British get more armour.

 I have always wondered why Allied tank designs were so different to the Germans and Russians who seemed to understand tank warfare better, although I suppose they both had years to work it out correctly on the battlefield while we were stuck with what we had until near the end when the good stuff started turning up, the British Comet and American Pershing spring to mind. So in the main we were stuck with the Sherman, reliable, but a tall silhouette, not enough armour and a usually pretty poor gun, but there was lots of them and they could be improved.

I wasn't going to add a Sherman to my British forces but found in the end I had no choice, however I did not go for the tank killing Firefly as these were outnumbered by the number of normal Shermans and I am not one for going for elite or super units. So I received Warlord Games' Sherman V for my birthday.

The kit was fine, there were a few mold lines and a few bits of flash on parts but nothing to worry about, there were instructions thankfully, unlike a lot of Warlord kits. There are usually little numbers next to each part to identify them, Warlord don't do that, OK it is unnecessary with this kit but there was one part which was in there which I have not a clue about, I can guess it may have something to do with the rear bins on the turret but it is now in a drawer somewhere. I think they missed off the usual spade and axe which you can see on a lot of photographs on the rear deck.

I do wonder if it would have cost them much more to give you a 17pdr gun barrel in the box to upgrade it to a Firefly, although I am unsure whether these used the Sherman V build, if they did it would have been a nice addition.

All that aside I am very pleased with how it has turned out, it is a nice substantial little model and the use of stowage really brings it to life, I have seen several British Shermans with foliage on them rather than camo nets so when I find a decent foliage it may get some of that as well to finish off, I am not 100% happy with the stuff I have used on my German vehicles, I have seen better. I also noticed from photographs tanks with tracks around the turret for added protection so I gave mine some. I have not yet added any decals but might do this this afternoon, although I notice markings are hard to see in many photos. I have gone for a dusty look this time and left the mud off.

Inspiration for my tank. Great picture.

Primed and ready.

 

PS I put the decals on after all, Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and gave it a name.

Almost Done

Very quiet day yesterday so I got on with my M3 for my British forces, I had primed it the day before so it was ready to go. The kit was from Rubicon and if you are making it as a British version because you cannot find a decent M5 then you have to leave all the interesting stuff off it, all those lovely machine guns the American versions had for instance. This leaves you a pretty dull vehicle, so it was down to stowage to make it look interesting, I looked online and these machines were loaded with stuff. I therefore opened up my new Allied Stowage kit and fished out some petrol cans and haversacks, the tarpaulins I had from the Warlord set so no point in wasting them, even with these it looked a trifle bare, so I stuck on a large piece of camo netting.

 All my paints are Vallejo so it was Russian uniform for the main colour washed with black ink and drybrushed with the same colour but a little white added, the edges were then dabbed with a sponge and mud applied to the lower regions.

I popped a photo on Facebook and immediately had it pointed out that one of the haversacks was upside down, it is now on the right way, believe me.

Now that's stowage.

 I can have panzerfaust's on my Germans but getting them proved a bit of a pain, as far as I can see most metal figures are sold in anti-tank teams so you get panzerfaust's and panzerschrek's, you cannot just buy four or more soldiers with 'faust's. Perhaps you can in the plastic boxes but I don't like plastic. As I have played more games I realise the panzerfaust is not a weapon you want to be in the field without as a German and for the price it can give the Allies pause for consideration. My solution was to buy a pack of ten 'faust's and stick them to the backs of suitable figures or have them at the feet of others, just about to be picked up perhaps.

My Bolt Action Germans are now pretty much tooled up for any scenario and have a tidy choice of support weapons in the wings, bring it on Tommy!

M10 and 1st Corps

Crack of dawn again and giving the M10 an ink wash, it is now complete, unless I get those decals of course. I really like this tank destroyer, it has that look of meaning business about it. The British, unlike the Germans and Americans used these in defensive positions and not as tank hunters, this changed later in the war as German offensive operations became few and far between. Although hampered by their open top they had the superb 17 pounder anti/tank gun which was more than a match for the formidable German tanks and could kill at long range.

My only problem with the kit was the front headlights, apart from having to search online to find out where everything fit, the rear lights were molded on to the resin hull so why were the front lights not molded on? They proved too awkward for my modelling skills in 1/56 so I left them off, the amount of times they stuck to the tweezers rather than the tank meant I gave up, hopefully in the heat of battle 'that guy' won't scream out that that tank has no lights!

As tempted as I am to build the Panther I can't see me needing it for several weeks yet, so I decided to get my last German squad ready, I have four already and this one is not really required but I could not resist getting them when I saw them painted up at Phalanx. As I said they are slightly chunkier than my Artizan figures and the helmets look bigger with the camo cover on them, but they have a lot of character as do their British, which I will get at some point, I also saw their Forward Observer so one of them is on the list as well. The officer in the back is Warlord and will be a Captain or Major, the figure in the left foreground is particularly nice, he is crouched over carrying his rifle with a stick grenade in his left hand, I also like that the squad has a mix of steel helmets and caps. My main German force nearly all have camo smocks, so these guys in shirt sleeves and the normal uniform will be something different, I am looking forward to painting them.

I have four maps to do on the American Civil War and have three complete and will finish the last one tomorrow, so I had 95% decided to do a run through of a Bolt Action game this afternoon and evening as the missus is out. She has decided to order up a ton of wood for the wood burner due to the weather not being as good as it should be during a summer, so that means a lot of effort on my part to take it to the out house and stack it up, I may not feel like doing anything but killing someone this afternoon.

I am beginning to get more than a little cheesed off with Terrainmat, I still do not have my roads after three months waiting, I was promised them this week and here we are with it almost gone.

Bolt Action Latest

 Before I went on my weekend I had completed the latest arrivals for my Bolt Action forces, these included the PAK 40 shown in the previous battle report if only a glimpse, a 6 pounder anti-tank gun and a medic for each side, I also took delivery of some camo netting and applied this to the 6 pounder and my Cromwell.

The camo netting is made by Pegasus games and is great stuff and easy to use, simply brushing watered down PVA glue over it and sticking it where you want it. I went a bit daft and added some to the anti-tank gun as well.

PAK 40.

6 PDR anti-tank gun.

 

Just for fun.

Cromwell tarted up.

Medic!

Come back!

I also got another couple of buildings from Charlie Foxtrot and they are next in the queue. At the moment I have seventeen infantry both German and British on the tray which will almost complete my armies, I think I still have half a dozen Germans and a Bren team on the way from Artizan. I put all my British forces into EasyArmy this morning and I find I have 1,271 points, the Germans will be similar, so two decent forces to start a little campaign or simply fight a scenario or two. I will probably call a halt there for the time being, still on my wish list for later are some vehicles, command, ambulance perhaps and an armoured transport for each side and probably two more tanks down the road aways, a Firefly and a Stug or Panther, not sure yet. My nest egg has reached a nice level and I am loathe to dip into it, besides I've done pretty good to build up my terrain and troops so far, it will have to stop. Wait, Father's day must be coming up?

Last Victory

With our second summer of four days over I drove off to the club in the rain, it was fairly busy last night, we had a Bloodbowl game, Sharp Practice II demo and two boardgames along with our Bolt Action table.

I need more terrain.

 We had an awkward three player thing again so on the hoof we came up with the last days of the war with the British and Soviets planning to meet at a nearby crossroads for some frozen vodka and warm beer, however they run into some strong lager in the shape of some hard bitten remnants of a Kampfgruppe not willing to give up the thousand year Reich, albeit consisted of three houses. The Germans were dug in supported by a Panzer IV and a PAK 40, the British contingent was the smallest with three squads, a Cromwell and a Humber armoured car, the mighty Red Army fielded their mighty KV1 which Simon was chuffed with as it looked huge and he got it in a deal from Japan!

The diehards.

The unlucky PAK and transport, a beautiful little model.

 As the game kicked off on rumbled the Soviet juggernaut heading for a small barn which it intended to grind to dust along with the infantry inside it, whoooosh, a panzerfaust opened up and bang went the Russian tank throwing tank riders all over the place. Simon frantically scanned the rule book to stop his tank burning but failed, Andy had a smug smile on his face, I couldn't care less, bloody commies, they were going to be trouble after the war, I could sense it.

The ill-fated KV.

I had the usual trouble, my advance was basically over open ground, but as the PAK 40 was facing away from me I took the chance and ran my armour up the field, within a short time the anti tank gun crew were dead and the weapon neutralised. I didn't realise till later Andy had moved a Panzerschrek team into the nearby house and it quickly took out my armoured car, the Panzer IV and the Cromwell were exchanging shots but neither could get a kill. I thought stuff this and put a nice blob of smoke down between them. Now I moved my infantry up to hopefully assault the house with the help of the Cromwell, bang, the 'schrek team got their second kill.

By this time the Russians had rallied and took their revenge on the Germans in the outbuilding by overwhelming them and turning a flamethrower on them at close range, flushed with victory they began to manoeuvre for a final assault on the crossroads. Once again just as the action was coming to a head we had to pack up, we took stock of the game, the Allies had lost all their armour but the German position in the hamlet looked precarious, especially from the Russians as most of their forces were facing the British. We magnanimously decided to give Andy the win despite both sides losing three units each, I am unsure whether the victory goes on dice removed or points, but we'll get to that later, we lost our most prized assets so well done Andy.

The Russians assault the charnel house.

The game, well Andy's small anti-tank teams just couldn't miss while has Panzer IV seemed to have rubber shells, we learned a lot more of the rules this time, what we need to do is get faster and I think that is coming, we lost a good hour sorting the game out and setting up. I will have things better organised once I get my other PC back and get a small campaign running which is my eventual aim.

Beautiful Day

I expected to be very quiet this morning which would work out as I had been given a priority map to draw, but no, the sun is shining and it really is hot so I think the village was up early, I got thirty minutes done on the map which was not nearly enough. I had several jobs to do in my mind, nothing too strenous but once I know they are to be done I have to do them or I cannot properly relax.

Anyway it is my half day and after lunch I headed out to the shops to get some stuff for tonight and tomorrow, I also popped in to see my old drinking buddy who is not 100% at the moment so between that and me having to do full time in the PO we have not been to the pub for several weeks. I still intend to pop down now and again albeit for the alcohol free stuff, I now get my high with drugs (joke).

Sour faced Postie brought three parcels, these contained all the troops and guns I ordered last week along with some stuff from Warbases, so guess what I will be doing this evening and over the weekend.

Another reason I am tied up with wargame bits and pieces at the moment is that my main PC is back at the suppliers being tested. I bought it almost three years ago with a warranty and never played a game on it. I treated myself to Battlefleet Gothic a week or so ago and settled down one evening and the computer died on me after ten minutes in game. I thought I had caught a virus, did all the checks once it came back online to no avail and through some investigating it would seem running the game may be overheating my computer, hence it turns itself off. So it is now back at Scan HQ who have been superb and I hope to get it back next week. I really need them to fix the problem as the news that Dawn of War III is being worked on for next year means I need something to run it no matter what it costs. I teetered on addiction to DOW I, that is not a joke.

I am off to a War and Conquest tournament on the 21/22nd May in little over a week, there has been a change to the army lists points wise and how they are presented and Rob Broom is working to ensure all those being used are up to date for the big day. I am taking my Heptarchy Saxons (700-800AD) and they fight Romano-British and my sons Carolingians, they are no longer Western Franks, but are now from a more specific era. I was also requested to bring a Classical army so the Thunderbolts are in training as we speak, still buoyed by their stellar performance on the last day of the previous tournament. This time however they are up against Dacians, twice, I have looked at the Dacian list and they are fearsome chaps. I am really looking forward to this. I am going to be asking a lot from both armies this time, I of course in the time honoured fashion will remain blameless.

Bolt Inaction

The big German vs Russian game at the club did not happen as Simon had done his back in and had not recovered by last night, Andy's collection is huge but mainly 20mm so it was time for both my new armies to hit the deck. I was quite happy as I had rushed my British armour for just this eventuality, I did not manage to finish the British truck so the transport rules will have to wait.

It was another small attrition game and I took the British and just stayed on the table side I used for setting up, once I saw Andy's deployment I thought I would hold with the left and make my main effort on the right. This would have been fine if I had not been an idiot and put my armoured car in a hedged field which it could not cross, I spent a couple of moves getting it out of the field and it ended up way out on my left.

Onward to Caen boys.

  There was a surprise for Andy as well as he thought his men would just jump out of the way of his tank, but they don't in BA, so he had to reverse and trundle over some walls, around about the same time I opened up with a ton of lead on his squad in the open and it was quickly pinned and eventually destroyed. I was going for pins on his forces as I had learned this from the first game and it was backed up by some sound advice from a mate.

Get the house men!

Easy target.

  I am not the best WWII gamer, and never have been, but I noticed I could have a shot at the SdKfz 222 which poked above the hedge, I was quite pleased, bang, up it went, Andy tried to respond with a Panzerschrek team only to miss and get them killed as again overwhelming fire was turned on them. Things were really going my way, I decided therefore to move the Cromwell against the lone platoon on my right, it was already under pins from small arms and mortar fire so it shouldn't be too hard to knock them out. I had a vague notion of hiding around the building and hitting the panzer in the side. Andy got the drop on me, took his shot and up went my boys, like him I responded with my PIAT only to have it miss on at least two, maybe three occasions.

Better late than never.

Ah S*$t!

I was going to struggle against the monster without adequate anti-tank but we both knew that turn six was not going to make a difference to the fact that the British had won, so we wrapped up

Not a hugely exciting game but a good one for learning things and coming to grips with the rules, especially those relating to vehicles. Sharp Practice II has made it to this corner of Lancashire and Stewart has run two demo games now, last nights looked very impressive and everyone seemed to enjoy it, the boardgamers are back on to the Wars of the Roses with the battle of Blore Heath, and of course there was a Bloodbowl game in the background. I think we are doing Bolt Action again next week and if so I hope to have the transports and anti-tank guns ready. There are a few strange things in the rules which may jar if you know anything at all about the conflict, but no rule set is perfect and I like the feel of this one, it is pretty fast paced and good fun.

I started re-reading that book I told you about last night, and here is an interesting fact, the largest regiment in the British Army in WWII was the Royal Artillery with around 700,000 men, more men than the infantry, would you have believed that. It was also able to bring down a heavier concentration of artillery more quickly and more accurately than any other army. What do they have now, a dozen guns?

 

Brrrrr!

When I watched the Discovery channel on the rigs I saw so many Eastern Front documentaries I caught the chopper home suffering from combat fatigue, now when I go to wargame shows or look online I feel a chill. What's the big deal with snow.

All of a sudden Napoleon's retreat from Moscow is popular, as is the Battle of the Bulge and you can't go wrong with the brave Finns up against the Soviet juggernaut not to mention all that hunting about in frozen cities. I first encountered snow, pardon, white bases at a tournament and thought the guy opposite me was short a sandwich from the lunch box. I can't remember wargaming being about trends but it's all the rage now, skirmish games, anything new from the Perry's, new rules etc. all bandwagons to jump on, now it's snow, what's next? I do have to admit though that many of those winter games are beautiful and if done right are hard to beat. In the words of Morecambe and Wise however, give me sunshine, summer 1944.

And that leads on to the British armour, like an eejit I rushed it yesterday in case I need it tonight, I managed a lot better with the transfers this time, I used buckets of Micro Sol, tweezers and patience all worked a treat. I still have stowage to add to most of my vehicles, especially the British but that can wait. I am very happy with both kits and I do like the look of the Cromwell.

Bolt Action at the club tonight, report later in the week.

How Many Sojers Does a Man Need?

Loads I think is the answer to that. I cashed in my book royalties from Wargame Vault last night and was very happy at the sum sitting there as it would more than cover my new purchases for Bolt Action. These new recruits will give me a very good force for both sides, a rough estimate I think would put them in the 1000 - 1500 points bracket, they include an anti-tank gun for both sides, a prime mover for the Germans as the Universal Carrier can have the 6 pounder, see how frugal I am being. The troops themselves are getting an extra squad each along with some HQ types which include medics.

 My original thought on all this apart from them completing (?) my forces is that they will give me something to do while the missus is away however I think I am going to have to slow down, I have been painting and drawing non stop for some time now and my wrists and arms are suffering. I shall have to rethink my approach to painting, I need a smaller mat and one of those poncy pallet things rather than using my tray which has a raised edge and is now heavy as hell with years of spray paint encrusted on it. This should allow me to rest my arms on the table which I hope will help, I shall also slow down my extreme paint schedule now that I have enough troops for a decent game.

Although I am not a fan I bought the Lardy campaign primer and 'The Scottish Corridor' mini campaign from them and want to use these with Bolt Action to have some point to my battles, I am not overly keen on the BA set ups, more reminiscent of 40K than WWII to me, I might of course be talking out my backside here as I have only played the attrition one. 

I finished my Panzer IV and Opel Blitz yesterday. I am crap at putting on transfers, I ruined all the 2's, 3's and 4's trying to get the platoon numbers right, and yes I was using the Sol transfer stuff, I am just ham fisted. Even when I did manage to get them on right I always needed to tweak it just that nanometer and crumple the thing. So after a break I came back and managed to put numbers on it, no they are not perfect but they will have to do, one of the 7's is an upside down four as I ruined that as well. I am dreading putting them on the Cromwell. I did however manage to get stuff for the camouflage, I used horsehair from some old ACW terrain I had lying around and once flocked it looks fine, it won't fool the odd Typhoon or Thunderbolt on the hunt but it will do for me. No need for the seafoam Andy but thanks anyway. I eventually settled on my variation of the 'Ambush' pattern paint scheme.

I still have money left from those royalties, now for the 2nd Panzer dice!

Busy Bee

What am I like, a veritable machine, PO this morning and completing an Eastern Front map, lunch, build Cromwell tank, prime said tank, clean house, iron clothes, do another map, build and prime Humber armoured car which had just arrived, put wash on, and now a post before tea.

Running out of room.

I completed the Panzer IV the other day and everything went fine until I attempted the schurzen armour, I got one ready and no matter how I tried I could not get it to fit properly, having your fingers deadened by oodles of useless glue doesn't help either. Anyway I went online to look at Panzer IV's in Normandy, true enough most seemed to have the schurzen hanging from their bodies, but quite a few also only had them on the turret, now that seemed like an idea. The turret armour went on no problem at all and it looked good, damn it, another attempt at the side armour, this time I managed to get it on, wargame on, not tank modeller on. On a roll I decided to cut a section out of the other one, battle damage etc. and this one without the middle bit fit perfectly!


The Cromwell on the other hand was a breeze, a nice clean kit, some small parts but I managed them as I dug out my tweezers, it's actually a lovely tank, much better looking than the Sherman which I have never been a fan of, but might have to shelve my prejudices to get a Firefly at some stage.

The trucks, what about the trucks, these are resin vehicles with some metal parts, not difficult to build and no real problems with the casting. I do wonder however at the person who designed the cab for the Opel Blitz, you have the doors with the windows, then the roof comes with its own front struts which fit over the door struts, why? It is not an easy fit and this part will not be perfect on the finished item but will look OK on the table I am sure. Apart from that it looks good. The Bedford presented no problems although the canopy is not a great fit and will need some serious jiggling to get it to sit right when the time comes. I have left the cabs open so that I can paint the drivers and insides before I get stuck in.

Next week's job.

The Humber is a smashing little thing, very British and quirky, one problem with it, no two, but I'll get to that. In the middle of it is a kind of cage step, during casting the clear parts have a film of resin over them and it's not that fluffy stuff you can blow away, I took a knife to it as you just know it should not be there and broke one of the spars! So guess what, it is staying. It is a very nice piece of kit but the second problem is that it took a month to get it, if I do choose to get another from Blitzkrieg, and they do some lovely stuff I will make sure I am not in a hurry.

This lot will keep me busy for a week I reckon maybe slightly more, which is no big deal at the moment as the missus is still away. After that I will add another squad each to the British and Germans, I was thinking of making these Paras and Fallschirmjager, one to be different and two because the figures available are very nice, also both were present in Normandy.

Happy Days

Both the 'unhappy' Postman and I were pleased yesterday, I received my swag from Warlord games and he takes a strange pleasure out of seeing my smiling face whenever a cardboard box arrives. This time it is the 'eavy mob, tanks, a Cromwell for the British and that workhorse of the Panzer divisions a MkIV for the Jerries, along with a truck each, those elusive decals I was after at Salute and a pack of panzerfausts to stick to some infantry. Being used to Airfix 1/72 years ago I was surprised at the size of the tanks, pleasantly surprised I might add.

Before they arrived I had 99% made my mind up that I was going to buy an airbrush to do them justice. I looked on ebay for a used kit but there was nothing, I then asked advice on the Bolt Action Facebook page and got some encouraging answers for a cheap airbrush. However, even the cheapest brush comes in at around £45, then you have to get the compressor, sure you can do with the can propellant but I phoned a company up and was put off this idea, then cleaning solvent etc. so it was approaching £60 - £70. At that price you are getting something which 'will do' it is by no means the best kit, one deal gave you two airbrushes along with the compressor, old sweats advised getting the compressor and then buying a decent airbrush. I had to bite the bullet, how often realistically would I use it and I could get three to four vehicles for that money, so no airbrush.

The sun was shining but it has gone now, however a good day ahead as my son and I face each other across my new table, Western Franks vs Romano-British, my Romans have thrashed them twice but the RB's went down to a crushing defeat the last time we fought so I am out for revenge today. We were hoping to get two days out of it but I have a hospital appointment tomorrow and have been invited to friends for dinner, I think they are feeling sorry for me being on my own, my only fear about this is that with the missus away for another two weeks I will have to attempt a wash on Monday. Battle reports later in the week.

A Good day and still to go to Salute.

I ordered my new 'wargame' table a couple of days ago and got word that it would turn up this afternoon, this did not please Mrs. Anderson as she had made plans for lunch and to drive No.1 granddaughter home and my delivery time seemed destined to upset that plan. No fear, the table arrived early, I was off the hook.

Partly off the hook as I knew a couple of orders were due and we would of course be out as the mail now comes at a later time than it did in the late nineteenth century. I took the precaution of leaving a note as the normal unhelpful postman has been moved to another round and crossed my fingers that this one would be more accommodating.

Sure enough I returned home to find two parcels in the shed, good man. So the swag for the day came to a new table, German and British FOO's, a British HMG and 2" mortar teams along with some German 'tank hunters' and a number of German decals graciously sent by Matt of the Wargames Table. If I keep this up I won't have enough money for Salute in just over a week.

I got the 9x5 table as it is perfect for large ACW games, something I must get around to again, and if they are not big games then it gives me plenty of space at the edges for all the normal wargame paraphernalia without encroaching on the battlefield. Also one side should be perfect for Dead Man's Hand, X-Wing and Bolt Action games. As you can see it is still surrounded by a Post Office, but this will change in the fullness of time, and no, it will never see ping pong or table tennis, not from me at least.

Another couple of map projects completed, the Scots Guards as I mentioned before and another on the Iran/Iraq war, I am back on the Somme at the moment then moving to a book about South African Armour during WWII and after.

Damn Post Office and some British

I have to be up early today as the decorator will be here to finish this week, so I took the opportunity to motor on down to the sorting office, I found that the doughball who tried to deliver my parcel last week is the usual doughball that rings the doorbell on every other day but that one. Not only does he knows there is a parcel for the village Post Office but leaves it on the shelf for a week while delivering other stuff, knowing we are present all week either in the shop or in the house. No wonder they are in trouble. Grrrrr.

Anyway, just as I thought it was my SdKfz 222 armoured car from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, and lovely it is too, it is resin and a quick look this morning shows it is a fine piece of casting, and surprisingly hefty, which I like. I am looking forward to trying out my German camo colours on it.

I completely finished my British 500 point 'army' last night, a job which took longer than it should due to the work being done in the house and other real life issues. I am very pleased so far with my efforts but it is obvious this is a force to learn the rules with, I am going to need at least treble these numbers before I quit.

500 points.

Support teams.

I also managed to get my two German squads and an extra MG42 team 90% complete over the weekend, I suspect they will be finished by the weekend. I have run into a problem, I am doing mid to late war Germans, basically Normandy to the end, these fellows all have camo smocks and boots and gaiters, I would like some 'normal' uniformed squads but these all have jackboots which were discontinued around 1942. Artizan do short boots but they all have greatcoats, lovely figures but hardly what you will find in the summer of '44, so at the moment I am leaning towards all my Germans having smocks. To prevent me having too many of one figure I am thinking of using the Artizan winter smock miniatures and simply painting them with the normal splinter camo instead of white, who could tell from a quick look at a wargame table, yes I know there is always that one guy, but stuff him. Mind you, a whole platoon in greatcoats would be nice.

Easter

Pretty dismal weather here for Easter, but then again it is pretty early, I found out the other day that the various Christian churches have been trying to come to an agreement on the date of Easter for over 1,000 years and they are hopeful it will happen in the next ten, doesn't fill you with confidence about the power to get an agreement on something by talking about it.

Anyway, what did I do over Easter, cooked an Indian meal on Saturday which I needn't have bothered with as I would have got the same effect if I had poured a tin of extra hot curry spice down my throat, I had been in Scotland and picked up a carton of this particular curry sauce having memories of how lovely it was, my memory obviously is not what it was.

Following on that disaster I found a note in my letter box saying there was a parcel for me at the local Sorting Office as I had not been in when they tried to deliver it. I was in at that particular time as I was having my lunch, which angered me even more as I have a notion it is the German armoured car I have been expecting and would have built this weekend. Someone is going to get it on Tuesday when I arrive at the Sorting Office.

What went right you ask, well I managed to all but finish my British support weapons, sniper team, mortar and PIAT team, they will be all done by this afternoon and I will endeavour to get a picture up in the next day or so. I also managed to build and paint my Universal Carrier, I am pretty chuffed the way it turned out, the mudguards don't fit properly and I am not the only one who has identified that problem, but I managed in the end with the help of my hobby knife. I applied some rust and washed it in, again very pleased, I then applied the mud, it was a very camp, pinky colour in the tin, but it dried like.....mud, excellent product form MIG. I used a couple of rust colours on the tracks forgetting I had a base colour especially for tracks but again I am happy with the result.

I also managed to get a lot of work done on my Germans squads, these all have smocks and are therefore in camouflage, army camo not SS, these are Artizan figures and again not hard to paint. I have seen some painters manage to get waffenfarbe and insignia etc. on to the smocks or tunics but unless it sits out on the model I am going to leave it, these are for wargaming not a painting competition. I will however have to look out some late war infantry not in smocks as these were far from universal.

I have been perusing photographs of British and German troops in Normandy over the past few days and this one made me chuckle, he has got to be a Jock.

Master race, what master race?

Rapid Fire

I joined in a WWII game this week, it was set in Normandy and both sides had to defend their own village while capturing the enemy village, we used 20mm troops and vehicles and the quick-play rules Rapid Fire. I am not a fan of quick-anything, my wargaming has to take place when I can fit it in nowadays so I go to great lengths to put up a nice table with nice troops and I like to enjoy the spectacle over several relaxed hours with perhaps the odd beer or glass of wine. I do not like to fight Waterloo on a 2x2 board with the same number of men Sharpe had in the TV series in under an hour. Obviously this is not always possible at a club but surprisingly we do manage most of the time to have decent tables and finish normal games in the time allotted.

And so to Rapid Fire, I thought the game at first sight was a tad ambitious we had three infantry battalions with support while I think the Germans may have had slightly less, there was a huge piece of open ground between the villages which was going to be a death trap for any tanks or vehicles trying to cross it, but we had to try. Our first battalion occupied our village and no sooner had our tanks turned up and got to the outskirts than the first one was brewed up by an 88. It turned out not to be knocked out but heavily damaged, luckily we had a repair vehicle in reserve so it was called up.

Our village.

An 88 in the distance covers the road.

Our handy recovery vehicle.

Now that we could see something we brought in mortar fire, one 88 scratched, quickly followed by a second and a 20mm FLAK, it looked like we could simply sit still and mortar the enemy to death, things even improved later when we were allowed to bring in our artillery. The Germans opened up knocked out one of ours, gun or tank, then we replied knocking out one of theirs, we won this exchange as the enemy were left with only one AT gun and two routing StuG's while we had our Firefly, our repaired Sherman and a Stuart. Our infantry were advancing very slowly down the road and had not yet reached halfway, the German infantry were almost within shooting distance of ours when the game ended. As none of us had managed our victory conditions it was declared a draw, if it had gone on then the Allied armour with mortar and artillery support would I suspect have destroyed the German defence but you never know in a wargame.

The infantry advance down the road.

My dice.

The game did what it said on the tin, but it was too quick for me, it is for big games but even so it seemed more like a shoot-em-up than a wargame. I can see the appeal however, Andy had some terrific models of all sorts of stuff either on the table or in his boxes, he had at least four or five different versions of the Universal Carrier for instance. I was also impressed with his figures and the painting of the same, some of the plastic figures which came with vehicles were not up to much but his metal troops were lovely sculpts.

Not much happening at the moment after my rush of posts last week, I was away at the weekend and this week we have the decorator in, so not much in the way of miniature painting, I do have my second Bolt Action squad to base this evening as I can manage that in the study, but I need the light of the dining room for painting.