Well I got a little package from the lovely people at War bases today.
I ordered it on 20th and although they had to cut these specially out of black plastic they still had it on my door in 6 days… well done them.
I was wanting 20x40mm and 30x40mm in plastic and no-one could do both in standard packs. Warbases did clear plastic, but I am a fussy bugger and didn’t want to see miniature bases and superglue from underneath. They were happy to make them out of whatever colour I wanted. It did incur an 80 pence increase per pack, but I was pre-warned that the coloured plastic was more expensive. I felt it was worth it as I got what I wanted
I also ordered my army on the 13th February and it was posted today. What is odd is my mate ordered his troops from the same company on the 18th and his arrived yesterday… Booo Hiss.
So mine will possibly arrive Saturday if I am lucky. Next week if not.
I decided to be a bit artistic and did some art based on my favourite artist.
I haven’t used oil pastels in years, so not to disappointed.
So, because I am a twit, I have decided to once again expand the Great Italian Wars Forces. This time with the (kind of) new Florentine forces from the Altuos range.
Not really a super large force, but enough to have a small army. Don’t ask me about points, I haven’t got a clue and honestly I just got what would look good on the table.
Basically pikes, shot, swordsmen etc. oh and a medium artillery piece. Well Florence was rich.
Anyway I decided I needed more Flags. So off to the fabulous Pete’s Flags on eBay. I came across two sheets one a Florentine Mercenary set and the other from the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari.
They Arrived today and I am very happy… I had a bit of a niggle at the back of my mind about the Florentine League at the battle of Anghiari… Well yeah of course I did. The battle took place in 1440. Giovanni of the Black Band was born nearly 60 years after the battle. So I will have two forces on the table that are basically 75 years apart.
So the options are:
Say sod it, a flag is a flag.
Put one set in a box and only use the standard mercenary flags.
I will let you have a guess which way I might go. Purists may want to look away now.
In my younger days I used to go hither and thither with my trusty chum and our five man canvas tent.
Our favourite place to go was the Lakes. We would get the bus to Keswick from Newcastle and spend a few days over there before hauling the bloody thing back again.
One Easter, disaster struck and we were at an awesome camp site at Ashness Bridge. The temperature plummeted and we were stuck. Blizzards whirled around us and we decided to sit it out.
One morning after surviving a night on Kendal Mint Cake and Hypothermia we were awoken by a knock on the door.
A policeman stood there shivering. He told us to get out as we were loitering Within Tent.
Get it, Loitering within tent…. Okay I’ll get my coat.
Well it sort of sounds a bit like an Italian town.
So I popped over to Mike’s today, took my toys to oggle at and discuss various rules sets.
As we had armies painted we decided to have a little try at a battle using Lion Rampant.
My chaps at the top, with his at the bottom. This wasn’t my initial setup. I had just shoved them on the table. My Condottiere were trying to escort the baggage train across the bridge but were stopped by some dastardly enemy.
My activation dice were, frankly crap! His heavy cavalry thundered across the field and through a lucky roll mine managed to counter charge. We hacked and slashed for a good while and then I luckily managed to shrug him off, he retired, battered. His light cavalry (in the background) sensing victory followed with a charge of their own. I once again managed a lucky countercharge and completely destroyed them, but lost half of my heavies over the two combats.
My skirmishers managed to make it into the woods and completely tied up the mounted crossbows. They however never fired once and eventually died to a man. My troops on the right of the cavalry managed to get into the woods to hold them up even more.
There was some further ArgyBargy on the right flank, with his pole arm wielding crazies charging first the stradiots, who took one look at them, chucked a pile of javelins into their faces and legged it. The pole armed chaps were in turn run down by my other heavy cavalry. In the end my horsemen became a bit of a spent round, but they had secured the flank.
My poor Stradiots got charged by a pike block and somehow won the combat and pushed the pike block back. My pike block was charged by the remains of his heavy cavalry and managed to lose. I charged into him and gave him a good kicking. His cavalry were basically broken, but kept hanging on there.
We had to end it there as I had to shoot off.
Lion Rampant seemed to work. When I got home I realised I had bought the second edition which has rules for piles and handguns in it.
Time for a bit of a read through the rules as they also have rules for holy men, banners etc. basically these give you a plus one to the units courage… Luckily my leader brought his religious entourage with him.
Yes, after really having to force a couple of the magnets in I decided on going for 3.5mm. I was really worried that I would end up snapping something off with the pressure I was having to use. I was probably compressing the tiny amount of air to about 50 psi 😂.
Not pretty but they are in. To be honest there is more superglue on my fingers than is on the bases.
And why am I doing this? So I can put them on an old saw to spray them. Lol. Honestly I sometimes wonder about myself.
Well I went looking for my drill set and shockingly found it. It even had a 3mm drill in it.
So I did a little test and it seemed to work.
So I used the drill to go up into the miniatures puddle base to allow for any discrepancies. Used the back of the drill to check for depth to ensure there wouldn’t be a bit of magnet sticking out.
There is a 3.5mm in the set so I can enlarge the holes if needs be.
Well this evening I felt the urge to do something creative, but not too full on. Sooo I thought I would glue magnets into the holes on the bases. First off I had to find the magnets, then the open superglue and down I sat to stick magnets to myself, the table and the floor… (Well that is what normally happens)
I mean what could go wrong… 3mm hole, 3mm magnet….well this really!
That is as far as it went, it took me a good few minutes to get it that far. Problem is, it now won’t come out.
So options as to why are this:
The hole is not 3mm
The magnet is not 3mm
The plastic cement used to affix the model to the base has closed up (possible, but I did glue around the edge of the base)
The magnets are meant to be added from the other side before a miniature is added.
I am just crap at adding magnets
Push fit requires a hydraulic press to achieve a snug fit
Answers on a postcard to me please as I have at least 30 of the buggers to shove in the bases.
So options I have are getting a bit of 3mm rod and heat it and expand the hole. Get a drill bit that purports to be 3mm and hope for the best.
I could try and scrape out a bigger hole.
I could say Bollocks and ignore the magnets.
So I got this far and gave up…
Evidently the undead hadn’t realised that they had released a terror greater than them…
Not quite sure what it is going to do when it latches on!
Bogenwald 