Kublacon 2019: Breaking Lances

I ran a couple of games at Kublacon this year, one of them was a Breaking Lances tournament. I had 10 players over all, with a real mix of ages and backgrounds.  The rules are easy to learn so everyone got stuck in quick and started charging down the coourses to create much havoc- which they did!

My nephew, this being his first convention ever attended, won the tournament and was crowned Champion. All in all there were great stories to be told over the bar/ coffee counter afterwards.

Breaking Lances will come out as a Kickstarter in the fall- in the mean time I do have some of the knights up for sale on my Skullncrown store, and will send out beta copies of the rules if you email me about it.

Cheers!
Ths

Breaking Lances: A Grail Knight and Joe Con

"grail knight" mounted and foot versions

Breaking Lances at Joe Con!

This weekend I had the privileged to run a breaking lances tournament at Joe Con, a 3 day convention my pal Joe puts on at his house. One of the great things about the con is all the faced I may not have seen throughout the year, many of them fellow SCA members (although I've been inactive for about 15 years now).

The Tournament table set up with great bayeux backdrop. Note foot combat area in the fore

So with the latest version of the rules cleaned up, I set up a table or 8 players but quickly expanded it to 10 players as the crowds demanded more action!  The other big thing we did was to give the foot combat rules a real shakedown.

Another view of the field, knights at the ready

Action commences! After the first couple of runs, the cheat sheets went away.

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the foot combat in action- but I had all 4 fighters participating, all were SCA fighters and at least one was a knight! This providing for great "feel and pace" feedback. And also, a few good laughs! Thanks guys!

Josh tries his hand role playing Sir Brion Beletrix.

 Rules wise, I think that they are all ready to go, sans some editing work, and adding in stuff like a better crit chart for foot combat, and how to run a tournament. My durrent goal is to set this off as a Kickstarter in Q2 of 2019. Fingers crossed.

Grail Knight 

This is a new design I finally had a chance to finish painting, as I needed 4 foot knights for the playtest. The color choices were inspired by Alan Lee's painting the blue knight, where He uses a great contrast in colors. In Watercolor! The man is a constant inspiration!

Alan Lee, The Blue knight

Different shots, on grey background. I need to build a bigger lightboxc

Well, that wraps up 2018!

What's on the docket for 2019?   stay tuned blog followers, and may you all have a wonderful, prosperous and happy new year!

Fort McHenry Project: US Volunteers

US Volunteers 1812: Baltimore boys

Finished up 24 of these bright and bold lads for the Fort McHenry Project. Overall super happy how they came out. Even better, weather permitting I'll be taking photos of all the troops I've done so far and then packing them up to send off to the Fort. 

Ready for Review

What commanders usually see

These Woodens take about 2 hours each to paint. Most colors are three layers, especially all the Non Mettallic metallic bits, like buttons, gun barrels, etc. 

The over all look gives them a "printed page" effect similar to the period. I'm super happy as to how these guys turned out. 

On the march- Regulars and Volunteer troops side by side

What's next?

I have a few naval officers to paint up, and then 3 sets of 3 civilians do design and cut (and paint), including Mr. Francis Scott Key himself. Then I move on to finishing up the ships for the project. The Hulls are all done, but I am still noodling with the best way to make the masts and sails so that the park rangers can use the models in exhibits and teaching moments without them being too fiddly and fragile. 

Thanks for following along on this adventure! 

Fort McHenry Project: Mounted US officers

 

These last two weeks I've been hot in closing in on finishing all the soldiers for the Fort McHenry Project. I still have to photograph all the ones I've painted up, but here's the US mounted officers

A bit too big for the studio shot

 I only need 3 for the project. The other is a Christmas present. Here's some single shots.

 And lastly the Dramatic shot

Thanks for stopping by and checking them out! 

Fort McHenry Project: US infantry officers

US Infantry Officers: 1812

More exciting work on the Fort McHenry project. I really enjoyed doing the research and painting up these officers!

I have the mounted versions made up and ready to cut. In the mean time I'm finishing up 24 volunteer troops.  After that I have some civilians, then back to the ships- Very exciting to see this coming to completion- even though I am a few months behind schedule as to where I'd like to be.

The fellow on the left is the Volunteer uniform.

Cheers!

Fort McHenry Project: US Regular troops

US Regular troops casting big shade over the British

Been working hard to bring the Fort McHenry National Park commission to a close. Definitely gaining steam, and only have one more unit, some officers and a squadron of ships to go!


These 80mm wooden soldiers represent the US regular troops that helped defend Fort McHenry during it's bombardment and siege in 1812.
 

These guys were a bit of work, but a joy to see them finished. I am still trying to figure out why I thought that painting non metallic metallic was a good choice :)
 Next up are 24 of the volunteer regiments that fought along side the regulars. I've actually got them about half done on the painting table, and have to say adding red is a nice break from all the blue.

Volunteer and Regular infantry

Fort McHenry Project: US artillery batteries

US Artillery

I'm a bit behind on my Fort McHenry commissions- especially cataloguing all the stuff I've already done. Was able to be home with daylight this weekend so got some shots of these artillery batteries.

the uniform is a pretty straight up blue jacket, single row of buttons, with yellow trim. The belgic style shako with a slightly broader top than the British can also be seen.

I had a great time researching these uniforms, with the ever patient help of the Park Rangers at Fort McHenry.

Next up British Officers, Ship hulls, and US volunteer/ irregular troops!