Model Memorial

I think this is a Great War minischap. Standing at attention like that, he just seemed perfect for a statue, and so that is what he has become. The stone here is rather rougher than it would be on a statue in real life, but it works for me. Halford's grey is the undercoat. It then received a bit of drybrushing with lighter greys, then a sepia wash and a green wash in some spots. Lastly, some Ushabti Bone as a final drybrush and to create the writing on the front of the memorial finished it off.

Perhaps I'm oddly sensitive, but it strikes me as a rather sad, sombre piece.

Great War Boardgame

 Tanks

I picked up both the main expansion for the Great War boardgame, which features male and female MkIVs and German A7Vs, as well as German artillery, and the Whippet expansion, which I'll go ahead and assume needs no explanation.

Artillery

In addition to the German artillery (105mm guns), I also picked up some British opposition (18pdrs). I'm easily amused, so having this gun in 28mm, 15mm and 6mm makes me smile. :D They come in the usual brown plastic for the Brits, and grey for the Germans. They have been undercoated in the following pictures.

Flames of War

Obviously, the primary reason for purchasing these models is to use them with the boardgame. However, my mate fancies getting into Flames of War's WWI expansion, and so I'll be working out how to use these guys for both systems before basing anybody. Obviously, in time I shall expand my collection beyond just the plastics so I have a broader range of poses - and some officers, too! Hopefully, in a few months, we'll get a game in.

March/April Plans

Note: I wrote this before my last post, so don't be confused if it seems retrograde.

I have a few projects on the go at the minute. I am almost at the end of building the village, I think. The "Mosque", a small building, and a couple of large ones will round it out nicely, bringing the total of buildings, including what I think of as the Hacienda to a lucky total of thirteen structures. A ruin or two, and perhaps a few other things, may follow in due course, but for a while, that will be it.

I have three areas I want to focus on now. First, the Baccus BEF Infantry division alluded to on Monday. I'm very happy with the colour scheme for the guns, and am feeling confident about the infantry colour scheme. I should have finished it tonight, but I am too tired for sleeping, having got up early to drive almost to Hull for a friend's little boy's christening. Lovely time, but I'm shattered.

Since I'm too tired to paint I am, of course, cutting things up with sharp knives. Wisdom is for the wakeful! This is work on the second thing I shall be working on: a modular castle. I have posted ere now a teaser for one of several towers I am building. That is nicely advanced, and will fit in with a collection of walls I am at work on. I mean to have a good 6' of straight bits, and then have a think about a gateway, angled bits of walls and so on. Again, sleepiness currently impedes thinking and detailed planning.

Finally, I long ago decided to build a set of three connecting trench boards for 40K. Now, I haven't played 40K in years, and have no intention of going back to it, but I wouldn't be averse to some Great War trench action. I'd need to cover up a few oddities, which I shall. So the first step has been undercoating the old boards so I can get a good idea of what work needs to be done to start bringing them up to code.

Great War Teaser

A 28mm Renegade 18-pdr gun with its 6mm counterpart from Baccus. Guess where this is going!

Remembrance

This post should have gone up earlier today, but something seems to have gone awry.

I picked up the Great War boardgame the other week, and have just got the BEF ready in time for 11th November. The Germans are still being painted. A few pictures are below. If you look closely, you can see I have mislaid one of the members of the HMG teams. Not too bothered, as I plan to pick up some more of these chaps. Lovely to paint, these little fellows. Setting gaming aside, this is a day to remember the loss of those who died. Wilfred Owen reminds us of the tragedy that was that Great War.

Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Warhammer Historical: Great War Practice

It's been an absolute age since I've played a game of Warhammer - 40K or Fantasy - so I am dipping my toe back in the waters with a few small games. I decided to try the Blitz scenario from the rulebook, with 1914 Germans trying to push through the BEF and reach the 4' marker of the table. About where the two British artillery pieces can be seen. For the BEF I took the bare minimum of infantry, a single company of two small platoons (E and D) and one Company Command Section (B, hiding behind two pillboxes of dubious historicity), and augmented them with 2 HMGs and 2 18lb artillery pieces. I fully expected the German to overrun the BEF without much trouble.

On the German side, I used the Guards list, which is superior in close combat, while every infantryman has grenades, aiding him in assault. Some of my choices here were influenced by the comparative paucity of German models in my collection. I deployed a Colonel with a General Staff Officer and a full Battalion Command Section (1), a single HMG (2) and two off-table 77mm pieces (3, marked on table in accord with the rules), with which to support the attack. The left flank (1st Company: two platoons, 4 & 6, and a Command Section, 5) and the centre (two platoons, 7 & 9, and a Command Section, 8) were to advance, hopefully soaking up some damage, while the right flank, featuring a heavily reinforced platoon (12), a normal platoon (10) and another Command Section (11) was what I was hoping would do best by virtue of its superior numbers.

It was a very instructive experience. Having been used to the Imperial Guard, I'd never been accustomed to regarding Flak Armour as useful ere now, but when your basic troops don't get a save unless they are in cover or accept being pinned (unable to advance) in the next turn, it really brings it home. The German right flank got shot to pieces by artillery, while the central machine guns knocked out most of the attacking force in that area. The left flank advanced almost to contact before I abandoned play, and was probably going to push through the BEF platoon on that flank. The German HMG was useless, mainly because of my spectacular dice-rolling abilities. Turn 1: eight dice in sustained fire, requiring a 4+ to hit. None hit. No lesson to be learned there, aside from not letting one's infantry block one's fire. Things improved slightly, but not by much.

The German artillery was ineffective, which was my own fault for trying to take out the two pillboxes with the HMGs. I should have been better served firing on the infantry behind the walls. I erred in taking the walls to give a 3+ save when it was a 4+, and in failing to realise until the very end that the German artillery, being off-table, gained the Indirect Fire trait, which meant that the infantry shouldn't have had any save against it anyway! One round did miss the pillboxes and take out most of the Command Section, the officer legging it back up the road toward the artillery for one turn before he regained his composure. German rifle fire was ineffective, which is to be expected. With one shot at 12" if infantry move, they were never expected to do much. The BEF infantry was predictably good at shooting as the Germans closed the range. The problem for the BEF is that their basic infantryman is so very expensive. I've never been sure if the points value is adequately reflected in battlefield competence.

I think when I come to replay this game I'll pare the Germans down to two large companies of troops and a pair of off-table artillery pieces. The artillery will engage in a bit of counter-battery fire, as the Royal Artillery did some murderous good work, then focus on the infantry. On the British side, I will either remove one artillery piece and spare crewmen, and buy a third platoon for the defenders, or just trim down the spare crewmen and slightly enlarge the two platoons. at 1,000 points for the Attacker and 500 for the Defender, there really isn't a lot of room for anything else. Next game will be a bit different, anyway, as I plan to use my newly constructed canals, which will give the BEF less to hide behind, but may cause bottlenecks for the Germans.

Victoria Regina Imperatrixque and the BEF

I've moved on from the French, having done those touch-ups and having been unable to find the French dragoons I know exist somewhere in this house! I'm not risking any varnishing with the cold as it is. Lord knows what the varnish would do! I'm at work on Queen Victoria (from Foundry, I think - I believe I got her along with several iterations of Holmes and Watson the other year) and some dismounted BEF cavalry. I'd painted three of these chaps a while ago, and the three newer ones are in a much warmer scheme. I like both in their own ways, but I am a great fan of having slightly variegated units, reflecting the different rates of weathering. There won't be a neat fifty-fifty split in colouring - I shall some day get some more packs of dismounted horse and add a few more unusual shades. I have also been working on some Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons teams for 40K, but I made an ill-considered attempt to use some old Green Ink rather than Thraka Green wash on their armour and missile launchers, and the results are disastrous and far too embarrassing to be seen! :-D Content yourselves for now with these few models while I see about fixing the damage.

French infantry company

We've had some very bad weather lately, which has indirectly kept me inside. I've mentioned before that we have a rabbit, Spot. It's been as low as seven degrees (Celsius) below freezing, so we aren't putting him out in that, no matter how snug his hutch usually is! Therefore, I have been staying up at night to keep him company inside. On the plus side, I have had a lot of time to get this whole bunch of French infantry finished. I'll be using them as a small additional force for GW's Warhammer Historicals or with TFL's Through the Mud and the Blood. Anyway, going by GW's force org stuff, in total there is a company command section of three, beefed up to five by the addition of two men. There are two platoons of ten men, beefed up with an additional two men each. There's also a Major without a hand, waiting for it to be rediscovered from some box, and for me to buy a lot more men so he can have a small battalion under his command. I have noticed a few footling mistakes here, and I'm now heading off downstairs to sit with Spot and do some touching up of these chaps. Enjoy the pics!

Great War: French infantry

I found where a load more of these wee lads had been hiding: another box on a shelf in the corner. I've got another four done to tabletop standard, and have been doing some mass painting work on the others. Everyone got a coat of Necron Abyss Foundation paint, a drybrush with Ultramarine Blue and a lighter one with Ice Blue. Then I washed them with either Leviathan Purple or Asurmen Blue. The famous pantalons rouges are the result of a coat of Macharius Solar Orange painted over with some Ruby Red. They need another coat or two of that, and then they'll get a wash of Baal Red over the top. There's one fella absent from this, as he's missing his right hand - it was a separate piece holding a pistol, and I think I lost it way back when. Anyway, enjoy these pictures!

A silo, an Alien Thingy and some French infantrymen

It's a bit funny, the Alien Thingy. On the one hand, I'm very happy with it, as it looks quite perturbing and out of place. On the other hand, it doesn't merge into the ground around it, and I am not sure that I ought not to have used Greenstuff to effect a more gradual, sinewy, sinuous transition. I am still not quite happy with the silo, but there is a finite number of times I am prepared to apply dilute blue paint and wait for it to dry, only - having photographed it - to discover that it still isn't right. I have reached that number. I am much happier with the infantry. Don't let the flash fool you. They are considerably darker in person. This means the blue looks better, but the red is not so brilliant. Tsk!

In theory, they could do with a few more details here and there: some more yellow piping on the lieutenant's hat and little red tabs on the men's collars (I am not mad enough even to consider applying invisible blue numerals to reveal their loyalty). I notice there are some problems, but I think that I shall leave well enough alone or end up never finishing them. They have languished long enough, my poor poilus! I think the three men are Renegade and the officer is from Great War Miniatures. I have a St. Etienne HMG somewhere about. I must dig it out once I have the rest of the chaps done. I think there are 25 or so, mostly clustered in a vegan ice-cream tub beside me.

Terrain: Rocks and ruins, watertower and wire

I pulled my finger out last night, thanks to the film Aliens. I find it a joy to work to. So I popped that on in the background and got down to work. I had knocked up some asteroids from polystyrene foam ages ago, and now I finally painted them (Figs.1&5). There are three basic shades: ruddy iron ore, grey rock and brownish dust. Then I set to work on a big ruin that I found in the attic the other day (figs.2&3). I put it up there ages ago, because I had no sand, and quite forgot all about it. I've dabbed it with side and roof hatches, and sprinkled some sand on there, but I need to get some decorations to PVA onto the sides. Just a matter of looking through boxes of bits, that!

Next I made flesh an idea I had while working on my WWI/40K barbed wire the other week. I shan't link to Wikipedia to back this up, because they're down for the day, protesting some tyrannical American legislation (Come back, Colonies, all is forgiven. ;-) ). Erm, seriously, though, as I understand it barbed wire turns up in the American West, used to fence in large areas cheaply. So I fancied I'd turn my hand to replicating that kind of barbed wire, rather than the defensive structures of WWI. I had a spare piece about, into which I had long ago secured wood and foam. So I got some of the plastic mesh, and wound it round the bits of dowel at two heights, and once on either side (Figs.4&6). Whether this is strictly historically accurate or no, it gives a reasonable impression of the sort of barbed wire I see hereabouts. Having done so, I found a water tower I had delayed work on for want of PVA glue. I quickly fashioned some iron bindings for the wooden sides out of thin plasticard, glued on some rivets, and then secured some tissue paper atop the whole with diluted PVA (Fig.6). One of these days I must get back to painting a few figures rather than constantly making terrain!

Still, it's important to do what one loves. Speaking of which, I haven't been getting quite so much done of late, because I have been remedying my empty boxes of books by ticking off literary classics. Amazingly, some of these are turning out to be rather good in defiance of all the times I was ordered at school to enjoy a dull book! Then again, a thirty-one year old ain't the same as a teenager, so maybe my younger self was right at the time. No, that's unfair. I've read To Kill A Mockingbird, in which one character, Jem, is described thus, ""no tutorial system ever devised could stop him from getting at books". So let it be with Caesar, er, Pete! Delusions of grandeur. I have also begun Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which is - again - a rather good read thus far (about a hundred pages in of a total of 434).

It is a shame how certain didactic methods wreck reading for people. I've mentioned Mum's travails in school with The Wind in the Willows: having been told they would be reading it, she went home and read it, only to discover that they would spend the next term in an agony of slowly going through it. I was chatting to the lady at the Job Centre on Monday about it, and she confided in me how school had put her off Shakespeare. Hah! So it isn't just me who wanted to bash that Bard, I thought. I am no Jem, and some authors I am intensely wary of: John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, Austen, the Brontes and the peerless Dan Brown.

Tolkien I am just about scared of by now. I have attempted to read the snore-fest that is Lord of the Rings about a dozen times now, the last time even soliciting a passage I was assured by a fan was intensely exciting (I think it was the escape from the Ring Wraiths at Weathertop and Frodo's instalment in that Elven City). I managed not to fall asleep, but I am now too frightened to reread The Hobbit (which I enjoyed as a little boy) lest it turns out that it is unreadably dull. I have fragmentary memories that it, too, contains Hobbits singing at least once a chapter. If ever I were to become a terrorist (rather unlikely, but bear with me), the Americans could quite easily torture me by giving me only that as a book. The films were good, though, albeit a bit long. Anyway, I have probably enraged half the readership now by attacking Tolkien's abilities and another quarter by saying how dreadful I find Shakespeare, so I shall quit while I'm behind, relying on the pics to restore my good favour in your hearts, gentle readers. Until next time!