The Shape of Things to Come

 

Not a full set of rules but a supplement including scenarios and ship and aircraft specifications etc.



First of all a very happy new year to all! I hope the festive period was kind to you and that you managed to do everything you set out to - unlike me that is....

I seemed to spend a lot of time making assorted Lego Star Wars models with my grandson as well as watching the Last Jedi and visiting Norfolk for the new year. I cannot say it was relaxing but what it lacked in repose it more than made up for in family fun.

Holly, my daughter, Ryley, my grandson and that well known bon vivant, wit and raconteur, the illustrious Mr Fox went to see the Last Jedi and all enjoyed it. Having said that I can understand why some people may be less than enthusiastic about it. Suffice it to say that certain elements will be incorporated in the traditional bantorial armoury routinely used by the discerning Wargaming film goer....

On the prezzie front I did rather well and so an ITunes gift card, an Amazon gift card and a copy of the Osprey hardback Hitler's Armies all featured - I am sure you are not interested in the socks, aftershaves or assorted toiletries I received as well. I have downloaded The soundtrack to Last Jedi and the film Barry Lyndon courtesy of ITunes and picked up a copy of '45 - a military history of the last Jacobite rebellion by Stuart Reid and also ordered a copy of La Ultima Cruzada by Bob Cordery.

There are a couple of themes surfacing here which I shall expand on.

The recent passing of Eric Knowles has affected me rather more than I would have expected. To be honest I have not seen him for some 30 years but he, and his wife Ivy were instrumental in getting me to join the Newham Wargames club and pretty much most of my life after leaving the Isle of Sheppey at the age of 17 when I moved to London started from that point. Lifelong friends and indirectly my wife all stemmed from that place and time. I know that all sounds very melodramatic but that is the truth of it. My enduring interest in naval wargames, the 18th century (admittedly on a ‘low light’ so to speak – mainly due to the painting required and my well known aversion to it….), WW1 ‘sideshows’ via Madasahatta and of course, the Ottoman Turks are all testimony to Eric’s enthusiasm, knowledge and encouragement tempered with a delivery that only an ex NCO can achieve…. 

That is some legacy. 

So, along with Barry Lyndon (and I can still remember Eric talking us through the battle scenes) I had previously acquired Rob Roy, The Last of the Mohicans and The Patriot. I think my IPad is going to be busy again. The 18th century games we used to fight used a cut down version of Charge! or more latterly a set called Frederick the Great. The cut down version of Charge! used half size units and Frederick the Great halved them again so infantry battalions ended up around 14 figures. Our 18th century games based on the Seven Years War in Europe so my interest in the wars in America and India really followed on from the Eric years but for sure the seed was definitely planted on the table top clashes of Rossbach, Minden and others. I have no idea as to how I would game these wars - the blocks offer a good alternative to figures - but suspect that my collection of fairly generic 18th century plastic Risk figures may yet see the light of day a la Kaptain Kobold and his Great Northern War armies.

Mention of La Ultima Cruzada leads me quite nicely into the acquisition you see above. I have long had an interest in the Spanish Civil War and rather fancied the naval side if only because of the vast difference in the two sides from a technical and competence perspective. Uneven sides make for better games in my experience so this should be a fun exercise. The number of models needed will not be many and 1/3000th will be the scale of choice with 1/600th scale aircraft where needed. Navwar produce all the ships I would need and let us not forget we can also include some Germans, Italians, the Royal Navy and France as well. Tumbling Dice produce aircraft for the period so it can be quite a tidy and self contained project.

 

The one thing I should have taken from Eric - and I am very conscious of my failings in this regard - is the old concept of focus. I am not in the habit of making new year resolutions but reckon that perhaps I should. How about 'sticking to the plan' for one?

 

Have a great 2018.

Back in 1936....

A Spanish Dreadnought of the Espana class - the smallest of the type ever built

Now that the painful part of deciding what I should be doing in respect of the 19th century has been settled it with a sense of relief that I am able to head back (or rather forward) to the pressing business in hand of the Spanish Civil War, or at least the naval portion thereof.

I have managed to complete the labels for the model bases and the ships are now under the file in preparation for the painting. Once these have been undercoated the rest of the job will follow pretty quickly - 1/3000th models are pretty straightforward to paint - even for me!

Y Viva Espana!

The Spanish Heavy Cruiser Canarias - similar to the British County Class - the sister ship of the Baleares

Well I didn't see that one coming! Actually that is not strictly accurate as it was one that was on the horizon to tackle at some point - the naval side of the Spanish Civil War in 1/3000th. I had overlooked this project on my earlier post as being on the 'to do' list and it only came to light when I had a tidy up of some notebooks. Contained therein was a list of the models I would need and the quantities thereof. A visit to see my grandson (who lives very close to Navwar) provided the necessary motivation and so the said models were duly acquired and are now awaiting the tender mercies of the paintbrush and the file.

I have been interested in the Spanish Civil War for a number of years, initially the land side, but as usual with many of my bright ideas it  never really took off. I acquired some models in 1/200th (for the land side) but never got very far with them and so off they went some years ago. I had also considered 20mm at one point but again nothing ever came of this. I suppose the real reason for this apparent 'no show' was probably down to being averse to having to produce both sides but this is no longer an issue as having to do this is almost obligatory for most of my ideas!

I would like to tackle the land dimension of the war at some point but in the meantime I will be happy to make use of the blocks rather than models. However, the naval side is far easier to undertake - at least in terms of the amount of material needed.

Much of the information I have for this mini project has been gleaned from Bob Cordery's 'La Ultima Cruzada' - A Wargamers Guide to the Spanish Civil War (2nd edition) coupled with my recently acquired copy of Conway's 1922 to 1946 and a few websites devoted to various aspects of the war.

As far as rules are concerned I will probably use the extension to my 1890 to 1920 set when ready and so I will have to think about getting a move on with them! Seriously though, in terms of numbers the actions I envisage will be fairly modest and so therefore ideal for solo purposes or even club night games. The big challenge will be in factoring in the human side of personal quality versus material quantity.

More to follow once I have reacquainted myself with the Spanish Civil War part of my library!

Minifigs Ships, The Balkan Arms Race and The Spanish Civil War

Readers of the blog will no doubt recall my mentioning the recent acquisition of a further quantity of the long out of production Minifigs 1/1200th scale WW1 ships. I will post some pictures in due course of these (also when I found the copy of the catalogue naming the models in question!) but I wanted to share at this early stage exactly what my plans are with this collection. The models are of ships that are British in origin but can easily be used for just about anybody for the period 1905 to 1920. Without exception, the models has suffered severe damage in respect of masts so these will be completely removed and perhaps pole masts added from piano wire or something similar.

The plan is to use these ships for a pair of Balkan fleets - based loosely on that of the Ottoman Turks and the Greeks. I say loosely because most of these ships the respective nationalities never owned; nor even ordered. I fully intend using these models in conjunction with Aeronef and so whilst not strictly being VSF it will be close enough as makes little difference!

So once again I shall be immersed in grey paint but that is not a problem - especially as I now have a further small project heaving over the horizon in the shape of a pair of 1/3000th scale Spanish Civil War fleets - Republican and Nationalist.

Rules wise I intend to use a variant of Axis and Allies: War at Sea as these are simple, fast playing and will enable a good club night game to take place.