Categories
wargaming

Season of scenery challenge – part V : defensive places

I guess I have a post in mind about how books influence my wargaming. In fact some books have been highly influential. “Charge or how to play wargames” is positively antiquated yet it was the played out scenario of Sittangbad at the end of the book that first gave me thoughts and ideas about temporary fortifications and a pontoon bridge for that matter.

Last year I did the pontoon thing.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2024/08/23/across-the-weser-in-67/

This year I have finally created some defensive walls. They perfectly fit my need for a modular approach.

They had been part of my truly massive cardboard mountain. I say that because the mountain was actually distributed (lots of small unnoticed storage hills!!) until the other week when I gathered every bit I could find together: queue Mont Blanc before my eyes.

End result was a giant throw away session unless items could promise me some tangible scenery and sooner rather than later. These odd packing shapes of course were designed as fortifications made of earth.

A yuck raw sienna base coat

I am happy to report that these six cardboard packing pieces have now produced six earthen defensive walls suitably crenellated.

I have two of one type shown to the front and another shown as the other three.
A coffee colour dry brush neutralised the raw sienna to give me the look I wanted

I decided they may have been initially temporary at some time in the past but now are showing some age with greenery.

And of course there are always two sides to every wall from a weather point of view. I only grassed one side.

So one side is wet and greenery has grown well while the other side remains barren and dry.

Combined with some old scenery boards the fortifications give me a good representation of a strong defensive site
I had been toying with how to create defensive sites for use in various eras and then in my clear out these boards appeared. Being used simply to pad out a cloth for a hill I gave them a coat of paint and now they will form the base of my fortification. Once they had been triangular shelving and supported a CRT tv – remember them?
With some regular field artillery and some notional gun platforms

That’s it for now.

Categories
Military History

The Ship in the City

Another much delayed posting, this time it’s San Diego – the most south west city in the USA and perhaps not on everyone’s trip list. Actually it was the first US city I ever visited back in 2019.

USS Midway (CV-41) was commissioned in September 1945 and was the lead ship for the “Midway” carrier class. It was the world’s largest aircraft carrier until 1955. It was also the first naval class unable to transit the Panama Canal.

It was decommissioned in 1992.

The midway is a big ship
Close up it begins to tower over you
And it’s long
And it’s a multi storey building into the bargain- topside
Hanger deck
Hanger deck
Scale model in Perspex built by the manufacturer
An early flat top – a classic design reached it’s zenith in the ww2 “escort” carrier – bought in large numbers by the British under lend-lease

In a previous post

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/08/19/rocket-armed-biplanes-even-in-1945/

I wrote about the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm museum and mentioned HMS Battler – a US built escort carrier.

The Coronado bridge takes you into what was north island and the Pacific Fleet home
San Diego is a sea side city
An active service carrier
Ships in dock at the north end of north island with the high ground of Point Loma beyond
Flight deck looking towards the city
The island is a big building
The fleet only arrived a few years before the aviation
The start of fleet aviation at San Diego, Glen Curtiss stood on the upper wing of one of his float planes
City side location
The iconic flight deck pose is a popular statue
The aircraft were fantastic while scale and size of the Midway was stunning
Early morning a modern ship slips out to sea
At the same time another unidentified ship returns to north island
Categories
life miniatures painting

Irregular Loss

I have just discovered that Ron Kay of Irregular Miniatures has died at the age of 98. He was full time on the team until 93, casting figures for all us hobbyists. He carried on as a part time member of the team still handling the big and complex castings. “Hats off” as they say.

I did not know Ron personally but seem to remember him at the Irregular stand at wargames shows.

I can do best by sharing some of my Irregular Miniatures collection and sending my condolences to Ian Kay and the Irregular family.

Irregular have provided me with some great 20mm figures that helped me build my 1848 forces.

1848 Danish Infantry repurposed from Irregulars colonial range
1848 Duchy of Parma artillery
Duchy of Modena Dragoons which were Neapolitan Dragoons
1848 Rumanian infantry which were ww1 Austrians
1848 Roman Legion which were ww1 Austrians
Colonial British posing as 1848 Danes
1848 Garibaldeans in red and blue shirts
Neapolitans posing as 1848 French
1864 Dane’s which were ww1 Austrians
1850 Dane’s which were ww1 Austrians
Grand Duchy of Tuscany Infantry repurposed from the colonial range
Categories
Military History

Rocket Armed Biplanes even in 1945

It took me a long time to get to this museum in fact decades. I always meant to go – just my trips south never quite worked for a visit. Then in 2023 it happened. The visit is well worth it.

And then it’s taken 2 years to get round to this post. And that has only happened because Jeff – one inch high guy –

https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com

Posted about an out of print book and mentioned rockets and biplanes. I promised to dig out the info he wanted. Well I did have the photo but not the info boards.

Wikipedia has a site on Le Prieur rockets though

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Prieur_rocket

Sopwith pup? Floatplane
Le Prieuer rockets armed
Artists impression
Over the toilets! Half a Fairy swordfish – mainstay of the fleet air arms force in WW2

The swordfish had such a stable and durable airframe compared to later monoplanes that it was rocket armed in the Indian Ocean battles with the Japanese plus a fighter escort of seafires. The Swordfish was the only biplane to be in action in 1939 and also still in frontline action in 1945!

https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ESCORT/BATTLER.htm

Who needs jets
Seafire
Hellcat
Corsair
Mig in background
The iconic harrier – no photo!
Walrus I think?

Well it seems I did not record many info boards so have fun naming the blanks or correcting my entries.

Next up California dreaming….

Categories
Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part IV port facilities

This years scenery season has continued to prove fruitful. I have been finally sorting out some key home builds. One is a harbour the other is a 17th century fortress. The common thread was that they must be modular in some way plus their core material is recycled cardboard.

Some colour tests
Stonework from card
Lots of checking for warping and size matches
The modular harbour gets the green light
The cellular construction means strength and lightness
Still to add some extra options like a sea wall
The first trial module

I wanted a distinctly south European style which meant ochre rather than grey would be the key colour.

I used a pva base for some fine sand dressing. It did not adhere everywhere which prompted a “potted roadway” thought. The compacted earth road has been eroded in places. Some judicious shading and job done.

The card stonewall received some dry brush over ochre base over hand drawn stones.

The holes at the bottom – don’t ask 😂

So far this piece and others made of two pieces glue one on top have defied going bananas – I did use weights for the drying step.

And here is the unit with another scenery piece on the go – it was started in the 2024 season but I changed my mind, and it got parked. It too has had a dose of ochre to help it on its way.

Low relief is not so fashionable these days but it has its place at my games table

There are some other irons in the fire. But this will do for now.

Categories
life

We will remember them

Categories
natural world

Intermission 25e

Well it’s another warmer than usual and sunnier summer which means less time wargaming.

Pond-life proves interesting – we inherited the garden newts and an almost buried pond. The one goldfish in it was actually brown so we did not find it till we tidied the pond up.

He is long departed for fish heaven. In the meantime the newts rule which also means the frogs get a raw deal as newts voraciously eat frog spawn apparently.

That’s pond life – eat or be eaten.

Egg laying newt

So newts should have laid their eggs by June yet this one was spotted cuddling some floating leaves – looking like egg laying. Who knows. They are fun to watch.

Not so much fun is tidying up the outdoor track although watching the train go by is!

Garden railway

Not much rain or cooler weather in the forecast so wargaming might go a bit thin for a while ……

Categories
Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge ptIII – sage advice from John @justneedsvarnish

John@justneedsvarnish over time has kept reminding me that storage cannot be ignored when collecting for wargames. This is even a greater issue when scenery comes into play given it can become a sizeable part of your collection.

So my recent building blitz has a kind of logic.

Building blitz

Over the summer figure painting has dried up just like last year and scenery has come to the fore. This is just as well because the lockdown era seemed to be the time when I fervently collected for my apparent scenery needs but never made any of the kits or used the “recycling”. It was the latter that brought me up short when I looked at my cardboard mountain.

Also I have made some inroads into my figure mountain that led to a right old sort out.

The net result is two scenery drawers created by redistribution of figure boxes/bags/containers.

New homes for scenery – the tall items drawer
New scenery home – the shallow drawer with some washed and bagged figures about to depart. My Italian hilltop town from 2024 scenery challenge (I think) lives in the grey box

I am quite pleased with the result and it will probably lead to a scenery rationalisation at some point now they are all more visible and accessible.

Right now some of my recent builds have simply booked themselves a decent storage spot.

Thanks John.

Categories
Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Crikey what’s going on?

Like most wargamers I guess when you stop and reflect upon your hobby, your traits often pop up.

In my case I am more process than creative perhaps more risk averse as well. So that’s the wargaming general who gets his logistics sorted before attacking – and maybe never attacks as a result 😂 queue heap of unpainted figures and of course scenery.

You could of course burrow into all this personality assessment-briggs myers style. Anyway this is a long intro to justify this!

Scenery explosion

So instead of carefully planning my scenery making I just dug out any thing I could find and started building – note, no painting.

Of course one item is self coloured so it’s done! Dating from the days of the USSR and the DDR it shows there is nothing new under the sun – even back then modellers fed up with the painting step were catered for.

Three years ago I made a tower one summer after discovering Dave Stone’s challenge. Last year it prompted me to trawl my bridges and defences pile to excellent effect. Heck I have even managed to game them!

This year the reaction to July’s starting gun has been a frenzy of building – in fact anything I could find. And especially those “I will make this when I have time to do it justice”.

So I have

An italeri church

An italeri railway station

A warbases church

Two warbases cowboy town buildings

A vero (1980’s) 1/87 scale model railway church ready coloured

A blotz starter pack for 20mm Bronze Age fortress.

No idea when some paint will get sploshed on them……

Thanks Dave 😉

Categories
wargaming

What do you do with a Pebble Beach holiday?

What’s a war gamer to do? No sand for their sandcastles!

My beach offered some nicely rounded pebbles of a certain size in a mix of greys and reds.

There’s always an odd one!

As it happened the local town shops included those selling endless varieties of resin chess sets yet surprisingly stone pebble sets.

Queue felt pen and a pleasant half an hour hunting pebbles for shade and shape.

The beach offered two convenient contrasting rock colours

The shop sets came with a cloth chequer board. I have not managed that bit yet.

Still I now have a quirky chess set for those future pebble beach holidays.

You can buy the shop version for around £25!