Calleva Atrebatum

I persuaded the wife that it would be a nice idea to visit Silchester today, rather then go down to the New Forest with the rest of the weekending horde. She was a bit dubious but it turned out to be a great day out, depsite the less than tropical weather.

I've meant to visit the place for years, as it's only half an hour away, but somehow never got round to it. In my distant youth I was an archaeology student and I even attempted to make a living out of it before I saw reason and joined the teaching profession, so it was a bit of a busman's holiday for me.

The kids loved it too, especially the amphitheatre which really captured their imagination, despite the alternative distractions of acorn throwing and running about in circles. It's a very impressive site even though on a provincial scale compared with the one I visited in Trier many years ago.

It got me thinking about the 28mm gladiators that I found the other day mixed up with the various pirate figures that I've just painted up. I really should do a gladiator project, as the Crusader figures are really well sculpted and full of character. If only I had the time...

Warmaster Ancients?

I had one of those ebay impulse bids the other day and ended up winning a copy of Warmaster Ancients. It looks really good as a quick and fun set of rules. I also like 10mm as a scale, so put the two things together and it could be a project for next year? Oh dear...

I was thinking of using the Anglo Saxon, Norman and Viking lists as a model for specific armies, basing the troop types and composition on the lists in the Shieldwall WAB book. This includes lists for the various AS kingdoms, the Welsh / West Welsh, the Irish, Scots, Danes, Norse etc, giving proportional figures for the relative mix of troops and units within each army.

It shouldn't be difficult to convert these over to the Warmaster format? On his Warmaster site, Rick Priestley even has a couple of relevant lists, including an early Saxons and early Danes:

http://rickpriestley.com/

I quite like the idea of mid-Saxon battles i.e. late 8th to early 10th century. There are some interesting and varied armies e.g. West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, Welsh, Strathclyde, Cornish (West Welsh), Danish, Irish and so on...

There are also some humdinger historical battles like Brunanburh (937) Ashdown (871) and Hengestdun (838). The location of the latter is only a mile or so from my parent's house in East Cornwall, so I've always had an interest in replaying it.

Pirate Sloop [3]

I scrabbled some time together to do the masts and spars on the pirate sloop this evening, having decided to keep things fairly simple and easy to transport. As you can see the spars are fixed to the main mast with magnets, while the jib thingy is permanently fixed at right angles.

I decided to leave off any sails for the moment as a) they get in the  way, and b) I can't be bothered to fart about with PVA glue, tissue paper. pins and bits of thread. However, I have added a slightly dodgy scratchbuilt hatch cover made from an mdf base and some strips of thin card.

I think it looks OK thus far but the proof of the pudding will be when I get to paint the whole thing it up...

Rapid Fire! Update

I've been putting things in place for the Rapid Fire! project today. I've ordered some Ready to Roll bren carriers and a single Lloyd carrier from Chiltern Miniatures, so that's the transport element sorted. I'm still looking for a 6 pounder AT gun, having compared the 1/76th Airfix kit with the Valiant figures and fallen off my chair laughing.

I posted an enquiry on TMP and have picked up a couple of leads, with the front runners being Platoon 20 and Raventhorpe. I'll need to chase these up but may have to do a bit of scratchbuilding or kitbashing to get something that looks OK with the Valiant figures. It's not a big deal but it would be good to get it sorted, otherwise it's down to the PIAT's.

New Rapid Fire! Project

The Rapid Fire! idea seems to have struck a chord at the club and I've now commited myself to painting up a British Infantry battalion for Normandy using the Valiant figures that I had in the plastic pile. This means that the 10mm Italian stuff is going to have to be postponed until next month.

My plan now is to knock off the fifty or so figures that make up the HQ company, the four rifle companies, the support company and FAO team, by half term. I could add an attached machine gun company from the brigade but I think I'll leave that until later. I'll also need a 6pdr AT gun from somewhere and a couple of carriers.

I'll also be doing a squadron or two of Shermans to add a little armour support, using the Armourfast kits that I have set aside for this, although I'm going to keep the tank support to a minimum to avoid overkill. The Armourfast kits are very simple but should be easy to detail up a bit and paint in my usual drybrush method.

I've been wanting to a Rapid Fire! unit for a long, long time so I'm really pleased that Andy, the chap who came up with the idea, has signed himself up to do some Valiant Late War Germans so that I'll have some opposition. We'll see how we get on but, hopefully, they'll be some fast moving, enjoyable games at the other end of all the effort.

Anyway, I have to finish the pirate ship first and, if I have the time at half term the extra planes for Bag the Hun 2, so there's no time to hang about!

Rapid Fire!

Over the weekend a bit of a Rapid Fire! craze seems to have swept through my local club, inspired by one of the regulars who fancied doing something 'skirmishy' in 20mm. The idea is that we all have some old Airfix kits lying about that could be used, so why not dust them off and have a bit of low level gaming with Rapid Fire! as a probable ruleset.

This suits me fine as it means I can use my existing boxes of Valiant Tommies and Armourfast Shermans to build the 5th Battalion Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry, as originally planned for 28mm, plus a squadron or two of Shermans from the Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry. I'd need to get a couple of carriers and a 6pdr Anti Tank gun but, apart from those, I have everything that I need.

I may move the 1.285th scale North Africa planes to one side and tackle the 20mm stuff alongside the 10mm Italians this month. It depends what's decided about the direction the Rapid Fire! thing takes when it gets hammered out at the club tomorrow night.

Pirate Sloop [2]

I got some serious time in on the pirate ship today much to my surprise, as weekends are usually completely mental. The boys both had birthday partys to go to, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, so we had a relatively child free day. This meant I had almost a whole afternoon to crack on with the cladding on the sloop and the detailing of the hull.

The end result isn't half bad if I say so myself, although I still have a way to go to complete the thing so that it can actually be used in a game. I need to add a grating and the rest of the rigging bits, the mast detaches by the way, as well as some general fiddling around with extra fittings and fixtures. It also needs a sea base of some sort.

I had a bit of a *&^% up with the gun ports as I ended up making them too low for the 28mm Crusader Miniatures cannons that I was supposed to be using. However, I found a pack of Peter Pig Pieces of Eight 15mm medium cannons that will make pretty good light guns instead, unless I choose to cut down the 28mm ones to fit.

I'll see if I can finish off the remaining things to do tomorrow then slap on some paint and hope for the best.

Pirate Sloop [1]

I got stuck into the construction of a pirate ship for my Legends of the High Seas project this afternoon, deciding on a simple single masted sloop as the easiest option for scratchbuilding.

In the rules, you start off with a small vessel of two guns which is supposed to be no more than 6'' to 8'' inches long. I thought this was a bit on the tiddly side so mine ended with a hull of 9'' and a deck width of 3'' at widest point.

As I had a load of left over balsa wood from a school project a few years ago, I decided to sandwich three layers together to produce the basic shape, before sanding it down into a nice smooth hull shape. Next I'll add cardboard sides to the hull and stern, together with decking out of scored card or wood strips.

I'll also cut two gunports in either side of the hull for the cannon, which I already have in my spares box. I think I'll stagger them, so that one gun is fore and one aft on either side of the deck, giving me plenty of space to place the crew figures.

BKC2 Italian Battlegroup [2]

I started on the Italian battlegroup for BKC2 this afternoon by cleaning up and basing the M13/40 medium tank battalion and attached Semovente 75/18 SPAT company, together with their respective HQ's. I also added the AB41 recce armoured car platoon for good measure.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to undercoat them as it's raining like crazy outside and I don't fancy spraying them indoors.Hopefully, the weather will clear up tomorrow so that I can get them undercoated and start on the three stage drybrushing bit, although I haven't yet decided on the exact combination of paint shades to use.

Pirate Ships?

The Pirates seem to have gone down well with the club and generated a bit of interest, so that's a job well done. In fact, one of the other 28mm skirmish enthusiasts has some pirates of his own that he's interested in trying out for a game, so it looks like it's not going to be a one hit wonder.

Apparently, he bought a pirate ship from the Minimi stand at Colours a few weeks ago, which probably explains why they had sold out by the time I got there on Saturday afternoon!

If, as I suspect is inevitble, I decide to get a ship for Black Jack Trelawney, I may well scratchbuild rather than buy one off the shelf. I had looked at the Games Of War ships but can't help thinking that I could build one myself for less than the £50 plus price tag.

There is a small ship, the Sea Dog, in their range but by definaition it's a bit of a glorified rowing boat rather than a full on sloop or brig, so less than impressive even though it's only £15:

http://gamesofwar.net/acatalog/Pirate_Supplies_Store.html#aGOW_2dPS003

I think I'll have a crack at scratchbuilding something possibly unsing the Gary Chalk plans from the Foundry Compendium before I wimp out and go for the easy option. At least I have the crew and cannons already!