WW2 / Cold war movies

Joy Division is a film that I stumbled across.  Another site made reference to the combat scenes and equally the cold war spy thriller aspect intrigued me.

The story is told via flashbacks, so is somewhat disjointed and I need to watch it again to fully understand some of the spy elements and the betrayal/release scene.   Late war German troops with Stg 44 assault rifles, Hitler Youth with Mp40's.  

There is a fan tribute here that will give you a taste...

My used copy cost me £2.98 and at that price a bargain I feel.   

Force on Force - scenery and concepts

Up until now I'd sorted my scenery - especially what I term "scatter" scenery into four rough periods:
a) Ancients, Dark Age and Medieval - when pretty much everything was expensive and had some value.  (There was a separate box for Samurai stuff because of the cultural differences).
b) Pre Industrial - the era from the English Civil wars through to the Napoleonic wars.  Some items have become substantially cheaper than in the earlier period but the full benefit of the industrial revolution and water and steam power and machines has yet to be felt.
c) Industrial - which loosely was when the benefits of the industrial revolution were felt by the people at large.
d) Science Fiction - the realm of the future and also the oddities like the Carnivorous plants etc.

Force on Force - and I now realise Post Apocalyptic - pushed things into a fifth grouping - namely modern.  Look at the following items...

The sofa is probably good for the Victorian era onwards (so fits into Industrial) as do the Mattresses since the circular bits represent coil springs.  "Wheelie Bin" - I would say 1990's onwards, although research on Wikepedia would put it at 1970 onwards in Western Europe...

Wheelie bin

And lastly metal beer kegs...

1950's onwards.  (The beer kegs came out of a model railway bargain bin - OK, so at OO/HO scale then a little tiny for 28mm but given that beer kegs come in all sorts of sizes, then perfectly acceptable).  

So, I think we are going to have a new category, probably "Modern Era".   

I see the Sofa as a hotel reject, with springs coming through the covers and now found outside a shanty hut having been "rescued" from the disposal lorry.  As one of the Gripping Beast boys said, what it really needs is a couple of children sitting on it who are playing.  

Whilst on Force on Force I've been looking at cheap scenery....

All three vehicles came from Poundland, and there's a few others already in the Force on Force Box.  The Humvee is 5mm too long for true 1/56tj scale on my calculations.  The Tractor - admittedly large although with a small seat I see as one of the new generation of "super tractors" - probably supplied by a kindly meaning but ill informed church/charity given African standards of maintenance and the cost of spare parts.   

Having just done a bit of surfing then might be time to go back and see if I can get a couple more of hte minibuses for use as Taxis with a respray...

  

 

Force on Force - books and videos

Force on Force

I’ve been shopping on books as they say, reading and watching videos..

Firstly Osprey apparently re-released some older titles, including Russia’s War in Afghanistan (1986).  It is clear from the text that this was written whilst the war was ongoing (Russia withdrew in February 1989) and information (as is probably the case with anything involving the modern Russian military) is somewhat patchy.   From a modelling viewpoint then enough to paint Russian troops.

The other Osprey to drop though my letter box this month is Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991.   I ordered this in advance of publication so it has only been out for a week or so, but it looks like a good one on a first glance through.   

 

The Book Depository had a  bit of a sale (around 30-35% off) Force on Force titles and I took the opportunity to get a couple more of the expansions:

Day of the Rangers – the cattle raid scenario in this is what I played at a convention that got me first interested in Force on Force as a set of rules, whilst the movie Black Hawk Down has long since been a favourite. 

The other was Enduring Freedom – The war in Afghanistan.

Of the others that leaves the following which are of little interest except possibly the Vietnam book, which having had the chance to look through and hear reviews on may be the weakest of the various books:

Ambush Valley - Vietnam –

Road to Bagdhad – Iraq 2003

Fallujah – Iraq 2004

Cold War gone Hot – Mid 1980’s Cold War

I've only had the books a couple of days but have already been through Day of the Rangers listing the scenarios and figures needed.   Often this comes down to a US Platoon of assorted composition but say 30-40 figures and lots and lots of Somalis, especially with the random Somali reinforcements rule.   I think this may be a somewhat longer term project than I first thought, probably to provide some variety on the painting desk.  

Which brings me to some videos I ended up watching....

Part 1 (of 3) sets the background to the French in Mali in 2013 and the "live action footage" starts at around 2 minute 30 seconds.  All three parts are worth watching I felt and some of the scenes like the Malian soldiers relaxing and then in combat bring home that there - in the African context - then mixed camouflage uniforms and equipment are very much the order of the day.   

And then this - Danish Soldiers fighting the Taliban...

Gutsy stuff to be running anywhere when there are bullets flying around, and the sound of the Squad Assault weapon opening up at 2 minutes in...   Not hard to see why the Germans regarded the rest of the squad as ammunition carriers for the MG42.  

Lastly, another book. £1 from our local Poundland (where everything is £1) - where the author brings home the reality of TOE lists which we gamers are so concerned with - he is charged with forming a platoon from scratch which never seems to be fully up to strength and gets the wanted and unwanted, never seems to have enough equipment to fully go round and ends up with some very grubby jobs..

Warhammer Porn

Ok, so the title may well increase the page view count.

One of the blogs I follow picked up on this posting on a Telegraph blog.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100227407/if-david-cameron-must-ban-anything-let-it-be-warhammer-fantasy-games/

Many comments seem to see it as poorly written satire, written I suspect by someone who was sucked in and spat out by the whole Games Workshop slick marketing machine.  I'm surprised that the guy could become a historian, which I think involves looking at primary sources and evaluating evidence.

Not that I would normally buy the telegraph unless it comes with a free bottle of water (and is cheaper than buying the water on its own) at airport or railway station, or it has a really, really, interesting sounding article.   I forgot to look if he used the word Space Marine in the article.

Attacking the lead and paper mountain

The last two years have seen me buy stuff but generally not much chance to paint it or read it.  Now that things have quietened down on the domestic front and I'm no longer so tired from lengthy car journeys to and fro the Midlands I've started to sort it.

First the lead and resin mountain:

Bins labelled - Samurai, VBCW, ECW, FIW, Force on Force, Ancients and Scenery pretty much reflecting my current interests.  I remembered buying most of it - the exceptions being some of the Ainsty resin scenery when I was in my "scatter scenery" mode, and some barricades from Fantascene and some FIW Indians from AW Miniatures

Then onto the book mountain:

I've skimmed through some of these but that's all.  Again, the rules and reference books pretty much reflect the miniatures buying.  

Too hot to paint currently but clearing the painting desk is next.  

ECW additions and a new camera

As life starts to return to some sense of normality after the last few years when other pressures affected my gaming and painting time then I'm starting to look over the EBay figure auction scene again to finish off or expand various forces.  

One recent bargain buy was a group of 19 ECW "forlorn hope" - in reality an assortment of plastic and metal Warlord Games figures.   First time I've seen the Warlord ECW figures - I've got a couple of boxes of their plastic stuff around and a couple of metal personality figures but haven't looked at them in much depth.  The following is a selection - also trying out the new camera I got a couple of weeks ago.  

The next picture is a close up of the 3 (plastic) painted figures.   And I'm really impressed with the camera to say it was £99.  Still not sure I'm a fan of multiple based figures - it makes movement easier but can hinder storage.  The thorny problem of decent storage for ECW pikemen still needs to be solved.  I think the figures have been washed with army painter dip...

Steampunkish things - panels and movies

Whilst trawling Ebay recently I came across somethng that set me thinking about Steampunk modifications.  The subject were some girls watches (from China - like lots of cheap things) and I thought that I could break up the bracelets and use them as panels - probably painted brass or whatever - on some home made vehicles/boats.

Price was £2.71 and £1.69 delivered.  I realise now that I should have put a 28mm figure alongside tthe bracelets for size comparison.

The other thing I did that was steampunkish related recently was to watch the 2002 Movie, Gangs of New York.  Victorian themed certainly, steampunk no although the gangs could well be some of the less desirable companies of IHMN.  Second hand via ebay for a few quid and thoroughly enjoyable. 

The Dead rabbits were an actual gang too....

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-infamous-gangs-of-new-york

Canoeing in Canada - M&T inspiration

Whilst surfing I came across the following advert for a company...

French Canadian River voyage

and I found it a rather nice short video that helps set the scene for Muskets and Tomahawks.

Here's another video - I suspect of the same tour from the same company although with different people.

Oh, and I won 15 part painted Wargames Foundry "Mountain men" off Ebay today.   Some were bare metal, others appear to have a red-brown undercoat (but probably nothing that Dettol can't solve) to provide some character types.  I've already got some in my "Old West" figures but it will be good to not have to keep movng figures between two sets.  

More IHMN

So, as part of going through my RPG figures for Castle Falkenstein I came across the Prussians (lower set) and soldiers (higher set).  The Prussians have spiky helmets of course. Not the best scan of the bottom row -  I put the figures on the scanner and then put some foam over the top.     

Probably less useful than I first thought for the Society of Thule as detailed in the book given that they are armed either with a pistol or sword as opposed to a Rifle.  

I've been playing around with the IHMN rules for companies a bit more after my Tong gang didn't seem to have lots of rabble...

Cheapest figures so far seem to be:

3 pts - Cultist (Club) - Servant of Ra

6 pts - Anarchist (club) - Brick Lane Commune

8 Pts - Native Bearer (Spear and shield) - The Explorer's club 

The Servants of Ra and Explorer's club have got enough high value personalites to easily use up points, so the likely largest faction, miniatures wise, would currently appear to be the Brick Lane Commune as their personalities are relatively cheap by comparison.  Even then the Anarchist can be made fearless, or given a knife or shotgun upping their points.  Otherwise, the basic footsoldier would seem to be in the region of 18-22 points for most factions.   

More Steampunk: IHMN Companies

Today I had a better read of "In her Majesty's Name" and specifically the rules concerning the creation of "companies" which are the factions in the game.  I also got my Castle Falkenstein RPG figures out of the cupboard - which was good as it reminded me of some figures that I'd forgotten I had - like the Victorian Detective (aka Sherlock Holmes) from Salute 2000, or the Flintloque Zombieski Cossacks.

Rules suggest 3x3 playing area and 250 pts.

First up was the British Rifle Company:

Figures are Redoubt Zulu wars range facing a Castle Falkenstein Mystic/Mage. 

	Based on US Marines
PTS		QTY	PTS
43	Officer	1	43
5	Tough	1	5
29	Gunnery Sergeant	1	29
5	Tough	1	5
2	Bayonet Drill	1	2
80	Marine X4	4	20
8	Bayonet Drill	4	2
20	Marine	1	20
-2	Congreve Rocket Gun	1	-2
7	Rocket Grenade	1	7
14	Spare Grenades	2	7
13	Navy Corpsman	1	13
20	Marine	1	20
5	Marksman	1	5
249	9 Miniatures	TOTAL

Next up were the Naval Landing party for which I used the British Army chart since  have a gatling gun model (not shown).  Against these were the Society of Thule (wicked Germans who meddle with Zombies).   The first picture shows off the problems of focusing on a hand held camera (ought to get the Tripod out), whilst the Second has a Wizzkids Brass Golem and the Pax Limpopop armoured bicycle. 

Figures otherwise are Redoubt Enterprises - Brtish and Wargames Foundry - Germans

	Based on British Regulars			Based on Society of Thule			Tongs
Total PTs			Total PTs			Total PTs
57	Captain		39	Dr Kobalt		55	Master wu-jen
10	Inspirational
			30	Thule Feldwebel
29	Sergeant					30	Tong Lieutenant
5	Tough		104	Jager X4		1	sword
2	Bayonet Drill
			45	2 Jager with flamethrower
80	Riflemen X4					24	Dragon Warrior
6	Bayonet Drill		26	Jager		10	Dragon Tattoo
			5	Marksman
40	Riflemen					45	Yeti
0	Machine Gun
			249	9 Miniatures		84	Boxer X7
				Plus Zombies
15	Field Surgeon					249	10 Miniatures
5	Erudite wit						Yeti
249	9 Miniatures

To try and get a better feel for the "rabble" argument I turned to the Tongs.  Even here points still go as it is tempting to field the yeti, if only to have a nice miniature on the table and whilst the Boxers at only 12 points would seem to fall into the rabble category the total points soon go.   Interesting to note that the companies are mostly coming out at 9 miniatures, somewhat less if you go for the specials.    

Finally a picture of the Castle Falkenstein blisters from Soldiers and Swords so if you see them in a bargain bin it is worth a rummage.  These are Dwarves and Mystics - the most useful for steampunk skirmish are probably the Prussian Soldiers - who I have (but not in blister) and need to photograph. 

Not the best photography but wherever I was I seemed to get flash bounce from the plastic blister packaging. 

Steampunk - Once upon a time there was a roleplaying game

As part of the catch up then I'm covering somethng I got involved with last month.  I did a kickstarter for some figures, specifically the Empire of the Dead Requiem.

A long time ago - well early 90's there was a roleplaying game called Castle Falkenstein that was steampunk plus magic.  I liked it and the theme - I even GM'd a couple of sessions but the White Wolf World of Darkness games (Vampire, Werewolf) were the fashion at the then RPG group and it had limited interest.  Very much it needs people in the right frame of mind and the GM needs a setting that the players want as well.  Needless to say I bought all the books and even managed to get some of the "official' figures out of bargain bins at conventions.  For other figures I scoured various fantasy ranges along with historical ranges from people like Wargames Foundry.

But in some ways the steampunk feel went back earlier than that.  I'd always enjoyed films that featured say Nemo and the Nautilus.  Go back to the mid 80's and was re-reading the Hawkmoon stuff by Michael Moorcock - we were playing alot of Call of Cthulu RPG at the time but the GM had lots (possibly all) of other stuff put out by Chaosium (which is how I got started on the Pendragon).  When a toy shop was having a clearout I got a couple of zoids with a view to converting them.  These may may excellent 'steampunk" vehicles.  I think I have the giant worm pictured below and another one that flaps wings (view to making a Gran Brettanian Ornithopter from Hawkmoon).    

One of the blogs I follow is A conflict of Interests and I found myself agreeing with the comments about wanting the steampunk aspect in preference to the Gothic werwolves vs Vampires.   

Not blogged about here but something I was very taken with a couple of years ago was the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West game.  Now sadly part of history as I suspect licensing issues means that nobody else will be given permission to reprint it.  One of the groups was the Chinese Tongs - always part of pulp fiction.  The Empire of the Dead Requiem Kickstarter had a couple of free figures that I really wanted - the Dragon Lady, so I ended up backing the project.   

I have the PDF of the rules but not really had chance to go through it yet.  I watched the kickstarter (or Nickstarter to be more appropriate) for the figures for In Her Majesty's name.  The free figures for the various financing options were less generous than the Westwind offer and the basic factions were of less interest or ones that my Castle Falkenstein stuff might cover.  

I have bought the rules though.  Very interesting on a first read through and definitely my sort of game.      The mechanics and construction rules seem fairly sound, and the campaign system whilst somewhat simple looks as if it will work and the whole thing has that "feel" of the campaign and tabletop skirmish game that had appeared in the Legends of the Old West.  

Paint Tray

If you look at my profile then there are a number of other blogs that I follow.  They in turn follow other blogs.

So, BigLees Minature Adventures came up with this Nail Varnish rack, which he in turn had spotted on another blog.

Mine has duly arrived and its good and not so good. 

Good: Its cheap (much cheaper than the laser cut mdf ones), works well and takes Games Workshop old style, Games Workshop new style, Vallejo and Miniature Paints pots. 

Not so Good: Doesn't take a few oddities that I have - Howard Hues (from Magister Miletum), Tamiya (useful for metallics and metals) and the Humbrol 30 ml (i.e. large pots) which may or may not still be made - I suspect not after a visit to the official Humbrol web site.  

Samurai - Rotterdam and Lone Wolf and Cub

April and May have been somewhat hectic for some good and some not so good reasons.  One of the good parts was a 5 day trip to Holland in Mid May, specifically Rotterdam, Leiden and Amsterdam.

The main reason for going was a Samurai Exhibition at the Weraldmuseum in Rotterdam which ended on 26th May.  My chum's daughter's boyfriend passed on the details a while ago, and we hadn't had a big (aka aged 50 ish) boys outing for a while, so "why not".  (I also got to see the Dutch Marines museum but news of that in a different post).

The exhibition turned out be very, very, good and well worth the journey.

The following pictures comes from this blog.

Photography in the exhibition was prohibited for obvious reasons.  The low level of lighting would have meant that without a tripod and very long shutter speeds the results would have been very poor.  The billing talked about stuff on loan from America and Japan but didn't say that much of the stuff was from the Museo Stibbert in Florence - which I knew had lots of Samurai stuff from some Black and white photos in Osprey books.  When I came back I checked it out (again) and the Museo Stibbert Samurai stuff is now only by appointment and incurs an extra fee of €150 !

More pictures on this blog.  

One of the more unusual helmets at the show was this one with a massive (I assume paper mache) Octopus.  

Aside from a two items (armour and a sword set) made for the Dutch King as gifts, the rarest items I suspect were a straw jingasa (war hat) and back banner (Sashimono). The Sashimono was from the Momoyama (1573-1615) period which covers the period of unificaton by Hideyoshi (such as the battle of Sekighara).  With no photography then I succumbed and bought the catalogue for €35 - not cheap, but all the photos are colour and some are very close detail.  Unfortunately it doesn't illustrate every item.  

The Samurai on horseback was in the museum entrance hall and the one item that could be freely photographed.  

Final mention is some new Samurai figures only available until 29 May.  These are from Black Bases and represent Lone Wolf and Cub.  Mine arrived today and what it doesn't mention is that the set does include the babycart too, so is somewhat better value.   Remember that figures are unpainted.  

 

Salute Part II - the shopping

My days of doing lots of shopping at Salute are over for various reasons - I already have it, I'm getting more careful with my cash, I can't carry it home on the train etc... 

Nevertheless, there are lots of new and shiny things at Salute... 

GENERAL

Just before going up to Salute I bought a copy of the new merged Miniature Wargames/Battlegames mag.  The old Miniature Wargames was always a curate’s egg for me – i.e. good in parts and I used to browse in Smiths and buy 2-3 issues a year.  The revamp looks good and I suspect that the introduction of the Battlegames contributors will improve what I see as the quality of the articles. 

Wargames Illustrated was there with the latest issue and an offer of a free figure of Joshua Chamberlain for the first 200 purchasers.  Given my love affair wth the magazine is waning then the inducement of a free, limited edition figure was enough to secure a purchase. 

The last magazne was the current issue of Medieval Warfare – Medieval Bishops themed issue.  Lots of interest here.   Right away then I should remind people that I write for the sister publication Wargames Soldiers Strategy.  I’ve let my subscription to the society of ancients lapse this year (too much DBA, biblical, greek and Republican Roman for my interests) and may well start up a sub to Medeval Warfare given the number of issues I’m buying. 

MUSKETS & TOMAHAWKS

Selection of multiple movement trays from Warbases. 

3 of the 5 man clumps

3 of the 5 man lines

Couple of 2 man but square edged trays that will the corners rounding off on. 

Some blank 25mm discs to infill with scenery etc….

SAGA

Big news of course washte box of unarmoured warrors from Gripping Beast.  Looks good and as the box says, enough to make up to 32 with slings or 16 with javelins, or 8 with swords or axes, whilst I suspect everyone could have a spear if you wanted.  .   

I bought a couple of figures for use as SAGA warlords. Nominally 28mm, more like 30mm and not cheap (USA imports). Tthe top viking is supplied with an axe and sword which makes him look more menacing.  

http://www.fenrisgames.com/shop.html#!/~/category/id=4201768&offset=0&sort=nameAsc

I also got a pack of 10 30mm lipped plastic bases to distinguish the warlords  for SAGA from EM4 miniatures. 

Japanese Stuff

The big news here was the Sarissa Laser cut mdf buildings.

http://www.sarissa-precision.co.uk/

I got a number of clan war packs at £3 each – essentially 16 Diadoji Iron Warrors (Samurai Spearmen) with a pack of mizu adepts (martial artists), bowmen and a couple of personalities. 

New to me were fouraminiatures

http://www.fouraminiatures.com/

Initially there was a range of Science Fiction pilots, snow troopers and others that caught my eye, but then from a Japanese viewpoint (I believe there are legends of quatic lizardmen) there was a lovely collection of “sea demons”.  

A few other small bits like some transfers and a couple of bits for friends and I was finished.  

Salute 2013 - Part 1 - the show

SALUTE 2013 – How was it for me…..

Well, by catching a later (and cheaper) train then I ddn't arrive until about 90 mins after opening and missed all the queues which was probably a good thing.   

Well, my initial response is that it was all a bit underwhelming.  With the height of the new(ish) venue and the (greyish) lighting then stands have always got a bit “lost”, and the “white noise” effect form the people, ceiling and echos make it hard work wth my hearing aid.  But the sense that I came away was that I was seeing too much that I’d already seen before over the last 2-3 years, and on many games there was that lack of a ‘wow” factor for me to want and look at them further.  Often, this is having eye candy at eye level to catch my eye, or the non gamng props that cause me to feel that the people have thought about the game they are putting on.   It's not the new and shiny (if obscure) period that I'm looking for - its the shop window effect to get my attention.  

I do wonder if the sheer costs of putting a game on at salute are putting people off.  Parking isn’t cheap, neither is fuel these days, and in reality how many people are actually interested in what you are doing at Salute rather than being there as a shopping fest?   There appeared to be two notable non attendees this year who have always put on games previously that I had a lot of time for – one was the Whistable and Herne Bay Wargamers  who have put on what I regard as a variety of good participation games in prevous years, and possibly the skirmish wargames association (the catalogue lists a game but it failed to register on me) who have normally done a very good 54mm game. 

Equally I wonder if the smaller traders are now being priced out of Salute.  

Overall I think I'm now in the position of seeing Partizan as my best show to visit. 

I took relatively few pictures this year - which is a reflection of my overall impressons.  Of course next year, if I downgrade what camera equipment I carry to save weight from the digital SLR with flashgun to the compact, then there will be lots of good games.....  

For those seeking a blog with lots of pictures then I would recommend

Big Lees Miniatures Adventures as a blog that I follow that has taken lots of photos. 

In no particular order  we have...

Cloudships of Mars from Oshiro Model Terrain.  OK, so he is selling some of the products, but the colour combination coupled with the cloudships caught my attention.   And its pseudo Steampunk.  

James Morris (of WAB El Cid and Shieldwall fame) normally has a game on at Salute, and this year it was Dux Bellorum (Dark Age), using as he freely admitted figures that I had probably seen before.  

Oshiro Model Terrain are best remembered by me for their Japanese stuff, and again they had a Japanese game on dispaly.   This did feature lots of things I've seen in the last 2-3 years but nevertheless I did take a picture of it.  

VBCW was there with another game.  Well displayed (e.g. the boards, sample weapons) as always and a game with lots of features.  Sometimes I wonder if less would be more in terms of VBCW games, or if more reflects the almost anarchic state of warfare with the various rival (even if allied) factions.  Loved the BUF HQ building in the back - almost masonic temple.... 

And last is the WSS Samurai game.   I didn't play in this (remember my hearing comments made earlier about noise at Salute) but when a game was in progress it seemed like people were having fun.