Congratulations! - Mike from "Trouble at T'Mill" broke 100K!

Last week our wargaming fellow blogger Mike Whitaker from "Trouble at T'Mill" broke the 100.000 hits sonic wall.

Congratulations !

To celebrate this milestone he organizes a price draw and invites any public follower of his blog to enter. Until now he started three raffles:

Day 1: Two lots of old Airfix miniature packs

Day 2: A selection of Games Workshop Lord of the Rings sprues

Day 3: A set of 28mm plastic Norman infantry and Sharon Penman's historical novel "When Christ And His Saints Slept"

When you decide to go there for the raffles then have a look at some of his other posts. Most of them are excellent wargaming stuff and eye-candy.

Good luck further on, Mike !

AWI-Scotsmen: 74th Regiment of Foot finished

Finally they're done!

After I presented the first finished miniatures last week (here) I was very anxious to get the whole unit finished until today. Mainly because we'll have an AWI-game this evening and I would like to field those Highland boys for the first time.

The whole unit (klick to enlarge).

When we started to play AWI we decided that a unit of standard size has ten models. To be honest I don't remember the precise reason but it was associated with our small AWI collections and the smaller (real) forces compared to Napoleonic times. However I used two sets of Perry AWI Scots (here and here) and painted them in an proper scheme to represent the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot. I chose this unit because the took part in the small campaing to found Fort George and defended it during the American Penobscot Expedition and we are planning to play some small scenarios related to these events.

As usual I used Vallejo paints and tried to illustrate all important uniform details within the limits of reasonable effort. Unfortunately the unit has to wait for its colours a bit. Iain from Flags of War told me that the fitting flag is nearly prepared and will be available soon. Probably I'll field the regimental colour with the unit and the King's colour on the command stand for the brigade. Two flags in a ten model unit would look a bit excessive I presume...

Blogosphere News: Tamsin cracked 100.000 hits and is making several prize draws !

Last week our wargaming fellow blogger "Wargaming Girl" broke the 100.000 hits sonic wall.

Congratulations !

To celebrate this milestone she organizes a price draw and invites any public follower of her blog to enter. Just have a look here for day 1 with 28mm British infantry (Warlord plastics) and here for day 2 with 6mm and 15mm stuff.

Good luck further on, Tamsin !

Weekly News: Sign of Live and WIP AWI Scotsman

The last week was anything but calm. Instead of swinging the paintbrush annual tax declaration was on the shedule. A hard test for my patience and our marriage. However we passed it and only some minor details of the costs for childcare are to add.

Anyway I was able to make some minor progress on my AWI Scotsmen. Although I wanted to paint them as Black Watch originally I changed to 74th Regiment of Foot. I changed my mind because we're planning to present an AWI game at Crisis in November which is losely leaned on the penobscot expedition in 1779 and the events described in Cornwell's "The Fort" and during this campaign the 74th was present at Majabigwaduce.

However here are two pictures of the first nearly finished soldier. I'm surprised how the plaid turned out. While I was painting the dark green check I feared that the tucking would look unnatural... Anyhow there are some details to finalise. E. g. highlighting of the skin, the musket, slip knot in the hair and the the metal parts.

Anyway I hope you like it.

Scotti's front. I'll have to rectify the socks.

And his back. I'll have to paint the black lines on the folds.

Unfortunately I haven't found a European dealer for flags of the 74th and 82nd Regiments of Foot. Probably I'll turn to Flagdude. Does anyone know, whether his flags have the same size as GMB?

Arrows - Old-fashioned Weapons of the Workbench

Actually I don't like to start posts with "now for something completely different". It's always a risky game when things like this blog are dedicated for a special subject. Wargaming in this very special case.

However unfortunately I had to spent my time for some other work than painting miniatures this week. For several years I had been doing Live-Action-Roleplaying. Although it stepped back in my list of hobbies behind wargaming and far behind family, I tend to visit one or two events per year furthermore. Thus I'll spend the upcoming weekend with some fellow camping in country. Besides the usual kind of medieval way of living we'll have an archer's tournament there.

That was reason enough for me to dust my good old longbows off and prepare a set of arrows for it. I'm not sure whether I'll shoot my Hickory English Longbow or the rather my modern laminated longbow. Actually I'm proud of the hickory one since I made it myself but during the last years it developed some small cracks on the belly and I don't want to risk its breaking...

Anyway I had to prepare a new set of arrows and did that this week. As shafts I used Port Oxford Cedar. To my mind it's simply the best material for wooden arrows. Afterwards I painted the upper six inches part of them with red acrylic paint and bated the next seven or eight inches with red-brown wood stain. To complete the design of the shafts I put on some black-gold-black rings using spray paint and a permanent marker. Afterwards I brushed them with two coats of spar varnish to protect them from friction and weather.

For the fletching I used dyed goose fethers in red and white which I cut myself. You might notice that I applied some small pieces of rabbit fur on top of the feathers. They huddle against the shaft when flying but afterwards they indicate clearly where the arrow hit the target. Essential for me for targets farer away than 20 or 30 feet. And looking good I think...

However I prepared a set of six usual arrows and three Flu-Flus (the one in the middle, slow flying arrows for short range or high elevated shots). Therefore I wasn't able to make any progress with my AWI Scots. I hope to have some time for them next week...