Showing posts with label Italy 1943. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy 1943. Show all posts

Monday, 25 March 2024

Mediterranean modular village 15mm

A while ago I posted that I had bought from eBay a ‘job lot’ 15mm modular village for gaming in Sicily or Italy. Whilst painting figures I have gradually been ‘tarting’ painting these up and they were completed last night. The main reason I bought them was their obvious flexibility and the fact that the package gave me pretty much all I could possibly need ? They are made of some form of plaster so won’t stand dropping on the floor I have no idea the manufacturer but would be interested to know ? The set came with a couple of walled sections which I forgot to put in the photos.

Pretty much the full Town as single story buidlings
These can then be raised into taller buildings if wanted
Or split as shown in these three photos as smaller rural villages
Lots of different building options can be made from farms churches etc…
Very happy with the way they have come out, although they were painted I have lightened the walls and highlighted them, then applied a bit of stain to represent weathering and ageing. The roofs were simple overpainted to a lighter terracotta colour. The casting/moulding is rough on some so you may notice the windows in some places are pushed out, in others I have painted them black. Some of the buildings may find themselves in 28mm games as sheds as well, or if so inclined I could make some small 28mm sheds onto which the roofs would fit?. If I  was inclined I guess I could also use them for reduced footprint villages in larger Napoleonic they are really a bit small for that ?

Anyway I hope we can get them on the table soonish 

Thanks as always Matt ❤️


Thursday, 4 January 2024

Happy New Year and a Brussel Sprout !

 When is it too late to wish people a happy new year, hopefully not the 4th January ? With the family at home for Christmas I haven’t managed any games and only limited painting time although of course I have been thinking about hobby stuff quite a bit. As the kids have now ‘flown the nest’ again and after a couple of days tidying up I have started to get back into the groove, although only a few bits are completed.

First up some Norman knights, mainly painted before Christmas but still needed quite a bit of work to complete them. Not absolutely certain what make they are chunky metal picked up secondhand at a show, lovely figures and easy to paint. I picked the lighter colour scheme as they are more likely to see action in the Mediterranean or on Crusade than in wet and muddy England. Picking these out of the lead pile I realised I have quite a few more Norman cavalry (units) to paint.
Secondly a small rebased unit of French Heavies. Picked up from a mate they only needed a little colour matching for future units. On the list for this year are two more full units of Curassiers and some Carabiniers. Not sure when I will get to these though ?
Some Christmas fun I picked up a copy of Xenos Rampant.
Turns out of course that I already have a number of potential forces from my 40k collection, this saw me tidying up this small force of Aliens (Tyranids) and I am half way through completing some Imperial Desert troops who had languished in a box for many years, these lend themselves to a fun mini campaign sometime in the near future
A new year and New project. Well it is a good time to start something new, not a spur of the moment thing I have actually been thinking about this for a while going through the challenge of deciding scales and figures etc. more of this in the future but the plan at the moment is something larger than a skirmish game. Luckily I had told my family what I wanted.
Another present this time to myself ordered off eBay ! I have been listening to James Holland’s latest book on the invasion of Italy and thinking about the use of my 15mm WW2 armies, I had convinced myself that I didn’t want to collect another set of 15mm terrain knowing that for the scale of battles I would need quite a bit. Then I made the mistake of looking on eBay and this set of terrain popped up ! It was an easy decision, this is absolutely the type of terrain I prefer simple but very flexible as it is all modular. It is slightly old school being cast from plaster but not showing any signs of damage. To be honest there is so much a few chips wouldn’t matter. As a test I have started repainting a few bits as below
These are just a couple of the components 
They stack to make multiple versions of buildings, from these couple of shots you don’t quite get the effect but when painted I will set it all up. This gives me the option to play 15mm in both Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Thoughts for this year, I’m not making a list as such but here are the things that are floating in my head at the moment

Expanding my 28mm Sicily battles, perhaps with Italians and paratroopers
Continuing to paint my Napoleonics
Moving the ECW armies forward
Samurai of course we watched ‘Ran’ over the Christmas break for inspiration
Moving the AWI campaign forward
Xenos rampant
Tidying up some collections and selling off some languishing Warhammer stuff
Most importantly I need to improve my health as I have been unwell far too much this year.

The weather has been dreadful over Christmas but we did manage a few shorter walks

And what of the Brussel Sprout I hear you say ?

I add this to make you chuckle or perhaps groan, my Father who is now 90 orders his food on line to get it delivered, we visited him over Christmas. In his pre Christmas food order he must have ticked the wrong box on Sainsbury’s website as rather than getting a bag of Brussels sprouts they sent him One !!!!!! For those that need it, this is perhaps a great example of the world gone mad. I can only imagine what the shop packer was thinking when he weighed the single Sprout and then printed and labelled it up 🤯

Thanks as always for checking by, let’s all hope for a peaceful, healthy and productive New Year with lots of Brussel Sprouts they aren’t just for Christmas !

Matt