VBCW Paint Monkey yes more for Matt.

Yes you guessed from the title that I have a few more Anglican league.... but they could be any faction. Only 3 this time all advancing and all 28mm and all 3 are by Great war Miniatures.

WE have a guy kicking a football, one with a Lewis gun and one carrying the ammunition for the Lewis gun. They were all nice sculpts and great fun to paint.

There are more of these coming (probably on Sunday) but no need to hold your breath at all, they will be along very soon.

In other news I have now completed my secret Santa's, both for Ian (and Cath) and for Chris's blogs. They have both been great fun and I can only hope that both recipients are as delighted with the gifts as I am sure I will be by what ever Santa brings me.

More again on Sunday. Cheers For now Clint.

Back to history. I have maintained my painting output with these figures all by Great war Miniatures and all painted for my mate Matt.

First up we have a standard 3" Mortar and three crew. All dressed for the trenches and ready for action. Matt always cleans any figures I have to paint before I get them and for that I am really grateful. He did say one figure was badly cast but it looked fine by the time I got my hands on it.

 I like the fact that these troops have leather (or sheep skin) tops on as to my mind it does give them a little more character.












Along with the mortar and crew an officer and a new recruit. He still has all of his kit and still salutes at the front line. These things will probably change as time goes by. Maybe they won't, having never served in WW1 trenches I only have books films and Photographs to go on.


Well keeping it short and sweet, that is it for today.

Except to say I now have my Secret Santa target.

See you in a few days, all the best Clint

Skirmish Sangin (Club game)

Dave's fire team are the first 4 figures I am the tail end Charlie.

Well yesterday  at the club I took along Skirmish Sangin.Only 4 boards out of the 8 I have, The first 4 boards I built for the project so I probably used up all the best ideas on the boards!!! The guys did like the boards and now want to play "Stargrunt" on them or Northwest frontier or Western Desert ot Biblicals or Crusades or Riff war (that's my idea, just saying!) You get the idea make some terrain and the guys want to play on it!

Anyway we were playing the Recon Patrol scenario from the rule book but with one very slight (major) change. The Taliban could decide where to place the ambush. They selected a stretch of quite exposed road. Dave my (my ally and squad leader for this game) set his figures up first leaving my fire team in a slightly more exposed position. As we were a patrol being in buildings or behind walls was not really a viable option. But we hugged the walls and low enclosure walls as much as we were able given the limitations of the terrain.

 The Taliban able to spot and shoot first hit 2 of my guys. One by the door (a grenadier with L85a2, shotgun and Underslung grenade launcher) by the door. Luckily only a flesh wound, the armour mostly saving him. The other guy, not quits as lucky, a light wound but would be dead without armour.

 The mission had not changed at this stage so Dave had his fireteam flank and make the most use of cover he could. All the while I am under fire. Not all one sided and I do fire back.

 The guy by the door, now prone (knocked off his feet) tries to first aid himself and fails and crawls along the ground towards his comrades. My guy other guy (with LSW) that is also wounded and very exposed crawls into the area between a field and a low wall. Takes up position and covers the rest of the fire team. Shame I have no idea who will support him and dress his light wound.

 The Taliban maintain firing positions and Relfie gets one onto a roof who takes a severe wound the next combat phase. He lays there moaning and groaning for the majority of the game (the figure, not Relfie).

 My lightly wounded guy between the field and the wall exchanges fire with the Taliban, does well, until Ian opens up with a PSHK. The light machinegun does a lot of damage and the armour can only save so much health and he becomes critically wounded, unconscious and that changes the mission.

Our new mission is to rescue him.

 The lightly wounded (only a scratch) man by the door spends several turns crawling to a comrade, who is covering with a "Minimi". A quick first aid checkreveals he is just battered and bruised and groggy but otherwise OK to fight on.

Dave continues to flank.  No doubt arguing that killing the enemy will allow for an easier rescue. And if he succeeds it will.








Covering I send one man out to offer medical assistance. I try to avoid the lines of fire the enemy are using.

Against the far building you can just see an enemy "Dicker"

 Look there he is. All he is doing is poking a head around the corner and NOT firing. Dave my squad leader urges me to fire at him. But the rules of engagement are such that I cannot as I see no weapon and take no fire from him. In reality it could be a kid looking to see what is going on.

 So I move out of sight and climb the building. Ian with his PSHK manages to spot and shoot my assistant squad leader. With only a 5% chance of hitting he rolls 04 and hits! I now have 2 men out of the fight and 2 left to retrieve them.

 Crawling through the field ne closes on the wounded LSW.

 He gets close but Ian and Relfie are both trying to kill him and he takes a wound and falls unconscious out in the open( well the poppy field)

 I do get my grenadier up onto the roof and fist aid my assistant squad leader. The first aid roll is a success and they stay out of sight. I have 1 man left and still 2 to rescue!

By the time he gets into a position to start to rescue the first wounded a novice Taliban with a knife wounded himself drops from the roof and starts to crawl towards one of my wounded.

Dave, remember Dave who went flanking! has manoeuvred into position behind the Taliban who are firing at my wounded guys and manages to kill them all.

Conclusion: A much more closely balanced game than with my nephew.  Due to the errors made I by my reading of the rules we should call it a draw. Personally I think it is a marginal Taliban victory but the media would claim a major Taliban victory! Only 2 wounded Taliban survived but we had 3 wounded British. Most importantly we all learnt the rules and the guys could remember the chances of hitting and the cover deductions and bonuses. If we were to play the game a few more times I think we would have it down pat and not need to have me semi continuously look things up.  Everyone says they will happily play the game again so to my mind that is a win for all concerned.

Final thoughts. I would like to try the rules in a couple of different settings not just modern Afghanistan. I can see them working as early as the Vietnam conflict and the Arab Israeli wars and that be a little less contentious.

Thanks for reading today. Have a good day from Foggy Kent.
All the best Clint

Toffe apples

 Great War Miniatures make a "Toffee apple Mortar" . While I had hear the term I was not sure what they looked like. But a quick google search found out all I wanted to know. I did find a variety of colourer Mortar rounds but settled on the yellow and black for a number of reasons. The most important being that I did not want it all dull green, like so many of the others. It is a wacky mortar and called for a wacky colour as well and who am I to say "NO!"

Another item painted for Matt and his ever growing ww1 collection. Of which a couple more next week as they are already painted and just need varnish and to be photographed. So I would hope to blog them about Wednesday.

That's it short an sweet today as I have a load of painting to finish before our club game tomorrow.

Take care, have fun and slap paint on metal just like a monkey.

All the best Clint

skirmish Sangin, game 2

Building on the success of the first game. I planned something a little larger. OK I used the 2nd scenario in the book.

In this scenario the British Paratroops are defending themselves from an ambush and the Taliban are attacking. WE each had a total of eight figures.










The terrain was very tight and excellent for close quarter battles. The problem was that I could only attack the British from certain very fight and congested directions. I am sure they found it just as tight as the medieval archer firing through an arrow slit of a castle.

 The game started and while I did spot and shoot first I hit nothing! Absolutely nothing! But James return fire was pin point accurate every spot mad and every shot not only hitting but a lethal wound.

This photo shows the last attacker on the south side . Out gunned out flanked and out of luck! Which is not to say he did not hit a British NCO. He did, but the armour saved the lucky fellow and despite failing his morale check (Needing 95% +) he fumbled it rolling the dreaded 00% So while he was down on the floor in a festal position wishing he was back in good old blighty his oppo Managed to plug my Taliban at short range in the open and with no cover.

 The last Taliban (a novice with rifle skill 0f 35%) tried to run of the board and escape back to base for tea and cake.


















James mercilessly took aim with his Light Support Weapon (LSW) on the roof top and gunned him down.

The game was all over in a single turn !

I could have played it differently in hind sight. But on the day I did not and they were all killed out right. No wounded, no prisoners each shot a killing blow and his dice were just too good. Young people and dice, they are just too good.

We both enjoyed the game though despite my white wash! And in real life the media probably would not tell of it at all. Unlike our previous game where I did inflict one kill.

My conclusions are the same as last time. The game works well and the rules are fine and younger the player the more deadly they are with the dice!

2 losses out of two games, but no intention of putting any of it on eBay!

Skirmish Sangin Trial game.

I finally got around to playing "Skirmish Sangin" By Radio Dishdash Publications. I was originally put off by the hefty volume as I wanted an easy game to play. And at 170 pages I put off reading the rules. I do not enjoy reading rules, sorry I just don't!.

So My nephew played the British and I was the Taliban. The first scenario was the Taliban had been firing sniper rounds into the British FOB (Forward observation base) and a small patrol of 4 men (1 fire team) had come across the place the sniper had been firing from. So the Taliban had 3 figures against the British 4. Firstly I want to say that the rules did work well and were very instinctive and that we were using my 20mm Afghan setup. While we did overlap on to two boards we could have played on a single 2 foot by 2 foot area. Mostly ranges do not matter with modern rifles at this scale  but each rifle would have an effective range of 2.5 meters at that scale on the tabletop with sniper rifles and machine guns at least double that. So in a 2'x2' area range was not an issue.

 So I set up 2 spotters with Ak47s on the roof .

 The sniper I set up in some broken walls and ruins. So many people think snipers have to be up high. Yes they have got a good view up there, but it does compromise their ability to re-locate. Not being a trained sniper I do not know what the correct awnser is I suspect it changes with each battle and when it comes to war films who the director is. But what do I know.

 The 4 British paratroops started kneeling behind a low wall. 3 had L85a2 rifles (one with an undeslung grenade launcher) the fourth figure had a "Minime" 5.56mm LMG.

 When the British moved to outflank. See James may be my nephew but he is not daft (despite being related to me.

As they came over the low wall I was able to spot them and fired with my "Novice" Taliban. Now most (if not all) of the rolls are percentages and by the time I had spotted the enemy and fired the gun I was on a 06% chance to hit. Long story short I did not but did give my spotters position away!

James continues to out flank me. But like many young players I have noticed wanted to climb on the buildings. I think that comes from computer games and TV and at his age I would do the same.

I move my spotter to try to relocate and get out of sight.

My other spotter fires and actually hits a Para. But the Para flak vest stops the bullet, but does knock him down.

My sniper is rolling badly and can't hit anything. He is useless (at least when I have dice to roll!)

 I am continued to be out flanked as the Para who had been hit dusts himself off passes a morale check and gets into cover out of line of sight.

My Novice Taliban rolls 100 % critically failing and misfires the AK. (There is a chart for fumbles and this is not too bad!) It just means a whole Phase of inactivity if he wants to fire again. My other spotter fails to see the Brits on the roof and continues to fir at the one he had already hit, who is now in cover. He does not hit the guy in cover and it does give his position away.

I continue to get outflanked as James puts pressure on my front and moves the flank runners around behind me.

The novice repairs his gun and opens up and SUPRISINGLY hits the para on the roof top and with a lucky wound roll kills him out right! So 1 to me and none to James .

Then it all goes wrong. the sniper gets outflanks and fails to spot the guy who out flanked him he does get a shot at another Brit, but misses by a long way  and so no effect.

The Sargent who outflanked was able to shoot and downed the sniper very easily. The Taliban in these rules tend not to have armour and with James luck tend to die with a single hit.

James also is able to bring fire on the novice Taliban and he dies pretty swiftly as well and my other spotter being out numbered 3 to one dies in the next combat phase.

It was close but a win for the Brits (Taliban get more Victory points for killing Brits due to the press etc than the Brits do from killing the Taliban.) . But a clear British win none the less. The whole game lasted 1 and a half turns or about 2 hours of playtime as we were explain the rules and checking things. WE did not use any heavy weapons or vehicles just the starter scenario ad it was a good way to start.

Conclusion:

1. Spotting the enemy is very important.
2. Armour is a life saver. (literally)
3. Cover is very important as well. It makes you harder to spot. !
4. and harder to hit!
5. never trust a young player with dice.... they roll well you know.

Rules wise the rules were simple to play and understand and were quite instinctive. Of course we did a few things wrong, we always do when trying new rules. But if a 15 year old can grasp them and have fun they cannot me too hard and they are not.

I may put another game on tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks for reading and I am quite impressed with how the rules work in practice. And I think they would work well in other settings, Vietnam for example.

The chink in the wall

Mostly I have been painting things I cannot talk about. Today for example I will photograph the finished model for Secret Santa and send some Pics to Chris (Blog link) who is running it. To be honest the figure has come out very well and a long as he says so I will put it away for a month and then send it out. So Obviously I cannot talk about that.

I am also painting up some Cavalry for Peter in the wargames club, but they had  been painted at least 3 times BEFORE I even saw them, They are also not the best castings and Peter told me they were the wrong figures historically (they are Tartars I think and not Turkish Cavalry.... which meant a whole waste of research)  so getting them right has been a pain. I could talk about them, but my comments would not be positive so I choose not to.

So Instead here are some improvised walls for Frostgrave.  Yes they are the wrong size, but they do look the part so I will let that slide. They are only 4 inches wide and not 6" But I had the 2mm mdf bases already pre-cut. They are also 4" tall and not 3" but I just do not care, they will do and loot the part and mostly the gaps between terrain are not as wide as 6 inches so putting one in place will serve that purpose.  You can see they are carved polystyrene painted with a couple of coats of white emulsion and given a blue low-light just to make them look cold. Or at least colder. Quick easy and effective even if not exactly the right size. But to my mind they will do good enough for now.

Right back to painting these tartars and dreaming of starting a new project.....

All the best for now Clint

The demon's name is....?

This figure has waited very patiently on my painting table for about 10-14 years. So Long in fact that I have forgotten why I bought it in the first place.  The Harpy is a foundry Harpy and only included as a size comparison, and nothing more.

No Fran it is not called Raymond. No Ray it is not called Francis! But If I need 2 imps I have an idea what they will be called. And it is far to big to be called "Postie!"


There is nothing clever about the painting, except that it was done with a single GW "Tank" brush, except the eyes, teeth and claws. I just picked up the single brush and never put it down. All the colours are the obvious colours and required no deep thought at all. Yet they all seem to wok just fine.

He probably will be used for Frostdave and as my wizard is called Dave and my apprentice is Nigel (or Nige for short) I needed a suitable name for this creature (should I ever summon a major demon.


 I think I have settled on a name having tried a few out. Derek is currently my favourite but maybe you have a better idea. Maybe you do not.

But what should I call him? I do not want a fantasy name, but something more like Derek, Bernard, Colin, Russell or Phillip. Other names are of course available so feel free to help it get a name. but nothing too fancy. Just an honest British first name that is a little old fashioned but not biblical in nature. So NO Ezekiel's or Jedidiah's. Your help is appreciated!

BUF (part 10)

Yes this may be the last BUF post. I believe I have painted over a platoon now for Matt. I suspect these last 5 figures will draw the BUF to a close for a while if not permanently. Matt has mentioned both Anglican League and Socialists as being next but I will wait and see and at this stage can offer no better clues.

So we have an officer (Copplestone castings I believe) and a flag bearer (who is footsore miniatures). The Flag is by Pete Barfield and sold by Solway.

Additionally Matt has asked me to paint 3 females. While they all have Khaki trousers I have given them all white blouses.  This serves 2 purposes, one it clearly identifies them as ladies on the table top, secondly it allows them to be used by different factions if Matt chooses to. Generally though I suspect he will use them as BUF troops though. He does now have the option of some other faction if he chooses. Yes I can see 1 still wears a BUF Cap but if I paint the socialists  caps the same way (I just might you know) she may be more of a socialist.

Anyway, now I am to paint some medieval Turkish (possibly Tartar) Cavalry for Peter at the club. As he does not want them based I may not put them on my blog especially as I have no idea what colours to paint them. So instead on Friday (when I post next) I would expect a fantasy figure as I am painting it at the same time, and yes it is for Frostgrave.

Frostgrave campaign start.

Well it was 2 weeks since our start and will be at least a month before the next game of Frostgrave, but we are now up and running. 4 of us are all playing on the same board at the same time! Ian (Witch) Relfie (Necromancer) Kev (Elementalist) and myself as an enchanter. In fact the same types of mages we played in the pre-campaign. We had all changed spells a few times though having seen how goo or bad our first selection was. Mostly for convenience I stuck to almost the same retinue as last time just swapping an infantryman for an archer. Spell wise I decided on the following:

• Animate Construct (8+)
• Grenade (10+)
• Telekinisis (8+)
• Elemental bold (14+ Aligned)
• Absorb Knowledge (10+ Aligned)
• Fog (10+ Aligned)
• Leap (12+Neutral)
• Heal (12+ Neutral)

And only a slight change in my retinue 4 archers and 2 Infantrymen (as opposed to 3 of each)

Pregame spells were cast and I got a single Medium construct, my apprentice Called Nigel) missed getting another medium construct by 1. So I was just a little under strength from last time, but not greatly.

We played on a board that Kev had made for nothing or next to nothing. Which really did look very good indeed and even better when you knew what it was and what it cost. needles to say not all the terrain fitted in exactly but we do not generally worry about that too much. The first turn saw a group activation from me and my wizard cast Telekinesis to get the treasure close enough for an archer to pick up. And in the Apprentice phase the archer and loot counter were leaped from the table but the apprentice did have to empower the spell by 3 points to secure my first loot counter on my first turn. There was voiced concern from the other players both at me taking the damage from empowering the spell and also if this was allowable in the rules as the archer had already been activated and the Leap spell would mean that he could do nothing else that turn. But as he was then off of the table I had no further plans for him. Kev Cat a wall (the beige building on the right.) and Ian cast Fog all to stop me getting more loot. Their plans worked! No More loot in turn 1 for me, not that I would have been able to anyway, but both spells did force me to change my plans! (The rotters) Relfie did pick up some loot as well, but Kev had his crossbow man shoot the thug. Which then shuffled of his mortal coil and passed into eternal night. But picking up the loot had bought on 2 skeletons right behind kevs front line. While me picking up the loot had not generated anything!

Turn Two. Ian was getting happy with the Fog and laid down 2 more strips (one from wizard the other from apprentice. I used another archer to move and pick up another loot counter. Which Kev then shot with another crossbowman. Again straight out of the game in a single hit. So I moved another archer to pick it up. Again my apprentice did manage to cast leap spell and the loot was finally moved from the board.. But there were no more easy loot counters to snaffle up. The closet was to Ian but behind the fog so my archers were useless being unable to see and shoot beyond this curtain. Ian's tactics were working well. This did generate a random monster (an Ice spider) right behind me.  (Yeak!).Ian was battling another random monster (a wolf) and snaffling up as much loot as he could while Relfie and Kev were deep in battle with each other and doing physical damage to each others wizards through spells arrows and knowing them harsh (but friendly) banter. The Ice spider badly wounds my infantry that was sent to kill it while my other one just seems to provoke it more. I gernerally move up using the Wall Kev created as cover and get my construct close to Kevs apprentice. Next turn I will strike!

Well again my plans did change as I did manage to kill one ice spider but then another appeared in exactly the same place. I have come to hate Ice spider.

Turn 3 my construct engages Kevs apprentice in melee . Kev and Relfie continue the wizard battle and both take serious wounds. Ian Gets 2 loot counters from the board while Both Kev and Relfie manage to bag one each. I don't get any this turn  but do move an archer ready to pick up another one just before Kev sends an infantryman to attack him. So we both stand over it and neither of us can pick it up as they are fighting. Ian continues to cast fog and cuts all lines of sight and while he does try to move an archer to shoot my Wizard (who is called Dave!) the fog is too high and he cannot see over it despit3 his elevation. But He can shoot at one of Relfie's, so he does do that instead. There is a little sparing between the archers of mine and Kev's but it is mostly indecisive.

The battle with the Ice spider continues to rage and I do loose an infantryman and have another seriously wounded. These two ice spiders have cost me dear in terms of both men and time. But eventually they do both die. but have cost me 1 dead infantryman and one severely wounded (2 HP left) and have kept them out of the fight in the game so far.

Turn 4.Kev's wizard is badly wounded and takes the very wise choice of getting out of the way and out of line of sight. Seeing how badly battered I am Ian takes the fight to Relfie and picks up another loot counter. It does generate a mosnster (Wild dog) and guess where. Yep right behind my wizard. The places are all rolled randomly, it just does not feel like it sometimes!

Some of the fog starts to disappear, as does The wall I am using for cover. leaving my wizard and apprentice in the open. Both severley wounded and both only on one action. I scurry them both into cover out of sight as best I can. Kiev still gets a crossbow shot at my wiz but the dice gods smile and he misses.

My construct also has some favourable dice and puts Kev's Apprentice out of the game. Things are not good for Kev as his Wizard is also hit and put out of the game by Relfies Necromancer (I think he used a "Steal life "spell). But Relfie is also in a bad way as well and taking his second loot counter moves his wizard of table.

Turn 5. I am down to my last few men and everything is wounded. Kev is able to pepper my construct with arrows and crossbow bolts and it goes out of action. I have one wounded archer one wounded infantryman as well as both my enchanter and apprentice on 4 hits or less. With his single action the enchanter kills the wild dog. While the single action of the apprentice fails to cast a spell and instead takes a single wound leaving him but 1 left. At this stage Relfie runs his final figure from the board and the game ends.

Aftermath:
Ian ended on 290 Exp and 3 loot
Relfie on 270 exp and 2 loot
I was on 200 exp and 2 loot
Kev's wounded Wizard failed to recover from his wounds and will be starting again from zero in a months time.

Loot wise managed to replace my losses (except the construct which rolled a natural 1. Kev must have hit a vital component and I will have to make another one before the next game. I also scored a ring of power (1) which I sold and bought 2 healing potions. And I also had a Grimoire with the "beauty" spell. We did have a brief discussion and decided that the effect of the Beauty spell would be on all forms of attacks including spell casting and arrow fire so for one of my 2 advances I did learn the spell. My second advance was fight +1. This is because it is used in both melee and  shooting and also the apprentice also benefits.

So with two healing potions and 30gc in the bank I start the next game also being able to cast beauty. I also have a nice cosy laboratory as my base.

Overall a good fun game and at several points I had different options which may have changed the balance of the game. I have learnt a lot more about how to play and when to use certain spells as I am sure the other players have,

Thanks for reading, I know it was a long read . And may your dice roll high.

BUF (Part 9) Sniper

Well they all go back to Matt tomorrow so there will be no group shot. But they are all finished and boxed and ready for transit. so he will get first look, as so he should. But they are all photographed, just in case I forget my camera tomorrow I will have something to blog come Monday. But here is a sneak peek.

A single figure of a BUF sniper. I am afraid I do not know the make but I think it has had a head swap anyway. It was great fun to paint the camouflage Ghillie suit. Just a single colour (Camo Green by GW) with a black wash and a highlight. Then a mix of different greens and browns on each of the tassels to break up the outline 

Right this was an unscheduled blog post. so I hop you were not expecting too much or too many figures, just the one today.

All the best Clint.

Post script: I have added a different pic to my last post as the camera light was just that little bit brighter.