Game with Postie's Rejects.

While at Broadside in Sittingbourne last year I got chatting to the group known as Postie's Rejects and was asked if I would like a game someday. Well, that day was yesterday. We had a Crimean War 15mm game to Postie's own rules where the British and French were defending a small town not far from the main supply port on the peninsula (the name escapes me at the moment) against the Russian Bear. I was given the left flank with the British, one Rifle Brigade and three others plus a battery of medium guns. Immediately opposite was Big Lee with eight Russian infantry battalions and a battery of guns. John was our CNC in the centre with Ray on the right. Opposite them were Ian, John and Smiffy.
   The game started well as my infantry fairly barrelled along the road to protect the left of the village, while our centre and right prepared to fight off another Russian Brigade.
    The long and the short of it was that the right centre was eventually overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers although my flank was holding it's own after reducing the spearhead of the Lee's Russian attack down from eight battalions to three through various morale checks under fire etc., it was decided that the Allies would have to withdraw and leave the field to the Russians.
   Postie's Shed o' War -which has the space for a 14' x 6' table with all the trimmings- was like a wargamer's Aladdin's Cave. I thought I had some lead but this bloke had got all of the main periods covered and then some in huge numbers -Postie said he has 30,000 15mm Napoleonic figures alone! I saw some of his other armies so I can well believe it.
   I had a brilliant time and it was a perfect example of what wargaming should be like, good conversation, lots of good natured banter with a lot of like minded people all enjoying their hobby. Plus, I couldn't knock the in-house catering as supplied by Postie -doorstep sarnies of cheese and pickle with fruit cake to follow. Food of the Gods! Thanks again all for a great day. They even made me and Honoury Member of Postie's Rejects and I have a little 7YW Frech figure on a plinth as a trophy. I'll post a picture of him next time as the camera is upstairs.

Here are some pics of the day.

 My initial command 

 The Opposition!

 Our Centre and Right

 The Russian Bear ambles forward towards the village.

 My Rifles and artillery slow down the battalion on the flank. That's one distracted, only the other seven to deal with now.

 Our Centre looks a bit hairy with all that lot bearing down on them.

 The Opposition l-r Lee, Ian, John and Smiffy. At this point in the game the Russians were not holding out much hope of success. How fortunes change.

The Russians ride roughshod over the French in the centre. The Russian cavalry -who up until that point had been described as cr*p- suddenly found their battle mojo and made short work of the French cavalry on the far flank, two battalions of Imperial Guard were forced back as was the line unit just to the right of the building. With no stable right flank -and not much of a centre either- the French CNC had no option but to call for a withdrawal.

In case you were wondering, the small pieces of white craft pipe-cleaners are first fire markers.

Completed Challenge and a bit of SciFi history

Again, using the same link as above, you will see that I have completed the challenge and posted the pictures as proof. These SciFi figures were bought on E-Bay from what appears to be a small unlisted company but are quite nice little figures. A few months ago I had an idea of resurrecting my SciFi RPG system that was written way back in the 80’s with a friend, John Priest, which we named StarQuest.

Now this chap is quite a character. When I met him he was a occasional member of the Circle Battle Group in that his work took him away a lot of the time. He was a Special Effects fellow who did some work on the film Labyrinth, having a hand in making the little fairies that Hoggle swats and also worked on the small wall based worm character.

So I bought a few figures online but am still looking for generic RPG-type SciFi figures rather than the omnipresent chaps in battle armour and festooned with all manner of nasty weapons. That project is still bubbling away.

Anyway, not only have I finished the figure, I thought that, in line with the rest of the world, I would make a charitable donation. I chose the Combat Stress Appeal Charity championed by Henry Hyde as the recipient. They can be found at http://www.combatstress.org.uk/ .

MickS.

Wargamers equivalent to the Ice Bucket Challenge.

If you go to Wargames Directory Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/373015629496598/?ref=ts&fref=ts

you will notice that I have been challenged by Richard Watts aka 'Eccles' on the WD3 forum to paint a single figure, any scale, any period, and post a pic on the page by Friday 12th August. Now as you are probably aware, akin to many other wargamers I have a lead mountain -nothing new there- but do you think I could think of one single figure to paint that was not part of an army? So, earlier today I had a quick rummage, dismissing 6mm as too small, 10mm as I have no single figures waiting for paint, no 25/28 to speak of so that only left one scale 15mm. then I remembered I had ordered some 15mm Sci Fi figures for a yet-to-start RPG campaign that I co-wrote -along with a friend named John Priest- back in the 80's and have never got round to playing. So now I have a 15mm Sci Fi figure prepped and ready to go once the undercoat has dried. There will be pics on the above page when I have finished the little chap.

MickS.

Derby Show and latest happenings.

Once again, Derby lived up to my expectations and I had a great time, made even better by meeting up with a young man, (as he was when I last saw him some 30 odd years ago), who uses the WD3 Forum name of Essex Boy -no prizes for guessing where he is from- and another who uses the pseudonym of Count Belisarius on the same forum. Luckily I had already got most of what I wanted so the brace of Guinness' went down a treat with the good company.

There were, as usual, an eclectic mix of games on show, some pictures of which I have put in a photobucket album folder labelled Derby 2011 under Subedai's albums -can't seem to get the link thingy to work at the moment.

Purchases:
2 x 15mm Zvezda Zis 5 lorries, 1 x BT 5 and 1 x PZ III Ausf G. Nice little snap together kits. £10 for the 4. Bargain, (pictures below). The only problem with Zvezda is thay don't have any decals with them (didn't know this until I got home), so I'll have to see if I can get any at Wargamer in December.
1 x bag of Irregular Miniatures house making bits.
1 x Pack of Forged in Battle 15mm Russian Maxim MG Teams, 81mm Mortar Teams and SMG platoon. Lovely little figures and very reasonably priced. So for the sum total of £20 I have all my WWII Skirmish Russians. Cooking on Gas! (Buildings and vehicles are coming along apace, just got to get the infantry done.)
2 x bags of 25mm round bases from Warbases.
A few pots of Vallejo paints for the Russians.

That was about it. Got lots of ideas for buildings terrain bits etc. Courtesy of a gentleman, AngelBarracks I have started thinking about 6mm SciFi Skirmish and was hoping to get some B&P's at Derby but couldn't find any purveyors of the 6mm variety so that's gone on hold at the moment -not that I haven't got enough to paint!

Now for the pics of those vehicles I mentioned above.

BT 5
This little number goes together very easily and paints up well.



Zis Lorries
These are a little trickier than the BT 5 but look okay when done. The only gripe is that the engine cowling is a one piece casting and has to be bent to fit. Now, try as I might I couldn't get it to fit properly on either model so the covers are a bit skewiff but it's hardly noticeable. With the cover being a separate component, I decided to make one of each.





A shot of both lorries.



Pz III Ausf G.
Apart from the cupola not fitting properly I had no problems with this little model at all. Went together easily and paints up nicely as well.



A comparison shot of the two tanks.


Now a comparison between the Zvezda lorry and a partially painted one from FoW. Even with the double base on the FoW lorry, I think you'd agree there is nothing in it.

Bin a long time

To paraphrase Zeppelin, 'It's bin a long time since I...' posted. I haven't actually got any excuses apart from I've been painting some chaps and B&P for the new project, namely 15mm WWII Skirmish.
So far I have 3 platoons of Waffen SS done and some localised support weapons prepped i.e. tripod MG34's and 81mm mortars. I don't intend to go to town on this one but I do intend to get some Russians at Derby to face them. What I had in mind was a reasonably small affair with tanks taking second place to infantry scrapping it out. Don't mind the odd Hanomag or equivalent but I'm trying to concentrate on the smaller aspects rather than a refight of Kursk. Company level at most.

Included here are some pics of what I have been up to.

The first two platoons of infantry. Figures are Flames of War that I bought years ago at a Manchester do and have only just got around to painting -using Vallejo acrylics, gloss then matt varnished. Bases are from a bakelite type of stuff that I was given by an electrician about ten years ago -I'll be using MDF for the next lot. The orange bits are my first experiment with the coloured sand that seem to be prevalent at the mo. tufts are cuts of painted sisal string.




First squad


Squad LMG



Now here are some pics of a couple of pices of terrain I've made.

A Russian thatched, wooden barn. As you can see from the first two pics, the barn walls are made from scored foam board which unfortunately doesn't show up too well on the finished article so that's why I had to highlight the planking effect. The door frames and hinges are just thin cuts of cereal packet card. The staves sticking out of the roof were a common sight on this type of building and were made from the copper wire found in two core flex and run the whole width of the roof. they were superglued onto a folded piece of card and when dry, another piece of card the same size as the first was glued over the top. Any gaps were filled with either Polyfilla or the thatch was brushed down to cover. The thatch itself is made from a cut down piece of children's play felt, glued onto a base and covered in watered down Polyfilla or similar to harden it. (TIP. If you use a stiff brush it combs out the felt as you go, making it look more realistic.) Fencing is made from unsharpened cocktail sticks for the horizontal bits and modelling matchsticks for the the uprights. Holes were drilled through the base with my trusty Dremel for the uprights for greater strength. Bases done in the usual way.



Pictures of the completed barn





Next up is a log cabin.
Made from cocktail sticks glued to a backing piece of the ubiquitous cereal packet card; these were a bit tricky because I tried to get the extended corners look by interlocking the sticks. Smaller, fiddly pieces of stick were cut for the door and window shape. Upright sticks made up the door frame and card outlined the window. Thatch made as for the barn only in horizontal, overlapping strips rather than just a single piece. Roof is detachable. Hedge is clumpy stuff hardened with a PVA/water mix and then dry brushed. Flowers are more of the coloured sand.





The two buildings together



I'm halfway through making a couple of simple thatched cottages and I've even got two Timecast? models to paint. That will give me a total of 6 buildings so I suppose I'll have to make a church to go with them.

Loft face-lift Part I

Trust me to pick one of the hottest days of the year to date to start on the loft. I must have lost several pounds just moving stuff around and I tell you, my knees will never walk again...carpet tiles are not the best thing to be kneeling on.

But there is an up side to this. I have managed to get most of my unpainted lead mountain into one and a half office storage boxes apart from the 6mm stuff which fills a plastic carrying box that is 9" x 9" x 15" on its own aaannnddd I found another load of 10mm Mongols and Chin, at first guess about 3 units of each and including another couple of rockets. Also found the 15mm ACW artillery I was looking for earlier but still no sign of the infantry et al; more 15mm Prussian Napoleonics; 15mm Mongols including the unit of keshik I had on my list to buy at Derby this year; 15mm German WWII infantry, support weapons by FOW and vehicles from an eclectic mix of manufacturers, and finally, all my unpainted WSS stuff.

The-what-I-thought-was-the-last-of-the-10mm-Mongols-and-Chin are coming along nicely. All the cavalry have been done and once I finish this post I shall start on the Chin Xbows, then the rest of the recently discovered 10mm figures. I intend to have a go at getting one of the rockets being in the air.

Mick.

Bargain!

Had a stroke of good fortune yesterday. I went into Brum to do a little research on a work related, non-wargaming project at the main library and thought 'while I'm here I'll stock up on paint and flock from the Ian Allen shop.' Then, when I came out of the library I had an even better idea, 'go and have a swift dekko at Wayland's Forge as it's pretty close.' So I did and never got to Ian Allen because I found a bag of each of Cuman, Bulgars and Pecheneg cavalry in Old Glory 15's going for a Melvin (£5) a throw; 45 cavalry for £15, works out at .33p each. More figures for the slow build Mongol Army. Well impressed and as I said, bargain.

Don't forget,

Keep it damp.

First proper day of Spring?

For the first time this year I am sitting in the tower with the window open for some cool air. Great stuff seeing as during the thing we call winter I normally have both bars of the electric fire on, (CH doesn't go this far up), wearing one of those full head condoms, two jumpers and a pair of fingerless gloves. At my age I've decided that I'm not a cold weather person, give me 40 in the shade any day of the week.

On the painting front, the 6mm Brits are nigh on done -giving me two tank regiments, two motorised infantry battalions -although one still needs the motorised bit- and most of the ancillary stuff like Div Comm and flyboys. To date there are nearly two box files full of them.

Next up will be the Russians who will also get a complete repaint and base job, not looking forward to that as there are more Russians than Brits! Plus my WP vehicle recognition talents are none too clever but thank God for the tinterweb, eh. Spotting them should be easy, remembering what they are is the problem...might have to label them so as I know whats what. Far too many T- this, BTR- that or BMP- something for my liking and my knowledge of Russian is not even as good as my knowledge of Mongolian! What ever happened to NATO code names eh, like Flogger or Bear, so much easier to remember. The only one I know for certain is a Shilka quad AA coz it has a name not just a series of letters and numbers. If anyone out there knows of such a system being in place please let me know.

Found shedloads of 6mm buildings that I made at least fifteen years ago -modern terraced, ruins of same, timbered, both thatched and tiled. All to be based on either 100 or 120mm square bases. Must have enough for at least 6 villages and a town. Just need to get onto those nice people at Irregular and get some fences, walls and other bucolic stuff for filler.

I've also started another sideline of a wargaming project but not much has happened so I will just post this cryptic comment and leave it at that. You'll never guess what it is as long as you have a hole in your ...harumph. I don't know where I'm going with it as yet so stumm is the word. Sometime over the next few posts there may be more.

Marked out a piece of hardboard for some roads the other week when it was raining outside and only just noticed it here, bu**er, could have got them cut out in the sunshine. Nevermind, have to wait until my next day off.

Sassy's currently on the back burner as not only am I doing all of the above, I am also proofreading my first attempt at a novel. Whether it will get published I don't know but if I don't try then it never will, will it? I mean even JK Rowling had to start somewhere, didn't she? Hopefully it will be the first of a trilogy. I have loads of ideas for books which I keep meticulous notes for because you never know...

Had a Senior Moment there,

On the last post I forgot to mention who made the Modern...mainly because I haven't a clue. I could narrow it down to maybe H & R or Navwar but thats as close as it gets. (In any event it's a bit of buckshee advertising for both firms.)

The Sassanids are definitely made by Donnington Miniatures.

At last, a nice day

It's been quite pleasant up here in the usually Wet Midlands so I dashed outside to take a few pics.
Now the thing is, I couldn't tell you what Mark or letter any of these so I will go with the type. Simples! (For me anyway. I've no doubt someone will let me know.)

A Chieftain. Now, on a veteren's forum he said that BAOR stuff was painted with any dark green they could get hold of although factory specimens were a 'bronze green'. Unless noted otherwise these have been painted with, as a base colour, Vallejo German Cam Green 70979, the netting is Flat Green 70968 dry-brushed with Light Green 70942. Black lines were painted on and the whole vehicle given a black wash before dry=brushing with Russian Uniform 70924. The models were given 2 coats of varnish, 1 of gloss and another of matt. The flock and foliage was sprayed with hair spray which unfortunately gave them a bit of a sheen.

One problem is that the green was a bit dark on the tanks and the black lines don't show up very well. (This problem has been rectified by using a lighter green on the Warrior MICV's.)



A Scorpion.



A Stalwart lorry.



This is the command base for the Chieftain regiment. Shows a Chieftain and a command Sultan. Now I know the aerial looks a bit thick but I tried using bristles and after the first 5 snapped I started using brass wire, unfortunately this is the thinnest I have.



A Challenger.



The whole Challenger regiment.



The Challenger command base with its Sultan.



The next three are of the latest Sassy Levy infantry unit.

No names, no pack drill

There is a bloke up in the north east of this fair country who carries the blame for all of this. I was catching up on a few blogs that I check periodically and came across his postings about some modern 6mm Belgians, Russians and Brits that he was doing as another slight diversion. I took one look at them and thought, those are nicely done and a bit inspirational and as I've got a mess of that stuff, I'll dig it out and have a look. Dug it out, had a look and decided that they needed rebasing. Now, I do not undertake rebasing lightly, in fact as I posted on the WD3 forum the other week 'I would rather gnaw my own leg off than rebase figures'. Then I had a closer look and thought sod it, I'll go all the way and repaint the little bu**ers...and it's all his fault.

So on my workbench now, (which by the way I will not photograph because it is a perfect example of pastoral squalour but I know exactly where everything is and if I tidy it I'll never be able to find anything), I now have 6 15mm Sassy bolt-throwers plus crews, the army command element of 5 Sassy Catty's and Clibs cavalry, some more Hunnic Mongols and 2 recently completed 6mm tank regiments -one of Chieftains and the other of Challengers. The 6mm stuff all has brand new paint jobs and is on nice new bases, and finally, a half painted SP Artillery regiment, all organised to the Combined Arms Ruleset. Each tank regiment has 13 tanks plus command and supporting stuff, totalling 18 or 19 models per regiment. Following this I have a mechanised infantry battalion to do with 12 Warriors, an equal number of infantry bases plus all the ancillary FV432 b's and p's. After that its the towed artillery regiment, then the command elements for the whole lot. Then, once that lot is done, it's the turn of the Russians...and I say again, it's all his bl**dy fault. He shouldn't post such pics of nice models where poor, unsuspecting wargamers like myself can look at them and get all carried away on the 'Oh they're nice, mine could look like that' bandwagon.

And of course, another bl**dy problem is that now I've got to make shedloads of terrain for the little fellas. The upside is that it can be used for all my other 6mm armies as well.

6mm terrain, thats another story. I used to have a storage box full of buildings, woods, forests, roads et al and one evening in the dim past I had a game at a club near here. As usual, the game finished and we packed everything away and I left my box in the one of the large lockers at the centre, meaning to pick it up later. Then I promptly forgot all about it...until about 18 months ago. The problem was that in the intervening period the building had been pulled down -with my terrain box probably being skipped before hand. Still, never mind, I have a load of buildings that I made a good 20 years ago that I found the other day whilst looking for THE BOX OF 15MM ACW that I still cannot find. It's a start.

Fortunately, I have a week off work -holiday that had to be taken before the end of March- so I might even get some pics done of the little so and so's -if the weather behaves of course. Oh, and also some pics of the third unit of Sassy Levy infantry.

Some more of the collection

First one up is my only 1/300 SF army. Bought the whole lot plus more strange bits for a fiver about 10 years ago. It's my only GW army and I got it with the intention of doing a 'what if' campaign against my modern Brits(pics to follow on another post) or against any of my WW II armies. If memory serves, it took about 3 days to paint the lot!



Second is one of my few 25/28mm armies -Polish Renaissance. I'll be honest, I use the term army rather loosely here as there are no pancerni and only one unit of Winged Hussars. I actually have another five of each from Irregular to paint but haven't got round to it yet. Manufacturers include Essex, Hinchcliffe and Mini Figs. The big artillery piece is actually one of those that fires matchsticks but the trigger looks a bit like the elevation block so I kept it. 7 or 8 years old.



Thirdly, a box of two Prussian Napoleonic Landwehr cavalry regiments and a brigade commander. The Napoleonic Collection is made up of Lancashire Games, Essex and Mini Figs amongst others.



Fourthly, another box of Prussian cavalry. This time a mixed brigade of Dragoons and Landwehr. The army is based to Peter Gilder's In the Grand Manner Rules.



Fifthly, the Prussian infantry, cavalry, commander and a couple of little vignettes with odd figures I couldn't find any other use for. I've got about another four batteries of artillery unpainted. About 8-9 years old.



Next, A smallish French Corps of Napoleonic 5mm Mini Figs blocks. Possibly 30 years old. Some work still required on the bases.



A British Division of 5mm blocks. In another 8 of the same sized boxes I have my 5mm Prussians. The complete 1st Armee Korps of the 1815 campaign and all the Guard troops.



Some 6mm Polish Napoleonics. Not painted by me. about 15 years old.



Now, there is a story behind this 15mm Macedonian Army. About 30 odd years ago I went to a show, fancied a Macedonian army and brought a load of original best match Mikes Models figures -at 2p for an infantry figure and 4p for cavalry. Bu**ger me, 2 weeks later, Mikes Models announced a brand new range in Mil Mod, no prizes for guessing which range that was. I think I incorporated some of the old figs in the army but still ended up buying another shedload of the nice new figures. All Mikes Models bar the Greek hoplites, (not painted by me), and the Indians which are Mini Figs.



I have a few others not yet included here coz most of them are elsewhere on the blog. The only three outstanding ones that immediately spring to mind are 25mm Mongols, 1/300 Modern Brits and 1/300 Modern Israeli.