More Minairons Motors

I was so pleased with the Minairons Bilbao armoured cars that I ordered a Hispano Suiza MC-36 from the same trader, although it cost me quite a bit. This is a lovely model too, smoothly cast in resin with no bubbles or seams at all, plus an excellent sheet of decals. There were only a handful of these and I'll be using mine for the Nationalists, possibly with a T-26 turret. Very nice. 

Sandbox Skirmish

 

I've just acquired a good selection of QRF Saladins, Saracens, Ferrets and Landies, together with what looks like unmade Soviet trucks, from an abandoned AK47 project on eBay. The majority of the vehicles have been glued together, while the trucks are still in their plastic bags, but it looks like he's done a neat job of it, so there will be minimal to do before they can be painted. I have quite a few of these already in my AK47 Colonial Settlers army, although they are still unpainted, while the Sandbox Skirmish platoon also has quite a few Saracens and Ferrets too. These will be distributed between the two and will hopefully kick start the No End in Sight Sandbox Skirmish project again, which has been side lined for far too long. 

Strength and Honour Commanders

 

As a stop gap, I've made a couple of command stands for my Parthian and Imperial Roman armies, the former a single cavalry block and the latter a tented general and his Praetorian bodyguard, made from a skirmish strip and some tents from the marching camp pack. I was going to just use cavalry blocks for both but I decided to make them different so that they were distinctive. They're not great but they will do the job.

Strength and Honour Preorder

 

The pre-order option for Strength and Honour is now up on the Too Fat Lardies webshop, so I've dented the plastic a bit and ordered my copy, which will hopefully arrive toward the end of the month. In the meantime, I've also ordered some top up Parthian horse archer and cataphract units, yet another Roman Legion - Legio XII Fulminata - and a set of baggage carts to support my Roman army. The Parthians will have to do without a baggage element for the moment, at least until Antonine Miniatures produces some baggage camels, which may be a long wait?

Strength & Honour Rule Book Advanced Order – TooFatLardies

Strength and Honour Generals

I'm on the home stretch with the Parthian army now, with just the horse archer strips to paint and then base, so I'm turning my attention to the extra bits and bobs that I need to wrap things up including terrain and baggage. One of these things that I need do sort out are the commanders for both the Imperial Roman and the Parthian armies, so I've been playing around with some Antonine Miniatures bits to come up with something that will work. 

The Roman general will have a command tent and a strip from the skirmisher pack to represent his Praetorian bodyguard, with a couple of standards to be added using fine gauge brass wire. The Parthian general will just have a horse block but again with the addition of a standard or two to make it obvious that it's a command base and not just a detached group of cataphracts. I think these will do the trick?

Spanish Ironclad Frigate Numancia Conversion

 

Numancia

Magenta

I have a small number of duplicate ironclad models from the Tumbling Dice 1/2400th range which I have been trying to make use of by remodelling them into other vessels. One of these is a Magenta class twin deck ironclad, of which I already have both the Magenta and Solferino in service, so I have no need for a third model of the same class. I've been hunting around for a similar ironclad to convert her into and have decided to have a go at a simple 'razee' re-modelling to cut her down into something a bit like the ironclad frigate Numancia, which was also designed, built and launched by the French in 1861 for the Spanish navy. 

Although the Numancia was about ten metres longer, in terms of beam and general layout she was very similar to the Magenta class, although obviously with only one gun deck. This makes a conversion fairly simple, requiring a bit of sanding down to reduce the height of the hull, some filling and trimming to remove the lower gun ports and stern gallery, then a general fiddle about to tidy up the profile a bit. I'll add a slightly different sail set to the Magenta as well, so that they look different when placed alongside each other. I can use the Numancia for the Chincha Island War, amongst other things and she can also serve as an allied warship for the French fleet in my counterfactual Anglo-French ironclad scenarios.

One Hour 2mm Ancients

While eagerly waiting for the soon to be published Strength and Honour rules, I've been thinking of ways in which I can squeeze some extra mileage out of the 2mm Roman and Parthian armies I've been painting. A possible option is to use Neil Thomas' simple, fast play One Hour Wargames rules, which only require six units a side and are played on a three foot square board. I'd need to adapt the unit types to fit the two armies more accurately but otherwise it's a really good fit, with loads of scenarios and the option of making a bespoke terrain board too. 

Technicolour Parthians!

 

It's been slow progress on the Parthian front today, mainly due to the fact that the garage is *&^%$* freezing, so I have only spent a couple of hours at the workbench with regular trips to the kitchen to warm up a bit. We're keeping the heating off during the day for obvious reasons, so even the kitchen is chilly but a few degrees above the arctic conditions in the man cave. Anyway, enough of that, here are four bases worth of Parthian horse archer blocks in all their technicolour glory, the theory being that small scales need brighter colours. 

I haven't bothered to paint on faces or different hats for the riders but the outer horses will get legs when I get round to it. I now have to paint the horse and rider strips that are in skirmish line formation, then I can add them all to the bases and the job will be a good 'un. I also need to create a couple of command blocks, as you can have a command base for your armies according to Mark, and I wouldn't want to miss out on the advantages that that may bring, which I'll only have an idea about when the rules are published.

Republican Holiday Reading

 

I have some holiday coming up at the end of next week, so have downloaded a couple of books on the Republican army of the Spanish Civil War, both of which are focussed on the military organisation, equipment and training (or otherwise) of the armed forces of the government. I'm particularly keen to read Fighting for Spain having added an International Brigade centuria to my Republican forces. I have read quite a few books, aside from the usual Osprey titles, on the International Brigades but this one is clearly more wargame friendly than some others, which tend to focus more on the political angle rather than the military.

Peter Pig Price Rise

 

Along with everything else, the price of wargames figures is going up, which is not the manufacturers fault but inevitable due to overheads, costs and probably Brexit too. I remembered last night that Peter Pig were raising their basic pack price from £3.75 to £4.10, so quickly sent off an order for two Tabors worth of Moorish infantry for my SCW project. That will have to be it for the moment, as I have enough lead to equip both the Republicans and Nationalists, so can't really justify or afford any more. I wonder where this will all end?