The results of the Wargames Factory painting contest!

Hi, Finally I'm able to post some more wargame news as my studies took lots of my hobby time! Some while ago I started to regulary visit the Wargames Factory website to find some exciting news for my "wargame news" posts. There I stumbled upon their latest news, an upcoming painting contest with 9 categories based on their existing ranges with 45 chances to win - $2700 worth of prizes!

Five awards in each category:

• 1st Prize is a $100 gift certificate
• 2nd Prize is a $80 gift certificate
• 3rd Prize is a $60 certificate
• 4th Prize is a $40 certificate
• 5th Prize is a $20 certificate

I carefully read the competition rules and saw it was allowed to enter with already painted and published miniatures. Therefor I decided to test my luck in the "Wars of Empire" category. I entered several new and old photographs of both my Zulu's and British soldiers. The amazing result? Two of my entries won awards in their category and granted me $140 of Wargames Factory miniatures! Not sure what I will buy but I guess there will be heading a lot of plastic to me from America.

First prize worth $100

The fourth prize worth $40

Stay tuned as I'm currently building a Maori Pa and I don't have any Maori! I've also started to paint some more Zulu's and other miniatures for my projects!

Greets,

How to: Easy Colonial Fort

Hi, I've finally managed to write a new tutorial on how to make a fictional colonial fort, illustrated with lots of pictures! Some loyal blog followers and visitors may have already seen these pictures on the blog but now I will also give some more details on the construction of this powerful fort. The fort is based upon some of the massive blockhouses you could find in North-America and South Africa but isn't a historical copy as my wargame setting is Central Africa. There for I simply gathered the nicest features of all sorts of colonials forts and added them to my wargame fort Henry. Enough talking up to the terrain making!

Step by step

The first step of the build was to saw the hardboard base and sand the edges with some medium graded sanding paper. After the base I've added the light brown wooden beams with some dots of hotglue. These beams will support the entire construction of the fort and must be secured extremely well. Then I've added the darker wooden beams which will form the skeleton of the fort and will be the support of the wooden planking of the fort. I've also added extra beams to support the two doors of the fort, one door which leads to the exterior artillery placement and the other door is the main entrance in the front of the fort.

After the base of the fort was built I have cut up a large amount of wooden planks which will be used as the exterior facing of the fort. At regular intervals I have added some shooting holes for the defenders. The placement of these wooden planks is the most laborious job of the construction and will take several hours of carefully cutting out the planks and glueing them in place with either hotglue or woodglue.

The following pictures shows the fort from another angle so you can clearly see the entrance door to the artillery emplacement and the scale of the fort by looking at the added 28mm miniatures. I have decided to enclose the artillery emplacement with a wooden palissade.

After you have finished the exterior you can now add the second floor and the roof of the fort using a cartonboard base with wooden planks glued on it. Don't forget to first add the door of the first floor! On the roof I've also added a small tower which will act as the entrance point for the roof. When this is done you can texture the base with woodglue and fine white sand.After that' s dry you can paint the fort and base. The base was painted with a light brown basecoat that matches my other terrain pieces. The fort was basecoated with a craft paints which is an exact match of Gamesworkshop's Scorched Brown and drybrushed with several mixes of this paint and off-white.

The piece is now almost ready to be used. All you now need to add is a corrugated steel roof for the small tower and paint it in a medium grey color with several drybrushes of a lighter grey. To further enhance the roof I've also weathered it a bit with Games Workshop's Devlan Mud. You also need to drybrush the base with a cream color. Now that all the painting is done you can add some static grass, flock and aquarium plants or what ever fits your terrain piece! Then the fort is officially finished and ready for some tabletop action!

The fort with a partially removed roof to show the bare interior, now you can add some beds, cabinets, weapon racks, etc On the picture you can also clearly see the weathering of the corrugated roof.

I have also added some pictures of the fort in use during a colonial re-supply scenario wargame in which a small british column was trying to reach the fort under attack of some african tribe.

More tutorials can be found here

In search of Miss Alison, part two

Hi, Here's the second part of the battle report! Will Miss Alison be rescued?

At dawn, the expedition early left their campsite in search of the missing Miss Alison, the march towards the Mpopo canyon would not take more than three hours of steady marching. Under the cover of night, the natives gathered more warriors to stop the rescue expedition but still they decided to await for the ideal time to launch their final large attack. In the meanwhile, several warriors were tasked with harassing the expedition with throwing spears and demoralizing the porters by leaving signs of witchcraft! Afraid by the witchdoctors of the Kapiti, the porters slowed down and were soon forming the back of the column, this was the moment the natives were waiting for!

Suddenly the bushes changed into native warriors, instantly clubbing the helpless porters and looting the precious ammunition and food supplies. As fast as the natives appeared as fast they again disappeared! The Ironclad troopers who rushed to the scene found nothing more than the mutilated bodies of the porters. Aware of the lurking danger, the expedition quickly marched towards the Mpopo canyon. It was then that a Royal Navy soldiers saw the smoke of a campfire, most likely the campfire of the missing Miss Alison! Suddenly most of the soldiers sprinted in the direction of the campfire as the smoke would also attract the attention of the Kapiti!

What followed was a race in an attempt to find Miss Alison! The native warriors’ war cry could be heard in the distance as they also raced towards the campsite! Luckily for the expedition Miss Alison had already started to run in the direction of the expedition. This brave and daring move of the lady made it possible for the rescue expedition to quickly protect the lady. Just able to protect Miss Alison hordes of natives ran out of the cover of the tall elephant grass, throwing their javelins as they advanced. Outnumbered 10 to 1, the expedition decided to retreat, covered by a sole brave Ironclad trooper, who was last seen repelling dozens of natives!

“Dear Montgomery,

It has been an nerve breaking time as I was lost in the vast Mbuij Mayian jungle during one of my many trips in search of new plant species. It was on the second day of the Mpopo trip, I had noticed several native warriors scouting the area near the most northern canyon in an attempt to evade them, our party which consisted out Bhutu and Azunde, my two Turi porters who accompanied me on several trips and often defended my life at the risk of losing theirs. As the native warriors cut off our path back to Fort Henry we continued our trip further into the dark jungle, eventually I even lost contact with Azunde and Bhutu! Alone in this dangerous and extremely hostile environment, I decided to follow my tracks back to the Mpopo canyon! There I waited for help! And help soon arrived as Captain Edward Dougle commander of Fort Henry had sent out a rescue party in order to find me! Now I’m back safe at Victoriana and I’m ready to return to Oxford.

Your darling, Miss Alison”

Greets,

In search of Miss Alison, part one

Hi, here's the battle report of a solo wargame I've played some time ago using some of my painted miniatures, jungle pieces and Heroscape hexes! I hope you enjoy the write-up.

At noon, the rescue expedition was finally gathered and ready to leave Fort Henry. The expedition consisted out of four Ironclad troopers, seven Royal Navy soldiers, four native porters and Royal Navy Officer Stanley Morton, all united under the command of the famous Ironclad Captain Henry Helford! The expedition made quick progress as no native would wage an attack within one mile of Fort Henry. But as soon as they left the relative safety of the British controlled territory, the natives started to shadow the expedition, patiently waiting for an appropriate moment to attack! The rescue expedition had now been marching for over three hours and had finally reached the Twisted Peak region.

Suddenly it started to rain spears upon the expedition, several natives jumped out of the surrounding bushes and sprinted towards the Ironclad troopers which were the leading elements of the expedition. Captain Helford was severely wounded at the head while he was evading several throwing spears but in the end the attack was repelled leaving several dead and wounded native warriors behind. Cautiously the rescue expedition continued his advance as Miss Alison could be in great danger as war drums were heard in the distance. The head wound of Captain Helford severely affected his ability to lead the expedition and the inexperienced Royal Navy Officer Morton took over command. He immediately gathered the Ironclad troopers to scout the area, leaving the rest of the expedition without any form of close combat protection. With the deadly Ironclad troopers out on a patrol, the natives decided to launch a second attack upon the rest of the rescue expedition.

What followed was a fierce melee as Royal Navy soldiers engaged the natives with their bayonets. Unable to protect the wounded Captain Helford he found himself surrounded and outflanked by several native warriors. Firing his pistol and evading the first attempts to stab him, he was finally overwhelmed and brutally killed by the savages! The first Ironclad trooper who risked his life to recover the body of Captain Helford was also killed. It was only when the remaining Ironclad troopers joined the fierce melee that the tide turned and the body of Helford was recovered. With the help of the brave Ironclad troopers, the rest of the expedition was able to repel this brutal attack. The advance stopped as the Ironclad troopers decided to give Captain Helford a military funeral. After a short but emotional ceremony, the expedition decided to move on as thunderclouds were gathering above the jungle canopy.

Now not only slowed down by the natives but also by the heavy torrential rains, the expedition’s marching speed fell dramatically! During the evening, the natives launched their final attack of the day losing dozens of warriors and causing the brutal death of four Royal Navy soldiers. For the Ironclad troopers it had been enough they decided to counter attack, the huge native force in what followed huge numbers of Kapiti warriors were killed and routed as most of the native weapons were unable to pierce the Ironclad armor! The most experienced Ironclad trooper, William Ewart was outnumbered 4 to 1 and still he was able to kill half of his attackers and managed to rout the others. For the rest of the evening the expedition camped at the most northern border of the Twisted Peak region without further harassment by hostile natives.

Will the decimated rescue party be able to rescue Miss Alison?

Stay tuned for part two!

Greets,

Projects for 2012

Hi, first of I want to wish you all a happy new year! Hopefully the new year will bring us lots of new miniatures and random happiness! As part of my yearly blog ritual I decided to sum up some of my ongoing projects, stopped projects and eventually new projects. We will start with the almost dead projects.

England invaded 1812 project. (click the title for more pictures and posts)

This project was started in 2011 and was intended to be a small skirmish game around the fictional French invasion of England involving all sorts of strange devices and robots. The used miniatures were part of a large lot of miniatures I had bought and included several Hinchcliffe French and British napoleonic troops. Most of these troops have been painted but I simply can't finish the remaining 10 miniatures.

The three musketeers (click the title for more pictures and posts)

This project was started when I was offered some 25mm Black Hat miniatures at bargain prices! I immediatly bought the miniatures as these were also intended to be used for skirmish wargaming using the "Gloire" rules. Again some of the miniatures were painted but all other are already basecoated and based. As part of decluthering my wargame cabinets, I've decided to put these miniatures up for sale at an even greater bargain price! The retail value is around €35, my selling price is a measly €21.50 for 26 miniatures and you don't even have to basecoat and base them! And about nine miniatures are already painted to a good wargame standard.

Now it's time for some ongoing projects!

The Pacific theatre of war (click the title for more pictures and posts)

This 20mm project is almost finished as all I need are some American, Japanese vehicles and finish two Japanese battalions. After that I need to make some island terrain!

Operation Sealion (click the title for more pictures and posts)

This project will probably be finished in 2012 as I have purchased most of the infantry and all I need is some motivation to paint them! Now I need to search some cheap and decent British artillery and some German and British vehicles and tanks. At the moment this is one projects I love the most due to the research and my love for the Second World War.

Conquering the unknown (click the title for more pictures and posts)

This massive 28mm projects is still in progress as I need to paint up dozens more of native warriors, arabs and British units together with some more terrain! But I hope to play some more games this year.

The new projects will be a Napoleonic Haitian rebellion skirmish project and many others but more on those in the future! Stay tuned as 2012 will bring some reviews of lovecraftian, fantasy and scifi books! I'm even granted to give away some signed copies of award winning authors!

And what are you new projects or promises for the new year?

Greets,