what's on Steve's workbench?

Steve recently shared some photos of General Officers / Command figures fir his upcoming Victorian period - Imaginations campaign.

Making Terrain: Painting Terrain Cloths

 by Steve C

I have for some time had three 6’ x 4’ terrain cloths which I use on occasion when I put a game on at my house or, such as my battle of Crecy game at Rupert’s, where I needed to cover a structure that I’d made, which in this case was to represent the vale of Crecy. However, these cloths are somewhat green, in fact they’re emerald green which is rather bright for a wargames table and this has been bugging me ever since I brought them. 

I’ve tried to think of numerous ways of toning them down, I’ve even been on the internet to see what other wargamers do in order to make terrain cloths, but these usually involve using some form of gooey muck for texturing such as Caulk or similar such gloop and this all looked too messy for my liking so I’ve continued to rack my brains until I had a light bulb moment a few weeks ago, spray paint! Now, you might have seen me taking pictures of John and Rupert’s “Big game” over the weekend. Well, this was all part of my light bulb moment. I was in fact taking pictures of the terrain tiles in order for me to get an idea of what I was aiming for. 

Now, I knew that hobby craft sold tins of spray paint so over my long weekend I nipped down to County Oak to have a look at what they had. To my disappointment it wasn’t very much, just bright lurid colours that you might use to decorate some kids 'Wendy house' or something similar. Anyway, I was just about to walk out in a very disappointed manner when I thought, hold on a mo, don’t I have a mini spray gun tucked away at the bottom of one of my drawers in the shed? Yes I do, so I turned about and headed for the modelling paints at the back of the shop.

After finding some colours that I thought would be suitable and picking up a few tins of aerosol propellant I headed back home to put my theory to the test. Monday 17th June 2024 was a particularly good day for spray painting, it was dry, warm and sunny but there was a fairly brisk breeze in the air which wasn’t what I needed. So I decided to set up my endeavour in my workshop that runs along the side of the house, it’s covered in and affords the ability to have the doors open to allow for ventilation. I hung the cloths up on some hooks against the wall which gave me the perfect “Canvas” for my attempt at creating what I hoped would be a reasonable landscape.

For each cloth I used 2 bottles of Tamiya Olive Green (XF 58) 2 bottles of Flat earth (XF 52) 2 bottles of desert Yellow (XF 59) and 1 bottle of Yellow Green (XF 4). I also brought a small bottle of thinners and a large container of thinners, bit odd I know but all will be revealed.

Oh yes, don’t forget the PPE, of which I already had. Some of your scruffiest clothes that you can find because you will get covered in fine particles of spray paint. One mask so you don’t breath in said particles and one Alvin Stardust type glove because the tin of Propellant gets really cold when you’re using it.

So, to start with mix two parts paint with one part thinners. Yes, you’ve guessed it haven’t you, pour two bottles of paint into your mixing bowl and then measure out one bottle of thinners into the small thinners bottle that you brought earlier and then mix them all together which pours neatly into the bottle of the spray gun.

I started by using the Olive green. Use your artistic genius, sorry, “Ganious” to create realistic grassy undertones, reflective light, shading and light reliefs or, if you’re like me, ya don’t have a clue, then have a bit of fun and try things out, so that’s what I did, a bit of experimentation. A spray here, a spray there, a curve over there, a line over here and perhaps join this bit up. This carried on with the next colour which was the flat earth, then the Desert yellow and finally the yellow green. I did find that covering the entire cloth with a fine mist of Yellow green toned the whole thing down which had looked a bit harsh beforehand.

So, was it worth it? From my own personal point of view, yes it was. The cloths are no longer an awful Emerald green and are more wargame friendly. They’re not identical to Mike and Rupert’s terrain tiles because the Emerald green did have the effect of darkening the paint slightly but they’re not a bad 2nd.

The Finished Article

Was it worth it cost wise? Again yes. Now, taking into account that I already had some of the kit I needed laying around the outlay for the thinners, paints and propellant was, wait for it, £71, yes, sounds expensive but that’s only £28.66 for one 6’ x 4’ cloth. However, had I brought some terrain mats, which appear to be the latest fad, for the same coverage of 12’ x 6 it would have cost a fortune.  

The finished article with added terrain

Having looked on the internet a typical terrain mat is 3’ x 3’ at a whopping £28.99 plus P&P, more than one of my 6’ x 4’ cloths. So, to have the same 12’ x 6’ coverage would have cost £231.92, oooouch! In comparison doing it my way a 3’ x 3’ cloth would cost just over £10, a third of the price, winner, winner chicken dinner! 

What I actually ended up using

It took me the best part of an afternoon to complete the job, say 5 hours, and the good thing was because they were Acrylic paints and the fact it was a nice warm sunny day, the paints dried within minutes of applying them. 

Anyway, you’ll get to see them “In the flesh” during my up and coming medieval Irish game which involves you lot making your way down an Irish valley full of berserker celts!! 

So here endeth the lesson. “We spray the cloth and scatter the good paint from this tin......”

Another 54mm figure - Patsy the Pirate

From Steve C.

Well chaps, couldn't resist it, bought another 54mm figure, this time a naughty female pirate.  May l present Patsy the poop deck pirate.  She's not a prize but will overlook your activities whilst you're playing my pirate game and punish you accordingly.  Not sure why she's looking down a barrel of a gun, so l'll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.

Nicole the naughty Norman Knight

 By Steve Cast

After many hours of hard work my labours have paid off, Nicole the naughty Norman Knight is finished, or as they say in all the best 1950’s horror films, “IT LIVES!”

Now, bearing in mind that this is the first 54mm figure I’ve painted in about 40 years, plus the fact that I was using a brand new painting technique that I saw on YOUTUBE it’s not the greatest figure I’ve ever done, but it’s good enough.  The best way to look at it is to put your phone at the end of the room, walk out of the room and stand behind a wall, then she looks really good, any closer and you see warts and all!  Though to be fair she does have a couple of really big warts that had they been real you definitely would have wanted to see them!

So how do I get my hands on her Royal Assets I hear you ask with great eagerness?  Well it works like this.  The player with the highest casualty points within the team that wins the competition gets “Nicole” as first Prize, the person who scores the highest number of points in the other team gets “Chelsea the cheeky Cheshire archer” as the runner up prize, so it’s important that you let me know what your personal scores are after each game otherwise you’ll miss out on the chance to walk away with this fantastic prize, Oooooooooh!!!

Medieval Campaign

By Steve C

After Friday Night's shenanigans the sorting hat had its say the teams are as follows: 

Team John  

• Matt  
• Dave  
• Mike N  
• Nigel  

 

Team Rupert  

• Mark  
• Phil  
• Mike W  
• Oli  

 

There were 11 armies to choose from in the end as I found I could do one more than I thought I could, they were:  

 

Later Polish  

Communal Italian  

Early Imperial  

Feudal English  

Feudal French  

Early Medieval French  

Early 100 year war English  

Scots Common Army  

Low Countries  

Early Burgundian  

Free company  

 

After a hard fought bidding process the four armies that each side chose out of the 11 they could have were as follows:  

Team John  

• Later Polish  
• 100 years war English  
• Low Countries  
• Early Burgundian  

 

Team Rupert  

• Early Imperialist  
• Feudal French  
• Communal Italian  
• Free Company  

 

As a reminder there will be six games in all of which the first four games the players had to commit to and this is how they panned out:  

 

Game 1:          Later Polish                             Vs        Early Imperialist  

Game 2:          100 years war English           Vs        Feudal French  

Game 3:          Low Countries                         Vs        Communal Italian  

Game 4:          Early Burgundian                   Vs        Free Company  

 

It is then up to the players to decide which armies they want to use for the two remaining games.  

 

7 points will be awarded for a win  

3 points for a loss  

2 points for a draw  

 

To win you must have 25% more than the losers lower score.  

 

A few of things to note:  

1. Figure casualties will not be taken off as before thus allowing for a bloodier and quicker game.  
2. Games will start at 8:30  
3. Games will finish:  
1. If players have had enough and want to call it a day  
2. If the outcome is obvious  
3. At midnight  

Kelly's Heroes Scenario

By Steve Cast

Thanks to all of you who turned up on Saturday and I’m glad you enjoyed the game. 

As Dave rightly guessed, but luckily didn’t spill the beans, the scenario was based on the “Kelly’s Hero’s” minefield scene, something I’ve been meaning to do for some time having watched the film some months ago. I thought it would make a nice refreshing change from the usual WWII games that we normally do and one where the players were made to think how to get out of a tight spot.

On the whole the game went very much like the film but unfortunately “Clint Eastwood” played by Mark was killed in the shoot out with the Germans with a film extra being killed on the minefield, but that was going to happen anyway because one of the actors was killed by a mine in the film.

Knowing that the players wouldn’t stick to the Umpires crafted and finely honed plot I added in a film extra called Pierre the onion seller. Pierre was an unidentified marker and he was there to get the umpire out of any holes that I might find myself in.

Whilst the team were making their way inch by inch across the mine field Pierre was on his way to market and on his “joyeux voyage au village” was completely bewildered to see soldiers crawling through what he knew to be a Bosch minefield! Stopping to take a look he was successfully identified by all of the players and with an “Oh la la” he cycled off into the distance.

The point at which I had kittens was when the players all started talking about bringing their troops up to the retaining wall in the field and setting up in wait for any Bosch. If this had happened it would have totally scuppered the plot so I brought Pierre onto the table again.

“Oh la la” he says to Phil and Dave frantically waving his arms in the air “Le bosch descend la route dans trois camions et une voiture” Phil asks me “Which one of our team knows French?”. “No one” says I. With a very French shrug of his shoulders Phil decided to wait for the Bosch anyway.

“Oh la la” thinks I “this isn’t working, sacred Blur”, so I sent Pierre to see Mark and Nigel.

“Oh la la Le bosch descend la route dans trios camions et une voiture” Pierre says again but this time pointing in the General direction of “Le Bosch” whilst also making a “Broom, Broom” noise. Mark cops on and asks, using his fingers, “How many broom broom?” “Trios” repeats Pierre also using his fingers. “and from which direction” says Mark this time using his arms. Pierre frantically points in the direction of “Le Bosch”.

Thankfully this spurred Mark and Nigel into action and they began to send their men towards the dry stone wall. In the mean time Phil was still by the retaining wall and was trying to look down the road to see if he could see “le Bosch” but I said to him that he would need to get to higher ground in order to see any distance. In the film the retaining wall is depicted as crumbling and falling apart with very little protection and by mentioning this to Phil he and Dave eventually moved up to the dry stone wall on the hill where they had a good view of the “terrain” off table. Meanwhile Mark and a film extra with a 30 cal. browning were still at the edge of the minefield and hadn’t made any move to cross it.

It was now the turn of the box heads to appear but before they came on table I said to the players that stealth was needed and it was not necessarily a good idea to shoot it out with them. I did this to give the germs a chance to deploy and not get shot to bits whilst they sat in their trucks like they were in the film.

As in the film the German officer, Hauptmann “Can so anysing!”, looked around with his binoculars to see what was going on. Identifying Mark, the 30 cal, both of who were playing possum, and the dead film extra he became very puzzled and ordered a team of 3 to go and investigate the dead bloke whilst he told the rest of his men to get out of the trucks and deploy. Still very puzzled he ordered his team of 3 to start taking pot shots at the dead bloke whilst the others shot at Mark. This goaded the players into a fire fight, which was what I was looking for, and a jolly good one was to be had by all. As in the film the Germs were given a sound thrashing and apart from poor old Mark and the already dead bloke there were no other casualties.

So a victory for the players. Two dead blokes minus 20 points but two recovered sets of dog tags plus 20 points.

The minefield

So, how did the minefield work? This was not, as some players had suspected, a random number picked out of the Umpires head but worked like this. If the players moved their figures at 1” a go they were always going to be safe. If they rolled a 1 on the turn that the figure moved then the figure would find a mine but find it safely and would then be able to dig it up and put it to one side. If rolling anything more than a 1 it was surmised that because they were moving so slowly they wouldn’t trigger any mines that they may have crawled over and missed.

However, if they moved more than 1”, which happened on more than one occasion, there would be a chance that they could detonate a mine no matter what they rolled on the dice.

The dice roll was there to add some trepidation and anxiety to the situation!

This is how it worked So there you have it.

Now for some pictures and no naughty ones this time.

4 = Major injury - Cannot be moved and loses 4DAV endurance points

5 or 6 = Killed

Roll a D6 to find the extent of its injuries.

Roll 1D4 and cross reference the score with the figures movement to find the Percentage chance of it being Injured

And here's the actual scene from the film....

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=258033112079788

Smugglers Game

By Steve Cast

Mike “Knees” Newman and I had a couple of great games on Friday. What with the weather being hotter than my wife’s breathe after catching me looking at Prawn on the intraweb, we both struggled in the heat. We burnt our fingers on the figures so badly that they resembled miniature versions of David Carradines arms from Kung Fu, and every so often one of the card houses would burst into flame or a resin building would melt into a pulsating hissing blob. 

However, we worked our way around these minor irritations and after the first game abruptly came to an end after only an hour and a half we played a second game this time changing sides but using the same figures. 

Now, guess who won twice! Well, I’ll give you a clue. Mike was the sheep dog and I was the Coyote

I was out foxed by a sheep fox!

Strangely for Mike, he turned up in trousers and trainers. I thought this can’t be right, Mike never wears arctic clothing not even sub zero temperatures. 

He’s famed throughout the wargaming world for his manly knees and hollow legs, there must be something wrong with the poor fella, he must have got a touch of the old sun. 

So, there I was standing in me back Garden not knowing how to broach such a delicate subject when all of a sudden it came to me: 

“Mike, can you see those mountains over yonder dear boy?” 

“Mountains” says Mike “Are you mad?”

“Well yes, remember who talking to. But forget all that and have a glug of my last stand Brandy....can you see them now?” 

“By gad sir so I can”

 “Welcome back to the known world old fella. Now about these trousers....” 

It turned out that Mike had caught the dreaded red knees syndrome from drinking in too much sun. You see, I knew it was something to do with the sun. 

It can do terrible things to a man can the sun, especially when he exposes his knees for too long, I should know, I’m a man with knees of me own. 

Had it been anyone else I would have said that they were carpet burns but as it was Mike I took his story as gospel in that he’d been shuffling his way from Horsham to Winchester for the past week on the Pilgrims way only to find that he’d arrived a week too late for mass due to a typo in the illuminated itinerary and as such had missed out on the wine and biscuits. 

As a penance he then shuffled all the way back to Horsham after which he purged his sins by drinking a whole case of wine and eating a cheesy biscuit, just to make sure that he had some solids in his stomach. 

Now then, all joking aside as you know it was a really hot day on Friday but we did have ourselves a good couple of games despite the heat. Mike started the first game as the smugglers. I’d sent him all the info during the week so he’d had plenty of time to put his smuggling team together. 

We did start by using the markers but these just blew away in the wind so we were forced to put the figures on the table which did take the edge off the game because you could see what everything was. 

However, being the gentlemen that we are we got around this problem by mutual consent and used “Blank” figures in place of blank markers so there was still a bit of uncertainty. 

The map was taken from a part of Crawley as it looked in 1874 and is not too far from where I work. Crawley was quite notorious for smuggling being on the London to Brighton road. Where it says “Farm” (Top middle square) it is in fact Jordan’s farm which is now the Toby Carvery. The road going towards ‘B’ leads to County Oak and where I work is just to the right of ‘B’.

It was a moon lit night and visibility was 1 Dav x 5”. On the first game Mikes route was from B to C going from B across fields 18 and 21. 

His team consisted of 2 good leaders, 1 average leader, 8 smugglers armed with muskets, 8 armed with iron tipped staves and 2 figures leading 4 pack mules. 

My team consisted of 10 militia with a good officer and an NCO plus 10 Dragoons with a good officer and an NCO. 

I had the dragoons hidden in the farm and most of the Militia hidden in the houses to the left of the farm and 5 of them hidden along the left hand field boundary in the field numbered 18. 

I managed to spot some of Mikes figures from the farm just as he came on table at B but I wasn’t prepared to spring my trap just at that moment, but perhaps I should have as you will see later. Mike managed to make it to field 18 at which point we both engaged in a fire fight. 

As the sound of the shots would have been heard across the table this allowed me to roll my activation dice for the rest of my figures which unfortunately wasn’t very good. Being out gunned, one of my militia was killed, two bolted leaving the other two to be beaten up and captured. 

Of the two that ran, the NCO recovered his composure and took shelter behind a tree in field 21 whilst his “Mate” continued to run off table. 

The NCO did however put up a good fight despite his cowardly performance earlier but it wasn’t enough to hold back Mikes Smugglers and allow the rest of my militia to come into action. 

As for the Dragoons they didn’t make it either thus allowing Mikes team to get off table at point C.

In game two we swapped figures and I thought I’d be clever which was probably my undoing. Mike had his dragoons hidden in the farm very much like I did and his Militia were hidden in the houses and in the small enclosure numbered 12. 

My plan was to go from A to B by sending a group of smugglers (Team A) along the houses to find out what was there and deal with what they found, whilst sending the rest of the smugglers and the pack mules along the road. 

Things went splendidly for team A, discovering a fair amount of Mikes militia but on trying to sneak into the houses and duff them up they found that the doors had been locked (Dice roll of a 4, 5 or 6) so all they could do was to skulk behind the hedges and wait for things to develop.

Meanwhile team B was working its way along the road but as word had reached it about the discovery of the militia in the houses it took the left turn and worked its way down road C in an attempt to cross field 21. 

Sending scouts out towards enclosure 12 and not finding any enemy I became a bit too confident and on one turn I forgot to do any observation and moved a smuggler towards the enclosure only for it to be shot at with the muzzle of a militia musket rammed up its nostril. 

This allowed Mike to roll his activation dice for his Dragoons and the rest of his militia. Finding a hornets’ nest of Militia in the enclosure and having sent half of my armed smugglers with team A I was badly outgunned and was getting the worst of it. 

In the mean time team A had managed to break into one of the houses and was having it out with the 4 militia that they found in there. The rest of Mike’s militia came out of the houses marked 352 on the map and were working their way down road C. 

I in the mean time was trying to regroup team B and fight my way into field number 18 but what with the Dragoons coming up fast from the farm and Mikes Militia breathing down my neck, it was a fair cop and the gallows awaited!

Now as far as Friday games are concerned, at the moment the factory is still working a 4 day shift so this leaves Fridays free for me so if any of you want to put a day time game on whilst the weather is still good we could always start at say 12pm. The person who is putting the game on could come round at 10am and set up. 

However the game could only last the day so they’d have to be small enough so that we get a conclusion after say 5 hours allowing an hour to pack up. Anyway the offer is there if you want it.