"What If I'm Stuck Being A Bear Forever..?"

"How am I gonna figure out how the whole changing-into-animals thing works..?"

This 35mm scale model of One Man Zoo in his bear form was created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer and is available as an STL (Standard Triangle Language) file from "C27 Studio". The sculpt is clearly inspired by Arnold Drake and Bob Brown's co-creation for "DC Comics" - Garfield Mark Logan (a.k.a Beast Boy or Changeling), and seemingly designed to be used as an 'alternative' figure for the Batman Miniatures Game rule-set.

Despite being rather unimpressed with this model's small(ish) size, I still super-glued it to an 'official' "Atomic Mass Games" Marvel Crisis Protocol base, as I originally thought the furry beast had been produced in 40mm scale - in line with the company 's other comic book characters. However, that now appears not to be the case, so disappointingly, all their "DC Comics" figures are noticeably smaller when compared to the larger "Marvel Worldwide" characters, essentially ruining any plans I had to mingle them together.

Both the Confederates and Union suffer with early deployment issues

The figure itself was pretty straightforward to paint and provided an excellent opportunity to test out more bottles from "Duncan Rhodes' Two Thin Coats" range. The bear was therefore primed in Ethereal Green, shaded in Necrosis Green Wash and dry-brushed with (more) Ethereal Green. I then picked out all his claws and nose with some Wyvern Green and Logan's teeth with White Star. These areas were subsequently splashed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade respectively.

Alongside this rather underwhelming 42mm tall model, I have played my second game of ACW Epic Battles Black Powder over at the Solent Wargamers Club in Portsmouth. As in my first fight I needed to rely upon my good-natured opponent to bolster my Alabama and Florida Infantry Regiments, as well as borrow some additional Confederate cannons. To mix things up a bit we also both fielded some cavalry - which in game can pester flanks and redeploy as skirmishers.

The North's Cavalry unit dismount within some woodland

Having never used horsemen before I thought this was a great addition to the game, and really enjoyed Rick Priestley's easy rules for getting them to perform sweeping gallops along the troopers' lines, as well as the obligatory cavalry charge. Unfortunately, this inexperience did though lead to me somewhat bunching up my initial deployment, with the riders almost colliding with one of my foot regiments as I attempted to form up around a crossroads.

Happily however, things hadn't exactly gone according to plan for the Union either, with the North's four infantry columns squeezing out any opportunity for their artillery battery to open fire without having to navigate some woodland first. This meant for the moment at least, I wouldn't have to worry about President Lincoln's cannons mercilessly pounding away at my forces. But what I didn't take into account was how devastating old Abe's cavalrymen would be once they had dismounted and started sniping at me from the trees.

Johnny Reb's left flank caves in, leading to a desperate clash of cavalry

In fact, once the Yanks were in position firing at my left flank, my Confederate forces were quickly whittled away. So by the time the Union soldiers returned to their horses, I had already lost almost half my force and was facing down a nearly endless line of Northern troopers marching straight towards my remaining men in the centre. This really left me with just one opportunity and resulted into a massive cavalry charge between the two armies' horsemen. It was a close-run clash of sabres and appeared destined to go on for a turn or two more, when my Johnny Rebs shockingly decided to escape the battle and give the field to my victorious opponent.

"Briefly Serving As Commander Of The Confederate District Of Florida..."

"...James Patton Anderson returned to the field in July 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign."

This 15mm scale plastic Confederate Commander is produced by “Warlord Games” and came free on a sprue accompanying Issue 397 of "Wargames Illustrated". The mounted figure is from the Nottingham-based company's "Epic Battles: American Civil War" range and is actually supplied with a square stand. Nevertheless, as I wanted my officers to stand out a bit more on the tabletop, I decided to glue the single-piece model to a thin-lipped 30mm circular base instead.

Both the soldier and his horse were painted almost identically to that of my previously-pigmented Henry DeLamar Clayton using a mixture of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue, “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade, “Vallejo” Heavy Brown, “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, “Vallejo” Steel Grey, "Citadel" Nuln Oil, “Vallejo” Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Abaddon Black. However. as I wanted this particular miniature to represent Colonel James Patton Anderson of the 1st Florida Infantry, I (doubtless quite wrongly) gave his broad-rimmed hat a mix of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre/"Duncan Rhodes' Two Thin Coats" Skulker Yellow and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade to represent the famous straw hats worn by those troops.

My Confederate forces are joined by even more Johnny Rebs to face a Union army

Somewhat deflatingly however, having now attended the Solent Wargamers Club in Portsmouth for a couple of trial games of ACW Epic Battles Black Powder, it has become clear that I don't actually need more than one mounted officer for my current force, as a single figure is able to command a seriously sized force. Indeed, having proudly set up my three infantry stands of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment, two infantry stands of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment, and my cannon crew, I needed my extremely forgiving opponent to help bring me up to the minimum four three-stand regiments and three artillery bases with models taken from their own impressive collection of Confederates.

To make matters worse though, once my Johnny Rebs were finally lined up on the battlefield ready to face the Union, my first ever command roll failed leaving my entire battalion stood stationary simply watching the enemy. I'd love to say that this inaction was simply a cunning ruse to fool the North into overconfidently pushing forwards and inadvertently placing their Zouaves in front of their cannon. But that would be somewhat dishonest of me. Suffice to say though, President Lincoln's forces came straight at me, desperately trying to squeeze their infantry lines between a forest and wooden building.

As my Confederate line swings left, old Abe's blue-bellied boys start to take a pounding

Surprisingly, whilst this show of force absolutely terrified me. It also allowed my much more spread out army to pivot its left flank around the side of the aforementioned house, and threaten to rake old Abe's Yankees from two directions. For the next few turns this essentially is just what happened, with the Union's morale slowly being whittled away by some crushing Confederate firepower. Eventually, the blue-bellies by the house completely broke and disappeared from the battlefield, whilst the Zoauves, brutally battered by my cannon, started involuntarily retreating back behind their own artillery pieces.

Sadly however, not everything was going my way, as my freshly-painted 1st Florida Infantry Regiment started to buckle from 'a hard pounding' on my right flank. To be fair, this Confederate contingent was squaring off against the main body of Lincoln's boys. But I was somewhat gutted to see the Straw Hats slowly start moving backwards, and away from the sustained onslaught from which they had been suffering.

The Confederate line holds, despite the eventual loss of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment

This perhaps inevitable loss did leave both my cannon crews and my right flank badly exposed, as I had deployed my 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment on the left to support my 'encirclement' of the North. Resultantly, I really needed my artillery pieces to do a lot of damage upon the enemy soldiers bravely strung out in line directly in front of them, and after a few more turns where both sides simply mercilessly fired upon one another it was clear that they could just that.

Repeatedly assailed from two sides and doubtless having beginner's luck on my side, the Zoauves and a second (normal) Union infantry regiment decided that a full-on retreat was most definitely the better part of valour. The Yankee's decision to deploy their artillery behind their soldiers had clearly cost them dear, and Johnny Reb had quite astonishing won the day with a surprisingly two-pronged attack which had only occurred because they'd failed their opening command roll...

“The sMG34 Heavy Machine-Guns…”

“…Form a base of fire for the infantry to operate around.”

These three plastic 15mm miniatures are sold by “Battlefront Miniatures” and can be found inside the company’s Code GE784 sMG34 Machine-gun Platoon blister for “Flames Of War”. The models consist of a choice of two different Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO), a Machine-gunner, Reloader and the “German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun” itself.

Unlike my other “FoW” German soldiers however, the NCO was the only model I initially super-glued onto a wooden strip, as it appeared obvious that both the other two infantrymen would need to be firmly fixed in position upon their actual medium-sized base before I primed them all in “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. With hindsight this was a particularly good call, as the tiny weapon was actually rather fiddly to attach to the figures surrounding it, and in the end I actually needed to snip away some of the ammunition feed so as to allow the Reloader to lie upon the ground in a somewhat angular position without his feet jutting off the end – something which would have really annoyed me.

"Battletech" WIPs - This Jenner and Elementals are having their details 'picked out'

All three of the models were then shaded using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII. Their details were later ‘picked out’ predominantly using “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Gunmetal, Buff, German Camouflage Dark Green, Heavy Brown and a series of “Citadel” Shades. Lastly, I pigmented the sMG34 Machine-Gun using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

With the first of the four sMG34 Machine-gun teams I require for my German Beach Defence Company completed, I have also made some additional progress on the “Battletech” 1:285 scale plastic Jenner by “Catalyst Game Labs” I intend to use as a Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL) class Polish War Walker. Ideally, I’d like to have Poland be able to ‘field’ more than one of the Weird War Two walkers, but until I find a suitable source for single miniatures (or at least one who isn’t charging almost as much as a full 5-figure box for just the one figure) the Mech will simply be joined on the tabletop by some Element battlesuits.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - These Line Infantrymen have been primed and had their trousers base-coated

In addition, I have made a tentative start on the first strip of ten Napoleonic British line infantry I recently pre-ordered from “Warlord Games”. Having previously practiced on several of the Nottingham-based company’s 15mm plastic American Civil War miniatures, I am optimistically hoping to get approximately three hundred of “Noseys' men” finished during the next year, alongside some cavalry and cannon.

For this month though I am simply focusing upon how far I can go if I allocate twenty-four hours of my precious hobby-time to their batch-painting, so I can subsequently calculate just how much of a commitment such a large-scale project will be. Currently, I’ve only spent a mere twenty minutes applying my brush-tip to the Second Regiment of Foot (The Queen’s Royal), but have got them primed and the base layer of their trousers down…

"After Receiving Several Reports Of Missing Persons..."

"...The Raccoon City Police Department's special S.T.A.R.S. unit immediately began investigating the affair."

These three 28mm scale 3D printed pieces are available as part of the Resident Evil 2 - Board Game - 3D Wall sets - Set 1, 2 & Corner Set 1 by the "Pro Tech Painting" eBay store, and have been designed to be used with the "cooperative board game" produced by "Steamforged Games". The large wall measures 80mm in width and 35mm in height, whilst the short and corner walls measure 40mm in width and 35mm in height.

The brick walls were initially 'cleaned up' with both a nail file and sharp modelling knife, before being primed with a double-helping of "Vallejo" Heavy Red. They were then washed using a mixture of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade, and heavily dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red.

"Warlord Games" WIP - The ACW soldiers have been based, primed and had some of their shoes 'picked out'

With about a third of my 3D printed scenery now completed, I have had an opportunity to turn my attention to "Warlord Games" and their seemingly triumphant announcement concerning the imminent release of "Epic Battles: American Civil War". Described by the Nottingham-based company as a game "based on the familiar award-winning Black Powder rules system, with a few period-flavour tweaks to cement the battles in the ideologies of American Civil War doctrines", this 15mm scale hard plastic affair certainly seems to have whipped up quite the furore within the historical wargaming world. Not least because it's hard plastic infantry are more akin to being 13mm in height and resultantly don't appear to blend well with other similarly-sized manufacturers.

Fortunately, apart from a brief dabble in ACW with some 15mm figures by "Peter Pig" I haven't ever really given this period much thought, so decided to purchase both the January 2021 issue of "Wargames Illustrated", in order to get my hands on a single sprue of "Warlord Games" models, as well as a second-hand copy of the old Black Powder background rule-book "Glory, Hallelujah" too. Currently, I'm rather undecided as to whether I want to try my hand at such a large scale project. so simply plan to see what all the fuss is about by painting a twenty-man unit or two.

"North Star Military Figures" WIPs - The "Frostgrave" Tribal archer is slowly having all his detail painted

I have though done a bit of research on the Confederate States force of my choice and decided to go with an Alabama regiment for now. These troops eventually went the way of all Robert Edward Lee's units by predominantly wearing grey uniforms. But before 1863 were known to fight in dark blue frock coats with black broad-brimmed hats - a palette which will help me somewhat break-up the monotony of endless grey shirts and trousers...

Lastly, I have made some in-roads into my Witch's warband for "Frostgrave" by finally setting aside some dedicated hobby time on the first of my party's two archers. There certainly is a lot of detail on the "North Star Military Figures" hard plastic Tribals, so I am definitely having to be patient as I slowly pick my way up the model pouch by feathered leg-band. Fortunately, the less powerful the fighter, the less adornments I gave them, so I'm hopeful that by the time my energy starts flagging, I'll have less tricky painting subjects before me.

Highlanders to March to the “Song of Drums and Shakos”

I first encountered the fantasy skirmish rule set “Song of Blades and Heroes” by “Ganesha Games” last year, and immediately purchased the PDF version from the “Wargame Vault”. At the time I planned to use them to help encourage me to paint a rather hefty consignment of “Heresy Miniatures” I bought a couple of years before, but alas, the project never took off.

A few days ago however, I discovered that Sergio Laliscia has written an adaptation of the rules for the Napoleonic era. “Song of Drums and Shakos” seems the perfect solution to help me maintain my enthusiasm for my long-term “Black Powder” project. It should let me ‘field’ my painted 15mm "Essex Miniatures" models almost straight away, as opposed to having to wait several months before I’ve painted enough to play a (small) game of “Black Powder”. Admittedly instead of using single based models I’ll be using a (40mm x 20mm) base of troops, but it should make the skirmishes appear more ‘large scale’.

As a result I have already set aside eight bases of my (already painted) Napoleonic French into a 401-point force, and begun painting (in earnest) a 395-point British contingent. This later ‘army’ will consist of three bases of (Gordon) Highlanders including an Officer, three bases of Chosen Men (Rifles), a base of Light Company infantry and a Grenadier Company.

The ‘standard’ Highlanders are from the ‘blister’ PNB6 ‘Highlander at the ready’ from “Essex Miniatures”. Having undercoated them with Chaos Black their straps and plumes were painted Skull White, treated to a wash of Devlan Mud, before being ‘picked out’ with Skull White again. Their face, hands and knees were painted with Elf Flesh, and their pouches in Calthan Brown. Both were then also washed in Devlan Mud. I painted their water bottles with Ultramarines Blue and Asurmen Blue; their backpacks with Astronomican Grey and Badab Black; their collars and cuffs with Sunburst Yellow and (oop) Yellow Ink; their rifles Dark Flesh and “Coat d’arms” Brown Ink; and Mechrite Red and Baal Red were used for their red coats.

In order to speed up the painting process, and ‘cheat’, the predominantly red tartan of their ‘Highland dicing’ consists of a simple wash of Baal Red over Skull White. Orkhide Shade and Thraka Green were used as an alternative for the dark green tartan of their kilts.

The red jackets of both the officer and standard bearer were painted using Blood Red to make them stand out. Mechrite Red was used for their sashes, and both areas were then washed with Baal Red. Both figures’ sword guards were painted using Burnished Gold and “Coat d’arms” Brown Ink.

Napoleonic "Black Powder" Project Planned For 2010

My main project for 2010 will be the creation of both a French and opposing British army from the Napoleonic era using 15mm “Essex Miniatures”. Originally envisaged in March 2007, this venture initially started out as an eccentric attempt to create two “De Bellis Antiquitatis” forces with which to learn Phil Barker’s rules. Indeed I only finished basing a twelve ‘element’ French infantry army (using basic Blades, Bows, Psiloi and Auxilia elements) last month in order to help ‘teach me’ the game.

However the very recent purchase of Rick Priestley and Jervis Johnson’s 1700 – 1900 rule set has changed this goal. Instead, I now hope to have painted enough figures for me to participate in a ‘proper’ “Black Powder” battle (with twenty-four strong Infantry units) by December 2010.

As a result I intend to complete work on at least one (40mm x 20mm) base of 15mm Napoleonic models each week. Only then will I pay any attention to some of the other minor projects I have tentatively given the green light to for 2010.

Foremost amongst these other ventures is a ‘Ghostbusters’ themed homemade rule set using a selection of models from (predominantly) “Heresy Miniatures” and “Wyrd Minatures”, as well as scenery from “Ainsty Products” (via “Old Crow Models”).