AK47 Autumn Assault [14]

I started on the Hound helicopter gunship tonight with a two stage wet and drybrush of Foundry Phlegm Green, followed by a drybrush of Foundry Moss Light and a final wash of Future gunge. The shiny finish is a result of the latter but will tone down later. I think it needs a bit of camouflage of some sort to make it blend into the terrain and stand out from the transport Mil Mi4's but I'm not sure about the best way to go about it.

Back of Beyond Campaign Game Three

I'm at the club tomorrow night for the next installment of the Back of Beyond campaign. I'll be squaring up against Colin's French Trans-Asia Citroen Kegresse equipped expedition, which is similar to my Texan Oil Prospectors, being a variant of the dinosaur hunters list with added French bits. I devised the force for the last campaign and it's no push over, even if it's much smaller than the Red Horde of the last two games.

Colin's force is quite powerful and is well equipped for desert terrain, which is what we'll be fighting over as a change from the usual gobi. The set up calls for a ridge or two of dunes along the table centre line, so his half tracks will have a distinct advantage over my wheeled armoured cars. On the plus side, my Garford Putilov should outgun his armoured vehicles and my infantry will match up well against his too.

Here's my 800 point force, which I've tweaked from last time to add a few extra bits:

 One Garford Putilov armoured car, 1 x FG (T), 1 x MG (T), 2 x MG (SS) = 110 points

One improvised armoured car with MG @ 60 = 60 points

Two chocolate teapot un-armoured cars with MG @ 50 = 100 points

One unit of eight Wildcatters/Roustabouts (T5/M5), marksmen with bombs, including two Lewis gunners @ (14 x 6 = 84) + (2 x 22 = 44) = 128 points

One unit of fourteen White Russian mercenaries (T4/M4), with bombs @ 8 points = 112 points.

Two Maxim Machine Guns (T4/M5) @ 72 points = 144 points

One DH2 Aircraft = 150 points

Total = 804 points

It's not quite everything plus the kitchen sink but it's getting there. I have a unit of labourers to paint up, having added a few extra Foundry Chinese pirate figures to round them off to the maximum eighteen but, as they haven't been painted up yet, I'll have to rely on what I've already got.

It should be an interesting game whatever the outcome may be!

Darkest Africa Nkonde [2]

The Witchdoctor

The Nkonde



The Chief

 

The Scout

I achieved precisely zero today in wargaming terms due to the various obstacles placed in my way by the kids, wife and life in general. However, I did get a chance to read the relevant bits of Chris Peer's Central Africa, relating to Nyasaland, Mlozi's War and the Nkonde. It's very interesting and exciting stuff to say the least! Anyway, I also managed to scrape five minutes to dig out the Darkest Africa tribal figures and sort them out into units for the Nkonde force.

This consists of a chief (who will have some attendants), a witchdoctor, a scout, a unit of bodyguards in feathered head-dresses (there are only eight in the picture but there will be twenty four in total), one unit of sixteen archers, one unit of sixteen musketeers and three units of twenty four spearmen each. There will also be four bases of baggage, for which I have collected a range of livestock and villagers.

This looks and sounds like a lot but, as most of the figures are scantily clad or not clad at all, it shouldn't take long to paint them up. It works out at around six hundred points or so, not including stratagems like pitfalls which will add another hundred points or so. This should be plenty for decent game, although I'll also need some extra terrain.

I'm looking forward to starting this project but will definately have to finish the AK47 stuff first!

Darkest Africa Nkonde [1]

My gaming nemesis Jon has decide to revive his long lost Darkest Africa project, with a fledgling but no doubt potent Arab Slaver force for Nyasaland. I've always wanted to paint up an army for In the Heart of Africa but haven't taken the plunge despite collecting at least half a ton of figures. However, now that I have a potential opponent, it would be a great idea to crack ahead!

I'd been thinking about starting an army this autumn once the AK47 stuff was out of the way but had originally intended to build a French colonial force for West Africa. I don't have enough figures for this yet, although Artizan will be bringing some more out soon, so the switch to Nyasaland is no great problem. I have plenty of suitable figures for a number of armies that might fit the region but I've decided to opt for the Nkonde.

From Armies of the Nineteenth Century: Africa - Central Africa by Chris Peers (p112)

The who?

The Nkonde are covered by List 21: The Generic Villagers, so don't seem to be particularly exciting compared to more exotic or powerful options like the Ngoni, Masai or Hehe. However, they have a number of positive features that make them perfect as a painting project. They're also ideal as an opponent for Jon's Arab slavers, being the target of slave raiding expeditions for many years.

1. They are easy to paint, having virtually no clothes except a loincloth and no fancy headgear or

    weapons (but see 7. below)

2. I have plenty of figures for an army including spearmen, archers, musketeers and baggage.

3. They can have a chief's bodyguard with feathered head-dresses, for which I have some figures.

4. They can have a witchdoctor. Cool!

5. They can be allied to a British force, should I decide to go off in a colonial direction.

6. They can have colourful war costume of red, yellow, grey and white faces, backs and legs (if I want to add a bit of colour to the army)

7. They have distinctive narrow rectangular shields, which I'd have to make but which would make them stand out the  from the usual and give them a bit of identity.

8. They fought against the Matabele, which I have in the leadpile.

9. They fought with Lugard against the Arabs.

10. They were not 'great warriors' but were 'brave and warlike' which is good enough for me!

I'm planning to take a pile of figures with me on holiday to Cornwall in a couple of weeks time so that I can clean them up and base them ready for the start of the In the Heart of Africa winter project 2011. If I can get them painted up by the end of the year, I'll have cracked it!

AK47 Autumn Assault [13]

Low Level Gun Run



Peter Pig doorgunner with replaced gun barrel



Duck!

I finished constructing the Mil Mi4 Hound gunship this morning, having attempted to do it last night and given up in frustration. I managed to distribute various tiny bits of silver plastic around the garage floor but luckily I had a few spare bits that I could replace them with. Anyway, I'll aim to get the dakka dakka painted up by the end of the weekend along with the heavy weapons crew that need to be done.

B@O*&&^%KS!

I'm having technical issues, to put it mildly, when I try to leave comments on other blogs (again) including, for example, Steve Blease's one (Steve, check out Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming book for an excellent FFL in Mexico scenario)

In the interim, I'll do my best to sort it out at this end...

:O(

Kampfgruppe Normandy

Thanks to the ever vigilant Steve Blease (cheers Steve!) I discovered that the Warhammer Historical rules are 50% off at the moment. I popped over to the WH webshop thingy, with a mind to pick up the new Great War supplement Over the Top, but decided instead to get a less than cheap copy of the otherwise totally extortionate Kampfgruppe Normandy 20mm WW2 rules.

I'm thinking that they might be good as an alternative set of rules for Rapid Fire! and would give me another use for the 5th Battalion DCLI figures and AFV's that I've assembled. I'm not intending to switch from Rapid Fire! but it might be interesting to do a bit of platoon level gaming using the same stuff, sort of ' two for the price of one', if you see what I mean.

At £24 (plus postage) it's at the upper end of the outlay spectrum but, as it weighs half a ton and is full of useful information, pictures and orbats, it should be worth the asking price. I could never afford it otherwise so it's a bit of a bargain, whichever way you look at it.

AK47 Autumn Assault [12]

It's back to the AK47 front now that the Picts have been sorted, so I thought I'd kick off with the helicopter gunship that I  need for the dictatorship army. I thought about using the diecast Mi24 Hind that I found on Ebay but have decided to try a conversion of another Nubee Mil Mi4 Hound kit into something less up to date. This seemed like a good idea but wasn't going to be easy.

The problem was how to model the weapons pylons for the rocket pods but I had a stroke of luck when I dusted off the box containing the kit bits. I had saved a leftover sprue of undercarriage parts from the Il-28 Beagle kit that I build a couple of weeks ago, amongst which was a strut for the nosewheel. When inverted and attached to the side of the helicopter this was a perfect rocket mounting platform.

Luckily, I had a second Beagle kit in the loft so retrieved a duplicate undercarriage oleo leg from that to match with the one I already had. With a bit of drilling and some superglue, these attached smoothly to the side fuselage of the chopper. I then added the rocket pods from a 1/144th scale Frogfoot kit which I paired up using some plastic rod.

Thus far, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I've added a nose mounted heavy machine gun to the underslung gondola, which is what it was originally designed for, and have a readily converted Peter Pig door gunner to add in the left hand side cargo door for a bit of additional firepower. I should get the rest of the model built by the end of the week, ready for painting up over the weekend.

I have a game lined up for the beginning of November so need to get the army finished buy then....!

Impetus Picts [6]

I was supposed to be taking part in a naval game at the club tonight but I was gazumped by the wife who remembered that she had a union AGM meeting that she couldn't possibly miss. I pointed out that I had the game pencilled into the calender on the kitchen notice board but it was to no avail. I went out last week so, according to the mysterious logic of the other half, it was her turn this time round.

Bugger.

Anyway, I finished the Pict re-basing after tea this evening while the younger kids were glued to Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom. The older one was out at cubs so I had a window of opportunity that I wasn't going to miss in the circumstances. The whole army is now ready for the bases to be painted, which I'll tackle after I've shifted some more AK47 stuff.

Impetus Picts [5]

I finished re-basing the last of the units tonight so now have to texture the bases before I tackle the daunting task of painting them up. In the end, I cut back on the number of figures in the javelin skirmisher units and opted for 40mm x 20mm bases rather than 30mm deep ones.

This avoided duplicating figures and allowed me to use the four leftovers plus a single mounted figure as disorder and/or opportunity markers. I have one figure left over from the original army so will try to find a use for him if I can, as I'd like to re-cycle 100% of the figures if possible.

I'm at the club for a game tomorrow night so won't be able to get any more done until Wednesday evening. I'm hoping to finish the texturing then before going back to complete the AK47 militia techinicals and heavy weapons crews, which have been hanging around  in the interim waiting to be painted.