What not to sell!

Just returned from a short break in Gran Canaria yesterday, a nice do sod all holiday with my wife. The hotel was fine with a large complement of German and Polish guests, not a problem, we both mix in well with anyone (but do note the nationalities here).
The island itself was to be frank pretty crap, few shop for her ladyship and not much to do, however we managed to find a shopping complex and being a good boy I trailed around in her wake. However, browsing round the usual tourist junk I spotted a display cabinet on the wall outside a shop with model soldiers inside, woo hoo. On closer inspection I could not quite believe what I saw:

Inside the shop was an even larger cabinet with dictators ranging from Attilla the Hun to Pol Pot, about sixty figures but in amongst them all were single figures of Pope John Paul II sitting in his chair and Jesus standing with arms wide!! (I would have loved to get a photo of this but even the picture of the outside cabinet was surreptitiously taken.)
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when the owner came to the decision of what exactly he was going to sell in his shop. 'Who are the main tourists who will be visiting the island? Germans yes? well I'm sure they'd go for figures of Hitler and all his mates, sure fire hit there eh.'
Unbelievable.
Dave.

Get'n there - slowly!

A bit more progress with the 1870 French Imperial Guard.
2nd Division 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiments plus Guard Zouarves. Based as usual for Fire & Fury Frances:

No artillery yet, the rest of the Voltigures next.
Dave.

Functional terrain

I've thought about using hex terrain for a good few years now, particularly since we started going up to Micks and using his permanent table set up in his gaming room in the borders. The advantages are of course that you know precisely if units are in or out of range, where the flank of a unit is, how far they move etc, and hidden movement is easily recorded.
Conversely it doesn't look as good, there's no getting away from it, it doesn't. But everything is a compromise so there you go. I still have the more aesthetically pleasing board terrain pieces that I have used in the past if I want to make the game 'pretty'.
So, a step by step guide to making cheap terrain gaming mats.
I decided on 120mm hexes, again as a bit of a compromise. Each of the different periods, figure scales etc have different basing sizes, so 120mm seemed the most appropriate. This first photos show the hexes being drawn up on card:

Perspex placed over the card, the intersection points of each hex marked, and a hole drilled through:

Using a Unipaint oil based pen marker a dot is marked through the drilled holes onto the matt (in this case a £4.99 fake grass matt from Lidl).

Join up all the points to form hexes.

The table marked out.

Spare matting sprayed with brown aerosol to differentiate it from the base material was then marked up and cut into various sized hexes which would slot together to form hills.
terrain and figures added to give an idea of how it will look:

In time I think I will replace the matt hills with thin MDF and the lichen woods with something more permanent. Roads and rivers, don't know yet but I may go with fine coloured sawdust which can be sucked up with a clean car vacuum and reused. Other than that, buy the flexible rubber roads/rivers and cut them to the hex sizes.
Maybe the white hex markers could do with toning down, I might go over them with a green marker, test it on a small piece first though! By the way, don't underestimate how much work this involves, it does take time.
The pics show 10mm Marlbrarian figures.
Next I think I'll put up pictures of the re based Greek and Macedonian ancients, all put onto Impetus bases.
Dave.

I just hope they fight as well as they look

Well, a foray back into painting my 15mm Franco Prussian War figures, first time in a couple of years. The motivation is to have the French Imperial Guard corps completed by around about Sept this year for a large game at Micks up in the borders so at least a start has been made.
Have a look at the various battles, units etc Here
This does pose a question, a few people drop in and out looking at this blog some put their comments on, some do not. Their privilege of course.
What I would be interested to know is how many of you guys and girls out there paint up figures, units divisions etc which you know beforehand will see only limited time on the gaming table?
The French Imperial Guard of the FPW period are a prime example, Bourbaki (their commander) standing by with them in reserve for most of the engagements. These pretty lads will of course see action in non-historical actions, but if Gravelotte etc is re-played then the corps will remain in reserve for a good few turns and then will only move on a '6'. Is it worth the painting effort, Comments?

Here's a few pics.

One battalion of Guard Chasseurs:

1st Voltigeurs of the Guard:

 1st Grenadiers of the Guard:

As stated before these figures are from Outpost, one of the most comprehensive 15mm ranges for this period.
Dave.

French reinforcements

The overdue 15mm French reinforcements have finally been compleated, 108 figures to be precise. This will provide a balenced force to oppose the Austrians here (don't worry Andy, I'm not saying the army is compleate, I know none of us ever really get there!).

Three battalions of the French 17th Rgt:

The infantry:

The cavalry:

Next, well I could do with re-organising my 15mm Franco Prussian war stuff as I need to prepare for a large reinactment of Gravelotte - St Privat later this year. There will be a bit of painting involved but I need to see where I am figure wise first.
Dave.