Back of Beyond Expedition [15]

The White Russians are nearing completion and look almost finished, give or take a bit of tidying up. I finished painting the puttees in Foundry Rawhide this evening before painting the shoes in three stages of Foundry Bay Brown. I started late but I'm quite pleased to have covered up most of the black undercoat in these two stages.

I also drybrushed Foundry Charcoal Black in two layers over the big furry hats, followed by a light dusting of Arctic Grey Shade. I'm babysitting tomorrow evening but hope to get the other furry hats sorted, along with the satchels, uniform buttons and buckles. If I have time, I'll try do the fiddly bits inclusing the hair and eyes.

Force on Force

I'm really not interested in wargaming contemporary conflicts such as Iraq or Afghanistan, for various personal reasons, but I am interested in historical 'modern' conflicts such as the Falklands, Vietnam or Malaya. I'm also in possession of a collection of 15mm modern stuff that is way in excess of what I could conceivably use for AK47, including a whole box of Peter Pig Israelis / South Africans and a respectable collection of Peter Pig French Foreign Legion.

As a result, when I saw the new Osprey edition of Force on Force for less than £15 on Amazon, I thought to myself that it might be a way to make use of at least a small bit of the leadpile. I was also inspired by Steve Blease's alternative 1980's English Civil War idea, as mentioned on his rather excellent blog the other day. Thanks Steve!

However, my initial thought would be for something a bit more tropical, with a small border war somewhere in Central or South America as the 'imagi-nation' destination. As my stockpile contains Peter Pig FFL, Vietnam US and Israelis, I think a possible scenario could be a war between French Guiana and Suriname, perhaps after a military coup d'etat of the latter by some sort of dictator.

The Suriname military use Brazilian Urutu APC's and even have some old Dutch ones too, which would be a nice feature, especially given their natty camouflage paint scheme. They've also been partially re-equipped with Galil rifles, so I could use the Israeli figures at a push, although the helmets and uniforms are different. The FFL with their nice QRF VAB's would provide the opposition

Pimp my obsolete APC?

The book includes the Ambush Alley counter insurgency rules as  well, so there's plenty of scope for small scale sceanrios or larger out in the open engagements. It's worth a thought at least, although I doubt anything will come of it, unless I get some momemtum from the rulebook to crack ahead. I'll have a read through first before I take any sort of plunge.

Back of Beyond Expedition [14]

I've had a bit of a wasted weekend, most of which has been spent stuck at home trying to entertain the kids long enough to stop them whacking each other over the head with various play orientated implements. I have, however, squeezed a little time into the schedule for some painting.

The belts, cartridge boxes and holsters have been given three stages of Foundry Conker Brown and the rifles have had a similar treatment with Foundry Spearshaft, follwed by GW Mithril Silver bayonets and Boltgun Metal drybrushed over the barrels.

I've also painted the Maxim Gun in three stage Foundry Phelgm Green and started on the puttees with a basecoat of Foundry Rawhide. If I have some time tomorrow, I'll finish the puttees and crack on with the furry hats, satchels and boots.

Back of Beyond Expedition [13]

I painted the skin tones on the Russians this evening using three stages of Foundry Flesh. They now look a bit less monotone and more life like, which is a real incentive to wrap them up by the end of the weekend. I'll tackle the rifles, webbing and puttees next, with the hair, eyes and other details left to be done before it's time to go back to work on Monday.

Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy

I picked up a copy of the re-vamped Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine in WHSmiths this afternoon and, I have to say that I'm very impressed, both with the production values and the content.

I was particularly impressed with the columns written by Rick Priestley and Richard Clarke, both of which appealed to my way of thinking. As a History teacher, the thoughts of Mr Clarke on the balance between playability and historical accuracy were right up my proverbial street, which goes some way to explain my extensive collection of Lardies rules.

The focus on 1688 didn't detract from the balance of the content either, which was quite refreshing. I liked the way the figure reviews were presented with high definition photos and the rules reviews were based on actual play throughs rather than skim reading or fluff.

There were some cracking articles as well, including an assasination of Caligula skirmish game and a comparative  overview of the plethora of Ancients rules that are being released in the next few weeks. I'm even tempted to subscribe but will wait until the next issue before I take the plunge.

Back of Beyond Expedition [12]

I re-painted the greatcoats this evening using Foundry Granite and then followed up by painting the rolled greatcoats on the other figures in the same shades. It was a pity to cover over all the paintwork I'd done on the greatcoat figures but I think it'll look better in the end. It's all a bit 'ho hum' at the moment but once I get the faces blocked in and then paint the webbing, puttees and rifles, things will start to pick up. They won't win any prizes but they'll do the job!

Mission To Tashkent

I finished painting the White Russian uniforms in three stages of Foundry Cadaverous Green last night. Now that they're done, I've been having second thoughts about the greatcoat figures, which I've painted up in the same uniform colour. I think I really should have painted them in grey or perhaps very light brown. In fact, I may re-paint the four figures in greatcoats when I get home tonight, together with the rolled coats on the other figures.

I've also set up a game of The Rules With No Name for the end of the month at the club. I'm looking forward to trying out the rules and working out how they tick. I've also been reading Mission To Tashkent which is excellent, although I'm familiar with Colonel Bailey's various 'derring do' adventures from Peter Hopkirk's book Setting the East Ablaze. All good stuff!

Back of Beyond Expedition [11]

I added the second stage of the Foundry Cadaverous Green this evening, which looks a bit garish in contrast with the black undercoat but will be fine once the rest is blocked in. It does acccentuate the tatty, washed out  look of the figures which I really like. Next, I'll add some highlights in Cadaverous Green Light but possibly with a wash of GW Devlan Mud or somesuch inbetween to add a bit of depth.

Back of Beyond Expedition [10]

I didn't get much done today due to painting the garden furniture and cleaning out the gutters, washing the windows etc. I have managed to basecoat the White infantry in Foundry Cadaverous Green shade, however, to be followed tomorrow by the the top layer and highlights. I might give the figures a wash at some point in the sequence so that I can pick out the details on their tatty uniforms.

Back of Beyond Expedition [9]

Not a lot achieved today as I was pressure washing the patio for most of it. High pressure water blasting sounds like a lot of fun but after being soaked, covered in slime and minus some skin on my feet, due to inadvertant pressure washing of my extremities, I'm not entirely convinced.

I did, however, get the figures undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray. I'm going to revert to the Halfords version which is cheaper and gives a better finish as soon as I can get hold of some but, in the meantime, the GW stuff will do.

If I can squeeze some time out of the bank holiday kids edutainment, I'll get started on the White Russian mercenary infantry unit, using Foundry Cadaverous Green as the basecoat. I think this will give a suitably washed out look for their tatty uniforms and will be a quick way to cover a lot of ground.