Mea Culpa - Lots!

I recently had reason to do a search on this blog for some of the earliest content, and realised I had been blogging for quite a while. Not as early as some of my first wargames websites, back when blog wasn't even a word. In 1999..  http://dbm.freehosting.net/cancon2000.htm  (back in the day when we had 79 players at Cancon  - and I famously rolled my first dice in a 6 round tournament with a 1,1,1,1.)

But I have been sadly remiss updating this blog for some time. Since August! Mea Culpa. I plead, tiredness, work, life, Mastodon, watching Twitter become 'TrainWreck' (tm) and just general slackness. 

It hasn't meant I haven't been doing wargames stuff, sadly, few games, but lots of reading, purchasing, printing and even some painting.

So first of all, success stories - finished two platoons plus core supports for Chain of Command - 

British Airborne - 28mm

A mix of Offensive, Artizan, Warlord, 1st Corps, and even Renegade (PIAT teams). 

BEF - mainly 1st Corps with 3d printed AT support. I also made progress with their armour supports, here they are with silly putty masking for the camouflage. All 3d prints. The Vickers VIb are particularly nice, from Arvernes on Wargaming 3d.

Then there was the Panzer IV kickstarter (including a Panther add-on), from Night Sky also on wargaming3d. To which I have added some Lee and Stuarts from Thingiverse.

It included some rather nice tank crew...  these will see a  lot of use I think. The heads are separate.

Then there are the ongoing items of terrain. The rather nice Warbases Russian Chapel... 

Some cows..  Warlord games, loads of filling - annoying, but I can't find decent 3d print files for dead cows, or horses, or pigs even.

The 10/12mm stuff hasn't been neglected either.. some Farms/BUA for 'O Group' or 'Iron Cross'. 

Burned Out

And then there has come the insanity..   first of all, this in my FLGS caught my eye... 

Which of course, led to this...

And this...

Oops...  and then there was this..   Alex at @StormOfSteelwargaming is to blame..  WW1.

This eclectic workbench... 

What on earth was I thinking? Maybe prepping for 'What a Cowboy'... 

And then there were these.. 

Why do I do it to myself..  there's a bunch of Perry figures to do XIV Army in Burma. Thus explaining the Lee and Stuart tanks.

Altogether now,  dum dum dum, dum de dah, dum de dah...  

Making for a Mutiny

Like lots of other wargamers I invest a lot of time and effort into collecting and painting figures and models. My terrain; however, could use some work. As I've recently been collecting figures for the Indian Mutiny, my existing collection wasn't going to cut it. 

I also have figures for Napoleonics in the Peninsula Campaign, WW2 in Sicily, plus there's Mexico if I wanted to do Maximilian, Northern Africa.. etc. So I figured that with a bit of cunning and some removable roofs, I could bash together something that (if you squinted a bit, and with suitable specialist pieces) would just about pass muster for all these. 

The base models were bought very cheaply from ebay JB models for £12 for 5 basic adobe shells. White glue and chinchilla sand masked the obvious 'flatness' of the MDF. 

Some Wills HO pantile sheets, thick card and a hot glue gun were used to make the roofs.

I then attached them to bases, added walls from foam, brush bristles, and my usual pva and sand textured base mix.

But who knew the foam walls would melt under an aerosol undercoat...  oops.

Well, that's annoying, but crack on, and slap on coats of cheap acrylic umber, ochre, cream and sienna for the tiles.

Ok, looking the part, and usable in a number of terrain regions. Now add roofs...

And suitable for a few more. I also had another building..

More upmarket this one. Still needs a trellis and benches on the deck. I also picked up some 'Arabic' buildings, from the same source, that got a similar treatment.

 Just some tufts, dried grass and bushes, and a few bits of scatter to add, and I will have quite a nice little conurbation.  I also have a nice ornamental Indian fountain, some carts and villagers that I think will really make this work. Not bad for a couple of days building.

New printer

I managed to just about kill the old Photon S printer, so decided to bite the bullet and get a new one...

The build volume is about 5 times that of the Photon S with quality very similar. It does open up new possibilities like buildings...

Perry figure for scale...   and of course, very easy to print off loads of teeny tiny tanks.

For some reason, unlike the green translucent stuff, this one came with a free 1 litre bottle of the basic grey. I think I prefer this  it seems a little more elastic than the green. 

So now I am on the hunt for more free building files...  and I need to buy more resin!

Claymore 2022 - Picture Heavy

The first wargames show I have been to since 2019. And to be honest, pretty much the first time I have been out in a 'crowd' since February 2020. I think in that time, my going out has been two visits to family on the West Coast, two funerals, and two restaurants, other than the fortnightly game with one other wargamer. 

So once I got over my shock at being among people again, as always the venue was Edinburgh College where the bring and buy was in what seemed to be a weights room (all those mirrors) and the games and traders in two decent sized halls. I saw (I think) two people wearing masks. It also came as a shock how close and up personal people want to get - 'in your face' it felt like. But I caught up with a few folk I hadn't seen in years - so that was very pleasant.

So here are the games:

Carentan - Rules - Battlegroup Normandy - Club?

Tunisia - Rules - Battlegroup Normandy - Club - Leuchars

Bautzen - Rules ? - Club - Tyneside

Bautzen again

Blackhawk Down - Rules and Club Unknown

Somewhere in Russia - Rules- Bolt Action - Club - Dunfermline 

Somewhere in the West - Rules - Dead Man's Hand - Club - Dunfermline

Edinburgh Playtest Group

Extreme G Racing - Glasgow?? 

Trouble in The Borders - Rules - Border Wars - Flags of War

Frostgrave

Adam Park (Singapore) - Rules ? - Club - Gothenburg Gamers

Adam Park (Singapore) - 2

Imjin River in 6mm - Rules - All Hell Let Loose - Club ?

Iron Brigade

Samurai Naval - Rules -? - Club - Kirriemuir

Battle of Lemnos - Rules - ? - Club - Gourock

Viva Mexico - Rules - Sharp Practice 2 - Club - ??

Pod Racing

Pydna - Massed Pike

Pydna 2 - Rules - 'Nemo me Impune Lacessit' (unpublished) - Club - Immortals

Pydna Details

Mons Graupius - Rules - Strength & Honour - Charley 

Sci Fi? 

Indian Mutiny - Rules - ? - Club - SPIT

Test of Resolve - unsure of Club

Not a clue, but all the buildings are available from Warbases!

So that was it. I have to say, none of the games really inspired me. The Imjin River one is superb but in my view, the impact is limited by the scale. I liked the Iron Brigade game a lot. The Indian Mutiny game had visual impact but I would have preferred the MDF buildings to be tarted up a bit, the Mexican game suffered form the same thing. The Mons Graupius game was very cool, but I can hardly complain about Imjin in 6mm and let Charley get away with 2mm... 

And what of loot... ? well, I felt obliged to spend some hard earned on Perry plastic, and Supreme Littleness Designs do some fantastic MDF buildings... a rummage in Colonel Bill's 50p bargain bin usually pays dividends, and then a Russian School from Warbases, and some Wild Boar. also Warbases. Finally in addition to some decals, I picked up some Pendraken 10mm Early WW2 French to go with all the vehicles I have been printing.

Couple of Indian Mutiny, Russian Flamethrower, WW2 Italian Officer and casualty.

I was handed the inflatable shell.. no, I don't know either...

On the whole a pleasant day out. And it looks like being the only wargames show in Scotland this year.