Battle Honours 40mm Spanish Buildings

 

Set of three Spanish 40mm houses. Sash and Saber 40mm figures 
shown for size comparison.

Click on the pictures to enlarge

A box arrived in the post today from Battle Honours in the UK. It contained three Spanish Peninsula War house in 40mm size. Yes, I am committing to a 40mm Napoleonic skirmish game project. I decided to attend HMGS Cold Wars this year and I plan to run a Napoleonic skirmish game with 40mm figures.

Why do 40mm when I already have an adequate 28mm collection of individually mounted figures that I could use instead. Two reasons: (1) I need a new project for the coming year and (2) I am getting to the point where I can not see the 28mm figures very well anymore. They look like dark ants on my game table. I can see the 40mm figures and because they are larger, they also have a bit more character than my 28mm figures.

Anyway, I was excited to see the building models and I primed them immediately and then tucked into painting them. Here are some pictures of the three houses. I have placed some work in progress Sash and Saber 40mm British Rifles figures next to the buildings for comparison.

I really like these buildings- they are 3D prints so they can be purchased in sizes from 6mm on up to 60mm (or higher in some cases). One of the things that I like about them is that they are made to look run down and rugged and they don't have a regular appearance across the range.

I primed the models with black primer and then covered them with a coat of dark chocolate brown to provide the base color off of which to work. Then I dry brushed successively lighter colors, I think that it was four different colors. The exposed bricks here and there are a nice touch that add some character and interest to the model.

My first box of figures from Sash and Saber arrived several days ago and I got them primed and ready to paint. I used grey primer, but the dark green paint seems to be coming out a bit too light on top of the grey. I might do a batch of riflemen with black primer and suspect that the Forest Green paint color will appear darker covering black primer.

I really like the Sash and Saber 40mm figures, enough so that I ordered another boxwood of figures the other day to build a small group of French voltigeurs. I also have some Perry 40mm figures on order, but since these have to travel Across the Pond it should take about ten business days for these to arrive. And then I will have to deal with the new tariffs, but that is a discussion best done in other forums.

Now I know that some of you will be thinking (and rightly so), "oh come on Jim, this isn't going to end up being a skirmish game." This time I am committed to keeping the forces small and not letting this grow into a big game set up. The game will accommodate 6 to 8 players and the table will be approximately 6ft wide by 12ft or 15ft long. I can get a 6 x 15 table at the various conventions. Each player will command between 12 and 24 figures, maximum. No really, I mean it this time. I want the game equipment and figures and terrain to fit in my own vehicle and avoid having to rent a behemoth SUV to cart all of the stuff from Chicago to Lancaster.

In two weeks, Mrs. Fritz has invited a number of her friends over to our house to play in a skirmish wargame. We did this prior to Historicon and everyone had a good time and they wanted to come back and play another war game in the future.  BTW, it is interesting that the women turned out to be better players than their spouses. They seemed to pick up on the rules quicker than the men and they tended to be more aggressive. That game was a real gas so I am looking forward to the second installment

ccc