Wargaming in an erratic style
The other night a cloudy sunset caught my eye simply because I had not seen one in a while.
Spring has been delightfully dry, sunny with low humidity. It has meant the watering can has been doing overtime at a point when seedlings and young growth can die in days if not watered.
Nature has offered some interest.
It was a great season for tulips – no wind or rain to batter them down
Last year I took a road trip round the southern Rockies. I nipped into the Walmart next to Fort Carson as you do to get some victuals.
Standing in the queue which happened to be very very very slow (me and another queuer learned some guys life story on his hip replacement which he amazingly got quite quickly without private insurance or having to mortgage his home) so it meant this booklet spent a lot of time calling to me.
I bought it – my first new book purchase (ever) about the American Civil War. As I love maps it was really a shoe in.
The trouble is this is very dangerous territory – that is mid 19th century wars, as it happens to be my rich wargaming vein at the moment, albeit in Europe.
Ho hum.
Frank over at tankrants asked for some pics of the railway.
Here are a couple.
Since AHPC finished in March like last year my wargames activity has declined. I didn’t even make it to partisan. So VAP and Hammerhead proved to be the two shows attended in the first half of 2025.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Last year the war gaming fell away due to a month long road trip round the southern Rockies. It recovered to be very productive during Dave Stones season of scenery challenge.
Well this year I am away this summer but the real stinger has been two glorious months of a dry uk spring complete with sun and warmth. What more could you ask for?
Well my garden seedlings and plants needed rain – so I had to substitute that for lots of watering can events.
Really it’s been fantastic weather and no complaints given how our normal maritime climate often delivers wet and windy and cool temperatures. – sometimes all at once.
The fine weather also meant the garden railway got an early run out. And this meant some long overdue building work started.
So modelling but “not as we know the scale of it JIM!”
And yes I have managed a little bit of figure painting in the end.
So this is a long post to say, not much miniatures painting this spring and zero wargames done!
Mind you I have been reading quite a bit which is always ominous for my plans.
“News from the front sir, the April breakthrough failed………………for gods sake why?…………. ……………………………………..Apparently a lot of kit just wasn’t ready sir……………………..}#%^*^<~|~\{}{]}#$$ ………..ranted General MukerZpreeeder.
Oh well, it was worth a try.
Sadly the very fine weather meant all manner of outdoor activities took hold this month.
Maybe there will be an afv August – don’t hold your breath though.
Still there is always John and Zauberwurfs mighty works to appreciate.
Usually it’s a biplane – but today it’s a ME109 and spitfire…..
I just missed the end of AHPC15 with some 1848 era artillery.
Rather than park them like last year I decided to get these Properly finished.
Jumping on the back of John at just needs varnish and Zauberwurfs duel over some mechanised models I determined to follow up my AHPC15 logistics Lorries.
https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/01/?m=1
Well it seems experimentation is the order of the day. Instead of just painting some vehicles in plain military colours I seem to have drifted into a look at contrast colours, and it’s a right mess. I had no plan – just paint a lighter base colour and let the contrasts do the rest.
Not the best outcome since I undercoated in grey or white then the Vallejo olive green seems to be quite translucent. End result is the shading is just highlighting my poor main colour work.
Ho hum.
My last entry in AHPC15 was another oddity. This time I delved into my medieval collections/plastic pit. One theme in the challenge was to paint something to do with heresy.
I have a project on the back burner aimed at raising armies for the period around 1403 – Shrewsbury and King Henry IV and Prince Henry (the future Henry V).
I lighted upon a friend of the King – one Sir John Oldcastle who just happened to be a big wig in the Lollard community. Now these guys were basically objecting to the monetisation of the church and other bad practices. I suppose you could say they were proto protestants or puritans in their outlook – they were still very committed christians.
It did not end well for Sir John – not even being a buddy of King Henry IV would save him from execution.
https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/from-johnb-sir-john-oldcastle-lollard.html
An AHPC15 entry again and this time it was in pursuit of one of my pet projects. Fauxterre 1930 is a catch all for my 20th century escapades. I started with ww2 but have inexorably been drawn to an earlier time period. Basically I want the look of armies from the 1930’s. So thats most of the kit available in 1939 but also kit that went out of service after 1930 as countries mobilised for impending conflicts.
My recent lorry posting covered the origins of this project.
https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/04/13/the-painting-portrait-25f-logistics/
In this “later” between the wars period 2pdr guns were fine as were 37mm Anti tank guns – the bofors version being the subject of this entry.
First to Fight make a lot of kit I can find a use for and these anti tank guns caught my eye. They are slender and making them is not as easy as the few parts you get suggests. Complete with figures – I particularly liked the prone gun aimer?
Fauxterre 1930 remains a slow burn project not least because it started out as a “bricks and mortar” project – buy things from real shops by walking into them.
In this case these AT guns came from Monkbar Models in York, North Yorkshire.
Also from the same shop – the venerable airfix 6pdr with Bren carrier.
The Wargaming Erratic 