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.
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| Cruel Seas S-100 and S-38b 1/300th Scale |
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| Ex-Skytrex CF304 S-38 1/600th Scale |
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| Vosper MTB flotilla c1942. |
Some good news for the Torpedoes and Tides project today, after I asked if the old Skytrex Vosper 72'6" MTB CF02 model was available, not having been able to find it on the Heroics and Ros web shop. It turns out that it had been placed in the aircraft section rather than the naval bit by mistake, so is actually still in production and can be purchased. I was worried that it had been deleted, perhaps due to worn out molds or the master going missing, but I can order some to kit out the 23rd MTB flotilla for the Free French, rather than repainting and labelling the ones I already have. Excellent!
It's been a busy start. to the week but I've made a start on the bases of the 2mm Anglo Breton army for my One Hour Wargame HYW project. These turned out better than the test base I painted last week, mainly due to a bit more PVA when I was adding the basing sand, as well as letting them dry out properly after the undercoat and basecoat were applied. Next up will be the grass shades, with a bit of stippling, dry brushing and ink washing to complete the base painting. I might also start on basing up the Franco-Breton army now that the extra Antonine Miniatures bits have arrived from Warbases.
A few years ago I was having a crack at Cruel Seas, with a focus on the 23rd MTB flotilla in and around the Channel Islands c1943-44. However, having played a few games of Cruel Seas I decided it wasn't for me, partly due to the scale (too big) but mainly down to the rules themselves (too silly in a 'gamey' way). I shelved the models I had started on and decided to drop the project, apart from completing my S-boote flotilla, at least until a decent alternative set of rules turned up.
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| Cruel Seas Flotilla |
Now it's looking like a viable project again, this time in 1/600th scale using Torpedoes and Tides. The 23rd Flotilla was equipped eight Vosper 72'6" boats, which unfortunately are no longer available from Heroics and Ros, but I do have six already painted and ready to use, give or take a tart up, re-base and re-label. This means I can set up some historical scenarios and also, potentially, a solo campaign using the system in the rules and based on actions around the Channel Islands.
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| Skytrex 1/600th Vosper 72'6" MTB's |
I'll need to sort out some Kriegsmarine coastal forces, as my stuff is mainly early war, but I have quite a lot already assembled and ready for painting which will speed things up a lot. The opposition was primarily the 5th S-Boote flotilla based in Cherbourg and small, heavily escorted convoys, with the focus on night actions in and around the treacherous waters of the Minquiers. I already have a good source of historical information for these ops, so can pull something together fairly easily.
https://www.polejeanmoulin.com/resources/-THE-FREE-FRENCH-IN-KINGSWEAR.pdf
Good stuff!
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| V & W class and Flower class |
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| Colliers and Tramp Steamers |
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| The Convoy |
A busy afternoon gluing together and adding wire masts to four additional 1/600th scale merchant vessels in order to expand my coastal convoy to realistic proportions. Two of the new models have resin hulls rather than metal, making construction quicker but the wire masts and booms were still a pain in the arse to glue together, replacing the flimsy metal castings for durability.
I also assembled a V and W class escort destroyer in WAIR configuration and tarted up a second hand model of a Flower Class corvette, which I acquired ready built from eBay but which needed some remedial work to correct some errors and replace a few broken parts. I've run out of grey primer so both of the escorts have a white primer coat, which I actually quite like the look of.
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| East Coast convoy shipping already assembled |
A few years ago I assembled a selection of 1/600th scale Skytrex, now Heroics and Ros, merchant shipping for East Coast convoy duties c1939 - 1943. This was an eclectic mix of tramp steamers, colliers, coasters and barges, with a big tanker to round it off. It isn't really enough for a proper convoy game so I'm going to build four or five more models, mainly duplicates but with some individual variations in layout and deck features, so that I have a proper convoy of shipping. The plan will be to use these with Torpedoes and Tides as British merchants for the East Coast and English Channel routes, with some German shipping to follow on later. In the summer I'm also hoping to run a solo campaign set in the early war and featuring a fictional MGB or E Boat flotilla.
In the One Hour Wargames medieval rules, archers get a +2 bonus for shooting but a -2 penalty in combat, reflecting their firepower but also their vulnerability. In order to factor in the use of defensive stakes and pavises in the Hundred Years War, I've decided to add a couple of rule tweaks.
Longbows
Longbow units may deploy defensive stakes but must be stationary and not shoot for one turn to do so. This will cancel out the -2 penalty in combat but only against mounted opponents. After they are deployed, the unit may not 'up sticks' and carry them off to redeploy somewhere else
Crossbows
Crossbow units may deploy pavises but will also have to be stationary to do so and may not shoot in the process of deployment. This will count as cover, having any hits, but only against missile fire. Unlike longbow units, the pavises may be 'unstuck' and carried away but the unit will have to be stationary and not shoot for an entire turn to do so.
I think this will work without unbalancing the system but also accurately reflect how things were done in the Hundred Years War. I'm also going to modify the range of missile weapons, with longbows shooting out to 12 inches and crossbow range reduced to 9 inches, which seems a bit more realistic.
I've been looking for a suitable historical scenario to try out the One Hour Wargame medieval rules using my 2mm Hundred Years War armies. This small battle was fought very near to my French in laws, who live ten minutes down the road, so it's an obvious choice. In fact, I've actually driven right through it, inbetween the lines of the French and English armies, without actually realising it was there!
The forces on both sides were limited to a few thousand, with dismounted men at arms and longbows for the Anglo-Breton defenders, while the Franco-Breton force consisted of men at arms on foot, backed up by mounted men at arms on the left flank. Its likely that the French also fielded spearmen to back up the men at arms, as the army outnumbered the defenders three to one.
I'm considering a four unit army for the Anglo-Breton contingent, consisting of two men at arms and two longbow units, with a six unit army for the Franco-Bretons, probably consisting of three men at arms on foot, two spear units and one mounted men at arms. This may change but I think will reflect the disparity in numbers on the two sides and still give the Anglo-Bretons a fighting chance.
The English are currently on the workbench and I have already glued together three units for the French, so I'm just waiting for a resupply of Antonine Miniatures to get that sorted. The terrain will be a quick fix using my Hexon tiles but I'll leave the town of Mauron itself off the set up to avoid having to model it, especially as it didn't actually play a role in the battle.
You can read about the background to this clash and the battle itself here:
https://www.britishbattles.com/one-hundred-years-war/battle-of-mauron/
I'm looking forward to trying out the newly published Torpedoes and Tides coastal warfare rules soon, using my old 1/600th scale models that have been gathering dust for years. These are a mix of the Skytrex, now Heroics and Ros, and Tumbling Dice range, with some merchant shipping set aside for painting too. They need rebasing and a bit of tidying up, perhaps adding some masts from brass wire, but otherwise they're good to go. It's a bit of a diversion from my medieval focus but why not?
A bit of trial and error base painting this evening, using a range of paint shades and washes that I've used before on my 2mm ECW units. I'm not completely happy with the end result but it's not too bad and will do the trick, at least for this project. The next step is to block in the figures in matt black as a basecoat for painting at the weekend.
This new set of rules for coastal warfare, based on the Galleys and Galleons system, is now available on Wargame Vault. I've been following the play testing for this for a while on The Stronghold Rebuilt blog and it looks really good. I'm going to grab a copy, print it out and see if I can dust off my old 1/600th scale early war coastal forces for a few try out games over the holidays in a couple of weeks. You can read more about the rules and how they work here:
https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2025/08/06/designing-torpedoes-tides/
Fiddling about with a test base for the 2mm early HYW Anglo-Breton Army to see how I can achieve a realistic yet straightforward result. The base was given a coat of fine sand then spray undercoated with Halfords Ultra Matt Camo Brown. After this I wet brushed some very cheap and very old Earth Brown acrylic artist paint, as a basecoat, followed by a heavy dry brush in Vallejo USA Tan Earth.
The question now is do I use fine flock to cover the whole base, leaving a few earthy patches, or do I use another wet brush / dry brush approach for the grass? In the past I've just used flock patches for my Strength and Honour bases but they were for Parthia and similar arid locations, so probably not a good option, considering the HYW project will focus on an often soggy Brittany.
I'm going to try a three stage wet brush and dry brush in Vallejo green colours, which I've tried out on my 2mm ECW units before, with a final wash of Citadel Athonian Camo Shade for definition. If this looks okay, I will then add a few patches of light grass flock to represent bushes, brambles and other foliage, just to give the whole thing a more organic look.
If it looks rubbish...I'll have to try Plan B!
A slight change of plan for the next couple of weeks, as I put the Lion Rampant / Ecorcheurs army to one side and paint up this lot. Here we have an early Hundred Years War or War of Breton Succession army, using the Antonine Miniatures Strength and Honour 2mm range.
At the front there's a single unit of mounted men at arms, with two dismounted men at arms units to the immediate left. At the back left are two units of spearmen, Welsh or otherwise, while on the right are four units of longbowmen in wedge formation.
I'd add another unit of dismounted men at arms but I've run out of the bits I need for that, with an order placed today for some additional pieces to use for the French - Breton side. I've already put together a base of mounted knights for them but need more pieces to do the crossbows, spearmen and so on.
The rules for this are a bit sketchy to say the least, but I'll start off with Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, albeit tweaked to add a bit more detail or even mashed together with his Ancient and Medieval rules? I might even write my own rules, who knows? The plan is to use my neglected collection of Hexon terrain as a quick fix, so that I can try out the rules for some solo wargaming as soon as possible.
I've completed most of the blocking in on the Perry Miniatures longbowmen, with just the leather bits, arrow sheafs and longbows to do. They look a bit odd in terms of colours but this is the basecoat and will be followed by one or two lighter shades, using my very old but still serviceable Foundry triad pots. I'm hoping things will speed up a bit after the blocking in is completed, but I'm a very slow painter, especially in 28mm having not painted anything this big for years!
In the One Hour Wargames rules, there are four unit types including Knights, Men at Arms, Archers and Levy. The Archers are actually crossbow equipped, gaining a +2 for missile fire but a -2 modifier for hand to hand combat. I could use this profile for English longbows, which would be a simple way to incorporate them in the system, but it doesn't seem quite right to treat crossbows and longbows as exactly the same weapon type?
Instead, I'm thinking of using the same profile but giving the longbow units an additional casualty modifier against mounted opponents, representing the use of defensive stakes - this would half the number of hits inflicted by cavalry against the longbow unit. The unit would have to be stationary to benefit from this bonus and so could not have moved in the previous turn to be eligible.
The other option is to extend the range of longbows to 18" but then remove the +2 modifier for missile fire, reflecting the lesser stopping power of longbows compared to crossbows and their greater effective range. I would also incorporate the casualty modifier for defensive stakes with this to create a bespoke option, the two things giving longbows a distinctive tactical profile.
Thoughts?
Incidentally, I'm also thinking of ways to represent bills and bows as unit types for the Wars of the Roses period, but that's another story....
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| Crecy, Poitiers... |
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| Longbowmen |
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| Knights / Mounted Men at Arms |
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| Welsh Spearmen or French Levy |
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| Genoese Crossbowmen with Pavises |
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| Men at Arms |
The usual Sunday morning diversions, this time playing around with some Antonine Miniatures 2mm blocks in an attempt to create units for the early Hundred Years War, mid to late Fourteenth Century or so. I've been thinking about this for quite a while and I think it would work well with the One Hour Wargames rules, with some tweaks to the unit profiles to incorporate longbows alongside the existing crossbow armed archers.
So, here we have a selection of units including the aforementioned longbows, crossbows, men at arms, mounted men at arms / knights and a spearman unit in case the Welsh are involved. The bases are 120mm x 40mm x 3mm, which just happened to be in the spare bases box, for some long forgotten purpose that now eludes me. I'd be interested to know what you think about this idea, as it's not really realistic in historical terms but fits the rules quite well, give or take the tweaks I've mentioned.
This rather impressive 28mm 3D printed trebuchet arrived in the post today from Parabellum Miniatures, a company that I haven't ordered from before but will be doing so again, based on the quality of their models. I've dry fitted it together to show what it looks like in comparison with a Perry Miniatures figure, and I think it looks very good indeed. You can also assemble it as a launching model, with parts supplied in he kit for the sling and trough, but I'm going to build mine loaded and ready to go. The range also includes bombards and siege equipment, which allows you to assemble a full on siege line, if you wanted to have that as a theme for your scenarios. Excellent!
Way back in January last year I started a First World War air wargaming project, intending to use the Spandau and Lewis hexless rules from The Stronghold blog as a simple but elegant, solo friendly system. This then morphed into the Algernon Pulls It Off! project, leaving the initial idea aside without having had the opportunity to actually try out the rules.
I'm now going to have another crack at the Spandau and Lewis project using my 1/600th scale models and some custom made bases, so that I can try out the system and get a few solo games under my belt, eventually aiming to put on a game at the club at some point later this year.
I may also have a go at painting some 1/300th or even 1/144th 3D printed models for this project, as they are much more visually interesting for club participation game purposes, even though people were very complementary about my Tumbling Dice planes last week, which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
https://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2025/01/spandau-lewis-v13.html?m=1
I'm thinking about adding another unit to the plastic traffic jam of Lion Rampant figures that is currently sitting on my painting table. This would either be a second unit of twelve longbowmen or a unit of six mounted archers, rated as heavy cavalry in the rule book. I have a Perry Miniatures boxed set of mounted knights which includes two figures in gambeson per sprue, which will give me enough for a unit of six, especially if I use spare arms from the English and French infantry sets for added variety. I'll have a look at gluing something together at the weekend, while cracking on with painting the pedestrian equivalents.
