Crusader Miniatures Thureophoros

This is the new unit for my Successor Army - Hellenistic Mercenary Thureophoros. It is the second unit I have painted from the Crusader Miniatures Range and have enjoyed the experience. I have painted the figures to represent the mercenary infantryman from Plate 4 - The Daphnae Parade - of the Seleucid Army (Montvert Publications) However they have now left behind the Hoplon shields, from the parade, and have opted for the better protection of the thureos shield. They have also left behind their cloaks so that they can better wield their swords and throw their javelins and are now poised for action. I have painted the standard with the face of an older Antiochus IV and have not painted the cloth purple, as I should have done, mainly so that it will stand out better against the red back ground. I now have two, twenty figure, Thureophoros units based as light infantry for War Hammer Ancients. Now we just have to wait for the new rule set and the long over due Successor Army Supplement.

My two Thureophoros units.

Perry Miniatures Chosen Army Artillery - Painted by Leroy Simpson

As promised I have placed up Leroy's finished Korean Army Artillery. Both pieces are from the fantastic Perry Miniatures Chosen Army range and like all figures produced by the Perry's they are well designed and relatively easy to paint. Leroy's next unit in line for his Korean Army are the armoured infantry, which I think he will have finished in the next week or so.

Enjoy

Perry Miniatures Chosen Army Archers - painted by Leroy Simpson

Just a few images thrown up of Leroy's latest painting project. Again the figures are from the Korean Chosen Army, designed by Perry Miniatures, which he is painting up to play against the beautiful Samurai Army he has already painted. Leroy has also painted some artillery for these guys but has yet to base them. When he does I will be sure to place them up on the blog for you all to see.

Enjoy.

A Small Italian Village - Designed by Peter Power

This great little creation was put together by Peter Power, one of the members of our club. It was his first attempt at making scratch built terrain for wargaming. For his first attempt it is damn impressive. Apparently he spent most of his Christmas holidays in the garage sweating over its' construction. The village is designed for the 15mm gamer and for Peter his Flames of War. The buildings are made out of a mix of ply wood, foam card and paddle pop sticks, with the church as the main building he has even used colored plastic for the tinted windows at the back of the church. The building colors were first white, but that made it look to Greek so he has change the color to shades of light brown, just to give a more Italian feel. All the buildings have detachable roofs and for the larger buildings, the floors can be separated. In all a very impressive first attempt. Peter has also designed a number of other buildings, vineyards, olive groves and roads to place on the table.

Flames of War 28mm - D Day + 2

Well it is the long awaited battle report for our 28mm FOW game. This game was played by myself, Leroy Simpson, Peter Power and John, last Monday on the Queens Birthday Weekend. We decided to play 28mm FOW as Leroy has a great little collection which gets very little use. So we decided to drag it out of the cupboard and back onto the gaming table. Why FOW? Well in our long quest to find a decent Skirmish game - we failed, but most of us are very familiar with the FOW gaming system and we had tried it before in the past with 28mm. The system works just as well for 28mm as it does with 15mm. Changes again were the lengthening of the movement and shooting ranges (increase by one half) and the costing of vehicles. The cost of infantry platoons remained the same, but vehicles were reduced to the cost of one vehicle in stead of one platoon. This was done as to reduce the amount of tanks on the board. However if you prefer more vehicles and already have them painted up then there is no reason why you can not leave the cost the same.

The game was based on the D Day + 2. A depleted British Para Company of one platoon of infantry, a small platoon of pioneers, a recce patrol of one jeep and Company Headquarters were trying desperately to hang onto a crossroad. The German forces comprised of a Panzer Grenadier Platoon, Pioneer platoon, HMG platoon, one Panther and one Jagpanther, plus Company HQ. The German mission was to destroy the British Para's before the British ground forces broke through. British ground forces consisted of a British Infantry Platoon. Vickers Platoon, Stuart Recce tank, Churchill Tank and a Cromwell.

Panzer Grenadier have pushed the Paras out of their positions.

The game played extremely well. First the Panzer Grenadiers moved slowly forward up the main road in hope of flushing out the Paras. Which they did taking the first two main buildings and pushed back the Para Platoon. Only in turn pushed back themselves by a counter attack from the Pioneer platoon. While the battle for the crossroads was taking place the German Pioneer Platoon pushed on down the eastern road in hope of acting as a blocking force against a possible attack by British ground forces or against the withdrawal of the Paras. However there was no luck there - the British ground forces broke through before the Pioneers had time to establish a defensive position. By the end of the afternoon we ended up calling the game a draw. Half the town was in possession of the Germans and the other half by the Paras. Plus with the Panther taking a hits from two PIATs and the crew forced to bail, we called it a draw.

German Pioneers advance towards the enemy.

The Jagpanther offers close support for the Panzer Grenadiers.

British Paras counter attack against the German positions.

British Infantry break through the German lines and advance towards the crossroads.

German Panzer Grenadiers. (1st Corp and Blacktree design)

Panzer Grenadiers advance towards the village.

Pioneers reach the platoon FUP and make their final preparations for the attack.

1st Corps British Paras.

The German HMG Platoon takes up position behind a hedgerow and offers fire support to the Panzer Grenadiers.

The Panther slowly moves forward down a very tight lane.

Pegaso Model's Samurai Warrior 90-028 (New Images) - By Leroy Simpson

Well after years of looking at the work of such masters as Bill Horan it was only a matter of time before I had a go at a larger scale figure. As for those who know me or check out Nathan’s Blog it must come as no surprise that the subject for this leap to 90mm would be a Samurai! I have been looking for a little while for the right figure with limited success and after reading an article in ModelArt by Paul Carpenter I finally settled on Pegaso Model’s Samurai Warrior 90-028. This proved to be an interesting choice as it is not from my period of choice the Edo period but from the earlier Heian era and with the amount of lacing on the figure I would be hard pressed to find a more time consuming project.

The figure itself is spectacular, as is the price, and the only other criticism’s I can voice is the large mould line across the Kabuto and the brittle nature of the metal which proves to be a pain later on when several of the cords of the back of the figure snapped during the final assembly. But other than these relatively minor issues the figure was well cast and with the addition of a number of pins the parts fitted together with the minimum of filler or fiddling required.

As always the figure was undercoated black and the majority of paints used being from the Vallejo and Games Workshop ranges. The base is Tasmanian Oak and was produced by a very kind gentlemen from the local woodturning club (this can be a very cheap and rewarding option as these blokes are great and usually very happy to offer their services and the base can be made to your own particular requirements!). Despite working on this figure on and off for several months the whole project came together so nicely that I cannot help thinking about doing a couple more. Considering the huge amount of effort in painting all that lace work this is a big endorsement. Hope you enjoy the images and perhaps consider doing something like this for yourself.

A Sneak Preview of Our last 28mm Flames of War Game

Just thought I would throw up a few images from our little Flames Of War game we had on the Queens Birthday Long Weekend. The rest of the images I will place up sometime over the weekend (hope that will be OK?) the game was played at my place however most of the terrain was made by Leroy -he is a bit of a Jack of all Trades. The figures and armour are also all of Leroy's. I did have some but that was a little time ago and they were sold to make room for an other project. But anyway I will write a battle report in the next three days or so.

Enjoy - Vinnie