Breaking News: Battlegames to Merge with Miniature Wargames!

The great BG is scheduled to "merge" with Miniatures Wargames in just a few issues.

A bit news came into the offices here at Stollen Central yesterday that has me feeling a bit of I don't know what this morning. At loose ends maybe? Atlantic Publishing's Miniature Wargames will absorb Battlegames in the next couple of issues. Here's the full story in a release issued by Atlantic Publishing yesterday. In nutshell, BG's Henry Hyde has been given editorial control over MW and, hopefully, will revamp it to resemble something of its glorious past. That's the plan at least.

I've got my fingers crossed, in particular, for something that's a cross between the current thoughtful and thought-provoking BG and the first dozen issues or so of MW from the early 8os. The latter remain fascinating reads today and, of course, are chock-a-block with photographs of Peter Gilder's, Phil Robinson's, and Doug Mason's figures among others. Wonderful and exciting news for Henry career-wise, and he's going to be kept very busy I imagine.

At the same time, I am more than a little sad to see BG go. It really had something to it and was a fresh voice that has consistently been leagues above the eye candy and vapid articles seen in so many issues of Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames, et al in recent years. Frankly, and on a personal note, these two publications simply have not felt like they contained much of interest for many years now. 18 or 20? Well, maybe that's somewhat unfair, but you get the point. Sure, I have occasionally picked up an issue at the hobby store in the last twelve years or so and thumbed through it, but that's about it. Battlegames was different. Hopefully, Henry will be able to maintain full editorial control over the new MW plus his high content standards without too much micromanaging from the publishers.

Still, chin up, stiff upper lip, carry on, and all that, chaps! It should be very interesting to see an issue of the new Miniature Wargames and see how things have turned out. And I mean that sincerely. No hint of sarcasm or irony intended. If anyone can merge the two in a fairly seamless way, Henry can. And as for Battlegames? As a friend remarked yesterday, "Battlegames is dead! Long live Battlegames!"

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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