Busting The Balloon

I've only got two weeks until I'm off to France for the Easter holiday, during which I'll be okay testing some of the Jasta 18 scenarios, so time is running out to complete the last of the 1/600th scale models. The big thing to do is to assemble and base the resin Tumbling Dice Caquot observation balloon, which I've already glued together, filled and sanded, ready for rigging. I'm busy next weekend with days away, so I really need to get this sorted this weekend, starting tomorrow with the rigging using thin gauge wire and fuse wire. It's going to be fiddly but I'm hoping it will look good when completed?

Pop the Sausage

         

Over the weekend, the next scenario I'm going to be working on for the Algy Jasta 18 project is a solo balloon busting sortie by a single Fokker Dr1. As a result, I need a Caquot Type R observation balloon model, one of which I have in my Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale stash. These are now out of production and due to be replaced by a new version, so it's fortunate that I have one. This one will be painted as an American balloon once I've worked out how to assemble, rig and base it.

Knights of the Sky Halberstadt DII

On the 25th there's a WW1 Knights of the Sky game at the club, set in 1916. I thought it would be a nice idea to build a kit for the game and have pulled this one out of the kit pile for a challenge. It's a limited run, very basic and fairly crude injection moulded kit of the Halberstadt DII, perhaps the best scout that the Germans deployed in 1916. It's going to be a tricky job to glue together, with lots of sanding, filing, filling and swearing, but if it works I'll be very happy!

Taking a Break

I've just been away in Plymouth for the weekend visiting the family. While staying in a local pub with a very good view of naval goings on, I also discovered a display of large scale coastal forces models in the nearby stately home at Mount Edgecombe. I've been really struggling to find my wargaming motivation of late, so these were a boost to my flagging enthusiasm. I'm now going to focus on finishing the 1/600th scale WW1 aircraft then clear the decks and take a break from wargaming for a while. I need a bit of time away from the workbench to rethink why I'm doing this and what I need to focus on in order to enjoy it, as I now predominantly do wargaming solo rather than at the club.

1918 Royal Air Force Reinforcements

I was hoping to get away with using the SE5a, RE8 and Brisfit models I've already painted for the 1918 scenario project but, after some further reading, it looks like I'll need some Sopwith Camels and Airco DH4 light bombers as well. I was thinking of painting some anyway but I'll need some for play testing now, so I'll assemble and paint half a dozen of each. I also need some SPAD XIII scouts for the Americans but, unfortunately, there are none in the current Tumbling Dice WWI range, which is a bit of a bugger.

Ravenfeast Viking Raiding Party

As it's almost the end of the month, it's time to plan ahead for the next few weeks. I've decided that I'm going to finish the Jasta 18 aircraft over the weekend, then clear the workbench for a new project (I'll come back to the WWI project later in the year and will still be continuing my scenario research in the meantime). After some considerable thought, I've opted for a Viking warband for Ravenfeast, using the excellent Foundry figures that I already have assembled, based and undercoated. I'll paint up one raiding party of around twenty figures in total, which will be fun as I haven't painted anything in 28mm for years! The figures already look absolutely huge compared to my usual tiddly things but I'm looking forward to not having to squint through a magnifier for a change!

What's on the Workbench?

The 'oh so cunning' plan to have three projects on the go at any one time has clearly been a bit of a balls up, as I've only had time to tackle one this month in the shape of my WW1 1918 Spandau and Lewis thing. It's obviously not feasible to tinker away at more than one project a month, so I'm now going to return to a single focus for the workbench, which isn't tied down to a single month but can be extended over a longer stretch of time as required. So, for the next couple of weeks I'll be plugging away at the 1/600th scale German WWI aircraft, possibly adding some RAF Sopwith Camels and Airco DH4's if I can squeeze them in. After that....who knows?

What's on the Workbench?

I enjoyed finishing the 1/600th Tumbling Dice 1917 aircraft yesterday and now have everything I need to try out Spandau and Lewis, as well as play some games with Duel of Aces. To keep the momentum going I've decided to assemble and paint some additional models, with a focus on late 1917 to mid 1918, rather than go backwards to 1916, as I originally thought earlier on.

The plan to develop this month's air wargaming project fits perfectly with my refreshing 'What's on the Workbench?' strategy, which allows me to float between three different projects each month as I feel the need, without feeling guilty about temporarily shelving things as I go along. This seems to work and avoids the feeling that you have to slog away at things even when the spark has fizzled out a bit, knowing that you can go back to them when you feel more motivated. 

It only works if you are realistic about what you can achieve, so small projects that require a minimal amount of time to wrap up are the order of the day, ideally things that require finishing off rather than starting from scratch. The 1918 aircraft, for example, are a small addition to an existing project and only add up to about a dozen models or so. These include some Sopwith Camels, Fokker DVII's and Halberdtadt CLII's, with a few Airco DH4's and Hannover CLIII's if I have the time. 

What's on the Workbench?

It's taken a while to decide but my air wargaming project for this month is to add the decals to the 1/600th scale Tumbling Dice WW1 German aircraft that I painted way back in 2022. These have been sitting in a tin for months but can now be finished off, ready to play some solo games of Spandau and Lewis. I might add a few more twin seaters or scouts but I have enough for some basic dawn patrol type games already, with the RFC machines only needing some fuselage roundels as an optional tweak. Tally Ho!

What's on the Workbench?

This month my naval wargaming project will be to finish painting the Argentinian and Chilean pre-dreadnought models for my 'What If?' solo campaigns. These are all 1/2400th scale Tumbling Dice ships and include two armoured cruisers, a protected cruiser, two coastal battleships, two river monitors and four torpedo boats, with an obsolete central battery ironclad to complete the line up. 

What's on the Workbench?

On the work bench for this month is a 2mm scale English Civil War Cornish Royalist army for the 1643 campaign in the South West. This is made up from figure blocks from the  Irregular Miniatures range including specific pike and shot regiments, cavalry, dragoons and artillery, based on 50mm x 25mm bases. The plan is to use these with the Portable Pike and Shot rules and the One Hour Wargames rules for a solo campaign. 

What's on the Workbench ? - A Cunning Plan, No Less!

I have a new project plan for 2025, going back to an approach I used to take before I decided to make a 'list of things to do' each year in advance. This worked at first, but in recent years I've found myself editing the 'to list' as I went along and as new 'ooh, shiny!' things popped up to grab my attention. Instead, I'm now going to have a 'What's on the Workbench? tab on the home page of the blog, from which anyone desperate enough to want to find out what I'm up to can punch through to a list of my current projects. 

I am going to limit myself to a maximum of one air, one naval and one land themed project at a time, the idea being to switch from one to another as I go along. It may well be that only one of these will be running at any time and I'm deliberately going to prioritse land based projects for a change this year, rather than air or naval things. 

Each of these projects will be small enough to be completed in a few weeks, rather than months (or even years!), and will be self-contained but part of a larger, on-going effort. The aim will be to knock off parts of a project as I go blundering along, rather than attempting to complete the whole damn thing in a drawn out slog. 

It may not result in many games being played but at least I will be able to get some stuff shifted in the right direction, while hopefully keeping my hand in rather than throwing in the towel half way through. As always, the emphasis will be on stuff I can play solo rather than club gaming, so it's very much up to me whether or not I get some games on the table.