Best Grampa ever!

We've all been through the ordeal of having to explain our gaming hobby to our loved ones.  I remember sitting down with my parents when I was twelve (many, MANY years ago). Once they were satisfied that Dungeons and Dragons was a formalized game of make-believe, and not some satanic ritual taht would have me sacrificing the dog to Hastur, they were cool to let me do my own thing.

My friend and colleague Mike had parents with a similar attitude, though his father is a historical re-enactor, so it was probably less of a journey for him.  But once he explained role-playing to his grandfather, his Grampa went out and and made Mike some miniatures out of a small toolbox and some roofing nails.  He twisted wire around the nails to make a body, then painted them up to create player characters.  They stand about the same height as 15mm figures, and they're just too cool to see!  Better than some of the Grenadier figures I remember from my youth...

Our friends the Portuguese

Most of the time, somewhere between 20% and 40% of Wellington's army in the Peninsula consisted of Portuguese allies.  Defeated handily by the French in 1808, the Portuguese bounced back with British arms, training and money to become one of the most effective small military powers of the Napoleonic period.  There seem to be a wide variety of descriptions of their uniforms in the post-1808 period.  Some sources describe white trousers, others describe blue or grey.  I've found descriptions of the shade of blue of the uniform coats anywhere between "pale sky blue" and "dark midnight blue."  I chose a happy medium, and went with the blue trousers since they looked smart.

If you look closely, you'll see that these fellows were originally Old Glory 1809 Peninsular British.  I filed off the belly lace as well as I could.  They'll do quite nicely.  Once I attach flags to these battalions, they'll be ready for the battlefield, awaiting another battalion of line and one of cacadores.

These units are marching through some British casualties by Perry.As with anything done by the Perry brothers, they come close to being show stoppers.

Who's a big nerd teacher? I'm a big nerd teacher!

I love my classroom.  It's large, well-lit, and is centered around a large oval table that makes for good discussions.  If I had one complaint, it would be the lack of storage space.  When we moved into the new building, I was assigned no more than one bookcase and one large storage cabinet. So, when offered the chance to decorate, I grabbed construction paper and glue and...dang!  This large box just materialized.  I hope it has room for all of my books.

Note that I lack a light for the top, so I used my fez.  Fezzes are cool.

The immovable object

The 28mm bastion I ordered from Magister Militum arrived today.  It's a gorgeous piece of terrain, from the Battlegroubd line.  It's meant to be a fort guarding a harbor in the Caribbean, but it can also work as a fortification in my Napoleonic battlefields.  As you can see here, it can easily hold two battalions of infantry, or four batteries of guns, with room left over for a shuffleboard court.  The marbled grey resin looks good on its own, but I will probably be painting and drybrushing it to get rid of the shine and to make the details pop out.

More progress on the British

28mm troops by their nature are more time-consuming to paint than smaller scales, and I'm feeling 

bad that I can't work to my normal breakneck pace.  However, forcing myself to slow down has made me focus on both research and technique, two areas where it can never hurt to improve.  Today, I finished up my first Divisional commander, Sir Thomas Picton.  Picton will forever be memorialized as the dude who rode to Waterloo with civilian clothes and carrying an umbrella.  Since my Brits are kitted out for the Peninsula, this model is slightly inaccurate, to which I give my usual reply: piss off.  it's fun.  Anyhow, I feel bad for Sir Thomas.  He served ably as one of Wellington's lieutenants, had a sordid career as a governor in the Caribbean, and his birth is quite literally the stuff of legends. So it's a shame really that he gets remembered as the umbrella dude who caught a bullet in his top hat.  Anyhow, here he is, being informed by a sergeant that he should probably get out of the path of the dragoon charge taking shape behind him.  Both figures are by Perry.

And here are the light dragoons.  I painted them up as the 16th, which served long and ably in Portugal and Spain, though they will stand in for many units.  I did the saddle blanket in red, which is the unit's facing color.  All illustrations I've seen do the blankets in blue, but I can't find documentation that certifies that.  The red is plausible, and it adds some nice contrast to the figure.  These guys are Old Glory.