Off the Painting Table (Oct 2019), part 2

I have pretty much reached the bottom of my painting pile, and so I have painted a few ships.

I am not especially interested in naval wargaming, but I had a couple of plastic sprues collected from magazines. The Napoleonic ships (for the newly released Black Seas rules) are 1/700^th scale and are slightly larger than my existing ships of the period i.e. 1/1200^th. They may prove useful in single ship combats.

The other sprue was a pair of Vosper MBT’s for Cruel Seas, but WW2 narrow seas gaming is not my ‘cup of tea’, so these models are likely to be sold on in a B&B sale. I also painted a ~15mm coast guard vessel (I cannot remember where I acquired this), which may be used as a feature in future AK-47 games.

So, now my painting gear will be cleared up for a while, at least until after Warfare in mid-November.

Off the Painting Table (Oct 2019)

As a stop-gap between projects, I decided to paint a few more figures for my Pirate collection. All were from Wargames Foundry. I really like and enjoy painting their Swashbucklers range.

Firstly I needed a few ex-slave figures, and these will nicely fill in as Spanish Lanceros for the Blood and Plunder rules.

I also bought some Royal Navy figures from a slightly later date (Napoleonic) which will add to my existing British naval forces.

On the gaming front I have focussed on solo games using Sword and Spear rules with my Greek & Persian Wars armies. This rules work really well for solo play and bring to life these armies, who are normally rather bland under other rules systems. I plan to use my Punic Wars armies next, because I’ve never tried them with S&S, so it should be interesting.

My gaming activity is basically on hold until the Warfare show in November, when I hopefully will be inspired again.

Inventory 2019

Due to a lack of painting and gaming activity at the moment, I decided (foolishly?) to update my inventory of wargaming armies and rules. I first created a ‘crude’ inventory back in the late 1990’s when I moved house. This was a purely electronic listing. It seemed like a good idea because all the boxes needed sorting and figures standing upright etc. In the early 2000’s I bought a new digital camera, so I decided to photo many of the armies and update/improve on my initial inventory, and then print out a hard copy. This did entail a lot of work but looked impressive, and proved very useful when planning games etc. It was my intension to maintain and add to this document whenever I painted up new units/armies, rebased etc. Such good plans sadly crumble when faced with reality!

Well, after 2 weeks sifting and sorting I have managed to complete the task. It is scary how much ‘stuff’ I’ve got! What is most concerning is the fact that many of the armies have not been out of their boxes for years. I now have a new resolution to try and get some of these figures on the table during the coming year(s). My catalogue now extends to almost 100 pages (not including photos) and is completely up to date. I’m amazed how many rule sets I’ve bought over the years (I never throw out or sell any rules); for example I’ve more than 30 different ‘Ancient’ rules (not including army lists), dating back to WRG 2^nd edition! Anyway, my armies are labelled and lodged beneath my table in the garage and occupies roughly 100² foot of space (not including rules on shelves). Surprisingly there are no major gaps in my collections; I was hoping to spot such gaps and finish any incomplete projects. What I have noticed is that some work could be done to provide ancillary markers, objectives, camps etc. I plan to rectify this went I visit Warfare in November.