Saturday 7 March 2009

Project Update

As 2009 rushes by I thought it might be an idea to collect my thoughts as to the "current" projects. These have changed a little from the plan I outlined in December but that's par for the course. Here's what's been happening with my 2008 projects:

28mm Winter War
The Soviets are now based with only a mortar to be completed. I am about to start on the second Bolt Action Miniatures building and, of course, there are the Snapdragon revetments to paint up.

28mm Spanish Civil War
Having based up quite a few for one of the gaming weekends the remainder, including the Assaltos, Carlists, Moroccan Regulares and the Falange are in progress. The Grand Manner buildings have worked out nicely and I'm still toying with the idea of getting their church (on the back of a project later down the list!)

28mm WW1
The early war Brits are nearly all based, apart from the HMGs. I still have some additional figures for the early and later war Germans to finish basing and the late war French to get around to. I'm hoping that the upcoming TooFatLardies rules will spur me into action on these. In any event I am planning to stage a game for late April which should force me to make some progress!

28mm Irish War of Independence
I'm afraid that this hasn't moved forward much since the last game; however, that did prompt me to get the Crossley tenders painted. In reality I only have the Sloppy Jalopy armoured car to assemble and I suspect that my 1938 project may benefit from having that available. Again the BEF figures I have bought, mainly for 1938, will also be useable for the British Army and so will widen the possible scenarios. I am hoping that someone will produce the Lancia armoured carriers:

Musketeer did suggest that they might but were having casting issues IIRC.

28mm Tudor Irish
OK, I have to own up on this one - there has been no real progress at all here. I suspect this is partly because I have been caught up in other things and party because I still have to settle on which rules to use (or to write my own). I often find that without that element being sorted it is difficult to see when a project will make it to the table and so they often get parked.

Moving on to 2009:

28mm Early WW2
The Foundry and Crusader British, German and French figures are being painted at the moment and I've picked up a couple of pieces of armour for the Germans but I am waiting for the launch of the new BEF Miniatures (allegedly at Salute) to see what I can get for the Brits and the French.

28mm 1938 A Very British Civil War
Originally a minor spin off from the previous project this one has really taken on a life of its own and I have been spending quite a bit of time looking around for figures, vehicles and terrain to bring this period to life. The big advantage is the obvious overlap with my Operation Sealion plans and so most of the generic stuff I pick up will work for either.

Musketeer have been the main source for the specific 1938 figures and their BUF and BEF (to be used as Regulars or Territorials as appropriate) are off for painting. I will also be using figures from the early WW2 and IWI projects along with a few appropriate SCW ones. I am also hoping to get some of the upcoming Musketeer militia at Salute (which may also find their way into WW2 as LDV).

Given that terrain has been more difficult to find I have been trying to look for pieces to make the table more obviously English. Picked up some telephone boxes (you can't get more quinticentially English than that - can you?) from Black Cat Bases:


As you can see they've got the basic look but I can't understand why they didn't make them square. The casting is a little on the basic side too. These will need a bit of work but it will be interesting to see if they look better once they're tidied up and painted.

I'm pleased with the Grand Manner manor house which will work nicely and I have my eye on a couple of other pieces which might work but I'd like to have a look at them in the flesh (or is that the resin) at Salute before buying as they are a major "investment".

28mm Wild West
This is pretty much ready to go. Ideally I could do with a couple more buildings to bulk out the town but the figures are painted and based and I plan to use the Two Hour Wargames Six Gun Sound rules. I just need to come up with some scenarios.

28mm Polar Bear Expedition
I managed to pick up the HLBS figures but I now need to work out what to use for opposition. Lenin does have some Copplestone figures in greatcoats so they may well do in the interim but it would be nice to get some which are based with snow (his are for Back of Beyond)!

28mm Greek Myth
No real progress here as yet. Lenin will be painting these figures for me and he's been snowed under with other stuff so I suspect they'll be a little while yet. I have picked up some buts and pieces of minor set dressing but that's pretty much all.

28mm Napoleonics

This wasn't on the agenda in December but I have been thinking of expanding my existing small collection of Peninsular figures for a while and the TooFatLardies' Sharp Practice rules have provided the springboard. I plan to get quite a few more Front Rank figures at Salute to enable a much larger game to be put on. The other reason this has resurfaced is that it gives me an opportunity to use those Grand Manner buildings I mentioned earlier.

15mm early WW2
I have some figures ready for this but it has been on a back burner for a little while. I am thinking of starting a small Operation Sealion campaign with the larger games at 15mm (possibly using a tweaked version of Spearhead) tied in with the 28mm skirmish games. Only time will tell whether this comes off!

15mm Seven Years War
I've had a decent collection of figures to do French & Indian Wars for a number of years now. When I put them together I conciously got the British figures in the traditional tricornes rather than the F&IW campaign dress so that I could use them for the European theatre at some future time. I am thinking of kicking this off again but we'll need to see if it has the "legs" to actually get to the table. I will be putting on a F&IW game in early April which may spur me on though.

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