It's That Little Souvenir Of A Terrible Year

 I thought I might record what I managed on the hobby front in the year of Covid. I managed to make it to what was possibly the last shows of 2020 in the UK, namely WMMS and Hammerhead, I can't remember how many games Dave and myself managed between lockdown and tiers, Matt Crump kindly arranged three games via Zoom and I played a few solo games along way.

Figure wise I painted 297 figures, I also assembled and painted 14 1/72nd AFVs and a Russian PE2 bomber.

Meanwhile on the terrain front I made an hermitage with outbuilding from Charlie Foxtrot and Warbases respectively for my Spanish Civil Wars collections and re-painted an EBay purchase of a railway station for my fictional town of Rahnstadt, other terrain items included barb wire sections and fences for my 20mm WWII collection and three Pegasus Models Russian izbas. For the 28mm collections I also painted a culvert and fences from Sabotag3d and a Warlord bunker kindly given to me by Norm.

A little montage from the year.

 

, 

The way ahead, well who knows? No face to face games or shows for the foreseeable future thats for sure, in the meantime its a case of dig in, hunker down and KBO.

TTFN

Merry Christmas Everybody

 

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Buon Natale

Feliz Navidad

счастливого Рождества

God Jul

 Vrolijk Kerstfeest

Bunker Built

 I finished off the bunker over the weekend.

The sandbags are from Ironclad Miniatures, the jerry can and wrapped tarp are from Rubicon, the stack are a pile of ammo boxes from the bits box, origin unknown, covered with strong serviette coated with PVA.

The bunker was painted with Anita's acrylic craft paint, Grey. The disruptive paint with Vallejo Green Olive then washed with GW Nuln Oil and drybrushed with both colours lightened up with Vallejo Light Flesh and Sunny Skintone respectively. Streaking was added using AK Interactive weathering pencils.

Hope to play the next game in my mini Chain of Command campaign later in the week, "stuff" permitting.

Keep safe and KBO

TTFN

More Solo Shenanigans

 With no sign of lockdown (being in Tier 3 is as good as) ending any time soon it was time to run out another solo game, I have decided to run a little mini campaign with my 28mm World War British and Germans using Chain of Command and the relevant bits from the At The Sharp End campaign guide.

First up scenario one in the rule book, force morale was high for both sides British 11, Germans 10. The Germans aggressive patrol phase saw the British on the back foot from the start.

The German table edge was at the top, their patrol markers starting between the culvert and the two roads as you look at the photo, the British started bottom left.

Of course the wheat will stop the bullets Hans

Come on lads the wheat will cover us

Maybe not.

If we can just work around their flank.

They will not move us from here now.

We are a bit hemmed in here Corp.

The failed flanking move section examine their shock

Although the British force morale was still high at eight to oust the Germans would mean losing too many men with one section already hors de combat the British withdrew leaving the Germans in control of the field.

The British core platoon are four men down now with three missing until scenario three. The Germans core platoon are two men down with one man missing until scenario three.

The British CO's opinion is down to -1 whilst the men's with four men lost and five wounded is down to -3 this will reduce their force morale result by one for the next scenario.

The German CO's opinion is +1 has is the men's this has no immediate effect on their force morale going into scenario two.

To be continued............ 

Until next time keep safe and KBO.

TTFN

Bunker Building

 So I have set to to add some texture to the top of bunker ready for adding the ground work

I added the tree branch as I thought it would make a nifty, if a tad exposed LMG position

I dry assembled the bunker walls to draw round for an MDF base.

Rather than fill the gap where the access to the flak position was I changed it to an air vent.

The bars are cut from a wire spear, the mesh behind, yes a bit anal I know, is car body filler mesh. I got mine from Halfords longer ago than I care to remember, I assume it is still available.

I have this Blitzkrieg Miniatures PAK40, I have ordered up the Empress one to replace it, so I will detach the gun and shield from it to put in the bunker.

Right now to cut out the MDF and start the build.

Till next time keep safe and KBO.

TTFN

Bunker Busting

 Recently Norm, kindly sent me several unwanted items, one of these being the Warlord/Italeri Anti-Tank/Flak bunker, it is kindness like this that lifts ones spirits in these troubled times.

Inspired by this on Facebook, typical of FB I am unable to find the post now to credit the author. Edit. Found it, made by Keith Hendron.

I set to with the razor and junior hacksaw and Plasticard

to be continued...............

Keep safe and KBO

TTFN

Culvert Capers

You may recall that a while ago I purchased these https://www.sabotag3d.com/product-page/20mm-culvert-set-2-pieces 

As a break from figure painting I decided to get them painted up, to make them look the the part I made some additions using Plasticard, on the basis that it would not warp, I also took the precaution of Blue Tacking them down while working on them too. I built the exit from the culvert pieces up with Milliput and coated it and the lower part with railway ballast.

The ground work was then painted with DecoArt Country Maple, washed with GW Seraphim Sepia and dry brushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. The water was painted Vallejo Dark Sea Blue (all wargames water is blue, its the law) and then gloss varnished. Flock and foliage added to taste.

I may well make some more sections in due course for better table coverage, pictures below in situ on my Geek Villain Sicily mat.

Until next time keep safe and KBO.

TTFN

More Bolt Action Solo

 Following the excellent game via Zoom with Matt and the arrival of another mat from Geek Villain an autumn one this time I was inspired to play another solo game using Bolt Action rules this time.

I used the solo play cards from the Bolt Action Facebook group again and again if the orders card was to way out given the tactical situation I made a judgement on what the most likely course of action that would be taken.

My morale house rules would be in play and also a random event dice would be added to the dice bag on a roll of 4 - 6 on a D6. The aim was for the British to clear the town outskirts, the game would last the usual six turns with a dice throw of 4 - 6 determining a seventh turn.

I randomly diced for the placement of the Germans who would deploy in the buildings and count as hidden the British would enter along their base line on the draw of their order dice except the Cromwell which would arrive on turn three with a dice roll deciding on which road it would enter on. They would also have preliminary bombardment whilst the Germans would get a Forward Artillery Observer, any smoke fired from the British 2" mortar if not on target the landing of the round would placed using scatter dice, none of this the opponent places it nonsense.

The Germans got off lightly with the preliminary bombardment as you can see in the middle two pictures.

The British build up to the attack was steady up and till turn four when the attack intensified, no random event dice was added for those turns. The German fire from the buildings was not having the desired effect so two squads broke cover moving into closer range, the German FAO finally got the barrage in pinning the centre attacking sections, the flank section meanwhile was able to get around attacking the German squad in close combat causing them to retreat.

Luck for the British in turn five with a random event caused confusion in the German ranks putting the squad in the building down.

The random event in turn six went the Germans way giving them an extra activation, in desperation the squad on the left flank charged the British who had taken up position in the forward building the fight was close but the Germans were forced to retreat, to add insult to injury the Cromwell destroyed the PAK 40 and crew and the victorious flanking section put paid to the panzerschrek team.

even without a turn seven it looked all in for the Germans.

A seventh turn was rolled and put the final nail in the German coffin.

Until next time keep safe and KBO

TTFN