elements and details in Neuville's painting will be shown in this diorama. Some figures will have to be omitted and composition tweaked here and there. I will do my best rendering to keep it Neuville-esq however.

New Project

Some more honorable mentions from my self imposed art challenge.

I prepared a canvas to do a copy of Thomas Gainsborough's Officer of the 4th Regiment of Foot. Who knows when I'll get to it but it's ready to go when the time is right. Also, finished a commission piece of British Marines at "Bunker Hill". I like how it turned out, the facial expressions from the Hornet heads really make figures and the scene work.

Some honorable mentions from my self-imposed "art" challenge Part 1

This kit felt more like putting together a toy rather than actual building. The only real modeling I did was spray paint the body and add the decals. Not really a "challenge" but fun to do. It's my son's dream car, so even more satisfying to build. 

Self-imposed art, model and crafting challenge wrap-up.

I've been quiet with the blog the past couple days, but stayed busy at the workbench. Priming miniatures, more game terrain and managed to have an actual game (I might do a battle report later). There were a few more projects I didn't post, but will add to the challenge record later on.

Day 12 of the self-imposed art, model and crafting challenge.

All kinds of work going on. Besides basecoating a ton of 1/72 ACW's, I've been plugging away at more wargame scatter terrain. Some river/stream and road sections. Those are made of plastic "FOR SALE" signs with acrylic caulking for the banks. The stream is painted a dark brown color with Liquitex gloss medium for the water. A modular section for  Islandlwana  mountain. Even on top of an existing hill, its way out of scale. Experimented with Fall type trees. Still not sure about those, maybe mixed with bare trees it will work or have several in a group?

Breaking out books for reference and inspiration for various subjects. Lots of time on my hands makes a mess of the "library". Having blast doing it all.

Day 11 if the self-imposed art, model and crafting challenge.

Gave this guy a faux bronze paint job. I used Vallejo acylics. I like how it turned out. The touches of green in the recesses gives it that tarnished look.

Day 10 of the self-imposed art, model and crafting challenge.

A little bit of everything of everything today. Making some river sections for the game table. More work on the Bunker Hill vignette and starting to paint Captain " Slim".

Day 9 of the self-imposed art, model and crafting challenge.

While cleaning and organizing my workspace, I took a peak inside this case of oil paints, perhaps to find motivation and inspiration. It worked. I had this small 8×10 canvas prepared several years ago, just waiting for a day like this. Roughly 3-4 hours later this is the end result. The subject is from a figure I sculpted many years ago. I basically, cropped an image I had of him and transferred to canvas.  I'm happy with it. I originally wanted a gestural painting with heavy, broad strokes, but alas, I'm a tinkerer. I play too much. Besides, I think this canvas is too small to play like that, at least it is for me. I'll settle for a alla prima. I may start on another subject while I have the paints out.