Excitment Overload...Foam Boards!!!

 Well after years of thinking about It I have finally found a place where I can get terrain boards. After reading a piece in a magazine about making rivers, I was moved to follow the link and order some. £10 each from TSS I think they are good value for money. I have always loved the idea of rivers etc being sunken into the terrain and after seeing the piece in Wargames and strategy I intend to follow the tutorial on how to do it.

However this is a project I intend to shelve at the moment and start up again in the summer. I have quite enough to be getting on with at the moment with baby James absorbing all of my time.

 I imagine it will be quite a big project and a very messy one too, but I love the idea of sunken rivers so I know it will be worth it.

An Orc host runs across the endless grassland of Rohan...

28mm ACW Scale Guide

 I often try to find scale guides for 28mm ACW on the net and although they are on there,  they don't include everything that is on the market. So frustrated with this and with new releases popping up at an alarming rate, I thought I would create my own.

I have included every range I have for 28mm ACW and to my knowledge haven't missed anything out. I have tried to line them up from smallest to biggest so gamers can see the scale.

To be honest most are very similar with just one (Renegade) being maybe too big to mix with other makes. I have also included some of the more recent ACW releases, these include Crusader, Steve Barber and Forgotten and Glorious all of which are relatively new to the scene.

Anyway I hope this simple chart helps.

Steve Barber model Review

 Over Christmas I was lured back into ACW by my ever going obsession with Regimental Fire and Fury. While in the 'zone' I ordered some models from Steve Barber as well as another set of RFAF.

Well, they arrived and I was very pleased with them. Steve has come up with a clever way to give maximum variety into units. Redoubt went some of the way with their separate heads, but Steve Barber has taken it to another level by having multiple legs , torso, arms and heads. The heads also work really well on Redoubt models, some might even say an improvement to the limited ones from Redoubt.

I did order some Redoubt 'Kepi,firing line, sack coat' last year and much to my surprise they all arrived with the head already molded on. I wonder If this is because other companies (like Steve's) are doing separate heads now...just a thought as I did think it at the time.

Anyway, I was impressed with the amount of character I was able to achieve from the pack of 24 models.
 After collecting ACW for many, many years I have come to the conclusion that most ACW units look better advancing on the double with right shoulder shift. The pose is one of the strongest and lends itself to static or advancing troops.
 I had great fun adjusting the figures as I put them together to make subtle differences, I found this part as entertaining as the painting process If the truth is told, in the same way I enjoyed messing around with the Warlord plastic Romans. It's nice to have a feeling that you are creating unique characters that may not exist anywhere else.

Here we can see the parts that go to make up a Union Infantryman.

If I did have to gripe about anything It would be that I wished the arm had a 'tag' that would fit inside a hole on the torso, just to make that fix easier and quicker to do and maybe more secure. That said once glued the arms seemed fine, but still a 'tag' would have been nice, must like the ones Foundry use on their ACW ranges.

Apart from that though a great pack of figures with loads of possibilities to add character and unique personalities.
Size wise they came in at the bigger end of the scale, but not enough to make them unusable with many of the big figure brands.

Death by Decal, An old favourite of mine.

 

 

 

Decals can be a god send but man; they can make your life HELL!

Foam Boards

 

I'm having a few technical problems today with my computer so here are some pictures of some Germans to past the time.

I've just received 11 big 2ftx2ft terrain boards after reading an article in Wargames and Strategy.

I've always loved the idea of having rivers that are sunken into the actual ground rather than laying on top. However, that is defiantly a summer project so I have shelved it until things warm up outside and I can use the garden to spread things out.

I'm also having problems focusing on one era at the moment and might have to stay strong and stick to only one. Those Orcs still aren't completed yet...I think I will have to stay at them.

To Defy a King

 Well It's been a while but I am finally back with my ECW head on. I found a fantastic drama series on You tube called 'By the sword divided'. Made back in 1983 I thought it was going to be really dated and bad, It was fantastic and very well researched. It certainly stands up to the test of time as far as the uniforms and customs go. I found the siege on the stately home/castle very inspiring and dug out my old 1664 ECW rules to look at the campaign section. It was while I was trawling the Internet that I caught wind of another new ECW release, To defy a king.

Here it is, after reading a few glowing reviews (many from Sealed Knott members) I decided to take the plunge.

So far It looks good  with lovely easy to learn pages that are very simply laid out. From what I can tell so far It doesn't place to much emphasis on fire power, but leans more toward melee to settle things on the field.

The thing that really stands out and the thing I think the makers are most proud of, is their army generator. A pack of cards is supplied with the rules and these allow you to randomly generator a force of different strength units with varying classes of experience. This I think is great and It leads Itself very well to solo gaming. Something I would love to try out once I have enough troops.

On a slightly different note here is a sketch I did to work out how I'm going to base my standards. I like the idea of having lots of standards per regiment and most 'flag' manufactures produce at least four for ECW regiments. Well, I have been playing around for a while trying to work out a good look. I have finally come up with a nice alternative that combines a few ideas. I will have a 40mm round base with the commander and two ensigns on it and the other two standards will be placed one each in a Pike stand.The round commander base will play no part in the battle or be counted as a 'base', but will simply look nice either at the back or front of the regiment. I think the massed standards will look stronger than just having two.

I did plan on having a wide 80mm x 40mm base at the back of the regiment with all four standards on it, but this looks too confusing and gives the impression of another rank of pikes. I think the floating commander idea is better and will allow the whole regiment to cross bridges in column etc without the 80mm base getting stuck half way across.