Orange Dave Builds Adobe Houses

This post is all about the splendid work of good chum Orange Dave. As you know we're on the cusp of launching our North Africa campaign so as well as busily adding new figures we've also been hard at it making some suitable terrain.  Dave chose to make some rather nice adobe style buildings to complement a 4Ground kit he already had.

The main construction is pretty much all balsa - and possibly a few coffee stirring sticks too?  Since the outer will be covered in a layer of plaster any 'wood' texture will be disguised.  In the pics below you can see the texture has been applied and then the models were given a dusting of a suitable base colour, ready for painting.

And here they are ready for the table...  Bloomin' marvellous I reckon!

It's not just buildings... Dave's knocked up these lovely market stalls too.

Looking forward to getting all these on the table for our first game!

Lovely New Figures from The Miniature Company

Good mate Dave at The Miniature Company has just released the first pics of some forthcoming figures for his Dark Ages Welsh range.  I think they're so good that I just had to do a little blog article on them.

They're 28mm - obviously there'll be shields and spears too.  I've no idea if Dave will be selling these items with the figures although I guess at least the shields will be included.

I think these are so characterful and full of detail that will be a joy to paint.  Just look at the faces and that splendidly hirsute moustache!  Really looking forward to seeing this range expand.  Oh and please do check TMC out on Facebook and perhaps like his page :o)

Colours 2018

Mid-September so it must be Colours!  Colin kindly invited me to join good chum Paul to help out with the Charlie Foxtrot stall at this years show.  Here we are!

The three ... err ... musketeers?

We were delighted to have a little chat with two well-known figures, namely Alec Brown from Front Rank and Dave Bodley from Grand Manner.  Nice to see you there chaps.

Alec, Me, Paul and Dave

All three of us really enjoy manning the stall and chatting with fellow gamers about their projects, helping them choose the kits they need, etc.  This show was particularly busy at times.  However, we did manage to have a quick nosey round the stalls and tables.

A large ECW game - just before opening time!

Love the flock of  sheep - from 1st Corps

Operation Goodwood

A nice little scene

WW1 in the Middle East

Liked the little dioramas

Camels!

Some explosive Bolt Action

I think this was an 1812 winter retreat game

The ECW in progress

Modern gaming

An intriguing small scale fantasy skirmish

The Penarth lads and their War of the Roses game

This next table really impressed me! Warfare in mid 19th century China is not a topic I know much about, but it was beautifully presented and the guys running it were very friendly. Sharp Practice 2 BTW ;o)

Glenn and Richard of Elite Wargames & Models - nice fellas!

It was also good to catch up with a number of now familiar faces in the trade scene.  It seemed that pretty much all the traders I spoke to were having a busy day – good news all round.

What did I treat myself to?  Well... having flogged various bits on eBay recently I was sufficiently "in funds" to pick up the following modest haul;

• A lovely mix of scatter terrain (barrels, crates, treasure chests, etc) from Debris of War - Nice to meet you Tony ;o)
• A box of Perry DAK to boost my growing collection ready for our Western Desert campaign.
• Some blank hills from Kallistra – these will become rocky sand dunes.
• Three packs of Mini Natur tufts.
• A small collection of intriguing female figures (not "icky" ones!) from Glenn and Richard at Elite Wargames & Models, a blunderbuss armed Portuguese Partisan leader, another a well-to-do lady with a pistol and a physician about to treat a wounded soldier (ideal as a Physic in SP2)

All in all, a splendid day out with great friends soaking up plenty of hobby goodness!

Clotted Lard 2018

Last weekend saw Devon Wargamers host the Clotted Lard event in Exeter.  Colin and his lovely wife Nik kindly put me up for the weekend.  Really enjoyed Friday evening catching up with everyone.  Right... The idea for the event is that various people put on Lardy themed games and the rest of us turn up and play.  For the first game I teamed up with Colin, Paul and Steve to play Bob Connor's splendid FIW scenario for Sharp Practice.

Here's the gang having a grand old time!  Bob umpired the game very smoothly and his scenario was superb fun indeed!  My thanks sir - look forward to the games in October ;o)

More silliness from Paul and Steve.  Highlights from the game included the surprise arrival of several canoe loads of angry French loving Indians and Steve's brilliant little victory dance!  Sharp Practice is ideal for those of us who like a relaxed and perhaps slightly chaotic game of toy soldiers.  Excellent fun indeed.

Here's another table of SP2 - British versus Zulus... Faaarsands of 'em! Lovely stuff!

The Dutch Revolt using the "Sharply Buffed" extra rules.  I really liked the look of this game!

Here's a Home guard themed table for Chain of Command.  Excellent!  I played on this in the afternoon session - my thanks to Chas and Vince (I think?) for a lovely and rather bonkers game.

Alas the rest of my photos were a bit blurry for some reason.  The event was superb fun; a good laugh all day long.  Plus it was great to make some new gaming friends.  My thanks to the Devon Wargamers for such a great day!  Looking forward to the next one.

Yet More DAK

Here is squad number three.  This project is really rolling along now!  The painting is great fun and I'm fairly pleased with the results so far.

I've also added an AT gun team.  I've used the same scenic base idea as for my previous squad where the MG34 crew were behind a crumbling wall.  It's allowed me to use some of the nice kneeling pose figures with weapons other than a rifle.

Painting and basing recipe is much the same as with the other two squads and can be found here if you're interested.  With these figures I tried out a slightly bolder set of highlights - simply the next lighter colour in the Foundry triad or the VMC colour with a little Boneyard Light added.  Next should be the CO and maybe some supports.  When the CO is complete I'll have a basic platoon ready to roll.  I'm planning to add a couple of veteran infantry squads too before moving on to the armour and transports.