False Starts--1/72 scale Landsknecht

One of my personal problems with the hobby of miniature wargaming is that I've hardly ever met a toy soldier I didn't like.  Nevertheless, long years of discipline have left me able to walk through the dealers' area at major conventions without new projects--most of the time.  However, I've always had a soft spot for 1/72 scale plastics, as a result of having been raised on Airfix in the early 1970s.  As a result, I have a tendency to buy 'sample' boxes of new releases.

When Orion released the first box of Landsknechts (doppelsoldners and arquebusiers) some years ago, I was already working on the 40mm Renaissance project shown here previously.  My 40s were already mounted on group bases for larger scale battles, so I thought that it might be fun to paint up a few individuals for a skirmish game.

I got as far as assembling the figures and priming them, but then foundered on the realization that my speed at scenery building meant that I would never get this game on the table.  I only ever finished this one figure, just to show that I could.

Thoughts after an evacuation

I was pleased this week to finally recover all my scattered possessions after our latest evacuation drill. This was our third flood preparation this year, and I must admit that the effort of carrying the boxes of lead up and down the stairs yet again left me wondering about whether it would be possible to trim my collection without significant loss of wargaming potential.

I have been keeping track of games played for some years now, which makes it possible to note that I have several projects which haven't been on the table in more than five years. I also have considerable stock of materials for projects which must be considered 'false starts' and which are unlikely to ever reach gaming level, as well as overrun for projects which don't really seem to need any additional work. For those latter items, I think the rational plan is to take one final stab at finishing them, and then sell anything remaining uncompleted.

Perhaps that will free up some mental energy as well as space in the war room...

Evacuation Drill

It was a busy weekend. We got some casting done, and also tried a game of Hordes of the Things with the 1/72 scale armies. Here, the Hero general of the Dinotopian army has been surrounded by the Riders of (hmmm...need a name), whose general is at the right. After a fierce melee in which both generals were hemmed in, his by outflanking riders, mine by pterosaurs, both generals were killed...but I was ahead on points. In an unusual occurrence in a Hordes game, he actually killed my general a turn or two before I managed to get his, but I rolled well and was still able to move some key units.

Unfortunately, however, the succession of tropical storms has left our river well on it's way to its second highest (they estimate) flood on record. We were rousted out of bed this morning by sirens and speaker trucks announcing an emergency evacuation, so it's somewhat uncertain as to when we might be home and what condition we might find it in. We had hoped for several additional hours of orderly preparation, so Norman and I had started by setting aside the Hittites and Egyptians as being light and suitable for a small table game. When the evacuation order came by surprise, they still ended up going with us, and we also grabbed 6mm Hordes, so it could be that's what we restart with. I hope that most of the armies, though, will be safe on the second floor. It could be another long weekend...perhaps it really is time for a more portable approach to this hobby.

-- Mobilis in mobile

Hasty Hordes Army

My son mentioned his dinosaur themed Hordes of the Things army recently, so, as I mentioned a couple of posts back, I decided it was time to recycle a project we called The Peasants are Revolting.  PaR was built ten years ago for the early years of the HAWKs Kids' Table at Historicon.  It was intended to be a simple game using inexpensive plastic miniatures and card buildings available from Usborne, as a bit of a demo of what one could do with some time and imagination and not much money.  We recycled that idea a few years later as the Battles for Beginners Contest, but that's a story for another day...

In any case, PAR was built, for nostalgic reasons, from a few boxes each of recent production runs of Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood figures.  When I was a 10-year-old getting started in this hobby, that was pretty much all there was for inexpensive medievals figures, and I had what I then considered to be quite a few of them.  So, using them again as an adult was a deliberate nostalgia choice, made despite the fact that significant numbers of probably better sets were available in 2001 (let alone what you can get today...)  After running the game for a couple of years, they have been shelved since 2003, so I didn't think I'd be missing out on anything by repurposing them.  I originally mounted them as individuals on pennies or larger washers for the horsemen, and I had a few problems getting some of the foot back off.  Nevertheless, I was able to assemble the group shown below, of six mounted stands (either riders or knights--I enjoy Hordes flexibility...), a stand of blades, a cleric, four shooters, and five hordes (or warbands, if one is inclined to be generous about their fighting ability.)

I set this aside for a week for the hurricane, but got the basing finished off this morning.  I hope to try them against Norman's Dinotopians this weekend, and I'll post some pictures if we do that.

Army overview

Blades stand from Sheriff of Nottingham figures

Friar Tuck as, what else, a cleric

The flag is somewhat the worse for years of wear, but this should be the general stand

A rider or knight stand

Shooters, with warband or hordes in the background

Waiting Games

Hurricane Irene made it a busy weekend. Skater son William was across the country in San Francisco with his partner and coach for a competition, leaving Norman and me to deal with storm preparations as calmly as we could. Since we live along a river, and access to our town is limited to three roads, one of which can flood and the other two of which run through wooded areas where fallen trees might be expected to be a problem, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and headed up the hill to spend the night at my SO's house.

Ironically, my house was tight and dry throughout, and the storm winds pushed the water down the river and bay away from us, so all was well at home. We spent an uncomfortable night in the dark without power, though, bailing out the basement at our refuge.

Anticipating that we might have some slack time while awaiting developments, we had added the 6mm Hordes of the Things/DBA box to our evacuation package. As it turned out, we did have time (while watching the stew on the camping stove) on Sunday to play a few games of Hordes. Here an element of my 6mm Irregular elven archers hides in a convenient forest, awaiting the Orcish army.

Interlude

After a week of intensively finishing off a proofreading job in all of my free time two weeks back, and a week devoted to the final preparations for my first outing to a ballroom dance competition this last weekend, I am hoping to get back into a gaming and painting groove for a while. This past Friday I invested most of my available home time into cleaning off my painting desk. Norman and I also sorted our 40mm NQSYW castings into unit sets and assessed our shortfall areas in anticipation of casting next weekend, AND I rebased a number of Airfix Sherriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood figures into a hasty Hordes of the Things medieval fantasy army, as both sons have armies nearing completion. I haven't, however, had time to finish terraining the bases since then.

I was given a few Meisterzinn 40mm semiflat Renaissance molds today, by a work colleague, which may see use as soon as next weekend...I'm still pending a discussion with Ross about next year's concentration on the 16th Century for convention games.

I have a feeling that trying to do less would result in more things actually being finished ....

Reinforcements

I don't know why it is, but ancient habits have left me feeling that 1/72 scale plastic doesn't "count" when I'm trying to avoid expanding what's on my project plate. I noted at the time of my Historicon report that I picked up a couple of boxes of plastic for my stalled Russian Civil War project, and additional reinforcements arrived from Michigan Toy Soldier yesterday. Now to do some painting...which I'd like to have in hand before ordering a small handful of vehicles from Reviresco.