EIR Ax Cv

Good afternoon,

More acronyms, this time standing for Early Imperial Roman Auxilia Cavalry.




These are HaT figures straight from the box. I thought they came out rather well.

Hopefully, before the holidays are out I'll have some Auxilia Infantry completed as well. Perhaps even an Early German Dragon! But we'll see. It's back to school on Monday to start gearing up for the coming term...

Bye for now,

Nick

EIR WMA Cmd

Ah, acronyms. Where would we be without them?!

Good evening,

As I am plodding away on some more Early Imperial Auxilia, I thought I might share some EIR command stands that I made up for War Master Ancients.


From left to right we have, well, the 3iC, 2iC and then the big man himself. Its his command. He's in charge, the boss, the head man, top dog, big cheese, a head honcho, number...

(100 points to the first person who can identify which movie that last sentence came from. And no cheating by copying it into Google!)


Interestingly, we have three different manufactures represented here - front to back we have Esci, Italeri and HaT.


Then we have Italeri, HaT and Newline...


...and finally Esci and Newline to finish.

I know these are ideally supposed to be on round stands so that they are distinct from the actual fighting stands, but, well, I didn't have any, and I can't cut them perfectly circular, which would bug me to no end!

In case you are wondering, the horses are actually 20mm metals from New Line (their Roman cav, if memory serves). I thought them to be too skinny to mix very successfully with 20mm plastics, but they look just the biz for these command stands.

As for the riders, well, one is a HaT Punic Roman, and the other two are a couple of my very early conversions - Esci Roman torsos atop Napoleonic cavalry legs. These were from the days before HaT (and then others) began producing any ancient cavalry in plastic (though, to be fair, Atlantic did bring some mounted Romans out ages back - never did see any over here in En Zed...).

A friend of mine told me how he made his (in fact, that mounted standard bearer is Mark's - all the way from the early 1990s!) and so that was the way mine were done until something better came along. As new ancient cav was produced, my early efforts were gradually replaced .

It's funny, my first DBA EIR army was comprised of Revel Pretorians (a bit of an odd set, but at the time it was marginally better value for money than the more accurate Esci Romans - and that was why I got into plastics in the first place - price!) with cav chopped up as above. Over the years, as I further understood what the EIR army actually looked like I gave away the legionaries (to Young Stan's son) in favour of the Esci ones, the Auxilia (again, from the same Revel set) to a chap in South Africa, pulled apart the cav in favour of the HaT EIR cav...in fact, my only converted cav figures from this first army that still remain are a couple of mounted archers that are now filling out my Sarmation army!

But I digress.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, those bases are 30mm by 30mm. They look much better than the 40 x 40 I initially used for my Raetian Goblin WMA Army.

Nick

VSF Steam Powered Rocketmen

Good afternoon,

I have finished my Flying Tommies...well, almost.

I've still got to find where I put the bear stuffing that I got from Robin for the trail of steam that will be pouring forth behind them.

But, for what they're worth...





...I think they're pretty cool!

Nick

VSF Tommies

Good afternoon,

Well, seeing as Christchurch had a rather large earthquake last Saturday (thankfully we received no damage, though there is a crack in the foundation of my classroom...I've been assured that it's nothing to worry about...though the the bent bolt that's holding up my IWB is a bit of a worry...), I've had a week off school.

So, what better way than to while away my time than to apply some paint to plastic?!

Here is my first squad of VSF Tommies.




They are yet to have their bases completed, but so far, so good. I'm working on my own Very Simple Victorian Sci Fi Skirmish Rules (v. 3), which I have yet to play test, but hey - you can't paint and play!

I'm hoping to get the Steam Pack Rocketeers finished this weekend, (as well as some Early Imperial Romans for HOTT and WMA) but we'll see...

Bye for now,

Nick

VSF WIP

Acronyms. Where would we be without 'em?

Good evening,

Just a quick update, term is as busy as ever (I get me an interactive white board on Wednesday!)...

I have been, from time to time, applying paint to some Esci Colonial Brits (over a thin coat of PVA - these are going to be used as skirmish figures, unlike my other plastics which are based for massed game systems, so I'm making some extra effort to keep the paint on the figures. I'll probably use a spray on varnish to finish them off).

Being VSF, I have also pulled together a couple of Steam Powered Rocketeers...



The rocket packs are garden watering system parts/connectors that have had their middle cut out and the ends glued back together. I've just attached them to their backs with a generous helping of PVA. They are atop GW flying bases.

They'll be painted red and blue, just like the others.

I'm hoping that a thin wash of Badab Black and then a subsequent highlight will work with these fellows. (The wash worked well for the Kiwis, but it did leave them a bit dark. Good for WW2, but I wants me Victorians bright 'n shiny!)

'Till next time,

Nick

Kiwi Crossfire Company Completed

Good afternoon,

Horah for the school holidays. As well as getting my VSF elements painted up, I managed to finish my Kiwi Crossfire Company.


The boys themselves...


...had been done for a while. These holidays I managed to complete their support weapons.


First up, we have the machine guns.




These are from the Esci WW2 British Infantry set (which I have another box of, as produced by Airfix. Go figure.) The good old Vickers gun.

Next, we have the heavy hitters.


The 2 inch knee mortars...




...the 3 inch mortar...




...and their spotters...



...which are all from the HaT WW2 British Mortar set.

Quite cool wee figures these, 'specially the spotters which I've based on 30mm by 30mm squares. The rest are on 40mm by 40mm's. I know the rules state that they should be on smaller bases, but I just think they look better thusly. Not so squished with three figures, where as the smaller bases with two figures looked too sparsely populated.

Basing them thus also means I can use them for pretty much any other WW2 massed battle game as well, should the desire take me. I'm quite keen to try out Blitzkrieg Commander (Lite) and Command Decision 4 - Test of Battle, for a different WW2 flavour. Seeing as I'm an ancients gamer. All this WW2 stuff's new to me.

The paper buildings in the background are 15mm samples from Paper Terrain. These are cool. You get an damaged building with an undamaged shell that fits neatly on top. Great idea. I printed the PDF @ 150% for 20mm. Black and white, as it had to be printed on A3 on the photocopier at work, and I didn't want to chew through my colour allowance - I ran out half way through last term as it was! Should I ever get the money, I'd love to get the European Town for $US 50.00. And I quote...

Need more than just a small village for your game table? Our Town Pack # 1 includes 10 larger town buildings plus walls, fences, sheds and accessories like signs and a fountain.

Like most PaperTerrain products, the buildings all come with an intact version which lifts off to reveal a 'destroyed' version underneath. The kit can be ordered with grey roofs or red roofs.

So many toys, so little money...

Cheers,

Nick

Gatling Gun

Good afternoon,

Along with my VSF Steam Generated Zappy Gun, I also completed one of HaT's Colonial Gatling Guns.


Andy is currently flocking it for me, as he did my tank and as he is doing with my Steam Zappy Gun.

I attached it on a 60mm by 40mm DBx base, and will use it as a Shooter for HOTT, or as a, well, Gatling Gun for G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., or what ever VSF skirmish rules I decide to use.



G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is D20 (of which I only have four), and unit-card-activation-based, which is just another (minor) thing to sort out...still, they appear a bit simpler than the Space 1899 Soldier's Companion that I'm considering as an alternative, and these reports that I have just found here do look rather cool...so...

Nick

Steam Tank Finished

Good evening,

Thanks to Andy's stirling flocking and the judicious application of more bear stuffing my VSF British Steam Tank is now complete.




(The 'steam' was greatly inspired by this...)


Nick

VSF Steam Powered Zappy Gun

Good afternoon,

Well, after a couple of afternoons pottering around (yay, school holidays!), I've just dropped off my Steam Powered Zappy Gun for Andy to flock for me (kind chap that he is). So, just before I popped out...





It's worked out really well. One thing I would like to change is the way I've connected the cables to the generator. Basically, I chopped them too short. Works well as is, but upon further reflection it would have looked even better had I left the wires long and had glued them coiled on the base. Ah well.

Oh, and I deliberately left the braiding on the officer black (undercoat as it happens), as per this...


...and this very helpful page here.

And so, I can class it as a General's element - either Magician or Artillery for HOTT - or just plain a Contraption in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. If I ever get round to actually playing a game now I have the rules.



Nick

VSF Steam Generated Zappy Gun

Good evening,

As the term is winding down I decided to take some time out of school prep yesterday afternoon to work on a steam powered electricity generator...


...to power my HOTT VSF Zappy Artillery piece.



As per this...



Suffice it to say, it's not done yet!

The gun itself is the carriage from the HaT Gatling Gun that I plonked in my Steam Tank, with a connector from an old PC power supply and a tooth pick (!). I know the 'barrel' is pointing pretty high, but I figured that the 'zap' is actually bounced off a passing cloud to hit targets behind the enemy's front line!

The generator is a capacitor from said power supply, along with a couple of coils all sitting atop the carriages from the Gardiner Guns with which I adorned Andy's/my Air Boat. Suitably strengthened with a couple of tooth picks.

Once I've applied a bit of paint, I'll stick them down to the base, trim those wires and connect the zapper to the generator.

I've also put aside five figures (a signaler, two officers, the Boffin himself and a faithful manservant to do all of the actual work!), but I'm not sure if they'll all fit! I may have to prize them off their painting bases to see what will and won't fit - no point in painting stuff I ain't gonna use now is there? Lord knows I game with enough plastic without paint, it would be a crime to paint something and then not use it!

I'll class it as a HOTT Magician General. (After all, HOTT magicians are essentially artillery piecies that can shoot over intervening interruptions).

You know those Boffins - they can work magic! And the Brass does like to be seen to be taking an interest in these new fangled contraptions...

Nick