Tag: italeri

Categories
wargame shows wargaming

2022 Partizan Perambulation

Partizan at Newark Showground made a welcome return for me in 2022. Last visited in 2019 this show or rather the pair – “the other Partizan” that happens in the Autumn, had both become a regular destination for me.

This years show built on my trips to Vapnartak (masks still very evident as well as much caution) and Hammerhead (obvious relief as constraints eased) so I should not have been surprised that Partizan was “many in earnest”. I felt there was a lot of catching up conversation going on, which maybe meant slightly less participation? Yet the enthusiasm was so obvious – people discussing, looking and yes playing games – simple pleasures throwing dice and moving pieces.

And there was the other simple pleasure of admiring other peoples work. Conversations seemed easier and the enjoyment palpable.

For once I had no shopping list – 2 years of on online buying had emptied my pockets? Well no – quite simply I have been sticking to my projects and actually painting my figures and even gaming. That has meant less erratic moments for the Wargaming butterfly.

First up are the games that were on show. I concentrated on just a few for photos. on reflection mats seemed to be a theme for me!

commercial mat – not to my liking but I liked this Pike and Shot display by Mr Mike Spence.
Plenty of eastern cavalry – polish?
I really enjoyed reading Robert Frosts The Northern Wars 1558 to 1721, where a lot of actions involved storming defences – as shown here.
Excellent read if you can get a copy.
The pikemen gather

The 40mm Mr Ian Smith and friends was a glorious display of Napoleonic soldiers and fantastic scenery.

Napoleonic infantry columns advance
Artillery drop into action
Cavalry advance beneath the walls of an imposing town
The British Light Infantry and redcoats appear in the distance
I really liked the town walls
Excellent attention to detail made this a model come alive

The Immortals presented an excellent medieval action

The terrain was the first thing that caught my eye which is terrible because the figures are absolutley fantastic. But the terrain caught my eye becuase it looked so good in itself!
The painting schemes used here are simply fantastic even though I know medievals lend themselves to being pictured.
On the hill English foot await the cavalry attack while admiring the fantastic detail of the grasslands that surround them.
Behind the french lines are some equally fantastic buildings of another town – all scratch built.
This table won the “mat award” for me.
It was all about the Bretons and their succession……….
nearby I think was Mr James Morris and Chums? anyway his dark ages game was fought over Sherpa fleece – it was good and he kindly showed the process of turning this product into a usable table mat – top marks

Over to another Eastern European battle – no details gathered

traditional boards slightly textured worked ok for me.

Fast forward to 1833 and Westbury Wargames with their “two brothers war” in Portugal where all manner of nations piled in for another go just a few decades after Wellington and his Portuguese allies had fought their way through to Spanish held France.

Traditional scenic boards with some nice set pieces and out of shot excellent buildings (again scratch built)

And thats it. Well I did get distracted by mats and terrain this year. The terrain mats are a gift for the time hungry and space hungry gamer which is the most common type of wargamer I suggest. I think it is more the case that, at shows where displays are a product of a different amount of effort the textured cloths seem to be the better bet for “a look”? However I have seen some tables where the “hirsute” cloth swamped the poor figures who looked as though they were wading through 2m high grass.

All in all the displays I found were excellent and inspired me to wargame, which is what it is all about.

What did the other big sell do to me – the trader tour!

I impulsively fell for some pendraken and warbases material – invariably so. Usual suspects being bases plus some dice.

Gamers grass seems to be winning my texture competition and I am going more bland as well. You live and learn – my Austrian rifleman have demanded sunglasses to tackle the luminous green grasses they are striding through………..

The man in the “corner” shop hailed from Birmingham and brought many an interesting box for the 1/72 gamer. They were at T22 in the trader zone – see map at the end.

I fell for this station……..

But was too late for its mate the Italian church – curses.

I took this warbases church instead
Long gone – these out of production miniart romans are not everyones cup of tea even if the artwork is enticing
even rarer the cavalry are very nice. Not sure when my interests will return to the late roman period?

If you cant wait for me to paint these then try visiting https://comitatusgaulois.wordpress.com/

Chariobaude offers up a great range of painted Late Romans.

My current preoccupation is middle nineteenth century where in plastics you get the “plastic soldier review” much disliked Austrians. Failing this in 20-25 mm its really just Irregular Miniatures at each end so to speak 20mm or 28mm. I have posted a picture of 20mm Neapolitans posing as 1848 French at Rome elsewhere on this blog.

Irregular 20mm Neapolitans posing as French 1849 at Rome.
Austrian Artillery are always useful while the Carabiniers will get head swops – wearing kepis or stovepipes to become something useful. Plastic Soldier Review liked these horsemen……

I will be back in the Autumn for the Other Partizan

The free figure was nice – I might even paint him.
A nicely laid out and well organised show – very well attended! A hobby back to some of its social life

Categories
1/72 scale figures 20/25/28mm figures new additions wargaming world war two

Operation Highstreet

One of my latest side projects is World War Two, like most projects I soon reach for the online supply chain. Lockdown has driven this approach even more.

And to start me off my first purchases were from Hannants and Models Hobbies. These companies have given me great value especially for projects where I buy all I need in one go.

But hang on I was/would be buying mainstream stuff, not obscure or discontinued lines. And this was to be a side track slow burn project. So bulk buys would not be the order of the day.

Then it occurred to me that I could go out of my way, with lockdown easing, to visit real hobby shops.

I also decided my interest would be more early war, ideally more inter war era. Just to make life difficult again, this is not the popular end of WW2. Yet this was a fantasy ww2 happening on Fauxterre so anything goes and flexibility is the watchword.

Ok so far, but hobby shops tend to stock the popular, as in, that’s loads of late war armour with a preponderance of German kit.

And then I had another brainwave. After going through online availability I realised I had a massive choice. I would just buy the cheapest stock available in dribs and drabs.

This random approach really started to appeal. It would also make this project different again.

Such an approach interestingly is increasingly not online (and certainly not ebay) + white van man, despite Amazons best endeavours. Don’t get me wrong, online has been fantastic for choice and it still offers great value and even ebay can give you amazing bargains (the effort required though has changed).

So I decided – cut out the postal costs. I would buy piecemeal and when other activities had paid for my journey.

Then if a shop turned up I would go in and see what was available.

This actually fed my Fauxterre ideas. The opponents are both struggling to resource their forces. The parallel for WW2 is the Russians. They took various kit from the USA, France and Britain before getting their own plants working to meet demand. And the Germans reused thousands of captured kit. Probably the most useful panzer they had early on was actually the Czech built 38T? The Russians also benefited from the US inventions of Christie that ultimately led them to the T34 as I understand it.

So a bit of history bashing and Fauxterre sees two protaganists poorly armed going to war with essentially inter war/early war kit and with inter war mentalities.

Next up was – which forces to use – given I had decided no german kit.

I chose the Russians simply because this whole sidetrack project was started by Charles Grant and his Battle Gaming book from 1977 – a charity shop surprise discovery.

Airfix came up often as the low cost option online and seeing as they had made Russians, the very ones in Charles Grant’s book, so that was it. Only they don’t make them any more and old sets are now online and vintage and with a price to match!

In the shops its allied west or german it seems.

After some wrangling I decided I would stick with the Russians and that led me to The Plastic Soldier Company and their good value sets. The Russians kit would be opposed by American kit with splashes of any other kit I liked, while playing that “buy cheap in a real shop” game.

I have made some progress and here are my first kit builds.

ok the PSC gaz trucks work, venerable bren carrier + 6 pounder is cheap and the semovente by Italeri are good value. The jeep and gun was a failure – I assumed I was getting two jeeps not two build choices – look harder before you leap next time. The mountain gun – well the gun dates from 1920 so its just the carriage thats a bit modern.

Lets see how I get on with this slow burn side track project.