Sharp Practice v2 Deployment point competition

A little inter cult activity intermission for something completely different.. The French!

Richard from TFL is running a Sharp Practice v2 deployment point competition.
So this prompt me to realise idea I had in mind for a long time. A little dioramas of soldiers robbing boots of the fallen enemy - a common thing in war especially or badly supplied Army of Italy .. My badly supplied units are still in wip stage but why not try to make test miniatures and use in competition too! Win-Win.

Rules of competition are as follow:

So, here are the rules:

1. Two Deployment Points are to be entered for an Army.
2. The Deployment Points may be for armies in any scale.  The competition is entirely scale neutral.
3. The Deployment Points should be a sensible size.  What that is we leave to you.  My 28mm DPs are 60mm round which I think is a nice size, being large enough to create a scene on but not too large but as we say, the choice is yours.
4. Points will be awarded on the entirely unscientific basis of what the Lard Island judges like.  Points will be gained if the vignette “tells a story”, i.e. it is clear what is going on, and a touch of humour will likely be rewarded as will some nice scenery as well as troops or some other way of identifying the nationality which the DP represents.
5. The competition will run between now and the end of June, with the jury’s decision being announced on Monday the 4th of July
6. The jury’s decision will probably be wrong or foolish, but it will stand with no right of appeal.

They are a little vague but - lets be honest I am not the best painter around so chances for win are quite slim anyway but potential prizes very tasty :P
So I chose  to have fun
My first deployment point is called  (Yes i gave them proper names hoping for extra unscientific points in the competition :) Vive la chaussure!

As all of you surly fluent in French will see coming it portrait glorious if grimmy job or freeing nice officer boots from Austro-Hungarian occupation! And drinking some wine in the proces.. those guys are Frenchmen first revolutionaries second..

Second one I had more problems.. I didnt want to copy the death robbing concept nor do simple furage gathering so Mort aux ennemis de la France was born

Grand battle may be won but everyday there is next battle ahead and so we see it.. La dernier combat between a man (a FRENCH man) and a chicken (soon to be a french supper) .. And eating some fine previously baked chicken leg in the proces.. those guys are Frenchmen first revolutionaries second..

Here are they together

And in sorry WIP state just yesterday..

And some field photos

All chickens run to Castiglione!! Mamma mia!

Not anymore..

Stop right there in the name of France!!

" General de AWix, Nous battons ennemi poularde!!"

Hurry Up men.. Wurmser had more boots at Castiglione

Marchons, marchons, marchons !...

Mort aux ennemis de la France

*I apology any inevitable Frenchman that will stumble upon my Frenchlish.. :)
(Especially Tango01 that will see this sooner or later..)

The Dark Ritual at Sewer 17 part 2

In this overdue installment lets take a look at forces of evil and chance that were a barrier for players and their dedicated combat groups!

Lets start with main antagonists that are terror of the underhive in themselves

Zahlystia the Arch priestess of the demonic cult and her trusty bodyguards

She was preaparing ritual slaughter

And most infamous deviants of the underhive

Goat Terror, a Terror of the man, a slayer of the children, a grand breeder of the down under and Cagliostro the seducer - powerful psyker

Mystiqus feared telepath and his henchmen

and

Each one was a nemezis for one of the player characters.

they commanded horde of lesser henchman and scum

Church attendants

Renegades

The cultists

Additionality dark energies of the ritual bring attention of hordes of plague zombies

And players could (and did) disturb a nest of nasty spiders native to the darkest places of the Underhive

In next post I will write up how i changed the rules for this scenario and in the last part a battle report of the bloody encounter

stay tuned

The Dark Ritual at Sewer 17

I almost forgot about mu blog since march (real life and not many finished projects.. :( But I managed to get a few friends two weeks ago and play my favourite Necromunda with a multiplayer cutist twist.. I will post few info about the rues i modified slightly (card driven turn sequence instead of IGOUGO i think is weakest part of Necromunda) and battle report in few days.

Now here is a teaser and cast of the adventurers

When you beloved girl is captured by dark cultist with unknown agendas.. There is only one thing a men can do.. Gather a team of trusted friends and take her back!! Thats what brave Romeon did!!

When your daughter fell into a bad company.. there is only one thing a loving father can do .. hire a band of ruthless mercenaries.. And thats why grim Judas got paid..

When your most promising protegee gets captured by evil cultist.. There is only one thing a priest can do.. Gather ruthless and yet pure covenant of brothers and make right to whats is wrong! And thats why Brother Albinus was made an Inquisition Legate for..

But will they prevail ?????????? 

Because poor and virtuous Jolanta fell into  a bad kind of company..

And what they will do when their conflicting missions will become obvious..

At Sewer 17!!

In the next installment - Diabolical Cultists and their sinister  agenda

Demi brigade reinforcments

In between passing my PHD exams I managed to finish few things. 

First: Reinforcements for my Demi Brigade - 1 battalion Standard - That make my Demi brigade - 32!! It fought in Army of Italy from Arcola and went with Bonaparte to Egypt so one standard bearer it will work for at least 3 Campaigns - 1796 -1798 and Egypt, It will miss 1799 in Italy (while being in Egypt) but thats not last banner man I will make anyway :)

Each Demi-brigade carried 3 flags into battle. 1st and 3rd battalion had flag that was specific to this single demi-brigade - each had unique flag, while 2nd battalion carried common flag that was used in all demi-brigades. I went with unique flag of 32 ligne demi-brigade.

I am not 100% happy from the banner - I used technique that was not optimal - problem with French flags are they are full of writing.. In this scale I am unable to paint letters so only options left are printing (I don't like to print whole flags - as they look unnatural and I like making them myself - and I haven't tried printing only text and applying paper scrap to the ready banner ) and painting them by calligraphy pen. Problem with calligraphy pen is that this ink don't meld with paint and to my dread don't dry up :(  I tied to make it usable with artist werniks but its kinda smudgy and make flag look a little dirty.

So here they are - in middle of the brigade - Banner man and drummer - wi will post better pictures when my camera start working again.

4Ground carriages review

This time not my builds, but recommendation - 4Ground carriages.

I was eyeing 4Ground terrain for a long time now but newer bought any - Japanese and medieval houses are nailed perfectly but I am still  poor PHD student with low income and I love to do such stuff myself (I just have problems with finishing stuff :P
So I am planing on getting them later when I will be in possession of higher income :)
(And I need at least 3 both Japanese and Viking :(

Said that I know that 4Ground make sets of beautiful filigree furniture for your gaming houses - stuff I couldn't make safely in multiples to such quality without casting process. So when I needed chair for my Zombie Chihuahua base I checked whole offer 4Ground sell on their page (My hobby store physically carries only houses). And I hit those two. They are respectively : 28-CAW-302 19cent General purpose Horse Wagon, and 28-cav-309 16c-17c Army covered supply cart - And they are a blast. Both quite cheap and perfectly planned with very cool detail and if not technically pre-painted the colors are perfect straight from the frames.

They both have closed or open back option and larger wagon could be made with skeleton for cover or without it (with little work you can make it convertible.

I rate them 5 for 5 stars. Only place for improvement is to make well go round but that would make the models much more delicate and prone to damage and really is not needed with terrain on your gaming table.
This product is pure perfection and I highly recommend you get you your own wagons!
Money good spent! And they both cost around half of single 4Ground building!

With models added for scale GB viking Æwulf, Malifaux Nicodem and Victrix napoleonic fusilier

Wooden fences finished

Those are wooden fences - from my Cheap Wooden fences tutorial few months ago - fast paint - just delayed (I am lazy and easily distracted painter)

And with 3 random models from my painting bench for scale ( Æwulf  Viking Warlord, Malifaux Nicodem and French Fusilier from Italian campaigns)

Black Band - second landsknecht column

Here come my second column of landsknechts for DBR Italian Wars. Really versatile unit for the period.. it could be part of any army :) And one of the coolest looking in all those fancy costumes.
This one will by my Black bands - infamous landsknecht unit led by Georg Langenmantel that was rised in 1514 to fight in Saxon Feud and was later lent to King of France as mercenaries where it was fighting at Marignano in 1515 where it stood out against the dreaded Swiss - to be destroyed almost to a man at the battle of pawia by landsknecht columns of Frundsberg and Sittich in Imperial service. I My French army from the Italian wars project is moving very slowly but it is moving. next step will be Gendarmes (but who make best ?)..
Miniatures again Freikorps, I like the models despite need to recreate the hands with green stuff. and they paint well, Pikes are Wargamer. 

Here they are with my first column painted earlier (You can see more photos here)
I made middle command stands that way to make a focal point with two banners together when they are used  as one larger unit.

In your face