700BC to 1940AD another progress update🙂

Just don’t seem to have time for blogging at the moment, life and work getting in the way, but hopefully my regular followers will stick with me. The good news is I am still managing to keep progress on a number of projects.

I picked these two cars up in a second hand shop in Kendal

We managed a trip to the small Dumfries show, unfortunately with home circumstances as they are I didn’t have time to put on a game but managed to pick up a lot of goodies, the best of the pick being a full unit of light Persian infantry for a £5

Also picked up these two and managed to find some spare horses for them to ride

My painting has progressed well, these Persian Camels were picked up at the York show in February and they jumped up the Painting que

Not sure of the manufacturer, they are nice models and impressive in scale here they are next to their diminutive Gripping Beast camel

The 1927 truck has been painted up as an ambulance

A nice little vehicle for my Sealion project

And another unit of Arab spearmen have found their way onto and off the Painting table. The last of my plastic Arab infantry for a while, Gripping Beast figures six to a base and hand painted shields 🙂

I do have a couple of games to catch up on hopefully I load them soon 😀

Slow progress but some more Berber/Arab infantry

Slower progress than I would like but I have completed another Arab/ Berber unit for my Al Andalus project.

Eagle eyed will notice I have changed basing styles from previous figures for this project, firstly I think the units look nice like this, secondly I think I have enough single based figures for any possible skirmish game and storage like this is much easier. I’ll take a shot of the two basing styles together when I get a chance. The unit is very much ‘Berber’ with shields all hand painted so don’t look too close 😩 I still probably need to paint the edge of the banner which is too white.

Updated the post with a picture of most of my Arabs in one place, I didn’t dig out the camel archers and like every good project I have a fair few in the painting que 🙂

Painting Progress this week 😛

Managed a bit more progress this week completing the conversion of the Model T fuel wagon for the Russian Civil War and grinding through my third Persian Sparabara unit.

I now have two age appropriate vehicles for the RCW, one to be used for transport the other either and objective or scenery 

The photo I took of the newest Persians was rubbish (the middle unit) so here instead is a photo of the three units together, these were the final unit of Wargames factory infantry figures I had. I think it shows they can be effective when made into full units. Having completed the latest unit I went back to add a little more detail onto the others. If I get a chance I may take a shot of the Persian army so far.

Thanks for looking 🙂

Viking Dawn.........

With preparation time slightly limited by real world complications, for our next game we played another skirmish game, with a quick change of scenery and the removal of crocodiles we had a SAGA skirmish somewhere in northern France where a small Viking band is seeking to best the local Norman Lord.

It has been ages since we played SAGA and it showed with my knowledge of the Basic rules and the strengths of the Norman battle board woefully lacking. But we took some nice photos.

The set up required both sides to come on from opposite corners bringing  the river into play and slowing down the Norman advance

The Vikings booooooo

Somehow the Viking archers deploy quickly and start to shoot across the river

The Norman’s seem reluctant to engage in battle but that might just be the commanders incompetence!

Norman cross bowmen should be powerful but are exhausted quickly by arrow fire

That’s more like it Norman Knights galloping into combat, but I should have had them in groups of six as they manage to lose the combat and get themselves wiped out !

Even the Viking archers sensing victory start to wade the river (oh for a crocodile now !)

Bad to worse, by the village more valiant Norman knights are cut down

The final Norman’s decide to charge in.......

Scoring some minor confusion as a Norseman is caught in the bushes with his trousers down.

A couple of these Norman units were recently painted so I shouldn’t have expected much more, a resounding victory to the Vikings mainly to my poor handling. We need to give them another run out to regain their honour 🤔

Zulu Dawn.......

For our first game of the year we chose to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the battles of Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana with a small skirmish game. Using In Her Majesty’s Name as the ruleset we had a small group of British infantry ambushed in camp with their objective of escaping the Zulu attack.

The set up for the game, British camp in the bottom, Zulus come on randomly from the corners with some arriving in ambush, the British objectives is to get across the river and away to the north. We have special rules for crossing the river which is no doubt infested with crocodiles.

The ambush is sprung.....

At the first sign of trouble the British contigent set off from the camp

But more Zulu warriors swarm in from all directions

Lord Cavendish has made it to the river but is pondering whether to risk wadding across 

Back in the camp hand to hand fighting has broken out and one of the Privates has been brutally killed

The British force includes a number of native contingent who valiantly attempt to hold the line but also fall to assegai thrusts

Several British are quickly surrounded

Cavendish trusts to luck and starts to wade the river as does one of the native contingent ! Worryingly there are Zulu on the far bank already

Another native is caught and killed

The inevitable happens and Cavendish is attacked by a crocodile, he is able to fend it off for one turn but is unable to escape

The native is less fortunate and meets a nasty fate

Another one goes down

Sergeant Bourne leaps into the river and bludgeons the croc with the butt of his shotgun and Cavendish is able to escape the river

At the Ford more troops are trying to cross the river but again a crocodile attacks

Some in the camp are still trying to escape 

But the surgeon is too late to get away and is surrounded

More fighting at the Ford

Now across the river Cavendish is assaulted, but he is able to escape

Sergeant Bourne is also attacked but is too strong and is able to get away.......

As the majority of the British get away the Zulu Warlord waves his weapon in anger and frustration

A fun game to start off the year 😀

More Confederates and shopping update

Blogging hasn’t been my priority over the last few days, so just a quick update. Painting progresses as always.....

I have managed to complete another confederate unit 🙂

We had a fun trip to York Wargame Show at the weekend as well as some new bits I picked up some nice bargains, best of these perhaps some Persian Camels for a fiver !

Also picked up loads of modern Russians very cheap

Picked this little vehicle up from a charity shop in town which is being painted up for the Russian Civil War

I have also played several games and with some spare time over the next few days I will try and catch up 😀

Painting progress

Real life continues to throw up some uncertainty although we now have a date for my wife’s operation in early February. I can find sanctuary in this wonderful hobby of ours and have been cracking on with some painting and have a couple of small games to post up as well.

Catching up first with completed painting.........

Expanding my Cold War Soviets some BTR 80’s troop carriers, for some reason I thought these came without guns but hey ho, very simple Cold War green with some numbers to add detail

A small squad of T72’s to boost the 62’s I already have I am also working on a couple of Helicopters for fun

One of my Christmas presents were a set of 10 mm buildings here is the first comlpeted the rest aren’t far behind

28 mm Norman’s these guys were picked up very cheap and make a nice unit

I had some more Norman infantry which needed finishing off, and rather than waste them I used some spare shield transfers I had, bit more colourful than I might like but .......this was the last of the plastic Norman’s I had, they are ok but I prefer the metal Gripping Beast or Crusader figures so any new infantry units will be them.

Finally this guy had been sat half finished for ages so I sorted his shield out, he promptly died in his first battle 😀

I will hopefully blog a battle soon, thanks for your patience 🙂