New blog post on the Guns Of April

It has been some time since we've posted on the Guns of April blog, so I thought I'd help boost the signal. Please head on over and check out the cool buildings we've been working on for AdeptiCon : )

Alexandria wasn't built in a day!

Cheers
Dave

Horus Heresy - Terminator Refurb

With the success of my Tactical squad refurb, I figured I'd try it out on the Terminators I built seven years ago. These took standard Terminators and added a few details here and there in an effort to create what would later become Cataphractii. The broad, curved pauldrons, the peturges at the shoulder, and the enhanced chest plate/gorget. Anyway, I think they turned out nicely (Note: the assault cannon will be used as a reaper autocannon).

I've also put up a post on the Guns Of April blog, showing off my latest French Infantry. Check it out, I hope you like them. : )

Cheers
Dave

The French in Egypt

It's been a pretty crazy time lately. Lots of things to build, convert, paint. Lots of different projects, but I must say I'm really enjoying painting up these models for our Guns Of April "Napoleon in Egypt" game for AdeptiCon 2014.

Above are a couple of grenadiers from the 69me Demi-Brigade de Ligne, flanking a Sergeant character from our French Infantry lists (although I'm using a converted Dromedary Corps standard bearer for this guy).  One of the interesting facts about the French expedition to Egypt in 1798 was that after the Battle of the Nile, the French suffered incredible supply issues. To address the issue of uniform resupply they redesigned it, and were forced to assign a wide variety of colors to the Demi-Brigades (there was simply not enough indigo dye available to issue uniforms in the typical French blue). These colors included: Light Green, Sky Blue, Red, Purple, Brown, Dusty Pink, and Violet.

While not many wargamers undertake the collecting of an army-sized force of the period, it's a bit of fun to tackle this aspect at a skirmish scale.

Above are three fusiliers, again from the 69me Demi-Brigade de Ligne. They are wearing the Kleber helmet of the Egyptian uniform.

And for a little change I painted these three (above) as chasseurs from the 22me Demi-Brigade de Legere.

And finally for this post, here are three of the four French Savants from Brigade Games, an excellent pack full of character. In our gaming one of these guys will accompany my Infantry force, another one will hang out with the Dromedary Corps.

Last, but not least, here's the knee pad for my Reaver Titan of Legio Crucius : )

Cheers
Dave

Camels and other large beasts!

Just a quick post here to guide you towards a quick post on Guns Of April. There you'll be able to see a little bit more about the French Dromedary Corps models I've been painting up for our gaming at AdeptiCon 2014!

But speaking of AdeptiCon 2014, there's another game I'll be playing in. Does the photo above give you a clue as to what it might be?

More on that soon.

Cheers
Dave

A wee little fellow

Continuing my recent theme of not having a theme, here's my version of Seamus, from the Puppet Wars game by Wyrd. I started on this guy months and months ago, and until the week before NOVA he languished on my painting desk. I felt I needed a "new" miniature for my Fantasy entry at the NOVA Open Painting Competition, so I jumped in and finished this guy off.

He didn't place, but he certainly was fun to work on. I hope you like him.

Additionally, I've just put up a post on our Guns of April blog about next year's activities. If you are interested in historical gaming, you should head over and check it out. It involves Frenchmen running around under the hot sun of Egypt.

Cheers
Dave

Back from Adepticon, setting priorities...

Well, it has taken a little while, but I'm finally caught up on things after arriving home from Adepticon on Monday. Sleep was, of course, the big one, and I'm pleased to say that crashing out on the couch each night after the girls were in bed has been very nice. Adepticon is a long show, with long hours and terrible pillows, so sleep isn't always the best. The greatest thing that I find that helps me power through such a great event is the interaction with my fellow painters, gamers, vendors, and enthusiasts of all stripes. Conversations about all manner of toy soldier related excitement can only be a good thing, right?

I spent four days taking photos of various types of historical gaming action, covering: Flames Of War, Black Powder, Bolt Action, Hail Caesar, Warhammer Ancient Battles, and SAGA. Over 220 photos that will end up illustrating at least four (possibly more) articles for Wargames Illustrated! Very pleased with that result.

I also had four entries for the Crystal Brush painting comp. Originally I was reluctant to enter, but decided to take a shot at the last moment (ie: I found myself splashing blood on the bases of my Lamenters at 11:00pm Wednesday night before leaving on Thursday). I entered my Lamenters Sergeant on Sci-fi Single, my Mechanicum in Squad, my Dreadnought in Vehicle (shown above in one of the CB official photos), and my Bridge Guard in Sculpting. Sadly none of them took away a trophy, but it was heartening to see a significant increase in the number of entries this year (200, over 125ish last year). Congratulations to all of those who took a trophy : )

We also ran our second Guns Of April game, our First Day of Gettysburg "what if?" scenario. I've just written up a report of the game for our GOA blog, you can check it out here. It was a lot of work, and not without its issues, but we all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year : )

I also took two seminars. The first was by an old friend from Australia, Victoria Lamb, the owner of Victoria Miniatures and the primogenitor of Object Source Lighting (so that's the class I took). The second was by Roman Lappat (aka Jarhead) from Germany, co-author of the wildly successful mini blog Massive Voodoo. I've been enjoying the MV crew's work for years, s I couldn't pass up a chance to sit in on his theory class. So many wonderful things were covered in the class, I just hope one day that I'll take the time to apply all the lessons learned to a competition entry.

On my way home I started sketching out a diorama I have been wanting to do since Games Day last year. Thankfully I hadn't already started because the things I learned in both classes have meant that I'm going to have to put A LOT more time into it all. Here you see the genesis of the piece. Perhaps I'll have it ready for Adepticon next year?

It should be a lot of fun to work on.

So, priorities then? Over the next two months I'm going to be working on:

• My Mechanicum army - my 2013 entry for Armies On Parade
• A FOW army commission
• The Malifaux Relic Hunters crew

Then for July I'm going to work on:
• a couple of Golden Demon entries
• possibly a Tau commission

And in August I'm going to work on:
• a Primarch for a friend of mine attending the Horus Heresy Gaming Weekend in Warhammer World.

Stay tuned for the progress ; )

Cheers
Dave

Rumors of rebel troops looking for shoes

Brigadier General Solomon Meredith, commander of the Iron Brigade, with their color bearer. 

As Blogger's wonderful automated process publishes this update, I'll hopefully be asleep on a plane from Baltimore to Chicago, getting in some last minute zzzzzzzs before the hustle and bustle that will be Adepticon 2013.

This year, as in previous years, I'll be on site to cover the event (well, the historical gaming aspects of the event) for Wargames Illustrated. In addition to the Flames Of War Nationals (Early War), and other Flames Of War tournaments, there are bound to be quite a few folks pushing around historical toy soldiers. Included amongst the latter group are our little band of hobbyists, The Guns Of April.

Friday night we'll be playing our "What if?" 1st day of Gettysburg. I'm not sure where in the venue we'll be, but if you are at the show drop by and say "Hi". We'll be playing from around 7pm til late, after which I'll be taking some more photos for our WI article to appear later in the year.

The miniatures are from the Perry twins, and the flag is from GMB Designs.

Cheers
Dave

If it's a war they want...?

After a lot of modeling and painting, our 2013 Guns Of April project is finally nearing completion!

Personally I've converted and painted around 175 models, as has Rob Chandler (whose Confederates you see below). This is a lot of models, and I'm glad to be done.

Here's a quick taster of some of them. Sometime in the next few weeks we'll get a lot more photos up on the Guns Of April blog : )

The 7th Wisconsin in firing line

The 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, dismounted

The 14th Tennessee, who lost over 90% of their men at the Battle of Gettysburg

Brigadier General James J. Archer, born just up the road from me in Havre De Grace, Maryland. 

Studied at Princeton, and also Bacon College in Kentucky. Who knew there was a Bacon College?

What you can do with a little putty...

Originally he was the Daemonic Herald of Nurgle from Forgeworld.

Now, with a little putty work and a paintjob, he's a Mechanicum Magos.

Not much to say that hasn't already been said about the work on my others Magos/Adepts, except to say thanks to Eye Of Error for his quickfire tutorial on painting liquid in vials, found here.

As a reminder, here he is in his pre-paint stage.

And here's a shot to entice you over to our Guns Of April blog. This year's project is just a month away from hitting the table at Adepticon. Hopefully everyone will be ready!

Cheers

Dave

And on into 2013...

Anyone ready to suggest a name for my Lamenters Furioso? 

And yes, I still have to add the pools and splashes of blood and gore.

Well, I took a look back at my goals for my hobbying in 2012. Some of them were achieved, some of them were not (more the latter than the former), but strangely enough I'm nowhere near as troubled about that kind of thing as I was 12 months ago. Regardless of all that, I thought I'd jot down a few more goals to achieve this year.

Lamenters - I've made a pretty good start on this army, and it has helped pushed my painting a little bit outside my standard comfort zone (see the Dreadnought above as an example of that). My goal is to reach 1,500 points with this army and win a couple more games with it (currently I'm at about 50% of the painting and "winning games" thing).

Iron Brigade - I have these down for completion before Adepticon, where they'll be used as part of our Guns Of April annual game. With 100+ models already completed and roughly 70 to go, I think these one won't be too tough.

Adeptus Mechanicus/Mechanicum Army - I worked on this army eight years ago (I think), and after recently reading Priests of Mars and re-reading Mechanicum (both by Graham McNeill) I'm really psyched about re-working these guys and adding quite a few more odd, esoteric models to the mix. These will be models that have no apparent purpose in a 40K game, so you've been warned.

INQ28 - I've been keeping an eye on a cadre of great storytellers (and painters and modelers) who live, for the most part, in Europe. They've been doing some inspiring stuff that taps directly into the essence of the 40K universe and I'm hoping to use the power of the interwebs to work with a few of them over the coming year.

Everything else - No doubt there'll be a lot of other things that I'll turn my hand (and this blog) to, many of which are currently obscured from my sight. It'll be an interesting journey that will hopefully include some more Warhammer fun, maybe a little more Napoleonics and Flames Of War, and almost certainly some Horus Heresy goodness (Loyalist Death Guard are the way to go!).

So, I hope you all enjoy the journey with me, or at least chuckle heartily as I somehow get massively distracted!

Some Mechanicum fun in the next post (I think).

Cheers
Dave

A Civil War - Guns of April-style

The 2nd Wisconsin Regiment, miniatures are converted Perry plastics

I just wanted to take a few minutes to point out the project that a group of friends (The Guns of April) and I are working on for Adepticon 2013. For 2012 we built armies and a table to play out a "what if?" scenario from the Battle of Salamanca (1812) in it's 200th Anniversary year. You can see shots from that game here.

Following the fight, we stood around and pitched a couple of ideas for 2013 and we settled on a "what if?" scenario for the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, in the year of its 150th Anniversary.

Well, each of us has been plugging away on our troops, be they Union or Confederate, and there are now quite a few posts up on the Guns of April blog. I urge you to head on over there and see what the team has been completing recently.

The 6th Wisconsin Regiment, miniatures are converted Perry plastics.

The 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, mounted, Perry plastics

A stand of the 2nd Wisconsin. We are using five stands per infantry regiment for a total of 30 figures.

The jackets have been extended to create frock coats and the hats have been built up to create Hardee hats.

The wonderful banners are available from GMB Designs.

Cheers
Dave

What's next?

With Games Day behind me (and all the work for Armies On Parade and Golden Demon with it), it is finally time to turn to my future projects and try to get them in some sort of order.

Above you can see the test model for my next 40K project. It's been quite a while since I painted up a 40K army, so it's going to be fun getting stuck back in. This model is an Assault Marine from the Lamenters Chapter, one of those who sided with Huron Blackheart during the Badab Wars. But more on this later.

My future painting plans include:

• Around 1,000 points of Lamenters
• Five regiments of Union infantry for our Guns of April 2013 project
• Finishing off the first regiment for my Napoleonic Russian army
• Painting up the cool Witch Hunter model from the new Empire list
• Some Americans and Germans for Flames Of War

And getting into some serious planning for my 2013 Armies On Parade entry ; )

What are you guys planning?

Cheers
Dave