Welcome to my blog. I have upwards of 100 projects in various stages of incompletion or total abandonment, so you may well find something of interest if you rummage about a bit. I concentrate on solo air and naval wargaming but other 'skirmishy' things quite often pop up out of nowhere, only to disappear again after something else grabs my attention. I even finish the occasional project now and again!
Saturday 30 April 2022
Baggage Bagged
US Pre-Dreadnoughts
Thursday 28 April 2022
X Craft Command
This is being read at the moment as part of my initial research for a solo game based on the Night Fighter Command and Corvette Command systems. It's very early days yet but I've been lucky enough to be invited on to the Corvette Command rules development team, so I thought it would be only fitting to bring something to the party, so to speak. As this is more relevant to my other blog, you can track my progress or otherwise by popping over there, where I will eventually be working it all out:
Wednesday 27 April 2022
Marching Camp and Baggage Train
I've made a start on a marching camp for my Imperial Roman army and a baggage train for my Parthians today, as it's my day off work, using the Antonine Miniatures castings for both. The baggage train will be a mobile unit so doesn't cost any points, while the camp will add 3 points to the Roman army, either as a two square base on the table edge or as a four square field fortification. I'll get these wrapped up by the end of the week if I can, then move on to some terrain templates using random shaped mdf bases for a more natural effect.
Tuesday 26 April 2022
Corsairs and Cavaliers Continued
I'd sort of forgotten about this set of rules that I'd written based on the Wings at War Desert Spitfires rules, until I got a note from Paul at Tumbling Dice today, saying that he'd like to feature some of his new models for the Football War in a magazine advert and wondered if the rules were play tested enough for publishing. I have play tested the latest version (3.1) a few months ago and it all seemed to go smoothly, although it was a while back and I had to check my notes, so it's a green light from me.
I have also suggested that they should be a free download, as they are not a full blown set of rules like Thud Ridge and MiG Alley but an adaptation of an existing free set, so it seemed more appropriate to go that way. I think it would be a more attractive option as a freebie anyway, especially as the aircraft that you'd need are not exactly mainstream and might not sell so well without a bit of a nudge? I'll wait and see what he thinks but it makes sense to me.
Parthian and Roman Baggage
Now I have a copy of the Strength and Honour rules, its clear that I really need some baggage or encampment elements for both my armies. The Imperial Roman army is easy, as I will use either a marching camp or the wagons and carts baggage pack from Antonine Miniatures. The Parthians are a bit more tricky but I'll probably use a combination of the rider less horses from the wagon laager set together with some scratch built nomadic style tents, if I can make that work? It's just a shame they don't make baggage pack camels!
Sunday 24 April 2022
Parthian Army Parting Shots
French Pre-dreadnought Cruisers
I've organised my 1/2400th scale French pre-dreadnoughts ready for painting next month and realised that I'm a bit light on cruisers, armoured, protected or otherwise, having been reading up on the subject in this rather splendid book. As it stands, I have one Amiral Charner class armoured cruiser and two Friant class protected cruisers but that's all, so I will be adding one more of the former as well as the protected cruisers D'Entrecasteux and Amiral Cecille in order to beef up the fleet. I have a cut off in service date of 1899, so anything later than that is out, but I really would have liked to add the earliest armoured cruiser Dupuy de Lome, if only she was available in the Tumbling Dice range.
Strength and Honour Terrain
Saturday 23 April 2022
Variable Geometry Flight Stands for Knights of the Sky
Strength and Honour Arrives!
Thursday 21 April 2022
Wings at War Khalkhin Gol Terrain Mat
I've been looking for a terrain cloth or mat to use for a Wings at War Khalkhin Gol / Nonomhan project for ages, and I think I may have found what I'm looking for. This mat is PVC, which is cheaper than cloth but not as easy to store or fold. That isn't a big deal as otherwise it's pretty much what I'm after, especially as it has a river bisecting the mat which could be the Nonomham or Khalkha river. I've asked if it can be made as a 6 x 4 mat, as it's only 3 x 3, so I'll wait and see what the supplier comes up with.
Wednesday 20 April 2022
Night Fighter Command
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've been away in Brittany for the holidays so haven't been at the workbench to complete my Strength and Honour Parthians, which I'm hoping to finish when I get back at the weekend in time for the rules to arrive next week. In the meantime, I've been playing some more games of Night Fighter Command, a print and play solo wargame of Beaufighter sorties set in 1941. It's just been published and is available from Wargame Vault, Board Game Geek and the Night Fighter Command FB page as a free download:
Nightfighter Command - Corvette Command | Wargame Vault
I have been a play tester for the rules so had access to them in advance but they can now be yours for the price of a little printing and laminating. Anyway, if you want to know more about it and read some after action reports, then here's a link to my other blog where you can follow the exploits of my second crew, F/Sgt 'Johnnie' Walker DFM, RNZAF, and Sgt 'Taffy' Jones, RAF, as they hunt for Heinkels over the West Country and hopefully, shoot some of them down:
Monday 18 April 2022
1/2400th Spanish Pre-Dreadnoughts
I have now added some 1/2400th Spanish pre-dreadnoughts from Tumbling Dice to my overloaded lead pile of shipping, with a view to doing the Span-Am War, or at least the Battle of Santiago de Cuba at some point in the future using Broadside and Salvo or Tsushima. It's a relatively small fleet, mainly consisting of the four armoured cruisers and a couple of unarmoured cruisers, together with the battleship Pelayo, which didn't take an active role in the war, as well as three torpedo boat destroyers as escorts. Just enough to run a small cruiser action or similar, so a nice little extension to the project.
Sunday 17 April 2022
Barry's Battle of Southwold Bay
Saturday 16 April 2022
Pre-Dreadnought Summer Project INWARD 2022
Friday 15 April 2022
Red Rocketeers Rampant!
The bonus scenario for the Khalkhin Gol supplement, Red Star Rampant, is now finished and is available from the Bag the Hun FB group if you'd like to download a free copy. I haven't play tested it yet but it should work fine, give or take some tweaking of the rocket rules, as they may be too effective or a damp squib, depending on how it work in action. I'll run a playtest as soon as I have the time, then make any adjustments needed in retrospect. Tally Ho! or possibly Banzai!
Thursday 14 April 2022
AK47 Republic Facebook Group?
After years not being on Facebook, I took the plunge in 2021 and signed up, primarily due to the demise of the old Yahoo groups and their widespread migration to the platform, as well as the existence of new groups that I have an interest or involvement in. However, I'm now thinking of setting up a group myself, not for Bag the Hun as that's already up and running but for AK47 Republic, which I have been unable to find as an existing FB group.
This would be for both the 'classic' rules and also the subsequent Reloaded version, with space for photos, game reports, modelling tips and house rules, as well as spin off variants for other settings. It would hopefully complement the RFCM Forum, where much of this sort of thing can be found, but reaching out to a wider audience of AK47 enthusiasts in the way that FB seems to be able to do.
Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think? I'd be really interested to know. Thanks.
Wednesday 13 April 2022
Khalkhin Gol Bonus Scenario: Red Rocketeers
Bath Tubs and Clanky Tanks
Thanks to a tip off from Graham and Neil, I have now ordered a couple of 15mm models from Syborg 3D Printing for the SCW project, both of which are fairly unusual and of limited use but are good additions nonetheless. The first is a Constructora Field improvised armoured car that I can use with my anarchist unit as an optional extra, as an alternative to the more expensive Peter Pig model and alongside some home made, scratch built improvised armoured trucks.
The second is a favourite WW1 tank that I also have in 28mm for my Back of Beyond Bolshevik army, a Schneider CA1, a very small number of which were used by the Republicans at the start of the war in Madrid. I haven't found a cheap 15mm version of one before, so I'm chuffed to add one to the line up, even if it's a 3D printed model which I'm not keen on. I'll use this one as ad hoc armoured support for the anarchists again, if only so I can paint it up with lots of slogans and perhaps a flag?
Tuesday 12 April 2022
Tiznao or Never
Holiday Fun and Games
I'm on holiday at the moment so there's nothing happening on the workbench. Instead, I'm playtesting the latest edition of Night Fighter Command, which is almost ready for publication as a free set of solo air wargaming rules. The first sortie after action report is up on my other blog, with more to follow:
Tea and a Wad Wargaming: Night Fighter Command Update: Sortie 1
I'll also be playing some more solo games, including Corvette Command, the convoy escort precursor to the night fighter system, as well as Bismarck Solitaire, a roll and write game of naval operations in 1941. I've even brought along a couple of favourites of mine, Aquitaine, a Society of Ancients game set in the Hundred Years War that I used to play years ago, along with Battle Ravens, which is great fun.
It's all happening over on the other blog:
Sunday 10 April 2022
Strength and Honour Army Scratch Building Solutions
I was looking for some terrain templates for Strength and Honour today when I found this set of small laser cut templates, which are designed for casualty bases, objectives and the like, or as Warbases calls then 'McGuffin' bases. As they are all relatively small I was wondering if I could use them as warband blobs, glued down to 120mm x 60mm bases then skimmed with green stuff or milliput, the top surface and edge then being scribed to represent figures. I've seen mdf squares being used this way for Republican and Imperial Roman legions, so I think it's worth a try for Dacians or Ancient British. If it doesn't work, I can always use them as they are intended anyway, so it's a win win situation.
Lasercast Starter Armies
I'm looking to create a Dacian or Ancient British army after I finish my Parthians but I'm not very keen on the Antonine Miniatures warband sets, as they don't look very realistic unless you use lots of green stuff to fill in the gaps between the castings. This leaves me with two options, either to scratch build an army which is quite an interesting idea, or to source one from overseas, specifically from Lasercast in Australia, which makes fantastic laser cut ply units that you just pop out and paint. I really like their stuff and it's not too expensive until you factor in postage and the dreaded customs duty, the latter being the thing that kills off the whole idea. I've been stung too many times before by the added duty, which can double the cost of an imported parcel, so it's going to have to be the DIY option I think, using either FIMO or green stuff to create some warband hordes, backed up by some cavalry and chariots from Antonine Miniatures. At least it will be cheap!
Saturday 9 April 2022
AK47 Interwar Banana Republics
I got very bored on the ferry journey yesterday so ended up jotting down some random thoughts about an AK47 based set of rules for interwar Banana Republic games. The inspiration for this came from my long forgotten ideas for an AK47 German Revolution mash up, which got as far as two army lists for the Freikorps and Spartakists that are available on the RFCM forum, if you are interested. That and some background reading that I've done on the Peru-Ecuador war of 1941, the Chaco War of 1932-35 and the various Central American 'Banana Wars' of the 1920's and 1930's, amongst other vaguely relevant things.
The idea is simply to adapt the rules as they stand to an 'imaginations' interwar setting, with new army lists and flow charts to include a right wing Dictatorship, a Nationalist Government, a left wing Peasants and Workers movement and possibly an Interventionist army (US Marines anyone?), all based on the existing stuff in the AK47 rules but with a South American twist. The other changes would mainly involve adapting the technology deployed, for example, swapping RPG's for AT rifles, obsolete WW1 tanks for 'old' tanks, adding improvised armoured cars, mounted troops and so on.
These changes wouldn't be extensive but the army lists and flow charts would require quite a bit of rewriting to add some 'banana republic' flavour to the game, with some new rules also added for special events, artillery bombardment, cavalry and even trains. The armies would be fun to assemble using Peter Pig figures of course, with plenty to choose from in the WW1, WW2, Spanish Civil War and Mexican Revolution ranges, with suitable vehicles also available from QRF and Zvezda, not to mention the 3D printing option. It would also work well in 10mm, as there are lots of useful things in the Pendraken range.
I think this would be lots of fun but it's only an idea at this stage and I have no plans to go beyond some basic rules scribbling at the moment.
Friday 8 April 2022
More Minairons Motors
I was so pleased with the Minairons Bilbao armoured cars that I ordered a Hispano Suiza MC-36 from the same trader, although it cost me quite a bit. This is a lovely model too, smoothly cast in resin with no bubbles or seams at all, plus an excellent sheet of decals. There were only a handful of these and I'll be using mine for the Nationalists, possibly with a T-26 turret. Very nice.