Wargaming Eras

 

One of our Wargaming Club members has put together an excellent overview of the historical eras explored by wargamers. It is one of the best summaries of historical wargaming I have seen, highlighting the most common types of games played in each period. As a bonus, he has included photographs of his beautiful miniature collection.

Well worth a look!

Wargaming Workshop

Elegoo Centauri Carbon-First Impressions

Elegoo Centauri Carbon 48 hour Review

On June 2, I purchased and put myself in the queue for the new Elegoo FDM printer. This will be my 5th 3D Printer purchase, and the 3rd FDM printer. My last 3D printer was SWX2, this was pretty good printer and I got 2 1/2 years out of it. I had heavily modified it as well klipperising it but I kept on screwing around with it and final blew the motherboard. Time to throw it out as it was a bed slinger and the new CoreXY machines allow much faster speeds.

The most noise I heard on the internet was about the BambuLabs PS1 and the Elegoo Centauri Carbon. I knew that the Bambu was a solid printer as 3 of my friends had one but the price was at least twice that of the Elegoo. There was a sale in June at BambuLabs where I could order one for even less than the Elegoo but when I had difficulty ordering it and when it finally went though they automatically added an extra charge of $80 on PayPal with out informing me which took me a month to get back. I think in the sale they oversold and this was a computer glitch but it made me a bit uncomfortable with their processes.

So back to the Elegoo, my first printer was a Creality and the experience was poor and I am not too sure about their approach to Klipper OS. I have had a Elegoo Mars Resin Printer for a while now and it just works. I watched probably 30+ reviews and they were quite good. I am not looking to use exotic materials, it will be almost exclusively PLA. I wanted a CoreXY machine which ran on a form of Orca Slicer. What most impressed me was the release process, they started the release about a year ago and each release was in small numbers so they could get feedback. This allowed them to proactively fix issues with each release. I suspect my machine in a gen5 as the light and camera are improved, the packing was reinforced, many adjustments have been made to the software and the added materials were all quite useful.

It arrived 2 days ago; it was unpacked there was no damage, I removed 3 screws, turned it on, ran the 30 minute start up protocol and printed a benchy (15 min) withe the enclosed PLA. I then printed a benchy with some old Sunlu matt PLA. Both perfect. I ordered some Elegoo PLA+ and the roll came Saturday afternoon. So I started the testing various STL’s. I am doing terrain mostly. So that is where I focussed. I started with a large flat floor, no release or elephant’s foot A+, next a peaked roof, A+. I next went to very small prints (15mm) with no brims; fences upright, barrels with about a 2mm build plate contact as well as some more scatter pieces, A+. Finally multiple small pieces on one plate. No loss of prints.

I have to admit to being pleased, but this only 36 hours so more to do. I will update  my experience after a month.

I see no defects, 15 minute print

I prefer Orca Slicer, but the Elegoo Slicer allows you to paint your own tree supports

1/100 scale, these are tiny, printed without supports or brims.

Adventures with Contrast Paints

I bought 8-10 of these paints a couple of months ago and thought I would give them a go on some Games Workshop figures. I am building up an Elven based army for SAGA Age of Magic. These figures are from the plastic Warior Wood Elves box.

Contrast paints only, generally ok, but really to much pooling especially with the purple, the flesh colour did not work that well eiher, the browns are nice.

 

After they have been repainted with Citadel coulours and then washes.

 

So here is how they look based and matt varnished.

 

 

I have a sense that these figures were a poor choice to try out these paints on, they are nice enough  but the casts are a little weak. I suspect, I will not be buying more.

Shout Out to Old Guard Painters

About 6 months ago, I placed an order with Old Guard Painting Service in the Ukraine. Time to start expanding my Hundred Days force for the planned Waterloo scenario book for Général d'Armée. I have always wanted to game Quatre-Bras and for this I needed some Dutch-Belgians and of course Brunswickers.

The Spanish painter I was using seems to be planning to retire as he only paints the occasional 28mm figure now and the painter I was using in Thailand was just too fussy, driving me crazy with non-sensical questions!

I saw an advert on the TMP marketplace that had some 15mm Nassau for sale for a good price but when I checked they were not AB but Old Glory. The owner Vladimir, though did offer a pretty good price to paint what I wanted. I already had decided that I wanted Perponcher's 2nd Division in the Allied Order of Battle, First Corps. This gave me a nice mix of Belgian, Dutch and Nassau. I also added the 3rd light cavalry brigade under Merlen from the Netherlands Cavalry Division. And of course I wanted the full Brunswick Corp under the Black Duke.

I decided to order half of the 2 divisions to test the waters. I believe the order approached around 300 figures. I was asked to pick out what figures I wanted from the AB catalogue, and directed Vladimir to use the centjours website to use as an uniform reference. And that was it. I recieved the figures a couple of days ago and I have to say I was enormously pleased. First up are some photos.

Impressively packed with every unit identified as well as a packing list...

....identified down to the figure.

Overview, I did not want the skirmishers, artillery or command figures based, just the formed infantry and cavalry.

Brunswickers

Belgian Light Dragoons

Silly Billy, who I may let command Perponcher's Division.

Dutch Hussars

Belgian Line and Dutch Militia

Brunswick Hussars

The Black Duke

Well I have to base up the artillery, command figures as well as the skirmishers. But most, importantly I have to attach those Flagdude standards that I have most patiently kept on hand for the last 3 years!

Once this is done I will post up some more detailed photos of the units recieved. But maybe I should say a bit more about the service.

Old Guard Painters Review

Price 10/10

Ease of Ordering 10/10

Ease of Contact 10/10 all emails responded to within 24 hours if not sooner

Accuracy of Painting 10/10

Quality of Packing 10/10

Speed of Painting 9/10 Vladimir was a bit optimistic here quoting 3 months it was 5 (additional month for shipping)!

So I can recommend this painting service without reservation and I have already almost got together my next order.

Overall 10/10

Plast Craft Games WWII Buildings Modification

One of the great challenges of WWII skirmish wargaming is the number of buildings one needs. Many of the scenarios we have played have required up to 15-20 buildings. I started with the plastic Italeri which are quite nice but are a little big and also there are only 3-4 different models. I next went to 4-Ground MDF WWII buildings again quite nice and are almost as big as Italeri but again they really have only have one set in 1/72. They are also quite expensive. Both these manufacturers' building are more rural then urban. So the search was on for some inexpensive town buildings I could use. There are some resin buildings out there but they are a bit expensive and a lot of them do not have removable roofs.

A couple of years ago I came across some PVC buildings from Plast Craft Games in their EWAR line. These are very inexpensive 15/20mm buildings that come flat packed and unlike MDF have some degree of relief. They are about €10 each and take about an hour to assemble using superglue. You then paint them and they look pretty good but I found the paint rubbed off easily and they were a little  flimsy.

I had painted up 3 of them and had 4 left to assemble and paint and I decided to take a slightly different approach. My aim was to make them a little more sturdy and varied. Also as you can see there were little strips that had to be used on the corners that I found a bit of a pain. I felt the best approach was to apply a textured paint and/or filler. I experimented a bit and the result was certainly I believe an improvement but it did take a bit of experimentation to get it right. Here is the last building I put together.

A lot of pieces but once you put a couple together you can get through the assembly within an hour. I have never bothered with the windows. I like having the rifles sticking out.

The dormer roof is a little tricky

Floor and slide in roof to the right

I used wood filler, I find this much more sturdy then drywall compound

The chimney assembly illustrated the gaps that exist in the model.

Once the wood filler was applied it was painted white again and then the sand was sprinkled on the wet paint

Once dry painted white a second time.

Roof painted and then varnished with Army Painter then matt varnish. This was the best approach as you can see below. 

There was mis-steps along the way though as you can see below. I am a pretty rough modeler, a lot of the dry brushing is quite rough and at times over-applied. I certainly could have done a better job keeping the sand off the doors and scrapped out the openings a little better. But pristine looking building never have sat well with me, the buildings are in a battle zone, they should look a little tired and rough. So I am good with it.

All slightly different

This was my first approach, sand mixed with paint, as you can see it clumped and the walls ended up a little too textured.

This worked better, paint then when still wet sprinkle on fine sand, then when dry paint again with white. 

Some clumping around doors but came out OK

I am quite happy with the result as you can see they are very useful for skirmish wargaming as troops can be easily place inside. The building are certainly now much more durable.

This building actually has a ground 1st and second level

Roof removed as well as ground floor

Interestingly enough they now seem to have the same buildings that are pre-coloured, I will have to order some more.