Flaming Pigs

Everybody needs a couple of these for the next time the Romans come around.

Gage's Light Infantry and 55th Lights

Just finished several stands of British lights to go with my 7YW rangers.  These are Blue Moon 15mm.  Really love the poses.  Check out some of the caps on the 55th.

Gage's Light Infantry

55th Lights

Napoleonic Naval

Tried a great naval scenario today designed to be a solo module for an attempt at running the blockade of Havana Harbor in 1806.  Figures are 1/2400 Figurehead by Mark Ritchie.

The scenario is a race against time for the Spanish attempting to offload military cargo and monetary assistance arriving from Vera Cruz in the Frigate Pomona, that has chosen to anchor off of El-Castillo del Morro-Havana Harbor, Cuba.  The Pomona deemed unloading to an ad hoc fleet of gunboats more prudent than running the blockade.

The British have dispatched Captain Charles Brisbane to maintain a blockade of the harbor with the 38 gun Arethusa and the 64 gun Anson.  His task is to prevent the Spanish from unloading 11 loads of  goods while dealing with fire from the land batteries and a small flotilla of gunboats.

The scenario played out close to the historical outcome, with the British stopping the Spanish after unloading 8 loads and putting almost all of the gunboats and part of the shore batteries out of action.

Rangers - French and Indian War, Revy War

These aren't great pics, need better lighting, but they are of the three groups of 15mm Friekorps Rangers I finished before the holidays.  I'm working on painting Gage's Light Infantry and the 55th Lights from a really nice pack of Blue Moon 15mm.

Generic British Ranger in really neat blue uniform.





 

                                   Rogers Rangers of course.

 

These are Butler's Rangers for Revy War, but I'm sure they'll make an appearance in some other scenarios as somebody else.









These are Old Glory 15's I test painted for Braddock's 44th Regiment from the FIW.  I'm going to need some practice to duplicate the Grenadiers.  Could be the nicest 15 I've ever painted.  Have that scenario targeted to play in this year.

Ultimate General: Gettysburg

I picked up Ultimate General: Gettysburg on Steam New Year's Eve in their year end sale for almost nothing.  This game is great.  It's created by the DarthMod guy who's made some great Mods to Napoleon: Total War and I feel it's actually better than Sid Meier's Gettysburg was.  Playing this has stolen several hours of what would have been painting time this weekend.  But, when I see a blast of canister stop a Reb charge in it's tracks it's hard not to try just one more scenario.

3mm Thin Red Line

Did a test batch of 3mm Napoleonic British.  It's hard to see but I was actually able to get white cross belts on these guys.  Left them in two ranks and it really has a nice look.  I'm really jazzed now about doing a 3mm Quatre Bras scenario.  Stay tuned.  Can't wait to do Belgians and Brunswickers.  Once again these are Pico Armor supplied Oddzial Osmy (O8). 

Painted a stand of Russians, shown on the left.  I was also really pleased with them.  In a side by side you can tell them from French at a pretty good distance.  I'm still trying different techniques with the bases and some of the figure details. It's much like the first time I painted 6mm. Let me tell you these guys have cartridge boxes and brims on their shakos.  Trying 3-4 colors turned into 9-10, but the results are worth it. 

On the Painting Bench

Just primed what I need to finish in the near future.

Working on more 3mm French Napoleonics, 15mm Belgian Cavalry for the Brunswick contingent to use in Quatre Bras, Flaming pigs for the Romans to deal with, and Gage's Light Infantry to round out  my recently completed groups of 7YW British Rangers.

Hofbräuhaus Christmas visit

Got a chance to visit the new Hofbräuhaus Columbus location in the Grandview Yard district before Christmas.  Nothing like a good brew from the homeland and some oompa Christmas Carols.  Mix in the Ohio State fight song for good measure.  The place is beautiful and the food was better than I expected from the reviews I read. Tried the beer sampler and settled on the seasonal Weihnachtsbier, a full amber with a little spice note. 
  

   hofbrauhauscolumbus.com

3mm Naploleonics - freshly painted.

Here are my first painted French troops.

 
Notice skirmishers and Cavalry deployed in the background.  The Lancers are amazing. I plan on using home grown rules for Mark Ritchie's Firelock with these so I'm basing by battalion.  I really like the three rank look of depth.

 

3mm Pico Armor

Bought some sampler packs of 3mm ACW and Napoleonics from Pico Armor to try out over the holidays.  They are extremely detailed and very durable.  Figures are from the Oddzial Osmy (O8) miniature line out of Poland from Bloomingdale, Illinois distributor Pico Armor. Service was first rate and very quick. Check out the comparison below.

 Web site has some good galleries of the figures.

 http://www.picoarmor.com/