An absolute bargain

I found this in a newsagent today. It's the first in a new series of fortnightly publications and at just £1.99 for the first issue it's worth buying for the 1/72 scale Vietnam period US gun truck.

Next issue goes up to £2.99 and includes a 1/72 Warrior AFV. after that the price goes to £5.99 and there seems to be a mix of modern and WWII vehicles.

It has been a long time...

... since I posted anything. But there again I haven't done much by the way of painting or gaming.

My VCBW figures are milling about part painted; the LLedo Vehicles of Yesteryear that I bought at bargain price in a flea market are gathering dust and the half-formed project for a new VCBW unit remains just that - half formed!

However! I did find myself painting some test figures last night for Seven Years War. I have Prussians on the go in both 10mm and 15mm scale. Don't ask! It was just an idea and the Old Glory 15mm figures have been hiding in a drawer since I brought them back from the USA in 1999. They also cost less than half the UK price over there at that time :-)

Fortunately you can still get the 15mm Old Glory figures in the UK from Timecast and I am adding some FreiKorps 15 figures from QRF to the ranks.

I am looking at basing these Prussians for Die Kriegskunst rules so a departure from my usual set of choice - WRG 1685 - 1845.

The 10mm Prussians are part of a new idea I have, although the Pendraken figures have been hanging around for a year or two on the shelf in The Bunker, daring me to paint them. So I have made a start!

A Very British Civil War in 28mm

Well I seem to have fallen into this almost by accident. Set in 1938, a Very British Civil War presents so many interesting opportunities that a chap can let his imagination riot.

The first few figures are painted and the rest of the unit has been under coated and is ready for painting. It's a unit of  BUF - British Union of Facists - using Reiver Miniatures. I'll post some figures when I have a half dozen or so finished.

What a Saga!

Played Saga this afternoon for the first time. It was a slow game due to constantly looking at the rules and working out what to do next. Not that it takes long to pick the game up.

It was an interesting game as I thought my opponent was bringing Vikings to fight my Normans. However, there were no Vikings as my opponent hasn't painted his figures. So it was just as well I'd also brought my Byzantines with me in case we had a quick first game and fancied a different army to face a a second game.

I'm not sure that Byzantines make a good army for a first game but it did make for an interesting game. My Byzantine infantry soon fell foul of a well co-ordinate Norman cavalry charge and lost half the unit. Next go Norman massed archery fire took out the rest. After that it was all downhill a combination of poor tactics and appalling die rolls!

So more reading or the rules and a try with more evenly matched forces.

A plug...no other word for it.

OK so I may not be the best person to remember to post things on a regular basis - but I do read other blogs on a daily basis.
So here I am recommending Trouble At T'Mill a wargaming blog that is running a competition to celebrate the 50th Birthday of the blogger, Mike Whitaker.
There's a chance to win a £25 gift voucher with Too Fat Lardies, which will get you the basic Chain of Command rules-only bundle plus (most of) postage, or the tablet/PDF edition and some bits bundle, or you can add to it to get one of the other bundles.

So happy birthday to Mike and good luck to anyone who is reading this on here.

15mm ECW

Here's a first for me - 15mm English Civil War. Will W is eager to play Field of Glory Renaissance rules for ECW but I can see his enthusiasm dragging me towards a long unfinished Italian States army too as the rules cover this earlier period.

Here's the New Model Army so far. However it is anything but New Model as most of e figures are over  20 years old. I have inherited the collection of a wargamer who had a part finished army; I'm keeping his painted figures as they are, other than new bases and possibly updating the flags, as a mark of respect in his memory.

I have bought some new figures from QRF - such as the dragoons at the bottom right of the shot. Most of the other figures are Minifigs.

http://quickreactionforce.co.uk/

http://www.fieldofglory.co.uk/games/fog_r

Attack! 2013 it's TODAY

Saturday 20 July -Sunday 21 July - two days of Wargaming in Devizes Wiltshire.

www.ddwg.org.uk

What I have been painting

Just a quick glimpse of some of my latest efforts in 'The Bunker'. Not having done any painting in a while I have decided to finish off some of the unfinished figures to clear space for the newer projects!
So 20mm Vietnam are making progress - but so are the 10mm & 6mm Vietnam too.

Time to paint

Having awoken before 6am yesterday and not being able to go back to sleep, I did something I've not done in ages. I went into the Bunker and did some painting. In fact I did a fair amount of painting; trying to finish off some if those figures and units that have been gathering dust whilst waiting for a few finishing touches.

You know how it is. A new book, film, podcast, rule set or enthusiast at the club means a new project. Current projects are pushed aside; older projects get put so far aside that they are offside and abandoned projects get relegated back to storage boxes. This 6mm AH-1 helicopter for Vietnam is for one of the latest projects. It is from Heroics & Ros.

Iain Dickie visited last weekend and commented that I seem to have three painting tables. Not so. One is for painting, one is for preparation and the other is for basing and finishing. You'd think that the former editor of Miniature Wargames would have cast his experienced eye over this and known immediately what the set up was. But no! All he did was spot the 'secret army' figures I'd carelessly left out half painted.

For several years thee of us at DDWG (Devizes & District Wargames Group) have been painting 10mm Qin Chinese for a Warmaster Ancients game against the Bournemouth-based Purbeck Brotherhood of Ancients (my old club from when I was first starting Wargaming). A 'secret army' as we wanted it to come a complete surprise to our would be opponents who have a huge collection of armies to choose from.

Then, about 18 months back, Iain announced at a competition that he was starting his next army - The Qin! He said that he just had to build an army that included cavalry called the Wo Hoo. The three slow working painters of Qin rolled their eyes and gave an inscrutable smile.

Our intentions of putting a spurt on lasted briefly. Iain finished his Qin and was losing battles before the paint had dried on our little men. I still have at least a dozen units to paint - about 360 infantry figures. Will has his 4 horse chariot units and generals to paint and Steve...well he took a diversion and painted a whole Korean army from the Warmaster Medieval book before finishing more than three units if Qin.

It's amazing how complicated painting can get when you simply need to make the time.

Attack! 2013

Planning for Attack! 2013 is well underway and detail are on the club web site:  www.ddwg.org.uk

The dates are 20-21 July, open 10am - 5pm, at: Devizes School, The Green, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 3AG.

Trade stands, participation games, bring and buy, real ale bar and light refreshments will all be available for your Wargaming pleasure plus the following Competitions:
40k (Sat),
Dystopian Wars (Sun),
Warmaster Ancients,
Field of Glory Ancients,
DBM 3.1,
Field of Glory Renaissance and;
Flames of War.