Will's Wargames Blog

Napoleonic rework

2012-01-25T13:56:00.000Z

Played the new Crusader Publishing "March Attack" Napoleonic rules down the club last week. They seemed to work well enough and were simple to pick up. We played the Plancenoit scenario in the back of the rules, but it was rather ambitious for a first attempt as the infantry didn't quite get into combat by packing up time. Still it seems promising and worth another go, my only slight concern is that the artillery seems too powerful.

I was using my French and Prussian figures and the few rebased ones really stood out from the rest and the command bases looked particularly uninspiring. So since I was basing up the paras I thought I'd just do these as well

French

Prussian

British Paras - third batch

2012-01-23T14:49:00.001Z

The third battalion is now painted again I still need the Mortar and MMG. I'll be at Crusade on Saturday, so hopefully I'll pick up some more bits I need there

The brigade so far, it's mainly artillery and vehicles needed now.

Penkridge - foraging trip

2012-01-22T17:24:00.003Z

Popped down to the table sale held at Penkridge today and secured a few useful bits and pieces at prices to justify the trip (honest!)

four Airfix 6pdr guns (just what I need for Monty's battles)
an Airfix Crusader
SHQ Nebelwerfer
Academy kubelwagen
a pack of Revell SYW Austrian Infantry
about 90 Esci WW2 Russian Guards (the hard plastic set)
A set of Airfix British Paras (I just want the mortar and crew!)
The FOW Afrika handbook (only to have a read look at the eye-candy and then sell)
Dapol platform figures (to provide some unarmed civilians)
The Bellona tent set (I need some more for encampments, probably go for a desert basing this time)

Nice friendly atmosphere and it seemed to get plenty of buyers and sellers.

British Paras - second batch

2012-01-21T16:43:00.003Z

Another battalion of British Paras now completed, except that I still need to add a MMG and mortar team. In the front is the flame-thrower needed for the Engineers, it's a simple head swap using the flame-thrower in the Hat British machine gun set.

British Paras, the first batch

2012-01-16T11:58:00.004Z

OK to kick off with, I had to rework an existing Para battalion to ensure it was consistent with the new stuff that I'm producing. I've added a few extras such as a Piat team and 2" mortar from the Italeri AT teams. The 3" mortar and HMG still need to be rebased but I'll do them once I find a good source for the extra pair of each I need for the other two battalions.

Then there are the new units, these are all the small bits I might need for specific games. At the fron Left to right Pathfinder Company, Recon Company (need Jeeps) Engineer Company (still need to add a flamethrower). Behind are the brigade HQ and the Artillery OP.

Now on with the second battalion.

Playing favourites

2012-01-14T20:53:00.001Z

As “Too much Lead” put it “We all have them; favourite games, periods, inspirations and so on. The lull in gaming over the festive season gave me pause for thought on a few of mine, and since we are now in "awards" season, so I understand, I thought as a one off to herald the new year I could pass comment on mine.”

And so here are my thoughts:

Wargames Period

I play most periods; I’m a bit of a wargame butterfly. If I had to pick some then it would have to be Napoleonic then WW2 and SYW, but as my blog shows periods have a tendency of spawning into a variations and then into another period, so don’t depend on me sticking on any particular course.

Where it all began

A bit tricky really, I remember being interested in model railways from an early age, yes I wanted to become an engine driver, steam of course. Three influences made me switch, firstly a present of a rocket launcher and exploding wagon for my train set, then the purchase of the Airfix Infantry Combat Group and finally the discovery of “Wargames” by Donald Featherstone in the library.

Scale

Fore me 1/76^th has to be the scale, it’s where I started all those years ago and I’ve rarely shifted away from 20mm figures. For me it’s the right compromise between appearance, paintability and footprint on the tabletop.

Rules

Hmm, a difficult one as I’m an inveterate rule writer and tinkerer. I’m still proud of my Zulu and AWI rules but both owe their origins to others in the hobby. The Zulus link back to Pony Wars, which Peter Gilder also used as the basis for his Sudan rules. The main mechanisms of my AWI set are from Charlie Wissencraft a major pioneer, who ran an ACW game at one of the early COWs (Conference of Wargamers)

Current commercial favourites are:

Rapid Fire for WW2, it needs work especially around command and control. I’ve tried Kampfgruppe Normandy, it contains some good ideas, but it contains too many anomalies for me to enjoy.

Black Powder for generic Tricorne/Napoleonic/Colonial, work well for a pick up game at the club and can be tinkered with to get period flavour. I really like the command and control mechanism.

Hail Caesar has had the same effect for ancients that had somewhat stagnated and it has rekindled my interest in gaming the period.

Others that had an influence over the years are WRG 4^th/5^th/6^th DBA and DBM, 1644, Age of Reason, the WRG Napoleonics (remember flinch points!), various WW2 sets.

Boardgame

Yes, I’m a boardgamer or more specifically a Eurogamer, but you won’t find any of it on my blog. Why? Because I’m a willing participant with others who are boardgame enthusiasts and are always buying the latest games. There’s always lots of inventive ideas in the games and many will carry across to wargames with little problem.

Metal/Plastic?

I did start with soft plastic and for years knew no other, but gradually began to add some metal to my Napoleonic collection and some other bits and pieces. I then realised that for armies the size I liked and aspired to the weight and cost of metal would be prohibitive (I was still at school at the time) and Springwood came along with their hard plastic figures, so I had the basic numbers sorted.

Later in life once I had the money but not the time I made a decision to stay with plastic as an easy way of limiting myself to a smaller range of periods.

Figure manufacturer:

Zvezda has to be my favourite for sculpting, but they have suffered scale creep over the years, but their new Art-of-Tactic has returned to 20mm, though the sculpting is no longer as crisp.

Strelets would be my pick for unusual subjects with a quirky originality. Hat still uses the horrible rubbery plastic that loses detail and Italeri does brilliant sculpts, but has suffered from scale creep as well. Caesar was heading in the right direction, but seems to have become fixated by WW2.

Overall very much a pick and mix approach is currently my style

Clubs

My best memories still come from the clubs I first started out with. Bath got me started on AWI, WW2 and Napoleonics, I especially remember vast sprawling Napoleonic games fought over a weekend and back to back WW2 skirmish games.

Lancaster (Jomini) introduced me to a wide range of diverse views on the hobby and I remember the Niersteiner-Domthal campaign organised by Andy Callan and fought with matchstick armies.

After a gap I returned to the hobby setting up the St Albans club, which is still going strong under the leadership of the Two Fat Lardies and I’m glad to say the same sense of fun was still there when I popped by a year ago. So many memorable games in a vast range of scales and genres.

During a difficult period in my working life I was seconded to a job in Aberdeen, and I must admit the welcome and games at the local club really helped to maintain my sanity.

More recently there has been the participation in the annual big games organised by the Society of Gentlemen Gamers and the satisfied feeling of returning after a weekend’s gaming in such a friendly environment.

Of course I can’t ignore my current club the Deeside defenders, who put up with me almost every week and many weekend boardgaming sessions as well.

Opponents

My longest suffering opponent is Steve Ayers the founder member of the Harpenden Wanderers formed of ex-members of the St Albans club who gradually drifted away to other parts of the country and coincidentally like myself lived in Harpenden. Steve was my main AWI opponent and he wrote the first computer version of my rules (and he’s still using them). When he left he had to buy AWI armies and I had to rewrite the rules to run on a PC! Steve is still a regular opponent at the various show games put on by the Lance & Longbow society.

Inspiration

Film

I think this would cover all the old favourites: A bridge too far; The Longest Day; Zulu; The Eagle has landed; Where Eagles Dare; The heroes of Telemark; Spartacus; Gladiator etc. Want I really need to do is spend time watching the various eastern European films about the renaissance period

Book

Over the years I have read an enormous amount and over the years the trend has been to shift from the blow to blow accounts to details of the underlying strategic context.

My favourite historical authors include Christopher Duffy (Campaigns of Napoleon), Rick Atkinson (An Army at Dawn) Martin Van Crefeld (Supplying War) Robert Kershaw (It never snows in September)

But then I’ve still got my treasured possessions, “Charge” and the “The Wargame”, both bought for what seemed an extortionate price when I had little money, but have repaid the expenditure many-fold over the years.

Magazine

Yes I’ve subscribed to a lot of them, but gradually reduced over the years. Currently I subscribe to several societies as they often give more details on battles and their context than the mainstream magazines. Their other benefit is often to throw up something new that if I was just considering buying a magazine would not get a second glance. So stand up and take a bow Society of Ancients, Lance & Longbow, Pike and Shot and SOTCW societies. Yes a bit of a gap in the middle, but no one has yet produced a well balanced journal for the Napoleonic period.

Mainstream I still subscribe to Wargames Illustrated and Battlegames and pick up the occasional issues of Miniature Wargames and Wargames Soldiers Strategy if there is anything to interest me.

Art

To me this is a great inspiration, walking into a museum and seeing the great period pictures for real the battles pictures of Tamai and Abu Klea at the National Army Museum are so striking

The Internet

Has now become my first post of call for research and checking on what is happening in the hobby. It has enabled me to meet a lot of people and gain a lot of new ideas and perspectives.

Other

Some final thoughts, favourite paints, still Humbrol but now acrylics a good robust paint for wargames use. Vallejo has the colour range and higher pigment levels so I use them where needed.

Favourite tank – still the Panther, though the T34 comes a close second

Favourite unit: Napoleonic 3ieme régiment Croate, one of my longest serving units

A new project?

2012-01-09T21:11:00.003Z

Just bought my first laser cut building. The Festes-Haus zu Ransbach. it's mainly laser cut/etched card and foam core with a few bit of balsa

It's very much an experiment to see how these buildings are constructed and also because the buildings footprint matches my standard basing

The biggest disappointment was that the timber framing was not separate as this makes painting a lot slower. I know that in reality the infill was at the same level, but for modelling it's a lot easier if they are separate. The windows are interesting, but I'm not sure how robust they will be for wargames use, I'll need to see how they turn out.

Probably get around to assembling it in a couple of months!

Zvezda triplet

2012-01-07T21:16:00.004Z

Continuing the theme of threes, here's three different WW2 German sets from Zvezda from left to right

Reconnaissance set - only four figures, but some very nice poses
Motorcycles, only one per packet, but lots of detail, far superior to the Hat version, I just wish they had included an optional pillion rider as well
Engineers, four figures, but some accessories included as well of which the only usable components are the barbed wire fencing. the wire cutter and mine detectors make this a very useful set

In general the best option is to rebase the figures, the originals work just about OK with the motorcycles. I do feel that the contents of the sets is being adjusted to reflect it's value in their art of tactic game, hence the boxes with single sprues of just four figures. Do I feel ripped off? Well slightly as otherwise I'd have to convert the figures or (horror) buy metal.

Three bitches

2012-01-06T08:44:00.006Z

Finished at last, three SU76s or Sukas (bitches) as the Russians called them.

I've had a number of problems with them, firstly heat distortion as the kit must have been kept somewhere warm. Mostly this can be fixed by dropping the part in hot water and straightening it out, but here the rear of the fighting compartments were badly bent and had to be held in front of a fan heater to softening them enough. I used some long nosed pliers to avoid burning my fingers. This fault also affected the gun mantlets, but here I decided they were beyond recovery so I constructed replacements with plasticard and green stuff.

Worst of all was the right track units, all were damaged and fragile. In retrospect I would have been better off removing the fragile material rather than trying to repair it. Eventually I gave up trying to get it right as it is a wargames piece after all and it needs to be robust. You can see the mess on the model on the right.

As the models were bought from a modeller they are three different variants from left to right SU76m (early) SU76m (late) and the original a SU76. All three vehicles are by Milicast

On the Workbench - January 2012

2012-01-04T15:46:00.004Z

To make a good start to a new year I have to finish what's already on the bench, so this means the Zvezda German Recon , motorcycles and engineers, the SU76s (Actually finished now, but needed to be photographed) and Befehlspanzer I.

The big new task will be my British Para brigade and it's likely to run into February given the number of figures to be painted. At the same time, following my experiences with the SU76s, I've decided to work on the remaining resin vehicles I picked up at Crewe last February. They are quite a varied bunch and some need quite a bit of work to make good.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes I have to make some purchasing decisions ready for Vapnartak my first show of the year.

Plans for 2012

2012-01-02T20:21:00.001Z

I've decided that 2012 will be dominated by a desert theme, with two main thrusts:

Firstly, preparation for this October’s big game to commemorate the battle of El Alamein and to bring all my WW2 desert forces up to a consistent level. This means I’ve a lot to do on my DAK/8th Army forces as I’ve concentrated so far on the earlier desert campaigns;
Secondly, with the arrival of the Hat Dervishes it’s off to the Sudan.

This will be backed up by work on:

British to fight the French in Egypt with the latest Strelets releases and promises of more this year. I expect I’ll paint some extra French;
Sort out the assorted Saracens so I can use Hail Caesar for Crusades games.

Other projects:

Work on the British Airborne brigade (carried over from 2011);
Clear out the rest of my medievals to make a Burgundian/German force;
Upgrade more terrain, especially walls and hedges (carried over from 2011).

And finally keep the stash to fewer than 5,000 taking into account Christmas presents

Of course this might change slightly once a decision is made about the SOTCW game at Gauntlet, but my normal contribution is to the terrain for the game, so the impact will be most likely to add to the list.

Adding up all that I already have in the stash for the above makes 1,200 items, so even with the necessary purchases it should be feasible.

2011 Review

2012-01-01T20:54:00.003Z

What? another year passed already

To start on a "more" serious note performance against targets

General items

Continue reducing the stash of unpainted figures, the target is 5,000 by year end. So I have to trade/sell/paint at least 1,500 figures and more to cover what I buy in 2011. Given I typically paint around 1,500 items a year it should be feasible. – Well I got down to 5,048 before Christmas, but it rose again with the presents to 5,273 so I got close and I’ve still got over 700 allocated to sell.
Tidy up a number of armies and dispose of any old surplus painted figures, especially WW2, which has quite a number of figures I never use. – Along with the unpainted figures quite a few painted Russian, German and British units have been sold.
Upgrade more terrain, especially walls and hedges. – If I ignore the legation walls then a complete failure on this

Major Projects – 3 out of 4 is not bad

WW2 US Airborne Brigade – done, just a few bits to finish off, as always
WW2 British Airborne Brigade – carried forward to 2012
Medieval German/Swiss Army - done
Frundsberg and Pommaine “SYW” forces in preparation for a new campaign. - done

Minor Projects

Terrain for the Siege of Peking game for Gauntlet – done, but it needed more terrain than I anticipated
Italian forces for the “Big Game”, mainly a number of small units for Leros plus some Allied aircraft - done
Continue work on my new Afrika Korps, my plan is to mainly complete it by buying discount figures and vehicles. – some bits purchased, but a major area for action in 2012 with the Alamein big game coming up
Tidy up my figure database, I’ve not done a complete check for years now so I suspect it has some errors in it. – done, found a number of errors, but broadly correct.

In detail

1,547 items built/painted/repaired, so similar performance to last year. By period
WW2 – 589 items – mainly made up for the new US Airborne Brigade, followed by the reworking of my Russian forces and then the extras for the Dodecanese big game.
SYW – 458 items- this was all the big push on the Bavarian (Pommaine) and Frundsberg forces.
Medieval – 158 items – all the Swiss army
AWI – 120 figures – all old figures rebased and touched up.
Terrain – 102, yes 102 items, virtually all for the Siege of Peking game.
Sold - 1,326 unpainted and 290 painted items
Revolutionary Wars – 64 items, French Grenadiers, Artillery and then the Bashi-Bazouks – I think this period will be busier in 2012 with the new Strelets releases.
Colonial – 24 items – but I’m sure this will flare up in again in the Sudan in 2012

Gaming

Lots of good games during the year, both miniatures and boardgames. Particular highlights were:

The Dodecanese big game by the Society of Gentlemen Gamers – another stunning effort in terms of terrain, figures and the style of play, OK there were odd bits that could be improved but it was my stand-out event of the year.
A close second, based on the pure entertainment value was the SOTCW game at Gauntlet, so much fun spread over a couple of days.
Runners-up were the Aztec-Conquistadores games at Fiasco and the Austro-Ottoman game of Olaschin 1696 at out local open gaming day in Broughton, Chester

I give up/Happy new year

2011-12-31T20:12:00.004Z

Yes, I can't finish any more stuff in 2011, I thought I had a good chance of finishing the SU76s, but the paint just dries too slow at this time of year.

So that forces me to sit down and review what progress I made over the year. One target I almost met was to reduce the stash down to 5,000 from 6,500. I got down to 5,048 just before Christmas and then of course it rose again with the presents.

So the first project of 2012 will be to review progress and set targets for 2012.

Have a great New Year wherever you are.

Cheers

Will

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero

2011-12-29T14:33:00.005Z

A quick dip into the stash for the "Wings" speed build over on the Guild. It's an old Airfix kit, an impulse buy at a Warboot sale a while back.

The big problem was the decals as not only were they fragile, but they had also discoloured, so I had to touch up the white areas and the white engine rings had to be added freehand

I'm not sure how I'm going to use it as it acted as either a medium bomber or a torpedo bomber so I have left off the torpedos for now.

Off course to above pictures have been altered to remove the stand, so here is how the aircraft is fixed to an aerial.

Thank you Santa

2011-12-25T14:23:00.004Z

Received some nice gifts this year

Somehow I think they will define some projects for next year

Hanoverian Foot Guards

2011-12-24T12:04:00.004Z

A seasonally coloured update, not Santa's helpers, but Hanoverian Fussgarde grenadiers. The Revell Prussian Grenadiers were ideal for this as there was no detail on the grenadier caps, so it was easy(?) to paint on the detail.

In the background are various other bits I finished for my Frundsbergers.

Merry Christmas everyone and may you get lots of toys.

Will

Catching up

2011-12-22T12:06:00.002Z

Slowly getting there. here's some more completed bits and pieces.

The Italian trucks 2 x Lancia L6 and 1 x Fiat 621

A pair of 100mm Austrian Feldhaublitze, just need to buy some crew.

The Zvezda AT teams, a very useful pack as I only needed a couple extra, in case I field a Guards Rifle regiment, which has double the normal allocation of AT rifles

Radio Operators

2011-12-15T11:25:00.004Z

The finishing touches for my US Parachute regiment are the radio operators. Typically like many sets of plastic figures there were none in the various US Para sets so I had to convert some.

The radio is basically a rectangle of thick plasticard framed by thin microstrip. The aerial is fine copper wire so it will flex without breaking. Finally a rolled cover made of greenstuff was added round the top and sides and additionally served to hide the gaps.

Not visible is a length of rod drilled through the radio and into the figure to ensure it stays in place. The dials, etc are a simple paint job.

GNW Russians for sale

2011-12-15T11:01:00.000Z

These figures are from the Strelets Court of Peter the great set. I had hoped to use the infantry figures, but they are so significantly different in scale from those by Zvezda so I have decided to sell them.

The whole lot is available for £10 plus P&P

email Fire-at-WillatLive.co.uk (replacing the second at with @)

Soviet Reece

2011-12-10T16:43:00.004Z

While working on the cavalry I also finished this Zvezda mini-set of Russian Recon, quite nice figures, but in retrospect I should have based them on thinner bases than those provided

Also shown are a couple of my panzerfaust markers, I based up another twelve as I'm always short of some.

SYW Frundsberg cavalry

2011-12-09T15:42:00.004Z

They took a while, but they are now complete, well almost, as I want to add a few more figures to go with the foot officers, but I haven't decided what to use yet.

Front front to rear Stocwold Kuirassiers, Pidnem Dragoons and the Battenburg Kuirassiers.

The cavalry are all the Revell SYW Austrian Dragoons with the Cuirassiers converted by trimming off the lapels and painting on a breastplate.

Reflections on Recon

2011-12-04T11:37:00.006Z

A much smaller show than Fiasco and very much an outing to meet up with friends rather than seeing lots of eye-candy. This time it was very much a joint effort of the Society of Ancients; Lance & Longbow and the Towton Battlefield Societies. The game was a refight of the battle of Wakefield 1460 using an alternative scenario as proposed by Helen Cox in her book "The battle of Wakefield revisited". Helen herself was on hand to sign copies of her book and answer any queries

Richard of York sallies out with the treacherous Nevilles on the right flank

The centres come to blows! Both sides successfully pushing back one opposing contingent.

By the time we packed up the Nevilles had still not come to blows leaving the rest of the Yorkists to be crushed by the Lancastrians despite their earlier successes.

Personally I managed to clear quite a bit of my stash and limited my purchases to some static grass, a Zvezda 88mm gun and a box of Airfix Matador and 5.5" parts on the B&B. Hopefully there will be enough bits to make up two guns for "Monty's battles".

Trading - Haves - December 2011 update

2011-12-03T17:10:00.000Z

I have the following currently available for trade, see the Trading Department for more details. I'm also prepared to sell the figures and other bulkier items at any show I'm attending.

New addition - copies 1-204 of Wargames Illustrated in binders, £5 a binder or £50 the lot

Airfix AWI casualties/Lying down (lots)
Airfix French Grenadiers
Airfix Wagon horses
Atlantic Greek Infantry 50figs)
Atlantic Wagon Drivers (10 figs)
BP Casts – US 57mm & crew
Esci British Commandos
Esci French Guard Artillerymen (40 figs)
Italeri Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Cheval (16 figures)
Italeri German AT Teams (8 figs)
Italeri/Revell British Paras (80 figs)
MiniArt Hussites (48figs)
Misc 20mm metal Napoleonics
Revell Afrika Korps
Revell SYW Prussian Hussars (16 figures)
Revell US paratroops plus a few Italeri (192 figs)
Strelets GNW Russian Guard of Peter I (27 figs)
Strelets GNW Russian Infantry(48 figures from the Court and army set)
Strelets RCW lying down (16figs)
SYW figures (5 metal figs)
…Plus odd figures remaining from various sets, etc.

Needs are summarised on another post

Contact me at Fire-At-Will at live.co.uk

For Sale - December 2011 update

2011-12-03T17:00:00.001Z

These will be up for sale at our local club Deeside Defenders. I'll take anything to the next shows I'm attending (should be Vapanartak - York) so if you are interested in any items let me know and I'll bring them along.

Painted Figures/Vehicles (Unpainted are in trading -haves)

WW2 German Infantry (Airfix 46 figs) £6.00

Terrain

Various Airfix/Dapol buildings £2.00 each
2 x scratch built Russian houses £4.00 each
Old School style river system and bridge £6.00

Books (separate entry)

Books for sale - December 2011 update

2011-12-03T16:59:00.000Z

If you are interested in any of these, I'll bring them along to whatever show I'm next attending (Vapanartak - York) The list includes a fellow wargamer's books as well.

Mallisonson - A close run thing, The Nizams daughters £1.50 each
Bernard Cornwall - Sharpes Havoc, Prey, Fortress, Devil, Triumph, Tiger and Trafalgar £1.00 each
Bernard Cornwall - Excalibur, Enemy of God £1.00 each
Curtis Cate - Russia 1812 - £5.00
WRG Rennaissance Rules (1st Ed) £3.00
Ireland - Battle of the Atlantic - £5.00 (mint)
Deighton - Bomber £1.00
Destroyers, Frigates and Corvettes £3.00
O'Siochru - Gods Executioner - Cromwell in Ireland £4.00
Life on the home front £2
Modern Warfare (IWM) £3
Kegan & Holmes - Soldiers – A history of men in battle £3.00
The D Day story £2.00 - Daily Express reprint of 10th anniversary book
Osprey Aircraft of the Aces - P38 Lightnings of Eu and Med £3.00
Andre Hue - The Next Moon £1.50
George/Anne Forty - Women War Heroines £1.50

Contact me at Fire-At-Will at live.co.uk

Trading - Wants - December 2011

2011-12-03T16:58:00.001Z

I'm currently looking for the following as part of a trade, see the Trading Department for more details.

Airfix Bren Carriers & 6pdr (4) - especially the 6 pdr
Airfix Grants (6)
Hat 1805 French infantry (set 8062)
Hat WW1 Austrian Artillery Crew (1 or 2 sprues)
Hat Swedish Artillery
Hat Wurttemberg Artillery
Imex American Pioneers
Italeri German motorcycles
Italeri Persian Cavalry (just the chariots)
Lucky Toys Turks
Lucky Toys Vlad Tepes
Matchbox Panzer IIs
Matchbox Stuarts (6)
Orion Cossack sets (Mounted or Foot)
Pegasus 75mm Infantry Gun
Revell SYW Austrians
Strelets GNW Russian Dragoons – dismounted figures and mounted grenadiers
Strelets Medieval Crossbowmen
Strelets Norman Cavalry on the march
Strelets Narva to Poltava – any of the “command figures”
Zvezda GNW Russian Infantry (just a few more), Cavalry or Artillery
Zvezda GNW Swedish Artillery
Zvezda Russian Napoleonic Heavy Artillery
Zvezda Turkish cavalry

Haves are on another post

On the Workbench - December 2011

2011-12-01T13:08:00.004Z

For a chance, here is the real workbench, quite a mess with all the bits "in progress". I'm not sure whether I'll do more in December other than finishing what's on show here.

Left rear - SU76s, an old model needing repair and the new ones have needed quite a bit of sanding down to fit. One part remains stubbornly distorted even with dunking in hot water.

Middle row, left to right - Frundsberg staff; Battenberg Cuirassiers (having painted the infantry I just had to have a unit of cavalry) Frundsberg Dragoons; Frundsberg Cuirassiers.

Front row - Box 1 - panzerfaust markers, 2x Lancia L6 trucks, Befehlspanzer I, Skoda 100mm Radio Operators for my US Paras, Chevauux de Frises (need rebased) and British Airborne Jeeps (they'll be up for sale at Recon)
Box2 - Soviet Recon and German Engineers
Box 3 - German m'c combos (one assembled and one still on sprue - I thick I'll head swap them and use them as DAK), a 100mm Skoda still on sprue, a Fiat truck and if you look carefully a 37mm Pak36.

On top of that lot I'll have to work on the Glowstein grenadiers, but...

Temptation

I bought this and typically to play any of the scenarios I'll have to buy more stuff, I may well get tempted at Recon on Saturday.

Russian Engineers

2011-11-24T17:19:00.000Z

Rather a small item for this post. For some items like the 122mm guns the Zvezda Art of Tactic sets are good value at £2.50 a box, However there are only four engineers in this box along with a few game accessories of which only the barbed wire is of much use. The pill box might be of use to some 15mm gamers so I'll pass it on to someone down at the club.

AWI British Infantry - Rebasing

2011-11-24T10:53:00.004Z

Having earlier rebased some of my AWI collection, I decided on a quick rebase of a few more, as a number of figures were falling off their bases. Easier said than done! The culprits were based with a coarse sawdust that was difficult to remove, and I found quite a most needed touched up, and a few repairs were needed as well.

The original units were split by pose, but since I had started the work I decided to split the kneeling/firing poses between the 10th and 14th Foot by changing the yellow/white facings on the appropriate figures.

Overall they were not in bad condition from thirty years service and they are now ready to see a lot more service.

Over the next few days I'll try and post the individual units over on my AWI blog

Frundsberg Jaeger

2011-11-23T17:09:00.000Z

Another unit for my imagi-nation Frundsberg. I had a bit of fun with the basing and added a bit of extra texture using some cork and artificial turf.

Figures are Revell SYW Austrian Infantry with the muskets cut down to rifle length.

Russian 122mm guns

2011-11-22T17:02:00.004Z

Following on from the 152mm guns and a trip down south to visit the family, here are the rather nice Zvezda Art of Tactic 122mm guns.

The only downside was that they only provided two crew, so the others were sorted out from other sources including a couple of Hat WW1 Russian gunners with a head swap.

In the background is a STZ 5 from Red Star assembled at the same time.

Russian 152mm guns

2011-11-10T07:32:00.003Z

A slight? change of plan. I had intended to convert the Zvezda 122mm guns into 152mm by using the spare 152mm barrels that came with the PST kit for the 122mm guns that I built years ago. I couldn't quite work out how to fit the barrels into the Zveda kit so I got out the old models to see what was needed. Horror, the barrels on them did not look right either, so I went off to the Henk of Holland site to look up the assembly instructions, and yes I'd mixed up the 152mm and 12mm parts!

The net result was I ripped the old models off their base and extracted the barrels with minor damage then reassembled them as 152mm guns instead. Then a repaint job on the guns and a tidy up and texturing of the bases. Net result two 152mm guns up to my current standard.

And the 122mm's? They are now assembled (very easy) and painted, but the crew will be painted along with the rest of the Russians in the queue.

Bashi Bazouks

2011-11-08T15:51:00.004Z

A bit over two months later than planned, here they are. I've decided to try an experiment with the basing as I've always felt that two figures on a base looked wrong for irregular light cavalry and one looked insufficient. Putting three on a double sized base would mean difficulties forming a march column.

So each unit has a pair each of double and single bases. If it doesn't work out then I still have two units, plus a collection of scouts to dot around the battlefield.

Although Strelets sells the Bashi-Bazouks for the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 they look sufficiently generic to use up to 200 years earlier and they'll certainly fight with with my Siege of Vienna 1683 Ottomans, Egyptians Mamelukes, etc.

Crusader castles, Rhodes

2011-11-06T08:16:00.005Z

Getting slightly off the tourist track on Rhodes a walk from Archangelos to Haraki on Rhodes takes you past a couple of castles based upon ancient acropoli.

From the town side the Archangelos castle doesn't look much, but is situated in a dominant position overlooking the second largest city on Rhodes!

Inside it's just a heap of stones and rough walls, but once you head out to the east there is quite a stunning view of it.

Further on this rocky promontory may not look much, but it's Feraklos Castle, the last site held by the Knights of St John on the island. In the distance is Lindos.

Close up you can see what made it so impregnable. The walls are built on top of a cliff with only one crumbling staircase to reach it.

On top stunning views all round, but little feel of being in a castle except a few remnants of walls.

Buildings that have been sold

2011-11-04T12:12:00.001Z

Just for my records, some pictures of buildings I have sold over the last month.

Battenburg Regiment

2011-11-03T13:04:00.004Z

To accompany my imaginary Frundsbergers on campaign, I've added the Battenburg regiment, shamelessly copied from the same unit as painted by Phil Olley.

Basic figures are Revell SYW Austrian Infantry. The colours are of course based on the famous Battenburg cake.

On the Workbench - November 2011

2011-11-02T14:03:00.003Z

Well the Battenburg regiment is finished, just needs a picture taken before it appears here. Typically the Bashi-bazouks are still lurking in the corner of my painting table. I occasionally splash a bit of paint on a few to keep them quiet, but I need to settle down and get them finished. It's just it's working on them individually. otherwise I hope to complete:

Frundsberg Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Generals and maybe Jaegers if I can find an extra couple of Austrian SYW figures (I've missed out on a couple of eBay auctions this month)
A regiment of Glowstein Grenadiers (this should complete the forces needed for my campaign)
A selection of Zvezda mini-boxes, certainly the 152/122mm artillery, motorcycles, engineers and recon.
I'll try and make some inroads into the resin kits and work on the SU76s and a STZ-5

Lindos/Rhodes

2011-11-01T07:46:00.004Z

One of the three ancient cities of Rhodes, Lindos is positioned about half way down the east side of Rhodes and is extremely popular with the tourists so get there early. The acropolis is positioned on a rocky hill overlooking the old town and two good harbours.

We walked there for our first visit, Here's the view from Marmari mountain.

Luckily we had only planned to look at the old town, as the Acropolis was closed by a strike.

The entrance is up a steep staircase

Being an ally of Athens a temple to Athena is no surprise. (The hill on the right is Marmari)

To help me remember here's a description of the fortifications

A view from the seaward side, sharp eyed observers will see the cranes on the site for reconstruction work and also fat tourists being transported by mule up to the entrance staircase.

A great place to visit, but try and avoid the crowds.

OK Fiasco done

2011-10-31T19:27:00.005Z

I always forget just how much effort putting on a game at a show needs. You start off with, "I've got the figures..." Then you think I just need a bit more terrain. Then, it's a participation game .. Player aids, etc. Then handouts.

The basic idea was to us Steve Thomas' DBA in the New World rules, Normally I use the 90 point version, but for the game I used 2 x 75pt armies and experience last week at the Deeside club helped to clarify the armies used. The Aztec armies were identical, but the Conquistadores were either a fire-power or blade dominated force. Both were balanced with Indian Auxilliaries. A pure Conquistadore force on 75 points is too powerful for inexperienced Aztec players to cope with so allies were part of both forces.

A bit of a blurred picture, but it shows the terrain set up used. I had originally planned to amke some more impressive Built Up Areas (BUAs) for the Aztecs, but DBA rules meant it was simplar to show an area and just add a building.

The "classic" Spanish strategy with the blade heavy army - Indian Allies kept out of harm's way while the Blades and General hack their way though the Aztec, knights, etc.
.

Thanks to Steve a picture of myself explaining the game to some willing volunteers

Overall performance Spanish win 6-4, however Hernan Cortes died twice, so you can rewite history however you wish.

Overall a great day out, though my voice was fading by the end. The problem was I had no time to visit the other games and the only shopping was just before we started. I was particularly glad to see that my mate's old Atlantic figures sold along with a fair bit of my plastic surplus.

Just before we started I managed to acquire:

2 x Brittania Lancia L6 Truck
1 x Frontline Italian Fiat 621
2 x Zvezda German motorcycles (I need to think about replacing the Hat ones)
3 x Zvezda German 37mm AT Guns (need a lot for my early DAK force)
2 x Zvezda Russian 122mm howitzer (I've got the PST version, but they included the barrel for the 152mm version in with it so I'll try and match them up.
1 x Zvezda Russian 47mm AT Gun ( just to see how it scales up with the PSC version
C16 Armies by Ian Heath - should have got this before the game, but it was always too expensive, now it will tempt me to create more exotic armies (Inca maybe?)

Two days to Fiasco

2011-10-28T13:05:00.003+01:00

Run a number of DBA in the New World test games last night at the club, and I've only got a few final bits to sort before the game is ready for Fiasco. Although I normally play a 90 point game my play is to run a 75 point game at the show because it is quicker to run and also allows me to run a paired game if more people wish to play.

Link to Steve Thomas's Blalgan site where the rules, etc can be found (link) just look under Wargaming then DBx.

The painting front has been a bit slow getting started after the holiday, but the Battenburg regiment is well underway and may be finished in the next day or two. It'll then be the end of the month so I'll have to reappraise what to do next. I suspect this might be affected by what I buy at the show.

Back from Rhodes

2011-10-22T08:05:00.004+01:00

Just back from my long deserved holiday to Rhodes. Rhodes city is really impressive and the walls around the old town are an excellent example of early gunpowder fortifications..

At the end of the mole between Mandraki and Commercial harbours is Fort Saint Nicolas, built in 1460 and the major focus of attention during the first Turkish seige of 1480.

A walk around the moat sounds rather boring but isn't and give a real feel of the scale of the fortifications and their complexity with a succession of killing grounds for anyone getting this far.

For some strange reason you only get to walk on the walls themselves on Tuesdays and Saturdays so a second visit was need to see the view from the top. This shows the old wall (1480 siege) to the left, a new moat was cut to the right leaving a new advanced wall ready for the 1522 siege.

Finally the Grand Masters palace, the curse of scaffolding seems to follow me around. From the ground floor up it was reconstructed by the Italians in the 1930's

Phew, Frundsbergers Finished

2011-10-04T12:06:00.003+01:00

Sorry for there being a lack of new painting being posted recently. The reason why? I painted the whole lot of 96 SYW Frundsberg Infantry as a single batch and here they are:

They are part of my preparation for a forthcoming campaign set in my imagi-nation the Frundsberg Frei Stadt and further details on the units will be posted on that blog over the next few days (link)

Back from Derby

2011-10-02T17:28:00.004+01:00

Good day out on Saturday, although there were several display games none fired my imagination enough to bother taking some pictures, so if you want to see some Eye candy have a look at John's blog 28mm Heaven. Day seemed quieter than usual, and takings must have been down, perhaps it was the weather. My spot on the Lance & Longbow stand seemed to be pleasantly cool compared to some parts of the building. Didn't sell much, and there were no bargain plastic figures on the B&B.

Bought quite a bit

Zvezda Art of tactic Russian and German Engineers, German 37mm AT (I could only get 1 and I wanted 4) and the Russian Reconnaissance.
The new Rapid Fire book Monty's battles - looks excellent and I've put it to one side to read on holiday
H&C Jena & Auerstadt - only £8, what a bargain
XD Operations - Secret British missions denying oil to the Nazis - lots of ideas for skirmish/mall scale missions
Albuera - Wellingtons fourth Peninsular campaign 1811 - fire up my interest in the Peninsular War again.
A couple of Almark books on the DAK and Panzerjaegers.

More for sale

2011-09-29T16:34:00.005+01:00

All now under offer/sold

Continuing the clear out!. I've got too many buildings and I'd like to continue building my modular ones so these will have to go.

Quite a mix all for £6 each. Front centre and right ruined farm bought at the Delft show, back row left a fieldworks factory, front right and centre left a couple of resin kit buildings. The two remaining are home made.

Yet more £5.00 each this time. Hovels ruined church, resin shop (again from Delft) and the rest fieldworks ruins.

If you are interested I'll have them in my car boot at Derby on Saturday.

Off to Derby

2011-09-27T14:30:00.005+01:00

I'll be at the Derby show on Saturday, so if you pass by the Lance & Longbow stand please stop and say Hi. I'll also have some of my sale/trade items with me so if there is anything you're interested in let me know and I'll bring it along. Especially as my sale of painted WW2 Russians and Germans has fallen through.

Trades

Olaschin 1696

2011-09-25T07:42:00.003+01:00

We had an open gaming weeend at Deeside Defenders so yesterday I put on a big Black Powder game covering the battle of Olaschin 1696. It is covered in the latest Arquebusier, the journal of the Pike and Shot Society which deals with the campaign of 1696 where the Imperialists led by Frederich Augustus attempted to captured the city of Timisvar but were defeated by the Turks under Sultan Mustapha at Olaschin.

Only a couple of photos of the battle.

In the foreground the massive cavalry melee gets under way with Turkish right flank cavalry being fed across. In the distance the two infantry bodies square up to each other. The far table edge is the river Bega .

Another view of the cavalry melee, The large open flank meant that the Turkish superiority could gradually bear on the Imperialists and by the end of the game their three brigades had all become broken.

The terrain was pretty flat with only a few areas of brush to break up movement. These were impenetrable to all but skirmishing infantry, but had no effect on line of sight.

On the infantry flank one of the Turkish brigades had been broken by the end of the game and the second coming under pressure from two Imperial brigades. It should have been supported by the Janissary brigade, but they decided to retire back to the Wagon laager at the wrong moment (A lovely blunder roll)

Orbats

Imperialists - 11 Foot, 8 Cuirassier and 4 Dragoon Regiments plus 3 guns

Ottomans - 4 Jannisaries, 7 Other Foot, 2 Skirmish, 5 Heavy Sipahis, 5 Medium Sipahis, 8 Light Horse Regiments plus 4 guns.

Played using the Black Powder variations (see previous post) plus the inclusion of mobile chevaux de frise. These took 2 moves/phases to deploy but gave +2 to the saving roll in Hand to Hand.

It was a pleasure to find that the same battle was refought by Wargames Amateur (link)

Finally thanks to Mike Ian and Kyle for participating in the game

Atlantic figures for sale/trade

2011-09-21T14:20:00.004+01:00

These are now all sold except for two bags of Greek Infantry

I have been passed a large box of Atlantic ancients by another wargamer. If interested in any trades please leave a comment. I'll be selling off any remainders at the next show I attend (probably Derby)

Roman cavalry (about 20)
Roman command figures and archers (about 50)
Greek cavalry (about 20 - no horses)
Greek infantry (about 150)
Pharaohs court (SOLD)
Egyptian Infantry (about 400)
Egyptian Archers (about 80)
Trojan infantry (about 90) (sold)
Egyptian Light Cavalry (unique conversions)

Trades I'm looking for are listed here and my other items to trade are here

Latest update, these have now been bagged up and available for sale as follows
8 x Atlantic Egyptian Infantry (50figs) £1.50
2 x Atlantic Egyptians Archers (40 figs) £2.00
1 x Atlantic Greek Cavalry (20+ riders) £1.00
3 x Atlantic Greek Infantry (50figs) £1.50
1 x Atlantic Roman Cavalry (20 riders 10 horses) £1.50
1 x Atlantic Roman Infantry (42 figs) £1.50
1 x Atlantic Egyptian Cavalry £4.00

I'll be at Derby (Saturday only) and Fiasco in October so if you are interested in any of them email Fire-at-Will@live.co.uk

Thanks for looking
Will

More of the old

2011-09-20T11:36:00.003+01:00

My Old WW2 Germans currently up for sale and under offer.

Panzer Grenadiers to the left and Infantry to the right.

A SU85 converted from the Airfix T34. A pair of Airfix soft plastic Tiger Is (note I had filled in the front were the original had a gap. Plus a BP casts Quad 20mm flak.

Nice day out in Stoke

2011-09-18T18:14:00.005+01:00

A quick run down to the Stoke Challenge show yesterday. I took a pile of stuff for the B&B, but didn't shift much at all. However I purchased a couple of Airfix bren carriers (plus the vital 6pdrs) a Befehlspanzer I and a few British airborne jeep conversions. Plus some books for holiday reading on Crusader 1941, Napoleon in the Holy Land and the H&C big picture book on Eylau and Friedland 1806/7.

The afternoon was pleasantly passed in my first game of Armati, playing Goths v's Romans coached by Phil Steele from the Society of Ancients. Typical beginners luck I won convincingly, either due to my innate skill, Phil's coaching or lucky dice rolling. Interesting to experience the rule mechanics, but not a game I would play regularly.

On the dreamholme stand there were some nice 15mm French buildings, so I took a couple of picture for inspiration when I next get into a building mode.

They also had some 20mm ruins and "French" vehicles in various states of damage.

Stoke Challenge

2011-09-16T18:24:00.002+01:00

A quick run down to Stoke tomorrow, more to have a chat with people rather than any serious purchasing. I'll put a few things on the B&B in the hope that I might sell something, and then see it there are any bargains, etc.

Stoke Challenge

British Army Wolsey

2011-09-14T15:52:00.000+01:00

When I saw this in Modelzone today, I had to buy it as it's just the thing for my British Commander's transport.

And only £3.95 made by Oxford Diecast.

Last of the US Paras

2011-09-13T15:47:00.003+01:00

Well here they are, on the left an engineer company, on the right the regimental HQ and behind the spare company (for use as a Reece or Defence company in the RF orbats)

In the front row, second from the left is a flame-thrower converted from a US Marine torso added to para legs and head.

In with the new - part 2

2011-09-10T13:00:00.001+01:00

Some close ups for those that like more detail.

Plastic Soldier Company infantry - I used Humbrol 83 ochre as the base uniform colour and a wash of GW Ogryn Flesh.

Heavy weapons - all Plastic Soldier company, except a Hong Kong copy alongside the AT rifle.

For the AT guns I mixed in a few other figures as commanders, so I can use the extra figures on other guns as I upgrade them.

Regimental HQ, quite a mix, from L to R Esci(HK), Revell x2; Esci(HK), Esci (the soft plastic set) and Airfix

Now back to the rest of the list

In with the New - part 1

2011-09-09T13:00:00.000+01:00

Time for the new Russians, a full three battalion regiment plus extras to give extra flexibility. At the back are a couple of bits to remind me I still have quite a bit of rebasing still to do for the heavy weapons

47mm AT guns are by Plastic Soldier that will either be used as a stand-alone three gun AT battalion or allocated to individual battalions if like motor rifles they have them in their establishment. Behind is the regimental HQ.

1st battalion, dominantly Plastic Soldier, note that I have included a pair of MMGs and AT rifles so they can be used as Guards Rifles. It also means I can swap the figures between marching and deployed when they are not.

2nd battalion, same organisation as the first, but the figures other than the Heavy Weapons and LMGs are a mix of Pegasus and Zvezda, mostly already painted. In addition there are some of the old Esci Hard plastics that were reworked to current standards,

3rd battalion - more of a mixture

4th battalion - this is where I've tried to maximise flexibility, its basis is a late war SMG armed motor rifle battalion, but I've added a couple of figures to each company so they can be used as ordinary infantry, and I still need to rebase a few more bits to complete it. Figures are from all sources and even a few from the Matchbox T34 kit.

Some close-ups to follow

Out with the old

2011-09-08T12:41:00.003+01:00

Well it was time for an upgrade, so after more than thirty years service the bulk of my WW2 Russian infantry is being retired from my service. In total a regiment of three battalions organised for Rapid Fire.

The core of the force was a pack of Hong Kong copies of the Esci Hard Plastic figures, they were quite reasonable copies in a fairly solid plastic and have stood the test of time.

There are various add-ons from other sets, but only a few Airfix, which formed my original Russian army that was passed on many years ago.

For those interested in such things the AT guns are conversions of the Airfix 6pdr to give something similar to a Russian 47mm following the instructions in Airfix magazine.

I hope they will fight as long and as valiantly in their next owners service as they have done in mine.

Black Powder variations

2011-09-02T11:57:00.002+01:00

Variations to the Black Powder rules based on local playing experience and ideas from the Black Powder Yahoo group.

1) Move Sequence (all moving player unless mentioned otherwise)

· Initiative moves

· Normal command moves

· Move generals (who have not issued rally or follow me orders)

· Remove disorder from stationary units

· Defensive fire (non moving player) and break tests

· Hand to hand combat and break tests

· Follow up moves and any resulting hand to hand combat resolution.

· Check brigade morale

2) Disordered units

Cannot take orders, but may retire into their rear quarter as part of initiative

3) Movement

All movement into flank or rear quarters is done at half pace

Close order can move through woods, but at half speed and for each 6” or part moved though the wood roll a d6. If the result is 1-3 the unit is disorganised and movement ceases.

4) Interpenetration

Any close unit passing though a gap between close order units narrower than half its frontage rolls a d6. If the result is 1-3 the unit is disordered and movement ends. Passing through skirmishers and artillery has no effect. Distance moved is measured via the gap between units.

5) Brigade morale

As per Hail Caesar, more than half units broken, or all shaken for the brigade to be broken. Ignore tiny units, small or artillery count ½; large count 1½ if needed. Rallies still possible.

On the Workbench - September/October 2011

2011-09-01T07:35:00.004+01:00

I was getting on fine in August until late in the month when family came to visit, restricting painting time and then the bulb failed in one of my lamps. I've only just got a replacement and the result was the Bashi-Bazoukis are only half started. Why a two month target this time? Well I hope to sneak in some holiday in the period, but nothing definite yet and I've got to get on with a number of projects so I'll be flitting between them. At the end of October I'll be putting on an Aztec/Conquistadore game for the Lance & Longbow Society at Fiasco, so hopefully I'll see more fellow bloggers there if not at Derby.

Plan:

Finish the figures for the US paras, the HQ, Engineer Company and a "Multi-purpose" Company that will be able to act as either a Defence or Reece Company or just as a spare if needed. About 30 odd figures
Overhaul my WW2 Russians, these go back at least 30 years and I really need to bring them up to a common standard and replace a fair proportion with the new Plastic Soldier Company figures, so about 100 new figures to paint and 50 to rework/rebase. Net result will be to release some old figures for sale.
Massive effort on my Imagi-nation SYW Frundsbergers around 120 infantry and 20 cavalry to paint.

More progress on the US Paras

2011-08-30T12:10:00.002+01:00

Here's the 3rd battalion and the AT guns. I've swapped around a couple of gunners with the howitzers to improve the appearance.

The units completed so far, just bits and pieces to do now and then add some transport.

WW1 German Infantry Gun

2011-08-25T16:56:00.000+01:00

I bought the Hat Skoda 75mm Mountain gun by mistake, but on checking I found it was used in late WW1 by the German storm-troops as an infantry gun. So one had to be painted up in this role.

The crew are mixed Hat/Emhar figures I had lying around already painted, just touched up the helmets to match the camouflage on the gun.

Imagi-nation Artillery

2011-08-24T16:49:00.004+01:00

In preparation for a forthcoming campaign I've started on some new forces for the Frundsberg Frei Stadt. Here is the artillery and train, all Revell SW Austrian Artillery with the heavy guns from Esci French Napoleonic artillery.

More of these to follow next month.

For information on the build up to war see my Frundsberg blog

3rd US Para Battalion

2011-08-22T20:17:00.004+01:00

Yes, another battalion is finished, I won't both taking a picture as they look the same as the previous two. I'm currently working on the AT guns, which are the modified airborne version of the 6pdr so it's taking a little while to convert a couple of Airfix models. Once they are done I'll post progress on the regiment and supports.

Airfix 6pdr conversion details (link) more information on this forum (link)

Aegean Adventure - Leros Action - Day 3

2011-08-20T10:51:00.000+01:00

Day3 (Sunday morning) opened with the remnants of the German Fallschirmjaeger and Brandenbergers occupying a larger perimeter around the western cove. British forces were posed to counter attack from the north and another company was still near the harbour but for some reason failed to attack the southern flank held by the Fallschirmjaeger.

The action opened with a firefight between the Brandenbergers and the British, which the Germans were slowly gaining the upper hand due to their numbers of MMGs.

Once again he Luftwaffe aircraft appeared over Leros, but this time they were met by allied aircraft and Major Bill Leverette in his P38 "Stingaree" reprised his historical performance and shot down a Stuka.

The situation then took a turn for the worse and two full companies of FJ dropped on the British positions by the western cove and broke the back of the British defences. The only combat effective unit was now a single British company by the harbour plus the almost exhausted Italian infantry and marines.

My fellow players Don (German FJ), Tim (British) and Dougie (German Brandenbergers). Simon, the Italian CO, had wandered off.

Luckily caiques carrying the SBS and LRDG were en-route to Leros

In the nick of time they sailed into Leros harbour

At the same time the Luftwaffe re-appeared sweeping over the post. However the only casualty was a caique where the SBS had disembarked moments before.

At this point time was called as the Germans had convincingly failed to achieve their objectives on all three islands.

What a great weekends gaming

Aegean Adventure - Leros Action - Day 2

2011-08-19T16:36:00.004+01:00

Can't believe I didn't take any pictures on Day2 (Saturday afternoon), so I have added a few of Thomas's

The day opened with a small groups of Germans occupying the coastal gun position on the high group with an equally small group of my Italians facing them.

To their flank was the Italian command bunker occupied by the remnants of the blackshirts and a few Tommies.

Then the Luftwaffe arrived again and dropped yet more paratroops this time further away from the Harbour and closer to the cove they still held. This was an area strongly held by the British and they inflicted substantial casualties on them as they tried to break through to the cove, ultimately successfully, but at considerably reduced numbers. Unfortunately en-route they discovered the British HQ quietly working away in the church and wiped them out.

On the high ground the remaining Germans were gradually eliminated in a cross fire backed up by mortars and coastal guns

By the end of the day the Germans just had a slightly enlarged perimeter around the cove, but the sea lanes to Leros were till closed by the Royal Navy

Aegean Adventure - Leros Action - Day 1

2011-08-17T07:29:00.006+01:00

The Leros defenders had just woken from sleep when they heard the drone of German aircraft first it was bombers who eliminated a 25pdr and some blackshirts on the "west" of the island

then Ju52's swept over the island disgorging paratroops

The paratroops were landed directly to the inland side of the port with the obvious intent of taking the harbour.

Simultaneously German Brandenberger units landed, here on the "north" end of the island

and in greater strength on the "west" side, where they rapidly cleared the small numbers of blackshirts and a coastal gun covering the beach.

To the north the Brandenbergers swept up into the coastal gun positions, but a lone blackshirt fought on tossing the German grenades back but then faced a charge by the Brandenbergers company commander. He went down fighting taking three Germans with him including the German CO.

I now have quite a gap in the photographic record as playing seemed to take up all my time. My Italian Marines were pushed out of two of the inland buildings by the harbour by the Fallschirmjaeger who hunkered down for the long run till relieved. My infantry were then diverted in two directions from their covering positions on the main beach, most were sent to counter attack the FJ while a detachment was sent to backup the blackshirts and coastal guns. In the west the Brandenbergers were held and then pushed back by the British. Throughout the day there were sporadic attacks by the Luftwaffe.

By the evening of the first day a strong counter attack was poised to go in on the FJ, who then unexpectedly decided to surrender. The small numbers of Branderbergers in the north dug in around the captured coastal gun positions and awaited relief. In the west they were now restricted to a small enclave around the cove.

Aegean Adventure - Samos Action

2011-08-16T20:44:00.004+01:00

Again apologies at the lack of pictures of the action as I was heavily involved on Leros

Italian forces watch the beaches while the British provide backup.

The German aerial bombardment starts

The British HQ stays safe in the hills

The aerial bombardment continues as MFPs land troops on the beaches

British forces shifting position ready for a counter attack/

More details will be on the Samos thread on the SOGG forum (link)

Aegean Adventure - all at sea

2011-08-16T07:48:00.004+01:00

Quite uniquely for a Rapid Fire game there was a major element of sea combat with both the Allies and Germans attempting to control the seaways into the islands, Here is one of the actions

Allied destroyer covering the sea lane to Samos

Joined by a Beaufighter a German destroyer is spotted ahead

It's a knockout, no points for the German team

Quite a while later caiques carrying the SBS and LRDG en-route to Leros

A final push by the Germans to clear the sea lane to Leros

More pictures will appear on this SOGG thread (link)

Aegean Adventure - Kos Action

2011-08-16T07:35:00.002+01:00

Very few pictures as I was too involved in the action on Leros, I completely missed the elimination in short order of the first German attack, here's the second.

For more pictures on kos look at this thread on the SOGG forum (link)

Aegean Adventure - Kos Deployment

2011-08-16T07:07:00.003+01:00

Can't comment much on why the troops are where they are these are just what I managed to snap before the fighting on Leros

Interesting night time effect by accidentally putting my finger partly over the flash

The airstrip a desirable feature for the Germans

Aegean Adventure - views of Leros

2011-08-15T15:03:00.004+01:00

Pictures of Leros, just before the defending British and Italian forces were deployed

Luckily the sturmboots were just on their way to the German Navy holding area. View of the main beach and harbour

The harbour itself, containing an Italian midget submarine

View along the length of island fought over, note the two small coves in the foreground

The corresponding view from inland.

The rugged far shore, a small cove can be found about 1/3 of the way along.

This is the island where my Italian forces would be deployed.

Aegean adventure - views of Kos

2011-08-15T14:42:00.003+01:00

Some views of the terrain used for Kos island as set up was being completed

Aegean Adventure - views of Samos

2011-08-15T14:34:00.002+01:00

Some views of the terrain used for Samos island just after set up.

The main beach where the Germans landed

Harbour

Smaller beaches

Example of Al's attention to detail, the sea texture is actually wallpaper

French 25mm AT guns

2011-08-14T08:00:00.001+01:00

I've had this old 25mm AT gun lying around half assembled for quite a while, as one of the parts was missing and have two complete ones. It was by Miltra so there was no chance of finding the spare part, so I scratched up a repair then added a few figures from the Hat late WW1 French Artillery set. Not quite correct with the position of the gas-mask bags, but they might have put them in the old position if they thought there was a risk of gas attack.

Caesar French Infantry shown for comparison.

Revolutionary French Artillery

2011-08-13T08:00:00.000+01:00

If you have a sense of Deja-Vu then yes I have produced some of these before, and you've been following a long time as I produced the last lot in 2007 (link) Ever since Hat brought out some 1805 artillery I've been tempted to upgrade to these figures.

The figures themselves are fine, even though they are still in the odd rubbery plastic (but this batch seemed slightly firmer), but the guns are huge more suitable for 25mm figures. Part of my motivation to get the set was to obtain some more guns I could use for the SYW, but these will go in the for-sale pile unless I can think of an alternative use. The guns shown above are the SYW Austrian ones from Revell.

Off to the big game

2011-08-12T08:00:00.000+01:00

Well in about an hour I'll be off to this year's Rapid Fire big game near York. "Aegean Adventure" set in the Dodecanese in 1943. I'm hoping to conduct a successful defence of Leros, but historically the odds are against me.

To cover my absence I've scheduled a couple of updates until I get around to posting pictures of the game

Revolution French Grenadiers

2011-08-11T12:38:00.004+01:00

Progress has been a bit slow as I have sorted out various bits and pieces. First off is a couple of French Grenadier Battalions for my Revolutionary era army. I was going to used the Zvezda Old Guard figures, but they were too neat. Someone I traded with over on Benno's Figures suggested the Hat Old Guard Chasseur figures as part of a trade and they looked far more suitable, so here they are.

So the Zvezda figures are now up for trade

Sturmboot 42

2011-08-03T17:50:00.003+01:00

The more observant readers of my blog will have notice that it had disappeared off the work list, that was because it was actually finished, but I hadn't had chance to photograph it yet.

It's a SOGGY model by the talented Simon Raines and was produced specially for the big game along with a MFP (Marinefährprahm). Part of my contribution was to paint one and it'll go in the charity auction at the end of the game.

On the workbench - August 2011

2011-08-03T06:45:00.000+01:00

Well, I managed to complete everything for July, despite the need to do lots of outside 1:1 painting because the weather remained good for a while. Now I'm looking forward to the SOGGy big game in two weeks, everything is ready (I hope). Now for the next month I'll attempt to catch up with a number of my newer purchases.

new French Revolutionary Gunners (not sure what to do with the old ones yet?)
French Revolutionary Grenadiers using Hat Old Guard Chasseurs
Strelets Bashi-bazouks as generic Ottoman light cavalry (their new Mamelukes look good as well but I'm not waiting till November)
SYW Frundsberg Artillery Batteries plus Limber Teams (yes, war is likely see Frundsberg blog).
US paratroop AT battery (2 guns)
The last US paratroop bn (just keep on with the work!)
Hat Skoda 75mm Mountain Gun in German use

US Pack Howitzer

2011-08-01T14:06:00.001+01:00

Continuing the artillery theme and fitting in neatly with my US Paratroop forces is a pair of 75mm pack howitzers M1 from Waterloo 1815. Three hard plastic sprues are in a box each with a gun and 4 crew. The crew isn't quite correct for Paras, but they are close enough for me. The model is quite simplified, with a number of the cross supports missing, but it's a reasonably representation for the wargames table.

Now need to decide what to do with the spare as I only need two guns and apparently a British paratroop version is going to be produced, so I don't need to hold on to it for when I work on them.

British 4.5" howitzers part 2

2011-07-31T14:01:00.001+01:00

Continuing the 4.5" gun theme. On the right is the next pair painted up for Northern European use. The crews are as provided.

To the left are a couple of Emhar British 13pdrs that now have some much more suitable crews.

British 4.5" howitzers part 1

2011-07-30T13:52:00.004+01:00

The latest set of guns from Hat are in hard plastic and fit together far easier than the rubberery material they were using. Here's the first of them completed, a pair of British WW1 4.5" howitzers. They are combined with the crew figures from their separate British crew pack, who have had their heads swapped with the extra sun-helmeted heads provided with the set.

The result a nice pair of guns to support operations in warmer climes from 1910 through to 1930 and beyond if you ignore the spoked wheels that were replaced with a rubber tired version.

Only downside, I finished the bases and then remembered I'd forgotten to add the extra boxes and shells that were provided!

Egyptian Artillery

2011-07-25T07:52:00.001+01:00

These sneaked onto the painting table will I wasn't concentrating. They are the latest Strelets set for the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 but the uniforms were so generic I had to get a set to add to my Askaris.

There were enough figures for three gun crews (only 2 guns) so two crews were given white uniforms.

The other in Khaki with a rather fine looking officer

Does this mean I'm start the Sudan? - No decision yet, but my resistance is weakening

Dio et San Marco

2011-07-24T07:45:00.003+01:00

The special part of my Italian forces for the Big Game, the Italian Marines. Very much a paint conversion in line with the illustration in the Osprey book. These were based in Tobruk North Africa, but I'm using them to represent the Naval Infantry that fought on Leros.

The figures are mostly from the Waterloo 1815 Italian Support Group plus their Folgore MMG with head swaps.

Italians for Leros

2011-07-23T07:56:00.003+01:00

Part of my commitment to this years big game is a company of Italian infantry, so I took the opportunity to add more heavy weapons to my Italian forces and also rebase quite a few figures to give a more consistent feel to the force and also provide a better match to the terrain they will be fighting over.

Heavy weapons are from the Waterloo 1815 Italian Support Group set, which had everything I needed except 81mm mortars. The reworked infantry behind are Esci/Italeri Alpini.

SYW Hanoverian Artillery - update

2011-07-21T13:48:00.004+01:00

Having acquired some additional artillery pieces I've now painted them red and added them to the figures painted earlier.

The pair of light guns are from Revell's SYW Austrian Artillery and the heavier ones from Esci/Italeri's French Napoleonic Guard Artillery. However as I didn't want howitzers I replaced the barrels with some spare ones from the Zvezda Napoleonic French Artillery.

More US Paras

2011-07-14T16:58:00.001+01:00

The 2nd battalion joins the first.

AEC Armoured Car

2011-07-12T17:47:00.004+01:00

Picked up this rather battered resin kit at Crewe for £1.00 in the hope that it was repairable. It was and it now finished, It's the Mk I version of the AEC Armoured Car with the Valentine turret and was used in the late stages of the war in the desert. I found out late on that the model was made by Gramodels.

Behind is a Bofors tractor, which was also purchased and needed repaired and repainted

On the Workbench - July 2011

2011-07-10T13:57:00.003+01:00

Bit of a mix this month. The main item is to create a unit of Italian Marines for The SOGG big game coming up next month.

Otherwise it's catching up with what's unfinished last month/May.

Sturmboot 42
British AEC Armoured Car
Airfix Bofors tractor
US Paratroop Battalion

Plus a few extras

Hat 4.5" howitzers and crews (I couldn't resist)
Guns for my SYW Hanoverians (I picked up some at Phalanx)
US 75mm pack howitzers and paratroop crews

The howitzers were part of an order from Harfields to ensure my stocks did not run down to fast in spite of my targets.

Half year review 2011

2011-07-09T18:10:00.001+01:00

A quick review of progress against plan

General items

Continue reducing the stash of unpainted figures, the target is 5,000 by year end. So I have to trade/sell/paint at least 1,500 figures and more to cover what I buy in 2011. Given I typically paint around 1,500 items a year it should be feasible. – Hmmmm having just ordered some more figures from Harfields the current stash is 6,200 figures, hardly an improvement and I haven’t counted the figures I’m selling for a mate.
Tidy up a number of armies and dispose of any old surplus painted figures, especially WW2, which has quite a number of figures I never use. - Sorted out quite a number of units, hopefully they’ll sell at Derby or Leeds along with the other surplus figures.
Upgrade more terrain, especially walls and hedges. – still to do

Major Projects (I’ve got most of the figures already)

WW2 US Airborne Brigade – underway, now working on the 2^nd battalion
WW2 British Airborne Brigade – not yet started, may get deferred to 2012
Medieval German/Swiss Army – completed the Swiss
Frundsberg and Pommaine “SYW” forces in preparation for a new campaign. Pommaine completed

Minor Projects

Terrain for the Siege of Peking game for Gauntlet – done, but it needed more work on the terrain than I anticipated
Italian forces for the “Big Game”, mainly a number of small units for Leros plus some Allied aircraft - Aircraft done just need to work on some Italians and a Sturmboot
Continue work on my new Afrika Korps, my plan is to mainly complete it by buying discount figures and vehicles. – Gradually acquiring the bits as I spot them The new Rapid Fire book might increase the amount required.
Tidy up my figure database, I’ve not done a complete check for years now so I suspect it has some errors in it. – still to be done.

YTD output

· 217 SYW figures and 4 guns

· 156 medievals

· 107 WW2 plus 28 vehicles, etc.

· Upgraded 48 AWI figures

· 8 Colonial casualty markers and 6 WSS figures as command teams.

· 81 new pieces of terrain plus reworked 12 trees

Total 667 items, which is below my usual average of 750.

Gauntlet - the SOTCW Boxer game

2011-07-04T06:48:00.009+01:00

This is just my collection of photos from the game, Pete made a more comprehensive report and it's over on his Freewargames rules blog at link. It's probably worth reading his report first.

The Boxers make an early rush at the French legation (figures provided by Alan Owen a SOTCW member in Denmark)

For some reason Luigi and his ice cream cart was in Peking. But sensibly left the Italian Legation early. Counters in the legations reflect the mix of supplies available to the national contingents

After the officers staff conference in the British Legation an explosion occurred in the rear wall conveniently allowing the Russian and American officers a quick route back to their own legations

All quiet in US and Russian legations with no officers around to order people about

But not for long as waves of boxers attacked the US legation

An unfortunate problem at the important bridge on Legation Street

Thornhill's Roughs and the Japanese prepare to defend the little Fu.

French looking vulnerable after both the Austrian and Italian legations were abandoned

Alan's Boxers again (with some quick basing) attacking the British legation

Fort Halliday under attack from a random band of Boxers. Clear plastic CDs were used as movement trays for large boxer groups)

Frenchmen being slaughtered as they defend an outer position.

French legation under severe threat, The Austrians abandoned their gun just after their officer was hospitalised due to sunstroke, note the Boxers on the right heading off to the Japanese Legation now held by Italians

A major thrust by the Boxers through the Imperial Carriage Park against the British Legation

The Boxers didn't ignore the Germans (who won the prize for the least enterprising national contingent as they stayed hunkered down behind their walls for almost the complete siege.

Boxers massing against the Little Fu, which would shortly fall. The Boxers at bottom left had just wiped out the Japanese defenders on the outer defenses

The French in real trouble, with no ammunition left they have fallen back to a position inside the legation. Those boxers mentioned earlier have sneaked round and entered the Japanese Legation from the rear.

The retreating Italians meet up with the International gun and the quote of the game “Losing one legation is unfortunate, losing two is just careless”

Shortly after this a random shell hit the bridge causing the international gun to drop into the waters of the Imperial Canal without firing a shot.

Gauntlet Other pics

2011-07-04T06:39:00.004+01:00

Just some pictures of a couple of the other games at Gauntlet, more pictures of other games will appear on our club website in due course.

FOW Western Desert game

AWI fought using Black Powder

Deeside Defenders club site

Phew - Gauntlet over

2011-07-03T20:18:00.001+01:00

It's been a hectic few days, but everyone involved seemed to have had a good time. Pictures of the Peking 1900 game will be posted sometime tomorrow.

Gauntlet 2011 - Peking 1900

2011-07-01T16:44:00.005+01:00

It's already to go, we spent the afternoon setting up all the tables and then Pete and I laid out the table for the SOTCW game based on the 55 day siege at Peking

Some general views of the table

Austrian Legation

Italian Legation

French Legation

German Legation

US Legation

Russian Legation

British Legation

The Fu Place

Japanese Legation

If you are anywhere near the Airbus plant at Broughton near Chester please pop in and say "Hi" (Gauntlet link)

new bridges - old river

2011-06-25T20:29:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the washed out image, I wasn't happy with my existing bridges for the Peking 1900 so I created a couple of simple stand alone bridges that could be used.

The road surface is from a sample of textured wallpaper and the basic framework is foamcore.

Looking again at my old river, it's up for sale, I started wondering if I could just upgrade it by anding down the edges and then using sand/grit to texture it. Hmm.... something to ponder.

Bautzen 1813

2011-06-20T17:17:00.005+01:00

Following on from Phalanx the Gentlemen Pensioners had their annual game in Manchester. This year it was Bautzen 1813 played using Shako large battle system.

I had the role of Ney and together with Lauriston's corps I had to roll up the Russo-Prussian Army from the north. Of course it didn't go according to Napoleon's plan. Most of the flank was covered by two corps; Barclay and Kleist with loads of artillery

Lauriston made no progress with virtually all his corps destroyed by the end of the game. Ney's own corps managed to wipe out Kleist's corps at heavy cost and was poised to breakthrough at the point I had to leave.

An unbiased report from one of the umpire's should appear shortly on the Wargame Amateur blog

Phalanx - Cerignola 1503

2011-06-19T08:42:00.004+01:00

The Lance and Longbow game this time was Cerignola 1503 another action from the Italian wars.

The Spanish were ready and waiting and entrenched in their camp

Meanwhile the French prepared to launch a surprise attack the main thrust of which would be the Swiss commanded my myself

Nearing the high point of the Swiss assault, just before it all went horribly wrong trying to cross the entrenchments

A very nice Indian Hill Fort used in the East Lancs Mutiny game

Keeping to the Indian theme a nice idea for smoke signals

Forts gone but not forgotten

2011-06-19T08:33:00.001+01:00

Just left these on the blog as a reminder of a couple of useful terrain items sold at Phalanx 2011

Afghan Hill Fort (it has featured in quite a number of games and periods over the years)

Roman Fort (the Airfix one with ditches added so it can be used as a standalone fort)

Peking 1900 final playtest

2011-06-17T07:33:00.005+01:00

The final playtest for the Boxer rebellion game prior to Gauntlet was held at Deeside Defenders last night with a host of willing volunteers.

The briefing

The British show that they learned something in the Zulu War and construct a wagon laager in the Imperial carriage park.

The US and Russians await the onslaught

All seems calm on the other flank, until you see that the Italian legation has been abondoned

The last stand of the Austro-Hungarian legation before they too pulled out.

Just for my records the almost completed Fort Halliday covering the entrance to the British legation.

Over all the game was great fun and only a few minor tweaks need to be made, so roll on Gauntlet (2nd & 3rd of July)

More Legation buildings

2011-06-16T17:25:00.003+01:00

The eagle eyed observers may have notice a couple of thatched roofed legations in the play test game. I decided to create a couple of Mediterranean style buildings to replace them as they will fit in well with the existing Italian ones used for the SOTCW game two years ago. (link)

In the background is one of the original set.

I'm ruined

2011-06-12T21:15:00.004+01:00

Well not quite, I've knocked up a numbr of extra ruin bits for use in the boxer game from some old thick foamcore I found. All the pieces are 120mm x 60mm.

I also created a couple of temporary tartar wall sections from some timber I had in the garage, so the wall will now extend the lenth of the table.

Boxer Rebellion - test game

2011-06-11T16:47:00.003+01:00

The first test game on a full sized layout was held at the Deeside Defenders club on Thursday. Here are a couple of pictures of the action.

The British Legation is in the foreground with the British order cards laid out alongside so we could keep track of them (only three of us were play-testing).

German, French and Japanese legations, all quiet here except the problem of food supplies

One obvious need is for more ruins, we still couldn't fill the table using Pete's, mine and the Clubs terrain, so I have started work on more.

Overall the test went well, just needing tweeks to the orders and event cards.