Crocs and Hippos

 With my mind set on having a waterborne adventure for our game, I turned to the scenarios included in the Congo rule book for inspiration.  Luckily for me there were a number of possibilities that would work, especially if I combined a couple of the scenarios together.  Ultimately this was going to be a chase across the board hampered by pursuing tribesmen and, of course, crocodiles!  I had a number of these ruthless reptiles that needed to be painted, but what I was really after were some waterline variants to patrol the swamps.  So it was that I found myself wrapping 'Wargames Foundry' crocodiles in something called mini-mold from 'TT-Combat'.

This was always going to have a limited success, especially given the low relief of the details on my small crocodiles, but I just need to sell the illusion of this toothsome predator lurking just below the surface of the brackish water.  So once the impression was made, I packed it full of green stuff and et voilà, swimming crocodiles!  

After a little bit of trimming they were affixed to small pill like bases and then painted to match the others in the collection.  I also experimented with some water texture around the edges, but I am not entirely sure this has worked as well as I had hoped and might have proven more effective if I just painted the edges to represent water, which is exactly what I did with the hippos!

"What talk of river horse?" I hear you cry.  Well good reader it would appear that my shame of unpainted soldery has now exploded into the digiverse with the unfathomable need to purchase STL files for 3D printing.  Nothing new in this, but I don't even own a digital printer and yet I have amassed a vast assortment of files that would potentially see me print models from dinosaurs to Dooku all at the click of a button.    'The Dark Templar', a chap that has thoroughly embraced this hobby departure very kindly offered to print some hippopotami as a contribution to the game and so when the beasts arrived in the post, ahead of the big day, I was absolutely thrilled.  I am afraid, I can't tell you what resin was used or even the width of the layers, but I was instantly aware of just how light they were compared to the weight of a metal piece.  The fun, dynamic poses were just what I wanted and immediately set about them with some grey undercoat.  In fact the undercoat was so effective that I only had to pick out a few details and dry brush some scarring to their backs and they were done!  So with characters and menagerie finished, I just had one more piece to add - the swamp! 

Exploding Puppies!

 

I am perfectly aware of my many limitations as a war gamer. The most crippling of which is a lack of focus on any given project for any length of time.   To be clear these projects are never totally discarded, but rather hang in suspended animation awaiting their time to shine once again.  So to complete the basic units required for a 1000 point Bolt Action Soviet Army was, by my standards, going to quite an achievement. I had deliberately left aside the more esoteric units as something to look forward to, but with the return to work hobby time evaporated, that’s not to say that it disappeared altogether and there would be small steps forward, often snatched over a weekend, but the momentum built up through the longer breaks was inevitably going to stall.  

Returning to the esoteric, the inclusion of the dog units was always going to be a controversial choice here at ‘Awdry Towers’.  The Saintly Mrs. Awdry will not bat an eye as the massed ranks of my toy soldiers are massacred wholesale following another tactical blunder by yours truly, but suggest that an animal might be injured, even one made of white metal, and oh my goodness me - the horror!

 So when we discussed the fate of these poor mutts, that had explosive charges strapped to their backs and then encouraged to go and lie under the advancing tanks, it was clear that I needed to present the grim reality in a more palatable way.  No longer would they be referred to as Anti Tank Teams, but instead good doggies being taken for a walk by their caring handlers!  

All of this nonsense aside, it would appear that there is some discrepancy as to the effectiveness of such tactics, not the sanitising of history to appease your wife you understand, but stories abound of dogs so terrified by the metal behemoths that they run back to their own lines, much to the chagrin of Uncle Ivan.  I am led to believe that any stray dog seen on the streets of Mother Russia was exterminated by the German invaders. Still there was something so absurd about all of this that made them a must have inclusion to my force. 

As hinted at earlier, tactics are not my strong point, so anything that throws a certain semblance of chance into the proceedings is most definitely up my street so I picked up the ‘Warlord Games’ pack and planned to paint them as they were, but give them the ‘wintery’ treatment to tie in with the rest of my force.  Unfortunately the pack only had one handler wearing a Telogreika, but as I wanted to add additional units to this team I was going to need more winter clad warriors to swell the ranks.  Fortunately I fell upon on a series of posts on the wonderful, Dramatic Katastases blog.

This was a veritable gold mine of ideas, and you can expect to see more of them shamefully plundered here in due course, but the dog unit in particular gave me food for thought - I could make my own!  A couple of snow suited veterans that had been abandoned, as I was looking to make a unit with SMGs and they had rifles, were conscripted to the cause. The bits box also yielded some scraps that I thought would work well for me and as luck would have it, a pack Warlord Games Ancient Britons Mastiffs!*

*Everyone has these lying around, right?

The build itself was relatively straightforward and I am genuinely thrilled with the results, although already thinking about the possibility of using markers to show that the dogs had been deployed.  With regards to painting, I simply followed the same steps that I used with earlier units, finished off with a dusting of ‘snow’.  For the time being this is where I am going to leave my Soviet forces.  By my reckoning, I have enough options to field a competitive 1000 point force, although there are still some pieces I could call upon, including the ubiquitous T34 waiting in the wings.  As to what pops up next here at '28mm Victorian Warfare' is anyone's guess.  A quick check revealed 54 draft posts, the earliest dating back to 2013, in various states of completion and detailing an inordinate array of periods and projects.  That said, I am enjoying getting back to writing and catching up with friends so determined to keep going for a little while longer. 

The Monarch of the Glen

More fauna and set dressing, this time in the shape of a couple of packs of 'Wargames Foundry' deer.  These were purchased off the back of the wild boar post, 'Bringing home the bacon',  where Paul of 'Paul's Bods' fame had suggested that Roe and Red deer were plentiful in the Austrian forests and by happenstance 'Wargames Foundry' were running a sale; the rest, as they say, is history.

When they arrived I couldn't have been more thrilled, beautifully cast and with very little work needed in preparation.  A modicum of research revealed that there were subtle differences in markings between the breeds, but a red brown sufficed as the base coat for both.  To be perfectly honest, I couldn't see past Sir Edwin Landseer's iconic painting of c.1851.  Just like the painting this stag boasts an impressive twelve point, or royal, set of antlers and it's easy to see how the Victorian painting embodied all that is majestic and mysterious about the lands North of the boarder.  

Sadly, by the twentieth century the painting had become something of a cliché, the sort of image that might adorn a tin of all butter shortbread or a bottle of whisky, but it still holds a sense of mastery to me and so I am happy to champion it in miniature, even adding a clump of purple heather on the base; a little bit of Scotland in a far off corner of some foreign field.

I have to say that they make quite a lovely family group, with the addition of a couple of fawns that I couldn't resit painting to look like Bambi.   I hope to return them to the wild when we finally reunite the boards, but have made a solemn promise to James' mother that no harm will befall any livestock placed on the board, so they really are only to be considered set dressing.

One unexpected advantage of being holed up during the ongoing crisis is that all those 'extension' tasks that were to be considered if we had time have now been completed; a case in point would be more livestock!  Stuck to lolly pop sticks, patiently awaiting their repatriation are creatures form a variety of sources including bunnies from 'Bad Squiddo Games' and 'Warbases', a couple of toads from 'Master Crafted Miniatures', some pheasants, again from 'Warbases' and a couple of fish, sadly not included in this photograph, from 'Wargames Terrain Workshop'.

I even managed to finish some wolves, yet again from the ever dependable 'Warbases' and a nun.  Originally from 'Conquest Games', the nun's head was flattened and a crude crucifix fashioned from some plastic strip so as to create a passing semblance to Mother Abbess from the Sound of Music.  I have absolutely no idea if these will have any role to play in the game, although I quite liked the idea of Mother Abbess just randomly moving around the board, joining everyone in song,

"Climb Ev'ry Mountain".

Regardless of their ultimate use it is good to have finally ticked off these elements that have been cluttering up the painting desk for so long.  I have been beavering away on the plot points or markers for the game and will hopefully be in a position to share those shortly and then, fingers crossed, we may have the big reveal!

Click button for related posts

Bringing home the bacon.

Well I'm not sure where the half term break has gone?  It has been lovely to spend time with the Saintly Mrs. Awdry, but here I am contemplating the return to work and with very little to show for it, hobby wise.  As I rather suspected the prospect of getting to grips with fifty SS Troops was too much for this particular butterfly brained hobbyist and although five have been completed, with another five underway, I went in search of an easy win.

I have always enjoyed populating my tables with additional livestock and have been wracking my brains as to what might have been roaming around the Austrian forests in the 1940s?  I am assuming the usual fare of game would be plentiful such as pheasants, rabbits and deer*, but what else?   Wild Boar!  Somewhere, in the depths of my addled brain, was the flicker of a memory that had wild boar rooting around the Black Forest and so it was that the every reliable 'Warbases' received an order for a couple of packs along with some small pill shaped bases.  

 *Although what deer would be most common?

Basing some up with their piglets** these simple, but well cast, beasties will be roaming the areas below the castle.  They may yet get their own 'Chance Card', which will play in a similar fashion to those of Congo, by 'Studio Tomahawk', insomuch that if drawn then a combat action will have to be resolved before the unit can progress.  I suppose if successful then they might claim extra rations for their troop?

**Surely not boarlets?

So some more fluff for the table, but time is ticking and we still have a long way to go!  As I write this there is only 56 more days to 'Salute 2020'!

Click button for related posts

Non Playing Characters and Livestock

As a final piece of set dressing, I was keen to furnish the Witchfinder game board with some non-playing characters and livestock.  Now, I have form for being distracted, the slightest whim often leading to the abandonment of full blown and even well established ideas.  However, given the immediacy of the game, this was a luxury that I couldn’t afford to indulge in.  So it was that I found myself dipping within an inch of my life in a bid to get things finished and on the board. 

It made no difference, whether it be bovine, buxom beauty or Blacksmith’s boy all were bound for the dip.  In my haste I wasn’t as careful as I should have been and allowed the staining substance to build up and pool, which had the adverse effect of making everything appear dirty.  Some of this was remedied in the highlighting stage, but nonetheless it was an important lesson learnt.

So a final selection, destined to breathe life into the 'Vale of Muchwhinging'.  We have cattle and sheep from 'Warlord Games', with Musket Men and villagers from 'Redoubt Enterprises'.  There should have been more, but here then, hangs a tale.  I placed an order with Redoubt back in June 2018.  I was surprised to see that ownership had passed to Mr. Andy Grubb, but happy in the knowledge that one of my favoured collections of miniatures was still going to be available for purchase.  Given the logistical difficulties involved in the transfer of the operation Mr. Grubb had very sensibly posted a polite notice forewarning customers to an inevitable delay.  All of this is perfectly reasonable, not to mention understandable.  Whilst disappointed that my order wasn’t ready for the game some weeks later, it wasn’t the end of the world, but I was starting to be troubled by the delay.  I wrote, and continued to write, but to no avail; I may as well have been shouting in the wind.

The amount concerned was not so much that I was overly worried, but the principle of the thing was starting to bother me so, now some six months later, I decided that one last push was in order.  I had read on one of the many online forums that Mr. Grubb was a splendid chap, but that there had been definite issues arising over the change of ownership.  One gentlemen suggesting that a simple email would normally resolve any issue, he even supplied the email address.  As I looked closer, I could see that this was a different address to the one on the invoice that I had been using and decided to give it a go.

Within hours I received a reply that could not have been more apologetic and within days the missing items arrived safely here at Awdry Towers, with yet more apologies and some bonus miniatures.  So thank you Mr. Grubb and here’s to a long and profitable tenure as proprietor of a such a wonderful range of miniatures.

A Wind in the Willows.

Regular readers to '28mm Victorian Warfare' might remember the last time that I was seduced by the look of the rather splendid trees from '4 Ground', the mighty 'Oak Tree' being a case in point.  You might also remember that I had decided that, whilst very lovely, they were a tad pricey and one was better off building from scratch.  Well it will come as no surprise to many to hear that I have succumbed again! 

Now in my defence, I was at 'Salute', I had counted up my pocket money and knowing that I was looking to create a river system what would be a better accompaniment that a weeping willow?  Let me tell you, a weeping willow and three smaller willows, that's what!  Before you could say, Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty, they were paid for and in the swag bag.  

As this summer's 'Witchfinder' game grew closer, I finally got around to basing them up and I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to incorporate some of the characters from Kenneth Grahame's much loved classic.  Badger and Ratty are from 'Warbases', whilst Toad was a lucky find on the 'Master Crafted Miniatures' stand.*  Sadly Mole is not represented, I did toy with the idea of creating a couple of molehills on the final base, but time was against me and so he remains conspicuous by his absence.

*Not sure what I am going to do with the tortoises that I picked up at the same time, but I am sure they will come in handy!

So has all this changed my opinion on the pricing of the trees?  Well not really, they are very expensive for what you get, not even a pre-painted base this time!  That said, they are very nicely crafted and their distinctive shape and particularly the size of the larger models really does add something to the table.  So whilst I shall continue to whinge about the hefty price tag, I am thrilled to have them in my collection.

“It's my world, and I don't want any other. What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing.”

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

A Swarm of Bats

Since the refurbishment here at ‘Awdry Towers’ there has been a certain amount of relocation, by this I mean that my little cosy corner of the dining room table has been banished!  With this banishment the lead pile was spilt over a couple of locations with the more esoteric elements of the collection finding further isolation in the loft.  

This was carefully considered at the time, with a degree of sorting out and labelling, but alas as with all good intentions the system has fallen by the wayside!  What this now means is that when I go in search of something it is now over several floors of the house and takes an inordinate amount of time!  All griping aside, this arrangement does have an unexpected upside, namely that when rooting around for one miniature you come across a number of others that might inspire a complete change of direction. 

So it was that I came to find a Vampire Knight, a Man-Bat and a swarm of bats in my hand at the same time!   Although not completely sold on the idea that the three pieces could show the transformation from human form to flying mammal, I started the process of preparing the miniatures.   The Swarm is from ‘Reaper Miniatures’, whilst the Vampire Knight was an impulse buy in one of ‘North Star Miniatures’ clearance sales and has more than a passing resemblance to Gary Oldman’s portrayal of the immortal Count, in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Finally, the Man Bat was from ‘Heresy Miniatures’ and was the most involved to prepare and took some pinning and filling to secure the wings to the body.  As with all Paul Muller’s work, it is a finely sculpted and balanced miniature and so worth spending some time to get the construction right. 

When it came to painting, and having spent so long building the thing, I panicked and just used the website’s images as a guide.  There was an idea that I could use some of the colours in the Man-Bat to tie the three elements together.  On reflection, I am not convinced that it has worked, but I certainly matched their bases to further reinforce the idea.

I am happy to report  that both the Man Bat and the Vampire Knight have both been blooded in action, taking on the roles of Alain de la Slaughter and Gareth of Oldham respectively in last summer's Witchfinding fun, 'The Scouring of Muchwhinging'.  I wonder what will crop up next?