The Other Partizan, and becoming a veteran

 Like an impressively large number of others, I visited  The Other Partizan wargaming show at Newark Showground on Sunday. Arriving at about 11:30 I found it really pretty crowded and noisy, so much so that it was quite hard to get a look at the games nearest the entrance, and walking around the show started to feel rather like being at Oxford Street  on Black Friday!   Fortunately, things calmed down a bit later, and everything became easier.  The two Partizan shows  must be among the  biggest UK  shows after 'Salute', but  even at its busiest, the venue is much more pleasant than Salute's vast cavern - it has actual daylight! And free parking! (and a cafe latte only cost £2.. )  

Forest Outlaws' Roman conquest of Britain, great Hexon terrain

Of course there were loads of games large and small, demonstration and participation, every one with some interest to the observer or player. But I should admit that I think I may have achieved the status of 'veteran wargamer', in that I managed to spend a large chunk of my time chatting to friends old and new, and at about the two-hour mark I realised that  I'd only looked at about half a dozen games. I think this is probably a very good sign, by the way - I'm so pleased to have met so many nice people through the hobby and this blog, and it's the people that are important after all..  

 In that context I  really must mention Neil Patterson of  Aufklarungsabteilung blog fame, who tapped me on the shoulder quite early on.  I was impressed he worked out who I was, being only one of a biblical host of 'follically-challenged' men of a certain age in the room ( if wargaming ever gets banned by the authorities, we could covertly continue running events as the Phil Collins lookalike club, they'd never rumble us.. ). Neil has been a brilliant contributor to this blog with many, many supportive comments and useful advice, and even sent me some vintage Spencer-Smith figures,  ( pure Charles Grant / Young and Lawford nostalgia ), which reminds me I really must paint some more of them!   We had a really good long talk, and it was a pleasure to meet Neil in person at last.  He has of course  put up a good report of his day on his excellent blog  (and while you're there, take a look at his brilliant Zinnfiguren painting ) .  

I then made  a more determined effort to tour the games tables and take a few pictures.. inevitably I did not get round them all, but here is a selection of what I did see and photograph. 

 

League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers 28mm Lutzen 1632 - with town ablaze

 

..and the other end - quite a cavalry fight in the foreground

top marks for players' hats - and Henry Hyde was impressed too

Mr. Steve Jones' 28mm AWI - and the hall

I noticed a time-travelling visitor to this game..

Forest Outlaws : March on Montreal 1760, I think?

a nice French unit from the same game

1st Corps Gold Beach: reminder of my recent visit to a piece of Atlanitc Wall

Huntingdon club: Romagnano 1524

Derby wargames soc: Operation Goodwood

interesting 'stands' for helicopters in Vietnam game by S.P.I.T. wargamers

( S.P.I.T. stands for Stupid Projects in Twenty-Eight Mil  - which I rather like! )

Old 'Rough & Ready, Old Fuss and Feathers' : 28mm Mexican-American War 

These Toy Soldier style figures were anything but 'Rough and Ready'! 

 

The Hustle Club: Italian-Greek war,  Albania 1941

Another unusual subject - I have never seen this gamed before, and it had a nice look about it. Is that a Polish-built PZL fighter?

yes it is - a  PZL-P24, making short work of a CR-42!

  

Boondock Sayntes: East Africa WW1, a lovely layout

and from the inland viewpoint

The Perrys and Jervis J showing Valour & Fortitude rules : a beautiful Napoleonic beach landing game

Barely Legal Gamers: ACW Salem Church 1863

the above was entirely from Peter Dennis 'Paperboys'  including all the scenery: apparently these are available as free downloads. The 'Barely Legal' (prize for worst club name? sorry! ) chaps thought that even with cutting around indiviidual rifles, these were quicker than painting figures, and the overall look was great - I especially like the trees, which allow large areas of woodland at very low cost. 

Mr Dennis also in attendance: with amazing card-built ships

 

Simon Miller trialling new 1700s rules: 'Louis Quatorzes Warses'

Playing a long game: not sure who, but set in Japan

equally long: Old Pikey's Market Garden - Hell's Highway

told you it was long!

Chesterfield Old Boys: Dutch Assault at Malplaquet

..just masses of lovely figures!

Anschluss Wargames 10mm WW2: A Small Town in Italy

All Hell Let Loose: Bloody Omaha, 6mm WW2

Caseshot Publishing: 15mm Le Boxtel, 1794

Caseshot turned out to be Garry David Wills,  playing a scenario from his book Throwing Thunderbolts: a Wargamers Guide to the War of the First Coalition 1792-1797 which looks excellent (Richard 'My Wargaming Habit', have you got a copy yet? ) 

Last , and smallest, but not least, of the games I photographed - Wargames Developments' John Armatys with a 10-minute participation game of Market Garden.  Mainly by lucky card draws, I succeeded in getting XXX Corps to Arnhem Bridge on Turn 18 of 20 (see the model Sherman at the model bridge - proof! ).  My reward was some free copies of the WD magazine The Nugget , which I am reading with interest. Oh dear, another annual subscription looms? 

Next door to John was the Northampton Battlefields Society stand, with a participation Edgecote game,  and I had  a short chat with Graham 'Trebian' Evans  ( good luck with the new book, Graham ) , and a look at the newly-published Not Quite Mechanised WW2 rules by Chris Kemp, who was demonstrating them - and very nice they looked too,  

 I still missed loads of games - in particular Yarkshire Gamer's Italian Wars game, which looks fantastic in other people's pictures, and The Bodkins'  7YW Prussian Glory, which I only spotted at the very end of the day, when it was being packed away!  But what I saw was pretty decent, as you see. Loads more in the participation zone too, which I never quite seem to have enough time for, alas.  For many more, and much better pictures than these, I'd recommend Big Lee's massively comprehensive report on his Miniature Adventures blog - great, as ever! 

Obviously a little shopping may have occurred: 

 with apologies for poor lighting, the loot includes : 

(i) three vintage copies of Tradition - chosen becuase they contain Charles Grant's articles that became The War Game, including the Mollwitz game 

(ii) Basing medium and scatter for my 6mm Piedmontese and Austrians 

(iii) Baccus 1859 Austrian Field Artillery, and flag sheets for Piedmont and Austrian infantry 

(iv) Valiant 1:72  German WW2 Paratroopers to oppose the 'D-Day Dodgers' in some ruined monastery, no doubt..

(v) Newline Designs 20mm  Alexander The Great , bought from Colonel Bill's. 

I was happy with that lot, without going mad - all useful and/or interesting. Though still looking for/thinking about terrain for Italy, both in 20mm scale for WW2 and 6mm scale for 1859. Battlescape and Baccus both list promising items for the latter, but didn't have them at the show. Some scratch-building from cardboard may also be attempted..  

All in all a really good day. Having arrived at 11:30am, I left at 4pm, the end of the show. The only fly in the ointment was the road closure on the A14 on the way home which turned a 2 hour journey into 3.5 hours - ouch. At least that was on the return journey, so no 'show time' was lost!  Once again it was great to be there, see great games and chat to people -  good to meet you, Neil!  Many thanks to the organisers of the show, and all the clubs, societies  and individuals who put games on, and traders who, well, traded, I suppose!    

Looks like I need to be texturing/flocking 6mm bases next; if they work out OK, that may be the next post here. Until then, keep well everyone.

Painting Progress and Partizan Preparation

Real life got a bit busy last week and hobby time was reduced, but things are looking up a bit now, and I have made a little progress painting (very) little metal men.   Having acquired a few packs of Baccus 6mm figures for the Italian 'Risorgimento'  period at Salute back in April, I've now painted the two packs of infantry - Piedmontese and Austrians. 

The Baccus infantry packs comprise 96 figures each, and I have organised them into units of 24 figures, hence 4 units from each pack. I have based them as specified by Neil Thomas in his excellent Wargaming 19th Century Europe book - that is 4 bases per unit, each base 20mm by 30mm, with two bases representing the 'main body' of the unit and the other two bases the 'skirmish line' which would be out at the front doing the shooting.  

Four units 1859 Austrian Infantry

 

Painting was quite easy, more or less following the guide provided on the Baccus website - 'keep it simple, stupid' is definitely the way forward and suits me fine!  

Photographing them is a bit fiendish, though - being so small you have to get quite close, and then every tiny blemish shows up!  But but they will never be so closely scrutinised on the table, nor are they meant to be.. There is an interesting effect where the (still drying) PVA glue on the bases has picked-up the light, making it look like there are bits of white material scattered across them. Admittedly I was in a bit of a hurry to get on with this blog post!   

I've given them  my usual 'old school' plain green bases for now, keeping it simple again, though I admit I wonder if the small scale of the figures means that the thickness of the figure bases makes them look a bit pronounced - rather as if  each figure is  standing on a 12-inch high step!  Step forward Baccus again, with a basing guide on their website which I am giving some consideration to. So maybe these units are not quite finished yet..  Many thanks to Chris aka Nundanket of Horse and Musket Gaming fame for pointing me towards these useful guides, and you can see lots of his nicely-painted 6mm figures on his blog - albeit I think he prefers Heroics and Ros figures! 

and opposing Piedmontese ( 1 pack of 96 figures )

 

Another thing these troops still need is some nice flags - yet again Chris nudged me in the right direciton by pointing out that Baccus will happily sell me pre-printed flags. I wasn't looking forward to trying to paint flags in 6mm scale as yet, so that looks a good idea - they seem to be a bit over £2 for 24 flags, which is enough for an entire table-top army of infantry, I'm sure! So plenty of scope for expansion.. 

 Quite conveniently I see that I should be able to acquire some of those flags in only a few days time, as I am aiming to visit The Other Partizan  wargames show at Newark on Sunday -  and Baccus will be there, looking to sell stuff..  So hopefully that's a win-win, and a massive £4 sale for them..

I'm looking forward to the show, just having a quick scan of the promised games there are lots of interesting ones - Anschluss Wargames 'Small Town in Italy' WW2 in 10mm, for example;  The Bodkins  28mm Seven Years War game 'Prussian Glory' ; Chesterfield Old Boys   28mm War of Spanish Succession ;    The Hustle Club  20mm Italian/Greek war 1941;  League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers 28mm  Lutzen, 1632;   Northants Battlefields Society 'Edgecote Made Easy' ( billed as ECW, so a slight time-shift? ) ; and Simon 'To the Strongest' Miller's venture into the Spanish Succession aka Louis Quatorze's Warses.   Plus several  D-Day/Normandy  related games, and a Market Garden  one, all highly appropriate for this anniversary year.  'And many, many more..'  Plus  of course,  many traders - I may be in the market for some scenery to suit Italy, 1943/44,  some more 6mm 1859 figures,  and  Alexander and Darius for my somewhat neglected 20mm DBA Macedonians and  Persians, perhaps?  Plus the inevitable impulse buys - there's always a tempting book or two! 

Anyone else going? Or is that a daft question?!  I'd be happy to chat with anyone who reads/follows/comments on this blog. it would be great to  put some more faces to names..  I've borrowed the floorplan (above)  from the Partizan website (hopefully they won't mind as I am giving them a free plug!) - I reckon the space just inside and to the left of the main entrance might be a good spot. So I may just lurk about there, (sort of between Empress Miniatures and Colonel Bill's/Last Valley stands), at about 1pm, if you'd like to say hello ( and if  no-one  turns up  I will  look like a proper Charlie!).  

Finally a quick pic - one of the things that happened last week was a visit to that London for  HMS Belfast,  which was a bit of a bonus having become an IWM member for recent visits to Duxford. I last set foot aboard the Belfast as a kid in about 1973.. and it was rather good! Maybe I will devote a post to it sometime soon. Meanwhile a taster: 

Right, where's that Partizan shopping list? And have I got some flock for those 6mm bases? If you are going along on Sunday, it'd be great to chat, if not then I'll try to take a few photos and post here. In the meantime keep well, everyone.

Fnurban #35: Bringing the Good News from Ghent.. and Croydon

Having not ventured outside the UK since 2019, I'm glad to say that earlier this month my partner and I enjoyed a short break in Belgium, travelling by Eurostar train from London and staying at Ghent, which is a susprisingly pleasant city and full of historical interest. Amongst all that, of course there was a smattering of military history to be found, and  I hope you may find the following of some interest too. 

Looming over the centre of the city, as it had been designed to since the 12th Century was the impressive Gravensteen, or Castle of the Counts of Flanders.  This is the view from the canal which effectively forms a moat: 

We visited the castle, and were rewarded with a room full of arms and armour, including this 16th/17th Century 'Three-Quarter' / Cuirassier armour 

 

and a range of pole-arms of about the same time, 

 

In fact I think most of the display was from a similar period, incuding some very highly decorated crosssbows and muskets, which looked more like  status symbols than practical weapons (perhaps this explains their survival ). 

The City Museum, STAM 'Tells the story of Ghent from the Middle Ages to the present day', and does a pretty good job of that - well worth a visit if you are in town. Ghent was a seriously important place - one of the largest cities North of the Alps in the 14th Century, home to Burgundian rulers such as Charles the Bold ( the man with the trendiest  Army List in medieval Europe, though it didn't save him against the Swiss!), birthplace of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the most powerful man in the world in his day.  Of course there were quite a few paintings depicting the city, and these are always worth a look.  Here is one of them : 

The Inauguration of Charles II, King of Spain, as Count of Flanders in 1666 in Ghent. Look closely at the bottom right corner: 

A nice Troop of horse -  I reckon about to 50-60 troopers, in 4 ranks, with buff coat, 'back and breast' armour, a mix of soft hats and 'Lobster Tail' helmets ( the latter dominating the front rank ).  Would they still be called Harquebusiers, or would this be 'Cuirassier' rig by 1666? 

Move forward a century or so, and the same museum has Engelbert van Siclers 1780 painting, Louis XV reviews the French troops in front of Ghent    

 

 This depicts Lousi XV reviewing the French troops who would take possession of Ghent on 11th July 1745, holding it for 3 years before handing it back to the Austrians.  As before, I zoomed in to see some of the the actual troops: 

A body of cavalry clearly shown,  with two coat colours in evidence (green, or is it greyish blue? and red ), so presumably representing  two different units. By counting hats in the main group I'd say about 20 of each unit, and I assume the figures in the foreground riding behind the two gents on white horses would be from the same units.  Is the  leading gentlemen  Louis XV, or a  commander of the troops - would Maurice de Saxe have been there?     There is a group of grandees to the left of the picture, which may represent Louis and his entourage. I will leave it to the experts to decide who is who, maybe even which units are shown?  An interesting image though, showing a moment from the victorious French campaign in the Low Countries during the War of Austrian Succession, two months to the day after de Saxe's victory over the British and Dutch at Fontenoy. 

Finally in the history paintings department, we also visited the Fine Arts Museum of Ghent (MSK), which has a rather fine picture 

  This is Titus' Conquest of Jerusalem, painted c.1475-1500 by a painter described as 'Viennese Master of Mary of Burgundy'.  Mary was the daughter of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who inherited his lands aged 19, on Charles' death in battle at Nancy in 1477. I can't help feeling that the numerous soldiers represented as besieging 'Jerusalem' would very likely have been based on contemporary troops which the painter could have had access to. So is this in effect a representation of Charles the Bold's army?  Of course it also shows siege operations in progress, with a rather splendid 'engine' battering the walls of the city.  I don't see any cannon, however, which may undermine my theory about the painter showing a contemporary army!  All the same, it's a splendid picture, full of incident. I managed to get a few close-up pictures of some of the details, which I show here. 

Coming much closer to the present day, we also took a day at the seaside - sadly it wasn;t seaside weather, but there we are -  specifically at Ostend. We went there mainly to see 'The Longest Tram Line in the World' , the Belgian Coastal Tram, which extends for 67km along the coast. We didn't cover the whole line, but by chance we dismounted just outside Ostend on a quiet stretch of the sea front, and were confronted by a section of Hitler's Atlantic Wall defenses.  Sadly not open when we were there, but it clearly is open as a tourist attraction some of the time.  Walking back along the promenade, I coulnd't resist a few photos : 

   

As you can see, there are original concrete exmplacements, and a selection of period weapons have been either restored in place or imported to add a bit more 'flavour' to the setup.  I think it looks worth a visit if you happen to be there at the right time! 

And now for something completely different, as the saying goes: as well as Ghent, I have recently been to - Croydon.  I went to see an exhibition, organised by the Artangel group, named Come as You Really Are, which showed off the weird, wonderful and varied world of people's hobbies. As you may be aware, blogger  Mark Man of Tin has contributed a selection of his classic Toy Soldiers to the exhibition - he has put up several posts on his blog showing them.  Here are some of Mark's figures (I don't think the Spitfire model is his, however ? ) 

 

I can'r resist one or two more pictures from the show, which it has to be said is, in the nicest possible way, utterly bonkers and gives an insight into the crazy variety of hobbies and collections that all sorts of people pursue 

D&D / Warhammer meets Barbie..

a whole battle fleet of Star Wars

The exhibition also featured work by artist Hetain Patel, including a rather splendid piece whereby he has transformed  his old Ford Fiesta car into - well, a Transformer. It is posed appropriately with a large collection of model cars - and a mannequin in a Spiderman costume.I think maybe this gives an idea of the spirit of the exhibtion...

My pictures can't possibly sum up the whole exhibit, it is utterly mad, and somewhat heartwarming - though to be honest I was not sure it was actually art. And if you thought collecting and gaming with toy soldiers is pretty niche, how about collecting plastic carrier bags? Or used pencil erasers?  Or painting pebbles with copies of designs from chocolate bar wrappers? All of which were in the show.  It is a free exhibition, so if you happen to be in Croydon before 20th October with some time to spare, you may enjoy it - not sure if I would recommend you travel any great distance, and I can't say Croydon was as attractive a destination as Ghent!  But certainly a 'different' experience.

I seem to have wandered far from wargaming - I hope to get back to that soon. Meanwhile, welcome to Autumn ( in the Northern Hemisphere at least ) and keep well, everyone.