Night of the Ninjas

After much protestation by the sprog, I gave in and set up a couple of games of Samurai Blades for him after school today. The first game used the Night of the Ninjas scenario from the scenario book. I played the ninjas but was beaten by the defending samurai bodyguards, although I did allow a few dodgy dice rolls to go the way of the opposition.

Next, we played an ambush game using the Sohei warrior monk counters against one of the generic sets of ronin and ashigaru. As you can see, my warrior monks had to escape through the forest whilst being attacked from all sides by the bandits. It was a made up scenario but, on balance, I reckon it was a bit of a draw, with two dead monks and six escapees, for one wounded bandit.

I was outnumbered two to one though!

I'm going to print off the Cry Havoc rules and scenario booklet tomorrow, as my original set seem to have gone missing. I still have all the counters and the maps though, so I can easily set up a few medieval skirmish games for the kids using what I've got in the box. As it's something they seem to be enjoying and better than the DS or TV, I think it's a good way to get them won over to the attractions of wargaming!

Pirate Press Gang

I won this lot on Ebay last week and was very pleased to get them through the post today. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't already have any of the figures in the packs and that they were also really good poses with plenty of character and few, if any, wierd bits. The four painted figures were also really superb and far better than my feeble efforts.

When I'll get round to painting this lot up I don't know but at the very least I'll have plenty of figures to add to my crew when I do. I'd like to expand the pirate project to a full on skirmish level set up and build a new, larger pirate ship as well, but this will have to wait until next year.

Bag The Doodlebug [12]

 

Despite the sub-arctic permafrost in the garage this evening, I managed to paint the canopies on the planes using the usual Foundry Sky Blue approach with a little white mixed in for a highlight. They look OK but I need to add some fine-lining in black to finish them off. I'm not used to painting bubble canopie and they're harder to get right than the good old fashioned birdcage variety.

I also painted up the V1's which, due to some dodgy finishing, are now down to one lone example. The other one looked so ropey that I had to consign it to the bin. I may replace it at some point but I only need one buzz bomb to shoot down, so it's not going to be missed. I used Foundry Phlegm Green for the camouflage, mottled on with a brush in various incoherent layers. It's not as good as I would've liked but it'll do.

It's all a bit 'ho hum' at the moment but I'm hoping things will begin to look a bit better once I crack on with the fine detailing including the exhausts, theatre bands, cockpit lining out, leading edge strips and other twiddly bits. I'm planning to get them finished for this time next week but I'll have to see how things go...

Samurai Blades

My five year old was pestering me to play a game this afternoon so I disappeared up the loft and found my old copies of Samurai Blades and Cry Havoc, which I'd stored away for a rainy day. He decided that Samurai and Ninjas sounded the more exciting of the two options and, as a result, we played out Scenario 1: Ambush from the scenario booklet. He won too!

I have to say it was great fun and the game has lost none of it's appeal in the twenty five years or so since I last tried it out. I used to play both Cry Havoc and Samurai Blades a lot when I was at school and, while they're very simple systems, they are very enjoyable. If you see a copy of Cry Havoc on Ebay then I'd thoroughly recommend that you put in a bid, although you can now download and print out all the maps, rules and counters for free!

This is the place to download the whole series of Cry Havoc games:

http://www.cryhavocfan.org/indexeng.htm

Good fun!

Knights of the Sky

I've set up a WW1 Knights of the Sky game in a couple of weeks time, as an incentive for me to slog through a steaming great pile of work that's landed on my desk over the last few days.

I've still got to think up a scenario of some sort set in December 1917, following the usual approach of recreating an actual aerial engagement that occured in the month corresponding to the current date. This will require a bit of research over the weekend but I'm hoping to have something sorted out in plenty of time for the game a week on Tuesday.

Bag The Doodlebug [11]

Far, far, far too cold in the garage tonight (and I thought it was chilly a couple of days ago!), so no painting this evening. I really need to sort myself out with some sort of heating in the dungeon where my workbench is located, otherwise the winter months make it a little less than toasty. I don't mind the cold that much to be honest, but it makes any fine paintwork a bit tricky, especially when your fingers start to freeze up.

On the plus side, I found the Doms Decals delivery on the doorstep when I got home this evening, including the rather excellent Polish insignia in 1/600th scale that I'm planning to use as nose art on the 315 Squadron Mustang III's. The smallest of the insignia is still a little on the large side but should fit in well under the exhausts on either side of the forward  fuselage. At least they'll be clearly marked as Polish!

Bag The Doodlebug [10]

I finished off a big pile of work today so, to reward myself for slogging through it, I came home a bit earlier than usual and painted the under fuselage and wings of the aircraft for Bag The Doodlebug. It's a bit of a tricky job but I think they're not too bad, considering I did it all freehand.

I'm not sure if I'm going to give them a wash afterwards as I quite like the contrast with the upper surface camouflage. I'll tidy up the overpainted bits and wobbly lines later on in the final painting stages. Next up will be the canopies.

Allied Fighter Aces

I've just finished reading this paperback which I picked up for £3 in the local Oxfam bookshop. It was in pristine condition so a bit of a bargain. It turned out to be a very good read too, although it didn't last that long and was a bit on the light side.

However, as a general overview of the development of fighter tactics from the Allied perspective, it was a jolly good read. It reminded me of the book written by Johnnie Johnson 'The Story of Air Fighting' which I read years ago.

There's another book in the series which deals with Luftwaffe Fighter Aces, so I'll have to keep a look out on ebay for that one too. If you're looking for a good place to start when it comes to WW2 air warfare, then you can't go far wrong with this one.

Bag The Doodlebug [9]

It's far too cold in the garage this evening and I'm far too tired to get any serious painting done, so I've settled for a simple overall wash on the aircraft to see if it brings out the panel detail. I used the good old gunge wash to overlayer the green and grey upper surface camouflage.

I think it looks promising and will allow me to add some panel highlights in the original shades at a later stage. I was going to paint the under surfaces as well, using Vallejo Pale Grey Blue (907) but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, along with the canopies.

Bag The Doodlebug [8]

After a very busy weekend, I managed to find a couple of hours this evening to finally get started on the aircraft for Bag The Doodlebug.

I haven't got time to hang about so, after a rummage in the spare paint box, I managed to find an old pot of Citadel Codex Grey to use as as stand-in for RAF Barley Grey. It's not the same as the GW version, being a bit lighter and with a slight green tinge, but it's close enough to the actual shade to be good enough for me.

This was followed up by a camouflage pattern in Vallejo Reflective Green, which is a little bit too bright but looks good against the grey. I struggled a bit with the Mustangs as I didn't have a plan view to work from but they seem to have come out OK. The next step will be to paint the under fuselage and wings in light grey, before taking the plunge and (possibly) trying out an overall wash.