Friday 30 September 2016

Its been a while but I have finally managed to complete one Crimean Battalion (the 88th Foot) and start on the next (23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers) .....  only two more to go after that - 7th Royal Fusiliers and 33rd Foot (The Duke of Wellingtons Regt)

The 88th Foot (Connaught Rangers) in all their glory



In column of march, grenadiers in the lead

Rear view showing the "88" on the back packs


The next unit scheduled for completion - 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers - only the command element has been painted so far



Right, back to the garage for a few more hours painting - hopefully the four Kronenbourg 1686 beers I drank with the neighbours wont affect the quality of the paintwork! If it does, blame the French (always a good strategy!)


Monday 26 September 2016

Light Division - 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade - Completed

Finally got some images of these guys - I am having some issues with my basing technique, which has always worked fine up until recently. I use a polyfilla type compound from Mitre 10 and spread it a mm or 2 deep across the base, then place the figures into it, let it set, paint with watered down brown wash, and sprinkle "grass" on the wet paint so it sticks as the paint dries - however, he last few times I have applied the wash, the water seems to "unset" the compound, and figures come loose again - bloody annoying and makes the whole process take twice as long - maybe I am watering down the paint more than I used to do....

Anyway, here are a few pics of the Rifles....









The next team off the block will be the 88th Foot - Connaught Rangers - a line battalion with yellow facings. They are the third battalion of the second brigade, and will complete that brigade - comprising the 19th, 77th and 88th regiments. The first brigade consists of 7th Fusiliers, 23 Fusiliers and 33rd (Duke of Wellingtons) Regiment.

Sunday 25 September 2016


Light Division  Second Brigade  77th Regiment East Middlesex - Completed

Plus the command section of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade - just waiting for the bases of the other two elements to dry so I can finish them off too - and the command element for the next line battalion are already under coated - got to love long wet weekends!


77th (East Middlesex) Regiment


In column of route, grenadiers in front, light company behind

Heading in the opposite direction just to show the other view

Colour party in advance

Three views of the Rifles command element - I wish the British army had all been dressed in this dark green uniform - sooo much easier to paint! Note Rifles did not carry their colours in battle and had buglers instead of drummers, so I just left the musician out



Should be more later this evening.


Saturday 24 September 2016

Yesterday, I got a new work phone - a Samsung Galaxy J5 - so I thought I had better test its most important feature - the camera of course! I have almost completed another Ebor Crimean battalion - the 77 Foot -so decided to test the camera out on the command element and the right flank element. Tomorrow, the third element should be completed, and possibly also the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, in their distinctive Rifle Green uniforms with black leather equipment.

There is not a lot of need for descriptions of these - several different views of the command element followed by three of the right flank - grenadiers with all white plumes. The camera on the Samsung seems to work fine.......










Thursday 22 September 2016

Thursday mid morning at work, I received a text from JB asking if - at very short notice - I could make it to his place for a game - after brief negotiation with my good lady, permission was obtained.

As it was a sudden summons, I obviously had no figures with me - what, don't you drive around with an army or two in the boot of the car, just in case - well no, even though forty years ago I was a Scout, I am not that prepared! Julian suggested another round of Conflict of Heroes (the Guadalcanal board game ) and this seemed the simplest option in the circumstances.

Sooo......surprisingly, I have lots of pics, even though there are no figures involved. Fortunately, I was able to choose the USMC again, as the Japs were up against it from the start. They outnumbered me by quite a large margin but I had on call artillery each move, an air strike on turn 5 (of 6 in total) and some reinforcements, including two M3 Stuart light tanks. The Japs got lots of reinforcements too, and started off with one victory point. They had some rules that restricted their freedom of movement EG negative Bushido points for any unit that did not start an activation phase as part of a group move. Every time the US killed a Jap unit, it was +1 victory point to the US, every time the Japs killed a Yank, it was +2.

The game took about three hours, including a stop for Saagwala, Aloo, Naan bread etc in the midst of the carnage, and resulted in an overwhelming US victory, although not QUITE as overwhelming as the actual historical event apparently.

The game box, board and rule book that we used tonight for our game of Conflict of Heroes

Initial deployment of the USMC

The reinforcements that I had available to come on later - infantry on move 2, tanks move 5, airstrike move 5 too

The initial Japanese deployment - US positions were just below the river

Another view showing the initial dispositions of both sides

At the start of each turn, the US player had to write, secretly, where he intended the off board artillery to hit at the start of the next turn - so, in turn one, there was no artillery, but thereafter, it was effectively the first thing that happened at the start of the move. This is the start of move two, with the black aim market in the position I had selected, surrounded by juicy Jap targets! Once placed, I rolled 1 D6 - 1 or 2 meant it was not on target, by the number scored, then I rolled again to determine direction of drift, so even if I was off target, it could still work out ok, as I got to roll for hits on each unit in the adjacent 6 hex's - 7 hex's of potential targets in total, and on some occasions, there might be two or three units in a single hex!

Position early in the third move - my artillery aim this time was to the right of the most right hand Jap unit - compare above with the previous pic and you will notice the solitary Jap unit on the very edge of the table is absent - the first of many victims of USN gunfire support!

Jap casualties after the first two moves - 8 gone and I may have lost one at this stage - possibly none....

My not so secret weapon - without this, the Japs would probably have been able to swamp the US with their massive advantage in manpower. The orange thing that looks like a stylised rose is actually the template to indicate which hexes are affected by gunfire

The tally board midway through the game - US leading by 6 victory points. At this stage, the US had lost 3 units and the Japs had lost 9!

Game move three - more Japs have arrived to reinforce the assault - they came on anywhere on their side of the river and at least two hex away from it

A essential part of all our evening games!

The Japs mass on the river to begin their assault - at this point, my next aim point for the NGS was the middle of the stream in approximately the centre of this pic, on the expectation that, by the time the shells arrived, the stream would be full of Japanese troops

A general view of our playing area - cups are not for tea or coffee, but contain the tiles you draw to see what effect a casualty hit will have

Here they come - the Japs start their push across the river - note the absence of the two forward US positions from the jungle area immediately below the river - they had been wiped out by this stage. Bot fear not, in my NEXT phase, the gunfire will be targeted right in the middle of this bunch!

General view of the game around turn four of the six permitted - US reinforcements are in the bottom right, the Japs are just about across that river!

Next turn and they are over the river and scoring three Bushido points for having three units on the US side, but don't panic.....

Shortly afterwards, and there is only one Jap unit remaining on the US side of the river. Note the absence of any significant number of Jap units on the other side too - they are mostly in the Samurai version of Valhalla!

The position at the end of the game - the defending US forces far outnumber the remaining Japanese

The final butchers bill for the Land of the Rising Sun - 17 units destroyed for the loss of 4 US. Julian's previous ability to pull "No Hit" cards out every time I scored a hit seemed to desert him tonight - I am pleased to say! The main agent of destruction though was the gun fire support - on some turns, I was testing four or six Jap units, with a +6 for the naval bombardment - often meaning I only had to score 4 or 5 with 2 x D6 to get a hit - and if I beat the score by 4, that meant two hits, which happened on a couple of occasions.

The plan is, next time to convert this to a game involving 15mm figures - unfortunately, I have the Japs, so I hope the scenarios get better!