From MilesR: Yee Gads yet more 10mm Russo-Japanese War and 15mm Russian Napoleonics (1,048 points)

Will this 10mm Russo-Japanese War project ever really end?  It's a question I keep asking myself and the answer is unknowable but, maybe, I'm getting close, so close....  Anyway I have completed another 6 Infantry and 1 Cavalry division with their sabot bases that I designed and cut on my laser cutter.

I like the sabot bases a lot as they have a little tray that holds a die for casualty tracking that have proven to be really stable in game play testing.  The name plates will be magnetized.  The bases also have their center point engraved as a tiny triangle for measuring firing distance and flanking.

With the addition of these divisions, I have enough troops to do even the battle of Mukden at a regimental level (each 3 stand sabot base is a regiment) so I've got enough to run the campaign at the club and as a participation event at this year's Historicon.

Here's a shot of some of the troops above along with others completed earlier in this challenge during a test game at the club - We were refighting the winter battle of Sandepu (Jan 1905).  It did not go well for the Russians....

Speaking of Russians, I needed a break from 10mm RJW and, I know this will surprise all of you, I may have a rather large lead pile - particular when it comes to 15mm Napoleonics.  With the publication of the new version of General d'Armee - very creatively titled General d'Armee 2, I was very keen to run a game up at the club and decided to paint up a bunch of Russian troops.  Maybe horde is a better term.  Anyway over the past 3 weeks I've been slapping paint on 11 infantry battalions and 4 cavalry regiments.  All of the artillery and officers were actually done as part of an earlier challenge (no points for them).

So here is the start of my Russian army and enough to run a good sized game of GdA2 on March 18 at the club

On the left we have 8 regular infantry battalions of 24 figures each

and on the right we have 3 Guard battalions and 2 small and 2 large cavalry regiments.  I just don't have time to finish the 4th guard battalion.  Sadly, this has not put a major dent in my Napoleonic Russian lead pile.  The figures are a mix of Old Glory and AB.  I did cheat on the basing as I used some of the Geek Scenics base ready mixes.  I really like them.  

So whats the tally?

10mm

288 Infantry at one point each = 288

24 Cav a7 3 points each = 72

15MM

264 Infantry at 2 points = 528

40 cav at 4 points = 160

That's a grand total of 1,048 points which should bring me above my 3k goal.  

I haven't been as active as usual this challenge due to work (I've had to step in as a CEO for a portfolio company, which is never a good thing and rather time consuming) but did any of you think I'd miss my target.  There are things that are important (work) and then there are things that are IMPORTANT (like the Challenge).  I may have one smallish post left in me but lets see how the next day or so passes.....

Oh, Gus just got groomed Friday and insisted that I post of picture of his new ultra fluffy look

 He really is rather fluffy.

_________________________________

BOOM!

I was wondering what may have happened to our storied mathemagician, and so I'm very happy at seeing your return to the warm embrace of the Challenge.

Wow, you have been industrious over the intervening weeks, though. Both your RJW and your Russian Napoleonics look tremendous, Miles. I'm particularly impressed with the design of your sabots - they look very posh indeed. The trouble of showing these off makes people (me) want to contact you for their very own versions. :) Beautiful work Mr. R. With your attention to detail (and invaluable playtesting) I know your Historicon game will be a huge success.

I look forward to seeing another post from you before the Challenge concludes for the seaon!

...and Gus is a very good (and fluffy) boy!

- Curt

From MilesR: More 10mm Russo Japanese War Madness (828 Points)

 I've been quiet for a few weeks due to work obligations - I know, I know, my priorities are out of whack.

I have been steadily working away at my 10mm RJW project.  All of my figures are from Pendraken.  The left and center columns are mostly Russians and the right one is Japanese.  The artillery in the back is Japanese too.

Column 1 has 5 bases of Naval Infantry, 1 Siberian and 2 European Infantry divisions of 12 bases each and a 12 base Cossack division in the back.  There is also a lone base because I can't count.

Alongside them are 13 Maxim MG bases

In the center are 4 12 base European Russian Infantry divisions.

On the Japanese side there are 2 regular Infantry divisions followed by the Japanese Guard in their distinctive blue uniforms.  There are 9 bases of misc infantry which will start to form out the Japanese reserve Kobe brigades.

9 Hotchkiss Machine gun bases and 9 Japanese cavalry

Lastly 5 Japanese artillery batteries made up of captured Russian 77mm guns

Here are the minis that have been painted earlier in the challenge still boxed up from there return from the club and their first playtest.

First test game of my RJW rules

There are WAY too many markers as we were testing different rule concepts.  I have learned the bitter lesson that just because one can make lots of different markers with a laser cutter doesn't mean one SHOULD make lots of different markers....

With this submission, I'm closing in on "done" with the miniatures for the RJW project - I still have some Russian artillery to finish up and maybe another division of two for each side.  It is good to be over the hump!

The tally for today is:

Infantry 136 4 man bases =                            544 points

Cavalry 21 2 figure bases @3pts/figure =     126 points

MG teams 22 @ 4pts each =                          88 points 110 points

(1 figure +1 gun and crew) = 4 5pts each

Artillery 5 2 gun batters 11pts each =             55 points

(2 guns plus 5 crew)

Total                                                                 813 points

No wait - I just realized that some of my infantry bases only have 3 figures not 4 and I have no idea why!

Adjustment  for 7, 3 figure bases = -7 points

Total Points 806 Points

Well, you may have been quiet but you are back with a vengeance, Miles! What a bomb. Another impressive amount of RLG's, very nice indeed.  I love the photos of the game in progress, they really show the mass effect of these  small scale figures. Fabulous! And you are giving me a run for my money too, having me extract all the precise amounts of  single figures, cavalry and  equipment from your rather inimitable calculations. Not to speak of your inimitable formatting... However, I think your MG's with 2 crew are actually worth 5 points each, so after much triangulation, adding, subtracting and dividing that's 22 points extra for a total of  828. Congratulations, now get your priorities back in order and another such submission will see you shooting past your target soon!

Martijn

From MilesR: More 10mm Russo-Japanese War and a Romantic Surprise (320 Points)

A moderately sized swath of 10mm Russo Japanese War figures.  These are the new sculpts from Leon at Pendraken Miniatures and I really do love the line.

First up are 24 bases of Siberian Infantry.  I building my armies (and the accompanying rules) so 1 base equal a battalion.  Hence 24 bases equals 2 Divisions - only 22 more to go.  Most of the time in-game, these will be grouped on bases as regiments of 3 battalions, but every now and then players may want to detach a single battalion to grab an out-of-the-way objective or (more likely) as as a speed bump for a pursuing enemy.

Well if one does the "R" part of "RJW" one better do the "J" part too.  I've completed 12 bases of Japanese infantry in winter coats and a whole bunch of artillery - specifically 9 batteries of 75mm guns 3 batteries of heavy artillery and 4 of siege guns.  Don't tell anyone but the siege guns are actually WW1 British 9.2" howitzers.  Both sides had dedicated batteries of 75's for each division and the Japanese had some heavier guns in independent formations.

During the war, the Japanese field 13 divisions - yet I only have 9 division batteries completed - have my math skills deteriorated that much?

NO! I'm cheating.  I've learned for any Little Wars TV video project to send some of the miniatures out to be painted by somebody with some actual skill.  Those are the troops you'll see in the close ups.  My stuff, mercifully is held in the background where the focus is fuzzy.  I've gotten 4-5 division for each side painted that way and will eventually so you some side by sides so you too can laugh at my limited skills.

And now for the "Romantic Surprise".  So surprising that I put my pictures on the right side of this post!  We live in crazy times.  My lovely yet fierce wife really surprised my for Christmas and got my a Xtool S1 laser cutter.  I love this thing and have started designing some 15mm buildings.  First off the assembly line is a 15mm Norman themed church (you can also see a earlier "prototype" in the back ground).

Designing these buildings has been really fun and I've found it A LOT easier than 3D CAD - maybe it's all those years I've spent spelunking in spreadsheets.  I've got 4 other building designs to test out (a couple of houses, a Cafe and a replica of our wargaming clubhouse

. 

I'm also working on some gaming aids for the RJW/WW1 ruleset and just generally messing about

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Overall I'm having a blast and will be happy to share any designs for those who want them.

The materials used is 3mm MDF for the structure and "Thunderbolt Paper" for the details like the window frames.  What is "Thunderbolt Paper"?  it's .02 inch think cardboard that I stumbled on for making detail parts like shutters and window frames.

I still have a lot to learn but have great expectations for my laser focused future.  At least now I can make my own bases in bulk!

Here's a look at the file layout - I still have a lot to learn on how to build these things.  On the file image red=cut, blue score (cut a thin line) and black is the engrave.  The black part didn't show up but it's for the hatch to the floor of the tower (center bottom of the image)

So what's the final tally?

10mm Infantry figures        144 x 1 Point = 144

10mm Artillery Crew 16 bases x 5 crew each = 80

10mm Guns 28x3 = 84

15mm Church - well its 6x3x5 inches so thats 90 square  cubic inches and the holy cube is 216, so 90/216 =42% lets round that to 8 points

And now I'm going to be a little cheeky and try to slip this church past the librarian as a "Romance" submission because the my wonderful wife surprised me with the laser cutter.  I think we can ALL AGREE that nothing says Romance more than a Laser Cutter - can I get a "AMEN"? 

I really don't deserve her and live in constant fear that one day she will realize she can do WAYYYYY better than the likes of me.

add 20 points for Romance and we get to 336 points

OK, enough rambling from me - Gus wants to go back outside and play in the snow!

What a great entry, Miles! First let me say (again) that I absolutely love your growing Russo-Japanese armies. As has often been said, 10mm and other small scale miniatures look great in their mass, even spaced out like your RJW formations. Now these are great, but your self-designed and built church is even greater! What a fine piece of handicraft that is. Well done indeed! Now, I have one or two surprises for your esteemed self. In the first place, I have re-positioned your photos to the centre as you have undoubtedly seen. It is all fine and good being a rebel, but we cannot have photos aligned to the left or the right. I am sure you will agree that that way lies the road to chaos and anarchy, if not madness. In the second place, although I will not laugh at any of your work, even (or especially) close up (would love to see some of those), and I am sure you deservingly love your spouse,  and the present she presented you with is extremely useful and a sign of loving insight into your wants and needs, I will not buy in your futile attempt to pass off the church as a valid entry for the Romance Section on that basis alone. Should you have adorned it with a newly wed couple (or one after many years of marital bliss for that matter), it might have different. So, 316 points. I will round that off to a still quite impressive 320 though, because that church is rather awesome!

Martijn

From MilesR: A Whole Bunch O'Stuff (416 Points)

 This will be a rather random set of mini's for this week's submission - both in terms of scales as well as periods covered.  Let's Start with the big boys first:

12 28mm Byzantine Bucellarii or Armored Horse Archers.  These have always been my favorite troops from antiquity and I've always had fun with them on the table top.

These mini's are 28mm plastic models from Fireforge Miniatures and were a joy to both assemble and paint.  About 90% of the painting was done using the Army Painter speedpaints which I am growing very fond of.

This completes my Byzantine forces for Barrons War outside of a few leader figs I may throw in.

Next up are 48 10mm "Heavy" Orcs which I had 3D printed by a friend

They were fun to paint up and a nice break.  Technically these Orcs are big and top the scales in at 15mm but lets still score them as 10mm - why?

Because their opponents - Dwarves are labelled as 10mm figures but really tip in at 7mm - well they are Dwarves after all.

Same 3D printing source and a lot of fun to paint up.

Lastly - an initial down payment on my "Big Project" for the year - the Russo-Japanese War in 10mm.  These are the new 10mm RJW line from Pendraken and they are superb figures.  

There are 18 bases of Japanese Infantry, 10 cav and 4 machine gun bases - this is a little over a division and a half

Brace yourselves, your going to be subjected to a lot of 10mm RJW figures over the course of this challenge.

I've got close to 2,000 of the little buggers to paint up.  I'll be running this as a campaign at Historicon this year and they'll also likely find their way onto a Little Wars TV episode this summer.  

Well that's all for this submission, lets figure of the final tally:

12  28mm cavalry = 120 points

64 10+mm Orcs = 64 points

80 10-mm Dwarves = 80 points

72 10mm Japanese Infantry and 8MG crewman + machine guns  = 80 92 points

20 10mm Japanese Cavalry = 40 points 60 points

Grand Total: 384 Points

Ha, I was starting to wonder where you were, Miles. Almost 250 figures in one go, that's more like you!  And great figures they are too. All are quite great, from the Byzantines through the orks to the little dwarves with their distinctive shields, but I really like your RJW figures. Looking forward to seeing (much) more from them in the future! 

You have short-changed yourself a little as 10mm cavalry are 3 points, not 2, and then here are the 4 crew-served weapons at 3 points each for a total of  416 points!

Ah, one minor quibble: please remember to lay-out and resize your photos...

Martijn

From MilesR: Russo-Japanese War Fleets for Graveyard Beach (216 Points)

 

Last year I embarked on another large project - the Russo-Japanese War in 6mm but never got around to finishing the naval portion of the conflict.  One really can't game the RJW without doing the naval side and Graveyard Beach seemed to be a great reason to finish up this project.  I present to you the Imperial Russian Fleet - every capital ship and destroyer or torpedo boat flotilla that participated in the war.  Sadly for the Russians, only a handful of these ships survived the war.

First up is the Port Arthur Fleet.  This fleet had more Battleships than the Japanese Navy and posed a very serious threat.  The fleet attempted to sortie against the Japanese several times but were unsuccessful.  Interestingly - hostilities commenced in the RJW by a torpedo boat sneak attack on the harbor that severely damaged 2 ships.   

In addition to the Port Arthur Squadron, the Russian had 4 Cruisers based in Vladivostok.  While much smaller than the Port Arthur force these 4 ships proved to be very successful commerce raiders.  They sortied 5 times and were responsible for sinking 15 transports including one that carried the only steam engines Japan had that would fit the Russian rail gauge, which severely impacted the ability for Japan to move supplies up to the front.

This small fleet was eventually brought to battle off Ulsan in August of 1904.  3 Russian Cruisers faced off against 6 Japanese.  The result was limited damage to the Japanese and 1 Russian Cruiser sunk (Rurik) while the other two were heavily damaged.

With Port Arthur under siege, The Russian Imperial command decided to send the Baltic fleet to reinforce there Pacific fleet counter parts.  These reinforcements were organized into 2 fleets - the 2nd and 3rd Pacific fleets.  First up is the second fleet which rivaled the entire Japanese fleet in terms of fire power 

The 3rd Pacific Fleet consisted of an older battleship and some armored cruisers.  These fleets joined up right before the battle of Tsushima.  Well, we all know had that turned out....

In addition to Capital ships (cruisers and battleships) the Russians had 8 Destroyer Flotillas and 2 Torpedo Boats flotillas involved in the conflict.

All of these models are 1/2400 resin 3D prints from War Times Journal.  Fantastic models but a bit on the delicate side.

Well, if one is going to do the Russian fleet from the RJW, one should also do the Japanese equivalent also, so please meet the Imperial Japanese Fleet.

The heart of the fleet are its 8 battleships - 6 first class ships and 2 smaller obsolete ones.  Both of the obsolete battleships would be lost to mines while on blockade duty at Port Arthur.

The Japanese Cruiser force did most of the work during the war

The Japanese employed 4 Destroyer and 7 Torpedo Boat Flotillas.

The Russians were terrified of the Japanese Torpedo Boats and often fired on neutral party fishing boats after mistaking them for the enemy.   This included one infamous incident of the Russians sinking one and damaging 5 other British fishing boats in the North Sea.  This little escapade became known as the "Dodger Bank Incident" and almost lead to War between Britain and Russia.  During the same incident, the Russians fired upon themselves and heavily damaged the cruiser Aurora.

Just for fun, 8 transports were added to serve as objective markers for escort types of engagements.

So there you have it - all of the capital ships that were involved in the RJW in glorious 1/2400 scale.  There are 98 total ship bases and I think the going rate for 1/2400 ships is 2 point per so that nets me a 196 points.  Add on top of that the 20 for the room and this little entry will yield me 216 points 

The Battle of Liaoyang.

These fleets along with my 6mm armies will allow me to game just about any aspect of the RJW there is.