Sedantag, 150th anniversary: Kaiser Wilhelm I.

In view of the occasion I painted a miniature that had been resting on my lead pile for a couple of years. It's a wonderful incarnation of Kaiser Wilhelm I. which was sculpted by Alan Perry as a special miniature for Tactica 2016. I'm not sure whether I'll ever need him on table but it was a great figure to paint.

On the underlying picture by German painter Wilhelm Camphausen both uniform and coat appear to have the same nearly black colour. Nevertheless I decided to give my Kaiser some more play of colours. So I opted for the classic Prussian blue for the uniform and a rather greyish-blue tone for the coat. The figure is painted with Vallejo Model colours and some Citadel contrast paints here and there.

I hope you like it.

Tactica Review (2) - Tremendous Tables

Last week I introduced the we brought to Tactica but this week I want to focus on a couple of the excellent tables other people presented. As the years before there were some awesome pieces of craftsmanship and as the years before I wasn't able to take good pictures of each and every of them. Thus I do honestly recommend you search the internet for other Tactica reports to get a complete impression of the whole show.

Anway here we go...

Eladan's wonderful winter table for SAGA 'Game of Thrones'

Winter is coming ! 

Möckern... Napoleonics with 'Black Powder'

A very nice WW2 winter table

Germans approaching.

Great Northern War; unfortunately I don't remember the rules.

A dungeon across several levels.

Saint-Aubin-Sur-Mer behind Juno and Sword Beach. Rules were 'Behind Omaha'.

Gliders behind the city. Actually part of the force attacking the Merville battery.

Paper soldiers.

Designed by Peter Dennis.

A modular ship acting as stage for a cinematic 'Black Ops' game.

Silent death...

The agends entered the belly of the ship to rescue a couple of hostages.

And had to explore two lower decks.

On the first floor there was a theme room presenting 40 years of wargaming history in Germany. Several contributors brought an interesting collection of wargaming stuff and models from the early 1960s until today:

Well known GW games from the golden 90s.

Molds for DIY figures. My start into metal miniatures as well...

Our club fellow Kalle explaining 1960s game 'Romans vs. Carthagians'

Besides meeting old friends and making new ones Tactica is always a great chance for playing. It's two days offer plenty of time to try a couple of game but nevertheless during the last years I never found the time to take this chance. This year I was lucky enough to have some free time on Sunday morning and joined a Sudan game the Kurpfalz Feldherren presented. They used the rules of 'This very Ground' and create an interesting and thrilling scenario:

This British caravan had to reach a small supply point. It was accompanied by a unit Camel Corps.

But of course there were more Brits in the supply point. Their player decided to leave his camp to guard the caravan.

But we incited our Mhadist troops to make short shrift with those disbelievers.

Fierce fighting broke out and took many lives on either side.

But finally some of my troops stormed the barricades and achieved victory for us.

As you see it was a tremendous weekend again. I had a really great time with my friends and enjoyed the show even more then the years before. It was priceless to see old friends again and make new once. Especially meeting Michael aka. Dalauppror was a great pleasure. Although there are eleven months to come I'm already looking forward to Tactica 2018 !

Tactica Review (1) - The Battle of Aboukir

Once again this blog fell silent for a couple of weeks. Again my apologies for but my reason was just since I had to concentrate all my hobby time on finishing my share of our game for Tactica wargaming show namely one unit of redcoats, a rowing boat with 38 figures and a British gunboat. From time to time I didn't believe that I'd make it but delayed holiday, sleep deficiency and negligence of household duties do miracles sometimes. In this context I cannot praise Mrs Monty's patience enough!

Anyway somehow everything was done and finished by Thursday evening and so I set sail to Hamburg on Friday morning with a bag full of miniatures. As I mentioned a couple of times we prepared a game to recreate the Battle of Aboukir which took place on 8th March 1801. From the morning fog there were British landing crafts emerging that told of the advancing landing force under command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie. He brought 17,000 troops to breeze out the French but those are ready to fight their last stand as hard as possible. Once again after Nelson's famous naval victory and after a failed Ottoman landing operation in 1799 the fate of the Orient is decided at Aboukir.

The initial setup with the French on the beach and the British advancing by sea.

28th for Aboukir: First sestet done

This time it's really late that I throw my hat into the ring during our painting challenge but actually I've been hoping to be able to present my interpretation of the 28th Regiment of Foot at Aboukir as a whole. However currently I'm somehow smack in the middle and the deadline for the mandatory first post is coming closer. Thus I have to bring some fellows of the unfinished unit before your critical eyes:

So these are the first five men for the centre companies of the 28th Regiment of Foot during their mission in Egypt in 1801. The figure are actually pieces from the Napoleonic plastics the Perry twin are producing but I severely converted them with parts from several other boxes and some greenstuff. This was of course work from before the challenge but in case that you're interested in it have a look at this post here.

However I decided to go for a rather late version of the uniform worn at Aboukir. For that reason the soldiers are wearing those whitish overalls over their breeches and gaiters. On the one hand I found a picture of this kind of dress in the Osprey book about Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and on the other hand I wanted some figures reusable for the later Peninsular campaign. For that I'll create an alternative command group but have the remaining 21 figures versatile.

Anyway we'll need those chaps for our presentation game at Tactica show in February so I have my hands full with painting them. In addition I'm planning to have a version of the unit on board of a landing craft. A bunch of work for a slow painter like me...

Anyway I hope you like those first impressions. Unfortunately I too those pictures before finishing the bases and didn't find to take new ones during the last days. But upon my word I covered them with sand and painted and highlighted them with three shades of sandy colours.

A bunch of conversions - 28th Rgt. of Foot for Aboukir and Peninsular

The annual Painting Challenge is coming nearer and actually I should take time to prepare figures for it. Luckily my lead mountain is filled with primed miniatures so I can use my little time at the workbench to proceed with my contribution to our club's next show project: The British landing at Aboukir 1801.

Besides a couple of boats my largest task is a 24 figure unit of British redcoats that shall respresent the 28th Regiment of Foot. Comparing the different ranges available - mostly of course those perfect 1801 British by Alan Perry - none gave me satisfaction. Excellent figures all around but I wanted to have something more characterful. So I decided to create a unit of conversions:

The whole unit with an additional command for Peninsular

Tactica 2016 Review (2) - Our games

Don't miss part one with the splendid tables all the other clubs brought: Here.

Finally here are some pictures of the games we brought to Hamburg. Firstly a 28mm Napoleonic skirmish I had the pleasure to contribute some humble work and secondly the wonderful Squigghopper Dungeon our club fellow Georg designed and operated.

Let's go to Egypt to begin with. It was a skirmish game scenario my friend Bernhard designed. It was set in spring 1801 during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Here are his very own words heralding in the story:

It’s spring of 1801. Napoleon has left Egypt a long time ago. British troops have landed successfully and are marching on Kairo.

First skirmishes are taking place near Rahmanieh on the left bank of the Nile between the British expeditionary force, supported by Ottoman troops. In a coup-de-main the French occupy the small town of Disuq on the opposite river bank. The British react swiftly and strongly. With a tenfold superiority they attack the French. But what is the real objective of this fight off the main battle site? This skirmish scenario will give an adventurous answer.

Our table... Nearly completely set up for the game.

To set the stage we employed roughly 250 figures, two rowing boats, a couple of wonderful exciting terrain pieces and a bunch of palm trees, shrubbery and scenic bits like chests, bags and such. By far most of the stuff came from Bernhard's wonderful collection, but some other club fellows and me were able to contribute some small parts as well. Thus Holger made the terrain mats, Georg helped with the terrain board and I gladly added the market stand that Santa brought (look here) me as well as my unit of British tars (featured here and here).

Tactica 2016 Review (1) - Some excellent tables!

For the 11th time now in Hamburg the Tactica wargaming show took place. Last weekend wargamers from more or less whole Europe gathered there and enjoyed the hobby we all have in common. A lot of clubs came by and presented some really exciting games. Wonderful table everywhere around and a couple of excellent traders who exposed alluring things for sale. And of course it was once again a perfect place to meat old friends and make some new. So I met Teemu a nice guy from Finnland who played our games at least during the last three years, made the wonderful acquaintance of Nick aka. Moiterei1984, met some fellows from Berlin and Antwerp which I knew from earlier shows and of course was able to chat with some jolly good chaps from England who made the jump over the channel again. Actually the chance to meat all those fellows makes Tactica so precious for me and is the real icing on the cake.

In a later post I'll cover the game we brought to Hamburg (a skirmish during the 1801 fightings in Egypt) but now let me start with a selection of those excellent table the other clubs brought:

Königgrätz 1866 - Frankfurter Partisanen (Grand Tactical Rules)

The Prussian Command

Tactica show this weekend !

Unbelievable that not only days but once again weeks have passed since my last post. I'm deeply sorry that I was absent for such a long time again but somehow I haven't been able to turn the corner and get myself back to regular blogging. The first weeks of 2016 were simply too stressful at work and too busy at home...

Hobbywise I had a few games that I took pictures of to write some short AARs but even didn't manage to do that. But promised rather soon here'll come some pictures from Star Wars X-Wing and Armada. On the other hands the chaps from the THS club and me were preparing our presentation game for Tactica wargaming show which will take place this very weekend in Hamburg. This time we'll lead our highly appreciated audience to Egypt and show them a battle between French, British and Arabian troops during Napoleon's Egypt campaign. It's a skirmish level struggle for which we use an excellent variant of the Lion Rampant engine. It'll be featured in one of the upcoming Wargames Illustrated but we were lucky enough to do some advance play testing with them. They went really smoothly and allowed us some exciting and joyful beer and prezel matches. Exactly my cup of tea!

Anyway for this game I promised to contribute at least a unit of British tars. You saw six of them in my very last post and six more left the painting table last week. I'll feature them in a later article because they'll have to participate in the naval bonus round of the AHPC (Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge) but here a quick group shot:

Old and new tars

But now I have to get my stuff sorted because we'll head to Hamburg rather early tomorrow and some family duties have to be fulfilled before.

Enjoy your weekend!

Maybe I'll see some of you in Hamburg...

Tactica Part 2 - More awesome tables

Here we are for part 2 of my Tactica 2015 report. It seemed as there were even more visitors than the years before and all the presenters were well prepared. Thus around 10 o'clock on Saturday the show opened its gates:

Please queue here...

On the first floor there was a room especially for the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo and a lot of interesting stuff connected to this important battle:

A historic French helmet.

Ligny in 1/72 by Frank Becker

More Ligny.

Ligny again...

La Haye Sainte in 1/72.

The orchard.

And the inner area.

More French...

An awesome 28mm table covering the whole battle of Waterloo.

A really old-school wooden strategic board.

A British square in 1:1 ratio with 28mm miniatures

But besides the obvious connection to Waterloo there were a lot of other table well worth to be mentined:

Spanish Civil War in 28mm

Behind Omaha 20mm WW2 wargaming

A really awesome Dust Tactics board

A very nice crew...

WW1 with Bolt Action

Dropzone Commander

SAGA Crescent and Cross

A really nice Western game inside a suitcase

Robo Rally

Do you know the two yellow spectators?

Axles and Allois Deathrace

The French-Prussian War in 6mm

Well... Unfortunately I wasn't able to take good photos of each and every table but I picked the best of them and at least those table really turned out very well. Sorry for the tables I didn't present it was for most of them not for quality reasons.