Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

September has been busy all round including hobby wise.  I'm very pleased with what I've done and enthused with my ongoing projects.   Completed The end of the month saw the release of  A War Transformed, the Osprey rules for a "folk horror" First World War game.  I liked the look of this since it's announcement and it's encouraged me to revisit the Germans that I'd built in 2021 ( here  and  here ) and make some improvements which you can see here . I finally finished off the 15mm Landsknecht pikemen and halberdiers.  Lovely little fellas full of character there's lots more pics here . I completed two batches of Victrix Unarmoured Romans.  I enjoyed doing the first batch so much that I'd started on the second batch as the last coat of varnish was drying on the first.  More pics of them here and here .  To make the 6mm Seven Years War game that I played look a bit more interesting I knocked out some quick roads.  Details a...

I enjoyed working on the first batch of Dark Ages warriors that I made from the Victrix Unarmoured Romans (see here ) so much, that it's no word of a lie to say that I'd started on this batch before the last coat of varnish was drying on the first lot. As with the first batch I've made these quite generic. I more or less kept to the suggested parts combinations on the leaflet.  However, I did use two heads from the Dark Age Archers box just to mix things up.  And yes I still kept notes of what parts I used.  I'm adamant that I want as much variety as possible across the force.   The shields are finished with Little Big Man shield transfers again.  I learnt from the first batch to cut  the centre out as closely as possible to improve the fit around the boss and therefore the whole shield. As with the first batch I didn't glue the shields or add any swords to the figures to make them more versatile. The third batch were already in progress as I was added...

Since recently reading The Seven Years War in Europe I've wanted to have a game.  The weekend just gone I finally had that chance.  I didn't have too long a window to play in so based the scenario on the first scenario in the Honours of War rules.   A ustrians  - 1 Brigade commanded by a Steadfast Brigade Commander (BC) of 3 standard infantry regiments and 1 superior medium artillery battery. 1 Independent unit of 1 superior cavalry regiment. Prussians -  1 Brigade commanded by a Steadfast BC of 2 superior infantry regiments and 1 standard medium artillery battery. 1 Independent unit of 1 superior cavalry regiment. Turn One  Command Performance rolls for each Commanding General produce Steady results.  The Prussians win the Movement Initiative and the Prussian Infantry brigade moves up as does it’s attached artillery.  For their move the Austrian Infantry Brigade change from column to line for ½ a move and use their remaining allowance t...

I've been hankering after playing a 6mm Seven Years War game for a while but wanted to add some roads to make the table more interesting.  After scratching my head, looking online and playing about with card and paper nothing was really working.  I then thought of using sandpaper.  A quick look in the garage and play about showed this would be too stiff and brittle.  But in the same drawer nestled the perfect thing.  I think it's wet and dry paper, it's got a fabric back with a fine sand paper textured top.   We've had it 20 years or more when we did a repair on an old car and it wasn't going to get used again.   It took no time to cut this into 2cm width lengths with normal scissors (don't use a pair you care about)!  Then it was painting time. First off I used the ever reliable Dulux colour matched to Vallejo Model Colour Leather Brown as the base coat as I do for the majority of my bases.  Being emulsion this takes no time to dry...

As I was finishing off the Landsknechts at the end of last month, I finally started on the pack of Victrix Unarmoured Romans that I'd bought last year.  Having recently thoroughly enjoyed working on a batch of the Dark Age Archers ( here ) I was really  enthused to get on with these.   My original idea was for a late 4th Century pre-Arthurian project as in James Wilde's Pendragon novels.  However, as with the other Dark Age warriors I've been doing, I've revised this to try and make them fairly generic, so as well as meeting the original brief they are more useable for a longer span of history.   This set has an instruction sheet, which for these four I kept to.  This was a great improvement on earlier sets and it really sped up the process.  I still took notes of what parts I used for each figure so I don't have any duplicates when I start building more.  I added some Little Big Man shield transfers and once I'd painted the shield ...

As soon as I'd finished off the Landsknecht arquebusiers and musicians ( here ) I cracked on with the  remaining 33 figures.  This was 30 pikemen/halberdiers (they're the same figure you just get the halberds if you order that code) and two officers and a standard bearer.   I haven't attached any of the pikes or halberds to the figures yet.  This gives me a lot of flexibility in what units I can field, but was a right pain in the arse when taking the photos!  I'll have to glue the majority in place before I attempt to use them in a game.  As before the majority of the figures are based in pairs on 30x15mm  bases with a few based  singly on 15x15mm bases to allow for casualty removal.  The two figures based on round bases (above left) can be used as either Sergeants, Officers or Standard Bearers which class as characters in Donnybrook.   The pikes are made from a broom bristles.  They worked very well although the paint has...