Crafty Christmas Purchase

Hello again.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a shop
Called "Titan Games", in Lichfield..."
(Sorry Wordsworth...)

Actually, I was out Christmas shopping, largely to get things for my wife, and happened upon this emporium, the aforementioned Titan Games in Lichfield, Staffordshire, so in I went. What an Aladdin's Cave of riches greeted me in the small antechamber at the front of the shop. Stacked floor to ceiling with various goodies, and with a table festooned with Christmas orders being prepped for despatch, I did not know where to start looking.

Just like in the "Mr Benn" cartoon series I loved as a kid, "as if by magic, a shopkeeper appeared". A very jovial fellow allowed me to breeze around his shop, whilst busily answering my questions around what was stocked, when his games nights were, etc., but mostly around the new version of GW's "Necromunda" game I had heard was coming out.

"I have it in stock," says the jovial shopkeeper.
"Really?!" says excited browser, a little too excitedly perhaps.
"I'll go and fetch a copy," ripostes the now departing proprietor, as he heads into some further chamber, soon to return with a large, colourful box in his hands.

"Excellent!" I cry. "So what do you get in the box?"

The next few minutes are spent discussing the two gangs that come with the game, the fact that the initial game deals with subterranean action in a sewer-type complex (thoughts drift to Stalingrad, Verdun...hm, options!) but there is a supplement out to take you up to the multi-level affairs of yesteryear's version of the game (thoughts drift to those wonderful MDF kits I have seen so often at various shows and admired...) And there are specialist dice sets, some card packs to assist in playing and developing your games...

I bought the lot!!!

I also bought some of the paint I needed, so it was not all whimsy.

There are two gangs in the game, as I said above. The "Goliaths" are steroid-sucking meatheads with serious anger-management issues. The Escher are pseudo-punk radfems with a passion for poisons. All I have to do is convince someone else to play as girls! There are also a plethora of stout, card templates to play on, templates for use with the game, dice, instructions...the usual cornucopia of richness that comes with these GW boxed sets.

So, I am now the proud owner of the new "Necromunda" and, with 2018 fast approaching and a desire to get more than a handful of games in for this coming year, and an even bigger desire to get my 11 year old son involved in wargaming in some way that does not involve computing/ X Box/ other consoles are available, I hope to get this going soon.

Finally, I would hereby like to wish one and all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR and hope 2108 brings you health, wealth and happiness.

G

The big box!

How do they get it all in? Figures to build, bulkheads to seal off passageways, game templates, literature...

And the other bits to enrich the game. The book covers taking your gangs upstage to the levels of yore, the dice are wholly unnecessary but wholly nice (!) and the card packs are there to help.

Big Men With Tall Hats

Hello again.

Another of the purchases I made from Ian at Eagle Figures back at the "Alumwell Show", aka, WMMS, in March, was a pack of his British Grenadiers, destined as with all my Seven Year' War purchases to date to feature in my burgeoning French & Indian Wars project.

Now, with 24 figures to a pack and four figures to a base (the way I am doing it, anyway!), that gives me six bases of Grenadiers to play with and, as an added bonus, I do not need to paint any flags!!! Using 24 figures also ties in neatly with my 24 figure line regiments.

So, with a plan to field six British line regiments for the aforementioned project, that neatly gives me six bases of grenadiers from six different regiments, each base representing a company. Job done!

Except, they all have to look slightly different, which is great to look at but a pain to do en masse...

I don't know if it is just me or something others find, but having to paint slightly different looking figures in a batch just doesn't work for me. I seem to spend ages doing the differences (blue facings instead of red, yellow lace instead of white, etc) and the whole thing becomes a chore.

To combat this, and with the limited time I have for anything at the moment, as well as limited daylight, I have been very slowly painting these up a base of four at a time. Although this is inefficient (I would normally work on 12 to 16 figures at a time), it does allow me to finish small stages at each short sitting so I can see some progress and do not feel like things are bogging down between increasingly rare and time-limited painting sessions.

So, for what I hope is your delight and delectation, I give you the first two bases of my Combined Grenadiers regiment (in fact, the only two bases I have done so far, though another two are underway!)

Both bases forming what would be a small regiment/ battalion in "Black Powder" terms.

 

The blue mitre caps and facings are the 60th Foot (Royal Americans), the white the 43rd Foot. I sourced details for the 60th from Osprey's campaign volume on Ticonderoga, which has a couple of decent colour plates in it depicting this regiment. I sourced details of the 43rd from Opsrey's "Combat" series volume entitled "British Redcoat versus French Fusilier", which again has colour pictures of both line and grenadiers for this regiment. NOTE: this volume also has some erroneous detail in it, so be wary of sources!

 

Grenadier Company, 60th Foot.

Grenadier Company, 43rd Foot.


What both source volumes also have is orbats for Ticonderoga in the case of the former and three separate actions in the case of the "Combat" series volume, as well as other colour details for a couple of regiments. As a result, you can expect to see both line infantry and grenadiers in the near (-ish) future for both 46th and 58th regiments of foot.

G

HM 60th Regt. of Foot (Royal Americans)

Hello again.

This regiment has been months in the making.

I first bought the figures from Eagle Figures at the WMMS Show at Aldersley Leisure Centre back in March, when the "big push" started to get our proposed FIW game up and running for this year's "season". To date, given the length of time this regiment took me, they remain the ONLY British regiment I have completed so far. That project is still looking some way off...

Anyway, why the Royal Americans?

Well, I bought the "Ticonderoga" campaign book published by Osprey from Dave Lanchester at the Barrage Show in Stafford back in July and, within its pages, are numerous colour images of troops from both sides. However, not only was there a depiction of a soldier from this regiment, in colour, but there was also one of a grenadier too, albeit an officer rather than rank and file. I knew what the flags looked like from other research and the lack of lace on the uniforms of the rank and file would make the painting job a little easier, so there you go.

What really took the time, however, was not the figures but the flags. There are some very good looking examples available to buy from different sources, but I like to make my own from brass wire and calico. The experience was an intense one...Suffice to say, it took me ages! The figures emerged faster than the flags!!! Couple that with my general dislike of painting red and that pretty much sums up the mild discomfort that was finishing this unit.

The French represent a lot easier proposition with their pale grey coats over a black undercoat and the flags are simpler designs too but do look effective. Yet, you cannot fight battles in the FIW without Redcoats, so I will crack on with the Dragon Red spray can from Army Painter for undercoating and get on with the British.

Only around half a dozen more units to go and I will have the force I want for the planned show game...

I had better get on with it!

G

The entire regiment of 24 figures. The grenadiers will feature in a separate unit of Combined Grenadiers.
 

A closer view of the all-important but massively time-consuming flags.

"Right wheel!"

"Left wheel!" The viewpoint of a Huron scout or Coureur de Bois deployed in a nearby tree.

Wargamer, 2017

Hello again.

B62 8PJ.

I do not usually start with code and, to those who might be a tad confused, I have not done this time either. Well, not quite.

B62 8PJ is the post code for the venue of this weekend's Wargamer Show, to be held at the Leasowes Leisure Centre, Kent Road, Halesowen, Birmingham, UK, B62 8PJ.

The Wyrley Retinue normally debuts it's following year demo game outing at this show, but we cannot appear this year unfortunately. However, there will be a number of traders and gamers at the show, the former category including such luminaries as Warlord Games, Ainsty, Dave Lanchester, Eagle Figures and many others, the latter category including Alumwell, Kinver, Martin Hackett and the Border Warlords (great name for a folk rock band methinks!) and, again, many others.

Drop along if you can. Any purchases you make can always be passed off as Christmas presents to yourself on the grounds that no one knows what you want so you chose for them!!!

G