Jingle all the way



Britannia Jingle Truck

This is a Britannia "Jingle Truck". I have put a picture of a real one from Afghanistan at the bottom just so you can see that I really have not gone over the top with the decoration. At this stage it has not been weathered. I am reluctant to weather it just yet as it took an age to paint. As you can see most surfaces have some form of decoration. Yes I could have added more and more and even more, but by this stage I was content with the level. Having taken an age to paint, mostly because I did not know what I was doing, I am reluctant to get another. That's a shame after all what other wargames am I ever going to paint one for. Most of the decoration is very abstract just dots and dashes in different colours and as bright as I could manage. If I was to tackle another I realise I would paint it much quicker as I would be less precious about the pattens and colours but as I don't need another just yet I'll leave it for now. Most panels have been painted a couple of times as I could not settle on the colours. It started as mostly red for example and has metamorphosed into mostly green. Although using the words "Mostly green" is somewhat misleading. Painting it really was a love hate relationship but now it's done I shall miss it! I guess I'm never happy. I deliberately painted a crescent flag on the front the driver is no doubt praying that it will not become the 

Jingle Truck in Afghanistan

 number one bullet magnet on the table. I can just imagine what a typical British Colour Sergent would have t say about it. As well as your typical Tommy so I suspect the typical wargamer will also have a few choice words. None of them complementary, about the truck but I also suspect that if I can get the boards right it might get a few photos on the day just for novelty value. For some reason wargamers are drawn to the unusual and I think this fits the bill. As I look back I would be willing to paint another, but not this week. Or next, and not for anyone else. I have also managed to get a couple more Taliban done as well but no photos just yet, until I can get some more tufts and varnished. Therefore that's all I'll show today.

We have a club game on Sunday (real wargamers don't stop for Easter!) We hall have a Force on Force game, to remind us of the rules and what we are supposed to be doing. So I had better re-read the rules this afternoon. That's it for today I'll post again on Monday, thanks for reading this and have a good Easter. Cheers Clint







Have I got news for you!

Here we have a news team, a very modern take on warfare. Yes there have been war artists throughout history and journalists even poets yet to me it seemed to change with the Vietnam conflict. I think It has also changed more recently when you think about the self published works from mobile phones, facebook, twitter and youtube. However that part of journalism will not play a major part in my Afghanistan game. A film crew on the other hand could well be useful. Here we have "Fake Adie" a cameraman, sound engineer and a photographer-newspaper journalist. The figures are by MJ Figures (http://mjfigures.co.uk/) but Britannia (Available from Andrew Grubby from here http://www.grubbytanks.com/catalog/ ) also make a film crew. I have christened her "Fake Adie" but I am sure various players will come up with other perhaps more inventive names some of them more erhmm... shall we say "colourful". Overall I am happy how they have come out and are finished except for some tufts and varnish. I have had to send for more tufts so as soon as they arrive job done.

This pic is a quick snap of me "entertaining" my nephew with an impromptu 7ombie TV game. This is just about the last turn when the survivors (played by James) get into the vehicle and head for the sunset. Just played quickly and for a break from 40k (Grrrrr) so I can get a little sanity back. Being 12 he's not overly keen on letting me take any time to set a game up and wants it rolled out there and then. So minimal terrain but at least we got to roll dice. Overall not too bad a game as he won by escaping but I did manage to wound both of his survivors.

I have not managed to even start the first board yet, although perhaps given the long weekend I might manage to. I really need to get going now as BROADSIDE is 2 months away. Still no more babysitting now as my sister has collected James and although I expect him to visit over the weekend both because it is his birthday and to collect Easter Eggs. As a Birthday Pressie I got him a model of an x-wing despite the unsubtle hints about Orks for 40K. The hints were just a little two late, he should have dropped them last week, not this. Oh well I have never known anyone to complain about getting star wars x- wing models I know I wouldn't.

Anyway back to wargaming and away from family waffle. As mentioned above Broadside is 2 months away. Not time to panic just yet as I am getting there. I have all the Taliban I think I need undercoated at the very least and anticipate them being finished over next weekend. Then It will be on with the Brits.

As a show we are now full, 36 traders many from very far away Hull, Sheffield, Dorset, Nottingham etc. 14 Local clubs, and some more on a reserve list and 26 planned games including several put on by traders. Talking of which I had an email from one of the traders asking to borrow some of my scenery, (Phil from Pen and Sword.) My local readers should know he was for many years a member of the Rainham club so more of a friend to me so I am happy to help him out if I can. He also wanted to borrow 2 Franco-Prussian armies as well for a set of rules recently published. That I can't help with having never even played a Franco-Prussian game. It's just a period that does not appeal.

Well that's today's offerings. Should post again on Saturday. Thanks for reading and take care all. Cheers Clint.

Large Compound (WIP)

Here is my last (for now) compound. Yes it's another work in progress as to be honest I have nothing finished today due to looking after my nephew and playing warhammer all day yesterday. I think I'll be either playing the classic game from my youth "Escape from Colditz" or 7ombie TV. He will of course want to do both all day and not give me a break. AT his own house it is somewhat easier as he has all HIS stuff their. At my house he Needs more entertaining.  Anyway that's neither here nor there lets talk about wargames. As said above this is the latest of my compounds. It has yet to be tidied up and painted. As such it is very much a work in progress. It has been made in the same way. Again mounted on 3mm mdf with the walls made from Grey-board and the roofs from Mounting board. The local art framer is a decent bloke and lets me have some of his Mount board off cuts (in return I make a donation to his favourite charity) so we all benefit. As mentioned this is the largest of the 4 compounds and as can be clearly has a raised tower. I knew from the start that I wanted a tower on this compound but until I started I had no idea of where it would go. The tower is an obvious fire position, as it will be the highest point on table (not including aircraft providing "love from above"). It only has windows on 2 faces so there

are some blind spots which wiley tacticians will spot straight away. Blind spots are to be encouraged as these are "domestic dwellings" and not forts. They are therefore built without too much regard to modern military concerns. Given the cutting board beneath the compound you can judge this model as being about A4 in foot-print. AS I will be using 2 foot squar boards a compound of this size does take up quite a lot of table space. Another issue with using 2 foot square boards is that given the scale size of say a landing zone (LZ) for medivac means that about half of one board is needed for a chinook to land. I had not anticipated that when planning the game. Still I think I can use that to my advantage as it will mean the LZ needs not only to be clear, but also lines of fire onto the LZ need to be controlled or the LZ gets declared as "Cherry"

That's today's blog, thanks for reading and I'll post again on Thursday.

Light Air Defence.



Taliban Sa7 Team

Given that I was thinking about using
helicopters it would only be appropriate to give the Taliban something to worry the coalition players. Here we have an SA 7 team. The spotter has a Light machine gun partially to protect the SA7 from ground forces as well as air support. These are both Britannia which I am really enjoying painting, they almost paint themselves. One of the other things about Britannia miniatures is that both times I have ordered from Andy Grubb he's added a little extra, more of this later.
In the Force on Force rules Air defence falls 

Where not to stand

into a different categories dependant on the number of units which can act as anti aircraft, such as surface to air missiles and heavy
 machineguns, 12.7mm and the like. As I don't have much anti aircraft Taliban most of the games will be either "No air defence" or "light Air defence" these are abstracted into the chance of coalition ground attack being successful, or not. It is possible with "No air defence" for the coalition pilots still not to have a decisive attack but the chances are they will do some damage and with the "Danger close" rules it's possible for blue on blue casualties.  But most often the result will be 3rd picture.


Coalition return fire

These two dead Afghans were my freebies from my last order from Britannia. I am of course delighted with them. I may be tempted to buy some more. I was unsure whether I should bloody them, but the decision was taken out of my hands when the blue paint from the figure on the left "Bled" into the sand. The only thing I could do was to paint the blue sand red. So problem solved. These two figures do not have obvious guns which means they can be used as non-combatants as well as Taliban. Was the airstike on target after all? This is perfect as it allows for more options rather than just casualty markers. Imagine a scenario where the British patrol come across a body in the middle of a town, and nothing else. Obviously they need to protect themselves but what if the bodies are wounded and they get the chance to save a life, but then what if it's a trap. One simple marker which could lead to a whole scenario. AS a wargamer we would always expect the worse and assume it was a trap possibly an IED, maybe an ambush. But it could be a teacher the Taliban have severely wounded and left to die and the Coalition have a limited number of turns to rescue them and casevac them. The joy of that scenario is hat most players would assume there would need to be gun-play, but they could loose on victory points just by taking too long to resolve the action. Just a thought.

That's it for today. As the Easter holidays have now started I shall be looking after my nephew for some days which will slow me down. So don't expect too much output. Anyway I'll blog again on Tuesday. All the best cheers Clint.