Coming to a LZ near .....?

So a slight change to plan and I have four US Waco gliders ready to fly into action.

Luckily I had enough paint as Amazon failed to delver it (well the one it had at a sensible price rather than double RRP)

The decals were by Xtradecal and I now have a lot of large US decals left from the set.

Glider progress

The Waco gliders have now been assembled and the gaps filled

These are the Bergman Wacos from Wargaming3D and they have been bathtubbed, the original was 1/100. I left the fuselage 100% long but scaled the height and depth by 125% (1/80) the wing length was kept down to 75%, width 100% and depth 125%. I am now adjusting the wing braces and wheels to fit, they were printed at 125%. These are landed versions, so can excuse some damage that happened in printing.

"The peasants are revolting"

I hope that is what my painted Zvezda Peasant Army represents

THere were enough figures in a pack to provide a command stand, two 16 figure units of revolting peasant mob, and a slightly undersized missile unit (but enough to be a bidower unit in Lion Rampant)

Russian vehicle crews

Once I acquired more HaT Russian tank riders to crew my universal carriers I knew that I also had to add crews to some of my other uncrewed vehicles to give them "life"

It was a bit of a squeeze, but I managed to fit 6 figures in each carrier

3D Printer progress

I've just finished the latest batch of models from my 3D Resin printer, despite my best? efforts I continued to have problems with printing some gliders, but not enough to make it worth continuing till I got it right, the damage is mostly superficial. Almost everything else came out OK.

Four gliders are now being cleaned up and assembled

The rest of the printing

A selection of ready crewed US Airborne Jeeps accompanied by a couple of Kleiner Funk und Beobachtungspanzer auf Infanterie Schlepper UE(f) (one is for a friend)

3 x Sdkfz 10, one with a tilt (two are for a friend) a trio of M22 Locusts plus a 15mm version I printed in error, A Dodge WC63 6x4, and a replacement D8 armoured bulldozer

A selection of bits, various recoiless rifles, Makhno and Schuss (from WI digital scaled to 20mm) three camels that turned out as 28mm even when scaled down (this was a test to fill a gap in the print, I'll sort this and the missing legs when I next start running the printer) A pair of Ho-Ni SPGs that I discovered were used in the Philippines

Replacement Brummbar

It's been a while in the queue, but now I've painted my replacement Brummbar, its predecessor "exploded" before I even got to use it.

It is accompanied my a very nice 3D printed crewed kubelwagen by Fitz, though I'm not sure about the man on top of the engine compartment.

Some WW2 desert additions

I've finished off a few more of the vehicles I 3D printed last summer. A pair of Lancia 3RO trucks mounting 105mm howitzers, an L6/40 ammunition carrier variant and a sdkfz 6/3 "Diana" The Carro Portamunizioni L40 is an armoured ammunition transporter (based on the L6/40 light tank). Especially for the supply of ammunition to Semovente da 90/53 self-propelled guns, which were supposed to be sent to the Eastern Front. 40 shells were placed on the ammunition carrier itself + trailer. I've found some better pictures of it and I may try to create a better version.

The Carro Portamunizioni L40 is an armoured ammunition transporter (based on the L6/40 light tank). Especially for the supply of ammunition to Semovente da 90/53 self-propelled guns, which were supposed to be sent to the Eastern Front. 40 shells were placed on the ammunition carrier itself + trailer. I've found some better pictures of it and I may try to create a better version.

Anyone recognise these gunners?

These British artillerymen were found in a box of old minifigs, my guess would have been Hinchliffe, but they didn't use round bases.

Napoleonic Nassau Infantry

These chaps have been hanging around the stash for years, they came as part of a HaT set with Lutzow's Freicorps. So at last I removed the bearskins from the majority of them and replaced them with heads from the Zvezda French Artillery.

The same uniform was used from at least 1810 onwards, even up to Waterloo, which makes them quite flexible.

The flag was the same for all four battalions in two regiments so I didn't have to choose which one to depict. Thanks to MS Foy for the flag ;-) (link)

Hammerhead 2023

A change is as good as a rest they say and so it was with my trip to Hammerhead instead of WMMS. Andy was the driver for this trip and we left on Friday and met up with another party from the Beacon club at the hotel, where we spent the afternoon and evening gaming. Saturday was cool and dry, so after a substantial breakfast I was ready for the fray and with no need to stop to find lunch.
Our objective was to make a tour round the traders and then join in a couple of games we fancied. A false hope, It took nearly three and a half hours to tour round the traders combined with various stops to talk to friends many of whom I hadn't seen since Covid. Then after a short break for tea and reflection on what we had missed, we made a final quick pass till it was time for us to leave.
Some pictures of the games that interested me

"What a comboy" but set in the 1920s, a very innovative game and one we almost joined and in retrospect should have.

Some inspiration - Spanish volunteer infantry it would be nice to add units like these to my 20mm Spanish army

Epic Armageddon - almost all 3D printed

Wars of the Roses using modified "Fire and Fury"

The vital statistics are recorded on markers with the units

Indian hill fort.

Cold war gone hot, complete with tactical neuclear weapons

Nice modular hex terrain

My booty, hopefully the die-cast cars will be suitable for 20mm back of beyond games.

Overall a great day but just a shame to miss out on some of the games.

Napoleonic French Dragoons

After many years faithful service my old dragoons can retire. Their replacements are a splendid force of Italeri French Dragoons, slightly larger and more dynamic than the old converted Airfix units.

The commander and his escorting trumpeter have remained, they have been touched up and rebased. They are Les Higgins metals and were always a bit large but now fit in well with their new troops.

I painted four units one in each of the major facing colours in use and they give a splendid sight en-masse

On the workbench - March 2023

Well, February din't go quite to plan, in a nice way, with the acquisition and painting of the Natal Native Contingent for the Zulu War. So I number of items have drifted over into March so I have to work on.

• 4 units of Napoleonic French Dragoons - All painted and just need basing
• WW2 Russian crews for bren carriers and other 3D printed Russian vehicles - I've fitted the figures to the vehicles
• Napoleonic Nassau Infantry battalion - heads swapped where needed and base coated
• various odd 3D printed vehicles - progressing but still a background task
• another Medieval Scottish Schiltron
• Zvezda peasant army
• Experimenting with some Zulu shields and bathtubbed Waco gliders to 3D print

I had hoped to go to WMMs this month, but family commitments have intervened, but instead I'll be heading off to Hammerhead in Newark this weekend.

Natal Native Contingent

A new addition to my Anglo-Zulu War armies, a couple of units of the Natal Native Contingent, made by HaT.

There should be 18 figures in the unit, but I just substituted some scenery for a couple of figures like Peter Gilder used to do and I think it makes it more of an irregular force.

One unit deployed as skirmishers

Most of the British amy for the invasion of Zululand

Here is the whole British army, I normally don't use all the units in any game, but it gives me lots of flexibility and if necessary I also have some Boers I can also use.

The artillery, the muzzle loader is Airfic but the two MGs are metal, I think from RSM. by the limbers are a spare infantry crew for the maxim.

Colonial cavalry RSM at the fron and two units of HaT Frontier Light Horse behind.

The rebased regular cavalry was shown in an earlier post, but here are the Natal Native Horse and Natal Mounted Police behind the mounted infantry.

Zulu War rebasing - British foot troops

It's quite a lot to rebase in 0ne batch, but here they are over 100 figures rebased and also touched up from the ravages of gaming. There are two infantry battalions , a rifle company, a dismounted mounted infantry section, a limber and a few oddments.

A close up of an infantry battalion.

Almost all the figures are Esci

Zulu War rebasing - British mounted troops

I've started the first of my rebasing projects for the year. I already have a number of the figures rebased to my current standard, but they make the figures based to my old standard look very dowdy. The first batch is all the remaining British/Colonial mounted figures.The command figures at the front are all RSM.

Colonial/Boer cavalry at the front (Newline) and Mounted Infantry behind (Airfix/Esci conversions)

Lancers at the front and Dragoons behind, both Jacklex.

The final figure at the rear is a Waterloo 1815 Sudan figure.

WSS Bavarian Cuirassiers

Another batch of cuirassiers for the War of Spanish Succession completed, Bavarians this time. The mix of figures are the same as the Austrians, using the figures from both Strelets cuirassier sets. I only extra is a commander, and I've also painted his Austrian counterpart (at the rear). With four units I could represent all of the Bavarian cuirassier regiments.

Regiment Arco at the front and Weikel behind

Regiment Costa at the front and Wolframsdorf behind

That completes my WSS project until Strelets manages to make any more new sets.

Vapnartak 2023

Up nice and early yesterday for the drive across to York. So for me it was 12 hours day.
I was helping with the Lance & Longbow as usual and the battle selected this time was the Ottoman relief of the seige of Buda 1541. Ready for the off.

Battle well underway - we managed to refight it twice, both times resulting in an Ottoman victory.

Some of the other games in progress, starting with the the Back of Beyond game by the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers

Medieval skirmish using Lion Rampant set in the Baltics with the Teutonic knights

"What a Cowboy" by TFL I would have liked to have time to try this.

Viking Raid

My booty - the Natal Native contingent by out was a fortunate find as I have been looking for it for quite a while. The back copies of Hobilar on disk will reduce the amount of paper being stored. The additional rules for Rapid Fire Reloaded and Canadian Scenarios were what I needed, but I received an extra copy of the base rules with them. The female gunfighters will make an entertaining addition to my small western gunfight collection.

Overall a great day out as always, it was very busy for the first three hours, but the organisers have changed and it showed in their speed of dealing with the queue and less friendly attitude.