Wednesday, July 21, 2021

A short update...


It's been quite a while since I posted anything, but in case you are wondering I haven't abandoned the blog. Other commitments and a bit of hobby burnout has meant I've either not had the time or the inclination to do much with my various projects - particularly my 20mm Napoleonic collections, which are the main focus here.

I will get going with things again soon, and plan to do more than just post photos of what I've been painting (although there will be plenty of that too, I'm sure). What I really want to do is write up some battle reports, try out some of the many rulesets I've amassed over the past few years, and generally share some of my hobby adventures in Napoleonic wargaming, especially from a solo-gaming viewpoint.

Despite the lack of posts, I did manage to make progress with my rebasing project earlier this year. I lost count of how many times I changed my mind about base sizes, but eventually settled on two-figure bases for cavalry and six-figure bases for infantry. (For those that are interested the cavalry bases have a 35mm frontage and 37.5mm depth. The infantry are 37.5mm wide and either 30mm or 35mm deep.) Artillery bases are either 45 or 50mm wide, of varying depths.

The rebasing is only partly done. I'm maybe about a third of the way there, but there's enough to give me some French and Prussian units to play with. As well as giving all the bases a more consistent look, I took the chance to touch up and repaint certain units, and correct some of my uniform mistakes (of which I'm sure there are still quite a few!) The biggest change was to give the French infantry uniforms a darker blue colour and to repaint a lot of the shako covers as greys or browns rather than having them all black.

I have a new gaming cloth on order, which should give me a prettier surface to demo a short game for my next post. I'll either be using Lasalle 2nd edition or Shadow of the Eagles, both of which were released this year. More on that next time!

10 comments:

  1. These look fabulous. Excellent painting and basing.
    Regards, James

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  2. hi kevin hope your well ive been popping by your blog so nice to see you back its strange ive just got my newline prussians down from the loft to have a look at rebasing them....again plenty of bare metal in there as well ive also had hobby burnout as well not completed a full unit for at least two months i just cant get inspired ive got an order in with lancer miniatures for some 10mm ECW hopefully the change from Naps may get my brush moving again take care regards jay

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    1. Hi Jay, thanks for your encouraging words! My enthusiasm is starting to return I'm pleased to say. I had a first go at using Keith Flint's 'Shadow of the Eagles' rules at the weekend, and had great fun. Once I get my table set-up looking a bit smarter I'll post up some AARs. The hobby burnout is always a strange thing, isn't it? Sometimes it just takes a bit of time away doing something else to get the mojo back again, or starting another project/period can do it. ECW is something I've always contemplated. It's definitely on my 'one day' list. I think I'd go the 10mm route as well. Hope you manage to get your brush moving again soon. All the best!

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  3. Great to hear from you Kev! Fantastic armies! Yes been there in the burn out zone this year with moving house. Looking forward to some posts on solo gaming.

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  4. Thanks Tony. Hope the house move went well. Always a bit stressful that!

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  5. Hi Kevi , nice to see you back in the land of the living. I have been enlarging my French and British units (just for the hell of it). Tthe French in column look quite impressive. Currently converting French guard lancers andd British Lt Dragoons (shako) into Berg lancers, curtesy of Sean as ever. Will post you some pics when complete.
    Regards
    Mike x

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    1. Thanks Mike. I'll look forward to seeing those. I've so far not ventured into doing any conversions, but I do have it in mind to create a couple of units for my Prussians - one grenadier and one guard grenadier. Nothing fancy - just the addition of shako plumes to help distinguish them on the table.

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  6. Oops!! Sorry for typing errors

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