Stupid man!

Actually that's not aimed at you. It is aimed at me! Why is it when something is staring me straight in the face, leaping up and down and waving it's arms in the air I still fail to see it? The answer of course is in the title! Yes I am a dumb ass at times! (Only times not constantly no matter what you or others may say!)

I have to work in full circles to arrive back at the beginning and waste a load of time, money and effort to no effect!

Should I explain now? Or continue the verbal self flagellation.

After a further 10 minutes of yelling at my self! (I knew you would pick the latter option). I now will explain, go and get a cup of tea and a biscuit and settle back down.

Ahh your back now, good. Comfy then I'll begin.

You may remember back in the new year I said I wanted to do some cold war wargaming. You may also remember that I have been thinking about making some scenery/battle boards for it. Additionally I have been thinking of Arab Israeli wars either 1967 or 1973. yes I know this is cold war era and had considered it as already part of the project. Well the Eureka, break-through, slap forehead, epiphany moment arrived this morning. (About time too!)

Can you guess what it is yet? (Imagine Rolf Harris saying it!)

I already have a 1/300 scale desert hex based modular scenery. Now I grant you my two existing forces are not very Middle eastern........ but what a fantastic starting place. I can no doubt use some bits and bobs with a bit of a repaint!

I even have some spare foam board to make some more desert  hexes. And the rest can be tidied up! I may set up a board later in the week and offer some pics!

So I have the scenery already done, the scale all sorted and I am about ready to start! I think I even have the rules (found free on this inter web thingie). And the fly in the ointment is that I am now on a "figure fast!" so I can't buy the extra bits I need.

And this is how my life goes.......

The only question now is 1967 (October war) or 1973 (Yom Kippur War)? I am edging towards 1973 Yom Kippur as it starts with the Israelis on the back foot.

Thanks for reading I just had to bombard some poor unfortunate with it!

TAR7AN board update tomorrow I am still going to work through that before going off on a complete tangent!. This is just me venting as I realise the blindingly obvious! Which I am sure you saw 8 months ago and were too kind to point out! And for not pointing it out I thank you!

Hope to see you again tomorrow, so until then, eat some ice-cream and stay in the shade!
All the best Clint

By Crom!

 Only 1 figure, but a book and TV classic. This figure called "Brom" by Reaper miniatures is fooling no one. We all know it's really "Harry Potter!" Ok maybe not a certain teenage wizard but before JK Rowling started writing probably one of the most famous fantasy characters of all time. There are many other famous fantasy characters of course, Elric, Frodo, Red Sonja and many many more. However Conan is so synonymous with pulp fantasy that just about everyone knows of him.

I read Conan  novels in my early teenage years and in many ways they along with the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were what pushed me into playing D + D. Although I actually prefer to play clerics as a class, as they have all the power. This is debateable of course and all character classes have their uses, but if you ever have a character die you'll need a high level cleric to "Res" the poor unfortunate and if that is not power in D and D what is. SO for me Clerics were the ultimate class.

But I digress. When I first started sorting out the TAR7AN game it actually could easily have become a Conan game. That being the case I hunted round for some figures and settled on this one from Reaper to be the main protagonist. I was still going to set it in the jungles of Kush or perhaps the deserts of Stygia and maybe it will get another lease of life when Tarzan has had an outing. Don't think I won't re use the same board with different figures because I surely will. Most if not all of the evil cast can be used which means just swapping the Heroic cast and maybe adding something which can be summoned. With lots of old Call of C'thulhu  miniatures finding a suitable demon will not be hard. SO after the Tarzan game expect another AAR with sword wielding barbarians!

I think this is one of the few sculpts that has hairy armpits! So thank goodness he has some kind of animal skin around his waist! He was actually a pleasure to paint, very pronounced muscles and a generally nice sculpt. There are always a few things one would do differently of course but other than his face I am very happy with how he came out. Nothing all that wrong with his face just a little lop sided and with a moulding line which needed a bit of cleaning up which has left it with a wonky eye. It is only me that will worry about that. Not complaining though overall a very nice figure with much to commend it.

I should be able to do a TAR7AN board post on Sunday. so with a bit of luck I shall see you then. Take care and catch you later. Clint

Figure Fast.

Continuing to paint up old figures in 20mm for late war Germans, circa 44-45. This is a 75mm IG 18 infantry gun used on both the Easter and Western front by the Germans. I tackled this one to help bulk out my WW2 Germans ready for the up coming rules by "Too Fat Lardies!" The Gun itself is by SHQ while the crew are from another source, perhaps "Britannia" although I am not sure. I know they can into my possession about 20 years ago and have finally reached the pinnacle of the lead mountain.

And that's kind of what I am going to waffle on about today. No not nostalgia and how we all miss some of the older models. Not even how long it can take me to finally get round to painting things. They are related though. What I have decided is that my lead piles are growing and not getting any smaller. Therefore I have decided to go on a "Figure Fast". For the whole month of August I vow not to purchase any wargames figures or kits. I will only paint old lead.

By old lead I mean things that have been hanging around for 3 months or preferably longer. The hope is that I get a few more things finished and less things started. Tim at the club has suggested I will crumble and not last the month, and truth to tell he may well be right. I do not know if I have the commitment but at least I will try, and after all 1 month is not so very long.

I will allow myself to buy paints, bases and basing materials such as "tufts" but no rules, kits or figures. No Lead no resin no plastic.

How will this effect the blog, truth to admit I don't think it will. I shall continue to work on the TAR7AN board and other things I have started. It will allow me to get some figures done that I have been meaning to but just have kept going off at tangents and getting side tracked. So in the next month you can expect to see some old work re-emerge as I attempt to reduce the unpainted piles of metal.

So for the next month, until 1st September 2013, I will be on a wargames diet. Or as I l;ike to think of it a "Figure Fast".

Thanks for reading more again in two days time. All the best Clint.

BBIB Club Game.

 Just a sheet for terrain, add an island and of we go. Yep it's that simple. Tim and Myself had a 4 ship Spanish fleet and Graham a 4 Ship English fleet. WE started several turn apart to give us time to remember the rules. The fleets were roughly equal but not exactly the same and the fleets fought with equal ferocity. I let Tim take the lead and followed in line behind him and Graham snaked his fleet the other side of the island to me and I had a whole day of sitting the furthest away from the game action as was physically possible.

The opening shots saw The British fleet score the first blood. The return fire from Tim's two ships was far more accurate and made the British broadsides look really weak (Tim rolled well on the dice and did so most of the day).

And then the chaos started. Each ship going it's own way and no real formations. It was all a bit hectic and uncontrolled. So I can't tell exactly what happened and to whom and why. What follows is a few of the highlights in no particular order. It is worth saying that fires and crew losses were the significant ways that ships were lost. Graham's flagship suffered command and steering hits and was forced to sail in a straight line for several turn.

Another of Grahams ships was turned into a blazing inferno with some black joker damage card being drawn. Tim then boarded it to seize it as a prise but the plucky British crew fought them of (eventually). Seeing that He was going to loose a ship as a prize Graham fired into the boarding action with one of his other vessels. This killed all the British but so many of the Spanish that they did not have enough for a prize crew so had to abandon the attempt. The action cards came up for Graham to fire again and he managed to kill the few remaining Spanish sailors on Tim's ship. So he manoeuvred and boarded the two ships, one firmly ablaze, the other severely damaged, but with no crew at all, as they had already struck their colours.

As I had been chasing down this ship with my as yet undamaged 80 gunner. I let rip managed a bow rake rolled well on the dice and drew a total of 15 damage cards. The result was that my broadside both killed all the crew on Grahams ship but also set it on fire in 4 areas. So with no crew it was left to burn.

The last piece of action of the day as we were running out of both time and energy was my 74 gunner chasing Grahams flagship. This is where the cards and the dice (ok and my judgement) deserted me and Graham repaired his 100 gunner and could now both steer and had restored it's chain of command. Graham also had a 54 gunner, the weakest ship of the line which had sailed out of shot for all of the game. If my manoeuvre card had been turned over first I was in a position to bow rake the 100 gunner at less than 1/2 inch range. Alas for me, it was not meant to be and Graham was able to move the 54 gunner to bow rake me and the 100 gunner slipped away out of my arc of fire. The next card flipped was Grahams firing phase and my mostly intact s74 gun ship was punished severely.

We ended the game there due to lack of time. If we had carried on it really could have gone either way. Graham had a very badly damaged 100 gunner and a 54 third rate. I had a badly damaged 74 Gunner and an untouched 2nd rate.. Tim had lost both ships but had inflicted so much damage on the 100 gunner of Grahams fleet that it would have struggled to stay in the game for much longer and probably would have withdrawn. Or knowing Graham would have just dropped anchor and tried to keep guns towards any of my ships by using some clever rudder and wind manipulation.

Over all a very enjoyable game and a Sunday full of fun. That's it for today. Thanks for reading I hope to have something painted my Wednesday so I hope to see you then. All the best Clint.