Song of Blades and Heroes Game Weekend

We've lately been playing Song of Blades and Heroes. I have to divide my week between my apartment in the city where I work and at home with the family for Friday through Sunday. So I play Song of Blades and Heroes solo in 15mm at the apartment and with the kids in 28mm when I'm home. This was a really good weekend with multiple games of Song of Blades and Heroes. Last weekend we had sorted out all of our 28mm minis for use in SBH, and I had painted a 3' x 3' Zuzzy Terrain mat. This weekend we got to use them. I even had time to work on a Hirst Arts fieldstone dungeon for 15mm Song of Gold and Darkness solo dungeon gaming, but more on that later.

Players: David, Mark, Stephen, Robert and Dad. (4 of my seven sons :) One reason I go by "Luckyjoe") All warbands were 300 points.

Game 1: Stephen's Dwarves vs. Dad's High Elves. This was a short but fun game. Stephen beat me, down to 2 elves I conceded.

Game 2: Stephen's mixed Human, Elf, Dwarf warband vs. Dad's Undead Warband. Another short fun game which gave Stephen 2 wins in a row.

Game 3: Mark's Orcs vs. David's Undead. Close game that took almost an hour. Finally ended in a win for Mark.

Game 4: Stephen's mixed warband with an Air Elemental and Assassin vs. my Human WB. My first win. I had a lot of lucky rolls and and poor Stephen had a lot of poor rolls. Quick but fun.

Game 5: Bob's first game. His Human WB vs, Stephen's Mixed elf, dwarf and human WB. Win for Bob.

Game 6: 4 way game with Bob's Evil Humans and David's Undead against Mark's Orcs and Stephen's Evil Dwarves. A decisive win for Mark and Stephen, but it was a long game that was pretty close for most of the time.

Game 7: David's Dwarves vs. Mark's Orcs. This was a very close game that came down to 1 Orc against 1 dwarf. The dwarves came out on top in the end.

All in all, it was great fun. The boys just picked right up on this game and were having great fun. Sorry for the sparse nature of the reports. A lot was going on :). I'll try to put together a nice Battle report newt weekend.

Pics from Mark & David's last game.

Blue Moon 15mm Pirate Brigantine

Hi, folks. This weekend I got my Blue Moon 15mm Pirate Brigantine. It had taken a while because my order had been misplaced. I finally sent them an e-mail this Thursday after waiting about 3 weeks to check my order status. Normally my Blue Moon orders come pretty fast so I was afraid the order was lost in the mail. I was told they'd get the order in the mail that day. I didn't expect to get it the next day, (Friday). I think that was great service. Okay, they made a mistke and the order was misplaced, but then they overnighted it to me. That was outstanding and a very pleasant surprise. I'd have been content to wait for regular mail. Thanks, Blue Moon. I'm a very happy customer. :)

Now about the ship. It's beautifully detailed and is an excellent bargain. You get a beutifully detailed, sturdy, resin ship, plus 10 cannon and carriages, along with 4 half cannon barrels (dummy cannons) for ports in the solid part of the hull. You also get dowels for the masts and yards and 6 metal accessories for the masts, a railing for the poop deck, and a nice ship's wheel. All this for only $25.00. You can pay almost that much for just the metal accessories that come with the ship.

The quality of the cating is very good. There were several small air bubbles, but nothing that can't fixed with putty.

The size of the ship is very appropriate for 15mm scale and my Blue Moon Pirate line minis fit right in with it. Actual ship dimensions are:
Length: 31.5 cm long (about 12 1/2 inches) A good 2 inches of the lenght is a bowsprit with a nice female figurehead.
Width: 63mm wide (about 2 1/2 inches wide)
Height: 52mm tall at the highest point of the hull at the stern. (About 2 inches tall).

Here's some pics:
There are 26 15mm minis onboard in this pic. I think this ship could easily hold 40 minis.

Size comparison between Blue Moon Pirates and Peter Pig minis

Hi, folks. If you're a newcomer to 15mm scale like me, you're probably wondering how the different manufacturer's ranges stack up against each other by size. I had recently bought some Peter Pig and Minifigs cowboys, along with the new Blue Moon Cowboys, and was really surprised to see the size difference between Blue Moon and some of the other manufacturers. So when I bought some of the new Blue Moon Pirates, I was more more prepared for the size difference. The Blue Moon Pirates are 17-18mm at eye level, whereas my Peter Pig Pirates and Minifigs minis I have are true 15mm. I don't particularly mind the size difference, though, people in real life are different sizes, too. But if you're a stickler for scale, you may not want to mix the old true 15mm figs with the new Blue Moon Pirates.

Here's a couple of pics that show the size difference between Blue Moon Pirates and some Peter Pig minis.

Blue Moon Pirate Captain on left, Peter Pig Female Pirate Officer on right. Paint job in progress.































Blue Moon Pirate range European Captain on left, Peter Pig native on right




































Rebel Minis Ninja on left with Blue Moon Eurpean crewman on right



































Minifig Apache on left, Blue Moon Cowboy on right.



























I don't have any pics right now, but I have some 15mm Splintered Light minis Ghouls, Black Hat minis Renaissance Spanish, and a bunch of 15mm Rebel minis, and they scale in pretty well with the Blue Moon Pirates, though all of them are a little smaller than the Blue Moon Pirates. And the Rebel, Black Hat, and Splintered Light minis are noticeabley larger than the Peter Pig true 15mm's.

I hope this has been helpful. I'll try to post more size comparison pics when I get everything together.

Blue Moon 15mm Pirates!

Every time I went to the Blue Moon website to buy more Cowboys, I kept seeing their Pirates on their opening screen. Finally I broke down and got some. They are very nice sculpts, big 15mm (more like 18mm to the eyes like the Cowboys) and very easy to paint. The only thing I don't like about them is that the packs don't have as many uniques sculpts as the Cowboys line does.

So far I have the Pirate Captains pack, the Pirates & Treasure pack, the European Captains & crew pack, Artillery guns and Artillery crew packs. I'm now waiting on the Civillians pack and The Pirate Brigantine. I also got some very nice swivel guns from Thoroughbred miniatures and some Black Hat minis Renaissance Spanish Halberdiers and Arquebusiers wearing morions and breastplates. I know they're a little out of period, but everytime I think of Spanish fighting Pirates I see morions and breastplates. :) The Black Hat minis are very nice, and are also big 15mm, but not as big as Blue Moon.

Since I had a bunch of minis I needed buildings, a harbor and ships. Fortunately for ships I already had 2 of the Flagship Games ships which are pretty well sized for 15mm, and 2 Weapons and Warriors Pirate ships I had converted. I've since made 2 scratchbuilt ships in 15mm scale based on Gary Chalk's plans from Wargames Illustrated, and a 15mm scratchbuilt Junk, which is manned by the way, with Rebel Minis 15mm Ninjas. Who says Pirates and Ninjas don't mix. :) Now all I need are Vikings! :)

Well, the Pirate bug just keeps biting, so then I got my son Mark to help me with a Pirate terrain board, based on Gary Chalk's Wargames Illustrated series of articles. The harbor is completed, there's a couple of hills, apier and some docks, a Spanish Adobe Architecture village, a Spanish Church (all ala Gary Chalk in 15mm), small jungle, a small native village with some Peter Pig Natives awaiting painting as well as some more Peter Pig minis for the Spanish colonists. Last build was a 15mm pseudo star fort made from the Hirst Arts Egyptian mold.

Today I'm alternating working in the yard and doing touch-ups on the ships. Here's a few pics:
Harbor view


Fort









Fort guarding the harbor







Governor's compound







Gary Chalk style Spanish Church






Native village in the Jungle:






I hope you enjoy the pics. I'll try to post some more as things progress. I still need to get pics of the minis, but only have one crew painted, so far.

Joe

Some WIP Blue Moon 15mm Wild West minis

Working on those Blue Moon 15mm Wild minis. These are from the Personalities pack. Got them Block painted. Will be doing a MinWax dip on them this weekend. Then just gotta do the bases. These minis paint up easy.

Blue Moon Bandits

Blue Moon Lawmen

Blue Moon Mfg 15mm Wild West Review

I recently read on the Hawgleg forum that Blue Moon had just started a bunch of 15mm lines, among them some Wild West. Since I had just started some 15mm Wild West I went to their site to check them out. I was blown away. Everything about their 15mm site is just outstanding. First of all, they have pictures of everything! Not just pics of a few of their minis. Every mini. Not just a thumbnail that you can't tell what the heck you're looking at, either. They have thumbnails that you can click on and get 2 progressively larger pics showing all of the minis in a particular pack. No more having to buy minis and hope they look good or are equipped the way you want. You can see them. They're color pics. The minis have been washed to bring out the detail, and there is a lot of detail. The pic above is one of their enlarged pics showing their "Personalities" pack.

I bought the Personalities pack and I love it. First of all, the service was great. The pack showed up in the mail in 2 days!

Every mini is different. I had recently bought some other brands' minis. They didn't have pics of all their minis on their website. Some had just a title. One pack I got from that other brand had 12 minis in the pack but only in 3 poses. I hate that. With the Blue Moon minis I got 25 different minis for $15, including a coffin, blacksmith anvil and one of the 25 minis is a mounted "One-Eyed Fat Man" like Rooster Cogburn from True Grit. As you can see in the pic, the minis are in groups of 5. These are my unofficial descriptions of the groups:

5 Mexican Bandidos
5 Kerchief wearing Masked Robbers
5 Lawmen
5 Personalities: A "Blondie" from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", a "Bat Masterson" a "wild Bill Hickock" and a couple of others.
5 Miscellaneous Types: A blacksmith, an Undertaker, 2 other townies, and the mounted Rooster.

Size: The minis are pretty much 18mm instead of "true 15mm". They're noticeably larger than the Minifigs and Peter Pig minis I have. The latter seem to be "true 15mm".

Detail: The level of detail on the Blue Moon minis appears slightly superior in comparison to the Minifig and Peter Pig minis. But maybe that's just a function of size and my failing vision. :)

Now for some poorly executed pics of badly painted minis :).
Blue Moon 15mm Bandidos - Block Painted & Dipped


Size Comparison Shot (Left-Right) of Blue Moon Bandido with Minifig and Peter Pig

One-Eyed Fat Man

I am planning on painting the remainder of these minis up in like groups, as I did with the Bandidos. I'm going to use some unofficial Gutshot conventions for the painting, also. The Lawmen are good guys or "White Hats". Therefor, I'll be painting their hats white. The Masked Robbers are bad guys or "Black Hats". So they get black hats. I'm thinking that using cohesive colors in a given group will help for making "warbands" for Flying Lead, also.

As always, comments are welcome, and thanks for looking.

Luckyjoe

I'm back! Now for some 15mm Wild West

Hi, folks. This blog has been idle for a long time. Time to get it back up and running. I'm still into 15mm gaming but am now expanding into Wild West. I had a lot of 28mm Wild West and had been playing some "Gutshot" from Hawgleg Publishing a few years ago. I'm thinking I'll start Gutshot back up in 15mm, maybe try Andrea Sfiligoi & Rich Jones' Flying Lead solo and with the kids for Wild West also.




So far I'm amassing a big pile of unpainted 15mm Cowboys and such. (For tiny prices compared to 28mm) Got some of the Minifigs Wild West Townsfolk and Gunfighters and Apaches from Musket Miniatures. Some Peter Pig Wild West from Brookhurst Hobbies: Female Gunfighters, Lawmen with Sawed-Off Shotguns, and Gunmen with Rifles. And just recently got the "15mm Wild West Personalities" pack from Blue Moon. Now if we can just get Khurasan and Rebel Minis to make some Wild West 15's I'd be in hog heaven.





Also got some H/O scale "Rustic Rails" Wild West Buildings from Jerry's Hobby Junction. That's a great place. Excellent service. Fast shipping with outstanding packaging to protect the buildings, and they even threw in a nice little resin outhouse for free. I'll be getting more of their stuff soon. Those buildings are very nice with lots of detail and they scale in perfectly with 15mm.





Had to make a few scratchbuilt buildings also. I probably have as much fun building and painting, trying new materials, techniques on scratchbuilts as I do playing the games.





But don't expect beautifully detailed and painted minis and buildings from me, though. As I get older I obsess less on perfection (never could close, anyway) and just settle for getting things ready for the tabletop. And since I'm taking it easier I enjoy it more :).





I'm planning on putting up a series of posts about the different manufacturer's minis, the building, and hopefully some battle reports. I hope some of it will be interesting.





Luckyjoe