One of the challenges of painting miniatures is going back to add to a set you’ve painted a long time ago.  It can be very hard to remember which paint manufacturer, let alone which shade, was used for a given model.  I’ll never be able to replicate the paint job on more models than I care to name, all because I didn’t have a system in place.  When I started out I just didn’t think about the need to possibly repair or add to models later on.

Once I realized I was going to be in this hobby for the long haul I decided on developing a system for recalling what paints I had used on what models. After some trial and error I opted for the following system:

Paint Index Cards

Paint Index Cards came out of my earlier attempts to keep track of all my paints by creating large sheets of paint swatches.  Scaling down allows me to keep a well organized library of paint sets by era, unit, anything I desire.

Closeup

I’ve chosen 4×6 glossy photo paper as my “card” for it’s ability to render the paint colour accurately and without bleeding through to the back of the paper.  With that you just need to note what part and what paint you’ve used.  Because of the various manufacturers of paints I’ve devised a shorthand to identify them:

VJ = Vallejo Model Colour

VG = Vallejo Game Colour

P3 = Privateer Press P3

RP = Reaper

CD = Citadel (The New GW Pots)

GW = Games Workshop (Older Pots)

Hope whatever system you’ve devised works as well for you.

If you love Eurogames and are not familiar with BrettSpielWelt than you should be.   BrettSpielWelt (or BSW) is a free online portal and application for playing many of the most popular board and card games available today.  It can be intimidating at first because BSW is primarily in German, but people of all languages populate the site and help and translations abound.

BSW covers game from the very popular Carcassonne (Game, BGG , BSW) or Settlers of Catan (Game, BGG, BSW), to games popular with more dedicated boardgame enthusiasts like Power Grid (Game, BGG, BSW) and Imperial (Game, BGG, BSW).

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Commands and Colors: Ancients is a great game and system by Richard Borg available from GMT Games. It depicts battles in the ancient world from 3000BC to 400AD of varying scale. Much more can be said and is at BoardGameGeek.com, so I’ll let the great content there speak for the game.

For me the only real downside to C&C:Ancients for me is the portability: the base game has over 340 5/8″ wooden blocks, and there are currently 6 expansions for the base game. While not horrible to carry, it is a touch on the heavy side so it’s only likely to make it to the away table if pre-planned.

Looking at an example game

The result? Shown above is my attempt to make a C&C:Ancients Travel Edition.

The board is hand-made in Photoshop, the pieces are scanned from the originals and shrunk in Photoshop. For scale the hexes are 1.5″ wide making the whole map 8″x12″. The map is laser printed and mounted to flexible sheet steel available from Litko Aerosystems, makers of many find gaming bits and pieces. The terrain hexes are mounted on flexible sheet magnet.

Looking at the details of the game pieces.

For the counters I had to go a slightly different direction because the magnets have only so much strength and stacking too many of them can have unwanted results..

The game uses a number of blocks to measure the current unit strength: 4 blocks equals a 4 strength unit. In order to accomodate the same function in a travel edition I had to employ the method used in many other block games: each side of the counter represents the current strength, the side facing the opponent being the current strength. For example the Medium (blue triangle) horseman above is strength 3. In order to make it easier to handle the counters I affixed them to artboard before affixing that to the magnet.

For more information on C&C: Ancients try the following links:

C&C:Ancients.net

C&C:Ancients Living Rules (the latest and greatest)

Postscript: Unfortunately the completed board, terrain, units for the base game, and my spare pair of wooden dice were lost while out gaming. Ironic, but still sad. I have all the files to re-create the set but probably won’t for some time.

So I finally got one block put together and painted, yay Family Day!  The stated downside of having Advancing Levelled figures has come to fruit and after some testing I have just decided it’s best if I leave them as-is.  Moving the guns/bayonets so as not to interfere with the back rank of the next unit just leaves them looking odd.

This means while my units will look fine in line or square formation, they will be slightly seperated in column or attack column.

The Advancing 2/24th

Appologies for the dark picture, better pics when the unit is finished and I have some of my better gear available.

One of the big challenges with miniature gaming can come from not actually having miniatures for the game you’re hoping to play.  True, this is not likely if you’re an old-timer but for those new to the hobby it can be a big roadblock.  How many times have you seen people playing with black-primed or even bare metal?

Here’s another option I think works great for historical gaming: Counters!

French Cuirassier close on the 1/42nd Highlanders

It may seem counter-intuitive ;) but I’m talking about using the base-size for a given system, some good graphics, and some foamcore board to make nice big thick game-sized counters.  This is a really good way of quickly trying out a game system to see if it works, or works for you.  In addition if you are a member of a weekly gaming club it allows for small and light transport of an entire army for an evening game.

Are nicely painted well based miniatures better? Hell yes.  Counters however, can be a quick and dirty way of getting some play time. If you’re lucky: before your friends move on to another game.

I’ve uploaded a sample .PSD you can use to make your own counters for Lasalle, only Infantry and Artillery bases are shown:  Lasalle Counter PSD (168kb)

Painting is underway.  I primed the regiment using Liquitex Neutral Gray Gesso first.

Below is an example of the work in-progress:

Not sure how to paint the kit.

Luckily I have since found very good examples of how to paint the kit on the Victrix website.  So far so good though.  I’m not that great a painter, so from the 3 foot rule perspective these are coming out well.  The neutral grey was a good choice as the regiments at Salamanca wore grey pants.

Living in an apartment/condo has always presented challenges as a miniature painter.  I don’t have the luxury of a garage or basement or back yard to spray-prime in.  When I first started painting I would save up miniatures all winter and as soon as the first clear/not windy/not humid day presented itself I would prime like a maniac on my balcony.

The number of days favorable to priming at my apartment were few enough that I was encouraged to find alternatives.

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My Lasalle army  is loosely based upon the 1st Division 2nd Brigade of Wellington’s Peninsular Army of 1812, supported by the 2nd Division .  Specifically elements present at the Battle of Salamanca.  Loosely based because I ordered my figures ( 15mm AB from Fighting 15s) and have had to find as close a historical match as possible.

An Infantry Company of Peninsular British supported by  Reserve Brigade of Dragoons, commanded by Maj. General Henry Campbell.

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