2010 Retrospective

2010 comes to a close, and it's time to take stock of what I've accomplished. Over the past year, I've painted the following figures:

15mm ACW, 435 foot, 15 mounted, 17 guns, 17 limbers with teams

28mm ACW, 617 foot 70 mounted, 18 guns

15mm Napoleonic Austrians, 36 foot

15mm Napoleonic British, 24 foot

15mm Napoleonic French, 36 foot

28mm Napoleonic Austrians, 6 foot

28mm Napoleonic French, 24 foot

28mm Napoleonic Prussians, 16 foot

15mm Macedonians, 45 foot, 16 horse

15mm Gauls, 32 foot

15mm Thracians, 18 foot

28mm Carthaginians, 94 foot, 35 horse

28mm Republican Romans, 80 foot

15mm WWII Soviets, 24 foot

28mm WWII British, 6 foot, 5 vehicles

In 15mm then, I painted 650 foot, 31 horse, 17 guns, and 17 limbers with teams. In 28mm I painted 843 foot, 105 mounted, 18 guns, and 5 vehicles. That's a total of 1881 figures this year, or about five figures a day all year long.

Despite that output, I don't feel like I accomplished very much this year. I did complete three large commissions and one enormous one, which funded my hobby for years to come, but I only finished one army for myself this year, my 28mm Field of Glory Carthaginians.

So in 2011 I'm going to focus on completing some armies that have been languishing away in the half-complete bins.

1. I'll start with my Republican Romans, which I've been planning and painting since Field of Glory came out. I have only another 18 foot and 16 horse left to finish it off, so I should finish by the end of January.

2. My gaming group started an American Revolution project a year ago, but we haven't been able to play a game because of a lack of British figures. I'll be buying and painting enough lobsters to play through the Bunker Hill scenario, about 150 figures. With Jon's Hessians long completed, we should be able to play quite a few 1776 scenarios as well.

3. My buddies enjoyed last month's General de Brigade game well enough to try it again, so I'll be filling out my Peninsular War armies enough to play a few 1811 scenarios on their 200th anniversary. Figure I'll be painting 400-500 figures, focusing on the British, Spanish, and Portuguese.

4. After a solid start, my 28mm ACW project has been collecting dust. I'll be painting up guns, gunners, and cavalry enough to play some Guns at Gettysburg scenarios, figure another 200 figures here. As I finish the basics, I'll be adding more infantry as well.

5. When I need a break from these projects, I'll continue adding to my 15mm ACW armies for Regimental Fire and Fury. I have 250 infantry all primed and ready.

That may seem like a lot of different projects to undertake, but I'm pretty certain that I can finish them in a year. It's only a few hundred figures, after all.

FOG Republican Romans: Triarii

With my commission complete, I can return to painting for myself. Last night I put the finishing touches on the triarii for my Field of Glory Roman army. The figures are all Crusader, shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios, spears are from North Star, the eagle standard is from Old Glory, and bases are from Litko.

The Roman army is nearly complete. I still have 16 skirmishers, 12 cavalry, and two stands of generals to paint. I should be able to finish by the end of January without breaking a sweat.

ACW Commission: Infantry Complete

Five weeks later, the latest commission is complete. Here are the finished units for your enjoyment.

ACW Commission: Union Casualties

Here are the companion casualties. Again, all the figures are from Sash and Saber.

ACW Commission: Confederate Casualties

After some holiday related interruptions, I finished painting Glenn's Confederate casualties last night. All the miniatures are from Sash and Saber. I have quite a few of these figures myself, although mine are still bare lead, and I'm glad to see they painted up so well!

I'm planning to use the Guns at Gettysburg rules for my figures, and the rules call for individual figure casualties. I was planning on using square bases with numbers on each side to denote casualties, just as I did for my British Grenadier! Continental army, but I like the look of these round bases so well, I'm thinking of using round bases and stacking blank discs underneath to denote more casualties.

USA WIP II

My wife took the boy out shopping this morning, and I was able to polish off the 14th Brooklyn. Figures are from Foundry's Franco-Prussian War line. Some of the uniform details were not quite right, but they look like the 14th Brooklyn to me.

USA WIP

More progress this week on Glenn's ACW figures. I finished four Union infantry units, leaving only the 14th Brooklyn left to paint.

First we have two units of Perry Miniatures' Union in sack coats and forage caps.

Next are two units of Sash and Saber's Iron Brigade figures.

I still have eight figures to paint, then 25 casualties on wooden discs.

15mm Napoleonic Skirmishers

To put on that Maida game this past weekend (see previous post), I had to paint some skirmishers, and I had to paint them quickly! I started these figures on Wednesday and finished sealing them on Friday. All the figures are from Old Glory.

First we have French legere skirmishing. Some of the figures are in overalls, but most are in stockings with Hessian boots. I wanted these to work for line regiments, so I painted them all as line voltiguers. I just left the boot trim black. There are 36 French skirmishers here.

The British too needed some skirmishers. The Corsican Rangers fought at Maida, and their uniform was identical to that of the 95 Rifles, with the exception of facing color. I went ahead and painted all these figures with the black facings of the 95 Rifles. There are 12 of these figures.

Finally, the British needed a division skirmish screen. I painted these as detached light companies from three regiments. There are 12 of these figures.

In addition to the 60 skirmishers, I painted four close order British infantry to fill out one of the battalions. That's a total of 64 Napoleonics from bare lead to the gaming table in three days. I can still crank them out when I need to!

General de Brigade Game: Maida, 1806

Austin, Jon, and Kevin joined me at my house today for a trial run through the General de Brigade rules. These used to be my go-to rules for Napoleonic gaming, but I haven't used them for nearly a decade.

We settled on the Maida scenario from scenario book #2. The GdB scenario has some interesting changes from history, with some generous morale ratings for the British and a questionable OOB for the French. We decided to play the scenario straight from the book.

Kevin took overall command of the French and commanded two of the three French brigades. Jon took command of the largest French brigade. Austin opted to command the entire British force.

Here you can see the starting British deployment. The British had four small infantry brigades and two 12-man units of skirmishers. With no reserves, the British were hoping to keep the French from breaking through.

Kevin got his brigades moving, hoping to stack up two brigades against the British left while Jon pinned the British right.

All three French brigades accepted their orders very quickly, and the attack was on! Here you can see Jon's brigade as it moves forward to engage the British right.

And here are Kevin's two brigades ready to land their punch on the British left.

Kevin was able to attack a single British battalion with two battalions of infantry and a regiment of light cavalry, but the British battalion was able to hold the French long enough to buy a little time. Kevin's cavalry recoiled from the combat, and his infantry were unable to exploit the gap they had caused.

Austin's little battery of four pounders broke one French battalion, which ran from the field. This triggered a brigade morale test, which the French failed. Austin had restored his line and began issuing his generals orders to press the French.

A firefight developed on the British right, and superior British musketry caused heavy French casualties. Kevin ordered this brigade to retreat, hoping to buy time for the other two brigades to reform.

By now the British left had also received orders to press the French. The British infantry hounded the French as they withdrew, giving them no chance to reform and try another attack.

We played this battle to conclusion in around four and a half hours. The group picked up the rules pretty well, and we were cranking through the turns by the end of the game. We'll have to try another game or two to see if the rules will make our regular rotation, but I think they show some promise.

CSA WIP II

Here are the Perry figures with the painting all complete. Now on to basing them up!