A Little From Leofwine

The Battle of Saarbruck, by Archibald Forbes

2012-06-01T19:04:00.000+01:00

The Battle of Saarsbruck, Battles of the Nineteenth Century Vol. 1., (Cassell, London: 1896) p.22 to 26

This is a test run really. I am trying to see if I can post battle histories from the afore mentioned book, 'Battles of the Nineteenth Century'. I have photographed the pages for this particular battle, chosen because it is only a few pages long, to see how well the idea works and the pages can be read.

I would really like your feedback on this trial, has it worked, what was right or wrong etc etc etc. Once I have got it right I will post a list of the battles in each of the volumes as well as post random battles from time to time.

Right, here we go!

A pile of books.....

2012-06-01T12:02:00.001+01:00

An old friend of mine is having central heating installed and was thus forced to pack up her extensive collection of books to allow the workmen access. This is no easy task given the number of books she has both inherited and collected, nay rescued, form second hand bookshops. She comes from a line of similarly inclined bibliophiles and so her eclectic collection is a veritable Aladdin's Cave of the great, good, curious and obscure. There is even the most fantastic collection of paper figurines, each one beautifully hand drawn and coloured by her late uncle and father in their youth. These were used to play wargames and political campaigns from their imaginations and the most unique and wonderful pieces I have ever seen. I will see if I cannot photograph them and post a few here for you all to see, they really are a true slice of early wargame history! But I digress.

In moving these books my friend began to take stock of just what she really had, and no doubt surprised herself. She decided to re home a few titles with those that would understand and appreciate them as she did, and so I got a call and was offered some wargaming related pieces. Big happy smilie face!

The first piece to catch my eye was actually a magazine.

This is the first time I had ever seen a copy of this early but august publication, a precursor to today's glossy magazines. I have no idea as to whether the 30p cover price made this an expensive purchase back in 1974, I was eight at the time and still unaware that such a hobby existed; let alone that it would take over my life! Inside there are article and adverts just as one would find today and whilst primitive by today's production standards it is still readily identifiable and as readable as ever.

I was particularly drawn to the adverts, this one especially for Peter laing;

15mm figures at just 4p each are a thing of the past and, thankfully I have to say, so are Peter Laing figures. Back in the very early 80's I saved up and sent of my letter and postal order to Mr Laing for some of his colonial range pieces; can't remember which now, possibly Sudan or Zulu wars. I was hugely disappointed by what arrived, to my eye the figures were shapeless, poorly detailed random pieces of metal and quite useless. I even had the temerity to send them back demanding a refund and telling him just what I thought of the horrid things; I was just fifteen. I got a refund and a letter back saying that most adult and serious wargamers loved his wares and my lack of experience in all things worldly was to my everlasting shame, at least that was the gist of it. Happy days. God they were awful figures...and that was by the poor standard of the day then too.

The other books of particular note were;

The British Navy in War, edited by Herbert Strang, c.1925. some very interesting insights to the effectiveness of ship types, weapons and tactics of the day.

European Military Uniforms, a short history, by Paul Martin. 1967. An interesting piece, a large hardback version of a modern osprey book really. It has some nice pencil illustration and some very nice period prints.

Annals of a Fortress, by E. Viollet-le-Luc, translated by Benjamin Bucknall, 1875. This is a great book that follows the history of defencive building from ancient times to the time of writing, has some good illustrations too.

But, the greatest title in the set is the two volume 'Battles of the Nineteenth Century', 1897. These books provide detailed, if perhaps a little dated, battle histories illustrated throughout with wonderful engravings. Curiously, none of the battles appear to be in any particular order. Both volumes are falling apart but seem complete. I am considering having them restored, not because they are collectible and worth any money, rather to protect them and make them more accessible to read. I am also tempted to photograph the pages of specific battles and publish them as blog posts. Anyone have a favourite they would like me to look up?

More WSS units, the Brits this time...

2012-05-30T20:19:00.000+01:00

Given the positive feedback from my blog followers about my first French unit for the War of the Spanish Succession I thought I would show you a British unit I finished a while ago.

This is a Front Rank set using Maverick Models cloth flags. Again, the unit is simply base coat painted with blocks of colour but coated with strong tone army painter dip; the brown one rather than the black one.

The unit was built using the Front Rank battalion pack with twenty four figures. I then added a mounted colonel, cos I like the look of it in a large 28mm unit. The four figures in the foreground, and the large size of the unit, all show that this was not made to be used with the 'beneath the Lily Banners 2' rules I have been working to recently. This unit was from the days when I intended to use Black Powder rules and thus the unit was given three dead casualty figures and a wounded one. The three dead are the casualty markers needed in the rules to show a unit that had reached its Stamina Level (In Black Powder you add casualty figures rather than remove them from the unit, meaning your army stays looking brilliant, after all the bloody hard work in painting the damn thing, for longer) The wounded figure is used to show the unit has become Disrupted. I have painted these extra figures to match the unit perfectly and intended to do the same for every unit and hang the cost and time etc etc.

The trouble I now have, changing the rule set I intend to use for these armies as I have, is that the unit is too big and would need to be re-based. I dread to think what damage this might do to the figures and so have decided to sell this unit and start again, still using Front Rank figures for the Brits and Allies obviously. The beauty is that I can still use Black Powder rules with units based to BLB2 as and when the mood and/or time allows/dictates; I just can't really do it the other way around.

I think Front Rank figures offer the best value for money when it comes to metal figures, fantastic work by Alec Brown, the sculptor and owner of Front Rank, and so clean too; hardly any cleaning beforehand....unlike some of the other big (and far more expensive) manufacturers I could mention.

Would you like to see some Front Rank guns too?

I am selling these too. The base sizes are too large and the figures shouldn't have blue coats I am sure.....and I am not too happy with the way the dip has worked on the guns here. These were actually dipped and shaken and played a major role in my need for physiotherapy on my shoulder as a consequence.

I am putting them and the infantry unit on ebay Thursday evening. The cash will go to replacing these units and buying more of them. Yes, it would be cheaper to just do both armies in Wargames Factory figures but I just love Front Rank. It was these figures that got me into the period in the first place after all.

Anyone interested in them can give me a shout before Thursday evening or just keep an eye on ebay. I will be sorry to see them go of course, I have put a lot of time and effort into them and I think (although do admit to some degree of bias) that they look great, some of the best things I have ever done in fact.

I blame a certain Mr Rousell you know, fancy blogging about a different set of rules to those I was using! What was he thinking? We shall have to have words methinks....over a London Cheesecake, obviously; standards must be maintained. I wonder if I could attract any commissions ..... and how many London Cheesecakes could I charge????

Regiment de Auxerrios, one down, dum de dum de dum to go!

2012-05-27T16:58:00.001+01:00

Despite the mountain of jobs that Broadside 2012 has generated I have managed to complete the first unit of my French WSS army!

I have decided to build this army using the 28mm plastic Wargames Factory WSS figures, they are compatible is size and heft with my beloved Front Rank figures, as used for my British and allied army, but very much cheaper...very much cheaper. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, these figures retail at something like £16 for a box of 36 and I can make exactly two units per box; that is just £8.00 a unit! But I can generally find boxes on ebay or at trade stands for at least £1.00 less, often £2.00. Great value for some nice figures.

What do you think? This is the first battalion of the Regiment de Auxerrios regiment.

I have used a deeper base for the command base to protect the flags a little and provide space for a unit name tag, just laminated paper but it does the job.

The figures were block painted and coated with the Army Painter Dark Tone dip, not the strong tone, huge difference! The black shade of Dark Tone really works well against the lighter colours, far better than the rather weak looking Soft Tone dip the company suggests. It doesn't discolour any white areas at all but gives a subtle shade, the strong tone really dirties things up. It is a little counter-intuitive I know, but it works well for me.

The flags are by Maverick Models. Stuart has some 2000 flags on the site with four different size available, 6mm, 15mm, 25mm and 42mm. Then There are three different mediums to choose from, quality paper (as used on these figures), self adhesive paper and cloth....and then you can pick from plain finish or effect finish! I know, mad...but so cool! Despite the great range available, Stuart only had one regimental flag that I needed, this one. The rest I needed for the other planned units were not available....until I contacted Stuart with the designs I wanted and within a week they were made, printed and on my desk! Fantastic service. Here is a close up of them.

I then dug out a spare mounted command figure to use as a Brigadier, this is actually a Front Rank British figure but it does the job very well indeed.

The WSS project is getting there. Using 'Beneath The Lily Banners 2' rules has made things easier as far as unit size goes, it will also make the Front Rank figures I have for the Brit Army go a bit further too!

Leofwine on Facebook

2012-05-26T17:33:00.000+01:00

Following the interesting social networking developments we have experienced over the last few days, it occurred to me that I am not making enough use of these free resources. So, I thought I should fiddle about a bit with my facebook page....who said an anthropomorphic personification wasn't real enough for his own account?...and started getting organised. Not as easy as it looks.

I have a link on this blog to the facebook account but it has been the devils own job getting the damnable thing to reciprocate!! Anyway...think it is sorted now. The idea is that all interested parties can now be reached or, indeed, reach us at the MHWC. We should be able to spread the word about Broadside far easier and more effectively. This post is a test as much as anything else.....I wonder what will happen when I press the Publish button.........

wargaming in the community

2012-05-25T15:36:00.000+01:00

Wargamers have always created their own miniature communities, usually in the form of clubs and groups of like minded friends, occasionally around a local wargame and model shop, but always small and close knit. These small islands would occasionally come together at wargame shows, maybe a competition, but by and large they were isolated pockets.....and considered a little odd; obviously. We are still all considered a little odd of course, somethings will never change, but by golly it seems we are far from isolated these days, allow me to explain.......

Due to some very unfortunate but very human errors, two of the three main wargames magazines failed to carry the advert for our forthcoming 'Broadside 2012' wargame show. This is a potential disaster, a show in just its second year needs all the help it can get to become established...even SALUTE runs magazine ads and it is perhaps the best known show on the planet! We at show HQ had visions of empty halls and revolting traders followed by a dunking in the venues swimming pool attached to something heavy....It could certainly herald the end of Broadside as a future event.

One of the magazines emailed me an unreserved apology, once I had alerted them to the problem, and have suggested that if I send them some text they will see what they can do to rectify the matter; which is fair enough. The second magazine, Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, also recognised the problem and were very quick in offering to change the issue date of their popular newsletter just so they could advertise the show prior to the event! Now that is service! Simple human error is unavoidable and these things will crop up from time to time. It is how they are dealt with that makes all the difference, offering to alter a newsletter issue date just to make sure your customer is not left high and dry shows a level of customer service few could match...or would even consider. To say we are grateful is putting mildly!

Now here is the community bit. WSS magazine, a European publication, got in touch with us after we decided to make use of our various contacts in Internet land. Many of us run blogs, forums and websites and we asked them, in light of the sudden loss of advertising, to help spread the Broadside word. Not only were we amazed...beyond amazed to be honest...at the fantastic response we received from these often far flung wargamers, we were left astounded by the fact that even WSS picked up on the fact we were in trouble by these same blog sites. Clearly we are no longer mere pockets of rather peculiar enthusiasts, the world wide web really has created a truly global community of rather peculiar enthusiasts! Wargamers in America, Greece and the world all passed on our request for help; a shot heard round the world! From individual wargamers to important wargame publishers, all took notice and all chose to offer help where they could. Magazines, that have always been slightly apart from the main stream by their very nature, simply reflecting interest to isolated pockets with little interaction, suddenly take full part in real time communications and make things happen. From the publication of a single blog post one ordinary May morning to the resounding clamour of a world wide community of wargamers rushing to help in a matter of hours.....my my how the world has changed!

As Chairman of the Milton Hundred Wargames Club, the organisers of Broadside 2012, I must thank every last one of you that have offered to help spread the word and support our event...and I now use the term 'our' in a far wider sense than I ever have before. Broadside is very new but if such support continues it will continue to grow, and it will largely be down to you guys and people like the publishers of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, for whom the word community really does mean something.

Anyone remember those days oh so many years ago (1980's) when the rise of the home computer was considered anathema by many? They said in countless articles they would mean the end of wargaming as we knew it.......and it did but in ways none of us could have imagined. I for one am grateful for that.

Army Painter testing range....stand well back!

2012-05-13T10:45:00.001+01:00

First of all, hello Carl! Welcome to my blog.

As promised in my last post I am now going to give you the results of my Army Painter new products test....with pictures! That said, the pics are not all that I would have wanted but they suffice; stupid camera. Here is a pic of how the figures used in the test come out using the tins of dip (Dark Tone as I think it works better with the lighter base colours than the brown Strong Tone) and the anti shine spray; my traditional method of choice. These are 28mm Wargames Factory plastic Marlburians (French) painted using Coat d'arm Light Grey for the coats.

Being tested are two of the new Warpaints range, the Dark Tone acrylic dip, actually labelled as an ink, and the Anti-Shine matt varnish in a bottle. Dip/ink first I think.

This is what the light grey looks like prior to any treatment.

Once completed, they were then coated with the dip/ink using a brush rather than being dipped; the bottle has one of those nipples that make it easy to dispense from drop at a time but not much use if you want to dip. Anyway, after a liberal coating and careful lifting off the excess with a brush they look like this....

The figure on the far right is from the traditionally painted group in the first picture. Note how much darker the new batch of figures are. I think these are a little too dark, the dip/ink is clearly not an exact match for the tin versions and the acrylic medium works quite differently to the oil based one. It could be watered down of course but then I find the stuff acts very differently again and the pigment tends to pool leaving a very patchy finish. Possibly, the dip/ink will lift a little when a paint on varnish is used leaving a lighter looking figure but, for me there are just a few too many 'if's' and 'possibly's' for my liking. The oil based dip leaves a better overall result and has not overly discoloured the base coat. For me it looks more like a dirtied white, as I feel French coats of the period should, rather than a definite grey that the dip/ink provides.

To be honest, I would much rather buy the Vallejo black acrylic dip. It is a Vallejo quality product, much better value and can actually be used as a dip. If the warpaint bottle was an exact colour match for the oil based tin I would be very happy, for me and my colour blindness issues colour consistency is everything. Sadly this is far from an exact match and therefore not so useful...a missed opportunity perhaps? Black Ink would have been a better name and description, Dark Tone is quite misleading. And who needs an ink if you are dipping the finished figures anyway?????

So what about the Anti-Shine matt varnish? The sprays were originally hailed as pure gold, a varnish that did what it said and gave a flat finish...and it did. Most of the time...almost most of the time....when it didn't do something stupid like blister the dip finish or 'frost over' leaving discoloured patches on the figures. The spray cannot be used indoors without causing hallucinations but outside the conditions must be 'Goldilocks' perfect, not too cold, not too hot...or damp...or if there is an 'R' in the month.... the list is every growing. And even if you did get perfect conditions the results could still be varied. The trouble was that if you used the oil based dips you needed the anti shine varnish; it was the key to everything. Ordinary matt varnishes could be used but were always variable in quality and finish anyway. None worked effectively over the oil dip.

When I saw that Army Painter had brought out a paint on version of the Anti Shine spray product I was quite excited, a product that would give the required finish and not rely upon fairy tale atmospheric conditions! But would it? Really?

Yep... it bloody well does too!

The figure on the right used the spray varnish...that actually worked for once...and on the left the one I used the battle varnish on. Almost no difference and both have a perfect flat finish. The sprayed on varnish has left a slight frosting on the black areas, only really noticeable once the painted version is placed next to it but even then only just. It is a little tricky to apply given that it is very shiny when wet and you are painting it on to a very shiny oil dipped figure, but it does actually work. After some minutes the finish was clearly flatter and as the varnish dried the flatter the finish looked. No hallucinations, no watching the weather channel to find a good day, no anxiety over risking your nicely painted figures to a random varnish event....just matt finished figures that were actually matt finished!

Big happy smiley face! :)

I then tried it out on some other figures I had been working on. These were coated in the oil based Dark Tone dip in the morning, left to become touch dry (about five hours or so on a hot day) and then varnished with the bottled stuff with a liberal but careful brush.

I have found that large areas of black do well with a highlight of German Field Grey prior to dipping/applying Dark Tone. I think these Perry Napoleonic Brits have come out quite well, although I have to say that i really, really dislike the figures...although that particular dislike is for another day I think!

Army Painter stuff

2012-05-09T14:54:00.001+01:00

This mornings shopping trip to Maidstone allowed me to top up on paint supplies (my wife allowed me to top up my paint supplies whilst out shopping). Games Workshop have had a major revamp of their paint ranges and I knew that 'No Mans Land' still had some of the older pots on special :-) I am a big fan pc their elf flesh for skin tone and bubonic brown for the nelts and straps on my WSS figures.

Whilst there I noticed a new display of Army Painter paints in the Vallejo style bottles rather than the sprays, some of these were previously available but only as expensive multi sets. Now you can get the spray colours and many others as good old fashioned paints for a reasonable £2.00 each. However, my eye was taken by the paint versions of the Army Painter dips and Anti Shine varnish...... fantastic! The dips appear to be acrylic versions but with the same depth and shade of colour; as for the varnish..... Could this be the answer to so many of our prayers....a truly matt varnish that will provide the same great finish as the spray but without the smell and other issues such as blistering or frosting? No idea yet but I am itching to try it. I have three Wargames Factory WSS figures finished using the dark tone oil dip and spray anti shine spray, and they look good even if I say so myself. I shall now finish three more using the new paint versions and post tbe results here for you to decide.
Isn't progress great :-)
I wonder if I will be so positive later?????

The danger of reading other peoples blogs

2012-04-13T19:11:00.001+01:00

I, like most wargamers, made a pact with myself regarding new projects. I would not start something until I finished something.... Or at least made some headway. I have boxes of plastic hoplites and support troops still unopened, a pile of front rank marlburians (and some plastic ones too), a division of adler 6mm napoleonic french, pirates..... Well, you get the idea. Then I started reading other peoples blogs......... I was doing so well too.

It started with Posties Reject, Ray, and his wonderful battle reports of games using 'Beneath the Lily Banners', I have now scrapped my marlburian plans for Black Powder and reorganizing...and saving up for a set of the rules - £27.00, thats a full four unit brigade of plastic figures! This though, is merely a minor inconvenience when compared to the blog 'Hurry up and Wait', written by a Falklands war enthusiast. I have always had a leaning towards wargaming this conflict and this leaning has been turned into a full blown tilt. I found myself locating books and trawling the web for decent 28mm figures and equipment with that terrible vim and vigour known only to wargamers and crack addicts; A pact to control my wargaming??? Sorry mate, dont know anything about one of those, never mind, come a have a look at these Royal Marine figures....bring your wallet. Oh, and let me take that soul for you, you wont be needing that will you!

Its all so very sad but also so very predictable.

Eight weeks and two and a half days to go!

2012-04-12T20:59:00.001+01:00

Broadside is now ready to go, all bar the shouting anyway.

We have this week accepted our final trader and we now have three clubs on our waiting list! The only space we have left is in our Wargamers Flea Market, which has ten five foot round tables organised into two sessions, morning and afternoon. We have no idea if this system of bring and buy will work but, given the number of members we have to run the show and the problems of theft etc., it seemed a good idea. Broadside is nothing if not a steep learning curve and will see how things work out and deal with them accordingly for next year; which will be on 9th June 2013 btw. We think this system will also work well for the clubs at the show, lets wait and see. If any reader wants to take a table, let us know ASAP.

The organisation of the event is involved and not exactly cheap. We make use of every rectangular table at the venue, more than eighty, and have to hire in another eighty at no small cost. Add to this the cost of the venue itself, insurance, magazine adverts, flyers, postage, program printing and a hatful of other expenses that crop up all over the place and it is easy to see how new shows can take years to break even financially. We try to balance giving the all important traders a good deal to ensure their interest knowing that good traders attract the paying public...who we also charge a small entrance fee to encourage them to visit the traders...its all very chicken and egg. The trick is to organise the timing of income and expenditure as far as possible to ease the way. Don't run away with the idea that show organising clubs earn well out of these events even after a few years of running, it can all be very tight year on year. Then, as I have mentioned in an earlier post, the tax man is always there too.

So why do we do it? Part of it is down to the fact that we can get a show that is local to us, on our doorstep as it were. Part of it, if I am honest, is also to show off the Milton Hundred Wargames Club and attract new members. Yes, it is a long term plan and definitely not a get rich quick scheme....or evidence of my personal degree of bloody mindedness....It can also be bloody hard work and not a little frustrating, the Internet and its communication revolution just means that you can get headaches quicker as emails get lost a lot quicker than a physical letter!

So now the show is within sniffing distance. Our website has a full list of the traders and clubs attending and soon there will be hall plans to show you where everything will be. We have had a mention in Miniature Wargames along with a quarter page advert in the latest issue and a few forums and trader websites have us listed. More adverts are due in the run up to the event but we need to get the word out there to ensure Broadside can continue and grow....although not by too much as we have already reached full capacity for the venue!! Not bad for a show that has not even held its second event yet. We have scoured the area for larger venues but there is nothing even close so, if we can't get bigger we will just have to get better! We have asked the venue to drain the swimming pool for the day but, unbelievably, they have said no! I know, amazing. We did ask whether we could use the kiddies pool for remote control boats but, you've guessed it, they said no.

I look forward to seeing all my blog readers at Broadside, come over and say hi! Remember, it is closer than you think....10th June....still time to save those pennies.

Comparing Dips....

2012-03-27T13:27:00.003+01:00

Despite the title of this post this is not going to be a close up of the MHWC members. No, this post is to compare the effects of the various painting dips available to us wargamers. I apologise for any disappointment.

The first part of this comparison will look at the three shades of dip available from Army Painter, the soft, strong and dark. These three all work in the same way of course, it really is just a case of the tone. These are oil based and quite thick, something that leads many to no small concern. Pushing a painted figure into this gloopy dip does take some bravery to begin with but with proper care and attention the results are worth it. However, much will depend upon which shade of dip you try as the results are quite different.

For ease of comparison I painted four of the same figure in exactly the same way using the same colours. The painting is very basic, just base colours blocked in. The picture below shows an undipped figure on the left followed to the right by the soft tone dip, strong tone and then dark tone.

Army Painter themselves suggest that strong tone should be the default dip of choice, and I can see why. It is the one I use for most things but much will depend upon personal choice and the type of figure you are painting; various colours will work better with different shades. In this picture it is quite clear that any shade will alter the base colours. The soft tone has done this with the minimum of shading. The strong tone (figure three) is very different. The colours have changed far more and there is a lot of shading, I think faces do very well with dip and look more natural. Figures with painted eyes just look odd and creepy. The dark tone dip on the far right is very different. The grey base colour has masked some of the shading but kept a degree of depth, it looks a little less 'dirty' perhaps than the strong tone figure. Army Painter suggest that the soft tone is better used on predominantly light coloured figures, Napoleonic Austrians or 18th C. French etc. I can see the logic of that for the uniform colour but I prefer the definition that the other colours provide. So I tried the dark tone on white to see what happened.

The next picture compares the strong and dark tone. I should point out that the red used is different on both figures. The Marlburian figure on the left used the Army Painter pure red spray, the other figure a basic bright red from my paint box. Sorry, doesn't help I know, but it is the white bit I am looking at.

Now I do not think that the dark tone dip on the white of this Black Scorpion Marine looks too bad at all. In fact, I would be tempted to use that rather than the strong tone I normally favour in these cases. Imagine though, the initial concern of plunging your nicely painted white figure into what looks like black paint; a bit of a worry until you see the results. I should stress here that I do dip my figures and then spend some time...and a lot of energy...shaking the dip off in an even and controlled manner; not the 'shake three times and you're done' method suggested by Army Painter.

I am not at all sure that the more brown coloured strong tone would have worked half as well on the marine figure. It does work very well on the more red based Marlburian though whereas the dark tone may have been to bold. This example shows well how the choice of dip can be dependant upon the figure colour and possibly be counter-intuitive too.

The next picture compares the Army Painter strong tone with the Vallejo acrylic dip, the sepia shade in this case.

It would appear that there is not much difference between the two, at least to me but I am somewhat colour-blind of course. I am told that the acrylic dip is slightly darker, and provides a better degree of shading too. To my somewhat curious sight the acrylic dip has a greenish tint to it, but I am again told that this is not really so. The Vallejo dip does cover well and also provides a good mix of shade and tone; it is also far cheaper, smells better and being acrylic cleans up better too. I also find that brushing on varnish does not lift this dip and can be applied very quickly. This means that you can get a crack on and not wait for days whilst things cure off and dry sufficiently. One important issue to remember however, is that the Army Painter dip works best when varnished with the Anti-Shine varnish spray. The dipped figures look awful as the oily dip dries but transform marvellously once sprayed. The dip also seems to provide some protection too, a bit like a coat of gloss varnish. You do not get that with the acrylic dip.

This next picture shows a selection of figures painted with the acrylic dip. Again, basic paint job of block colour only.

I think these have come out quite well with relatively little work. The acrylic dip has been painted on

rather than dipped. It even works well with monsters!

So, has this post been of any use to you, dear reader? Let me know, I would love to hear your views.

Blogging from my mobile phone

2012-03-19T10:39:00.001Z

It seems that I can now add posts to my blog from my mobile phone...how cool is that?
If I happen to be at a show, shop, club...or even the loo, I can post items of wargame interest there and then.
Ah, the wonders of our modern age! I wonder how often I will actually remember I ca do it?

A blog worth watching

2012-03-18T13:56:00.000Z

Millwall Mark came across this talented guy on ebay and told me to have a look at what he does. We were both very impressed indeed and followed the thread to take us to his own blog site.

Paul designs and molds wargame buildings in a range of scales and sells them for sensible prices, he even does a whole street of buildings with roads! His river side and bridge model is brilliant, and the guy will even work to a commision.

I really think this is a blog worth watching http://modbuildings.blogspot.co.uk, along with his ebay items; robertco100

I have invited him to attend Broadside as a trader, something he seems eager to do, so you will all be able to see his models for yourselves and pick up something that will grace your wargames table without damaging your pocket!

How dip works for me

2012-03-16T20:15:00.001Z

I have been blogging away about the various benefits of dips for some time now, I think I should show you some of my figures so you can see the results for yourself.

First let me say that I do not have a good camera so some of the dip effects may be somewhat masked by poor photography.....and a dodgy photographer. But I am sure enough can be seen to give you all a good idea of the dip effect. Any questions, you know where to come.

The first picture is of some Dystopian Wars Prussian destroyers. These were painted with simple block colours with no undercoat or primer. They were then left for a day before being given a liberal wash with Vallejo acrylic brown dip, the bigger areas of pooling were lifted with the tip of the brush.

My first thought here is that the varnish, which I painted on, lifted some of the dip. I think they look lighter in colour and cleaner then they did. Of course, you wont be able to see that with these models so here is a picture of the larger Dystopian Wars Prussian cruiser; first with just the dip.

This picture does show how the dip can find and illustrate minor details, even brush strokes in the centre white stripe. Now, you decide, does the next picture look different? This one has been left for a day or more and the had varnish painted on. Has it made a big difference?

It seems there is another effect happening here, one where the varnish brings things into a clearer focus. This is what the Army Painter Anti-shine spray does with the oil based dip; I don't think fully appreciated how much even ordinary paint on varnish does the same thing. So, has the varnish washed some of the dip away or just brightened the model up....perhaps a bit of both?

These brilliant models from Spartan games are highly detailed with some very clear textured surfaces, the dip has plenty of detailing to play with.

Figures, either metal or plastic, tend not to have the textures but can still have plenty of detail for the dip to pick out. I find that the oil based dips tend to give a greater degree of overall shading, turning lighter colours darker but also more evenly than the acrylic. The red coats of the figures in the next picture started out as quite a garish lighter red, the Army Painter 'Pure Red' primer spray. Given my experiences I am confident that the acrylic dip used above would not give the same colourisation effect but would still provide good shading.

These British WSS figures by Front Rank have been dipped into the tin of Army Painter strong tone dip. I find that less is more and I shake off as much of the dip as possible to achieve and much more even coating than Army Painter suggest. I still get the shading and the details are still picked out well; at least I think so. I also found that you do need to be very neat and tidy when painting the figures, this allows the dip to better define the various areas. I think the dip does faces well too, not good at faces, me. All I do is paint in block Elf Flesh from GW and let the dip do the rest, much better effect than I could do on my own. I hate figures with the eyes painted in, the scale is usually wrong and the figures look, well, creepy.

I am not saying that these figures are perfect, far from it, but I am very pleased with the results. The anti shine spray is a vital process, just use it sparingly and do not hold the can too close to the figures, this will stop a lot of the 'frosting' that spray varnishes can cause. Also, leave the oil based dip to dry for several days. If the sip is still uncured, even though touch dry, the spray will blister the dip and your figures are ruined. You can paint varnish on as soon as the dip is touch dry, you just wont get as good a result.

The next picture is of my British WSS artillery, also by Front Rank; love those figures. These were painted in the same way as the infantry, guns too, but I used a flash this time, stupid camera.

actually, here is a shot of the infantry with the flash too, just for comparison.

So there you go, me and dip. In another blog I will compare the effects of the three different Army Painter dips, soft tone, strong tone and dark tone.

A difference in dips

2012-03-14T15:36:00.005Z

When is a dip not a dip?

I have had great success with the Army Painter dip and had High hopes for the Vallejo acrylic dips too, as my previous posts mention. However, I have begun to notice how differently they work and the effects they produce. Where the oil based dip leaves a more evenly spread wash and staining the acrylic one seems to dry into patches. You still get the general effect but so far I have not been as happy with the results on larger, flatter areas. It also has a quite severe dulling effect on metallic colours, bronze and gold shades particularly. I have been working on a set of Prussian ships for Dystopian wars and have been fairly pleased with the results but......well, I can't help wondering how they would have come out with the oil dip and anti-shine spray.

I left the painted ships, the nine destroyers in the fleet pack, for a day so the paint could cure/set properly before liberally coating them with the acrylic brown dip; lifting off the excess as I went etc. I then left them for another day for the dip to fully dry in all areas before painting on a matt varnish. Here I noted that the varnish was washing away some of the dip, giving a lighter look to the finished models than I had envisioned. I am often accused of making things too dark, a symptom of my colour issues, and I cannot say that the end product did not look too bad, but....

The acrylic dip is appearing to be less predictable than the oil but it still provides decent effects. It also settles in the tub very quickly leaving dried residue around the edge if you are not careful. I also have a tub of the acrylic black dip and I have found that to be very dark indeed. Some caution should be used with these dips, especially when you first use them. definitely try them on a spare painted figure so you get to see the effects first. A basic and obvious warning but one that is well worth mentioning again.

There is still and important place at my painting area for these Vallejo acrylic dips, I just need to think about how I use them.

Cavalier and 28mm Plastics

2012-03-13T15:27:00.001Z

I spent an enjoyable few hours wandering around the Cavalier wargame show a few weeks ago but have only just got around to putting anything about it on my blog! Sorry about that.

I have to say that I thought the show far less busy than previous years but, after speaking to a few of the traders I have come to know through organising Broadside, it seems many of them had one of their best days in terms of cash taken. I have come across the phenomenon before, smaller shows do not necessarily mean smaller takes for traders. I think it may have something to do with time and space....not the weird sci-fi stuff...which is great by the way....but the time and space potential customers have to look at each stands offer, speak to the trader and be allowed the freedom to buy. I know that I have often not even looked at some stands at shows for the melee of bodies around them. Might I have bought something there? Quite possibly.

I did get the chance to chat with some old friends, and some new ones to.....Hi Ray!! Top guy, Ray, looking forward to seeing him and his club at Broadside. I once worked for a guy called Ray Gunn, straight up, Ray Gunn. He is the premises manager at Crown Woods School if you do not believe me. I was an assistant there for a few years before I was made premises manager of my own school. He too is a great guy btw. His dad was Tommy.....I know, I know, but it is all true. Truth eh? Who needs fiction?

Where was I? oh yeah, Cavalier. Maria and I were there to help spread the word about Broadside. Maria was handing out flyers left right and centre, whilst I spoke to the traders and touted for new business; picked up another three! Good ol' Clint spoke to the clubs and we gained a few there too. We did very well here and raised our profile greatly. Plenty of people remembered the first show and word seems to have spread. we could do well this year methinks. I also took the opportunity to pass on a special gift I had for a friend and fellow MHWC member....the dodgy millwall fan that I mention in the Blog intro. I had an Arsenal FC painting kit I picked up at a sports shop sale....I even wrapped it in special pretty paper, I am that nice. Needless to say he wasn't at all that pleased, oddly. In fact he was quite miffed in a sort of 'I'm going to tear bits of you off and beat you to death with them' kind of way; the old soppy. He had to carry it around for the rest of the day too. Bless. And, do you know, I am not at all sure he is a Millwall fan. I came accross a photo of him in a Charlton shirt...that hadn't been messed around with or anything! Who Knew!? I would post it here but would not like to be the cause of any embaressment....unless you would all like to see a copy of it?????????

As for purchases, I have often looked at the 28mm plastic Marlburian figures by Wargames Factory, but only looked. I am a huge fan of Front Rank and all my Brits and allies are coming from there. But, as I am working on this huge Black Powder project on my own and therefore looking to cut costs, I thought the well priced plastics could be useful. I managed to pick up a box of each of the infantry and cavalry and was mightily pleased that I did!

Infantry first. The first thing that I noticed was the way the individual sprues have been made with pegs and sockets that allow them to be neatly stacked in the box. A simple thing perhaps, but it did make it so much easier to handle them and put them back in the box without breaking bayonets and things. The figures are also much better than the box artwork shows...a lot better in fact. You get 36 figures for less than £16 if you shop around and I only need 24 plus some casualties. You also get a lot of choice as to how you ,ake the figures, plenty of individual heads that will allow you to creat almost any unit in any army of the time; very neat indeed. Most of the figures are in a one piece marching pose (bar the head of course) so little building too. The pose is a little stiff but does suit the period. Well worth the money I think...still prefer my Fronk Rank figures but these are some £10.00 cheaper per unit.

The cavalry are bloody brilliant. At the same price of £16 you get twelve figures.

The great thing here is the amount of choice you have when building the riders. Each sprue has four different bodies and four different head choices, you can build all sorts of mounted units and the horses look like horses...not like some of the odd looking things you see in metal even today. Compared with the metal equivilents this box is half the price of the Front Rank units, themselves excellent value compared to most. The figures again come with the post and socket system, a real neat trick, and twelve plastic stands for the horses. For me this is the only let down, and it is a mean complaint really. As you can see in the picture above, the horses have feet......not feet attached to something, like a peg or slide to fit into a slot. This means that the horses need to be glued to thier bases with fairly little to support them, especially those horses with two feet off the ground. I will need to look at this when the time comes and see how they work. Given the attention to detail Wargames Factory have shown so far I doubt they would have slipped here, surely?

Oh No! Stupid computer!!! I didnt want that picture on my blog!! whatever shall I do now??

Mark, if you are reading this, stop now!!

No, really.....stop now

you don't trust me do you?????

New wargames shop in Maidstone

2012-02-27T11:52:00.003Z

One of my club members, good old Andy King, told me that a new wargames shop had opened in Maidstone. It is in the parade of shops that runs down the side of the Haslett theatre (16 Market Buildings, ME14 1HP) and is called, 'No Mans Land', 01622-753231. There is no email that I know of but I am told the website is underway.

I took a wander down that way on Friday during a shopping trip and can report that good things seem to be happening there. The large miniatures stock does tend towards the sci-fi and fantasy, which gives a rather grown up and mature 'Games Workshopy' feel to the place, but they do have Flames of War and a good range of paints and accessories, plenty of Army Painter sprays and dips! Will they begin to stock more historical ranges? Only time will tell of course but I am impressed with their drive and what they are doing and have every confidence that the shop will grow and evolve over time. Things are much easier these day when it comes to stocking figures, there are more regiment style boxes than ever before and plastic figures are so much more accessible. The guy I was talking to, sadly never asked his name, said he played Hail Caesar so there is an opening there I am sure. I would like to see some of the Warlord Games ranges there....although I doubt the wife or Mr Bank Manager would.

In stock at the moment are Firestorm Armada, Dystopian Wars, Flames of war, Dust Tactics, Games Workshop (10% off!), Mantic Games, Army Painter (sprays are £10), Coat d’Arms paint, brushes, terrain, War-Machine, Malifaux.....they even have games tables (that can be hired I believe) and painting stations. I can see me adding to my as yet upstarted Dystopian wars Prussian fleet if I ma not careful! Beautiful models.

As with all such businesses, if they are well supported and enough of their customers ask for things they will no doubt begin to stock them but, they do need our support. I for one will do my best to make regular visits and get my supplies there. What with this and the Rochester shop it seems that our part of Kent is starting to get some decent wargame resources. Take the time for a vist and chat to the guys down there, your time will be well spent.

Are you a 'dip in' or 'splash on' kind of guy?

2012-02-19T14:38:00.001Z

Ok, I know. Slightly smutty post title, settle down; it wasn't that bad.

As wargamer though, it is a reasonably pertinent question. As you are now aware, I do have issues with seeing certain colours and therefore the quite basic job of highlighting figures can be a real pain, particularly reds; I can never see where I have already been for one. So, I started using the Army Painter dip to provide the depth of colour and tones I needed. Yes, I did have to force my self to immerse my first figure into that jar of dark brown gloop and had a bit of a disaster when it came to the spray varnish bit afterwards but, once I got past all of that, I ended up with some great results. The trick was, I gradually learnt, to be vigorous when shaking the dip off, to turn the figure through ninety degrees and shake some more until the figure had been turned completely around. This made the dip cover far more evenly whilst still leaving enough to create shadows and depth here and there. Each figure needed to be shaken in a swift downward arc some twenty odd times in all....not the two or three the Army Painter video suggested! This does kill your arm and shoulder when you have a twenty four figure battalion to get through but the reseults were worth it....even if you do need to have a lie down until the strange purple blobs in front of your eyes have gone away and you cannot hear that whistle in your ears anymore. Oh, and another thing you learn doing this, be prepared to lose a figure or two. I have had one monted general figure snap off at the horses ankles, whiz off down the garden at a terrific rate of knotts and crash into a concrete fence support. Another slipped out of the grip of the pliers I was using to hold onto the base and rocketed into the air, only to come down into the neighbours ornamental pond with a loud splash. Luckily, she thought it was a frog jumping in! Others suddenly showed themselves to have weak ankles and ended up bent at an odd angle. All very difficult. So, given these issues, I decided to try the splash on method, liberally painting the gloop on with a brush and lifting off the excess etc. This did work although I think I preffered the dip in results for overall effect. The spray varnish is the key to the army painter dip, it leaves a brilliantly flat matt finish and makes the whole dip effect work perfectly....just be careful, not too much and to used from a good half an arms length away at least three days after the dip has dried....DO NOT BELIEVE THE VIDEO ON YOU TUBE!!!!!!!!!! I followed the instructions and the varnish blistered off the dip leaving a serious mess. I had to strip the figures back and start again. take a look at the club website gallery under 'Alan's Figures'. It made me want to cry but I did carry on to great benefit...in the end.

Anyway, the whole issue became mute as the dip is oil based and has a strong odour. Both my wife and daughter suffer with Fibromyalgia, which makes them very sensitive to smells, and so I was not allowed to use the stuff in the house or to even let the dipped figures dry there....and what with the onset of winter my painting slowed to a stop. Then I came across the new acrylic dips by Vallejo! These are, in essence, bloody big jars of wash although they do contain some carrier ingredient too. They are designed to let you dip your figures but can be equally used for splash on work. two colours are available, brown and black and so far I have had some good results but I do need to play around with them some more to get used to them. The first point is that the need to be shaken or stirred quite regularly during use if being painted on. I have found that after every five or so figures was about right. That can be a bit annoying but is not so bad once you get going. The effects were good, especially around areas like faces where the dip could add definition, although I noticed that it did not darken other areas as much as I would have liked; or was at least expecting compared to the oily stuff.

I also used it on the guns. It covered the wood areas as I expected it to but left the barrels looking dull and coated with what looked like smudges of dirty water. That was a real disapointment because they actually looked great when wet. I tried rubbing the barrels to see if I could remove the patches and discovered that a judicious rub down with and old (but clean) sock buffed them up a treat. It left them with a great colour with some good depth and shading. Given the weather I could not use the spray so was forced into a jar of humbrol matt cote, sadly it left the figures with a slight sheen as you can see. I have yet to find a good matt varnish in a jar.

The vallejo dip also worked well on the basees. I glued down some light buff grit (all I had at the time) but darkened it with a liberal coat of the dip. This left a good effect but also helped seal down the material. In all I was very pleased wit the new acrylic dip. Yes, I do need to practice with it some more but I have high hopes. I can use it indoors, it dries quickly and for 200ml it is about a third of the price of the Army painter tins.

Will I use it as a dip like I did with the oil gloop? I think I will have to, at least once. But, I cannot give up on the gloop, I have already started using it on my Marlburians and I hate changing something as major as that in mid project. The gloop for my Marlburians then and the acrylic stuff for my Greek hoplites.....lets see what happens.

Saint Valentine, me and Brixia 45mm light mortars...

2012-02-16T19:34:00.002Z

Appologies. This was to have been written and posted last night (15th) but there was some terrible things going on in Italy that were distracting me and causing severe depresion...not to mention some a$&! of a Millwall fan that kept texting me with comments about those terrible things.

Anyway.

I do not have the same kind of relationship with Saint Valentine as I do with Santa. Whereas Santa is good enough to call me, albeit whilst I was out so Maria takes his call for me and passes on messages, Saint Valentine simply ignores me. Not once have I ever been bothered by his presence, or even received one of his rather tacky and over-priced slices of rain forest corpse. This is somewhat helped by having a wife endowed with all the depth of emotional feeling of a saucer and my being, I am reliably informed, an annoying fat git with a face that looks like somebody had tried to put out a forest fire with a screwdriver. So, when by chance our club meeting was set to fall on Valentines day I was not too concerned. However, it seems that others were. One member after another got in touch to say they couldn't make it as they were doing something that night, candle lit dinners and trips to cinema or restaurants....I know! Appalling way to behave. Who would turn down wargames for a mushy, commercially driven and highly implausible day of romance? Quite a few as it turns out.

I did try pointing out that, like Christmas, Easter and any other Abrahamic based religious festival, it was all made up....at best the stolen and sanitised version of earlier pagan rites they couldn't stop people celebrating despite them being silly and ineffectual anyway. That it was no more than a commercial ploy to empty their wallets should have settled it and that once they explained all this to their partners, who would understand and see the error of their girlie ways, everyone would be happy. One wife actually emailed me to say that her husband was no longer allowed to come out and play as I was a bad influence! I dont know....you give them the vote...............waste of good racehorses.....

So, on February 14th just four of us were allowed out to play but that was fine. I had arranged an 'Operation Squad' game between my German Fallschirmjager and new Italian paras and as two members had not played before the small forces at hand would work out well. I set out an encounter battle, a fairly wooded area bisected by a road along which stood five ruined houses. The squad that controlled the most buildings at the end of play would be deemed the winner. Andy and Alex took the Fallschirmjager whilst Phil and I ran out the Italian Folgore squad, and great fun we had too! Well, me and Phil anyway.

Phil tool half the squad, those sub-machine gun armed troops, to assault through a large wood to a building at its far edge. I took a Breda light machine-gun and the Brixia 45mm mortar, along with a spotter. We kept the mortar behind a building but put the spotter and the Breda into the building to control it and the ground in front of it; a very successful deployment. Andy advance his section of the Fallschirmjager squad through a narrow wood to cover their approach opposite my building. They were spotted and the order to fire the mortar received...it then got messy. The Brixia fires two rounds a turn and the first landed in the lap of Andy's command figure killing him outright; ok, the dice were on my side this day. the other round helped sew confusion. During the game I was able to drop plenty of rounds into this small wood and given that Andy's figures were bunched quite closely chaos ensued. I managed to kill a couple of figures would another and pin yet another all for no loss.

Phil had a trickier task through the wood, Alex was going to be waiting at the other end for a start. Here the fight was more evenly matched, both took pins but slowly Phil managed to get the upper hand. Judicious use of grenades, dogged approach play and shooting wounded two of Alex's figures whilst a nippy little run and grenade lob killed another for very little in reply. All in all things were looking bad for the Fallschirmjager however, time was running out (the hall heating was broken and we were all freezing to death) and so the game was ended. Each side had control of two buildings so, despite the Italians very strong position, the game was called a draw. If it carried on for another couple of moves I am confident that the Italians would have carved out a brilliant and decisive victory. The Germans had three dead, three wounded and a pinned figure whilst the Italians had but a single wound and one pinned figure.

In all it was a great game and the Brixia 45mm mortar worked out brilliantly. Ok, it might not work again next time, dice being what they are, but this first outing showed some promise. There are still a couple of rule points I need to check out but I still remain a firm advocate of Operation Squad. We are to look into running a large WW1 game with the rules with three or more players a side, each with their own individual squads; essentially, a platoon a side. The idea so far is that the Germans will be assaulting a Belgian village. Each attacking player and squad will be given a fixed task/section of the village to deal with and paired with a Belgian defender. Each pairing, despite all pairs being on the same table, will fight their games at their own speed, which should make things interesting! I shall tell you all about it when it happens!!!!

Organising wargame shows is fun...?

2012-02-10T14:57:00.004Z

As I mentioned in a previous blog posting, the organisation of a wargame show is a complicated affair. You have to chase traders and clubs, organise venues, insurance, advertising, equipment hire...even organise the parking. Not the parking of the visitors of course, but the traders, clubs, tournament players admin staff and so on. Believe it or not, this is one of the most tricksie of all the show features; at least it is for Broadside.

Sittingbourne is not exactly a bustling and busy metropolis, rather a small provincial town with a sadly limited range of shops and attractions 95% of which are closed on a Sunday. This, you would think, would mean that car parking would be free on a Sunday. Nothing to come and see or do, beyond the leisure centre of course, so no visitors; would save you paying the patrol staff too. Except no. The car parks are all live on Sundays and, to add insult to injury, they are all run with a maximum stay order of just four hours! So, how do we then organise a large wargame show where we have some eighty to ninety vehicles to park up between 8am and 6pm?

For our first show I went to visit the council parking office and speak to the parking manager personally. I used to be a parking enforcement officer myself so understand the issues and protocols. The manager was pleasant enough and helpful to a point. To solve my problem she was willing to sell me some special parking vouchers to issue to the various traders etc. These would only cost £2.00 each and would allow the vehicles to park all day but, and there is always a but, I was only allowed to buy sixty vouchers; about two thirds of what I would actually want. The vouchers were also car park specific too so I had to divide the cars between the two halls of Broadside and the car parks. Worse still, this was at a time when we could not know how many vehicles we would actually need to park. The size of Broadside 2011 was going to be determined by the parking allocation! As it turned out, I managed to negotiate with a community centre and make use of the 28 places there too and eased the problem, we were still forced to close our doors to new traders and clubs though. Bottom line, we got by....just.

Given this experience we set out to organise Broadside 2012. I went back to the parking office only to be told that the whole car park system was being restructured, I would not be able to organise the parking until late January and nobody there was able to agree anything or even confirm that the old system would be available again! This made things very complicated, I had to take a risk and base everything on the last event. The letters and booking forms went out and we had to hope for the best. I managed to arrange some new parking at a local school and again at the community centre but the rest I just had to hope would resolve themselves. After two weeks of trying to contact the new parking manager I was finally told that we would not be issued with the vouchers and my heart sank. However, they were prepared to allow me to park everyone all day if they bought a maximum stay ticket from the machine...no matter how many I had to park up....a complete turn around from the previous year! Each space would cost £3.00 rather than the £2.00 of the old vouchers but I could cope with that! Interestingly, nobody apart from me, had seen the issues this raised for the enforcement officers. This system meant that nobody with a maximum stay ticket could be booked at all and this time the parking managers face dropped! I suggested that I would issue all official vehicle with a special badge to identify them and suddenly he was happy again. Its not exactly rocket science is it?

So now we are settled. Broadside vehicles will be issued with the special badge and will have to buy their own tickets from the machine...all will be well. We will not be restricted to numbers or locations and can actually not worry about posting parking marshals again. Happy days!

Hands up all those that can see it all going wrong when the manager forgets to inform all the enforcement officers of these arrangements...or they change their minds....or, or, or...?

Next time you go to a wargame show, spare a thought for the poor bugger that had to organise the damned thing. No doubt he will be the white haired nervous wreck with a twitch and a box of dried frog pills at the ready.....come and say hi, I will be very pleased to meet you.

Stupid Colours

2012-01-16T16:29:00.000Z

One aspect of wargaming that always frustrates me is the painting of figures. Painting has to be done of course, no matter how many figures are waiting in various drawers, cupboards, boxes.....and it is not as if I am particularly bad at it. I have turned out some very nice looking units in my time, things that I am very proud of, its just that I do not get a major kick out of the act of painting. It is so time consuming but it is the only way I am ever going to get figures done, I certainly cannot afford to buy in such services. So, I bite the bullet and just get on with it and, on the whole, make quite a good job of it.

However, part of my problem, possibly the lions share in fact, is my colour blindness. Before you ask, no, I can see colours. I do not live in a grey scale world by any means, its just that many colours look the same to me whilst others are completely indescribable. For example, purple, mauve and other such colours are just words to me and I couldn't begin to describe or even identify them in a line up. Reds, greens and browns can get very confused and I have to be careful not to mix them up. Given the number of shades of colour available in paint pots these days, dozens of every possible colour, I can rarely ever tell them all apart. I can see a bright red and not mistake it for a bright green but when the shades starting approaching the middle ground and the dark end of the spectrum I am lost. This is one of the reasons I often buy paints where the lable tells me what the colour is for rather than what it is; Snakebite Leather, for example. I have often had to ask a sales assistant or a person with me at the time, to describe a colour for me, tell me how much lighter/darker is it compared to something I can see. Sadly, this is when you realise how much of a vocabulary there is with colours, a personal almost coloquial bias that can make the task of vocalising a shade an interesting excercise.

This can sometimes be worked around of course, once I have settled on a colour for a particular job I can hang on to it, a certain red for a specific uniform etc., and buy a couple of pots at a time. The trouble really starts when I try and cross over to a different project but keep the same paints, who can afford to have a different set for each wargame project? 'Which shade of green will be needed here', is a well used phrase with me and every time I will spend hours working it out, trying to remember what I have used that particular pot for in the past or does the colour name offer a clue? This assumes, of course, that I can actually see and identify the colour I am trying to imitate in the first place! A picture of painted figures, photograph of an old uniform, anything like this can be less than useless as I often can't see what the colours are anyway. And, if I ask someone to describe them I usually get a very unhelpful,'.....well, its a sort of reddy, greeny brown...' or some other baffleing concoction of words.

Lets not go into the joys that can be highlighting....a sad, sad tale of ending up with figures that are less highlighted than re painted in a brighter shade! Can't see where I have been you see? I know, very sad...and costs a fortune in paint!!!

This all came to a head this weekend. I decided to have a go at my 28mm ww2 Italian paratroopers. Despite the lack of painting guides (thanks to those of you that offered me resources, very much appreciated and helpful) I had a chat with a few people and felt quite comfortable about how to progress. At least I thought I was. In the end I could not even decide upon the colour to use for the base of the camo pattern! Usual problem, couldn't identify it and couldn't match it with what I had. After several attempts I consulted with my good mate Mark and we came up with a plan for me to try....it didn't work of course, I just couldn't see it, I even tried swaping the order of the colours to see if that helped...it made it worse! I just could not get the colours right nor even the patterning in the end. One figure was launched across the room and I was ordered by the wife to pack it in or else! And then, if things were not bad enough, Arsenal gave away a penalty and it was all down hill there too!

All in all, it was a crap day and nothing worked. I had spent hours and got nowhere fast. A complete waste of a day. But, now, I have reached a conclusion. There is no point me trying to paint camoflaged figures, none what so ever. Bah. So, next time you are getting annoyed at a paint job that is going wrong, spare a thought for us colour blind wargamers!

self publicity!!

2012-01-08T19:06:00.001Z

A shameless plug for this post. I have just self published a kindle ebook called; 'The Three Tiddly Pigs....and other happy tales for children you don't like much'. Its really a bedtime story book as described below.

Fed up with boring, fluffy and cute Bed Time stories with boring, fluffy, cute animals doing boring, fluffy, cute things? Try some truly horrible Bed Time stories to entertain truly horrible children…and their truly horrible Dads.

Caution – These stories contain fluffy cute things and some extreme violence!

It is now available from amazon kindle store for just 77p. My wife hates it....so it must be worth a look!

You can find it here,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Tiddly-other-children-ebook/dp/B006V1KRM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1326047298&sr=1-1

Broadside flyer

2012-01-06T17:52:00.001Z

Given the last post content I thought it a good idea to show you all a copy of the Broadside 2012 flyer.

Stupid January

2012-01-06T15:37:00.000Z

Welcome to my newest follower, Colin Hagreen!

As the title of this post suggests, I do not like January. Its not just the near endless list of expensive birthdays I have to fight my way through just after Christmas, it just seems to be like starting all over again....like painting that Scotish bridge. Its all so depressing.

Still, on to more important things! The 2012 Broadside wargames show can now be seen on the horizon, and not as far away as it seems. Sunday 10th June is set to be a great day of course but there is so much to do before then. The MHWC is only a small club too, some eleven members, and so the workload is a little thick in places. Club member Simon is organising our game for the event, club Secretary Mark draws up the hall plans and fits everything together like some large version of Tetris, club step-member Clint is contacting the clubs and organising the games, club step-member John is organising the DBA tournament and everyone gets together the day before to help set out the hall. I pick up the remainder, particularly contacting the traders; not a task for the faint hearted.

The traders are, arguably, the most important aspect of a wargames show. Get this part of the event correct and you are nearly there but, it is no easy task. It is a bit like herding cats with ADHD! I have lost track of the number of emails I have sent out, the larger percentage of recipiants never reply at all. These initial emails have to be repeated every month and backed up with phone calls. Many traders are so busy they simply forget that they have asked for information or simply do not get around to sending back their forms. Having run a small wargame business many years ago I do understand their problems and try my best to work with them. Slowly, the forms and cheques arrive and the show begins to take shape. We had some thirty four traders last year, most of whom only confirmed their attendance three or so months before the event...one was just three days before! All of which makes it very hard to order the extra tables you need at the very least. So far we have eighteen traders with a few more promising cheques and forms. This week I have contacted another thirty plus traders to remind them of the event and encourage them to take part. Experience shows that things will work out in time and with enough of these politely phrased emails and phone calls but you always worry.....Add to all of this the dozen or so clubs all needing extra tables.....dont even ask about the parking arrangements in a town that thought it important to suddenly charge for parking on a Sunday!

And then there is the magazine advertising, insurance, signage, flyers, catering, visitor parking, club and trader parking (I know I mentioned this above but it is such a problem it needs mentioning twice), tax...yes tax! Running such an event opens you up to all sorts of fun things such as paying tax...which of course means that the everyday club acounts become very interesting indeed. Believe it or not, every club should at least be registered for taxation purposes whether it runs a show or not. Take a look at the HMRC website, heady stuff indeed.

Then you need to find bodies to help out and make up the member numbers, we are fortunate that wives and friends are willing to help out and man (or Wife as the case actually is) the entrance areas, we have two given the nature of the venue. Others help set up or act as marshalls, others even help as tournament umpires and the like. Given our low numbers we all have a hard day starting at 7am and ending at 7pm....then I spend a few more fun hours working out the cash and stuff! Oh, and make sure you have enough cash for a float and have drawn up a rota so all of your limited personel resources know where they need to be and when. The MHWC guys were brilliant last year and all worked their socks off, everyone was surprised when they realised how few of us there were.

But, and here is the bottom line, we all enjoy it. Yes it is hard work for very little profit, breaking even is about normal, but we actually get to go to a show and meet people; traders, clubs, other wargamers. Our little club gains a reputation and we attract new blood....well, one new member from the last show but that is a start. My hope for this year is that we attract more members of the general public, for there lies the true source of new wargamers.

Oh well, back to the emails! I hope to see all of you at Broadside....hint hint

Santa, Me and Brixia 45mm light mortars...

2011-12-22T10:42:00.000Z

Hi The Teston Rifleman. You are my tenth follower! Many thanks and welcome to my blog.

I popped out for a haircut yesterday and upon my return my wife told me of a phone call I had missed. Seemingly, Santa had called me to discuss my position in the whole 'good boy / bad boy' stakes. Due to many passed instances of naughty, my account remains in defict despite my recent efforts, and, therefore, I would once again not be receiving any gifts this year; just the annual carrier bag of reindeer poo strewn over the car.

The news was not all bad though, Maria was good enough to fill out the required yearly report form and it seems I could be back into the good book within a few years; of course I was happy to pay santa the required £25.00 form fee. I didn't want to appear ungrateful and Maria was good enough to pass it on for me. I have to say Maria has been very helpful on this issue and I will buy her something special as a thank you for looking out for me.

Given this news I decided I should buy myself a little something. A browse through ebay found a Warlord Games 28mm Italian Para Brixia mortar to add to my Operation Squad unit. I won the auction and got the still packaged unit for less than a fiver including postage, a good saving on the £7.00 list price. The figure quality is good, I do like the Bolt Action metal ranges, but the mortar itself is going to be a pig to build.

The pic above shows a replica weapon, you can imagine the fun I will have sorting out the support structure! The pieces are tiny and I can see me using language during the build that may well keep me in Santa's bad books for a while longer.

The Brixia is an odd weapon, quite ahead of its time in concept but complicated to manufacture, prone to breakdowns and used faily under-powered shells. That said, it was very portable and could lay down an impressive amount of fire. The firing mechanism used a magazine of charges (the rectangular box sticking out of the top of the barrel) to launch the shells, meaning that the team could very quickly saturate a target area and then move away, advance etc.

In the Operation Squad list for the Italian Para unit (these, and others, can be found on the Operation Squad website and forum) the two man mortar team costs 100 points but increases the breakpoint by one. The weapon gets two shots per fire but with a grenade sized template for the area of effect, unlike the mortars of most other nations that get one shot but a double sized effect area. I have a feeling that that the two shots may be more adventageous in game terms but only time, and my dodgy dice rolling, will tell.

I shall post progress updates for my Italians as I can. I am having issues with the camo patterns due to my colour blindness issues (stupid WW2) but my good friend Mark is helping identify the right paints. Looking forward to this project, just got to fit the damn thing in amongst all the others!!!!