Chargeblog: Adventures in Wargaming

I absentmindedly forgot to separate out a link to Michael's outstanding blog in my post the other day, just tagging one on the end of the blurb, so here it is again in full focus:

http://hntdaab.co.uk/blog/ .

If you have any doubts about ultra modern 'Imaginations' skirmish wargaming, this blog will cure you of your misgivings and probably end in a phone call from your bank manager, assuming you are like me and can't quite resist the temptation to splash out on some figures. Luckily I have stacks of lead in 15mm for AK47 and the like, just for starters, and a high level of self control! I think?

The Quiet American

A great clip from a really good film, which includes a very brief appearance by an old work colleague of mine who can be seen running across the bridge. He was living in Vietnam at the time and got to play the role of a French soldier...how neat is that!  Anyway, it's an excellent film and has some good action sequences including a Viet Minh attack on a fortified tower in the De Lattre line, as well as the scene in the village that is partly covered by the video clip. I am really getting the French Indochina War thing....and have an urge to go 28mm squad level skirmish. I must resist!

Danger Close

I was enjoying the excellent modern rules guide over on the equally excellent Charge Blog today, when I noticed that Empress Miniatures have published their version of Some Corner of a Foreign Field, aptly retitled for ultra modern skirmish games as Danger Close. 

These are pretty much exactly the same as the original but have been given a spiffy facelift. I was thinking of using the rules as one option  for my Britain's Small Wars projects but may now also try them with the French Indochina project, even though they are designed for smaller squad level modern skirmish games. 

Incidentally, the Charge Blog is a fantastic resource for things to do with ultra modern 'imaginations' skirmish wargaming, so definitely well worth a look:

http://hntdaab.co.uk/blog/

MiG Alley USN/ USMC Painting

I finally got round to painting the canopies, wing leading edges, fin and nose flashes on the MiG Alley / Bag the MiG naval aircraft today, after over a week of delay. The canopies were easy but the anti-corrosion leading edge on the F9F Panthers was a bit of a pain and needs some tidying up to look neater. The aircraft are now almost ready for the decals, apart from some black lining with a 0.05 drawing pen,  which tends to make them look a lot better than the basic paintwork would otherwise suggest. I'll try to get time to do at least some of the decals over the week, as I have now got some tiddly white lettering to add to the wings and tail fins, albeit in a much simplified format.

15mm Cold War British Bundle Bonus

I had a really nice surprise when I opened the Team Yankee Iron Maiden bundle today. The rules supplement was as expected, perhaps better than I thought it would be, full of some really good information, scenario ideas and painting guidelines for Cold War British armour and infantry. I'm not into Team Yankee but thought that it was a really useful resource regardless of the rules of scale of gaming that you might decide to use.

The Mechanised Company pack of British infantry figures were also pretty good, although not as well sculpted as Peter Pig in my opinion, being the usual Flames of War style castings which I find a bit soulless. However, there's just enough for a full platoon at 1:1 if I wanted to use them for Fireteam: Modern or No End in Sight.

The surprise was to find several sheets of 1/100 scale BAOR decals, both for AFV's and helicopters, which I can only assume were leftovers from an abandoned project but which are perfect for my Britain's Small Wars vehicles including the QRF Saladins, Saracens and Ferrets that I have assembled.

It's always nice to get an unexpected extra and this one will be really handy!

QRF Crabes

These arrived in the post yesterday, so I had a closer look this morning to size one up against a Eureka French Foreign Legionnaire and one of the Battlefront LVT 'Alligators'. These are some of the more recent QRF models, so a lot less crude than the older AFV's that they used to produce, the difference in quality being pretty obvious. I bought four in the sale, so got an additional 15% off which made them even cheaper than the already very competitive price tag of £2.50 each. I think they scale out very well against both the figures and the much larger LVT, so all I need to do is get some crew, add a bit of stowage and finish them off with a Peter Pig .30cal machine gun on a pedestal mount. Bof!

MiG Alley Whirlibirds

I have a couple of USN / USMC helicopters in the painting stage, ready for MiG Alley rescue missions over war torn Korea, but have been struggling to devise a way to represent the spinning rotor blades. I thought of cutting out discs of thin plastic or bubble packaging then drawing on the blurred outline of the blades but this seemed a bit too crude and would probably look pants. However, I have now found a source of laser cut thin plastic rotor blades for 1/600th scale aircraft, including both tail rotors and main rotor blade discs. I'll go ahead and order a couple in different sizes, if I can work out the ones I need, to see what they're actually like, although they look pretty effective in the photo above.

No I'm not....

....about to start gaming anything related to Flames of War and it's Cold War Gone Hot offshoot, Team Yankee. Why not? To be frank, I just can't get my head around a 1/100th scale Chieftain with a maximum effective range of 100cm...eh? What?

Bonkers.

No tank to tank car parks for me! Lovely models though and spot on for 15mm 'What if?' Cold War skirmish wargaming, with my eye firmly fixed on recce kit like Scorpions and Scimitars or even French AFV's, if and when they get added to the release schedule?

Anyway, there was a copy of the BAOR supplement, Iron Maiden, on eBay as a 'Make An Offer' auction, so I duly took a punt and, much to my surprise, actually won it.  This was a bonus as I was really after the Mechanised Company pack of squaddies that it was bundled with. I'm guessing it's an unwanted present or one of those spur of the moment impulse buys, not that I know anything about those (oh no!).

In the end, I paid about half the normal ticket price for the lot. The book will be good for organisational information if I ever get into micro-armour again, while the infantry will do for another 15mm platoon level force to use with No End in Sight or similar. It's a good deal whichever way you look at it even if I've now blown my pocket money for the week on a Monday rather than the usual Friday!

The Life of Gordon

I had a really nice and unexpected late present from a friend of the family on New Years Day, a first edition hardback copy of The Life of Gordon, published in 1896 and written by a gentleman by the name of Demetrius C. Boulger, no less. It's in pretty good condition and has some very nice plates with photographs and sketches of Chinese Gordon himself. I'm particularly interested in the latter chapters of the book, dealing as they do with his time in Africa and especially the Sudan. What a nice present and completely out of the blue!

15mm Eureka French Indochina War Figures

French Foreign Legion 

Vietminh

LVT-4 'Alligator'

It's been far too cold to do any painting in the garage today but I did find the second hand stash of 15mm Eureka Miniatures French Indochina war figures that I have been looking for. There's enough Vietminh and French figures for a small platoon plus support, give or take a few extras that I will need to order including some LMG teams for the French and some additional riflemen for the Vietminh.

The Battlefront LVT-4's also arrived in the post, so I matched them up with the figures to see how well they compared for scale. The Eureka figures are smaller than the Flames of War ones but I'm not planning to mix them together so that doesn't matter. I think they scale out quite well against the LVT's, so I may get a few more Battlefront vehicles for this project including an M20 scout car, a jeep or two and possibly an M24 Chaffee light tank.