Returning to the hobby Part Five.

I watched a couple of videos by Greg Huff and Ringo Simpkins on painting 6mm troops, surely they are too small for me to paint. However, Greg and Ringo made it look so easy, just a blob of paint here and there. I looked at three different manufacturers of this scale and settled on Baccus.

I ordered the American Civil War Starter set which came with a rule book, three buildings and a large bag of metal miniatures, enough to to create a sizeable force for both the Union and Confederacy.

These bags are from the later reinforcements I ordered and picked up at the Joy of Six Wargaming event in Sheffield at the end of July.

Memories of Grand Battles

Way back when I first got in to the hobby of wargaming, I was fascinated at the idea of documenting my little make-believe battles. I remember fondly writing down in detail a small battle using the now dated Tricolor Napoleonic rules. The battle featured both French and British forces going at it over control of a redoubt. The Prussians showed up late in the battle marching earnestly through a thick woods - of course, all of this was the result of watching the classic Waterloo movie. It just seemed natural to write out the progress of the battle, much like an author writes about the same in some old history book. It was all good fun, giving me a certain satisfaction that my battles would not be forgotten.

I was always one for taking pictures, even at a young age. I remember getting my first camera as a teen ager and taking countless pictures. I seemed to have a knack for it as well! Taking pictures of my battles seemed a natural fit. Thus started another little hobby of mine: taking wargaming pictures. I guess this is another reason why I love the look of a miniatures battle so much. I am always talking about immersion and such, and wonderfully painted models and terrain really helps in that respect. Making a visual record of my battles seemed natural and normal for me.




One of the very first pics I took of my exploration in wargaming.
Two ACW ironclads go at it. Made completely of
corrugated cardboard and match-sticks. '87.

Returning to the hobby Part Four

With the English Civil War troops and my copy of Pike & Shotte I was now able to battle to my hearts content. However, a good friend bought me a copy of the SAGA rules. Needless to say I was keen to try them out, so ordered one box each of Dark Age Warriors, Saxons and Vikings from GMB, the plastic sets arrived and some of the figures were painted up.

A few of the Dark Age Warriors.

Airfix Battles Coming Soon!

On out Tabletop Commanders LIVE shows on G+ Hangouts we talk a lot about the old days of wargaming, how Airfix plastic toy kits and soldiers played a big role in our early childhood. Oh the fond memories! I myself have a massive collection, showing off many of these little plastic gems in our PAINT & CHAT sessions. Well, here is something that was brought to my attention by our fellow contributor, Ian. This is a set of rules - including dice and cards, and more - that allows you to put those little plastic models on the tabletop for some fun battles! Oh how I wish I had this back in the day. Funny thing is, even all these years later, and after playing so many different games, I am actually excited to dig out my plastic Airfix once again and have a go! What an awesome idea. I am sure I am not alone in this.

Anyway, here is a link to the Airfix Battles product soon to be produced by Modiphius.

Hannibal's Wargaming Blog and some STREAMS!

Here is a great article by my friend Hannibal over on his blog, Hannibal's Wargaming Blog, on making streams or rivers. Really well done and worth a look.

Hannibal has joined our PAINT & CHATS a few times and has some good ideas on wargaming - particularly using 6mm miniatures.

Battle Report: Song of Blades and Heroes

A few of my buddies and I got together for our SoBH game on Friday night. (11/13) We only had 3 people this time due to schedules, so our usual 2v2 was out of the question. We didn't play too late either, everyone was beat, and had big weekends with their families.

Game 1: Frostgrave Adaptation

We adopted some Frostgrave rules for this one to see how they would play out. We modified it a bit since our treasures had no actual value to post-game. So two people placed 3 treasures and one placed 2, to try to prevent a 3 way tie. The game went well enough, though it took a loooong time to get through all 8 treasures. I wouldn't play it like that again, simply because it took too long to get through, and we were losing interest midway.

Returning to the hobby Part Three.

With various units now painted up the Pike & Shotte rules could now be put into action. I commandeered the kitchen table 5 x 3 feet for a first battle using a very limited numbers of troops.

The table was set up with a farm in the middle and the two opposing forces at each side. A simple green cloth and a few rectangles of felt and home made hedges and trees made up the table top, simple and very retro, but looks pretty good, well at least I thought so.

Each side consisted of a single regiment of foot, horse and a cannon.

A Chance Find in a Box

A few years ago, well maybe a few more than that,  I use to work as an illustrator. I'm in the proses of moving house and I'm working my way through boxes of stuff in my loft (yes I've been living here for 10 years and I still have boxes in my loft also in several other peoples lofts - sorry mum).  I found an old illustration I did but cant remember if it was ever used, the ever present problem of a free lance illustrator. In a fit of self indigents I thought I would post it 

 

Stripping Miniatures With Dettol

This article describes the method I use to remove the paint from both metal and plastic minis without using Dettol.

I live in the United Kingdom, and have used Dettol, a cheap disinfectant used for sterilising cuts and kitchen worktops for years to strip my miniatures.  The beauty of Dettol is it's not a solvent, and works simply by loosening the paint from the miniatures.  This means that it will not melt or damage plastic parts, unlike other stripping chemicals, and of course its much better for the environment.  It can also be used many times.

Returning to the Hobby Part Two.

The enjoyment of building and painting two regiments of foot and a regiment of horse, plus the fantastic book that also came with the set soon had me ordering more troops. I now was seriously looking at building an army for each side of the Civil War and using them to fight battles on the table top.

I ordered two of the box sets shown below, though I seem to think the contents of the starter army was a little different back then. No Saker cannon and something like 120 pike and musket infantry instead, but no matter, one box was designated for each side and would give me the basis of two reasonable sized armies.

Black Ops Battle Report - Issue Zero

In the upcoming weeks, I will be starting to play Black Ops by Osprey. I plan on documenting the games in a comic book style using Comic Life 3. This is very much a work in progress as you will see. I am currently making terrain, painting miniatures and basing... keeping very busy. But, that won't deter me from playing (and writing battle reports) Here is Issue Zero. I hope you enjoy it.

Returning to the hobby. Part One

Eight and a half years ago my wife suffered the first of two strokes, it left her in a wheelchair and altered both of our lives for ever. No more trips to the pub, cinema, theatre, restaurant or similar, the logistics, plus my wife's reluctance to venture out in a wheelchair ended all that. It meant I too was now housebound, she couldn't be left unattended, so I too had to completely alter my lifestyle.

I am not a big lover of television and was a total Luddite on a PC, at that time I didn't even have the internet. Most of my time was spent reading, which is fine, I love books and have a large collection. But sometimes that just isn't enough. I began to collect N Gauge model railway items with the intention of building a layout, but that is another story.

A couple of months or so prior to that life changing event, I had been given the Airfix Waterloo Battle set as a present. I had looked at it, reminded me of my boyhood when we played with Airfix soldiers all the time and then promptly put it away on a shelf in the spare room and forgot all about it.

Going full circle

Hi to everyone who has subscribed to the blog, make sure you try and join us on our regular online chats, painting sessions and gaming. All very informal with a great group of guys. I have taken it upon myself, as a contributor to this site to write a short article for your entertainment.

It was Christmas morning 1959, I was six years old and lived with my younger brother and parents in a tiny two bedroom house in Hull, East Yorkshire, England. That house is now long gone, being replaced by modern housing but is situated only a ten minute walk from the house I now own. That morning the fat guy in the red suit had left me a gift I can only describe as magical.

Welcome to the Tabletop Commanders Blog! :)

Well, here it is: the Tabletop Commander's (TTC) blog. I have been meaning to getting around and starting this blog for the past month or so, and finally here it is. If you are a follower of this wonderful online community of miniatures wargamers, I hope you gain some value out of this site. Here are some of the plans we intend for the blog:

• a single location to organize and access all past LIVE events held on G+ and YouTube,
• a repository for useful and informative posts by members of the TTC community,
• articles addressing specific topics brought up in LIVE events,
• advice on running games online using Google+ Hangouts,
• links to community member's blogs and webpages,
• updates and announcements on planned events, and more!

The blog will have multiple authors from the community for a wide variety of topics. If you are an avid fan of the group and would like to be a contributor to the blog, please message me.The links sections all pertain specifically to community members pages and blogs; there will be no "filler" type links here; everything should be of use and pertain to the TTC community.

That's about all for th moment. Expect more details and posts in this blog in the coming days.

Hope you enjoy,

-Kurtus