Joy, oh Joy! The ether has been alive with chatter of the announcement of this new range for a couple of weeks now – and they really do look like some lovely figures with nice clean casts and great sculpting. I have been wanting to get into Maori Wars in 28mm for sometime – but to be honest there just hasn’t been the figures available to inspire me, only Eureka having anything reasonable – except they are later period (2nd & 3rd Maori Wars) and while their British chaps look quite nice their Maori just don’t get me excited (perhaps they are not animated enough). However now that Empress have released their range everything has changed, as it were, and now there seems little reason not to do some Maori Wars gaming (and hopefully the Empress and Eureka guys will be a close match size wise to allow use of both)? Continue reading “Empress Miniatures new Maori Wars Range”
Tag: 28mm
Do You Know That General, Monsieur?
Sometime (i.e. 2-3 years) ago I acquired several pre-painted 28mm French Generals on EBay – they were spur of the moment purchases put to one side for when I eventually got around to doing my 28mm French Napoleonic Army. As I am hoping to start work on that in the near future I thought I should work out what I actually have! As a result I’m trying to identify these figures – both maker and what they are (e.g. are they personalities or just generic ‘Generals’ or even just Infantry/Cavalry Colonels or ADCs?) – so I’ve posted them here in the hope someone passing by may recognise them and be able to clarify for me what actual manufacturer’s figure they are…
Selective Laser Sintering Armour
Reviewed in Battlegames No.25 and announced on TMP, RPG Manufacturing Limited are venturing into the Wargaming & Modelmaking arena, with the first of a new range of precision ‘1-piece’ castings that includes several variations on the Cromwell IV and Panzer IV ausf G & H. These models are made by fusing together progressive layers of nylon dust into a 3D model using a CO2 laser (a process called SLS – Selective Laser Sintering). This is somewhat similar (in general terms) to what existing 3D ‘Printers’ do and other similar processes (for example there was an episode in the most recent series of the U.S. show “Bones” that used this technique to recreate a human skeleton from 3D scans). In our case these models are designed in a CAD application, and then scaled to the desired scale (e.g. each RPG Cromwell & Panzer IV are available in 1:100, 1:72, 1:60, 1:56, and 1:48 scale – the models being identical except for their size).
TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [3]
![TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [3]](https://wargaming.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bc11-30071.jpg)
Having successfully returned to their base (game 2) Valentine Baker Pasha’s forces weren’t able to rest – a delayed communiqué arrived advising a steamer was coming down the Nile to rendezvous with them at the village of al-Ġardaqaḧ as-Sūdān and it included more civilians! Baker Pasha would have to assemble another, reasonably strong column, and rapidly march the 2 days across the desert to the Nile, through the territory teeming with Dervishes, to reach the village in anticipation of the steamer’s arrival. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [3]”
TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [2]
![TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [2]](https://wargaming.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bc11-2015.jpg)
Following the disastrous battle of the expedition to locate the missing European Civilians (TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]), Baker Pasha and a handful of survivors had managed to evade the victorious Dervishes and rejoin the balance of the local Anglo-Egyptian forces. With the entire countryside now up in arms and no hope of a second attempt to locate the civilians Baker pulled his remaining force from its isolated position and immediately began a rapid withdrawal to their regional capital and barracks town, hotly pursued by the Dervish forces. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [2]”
TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]
![TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]](https://wargaming.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bc11-1003.jpg)
February regularly sees the BattleCry Convention in Auckland, one of the larger NZ Wargaming events that is usually well run and encompasses more than just miniatures gaming (i.e. board gaming, card gaming, LARPing, etc). This year Gerry & Carolyn Webb of Castaway Arts (from Cairns, Queensland, Australia) decided to attend with a trade stand and some TSATF (The Sword And The Flame) demo games – as I’m a big TSATF fan I organised with Gerry to help him with the games, and provide all the troops and terrain – thereby saving Gerry & Carolyn having to cart their own from across the Tasman! The games were run as Public Participation & Demonstration games; although the former is a fairly rare concept in New Zealand so not overly familiar to many local gamers. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]”
A Little 1809 Lasalle Affair
It was clear fresh morning as L’General-de-Division surveyed the ground – he looked remarkably like L’Empereur himself, even down to his stature and dress – there was a stationary mass of white across the rolling fields, Austrians by the gods, and he meant to teach them the superiority of French esprit de corps and steel! His men were ready, his sub-commanders Michel Ney, Joachim Murat, and Eugéne de Beauharnais were ready, the horses and cannons were ready – but first he needed a plan… Before he could muse over the days prospects a courier came breathlessly galloping up, his ADC soon came to tell him the news, it was not good – “the Austrians have collected the entire region’s supply of garlic!” “What!” exclaimed the General, “no garlic for our foraging troops – this will not do, not at all…”
Some Exceptional Sudan Inspiration
If anyone ever needed inspiration to game the Sudan, most especially with the Perry’s range of figures then this is it – Frank & Björn have absolutely set an amazing benchmark for figure painting & terrain – the image here is but a low resolution version of just one of the many images. Make sure you check out their stunning (and ongoing) thread at the Lead Adventure Forum – there are images on every page of the thread and new images periodically added… Continue reading “Some Exceptional Sudan Inspiration”
A Warlord Games Windmill
When I recently ordered a reasonable order of Warlord Games ECW figures (See Return to the English Civil War) to maximise on the postage I couldn’t resist grabbing a unique little ready-made model of theirs – the very limited edition Warlord Games Windmill. It’s a great model because it’s a typical small basic type probably seen all though much of North-Western (& parts of Eastern?) Europe, rather than a more substantial structure. This is great because it makes it probably usable from the Middle Ages right through to the 1960’s or so. What’s more, although it’s nominally for 28mm figures it looks like it’ll likely sneak in with my 20mm World War II and Modern stuff, albeit slightly on the large side!
The model is a Pillar Windmill – (from eHow) “The pillar is the most ancient type of windmill, dating back to the 13th century…
Return to the English Civil War
There has been a fair bit of recent discussion on the Auckland Wargaming Club group about doing a Basic Baroque 15mm ECW (English Civil War) tournament or mini-campaign. Basic Baroque is a variant to Basic Impetus & Impetus. Now I’m not much taken by 15mm armies (I’ve sworn off these completely), however the Basic Baroque rules interest me as a possible simple set for doing some 28mm ECW in the short term – especially as I long since lost interest in DBR (De Bellis Renationis) as lacking flavour for the later renaissance period and most especially the mid to late Seventeenth Century ECW & TYW (Thirty Years War) and after.
Arrr! A Buxom Beauty: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 2]
![Arrr! A Buxom Beauty: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 2]](https://wargaming.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/pirate_ship022.jpg)
Avast! Get ye grog and hornpipe smartly, lubbers, for a beauty she will be and we must Jolly the Roger! Aye!
Kieran Mahony continues his account of building a Pirate Ship to the plans by Gary Chalk (of Wargames Illustrated Magazine) from Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1].
Details Around The Deck
I added some balsa strips around the door and also made it look like there are steps between the different deck levels. I extended some of the strips up to the main deck to make a handrail…
Continue reading “Arrr! A Buxom Beauty: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 2]”
Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1]
![Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1]](https://wargaming.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/pirate_ship007.jpg)
Avast! Ye Lubbers and Bilge Rats! Be here the means and way to use the contents of ye bung hole to build ye very owne brigantine pirate ship! Arrr!
A while ago one of my main gaming opponents, and Auckland Wargaming Club member, Kieran Mahony built himself a Pirate Ship for use with 28mm Pirate Figures playing GW’s “Legends Of The High Seas” (LOTHS) rules. Kieran originally published this article on his 6mm Wargaming website in 2008, but as that website is not necessarily the best place for an article about 28mm figures and scratch building a 28mm scale Pirate Ship I’ve decided to host Kieran’s article here to hopefully give it a wider audience!
Continue reading “Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1]”