Tiny Metal Men

More Grist for the Falklands Mill

2012-01-20T11:23:00.001+10:00

Two more books for the Falklands/Malvinas reading list arrived today:

Hopefully Bicheno's book will provide more Argentine insight.

The Battle for the Falklands - a Quick Review

2012-01-19T09:47:00.000+10:00

Last night on the train home I finished reading "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. I thought I'd put down a few quick words on my thoughts on the book. I hope to do this with all of the books in my Falklands Reading List this year.

First an admission is necessary; this is the first book on my Falklands Reading List, so I really have nothing to compare it with. This claimed by many to be the standard reference work, so I thought I'd start with it. Future reviews of other books will obviously contain comparisons where appropriate.

I read a 1983 paperback version of the book, 448 pages (although only about 380 of these are the meat of the book), with 16 pages of black and white photos and 8 pages of maps. In addition to the the text, maps and photos, the book contains a chronology of political and military events, a glossary of terms, a list of british decorations (both civil and military) and an interesting section outlining the ships, men and aircraft of the taskforce. Excerpts from the "Franks Report" which was the official government report into the Falklands conflict are also presented at the end of the book, to enable the reader to compare and contrast the official findings with those presented by the authors. A full index is also included.
Max Hastings was a journalist who accompanied the task force to the South Atlantic and appears to have a fair bit of experience reporting military matters. Simon Jenkins was the political editor of the Economist, and so had access to many sources in Whitehall. In the text, Jenkins covers what was happening in the UK, Argentina and the US, whilst Hastings covers the progress of the task force and the conflict "on the ground" in the Falklands.
The first point I feel I need to make here is that this is a history book rather than military war story. The authors have done an excellent job tracing the cause of the 1982 war from the original discovery of the islands, through the various claims and occupations of the islands through to the failures of diplomacy that lead to the war. In fact, the actual Argentine invasion does not occur until more than 90 pages into the book!
There is a lot of material on the actions of the Foreign Office in negotiating with Argentina over the future of the islands, and also decisions by Defence that lead to some of the materiel issues faced by the task force.
I found some of this early material difficult to read, paricularly keeping straight in my head the revolving door of ministers and secretaries working on the negotiations. This did however contribute to the point that the text was trying to make that continuity of office was a big contributor to the issues with the dicsussions over the islands.
The narrative of the naval battles and then the land campaign is quite good. There is some detail on Goose Green and also the battles for Stanley as 3 Commando Brigade and 5 Brigade advanced over the mountains, although obviously a book of this size and scope cannot provide infinitesmal detail on these military actions. Some good overview maps are provided for Goose Green and the approach to Stanley, which helped to cement things in my mind.
The book is (of necessity I think) anglo-centric, although the authors appear to have attempted where possible to use Argentinian sources. Quotes from Argentine politicians and soldiers appear throughout, but deep analysis of Argentine actions is not possible from these. This appears to be a more general problem with Falklands texts (at least those in English) as access to Argentine sources appears to be difficult.
Overall the book provides a very good overview of the actual conflict and has enabled me to lay out in my mind what happened where and when. This has given me a great start in working out what to read next and I also now have some good ideas for actions to bring to the table top.

I would recommend this book. It doesn't have a lot of nitty-gritty detail on the military actions, but there is enough to give you a good overview and steer you in the direction of more detailed accounts. It is, however, an excellent analysis of the conditions that lead to the two nations facing off over a tiny spec of land in the South Atlantic and a record of how that played out.

Falklands update 1

2012-01-17T14:00:00.000+10:00

Not a lot of obvious progress on the Falklands project over the last ten days or so, but I assure you things are progressing!
I've been reading "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jennings. It's been a difficult read at times with my current levels of sleep thanks to Abigail and her 2-hourly feeds, but I hope to finish it this week, which should mean a review next week.
We also still have family visiting to meet Abigail, and they all stay in the room where my hobby stuff is stored, so I haven't been able to access it since Christmas. I'm keen to get some painting done to get my brush-wok back up to scratch for the Falklands Project, and also to try to get some of the other projects languishing on the lead pile moving forward. I also need to get started on some suitable buildings for the rural Falklands communities that will feature in the early games.
The next book to be targetted is likely to be "Goose Green" by Mark Adkin. I also have some more books coming to add to the reading pile, particularly some more Argentine-centric reads.
I've also got an initial order in with Heroics and Ros for the figures I'll be using and I'm looking forward to those arriving.

British Army in Ulster Vol 3

2012-01-09T00:05:00.000+10:00

Found the following book at a local market and picked it up.

It looks like quite an interesting read.
Essentially its a bit like a diary of events in Northern Ireland from late 1975 to early 1978.
It details units deployed over that period and significant events in more detail.
It's going to have to go on the pile for after the Falklands material, but it looks like a good reference for Northern Ireland during this period, or if you are looking to game an alternate timeline ala Winter of 79.
On the subject of the Falklands reading list, I've started "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. I'm finding the early chapters very interesting, but it is a little heavy going on my current sleep levels. Good detail on what happened that lead to the conflict over the islands. Still to get to the actual conflict itself at this point.

Falklands Reading Material

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000+10:00

Whilst up late one night before I finished up work last year, I ordered a number of used books on-line relating to the Falklands War.
While I was away, the packages piled up at work, so I actually had a reason to come back to work this year (mortgages and feeding children aside....).

Most of these were selected for their relative cheapness more than anything else, although I believe "Goose Green" by Mark Adkin was recommended in one of the TFL Specials.

The two larger format books I ordered because I figured that they would have a number of pictures that would be useful in envisioning men, machines and terrain for the conflict (I was only 5 when the war took place). Having a quick skim, this certainly appears to be the case.

There are a few more books that I would like to get, including "No Picnic" by Julian Thompson, but I'm going to have to wait until I can save some more money.

Keen for any recommendations that others may have on this, particularly for good texts presenting the Argentinian perspective.

I also picked up a couple more Don Featherstone books (Battle Notes for Wargamers and the Victorian Colonial Warfare book on India), as I've been quitely collecting many of his books over the last 6 months.

Now to sneak them home without my wife noticing........

New Addition

2012-01-05T14:20:00.000+10:00

First Post for the new year, and it's actually a catch-up on the big event from just before Christmas.

Things have been pretty quiet here on the blog for a number of months now, mainly due my pre-occupation with the preparations for the arrival of our second daughter. I had a lot of work to do renovating our bedrooms to make room for the new addition, that was only just finished in time.

On the 15th of December, Abigail was born and since then I've had even less time for the hobby between my family visiting for Christmas and adjusting to a new member of our immediate family.
I'm back at work now and imbued with the spirit of the new year ahead, I'm hoping to post more frequently, particulary since I've now gone and committed to getting my Falklands project done this year!
More on that soon.....

2012 Project

2011-12-13T18:37:00.001+10:00

Normally I would shy away from any commitment to a given project in a given year. The demands on my time from work and family are such that hobby time is always difficult to find.
That said, there us one thing I really want to achieve in 2012. The year marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands / Malvinas War, and I really want to run a couple of games this year that revisit some of the events during the conflict.

Rules will be "We'll have to bloody walk" by TwoFatLardies. Scale will be 6mm.

I may also do some of the special forces operations using Force-on-Force.

Focus will be on the land war, but if time and budget allow, this may expand to the sea and air.

More bulletins as events warrant, but I have a lot of reading ahead of me to get properly up to speed...

2mm Moderns

2011-12-06T10:30:00.001+10:00

Recently, on a whim, I spent the last of my pocket money for this year on a 2mm Modern Battlepack from Irregular Miniatures. These are packs with two opposing forces, plus a set of rules.
I wanted to match Brits up against Warsaw Pact in the 1983 timeframe, so Ian from Irregular was very helpful in ensuring that my future BAOR (British Army of the Rhine for the uninitiated) forces were equipped with FV432 and mainly Chieftain tanks (just a couple of Challengers) rather than the Challengers and Warrior IFVs of later years.
Below is a quick comparison picture I took of some of my 6mm Irregular NVA (painted for my AK47 games) against BAOR mechanised section with their FV432 APC.

As you can see, these are tiny figures, but they create a real glee in me. I can't help but smile when I pick them up and look at them.
The infantry section comes in a single long strip with 8 figures, but a pair of side cutters very quickly gave me two groups to provide more variety for basing.

Painting will be the trick; I'm hoping to give that a go some time this week.
I also have a conundrum on whether to pursue 2mm or 3mm - more on than later....
Hobby time has been very short over the last few months as we prepare for the arrival of our second child next week.
I'm not going to fool myself that I'll have a wealth of time available after number two arrives.....

Quick Review: FoF Ambush Valley

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000+10:00

A day or so ago I received my copy of the Ambush Valley sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games / Osprey. This is the revision of the earlier AAG Ambush Valley offering, to fit into the new Osprey mould. Despite what it says on the cover (1965-1975) it covers the Vietnam conflict from the advisory period (1963 onwards) and could probably be used through to the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages, and quite thick (176 pages plus Fog of War Cards).

Unlike the "Enduring Freedom" book, which felt a bit "samey" compared with "Road to Baghdad", "Ambush Valley" is a different beast entirely. The majority of the book in this case is detailed information on organisation and equipment of all of the various forces involved in Vietnam, Laos, Combodia and Thailand throughout this period.
After a quick introduction, the book launches into specific rules for Force-on-Force for this period. As well as the usual complement of terrain, civilians etc. the book has a section on boats that enables a riverine game straight out of the box; a nice inclusion.

Then we begin the detailed TO&E info, which runs for most of the book. There is a lot of meat here, however if you are an experienced Vietnam gamer, there may be very little for you here. For me, the non-Vietnam stuff (Laos, Combodia, etc.) stuff was new and interesting, but the rest was not new. As I say, it will depend on your pre-existing knowledge of the Vietnam conflict.

Once the TO&E section is done, there is space for a paltry six scenarios, a page or two on solo play, and then it's "roll credits" time.

To be honest I was disappointed by the number of scenarios, as that is one of the primary reasons I have for buying these books. The TO&E stuff I can read and find, but the ability to have a ready-to-go scenario to play through is very valuable for me.

This book has expanded the scope from the original Ambush Valley and substantially beefed up the organisational data included. However this has come at the expense of removing the campaign system that was present in the earlier version, and there are still only 6 scenarios as there was in the first book. This was a major shock, with this book following on from "Enduring Freedom" with its 20 scenarios.
I will still certainly use this book as it pulls together TO&E data that I have scattered over half-a-dozen sources into a single handy volume, and it brings the rules up-to-date with the new FoF.
I do regret the small number of scenarios, and the removal of the campaign system. For those I'll be keeping by version one copy of Ambush Valley close to hand.

If you're new to wargaming Vietnam, this is a must-have.
If you're looking to game Vietnam with Force-on-Force this is a must-have.
If you are looking for an excellent Platoon-level TO&E guide for the US involvement in Indochina, this is a must-have.

If you are already a Vietnam conflict wargamer, or own the original Ambush Valley, there may be much less for you here than you may expect.

Quick Review : FoF Enduring Freedom

2011-10-25T10:37:00.001+10:00

A while back I received my copy of the Enduring Freedom sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley. This is Force-on-Force's book on Afghanistan from the commencement of hostilities in 2001 to the current day. It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages. Some comment has abounded regarding the cover art. Earlier placeholder art was in my view better, but Osprey / Ambush Alley have obviously decided to go with this one in the final release. It wouldn't have been my choice.

From my perspective this book is "more of the same" when compared with the earlier Iraq book (Road to Baghdad). There are 20 scenarios in this book, most of them seem to trend towards the larger size of game (Full platoons with support on both sides), rather than the earlier small forces we saw in the initial Ambush Alley product.

The format of the book roughly follows the same approach taken in "Road to Baghdad". An overview of the conflict is followed by explanations of the specific rule elements for Force-on-Force that apply to the current conflict in Afghanistan.

After that we have the 20 scenarios, followed by details of organisation and vehicles for the various ISAF and Afghan forces. A quite nice part of this book is a guide to uniforms, painting and model selection for the conflict. It desn't suit my predeliction for 6mm all that well, but it's nice to see in what is essentially a hooby book.

If you've been a follower of Ambush Alley Games and modern wargaming for a while, there may not be a whole heap for you in this book, apart from the scenarios. I had a vague feeling of "samey-ness" leafing through the book, but to be honest I have not found the time to invest in a cover-to-cover in-depth read.

If you're interested in Afghanistan, it's obviously a must have. If not, then I'd leave it.
Maybe it's because it's Australian focused, but I think the older Operation Uruzghan book that AA Games issued before the Osprey partnership was a better book, with scenarios more suited to what I'd like to game in the Afghan conflict.

Roll a D6

2011-06-14T08:44:00.000+10:00

I'm a bit late to the party on this one.
Just heard about out on the D6G podcast.
Hilarious!

6mm AK47 Game

2011-06-13T22:56:00.001+10:00

I had a quick game of AK47 Republic with by brother, Thomas, on Sunday night.

Full After Action Report has been posted to the Angel Barracks forum as part of a competition Michael was running.
Check it out there!

6mm Fedayeen

2011-05-23T10:24:00.000+10:00

Last night I had a crack at sculpting some "Darth Vader" helmets on some H&R Soviets to create Fedayeen Saddam figures.

I'm finding that the "greenstuff" is drying out to much as I'm working with it - I'll need to look online for solutions. Looking at the line-up you can tell that the figures in the middle are the ones I started with, and the I moved to the ones on the edge of the sprue. As the putty dries out, I'm finding it becomes harder and stickier, resulting in worse sculpting.

My plan is to mix Darth helmets with balaclava'd figures (next conversion job!) to create my fedayeen for Road to Baghdad.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, here is a google image search for "Fedayeen Helmets" : link

I couldn't find any images I could satisfy myself about ownership/copyright in the short time available to re-post here.

6mm Moderns begins in earnest

2011-04-27T23:06:00.000+10:00

The new Force on Force and Road to Baghdad have pulled me away from my Vietnam project.
It's now on hold until later this year.
I picked up some mid east buildings form ebay before easter.

I'm inspired.......

Quick "Road to Baghdad" Review

2011-04-18T12:01:00.000+10:00

I'm going to cheat and post a quick review I knocked up for Book Depository. After I've had a chance to read through RtB more thorough over the Easter break I'll post more detailed thoughts:

The Road to Baghdad is a return to roots for Ambush Alley Games (AAG). Their original game "Ambush Alley" was firmly rooted in the events of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As the first offering from their new partnership with Osprey, AAG have served up a wargamer's treasure for this conflict. The book is 104 pages, soft cover, and full of colour art and photos as you would expect from an Osprey publication.

After a brief introduction, 11 pages are devoted to the an overview of the war, with the timescale stepped out.

After this comes the real "meat in the sandwich"; 19 scenarios for the conflict spanning 83 full colour pages with maps, force lists, suggestions for alternate and augmented forces, and the all important historical outcome. These scenarios are design for use with the Force on Force ruleset, but could equally be used with any ruleset focusing on about a platoon per side.

Finally there is an overall listing for US, British and Iraqi forces to enable further scenario creation, as well as a bibliography of further reading.

If I have one immediate criticism of Road to Baghdad, it is that there is so much information crammed into the 104 pages. Skimming the book it can be difficult to pick individual scenarios immediately, as there is very little whitespace (camouflage space??) free in this book to delimit the individual scenarios and they often run on into each other. The Table of Contents obviously helps here, but this is a lot of content in a compact form.

Force on Force Arrives...Early!

2011-04-18T09:52:00.000+10:00

My colleague who sits next to me just came back from the mail area with two packages.
Inside was this:

The books look very nice and are more compact than the A4 printouts I had of the original rules.
More details after I get a chance to have a flick through over lunch.
But for now.....Back to Work!!!

Nice 6mm Terrain

2011-04-18T01:33:00.000+10:00

Up late working on a number of customer proposals for work.
I take little breaks to look at other stuff, took keep me going.
Just found out I't missed a great post on the Ambush Alley Forum for 6mm.
Check it out here:
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6155

Not a lot of progress here at the moment. Just behind my laptop on the desk are this VC conversions I need to finish.....

Conversion Attempt - part 2

2011-04-08T02:40:00.000+10:00

A couple of days ago I took a quick comparison shot of my new "VC" against the H&R US figures.

Unfortunately it turned out to be against some of my worst hat work, but the size comparison is significantly better that vs the Irregular figures.

Since then, I've started basing the figures. This was a bad move, as I need to file off their webbing to represent poorly equipped Local Force troops in just "pyjamas" and a rifle.

Note also in this picture the figure who is missing their hat because I tried to file some of the wonkiness out of it. He's so depressed that his rifle barrel has gone droopy.....

The dodgy hats will need replacing rather than fixing it seems.

Plenty of work to get them to where they need to be, but it's a start!

Conversion attempt

2011-04-02T13:39:00.000+10:00

Found myself with some time last night, so I had at putting some rice hats on some warsaw pact figures to convert them to Local Force VC.

Converted H&R Warsaw Pact Infantry

Conundrum

2011-03-22T06:00:00.000+10:00

Okay folks, I have a bit of a problem.
I've gotten some more Heroics and Ros 6mm figures. This time it's their modern US, that I plan to use for my 6mm vietnam project. That's all well and good, but I need some opponents for them.
H&R don't make any VC figures. I could try to convert their Warsaw Pact range, but that's likely to be a fair bit of work.
As far as I can tell, there are a few manufacturers who make VC and NVA in this scale:

Mainforce - too big
GHQ - too big and too expensive
Irregular - my usual choice, but big against the H&R.

Below is a comparison shot between H&R US infantry and some Irregular VC. I've lifted the H&R to account for the base on the VC, and they aren't too bad:

The problem really arises with the comparison against the NVA (really Main Force VC for the most part) range from Irregular:

Not as close....
Every time I look at the second picture, my response ranges from "That's not too bad..." to "that's awful".
My budget appears to have backed me into a corner on this.

15mm Cthulhu-esque action

2011-02-06T21:27:00.000+10:00

You need to check out the fantastic Octopus Cultist and their eldritch Octopus-God overlord coming soon from Khurasan:
http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/2011/02/khurasan-eldritch-horror-minis.html
I'm seriously considering getting rid of my 15mm and making a move completely to 6mm for cost and space reasons, but these have really made me pause.

Another 6mm Comparison Shot

2011-02-02T23:09:00.000+10:00

Below is a shot I took earlier, comparing the H&R German Infantry to a couple of vehicles, from both H&R and Irregular (don't forget to click for the full size).

Left to Right we have; Irregular Toyota Pickup, H&R Panzer IV H, and Irregular M113 ACAV.

Scaling wise, I think the H&R infantry scales quite well.

As a result I ordered some more bits and pieces from them today......

H&R German Command - unpainted

2011-02-02T12:12:00.001+10:00

I missed this on my original list of photos.
The H&R GR2 code also includes a command strip.

I believe that this is also what you get for the G185 German Command Strip.

Old School Buildings

2011-01-31T21:40:00.000+10:00

I love this post over at Lead Gardens about "Old School" building construction!
http://littlejohnslead.blogspot.com/2011/01/classic-wargames-building-tutorial.html

First H&R Germans Painted

2011-01-30T19:19:00.000+10:00

Quickly based and threw some paint on the Heroics and Ros German Infantry

The macro focus on my phone kept focusing on the back row, so I might need to switch back to the real camera.

I'm hoping to base some more this week if time allows.

Heroics and Ros WW2 Germans

2011-01-22T21:33:00.000+10:00

I ordered some Heroics and Ros World War 2 Germans as opponents for my British Paratroops. H&R are quite affordable like the Irregular figures I currently use, but they come in strips that enable them to be based individually.
I picked up a range of items to make up a force of Grenadiers to defend against my Irregular Paras, and here they are:
German Infantry:

Heavy Weapons:

So how do they compare to the Irregular Paras?

Interestingly the two manufacturers are similar in height, but they have different "bulk". They're obviously not going to work on the same base as each other, but I think I can still get away with using them.
I also picked up some vehicles to support the grenadiers:

Irregular Vietnam Village

2011-01-21T13:20:00.000+10:00

The other part of my Christmas buy turned up at the start of the week - some Heroics and Ros WW2 Germans. More on them in a coming post...
Here are some pics I took of the Irregular Minis 6mm Vietnamese Village. It wasn't until I got it all out of the bag that I realised how much there was!
Here it is with all the various bits:

And here I have close-ups of all of the constituent parts. I particularly like the little wagon. All pictures (including the one above) should zoom when clicked.

Irregular 6mm US Firebase

2011-01-14T23:49:00.000+10:00

Okay folks, as promised here are some shots of the US Firebase I just picked up.
All of the bits you get:

As you can see, you get 2 sandbagged buildings, 2 tents, 2 piles of barrels, 6 sandbag walls, 4 gun emplacements and 6 defensive mounds with sharpened pickets. Plus a flag.

Below is a quick attempt at a comparison shot using some of the 6mm Brit Para's I've been working, along with one of the ACAV's that I received in the same order.

Note that the thick base on the Para's causes the ACAV too look a little small (and the hut to be too short). I think that once everything is at the same height it will look great.
For those of you who want to look at the components a little more closely, I've taken some more picks and put them in the Picasa album : http://picasaweb.google.com/scannablegoose/6mmTerrain#

More Irregular 6mm

2011-01-11T10:58:00.000+10:00

One of my packages just arrived today. I ordered a number of items direct from Irregular in the UK.
First off, I should say that it has been quite pleasant dealing with Ian, and I will defintely be ordering more in the future (assuming the AU$ stays high!).

The majority of the purchase was 6mm terrain:

A Zulu Kraal for my Cold War Africa conflicts,
A Vietnamese Village and US Firebase for my 6mm Vietnam plans

These are quite bulky, so I'll take some snaps of them when I get home.
I also picked up a couple of miscellaneous items for the above conflicts, and it only took a minute or so to take a quick snap with my phone camera:

Toyota pick-ups with and without MGs in the back:

M113 ACAVs

LVTP-5 / LVTH-6

I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the ACAV and the LVTP. The photos don't do them justice. The Toyotas are very good, but the gunner is a bit rough as you can see.

More bulletins as events warrant....

Christmas Loot

2011-01-07T11:19:00.000+10:00

For Christmas I received some money from relatives, and that has been spent on some more 6mm - more bulletins once the figures arrive. I've already mentioned my paints Vallejo paints as well.

I also had some money from my wife, so I immediately set about giving it to TooFatLardies.

I picked up:

Bag the Hun - WW2 Aerial Combat (expanded to Post War in various Specials)
Sharp Practice - Napoleonic Skirmish (large number of scenarios and expansions available)
Kiss Me Hardy - Napoleonic Naval Rules (hopefully get my Wizkids Pirates back out)

Plus I picked up a number of Specials, which amongst a whole heap of other stuff contained:

Summer 2004 : Up your Cara al Sol - Spanish Civil War and A Bunch of Limey Gangsters - Commandos for IABSM
Christmas 2005 : To Die for a Tie - Korean War for IABSM
Summer 2006 : What's for Afters - Pegasus Bridge scenarios, and Grabbing Mussolini's Baubles - InterWar conflicts for IABSM

Slow Progress on the Paras

2011-01-07T09:40:00.000+10:00

No navel-gazing on what happened in the last year, or what I'd like to do this year. You and I both know that it's tough to find the time to paint and game, and that I have a whole heap of things I want to game. Lets move on!

My Christmas package from Maelstrom Games in the UK was delayed due to the heavy snows but finally arrived when I came back to work on Wednesday. I picked up a hodgepodge of items; some dice and scenic materials, and my first ever batch of Vallejo paints.

My wife had offered to get me a voucher at the local Games Workshop for some more paint for Christmas, but a quick look at the AU retail prices of GW paint, vs the Maelstrom pricing on the Vallejo made the decision very easy.

I ordered individual pots of the paints that comprise the Battlefront British and German paint sets. Unfortunately I have a habit of always missing one item whenever I order from Maelstrom. In this case, I forgot the 983 Flat Earth, which is a key colour for the Denison Smocks of my Paras! I have this coming soon, once my brother can escape the floodwaters around Rockhampton.

Rather than wait for the missing paint to turn up, I got started last night. Only spent a few minutes, but I'm very happy with using the vallejo with a "wet palette" (another new experience for me - Thanks Thomas!)

I'm going to try to have most of the base uniforms painted (trousers and most of the denison smock) for the figures before the Flat Earth turns up to finish the smocks. Thens it's just webbing, weapons, flesh and headgear to finish them!....

6mm Brits Underway

2010-11-28T16:08:00.000+10:00

Long term readers of this blog may remember that about two years ago my wife bought me a bundle of 6mm British Paratroops from Irregular (via Eureka here in Australia). They were originally part of a plan to play Flames of War in 6mm. The idea being, as always, to save money and space as per my 6mm AK47 collection. Since then I've discovered other rulesets ghat have taken my fancy for gaming World War Two, most notably "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" by Too Fat Lardies.
I never did get those paras painted and on the table due to lack of time and too many other projects in 15mm. Recently I've been looking at 6mm again as a serious replacement for 15mm on the table. I can get them onto the table a lot faster than any other scale, which, in theory means more games.
Plus I really do need to finish some of my existing projects before I start any of the others I really want to do.
So, without any further ado, I present 9 platoons of paras and 5 mortar teams waiting to be undercoated.

I'm off to search the web for hints on how to paint 6mm denison smocks!

Force-on-Force Primer Available

2010-10-28T08:28:00.000+10:00

The guys over at Ambush Alley have released the Force-on-Force Primer - a series of 6 scenarios for Force-on-Force that you can play interlinked as a campaign, by Piers Brand.

The scenarios are all generic and have examples of how they could be played both for WW2 and the modern era.

And it's all for the princely sum of......FREE!!

Get yours today at: http://ambushalleygames.com/fofprimer.html

6mm Napoleonic Skirmish - Awesome!

2010-10-20T23:04:00.001+10:00

Check out this fantastic 6mm game of Songs of Drums and Shakos!
http://tacticalminiaturesgaming.blogspot.com/2010/10/song-of-drums-shakos-bridge.html
Tiny but looks great!
tempting.....very tempting......

Reporters on the scene

2010-10-11T10:32:00.000+10:00

Finally picked up a paintbrush for the first time in a LONG time on Saturday night.
I finished off painting the VC squad I had on the go. I'll put them up after they've been based.
The other item I decided to spend some time on was this Reporter and Cameraman from Irregular's Riot range.

I haven't painted eyes for quite a while, so I'll need to go back and fix them up so that they look a little less "Coraline".

Pretty happy with how these turned out, nonetheless. Just needs a little static grass, I think. I say "I think", because I've never actually done anything more than add sand to bases. Time to break out of my shell!

Ambush Alley ceases AA & FoF Sales

2010-10-04T00:33:00.000+10:00

Ambush Alley has just ceased the on-line sale of their Force on Force and Ambush Alley rules, and related material. This was a condition of the new Osprey deal, which will see both of these published by Osprey (as a single tome) next year.
At the moment from the AA website, all you can pick up is Ambush Z and the Tomorrow War pre-release.

Before they shut up shop on all things AA/FoF, I picked up a copy of each of the scenario packs they'd published to date:

Three Block War
Art of War
Indian Country
Hawks and Wolves

I have to say these have some great scenarios, and they've got me hooked again.

I just have to find the time to get back behind a paint brush again. I still haven't finished that section/squad of Main Force VC, and all that's needed to get them over the line is some black paint and a drybrush of gunmetal on their weapons!

This week for sure!!!

Latest Ambush Alley purchases

2010-09-23T22:53:00.001+10:00

Well I just picked up Tomorrow's War and Operation Uruzgan from Ambush Alley.
A quick skim of Tomorrow's War and there's a lot of material in there.

Like any ruleset attempting to provide a toolkit to model all sorts of sci-fi settings, they've included a lot of content to model your favourite settings. A lot to consume over the 102 pages....

I should note though the pre-release doesn't contain the "eye-popping" art and photography promised in the Osprey edition, it's still no slouch in the presentation stakes.

Operation Uruzgan also looks excellent. Now if only Flashpoint or Eureka would ever get around to producing their modern Australian Infantry in 15mm!
Luckily for the time being; the book has a guide to converting to British and US troops.

In my quick skim I was quite taken by this note at the end of the first scenario, "Render Safe":

For those Australians using Operation: Uruzgan; a humorous mini scenario can be played using this scenario template and substituting the VBIED and the EOD operator for an Army Major trying to locate and purchase a hair dryer for a visiting Prime Minister.....

That's gold.....

15mm Sci-Fi Force

2010-09-23T11:22:00.000+10:00

Do yourself a favour and get over to the Ambush Alley Forum to check out more fantastic work by member mwda:
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=37738#37738

That should get you in the Tomorrow's War mood....

15mm Chinook from Old Glory?

2010-09-22T15:32:00.000+10:00

Folks
Just came across this announcement from Old Glory UK :
http://www.oldgloryuk.com/disp_news_item.php?id=1003&sh=2
It appears that they are planning to release a 15mm Chinook kit - complete with components to enable it to be converted from Vietnam through to modern day.
This will be excellent news if they can pull it off (and at a reasonable price of course....)!
Check out their new Hesco-based buildings that are in the same announcement as well.

Tomorrow's War is out and about

2010-09-22T11:06:00.000+10:00

The early release pdf version of Ambush Alley's Sci-Fi Rules have just been released :
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/TW.html
You can get it now in the pdf format, or wait until next year for the all-singing, all-dancing Osprey version.
At US$20 packaged with a printer-friendly copy of Force-on-Force, I think this is a pretty good deal, as FoF retails for that much by itself.
Maybe a certain brother of mine might be interested in the PF FoF if I pick up the bundle.....

Main Force VC

2010-08-17T22:30:00.000+10:00

Back from the wedding, and a good time was had by all!
Managed to snap a quick pic of the 15mm Flashpoint VC that I had photographed with my phone camera previously.
Here they are:

I need to paint up more, there's only these three so far. I've done them in boots for these, but I'm going to try to paint some "Ho Chi Minh Sandals" on the next batch.

No Update

2010-08-05T12:26:00.000+10:00

Sick.
Working.
No Camera.
Check out this inspirational stuff on the AA forum : http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4095

Plus check out the new 15mm scifi from Blue Moon Manufacturing:
http://www.bluemoonmanufacturing.com/index.php?cat_id=32

Off to die quietly under my desk....

Main Force VC colours

2010-08-01T20:37:00.000+10:00

Well, I finally got a couple of hours this weekend to sit down and do some painting.
Below is a VERY blurry picture of the end result of some work on some of my Flashpoint Main Force VC. All of the cameras have gone north with my wife, so I'm stuck using the very poor camera in my phone until mid Aug.

If you think these look bad, you should see the three that I need to strip back after my initial colour experiment went HORRIBLY wrong.

Really as a reminder for myself when I get to snatch a few more hours to attack more of these, here are the colours I used in the order that I paint them:

Uniform and bush hat: Dark Angel Green with a light drybrus of Camo Green to lighten the tone.

Webbing : Desert Yellow

Packs, boots and Rice Roll : Graveyard Earth (technically I think the roll should be uniform green, but then it won't stand out from the uniform.)

Skin : Bronzed Flesh with heavy Flesh Wash

Weapons : Chaos Black with light Bolygun Metal drybrush. Snakebite Leather on the butt, stock and grip.

I'm also going to alternate in some figures with a mix of black items (pants or shirt) along with the uniform green. The look I'm going for is from the illustrations in Gordon Rottman's Viet Cong Fighter (part of the Osprey Warrior series). This shows the Main Force troops in a mix of the Green uniform and the traditional black peasant garb.

Stick to the Plan

2010-06-14T19:32:00.000+10:00

I've come to the realisation that I've broken one of the fundamental rules I set for myself when I started this blog and got back into wargaming.
The rule i set for myself back then was that I had a set scale for given game size. Reinforced platoon or less (skirmish scale) was 15mm, company or larger was 6mm. I've failed to stick to this.
Personally I blame Flashpoint and their excellent 15mm figures. I got caught up on the bandwagon and now have a sizeable amount of 15mm figures for Vietnam. I took the opportunity to undercoat a number this week.
Bottom line is though that I don't have a lot of room at home, and with money tight, I need to stick to the plan.
This probably means some 15mm sell-off later this year, to bring myself back to something manageable, and to fund the expansion of my 6mm Vietnam War models for the Flashpoint rules and TFL's Charlie Don't Surf.
With the month of house guests coming to an end soon, I also hope to get a brush to the undercoated figures, and take some pics of some minor developments.

The Dreaded Lurgy

2010-06-08T14:27:00.000+10:00

I've been completely out of action for the last week (complete with overnight hospital stay) with a vomitting bug of some sort.

Hopefully back on my feet and back to work tomorrow...

Just before the bug struck, TFL released their Charlie Don't Surf rules, so I had to pick those up along with the Surf's Up scenario and campaign pack.

Lots of content in these rules, and a foreshadowing of what's coming in the revised 3rd Edition of I Ain't Been Shot Mum later this year. Of course, being me, I just spent money buying scenario packs for the 2nd edition didn't I? Hopefully the differences will be easy enough to convert across...

Eureka 15mm Sci-Fi German Stormtroopers

2010-05-12T22:38:00.000+10:00

Eureka have just released new figures for their Sci-Fi German Stormtrooper range.
These look GREAT. I have some of the original infantry in the lead pile.... might need to pick up some more....

Lard Sale!!!

2010-05-03T10:20:00.000+10:00

I had a bit of a binge on TooFatLardies stuff again this weekend.
At the moment, they are having a sale with £1.5 off everything in store.
I had already planned to pick up a few bits and pieces over the rest of the year, but now I've been able to grab them in bulk.
First up was Footsteps of the Legions, which is army lists for North Africa and the Meditteranean. This rounds out my current WWII interests with the earlier purchase of Gotterdamerung and Shadow of the Rising Sun. To accompany this, I also picked up the recently published Operation Compass scenario pack. There's loots of good stuff in there. It is also an interesting deviation from most IABSM games in that much of the campaign was armour and artillery rather than direct infantry actions. There are a number of more traditional infantry actions based on the Australians at Bardia though, which is one of the primary reasons I purchased it.

Still on the subject of World War II, I also picked up another Robert Avery scenario pack: Fall of the Lion's Gate. I'm very interested in gaming the Pacific Theatre, hence the purchase of this, as well as the Shadow of the Rising Sun. I also used a voucher my brother and sister-in-law gave me for my birthday to purchase Paul Ham's book on Kokoda on the weekend. I was very impressed with Ham's work on Vietnam, so I'm looking forward to reading this as well.

I also picked up the Rock the Casbah expansion, which focuses on the Lebanese Civil War. As it turns out, this expansion is actually for Troops, Weapons and Tactics (TW&T - TFL's skirmish rules). However there are a number of parallels between TW&T and IABSM - B'Maso! give variations to both for the post-colonial african conflicts. I'm hoping that the conversion here will be reasonably straight forward (if not directly documented). Finally I also picked up the 2004 Christmas Special. Looking at this one, you can see that the Specials have come a long way, in terms of production values, in the last 5-6 years! I've wanted this one for quite some time as it contains details on how to convert IABSM for the Falklands - a variation known as "We'll Have to Bloody Walk!". I've always found the Falklands a fascinating conflict, and I'm keen to get it on the table.

Flying Lead

2010-04-15T17:18:00.004+10:00

I've been a bit behind on my Meeples and Miniatures podcast listening, so I've put the last few on my ipod as I walked the dog this week.
Last night it was Episode 62 wherein Flying Lead from Ganesha Games was discussed.

I must say I was quite interested. I've never played any of the "Songs of" games, although I've been aware of their existence. The promise of a complete game within an hour or a campaign within an evening is very tempting for my tight schedule. Also I've been looking for something light and simple to lure others to their unsuspecting doom of getting hooked on historical wargaming.

And at $8.53 for the rules, it's very tempting...
Plus it would lead Eltnot to once again accuse me of a lack of focus!!!

I'd definitely recommend listening to the podcast and the opinions therein.

So what do you think? Have you played any of the "Song of" rules? Are they a good solution for a quick, fun night's gaming?
Let me know in the comments.

EDIT:
I just went and bought it. It's Friday and it cost $8.80. What more can I say...?

A Little Light Reading

2010-04-13T18:49:00.000+10:00

As part of the deal for getting the hallway finished, I took advantage of the ongoing strength of the AU$ vs the pound and picked up some of the fine Too Fat Lardies publications.
Here's what I have waiting for me AFTER the hallway is finished:

Gotterdamerung - Army lists for Late World War 2 in Europe for IABSM
Shadow of the Rising Sun - Army lists for World War 2 in the Pacific for IABSM
Through the Mud and the Blood - Large scale skirmish for World War 1
Triumphant Standards - the InterWar period with Mud and Blood (free with Mud and Blood and covers the fictional 1938 English Civil War amongst other things)

I also picked up the 2009 Christmas and Summer Specials. Included is the picture is my copy of Ambush Valley that I finally got around to binding at the same time.

Through the week I'll be binding some other PDFs that I have. Unfortunately my copy of Force-on-Force will have to wait as it's sealed up in the bedroom with the renovations.

Inspirational 15mm

2010-04-13T06:11:00.001+10:00

If you want to see some amazing 15mm, go check out this blog:
http://15mmfun.blogspot.com/
Compare his QRF humvees here.
To mine here.

I mean, they're pretty close... right?...Right?

Man........

Some great ideas there I need to borrow / steal!

When the Navy Walked Preview

2010-04-11T12:44:00.000+10:00

ArmChairGeneral has released the free preview of his forthcoming Victorian Science Fiction Rules - "When the Navy Walked on Rorke's Drift".
Go check them out!

Quick Peter Pig vs. QRF M113 size comparison

2010-04-07T21:40:00.000+10:00

I've just quickly thrown together a quick comparison of the relative sizes of a QRF ACAV and a Peter Pig M113 that I had in the cupboard.
The comparison is intended to be on size rather than the quality of the model, as the Peter Pig has been cleaned up and undercoated, whereas the QRF has been tipped out of the bag where it's languished for the past year of two and then clumped together with Blutack.
The QRF is also missing its headlights and the driver's hatch that I didn't blutack on (it DOES say QUICK comparison!)
So without further ado, here are the pics (hi-res if you click). I'll leave you to make your own judgements on compatibility.

Maelstrom Order Arrives

2010-04-07T10:47:00.000+10:00

My order from Maelstrom just turned up in the mail.

It was sent on Thursday just before Easter and arrived here (via our mail section) on Wed Morning. That's impressive!
The tin of Quickshade got dinted, but it was securely taped up and there haven't been any leaks.
Lunchtime should see a quick perusal of the CWC rules.
Looking forward to getting it all home tonight.

Bamboo huts

2010-04-06T21:46:00.000+10:00

I thought I'd have crack at making some bamboo huts for south east asian games.
Here is where it is at, at the moment.

I know the CannonFodder figure is quite out of place, but I couldn't find any on my VC in a hurry.

I made a rough cardboard frame and then covered it with a cut-up bamboo placemat.

After fiddling with hobby knives and other cutting devices, I went out to the shed and grabbed the secateurs. Definitely the way to go for cutting up the placemat.

I haven't put in any doors or windows yet, so I think the secateurs will be called out again. I guess I probably should have put them in before I put the placemat onto the frame....

I'm uncertain on what to use for roofing materials. Should I thatch it, or use a corrugated iron roof? Do a number of both?

Anyone have any suggestions on the roofing material decision?

What did I achieve over Easter?

2010-04-06T13:27:00.000+10:00

Not a lot really.....
On the modelling/gaming front at least. On the gyprocking and plastering side, there was good progress. But this is Tiny Metal Men, not Renovating for Nutcases!

I have started on a bamboo shack that I hope to get some work in progress of pics tonight. My order from Maelstrom has shipped, so I'm looking forward to that arriving so that I can forge ahead on my Flashpoint Vietnam figures.

I did get in a few minutes of reading and finished off Target Basra about the Royal Marine Commandos in the invasion of Iraq. Some interesting scenarios there that could work for Force-on-Force.

On the train in to work today I've started on 3 Commando Brigade about the Royal Marines in Afghanistan.
After that is Ground Truth which is the follow up to 3 Para (which I thought was a good read). I picked up all three of these (Basra, 3 Commando and Ground Truth) for $25 from my local QBD.

On the gaming news side of things, TooFatLardies released their Operation Compass scenario pack providing:

An extensive history of the Italian invasion of Egypt and the British response: Operation Compass, the Five-Day Raid that turned into a campaign. Set between June 1940 and early February 1941, the booklet contains twenty-three unique scenarios for “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!” including attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, desperate defences, and the types of action typical of desert warfare: tank vs tank and tank vs gun battles.

From the 11th Hussars’ initial reconnaissance and harassment missions; through to the assaults on the network of Italian camps in the Western Desert; the Australian assaults on Bardia, Tobruk and Derna; and on to the thrilling climax at Beda Fomm, you’ll encounter British, Australians and Italians of all shapes and sizes.

I'm hoping to pick this up to accompany my current collection of 15mm Battlefront Australians.

1938 : A Very British Civil War

2010-03-29T11:01:00.000+10:00

As I was prepping my order up for Maelstrom last week, I noticed that they stock 1938 A Very British Civil War. Coupled with their shipping policy, this represents a bargain for international customers, but I had already committed all of my funds.

For those of you who aren't aware of the this fictional Third English Civil War, it essentially exists in an alternate timeline where Edward VIII refuses to abdicate over Wallis Simpson, and the political turmoil that would have arisen from that decision.
There is a much better summary than what I could provide here.

Here is the TMP post from Solway Crafts and Miniatures for the first book:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/787475

Definitely something I want to explore in the future.
Yes! Even more periods to game - exactly what I need!

As a final note, it appears that Maelstrom does math that does not conform to normal worldly arithmetic. They're still significantly cheaper on a lot of things at the moment due to the strength of the AU$, but I need to follow up with them as to why there is the difference between what I end up with when I total up the costs, vs. the online shop's calculation. It's probably some error on my part.

Birthday Loot - Flashpoint USMC

2010-03-29T07:49:00.000+10:00

As part of my birthday haul back in Feb, I managed to pick up some of the old Flashpoint stock that Drew had. It came in a big baggie and I'd started to sort through it into poses, etc. I took this quick photo (phone camera) of the container that they are sitting in as I headed out the door to work this morning.

Because it's a bulk bag of old stock, it's not really representative of the product that Flashpoint are putting out now. Some of the figures will need some clean-up due to flash, but becasue there are so many I should be able to get an initial couple of platoons together without having to resort to clean-ups!
They should go nicely with my Marine Corps Helos.

VSF-ish

2010-03-28T23:43:00.000+10:00

The family went to a 2nd Birthday party at a park across town today.
The park itself was once used as the facility to store coral that had been dredged from Moreton Bay before it was crushed up and turned into concrete.
They have one of the old crushers there and I took this pic.

The way that it's buried into the ground made me think of some sort of Victorian Sci-Fi tunneling machine.

It was a massive piece of machinery.
Here's a closer shot along the shaft.

Buying more stuff!

2010-03-25T15:53:00.000+10:00

When I started this blog it was supposed to be a bit about doing this hobby "on the cheap". Now I find myself buying even more stuff!

This is a little different though as I'm not buying any new figures (I tell myself....) with this birthday cash. I'm going to get some hobby stuff from Maelstrom thanks to the weaker Pound and their free shipping policy.

Top of the list is going to be some Army Painter "dip". I'm keen to give this a go, as anything that speeds up my painting will encourage me to get back into tackling the Lead Mountain. Also I'll be picking up some Flames of War bases for my Flashpoint figures and......for the first time ever...... flock and static grass! w00t!

I'm also going to pick up a copy of Cold War Commander. I know at least one reader of this blog who will now be fighting his gag reflex at the thought of the Warmaster system, but I'm looking at options to get my 6mm stuff back out again.

2010-03-25T08:40:00.000+10:00

Hi all!
I know I've been pretty quiet for a while.
Mainly been loitering over at the Flashpoint Miniatures Forum in between bouts of frantic demands from work.
No progress on painting or modelling, and I haven't even managed to take any pictures of my birthday haul!
As part of the engagment with the Flashpoint forum, I've been doing a lot of vietnam reading and research, so to keep the blog going while I'm in a bit of a hobby slump I'll probably post some reasearch notes etc.
I wished I'd started doing that sooner, because I now have no idea where I found a particular table of equipment for the Viet Cong!

TPLC Update

2010-01-28T23:52:00.001+10:00

Initial page of the new comic is up.

Turkey Shoot II - Revenge of the Turkeys

2010-01-28T19:03:00.001+10:00

As mentioned previously, we replayed the Ambush Alley Turkey Shoot scenario a week later, but this time with a few modifications:

Marines were dropped from Recon (d10) to standard (d8).
No APC was taken (again).
An extra Hotspot was added to the table bringing the total to 5.

The table layout was also a bit tighter than previous.

In addition, this time we had two players (myself and Adam) playing the Regular fireteams, while Brad took the Insurgents again.

With two players as Regular, we opted to allow the situation where we could end up with 2 Fog Of War (one per Regular Player) per turn.

Part way through the game, we realised that this was a bit of overkill, so we drew two assets (suggested by Insurgent commander Brad to redress the situation we'd found ourselves in) and went back to maximum of one Fog of War per turn.

The Regulars moved forward just fine to begin with.

But with the Fog of War flying thick and fast, the Marines got pinned down in the alley just beyond the target building.

They were attacked by friendly fire (mortars and air strikes - luckily this A-10 could hit a barn door!),

3 technicals,

and a carload of insurgents.

Just when these threats appeared to have been neutralised, the Insurgents torched the target building (Fog of War "Fire! Fire!" card) , rendering the mission a failure!

Luckily, while they had been pinned down in the alley, a secondary mission to investigate hostages being held in the area had been radioed through.

So the Regular teams quickly set out to attempt to free them, despite now being low on ammo ("Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" Fog of War).

After assaulting the building, the hostages were rescued, but by this time each Marine fireteam was nursing casualties, with one man dead.

We finished the game there because we were over time, but hopefully it was a very enjoyable game for all! Especially Brad and his team of pyromaniac Insurgents!

I'll be starting to shoot a Tin Pot Little Country comic for this engagement over the next few days.
I'll put a quick post up on this blog to let you know as the pages go up on TPLC.

Turkey Shoot - initial run

2010-01-27T23:15:00.002+10:00

This is a report on my initial run of Turkey Shoot.
We've run the game subsequently with some changes after this run through, and it was a completely different game. More details on that coming soon...
Okay, so back at the game on the 16th Jan:
Turkey Shoot is a scenario where a squad of Marines must escort a sniper team to a position where they can engage targets "off table". The Marine Squad must keep the team alive for 3 turns on the roof, and then exfil off the edge they started at.

The Scenario as written has a full squad of US Marines (3 fire teams and a squad leader) protecting two snipers and accompanied by an LVTP7.
I didn't have a suitable APC available, and it seemed overkill (more on that soon) so we dropped it from the game. It should also be noted that the Marines themselves were Recon Marines. This meant that they were rolling a d10 rather than the standard d8 for trained troops.
Even without the APC we were soon to find that this scenario would be a whitewash for the Regular player.
The Regular team stepped off and engaged an Insurgent RPG team on a nearby building. The threat was neutralised, but during the shooting roll, a Fog Of War card was triggered! "The Colonel says what?!?" meant that the Regulars were pinned in place for a turn, unable to move forward.

In the mean time, the Insurgent player took the opportunity to occupy the target building....

And prepared to spring a trap on the Regulars....

However, this where the Recon Marines stepped up!
They demolished the ambush on the left hand side of the road, leaving one man standing.

In a later turn, this one mad insurgent managed to skirt around the fireteam that had engaged his group to charge another team from behind....

He was quickly dispatched.

Meanwhile, on the right hand side of the road, the Marines in position there had achieved a similar result.

As you can see, machete-wielding Insurgents are hardy indeed!

At this point the Insurgent group in the Target Building began engaging the Regulars.

Their shooting was inaccurate, and over the next couple of turns, their numbers were whittled away from 6 down to 2.

The Insurgents had received some reinforcements by this stage, but due to a lucky break on the Fog Of War, the "What's this made of....Swiss Cheese?!?" card rendered them vulnerable to the Marine Fireteam holding that arc.

It was around this point that Brad failed the rolls to bring 21 fresh insurgents onto the table!

However, luck was not completely against him, as another Fog OF War ("Contact!") provided him with another squad of Insurgents. These, however, were still unable to cause casualties on their Marine foes.

At this point, the Marines reached the building and began clearing it:

After the building was cleared, the sniper team swung into action and began to engage their "off-table" targets.

Some further reinforcements for the Insurgents was "too little, too late"....

...and the Marines exit the area with no casualties!

In the post game wash up, we believed that the Marines were too strong (and we didn't even use the APC!) and that at least one more insurgent hotspot (there were only four) was required.
In the second game played recently, we dropped the Marines to "Trained" (d8) and added an additional hotspot to bring the total to five.
But more on THAT game for another post!

Just had a cracking game!

2010-01-24T01:16:00.001+10:00

Just in the middle of packing up from another Ambush Alley game.
We played Turkey shoot again, but with some modifications.
The previous play last week (which I still have yet to write up) was a bit of a walk in the park for the Regulars.
This week we down-scaled the regulars and became a far more challenging proposition. And a lot of fun!
This week's game is going to get a proper write-up. The game from last week is now going to receive an abridged AAR.
Stay tuned.....

AAR still pending....

2010-01-21T16:42:00.000+10:00

In a relentless return to form, work has gotten busy and I haven't had time this week to put together the AAR for the "Turkey Shoot" Ambush Alley game.
Thankfully with Australia Day coming up next week, I intend to rectify this.
Return to your duties......

Pre-Game Entertainment

2010-01-18T06:58:00.001+10:00

Well I had some fun on the weekend playing Ambush Alley with Brad.
We played Turkey Shoot this time.
Regulars won, but from re-reading some of the forums, it looks like we may have played the Insurgents slightly wrong. Not sure it would have made a significant difference however.
I'm planning on having up a proper AAR later this week, but in the interim......

While I was setting up, my wife came along and started having a look at the figures, etc.
Then things got a little silly:

Precious Prize Duck Escorted to Market

Insurgent Attacked by Polar Bear Atop Building!

Fierce Giant Pigs Attack!

Maybe you had to be there......

More Cork

2010-01-15T23:49:00.002+10:00

A couple of quick pics of the two buildings and some quick wall sections for the game tomorrow night.

I'm not going to have time to apply the plaster and have it dry, and clean up the surfaces ahead of the game, so I'll leave them in raw cork for the moment. Both the buildings and the walls will be plastered eventually - probably next week.
I'l got to do some work around the house tomorrow, but hopefully I can put out another couple of walls ahead of the game.

What ever happened to those cork buildings ?!?

2010-01-14T06:49:00.000+10:00

Long term listeners may remember that back here I was working on some buildings using cork.
What ever happened to those?
Well I did get some work done on them.......

There's only two at the moment and here they are:

A closer shot of the one on the left:

I still need to add some staining to the exteriors and probably some posters and/or grafitti

As you can see below, last night I started work on two more:

I'm hoping to get these, and some walls I started, complete in time for a game on Saturday night.
Since it's now Thursday, I'm not sure I'm going to make it!

Birthday Present Arrives!!

2010-01-13T15:20:00.001+10:00

I just had my Birthday present from my wife and daughter turn up at work.
You'll all just have to wait until Feb 23rd to see what it is!
Unfortunately, I'm also going to have to wait that long....... :(

Recon

2010-01-12T11:39:00.000+10:00

I'm trying to keep some momentum on modelling for as long as i can, so last night I trimmed and based the LRRP platoon from Flashpoint that I got for Christmas.

These were old figures in the old packaging that I picked up from Drew at Dragonfire. I know that Flashpoint is working through doing a refresh on the figure ranges, but I don't think they've done the LRRPs yet.
Across the 30 figures there appears to be 10 sculpts - not necessarily 3 of each.
The scults look quite good, plenty of sneaky movement poses!

You can click the images of the sculpts for a larger view.

I picked doing these first-up because I figured that I could get away with only painting and basing a smaller number (maybe 10?) to provide a patrol to go up against a larger number of either Local Force or Main Force VC for Ambush Valley.

So next up, I'll be cracking a pack of VC.....which will it be?.......
(oooh the suspense!)

Eagle Flight

2010-01-12T07:13:00.002+10:00

My order from The Flying Mule arrived today. Very prompt service.
3 USMC Hueys:

There are a couple of reasons why I purchased these:

As a pre-painted diecast, there is nothing more for me to do. No gluing, no painting, no basing.
They are comparatively cheap. These were US$7.99. Flying Mule also has 1/100 UH-1s with an airborne scheme as well for US$9.99. The very nice looking (but also requiring assembly, painting, etc.) Hueys from Battlefront are AU$30 (US$28). I bought all three of these for less than the cost of one from Battlefront.

Here is a zoom in of the helo with Irregular Modern US disembarking:

As you can see, 1:100 is actually just a little small against most 15mm (really 18mm) figures.
I have the same problem with the HMMWVs from QRF.
You can get 1:87 (HO) scale UH-1s from Flying Mule and other places as well. I have also seen UH-1 gunships in 1:87. I avoided 1:87 this time around because I didn't want the helo to be out of scale with other vehicles. We'll see how it goes......

Edit: Some discussion in the comments below (notably from Geoff at QRF) indicates that I'm wrong about the scale comparison. After a 2nd and 3rd look, I'm very happy with the scaling.

Final Christmas Loot

2010-01-09T09:00:00.002+10:00

My in-laws gave me the gift that keeps giving - cash!

I have been able to get a copy of Ambush Valley, which I've printed but haven't had time to read it yet.
Looks very good though.

I've also renewed my Special Operators Group membership with Ambush Alley Games, and I have three diecast UH-1Cs coming from Flying Mule to provide some air-mobility or dustoff for my Vietnam games.

Thanks Garry and Kathy!
It's going to be a BIG year!

More Christmas Loot 2009

2010-01-08T09:00:00.001+10:00

Okay, so here is the Flashpoint order that I purchased earlier in 2009 and that got put aside for Christmas. These are were old stock that I picked up from Drew at Dragonfire Games.

Australian Support Platoon and an Australian Rifle Platoon. The Rifle Platoon is in the newer Flashpoint packaging.

US LRRP Platoon

Main Force Viet Cong Rifle Platoon and Support Platoon
The Recoiless Rifle may find itself serving double duty between the VC and on a technical for my african militia.

Local Force Viet Cong Cell and Support Cell.
The round items in the Support Cell pack includes punjee markers and snipers emerging from tunnels.

And finally, Thomas' continuing efforts to get me to finish my Eldar army:

Christmas Loot!

2010-01-07T14:44:00.001+10:00

As promised (and because it's also an easy first post for the new year), I give you :

The Christmas Loot

First up, some air support for my AA/FoF games:

Three Night Hawks (I'll probably drop the mods back to a typical Black Hawk) and an Apache.

Two M2 Bradley's and an Humvee Troop Carrier from QRF:

The Bradleys were inspired by reading House to House. The Humvee was because you always need more!

Next up are 3 Pinzgauer trucks and a bag each of the new command and grenadier modern british figures from QRF. Together with the figures I purchased last year, I can pull together a 8 british fire teams + some additional command; and with the Pinz and the earlier land rovers, they don't need to walk everywhere!

Below we have a platoon (3 sections and a command section) of Egyptians to be re-purposed as Iraqis for FoF. It will also give me th opportunity to drag out some T-55 tanks I have kicking around. I'll be attempting to keep these fairly generic for use as a general arabic army of the period.

I'll leave it at that for the moment.

Coming soon - pics of the Flashpoint stuff I got around Oct last year which got saved as a Christmas gift.
Also Ambush Valley and more!

100th post!!

2010-01-06T12:00:00.000+10:00

It's taken me two years, but I'm finally at the 100th post!

I realised that this post was going to be number 100 back in Nov last year, and I've been planning on doing something big since then.
Unfortunately work took a decidedly busy turn and I haven't gotten anything done since the start of December.
Rather than having it linger, I'm just going to post and move on.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!
I got a pile of "dolls" from my wife for Christmas, and I'll post them up in a following post.

At the moment I'm sick as a dog from over-extending myself at work prior to Christmas. Third round of anti-biotics and it's not shifting from my chest. uck...

I'm planning on trying to minimise the purchases this year and focus on tackling the lead mountain that has accumulated. We'll see how long that resolution lasts.....

Two key focus areas for gaming this year:

on-going Middle East and Africa games with Ambush Alley and Force-on-Force
Vietnam games with Ambush Valley and Flashpoint Vietnam. This year is shaping up to be a big one for Vietnam with TooFatLardies also promising to release their "Charlie Don't Surf" rules (finally!).

Have a Great Year!
Paul

Inspirational Terrain Blog

2009-11-19T09:13:00.005+10:00

I came across this a few days ago:
Take the High Ground
If you've never been there, you should definitely check it out.

This amazing flying boat station has me all fired up about terrain (although I'm sure that the burning will subside before I find time to do anything).

It looks incredible, but he makes it look so easy! I read the descriptions and it all seems so straight forward and simple. Why didn't I think of that? It's all so easy!

I'm sure that when I attempt some of this, things will not go so smoothly......

rotary tool-icious

2009-11-19T01:29:00.003+10:00

I had been having some difficulty filing the thicker bases off the Flashpoint moderns.

My poor little, cheap files weren't up to the task vs. pewter.

On advice from Brevet on the Flashpoint forums, I tried hitting them with a dremel (actually it's a cheap knock-off Dremel).

First-off, I tried using the grinding stones in the kit, but they very quickly became clogged.

Then I tried the Carborundum tips....and they ripped through it beautifully.

A little bit of a rough finish, but then that helps with gluing to the base!
And now for the very blurry pic:

The figure on the left is intact. The figure on the right has been ground down.
The good cameras are out of town with my wife, so it's going to have to be phone camera shots again, until next week.

TPLC Update

2009-11-17T13:12:00.003+10:00

I've done a quick revamp on TPLC, and also debuted the new format. Hmmm.....Can it actually be a new format if it's really the first post?

Tiny Metal Men is intended to remain as a "hobby" page with figures, painting and modelling. Tin Pot Little Country will be a narrative page for AARs and other supporting material for my games (when I find time to play any!).

For the near period, TMM will certainly remain the busier site whilst I get through the current pile of figures I need to paint!

Gloss Humvees - finale

2009-11-16T07:28:00.003+10:00

I finished up the glossed Humvees on the weekend.
If it hadn't been for the gloss, I would have done these very differently.
They've ended up looking quite dirty and worn, and this is largely due to my efforts to sort out the gloss, rather than a focused approach to painting wear and tear.
Here are some pics, click them for the full size:

Now, to get back to painting infantry!

Gloss Humvees - now with pictures!

2009-11-12T09:02:00.005+10:00

Okay, so I finally sync'd the camera and took some pics of the QRF HMMWVs.
Here are two of them with the unfortunate gloss undercoat. You can see where it's run in around to a lot of the detail. Check out the front wheel of the M2 HMMWV (left). Click on the images for the full size:

I've started trying to paint up an M998 first up. Here's a progress shot from my first Glass Humvee post where I found out that the paint would stick! I've also tried to matt-down the gloss with some paint.

And here's where I had to leave it last night:

It needs some further tidy-up and some inking and dry-brushing, it's starting to get there.
Hopefully finish up tonight, and then it's on to the Mk19 and M2 equipped models.

Gloss Humvees

2009-11-11T12:02:00.002+10:00

I tried applying some paint to the gloss undercoated Humvees last night.
I painted one of the tires and to my joy it appears to stick!
I think I'll still need to give them a decent coat of clear coat to protect them, but I'm happy that I haven't completely destroyed them. And as it's dried, some of the detail has come back, so things are looking up!
The main cameras at home are full of baby pictures, so I haven't been able to use them. I tried to take some pictures this morning with my phone again, but these have proven to be terrible.
I'll bite the bullet and take some proper shots tonight.

More Books!

2009-11-09T11:06:00.004+10:00

I had promised myself that I wouldn't by any more books, but I came across these three at my local QBD for about $25 total.

Killer Elite by Michael Smith
Midnight in Some Burning Town by Christian Jennings
Fighting Scared by Robin Horsfall

I couldn't help myself. I'd just finished reading "Black Hawk Down", so I splashed out.

I started Horsfall's book (which I'd never heard of before) on the train in to work today, and I've been enjoying it.

QBD is definitely a great source for discounted books!

Slowly getting back on track.....

2009-11-09T07:45:00.005+10:00

Finally had a slower weekend this week and actaully managed to get some hoby-related activity done.

I've glued down a big chunk of my Cannon Fodder militia, plus some of the Flashpoint US and insurgents. I need to trim down the bases on some of the Flashpoint figures as they're a little thick for my taste. I've purchased a rotary tool for the task, and I'm looking forward to giving it an outing.

The whole lot got an undercoat yesterday, along with some Peter Pig Vietnam snipers which I'm planning to use as snipers for AA, since no-one seems to make modern US snipers.

Here is the very blurry pic:

I also put together the 3 QRF Miniatures Humvees that I have, but I think I've ruined them with my impatience and the wrong type of paint for undercoat. I accidentally ended up using a Gloss spray, which has run in and filled all of the detail. Also I'm not sure how things are going to go with painting over the top of it. I'm letting it dry properly for a day or two, and I'll see how it holds paint.

Gaming Plans - Moderns 2009

2009-11-05T11:30:00.007+10:00

Inspired by Dave's post over at the War Depot, I started to plot out my plans for gaming. At the time when I started this post, I hadn't gotten anything done, subsquently I've actually started moving forward again. I am going to post however, as it puts a good "stake in the ground" to come back and review projects.

Because I'm sneaking these posts in when I can, I'm going to break it down into periods that I'm working on and post them separately. Starting with.....

Moderns
I'm actually working on a number of projects for the post-war/moderns period. This period is my major focus at the moment.

Somali Civil War 1992-1996
This is the period of the UN intervention in Somalia. The current focus is on the period around the events of Operation Gothic Serpent (Blackhawk Down).

Recently I've become more aware of the involvement of 1RAR during the intervention and I'm now keen to game some actions based on their involvement in the conflict. This is currently hampered by a lack of 15mm Australia figures. However Flashpoint Miniatures are promising something soon (apparently around the Christmas timeframe?).

I also have a fair bit of work ahead of my trying to research records and accounts in an attempt to create some realistic scenarios for this.

I the interim, check out the following links for some pictures and narrative of the "Big Blue One" in Somalia:

www.firstbattalion.au.com/somalia.htm
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/other/somalia.htm
http://www.australiandefender.com.au/stories/ad_som.htm http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/peacekeeping/anecdotes/somalia.html

Australians in Afghanistan 2001 to current
Ambush Alley's Operation Uruzghan book as a starting point.
Stalled on this until someone offers a 15mm modern Australian range.
I have some CannonFodder Afghan figures for use as Taliban.
Also looking at Brits in Afghanistan as well. This is most likely to happen first as I already have a significant number of 15mm modern Brits from QRF and Old Glory.

Iraq War 2003
Ambush Alley is planning on publishing a "Road to Baghdad" book in 2010 (?) and this is likely to be a good source for this.

I already have US moderns, and I have some Bradley's coming for Christmas, along with some troops to use as Iraqi Republican Guard or regular army for early in the conflict. Figures for Fedayeen are available from Rebel, but I don't have any of these yet.

On the subject of Fedayeen, I'm also keen to look at gaming the insurgency as well.

Vietnam War

Ambush Alley are releasing Ambush Valley for Christmas 09, and I'm hoping to pick up a copy when I can find some cash in the new year. I already have a number of Vietnam 15mm, courtesy of the old Flashpoint range that I picked up from Drew at Dragonfire. These are packed away for Christmas, and will hopefully getting some attention in the new year.

Flashpoint are also re-doing their Vietnam rules, which are more at the company level, whereas Ambush Valley is more of a platoon sized game. Keen to keep an eye on these as they develop...

French Colonial Decline (Algeria, Indochina)

No fixed plans here, but I've always been interested in these conflicts.
Eureka also have a great range of figures to work with here.
For Indochina I can probably look to recycle some of my VC as Viet Minh.

African Republics

This is where my whole interest in the Moderns period started, with the Peter Pig AK47 Republic rules. I'm keen to look at this again. For the bigger games I'm still planning on using 6mm, but my 15mm collection is slowly growing and eventually I should be able to play somewhere between platoon and company level. As I'm reading more and learning more, I'm keen to look at some games based on Rhodesia, Mozambique and others. I'm very keen on some 15mm Rhodesian Fireforce games.

Miscellaneous

Some others where I'm interested, but haven't got anything firm in mind:

Arab-Israeli War and Lebanon
Northern Ireland and the troubles 1970s/80s
Malaysian Emergency, Indonesian Confrontation

And that's about it!

Flashpoint Loot

2009-10-08T12:12:00.004+10:00

Since I'm recycling old material that I haven't posted, while Elora is settling in; here's a pic of the other stuff I ordered when I got the Flashpoint Moderns a little while back.

The moderns are the two little bags at top right.
The rest is stuff from the Vietnam range. I went a little crazy and got:

ANZAC Platoon (in the new packaging top left)
ANZAC Weapons Platoon
Main Force VC Platoon
Main Force VC Support Platoon (RCLs and mortars yay!)
Local Force VC Cell (essentially a platoon)
Local Force VC Support (as well as weapons this contains nifty things like pungee pits and tunnel entrances)
and a US LRRP platoon

At around 30 figures per box - I've got a lot of lead to paint!

Warthog - It's not a puma

2009-10-08T11:59:00.003+10:00

A few months ago I bought a diecast A-10 from the Toyworld in the Queen St Mall. At $9.95 I couldn't pass it up. If only I could get Blackhawks for that price!

It's a girl!

2009-10-05T13:30:00.005+10:00

Not a lot going on (on the miniatures front) at the moment, because of the recent arrival of our first-born, "Elora May", on the 15th.

I had vast plans about trying to use a little bit of my leave to get some more painting or terrain done, but it was not to be so.
I addition, my powerbook hard disk up and died so I've lost all previous stuff completely.
New drive now though, so at least I'm up and running again.
Back at work and busy, so I'll leave you with a few delights until I can get into action again...

I've just seen two posts by an amazing 15mm painter over at the Ambush Alley forums.
Check them out!
http://http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2925
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2871

Also while I've been "offline" Rebel minis have released more Sahadeen!

QRF have also expanded their modern British line (no pics yet, unfortunately).

And finally, the local guys at Flashpoint have pics up of stuff coming into the range:

Vietnam Civilians
The watchtower

and also pictures from the recent playtest of the new rules!

Flashpoint Miniatures Insurgents

2009-09-01T07:00:00.004+10:00

As promised, here are some pics of the Flashpoint Insurgent figures.
They are also great quality casts.
Just like the Rangers, they're pewter, rather than the traditional lead-heavy alloys, which makes for a very crisp result.

In the pack you get 12 figures with the following mix:
9 AK-47
2 RPG
1 LMG (probably an RPD?)

Here are some pics of the indivdual poses I received in my pack:

RPGs are at either end, with the RPD second from right.
I'm not sure that this picture does them justice. The light and the angle has washed out a lot of the detail.
The figure second from left that looks like he has a mess for a head is actually quite a detailed model of a man with a beard who is looking up.
The dude who looks bald in the middle is actually wearing a bandanna around his head.
Once I get some paint on them, I think it will be a lot more obvious!

And here is the size comparison pic:

Just like the one for the FP Rangers, we have Peter Pig, Cannon Fodder, and Irregular.

Flashpoint Miniatures Modern Rangers

2009-08-30T23:06:00.004+10:00

Just last week I purchased a pack each of the Rangers and Insurgents from Flashpoint Miniatures.
These guys are actually Seige Works Studios, who have taken over the old Flashpoint Vietnam and Modern ranges and are looking to expand and improve on that base.

I'm always on the lookout for new 15mm ranges that will slot into my existing interest, an this one is a doozy; targetted directly at Mogadishu.

The figures come in a bag of 12

In my pack was
1x Squad Leader m-16
2x m-16 with LAWS on back
2x m-16
2x SAW
4x M-16/m203 (Grenade Launcher under the gun)
1x M60

I had two of each the sculpts below

Plus these 4 sculpts to make up the 12 in total.

These are good looking miniatures. The alloy is nice and hard- No bent barrels here!

Now the question you've all been waiting for; "How do they measure up?"
Here they are against Peter Pig, Cannon Fodder, and Irregular (apologies for the blurring)

You can see that they're larger that the Peter Pig approach, but on a par with Cannon Fodder. The Ireegular figures are larger again, by the look of it.

I'll have to get them up against QRF and Old Glory as well, but I can't get into that cupboard at the moment! (renovations)
More pictures will follow once I have some paint on them as well.

Cork Buildings Update

2009-08-09T16:03:00.004+10:00

15mm Village How-To

2009-07-27T17:28:00.002+10:00

A nice how-to for Mid-East/North-Africa villages is up on the Mad About Gaming blog.
I found it quite informative.

I hope to try the same thing this week using cork tile instead of the foamcore.
Two reasons:

I don't have any foamcore kicking around. But I do have some cork.
I'm hoping that I can get a more dilapidated and "chunky" feel from the cork vs. the smooth lines of cut foamcore.

The plan is that I actually have a game this friday night with a few mates; so I need to be on top of terrain.
If all goes well, there should be some work-in-progress shots over the next few days.

I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! – a preplay review

2009-07-21T15:41:00.000+10:00

As always; many forces are conspiring to prevent me from gaming or blogging. However a friend of mine asked me what I thought of IABSM, as he has a copy of Sharp Practice. I sat down and put together some thoughts on what I think from reading the rules. Obviously these opinions may change when I get it to the table…….

Preliminary Notes

The first conclusion I've come to is that I think these rules are going to be more for my own solo gaming enjoyment. I cannot imagine them getting used in the competitive environment of club or tournament gaming. They require the players to come to a gentlemanly agreement on a number of points, and my personal experience is that many gamers can be anything but "gentlemanly". I can see play in a club scenario with a referee, but you'll need to have a thick hide to deal with the whinging when things don't go people's way.

Those with a fixed-move, IGOUGO background may struggle to come to grips with how to manoeuvre. The thing is that with more play, people will adapt themselves to more realistic manoeuvres on the table, and end up with less requirement for a referee, but it remains to be seen whether your average IGOUGO gamer would stick with it through the learning curve. My personal belief is that IABSM appears to provide a good representation of the friction of battle and the decisions of a company commander.

How does it work?

Units start the game represented as oval card blinds on the table. These can move or spot. Players may also have a number of additional blinds that represent small recce parties. Once spotted these disappear, but until then they can be used to spot enemy units. Players get to move their blinds when their "blinds move" card (one per player) comes up. Spotted units are put down on the table in place of the blind.
The turn ends when the Tea Break card arrives.

Once on the table, the platoon cards are inserted into the deck, and the platoon can move and shoot when its card comes up. Each section of the platoon is given a number of initiative dice based on the quality of the unit (SS and Paras have more dice than Volksturm). These dice are used to move, spot or shoot. Dice can be reserved when the platoon's card comes up to be used before the Tea Break arrives as an interruption. As a result, ambushes are very well catered for (unlike a certain popular WW2 ruleset....).

Combat involves shooting dice being rolled and totalled and compared against a table. The result on the table gives a number of casualties in the target unit and also whether there is any pinned or suppressed. Casualties are separately diced for to determine whether they are dead, wounded, or a near miss.
Close combat involves what (at first glance) appears to be a complex set of modifiers. This is one area where I am not sure how exactly it will work on the table.

As well as the platoon cards, there are also Big Men on the table. These officers and NCOs (not every officer or NCO is a Big Man) have their own cards in the deck and can be used to activate nearby units or take actions when their card comes up.

Final Thoughts

Experienced IABSM players will probably throw their hands up in the air at the above descriptions, but all I’m trying to capture is what I’ve gotten out of my couple of flicks through the rules.

Friction appears to work really well via the use of blinds for movement of units until they are spotted. The card-driven mechanic and dice roll movement further enhances the uncertainty that the commander has to deal with. When pushing your troops forward, you will need to set realistic objectives. As the M&M podcast suggests, this game is no race for the bridge where the player that goes first will always win.

It should be noted that at the end of the rules, a guide is given to three rough scenarios to play through to learn the rules, introducing the infantry first, and then slowly moving to include artillery and armour. The rules also cover sections on Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft, and a section on refereeing and solo gaming.

What am I doing with them?

I'm going to be using these rules for 6mm gaming at the moment because that's my chosen scale for anything greater than a platoon or two. In addition, with B'Maso! I think they have a really role to taking in replacing AK47 (for my 6mm) which I haven't been happy with.

For a couple of platoons or less, I'm going to be using 15mm and Ambush Alley Game's Force-on-Force or Ambush Alley (depending on the scenario and the force composition. These are a great looking set of rules that they've deliberately targeted at World War 2 and Moderns from the start. More on them soon….

Other Gaming Directions
Napoleonics have never appealed to me previously. I think large blocks of men manoeuvring has been dead boring. Also I don't think I understand the period and its challenges well enough. However, the concept of Sharpe Practice being more of a skirmished sized game does sound interesting, particularly with the chance to recreate characters like Flashman and Sharpe. It's definitely on my list now, but I need to complete what I'm trying to do with WW2 and Moderns before I push on to anything else.

I'm also trying to resist getting into colonials (which have always held a great attraction for me). I've always intended to use either the Sword and the Flame (which I would need to purchase) or the Space:1889 Soldier’s Companion (which I have already) for this. The benefit of Soldiers Companion is that it's a quite good set of colonial rules that also has sections to cater for Victorian sci-fi elements like martians, steam tanks and airships. Plus the only outlay is on figures!

More Books

2009-07-13T12:28:00.003+10:00

My pile of books to be read has just gone up by another two.
Yesterday I discovered two items at my local QBD.

The first was House to House by David Bellavia, about the battles in Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
I've had lots of recommendations regarding this book, particularly from Ambush Alley players around the world. And at the princely sum of $8.99 I couldn't walk past it!

Having already "broken the seal" on my wallet, I had a quick hunt around to see what else was available for the right price; I came across "An Ordinary Soldier" by Doug Beattie MC.

This is the story of the Royal Irish actions at Garmsir in Afghanistan, for which the author was awarded the Military Cross. Some have described the operation which was predicted to take 2 days which became two bloody weeks as a "modern day Rorke's Drift". Once again, at $8.99 it was a no-brainer.

I'm having to juggle my reading schedule at the moment to make sure that I'm also covering off a whole heap of baby-related material for the October arrival. Tizzie Hall's "Save Our Sleep" has to be completed before I can turn the first page of these two!

TooFatLardies

2009-07-13T09:45:00.003+10:00

Well...still haven't gotten around to playing any of the TooFatLardies stuff that I received a little while back.

I have been reading and re-reading when time allows and I'm very keen to replay some of my AK-47 Republic games using I Ain't Been Shot Mum with the B'Maso! expansion.

In the interim, go and check out this article by Big Rich on the TooFatLardie Blog.
The Lardies' rules set out to do a lot of things that I want to see in a game.
The concept of friction and the uncertain nature of battle are what I want to see reflected on my table.

This is something that is also reflected in another of my favourite games; Ambush Alley. Whilst AA uses a more traditional approach to movement, the mechanism for "turns" is switched up to an interruption mechanism, and the Fog of War mechanism also injects friction and uncertainty into the game.

Gamers do a lot of reading to research what they are playing.
I'd just rather be looking at historical accounts to help guide my decisions on the table, rather than on spending hours researching the current thoughts on the "Ultimate Unbeatable Army List".

As always, your mileage may vary.......

Still Here!

2009-06-17T15:25:00.001+10:00

I have not had much of a chance to do any updates to the blog for quite some time. Mrs Scannablegoose required some renovation work to be conducted at Castle Goosenstein (aka The Goose’s Nest) so that we have a nursery ready for the arrival of our first gosling (okay the goose thing is becoming a little strained!) in October. The lounge room also required some rework, as the paint was showing its age (peeling) and we needed to do some remodelling so that the air-conditioner would be more efficient in that space.

The major refurbishment works are coming to a close, but I probably still have another couple of weekends fully booked (including a trip to the Baby Expo this weekend).

Once I’ve finished the final touches to the nursery and lounge I’m hoping to get straight into a whole heap of stuff; Ambush Alley Force on Force, my recent acquisition of some Too Fat Lardies content, and the strange tale of cork tiles…

Easter DPM attempt

2009-04-14T19:15:00.002+10:00

I didn't get a lot of painting done over the Easter long weekend.
I took some figures and paint to my in-laws, but found I wasn't in the mood for painting most of the trip.
I did, however, get to try out painting some DPM uniforms on some of my insurgent leaders.
I'm still getting the hang of it, but I'm not dissatisfied with the results. Particularly the trousers on the right.

QRF HMMWVs - M1025

2009-04-08T08:29:00.003+10:00

Here are the bits you get with the M1025 HMMWV from QRF.

Here are the assembled views. I'll apologise for the big blob of BluTack holding the Mk19 on, but I couldn't keep it in place any other way. It should glue on a fair bit nicer. There's a little depression on the roof (if you zoom the photo above) to place the upright on the weapon mount into.

QRF HMMWVs - M998

2009-04-07T08:35:00.005+10:00

I wanted to get some HMMWVs for my US forces for my Day of the Ranger games.
I needed some unarmoured M998s and the M1025 weapon carriers, rather than the newer M1114 up-armoured HMMWVs. QRF has a wide range of Humvee variants, so I ordered an M998 along with M1025s with a .50 cal and the Mk19 AGL.
Here is the M998 (temporarily stuck together with BluTack):

This was the generic troop carrier variant. Here are the bits you get:

Some more shots (click for the full size):

As you can see in the pictures, the model needs a bit of a clean-up; particularly around the windows.

And finally the comparison. I think I might need to base them up to get the height right vs the figures. It would mean less wear and tear as well, I guess.

M1025 pics coming soon...

15mm Sahadeen from Rebel

2009-04-07T08:09:00.002+10:00

Mike at Dropship Horizon has another great preview of upcoming figures from Rebel Minis.

Check them out!

These really look great and would be suitable for any post-apocalyptic scenarios you may want to play. They also would be great for gaming a certain desert planet inhabited by large worms....

Rebel are really turning out a lot of good work.
I think that a lot of my cash will be ending up in their pockets over the next few years!

QRF Land Rover Wolf

2009-04-02T08:00:00.000+10:00

Next up is the other Land Rover I've just received; the Land Rover Defender Wolf from Quick Reaction Force.
Here it is:

And in pieces:

The only issue with this model is the fragility of the windscreen frame attached to the roof. This area will probably need some puttying up and smoothing off as it's a bit rough.
Here it is up against the OG WMIK. I think they're a pretty good match.

And finally, a comparison including the QRF Scorpion:

That's pretty much it for the british vehicles.

Next up will be Humvees from QRF.