Table Top Teasers Vol 1

Table Top Teasers Vol 1

Published by Battlegames 2008

Pages 76

These Table Top Teasers first appeared in “Battle for Wargamers” in February 1978.
I have played a couple of these at the old CWA on club nights and found them very interesting in the way the outcome was always different. So this book was a must.

I brought this book at Salute 09 for £10 and started to read this once I got the opportunity too do so.
There are 12 Table Top Teasers in this volume and they are mostly written by Charles Grant. The 12 scenarios all come from the Battlegames magazine from the first 12 issues.

The book is full of colour pictures and maps and if you are a solo wargamer then this book is for you, although some of the games can be played with two or more gamers.

Each of the scenarios are well detailed and will take you through step by step on how to set up with figures and scenery and how to play the game with information and maps. There is also a report of the game after each one.

There will be something there for everyone where ever you want a big or small game. This is the first special and I can not wait for volume two.

Painting

Once you have cut off the figure from the spur/frame by a craft knife, clean them up by removing any flash that remains on them from the moulds and then give the figures a good wash is soapy warm water for a few minutes to take any grease off. Once dry you are ready to paint.

I have never given any of my figures an undercoat of paint, although a lot of wargamers do. I think that the paint will still stay on and it will take you even longer to paint your army. But saying that, I do give the flesh parts a splash of undercoat with white, depending on the colour of the plastic.

Acrylic or Enamel Paint
I have been using enamel paints since I have started to paint my Napoleonic armies, which has been for many years and they have always given me great results. Well for me anyway. The main company then back in the old 70’s was Airfix. Now I use either Revell/Humbrol.
But there are some colours that you can not get hold of now in enamels. This is where I have had to turn to Acrylics i.e. for British crimson and violet colours and no doubt there will be many more in the future. Always make sure that you shake the tins well before painting and if need be, use a match stick to stir up the paint at the bottom of an old tin.

Brushes
Painting your little 20mm army means that the paint brushes do not have to be big, so you do not need to go out and buy every size of brush that you can find. If you look around in Stationary shops or craft shops, you can find little bargains here and there.
The only ones that you would actually want is a size 1 to do the main paint jobs like coat, trousers, hats, horses and the stands. To do the finer detail on the figure you will need 5/0 fine line brush. Always remember that after each colour to clean your brushes properly. That way they will last you a little bit longer. If they do start to fray at the tips and you need the point back again, cut the ends off and reshape the tip of the brush.

How to paint your figure
The way that I start my painting is to start from the inside and work outwards. In other words paint the biggest parts of the figure first i.e. coat/jacket then trousers or horse colour. Next step would be for backpacks, knapsacks or saddle cloths.
3rd step all the fiddly things like belts, boots, muskets, straps, hair, coat/saddle trim, hats. 4th step flesh and the last thing the stand.
What I have learnt from painting over the years is to do as much as you want. When you consider that you will be seeing the figure on the table about 3 feet away from you? Do you really need to see his eyes? The other thing is that once you have painted a few regiments, your confidence will improve and you will then want to paint more things on your figures, like buttons and medals for your officers.
Everyone has their own style of painting so do not be put off with your end result with what other people in the Wargaming World do with theirs. After all it is YOUR army so paint them as you see fit. Good luck

News from the Front

Over the last couple of weeks new figures have been hitting our shops.
In February I reported that Italeri was going to make a new set of French Imperial Guard Artillery.
Well the set is out but it is the same set that Esci brought out years ago. This is a great shame as we do need a really good set of these.
Also WATERLOO 1815 (Set 028) have released their Napoleonic Mounted Line Officers set. This set was going to be all English officers mounted but it appears that there are also some French mixed in. This is not a bad thing and I am really thinking about adding this set to my shopping list.
It is now well into April and I am still waiting for the Pontoon set from HAT. The set was supposed to be in the shops at the start of the year.

On the painting of the Horse Grenadiers work has stopped on these as I have not been able to pick up my brush for a while now. This means that I am now well behind with my painting schedule for this year as now the warmer months are near and the garden now needs attention.

How Much do we spend on our hobby?

Well this year has really been good to me as I have found a good supply in Norwich and now with Modelzone in London, Holborn have re-stocked their Hat figures. This has enabled me to find the figures that I have longed for on my shopping list.
As we entry the fourth month of April 2009 here is what I have spent on my hobby so far

• PAINT TINS 4 £4.35
• SUPER GLUE 1 £1.00
• FIGURES (Boxes) 8 £40.18
• SHOWS (Entry Fees) 1 £11.00
• BOOKS/MAGS 2 £32.50
• CONTAINERS 1 £1.99

TOTAL £91.02p

Although I have spent quite a bit now, over the next few months it will be just Paints, as I have enough figures to keep me busy. I have over 40 boxes yet to paint.

On that note my painting has not been doing too well as I have hardly had time to continue with the Horse Grenadiers. I have to date, two lots of horses painted and nearly the first batch of troopers. I hope to get them finished by the end of Easter.

Salute Show

With the new DLR extension from Woolwich, means that I can now get from my front door to Excel in an hour. This is great news.
Salute 09 was the best show that I have been to so far in the last three years that I have been going to, but the only thing that was a let down was the entry fee of £11 although the goody bag that you get when you walk in had a fantastic model from Black Scorpion of a Zulu War diorama and the usual six sided dice plus the official guide to the show.
The crowds were slow to start with but by noon the hall was buzzing.
No credit crunch here today as people handed over large amounts of cash. The thing that really caught my eye was the fact that there were a lot of company’s making 28mm scale figures, with the likes of Perry miniatures, Front Rank and Victrix and a few others all dappling with this scale. Even Hat are having a go.
For me I will stick with 20mm as I do not have the cash or space for the new scale.
The games where ever demonstration or participation, tended to be WWI or WWII but there were a couple of Napoleonic games going on.
So what did I buy? Well with my pockets full of pennies not a lot. I did find a couple of stalls selling the Hat figures but none that was on my list although I did buy a box of Prussian foot artillery.

I found the two books that I wanted. Battlegames, “Table Top Teasers Vol 1” and Charles S Grant, “Wargame Companion”. I have had a quick flick through both of them and they both seem to be worth the money.

A couple of days after Salute 09 I went to Norwich where I had found a toy shop that actually sold Hat figures. There I brought my second box of Hat Nassau Infantry and two boxes of Hat Middle Guard.
Back to work and in Modelzone Holborn, London had the biggest delivery of Hat figures for a long while. There I brought another box of Middle Guard, which I will paint up as Line Grenadiers and my Second box of KGL Dragoons.

After the Salute show and seeing people in Modelzone picking up boxes of figures, I wonder how much do we spend on our hobby. I have over the last few years been keeping a book on how much and I must say that most goes on Paint and brushes.
I will let you know how much so far this year next time.