Alexandria, a city scoured.

My most humble apologies for not posting this sooner, but life has a way of being hectic when you least need it to be. But anyway, on to THE blog post about our Guns of April game at AdeptiCon 2014.

As we infrequently posted before the event, we chose to tackle a skirmish project for this year. Something that I feel was a double-edged sword. By electing to have everyone only paint 10-12 models (after our 120-150 model efforts the last few years) we could cut everyone's preparation time considerably, but this also meant that there wasn't that big rush of excitement as massive armies neared completion. Additionally, when you zoom in on skirmish action you must dial up the detail of the terrain. Our previous efforts (Salamanca 1812 and Gettysburg 1863) were relatively sparse on terrain, but I had a vision for Alexandria 1801 that I really wanted to see come to life. This meant that Alex Landing, Rob Chandler, and I had loads of work to do to pull it off successfully. When this crunch time  arrived, we were simply too busy doing that we had no time to take photos and actively promote a sense of excitement amongst the rest of the team. That's all really a time management issue that we need to keep an eye on for future projects.

The end result, however, looks absolutely spectacular and completely fits with what I had in mind. I only wish I had taken as much time and care over the gaming preparations as I did the terrain.

Here are some photos from the night, captioned as appropriate.

Two French Hussars duel across the rooftops of Alexandria.

Ottoman Turks (painted by Tim Kulinski) head into a bazaar to combat the French.

Ottoman Turks (painted by Jamie Welling) advance through the "rug district".

More Ottoman Turks (painted by Tim Kulinski) cautiously advance..

Men of the French Dromedary Corps (painted by me) prepare for a firefight.

The French Dromedary Corps (painted by me) lope forward in front of the mansion of a wealthy merchant.

Crewman from the Royal Navy (painted by Rob Chandler) are in place to defend their building.

His Majesty's Marines stand atop another mansion (painted by Rob Chandler) waiting for the French to approach.

Leaping from balcony to balcony, these French Dragoons (painted by Merle Delinger) rush into combat with the British.

Everyone takes a break for some well-earned Chicago deep dish pizza.

A French Cavalry force of Dragoons, painted by Merle Delinger.

A French Infantry force (from the 22me Demi-Brigade de Legere), painted by me.

Crewman from the French Navy, painted by Alex Akers.

Crewman from the Royal Navy and His Majesty's Marines, painted by Rob Chandler. 

Ottoman Turks, painted by Jamie Welling.

Obviously I'd like to thank everyone involved in this game: the members of the Guns of April, Lon Weiss from Brigade Games (for sponsoring the event), Beth Landing (Alex's wife) for creating the rugs and 40+ throw pillows that were scattered around the table (each hand-stitched and filled with sand), and Alex Landing of Ironheart Artisans for all his great work designing the buildings that were the standout feature of the table.

Alex plans on having laser-cut MDF kits of these buildings available from his website in early May. I'll be sure to let you know when they are available.

Cheers
Dave

For England, for home, and for the prize!

Well folks here we are back again. Presenting our projects for the 2014 installment of the Guns of April ! As you all have seen we are covering skirmish sized warbands for Napoleon in Egypt. Unlike last year where I posted numerous photos of the ACW project over many months, I decided to just make one post due to the smaller scope of this project.

For this years project I have the privalge to present you with my take on a British Royal Navy landing party with a detachment of  Royal Marines. Below are some shots of the landing parties and Marines. The miniatures I used this year were from a few manufacturers. The Royal Navy officers and Jack Tars are from Brigade Games. The Royal Marines are a combo of Perry Miniatures plastic British Line Infantry with white metal Royal Marine heads from Victrix LTD. 

I hope you enjoy the photos and until next time. Keep the paint flying!

French Infantry Warband

Even though we've been a bit quiet lately, I know that all the members of the Guns Of April have been preparing for the "Napoleon in Egypt" game at AdeptiCon 2014. Here are the French Infantry models I've been working on over the last couple of months.

Above are a pair of grenadiers flanking a sergeant from the 69me Demi-Brigade de Ligne. The grenadiers are from Victrix, the sergeant is the dismounted Dromedary standard bearer from Brigade Games.

Here are three fusiliers from the 69me Demi-Brigade de Ligne, from Brigade Games' range of excellent  Napoleonic miniatures.

Here are three chasseurs from the 22me Demi--Brigade de Legere

Three of the four French savants from Brigade. Excellent miniatures that will be very handy in our games. The fourth savant will end up on a vignette I'm planning to give away on the night : )

And six French sailors. Four of these are from Brigade's Napoleonic range, and the other two (rear center and rear right) are from a Victorian range by Brigade, but they certainly fit in.

And here's a look at all of the French Infantry I've painted up so far. These will be good for at least two Infantry warbands in our AdeptiCon gaming.

I hope you like them : )

Cheers
Dave