Cracking Job Gromit!

As I said earlier in the week, the Gromit Unleashed trail has come to the end and as it is the end of the week I thought I'd post the final three - yes, you have seen all eighty! :-)

Bristol Bulldog

Secret Garden 

aMazing

(Moderns Month) Echoes of a Distant Wargame (and Eldoradog)

Over the last year or so I have almost completely switched to the dark side when it comes to reading. Whether books or magazines I pretty much have gone down the iPad route and having to work in London the last couple of days I was thankful I had over one hundred wargames magazines, another hundred odd wargames rules sets to peruse and literally a library of books of various genres, fact and fiction to save me from the boredom of train journeys and hotel rooms. The only downside is some old OOP favourites never made it to the digital age, especially some old wargames rules so I have started scanning and compiling some of these into PDF's for my own use.

One of these is an old TTG scenario supplement for their Ultra-Modern rules Challenger called Battlezones. Whilst the rules were a tad on the complicated side I loved this supplement when I was a teenage wargamer. One particular scenario, The Old Customs Post, I have played and umpired may times converting it to other periods, more often than not fantasy or SF. The scenario is quite simple and always changes. One army is retreating and its commander attempts to rally, rolling a dice for each retreating unit, and form a defensive line, the attacker tries to break through before the defenders have the opportunity to do so.

I re-read this scenario today on the train home with a little more interest as the original scenario is a 1973 Arab-Israeli War one, with the retreating Israelis trying to form a defensive line against the rampaging Syrians. It will be fun to actually play the scenario with the forces it was actually written for, something I have never done. Battlezones contains four AIW scenarios, but many of the others could be converted with a little work.

I must dig out Pony Wars next and scan that...

Gromit of the Day:

Eldoradog

Space Battleship Yamato (and Harmony)

I remember the first time I saw pictures of Space Cruiser Yamato in an article in an issue of Starburst magazine about the dubbed and heavily edited Star Blazers cartoon series . I had not seen the programme and had no idea what it was all about but the design of the Yamato spaceship was so cool to a teenage SF fan.

Over thirty years later I still think it is cool and have over the last decade picked up various Bandai kits from the original Japanaese anime series Space Battleship Yamato with a view to one day playing some Full Thrust games with them.

Clearly when I read about a live action movie in 2010 I was pretty excited but despite being showing in the US, I don't think it received cinema release here. The subsequent DVD releases covered every region except ours and I resigned myself to never seeing it until a chance conversation with a friend about the series led me to have one last check on Amazon, and there is was... Region 2 DVD, just released. A couple of clicks later it was ordered...

Despite being a big hit in Japan and having generally favourable reviews I wasn't expecting any kind of SF classic and that was just as well. Although much of the CGI is very good, there are some weak moments (no doubt the low budget is to blame), the story clearly owes much to Japanese culture and sensibilities and despite its best efforts to copy the feel of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, it on occasion drifts into Starship Troopers territory (without appreciating its intentional irony) and at its worse wanders into Galaxy Quest (without intending to be funny).  That said it was enjoyable and the Yamato looks great. I'm happy and now want to make up the kits!

Gromit of the Day:

Harmony

Cool Cthulhu Threads! (and Grant's Gromit)

So what is the discerning gamer wearing when they play Cthulhu Wars or Acthung! Cthulhu? Well obviously this fashionable Miskatonic University t-shirt from Cultzilla!

Don't panic, the blog isn't going to start giving Gamer Chic fashion advice, but I love this t-shirt and David at Cultzilla was kind enough to send me one. I think it looks pretty cool and shall wear it always (well, always when playing with tentacled eldricht gods...)

Tomorrow we shall look at the latest styles in practical gamer underwear (no, not really!).

Gromit of the Day:

Grant's Gromit

Big Box Arrives! (and Grrrrromit)

My box of Bones arrived today - blimey it is BIG!

It includes this...

And this...

And this...

A box chock full of stuff...

And loads of these...

I may be gone some time! :-)

Gromit of the Day:

Grrrrromit

Sadly the Gromit Unleashed trail ended yesterday and the Gromits have been removed (indeed we have just seen Grrrrromit on a trailer going to a new temporary home), but don't despair we still have a few to go and yes, I did manage to photograph all eighty!

Into the Namib? (and Gizmo)

It may be early days to be thinking about expanding the 6mm AIW project but the discovery of nineteen Scotia Rooikat AFV's and six G6 howitzers has had me pondering what i can do with them. Investigation of the Angolan War led to the discovery that the Rooikat entered service too late to see combat which makes me wonder why I bought the things in the first place!

However Larry Bond has come to the rescue, his techno-thriller Vortext postulates an Afrikaans right wing apartheid government invading the recently independent Namibia and becoming embroiled in a war with Cuba which soon escalates across the southern half of the continent. What struck me is that the Cubans use a lot of the same Soviet equipment the Egyptians do and the desert battles in Namibia would be similar in concept and terrain to those in the Sinai.

Whilst I need to focus on the 1973 project first, this does seem a good background to make use of the South African models without having to raise new opponents...

Gromit of the Day:

Gizmo

Down The Dungeon? (and Roger)

Today has been a day of Dad duties, running Saul to music lessons and then to the local Apple store to have a a detailed look at Logic Pro X (I'm not sure what it does but it reminded me of the computer displays in Star Trek: TNG!). Whilst he spoke his own form of technobabble to the Apple blueshirt I continued my ponderings on what to do with the in transit Bones.

As you can see from the picture, there is rather a lot of miniatures and I must own up to adding quite a few options, mainly dragons and other big beasties for no other reason other than they were cheap (and SWMBO likes dragons).

The vast majority of the miniatures are fantasy ones, not really enough of anything to make an army with, but an interesting mix of warriors, adventurers, bad guys, goblins, orcs, dungeon creatures, monsters, undead etc, It strikes me that this is just what you need for some simple fantasy adventuring, whether down a dungeon, in a forest or whatever...

Now I don't fancy using them for role-playing, getting enough people interested and organised is too much effort, I am wondering whether I could devise some kind of solo campaign with a group of adventurers going on quests and randomly encountering the good, bad and ugly, and chopping them up!

The idea of random encounters and table controlled responses has always appealed to me since I read TTG's old Pony Wars rules in which all the players played on the US Cavalry side and the Indians were table generated. The playing card campaign system in Scudbusters would allow for extended quests in varied terrain, meeting a variety of fantasy types from goblin raiding parties, to singular trolls, to huge dragons guarding their treasure.

I'm thinking that a simple skirmish system like Songs of Blades and Heroes may be a good basis to start with and then bolt on reaction and campaign elements.

Certainly food for thought and the stirrings of an idea...

Gromit of the Day:

Roger

Bones Are Rolling... (and Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion)

I'm not sure how long it was that I paid my money for the Reaper Bones Kickstarter but today I got a letter from Parcelforce asking me to pay the VAT (and their ridiculous handling fee - half the VAT!) on the big box from Texas which I did, so roll on Monday when this and loads of friends will arrive...

And no, I have no plan or idea what I am going to do with them!

Gromit of the Day:

Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion

(Moderns Month) Sinai Buildings (and Fiesta)

A little bit more progress on the 1973 project with these Middle Eastern buildings which should be suitable for both the Sinai and Golan fronts.

The models are old 6mm Irregular Miniatures metal ones I bought a long time ago for either my planned 6mm Soviets in Afghanistan project or a tentative C18th Wars in India idea I toyed with.

Whatever, they are nice models and painted up quickly. I left them on the cardboard bases I glued them to back whenever, adding sand and painting it to tie in with the infantry and AFV's.

Gromit of the Day:

Fiesta

Donald Featherstone RIP (and Sheepdog)

No doubt many of you are aware of the sad passing of Donald Featherstone.

Like many of us, his books in my local library were my first introduction to the wargames rules and I think I had his Wargaming Airborne Operations and Skirmish Wargames on a nearly permanent basis.

I don't know how many times I read Wargaming Airborne Operations but it was my favourite wargames book in my teens with its pictures of the same Airfix soldiers that I had in my collection. In many respects I think that is part of the reason I loved it so.

I think I'll dig it out tonight and re-read the chapters on Crete and Market Garden for old times sake...

Gromit of the Day:

Sheepdog

(Moderns Month) Egyptian Battalion HQ Elements (and Poetry in Motion)

Not much of a post today, just the Battalion Command SMG team and 2inC Command SMG team bases for the Egyptian Mechanised Infantry Battalion. Once again, Heroics & Ros, using some of the Soviet Paratroops for variation (this pack contains a walking radio operator).

This completes the infantry bases for the unit, I just need to pop off an order for some BTR50's...

Gromit of the Day:

Poetry in Motion

(Moderns Month) Egyptian Infantry Platoon (and Sir Gromit of Bristol)

To kick off Moderns Month I finished off another platoon of 1973 Egyptian Infantry. As with the previous unit, these are Heroics & Ros, this time a mix of Modern Soviet Infantry and Soviet Paratroops.

This unit is slightly different that the first platoon as it drops the Company Command SMG team for another Rifle MG Team. They just need some transport now! :-)

I also started Project Reclaim The Games Room today, it is going to be a long job, but it was great rummaging about in a couple of crates as I found a load more old GHQ including some Israeli M113's and a lot of WW2 Eastern Front stuff both in 6mm and in 20mm bought in the Eighties...

Gromit of the Day:

Sir Gromit of Bristol

September is... Moderns Month! (and Newshound)

After a bit of prevarication I have decided that when you are enjoying doing something, then you should keep going as you are more likely to get things done! At the moment I am enjoying painting the Arab-Israeli stuff I have decided to keep on with this in September, possibly expanding into a couple more modern period projects as well...

My big box of 28mm goodness from Empress is a challenge, especially trying to work out how to paint the new modern camo patterns, I have some 20mm Cold War I bought from Elheim a while back and also a lot of Central Front 6mm Soviet armour that could do with some TLC. However, we will stay in the Sinai for the time being.

Gromit of the Day:

Newshound

Egyptian Support Elements (and TutanGromit I)

I managed to grab some time to paint some more 6mm Egyptian infantry, starting with these support elements. First off is this SA-7 team, one of the key differences between 1967 and 1973 conflicts was the Egyptian use of SAM weapons to nullify the threat of the Israeli Air Force near the Suez. These Heroics & Ros figures came from the Soviet Paratroop set with dobs of Liquid Green Stuff for helmets...

Additionally I painted up a couple of 120mm mortar teams, I probably should have done these on the bigger bases with more crew but they will do for the time being. Like the SA-7, they come from the paratroops pack.

Gromit of the Day:

TutanGromit I

IDF Magach-3 Conversion (and Vincent van Gromit)

A few days back I posted about how I'd done some conversion work to a GHQ M48A5 to make it look more like the IDF Magach-3 from 1973. I hadn't really wanted to take a knife to these lovely models but having bought ten I had little option if they were to look realistic.

I've now painted the test subject and am quite pleased with the end result. All markings are had painted this time as I wasn't going to dick about with the GHQ decals on the turret here.

Now I just need to sit down and convert the remaining nine...

Gromit of the Day:

Vincent van Gromit

The World's End (and Bushed)

Because of the sound SNAFU watching Elysium we received a couple of free tickets so Saul decided we had to go and watch the final instalment in the "Cornetto trilogy". No, I'd never heard of it either, nor noticed any Cornetto's in Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (I am assured they are in there) but the trailer The World's End looked fun and hopefully would erase the mess that is Paul from my brain.

Now a film about five middle age men on a pub crawl walking into a robot invasion is not going to be the most complex of plots, but I found it entertaining enough and for the most part amusing (and I got the Cornetto gag!). It might not be as good as Shaun or Fuzz, but it's not that far behind and it is head, and shoulders better than Paul...

Gromit of the Day:

Bushed

Undead Pirates of the Black Coast (and Golden Gromit)

It's amazing how a week's holiday ends up being eaten up by Dad's Taxi duties, but that's how it's been the last two days. Still, when he's a Rock God and keeps me in the lifestyle I'd like to become accustomed to I'm sure it will be worthwhile!

So plans to paint some more 6mm infantry evaporated today as I had to drive Saul to some recording sessions but I did manage to grab five minutes to drool over the latest ArcWorlde Kickstarter models and the newly painted Undead Pirates...

Gromit of the Day:

Golden Gromit

Expedition to Book Mountain (and Five A Day Dog)

Tank Battles in Miniatures 5 has an interesting bibliography that I began to investigate, one of the books was Otto Von Pivka's Armies of the Middle East published in 1979. Upon further investigation my immediate reaction on seeing the cover was that it looked very familiar...

Yep, somewhere high up Book Mountain (a sister peak of Lead Mountain) I found I already von Pivka's book and it is excellent. Not only covering the armies of all the Middle East nations (from Tunisia, via Ethiopia to the Emirates with basic uniform details great for identifying suitable 6mm miniatures, it contained an excellent synopsis of all the wars from 1948 to 1978 (not just the Arab-Israeli ones) and an atlas of the Middle East Wars. Great stuff.

Alongside von Pivka I rediscovered Samuel Katz's Israeli Tank Battles (covering Yom Kippur and the invasion of Lebanon), Edgar O'Ballance's No Victor, No Vanquished, which if I recall is a pretty decent unbiased account of the 1973 war and General Avraham Adan's The Yom Kippur War, a personal account of an armoured division commander also published as On Both Sides of the Suez and On the Banks of the Suez.

I just need to find some time to read them now...

Gromit of the Day:

Five A Day Dog