A Vary British Civil War (1)

Yes slightly early in posting this as I was due to post tomorrow, but instead you can have it tonight. Ever since I played the Too Fat Lardies rules "Chain of Command" I have been  thinking of a force and setting to "do" I was originally going to "Do"  The Pacific theatre in ww2. But now due to Matt getting me to paint some VBCW figures in 28mm from Musketeer miniatures I am thinking of swaping to a Very British Chain of Command. Needles to say this will create some difficulties as there are no "Official" army lists, but a search has yielded a discussion on a Yahoo forum about it. All I intend to do for most of my troops is to paint an arm band on them. So expect to see the first squad within a week.

These figures are for matts "Anglican League" as mentioned above they are "Musketeer Miniatures" now sold by Footsore miniatures. All in lovely 28mm and all dressed in civilian clothes. Given the propensity of men of this era to wear suits even to work in a factory I have painted them up in mostly blues and browns to make it look like suits are being worn. Shirts and overcoats and tank top woolly jumpers are also in evidence. They mostly do have helmets and military webbing to go with the strongly military weapons. As well as SMLE rifles and Webley revolvers there is also a Lewis Gun and a submachine gun. I addition there is a guy with an improvised explosive device (Molotov Cocktail).

This unit carries the flag and Banner of Chatham and Matt did mention something about them being dock workers from the Naval base. The Officer, probably a clerk has a row of medals on his chest from the 1914-18 war. And perhaps the shop steward has a flat cap and SMG to go with his mac

Well that's it for today. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and as I look around a boot fair bright and early tomorrow morning I will be looking for some suitable transport for my first squad!

Cheers Guys all the best from Sunny Kent

Clint out!

Rusty Regiment, part 4

Not such a huge amount to show this day, I am continuing to repaint my necrons and I should have some VBCW stuff finished in a couple more days as well. But today 3 bases of Necron Scarabs. These count as fast attack weapons for the Necrons and the three bases come in at 60 points so given that each base has 3 wounds and 4 attacks are actually good value for points. |Add to that that they do not have guns so most players don't bother too much about shooting them until they get close means that they do tend to get overlooked as most players would rather deal with things that are causing them harm at that instant.


So not terribly exciting for the moment but additions to the rusty regiment none the less.

Thanks for looking today and with luck some more on Sunday, But by more I do not mean more of these, just more painted figures.

Catch you later Clint

Broadside Game 2015

Yes I got the year right this time! Stop sniggering I can't help it!

Ok so for the Broadside Game this year Tim Hosted the game using all his figures and scenery and his knowledge of the rules. The Rules we were using were "Muskets and Tomahawks" and the setting was the French Indian Wars, somewhere in Canada. Matt played the British, Tim acted as Ref and I played the French. All the figures were "Redoubt" and painted by Tim. And I must say did look good.

There were a couple of side missions, My Indians had to loot the village for example and Matts Civilians had to escape! Both Matt and myself set up our regulars in the open areas  opposite each other with our irregular troops in the woods and for the most part across the river.

The doors for the show opened at 10am so that is when we started simply chatting and going over rules and forces before that time. No point in stressing about it. I must say we could have all played faster, but that would have meant no time away from the table for a look around or shop and a lot less time chatting to the people there, but as both those activities are important to a show I am sure you'll forgive us all.

 After a very short time the Irregulars were in a position to start firing. The card activated turn sequence was with me and I got the first few units to fir. While not devastating it did give first blood to me as my Indians with muskets and frontiersmen chance to get their eyes in. I do send a small unit of Indians towards the village and they take 3 activations to cross the river. But they have no muskets and only hand to hand weapons.

 Two casualties from the British Rangers who were not in cover thanks to some lucky dice and Matt learnt that cover is your friend as his return fire was not as effective as that and I took no casualties. But the skirmish in the woods was underway and it would continue all day long in real life or about 30 minutes in the figures life.

 Out on the open areas, again my French big units fired first. If you have never played Muskets and Tomahawks with big units and several people during the day said they had not, you will note that they can take a lot of casualties before they need to worry about morale very much. Likewise when they do shoot they can and do make a bloody mess. On Average between 7-9 casualties inflicted each time they fire.

 

 

Matt was eager to get the civilians away and lead them straight in front of the French firing line. We did suggest he was employing them as a human shield to protect his regular units. Tim said any casualties inflicted would have to be on the Civilians before the Regular British units could take a single hit. Did that stop me firing at the unarmed civilians? The short answer is NO! I was not aware of Matts secret mission at this stage. But one phase of firing and they were all dead and some excess hits had gotten through to the British!

 Out in the open areas the mas ranks of the firing slowly grinds units down until they start to fail morale tests. The British will fail a morale test  and withdraw 4 inches in the French turn. Then in the British turn they will advance back into the firing line and fire on the French, forcing them to withdraw. And so it continues neither side giving an inch to the other player but the mass ranks getting more sparse each turn.

 Meanwhile back in the woods. The British Indians move up and bring fire on my Frontiersmen who instantly fail a morale check and they flee back to safety and out of sight hovering 4-5 inches from my base line. Lucky shots from some of my Canadian militia force the British Irregulars back as well. 

 To make things a bit more interesting Tim brings on some reinforcements for the British,  A small bunch of civilians with a mission. And my closest troops currently hiding due to the morale can make no actions at all so have to let them get very close.

 Another British unit (Large and Regular) is also bought onto the game. But these are to make the game look better and are a long way from any action and knowing the day is coming to a close I decide not to bring my reserves on, as the only logical place would get them into the fight far too early and would unbalance the game.

 But as the show ends in 15 mins I make a mad dash with my melee Indians and get them to the outskirts of the village. In truth they had moved at every opportunity in the game but had taken their time in clearing the river and the wood edge, but they did finally make the village just as the game was set to end.

 

And as my last action my Frontiersmen recovered from the disastrous morale check of earlier and were able to assault the civilians. Which resulted in another casualty for them and my slaying of Uncas and my capturing of one of the females!

 

That was it and the time had run out. It pretty much was a draw, but Tim and Matt declared it a French victory as I had managed to capture one of the cinematic leading ladies and had the Indians in the village to loo as much as they wanted. But the cost to my regular troops was so high that in reality it really was a draw. But a fun game and the rues worked very well and gave a fun game and that means as far as I am concerned Mat, Tim and myself were all equal winners on the day.

 

Thanks for looking today more again soon. Cheers from Clint

 



Games at Broadside 2015

Well as I am sure you will know Broadside show was yesterday. So here is a very very very very very quick glimpse of the games that were there.

Crawley Wargames Club

Deal wargames Club.54mm WW2 Skirmish

Batman. while not into superheroes I did like the board,
Just a shame so many unpainted figures.

Society of Ancients. Won best painted figures in the show.

"Seems" Club doing some X-wing.

Posties Rejects doing some 28mm Border Reivers skirmish.

Sheppeay Games won best game in show for this African Game.
And I would say a very well deserved win.

Southend Wargames Club.

Skirmish wargames,
American Mexican war

Herne Bay/Whitstable
A Lion Rampant game.

Gravesend Gamers Guild
Warmachine.



I'll do a report on our game later this week. But as a spoiler it was French Indian Wars Muskets and Tomahawks rules and there will be a few shots of it here.

http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/

That's it for now, I can only apologise that some of the shots came out a bit dark, but I really did not have time to go around and take multiple pictures. Only Time for a quick snap on each one.

The good news is that I have enjoyed the show and it has lifted me a little out of my wargames doldrums.

EDIT> Broadside 2015. I put the wrong date down . I admit it I made a mistake. Now corrected, thanks for pointing it out.


Swag from Broadside.

Well today I was at the Broadside show. Having returned and watched the football and a quick doze I am now refreshed and thought I might do a very quick blog post detailing the huge amount of loot/swag I managed to haul home.

Ok it's not a large selection at all, very small indeed in fact. So small that I actually bought more money back from the show than I had when entering, as I had some figures for a friend.

I only bought 3 things I could have spent more, much more as it happens, but for some curious reason was not in the mood.

I only got:

1 pack of MDF bases from Col Bills
1 pot of pain in British uniform colour.
1 pack of 2mm static grass.

As you can see this really was a minimal spend. No impulse buys, no new projects and no unnessercary expenditure at all.

As I type this I am feeling rather tight fisted and miserly.

All the best and a show report tomorrow if I can.
Cheers Clint

Rusty Regiment part 3

Yes there will be more to come, and yes I know this figure is not very rusty. In Fact not rusty at all. The reason for the lack of rust on this one is very simple. This is a Necron Lord. As we all know nobility does not get covered in brown smelly stuff, be that rust or something more organic. So this was not a very lengthy paint job, just a simple change of colour from silver to gold (well gold-ish). As we all know gold does not rust so I have not added any rust effect paint anywhere on the model. There was a slight repair, just drilled and pinned in one place denoted by the different coloured section on the staff of light. (Just above his hand as I know you will want to look for it and why should I make it hard for you. )

I have tried at least in my head to use a colour palate close to how I would imagine ancient Egyptians might use, but deliberately staying away from actually looking at the colours they did actually use.  That is the kind of crazy mixed up way I think as I did not want to make exact copies of ancient Egypt. I used ancient Egypt as the codex has lots of ancient Egyptian names often ending in KH. Which while they may not be authentic names does give them a hint towards ancient Egypt. I have not named my "Dynasty" so far but I am sure I will before the first game.

Tomorrow I will be one of the very few of the Rainham wargames club (3 of us I think) putting on a game at the Broadside show. All the terrain and figures and rules and knowledge this year is down to Tim so I can take no credit for any of it. But if you want to come and say hallo you will be more than welcome, BUT I must warn you that this time I am not bringing any home made fudge. NONE at all.

While at the show I do have a VERY small shopping list:

• 1 pack of Redoubt figures for the French Indian wars
• 2 Pots of paint, (I always NEED paint)
• Maybe a platoon or a squad of 20mm WW2 Japanese for "Chain of Command"

Like I said a very small list, so I wonder what I might actually buy!

Thanks for looking today, maybe a swag post tomorrow night or on Monday IF I buy anything exciting. If not I hope to do a show report early next week.

Thanks for looking today, all the best to you and yours from Clint.

The Rusty Regiment (Part 2)

I know some of you will be turning away in disgust! I must admit if it was on some other blog I might well do the same such is my dislike of GW. However my love of my nephew is stronger. So to that end here are the latest batch of Necrons. Right that's the mushy stuff over with.

Necrons as I am sure most of you will know are the GW scifi Undead of the 40k universe and actually very nice models. Personally I MUCH prefer the older Necrons and not the new fancy stuff in the hardback codex. Of late it seems to have become more vehicle orientated, but not in a good way. So I will be sticking pretty much to the older models except Pariahs as they are not in the new codex!

So Today just 10 rank and file Necron Warriors. This is the third time that I have painted these figures and I suspect the last, (Crosses fingers).  As you can see I am using liberal amounts of the rust paint to give the decayed left on an abandoned world for a million years look which I really like. Did the Romans think that the future would be all polished marble and clean streets? Well if they did they were wrong, at least where I live. So we have a dirty grimy shabby decaying future. And in my 40k Universe rusty necrons. In your 40k universe they might all be shiny and bright and there is nothing wrong with that either, Just each to their own.

The Crystals on a few of the bases (the purple bits), are made from model sprue just whittled into shape and paint slapped on. They take a while probably because I don't like doing them. But I do like the result so they will appear on every 4th base or so.

My posting schedule is a bit mucked up at present. But I will do another blog post before Sunday and the Broadside wargames show. Just a pre-show shopping list and believe me it is not expected to be a very big list at all.

So until then, take care have fun and enjoy the weather no matter is wet or dry as there is nothing us mere mortals can do to change it, only the way we think about it.

Cheers Clint

Dispatch rider and 2 officers.

Well these are the last figures I need to get done for Matt. (at least until next weekend, maybe longer). The figure on the left I am told is from Empress miniatures while the centre and right are Great War Miniatures. They  are again for my chum Matt and they are destined to be used for both VBCW and WW1.

 Unlike the previous officers these have no arm bands but the enlisted man on the motorcycle does. As you can see he has the white over blue armband of the Royal Corp of Signals as befits the Dispatch riders in the first world war. The motorcycle is rather slim as it does not have the massive petrol tank that you se on them today, but rather a far more manageable size tank. Exactly as they were in this time period as one was not expected to travel 100 miles or more at a time. Also many dispatch rider photos I have seen did not have number plates at all, but as this model did I was obliged to paint them. If my hand had been steadier the numbers would have come out as well. Typically from my photo survey they had 2 letters and 3 or 4 numbers on the plate.

Now as my painting table is clear I have no idea what will be up next so no expectations and nothing planned, but I will need to start something soon or I will have nothing to show when I post again, hopefully on Tuesday.

So that's it for today, have fun, take care and enjoy the weather.

Paint Monkey and 3 officers walk into a bar.

 Yes another ridiculous blog title. But  here today we have 3 WW1 Officers  including one mounted on a horse. Again all painted by me and for my mate Matt for his growing ww1 collection. I am told they are "Great War Miniatures" but when you don't source them you never really know, that said I have no reason to believe I have been misled.

You will kindly note that they all have white armbands. This is Matts choice of coloured armband as I am informed that Matt intends in the very distant future to use them as Royalist troops in A Very British Civil War. Whether this comes to fruition or not is anyone's guess but with Matt and not me at the helm it is likely to happen.

So back on Historical figures for the end of this week and a few more figures for Matt.

Not very much more to say about them so I will leave it short and just wish you a very pleasant weekend.

Thanks for popping by Clint

Rusty Necrons started

Well who would have guessed that? Me doing some Games workshop figures. I know I really do. Quite unexpected. So over the last few days I have started (very slowly) to repaint my warhammer 40K Necrons. This all came about as I played a game with my nephew ( I used Tyranids)and being fair I did quite enjoy it. I lost of course but that only (in this instance) spurred me onto getting these painted. So I started with a test run and repainted every part of it in GW "Tin Bits" coloured paint. It took 2 coats but eventually I had an even coat and a base to work from. So then I took GW "Boltgun Metal" paint (a dull silver/steel metallic) and very roughly highlighted the figure. And I do mean roughly. Then I applied liberal amounts of the "Rust" paint from model mates,  As you can see I have ended with a very corroded finish to the Necrons. Clearly this is wanted it worked on my space rats and I think it works here as an antidote to the nice and shiny Necrons that most youngsters paint following the guidelines in the GW Codex and stores. I hasten to add that I have nothing against shiny Necrons, it is just that you see them all done that way in stores these days and I wanted something different. Therefore I went for a corroded version.

As you can see all parts of the necron "army" will eventually succumb to the rust treatment, but these are only test figures and done as a trial. But in this photo the scarab base has also been treated in the same way. I did at first try to run the "Rust" into the groves but as it is quite viscous it did not work too well and did get most places despite my intentions. So I have decided to turn that into a plus and not a negative. This may seem wrong but I am happy with the result.

I must admit that I have been heavy handed with the rust paint as they have supposedly been hanging around for millions of years as it mentions in the background. I don't know about you but IF I had waited a million years or so I would expect at least a layer of dust to be coating all the surfaces! It has been voiced that in the far future they would have found a way to make metal non-corrosive. Well the truth to admit they might, or they might have other non decaying materials that will last a million years. But to my mind a million years is a totally unfathomable time. It is not like waiting a 4 sleeps until Christmas like you did as a kid it is much longer than that. As such no one on this planet earth will know for certain how things will decay over that time period. So maybe they will develop anti rust and anti dust materials that will last a million years and maybe they will not. Even if they do there may be other reasons that they would not use that material. It could be something as simple as expense, after all stainless steel has been known about since at least 1821 but we still build cars that rust! Or it might be that the planet surface they have been on is particularly corrosive. Or Maybe there was no vital ingredients when they were produced. Or perhaps the non corrosive material was just not tough enough for battle. Who Knows and more to the point who is going to be nit-picky enough to argue about it.

That's it for today I shall have something Historical next time (Promise).

Take care have fun, all the best from Clint

11 More WW1 Germans (Paint monkey)

Well back painting for Matt. Yes today we have a further 11 WW1 dismounted German cavalry. Not so very much to say, just more of the same and the blue/grey has come out looking more blue in the photos, just like last time. The auto correct seems to be doing this now still they look right in real life and that's the important thing.


A mixture of makes with many head-swaps and now safely back in Matts collection. Allowing me to get on with some of my own in the next few days as to what they will be though I have no idea.

Sorry it's so brief today As I have not been having such a good time recently, but with luck that is behind me and I can step onwards once more.

Cheers Guys.

Moon scape part (2)

Just going to get this one in today and then no more until Monday. Yep next blog post will be on Monday.

So starting with the top 3 photos we have the moon boards now sealed with PVA white wood glue (Resin W) mixed in with black and brown paint. This helps to cover up the sand colours before painting. I use a ratio of 3 parts paint to 1 part glue and 1-2 parts water. I am sorry I can't be precise on the water as I go by viscosity and that will vary with the make of paint and make of glue.

The most important thing is to make sure everything is coated and the boards are sealed as we go not want all the sand coming away or rubbing off. (Some does eventually I know but it can be minimised with sealing and gentle handling.  As you can see in the second photo the repair is no longer noticeable (bottom left corner of the large crater. You will also note a slight uneven ridge on the left where an old crater has been removed.  Now to my thinking this looks good and not at all bodged giving the boards a more natural feel. If anyone makes an issue of this I will simply say maybe a crater hit there eons ago. But no one will, well no one who has not read this and wants to be a smart arse!

The third Photo again shows some slight depression or ridge where a crater has been removed. And before much paint goes on I think it looks like a credible moon scape.

Painting is really quick. I really mean that. Both boards were painted in about 30 minutes total. I am not precious when it comes to colouring these boards as I just want to get it done to an acceptable level without the need to sweat and swear at the boards.So That's the plan for me. I use a mixture of Black and white Acrylic from the works (two tubes for £5) and that does the whole lot with about as much left to spare.

 Painting is all done with a 42 decorators brush from the 99p stores. There really is no need to use anything smaller or more expensive. The bigger brush covers everything very quickly and you don't mess about trying to get it to look perfect. You just get on with it, no fuss, no stress and no hassle.

I start dry brushing from a very dark grey and just keep adding white to the mix when ever I run out of paint. And needless to say the lighter tomes tend to be on the most prominent features. It may not be like that in real life, I don't know I have not been to the moon. But for me it looks right and I am happy with it and that's what counts as far as I am concerned. technically it may very well be different, but if it is I will never know. So without degrees in "astrophysics" or similar I am Okay with how it looks.

All in all this remodelling took about 5 hours from start to finish (Not including paint/glue drying time) so something most could do over a long weekend. It does take longer if you are starting from scratch but I was not.

I hope you like the look of the new boards and I hope/plan to get a game on them in the next 6 months if not sooner as my UFO project comes to life.

Thanks for looking today, have a good weekend and treat yourself as I am sure you deserve it. I shall have a beer tonight with my evening meal before you ask.

All the best Clint out!