Pendraken Painting Competition 2023

Here we go. I was able to rig up some semi-proper lighting and snap some pictures for the competition. First up are some Italian L3/35 tankettes as previously documented in the prior blog post. 

I can't tell if this photo is blurry so I might have another go at it.

Here's another go...

The tankettes will be entered into the 20th century vehicle category.

And to provide some proper infantry support to those not so hard-hitting tankettes, we have some Italian infantry from the CTV.

In this photo, we get to see some of those nifty support weapons to lay down some extra firepower. These fellas will tossed into the 20th century infantry category.

Next up is a single Revolutionary French officer painted up as Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. Allez! He will go into the single base category.

Here we have some Revolutionary French dragoons, I used AWI Continental dragoons in French helmets as a proxy.

And here is another angle. They will go into the pre-20th century Mounted category.

And the last of the entrants (for now) are some Austrian infantry representing the Ancien Regime and ready to smite out all of that revolutionary fervor.

Forming up in march attack to show off the flag and their powdered hairstyles. These white-clad warriors will head over to the pre-20th century foot category. I intend to enter some French "Les Bleus" as well and I might cobble the whole French collection together and enter it into the Army category.

A Challenge of Sorts...

Nearly every February, Pendraken hosts their annual painting competition. I participated last year with some success. In the months leading up to this year's competition I thought about what I would enter; I like to paint something specifically for the competition. 

Fast forward to last week and I still hadn't decided. I opted to paint up some figures from the Spanish Civil War, I ordered the figures during the height of the pandemic to support the hobby industry (and my hobby addiction). Specifically, these figures are Italians from the Corpo Trupo Voluntarie (CTV).

I would base them for FiveCore Company Commander. First I laid out the figures on the bases. I decided to go with 3 sections of infantry to form a platoon, a light machine gun, a heavy machine gun, a light mortar, a commander and a few tankettes (only one shown).

The next step was to cut the adhesive backed magnetic base bottoms. 

The figures were prepped (mold lines sanded down with a file), rinsed and glued to popsicle sticks. Once dry, I primed with a rattle can matte black. I touched up the primer with brush on Vallejo black primer.

The figures were then dry-brushed with a light grey to bring out the details. I didn't snap any pictures in the painting process. I base-painted and then I added one layer of high-lights (using the base paint along with some bone white). From what I have read, the CTV was in a green khaki uniform during the period I want to game them (Battle of Guadalaja). I painted the infantry uniforms using Vallejo Russian Uniform and the helmets and great coats were Vallejo Refractive Green.

The tankettes were another matter. For the Spanish Civil War, it seems they were painted in a reddish brown color with green splotches. 

After painting, I sprayed with gloss lacquer and inked them to bring out details. The ink was a mix of various AP inks: 2 parts dark, 2 parts strong, one part blue and 4 parts medium. Once the ink was dry, I popped the figures off and glued them to their stands.

On one of the tanks, I decided to add a crewman. The tankettes were so small, I wanted a crewman to show how small they were. I took an Italian officer pointing and carved it down, removing an arm and shaving and sanding down the adrian helmet. I added some two-part epoxy to sculpt the Italian tanker helmet. 

I shaved off the hatch on one of the tankettes but realized I shaved it down too much. I had to build it back up with plastic card and assembled a hatch out of thinner plastic card.

Here the crewman and hatch have been added to the tankette. Last up is adding grass flocking and matte varnish. 

Here is the completed infantry platoon and support elements. I went with a pale green grass as these guys were painted up to depict the CTV during the battle of Guadalajara which was in March, 1937.

I still need to photograph them for the competition. I will also add my French Revolution figures into the competition as well. Only 8 more days until the deadline. Wish me luck!

 

Palo Alto - The Real Thing (sort of)

My gaming buddy Alex and I finally managed to get together to give Palo Alto a go with Field of Battle 3. Alex volunteered to command the Mexican Army of the North.

Alex's left flank of cavalry.

My thin blue line on the right flank.

The American battle line.

The Mexican lines advance. The swampy lands in the center slow the advance of the Mexican center.

The Mexican left and American right.

The Mexican 6th (lower left corner) has routed, 

Mexican 4th Line victorious!

It was heaps of fun. Alex had never played Field of Battle before but he picked it up quickly: I did some things wrong. A close run thing (to quote the Duke of Wellington), the American left and Mexican right fought to a draw while the Americans won the center and the Mexican left created the critical moments to give them victory.

The Mexicans lost the 6th and 10th line infantry regiments to the cold steel of American infantry. The American dragoons charged several times against the inferior Mexican Presidials but couldn't do anything. Both armies lost all of their army morale points but the Americans lost when they drew the Army Morale card and failed their morale roll.

10mm Dark Ages

I love all things 10mm and for many years I've been tempted by the Old Glory Dark Ages range. I had purchased a few packs many years ago but I never painted them and they ended up being sold off in one of my many lead purges. 

Recently the amazing Little Wars TV crew posted videos of their refights of the 1066 campaign involving Harald Hadrada's Vikings, Harold Godwinson's Anglo-Saxons and William's Normans. They used a big battle version of their Ravenfeast rules. In their games, they used 6mm Baccus figures and the masses of small figures really gave a big battle feel on a small table. 

All of this motivated me to copy their Ravenfeast big battle project but using 10mm Old Glory figures. Below are my first few bases of Viking bondi. Many of the Old Glory 10mm come in strips and the bondi are no different; I ended up clipping some of the strips and staggering them. Since there is only one type of strip in the bondi bag (the Old Glory 10mm ancient celts have different strips for their infantry allowing for more pose diversity), I could reposition the poses so its not always a helmetless viking on the end of the base.

Here are my first three bases. I went with 30mm square bases (Litko) 3mm thick  with rounded edges. I am pleased with the end result, and look forward to tackling the rest of the Vikings and Anglo Saxons. I will have to order up the Normans at some point.

 

Palo Alto Test Run

Went over to Huzzah Hobbies to run through a solo play thru of Palo Alto with Piquet Field of Battle 3. All figures are from the exquisite range from Cracker Line. I plan on gaming this scenario with my friend Alex but wanted to do a walk through of the rules to gain familiarity with everything beforehand.

Here are the opening battle lines with the Mexicans in the foreground. The center is a swampy area which would play a major factor in how the battle developed (and didn't).

The Mexican left, a cavalry brigade under Torrejon. Two line cavalry regiments (7th and 8th), some Presidials and a bunch of rancheros in reserve.

The Mexican center. These guys didn't really get as involved as they should have, my brain treated the swampy areas in the middle of the table and treated them like they were a landmine. As a result, this was essentially a battle of the flanks.

The US right flank. If you are a student of history, you may be wondering where Taylor's baggage train is.The simple answer if I don't own one yet. If you zoom in you can see Ringold's Flying Artillery in thier pretty uniforms up on the front line.

A rather dramatic photo showing the (second) Mexican charge on the US 5th infantry. This time it was led by the Presidials; They fared no better than the line cavalry.

The final disposition of the battle when I called it. To summarize what occurred, General Taylor (D12) won big against General Arista (D8) in the leadership rolls. The first turn yielded 6 card draws per side and the second turn yielded 5 card draws per side. The Mexicans lurched forward with their flanks as the center brigades ponderously navigated around the swamp area (they should have just pushed through).The Mexicans never really got the center brigades or their artillery into action.

On the Mexican right, the Zappadores and Light Cavalry took some horrendous casualties and routed. The Mexicans nearly won the battle when the 2nd Light Infantry and the Tampico Coast Guard unloaded a withering volley into the 1st Artillery (dismounted as red-leg infantry) causing them to rout.

On the Mexican left, I decided to re-enact an east Texas version of the charge of the light brigade with even less successful results. The 7th routed, the 8th was driven back, both with heavy casualties. The Presidials and Rancheros surged through with another charge only to be turned back with grapeshot and musket balls by Ringold's battery and the 5th infantry.

At this point the Mexicans had lost all of their Army Morale Points (and then some). I knew the loss was inevitable for Arista's army so I called it. 

Lots of fun. There are some rules I need to go back and master (do routing units continue to rout away?) and some things I need to remember (read thru all modifiers and don't pick up the die results before I look to see if I rolled an even). I really enjoyed FoB3, very easy rules and the card decks and different dice really seemed to capture the variance in command, morale and combat effectiveness well. The Mexicans were many but they were very brittle; Once they routed it was difficult to get them back in the game.

 

2023 Begins...

 Its been a few months since my last post. Sometimes real life gets in the way, been trying to keep up progress with painting. I've painted some more 15mm stuff for Krapistan (mortar teams, tanks and carriers) and am nearing completion of that project where I can game it (I imagine I will continue to add to the armies). I painted some 10mm WW1 Belgians, some Blitz Bowl Skaven and continuing to make progress on my 10mm French Revolution project. Here are a few photos of them:

My first Austrian unit. These guys are from the same range as the French but are a bit more static. I like them, they look like they are fighting for the Ancien Regime. I used a combination of GW contrast paint and drybrushing to paint the white uniforms. I like how they turned out and look forward to painting more.

These are French dragoons, likely the only cavalry regiment I will paint up for the French. I used American AWI dragoons in French helmets to depict the French cavalry. I love the green and pink combination.

Lastly is a French mounted officer. I painted this fellow up as an homage to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. 

I have painted up more that I didn't snap pictures for (more Les Bleus, Les Blancs and some artillery). I am gearing up for a game with one of my friends at the end of January. A refight of the Battle of Palo Alto using Field of Battle 3 rules...look out for more updates on that!

Fall In Convention

I try to make it too all of the big HMGS-East conventions: Cold Wars, Historicon and Fall In and for the past 25 years, I've made nearly all of them. Occasionally I cull the lead herd by selling at Wally's Basement. The last time I sold was during Cold Wars 2020; It was a strange experience because the Covid-19 pandemic was starting to grip the United States and counties in Pennsylvania were starting to shut down large events. I sold among a mass of people not really knowing if I'd get Covid and what it would happen if I did get it. 

Fast forward to this Fall In, I decided to revisit Wally's and sell a lot of my abandoned projects I listed prices very discounted. I sometimes find myself stifled and frustrated when I acquire too many projects that I know won't ever be completed. I managed to have a successful Wally's both in terms of making some extra hobby money and moving on from a lot of my excess hobby stuff. 

Lots of stuff here, almost all of it has found another home.

The rest of the convention was lots of fun. I played in my traditional Friday night naval game with my best friend Rob, GM'd by my favorite game host Brian. Rob and I commanded some Athenian ships and managed to sink heaps of Spartan ships en-route to victory. I am a big fan of the location (formerly The Host) and had an extremely pleasant experience with all aspeccts.

I didn't buy much, just a book on the militias of the Sedgemoor campaign from On Military Matters and some discounted GHQ packs of VAB and M113 APCs for my Ukraine modern micro armor project. Now I need to figure out how I will spend the proceeds from my Wally's sell off!