The Liebster Award 2014...

…the award that won't go away!

If truth be told, I was hoping to quietly ignore the 'Liebster Award' as it did its annual rounds of our cosy corner of the Blogosphere; the idea of answering eleven questions and then inventing a further eleven more just when just when we were shepherding the pupils through their public examinations seemed like quite an imposition.

Now, as I sit quietly, sipping at my beloved Earl Grey and enjoying the calm oasis that is half term, I realise that I have been incredibly churlish, after all it's not all about me - it was never about me.  It would be all too easy to dismiss the 'Liebster' as the newest incarnation of that vile abomination - the chain letter, but I believe that there is more to it than just a self perpetuating pat on the back.  The Liebster is about recognising new and interesting blogs and whilst I am thrilled to have been given the nod, not to have publicly accepted it and then not to haven taken the time to acknowledge someone new is just plain rude and we cannot abide rudeness here at '28mm Victorian Warfare'.

So first, I must graciously thank those that have passed the award onto me:

Keith's Wargaming / Painting Blog

Paul from 'The Man Cave'

Bandit86's blog

Hobby Worker's Blog

All splendid recipients of the award in their own right making me even more grateful that they took the time to pass on the award to '28mm Victorian Warfare' - thank you gentlemen.  The award comes with a series of rules or regulations, but bearing in mind that this is now eating into some precious hobby time, (and that I'm inherently lazy!) I've taken the liberty of tweaking them a tad.

1. Copy and paste the Award on your blog, remembering to link back to the blogger who has given it to you.

2. Pass on the Award to your top 5 blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the Award and listing them on your own blog.

3. Sit back and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you have made someone's day!

4. There is, of course, no obligation to pass this onto anyone else, but it´s nice if you take the time to do so. 

So my five awards go to…

1. Mr. Smillie at 'Dirty Paint Pots', A fabulous chap and a talented painter who enjoys a variety of scales and periods.

2. Pete's  'PanzerKaput's Painted Review', a more generous blogger you could not wish to meet, whose posts are always full of fun and imagination.

3. Bob's  'BZA Bob's Zombie Apocalypse in 28mm', another wonderfully enthusiastic blogger who manges to put a Welsh twist on all things undead.

4. Hybrid Horde from 'The Walking Lead', another purveyor of all things undead, but has produced some stunning work with skeletons - certainly worth a look.

5. Juan from 'Waziristan on a fancy', whose work on the third Afghan War of 1919 is truly inspirational.

In other news…

We won!

Well technically speaking we tied for third, but I can't tell you how thrilled I was to have achieved that as it certainly felt like winning!  Those with an interest in all things undead, do please take the time to visit 'RSquared Studios' to see the other fabulous entires.

Victorian Bobbies

I'm pleased to present some much needed current work, as opposed to catching up and reposting miniatures painted for the ‘Fourth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’. Four Victorian Bobbies* each armed with an electro truncheon, which I imagine to be akin to a cattle prod – something one should certainly be wary of at all times!

*for those of you who read that too quickly, my abject apologies, you must be very disappointed!

This then is my next, tentative step at actually trying to complete at least one company for use with the ‘In Her Majesty’s Name’ rule set. The miniatures themselves are from 'North Star Military Figures', sculpted by Mike Owen of 'Artizan Designs' fame and are of a splendid quality. In fact every time that I actually work on one of these miniatures, I curse myself for not having started sooner.

The boys in blue were hastily promoted to the head of the painting queue after seeing the work of Legatus and Terry Silverthorn, both of whom are making considerably better progress than I am with their companies and remain a constant source of inspiration to me. With regards to painting, I shamelessly copied Mr. Dallimore’s example from the very handy ‘How To’ posted in the North Star newsletter and whilst not a patch on the maestro’s work, I was relatively pleased with how they turned out.

My only hiccup, and it was one entirely of my own making, was when I was affixing one of the cables that connected the electro truncheon to the power pack on the respective officer’s belt. I inadvertently snipped the wretched thing too short and there then followed much cursing and wailing until I managed to bend the poor chap’s arm far enough to allow his truncheon to be reconnected!

So just the consulting detective, his sidekick and the Special Branch to go then!

Blood Bowl can be bad for your Elf!

A second outing for the South Coast Saurus saw them pitted against the 'Dark Templar's' Darkblades, a welcomed opportunity to see what the mighty lizards could do up against an Elf team ahead of a showdown with Bullcher Feb's Pro Elves.

Although missing a couple of big guys from the previous match all seemed to go well from the kick off with a rock thrown from the crowd clattering one of Mike's Elves - surely this was going to be easy!

 Pushing through the middle of the park, the Saurus were putting the elves down, but couldn't do any lasting damage, a frustration that would continue throughout the match.

Poor ickle Elves, got a hurty?

All seemed to be going to plan with the ball seemingly safely screened and the Skinks poised to run in for the touchdown, but I decided to try and be clever!  I wanted to try and run down the moves to reduce the scoring opportunities for the Darkblades, if we could end the half 1-0 to the good then the Saurus would certainly be in the ascendence. 

What could possibly go wrong?

With plenty of gaps to exploit the plan seemed foolproof, but the truth was that my team was too thinly spread and although there was only one alternative open to Mike he took it and executed the move perfectly.  A successful Blitz saw the Darkblades snaffle the ball  and scream down my unprotected flank.  The Skinks tried to slow up the progress, but the Elves just seemed to skip through and there was the touchdown just as the half was up - blast!


0-1 Darkblades

Not so fast now!

Not the best defence against a Dark Elf.

 Kicking to the Darkblades it seemed that everything went against me.  From the kick off the ball landed at the feet of their runner, this coupled with a rock thrown from the crowd knocking down a member of my defensive line meant that their was hole for the Elves to exploit. 

Exploit they did and when they get space they become incredibly hard to stop.  I just couldn't get through their armour and in no time at all they had scored again!

0-2 Darkblades

There was still time to score and I decided to resort to a tactic that had served me well before - loading up one flank with the Skink runners lying in wait, but then disaster struck!  Mike gets a free move before the kick off and suddenly there is line of Dark Elves BEHIND my offensive line!  Fine, thinks I,  we will just maim as many as we can, but oh no a double Both Down with no re-rolls left - turnover and another score to the Elves.

0-3 Darkblades

There was no time left for another score from either side, but I was determined to come away with some points - cue a dinosaur bloodlust! 

Skinks question why the Magician shot his bolt so soon in game!

Some hard lessons learnt, but some much needed experience was gained - perhaps most importantly getting a Saurus upgrade.  Purchases have been made and we will be travelling with an additional re-roll and an Apothecary to the next match.  I need to thank Mike for his patience, generous support and not to mention the title banner that I've lifted from his superb log where you can read a much more comprehensive report here.

Rawwwwr!

Blood on the Sword...

… a band is born.

This marks the final post of a retrospective look at my entries for the 'Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' - I promise!  Although entered in the 'Heroes' bonus round, this Celtic War band was always a priority to get done over the winter months and was created to be used with the splendid skirmish rules created by the 'Dark Templar'.  

The group is made up of a variety of 28mm miniatures from including Boudi from 'Hasslefree Miniatures', some line breakers from 'Warlord Games' and a couple of slingers from 'Crusader Miniatures'.  Intended to strike fear into the invading legionaries, this heroic band of freedom fighters was linked by a subtle use of blue, whether it be in the kilt or the woad body paint.

These were an absolute joy to do, probably because they were so different from what I would normally be working on, I even relished painting the different tartans and patterns.  I had plans for a musician and a druid, neither of which have seen the light of day and will probably be banished to the darkest reaches of the lead pile as I continue to be distracted by the next big thing - whatever that might be.

As I was taking the last few photographs and enjoying arranging the miniatures around the rather splendid Celtic cross - bought specially for the occasion from 'Ainsty Castings', I couldn't help but think that they looked a little like a soft metal band from the eighties!  

This was too good an opportunity to pass up and I decided to have some fun with a picture editor and before I knew it the band was born!  This reminded me of the rather silly game we used to play whilst sitting in the student union that saw us creating track lists for fictitious albums based on themes.  Anything would go and the tracks might be by artist, title, genre and could even include puns, so in this instance we might include, 'Die by the Sword' by Slayer or perhaps 'Mull of Kintyre' by Wings!  So let's have your suggestions for tracks for Celtic Shores new album 'Blood on the Sword' and I'll list the best in this post.

A Side:

"Shadows" by Sabaton. (Luca Tempesta)

"One for the Woad" by Judas Priest (Evan Hughes)

"Body Torc" by Ratt

"Iceni Face Before" by Grace Jones  

"Druids in White Satin" by The Woady Blues (MarkG)
"Headtaker" by Led Chariot
"Brigantian Rhapsody" by Queen (Boudica)
"Caratacus...a-ah" He'll save everyone of us by Queen (Boudica)
"Gaesatae are Strange" by The 'I've Never Heard of' Doors! (Damn strange Roman invention if you ask me!!)

B Side:

"Bad Intentions"by Woad the Wet Sprocket (Finch)

"Woad Painted Elements in the Air" by Boudie and the Banshees (Panzer Kaput)

?

Still need further inspiration?  You could check out this Horrible History song, but I warn you it is a bit of an ear worm! 

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

 

 

I'm afraid there is no 'Paint Table Saturday' for me this week as the run up to the public examinations sees me running some extra classes this morning.  That said, as I wait for the next batch of eager minds to arrive, I thought I would use the time to finally post one of my larger entries in the 'Fourth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the variety that the bonus rounds brought to my painting table during the challenge, but this entry is what the painting challenge was all about for me - focus! After a wonderful summer full of dinosaur and zombie distractions, this was an entry that saw me back at the heart of the Victorian era - the Crimean War.

 

 

This small battery of four 6lb Field Guns each with a Russian crew of four are all 28mm from the 'Wargames Foundry' range. I find large batches (this represents a large batch for me!) of similar miniatures difficult to work on, due mostly to my inability to focus on one thing for any length of time, but a relatively recent article in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine introduced me to the concept of faces and bases! Having mentally prepared myself that I didn't have to lavish as much individual detail on each miniature the whole unit seemed to come together quite quickly.

 

The only down side was when I dug out the Light Brigade for the final photograph, I realised that I no longer liked the cavalry bases they were on; still that can be a job for the summer holidays!

Anglo-Zulu War Heliograph team

Just the briefest of posts to document the rebasing of this Zulu War, British Heliograph team.  The painted miniatures were an incredibly kind gift from my Secret Santa as part of the 'Santa Clause'; an event conceived by Ian of 'The Blog with no name' fame and splendidly organised by his dear lady wife, Cath.  

My Santa had very considerately left the basing to me so I was able to tie them in to the rest of my collection; a simple MDF disc from 'Warbases' and the addition of a box to store their equipment in seemed to do the trick.  I did indulge in a little frippery by adding the reflective lens to the Heliograph and gave the unit green cuffs to represent the 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot.

I believe they are originally from 'Black Tree Design' and will certainly have a welcome place in my collection, so once again a big thank you to my Secret Santa, they were very much appreciated.

The chaps as they arrived and safely affixed on their new bases.

Pikes!

So these three dashing chaps represent my first troops for the 'Witchfinder General' rule set that has caught my imagination of late.  My first foray into the realms of English Civil War miniatures were as a direct result of an incredibly generous donation to the lead pile by that good friend of mine the 'Provost Marshal'.  I believe that they are 'Redoubt Enterprises' miniatures and are the usual sturdy, strong cast that I have come to expect from them.  Perhaps not the most useful of poses, but perfect as guards protecting us from the many denizens of the night that would seek out our mortal soul.

 As the more regular readers of this humble weblog will know, I am not the most consistent of hobbyists, particularly when it comes to focusing on one subject for any length of time; it is for this reason that producing massed ranks of infantry or cavalry will always be beyond me.  As a result we have three very different characters on show rather than a uniformed approach.  If I understand the rules correctly then 'Common Folk', of which Pikemen are included, have some knowledge of the art and skills of warfare; they may prove to be veterans and have known life as a soldier - now banded together to rid the land of the vile abominations. 

As usual, I have started with the wrong troop types, needing instead to be mustering Clubmen, Ghouls and Barguests to get the first encounter up and running.  What I have learnt, however, is that metal pikes are very sharp and should be treated with caution and respect at all times!