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15mm Prussian Cavalry “Towarczys”

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It seems that as of late I have been doing more painting but haven’t reduced my lead pile at all since I have continued to buy more for myself and all the painting was done for friends! Both enjoyable none the less!

The current project was for my long time gaming buddy Stevie G and a couple of Napoleonic Cavalry units. Steve has a big Prussian force and recently picked up some Prussian “Towarczys” Lancers from Boki miniatures out in Estonia! They are some of those troops that are rare from a collector standpoint but look awesome on the battlefield.

They are going to make a fearsome looking unit on the battlefield! Makes me wish I had Prussians so I could keep them for myself!

The minis are well sculpted with lots of details and are both fun and easy to paint. The casting is a bit off requiring some work in cutting out bubbles and filling some poor cast areas. I believe the problem is that these are gravity cast and not done with a spin cast machine. Its just a small chore and not really a big deal. The minis do not come with horses or lances. Horses from either AB miniatures or 19th Century Miniatures work well, I used horses from Old Glory 15’s (19th Century Miniatures) and though a bit less beefy than the 19th century horses on average I think they work well as eastern European horses tended to be smaller than their western European cousins.

Next were the “lances”, they don’t come with any, not a problem for me as I replace ALL my flag poles, spears, and lances, on all my figures with STEEL! Over the years I have gotten pretty good at this and make some nice looking replacements. That how I got hooked into painting the figures by offering to make the lances and do the pennants for them as well.

Stevie G like I mentioned before is a long time gaming bud as well as the two of us being “grips” in the movie biz in Los Angeles. We have spent many a long day/night together on sets, Star Treks, Profiler, Charmed, and more, passing them time between shots talking miniatures (on Deep Space Nine we spent our lunch hours painting minis right on the set!) Steve has a heart of gold and has always jumped whole hog into any type of miniature wargaming that I dragged us into so the more I looked at the figures and worked on them the more I felt like going the whole way “prep to paint” with them. I felt it would be a great way to thank him for all the support and friendship over the years.

The first stage was cleaning and matching the horses and riders. I always carefully look at the riders pose and position, then select a horse that matches action wise. In other words don’t put a lance down charging figure on a horse that’s standing still! I also look at the figures and try to get as many varied poses in the unit and space repeated poses out to make them less obvious. Sometimes small mods can help with this, same rider different horses, bend a sword arm, cock a lance, and gently twist a head. Then since these riders and horses were from different manufactures I took time to cut and file both the back of the horse in the saddle area and the rider to get a good natural looking fit.

Hot gluing the figure to nails is something I started doing 30 years ago as an alternative to the common practice of gluing them to Popsicle sticks. A chunk of Styrofoam is used as a base…easy peazy!

I always assemble the figures into the unit and determine each figures position in the unit before painting. This can help give the finished unit a more cohesive fee. I might have a figure that is pointing complimented by selecting a figure that has his head looking in that direction, have charging or running figures on the same stand, charging figures in the front, etc.…

They were a lot of fun to paint and work on!

For a larger view just click on the picture!

Flags are something I added and perhaps were not historically carried but they look good and heck this is wargaming!

Unit colors were selected from text of one of Knotels prints from the excellent books by Elting on Napoleonic uniforms

I’m really happy with the way the poses came out. I think the units have a very dynamic feel, truly looking like they are just laying down their lances to begin a charge!

Black primed with Vallejo primer and ready for paint!

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VonLostnarm

We are all in this together!

Most of us in the miniatures world love to see others work and games, its what inspires us with our own efforts and exposes us to different ways of doing things. We surf the internet devouring the efforts of other hobbyist and gamers who take the time to build websites and post articles and pictures for our enjoyment. We need to take a moment and leave a comment on these sites we visit, it’s a way of saying “thank you, I found value in your efforts” it gives the site owner feedback to say that others are not only looking at but appreciate what they are doing. The result will be more and better articles for you the “surfer”!

Another thing you might think about doing is becoming a “User” or “Subscriber” to sites you like. By doing that you will receive a email notice when the site gets new content or updates. We all love this hobby and we all need to take just a minute to give some recognition to those who go the extra mile to provide even more enjoyment to us in those moments we aren’t playing or painting but just “getting our fix” by surfing the internet and “dreaming”

Bill W

PS; You can subscribe to this site by looking in the column on the bottom right and clicking on subscribe! Please put your real name in there so we can tell you from spammers that are routinely DELETED! Comments can be left by clicking on the “greyed speech” bubble at the top right of every post or at the bottom of every post. Remember a little encouragement goes a long way!

First official “SAGA” day at Game Empire!

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CC4

Dave Dandridge and Jeff MacArthur of the you tube “Combat Commander” video’s fame, fight a Crusader battle

Well the “SAGA” game day at Game Empire in Pasadena California was a great success this weekend even though this was only the second time the “Dogs of War” gaming club has gone down there and really the first “Official” time. This time we had Five club members show up with all their gear ready to demo SAGA and we had plenty of interest. Near a dozen folks came by with interest in playing then or in the future with 3-4 actually playing a few SAGA games with us!

Sid1

Sid checks the “SAGA” phone app for the proper move for his Viking Warband

Sid Sidhu was positively on fire with both his desire to play and his “hot” dice rolling! He is admittedly very new to the game having the rules but playing few real games (he’s got a half painted Irish Warband and a few others on deck!) when he took on Steve Gausche in a Viking verse Viking Bloodbath using the Warlord scenario out of the book. It went all 6 turns with neither warlord dieing. Victory went to Steve 30 to 29 points! Bloody…and Bloody close…really a draw!

Chris Snell and Dave Dandridge, did a quick Crescent and Cross game while Joe Nacchio umpired a game between new players Tim Divar and George? Sorry busy umpiring the other game…. We had to breakout a third table where Joe Nacchio umpired a beggineers match between George and Tim (if I have names wrong let me know!)

Joe Umpires

Most of the Club members had on their Hawaiian Shirts to make us visible! Joe’s had Mustangs on it!

Sid was still up for more before heading all the way back to Bakersfield! So I trotted out my “Normans” to once again fight Sid using Steve G’s Viking army. Sid is a quick leaner and and I had to work to pull a “Norman” victory out of him.

The Norman battle line!

The Norman battle line!

The Game Empire is a great store and is growing on us as a place to socialize outside our normal “digs” Its nice to meet others and spread the fun. Loading in and out is easy (parking can be tuff but never impossible). The Store was FULL all day into the night with lots of gaming, flames of War, a 40K tourney (30+), and us, but it never felt hot or too crowded. Tim Robbins came by a few times (GE’s owner) and made sure we were taken care of.

A 4 way Crusader battle topped off a great day!

A 4 way Crusader battle topped off a great day!

The evening was rounded out with a 4 way battle of “Crescent and Cross” between Jeff, Joe, “Crusaders” and Dave and Chris as the “Saracens” I think the Saracens squeaked it out…If you are interested in joining us for future gatherings email me at vonkluge@ca.rr.com, check the calendar section here, or check with Games Empire. I will the rest of the day speak through the pictures below.

See you all soon!

Bill Witthans

“SAGA” Dark Ages Skirmish to be played on a Regular basis!

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Bridge4The Los Angeles based miniatures gaming club the “DOG’S of WAR” are putting on a series of gaming sessions at the “Game Empire” located in Pasadena, California. We will be running the popular Dark Ages rules “SAGA” over the course of several months leading up to a tournament finally with prizes. The series of games before the tournament will be to introduce new players to “SAGA” by providing everything they need to play their first games, troops, dice, rules, and a few helpful club members to guide them through the first few games. Those already familiar with the game are also encouraged to bring their favorite warband(s) and come on over to brush up, meet other players, get ready for the Tourney, have fun and make a few new friends!

This first “series” will concentrate on the “Dark Age” side of “SAGA” but we will also be playing and demonstrating the new “Cross and Crescent” rules (basically “SAGA” for the Crusades period) and you are welcome to come and play that as well.

A little bit about the “DOG’S of WAR” gaming group;
The group has been around for 20+ years and has been at the forefront of miniatures gaming (primarily Historical, but STEAM, Sci Fi, and many others are also played) for a least that long. There are many former officers of the Historical miniatures Gaming Society Pacific South West among its members. The group has been prominent at conventions through out the LA area with the group and individuals taking home awards for the lavish miniatures games they host. The group puts FUN and FAIR play at the forefront of all their gaming endeavors. Members all have just as much fun losing while making you a better player as they do winning (sure winning is always good too!)

The Game Empire is a great place, open, spacious, well lit, and full of friendly gamers including the legendary “Dogs of War” this weekend! The Games Empire is located in Pasadena, 1795 E. Colorado Blvd,Pasadena, CA 91106

Start times and weekends will be on the “Game Empires” website http://gameempirepasadena.com/, and also published in the Calendar section of this site. For questions please email me at vonkluge@ca.rr.com Our first official game day will be this Saturday, November 8th, 2014, at 12 noon (we will go as long as there is interest in gaming, 8pm?).

Bridge3

The Gods Decend! My almost LPL8 entry….

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Well there has not been a post lately because as some of you know I was painting for the Lead Adventure forums annual painting challenge. Entry’s cannot have been posted elsewhere on the internet before. Well the best laid plans of mice and men go awry and despite painting like a fiend and having my entries ready (first 15 of 50, 5 new ones each week for ten weeks!) I worked all week shooting on a TV show 16 hours a day all nights, outside, and was a wreck by the weekend I was to have a few hours to take pictures and submit them. I was such a wreck I misjudged the time difference (it’s a European based worldwide competition) and realized in the middle of prepping photos that the deadline had already passed.

So the good news is that I can just post them here and at my leisure. I can also continue with other projects and gaming….heck its not like I was winning anything great just a small icon by ones name….lol!

VIKINGgodsRnd1a

Thor (Donar) – God of thunder and battle, Freyja – Goddess of love, fertility, and battle, Lofn – Goddess of forbidden loves, Odin – The “All Father” God of war, also associated to wisdom, poetry, and magic (The Ruler of the gods), Magni – god of strength. Son of Thor.   VIKINGgodsRnd1bb

HistoricalHobbies.com gets a facelift!

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I have led Napoleon's divisions in the snows of Russia, fought on the beaches of Normandy, and commanded Starships on the far side of the Quintaree Rift.... Wargaming the garden of your imagination!

I have led Napoleon’s divisions in the snows of Russia, fought on the beaches of Normandy, and commanded Starships on the far side of the Quintaree Rift…. Wargaming the garden of your imagination!

ATTENTION!!!!

Just a little heads up here to say thanks for all the great feedback and visits to the site and to help you guys navigate there is a little something many people miss. When you select from the top bar menu here most have a drop down menu that opens. Remember that ALL the tabs are clickable and lead to pages with content IE; if you click “Painted Pile” clicking that link as well as the drop down links will take you to a content page. Many people miss items because they just click the last link bypassing the first one. Also don’t forget that this is the 21st Century and you can easily keep abreast of new post, comments, and updates to the site by simply subscribing via RSS fee (really simple syndication) at the lower right bottom.

Hi All!

Well after a lot of putting it off and clinging to my old style website built with the now ancient “FrontPage” by Microsoft I have decided to go more interactive with a updated “WordPress” blog type page. I think this will be even better as it will allow more interaction between me and the visitors, providing a 2 way flow of information in the miniatures community. It’s a melancholy (younger viewers can look it up) move that causes me to shed a tear or two for the “old” days before everyone and including the “paperboy” had one…oh wait we don’t have “paperboys” anymore either. I remember when the internet started and then became a spot where tech savvy geeks (many wargamers!) started to put up pages devoted to their hobbies, no pictures, just green phosphor screen army list. I remember the first few sites I found that had “wargaming” pictures on them!  long gone “Ed’s Hobby Hovel” page, “Major Tremordons” colonial page, and perhaps several dozen others (mine included). It was the dawn of a whole new era! Wargaming had for years been in the closet as far as hobbies were concerned, D&D had brought it out a bit but you still had to look to find or play it. The internet changed all that! The current range of rules and figures we enjoy is a direct result of the internet and its “shrinking” of the world! Its a great thing on one hand but it has come at a price…..It has lead to the death of the “Brick and Mortar” stores, and the resulting loss of “public” playing areas where many of us first met the people we game with today. It has also hurt conventions to a point, since one of the big draws for folks going was to see and buy the “new” stuff only available there.

CountvonShootem2During the recent 3 years of being President of the “Historical Miniatures Gaming Society’s” Pacific Southwest chapter and Building their website using WordPress www.HMGSPSW.org I got a fair amount of experience with WordPress that gave me the feeling that it was time to update my own site. I hope to transfer all past pages, articles, and pictures here in a better organized format. As I’m not an expert “blogger” and a bit unsure as how to structure a blog properly I figure to just post new content here as a post,  then latter on put some of the post onto their own pages under the other headings. Please re-browse old page content as things will often be updated or added. This new format should allow me to get new content up faster and make maintaining a web-presence easier, with out taking a lot of time better spent on building and painting. So sit back, hang on, and will see where this goes!

Regards,

Bill Witthans 2013