First up is an Aircraft movement base. It was an unfinished piece from last year I think. Anyway it’s now got some scatter and is ready for some land planes – only trouble is I gave away my reconnaissance spitfire I did in AHPC14 https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/and now have just my “scrap heap” rescued spotter float biplane.
Actually the base could pass for a seaweed covered rock……
I need to get some aeroplane production going……
Next up is a complimentary piece for my recent fortifications. It’s an Artillery position fashioned from some corrugated card and unlike my recent port module this one went bananas. But I persevered and it’s finished with some dried tea – the brown granules and greenery.
Javis – shrub mixture added over dried tea leaves.I richer lighting shows off the simple two coat dry brush of burnt sienna with coffee colour dry brushA bit bendy
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.
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 siteI 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
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 cardLots of checking for warping and size matchesThe modular harbour gets the green lightThe 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.
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 drawerNew 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.
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……
If you need an english version it’s not too much to foto the five text sections which are conveniently sized and then select scan and translate options in your smart phone.
Also Chariobaude has an excellent WordPress blog which I discovered way back in 2017 covering fantastic painting of late Roman miniatures.
Fortunately John over at “just needs varnish” reminded me that Dave Stone’s challenge started at the beginning of July.
Last year I had a very fruitful time in fact my challenge ran into the end of September! It did not do my figure painting any favours though.
Yet I had so much scenery waiting to be done it proved to be a rich vein.
Well this particular ore vein is still rich.
Loads of possible scenery opportunities accumulating 😆Always read the instructions!I nearly chucked away the ridge tile – look carefully Some nice detail on my first mdf building Some clever design made construction easyI found this mdf model easier than the italeri church
So far that is two churches and a railway station finally out of their boxes and just about built.
Painting may be a stumbling block – I get quite hesitant about colours. Cold north or warm south…..
* Could be I have drawn loads of early pacers who then fade away……..
I wonder what else will come from the pit of scenery?
The thing about one hour wargames is it’s genuinely “pick up” attraction. If you want to throw dice, move figures and get that war game with a purpose feeling for minimal preparation, then I find it’s a winner.
Yes, the mechanisms are abstract but you have to compromise somewhere and Neil Thomas rules generally offer that blend of compromises I like.
In the first game the Royalists held the hill with some rookie blues and grays in actionThe royalists divide their forces to hold both enemy objectives The royalists include this new blue unitRoyalist artillery hold the town road The royalists are none other than DanesDanish volunteer horse make up the royalist cavalryMore Dane’s this time by HatStrelets Danish Royalist GuardsEverything hung on the defence of the town
Rebel forces enter the fray
A mixed brigade of cavalry The rebels mass their infantry before the town The royalists are caught outThe rebels quickly assault the town The royalists seek to outflank the rebel attackThe rebel cavalry attack the rookie blues royalists
Rebel victory
The rebel attack on the town is overwhelmingThe rebel cavalry destroy the royalist right wing infantry The rebel cavalry move on the second objective – the hillThe royalist defence stiffens around the town The rebel cavalry are destroyed Rebel infantry struggle in the townThe royalist cavalry rush to aid their compatriots in the town but it is too late
So the second battle ends in Royalist defeat. It’s all square and all to play for…..
The royalists needed to escape through the town and up the great road……
Rebels held the river line woods The rebel cavalry brigade – lucky toys and hat miniatures Irregular miniatures garibaldeansMore irregular miniatures garibaldeansStrelets rebel sharpshooters hold the town roadThe royalists pour forwards The royalists choose the remote river crossings on their left wing to make progress The royalists are peppered by the rebel skirmishers The royalists attack the townThe royalist left wing cavalry lead the way The rebels abandon the river line The royalists begin to make progress The rebel cavalry are swept awayThe rebels are fleeing pell mell Some royalists race up the great road The royalist cavalry take a beating getting to close to formed infantry The royalist cavalry break The last few royalist units must make good their escape up the great roadAgain the rebel infantry shoot well The last royalist infantry are driven away
And so victory to the rebels in the action and also the short campaign.
Today of course saw the end of 3 days of fighting at Gettysburg – the great Union victory which along with the capture of Vicksburg saw the war finally turn against the Confederate Southern States.
My latest fragment concerns books. Books figure strongly in my wargaming interests and tend to drive what I do more than say the internet in terms of projects. That’s mainly due to my pursuit of decent historical narrative.
In spite of my distracting magazine interests and recently significant book disposals, I am still book reading – it’s a key part of my hobby.
Last year I took several months to read “An Army at Dawn”. It is about the US Army written by an American exploring the impact of Operation Torch – the North Africa landings in 1942. Often overlooked because of its proximity to El Alamein, Stalingrad or Pearl Harbour this (rehearsal) campaign in my view meant that the Normandy landings went a lot smoother? And it enabled the Italian campaign which knocked Italy out of the war.
The author Rick Atkinson, is very readable and frankly for me the subject is very engaging: The ambiguity of the French, the Germans still confident, the Americans with endless resources yet lacking experience and the wily Brits trying to spin the events their way. And of course the Italians now perhaps feeling things were getting too close to home. All the while the native population were caught in the crossfire.
So the very first amphibious landings and combined operations by allied forces – s0me sailing directly across the atlantic ocean to attack the beaches: What could possibly go wrong? Pretty much everything. Fortunately the defenders were at sixes and sevens – Vichy French and later the Germans and Italians.
Mind you the Americans had been here before – about 125 years previously……
In parallel with all this my other book of interest is set in the nineteenth century and deals with the French crown between 1815 and 1850 – nothing happens I hear the cry! It was the long peace after all.
Well I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. Admittedly there are no major European wars between the Napoleonic and Crimean. And perhaps even then the Franco Prussian war is seen as the next big european event after the demise of Napoleon I, given what then followed.
What is fascinating is the continual story of French rule that throws up moments of high tension when events could have turned in different directions. Having read the book it feels like France was really permanently in revolution mode during this period as well.
Perilous Crown is an excellently written story of the events surrounding the successive reigns of Charles X last of the bourbon line then Louis Phillipe and it is his story of somehow surviving the ever volatile French realm that is the primary focus.
Author: Munro Price
Published: MacMillan
A couple of books appeared in a family clear out – not sure how they got there.
John Ahern’s railway modelling was inspiring in its day – I tried as a kid and failed to build realistic scenery for my model railway – wargaming was a much easier compromiseI bought and read this when it was published nearly twenty years ago – long enough for a reread I guessed, it didn’t take long as the text is an easy read and fairly romps along.
And the last book has proved a lucky charity shop find as well.
Great little read and 50p charity bargain, again it was quick read and the text was great – well put together yet the maps were awful.
Spring started with the leftovers of Analogue Hobbies Challenge 15
The Wargaming Erratic 