Sunday 22 September 2024

Swiss and desert distractions

Decided to check how the various Swiss contingents I had painted matched with each other colour wise and what they would look like all together.

There are rather a lot of  Swiss now.....



Some shots of massed pike



In the attack


Flankers


Must get the bases painted and the figures varnished and based properly.

Having obtained my copy of "Not Quite Mechanised" by Chris Kemp:

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/2021/06/follow-not-quite-mechanised-on.html

I have been thinking of Western Desert WW2 as well as how well they will work for Arab-Israeli 1967 (to say nothing of Indo-Pak 1965). This has mostly consisted of digging out boxes of stuff, mulling over orbats and wrestling with how many infantry to put on a base.....

I thought I was going down the Megablitz route which in 20mm has two figures in a 40mm square base. NQM is more agnostic on base size and it seems Chris happily uses all sorts together. As NQM is hex based, it's more about how many SPs are allowed in a hex, each standard battalion having 3sp, with maximum occupancy 7-9 SP.

For Megablitz (starting with AIW) I had moved to the idea of 2 mechanised or 3 foot infantry on a 40mm square base.Now I'm contemplating 50mm wide bases with 4-5 figures, partly due to realising how quick I can paint up 20mm plastics and aesthetics (I think 4-5 infantry look nicer). However, I have to think about what will fir in a hex. Most of my hex cloths use a 100mm / 4" hex which means 50mm width is probably the max - it also has to fit with vehicle bases which are likely to be 40-50mm depending on the vehicle; experiments with card and figures is inconclusive. 50mm starts to look crowded, so I'm now  dithering between 3 on a 40mm base or going for something like 60x30mm and 4-5 but that takes up a lot of space.....

Decisions, decisions..... 

6 comments:

  1. Great collection of Swiss, they look lovely. I can offer no help to your conundrum as I don't do moderns or hex but interested to see how you do solve it.

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  2. Very impressive collection of Swiss! They will look great when based up. Your figures remind me of the beautiful dioramas seen of Murten and Grandson.

    As for basing for NQM, you do face a decision point. I thought the latest SCW game looked too crowded with all of the hexes stacked to the brim with bases. I would lean toward a less crowded look perhaps with larger hexes.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan.
      I thought my hex sheets were all 4" / 100mm but I've discovered a 5" hex CnC Tricorne mat and 6" hex green mat ( possibly bought to match the 6" hex Memoir ' 44 mat).
      I'm now thinking with a 6" sand / desert cloth I would be less constrained .
      Neil

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  3. Thanks Donnie. I will probably just concentrate on getting stuff painted for now.
    Neil

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  4. Your pikemen look impressive all together.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Peter. I was relieved to see that by using a restricted colour palette, they work together irrespective of when they were painted.
      Neil

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Swiss and desert distractions

Decided to check how the various Swiss contingents I had painted matched with each other colour wise and what they would look like all toget...