WHFB: Morr scenery, walls and fences

17/01/2015

The fanciest masouleum from the Garden of Morr set:

Again, the structure comes separate to the abse, so would be excellent for a Mordheim scenario…if you’re into grave robbing.

I’ll get all the pieces of this set together and take a piccie tomorrow hopefully.

Also amongst the pieces of scenery I found some…

…walls and fences, probably came wit the WHFB buildings set that I have decided to keep and am part way through painting. Nothing too exciting, but another set of tiems knocked off of the “To-Do” list. Or were they, just another brick in the wall ?

Or is it just my reaction to the rumours of WHFB v9, and because I’m busy painting Bolshevik Cavalry ????

Filed under Scenery, Warhammer Tagged with

BoB: Mark V Hermaphrodite tank

17/01/2015

Finally, something I started painting ages ago has been cleared off the long painting list:

A Brigade Games model assembled by Byakhee Richa and myself some time ago.

One sponsoon was armed with a 6-pounder and Hotchkiss, the other side with two Hotchkiss’.

As with the Male and Female Masrk V painted earlier, I’ve painted it a drab Khaki. Some sources suggest they might have been painted a chocolate brown, others a Navy Grey. A few sources suggest a three part camop pattern may have been used of drak brown, light brown and blue/grey in a manner similar to the German camo patterns of 1918. YMMV !

I’ve painted the white/red/white which seems the most common marking on the “horns”, again, there are suggestions that the tanks received by the Whites in the AFSR during the RCW were marked in this way, with a few changed to the White/Red/Blue national colours. Given the paucity of info and their rarity, I stuck with the red/white/red to maximise use across all fronts for WW12/RCW and even AVBCW games.

Filed under RCW / BoB

AVBCW: Tanks at Wool

16/01/2015

Yes, you read that right, Tanks at Wool.

Wool is a small village near where I grew up as a kid in south Dorset. Now my father is an avid steam train spotter/fan, and last October I bought him an obscure book on the subject that he wanted. When I received it I had a quick flick through it, and spotted a couple of interesting photos of tanks being loaded onto trains…at Wool.

From “Castleman’s Corkscew (Volume Two), by B.L. Jackson , The Oakwood Press, 2008”, p80:

The use of breakdown cranes for other work is clearly illustrated in these views taken in Wool Station yard during the summer of 1931 involving the Salisbury crane. The top view shows a Mk V heavy tank in the foreground, whilst in the lower the crane is lifting a Medium C tank onto a wagon.

NB: Actually, in the top view there is a Mark V heavy in the background, with the Medium C tank in the foreground. If you look carefully, in the lower picture, as the Medium C is being lifted up, you can see the Mark V tank’s tracks just underneath it in the background.

Wool was the junction from which a single branch line to Bovington military camp was built in c1917-1918 by German POWs (there was at least one photo of them marching dejectedly along). The line was built to accommodate the movement of tanks (700 present at Bovington in 1917). After the war, damaged and captured enemy tanks (?) were shipped to Bovington for repair or scrapping. Some were also distributed from there either as scrap, or as exhibition tanks. This kept the branch line and Wool busy for many years after the war.

So an interesting find in a totally unrelated history book. For the AVBCW it indicates that there were still some late WW1 tanks still knocking about, and in particular the tanks designed for WW1 that never got to see action. I had to wait until Xmas before I could ask my father if I could scan the photos as I didn’t want to break the spine of his new book.

I am guessing that these tanks were on the way to be broken up for scrap, but it remains an intriguing “What If ?”…if someone had diverted them to other locations just in case….

I[‘ve finished off painting a Mark V hermaphrodite today, but the light is at such an angle I can’t photograph it properly. Hopefully tomorrow. 🙂

Filed under AVBCW Tagged with

Procrastination, Services to Muppetry, and more industrial scale scenery and figure painting

14/01/2015

Well I entered the New Year with high hopes of updating the blog with Xmashammer, and all the wonderful projects I was finishing off plus a battle report from the eschedulede WHFB game on the 10th January.

Instead, here is a “Selfie” I took after the game on the 10th, because I realised 3/4s of the way through the battle I had failed to field my Carnosaur which had a material outcome on the battle. This, and procrastinating about editting the photos from Xmashammer and the game on the 10th has led to a lack of updates.

But during this time I have been busy with some actual model making – so much so that I finished off another PVA tub before it had time to develop a skin as it dried out.

And empty the box of static grass I was given at Xmas, the one I bought on Sunday, and half of the one I had stashed away before Xmas. All of this went towards…

Finishing off the hills from Kallistra for the AVBCW game, I now have about 16 hills so that should be enough for the two tables I intend to decorate with my scenery.

Not content with that JP & I are well on the way for planning the next two Big Games in February and March. This neccesitated an order from Foundry of LOTS of Cavalry bases, two bumper packs to be precise. I had to spend time confirming with Foundry that the bases were still available. their web site is not to put too fine a point on it crap.

They were immediately used to base another unit of Bolsheviks I had to fill out with a small order from Copplestone as I was inexplicably short by 4.

Hopefully this will break my block on editting the 100+ photos from Xmashammer, and the 20+ from the 10th and should have more material up tomorrow.

Filed under Scenery

WHFB: Garden of More Morr !

09/01/2015

The rest of the Garden of Morr set, bar one last item:

The main gate. The red roses were a last minute quick fix, Foundry Scarlett washed with the latest crimson GW wash. (I have given up trying to remember their new names!)

The wrought iron gates have a skull motif in them…

the fences – front and back. You get two identical sections in the set. This is the only point where I have seen mould marks – see the back of the pillars for the small round indentations.

The walls, not sure on building regs WRT skullz, as they aren’t the sturdiest of materials, but it reminds people that the whole place is a ossiary.

The side gate.

i’d started painting these up before Xmas, in preparation for Xmashammer 2015 – Sigmar’s Blood, which Byakhee Jim wanted to play out over the two days. For various reasons that didn’t come about, but as they were half done, I decided to continue and finish off the pieces of this set. Days of bad lighting have prevented me from photoing it, and now barely an hour later the light has again turned for the worse. Very frustrating.

More (!) fittingly, here’s the Sisters of Mercy….

Filed under Scenery, Uncategorized, Warhammer Tagged with

BoB: Cabin

09/01/2015

On the painting table for some time was this new cabin from Grand Manner who have come out with a small but excellent range of Russian/Eastern European buildings.

Pricey, but their quality is very good, they’re also more true to 28mm scale than some other manufacturers.

Paints up nicely though, and done well before my planned BoB Big Game on the 21st February. Currently 11 of us attending, if you want to pop along, its based in Hereford (UK), add a comment to this message and I’ll pick it up and PM you.

Whilst uploading the pictures of the cabin, the postie arrived, with a pile of hills for me to paint up, for the other planned event – March 14th AVBCW, agsain in Hereford. More of which to come later as JP & I write scenarios up. Roo is already on the case for more scenery to wend between these hills. 😉

Filed under RCW / BoB, Scenery

2015 Prospective

02/01/2015

So here are my plans for world domination and at the very least annexation of Poland:

  • Paint the Red Cavalry – 10 down (awaiting photographing), 30 or so to go;
  • Chinese Cavalry, also for the BoB Big Game in late February, up to 40 of them time permitting;
  • scenery, mostly fencing for the same game;
  • artillery for Reds, Whites and Chinese…maybe for some British Indian as well…;
  • finally, do the AVBCW cavalry…15 or so for the MHC LDV, and about the same again for the BUF, this time for the March Big Game;
  • Dark Elf CoK;
  • Dark Elf CoB/Bloodwrack shrine;
  • roads for BoB and AVBCW, so lots of roofing felt sprayed and painted;
  • more hills and hedges for AVBCW;
  • Oldhammer Dwarves properly put together.

That’ll be my lot, as I am trying to avoid too many new projects. I’ll probably cram in a few more pieces of scenery for all of the above games, and I haven’t even mentioned my Laserburn project !

Oh, and listening to some more ambient and hard rock soundscapes whilst doing that and getting a new job.
I also need to continue to clear out excess amounts of the lead mountain.

Should be a good year.

Filed under Uncategorized

2014 Retrospective

02/01/2015

So, as seems to be de-rigeur in wargaming blogs, what did I achieve in 2014 ?

Year Total 787

Scenery 384

15mm 21

AVBCW  114

BoB 124

Warhammer 138

Marginally down on previous years, but I have a lot of half completed projects on the go. there are more pieces of the Garden of Morr almost ready, more White Cossacks, the first Red Cavalry, and so on. So i expect the Q1 of 2015 to have a lot of project completions. I feel sure I have actually painted up more figures than are listed in my spreadsheet. I am also not counting the various projects I have coerced Byahkhee Rich into pinning for me – ther Copplestone Ragged White Russians with great War Miniatures heads for instance.

So I have fallen into the old trap – too many projects on the go at once. Plus, as I have alluded to, my role as the Deputy Chair of our Council has been fraught, which has taken up a lot of time. Firing our clerk was a relief on one hand, but then an ongoing minefield of issues on the other – and we haven’t got a replacement yet – hopefully interviewing this month (January) with a view to an appointment in the next few weeks. And even then, legal action is likely.

Oh and I almost forgot the builders, and their efforts in wrecking the kitchen/utility/WC…

On top of this, organising the Big Games took up a lot of time. I’ve done an extensive write up of all the logisitics you need to do for one of the Big Games, and they are quite labour intensive. Very good fun, and JP & I have put on 3 of them this year, plus of course Xmashammer this last week. Indeed I have already started the planning of the BoB Big Game in late February, and I’m sure JP will be in contact shortly for the AVBCW Big Game in March as these are only 6-9 weeks away respectively.

On the plus side, I’ve learnt how to do lots of roads sections for free almost, and extended by use of sampler pots of emulsion paint for the scenery that I use at all these Big Games. This has generated a heck of a lot of new scenery, my double garage is rapidly being filled up and after each Big Game I invariably have to sort out all the boxes of scenery as they are never packed away properly (thanks guys for trying). To give readers some idea of the volume of scenery I am now deploying in these Big Games – its two car loads at least of scenery, let alone figures. And my car is a large Audi estate, so not a delicate small car by any means.

I have also learnt to pace myself with gaming sessions every two weeks or more, something I’m building in to my calendar for 2015. I’ve even still got an entire gaming session to post up, lus the two days of Xmashammer.

In terms of purchases I have bought less than 100 figures in 2014 but lots more scenery. Most of my expenditure has been on scenery and the raher more important but mundane foam storage trays for all the newly constructed kits. Most of these kits take up a miniscule amount of space when in their blisters, boxes or bags, but once assembled take up huge amounts of space. I have one project on the go that is going to take at least half an entire (double) GW case on its own !

Still good progress in reducing the lead mountain.

Filed under Uncategorized