Over the next few days I'm going to be painting the 1/300th scale 3D printed aircraft for the Lard Day in January, including five Sopwith Camels and five Albatros DVa scouts. I'm starting with the Camels as they are a more straightforward paint job and will enable me to work out the best way to go about painting the resin prints. I've painted plenty of 1/300th aircraft before, so it shouldn't be too tricky, even if I'm used to metal models rather than resin ones.
The last four bases of bowmen have been glued together, based and undercoated today, so to all intents and purposes the Death in the Dark Continent Nyamwezi (Generic Villagers) army is now complete and ready for painting. I'm still making up my mind about which combination of shades to paint the skin tones in but that decision is going to wait a little longer, as I'm now diverting my attention to some 1/300th scale WW1 aircraft for the Lard Day game in January.
The weather was really good yesterday, which was a bit of a change and a good reason to get outdoors. As we are down in South Devon we took a trip to Dartmouth, not realising it was jam packed with tourists for a food festival. To get away from the crowds we walked over to Dartmouth Castle, which was only a mile away, taking time to enjoy the fine weather. The castle site is actually in two sections, one a Victorian coastal battery and the other a late medieval, Tudor and Civil War era defensive tower. These are both very well preserved and presented, so well worth a visit.
It was chucking down with rain and very windy yesterday, which meant visiting a couple of historical sites was a good idea. A trip to the local National Trust Georgian pile meant a chance to browse the second hand bookshop, where I found these three books in immaculate condition. I was expecting to pay at least twenty quid just for the Friedman but the whole lot was only eight quid... bargain!
We're down in South Devon for a long weekend and today visited Salcombe which, despite the imminent arrival of Storm Austen, was actually quite sunny. After some local advice we took a walk along the coast road and passed the remains of the Civil War fortifications covering the entrance to the estuary. There's not a lot left after the fort was sleighted and exposed to the elements for four hundred years but it's still pretty impressive.
In the past I've used Foundry Bay Brown Shade and Bay Brown for African skin, which I think gives a really good effect and is easy to use as a basecoat and highlight layer. Unfortunately, my very old pots of paint are now on their last legs, so I've been looking for an alternative. A trio of Foundry paints would put me back sixteen quid including postage, which means other options might be better value. I ordered some Vallejo Game Colour paints that are supposed to be equivalent but they are not quite right, so I'm now thinking of trying one of the Army Painter sets. The front runner is the set based on Obsidian Skin, which is the closest to Bay Brown by the looks of it, although you can never tell just from the photo....worth a try out anyway and a better bang for your buck!
Here's the army I have based up and will be painting next month for Death in the Dark Continent, based on List 1: Generic Villagers.
1. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
2. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
3. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
4. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30
5. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30
6. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16
7. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16
8. Arab nobles, Skirmishers,Elite,Untrained with breechloaders (4 bases) @ 48.
9. Swahili Wangwana, Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (4 bases) @ 20.
Stratagem: Witchdoctor @ 50 points
Total Points: 298
It's a bit light on close combat capability but does have some decent short range firepower and should be useful when there's plenty of cover to flit in and out of. If it turns out to be a bit fragile, I can replace the last two units with warriors or just swap out the Arab Noble skirmishers for their soldier equivalent.
.... especially to all my Royal Naval friends and relatives and, of course, the French side of the family 😜
I've made some tweaks to the rules for the latest scenario featuring the Brisfit and RE8. I would be interested in any feedback you might have.
1. Observer Lewis guns fire in Left, Right and Rear arcs, not just Rear. This brings it into line with the German aircraft in the data lists.
2.Twin Lewis gun mounting has a FF of 4 instead of 3 (equivalent to a scout with 2 forwards firing guns)
3. Ammo is expended in exactly the same way as if a single gun i.e. treat twin guns as equal firing bursts from both drums and don't track each drum separately.
4. When reloading or unjamming, both drums are reloaded or a gun unjammed at the same time. No single weapon firing or unjamming.
5. A -1 penalty on the reload / unjam roll as two drums are more work than one.
6. Six spare drums carried giving three reloads per game (the Brisfits actually had a seven drum rack, so seems reasonable..other aircraft might only have four drums / two reloads)
All this is designed to avoid book keeping and speed up the game.
Incidentally, the Aussie Brisfit twin mounts were a game changer in Palestine and twin mounts were widely adopted by the RAF in 1918, so a FF of 4 seems justified, I think.
Feedback very much appreciated 👍🏻
Incidentally...some quick googling and a bit of an AI search reveals that RE8 observers could fire to the side quite easily:
'While they couldn't fire straight ahead over the wing in standard level flight, observers could fire broadly to the front-left or front-right (obliquely) past the wingtips if an enemy aircraft pulled up alongside them'.
An observer in a Brisfit, however...
'...could elevate the Lewis gun high enough to shoot forward over the upper wing, nearly horizontally. The Scarff ring allowed the observer to manually swing and rotate the machine gun a full 360 degrees, covering the entire rear hemisphere as well as wide lateral (sideways) and elevated angles'.
