Happy New Year

Thought I better jump on here and wish everyone a Happy New Year and lay out some resolutions. I ordered Der Kriegkunst rules from Scale Creep miniatures today and am very excited about playing a few games next year. It appears my basing for my Cavenderi troops will work out perfectly for this game and with the small scale engagements I should be able to get some games in soon. I have been inspired lately and have started painting a bit recently, I now have a couple of blogs going Cavenderia and my recent Sudan blog, my New Years' resolution is to split my time between the two and try and post more often. I hope everyone will have a great evening and a great year. I need to know how this Olley painting point thing works so I can keep track next year. Finally, I do not believe I will be making the SYW convention this year but I did get some 28mm Crusador Cuirassiers for Christmas so who knows.

ciao,

Sudan Blog

Have not been doing much with Cavenderia the past few weeks, I have been focused on weight loss and a new infatuation, the Sudan Campaign. I have started a new blog www.captainverbeek.blogspot.com if anyone would like to check it out. I will be playing my first Sudan campaign battle this evening and will post about it there. I am thinking of projecting out the history of Cavenderia to the 1880's and perhaps having a fictional Cavenderi Colonial Campaign. In the interim I have base-coated a couple of regiments of Austrian Infantry and French Cavalry to paint up the wife works this weekend so maybe I will get IR-Christie painted and some photos up this week. Promises, promises, I imagine this Cavenderi lull will be over soon.

ciao,

Visit to CharCon 2009

I visited my local gaming convention this past weekend, CharCon, in Charleston, West Virginia. The convention has grown every year and I believe this is the fourth year. I was only able to go to the convention on Sunday but had a great time.

My friends Mike and Keenan were there and I made a few new friends and some possible future opponents. The con is mostly board games and card games but there were some miniatures as well. To the left is a photo of a nice D-day Flames of War game presented by the Kanawha Riflemen gaming club.

I did not play any miniatures games but did play several board games, Wasabi, a puzzle game for up to four players who compete to make different sushi items, very fun but made my head hurt with all of the possible combinations.

Primordial Soup, you are in control of a bunch of amoebas and watch them evolve, fun game but with not much replayability.

I picked up some old Wargames Illustrated magazines, I have been bitten by the Colonial Bug, (thanks Steve and Steve :))and spoke with some great people. I ran an American Civil War game a couple of years ago and am planning to run a Seven Years War game next year.

I have included a few pictures of the con, all housed in one room. If you are ever in West Virginia in October I would definitely suggest you stop by.

I ran into some old friends as well Gary, from the hobby store Danzig Corridor located in Ashland, Kentucky and some gaming friends from the old Huntington Store.

Here is a link to the official web-site.
http://www.charcon.org/ I am sure you can find out much more information there.

I have been painting a little and hope to get some pictures of Cavenderi Regiment Christy up soon.

On a personal note I have lost about 20 pounds and am thinking of starting a new blog about the first Mahdist War.

Ciao

Update

Have been neglecting the blog for a bit. I have started a new weight loss blog and have been updating it daily with exercise, diet, etc. Blogs tend to focus me and allow me to set goals. So here are a few goals for this blog.

1.) Weekly posts at a minimum.
2.) More Cavendarian painting, I have been painting up ACW and medieval 10mm lately
3.) Start working on some terrain
4.) Complete more Cavenderian fiction
5.) Finish the movie of the Reich Dukes visit, old news now but need to complete.

As stated above I have been painting but not SYW, since my trip to Gettysburg I have been painting 15mm Battle Honor ACW and I have been working on some 10mm Old Glory medieval halberdies for a game. I have a new pack of 15mm SYW Austrians ready to paint up as Infantry Regiment Christie so hopefully more Cavenderian units are on the way. I also hope to put up a tutorial on how I paint 15mm figs per a couple of requests. Finally, I need to start planning what 28mm regiment or squadron to paint up for the 2010 SYW convention. I have been enjoying reading all of your blogs in the interim and hope to start contributing again starting now.

One last note, after hearing a newsman refer to Somalian pirates as Somali, I am wondering if the plural of Cavenderian peoples should be Cavenderi.

ciao,

It's here! It's here!!!

It is like Christmas here in Cavenderia. I large brown envelope from Italy arrived today and inside my Dadi&Piombo war games journal.

I was contacted last winter about publishing my "How I Paint 10mm" article and at long last the article is in the magazine. This is my first published article concerning miniature war gaming and I could not be happier that it is in this very fine journal. www.dadiepiombo.com

The editor, Lorenzo Sartori, was great to work with and seeing the article beautifully displayed and translated into Italian is very exciting for me. I was married in Italy so this has been fun for my wife as well.

I hope to publish more articles in the future and this will be the first in my portfolio. Grazie mille, Dadi&Piombo.

Update

Has been a while since my last post, quick update. I have been working on a movie to document the Reich Dukes visit to Cavenderia, as a first attempt the film is taking a while but I hope to have something up soon so the entourage can move on to other imaginations. The Dukas game was played to a satisfactory outcome and I will try and post some fiction this weekend. I have been busy sending out figurines to fellow gamers in Europe and have been working on some American Civil War (ACW) figures for a Brother vs. Brother scenario for Charcon, the SYW western theater stuff will not be ready in time. I will continue to paint the French, Brunswick, etc. for next years SYW convention and am planning on putting together another big battalion for that event, probably Crusador Hungarian Infantry painted as IR-Prinz Geoffrey and maybe a small Hussar unit. I am headed to Blacksburg, Virginia this weekend to help the wife sale T-shirts for the Alma mater (Marshall University) and watch the Herd play the Hokies, free ticket perk for selling merchandise. We will also be going to Cincinnati for our anniversary in a couple of weeks and I look forward to meeting Mark of www.deepfriedhappymice.com fame and Scale Creep minis. I am also starting two (2) new endeavours 1.) a weight loss blog 2.) a gaming company with some pals. The weight loss blog is not for the weak stomached masses as I will be posting photos of my progress, but if you are fat like me I encourage you to take up the challenge. The game company will be mostly small PDF family type games, no war games planned for now and working toward a stable of quality, quick fun board, card and mini rules. We are treating the company as an importer example, if you see our label and liked a previous game you will probably like this one. Sorry for the digressions from Cavenderia. I am also going to try and increase my Cavenderian output both fiction and figs to at least weekly posts. Hope everyone is doing well. If you are ever in Huntington, West Virginia shoot me an email, we will have a drink. Almost forgot my article for Dadi@Piambo is out with the fall issue excited to get my copy.

ciao,

Trapped in Fairmont

After having a wonderful time in Gettysburg this past weekend my lovely wife dropped me back at the hotel in Fairmont for one (1) more day of work here. However, do to unforeseen circumstances I will once again be staying in Fairmont, the hotel staff and I are on a first name basis. Hopefully my work will be complete tomorrow and I can return to my wee castle were stacks of metal figures are begging to be painted.

Once I am able to return home I can proceed with Cavenderian reports. I hope everyone is well and at their homes.

ciao,

Trip to Gettysburg

Quick update, I have been working out of town in Fairmont, WV this week. I am currently in my hotel room typing up a quick update. I will be going to Gettysburg, PA tomorrow and am very excited. I have been to the battle field once before but this time we are going to have a battlefield tour and visit with family from New England who have journeyed down to meet us. I have been reading Gettysburg a Testing of Courage by Noah Andrea Trudeau. It is an excellent read and has refreshed my knowledge of one of America's most famous battles. I highly recommend the book. I will be back working in Fairmont next Monday and home Tuesday, I hope to present the Reich Dukes visit pictorial and a story on the Rescue attempt of Dukas next week. I will also be checking out the hobby store in Gettysburg I have read about on line, forget the name right now. That is all. I have missed painting this week, forgot to pack some minis and paints for the hotel. Oh well, time to get ready for dinner. If you are ever in Fairmont I highly recommend Murial's Italian restaurant http://www.murialesrestaurant.com/ that is were we will be feating this evening.

ciao,

Captain Lucien Verbeek, a bit of a departure.

Presenting, Captain Lucien Verbeek, Belgian observer for his majesty King Leopold II of Belgium, and his horse Teufel.




Steve Turner of http://theolddessauer.blogspot.com/ is running a northern Africa British colonial campaign and Captain Verbeek is my fictional character.

The mini is a Peter Pig British Cavalry officer. The mini is true 15mm and I believe very nicely sculpted. The animation is a bit disco but the details are very nice.I do not know why the Captain has a pinto but it felt right to me, I guess I have watched Hidalgo too many times. As the colonial period is not my period of expertise the uniform and horse furniture are probably incorrect, I claim ignorance of the period and creative license for the final outcome.

I like the pair of shoes or boots near the front of the saddle, if someone could explain to me what these are for I would be very thankful.

The pinto looks very wild in this shot. This is the first pinto I have painted so I looked at a couple of pictures of them on line and think it turned out nice. I tried adding a few brown dots within the white areas but this ended up looking like I had messed up so I got rid of them.

Final photo from above. I enjoyed painting this figure and have some British foot command that I might paint up as well. I will be mailing the miniature to Steve and hopefully see him in a few photos with the native contingent of the British forces in Steve's campaign. Steve if you decide to do a different scale than 15mm consider him a gift for all of your interesting blogs. Please send me your address so I can ship him off.

State of Cavenderia

News of Cavenderia from the Prinz's castle pictured left. The Rescue of Spyridon Dukas scenario has been played with a nice twist to the end a fiction will follow soon prior to the arrival of the our esteemed cousin Wilhelm Beerstien and Young Basil King of the Romans. I will be publishing a photo journal of the royal visit this weekend. I still have to paint up the 15mm royal coach and a few additional figures to create the vignettes of the Horse Festival and fleet inspection. So early this week the battle report and story of the Dukas rescue attempt and this weekend the royal visit. Additionally, inspired by http://theolddessauer.blogspot.com/ Steve Turner's blog, I ordered and completed painting a Colonial British officer from Peter Pig as my Belgian observer Captain Lucian Verbeek. The figure turned out really nicely, I have never seen Peter Pig minis before, they are true 15mm so a bit smaller than Old Glory but really well made. I hope to have some pictures of Captain Verbeek on his Pinto up very soon. I will be mailing him to Steve similar to my Cavenderian diplomats which reminds me I have had the Diplomat for Jean Louis done since March and have not managed to get her in the mail. My apologies to Monte-Cristo and I will certainly have to get that accomplished as well. The one year anniversary for this blog is August 28 and I will have to do something special. I did not realize I started my blog on Der Alte Fritz blog anniversary until around September last year so I may move the official anniversary date to September 1. I am headed to Gettysburg to visit the battle field and take a tour in two weeks and so have been having the itch to paint and play some ACW probably will work some of those into the mix as well. Hope to have many new blogs published this month and my article in Dadi @ Piombo should be out this month or September so look for that if you subscribe.

Ciao,

General Guerchy and Aide

Presenting the commander of my French forces General Guerchy and his as yet unnamed Aid-de-Camp. Both are 15mm Old Glory figures from their French Generals pack. I am not sure what the general is telling his aide but the expression on the aide's face is abject terror.

For the command stand I copied an idea from the Koenig Krieg web-site and added a fence to the stand. The aide's uniform is fairly standard for French aides, however I wanted General Guerchy to stand out so I opted for a white coat with red accents as generals had no regulation uniform in the French army at this time.

I favor round washer bases for my generals, the fence was made out of some hobby sticks that I cut the edges to roughen up. The base is covered with renaissance ink flocking gel and woodland scenic flock for the bushes, grass and static grass.
Here is a rear view of the generals, I like the details of the lace on the pockets.

This is the first black horse I have painted. I highlighted the horse with a dark blue-gray, I felt the dark horse contrasted with the generals white uniform.

Shot of General Guerchy's expression and the fence. I am not sure what color the fence would have been, natural wood perhaps, but for aesthetic reasons with the dark horses I opted for a gray fence. I hope to finish another French infantry regiment this week.

My brother-in-law has planned a wonderful trip to Gettysburg in a couple of weeks so I am currently re-reading some of my books and may make a diversion to some ACW minis.

Royal Etranger

Presenting the Royal Etranger "heavy" cavalry unit. I have read that the French army utilized the usual variety of cavalry, heavy, light and elite (Gendarmerie de France), the Royal Etranger troops are reported in my scenarios as "armored" so I am assuming they were Curiassiers.

The regiment was originally formed in 1659 from several foreign regiments, hence the name, but was thereafter mustered from Frenchmen. The uniforms are blue with Aurora epaulets and red cuffs, lapels and turnbacks. This seems to be the standard uniform colors for most "heavy" cavalry with gentlemen regiments wearing red.

The lace around the horse furniture is aurora with a red diamond pattern with white diamonds. I just dotted the trim with white dots, adds a little detail. I used a paper flag from http://www.juniorgeneral.org/ I need to do some research on dragoons and hussars as some units appear to have worn bearskins and Mirlton hats.

A picture of the unit in column, I added the lace on the musician and tried to vary the brown on the horses.

Picture of General Duc de Brissac leading the Royal Etranger and Cavenderian Ladika Hussars.


Cavenderian units will serve as the foreign regiments in French service. Pictured left infantry regiments (IR) Bourbonnois, Fitzgerald and Prinz Geoffrey. General Chevelas and Colonel Jalsevic.

Growing French army. Up next IR-Rouergue, IR-Die Dame's Fub and more artillery, plus the overall commander of French forces, General Guerchy with his Aide-de-camp and maybe some Hessians.

Completed building this Hallmark coach for the Reich Duke and King Basil's upcoming visit. Need to paint it up. I was wondering if someone could tell me if I had the horses in the correct position by their harnesses. The model was bit tricky to assemble requiring some drilling but should be fun for photos. Finally, have played the naval rescue of Dukas scenario and should be able to report that soon in a fiction.

French IR-Bourbonnais

I finished up my first French infantry regiment (IR) Bourbonnais for my western theater scenario for Charcon. As mentioned previously figures are Old Glory 15mm based on 3/4" x 1" bases. You can click on the pictures for larger images. The french are fairly easy to paint being mostly white and this regiment in particular completely white, except for the musicians.

Picture from the right, I went back and painted the gaiters on the standard bearer white after I realized in a previous post that he was wearing gaiters not boots. The french figs from the old glory pack appear a bit thinner than the Austrians and Prussians I have ordered previously which is fine, but I do not care for the officer poses in these packs much. I spoke with a sales rep for Old Glory and they said I could order packs with just the hatmen, no officers in the future to flesh out the units a bit more in the future.

Shot from the left you can see the exaggerated pose of the officer, he would most likely have put out the eye of the guy behind him. the NCO is striking quite a pose as well. I do like the drummer and the standard bearer quite a bit. The only difference in grenadier I can tell is a mustache and at this scale I did not worry about that very much.

Finally I am still working on getting the right buff leather color for the belting. You can see I have a bit of a yellowish leather right now, the hat lace is a metallic gold and from the photo the belting looks similar. This regiment will be brigaded together with IR-Rouergue and serve under General Chevelas, who has been previously painted. I have nearly completed the first cavalry unit, Royal Etranger, and will have pics of them up soon. If anyone knows the proper spelling for these French units please drop me a line as I do not speak French and am relying on Internet information.

Origins Review

7:00 a.m. Saturday, June 27, 2009, yours truly, middle goofy face, and origin virgins Fitz, pictured left and his nephew Keenan, pictured right, mad the trek to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins Gaming Fair. We also picked up our friend Keith in Kentucky who has been to Origins many times. Having the guys along made the trip go faster. Fitz and Keenan have attended the smaller Char Con, our local gaming convention in Charleston, West Virginia, but had not been to a larger event, we were all very excited to be going to Columbus.

I attended Origins two (2) years ago and have to say it seemed a little more mellow and perhaps less crowded. This could be a reflection of our economy, however we had a fine time. The miniatures room and vendors rooms had changed positions this year, the vendors were in the smaller room, interesting. The vendors room had your usual assortment of board games and miniatures lines but not much for the 18th century war gamer. I did pick up a football board game for my brother and uncle and some of the old Pirates of the Spanish main ships to run the long anticipated rescue of Dukas scenario. To the left is the Battle of Little Big Horn (LBH).
Here is a close-up of some of the U.S. Cavalry. The LBH area was ran by a Uncle someone group that had been in attendance the last time I attended origins and they always bring the excellent terrain and miniatures. They had a Martian, gaslight, steam punk thing going on several tables and a large medieval castle siege game.

Do not adjust your computer this is the red landscape of Mars.

The first time I went to Origins I played in a Normandy invasion game, Piquet Field of Battle Napoleonics and some board games. This year we arrived a bit late 10:30 a.m. and I did not see many historical games other than flames of war being played.

Medieval battle outside a fortification. This game was starting later in the day. We ran into our friend from the Kanawha Riflemen gaming group out of Charleston who were running demo games, we talked shop a bit. We played a new game by Steven Jackson games that was very European in flavor, i.e. resource management, and higher quality board and pieces than most Jackson games. I also played a quick tutorial of Attack Vector 3-D space combat, I was under the impression that one needed a Ph.D. in physics to play this game but we picked it up eventually.

WWI trench warfare game. Picture did not do this game justice, but I have to wonder why build such a long table when all of the action takes place in the last third?

Mech warrior pods that were linked to a live action video game that you could play in. Origins also offered live role-playing, lectures and independent films. I missed the lecture on the western theater of the civil war and board game design. Seems everything happens early in the morning or later in the evening at Origins.

The highlight of my trip was getting to meet Tod Kirshner, pictured standing, writer of Warfare in the Age of Reason. I did not get a chance to meet him at the SYW convention this year so I was quite pleased to get to meet him here. He was very nice and even gave me his card to discuss any future games I might play. Mr. Kirshner was running his napoleonics rules.

I also got to meet Richard Borg writer of one of my favorite board games, Battle Cry, he also produced Memoir 44, Command and Colors Ancients and the new Attack Yahtzee, which is actually quite fun. Very nice guy.

All in all a nice time, however next time I will have to organize my day a bit better as I failed to play any miniatures and forgot to pick up the DVD on Frederick the great from the 1930's. Next Con for me will be Char Con in the fall and I hope to run a game. I would recommend Origins very highly if you have children as there is plenty of games, events, etc. to involve the entire family.

Got some painting done this weekend and should have some posts on new units this week.

Off to Origins

Heading off to Origins in the morning with my friends Mike Fitzgerald his nephew and Twighlight 2013 publisher Keith Taylor. If you have not heard Keith has recently released the RPG Twighlight 2013, Twilight 2000 third edition. Here is a link to the web-site for interested parties.

http://www.93gamesstudio.com/site/

I have looked over the miniatures events for Saturday and am looking forward to playing Volley & Bayonet which I have not played before. The scenario is a Toulouse in the Napoleonic era. Additionally, I am going to attend a seminar or two on game design and publishing. One seminar is sponsered by Mayfair games.

One lecture of interest is the Villainous General Bragg and the western theater of the American Civil War, probably will attend that. I will take a bunch of pictures for a future post. Finally I always enjoy the vendor's room.

ciao,

Duc de Brissac and IR-Bourbonnois

I was able to do some painting yesterday and have added another general to the French forces for my western theater scenario.

To the left is the Duc de Brissac, Old Glory (OG) 15mm Seven Years War French General. The Duc will be leading the French cavalry so I thought this very animated miniature would suit him well. He is based on a metal washer which had renaissance ink flocking gel and regular flocking gel and static grass added.

Here is a view from the side. I spent a little bit more time on my general figures, adding eyes and concentrating on the lace etc. On this miniature to add a little more contrast I added the stockings showing above the boot and put him on my favorite horse to paint, the dapple gray. French generals did not wear specific uniforms so the idea for this uniform is blue coat as most infantry and the rest from a nice site, I can not recall the link at this time.

The other side of the general you can make out his yellow waste-coat and some additional gold on the cuffs. For an experiment I tried a green gray highlight on the horses reins, I think it looks nice, I will probably use this more often in the future.

What is a cavalry general without cavalry? Therefore the next unit I am painting are some Curiassier Etranger, so the Duc will not be lonely.

It has been suggested, jokingly, that I have miss labeled my miniatures as 15mm when they are actually 25-28mm. Here is a side by side with a Front Rank Austrian general for comparison and legitimacy :) Although technically speaking with enough photo-shop tweaking one could manipulate a 28mm figure photo :))

I have completed painting IR-Bourbonnois who will be under the command of the formerly photographed General Chevelas.

I enjoyed painting the drummer in his royal coat. I have not completed the basing on the entire unit when I do I will post. to the left is a sneak-peak of the unit. I am not certain that I am completely happy with the leather belts, oh well plenty of French to experiment with.

Another view of the infantry with a better shot of the chain lace on the drummer. I went with an actual metallic gold for the trim of the tricornes per Mr. Protz recommendation. I really like the blue on the drum and wish the regular infantry had a bit more color, oh well, such is life.

A side-by-side photo with a 28mm Bavarian drummer for scale reference. The 28mm drummer is Crusader and part of my Bring your own battalion that fled on turn two at the SYW convention this year.

The wife has to work this weekend so I may have a greater painting output than usual and should have an update on the attempted rescue of Spyridon Dukas for the Adriatic campaign early next week.

ciao,

First Completed Brunswickers and French

I have completed my first historical regiment for my western theater scenario. Pictured to the left is the Duchy of Brunswick Leib Regiment. The figures are Old Glory (OG) 15mm Prussian Infantry. Uniform colors were researched using William Biles booklet: Uniforms of the Seven Years War A Painter's Guide Volume 1: Prussia, England, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel & Brunswick. The flag is the pre-1760 version of the leib standard provided by http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Brunswick_Leib-Regiment

Second picture of the Leib Regiment with a better view of the standard. The bases are 3/4" x 1" metal bases by Wargames Accessories ordered through http://www.scalecreep.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=217_218 The bases were textured with Flocking Gel from http://www.renaissanceink.net/index.php?body=gels.html

Final picture of the battalion. After the Flocking Gel is applied to the bases I finished them off with some static grass and model railroad flocking from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=woodland+scenics&aq=f&oq=&aqi=n1g10 purchased at my local craft store. I use generic craft paints that you can pick up at places like A.C. Moore.

For some unknown reason the musicians of the Leib Regiment wore yellow coats with red swallows nests trimmed white. I enjoyed painting this unit and especially the drummer. This is my first attempt at adding lace to the infantry uniforms and I think it turned out pretty good. Simple white lines down the lapels do the trick.

Another photo of the drummer. The drum is bordered with a striped pattern and is supposed to have the Brunswick coat of arms on the brass drums but even my maniacal detailing neurosis has it's limits. The finished battalion is four (4) stands totaling 16 figs. I have based the figures for the Fire and Fury rules Seven Years' War variant Age of Honor. Each figure represents approximately 80 men for a regimental strength of 1,280. Mr. Biles list the regimental strength of Brunswick units as two (2) battalions of 600 musketeers with 140 grenadiers per battalion or 1,480 troops. Close enough for my goals.

Next picture is of French Brigadier General Chevelas. Biles' pamphlet on the French uniforms states that French generals did not adhear to any specific dress-code and wore coats of red, white and blue. I decided Monsieur General Chevelas would were red. I really need the practice painting red not to mention everyone knows the old joke about "Bring me my red jacket!"

Rear view of General Chevelas. In my French army General Chevalas will be in command of Infantry Regiments (IR) Bourbonnois and Rouergue. I have seen several spellings of IR-Rouergue, if any one could give me a definitive spelling that would be fantastic.

Final picture is of a French Royal artillery crew sans cannon, I have not completed it yet. I like the figure who has decided to remove his coat, makes since to me. These are my first attempts at white gaiters. Not too bad but I think I can do better. Next on the workbench is IR-Bourbonnois.

In Cavenderian news, I will be gaming the Rescue of Dukas naval scenario using Warfare in the Age of Reason Volume II, naval rules that I picked up back in March and should be able to post the results soon in a battle report and Adriatic Campaign narrative.

As always you can click on any of the pictures for a very large picture.