Assyrian v Philistine DBA

 As usual when Steven is home for a few days we fitted in a game...

Steven liked the idea of using my Lamming Assyrians. Lamming chariots are two horse so he used my tinplate chariots instead. Also, no hordes in my Lamming army so a couple of elements from the Minifigs 'S' Range did that job.

I must have been in a strange mood... I decided to use 'S' Range Philistines instead of Egyptians.

I put a few ox carts on the base line for show. Must repaint this lot some time (well, three of them.)

Set up. I set up first and Steven moved first. I held my chariots back.

The reason I held them back because I intended to split the army - my right flank a bit defensive against his chariots, left as an assault force. The idea was that the chariots would be able to act as an outflanking force in the centre!

Sadly, made a couple of mistakes. Took my right flank too far forward so Steven managed an uphill advantage, didn't open the gap wide enough, and didn't get in contact with his right flank quick enough!

I also forgot that it's an instant kill with knights against spears. Throwing ones and twos didn't help - Steven threw three's and above! He got four kills on contact and game over!

Anyway, I won the last game, so don't really mind him winning this one.

I tell lies you know...

20/25mm Miskatonic U (Newhaven campus) finished!

 Took a while and I'm sick of cutting out windows and sticking them on buildings!

So this is the finished set. I did break one self imposed rule - actually bought the walls and side gate!. They are Busch set HO 6014, Wall and Gate.

I confess - didn't allow for the saw blade width and cut the walls a few mils too small!

Side view with a few 20mm figures for comparison. The smaller scale allowed for a much grander building setup. Didn't always get the windows right... main building has an attic and slightly lower ceilings!

Another side view  showing the size of the building. Looks really solid. 

Back view. Probably shouldn't have put windows over the joint but...

Courtyard is very much compressed for use in city sized use. If I do scenarios based on just the university I would add a few more wall sections and possibly also do a separate wall not connected to the buildings. The roof wasn't painted, just had a couple of layers of PVA glue covering it - I thought it looked more realistic than paint. Must do something about the camera date staming pictures. Possibly set the right date and time on it?

Size comparison with the Sarissa manor house and gate house- haven't got an annex for the Sarissa version, beginning to regret that!

The 20/25mm version allows a much more believeable size building to be made.

The gate house comparison really gives the game away! 

Overall I'm really pleased with this set of buildings. I can see them being very useful in the future.

Blair Atholl. A paddle steamer

 

Out for the day and stopped off at an antique centre... saw this. It was marked at £85, so I offered £60 and got it. Got home and did a search - found that last year this model had sold at auction for £28. Frankly, a ship like this is worth two or three times what I paid for it - £28 was an insult!

Roughly 1/87th scale based on the figures. It's 2'7" long!

Makes the paddle steamer I made three years ago look a bit small...

ECW Moulds back...

 Turn around by Pete of a bit over a week since I posted the figures to him!

At some stage I really must start going through all my moulds and photograph them... which would take a while...

As to the total number I now have, this is a picture of the ones I got originally..

Miskatonic University and town update

 

Getting on with the university buildings - probably half way there!

The most obvious unfinished part. The two buildings in the foreground are just place holders for a U shaped building to create a central courtyard. A couple of gateways and the base itself need sorting of course...

The 'original' having that fantastic Sarissa gatehouse I thought I had to do something. The green gate is from that pile of bits and pieces I'm finding so useful!

Things are buildng up quite nicely!

I've got a large pool of HO buildings I can use - nothing in this picture is what I could call canon though, it's all just there to give me ideas.

I really like the idea of a town square/shopping centre for instance.

Roads, fences and other 'fillers' are an obvious requirement.

ECW Moulds

First job was to get a mould made using original masters and other figures so I could put together the production moulds. Apart from tidying up the figures I've now sorted out figures for the moulds needed to complete the ECW refurbishment. 

After this, think I'll take a break on casting until some time in September!

Some of it is to rationalise moulds, putting a lot of the figures together instead of scattered. However, the EW6, musketeer in helmet (classic Roundhead figure) mould was no longer fit for purpose. 

EW15, Pikeman armoured in hat at rest and EW16 Pikeman unarmoured with plumed helmet at rest. These two didn't have moulds attached to them so I looked at a master mould that had some pikes on. The pose was the same as the 'Reserve' figure so I discounted them... until I finally realised that the rest and reserve  poses were the same. So now they will be on a production mould...

This is a case of putting everything together - so I will now have a production mould with all the ECW cavalry together. Still need to do some tidying up on the figures first.

I did start a plastic Swedish 30 Years War army back in the 90s. Blog post here. 

I have also updated the ECW entry on pages.

20mm Newhaven police station

 

I allowed myself to be influenced by the TTCombat station... hard to believe I made it nine years ago! Not as good, and I probably should have taken the photo so it looked 3D, but...

Barred windows where the cells are.

Other side of the building. 

And the back. I've kept windows to a minimum for security reasons :)

Reimagining Newhaven - a progress report...

 

Very much a work in progress with a lot of place holders.

The factory in the foreground is acting as a place holder for the brewery. Behind that the unfinished University opposite what will be park and cemetary.

This view extends Newhaven back from behind the church. 

A view of the tenements. Nice and dark and crowded... The church in the foreground is a card model I picked up in a shop in Sheringham a few weeks ago. 

University opposite the park and cemetary. A police station should be next to the park area -Not made yet so a bank is holding the fort.

Lots still to do and I'm still not sure how well it will work. I'm not totally happy trying to mix my crude card buildings with the more fragile looking plastic ones. 

Tenements finished

 

Seems like I'm not putting much in the blog at the moment, but these things are taking time!

16 tenement buildings including a couple of shops. Should be enough for now.

General store after Sutter Cane. The name of Peyton's Plaice seemed obvious so I had to look for a justification in a 'horror' town - easy. It included one of  Mia Farrow's first roles, later she was the star of Rosemary's Baby, listed as the second best horror film of all time.

New World Incorporated was involved with advanced technology, shipbuilding and munitions. From  The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopaedia. 

Curwen House, named after Joseph Curwen.

And one I haven't named to give me a bit more flexibility. I intend to do a few more of these bigger buildings - might even go up to four or five stories!

Comparison between 'my' 20/25mm buildings and Sarissa's 28mm ones.

Side view. My buildings cover about a quarter of the ground space, allowing for a much bigger number of buildings and more realistic 'city'.