The End of an Era

Hello everyone and sorry but I must inform you that I will no longer be updating this blog. My time is short and the creation of blog posts requires more time than I have available. I have been using You Tube now for over a year and am able to better document what I am up to using the video media. I will retain the blog for posterity, rather than delete it as I am aware that it holds some items that people may find useful.

If you wish to continue following my work and projects then please subscribe to my You tube Channel which can be found here -Lokis Great Hall

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for commenting and reading my blog posts these last few years it has been a pleasure.

Regards
Loki

10mm Dark Ages Project - The Vikings - Part 3

I have completed the 1st of my 10mm Dark Age armies and the Vikings are ready to play To the Strongest. Well they would be but currently they are lacking any opposition, something that I shall rectify very soon as I shall be starting the Picts next.

As is usual for me now here is a video of the completed army. Best watched by clicking the you tube logo from within the video for a larger format

Thanks for stopping by
Regards
Loki

10mm Dark Ages Project - The Vikings - Part 2

Having made a good start the Viking army build continues at a healthy lick. I have to confess I miscalculated the number of bondi I would need, so have to order some more before I can base them all up to get a truly random mix. Undeterred by my error though I still have plenty to get painted and can complete all the other elements while I await fresh troops. The video below shows you all the current status of the project.



Thanks for watching and reading
Regards
loki

10mm Dark Ages Project - The Vikings - Part 1

Well what can I say in my defence, I have been side tracked and the Bavarian project is on hold for a while. However I have been busy for the last couple of weeks as I am working my new 10mm Dark age collections so I can start playing To the Strongest with my boys. Below is a short You tube run down of how I am getting on.

Thanks for taking the time to visit.

Loki 

Well I just had to really, did I not?

Safely ensconced in the new Great Hall it was fitting that I started with some painting from my own lead pile. Now back in November of last year I spent some time compiling a Norse Gael saga force from some boxes of plastic vikings and green stuff for the necessary conversions I needed to make. For those that have not seen this then the video below will explain the work done.

So after a lengthy hiatus and having sorted through various projects of my own I decided that I dont have room for every project or figure I have acquired over the years and will have to trim down a little. I am therefore going to clear out certain items over the coming year and re order things a touch. First up is the Norse Gaels and in order to do this I had to finish them off.

I know some of you will be thinking he must be mad but I am also building up collections of dark age figures in 10mm for playing To the Strongest and have had to think long and hard about storage and space in the new workroom and gaming area. So sacrifices have to be made and I will be using any funds received from the sales to re invest into my 10mm collections so it is not all bad news.

Right that is enough waffle from me, I hope you enjoyed the videos and until nex time thank you for visiting.

Loki

Klein aber mein - The New Great Hall is here..

I have completed stage one on the internals of the New Great hall and have moved in after some hard work in even more hot weather. My thanks to Utgaard for the excellent choice of words for my new home and the title of this post.

So I began by building a new workbench and storage area, I wanted lots of free space and plenty of shelves on the wall were a must for the small space dedicated to painting.

As you can see I now have plenty of shelves and some space, more condensing is required but that will happen over time as I adjust to the new space and adapt it to my working needs.

The biggest challenge of the refit was the new work area and the storage units I wanted to have so that everything that I use with great frequency were all within easy reach.

I now have wings attached to the desk this is the left hand side, The tea being of the utmost importance . My paint racks are now located off to the side, so I have more clear bench space in front of me than ever before. Under this is my new storage racks an idea shamelessly stolen from Ikea but at a fraction of the cost. Each drawer containing a multitude of items but all have a specific purpose.

My new main work area affording me 4 ft of clear width and 2 ft in depth, allowing me to have the power supplies at the left and right of me and my all important laptop safely tucked away on the right, equipped now with full Ethernet cabling as my assumption was correct that the super foil wrapped insulation I used would severely restrict and interfere with the wifi signal. I have wrapped everything in some vinyl for protection and it is far better to look at and easier than painting all the MDF used to construct this.

On the right side is yet more storage, this side is mainly given over to unpainted figures of which there are an awful lot, some tough decisions ahead I think.

Behind me is a bookcase with most of my reference books, I am moving more to Pdf's these days just for ease of use. Future book purchases will be restricted to must haves.

Last but not least is the area left for gaming, Currently being left as is as I have to get back to work for a while with many projects having some short deadlines in the near future. I hope to have this up and running before the end of the year.

Well that is all for now folks, I have a few minor jobs internally to finish, but these are purely aesthetic so they can be done in my small periods of free time or bit by bit at the end of each day as they dont affect my ability to work in here. Thank you for reading and until next time.

Loki

Mad Dogs and Englishmen!

The new Great Hall (my jazzed up shed) was erected last year as planned but due to finances the inside never got done at all. This did have a bonus as it has been sat being exposed to the lovely British climate for a year and has no issues with ingress of water. Those it did have have been cured as they were spotted.

I spent last year gathering funds for the rather costly internal work, with the insulation coming in at just under £500.00 alone. Add to this the cost of boarding it all, painting, electrics, etc, I had a rather large target to achieve. I have however saved as hard as I could and made my target gradually month.

So finally I had enough funds to get started on Saturday, hence the Mad Dogs quote. I happened to have really timed the job wrong I hate heat, and this weekend was a scorcher with the thermometer topping 30C+ , and it has remained that way since. The week however has been booked into my calendar for the job and I do not have the luxury of being able to change that.

I started with the Insulation.

 
I also have a lot of junk to shift as it appears the wife has been using it to store items no longer required in the house...

Next came boarding out.

That little lot saw me lose my entire weekend and part of Monday finishing of the little bits. Those little bits always seem to take far longer than expected as well.

I sit here today though rather happy, as the walls are now painted and I laid the carpet today which has to be my best bargain costing only £30.00.

 This will be the new working area, I still have a lot to do, workbenches to build and shelving to fill the walls but that will all happen in the coming days.

 The tools and clutter will be removed and a gaming table will take its place here soon.

Most important I have plenty of light but will need to purchase some blinds so I can control it a bit more during the day, one to reflect the heat and secondly so it does not get too bright. Ok so it's not huge with an internal floor space of  6ft x 12ft but it is all mine.

Well folks I know you were possibly expecting some Bavarians by now, but this is very important to me, as I am confident once I have my own purpose built space it will give me many rewards. Sanctity from the day to day hub-bub in the house, as place to relax and play games with the children but most of all peace and space for my mind.

Until next time good readers.

Loki

Bavarians circa 1809 - Part 3 - Mixing my paints

Knowing that I am embarking on a rather large project I thought it prudent to ensure that I had a good supply of paint of the right colours to hand. As I eluded to previously I had some supplies on order to assist me in this and although the dropper bottles have not yet arrived from China, everything else had, so I recycled an old dropper bottle so I could at least get started.

So we have empty dropper bottles,some thinner medium, my colours for the mix, a blunt needle and syringe and some 6mm glass beads.

The syringe is a 10ml graduated one, and I got some 18g blunt needles. 10 of each cost me a couple of quid so for the sake of accuracy money well spent. The glass beads came from Hobbycraft a long time ago and I got 600 of them for £3.00 I use two in every dropper bottle as agitators, being glass they are inert and wont affect the paint at all.

So beads into the bottle first and then I started to add the paint. First adding 7ml of the Medium blue 963, then adding several drops of thinner medium to aid the flow of the mix. Next I added 7ml of Andrea Blue 841 and another few drops of thinner.

Once I had all the paint and thinner in the bottle I replaced the nozzle, screwed on the cap and gave it all a damn good shake until the contents took on a uniform colour.

Finally I wrote a label stating the mix ratios for future reference and stuck it onto the bottle now I am good to go with those massed ranks of Cornflower Blue clad infantry.

Well folks just a small update and I will admit not a very exciting one at that either, but hopefully next time I will have some figures completed.

Loki

Bavarians circa 1809 - Part 2 - Experimenting with cornflower blue

I have been messing around with various blues from the Vallejo range to work out what I would like to best represent my Bavarian Cornflower Blue.

The figure on the left has been worked with the left half as you view it being Vallejo 963 as a base, then Vallejo 841 as a mid tone, and finally Vallejo 844. while the right side started with Vallejo 962 but had the same mid and highlight applied. I liked the left but the steps are a bit harsh.whereas the right half came out more subtly but too bright for my taste.

So the figure on the right was next painting the jacket with Vallejo 841, followed by 844 and finally 961 and was far too bright. now realising that the previous figure got me near I then started this one with the same base coats one on each leg although I based the left leg as you view it  in 962 and the right leg in 963, before mixing a 50/50 mix of base and mid tones mentioned before, a much better transition, and I then used the appropriate mid tone and highlight as before. I thought both of these looked much better, so much so I was a little undecided as to which I preferred. I left him to sit in my view for a couple of days and I was always drawn to the right leg as its viewed.

I then took another figure using the combination I preferred and gave him a quick paint job in the guise of a Bavarian uniform. The central figure in this group is the result. I am happy with the shading albeit a rough paint job I can see this will work nicely and when I paint properly will give a pleasing shade of Cornflower blue.

The final recipe is:
Base Coat Vallejo 963 Medium Blue
1st Highlight Vallejo 963 Medium Blue mixed 50/50 with Vallejo 841 Andrea blue
2nd highlight Vallejo 841 Andrea Blue
3rd highlight Vallejo 844 Deep Sky Blue (only on high spots and heavy wear areas)

The result of my recipe is shown above, I am very happy how the figure turned out. The picture makes it look a bit brighter than in real life, a result of bright lighting in the photo booth. However this is where the project stops for a bit while I await some paint and other supplies that are on order.

Regards
Loki

Bavarians circa 1809 - Part 1

If you have been reading the last couple of posts you will have gleaned the fact I am going to undertake a very large project, and build myself a full Bavarian Corp. I now have the first batch of lead in my grubby hands and have started the project by getting them organised.

I have chosen to field them under the French organisation of 6 companies, my research has concluded that they were already well under way reorganising to this system in 1809. Which in turn makes the arrangement of figures easier and with a few changes to some units they will also work into 1812 without too much issue if I so choose.

I will start with building Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria's Division first and naturally start with the first brigade in that division.

So I have almost the full amount of lead for the complete 1st Brigade shown above.

The light battalion is present in the foreground above, minus 4 figures at present. I have chosen to put a mounted officer on these, to somewhat make up for the fact they carried no standards and to further distinguish them from the line units. I will also compose these battalions in either all breeches and gaiters or all overall trousers.

The Foundry officer packs come with 2 versions of foot officers doubled up so they make a natural candidate for a distinction between 1st and 2nd battalions. Above is how I plan to organise 1st battalions. An issue comes from the separate command packs, drummer, sapper, standard bearer and hornist doubled up means I will end up with a fair number of hornists left at the end of the project as I wont be using these in the line battalions. I will be adding some green stuff changes to the sappers of the first battalions, converting the fanion pole to an axe for added variety.

The 2nd battalions above will be distinguished by the previously mentioned officer and the fact that I will leave the sappers carrying a fanion, I have chosen to go with a mix of figures wearing  breeches and gaiters, and overalls for both battalions of each regiment.

That is me done for this post, all I need to do next is gather some painting sundries and experiment with a nice shade of blue.

Loki

Partizan Haul

I spent yesterday at the Partizan show, helping to run the participation and demo games of the new Napoleonic skirmish rules called Forager. The rules are not currently available, they are due for kickstarter mid to late August this year. Sadly I was so busy talking all day I forgot to take any pictures. However as Brigantes studio has been working alongside Stand to Games on this venture I can assure you good readers that I will have plenty to show in the coming months to make up for it.

So the main point of the post my haul from the show..

A copy of Over the Hills  Napoleonic rules. Having been invited to play a game using these rules recently and having a great day out I have invested in a copy for future use. Handy that I know both authors and will be gaming with them also helps.

Commands and Colors Napoleonics - This is to play with my boys mainly. I do plan on eventually dispensing with the blocks and using 10mm figures but that really is going to be a back burner project, unless I commission the painting to another painter..

Lots of shiny new lead which I alluded to in my previous post and will cover in a bit more detail in a post later this week.As I will be spending the rest of today sorting these out according to my spreadsheet and OOB.

That wraps up this rather short post, so thank you for reading..

Loki

Back and making plans for the year ahead..

Sorry for my absence, work pressures and dealing with my own health, have kept me very occupied for many months. As those who have been following my You tube account will have seen I have not updated that for many months. I have been working though on many work related projects. Forager a new set of Napoleonic skirmish rules, has and will be keeping myself and Kevin at Brigantes Studio for many months to come. I have also been painting Aztecs for another customer, who will be releasing a full range of buildings to accompany them as well as rules, but I am unable to divulge any more information at this time. I have also been commissioned by the authors to paint two very large Napoleonic armies each around 25 battalions plus cavalry and artillery for upcoming supplements to the increasingly popular Over The Hills rules .

This means I have had to make some hard choices, and those affected will be contacted by me directly as I really can not find the time to fit any other work alongside the current commitments listed above, try as hard as I have their are not enough hours in a day and I have struggled to work everything into the time I have, losing even more time as my head got messed up trying to resolve the problem myself and it just will not work out. So I am going to have to bite the bullet swallow a huge dose of pride and let a couple of people down.

Now having said all the above I have decided to commit to a personal project: It is not going to be without issue as time is going to be a major factor that will slow this project down significantly but I am happy for this to run over a couple of years if need be or is more likely to take. Its my own retirement present.

I want to make have a nice 28mm Napoleonic force again, and this time something that I have never owned, so no Saxons, French, British, Russians because I have had them in the past. Austria and Spain are also a no go, with both of these armies being painted on commission by me I do not relish doing either for myself far too much white..

That leaves Prussians, Minor nations, Italians and Wurttemburg but I have dismissed these in favour of Bavaria..

I am using the Ebelsberg 1809 Order of Battle as my reference for this project, which when completed will give me a very sizeable force to use in future games.
I have a thing for the Foundry Range of Bavarians so they will be making the bulk of my force, with some additions coming from the Perry miniatures range, although the latter are a little taller the elements I need from them are going to be on their own bases so should not look out of place.

VII (Bavarian) Corps

Marshal Francois Joseph Lefebvre

• Artillery Reserve: Colonel Calonge
  • Three 12-pdr position batteries (18 guns)
• 1st Bavarian Division: Lieutenant-General Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria
  • Brigade: General-Major Rechberg
    • 1st Habermann Light battalion
    • Leib Regiment (2 battalions)
    • 2nd Prince Royal Regiment (2 battalions)
  • Brigade: General-Major Stengel
    • 4th Salern Regiment (2 battalions)
    • 8th Duc Pius Regiment (2 battalions)
  • Cavalry Brigade: General-Major Zandt
    • Minuzzi Dragoon Regiment (2 squadrons)
    • Prince Royal Chevau-léger Regiment (4 squadrons)
  • Artillery: Two 6-pdr foot batteries, 6-pdr horse battery (18 guns)
• 2nd Bavarian Division: Lieutenant-General Karl Philipp von Wrede
  • Brigade: General-Major Minuzzi
    • 6th Laroche Light battalion
    • 3rd Prince Karl Regiment (2 battalions)
    • 13th Regiment (2 battalions)
  • Brigade: General-Major Beckers
    • 6th Duc Wilhelm Regiment (2 battalions)
    • 7th Löwenstein Regiment (2 battalions)
  • Cavalry Brigade: General-Major Preysing
    • König Chevau-léger Regiment (4 squadrons)
    • Leiningen Chevau-léger Regiment (4 squadrons)
  • Artillery: Two 6-pdr foot batteries, 6-pdr horse battery (18 guns)
• 3rd Bavarian Division: Lieutenant-General Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy
• Brigade: General-Major Siebein
  • 5th Buttler Light battalion
  • 9th Isenburg Regiment (2 battalions)
  • 10th Juncker Regiment (2 battalions)
• Brigade: General-Major Vincenti
  • 7th Günter Light battalion
  • 5th Regiment (2 battalions)
  • 14th Preysing Regiment (2 battalions)
• Cavalry Brigade: General-Major Seydewitz
  • Taxis Dragoon Regiment (4 squadrons)
  • Bubenhoven Chevau-léger Regiment (4 squadrons)
• Artillery: Two 6-pdr foot batteries, 6-pdr horse battery (18 guns)

I will use a 50% reduction to represent each artillery battery, so 3 guns and crew each. The infantry battalions will all be 24 figures. Cavalry will be in 12's, brigade commanders will be based singly while the divisional commands will have 2 or more figures. I have the total figure count at 1104 currently, counting mounted as 2 figs, guns at 3 figs, and infantry/ artillery crews singly
That leaves me now working out which version of Cornflower blue I prefer, the non historical wargamers light blue or the more accurate darker blue as shown in the image below..

Well that's all for now and thanks for reading.

Loki