Tag: wargames

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Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VII low relief housing and a ditch

Last year I started painting my Low relief housing. I bought two of these terraces back in the 1970’s and somehow these bellona pieces have not fractured into pieces. They are injection moulded and were the “resin prints” of their time.

One terrace in basic coats sat on my first port module
Low relief was popular railway modelling idea taken up by bellona

So I gave them a go and I must say the sculpture is brilliant. They were fun to paint. You can still buy injection moulded models – amera sell them via eBay in the uk. Alas I haven’t seen any terraced buildings.

Two terraces book ended by my hovels Dutch buildings with EWM latex roadways and then the ditch
Natural morning sunlight catches the detail well

In front of them are some early war miniatures road sections (flexible latex) last year I painted them but didn’t like the finish so they were back in the mix for a dry brush.

Finally there is the ditch. Basically more packaging fell into my eye line and I immediately thought – that’s useful. This is new packaging (not from the mountain!) and made the back end of the challenge displacing some other contenders.

They required no preparation.

Galena students burnt umber is rich and oily giving good coverage on this very dense cardboard
The ochre coating was necessary but not too obvious before the brandy cream which was a semi dry application
Very pleased with the low reliefs and also with the roadway while the ditch was an out of the blue late late entry which has exceeded my expectations

I gave the packaging a coat of burnt umber then one of yellow ochre and then brandy cream! dry brush before an autumn variety of Javis static grass. The ditch water was done with Paynes grey tube acrylic and then a shade of paynes grey with some ivory white added as a top coat.

Final shot which shows the early morning in colour somewhere in Rugia plus Mr Varnishes armour! (you know who you are 😊)

Last entry for the scenery challenge is next up

Categories
Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VI bits and bobs

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 brush
A bit bendy
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
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
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

Le siège de Rome 537

La production de figurines, malgré les progrès immenses de l’impression 3D, est étrangement en déclin. Cela s’explique évidemment aussi par la guerre…

Le siège de Rome 537

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.

Categories
Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge

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 easy
I 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?

Categories
wargaming

One Hour Wargames and 2 more Sneedens

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.

These battles were prompted by my reading atlas of the civil war and discovering Robert Sneeden – a Union Cartographer. https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2025/06/05/a-game-wow/

In the first game the Royalists held the hill with some rookie blues and grays in action
The royalists divide their forces to hold both enemy objectives
The royalists include this new blue unit
Royalist artillery hold the town road
The royalists are none other than Danes
Danish volunteer horse make up the royalist cavalry
More Dane’s this time by Hat
Strelets Danish Royalist Guards
Everything 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 out
The rebels quickly assault the town
The royalists seek to outflank the rebel attack
The rebel cavalry attack the rookie blues royalists

Rebel victory

The rebel attack on the town is overwhelming
The rebel cavalry destroy the royalist right wing infantry
The rebel cavalry move on the second objective – the hill
The royalist defence stiffens around the town
The rebel cavalry are destroyed
Rebel infantry struggle in the town
The 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 garibaldeans
More irregular miniatures garibaldeans
Strelets rebel sharpshooters hold the town road
The 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 town
The royalist left wing cavalry lead the way
The rebels abandon the river line
The royalists begin to make progress
The rebel cavalry are swept away
The 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 road
Again 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.

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!