Two 28mm Burned Out Farmhouses

Back in 2020 I painted up these resin ruined farmhouse sections.  I've been enjoying using them in games as their footprint and styling are both to my liking. Unfortunately the bare pieces on the tabletop didn't really convey the 'ruined building' vibe. Also the actual footprint of the terrain piece was difficult to define during a game. Move forward four+ years and I've finally based these up and added some additional features made from foam and other terrain materials. Now they're much more functional while preserving all of the qualities that I liked from the original resin pieces.

The larger piece, suitable for the 'main farmhouse' includes the larger of the two corner pieces. At the recommendation of my uncle, I also added some wisps of smoke to convey that 'freshly burned' feel.
 

 

 

The smaller of the two pieces, with a 28mm British infantry NCO for scale. This could either be a smaller farmhouse or barn building. The corner with the white smoke was scratch built from foam and balsa to round out the building area.

One of the nice things about these pieces as they're quite generic and can be used for many historical periods.
 

28mm Bavarian Napoleonic Artillery

These are five Bavarian artillery batteries based up for Napoleon's Rules of War or Electronic Brigadier. I purchased three of these guns and all of the gunners pre-painted from a seller on Ebay. Since there were many more crew than I needed for three batteries, I printed up two additional French 8lb Gribeuval cannons from my own STL files (available for free on Thingaverse).

These figures are the last of my current batch of Napoleonics re-basing. They include 14 purchased painted figures/guns and two 3-D printed and painted by me guns. Definitely a mixed bag!

This photo, a close up photo of the 3-D printed guns made from my own designed STL files. They're nothing super fancy, but serviceable on the tabletop and I've given the files away free for non-commercial use. I hope you get some use out of them!

Even MORE Napoleonic Re-Basing

Here's the other group of Napoleonics that I promised to post earlier this month. These are another two groups that I picked up on Ebay already painted. I just needed to re-base them to fit my favorite rule sets, Napoleon's Rules of War and Electronic Brigadier. 

These very nicely painted Bavarian jagers will represent a small two-battalion regiment of light infantry.

These Austrian line infantry are quite sharp with their purple facings. That's the primary reason I picked them up. I didn't really NEED another large three-battalion regiment, but the purple facings sold me on grabbing this unit. Also it was a good value for the quality of the paint job.

Further losing pace on my purchased vs. self-painted figures. These represent another 56 figures in the purchased column.

28mm Macedonian Thureophoroi Re-Based

I originally painted these figures up during the height of the pandemic in 2020. They were based up for Hannibal at the Gates rules. Being a play tester for those rules, I originally painted up more figures than I needed as the rules and associated army lists were evolving as the rules were fine tuned. Three years later, these ten figures are excess as commands ended up being generally reduced in figure count slightly. 

With no prospects of these seeing table time using that basing, I've re-based these for use with both Clash of Spears and Saga age of Alexander. They'll partner up nicely with the Pike I've recently purchased and re-based. These are Warlord Games 'new resin' from their SPQR / Hail Cesar figure ranges. I forget exactly which. Other than being slightly annoying to clean due to them needing to be scraped but not sanded, these are fantastic figures. Great detail, only weapons and shields for assembly and they look great as a unit. 

I painted these as I was learning to use Games Workshop's Contrast paints. I think those type of paints do a good job on helmet plumes and cloaks for Historical figures. This officer and musician are fine examples of this. Since having access to GW Contrast, Army Painter Speed Paints and Vallejo Xpress color, I think my preferred brand for this type of paint is actually Army Painter's Speedpaint line.

Ten figures re-based for my annual totals.

I realized that I never posted photos to this blog of the previously posted 'ready to base' figures based up. Here is a Thureophoroi and Thorakitai 'division' command of four units based for Hannibal at the Gates. It's possible that I never have posted photos of the Thorakitai as they were painted during the pandemic when my life and my blogging were somewhat chaotic.

28mm Macedonian Pike re-based

Just a quick post of 24 Macedonians with sarissa (pike) that I bought off of ebay, touched up and re-based for Clash of Spears. 

24 figures purchased, 24 figures re-based on my annual totals.
 

 

 

 

28mm Bavarian Chevaulegeres Re-Based

I purchased these figures from Ebay. They were nicely painted, but well used, severely worn, and had received significant damage in shipping. Although I've labeled this as a re-basing project, I also spend upwards of of a dozen hours repairing and re-painting every figure and every horse. In the end, they came out looking quite serviceable. They were painted in a 'toy soldier' style and I tried to keep true to that in the restoration efforts. Six bases re-based in the annual painting totals.

 

 

Roman Re-Basing Project

I recently purchased the figures shown to the left from several Ebay auctions from a single seller. I was looking for a quick start on a Roman army for Saga and Clash of Spears. These figures were well loved, but arrived in good condition, although I wanted to re-base them on circular 25mm bases to be consistent with my other Saga and Clash of Spears figures. Due to transit damage and just normal wear-and-tear, nearly all of the figures had some touch-ups needed to bring them back up to snuff for tabletop use.

First up I tackled the allies. This unit of six Samnite figures also required I hand-paint one shield which was missing, lost in transit I believe. This is a unit for Clash of Spears, or a partial unit for Saga to be combined with figures in the below two units as 'warriors' in eight-figure units.

A second unit of allies, these are Italiotes, Etruscians, Campagnians, etc. A single unit of Warriors for Saga, or a large unit for Clash of Spears.

This unit, a mix of 'allied legion' Italiotes. A full unit for Clash of Spears, combined with Samanites above to complete a unit of eight warriors for Saga.

A unit of Triarii with white shields. Just under two units of hearthguards for Saga, or a large unit for Clash of Spears.

A group of red-shielded Triarii. This would make two and a half hearthguard units in Saga or likely two units in Clash of Spears.

The two mounted figures in this photo I've posted earlier. The four stands of foot officers can be used as warlord figures for Saga or officer figures for Clash of Spears. Clash uses single figures for officers, but the multi-figure bases take the guesswork out of knowing which is the officer and look better in my opinion. For game purposes each base will count as a single figure.

These were thrown in for free in the deal. They look more like Macedonians than Roman allies. Let's call them captured soldiers from Pyrrhus' army pressed into Roman service. They might serve as stand-ins for more Velites or even as filler for an allied legion unit.

Two very lonely Velites. I'll paint up some more from my unpainted lead collection to flesh this unit out.

The bulk of the Hastati and Principes, 15 with white tunics and red shields, 12 with red tunics and red shields, an officer, musician and an odd Triarii that got missed in the lot above. 

Here's a group shot of the above as well as previously posted ancient units for Saga.

Group shot of the bulk of the Roman infantry and officers. 

Project totals: 87 figures re-based, 87 28mm painted figures purchased.

AWI Units Re-Based Courtesy of My Brave Fusiliers! Blog

My good friend Mark from the My Brave Fusiliers! blog offered me the opportunity to purchase two of his superbly painted AWI American units. Mark wanted to fund a new project and offered me some of his figures. I still have a few units in my American force that I bought pre-painted that aren't quite up to the standards of the units I've painted myself. Mark's figures definitely are much better than those and will replace some of those units in my army. Mark paints at least as well as I do, and better in terms of style and historical accuracy. 

Mark had these labeled as Pennsylvanians, which I'm sure is accurate. Mark's units each had 30 figures in them. This matches up perfectly with my preferred basing of two six-figure stands and a three-figure skirmish stand. Each of Mark's units will create two separate units in my basing system, but can also be used en masse as a single larger unit as shown in the first photo above. To the left here is the typical way I'll use them when in open order. In line formation the center stand is removed to close up ranks. 

This unit in hunting shirts is very flexible in how I can use it. The flags give away the units identity to the extremely knowledgeable, but the popularity of the hunting shirt means I'm happy to substitute this unit for many others. 

A look at the back of the figures showing off Marks' excellent brushwork.  I'll be counting these units as twelve stands re-based in my annual painting totals. Thanks for the figures Mark!

Eastern Princes Hearthguards, Bannerman and Warlords

Eight hearthguard cavalry, two warlords and a bannerman for my Saga Eastern princes force. I've been running larger multi-player games using simplified battle boards lately. I call it 'simple Saga'. I picked these figures up on Ebay to bolster my Eastern Princes force.

These came mounted in two and three figure bases so I had to remove them all from their original bases and re-base for Saga. The figures got hit HARD in shipping. One horse was snapped off at the ankles. Most of the spears were broken off the figures, two riders were dislodged. I replaced all of the spears that were knocked off with steel wire spears. I repaired all of the other damage as well, the most challenging of which was repairing the horse that was snapped off at the ankles. I can say you probably cannot tell which one it was, so I think I did a passable job at that. 

These well-loved figures also needed a LOT of paint touch-ups including re-doing many hands due to the replacement of the spears. Still a good addition to my force at a decent price. I will be counting this as 11 stands re-based in my painting totals for the year. Re-basing always includes some repairs and touch-ups.

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 6 - Napoleonic French Cavalry

More progress on the 2021 Re-Basing project. These two units of French Napoleonic cavalry were purchased on 2020 and kept in their original shipping boxes for my move to my new home. Now that I can laser-cut bases, I've mounted them up for use with my Electronic Brigadier rules as well as for use with my friend Charlie's rules, Napoleon's Rules of War.  Both of these were Ebay purchases from one of the usual suspects from China.

This unit of Hussars didn't fare very well in shipping to me originally, and suffered additional damage in the move. Nearly all of the riders were knocked off the horses. Several of the pelise coats were also dislodged and there was a lot of chipped paint - mostly the black areas. It's obvious that these are primed black and any black areas are simply left in primer. They've been re-glued and retouched as well as based up. Even with the repairs, it's a sharp looking unit.

The chasseurs fared much better during shipping and the move. Minimal touch-ups were required although I did have to re-glue on the standard. The way the figure is holding it I'm expecting this to be a problem in the future. Next time it gets knocked off I think I'll replace the standard's shaft with something long enough to have two points of contact on the model for strength.

Eight more bases in the 're-based' totals for 2021.

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 5 - Macedonian Phalanx #2 & 3

Six more bases of Macedonian pike phalanx. These are also from a large Ebay purchase I made last year. I got into a bit of a groove on these next six stands, finally figuring out an efficient way to loose the figure from the metal bases they were originally mounted on. These are now based up as a pike wing and a smaller two-stand pike division for Hannibal at the gates.  

 

The silver shields wing. These came with plain silver shields. I added homemade Macedonian star transfers to them.

 

The brown-coat division. These all have leather armor instead of linen. I particularly like that a few of the pikemen are wearing soft hats instead of helmets. Definitely a second-rate unit.

Not much more to say on these. I'm happy to have them tabletop ready.

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 4 - Macedonian Phalanx #1

More re-basing. This unit is four bases of pike phalanx mounted up for Hannibal at the Gates. I purchased these figures as part of a larger lot which will eventually make up ten or eleven bases. The original painter based them on individual metal bases. Each figure was glued on with some sort of nasty industrial construction adhesive. Removing the figures from the original bases is proving to be quite difficult and tiresome. Still I must press onward. This is the first of most likely three updates that will include figures from this purchase. 

Counting this as four stands re-based....although it should count for a lot more considering the amount of work it took!

2021 Basing & Re-Basing Part 3 - 28mm Finnish WWII

The third installment of the 2021 Basing and Re-Basing series consists of figures that I've painted for my 28mm Finnish Continuation War & Lapland War army. These are mostly Warlord figures with some Artisan figures mixed in. For rules these will likely be used in Iron Cross, Bolt Action, 1-48 Tactics and Chain of Command games. For WWII Skirmish our club is all over the map as far as rules go. Thank goodness none of these rule sets have much in the way of requirements for basing. 

The Boffors 37mm AT gun was a staple for the Finns starting with the Winter War. Due to shortages they continued to use these throughout the conflict. Ineffective against anything much heavier than a T-26, the Finns still found them useful. I'll also be including additional German-supplied AT guns later on in the construction of this army. I modified the sitting loader figure by putting an ammunition crate under his behind instead of trying to cram him onto the gun's trails. 

The LMG gunner and his assistant. This figure is carrying the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG. It's a nice touch that Warlord includes this figure in their Finnish infantry pack instead of a generic MG-34/42. Cheers to them for that. I can always supplement the LMGs in this force with German figures from my dead lead collection as the Finns received plenty of helmets, webbing, canteens, etc. from the Germans during the Continuation war. A figure unique like this one is much harder to come by.

The Lieutenant and his runner/assistant. The Finnish junior officers preferred the rifle to an SMG, unlike other armies. SMG gunners were considered to be 'assault' role soldiers. These two figures are place holders for now, and will likely end up being regular riflemen as the force continues to evolve. I'm sure I can find a figure with an appropriate uniform and hat down the road.

 

 

Infantry squad number one. Lapland and Continuation war Finnish squads had 2-3 SMGs with the balance being riflemen. I'm including one rifleman with a Molotov Cocktail in each of these squads. This squads figure comes from the Warlord Finnish Infantry boxed set. Ideally I will eventually want to find a rifleman waving to be the NCO in each squad, but for now the SMG gunner to the right will do as the NCO for this squad.

 

Infantry squad number two. Another SMG figure that sure looks like he's the NCO. I might just have to roll with this, we'll see. The Molotov Cocktail rifleman is a re-purposed French resistance fighter. Based on period photos, regulation headgear wasn't strictly enforced and uniforms in the field often were improvised. He'll do just fine for me.

 

Next up in the re-basing project are over 180 Macedonian pikemen that I purchased on Ebay. That update may be a while further down the road before it's ready to publish. For now this will be the final installment of the re-basing updates. Hopefully my next post will me more games, or newly-painted figures.