Battle of Brandywine

I played in a refight of the northern flank of the Battle of Brandywine on Good Friday, played in 28mm on a 12x6 using the Black Powder ruleset. I commanded Conway's 3rd Pennsylvania Brigade in the American centre, with two battalions (6th and 9th Pennsylvania) that I had painted, and two more that others had done.

A write-up and photos from the day can be found on The Regiment blog, so I won't repeat what's been written. Needless to say it was an excellent day, relaxed, lots of laughs and a great bunch of people to be spending time with. And despite its issues, Black Powder enabled a game where 12 players, most of whom weren't that familiar with the rules, completed a 10 turn scenario in less than five hours, including a break for lunch. The game ebbed and flowed nicely, with the result only becoming apparent during turn nine. The key to the American victory was Lord Stirling's brigade to my left, commanded by Tank Engine, which spent most of the game failing order rolls, conveniently allowing them to enter the battle fresh at the end and mop up.

Here are photos of my two battalions. Basing and flags courtesy of the guys at The Regiment.

AWI Update

Last week I finished off the last of my 28mm AWI Continentals figures for the upcoming Brandywine game. I only had 36 figures to do, but it was hard work. I enjoyed the first few, and got through the first battalion of 18 reasonably well. But the second battalion was hard going, and I was mighty glad to finish.

No photos at this stage, they're off being based to match the rest of the units for the game, but I'll grab some shots on the day. They'll look okay in amongst a mass of units on a huge table, but I wasn't super happy with how they turned out. You can pretty much get away with anything in 15mm and still have the figures look great after an ink wash and a highlight, but my painting style was found wanting with these 28s, and running up against the deadline to get them finished, I lacked the time and energy to work out how to do it better.

But all is not lost, as I'll be getting some more practice with larger figures with the next items on the to-do list: 

There's a day of Warmachine silliness coming up at the club in early April that I'm hoping to get to, so I'll see if I can get some of these done in time for that.

ValleyCon Progress - And First AWI Figure

I now have nine of the 11 armoured cars complete, with just the CHQ to go. Artillery is coming along, with Quads, 15cwt trucks and the guns themselves done, but I still have all of the crew to paint.

I've also been working on the dismounted 37mm guns. There are no BF anti-tank gunner figures for the Italian Campaign range, so I have repurposed some of my 8th Army 6pdr crews, converting them to match the rest of the army by turning their shorts into trousers.

So we're now starting to look a bit more complete, and very nearly finished. I've missed my goal of being finished by Christmas, but definitely looking good to be all done by New Year. With five weeks to go, I should have enough time to finish some terrain, and help my son Jaime with some Khador bits and pieces he needs for the Warmachine competition.

I've also painted up the first of the 28mm AWI Continentals as a test run. The Perry figures are beautiful. Slight filling required where the arms attach at the shoulders, and I had to march around the room trying to work out how the arms were meant to be positioned to look natural (for which I was of course mercilessly mocked by my family), but otherwise brilliant castings and a joy to paint. 17 more to go from this regiment, which I should be able to do in a few batches, then a second regiment of 18 figures to go after that.