Sci Fi Desert Dwellings

 

I've decided to do a retro 15mm Imperial Commander project at some point this year, so have ordered some Redemptionists from 15mm.co.uk to fill out the ranks of the figures that I already have. I've also splashed out on some desert dwellings from The Scene UK, which I've had my eye on for ages but didn't otherwise have a use for. I think they'll look spot on as a settler outpost on the fringes of the Imperium and will make a splendid objective for the Redemptionists to capture, or something along those lines. It's cheered me up no end as well!

Bag the Hun Operation Bodenplatte [23]

A bit of a rush basecoat job on the FW190's today but it's all in the early stages, so plenty of time to layer on the rest of the camouflage. I'm out tomorrow evening for work, so won't get anything done until the weekend, although I hoping to get the whole lot finished by next week, so that I can move onto the USAAF P51's and P47's that I need for the game at the end of the month.

Midget Submarine Commander

 

I found this in digital format for a couple of quid the other day and it looks really good. I'm off to the Naval Wargames Society show in Gosport next weekend too, followed by a long overdue return trip to the submarine museum, so there's a definite nauatical theme to the latter part of June. I may even pick up the coastal warfare project again in July or even have a crack at the Peter Pig pirate ships, who knows?

Bag the Hun Operation Bodenplatte [22]

Despite a stinking cold (in June!) I finished off the Museum Miniatures Fw190D's this evening using a combination of Doms Decals and I-94 decals to kit them out. I think they came out OK in the end, despite a few headaches along the way, so I'm now going to move onto the FW190A8's and a couple of TA152's to complete the project, at least for the meanwhile. I'm getting there...albeit at a snail's pace.

A Blast from the Laserburn Past

I've been feeling a bit nostalgic of late, perhaps as a result of the plethora of glossy new rules, designer boxed set factions and nascent kickstarter projects that have been swamping the wargaming market. This is all a good thing and I've been tempted several times to dive into yet another new period with inevitable consequences for both the bank balance and the leadpile. I have yet to make a mental note to myself about the inevitable futilty of anything in 28mm, let alone epic 30mm of whatever it's called these days...

So, when I think back to the time when rules came in photocopied booklets with hand-drawn illustrations and reference sheets banged out with a typewriter, tippex and a ruler, I get a little bit emotional. When I started wargaming back in the early '80's this was the standard and, at that time, was perfectly acceptable. It made rules cheap and readily available, although you had to actually write a letter and a cheque, then wait a couple of weeks for the stuff to arrive in the post (although it did arrive at the crack of dawn, not at five o'clock in the afternoon).

One such set of rules that I aquired, aged 13, was Imperial Commander, written by Richard Halliwell and Bryan Ansell and published by the now defunct Tabletop Games. A freind of mine had got hold of a copy of Laserburn, so I decided to try out the mass combat extension to the rules, using our 15mm Laserburn figures to play a few games. In the end, my mate lost interest and we drifted off into Squad Leader and Cry Havoc, but I still held onto my Red Redemptionist and Imperial forces for a rainy day.

When I re-ignited my long dormant interest in wargaming about ten years ago, it was no surprise that I started out with Imperial Commander, setting up a yahoo group dedicated to the Laserburn rules aptly, yet inconveniently titled For a few Gonads More. It was surprisingly popular and, although now effectively dead, did stimulate a lot of interest in the rules and the 15mm figure range that was designed for it. It even spawned the niche but popular Beamstrike rules, something for which I can take little credit:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afewgonadsmore/

I also put together a Red Redemptionist Force using the TTG figures and some now unavailable Peter Pig robots, although the standard of painting left a lot to be desired, especially as I was using Humbrol Enamels. I'm not sure what happened to the army but it's now long gone and is probably gathering dust in a box somewhere or contributing to yet more landfill.

Anyway, I recently acquired some second hand 15mm Laserburn Imperial figures on Ebay for old times sake. The lead rot hasn't set in yet and they're in pretty good shape, considering their vintage and the fact that they haven't seen the light of day since 1983 or thereabouts. I also have some figures in a box that I didn't get round to painting back in 2003, so I have enough to put together a fairly decent Imperial Assault Group if I wanted to.

A quick search on the web and it appears that the Laserburn range is still available from 15mm.co.uk, even though the price has now skyrocketed to 40p per figure. They're not bad sculpts for their age but 40p is a bit steep for a thirty year old range of old school sci-fi figures. They do offer a blister pack deal, however, which is better value and could fill in the gaps in my existing ranks. The figures are pretty good for their age, especially the Redemptionists, which have a really cool desert wasteland warrior thing going on.

Will I give in to temptation and order a few packs of scout skimmers, trikes and warrior lords, or will I ignore the tug of nostalgia and crack on with the projects that have littered the verges of my path of progress this year? It's tempting but I have other things to do this month, so the final decision can wait until the dust has settled and I've completed the Bag the Hun aircraft for the club game.

...it is tempting though?

Bag the Hun Operation Bodenplatte [21]

I half nearly finished these four Museum Miniatures FW190D's and should get them done and dusted by the end of the day. I intially tried a Foundry Granite approach but it looked completely wrong, so fell back on Foundry Phlegm Green for the basecoat camouflage. I now need to add the second stripe to the Defence of the Reich band, paint the spinners and add the decals, before I spray them in Army Painter Matt Varnish and paint the bases.

Flashing Steel

I got hold of the .pdf download of Ganesha Games Flashing Steel skirmish rules a couple of days ago, to see if they'd be good for my 28mm pirates. The rules are very well set out and clear to read, with some excellent illustrations and lots of background information for both swashbuckling 'Three Musketeers' style games and for piratical action in various historical settings. 

The rules themselves are very similar, if not identical in most respects, to the Napoleonic rules we were using at the club. Although there are no rules for sailing ships or naval combat, there is a very neat mini-campaign generation system that would be great for a series of linked games. I'll see if I can get a try out game set up at some point in the near future.

15mm Spanish Civil War Game

The other game at the club on Tuesday was a 15mm SCW bash, using the Battlefront WW2 rules adapted for the period. It looked good and seemed to be playing well, as both sides fought to control a small town represented for the most part by card templates, so that the units could defend the buildings. In a couple of weeks time I'm involved in a game of Bayonets and Ideology against the player who provided the rather nice figures for this game, so I'm sifting through the rules at the moment to work out what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm tempted to do a Republican army of some sort for BAIT but I have plenty of other things to be getting on with for the moment.

Bag the Hun Operation Bodenplatte [20]

A bit of a disaster on the BTH front this evening, as I attempted to spray undercoat the Scotia Collectair Volksjager and He129 Uhu. After spending a good hour cleaning up the castings and basing them on Raiden hex stands, I took them into the garden for a quick coat of Halfords grey primer.

I'm not sure if it was the change in temperature or the dodgy contents of a nearly empty spray can but the end result was something akin to volcanic ash thickly coating the otherwise pristine models. I attempted to rescue the Volksjager but they ended up as twisted metal, so have been consigned to the scrap heap. 

The less flimsy Heinkel was given a good scrub up and a re-spray with Humbrol Light Grey, which seems to have done the trick. I'll add it to the FW190 D's that I'm painting up, even though it's very unlikely to make an appearance in the scenario for the game at the end of the month.

Song of Drums and Shakos Game

The game this evening involved a small skirmish between British and French patrols somewhere in Portugal, using the Song of Drums and Shakos rules by Ganesha Games. The objective for the French was to capture a barn full of essential provisions, whilst the British had to stop the French from achieving their desperate foraging mission.

In the end, the French were soundly thrashed, with my half of the patrol pinned down for most of the game after losing their officer to a sharpshooter. Although it was a 'catastrophe' for the Frogs, the game was good fun and I was impressed by the simple mechanics of the system, which are based on the outcome of one, two or three D6.

I also discovered that Ganesha Games have a set of pirate rules based on the same system, so I'll definately be investigating them as an viable alternative to Legends of the High Seas. If they are anything like the Song of Drums and Shakos Napoleonic version, they'll be well worth the minimal outlay involved. I'm also looking forward to the opportunity of thrashing Perfidious Albion in a re-match!