There are some excellent magazines published in France including these new series that have replaced the defunct magazines previously published by Caractere. They're very much in the same style as Los! or Aerojournal, with an interesting mix of contents, some excellent art work and fascinating text. I'm really looking forward to reading the Coastal Command article and P-47 article, both of which will be great as source material for Bag the Hun.
A long ferry crossing today so a cheeky download for 99p to pass the time on the journey over to France. I'm a big fan of campaigns and have run several at the local club over the years. I've never run a map based campaign, however, and really fancy having a go at a solo effort, perhaps for the One Hour Wargames Hundred Years War project or perhaps the dormant 2mm English Civil War project that I fiddled about with a couple of years ago?
I've quickly bashed together some Torpedoes and Tides measuring sticks and blinds for the holidays, using some spare bases, sticky labels and wooden dowel from the local craft shop. In the longer term I'll replace these with something more sophisticated but they'll be good for the first few games, while I get to learn the rules. I'm thinking of asking Warbases if they could make a set of markers, range rulers and turning templates in acrylic but will need to try out the rules first to see what is required, I'll also have to ask the author first, of course, but it would be nifty to have a set of markers ready to go!
Some mid to late war reinforcements for the Kriegsmarine over the last couple of days. These are all the old Skytrex castings, now available from Heroics and Ros, but perhaps a little long in the tooth. They're nice models nonetheless and paint up well once cleaned up and undercoated. I've run out of grey primer so these are in white primer, which I actually prefer as it shows up all the bits you miss when you assemble the buggers! As you can see, there are two Raumboote, four S-100 S-Boote with armoured 'kapotte' and two of the ubiquitous but very versatile M-class minesweeper escorts. Very handy!
http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2017/01/schnellboote-after-action-report.html
...good fun!
A bit rushed today but here's the second base for the 2mm Anglo-Breton army, consisting of Men at Arms on foot. I went for a quick splash and dash approach with these but they still came out looking okay I think. Nothing flashy, but they'll do the job. I only have a few days left before I'm away on holiday but I'll aim to get another two or three if these bases finished if I can before we head off to France.
I'm on holiday next week so will have some down time to spend on reading, amongst other things. This is one of the few books on coastal warfare that I haven't yet read so it will be top of the reading list for next week. I have a few more that I'm going to re-read in advance of starting the Torpedoes and Tides project for the summer. I'm also planning on a few basic solo games over the holidays, to try out the rules and get a hang of things like blinds, spotting, movement and firing, ready to upscale to some historical scenarios and a solo campaign in a few months time.
I was looking for information about Hunt class destroyer escorts this morning, when I bumped into this intelligence report from 1943, which was based on interrogation of the survivors of S-71 after she was rammed and sunk by HMS Garth. It's much more than an account of the action though, with copious detail of the 6th S-Boote flotilla and Kriegsmarine coastal warfare tactics in general. It's a gold mine for anyone interested in historical scenarios and also very useful for campaign background material. You can find scans and transcripts of the whole document here:
http://www.lowestofthistory.com/book/mod_report_garth_0.html
With the Anglo-Breton army for the early Hundred Years War well underway, it's now time to think about basing up the opposition, which will be a Franco-Breton army for the Breton War of Succession. I already have a base of mounted men at arms and will add a second base to fill out the ranks of the French nobility, although they are more likely to be on foot after the disaster at Crecy.
This leaves me with the foot men at arms, which will be the bulk of the army and so will take up three or four bases, which I'll need for some of the early battles. As well as this, I'll put together a couple of bases of crossbowmen for missile support and two or three bases of spearmen to bulk out the army. I was also thinking of a base of 'skirmishers' representing bidowers, bidets or similar but I think I'll save those for later.
The bases have now been completed on the 2mm Hundred Years War Anglo-Breton army, so that they match the test base of longbowmen that I painted last week. I now have to block in the figures with matt black before I can start painting them. The plan is to do them all in one go rather than one base at a time, which will be quite laborious but much more efficient. I'm quite looking forward to painting the men at arms, both mounted and on foot, as they'll add a splash of colour to the force.
