Magazine de Presse

 

I'm in Brittany for the weekend at a wedding, so have grabbed some magazines to read on the way back. The Vae Victis game looks really good, being a strategic level Indian Mutiny wargame, with the rules available in English as a down load. The Batailles & Blinde issue has an excellent article on the Battle of the Bulge that would be great for What a Tanker and my 28mm US late war Bolt Action platoon, while the Aerojournal issue has a fascinating article on Fritz X missile attacks on Plymouth of all places, which has given me all sorts of ideas for Bag the Hun. A good haul!

Jagdpanther Junior

The eldest is at university but still finds the time to do a bit of modelling and painting. Here's his 1/56th scale Warlord Jagdpanther, which I think he's done a brilliant job on, including some nifty airbrush camouflage and track weathering. It's not finished yet, as he forgot the decals when he packed his modelling stuff and so he hasn't been able to add them or do the final weathering. Pretty good so far though, I think you'll agree? 

Bolt Action 'Hold Until Relieved' Club Game

I was going to run a naval or air wargame of some description at the club next week but it turns out the lad isn't working that night, so we're going to have a go at Bolt Action second edition, with his late war Germans against my Americans. I've played Bolt Action before and found it a bit 'gamey' but I'm prepared to try it again, if only because I don't have enough figures for Chain of Command yet and it's relatively simple to pick up and play. We're going to use Scenario 10: Hold Until Relieved, as I have a nice model bridge that will work well as the objective, together with my snow terrain cloth and trees. It should be fun!

Bolt Action Boy

A few years ago I got hold of some Warlord US Marines in a bid to re-boot my stalled 28mm Japanese army for Chain of Command. The idea was to have a US Marine platoon to re-focus the Japanese from Malaya to the Pacific, giving me a good reason to re-paint them in jungle uniforms rather than the early war temperate ones that I started with and didn't think looked any good. Needless to say, this plan fell flat on it's face, and I moved on to other things.

On the drive up to Scotland the other day, however, the lad said he'd really like to paint a US Marine force for Bolt Action, which reminded me about the US Marine figures. I have now given these to him as a swap for the sprues of US Airborne that he got in the Bolt Action starter set, which he didn't really fancy painting. He's now got the plastuic box set of thirty figures, an HQ set, a bazooka, sniper and forward observer set, an MMG or two and a 37mm AT gun and jeep tow, so more than enough for a full platoon plus support units. 

This will hopefully give me an excuse to get the Japanese re-booted, although I'm now going to re-spray the whole lot in a light green shade and start again, not being happy with the desert yellow shade I originally used. In the meantime, I have a whole platoon of late war British infantry sitting on the workbench that I need to crack on with, when I can find the time between taxi driving and all the DIY jobs I've been left with over the summer holidays!

Infantry Colonel

I'm now re-reading this first hand account of the 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry campaign in NW Europe, from just after D-Day all the way to Germany, as it is an excellent insight into the experience of an infantry regiment at the time, with a strong emphasis on company and platoon actions. I've read it a couple of times before but, alongside the books by Ken Ford on Gielenkirchen and Vernon, it's one of the best accounts that I've come across for the 5th DCLI. It's also really useful for my Chain of Command project. Well worth tracking down a copy if you can find one.

Chain of Command British Rifle Platoon Undercoat

I have now spray undercoated the figures for my Chain of Command British platoon, using a Halfords Ultra Matt Camouflage Brown rattle can, which is what I used on my late war US platoon as a starting point. It's really good stuff and makes a great key for painting a basecoat and then subsequent layers, although it does make them look like they're made of milk chocolate. It also takes surprisingly long to do properly. As you can see, I've added a fourth section as a support option but will paint them up alongside the rest of the infantry figures. 

The Bolt Action Boys

Got to dig out these guys first!

As my wife and daughter are away, the boys can now take command of the dining room table for a try out game of the second edition Bolt Action rules. The eldest has now almost finished painting his late war German infantry platoon and I already have about 900 points of late war Americans for the Ardennes, so we'll run a simple meeting engagement scenario soon, set somewhere in the snow in late 1944. It may be a bit stop and start, as I haven't played Bolt Action in years and he's never played it before, but I'm sure we'll work it out and get there in the end?

Chain of Command British Rifle Platoon Prep

I have made some good progress this afternoon on cleaning up and basing the core platoon for the Chain of Command summer project. As you can see this consists of three rifle sections including a Bren gun team and a Junior Leader each, together with the platoon HQ of a 2'' mortar and PIAT team, a platoon sergeant Senior Leader and a lieutenant Senior Leader. I also added a support unit in the form of a platoon medic, using a Warlord Games figure with a Crusader Miniatures head attached, so that it blended in better with the other figures. The Crusader figures have virtually no flash or seams to remove and are really nice models, so I am going to add a fourth rifle section as a support unit in the initial painting plan while the rest of the support units will wait until the second phase.

Cutting Lead for Chain of Command

It's the first weekend of my summer holidays so what better time than now to start on my 2021 summer project, a late war British platoon for Chain of Command, with the first lead being sanded and scraped away on some nice Crusader Miniatures figures. I've been meaning to get on with this project for ages, so now seems like an ideal opportunity, as I won't be going abroad this year due to Covid-19, with three weeks free for uninterrupted wargaming. 

Blimey!

I am quite busy, however, as with the wife and daughter away I have to look after the boys, taking one twice a week up to London for rugby training and the other up to Fort William for a two week conservation project, which is only a ten hour drive in both directions! Nonetheless, I will have some quiet time in between to get the platoon and support units painted up, which means it should be finished by the end of August if it all goes according to plan?

Summer Project Basing Up

The 5th DCLI Rifle Platoon

I've had to stop work early due to self-isolating, as my son tested positive for Covid-19, which is a pain in the bum as I'm out of pocket. To make up for this unexpected extra time, I am going to start on basing up the Crusader Miniatures late war British infantry for Chain of Command and Bolt Action, starting with the core units of a platoon HQ and three rifle sections. These will be based on 25mm mdf circles for the infantry, 30mm circles for the Junior Leaders and 35mm circles for the Senior Leader platoon CO figure, with weapons teams on 45mm diameter bases. I'll start plugging away at this lot over the next week or so alongside painting up the Ki-27's for the Bag the Hun project, followed by the I-153's and I-152's.

Bolt Action 2nd Edition

The lad is keen to try out Bolt Action with his late war Germans, so I have given in and bought a copy of the second edition rules. I have played several games with the original rules and, although I liked the order system and some other aspects, it never felt like a realistic historical representation of skirmish warfare in WW2. In fact, it was very gamey and could have been anything, which is possibly a result of it being designed to be fairly vanilla and therefore easy to pick up for a beginner. I'm hoping that the second edition will have a bit more flavour to it but, at the very least, we should get some fun out of it before moving up to Chain of Command?

Marching to the Sound of Gunfire

I've been reading this over the last few days, one of the few books by Patrick Delaforce that I haven't read before, as part of the build up to my summer project this year. The sprog has already started assembling and painting his German infantry platoon for Bolt Action and Chain of Command, so I really need to get started at some point before the end of the month if I'm going to keep up. I have all the figures and most of the support elements for a platoon of the 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, so I really should get my marching boots on!

Chain of Command Project AFV's

The Chain of Command summer project will be starting next month so I've been adding some support units for my British infantry platoon. As it's based on the 5th DCLI, 43rd Wessex Division, the tank support will be provided by the 8th Armoured Brigade, 4/7th Dragoon Guards. I have a Warlord Games Sherman Firefly already, so any other tanks would need to be from 'A' Squadron, as this was made up of the Fireflies and Sherman III's. I bought my son a Rubicon Models M4A1 for his birthday present and thought the kit looked very good, so I've now bought an M4A2 / Sherman III from the same range, which I will deck out with stowage, track links, road wheels and so on, as they are often laden down with such stuff in contemporary photos. 

Firefly!

I have ordered a Warlord Games Sherman Firefly for the Chain of Command summer project, as the first of a handful of AFV support units for the 5th DCLI platoon. The plan is to paint this as a tank of A Squadron 4/7th Dragoon Guards, which supported the 5th DCLI in Normandy and Holland. I will also get a Rubicon Sherman III at some point, as they made up the other tanks in A Squadron, for which I've ordered a spare set of the Bolt Action decals. It's a good start to the AFV's that I'll be adding to the project as support options.

Chain of Command Summer Project

It's looking as though I'll be staying at home this summer, while my wife and daughter go to Brittany, looking after my two teenage sons for my sins. To make the most of this enforced staycation, I've been thinking of setting up a project with my eldest son, having given him a Bolt Action starter set for his recent birthday. He's keen to paint up his late war Germans, so I thought I could paint up my old Crusader Miniatures British infantry platoon that I've had knocking about for at least a decade.

The overall aim would be to play both some pick up games of Bolt Action  but also Chain of Command as a two player mini-campaign. I have nearly all of the figures I need for a Chain of Command set up, except for a few optional support units like engineers and a medic, so all I need is a couple of  AFV's. The focus, as always, would be on the 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry for Normandy and beyond. I think this sounds like a plan is finally coming together? 

Bolt Action Birthday Boy

It's my eldest son's 19th birthday today, so I bought him a bundle of Bolt Action stuff as his present. He's not a bad painter and enjoys playing Warhammer 40K, Star Wars Legion and X-Wing, as well as the occasional game with his dad, so I think he'll get a kick out of Bolt Action even though it's not my favourite set of WW2 skirmish rules. I may even be tempted to paint up my long postponed 28mm Artizan late war Germans or perhaps an extra squad or two for my existing late war US infantry platoon, who knows?

Squad Level Skirmish Second World War Rules

I've been mulling over the way ahead for my 28mm WW2 project, with the inevitable suspicion that Chain of Command is more practicable in 15mm. It's not the core platoon sized force that's the issue but the need for support options, which pushes the price bracket even higher than it would be otherwise. It also means that the relative cost factor of 15mm makes 28mm just the other side of silly.

This became painfully apparent when I was costing up a Soviet platoon using Crusader Miniatures, which levelled off at about £75 to £100, once I'd factored in a handful of heavy weapons, tanks and extras. This is just not feasible for me at the moment, even if I used plastics rather than my prefered metal figures. On the flipside, 15mm is a fraction of the cost and I already have the figures, so it's not rocket science to do Chain of Command using these smaller scale models.

However, I'm now revising the scope of my 28mm project to focus on squad level skirmish, with no more than a platoon as the default unit strength. This is more like Bolt Action, which I'm not a fan of, so an alternative set of rules is up for selection. At the moment, this will be Iron Cross from Great Escape Games, as the guys at the club think it's a really good set of rules. I'm also going to have another look at Five Men at Kursk by Nordic Weasel and as an outside third place option, Rate of Fire from Crusader Publishing.

One new set of rules that caught my eye, while browsing Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy in WHSmiths the other day, is Ultracombat Normandy by Dish Dash Games. These are the guys who produced the popular Skirmish Sangin modern rules, although the WW2 system is different. I really like the look of the rules from what I've read online and the price of the rule book too, as it's available in .pdf format, with the element cards as a free download. I also really like card based systems!

I may download the rules for a closer look?

Winter Platoon Hetzer Support

I knew that I had a couple of Tamiya 1/48th scale kits in the loft that I could use as armoured support for the Winter German Platoon, so after a rummage and some colourful language, I extracted a Hetzer and a StuG III G from the plastic kit pile. I prefer 1/48th scale with 28mm and usually use Corgi diecast models or Blitzkrieg Miniatures resin ones but these Tamiya kits are cheaper and still suitable for wargaming.

They have a hefty diecast metal chassis as well, which adds some much needed weight and rigidity to the finished models. The only real issue are the tracks, which are link and length so a bit fiddly. I am going to take the Hetzer on holiday with me to build while I'm away, leaving the StuG for a rainy day, so at least the platoon will have some armour support.

Easter Holiday Project

I've been thinking through some ideas for a clean up and base project that I can take on holiday next week. I've done this before, with mixed success, as it almost always ends up with a box of assembled and based figures or models, which then go back in a box and are never seen again! However, it's a useful wargamey thing to do and keeps me busy, when otherwise I'd just be sitting around enjoying the sunshine but achieving nothing at all. Nothing wrong with that but it's fun to have something to do in the evenings and I quite enjoy assembling and basing too.

This time, I'm going to base up a core platoon of late war winter equipped German infantry for Chain of Command, to use against my existing late war US platoon which I painted a long time ago for Bolt Action! The thinking behind this is that it will enable me to pay solo games with the figures I already have and will make use of the Cigar Box Battle snow cloth that I has been under-employed but for which I have some nice woodland and river terrain. I can easily add more terrain pieces to this including ruined buildings, roads and scatter, so it's killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

The figures are all Artizan Designs which I've had for ages, so I don't need to buy any new ones, and I also have a couple of Britzkrieg Miniatures resin half tracks to go with them. I have a PaK 40 too, so that's a good reason to assemble the Sdkfz 251 Hanomag as a tow, while the Sdkfz 250 that I also have will be a command or scout vehicle. However, I'm not going to repeat the mistake I made with my stalled Japanese platoon and glue together all the numerous support options under the sun, as this just put me off painting the buggers last time!

Sherman Stowage in 28mm

This looks like the contents of my loft!

I'm now completely bogged down by a back log of work, having had no time over the weekend to keep up to date, so much so that I had to bail out of the Iron Cross game last night to mark a Year 8 set of books for today. How rubbish is that? I did get the 1/72nd scale resin stowage for the What a Tanker! project in the post yesterday, which cheered me up a lot, as it is really nice and will be great for loading up the 1/72nd scale US Shermans for that 'late war' on campaign look. I'll add some to the models I've already built as soon as I get the time.

This way to the stowage men!

I was so impressed that I have now ordered a set of stowage in 1/56th / 1/48th to use on my 1/48th scale Corgi Sherman M4A3's, which I originally re-painted for Bolt Action a few years ago but which are now destined for Iron Cross. I've never been happy with these, as they look far too 'bare' and lack the 'pile it on with kit and sandbags' look. They also need some snow camouflage I think, to match the winter terrain that I now have assembled, albeit only in part as I have lots more laser cut 28mm stuff to glue together for the Battle of the Bulge.