Tower of Belem

All along the Tagus estuary are a series of small vauban syle forts defending various landing points, but the most impressive is the Tower of Belem on the old outskirts of Lisbon.

It used to be beyond the shoreline but this is no longer the tidal shore it once was and has been expanded seawards.

The lower level is where the real power lies as it has openning for guns all round. No picture I'm afraid as it was full of tourists.

The level below the guns has ammunition storage and was also used as a prison.

The tower is the forts real feature with a traffic light system for controlling ascent/descent.

Splendid views from the tower across the Tagus.

The other side of the tower with yours truly!

Castle of the Moors (Castelo dos Mouros)

Positioned on a high above Sintra in Portugal overlooking the Tagus estuary and the west coast is a fantastic castle.

You can take the bus up, but better is the stiff climb through the trees of the Quinta Sasseni, about 15minutes from the top the castle appear above you

This is a popular area for rock climbers as well

The view directly down to the national palace shows how far we climbed

The Moors built the fort in the tenth century in a col between two hill tops.

The view down the way we ascended.

The opposite hilltop with Pena palace beyond

The castle was "invaded" by King Sigurd I of Norway in 1109

It actually fell to the Portuguese following the conquest of Lisbon in 1147.

During the 12/13th centuries the fortifications were improved

While the structure was well fortified by 1383 most of the population was moving down to Sintra

The castle was badly damaged in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake

It was rebuilt by King Fernando II at the same time as Pena palace was constructed.

Another view of Pena.

Normal service will now be resumed

It's been a bit quiet here for a while because I took advantage of some cheap flights to visit Lisbon and nearby. I managed to visit a number of interesting sites and museums and they will be the subjects of some future posts. Now I just need to re-motivate myself to get painting again.

A slight diversion - French R35s

Having failed to buy any S-Model R35s at Derby as PSC was out of stock. I took the plunge and ordered direct from China, the price including postage was virtually the same. Although I had some 1/76 resin R35s I always wanted some more.

The package arrived while I was in a lull with my cossacks so opening the kits I decided they would be quick to assemble. Indeed they were, I assembled three as the early version with the short 37mm and one with the later long version. I general Im ignore the PE parts but I did use a couple of bits and some "Sgt's mess" stowage.


The commanders came from the Matchbox Char B1 and a Solfig set I won at a SOGGy auction a few years back.

Out of the various camouflage schemes possible I picked this one as it looked the most suitable for fighting in France, the Levant or Morocco

Last of the half tracks - for now!

An Esci sdkfz 250/3. This should have been completed at the same time as the rest of the 250s. However on starting construction I found the model was badly warped and I had to try various method to get it stright again. In the end It was done by actually cutting the upper hull into pieces and then reassembling and filling the gaps.


I also scrapped the interior, which was badly modelled as well as warped and used a left over PSC interior cut to fit and added in the supplied radio plus some PSC crew.

To finish the saga, I realised that I would be better painting it for early war.

I did have an unwarped 250/10 but after my experiences with this one I sold it.

Agincourt day

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

I still have fond memories of the salute game back in April


link

Stalingrad refought - well a bit of it!

I had the honour of refighting a bit of Dougie's Stalingrad terrain that was posted earlier on my Devizes report. It was a great days gaming and I say that even though I lost. I was the commander of the much reduced 120th regiment of the 39th Guards Division, occupying the central position and in particular defending the Red October Factory. As usual I seemed to be too involved in the game to take enough pictures.

The table before the start, the dice indicated the German start line and the arrows where patrol would endeavour to find our positions







Luckily they would find very little except the bread factory Militia who would suffer in the subsequent bombardment and air attack, In general we suffered few casualties as most of our troops were in the cellars, but the consequence was they were unable to use reserve fire on the advancing Germans.

The first of many brave attempts to stop the Fascist hordes - a miss





Germans overrunning the bread factory


and crossing the railway line


German armoured support working through the rubble




One round of katyusha fire and it was pounced upon by a Stuka


On the northern flank the German armour runs into a Minefield and a dug in T34


Germans consolidate after crossing the railway and taking the Russian forward defence line, They were virtually wiped out, and the remnants routed.


retribution - a Stuka is shot down!


The German meat grinder gets to work on the Red October factory complex


despite heroic resistance the Russian northern flank crumbles


The same in the South, A trickle of reinforcements from across the Don move up to attempt to stem the tide.


The Stukas return, luckily one was intercepted y a Yak-3


More minefield fun for the Germans, but not enough to stop the advance


The end, the Germans push on and bring the Don crossing points under direct fire

I was left with my RHQ and band of invalids (a proportion of casualties were recycled) holding the last building in the factory.

A great days gaming at Bristol Independent Gaming the dice gods were certainly on the Germans side