Desert War Progress

Full steam ahead on the Desert War Italian and British Armour. All that is required now is to paint the bases and flock them in a desert style mix of sand and light colours.

Stuarts,A-tanks and Portee are Frontline War gaming 20mm, Matilda is matchbox I recall(20 years old at least), Crusaders are Airfix or matchbox (20 years at least), Valentines are PSC and CV33's are S-Model.

 Below all the axis infantry is on the paint tray ready for basing. (While I did not need D.A.K I did them anyway (3 Battalions Worth)). The stands in green are my original Esci figures from 1994 😁.

 

 The Blackshirt stands for some of the better quality Italian units. (Caesar figures of which I have another box to complete)

 The Italeri Italian 120mm Howitzer, this thing is massive.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start basing them and get them done and then move onto finishing the DAK and British.

1/72 Ancients and new books

Motivation has been low recently, and I have even contemplated getting rid of most of the things I have apart from a few genres (I have started this process already)

I was in Sydney and managed to visit Hobbyrama where I found some kits that I picked up.

There are are few boxes of Emhar Viking Warriors

A box of Zvedza Turkish Cavalry

And I also took advantage of the Acorn model sales to pick up 4 boxes of:

These will be part of my 1/72 Skirmish\battle system based on some beer and pretzel type rules.  The Imperial Romans don't fit in that well period wise but Ive always wanted a 1/72 Roman army.

Archduke Piccillo kindly gave me some Mongols which are fitting in quite nicely.

As it was my birthday last week (Which I spent ill in bed) my present from the family was a copy of Tony Bath's "Ancient War-gaming" which is a good book but also includes "Setting Up a Wargames Campaigns" which I already have

And Lionel Tarrs Modern (1939-1945) Wargaming Rules

Command Decision WW2 - US Infantry and German Parachite Infantry.

So in a short break between restoring\painting ACW armies I spent a few days kick starting my ww2 command decision armies. I am planning to have forces for Utah Beach\Cherbourg area as there is a good mix of units on both sides and as the German Divisions in that region were badly equipped, I can use a lot of different vehicles. I have kept these guys pretty simple - paint and a wash really, with a very simple flock base. Thought it better to get the units done than mess around on too much detail.


6th Parachute Regiment.

I had painted some German's a while back. Here are a few of the Para's that I based along with the Americans.

  1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, US Army
Old Esci US Infantry with two old trucks a brand new Italeri Quick build Jeep and  Grubby Tank 57mm gun. The gun and jeep need finishing off and I should really repaint the trucks but I will finish the new stuff first.( I glued the prone figures tot he bases before flocking - what a mistake )

My plan is to complete one battalion at a time per nation so I can use them in smaller games solo at home.

I'm off to Auckland for work for a week so in that lovely spare time in the evenings (no dishes, no bedtime stories, no garden watering) I plan to finish another 4 Confederate Regiments.

New ACW 20mm Regiments and clearout.

Merry Christmas and New Years to everyone.

My daughter fractured her elbow on the 27th so the holidays have been slightly underwhelming for her but all in all she has been in good spirits and pain free. I have not had a war-game in a long time but painting has restarted as I no longer wear the wrist brace.So I have been working full time in getting my ACW Union troops ready for some small skirmishes (using Archduke Piccilo's solo campaign as motivation.).

I finished the figures and then use Matt Gloss spray on them , leaving them to dry in the garage. As the sun caught the figures it was a brilliant view -  Long lines of gray, sky blue and red all based and ready to go, I was quite chuffed  to be honest and I am not sure if it is simply having finished a large batch or my love of bright colours.

The figures are a mismatch of makers  and I painted one from each maker, with perhaps another 8 other units to complete (Mostly Airfix and Italeri). I have not named any units yet as I was too busy painting them.

 Revell Infantry Regiment.

 Esci Regiment.

 Airfix Artillery Battery. (I have not separated the single bases yet)

 Airfix Generals. (From Artillery Set I recall).

An Italeri Zouave unit and a good old Airfix Regiment.

A little tidy up to do and then straight into the box to make 7 Infantry Regiments ready. I will then varnish and base the Rebels up and have a small game.

Motivation is abundant here at the moment as I am also working on Command Decision 1/72 WW2 figures - more to come !. But I have also finally decided its time to clear some stuff and make room and fund other needs.

Most likely to go will be the Mantic Elf army I purchased 1 year ago (and painted 20 figures), my 6mm WW2, most likely 15mm Colonial (Unpainted) and a pile of space marines I have gathered over the years.

Cheers

Italian 10th Army

I seem to have picked up some motivation to actually complete a project before moving onto something else. I am really keen to complete my North African Italians as they:

• Are half completed
• I have everything I need already

So every night I have been solely working on them based simply on the fact my hobby board only has Italians on it. My basic plan to to complete everything on the board and then move on.

So far I have made a base coat and given them a decent earth wash (I am still experimenting with

I have also solved my Italian Truck issue by finding my old Friends "Corgi Cadbury" toy trucks. Cheap and nasty, while they are oversized a good dose of Desert Yellow and basing will see them blend in.  I remember my great uncle telling me as a child that in North Africa the Italians were using an ice ream delivery van to pull some small weapon \ trailer so it think is quite fitting,

A long awaited dream has also been completed in that I now have tankettes !. Since the quick build tanks were released I have wanted some but never purchased, however off Stan that dream is complete.

The rough plan for the Italians is

4 M13's
4 L33's
2 Semoventes
5 Infantry battalions
1 Artillery Batteries.

Reconnaissance is a problem though. Did you know its cheaper to buy a 1/35 scale Autoblinda model than a 1/72 one ?  I will have to go resin !

20mm and 6mm WW2

I am slowly getting back into painting on a regular basis with a greater effort being made to organize my projects and my paint supplies. I have wandered from project to project though, but that has been for more motivation purposes than any other reason.

Below is my painting desk that I use at night, clearing the whole lot up at the end of each night. This has been a pain to be honest, I cannot leave figures anywhere handy or stack them up easily. For some reason they get knocked over or crushed (well the spears bent) ...the source of this  mayhem is yet to be unmasked.

I recently visited the bring and buy and picked up some Matchbox 8th Army, as well as some Italian tankettes from Stan. These shall contribute very well to my North Africa 20mm forces that I have slowly kick started into life. Below are some SQH Tropical Italians and an Italeri M13 "quickbuild" that is nearing completion.  They should round out a small Italian force to compliment my DAK for some early war games against my Desert Rats and Australians.

I have had some thought of using Megablitz or Not Quite Mechanised for larger games, however I face the same problem in any ruleset. Support vehicles and trucks are simply not enough in numbers so I will base the North Africa forces for Command Decision and then simply see what happens if I use any other ruleset. 

However I did drag out my 6mm early war figures to see is they could be used for Larger actions, below is an initial test (on a poor photo) of the 7th Armoured in 1940. I am still missing a bit but of kit but have plenty on hand to make up the numbers. In 6mm I can at least field the one Armoured and two infantry divisions, the DAK and a two Italian infantry divisions. (Painting them a different colour from the base colour will also help)

The source of my storage frustrations soon became clear. Someone or something has taken a liking to sitting or investigating my things.

 

It does not matter how high or secluded a spot I place boxes , I find the tell-tale signs of white fur and knocked over figures.  It appears the cat likes to sit in the painting box (On the newspaper I place on top), I dreaded her thinking it was a litter tray but luckily she prefers to go in other, less suitable places. Alas our cat is deaf  and a little bit thick and so stays inside the whole time. Next door's cats (of which *someone* has 4) like to taunt our cat from the windows. So she likes to protect our house by mixing her scent with ours, which means.........(yes you guessed it)  weeing over clothes, desks and anywhere we frequent on a regular basis. Countermeasures to the other cats have since been planned, a blitzkrieg type of offensive might upset the locals so guerilla warfare consisting of water pistols, sprinklers and 6 year old in full charge will possible make a more peaceful solution.