We’re headed to Bukhara

I’m just going to ignore the fact it’s been over 1 year since my last post. To be fair not a lot of miniature progress occurred in 2024. 

A bit of a set back was my commission painter retired and moved to Asia so the lead mountain has been creeping up. 

I did manage to slap some paint onto some WWI highlanders (from Great War Miniatures) that I was planning on using for VBCW and onto some WWI Americans (mostly Great War Miniatures and some Brigade Games).

I attended the 29th annual Hotlead in March of this year, which was followed by almost 3 weeks vacation so I really found my mojo invigorated.

I built a small Middle Eastern village following some plans/tips from Pulp Alley’s YouTube channel. I’ve started building the great walls of Bukhara.

I have a 24” section built and have another 4x 12” sections in various stages of assembly.

 I also worked on the RCW armoured train and the train tracks.

Here’s what I’m currently working on.

The black figures in the foreground are mostly Artizan Irregular Arabs from their First World War range. There are 5 Brigade Games Arabs scattered in. They have been painted for probably 3+ years but I haven’t done anything else with them. I put texture paint onto the base so they are almost done.

The silver figures are a mix of Copplestone Castings and Brigade Games WWI Turks to finish off that army.

My plan is for them to be a regular/well trained force when gaming Back of Beyond in any Middle Eastern theatre.

There are a bunch of primed horses and cavalry figures, again from Artizan Designs/Brigade Games.

It’s quite unfortunate in that I purchased many of these figures once online years ago that were lost in the mail. I never received compensation from the seller either, so I’ve had to buy them again. 

I also found some camels from Saga that were particularly discounted. 

The three figures in fezzes are Egyptian police from Artizan Designs. They will be guarding the jail house in Bukhara once build.

Lastly, here are the Artizan Designs Sharifan Infantry. 

These might be amongst my favourite figures. It’s disappointing that there are only 4 poses, and one of them is the figure carrying his rifle. I purchased 3 packs (one at Hotlead) and the other two online for 12 figures total.

I figured two HQ types and a 10 man squad would be sufficient. Cough unless Artizan decides to make more cough. 

The figure on the left is the stock figure.

The middle figure has his rifle cut away from his hand, his hand was opened up and a banner pole was glued in place. The rifle from the rightmost figure was glued on his back.

The figure on the right had his right hand cut away and the rifle was cleaned up and donated to the banner bearer. A new right hand with revolver was sourced from the Warlord Games British & Canadian Army infantry. At this scale, a revolver is a revolver. However, it’s likely a Webley which was in service in WWI so all good.

Lastly the left hand was removed and some of the body was shaved down. The binoculars and straps were sourced from the same Warlord kit. The straps were cut to look like they went behind the neck. I’m not 100% happy as the hands are slightly oversized but it’ll be fine. I just have to greenstuff a small gap at the wrist and he’s also done.

Charlie Foxtrot Initial Thoughts and smaller buildings.

I found some spare time today and managed to put together the workshop, log store, stone shed and extension from Charlie Foxtrot Models.

There wasn’t the usual heavy smell of burned MDF which was a plus. 

There’s lots of detail on the kits as well.

I started with the workshop. Nicely packed in a ziplock bag. Pieces already punched out with helps keep weight down for postage I presume.

Here’s the basic components. No instructions were included. However, the pieces have tabs and with some dry fitting and patience it’s easy to figure out.

Boom! Basic shape is done!

I watched Nick Skinner from TFL fame do a CFM kit and use textured spray. Taping off the inside keeps the insides cleaner. It’s not perfect but it does the trick.

Next up was the extension.

Here’s the pieces. Again zero waste.


I forgot to take a picture of it built and taped off before I took it and the workshop outside to be sprayed.

The log store is the only kit with some greyboard details. I’m not a huge fan of greyboard but it is useful.

Obligatory components picture. Wood detail looks good. Debating on just a brown wash.

Here I used PVA glue to layer the greyboard planks. The only fiddly part of all the kits.

The stone shed. Lots of detail. Another straightforward build so no instructions required.

I like he stamp on the bottom of the piece. It’s a nice touch of brand recognition. My only complaint, if you could call it that is there is not an undamaged door option. 

All in all, 4 very nice kits! Took probably 10-15 minutes to assemble them all including dry fitting pieces.

Some of the holes and plugs were super tight. Some of the edges of the plugs actually split. But it’s all glued together so not a big deal.

Here's my 1st month's entry for Army Painter 2017 "competition" on Lead Adventure Forum. It's a continuation from last years entry where I painted 1 figure and 1/2 started 19 others...not very good

Here are 20 Copplestone Castings Chinese troops completed. One of them was finished prior but I had used a Brown Wash. I re-washed him in black as I liked the look better.

Here are a couple close-ups of some of the figures. These are done for the purpose of the AP competition, however, I will probably do some highlights later on.

This last photograph shows the entire Army. I actually made some great progress as another 20 are finished minus the bases. As August is going to be hectic, I won't have as much time so I planned ahead.

Hotlead 2016 - Part 1

On Friday March 18th, 2016, I drove out to Stratford, ON, for Hotlead, the largest war gaming convention in Southern Ontario.


Typically, I only go on the Saturday morning but convinced the wife that if she came with me, we could go Friday night and she could have a night of relaxation away from the kids and do her own thing on the Saturday in Stratford. She agreed and grandma and grandpa stepped in to babysit.


I ended up taking loads of photos on my camera but haven't uploaded them yet, so I'm hoping to have a second post in the next few days showing the various games tables.


We checked into the hotel and then went out to dinner. We were back at approximately 6:00pm and I quickly scoped out the room.


I quickly found three contenders despite being a 28mm guy:


Chasing the Tiger: Inter-War 1924 China, a 20mm inter-war game using Osprey’s “A World Aflame” rules presented by Patrick Mooney.


The Bomb Factory, a 20mm modern skirmish game presented by Hotlead organizer, James Manto.


Dux Britaniannrum, a 28mm Arthurian era game from Too Fat Lardies presented by Cain Carter and Frank Kailik.


I've played games hosted by Frank in the past. He is a fantastic game-master, presenting rules clearly and modifying them appropriately for convention demonstrations. That and his terrain and miniatures are simply fantastic.


James'The Bomb Factory has beautiful terrain, I've been following it on his blog. http://rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.ca/


I love the interwar setting and Patrick's terrain was also fantastic.


I decided to sign up for Chasing the Tiger.


The scenario was this:


Rescue the Western Sailors taken captive by Chang Tso-Lin's Fengtien forces during the Second Chihli-Fengtien War in the Port City of Dongling.Can you lead international alliance made up of French Marines, FFL and American Naval landing forces? Or... can you successfully defend the port city of Dongling from the imperialist Western powers?


I joined the Fengtian forces and was "awarded" by having my troops guarding the dock. I was effectively just a speed bump the French and American alliance have to slow down for.


Anyway, on to the pictures:

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The view of the table. Port city in bottom left. Small village, top left and the water on the right.



The water with two allied landing ships and a fixed freighter.

My unit's starting position. I had 14 troops. 1 Officer, 1 grenadier, 1 SMG, and 11 rifles.

My unit's vitals. Just an average group of troops.

The first group of French land and some hand to hand fighting occurred. Despite rolling a natural 1, I held off the invaders as they rolled natural 1's as well. Not a great start.

 

More and more American and French troops land. I am alone and outnumbered, help is on the way but will it arrive in time?

 

 

I decide it won't and redeploy part of my force into a building leaving those in hand to hand to fend for themselves.

 

 

A unit of Chinese troops and Dare-To-Die fanatics have barricaded the lanes and are hampering the advance. My troops in the building were under attack and despite killing several allies eventually surrendered.

 

 

The allies push forward. 

They over-run a second unit of Chinese troops, causing them to fall back and regroup.

At this point, the game was essentially finished. The allies had not achieved their objective and were running short on men. The Chinese units had slowed them down but at a severe cost. But we decided to fight to the death as the Chinese had 2 full units making their way from the village.

 

A great game and I went to purchase the rules, Osprey’s “A World Aflame” but one of my opponent's had purchased the only copy brought for sale to the convention.

I chatted with some friends (Chairface and Sterling Moose) from http://www.lead-adventure.de/ 

and was in bed by 11:30pm.

I awoke early (5:15am) and was in line by 8:30am to register for the 9:30 game. I also had some wares for sale to drop off at the Bring & Buy.

Unfortunately, the line was ridiculously long at 8:30. I chatted with the fellow in line beside me and we both agreed we wanted to play Dark of the Sun, a 28mm skirmish game set in the Belgian Congo using game-master Danger Dan Hutter's own rules.

I played his African set Imagination game last year and was looking forward to playing Dark of the Sun. However, when I got to the head of the line, there was only one spot for Dark of the Sun. I let the fellow beside me take the spot and I signed up for Dux Britaniannrum instead.

My starting forces. Archers and skirmishers up front, two units of infantry, a command stand and cavalry unit to round it out. Each player (there were 6 of us) had similar forces. My side was Romano-British and we were facing off against Saxons. The Saxons were trying to plunder our supply cart and sack our watch tower. If either side's morale fell to 0, the game was over.

We started with 7 while the Saxon's had 8 morale.

Advanced my infantry, archers and cavalry and quickly lost 2 cavalry to archers on a hill. The dice God was very BIASED against the Romano-British for the ENTIRE game.

Those pesky Saxon archers and infantry hiding in the woods.

 

I moved my skirmishers into the town as Saxon skirmishers advanced. The Saxon light cavalry are on the hill.

 

My 2 man cavalry unit was charged by the 4 man Saxon cavalry. While we each suffered a fatality, my lone horseman turned tail and fled through my archers, shocking them.

There's the supply cart in the foreground. My allies can be seen between the field and the fort and on the far side of the fort.

 

The Saxon middle advances.

 

The Romano-British advance on the right to meet the Saxon left, but are crushed and flee the field.

Somewhere at this point we are down to 2 morale points remaining while the Saxons are at 7.

I whittle down the cavalry with arrows.

Skirmishers advance and both sides throw spears with no fatalities. But those Saxon infantry are getting close.

The red caped cavalry are heavy cavalry and just waded through 2 units of Saxon light horse. The tables start to turn.

The Saxon cavalry are eliminated and the infantry form a shield wall.

My skirmishers fall back against superior numbers.

The Saxon middle is charged by the heavy cavalry and elite infantry. Battle is fierce with the Romano-British causing severe casualties to the Saxons dropping them to 3 morale points.

The remaining troops locked in deadly combat. However, the Romano-British fell to 0 morale and the game was called.

All in all, a fun set of rules played with great figures on great terrain.

Another successful Hotlead!!