Luftwaffe Reinforcements

I managed to get some modelling done and I've added a Stuka to my Luftwaffe forces. This was an Airfix kit and frankly it was a joy. Good hard plastic, very simple assembly, just spot on. I'm not sure if this kit is currently available - the box is not in the red livery of the current generation of models, but as a wargaming piece it's top notch. More of that please.  

I shall have to look up my colour references for the early Luftwaffe.   I'm hoping that this plane will see service in Poland, France, Britain and finish up at Kursk. 

Birthday loot

I

S Models Vickers Light Tank - BEF colours

You won't be hearing much from me for a little while as I managed to drop my laptop and I'm now in a situation where I have to decide whether its worth fixing or not. I will mostly be operating off my phone and occasionally Mrs Kinchs machine.  This rather puts a damper on my blogging. 

The camouflage scheme is proving dissappointingly effective

In the meantime, I've been painting Vickers light tanks. I might add aerials to these - but I think the camouflage scheme is a bit dull. Now as it happens, it looks quite mottled and that is probably good, but it seems a bit underwhelming. I might dial up the contrast on the highlight  on the base coat, so the other colour (Vallejo Marron Violet) looks better. We shall see. 

Still needs weathering and decals 

I have another four of these to paint. So I will need to come to some sort of decision. But the more I look at them - the more I think they need aerials with pennants. I'm relatively sure that there were pennants. 

Wonderful books 

I turned 34 the other day and Mrs Kinch presented me with the above - they are excellent. I've been reading Volume 9 and rather enjoying it. She is truly a pearl beyond price. 

HAT have produced their Seven Years War plastics and I definitely won't be going anywhere near that particular conflict. Honest guv. 

Wargaming at the Teachers Club II

For our second outing at the Teachers Club we got two games in.  

This is the first game - one of the two Overlord scenarios included in the Sword of Stalingrad expansion.  This is "Rats in the Factory", which is based on the struggle for the Dzerzkinsky Tank factory during the early phases of the battle. It's a tough scenario, the German player has air surperioity and advantages in terms of troops and command and control, the Soviet player has the edge in terms of terrain and begins the game holding several valuable objectives. 

Note the Balkas in the foreground. 

These are deep ravines and are a major headache of the German player as they slow movement down to a crawl. I intend to play this particular scenario on my five inch mats some day and I am damned if I have any idea how I will model them. I was thinking of building drifts out of kitty litter, but I usually use litter to mark roads, so it would run the risk of turning the entire map into a sea of kitty litter. 

That said with my new sandbags and barbed wire, this is looking like more of a possibility. 

ccattlecry.net

There was a demand by popular acclamation for another American Civil War game, so I went scratching around for a scenario.  Now as it happened, I wasn't aware the boys behind ccnapoleonic.net had a website for Battlecry, but I was very happy to find out that they did.  This has the rules and all the scenarios up on it.  There are also fan made scenarios, including some for the Indian Wars and the Zulu War of 1879. 

Union troops move swiftly into the centre

Given that it was our second American Civil game - Gettyburg seemed like an obvious choice.  It was an interesting game, made all the more so by some trash talking from the internet. 

Old John, dyed in the wool rebel that he is, wasn't able to make this games day, but sent a message to the boys to let them know that he was with them in spirit. It concluded with. 

have some great games and kick General Creanor's Yankee ass for me :-))

I read this out just after General Creanor had been defeated at Stalingrad, because well - Wargamers are a cruel breed. Consequently General Creanor, playing Meade, was determined not to be defeated at Gettysburg. 

TK and General Creanor discuss tactics, while Boomer remains stoic. 

The game was played with 6mm figures on two standard boards.  I substituted cork tiles for hills and model buildings for built up areas.  Unfortunately, despite scouring the dungeon for them I have so far completely failed to find my 6mm trees - though they must be in there somewhere. 

Anyway, this led to an interesting battle as Boomer & General K fought a long range sniping engagement around the Peach Orchard. Neither was convinced that he had sufficient strength to cross the open ground and deal a decisive blow the other. 

However, the game took a drastically different turn when General Creanor led a sudden movement in the Federal centre against an uncharacteristically defensive General D.  This allowed him to dictate the pace of the engagement while TK and Fatz slugged it out on the Rebel left.  General D managed to put together a defensive line after being pushed off the hills, but it wasn't enough to salvage the situation. 

The victorious Federals 

A specially posed shot for Old John. 

The innate perversity of Kinch

This is what I got

I got some of these recently of that nice fellow Brian of The Hobbyden.  They're Vickers Light Tanks from S Models, so a British tank made by a Chinese company bought from an Irishman. We're just a melting pot here. 

I assembled these and they're designed as fast builds so they went together pretty quickly. There was actually stuff that came in the box that I didn't use. The box comes with a number of brass etched pieces, I left them off because to be honest, I couldn't get them to attach easily and they were very delicate, more delicate than I'm comfortable with in a wargaming model. 

These were €13 per box of two and they are nice, but I think if I was doing this again, I would probably go with Frontline Wargaming resins. 

We had a painting evening the other day, which was fun. Mr. E and Mr. Target dropped over. Mr. E painted some Soviet Motor Rifle troops while Mr. Target assembled a Hornby pylon from my plastic stash.  Mr. Target also brought along some Rogue Trader era Orks which he very kindly passed on to me. 

I got my six Vickers six tonners basecoated.  The trick with that being, multiple thin coats.  The first one always looks awful, but these came up OK.  I'm in two minds about drybrushing a highlight on, but we shall see. 

I want them to look a little bit like this

So at the moment, I have two main projects on the go, my stalled Cold War Project and my ongoing Napoleonics project.  

What am I excited about painting at the moment - my BEF/Very British Civil War Tanks and possibly some Rogue Trader figures. 

Which just goes to show that I can be guaranteed to want to paint whatever it is I'm not meant to be working on at the moment. 

This made me laugh. A lot.

If you've ever wondered how your dog would react to a magic trick - now you have your answer. 

Barbed Wire

Being supportive

Given that I have been poking away at Second World War and other 20th century unpleasantness of late, it was becoming apparent that I was sadly lacking in defences.  

This is a Javis barbed wire support which I got from Andy Harfield of Harfields. I would probably run something up myself, but at a quid a throw for a solid resin piece, it seemed sensible to spend the money and save the time. The model itself is solid resin and extremely sturdy, I've dropped mine several times ferrying them out to the shed to get sprayed and haven't had any problems. These got a white spray undercoat with my house style Vallejo English Uniform on the ground.  

The supports were painted grey and then the whole thing got a quick drybrush of "Constables Snow". 

Garnish with a touch of Javis barbed wire et voila!

One section of barbed wire will do for two supports.  If I was being realistic I would probably wash the wire with brown ink to give it a bit of rust, but they'll do for the time being and having knocked out a round dozen in two hours, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. 

Memoir 44 - D-Day Landings

A big box of fun

There was some very interesting news for Memoir '44 fans yesterday.  Things have been pretty quiet in Memoir '44 terms over the last few months, but Days of Wonder announced that they will be releasing a new expansion for the game called "D-Day Landings" in June of this year. D-Day Landings will feature six pre printed Breakthrough style maps covering the entirety of the Normandy invasion. 

The suggested retail is about $35 and the set will offer the player six large scale scenarios in an enlarged breakthrough format (13 hexes by 23 I believe).  The pre-printed maps will also allow the game to be set up quickly, which can be a bit of a drag when playing breakthrough games. 

Look at it - it's beautiful

Now that's all very well and good, but the main attraction of this particular announcement is the fact that while all six scenarios will be playable by two players and that is holy and wholesome and earnestly to be wished, they can also be combined into a six map mega-game that will stretch over a board measuring approximately fourteen feet by five.

This game will cover over six times as much space as a standard Overlord set, will require a team of twelve players and I have absolutely no idea how long it will take, but I am itching to give it a go. 

I can see this easily taking a day and a fair commitment of resources to work, but the gentlemen of the mess are already intrigued, so it's likely that we will be giving this a lash over the summer. 

You can read the official announcement here.