Let's get Mag No Tysed

A real quick tutorial:

How to magnetise your wooden bases.

Here are some French allied troops, Vistula Legion in the back and I think the guys in front are Dutch.

These guys are not magnetised, yet.

I get my magnetic "photo" paper. a 6"x9" sheet for $1.50 from dollarama.

The paper (can you call something 1mm thick paper?) is adhesive, so just plonk the bases on, give them a press down, cut with scissors.

Bam! You done.

6mm Austrian Gallery

6mm Austrian Gallery

Following up on my previous post, here is my Austrian Army.

Almost all the figures are Adler, except for 4 units of Landwehr, which are Baccus.

Landwehr are the 4 back units in the column farther to the right

 Cavalry units, 1 of Kuirassiers, 1 of Chevaux-leger and 3 of Hussar.

Not sure if I like this green on the Cheveaux-legere.

Just realized these guys need a touch of Army Painter dark tone

Here is a much closer look at Adler vs. Baccus.

Adler on the Left, Baccus on the Right very noticeable this close, but not too bad at gaming distance.

Extra figures, awaiting flags.

This is all my painted Austrian cavalry

On deck, for the next Paint & Chat session I can actually attend.

4 units of Austrian Cavalry

Not sure if I like this green either :(

6mm Napoleonic French

6mm Napoleonic French

Since I started playing Blucher, I have been giving a lot of attention to my 6mm Napoleonic collection, which have been under used, as I had trouble finding a rules set that gave a good feel for a Napoleonic battle, Blucher does!. As C-in-C I would not not give an order for that Brigade to attack in Line and those 2 to attack in Columns, Instead he would order their division to attack and the divisional and/or brigade officers would do their best.

This blog entry will showcase the French. I decided to post photos of them, even though many of them were painted 20+ years ago, when I was, at best, an average painter, with limited resources as to uniforms (hence the wrong artillery uniform). Many years of use have not been kind to many a musket, as ham-fisted players grab them by the front and back of the base or in some cases the front and back of the figures!

All the French infantry are Adler Miniatures.

All the French infantry and Artillery

Close up

close up

close up

Close up of the Imperial Guard and C-in-C in the back

The Infantry figures are 3 per base which is 20mm wide x 15mm deep and 6 make up a unit. Artillery is 1 gun 4 crew on a 20mm Square base, 2 bases make up a unit. Cavalry are 4 figures per base which is 40mm wide 20mm and 2 bases make a unit. The bases are 2mm thick MDF to the bottom of which I apply 1mm thick magnetic photo paper.

Speaking of cavalry:

All the cavalry I use, I have as much again, but lack command (i.e. flag bearers). Originally my cavalry units were 16-20 figures.

Lancers

Fictional heavy cavalry unit

Dragoons

Hussars

Transporting the figures is quite easy.

As long as I don't need more than 16 infantry, 8 cavalry and 4 artillery units (enough figures for a 300 point Blucher army) I can just put the figures in hubless or postless VHS clam shell cases. Since my bases are magnetic and I didn't want them sliding round in the cases, I went to home hardware and picked piece of sheet metal up, it was for clothes dryer venting pipe cut it to fit in the case and taped it down with double sided sticky tape.

 These 3 are the only ones I have, they are impossible to find nowadays. Well not impossible I did find a supplier that was selling 50 for $30, but the $140 for shipping was (to my thinking) a deal breaker.

I checked Ebay, thrift stores, garage/yard sales and nothing, plenty selling VCR movies, but all of them are in the cardboard sleeves. Someone even suggest I try mantic games as their "Kings of War" figures come in VHS cases, but I couldn't find them on their website.

If anyone knows of a source please leave a comment.

Tutorial - Streams

Tutorial - Streams

 

Not just any stream, but ones to hinder or block movement for my 6mm soldiers.

I could have used my shingle rivers but they are pretty thick for my 6mm armies. When I make my shingle rivers, as a byproduct I make a huge mess, and they are heavy to transport.

Stuff I used:
Plastic sign (a sheet of very thin Plastic card)
Acrylic Caulking (Sandal wood)
PVA glue
Sand (the sand I have is crushed coral or maybe seashells, it a very light beige colour)
Green Acrylic Paint
Blue Acrylic Paint
Light green Acrylic paint
Yellow Acrylic paint.
Brown Acrylic paint
Pledge with Future shine  (acrylic floor finish)

(Don't use your good paints, instead use craft paints from a dollar store or Walmart)

Tools needed
Scissors
Caulking gun
Craft Knife
Pencil
Ruler
Paint brushes
Latex gloves (not needed, but makes cleaning your hands after you are done unnecessary)

This is the type of sign I used $0.99 each. Its dimensions are 9 inches by 12 inches

For straight sections I mark the sign into strips 1 1/8" wide and 12" long. Cut the strips out making the long edges slightly wavy, just so they aren't straight as a ruler, and round the corners.

Apply a bead of caulk down the centre of a strip with the caulking gun, then using your finger spread it so it covers the entire surface of your strip you can also add ripples and flow patterns to the water surface if you are wearing a glove.  Repeat for every section or stream you are making.

Let the caulking dry for 2-3 hours then get out your green and blue paints and mix some to get a bluish green colour, since rivers are not actually blue. Paint your caulking the colour you just made. Then using a the light green paint dry brush the outside edges where the banks of the stream will be. so it is a it slightly lighter shade than the middle of the stream.

Get your pledge floor finish and a brush and paint it onto your streams. This stuff will make your streams shiny and will seal the caulking so it won't stick to your other streams. When dry do it again.

Run a bead of PVA along each river bank and cover the glue with sand or flock. cover each river as you go, if you don't and you are doing a lot of them the glue may have skinned over.

When the glue is dry mix your green paint with some pledge floor care finish in a rough one part paint to 2-3 parts pledge to make a thin green. Paint this onto your river banks. I find pledge is great for sealing sand, it has the consistency of water and flows like water but will not reactivate your white glue like diluted white glue can.

Lightly dry brush your banks with a yellow or a light green paint. With a fine tip brush paint a dark brown line touching the river bank.

They are done.

Made all these from 1 sign

  After the first time using using them, I found out I need something on the bottom to prevent them easily sliding, and should also tape them together.

Thanksgiving Blucher game

Thanksgiving game

Holiday Monday, I managed to clear enough space to layout and fight to a conclusion a game of Blucher.

Rather than try to design a scenario, I picked one off the Blucher forum. The Battle of Sacile Took many pictures and used picturestory 3 to make a video, I then posted it to youtube, My first youtube video.

Made a few rules mistakes, and the scenario author made a few when designing the scenario, but I achieved a result close enough to the historical result that I had a good time re fighting the battle.

Tutorial - Making Sabots

I was asked how I made the Sabot I was using, and thought if there is one person interested there will be others.

So here we go. This tutorial will be for the infantry sabots.

Materials:
Craft Sticks, also known as Popsicle sticks
7mm Bass Wood Strips (coffee stir sticks will work but they are 6mm wide)
Bristol board A.K.A. Art board (card stock will work, but is more pricey)
Scissors
Craft Knife the sharper the better
Clear Packing tape (Optional, but recommended)
Glue, I use both a Glue Stick and PVA A.K.A White glue
Sandpaper or emery boards
Template of the size base you are making the sabot for (I am using one 60 mm x 30mm)

Very Very Important! 

 Make sure your Popsicle and coffee stir sticks are both the same thickness. Mine are 2mm.

Cut your Bristol board in rectangles 75mm x 50mm. your size may vary

Make sure your Bristol board is the exact correct width, it makes construction much quicker and easier, depth does not need to be too exact.

 Glue a Popsicle stick to the front edge of the card. I use the glue stick for this and the next step.

Place your template snugly against the Popsicle stick you just glued in place.

Glue your second Popsicle stick into place, use your template to make sure your base will fit, be careful not to glue your template to the Bristol board, that is why the glue stick works best, apply it to the Popsicle stick and then affix it to the Bristol board.

The template is 6cm x 3cm the area taken by 6 infantry bases.

If your Bristol board is a too deep you can trim it flush the second Popsicle stick.

 This is my 7mm wide strip of bass wood, a 5 pack each strip 3' 9" long for $3

 

Take your 7mm wide strip and cut it to fit each side.

This shows how I measure the side pieces, I butt the strip against one Popsicle stick and sscore it at the other then snap it off.

Use the white glue so you can get a more solid join where the strip joins the Popsicle stick.

Flip the sabot over, using a metal ruler and the craft knife cut away the excess Popsicle stick, flush with Bristol board. I score the Popsicle stick 6-7 times and snap it off, then use the emery board to tidy up any rough edges.

 Bam! You're done.

After using them in a game, I found they need a little more reinforcement, so here is what I did to reinforce the construction,

I cut through the Bristol board where the base will go.

Using the white glue, attach another piece of Bristol board on the other side of the sabot,

 The final product

Ready for painting and flocking

I use removable labels sticking out the back of the sabot, that I attached with tape. I was removing them after a game, the tape I used starting tearing away the outside of the paper, so now I cover the bottom of the sabot with 2 " wide packing tape.

You don't have to use this expensive packing tape though, It is what I had to hand when making this tutorial