2013 show game ponderings

At the club on Sunday Tim (IT miniatures http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/ ) should have a few samples for me to paint up for next years show game. As the ball has started rolling now, very slowly and with no real momentum yet. As WW1 East Africa was a subject I know nothing about I grabbed this book from Amazon a few weeks ago and managed to finish it 2 days back. This book would not even have popped up on my reading list if it was not for this hobby of ours. I found the book quite dry with lots of talk about different units with which regiment carried which type of rifle etc, and not concentrating on the campaign in much real detail. But given the title of the book I can't count that as a criticism. For me the joy of the book was that it has opened my eyes to a whole theatre of war that I knew absolutely NOTHING about. My ignorance was astounding! Given that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing I am now incredibly dangerous! I now have ideas for show games by the bucket load! My first decision will be the forces involved. Cavalry I thought before reading this might be interesting, but further reading has revealed to me that horses suffered from diseases and many if not most of them died within months of arrival. So Scratch the WW1 Cavalry battle idea! (I'll have elsewhere for that). What I am heartened by is the variety of troops involved. Germans would need to be one side so that decision is striped from my control. But opposing them I can pit Belgium, Portuguese or British. Although the French were not involved they did offer to send troops from Madagascar these were declined by the British for fear, I am told, of France getting a colonial foothold in Africa. Even when talking about the British as an opponent for the Germans, that might not actually mean British, but South African and other African colonies, Indian, or Caribbean. You could use English troops as well, either from the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, or Royal Marines in the form of a British landing party. I shall try to broach the subject at the club on Sunday. Realistically I suspect the guys will be happy with whatever I decide. I don't want that to sound like they trust my judgement, that would be sheer folly! It would perhaps be more based on the fact that I will paint and build everything and they won't want to get in my way or muddy the water too much.

That's it for today. At the club on Sunday we shall be having a SAGA day. Assuming I don't forget my camera again (don't hold your breathe) I'll do a photo report on Monday. I have been given 48 Hours of overtime in the next 2 weeks so it is possible that I might not get too much painting done in the next couple of weeks, but needs must when the Devil drives! Anyway I hope to see you on Monday. Have a good weekend and keep your pets indoors with all the fireworks about. All the best Clint.

15cm sIG Grille auf 38t

 Wanting a change from the normal I selected a German self propelled gun as the next PBI vehicle. Thus we have the 15cm sIG Grille auf 38t (centre mount). I specify the centre mount as there was also a variant with a rear mounted gun, but I liked the look of this one and for no other reason I decided it's the one for me. It is of course from QRF (http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/) I have found very mixed quality from the company with regard to casting, but I am pleased to say this one was very nicely cast. The vehicle comes in 4 pieces and did require milliput and superglue to hold it together, just the same as I would for say battlefront miniatures, so I don't consider that a negative. I deliberately positioned the gun in a horizontal level as the distances over which it will be firing on the table top are minimal, therefore no elevation is required.
 Two crew are also included and they have limited room inside the contratpion so one is half sitting outside. In combat I am sure he'd be hunkered down behind the steel sidings, but for now he's perched on the rear edge. I have painted the crew in artillery uniforms as opposed to late war camouflage with red markings on their epaelettes. I am not sure if this is correct, so don't copy it thinking I know what I am doing, I don't I just went with what I thought as opposes to what I know. So only a 50/50 chance it's right! Details like this are not worried about at the club too much, don't get me wrong there is always one (usually me) who will point out any errors. the really observant will discern a "water and tan" (AKA Splinter A) helmet cover on the closest guy despite the fact that I said no camouflage. And the less observant will have just looked to make sure. It came out a little bit too dark but maybe it got wet and is drying out!
 This vehicle was a lot of fun to put together and paint, so much fun I shall no doubt send off for another as there really should be two together, both historically and to avoid the PBI single vehicle points penalty! It is surprisingly small vehicle but the 150mm howitzer should have a hefty smack to it, not that I expect it to be a game winner in any regard, just a little tabletop fun.
Slowly the German force is coming together a long way to go of course, but I am in no rush just enjoying doing a little every so often. You will know by now I struggle to keep on one project for ANY length of time. I do however slowly bring them to fruition (given enough time). Should I need to get something finished for a game 9 times out of 10 I do manage to (just). Which is all to say this very hap hazard approach works for me!

That's today's blog post. Let's all hope the weather improves for Guy Faulkes night until Saturday take care and paint a few figures!

Cheers Clint.

Battletech lance (WIP)

Here we have the currect lance of mechs I am working on, still a bit to do, but these are about 80% done. From left to right a 35 ton Panther, a 40 ton Cicada, a 60 ton Dragon and 70 ton Grasshopper. I must admit I have only piloted the Panther from this selection so I don't really know how to play them yet, particularly the grasshopper. I have painted them in Kurita colours (Red) mostly just to contrast with the green of the previous lance. I did not want them to be super bright so started with a black undercoat and a purple base coat, to build up a depth of the tone. Overall I am not unhappy with them. I have found that they do need a lot of cleaning up before painting. Loads of molding lines which have to be trimmed before painting, and I always miss a few unnoticed until the paint goes on. It's a pain, but worth going back and scraping or cutting them off to get a better finish. I appreciate that I got them all cheaper than RRP so I am willing to put up with the hassle. 8 mechs painted so far and a lot more to go yet (about 18). So it will take me a while to get through them.

 

Time is short so that will have to be the post for today. I shall offer a new post on Thursday. Thanks for reading and have a good couple of days.

Last US Infantry (PBI)

This should be the last of my US Infantry for PBI. I still have a couple more bits and bobs to do, but this should finish the actual infantry for the Yanks. Germans are another matter, I also have a 105mm Howitzer and crew to add. But generally speaking that is it for the US, at least for now.

WE have one last Bazooka team and a final command team and 4 Garand rifle stands. None of this is the most exciting painting project, but it does mean that they are "Finished" I never accept any wargames project as completely finished as there is always something you can add or optional troop choice or whatever. That said having already had two battles with these troops I do know that I have enough to play the game and enough to have a few choices with troop selection. Which means I can perhaps start a new project, or more likely progress another which has stalled or stopped.

Do I have any new projects to start? Obviously yes, the show game for a start as well as several other ideas. More of those another time. On an unrelated note on Friday night I was officially told that my job is no longer "at risk". I will admit to being worried about it I can now relax a little. It has taken the pressure off. I was told unofficially about 1 month ago, but with the NHS it is always worth waiting for the Official word. That's today's post. More on Tuesday. Until then take care and have fun.

Jim Barrowight!

 A single 28mm figure finished yesterday. This is "Jim Barrowight" from Crooked Dice. Obviously based on a Dr. Who character but I shall use it for a wide variety of games, most notably as a zombie survivor. Although I am also considering a "Sweeny" type game so he could be either a police detective or a  sinister vilian. so quite a versatile figure. I am also reminded of Terminator for some reason, probably the coat!The figure is armed with a pistol in a holster (on his hip) but otherwise carries no visable weapons. That said given the trench coat he could have anything under there, well anything smaller than a kitchen sink, not that a kitchen sink would be typically useful  in a zombie or cop game. I wanted a small break from 15mm WW2 so I took this figure on from the stack of lead which I have yet to finish. I am sure we are all the same and crave variety at times and I personally like changing painting scales, subjects and genres mostly because I find it hard to settle on one thing for long. It's probably a character flaw! Having said that I will be back to the 15mm figures today having already started my next batch.
Elsewhere in my wargames life I have been doing some background reading for the game I want to put on at BROADSIDE 2013. As a club we have settled on a WW1 game. And Tim (from Frontline/IT miniatures) will be bringing a couple of samples to the next club so I can have a practice painting them. I am very lucky that the guys will leave it to me to sort out exactly what we shall be doing and having started reading several ideas floating round my head. All have some merit, it's just deciding what I want it to look like and what I think will grab others imaginations! We do afterall want people to look at the game and then rush to buy some figures from Tim! Whether they will or not is another matter, as we all go to shows with a list in our heads. So I don't think it will happen on the day but with luck in the later months. Obviously one force will be German, but I am undecided on the opponents at the moment, could be Belgium, British or Portugese!

That's todays post, thanks for reading. All the Best Clint. Next update Sunday!

PBI Germans.

A couple of additions to the PBI German force I am creating. To the right is a Sdkfz 251/1D Hanomag Halftrack. You can just see on the machine gunners helmet cover that it has been painted in Oak Leaf (autumn) pattern. All my Germans are painted in a variety of camouflage patterns as well as Field grey. I wanted them to have a rag-tag "campaign" feel and not to be uniform. Maybe they are from different units and gave just been put together for this one mission, or maybe they are just using whatever uniforms they happen to have come across. The Vehicle is a King and Kerr resin one piece casting I picked up a couple of years ago and have only just gotten round to finishing. (As fast as usual!) Sometimes it just takes a while for things to get finished, other times I can manage it quite quickly, this was definitely one of those times mostly because I did not have a use for it. As the vehicle came attached to a resin base I have had to create a bigger base to avoid an obvious step. This will mean that I should add bases to all the German vehicles as well. If I do that, maybe I will to the American s as well, just to get a uniform look to the two forces.

Two LMG stands, both in a mixture of uniforms as mentioned above.These figures are Battlefront and are very nicely sculpted and cast, much better than the US troops. Given the difference in the sculpting I do wonder about the quality of their range as a whole, I can only imagine time will tell. The trees are simple twigs painted in a couple of different greys and with a grey-green side to one side. I am very happy with the effect they add to each stand. In a way it was necessary as the LMGs would have nothing to rest on otherwise!

Well I am not going to labour the point. That's today's post, thanks for reading. Next post is on Friday and don't forget we now have less than 9 weeks til Xmas! Take care Clint.

 

Two Axes, a Horse and a Helmet (but no camera)

Yes I admit it, I forgot my camera at the club yesterday. No one to blame but myself, so no pictures as such today. No excuses, all my fault. Saga players will guess from the title that I played my first game AGAINST the Anglo Danish army.I myself have Vikings, not because I had any affinity to the Vikings, but because I had a box set of the Gripping Beast Plastics, and no other reason. Frugality drove my army choice! Not that I am unhappy with the Norse, but if money was not a consideration I  most likely would have chosen Normans. However all this rambling does not tell anyone about the club on Sunday.

 

Not a terrible turnout at the club, most of the regulars, but only Tim and myself had bought our SAGA figures along. So we set up a very simple encounter 4 points each of my Vikings against Tims Anglo Danes. just between ourselves and just to learn the rules. Being a lazy git I did not have masses of choices and fielded two hearthguard, 1 Bereserker and one warrior unit for my points. Tim was far more courageous and selected a bigger variety of troops to better learn the rules. Well we did learn the rules slowly. I had read the rules through once several months ago so it took some time.

 

Highlights and low lights of the battle in order were. My berserkers chopped down a heathguard unit of Tims with lucky dice rolls and gained some fatigue. Thinking they were thus invincible I sent the 3 who survived to attack Tims warleader. Despite throwing loads and loads of dice they failed to inflict any wounds (well they did inflict 1, but warlords can ignore the first unsaved hit so they did nothing). Tim on the other hand single handedly wipes them all out! You could blame the dice, or a lack of armour, or me for attacking his warboss while fatigued. No matter what you blame the result was the same. This was compounded when one of my Hearthguard units charged into Tims Geburs (levy quality) and inflicted only 2 dead. Tims aggressive peasants killed two of mine, and I was forced to back of a couple of inches and stand exposed on my left wing.

Anticipating that Tim would reinforce his Geburs with his leader to fight alongside. I Chickened it and moved my leader as far away as I could, Erhm... I mean my commander decided to support my right flank. This subsequently worked in my favour giving me a fresh warlord and two fresh units against two of Tims units. I'm playing Vikings so I charged. By this stage I had started to use and "understand" the Battleboard. So as it was my turn I managed to drive back both opposing units inflicting heavy losses, but taking minimal losses myself and using the battleboard to reduce my fatigue. By the time Tim could get his warleader and supper levies across the battlefield his two units were devastated. One round of fighting his super levies, not a prospect I was cherishing with my warlord and a hearthguard unit. Did the trick and Tim conceded.

 

That game did take a while as we checked the rules and got to grip with the mechanics. So we had a second game. I reffed and Kevin and Relfie took joint command of my Vikings and Tim retained control of his Anglo Danes. As Kev and Relf had not played before I did a little coaching, suggesting options for the dice on the battle board. (Mostly they ignored me!) Both armies formed up and Tim put a unit of Dane-axes as a vanguard. The Vikings took one look at them and just charged! Subtle we aint! Let me just say hot knife and butter with fatigue to all Tims close units for the loss of a unit in close proximity. We then got to warlord versus warlord. No result as they continued to ignore the first unsaved hit from each melee. Then Kev and Relfie added a unit of warriors to the mix and despite Tim Killing more Vikings, Relfie and Kev managed to inflict 3 hits on the Anglo-Dane leader who could only save 1.

 

Post game analysis: The objective was to learn the rules. Which I think we did. I shall read them again before next time just so we know where I was getting things wrong! (I am not silly enough to think we got through it without making mistakes). But we now have 4 club members who have some passing familiarity with the rules, battle boards and concepts of the game. So I would say we have achieved the objective. All 4 of us have decided to set up a Saga day at next club. Kev and Relf have promised to get their figures painted, Kev doing Normans has only a couple of horsemen to finish off. I think Relfie is doing Anglo Danes, but am not sure, it could be Vikings. Stuart, not present yesterday will do either Vikings or Joms Vikings, Ian will do either Anglo- Saxons or Anglo- Danes. And Andy has bought Welsh at SELWG, but I am not sure how many he will ever get painted, The general consensus is that Stuart will paint them in the end!

 

So all in all despite the lack of camera it was a successful day. Thanks for Reading, next Blog post will be Wednesday. Until then take care, roll some dice and have some fun! All the Best Clint!

More PBI Yanks.

Just a very brief post today. Here are my latest lot of 15mm US Infantry for PBI. The figures are a Mixture of Battlefront and Peter Pig. Three Bar stands, one Bazooka Stand and a Garand Rifle stand. All painted and based in my usual way. I have been lucky these last few days and found some that I had put aside. You know what it's like you put them somewhere safe and forget where. Anyway I have found another 6 stands worth of infantry. Not as good as winning the lottery but it did put a smile on my face.

Club day tomorrow and at this stage I think we are trying SAGA for the first time. Anyway that's it for today. Very quick. I'll post again on Tuesday, all the best Clint.

PBI Yanks

I have struggled to get much painting done this week. I did manage to get these two MMG stands done for PBI. The miniatures are from QRF ( http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/ ) Nicely sculpted and cast (some of their vehicles are less well cast If I am honest, but not badly cast as I will keep buying more). The guns are 2 piece castings with a separate tripod and gun. Attaching the belts to the loaders was a little fiddly but worth the effort. They were easy no fuss to paint with deep enough folds in the clothes to be able to hold a wash. As the first US troops I have purchased from QRF I must say I am very happy with them. Most of my other US troops are Battlefront and a smattering of Peter Pig. Now though having used these I will look here in the future as I like the sculpts and the delivery speed is pretty good as well.

As you can see there is a mold line on the helmet, second picture, loader on the left. It only really shows on the picture and hardly at all in real life. It just shows what a flash will reveal. As mentioned above I have struggled to get much painting done, a lot of the reasons were that I was waiting to get some basing materials which I managed to secure at SELWG. I can no longer use that as an excuse. Since SELWG I have started to re-base the mechs, as I bought some proper bases for them. I have also started the next few stands of US PBI Infantry (only 6 but still it needed to be done.)

That's today's post. Thanks for reading take care and I shall do my next blog post on Saturday. All the best Clint.



SELWG Zombies!

As I mentioned a zombie game at SELWG yesterday I thought I should cover it in more detail. The game was in the main hall and run by the SEEMS club (South East Essex Military Society, Web site: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SEEMS/) Only met them in passing, but they were very approachable on the day. And as it was a Zombie game I thought it deserved a special mention. Firstly the two I did talk to were not aware that there was a Zombie Bloggers Association (ZBA), but at least they do now.

The game was a participation game set in an alternative WW2 where Britain had been invaded by the Germans and somehow zombies had come into being. They did not have any hand outs or I would have nabbed one, but they had a very brief historical recap of how the Zombie Virus and Germans had managed to arrive in England. Not that I was so keen on the details I just wanted BRAINS! If you have very good eyesight you should be able to pick up some details from the history to the right. If like me your eyesight is not so good or if you don't want to read it that's OK I did not on the day either.

I am not sure of the rules they were using but it was a "you-go-I-go" Mechanic and being participation was bound to be quite simple. The game, like so many participation games, suffered from the Wargames creche syndrome, by that I mean younger players were playing perhaps dumped there by parents who wanted to spend their cash without being pestered to buy "Chaos spiky ninja space troopers" or some such. I mean no offence to of GW games, oh who am I kidding yes I do!.

A nice board, obviously using things from other club games, which I applaud. The buildings for example are from PCM (PMC I forget which) that you can get straight from eBay at a reasonable price and do a very good job. You can see by the bases of the trees that they are from another game as well. Let's be blunt we all use what we have and what we are familiar with so I think it's really good that they did not go overboard and instead represented a more achievable looking game.

Most of the action, (when I was stood at the game) seemed to be centred around the ruined buildings with the forces of Good (the British of course) both exploring and defending the area.

A couple more close up pics just to show a little more detail and to prevent eyestrain.

Lastly for today, I would like to thank Fran the angry (hedge hugger) Lurker for giving me one of the "Posties Reject" d6. I am told that I have been entered in the draw, for both his a Rays, competition despite the fact that I asked not to be. They both said tough and that I was in it. Which is really nice of them and I do appreciate it. So thanks guys. I am sure you have already come across their blogs, but just on the off chance that you haven't. Fran at
http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/  and  Ray at http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/


That's it for today I shall do a very brief post tomorrow, just to get back into the rhythm I had established. This was a special post for the ZBA.
So that's it for today take care roll dice, laugh and avoid hedges.

Post Script: Postie has asked me to mention Hedge Hugging and Fran a few times on different Blogs. And a promise is a promise so I consider it done now, at least until Fran posts next!

All the best Clint

Selwg 2012

 

As many of you will now on Sunday I went to SELWG. AS my eyesight is "borderline" I don't drive for fear of accidents. I was therefore very grateful that Ray, (http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/) Fran (http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/) and Postie. I must say sharing a car with them was actually a pleasant experience (Perhaps I should get out more). They all have a wealth of knowledge and put me at ease quickly and it turns out Fran can navigate as well. Cutting a long story short we arrived Early and were joined in the Que by Lee (http://www.blmablog.com/2012/10/selwg-2012-part-1.html) who has already published a comprehensive show report in four parts and I would recommend checking it out. Moments later David Crook (http://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/) Joined the crowd outside and the time passed very quickly until the doors opened.


The Above Picture was taken at 12:30ish and is a good judge of the crowd and show attendance. It did seem that numbers were a little down, but until I speak to a few traders and see their view on the crowds spending habits it is hard to judge. Some traders I know did very well, and it is inevitable that some did not meet their expected targets, such is always the way at shows. As already demonstrated I was very reserved in my spending this year, As I have a number of projects in the planning stages which have not reached the wallet opening level just yet.

Here are the pics of the games at the show, not all the games of course, check Big lees blog ,above, for a MUCH larger selection. These are just the ones that for some reason caught my eye. No captions or descriptions, just random pics of pretty games. There was a Zombie game as well and I shall post about that at another time. Just for the Zombie Bloggers Association. Most of the games have had outings before as show games are the showcase of the clubs that put them on so if you have been to a show in the south of England the chances are you will already have seen them, so this is just a visual reminder.
I should have payed more attention to the table I was getting a pic of so I could label them and put them in some sort of order. My day consisted of talking to traders and fellow wargamers, I was even introduced to Tamsin, (http://wargaminggirl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-selwg-some-gossip.html) and can confirm the GZG gossip she put forward in her blog today, Jon having said the same to me as well. Then having wandered away from the table chatting failing to return until later. This is just how unorganised I am. Maybe it will be different if I ever grow up.... don't hold your breathe!
Clubs can't afford either the time, money or effort to host a new game for each show, that would be ridiculous we would never get to play games. As such many games fall into the pre Salute and post Salute category. Overall the standard of the games was incredibly high, in fact I cannot think of a single game that I would not be proud to have worked on. It just goes to show how many talented people are drawn to the hobby. Anyway I hope you enjoy the photos and find something of interest. As mentioned before I will talk about the zombie game another time.

Anyway thanks for reading, or more likely just looking at the pics. I shall try to get things labelled and identified next time. Yeah right!

All the best Clint.

SELWG Loot 2012

Just a very quick post to show my SELWG loot. Very meagre haul this time. I was not really going shopping this year, and came hoe with more than half my money.  Here's what I actually bought and reasons why.

• Ground Zero Games, one 15mm infantry squad (Federal states Europa) and one hover APC, (Command Variant) I bought this to finish the platoon, so it can be a finished force all ready to play.
• A box of Green Toxic Dice. This was an impulse buy but it gives me some dedicated Zombie dice, which ia always good.
• 3 packs of hex stands, suitable for Mechs/Battletech. A bargain if you ask me.
• 2 Packs of Peter Pig 30mm square bases. I had run out and buying them this way is just so much easier.
• 2 Packs Peter Pig Figures, 1x US Artillery crew, 1x 105mm Field gun. This will flesh out my US PBI company.
• 2 foam Trays for figure storage.

As you can see quite a small haul, but for once everything has a purpose. My impulse buys were a real minimum only £3.60 in total. Which means the pile of lead which is my life is not growing too much larger this week. If I look back at the spends harshly I could have gotten all this Mail order, cheaper than the travel and entrance fee, but that would not have been as valid an experience. I could and very nearly did buy more, but while I did enjoy the show there was nothing that really grabbed me as a must have.

I shall post a show report on Tuesday, just to get back to normal. Thanks for reading and have a good couple of days.