More Zulu's

I was going to call this post getting it wrong in every way! But that is a bit harsh and |I assure the kind and gentle reader that it is of course not in every way.

If you ever decide to paint a Zulu army make sure you have plenty of Zulus. One or two will just not do you do need a serious amount. So here are my next 33. (And that is just a drop in the bucket! Bucket not ocean let us not exaggerate!)

So what did I get wrong, well not so very much as all that but one thing that is quite important. Well probably more than just one thing, but 1 thing I am aware about.

Here is what happened! I did have a painted example on my painting table to copy and copy I did. I finished the 33 and was feeling jolly good about it. All based and varnished and ready to put away. It all happened in the putting away.  Below is a picture of the few painted so far, many more to go. And then I noticed that the ones with the headdress had different  colour shields from the ones I have just painted also in a headdress.  Opps.

As Zulu Impis (Regiments are identified by their shields I had clearly started a third regiment without realising. Therefore I do have one of 3 solutions!

1. I can start a 3rd regiment and be content and allow more space in the boxes for them. (Brown and white shields)
2. I Can re-paint the shields of these new troops to bring them into line with my other troops in headdress. (Black and white shields)
3. I can re paint the previously painted troops to make them match the newly painted. (Brown and white shields)
4. Re paint both sets to get black brown and white shields (Black and brown and white shields as a tricolour!)

At this stage I am thinking option 2 makes the most sense. While I still have many to paint it is possible to carry out option 1 but I know the nagging voice in my head will tell me of for being lazy. Option 3 is also possible and just as much work. Option 4 is more work and historically not correct but I could fudge it enough to make it look convincing. But I think In reality it needs to be option 2. But I just cannot face it today. so Maybe Monday night!

All the best Clint

Panther (!5mm)

A couple (ok 3) of years ago I was trying to build a 15mm PBI Late war German company. Well as I scratch my head and look around and try to focus I have revisited that project. The easiest things to paint for it are of course vehicles! So As I wanted the easy option here are 2 Panther tanks. I will not lie one (on the right) has been shown on the blog previously. The one on the left though (with the commander) is newly painted!


They are bother FOW vehicles and as such are both metal and resin. They look the part now that they both have the same camo. ( Three colour ambush) . I can honestly say that I will not need any more Panthers and that indeed 2 may be overkill as it is. So that should be enough late war tanks for PBI. Which of course means I will buy some more just to get variety! But no plans at present!

I will be at a show on Sunday (a little/local show) so who knows what will tempt me then. But at least this puts me on the way to a normal painting schedule. Another Post on Saturday IF I can get this batch of Zulu's finished.

Until then take care and have fun and slap some paint about!

Cheers Clint

Lewis Gun Team.

A slow painting day post "Challenge", But I have managed to get 2 more WW1 figures finished. These will do double duty serving with my 28mm WW1 troops, And also with my VBCW figures.

As the figures were a gift I am not able to tell you who made them but they do look and paint like Great war miniatures. They were a gift from Matt about a year ago and then I lost them and now I found them. Given the need to do double duty in two armies I have been keen to keep the bases simple just so they do not look too out of place in either army.


The double duty is so that my WW1 army being mostly early war can now stretch all the way up to VBCW all using the same figures. All I have to do is include the Lewis gun teams or indeed remove them for early WW1 games.

Later this week I intend to work on two OLD projects that have been on the back burners for a while.  Yes back to the 10mm Zulus (As a local show is planning a Zulu themed event next year!) And hey have sat idle for about a year and so are in need of reinforcements as I did start them but did not get so vary far. The problem being that to look good a Zulu army in 1/200th scale needs masses of them. The other old project is a German late war PBI company. Again a local wants an Arnhem game, it can (and in my case will be Operation Market Garden as opposed to Arnhem it self!) By using my US Paratroops I painted last year  I only need to get some late war Germans done. They will be useful for other games as well not just Market Garden!

But those are plans for the future so I will get side tracked but at least I have a goal to aim at now.

Cheers From Sunny Kent!

First painted since.....?

Well that is just not true! Well not entirely as I had started this BEFORE the painting challenge started and thus it was not eligible for entry into the challenge. One of the big problems with the painting challenge is the cool down period afterwards. I am slowly tackling it! I did manage to paint 6 Napoleonic Highlanders (IN Tartan with tartan socks) in 15mm the day after the challenge ended for a club friend (Peter) but other than that it has been slow.

So I thought with a game coming up next Sunday at a show I would get some more VBCW figures done and thus I tackled this vehicle which had been started BEFORE the painting challenge.

It did start life as an eBay purchase of £0.99 plus postage as no one bid on it!. At the time I could clearly see why! It was very badly painted and converted and not at all historically accurate. However a few dabs of paint and several grey hairs later it does make a passable VBCW vehicle. The crew with US helmets are all wrong and the howitzer is un feasibly large on this little carrier. But as a bit of fun I can forgive that and I know several players will find this "Troll-Cannon" amusing. (I do anyway).


Because it was already assembled it was tricky to get the brush in all the right places but despite my complaints I do like it! Clearly it would never exist in real life. The recoil would topple over the carrier most likely killing the crew at the same time. But that aside for the craziness of VBCW I think I will get away with it as long as people will forget the reality.

I cannot be sure where all the parts came from but I suspect the carrier was Warlord and probably the figures as well as they do seem a good fit. The gun though I have no idea as it is white metal while the carrier is plastic. Overall I am pleased with it yes it could be better but working from another's build and painting there is just so much you are inclined to do. And for the price what can I say it has kept me amused for several hours so that can't be all bad.

Happy Easter everyone. And I should post again on Tuesday as I "Should" get some painting done today!

Take care and have fun!

Betteshanger MG (VBCW)

 As part of the painting chasllenge I also managed to finish of a support Medium Machine gun for the Betteshanger miners I have painted. Again this was part of this years Analogue Painting Challenge and more importantly part of the Very British Civil War collection I am painting for my mate Matt. Every Colliery need some support weapons and until I get the planned beer wagon started and finished these will have to do! The planned "Beer Wagon " did get 1 step closer yesterday as I now know where to get some Large beer barrels.


I think these are "Sloppy Jalopy" figures but I could not swear to that as matt passed them on to me and I just slapped the paint on.

In other news I did send for some figures but the company sent the wrong ones. Totally their fault but they want me to send them back BEFORE they send me the correct ones. This may result in me not having much painted in the next week or two as I was due to start them today. So kindly bear with me if I don't get much painted.

Cheers from sunny Kent. Clkint

Socialists (2)

yes today we have even more 28mm Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil war figures.  And just like last time these are to fight the Very British Civil war, here in Kent.

Weapons are again mostly rifles and a few pistols but there is also a soviet light machinegun this time which should give them a bit of punch and some more firepower. There is even a figure I have nick named Zabatak and no offence is meant by that (Front row centre in the bottom picture).

I hope in 2 days to show the first of the things painted since the painting challenge has ended (It was started before). But for now my second squad of socialists.

Thanks for looking and I hope the sun is smiling wherever you are. All the best Clint

Socialists (1) VBCW

 Yes more VBCW figures. These will represent the socialist faction.  Not everybody in Kent is part of the Anglican league. It is quite diverse. But the Anglican league is the strongest faction in East Kent. There are however some factions such as the socialist that will, on occasions work militarily with the AL against the Fascists from London. Indeed many of the London Socialists are fighting in Kent to help stem the tide and keep the east bank of the Medway out of Fascist hands.

SO today shows my first Socialist squad who Happen to be in Kent. The figures are all Empress miniatures from the Spanish Civil War range. There is also at least one Footsore miniature from the Irish Civil War range. Most of the figures carry rifles. There is only one with a shot gun while another carries a mortar. (In the SCW Mortars were VERY rare in the early stages with only 6 in the whole country. When foreign powers got involved many more did become available). We Need not worry about that though as this is a Very British Civil War and many of those who served in WW1 would have seen them or even used them.

These have all been painted for my mate Matt and were to be used in a show game in 2 weeks time. Alas though As Matt has some family issues at the moment he has withdrawn.

Which has lead to an interesting change around. As a club we are now going to do a Hammering Iron ACW Naval game at the show, just a simple game which looks OK. It also means that I have volunteered to sort out a different game for the Autumn show we usually attend so expect to see some furious terrain building in the next few weeks! I intent to build the terrain so It can be used at the club as well as the shows and hope that it will look OK. As for what it will be I hope to get a WW2 set up finished for the PBI rules. I already have 2 American armies (why would I need 2?). Well 1 is Paratroops and the other is Infantry (but could be armoured infantry as well). So I will also have to paint a German opposition for them. I have not decided just yet if it will be Faslschrimjaeger or Wermarcht troops. I will just see what I can get cheapest and quickest and go from there.

Thanks for looking today all the best Clint

Dead Girls Are Easy!

 As the painting challenge draws to an end I am trying (and failing for the most part) to get back to blogging on a regular basis.

Having now finish all the things I wanted to get done for the challenge I had a bit of spare time and enthusiasm. And while this was submitted it was never planned to be.

It is of course a West Wind Production Biker. I bought a pack of these a few years back but never  got them painted. As I am re-enthused about zombie games I thought to get one done.

I was going to write "Dead girls are Easy!" on the petrol tank, but instead settled for green flames. It was semi successful and a second attempt will no doubt prove a better finish so that is my plan, but with 8-10 Bikers to do they can not all have flames on the bikes, that would just look silly!

Still with luck this will get me back in the saddle again.

Club on Sunday so an AAR on Monday of whatever game I play! And at this stage it could be anything. I have suggested a Vietnam game but that is NOT looking likely at present!

Cheers for looking, more soon.

57mm RR and crew in 20mm

Yes one more very slight addition to my Vietnam Conflict project. I really need to get some games with that project this year. Anyway today is a 57mm Recoilless Rifle with three crew.

While the dead figure is by SHQ, (He had been waiting on my painting table for a good 6 months) all the rest are by Britannia. I bought the crew thinking the RR would be included but  it was not. I remember thinking at the time. "Cor! that's a bargain" not realising the Recoilless Rifle was not included. LOL It all makes sense now.

Anyway I went to the 57mm as opposed to a larger calibre as my US troops are not overly blessed with armour, yes I do have some M113's and a Patton but this level of support should be rare on the table top. As a consequence Viet Minh Anti tank should be equally rare. Britannia do make a larger gun but this was much more common and the 57mm while heavy enough to carry through a jungle would be easier.

The crew  consist of a spotter, who could also be an officer, a loader and one other. Giving a 3 man crew. All mounted on separate bases in case the gun or the crew take hits and can no longer fight and have to be removed.

The basing is very simple as well. Starting with a 2mm thick MDF base just coated with sand and painted a cheap acrylic brown. Clumps of static grass and bristles from a wall papering brush make up the reeds. Simple yet effective. And one wall paper brush lasts an age. I have so far managed to do 1 15mm FOW Parachute company and both the US and the Viet minh in 20mm (1/72nd scale) and still have about 1/4 of the brush unused. So considering the brush was only 99p (at the time) a very quick and easy basing product.

I am not saying this is my Vietnam project finished, but I think it is for now at the least.

Thanks for looking today and I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!


All the best Clint

Risk Taker (Curtgeld)

As part of the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge participants are to submit a figure to Curt (AKA Snowlord) as a kind of entrance fee. The theme this year was gambler/risk taker.

And here is mine. I called it "the Over confidence of youth!"

The figure is from foundry "Street Violence" range therefore 28mm tall.

Although you can hardly see it I clipped of the metal base and drilled and pinned the figure attaching it to a resin base I had spare. By doing so and with the aid of a sharp knife and small file I was able to get the figure to do a shallow wheelie on the base t add to the feeling of taking risks and youth and mainly just because it was fun to do so.

I could not make a more dramatic wheelie as that would involve re-sculpting both the legs, and being honest I am a rubbish sculptor.  So better just to not try at all on that.

Colour wise I went for bold and clashing colours of the type I do see kids wearing on occasion. I did have to change the colour of the hoodie 3 times (Dark Blue then light blue) before settling on orange. I find painting Orange very hard to get right but am pleased I did in the end as it does make the figure POP! I also did want the jeans a little lighter, but this is how they came out and I was happy with the result so brand new dark jeans it was.

As a Kid the skate board to have was a "pacer" which were yellow deck silver trucks and red wheels. So that is what this chap has. I know things have changed since I was a kid (dinosaurs no longer walk the earth for example and we are not playing WRG 6th edition anymore), so I concede the skate board is out of date but painting it did bring back memories.

I cannot remember where I got the resin base but it has hung around for a number of years so was about time it got used.

So this figure was my "Curtgeld" this year and it is probably in Canada as you read this As it was posted on Monday. No idea what it will get used for (IF at all) but it could be modern skirmish in any of its forms.

Thanks for looking another post on Sunday.
All the best Clint

To the strongest game 3

Having played 2 games of to the strongest and enjoying the simple mechanics a third game was to be played. As with the other 2 games I was given the troops and just had to get on with it. The two armies in question were Ptolemaic Egyptians and the Classical Indians. I do not believe the two armies ever fought each other so I am not aware of any historical precedence. But just looking at the army lists it is EASY to predict the result.

I was given the Indians. Facing off against Dave. With Relfie on my right and Kev diagonally opposite.  Dave and Kev the Ptolemaics and me and Relfie the Indians. before any of this starts sounding wingng I will say I did enjoy the game but understood and vocalised the result LONG before it happened. Anyone with any knowledge of ancients has probably already worked it out.  Both sides had a lot of units and both sides had limited space and I could have deployed far better than I did so some of it is my fault. And I put my hands up to that. If I had been a real life general I would have chosen a better place to fight the battle which allowed for manoeuvre which was about the only advantage we had. Still sometimes you have to fight in areas not of your own choosing.  So fair play.

All the dice in pictures represent remaining missile weapons that unit has.

I did manage to score the first success and killed some Ptolemaic skirmishers so the game was of to a good start. Now the classical Indians had some raw quality longbow archers and a good amount of ammo.  However neither Relfie nor myself were able to cause any lasting damage on the pike armed phalanxes as they closed the distance. All that happened instead was that we ran out of ammo and while we did disrupt them they were able to re order their ranks and move forward without much difficulty.

My cavalry on the left were able to stop Dave moving down my flank and went into position on turn 2 of the game and stayed there as I tried to move elephants to support but due to them being hemmed in and poor card draws were not able to support them. Just as well they did not need my support. While they did fail to kill anything else in the game they did stop Dave from advancing. And were my most valuable troops despite the points indicating otherwise. I did manage to get some heavy chariots close to that flank but they were unable to assist because of the terrain and location of enemy troops.

Relfie on my right had also run out of arrows and replacing them was a struggle. The right flank did seem to see-saw a few times, mostly sawing on the Indians But Relfie was doing OK. Dave and myself were not quite in a stale mate position as Dave did manage to kill all my skirmishers and seize my only bit of defensible terrain.

But despite trying to win the raw Indians with only 2 wounds wer in the end just no match for the Ptolemaic's in pike blocks with better saves and 3 wounds. So eventually the inevitable happened and the Indians lost.

Congrats to Dave and Kev on their win and commiserations to me and Relfie but at least we delayed the inevitable for as long as possible.

Final result was 6VP (Victory points) to me and Relfie and 16 VP to Kev and Dave. Kev to his credit did offer to swap side with me when I stated a the beginning that the forces were not balanced which was nice of him, but what was the point, it would still have been an Indian Loss and a Ptolemaic win!

If we had room to manoeuvre we might have been able to attack the pike blocks in the side (Relfie did manage it once against the same unit twice but the cards did not favour him. ) But in front of me was just a solid mass of pikes and unarmoured bowmen would have trouble killing them in any set of rules when they are out of ammo.

I do not blame the rules or the army lists but perhaps we did have far to many troops in far to smaller area so (Not our choice although we could have deployed better). My first time in using that army and not an army I would choose to use again. The army match up was just not good and you could see from the start how the game would end. I am sure some players would have done better. But we did what we could with what we had and took a long time in dying. I am sure some players who know the armies better would have faired so much better and may even win. But that on the day did not happen.

Thanks for reading all the best Clint

A slow boat to china (ok the Mekong Delta)

 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