2017 a Year in Review

Here's a round up of the highlights of my gaming and painting year. I'd say it's perhaps been my busiest and most enjoyable yet with easily the most output by a wide margin. In no particular order;

French cavalry

In this project I worked to double my quota of French cavalry which required Gendarmes, Men at arms and Mounted Archers. The work required ranged from very laboured and intricately painted Gendarmes to converted / sculpted Men at arms and Mounted Archers.

This was a real labour of love which took several months and towards the end as I wanted the figures to be ready for a particular game I really felt the pressure to get them done.

It was certainly worth it as they are perhaps the unit that I am most proud of and they're very imposing on the battlefield. Moreover though it may seem somewhat idiosyncratic I'm especially pleased with the attention to detail and proportions of troop type, they have a historic rather than generic feel to them.  

Landsknechts in French Service

Staying with the French I was keen to have a unit of Landsknechts in French service. I seem to have to be in the Landsknecht zone to get them done but when I'm there I just don't notice the time pass. Again I've paid particular attention to detail and used historic sources. A year doesn't seem right without a Landsknecht project and you can never have too many ! 

Tudor Infantry

Slowly replacing my existing units with those in base coats as well as creating new units has been to my mind a necessity for the Tudor army.

The year began in a fairly laboured manner of converting every figure which took quite a while. However the kind support and encouragement from Oliver James of Steel Fist miniatures led this in a new direction with the creation of the Tudor Dollies which easily halved the time it took to create the figures. This then led to a brief foray into casting and making the figures available for sale. I've been really surprised with how well these have been received and where I've sent packages to.

Carts & Artillery

This was a fun project with multiple diversions. It began as the creation of a converted Tudor heavy bombard which then required a bespoke cart for which I ended up with 3 interchangeable loads. To round it off I then created a scene for a Wargame of pioneers and soldiers working to lift a mired gun from a river.

Wargames

What a year it has been for gaming. Where do I start, well the main focus this year along with Oliver Green has been to playtest and develop our amendments to Lion Rampant which has involved a lot of correspondence and some really fun gaming weekends throughout the year. I've also inflicted this upon Simon Chick both in Home and Away games which was great fun.

Most recently I've gone to the effort of getting some bespoke dice made to add to our games which I'm really looking forward to using.

Moving from skirmishes to big battles I was invited by Michael Perry to Nottingham to take part in an excellent Franco Tudor game in the Summer which was an absolute pleasure and a great social occasion -  I think I even managed it without requiring morning after paracetomol this year !

Last but not least I've had lots of games as part of what I have titled the Jeff's shed Wargames Association here in South Wales. True mini games from a variety of periods with a beer and general catch up.

That's just about everything of note, have a look back over the blog posts of the year if you're interested in more of the detail. It's been a blast and I'm looking forward to where 2018 will take me.

If you're interested in some dice or dollies drop me an email;

stum_23@hotmail.com