Laid up for a few days.

A quick update this week chaps. Last Thursday morning I was out and about with Poppy the dog as usual in the morning. By late afternoon I started to feel a bit unwell and then suddenly started to tremble, my body and hands shaking uncontrollably, (don't worry Tony I didn't have a brush in my hands at the time). Following orders from my wife I took myself off to bed where I shivered under the duvet for some time not knowing what was happening. Next morning I woke up with a very red and swollen left lower leg and the upshot is that I'm now on a course of strong antibiotics for Cellulitis. Quite painful initially, things are now gradually settling down but there is clearly a fierce battle going on at subcutaneous level between the bacteria and the penicillin.

As a result I have taken several days break from the painting desk - although I plan to be back from Monday-  so am a few days behind with my commission schedule. Meantime I have been looking around the numerous FB groups based on the smaller scales and small space concept and found it really quite inspiring. I'll be adding James Fergusons excellent blog to links at right, as his 6mm DBN Peninsular War battle really caught my eye, something about the colourful troops and the quite sparse terrain made for a highly entertaining game and I must admit it did have me thinking about the possibility of a couple of 6mm DBN armies like these once my Crimeans have reached the logical conclusion.

Blog Link.

On the subject of blogs my new customer Simon sent me the link to his, the wonderfully titled 'Warfare in the Middle Aged', talk about a wide variety of interests!

Blog Link. 

I have a couple of initial units of 10mm fantasy figures to paint for Simon in order to show him what I can do, and these are some amazing sculpts by Warmaster yet another company I had not heard of before! Really looking forward to painting these as I can have some fun. 

Another short video featuring the new terrain mat with deployed Russians!

The new mat arrived yesterday from Geek Villain, so I wasted no time in laying out to see how well it works with my basing style, pretty well spot on I'd say! Quick video which saves a lot of typing (once again please excuse my mumbling, I must work on this). Needs a good iron as you can see but it's fully washable and a great quality product which I would highly recommend and a big improvement in my opinion over the printed cloths I had previously because it's thick enough to lay over hills without creasing, especially in 6mm scale. I plan to make some more larger realistic hills. Woods need improving and I might buy some of the S&A Scenics small trees to replace the clump foliage you see here. The video gives a good impression of how I want the armies to look when when deployed in Divisions I think with the big battalions giving a quite realistic effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkNerzKexVU

Latest off the desk is the French heavy cavalry base below consisting of Dragoons and Cuirassiers - a nice splash of Napoleonic like colour in the Crimea. French light base almost finished.

More soldiers and new terrain mat on order.

I have been giving the issue of terrain for my 6mm Crimean War games a LOT of thought recently. Do I go for a grid, maybe squares or hexes or a fully textured open board? To be honest as much as I like gridded games I knew that I wanted to get back to open terrain again, and with the decision made to stick with DBN (DBC?) as my go to rules - with a few small tweaks to reflect the changes over the intervening 40 years -  I looked a round for a solution that would not require hours of work. I remembered that 'Norm' had mentioned the Geek Villian textured mats so went and had a look at them. It did not take me long to realise that this was the product for me so I have on order a 6x 4 'Summer Grass' mat that looks to match well with my bright figure bases. The clincher was the fact that the mat is thick enough to place hills BENEATH it, and I think my various S&A Scenics hills will work well with this. I have long had an issue with freestanding hills as they never look natural and of course I could form larger hills from layers of foamboard should I require a specific shaped hill. My games will be played on the 5 x 3 dining table which is just the right size for my planned games. So everything is slowly starting to come together at last and I'm actually really looking forward to getting started. I don't have any plans to do any other projects or periods but will continue to enjoy adding further bases to what is now a fair sized collection.

The mat is due to arrive tomorrow so I will take the opportunity to get some photos of the Crimean stuff so far on it in the order of battle I have in mind. I'm really pleased with the mass effect of the bases, it's just what I was looking for. So far I have painted:

Russian.

9 bases of line infantry (including 1 Greek) 72 figures per base

2 bases of skirmishing infantry  18 figures per base.

3 bases of cavalry 24 figures per base

2 artillery 2 guns and li8mbers per base

command base.

Allied.

6 bases of British infantry (including Guards and Highlanders that comprised the 1st Division)

3 bases of French infantry

2 bases of skirmishers 1 British rifles and 1 French 

4 bases of cavalry 3 British and 1 French (The French is being expanded today to 1 Light and 1 heavy)

2 artillery bases 4 guns.

Combined command base.

With 18 bases of infantry comprising 36 x 36 figure battalions I'm getting closer to my target of 24 infantry bases plus skirmishers.

I have on order from Irregular Miniatures two of the 'Crimean Camp sets' bell tents, huts, supply wagons, flag poles etc which should make a couple of nice baggage bases.

Below: More of those pesky Russians! The red flags I'm using to mark Guards, Green being line.

More figures for John.

A few shots of this weeks output. I'll be getting this lot in the post tomorrow (including the Minarions featured in last weeks post of course), and for the week ahead it's a couple of Les Higgins 20mm battalions for Tony then more ECW's for Graham the following week. I also have a new customer who has asked me to paint 10mm Fantasy armies for him and this project will sit nicely beside what I have in hand filling in any gaps. I was quite keen to do this project as it offered variety from the historical stuff and a fresh challenge. Some may recall the contribution I painted towards James' (Mad Tin Hatter) 'For Joshua' charity project (HERE), and these are very much in the same line so looking forward to it.

First off, Col. Richards Regiment (British in Catalonia). 23 Strelet plastic figures, mounted officer is Les Higgins. Cast on flags hand painted to match the reference sheet.

          Below: Higher Command figures (Minifigs) the white coated figure is an artillery General.

                         Below: Catalonian Cuirassier Regiment Aragon (Les Higgins). 12 cavalry.

Below: French Dragoons Le Roi, trumpeter in Royal Livery.

Below:  Catalonian artillery crew with mounted commander. (Warrior and Lancer crew). Figure at rear is a standard bearer for La Maine infantry (unknown make).

20mm Minairon Miniatures for Old John.

Couple of rather nice units painted so far this week for John. These are more of the lovely Minairon Miniatures representing Catalonian infantry of the war of the Spanish Succession. Regiments Diputacio (Blue) and Barcelona (Red). The former changed from off white coats to blue in 1705 and John requested three figures painted in the off white which makes a nice contrast. Just need a coat of satin varnish.

Currently on the go are some Minifigs French cavalry Le Roi) to be followed by a 12 figure Catalonian cuirassier regiment which are Les Higgins. 

The 6mm's continue to grow! I'm working on more French now with a base of Guard infantry in bearskins and red trousers, 72 figures and also adding more cavalry with Dragoons and Hussars. I'm also keen to introduce some Sardinians.

23 infantry figures painted over 3 days for Johns collection.

More painting including a 6mm tutorial video!

Having finished off two more ECW regiments of foot towards Grahams Edgehill project it was time to open up the latest arrivals from Old John in the form of two very large boxes of soldiers with a little help from Grandson Oscar (Ozzy). I'll be starting on the first of them today, some lovely Minarion Miniatures representing WSS Catalonian infantry. I did some of these a while back and they are very nice sculpts. I'll be spending the next couple of weeks painting for John.

I have continued painting my own 6mm figures on the side, latest additions being another Russian infantry base, a British line infantry base and another light cavalry base featuring more Light Dragoons and the 11th Hussars, the 'Cherrybums'. In addition I have reworked the two command bases by adding more figures to the 40mm circular bases that were looking a bit sparse. I combined the British and French command into one base and added the lovely little 'Florence Nightingale' figure which features the lady herself plus a nurse and wounded soldier. 

I then thought it might be a good idea to do another 6mm painting tutorial this time featuring some Irregular Miniatures (last I did was 10 years ago with Baccus Napoleonic strips, which has proved to be the most viewed post through the years). The tutorial is in 2 parts on YouTube as I find it much easier to talk than type! As usual please forgive my gruff voice and the huffing and puffing. I'll be posting it on a couple of Facebook group sights, the 6mm wargaming group being one as I find I get the most response and feedback from such these days. But anyway, here it is should you care to take a look and that's it for another week.

 Part 1 - https://youtu.be/5KpAkb35f-U

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/_4ZYQE1RR5g