The Weekend

From a wargaming point of view the weekend just gone was quite unproductive, but enjoyable from a gaming viewpoint as I spent most of it playing Skyrim on the PC, which I haven't done since my hard drive hard to be re-formatted just before Christmas and I lost everything on it ...   :(

That said, on saturday I did get a delivery of some supply wagons and casualties from Baccus 6mm that I (sort of!) need for Command Combat: (American) Civil War. These rules state that whenever a unit takes damage a 'dead marker' should be placed on the table which I think will add to the visual effect of the game as well as having an effect in the rules. The supply wagons are needed to carry ammo markers that can remove a brigade's low ammo status.  I could use the paper markers that are included in the game, but I think miniatures would be better.

I hope to get everything necessary for a game of Command Combat ready soon - I already have the miniatures; over a hundred stands of both Federals and Rebels but not sure on terrain ... I need to do an audit of my 6mm ACW terrain ...

I'm aiming to do 1st Bull Run initially - seems appropriate - and that's available as a free scenario from Wargames Vault (which has most of the game's rules included) if anyone's interested in following my progress.

VBCW PAC (5)

At long last some photo's!  These show the latest progress on the VBCW PAC (Very British Civil War People's Assault Column), which has been to decorate the bases.

I'm not sure whether they look too crowded now ... anyway, the next & final step will be to spray them with a matt varnish to put a sealing layer on the basing and remove the gloss from the army painter dip.

This first pic show the standard bearer from the Empress Miniatures "Miliciana Female militia including LMG team" pack from their Spanish Civil War Republican range (pack MIL9) with the standard I concocted for her

Next, from Ironclad Miniatures, are a Policeman & Fireman

Here we have Ironclad's Miner Command Pack consisting of a sergeant and officer

L- Sergeant   R- Officer

The two banner bearers from the Sloppy Jalopy Miners pack

 Finally, a Lewis gun team; the gunner is from Sloppy Jalopy and the number two from Ironclad

As a note, my PAC originates from Portsmouth - hence the Portsmouth flags - and Hampshire has no history of mining ... well, with that said, I think there was some mining for flint in pre-history, but definitely none with any relevance to the VBCW.  So, I've taken a knife to the Ironclad miners' helmets and converted them to (resemble) bowler hats, so they won't be the same as the pictures on Ironclad's website.  If you look at my pic of the Miners' command figures above, the sergeant had a miner's helmet and the office a bowler hat

Phew! That's a relief!!

I promised pictures in my last post and was all set to take some of the basing progress I've made on my VBCW PAC figures, when  I realised that I could not find my Hudl that I use to take the pic's.

Searching high & low on Sunday evening & Monday morning did not reveal it ... last night it came to me that the last time I'd seen it was in the hire car that I had used for the work trip to Manchester last week!  (My employer will not let me drive my own car - I have to have a hire car ... No, I don't know why.)

Luckily, a phone call to the company that arranges our rentals led to me discovering that I had left in the hire car & I went to collect it at lunch time!

I had pretty much resigned myself to having to get a camera or new Hudl - what a relief!

As tonight's game at the Winchester club has just been postponed, I'll get take some pics tonight.

Enthusiasm ... what's that?

Well ... I've just not had the desire to unbox my kickstarter reward yet.  I could make excuses about being busy, which I have been, but I could have made the time to unbox Devil's Run, I've just not wanted to do it.

I helped my sister move house last weekend, and have been away for work this week (I'm typing this in sunny Manchester), but still found the time to put the tiles for my 4 Warbases buildings on and make a bunch of cards for the ACW rules I'm itching to try out - Command Combat: Civil War

Oh well. Hopefully I'll do something with the box this weekend. I at least hope to get a wiggle on with some of my VBCW stuff - either the bases of the figures or getting one of the buildings together

Whatever I do, I'll put some pics up - honest!

Devil's Run (1) Kickstarter Arrival

Had a red card from the post office at home last night when I got in, so went there this morning to collect the parcel ...

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was my reward for backing the kickstarter project The Devil's Run: Route 666, "a 20mm-scale post-apocalyptic vehicular combat board game from Word Forge Games".

As I'm now at work [ :( ], I've not had a chance to unbox it and drool over the new toys, so will hopefully get to do that over the weekend & post some pic's if possible!

If this tickles your fancy, or scratches the 'new project' itch, you can download the rules from this page to see what it's like.

VBCW PAC (4)

I applied the dip to the VBCW PAC (People's Assault Column) last night as the game I had been going to play at the Winchester club was postponed until next week.

I did all the figures I've painted so far and there are a few photos of some of them below.  The standards all came from threads at the VBCW forum, where their creators had published them.

Standard Bearers

I applied the dip using a brush - it gives less wastage than actual dipping IMO - and painted the paper standards as well. I've not done this before and am pleased with how they've come out.

2 Sloopy Jalopy on the L, 2 Ironclad on the R

 My favourites I think are the Empress Miniatures "Miliciana Female militia including LMG team" pack from their Spanish Civil War Republican range (pack MIL9):

Yet to do a standard for the one on the R!

If I need any more infantry, I think I'll get some more from this range.

Next step is to decorate bases, then matt varnish spray. Then the vehicles and support teams ...

VBCW PAC (3)

I've managed quite a bit of painting since my post about motivation and the PAC (People's Assault Column) has now 37 figures past the first stage - next stage is applying the 'magic' dip.  The vehicle I'd been waiting for to use with them arrived at the weekend too, and I'm re-purposing a resin vehicle I've had for a while as well.

So, do I now keep going with the painted stuff to finish them, or start painting the Boyes team, HMG and vehicles?

Decisions, decisions ....

Motivation ...

I've been having real motivation issues this week :(  Where I should have been painting my VBCW figures - specifically the 20+ miners I have from Ironclad and Sloppy Jalopy, getting my brushes and paints out to start them just seems to have been too much ...

I have done some things though;

• a Warbases paint bottle rack for my growing assortment of Vallejo paints arrived yesterday and I assembled that
• I've put together some 'dispersed' movement trays for use with Back of Beyond
• I made a (small!) start on the roof tiles for one of my VBCW terraces

But what I should be doing is getting on with the VBCW figures. Hopefully, I'll make some progress on them over the next couple of evenings and the weekend.

In other news, I've discovered Michael Scott's 1809 blog about his 10mm Napoleonic project, which is inspiring, and I've been thinking a lot about Horizon Wars and how I'm hoping to use it for some figures that I've had for years and not found a set of rules for. What is it about wargamers that means as soon as we get a set of rules, we immediately want to change/adapt them?

New Rules

Another delivery arrived yesterday, this time though, it was new wargames rules - 'En Garde!' (EG) & 'Horizon Wars' (HW) both from Osprey.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I was expecting of them, but having flicked through EG & read HW I'm very pleased with both. 

I have some 28mm ECW from  a couple of years ago (another stalled project...) so a warband for EG should be easy enough, but is not a priority right now (that's the VBCW PAC, followed by the BoB White Russians).

As for HW ... I have stacks of 6mm SF and with the size of the game, I can do multiple forces - woo-hoo!! I like HW from the read through and looking forward to trying it.

Iron Stars

One game I've had for years - even painted the miniatures for! - but have still yet to play, is Iron Stars by Majestic 12 Games, a game of Edwardian space combat.

Brigade Models have a (small) range of ships for the game that covers British, Russian and Austro-Hungarian spaceships.  Ever since I first read the rules and saw Brigade's ships I've wanted to play this game, so I bought and painted some Austro-Hungarians:

and Russians:

I believe that these rules would be very good - with some tweaks, such as altitude rules - for use with Brigade's wonderful Aeronef range.

Hopefully I'll be able to (finally!) arrange a game at the Winchester club

Mbote Government Communique Released

In response to the blatantly false statement issued by the propaganda minister of Zubuto - Dr Spin Goballs - through the fiction of a 'home affairs correspondent', the Mbote government released the following statement.

"It was with incredulity that the 'story' created by Dr Goballs was received here in Daijones, the glorious capital of Mbote.

"Complete fiction from start to finish, this story omits the fact that the heroic Mbote Defence Force had been forced to stop the unprovoked invasion of sacred Mbote soil by the spineless minions of puppet dictator DuDu.

"Arriving first on the scene, the militia Layland Regiment was able to halt heavy armoured elements of the so-called "People's" Zubutu Army (PZA).  From this strong foundation, the armour of the Mbote Hoki-Koki Brigade drove back the vile invaders. Unfortunately, outclassed in equipment by PZA, the heroic Hoki-Koki suffered several setbacks in their efforts. However, the inspired leadership of tribal King Anndi, commander of the Hoki-Koki, drove the PZA butchers again and again off the sacred soil of Mbote.

destroyed ZPA armour

"On the very cusp of their victory, the vehicles of the Layland Regiment were destroyed in a dastardly ambush by Zubutoan attack helicopters supplied by DuDu's superpower puppet masters, proving once again that DuDu knows his minions are no match for the heroes of Mbote without outside help bought with the fruits of the Zubutoan people's labours.

"At this point it seemed that the Zubutoan criminals would be able to break through the glorious defence of the Hoki-Koki Brigade's armoured elements and pillage the valley of the river Urehavinalarf - home of the majestic spaghetti plantations of Mbote.

Mbote spaghetti harvest

"In a stroke of brilliance, King Anndi timed the arrival of the infantry component of the Hoki-Koki Brigade perfectly and their renowned anti-helicopter weaponry and training, led to the cowards in the ZPA helicopters to flee back to their homes.

ZPA helicopter that came too close to the Hoki-Koki

"With Mobote soil protected and the PZA armour all destroyed, victory for the Mbote people was assured.

"It is understood that the so-called victory parade in Mpangi was only possible because the PZA tanks wrecks were towed from the field in the dead of night, painted, and then towed through the streets of the den of iniquity that is Mpangi under the rule of the puppet dictator DuDu.

"We have learned from this unfortunate incident and will be upgrading the equipment of the Hoki-Koki heroes to dissuade the puppet DuDu and his minions from repeating their evil actions."

HAIL THE VICTORIOUS MDF!

VICTORY TO MBOTE!

Peter Pig's AK47 (1)

I played my first game of Peter Pig's AK47 Republic rules for fictional conflicts in post-colonial Africa last night.  It was put on by Jim of Jim's Wargames Workbench who provided all the figures and terrain, and he has put a short AAR with pictures in a post on his blog.

I've wanted to play AK47 for years (I bought the latest edition of the rules at Salute), but not had the opportunity to do so before last night, so many thanks to Jim!!

We didn't play the latest edition last night - we used the older edition available as a pdf, so what follows may not be relevant to the newer edition ...

The rules require you to provide 5 units in your force, but then randomise the number of them that arrive on the table. This is a 'nice' touch adding to the unpredictability of the game, but the chance of the rest of your force arriving seems, to me, to be too small. It meant that on our attacking side- the Mbote Defence Force (MDF), only 4 of our 5 units actually got on the table and 1 of them arrived on the last turn, while for Jim's defenders - the Zubuto Army of the People (ZAP) - only 3 turned up.

With the added complication of changes to your units being possible in the pre-game 'political' phase it seems that you have to prepare a lot of figures that potentially won't be used ...

Personally, I would like to see the chance of units arriving increasing as more turns pass; I'll try a bit of google-fu and see if there are some house rules about this somewhere.

Anyway, despite this whining, an AK47 force is definitely being added to the project list! I need to read the rules to work out what it might be though - recreating the charge of the light brigade in 'technicals' does have a certain appeal!

VBCW PAC (2)

Some reinforcements for my VBCW PAC (People's Assault Column) arrived over the weekend. Specifically, from Footsore Miniatures' 28mm Inter War Period 1918-1939 range, a  Militia Boys Anti-Tank Team:

and a Workers Militia HMG Team:

They should give my force some much needed punch!

I also got Footsore's 1930-40's Rural Types:

which will come in handy for some of the events on the Went the Day Well event card deck that I finished making at the weekend.

I painted the Firemen, Female Militia and made progress on the utility vehicle, but they aren't ready to show yet.

Finally, it needs to be pointed out that my PAC, contrary to fascist propaganda, are socialists and not communists!

All photos in this post are from Footsore Miniatures' website and used without permission

VBCW PAC (1)

It has been pointed out to me that my prospective opponent has a BUF (British Union of Fascists) force ready & waiting to take on my Socialist PAC (People's Assault Column).

For the basic background of the VBCW click on this link to go a post on the VBC Forum; similarly, click on this link to see a post with the list of factions.

So, with that in mind, time to stop progressing the buildings and begin on the troops. The majority of the figures I have so far, are from Ironclad Miniatures VBCW range, with most of them being Miners

Ironclad Mini's Miners

The pic above shows 2 packs of miners with rifles in the back row & in the front from left to right, the 2 miner bombers, the 2 miner command & the 2 man miner lewis team

I also have Sloppy Jalopy's pack "The Miners" which are the 11 figures in the pic below with white bases,  Most of the pack have separate heads - can't remember exactly how many though ...

Also in the pic are a pilot from the Back of Beyond pilot pack and the last figure from the Pulp Figures pack I used for my Back of Beyond White Russian command group; I may use them in the VBCW force - not sure at the moment though.

As well as the miners, I have some firemen & armed police from Ironclad, and a female militia pack from Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil War Republican range :

As you can see they have yet to be undercoated.

I've also got a couple of vehicles on the go; in the pic below, on the left is Reiver Castings' Tyneside Uitility [sic] Recce Vehicle (Tracked) and on the right is some of a partially assembled Croydon Crusher (the miner is there as a size guide)

So, painting these begins tonight!

New Toys

Some new toys have arrived in the last couple of days.

2 Deep-Cut Studio gaming mats arrived that I had ordered from Wayland Games. I went to them as, at the time, they had a 20% off sale. Anyway, both mats are their 'mousepad' format and the first is a 4 foot square cobblestone design:

Cobblestone mat, showing front & back of mat

 and the second is a 3 foot square grass design:

Grass mat, showing front & back again

I'm pleased with these mats, both the designs and the 'mousepad' format, which I admit, I was a little nervous about.  The pictures show the stripes on the backs of the mats like you find on the back of non-rigid mouse mats and, I believe, will prevent any slipping or moving of the mats when in use.

I chose the cobblestones for use with my VSF and urban VBCW games, and the grass mat for smaller skirmish games, specifically Song of Blade & Heroes using my Splintered Light 20mm fantasy mini's.

Another arrival was a couple of packs of Cossacks to bring my Back of Beyond White Russians upto 18 cavalry so I can field 2 units of 9 - I previously had 12 which would have been only 1 unit.

The final thing in this report is this (hopefully!) useful pack of weapons I found in the Pulp Figures range on North Star's site:

It has 2 models of each of the 4 weapons included; I stuck them together with blu-tac for this pic:

They will be useful for VBCW vehicles - I can already see my Fire Engine having a 37mm gun!

VBCW Buildings (3)

Got the photos this time, but made no progress on anything last night :( , so more on the VBCW buildings ...

Each side of the buildings has 2 'layers'. The 'inner layer' has the window frames and doors etched on them and the 'outer layer' has holes so that the windows & doors appear recessed when viewed from the outside (as they should be IMO). This pic shows the terrace front's 'inner layer' - as I have 2 of these, you can see the etched external & plain internal sides at the same time.  The inner has the painted window frames & undercoated doors, while the internal side has been sprayed white - I chose white as it will hopefully make things inside easier to see!

This next pic shows the undercoated 'outer layer' placed atop the 'inner layer' shown in the last pic. Once the doors have been painted I think it'll look quite good

And finally for this post, a pic of the assembled roof waiting for the tiles to be attached. The undercoated chimney is in place as you can see

VBCW Buildings (2)

I had intended to post some pics of my progress, but when I came to take them this morning I found I had no charge in the battery ... :(

So, this weekend I undercoated the Warbases' tiling sheets for my VBCW buildings and painted the window frames and doors where they show on the exteriors.

I am still undecided on what to do about the large window on the general store:

I don't think cutting it out is a solution really and I'm not convinced that a 1930s village shop would have such a large single pane window ... I'm currently thinking that I'll add a couple of vertical frames to divide the sheet into thirds which will look better IMO.  But that doesn't address the main issue - how do I finish it? what colour should I paint it?  requires further thought ...

I also have all the bits I need to make the event and unit cards for 'Went the Day Well?' rules and will be making a start on them today.

VBCW Buildings (1)

While at Salute this year, I collected my pre-order from Warbases which included their VBCW Starter Pack - 3 VBCW buildings for £40

I chose 2 Red Brick Terraces:

and the General Store:

The pics are from Warbases' site and must be old versions of the buildings as the windows & doorways are now completely cut out. The large shop window of the store isn't though, which, to be honest, I'm not happy with, so I think I'm going to try cutting it out myself.

I've undercoated the exterior with Halfords matt red primer, and the interiors with Wilkinsons' white primer - the worst spray paint I've ever used! shame I've got 2 tins of it ...

For the interiors, I'm adding 2 things. First. a floor texture from Dave Graffam Models' Low Ruins to give a bit of colour and second, I'll add a ledge behind the first floor windows so figures can be placed there,

I've also got some of Warbases' Pavements to go around the buildings:

All photos in this post are from Warbases' website and used without permission

Officially ceased posting ...

It's been nearly a year since I last posted on this blog, or, to be honest, had the desire to do so.

However, I have started going to the Wessex Wargamers Winchester club and have a new blog for this new beginning.

The new blog is here: Colin's Gaming blog

Back of Beyond - White Russians (1)

I've been putting together a White Russian force for Back of Beyond, using the lucky coincidence of the 20% off sale by Copplestone Castings when they joined North Star and my employer paying my annual bonus (which is based on the company's performance not mine!).

I've made good progress painting them and have got them all to the dip stage - where, having painted them, I apply Army Painter Quickshade (strong tone), which leaves a very glossy finish on the mini's.

Next stage is to 'decorate' the base, spray with some kind of sealant (not sure what to use at the moment) and then spray with a matt varnish.

Anyway, here are some pics of some of what I've done so far

Command Group in sabot base & Staff Officer

Field Gun with crew

Number 1 HMG

Number 2 HMG

How To - Sabot Base

Since starting going to Winchester wargames club, I've started a  new project - a force of White Russians for the Contemptible Little Armies rules from the Back of Beyond army lists.

Whilst at the club on Tuesday watching Jim's game against Andy, I was telling them about the White Russian command group and the sabot base I had created for it. I'm not sure I explained it very well, so I promised Jim that I'd do a post - with pic's - expanding on what I had been trying to explain. Here it is.

For my command group I'd got Pulp Figures' pack PHP 17 - Count Casamir's Trans-Siberian Renegades from North Star. As I also have the Pulp Alley rules I didn't want to create a permanent command group. I already had the bits I needed to create a sabot base for the group:

In the pic you can see 3 'Single Figure Circular Tray - (2mm Top Layer Only)' with a 2p piece in the centre one, demonstrating its fit, along with a 65mm diameter circular base, all of which I got from Warbases.

On the 'Single Figure Circular Tray - (2mm Top Layer Only)' page there are 3 dropdown menus that you have to select from- I chose: circular shape, 30mm diameter tray & 2p slot size.

A 65mm diameter base for the top layers is really the smallest you can get away with for 3 figures, as this pic shows:

I glued the 'top layers' to the base with ordinary PVA and once dry used polyfilla to disguise the step from the base to the top of the ring and painted it all with a sand colour:

I haven't got any further with the base as yet - I'm going to add some sand & a couple of tufts, etc, as you would with any other base

Here is the group itself in the sabot base

Hope this explains it somewhat better Jim!

A New Start ...

I did write a blog previously, but after almost a year of not posting decided to give that up and start afresh.

I have recently started going to the Wessex Wargamers Winchester club and, as a result, have one completely new project and made progress on another two that I had recently begun, so I have decided to start this new blog to record my progress on those projects and the others that are languishing without attention.

I've added a page dubbed 'Current Projects' which I will update as new projects are added, and maybe one day I'll add a page 'Completed Projects', if any are ever actually finished ...

A large part of the inspiration for this new blog is Jim's Wargames Workbench, an excellent blog by one of the club's members and I intend to shamelessly steal Jim's excellent idea of numbered blog posts for each project.

The first proper project post should be up soon, once I have some pictures for it.