Sopwith Camel

The second of my aircraft for the Wargames Forum April 30 Day Group Build was an Esci Sopwith Camel. I applied quite a simple paint job so I can use it for operations in the Middle East.

There were no decals with the kit so I use some left over WW2 versions

Fokker D VII

I constructed the kit for the Wargames Forum April 30 Day Group Build. As it turned out that was the easier part as I then had to paint the little Fokker! Now completed.

Another problem was sourcing a replacement prop, I ended up using a couple of WW2 propellor blades of the correct size fixed to a circular piece of plastic rod

The underside reveals the real painting problem and the screw used to fix the aircraft to the magnet on the stand.

Napoleonic British Cavalry for the Peninsula

Well that's the two units of British Napoleonic Cavalry created out of the HaT Napoleonic statrter pack each of eight figures.

The 16th Light Dragoons were based up for skirmish games such as Rebels and Patriots, Sharp Practice, etc and the basing matches my Peninsula skirmish figures.

The heavy cavalry is the 4th "Queen's Own" Dragoons, but this time based to fit in with the bulk of my Napoleonic figures. Although the moulding of HaT figures has improved the plastic is still quite flexible

On the Workbench - June 2025

Given the over two weeks away I have managed to catch up a bit on plan, and at least I managed to finish the Napoleonic Austrian rebasing. So along with other interruptions I will be working on.

• Painting the couple of biplanes from the Wargamers Forum Group Build - just started
• British Dragoons and Light Dragoons for the Peninsula, the later will be for skirmish games. - now well underway, fixing the loose arms and carbines was a PITA
• Work on "El Cid" figures to modify my existing Crusader armies to Spain - started and assembled
• Start up the FDM printer and create some hooches for Nam68 - Have set it up, but I'm not sure about the hooches that I would have printed as they don't seem to be well designed, maybe because the file were cheap, I need to decide how to proceed. but I've still invested in another kickstarter with STL buildings for WW2 France
• Start assembling the 28mm "Gangs of Rome" figures - still unstarted
• Bystanders for "What a Cowboy" - already undercoated
• WSS Danish Sjaellandske Cuirassiers - using the Strelets figures
• As the temperature has risen I have the start preparing to restart the reisn printer

I'll also be at the Phalanx show in St Helens, where Beacon Gaming Club is putting on two games, a WW2 D Day 1944 scenario under the club banner and the battle of Arsuf 1191 in conjunction with the Lnce & Longbow Society. Please stop by and have a chat.

Last Napoleonic Austrians rebased

A final push and I have rebased the last of my Napoleonic army, these are another couple of units of skirmishing Grenz and some Landwehr. The Grenz are Karlstadt (yellow facings) and Wallach (green)

The Landwehr were originally conversion of Springwood figures into Jaeger, but I later replaced these with metal figures, so they became Landwehr. For the rebasing I added some staff from leftover HaT Landwehr painted to match.

Bamboo clumps for the jungle

Most likely for Vietnam games (link), but also for South East Asia in WW2. I was struck by the look of some clumps another wargamer had made and had to copy them.

I have not made the clumps quite as thick and also not bothered to paint the stalks darker, but they give a good general effect.

Napoleonic Austrian Grenz

Although they really had stopped being effetive as irregular infantry by the Napoleonic Wars I have continured to base them as such.

The units represented are Banal (crimson facings), Warasdiner (crab red) and Banater (light blue)