Q: Okay, so you have most of what you need for Lasalle, but everything is based for “Sharp Practice” on single 1″ Litko Stands…what do you do?

A: Send Litko some more money and obtain 2″ Litko Stands w/ magnets…all of my collection already has flex steel base bottoms for storage, so all I’ll need to do is place them on sabots as shown…wallah…we’re in business….

And yes, I realize the shako discs are all from the same company…my 28’s are coming out of Sharp Practice (1:1 scale) where you typically have 1 company worth of troops on the table….not going to worry much about it….

There was a recent thread on TMP about using 10mm Risk Pieces for Napoleonic Gaming. I painted hundreds of these up for the old Eagle Games “Napoleon in Europe” about 8 years ago.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3518

Our games club had a great deal of fun with NiE. I painted up all of the nationalities using the 3 poses available, even the Ottomans. Of course, I had to fudge on the headgear as the standard shako is a stretch for several of the nationalities, but thats the best one can do with only 3 poses available. They were an inexpensive way to dress up NiE, as I hated the look of the larger plastic figs for the game. The plastic risk pieces were primed white and then painted to their proper colors.

I finished up my Front Rank 28mm Limber set pulling a 12# gun. I love the set, but was totally frustrated over the traces. The wire traces were a bit fiddly and I made a mistake when mounting the horses and offset them, just slightly to one side. This caused the wire not to fit correctly. Unfortunately, the horses were already glued in place and it was too late to go back and re-do. Im still weighing my options, possibly using thin cord or thread…Im so frustrated with them at present, I may just leave them off. Otherwise, I enjoyed doing the set up.

My latest 28mm Unit for Sharp Practice, a group of 1st Portuguese Cacadores Riflemen. Uniform colors taken from “Uniforms of the Peninsular Wars” by Haythornthwaite. At first I wasnt sure if I would really like the Brown Uniforms, but as the facing colors were added and the figures came to life, the uniform grew on me. All figs are Front Rank.

My latest unit for Sharp Practice off the painting table: a British Center company Line Unit. Figures are Front Rank 28mm’s. As usual, the Front Ranks were a pleasure to paint up, very well defined lines and very little flash. I prefer them to Perry Plastic or Metal. I absolutely love the “well fed” look and feel of the figs!

Note: Purists will note the all white plume normally associated with Grenadier companies. This has been retro-fixed and the chaps now enjoy their proper red-white plumage of center coy troops!

A few of the big men for our Sharp Practice games…my camera flash overpowers the paint jobs…I need to learn to take better pics…oh well, you get the idea…

James and John came up from Abilene this past weekend to help playtest my Sharp Practice Mil Con Scenario. The first two playtests have resulted in a draw, but this game was far more dramatic! James played the French, while John and I “played” the British. James’ dice rolling was uncanny, he must have hit 70% of the time, with half the dice scoring kills. The game was also unsual in that we had two complete “run thru’s” of the game deck with all Big Men & units getting to move in two consecutive turns. This made for a very bloody game, especially for the Brits, as poor Shockley’s command was routed from the field. I made a few more tweaks to the scenario based on James and John’s suggestions…French won big, (and Yes, Margarita once again fell in love with Goodenot!) but I have to think it was more luck than anything…very long day for the Brits and poor old Shockley!

Here are some shots of a variety of manufacturers in my collection. Personal opinion is that they mix very well together, especially if you leave within their respective units. Admitedly, the Foundry figure sits on a built up base (raised by the height of a penny), but otherwise the Perry’s and Front Ranks mix very well. You be the judge…

I have often desired to possess some casualty figures but have never taken the time to paint them up. Pictured above is this week’s paitning effort…12 x British, 12 x French and 3 x Horse casualty figures…My desire is to place a few of these after a brisk combat where numerous losses occur in our SP games…all 28mm Front Rank figs…