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Scorcher! (and A Grand Day Out)

July 6, 2013, 9:22 am
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Phew! Been a bit hot here today! Apparently it is warmer here than the Caribbean!

I have done some painting today having dug out half a dozen miscellaneous fantasy fighters produced by Citadel in the eighties (I suspect they are mainly original Chaos Warrior types before they had factions and looks) and have based and undercoated them. I've also been playing with some paint on a couple of cheap Death Korp of Krieg proxies. More on both of these when finished...


Today sees the start of the West Wind summer sale. 30% off their 28mm WW2, Arthurian and Samurai ranges, the latter will be useful if you plan to try out the latest Osprey wargames rules Ronin. I took advantage last year to grab some of the Arthurians for the Dux Bellorum armies and was very pleased with them, this year I may have to pick up some WW2 to fill the gaps...


Finally this post could not go by without some reference to the cracking performance by the British and Irish Lions down under, thrashing the Aussies 41-16 in the decisive third test. Hurrah!

Gromit of the Day:

A Grand Day Out
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Death Korps of Preisgünstig! (and Watch Out Gromit!)

July 7, 2013, 6:07 am
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Anyone with a passing interest in 40K must have cast an envious glance at Forgeworld's superb Death Korps of Krieg range and subsequently bought a lottery ticket in hope rather than expectation! I must confess to being in a similar boat but undaunted cast my eyes around for suitable (cheaper) proxies.


First and foremost are Wargames Factory's plastic Shock Troops (Sci-Fi Greatcoat troopers).  For around £18 (they can be found cheaper) you get 18 multi-part troopers with tons of extras (the box includes 84 heads!). They are nicely done and easy to make up in a variety of poses. A complementary Support Weapons box is also available. At about £1 a miniature, that compares favourable with Forgeworld's £3.70 a trooper.


As stated the Shock Troops box gives you a ton of bits for your spares box and consequently I investigated even cheaper options to convert using these spares. You can't get much cheaper than Prince August's Warzone Mutant Chronicles Bag of 80 Plastic Soldiers for just £21.48 (27p a figure). Ok, the contents a bit limited but they are decent enough and by combining heads and other bits and pieces from the Wargames Factory box you can get very pleasing results (the one below uses the Imperial Trooper body...)


When it came to painting I have kept things to an absolute minimum for these test pieces. I decided against painting WWI German Camo on the helmets or Freikorps skulls. I may do this once I make up and sort out the rest of the models using this to differentiate between regular troopers and elites, but today have stuck to using Vajello's 830 German Field Grey and 920 German Uniform for the most part.


Overall, whilst they cannot compete with the high quality Forgeworld releases, these are decent enough proxies and by combing the Wargames Factory and Prince August packs they will cost a fraction of the price.

Gromit of the Day:

Watch Out Gromit!
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I Pledge Myself (and my Wallet) to Great Cthulhu! (and What a Wind Up!)

July 8, 2013, 5:04 am
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The Cthulhu WarsKickstarter ended last night with over 4,000 backers pledging over $1.4m. I had ummed and ahhed about getting involved and then when I decided to do so I ummed and ahhed about what level to pledge at. In the end to maximise the savings and minimise the shipping cost I went all in. That the product will ship fro the EU removed any VAT or Customs concerns and I am sure there will be a good resale value on anything I decide that I don't really need in the end.


I don't know how many miniatures I am going to end up with as I have lost count, but it is a lot. It certainly will be a challenge to paint them and I am going to have to put some serious thought into colour schemes that look realistic whilst being potentially mind-bending!


One of the reasons I went the whole hog was the miniatures and I am giving some serious thought about alternative uses beyond the boardgame. I have already started plotting ideas for a Geheimkrieg Cthulhu supplement but beyond Strange Aeons there is little miniatures based Cthulhu wargaming at present. My mind has been pondering introducing Cthulhu and his fellows into a whole host of periods. The Great Old Ones could feature in the Dark Ages, VSF, Pulp, WW2, modern games (Cloverfield could have been a GOO) and even SF. Really there are no limit to their use...


Despite the unusual weather here in the UK I have done some more painting on the fantasy fighters and  hope to start on some of the logjam projects later this week. It is certainly too hot to do anything else, I cut the front grass this morning and almost melted. I am seriously contemplating buying a goat for the back...

Gromit of the Day:

What a Wind Up!
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A Couple More Brigands (and National Treasure)

July 9, 2013, 9:15 am
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I have managed to finish a couple more Citadel generic fantasy fighters for my band of brigands mercenary unit (aka the solution to all the odd figures you bought years ago).


The first one is a pre-slotta figure from a 1984 boxed set called Knights of Chaos. This obviously predates the ten ton armour look and the four Chaos gods of the Realm of Chaos background as on the box he is called Red Dulmoon - Dark Saint of Insane Gotd (who is Gotd?). Nice miniature this and I am working on a few others from the box. The fact that he doesn't look like a current day Chaos follower, makes him ideal as a slightly nasty looking fantasy fighter for the band.


Second is a slotta-era female fighter. I must confess I don't particularly like this figure, the sculpting is not of a very high quality, but she will fill up the unit hiding somewhere in the middle!


Gromit of the Day:

National Treasure

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Burma, My Father And The Forgotten Army (and Patch)

July 10, 2013, 1:34 am
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I caught up with a fascinating documentary last night that originally aired on Sunday on BBC 2 but is still available for the next few days here on iPlayer.Burma, My Father And The Forgotten Army is comedian Griff Rhys Jones investigation into his father's service during WW2 as a medical officer for the Gold Coast Regiment forming part of the 82nd West African Regiment which served in Burma.

Elywn Rhy Jones and the men of the Gold Coast Regiment
As I have stated previously, I do find it annoying that the contribution of soldiers from the four corners of the Empire is often forgotten, especially those from countries that were colonies at the time. In Burma itself many of the troops who fought the Japanese were African, Gurkha and Indian yet when we consider the battles of the war the default use of British or Imperial troops leads one to forget that this was not just a white man's war.

Troops of the Royal West African Frontier Force in the Arakan, Burma 1944 by Captain Hugh Micklem
The programme itself was extremely poignant, not only for Griff Rhys Jones' understanding of why his father did not really talk about his experience and his embracing of an ordinary post-war life, but also the interviews with a number of West African veterans from Ghana who fought in the war.

During the war around 375,000 men and women from African countries served in the Empire and Commonwealth forces. Of these 3,387 were killed and 5,549 wounded. It was therefore depressing to learn how poorly they were treated after the war by the Imperial authorities, a protest against broken promises seeing three veterans being shot dead by police in 1948, but really shocking that the families of those West Africans that died fighting the Japanese in 1944 and '45 were not informed of the fact and only found out when the regiments returned to the Gold Coast in 1945 and 1946. It is hard to comprehend that their efforts and sacrifice did not even warrant a telegram to their families.

HQ Company, 81st West African Division, Burma 1944
Overall an interesting documentary, well worth watching not only to gain an insight into the West African contribution in the fighting in Arakan, but also to hear the first hand accounts of brave veterans who fought in the name of the Crown against our enemy.

Gromit of the Day:

Patch
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Good Morning, Vietnam! (and Stat's The Way To Do It, Lad!)

July 10, 2013, 11:12 pm
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I came across an interesting website yesterday called the Radio First Termer Restoration Project.

Radio First Termer was a pirate radio station that ran for just three weeks out of a brothel in Saigon in 1971 and the website is dedicated to not only promoting the station, its DJ Dave Rabbit, but also restoring the first three hour pirate radio broadcast.

Listening the broadcast yesterday was a great experience and the work of the restoration project to preserve this little bit of Vietnam history is one to be applauded. It struck me that the broadcast would make for a great soundtrack to any Vietnam game with its mix of hard acid rock (The Who, Cream, Santana etc) and irreverent commentary.

The language and jokes are a bit colourful (I won't post a picture of the Dave Rabbit shirts!) but it is reflective of the period and to be honest of it offends you more than playing games about war I think you need to have a serious sit down and think about things!

In conclusion, if you are interested in the Vietnam War or game the period I would thoroughly recommend downloading all three parts of the broadcast from here.

Gromit of the Day:

Stat's The Way To Do It, Lad!
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More Eighties Chaos Knights (and Being Gromit Malkovich)

July 12, 2013, 4:03 am
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The nice long summer evenings have allowed me to hide in the games room and continue painting whilst SWMBO watches Eastenders and Holby City resulting in a couple more pieces being finished.

First off are a couple more from Citadel's 1984 Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos. This time I've finished off Thel - Knight of Gorth the Great Obesity and Buoophut Bane-Arrow - Devotee of Alaman. Both are lovely figures that hark back to a better age of less formularic chaos miniatures.


Also from the same time period, this time from Speciality Set 5 - Warrior Knights of Law is Sir Palomides Pureheart, a really oddly equipped miniature (what's with the hat?) that has previously thwarted my attempts at painting him but seems to have worked out ok this time.


Finally, a bit of a public service announcement. As you probably know Modelzone is in administration and the shops appear to be having a stock clearance sale amongst which I noticed, when I popped into the London store yesterday, that Vallejo paints are half price, so a good time to stock up.

Gromit of the Day:

Being Gromit Malkovich
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Rediscovering Miniature Wargames (and Groscar)

July 13, 2013, 5:09 am
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It's a couple of months now since Henry Hyde took over the reins at Miniature Wargames, combined it with his baby Battlegames and gave the whole thing a spruced up look.

Despite loving Battlegames when Henry published it I did not subscribe to it when Atlantic took over publishing for one simple reason - they didn't sell the electronic version as a downloadable PDF.

In fact the situation was even worse than that.

To read your electronic issue you had to download an app for your iPad (this would mean my old issues would be in iBooks, the newer ones in the Newsstand - it might seem a bit anal, but is it too much to ask that the e-mags are in the same place?). However the killer was that if you stopped your subscription you lost your magazines! In essence you were merely "renting" the magazines from Atlantic for the period of your subscription and whilst this allowed you to access a couple of years of back issues of both Miniature Wargames and Battlegames, you didn't actually own anything. Atlantic Publishing are not unique in this approach but I think it sucks.

So whilst I wanted to support Henry and the new Miniature Wargames, and despite the nice things people were saying about it, I was not prepared to "rent" an e-magazine and due to space/SWMBO considerations I could not buy the paper copy. My view was if Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy can sell you a PDF to download and keep, why couldn't Atlantic?

Well now you can. The app is still around and to access the back catalogue you need it (I would like to see the few Battlegames I have not got sold as downloadable PDF's but at least I can now read them) but at long last you can also download complete PDF's of the new Miniature Wargames onto your computer to keep. Hurrah!

So having now subscribed, what is it like?

First impressions are very good. I always enjoyed the old school Battle/Practical Wargamer feel of Battlegames, and Henry has built on this combining the charm of Battlegames with a more state of the art look akin to Wargames Illustrated but if anything better thought out.

The emphasis is on gaming rather than plain historical articles with a wargames paragraph tacked on and there is some interesting stuff in there that will be able to cross periods. Fantasy and SF get treated as a regular period as it should (hurrah!) and the standard of eye candy is very good indeed (with some excellent photos). My only criticism, and I'm not sure it really is even that, is the number of columnist pieces. I enjoyed all the opinion pieces but I am not sure whether four an issue is too many, perhaps they should alternate each month. Time will tell I suppose...

Overall, I am really happy with the new Miniature Wargames and glad to have finally subscribed now I can download and keep my PDF's!!!

Gromit of the Day:

Groscar
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Building Wargame Terrain (and Gromberry)

July 14, 2013, 11:10 am
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The postie dropped off a nice surprise on Friday, a copy of Tony Harwood's Building Wargame Terrain which I've been enjoying reading in between some DIY jobs SWMBO found for me and watching England beat the Aussies in the first test. Obviously Tony's book is the most interesting topic, so we'll look at that!

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get given this is a self-published affair but the quality is very good, 102 pages including the softcover, full colour throughout. 

The book is a step by step guide of a number of terrain projects Tony has undertaken with copious in progress photos and if you have read this blog you will know that he is a pretty dab hand at things.

I had assumed that by my advanced stage of life I knew most things when it came to making things for the wargames table out of card and polystrene but I was surprised by the amount of new techniques I have learnt just on one read through (the use of a broken tile is great). GW's old How To Make Wargames Terrain was my beloved bible for many years, Tony's Building Wargame Terrain is now my New Testament!

Overall, a must have for any wargamer, it is well worth the asking price (and postage...).


Gromit of the Day:

Gromberry
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Blast-Tastic! (and Bark At Ee)

July 15, 2013, 8:26 am
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Hopefully you will have seen that Michael at Angel Barracks is organising an SF wargames show in Bristol called Blast-Tastic!, to be held on October 4th next year. As it is in my home town it would be churlish not to get involved so I have offered to put a game on at the event.

After some pondering, given the selection of Wessex Games SF rules I had to chose from, I have decided to be ambitious and put on a combined Aeronef/Aquanef game with aeronef engaged in anti-aquanef warfare and battles occurring on, in and over the ocean. This should look pretty funky and the rules were written with this kind of thing in mind.

With 14 1/2 months to go I should have enough time to get everything organised...

Gromit of the Day:

Bark At Ee
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Flames over the Sinai (and Gromit-o-Matic)

July 16, 2013, 9:46 am
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You may recall my murmurings about a 1973 Arab-Israeli project in 6mm using Flames of War, given it is the 40th anniversary and all that it would be pretty good to start the ball rolling this year...

Yesterday I can across another really interesting online resource to support my plans in he form of Daniel McCoy's blog Broke Low and the downloadable rules and lists he provides for the 1967 Six Day War.

The lists for the Egyptians, Israelis and Jordanians are really excellent and will be really useful along with the NDC lists. The effort Daniel has put into the presentation is especially noteworthy. I know it is not necessary but it does look the business and a pretty good facsimile of the official Battlefront briefings.

I just need to sit down and start pencilling some forces out and get the ball rolling...


Gromit of the Day:

Gromit-o-Matic
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"Today We Face The Monsters At Our Door!" (and Where's Wallace?)

July 17, 2013, 11:47 am
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Today Saul and I went to see Pacific Rim, despite being a Guillermo del Toro film we set our expectations down a notch or to as it is at heart a Godzilla versus Battletech CGI blockbuster film and subtlety was not going to get a look in anywhere.

So what is it like? Well it is exactly what it says on the tin, giant monsters versus giant robots fighting, repeatedly, with lines of cheesy dialogue lifted from Independence Day. The CGI is good, the plot very limited but hell it is giant monsters and giant robots smashing seven kinds of crap out of each other (and the surrounding buildings), no more than that and really sometimes that is all we need when we go to the cinema. And of course it would make for a beer and pretzels wargame using cheap plastic Japanese robots and toy monsters...


Gromit of the Day:

Where's Wallace
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Taking the Plunge... (and The Grommalo)

July 18, 2013, 5:08 am
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After reading through Daniel McCoy's Six-Day War FoW guides I feel enthused to take the plunge on the October War project, splashing the cash today on some GHQMicro-Armour and the two Osprey Campaign guides on the war.


Miniatures wise I have started with a plans for a Magach-3 (M48A3) Tank Company and a Mechanised Infantry Company. I'm not quite sure why I went for the Magachs when I am doing a trial paint run on three GHQ Sho't Kals (Centurions) which I found in Lead Mountain but I did.

I am trying to make at least half the forces raise suitable for both the October and Six-Day Wars so I can do both with minimal additional outlay (I have been grabbed by having Amx-13's and Super Shermans and possibly Syrian PzIV's!)

Gromit of the Day:

The Grommalo
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Cursed Doomhandle and Doomed Ratchragged (and A Close Shave)

July 19, 2013, 4:47 am
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I finished another couple from Citadel's 1984 Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos, this time Cursed Doomhandle - Apostate of Heinus Suth and Doomed Ratchragged - Priest of Wenwoch the Waylayer. You don't get names like that anymore! :-)


It's been quite relaxing painting these (nearly) thirty year old miniatures up one by one and makes a fun change from painting units up in batches. I have found a couple more in Lead Mountain, and hope to get them done by the weekend.


Rest assured old Citadel Miniatures are not the only things being worked on, there should be some more Dux Bellorum Arthurians soon as well as the IDF test pieces. I don't normally put work in progress shots up but I thought you'd like to see the detail on the GHQ Sho't Kal - yes, it really is 6mm!


Gromit of the Day:

A Close Shave
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Saturday Night's Alright For Fighters! (and Hero)

July 20, 2013, 4:55 am
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I finished a couple of old (1985) Citadel fighters yesterday evening. They are from the same release as the female fighter I painted earlier in the month and I must say, equally as uninspiring.


This was the start of me (first) falling out of love with Citadel and into the arms of historical gaming. These releases, and many others over the next couple of years, were substantially below par compared to the pre-slotta figures sculpted (in the main) by the Perry twins as Citadel churned out quantity at the expense of quality as the eighties progressed. Still, they are painted now and will make useful unit filler.

Gromit of the Day:

Hero
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Heavy Metal Mayhem! (and Bumble Boogie)

July 21, 2013, 7:00 am
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I came across three almost finished Battletech miniatures the other day and decided to finish them off despite having not particular use for them. They had been painted in enamels so I gave them a quick Strong Tone/Dark Tone ink wash and finished the bases.


I never really got into Battletech despite a desire to do so after reading William Keith's Battletech novel Decision at Thunder Rift. I really couldn't get my head around the rules and the level of combat they were pitched at.


I wanted battles of a dozen mecha a side which the rules didn't cater for. I did have a phase of collecting stuff including the excellent fanzine MekTek but gaming never really took off (I recently reaquired my copy of the OHMU mecha rules which might be an option).


I can't recall exactly what the models are, two are (I think) are a Warhammer and a Battlemaster but am not 100% certain. I haven't a clue what the third is.


It was quite amusing to see my ability to paint small lettering in the halcyon days of youth, with the name Death Wish painted on the cannon of the Warhammer. Couldn't do that in a month of Sundays now...



Gromit of the Day:

Bumble Boogie
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The Malnificent Seven? (and Canis Major)

July 22, 2013, 1:28 am
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I finally finished the last two models from the old 1984 Citadel Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos. Two of the most untypical Chaos warriors you will see in the form of Tomar Spogh - Warrior of the Divine Tuluk and Rechgrundle - Warrior Maiden of Dim Ponn...


I really like both miniatures and they were hugely enjoyable to paint, even if I could not make my mind up on the colour for Tomar's coat (it was initially red, then plain blue before the final design).

It has been quite enjoyable painting up the odd miniatures individually for the sheer hell of it and has been a breath of fresh air after painting up units of troops. My initial plan for the miniatures was to include them in a generic mercenary/brigand unit for some Oldhammer games but they are so full of character I am formulating a different plan for them - after all there are seven of them... :-)


Gromit of the Day:

Canis Major
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The Devil (Dogs) Made Me Do It! (and Why Dog? Why?)

July 23, 2013, 10:26 am
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Earlier this month I posted about Empress Miniatures interesting looking Devil Dogs and DragonsKickstarter with contemporary US Marines, Chinese PLA and Austrian infantry. What can I say? I am  a weak, weak man...

Empress Miniatures US Infantry
One thing that swung it for me (aside from a great idea to write a ColdWar: 1983 supplement called Red Dragon Rising) was the offer of a 20% sale on their existing moderns miniatures for backers. This also included the recently acquired vehicles by Imprint Models and yesterday evening turned out to be rather expensive (thankfully SWMBO was distracted by some Royal baby news on the TV).

Empress Miniatures British Infantry
Of course I will now have to do some serious research on the forces being purchased and that will mean checking out what Ospreys are available. Weak, weak man...

Gromit of the Day:

Why Dog? Why?
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Seventh Son of a Seventh Son... (and Nezahualcoyotl)

July 24, 2013, 12:49 pm
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Saul came across this trailer the other day and whilst I appreciate that you shouldn't judge a film from its trailer, Seventh Son looks like it could prove a bit of half-term fun in October.

The film is apparently based on The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, a kids fantasy books series (eleven in the series so far) that I am not familiar with but seem popular enough and might be worth investigating for the fact that places in the books are based on real places in Lancashire.


Gromit of the Day:

Nezahualcoyotl
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Halfling Colonial Troops (and May Contain Nuts & Bolts)

July 25, 2013, 9:50 am
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A little while back I supported Black Hat Miniatures WWI French Halflings Kickstarter which they had undertaken to help beef up the WWI Goblin range they purchased from Frank Hammond. Whilst I did not want them for a WWI fantasy game particularly, I wanted to support the venture and thought I could find a use for them in Panzerfäuste.


Enter the Troupes Coloniales Umbongodwongolese Halfelins! With the Gnome homeland of Dûn-Nomin invaded by the Boche Dwarves, the Gnomes turn to their colonial possessions in the dark continent of Umbongodwongoland to provide troops for the fight.


There are a number of native races in Umbongodwongoland, one of whom are Zulu like halflings, some living in the central rain forest areas and are now ruled by the colonial authorities of Dûn-Nomin. With this in mind I decided to paint the Black Hat halflings as these.


The uniforms are based on the 1940 French Colonial Troops uniform, with the beige trousers inspired by the look of the Army of Levant. They are not 100% historically accurate, but then the French did not field Zulu halflings against the Germans so I am on fairly safe ground.


The figures are quite nice and easy to paint up, the good thing about the Kickstarter is that it allowed Black Hat to produce a full basic range with support weapons (still to be painted). Whilst Kickstarter is mainly used for big projects in the gaming industry, this does go to show that it is of value to the smaller games company and the fans of off the wall concepts and ideas.

Gromit of the Day:


May Contain Nuts (& Bolts) 
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