Painted for a friend (1)

I was asked to paint this figure for a friend to be an officer of a British naval landing party. I am the very first of no doubt a long cue to admit I do not know what I am doing. As I peer over my shoulder I can see a line of people agreeing that the person typing this is deffo no expert on colonial era uniforms. Still I have done my best and that's all you can do at the end of the day.

Not much to show I grant you but it is another figure down with many more to go. I have many more of this British Naval landing party to do By many I do of course mean about 13-14. So not too many really. I was meant to  do them about a year ago but everything started getting in the way. Such is life here at "Anything But! Something's you want to get done and can finish quickly others take much longer. So Matt if you are reading this it all does get finished eventually.

Thanks for popping by, more 28mm colonial British in two days time.. All the best Clint

Update:6 TAR7AN Board.

It has been a couple of months since I last worked on the TAR7AN board. The reasons for the delay were two fold. Firstly as I originally wanted it for a show and that deadline passed I was not inclined get it done after the show. The second reason was that I was not happy with the position of the waterfall and was not sure how to rectify it.

But let me come to the waterfall in a while. As you can see I have now finished the water. It was all done with different layers of yacht varnish from Wilkinson's. I deliberately put it on thick and used a disposable brush to encourage it into the cracks, gullies and edges. You can get about 12 "Artist" brushes in the 99p store which are ideal for this. Small enough and cheap enough so you don't have to worry about them. I am happy with the result. The water is finished, but I will add some reeds (tufts) later, when I add the foliage to all the board.

OK the waterfall. To me and I am sure some of you it did not look right. It cascaded far to far from the cliff face. I therefore took it off and re shaped it. I also lost about 12mm from the bottom. This 12mm has made a lot of difference it has moved plummeting water closer to the cliff face my about 55mm. It did leave a "scar" on the board. This scar was both in colour under the varnish but also a ridge of varnish which had formed as I dripped the waterfall each day to build up a texture. The simple solution was to sit a large rock (Slate from the garden) over the top of the scar. Again more varnish was applied to build up the water level, but also to "glue" the rock into position. The bottom of the waterfall was painted white and light blue to represent the splash of water falling into water. Again more varnish was dripped on.  And with that I have settled on the final look of the waterfall. You know me by now when I say final look I don't mean it! like the still water foliage needs to be added and pebbles added to the top to seat the waterfall into the landscape better. At present it just sits on the top and a better solution will be found.

This rock that I mentioned above has a nice flat top and is very suitable for perching a figure on top. We both know that someone will and I like the idea of a more dangerous entry point onto the board. So by keeping the ideas open and fluid it has helped. If I had planned it from the start there is very little chance it would have come out this way. So I have created a better solution from what was a set back. Big thumbs up to me, I'm very happy with how that part has evolved.

The remaining pictures show slightly different views of the waterfall and water around the stepping stone rocks. Nothing is perfect but this board is now coming together. As mentioned above Foliage is the next step and that could either make or break the board so I will be proceeding with caution. For now though I will put the board into storage wrapped in cling-film to keep the dust of as I start gathering materials for the Broadside game 2014. The idea for that is now set and I hope to start painting a couple of sample figures between now and the weekend as it would be nice to take a sample to the club on Sunday.

Anyway that is a future project and I will be starting it very soon, both the figures and the terrain. But that is another blog post on another day. So until next time, thanks for looking and I should have some painted figures (maybe not the samples) ready in two days time.

All the best Clint

Rochester Games Models and Railways!

With a name like "Rochester Games models and Railways" You enter the store with an expectation of what is inside. Firstly I must say "it does what it says on the tin!"

Quite a large store contains a variety of wargames model kit and rail model items and paraphilia. While I cannot in all honesty say it has everything for any of these hobbies it is a fine place to start looking for things.

One of my friends asked me "How hard would it be for you to spend £50 in there?" Obviously this is completely subjective as we all have different needs at different times. However I must say I would find it very easy to find thing I would want coming to that price range in no time at all.  Not that £50 is a huge sum in wargames terms but there is a variety of things that would float my boat very buoyantly. Indeed on this recconisance trip I spent £12 without having to look for things to buy at all. In fact I had to limit myself as I was about to go food shopping directly afterwards.

In the first week of opening some local thieves stripped lead flashings from the roof, so if you see buckets on the floor in the pictures you'll know the reason. 

The shop splits itself in half, as you come through the door model kits are to the right and railway stuff to the left. in the centre is the checkout and sales staff. Once you proceed past this sales pagoda wargames items are mostly on the left. 

The sales are is so large that the shelves look a little sparsely stocked. I urge you not to take this at face value there are many hidden gems which at first glance you may miss. For example there are some Foundry Blisters for street violence and Argonounts. It would of course be an amazing capital outlay to even attempt to stock half the foundry range. This small selection does go to show that they may well be willing to order things for you though. Additionally this is the only shop I have ever seen which stocks "Frontline" in blister packs on shelves. As well as another company I have never heard of making 28mm dungeon scenery totally suitable for Dungeons and Dragons. (in the yellow packs at the bottom of the picture.)

In addition to the wargames companies including West Wind, Wargames Factory, Forged in Battle, Victrix, Plastic Soldier Company and Warlord Games, the shop stocks 3 different paint ranges ( Humbrol, Tamiya and Games Workshop!) as well as brushes and dice.

The construction kits are by the usual suspects (Revel etc.) as you can see to the right and cover a wide range of topics from cars and planes boats and toy soldiers. Add to this variety all the Railway items (of which I know nothing about) and all the peripherals both plain and embossed Plasticard, brass fixtures and fittings and glue. And you have while not quite yet a one stop shop for hobby needs but a shop that I hope will grow into one in the time to come.

The shop is run and owned by Tori and Jim (or James and Tori if you prefer.) A married couple with many years of retail experience in these fields. Indeed they are both very knowledgeable on their stock as well as wargaming in general. Do not be fooled by Thinking Tori is a girl (she is) and therefore knows nothing about wargames, she really does despite the fact that she (I hope) has nothing dangling between her legs! They both have a good sense of humour and are very helpful. Tori will email me, for example, next week when the next West wind order arrives, as she knows I might be looking for a thing or two for Xmas (so I will say no more about it now.

As well as carrying stock they have several 6'x4' games tables and for the modest fee of £1/hour will supply not only the table but also the terrain. At present the terrain is geared up for Warhammer 40K as that is the most popular game for non club members in the area to play.

These tables can be booked from their face book page. www.facebook.com/RochesterGamesAndModels .


Overall I would say if you are in the Medway area you could do a lot worse than to pop in and see this shop for yourself. I know I will be going back.




Lastly. I should let everyone know that the Broadside Webb Site has been reconstructed. It is still being populated but Click Here to wing your way there.

That's it for today. I hope to see you all again on Tuesday. Until then, take care have fun and if possible check out a local games shop. They welcome your custom and if we don't use them they will all go under eventually! All the best Clint.

Samurai Opponents Started

I have just finished (literally 30 minutes ago) the first batch of Ashigaru for my opposing Samurai army. I have decided to create a Red themed opposing force. Some of you may be thinking about Yamagata Masakage ( LINK ) as I write red down in association with Samurai but the truth is that I just wanted a contrasting colour from the previous force. So being honest there is no big grand master plan.

 As you can see there are eight bases of teppo (Arquebus) armed Ashigaru (light Foot) based and ready to take the field.  Again I went for a very simple Mon on the Sashimono back banners, two white circles on a red field. I probably could have made a more complex and accurate Mon, but this one really is sufficient for the task.

Thanks for looking today, Next update should be on Sunday. All the best Clint

 AS I have decided to take part in the "Board of the Living Lead" Fantasy Roleplaying game LINK I needed to get a character. I had a rummage and found and repainted this figure. It is one of the very old Citadel AD+D adventurers. They came three in a pack all the same characters but at different times in their career. Thus you had one starting out one representing mid level and one with better clothes and equipment to represent a high level character. It was a concept that I really liked, but at the time was unable to purchase many pack, just the Female cleric pack and the male thief pack. I have no idea where most of them are now. Life moves on!

Character Name: Tawnee Mac Gillivary.

Stats: Quality:2 Combat :5
Abilities: Cleric.
Points:100

That is all the stats needed for Songs of Blades and Heroes. We were given a maximum of 100 points and as it was board of the Living Lead (part of the Zombie Bloggers Association) I decided early that a Cleric was definitely the way to go.  This hopefully will cover two aspects very useful to the party. A dedicated Undead slayer (It is Board of the Living Lead afterall) it will also give the party a healer. Healing is not that useful in "Songs..." but you never know. Anyway that was my thought process.

Other than "Tawnee" I have been busy on other projects. I have suggested a game for Broadside next year and will be starting that very soon. Most of the painting I want to do as part of Curt's ( Blog Link ) Analogue painting challenge, but I will try a sample figure later this week.

I have some other things loitering in the background as well. 15mm Sci Fi, 10mm Samurai (of course), TAR7AN (yes it's still hanging in there and now planning a second board, more of this another day), 28mm Colonial (what you never mentioned this before!) as well as 28mm Colonial Marines etc. and of course St Searle's Girls......yes with terrain.

So there is a lot going on behind the scenes, perhaps too much as I do want to focus on the Samurai. Anyway that's it for today, thanks for popping round for a look. Hope to see you again soon. All the best Clint

Archangel Clint!

 Yesterday at the club I had my first ever game of "Square Bashing" a WW1 Era Game by Peter Pig. We were actually playing Russian Civil War. Graham supplied all the figures terrain and rules knowledge and both Tim and Myself were given a rules briefing and pre gen armies. I Tim was given a Russian Red Army Early RCW (list no 40 if you have the army book). I was given (army list 45) an Archangel Field Force 1918-19, slightly more technologically advanced as I had both a heavy tank and an armoured car. The Pre-game went badly for me and well for Tim, I feel sure Tim would not agree, but the only advantage I received from the pre-game was that my professional troops would get an extra d6 when they were assaulting to balance this massive advantage I started with 6 units off of the table and the total loss of a machine gun. Ah poor me!

Objective 2 (Middle Left)

The first turn saw Tim's horde move forward and seize one of the 4 objectives straight away. Curse him. He also was able to threaten taking 2 other objectives. My turn saw a counterattack on this seized objective. A professional Battalion and a regular battalion supported by a machine gun against 2 reserve Red army battalions.  Abysmal dice rolls on my side meant that they were repulsed with heavy casualties. Not broken but decidedly unhappy! I was able to advance into one of the objectives in the middle of the board and drop a Suppression Barrage right where I wanted it, (Thank goodness)My turn ended and Tim attacked the two objectives he had threatened last turn. My Barrage had stopped him getting all his troops involved on my right flank but not on my left. The right objective held out thanks to my field artillery hold up there and a unit of French Regulars
On my left Tim launched a two pronged attack on another objective aided by his own light tank. My troops were forced out of that objective as well. Rats. At this stage I was saying to my self that this is a rubbish game I will never play it again.



Objecvtive 1 (my far left)

Back to my second turn I passed all morale checks and managed to bring down, with total accuracy, a pin point Barrage. This was devastating for Tim's troops.  I launched two assaults again and did mange to retake the first objective with my battered Professionals and Regulars which had failed to do so the previous turn and pushed Tim's reservists troops back out of the objective into open country. Where my barrage hit I was able again to push his troops out of the second objective. This time though because of the stacking limits and the barrage his troops had to retreat back to his own base line, and one unit of off the board altogether (it came back in his next turn).

Objective 3(middle of the board)

 So suddenly I am thinking this game is actually pretty good. And then the dice changed again. Again Tim launched another assault, this time supported by Cavalry and Objective 1 was taken. Objective 3 was also taken as he used all the troops I had forced back to focus on it while pounding it with all his own field artillery. To make matters worse He had punched a hole in my line and had some cavalry loose in the rear. My options were to loose another objective by not moving into it or to leave a gap. So I left a gap. If I had had more troops from the pre game I would have been OK. But that is the price you pay in the pre game sometimes. Oh well. We did run out of time to finish the game because we had a late start, needed to learn the rules and as such Tim did get an extra turn than me. So I might have turned it round and retaken an objective, I did have a heavy tank and an armoured car along with a professional battalion right next to objective 3. As it was the victory points were added up and it was a minor victory for Tim. Like I said I will never play those rules again. EVER! Actually I think I will play it again in 2 weeks, just so we all can learn the rules.

Things I did right: I kept retaking the objectives and continued to put pressure on Tim to Re-take them. I also got my artillery barrages spot on.

Things I did wrong: I did not use my heavy tank to it's best advantage. I mucked up the pre-game and tried to get bigger and better results as opposed to accepting small advantages. This seriously affected the pre game and how many troops I could start with. I also could have place the objectives better and the terrain before Tim had a chance to move the terrain.

Overall I did not do too bad. It could definitely have been played better or worse. Live and Learn I suppose.

That's it for today. Catch you all later. Cheers Clinty

.5's

Yes I am still painting Samurai but also working through other projects as well. Yesterday I finished the Peter Pig Figures that I bought at the SELWG show. While it is not in anyway the greatest output by me it does ad yet another option for this force in PBI. While I already had some .5 Browning heavy Machineguns they were all vehicle mounted and I wanted the opportunity of taking them off on the vehicles and setting them up independently. This may not seem like a massive advantage, and in many ways it is not but with defensive stance level 1 this would mean that the vehicles towing the artillery (Prime movers) would automatically be on the battlefield at the start of the game.

 There were two additional (command) figures in the pack, but they cluttered the bases so I have left them out. Also one base would be without a commander and to me that just looked odd. They were in the same sculpting style as all Peter Pig figures and size wise fit in acceptably well with Battlefront and also QRF. I do like the way that extra ammo boxes can be seen under the tripods supporting the guns. (Clearer in the third picture). There really is nothing not to like in these figures unless the barrels are facing towards your own troops of course but that's a different story.

That will have to do for today. I can't show things that are not ready and I have had a few lazy days of not painting. As you should know by now I am at the wargames club tomorrow so there should be an AAR of some sort on Monday. Thanks for looking, have a good weekend and see if you can have some harmless fun, oh and don't spent too much money if you can help it. Take care. Clinty

Post script: As another wargamer has taken to calling me "Clinty" I thought I would try it out and see if it sticks! Who says I can't take a joke?

More 10mm Samurai.

 Yes more 10mm Samurai. To be honest I am about half way through now! Although I will no doubt be tempted to buy some more. So expect this to continue for a few more weeks. I will intersperse it with a few other things to stop you and myself from getting bored by seeing the same thing over and over again. And I would expect some bright spark to think it was all the same figures each few weeks. Darn why did I type that I could have gotten away with it most likely! No doubt Jo (Zabadak) would have cottoned on pretty quickly he does seem to have a suspicious mind!

 That said I will need to start thinking about getting a bigger box for them as the one I am using is now full. That can only be a good thing.

So Today we have a unit of mounted Samurai armed with bows. I have split the troop types by weapons as well as social class (Samurai, Ashigaru and peasant). This is clear and deliberate as opposed to lumping them all together in one amorphous mass. As you can see with the mounted it is 3 figures to a base and as with the infantry, 4 bases to a unit. I still have not found the set of rules I would most like so am very strongly considering making up my own.

Clearly there are more back banners than I have managed to put on units previously this is to reflect the mounted nature of the troops. I should put more back banners on all the troops, but due to their fiddly nature and my lack of patience I have been remiss in doing so.

Finally these figures go on sale by Crooked Dice tomorrow. (1st November). So fair warning I am about to get sidetracked and start some St. Trinnian's, erhm I mean St Searle's Girls shenanigans very soon afterwards. Yes they are 28mm figures and my down time at work has already created the scenario and adapted the rules. So all I have to do is buy them, paint them and build the scenery and bob's your uncle! So knowing me probably finished about 2 years later assuming I rush!

Thanks for tuning in today. With luck it was not too boring. More again in 2 days time. So until then, take care have fun and if you do anything I wouldn't please don't mention it !

Cheers Clint

Samurai Cannon (10mm)

 While Cannons were used in sieges they were a lot less common on the open battlefields of the Sengoku Jidai (Warring Sates Period). Which is not to say they were never used just not very often in comparison to other troop types. They were mostly used in siege warfare. Both attacking and defending castles.

Given the relative scarcity I have at this stage only painted 2 cannons for this force. (2 more will go to the opposition once I get them going). Pendraken miniatures make 2 different styles of cannon for their 10mm samurai range. Coming in a mixed pack so you get some of each. It is fair to think of this diversity of models as being as accurate as I wish to go on this project. The Crew all dressed as ashiguru in the same uniforms as before come in 3 posses.

Finally I have included the first force so far as a group picture. Needless to say there is as always a lot more to add and another force to add. I am currently trying colour schemes out on sample figures, so expect to see some soon, maybe very soon. I know I want them to have a red as a base colour and have tried 4 variants it just comes down to selecting one and then getting some done!


Thanks for looking it today. Next update in 2 days time, no idea what I will get done by then as several things on the painting table. So until Thursday, take care and have fun. All the best Clint

Zombtober 4

 I will admit that I am a little torn about this being the last Zombtober weekend or not. SO I may post one more if I get one done next weekend. Not that I have any started, but they are at least in the painting line.

Anyway another Zombie Wild West Gunfighter. Of them all I think this is my favourite sculpt. I like the lurching forward movement and for no other reason. And It is only as I type this that I realise the figure is left handed. Very sinister! Now I am wondering how many left handed figures I have and how many of those are zombies. Hmmmm! He fits in with the others and that's all that matters at this stage.

I have also included a group shot of what I have achieved in Zombtober! 1 survivor on a motorbike and 3 wild west zombie gunfighters. Not the biggest amount painted in a month for a project, but I have managed to do one every week which I feel happy about.

 The other thing I should mention is Dwarvember. I am in two minds about this I do have some 10mm dwarfs to paint, so I may get involved and I may not. As I do want to continue with current projects that I have enthusiasm for and not get side-tracked. I have some more Samurai on the paint table and some more PBI. Mentioning PBI I wasted a day thinking about a new army which did stem from a comment Mathyoo made. I realised that an Aerosan force on skis and some t-34's would look really cool. Then it dawned on my I don't think I would ever use it, nor could I find any 15mm WW2 Russian figures on skis! So eventually the idea faded!

Anyway I think this is Zombtober drawing to a close for me. As mentioned above I still have a couple more gunfighters to do so while the painting month is coming to an end the painting and project is not!


 That's it for today thanks for looking. Have a good weekend I hope the storm (St Jude) passes by without incident to you and yours. All the best and another update on Tuesday.

Post script: Re-working the waterfall on the TAR7AN board..... No you can't have a photograph just yet!

Cheers then, Clint

Big Guns

Gun and prime mover

 I wanted a change from zombies and Samurai and as I still have a couple of things for ww2 (by Couple I mean a load). I purchased some peter pig ww2 US artillery crew at the SELWG show a couple of weeks ago. Surprise of all great surprises I managed to get them painted and based in (for me) double quick time. So today I have finished 2 pieces of artillery there crew and two prime movers.

Both guns

The two guns , another eBay Bargain, are 155mm howitzers, used by the US army in WW2. I am not sure of the manufacture but as I do not believe they are QRF I am happy to think they are Battlefront, although being honest I am not 100% sure. They were already painted and assembled, and while I think his choice of green was totally accurate it did not fit in with the rest of the force. Additionally there was some very minor assembly issues resulting in bent wheel positions. Therefore I chose to pull it all apart and reassemble and re-paint as well as re-base. And here are the results, Two guns with crew and bases all of which marry up with my other troops.

Both High Speed Tractors

Also in the eBay order were 2 M5 High speed Tractors. These were also repainted to match my US troops. I must admit I do like the term "High Speed Tractor" it brings tractor racing to mind and that just sounds like too much fun not to enjoy! Anyway these add some totally unnessercary heavy artillery to my PBI company. While I do not know if they will ever get used they do allow me another option on the table top and have taken me away from what I was doing and as such were a welcome change.

That's it for today, thank you for looking. I plan my next update on Sunday and yes it will be a Zombtober post! So until then take care, have fun and slap some paint about!

Cheers Clint

"All for One and None for me!"

 As I had yesterday off work I was able to travel down to Sittingbourne and put on a game for "Milton Hundreds Wargames Club " (MHWC). I had put on a game of "Three Musketeers" for them before and as they enjoyed it last time I repeated the trick again. In this write up of the nights activities expect a few "in-jokes" several unsavoury activities (mostly by Alan) a little bit of swearing (mostly by Andy) a couple of stern looks (mostly by Mark) and a natural victim..... hellos Steve! One player who had booked in for the game failed to show and he shall hence forth be known as "Vivianne!" (In Joke No:1 I won't label the rest). Having mentioned all the players above with myself as the ref just to balance the sides I had best define the sides, Alan and Mark were Cardinals guards with an appetite for the unsavoury, while Andy and Steve were Musketeers and on the whole rather more wholesome! It is also fair to say that Mark supplied the buildings (purchased from a German company, he did tell me the name but memory like a sieve I have of course forgotten it. I supplied the figures and between Mark and myself we supplied all the fixtures and fittings. The rules are a free download (CLICK HERE). They are very simple a huge amount of fun and worth a go if you want to kill an hour or two without having to think too hard. If you have ever tried those rules you will know just how hard it would be to write any kind of accurate AAR simply because each figure will carry out several things in each turn and Turns can move very quickly!


Steve started the game and entered the building and started climbing some crates to reach the chandelier. Before Steve reached the top of the crates Mark through a large box at him and knocked him off. He then jumped off of the balcony onto Steve's stomach  and tried to "duel" the prone Steve. Andy interceded by throwing first one barrel and then another at Mark and then jump onto the table but then failed to convincingly Attack Mark. Alan ran the length of the board and stopped at the market stalls out side and selected an earthenware jug failed his action roll stopped there giving other players a combination look of "Life's not fair" "I hate dice" "just you wait until I can get involved" All that took about 7 minutes of real time and as we played for 3 1/2 hours you might imagine how long and detailed an AAR might become. Therefore I will condense it just to highlights.


Andy took the first wound from Alan's swordplay just a scratch and nothing to worry about.

There were several barrel throwing competitions among all the players at various times throughout the night.

Steve threw a pie from the market stall outside the building hit Alan's character in what amounted to a critical and took one of his 3 wounds. (Alan got miffed). Each character only had three wounds and as a house rule every wound they loose reduces there combat score by one.

Mark spent two turns "fluffing" His feather. Surprisingly this was not a euphemism. And cleaning his Tabard.

Steve tried to pull Marks Tabard over his head to temporarily blind him.

Alan swung from the chandeliers and attempted to kick people as he spun in a circle. Which lead to the phase of the Night (From Andy) "So there is enough room to swing a c*nt!"

Andy (who speaks French) hurled some cutting insults so severe that he was able to stun Mark and make him drop his weapon. Andy was also the first to die so we restarted him at the edge of the board and carried on. Life in musketeer town is harsh and cheap.

Being temporarily all on his own Alan and Mark decided to pick on Steve. There was much talk of capturing him and taking him to the cellar and chaining him to some kind of torture device (although they did claim it was a "Gimp Machine", ) Steve did die but took Alan out about the same time. So they restarted.

Lots more barrel throwing from Mark and Andy. Alan stent a turn "Pouncing about on the street corner" (yes that was his declared action. ) while Steve selected some rotten tomatoes from the market stall ready to use as missile weapons.

Andy Jumped onto a table and mark picked up a bench and tried to swat him off. He did make contact but not with sufficient power to affect Andy. Andy then kicked the bench out of Marks hands.

Alan decided that his character was going to sexually assault Steve with the market vegetables. Fortunately he was unsuccessful as that is not the kind of game I would choose to referee! Alan was known from then on as "the Radish man!" And trust me he has put me of turnips and sweedes for the next few weeks. In fact any kind of root vegetable! I am so glad there were no model marrows about!

Time started to draw near  but not before Alan carried the afore mentioned bench up the stairs ready to play "Piñata" with the figure (sorry cant remember who exactly) that had failed critically when trying to swing from the chandelier and had their cloak tangled and could not get free for a turn.

Mark tragically failed to leap from the balcony this time and again his cloak tangled him and also left him suspended. When he freed himself He died by Andy's sword having first been stunned by Steve.

Just a couple more turns and we finished. A side splitting game and both loud and boisterous but not all in the best possible taste! Again the second outing for these rules at this club and a very similar result with regard to the volume and laughter. It's definitely not the game you think of among wargamers, not at all stuffy and well mannered. No grand tactics and well thought out moves, no quiet decorum, no contemplation.

Thanks for Reading and I promise some painting next time.

All the best Clint




EDIT: Another report of the game here http://leofwinewargamerson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/all-for-oneand-turnip-for-steve.html (Alan's point of view, Alan is MHWC President.)