This evening we moved from the deserts of the Sudan to ones in Libya. We also jumped forwards about 50 years to a conflict between Germany and Britain. This time we had tanks. Or rather a tank each! We went for What a Tanker this evening.
My Matilda in the foreground faces off against a MKIII in the background. Although the Matilda was slow, in the early parts of the game she was off like a whippet across the sands.
I managed to get a ranging shot in my but failed to do any damage…please note the house the extreme left, it played an important part in the ensuing battle.
The only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme Tune as we chased each other around the building. We manged to fire lots of times, but kept saving the hits… once again my dice were on form…
Reload, Shoot, reload, shoot reload… this happened so many times… eventually my lucky dice rolls began to tell.
In the end Joe was down to a single command dice so we called it an allied victory.
It’s a really fun game with much hilarity throughout. Although I really enjoy the game, I reckon it is not a one I could play week after week.
This evening I worked on my hill fort interior… Aka making some houses. I spent ages trying to texture my own roof for a simple one I had designed. I really needed something other than Meshmixer. This is able to make the basic shape, but I really couldn’t get it to do any texture on the roof.
So I went back to plan B. I cut out a house from the original village in Meshmixer and repaired it. I the copied a few and supported them. To be fair I should have dropped my support density from 74% but I forgot.
As you can see, I also got some texture onto the thing too… the house is the small grey thing next to the chariot. Chief Vitalstatistix is pleased with the progress. I reckon I will get four or five of the houses in to the space I have.
I will probably do a bigger one than this. I was looking at pictures of hill forts, I never realised that there were so many in England… 1224 to be precise… or more rather 1224 that we have found yet. We have more Brochs on Shetland than there are hill forts in Dorset
I will get the sand covered with watered down PVA tomorrow. Hopefully I will get up early enough to get it done in the morning so that is dry by time I get back
So I am back with the 2mm again. I have done a lot of slicing today. More Celts, Romans and now Hoplites.
In the past I have sliced various things together like celtic chariots and Roman cavalry. This time I have gone for factions… I did eighteen blocks of hoplites, a mix of celtic infantry and cavalry and then a whole host of Roman troops. This should make things easier to organise when I need more of a certain faction.
I also made a start on my small hill fort…
The chieftain Vitalstatistix surveys his home to be. If this works as a proof of concept then I will make a much bigger one.
And finally I got on with some painting…
Now I know the early Romans weren’t in a uniform, it makes painting them a lot easier. Once dry I will pick out other colours for the tunics. Each legion will have different coloured shields.
Well I am back to work tomorrow, I have managed to get a whole load of things done here. Today I put a new socket in, earlier in the week I got the dishwasher plumbed in. So I am heading back to work for a rest.
Hopefully we are gaming here tomorrow evening. So there might not be much painting happening.
So,in the end, I got nothing done today at all, apart from glueing the elephants to their painting sticks. I still have more sitting in the shed that need curing. I didmanage to photograph the Italian houses I started a while ago…
I will hopefully get something done tomorrow evening.
Today, as it is officially the last day if my holiday, I decided to just kick back and do nowt, apart fro shopping, being Dad’s taxi etc… but on the whole I had a chilled out day. I started off by working on the Woodsford the 2mm forces. I decided in some dry brushing and went for an army painter green and mustard yellow with a light Iraqi Sand top coat… I think it came out OK…
I then trimmed the chariots and friends off their supports. Surprisingly there was inky kne chariots casualty… the horses pinged one way and the chariot the other…
So from left to right we have the chariots, a whole horde of slingers and some light cavalry with shield. Next to them are some heavy cavalry… these came with the Romans. And behind them two sets of Romans with printed integral bases, which is why they are painted.
I also did a pile more work in the 6mm Italian buildings. These are pretty much finished apart from some touch ups around the window frames – basically when I painted the models I didt do the inside of the windows.
And finally this evening I downloaded more 2mm troops and just had to print the elephants. These come with either armoured armoured unarmoured elephants both with and without a howdah.
I decided to put a couple of grains of basmati rice in front of them just to show how big they are. The other thing is a 6mm ancient village I got ages ago, same time as the Ancient Galleys in fact… I had no use for it then, but now I have an interest again. So I shrank it down to 30% of its original size.
I am going to scratch build my hill fort, but as this one was sitting there I thought why the heck not.
So still to slice and print from the new stuff are some hoplites or similar, some infantry with an oval shield in a more ragged formation and some other infantry with a crescent shield.
Tomorrow I am going to try and get some of the undercoated Romans painted up.
The Blood and Honour Rules that are in the making have huge forces per base, so basically a legion per base. Now I will see how much they cost and to be honest printing the 2mm stuff in pence per printing session so it wouldn’t be too big a jump to have them as well as something else… Next thing to hunt for are some other suitable rules… someone has mentioned Scutarii as a rule set, but at £28.00 a shot then I want to find it what they play like, before jumping in.
I just remembered that I had Warmaster Ancients, and went to look it out…Strangely they don’t have Carthaginians in any of their lists. They do have celts and Numidians, but not Carthage, which as a major power of the Punic wars then you would think they would be there. Talking of books, I have ordered the WRG Punic wars book… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1326256564/ref=pe_27063361_487055811_TE_dp_f1
I had this book years ago when I was gaming in the Newcastle club. Time for a reread I thought… especially as I am going to be wargaming the period again.
Right I am off to ogle at some teeny tiny elephants again…
Today I sprayed the bases I did yesterday with watered down PVA and this evening got on with painting them. Three repainting later and I am still not happy with them…
The first colour was too dark,the second,mint green and we are now back to a different version of ‘too dark’. I will get them dry brushed tomorrow and see if that helps.
The brown base in the front is going to be a hill fort or something similar.
Now if you remember absolutely ages ago I printed some triremes etc… they don’t look to bad next to the 2mm stuff.
Today, was the day I tackled converting the old stable roof into a polycarbonate roof, to complete the conversion into a greenhouse. My estimate of a couple of hours was ay off. Seven hours later I got the thing finished. I had made sure that the original roof was not going to fly off in the gales, this meant it was an absolute swine to get off when I wanted it to do so. Anyway I did manage to get some bits and bobs done this evening too…
First off I got my next lot of 2mm sprayed…
A mix of Romans and cells, not to mention a 6mm wagon and 15mm Mahdist.
I also slapped some paint on this lot…
The bases in front are for the 2mm stuff. The malker Irregular ones for woods and the larger for a hill. I still had my bag of vivarium sand from when I had the lizard so I decided to give that a test run.
And finally after what seems like weeks (it probably is) I eventually got some basing material on the fanatics…
I am heading off into work tomorrow to meet my new teacher and get some stuff sorted it ready for next Wednesday.
Intelligence has been received from our reporter, Fanhard, who has been with a column near the troubled town of Khufurah.
As we reported last week, after a great victory and subsequent setback the Allied Garrison once more set out to retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Fanhard was allowed to travel with the Durham’s and returned his copy immediately after his return to camp.
It was decided by Stewarton that a large force should assemble to return once more to the Khufurah plain.
Our troops were an Anglo Egyptian force comprising the Durham’s, the Guards, along with a naval crew manning a gatling gun, protecting our right flank were the colourful gentlemen known as Bashi Bazouks. They carried more weapons upon their persons than was normal. To the left of the British forces were a mixed force of Egytians and Sudanese troops, with lancers and cavalry protecting the left. After we broke our morning fast the sun was already searing the sands. We set forth into the unknown, our target was a small wadhi where numerous vultures were circling. As we advanced a great shout came from our front and left flank as numerous enemy forces appeared as if out of the very earth itself. Their guttural war cries were, demonic as they bounded forwards, intent on our downfall.
The Bashi Bazouks sensing an easy prey galloped forward to engage the enemy. However, as they did so a unit of enemy horse appeared out of the heat haze behind them.
The Durham’s to which I was attached, fired at range and stopped the advance of the horse. The Guards poured fire towards the infantry to their front, as the range was extreme, few casualties fell. Off on our left more and more enemy forces appeared heading straight for our Egyptian allies. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the enemy’s strategy. Some units would attack without delay and others would merely melt away into the sands. On our left flank, the cavalry always ones for glory, rashly charged a unit of Mahdist infantry.
The cavalry on our right suddenly seemed to rally. The Officer commanding the Durham’s ordered a square to be formed, which they did with military precision. Fortunately, they did so as the enemy spurred their mounts and charged into a withering fire. Across our whole front more enemy appeared. With regular volleys, the Gurads and Durham’s kept the enemy at bay. The Sudanese troops were assaulted by fast moving camel riders and after taking heavy casualties were pushed back. The lancers on our extreme flank were unable to exploit any enemy weaknesses as their officer, unfortunately, dithered over what to do.
Sensing that the weakness in our force were the Egyptians, the the enemy threw everything at them, but our plucky allies managed to hold them and turn the tide of battle. After it’s initial problems, the Gatling gun was brought to bear on the camels and in a roar of fire reduced them to an insignificant trifle.
The gunners had certainly got their aim in and enemy after enemy were scythed down in their droves. The roar of the gun bolstered the morale of our Egyptian allies who advanced into the fray. Sadly the dithering of the lancers meant they were charged at the halt by overwhelming odds.
They fought bravely, but with mounting casualties they were forced to retire as a spent force. The Sudanese however, carried on with their advance even though reduced to less than half their number.
The Bashi Bazouks mopped up forces as they galloped along the enemy flank. With mounting casualties the enemy eventually melted away into the haze and our forces halted to help our wounded and collect our dead.
Wounded enemy were dealt with accordingly. Once everything was organised, with our wounded and fallen protected by a small force we marched onwards to meet the horror of the massacre the week before.
Well we had a good game today, I will get it written up tomorrow… sorry but no spoilers this evening. Did Joe and I or Mr Babbage succeed? The Illustrated Gazette will reveal all tomorrow.
After plumbing in the new dishwasher today I got it installed this evening then set about painting some chariots and light infantry and cavalry.
Cavalry horses need to be a bit lighter I think as the Roman ones back left look a bit dark…
I contacted the miniature designer and he has given me all of his printer settings so I will give the Romans another bash tomorrow.
So after various failures over the last couple of days I decided to try again doing some Romans. I did two on a 40×30 base and some in the standard format. I checked the bottoms to ensure that there was suitable support and set it away. Sadly they once again fell apart as I took the supports off. I might out one into Mesh Mixer tomorrow to see if I can see what is going on. You would think that a big block would work well, but sadly not, they dropped to bits, as did the velites.
The ones on the multi base seem to be holding together. To the right of them are the cavalry I added a .5mm base to each block and to the left the multi base cavalry (they aren’t finished yet). I have yet to try the flexible resin, but I don’t think that it will stop things falling apart. The other thing I will do as ask the designer what his settings are. I am probably just either over or under exposing them.
Anyway enough moaning about the Romans… Boudicca lives in 2mm in her war chariot….
So here we have eight chariots, singers back left and light cavalry back right. Hopefully these will come off their bases properly.
Tomorrow we are doing our 48 point Sudan game against Mr Babbage… in case you are wondering Mr B. Is the opponent in the solo play game of Men who would be Kings. Joe and I are going to join forces with 24 points each against a 48 point imaginary opponent…I only hope he doesn’t beat us
