Indian Rebellion: 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment

Regular followers of the blog may recall that pretty much every years 'Cunning Plans...' post for the following year makes reference to the Indian Mutiny/Rebellion and that "this year" will see me crack on with a project I've wanted to do for three(?) decades having amassed a lot of unpainted white metal for... Well "this year" has seen some progress (largely inspired by Phil wanting to play some Mutiny Sharp Practice games and him buying a load of Empress mutineers).

I've now completed three groups of British line infantry and two groups of skirmishers. The line are mainly Old Glory figures, with a smattering of Foundry and some Empress command, whilst the skirmishers are mainly Foundry, with a handful of Old Glory and a couple of Dixon.

I've gone with a very mixed scruffy campaign look for the troops, based on some of the illustrations I've seen of the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment in the Central Indian Campaign (though clearly they can be used for many of the British troops engaged in the conflict).

Not sure what will be next, probably be a good idea to paint up some British cavalry...

Sinai War: Egyptian Archer Mechanised Anti-Tank Battery

My Arab-Israeli gaming is in serious danger of "war creep"... Having started just focused on the October/Yom Kippur War of 1973, with half an eye on the June/Six-Day War of 1967 due to a cross over of certain equipment, I've now painted up some models for the Tripartite Aggression/Suez Crisis/Sinai War of 1956!

Having been given a pile of random 6mm prints I found it contained five Archer SPG's which my first inclination was to paint up as WW2 British (potentially for 'O'Group) but upon discovering the Egyptians used them in 1956 I decided to paint them up as Archers of the 78th Anti-Tank Battery at the Battle of Abu-Ageila (also the scene of a battle in 1967).

As you can see the 1956 paint scheme was plain sand (as it was in 1967 which will be useful for my planned T-34 and SU-100 companies). Just need to pick up some AMX-13's for them to shoot at now...

June War: Jordanian M47 Armoured Squadron

With Andy otherwise engaged this week, Phil requested a 6mm Arab-Israeli game using Charlie Don't Surf with the proviso he could command some Israeli Shermans(!). The Israeli M51's saw limited use during the October/Yom Kippur War of 1973 but I fancied trying something a little different and inspired by the Peter Dennis illustration on the cover of Simon Dunstan's Osprey Campaign The Six Day War 1967: Jordan and Syria I thought we could take a trip back to the 1967 June War (aka Six Day War) and the West Bank...

This meant Jordanians as the opponents and whilst I had a Squadron of Jordanian Centurions painted up, I thought the battle might be better balanced if I employed some M47 or M48 Pattons. Having several spare 3D prints of the former I painted up a squadron of them for a game to be set in the Dothan Valley.

Whilst the Jordanian 60th Armoured Brigade was fully equipped with M48's, it is not certain that the 40th Armoured Brigade was and it is possible that the 2nd Regiment still employed M47's (this is what the Peter Dennis illustration shows) with the 4th equipped with M48's. If not the Jordanians had two independent tank brigades (12th and 47th) on the West Bank that used M47's so all good either way...

The Joy of Six 2023

Yesterday was The Joy of Six in Sheffield, a war-games show dedicated to the delights of 6mm gaming. I've wanted to go and check it out for a while so this year, setting off at 7am and picking up Andy en route I headed 'oop norf' to investigate.

With a mix of participation and demo games, and a small but bespoke selection of traders in 6mm wares the show was a delight and it was hard to restrict my spending to my what I'd tentatively planned pre-show. Anyway here are a section of photos of some of the games that caught my eye...

The Fall of Khartoum 1885:

Daniel Hodgson's superb looking game saw Gordon manage to escape the hordes of the Madhi. 6mm colonial gaming really does look awesome when put on like this...

Chef du Pont 1944:

The Peterborough Wargames Club put on this impressive looking Normandy game using I Ain't Been Shot Mum...

The Battle of Scarif:

One for the Star Wars fans, the Battle of Scarif from Rogue One. Charles Rowntree put this stunning looking game on using his All Hell Let Loose rules.

D-Day:

The Legion of Blokes put on this impressive looking D-Day beach landing using 6mm infantry and tanks, with smaller scale (1/700th IIRC) landing craft and ships...

The Battle of Britain 1940:

Storm of Steel's 1/600th Battle of Britain game using Bag The Hun certainly caught the eye - and the imagination. Good job Tumbling Dice weren't one of the vendors...

Operation Taifun - The Invasion of Leros 1943:

The Deeside Defenders put on this wonderful looking game set in the Mediterranean in 1943. I have a pile of white metal from the 2D6 Wargaming Crete Kickstarter that may well get moved up the painting list having seen this...

Prague Spring 1948:

Some lovely buildings on the Cold War Commanders table as they fought out a post-war armoured battle.

The Battle of Vyazma 1812:

A lovely looking Napoleonic game using Blucher by COGS. The miniatures were exquisitely painted...

The Battle of Fraustadt 1706:

An eye catching Great Norther War game put on by Per Broden and Nick Dorrell using The Twilight of the Sun King rules. I managed to resist the urge to buy a set and some figures from Baccus!

There were some other great looking games that I meant  to go back and take photos of but forgot as Heroics & Ros, Grumbler and Irregular took my money off me, so apologies if that included you/