A little bit of this and a little bit of that....

Quite often I'll have several smaller projects on the go at the same time. If nothing else, it stops me growing bored with a single project, but perhaps more importantly, it also gives a satisfying sense of progress as each is completed. Here are a few of the most recent.

First off, are late war British infantry in jerkins, lovely 20mm figures from AB Figures. Rather than paint a whole platoon of these, the idea is to mix them in with existing figures in battle dress when I want something that looks more wintery. With that in mind, I have one full section with their corporal.

I've added the command group pack which includes a platoon lieutenant or sergeant and then a PIAT and 2" mortar team.

In total that gives me somewhere over 1/3 of a platoon dressed this way. They are lovely figures, so much so that I am tempted to go down the route of a whole platoon.

Having said that, I did something similar with my Germans when I was painting up the Volksgrenadiers. I needed a few riflemen and so it made sense to add a section and a few supports in greatcoats or winter camouflage. They also mix well with my existing Volkssturm figures.

Once again, the intention is to simply add in a few with a regular section.

Jumping up in scale and back in time, I've added this Roman scorpion bolt thrower from Victrix for the Infamy, Infamy collection.

While I've multi based the core infantry I thought I'd mix it up for this weapon. There are a couple of reasons. The most obvious is the ease of removing casualties, the other is to allow some flexibility when placing it on the table given the largish footprint.

Staying in 28mm, I'm slowly putting together a force of Afghan tribesmen for the late 19th century. These are plastic figures from Perry Miniatures. I bought two boxes when I was immersed in my Sudan project and fired up for gaming the period. That was almost five years ago. How time flies.

These initial figures are a proof of concept. I wanted to test out a couple of things. First, how well Citadel contrast paint could handle the white clothing. Secondly, I wanted to test out using irregular basing, much as I've done for my Mahdists.

There is a sort of logic behind this seemingly new project. The British figures I've painted for the Sudan would also work for Afghanistan and North West Frontier. More recently I painted up a group of eight to represent 72nd Regiment of Foot during the Second Anglo Afghan War. These I had assembled when doing the Sudan project, but as I had enough painted figures for the games I was playing they remained unpainted. When added to the Sudan figures, they give me more than enough of a British force to fight the new Afghans.

When it comes to terrain I already have a number of buildings that were made originally for modern games when I was using Force on Force and other rule sets like Black Ops. Given the style of these structures has barely changed over centuries they work just as well for earlier periods as well as for other countries in the region.

The buildings and walls were all scratch built using cork floor tiles. I've found it a great material for these sorts of projects. It's easy to cut and glues together with PVA. They are lightweight, but sturdy and robust enough for gaming.

One pack of tiles goes a long way.....

They've already been fought over by the Taliban, so no reason why they can't be fought over by their ancestors.

My 19th century British have already used the walls to fend off the Mahdists.

Soon these new Afghans should be ready to fight over them. I have to say, I think these are some of the best plastic Perry Miniatures that I've put together. They are great sculpts with lovely character, matched with a wonderful variety of options with heads, arms, weapons etc.

A few weeks ago I played my first game of Sharp Practice in some time. As always, it was good to get my American War of Independence collection out onto the table.

It also reminded me that I have unfinished projects here too. I've had a set of Renendra gaibions for a while and so I've finally made up an earthwork. 

A simple and straightforward project.

The gun and crew are metal figures from the Perry range.

I've never been completely happy with the basing system I have for this collection. I used 25mm rounds for individual figures, which in hindsight are bigger than I needed. That in turn has meant the sabot bases I've used are 60mmx60mm for four figures, which in turn gives a formation of three groups of eight figures for Sharp Practice a very large footprint. Too big in fact. In addition, I'm not a fan of empty sabot slots. That has meant I've created 'fillers' of either terrain, casualties or shock markers to replace casualties. In short it's led to a rather large rebasing project, but one I think will be worth it.

I will ditch sabot bases altogether and use multi basing. In most cases that means four figures on a 40x40mm base. Having started, I can already see what an improvement this will make. The compactness of the figures actually creates the illusion of more men. A line formation of three groups of eight appears to be much more than twenty four figures. I'm not sure why that's the case, but there it is. From a playability sense the new smaller footprint will allow for much more flexibility, not to mention a better fit with terrain. It's a bit of a chore, but one where the results will pay dividends.

Right then, on that note, I'd better get back to the rebasing......