I Still Don't Know What These Are Called

The 1:1 pike:musket ratio is just about accurate for some units early in the early Civil War.

 

I have seen this assembly of troops referred to by many names: regiment, battalia, brigade, tercio even. The only thing I'm certain of is that "regiment" is more of an administrative term and that in battle, regiments were split up/combined to make formations of approximately equal size. The Seventeenth Century was often frustratingly vague in its use of technical language.

Oliver's Army

 

"And how much did your father spend on those models?"

Something New: Battlefleet Gothic

Carrion Squadron, ready to harry the lapdogs of the false emperor

 One of the many Games Workshop Specialist Games I dallied with in my youth was Battlefleet Gothic, the game of heavily armed gothic space cathedrals in the grimdark future. I recently got in touch with someone online who re-ignited my interest in the game and agreed to make a pilgrimage to Warhammer World in Nottingham to get some action in. Watch this space...

Waltzing Matilda (2)

 

It's been a while, certainly. Rather than dwell on that though, I have a new model for you: the Airfix Matilda 2 kit from the 70s in its original packaging. A wonderful Christmas present, thank you, family.

I was a little tempted to leave it pristine in its packaging, but the entire purpose of a toy is to be played with.

What I've let myself in for

A whole 5 models complete! 4 of them weren't painted before lockdown!

 

I'm sure like many of you, my initial optimism about the effect of lockdown on my plastic pile has faded. Not only does painting time still seem hard to make, but self-medicating my mental health by buying models has made things even worse. So, some months before the publication of this update, I found myself needing to paint a dozen knights and two cannon in time for the Clash of Kings in October.

The Clan Invasion

 

You remember the '60s, right? (the 3060s...) When a wave of Skiffle bands swept over the Inner Sphere with their mop-top hairdos and Burrock and roll music: The Rolling Stone Lions, the Jyde Falcyns, The Totem Animals, the list goes on. What I'm trying to say is that I've finally painted some more Clan 'mechs and wanted to make an extremely strained pun. I've also got a new SAD lamp for Christmas and while no mental health benefits have yet been observed it does improve my lighting setup a lot.

Mist Lynx (left) and Timberwolf (right). Or Koshi and Madcat if you swing that way.

Catching Up with the Painting

As I write this paragraph, five more Italian infantry (for the surprise bonus extra squad in Chain of Command) are out in the garden being spray-varnished. Having already added the Bushwhacker and Churchill tank (see below dear reader), I realised that I really needed to hurry up and get this post out of the door before my painting progress made it longer than an undergraduate dissertation.

The last two plastic 'Mechs from my Lance Pack (of four)

Lockdown Labours

"Oh yes," I thought, "spending all my free time indoors I'll get plenty of painting and blogging done!" Har har har. Not only have I been dabbling in the videoed-games, the family clear-out of the lego (it's not like there's much else to do round here...) has occupied rather a lot of "model time". 

About half the lego in our mysterious boxes is now clogging up the dining room table. We didn't originally own the pirate ship, it came in bits in a box of lego some acquaintances were giving away.

How not to be seen

Private N. E. Seagoon of the 4th Armoured Thunderboxes has presented us with a poser: we do not know which tree he is behind, but we can soon find out.

Yes, it was the middle one.

Achtung Bagpiper!

20 mm Bagpiper (Britannia miniatures, sadly lacking kilt) with some fine brushwork on the tartan.

I wanted to get a figure, rather than a counter, to indicate force morale on the Chain-of-Command tracker (The Afrika Korps already have some surrendering chaps for this purpose) so I have a bagpiper. It only really works for Scottish units, but as the 51st Highland were at El-Alamein and the 15th Scots were in Normandy, that's the two theatres I have campaign packs for covered.

Some of these aren't technically tanks

Universal carriers: Spot the difference.

Note: universal carriers, not having a turret, are not tanks and therefore part of a balanced model painting diet. Which means the tanks and armoured cars to follow are entirely justified.

Tanks Again!

My mental health hasn't been great lately. This means plenty of models have been bought as retail therapy and painted in my secluded underground lair so there is plenty of content for the blog. Every cloud eh?

Airfix 1/76 T-34, assembled by my uncle, painted by me. During painting I gummed up the joint so unfortunately the gun doesn't elevate any more.

Tank Politics

Local miniature painter saves £££ time with this one simple trick! Don't bother painting camouflage on tanks, just do one colour. In all seriousness though, the Caunter Stuart has been in the "to do" draw for months and I've only just finished it, but the Valentines I bought last month have had the final layer of varnish on within weeks.

Non-binary pride Stuart (left, Plastic Soldier Company) and asexual pride Valentine (Right, Armourfast).

Warning: Small Pics Ahead

My current camera setup (mobile phone camera and sun/room light), while delightfully cheap, certainly has limitations when trying to capture smaller models or group shots. It doesn't help that I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, I have recently discovered *new features* on the phone cam which will grace future updates...

The 2 mm tanks now based on 20 mm round washers. Not done much else in this scale, but I have the models, just need to get the paint on them.

No Scrubs

After the somewhat ironic title (I've finished quite a few bits of scrub) I hereby present part one of my painting progress.

Marauders marauding amongst 20mm scale scrub.

Unusually Timely Update

Some of you on social media will already have seen the new tank, unless I've been buried in the algorithms.

Another example of my unusual vehicle marking conventions: British white-red-white vertical stripes square converted into trans pride flag.

Scenary and Storage Solutions

Preparation for my Easter gaming sesh continue apace. By the time I started writing this update, I will had already finished some of the models shown in progress here.

Various British support options arranged amongst scratch-built houses. L-R: Vickers machine gun, 2" mortar , barbed wire and sniper team.

Werewolves of London

I've not got a full army photo yet as I spent this evening wrestling my 40mm x 40mm based figures into my new carrying case inserts. I absolutely refuse to attempt that feat again without good reason so you'll have to wait until after this weekend's tournament.

Mierce Miniatures werewolves. Gorgeous models, but at £15 apiece only for special occasions.

A Quick One Before 2019

Merry Christmas, Happy new something etc. Have a blog post for Christmas. I've got plenty of things 'almost done' so I thought it would be nice to show some works-in-progress for a change as I haven't done that for a bit.

I'd also like to mention the recent Meeples and Miniatures podcast where they are brave enough to discuss their mental health issues in detail. I thought this would be worth a mention as I've mentioned my (still ongoing) mental health stuff before and men need to talk about it more.

Peltasts almost finished, including two spare bases to fill out a 100 mm x 40 mm unit for Kings of War. Lovely uncomplicated miniatures from 1st Corps.

CoK Loot and Plans for Next Year

A morose air hung over the camp after the tournament. Two figures sat by a campfire, one a human with both arms in enormous plaster casts and the other a great beast-man with a bandaged lump on his head as large as an extra horn. One turned to the other and said: 

"It's no good. Next time we're going to have bring a competitive army list."

Gaming paraphernalia freebies. Tape measure not included as I'd lost it down the sofa by this point.