Salute purchasing

Given I'm off to Triples on Sunday I didn't plan to buy a lot at Salute, but as usual I picked up some bargains on the B&B and items from other traders. So what did I get?

• Airfix/Waterloo WW2 Italian Infantry - a number of part boxes that will provide me with the few spare figures I need to complete my existing forces
• Caesar H056 WWII Partisans in Europe- a nice boost for my existing partisans
• Hat Zulu Wars: Natal Native Horse - really the one unit that I'm missing from my Zulu Wars army.
• Italeri Cannone da 90/53 - two packets of the Italian equivalent of the 88mm, but not that common.
• Italeri German Motorcycles - the beginnings of a DAK MG battalion
• Liberation Cannone da 75/27 mod. 11 - a little oddity for my Italians and will equip my Australians for the big game.
• Matchbox Panzer III - a great find on the B&B
• Reiver WW1 Pilots - at last someone has spotted a gap in the market since model aircraft don't seem to include pilots anymore
• SHQ rocket frames for the Sdkfz 251 - I'll be adding them to the re-released Matchbox/Revell kit.
• SHQ Australian Infantry - I need mortars and other figures, and the Revell Australians seem to have disappeared, so I'm going so see how these fit in and then buy more as necessary at Triples.
• Skytrex Arm of service signs/Guards Armoured decals - I've given up painting them on.
• Strelets Early French Carabiniers - these will be getting bicorne head swaps and then off to join my French Revolutionaries.

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Late addition, I forgot I bought a copy of Sharp Practice from the Too Fat Lardies

Soviet Fokker D VII

Working my way through the cheap Revell biplanes from Modelzone, the Fokker DVII was the most obvious model to use for the Reds.

The information came from the Fokker DVII profile and Wings Palette. Fokker sold 50 D.VII's to the Soviet Union in 1920 and it is believed that they have been used until 1930. The model is based upon the 1 OIAE based in Petrograd in 1923.

Early Panzer IIIs

I picked up a couple of what might be Frontline Panzer IIIs (probably an Ausf E) at the B&B at South Cheshire Militaire at Crewe.

Given I haven't any 37mm armed versions they are a useful addition. The only problem I found was separating the turrets as they were already stuck on, as I prefer mine to rotate and then discovered that although the hull had the hole for the turret plug, the turrets didn't have them. Very strange. I cut a couple of rings off some 15mm copper pipe and fitted them as centrally as I could.

Desert Panzer IIIs

Although I generally keep to 1/76 models I bought the new Italeri fast build Panzer III J to see how well they compared scale wise, especially as it is difficult to find the Matchbox version now
The kits assemble quickly and produce a lovely pair of models with options for a long or short 50mm gun. They are quite a bit larger than 1/76 so I'm still wondering how to progress with my DAK forces.

Salute 2009

OK, where to start with what turned out to be a truly excellent day, an trip down memory lane via the Metropolitan line to Aldgate then the DLR to Excel. I used to live in Harrow not far from the famous Harrow model shop.


The real highlight of the day was the number of people (too many to list) that I ran into on the day, the net result of all this was when I reviewed some other reviews of the show I realised how much I'd missed (and enjoyed) by talking to other kindred spirits.

Of special mention:

• The Two Fat Lardies from the St Albans Wargames club and still meeting in the same venue (and paintwork I remember), great to see you guys and a big apology to Rich for not finding a gap in his flow to have a few words" Then there were the other Harpenden and North London gamers. Great to see Nick and Darren


• The southern chapter of the Society of Gentlemen Gamers dragged me off for a pint, great to see you guys


• Steve the Wargamer and DG - nice to meet you after all the years of correspondence over my AWI/SYW rules

As for the show, It is certainly bigger, better, and more expensive than when I was last there, but still a great showcase for the hobby (and yes, I did get most of the way to London before remembering I'd left my advance ticket behind)

A few notable games I spotted, (others have better cameras , skill and time to get the good pictures I should have taken)


Tenochtitlan (by La Grande Armee) an excellent demo, but looking closely it showed how easily dramatic effects can be produced from simple materials
Barry Hilton's excellent Napoleonic terrain, it looks far better on his website than my picture, very inspiring.

This must be an ultimate piece of terrain modelling, snow covered forest/swamp with a road/railway crossing it

Totally exhausted after the weekend so I'm off to get some kip, I'll add my acquisitions later

Will

Off to salute

Yes, I'll be back to London shortly. At the show I'm planning to spend more time perusing the goods rather than buying as I can catch up on any buying at Triples the next weekend. An essential part of the day will be catching up with various southern wargamers. In particular Steve-the-wargamer the Two Fat Lardies (first stop after I get through the door) and the southern capter of the Society of Gentlemen Gamers.

As is typical I have various items nearly finished, but you'll have to wait till after the weekend.

If you are at Salute please say Hi, I'll be wearing a back Deeside Defenders polo shirt.

Neat casualty marker

Just spotted this over on the General de Brigade forum. It's a really neat idea made with washers and punched card, full details here

Hetzenberg battle over

After 3 days gaming I have completed the battle for AJ and the results documented and sent to him last night.  Hopefully he will start publishing the narrative in the Hetzenberg Chronicles in a few days.

As the battle was smaller in scale than I usually fight I developed a regimental variant on my SYW/AWI rules and the details are over on my AWI blog.

ps The battle has reduced my painting output somewhat, but my intention was to do more gaming this year, whenever possible

Druids

The Ancient Briton army list for WRG 6th allows one to have a religious group of sacrificing druids, screaming women, stationary altar and fires. I'm not sure how effective it will be, but since the HaT Celtic command came with druids and the Warrior Queen set provided a couple of "screaming" women I had to make it. The altar is a suitably sized piece of gravel and the animal on it came from a very old Atlantic Greek life set which had an animal sacrifice (it's always worth keeping these odd bits!).
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Lots of goodies.

Really been a good day, a mornings exercise in the sun digging the garden.  The postie then delivers the long overdue "The War Game Companion" and then the afternoon fighting the proxy  Hetzenberg battle and then this evening down the wargames club.

The War Game Companion was on my Xmas list and I fully expected it then.  Disappointed, I ordered it from Amazon only for it to be delayed for lack of stock.  A quick flick through indicates that it's going to be a cracking read.

I'm also using the Hetzenberg battle as a test for a smaller scale action variant on my AWI/SYW rules.  In this case a unit represents a company/squadron with 4 companies or 3 squadrons to a regiment (similar to Charge/The Wargame)

Yesterday Wargames Illustrated arrived with the latest freebee a Warlord Plastic ECW figure.  I'll need to get it painted to compare with my existing Minifig ECW before I go to Salute.

Tuesday I collected the Smith and Hinckley book on operation Avalanche from the library and also picked up a couple of cheap WW2 books as well

Celtic Commanders

Although I have a complete Ancient Briton or Gallic army already the purchase of the latest HaT Celtic Command and Warrior Queens sets were just a whim.

Although the figures are in the new horribly soft plastic I found that putting them in the dishwasher actually cleaned them so that acrylic paint would adhere so one step forward.
It also resulted in the superglue actually bonding the parts on the chariots, but still left the problem of parts not being completely square. I'll just have to wait and see how well the bond stands up to normal handling.

Consular Guard Chasseurs a Cheval

It always amazes me that whenever I need to look up some uniform details, that my horde of books often doesn't cover the specific details I am looking for. In this case I wanted the details for the early uniform worn by the Guard Chasseurs a Cheval when they were part of the Consular Guard. Various texts went into infinite details of aspects of the imperial uniform with only a cusory mention of what went before. Dispairing I did what I was planning to do and used some left over Revell Chasseurs.

Depending on the context I'll use them as Consular Guard, ordinary Chasseurs or Guides as necessary.

Personally my best guess is that the actual uniform would have been the surtout (what was later the undress uniform) with a bicorne.

West Country wanderings

Yes, i sneaked off again, this time to the the West Country , especially around Cornwall.

For Steve-the wargamer I found an excellent micro brewery at the Driftwood Spars and a pint of "Bawden Rocks", which are a couple of splendid rock stacks offshore nearby. Another day found a pint of Black Pearl from the Wooden Hand brewery together with a Sunday roast, just the job after being caught in a rainstorm. I also acquired a cheap copy of "Marlborough's Shadow", the life of Cadogan in a bookshop in Wells.

Wargaming and painting wise I did nothing, expect catching up on my reading with the Battle of Paoli and "Forrard" the history of the East Riding Yeomanry.

The former covered the AWI battle in 1777 where General Grey gained his "No flint" title. I found it a disappointing read there was plenty of detail but it wasn't pulled together in a coherent fashion. However the was enough to be able to create a game/scenario around the "massacre"

"Forrard" was very much a standard WW2 regimental history, its interest really lies in the actions of the 1st ERY in 1940 around Cassel, otherwise it's a history of a pretty ordinary armoured regiment, enlivened with a number of amusing anecdotes.

Over on the Wars of Louis XIV blog there was mention of a painting of the Duke on Monmouth at the seige of Maastrich,t so I made my way to the Victoria art gallery in Bath to have a look at the real thing,  however given its position over the stairs you get a better impression from the blog entry!