Display Board pt3

 For the texture I added sand over the entire board though I used a coarser grit for the "wild" areas and a fine grit for the road and yards. I imagine the difference being the pulverized sediment from traffic, both foot and vehicle. 

Once the glue had dried I painted over all of it using  craft smart Brown. Then a heavy dry brush of Golden Brown. I went back over the fine grit areas with a final dry brush of Khaki for a more exposed and dry look. 

Next will come the flocking.

Display Board pt2

Next I took a sheet of 1/2 inch foam and cut it to cover everything except the roads, houses, and yards. Then I beveled the edges with my dremel and sanding tool. I wanted the roads to have a sunken and warn look. The house will be left removable for transport, storage, and use in other setups. 

Next I glued on the 3d printed fences where I wanted them to go.

 

Display Board

 I will be playing in my 2nd Bolt Action Tournament this coming March and it will be a 750pt Combat Patrol game. In addition the the lower points cap. All vehicles must be open topped and a 7+ armor or less. I decided to go with a German Anti-Partisan Force themed on the Eastern Front. I'll do a separate post about the force composition but in edition to the 5 vehicles and 29 miniatures I need to paint I have decided to also build a 2 foot by 2 foot display board for them. 

I started with a standard 2in thick 2x2 foam insolation panel from local hardware for the base. I then set out some of my Eastern front 4 Ground buildings from my WW1 collection and some 3d printed terrain. Next I laid out the part of the force I have and played around with the narrative I wanted it to tell. 

When I had a good idea of a vision I removed the miniatures and traced out all the terrain elements to make a template of my idea. I want to display a small cross roads and farm stead where the patrol has stopped and engaged partisans (I plan on make some dead partisan minis). 

The first element I began construct were the ruts in the roads. I wanted these to be cut into the board and to show their heavy use on a dirt road. I used a foam wire cutter to carve them out and then ran some sand paper along the sides.

I made the ruts wider so that when I add dirt and texture they should fill in to the desirable size. 

Anglo-Saxon Army Update

 Felt like setting out the entire Anglo-Saxon army for a progress update. This time though I set it up on my Killing Fields Battle Mat and got some Normans out for some more interesting shots.

Here is the entire army as I have built it. 3 Divisions consisting of 4 infantry units, 1 command base, and 1 or 2 skirmish units. As they are set up here the 2 flanking divisions are identical. They have 2 units of armored Thagens with long spears, 2 units of unarmored Carols with long spears, 1 unit of bow skirmishers and 1 of javelins. The middle division has 2 units of armored Hauscarls with Dane Axes, 2 units of unarmored Carols with long spears, 1 unit of javelin skirmishers. 

Left to paint are 5 units of infantry, the 2 bow armed skirmish units, and 2 command bases. 

While the 1066 Battle of Hastings will certainly be the main big battle I'll fight with my two armies, I also plan to cover much more. It took 3-5 years for the Normans to bring all the Anglo-Saxons in line and quail several rebellions. This should offer me plenty of fodder for campaigns with engagements of skirmishes up to pitched battles. 

Since I had my Saxons out I grabbed what if had done of my Norman cavalry. I set up could be a small rebel Saxon force about to receive a charge of Norman knights. I think the photos came out quite good and really got me motivated. 

More Hascarls

More progress on my Anglo-Saxons. These were my original Huscarls for SAGA that I just finished re-basing to fit in unit trays for larger games. I had to finish painting 3 of them and add 4 more to bring them up to strength, but really happy with end result. All that's missing is their flags. Now I know the keen eyed historians among you will notice they don't look quite like Anglo-Saxons. That is because they are sold as late Romano-British and I repurposed them. 

Coleman Gets Started

 My 4 year old son Coleman has shown increased interest in painting miniatures, especially after the high praise his 7 year old broth Thomas got. While visiting a local game store I let him pick out a miniature to paint and he picked a D&D brand Giant Squid. He was very focused and determined to paint it all in one sitting and so I let him. All I did was get his paints ready and offer advice and tips to help him accomplish his vision. He was so excited to finish it that he wanted to start on another right away. I rummaged around in my box of unpainted monsters and got him a Reaper Bones monster. He also painted the entire thing in 1 day, again all on his own with only minimum assistance. 

He is very quick to correct you if you call it anything other then a squid. He chose to paint it based off the colors of the example on the packaging. 

This one he calls the Angler Death Monster. He chose all the colors and did all the application himself.

Javelins

 Well the Garage has been finished and the entirety of my 20 years of wargaming collection has moved into it. We set up a projector and let the boys watch a movie last night while I painted. While the following were painted in 2021 I finished the basing last night so they will be the first finished minis of 2022.

Working again on my Anglo-Saxon army here are 2 units of skirmishers. They are armed with Javelins. Bows were in small numbers on the Saxon side so most skirmishers would have been armed with slings or javelins. Based off what I had available I'll be doing 3 units of javelins and 2 of bows. The movement tray is from Litko and the models are from Wargames Factory. They are the worst plastic models on the planet but I did my best to get the most out of them. As such I couldn't be bothered to give them more then a basic paint job and wash. Fortunately the Little Big Men transfers just fit and help them look a bit better. 

While primarily for Hail Creaser, I chose to go with 6 models per unit. This number will work well for other games like SAGA where Levey are in groups of 12.