On the workbench...

So current production here at Stately Counterpane Manor is very much in a "random bits" phase.

First up is a pair of 3D printed bison I picked up at the otherwise disappointing Wirral Warboot sale back in September. 

I got them with Glorantha in mind and they'll still do for that setting but they're without the riders I originally thought of adding. Left riderless they'll also potentially do for What A Cowboy.

Next we have some Perry Russian infantry. The front group of eight and accompanying NCO are grenadiers. Behind them are two groups of musketeers with their own NCO.

The plan is still for Richard P and I to play a Livonia 1812 Sharp Practice campaign but his grandfatherly duties are making scheduling games difficult so I thought I'd get myself some opponents for my Prussians. Another group of musketeers and an officer need to be built and painted and when they're done I'll do a photoshoot of the whole force.

Moving down a couple of scales, I continue background planning for July's Joy of Six game where I'll be presenting Calais: Encounter on the St Omer Road on behalf of the Cold War Commanders. This was originally going to be the group's only game any the event but I think it will now be one of two, the other our more conventional Cold War fare.

A couple of evenings ago I updated 3RTR in line with my current understanding of early WWII British camouflage and with some sketched-in markings.

The formation is organised into four squadrons, two with Light Tank Mk VI and two with Cruiser Tank A13. Later the same evening I did a little more reading and came to the conclusion that the two types of tank were in fact mixed within squadrons. The question now is whether I redo the almost invisible squadron markings I painted on the turrets!

Also featuring in the Calais scenario are two German armoured car companies. These contain a mixture of SdKfz 221 and SdKfz 223 (indistinguishable in terms of unit stats and in terms of models as I'm not adding 1/300th scale frame aerials to the latter) as well as SdKfz 231 and 222.  

The 221s and 223s are armed only with rifle-calibre machine-guns whereas the 231s and 222s carry 20mm cannons that have some limited anti-armour capability.

I want to attract people who are interested in giving TacWWII a try so I need to give them some way to tell which units are which. As a couple of my SdKfz 222s already had air recognition flags, I decided to add them to all of the cannon-armed armoured cars.

A scrap of paper pencil-ruled with 2mmx3mm rectangles provided the basis. The red fields and white central circles were painted in with acrylics. The internationally problematic political symbols would then be sketched in with a fine drawing pen.

That's in for now. There are some Calais-related terrain pieces currently in production but I'll post about those in a few days when I talk about some of the design choices I've made in updating the scenario.