Flo

Well the Bonus round has finished and it is safe to now show you FLO!

This Bonus round was called "Armour". That was the only clue that was given and it was up to everyone to interpret it in what ever way seemed the most fitting.

As I want to do bore Chain of Command this year and as I like the early period of the Western Desert. What could be better (I thought) than an Armoured Car. And if I was going to do an Armoured car for the Western Desert well I thought a  Rolls Royce Armoured car would be the best one to do!

As It turns out I was not the only person doing a Rolls Royce armoured car.  But at least they were in different scales. My one is a Frontline 20mm resin cast vehicle.

As you can see I did select the British desert camouflage pattern that does incorporate the light blue and the Aircraft recognition roundel. Which is placed slap bang (like a Target) across the top of the turret. The Black and white image does show one actually in the desert and painted in this manner. Lacking the roundel for aerial recognition but clearly showing the angular pattern and the different tones. For the actual colours I looked at the Matilda2 at Bovington Tank museum and with any luck my combination of the two will be just about right. Or at least good enough for a game or two.

While a long way from being perfect it is good enough for my amusement and painting skills.

So just before I go why "Flo"? Well I wanted a name that was easy to paint and was a female name of the period. with Flo being short for Florence. It did help that the name also has a connotation of movement and as a scouting armoured car the name just seemed to fit.

I appologise.

Several things all happened at once which meant I have been unable to blog as frequently as I would like.

Well the AHPC is still continuing but I have sufficient back log so start showing stuff on the blog more frequently!

Secondly My sister is back from Texas, having told me it would be 2 weeks and her leaving on BOXING DAY! SO the Dogs and the horses no longer my responsibility!

Thirdly the bug seems to have passed. I am still a little weak and coughing and spluttering and with a headache but seriously so much better then yesterday when I had to go back to bed! I cannot remember the last time I needed to go back to bed.

BUT the good news is I was given 2 gifts.

Long tem member of the blog may recall me starting and stopping a WW1 East Africa Project. Well another club member wants to do some of this and these are the rules he wants to use and this was a spare copy of the rules he gave me. I shall enjoy reading them but whether I will use them or not I just do not know.

The other is a small book on the Battle of the Alamo. Now my sister has no interest in war, battles, wargamin, very little interest in history (I am sure she would say otherwise but in 50 years I have not known her to buy 1 history book for herself!) however she did do to San Antonio and see the site of the battle and the museum. Probably I suspect because my nephew and brother in law wanted to go. Still anyway a book on a battle I have not read and that will be difficult to acquire in the UK so I am not complaining!

I will tryto do another post tomorrow. Until then here are me and the 2 dogs at about 3 am having just been woken up to let them out for a wee! Kindly forgive my dishevelled appearance! And the fact that the dogs are not allowed on the sofa at their own home!

A zulu painters work is never done!

Everything painted so far.

With a show coming up in March and Zulus as the theme I have over the last few years been (Slowly) trying to paint some Zulus. Let me just say it has not been very fulfilling.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and the shortening deadline has helped a lot. Since the start of the challenge on 20th December I have painted 223 10mm Zulus. What is more I am continuing to paint Zulus. And will attempt to get 30 more done each week Until I finish the lot!


At the outset I started to paint "tribally" But Have since come to realise that from a wargames point of view it is better to paint as units. While not historically accurate this way does allow players to know what they command and what they can expect with regard to Morale and ferocity and toughness. Which as a game mechanic does make more sense.

Let me STRESS none of these units are finished.
Each and everyone will be added to in the next couple of months. Usually in 1 or two bases at a time just to round out the amount of figures I have in each unit. Each unit WILL NOT have equal numbers. To do so would requite more troops than I would care to paint or care to buy!

So the units are:

• Unmarried and un blooded warrior's. Carrying WHITE shields. Although white shields they do have black straps attaching the shield to the shield pole.
• White shields with black markings. (For now this unit is complete!
• Black shields. Married and bloodied. with white shield straps. This unit is not finished although very clse to being finished.
• Main Troops Unmarried but Bloodied. Brown and white splodged shields. This is by far the biggest unit and in games I expect to field it as several smaller units. It was also the first unit I started painting so the bases are a lighter colour!
• Brown shield with white straps. This unit is interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly there are only 2 figures to each base, secondly one figure on each base has a rifle.

 As a horde of figures I am mostly done with these as I am now able to have a game or two with sufficient numbers to make it interesting and with luck the British will not have an easy game and will clearly be outnumbered!

Thanks for looking today. I am now getting back to the painting challenge.

The Actual tribal markings of Zululand Circe 1884

All the best Clint