From Greg: 28mm Foundry Austrian 10th Hussars

As we approach the finish line for the Painting Challenge Greg submits the balance of his Austrian 10th Hussars. As they are shown here they are 20-models strong. Greg has been waiting for several months for the last package from Foundry to finish the unit, but alas it has not made its appearance so Greg is going ahead with the unit as is (the lonely trumpeter waits unbased on the sidelines...).

If you want to check out how he painted these lads check out this earlier post here where he worked out his colour scheme on two test models.

As those two horsemen have already been counted we'll add another 18 cavalry (36 points) to Greg's total. With this group done that puts him in the lead with less than three days to go in the Challenge! Bravo Greg - top notch work all around, my friend!

From Greg: 28mm Perry Napoleonic French Infantry

Greg had originally done these Perry plastics around a year ago as two separate units for Shako. This was his first foray with painting French (being a dyed-in-the-wool Austrophile). This past weekend he basically combined the two to form the equivalent of a 32 man unit for Grand Manner style games.

I could be wrong, but from a close look at the colours it looks like this is the 3er Regiment de Ligne who, except for Jena-Auerstadt, was present for most of the major campaigns.

In rebasing this unit Greg has begun to experiment in using long grasses and other foliage to ornament the unit. Looks very nice indeed.

From the Lead Archive: Old Glory 1:2400 Napoleonic Ships-of-the-Line

Since Sylvain is running an Age of Sail scenario this week (Battle of Grand Port) using his modified 'Trafalgar' rules I thought I'd reacquaint myself with the period by touching-up some model ships that I had in the 'Lead Archive'.

These are 1:2400 Old Glory models. They are kinda grotty up close, but at an arms length away I think they give a nice impression of the ships of that time.

I particularly like that they are one-piece castings, with the seabase, masts and ratlines modeled as part of the same sculpt. I purposefully over-exaggerated the colours and highlighted heavily to give the models more 'punch' when seen on the tabletop. The pennants are just thin strips of paper dipped in a white glue and water emulsion, wrapped around the mainmast top and painted.

The models paint up quite fast and I'd recommend them to anyone who wants to first dip in a toe with Age of Sail gaming before investing in more complex, expensive and demanding castings from manufacturers such as Langton or GHQ.

Test Models: 28mm Perry Dismounted Dragoons

I assembled and painted these to get an idea of how they would look done-up as skirmishing models for both 'big battalion' games and the odd 'Sharpe Practice' dust-up. I think you get 8 in a box and I have about four boxes so I should be good for making a decent sized unit (assuming I don't go mad gluing my fingers together).

I used the same basic paint scheme as my mounted dragoon regiment so as to be able to depict them in their hybrid role as ground troops. I think I'm going to go back over these to dirty them up a little. They look a little too crisp and clean for my tastes.

Does anybody know of any good horse models that are 'at rest' that I could use for making up a horse holder stand? I thought such a stand would serve well as a rally position and a place where the regimental colours would be situated while the rest of the unit is dispersed to the front.

AND I get to chip in with another 3 points to the Challenge. Woo! (Cripes, talk about 'nickel and diming' to stay near the lead, eh?)

Product Review: 'Wings of War' Magnetic Gimbal Mounts

We've been playing a 'Wings of War' campaign lately and so I picked these magnetic gimbal mounts up from the Wings of War Aerodrome as I thought they were a brilliant little add-on for the game.

They're simply a ball bearing matched with a magnetic collar that fits between the existing stand and the aircraft model.

The assembly process is straightforward: first snip off the existing post at the bottom of the model and drill in a small hollow that will allow for the bearing to sit. Then put a drop of superglue in the hollow and place the bearing. Leave to cure.

Next assemble the stand and apply some superglue to the top of one of the posts. Then afix a magnetic collar to the post and allow to set-up.

So after about 5 minutes work you have a model that can depict it's tuns, climbs and dives (or, for me, impending crashes).

At $6.99 for a set of 10 these gimbal mounts provide a nice bit of added animation to the game - recommended!