ImagiNation: A new unit marches out from the depot

I've been able to pump out another battalion without having to paint a single figure.  Thank god I accidentally ordered some extra figures from Front Rank and painted them up as test models (actually, I think they got a better paint job then most of my batch painted ones).  Movement trays ordered from Warbases.co.uk today, so I will have to post up a quick review once I receive the epic amount that I ordered.

Primo Battaglione della Guardia della città di Campari

Figures: Crusader USA Hungarian Fusiliers

Originally I had designed this unit to be a militia regiment raised from towns around the fictitious capital of the Duchy of Libations and I am going to be continuing with this trend.  Before its restructuring, this unit was comprised of two "companies" of 10 figures, a command and a 8" siege mortar (completely useless in game, which is why I purchased one...).  The 10 figure groups are rather ungainly on the table, perfect for the only basically trained conscripts.  In gaming terms, the Gardia della città di Campari (translates in English to Guard of the City of Campari) will be a Conscript Regular Infantry regiment.

 As usual, broken down into the four different companies.

So much facial hair...

In other news, a large box arrived at my parents place (preferred shipping location due to the "accidental" loses that the military post office sustains in great numbers) from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.  I purchased a large number of trees from them at HistoriCon, but the number of trees in the package did not match what was listed on the label, so they kindly sent me some to make up the difference.  I will be posting up a quick review on them at a later date, still waiting on getting a Dremel so I can cut up some bases for them.

ImagiNation: Right of Line

Well, as promised here some pictures of the first of my reorganized units for the Duchy of Libations.

Primo Battaglione di Reggimento di Fanteria di Sambuca

Figures: Crusader USA Austrian Fusiliers

Shown in a closed ranks.  This will be what the battalion looks like when formed up on the table.

Broken into the four "Companies" that will each be on separate movement trays.

The right of line "company" contains the senior NCO model, one "company" is the command stand.

The third and four "companies" are just bog standard infantry models.

ImagiNation: Standing at a crossroad

It has now been a little over a year since I started my first ImagiNation army and after a lot of painting and thinking, I have reached a crossroad in my project.  Originally I based and structured my project for a modified version of Too Fat Lardies Sharp Practice ruleset.  Originally meant for the Napoleonic period of warfare, it was not the best ruleset to use with mid-18th Century style warfare (IE: Seven Years War).  What with the release of Sam Mustafa's Maurice ruleset and its adoption as my current one, I have been thinking hard on the best way to structure my project.  This is the crossroad I am speaking of.

I have taken the leap of faith and decided to completely restructure how each unit I field is organized.  Instead of fielding multiple "companies" of 6, 8 or 10 figures (each of these being represented as "unit" in Maurice), I am going to be fielding standard sized units of 16 figures, with command included in this number.  For the time being, I will be fielding regiments of two battalions, for a total of 32 figures a battalion.

I won't be rebasing my miniatures, as having them individually based on 25mm round bases allows me to restructure my army at any time in order to play with other ImagiNation gamers.  For ease of movement I will be getting custom made a LARGE number of 2x2 movement trays with again using a standard 60mm x 60mm size as Maurice uses Base Size to determine movement.  Only slight snag to this will be my Light Skirmish unit, which will have custom 2x2 skirmish movement trays.  I will count these as being 60mm x 60mm in any case to keep movement simple.

In my next post I will show off the first completed battalion for my ImagiNation project.

ImagiNation: Boom!

After finishing up another batch of figures for my ImagiNation project, I decided to switch gears slightly and start working on some terrain and other gaming items.  First of the painting desk is the prototype for some explosion markers.

Like some wargamers, I have a penchante to add lots of theatrics to my games and terrain.  While effectively useless other then looking cool, explosion markers add just that little "je ne sais quoi?" to a table that attracts the eye.

I'm not 100% satisfied with how it turned out and I learned some valuable lessons.  I most definitely need to spray them down with watered down PVC glue to harden them and make it easier to paint.

I started off with 50mm lazer cut wooden bases, fixed cut pieces of sprues with some modeling clay and then glued on Woodland Scenics clump-foliage.  Now here is where I should have sprayed the whole marker down in PVC glue, but I skipped it to just hit it with black paint.  A quick dry-brushing and some fire painted in and bobs your uncle.

Does not look all that bad in photo.  On the next run of these markers I'm going to have to beef up the bottom section as its a little bit sparse.

Next to a 28mm Crusader figure for scale.  I might look a little small, but its the angle and these markers are built to represent a 3pdr.  I understand that historically the canon balls were solid shot during this period, but this is ImagiNation, so I can do what I want!