4Ground buildings, green stuff roads and other stuff

   A little while ago I won a few buildings from 4Ground. I have now made them and based up two of the three I got. These will join the ones I did previously in making a town set up for various games from WW2 onwards. 

First up is the 15mm Terrace with additional floor. This will make a nice addition to my street and it was fun getting back into the basing of these. The walls and pavements are also from 4Ground and I think they do add to the final structure.

Front facing

Rear facing and gardens

Closer view of the gardens

The other building I have finished is the 15mm North West Europe Farmhouse. This comes quite nicely painted up, but I have done a bit of work and painted some of  the bricks in different shades of grey and repainted the roof in a green tile to match the lean-to I added. Again, the walls etc are from 4Ground but the other bits are from other companies. I think the lean-to is from Battlefront and the green house and cold frames are from Sabotag3d. I'm pretty happy with how it came out in the end, it obviosuly belongs to a more well-to-do member of the local community.

The farm is it comes

Based up and painted up

The vegetable garden

and from the other side

A rear view showing the courtyard, grass and vegetable garden

Another purchase I have recently made is a couple of greenstuff rollers from Greenstuff World. To be accurate, I got them from Firestorm Games, but you get the idea. I duly bought 18" of greenstuff on eBay and had at it. A bit of practice and things improved until, eventually, I had 6' (or 180cm) of cobblestone roads for my town. Various shades of grey and brown were slapped about on the stones, then some mud brown and gloss varnish on the mistakes to make them look like mud and Robert is your mother's brother. I think 6' will be enough for the town, the country side will have mud tracks that I already have.

Roads, 18 sections of 4'

A closer look at the cobblestones (and mistakes mud)

A few bits of road arrayed around the farm house.

Gaming has been a bit scarce, mostly because I caught a stinking cold type thing which laid me low for a couple of weeks. Last Monday I did get to run a game of Billhooks for Panjo and Colin, which Colin won quite easily due to a random event making one of Panjo's units change sides. We are having another go next Monday, hopefully I will remember to take some pictures this time.

Tomorrow Christopher and I are off to BIG for a day of Lardy games. The event is called Gert Lush Lard and I am looking forwards to it. Chain of Command in the morning and Infamy in the afternoon, should be a good day. 

Catch you all next time, have a good one and take care.

Christmas Greetings and all that malarky.

Sorry about the complete lack of updates, I have been a bit crook for the last few weeks and it doesn't seem to be improving.  Not much painting has happened and even less gaming, so it's a pretty crap update really.

I did manage to make it to the Devon Wargames Christmas Big Bash, which was fun.  Arranged and managed by Nick I think he did a marvellous job of using a 2 player game system to cater for 16 players!  Fun was had by all I believe and the valiant Brits saw off the Saxon invaders.  I didn't play but helped Nick a bit with running it, mainly by sitting in and guiding the table of 4 new(ish) players.  See the DWG blog for a good report with some decent pictures.

Too Fat Lardies have brought out a campaign supplement for Sharp Practice 2, and very good it is too.    It reads well and will make for some interesting games in the future.  I may have to bump my 28mm ACW forces up the painting list.....maybe.

It has some nice ideas for different types of mini-campaigns and adds some "oddities" to the game as well. 




Right, as it's nearly the end of the year I am going to sit down and work out exactly what I want to get painted and based to use for next year.   I am a quintissential wargames butterfly with the attention span of a gold fish, so I am intending to concentrate on a few things next year and mainly focus any expenditure on terrain and the like.  So the aims are

1. Finish off the Dark Ages figures I have and make up enough forces for larger games.  I do need to get a bit more cavalry for this...and maybe some Picts......maybe.
2. Paint up the 15mm Cold War British, Russian and German forces I have bought already.  I need a few support bits to finish these off but the majority is bought
3. Finish up basing the 15mm buildings I have here already.  I still have several houses, a church and a factory that need basing up.
4. Do my Perrys 28mm ACW forces for SP2, as mentioned above

 I have several other projects that are being put into storage now, 28mm Crusades, 28mm NWF, 28mm Dragon Rampant, 15mm ACW, all the various 6mm stuff......the list goes on and on.  So that is the plan, I want to get the Dark Ages finished sooner rather than later as I enjoy the games we play and really like the figures so they are first on the list.  However, that may well be scuppered by Christmas and Birthday presents as I know that my mum has ordered me some Congo figures from North Star and I believe No2 son has also ordered me something similar.  Time will tell, but they are small forces and won't take long to paint.  I also have received a secret santa, which will be opened on Sunday too.

See how long that plan lasted!!!!  It's pathetic really isn't it? :(

Anyway, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I'll catch up next week hopefully with an update of what I got and how it has totally scewed my plans up.  Oh, and I will be a year older on Sunday too, the scarey thing is I will be 48 and am still the youngest of the Chuckadice group!

Not much to see here

Hello again, it's time for another rambling post of no interest whatsoever.

I have done very little gaming over the last month, but still managed to do a little here and there. Chain of Command is still the favourite game here, so this post by Trailape is worth checking out if you are undecided about which way to go for a WW2 small action set of rules.  I have tried out both sets of rules and my preference is also for CoC.  That's not saying Bolt Action is bad, it's just a bit too much like Warhamster 40k for me.  Trailapes post also brought about a special offer from TFL, so if you are considering getting CoC, now is the time.

Purchases of lead and/or plastic have been limited by a serious lack of funds, being sick for so long has really hit the finances and belts have been tightened.  So I have bought nothing lately, but the lead mountain has grown somewhat significantly due the the amazing generosity of Gaz Amos (top bloke even if he still has a pornstar moustache).  After my previous post about Fighting Season he was kind enough to offer me some Mongrel Miniatures Arab and Syrian figures.  Assuming it was a pack or two I gratefully accepted.  A box duly arrived from deepest darkest Salford, but it was much bigger and heavier than I expected.  Opening it was like Christmas as a kid, I knew what I was expecting but what else was there.  Arab and Syrians but more of them than I expected, plus some Israelis and Congo figures from Mongrel, some US infantry from TAG and some Cold War Russians and Yanks to top it all off.  Thanks Gaz, you have restored my mojo a bit and paint has been slapped on lead for a change.

Painting has been a mixed bag, with several long delayed projects finally getting some work done to them.

 I ordered a 15mm factory from Sarissa Precision as all my buildings are residential so I wanted a change.  It came in a big bag and was a pleasure to build.  Unlike 4Ground it comes unpainted, so is a blank canvas and open to a wide range of paint schemes.  I sort of followed one that I saw on their website, except I added windows of plastic and printed off some roof tiles.  Paint was mostly from B&Q in tester pots with a few craft paints added.  All in all I think it came out pretty well and I am looking forward to seeing it dominate the table as it is 180mm square.

 The roof is removable and there is a walkway that the outside stairs lead up too.  I have some fencing arrived now so will be making up a yard for it, just to tie in with the other buildings I have based.

Following on from my German platoon for the Barbarossa period, I picked up a box of Battlefronts new plastic Russian infantry when we visited Battlegroup Souths show at Bovington tank museum.  They are nice figures and the box includes Maxim mg teams too, so plenty of firepower to support the Russian horde.  I did get the metal command pack as well to provide the 50mm mortar and flag bearer.   A quick check of the list for the Russian force in 1941 and the platoon was painted up.  CO(with a flag), 2IC, Commissar, 50mm mortar team and four squads of 13 men makes it a large platoon, but quite tactically rigid as the squads are not broken up into teams.  They will make a change from the Germans though, more a blunt instrument than a scalpel I think 

 I also picked up some support for the Russians, with some Zvezda T-26s and Plastic Soldier Company artillery.  The Maxims are from the infantry box, so the platoon is almost 100% plastic (7 metal figures out of 98).  The five T-26s are more than I will ever need for CoC, but a nice force for Battlegroup games.  Two Maxims, two 45mm AT guns and two 76mm infantry guns also gives a reasonable spread of support too.

Finally I purchased a Warbases Mark I tank (just because I could) a while ago and have finally got it put together and painted up.  It will be used for my VBCW force, based on the fact that many were sent out to towns as displays after WW1 and Newton Abbot was a major train depot so had plenty of engineer types to get it up and running again.  I have tarted it up a bit from the original.  I didn't really like the square gun barrels or exhaust pipe so I replaced them with some brass tube and I also added some Lewis guns to the sponsons and in the bow, courtesy of Colonel Bills supply store.  I am happy with how it has turned out and it is a much cheaper alternative than the others out there while still making a decent replica of the original. 

A final note about hospitals and such.  I am still p****d off with UCLH for the way they cancelled at the last minute, leaving us over £100 out of pocket in hotel costs.  I have now been referred to Mid Essex hospital in Chelmsford(getting further away every time) and should be there early next month to see a top man in the gastroparesis field apparently.  Fingers crossed and all that.

Catch you all later, I am off to do something less constructive for a bit.

Another update, more buildings and yet more 28mm Germans

It's been a busy few weeks.  Things did not go to plan at the hospital, despite losing over 5 stone(32kg to you foreigner types) I am still too fat around my middle to have the op.  So the plan is too lose another 2-4 stone.  In the meantime I am stuck with the Ryles tube going down my nose.  It could be worse though, so I'm still smiling.  Sort of.

Wargaming wise, I have not played much over the last few weeks.  I did partake of a multi-player Dux Britannarium  game, where the Saxons and Irish allies saw of the Romano-British levies and stole all the loot.  No pictures and I can't remember the details, except that we discovered the raiders are a real pain for the fairly static R-Brits to deal with.

Painting has gone on, but not much for myself.  Two more platoons of 28mm Bolt Action Germans have been painted up, one sold privately and the other is on eBay now.

This one sold on to a chap in France.  It's made up from the Blitzkrieg period figures released recently by Warlord.  They are a vast improvement on the original plastic Germans  and came out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.

The other platoon is made of the new Grenadiers in plastic.  Again, they are much nicer figures than the originals and look good.  A bit more work to paint due to all the camo, but they are worth the extra effort.  This lot includes a tripod MG42 and a pair of MG42 LMGs in each squad. There are also two Panzerfausts per squad, making them a well equipped force.

Here is a closer look at the MG42.  I have added some spent shell casings under the weapon, I didn't realise that the MG34 and 42 ejected the casing through the bottom of the breech.  You learn something every day.

My own stuff has been 15mm buildings being touched up and based.  Similar the the ones in my previous update, I now have a total of 7 bases of buildings done and ready for use.  These latest are made up to represent a street, from left to right there is the grocers, hotel, 2 unsigned shops(I didn't realise until I was taking the pictures!), an antiques shop, a patisserie, the town hall and another patisserie.  They all have
individual back gardens/yards as well.

This is the rear of the town hall and corner patisserie.  The town hall has a large courtyard while the shop has a smaller garden with some flower beds.













The rear gardens of the middle shops are split by an alleyway.  The left pair have much nicer flowers beds and such than the other two.  Probably because they have signs on the front of their shops.










The other end has a larger courtyard area for hotel guests to park, while the grocers has a small garden given over solely to growing vegetables.















The final 4Ground building I have at the moment is a pair of semi-detached houses.  These I have based up slightly larger with larger gardens that come around the side of the house too.  One has a nice garden with paving stones, flowers and a vegetable patch.  The other is a bit overgrown and is obviously left to grow as it sees fit.

Lastly I have also started basing up some of the Landmark buildings I bought when the now closed Battle Honours UK first released them.  This is the farm, made up of 3 Landmark buildings and a scratch-built pig pen.  I am fairly happy with how it has come out, although I may repaint the shutters on the windows.
 
 Anyway, that's your lot for now.  I am currently waiting on some decals to arrive, along with some more fencing.  Then I can crack on with the last few bits I need to finish before next Saturdays  trip up to Evesham.

Anyway, have fun folks and thanks for stopping by.

Devon Wargames, painting, gaming...............

Back again with another load of old crap.

Saturday was the latest gathering of like minds, which is a scary thought,  at the Devon Wargames Group.  Three games were played, 28mm English Civil War, 15mm Napoleonics and 15mm WW2.

Things begin at Marston Moor

Marston Moor was the basis for the ECW game, catering for 8 players and involving much toing and froing.  It looked like a fun game and the players seemed to enjoy shouting at each other.  Look for a report soon on the DWG blog.

Contact in the centre

JJ put on a typically beautiful 15mm Napoleonic game using figures from his ongoing Talavera project.  The rules used were apparently called DBJ, not sure if that's for De Bellis Jon or Death By Jon.  Again the players looked to be having a good game, even if they did get their units a bit mixed up.

JJ's Talavera game

If you want inspiration on what you can do with 15mm figures and some spare time then check out his previous posts about the Talavera project, they are worth looking at.

These are not the gun's your looking for

Brits appear to steady the line

Unhappy Spanish Cavalry

German's advance through the woods

The final game was a 1940 Chain of Command game put on by me.  Four of us played it, Nathan and Christopher took the attacking Germans, Jack commanded the dug-in Highlanders and I took the French.

Each German player had a platoon of infantry (4 squads of 10 men plus a 5cm mortar) plus  2 Pz IIs, 2 Pz 38ts, 2 Sd222s, a tripod MG and an engineer section in support.  The British platoon(3 squads of 8, 2" mortar and Boys AT rifle) were supported by a Vickers MG team and a 2pdr gun while the French Platoon(3 squads of 12) were backed up by a Hotchkiss MG and a mighty 25mm AT gun.  The allies also had a carrier section(3 Bren carriers) and a single Vickers VI light tank as reinforcements. 

Defenders appear in their entrenchments

2pdr appears, not that it did much

French 25mm gun gets hit

The Germans had to break through the defences, but failed miserably.  The Brits were hard hit by the end, with two sections routed and the third pinned down.  All their support was still there though, although the 2pdr had run out of ammo without killing a single enemy vehicle.  The French were in a stronger position, with one squad at half strength and pinned.  The AT gun was slightly battered and the MG was pinned, but the remaining squads weren't even deployed.  The Germans took heavy losses due to remarkably accurate fire from Jack's Highlanders.  It did help that he managed several multiple phases during the game, one time he had 4 in a row!  This really scuppered the German's advance and prevented their infantry from ever getting going.  Low point was Jack's 2pdr firing 10 shots and only damaging a Pz38t once and an Sd222 once.  This was despite hitting on 5+ on 2d6 as they were in the open AND rolling 5d6 against 2 or 4d6 for penetration.  Not good at all, but the Boys AT rifles made up for it.  The infantry one knocked out one Sd222 and kept the other one and both Pz38t's pinned at the edge of the table.  The carrier one fired 2 shots and caused both PzII's to retreat off the table.  Fear the Boys, for it is mighty!  Anyway, the game went well, even if the German's never really got into the fight.

I have managed a bit of painting too, so things are not going too bad.  First things I have done were a couple of 4Ground 15mm terraced buildings that I have based and detailed to improve how they look on the table.  At least that's the plan anyway.  First one was a definite learning experience and took far longer than the second.  The buildings have been painted up to cover the scorch marks from the laser.  They were then attached to a hardboard base with some pavements and back gardens added.  I cut the board too big and was left with some space at the end(measure and check before cutting), so I added a small allotment to fill that.  The walls and fences are 4Ground too, with plants from various sources.  Some are just grass tufts while others are railway modellers scenic bits.  The garden paving is Wills sheets of various types.  they are a bit overscale but look ok and will do.  I think they came out well and will soon be joined by some more as I have many buildings that need doing.

 The second terrace was based on a correctly cut bit of hardboard and has more grass in the gardens.  As I said, it's been a learning experience.  It's been a fun exercise though and will be repeated soon(ish).

 I also managed some 28mm WW2 Germans, a 32 man platoon of Bolt Action plastic figures for eBay.  Got to pay for the MOT on the car, which cost a bit more than we hoped for.

Final things were some entrenched 15mm WW2 British and French infantry.  The figures are all from Skytrex, but the French are really Germans with Peter Pig heads fitted.  Nobody does dug in French troops.

Well that's your lot again.  I am off to paint some more on the French tanks I am doing before calling it a night and going to bed.  Off to Torbay Hospital tomorrow for the op on my stomach, assuming they have found me a bed as I have to stay in for a day or two.  Have fun while I'm offline, I know I won't.

MDF construction and more Napoleonics painted and based

It's been a productive few days due, yet again, to being up at ungodly hours of the night.  It does let me focus on things with no interruptions from the family though.

So, what have I been doing during the dark, cold hours of the night.  I recently purchased the rather nice 4ground 15mm hotel complex to join my ever expanding building collection.  It's price of £55 put me off as it's a lot of cash for a few buildings, but Nick at Northstar tempted me by putting it in his sale at a mere £35.  So I snapped one up and then sat back and waited. 

While waiting, I cracked on with some more 28mm Napoleonic figures.  I had some figures that I thought were Wurttemberg figures, as they looked like another unit that was sat waiting to be based.  However, upon closer inspection I came to the conclusion that they were wearing different helmets, so quickly grabbed my Funcken books and started a search.  A quick perusal of the pictures led me to the conclusion that these were Bavarian infantry, so painting commenced.  A few nights later and I had a unit of 24 men all painted up.  It's amazing what you can do with no distractions.  The next day I started basing, despite the distraction of a box of mdf that had been delivered.  "Get thee behind me 4ground" I said and cracked on with sand, ink, paint and grass. 

The end result is I now have a painted and based unit of Bavarians, plus I based the Wurttembergers whilst I was at it.

Wurttemberg Infantry

 Here are the Wurttemberg infantry, not painted by me which is why the style is different.  Still, they look good.

Bavarian Infantry

 These are the Bavarians, done in my usual base colours, highlight, wash and highlight again. 



I then cracked out the PVA and opened the box from Northstar.  To say there were a lot of bits would be an understatement, but I persevered, swearing and muttering.  I ended up with a rather nice little complex which, after some touching up of the paint to hide the scorch marks, came out pretty well I think.  There is a nice L shaped hotel building, an attached cook house and a separate coach house, all on a walled courtyard.  It went together nicely, despite my ham fisted attempts to put bits in backwards, upside down etc.  I have touched up the roof sections to hid the construction tabs, repainted the white washed walls to hide the scorch marks and the tabs and also repainted some of the courtyard stones to break up the colour a bit.  I think it came out ok and will make a nice objective for forthcoming games.

4ground hotel top view

Close up of courtyard

Hotel front and side view

That's it for now.  The only gaming was umpiring a couple of games of Lion Rampant last night.  The lads seemed to enjoy it, so that's a good thing.  All being well I am off to Penarth in Welsh Wales for Crusade 2015 on Saturday.  Maybe I'll see you there.

PS.  JJ has posted a nice guide and link for upgrading the trees he made previously.  I will be doing the same as soon as I get some filler and a green spray.