A small change at The House of War

Howdy all,

I recently did away with my "Recent updates" list at the House of War... I figure if you want to see the most recent updates, just check the postings list!

I have replaced it with a collection of interesting posts from the last year of the blog... I will change these up now and then so new things are featured.

Do people like this feature? Or would you rather I put something else there?

Suggestions more than welcome!

The French attack is launched!

Well, I plan to change up the 10mm Napoleonic table sometime in the near future, so I thought I would continue moving around the troops into what I think logically would happen!

The French attack on the left pressed forward towards the British Allies, deciding this would be the more vulnerable flank... better this side than the other, uphill, against disciplined British troops! At the same time the Old Guard attack the chateau, attempting to take it and thus split the British army in half. The French are not pausing to exchange fire, but rather are trusting in the columns to break through the British lines!

The British allies are holding as best they can. The Brunswickers are in good shape; solid, deep lines with some cover and even some smaller guns pouring canister into the attacking Frenchmen. From the orchards of the nearby chateau British troops lend more fire, as French light infantry try to force the British heads down. In fact, the frontmost French columns are starting to falter a bit, as some men begin to slow down and hesitate. Can the Brunswick troops hold the attack off, and the second wave of columns behind it?

On the far flank, however, the French attack looks to be more effective. The columns broke out of the woods screened by light infantry and quickly plowed towards the Saxons and Prussians. The front line opened fire, but as the French poured forward they began to hesitate, and slowly men began to step backwards. Quickly reinforcements were brought up... will they be able to hold the flank in the face of the French attack?

Meanwhile, on the right, the French continue forward, but slowly... they are hoping and waiting for the chateau to fall and hopefully the British allies as well; then they can sweep around and complete the fight! But will all go according to plans? We will see!

Just a pair of random photos

Well, I spent a little while on the 10mm Napoleonic set-up... I am very pleased with the way the terrain is set-up, generally speaking, but am having a hard time doing any sorts of revisions to the current table! I moved the British Allied flank to the right, and the British flank to the left. Generally I withdrew the French attack a bit, showing it early in the battle, as the legere just starts to make contact with the first rifles.

The shot above is of the Allied flank, preparing for the French assault. You can actually see the flank commander just behind the small brown barn near the trees, dictating orders to a staff officer. There is a smattering of artillery on the ridge behind the Allied position to provide support, as well as a pair of small Brunswick pieces among their lines to flay the attacking French columns with cannister!

The bottom photo is the French assault, formed into column and ready to roll across the field! The commander waves on his men with his hat an officer signals the advance with his sabre. There are maybe more Allied troops than Frenchmen, but the French attack is screened by clouds of capable skirmishers and heavily supported by artillery (not visible in the photo.) And, of course, it is a French attack... it is hard to stop the French columns, driven on by the drums, at ANY time, and these are not the disciplined redcoats facing them this time!

If you have any suggestions or things you think would make the current table look better, or if there is some sort of specific thing you want to see, please just let me know!

15mm ACW - Federal Infantry 4

My entire 15mm ACW Confederate force has been up on this site for a long time, so it is about time that I get cracking on the rest of my 15mm Federal Force!

Here is another unit of Federal infantry. These guys, like most of my federal infantry, wear the dark blue/light blue combo, and the majority of the men wear kepis... I have very few floppy hats or Hardees in the army. These guys have also been in some serious combat, as you can tell by the dead men scattered liberally among the stands. Of course, the majority of my Civil War forces are interchangeable so I guess I could spread the casualties out, but who would want to do that?!

Figures courtesy of Battle Honors!

10mm Nap. British - Command

As I have done recently, after being so quiet I thought I would come through with a few posts!

Here is the command structure of my 10mm Napoleonic British army!

There is one army commander (in this case Sir Arthur Wellesley) who is mounted with two staff officers riding with him. The Duke of Wellington is pretty easy to pick out, what with his blue being rather unique among the British red. You can tell this is the army command by the fact that the stand has three mounted figures on it.

The second stand in the command is a junior commander; in this case, Sir Thomas Picton, as is made clear by his choice of hat! This fellow (who met his end at Waterloo) was well known for being... well, shall we say dressed improperly for an officer, and his hat was a bit of an icon (albeit not at the level of Napoleon's bicorn!) Picton here is accompanied by a staff officer, which marks this stand as between army command and brigade command.

The third stand is another junior commander. This one is not as obvious as Wellington or Picton... maybe it is Uxbridge, or Hill? Really it can stand in for anyone. As with Picton there is one staff officer on the stand with him, indicating that this stand again represents a commander someplace between army command and brigade command!

"The Guest"

Howdy all,

Since I had finished this piece and was going to send it out, I thought I should post photos of the finished product!

"The Guest" is one of the few dioramas/set scenes I have done. It is roughly based on a comic that my roommate and I drew in college, about a female assassin sent to kill a Japanese business man of some sort, and having to carve through his men to get to him. Now, in the original comic the guards had guns and there was an underling who needed killing as well... oh, and the girl had black hair... but otherwise, it is pretty close:)

The target was pretty straight forward... black suit, red tie. I did have to clip a gun out of his hand, which resulted in a bit of a large hand, and his feet in the photo look a touch large but it is unnoticeable in person. The yakuza guards were a bit more involved... the guy with the padded pants in particular got a bunch of coats of paint, and then they were dipped. I also added a bit of yellow to the skin tone to make them look a bit more Japanese, and I think it worked.

As for The Guest herself, it was tricky to get her looking deep, as black is a tough color to work with. I worked in a little blue as the highlights, and actually did about four or five layers to highlight. The face was kept pretty light, as was the hair, so it would stand out. I am most happy with her eyes... she looks like a mean lady!

The base is made from pink insulation foam... I tried to paint it to look like marble or granite, and I think I pulled it off basically.

The two yakuza samurai are from Perry; I cannot, off the top of my head, remember where the girl and business man are from, but let me look, because the maker was kind enough to send me the single figure out of a pack, which is quite nice!

15mm WWII - Germand Command 2

Hey all!

Well, it has been a while, and the last month has been QUIET at The House of War! I desperately need to make up for it, especially since I have a ton of stuff to put up! But unfortunately real life (and laziness) has conspired against me!

Anyway... I thought I would put up a quick post tonight... this is my second command stand for my 15mm WWII Germans! The stand features an officer reviewing a large map which has been spread on a makeshift table made of a crate and a pallet. Some orders sit nearby, and an NCO awaits his orders. The stand also has a few sandbags on it to continue the "dug in" look of the entire army.

Figures courtesy of Battlefront!

10mm Nap. French - Cuirassiers 1

Time for some more 10mm Napoleonics!

And back to the French we go for the next installment; namely, to the French cavalry. The heaviest of the French cavalrymen during the Napoleonic age were the Cuirassiers. Mounted on the largest horses, these elite soldiers got their name from the heavy steel cuirass they wore to protect themselves. This left-over from the age of warfare past didn't necessarily help much against volleys of musketfire, but they did protect the cavalryman from swords and sabres, and also made a great pot for cooking!

10mm Nap. British - Brunswick Light Infantry

Hello all!

First off, SO sorry it has been so darn long! Life has a habit of getting busy, and I've been out of the blogging loop for a bit.

However, it is time to make up for that! I've got some WWII Germans coming, some 15mm ACW, some 10mm Napoleonics, and another book review. First up; the Nappies!

These guys are some of my British allies; namely, my Brunswickers. Now, the eagle eyed visitor (or even just the casual visitor) will notice that this unit is only four stands, as opposed to the six of the infantry units I've shown earlier. These particular fellows are light infantry, as you can tell by the yellow tops of their pom-poms. The black uniforms and bright flags make this a fabulous looking unit... too bad you can't see the skull and bones on troops this size!

Some random photos

Howdy all!

I was going through some old photos and I came across a few I could share!

First up... way back when I had a pretty good sized collection of super hero figures and had created a super hero game; you made up a super group and battled it out! I even ran it at a small convention. Anyway, I of course had to make myself a group of X-Men, and while I could find a few from the Marvel pack, I had to make up a few more like Gambit and all. So here they are! I also have another 40 or 50 heroes, including a lot of Marvel villains and Champions figures, but I don't have photos.

Next up is the command team from my Space Hulk days! I used to play a lot of Space Hulk, and I kept careful records of each game. When a figure did something good, they got a medal on their stand for it! Yellow arrows were for "Support" (holding off the enemy while a mission is conducted... this was often given to heavy weapons guys), crosses for kills (yellow crosses for 12-24 kills, blue for 24-36, red for 37+) and yellow skulls for "Valiant Actions" and blue skulls for "Heroic Actions" (any big, usually game winning action... only one Heroic Action medal has ever been given, and that was to the captain who scored 22 kills and singlehandedly won a game after his whole squad was wiped out right at the beginning of a mission!) The command team was pretty decorated, obviously, but didn't always play as a team... since it was Space Hulk, it didn't go that way. I may actually play a bit more soon and so bring the rest of the guys over (I have another 15 marines) so I'll get some photos.

I also found a shot of my 15mm WWII German 88s deeply entrenched in a game a buddy of mine had played... he built the trench system to hold troops or, ideally, 88s, and it turned out SHARP.

Finally, a very old, early shot of my 15mm WWII Germans before they got any paint; I figured this would be a good shot to see some of the green stuff work and all that went into them.

Anyway... an eclectic mix that I hope was fun to look at!