Fallschirmjaeger Sniper

I'm planning on running a big game of Chain of Command at Christmas and one of the platoons involved will be Fallschirmjaeger.  This gave me the excuse to take a razor saw to a spare, rifle-armed figure and make a dug-in sniper unit.

He's a Raventhorpe (large-ish) 20mm figure stuck to a textured 2p piece.  I've added a simple telescopic sight using a small piece of plastic rod.

Fiasco 2016

Jamie and I met up in Leeds today and had a wander around Fiasco.  There were lots of traders (disappointingly no Baccus or Irregular, both of whom would have got some of my money) but, I thought, fewer demo or participation games than I'd have liked to see.

Still, we chatted to a few nice people and enjoyed our lunch in the next-door Pizza Express.  Jamie bought some figures for his Arsene Lupin in Andreivia project.  I came home with these:

I picked up another pack of Perry Italian Mercenary Crossbowmen.  I want to convert my current unit (of Bidowers in Lion Rampant terms) into a full 12 man crossbow unit.  Also for Lion Rampant (but for the Bacaudae project) is a pack of Late Roman/Arthurian casualty bases from Curteys Miniatures.  These will make great "battered unit" markers. I also bought a pack of 30mm round MDF bases (not shown here) because they seemed good value for money.

Finally, I really splashed out by finally buying my own starter set of the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game.  I bought Charlie a set last Christmas and everyone I've spoken to says it's a better game with multiple starter sets.

Andreivian Hind

After a period without a functioning computer and with family commitments taking me away at the weekends, I'm now finally in position to report back on progress.

First up is this Andreivian Air Force Mil-24 Hind.

It's a Hasegawa kit I bought a couple of years ago from Pitstop Models in Birkenhead.  It's taken me that long to get it finished.

I've left off some detail as this is a wargame model not a scale replica.  The main rotor assembly is held in place by means of a pair of rare earth magnets recycled from a kid's toy.  A sliver of broken craft knife blade glued to the bottom of the fuselage provides the attachment point for my magnetic flight stand.  The Andreivian roundels are from Dom's Decals courtesy of Richard Phillips.

Normal service will be resumed

I'm without my iMac at the moment - it's in the menders being checked for what I think may be an annoying Trojan.  I'm posting this on Millie's laptop so no pics at present.


I've just been setting up some scenery on the table that is Charlie's bed.  I plan to have a go at trying out elites vs regulars at Chain of Command.  I shall be throwing a platoon of Soviet tank riders at a platoon of elite Fallschirmjaeger.


I've thrown a nine for the support level so the Soviet start of with nine points of support while the Jaegers get four.  The Jaegers have a platoon rating of +10, though and the Soviets are -3 so that means the final points to spend on support are 4 for the Germans and 22 for the Soviets!  That's enough to buy a whole platoon of T-34/76s and still have points left over to buy more whizzy stuff.  I shall ponder.

On the Workbench

Just out of the paint-stripper are these old, true-25mm Napoleonic infantry.  They are of just the right size to go with my existing plastics.

I'm not sure what manufacturer they were by.  They came in a big tin of mostly plastic miniatures that passed through my hands a year or so ago.

I'll be using these for Sharp Practice 2 and may paint them as Italians or Swiss as I already have plenty of French.

Also for Sharp Practice is this ammunition caisson:

It's by HaT; one of three that come in the box.  I'm going to build a second one as "parked"; without the horse team and with the lid open.  I may well turn the third into a British equivalent using spare Airfix Royal Horse Artillery riders.  I'm sure they will have used some captured French wagons.  The question then arises do I leave it French green or will the RHA have repainted it?

Finally, in large 28mm scale we have a couple of new figures for Pulp Alley games.

The policeman was a freebie for people attending Partizan a few years back.  The bruiser is from the Pulp Miniatures Doc Savage set.

Old school lead

Nostalgia makes us do silly things.  I've never been able to bring myself to get rid of some Lamming 25mm ancient figures I bought from Games of Liverpool in about 1980.

I have the cataphracts above, one base of Roman legionaries and some auxiliary slingers and a few Ancient Britons.  Not enough to do much useful with but it's fun trying to make them look as good as I can given the crudity of the castings.

In a moment, well OK two moments, of madness I've just bought a couple of lots of distinctly old-school figures on eBay.  Arriving soon will be 24 more Ancient Britons and some Numidian light horse.  I plan to base them for To The Strongest with the option of using them for ancients-themed games of Dragon Rampant.  More when they arrive!

Decluttering

I'm making an effort to reduce the amount of crap cluttering up my games room.  I'm adopting the policy of disposing of one item each day.  Mostly at the moment that means throwing away boxes I kept because they looked like they'd be good for storing future terrain projects.  A couple of unwanted toys have gone to the charity shop.

It occurred to me, though, that a few unwanted rules sets could go to some of the local kids who are showing an interest.Hammers Slammers and 1st Ed Rapid Fire are going that way.

My printout of DBMM, however, has gone straight into the recycling bin. Discuss.