Normandy terrain

I've had a few Normandy bits for a little while - a Sentry church, some Rapid Ruin buildings (which I've already painted) and a Sarissa Precision Normandy house. I was inspired by the photos in the Rapid Fire 'Normandy Battlegames' book so thought I would base up the buildings and paint and base the church to go with it. You will see from the first photo that, although the church is stuck, the other buildings aren't so they can be used in different scenarios.  Think the Sarissa building doesn't go too badly with the Rapid Ruin ones.

Aztec update

I've been able to give my Aztecs a bit more time recently as I've taken a little break from ships in between commissions.

You may have seen in an earlier post that I'd painted this Gringos 40 Aztec Jaguar warrior Captain:

Well, I'm pleased to say that he is no longer alone! He has been joined by some Foundry Jaguar warriors to complete his unit. Like the Eagle warriors, warriors had to have taken 4 captives to qualify to wear the suit, although there is also a train of thought that they came from the nobles and were separate. Nobody can be sure! Like the Eagle warriors, the suit was made from feathers and the helmet carved wood.

I've given the front 'rank' spears ('tepoztopilli') imagining them to be throwing them before the macahuitl-armed warriors behind rushed forward.

 

Aztec sources, such as the Codex Mendoza, show Jaguar warriors in Jaguar suits but in a variety of colours. This is also reinforced in the various Osprey resource books available. This means IMHO they are a must for any Aztec army to bring colour and vibrancy to the table.

 

 



As such, I have gone with some colourful suits to go with the more 'natural' suit of the Captain. A joy is also the variety of patterns available for the shields. There were certain ranks, or types of warrior, which employed certain shields such as the plain yellow with the blue rim for novices, or the red shield with the black triangle for 2-captive warriors, but the Jaguar and Eagle warriors had more of a selection. Here are some close ups of the other 6 Jaguar warriors in the unit.

 

I'd also managed to complete a few other units over the spring/summer but had not, as yet, had a chance to share them. Here are a few quick pics of them, all of course to accompany the Eagle warrior stand.

 

First up, the warrior priests who had taken 4 captives and qualified to wear the 'starry sky' Huaxtec suit with the conical hat. They are very distinctive. The models are a mixture of Gringos 40 and The Assault Group.

 

 





I have also completed two groups of skirmishers - Tlematlatl slingers and 'Atlatl' javelin throwers.

The slingers are all Foundry models.

 

 

The Atlatl throwers are conversions - 2 Foundry and 2 Gringos 40 miniatures. Note the 'novice' yellow/blue shields.

 

 

And there we are! Still several bases to go - archers, standard 'peasant' infantry and Cuachicqueh warriors ('Shorn Ones'), who were the elite 'Special Forces' of the Aztecs, having taken seven captives and the final three being taken against 'harder' opponents.



Falklands Air War

A new little project for me - I picked up the Airwar C21 rules over the summer and treated myself to a few 1/300 jets to have a go with them. I've gone for the Falklands as there is a family connection but equally could've chosen theatres such as Iran/Iraq war, Arab/Israeli, India//Pakistan, Korea or any other latter 20th/early 21st century conflict, real or alternative. If we enjoy the rules the benefit is that the planes and models are very cheap and quick to paint.
British air support was limited in number while the Argentinians, although more numerous, were heavily limited in range and pursued a strategy of bombing runs over air superiority missions, which was only embedded following the successful Vulcan bombing run on Port Stanley airfield and resulted in most of the good Argentinian fighters (Mirage IIIs mainly) being held back to protect the mainland. Certainly British command were expecting to lose quite a number of Sea Harriers, although only a few were actually lost and none in air to air combat - in fact the Sea Harriers gained a fearsome reputation and the nickname 'muerte negra' or 'black death' from the Argentinians.
As such, I have 2 Sea Harriers:

4 Mirage III / IAI Daggers. These can be configured for air superiority or ground attack:

And 6 A4 Skyhawks which were solely used in ground attack modes:

Sunken ship markers

I've had a very busy summer with house renovations again, but have managed to complete another naval commission of 3 British ships of the line. I'm currently working on some terrain in a Normandy Church and some more Aztecs. I have managed to produce some sunken ship markers for my BBIB games:

Spanish Commissions

Here are a few photos of a recent Napoleonic 'Armada Espanõla' I was commissioned to produce.
100 gun from Skytrex, albeit Langton base and rat lines 
A selection of other Skytrex ships




And an 80 gun and two 74s from Langton

Moctezuma II

Moctezuma II and priest who has just sacrificed to Huitzilopochtli.



Moctezuma is a Gringos 40 model, and wears the traditional headdress associated with him.

The priest is a special edition model produced by The Assault Group.
The rest of the Aztec Impetus army is coming on well, tweaked a bit since the release of the new Basic Impetus army lists and rules. I'm hoping to attend the other Partisan this year so may well pick up some more figures then.

Spanish frigates

I'm afraid life has taken a turn for the busy over the past few months with our house being renovated; time for hobbies has been negligible. However, I was able last week to produce a couple of 36 gun Spanish frigates for a commission - a short post, more to let any readers know I'm still here!