From PeteF Goblin Riders (100 points)

One of last years's what was I thinking? E-Bay purchases was Mantic's complete Vanguard Kickstarter - with extra elves. With all the add-ons this is a mixed bag of goodies from several of Mantic's armies. During quarantine I've already done some elf cavalry and infantry, which I'm going to use for SAGA Age of Magic.

Next out of the box are these gobboes - they'll do for Age of Magic mounted warriors and, if I ever do a Kings of War goblin army I can use them for that too. They're individually based and magnetized for flexibility.  I'm not sure what the mounts are - not quite as characterful as the Evil Empire's squigs - but plenty of teeth and menace.

I'm looking forward to trying Age of Magic after quarantine. I've been using Table Top Simulator to stay connected to wargaming friends and had an enjoyable game of Blucher today. A Wargaming club that does a lot of Blucher has uploaded some nice assets and Blucher scenarios.

There's plenty more to paint in the box of Vanguard goodies - I'm using a policy of random drawing from the multiple bags of gray plastic bits - so who knows what'll come out next?

From StuartL - Dutch Village House

Taking a break from painting up batches of infantry and fantasy beasties, I decided to do a spot of terrain this week. As well as a lead mountain and a plastic mountain, I have a growing pile of MDF terrain that I need to reduce a little. MDF is not the best material for terrain, but it is fairly cheap, lightweight, and with a bit of extra effort it can be made to look pretty decent. This particular piece is from Sarissa Precision.

After assembling the building, I painted the walls with a textured paste from Liquitex. This served to give the walls a rougher finish (since MDF can look a bit flat) and sealed the wood so that it didn't drink up all the paint. The walls were painted white, the brickwork in a reddish brown and all of the woodwork in a pale brown. After that everything was washed with watered down brown paint.

Once the wash was dry, I repainted the walls in white, added the blue colours for the shutters and doors and added some different shades of red, brown and grey to the bricks and tiles. All of this work was done using spare foam from some mini trays rather than a brush. By dabbing the paint on, parts of the original colour and the wash were left showing through. Using a square piece of foam, it was easy enough to control where the paint went on the walls and woodwork. For the bricks and tiles I used a torn up piece of foam for more irregular patches.

The vines going up the walls are simply a mix of flock, PVA glue and green paint, allowed to dry and then highlighted with a brighter green.

Due to the surface area to cover, it took a few hours work to get it all done, but it was surprisingly easy to do. Though I'm not an expert on architecture, I guess this building could be used for Napoleonic games right up to modern day scenarios, so I hope to get some use out of it. I have another one of these houses to assemble in the pile, so I may have to do that sometime soon.

For points scoring, the house is roughly 6" by 7" by 5.5", close enough to the standard painting challenge terrain 'cube' to add 20 points to my score, bringing me up to 799.5 points.

AdamC: USS Constellation

The second to last of my US frigates The USS Constellation my personal favorite of the original six (after the USS Constitution).  Constellation was built in Baltimore Maryland as a 36-or 38-gun frigate as usual her intended rating is a bit confused in the records. She was one of the first of the new frigates completed and took a staring roll in the Quasi-War.

The Constellation was commanded during the Quasi-War by Thomas Truxtun a man with experience in the Royal Navy as a common seaman (he was offered a Midshipman’s Warrant) then as a Privateer captain in American Revolution. Constellation fought two single ship action during the Quasi-War. Her first and most famous action was against the L'Insurgente a 36-gun French frigate with a reputation for speed. She had in fact out run Constellation on a previous occasion but on their second encounter the L'Insurgente lost a top mast in a sudden squall allowing the Constellation to close to engage. Constellation was armed with 24-pounder cannons causing to heal over so that she had to surrender the weather gage but her much great weight of metal made short work of the more lightly armed frigate. L’Insurgente was taken into the US Navy as the USS Insurgent and was commanded by Truxtun’s first lieutenant John Rodgers.

Almost a year later the Constellation encounter another French Frigate La Vengeance a ship of much greater force than the L'Insurgente. The two ships engaged in 5 hour running battle in which the Constellation batter the Vengeance into a near wreck which limed away to ground itself outside Curaçao. The French captain latter claimed the Constellation was actual a ship of the line. The Constellation required extensive repairs aloft but received the nick name “Yankee Racehorse” for her speed and power (its not Ironsides but as nicknames go its pretty cool).   

Constellation saw further service in the Fires Barbary war then went into “ordinary” at the Washington Naval Yard where she stayed until the War of 1812. She began refitting as the war came on, but supply shortages lead to her not ready for sea until 1813 by which time she was blockaded. Her crew fortified her at Canary Island and was vigilant enough to foil to Royal Navy attacks.

The USS Constellation continued to serve in the US Navy frequently as a squadron or station Flag ship in all the world’s oceans until 1853 when she was deemed to old and was broken up. Some of her hardware may have been used to help build the Sloop of War Constellation that was built that same year. This ship can still be found in Baltimore harbor but is not the original Constellation as was claimed of many years.  I've still got the USS United States to finish and a friend of mine is sending me a few 3D printed ships for my collection. 

From TamsinP: 28mm Pulp Era Scatter Terrain

Having "finished" (yes, I know...) my Wars of the Roses army/ies, I decided to take a short break from painting figures and instead to paint up some pulp era scatter terrain bits which had been sitting around for a very long time.

Not bad for a few days' work. the bits are mostly from Ainsty Castings, with a smattering (the bins, oil drums and hydrants) from Fenris Games.

I'm not sure what project I'll be working on next, maybe reinforcements for my 6mm ACW armies.

Iain W 28mm 16 Dux Bellorum skirmishers (80 points)

Here are 16 slingers for my Irish army for Dux Bellorum.  Four units of four, I need to come up with a sabot base for them that is 120mm wide but I think that might get delayed, anyway they're done now,six unknown metal figures from the big dark age Ebay splurge (all used up by Dux Bellorum bar one!) and ten plastic Hat  figures which are nominaly 28mm but are very slight and the detail is pretty soft,however I'm happy enough using them here and have some more that will be skirmishers in some other Dux Bellorum armies while some might be press ganged into a shieldwall!They do have the benefit of being really cheap, which I like!

Not much to say, various earth colours and they won't last long on the table in this game system, skirmishers in Dux Bellorum are particularly weak which some have called into question, Dan Mersey does say that this is deliberate as in this particular period and area skirmishers were the weak, young and old, so he didn't want them to be used as a skirmish screen, just hang around the edge and kick the enemy when it was down, survival being a  really good achievement!
80 points brings me up to 660 which I'm pretty happy with!
All the best Iain

KenR 28mm 7tv Scientists

Just a quick post today on 4 odd figures for my 7tv game. These are classed as Scientists but can double as a number of generic roles in the game. In the back ground is my new Mk1 Ford Transit (from Vanguards) which my Robbers are going to use as transport.

The 4 figs are 28mm from Crooked Dice so thats another 20 points taking me to 1187, I've done and based the horses on my Kingdom of Jerusalem mounted Sergeants so they should appear early next week.