Bookkeeping

Ugh. Hard to believe the year is half over already. Time just keeps going faster.

I thought I'd take a minute to look over the last half year to see if I've stuck to my plan or if some new plan emerged that perhaps I should acknowledge. If planning posts aren't your thing, you've been warned!

As per my post earlier this year, my goals are/were:

• Play 1 toy soldiers game per month
• Play 1 board game per month (not even a wargame necessarily)
  
• Get at least one Venusian force with options ready for the table
• Bring each WWI force up to three "companies" (H.M.G. suggests 8 figure Bersaglieri and 9 figure Austrian) and 2 MG bases.

Every blog post needs an image. This is from September 2020 when the khaki Brits were being painted. I just love how it looks like their standard is a monument to the ancient snail god called 'Gary'.

 Board games:

Although I haven't played any this month, I've played lot's of board games - well, if Fluxx counts (it's a card game). I only broke out a hex-and-counter game in February, when I acquired Ghost Panzer Worthington has announced they'll be reprinting the supplements and games in the series, which is great to hear and I have my eye on getting them eventually.

Figure games:

No figure games in May and June isn't looking likely either, given I am focused on painting right now.

Venusian Forces:

I have a lot to paint, but that said I've made some good progress this year already, but across factions. 

My plans for each faction changes depending on what rules I am considering.  For example, my original plan for the French was a single unit + gun crew, which is what I now have. However, I decided I wanted two infantry units plus an overall commander, and maybe cavalry, to put them in line with my figures for The Great Game. So, now they aren't done.

That said, both the French and the Lizards are close to being brought up to what I would consider 4-5 units for GASLIGHT / Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles / FUBAR: VSF / In Good Company and similar games. 

Both  are already capable of fielding a number of units for a grid-based game with 3-4 figs per unit, which is something that is likely to be a thing.

WWI

I changed from individually-based to mounting three-to-a-stand for infantry and returned to a One Hour Wargames organization. However, figure count-wise, I have two companies each by H.M.G. standards. Still need to assemble and paint the 2nd MG for each force. 

From the OHW perspective, six units of infantry and two assault units are complete. Plus a commander (for The Portable Wargame, Trench Hammer, and other games where leaders matter). The Italians also have one unit of cavalry which was not part of my initial plan.

 Other

It wasn't planned but I made a bunch of buildings in various stages of ruin for 1:1 skirmishing.  

Plans for the Second Half:

I purposely tried to keep things manageable and not shoot for the moon with my plans for this year. So far, it's panned out. I also planned to spend less time blogging so I could leave comments elsewhere and that seems to be going OK as well. 

For the second half of the year, I am going to give myself some specific goals on the painting front. For games, I still want to play 1 of each kind per month at least.

• Finish up WWI Italian and Austro-Hungarian MG bases and the second Italian cavalry base. I'll probably expand eventually (I have some alpini, for example, and I want to add the other European powers that made an appearance in Italy during the war: Germans for 1917 and the Brits for 1918,  for sure, and maybe add the French for 1918, too), but this will be the solid core force.

•  Assemble and paint the 1/35 French in gasmasks for Weird World War I.
  

• Finish Venusian lizards - I need to finish 6 more SCS Direct lizards, the Iron Wind Metals shaman, and then maybe, just maybe, some figures to act as handlers for the Spinosaurus. I don't need to have the handlers though.
  

• Expand French Foreign Legion force - 7 more in red pants, 3 more figures to man the Gatling. They really need cavalry to compete with the other European armies I have, but that requires purchasing and so will probably wait until next year (or Black Friday). I'm thinking cuirassiers, because why not?

• Paint Tanitian light infantry, redo the elephant, and create a hero or commander figure (I have one in mind). That would give me a reasonable core force
  

• Paint one unit of the Roman faction and name said faction.The triari are some of my favorite figures, so, I will start with the hastati and make my early mistakes there! Unlike the Tanitians, they will not be monochromatic. Perhaps that's why they are at war?

Figure count-wise, I think that's around 50 figures depending on how you count the cavalry. I've painted 27 this year, since April. Theoretically, then, this is feasible if a bit of a stretch for me. Which is fine, if I fall short, I'll still have made progress. The odds of going over though are slim.

As for games, I have no specific plans, but I hope to get one on the table this weekend!

Lancieri e Cavalleria Ride to the Sound of the Guns!

With great satisfaction, I am pleased to announce my first unit of Italian cavalry is complete. They can serve to represent "Lancieri di Novara" and/or "Genova Cavalleria" at the battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli, or, of course, generic units otherwise.

I really need to finish those base edges!

The figures, again, are Armies in Plastic horses and Egyptian Lancer bodies, with heads supplied from the Dulcop Italian infantry/arditi grenade throwing figure. The AiP WW1 British lancer body, with the cartridge belt across the chest is more accurate perhaps, but then I'd have to do something about the puttees. I guess I could mix the three figures together, but this is close enough for my purposes.

To my astonishment, I quite enjoyed painting the horses - maybe more than the figures themselves. I think the change in tune was due in large part to the toy-soldier look and not worrying about shading their coats as I had tried in 1/72. 

I have always loved horses (my maternal grandfather owned a stable of harness racers) but this was the first time I ever looked into their markings. I do love that one facet of our wonderful hobby is the rabbit hole you can fall into when looking for info when painting figures.

I have another unit of cavalry to assemble for the Italians (Austro-Hungarians won't have any), but first there are three lizard warriors primed and ready as well as machine guns with crews for the Italians and Austro-Hungarians (yet to be assembled) in line ahead of them.

Something Old, Something New

The "something old" referred to in the post title is this used copy of One-Hour Wargames.

I purchased the book on Kindle when it was first published and have always found it annoying to use on any device - that's more of a me problem than an issue with the e-book format. After finally realizing that I turn to this book on a monthly if not weekly basis, I decided the investment in a second-hand print copy was well worth the cost.  

It is a joy to behold. The ease of which I can flip to a desired scenario or rules section without navigating to a bookmark menu is unparalleled!

The "something new" is a Tehnolog figure. I don't know what she is. She has fangs, so vampire? She came with some exceptionally buff skeleton-headed types. The latter were given to my son.

She's for yet another project I have in mind - using Maudlin Jack Tar's  The Quests of Brin the Barbarian. This is something I have wanted to return to for sometime, but in 54mm rather than the 28mm I had played it with previously. 

In any case, I blame the growing fascination with this idea at least in part on TheReferee's Fantasy Thread over on Little Wars Revisited. The other influences being Quantrill's Toy Soldiers and another Maudlin Jack Tar entry, Swords, Sorcery, and Squares. Of course, I got started gaming with D&D so there's always a place in my heart for small bands of murder hobos seeking fame and fortune and facing dangerous foes.

Red Red Pants

The first recruits of the second unit of French Foreign Legion have answered the call. 

Clad in stylish and distinctive red trousers, they'll initially operate as the Gatling gun crew. Once their numbers are sufficient, I'll have to consider just which figures should act as crew for them.

Figures are Armies in Plastic. The red is from a pot of P3 Khador Red Base that I've had now for 15 years. It is just as good as the day I bought it. None of the Citadel / GW paints acquired around the same time lasted even half as long before drying out. I suspect it has to do with the paint pot itself.

In any case, I digress.

It occurred to me that until my forces are closer to completed, I can field some grid-based games using my Venusian forces and 3-figure units. I don't know *when* this will happen, but hopefully before the end of June. 

In the meantime, painting has begun on my WWI Italian cavalry and I have three lizard warriors primed and waiting.

An eBay Find

I am always on the lookout for inexpensive, and if possible, pre-painted ,Victorian-era civilians to serve in Victorian Science Fiction or Great Game scenarios. I also am keen on the idea of staging vignettes of the sort regularly seen on the The Duchy of Tradgardland. So, as I often like to couch these things in terms of a certain inevitability, when I stumbled upon the William Britain's Masters of Science range, and this figure of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in particular, money and fool were soon parted.

He's a bit short of stature compared to Armies in Plastic and such, but the real Brunel was but 5' tall, so it's quite accurate.

Of course, I have rechristened this good fellow to serve my own purposes.  Please allow me to introduce Professor Blackwood, late of Hull, proprietor of Blackwood Steamworks.

Lady Pennington, fresh from her return from her recent and much heralded expedition in Central Asia, discusses suggested improvements of the Gatling gun with the noted inventor and industrialist, Professor Blackwood.

First Arditi are Complete-y!

 I apologize for the title of the post. I'll show myself out.

Still here?

 Here they are, the first of what will be two arditi stands:

I know there are who people would prefer I paint eyes or rosy cheeks or shadows and stuff. My painting style inspiration for 54s has always been Britain's Deetail figures and their Seaforth Highlander set 5188 and similar.

 

The figures are by Dulcop and feature one of their least animated poses - which is hard to imagine. Indeed, they almost ended up looking like a synchronized swim team:

Where's Esther Williams?

But wisely, I think, I reconsidered the basing arrangement.

The straps on the guns are brittle to say the least - the lump on the middle figure's strap was there already - and I believe it was glued together as a repair by the previous owner. The strap I repaired has s similar lump but it's not visible in this picture. Trust me, it's there.

I have the next three ready to enter the painting queue - they are jumping the line because I am nearing the completion of the rifle infantry and assault troops for these armies(for now). It also took I think three days from start to finish and maybe an hour or two tops of total effort. I still have to do a few head swaps for the Italian cavalry (and then paint them), order additional machine gun teams for both sides, and paint some single figures to function as gun crews.

I don't need any of those things to field an interesting and amusing game, so it feels like I am entering into the home stretch here at least for the core of this collection (I see adding British and Germans as a nice to have, but not necessary, side project to this)

As a result, I am tempted to pick up the pace to complete everything for this collection - but I also know that's a sure fire way for me to burn out. Slow and steady wins the race.

First Complete Tanitian Unit

This weekend I managed to finish up the first Tanitian (Venusian Carthaginian) unit of 10 figures. Now, you may have heard me mention 12 figures before. Let's just forget that - I like 10 better. If it turns out that 12 is needed, then I'll paint more.

This batch also was the first time I tried a white undercoat and it made a world of difference. I believe it was three coats of the orange paint, rather than 6+ for black, grey, or sienna. This sped up completion considerably.

Applying gloss before black lining - with pen or paint brush - makes corrections easy, as mistakes can be wiped away for the most part. However, it's all too easy to erase more than intended, so in some cases I just globbed on more orange to cover up mistakes, when I cared enough to correct them at all. From wargaming distance a lot of the lining imperfections blur away, at least with my poor vision.

Digressions aside, here are the new recruits:

This batch of shield designs comes from a collection of Cthulhu Mythos symbols I found.

And here is the complete unit of 10:

And from the shield-side:

  

Both Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles and GASLIGHT suggest having a leader figure or two in the bunch. While the standard bearer is clearly a leader, less obvious is my intent that the checkered pattern shield is the 2nd-in-Command. It is my favorite pose by far and so I made sure to only have one of that pose in this batch.

With the exception of the standard bearer, the figures are all HaT Carthaginians. The standard bearer is from the Classic Toy Soldiers Carthaginian set.

On the paint-table already in progress are three Dulcop arditi looking a bit like they're in a musical. That will make more sense when I show you a picture of them, but not until they are finished. Waiting close behind are Italian cavalry, more French Foreign Legion, Tanitian light infantry, more 1/32 lizard warriors, etc.