Pendraken Eastern Front Buildings

As part of my 10mm WW2 projects I picked up a selection of Pendraken's Eastern Front buildings.  I figured that these should work OK for a few of the projects to represent a modest village.

First the L-Shaped house:

I really like the woodpile you can see in the corner - it's a really nice little detail.

Next the house with lean-to:

And a couple of normal houses with different designs:

As you can see the bases include small shrubs (and another woodpile) which I really like.

Finally I got the burned out building set - this includes two flootplates (with ruined walls) and two chimney stacks:

I think these will work for all sorts of settings - anywhere buildings may have been burnt down or blasted I suppose!

The casts were all clean and have lots of nice little details - highly recommended range!

Flails and Zweihänder

A couple more units for the Empire army today!

First the rather excellent Flagellants from Crom's Anvil - I'll use these as Bellicose Foot (probably with Hatred upgrade):

These are the models that started this whole project - and along with things like the Steam Tank I posted previously are what elevates it from a Landsknecht force into an Empire army.

Of course one of the iconic units in the Empire are the Greatswords - Pendraken's Landsknechte range has this covered (you may have noticed I used the Zweihänder armed models as Sergeants in the spear/halberd units):

I've still got a few more units from Ostermark to share at some point...and eventually some allies too!

Stacks and Blasts

When I was placing an order with Pendraken for the 10mm Bolt Action stuff I opted to pick up some of the pieces of scatter terrain that I'd been eying for a while.

First the pack of Haystacks - these I thought would be useful for a range of settings and games in this scale:

I think this will suffice for detailing a field... guess I'll need to source one of those at some point!

I also went for a couple of packs of craters with Bolt Action firmly in mind.  I intend to paint most of them in my general basing scheme - with some in my desert basing scheme for use with the Operation Compass stuff.  I got a pack of each size craters Pendraken offer:

These are obviously very useful for marking out some difficult ground on the tabletop in a nicely thematic way.  

All the pieces were cleanly cast with next to no clean up required (except the usual resin wash of course!).  There's enough texture so that simple painting techniques should work well I think - which is always a bonus, especially for scenic items!

Handguns and Crossbows

Bolstering the State Troops I've shared previously are some units to provide a ranged threat.  The miniatures are all from Pendraken's Landsknechte range.

First, a unit of Handgunners (Heavy Missile, Weighty Projectiles):

Then a unit of Crossbowmen (also Heavy Missile, Weighty Projectiles, but look a bit different):

I found some homebrew rules from farfaraway.org that covered detachments in Dragon Rampant.  To that end, I made two detachments of Halberdiers - one for each of the above units - to act as bodyguards:

I'm really enjoying how this project is shaping up! There'll be more here soon!

Characters, Troops and a Tank

I've started prepping the various bits and pieces for the Empire side of the Rampanthammer project.

These will all get a sand dip prior to priming!

First, a Captain mounted on a barded warhorse:

This is the Earl of Surrey from Pendraken's Early 16th C. English/Scots range. I picked him as he had the fanciest helmet.

I also cleaned up and based the Wizard I got - a 3D printed MiniRat Studio mini:

Removing the supports was a bit of a stress - but thankfully I didn't wreck anything in the process!

For the State Troops I turned to the Pendraken Landsknechte range - started with Spearmen (well, these are Pikemen but I'm not going to split hairs!):

I also prepped a unit of Halberdiers:

Finally for now, I cleaned up the Steam Tank (another MiniRat Studio design):

Like with the Wizard, it was a stress removing the supports but I think I did a decent job!

10mm World War II - introduction

If you follow me on Twitter (@alex_and__a) you may have seen over the last month my painting of some 10mm Bolt Action forces.  I haven't shared them here yet as I'm awaiting some basing materials - but I really enjoyed the process of painting them; far more than many things I've painted recently, so I decided to expand further into this hobby area!

Whilst I'm still not a rivet counter, it has been fun researching a bit about a range of forces - I'm not aiming for absolute accuracy or to recreate specific engagements from history.  For me, this overarching project, and the smaller sub-projects, are about having lots of interesting, fun and varied forces to maximise different painting and gaming experiences.

So far everything has been sourced from Pendraken's excellent WWII range - I'm not ruling out other sources, but so far Pendraken has had what I've needed and they are great value!

Far East - 1000pts British and Japanese 
This was the project that started it all off - it was a small project to show respect in some small way for those who fought in the Far East that are often overlooked compared to other theatres.  I'm just waiting on some trees and foliage to come then I'll crack on with the basing and some specific terrain features for this sub-project.

Black's Division goes Nazi Hunting - 550pts Partisans and Germans
I've mentioned my intention to do a small project covering Black's Division - a partisan force headed up by a Romani hero, Josef Serinek.  I've used the general Partisan list to plot a 'what if' force (eg. what if Josef and his partisans got a bit more equipment to go hunt down some Nazis), and I have got miniatures from both the WWII and Spanish Civil War ranges to suit a ragtag look.  The Germans will hopefully get butchered every single time (I've headed up their list 'target practice') - but I have given them a SdKfz 222, presumably as a show of force to terrorise the locals and provide Black's Division with a trophy target!

Operation Compass - 1000pts British and Italian
I decided I wanted to include a project including an Italian force - and thought it would be interesting to head to the Western Desert and have a couple of Operation Compass themed forces.  To increase variety across all the projects I elected to make these two lists as Armoured Brigades so they each feature five tanks and an armoured car (I do like armoured cars so plenty of these sub-projects include them!) alongside some supporting infantry in transports.

Eastern Front - 1000pts Romanian and Soviet
I wanted something from the Eastern Front (yes, I know Black''s Division would be Eastern Front, but something a bit more 'properly' military).  The Soviets were an obvious choice, but to go a little different I checked out the range of various Axis powers that were involved and saw that Pendraken had a varied range - that made up my mind; Romanians!  This is another 'what if' force in that I've included a Panther for the Romanians - but it was as much to include an SU-85 for the Soviets to allow for an armoured clash as the Russians go tank hunting!

Continuation War - 800pts Finnish and Soviet

When I found out that the Finns called the StuG 'Sturmi' I knew I wanted to have a small project as an excuse to have one!  Of course they had to be against their bitter enemy in the Soviets - this project will be a good excuse to have snowy bases!

Blitzkrieg - 900pts French and Germans
To represent Western Europe I opted for the French - putting this project into the early war provides a different German experience too.  I definitely wanted a Char 2C - there's something really cool about that titanic tank! 

These sub-projects are all in varied states - and I'm not ruling out others if the inspiration strikes!  Oh, and as for the sometimes odd point values - that's because for some I made a list of what I thought would be cool for that sub-project and it came out at that weird number for one of the sides, so I made the opposing list to match!

Easter Monday 1643

So you may already be aware that I've started a project inspired by the Battle of Camp Hill (also known as the Battle of Birmingham) - I'm covering the Royalist side, led by Prince Rupert, with Trials of a Casual Wargamer taking on the role of the plucky Brummies.

I'm using Pendraken miniatures for the project - and as always they are rather excellent (and superb value too).

Today I'm sharing the prepped miniatures - starting with the Horse.  I've got two units of these, with this one being led by Rupert - accompanied by his (in)famous dog, Boy:

I've also got some units of Dragoons - these I've adopted the suggested style in The Pikeman's Lament of using both mounted and dismounted miniatures in each unit:

I also included some Foot units for the force of course, including both Pike and Shot elements for each:

Finally I had a few leftover minis so couldn't resist a cheeky unit of Commanded Shot/Forlorn Hope:

As always, I've not attempted to recreate a historical force, I've just taken inspiration from what I've read to make a varied but relatively plausible collection.

The Fenian Raids - Introduction

I've mentioned this on the blog before, but now I'm in a position to share with you how I've made a start on a small (both scale and force size) project around the Fenian Raids.

I based the forces mostly around the suggested lists in the Rebels and Patriots book, with a little tweaking to increase more variety to both sides.

Pendraken do a range that covers the Canadian defenders so that was the go to place for that half of the project.

First I've got three units of Green Line Infantry.  Each unit looks somewhat like this:

Thanks to some sage advice from The Mad Padre himself I've also acquired some 10mm Crimean War flags which will suffice for the look (especially at this scale).

I decided to add a Medium Field Gun to the defenders so that I wouldn't have to paint a fourth unit of infantry (hey, I'm just being honest 😅):

Finally I added a couple of units of Green Skirmishers that are Good Shots:

I used the Firing Line pack for these as they were a bit more varied, which I thought reflected their role in the R&P rules.

For the Fenians I drew from Pendraken's ACW range (based on the research I did there would have been plenty of surplus clothing from that conflict that was made use of by the Fenians).  I've got a pair of Aggressive Light Infantry units:

The suggested list in R&P includes some mounted scouts on stolen horses - for variety's sake I decided to include a unit of Green Light Cavalry:

Finally I used Pendraken's Berdan's Sharpshooters pack as the basis of a couple of units of Skirmishers (I do like these kind of units in the small conflicts the Rampant rules family is for - to my mind they seem to 'fit').  There's a good mix of sculpts in the Berdan's pack too:

I used the officer miniature from the pack to make the officers of both of the Light Infantry units different.

This gives 21 points each - a little bit lower than the 'standard' game size, but I'm happy with the variety and it should be enough to play a range of fun scenarios.  I'm not aiming to recreate any specific conflicts from the Raids (would need a different ruleset I'd think to play the Battle of Ridgeway properly!) so between these and the Battlescale Clapboard buildings I've share previously I'm mostly set - barring things like trees, water features, roads, suitable scatter etc etc (😅).

Introducing The Great Scone Wars

Long ago, in lands to the South of here, there were two duchies, alike in beauty and bounty. The people of both were happy and friendly which each other, sharing bonds of trade, culture and friendship as long as anyone could remember.

However there began to form a rift between the Grand Duchy of Cournailles and the Great Duchy of Dumnoni - the scholars of modern times have tried hard to find the reason for the growing tensions between the once peaceful neighbours, but have only found evidence of a great disagreement in some fundamental belief that was unique to the two Duchies.

The Duc of Cournailles, Duc Confiture-Crème was apparently the first to issue a proclamation of war - he could stand the affront of the Dumnonians anymore it seemed.  Duca Panna-Marmaleta would not back down and rallied his troops to his banner.  With both sides prepared to wage bitter war the Great Scone Wars were about to begin.

I felt like doing a little silly Imagi-Nations stuff and ended up going for Lion Rampant (rather than more popular periods for Imagi-Nations).  I quickly determined that I could make up a couple of standard sized LR armies from just a few packs of miniatures from Pendraken's Medieval and TB Line ranges.  I've prepped them for priming and painting, but thought I'd show here the kind of miniatures I'm using.  I've only shown one of each unit type (except the Dukes) as in the bare metal there's no difference between the two Duchies so it wouldn't make the most interesting post!

First the generals - well, the two Dukes in the case of The Great Scone Wars.  These are the Mounted Generals from the Medieval Late European range and seem suitably grandiose!

Both sides feature a unit of Mounted Men-At-Arms (led by their respective Dukes).  Couldn't have this project without some knights!

These are the 14th Century Knights from the Late European range.  The Dukes will bring the number up to the required 6 miniatures of course.

I also got the TB Line European Knights on Foot, which form units of Foot Men-at-Arms in LR.  I've given Cournailles two such units, and Dumnoni gets one:

I added some Peasant Archers from the Late European range.  These I intend to use as units of Bidowers (Cournailles gets one, Dumnoni gets two - which could be combined to form a regular unit of Archers 🤔).

Finally I got some spearmen to function as Foot Serjeants.  These are Spearmen in Padded Jackets and Foot Command both from the Mid European range. I've based these on squares so they can form the Schiltron as per their special rules.

Cournailles gets one of these units, Dumnoni has two.

That brings both side up to the 'standard' 24 points for Lion Rampant, all from four 'full size' packs, one small pack and one tiny pack from Pendraken. Great value for both sides of a game I think!

Really this is just an excuse to have some colourful knights and the like in the collection - I'm planning a more serious take on Lion Rampant using my newly acquired Crusader States expansion book (possibly in 6mm just because 🤔)

Sir Walter Bradley seeks glory in Ireland

Here's the other half of the tribute project to my late father-in-law - and the side I'll end up playing as against my wife!

The minis are all Pendraken, and the banners are again from Wargames Designs.

First the leader of the force is Sir Walter Bradley - he leads one of the units of Pike:

Sir Bradley also has a second unit of Pike available to him:

A couple of units of Shot support the Pike:

A small unit of sword and bucklermen provide a threat in melee (Aggressive Forlorn Hope in TPL):

Finally two units of Demilancers (Gallopers in TPL) give Sir Bradley's force some speed:

This provides a 30point force for The Pikeman's Lament made up as follows:

2 Pike @ 4 (one with the force commander - Sir Bradley)
2 Shot @ 4
1 Aggressive Forlorn Hope @ 6
2 Gallopers @ 4