Dervish skirmishers

Although there are a number of odd riflemen scattered through my Dervish warbands the majority have been grouped into four skirmishing units. The figures used are a mix of HaT, Esci and Waterloo 1815, which gives a good variety to the units. To aid recognition I have given each unit a uniform patterns of patches, which fits in with the comments from some sources that they were manufactured to common patterns.

I might have gone a bit over the top on basing when they are in the open as they seem to be transporting their own shrubbery, but given they will normally be deployed in broken ground it'll probably work out OK.

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For Uwe, the groundwork is my basic mix of sand/crushed kitty-litter painted coffee and dry-brushed a pale yellow with a bit of autumn grass static grass for contrast.  For these I added chopped up door mat for the long grass and broken cork for larger rocks.

DAK miscellany

Rather a mixture of vehicles this time, the Panzer IIs, III and kubels are all rework having been purchased in panzer grey.  The Sdkfz 7 and PanzerJaeger I are new builds.

All 1/76 and a mixture of Airfix, Matchbox and Fujimi.

Yet more Grants

The last ones (maybe) given the green disruptive camouflage to distinguish them from the others.  Basic vehicle is Airfix with a S&S turret to replace the under scale one provided in the kit.

In addition is a Hot-Wheels die-cast woodie that I will use for my 51st Highland Division HQ for the Alamein big game later this year.

The beginnings of my Dervish Army

Only a few Beja, just 70 added to another 30 I had already painted for my Mameluke forces. I've organised them into five units made up of 4 bases. I could have followed the Peter Gilder approach and varied the number of figures on each base but I decided to keep to five on each.



Figures are a mix of Waterloo 1815, Hat and a few Esci.



I used the same technique for flesh as before with a base coat of sand and then a wash of brown ink. Unfortunately as I had almost run out of the GW ink I had to make to with Windsor and Newton ink mixed in, which did not give as deep a colour.

Here's the originals I had painted back in 2007, now rebased.


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DAK Flak

Seems to be taking me ages to finish things at the moment as I keep getting distracted. However after a long period on the workbench is a Horsch(?) mounting a 20mm flak. It was quite a crude resin kit picked up at Crewe last year with a Zvezda 20mm flak added. The crewman are just the Zvezda figures with head swaps.

Behind is a Caesar Sdkfz 10 with a 20mm flak, a really fiddly kit to assemble. I thought it would be easy because it had assembled track units to replace the link and length version. The crewmen provided are very generic figures and not really usable as crew for the gun/vehicle, which was quite disappointing.

Also completed were a Stower 40 staff car from Cromwell (another Crewe purchase) and an Airfix kubelwagen.

WARNING - the assembly of the flak 30 on the Caesar kit is wrong. - check pictures of the real gun before attempting to assemble it.

Germantown 1777

After Phalanx, Sunday was spent in Manchester for a Gentlemen Pensioners reunion. The game selected was Germantown 1777 and it was a first outing for Steve's 28mm AWI figures (he had solely used 15mm up until recently) and we used my old AWI rules.

A "partial" report can be found on my AWI blog

Phalanx show - part 2

Luckily this time I had time to browse the trade stands and the Bring & Buy, but just in case I pre-ordered from Grubby Tanks and Under the Bed.  I didn't sell much on the B&B, but at least my copy of Kampfgruppe Normandy sold which helped my cash flow.

•  I was sorely tempted by the French equipment on offer on the Early War Miniatures stand, but I resisted as I'm trying to concentrate on the desert at the moment only buying an AT rifleman in shorts and pullover. 
• From Warbases I bought a few counters for the Vietnam game and a laser-cut balcony to add to one of my buildings.  They had some sheets of laser cut roof tiles/slates at only £2, which could come in very useful when I next work on some buildings.
• I trawled around the various stands looking for some static grass to replace the Javis Autumn grass that I had been using until they changed over to a much browner mix.  I eventually bought a couple of bags of a lighter and darker green from Minibits, which hopefully I can mix into the Javis bag I bought to give a close match to the original.
• Then there was my first 28mm purchase for a while, a box off the B&B containing 36 painted Warlord musketeers/dragoons and a saker.  I had been debating getting the saker for a while, but it was very expensive when bought on its own rather than as part of one of their deals.
• From Andy Grubb I picked up the 6pdr portees and US Airborne Jeeps and these should both get onto the painting table shortly
• Similarly from Under the Bed I picked up Reiver Pak38 50mm AT guns and crews, plus Frontline sdkfz 10s for tows.  I also bought a couple of radio trucks for my 51st Highland Division HQ and the Artillery regiment HQ.  In addition some Reiver Italian heads, I'll use these to alter the Waterloo 1815 47mm AT gunners from paratroops into ordinary troops.
• I bought some white, black and dark grey Coat d'arms paints as my local Modelzone has stopped stocking Humbrol acrylics for some reason, si in future I'll have to make sure I keep sufficient stock in hand.

Overall a great day out, but no wow factor from any of the games, so I had better slog on with my desert stuff!