Sunday 30 December 2018

Off the Workbench - Mike W,31/12/18

So as the year draws to a close I pick-up my paint rush again and start to exercise the mysterious arts once again!

This time it is as part of a global online, competition, so hopefully I won't fall flat on my face and I can bring some honour to the club!

The 'Analogue hobbies Painting Competition' runs until the end of March,  part of the process is submitting figures to be judged and awarded points each Monday, so these 'Off the Workbench' posts will tie into those weekly competition updates

What's On the Workbench 31/12/18

Well the workbench is actually fully loaded!

I have 22 x 28mm Assault Group Polish Hajduk Infantry for the Siege of Vienna 1683 project. These are currently undercoated and part painted, I actually need to acquire two more figures to complete the unit - I got these off eBay and whilst there was a good range of figures I'm short two musketeers.

28mm Assault Group Polish Hajduk Infantry

Likely I'll order some new figures form Assault Group - getting a pack of Hajduk musketeers and combine that with a larger order for 12 x 28mm Polish Pancerni cavalry.

Next on the workbench are 15 foot and 2 mounted 28mm  Foundry Mountain Men, these again are undercoated and will join the Texcans who are bravely fighting against Santa Anna's Mexican army. Again this batch came form eBay and strangely includes a Chinese gentleman armed with a Machette - I'm pretty sure there were no Chinese people at the Alamo but he can add colour to the Texan Independence  campaign!

28mm Foundry Mountain Men
and their comrades on foot....

Next up are another group of eBay finds, 6 x 28mm Ottoman Light Cavalry - actually they are Mamelukes from the Reiver Castings range, with them came three Ottoman mounted officers. Again all are undercoated and awaiting a lick of paint.

28mm Reiver Castings Ottoman Light Cavalry & Officers

Finally there are some 28mm Warlord Games, Croat Light Cavalry- these have been on the workbench for some weeks now, stalled and desperate to get completed. They are very nearly done so hopefully you'll see the end results soon.


What's Off the Workbench today...

Well so far nothing!

With Xmas this week I have had little time to do a lot of painting, although I have made good progress with the Polish infantry and am hopeful that they will be completed in time for the 7th January competition submission!

I've also made a start with the Mountain men and the Mamelukes.

Under the competition rules you are allowed to undercoat figures before the start date, so these are the batches that I had pre-prepared, Other figures still waiting to be added to the workbench include a number of 28mm Mexican units for Santa Anna's army,multiple 28mm 17th Century Franco-Dutch Wars / Siege of Vienna units plus a coupe of Cruel Seas Flotillas.

Thursday 20 December 2018

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge IX

So I have taken the plunge to enter into a Painting Competition and fly the SAS Wargamers flag for the club!

Luckily the competition does not focus 100% on quality, though I think my attempts are of  reasonable level in that area but it also awards points basis quantity - from what all our guys say to me,I seem to be able to bang out the figures at a good rate!

Competition runs form midnight tomorrow through to midnight 31st March (I believe), so you will see the return of the 'On The Workbench Posts' during this period as well as links to the Competition Website <here>

Thursday 13 December 2018

Warlord Games - 1:300 MTBs

Well I could bang on about being really busy at work and that with the days getting shorter and shorter and darker and darker as we head towards Xmas  - but the bottom line is that I haven't done much painting over the last few weeks...

I did finish a 3rd Squadron of Polish Winged Lancers - bringing up to full strength the first of 3 Hussar Brigades I plan to have in the collection but this took me nearly a month to get done, in fits and starts,all round a poor show...

What I have been able to paint with some satisfaction the other week was two E-Boats off the front cover of Wargames Illustrated and then after obtaining a set of MTBs off a duplicate magazine at start of week, I now have two matching MTBs.

I present these below, 2 x Warlord Games MTBs, 1/300 scale for their new Cruel Seas game, each sprue allows the creation of 1 x Type I and 1 x Type II Vosper MTB. Models are pictured here in the dark night of the English Channel, hunting for E-Boats....

Type I Vosper MTB, Starboard view

Type I Vosper MTB, Port view

Type II Vosper MTB, Port view

Type II Vosper MTB, Starboard view

Wednesday 12 December 2018

SAS Games Stats and Annual Review 2018

Its that time of the year when Steve 'Statto' Cast publishes his annual review of club activities. As ever we are recording it for posterity here fr all to see.

We acknowledge that there are contrary views on these 'official' stats - but thanks again to Steve for the work put in to compile the data.

Editor's Note: 25mm includes 28mm figures as well, Steve has yet to adjust his abacus to the new scale!
Definition of Categories

The Raw Stats by Week
Member attendance

Bookings by Club Member


Game Categories by week

Games put on by individual club members

Games put on by multiple club members

Games put on by club members,individually or as part of a group


Games by Period
Games by Sub-Period

Most Frequently used Rule Sets

Most Popular Figure Scales


Most Popular Venue

Tuesday 4 December 2018

The Alan Martin Collection

We have just published a catalogue of the the figures and terrain owned by our good friend Alan Martin, who was a member of the SAS Wargames group for many years.

Please feel free to follow the link below or at side of page to review his fine work and consider any purchases of that work for your own collections

The Alan Martin Collection <here>

Monday 3 December 2018