Salute 2012

Salute was good fun as always and both Saul and I enjoyed the day. As previously stated I didn't go with much of a purchasing plan. I checked out the Scheltrum German Civil War range and bought a few packs and a couple of vehicles, nice miniatures sculpted by Martin Baker. I wasn't 100% sure whether to take the plunge as late as Friday evening but Fate dictated that I came across a couple of good articles about using Legends of the Old West for VBCW that evening in a PDF back issue of WSS I was reading - so how could I ignore that as a hint?!

The games on show were generally of a high standard, with an increased number of 54mm games on show including an interesting looking Falklands one that demonstrated the possibilities of section level infantry combat in this scale. There were a number of big games, Corruna 1809 with its 28mm scale ships caught the eye and the Sebastapol Crimean game warranted careful examination. I personally enjoyed a couple of 1940 Blitzkrieg era games, one set in Belgium, the other in Denmark featuring a lot of 20mm scale conversions.

Saul and I played Akula's Fantasy WW1 game with it's superb terrain and wonderful miniatures (so wonderful they resulted in the impulse purchase of a pile of WW1 Russian Dwarves and an Angry Tree - an Ent with a bomb!) which I wasn't planning on. The game using Akula's Rules: Skirmish Edition was a fun RASH (roll a six to hit) game with card based turn system that we both enjoyed and has a lot of potential for specific game tweaking. Saul also played a Land Ironclads type game called Timeline 300 that had some interesting ideas (including mining resources and making units during the game) but he said turned into a dice rolling exercise too quickly...

Aside from the GCW and WW1 Dwarves my only other purchase was a box of Wargames Factory Amazons from Wargames Emporium. I totally blame David Manley for this as I was picking something up for him and would not have noticed the offer on the plastics otherwise! I didn't really spot of a great deal of new toys, no doubt you will have heard the Perry's previewed the 3 ups for a forthcoming WW2 Desert War range and Warlord Games previewed plastic WW2 Russians, interesting but I refuse to get excited by stuff a year or so off. The Fireforge medievals looked very nice as did the Perry medieval cavalry but I resisted the call to buy either as I haven't a fixed idea to use the former and still need to make up the infantry that will go with the latter. I completely forgot to buy some ACW artillery to go with the plastics I have or visit the Eureka Miniatures stand which I had planned to.

Such is the way of Salute, just a little bit too big that you miss or forget something. I also forgot to go back to the 28mm Space 1889 game and take photos of the flyers... As usual I have run my photos through iMovie and added some prog rock. I didn't take photos of every game, a number I had seen before and some (like an ECW and VBCW seemed very similar to ones at previous shows). Still there is over 16 minutes of viewing so I hope it is of interest...

Off To Salute...

I'll be off to Salute in a couple of hours. I started a father/son tradition of going up the night before and staying at the Crown Plaza at Docklands to avoid the early morning start and use up some of my hotel club points built up working away from home over the year. Tradition now dictates room service and an overpriced burger but it's a bit of fun! :-)

Watch out for this t-shirt!

For the first time in a while I am going without a shopping list which is potentially very dangerous as I could enter "ooh shiny" mode. I plan to check out the Scheltrum German Revolution range as I've always found the period fascinating and that might prove an unplanned expense. I will be on the lookout for 15mm Early War German infantry but am happy to leave this for the time being if I can't find what I like, no doubt I will check out the Perry Medieval cavalry and Mantic's new Project Pandora SF board game but really there isn't a dedicated plan. Terrain, I suspect, may be the main focus.

I will take the camera this year (it's sat on the tickets fully charged as is the Blackberry just in case) so expect one of my usual "movies" tomorrow or Sunday. I have taken the opportunity to commission some special show clothing so even if you don't recognise me as the mid-40 overweight balding bearded bloke (with lanky six foot tall teenager in tow) you'll recognise the t-shirt so please say hello! :-)

Red Orc Sample Pieces

I've been experimenting on what colour to paint my old Nick Lund sculpted Chronicle/Grenadier Orcs wanting to have a different look than the French Artillery Green GW ones I have. In the end I've found a look I like using Vallejo Black Red and Flat Brown...

Watch Am Escargot: Les Rostbifs

In between painting orcs I've been making baby steps on the road to Watch Am Escargot and with my head stuck in Sean Longden's Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind, I decided that it wasn't going to be 1940 with some element of the BEF. Reading that the 51st Division were attached to and fought with the French has led me to picking up some Battlefront BEF in the form of the BEF Infantry Company and BEF 2 Pdr packs (the idea still being to use Zvezda plastic British tanks when released).

Battlefront BEF Platoon (photo Battlefront)

I did look at the Peter Pig BEF first but the website lacked photos of the basic infantry and wanting my BEF to have gas mask pouches I plumped for the Battlefront figures. After ordering them I discovered the Forged in Battle BEF sets which look pretty good but I am happy enough with the Battlefront figures though maybe the Forged in Battle BEF Highlanders might be bought if the project takes off.

Forged in Battle BEF Highlanders (photo Forged in Battle)

More Black Orcs

I've finished a second unit of Black Orcs for the summer WHFB2 project. This was a bit of a cheat in that the unit of GW plastics was already made up and painted by myself and Saul a couple of years back - I just didn't like them.

So I've replaced the banner and weathered the armour and metalwork so it is much more rusty than previous. I think the figures would have looked better (and been more fun to paint) if they'd worn fur as well as the plate armour.

Whatever, they are now done and will form a useful addition to the battle line...

Painting French Armour

Battlefront have posted an extremely useful painting guide for early war French armour on their website, which you can also download as a PDF here.

The Forgotten Dunkirk

Everyone knows the story of Dunkirk, the 'little boats' and the rescue of the BEF, less well know is that the British Army's involvement in the Battle of France did not cease with the conclusion of Operation Dynamo. I've just finished Iain Gale's The Black Jackals, not the greatest piece of war fiction written but interesting in that it avoids following the bulk of the BEF to the Dunkirk beaches and ends up with its characters fighting with the 51st 'Highland' Division, itself attached to the French IXth Corps at Abbeville.

51st Division, near River Bresle, 1940

The story of the delayed attempt to rescue the division from Le Harve and Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme (and the eventual rescue of some troops from Veules-les-Roses) is fascinating, if somewhat depressing in that pointless political decisions sealed the fate of thousands of men , and I am going to try and seek out a good history book on the subject as it has certainly piqued my interest.

Of course it has brought me back to pondering the Wacht Am Escargot project, especially as the bag of French tanks and infantry is proving somewhat ellusive and having picked up some of the excellent  Zvezda German armour I need to make a decision about infantry (ie. whether to stick with Peter Pig). I also need to decide whether to keeping hunting for the missing French or work on the basis they will turn up when I stop looking for them and raise a small BEF force whilst they come out of hiding  (although if I do this, what to buy as Zvezda are releasing BEF for Art of Tactic starting with a Matilda I in 1/100th this year?)

Perhaps I should just put this all on the back burner for the time being and see what the Russians produce tank wise for the BEF (or I could just buy a few German and British infantry at Salute and maybe some 2 pdrs...)

I Liked It So Much I Bought The Company...

In a bit of a "I liked it so much I bought the company" moment, (wearing my Wessex Games hat) I bought the Urban Beat range of armed police and criminal types...

Ironically I have just realised that this is the second line of armed British police Wessex Games have, the ARU and CO19 joining the armed Victorian police Bill Thronhill sculpted us many moons back.

Everyone Fights...

Unfortunately the few recent sunny days have seen domestic gardening duties back on the agenda (boo!) as SWMBO drafted me into demolishing our old shed in preparation for a new summer house thing she persuaded me to buy (got a feeling this may be my new retreat, the garden centre marketed it as a 'Sanctuary'!).

Anyhow in lieu of any new painted goodness (I'm halfway through rusting up some GW armoured Black Orcs) here is a teaser trailer for the forthcoming Starship Troopers Invasion which looks promising  (nice looking body armour).

One Game We Never Grow Tired Of...

I think this just about tops the geeky coolness chart for wargamers (click the photo for the link, then play the video...)

Heroes Return

Great advert from the National Lottery and a good reminder that it isn't just about winning enough cash to buy a yacht!

River Trolls

Continuing with the WHFB painting I finished off three old metal GW River Trolls that had sat undercoated on the workbench needing a little love for far too long now. Really pleased with the end result...

Great Orcs

I managed to finish of the first unit for the Olde Skool Warhammer project today. Being a tad ornery they aren't Citadel miniatures or from the Eighties but they are Kev Adams sculpts and the huge models make great Black Orcs.

The models are ex-Harlequin, now Black Tree Design Great Orcs and are wonderfully detailed, although this meant they took far longer to paint than I anticipated.

There are more photos here if you are interested...

Dusting Off The Pith Helmet?

I really shouldn't read other people's blogs as they cause the little butterfly in my head to start flapping with excitement and distract me from ongoing work! :-) The latest culprit is David Crook with his Wargaming Odyssey blog where he is looking at playing some North West Frontier games in 54mm (the mad fool!)

Despite having some real fun at the moment painting up Orcs and Trolls for some Olde Skool Warhammer the innner butterfly started twitching and re-kindled plans to play some 20mm NWF Colonial games resulting in my impulse purchase of Churchill's The Story of the Malakand Field Force.

I am going to be strong here, despite an unpainted unit of Jaclex 20mm British sat on the workbench, and concentrate on the Orcs for the time being (and maybe finish the half painted Athenian hoplites next to the Jaclex British), but given the simplicity of the paint schemes I can see them being a useful sanity diversion to the detail on the fantasy and ancients figures.

Best Month Ever - Thank You!

I've just looked at the Blogger Stats for Bleaseworld* and it appears that February 2012 has the highest number of page views in one month (9,405) beating previous best June 2011 (8,890). Thanks to everyone who has visited, commented and follows the blog, it is much appreciated.

I started the blog back in February 2009 as a way of encouraging me to paint more than I was doing (the logic being I needed to paint stuff for blog posts!), which seems to have worked though many projects are still unfinished!

Ogre Slayers from the first post...

Anyway, thanks once more, here's to the next three years, hopefully we'll bust the 10,000 views in a month  soon! :-)

* incidentally the blog name isn't some ego thing (heaven forbid!), in fact I didn't come up with the name. Anyone know where it comes from?

40K 25th Anniversary (Imperial Army IV)

The final models for the Imperial Army unit (for a while) is a small Platoon Command squad with an original Commissar, co-opted Chainsaw Warrior and an officer (who should be with the Rapier Laser Destroyer which will get painted soon).

And to round off, a shot of the whole platoon with support sections...

40K 25th Anniversary (Imperial Army III)

Along with Imperial Army troops I also found half a dozen Ratling (or Halfling to you and me) snipers from 1987. At the time I did think these miniatures stupidly silly and whilst I still think they are rather silly they do have a certain appeal so painted them up at the same time.

40K 25th Anniversary (Imperial Army II)

Following on from the infantry platoon I also painted up a Heavy Weapons Support Section using the same dip painting method. Whilst no fan of the GW's 'Super Sized Weapon Syndrome' I do actually quite like these with the troopers having some kind of lifting mechanism to support the weapons. The figures are great as well, I love the one checking his watch...

40K 25th Anniversary (Imperial Army I)

Digging out the original Imperial Guard (or Army as they were called at the time) from 1987 the other week, I came across a substantial amount of unpainted white metal so in a fit of enthusiasm decided to paint it up.

In the interests of time I decided to dip them which turned out better than expected as I'd held onto the figures wanting to paint them up with a Vietnam 'vibe' (I have some toy hovercraft for APC's to be converted for them), The dip has certainly given the Russian Army Green uniforms a US Olive Drab feel and I'm pleased with the overall effect...

I've painted up three nine-man (and woman) sections to create a basic platoon based on the miniatures I had in my collection.

Section A (1/2)

Section A (2/2)

Section B (1/2)

Section B (2/2)

Section C (1/2)

Section C (2/2)

It's The Rozzers!

Painting in Bleaseworld has been quite productive of late with inroads made into Lead Mountain including a platoon of 1987 era Imperial Guard and support (bases drying), a unit of Harlequin Great Orcs half way through painting, which look really nice, and some jungle terrain...

Whilst sand and metallic paints were drying respectively I finished off three vehicles I picked up from Tesco's in one of their emergency vehicle packs (three vehicles for a fiver) which will find use against zombies, socialists and any other games that need 28mm modern British Police.

The cars are "as is" with some detail painting and weathering, the police van is actually a repainted ambulance with new decals I picked up from ASB Models.

Ye Olde Skool Warhammer

 It's funny how your mind wanders as you get older! With all this Warhammer 40,000 25th Anniversary stuff I decided to paint up a platoon of Imperial Army (as they were called in the G.O.D) most of which had been sat unpainted from 1987. Of course this lead me to think about battles long past and when I was in sixth form and Maggie was in power, the many games of Warhammer Fanatasy Battle I played and, most importantly, what fun was had (see mind wanders from 40k to fantasy...).

A beer or two later and I was considering why Warhammer II seemed to provide a level of enjoyment that I've not really experienced since with the game. I'm not saying that I have not had some fun with Warhammer VII and it might be rose-tinted glasses but it didn't have the fun and flexibility of the second edition.

I'm not sure why this is, possibly because the game needed to be tightened up for tournament players and beardy win at all costs types but I think the newer editions have lost the heart that the first two or three editions had. Second edition was the time of scenario packs like Bloodbath at Orcs Drift and The Tragedy of McDeath not the countless rehashed army books we get these days. It also had a pretty good magic system.

So is there any point to this reminiscing of the G.O.D.? Well yes I think so. I'm going to start working on and off to rebuild my Goblinoid army, repainting some of it to a C21st standard with a view to introducing Saul to the joys of Olde Skool Warhammer during the weeks between the end of his GCSE's and we find out whether he is going to Sixth Form or applying to McDonald's. Hopefully he'll find it as much fun as I did at his age...


I have dug out my old Warhammer II box and it all seems to be there (including some house rules combining the hit and wound rolls) and a quick surf of the internet has provided downloads of PDFs to upload in the iPad which has saved me scanning it for ease of reference and cunning plotting whilst SWMBO watches Downton Abbey or CSI: Whatever in the evenings. I'm not sure where Orc's Drift or McDeath have been stored but I'm sure they are somewhere along with the Ravening Hordes army book (yes, in the G.O.D. we had one army book covering all the armies - and ones you don't get these days!)

Should be fun bringing Gorbage the Goblin and his army out of retirement and showing these modern day plastic stunties a thing or two, in fact he and his chariot probably deserves a fresh lick of paint...

Update: whilst I'll post photos of repainted units here I'll detail most of the progress and any other ramblings not befitting this page on my shiny new Ye Olde Skool Warhammer blog...

Move Over Jeff Wayne!

Saul recorded a piece of music last year including a sample from the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast. I've now run it through iMovie with some photos from the era (including a number of the US Military Louisiana Manoeuvres) and WOTW pictures and film photos for a bit of fun...

Et Tu Brute!

To help beef up the zombie hordes in Apocalypse-Z they allow for the inclusion of brutes, zombies who have grown larger than the normal run of the mill walkers. To represent a couple of these I used a couple of the Horrorclix Freakshow line namely Hungry Bertha and Herculon who I converted with a bit of Green Stuff to fit with the horde. Painting is just quick and easy block painting and dip but it seems to work well on zombies...

A Few Zombies More...

To expand the horde and add some variety I pocked up some of the Horrorclix zombies, whilst a soft plastic they can be repainted and rebased with ease. What is good with the Horrorclix range are the slightly unusual figures like the zombie in construction site hard hat, though I am doing my best to avoid the comic ones such as the zombie with ventriloquist dummy...

The other zombies here are a couple of old Copplestone ones which have been sat around for a long time and a D&D zombie, ostensibly in a cod-medieval fantasy world costume but has a New Age look similar to what you see down Glastonbury high street.

I am now working on converting a toy ambulance into a police van to go with a couple of police cars I picked up from Tesco's and must finish off the Dwarf King's Hold figures which were coming along quite nicely before I got the zombie bug (not literally!)

Construction Site Vehicles

Along with the flash cars, I also picked up some cheap (three for a fiver) commercial vehicles from Tesco and gave the four yellow ones a heavy weathering as if they had been on a rather muddy construction site.

One of the lorrys came with these useful recycling bins which make great scenic items after a bit of weathering as well...