Nbuto Independence Day!

Today is Nbuto Independence Day!

Vive Nbuto!!

(It's also my 45th birthday....Happy Birthday to me!)

Full Thrust Mini Project [1]

This weekend I've decided to try to paint up a small flotilla of ships for Full Thrust. It's snowing at the moment and it looks like I'll have the day off tomorrow as the school will be closed, so I have a rare window of opportunity in which to speed paint some of the GZG or Brigade Models spaceships that I have stashed away. This fits really well with my 'things not figures' cunning plan and should be feasible in little more than a weekend.

I'm not planning anything flash but will be going for a production line undercoat, drybrush and wash approach in order to churn out the fleet at something approach FTL speed. I have some ideas for the paint scheme and the identifying features of the ships, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet. I prefer a not too near future type setting, rather than a classic space opera style approach, so some sort of Neo Soviet theme is a strong contender.

I'll get cracking tomorrow and hope to have a decent sized force based, painted and ready for action by the end of the weekend. I'm under a bit of a workload squeeze at the moment, so bite sized mini-projects have to be the way forward for a few weeks at least. This is a bit of a trial run so, if I can pull it off, I'm hoping to expand my mini-project 'weekend wargaming' efforts over the next two or three months.

(the AK47 project has now been put on ice for a few weeks as a result...but it will be back!)

Macchis for Breakfast

The Bag The Hun Malta game worked out well this evening, although it took a while to get off the ground. This was partly down to the timing of the scenario and the large number of aircraft involved, but also due to some measured decision making on the part of the players, who took their time when plotting moves. This wasn't a big deal but I'll be modifying the scenario to speed things up and will be introducing a randomised time limit for plotting moves in future games, based on a simple D6 roll.

I'll do a full write up later but, in the meantime, here's some pictures of the game. The end  result was a draw, with the Italians and the British both having two planes shot down. One of the Italian pilots baled out successfully but the other was killed outright by a burst of machine gun fire to the cockpit. The RAF also had one pilot blown out of his exploding Hurricane but, fortunately, he was able to parachute into the sea. The second was killed when his aircraft disintegrated, so sadly wasn't able to bale out.

I've decided to give Bag the Hun a rest for awhile but will definately be running another game at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I'm thinking of starting the first mini-project for 2013, once I've worked out how to go about it. I'll be posting some further thoughts and some details of the plans that I have over the next couple of days, once I've tidied up some loose ends and squared things away. Either way, I'm aiming to make a start at the weekend!

Bag the Hun Malta Game Two [4]

I've been trying to get the last bits and pieces sorted for the Bag the Hun game tomorrow but have only managed to design some new cards, which have yet to be printed, cut out and backed. You can see what they look like in the quick preview above. Nothing flash but they do the job! 

The final finishing off will have to wait until tomorrow but will get done in time for the game. I've also got to fill out all the record sheets for the various aircraft but this will have to be done tomorrow when I get home from work, as I have more marking to do tonight.

I'll take some photos of the game and post them when I get back from the club, complete with a brief after action report. Tally Ho!

Bag The Hun Operation Bodenplatte [11]

Leading Edge (L) Raiden (R)

Leading Edge (L) Raiden (R)

The Luftwaffe Fighter Collection

It's been the usual very busy Sunday, made even more so by number two sprog having an away training session for rugby, which required a four hour excursion to the wilds of Alton this morning. At least I had some time to think about up and coming wargame related things, while I froze my knackers off in a wind blasted muddy field. I've had a few ideas that may well see the light of day, although they're all from the extensive back catalogue of unrealised projects.

On return to HQ, I found myself parcelling up several packages of surplus to requirements wargame stuff that I successfully shifted on Ebay. This took far longer than expected and resulted in a lot of purple language, as I individually bubble wrapped tiddly tanks and stabbed myself with scissors. It's worth it, however, as I have now raised a very respectable £200 toward future projects.

I have achieved something today, though, having worked out the cards I need for the Bag the Hun game on Tuesday, along with clarification of the special manoeuvres for the Italians that are mentioned but not explained in the rulebook. I've also had a chance to inspect the superb Leading Edge Ta152 models that I ordered from Museum Miniatures in the January sale, along with some equally smooth Bf109G's for the Operation Bodenplatte project.

In comparison with the excellent Raiden Miniatures equivalent, you can see that the Leading Edge models are sleeker and less defined but, in my opinion, have a certain sculptural quality that strands them apart. Before I get too arty farty, I hasten to add that they're also very easy to paint and will match my existing collection of late war Luftwaffe fighters really well.

...when I get round to them that is.

Bag the Hun Malta Game Two [3]

I spent some time this afternoon writing up the scenario for the Bag The Hun 2 multiplayers game on Tuesday. As you can see, this is aptly titled 'Macchi's for Breakfast' involving, as it does, the dawn dogfight that I described in my previous post. I'll work out the cards that I need tomorrow and see if I can cut a few corners by using the cards that I already have on the hard drive.

Bag the Hun Malta Game Two [2]

I have been thinking about the scenario for the Bag the Hun 2 game next week for quite a while but have yet to sit down and actually write it up. As a result, it's about time that I worked out the finer details and sorted out the various resources that I need for the game on Tuesday.

I've selected a dogfight on the 21st November 1941 as the focus for the scenario, with the  'A' Flight Hurricanes of 185 Squadron up against MC.200's of 54o Stormo and the MC.202's of 9o Gruppo, 97a Squadriglia. The scenario will focus on the early morning efforts of 'A' Flight to bounce a formation of five MC200's, which were actually bait for a failed counter bounce by five MC202's.

The end result was a bizarre encounter in which the Italians peformed an array of superb per-war display aerobatics, including 'rolls over the top' and 'bunting' (whatever that is), whilst the gobsmacked pilots of the RAF zoomed around the sky in a state of complete amazement.

Anyway,  I think it'll make a jolly good sceanrio and I'll be working out the various arcane permutations over the weekend, using the combat reports from invaluable book 185: The Malta Squadron, and the excellent Italian Biplane Aces website that I mined for the previous scenario.

I've worked out the various pilot ID's for 'A' Flight and for the 97a Squadriglia, but the 54 Stormo MC200 pilots are a complete mystery. I also need to think about the entry points for the different units, although this is fairly easy to determine once you cross reference the different post action reports with the relative position of the different combatants.

I'm not going to give too much away, in case the enemy is listening, but the position of the sun won't be a significant factor in the game...

Tally Ho!

Oxfam Bookshop Hardback Haul

I had to take the eldest into town after work today to get him a much needed haircut. He was under the mistaken assumption that he looked cool with extensive vegetation but this was corrected by a good, old fashioned short back and slap.

On the way back, we popped into the Oxfam bookshop, which I haven't visited for several weeks. I was very pleased to find some more excellent hardbacks in pristine condition, all for a fraction of their cover price and with all proceeds going to a very worthwhile cause.

I've stashed them away safely in the relevant section of the bookshelf but probably won't get round to reading any of them for at least a couple of weeks, given my current marking workload and lack of time. In the meanwhile, it's back to the Year 11 exercise books....

:O(

AK47 Winter Warmer [3]

I've been swamped with work in the last couple of days, so have had to miss the Muskets and Tomhawks game this evening, although I had hoped to have popped in to the club for at least an hour or so. Instead, I've been wading through a mountain of marking in a futile attempt to clear some work out of the way for next week, when I have loads of reports to write. Not a great start to the wargaming year, to say the least.

I've now lost the will to live, so to achieve at least something before I retire for the evening, I thought I'd finish off the casualty figures for the AK47 army, although this took little more than some superglue and sixty seconds. I've also extracted the very old Heller 1/100th scale Puma kit from the model vault and have dusted it off, ready for assembly at some point in the next few days if I can find the time.

I'm annoyed for missing out on the game tonight but, hopefully, once I've cleared the current workload I'll have time at the weekend to prepare a scenario for the Bag The Hun game next week.

Off To The Games!

I'm watching over a game of Muskets and Tomahawks at the club tomorrow and, luckily enough, my copy of the rules arrived in the post today, so I'm going to spend what's left of the evening giving them a good read through. They look pretty neat with lots of illustrative diagrams and explanatory bits, so I'm hoping that I won't slow things down with too many stoopid questions.

I also got the ex-Conquest Miniatures and now Warlord 28mm Woodland Indians and some French Regulars in the post this morning, the latter being a last minute addition to the set up. They're really nice figures but noticeably smaller than the Northwind French that I already have. I suppose they could be mixed but they'd look a bit odd next to one another, so I really should pick one range over the other..

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the game as it should be quite relaxing after a very hectic return to work! I've also booked in a game of AK47 for the end of February, by which time I'm hoping to have completed the new army which is virtually ready for painting up, with only some casualty markers and a couple of helicopters to finish off.

I'm in the final stages of my planning for the Bag The Hun 2 game next Tuesday and will be working on the scenario over the weekend. It should build on the experience gained in the previous game and will give the opportunity for some deployment of bogeys, making it a little less balanced and a little more frenetic than the last rather pedestrian encounter.

Finally, there's a chance I can squeeze in a game of Bolt Action at the end of the month but this will really depend on how much work I have to do. I have the chance to try out the rules at the club and it would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity, if I can make it. It's being umpired by the skirmish gaming enthusiast at the club, so it should be a really good game.

So, lots of gaming to look forward to for a change!