American Soldier

I picked up a copy of Queensrÿche's new album American Soldier the other day. I had fallen out of love with the US prog metal band following the release of the (to my mind) disappointing Promised Land (it is no Operation: Mindcrime!). However, they piqued my interest with the new album which promised to be an "epic concept album exploring the consequences of war from the soldier's perspective"...

I was intrigued that lead singer, Geoff Tate, had gone out and interviewed US vets from a number of wars from Vietnam through Somalia to Iraq and used these interviews to develop the album (and in a number of cases include excerpts of the interviews in the songs which can be quite harrowing).

Now if you are into Celine Dion then this probably isn't going to be an album for you, but if you like a bit of guitar and gung-ho rock then American Soldier may well be the CD to stick on when playing Ambush Alley or Scudbusters, I'm certainly enjoying it...

EuroFed Aerospace Craft

Curse the sunny weather - SWMBO (or "She Who Must Not Be Named" as Saul called her by mistake!) has had me out in the fresh air engaged in that heinous activity - gardening!!! :-) Lord knows what a Goji Berry is, but we've now got one and over the weekend I've had spent longer with my fingers stuck in mud than holding a paintbrush (well I hope it's mud, we do have a large black labrador that spends a lot of time in the garden...).

Anyway, I did manage to get some "me time" and whilst the EuroFed Armoured Company is still only half painted I did manage to paint up some useful aerospace support for them (and games of Iron Hawk). Tony at Brigade let me have some master castings from their forthcoming Squadron Commander range (I believe they will be available at SELWG) including four Comete class and two Meteore class from the European Federation Aerospace Force.

The Comete is a simple little one piece model that looks ideal for both air and space combat as well as dropping munitions on ONESS and Neo-Soviet ground forces. The Meteore is a much bigger model and probably will only see service in space. Both are nice sharp models, but I really like the look of the Meteore... I painted them up in a blue-grey/light blue scheme and used some I-94 Enterprises decals (they are WW2 British Pacific but unusual enough to work for the Eurofed - I wanted to avoid using French markings as they are supposed to be a European Federation, albeit French dominated).

The Circuit

Last few days have been a bit of a rush work wise with meetings in London and Paris, so much of a rush that I forgot to pack a book to read on the Eurostar to Paris and plane back to Bristol! :-( I quickly browsed the small selection of books in WHSmiths' at St Pancras International and picked up Bob Shepherd's The Circuit.

The Circuit recounts (ex-SAS Warrant Officer) Bob Shepherd's work in the Private Security Companies since 1994 in Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. I have become increasing interested in PSC's and PMC's (Private Military Contractors) of late as I want to include them in the Iron Cow background as an option for gamers other than the national power blocs.

A fascinating read, the author is quite honest in how his 'black and white' opinions of who the good guys and the bad guys are changed after his experiences following his military service and certainly pulls no punches in respect of what he sees as strategic and tactical errors by the US Military (especially Lt Col Sassaman in Iraq), the ineptitude of some other contractors (including his own employer) and some of the people he was tasked with protecting. There is some really interesting detail and colour in this book and anyone with an interest in the current War on Terror, the world's trouble spots in general or even how battlefield reporters go about their job will be well rewarded by picking this book up.

Memo To Self: Ignore All Distractions!

So there I was minding my own business trying to finish off painting my 6mm EuroFed when issue 65 of The Journal arrives... 

Lots of interesting stuff within but one article really piqued my interest. It was on WW2 Soviet coastal and riverine forces, not a topic I really knew much about, but the idea of gunboats (with T34 turrets) sailing up the Danube, engaging other vessels as well as tanks on the shore (one gunboat was famously sunk by a German Elefant!) seems hard to resist, especially as NavWar make some in 1/300th. (Now I do have some unpainted Soviet armour somewhere...)

I am doing best to be strong and focus on projects in hand, but I'd only need a couple, they are only £1.50 each and it's so easy to order things via the internet these days...

Monster Planet

Several years later... Just finished Monster Planet, the third in David Wellington's zombie trilogy. Set twelve years after the initial two volumes, Monster Planet is a bit of a disappointment. 

It starts off really well with the surviving Somalia heroines of the first book and the daughter of the UN weapons inspector flying a Mil-8 helicopter over rampaging zombies crossing Egypt. Indeed the post-apocalyptic/last survivors feel was promising, but the book goes down hill somewhat quickly after that as the action returns to America. 

Whilst there are some good scenes, it is increasingly far-fetched with too much emphasis on the magic powers of the undead and too little on zombie brain eating action (I mean who wants their undead turning people into mushrooms? We want them eating brains!). A shame really as the original novel was good and the second had its moments. 

If you read the first two you will undoubtedly end picking up the third to see how it all turns out, just be aware it ain't as good as its predecessors...

Shiver Me Timbers!

Took a bit of a break from painting today as the postman delivered a large parcel this morning! :-) Inside was the Mega Bloks Black Pearl which I spent most of the morning messing with around on the floor, sticking it together and then breaking it apart (then sticking it together so "SWMBO" could see it then breaking it apart!).

What's this got to do with wargaming you cry?! Well I'd been looking for some suitable ships to use in Strange Grogge, but as true to scale models would be ridiculously big and most kits are too small scale wise I'd almost given up on the idea until I spotted this game at Salute...

The models being used, with 28mm scale miniatures, are from the Mega Bloks Pirates of the Carribean line (Mega Bloks if you don't know is a company that produce Lego-like models, usually cheaper and IMHO having made a number through Saul's childhood, as good as, if not better...). The one above is (I think) The Flying Dutchman, but inspired by this game I hunted the Black Pearl and a generic Pirate Ship down on eBay, paying under a tenner for both.

This is a project for later in the year, but as I have now amassed a substantial collection of fantasy pirates from Black Scorpion, Olley's Armies, Fortress Figures, Rackham (to name a few) we'll soon be sailing the Seven Seas on Bleaseworld!

Panzerfäuste Ogres

The 6mm painting came to a grinding halt when I found that all three cans of black undercoat had run out (!) so I need to get some more before the I can get on with the EuroFed armour. Turning my eyes to a pile of half finished projects I decided to finish of my Panzerfäuste Ogre conversions as they would be needed in the forthcoming PDF edition.

Based on WW2 Hungarians I did the majority of the conversion work some moons ago, using the GW plastic Ogre Bulls as the basis and building up the torsos with Milliput. Detail was added using Green Stuff and weapons and accessories came from the 1/32nd Airfix Multipose Afrika Korp set. I went with 1/32nd as 1/35th accessories looked too small and flimsy compared to the figures. The helmet on the sergeant is probably a tad too small to be realistic but to my mind it works well giving the figure a slightly comic fantasy appearance. The headgear on the private was sculpted from Green Stuff. The models were then painted in up in WW2 Hungarian colours.

Overall I am really pleased with the conversions and the overall look of the Ogres. I am not sure when I'll get around to actually sculpting some Ogres from scratch for Panzerfäuste but these conversions were relatively straight forward and will make good proxies for the time being. As an exercise in using Milliput and Green Stuff it has certainly given me more confidence to have a go on some larger models sometime in the future. In the meantime I need to finish off the long awaited Highland Orcs before I get lynched by Panzerfäuste gamers!

Monster Nation

Back onto zombies and I've finished book two of David Wellington's trilogy,  Monster Nation. Trilogy is a bit of a misnomer as this prequel can be read in isolation as none of the main characters from Monster Island are in this book are in this and the action is by and large centred in California and Colorado.

Lots of good bits in this book that would make great wargames scenarios, such as the S&R teams in Denver trying to rescue the uninfected, but also bits that will make the zombie purist somewhat annoyed (invisible zombies?). Overall I quite enjoyed it but it might not be to everyone's taste.

Of course with all this reading about zombies and having seen 28 Weeks Later again recently on the TV I was pondering some zombie orientated miniature games. I do have the excellent Twilight Creations' Zombies!!! (a must have game), but was thinking about something more military themed. Ambush Z seems popular but I may be a cheapskate and just play around with Scudbusters using the reaction charts to control the zombies and the campaign system to gradually wear the SOF down.

EuroFed Mechanised Infantry

The Iron Cow arms race continues apace with the European Federation building up its forces to counter the fascist military of the American Republic!

First off is a mechanised infantry company using Brigade Models' lovely little Tassigny APC's and infantry. The Tassigny is a nice looking GEV APC and one of my favourite models in the entire Brigade line (there is just something about it's boxy look that appeals).

The unit HQ is a variant, the Tassigny Command APC which has a communications dish replacing the hull mounted weapon on the standard APC.

The infantry are Brigade's generic infantry pack and I must say probably the best 6mm SF infantry I have come across (with GZG a very close second). When I built my first Iron Cow armies up fifteen odd years ago using AFV's from GZG, Scotia etc, SF infantry were either non-exsitant or very poor. For the most part I used Heroics & Ros modern troops, their insurgents pack regularly getting drafted to various armies causes.

These days we are served with a number of really very good offerings including GZG and Dark Realm.

Unfortunately Brigade only do one pack which is a damn shame as they are very well detailed but not too fussy to paint up nicely with simple use of a black undercoat, some dry-brushing and odd dots of detail.

The infantry platoon pack contains regular troopers, a commander pointing and three different types of heavy weapon and I've decided to use them for EuroFed as I have enough to do a regular infantry company and also a EuroFed Legion one later on.

On a related SF infantry front I have ordered a couple of packs of Dark Realm including their jungle troops which look like they could be useful for English Republic Genetic Infantry (Gen: I) and in a strange turn of fate re-discovered several packs of the (very) old NavWar SF infantry which could well be useful for some Private Military Contractor forces I was planning to raise...

Before that though it'll be back to the EuroFed with a pile of tanks, artillery and close aerospace support currently sitting on the painting table awaiting undercoating.

AmRep Support Tanks

Tony at Brigade was kind enough to include three turrets for their M-826 Boyd Support Tank which uses the same body as the standard Boyd MBT in my order so I can switch between them dependent on mission requirements. I've now painted them up and here are the Boyd's in support mode...

Work continues apace on the Iron Cow front with my eyes (and paintbrush) now turned on the EuroFed. I've painted up several APC's for an infantry company and am part way through the infantry. Photos hopefully tomorrow. Before this I did finish the remainder of the AmRep Eagle flight which now just need decals applying.

Monster Island

Just finished reading Monster Island by David Wellington, a zombie story set in modern day New York. I must say I quite enjoyed it even if, (disregarding the zombie aspect), it is somewhat far fetched with a gang of Somali girl soldiers and a UN weapons inspector sailing a trawler from East Africa to the US to try and acquire AIDS drugs from the UN building in zombie infested New York.

The story is written in alternate chapters in the first person (for the UN weapons inspector) and the third person (for a zombie eye view) and rattles along quite nicely. Some fun touches such as the zombie pigeons and the mummies in the museum that also come back to life along with the other dead.

It does have some "fantasy" elements that might annoy zombie purists (yes, I know how silly that sounds)  but has some excellent ideas gamers looking to put on some zombie games, whether they are scenarios or just some cool concepts.

AmRep Eagle Aerospace Fighter

Tony at Brigade Games was kind enough to provide me with some samples of their (mostly) as yet unreleased 1/300th SF fighters. Brigade acquired the rights for Squadron Commander 3600 a little while back and intend to re-release it geared towards 1/300th scale miniatures (and thus compatible with their 6mm Iron Cow vehicle range). Of course in Wessex Towers we did not know this when we set David Manley to work on our own set of 1/300th SF Fighter rules using the AirWar: C21 mechanisms which will be called Iron Hawk: 2136AD. Not sure which set will see light of day first but I'm sure they'll both be worth buying (he said diplomatically!).

Anyhow, looking for some aerospace support for the AmRep Marine Corp tanks I have started painting up a flight of AmRep Eagle aerospace fighters. So far this one is the furthest along and is just waiting for markings to be added. I will probably opt for some of the current US low-vis grey ones if I can find some appropriate decals. A very well sculpted model I can see this being popular with both Iron Cow and Iron Hawk gamers.

AmRep Marine Tank Company

Having painted up some infantry I thought I'd better get some 6mm armour painted up for Iron Cow 2103AD and decided to stay with the American Republic by painting up Brigade Models AmRep Marine Tank Company.

The company comprises of four 3 tank M-82 Boyd MBT platoons and one M-823 Boyd Command Vehicle (yes Tommy, they are named after you!)

Nice models, they required minimal cleaning before undercoating I went with a two colour green over sand camo scheme. I had initially decided to go with something akin to the old US MERDC scheme but after adding the green was happy enough as is.

I haven't added any national markings as yet as I am undecided on how prominent these would be. I also need to get some perspex rod to raise them off the ground slightly as they are grav tanks and should float slightly above the surface.

I now need to hunt out the rest of the US Marine Combat Team which I put away somewhere safely and can't remember where! I am also working on some aerospace support for the Am Rep Marines and hope to get a couple of fighters painted up tonight.

AmRep Mechanised Infantry

I've started a bit of a push on the 6mm SF front having realised that the Iron Cow rulebook is OOP. I started sorting through my Salute purchases yesterday and thought I'd line up the AmRep forces first on the workbench. At Salute I bought a pack of pretty much all of GZG's 6mm SF infantry. Unfortunately when I got home they weren't labelled so I didn't know what was supposed to be what. No major shakes as the Iron Cow background is obviously different but it means I can't tell you what I painted!

All the packs contain 24 nicely sculpted 6mm scale infantry with this unit in full body armour and enclosed helmets with a mix of small arms and man-portable heavy weapons. This pack has an Aliens style chaingun and a shoulder fired missile launcher with magazine.

The figures were a breeze to paint, black undercoat, drybrush Catachan Green, lighter drybrush of green with a dab of white added. The helmets vizors were painted Enchanted Blue, with a dab of grey splashed on the weapons and a couple of dots for unit insignia added to the shoulders.

Basing was a slight conundrum. The rules suggest four to a base but I decided to base them in twos on some tiddlywinks I'd bought from em-4 a while back. I discounted the GZG bases as too high (2mm = 2 foot in 1/300th) and requiring too much work to scrap flash off etc.

Overall quite pleased with the first 6mm I've painted in a decade. I'm currently working on a company of M-82 Boyd MBT's, the test model for which I think looks really nice...

UPDATE: the infantry are GZG's UNSC Marines Hardsuit Infantry Platoon (code DSM-135). Thanks to Nick Whittock for this...

First Blitz

Just finished reading First Blitz by Neil Hanson, an account of the German bomber raids on London in World War One and the secret plan to firebomb London the mission for which was aborted with minutes to spare in September 1918 as the German bombers were poised for take-off.

The book is very well written and a good read. Hanson concentrates on three three alternating themes throughout the book as he proceeds chronologically from the first German raid on Dover on Christmas Eve 1914 through the end of the war. Concentrating on the Luftwaffe's London Squadron (officially known as the Carrier Pigeon Unit!), the British political and military response and the impact on the civilian population of London and South-East England, using many first hand accounts (both British and German). The descriptions of the impact on the civilian population is harrowing in parts and the impact on the morale of the population cannot be understated. Certainly H.G.Wells' Shape of Things to Come appears somewhat less prophetic after reading about the level of panic the relatively few German raids caused amongst the capital's population.

Overall, an excellent book about a relatively unknown subject and one of interest not only for World War One gamers but also VSF ones who can substitute the Gotha's and Giants for aeronef...

Salute 2009

Went to Salute yesterday with Saul and am now considerably poorer (but happier!). A good show as ever at the ExCel, but it is a pain to get to. Two hours to London by car and then another two hours going through or around it (having tried north, south and through now I think the North Circular wins). We stayed at the Crowne Plaza at Docklands on the Friday night (using club card points) so Saul had a swim in the pool, I enjoyed the whirpool(!) and we only had a five minute walk to the venue on the Saturday.

For the first time in years I went with a purchase plan in mind and stuck to it (well, for the first hour!) picking up the new Black Scorpion fantasy pirates (for Strange Grogge), Empress Zulu War British (for service on Mars of course), Ironclad French (for more 28mm VSF goodness), Peter Pig AK47 (for Scudbusters - does no one do Gulf War 15mm SAS?) and 6mm SF armour and infantry off Brigade and GZG for Iron Cow.

By this stage Saul had wandered off so I perused the games and took lots of photos. One of the most eye-catching was Assault on Innsmouth with a gurt big (Bristolian term) Cthulhu advancing towards the seaside town which was being attached by US forces. The scenery was great with the buildings lit with ghostly green LEDs. The game was a rolling one with players joining throught the day, I didn't give it a go but got an answerphone message from Saul  saying he'd blown Cthulhu up with an anti-tank gun but unfortunately he'd come back to life! :-)

One I first saw at Warfare last year (but didn't have the camera) was a Russo-Japanese 1938/9 battle in 28mm on a massive table with excellent terrain, loads of beautifully painted miniatures, tanks, artillery, aircraft and a train. Got a bit carried away taking pics of this game so here's just one...

The Perry's had a wonderful looking Napoleonic game using tons of their new plastic 28mm French. Unfortunately I weakened and bought a box of each of the British and French off them. I'm not sure whether to go Peninsular or Waterloo. Peninsular is Sharpe and all that and the grubby campaign look is great, but to any Englishman Waterloo does stir the heart. Oh well, no rush as I need to find a set of rules I like.

On the subject of the Perry's they did unveil their new forthcoming plastic range with the 3 up masters in display. All the TMPers got it wrong and it is the Wars of the Roses which will please "She Who Must Be Obeyed" as she is a member of the Richard III Society (indeed we had to get married on 2nd October, Richard's birthday).

The most impressive looking game at the show (to my mind) was this wonderful 28mm Conquistador/Aztec game featuring a massive pyramid (complete with sacrifices ongoing) and an Aztec city with some fantastic detail including a huge skull rack.

The Conquistadors were advancing over this narrow causeway to the city. Overall quite stunning (and yes, there was a little part of me thinking umm... lizardmen!)

I also met up with a number of people throughout the day including Rob Alderman and Ross Bowrage to chew the fat over Panzerfäuste Legion - what's Panzerfäuste Legion I hear you ask? 

Basically it is a Panzerfäuste supplement for Battlefield Evolution that will be released under the Mongoose Open Gaming Licence. This should allow gamers with large Panzerfäuste collections to play larger games with more units and more armour. It was good to put faces to Rob and Ross who I'd only discussed stuff by email and get some ideas sorted (as well as more inspiration on the miniatures side). Hopefully this will be a jolt in the arm for Panzerfäuste...

Couple of other things caught my eye, including this WWII game purely for effective and eye-catching use of the plastic (Litko?) on fire markers. If you are wondering why the Shermans are all burning off camera there was two 88mm A/T guns, three 88mm armed JadgPanthers and a large number of Panthers all lined up behind hedges...

 

There were a number of WWI air wargames at the show, most in 1/72nd compete with bombers, however I was taken with this nicely produced mat for this game of Wings of War.

Games wise Saul wanted to try out Monsterpocalypse but there was no one around when he was so he tried AT-43 instead, the Karman miniatures having caught his eye (imagine Gorrillas in power armour, some with back mounted rail guns - cool eh?). Having tried it out he press ganged me into a scenario based game with him and another player. Saul had the alien Therians (including some things with electro-whips that are kick ass tough), the other player had a U.N.A. force and I had two Red Blok units. 

Not having played the game it was quite fun (to the extent I started yelling 'medic' to save wounds before my opponents had rolled their dice!). The scenario was quite good with the opfors having to reach a old tech container, which when the U.N.A, player did released a huge golem that attacked my Red Blok troops. However due to superior Communist tactics the cunning Red Blok commander managed to fulfil his mission parameters first (ie. see enemy units down to at least half strength) whilst the Therians just fulfilled theirs soon after (get two models off the board) and the U.N.A. were wiped out with one man left standing. Good game...

Of course this naturally resulted in an unplanned trip to the vendors and the purchase of the Operation Damocles Initiation Set and two boxes of Karmans (goriilas in power armour, who can resist them!). Luckilly there was a 3 for 2 offer on and the Initiation set was down to £25 so the damage to Saul's wallet and mine wasn't too bad, though "SWMBO" was less impressed when I got home - despite having bought her favourite dish at the Chinese on the way home to butter her up! (And for the record the Chinese takeaway almost cost as much as the starter set, there's no winning...)

All in all a good day, Saul and I both enjoyed ourselves (he slept most of the way home holding onto his new purchase!) and we now have another new game to play...

ONESS Panzer Grenadiers

Following on from the AmRep A.I. I painted earlier this month I've now painted up twenty German ONESS Panzer Grenadiers to playtest Iron Dog 2136AD with.

The miniatures are Pig Iron Heavy Infantry and whilst I initially purchased them with a view to using them as regular AmRep grunts I felt they had a "European" feel to them so decided to go with the Organisation of North European Sovereign States (ONESS) from the Iron Cow background and Germans specifically from the choice of ONESS nations.

The miniatures are really very nicely sculpted and highly recommended, they required minimal clean up before painting. I picked up Platoon Pack 1 and still have the heavy weapons teams to paint which come as pairs moving and firing. The command pack is superb with an officer, medic, sniper, comms trooper and a wonderful robot servant for the officer! I may well pick up the Infantry Booster pack to flesh out my squads as it contains some different poses and separate heads to allow more variation. I certainly intend to pick up some of the Kolony Militia to use as Neo-Soviets.

Painting was relatively straight forward though the moral of the story is always paint a test piece before you start an entire unit! :-(

I had a relatively simple (largely green) scheme in mind painting the combat fatigues in Vallejo's U.S.A. Uniform (70922) which I thought looked a bit garish but rolled with it painting up the body armour, faces etc. thinking the models would tone down. Having left them for a couple of hours on Friday evening I re-appraised them and then placed them next to some WW2 models - yuk! They looked awful! I'm not sure which "U.S. Uniform" this green is supposed to be but it is nearer Goblin Green than any olive green!! 

I resigned myself to respraying the models and starting from scratch again but decided to see what the officer would look like it I just re-undercoated the fatigues and dry brushed them Reflective Green (70890) - it looked good so I stayed up to 1am on Saturday morning repainting the other 18 troopers (fortunately the robot was ok in its Catachan Green armour!).

I finally finished basing them last night and despite the repaint am really pleased with them and am looking forward to getting some more Pig Iron to paint in the future.

Having A Cow!

The writing bug bit deep after I saw Brigade Models were issuing their lovely 6mm SF Russians at Salute. Realising the Russian aren't in the Iron Cow rulebook I started beavering away on a PDF supplement for them! As this stage I then realised that I hadn't PDF'd Iron Cow itself either so lacking an electronic copy of the rulebook (it was originally carved in stone in 1995) I started re-transcribing that and taking the opportunity to fix a few things as I did so. Hopefully both will be released in April with lots of colour piccies of Brigade goodness which I'm picking up at Salute and will, of course, be featured here on Bleaseworld as I paint my first 6mm SF miniatures for at least a decade!

One of the things I had never got around to with Iron Cow is to put the full background down on paper (or Mac in this case) and make it clear who is what and what they are doing to who. As part of this I drew up a map of Europe in 2103AD which shows the main power blocs plus the mess Europe is in as well. I'm not sure if this will be in the PDF rulebook but if you already have the paper rulebook here it is:

Another golf lesson tonight, I have managed to get a couple of sessions in on the driving range over the last couple of days - it's amazing what you can forget in a week! :-)

Khâzad-Zâul

Having been tied up with work and building the mother of all flower troughs for "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (large and sturdy enough to withstand a siege I reckon - the flower trough not "She Who Must be Obeyed"!) I haven't had much time for painting over the last week (or even whacking some golf balls!) - a sad state of affairs I know...

Some new stuff is on the painting table and has a coat of undercoat on it, so hopefully there will be something new and exciting later this week on Bleaseworld, but in the meantime I thought I'd share some pictures of Saul's Dwarf Army which I've painted up over the last couple of years.

The bulk of the army comes from the Skull Pass set with a box of Dwarf Warriors thrown in for variation. Whilst there have been (many) snippy comments about the miniatures in the GW starter boxes I think they are fine and some are really good like the Thane pictured here:

The whole look of the Dwarves is inspired by the Saxons in the naff Clive Owen King Arthur film. The only redeeming element of this awful film is the Saxon's attacking across the ice. Now they don't look like Saxons (pretty cool Chaos Marauders maybe...) but that dark look was one I wanted to replicate on the Dwarves. For this I switched to using a black undercoat (after twenty odd years of using white) and must confess to finding the whole painting process a damn sight easier and quicker doing this (consequently I haven't used white undercoat since on any miniature).

The army has been supplement over the last couple of years with some artillery pieces picked up off eBay. I'm quite happily mixing old and new models as it gives the feeling that Dwarf smiths create one-off weapons rather than have a mass production facility, which seems more in keeping with the mythos concept I feel.

There are still a number of miniatures to be painted up including another unit of Miners with three mining wagons pulled by ponies, an Automaton of some sort from Privateer Press's Warmachine range that fits in perfectly, a heavily converted unit of Dwarf Rangers and some flying Dwarves with rocket packs (!) to act as Gyrocopter proxies as I don't like the 'copter model. Hopefully it won't be too long before these get painted and make an appearance in Bleaseworld!

Sergeant Blease, Reporting For Duty!

I've just finished reading Cain's Last Stand by Sandy Mitchell (aka Alex Stewart), the sixth book in the Ciaphas Cain series of Warhammer 40K novels. 

The Cain series are a little different from the regular 40K novel fodder in that our hero, a Commissar, is also a coward more intent on saving his skin and unjustified reputation, than fighting for the Emperor. 

Cain is clearly modelled on Flashman and his side kick Jurgen bears more than a passing resemblance to Baldrick from Blackadder Goes Forth, but the stories are all the better for that...

Cain's Last Stand is set around a Chaos attack on the planet of Perlia,  and has the added attraction on page 138 of a cameo by Sergeant Blease, a Chimera commander in the Perlian PDF! 

You would not believe how tempted I am now to buy a Chimera and add a commander with a beard in the turret... 

Camels and Dolphins

Bit of a Sopwith day today with six more 1/144th aeroplanes constructed...

First off are four of Skytrex's Sopwith Camels (two pictured), a nice little model that goes together simply enough. The Camel is one of the best know fighters of WWI, but also saw sterling service in the immediate post-war period in a variety of new air forces including the Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Soviet ones. I bought four as I decided that not only did I want some RFC ones, but also wanted to paint some up in either Estonian or Latvian markings (or maybe Soviet...) for some Russian Civil/Baltic War dogfights.

Talk of the Camel obviously leads to Biggles (!), and I have recently read the reprint of the first Biggles collection entitled The Camels Are Coming.

Unlike later books, Captain W. E. Johns draws on his own experiences (and others he knew) to write some wonderful short stories that paint a vivid picture of the air war above the Western Front. Whilst a "kids book" he doesn't shy away from the strain war places on young men and Biggles is clearly suffering from battle fatigue in the later stories and getting through the days with an increasing reliance on Scotch (usually for breakfast!). If you have never read Biggles, read The Camels Are Coming!

The second Sopwith of the day is the Dolphin with its distinctive rear swept wing assembly (the top wing is 18 inches behind the lower wing) which entered service in February 1918 but only with four squadrons. A very modern looking fighter (for its day), this model is the first Reviresco one I have made up. 

First off it has many more individual pieces than any of the Skytrex models and is a bit fiddly to construct but with a bit of effort makes a reasonable model. The ridge effect on the rear-swept wings looks very scratchy in bare metal but I am reserving judgement until I slap some paint on it. The Dolphin did see post-war service in the Polish Air Force against the Soviets in the 1920's and if I can find some 1/144th Polish national decals I might be tempted to fly the Dolphins over Warsaw rather than the Western Front...