And Here Is One She Made Earlier...

Like many of the female of the species SWMBO likes crafting. However, of late she has forgone the delights of card making, encaustic art (painting with an iron!) and parchment craft for the joys of jewellery making and as you can see from this nice little Blue Chalcedony bracelet she's pretty good at it (so much I think this could be a good sideline for Wessex Games - think of them as weregild to take home to the wargames widow after a show!).

Unlike most hobbyists she is very good in that her entire hobby is kept neatly stored away in a 16" x 12" box when she isn't making bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Pointing this out to me, I responded I keep all my hobby material in a single box - the house! :-)

Normal service is resumed tomorrow...

Der Kampfflieger 3D Printed Austin Osprey

When I ordered the Der Kampfflieger Sopwith Triplanes via Shapeways I also picked up the Austin Osprey they produce. Only one prototype was produced in 1918 as a replacement for the Sopwith Camel, but the Osprey was beaten by the Sopwith Snipe so never went in to production, however, I thought it would be nice to have one for use in 'what if?' dogflights as it is a nice looking plane.

As previously stated the model is 'printed' in a plastic resin (described by Shapeways as 'white, strong & flexible'). It has a slight rough finish and is apparently porous and will absorb paint like a sponge, however a good undercoating (I used the trusty old GW Skull White aerosol) and I didn't have any problem painting the PC10 Catchan Green fuselage etc. The model doesn't come with a pilot so I used a Reviresco one but he seems a bit 'big-headed'. Decals are, as usual, from Dom's Decals.

Overall I am very pleased with my first paint job of a 3D printed model. The detail is good, it is very light and the end result more than acceptable. Hopefully Der Kampfflieger will produce some more 3D prints of less common WWI planes in the future...

W E John's Airco DH4

Having decided to repaint the Wings of War Airco DH4 because I didn't like the PC12 chocolate brown finish I had to decide on what paint scheme to use. By and large British bombers of the late war period are extremely boring and although the history of 55 Squadron, Independent Force is interesting, their overall PC10 planes aren't.

Aside from my interest in the Independent Air Force formed in June 1918, like most air wargamers I love Captain W. E. John's  Biggles books and as John's served in 55 Squadron being shot down after six weeks of active service in September 1918. At this time 55 Squadron's planes only sported national markings and an individual plane identifying letter. Unfortunately whilst we know John's plane was serial no. F5172 we don't know what letter it sported so as some squadrons used the officer's initial I have gone with J.

Painting The Black Flight

Having undercoated and painted the undersides of my Sopwith Triplanes I've had to decide on a paint scheme for them. Despite there not being a lot of choice with British planes they can sure give you a headache! :-)

The RNAS were the primary users of the Sopwith Triplane and the most famous users the legendary Black Flight of No. 10 Naval Squadron. As you can see from the picture below quite a simple but neat scheme with distinctive black cowlings and wheels...

But as ever ascertaining the fuselage colour is a problem. RFC planes are generally painted PC10 which can be reasonably portrayed with either GW Catachan Green or Tamiya NATO Green (the shade does vary due to the mix, field service conditions and weathering).

RNAS planes are normally painted PC12 and this is a contentious subject of much debate. Is it a chocolate brown, a red brown, a more earthy brown? Who knows, the situation is further confused with new late war colours used in the tropics being mistakenly identified as PC12 on fabric samples.

"Popular opinion" suggests that Tamiya's Flat Earth or Flat Brown are the best colours for PC12 but one post I read about the IWM RNAS Camel is that the colour can vary from green to brown depending on the angle viewed at! Also, the picture above looks like Catachan Green to me! :-)

Armed Forces Day 2011

Today is Armed Forces Day in the UK, a chance for us to honour our armed forces past and present. There are a number of events across the country and I noticed a Challenger II was parked on College Green in Bristol (well, I assume it was there for Armed Forces Day and not in preparation for the Teacher's strike demo on Thursday!).

This is the first Armed Forces Day my son-in-law has actually been on active service in a war zone, being somewhere off Libya in HMS Liverpool, though this is probably less hazardous than last year when he met the PM on HMS Ark Royal who promised to revisit the carrier for the 25th anniversary (strange he didn't keep that promise).

3D Printed Sopwith Triplane

You may have seen on Steel on Sand's blog about the 'not' Blake's 7 ships purchased from Shapeways and co-incidentally my first order from Shapeways arrived today courtesy of UPS. Tempted as I am by the Blake's 7 ships (and I will not be able to resist, the Liberator is such an iconic image of my childhood), my first purchase was a couple of 1/144th Sopwith Triplanes and an Austin Osprey designed by Kampfflieger (more noted for their wonderful paper kits).

I was expecting to receive a pack of several pieces and was surprised that the models are one piece castings and nicely detailed enough that they will fit in with my metal and plastic WWI collection. I must confess to still not being able to quite get my head around the process, but then I don't really understand how the TV works, so will just accept that it does. The models are in a plastic which I am not sure how it will react to paints, glue, cutting etc, but I'm not anticipating any problem even though I picked the cheapest material (you can upgrade) but whilst slightly rough I think they will look fine after undercoating and painting (the pictures here are blown up about 3x actual size so the effect looks exaggerated).

I must say I'm really taken with this whole idea and want to find out more about 3D printing as it seems a great way of getting obscure planes into production with less cost than traditional methods (and yes, I was thinking about aeronef, ships, experimental tanks etc, etc!)

Blitzkrieg!

You may remember I said I wasn't starting any new projects but I confess I have weakened (a bit...) For some time I've been pondering on converting Panzerfäuste/ColdWar: 1983 into a straight historical WW2 set. I have used Panzerfäuste for the Russian Front before but appreciate WW2 gamers don't feel easy about having their Germans firing Dwarf smgs and there are some parts of ColdWar I'd like to pull over as well. So in between things I've been planning out WorldWar: 1940... Not sure when it will be ready, I could do a quick job cut and paste but I really want to spend some time on the various armies and cover a lot of the smaller ones (the great thing about section/platoon level games is that one-sided wars become distinctly less one-sided).

Rather than just cover the usual suspects in the rulebook, or concentrate on NW Europe 1944, I've decided to put the primary focus for the rulebook on the period September 1939 to May 1940 with future supplements covering the Eastern Front and Balkans, the Western Desert, South-east Asia and the Pacific, NW Europe and Italy and the end of the war. So having drafted out what I want in the first book I've been looking into 28mm miniatures as I like the idea of raising a section plus some support weapons for a number of the countries over the course of the project (especially some of the unusual ones), with maybe the odd AFV here and there.

For the Blitzkrieg period BEF produce early war British, Germans and Belgians and Warlord Poles and French (boxes of which I have ordered from Wayland). Other smaller nations are a problem, Norwegians used to be available from Valkyrie Miniatures but the best bet now seems to be useBrigade Games Austro-Hungarians and a bit of Green Stuff, not sure about the Dutch and Danes...

Father's Day To The Rescue...

With a heavy work schedule and a loss of painting mojo I've come to a grinding halt on anything to do with wargaming hence the complete absence of posts. However Father's Day has seen a nice little present from Saul which is getting the fingers twitching again in the form of two packs from Design 28 Miniatures wonderful Steam and Steel range which I will be adding to my simmering Victorian Gothic project.

First off is V6 Jack The Ripper set, which contains four nicely sculpted figures including a police constable, newspaper seller and Jack himself (I can see SWMBO influenced this present given her fascination with Victorian detectives and crime).

The second set is very steampunk in the form of V8 Lord Fecitt and Hunting Party with a hunter on steam powered penny farthing and robot dog! Very Pax Britannica!

There are some wonderful miniatures in this range and I can see myself becoming a loyal and frequent customer of Design 28 Miniatures...

Tanks For The Pressies...

Another year older last week and SWMBO* bought me some really nice wargaming pressies in the form of a box of the new 20mm Plastic Soldier Company PzIV and a box of the T34. Both sets contain three models and allow for a number of variants. The T34 has separate turrets to allow you to make T34/76 or T34/85 (indeed change them from game to game as required), the PzIV contains various bits to allow you to make either Ausf F1, F2, G or H variants (as you can see from the sprue layout below).

I haven't had a chance to make up the models yet but the sprues are crisply moulded and details well defined, I am especially impressed with the PzIV Ausf H with its skirt and turret armour. I must say I am really enthused by these kits and am looking forward to making them up, they offer good value, the two piece track assembly is really clever and the ability to make up a number of variants from one box very welcome. I can see myself buying many more PSR AFV kits...

* SWMBO would like it commented that PSR customer service was top notch and they were very helpful...

I Am Spartacus!

The 'Real World' put painting on hold so the remaining squads for the Russian and American platoons are sat in a state of semi-completion. Hopefully I'll get a good couple of hours tomorrow or Friday to get them to dipping stage. The BTR's arrived today so once the figures are finished we're good to go (ok, I want to dirty up the Bradleys and add some S&S stowage but that doesn't stop them getting some gaming action assuming I can find the time).

My mind has been flitting with ideas for Basic Impetus and having become addicted (against my better judgement) to Spartacus: Blood and Sand I remembered I had a box of Orion 20mm plastic gladiators which I initially bought to use for a gladiator game before buying em-4's Ludus Gladiatorius. I've got the WAB supplement somewhere but I have also picked up Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel Spartacus which is apparently a great read. I'm not sure how many figures I'll need for a Basic Impetus army and as I don't have any 20mm Republican Romans I'll need to get some for an OpFor but given the way that Impetus bases are mini-dioramas as much as unit bases, the appeal of something a little different is very appealing and the Spartacus slave rebellion ideally suited for such a mini-project...

(Moderns Month) Modern Warfare 3

My enjoyment of this evening's Champion's League Final was disturbed at half-time with the "world premiere" of an advert for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which Saul insisted we watch (though I banned rewinding it in Sky+ as the second half was about to start). Whilst I am no great fan of computer games it did pique my "modern wargamer" interest so if you haven't seen it...



Some interesting background ideas and although I haven't managed to get as much painted this month as I'd hoped the "moderns bug" has bitten and I can see myself ordering piles of S&S Models resin and Elheim figures...

Back to MW3 I also came across this wonderful video that did make me laugh - and post on Saul's FB page! :-)

Dark Eldar Test Pieces

I took an early lunch break to finish off these Dark Eldar test pieces that I found sat in the same drawer as the Dick Garrison miniatures. I have a pile of Dark Eldar sat around from when the particular 40K edition came out with them in it and I haven't done anything much with them despite quite liking the plastics (not so much the old metals).

I decided to see if I could come up with a quick to paint drybrush over black undercoat scheme to go with the Eldar and Space Marines already painted. After some thought I decided to paint the bodies Dark Angel Green and the helmets and shoulder pad things Liche Purple. Weapons are a blue-black, progressively lightened on the spikey blades. Quick and quite effective they make a nice contrast to the black and white Eldar, not sure when I'll get time to do some more for a while...

League of Nations Space Navy Troopers

With the imminent publication of Dick Garrison Rapid Launch!! I needed to get some of the "good guys" painted as well as the hero himself. Having painted the Khang Troopers red, the Silvenians green and the Ingians blue I decided to go for a more conservative dark grey and white scheme. I have added splashes of colour with gold/copper badges, blue 'power cells' on the weapons etc, so they don't appear too monochrome and am pleased with the overall effect.

The Bob Olley sculpted figures are from Wargames Supply Dump but I'm not sure of their availability as the WSD website has disappeared (I'll drop Roger an email and let you know). Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch as I'd forgotten what fun these figures were to paint and have Khang the Compassionless and some hawkmen undercoated on the workbench to work on alongside some more moderns...

(Moderns Month) US Mechanized Infantry

I finished the first squad of US Mechanized Infantry during my lunch break today, I must say I'm really pleased with the end result. As with the Soviets I have published a stage by stage guide on the Whirarwistan blog.

The squad is a mix of Esci and Revell plastics. I like both but if revisiting the project I would probably go with the Revell miniatures which have a slightly more realistic baggy look, that said the Esci models are finely sculpted and paint up nicely. The colours are slightly exaggerated from what they should be, but I think this is necessary to ensure they look correct on the tabletop and maintain the distinctive look of the US desert choc-chip camo.

I need to crack on with the remaining two squads for the Soviets and Americans this week but have slightly side-tracked myself by a commitment to get Dick Garrison Rapid Launch out in May, then realising I hadn't painted up any League of Nations Space Navy troops for the PDF cover. I have been working on a section in rotation with the US infantry (and the Orcs) and they shouldn't take long too finish or stop me getting back on track with the moderns.

Unfortunately I have shelved plans to paint up some 28mm England Prevails 2ECW figures this month. Looking at what I have I want to do some conversions to fit them in the background (I've got to have one trade union militiaman in a donkey jacket!) so they've been put back in the draw fttb...

Orcs v Tactical Nuclear Penguins

'Moderns Month' is slowly progressing and I've almost finished a US Mechanized Infantry Squad which you can see here, hopefully finished tomorrow...

As the dip was drying I decided to  stick together a couple of the sprues of Mantic Orcs we picked up at Salute - and I decided to slap a bit of paint on them.

These are by far the best models Mantic have released and a good mix of possibilities tempered with not too many pieces to stick together. I am so impressed with them I've ordered a box of thirty from Wayland Games which at £22.49 means they're only 75p each. What I really like is that they'll fit in with my old Citadel Orcs and don't look too comic. Ok, I'd prefer they were armed with scimitars and I'm not 100% taken with the shields but I do like them...

Painting was a doddle, black undercoat, drybrushed with Tin Bitz then Boltgun Metal. Repaint the non-metal areas black, then Dark Flesh, then Bestial Brown or Terracotta over that. For Orc flesh I mix yellow with black which makes a swarthy green, eyes are dotted Blood Red and teeth painted in with Bleached Bone.

I also finished off these two 'Tactical Nuclear Penguins' from the Critter Commandoes packs I painted Saul for Christmas, which had been 95% finished since January...

(Moderns Month) Soviet Naval Infantry

It may have appeared that it was all quiet on the moderns front but I have been working on my first section of Esci 20mm Soviet Naval Infantry. They haven't take too long in between real world commitments and I used the Army Painter dip over a camo pattern which was something of an experiment but has come up really nice. I have published a full step by step guide on my Whirarwistan blog here.

My Bradley IFV's have turned up along with a bargain buy M1A1HA Abrams tank so I need to get on with weathering them and painting up the US infantry to go with them. My Soviet APC's are still in transit from Hong Kong! :-)

On the scenery front I dug out some of the old Ian Weekly models I commissioned many moons ago which will be great for both this project plus my 20mm C19th North-West Frontier when I get around to that. Here's one with the Naval Infantry section on it...

There's A Game In That...

Some of you may have seen Tas' post on The Man Cave about Cyborg Seals and Zombie Penguins and The Lad's idea that it would make a cool wargame. Clearly if you add Commando Polar Bears to the mix he might be on to something...

(painting by Tyler Edlin) 

This would be sooo freaking cool at Salute 2012... ;-)

By Crom!

Feeling more hopeful after seeing the trailer (apart from the obvious 3D gimmicks ):

Adding Impetus?

Not managed to get a great deal done as I've been away and am waiting for my AFV's and Revell US Moderns to arrive but I have decided to paint the Russkis as Naval Infantry and have based up a nine man section only to find I don't have any white undercoat to hand so I plan to pop into town before I pick Saul up from school this afternoon.

One thing that did come to my attention in my rummage in the attic was the number of weird and wonderful boxes of plastics I have in the attic for a wide variety of periods including a diverse selection of 20mm ancients and medievals (Egyptians, Seas Peoples, Macedonians, Romans, Barbarians etc). I have been giving some thought as to if there is anything I can do with them. The first thought was DBA but I don't like HOTT too much so that kind of knocked that on the head so I'm considering Impetus, or more specifically Basic Impetus as it's small (see photo from Bill's blog), free and the website has a host of army lists for the game online as well.

Whilst I'm still planning on using Clash of Empires for "normal" wargames with my 28mm Romans and Celts and the Peloponnesian Wars project (and am so pleased with my read through of the rules that I am considering using them for fantasy!), Basic Impetus may well be a practical solution to use the boxes of 20mm plastics I have...

May Is... Moderns Month

Unfortunately April was pretty pathetic on the wargames front, the games room is still lost under piles of this and that and I didn't manage to paint very much either. I did ponder extending rescuing the games room month into May as it is a pretty important project but decided it will just have to be BAU as I focus painting efforts on something else.

With the Force on Force bug having bitten I've decided to have a 'Moderns Month' concentrating on two projects, my Cold War in a hot country Whirarwistan and the somewhat stalled England Prevails modern English Civil War. Be a change to paint some camo...

On the subject of moderns Shaun at S&S Models sent me a copy of their up to date lists which is a treasure trove for moderns gamers. There are a lot of very tempting models and figures in both the WW2 and moderns ranges and I am am trying to find reasons NOT to buy the 20mm Stryker MGS...
:-)

War in Whirarwistan

Whilst having the enjoyment of constructing the mother of all pergolas my mind has been musing over the subject of my mini-Force on Force late '80's US/Soviet clash in some dusty Third World country (the fictional Whirarwistan found somewhere around the border of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan).

Having sat with my Ecsi US Infantry and spent some time researching various Infantry Platoon TO&E's I've decided to go with a Mechanized Infantry Platoon which needs less infantry but did require the purchasing of some M2 Bradley IFV's. Not fancying making up kits for the four IFV's needed I did some browsing on pre-paints/diecasts in the end settling for the Altaya/Amercom/Deagostini M2 (Saudi Arabia 1991) in a nice desert yellow over green camo. With a little work they look like they can come up nicely as can be seen on this Polish blog.

I also decided to pick up a box of Revell Modern US infantry as the Esci box doesn't contain any M249 SAW gunners and it will add a bit of pose variety (and also should give me enough figures to expand the Mechanized Infantry Platoon into a regular one. A good half RRP deal on eBay covered this.

For the Soviets I have decided on a Motorised Infantry Platoon, it might not be 100% accurate using the Esci Russian Paras but we'll see how they look and what options I can find for Soviet troops sporting berets. APC wise I decided I wanted a BTR rather than BMP look and settled on the Easy Model BTR80 "Imperial Guard Troops" version. Again, a similar sand/green look to the Americans but one I like.

I've yet to decided on whether to get any tanks at this stage but various M1's and T72's are widely available so this isn't a major concern. I just need to find some 1p's to base the infantry on now! :-)

Cold War Hot!

Before tea I had a quick rummage in the attic to check out what boxes of 20mm modern plastics I had sitting around to use with Force on Force and came downstairs with a nice pile. Whilst I couldn't find the old Esci Vietnam boxes I know I have, I was surprised to find two boxes of Esci's Modern US Soldiers, two boxes of their Modern Russian Paratroopers Spetsnaz, a box of NATO troops and a box of Warsaw Pact Troops all of which I must have picked up in the Eighties.

The US Soldiers are of that era and I think they are beautifully sculpted and detailed, the only criticism I could level at them is that they are a tad static. That said they'll be perfect for Force on Force and with a good mix of M16's, M60's and M47 Dragon launchers. A number of the troops have their sleeves rolled up and whilst they could be used for temperate theatres (spring/summer) the lack of a temperate OPFOR dictates they will be painted up in the wonderful US desert chocolate chip camo.

The reason for that is the Russian Paras (the obvious hypothetical OPFOR) who are clearly kitted out for service in Afghanistan or similar climes, a number sporting tropical hats, most berets. Again beautifully sculpted, the poses are a bit static but nothing too serious to worry about. Looking at the sprues it may be that the Russians are short in the LMG department, but there is a rather generic looking figure in the Warsaw Pact set who may well be of use, although he is wearing a helmet.

The NATO and Warsaw Pact Troops boxes are really oddities with three or four poses form particular armies and not a lot of use unless they can be combined with something else. The Warsaw Pact box does contain a Czech tank crewman who is generic enough to be a Russian and some of the others amongst the East German, Czech, Poles and Hungarians may work with head swaps. The NATO box is less useful with a mix of British, German, French and Italian but who knows.

I also discovered a box of Matchbox's NATO Paratroops which are nice figures with a good mix of weapons. Largely SLR armed the major negative compared to the Esci US Infantry and Russian Paras is that they are in cold weather kit more suitable for the Falklands that somewhere ending in 'Stan. Again, save them for another day.

Overall a good rummage and I have more than enough troops to raise a couple of platoons of US and Soviets to paint up for some hypothetical '80's clash somewhere between North Africa and Pakistan...

Force On Force

Cunning plan to take three days holiday from work to link the two "four day weekends" and rescue the game room failed at the first hurdle - SWMBO... She pointed at the huge pile of wood in the back garden and ordered me to build her pergola! Prayers to the rain gods went unanswered and to be fair it has been sat awaiting construction since delivery last summer (and it is so big it does look like I could use it for having some BIG wargames outside complete with BBQ!). Five days of DIY (three blisters and many cuts, bruises and aches) later it is still not quite finished (though all 400 screws have now been screwed into the deck and the posts are all upright) so it looks like I'll have to miss the royal wedding (damn) to finish it off! :-)

In between times I haven't managed to paint a thing but after resisting the five pound off offer at Salute I fell victim to Amazon's over ten pounds off offer and ordered the new edition of Force on Force. Whilst I'd heard lots of positive comment about them I hadn't really intended to buy them given the rrp and just how good could they really be? Well, I haven't had a chance to play them and am only part way through reading them but I like what I am reading a whole lot.

Games are fought in a small area (if you use 15 or 20mm, a two foot square table is recommended), opposing dice rolls of varying types are used (a chance to dig out those old D8's and D12's!), the emphasis is on small unit tactics not an individual's abilities and I really like the way the game treats regular v irregular (asymmetric warfare) as distinctly different from regular v regular which is perfect for what I want to do, not only with the small (rather random) collection of modern figures I have, but also my (sadly dormant this year) modern English Civil War project.

Production is top notch (as you'd expect from Osprey), the hardback being slightly wider than an Osprey MAA but all in all a nice size. My only bugbear is whilst there are lots of varied artwork of modern troops, the photos are almost exclusively of US troops which is disappointing.

Overall I have to confess I probably wouldn't have taken the plunge at £25 for the game, there are too many "Beano annual" sets hitting the market at £25 plus these days to keep doing that, but at £14.68 (the price of a Chinese takeaway at Blease Towers) I took a punt and was glad I did. Really looking forward to giving this one a spin...

The Dungeons Are Calling

One of my purchases at Salute was a copy of Mantic's Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising as a game we could take on holiday etc, or just break out for a quick battle. Official RRP is £34.99 but we picked it up for £30 from Wayland Games on the day.

We did play a quick game on the Mantic stand using the 3 up model game that they were running and I was impressed by the way the chit-based movement allowed the game to ebb and flow with advantage appearing and disappearing quickly. Having now had a chance to read the rules I am even more impressed this is a really very clever little game with a number of subtleties belied by its very simple game mechanics.

I was also very impressed with the quality of the components. You get 22 skeletons, 7 dwarves (groan) plus loads of odds and sods on the sprues, some beautiful card floor tiles, counters and several dice. If you didn't need to stick the miniatures together you'd be ready to go.

I must confess that I didn't like either the look of either the skeletons or dwarves when released but able to physically hold and study the sprues I have revised my opinion. The skeletons are excellent and I can't recall seeing a sprue so crammed full of spare bits. The dwarves still don't quite do it for me, but they are better than the photos on the internet.

Overall I must say this is an excellent game, lots of potential for expansion and a great one to play with either the kids or regular gaming buddies with a couple of beers on hand.

1st Cavalry Army Air Wing R.E.8

Back to the Eastern Front and I finished off this Skytrex RE8 in Soviet markings this morning. This particular plane was captured off the Poles in 1920 before being given fresh markings and re-entering service with the 1st Cavalry Army's Air Wing.

This is a lovely little model and I'll probably buy a couple more as I'd like at least two in RAF markings and now fancy doing one in Polish. Despite the basic PC10 (Tamiya NATO Green) scheme the light grey nose and red tailfin do make it stand out nicely on the tabletop.

The 'Harry Tate' is probably the last of my planes for the Workers and Peasant's Red Air Fleet (well possibly another Snipe as I'd like to do "Nelly") as I need to paint up a couple of Poles and some White Russian opposition soon.

Next is my repaint of the Wings of War RNAS DH 4. I must confess whilst being VERY tempted with the experimental scheme pictured above but am leaning towards a more traditional PC10 look as I have been reading about 55 Squadron's railway station and sidings raids in Keith Rennles' Independent Force which would make for a cracking AirWar: 1918 game.