Carronade 2019

Well, that's it for another show. Carronade 2019 in Falkirk. I have a lot of fondness for Carronade, it's a decent size of show by Scottish standards, there are always plenty of traders and always some nice games on display. It was also the first Scottish show I attended when I came back from Oz.

I was there as part of the Kirriemuir Wargames Club, who put on a splendid Wild West 'Wanted' game, though it would have been nice to have a few more volunteers to participate.

Pictures of the games to follow after a bit of editing, crop out stray arms, reduce sizes, that sort of thing.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good show, it was busy and lots to see. The Flea Market was a bit hit and miss though, as vendors booked tables for fixed time blocks, so you basically needed to head upstairs every hour if you didn't want to miss anything. As usual, there seemed to be a lot of spikey chaos plastic, but there were some pearls among the offerings. Chatting to folks it seemed like there were at least two tables that were mates selling off for a deceased estate. Just remember folks, appoint a wargames executor.

One positive trend was that there were quite a few women helping out on tables, as vendors and as participants, so that was terrific, although it might be my imagination, but there seemed to be fewer children.

Anyway, a good day, and I managed to maintain (fairly) admirable self discipline and focus, despite temptation. Stuff for my Chain of Command games, (for It is a truth universally acknowledged that US infantry not in possession of a good position must be in want of a Sherman), I love Panzer II, so I couldn't walk past that, and WarHQ didn't have the plastic Warlord Char Bis, but offered to send it to me post free, with the show 20% discount. What nice chaps!

I picked up a couple of the very inexpensive MDF shells from TimeLine /Hoka Hey, (who also had a very impressive Old West locomotive and carriages in MDF and resin), and another set of walls to extend my existing set, from Red Vectors. Finally, I love warbases stuff, but didn't really need anything from them this time, so I contented myself with a set of Fleur-de-lys jump-off and patrol markers. The Russian houses can wait till I paint my Russians!

French Armour

My French army for Chain of Command is fairly well rounded out for supports, with mortars, AT rifles, a small (Hotchiss 25mm) AT gun, and a tripod mounted machine gun. But it needed some armour. After all, when you're facing the Blitzkrieg, it's handy to have some armour on your side.

I was very tempted by the Warlord/Italeri Char Bis plastic kit - mainly because it's exactly the kind of thing I love, bizarre, clunky, flawed, and just generally cool. And in plastic, which I prefer to resin. But hey, it's just too good. It could be overly dominant on the table in an environment where infantry anti-tank capability is overall pretty much non-existent, and opposing tanks are likely to be PzII, PzIII at best.

Plus, in Chain of Command terms, the Char Bis will only get deployed very occasionally, as it is a high cost support option. You will only rarely have a scenario where you have enough support points to deploy a Char.

So when Warlord had a recent two for one resin sale, I decided I needed to get some French armour, and selected the Somua S35 (which incidentally, may also be too good to appear very often), but also a Panhard 178 armoured car. I like armoured cars, in Chain of Command, they can activate and move when deployed, unlike tracked vehicles, plus the Panhard was a pretty effective vehicle for its day.

So here they are:

Decals are from the Warlord sheet, except for hand-painted roundels on the S35. Not perfect, but good enough for me. I chose one of the most outrageous French camouflage schemes I could find for the S35, and didn't attempt to go for a historically accurate marking scheme, just one that was 'plausible'.

     
The Panhard decals are very simple as is the colour scheme. Bit disappointed that Warlord chose to use a 'stereotypical' French crewman fro the S35, complete with Gauloise and wine bottle, but at least they supplied crew figures, some other companies could take note.

Paint job was masking with blu-tac on the S35, then an airbrush, and a relatively simple all airbrush on the Panhard. Weathering was a wash with GW Nuln Oil, a very light drybrush with a dusty cream, with light chipping using a sponged black (not visible on these shots).

The Panhard has already proved its worth, and I'm looking forward to getting the S35 on the table too. 

The Mechanic is in

Spotted this on eBay the other day from Mango Terrain, what looked like a decent shell of a garage, that would make a suitable base model.

This was the online picture...

The princely sum of £7 plus  1.50 postage later..  I had a shell which was quickly assembled.All going together easily though for my taste the roof was too snug a fit, and I filed it down slightly where it abutted the front and back of the building.

Mindful of the uses for a building in wargames, I also made sure the windows were positioned to the outside wall. I found the side walls were interchangeable and the lean-to could be attached anywhere, so the model itself was quite flexible.

So here's the shell, after a quick attack with my Dremel to reduce the 'pristine smoothness' of MDF walls, and a coat of sample pot 'Pistchio' & 'Coffee Bean' colours.

As you can see, Mango added end trusses for the roof, a nice touch I thought. They also added in a back for the lean-to, so it could be stand alone. And two nice ladders...  which I will find a use for somewhere I'm sure.

A quick Google of vintage French posters 1938, and I had my art for the building, some pigments and a spare piece of 'rusted corrugated iron' that was given to me as a free sample, et voila...

Simple modifications were sandpaper for the tarpaper roof, handles for the garages doors from MDF offcuts. That was pretty much it.

I still intend to add a stack of spare tyres, and some oil drums on the side, plus I really feel this needs some grotty guttering and drain pipes, so those are yet to be added  - tyres and oil drums courtesy of eBay and Anyscale Models, while the drain pipes are waiting for me to find a source of straws.

[Edit] - just looking at the last pic I realise I also need to fix up the left hand corner where the original shell joins are visible, and that the roof needs seams on the 'tarpaper'. Ok, for later.

Very happy with this one, and a shout out to Mango for a nice base piece.

German Armour for 1940

While I wait (with little hope) for the balance of the BTD order to arrive (and accordingly, a backup plan involving eBay and a seller of BTD figures is in place), I quickly hurled together a Warlord Games plastic Pz IV that I found on eBay at a decent price.

Resisting the temptation to fully remodel the driver and machine gunner positions to make an accurate 'D' version, I just removed the moulding for the 'Rommelkist', draped a flag to disguise the incorrect engine deck, and turned a blind eye to the other minor inaccuracies.

So a quick pic later..

Weathering is a few smears and plenty of dust. It's hot in France in May and June 1940. There's also one of the very nice 1/48 ICM Sdkfz 222 kits assembled in Panzer Grey.

Black Tree Design - Order

Well, this is a post I thought long and hard about before writing. But eventually I felt it was something that should be put out there. It simply relates the tale of my personal experience of ordering from Black Tree Design (UK). Your experience may of course vary.

I have often looked at Black Tree Design (hereafter BTD) figures, as they contain some ranges that are extensive and in some cases unique, they have frequent sales, and at least some of their figures look really quite nice, well animated and with character.

I have seen some of them 'in the flesh' so to speak, and other players whose blogs I follow have used them.

So not long after the release of the TooFatLardies 'Blitzkrieg' supplement, I came across a chap on Lead Adventure Forum eager to dispose of a platoon worth of 1940 French Infantry in 28mm by Crusader, lead and paypal were exchanged and I was proud owner of a French platoon for Chain of Command.

Now it so happens that I seem to be the only member of the local club gaming WW2 in 28mm, so if I want a game, I usually have to supply both sides. Now an Early War German force is appealing, it's the Blitzkrieg, there are no supertanks, they can do double duty for Operation Barbarossa (for which I have PSC Plastic Soviets), etc.

I originally looked at the Crusader and Artizan ranges, but I was keen to try out a different range, and coincidentally, BTD had a sale on their 28mm WW2 range. So on 27 December, 2018, I placed an order. The total excluding shipping was just over £50. Which in hindsight I wish I had spent with another company. After all; full price for something, is better than getting 50% off, and not receiving anything.

On 29 December, I received an email which included the phrase:

Hi Doug, we're getting your order ready to be shipped. We will notify you when it has been sent.

We shall see below, just how accurate this was. {Needless to say, I have never received an email advising my order has been sent).

I knew that BTD had a reputation for slow delivery, so I was not in any great rush to receive my figures, I had the French to paint, after all, and no shortage of other figures in the lead pile.

But a month passed. On the 2nd February I received a generic broadcast email from John Olsen at BTD, which included this statement:

'We are working hard to try and catch up. The casting company we use is raring to go and we have mountain of metal expected in over the next couple of weeks. Please bear with a little longer. I promise that we will get your orders to you very soon.

Not impressed, but hey, we all understand how things can pile up, it was Christmas, there had been illness, they must have been busy with the sale.

It was now getting very close to the point where my option to raise a Paypal dispute would expire, but (stupidly, in hindsight), I gave John and BTD, the benefit of the doubt, and decided to wait it out. After all, he had 'Promised', hadn't he?

Six weeks later, and with no sign of the promise being fulfilled, the Paypal dispute period having expired, and no further word from John or even any generic broadcast 'Promises'.  I decided to pen John and BTD a little note. I was quite polite, considering that they had had my cash for almost three months and had failed to deliver anything except a 'Promise' that clearly hadn't been fulfilled.

[I have since checked and Paypal have extended the period for a dispute to 180 days, so I have now lodged one with them, we shall see.]

I asked when my order would be sent, and said that if I didn't hear anything back from them, I would be quite happy to tell my story about BTD, and let other people judge John's 'Promises'.

Well John, it's a week since I wrote you that note, I have now sent another requesting either figures or a refund, (and frankly, at this stage, I would prefer a refund). So I am keeping my promise to tell the story.

[Update - some of the figures have now arrived..  I am two packs short, and the casting standard is appalling.]

Big Weekend of CoC

So this has been the biggest gaming weekend for a while. Firstly, the nephew was over on Saturday, and so I christened the house with the first game played here. In fact two.

I had forces organised from the last game with Steve at the club, so rather than come up with something new, I took the same Late War British vs Late War Panzer Grenadiers.

The table is too narrow, so I will be making a fold out table top to sit on top to take it to a full 2 x 1.5 metres. Otherwise it was a good giggle. I knew that he was a Panzer nut, so I made sure he had a big cat to play with.

Unfortunately for him, the Firefly took the first shot, and that was it..  one blazing Panther. I suspect that dented his personal morale. It was all downhill for the PzGrenadiers thereafter.

Firefly vs Panther

Stand-up fight

At one stage, I managed to isolate one PzGren squad, and it was a straight stand-up shootout between two British squads. and one German. It only could end up one way.

Anyway - that was so much fun, he insisted on a second game, so we swapped sides, and this time, the Germans got lucky. No photographs I'm afraid, we were having too much fun.

On Sunday, I was up at Kirriemuir again..  and Steve and I had a cracking game, with myself and young James taking my new Early War French out for a run against the Germans. Black Tree Design still haven't come through with my figures, so I am afraid I was proxying my Late War Germans for an Early War 1st Wave German Force.

I used the Hasty Defence scenario from the Blitzkrieg handbook, in which the attacker has to clear two sectors, and exit a unit. Support was 6 for the French +3 for the difference in Platoon strength, and 12 for the Germans.

Unfortunately, as I had to organise both sides, the supports weren't much of a surprise. I gave the French a barbed wire emplacement, a Panhard 178 armoured car, and extra rifle grenades for the VB section. The Germans got a PanzerJager 1, a Stuka Barrage, a fixed Heavy Machine Gun and a red command dice. I'm not sure we played the Stuka attack correctly.

My colleague was very dismissive of the Panhard... but...

Panhard attacks!

Scratch one PzJg1

In all fairness, the Panhard didn't destroy the PzJg, but it did knock out it's main gun (only gun!), and there was then a comedy affair, as Steve realised the only way left to him to deal with the rampant Panhard, was to try and ram it with the Paper Panzer. Unfortunately, his 'charge' fell short, and a shell from the Panhard's 25mm main gun immobilised him for the next phase.  

Spot the Frenchman

With the VB squad set up in the grounds of the burning chateau on their left, and the Panhard ruling the roost on the right, the French hung back, knowing the Germans had to come to them.

What actually hurt Steve in this game was that it seemed every time they suffered a casualty, it was a leader. At one stage I looked over, and (IIRC) the Germans had lost 4 men, two of whom were Junior Leaders. Steve managed to roll an amazing succession of 1's. By the end of the game, they had a Senior Leader wounded twice and three Junior Leaders dead. No luck, and the red dice kept rolling 5s and 6s, which were no use to him at all.

The Stuka barrage set the mansion on fire.. 

Great fun, and yet again, Chain of Command gave a great game. Hopefully Steve will have his GIs done for next month's meeting, and we can try out a new platoon.

In the meantime, I have some 15mm ancients to paint for Warfare in Reading in November, and in between, hopefully, my Early War Germans will arrive, and I can also do my British Airborne. Plenty to keep me busy, and I am also planning to finish up enough terrain, mainly roads, hedges and trees so that I will have enough to do a full table.

A fun weekend. Three great games, and great fun and great opponents.

EW French for CoC in 28mm

I have always fancied doing Early War, when the tanks were less 'big cat', and more 'puny panzer'. The release of the Too Fat Lardies 'Blitzkrieg' book tipped me over the edge; that and a bargain Crusader French Platoon I picked up via Lead Adventure Forum (LAF).

Of course, then I had to add bits and pieces, including some from Warlord, so more to follow, but here's the core platoon plus some supports. I have Early War Germans on order from Black Tree Design, but they still haven't shown up.

Officers

I ended up with a surfeit of French officers, I am considering using these as Jump-Off markers!

Terrain

And I did some minefields and barbed wire emplacements.

Rear View

Medium Mortar crew

Three squads Plus supports

Deadly Hotchkiss 25mm AT

Medium Machine gun and Light Mortar

VB Squad

Squads 1 & 2

Progress Shot

The last one shows how they looked immediately after I brushed on Coat d Arms Brown 'goo'.