Happy Trafalgar Day

... unfortunately not for me, as I've got a stomach bug that means I'm not going to be able to join in the Trafalgar club game tonight. I had hoped I would feel better by now but I can't seem to shift it, so will have an early night instead. 

PC10 Painting Progress Part Two

The Tumbling Dice 1/600th Airco DH2's are pretty good much finished as far as painting is concerned and now just need a tidy up and some decals, followed by a coat of Matt varnish. They've come out looking alright but less nest and tidy than I would have liked. I'm hoping to wrap them up tomorrow after work.

Get the Goeben Ship Stats for When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas

I've had a crack at working out the ship profiles for the Ottoman Navy warships not already covered in the First World War version of When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas. These include the two ex-German Brandenburg class pre-dreadnought battleships and the armoured cruiser Hamidiye. Its not too difficult to do the number crunching except for armour hull boxes but I think I've come up with some reasonably accurate ship stats, give or take a bit of guesswork. This means I can crack on with painting the models as soon as I've finished the 1/600th scale Airco DH2's for the PC10 project. 

Italian Pre-Dreadnought Potential Project

I was reading through the Russo Japanese War scenarios in When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas yesterday, working out how many 1/2400th scale models id need to build and paint for a game. This wasn't an insurmountable number but it would take some time to be completed, even if I already have a lot of the principal warships in the lead pile. 

I then remembered that I have already assembled, based and undercoated about a dozen Italian pre-dreadnoughts that just need to be painted up to be rest for action. These range from the mid 1880's through to just after 1900, so a good range of interesting vessels, from turret and barbette battleships to proper pre-dreadnoughts. 

With a few additions, this would be a really good starting point and eventually useful against both the French and the Austro Hungarians for 'What If?' scenarios. It needs some more thought and I'd have to work out the ship sheets but I think this might be a good project for next year, especially if I go for a wartime grey paint scheme to speed things up a bit.

When Dreadnoughts Ruled the South American Seas

 

I mentioned the Battle Box Studios naval rules to Geoff at the club earlier this week, as I thought he might be interested in the Russo Japanese War version, and he's now had a trial game with his Anglo-French pre-dreadnoughts. It looks like the rules are right up his street. Anyway, following his example, I'm going to work out the ship data cards for my Chilean and Argentinian pre-dreadnoughts, which I hadn't thought of as an option to use the rules with before. It shouldn't take long to run up the numbers and perhaps even have a try out game myself in half term in a couple of weeks?

Armoured Storm Eastern Front 1/600th Scale Reinforcements

I enjoyed the Armoured Storm game at the club yesterday so decided to start organising my Heroics and Ros (ex-Skytrex) tanks for the mid-war Eastern Front. These include Tigers, Panthers and Churchills, backed up by some Oddzial Ozmy T34/76 models and air support from Tumbling Dice. I have more Tigers and Churchills on the way,  as well as some StuG IIIG tank destroyers, so will have a good range of kit and enough for several companies. I'll start painting them all up as soon as the order arrives in a week or so.

Armoured Storm After Action Photo Report

A jolly good game of Armoured Storm in the Western Desert last night at the club, even if the Axis got thrashed by the Eighth Army. It's the first time I had played the rules but it was quick to pick up and rolled along swiftly, despite the large number of units on the table. In the end, a combination of terrible dice rolling, poor tactics and inexperience with the way command to tokens could be used, resulted in a bit of a pasting for the Italian and German forces, but they did give the British a bloody nose along the way. 

PC10 Painting Progress

You wouldn't know it but I've made some progress with the DH2 painting today, after a busy weekend scuppered my PC10 project plans. The grey parts have been blocked in with Army Painter Uniform Grey and I've also blocked in the undersides in Vallejo Tan Yellow, tidying up as I went along. Next up will be the Vallejo Cold White rudders and the Vallejo Matt Black wheels and engine.

Over the Front with the French Aces

 

The next phase of my First World War air wargaming with Algernon Pulls It Off! will be to focus on the French, assembling a collection of 1/600th models when Paul at Tumbling Dice finally adds them to the range. While I'm waiting for the aircraft to be sculpted for 1917-18, I'm doing the background reading and research toward the scenarios, so this book will be very useful in tracking down some of the leading pilots. These usually go for quite a lot of money but I've found a very good quality hardback copy for a tenner, which is an excellent price to pay. I have some half term holiday time coming up in a couple of weeks too, so time to do some proper background cross referencing and research. 

Armoured Storm Club Game

I'm off to the club tomorrow night for a game of Armoured Storm, which was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago but was postponed. It'll be a Western Desert scenario with all the kit provider by Geoff, so I'm looking forward to having a crack at the rules. We are both bringing our boys along for the game, which will make it a father and son effort, or perhaps the oldies against the whipper snappers? As always, I'll post an after action report, but will probably get thrashed so expect some stiff upper lips and schadenfreude!