Not all tanks are MONSTERS!

Firstly Let me say I am blindly groping my way into WW2 Pacific wargames. I am not going to say I KNOW much at all about the settings, battles or conditions they all faced. What I will say is that Late war Western front has for the moment lost its appeal, I have seen FAR too many battles which rely on super heavy Goliaths of tanks. So as a remedy I an dipping my toe in the pacific war.

I already have the Americans covered, Graham has the British so I am starting on the Japanese. Who knows maybe I may even think about the Chinese and the Russians and even the French (indo China) or Dutch. But Japanese is my starting point.

So starting with the Japanese here is an objective marker! A destroyed Te Ke (Type 97 Tankette). The model is by Peter Pig and a single piece Resin cast.  The colours of Japanese tanks and even aeroplanes are a NIGHTMARE to get correct. So if you disagree with my colour choices fair play to you you are probably right.

The Type 97 (Te-Ke) was very small. In PBI for  example it is classed as armour 4 and gun 5. Which means that a HMG can shut it down and penetrate the armour! In No way is this a Monster Tank. What is more I know no maker of 15mm Japanese Monster tanks like the 0-1 (Experimental).... which never saw production. To the right does show how small the tankette was. I call it a tankette and not a tank because it really is so small.

 When (if ever) I get some undestroyed versions I will go into the  Tankette details  But as this is an objective marker and not a functional vehicle I am sure you will forgive the delay.

The last Picture shows it with a Zvezda Elephant, and a QRF Short wheel base Landrover. so you can see it ois hardly much bigger than a landrover. Which if you live in England will bring home to you just how small it really is.

That is it for today. I do have some more Japanese 15mm on the painting table so expect some more soon.

All the best Clint

Never mind the Tchanka's (and an oppsie fix)

Again these are all for matt. I must say I have enjoyed painting them and has gotten me back into the mood toe 15mm again.(More of that later.

These are 15mm Tchankas from Peter Pig.  A Russian horse drawn cart with an Medium Mg used to give Russian cavalry forces a bit more fire power. used in the Russian Civil war and even WW2.

The pic on the right is a REAL one clearly you can all tell the difference but seeing the real thing might help you appreciate the carts some more than me just saying so.  Clearly they are light weight so speed was considered more important than armour. And the ability to keep along with cavalry units was cherished. The same as Modern troops using APC's to keep up with tanks.

Each one individually.

 This was the last one completed and I had to wait for the Peter Pig order to arrive before I could even start. (That is part of the Oppsie). Tchankas could have 2-4 horses and also 2-4 crew. Usually the less horses the less crew but not always. All these vehicles have 4 horses but I could quite easily have put less horses on each vehicle. The crew are in white Russian army uniforms for the Russian Civil war.

 The next one I did finish first. In this one the crew have the Cossack hat (apart from the loader). These hats could have either white or black wool trimming. I settled on white as to me it just looked better. IF mat wants another I will do black IF he chooses. But for now I prefer the white.

 This is the oppsie. I must admit I lost some parts during assembly. I lost the loader and 2 wheels. So I have purchased another vehicle and painted it and will give it to Matt to make up for it. The wheels can from a Biblical Chariot and there is no loader. So the front wheels are completely wrong. The lack of loader is not a problem to me I think 2-3 crew look better than 4. With 4 crew it looks crowded. But as Matt has paid me to paint 4 crew the other 2 vehicles have 4 crew. As this is a "Free" vehicle I feel sure he will not complain. And when they are all together as in the top pic you don't notice it at all.


The last pic is this little lot the car and a few cav all together just for Joe. Who always likes group shots. I mean no offense Joe by mentioning you, I am sure many people do as well but you mention group shots most often.

Thanks for looking today. I hope next time (Saturday) to have finished my fery first stand on ww2 Japanese Pacific war troops. Hopefully an objective marker (destroyed tankette!)

And as a final clip the clip below shows Tchanka(s) in Action in a Russian film.

MountainMan and shinies.

Well I am still painting. But I seem to have stalled for a few days and not gotten much finished at all.

One figure I have finished was a Foundry 28mm "Mountain Man". Before anyone asks I am not totally sure what I will use him for. He will go in my Wild West collection but he is totally suitable for "Muskets and Tomahawks" or even "In Her Majesty's Name." So while I do not know what I will use him for I do know that he will get a use.

The figure is wargames foundry and I do have a few more to paint as well. So they may get done reasonably soon. They would get done faster IF I actually did know what I wanted them for.  Oh well such is life.

The way I look a it though is if nothing else it is another one done.


The Reason for my recent lack of painting is that I was waiting for an order to arrive. And guess what it has now arrived. It is one (maybe only I will have to see how I feel) "Not going to Salute Orders. " As I have mentioned before It costs me about £40 BEFORE I go through the door of Salute and that to me is a lot of money.  As such I will go every 4-5 years or so, but going more frequently is not my thing. To me it is a show that is a victim of it's own success.

Anyway enough waffle here is a pic of the order.

 The first Pic is the actual order. many will know it is from Peter Pig and as such is 15mm figures. Trust me if it were a rule set it would be a bigger box. Everything is range 8. For those not familiar with Peter Pig Ranges that means it is all 15mm WW2.

As such it is the things I need to take my Infantry company from Flames of War (Battlefront) to a workable force in PBI. I will not go into the individual pack as I hope to get them all painted pretty soon. By that I do mean this year.


One Pack is worth a special mention though. You can see by the last picture it is a Japanese destroyed Tankette! It will be used as an objective Marker. And is quite small. You will see exactly how small when it gets painted and I put it next to a Panther or Sherman or something similar.

Anyway thanks for looking today. More again in a few days.
Hope it is sunny where you are and I hope you are well and happy.

Best wishes Clint

Just a pair of quickly painted 28mm figures. I received these as part of a job lot so other than they are metal and they are 28mm in size I cannot provide many more details as make and range.

The guy on the left is for general steampunk wargaming. maybe for In her majesty's name, Maybe for something else. Only Time will tell.

While the figure on the right could also be used for Steampunk is far more suitable for a generic cop on the streets of an American city. Anytime really for the last 100 years.  Perhaps IF I get the up coming "Mad dogs with Guns!" rules (published soon by Osprey he might fit into that. And then again he may fit into anything from Zombies in the modern word all the way back to the Keystone cops.

That is a quick post for today as I am supposed to be cooking the Sunday Lunch and not blogging!

Best wishes Clint

Russian Civil War stuff!

Yes some more 15mm Russian Civil War stuff by Peter Pig.  And yes there will be more to come.

Today 4 more Cavalry. 2 bases each of 2 figures and a staff car.

Again the staff car is by Peter Pig. It comes in 6 pieces and with 3 crew in addition. Therefore a little bit of work needs to be done on assembly. Having said that all the pieces go together very well and are well cast so it was not an issue.


 Given the number of pieces there was no options, but it does not need any. A staff car is not something that you will need to buy many of for the Russian Civil war. If you were doing Back of beyond wargames you might choose to have a load of vehicles but again the reality is that there would be few and mostly trucks in my opinion.

Again they are painted for Matt (I will be doing my own soon enough), but probably not the Russian Civil war.

I did ask matt what colour he wanted the car and he said Green. I personally would have been tempted with eth a Maroon or a cream and Brown (Two tone) but having said that the green has come out looking quite nice so no complaints there.

That's it for today. Have fun and get the brushes out if you can.

All the best Clint

Post script: The first of my "Not going to Salute" orders has now been placed with Peter pig.  I sneaked it in just before the prices went up. So Knowing the good service they offer I expect it to arrive very soon.

NOT Roarkes Drift (The men who woul be kings)

Sorting out each players units

WelL at the Skirmish show Craig the organiser wanted a Zulu game. so I had to do some improvisation. Firstly to balance the scenario for the rules I improved the British defenders. Firstly I gave them a cannon and then I gave them some Cavalry support. This was enough to bring the game up to a more balanced outing. For the Zulus I increased the unit size from 16 figures a unit to 24 figures a unit!. This would make tem much deadlier in combat and harder to break. But did It work?

Gentleme start your engines
Initial deployment.

I did hear about 4 comment in the day about
 it being set in Spain!
I was just using the buildings I have and NOT spending more money
Maybe that's  frugal.
For me though it was just common sense.

The Zulus approach the compound

And Just manage to break in but are kept at bay by the British
 intensity of fire.

bob Happy to have defended the compound.
Graham and Bob playing British Winn
 

Changing the players round.
This time the Zulus
Swarm the compound as fastr as possible.

 

Despite a solid defence by Tim
The Zulus manage to enter in a few turns

GAME2










Inside the compound the British
Sourounded fight on.







But Numbers are against them

The relief column arrives but not in time to prevent a massacre!

Conclusion!

A minor victory for the British in the first game. And a Crushing defeat for them in the second. This meant that Bob was happy to have won twice! As I am sure Graham was. The British defence in the first game was better organised and the Cavalry relief was able to do better, In the Second Game the Zulus were much more aggressive and it served them well. They had taken the compound before the cavalry could make any impact on the game.

Overall the rules worked well and the first outing for MY Zulus (Miniatures) was a success in that they looked good and there were enough. Ok when it comes to Zulu armies enough is NEVER enough.

Overall I think the additional figures in a unit worked well as it did make the Zulus far more potent which in test games they were not ude to the fragility of the unit sizes. If you play "The men who would be Kings" Rules I would recommend either a LOT of cover for the tribal forces OR to increase their unit size.

THanks for stopping by. More again in a few days.

Skirmish (Spring 2017) Show report.

54mm using BRITANS toy soldiers
Skirmish Wargames.
But for me a distict lack of Zulus.
But at that scale who can blame them?

As always the show report is my own view and only expresses my own views and interpretations.

Mostly Just 1 Photo of each game.  (Sometimes 2)

I will do my game report soon!
Promise! (Fingers Crossed)

Milton Hundred wargaming Club.
28mm Maori wars.

Privateers of London I Think
An ACW river boat outing.



I am just not sure

Loughton Strike force
Not sure of the rules, but gridded so perhaps
To the Strongest.
Ancients.

Gravesend gamers Guild.
Some 40k Shinanigans

Tanks!
No Infantry just the Tanks Game.
So much for Combined arms!

Pax Limpopo.
Medway wargames club
28mm weird stuff
including Anachist Nannies with Bombs!

Maidstone Wargames club!
Hill fort

Spring Skirmish Swag/loot.

There is pitifully little. It is not that there was nothing there, or that I was not in the mood. Just that sometimes I just do not need to spend money to have a good time. I  will not be going to Salute in a few weeks either, but I do have a couple of online purchases planned. Nothing so very much and I am sure I will tell when/if they happen.

So what did I buy?

• 1 pot of Orange paint!

Yep that is all. No thing else.
However I was given a Churchill Tank
I hope it is 15mm scale. If not no worries.
I have also been promised another 15mm tank (M8 Scott GMC for those very interested!)

I have also been given a set of rules to playtest.  These are the Peter Pig NEW version of Bayonet and Ideology. Graham has suggested I put them on at the club in 2 weeks time. being a completest there are a few things I should get first, just to round out the armies properly as I am short of light mortars and light machineguns armoured cars and Republican Light tanks! And I know the players will always have as many tanks as they can get away with!

Additionally Tim (Club member and IT miniatures owner) Has asked me to paint up some troops for his web site and also to showcase on this blog. Some examples of the casts are shown. I am happy to help a mate out so will do this as soon as he passes some on to me. Some examples were at the show and I will be show them in greater detail when I get to paint them.

That is my news from today. I will do a show report and possibly a game AAR tomorrow.

Best Wishes Clint

Just writing up the army lists for tomorrows show game.

In the mean time. I have finished a  SotTR Nazi were wolf. I painted this figure just because he was primed and ready and was quick to paint. I do have several more "Just because" figures close to completion. So you will no doubt have to suffer them as well soon.

Anyway a West Wind production figure for the Secrets of the third Reich game. Painted in SS oak leaf autumn camouflage so he should fit in with the others pretty easily. The figure was a gift from my mate Matt and there are no painting suprises here at all.

The base is a mix of builders sand (Cheapest I can get) and the larger masonry blocks are broken bits of flower pot. Again about the cheapest source I can get. They give a nice rough texture and with clippers can easily be cut to  size.

That's it for today. A show report on Monday
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and hope to see you soon.
Best Wishes Clint

15mm White Russian Civil War Cossacks

yes a slight change of pace, but as they are for Matt and NOT myself do not worry they are not a new project!

The figures are Peter Pig 15mm Russian Civil War White Cossacks. There are 20 mounted figures in all, 2 to a base. Matt wanted this very simple base effect to match in with those he already had.  (I was lent a sample base to colour match , not shown). The colour match is not perfesct as I have no idea what paint the guy was using and Matt got the originals from eBay. While not perfect, the colours are CLOSE!

I was also asked to put a blue (and NOT red stripe on the trousers which ready was a finishing touch. Matt has already seen these photos and is happy with the result.

I am also happy with the result. I think he plans to use them with the Peter Pig "Square bashing" Rules. Which are an OK set of WW1 Battalion size set of rules. So if I ever get a game with these I will let you know.

A quick post on Saturday as I am at a show all day Sunday. So most likely just a single figure. Several are close to compleation, but I am not rushing so it will most likely be a Wild West figure but at this stage I just cannot say, it will all depend on my mood tonight and Saturday morning.

Best Wishes Clint