A little more done on the buildings...

I added a few more details and then textured the buildings using the old glue and sand approach.  So quick and easy.  I have since base-painted all the buildings using my usual mis-tinted latex house paint.  At about $5 per gallon in all the colours usually needed for terrain, I really don't understand why anyone would pay for custom mixed paint, or even worse, use super expensive hobby paint for terrain projects or basing.

Sudan Buildings

It has been a while since I did some work on my colonial collection.  I have prepped loads of figures for all the campaigns I play, but little else has been done.  Well I finally got going on some new Sudan/Middle-Eastern buildings using little drawer sets from the dollar store. I still have a long way to go on these, but the basic 'slugs' are taking form.  Here are a couple of shots:

The basic approach will be very Ian Weekley.  Of course, mine will be simple, durable, game friendly but I hope also evocative.

Good ol' Hinchliffe Figures

Back in the late 70s and 80s you were either a Minifigs fan or collected Hinchliffe.  Well, I was the latter and have long embraced the aesthetic principles applied to our hobby of the late Peter Gilder (designer of Hinchcliffe and Connoisseur figures).  I still use lots of the Foremost range of horses and many of the Napoleonics ranges still are worth considering.  

For a couple of my armies I decided to go with the old figures still nicely cast by Hinds Ltd..  One of these is a Byzantine army.  Recently I painted 4 units (72 figures) of heavy infantry and decided to give these simple figures a reasonably complex shield design: a simplified icon of the Virgin Mary.

Here are a couple of pictures of the painting process.  I am always horrified by close ups of my painting, but again, these are unfinished, so have mercy.  En masse they look quite effective and are not stickers!

And again, Armati

We have been playing a lot of Armati to the detriment of other periods including colonials!  Fear not, I will be getting back to BFE soon.  Indeed, I am working on the WWI version and have French on the painting table right now.  In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of our last game: Byzantines vs. Carolingians meeting somewhere around the northern Mediterranean...

Some recent Armati action

When we are too busy to create scenarios (which we do for colonials, Napoleonics, WWII and other periods) we frequently end up playing Armati.  It is a delightful game, fast, clear, and we have dozens of armies to choose from, all in glorious 28mm.  Here are some pictures of the last couple of game evenings.

Back from Enfilade in Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia, Washington

A couple of weeks ago, a big Canadian contingent went to Enfilade, the US convention south of Seattle in Olympia, the state capital.  This was a really fantastic convention drawing people from the entire west coast.  We noticed that the quality of the terrain and figure collections was superb and there were some really fun participation games.  Of particular note was a huge 10mm Omaha beach game with homegrown rules, lots of action and all the vehicles, LCs and ships custom made on a 3D printer.  Impressive stuff.

It is alway gratifying to see some of the games that I have been involved in developing being presented.  Shako 2 and Armati 2 were being played (not just by us -- we did a couple of Armati games).  I was particularly impressed by the Shako game played on a large scale with 20mm figures. As 28mm figures get ever bigger, it is refreshing to see 20mm.  They look elegant, can be seen (15mm and smaller are too small although can be effective for certain kinds of rules and games) and therefore strike a very nice balance.  I note that John Ray (The military gentleman) is developing a range of SYW figures in 20mm.  I am tempted.

On the BFE front, we presented a WWI game representing part of Vimy Ridge.  My buddy Thomas Moore made a fantastic set of trench terrain boards and the game went really well.  We are still developing the BFE Great War rules and it has a way to go, but so far really good.

The only down side of the weekend was that I had a massive head cold that limited my will to live.  Thankfully the excitement of seeing such wonderful games and presenting a couple of them with enthusiastic players kept me going.

Cheers,
Chris

Battle of Lutzen, 1632

A few shots from last weeks game.