New Jersey Provincials

Finally, we have my New Jersey Provincials for Muskets and Tomahawks. There chaps are from Galloping Major and they paint really well. I particularly like the officer.

SAGA Normans and Anglo Danes

My other project that has been gathering pace is my SAGA project. At the moment I have a 6 point Norman army and 5 point Anglo Dane one. the figures are a range of manufacturers including Gripping Beast, Crusader and Conquest. All the shields are and painted.

 First up, the Normans.

Next we have the Anglo Danes.

WW2 Russians

So, things have been a little busy, especially with the little chap, so posting has been on the back burner for a while. But painting has still been going on and I have a few things to share.

Firstly, some 20mm Russians for my Battlegroup Kursk rules. I've had the rules for a year and still haven't got round to completing the army. The infantry are a mixture of Plastic Solider Company and War Modelling. The KV1's are from Pegasus and were a delight to put together and paint. I'm still working on my AFV painting skills as I'm not quite happy with them.  Enjoy!

Biggles Learns to Fly

I have always loved WW1 planes since reading Biggles learns to fly. I always wanted a 1.72 DH2 but they weren't around when I was a kid, so was  thrilled when I found the Shapeways one. I made up the colors and asked my wife what she wanted on it, hence the heart, tis her plane really.


I liked the DII as well. I don't no why, but the early war planes are really rather tidy!

1/3000 WW2 Soviet

I like the odd balls and when I discovered my meager soviet fleet I thought I should have a crack at painting them. Quite fun really. Anyhow, I had a chance to use them in GQIII and they totally destroyed the German fleet that came to hunt them down. Good fun!

28mm FIW Figures

Continuing the update I've added some of the North Star British Rangers. I like these figures a lot and have enjoyed painting them a lot. The figures were quite clean with very little flash. I would highly recommend  them!

1/3000 Italian Navy WW1

I have been busy painting some of the ships. I have a bucket full and have been steadily getting through it. World War 1 has caught my fancy so I begun working on my Italians and Austrians. Here are a few pictures of the my Italians, the Kuk will follow later.

AWI 15mm

After a long, and hectic break, I bought my own camera so thought it fitting to update the old blog.


The first of many new projects is the AWI in 15mm. All of the figures are Peter Pig and the flags are from Flags for the Lads. They are a little large but I still like them.

I'm looking at doing the battle of Brandywine so this unit represents the 46th. My next unit will be one of the guards units.

Numbnuts with Camera's

Right I have finally figure out to get not bad pictures from my camera.

Anyway this is just a quick update. I'll take some more snaps this week and update the navies. I have painted a fair bit of the WW2 Dutch fleet and some Austrian and Italian WW1 bits and bobs.

Anyway here are pictures of slowly growing Seleucid army in 15mm. Both types are from Old Glory via the overly nice people at Timecast miniatures! 

The top guys are my Cataphracts and the lower guys are Xystophoros. These are really nice figures and a joy to paint!

Update need

I seriously need to update. Half term would of been ideal but I left my camera at work! I update this week.

On the work bench

28mm Spartans and Romans.

1/3000 Austrian, Italian and American

15mm Seleucid

1/2400 Napoleonic

Colours

I will be attending Colours this year with members of my club!

I intend to play General Quarters 3 and that the game will be set out in the Far East. There will be some interesting units using some of the new General Quarters bits and pieces!

Hope to see some people there!

1/3000 Japanese

I have broken up on my school holidays (the joys of being a teacher!) so I thought I would update my blog.

Lots of painting has been done. I have really steamed ahead

With my 1/3000 stuff, mostly Jap and British but I have also been painting some Siam stuff made by those good fellows at Navwar. Without further ado here's some if stuff

The Workbench

The Fleets increase!

At present I'm about finished on some Jap Battleships, the Musashi and the Fuso along with some destroyers. My Jap fleet has rapidly increase lately and has been battling my British Fleet to the point that they don't want to fight anymore. They seem to lose!

Speaking of 1/3000 fleets those good people at Navwar have tempted with me with more of their fine ships. This is not helped by the fact the General Quarters 3 boys keep releasing supplements for their rules. As a result I now have the Siamese, Dutch and elements of the Soviet Navy to paint along some what if Germans, such as the H44 class!

Others bits and bods include some 15mm Thracians for DBFOG, some 1/1200 Galleys, 15mm Italian paratroopers and some 28mm French Lights being painted as the Irish Legion. Photos to be updated soon!

The Dreaded Bunch

As I have already ranted about my club put on a game at Shepton Mallet in Sommerset (shit show).

Anyway I needed a new army but didn't know which one to chose. I needed a challenge to paint and someone to fight some WW2 Yanks so I ended up painting the SS......

Now I vowed never to paint these guys for various reasons, mainly because I didn't want to be one of those SS Fan boys that always field them armed to the teeth with King Tigers and Stg44s that you find in flames of war, but in the end I enjoyed using them.

A quick tip if you're playing flames of war and you're German use Stugs. They are neigh on impossible to destroy!

A Pak40 which I bizarrely got in a kit of a Panzer Jager 1! The crew are SHQ

The SS. The figures are SHQ and plastic solider company Germans. Not a good match in terms of size but I'm not that bothered.

I enjoyed painting these. I bought some Panthers and armoured cars to go with them but haven't made them yet.

(PS sorry about the pictures but my camera isn't that great!)

1/300 6mm Planes

Ok first things first.

A quick update of what I have been up to over the past year. This is merely a selection.

I used to play a lot of check your 6 with my old club, but my current lot aren't really fans. There is hope with my g/f as she likes spitfires. Anyway here is some pictures of some desert odds and sods.

Museum Miniatures Spitfire Vb

Scotia Curtis P40B

Transport Tycoon and Delays

Transport Tycoon is annoying, especially as I should be painting my Jap fleet, some Italian paratroopers and some bloody WW1 Balloons (we don't like the balloons over here!).

How can a game where you merely manage a transportation firm be so entertaining........damn Chris Sawyer!!!!!

Anyhow a much delayed update. I have now my own digital camera (sort of) so I shall try and get some pictures. A lot has been painted including something I thought I would never paint!!!!!

In other news if you live in the UK and the South west and are asked to go to the South West Modelling Engineering show, don't because its bloody awful and badly run. I was not overly impressed to get to a show to be told that I not only to make up the tables but drag them from one building to another! Not only that but the organisers are idiots and try and get you to advertise their products. Rant Over!

It other news I'm getting Married....and she likes wargaming! YAY

Delayed Update!

Hello again chaps, tis been too long. This is what happens when you foolishly decide to do a teacher trainee course. Anyway all done now so I have to time to paint!

First things first, here are a few pictures of my Macedonian Hypaspists to asisst Alexander! I quite like these figures (Xyston) and I think they have come out quite well. I painted the motif on the shield myself, which Im quite happy with!

Next up and continuing with the Macedonain theame we have my Hetoroi, again made by Xyston. Again, I'm quite happy with these chaps!

To end with we have some pictures of some ww1 Austrians by Scarab minatures. These are my first 28mm figures and I really like them!

On other news I have started to paint for others for a bit of cash. I'm mostly doing ships so if you need anydone and want them for a fair price, get in contact with me!

Happy gaming!

Osprey Army of Herod the Great Review

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I have no real interest in Jewish armies, apart from the Maccabees, so I bought this book for the sake of having another one for the collection. However a quick flick through revealed a book that would capture my imagination.

The main theme of the book is as per the title, the Army of Herod the Great. As a result it covers a small subject period covering about 160 years most of which focus’ on the king himself.
As with most Osprey books there is a brief description of Herod’s live and his relationship with the Romans and also a glimpse on the time period slightly before and after the life of Herod. The main focus is on the composition on the army.

As you may of gather I have somewhat fallen for this book. The subject matter is incredibly interesting and covers a fascinating period where the arms, appearance and tactics of a lot of the Hellenistic armies changed from their Macedonian origins to that more of a later republican Roman army. This for a diehard Hellenistic fanatic is incredibly useful and I would recommend anyone with a similar passion to acquire this book.

The author, Samuel Rocca, presents his work in an incredibly readable way, which always get my vote; a book with an interesting subject matter that is written in a laborious fashion always ends being a disappointment. I’m unaware of any other work by Mr Rocca but I hope he continues to write for Osprey (hinting at the Maccabees).

The art work is by Christa Hook, who I usually sometimes have issues with (my own personal taste) but once again I was more than happy with the results. Each plate is illustrated beautifully and clearly demonstrates the evolution of this Hellenistic army as well as the supplementary auxiliary troops that one could expect to find in the army of Herod the Great.
All in all I good read and useful resource for the wargamer/modeller.

5/5

WW2 Skirmish-Eastern Front: Rules of Engagment

Right then boys and girls (cos clearly women come to this site), a rather delayed update.

First things first. Much has been going on. Have played a lot of different wargames as of late but mostly these three, check your six, the rather brilliant General Qaurters 3 and the also epic Rules of Engagment. I also have been doing a lot of reading, so two more books will be reviewed, both of the ancient world.

Pictures of various figures will be uploaded to but my photographer is ill so I wish him well and a speedy recovery so he can crack on!!!! Mercanary!

Any way, this week at my club (the fantastic mid Somerset wargames club) we did a practise run of a Rules of Engagment, a very brilliant World War 2 (though highly adaptable) platoon/company basesd game. We are going to be puting on a display game at the Shepton Mallet Model engineering show in April so we thought we better try out our game!

Background.

Ok so its 1944 and the Red army is pouring into Hungry. The objective for the Russians was to take a small industrial complex and take control of a broken down Tiger II (this idea was taken from STCW where some Yanks or Brits were trying to take a Strumtiger).

The German/Hungarian objective was to try and defend the tank until it was repaired.

The Battle Field from Russian eyes.

In regards to forces I forget how many Russians there where ( I think about 6 squads) but they were bolsterd by 2 T34/76s, a T60/70 and an SU85.

The axis had three squads of SS, two Hungarians, a Hungarian Sniper team and two Italian sqauds who were wearing desert clober (I don't have enough Hungarians yet so my brave Italians turned up). Support came in the form of a Panzer IV H and a Pak 40 for the Hungarians, a Stug III long barrelled and a Skfz251 mit 37mm for the Germans and the Italians had a M14/41.

Russians with armoured support.

Initialy things went well for the Axis (well the Hungarians) The sniper missed but his buddy claimed a kill. The Panzer IV opened up with its MG and cut down most of a squad and a rfile squad supported by its LMG open fire and claimed some kills.

Then things went in the Russians favour.

A morter opened fire and took out some Hungarians in a ruin. The sniper's freind was shot and fell out of the tower and some plucky Russians stormed the building and finished the sniper off.

The Russians advance but the squad on the left has been cut down by the panzer behind the wall.

The Axis tried to fight back ( I say Axis, the SS didn't fire a shot all game!). The mortered Hungarians fell back to rally behind the cover of a wall whilst the Pak40 took a pop at the morter and managed to cause surpression.

The remaining Hungarian rifle squad fended off some advancing Russians and the brave Italian tank team took a shot at a T34 only to have its shell bounce of the Russian tank. The Russians riddled the Italian tank with machine gun fire in reply, killing all the crewm within.

Axis forces vainly trying to hold the soviet advance

The Russians presssed on, overwhelming an Italian squad in close combats whilst the T34's mopped up the other Italian squad.

Soviet SMG squad jumps over the wall to deal with the Italians and in confronted with the Rallying Hungarians.

Time constraints meant that the game ended early but it was a good match up so this is probably going to be the game we take to the show. As mentioned above the SS didn't enter the combat but know doubt they would later and would of slowed the Soviet advance.

3 of us played the game, one with the Russians and the other two with the Axis. I took the motely crew of Italians and Hungarians as I have a thing for the underdogs!

A great game and I recomend buying RoE if you want a good skirmish game. We are planing to do a cold war game at some point by hashing the rules a little.

More updates to follow!