Year end wrap up and a look ahead to 2018.

First of all Happy New Year to everyone!  May you all have a wonderful, safe, healthy and prosperous 2018!

This has been a good year for me not just in a hobby sense but life in general. I received a promotion at work, my daughter is closing in on being a teenager, we've done a bit of traveling as well this year.  I can't complain.

Of course the hobby stuff is the most important aspect of life, right! 

This year I was able to attend 3 conventions. Enfilade in Washington State is always a great 3 day weekend. So much so I volunteered to be the Event coordinator for the next 3 years.  More on that as I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing and how to do it.
I was able to attend Historicon in Fredericksburg, VA in July.  That is always a lot of fun. Not just the gaming but the catching up with old friends and making new ones or even just putting faces to names that I know from the internet.  I won't be able to attend again in 2018 but 2019 is on the books for me to go.
The last convention was our local Ambuscade!. Always a fun 1 day event and the nice thing about it was that it grew by nearly 50% from last year.  We went from about 14 attendees the first year to 31 or 32 this year.  We will continue to coax this convention along until it dwarfs Historicon. :)

My purchases for the hobby this year have been mostly gear related. New brushes, paints, new lighting for the desk and so on. I did not add too much to the lead pile this year.

I did however take a leap into learning how to paint figures with oils.  This has been an eye opening experience for me.  I've been teaching myself how color works and the theory that lies beneath it all.  The idea that I can at some point drop all of the acrylic paints I have and only have to use at the most 10 colors to paint everything is amazing. I'm still working and learning on how to do this but I'll get there soon.  I like the oil painting process. The ability to put paint on a figure and a day or even two days later come back to it and still be able to work with it has been fun.

I've entered my first painting challenge: the Analogue Painting Challenge. At this point I've completed 120 points out of 500 and I have another 120 points waiting to be verified.  The challenge has certainly lit a fire under me to get stuff done.

The gaming group has grown this year to 30 people. We all don't gather at the same time but we are there. We've been able to game twice a month and have run a variety of games from ancients to WWII. I am hoping that that will continue into 2018.

Now for the big reveal for this year end review. If you have been following this blog you will know that I've been working on 10mm War of Spanish Succession figures.  I kicked this off at the end of June and as of today I have painted 1,200 figures for the project! 
When I sat down and figured out the number completed I nearly fell over. I had no idea that I had painted so many!

Just a couple of photos of the latest units to be completed.  

What will be new in 2018?  Well I'll be painting more WSS figures. Now that the French infantry are done I can concentrate on the Spanish. I'm hoping by June I will have them done.  The month of May will be busy for me as I gear up to run Enfilade.

I will continue pursuing painting with oil paints and learning more about color theory.  I hope by the end of 2018 to completely off of using acrylics to paint figures.  

I'm sure there will be other side projects that pop up, like the idea I have for building some terrain boards.  I have to get my garage cleaned out first before that can happen.

We shall see what happens with the rest of the year.

Thanks again to everyone who follows this blog and takes an interest in what I'm doing.

2 more French units completed

Over the Christmas break I was able to spend some time painting and I finished two more French units for my WSS project.  I now introduce to you the Maulrevier and Schomberg battalions.  These took me 2 days to paint.  They were also my first entries into the Analogue Painting Challenge which I'm doing this year.  Two more French units to paint and the French infantry will be done!

Thanks Santa Clause!!!

For the last several years I've been a part of Chris Stoesen's Santa Clause event. You are assigned a random person who has a blog, you do a little research on what they working on and paint up a few figures, terrain etc and mail it to them for Christmas. It's a lot fun and challenges (at least for me) you to paint outside your normal ranges, periods and so on.  So this year my Santa Clause sent me some wonderfully painted 25mm Romans and the fortifications they are working on. It's a very nice piece and will look great on the gaming table.

Merry Christmas!!!

From my family to all of you,
May you have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

More French for the Battle of Almanza!

The Montsoreau and Vaudreuil units arrive for the French forces.  I only need 4 more French infantry units to finish these off. Then it's on to painting the French cavalry. Then the Spanish, British, Dutch and Portuguese.  Enjoy the photos.  These two units were painted using Oil Paints, including the flags. 

Finished the 28mm AWI figure

Well I finally finished my 28mm AWI figure I started about a week or so ago with the oil paints.  The figure turned out well, I think.  I also did a video about it so you can see it and a few other things I'm working on now and in the future.

Now a few still shots of what I've been working on.  I'm very happy to be a part of the Analogue Painting Competition this year.  I think it is going to be great fun and a good motivator to keep painting.

This process has certainly taught me a lot on color theory and how to apply it. It is certainly getting me away from buying tons of paint as I'm learning to mix what I need.  

My current work in progress with oils.

The top photo is going to be interesting.  We will see how that one turns out.

Progress report and finished up some Imperial Romans

So I've worked a little more on the Imperial Romans and these are basically done with Oil paints, a few enamels and some acrylic paints.  I've also done a video if you wish to see a little more on what I've accomplished.  Go here if interested: Progress Report

The basic colors have been applied in the above photos.

Glazes have been applied in several layers and the Wolf's pelts have been painted with acrylics. 

The finished leader. 

I am really liking the process of painting with oil paints. I find them easier to work with and a little more forgiving if you make a mistake.

Guns of Liberty AWI battle

I ran a AWI game using the rules Guns of Liberty by Eric Burgess. This has been my groups go to set of rules for AWI for several years and I've run them at our local Enfilade convention in Olympia, WA.  This past Saturday I ran a game at our local 1 day convention called Ambuscade. It is held at Guardian Games in downtown Portland.

I had 5 players for the game, 2 Continental commanders and 3 British. Each side had 4 brigades each of various sizes. I setup the scenario with the Continentals holding the large field in the center of the board with their militia off to their left and a reserve brigade behind the large field. 

The scenario setup was this. The Continental general knew the British was in the area but had conflicting reports about their composition and true whereabouts. They knew there was at least 2 British brigades coming straight at them but didn't know where the other 2 were going to come from once the  battle started. I also told them by turn 6 they had to start to retreat if they felt like they would loose their army.

The British were told that the Continental army was around the large field and that they had some militia holding a section of the line.  The British were instructed to take 2 brigades and hold them off board and by turn 4 they could bring them on one of the short sides of the table. They chose the Continental left.

The battle started with the British moving up the center and on their left to match the militia.  The Continentals held their ground and the reserves were left out of reach waiting to be deployed. 

Both sides traded shots causing few casualties and by turn 4 the British had moved up to charge range and then the flank columns came on marching through the woods on the Continental left.

The reserve unit marched out to meet this new threat and formed a line that anchored the large field and stretched into the woods.  The British units closed with blood lust boiling up! Melees broke out all along the Continental front with them falling back in disorder but still able to maintain a defense in depth.

By this time Turn 6 rolled around and I reminded the two Continental commanders of their need to save the army if they thought it was necessary. They did!

In the most orderly withdrawal I've ever witnessed in a war game, the Continentals by turn 8 were able to remove 50% of their force from the table and kept a nice gap between them and the closing British.  The British called the game saying they couldn't catch up to the fleeing army.

I called the game a minor victory to the Continentals since neither side really inflicted heavy damage on the other but they were able to save themselves in the end.

Overall everyone enjoyed the game and from the start everyone was engaged from the start. Below are pictures from the game. Unfortunately, the lighting in our area of the room was rather poor so some of the photos didn't turn out well.