Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [14]

Here are the very last of the leader figures and support units for the Chain of Command Japanese early war platoon, which is handy as my can of Army Painter Desert Yellow has now fizzled out to the last drops. It's lasted a long time and gives a very even coverage, so I think I've got my moneys worth!

 

 

The figures consist of an engineer squad of two teams and a junior leader, using the Jungle Veteran figures as assault troops, a second MMG and team and a junior leader for the 'Knee Mortar' section. This completes the core contingent of the platoon, with a few extra odds and ends to fill out the support options.

 

 

 

These include a trio of Type 100 grenade launcher equipped infantry, which I converted from bog standard figures, and two Senior NCO's, one with an SMG and one with a standard, both of which will be interchangeable as the Gunzo or Platoon Sergeant. I now only have a couple of Chi Ha tanks to assemble and undercoat to be ready for the painting stage. Phew!

Wars of the Faltenian Succession

Now, I'm not planning to launch off into horse and musket campaigning at any point soon but this compilation of articles from Battlegames has grabbed my attention as a very useful guide to running a potential campaign of some sort, perhaps as a solo exercise. I've also been re-reading At the Sharp End, the campaign supplement for Chain of Command, so there's definitely some sort of joined up thinking going on even if I don't know what I'm actually doing?

Blue Swastika Rampant Planning

I've now organised the Finnish and Russian planes for the Continuation War project, mostly using models that I already had together with some extras that I ordered from Dom of Doms Decals. He is selling off his Raiden stock so it's well worth having a look at what he has left. I've also ordered a handful of models from Magister Militum to fill the gaps.

The Finnish half of the project includes:

8 x Fokker DXXI
8 x Brewster Buffalo
4 x MS 406
4 x Fiat G50
4 x Gloster Gladiator (if I can face doing the struts?)
1 x Bristol Blenheim I (I will get a few more of these)

The Russian half of the project includes:

12 x Polikarpov I 16
3 x Polikarpov I 15 bis (some more of these later)
9 x Tupolev SB 2
6 x Ilyushin DB 3
6 x Hawker Hurricane I

This adds up to quite a lot of painting but with a production line approach it shouldn't be too much to manage, especially as the Russians are very straightforward to do.

A bigger issue is the number of flight stands required which, at a quick count, adds up to over sixty! With the resin Raiden bases now costing nearly four quid for six, it's no longer an affordable option to use them, so a homemade alternative is needed. I've already been experimenting with a sandwich of 30mm mdf hexes and brass rod stands, but this is very much a work in the R and D stage at the moment!

ImagiNations

I found this in the Oxfam bookshop over the weekend and even a brief flick through of some of the chapters has given me lots of inspiration for potential imagi-nations projects. I'd never heard of Borussia, for example, and there are many other examples of now extinct nation states that could easily be used as a template for a fictional wargaming campaign.

This is very much in the tradition of Charles Grant's wargaming campaigns set in a parallel Seven Years War context and more recently re-invigorated by the likes of Henry Hyde through Battlegames magazine and the Wargames Compendium. I even had some Spencer Smith plastic figures years and years ago for just such a project, having been inspired by an article in a Military Modelling wargames special.

Anyway, I'd love to have a go at something outside my usual AK47 imaginations sphere of interest, so may well do some more background research and development along these lines. At the moment, Northstar have a sale on the Wargames Factory WSS box sets which is tempting but this could equally well be an interwar Mittel Europa themed SCW style thing, who knows....? It's all very much a paper project at the moment, however, as I have plenty to be getting on with already.

Back of Beyond Expedition Extras [1]

It's been a long time since I picked up a paint brush and so I thought I'd crack my painters block by completing a unit of labourers for my Back of Beyond oil prospecting expedition. These are a mixture of Copplestone Chinese bandits, a couple of Foundry Chinese pirates and a spare Copplestone Chinese executioner figure as the gang foreman, complete with his big scary chopper.

I've had these based and undercoated for ages but just didn't get round to doing them, as the Back of Beyond has taken a back seat at the club over the last couple of years. In game terms this motley crew of Chinese and Mongolian lackies is pretty useless, having a tactical factor or two and a morale factor of three, together with some rusty one shot popgun rifles.

This means they are only worth a paltry two points per figure, which makes them cheap as chips for a very good reason. However, they are great as skirmishers and make very good bullet magnets in front of your much more valuable unarmoured vehicles, especially as the target priority rules mean that the enemy must shoot at the nearest threat, even if it's a mangy, flea bitten peasant with a pointy stick!

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [13]

 

It's been a while but here are some more of the last units for the Chain of Command Japanese platoon, ready for painting after the holidays, if all goes according to plan. The AT gun is an old Copplestone Chinese field gun left over from the Back of Beyond but it looks close enough to be useable. I doubt there are any Japanese interwar artillery experts at the club, so I'll probably be able to get away with it. It's a really neat little model, so a shame not the put it to good use!

 

 

The sniper team is an extra one using a couple of figures from the Japanese Veteran blister that I added to the project a couple of weeks ago. The rest of these will now be used to make two engineer teams and a Junior Leader, so that they can be combined into an engineer section, replacing the single bangalore torpedo engineer team that I assembled from various bits at the start of the project. These are the next figures on the 'to do' list along with a couple of resin Warlord Games Chi Ha tanks.

Chocolate Teapots in the Back of Beyond

Hard as nails at the back. Teapot at the Front

I've got a game of Back of Beyond in a couple of weeks time, which makes a nice change and which I'm really looking forward to. I'll be wheeling out my Texan oil prospecting expedition again, based as it is on the Dinosaur Hunter list in the Contemptible Little Armies supplement. This is a great little force packing quite a bit of firepower but it has one major weakness, the unarmoured vehicles of which you need to have at least three to be able to deploy their armoured counterparts.

A disaster waiting to happen

These have a very inconvenient habit of blowing up after only one hit, whether from a single shot from a rifle or a fusilade of fire from a whole unit of figures or heavy machine gun. This means they make excellent speed bumps and cover for your advancing infantry but are relatively useless otherwise, despite costing fifty points and being equipped with a Lewis gun or similar. I think that a 'house rule' is needed to fix this, especially as my opponent has the same problem, being in command of an archaeological expedition from the British Museum.

So, without further ado, whatever the heck that means, here's my nifty solution to the chocolate teapot situation.

1. First, roll to hit as usual for each figure firing, applying any relevant modifiers.
2. Next, if a miss there will be no effect but, if a hit is scored re-roll the D6.
3. If the score is 1-3, the shot has pinged off the engine block, scratched the woodwork or dinged the bumpers etc. No effect.
4. If the score is 4-6, the shot has hit something unpleasant like the fuel tank, ammunition box, driver, tyres or radiator, and the vehicle is now hors de combat.

I think this will work and give the unarmoured trucks in my expedition at least a chance of surviving more than five minutes as they whizz across the steppe looking for some non-existent cover to hide behind?!

Blue Swastika Rampant

I've neglected Bag the Hun this year and haven't put a new project together yet, so it's about time I started to get myself organised. I could paint up the mid-war RAF and Luftwaffe models that I assembled for the Whirlwind project but the thought of all those standard camouflage patterns isn't very appealling as an exercise in painting.

Instead, I thought I'd do something completely different and go for a new project entirely, using some of my existing leftover bits from other projects and a handful of new models. An article by Nick Skinner in an old TFL Summer Special, aptly titled Blue Swastika Rampant, provided a good excuse to give this project a Winter War and Continuation War focus.

I already have a couple of relevant Osprey Aircraft of the Aces titles for this and now have a couple more as background reading material and a source of colour profiles. I'm now working out how many unusual and iconic aircraft types I can squeeze into the Finnish and Russian forces, so there's plenty of scope for some enjoyable and varied painting.

Chain of Command British Malaya Platoon Support

It's a new month, so I have a bit of pocket money to spend and what better to spend it on than some support units for the Chain of Command British platoon. The universal carrier will be equipped with a Bren or Boyes AT rifle team as mobile fire support or could be deployed as a tow for the two pounder AT gun, which will help to beef up the platoon against my Japanese Chi Ha and Ha Go tanks. Very handy!

Jungle Palm Trees

The plastic palm trees that I ordered via Ebay a couple of weeks ago arrived today from China. As you can see they come in mixed packs of 14 trees with two of each size, scaling out from 28mm down to 6mm or so in wargaming terms. I have half a dozen bags of trees, so have plenty to put together as jungle or plantation terrain for the 28mm Malaya project and for other things like AK47 or Indochina as well.