Palm Sunday at Towton

After many years of trying I finally got to the Towton reenactment. The Lance & Longbow society puts on a game in the barn, this year it was Bosworth. Positioning was excellent right next to the bar, however it was cold with quite a breeze blowing through, outside was warmer because it was in the sun!

Initial deployment, using the latest interpretation of the battle. The farm was moved to one side not to hinder play.

The Tudor pike push through, shortly after Richard III managed to impale himself in a vain attempt to turn the tide.

We played the game twice and on the second Richard emerged triumphant as it came down to personal combat between him and Henry.

Throughout both games Stanley and Norhumberland carefully sat on the sidelines avoiding commitment to either side

At the end of the day was the reenactment of battle out on the field.

Spot the arrows!


Painting, of the decorating variety has been progressing steadily, so progress against plan has been slow, now back to the paintbrush and a tin of non-drip white gloss paint!

On the workbench - April 2014

Well I'm feeling quite smug as progress in March was better than expected given the amount of other work that was needed around the house. Unfortunately this distraction continues so I'll be moderate in my plans

• Firstly finish off the Universal carriers being modified to the mortar version, progress is OK, but I'm struggling to find really suitable crew figures so I'm cutting up the Hat vehicle riders. An in-progress picture

• The Ace 20mm AA and 75mm Infantry gun have been assembled but put on hold as I may use them for winter games, which I need to sort out properly

Then it's back to attack the stash with

• 2 x British Desert Bedford QLD
• 2 x British Desert Bedford QLT
• 3 x German DAK Panzer III plus a Befehlspanzer III (will give me enough armour for the Alam Halfa scenario
• 3 x German DAK Sdkfz 251/1, a Sdkfz 251/10 and Sdkfz 251/7 so I can represent either a Panzer grenadier company at reduced scale or the 10th Panzer in Tunisia
• 2 x German Krupp Light truck to tidy up my early war german transport
• 3 x Italian M13/40
• A Hessian Fusilier regiment for the AWI
• and I couldn't forget my Frundsbergers, so they will get a Fusilier Regiment as well

Hurrah - the Prussians are here!

Taken quite a bit of time to finish these lads, my silver paint refused to dry, then I realised (too late) that enamels don't work well with the new HaT plastic and I hadn't undercoated the bayonets, etc. with white acrylic. Then just as I was finishing one of the flags fell off!

Two regiments were completed as fusiliers as that is the only(?) gap in my SYW Prussian army

I had taken some close-ups but they came out blurry as I was rushing.

The two units are 35th Fusilier Prinz Heinrich von Preußen (front) and 40th Fusiliers Kreytzen (behind, both links from the excellent Kronoskaf site, which also provided the standards.

Footnote - the rest of my SYW Prussian army was painted when the Revell figures first came out and was one of my few fully planned armies

A few more bits for my 8th Army

So I've completed a couple of deployed 2pdrs, just in case they might be needed for a particular scenario. The models are Zvezda just like the one added to the portees. In support is a Hasegawa Daimler Armoured car, just not quite finished as I need to find some arm of service decals with 76 over green and blue. The battery commander comes from the Italeri 25pdr.

A quick fix? - US Shermans

I was tempted by one of the offers at WMMS to buy two packs of the Italeri 1/72 quick build M4A3s, even though the rest of my collection is 1/76.

They turned out so well I'm considering getting some more, especially as I've found some scenarios needing even more Shermans


Three will be a normal Sherman troop and the other is intended to be an OP tank, when I find the missing HaT US tank crew figures!

A reminder from the past - quick play WW2 rules

Back in the early 70's, as a young member of the Bath Wargames Club, I was introduced to some "complex" Bristol Wargame Society WW2 rules, by some old hands Bob Thomson and Mike Phillpot. I was recently reminded of this by someone over on The Guild". I never had a copy of the rules, but played a number of times in small scale actions where the players were seated back to back facing identical tables and the authors moved the "enemy" according to what you could see. These were always tense games, and the memories are still quite vivid. They then moved on and created a simple set of WW2 rules for the club, which subsequently I found had their origins in the rules by Bish Izwasko and Lionel Tarr.

Can't find my original copy, but the pictures are from much used copy - two sides of A4 is all there was!

Various vehicles for my 8th Army

These seem to have been on my workbench for ages, but at last they are finished.

Firstly the long awaited Portees, a cross-kitting of the Matchbox LRDG Chevrolet with the Zvezda 2pdr. It took a while to work how the gun was configured on the truck. It's actually reversed and sticks out beyond the end of the vehicle


Then a trio of Matildas, one previously owned and two new builds, I decided to be adventurous and paint them in Caunter. What fun working out the pattern and then which colours to use. In the end I opted for my Standard Humbrol Light Stone with Vallejo Green Grey (for the Silver Grey)and German Field Grey (for the Slate) In the background is a Oxford Diecast Daimler Dingo almost OOB except I have dry brushed it to tome down the colours.


Finally a pair of Priests, unusually these are marked up for 1st Armoured division as they operated them at El Alamein. I still need to find for suitable crew for these


Still in progress are the Daimler and a couple of deployed 2pdrs