Burma Skirmish (1)

Long term readers will remember having seen numerous mentions of my "Burma Skirmish" project in 20mm, something that never seemed to be progressing. Well, progress has been made, with the various British, Australian and Japanese vehicles that I've collected over the years finally paintd up and finished. Here's a few shots of some of my favourites.

The Matildas are 1/72 die cast models from Russia that were being sold off at The Works for a couple of quid each. The Stuarts are the recent(ish) release from PSC, and the "Jalopy" is made up from the many spare biys and pieces from the SC kit.

This Weekend I Has Mostly..

... been working on an idea for a participation game that might be coming up in a few months. Its a naval game, but using Wings of War, so one side takes control of a couple of British 55' CMBs, the other side has  a pair of Hansa Brandenburg W.29s. I ordered the seaplanes from Riviresco a month or so back, and the CMBs arrived from Rod Langton on Saturday morning. As of now the planes are just about done, the boats undercoated and ready for a decent paint job. Details to follow in a few days when the project is complete.

Also on the stocks, in 1/600 I have the USS New Ironsides and a US paddlewheel gunboat to sort out (both from Thoroughbred), whilst in 20mm I've picke dup some decent desert stuff via Ebay, so there are a couple of Grants, Matildas, an '88 and tractor and a pair of Krupp protz trucks to spruce up.

No pics today though as the camera battery is flat and I forgot to recharge it.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was rather busy, what with philip's guitar lessons and footie, Laura's horse riding lessons, cat cuddling at the local animal rescue shelter and planting out a whole load of shrubs that SWMBO and Laura had bought. However, in between those I still managed to get a good deal done.

First up, some 1/600 ACW - CSS Governore Moore from Thoroughbred,

USS Lioness from Bay Area Yards (a lovely little stern wheeler), and a generic sidewheel transport from Thoroughbred.

And a Peter Pig sidewheel ferry, but this time done up as a generic European 20th century ferry for use with my 1/600 WW2 coastal forces games.

Terrain has been getting a look-in as well. I bought an Airfix "Forward Command Post" for the kids' WW2 project. A nice kit from my younger years, I recall this coming with a very nice vac-formed base. The latest Airfix offering doesn't feature the base so I used an old CD instead, with PVA and sand for basing material, and coffee stirrers cut up to make floorboards.

AK47 (the original edition) is on my "to do" list, so I also made some generic bits and pieces for that. the smaller one is made from corrugated cardboard from Hobbycraft and cut up drink stirrers, the large rone from foam core. and and twigs from the garden complete the scenes.

And finally another WOW repaint - my altar ego "The Black Hand" now has a Roland C.II for those days when a 2 seater is required.

There's also a couple of 1/600 WW2 coastal models on the workbench and a pair of Airfix Matilda IIs in the paint shop.

Rather worryingly though my camera seems to have picked up a "shadow" at the bottom.  I wonder what I can do about that.

 

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post as I'm recovering from a bad case of manflu. Santa was a little generous here on the wargames front this year. First off, some 20mm WW2 bits and pieces to build up my army for Laura's "alt-WW2 game" - a box of Valiant "British Tommies" and some Italeri Kangaroos to drive them around in.

Pics of these as and when the dreaded lurgi abates long enough for me to do some painting. And methings some of the valiant troops and bits and pieces from the kangaroos will help to detail the innards of the Armourfast M10 Achilles' that have rather vacant looking turrets at present!

Then, on the naval front, the Mother-in-Law was kind enough to get me two new books from Dr William Warner, covering the navies of Salnave's War (the Haitian civil war in the late 1860s), and warships at the battle of Riachuelo. Both of these naval episodes look like perfect projects for 1/600, the Haitian war featuring many ex-USN warships from the Civil War and (if one is willing to stretch relaity slightly) an ex-Confederate ironclad. A nice touch was to see that the good Dr. Warner has recommended my ACW rules in his books. I've had a chance to leaf quickly through both books and I must say, I'm impressed.

Anyway, thats just about it for me for now. Hope you have all had a very happy Christmas, and with luck I'll be posting again before the New Year.

All Quiet on the Sudan Front?

There's not been much activity here for the last few weeks, and one could be forgiven for thinking that a lack of reports meant a lack of activity at the front. Nothing could be further from the truth! In the last four weeks we have fostered a dog (who wrecked the house), found a new home for the now ex-foster dog, got a couple of kittens, attended Warfare and Reveille (or which more later) and had the games room invaded by Laura and her friends.  The games room currently looks like this:

Now, the eagle-eyed  amongst you will have noticed  a few things here. The first is the appearance of a pile of 20mm WW2 desert armour. Laura and Philip are developing a  healthy interest in wargaming and WW2 20m Western desert is their chosen starting point. We picked up some Armourfast PzIIIs, Crusaders and Shermans at Warfare, and Laura splurged on some more kits at Reveille last week.  The Armourfast kits will will no prizes for extreme accuracy but they do build up very quickly into some excellent and attractive models. I just wish they'd been available when i was heavily into this kind of wargaming several decades back!

Out of interest, Dad has also been directed to raise a WW2 "army", but in my case is is made up of British WW2 North West Europe kit - Sherman Fireflys and M10 Achilles, and some Priest Kangaroos coming later. Don't ask how these three armies can come together - they just can :)

Tucked away at the back are some Wings of War Series IV models. I'm working on a couple of repaints there at the moment, as well as plucking up the courage to begin the Skytrex HP 0/100 I bought at Warfare!

Another feature that the observant reader will have noticed is the appearance of some railway wagons, track and a locomotive. Fear not, I have not been drawn into the world of model railways! Over the last few weks I've been hunting down track and rolling stock in TT gauge on which to base a Sudan armoured train. I now have all the kit I need, and so this project is about to get underway. I've widened the scope a bit so I will also be looking to use some of the less Sudan-specific kit for my 15mm Spanish Civil War stuff (which in any case is in danger of morphing into a hypothetical Central/South American civil war setting, after seeing some of the fun that the Abbey Wood Irregular are having with their 28mm "Very British Civil War" games - I will be adding a small armoured steamroller to my armies soon!). Anyway, more on the developing Sudan train in future press releases.

Finally, just to reassure you that the Sudan has not been forgotten, I have been working on the logistics side of my collection. the rules I'm drafting take account (in a simple way) of food, water and ammunition, and as a result I need a baggage train. I have plenty of camels and mules carrying, crates, boxes and other nondescript items, but I really needed some water wagons. There is a well-known photo of British 2 wheel wagons near the Pyramids in the 1890s and I wanted something similar. After a call on TMP for suggestions I picked up three wagons from Museum Miniatures.

They are lovely models and paint up quite nicely. In this case a simple overcoat of a medium tan, followed by a wash using the Army Painter mid-range wash. Here they are at the core of my loggie train, along with some Peter Pig baggage camels and a packed screw gun battery.

So, next up (once the school Christmas Fair is out of the way) will be the start of work on the train. I will keep you posted!

And finally, a gratuitous kitten shot!