Old Books, New Books! Continued...

Painting is progressing fine, I'm currently painting the last 9 mini's for my first ACW-regiment. We seek to do a Black Powder game by the end of this year so painting a few more regiments is a must... A gaming buddy of mine is painting all his ACW buildings, we have a table of 1.5m x 3m, now only the mini's are needed.

To kill of some spare time i'm reading another book. This one is kinda 'very good'. Overall 5-stars on Amazon. It's titled 'Eyewitness to the Civil War' by National Geographic. An unbelievable book, very thick, 416 full-colour pages. A well presented book also, full of unbelievably beautiful pictures.

It's always fun to notice that painting miniatures from a certain period also sparks my interest book-wise. The American Civil War is no different :-)

My armies, part 4: American Civil War

Slow days of painting due to some work at my house... it's pretty warm outside so i'm obligated to work in the garden. Still painting in my spare time on my first of many 28mm regiments for wargaming the American Civil War.

My ACW Union Army will consist of the following:

• 4 Infantry Regiments (modelled as 2 marching, and 2 as a complete firing line)
• 2 Zouave Regiments
• 2 Cavalry Regiments
• 1 Skirmish Regiment, Berdan sharpshooters.
• 3-4 Cannons.

I really like the Flatbed from Redoubt miniatures but can't find a use for it... maybe something scenario-wise. Also the Irish Brigade looks so damn nice... It would be nice to have yet another regiment in my army. All those blue soldiers lined up, it would make any rebel crap their pants.

No pictures as of yet, I will post some when my first regiment is complete. Should be not to long anymore.

Some links...
Perry Miniatures
Redoubt Miniatures
Renegade Miniatures

Tuesday night Gaming

Every tuesday night it's gaming day at our local hobby shop. Normally we play Dystopian Wars 2vs2 but this time i played a game with a buddy of mine called 'Axis & Allies: War at Sea'.

A&A WaS is a fast-paced naval wargame with miniatures on a squared-map. It's a very fun & addicitve game. The only downside imo is that you have to collect the miniatures, meaning you must keep buying blisters till you finally got that rare one everybody is looking after. Thank God for ebay! Almost every miniature is available seperately on there. Watch out cause some ultra-rare mini's can be expensive, like the Fw200 Condor, going over 20$ sometimes! I remember paying almost 15$ for the French Richelieu battleship.

Normally i play British while my buddy plays with the Italian fleet. Most sculpt of these mini's are good, some are excellent while others are very bad (HMS Warspite). Movement is square-based. Most ships move 2 squares, and shooting is also square-based.

Be sure to check it out, it's very fun. The starter blister contains about 10 ships i believe, together with maps, damage tokens & rulebook. The rules can be downloaded for free (very low learning curve).

A Vacation of History...

Sometime last year we decided to go to the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, France. Some people called me crazy because i would drive 700km just to visit some silly museum full of old metal, and drive another 700km to return home the next day. The truth is I am a little bit crazy, as are my friends, who joined me on this strange trip. A trip with lots of driving, little sleep and a whole lot of tanks...

Picture above is the German Panther tank, this one is in running condition. It was running the day we arrived. I have a nice video of it. It's makes ALOT of noise but it gave me chills.

Another one in running condition is the Königstiger, too bad they are having problems with this one at the moment.

Jagdpanther, one of the most beautiful and best tank-hunters ever made.

PzKpfw IV Ausf.H. The main work-horse of the German Army during WW2.

Old Books, New Books!

What would make a good Christmas present for my Father? Of course, a book about the Anglo-Dutch wars. He was very happy to see that Osprey is publishing a book about it. A small book to be honest but i'm sure it will hold a decent amount of information, like all of Osprey's books, together with some new drawings of those wonderful ships. Coming out 20 december this is a must buy for me and my dad.

A book i'm currently reading right now is "War at Sea in the Age of Sail". A good book with lots of illustations and a decent amount of text about the biggest battles. From the Anglo-Dutch wars to the Napoleonic ages. It includes a very nice chapter about Trafalgar. This book also includes 'viewed-from-the top'  battle-drawings from day-to-day.

I consider both books a must read for anyone interested in naval warfare...

Also consider checking out this site . It's about some people who are building a Dutch Ship-of-the-Line, the '7 Provincien'. They're building it without plans but from drawings and sketches from the era. Ships weren't build with plans in those days, it was passed on from father to son. The ship is being build with only the tools used by the people from back then.

The work is being payed for by donations so everything is going really slow, they think it will take them about 10 years to finish it. Ships like this were build in 6 months in those days. One of my fathers wishes is to see this ship sail before he ever lays his head to rest...

My armies, part 3: Imperial Romans

Couple of weeks ago i purchased some Roman Legionaries from Warlord Games. Looks like they're updating all their models to go with the Hail Caesar rulebook.

So as promised, here is the tester i painted for my Roman Army. I'm having trouble with painting the eyes so i bought a book about miniature painting (from GW). Essential reading imo.

Hope you guys like the pictures!

My armies, part 2: Flames of War

Fellow wargamers,

Hard times are upon us! We must secure our future by adding more troops to our armies. So here you go, some troops from my Flames of War German Army, Mid-War Eastern Front. I can field them as Panzer Grenadiers or normal grenadiers.

First up, my Company HQ, together with an Iron Cross ;-)

 

Next are some Panzer Grenadiers, they came out a little dark so next time some more dry-brushing. Also the Half-Tracks are missing, they're still being completed.

 

 

Next up is the Bunker Flak, Also know as 'Bufla'. Not so common, part of mid-war monsters. The concept is nice; 88mm Flak gun on a Half-Track. You gotta love the Germans...

 

One of my favourite Tank Hunters; The Marder II. Pak40 gun on a  Panzer II chassis. Low Armored but deadly. 4 of these will do the trick.

What? No Tiger you say? Okay, here it goes. The Tiger. I don't really like this tank, i love the Panther much more but in Flames of War you just gotta put one on the table if you got one. :-)

Next time i'll show you a Imperial Roman "test"-legionary. The first of many, for their name is Legion.

New purchase: CorSec Dice Docks

Thats right, ordered me 250 12mm dices. Together with these CorSec Dice Docks they will ease up my gameplay. It's all part of my major battle plan!

Order some here : CorSec Engineering

My armies, part 1: Dystopian Wars

Greetings all!

This is the first time i'll show some pictures of my armies. First up is my Britannian fleet for Dystopian Wars. I chose the Brits because those ships look awesome. The paint scheme is pretty simple; Grey Iron plating with lots of bling guns and wooden decks. Very WWI-like which i like alot (the bling guns are not so WWI-like tbh).

The British Dreadnought; lots of guns, lots of armour, lots of defences. Add escorts, shield and a fighter CAP and this boat is "unsinkable", just like the Titanic...

Next are the DD's. Lots of torpedoes, Pack Hunter ability & small target. No fleet can run without them.

Last up is the Submarine, this unit suprised me somewhat. Low cost & Ramming, what more do you want? It's a good "finish them off" unit. A little slow but imo they're not a 'Gung Ho' type of unit. Just keep them in the rear and kill anything the comes too close.

Next i will be showing some Flames of War stuff...

Dystopian Wars, Update #1

Greetings from the front...

I've found a nice paint scheme for a Britannian Fleet. To bad my fleet is 95% completely painted. But anyway, Check out this picture... Now on to paint me some Union troops.

Battle Cry of Freedom

For those of you who don't know... Battle Cry of Freedom is the song where i got the title from.

Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

(Chorus)

The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

Down with the traitor, up with the star;

While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Chorus

We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Chorus

So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Chorus

To my Fellow Commanders

War is upon us! This is the first message of many...


Many of the messages to come will inform you of upcoming events, battle reports from the front and preparing our armies with colours and flags. The enemy will tremble at the sight of our armies.

I trust you that all will do it's duty.