Storm and Conquest!

Club meeting Feb 2012

2012-02-23T15:20:00.004-08:00

The Valiant Stormer's first club meet of the year was quite well attended with three games running, the two Chris's and two Dave's played Might and Reason using Dave W very fine 7YW armies, Greg, Leigh, and Ian played a Pulp VBCW game and Boyd and myself ran out his recently completed Brunswicker's.

Might and Reason game

Very British Civil War

Napoleonic

cheers

Matt

The Franks are coming

2012-02-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

Off the desk for the "Aftermath" competition on the clubs forum some foundry Franks, I will be using them for markers for games.

Pontic slave skirmishers

2012-02-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

Digging though my lead pile the other night looking for some suitable figures for my entries into the "Wargaming Australis" 'Aftermath' a came across these figs which I started some time last year, so I dug them out, based them and painted on a simple cloth uniform, and added some mixed shields and javelins all in one night!

I wanted them to depict the freed slaves from any of the former roman cities when Mithridates freed the slaves who had killed their roman masters when he invaded Anatolia.

The figures are mixed Gripping Beast and a single Foundry.

cheers

Matt

Cancon 2012

2012-01-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

Another CANCON come and gone,

On Friday I was running late to set up the trade stand arrived about 9:30, I had the tables and the stock so it was looking very bare!!! This year Matt C came down from Sunny Queensland and ran the Wartime stand allowing us both to mingle and catch up with a lot of mates and have a look around the trade stalls ourselves along with manning the stall.

A large number of people traveled from all over OZ, New Zealand and the south Pacific to Australia's largest wargames convention. The traders stalls all seemed to be busy and were busting at the seams with stock. I think the convention was a little down on numbers this year due to Australia day not being on the Thursday, not the Friday or Monday.

A few of the club members were involved with running some fine participation games,

Gregory ran out his tried and trusted Alamo,

Dave W put on two days of 15mm Might and Reason WAS games

and Mark and John ran the 1812 game

and Craig ran a Viking Saga game.

Matt C and I had decided to run a Force on Force participation game with 20mm Wartime miniatures on the Sunday, I built the tables and painted the minis and ran the game while Matt manned the stall. The rest of the pics are on my modern blog.

The Melbourne boys also ran out two huge ECW games using a Black Powder variation apparently due for release soon.

and a very fine Borodino game in 6mm

Next Year the club members are thinking about running a Russian themed participation games, one period of Russian front gaming for each of the three days, planning are in the early stages, so more discussion to be done..........To sum up Cancon was a success as usual, I still would like to see some changes regarding layout of the trade stalls and the quality of the participation games, moving the trade and participation games into the middle hall (air conditioned!) move the card gamer's upstairs and that way more room around each of the competition tables, the Vice president of the CGS committee knows my thoughts so I will leave it there.......and see you all next year.

cheers

Matt

More WOTR

2012-01-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well I have been painting some Crusader and Perry miniatures for Andrew for his FOG/WAB WOTR army and these guys came off the table just after Christmas. I managed to take a selection of pictures of his last four units before I drop them off. I have painted about 120 figures for him in the last two months so I am excited to finish the infantry and get on painting some of my own stuff, although I hear he has some cavalry waiting for me to pick up at Cancon next weekend.

I was very surprised to see that the Crusader WOTR range fit Perry plastics perfectly and are a pleasure to paint, Andrew also used his spare polearms from the perry plastic sets to add to the crusader figures along with some North Star pikes so he has two units of pike and four polearmed units, I am a little disappointed in the Men at Arms figures but added into a mixed plastic and metal Perry unit it will have some more variation.

My favourite sculpts are the unarmoured Pike/polearmed miniatures, as wargamers playing comps etc we really don't represent the majority of troops on the medieval battlefield, the crap armed and unarmoured peasants, something I will add to my next unit for my WOTR army.

cheers

Matt

Leutnant Hans Kirschstein Jasta 6

2012-01-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

off the production line this week
Leutnant Hans Kirschstein in his dazzle camo, a lovely Roden DR1 in 1/72nd scale. Hand painted stripes as I couldn't find my masking tape!

cheers

matt

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New year

2011-12-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas to all of my mates and fellow aussie and international gamers, see you all in the New year!

Hope you all have your miniature goals fixed for the new year and St Nicolas is good to you!

cheers
matt

Jasta 6 WIP

2011-12-11T20:10:00.001-08:00

So I have decided to get my final build in for the year by adding another Jasta to my growing 1/72nd scale WW1 collection. I have decided to do Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 6 (who flew with Richthofen jasta 11 in Jagdgeschwader 1). The squadron would remain part of the Flying Circus for the rest of the war. In June, July, and August of 1917, the Jasta lost a commanding officer per month to enemy action. They had been credited with 196 confirmed aerial victories, at the cost of ten pilots KIA, 9 WIA, two killed in flying accidents, four Injured in flying accidents, and two pilots taken POW.

Commanding Officers

Josef Wulff: 28 August 1916 - 1 May 1917

Leutnant Fritz Otto Bernert: 1 May 1917 - 9 June 1917

Oberleutnant Eduard Ritter von Dostler: 24 June 1917 - KIA 21 August 1917

Leutnant de Reserves Hans Ritter von Adam: 22 August 1917 - KIA 15 November 1917

Oberleutnant Wilhelm Reinhard: 16 November 1917 - 22 April 1918

Leutnant de Reserves Johannes Janzen: 28 April 1918 - POW 9 June 1918

Leutnant de Reserves Hans Kirschstein: 10 June 1918 - KIFA 16 July 1918

Leutnant de Reserves Paul Wenzel (Acting): 19 July 1918 - WIA 11 August 1918

Leutnant de Reserves Richard Wenzl (Acting): 11 August 1918 - 1 September 1918

Leutnant de Reserves Ulrich Neckel: 1 September - 11 November 1918

I will build one Fokker DR1, one DVII and one DVIII for the jasta at this stage, I will be following the images below as a guide!

Leutnant Hans Kirschstein

Leutnant Richard Wenzl

Leutnant Fritz Schliewen

cheers

matt

French Gendarmes d'ordonnance

2011-11-30T12:31:00.001-08:00

out of the oven on the weekend some of Eureka's fine Gendarmes, these figures are superb and have a large number of variations due to the plug in weapon arm and plumes a real plus for the peons who like variation in their armies. I tried to tie the unit together primarily using red as the main colour so they look like a unit. Hopefully Joe will use them well in his French Army!

cheers

matt

Pontic Thorakitai (imitation legionary's)

2011-11-29T12:23:00.001-08:00

After Mithridates VI armies battlefield failure against the Romans in the second Mithridatic War, it prompted a radical change in his army. He almost replaced all of his phalangite units with thorakitai. Roman authors thought he was copying the Roman method (as he had a number of Roman advisors), but thorakitai had existed in eastern armies since the 3rd century BC, normally guarding the flanks of the phalangites or operating as heavy skirmishers, fighting with a large shield, short sword, thrusting spear and javelin. Mithridates' primary reforms increased their numbers and the quality of training. The Pontic thorakitai, while giving a good account in battle, ultimately they were defeated by the legionary's led by Lucullus in the third and final war.

This unit will join my Pontic army and also be suitable for my other earlier Successor Army (Antiochus III the Great) as the thorakitai guard perhaps. As with the rest of my Pontic army I have continued with the Greek mythology for the unit, so this unit has a image of a Calydonian Boar on its shields (VVV decals) and on the banner (hand painted). The figures are from Gripping Beast veteran Carthaginians range, although I have added some roman pilums into the throwing hands (I may possibly go back and replace with just javelins).

cheers

matt

A Gruesome Collection

2011-11-25T03:45:00.001-08:00

A gruesome collection of heads from the Foundry Thracian Collection, I will use it as a marker for WAB some time in the future!

cheers
matt

Landsknechte Artillery

2011-11-25T03:02:00.001-08:00

Out of the oven last week also some artillery. The Landsknechte mercenaries had artillery so finding suitable figures was a pain until I thought of Games Workshop. Some of their fantasy ranges are quite fanciful and over the top (to much accessories) but I managed to get some earlier GW miniatures that fit well for renaissance miniatures, and as a added bonus I like the gun also! GW sculptors do some very fine faces and I enjoyed painting them very much. The photos were taken at night so I may replace them with some daylight ones later next week.

cheers

Matt

Equites Exploratores

2011-11-25T02:45:00.001-08:00

Finished some late Romans from A & A, they are just beautiful to paint and really look good, I remember drawing the shield from some source but or the life of me cannot remember where I seen it. I searched the Notitia Dignitatum but no luck. I will continue to look around in my research books but until then they will remain unnamed!

Cheers
Matt

More Saxons

2011-11-23T13:41:00.001-08:00

Well some more dark age Saxons out of the oven last week, these are from the crusader range, very nice models, the open hands are the only thing that annoys me as I prefer to drill out hands for spears rather than lay it in a open hand which tends to allow weapons to be knocked out under handling, all of the shields have been hand painted. These figs are actually for a customer in QLD and will end up on impetus bases beating up Vikings and Normans!!!!

cheers
matt

Australian Napoleonic Congress 2011

2011-11-22T00:44:00.001-08:00

Well another congress is done and dusted, a great weekend of gaming and chatting and buying of Napoleonic's was had. Saturday had four games and Sunday three very fine participation games for people to join in.

On Saturday Colin, Richard and myself played two peninsular games using Colin's very fine french ( Perry's) and Nathan's(superb front rank), Richards (yes more Front rank) . Mark and John Primrose put on the 1812 War games using a mix of figures from foundry and front rank. The Wollongong boys lead by Sparker with Marks fine peninsular terrain put on a very fine Albuera. Craig and Boyd hosted the Napoleonic Naval games which were over very quickly with lots of ships colliding and and on fire!

On Sunday Colin, Alan, both Richards, Ian, Ralph, Sam and myself played Gebora a epic cavalry clash happened on one of the flanks with 9 Spanish and 11 French Cavalry regts(of 24 or more each) having at each other the french coming away with a victory but were well spent, the French Infantry failed to push the Spanish off the hill so a minor win for the Spanish

Colin's French Corps on Parade

Naval Game Battle of Tamatave (Trafalger)

Battle of Tippecanoe (Brother against Brother)

Albuera 1811(Black Powder)

Lundy's Lane 1812 (shako 2)

Gebora 1811 (Grand Manner)

All of that wonderful cavalry

The Spanish Stand

The french Regts become shaken and disorderd

More pics are on my Napoleonic blog here

napoleonic kriegspielers

cheers

matt

Napoleonic's Flavour of the month!

2011-11-17T21:41:00.001-08:00

Well the Australian Napoleonic Congress is on this weekend so their has been a mad rush to get everything ready, I managed to paint 40 Americans for the skirmish game and 24 hussars so not to bad but not as much as I wanted to do! I went down and helped Colin try to finish Hougomont for the Congress, but we failed when I got sick on the weekend, so we lost two nights and days of construction, hopefully we will get it done before Christmas! Looking forward to a big weekend of Napoleonic gaming and catching up with some mates for lunch, dinner and a few drinks! madly trying to finish some terrain for Sunday's game so I best go!

cheers matt

Warwick Gold Cup Winner 2011

2011-10-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

And now for a off topic post ................A big congratulations to my brother Tom Williamson who won the Warwick Gold cup on the weekend on his horse "Serene Acres". The Black Toyota Warwick Gold Cup is Australia's premier campdrafting event with prizemoney and trophies to the value of $76,370.

When I was younger my parents dragged my brother and sisters and myself all over northern NSW and southern Queensland competing in this unique Australian horse sport. Tom has always been competitive and has won a lot of campdrafting events in his life (I have won two!) , this event has been at the top of his dream list to win, to top it off he won the event on his 40th birthday!!!!!!

Tom currently is the CEO of the family farming enterprises and runs his own Quarter Horse and Australian Stock Horse stud "Moore Park" at Pinkett NSW, standing a number of QH and ASH Stallions.

Cheers

matt

Landsknechte "Die schwarze bande"

2011-10-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

Off the painting table this week are some Landsknechte pike blocks that I have been working on for a few weeks on and off. I have decided to have them in French service so all carry the cross of St Denis on their flags except the Black band...who were the easiest to paint! I have also added multi-coloured pikes for a bit of extra colour, the Old glory Landsknechte pikemen are quite nice and rank up well. I also decided to add a command group from some of the leftovers. I have based them on 60 x 60 bases so they can be used for Impetus and WAB AOC. I still have a handgunners, swordsmen, Gendarmes, a war wagon, some more infantry types and a cannon to complete the army.

cheers
Matt

Paddle Steamer

2011-10-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

Nathan from Lonely Gamer's is moving back to Queensland in December so I decided to scratch build a paddle steamer for him for his Sudan games, I think I built it in a bit over a day, I gave it to him at MOAB, so hopefully he will get some paint on it soon!

The base is from balsa

building and shaping the paddle frame

the roof and wardrooms

the completed model, the stacks are party whistles and the rails are pins with fine metal thread, my photo of the front half was to blurry :(

cheers

Matt

Congrats Mark

2011-10-25T00:10:00.000-07:00

A Big Congratulations must go out to a fellow Goulburn Valiant Stormer and damn fine painter Mark Soley for his efforts in the Games Workshop 2011 Australian Golden Demon Awards. Mark has always been a cracking painter and has really improved out of sight in the last 8 years. One day he may return from the dark side!!!!!!

Fantasy Single Miniature
Gold ~ Sebastian A ~ Banshee
Silver ~ Chaos Sorcerer
Bronze~ Mark Soley ~ Savage Orc

And in the Open Competition his excellent Diorama "Kreig Gas mask Dog"

Gold - Mark Soley

Silver- Mike I - Stormboss

Bronze- Rodger B - Ultramarine

Cheers

Matt

Big Game Hunters

2011-10-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

Some recent figs off the table includes some big game hunters I bought from our clubs last swap meet, I will be using them in our pulp games......adventures and VBCW

ACW Williamsburg Club Game

2011-10-20T04:09:00.000-07:00

Goulburn Valiant Stormers played a 28mm ACW game at the weekend club meet using Johnny Reb III rules. The game was straight out of the scenario book based on the Williamsburg Peninsula campaign. The game consisted of a flank attack by two Union brigades on a redoubt in which there was a large gun. It was a great opportunity for Greg B to place his recently finished 8" Columbiad emplacement. The game lasted nine turns out of a possible fifteen turns and was a resounding success for the Union who broke the Confederate line and forced to the Rebs to retreat in disorder..........another loss for the confederacy!

MOAB 2011 Wild West

2011-10-12T03:57:00.000-07:00

Well MOAB has come and gone again this year, the biggest convention in Sydney usually is really busy but this year it was very quite, I would say about 40% down on numbers through the doors, good old GW decided to hold games day on the Saturday so I suspect that restricted a large number of entrants in 40k, Warhammer, Bloodbowl and FOW competition. Also the Australian Rugby League, Australian Rules, Rugby Union World Cup and the Football (Soccer)Grand finals all on the same weekend would not of helped.

Chris Lloyd and me decided to run a Wild West participation game, both days were well attended with some funny outcomes for some the games. A big thanks to those who joined in and to Nathan for taking the pics (as I forget my camera). My daughter is making some signage for the Sarissa Precision buildings I probably will make them available as a PDF at some stage in the future. The Rules we used were "Gutshot" which are simple and easy for new players to pick up.

Click for picture enlargement

(contrary to comments it is a thumbs up, not a picnic bar!!!!)

the street scape

(the Gypsy Jokers ride through town......the Sheriff and his men sorted them out quick smart!!)

(the 1870s ......7/11)

he was a fine man...........once

cheers
matt

"It Never Snows In September" Arnhem Campaign Weekend

2011-09-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend, I would like to thank all those members and visitors of the GVS club to our Arnhem weekend, special thanks to Richard my fellow conspirator and to the players in no particular order Andrew, Ian, Chris, Greg, Peter, Todd, Mick and Bruce.

A complete range of pics are here

Arnhem

http://kampfgruppewillow.blogspot.com/2011/09/it-never-snows-in-september-arnhem.html

Valkenswaard

http://kampfgruppewillow.blogspot.com/2011/09/valkenswaard-table-it-never-snows-in.html

Club meeting August 2011

2011-08-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

The Goulburn Valiant Stormer's Club meet was very well attended on the weekend with three great games on the tables.

Might and Reason Pangean campaign game the rest are here

Hail Caesar game, Celts/Germans vs Romans Craig and my figs

And Boyd and myself played WW2 the rest of the ww2 game and battle report are here

cheers

matt