Rush for Berlin 9: Ferdinand & friends

Last day of july and I actually managed to finish some stuff. As the heat finally ebbed away, or at least for now, I felt able to get some painting done.

At some point this year I want to try out the 'Bolt Action' ruleset from Warlord Games and therefore I need some more Germans and definitely some more armour.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign: II & III Game

 

 For more than two weeks I didn't even see my painting table. It was simply to hot to even take up the brush and my profession as an "Airconditioning & Refrigeration" craftsman led to me running round in circles at work. But after Chris writing up a short report about our last games of 'Dux Britanniarum' over on his Blog, I had to get my arse up too. As I can't remember the details correctly I'd recommend to you to check back on his Blog for further details.

Theodosius could almost hear the chatter behind his bag. "The simple" they called him nowadays when they thought he was out of earshot. 'Was it my fault that these drunken bastards didn't get up in time to catch the saxons before they could raid the church of Sheepsend?", he mused.

It was time to knock some heads together, Theodosius decided and went of to get his soldiers back on proper duty. 

"Maybe I should start with Ellifer the old crock...", Theodosius wondered quietly "...the boys don't call him Dungbreath for nothing."

Two weeks later Eliffer stood on a hill and tried to shirm his eyes from the sun. Far in the east he believed to see the towers of his (at least for the moment) kings castle. With a awkward motion he rubbed his head and turned back to the men this son of a humiliore Theodosius has sent with him to scout the western parts of the kingdom for any signs of the saxons. "Of course we didn't see anything near to a saxon" he muttered and spat out. "This dickhead wanted to make an example of me, wanted to silence me because I told the truth about his failure at this church." Caught in his own thoughts he didn't realise the blinking of speartips and the scratching of shields against chainmail to the north. Just as it was almost to late Brutus, his second in command, let out a nervous shout...

Fabula de primo bello:

The first game was about the saxons had to catch a noble, on his way back from scouting, for ransom.

The lay of the land. Maybe you, dear rambler, now get a concept why to fight for this forgotten piece of earth.

Rush for Berlin 8: German PaK40

Cheers Gents,

It's been a while since I last dipped my brush into some paint, but as we all know real life can sometimes be quite tedious. None the less my PaK40 is finally finished... at least I thought so. Having bought the "Operation Squad: Reinforcements" Supplement via the Wargamevault yesterday it took some time till I realized that I need a fourth man for the crew. Same for my mortar... :-/ Means I have to get back to my painting table to paint up at least two figures to bring my heavy weapons up to paper-strength.

Anyway here the pics:

Dux Britanniarum Campaign: First Game

Last week, ok well it's been 9 days since, I had a very enjoyable game of 'Dux Britanniarum' at Axebreakers mansion. Chris himself has written some words about the game.
As he already did the job of explaining the idea behind the game (and I go pretty much along with him) you should really head over to his blog.


Cyrric the Flatulent king of a small province in the outermost southwest of Britannia called Noviomagus Regnorum felt the cold creeping into his old bones as he was starring into the chilly spring night. He knew they were out there. Somewhere in the dark these vain saxon dogs were about to raid his kingdom.
After a rainy summer followed by poor harvest before a hard winter he knew his little realm was in no way prepared to meet the saxon threat. Just as he was about to leave the walls of his little stronghold he saw the luminous glare of burning huts in the otherwise deep black sky.

'Get ready you bunch of lazy bastards!' Theodosius Magnus bellowed at a group of drowsy figures.
This was one of these moments he asked himself why the hell he was here in this god forsaken part of the world.
Born in Rome as bastard of a high ranking officer in the field legions and a young slavegirl, he was part of the last Legions in Britannia as the Emperor decided to withdraw his troops to the continent.

Just hours before he had to embark, Cyrric this drunken piece of sheepdung, now calling himself king of Noviomagus Regnorum, asked him to stay and become leader of his despicable bodyguard. If it wasn't for this little girl having made eyes at him he would have refused the offer.

Now he was in the mud of a true british spring, his girl already in the hands of some other bugger, leading some dirty skits of soldiers to fight a band of marauding saxons. He knew he was already late as he had seen the fires of burning huts in the distance. Now it was all about swiftness to catch these saxons before they were to recover into the safety of the lost lands...

We played the first scenario 'Raiding a church' where I had to prevent Chris's Saxons from plundering the church and take the monk as hostage. The fight would be over when the troops taking the monk with them leave the table.

The real battle began after some rounds of aggressive maneuvering. As Chris's saxons had a headstart of three full movements I had to be quick to get my troops on the board and ready for action. Unfortunately most of the time my troops were standing in the way of each other due to my ignorance of the movement and formation rules.

First troops in contact with enemy warriors were a single group of levies...

Rush for Berlin 7: German mortar

After having suffered under the heat for several days now, yesterday was the time to rock the brush again.
I finally finished the mortar team from Artizan Designs to fit my other stuff for 'Operation Squad'.

Step by step: Cheap & easy sabot bases

As I had a very enjoyable game of Dux Britanniarum (AAR to follow) on saturday at Axebreakers mansion I asserted the urgent need for sabot bases.

Therefore I had a look at the different manufacturers of lasercut mdf bases. Some do quite usefull stuff but none really had exactly what I wanted. I need bases for 6 square and at least one round base as my Warlord and the Nobles are based on  25mm round washers while for the rank and file I used 20mm squarebases. So I decided to do them on my own.

To do your own sabot bases you'll need:

• Footfall sound insulation (In german it's called polystyrol)
• Plasticcard about 1mm thickness
• Hobbyknife
• Blade of a hobbyknife broken down to about 2cm length
• Marker
• Ruler
• Fast curing PVA
• Old brush
• Small clamps
• Magnetic foil
• Scissors

Step 1:
First cut out a piece of polystyrol sized 120mm x 60mm using your hobbyknife. Afterwards you should mark the positions for the bases.

Fall of the western Empire 14: Archers (almost) done

As summer finally arrived in Germany too, it became a bit quiet around here. As my men cave (like the rest of my apartment) is directly under the roof I wasn't really in a mood to paint some lead.
As I've been sick over the last few days I decided to do it anyway.
Therefore I finished the three archers needed for our first game of Dux Britanniarum on saturday at Axebreakers.

The bases still have to be done

Fall of the western Empire 13: First archer

Not much of an update here though I wanted to show you how my archers will look like.

 Figure is again from the Arthurian Range by Westwind.
The bow was bent in shape for better mixing up with the Musketeer archers.

Hope you like it.

Fall of the western Empire 12: Reinforcements & Fatigue markers

Haven't really been very busy over the last weeks but came round to paint some figures for my Late Romans. As I'm planning to use my warband for 'Dux Britanniarum' from the Toofatlardies at some point in the future I needed a new warlord, two heroes and an champion. Also I decided to paint a musician who will be my bard and two monks for spiritual assistance.

The South will rise again 1: First trial figures

Back from vacation I photographed some trial figures I finished before leaving Germany for some days in the sun. As the rather pathetic title allready suggests it's about Confederates for the American Civil War.
With the release of the new plastics Confederates by Perry-Miniatures I decided to finally give the whole ACW  thing a go.