TMWWBK for the Mexican Revolution?

Shellhole Scenics Villistas..I have some of these!

I had an idea out of the blue today. Could I revive my 20mm Mexican Revolution project by using The Men Who Would Be Kings as a skirmish level set of rules? I think it would cover all of the angles, with Regular and Irregular infantry and cavalry as the common types, together with some Tribal Infantry for Yaqui Indians. The artillery and machine guns are there too, with the only think missing being vehicles, although they were very rare. A few extra add-on rules for things like grenades and aircraft wouldn't be too difficult to fudge either, as people already use the rules for WW1 colonial wargaming. I might be on to something so will have a think about unit types and characteristics, as well as a look for rules tweaks that other people have made for WW1.

Peter Pig Pocket Money

 

My sister gave me a fifty quid Peter Pig gift voucher for my birthday back in January, which I've been holding on to for a rainy day. The word on the streets is that there will be a price rise in April, so I now have only a few days in which to make the most of the voucher before it loses some spending power. I have narrowed down the options to about three or four possibilities but I'm having trouble making up my mind, so wouldn't mind a nudge in the most interesting direction, bearing in mind that even fifty quid doesn't stretch that far these days. The options are:

1. A Chain of Command US infantry platoon and extra bits for WW2.

2. A Mexican Revolution rebel army for an as yet undecided set of rules (new project....aargh!)

3. A WW1 late war French company and support for Through the Mud and Blood.

4. A selection of extra RCW bits for Red Actions! e.g. tchankas, artillery, a staff car, some top up red infantry etc.

5. As above but for the SCW and When the Dice Rolls.

What would you go for in your infinite wargaming wisdom?

Peter Pig Mexican Revolution

Nothing there yet but watch this space!

I've been following this over on the RFCM forum for a while but it's now got a definite green light for production, with the first figures due out sometime in August. I think this is great news, as no one else makes a decent 15mm Mexican Revolution range and I've been wanting to do an AK47 based project for years. The initial releases will probably be for the Mexican government forces and the rebels, either Zapatistas or Villistas, although there's a lot of scope for cross over with the Western range. Excellente!

http://rulesforcommonman.uk/smf/index.php?board=105.0

Peter Pig 15mm Mexican Revolution?

This new book from Caliver has stirred up some interest in the Mexican Revolution on the Rules For the Common Man forum and over on TMP. So much so that Martin Goddard, the Peter Pig head honcho, has suggested that he might be interested in producing a 15mm range of figures for the conflict including at least two of the factions involved. This is great news if it actually happens, as 15mm is an ideal scale for larger battles rather than skirmishes, for which I already have some 20mm Shellhole Scenics figures. I'd use an AK47 adaptation or one of the Nordic Weasel company level rules for this, as it's clearly a multiple figure base, company or battalion level thing. Excellente!

Fistful of Lead Core Rules

I'm a big fan of the Fistful of Lead rules by Jaye Wiley, so I was very pleased to see the publication of a core set of the rules, adaptable to any historical setting. I've played a lot of the original western rules and was an enthusiastic backer of Galactic Heroes, the sci-fi variant, although I still haven't got round to playing a game yet. Now that I have some new Star Wars figures, that shouldn't be too after off, assuming I get round to painting them. 

I've also tinkered around in 20mm with the Viva la Revolucion! supplement for the Mexican Revolution, but that's still an on-going project and one that I've sidelined this year, which is a reminder for me to get on with it. Anyway, I'll get a .pdf copy of the new core rules to see if I can use them for the Back of Beyond or WW2 squad level skirmish scenarios, although I'm not sure if they can handle tanks or support weapons like AT guns?

Across the border down Mexico way...

I finished off the other two re-painted resin hills today, which I think is more then enough for the space that I have on my desert terrain board, especially as they are only needed for skirmish scenarios. I also thought I'd see how well the board matched up with my 20mm Mexican Revolution terrain, in particular with the cactus bases I made last year and the hacienda for the Patton's First Fight scenario. I was pleased to find that they matched really well, so I have solved my immediate terrain requirements for  Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion, at least as far as this scenario is concerned. They also make a nice defile or wadi for the Sandbox Skirmish project, with the British patrols having to fight their way through potential rebel ambushes from all sides!

Desert Terrain Board Finished

I painted the picture frame that I bought at the weekend with my knock off pot of Homebase Cashmere emulsion paint, added some spray splodges of Halfords Ultra Matt Khaki then dry brushed the whole lot with a tester pot of Laura Ashley Old Gold. I'm quite pleased with the end result, although I should have been more generous with the acrylic paste beforehand, so that all of the canvas was completely covered. 

I'll be using this terrain board for the No End in Sight post colonial project but also for many other things including Strontium Dog, Fistful of Lead:Viva la Revolution! and Gruntz Sci Fi / Near Future games to name but a few, so it has been well worth the ten quid I paid for it. I now need to make some hills but I already have some Battlefield in a Box plastic ones that might just do the job, if I re-painted them in matching desert colours.

What's On The Workbench?

This is what I'm supposed to be doing now!

I've been very busy over the last couple of days, so no time for any wargaming things, although I have spent some time musing about what to do next, particularly over the holidays in three weeks time. I have now decided that 15mm Chain of Command will be too much to bite off and chew, with the end result being yet another box full of based figures that will get shoved back on top of the pile, so I am thinking of something else. 

At the moment, this has randomly see-sawed between a smaller 15mm project, probably one of the post-colonial ones that I fiddled about with earlier in the year, something nautical like the 1/700th scale Fast Attack missile boats that I fiddled about with at the same time, or perhaps another small scale 1/600th air project, of which I have many to choose from. 

Incidentally, the Wings of War: Desert Spitfires project has hit the buffers due to a complete lack of early Egyptian decals, so another plan is clearly called for. 

In the meantime I'm hoping to crack on with the Fistful of Lead: Viva La Revolucion! thing, if only I can find the time. The Mexicans are ready for painting and the US army figures are just waiting for a convenient slot to be based and undercoated, so I may get them started this weekend?

Mexican Expedition US Army Dodge Cars

I got hold of some very cheap, roughly 20mm diecast vans that I thought I could convert into something a bit like Dodge Touring Cars, as used by the US Army on the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916. I've successfully dismantled one and used a Dremel cutting disc to lop off the back end, following by some heavy duty filing to remove the van sides.

It's not anywhere near finished as I will now need to build a passenger back seat and rear body out of plastic card, then convert the canopy to fit over the top, but it's not a bad start? I don't actually need any for the Patton's First Fight scenario but they would look good parked on the table as scenic features and could have all sorts of uses in other scenarios.

20mm Villista Renegades

Here are the six 20mm Shellhole Scenics Villista Dorado figures that I'll be using for the Patton's First Fight scenario, in the role of Julio Cardenas and his men. I thought about preparing mounted version of these foot figures as well, which came with the army pack that I bought, but decided to leave that for a later time. The scenario only uses six dismounted figures anyway. I'm hoping to slap some paint onto these over the weekend.

Patton's First Fight Terrain Tweaks

I bashed this little lean to stable hitching post thing out of matchsticks and half a laser cut mdf terrain base this morning. The idea is to have a removable bit that can be repositioned either inside or outside the hacienda courtyard, as required by the scenario. It's nothing special but I think it does the job and looks okay, even if I overcooked the dry brushed weathering effect a bit too much!

Patton's First Fight Terrain

I've just about finished the 20mm hacienda building for the Viva La Revolucion! Fistful of Lead scenario, give or take some final touches and the construction of a removable lean to in one corner of the courtyard. The building is a bit basic and not quite the same floor plan as the scenario suggests, but it's close enough and is about the right size, so it will do. I have also prepared, based and undercoated six dismounted 20mm figures to use as the Villista renegades  in the scenario, using half of the Dorado foot figures from the army pack that I bought a while back. I'll start painting these as soon as I can clear the workbench of tanks!

San Miguelito Ranch House

Hey Gringo! 

I bought this Blotz 20mm Middle Eastern building at Colours last year to use as a Mexican ranch house or hacienda for the Viva la Revolucion! scenario, Patton's First Fight. It's not exactly the right layout but, with the addition of an outbuilding or stables on the adjacent laser cut mdf rectangle, it will do the job quite well. I'll need to scratch build the stables but that shouldn't be too difficult using bits of mdf base, matchsticks and other scrap stuff.

Last night, I under coated the mdf parts in some horribly sticky yellow spray paint then sanded this down when I realised I'd made a bad choice, assembled it then resprayed it in the more reliable Halfords Ultra Matt Khaki. I then smothered it in artist's acrylic paste, to give it some texture and to hide the nasty joints, which is now drying out prior to being lightly sanded down again. I can then texture the courtyard area and start on the painting bit. 

Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion!

I was looking for a little project to wrap up the latter half of the holiday week, setting the Wings at War: Desert Spitfires project to one side for the moment, as I've had enough of tiddly planes after the B-29's. I remembered that I had a plan, amongst many others, that I could probably squeeze into a few days alongside the remaining 1/72nd scale tanks (I have just started on two T34/85's for this and also hope to get some Panzer IV's underway before the end of the week).

The project in mind was a Fistful of Lead: Reloaded Mexican Revolution skirmish using 20mm figures from Shellhole Scenics, which I already have in the leadpile, and the Viva la Revolucion! scenario supplement. The idea was to just paint enough figures and make sufficient terrain for Scenario 10: Patton's First Fight. I've had a rummage and have extracted the figures and the Blotz laser cut building kit that I bought just for this project, so I'm good to go as soon as I can get started. 

It should be good fun!

Colours Swag

I had a nice afternoon at Colours today, bumping into some old gaming friends and browsing the trade stands in search of things on the shopping list. I completely skipped the demo and participation games for some reason but, according to the sprogs, I didn't miss much although I'm sure there were some good games on show. I also forgot my camera so it wouldn't have made much of difference if I had climbed up to the top floor for a look see.

On the other hand, I did stick pretty much to the list of items I was looking for which mainly revolved around the Old West and Mexican Revolution. These included a couple of 20mm Blotz  lasercut adobe buildings for the Mexican Revolution, which will eventually be assembled when I start the Viva La Revolucion! project at some point. I wanted to get some 20mm Federales from Shellhole Scenics too but they weren't at the show this time round, so that will have to wait until Warfare in November.

The other bundle of stuff I bought is all destined for the 28mm Fistful of Lead: Reloaded terrain collection including half a dozen more Warbases Longhorn cattle, a couple of Warbases draft horses for a stagecoach, some vultures and snakes from the Dead Man's Hand range, a really nice blacksmiths forge from Red Vectors, a very simple but useful pig sty from Warbases and a lovely little adobe style Hispanic chapel or hermitage from Charlie Foxtrot.

This is my favourite of the lot and will be perfect alongside my other Mexican adobe village buildings. It has a resin pantile roof that slots into the top of the mdf lasercut sub-structure, which can be detailed with glue on resin pieces to represent exposed mud bricks underneath the plaster. A very neat and clever idea indeed, so I hope I can do it justice. I also had a nice chat with the designer, who just happens to live down the road from my home town in Cornwall. All in all a good day and not too heavy on the wallet.

Dodge Touring Car 1916

I have some of the excellent Shellhole Scenics vehicles for the American Punitive Expedition including a couple of trucks and a Jeffrey Quad armoured car, but as yet there are no models available to use as 1916 Dodge Touring Cars. These were the standard light vehicles used by the American army in pursuit of Pancho Villa, rather than the Model T Ford as you would have expected. They were so useful that several hundred were eventually supplied over the course of the operations in Mexico and Pancho Villa was so impressed that he even had acquired one for himself.

I thought it would be a good idea to try and locate a suitable 20mm or 1/72nd scale model to use in skirmish scenarios, including the Patton's First Fight scenario from the Fistful of Lead:Viva La Revolucion! supplement. They aren't really needed for the scenario itself but would be great as terrain cover features and would be handy for other games too. However, this was less straightforward than I thought, with no wargaming manufacturer apparently making what I am looking for, so I decided to check out diecast toys instead.

After a fairly extensive search on eBay, the best I could come up with was a Corgi Model T Ford van, which is roughly 20mm and could be the basis of a conversion, cut and shut job. If I sawed off the van bit and rebuilt the open back seat part of the body in plastic card, I might have something not too far off the Dodge Touring Car. I could even cover up the back end with a canvas hood adapted from the plastic roof if it looked too rough and ready, although it would be nice to have some interior detail or at least some seating. I'm not sure it would be worth all the effort to be honest?

Patton's First Fight

I've been reading through the Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion! scenario supplement and working out how to put together a starting force for both the American Punitive Expedition and the Villistas. An obvious scenario to kick things off would be Scenario 10: Patton's First Fight. This represents the raid by Patton and his foraging party on a ranch where one of Villa's top commanders, Julio Cardenas, was staying, leading to a brief but bloody skirmish in which the rebels were killed. It's a small scenario with limited forces, so perfect as a beginning to a larger project.

The 20mm forces required for the scenario I already have from Shellhole Scenics, including a squad of ten US Infantry and a contingent of six Dorados, the elite cavalry unit of the Villista forces, the latter both in mounted and dismounted form. In the raid, the small force of Cardenas actually made a run for it on horseback, charging out of the gateway of the ranch in an attempt to getaway. The scenario only has them on foot defending the ranch but I might as well paint up the mounted figures too. I think I may also have a couple of die cast toy vintage cars for Patton to arrive in?

The only thing I need is a terrain square and a suitable 20mm scale ranch house with a surrounding wall, as I already have some desert scatter terrain and can improvise a two foot square board. This can actually be  little smaller as the scenario assumes that you will be using 28mm figures, so I might scale it down to 20'' or so? The ranch can be found in the Blotz 20mm Middle Eastern range, which has a couple of suitable buildings, both with lift-off roofing. These could be used as they are, with one only needing the addition of a small outbuilding to be spot on, although I could change the position of the main gateway to match the scenario plan.

This is definitely a manageable project and would be a good place to start!

The Mexican Expedition 1916-1917

I'm skimming through this US government pamphlet history of the US intervention in Mexico to track down Pancho Villa. There's a separate volume on the 1st Aero Squadron and it's role in the expedition, which is also worth reading, even if the aircraft involved didn't achieve very much. There were several small scale skirmishes between the US troops, the Carranza government forces and the Villistas, including a few which didn't go so well for Black Jack Pershing's doughboys. Here's one for a start, the rather grandly titled but fairly pointless Battle of Carrizal:

There's some good stuff here, with lots of potential for some skirmish gaming using the Fistful of Lead: Viva Revolucion! supplement as a starting point. I will dig out the Shellhole Scenics 20mm figures that I have when I get back from my holidays to see what I can do with this project. I have American infantry and some vehicles already but, from the reading I've been doing, I'll need to add some US Cavalry too, probably using the Early War Miniatures figures, together with some Mexican federal troops.

Pershing's Punitive Expedition

I've been reading through the Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion! supplement, with a focus on the Pancho Villa Expedition scenarios which are included as the last two out of the ten in the set. The first of these is based on the infamous raid by Pancho Villa on Columbus, New Mexico, while the second features the raid by Patton on the San Miguelito ranch to capture Julio Cardenas, although he was killed in the firefight that followed. These are both cracking little scenarios, with only a six to ten figures aside, so more than feasible in 20mm.

However, I have enough 20mm American Expeditionary Force figures and Villistas to expand the size of scenarios to twenty figures or so per side, which opens up all sorts of potential skirmish gaming possibilities. I originally bought two of the Shellhole Scenics army packs, which include about thirty infantry, nine mounted and dismounted cavalry or a couple of vehicles, together with a couple of machine guns or artillery pieces each. This means that I have more than enough figures for some decent platoon level skirmish games, with a few motorcycles and a Jeffrey Quad armoured car too.

All I need are some buildings, which I can get from the Blotz Middle Eastern adobe range in 20mm, and some railway track and a train, which I can source via eBay from the old Triang range. The Shellhole Scenics exhibition game featured a very nice train using the same OO gauge locomotive, box cars and caboose, which are readily available for peanuts if you hunt about a bit. I've also got an old 1/72nd scale Curtiss Jenny model kit that would be ideal for scouting ahead of an American patrol or supply column. I have all the terrain I need otherwise already.

This could be a lot of fun...if I ever get round to doing it!?

A Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion!

Jaye Wiley has just published a scenario supplement for A Fistful of Lead: Reloaded based on the Mexican Revolution. This neatly combines one of my favourite sets of rules with one of my favourite historical conflicts. How neat is that! 

I will now, at long last, have a set of decent skirmish rules to use with the Shellhole Scenics 20mm figures that I bought at Warfare last year. The scenarios are squad or platoon level, so ideal for 20mm rather than the more expensive option of 28mm. I can also use a lot of my existing desert terrain.

The supplement also has rules for motor vehicles, trains and aircraft, to bring things bang up to date c1910 and to add some more excitement to the scenarios. I am now a very happy gringo! You can get your own copy of the Viva la Revolucion! supplement from Wargames Vault or direct from Wiley Games.