Category: wargaming

wargaming is everything from gaming on the table top with dice, painting figures, reading history, collecting figures, scenery and rules through to geography, politics, art, crafts and imaginative writing……..

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wargaming

Distractions

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.

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miniatures painting wargaming

AFV April what a mess part 2

“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.

Kits are not conducive to wargames painting targets………. And then I got to the bit where you source your own windows aaaaaargh. Repeat – always read all the instructions first, Repeat – always……..

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.

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miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25k: AHPC15 leftovers

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.

Three types of artillery on show
I have added to my Danish artillery
Irregular miniatures bell shako British do good service as Dane’s of the 1840’s
Guns were different to the Russian 1850’s version.
Full complement with earlier model to fore.
These are 1848 Duchy of Parma
Same manufacturer as the Dane’s
Same guns as the Dane’s
B and B Miniatures provided these chaps posing as 1848 Schleswig Holstein rebels.
They are actually 1870 Prussians
One 4 pounder horse gun and one 6 pounder field gun both rifled breechloaders
But it’s hard work getting pickelhaubes for the 1840’s and the figures come with the guns – waste not want not. At three feet I can live with the difference.
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miniatures painting wargaming

AFV April – What a mess

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.

A case of too dark base coat for the contrast- this model had a dark green undercoat first.

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.

This contrast looks promising even if my lazy base coat work is a disaster
The nuln oil looks well oily while skeleton horde would be ok on the right base colour! Black undercoat was fine though…..

Ho hum.

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wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25j Heretics

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).

Sir John Oldcastles element – in this case based for impetus on an 80mm frontage

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

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miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25i Fauxterre 1930 gets some guns

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.

You get 2 guns in the first to fight box
As you see these are actually bofors as corrected by John @ just needs varnish! Thanks John!

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.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=7736002987c1e4d1&sxsrf=AHTn8zpZL5vb59wU8O3DtCidKT_rs_sqEA:1744732019597&q=monk+bar+models&udm=2&fbs=ABzOT_CWdhQLP1FcmU5B0fn3xuWpA-dk4wpBWOGsoR7DG5zJBpwxALD7bRaeOIZxqOFEngykkUFPIfSG95hVJ80h7fwUu6EMmBKSWWi08kac6zK5TZKzbCqWqHpzv_yRXg8RuHXbOJF08P4hwwRASzXevtUn4rOuIYAMx1JwDHsfCLtO0gB6-DTOLZI0vr-mhijyp0PxBbFpaReezPtKmXsqHDG10bMWqg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiok4aisdqMAxWwSUEAHU0wFwIQtKgLegQIEBAB&biw=1166&bih=763&dpr=2#vhid=iydLDv04agxWHM&vssid=mosaic

Also from the same shop – the venerable airfix 6pdr with Bren carrier.

Bren carrier and 6 pdr A/T gun
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miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25h Klim class intra planet trader and patrol craft

During AHPC14 I got into modelling instead of painting and specifically building models from household recycling – cardboard and plastic. The net is repleat with simply magnificent models done this way. I thought why not have a go.

Skinflint Games was an early discovery….

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2023/08/08/hau-nau-haunebau-diy-flying-saucer/

https://skinflintgames.wordpress.com/2024/10/

Anyway back in October 2023 I started off my SciFi adventures on Fauxterre….

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2023/10/18/painting-pedestal-23x-tacfos-the-game-episode-3/

I started to collect bits together for some spacecraft only to see the idea fade during AHPC14 as WW2 models took centre stage including a white reconnaissance spitfire – my first aeroplane kitbash in years.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/

Well AHPC15 rejuvenated my modelling again. And so the scrapheap challenge spacecraft arrived – in fact two!

A Klim class rogue trader 036

First up was my take on the Red Dwarf TV series red spaceship – now mine is a “klim” class space freighter often used by rogues.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/02/from-johnb-filthy-lucre-or-wheres.html

Second was my Policing vehicle – a space customs machine in blue. Again its basis is a “klim” class frame!

An A7 404 DiVoc patrol craft

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/03/from-john-b-abyss-violence-oi-their.html

Into the bargain I managed to paint up some magazine “freebie” dwarves and hobbits. AHPC15 as with AHPC14 drew me away from my projects and regular painting. While that meant less progress with my chosen periods the change was as good as a rest – as they say.

Indeed I have tended to use these APHC challenges to experiment with painting and modelling methods. Also the AHPC participation has certainly speeded up some of my painting habits. And that must be a good thing for a slowcoach like me.

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miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25g Space Warriors of the Puls

Another entry from AHPC15. This time I was preoccupied with the challenge theme – Dantes Comedy where you had to descend each level into the abyss. Gluttony was the theme.

This is the link to my AHPC15 entry

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-john-b-28mm-space-marines-of-puls.html

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wargaming

The Painting Portrait 25f Logistics

AHPC15 not only saw me make progress with my mid C19th century armies. Much delayed Fauxterre 1930 or my Lockdown Bricks and Mortar Shop project actually got in on the act.

Back in Covid times I decided on a whim to try and build some WW2 armies by walking into shops and physically buying stuff! Yes I know this is a bit of an old technique nowadays. At the time the logic was “get out and about”.

As it happened I had found a book in a shop window and snapped it up by………walking in and buying it. At the time shopping was a weird but satisfying escape. Sold as a vintage item it was Charles Grant Snr’s Battle! Practical Wargaming (B!PW)

Now this book gave me a way into WW2 on the limited basis I was looking for. Also Grant was quite happy to use german and US kit for his Russian forces – in other words country kit for that country only was not that important (of course the Russians used any kit they could lay their hands as did the germans) and indeed his forces were RED v BLACK – pure fantasy. Ok so that meant Russians versus Germans in reality.

Now this fed my need for a “fantasy historical” WW2 set up. I would use the technical aspects of the period but mess up the actual forces involved and of course the countries would be make believe. Thats Fauxterre. Sorry no zombies or rayguns.

In keeping with a theme I had developed, Fauxterre 1930 started to take shape. Why 1930? Well I had on this particular journey become more and more interested in the early war set up and less and less the final years. This escalated into pre war when I started to look at aircraft. I was quite taken with the transition from biplane to monoplane. And before you know it I was looking at AFV technology.

Did you know – the fairy swordfish biplane flown by the British Royal Navy fleet air arm in the 1930’s was still in combat duty in summer 1945 armed with rockets! so much digression….

The net result is I am trying and failing to get Fauxterre 1930 off the ground. My Plastic Soldier Company US and Russian troops were my first choice for figures when it was Fauxterre 1940 and are fine for the early war period but somehow I don’t like the figures if I roll back a decade. I do like them but not for Fauxterre 1930! They work for Fauxterre 1940 so would be ok but that is parked for now.

On a trip to a toy show I picked up some bin end corgi trucks.

And before you know it I had added to my Fauxterre 1930 logistics kit.

This is a link to my AHPC15 entry.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/01/from-johnb-sinews-of-war-143-corgi.html

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wargaming

Spring Clean or Spring Board?

I suppose participation in the annual analogue hobbies painting challenge (No15 has just finished) has affected my normal year end musings.

AHPC15 started in December and finished in March. It meant I was heads down painting for that time – so no looking in the rear view mirror let alone out through the front wargamers truck windscreen at the turn of the year.

This maybe explains why I suddenly had the need to look at my plans for 2025.

Out of the blue I created a sharp pencil production tool.

A sensible flow

Really it’s a funnelling idea with the visual aim to get to the point!

Of course I have two versions already…..

Just chuck it all in

Of course the second image could be a virtual “log jam” with nothing getting through as they say……