Liebster Blog Award

A 'Thank you very much!' to Nick from Moiterei's bunte Welt, who has nominated Tsuba Miniatures for the 'Liebster Blog Award' (Favourite Blog Award)!

I have to admit, that I wasn't aware of the 'Liebster Blog Award' before. (Shame on me!) It is a great initiative to spread the word on your favourite blogs, that aren't that well known already. The miniature hobby is one of those hobbies with a nearly unmanageable number of great blogs, some of which are unfortunately spending their virtual life in the shadows. And that is where the 'Liebster Blog Award' comes into play. 

Here are the rules:

- "Copy and paste" the award on your blog, and talk about it a bit.
- post a link back to the blogger who gave you the award
- Select for the award your five favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, leaving a comment on one of their post to notify them that they have won the award. You need also to list them in your own blog.
- Enjoy the moment, knowing that you have just made someone's day.
- Of course, there is no obligation to pass the award, but it is a good deed really.

And here is my choice of five blogs following these rules (in no particular order and of course not the only ones, which deserve a nomination):

http://nigelh-viewfromtheduckpond.blogspot.de/  Nigel's (of Anglian Miniatures fame, now available from Empress Miniatures) blog  is basically just a 'regular wargaming' blog, but a great one indeed! I especially enjoy his posts about WIP-work he is doing on various vehicles like the 28mm patrol boat for a Vietnam game.

http://fistofsteel15c.blogspot.de/ On his blog Oliver not only shows some great painted Samurai and Medieval Knights but also the sculpting and WIPs of the miniatures as he sculpts them all himself!

http://dreispitz.blogspot.de/ A very nice blog focusing on the 'Dreispitz' era (surprisingly...), which I really like the look of (especially the seemingly endless ranks of drilled soldiers) but can never bring myself to paint in the requried quantities. Mike als started his own line of 28mm miniatures of Austrians for the SYW.

http://akulasblog.blogspot.de/ A mad man doing mad projects. ;-) (Just follow the links/pictures on the right side to the various projects.)

http://thecamlachiewolfe.blogspot.co.uk/  Finally another wargaming blog, this time from Iain (Flags of War), focusing on the FIW and (A)VBCW. He not only knows how to design a flag but also to paint miniatures and put up a great game.

Again, this list is by no means complete but just a small insight on all the great blogs available.

Japanese Regimental Flags

Iain of Flags of War has worked his magic again, this time on the Japanese Regimental flags:

 Japanese Regimental Standards, 2.50 Euros/sheet

The Japanese used the same pattern for all their regimental flags. (I guess this was an important issue for the identity of the Imperial Army as the army of an unified and modern Japan in contrast to the colourfull and diverse banners and symbols used by the Daimyōs and the Shōgun before the Meiji-Restauration). 

The only difference was the regimental number written in Japanese kanjis in the field in the lower corner next to the flag pole.
I've discussed the issue with Iain and we have decided to leave these numbers off the flags, so you can add the number of the regiment you want to depict or just leave it as it is. (We are working on a list with all the numbers in kanjis for those regiments involved in the Russo-Japanese War.)

To my knowledge, this pattern remained virtually unchanged until the dissolving of the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of the Second World War. In addition, these flags were never repaired or renewed as they were granted to the regiment during it's founding ceremony by the Emperor and thus considered a divine/holy gift. A lot of photos from later periods show them rendered to nothing but the purple border. 

At the end of the Second World War nearly all the flags were ceremonially reduced to ashes to avoid capture by allied forces.

  

Comparison: Scheltrum Miniatures

I've just received two sets from Scheltrum Miniatures 'Shattered Empires'-range. The sets are 'SEM2 -

Armed workers in shirt sleeves, advancing. Set of 4 assorted.' (bottom row) and 'SEM7 - Sparticists in civilian coats. Shooting and standing.' (top row). 

EDIT November 25th: New comparison photos (hopefully better and more usefull for everyone):

 

 

Lt. Hazel's painted Russians

After some SAGA-/dark age diversion, Lt. Hazel has returned to Manchuria with some excellent Russian infantrymen:

 He has also posted a painting guide on the Lead Adventure Forum:

A list of colours/washes I´ve used.
I used (on the first pic from left to right) Vallejo Model Colour for the basecoat on the shirts:
Green Ochre 914 - Green Brown 879 - Desert Yellow 977 - Khaki 988.
I can´t rememeber it, but it´s possible that I mixed some khaki into the DY. For a wider variety of shades I´ll  mix this colours with each other.
Then I applied several layers of Army Painter Soft Tone (Gryphone Sepia) and Strong Tone (Devlan Mud) thinned with water. I used the Dark Tone in the folds to create depths. After everything was dry I highlighted with the base colour plus some Pale Sand 837. For the case that the highlight turns out to bright I tone it down with base colour plus a lot of water. Hope that helps,
Jan

Here's the link to Lt. Hazel's blog: http://theleutnantsdiary.blogspot.de/

Regulator's RCW Kornilov Regiment

Stephan/Regulator (the guy behind ProGloria Miniatures) has done a marvelous job painting some of our Russians. He's using them to depict the Kornilov Regiment, a famous resp. notorious white shock unit during the Russian Civil War.

If you are interested in the Landsknecht era and/or Paul Hicks' work in general, please have a look at Stephan's blog using the above-mentioned link!

But enogh talking, here are the pictures of Stephan's fantastic work:

Triumph & Tragedy: Free RJW lists

Björn, the author of the Triumph & Tragedy rules, has very kindly written two army lists for the Russo-Japanese War! 

They have turned out very nice, but not only that, they are available FREE to download from the T&T homepage! (Link: http://www.triumph-tragedy.de/downloads/russo-jap.pdf)

If you haven't played T&T yet, you should really give the rules a try. They are not too hard to learn but very entertaining. The originial basic rules are intended to be used for games set in the first part of the 20th century right up to the second world war. They can be played in a strictly historical or in more pulp fashion by adding 'heroes' with special features and actions. (They aren't expensive either, you should get the basic rules for about 13.- to 15.- Euros.)

A colonial supplement is expanding the coverage to include various colonial conflicts in the later part of the 19th century and another one focuses on the Spanish Civil War, introducing rules for ground attack fighters (among others). There are also a couple of free army lists/supplements available besides the Russo-Japanese War ones, including one for the Freikorps era in Germany.

Triumph & Tragedy homepage: http://www.triumph-tragedy.de/
Triumph & Tragedy forum: http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?board=25.0
(part of the Lead Adventure Forum)

Freikorps Werdenfels review

I've received a very nice review (although we are in no way associated) covering the Freikorps Werdenfels Miniatures by Nick/Moiterei.

He has posted the review in both English and German! You can find them here:
http://moitereisbuntewelt.blogspot.de/2012/11/freikorps-werdenfels-short-review.html (English)
http://www.gw-fanworld.net/content.php/646-Tsuba-Miniatures-Review-Fre (German)

Here's a small teaser:

If you are wondering about the colours of the armband, Nick plans to use them for a fictiv 'Franconian War of Independence'. (As a born Franconian myself, I'm looking forward to see how the project will develop.)