Levell 7 clearance

Hoi,

A lot has been happening over here lately, mostly at work so there has been little time for the hobby. However I have been able to do some small stuff.

First up is this plastic kit of a T-ford scout car. I left off all the fiddly bits since they don't show up with a base fitted anyway. Then I added some crates and oil drums and a HäT driver figure as well as a HäT vickers machine gun, which was far better detailed and scaled then the one supplied in the kit.

By now it will be apparent that I usually dislike Strelets figures but their command sets are usually pretty good and supply us with a lot of unusual poses. So I have done up this set of Napoleon and some staff. The figure I like best strangely is the footman...

The first WFB army I ever collected was an Empire army. I still have several unpainted units lying around and did this tester for my crossbowmen.

To finish today's update I need to say something non-hobby related. Together with a friend I went to see Tron Legacy in the theatre. Now this film will be released far earlier in the States and elsewhere but went into première here only on the 26th of January. I must say it was one of the best Sci Fi movies I have seen in a long time and I totally dig the soundtrack (so guess what I am listening at the moment).

Cheers Sander

More WW1 Gaming,

Hoi,

Last week Koen, Michiel and I played some more games of The Great War. We've done some test-games for Koen's "Passchendale Campaign".

See pics:

Cheers Sander

Listening to the White Stripes

The 17th have landed!

Hoi Folks!

In the HäT loving community the set of the Colonial British 17th Lancers is a much awaited set of figures. I painted up 4 figures as the 17th and am currently doing the 5th extra figure as a Sudan Dragon figure. HäT has a new system for their latest cavalry sets in which they include an extra figure so we can leave out the officer figures and get more troops for our units. In the old format you'd be burdened with an 4 officers i.e. 3 in excess of the amount needed.

Here are the pictures, more will be up in the ETS pages shortly as usual.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Best of Within Temptation"

20mm Metals!

Hello there,

As a diversion from all the usual 1:72 plastics I'll show you some pictures of some 20mm white metal figures I've painted recently.

For starters here are some Napoleonic British Naval Officers from Newline Design, This set, with the number * NAV11, offers some senior officers a midshipman and a more general appearance guy. They are good value for money and paint up really well. I will use them for our games of Legends of the High Seas.
http://newlinedesigns.co.uk/

Next up are some civilian figures. I believe the manufacturer is Art Miniaturen, but am not sure. It was a German firm anyway. I obtained mine from www.miniatuurwereld.com, a Dutch retailer and an old friend, a long time ago but only now found some time to paint them. While they are intended as Napoleonic German States civilians I tried to paint them more like Peninsular civilians. for reference I used these colour schemes:

http://www.costumes.org/HISTORY/racinet/racinetspain1.jpg

The last batch of figures are Brunswick infantry from Schilling Zinnfiguren, from...Brunswick. http://www.zinnfiguren-schilling.de/ This is a relatively new line of figures and I first glanced at these figures at the DUZI convention. While they are a bit pricey you do get poses you will not be able to get in plastic. I must admit that the samplepack I painted did have some very strange proportions, the most notable is the waving arm of the NCO which is too long by far. But the paint up nice and complement HäT's line of figures perfectly. For uniform reference I used this well-known site:  http://centjours.mont-saint-jean.com/

Last but not least is not a figure picture but some scenery. I found some time to put together and paint Italeri's stone bridge. While I really am not impressed with the latest figure kits produced by this firm their scenery range in 1:72 is unchallenged! Brilliant stuff.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Kollected: best of Kula Shaker" by Kula Shaker....duhuh!

Birthday and Holiday battles!

Hello Peoples,

Today's update is a big one!

Thursday the 6th of January was my Birthday, and boy have I been spoiled with hobby/presents! Let me show you:

From Mom and Dad I got 3 excellent books. The Diary of a Napoleonic Cavalry officer called "Campaigning for Napoleon" by Maurice de Tascher. ISBN 1-84415-457-2 Brilliant depiction of the campaigns from 1806 right up to the Russian campaign in 1812.
Then two books I am greatly pleased with namely 2 books from the series  titled "Les Uniformes du Premier Empire" By Cdt. Bucquoy. These contain brilliant colour-plates of French Napoleonic uniforms. The books I have concern the Light Cavalry of the Ligne and the Guard Cavalry and are depicted in both  present day artist's impressions and original contemporary prints.

From my Wife, Mother in Law and Grandma I received a bunch of boxes of plastic goodies, see picture:

The buildings will be turned into Spanish looking scenery (apart from the African house which I intend to use for my colonial games) and the figures will complement my ever expanding forces, i.e. French Napoleonics and ECW Royalists.

Thanks everyone for these brilliant gifts!

Now on to gaming! During the last week of the Christmas holiday Koen and Michiel came over for a game of Black Powder and Great War. I will not recall both battles here entirely but let the pictures speak for themselves. The BP game was a scenario in which the French had to protect their artillery battery and some buildings against a Prussian- Dutch allied army Figures were mostly HäT with a decent proportion of Italeri and Revell figures.

Below the Prussians are made up from the new HäT late war Prussians (test shot figures) and old Revell chaps!

In the picture below you can see the combination of Zvezda's new Cuirassiers with HäT's new Chasseurs.

From the Great War game I only made one picture, namely of Koen's Mark IV female which in turn one disabled itself by rolling a dreaded 1 on it's movement test...

Hope you've enjoyed this load of pictures and wish you loads of fun gaming this year!

Sander

Listening to: "My media-player playlist of Golden Oldies"

Happy New Year!

Hello there!

Best wishes for everyone! New Year's Eve has come and gone and so a brand new year of gaming and painting has begun. To start it of with a bang here are my first two contributions.

First off are some Napoleonic French Dragoons.These are done using Italeri figures. While the detail and level of sculpting of these figures is great the plastic is less so; it's very prone to flaking. I have done all sorts of things to prevent this but still am very anxious to using them in games...

A close up of the same figures. The weather is now kinda dreary and so the lighting isn't perfect. I am planning to do 3 regular line regiments (this one, red faced, then a pink or yellow faced regiment and one in carmine which is a kind of purplish red) Then I also have a small regiment of Guard Empresses Dragoons planned.

To top it all off here are some figures done by Foundry of the lovely Dad's Army characters:

I really like the TV series  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrd9cXpHSlc&feature=related and am thinking of using these figures for some fun games. I bought them in a discount bin on some convention or other a long time ago and am happy to have finished them.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Machine Head" by Deep Purple

Jingle Bells, jingle bells!

Ho ho ho hooooooooooooooooooo (again)

Just my version of Christmas Jingle balls:

Merry Christmas, Sander

Listening t the Top 2000 on the radio