The last bonus round on the Analogue painting challenge was "Nautical". As I had set myself the challenge of not buying figures for the challenge but instead trying (but not succeeding) to reduce the lead mountain. I submitted my latest item for my Vietnam figures. The picture gives it away of course but Britannia/Grubby Tanks do a "Sampan!" So here it is in all its glory. I do have very little use for a Sampan as Most of the scenarios I want to play are in country and I am not planning any "Brown Water navy" antics. However I had it sitting here doing nothing so get it painted and submitted for the bonus round.
Britannia do a few other US Vietnam vessels but this (as far as I know) is the only Civil Vietnam boat they do. When I say Civil Vietnam vessel I do of course mean "Target of Opportunity" as I know how many US players will take great delight in destroying something new. Just so they can say that they killed it!
I was going to paint the water brown, but as all my river sections are BLUE it just made more sense to go with the blue water.
The model was a 2 piece casting a white metal crewman and engine and a resin cast hull. A very simple paint job all colours taken from the picture at the bottom which is either fishing or trading. But during the conflict they might just as readily been ferrying supplies or people to the Viet Minh bases to fight the US troops. So they were treated with some degree of caution.
As with all things they did come in a variety of sizes and colours and even shapes. But I just wanted a typical Sampan with nothing outrageous. they were used all over the SE Asia area and have been used (without engines) for centuries.
That is it for today. Thanks for looking and
One of the joys of the Cavalier show is its the first show for me each year. As such it is a place to meet other clubs and players and get back in the vibe after a winter hibernation.
Firstly let me say there were 2 games I got no photos of. Simply because they just did not appeal to me. One was a Trojan wars game using "Hordes of the things" rules and the other was peter Pigs Hammering Iron. The first because I do not like the over reliance of heroes in games and the second before fear of getting roped into a game.
Prison Break- Los Banos the Philippines 1945
Big apologise to anyone I get wrong. TWWS did not have a map and key of what was going on when I did ask in the afternoon.
Overall a good show and worth going to if it id not too far. Several Traders were missing and that does seem to be the way these days. Perhaps with fuel, hotel rooms and the like it is just not worth many traders attending small local shows. Which is understandable but still disappointing.
You will note there are no pictures of other bloggers or the bring and buy so if you are looking for such a thing best of luck elsewhere!
On a personal note I found the bring and buy disappointing, But I am sure for some others it was fantastic. Oh well better luck next time.
Lots of Jungle scenery.
1879 Zulus... yeah that's right Roakes Drift
Station, Participation Game.
Friday Night Fire fight club.
North London Wargames Group
Not sure of the game name but modern Afghanistan skirmish
Gravesend Gamers guild
Warmachine.
Still Warmachine and I still am not a fan!
Maidstone Wargames club.
Road to Homs. A fictional Battle in 1982 of Israel against Syria using 3 mm figures
Home made rules that did seem to work well
I don't know the details but did like the town.
Tonbridge Wargames club
10mm ACW.
SEEMs wargames club
Not sure but I think it was a big battle Saga game. At least it seemed to be!
Cute Nuns.
the "Anti Alchemists" were running a participation game about Rommel's First action in WW!
Society of Ancients
A Roman vs Carhaginians bash up
The Germans attacking. Trying to kill the nuns
who in an earlier game had managed to fight off the German Uhlans!
Three cheers for the nuns!
Crawley wargames group
A Participation game
Called "Stretcher bearer" as one of the club had a grand father who did that in WW!
Hailsham Wargames
battle of Malplaqut
Spelt wrong as I cannot rad my own writing.
The game did look good, but not a period I know at all.
Well not much this time. I was not on a tight budget or needing to sneak anything into the house, just nothing really grabbed my fancy.
Money spent was about £20 in all for the day including entrance and snacks. So enough excuses but what did I get.
1 Black scorpion female pirate for my cousin. (Colonel Bills). Used to belong to Roy so I am told.
1 Tub of black acrylic paint. (Tole Haven)
1 28mm dog cocking it's leg! Oh come on it was 50p well spent! (Redoubt)
1 20mm Recoilless Rifle (Grubby Tanks) Vietnam project
1 Milady de Winter, (Redoubt) just another 3 musketeer figure I just wanted to paint.
1 Pack of Japanese 20mm WW2 Airfix Infantry (Harfields) As I want to do some Pacific wargames later this year and you need to start somewhere and this seemed a logical start and is so much cheaper than eBay when Postage is taken into account
There was nothing for me on the bring and buy it was all over priced as far as I could tell or in very poor condition or just something I am not interested in. I am sure some people will say the best bring and buy ever. But not for me!
So no real splurges and very restrained and respectable. Yes I could have spent more and I could increased the size of the lead mountain but I am happy with this small amount as I now recognise that buying a lot and painting a lot are not the same!
I will most likely do a show report tomorrow and some of the games were very interesting. So that may be something to look forward to. And It my not we will both only know when te pictures are shown.
Betteshanger colliery opened in the late 1920s and was the largest of the Kent collieries. It had two shafts of almost 2300 feet, plaques can still be seen where the shafts were once sunk. The colliery was served by a railway branch which left the main line between Deal & Sandwich. Betteshanger had a tradition of union militancy; it was the first pit to come out on strike during the second World War and took active part in the miners' strikes of 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1984-85. A sit-in was staged at the colliery in 1984 and those involved were sacked for trespass.The Kent Area's NUM initially refused to return to work until those sacked were reinstated and continued to picket the rest of the country after the NUM's national executive had voted to return to work, so Betteshanger was actually the last pit in Britain to return to work after the strike. Thereafter, Betteshanger became known for the brutality with which strikebreakers were treated. Posters had gone up in the village with photographs and names of the 30 men who had broken the strike. It was the last Kent colliery to close, closing for good in 1989.
The above was taken directly from the Wikipeadia. I will attempt to write the Colliery up for the VBCW forum this week. But in essence they are a socialist faction within Kent working against the London Fascists and Allied with the Anglican League. However they are not hand in glove with the Anglican league they are allies of convenience against a common foe. More will be explained on the forum (I Hope). But there is a rivalry and while it may result in a few punch ups and beatings it has so far not lead to permanent injury! So Far!
The figures are all for Matt and a collection of makes including Sloppy Jalopy, Musketeer miniatures and Ironclad. there is even a Warlord figure from the Dads army set. So quite an eclectic bunch.
But most importantly let me talk about the flag. The Flag is a "ONE OFF" by Pete Barfield (aka Petal aka Panserkaput) and his blog is HERE! I am very grateful to Peter as it does make these miners unique. It makes you realise how many nice people there are out there blogging!
While this is not the Official Betteshanger banner it is now the official VBCW Betteshanger Banner. (OK semi official VBCW Banner). I am very pleased to say it has the "Invicta" horse on display. When he sent it to me It really did make my day.
So if any of you VBCW players want to represent this unit contact me by leaving a comment below and I will send out a PDF. I have already gotten permission to pass it on from Pete and he is a Generous guy indeed to allow it.
These will be my last Miners for VBCW for a while I think as I am about to crack on with some socialists. perhaps they will be dock workers from the ports in Kent, who knows at this stage.
It has been suggested that I make a beer wagon to follow along behind the miners but as yet that is just a twinkle in my eye!
Thanks for Looking and I am off to the Cavalier show on Sunday so expect a show report or swag post on Monday. Until then take care have fun and do not get too cold.
Yes part 2 will be along in a couple of days. yes these were the first batch of Miners shown over a week ago on the Analogue painting challenge. The rest will follow in the next posting. They are of course painted for my mate Matt and equally obviously they have a flag by Pete Barfield. These are part of the socialist assault column in VBCW.
A mixture of makes, Sloppy Jalopy, Ironclan and Musketeer miniatures and armed with a variety of weapons. Mostly with rifles but also Smgs (Lanchesters used by the Royal Navy), shot guns and revolvers.
Most have miners helmets but as 1/5 of the Kent miners did work above ground not all are wearing them or have them slung on their belts. But there are enough in the group to make it look like they are mostly equipt that way. All dressed in sombre colours appropriate to the time and all as keen as mustard to get stuck in against the London Fascists and the Kentish fascists as well.
Thanks for looking today a bigger batch next time, but NO I cannot do a group shot of them all as Matt has already gotten these back.
yesterday at the club I had my first game of "To the strongest". Dave set the game up and with Kev controlled the Hittites. While Ian and myself had the New Kingdom Egyptians (NKE). These are all Dave's Figures, rules, Terrain, Maps well everything. Dice represent the missiles the unit have before they run out and need to get supplied again. The little white skulls represent there is a hero in the unit. While the red hearts tell you the unit is close to breaking, or has suffered a hit and another will kill it.
WE played 2 games in all and the pictures are taken on Dave's phone as I forgot the camera and he was nice enough to do it.
The rules worked very well indeed. In the first game I was of course daunted by facing heavy chariots with only 1 unit of heavy infantry several units of light infantry and some light chariots. But with some luck I did manage to destroy half the heavy chariots of the Hittites and slip a light chariot unit behind the Hittite lines where it sacked the Hittites baggage trains and generally made a nuisance of itself. It was hard fought everywhere else and I did have some light chariots chased from the board never to be seen again (yeah OK they did turn up in the next battle). generally speaking it was hard fought by all four of us but due to the baggage train being sacked the Hittites lost faith in the battle and the NKE won.
The second battle was somewhat different. Firstly let me state that I failed to kill anything at all. Dave did out play me I cannot say otherwise. Kev also out played Ian and I had a Hittitte light chariot in the rear (Make up any rude joke you like) and my Baggage was sacked. Ian on my left had completely crumbled as Kev had learnt how to use his chariots and Ian unfortunately had not adapted quite as well. But a loss is a loss and it would be ceorlish to blame anyone else for such a thing. So I take full responsibility!
So where do we go from here? That is the question! I did very much like the rules, they were easy to play uncomplicated and yet at the same time versatile. The army size is very nice (bigger than DBA of course but not so large as to make them unruly and difficult to transport.
So the consequence is that I think I will get an army. Ahhh but which one. I do have a choice of opponents. Big Lee has some 6mm Romans and Carthaginians ready for these rules. Dave has 2 Biblical armies. I think Another club member has some NKE as well so I would seek something else. My pet love is Italian renaissance, but that would mean getting 2 armies as I do not think anyone else in the club has them, also the rules are just on the edge of that as a timeline so perhaps not. Unless I was to do them in 10mm or smaller. (Just for cost/storage/transportation purposes).
I have had a "Seapeople" army before and they were fun and very hard hitting and I do have some Minoan/Mycenaean figures sitting in the lead pile. So that would be another option and would be a better army for my character than the NKE. And knowing Dave he would want to use the Hittites again and again.
So if you know the Biblical period and know a good army drop me a comment.
All the best Cheers Clint
Finally, just for Sander. here are some Bare Naked ladies!
Well a couple of weeks ago we at the club had a Spanish Civil War game. But I did not take ant photographs so I had to wait intil this aircraft had been shown on the Analogue Painting challenge.
Let me first talk about the aircraft. This is my only aircraft (so far) for the 10mm SCW armies I have. Mostly because they are just so fiendishly hard to acquire the right aircraft in the right scale or this conflict, but also because they do not figure so much in many of the battles. Yes I do know about the bombing of Guernica. But generally most battles not so much! Anyway this is a 1/200th (10mm) scale Zvesda kit of a Ju 52. Painted in civil livery of the period the aircraft did see extensive service in WW2 in military use. The kit went together perfectly, no problems at all. Seldom do you get such good kits. Yes I grant you that it is small and only about 18 parts but still it was a joy to build. Only the 2nd Zvesda kit I have built but they have both been very good indeed.
Back to the battle. (No the plane was not used.) We did use a slightly modified version of my own 1 page rules and they worked well. There had been a few tweaks from last time but as rules they work well for a fun uncompetitive type game.
I say uncompetitive and this is the twist. I set an overall objective and give a single random objective to each player. Which are not revealed until the end. There are a total of 30 objectives, and if players choose they may take a second secret objective. And the objectives will give (OR TAKE AWWAY) victory points. From the player with the card. And you just don't know until the card is drawn. Quite often they are contradictory to the main objective, or your allies or even each other. It is all the luck of the draw.
In This Game one player had to take a set building and not advance beyond it. Another player had to use a certain Phrase to insult an ally, yet another player had to suffer less casualties than any of their allies. One of the Objective cards is -10 Victory points just because the Ref (me ) is having a bad day and someone else has to suffer as well. These cards worked really well.
In so many wargames it is a case of lining up troops against each other and fighting head on. With this set up you just do not know how your allies will react. This creates a level of doubt and it is entirely possible to lose the battle and yet come out as the winner on the day.
And Below are the results of the day's Game.
Defenders
Peter +41 VP
Richard -18 VP
Attacking
Graham +15 VP
Matt -10 VP
Tim -13 VP
Victory Points are a combination of Overall objective, The Number of bases you loose, the number of bases you kill, and the secret objectives.
Overall it was a Defenders victory on the battle field and for Peter in particular as he overwhelmingly achieved his secondary objectives while taking less casualties and allowing Richard to soak up as many casualties as he could. Which meant that Richards 3 Platoons were all but whipped out. But this was because Peters secret objectives were to ensure that he took the least casualties in the battle. the result was while Richard was feeling supported Peter never had to push for an advance on the battle field. While Graham failed to complete his secret mission yet did inflict a substantial amount of casualties. Tim did complete 1 secret objective and with his second secret objective being that he would loose victory points every time ANYONE on his side fired artillery, he did also loose an armoured car and 2 Tankettes (fled from the table) Withdrew from the table in poor Order.
Well here are a few more figure that I have painted for the Analogue painting challenge.
You may(or may not recognise them). I would have posted them a few weeks ago but then the very talented Michael A painted them and did a better job of them and I just did not want the direct comparison. But If you want to see how they should be painted and not how I managed just clink the link I promise it does not send you to a penile erectile dysfunction web site in a pique of spite. (LINK). But If it does it serves you right!
I have included a couple of work in progress photos, just because they were taken and it seems a shame not to pad the post out a little!
It may surprise you all to know I have never watched Blackadder! I really am expecting to be vilified for saying that but As the "Young ones" were banned by my parents as I grew up Blackadder fell in the same category and was never watched either. Do not bother telling me it is not the same, my respect for my parents even though I am over 50 years old is such that I just will not watch it no matter what you say.
I do not, of course, blame anyone else for watching it just that it is not for me. And I hope you will respect me enough not to try to coax me into watching it in a peer pressure moment! Soap box well and truly stepped off of. All the best Clint
There was a bonus round on the Analogue hobbies painting challenge (AHPC) called "defensive terrain". As I have decided NOT to spend any money on new figures for the challenge, but just to slowly reduce the lead mountain I was a bit stuck as to what to do for Defensive terrain. And being a cheapskate I decided that I would actually make some tunnel entrance markers for my Vietnam collection. 2 MDF round bases with rectangular tunnel entrances painted black. And yes they are hard to see deliberately. Then just painted to look like all my other Vietnam bases. So just some very simple indicators of where the tunnel entrances may be. I will not actually be building the tunnels so I only need a marker for the entrance, As you can see in the first picture they are quite small and very well disguised as the lady in question holds a trap door over her head and once in place would be very hard to tell from the jungle floor.
But some were found and the US army had a specialist unit (which I will not be representing on the battlefield) of "Tunnel Rats". The Latin motto is in no way rude and does not include Rat or arse in it WHEN translated. But I will leave it to you to translate.
On a side note I have really struggled with Blogger today to the extent I was about to start the whole blog again. But luckily some luck and a little patience has seen it restored back to how it should be. Morale of the last paragraph is do not click buttons too fast! But Panic over and "Normal service is restored!"
Well the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continues to soak up almost all of my spare time. And here today is another submission for the AHPC.
Bothe the motorcycles are from 1st Corp Miniatures in the 20cth century range under WW1.
They will of course be used for A Very British Civil War, but they could equally well be used for anything WW1-WW2 from Irish civil war to Chinese warlords in the back of beyond.
They were not however easy to put together. There were no instructions so I was just forced to study the pictures on the First Corp web site and jump wildly to conclusions. Worse yet the casting had filled in any holes for the plugs to fit and there was no indication of where the holes should be. So some head scratching later I did finally assemble them both.
I cannot say that everything is proper and correct as I do not know motorbikes of this period well enough to judge but they look right to my uneducated eyes and at the end of the day what else can you do.
Obviously they are intended as WW1 vehicles so have been painted to reflect that. The gun shield seems very small and does not offer very much protection to the operator and none at all for the bike rider so I suspect it is only really of psychological use as I do not see it being any good in a battle what so ever! The other version carries a very uncomfortable looking senior officer. And in truth I imagine he would be as I do not think the suspension would be very good at all.
As an interesting side note. I have not seen any motorcycle/sidecar combinations in England for at least 10 year. Not that I have been looking for them, just that they have not been noticed by me.
The metal was OK and the casting was Ok (except where noted above) but I would not relish doing any more of these. But if you do get them and do them I do wish you the very best of luck and I would love to see how they should turn out if properly modelled.
That's it for today. Another post on Sunday and I will try to get back to a more normal schedule soon after that.
The model was a 2 piece casting a white metal crewman and engine and a resin cast hull. A very simple paint job all colours taken from the picture at the bottom which is either fishing or trading. But during the conflict they might just as readily been ferrying supplies or people to the Viet Minh bases to fight the US troops. So they were treated with some degree of caution.
