Normandy Game

Hello There! Here is another game played at the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers Club recently. This used 10mm figures along with a number of buildings, some of which you may recognise from the collection of building from the Battle of Waterloo.

Here is the overall table and the Britsh were attacking from the left, across the board towards the German defences.

The painting on the building was highly effective. I have painted some of these for a wargaming friend and can vouch that these are very well detailed and almost 'paint themselves'!

Here is another Waterloo building.

The buildings also fit very well with the figures used.

This was the rules used. I know very little about these, but the game appeared to run smoothly.

Some of the buildings had a few contemporary posters for the period. 

Commando Game

Hello There! While escaping from some family commitments, for a little while, I managed to visit the wargames club and take some quick photos of the commando game which was being run.

It was played using 28mm figures and Bolt Action rules. Here is the overall view of the table. The commandoes had to get from the far side of the table and sabotage the railway station before the end of the game. 

I have been considering making a train and wagons for years but have never got around to it. There are plenty of damaged models or stand in trains and wagons at the local model railway shop and I have a few old Dalpol models in the stash of shame. These examples from a fellow wargamer have pushed this project forward somewhat.

Also a scratch built bridge. This reminded me of the Slaters Plasticard that I also have in the plasticard stash. A basic construction but highly effective.

Between the commandoes starting point and the railway station was a few building. On the far left is the ubiquitous Hovels damaged building. The others are scratch built.

Here is the rear of the railway station. The German player had a machine gun in the top window which caused the Commandoes a lot of problems.

The figures were very well painted.

The Germans entered along the bridge at the side of the board.

The railway bridge was also scratch built. It is very stimulating to see the work of other wargamers.

The train was painted black and dry brushed.

Here is a close up of the Hovels building.

Obviously the commandoes had not read the fieldcraft book which began, 'Dont bunch up'!

The River was plaster and multiple coats of paint and marine varnish.

I have started to make some trees from rubberised horse hair, but prising the horse hair out to make a much less dense tree, before I flocked it.

Various pieces of 'fluff' were also present.

The game was very popular and was enjoyable, for all of the players. Further photos can be found here.

Purchases from Vapnartak 2026

Hello there! I made a few purchases from the show. Most of them were to help me out with projects I have on going at the moment.

The Beach Sand is for the desert terrain I am currently working on with the option to use for the beach tiles which will be used for the Aegean scenery which will go with the Aegean Harbour

In the absence of the normal AK weathering powders fixative I chose something that does the same job. This is for the mortar work on the La Belle Alliance building. 

The Normandy scenery I am making has some static grass along with the fine flock. The static grass I am using at the moment is from another supplier but I will need much more to cover the remaining scenic tiles. 

This is a 20mm ancient ruined temple. This was from Coritani and was only a passing buy as it fitted very well with the Aegean and desert terrain.

Lastly a mix of nationalities for Normandy and the desert. In 20mm these are from Ready to Roll, of Rapid Fire fame, and are in resin. On closer inspection I saw that these are very crisp and clean castings.

Minster Gate Bookshop Revisited

Hello There! The day before I visited Vapnartak 2026, I had a tour around York and revisited the Minster Gate Book Shop again.

Again there was a noticeable change in the stock in the History and Military History sections.

After a while I walked away with the following.

While these subjects are not my usual interests for less than four pounds each I added these to the collection.

I have a few publications on the Roman Army and I had a look through this and felt it would be a useful addition. Also the Towton book was also interesting, especially as we passed the battlefield on the way home.

I originally had a creeping feeling that I had this already but thankfully I was incorrect.

I have a small force of  Resistance, which could be the basis of a good game. I do not have anything specific on this subject so was pleased to find his. Also another couple of additions concerning Normandy. This time from the German and British perspective.

This last item came from an Oxfam shop on the high street. It was hidden behind a number of other books and not easy to find. I already have the first part and this concentrates on the large Capital ships in the Kriegsmarine, some destroyers which were formally from other nations and an errata from volume one.

The Other Partizan 2025

Hello There! Here are the photos from the latest Other Partizan show. This year I have been more selective in taking photos and taking in the atmosphere. As usual there were many good quality games on display but to photograph them all would have left little times to do much else!

Having visited Hillman in Normandy I was interested in this game. It may not have been totally historically accurate but did offer a different subject for the show. 

The buildings for this Tet Offensive game had a very good Vietnam vibe.

The riverine component to the game was also a nice addition.

This WW II game had plenty of detail including an airborne component.

I liked the explosion markers which were very similar to some I have made.

The odd destroyed vehicle was a nice change to see and a good idea for different drop on terrain items. 

I always feel that single colour vehicles and tanks are very difficult to make look interesting. washing, high lighting, chipping and washing add to the effect but take time and multiplied by the number of vehicles that may be required for a game can make the idea prohibitive! 

This Sturmovik has the ubiquitous painted in canopy. I prefer to do the detail of the pilot and cockpit but this does save a lot of time making the model in the first place.

As I am making a large amount of scenery at the moment I wanted a good look at the drop on scenery, for ideas.

The buildings had a definite 'Russian' feel to them.

I do not normally look at many Japanese samurai games but this one had very well painted figures and and well presented buildings. 

The widespread use of teddy bear fur was a bit disappointing, but using it to cover such a large area for a display game is an efficient use of time in preparing a game.

The troops fording the river were half figures. I have seen a similar method used for a Battle of the Boyne game and in another to show U S marines advancing through shallows in the Pacific.

I liked the Poplar lined road and the fact that it was at an angle on the board.

The artillery, deployed on the road did look a bit incongruous though. 

The scenery for this game had a different representation of the roads. The teddy bear fur had obviously been trimmed back and mastic was used for the roads. The rivers were drop on but melded well with the terrain.

The building were on bases and 'dropped on', like the rivers.

It looked like some selective 'brushing' had made the terrain more realistic!

Again some of the drop on terrain grabbed my attention. This fitted well with the snow terrain.

The green bases did look a little incongruous. I remember many years ago John and I, tried a few experiments to represent snow on out bases and figures. Salt was the final and most satisfactory result. Flour just meant that we spent months brushing it off our figures as it seemed to cling to everything it touched!

Here the trumpeter of a cavalry unit particularly stood out.

This American Civil war game was a lot more open and was probably more like actual battles of the time. Many units were in open order, which a bit more realistic than the dense packed formations that you normally see.

These guys did look very 'Redoubt' but I could be wrong.

This little vignette was very eye catching and I may well steal that idea!

As I am looking for ideas for the scenery I am making at the moment. I took a few photographs of any ideas that may look useful.

The ubiquitous Russian church which appears in every Russian front scenario was also present but this looked either MDF or scratch built even.

I took photos of this game as the ew Buckenham Historical wargamers had recently held a refight of the same battle. The muddy fields seemed to be rough corduroy material. Again, not massively realistic but definitely made the point and was easy and efficient to cover a large area.

The boulders, that were used to demarcate the edges of the ravine, were a new idea that I had not seen before.

I made an out post tower for the American Civil war and this caught my eye as well.

Some more variations on a theme with some various tree colours here.

Another colonial game from the Boondock Sayntes. this club has a seemingly endless series of permutations of many colonial battles and always make a good display.

It was hard to see that these were actually cork.

This company made the following ruined church. I was about to finish photographing for the day when I walked past this game in the participation section of the show.

This ruined church was a real masterpiece. The game was used to publicise a new set of WW I rules. However the church had many details which made it out standing.

The parquet floor was very well done. I cant really add to this, other than let you look at the photos.

Lastly a desert game and I took some photos of this as I am also making a large amount of desert terrain at the moment.

The judicious use of sand was very effective on this table, probably because it was so subtle!

Overall it was a show of the same high standard that we have come to expect, year on year. The only improvement I can possibly think of is to try and do  something to speed up serving at the canteen. I feel sorry for the staff there because they are absolutely rushed senseless and do very well to deal the massive rush of customers ut you do find yourself sitting in the queue for a while.