Category: wargaming

Categories
Mythical Realms wargaming

A Rugian seaplane cruises down the east coast…

I was gifted this seaplane in a poor state. It was found in a clearance box at a car boot sale.

Some minor repairs to the floats struts plus my first ever plane support – magnet and all, then my current favourite background thrown in for good measure.

Fauxterre 1930 is my “nearly mechanised” campaign – long in the planning with little progress on the armies.

Essentially Rugia is under attack and their coastal command have had to draw in naval resources to cover potential invasion activity by their arch enemy Gombardia.

No idea about the kit or the plane modelled. I thought about a repaint but for now it’s fine for my solo campaigning – only my eye is offended if at all.

Who knows I might even actually build another plane after last year’s (2023/24) inaugural camomint 1939 reconnaissance spitfire in AHPC14.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2024/01/from-lorenzo-reach-for-sky-camomint.html

Onwards and in this case upwards!

Categories
wargaming

A Game Wow!

When I think about it this first half of 2025 has like 2024 been dominated by AHPC – analogue hobbies painting challenge. By contrast I managed only two shows yet one yielded one of the few games I have played.

That was a cowboy shootout using homemade rules…..

It’s was fun – quick and lethal
Sparse yet effective as were the rules!

Not surprisingly it was Hammerhead at Newark.

Then I had a game of “what a cowboy”. My opponent loved “what a tanker” and reasoned WAC should be as enjoyable. Well that proved not quite the case. We will play again but it has slipped down the list.

Actually there is no list and until today my gaming had been quite limited.

Then I had a spur of the moment, moment no doubt brought on by quite a bit of reading about battles fought.

In this case ACW – I am reading western theatre actions at the moment.

I also have been reading my Colorado purchase – a soft cover book of maps showing the whole ACW war.

In the book are some contemporary maps by a certain Robert Knox Sneeden. He was a Union mapmaker who not only spent time as a confederate prisoner but was also a watercolour artist. Clearly he had a good eye! And by good fortune his maps and diaries have survived.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_showing_a_battle_ground_at_Kelly%27s_Ford,_Virginia,_17_March_1863.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

So taken with his work was I that I simply made an entry for today’s game in his style.

I played using one hour Wargames book, rules and scenario plus solo options for set up. Figures were what I fancied fielding!

Categories
wargaming

Distractions 3

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.

A sunny day at Fort Carson

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 travelled thousands of miles across oceans and lands inevitably to buy a book in a supermarket…….

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.

Categories
wargaming

Distractions 2

Frank over at tankrants asked for some pics of the railway.

Here are a couple.

Seen in better days – Putting batteries in the wrong way does no good for these trains – this one has gone to the scrap heap for now. And as it happens the tracks have been abandoned and lifted-that’s gardeners for you 😂
Leaves on the line – as usual and straight tracks are never straight- yep this track gets trodden on and kicked about regularly.
Ok so this is not my back garden but it is a real loco sat near the route of the Union Pacific as it crosses the Rockies west of Denver.
Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
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.
Categories
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.

Categories
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

Categories
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