The Enemy is in Sight!

My brother has finally started to put together and paint his first batch of Victrix French infantry, the opposition for my recently arrived Brits. Found out that the reason it took so long for my stuff to arrive from Victrix was the whole paranoia about toner and ink cartridges being bombs (Thanks terrorists). I e-mail Victrix yesterday about why it was taking so long, a little over a month I think, to get my stuff and they promptly responded with equal puzzlement and a link to the Royal Mail's website talking about the alert. Then, to make me look like an idiot, it all arrived a few hours later. But here is what I hope to be the first of many pictures of actual miniatures:

Painted by William Blodgett. I'll get more pictures so we can see detail. Will is a fairly good painter of WH40k miniatures but he was telling me this morning that these French are much more challenging to paint than the oddly proportioned GW minis. We'll see how he does! Update: Here are the painted minis, not the best of quality pictures but they get the gist of what they look like.

FINALLY!

IT'S HERE! THE ARMY IS HERE!

My Victrix Peninsula British are finally here, 2 boxes of Centre Cos, 2 of Flank, and the artillery, with 1 more centre company box on it's way. Time to start painting these insanely well detailed minis! 

Still bloody waiting!

Yeah, well, it's been about 14 or 15 (depending on if you include Martin Luther King Day) business days since I ordered my Victrix army, or about 21 days total. Still isn't here, buuut international mail does tend to take awhile.  Luckily, work and now class is keeping me so bloody busy I don't really notice the days going by. So far, I've got everything I need to start working on my army. I've got paints from Vallejo, the American Revolution colors (I know, not the Napoleonic set but close enough for now), a ton of Osprey books I got for about $2US each on Amazon, the Block Powder rule book, and the NAPOLEON rule book en route. I just need my army.

Oh, How I Hate International Mail

I know I'm just being impatient and all, but after waiting 15 or so days, I'm definitely tapping my foot wondering when the hell my bloody minis are getting here! I won't order any other miniatures until my army gets here, for obvious reasons, so I've been contenting myself with ordering books. I've gotten five Osprey books, the Black Powder rules, and I just ordered from Amazon NAPOLEON: Napoleonic Rules and Campaigns for Gaming with Painted Miniatures.

I probably didn't need to type the entire title but it's more words and makes the post look more... important. But back to the books. I've picked up Wellingtons Peninsular Army, Wellington's Infantry 1 and 2 from the Men-at-Arms series, Wellington's Army in the Peninsula 1809-14 from Battle Orders and British Redcoat 1793-1815 from the Warrior Series. There is a lot of redundancy in each book but each book has some unique tidbits of information and all show the uniforms of different regiments.

The Black Powder rulebook on the other hand was pretty cool. It's honestly really, really, really generic and unspecific. It looks interesting and offers a lot of good ideas and information but I'm not really sure I like it as a rule set. Hence why I ordered the Napoleon rules. I'm definitely going to be trying a game with the Black Powder rules, buuuut once again, I'm not a big fan of those types of rules. I like having a lot of specific rules or information laid out easily at my fingertips. But, we'll see when my redcoats finally bloody get here!

Help!

My brother and I are looking for some good, not too expensive, 28mm terrain to start building our Napoleonic battlefields. I've been looking around and I discovered Hirst Arts, a site that sells molds to make blocks and roof panels so you can make your own buildings. It's a start, but I'd like to know where and what type of foam to get to make a foam terrain table or two. If you guys have any suggestions on where to find materials for and how to make a great battlefield, I'd love emails or comments.

My email: MTBlodgett@gmail.com

Hirst Arts: http://www.hirstarts.com/

Stuff is slowly coming in.

I got my Black Powder rule book in the mail yesterday, as well as a copy of Osprey's British Redcoat 1793-1815. I also got a paint set from Foundry, the American Revolution set. Once it comes back in stock, I will be getting the Napoleonic set. On a funny note, The Army Painter sent me a three brush starter pack that arrived yesterday..... in a box that I was able to stack three rows of three bricks in. That's right. A massive box that holds 9 bricks for three brushes that way... 2 ounces? Have they heard of an envelope?

More stuff on it's way.

Just so it seems like I haven't forgotten about this blog, I figure I'd update it even though I've got nothing new except a box full of spent brass from the Steyr M95. I'm not sure what day I ordered it, I think yesterday (Be nice, I work day AND graveyard shifts),  but I got about five Osprey books for under $45 from Amazon and a set of Foundry paints. I managed to get all the Osprey books for so cheap to due picking up some used ones, and while I picked stuff described as very good or good, we'll see when they get here what kind of shape they're in.

On a totally different direction, I wish that something like the old Spanish Civil War International Brigades still existed. With the soon to be liberation of South Sudan, it's fairly certain there will eventually be a war, the troubles in Haiti, and of course the tyrant Mugabe in Zimbabwe, I wish there would be some way to protect the people who suffer these troubles. I'll be joining the US Army to protect my people, but I feel that all people, regardless of location, deserve to live in the same comfort as Americans and deserve the same kind of protection that Americans get from our armed services.