AVBCW: Hereford Big Game 17th October 2015

31/08/2015

JP & I have started talking about our next Big Game to be held in Hereford, and come up with the two dates above.

I have sent an e-mail to many of the usual suspects, but am sure I will have missed many people, plus newcomers who might want to brave the perils and adventures that lead them to a day’s wargaming mayhem in Herefordshire.

As usual:

  • Location – Burley Gate Village Hall (midway between Hereford and Bromyard)
  • Time – 10am ish til 6pm ish
  • Cost TBC but between £10 & £15
  • This includes a buffet lunch and refreshments throughout the day – no one has gone away hungry yet
  • Usual forces based on Mort’s Platoon Generator
  • Using “Went the Day Well?” rules
  • There is an option to attend a curry session at my place afterwards just up the road (I can also put up a few folk in varying degrees of comfort)

JP & I will design scenarios around who can attend, so an early indication of attendance would be helpful.
Latecomers might get shoehorned in to factions in surprising manners !

So far some 14 players have been confirmed.

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Aminal Interlude

29/08/2015

Well I should have been playing a WHFB game today, only Gavin A’s father in law came a cropper and was off to hospital.

So in the meantime, and whilst I finish off the Brigands, here’s some cute photos of Aminals:

Yes, GW battlegames mats (now long OOP) are also a good Cat blanky…

So I was sitting there in the kitchen flocking the bses of the brigands and I heard a kerfuffle on the gravel drive outside the window. I naturally assumed that it was one of the gruesome twosome with some unfounate rodent…

Not one but TWO Hedgehogs, not sure what they were up to, but I’ve never seen two together, and as they were about 6 foot from the house very unusual.

Cheeky horses are “mowing” the edge of my lawn.
Sadly they are also destroying the fence upper rail at the same time.

Next, more Brigands, they’re almost done (honest guv) !

And the WHFB game is re-scheduled for Monday.

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AVBCW: Brigands 1

25/08/2015

At long last I ahve managed to break the block (?) I have on the Brigands figures.

First up, The Boss.

Light not good but…Obviously inspired by the 1936 film: “Of Things to Come” by H.G.Wells which is also an excellent source of ideas for figures for this genre.

A good film (for its time) and plenty of ideas for dystopian futures.

The first five riflemen. A mixture of IRA and Brigands by Footsore Miniatures.

As you can see, though sculpted by Paul Hicks, using the same basic dollies, they are all different and clad in rag tag military and civilian attire, which is probably why I had painters block as they all had to be different. So instead of a plaette of 3-4 colours I had to extend to a palette of 6-8 colours instead. That sort of critical thinking helped break the painters block.

Took a hell of a lot of time though.

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AVBCW: Dismounted yeomanry cavalry

17/08/2015 1 Comment

Finally managed to breakthrough the barrier and get some painting done:

A unit of dismounted yeomanry cavalry men, meant for my MHC flying column. They’re Great War Miniatures WW1 troops.

The mounted versions are WIP along with their command unit(s) – I’ve painted them in khaki so they can serve for any LDV.

Not only that, I’ve nearly finished “The Boss” of my Brigands, which is what I should have been painting.

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AVBCW: It’s Our County – Herefordian LDV

08/08/2015

My new LDV which I have been working on recently:

Herefordshire had become used to the depredations of BUF Captain Arrowsmith, but was unprepared for assault that Sub-Lieutenant Nathan (a geography school teacher) would unleash on the county’s eastern regions. As well as the threat from the BUF commanders, the LDVs identified other dangers such as the Free State of Shropshire to the north, the militant Welsh Nationalists agitating in the Golden Valley area, and the criminal activity of Sir Gilbert Hill in the south-east with his Anglican allies a new alliance amongst the LDVs was formed to fend off these encroachments from elements outside the borders of the county.

The hitherto quieter LDVs decided that they needed to band together lest they be picked off by the growing threats from outside their borders. Fed up of the wider national political movements using the county as a football, they decided to eschew party politics, and concentrate on what was best for the county’s own population.

With the recent collapse of the Liberal Party, they have become the dominant force in many areas as ordinary folk mobilise in the towns, villages and country side. They are seen as the legitimate opposition to the Royalists and BUF garnering increasing support from the now defunct Liberals and many other factions that have failed to make headway against the interlopers.

Sadly to date there remain some independent groups who have not agreed to join IOC, and have caused major problems dividing anti-BUF forces in the community. The Twiggy Mommet movement have also failed to ally themselves…leaving open blue on blue action in H’fordshire…

Thanks to Pete Barfield for the latest set of flags (yes more to come).

All dramatic characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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AVBCW: HQ options

02/08/2015 2 Comments

I’m building a new version of Malvern Hills Conservators, as a flying column, with lots of cavalry and other fast units.

Here’s my dismounted cavalry HMG – Great War Miniatures WW1 figures.

Here are a couple of runners:

Very useful under the rules we are developing for “Went the Day Well ?”

They’re Foundry Home Guard which I didn’t build until now because their left arm with the rifle came separately. I took one look and thiought ‘I caqn stupid glue them on, and every time I pick them up the arms are going to come off’….so I got Byakhee Richard pin them on instead – probably 5 minutes for him, and probably years off my life in terms of irritation.

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AVBCW: MHC Flags

01/08/2015 3 Comments

I’d got a bit bored of the Malvern Hills Conservators flags I’d done about 4 years ago, so I contacted Peter Barfield for some suggestions and he came back quickly with a new flag that reversed the colours:

Much better than the white flag that got me a lot of abuse !

here’s how I do the flags:

Laserjet print out. Pete provided me with the flag ready done so I didn’t have any double sided backing nonsense.

Musketeer (now Footsore Miniatures) LDV standard bearer with hands drilled out by Byakhee Richard. Steel pin pole by Foundry.

I use an all purpose adhesive that B&Q sell (DIall is the new brand name). It is fairly strong and sets in about 30 minutes so much faster than PVA/Wood glue.

Wrapped round the pole, its flat and boring, so with about 30 minutes to go…

…it can be warped and folded to give the impression of it billowing in the wind as the hero charges the despicable BUF/Reds/Anglicans (delete as applicable).

I twisted the corners as well to make it truely three dimensional.

But the edges are still white paper – and though you can’t see it well in these pictures Pete has added gold(ish) tassels to the flag.

So a dab of paint along the edges is in order – this is something I have seen other people not do this despite being otherwise good painters/modellers.

Anyhow, two new standard bearers with funky flags for my MHC LDV.

Thanks Pete !

PS: You’ll see that Pete’s latest illustrations for flags have been published in the latest AVBCW book by Solway Crafts.

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