Some serious reinforcements!

Help has arrived for Johnny Frenchman! as mentioned we decided to pool together and purchase a painted French brigade from Mabuhay Miniature Painting Service in the Philippines.

Fons over at Mabuhay was great to deal with, and within little over a week of placing the order, I had the box in my hot little hands- four, 36-figure French line infantry battalions!  Amazing turn around time, and I am extremely satisfied with our choice.

The miniatures were very well packed, two boxes each carefully placed in a foam-lined cardboard box.  

Each miniature was attached by double-sided tape to the floor of the smaller boxes, and the boxes were filled with tiny, very light Styrofoam balls for protection.  

Fortunately, Fons puts a big label on the boxes cautioning that a vacuum cleaner should be on standby, which was a really good idea when I came to open them! 

The stuff really does get everywhere.  But what counts is that there were absolutely no damaged figures.

Once the packing was removed,   I just gently twisted each figure off the tape and glued them on the Litko stands I had waiting for them.  I did this one stand at a time, which kept things orderly and myself sane.

Painted using Vallejo paints over a black undercoat, Mabuhay stresses that their figures are painted for the wargames table, and are meant to be viewed at that distance.  Nevertheless, the painting was very creditable for "wargames quality" miniatures, with lines being crisply painted and no slopping over.   Uniforms were painted a nice, dark blue that will go with our existing collections.

The only thing I did was to touch up the highlight the red and yellow pompoms of the elite companies. These colours were a little "lost", having been applied in one coat over black.  I wanted them to stand out a little more, and it was little effort just to go over them again with a stronger hue.  The metalwork on the muskets was a little too  'silvery' for my taste, so I also decided to give them a wash using a mix of matt varnish with a bit of black paint.

But all this was just me being me.  As is, the miniatures would be perfectly okay on the tabletop without the extra bother.

Fear naught, the edges of the flags have since been touched up!

The GBM flags are a bit big for the plastic staffs that come with the Perry figures, so I had to trim them around the poles.

Here is the brigade as it looks so far, flags finished and bases ready for texturing, painting, and flocking.  I'll use PVA and sand.  When dry this will be painted earth and highlighted, followed by gluing on some static grass.  Fun, fun, fun... 

I also realized that these fellows will need a brigade commander.  I had some Front Rank figures- a general and aide- which would serve nicely, so today I prepped them for painting.

Vive l'empereur!

The order has been placed, money has changed hands, and 144 enthusiastic Frenchmen are now rallying around the Eagles anxious to put Matt's redcoats (not to mention greencoats and blackcoats!) in their place...

We've ordered a brigade's worth of French infantry- plastic Perry figures- from Mabuhay Miniature Painting Service in the Philippines in an effort to beef up the French forces for our Black Powder Napoleonic games.  Being a club purchase, the idea is also to have some units available for those who wish to participate in our games and who do not yet have any miniatures painted for it (although they would certainly be encouraged to paint units of their own should they get hooked on the period!).

Fons at MMPS has been very quick and helpful in responding to our enquiries, and we hope to see the new contingent come off the transports here in Tokyo sometime around the middle of July or so.

When they get here, I'll just have to base them and add the flags, and then they'll be ready to go.  Just for Giovanni, I think I'll give one battalion a flag for a regiment raised in Torino (although at that time a part of France).  That's so those southerners from the Kingdom of Naples don't reap all the tabletop honours for Italy.

Rumour has it that Brian has finally been overcome with enthusiasm pour l'empereur, and that he too is now raising a contingent to help liberate Europe from itself.  Perhaps we will put on a training scenario for him at our next game.

*****

As Giovanni mentioned,  we had an exciting game of Saga last week, and it was really a lot of fun.  An interesting- and I think, successful- blend of miniatures and board game mechanisms, which gave a game that felt like a Dark Ages bash should have been like!

 

Rod painted this fantastic Viking warlord and  attendant beserkers!
Gripping Beast miniatures.

"I'll be back!"

"Save my sorry ass, men!"

The Vikings found themselves ultimately frustrated by a stubborn Anglo-Saxon defence that saw Giovanni's Housecarls hurl themselves in front of his kickass warlord, saving him from the fury of our elite Úlfhéðnar beserkers at the heavy cost of many of his finest retainers- a cost, it must be said, that Giovanni had no hesitation in paying.

It was fun using my old, now vertically-challenged Perry-designed Citadel Vikings again.  The last time they saw action was 1987!

A great game, and one I'd like to play again in the future.

And happy holidays to Giovanni!  

-Robert

News and a few thoughts

HI All,

I hope the typhoon of last night wasn't too bad for all of you, I was stuck in the train for 3 hours, but being seated and having my I pod I managed to enjoy some movies. I finished watching the Dirty Dozen and I started the Big Red 1, good movies and with the carriage being shaken by the strong wind it was almost like being on the battlefield.

This morning I payed for the room for our session in August on the 19th. Thanks Brian for booking the room, it is great to have your help.

The next 2 events then, are on the 15th of July and on the 19th of August, there is plenty of time before the events, but I would strongly suggest to start planning for your next game, contacting people and painting figures (for those who do).

Last weekend we met at my apartment (wife and kids are in Italy right now!) and we gave a try to the Saga Rules from Gripping beast. There where some fantastic miniatures from Rod's collection of superbly painted Vikings, some hyper old (mouth watering) Vikings from Robert, you can see some photos here)
Least but not last my Heroic-Bad ass-Super hard core Anglo Saxons.

The game went really well and it was a lot of fun, the vikings were attacking a village and the Saxons had to defend and repel the pagan menace, we also threw in some civilian figures to give that litle extra realism to the game.
Soon I will be able to post some pictures please bear with me.

I would also like to thank all the blogger that have been posting their comments and I would like to encourage them to keep writing us! Thank you lads.

The Battlefield in a Box river sections ended being a very low level gaming product, poorly manufactured.
The retailer I bought it from said that all other stock they have is in the same condition as what I bought and that they would refund me if I ship at my expenses those peices back. Well that's not gonna happen! in the end I will glue those sections on woode boards and we will repaind them.

The question I asked myself is what was the point of buying prepainted terrain pieces?
I ame to teh conclusion and confirmation of my thoughts about wargaming that it is a work of love and passion, when you try to make it a sort of supermarket-like product it looses its quality and credibility. That's sad!
This is about it, I will be away untli mid July in my home town of Turin enjoying friends, family and the occasional giant Italian style party with tons o' food and wine.

See you soon

Giovanni