Review of 2018 - part 2

Output peaked again with 2,508 items completed an increase of 10% from last year. But like last year the amount of rework boosted my output. A quick breakdown of the output shows:-

By Period

SYW	1,231	Dominated by the rebasing plus the new French Infantry, Highlanders and extra command figures
WW2	399	Lots of AFVs, Indian Infantry, and lots of vehicle crews to finish off the year
WW1	272	Lots for Palestine, plus Serbs and Poles
Napoleonic	187	French heavy cavalry, Polish Infantry and Russian Guard Artillery
Terrain	177	Mainly terrain for the Market Garden Battlegroup weekend plus some club terrain.
Renaissance	155	Ottoman Turks, Russian Artillery and some French Musketeers
AWI	75	Rebasing my Tricorne forces
Modern	12	SAS
Grand Total	2,508

By type

Infantry	948	Still my main output
Rebasing/Rework	940	Shows how dominant this activity was this year
Terrain/Buildings	169	As above, the difference in number from above is a couple of reworked items
Vehicle crews	164	Especially for my early war German vehicles
Cavalry	90	French heavy cavalry and WW1 camelry
Gunners	66
Tanks and other AFVs	45	A substantial increase on last year
Other figures	25
Commanders	22	Extra figures for my SYW command bases
Artillery pieces	15
Limbers	10
Vehicles	9
Horses	3
Ships	2	A couple of rowing boats!
Grand Total	2,508

Review of 2018 - part 1

So despite some impressive output I still did not achieve my targets for this year. However like last year there was a lot of rebasing going on.

The major project is Tricorne rebasing, covering all my Seven Years War and American War of Independence armies, this is ambitious - around 2,000 figures, but hopefully it should just be "cosmetic" as I won't be physically changing the units or bases.- The Prussians, Austrians and French Forces are completed. The British, Brunswick and Hessian cavalry are all done. What remains are all the AWI figure so these will be carried over to 2019

Painting/Modelling - moderate sized projects

• Napoleonics - carried over from 2017. I've got quite a pile of figures (mainly cavalry) available to replace/upgrade some of my oldest units. Plus Spanish infantry, Polish infantry, French artillery and Russian Guard artillery - Painted a lot of the heavy cavalry, Russian Guard Artillery and Polish Infantry. I'll work on the remaining Napoleonics in 2019
• Egypt 1800 - adding more French, British and Ottoman troops to my existing armies, probably by doubling up the existing units. - Only just started but nothing finished so these will be worked on next year

Smaller projects

• WW2 Ardennes - finishing off various bits- completed what I had planned
• WW2 North Africa - expanding my US forces to cover North Africa by adding Stuarts, Lees and any other new units that the new Battlegroup book might require.- Stuarts, Lees, T19 HMCs and a White Scout car added so fully complete for now.
• WW2 eastern front - extending my winter Russians for late war winter warfare, mainly by adding tanks.- all done
• Some desert sand-dunes/wadi sides - carried over from 2017- not started
• Various houses to add to my Eighteenth Century town, including a model of my daughter's house - carried over from 2017- not started
• Need to create those Renaissance galleys - carried over from 2017 - any useful ideas welcomed- not started but I have an idea
• Adding some Highland regiments to my SYW British, also for use against the Jacobites!- all three completed
• Plus a number of bits to fill in odd gaps in existing armies- various oddments worked on.

Gaming

• Continue to support the Lance & Longbow Society games at various shows- We passed on Vapnartak this year, but attended both Phalanx, Britcon and Recon.
• Nothing decided yet for the SOTCW game at Gauntlet- for various reasons including my medical issues this was a miss for this year
• We plan to hold a big Battlegroup event in May, so I may be a major contributor to the terrain and troops needed - Completed successfully
• I need to organise one or two large games, one SYW and another to be decided, hopefully my rebasing will be an incentive.- complete fail
• Again try to get to Crisis in Antwerp- a very successful weekend and must go again in a couple of years and not leave it so long.

Stash reduction
Just as well it's not a formal target as the stash rose from 6,946 items to 7,747 due to a number of causes

• The generosity of friends donating useful figures
• a failure to sell off surplus figures I will not use
• Strelets producing lots of nice tempting sets of figures
• My own inability to ignore tempting figures or a bargain! (which is the main reason)

Last game of the year - early ECW

Aninteresting change of pace for the last game of the year, a big game using early ECW troops and the latest adaptations to FoG-R. The venue was at Bristol Independent Gaming a lot further south than my usual haunts and meeting up with old and new SOGG friends. I managed a few pictures from the game, which resulted in a Parliament win.

The game

Position at the end of turn 1 with my right wing parliamentary cavalry handing back to create a difficult target for the numerically and qualitatively superior Royalist horse.


The defile of death where the Royalist cavalry were caught in a crossfire by the Roundhead cavalry and then routed in succession by Hazelriggs Lobsters, the one decent Parliamentary cavalry unit.


The Roundhead cavalry is now in position to roll up the Royalist line


My cavalry get into action, but on my terms so the Royalist can't all attack me at once and I managed to jsu hold the line till the Royalist army broke.

Don's picture of the game well underway with the author on the left

BEF Carriers

The last of this years painting bren and scout carriers for my BEF. They are marked up as the 3rd Division bren carriers (rear) and 1st Armoured Division scout carriers (front). There are no arm of service markings yet as I haven't found any with the correct numbers.

In the background are a couple of 25pdr limbers recovered with the wheels from BPM.

For those interested in the quality of the 3D printing from BPM here's a close-up. I tried to dry-brush along the grain of the printing so it didn't show up too much.

Crews are various figures recovered from the old Airfix universal carrier set!

White Scout Car

While rummaging through the B&B at Recon I was surprised to find the old Esci model, so I had to buy it. I had discovered in an earlier Battlegroup Torch game that a recon team came with this and a bazooka, so I can now fulfil that need.

The crew with the kit were far too large, but I found a couple of suitable figures in my bits box.

Some desert repairs

A few old damaged models brought back to life. The Humber Mark II is the old Matchbox model, I stripped off the old paintwork and was debating back-dating it to a Mark I, but decided I needed to attempt that with a fresh model.

Also a pair of Fiat 508C from the EWM rejects box, various holes filled and wheels added makes useful bits for my Italians. I just need to find some suitable crew figures. The wheels were from BPM the 15mm version for the 25pdr works well for light vehicles.

WW2 German Infantry carts

I've assembled a selection of the Valiant infantry carts and they are all fine except for the oversized figure. I used three to make up some loader teams with old figures and the other two to make a supply wagon. The collection of Panzerschrecks makes it quite intimidating. I also rebased some spare gunners as loader teams and some old bailed tank crews.


The odd horse handler comes from a Strelets police battalion.

A beute-iful tank

Completed the captured Mark IV using the Emhar kit and the markings from the box


They were certainly used by the Frei-Corps post war, so it will certainly get used in my Russian Civil War games

Setting the scene - Italian telegraph posts

I picked up a set of laser cut Italian telegraph posts from my mate Simon R at Recon. These have now been painted up ready for use in Sicily. Not displayed on the right coloured cloth


A bit more like they would appear in use

RF German Kradschutzen Abteilung

While sorting out the vehicle crews I realised that I had a couple of motorcycle combos that needed passengers, then on checking the new RF blitzkrieg battlegroups book I found I needed three more motorcycle combos to make up a full battalion. Luckily I found two Matchbox and one Zvezda combo in the stash. So they were painted, etc and I also rebased the remainder.

So here they are, Zvezda on the right, the new ones are at the front.

One has had a 50mm mortar added as required by the orbat.

US T19 conversion

A couple of months ago I successfully used a couple of M3 75mm GMC as substitutes for the T19 in a game, so it was only fair tat I added a pair to my army. it's quite a simple conversion using the Italeri M3 75mm GMC as a base and replacing the 75mm's with 105mm's from their Priest kit (thanks Bob M)

Unfortunately I left the raised internal flooring from the M3, which made it difficult to fit the crew and I think in retrospect is wrong for it too. So if I were to repeat the exercise I would cut off the gun mounting and rear fuel tanks an add them separately.

WW2 German vehicle crews

A quick piece of work I painted circa 90 figures to crew my early WW2 German vehicles. A lot of repetitive painting. Luckily I had enough figures due to a donation by Peter B - thanks

SYW/AWI rebasing - British Cavalry

The last of my SYW figures have now been rebased, now it's only the AWI to do, but that's a task for next year.

On the left SYW cavalry and on the left the AWI, although the light dragoons can be used for both.


Front to back: Royal Horse Guards, Royal Dragoon Guards and the 4th Dragoons (all Revell SYW figures)


Front to back: 16th light dragoons, 17th light dragoons (Italeri), British Legion (Airfix RHA drivers)

Napoleonic Polish Infantry

Just completed all four of my Duchy of Warsaw Infantry Regiments using the new Strelets marching figures, plus a few conversion to make up the required number of command figures. I selected the 1st, 4th, 8th and 13th to give a nice range of colours

Advancing in columns


In Ordre Mixte


A couple of inspiring pictures of the battle of Raszyn 1809 - 1st Regiment


8th Regiment


The 4th was picked because it has a reenactment group and also fought in Spain. The 13th is obvious, becuse it was the only white coated unit

Recon - Pudsey 2018

After Stockton, we spent a week in the North Yorks Moors before heading home with a stop for the Recon show and participation in the Lance & Longbow game. Luckily I found the way despite the bad weather and arrived in time for the opening.

Today's game was the battle of Lewes 1264, I only took one picture just at the start as the Montfortians started their attack.

I then failed to take any other pictures of the game or any of the other games, sorry.

My acquistions from the B&B and also what various friends gave me.

The kits will replenish my kit stash, a pair of Mark IV tanks is excessive given I already have two, but one will become a beute version. The M3 scout car was a great find on the B&B. Bob donated me yet more of the Strelets bonus Streltsy figures, and I received a selection of plastic limbers from David P, very useful. The really interesting item is the Italian Electricity Pylons from Simon R along with some German infantry carts, that will be used for some loader teams for Battlegroup.

On the Workbench - December 2018

It's the big push to get as much finished before year end.

• finish my Napoleonic Polish Infantry, I must admit that I should have researched the number of uniform variants before starting, but I am now working to a plan to produce units from around 1809
• BPM BEF scout and bren carriers
• A pair of US T19 HMC converted from the Italeri M3 75mm GMC
• A trio of German motorcycle combos
• Loads of German vehicle crews, I worked out that having been delaying painting the crews and checking, nearly 100 are needed
• rebasing my SYW/AWI British cavalry
• Maybe get started on doubling up my Revolutionary French in Egypt
• Plus lots of small bits and pieces I have lying around

As usual I'll fail to achieve everything I hoped for in the year, but I'll report on that after the year end.

AWI/SYW rebasing - French Commanders

The last of the French. As with my Austrian and Prussian commanders I have added extra figures to the command bases.

SYW rebasing - Hessian & Brunswick cavalry

The latest batch completed, all the figures are Revell SYW. In retrospect the Hessian Hussars should be completely different (see Kronoskaf) from the way I painted them over 20 years ago. It would have made them more distinct from the Brunswickers.


On the left front to back: Brunswick Karabiniers, Dragoons (in their AWI uniform) and Husssars. On the right Hesse-Kassel Von Militz Kuirassiers, Lieb Dragoons and Hussars

Battleground Stockton

After a long drive and getting lost in Stockton, eventually I found the show and enjoyed a couple of hours chatting to the traders and gamers. Here's some pictures of items that caught my attention.

Pirates of the Aegean


WW2 Russians v's Germans


Byczyna on 24 January 1588 (War of Polish Sucession)


Battle of the Bulge using Bolt Action. Nice to see someone else using plastic sheets with snow on to convert ordinary buildings to winter use.


A splendid 6mm game of Blenheim (north)


Ditto (south) with the British assaulting Blenheim.


Battle of Zurich 1799










Zyrabulak 1868, one of those wonderfully obscure campaigns during the Russian conquest of Uzbeckistan, etc.


Napoleonic Naval


With a lovely harbour and backdrop


Another innovative game from Andy Callan, WSS using Jenga blocks. It was nice to catch up with Andy again.


Battle of the Standard fought with Lion Rampant


The gentlemen of SOTCW with



Nice mountains


A lovely friendly show and the gamers were happy to chat and discuss their games, if it were nearer I would certainly visit again.

Other pictures from the show
Pendraken(facebook)

Polish Foot Artillery

Painted at almost the same time as the Russian Guard Artillery, these are simple paint conversions from the Zvezda French Artillery. I didn't have any French guns to hand so these are the Russian ones.

In retrospect I should have tried cutting off the pack straps and not used the packs as they look rediculous for gunners in action as well as being a pain to paint. Must try and remember this the next time I use these figures.