Hasegawa Panther

Following on from my post about the Armourfast Panther, I thought I'd show you one of my favourite models- the 1:72 scale Hasegawa Panther Ausf.G that I made a few years ago.

I like the colour scheme, which is taken form the box art.  Not the best paint job ever but I still like it.  And here is the Armourfast Panther as a comparison.

A fairly good match, I thought, although the latter seems a bit taller overall.

Armourfast Panther

Been a bit busy recently what with that thing, what's it called? oh yeah, work, and all.  However, I did manage to put together one of the Armourfast models that I'd got a few months ago.  This one in fact.

Which comes in a box like this:

Not bad really although lacking a little in detail and missing the hull machine gun for some reason.  At least you get two in the box.

In Praise of WRG

Having finally gone with the flow and ordered a copy of Black Powder (a while back now but, well, if Angus Konstam says it's OK then it must be) but having yet to try them out on the battlefield, I felt the urge to look though some of the rules still on my shelves.

Despite my recent purchase(s), and a backlash in some quarters against slick overproduced wargames rules with nice graphics and must-buy supplements, I fall somewhere in the middle ground.  I'm not so extreme that I want to to back to Charge! or Charles Grant (I still find Don Featherstone useful though) but I do have a soft spot (some would say 'penchant', well they would, wouldn't they?) for the good old WRG rules.  I mean what's wrong with a little complication and precision?  Some examples of the might of WRG from my collection (in historical order):

Ah, the 6th edition.  Anyone one still play it?  I never did - I just include it for reasons of completeness.

George Gush's classic set of rules.  Beats Tercio into a cocked hat.  Probably.

What's not to like?

I should have persevered with this one more that I did....

I bought this after playing Operation Flashpoint and ARMA on the computer.  It's a bit more complicated though.

WRG buffs will note that I've not mentioned DBA, DBM and DBR although these I think are of a later vintage and we've had many a good game with them too.  But, things have moved on and it looks like my line up of favoured rules is shaping up like this:

• Regimental Fire and Fury (and Fire and Fury) - so popular it must be good (the RF&F book is lovely)
• Black Powder - for 18th and early 19th century - ditto.
• WRG 1685-1845 - old habits die hard.... and the turn sequence seems perfectly logical to me...
• Principles of War 2nd edition - never played it but I really like the command system.

As for earlier periods I intend to persevere with DBM (not convinced by FOG) and I've never really tried DBMM.  Even DBR finds favour in this establishment (just for some 1/300 ECW).  So much choice, so little time...

River Boat No.3

I was rummaging through some boxes in my workroom/office recently and found again the other river boat that I'd made.  It's approximately 1:72 scale and I had called it 'Marlene' (written underneath) with the date April 1993.  It needs a wee bit of repair work though (not to mention painting).

It is actually based on an illustration used for the cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (mine is the 1988 reprint).  The illustration is by someone called F Hens (I couldn't find anything about him on the internet - I'm presuming it's a 'him' - although there were plenty of results about poultry), being a detail of a painting entitled 'The Steamer Stanley', presumably on the Congo or somewhere.

I did try it out with my recent Copplestone Darkest Africa figures (see earlier posts on this blog) but it is a little small.  28mm figures weren't really on my radar when I built it, obviously.  Maybe it's not small though, maybe it's just far away...

Construction techniques were my usual balsa off-cuts for the hull with cardboard superstructure held up with matchsticks.  I remember being rather pleased with the paddle wheel at the back (matchsticks and thin card) as I'd made it match the waterline.

Yet again, another lesson on the importance of knowing one's literature.

ACW Adventures in Basing No.2

It's funny how a small change can upset all the best laid plans of dice and men.  The particular change I am referring to is that one of my team at work (I sort of 'manage' a team of ecologists) left to join another company (allegedly for a 70% uplift, illustrating nicely how little we are paid generally and how in demand marine ecologists are these days) and that has meant that I have been a lot busier than I had planned or wanted to be for the past few months.  But, I shouldn't complain - at least I've still got a job....

Anyway, that explains the lack of posts recently.  However, I have managed to get a little further with the ACW project I'd set myself and have started on basing up Geoff's Confederates.  As you can see they are also Airfix (mainly) but with a little more application of paint than my Union army.

I haven't flocked these ones yet but thought it might be of interest to see what the bases (30x40mm MDF) looked like just covered with the shelly sand I'd been using.  As you can see there is quite a variation in texture and colour with the odd larger shell fragment thrown in.  With the shell fragments (which can be quite pale) I usually paint these to look like wood or other debris.  In addition, I've added some small stones that came from a sample pack that one of my landscape architect colleagues didn't need anymore.

ACW Adventures in Basing No.1

Just an update on where I am with basing of my old Union army.  I've still a long way to go but blogging beats basing, so here is a picture of some of the stands I've made.  As you can see these figures are really old Airfix ones but they have sentimental value for me (most of my armies are very old) and nostalgia aside, they look just as good based up as some of the (cheaper) metal figures that are out there.

They're on 40x30mm MDF stands I got from ebay and the main basing is sand that came from an East Lothian beach (Gullane).  As the marine scientists amongst you may know, practically everything to do with the oceans is in some way related to the rotation of the earth and the position of the moon (it doesn't rotate obviously) and in this case the sand came from a discrete band lying just above the high-tide mark, no doubt there precisely because of the aforementioned planetary shenanigans.  It's not really relevant to the basing story but just represents some vague folk-memory from when I was on a field trip to the marine research station at Millport that just popped into my head.

Anyway, the sand has quite a lot of shell fragments in it which make it quite rough and textured, as well as varying the shades quite a bit (no need for dry brushing).  Also, some of the larger fragments of shell I was able to incorporate onto the stands representing bits of debris or dead wood.  After the sand was dry I put on some Javis Autumn Mix static grass (everything was stuck on with PVA glue).

I've quite a few more bases to get on with (including the Confederate Army now) so it'll take a while, but the next time you see these should hopefully be in action on the battlefield.

Black Powder

Aside from adventures in basing our old ACW armies (I'm about halfway through doing the Union army), I've been reading a few things including Black Powder, which arrived safe and sound from Amazon last week.

The rules have been reviewed a fair bit in various places so I'll not say much more here, other than so far I've found them enjoyable and interesting to read.  I like the command constraints mechanisms they offer, for example, although I might adopt some of the house rules out there after reading the discussions on the BP Yahoo group.  I may also put down some of my thoughts on the rules once we've played them a few times.

However, I have to say that they did grab me straight away with the faux pompous style (at least I hope it's faux) and in fact there is quite a bit of humour throughout: even the 'Black Lung' cigarette cards on the front are faintly amusing.  I expect such cards come with the cigars one is supposed to puff on furiously whilst playing in the billiard room.

So, some play testng in the offing, I predict, perhaps even with the ACW troops I'm re-basing...

ACW Additions

As you may (or may not) have noticed from a couple of much earlier posts on this blog, I have a venerable plastic 1/72 ACW Union army based for Circa 1863 rules (sort of), that gets out now and again.  Although the Circa 1863 rules were good for their era (published in 1978) and we've had some great grinding ebb-and-flow games with them, it is time now to move on and, having considered various rule sets, I have decided to rebase them for (Regimental) Fire & Fury.

Obviously at this scale the standard infantry 1" by 3/4" basing in RF&F won't work so the bases I will use will be scaled up more or less proportionately to 40mm x 30mm (and so on for cavalry, etc.), as the rules recommend.

Actually, basing seems to be far less of an issue with modern rules and therefore I'm confident, if RF&F does not turn out to be satisfactory, that the basing will probably do for Black Powder (once I've had a look at it) or some other rule set yet to be discovered.

However, looking at what needed to be done I came across a bag of unpainted figures and impulsively thought that I might as well paint them up to bulk up the existing forces I have.  I often shy away from painting figures but actually this time I enjoyed it (and finished them in two evenings). I must be maturing.

They've been around for a while and I wasn't sure what they were but a quick look at the informative Plastic Soldier Review site revealed that they were mostly Revell with the odd IMEX thrown in.

The paint job isn't that spectacular (or indeed totally finished) but I wanted to make them fit in with the plainly painted figures I already have (that's my main excuse).

Also, although there is a lot of detail, folds and so on, on these figures, the standard shading techniques doesn't seem to work as well as it does on larger metal figures, I think because the plastics are a lot more realistic in their proportions and have much shallower folds and generally less pronounced features (that's my second excuse).  Or, I'm just rubbish at painting (truth will out!).

Adventures in basing to follow.

DBA Boards

Not the most exciting thing to post about but I finally got around to making a new 24" x 24" DBA board.  My main interest has been in armies from Asia Minor and the ancient Middle East and therefore one side of the board is supposed to be 'desert'.  It's actually a bit more orange than this photo indicates but it was a bit driech when I took the photos.

The obverse is for 'temperate' regions although I don't have any DBA armies for those parts of the world (yet).  It's amazing though what you can do with some old hardboard and emulsion tester pots lying around the house.  Not really happy with the green top coat however (though it's not as lurid as the photo indicates), so will probably improve it later (once I can get to B&Q).

I collected a few ancient armies back in the early days (DBA 1.0), but have found, going to the current edition I have (DBA 2.0, although I understand it's up to 2.2 now), that there was a rethink in the lists at some point which means quite a few of my armies don't fit now and I can't remedy the situation without buying more figures.

All this presages my vague thoughts of doing a DBA campaign again (we did a great one back in ...er.... 1994 using the old matchbox chest of drawers method for concealed movement); and whilst we wait for DBA 3.0, I thought to hell with it, I'll just use my old 1.0 lists and maybe employ the Berthier Campaign Manager this time (could be a solo project).

Of course nothing may come of this but at least I've got two sides of a board to play on now (not at the same time, obviously).

Claymore 2011

I managed to get to SESWC's Claymore last weekend, as I have tried to do each year whenever possible.  I think the first one I went to was in about 1980 when they used to hold it in Adam House in Chambers Street; and the purchase of my first flat in Edinburgh in the mid-90s was no doubt subconsciously influenced by the fact that Claymore was by then using Meadowbank Stadium, just across the road.

The venue is now the spiffy new Telford College at Granton a mere 20 minutes cycle (it's downhill) from where I live on the southside (did anyone spot me in my black and green cycling gear?) and the event is bigger than ever, but just as friendly and accessible.

The problem with Claymore though (or should I say the problem with me) is that I find that I am probably too out of step with the way things are in the hobby now, in that there weren't really any games on display this year using the rules, scales or periods that I play (or would like to play).  I suspect though that this is because when I finally get into a period it can take me a decade or so to get the armies up and running....

However, it is great that such an event is organised in the capital every year and there is always inspiration to be found somewhere, even if you realise it later on, so kudos to SESWC for organising Claymore and running it so well.

Despite my slightly negative feelings about it all (I was worried there that I may be turning into Keith Flint) I did manage to achieve something and that was to find the last book in the five-volume Tank Battles in Miniature series, written by Messrs Quarrie and Featherstone, that I've been collecting fitfully for the last five years, and here it is:

I can't remember which vendor sold it to me but he kindly offered to double the price when I incautiously mentioned that I'd been looking for this for ages in order to complete the set.

And the delayed-reaction inspiration?  Well, I've ordered Black Powder and intend to expand into what will be a totally new period for me.  More of that later (see you in about 10 years!).