Liebster Blog Award

Justin at the royalistroundhead has very kindly nominated me for the Liebster award (check out his blog - great stuff). Now I must admit it feels rather nice to be nominated by a fellow blogger and it means that at least people are reading what I write. Now as part of accepting this award is that I must nominate up to 11 other blogs. Now this is tricky as many that I would have chosen have already received nominations. So here goes in no particular order

caliban-somewhen - some great Punic war stuff on here
jayswargamingmadness - plenty of eye candy
The blog with no name - some excellent 6mm stuff
thenorthumbrianwargamer - some top quality brushwork
dux-homunculorum - some great ww2 stuff at the moment
christopher-bunkerhill - some great painting on here

Sorry if I have missed anyone as not intentional. I read hundreds of different blogs and they all have some excellent stuff on them. just check out my blog list in the side bar.

Now on to the questions

Why did you start blogging?
Like lots of others it was my attempt to organise my gaming habits and thoughts.  What I hadn't anticipated was the community of bloggers that was out there and the links you make.

If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?
I would love to see more local hobby shops, just so that you can browse around and chat to others. One of the downsides of the Internet

What is best in life? 
Got to be family and health

Fame or fortune? 
Fortune...then I can ensure my family are protected.

What miniatures are you most proud of having painted? 
Well not being the best painter in the world, this is a difficult one. They would have to be my 10mm AWI stuff that I did. first time painting in that scale and well chuffed with my efforts....shame I then sold them..

How do you deal with burn out?
We it comes to painting I think regular breaks are important and having a variety of projects on the go. For gaming sometimes its great to just be a player and let someone else worry about the rules and scenarios

Why is a raven like a writing desk? 
Not a clue on this one, most be missing something here

Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Wars.

If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be? 

Hmmm....

28mm...Gripping Beast
15mm...Peter Pig
10mm...Pendraken

What is your favourite takeaway?
Got to be a Chinese

More Napoleonic madness

As the very unimaginative title suggest, I've been working on some more Austrians for my 1809 campaign. Though progress has slowed somewhat, mainly due to being busy with work. The first regiment is the 26th or Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, these were the last batch of my Bluemoon figures.

26th Regiment

26th Regiment

Sorry the pictures are not the best as I took these with my mobile as time was pressing. The flag is from Warflag and the mdf base is from Warbase. The next regiment is the first of my 2 Grenadier battalions. These figures are all from Warrior, highly recommended, ordered on a Saturday, received on the Wednesday and it was over a bank holiday weekend. These guys represent the battalion under Nissel which was made up of the grenadier companies from the 15th, 28th and 57th. I've really enjoyed painting these, very easy to do.

Nissel Grenadiers

Nissel Grenadiers

Nissel Grenadiers

Next to lead my Austrians I have painted up a number of command figures. These are all from Warmodelling apart from the chap on the right who is from Warrior.

Austrian Generals

Now at the club a couple of weeks a go I actually managed to get a game in with my collection using the Black Powder rules. I had originally set it up for the bridges scenario, expecting to be the umpire as usual. However I actually got to play head to head with Tom. Tom took on the Westphalians defending the bridges while I attacked with the Austrians. It was a short and bloody affair with my right hand brigade eventually smashing through the Westphalian position to capture one of the bridges. I did manage a couple of photos of the game and sorry not much of a write up.

Edge of my right flank

Austrians pushing through the centre

Decisive breakthrough

So what next, well I have the second Grenadier battalion already undercoated so hope to get them finished this week. I also picked up a bargain on EBay for some Old Glory figures which will give me 2 more Line Battalions and another Jager regiment. After this I will need to bring the cavalry up to strength with another Dragoon regiment and possibly a couple of light cavalry regiments. After this it will be back to the Westphalians to finish off some cavalry and then possibly a couple of French infantry brigades. This madness will never end.

More Austrians

I find myself on a bit of a roll with these. This is the second regiment I have managed to complete over the last few days with a third regiment already undercoated and ready for the paint brush. This regiment is the 37th or Auffenberg's regiment. The figures are all from Bluemoon, very characterful figures that paint up really well. The flag as usual is from the Warflag site.

Auffenberg's regiment

Regiment in line

Once I get the next regiment done I will have enough for a small division of 2 brigades. I already have plans to expand these and have ordered some figures from Warrior Miniatures to make up 2 regiments of Grenadiers to act as a small reserve brigade. After this I will look to add a couple more cavalry regiments, possibly some Uhlans and more dragoons. I will also need to put in an order with Warbases as I have typically run out of the ones I need.

Austrian reinforcements

After spending time painting up Ottomans and Poles I decided it was time to try and finish off the remaining Austrian troops that I have for the 1809 campaign. So here they are the first of 3 line infantry regiments. These are the 16th or Erzherzog Rudolf's regiment. I simply chose these as they have violet facings. The figures are a mix of Bluemoon and Campaign miniatures. They have mixed together quite well and I like the look of units with variety of poses.

Erzherzog Rudolf's regiment

In line

The flag is from Warflag and the bases as usual from Warbases. Unlike my other regiments these are only 24 figure strong compared to 32. I may get around to adding the remaining 8 figures in the future (miss count when ordering). Next I have the other 2 line regiments to make a start on.