Perry French

2 btns + skirmishers.
So, here are the first 2 Perry Btns, they will be joined by a 3rd very soon (about 1/3 done).
I decided to do a bit of a mixture, so 1 btn is all Greatcoats, 1 in just coats, and the third will be a mix, this will make them readily indentifiable on the table and is a nice simple system with a bit of continuity whilst making every unit different.
In order to do this I needed more figures than were in the plastics boxes. I wanted more officers including mtd ones and needed a few more figures generally. There are "only" 2 variations of flank coys in each of the coated and great-coated figures, which is great if you are mixing them all up but a bit weedy if you are an awkward bleeder like me and want to seperate them out.
So what you are looking at above is 2 x 36 man units and half a dozen skirmishers. To get this I only used 2 boxes of plastics and then added in extra metals. I still have enough figures left over to get a third btn out of the 2 boxes. Each btn has a metal mtd officer, 3 metal foot officers, 4 metal flank coy figures, 3 metal centre coy bods plus 2 or 3 metal command figures. This way I have at least 2 metal figures per 6 man base which gives them a bit of weight- for those of us who like metal figures it does make a bit of a difference, they do feel a bit better. Obviously this increases the unit cost overall but its still very cheap.
Lets see....
2 x boxes of plastics =£30.00
42 metal foot plus 3 mtd colonels= £49.50
Total = £79.50

Thats enough to make up THREE btns with 5 metal and 7 plastics left over -plus 6 more skimishers.
So it works out to less than £25 a btn, which is still a bit of a bargain.

The "coated" btn
I will end up with a shed load of skirmishers, but they are nice to paint so I'll probably bang them out and they will end up on e-bay.
Having sorted out a 3 btn light infantry regt the question is: What to do next?
I know what Noels' answer to this question is:
"Wurtemburgers!"
If I am to continue with more of these, then the obvious next step would be a 3 btn line regt, but that is too obvious, Italians, maybe? Berg? I've already got 4 btns of Swiss, the Westfalians are sorted...suggestions welcome.


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Sovs get some Recce

SHQ M/C's and Britannia scout cars

Off and on inbetween doing more Napoleonic stuff I've been adding bits and pieces to my 20mm Soviets, this project has been most enjoyable and the last few elements are falling into place. I started this with a few purchases at Salute last year, so I'm quite proud of having got a considerable force together and actually complete within a relatively short period of time (lots more pics knocking about elsewhere on the blog- look for tags).

There is now a complete Soviet Rifle division, enough T34's for a Tank corps (about 30) plus various assault guns, and now a recce btn. Artillery still needs to be finished.

The pics show a few odds and ends which fall in the broad spectrum of Russian recce troops, which in reality is just getting quite few troop types I liked and creating a unit out of them. Soviet reconnaisence battalions are reasonably well known for having no standard organisation, there are at least half a dozen different variations, so it is an excuse for a pick and mix type of approach.

The little BA 64 armoured cars weren't that common in the recce btns but they will double up as command and liason vehicles for things like tank and assault gun regts. The Frontline models are very basic with bit some good crew and extra bits they are sweet little models. I'm particularly fond of the big old Bertha smoking a fag, shes a Lammercaft figure.

Bertha eyes up some passing Motorcyclists

The Britannia bren carriers likewise will also do extra duty as tows for 45mm AT guns, but are also ideal as personnel carriers. As models they were a bit of trouble as the crew are all British- subsequently filing down British helmets to look like Soviets was a right arse...In the end I cut the heads off most of them and slung tissue paper tarps over the back....sorry to spoil the illusion!

For some reason I've always liked White scout cars, I remember a friend of mine having a model of one (Italeri, maybe?) when we were about 15 and I've liked them ever since

The Britannia ones are servicable models, but chuck in some AB crew and they look great. Again, they will do double duty as personnel carrier or command vehicles, hence the preponderance of officer types.

Scout cars with AB crew

Add in a few Dodge weapons carriers which were picked up on the bring and buy at Reading and the job is done

Some wierd SHQ figure doing something to his boot, while a Lammercraft NKVD man writes him a ticket

Lots more pics HERE:

http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w138/christot2001/Russian%20Recce/

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The bit of wargames kit I like more than any other

What is it in the above picture that I like most?
Is it the rather tidy Calpe Prussian reservist Battalion blazing away in the foreground?
Is it the Landwher regt boldly marching up in support?
Is it the way the rather nice Pentax I "borrowed" off my missus captured all this? (and she keeps asking for it back)

Nope, none of these things.

The Calpe figures are great, and I like the paintjob.
The bunny-fur they are on works really well.
The Flags are lovely, but its none of these.
Ok, I'll tell you what it is:

Its the low wall of grey rocks.
Yep.
The rather nondescript piece of incidental terrain. "Its ok" I hear you say...."But why is it so special?"
I'll tell you why I'll always treasure this little terrain feature:
It was made by Peter Gilder.

I've got 3 walls like that one, I've got nothing else made by the great man, nor do I have any figures painted by him unfortunately.
I never actually met the man. I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times and that was it. I only seriously got into 25mm Napoleonics in the early 90's by which time he had died.
I find it a little odd that I never met him.
The majority of my wargaming friends knew him from the WHC under his stewardship. I've been good friends with Mike and Gerry who are there now for many, many years. I met his widow, Doreen, when she would hand over massive bags of newly cast figures in exchange for toilet-roll sized wads of tenners (which, I'm pretty sure went straight down the bingo in Scarborough the same night).
I've heard countless stories about the man (yes, including all the dodgy ones) and the games he would put on.
I own thousands of figures designed by the man, I've played literally hundreds of games using rules written largely by him, on terrain at the WHC made by him.
I've built terrain, and wargames tables slavishly copied from his designs.
I've totally bought into the entire concept of Napoleonic wargaming that was his idea.
In the Grand Manner are more than just another set of rules, they are an entire way of playing Napoleonic wargames which in order to get the best out of them really require you to adhere to the whole deal.

The wall, and some nice landwher

They are what they say on the tin:
"IN THE GRAND MANNER"
Yes, you can have a fun game with them with about a dozen battalions a side, on a 6' x6' table. Yes, you can play them with 6mm figures and you'll get a good game.
However, that really isn't what they are about.
They are about playing a game with THOUSANDS of 25mm figures on a truly enormous wargames table.
If you dissect them, then there are countless faults; The gound scale and ranges don't add up, if you had all the artillery models you should have then you'd get a terrible game, the infantry re-inforcing thing is pretty bizarre; some people whine about "theres no proper command and control".
However, if you play them in the way they were intended, as large, multi-corps, multi-player games they play out just like napoleonic battles.
Deployment is crucial, a corp in the wrong place can lose you the battle, the arrival of re-inforcements in the right place at the right time can win it for you. Occasionally an heroic unit can influence a sector. (Note to the whiners: You just don't get it, ...if you have enough units, on a big enough table you don't need command and control rules). The cavalry battles swing back and forth, dependant often on who has kept reserves. It all adds up.
I still find it pretty amazing that one man was able to work all this out, and was capable of visualising it, putting it down on paper, and getting the result he did.
There are other napoleonic rules that enable you to fight Austerlitz in 3 hours with 200 6mm figures.....go ahead, enjoy...but is that napoleonic wargaming?
Well, not to me it isn't. (Thank God)
To me, and an awful lot of other people, including those who push around 40 figures in a "napoleonic skirmish" (what is that by the way? a brigade action of about 3,000 a side?) the concept of Napoleonic wargaming that Peter Gilder created is the benchmark of what to aspire to.
I'd even go slightly further, in that I'm pretty sure he designed his figures with his rules in mind. If you take some Connoisseur (or Elite, for that matter, who have a direct legacy) figures and put them in a 32 or 36 man unit, then they look right. Individually sometimes they can look strange, add 35 of their mates and they look spot on. Put them in a 12 or 16 man battalion and they don't work. This might have been deliberate or it might have been sub-concious but its definitely true. Sometimes you can take other manufacturers figures which might be individually lovely but put them in a unit and they look dull, or clumsy or just wrong.
So, thanks Peter, thanks for the rules, the figures, and of course, most importantly; thanks for those little walls.


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First Perry's

First efforts: Skrirmishers
Got a big old parcel today from The Perry Emporium.
I bought a pack of the plastics out of curiousity a while back and must admit I was pleasantly surprised, I've never subscribed to the Perry fan-boy club that seems to permeate virtually everywhere in the Napoleonic 25mm fraternity these days. To hear some folk slavishly drivel on about "artistry" and "perfect human beings" etc is actually quite embarrassing sometimes, A lot of their work for Foundry was bloody awful. I think folk were a bit blinded by the fact that they were painter friendly and that they got good press and coverage in the wargames mags - Emporer's New Clothes (Note to self: If I ever start up a figure company THATS what I'm going to call it!).
However, these days, branching out on their own, they are making some nice figures. Not necessarily the MOST AMAZING FIGURES THAT WERE EVER MADE!!! which is how some of the more onanistic fans would have it, but nice figures nonetheless.
The queer thing is I reckon the plastics are actually better than the metals. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, but there you go. Some of the metals are a little bit spindly, and there is quite a lot of trimming of lugs etc to do, but nothing major. The mounted officers are very nice. I was delighted with the horses. I was afraid they would be Foundry-esque pit ponies but they are tall, and slim and elegant. Seperate rider and cast on saddle, but done in a much nicer way somehow than I've seen elsewhere.
I've painted up the first box of plastics and very nice they are too. They are very easy to paint. Which is why,as I said, I think they are so popular. I wasn't too keen on the figure mix in the plastics box so I've decided to go for a bigger project and mix in some of the metals, - more officers, mounted officers, command and a bit of variation in the infantry. If you build them out of the box its a pretty dull looking unit. No mtd officer, 1 officer, 1 drummer. Plus there is the mix of greatcoats and ...not greatcoats..I thought it might be more fun to have perhaps a regt of 3 btns of each - so have started buying metals (and more plastics) to accomplish this. Subsquently I've not based any of the line stuff yet until I get more figures finished so you will have to wait. I have however based up the 6 skirmishers which are above.
I must say I was impressed with the way the 3-armed ones sculpted these. 2 bodies, and 3 sets of arms that fit perfectly to both bodies. Extremely clever, so you can end up with eerrr...7...or 8? combinations. I was bit bothered about the lightness of the plastics getting knocked over in the hurly-burly of ITGM so decided to weight them down with these Mahooosive gabions from Irregular miniatures. It does the trick, believe me. They are now heavy. Future skirmishers will also be based in 3's (I've always preferred that) and will get plashed hedges, walls etc. Their own little bit of cover to lug about the table.
Anyway, I'm off to prep up these figures and watch the start of the second test against the West Indies...I've got a bad feeling about which of these is going to be the more pleasant experience.


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Connoisseur Prussians by Peter Fitzgerald

One of the regiments from Peter, lots of one-off casualties and officers.
Back in the happy days when I was selling Connoisseur Figures around the shows I quickly realised that I needed plenty of high quality display figures to put on the stand. One range I lacked good figures for was Prussians.
Then at one show I was engaged in conversation by a charming gentleman who eventually introduced himself as Peter Fitzgerald, the man who had designed most of the Connoisseur Prussians. He happened to mention (In retrospect I think he did quite an elaborate and convincing sales pitch) that he was selling his personal collection of these figures because he was starting his own new venture (Calpe Figures).
Did I want to buy his collection?
Esque les Bruins fait le numeros dos dans les arbres?
He was selling 3 regiments each of 3 battalions, some skirmishers, a dragoon regt and an artillery battery. They were all lovely, I couldn't afford them all in one hit, but over the next few months I bought all of them apart from (with massive regret, now) the Dragoon Regt.

12 pdr Battery. Again, lots of one-off castings
As well as being one of the top figure sculptors out there, Peter is not exactly a slouch with the paintbrush either. He has a fairly unique style, going for quite a soft, muted effect. One thing I've noticed is he doesn't use any metal colours, instead using ordinary colour to get the effect. Sounds pretty wierd, but it works.
All of the units he sold me featured an awful lot of excellent conversions and one-off figures he had made himself, most of them variations on existing Connoiseur stuff, but with heavily altered poses, new heads, blanket rolls added- all totally unique. This posed a few problems later on when folk would come up to the stand and say "I want that figure" and one would have to explain that they couldn't get it. A lot of people stomping off muttering "why TF is it in then cabinet, then?" I did sympathise, but at the same time this was in the "good old days" of soft white metal, before rigid pewter became universal, and one of the strengths of the Connoisseur range was the incredible scope for conversion that was relatively simple. a few head twists or swaps, bend an arm here, and a small amount of skill with a soldering iron and it was possible to create totally unique figures. Some folk out there, like Peter Gilder himself or the erratic but monstrously talented Doug Mason could perform unbelievable conversions in a matter of minutes. Some people can turn their imaginations into reality, some can't. This ease of conversion was one of the selling points of the range to a lot of people, but for every one who liked to be inspired there were 2 who wanted to be spoon-fed...nothing much has changed there.

Another Infantry regt, these 9 btns have formed the core of my Prussians now for over 10 years


One-off Officer conversion, great work.
Anyway, so Peter went away and started Calpe, and did, indeed, continues to do, great work there. I've since bought a fair amount of his stuff, which we'll look at another time.
For all of Peter's urbane charm, he is a bit of a nutter though.... He designed all of the Connoiseur Prussians. Then he did most of the original Elite prussians for Pete Moreby, now he is STILL designing thousands of his own figures....Obsessed or what??

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Return after the Mega-Game

The main hall, Brendan defending Malta in the foreground, Greece behind
more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dom_gamer/ (thanks to Andy Smith)

Pitiful showing in terms of blogging here recently , so I guess I'd better make an appearence.

For the past week, and indeed the previous month has been taken up with the annual pilgrimage (and planning) down to Cornwall for the annual mega-game.
This has been going on for TEN(!) years now.. It consists of a week long WWII campaign in 1/285th and this year involved about 30 players.

There is a lot of pregame planning and decisions (which is my pathetic excuse for not blogging)-this year was a mediterranean 1941 campaign. Consisting of 3, 3 month strategic turns, which produced games in the widely varied theatres. In order to make it work, there were a few fudges, not least of which was that the Germans kicked off Barborossa in about march 1941!

This way they could run 3 games on the Eastern front during the week, simultaneously with Balkan, Desert, and middle eastern scenarios.

Overall, the system worked. In the past there have been games which have been run as a more conventional map campaign -previous games have included Kursk, D-Day (twice) France 1940, 2nd Kharkov. Personally I think they (we?) should go back to a conventional map game though it appears there is a groundswell of opinion to continue with this broader system, I hope not, but come what may I'm sure I'll be there. Not quite sure what will be the game for next year.
I had great time, fighting 2 games over Malta, the first with an Italian airborne division which after 2 days ended in the prison cages. This was then done again with the German Paratroopers showing how it should have been done. This was a cracking game which went down to the last die roll of the last turn.
For the third game I went to the desert - still commanding Paras- where I was a speedbump on the road to Bardia for 2 rather immense Commonwealth infantry divisions. It was a bit bizarre to spend a whole week fighting with micro-armour and not actually command a single tank or vehicle model.
There were a few command mistakes on both sides, and the umpires missed a couple of major tricks, but on the whole it had a good feel. This was indeed the 1oth game and quite a family atmosphere has developed, it is a very amenable week both on the tables and off it.
Blog here:
http://megagame-holidays.blogspot.com/
During the week I was also able to hand over the first 2 Wurtemburg battalions to Noel, like a twat I'd not taken any pics of them, which is a bit annoying. The next batch are now ordered and I'll start those in the next couple of weeks, those will be photographed.
Currently on the painting table is ......some Perry plastics! This quite surprises me to be honest, but I'm enjoying painting them. I'll follow up on how these turn out.
I'm getting a little bothered about my lead and plastic mountain, normally I'm pretty good at buying stuff and then painting it. Right now however I have 4 btns of Wurtemburgers plus a battery still to do for Noel, a burgeoning amount of Perry French infantry (between 4 and 6 btns, On top of this there are about 10 Soviet 20mm vehicles requiring attention, MORE tank riders (about 30) a couple of kits to make - on top of all this, I've discovered that Elhiem have done a range of 20mm infantry for Pzr Lehr (in the pzr battledress) which are going to be a purchase in the very near future.
Going to be a busy painting Spring.




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