Italian update..

All roads lead to... well, Italy at least, right now.   This is a brief update on progress with my  'Risorgimento'  project to game the Italian war of 1859 in 6mm scale. Having painted some units of infantry for both Austrian and Piedmontese armies,  I was not very satisfied with a plain 'old-school' green basing system. So I acquired some Baccus 'Basing Medium' and some green scatter material, and had another go at the bases. This has been a bit more successful: 

In the Flocking Tray.. 

 

I used a simplified version of the suggested method from the Baccus website : 

-  apply PVA glue to the whole base and sprinkle over  the basing medium

-  paint the whole textured base with a brown ( I used artists' Burnt Umber ) paint

-  apply PVA in irregular 'splodges' over the base, do not cover the whole base 

- sprinkle over the green scatter material, which will stick to the PVA but not the entire base

 Et voila,  all done.  I am reasonably happy with the result, it has obscured  the 'plinth' effect of the figure strip bases, which was the main aim.  I found that as I progressed through the units, I was gradually  applying less green scatter material and allowing  larger areas of brown to show through, which gave a quite pleasing variation in colours.

The Baccus site suggests dry-brushing a couple of levels of highlights on top of the brown paint before applying the scatter, I was too lazy to do that but may try it next time  ( see Chris 'Nundanket's recent post on Punic Wars elephants, showing his use of the Baccus method, which looks pretty good ). 

Encouraged with this progress, I am making plans to acquire some more troops. I am starting with units organised as specified in Neil Thomas'  Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe,  whose rules suggest armies of 10 units per side for a basic game - that seems a good starting point.  I now have 4 units of Infantry for each side, and  I already have both Austrian and Piedmontese field artillery packs from Baccus (4 guns each).  Now I need some more infantry and of course, cavalry, as well as some elite infantry units such as Austrian Jagers and Piedmontese Grenadiers and Bersaglieri. 

To find the additional recruits, I am going to try using the interesting MDF 'semi-flat' 6mm figures from Commission Figurines, who have ranges of Napoleonic and ACW troops which I think might be fairly easily employed with 'paint conversion'.and a little creative trimming here and there . As mentioned in a previous post, I happen to already have some of their ACW infantry in slouch hats, which I suspect will do for Bersaglieri and Jagers.  Having browsed their catalogue, I think Napoleonic Infantry in greatcoats may become Piedmontese Line Infantry, French 'Old Guard'  in tall 'busby' stand in for Piedmont Grenadiers,  and ACW cavalry in Kepi for Piedmontese light cavalry, for example. All  good fun!    You may be wondering why do this rather than just ordering from Baccus 'Risorgimento' range which would probably cover all bases - well, it's really just personal preference, I really like the quite stylised look of the MDF figures, so I thought it would be worth a try to use them.  And did I mention that a pack of 96 infantry or 36 cavalry retails for £2.00?

Now, having recruited armies, they are going to need some terrain :  the  Hexon terrain that I have used for all games so far is a little 'green' for Italy, to my mind ( bear in mind it will be used for both and my WW2 'D-Day Dodgers' ),  so I am thinking about adding some of their 'desert transition' hexes into the mix, which will add a bit more brown/sand colour to the terrain and make it a bit less uniform. The other major item required is going to be buildings, I think - what did an  Italian village of 1860 ( or 1944, come to think  of it actually ) look like?  I am starting to think about that. Looking at listings for traders at The Other Partizan this month, I didn't find very much - Baccus have a 6mm scale Spanish farm, which might do,  and  Battlescale/Pendraken some basic rendered houses,  but neither had actually brought any of the items I might have wanted to the show.  I reckon it might be quite easy to make my own buildings, especially for 6mm scale, from odds and ends of wood blocks and/or cardboard. For inspiration, at a recent exhibition at Gainsborough House Gallery in Sudbury I saw a couple of  paintings of 'Italian Landscape'  by Cedric Morris : 

 

Perhaps a little more 'warm South' than the 1860 theatre of  war, but with a bit of creative license they might make good models for my, err,  models(!).  I am also starting to look at the photos in various books about the WW2 Italian campaign ( the Images of War series being very useful here), to get an idea of typical buldings and landscapes.  Having moved into 6mm scale, of course I have to start from scratch with trees, walls, hedges  etc etc too.. lots to think about, at least they should be small, and hopefully cheap! 

 Finally I have some background reading in the form of this :

 

Acquired from Naval and Miltary Press, this is a facsimile of a 19th Century account of the campaign by the splendidly-named Colonel H.C. Wylly,  CB 'late the Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regimemt'  in a nice big A4 paperback format. I am going to try to read this with a decent map of Northern Italy to hand at all times.. 

All the above is plenty to be going on with, quite apart from other projects which are in theory still ongoing - must paint some more 7YW French, for example!  I'm sure I'm not alone in having probably got too many projects I'd ideally like to be progressing with. 

So there we are - not massive progress, but I am at least doing some thinking and have some reasonable ideas, I think.   Next step should be expand the armies to at least have Neil Thomas' basic suggested forces - let's see how we get on with the MDF figures, should be interesting.Now it's already Halloween, the clocks have gone back, and where did October go? ( at least I managed 5 blog posts this month - pretty good by my lights!).  On into winter we go,  nothing else to do wih those dark evenings but paint, read and game?  And think of 'Sunny Italy', perhaps?

Until the next time, keep well, everyone.    

  

Re:Play, Gillingham : two shows in a week!

Yesterday I travelled to the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, which hosted the Re:Play wargaming show organised by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club - and rather a good day it turned out to be. My second wargaming show in seven days  - this must be some sort of record for me! [actually only just, as this time last year I went to The Other Partizan on a Sunday and SELWG the following Sunday, so this weekend beat that record by just 1 day.]

It's not a large show, with about 20 games and 9 traders present, but that's no bad thing, as it means things are much more relaxed than larger shows, with plenty of time to stop and chat to players and traders. The setting was really interesting too, with tables and stands scattered around the main display area of the musuem and some of the side rooms. You can see how it works : 

  

crikey that's an actual V2! and it's big..

Yes, you could play a game with an APC, a Harrier Jump-Jet or a V2 rocket as a backdrop,  The upper mezzanine level gave the views seen above, and also had a small cafeteria area selling hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, cakes etc, which was handy  (finding the stairs to get up there, however, could be a bit tricky given the labyrinthine nature of the lower level!), 

I was able to have  a good look at most of the games, so here are a selection of the pictures I managed to take of them - pretty much in the order I saw them. I tried to show at least some of them 'in their surroundings' among the museum exhibits, as that was part of the fun.

Rainham Wargames Club: 15mm Colonial Sudan 'the Relief Column'

I think they were using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules.
  

Skirmish Wargames: To Fight the Brave Maori (1840s)

It seems the medals in the display behind this game related to the Royal Engineers' part in the Maori Wars, appropriately enough. 

Medway Wargames: What If… - Late/Post War Tank Battle

Deal Wargames: Assault on Le Hamel, June 6th 1944

This was played in 20mm scale ('the one true scale' said a player!) and those DUKWs are the old soft plastic Airfix models, maybe 40 or 50 years old and still hitting the beach!  Rules were Rapid Fire Reloaded.

Maidstone Wargames: Summer of 77 (Battle of Britain)

Real Time Wargames The Relief of Luckpore (Indian Mutiny)

 

 

 

These were 10mm figures from Pendraken, and of  Relief of Luckpore tactical and campaign rules by, of course,  Real Time Wargames themselves.

Society of Ancients Battle of the Hydaspes 326 BC

 

of course there must be elephants!

 

D-Day 15mm by Desmondo’s Shed of War

Milton Hundred's 'Zone' up on the mezzanine

..including 'What a Tanker' participation game

 

The mezzanine level  gave good 'aerial views' - Summer of 77 looked even better from there! 

Star Wars battle: by Dengar Appreciation Society?

I just liked the juxtaposition of the Star Wars machine with the Harrier - both rather anthropomorphic! 

Last but very much not least ( of the games I managed to photograph ) a Wild West game put on at very short notice by my old friend Tony and his son Oliver, who are members of the Milton Hundred club. This used Dead Man's Hand rules  and Tony's fantastic Wild West town layout, which was his 'lockdown project' while self-isolating in 2020. 

The buildings are by 4Ground (which had the advantage of being pre-painted, and looked really good), they have proper interiors with internal walls, stairs etc and each floor or roof  can be lifted off, so characters can be easily moved around inside the buildings. Also the layout is 'modular' in that many of the buildings have the same size 'footprint' - so although  the boardwalks are fixed down in a regular street plan,  the actual buildings can be placed in different arrangements each time. Clver stuff!  

They kindly invited me to join in a game, and how could I refuse?  An hour or more of 'just like the movies' fun ensued, as Tony and I as the bad guys tried to prevent the local lawmen (Oliver, aided by Freddie, an 8-year-old show visitor who rolled some mean dice) from conveying a crucial witness to the sherriff's office.  We managed to kill off the leader of the lawmen's faction, but Oliver's strategy won out as he lured our best guys  into a firefight well away from his objective and sneaked the witness past us while we were looking elsewhere.  All good fun, and the rules were easy to pick up and play, with interesting interactions driven by a deck of cards giving special abilities/events,  but which might be 'trumped' by the other player when used. It took me a while to realise that the 'Wild West movies' feel of the game even extended to this aspect of the rules, as the players were in effect involved in a bar-room poker game as they played their hands of cards.. 

I didn't manage to picture every game -  apologies especially  to South East Essex (SEEMS) who put on their  Action at Bryson’s Crossroads ACW game in 28mm  using Rebels and Patriots - though I realise I had pictured it before at the Broadside show back in June.  Also Milton Hundred's nice Samurai period  game  The Dragon and The Tiger - 4th Battle of Kawanakajima, 1561, and 28mm Cold War - Flank March  (possibly by Full Metal Miniatures, showcasing their vehicles and figures?) seem to have eluded my camera.  I recognised Mike sayce aka 'Subedai' from Salute 'blogger-meet-ups' and chatted briefly in the cafe, he looked to be taking some  pictures and I was hoping he may have put up a report - but it looks like he hasn't actually added to his blog for a while, which is a shame! If you're out there, Mike, show us some pics!

As usual there was a little shopping, though I was being pretty modest - I came away with a copy of Field Marshall Slim's  Defeat into Victory memoir of his Burma campaign from Cuirassier Books, a bag of D10 dice from Brigade Models, and some HaT 20mm Persian Heavy Infantry from 1:72 models.  The book purchase was triggered by my recent reading of  Churchill's Generals (ed. John Keegan?), which sparked an interest in several of said commanders. Should be an interesting read, though it is already behind a biography of Field-Marshall Alexander in the reading queue..

And that was it - a thoroughly pleasant Saturday outing. Many thanks to Milton Hundred club and all the others who put on games and tradestands, it was a good show and I hope it continues in future! 

Next time, I hope to report on some progress with basing my 6mm 'Risorgimento' figures, and maybe some more 7YW painting.  Meanwhile keep well,  everyone  (especially if you were at The Other Partizan, as it seems to have been a bit of a Covid incubator! I have been OK so far, fingers crossed!).

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.