Book of the year 2021.

May I first whish the few readers here a HAPPY AND HEALTY NEW YEAR!

While I used to read many books in the pre internet era, that number has crumbled slowly since I spend more time on the internet. It never stopped though, but reading books takes time. And time is limited!

In 2021 I said to myself I really need to read more books. The 'to read' pile was starting to look like my lead mountain and take enormous proportion. I simply can't walk by a bookstore without at least taking a look, and many times enter the store to buy that book I can't do without. So, while still not the high book count from the old days, i did read some. And a few nice ones too, but only one can be the best! This is offcourse a personal choise, and if you think another book should be 'book of the year', please let me know.

This book is originaly written in English, but if possible I try to read a book in my own language, Flemish (or Dutch which is the same). I bought this book because it had a painting on the cover that I recognised: Remnants of an Army, painted by Elisabeth Butler and showing the only survivor of the British army who reach safety after the debacle of the 1st Afghan War - William Brydon. I was a little confused by the title, Alexandrië (Alexandria in English), thinking it was about the best known Alexandria, the city in Egypt. But as this is the best known city founded by Alexander the Great, it was far from the only one. This city was also known as Alexandria under the Mountains.

This book tells the story of James Lewis, a British soldier in the East India Company. The story starts when he decides to leave the army in the summer of 1827. First thing he does is change his name. From now on he is Charles Masson. He leaves India by foot and enters the Afghan mountains. I'm not going to tell the comlete story, you will have to buy the book and find out for yourself. During the coming years, Charles got beaten up, become friends with kings and princes, almost freezes to death, searches and discovers and ancient city, land in prison, and become a spy. It is also about early archeology. And I have not even told about all the other strange characters which roam the pages of this fantastic book, friends and villains. The book also tells about the beginning of the First Afghan War (and how wrong the British East india Company was). It's a book for boys who've grown up. And while it is a biography, and tells about real events, it is far more exiting then most of the recent written fantasy books I know of. 

Very much recommended!

Alexandrië by Edmund Richardson ISBN 9789048860487

In English ISBN 9781526603784

Pezhetairoi, or the Foot Companions.

AKA Macedonian pikemen.

I promised it wouldn't take very long before I posted pictures of my new Macedonians. I expanded two smaller 32 figure units to my new standard of 48 figure units. These two units are build with Old Glory miniatures. I also have units made of Wargames Foundry, among others.

I now have five of these larger units, and my army is becoming an impressive force! Pictures might appear in the near future, a game with them in action is planned in the near future.

Alexander's Macedonian army is almost ready, I have all the figures and only a few more units need to be painted. A sixt unit is planned early next year. But the next blog will be about another subject. Some more (very) old fantasy figures maybe?

May I whish you all a happy and healthy new year with lots of great games!

Hell's Bells - Return of the living dead.

 Again, it's way to long ago I placed something new on my blog. This year have not been an easy one. I 'm getting older, and work is not getting easier. On top of that, I still am doing my many hours of sportive activity, staying healthy or at least trying to. And when there is time left I paint some of the many miniatures from the hughe lead Mountain. 

In this first mail for the year (!), I present my Undead. I went through the Lead Mountain and painted all I had. Some are fairly recent plastics from Warlord Games. Others are metal from Wargames Foundry. And then there are the old scool Minifigs undead from Valley of the Winds and Aureola Rococo. For the younger readers here, some of those are among the first fantasy figures I ever owned. A few are more then 40 years old. While some are 'true' 25mm (VFW), others are 28mm. In the pictures they are all mixed up, and I don't think that is a problem. Make your own decision. 

As you see, it is not the largest army ever seen. The centre point is maybe something special: the Great Bell Tower from the Valley of the Four Winds range, Miniature Figurines (aka Minifigs). I don't think I've seen pictures of it somewhere else, but surely I cannot be the only one who ownes one of these? It is far from the easiest kit to build, being a multipart metal model from the mid seventies, and is quiet fragile. I'm not sure if I will ever use it in a game.

I also have a few undead 'freshly' rising from the grave. Most are from Wargames Foundry or their sister fantasy site Warmonger. But I also build two extra from some plastic left overs from a Warlord sprue.

Next, a few strange creatures from Minifigs. I don't know if they are from the Valley of the Four Winds range or Aureola Rococo. I've owned them like forever.

I wonder if these lovely looking fellas where an inspiration for early Chaos figures from Citadel? 

I think the next model is one of those early Citadel Chaos figures, but I don't think the horse was the original mount. It looks a bit late medieval. but hey, it doen't look bad.

That's it for now! Upcoming next are pictures of my expanding Macedonian / Hellenistic armies. It won't take another year for pictures of them. Promised!

Long promised.

 Yes, the end of the year is near. It was far from a good year for many, including me. The local wargames club has been closed for most part of the year. But let's try and make 2021 a far more better year!

I managed to take a few pictures of my long awaited 6mm Napoleonic army. The idea is that it doesn't have to be perfect painted, but it must be visible what the unit is representing. Flags help a lot with that! I have been painting on and off on this since march. All are Adler miniatures, and for this size, very detailed. All pictures are high resolution and clickable for a better view.

The above pictures show a complete Bavarian division. Two brigades of two line regiments (each of two battalions) and one light infantry regiment of a single battalion, ten battalions in total.

Each battalion is 36 figures strong, so that the complete division is 360 figures, plus mounted command of two single base brigade commanders and a divisional command of two mounted figures on one base.

Next is a cavalry division.

My four cavalry regiments are each 18 figures strong, so a total of 72 figures. I have three regiments of Cheveau-légers and one Dragoon regiment. I have yet to paint the commanding officers of brigades and division.

Off course, I have some artillery too!

That's two batteries of three guns. One foot battery and one mounted battery. The difference is hard to see on 6mm figures, white belts for foot and black belts for mounted artillery. I plan to make bases of moving artillery too, and caissons. 

Terrain is also needed to play games with the new toys. And while I have yet to start an enemy army (Russians? Austrians?) I made a start on 6m terrain also. 

For woods, I ordered a cheap (Chinese) packet trees, 100 in total. I have done some thinking with how to base them. At the end, I used some of the many left-over bases that I have from plastic 28mm Perry Miniatures boxed sets. I think they look good, but it was a lot of work, and I think I need many more...

The miniatures in front are for scale. If I order more trees, I might buy a few larger ones.

A few small villages are also needed, plus roads, rivers, ...

So I bought a few things from Total Battle Miniatures. The only one which is ready is a large impressive three part redoubt. 20cm wide, which is more then a battalion in line formation!

One of the benefits of 6mm is the little space it takes for storage. And the fact that you are able to play large battles on a regular sized table. The largest I can go at home is 4'x 8', so many possibilities!

Now I only need to start on the other army. And maybe some French?

Gauls, Celts and/or Galatians.

 After a way-to-long hiatus in posting anything new on my blog, I'm back. I have no idea if this is a one off post, or will become a regular update again. I will try to be consistant and keep to the second option, though this blog seems to be very irregular in appearance.

So, what is new and worth blogging about, apart from this nasty virus which ruins much of our wargaming fun with friends? Well newly painted miniatures then maybe?

For now I will only show a few figures that were painted for my Gallic / Celtic / Galatian army in 28mm. (I also have many of these in 15mm, see )

For last ancient games we played in our local club, we used To the Strongest. And to play it properly, each command, wing or however you want to call it (generaly 2 or 3) needs a camp. This camp takes up the space of one so called box, a table space of either 15cm x 15cm or 20cm x 20cm, depending on the scale of your battlefield. So I do need a few things like carts, camp followers, etc.

Figures mostly from Wargames Foundry, druid is Warlord.

I also have a few new warriors. Metal figures from Old Glory. Fairly old castings, but certainly good enough to fill the ranks!

As an experiment, I based them (all 12) to one larger base, instead of using my normal 3 figs a base.

Some archers. These are Warlord metal figures I bought at a second hand market.

Celtic archers skirmishing.

And ending with a few command figures for the same army. These are also Warlord, but in the new resin. I must say, I not a big fan of the resin figures, a bit too "bendy". They feel like the old Airfix figures from back then, but with a lot more detail on them.

That's it for now. 

What? No word of the long promised 6mm army? Well, not yet, but coming soon!

Buildings.

I hardly ever paint buildings or scenery for my miniature armies. Though I buy some now and then. With a bit of extra time, thanks to corona, I think this might be the moment to put some paint on at least some of them. The "victims" were two Renedra sets, Medieval Cottage 1300-1700 and Timber Outbuilding. Both are hard plastic kits, which should be glued together with your normal polythene cement. I use Tamiya (orange cap). The same I also use for my hard plastic miniatures. The kits fit together very well, and after letting the glue dry for a night, I painted it without undercoating. The usual techniques of highlighting and drybrushing were used, untill I thought they look good enough to fight over on tabletop .

Here you can see the farmhouse next to a few Perry French Napoleonic light infantry miniatures, just for size.

For the moment I'm working on something completely different. Here's a picture, so you might have an idea what it will be (or could become). It is yet another project / distraction I found somewere at the bottom of the dreaded Lead Pile.

That's it for now!

My new Saga warband.

So, I finaly finished my Norse-Gaels Saga warband. It took a while, but am very pleased with the result, they look good! I hope the pictures show that too.

On top of that, I also painted two more vikings. Just as the figures above, they are made by Footsore Miniatures (which used to be Warbanner). I enjoyed painting them a lot. Some of the shields have LBMS shield transfers, but only a few. Others are hand painted.

I still have a few more, which might be painted in the near future. Who knows, it might become a real army!