28mm Terrain Builds

While I was recovering from a bout of Covid19 I wasn't really able to paint figures but did manage to make quite a few new buildings. These will mainly be used for Chain of Command (and maybe Sharp Practice).

First was a church from Empires at War, I've wanted a church for a while now but most models I saw were either too big, too expensive or both! This one is one of the smaller ones I could find:

Secondly a farm complex with damaged barn and stables, again from Empires at War:

Another Empires at War house:

Finally a small factory or industrial building, this time from Sarissa Precision:

They all came out okay I think despite me not being the greatest model maker! The Empires at War buildings being sort of pre-painted are a reasonable compromise between the expense of 4Ground and the need to fully paint Sarissa buildings. I've got some 20mm Sarissa colonial buildings to finish for The Men of Company B and some 28mm 4Ground Eastern Front buildings to finish off as well so hopefully they will be done soon!

2020 Review Part Two: Painting

Just as the Covid19 outbreak affected my gaming in 2020 it also allowed a lot more painting time and finances to be devoted to new projects in part just for something to do during the various lockdowns!

This review will look at my painting over the year by ruleset:

ADLG: Not much effort put into ADLG armies this year, though I did manage to paint an entire new HYW English army that had been sitting unpainted in the lead pile for several years!

King Edward III:

One of the three foot Battlegroups:

I'm quite pleased with the way these came out considering I put relatively little effort into painting them! They are not a great army under ADLG but may be improved in the upcoming V4 of the rules!

American War of Independence: Another two armies that had been in the lead pile for years, 15mm Essex British and American armies for the AWI.

American Militia:

British Regular Line:

The British look nice, the Americans less so as I just painted them quickly. As I have a large number of 28mm AWI figures and no one at the club plays AWI in 15mm I'm not sure what use I'll get out of these especially as there are not really enough to make up each army and I have little enthusiasm for adding to the numbers!

Black Sea's: The year started off with more additions for the Spanish in the form of three 3rd Rates followed by a couple of merchant ships that I painted as Spanish as well. These were followed by the Spanish 'Third Rates of Renown'. After this I bought and painted up a British Fleet box plus HMS Victory to provide some opposition. 

The Spanish Third Rate 'San Francisco':

The famous HMS Victory:

I've really enjoyed making and painting the Black Sea's fleets, very pleased with the results but not entirely sure how much actual use I'll get out of them! Still they do look nice!

Blucher: The interminable 1806 Prussians finally got to a playable state though there are still more to do. I didn't manage to play a game with them (other than as proxies for King of the Battlefield) and I'm not sure when/if they will get an outing! More productively probably I added some 1806 Saxons which can also be used as French allies and a small Swedish force.

1806 Prussian Hussars:

Swedish Infantry:

Saxon Infantry:

Chain of Command: In a revival of an (very) old project I painted up some WW1 Germans and French I had bought many years ago from Renegade Miniatures. I did find some later WW1 rule adaptions for CoC but haven't yet managed a game with these figures. For the WW2 collection all I added was an SU-76 and a few officers for the Russians.

The SU76:

Dead Man's Hand: Some refurbishment of the old gang's I'd painted including the Cowboys and Tuco's Banditos. Two new gangs were added, the Law and The Hole in the Wall Gang.

The refurbished Tuco's Banditos: 

The Hole in the Wall Gang:

FoG-R: A unit of Scots Lancers in 15mm, if I start playing the Oxford competitions again they might even get a run-out!

Infamy, Infamy: a new ruleset for 2020 which resulted in the purchase and rapid painting of a 20mm Early Imperial Roman army and a matching Ancient British army to fight them.

Roman Legions in all their glory:

The Ancient British Panzer Division:

Rommel: More additions for the Soviets to enable the army to be used for early and late-war, mainly in the form of some extra tanks. I also did some new buildings for the Eastern front from Timecast. For the Germans I added some Fallschirmjager and a few extra tanks.

It's a monster! The mighty T-35:

Eastern Front buildings:

The Fallschirmjager

The Men of Company B: One of my major painting efforts for the year saw more figures added for the US and VC/NVA together with some additional scenery and an entire firebase so I could play the firebase scenario from the rules.

The Firebase:

A Huey plus some medics and casualties:

The Men Who Would Be Kings: A small force painted up to oppose Gordon's Boxer Rebellion force consisting of Austrian sailors and US Marines.

The Austrians pretty much on a one figure represents one man basis:

The US Marines:

So all in all quite a few additions to the collection over the last year! I've definitely got the most use out of the Vietnam collection and to some extent wish I'd put more effort into paining them!

What is on the horizon for 2021 (yes I know 1/3 of the year has already gone!)? 

I have already bought some ARVN and some 'Ruff Puffs' for the Vietnam period so will hopefully be starting on them soon. 

For CoC I've invested in more Home Guard and more figures for the Operation Sealion collection inspired by my club mates recent pint sized campaign which should be fun to paint. I also bought an Afrika Korps force but the trial figures didn't come out well so that project got shelved for the present.

Apart from the above I just have a few more Swedish Napoleonic's to paint up and am awaiting fresh inspiration to do something else!

2020 Review Part One: Gaming

2020 was a strange  and unexpected year with the Covid pandemic taking away freedoms I’ve always taken for granted and wiped out the last couple of months for me which is why this review is being written in March!

None the less I did manage to get quite a few games in considering the restrictions in place:

ADLG: 12 games all with different armies other than 3 with the newly painted HYW English Army. My ADLG games followed the familiar path of not really playing enough to get better but enjoyable none the less. The club in general is excited about the upcoming release of a new version of ADLG and revised lists. Doubtless I’ll buy a copy and play some more games when we can meet again.

Vietnam “The Men of Company B”: A new period for me with 7 games, all solo. I’ve really enjoyed playing TMOCB, the rules are interesting and the missions rather more realistic than just line them up and fight! I will try to get some other members of the club interested in playing and will certainly play more solo games.

Chain of Command: 6 games, 3 with Germans, 2 with BEF and one with Americans. CoC remains a favourite and I’m hoping to play a lot more games this year, we will hopefully start a PSC set in a fictional Operation Sealion invasion when the club reopens.

Rommel: 5 games, all against Andy. 3 with Russians, 1 each with Germans and Americans. As ever close games that really made us think. We are hoping to replay more D-Day scenarios this year and Rommel is another rule set I’m keen to play.

Blucher: A rather disappointing 3 games, 2 with French and 1 with Prussians. Again I’m hoping to play more though we may also try the new LaSalle rules and see how they play.

Black Seas: Having constructed numerous ships I managed to play 2 games which visually were great. I’ll probably not play that many games of Back Seas but will try to get the ships on the table a few times!

ADLG-R: 1 game. As with ADLG I’m not likely to play that many games but might do the odd one.

Men Who Would Be Kings: 1 game using the Austrian force I painted last year. Again I anticipate playing a few more games.

So around 37 games in total which isn’t bad in the circumstances! No games of FoG-R as I couldn’t go to the Oxford competitions and no one at the club wants to play or of Fire and Fury, I will be trying to play some F&F this year. Sharp Practice also failed to make a single game but will probably come back into favour at some point.

I also played a few games over the net while we were under lockdown using Zoom, TTS and Vassal which were fun but not as engaging as playing with figures for me.

Hoping that soon my armies will be able to march to the sound of the guns again later in the year!

Rommel Early War Soviets

The last additions to my forces for 2020 are some more tanks for my Early War Soviets for Rommel. Andy found a whole load of scenarios on the web for Barbarossa which required a few tanks I didn't already have. All of these are from Pendraken.

BT7 tanks:

A couple of BA6 armoured cars:

Finally the HUGE T-35 tank, sadly not as efficient in the rules as it looks:

I should now have enough Russians to do most Early and Mid War battles with a few extra for Late War scenarios. Early War Soviets are truly appalling in the rules so it will be interesting to see how they play out....  

Infamy, Infamy Early Imperial Romans

The opposition for the Ancient Britons, some Newline Designs Early Imperial Romans. As with the Britons these were painted with the Vallejo washes plus, as there were some suitable ones available, LBMS shield transfers.

The Legion, four groups plus a Centurion and Signifer:

Two groups of Auxilia plus a Centurion:

A group of Auxiliary cavalry:

Finally some Eastern Auxiliary archers:

Unlike the Britons I'm really pleased with these, they were so easy to paint and the washes gave a nice shaded effect. The shield transfers also helped a lot, I've tried LBMS shield transfers on 15mm figures before and been unimpressed (mainly as they are so frustrating to apply!) but with the larger 20mm figures they were really easy to apply and are much nicer than I could have painted by hand. Just need to be allowed to attend the club again now to give them an outing!

Infamy, Infamy Ancient British

Having enjoyed a solo game of Infamy and another two over TTS I thought I'd make up a couple of forces for the rules, Ancient British and Romans. 

Initially I looked at Victrix 28mm but with a total cost of around £150 per army (and, due to the pack sizes, a load of figures I wouldn't need) that was rather more than I was prepared to pay. Instead I went with Newline Designs 20mm figures where an entire force (almost) was available as an army pack for a mere £39.50!

For a change I thought I'd paint them using some Vallejo "Game Wash" paints which I'd bought a while ago, using the washes over a base coat making them very quick to paint.

Firstly the Leaders:

Enough Chariots to upgrade two mobs to Chariot mounted:

Mounted skirmishers:

Three Mobs:

Three more Mobs:

A group of Fanatics:

Finally some Slingers and Javelin men:

The washes made the figures very quick to paint compared to shading or highlighting everything as I would usually do. I must admit I'm not that pleased with them despite not quite being sure why! I did all the shield patterns with a bronze rim and central rib, I think they would have looked better with coloured rims and ribs (as the Fanatics have) so I suppose I could repaint all the Mob shields. I also don't like the Mob movement trays, they look a bit sparse.

Having said that they look okay I think and are certainly useable and they were very quick to paint!

TMOCB Firebase finished!

The last few components for the firebase I've been slowly building up for The Men of Company B arrived and quickly got painted up. Most of it is resin models from Britannia apart from two of the bunkers and the Helipad which I made myself:

A close-up of one of the corner bunkers:

I don't really want to think about how much it cost though the financial pain was lessened by ordering it in several stages! I like the models and it is noticeable how much more detail resin cast models have compared to the fashionable MDF buildings that lack a lot of texture (at least without a lot of work doing to them).

If I try to get other people at the club interested in playing TMOCB it will be easier to carry to the club than the jungle set up and perhaps I can use some of the trench sections for Chain of Command, while slightly smaller being 20mm scale they look okay with 28mm figures so hopefully it will get some use and I will certainly play a few solo games with it at least.