MiniatureBrushworks Stuff

Today we played the leeward line scenario from warlord games which zoomes in onto the battle of trafalgar.

Turn 1: opened a bit disapointing for my franco spanish fleet. The brits opening up with their bow chasers while the franco spanish fleet didnt hit anything in return.

Turn 2: the thing started getting messy for my opponent and this was one reason we had to rewrite the victory conditions. We didnt really read or ignored the victory conditions here so my opponent turned most of his fleet southwards. Bahama and Algerisas both took heavy beating.
The Fougueux got a broadside from Royal Souvereign, her rudder got damaged and she steered right into the Santa Ana which did enough damage to let the Fougueux strike her colour.

Turn 3: The Pluton finally found a weak point in the british line following the Royal Souvereign while Tonnant, Mars and Belleisle firing into Bahama and Algesiras until both ships, now on fire, strike their colours.

Turn 4: The Bellerophon tried to sink Pluton but despite her damage she still managed to fire into the stern of the Royal Souvereign, taking out a mast and finally let Collingwood strike the colours. Santa Ana and Monarca meanwhile setting course to intercept Colossus and Bellerophon.

Turn: 5 The crew of the Pluton had to strike the colours because of a fire. 4 ships out of 9 out of service. Themis and Cornelie rammed each other because they are way to inexperienced to evade.

Turn 6: In the north Colossus and Belerophon got into a fight with Monarca and Santa Ana, Bellerophon now on fire. In the south Tonnant, Mars and Belleisle heading towards a mostly undamaged Indomptable.

Final Round. The Bellerophon sinks due to fires, together with all the other burning ships wich we forgot due to the fact that they stike the colours and did not participate in any role. The Franco Spanish fleet therefore gains the victory.

Over the new year we got into star wars legion and I started painting my first units.

For the start I tested out painting stormtroopers with speedpaints and contrast mainly which improves the paint speed.

Since I was a kid I loved the AT-ST so i got one aswell.

Next up are more troopers and Darth Vader.

I finished of the two 3rd rate ships Bahama und Monarca.

All of them together give me a nice little 1000pt fleet but our main goal is to go for some historical szenarios.

I started Bahama before I even start painting Santa Ana as a test ship hence the missing running rigging. Overall I think she came out ok but she lack the detail the other two vessels got.

For Monarca I used a painting of Nicholas Pocock as a reference for her colours.

Both are 74 gun ships of the line and both will be part of my franco spanish fleet in our upcoming Trafalgar game. Well at least a part of Trafalgar.

We will using the Leeward Line szenario from Warlord Games

Black Seas: The Battle of Trafalgar

This is basically just the part of the whole battle were Collingwoods line clashed into the franco spanish fleet.

I will borrow the french ships from my opponent as it will take to long for me complete the whole fleet.

So at the start of 2024 we will play this szenario and we will how well the horrible skilled spaniards will perform there.

Since my FoW project is halted at 50pts now until my opponent geht’s some stuff done I got back to a project that I paused 2019.

My plan was to just build a british fleet at 1000pts but since I got a 3rd rate ship left over I thought building another fleet might be a nice Idea.

So after I finished the last vessel for my royal navy I started of with the spanish flagship.

The Santa Ana was a 112 gut 1st rate ship which took part at the battle of trafalgar. There she got into a brutal close quarter fight with collingwoods flagship HMS Royal Souvereign.

After our first game getting back into the rules we now tinker with the idea to replay the part of trafalgar were Collingwoods line clashed into the franco spanish fleet. Warlord games has written a scenario for this part of the battle of Trafalgar.

I tried to get the Santa Ana done in a more historical fashion than most of warlords paintjobs.

The yellow ochre I used got a bit of a brownish hue to distinguish them more from their british counterparts.

The rigging and crew miniatures aswell as the photo etched ratlines were a pain to ad so for the other ships I will use a more simple way.

Technically those 3 ships can give me a solid 1000pts list with lots of firepower. However the Santa Ana is cheap … like way to cheap. Maybe we will houserule something here.

The Bahama (74 gun 3rd rate) just need her flag while the Monarca (74 3rd rate aswell) is still wip. Both were present at trafalgar and will complete the spanish part of the scenario we want to play.

The last two units of the tank company were scouts.

One unit of AB 41 armoured cars and one unit of L6/40 light tanks.

Both units are designed and printed by me as its currently hard to get any from battlefront.

I forgot the exhaust pipes on the AB41 but for now I leave them like that.

Game wise these are funny little vehicles both capaple of dealing with light tanks if there spearhead dutys are done.

I finished the italian tanks of the Tobruk starter set leaving me with the two 88 and some printed recce vehicles to be done.

The base colour is just sand airbrushed over an desert yellow rattle can primer followed by standard way of varnish, pinwash, chipping, details, dirt, metallics.

For the decals I decidet to not use the insignias of the Ariete division as little to no pictures of real tanks showed them.

If I include the printed vehicles I can field the following 50p list.

HQ M14/41

4x M14/41

5x Semovente

2x 1 8.8cm gun

3x L6/40 recce tanks

3x AB41 armoured cars

I tested them last week and the game had a nice mad max feeling. Not much terrain, pretty aggressive, lots of somehow crappy vehicles.

After completing our late war armies a friend asked if we could start building some mid war forces.

To start we split up the Tobruk starter deal which got me 10 italian tanks and two mighty 88 guns for less then a box of tanks.

To give the little italian tanks a bit more character I decided to pack them with loads of stowage.

Excessive amounts of fuel and water cannisters were printed and together with tarps and backpacks aswell as sandbank armour out of green stuff give them the desert camping look.

To distinguish the formation commander I gavr him legst so he can now sit on top of his turret.

The last bit are the recce units. As they are not available at the moment (but I need the to build my first 50p force) and good stl are rare I decided to make my own.

The AB 41 armoured car is still wip but the L6/40 light tank came out good (well.. except that my printer f@#€ed up the tracks)

Next I will pait up all the tanks from the starter.

For my latest Flames of War army I decided to expand my german collection with vehicles that were still missing but is to iconic to not include. Tigers.

While searcing for a list I came across Kampfgruppe Hummel. A unit that was formed out of reserve, training and mainly old Tiger tanks. They recieved 14 Tigers in total.

They are cheap compared to the usual Tigers but almost all stats are decreased and a cross of 4+ and 8″ tactical isnt great. But I can field 10 Tigers and still got 20p left for some other stuff in a 100p list.

I used two of the late tiger boxes from bf to get all 10 but all having zimmerit coating ist that accurat. To show the mishmash I used both the different copulas and modeled lots of wear into the skirts.

I used a armoured brigade panzergrenadier company as a Support consisting of a platoon of grenadiers in SdKfz 251 transports, some anti air SdKfz and a unit of mortars. The afv are still wip.

I already managed to get a game done vs us paratroopers. It was a fun game but the lower skill, short tactical movement and 4+ cross is challenging, especially if minefields are present. The tanks that made it through terrain and mines got overwelmed my the paratroopers…

I hope that I can play a second game soon.