If you had some spare time on a snowy afternoon,why wouldn't you make a Bunker for a period you had no real interest in??
Well,last year I bought a car emergency/safety/flashing "thingy" with 7 different settings: Last night whilst "fannying about" in the garage I had a thought that one of the settings could easily simulate machine gun fire for our WW2 games-and so a project was born!!!
This is the "thingy" caught in mid flash-it circulates the whole thing and is very effective,now onto the Bunker making.
I decided on the size of the Bunker(120mm square and 60mm high-ignore the roof measurements they are rubbish!),marked the sides out on some white foam board,and then cut them carefully with a stanley knife.
The larger apertures,I thought, would do for anti-tank guns and the smaller ones for machine guns.
Having had difficulty before trying to paint foam-board,I decided to cover the bunker with some Doll's house brick wallpaper-and to my surprise,the piece I had fitted the pieces of the bunker and the roof exactly!!
Exact fit(pure luck!)
I then laid the pieces onto the back of the paper,drew around the shapes,ready to carefully,with a stanley knife, cut out the apertures.-once that was done I had to stick the paper onto the pieces.
Using PVA glue the job was done in no time,and set really quickly.
I then made a base board out of some old hardboard that was lying about the garage,using internal measurements,by which time the glue had set and I was ready to try the "first fitting" of the pieces.
As you can see I used UHU glue to stick the pieces,and it worked a treat. A bit of "adjustment was necessary,but I had allowed a bit of overlap on the wallpaper,so not too much of a drama!
Pop the roof on,and the job is nearly done.
Finished article,with all bare bits covered with wallpaper-doesn't look too bad to me!
Bunker in action,lit up by the "thingy" oh,bugger,bugger,bugger,I've just realised that the bloody thing hasn't got a door!!!!!!-well,I'm not tearing it apart to cut a doorway-we'll just have to use our imagination!
As I am near to "death's door" with a most horrid cold(can't be flu because I've had the jab!) and can't be bothered to do much at the moment,I thought I would update what we are doing at the moment,as far as painting etc. goes.
I finished these two Mameluke,and two Saracen units before I started to drown in a "tsunami" of mucus!!-I have one more unit of horse archers to finish,and then it's" look out you Crusaders!"
Graham has been painting furiously over the past few weeks-these are his Perry Napoleonic Hanoverians and Dutch/Belgians-nice job,but when are we going to see them on the board??
The figures are a mixture of plastics and metals(the cavalry are plastics I think!) and hopefully he will be liaising with Dave to set up a game soon.
I got these paints as a gift at Xmas,and I have used them to paint my Roman Warship,and a unit of Saracen horse archers,and I am impressed by the quality/coverability(?) at £7.50 for twelve colours you can't be robbed!!
Well, I'm off to dose myself up with a new medicine I have discovered,called "Captain Morgan's cold and chesty cough lincture"-a bit of a mouthful,but good for the soul!!
Roll on Sunday,we'll be playing the battle of Leignitz 1241-Russians/Poles/Lithuanians vs Mongols.
Last night we had a most interesting and colourful encounter between Normans and Crusader-types,ie "elasticating" time! but very enjoyable nevertheless.
Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement-Dave and Graham were in charge of the Normans,whilst Brian and Paul commanded the "Crusaders".
Despite the two heaters going full blast,the "snowy terrain" etc. gives an impression of cold!!
The Normans are moving quickly and aggressively against Brian's flank,whilst Graham is taking his time against Paul,who is cunningly moving troops around and through the village,hoping to get Graham in the flank!
Graham is hoping(in vain!) that a unit of crossbowmen will stop the heavy infantry moving through the village,meanwhile on Dave vs Brian's flank.............................
A mass melee is taking place,with neither side giving or asking quarter!-in this game a record 19 officers were killed!(well that's what you get for fighting in the front line!!!
In the background you can see the infantry approaching one another-this is going to be interesting.
It was!!-Brian has added some Knights into the calculation(just to spice things up a bit!) and the melee swayed back and forth for some time-great stuff!
On the far flank,Graham and Paul are still not in contact,but it won't be long!!!
Paul is still hanging back until his "village people" are in a position to affect the flank-you can just see the infantry approaching the flank,and being followed by two units of cavalry.
Who could ask for more action on a wargames table???
Paul and Graham have eventually clashed and Graham is being beaten,however his infantry is pushing Paul's infantry back,but Dave is saving the day by advancing his infantry against Brian's Cavalry-I'm worn out!!!!
Brian's flank eventually collapsed,and Dave was victorious,but Graham 's flank was about to collapse too!!wonderful wargaming,but who would be crowned the Victor??
A last ditch attempt by Brian to save his flank was thwarted by a combination of cavalry and light infantry,and that was the end of the game!-The Crusader's objective wasn't achieved,but they had given the Normans a right old "bloody nose"-great game and well played lads-roll on next Sunday,very likely Mongols vs Russians.
As you all know,WW2 is not my "thing",but I decided that I would devise a different scenario for the lads,and then step back and let them play the game,whilst I acted as an "observer".
Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement/troops-note the very expensive landing craft(actually Tesco Mushroom cartons!!)
It was a pity really that I had thought of this terrain,as most of the game was played in the 1/3rd of the table opposite hill "A"-in fact the town(Saint Marie sur Mer) was never fought over!!!
The British commanders,Paul and Brian,had decided to land all their troops on the left hand side of the "bay",and to do a left hook,taking out the pill box and hill"A",then sweep around to take hill "B" and eventually the Town-this photo shows the first wave of infantry and tanks landing,but under fire from the pill box,commanded by Graham.
The pill box firing on the landing craft(no expense spared-polystyrene and a bit of doweling!)
but can he hit anything????
Oh yes!!-a whole British platooon was lost with this shot!
The second wave has landed,and the British are moving cautiously through the woods against their first objective.
Action! and a tremendously lucky shot from one of Paul's tanks has knocked out the pill box!
Dave and Graham,the co-German commanders were unphased however,and stuck to their defensive plan.
Dave has now exposed his "hidden" Tiger(crouching Dragon?),but it must have been manned by Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles-yes,he missed a couple of sitting ducks,much to Paul's amusement and relief!-however the action is now coming thick and fast,and hill "A" is under serious pressure.
Oh look at their faces! as if things couldn't get any worse,a Typhoon appeared,swooping down the board about to target the Tiger!!
However,it missed the Tiger,but redeemed itself by "straffing" some infantry,causing multiple casualties!-Graham has now exposed his two hidden tanks,and is giving Paul a good fight for the hill.
Graham's counter attack was good,but not good enough,and hill "A" was taken,however Dave still had his Tiger and some infantry left on the board,and St Marie sur Mer was still in German hands(Hans!),so I think a draw was the fairest result!(hoy! you're supposed to be an observer!!)
A final shot of the table,with tanks galore burning niceley!!
Roll on next Sunday-no idea yet of what we will be playing-and we will have to give some thought to what we are putting on at Falkirk in May-busy,busy,busy!!
A couple of weeks before Christmas I ordered some Mamluks and Saracens from Warrior Miniatures,and they duly arrived a couple of days later,however because of a "spot of bother" with my eyes,I was unable to start to paint them-but now that my eyes are ok,I'm off and running!!!!
First two units of Mamluks(c/w Kite shields)-very "bonny"-they will soon be followed by two units of Saracen Heavy cavalry and two units of Horse Archers-look out you Crusaders!
First of the Saracen heavies,note the black standards,made,of course, from wine bottle foil(this hobby is killing me!)
Brian is contemplating going into American Civil War in a big way,and is still considering whether to go 28mm or 15mm-he will,no doubt, tell us his decision asap.
Paul is painting WW2 tanks like they are going out of fashion-his latest additions to his growing collection look great(see Sundays game)
Dave is collecting Russian WW2 tanks and infantry at a fair rate of knots,and they should be on the board in a couple of weeks(if not earlier!)
Graham is also painting at a formidable rate,Napoleonics (every nation you can think of!)
Hopefully I can get Photographs within the next few weeks of all these projects.
On Wednesday I received a DVD,which I only ordered on Monday(!!) of a 1938 film by S.Einstein, called Alexander Nevsky-which is about the battle of Lake Peipus,1242,featuring the German Teutonic Knights against the Russians.The film is full of symbolism and National fervour,and the battle scene lasts for "two cups of coffee!"-great stuff!!
The film is in Russian with English sub-titles,but it's like listening to a speech by "Yoda",with phrases like "coming are the Germans,fight them we must!" but very entertaining,and worth the £6 paid-recommended!
A week before Christmas our local Dobbies Garden Centre had a 50% sale on,and I bought two packs of "wintery trees"(to add to the pack I bought two years ago) with 21 trees in each pack,and only costing £6.49 each,we now have enough trees(snow covered) to stage some awesome winter battles(Russian WW2 springs to mind)
Brrrrr!
Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago I made some Medieval Towers from old tins,painted them white,and was going to use them with my existing white-painted Castle,if I could get some "textured polyfilla" to coat them with.However,I can't get the stuff,so I decided to recover the tins with Doll's House Stone effect paper,and make them into stone towers,c/w a wooden tray(covered in the same paper) to act as a castle worthy of being attacked by Crusaders,Romans,Greeks etc. etc......................
The very same towers,covered and ready to be assaulted!
The "Tray Castle"-crude but effective,watch out for this in future games.
It's great being retired,you know-time to do the things that really matter!!!
For the first game of 2018 we picked a good old Ancients "knockabout" featuring Carthaginians vs Galllic tribes.
Top photo is scenario,bottom is the table before any movement-Paul was Hannibal,whilst Brian and I split the Gallic tribe between us,Brian taking the right and me the left.
Paul's front line consisted of poor quality Celts,interspersed with Elephants,who,in our rules,are quite "volatile" and subject to panic!!! His second line was all Spaniards,whilst his Elite African infantry made up the third line,and with Numidian cavalry on the left and good heavy cavalry on the right,made for a very strong army.
After a "stuttering" start,both sides have made contact with their front lines-our Gauls getting the better of both Celts and Elephants.
Paul's front line is being pushed back,and the Elephants are taking too many casualties to stand any further punishment-a quick morale check,and.........................................
Off they go!!rampaging left,right and straight back,breaking all cohesion,and dis-ordering everything in their path!!!!
Whilst the elephants wend their weary way back to the jungle, an eerie lull has descended on the battlefield,and Dave has appeared!!!-on the right Brian is advancing into a veritable hail of javelins from the Numidian cavalry,my front line has been drawn back,and my second line is about to advance and take on the Africans(is this wise???)
My cavalry are doing ok,but then I put their commander into the fight,got him killed and the whole flank disappeared!!!! However my second line is advancing and Brian is holding his own on his flank,and part of the first line-hurrah(??)
Despite taking casualties from my javelins,the Africans with their long spears,made mincemeat out of my troops!!This,and the disappearing act carried out by my cavalry,placed the whole battle in jeopardy-come on Brian!!
This is Brian's flank-he is still being harassed by the Numidians,and Paul's Spanish are lining up ready to take him on,but with my poor showing,the game was really over,with no real chance of the Volcae winning,so we called it a day-well done lads,now onto Sunday,aWW2 game with a full compliment.
Roll on Sunday.
