As I've been rather slow finishing anything recently I thought I'd post a picture of my work in progress.


So in the various boxes

• Back left is some DAK equipment, a couple of trucks, and a pair of 75mm Infantry Guns, Plus a Stug IV that will be camouflaged for Europe in due course.
• Back centre, back right and front right various British Infantry units to fight the French in Egypt, I've added flag poles to suitable figures and made some necessary head swaps so they are ready for painting
• Front centre - British WW2 Paratroops, guns and their crews, I just need to sort out the 17pdrs.
• Front left the collection of additional Crusaders, all assembled with stowage added and given a first coat of paint.
• Extreme back left is a half assembled Ace German 100mm K18 - it's always slow progress with these kits.

Day out in the Sudan

It was off to Manchester to fight a Sudan game yesterday. It was set in the early part of the period and no British units were involved. The basic scenario was that we (the Dervishes) were besieging an Egyptian outpost while an Egyptian relief column would try to break through to them.

A is quiet at the oasis. but carefully inspection will reveal a Dervish body lurking behind a building pinning the garrison down.


Meanwhile the rest of my beseigers attacked the main column in the hope that I could hold them off until more reinforcements arrived.


Hurrah, the cavalry arrive, and shortly after that my co-commander arrived as well having been held up on the M62.


Pressure being applied to the column Osman Bin Wally can be seen exhorting his Nile Arabs to greater efforts, sadly he was slain leading a determined attack on the Egyptian artillery that allowed the Dervish cavalry and camelry the wipe out an Egyptian infantry regiment. Unfortunately this was our high point


Unfortunately this was our high point as the Hedendowah failed to arrive until too late to make a difference and the garrison was ready to tackle any attempt to oust them.

Overall a great day out. I had thought I'd taken more pictures, but these were all I had, but more will probably appear on Wargame Amateur's blog

Thanks to Steve (umpire), Alistair and David (Egyptians) and Dave (fellow Dervish)

Russian 76mm Infantry Guns

Lots of activity on my workbench, but I've mainly concentrated on getting the Russians finished first, as it makes a change. In fact I did a bit more than just the infantry guns as I had a 47mm AT gun, also from Zvezda, and a few extra figures for my infantry.

The Zvezda guns and crews are really excellent and good value for money. Each comes with two crew so I've added an extra crewman to each. The extra infantry are from Plastic Soldier and will allow me to field my SMG battalion as a normal infantry battalion if needed.

For those interested the Zvezda 47mm is slighly smaller than the PSC model, so I won't be using them together in one unit.

Loads of goodies

The postie popped by today with two parcels of goodies.

First off was a couple of packets of Zvezda Cossacks that I had swapped for some WW2 American Ardennes Infantry by Revell.  I wasn't sure want I'd do with the Cossacks, but they were likely to be of more use than the Americans. In fact on reflection I realised I could mix the Cossacks in with my Vlad Tepes set to create a more varied force of Transylvanians. I'll find out when I match up the figures.

Then a large box from Model Hobbies, this was an emergency purchase as I needed some extra figures before starting on my British troops for Egypt. The total contents were:

• Strelets British Artillery (Egypt)
• Strelets British Cavalry (Egypt)
• Strelets French Artillery (Egypt)
• Strelets French Cavalry (Egypt)
• Strelets Turkish Regular Cavalry - these will provide some Egyptian cavalry for the Sudan
• Strelets Hungarian Army in Winter Dress - yes, I fancy having a go at some winter warfare and I already have the Russians painted
• Strelets Italian Army in Winter Dress - ditto
• Orion Soviet Tankmen & Crew - for bailed out tank crews

Of course the last few were only to make up the order

On the workbench - November 2012

Impressive performance last month, everything completed and now it's the run through to Christmas. I've also noted that the stash has been expanding enormously in volume as I've bought a lot of kits. So with that in mind I plan to start work on:

• A pair of German 75mm Infantry guns for my DAK, one Reiver and the other Zvezda
• A pair of 76mm Infantry guns for my Russians  both the Zvezda model.
• A pair of trucks for my DAK, one the Pegasus model bought second hand and the other the old Airfix Blitz
• Five Crusaders - I've got a couple second hand needing rework, an Airfix one and a pair of the ones from S-model (one box)
• A British Army for Egypt 1800, I've just placed the order for the Strelets cavalry and artillery 
• Back to work on my British paratroops, this time it's the guns - 2 x 17pdr; 3 x 6pdr and 2 x 75mm.
• Plus any other boxes from the stash that take my fancy.

More rebasing - ECW

These are the painted figures I bought at Phalanx. As I mentioned before, I really bought them for the saker, but it came with the foot (left) and dismounted dragoons (right) so they have now all been touched up and rebased ready for an ECW game down the club this week. At the back are a number of left-over figures that I had left over, so I have based them up as skirmishers.

Fiasco 2012

Another good outing across the Pennines (if I ignore the attempts to divert me back due to road works on the M62)

The Marignano 1515 game that was part of the Lance and Longbow display, I was the Swiss.


The high point of the Swiss advance, I knew it couldn't last hence the camera shake, the French had woken up and the counter attack was looming


Other games that took my interest

Pegasus bridge in 28mm (I must admit is looks better in 20mm)


Another excellent Sicily game from the Barnsley lads (lots of good banter)


hastings in 10mm, quite impressive, but the Saxons got chopped to bits by the end of the game


Legendary Wargames had Bull Run using a version of the old Gilder rules


Plus some Sudan vignettes




3rd Afghan war (must get around to doing something similar)


Vimiero 1808 in 6mm, very impressive! and that's is just the terrain, it really gave a better feel of how it might have been on the ground!


Purchases - not a lot

• Hat 28mm Moorish infantry - since they are hard plastic and larger sized, I'm going to see how they turn out compared to other 28mm armies at the club, shouldn't be to difficult to paint.
• A Zvezda 75mm German Infantry Gun, really a lovely model for £2.75
• A  cheap book on Zulu War battlefields - just to fire me up again and not by Ian Knight so maybe I'll get a different perspective.
• The Biblical/Classical Army Lists for Hail Caesar, to give me a start in creaing some alternate armies rather than starting from my 6th edition lists.

Managed to sell a bit of the stash, but not enough to make any impression!