Palm Trees

There is an old wargames adage something along the lines of "you can never have too many trees" and I think that includes palm trees.

Bases from Charlie Foxtrot Models here.  Small Tree Bases 1, 2, 3 and 4.  My new hot glue gun (£7 from Hobbycraft) was perfect for sticking the trees to the MDF discs.

The trees were sourced via eBay and cost very little, less than £10 incl P&P for this lot.  In the fullness of time I intend to repaint the trees (inspired by Lardy Rich's splendid jungle terrain), but they'll do fine for now.

The bases were simply covered in a variety of grit and stones then primed with a light brown spray.  Basecoat is Americana Country Maple, followed by highlights of Americana Tan, VMC Dark Sand then Foundry Boneyard light.  Garnish with some clump foliage and a few tufts to round it off.

CoC in the Desert

Here are a few random pics from a recent game of Chain of Command set in the deserts of North Africa.  The scenario was Probe (with slightly increased support allocations) but alas Jerry couldn’t quite break through the British lines.

The Germans begin to deploy

Some decent firepower here

Plenty of cover here amongst the rocks and craters

Germans enfilade the position on the hill, so troops deploy at the barricade

The German squad has had more than enough!

British line holding firm

The German forces couldn't seem to hit a anything in this battle.  The tank literally didn't cause even one point of shock on the British.  Then the Germans took a series of morale blows in quick succession so decided to withdraw and look for another road to Cairo.

Thanks for looking.

Stocking up ... on gaming supplies

Do not get me started on those selfish idiots clearing out the supermarkets... Grrr!  Anyway - given that many of us are going to be spending a lot more time at home, I thought it might be prudent to pick up some essential gaming supplies.

Plenty still left on the shelves!

The team at Charlie Foxtrot have stepped up to mark and provided a range of fab buildings. (NB: Colin advises that a handful of 2mm MDF offcuts can be a useful substitute for toilet paper 🤔😬)

Then there’s a heap of resin bits and scatter items from Hovels, Debris of War, Bad Squiddo, etc.

So, plenty to be getting on with!

On a more sensible note, please do spare a thought for those whose job it is to keep the country running (and us all healthy and safe) most especially those in the NHS.  Thanks 🙂

More Desert Scenery

This first piece is a 28mm scale ruined building from Battlescale.  I bought an extra pack of the rubble as I wanted a more extensive ruin.  The kit was very cleanly cast and great fun to paint in my usual desert colours for scenery. I followed the same recipe as for my temple ruins, although I did wash the first base coat with Agrax Earthshade to help bring out the texture of the brick work.

I think the model is really aimed at a Northern European setting but seems to paint up well in a desert theme I reckon.

Next, a home made rocky outcrop.  Base from Charlie Foxtrot, stones from nearby countryside.  My new hot glue gun was great for sticking the stones on to the mdf.

Approximately enough to comfortably fill another painting challenge cube, so 20 more points bringing the total up to 370.

Universal Carrier and Sniper

More British desert war troops join the ranks!  Some support options for the main platoon this time.  An ad-hoc sniper team and a Universal Carrier.

After doing a bit of research I decided to try a caunter style camo pattern on the Universal Carrier.  The colours are Foundry Night Sky and Foundry Rawhide.

The dismounted Bren team and Officer/NCO with Thompson SMG.  The latter figure was painted previously so has already been included in the painting challenge total.

I had a couple of figures spare from the Perry's plastic box set so I made a Sniper team.  I tried to find something suitable to represent the telescopic sight but in the end it was too fiddly.  So perhaps in this scene he's asking his assistant to pop back to base and pick it up?

That’s another 45 points bringing the painting challenge total to 350 points.  Thanks for looking!

Camels!

A wargames table always looks better with some scenic “clutter” to make it look a bit more lived in.  What could be more appropriate for North Africa than a pair of camels?  These iconic beasts are from North Star miniatures.  The chap looking after them is a Perry figure.

Some work in progress pics.  Base colours then washed.

For the highlights on the bales of cloth I used the original colours plus one or two highlights most of which were Foundry colours.

Another 25 points for the challenge.  Total now standing at 305 points.