PSC Great War Infantry

Another Borg system spin off: The Great War 

(click on the pix to enlarge)

As sexy as she is, this is not that Borg...

A long awaited game, I couldn't wait to give it a try

Everything you need to get that WWI flavor
Commands and Colors-style!

The Brits

The Huns

Painting production in full swing

Hard lesson learned: do not use hot glue gun on plastic soldiers 
because removing them from the nail after painting becomes
problematic and difficult ("Arrrrgggghhhhh!" I yelled in frustration)

Unfortunately, the glue adheres to the plastic and
is difficult to trim. This was not an issue
with metal figures. DOH!

Consequently, the bases aren't flat as intended. Luckily
these figures stand up well on a Hexon tile because of
the static grass

The Brits - nice poses and crisp figures

Ditto for the Huns

A little test on how they stand up on the Hexon tiles

Nice detail on these Brits

First Scenario Map to be replicated on Hexon 

I decided to go the easy route and just used sand to
outline the trenches. A quick, down and dirty
alternative to get that miniatures feel

An entrenched Hun machine gun team

A Hun mortar team

A Brit MG team

Standard Brit infantry with Grenadier ready to go 'over the top'

Taking A Stand!

Hey folks! Still alive after all that life has enriched me with. 

I know that I've been awfully remiss in neglecting this blog. And without further ado here's a long awaited article that I'm finally posting. Thanks for your patience and let's get to it.

I love eye-candy in all my games, so I put forth some effort in making the command stands included in the boxed game as a diorama to compliment my Samurai Battles table.

I'll be using epic 6mm miniatures (previously referred to in an earlier post http://thehistoricalminiaturist.blogspot.com/2015/12/hai-on-more-conversions-part-1.html) to truly capture the scale of these opposing armies. 

Additionally I substituted the Honor and Fortune tokens with some generic Chinese coins obtained online.

(click on the pix to enlarge)

Dice Roll showing Honor and Fortune

Cardboard Game Tokens
(Honor and Fortune Tokens: White Asterisk on a purple field) 

Chinese coins from EBay

Typical Figures that come in the box

Using the provided game accessories to record and document a general's winnings seemed lack luster and uninspired to compliment the epic look and feel of the game.

WIP: conversion of standard game combat game units to 6mm

Red and Black Army Command Stands

Vignettes depicting Army Commander receiving messages and viewing
heads (victory banner representation) of vanquished enemies

Hai on More Conversions! Part 1

Here's the latest project on my table. Conversion of the board game Samurai Battles to another miniatures game using Hexon and 6mm Baccus Samurai figures.

The game comes with these beautiful 1/72nd scale plastics from Zvezda. 

However, I didn't like the aesthetic look. To me it does not capture the epic scale that I've seen in those Kurosawa films (Ran, Kagemusha, etc.) and gives me the impression of a small unit / skirmish game feel. Hence my conversion. 

Ran: Ashigaru Arquebusiers deploying

The following pix are progress shots of this current project. As you can see below the 6mm scale gives a better visual for some truly epic battles. Incidentally, our group has been doing the same for most of the Command and Colors family of games (e.g. Memoir 44, Battle Cry, Command and Colors Ancients and Napoleonics). And we've been having great success in the look and feel complemented by the great playability of this system.

From L-R, Black Army, Red Army
Finally completed opposing armies fully represented on my
table top using my Hexon terrain. I have enough here to play all
the scenarios from the base game to the latest expansion.

I've decided to take a count of all the units in the scenarios and represented them as single stands. All combat units except the Peasant Infantry (found in the expansion) are 4 stands strong. Meaning they take 4 hits to kill. That's represented by four figures per stand in the original game. I chose to use single 2"x3" metal stands from Games Accessories... 4 banners each...

Finally my order came in from Baccus and first order of business was
sort them into their unit types. It was a daunting task that completely
overwhelmed me. I knew I had to be systematic in this approach. 

Notice that some of the minis are black primered. In my earlier attempt, I primered a few bags and realized that it was better for me to restart the process and get them all sorted in their respective units first then I can paint them piecemeal.

Here are 3 AY (Ashigaru Yari = Non Samurai Spearmen) 
Medium Infantry units for the Red Army

Same units from another angle. Notice that each unit has four
sashimonos (flag banners) to represent their hit points 

Command and Colors Ancients: Lake Trasimenus

Another round of hybrid gaming converting the Command and Colors: Ancients board and blocks game into a miniatures game using 6mm miniatures from Baccus and the Hexon terrain system. All the minis and Hexon tiles were supplied by Mikey.

Table view as seen from the Republican Roman's (me) side
Note the use of string to demarcate the battlefield zones

Obviously a more visually satisfying gaming experience
playing with minis on a terrain table, IMHO and of course, the
Command and Colors system is perfect for this type of conversion 

This was definitely a challenging terrain for the Romans

Carthaginians and Republican Roman Medium Infantry

Roman General and Heavy Infantry about
to face a Carthaginian Cavalry charge 

WIP: Dwarves Part 3 - DONE

Willy's (aka LTL Dad) Dwarven army painted, based and ready to fight. 
Time for a battle...

Flocked base with my sand slurry mixture.
Notice the absence of the ubiquitous green grass.

A little dry brushing of the bases after the required time for curing.
Rear Rank: Heavy Infantry from  L to R 2x Swords 3x Axes
Middle Rank:  Light Infantry /Auxilia Xbows
Front Rank: Light Infantry Bows

The Heavies!

Light Infantry and Skirmish