Long time no speak? So what's been happening?

I cannot believe my last post was in November!

Rather than let the blog's progress fall by the wayside, I thought it opportune to post something on my own blog.

Throughout the pandemic I have been "working from home"; as such I regard myself as more fortunate than many who have lost their jobs. The opportunity for furlough has not been available, which is a mixed blessing.  The upside is financial certainty, but it's with a certain amount of envy that I see the amount of time available for painting that some people have reported! However, I'm aware that being on furlough is not a choice and carries a lot of uncertainty. For me, it has felt like I have never been as busy, which saps motivation at weekend's. 

I had hoped to use the Christmas break to get some painting done, but alas, it was not to be. A combination of post work lethargy, illness and the toll of lockdown put paid to that. I still have not shook off whatever cold/ flu bug I managed to pick up (despite rarely venturing outside).

All I managed to do was tackle some more Arab-Israeli 1/87. I converted / scratched / bodged 2x M52 SPGs for the Jordanian armoured brigades. But, despite trying to convince myself, I wasn't happy with them. I could live with them being slightly too tall in the turret but it wasn't long enough. Looking at what bits I had, I set to reluctantly extended the turret. In the end they turned out OK but are unlikely to win any prizes for modelling. I still kick myself for not picking up some resin versions I saw on eBay. At the time, the cost, with shipping from the USA was prohibitive and I convinced myself to do things on the cheap and maybe use the under scale Eko / Arii (and others) version, but it's more like 1/100 and looks too small.

For reasons best known to myself, I have decided to create more M50 and M51 upgunned Shermans; I had 2x diecast 47 degree hull M4 so turned them into one of each. They have come out OK; I also added the ring and haversacks around the rear turrets of the previously done M50s. Emboldened by this, I'm contemplating another 47 degree M51 and an M4a1 M50 with the rounded cast hull. I still have 3x M1 Super Sherman with 76mm gun to convert in addition. I invested in the Tom Gammon "Israeli Shermans" reprint which is well worth the high price.

Pictures when the light improves.

Army of Bravance

 

I have only included the Guard Cavalry, Line Infantry and 2 Field Artillery batteries to see if the photos turn out. There are more line cavalry, Emigre Infantry, a Freikorps of infantry, light infantry, dragoons and lancers as well as more artillery and staff. King Leonardo can be seen encouraging the troops.

Flags and parades

 I present the flags of Hrvatska:

L to R top row: Weiss Grenadiers; Koeniggen Dorothea; Jaska. Bottom row: Konstanza; I Friest; I Strauch (upside down).

Top: Horse Grenadiers

Top row: II Strauch; II Friest; 1st Militia

Bottom row: III Friest; III Strauch (both upside down); 2nd Militia

Top row R: Horse Guards. Bottom row L to R: Guard Cuirassiers; Horse.

Next post will be a parade of some of Bravance's army.

Soldier King update

 While the blog has been quiet for a while, it's not due to inactivity; rather a combination of being busy at work (albeit at home) and miserable weather has prevented my intended post.

The army of Bravance has been based, flagged and labelled; the intention was to take some pictures but a lack of time and fine (or at least dry) weather has frustrated this. Indoors would simply be too dark.

The process was not without incident; I started without a clear plan, cutting out the balsa bases, sanding them before painting with a suitable green emulsion (Wilco test pot). Disaster! Some of the larger bases developed a noticeable warping.

My intention was to apply self-adhesive magnetic tape (Poundland) and I realised I should have applied it before painting; whether alas it would prevent warping is another matter. However, a quick search on the internet revealed warping balsa is a common problem for model aircraft modelling. So armed with some suggestions, I glued the bases to some paper, covered them with a suitable combination of plastic and paper and applied some weights (a couple of bricks and some volumes of Janes).

24-hours later and while the warping had gone, only on some had the paper dried and stuck. The others simply peeled off.

Removing the figures from their temporary painting bases produced another disaster! Several had glue overlapping their bases and when removed lost green paint and varnish! It was a case of removing them all in order to repaint and varnish the bases.

My initial thought was that I could then glue the figures to the bases.

It was only then then that I realised it would be more practical to apply the magnetic tape first; more importantly, it would be a lot easier to add flags to the standard bearer before he was struck down. There was however a problem........no flags!

Flags had been an issue; after several abortive attempts I had parked my efforts when my ideas for producing something on the PC (as well as using some old GW decals with similar heraldic emblems) fell through.  Now however, I realised I would need to do something. I had the basic design from when I began the project, but now tweaked them slightly to make them more C18th and "Germanic".

I had bought some fine drawing pens with a vague idea of using them for the flags and they now came into their own. After drawing the designs in pencil then pen, I ended up painting with acrylics, touching up mistakes with the pens and paint.

They turned out different from my initial ideas, but in some ways more in keeping with the figure painting style. Sadly, I didn't think to photograph the sheet before cutting them out. Most were applied without problems, although a couple ended up wrinkling as I was applying them.

Magnetic tape went on OK as well as the labels initially, some started peeling almost immediately and I have a feeling they will need sticking with a stronger glue. All this took much longer than I was expecting. In the interim, the figures had to be carefully stored as they were now unbased. I therefore pushed ahead with sticking the figures to the bases. I'd initially thought I'd use epoxy, but by this stage as there had been several hiccups, I just used PVA (so I could easily rebase if something else went wrong!).

Having learnt from this, Hrvatska has had the flags done as the first step. All being well, I will see if I can take pictures first. Even this has not been without incident; I used some flags printed from the PC without emblems. Unfortunately, when I applied white acrylic, the red ink bled through turning the white eagles pink! I managed to correct this but thought I had another disaster on my hands!

Another Soldier King campaign generator

 Another blogger is considering using the mechanisms from GDW's Soldier King, this time for historical SYW but adapting the point to point movement system.

The Ragged Soldier - https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com

Chaco War

 Helion have just published a new book on the Chaco War:

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-chaco-war-1932-1935-fighting-in-the-green-hell.php?sid=c1a23c5df689953d979f45f1fc5bb3d9

Taking advantage of the special launch offer price I ordered a copy which arrived today.

It is in the same large slim paperback format as their title on the Chaco air war (by the same authors). Filled with black and white photos (some of which are new to me) and with the centre pages filled with colour plates, it's not what you would call the definitive account of the ground war, but then you can turn to Farceau or English for a fuller account. 

What struck me was the information on the trucks used; both colour plates and photos provide details which are often sketchy. There is at least one photo of a water truck and in another an ambulance.

If you are interested in the Chaco War, I'd wholeheartedly recommended buying a copy. With this and the companion volume on the air war; a copy of the Osprey and Adrian English's "Green Hell", you will have enough to game the conflict using Irregular Miniatures or Khurasan's figures in 15mm.

I also note the Amazon have a Kindle version (as well as paperback) of Estigarribia's memories in English translation:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Epic-Chaco-Marshal-Estigarribias-1932-1935-ebook/dp/B07PBQRLHZ/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2TM89HRRYDN39&dchild=1&keywords=chaco+war&qid=1599310480&sprefix=Chaco+War%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-10

Volley & Bayonet Soldier King campaign

Keith McNelly has added a campaign system for Volley & Bayonet to his website, to fight out the battles of The Estavian Succession.

The system was originally written by Martin Soilleux-Cardwell.

https://volleyandbayonet.wordpress.com/campaign-scenarios

"Apocoblitz" Twilight 2000 meets Megablitz

 A throwaway line in a comment in the Duc de Gobin's "Warfare in the age of cynics and amateurs" blog has prompted this post.

The original post was about the new version of Twilight 2000 (or TW2000) appearing after a kickstarter; those of us with a few grey hairs were around when the original came out when the content was set in the future!

Anyway, it was partly responsible for my nearly 40-year obsession with Roco Minitanks and other 1/87th vehicles. The pictures in the back of the TW 2000 US Army vehicle guide was what sucked me in. Once I'd seen a Bradley model in the flesh, I was hooked (the missile launcher can be raised and lowered!).

The discovery of Frank Chadwick's Combined Arms (ultra-modern version of Command Decision) with pictures of Frank's 20mm collection (mostly 1/87 vehicles but with 1/76 mixed in and Esci modern U.S., nominally 1/72 v Airfix 1/87 Soviets) took me down the 1980s actual v 1990s what if route.

Although I have continued to collect (hoard?) 1/87, most sits waiting glue and paint. I was fortunate many years ago to obtain large quantities of Petner Panzers Soviet armour along with ex-DDR diecast Soviet vehicles (especially BTR-60s) so can field decent sized Warpac forces should I wish to. Now of course with the advent of 3d printing almost any vehicle can be produced in any scale you wish.

I have found my mind wandering to using all the Soviet and NATO toys with Tim Gow's Megablitz (or NBC if he ever publishes it) or Bob Cordery's Hexblitz. Someone even wrote adaptations for a version of Modern Megablitz which used to be stored in the Yahoo group files (mainly EW as the core was the same).

Hence the train of thought to a mash up of TW 2000 and Megablitz, christened "Apocoblitz" without much thought.

The main issue will be supply; units are going to have to stop every few days to distill fuel and ammo is going to be limited but aside from that the only problem using MB or HB as written will be the small size of units with divisions of a few thousand men and 20-30 tanks (with other vehicles in a random assortment). I will have to give it some thought, but in the meantime, like Archduke Piccolo I have dug out my old CA/CD toys to see what they would look like.

The cloth is from Tiny Wargames (100mm hex Commands & Colors mat) and the toys are unbased apart from the infantry. I was short quite a bit for the Soviets but it would just mean more SPs for each stand. Working on a very rough 1 stand + vehicle = 1000 men or 10-20 tanks (more for others) I picked out some formations from the U.S. Army and Soviet vehicle guides (copyright GDW).

VII US Corps Central Germany 1 July 2000

1st Infantry (Mechanized) 5000 + 14 M1, 16 M1A1

36th Infantry 3000 + 21 M60A4, 10 M1, 4 LAV-75 (my crude conversion)

The Corp supply train is to the left of the picture

2nd Armoured Cavalry 100 + 2 M1A2, 6 LAV-75

Soviet 1st Western Front 1st July 2000 Poland

 

1st Guards Tank Army

9th Guards Tank Division 4000 + 24 tanks

To the rear can be seen 11 Guards Tank Div + 25 Tank Div (1500 + 7 tanks) combined

Completing the formation 1 Tank Division (Category II 3000 + 9 tanks) and nominal army support (artillery + AA)

8th Guards Army

39th Guards Motorised Rifle Division 3000 + 27 tanks

20th Guards Cavalry Division 1000 horsed (!) Cavalry (multiple recon stands)

131st Motor Rifle Division (Mobilisation Div) 2000 foot mobile + 16 tanks

Some more GDW Soldier King sites

Here are some sites for GDW's Soldier King:

https://mapandcounters.blogspot.com/2010/04/gdw-soldier-king-1982.html

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/407001/soldier-king-two-three-map-discussion-image

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4794/soldier-king

Muckleburgh Museum Norfolk

 On a family holiday in Norfolk a few years ago, I was "allowed" to visit a small tank museum. Not on the scale of The Tank Museum in Bovingdon and the sheds were quite cramped making photos difficult. At the time I was working on 1/87 Israeli vehicles, so mostly I took detail photos for reference.

An update

Getting to grips with blogging using the new format.

Posted some pictures of a couple of projects, Soldier King Imagi-Nations using 30mm plastic Spencer Smiths (no photos yet) based on Games Design Workshop (sadly missed) or GDW's "Soldier King" boardgame of fictional C18th kingdoms on a fictional map. At present I've posted some photos of the Fimo / Sculpy personalities who make up the rulers and general's, mounted on toy horses. Since this "work in progress" they have received a black undercoat prior to painting.

I've also posted some pictures of my Arab-Israeli 1967 project, so far Israeli vehicles. I started this long before Battlefront came out with their 15mm "Fate of a Nation" stuff using bits from my large collection of Roco Minitanks and other HO/1:87th scale models. I intend using "20mm" figures with the 1:87 vehicles (heresy for some I know) aimed at replicating the whole armies of all the participants for Megablitz (1 stand = 1 battalion).

The IDF of course seem to have used few vehicles without alteration; even those that are unaltered, such as M48A2 and AMX-13 need the basic models improved. Most pictured models still need some details added. In the course of this I have become an "expert" on IDF armour as well as OoBs and ToEs for 1967, acquiring a large library of increasingly exotic subjects....

I'm hoping the Arab armies prove less of a challenge tending to use Soviet equipment as it comes. Of course I'm looking at ways to scratchbuild the external fuel tanks on Jordan's M48A1s and M52 SPGs.....at least their army is small!

Some Soldier King maps:

First from https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2013/04/e-is-for-estavia.html