January 2011

After New Year January seems to loom ahead like a dark cloud of cold and, well, dark cloud. Now however it seems to have flown by. It's been a busy month on the work and family front but some wargaming projects have progressed a little; some well and some disappointing.

The year began with a decent multi corps 6mm Napoleonic battle. We played this using a simple set of rules based heavily on BlackPowder mechanisms. They seemed to work quite nicely.

On the workbench four sqadrons of dragoons have (finally) been completed as have another three companies of foot for the forces of Fromagere.

I had hoped to be well into a regiment of hussars for the wicked old Duke. However the priming went sadly wrong. I have been using Plastikote primer for the plastic figures and have had no problem with it. However I did find that a couple or three bayonets of the new infantry had flaked which I assumed was simple rushing the spray job and missing these spots - easily fixed.

The hussars however were a disaster. The plastikote simply didn't dry - they are still tacky after three weeks. I suspect that's a couple of dozen figures wasted. Fortunately they only cost about £7.00 for two boxes. Had they have been Foundry or Front Rank at £2.50 a horseman I might have been upset.

I did wonder if it was the soft plastic of the Hat figures that didn't like the primer but my best guess is that the atmospheric conditions were too poor. Perhaps too cold or too damp or both. Anyway most disappointing.

After extensive research ie browsing the websites of fellow wargames bloggers I went down to the local art shop and purchased a jar of gesso. I have primed the next company with this interesting stuff and while the process is a fair bit slower than spraying I'm hopeful it will be a foolproof method of priming my plastic - and possibly metal too.

As no wargamer can resist a bargain and a digression, I found myself buying Songs of Drums and Shakos, I think for $5 for a Pdf that I received within the hour. These simple but subtle Napoleonic skirmish rules have had great reviews on TMP and other sites. Needing only a dozen figures a side, at most, it shouldn't prove too difficult to paint up a couple of squads to play on the dining table.

Of course as they can, with a little tweak or two, be used for SYW freikorps actions, C18 American wars, Revolutionary wars, Carlist, Italian Independence, Colonial etc etc etc. I suspect a few more wars can be visited for minimum cost. I think I can smell the Vendee not far away!