El Dorado

The Foundry conquistadors arrived today and very nice they are too. I have enough figures for a decent force for the War in El Dorado rules in the Foundry Compendium, although some crossbowmen and war dogs would be a useful extra, if I can find any that match. For the opposition I'll use Copplestone Botocudo warriors as I already have a handful and can easily add some more with an army deal later on.

In the meantime, I've ordered a copy of the Ian Heath Foundry book, which is the basis for the army lists in the rules and should prove to be valuable reading material in general, as I know next to nothing about the period. It wasn't very expensive so will go in the Xmas stocking, along with the El Dorado figures. This is yet another project for the leadpile but the figures are great, so well worth it in the long run.

AK47 Fleet Review

The fleet anchored in Mjuba Bay

The Amphibious Assault Force is state of the art

The Mbote navy conducts regular training exercises

The Mbote army is fully trained in amphibious operations

Amphibious fire support is fully integrated at a tactical level

I finished off the last bits on the submarine this evening, after a very long and very tedious day at work, so to cheer myself up I thought I'd assemble the flotilla for a naval review. I'm going to add some further vessels to the fleet in 2012, including four more swamp boats and another Panga class patrol vessel but, for the moment, here's the Mbote Coastal Defence Force in all it's amphibious glory.

Bunga Bunga!

(that'll put the wind up the Zumatans...?)

Xmas Holiday Projects

At this time of year I usually plan a project or two for the holidays, most of which we spend at the in laws in France. I've given up trying to paints things after having failed to get anything done on previous holiday attempts but have had some success in preparing and basing armies ready for painting up back home.

This year I'll be taking the box of Darkest Africa tribal figures for the Nkonde army that I started on back in October. I'll aim to get a couple more spear armed units cleaned up and based, along with some archer and the independent figures. This will then make it easy to get the army painted up early in 2012.

I'm also going to take a second box of something or other to clean up and base for future painting. At the moment this will either be some new colonial settlers for AK47, which I can use as the basis of a new army or as mercenaries for my dictatorship force, or some 1/600th scale coastal warfare models.

I've always wanted to do 1/600th WW2 coastal forces and have had it on the annual list of 'things to do' for the last three years. I'm determined to get it started in 2012 despite having about half a dozen existing projects in the 'ready to paint' box already. 

I'll be setting out my plans for next year over the holidays as usual and I'm sure some of the old projects, like the 1/2400 Victorian ironclads, the 28mm Gladiators and the Wings at War 1/600 MiG Alley! aircraft will feature somewhere in the schedule. As a result, I think a few MTBs and E boats won't be over indulgent!

AK47 Winter Quarters [10]

I've pretty much finished off the landing craft and the submarine this evening, give or take a bit of tidying up of the messy bits, some detailing on the figures and a coat of gloss varnish on the wet bits. I'm fairly pleased with the overall result but I'm sure I could have done a better job if I had the time to spend on them.

I have a late meeting tomorrow evening so don't expect to get much done but I can now crack on with the bases for the rest if the army without distractions. I have until the end of the week to get them basecoated at the very least, with ideally a couple of drybrush layers done as well by the weekend.

The Little Ships

I saw this little hardback book on ebay last week for a couple of quid and thought it looked very interesting. It was published in October 1943 by Hodder and Stoughton and was written by Gordon Holman, author of Commando Attack! (presumably a similar volume). It's referenced in a number of coastal warfare books that I've read and I now have a copy myself.

The best bit about it are the charcoal and watercolour illustrations, which are done in a very boys own style but really capture the iconic imagery associated with the MTB and MGB forces in the first half of the war. I've taken a few dodgy photos and have posted them here to give you some idea of what I mean. I think they're great!

Happy Xmas To Me!

I've been allowed to buy myself a Xmas present as usual, as it's far easier to choose something yourself than try and find a present for your other half. The Ministry of the Intertior has bought herself a nice new pair of jackboots. I have taken advantage of the Foundry 20% off plus an extra 10% sale to get the Conquistador collection that I've had my eye on for a while, together with a couple of extra packs and a palletteof three Rawhide paints.

Jingle Bells! 

Books, Books and more Books

We had some shelving built in the sitting room a few months ago and the wife has been nagging me to empty the loft of my book collection and fill up the shelves ever since. Today I was given the afternoon to do just that while the family went to town to do some xmas shopping.

This turned out to be a major logistical exercise involving quite a lot of lifting and shifting, not to mention some precarious balancing on the loft ceiling bearers. I managed to shift most of the books and get them shelved but there are still a couple of packing boxes full to be moved at a later date.

The other shelf in the sitting room is full of my paperback books already but they might get shifted over to the new shelves as there's a bit of space left. The top row of shelves will be filled up with my CD collection, mainly jazz but some other stuff as well, although I never get to play it due to the Ministry of Sound vetoing anything that isn't French lift music.

I've also finished reading Home Waters MTB's  and MGB's at War, which was very good, particularly for scenario ideas. As a result, I've decided to re-read Bryan Cooper's The War of the Gunboats which I originally read several years ago in tatty paperback format. I now have a nice new hardback edition, so I'm looking forward to a bit of coastal warfare research.

AK47 Winter Quarters [9]

I got about half way with the submarine and the landing craft today, much of which being spent out of the house on various trips and errands. I've started the weathering on the boats but this is only in the initial stages and I need to paint the bases, finish the figures and add some decals before they're finished (they also need a final matt varnish as they're rather shiny after the standard Future based washcoat). I should get this done tomorrow, assuming I don't get sidelined by family stuff any more than I have today?

AK47 Winter Quarters [8]

I spent about an hour last night assembling the Type XXIII  1/144th scale submarine kit, which was a simple matter of cutting down the two hull halves then gluing them together before sanding them to an even keel. After that, all I had to do was add a few small bits like the hatch, rudder, periscope and schnorkel. Easy. I superglued the hull to a base made out of 2mm pastic card then undercoated it in Halfords matt black.

I'm planning to get it painted up today along with the three resin landing craft. This will complete the naval force for the AK47 project for the moment, although there may be some rubber dinghies for a submarine inserted shore landing party if I can find some suitable models. I also hopr to get some more of the bases washed over in Vallejo English Uniform, if I can squeeze them in.

NEWSFLASH - Submarine spotted in Lake Bagombo (Reuters)

From our naval affairs corresponent in Abadwe

At an emergency press conference this morning, the Nbuto Minister for Military Affairs, Colonel Jean Claude Gruyere, presented to the international press irrefutable evidence of an escalation in the on-going conflict between the belligerent states of Mbote and Zumata.

The photographs displayed at the press conference clearly show a coastal class submarine aground at an undisclosed location on the shores of Lake Bagombo. In his statement, Colonel Gruyere identified the submersible as a newly aquired Kikulu class submarine of the Mbote Coastal Defence Force.

Constructed in Taiwan to a joint Albanian-Italian design, the Kikulu class represents a massive leap forward in military capability for Mbote. It's unique four speed encyclical crash gearbox allows it to move in reverse at very high speed, whilst it's single 12'' torpedo tube is positioned in an innovative conning tower mounting, allowing for no reloading and constricted access to the uniquely thin-walled pressure hull crew compartment.

According to the Nbuto government, the vessel ran aground yesterday near the mouth of the Chokwe river after suffering an undisclosed mechanical failure. The crew have been detained in the naval base at Port Mtumtu pending their re-patriation to Mbote, as dictated by the recent Mbote-Nbuto Non Aggression Pact.

This evidence of an escalation of hostilities between Mbote and Zumata will cause deep concern in the region and will raise serious doubts about the likelihood of a ceasefire between the two warring nations. The Mbote Minister for War, Colonel Banga B'oum, has denied any allegations of aggression on the part of Mbote and has been unavailable for comment today.