The Hobby, illness and me (or you!)

Hi folks,

First up, apologies for the title. This isn't meant to be a 'pity party' post, it's just something I've been thinking about over the last few days. I wanted to share it/write it down as much for myself as anyone else who might read it.

Last weekend my left shoulder froze, causing me a lot of pain for several days. I'm right handed, but if you think about how you hold a model while you paint, having limited mobility with my left arm and shoulder as well as severe RSI/Carpal Tunnel style pains in my arm and hand makes the prospect of painting... uncomfortable.

This is a concern for me for a number of reasons. 1 - the lead pile is not getting any smaller, 2 - painting is one of my stress management techniques I use to maintain my mental health, and being in pain and stressed with a frozen shoulder, I need to maintain that... 3 - I always feel like if I stop painting, I might not start again!

So, I set about thinking about what I could do with limited physical ability, which would still count as 'hobby time'. I'm aware that in the grand scheme of things, a frozen shoulder is not up there with life altering serious illness - so please don't think I'm suggesting that the following applies to everyone. Mileage may vary! But it's what I've come up with and stuff I feel I can do given my own current situation!

Things I can do that are not painting:

1.  Tidy up. Not particularly exciting, but there is always stuff to be put away, sorted, refiled, stacked, etc, etc. After the last big game my models are mixed up in several boxes with no rhyme or reason to the order. I also want to re-arrange my books and lead mountain storage area to better use the space and put stuff I need and use closer to hand. Lots could be done to make sure when I can paint, my hobby area is ready and waiting.

2. Build. I've lots of plastic kits I need to build for future units (mainly, oddly enough, Shermans!). This takes time and I'm loath to do this when I could otherwise be painting. I might not have the dexterity to paint, but snipping, trimming and gluing takes far less effort. It also constructively frees up 'future' painting time. I dislike having too many built 'waiting for paint' models around, but in a lot of cases the boxes on un-built minis take up more room than the finished models, so building them and storing them frees up space and helps with 'tidy up' above.

3. Plan/admin. I can use the time to sketch out unit lists to represent what I want to paint, need to build and want to buy. Again, this can be time consuming, but it's useful work that will act as a starting point in the future. This also includes stock taking of what I already have, making spreadsheets if I am able, but writing on paper also helps. This can also include working on scenarios or adding my paints to one of the various paint tracking apps (I recently got a new phone).

4. Research. Linked to number 3 above, planning armies means research. Research might involve time with books, with the Internet or just on my phone while laid up in bed. It might be re-reading stuff I've read of confirming stuff I know. But it's all useful - so long as the results are logged and kept. It's pretty important stuff for me, as I do try to keep my armies as accurate as I can for the Operation I'm modelling.

5.  Take stock. Linked to plan/admin - but more for hobby supplies and other paraphernalia. How am I for glue, paint, brushes, etc. What hobby supplies do I have, might I need. How is it stored? Can I re-arrange things, or repack things.

6. Buy... retail therapy is always good! Having the time means I can search around for the very best deals, link to my planning and research, look at what other people are doing, etc. Still useful hobby time, even if I don't pull the trigger on any actual purchases. Be aware though that buying lots of stuff you can't do anything yet might not be good mentally.

7. Paint? Am I sure I can't paint? Are there any adaptions I can use or try. For example, I think one issue is holding my hand open for long periods of time, so I bought some corks today with the thought that these might give me a better hand hold if I glue the stuff I'm working on to them. Can I adjust my chair or work space? What if I'm only priming rather than doing detail work?

8.  Revisit/revamp. I've a lot of early models I finished I want to go back to and touch up, fix or otherwise change. Is this the time to look at whether I can do any of that work?

9. Planning future projects. Is there anything else I can be looking at? Future terrain needs to be planned, storage options to be thought about, gaming space to be planned (I really want to make progress getting a table in my garage). An excellent time to think things through, plan and research and actually look into practicalities.

10. Play some/more games. Ok, so you might not be able to paint, but you might be able to play. Maybe it's a good time to badger mates into getting more games in!

Anyway, those are some thoughts I've had in the last few days while pondering what will happen if this arm takes months or years to sort itself out, and the impact that might have on my plans. Hopefully it might give others who read it some ideas themselves, or maybe act as a prompt for those people who don't feel like painting but want to do something hobby related.

AAR: German Grenadiers vs British Armour

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago now I got along to my new regular gaming group 'The old Guard Wargames Club'. We're currently meeting on a regular basis at various venues around Darlington and Catterick, with the last club meet in Scruton (near Darlington).

I had arranged a game of Flames of War with 'Stig' and we both brought along 1500pt forces.

A table was set up, using my current scenery collection (still looking a bit sparse) and we played 'hasty attack' with me as the attacker. Some pics:

Ruined village - most of these buildings need some work... I've been inspired by Lee's attempts recently.

Railway Signals box at the level crossing - the railway track had just arrived.

Full set up with armies deployed.

British infantry and light tanks over on my left - a pinning force and something to make sure I had units on the other side of the board come turn 4 (if I didn't then I lost).

Shermans and infantry ready to advance. The 25 Pounders didn't do much all game, and I totally forgot about the various British special artillery rules.

My right flank advance - soon to be reinforced by tanks from the centre.

Stigs infantry guns holding the centre. These are a real nuisance for the Shermans - perfectly capable of taking them out from the front.

My objective, guarded by a Mortar spotter team and some HMG squads...

Stigs deployment in the town. a Sniper and Mortar OP resided in the large building with no roof. These are cheaper buildings that the others, and have no levels. I'm tempted to make them burnt out/ruined.

The horde advances!

Shermans get to the railway line and go hull down while they fail to shoot up the Infantry guns ahead. Infantry on the left gets pinned by sniper fire.

German Mortars do a number on these infantry, while the Stuarts climb the railway embankment and start shooting up buildings.

Turn 2 for the allies sees more forward movement. The hedges and railway track on the right forming a real impediment.

Infantry whittled down by German mortar fire. They would eventually make it into the town and clear out some OP teams at Bayonet and Grenade point.

British Infantry make it into the town...

Shermans surge forward - sitting back and shooting was doing nothing!

Just before Stigs panzers arrived, you can see how close my tanks are to the objective. I think if we had realised about the 4" of an objective wins rule we would both have played differently. Stig did managed to take out 3 tanks, but spread over 2 troops and with command attachments.

The mission involves the attacker setting two objectives in the defender (Stigs) half of the table. The defender then deploys, the attacker removes one objective and deploys (roughly - the order of the last bit may be wrong. We followed the book on the night). I deployed strongly in the centre and my left, making it look like I was going to push on the objective in the town. However, I removed that objective and double moved most of my central armour out to the right flank.

Stig decided to keep most of his anti-tank assets (Pak40's, Stugs and Panzer IV's) in reserve, and started the game with only his infantry guns on the table. He then failed reserve rolls for 3 turns, meaning there wasn't a whole lot he could do to my tanks. His mortars and snipers kept my infantry pinned down and inflicted a lot of casualties on me, but I kept pushing up the right flank - struggling to get my tanks through 2 hedges and over the railway line. Eventually I got my tanks over, in order to threaten the objective. Stig eventually managed to get his Panzer IV's on and took out a couple of tanks, while moving his infantry into cover of the woods. Neither of us realised that 'control' of an objective was being within 4" of it - and my Shermans were within 4" while his units were further away. Stig tried to stormtrooper his infantry back, but failed the roll. He then tried to stormtrooper his tanks forward, but failed the roll. At the start of my turn, despite my advance looking very tenuous, I had won.

Great game, we both learnt a lot and will keep reading the rules.... nice to see so much allied armour on the table - we had discussed it before hand so Stig knew what I was bringing.

The other table at the club had a game of (I think) 'Too the Strongest' - which looked like a simple and fun game.

Nice looking 28mm figures - my first thought on seeing them was 'wow, those are big 15's...'

Anyway, another games day down and looking forward to the next one. Plus, next weekend is the Stockton show!

Sherman progress and some games

Hi folks,

This week has been spent doing a couple of things. First up, I set up a Facebook account for my blog. You can click the link on the right in order to follow me there, where I am trying to give a few more regular updates, etc.

I also continued to work on my 144 RAC Sherman I's and some of my Polish Sherman V's.

I mixed some 'Magic Wash' up. Seems to be working ok, but needs to be mixed with ink before adding to the mini's as I've not got the shade right yet.

And lastly, I played 2 games! One was even Flames of War! The other was a 6mm battle between York and Lancaster (?) during some English civil war or other. This game was the first at a club being set up by Yorkie, over and 'Little Legions' in a village hall about 45 mins from me. It was the inaugural meeting tonight and we managed to get 6 of us there for a multi player game. Some lovely mini's, good banter and a pretty quick playing game. Here's some pics:

All set up, we were on the left - no idea which army we were! Each player had two 'battles'. The hill to our North split our forces a little.

The enemy line! Some great looking units.

Our battle line - the hill that split our forces can be seen in the distance.

Some progress in the first few turns, with my battle heading forwards and getting some lucky shots in, causing one enemy unit to fall back. on the other flank the close combat had already started! A wood meant that only one part of that battle could engage at first. Thankfully they held their own!

Aftermath of the battle in the north - one enemy and one friendly unit lost, with another enemy unit shaken. My own force carefully deployed just out of initiative charge range...

Getting ready for the big clash!

Exchanging arrow fire - Thankfully Yorkie's dice were poor and he was just out of charge range.

The results of my own charge. By this point my allies had almost cleared the board, with only one other enemy unit still active. The two to my front were charged, with one combat resulting in a draw and the other resulting in a smashes enemy unit after a turn or so.

The rest our forces preparing to tackle the single remaining enemy unit (thats being pointed at). Bottom right my chaps smashed the shattered and disordered enemy unit, swept round the hill and took out the guns and lined up to charge the other enemy unit (locked in combat with my unit) in the rear. Thankfully a very close tie resulted in morale checks for both our engaged units - I passed, he did not and his unit routed. Victory!

On Wednesday I was invited round to Yorkies house for a quick game of Flames of War. I picked two 1000pt infantry lists and we used my figures (although his own are stunning). I only took one picture of the game, but it resulted in a Highland victory.

Magic Wash wise, the concotion looks like this:

But I feel it needs to be even darker. It's not so dark as it looks when poured out to be painted on. Some drops of Army Painter Strong Tone wash in the mix sorted it out ready to go onto my bunkers and Shermans:

German MG bunkers, resins casts. I've since put the static grass on them so they should be finished this weekend.

This was them after a wash of the Magic Wash mixture and a drybrush of Russian Uniform. More highlighting still required!

On top of all this, last weekend I got all my Polish Shermans primed using the Team Yankee Soviet Armour spray. The Sherman I's were hand primed and painted. I have to say this spray was (or seems) very close to Vallejo Russian Uniform, although I did quickly hand paint a coat of Russian Uniform onto them as well. One full tin and a bit of another used to cover all the Polish Shermans:

(less the 4 on the painting table)

So yeah, constructive week, I seem to be making good progress and the club should hopefully be running every two weeks. It is a 45 min drive but that's not too bad - may be quicker once the roadworks are gone! Fingers crossed this leads to some more gaming.

3mm Team Yankee - 1st attempt

Hi folks,

As mentioned previously, I've been working on using my 3mm platoon based models with a version of Battlefronts Team Yankee rules.

Today I managed to get my first outing with these, as Steve and me played a couple of trial games using some of the recently 'finished' units. I say 'finished' as there are still some little bits to complete on these.

The first game we played was a re-fight of the 'Death of Tank 66' battle from the rule book. This small scenario normally has 3 T-72's face off against a single M1 Abrams. However we tried 3 bases of T-72's (representing a company of Tanks) versus a single base of (a platoon of 4) M1's.

The result was a fairly quick US victory, although the T-72's did manage to bail the US platoon.

We then decided to try a slightly bigger game. I laid out Team Yankee (as per the org chart in the book):

Blank bases currently for the infantry - until a decision is made on how to base them

1 M1 HQ base (with 2 M1's on a medium base)
2 M1 Platoons (with 4 M1's on 2 large bases)
1 ITV Platoon (with 2 ITV's on a medium base)
1 Mech Inf Platoon (with 4 M113's on one large base, 1 infantry platoon on a medium base and one Dragon section on a small base)

I also put together a Russian force, consisting of:

1 Battalion command (2 BMP1's on a medium base)
1 T-72 Company (3 large bases of 3 T-72's each - one base will later be upgraded to have 4 tanks).
1 BMP1 Motor Rifle Company (4 large bases of 3 BMP1's. Infantry wise I used 4 large bases to represent the bulk of the infantry. 4 medium bases to represent the RPG teams and a medium base for the MG team. this didn't really work, so we swapped out mid game for medium and small bases. However we revised this again - more later)
1 BMP2 Motor Rifle Company (same as BMP company above)
1 Recce platoon (3 BMP2's on a large base).

Immediate changes to the rules were to use the inches measurements but convert these straight to cm. We looked at the inch and normal centimetre measures on the table, but they were just too massive. Using the inch ranges and changing this straight into centimetres seemed to work fine.  The table was a 3 foot by 5 foot set up by Steve.

US on the left, Russkies on the right. From bottom to top Steve's deployment was: The Mech Inf platoon in M113's, the 1st M1 Platoon, the ITV's in the wood, the Company Command M1 team and the 2nd Platoon on M1's.

Mines, from bottom to top, was: BMP2 Recce platoon, BMP2 platoon, BMP1 platoon followed by Bat. Command and then at the top the T-72 platoon.

The battle was a bloody affair, with the T-72's dying pretty quickly to fire from a platoon of M1's and the company command stand of M1's.

For units of 4 tanks like the M1's we treated them like a single standard M1 but with a re-roll to hit (due to the number of tanks firing 2 shots each in the unit). The unit itself had 2 hits, with the loss of a hit taking it to half strength and losing the re-roll. We used the same system for bailed out results on the unit. The 'command stand' of 2 M1's had a single hit point and fired as per a normal M1.

The T-72's we gave 1 hit point to each base. However I think we will revise this in future to having 2 hit points, but no re-roll as there are less than 4 vehicles on the standard stand (later the HQ base will have 4 tanks, so will have two hit points and re-rolls to hit). This should make them a little more survivable.

The key to how the size of the unit effects the impact on the table is mainly to do with points efficiency. If all units were the same, then it would be better to take 4 units of 2 tanks than 2 units of 4 tanks.

In the centre the ITV's had no vehicles to shoot at the whole game. They used the special move order to get up to the treeline without having counted as moving. For the US platoons each base could use these orders individually, for the Russkies only those near the command base could try this - meaning they either stuck together or spread out and lost some of that tactical ability. The Russkies move in the centre was to unload their infantry who began a slow walk across the table towards the ITV's.

This combined with the infantry foot advance on the southern flank revealed that infantry were not going to work in their current format. the US vehicles just could not kill them fast enough, and would be over-run. Using 1 platoon as 1 tank means each base had either 2 main gun shots or 3 (I think this might have actually been 5) MG shots. With a 3+ save and 3 hit points per stand, the infantry would just keep coming. The ITV's couldn't shoot them and I had wiped out the US Mech Inf platoon and M113's.

M1's observe the carnage - and the Russian Infantry hordes (blank bases) creeping towards them!

So, in light of this we halted the game, and talked about what to do with infantry.

The first step was lower the footprint. We dropped the large bases to mediums and the mediums to small - this made a big difference visually at least.

We then talked about the number of bases in a unit. In Team Yankee a full strength Motor Rifle platoon is 12 BMP's and 21 infantry teams (22 if you include the AA platoon). Rationalising this down, next time we will try:

4 x medium bases with 3 hit points each, and 1 small base with 2 hit points (an 'HQ base' with the LMG and AA team weapon options). I will also mark one of the BMP team bases as the 'command base'.

In addition, each team would be able to fire 2 weapons from their stat line a turn. Each unit would re-roll misses in defensive fire if assaulted. If pinned then 1 weapon system could be used and no re-roll on defensive fire. Pinning would be via 5 hits in a turn to the unit, via a single artillery hit, etc.

A US Mech inf platoon would be one medium stand with 4 hits. 

This keeps them resilient but doesn't clutter up the table or storage while allowing them the same weapons options. The unit would also have 14 'hit points' which is better scaled with the incoming fire they might receive. Another option would be to force them to re-roll saves if under MG fire from big platoons - like the 4 M1's.  Funnily I've gone from being worried about the fragility of the infantry to being concerned about the power of them!

Other options currently are to look at another rule set! But in looks, at this stage, like Team Yankee will work. Fast, simple and pretty quick to pick up. Once the infantry issue is resolve it should work fine!

We'll also need to try artillery and aircraft in the game, which we will introduce once the basics are down and working.

Something a (very little!) bit different! - 3mm Team Yankee

Hi folks,

It appears, from talking to many fellow Miniature Modelling Mayhem visitors, that I'm known for my 'dedication' to WW2 British 15mm stuff!

So to fox everyone, I decided to paint... some different tanks for a change.

I've thought a lot about getting into Team Yankee, with the plan being to do 6mm. That is still the plan in the long term. In the short term I ordered some vehicles from Heroics and Ross just to see how they look. But I also ordered, almost on a whim, some Oddzial Ozmy 3mm 'Pico' Armour from Magister Militarum in the UK. Again, this was just to see how they looked.

I was blown away by the detail on these tiny models. The MBT's are small enough to fit on my thumb nail, but clear enough that you can tell what they are. If anyone has ever handled models that just made them grin, you know exactly how I felt when I received them. My only complaint is that compared to the other vehicles the M113's are out of scale.

My first order I got a pack of M1's, one of M113's and a pack of US Infantry.

All of them were really nice models (other than the small issue with the M113's...). The infantry pack has riflemen, MG teams and clearly definable Dragon ATGWM teams.

So impressed was I that i got them cleaned up and started painting. I also placed an order for some Russian vehicles and more US infantry - as well as the last vehicles I needed to finish off Team Yankee - the M901 ITV's.

The end result, a week later is this:

At the front, 2 x 2 T72 companies, followed by a BMP2 Recce platoon rear left and a a BMP2 Infantry company (less Infantry).

Close up's of the tiny Russian Hordes!

More close ups - these were so fast to paint - I spent more time on the basing.

Models are all Oddzial Ozmy 3mm T72B's

BMP2 Recce platoon - painted with some camo to make them a little different.

2 x M1 Abrams platoons and 1 x M113 platoon.

The camo looks better at a distance - it was my attempt at a NATO woodland camp pattern. These models need some work done around the tracks, where they came off the painting sticks.

I used two types of 1mm static grass (actually 3 types, but only 2 are visible).

Teeny Tiny M113's - a little bit of a shame, as these seems to be 2/3rds smaller than they should be.

I ran out of prepared bases at this point - as you get 15 vehicles in each pack I have enough for another platoon of M1's + the company command (a full company of tanks). Enough M113's for a infantry company and enough ITV's as support for both. This will give me, for a grand total of £9, the whole of Team Yankee and Team Bravo! Less other support options.

For the Russians I have 3 companies of T72's, 1 of BMP1's, 1 of BMP2's, the Recce platoon of BMP2's and a load of infantry still to sort out. That's effectively a tank battalion and an Infantry battalion. Slightly more money spent here - £18 including the 2 packs if infantry. I also have enough for the various battalion command vehicles and some OP teams. 

I went to the Durham show on Saturday and picked up some Tumbling Dice 1/600th aircraft and helicopters for not very much money, so air support will be sorted. SU25s, A10s, Cobras and Hinds - as well as some Tornadoes just to make up the money.

Future spends will be on artillery and AA assets, as well as one more pack of T72's and BMP1's.

So whats the plan with these? Playing Team Yankee at 1:1 at this scale seems to be a bit of a no go - just because of the sizes. However my plan is to treat each bases of troops as 1 single unit. The concept at the moment is that units move and fires like a single vehicle in Team Yankee. Units of 2 or 3 vehicles have 1 single hit, and roll to shoot as a single vehicle. Units of 4 vehicles have 2 hits and re-roll misses. Infantry... I'm not too sure about currently. Standard artillery fires with no template, just targeting a single stand. Salvo weapons will use a smaller artillery template made for 6mm Team Yankee.

This should all add up to a fast playing game that allows forces larger than a normal FoW game to be fielded. Hopefully! I'm hoping to be able to play test these rules versus Steve shortly. Battle report to follow!