Old West Cactus Basecoat

I've been out at the sprog's cricket match most of the evening, so haven't had time to do anything apart from an undercoat on a couple of the cactus bases that I prepared over the weekend. These have been sprayed in Halfords Ultra Matt Camouflage Khaki ready for dry brushing and washing, once they've thoroughly cured. I'll just do these two as test pieces for the moment so that I don't muck up the whole lot in one fell swoop! It's all a bit unexciting and beige at the moment but should look better after the next stage.

15mm Sci-Fi SWAT APC

I was in Poundland today when I spotted these Hotwheels toys near the check out. They're supposed to be some sort of X Ray scanning rescue vehicle but I thought that, with the big yellow plastic arm removed, they would make pretty good SWAT trucks or APC's for the 15mm GZG Sci-Fi police figures that I bought in the Xmas sale.

I picked up three of them and drilled out the plastic rivets on one, to separate the plastic body and inner section from the metal chassis, so that I could remove the big yellow arm thing. After re-assembling the parts I reckon I could either add a crew figure into the top hatch or a weapon mount from the GZG or Brigade Models accessories range, to create armoured riot response vehicle for SWAT transport and fire support.

They would also do as generic transport or cargo vehicles for military use. Not bad for a quid each!

Old West Cactus Basing

I didn't get the cactus bases painted today but I have blended them in with a mix of wall filler, PVA glue and sand, followed by a sprinkling of model railway ballast to add a bit of texture. I'll sand them down a bit tomorrow when they have completely dried then basecoat the whole lot in a desert khaki shade to match my other terrain, ready for some washing and dry brushing. I think they will look pretty good, especially if I also add some tufts and weeds around the bases.

Plastic Cactus

I was looking for something manageable for a weekend project when I found a box of plastic resin cacti which I bought at Colours last year then forgot about. They are actually produced by Shell Hole Scenics as 20mm cacti, for use with their Mexican Revolution range of figures, but I thought they would be perfect for the Wild West in 28mm too. I've based them up on laser cut small irregular terrain bases from East Riding Miniatures using some cheap liquid superglue to fix them down securely.

I'll add a mix of Polyfilla and PVA to blend them into the bases tomorrow, then add some sand and small stones for texturing, before I basecoat the whole lot in Halfords Ultra Matt Khaki. I'll then be able to paint and dry brush the bases and cacti to match in with the rest of my terrain for A Fistful of Lead: Reloaded skirmish games, which I'm planning to take to the club again in a couple of weeks time.

http://shellholescenics.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2060

Pre-Dreadnought China Seas Campaign Map

I've been thinking about ideas for a simple solo pre-dreadnought naval campaign, based on a counter-factual clash between the colonial powers in the South and East China Seas. This would be very much along the lines of the campaign approach from Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts, perhaps using the operational campaign variant from the Far Flung Seas supplement, depending on the scope of the campaign. If it was just an Anglo-Japanese clash the latter would work well but, for a wider campaign involving the German, Russians, United States, Chinese and French, the multiplayer system in the core rules would be better.

Anyway, it wouldn't be tied down to Victory at Sea and could be based on a different system or approach. I like the look of Rory Crabb's Rise of the Battleship rules and have also been looking at Naval Thunder as a possible option.  Regardless of the rules, you always need a good campaign map to plot movement and gain a strategic overview, so I was pleased to find this one online. It is a contemporary (c1898) map of the colonial possessions in the region and, although earlier than the time period I'd like to focus on, it does provide a handy map on which to base any campaign planning. This is all a bit hypothetical at the moment but it's a good start.

Burma '44

I'm reading this at the moment, having flicked through a paperback copy on the ferry and then downloaded a copy onto the Kindle. I don't tend to buy paperbacks anymore, preferring the digital option especially as I now can read books on my phone, thanks to the Kindle App for Samsung. I do, however, still buy proper hardbacks when I can afford them, as I do like the heft and ease of reading of a proper book.

This is an excellent account of the battle for the Admin Box and fits in well with my existing background book work on the campaign in Burma, which I have long wanted to game and which is a fascinating subject in its own right. It's very similar in style and approach to Feargal Keane's Road of Bones, which is another cracking read but which focuses on the Kohima and Imphal battles. I can definitely recommend both titles if you are a 'Forgotten Army' enthusiast.

TD Japanese Pre-Dreadnoughts: The Cruisers

ABJ8 Tsushima

ABJ9 Suma

ABJ7 Asama

ABJ5 Idzumo

A second instalment of photos of the unassembled, what you see is what you get, Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale pre-dreadnought era Japanese warships. This time I have some pictures of some of the armoured cruisers and light or protected cruisers. I've dropped the central superstructure section into some of these so that the overall profile is more evident. I really like the armoured cruisers, the Idzumo and Asama, both of which are really hefty and outsize many of the pre-dreadnought battleships. I'm sure they will pack a pretty good punch as well.

Wargames Soldiers and Strategy 90

I have a little bit in the latest edition of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, although if you blinked you'd probably miss it. I submitted an article on the De Havilland DH5 which was a bit late and didn't make it into the 1917 theme section, mainly due to the fact that there are two really good articles on aerial warfare already included.

Anyway, the editor did use a couple of hundred words from my blurb in the introductory article and was nice enough to credit me, so I now have something published in the mainstream wargaming press (even if they spelt my name incorrectly). I also got a bit of pocket money and a free copy of the magazine, which was a bonus and much appreciated. Thanks Guy.

I'll get my act together next time and submit something well ahead of the deadline so hope to get a proper article published, if it's good enough, at some point in the not too distant future. This issue is actually really good and you should check out the 2mm Siege of Portsmouth article by Mark Backhouse in particular, as it is well worth it if only for the stonking terrain.

Anglo Japanese Naval War 'What If?' c1904

What if this never happened?

Over the holidays I sketched out some ideas for a counter factual clash between the Royal Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy, prior to the outbreak of the Russo Japanese War in 1904. This may seem a bit far fetched but, before the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the latter were seen as a significant potential threat to British interests in South East Asia and specifically in China. Although Russia was the bigger problem, the increasing economic and military strength of Japan together with her obvious ambitions for regional expansion, seemed equally worrying to the government.

If the Alliance had not occurred and the British had instead backed the Triple Intervention in 1895, then it wouldn't be entirely off the wall to have some sort of diplomatic 'incident' between the two rival powers. How about an alternative Boxer Rebellion in which Japanese forces stood by while the foreign legation was overrun? Or the Japanese mistakenly torpedoing a British cruiser or battleship in error, thinking it was Russian? This would then open up the possibility of a naval clash of some sort, perhaps even drawing in other countries with competing interests in the region like the USA, Russia and Germany.

...or perhaps not?

If the diplomatic relationship between Japan and Great Britain had nose-dived instead of blossomed, then the Japanese navy could still have acquired it's pre-dreadnought fleet from British yards before things deteriorated into conflict. As most of the shipbuilders concerned were private firms they would meet Japanese orders regardless of the position of the government, while at the same time building warships like the Canopus class pre-dreadnought battleships in response to the rising naval strength of Japan. The Japanese also bought warships from Italy, the USA, France and Germany and were constructing their own battleships by 1905 too 

Anyway, the initial idea now is to build up a force of pre-dreadnought warships for the Royal Navy using the composition of the China Station fleet c1904, as a basis for the project. This is relatively straightforward and, on paper at least, would create a small but powerful naval force with some modern battleships, armoured cruisers, protected cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers. I have worked out that I can cover just about everything from the Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale range as well, except for a couple of light cruisers.

Just an idea but I think it has potential.

For Sale (one careful owner!)

I decided that I'm going to purge the lead pile over the next few weeks, with a load of stuff that I'll never get round to heading off to eBay to find a new home. The first instalment includes a British and French Napoleonic plastic bonanza of Victrix box sets, which I bought a few years ago to use with the original edition of Sharp Practice when that first came out. Although I like the idea of some skirmishing in sunny Spain, this will never happen, so it's all got to go. I'll be keeping my Perry plastic ACW pile for Sharp Practice 2 instead. I'm also selling off a couple of boxes of Wargames Factory Roman legionaries as well, as these have been gathering dust for far too long and I'm more likely to scale down to 10mm or 15mm for any Ancients project.