Old Desert Terrain and British Heliograph.

 Well here are a couple of shots of my 10mm Pendraken British Army Heliograph. I will talk about the terrain later, but for now I shall just concentrate on the figures. Inall I have 3 of these heliograph teams but as I only need one have only painted 1. The reason for this is that I may want one in a desert khaki colouring for the later Sudan. By leaving 2 unpainted I retain the option of going either way regarding the colours. Like the majority of my colonial figures  they are on a 20mm by 20mm base. And as such will fit in the box assigned to them with little difficulty.



















What follows is a random set up of my 6mm Modular desert Terrain. It was build about 30 years ago and at the time simply used what was available to me. As a result there are a variety of colours. This really does not bother me too much, ideally it would be all the same colours, but I don't live in a perfect world. Not even a model perfect world.  All the boards were hand made from 5mm and 10mm foam board. And as they were all hand made they don't fit together perfectly. As you can see there are some gaps. But overall these gaps are acceptable top me. I have some more 5mm foam board so expect some more of this terrain coming soon.

This is most of my terrain, in my memory there was more! By most I mean about 3/4s so there is still enough for variations and I can almost guarantee that it will not go back in exactly the same way! The River and water sections were done for Battletech but have never been used.

Originally this was made for 6mm WW2 Western Desert. But now as I have a couple of 10mm Sudan armies I will need to replace the buildings (honestly these ones are too small). I have bought sufficient 10mm desert Buildings while at Salute, so that will be a very quick job.

And there you have it, I suspect the terrain will work perfectly well for the change of scale and other than the buildings see no changes that desperately need to change. If I get picky I can always re-paint each board but have no plans to do so at this stage.

Thanks for looking today. Have a good few days and I shall post again on Saturday. Have a good one folks.

Turkish HMG

Having bought this at Cavalier I have finally managed to slap some paint on it. So Today we have an EARLY WAR MINIATURES Turkish Heavy Mg. This is a Maschinengewehr_08 with two crew, we can assume the officer/NCO with the binoculars is able to change ammunition belts as well as peer into the distance. While normally I would use IT miniatures for great war as Tim is a club member, this was an impulse buy at the Cavalier wargames show. Don't get me wrong Early war miniatures do some great stuff and I don't regret getting this model I did find the sculpting a little awkward. Which is not to say I could do better, I can't! It is probably because I have painted so many of one company I have gotten used to their sculpts. Anyway I digress!

Clearly this figure is destined for my Arab Revolt game. As such it will give the Turks a huge advantage. Not sure how I will balance that yet, I may just not bring it into play and have it sitting on the side-lines so peoples think it is an option. As such I now can state that I have all the figures done for the Arab revolt game and am ready to rock and roll. Couple of things I have still to do with the boards so I am in plenty of time.

So what else am I working on? That is an interesting question! About 30 years ago I started making some 1/300th desert terrain. It has only been used in anger once as the guy I built it to play with moved away and I have not seen him for about 20 years now! I had forgotten this terrain if I am honest as it was boxed up and put in the garage. And now I find that I am doing some 10mm Sudan. It seems far too good an opportunity to miss. So I am adding to it. Yes I will have to change the buildings but that really is the only change I will need to make. So later in the week you may get offered a photo of a desert terrain set up. As always there is a lot more to do on it, but it should work for 10mm figures so maybe in a few weeks I will be able to play Black powder as opposed to Patrols in the Sudan.

Ok folks I had better go. Take care and hope to see you back here again soon. Cheers Clint

Mixed Bag today.

Well it never rains but it pours! Just when you think you'll get one thing done you have a little spurt and get a couple done instead. First off we have a collection of German WW1 troops in 28mm. Sorry no idea what the manufacture is as I have painted these for a friend. I am a big fan of the faces though the sculpting is very straight forward and crisp. It has those not too try hard look. These may have come out a little too blue, but early war German Uniforms as witness on the Renegade Miniatures web site, or even on the box of Airfix soldiers is closer to that than the grey green later in the conflict.

I have also managed to sort out a limber for my SCW forces. So this is another 10mm figure. It did come as part of the 10mm Colonial troops I bought on eBay. But as I only had 1 set of riders for 3 limbers and a wagon it just made sense to use them for the SCW. I will no doubt get more limber riders for the colonial stuff in the near future, but for now this can be a Spanish Civil War limber. Which is not to say that I have an abundance of towed artillery.

Well that's it for today. I intend to do my next update on Tuesday. So until then take care and get some painting done. All the best Clint

Donnybrook!

As you may recall I bought the Donnybrook rules at Salute this year. And here are my initial thoughts prior top playing the game. My opinion may change after playing of course but I think it is equally important to detail my thoughts before a game  takes place.

Firstly the Name to many including myself I thought the name a strange one. It is derived from a suburb of Dublin which holds a fair. This fair had a habit of getting out of hand and thus the word "Donnybrook" came to mean a brawl. Donnybrook as a set of rules covers the period 1660-1760 although it is possible to use them for earlier or later conflicts. Indeed the Donnybrook forum has people working on Medieval to much later periods. Which goes a long way to explain the versatility of the rules. It is quite possible to take the rules and the rule mechanics further than this selected century.

When we think of skirmish rules we really don't know if they are aimed at squad, platoon or even company levels. So lets be clear in these rules we are mostly looking at each player controlling 20-50 figures, or a platoon as it were. Like Saga or Muskets and tomahawks a single point would get a force a set number of figures 4 elites, 8 regular or 12 recruit quality troops (3, 6, or 9 if the troops are mounted). In addition to the rank and file troops there are also special characters which vary from Faction to faction. While the rules are written with 28mm figures in mind they could equally be used for smaller scales, although I would not recommend 10mm or smaller. And 15mm might be a push, just from a skirmish fiddly figure perspective and not because the rules could not manage it.

Normal games will be one faction against another. Choice of Factions are Army, Civilian Mod (including Rebels and Militia), Covenanters, Highlanders, Cultists, Outlaws (pirates, smugglers Highwaymen etc dependant on the setting) Rapparees and Tribal Factions. The Tribal Faction would of course change character Moors in North Africa, Woodland Indians in North America as examples if different locations are explored.

Given that the rule mechanics were originally devised to fit on a single sheet of A4 a lot of the book is given over to the possible settings for the game. About 1/4 of the book is given over to the settings and while most of us will stick to those we already have terrain for it is a pleasure to see other settings detailed. Starting with the English Possession of  Tangiers, then the 2nd and 3rd Anglo Dutch wars a conflict fought in Europe and North America, Bacon's Rebellion in America, Covenanter Rebellion in Scotland, the persecution of Huguenots throughout France, Argyll Rebellion in Scotland, the Monmouth Rebellion, the Glorious Rebellion (also in England) War of the Grand Alliance (Europe), The Jacobitte Wars in Ireland and Scotland. King Williams War in Canada, The Darien Adventure (central America). The Witch Trials Europe and the new world and even the War od Spanish Succession are all mentioned as places suitable to play Donnybrook. Most of these settings I have only a cursory knowledge of but it is clear Barry Hilton knows much more. Needless to say not all factions are available in all settings. No Rapparees in Tangiers for example!

For me it is this background all of which is very real that adds so much flavour to the rules. Each of the settings I read and thought "Hmmmm That has possibilities!" Some settings I am more drawn towards than others, living less than a mile from the river Medway the Anglo Dutch wars might seem an obvious choice for me. But at present no firm decision has been made as to where I will set any games. SO no new Project alerts just yet, although you might expect one to rear it's head soon.

Overall I am very impressed with the rules, they are very simple and straightforward. There is a lot of background information and it is all very well presented. Overall I would have no reason not to recommend them and do look forward to playing them.

I hope you found this useful  and I will hope to post again on Sunday. Until then take care and roll high on all the dice! Best wishes Clint

Doll Drums

No not a new girl band-although the name would make sense. Just the fact that I am struggling to get anything wargames productive. Still I have managed to get one Armoured lorry for the SCW done. The figure is Pendraken 10mm (code SCV3) Republican armoured Truck. It comes with the option of an open top but as you can see I have selected a closed top with a Machine gun. It is a big lump for a 10mm vehicle, noticeably larger than a T26 tank. In essence this armoured truck is a "normal truck" covered in boiler plate. It does have a single machine gun facing forward but no provision for Anti-aircraft mounts as aircraft were still very rare in the SCW.  I have given it a very crude camouflage pattern which is similar to many local effects in the Spanish Civil War.

Not in any way the best paint job, but just a vehicle that rounds out my forces a bit more. In many ways it's quite crude and would be limited to roads only being perhaps too heavy for cross country. There would be quite a kafuffle if it got bogged down for example as there would not be any recovery vehicles and as such it would require teams of draft horses to move it, or maybe 2-3 tractors! So for convenience probably best to keep it to a road! Not that many roads would be as we think of them today.

That's it for today. With luck I'll get my mojo back in the next few days. Well here's hoping.

All the best take care and enjoy any sun about. Clint

Patrols in the Sudan.

Well yesterday at the club we had a trial game of "Patrols in the Sudan" (PITS) by Peter Pig. I was the ref and Tim took control od the Anglo Egyptians (here after called British) and Graham and Matt took control of the Mahdist forces. Obviously we all make mistakes the first time we play any rules so I am sure mistakes were made yesterday but here is a very brief description of the game.

The Mission was mission 1 from the book and Tim had to Take a patrol up the board and scout a village for enemy troop concentrations. Graham and Matt had to stop him. It was a there and back patrol and being the first one in the book I assumed it would be straight forward.

As Tim's force had a single Cannon he bought that on first and set it up covering the battle field and sent his three scouts ahead. The Scouts failed to scout any terrain to begin with and when they did One scout was ambushed and died instantly Matt bought his poor quality unit out of hiding and managed to shoot the second scout down. Leaving Tim with just one scout. They then rolled on table 1 allowing then Sudanese to bring on an extra piece of terrain! (One of the peculiarities of the rules is that the terrain may change as the game evolves. This may not suit all players as the game does become something of a hide and seek game with the Dervish popping up and disappearing quite rapidly!) So Graham brought on a depression in front of Tim's gun, Creating some dead ground.

Tim then managed to bring on two infantry sections each with an officer and Sargent. Foolishly the young commander Tim split these two sections and rather than have them work together sent them as independent elements up the table. This meant no covering fire as they were out of each others firing arch and  rifle range. One he kept in column  to quickly advance up the board. And Boy yes it did! The other in line crept forward.

Tim's final Infantry section arrives and his last remaining scout comes back to search the depression in front of the cannon he has set up. Matt is able to move his poor unit to where the Column  Infantry is  and despite Tim's attempt at opportunity fire The Mahdist  Unit fell on the column and forced a morale check which sent them fleeing from the board.

Mat was not able to hide the poor quality unit quickly enough and Tim's cannon opened up. Due to the long range and intervening terrain Tim only inflicted one casualty. And thus in the following turn they managed to Hide and reappear in the depression in front of the cannon! The following turn saw them reappear and fire a ragged volley into the cannon, killing the officer and the crew! They then about faced and close assaulted Tim's last scout. Being only a single stand scout it died quickly.

The following turn Tim was able to bring up his third section and Form an edge to fire into the Mardist troops. His other line section went into line and trekked up the table as fast as possible. Graham had a unit of uncommitted Dervish and made them appear by the British and led a charge into them from the flank! Tim's opportunity fire did not stop them and melee was joined. Matt and Graham both managed to get melee attacks onto Tim's foot troops but after 2 turns of melee that section of British heavily out numbered gave up the fight and fled the board as well.

So poor Tim only one unit remaining approached the objective in column. He mad a successful scouting check and located the rest of the Mahdists forces all he had to do now was get back. But due to the rules Graham and Matt were able to "teleport" troops from terrain to terrain and thus it was not long before the British were attacked again.

A veteran fuzzi-wuzzi unit was next able to charge the British. Being only melee armed they had no choice of standing back and firing so they just charged. Tim Rolled good dice and bought sufficient guns to bear. This was not enough to make the attack falter but it would mean that in a morale check the fuzzis would be up against it. In the melee though it was a fuzzie victory. Not sufficiently strong to make the British do anything else but fight on. So Graham hit them with another unit. Despite already being in melee Tim's men managed to fight this one of and sent the Mahdist reeling back with a failed morale check.

Recovering their wits the Mahdists once again charged and while causing casualties to the British were forced back again. But against the Veteran Fuzzies they just did not have sufficient troops being down to the officer and Sargent and a single rifle stand and eventually they also had to flee from the table routed.

Overall: The rules were a bit "Clunky" and did not flow as well as they might. They were adequate for the job and some nice ideas involving hiding troops and not starting with all the terrain on the board and being allowed to bring it on when dice rolls allowed. For me though they did not have the feel I was looking for. So next time I may well try Black Powder!

Thanks for reading and more again in 2 days . All the best Clint. 

Thin Blue Line

Well two days ago I had a thin red line of British colonial troops in Red tunics on foot. And now some cavalry to make a very thin blue line. Again 10mm Pendraken figures from the Zulu wars range. Yet again I will use these as both Zulu wars and Sudan figures. Indeed they should get an outing tomorrow at the club where they will be acting as scouts for the British and not as cavalry.


They were not an easy paint but very rewarding. As before 2 figures were pre-painted by the guy I bought them from on eBay so I have tried to colour match them. It has been tricky to colour match them, but in the end I am happy with them.  

Not really too much to say about these as there were only 10 of them. It is worth noting that while they are all armed with swords and carbines there are two different posses one carrying a carbine and one carrying a sword. Pendraken packs should be 15 figures for mounted troops and yet there are only 10. I guess the guy has a few dotted around his home. No worries from my point of view. As I got them all as a job lot and still came out ahead.









Additionally to the Cavalry there were also 5 mounted officers. As before one was painted and only needed touching up where it had been rubbed and scratched in Transit. I will say that the figures I received from the guy were all very well painted in the first place so that has made it easy to just touch them up and then re-varnish so as to make them table ready.

That's it for today. I should be at the club tomorrow despite the fact that it's Easter Sunday. So happy Easter and talk again soon. All the best Clint

The Thin Red Line

Well this is my first lot of painting after Salute. I am happy to confirm that this is my latest batch of 10mm Pendraken figures. They were part of the lot I bought on eBay but they were unpainted when I got them. There were a few painted and based already but those have been re-painted and re-based as I want them to fit in with what I have got already. My painting style did in fact change on these and I think for the better as I was less reliant on a heavy dark wash to finish them off. Which has lead to a slightly brighter more vibrant finish.

Purists will note that they are still in the Red Jacket and not in Khaki which the majority were by the time of the Sudan campaign.  But for me The Red coated British soldier is synonymous with the colonial period. Additionally I may well use them in a Zulu war game so rather than the dull desert colours I am sticking with the red. Sorry if this gets up anyone's nose but They are my figures and I wargame for myself and not for anyone else.

They have been specifically painted for Peter Pigs "Patrols in the Sudan" Rules and should be a good opposing force to my Mahdists. Contrasting strongly with their more rag tag look. Can we all say "Spanking in red!"

I have to say I am pleased with how these have come out. I have even put chevrons on a few of the figures (not many though) to represent non commissioned officers. I did find it a struggle at this scale but I think it's worth the extra effort. I normally would not have but the guy I bought them from had on some of his and I was not going to be beaten once I knew it could be done. Don't strain your eyes looking for them, just know that they are there!

That's it for today I hope to have a thin Blue line to show next time. Thanks for looking and hope to see you in a couple of days.

All the Best Clint

Salute 14. (My personmal Highlights)

There is much to moan about with regards to Salute but there are a number of advantages as well. What follows is a few games which caught my eye for different reasons.

To me the best game of the show. The guys from Jersey put on a very nice Flames of war game. The board really did look spectacular.

Add caption

Fenris Games

Oshiro Models



French in Indo China.

Dishdash Publishing. All Terrain bought from B+Q

10mm WWi Bloody Picnic Rules
. I Do like 10mm figures
But found the terrain to be very club level.



The spice must flow.



SCW GAme I had high hopes for it from the pre show list,
 but It fails to deliver to the same standard of many other games there.

Martian 28mm VSF
What's not to like.

So there it is a very personal view of the games of Salute this year. I hope a little for everyone. Generally speaking very little there that cannot be seen on others blogs.

The two games I had the highest hopes for and the other games that caught my eye.

 

And Finally The real high light of the show for me getting to meet the other bloggers.

 

A More handsome and Erudite bunch one could not hope to meet. When I talk about Handsome I of course mean Inner beauty. From the outside we look like a scruffy bunch!

And Relax!

Got home from Salute last night at about 7:20pm Trains were a nightmare! And thank goodness The "Rejects" gave me a lift half way or it might well have been longer. I won't go into details. Just Nightmare!!!

Still home now and the obligatory shot of my Salute '14 Swag. Not all of this is for me...... but most of it is. So what's in the Box? I know I know its actually a simple pre-show order from Kerr and King and yes I got a deal on it, simply a 10mm Arab Village.  Some more 10mm terrain from the Square, a company I don't know a lot about but I think I now have enough buildings.
Talking of 10mm I had a pre-show order with Pendraken... More SCW, More Samurai and More British Sudan figures. 2 blisters of Dixon miniatures (ok I'll put my hands up and say impulse buy), I box of 20mm Boxers (From Harfields) another pre-order. Although soft plastic I got them as a trial following Loki's blog. And lets be honest Boxer Rebellion may well become a new project only time will tell. Two Resin Crystals for some Science fiction gaming, Nice that these are cast in clear coloured resin at the same price as normal resin. This gives me the option of either paining them or not! Salute Dice and Salute figure, I got more dice than I needed as I have promised to send some to Slovenia. (Yes Mathyoo I did get them for you). I also managed to pick up the "Donnybrook rules" yes another impulse buy, But that's what happens when you watch "New Worlds" on the telly! And finally chatting to a guy in the Cue before Salute I was given a SAGA Key-ring. There are a few Saga players at the club so I'll pass it to one of them!

Talking about the cue before Salute, I was also told that the old Tabletop games rules are going to be re-released, mostly as PDF formats and updated for a modern audience. But given that several players at club level have bemoaned the current trend of glossy wargames porn type wargames rules which emphasis style over substance. This may be a welcome return  to a simpler more credible form of rules.  Which is not to say that all Tabletop Games Rules were of the highest standard, but they were affordable and if they did not suit you easy to buy another set. The first releases will be from the Tabletop Micro Games range as this does not infringe copywrites or so I am told.

Thanks for looking Next post Tuesday and with luck another Salute report! All the Best from Clint.

Post Script: I would like to say what a joy it was to meet all the other bloggers.

Run Up to Salute.

Well here we go again. Today a few colonial British artillery. First off we have an officer and a Gatling gun, all in 10mm from Pendraken. Ok confession time, The officer was mostly painted by someone else as I bought it and a load of Zulus and British on eBay. Mostly unpainted, but this figure was painted so I just touched it up and covered over the scratches. Then a case of re-basing to get it to fit with my other colonial stuff. The Gatling gun was also rebased and touched up in the same way. A nice quick and easy addition to the horde. I could have re-painted in Khaki to better suit the Sudan maybe. But as I will use the British for Sudan and Zululand I have decided to keep the coloured uniforms. I just think they look better in red uniforms.

I have also managed to finish 3 gun crews. Again in the Blue uniforms. Four crew to each gun, these and the officer and Gatling gun will most likely be all the artillery I need for quite a few games. Again Pendraken 10mm based and ready to go to war. I do have a couple of limbers to add to the force but not just yet. but no limber riders so they might not get finished quite yet!

And Finally. I hope to meet some of you tomorrow at Salute and I will be cutting the Fudge today ready for tomorrow. Noticed that I have got a minor mention (indirectly at least I assume it's me) in this months Miniature Wargames. Well that is to say my fudge got a mention by Helena Gnash. Anyway here is what it looks like before cutting!

That's it for today, if I bump into you tat Salute GREAT. If I don't then take care and get some painting or gaiming done! All the best Clint