With us now into one full month of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, progress on the wargaming front has been rather poor to say the least. Given the current situation it's not a big deal, but I had hoped to get painting and gaming in. This hasn't happened for a variety of reasons, but mainly due to the glorious weather we have been having of late alongside having to try and maintain social distancing within our household.
This aside I have at least been able to get some reading in, which is always a pleasure as well as some progress on the terrain front. Not much I admit but something I have been meaning to do for ages, especially as I need some suitable BUAs for a forthcoming ImagiNations campaign with Dave, once the lockdown is lifted.
The BUAs in question are for my Leven Miniatures Italian buildings, which I have had painted for sometime now. They are lovely sculpts and paint up rather nicely. However as with my recent ACW basing, they work better both visually and from a games point of view if they have a base to sit upon. This makes it easier to decide what counts as a BUA in a variety of rules and, should one need to, where the house is for more skirmish level games.
So a week or so ago I made a concerted effort to cut and add flock etc to some 2mm MDF bases that I had sitting around for just this purpose. I made them look rural rather than being part of a large town etc, as it fits in better with the sort of games I play. As the buildings are free standing, there is no reason I could not make more bases that would look more urban. The results of my efforts can be seen below:
I hope to be able to get some games in with them soon, as I have some ideas for a WWII mini-campaign using Blitzkreig Commander, probably set on the Italian mainland rather than Sicily, which I gamed a lot before. This will be played out on a 2' x 2' table, as it is the easiest to set up given the current restrictions within our household.
Alongside this I have a plan to try out a variety of rulesets over different periods using the same broad scenario and table layout, so I can compare like-with-like as it were. More on this in the coming weeks with luck...
All the based buildings have come up a treat.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter and glad you liked them.
DeleteThese are handsome village buildings. Placing the one building at an angle to the BUA perimeter is a nice touch. This simple rotation adds a lot of interest to the whole composition.
ReplyDeleteI very much look forward to your rules’ comparison. What gaming period do you have on tap for these trials?
They are nice sculpts Jonathan, that's for sure. Putting buildings on an angle makes a big difference as you so, rather like having roads running corner to corner on a baord, just to give a different visual dynamic.
DeletePerios wise I'm looking at 'Dark Ages', Late Medieval/Pike & Shotte as well as Napoleonics. Rules wise a real pot pourri, inspired by the Neil Thomas' elegant rules and seeing how they compare to other sets. I'm hoping I will find it useful and hopefully the wider audience will too.
Steve, really nice looking BUA's. The Leven stuff is lovely. I went to a wargame show a few years ago and they were there with all their building in display cases and the full range is just amazing.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the rule comparison post. i like those and have just started putting together the bare bones of two such posts myself ..... one of which needs some more painting (boo-hiss), but that may off the table today and get varnished tomorrow.
The glorious weather does at least mean varnishing is easier to do.
Thanks Norm and seeing the stuff 'in the flesh' can be dangerous on the wallet to say the least, especially if they are painted up nicely, which is often the case.
DeleteI look forward to reading your posts too and I imagine a lot of us are taking the time to figure out what really works for us and what doesn't.
The fine weather does make basing up so quick as the glue dries nice and quickly. Painting however is less easy as our house has been 20 degrees plus each evening, making the paint on the pallete dry to quickly.
Great post Steve I had my eye on the Leven Miniatures buildings. I was looking at some of their modern stuff, how well does it compare in scale to Timecast?
ReplyDeleteCheers
Stu
Thanks Stu. I've only had Timecast 15mm stuff, so can't say how their 6mm range compares with Leven Miniatures. I've found it best to stick with one manufacturer on the buildings front so everything fits together on the visual front.
DeleteSome splendid buildings here!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil and their buildings are rather nice.
DeleteThose look great, Steve, and looking forward to a BKC mini-campaign very much! But why pick between Sicily and mainland, just do both! ;)
ReplyDeleteV/R,
Jack
Thanks Jack and it could be fun to link a retreat from Sicily and then invasion of the mainland. Time to get the thinking cap on...
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