11th Hussars (28mm)

Yes more Foundry 28mm figs painted for Matt for his Crimean War project. These were not as bad to paint as I first thought. Yeah Okay they wee bad enough but that is because I am both out of practice and don't know the period so have to check every detail. Talking of details if you see anything wrong kindly let me know I have been as accurate as I am able but really no expert so bound to have made a mistake or two. Just better NOT to keep repeating mistakes is all.

Also I am not expecting a quick reply from anyone as it is Salute weekend and many will be at that or keen at least to see some show reports so this may slip under the radar!

 As mentioned they are 28mm Wargames Foundry figures and part of the Crimean War range.

At the very bottom of the post I have included a jacket of the uniform which was used at the period. So feel free to check it and see if I got it at least a little correct. (I know you will anyway). I find Gold very hard to paint, it usually requires 3 coats to even begin to look correct. And these for example have 4 coats including a very light black wash.  I hate Painting Gold Acrylics it never looks right.

That's it have fun enjoy the weekend and get some painting done IF you get the chance!
All the Best Clint

Matts new Project

Yep 28mm Crimea war. I know a little about the Crimean war but really not much so tis I think may be a steep learning curve. Very steep indeed!

These are 28mm FOUNDRY figures depicting Lord Raglan and his staff. As mentioned I do not really know this period so if I make any mistakes please forgive me.  To me they were a nice bunch of 28mm figures. Luckily Matt did provide me with a pic to copy which I then did. Certain things were changed of course, like the base and the colour of the horses but overall I followed the picture fairly accurately.

I did look at certain paintings to get the uniform colours and did notice that some of the plumes on the hats were black. As the pic Matt gave me had white plumes though I went for white as I figured maybe they were either different regiments or even different ranks and that Matts pic was the correct one. I still have no clue so if you know better kindly let me know. I hasten to add I am not looking doe masses of information, just trying to get it right for next time.

The last (small) pics are the same pics but from different angles so you might get a better idea on the figures.

Finally this is not a period I am really into and while I have enjoyed painting them for a change I imagine I will very quickly become tired of it. They are not as bad as Napoleonic's and for that I am grateful, but still not my absolute favourite period to paint

 Needless to say click the pics if you want to see them bigger.

Until next time allow me to dasy dream about more 20th century things.
All the best Clint

Repaint, Rebase, Repurpose! (15mm)

Firstly I must apologise. It is just very DULL here and I am unable to take any decent pics, despite 3 separate attempts. So this is the best of a bad bunch.

Secondly 2 skirmish stands for my Viking force in Longships. Very old figures with at least 3 coats of paint Probably (much) more. 3 Minifigs and 1 2 dragons for those that are really interested all purchased some 40+ years ago originally. Not much to say as they all very old and very nasty but Vikings did not ever have a lot of skirmishers and these are 14 points out of the 400 max I am allowed so I probably will rather use more spear carrying force and less skirmishers.

In the rules Skirmishers are an annoying distraction. Many forces Like the Irish or the Scotts don't even need to pay points for them. But Vikings have to and to be honest they are annoying but don't cause too much pain to the enemy so are generally best left until you get a cavalry unit to ride them down. Oh yeah Vikings don't use much cavalry! I suspect you can see the cunning flaw in that plan.






3rdly (am I making up words again) a change of project. Here are Modern Russians.  Again 15mm. I was in two minds about selling these on eBay. Instead I have rebased and re-paint, and they are now repurposed.

Starting with the "regular" soldiers I now have 3 bases of Professional quality troops. While you may hope that all your troops are of this quality in the bush wars of Africa (At least in the AK 47 rules) these are actually very rare troops. So rare in fact that I have NEVER used any professional quality troops! They are all armed with Assault rifles (AKs as it happens) some even with underslung grenade launchers. In the rules Profesional quality troops are good but the points cost makes them VERY limiting. They are also my only troops that have helmets!


 Along with Assault rifle armed troops I now have 4 bases armed with RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades). As in the rules you asre limited to 2 stands per unit I have enough for 2 units. Also in the rules they can act as "Normal" professional quality troops they will all do double duty as riflemen. As the points value is exactly the same Most (if not all) AK players buy these first for a unit as it just makes more sense to do so.


The RPG is a common sight in news footage but realistically they should be a little more rare. But just as camera-men in modern times like to take pics of RPGs a similar parallel can be drawn with WW2 camera-men liking to take pics of TANKS, which were actually a lot less common that most wargamers think.

Next up I have 4 stands of LMGs. Now the points cost means I am probably not going to use these much unless I use them as Riflemen., but as the rest were revitalised it made sense to do these as well. You never know It is possible to have a unit promoted a grade temporarily for a battle so it is possible they may get used a lot. Well one can dream can't one!

The last 2 pics is of all the professional troops together. I have slim hopes of getting them all on the table at one time, but you never know stranger things have happened in my wargaming pastime. That being the case I will keep my fingers crossed.

The modern Russians are team Yankee figures and it is a single pack now used as AK-47 figures. It works out a LOT cheaper to do this than to buy dedicated Peter Pig AK figures.

Now my AK 47 force is just about finished. By that I mean I have more than enough to play a game but there is always room for more and I do have my beady eyes on a few more acquisitions. But they an Wait until Selwg at the very least.

Thanks for looking today. My work bench is now clear so on with 28mm figs next! (Insert evil cackling as desired!)

Long Ships (2nd Unit)

Yes some more 15mm Vikings for my second unit in Longships. Longships in case you had forgotten is the Peter Pig game of the same name concerned with Viking/Anglo Saxon warfare.

As we only have 400 points here is another unit ( a small one). ! leader (compolury), 3 Un-armoured stands (again compulrory) and 3 Armoured stands. Only 7 stands in the unit but 3 armoured stands count this unit as superior!

A mixture of makes. Tabletop games, two Dragons, Minifigs and a few I just do not know. So if you do more power to you as I have no idea. But they are all 15mm in size. I do not mind some being taller then others after all we are all different in real life.

I went for a Blue and white shield colour scheme just to conveniently tell one unit apart from another and NOT being historically accurate. As this will count as a Superior unit I hope it will aquit itself quite well on the tabletop although I know a few bad dice rolls and the unit will flee. But this will be the standard unit composition of my force. At least until a few games in and I reserve the right to reassess te force when I see how it plays.

That's it for now. More 15m coming soon and some 28mm now started. Until next time take care and paint as much as you feel like.

Part of Gettysburg Day 2.

Gettysburg today

At the club yesterday we played PART of Gettysburrg (day 2) Using the Fire and Fury rules. I was part of the Confederate attack I wasa to play the part of Hood and Peter was to play Mc Laws. Tim played the Union forces and his job was to stop us. Tims figures, club terrain and while not totally accurate it was good enough to get a feel of what was happening in the battle, back in July 1863.

Devils Den in real life
at the battlefield.
in modern times.

My objectives were to take round top and Devils Den. Peter was to inflict twice as many casualties on the enemy as we both took in reply. Both objectives had to occur within 10 turns this would be very challenging indeed. I measured the distance and no matter what I could not cover the distance within 8 turns, which was the original game length, I was about 20cm short no matter how lucky I got no matter what I did . Therefore Tim who set the scenario out boosted the scenario length from 8 to 10 turns. Still tough but at least physically possible without all my troops being Langford Christie!

And so the battle begins:

My starting position
My objectives not shown,
still in the distance.

Turn 1
Peter on the left
Me on the right.

Peter on my left
The rivers were streams and fordable
the whole length
 



Turn 2
All moving slowly forward
Ok me going as fast as I could

Turn 4
I am still moving as fast as I am able
 

Turn 4
Pete pushes forward and starts to inflict damage

Turn 5
I prepare to assault Devils Den
all the while advancing towards Round top
with a dream of getting Artillery to the top

Turn 5
Tim is struggling to move troops from reserve
Pete and Tim are now locked in a battle
and without support from reserve Tim tries to turn our left flank
with limited success

Turn 6
It is a close run thing
My asrtillery has now managed to destroy Tims guns
Tim has the position but is low on ammunitio
 



Turn 6
Peter continues to inflict casualties
he does however take some of his own.
Tim has a brigade in the woods which refuse to advance
 

Turn 7
Time Guns destroyed I can cross the stream
and begin the clibd up Round Top
mean while in rhe Devils Den I become low on ammunition
and "disrupted" which mirrors Tims troops

turn7
Peter pushes into the centre
while his left wing is forced to give ground
it is anyones game

Turn 8
I rally the troops and keep Tim "disrupted" and low on ammunition.
One big push an we shall have the devils Den



Turn 8
With Peters left wing in retreat and Tim following up
Peter is able to bring ALL his cannon to bear.

Turn 9
Tim holds Devils den as my first unit if pushed back
and retreats. My second unit is ready for another attempt next turn though.

Turn 9
Peter brings all 4 gun batteries to bear on a single unit.
It survives but drops to a "worn" classification.
Elsewhere Peters Infantry is slowly getting the upper hand.
Tims troop in the wood still don't move!

Turn 10
One last push and I succeed and hurl Tim back but not out of the Devils Den.
Tim Counterattacks and retakes the position.
Curses foiled again.

turn 10
On the Left Tin keeps pushing the left wing and peter keeps pushing the centre.
Eventually Peter's Artillery is just too strong.
but is it enough.

End Game

Conclusion:
At then end of the game I held Round top. But did not take the Devils Den.
we counted up the Casualties. We had lost a total of 27 stands, which is quite a lot
Tim and the Union had less than 54 stands!
So It was a Tacticle Victory to the Confederates.
Yes  we could have done better. But we could also have done a LOT worse.


Final thoughts: I need to get my 2 6mm ACW armies finished. As the rules were fine and the game was fine and fun.

AK 47 Tank Ok a JS2

For those that do not know AK-47 is a set of rules by Peter Pig. I have tried the newer set (still quite old now) and do not like them. I do however like the old AK rules. I also think the club would benefit from a continuous game. ( I am reluctant to use the word campaign as they seem to think we will play the same set of rules every time, and let's be honest we all want a change). So on Sunday I will propose starting an AK 47 series of games.

I hope to set it up like one of my old necromunda campaigns so people an drop in and drop out as the whim takes them. And yet still have consistency of groups and people. BUT no you will not be able to control more than 1 African faction. As a side note Shame Fran is not in the area as I really do think this would be his sort of game as it usually is devoid of hedges but does nave other things to hide behind.

Anyway this is a Zvedzda 100th scale (therefore many use them as 15mm) JS2 heavy tank used by a great deal of countries around the world in the 1970's . Painted in a fictional colour scheme which I think is suitable for Africa (You are of course free to disagree but Africa is rather large and it does have a WIDE variety of terrains).
The model went to together very easily and despite my best instincts really was fool proof. I will be interested in getting another of these just to give me some variety of units and Knowing the rules having a "professional" quality tank on the table costs a lot of points BUT does tend to scare the opponents in AK terms.

That's it for today. next time either more about the campaign proposal or far more likely some Vikings. Until then take care have fun and roll some dice like you are a dice rolling fiend intent on winning.

WIP and Spendz.

Yes it has been a SLOW week wargames wise. However here are the first Work -in-Progress (WIP) photos of the Dieselpunk project. I HASTEN (Capitals and underlined) to add that is only the rough and is subject to change  in a very big way. In fact I have reached this stage before and scrapped it all so I am aware that it may happen that way again.

The "donor" vehicle is a Matchbox "Yesteryear truck and equates to about 28mm. All good so far. I have to add some armour to the sides and a turret and maybe a mine or oils slick dropper to the back. I will have to see as I get closer to completion.  The biggest problem of course is that each panel is a 3d curve so it has to be cut and shaped separately, tried in place and then attached with superglue. It's tricky time consuming and frustrating BUT when it is finished I am sure it will look very Dieselpunk and will become a much cherished vehicle, even if it is horrible in game terms. As for game terms we will just have to wait and see. I have at this stage NO clue how it will do.

Wargmes Terrain Workshop
A great display
I am told Dave is a regular
visitor to the shop
so if he wants to meet face to face one time
just let me know and we will
make it Happen.

LUCID EYE
in sock

You may remember that 2 weeks ago we (as a club) could not attend a local show due to the POOR weather. So I thought I would cheer myself up and have a little spend. I was of course in Rochester Wargames and model Railway shop.  They seem to have a lot more stock in most of it of interest to me

LUCID EYE (LINK) are now stocked. A figure range I have seen on eBay but not in the "Flesh". If youi do not know the range click the link to find out more.

The shop has also started to stock 15mm figures. WW2 Flames of war has been in stock for ages, but now some ancients and I must say BRAVO for that.

I was also interested to see some 15mm Vietnam stuff. I am VERY picky about Vietnam wargames so I did not get any. However it is a pleasure to see it  among the usual GW fodder.

No I did not look for necromunda. I meant to just forgot.

Here is what I did buy!

• A 1/100th scale JS 2 This will be a quick add to my AK 47 force for battles in Africa. After all we all need some heavy tanks!
• A pack of Savage Core (lucid eye) figures. More of these when I paint them. I hope to start them this week
• 2 pots of much needed paint
• A rules supplement. I had to import this from America, took about 9 working days and is the supplement I really wanted for "Force on Force" but was never able to find in this country. (sold out was the most common answer) again more on this (but so far not able to put down) in an upcoming post.

Well that' it for today I promise to get on with some hobby stuff today after I make the Roast Dinner (No none for you) wash up and then paint the kitchen cupboards. So that is my day planned out.

All the best Clint. Have a good day folks.