Disorder Markers for DITDC

Foundry shield (left) Zulu shield (right)

I thought I'd pulled off a bit of a blinder the other day when I found a seller on eBay with some supposedly 28mm Zulu style shields for sale. These would be great to kit out some Tuta allied spearmen I concluded, so I sent off for a couple of packs. When they arrived, however, they turned out to be more like 15mm or 18mm, so I was a bit miffed to say the least. A quick rethink ensued and I realised they would make excellent disorder markers for Death in the Dark Continent instead! A bit of a result and crisis duly averted, if I say so myself.

Mid War Japanese Battle Pack Bargain

 

As always, eBay came up trumps last week with a Davco Japanese Battle Group pack for a little over twenty quid. Although I have the Nagato, Fuso and Mogami models already, the other ships will slot in well with my early war fleet, while the surplus ones can be saved for a rainy day. Splendid!

Early War Royal Navy On the Slips

 

I've now started on the final stage of my early war Norwegian Campaign focussed naval project, with the destroyers, heavy and light cruisers, extra battleships and a single carrier now on the painting table. These are not all for Norwegian scenarios but most of the ships were involved, the obvious odd one out being HMS Eagle. I'm planning to chip away at these over the next couple of weeks, with a deadline of mid February for the project to be wrapped up 

Early War Capital Ships Finished

 

DITDC Nyamwezi Army List

I am going to repurpose the Foundry figures I based up for In the Heart of Africa as a Nyamwezi army for Death in the Dark Continent. This army is based on the generic villager list and was originally intended to be an Nkonde army but, after a suggestion from a fellow Africa enthusiast, it will now be a Nyamwezi force, even though the figures aren't quite right for the job. Here's what I'm thinking of:

3 units of spearman skirmishers (6 bases per unit) @ 4 points /  24 x 3 = 72

2 units of archer skirmishers (6 bases per unit) @ 4 points / 24 x 2 = 48

2 units of musketeers (6 bases per unit) @ 5 points / 30 x 2 = 60

1 unit of warriors (6 bases per unit) @ 6 points /  36 x 1 = 36

or

1 unit of allied Swahili 'Wangwana' musket armed skirmishers  (4 bases per unit) @ 5 points  / 20 x 1 = 20

Total = 216 or 200 points

Saurian Safari Club Game Competiton Rules

 

I spent an hour or so this afternoon rewriting the original player briefing sheet for the Saurian Safari club game, with a few tweaks to make it more suitable for individual or pairs of hunters rather than teams. I'm happy with the end result which should make for an enjoyable game. I've also reworked the record sheet for the player characters to tidy it up and add some additional options. The plastic dinosaurs have also been located in the loft, so it's just a matter of working out a method for dinosaur placement and hidden movement using the hexon terrain tiles instead of a simple grass mat.

Saurian Safari Reboot

       

I thought it might be fun to reboot Saurian Safari at the club this year, having not run a game for many years, the last one being in 2014. This used to be a club favourite and we even turned it into an award winning show participation game, with the twist being pirates vs dinosaurs. I've got the rules somewhere and no shortage of plastic dinosaurs to go on the rampage, so have advertised a game in a few weeks for both old and new players to take part. I just have to remember how to run it!

Blood Red Skies Yak-1 Bundle

After the Blood Red Skies game the other day I thought I'd get a set of aircraft to paint up, just for fun. As usual eBay turned up trumps with a really good bundle of Soviet Yak-1 fighters, an ace pack, a set of Soviet dice and some decals, all for twenty quid plus reasonable postage. Even if I don't play the game again, I can enjoy painting up the models and have the dice to use for Arctic Eagles or even my Back of Beyond Bolsheviks. Tally Ho!

DITDC Tuta Army List

The top up figures for my Death in the Dark Continent Tuta army arrived today, so after sorting them into units I have come up with this 200 point army list, allowing me to add more bases as and when I want to expand it to 300 points. I have the option of adding a second senior regiment, for example, which will get me quite a long way toward 250 points in one fell swoop.

Ag 1. / Tribal

1 x Senior Regiment: Elite Warriors (4 bases / 8 points) = 32 

4 x Junior Regiment: Warriors (4 bases / 6 points) 24 x 4 = 96

2 x Assimilated Tribesmen: Raw Warriors (8 bases / 4 points) 32 x 2 = 64

1 x Tuta women: Skirmishers (4 bases / 4 points) = 16 

Total (32 + 96 + 64 + 16) = 208

Technical Gun Truck

 

This month's competition over on the AK47 Facebook Group, is the ever popular 'build a technical' challenge, involving the conversion of a humble diecast lorry or toy truck into a war-winning chocolate teapot of mobile firepower. I have a half-finished model that I started on many years ago in the bits box, so I may well have a crack at getting it finished over the weekend. It's based on a 1/100th scale Chinese diecast toy, with a flatbed added from plastic card and crew, guns and stowage bits from Peter Pig. A bit of a fiddle to paint but it shouldn't take too long, especially as I've already started!

Tally Ho!

 

It was Blood Red Skies at the club this evening, which hadn't played before, with the Luftwaffe coming out very much on top after a frenetic, swirling dogfight. I was flying the Bf-110 Zerstorer, which were very effective once I worked out what I was doing. It's a very abstract game but good fun, with some intuitive mechanisms that make it quick to play and easy to pick up after a few turns. I enjoyed it a lot, especially as a change from the more historical but complex Bag the Hun games I usually play. Thanks to Mike for being an excellent umpire and a good sport.

Blood Red Skies Club Game

             

I was kindly offered a place on a Blood Red Skies game at the club this week, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I'm not a big fan of these prepackaged systems but I'm happy to try anything if it's one brain cell and idiot proof. It will be a Battle of Britain game so it will be interesting to see how well the rules reflect the historical setting, or wether the they are more gamey, if you know what I mean? Either way it should be fun!

Making Waves

             

Another busy day but with some progress made on the Norwegian Campaign warships. I've added the bow waves to the painted models using texture paste and I'm now waiting for it to dry before I can add some white highlights and the wakes. In the meantime, I thought I'd prepare some more Davco capital ships to add alongside the cruisers and destroyers, so I now have HMS Eagle, HMS Ramillies, HMS Resolution, HMS Barham and HMS Nelson for the Home Fleet (except for Eagle which was in the Med)

Watuta

I have made up my mind about the Death in the Dark Continent army I'm planning to paint this year, picking the Tuta as my first army, a branch of the Ngoni who occupied an area around Lake Tanganyika. I already had a few packs of these Copplestone Watuta warrior figures and have topped them up with some elite Ngoni to create the core units, with three or four bases each. To this I will add some units of raw warriors and skirmishers from the Foundry figures I gave already assembled. It's a really good army with lots of potential enemies including Arab Slavers, expeditions, Zanzibaris, British, Germans and generic villagers. You can also use them as allies for Ruga Rugs, so lots of options. 

Norwegian Campaign Capital Ship Basing Update

Despite the garage being colder than a yeti's armpit today, I've been cracking on with the bases for the capital ships to the point at which they just need the bow waves and wakes added, followed by the name labels. This should be sorted fairly quickly, so I've now shifted focus to the cruisers and destroyers, which have been undercoated in primer then base coated with Vallejo London Grey. There will be no fancy camouflage patterns on any of these as they are in early war all over grey, so painting should also be fairly swift, assuming it warms up a bit?

Happy Birthday To Me

It was my birthday yesterday and I had a really nice day, even though I had to go to work, made even better by having an unexpected day off today. I was very fortunate to receive some amazing presents from my family too, which really knocked me out! As you can see, a lot of these were wargaming related including the Perry Miniatures ACW Battle in a Box, which may well change my 28mm project focus this year as a result. I also got an AK wet palette and Citadel water pot to help me with my painting, together with some storage boxes for the workbench. Fantastic. My lovely daughter even bought me an I Pad (!) which I didn't expect and was extremely generous...what a star! 

Norwegian Campaign Capital Ship Basing

           

It's flipping freezing in the garage where my workbench is located, so painting has been postponed for a few days, not helped by being really busy with work and weekend family things. The bases for the capital ships have now been textured and undercoated, ready for painting at the end of the week, when I have an unexpected day off. I'm hoping to finish this part of the Norwegian Campaign project over the weekend, ready to start in the cruisers and destroyers.

Bag the Hun Malta 1941 Club Game