Saturday News: Roofing done.

Last week I finished what I started the week before namely the roofing of my multi-temporal estate. Since the original roofs looked too modern to me and suffered some damage somehow some new roofs were needed. For this purpose I cut a couple of triangles from foam board. In addition I cut suitable rectangles from thick cardboard. Those parts combined I had some rather gables as base for the roofs.

Then the trickiest and most time consuming work came up: Tilling the roofs. Luckily Martin and Diane from Warbases are producing sheets of pre-cut cardboard roof tiles. Those were an incredible help. No idea how long it had taken to cut all those shingles myself...

Momentarily the last row of shingles is missing because I want to fit in the new chimneys I made from Depron foam. Actually that was much easier than I thought.

Thus I'm finally seeing the finish line with this project and I'm looking forward to get it done soon.

Until then please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Last chance to enter 'Secret Santa' !

Simultaneously to Chris's 'Santa Clause' venture Ian from 'The Blog with no Name' fame is organising 'Secret Santa' again. An equally wonderful campaign between bloggers but with some different rules. Actually the present is slightly more pricy with £15 but delivered unpainted. Anyway have a look at Ian's invitation to get an idea if you're interested: Here.

Yours truly is boundlessly happy to take part in the venture again. I'm really looking forward to roam the Crisis wargaming show looking for a nice gift for my Christmas target!

It seems our virtual wargaming community is really special. People giving presents to each other although just knowing the virtual Alter Ego of their counterparts is everything but ordinary. I'm really glad that I've found my way into this bloggosphere and I'm looking forward to many joyful years though!

If you want to join the bunch don't hesitate to go to Ians last call: Here.

Next week I'll deliver some idea for my very own counterpart in the same manner as for the 'Secret Santa' venture. You'll spot some overlaps I presume.   ;-)

Santa's Little Helper (1) - Ideas for 'Santa Clause' venture

The festive season is coming nearer and therefore two tireless bloggers are organising yearly ventures. Ian from 'The blog with no name' is running the 'Secret Santa' campaing while Chris from 'Wargamer's Odds and Ends' is maintaining 'Santa Clause'. Chris closed the enrollment in early-October and all the paires are matched. Now each participant has the task to get one or more figures for up to £5 for his (or her) counterpart, paint them and post them until Christmas.

Luckily I found a nice set of Warlord Games miniatures which will hopefully appeal to my target fellow. I'll get them at Crisis in Antwerp and afterwards have around five weeks to paint them before they'll make their way to the UK. Should be no problem...

Anyway our host asked me to put some kind of wish list onto my blog to give my benefactor some hints. But let me place first that I'll appreciate any piece of work showing that the creator put his efforts into it. One of the dearest pieces in my collection is a small vignette which I luckily won in a friend's raffle a while ago. Although I don't have a single figure matching it I always appreciate to have a look at it and the wonderful greeting card that came with it when I pass by my glass cabinets.

Thus 'Santa' shouldn't agonise too much about finding the perfect addition to my collection. Just find something you'd like to paint and present!

But anyway as asked some recommendations:

28mm Modern Warfare:

Sometime this winter I'll focus on this interesting topic. Until now I have some mordern British by Empress and a two or three Hasslefree modern troopers. In case that 'Santa' share my interest in the modern Afghan theatre of war maybe one or two suitable insurgents or militia fighters would be nice. Of course any other matching range would do as well.

By the way for skirmish gaming miniatures I prefer 5 Cent coins as bases. They are 1.7mm thick and have a diameter of 21mm. More or less the same size as British pennies.

My first painted modern trooper (link)

28mm Napoleonics:

A constant topic on my workbench. Last year Santa's present was a top hit for that. A wonderful RHA howitzer which is excellently painted and perfectly useful for me. No need to compete against that but in case that 'Santa' has a partiality for Napoleonics there are a couple of gaps in my collection. Somehow under the radar I'm working on a French brigade. Actually the 1st or 2nd Brigade from D'Erlon's Corps at Waterloo. Until now it doesn't have a command base and I haven't planned one yet.

In case that 'Santa' chooses this task a 60mm circular base would be perfect. But please without colours. They will be carried by the regiments.

28mm WW2:

Another project that's keeping my attention constantly. Currently I'm woking on some British Paras and Desert Rats as regular readers of my humble blog know. But as soon as both platoons are finished I'll probably turn to British Expedition Force or Homeguard. Maybe 'Santa' wants to give either of them a start. Warlord Games and Wargames Foundry are providing a wonderful range of Home Guard / Dad's army figures. Perhaps 'Santa' would enjoy to paint one or two of them.

One of Wargames Fonudry's charcterful Home Guard set sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry

28mm War of the Roses:

Somehow I fell into this project after the Perry twins seduced me with their excellent plastic boxes. Besides that my efforts are rather limited so maybe 'Santa' wants to take that line and add something to my slowly growing collection. Either some civilians or a command base might be his choice then. For the latter I have no real favourite but my archers are bearing the colours of York. Thus one of the Yorkish leaders would be most suitable. Maybe accompanied by a standard bearer to simplify recognition on the battlefield. Although my other WotR figures are based on 21mm coins a larger vignette would be finde as well.

My Yorkish bowmen (link).

And besides that?

Anything 'Santa' appreciates. Actually scenic elements like carts, animals or civilians are most useful for any table but mostly badly underrepresented. So ther'd be a lot of room in all my projects for such elements. Beginning with the Dark Ages, over WotR, AWI, Napoleonics and right to WW1 and WW2 I'd apreciate any kind of useful bits and pieces.

Well then... I hope give's a good bunch of ideas for 'Santa'. As you see I mentioned some pieces that could be based on multi-figure packs beyond £5. Consistent with the rules I don't expect 'Santa' to acquire those but perhaps he or she has some spare figure that do the job.

By the way Ian hasn't closed the list for 'Secret Santa' yet. So if you want to jump on the train don't hesitate to go to his blog: Here.

So let me finish with a matter that is close to my heart:

Anything is appreciated 'Santa' choses to put his efforts and time into.

Still building(s)

As the weeks before I'm still working on the buildings we'll need for our Plancenoit game at Crisis. At present I put the wonderful Stronghold Terrain ruins aside and pottered at another estate. One of my friends from the club gave it to me to modify it for the Napoleonic wars. Actually it was part of Grand Manner's excellent range but I think it's out of production currently. Since it was too modern I had to alter it here and there:

The coloured areas were parts we discussed whether they were appropriate for 1815 or not. Finally I decided to do the following major conversions:

• remove gutters (not on the picture)
• remove remaining parts of the broken fencing (green)
• remove the roller shutter front (green)
• make new roofs
• the plate may stay (blue)
• the decorative-moulding as well (red)

Now I don't want to bother you with too many details. There were a couple of other alteration on the gable end of the estate but I'll cover the whole project in a couple of posts as soon as it's finished. But this is the result I achieved during the last days:

Next will be the new roofs that I'll construct with cardboard and Warbases lasercut roof tiles. Afterwards some finishing touchs to make the scene more vivid. A wonderful inspiration was Pat's last piece of art that he presented on his blog 'Wargaming with Silver Whistle' (here). Don't miss this wonderful estate!

Besides that please don't forget to have a look at the Google+ community dedicated to 'Paint Table Saturday'.

Imperial Assault: Painted Stormtroopers

Actually I reserved the following Stormtroopers for my habitual weekend post as part of the 'Paint Table Saturday' venture. But somehow things never turn out the way I expect. Once again our weekend was busy with meeting family and friends and I didn't find the time to get myself to the computer and set a an appropriate article. To crown it all the signs of age exacted their toll and evenings I was too tired to turn my attention to the bloggosphere. Obviously I'm getting too old for three days of gatherings, beer and sports but I wasn't able to resist Rugby, Hockey and American Football...

Anyway with no further ado here's the humble work yours truly performed on some of the miniatures from the Imperial Assault board game:

As you see I started with the easiest figures in the box: Stormtroopers.

Those were my start of choice because I wanted to see quick results and I didn't want to withdraw my attention too much from our ongoing Plancenoit project. With the game come nine Stormtroopers representing three squads. To differentiate them I painted the edges of the bases in blue, red and green.

Besides the coloured edge I held the bases as simply as possible. Since the game works with a couple of different board styles like desert, woodland or space ship interior I was afraid that textured bases might look disturbing when hitting inappropriate underground. Thus I simply painted them dark grey with some slight dry-brushing with lighter grey tones.

Painting the Stormtroopers themselves was pretty simply as well. After a neat coat of white primer I used a dark grey colour on the joints, blasters and other more or less black parts. Then a coat of thinned Armypainter Quickshade: Dark Tone and some white highlighting.

As a result the Stormtroopers aren't as clean and bright as seen in the films but I prever them a little dirty because it brings out the details on playing distance. However those chaps are probably far from my best pieces but as simply rank and file troops they'll do well I presume. Next will be either the drones or the Imperial officers. But first back to Plancenoit. My progress there is small but constant and I'll be able to present another intermediate state later this week.

Bavarian Army Museum - Napoleon and the Bavarians

After this weekend some kind of autumn cold grapped our family and all of us were rather weary we're all getting better now and so I found the time to sort the pictures from my visit at the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt. Currently they're running a special exhibition about Napoleon and the Bavarians there and so my buddy Rick and I took the trip to Ingolstadt.

The museum itself is wonderfully located in Ingolstadt's old city centre and is occupying the New Castle there. Usually there's is a permanent exhibition about the history of the Bavarian Army running but currently it had to make way for the above mentioned Napoleonic exhibition. It is more politically and socially oriented then I expected in an ARMY museum but nevertheless an excellent trip and a lot of extremely interesting pieces to examine. Unfortunately the lighting was pretty dark. Probably best for the old pieces and rather comfortable for the visitors but honestly doom for taking pictures. Therefore most of my photos turned out blurry or darkish. But anyway some are more or less presentable.

Of course the exhibition started with the Korsikan guy all the trouble was about two centuries ago:

Napoleon in his coronation robes

Napoleon in Egypt

Visiting Marienberg Fortress Würzburg

Here we go again, time for part one of my coverage of our trip to Würzburg. Most important we spent a couple of wonderful days with two of our oldest and dearest friends. Their hospitality was outstanding and we enjoyed to be with them once more. Unfortunately little Anna refused to sleep as calmly as usual. As her larger sister a couple of years ago she seems to be sick of the portacrib.

Marienberg Fortress southern side (picture from Wikipedia)

Under those wonderful conditions we undertook two trip which might matter to you. Thus first for our trip to Marienberg Fortress which is lying above River Main opposite to Würzburg city. The oldest parts of the castle were built by Konrad von Querfurt who was bishop of Würzburg during those days. Interestingly its main purpose was to protect himself against the defiant population of Würzburg who wasn't always eagerly accepting the orders and taxes the bishops imposed on them. The last reminder of the old castle that burnt down during the 16th century or was converted to more modern architecture is the keep in the middle of the fortress:

The old castle keep. Left hand there is the newer chappel of Marienberg Fortress.

Thus most of the fortress is much younger. It has a very turbulent history during which it was attacked and besieged several times. For example unsuccessfully during the German Peasant's War in 1525, successfully during the Thirty Years' War in 1631 and once again successfully during the Prussian Main Campaign in 1866. Simoultaneously it was residence of the bishops of Würzburg and prison during the witchcraft trials. All in all a really interesting place but its decent history would go beyond the constraints of this humble article.

However nowadays most of the structural parts of the fortress date back to the great renovation and expansion performed under guidance of Prince-bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (16th century) and Archbishop-Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn (17th century):

Schönborn Gate named after the influential bishop.

Echter Gate named after the other builder of the modern parts of the fortress.

Princes' Building with museum, restaurant and conference centre.