What Colour Scheme ?

With actual historical periods, the uniform colours etc are, to some extent, laid out for you via web searches, or literature such as the Osprey books series.

When it comes to SciFi or Fanatsy you can pretty much do as you like....but I do have a problem with that. I don't really have an eye for colour coordination at all. That doesn't mean that my wife has to dress me, every time that I leave the house, but, in the not too distant past, I have painted a unit of SciFi guys and afterwards thought "Well...that doesn't work does it?

Total dismay and disappointment......so...next time you find yourself with that problem, have a wander around your local supermarket when doing the weekly shop. Check out the product packaging for anything at all...the guys that do this packaging thing for a living DO have an eye for colour coordination....

Thoughts on rules innovations

Recently, although that may be over the last few years or so, many rule sets have had differing forms of activation or command and control mechanisms.

This varies drastically from the bread and butter form of the IGO-UGO rules of the past.

Dice, Cards etc are being used to instill more "friction" as some call it, into the games we play.

What do you think of this?...are you a die hard IGO-UGO member, or do you embrace this type of change. Does it make the game more interesting for you ?

I suppose we are striving for "more realism" within the game and I must say that some games I have played with Card activation ( Sharp Practice 2 toofatlardies.co.uk ) have been great fun...actually played it for 7 consecutive weeks at the war-games club, which is a testament to it.

I played Sword and Spear last week at the club and the system did keep you involved even in your opponents phase. Good set of rules by the way. Worth checking out if you are into Ancients or Medieval http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/sword-spear

There, obviously, is still room for the IGO-UGO party as many rules are of that ilk from times gone by, but what will be the next big thing in the way of innovation ?....don't know myself.

I read an article about 2 years ago in, maybe, Miniature Wargames and I think it was by Rick Priestly, where he used a webcam connected to a laptop. The webcam was placed by the commander, so the laptop displayed what he could actually see...great idea.

Maybe, as technology becomes more prevalent within our hobby ( Apps anyone? ), the realism we seem to be striving for, may come to fruition.

How about...as an idea...all these movement trays we use, have a camera in the middle front, connected via wifi to our iPad or whatever?...so each unit has a "vision"....

Anyway, as far as IGO-UGO games are concerned, they still have their place and provide some great games...hmmm...how about a game of chess using activation cards, black and white?...could be a laugh😊

New Toys

Some new stuff arrived this week

Going to be putting together a Union skirmish force for Sharp Practice 2. As can be seen, both the infantry and cavalry are from Perry.

I have assembled the Infantry over the past few days and they are sat in the "spray booth" drying as I write this. I have used Army Painter Ultramarine Blue spray. I haven't fitted any hats to these guys yet, as i want them to have a varied set of headgear.

Some packs arrived from Warlord. The Japanese and Marines are for an ongoing Pacific Theatre project and the Grenadiers and GI's are for Bolt Action Games or maybe even Chain of Command...which I have read a few times but haven't played yet.

I saw these on the Vanguard Miniatures website vanguardminiatures.co.uk

I thought they looked pretty good scifi figures...BUT...when i read that they were 6mm I couldnt believe it, So..I bought some primarily out of curiosity and secondly, maybe 6mm scifi could be fun...and cheapish😃

I have included a few pictures of them out of the bag. There was very minimal flash to remove, if any in some cases. Not sure what I will use them for, rules wise.

These are the Stygian Vampire Gliders

Stygian Butchers

Stygian Revenant Barges..which have to be assembled 😕😕

A single Barge

Carthaginians

I eventually bought an Ancient army and decide to go for Carthage. I have some amazing boxed sets from Victrix...2 boxes of Carthaginian Warriors, some Balearic Slingers, Numidian Cavalry and Infantry and I also got some Armoured Samnites as they looked nice.

These little fellas have been spray undercoated white as that is their primary uniform colour. Flesh and under tunics (Raw Linen) painted, again using Foundry paints. With the Bronze helmets, I find for best results to paint that area Brown prior to the Bronze. For the Veteran units I am assembling, as they have Bronze armour, I will spray undercoat them brown to begin with. More on that in a later post.

Half a unit near completion. The shields were sprayed white whilst still on the sprues. The reverse was painted Bay Brown whilst still on the sprues along with the front shield rim. Painted the shield rim with Bronze. When dry, I applied the shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios. When they are dried, I remove an area of paint from the back of the shield and shield arm very carefully with a scalpel and plastic glue the shields onto the figures. Glue figures to base and later apply the good old Vallejo mud. Just need to drybrush and flock.

The shields will get a hand painted layer of gloss varnish when ready. I never actually varnish any figures and have not had any problems yet. I have seen some bases of figures that have been spray varnished and bits of grass stuck all over the figures.

Sharp Practice 2

Have primarily been assembling a British Peninsular War force for SP2. Now, my literal historical knowledge is actually quite limited, so I am not too concerned about absolutes such as actual colours for turnbacks, cuffs etc....sorry to all the purists out there.

I find that, probably like most of you, it can take an age to get a painted force to the table. I am not going to go into any great detail on how to paint a regiment in quick time, as there are more qualified people blogging than myself. But i have found that the biggest problem with painting figures is actually myself.

I have been known to lavish 4-5 hours on a single figure. Black undercoat...base coat..layering the main coat and then applying highlights...even eyes sometimes, but we know that wont get stuff fighting.

I have therefore decide to lower my own expectations and go for speed. It was hard to start with, but as stands of figures mount up, the benefits are obvious. I still spend 4-5 hours on some guys especially for small force stuff with factions of maybe 6 or 6 figures.

These are Perry Miniature metals having been undercoated with Army Painter red.

Similar after a base coat of all the essential colours and then given a wash of the Army Painter soft brown ink. I am using Sabot bases from Warbases which i then texture with Vallejo Effects Brown Earth. I find this very convenient and it is applied straight from the pot, then given a drybrush of (say) Foundry paint Base Sand light colour. Grass and flowers from the Gamers Grass range.

I primarily use the Foundry paint range and have some Citadel inks, washes and glazes....never tried Vallejo paints yet.

Some 95th Rifles ready to go...Perry's again. I think maybe I have got the colouring historically correct.

Artillery. Not too sure how they will fare in SP2....time will tell.

2 of my Leaders for the 95th. I have some individual Sabot Bases, again from Warbases and numbered them, so that I have an identifier for each leader.

Dead Mans Hand

Photo Opportumity before and during Dead Mans Hand

Force on Force

This is my force on force stuff.