1941 on the Russian Front

Now this is something that looks very intriguing. Zvezda, the Russian figure manufacturer has produced a WW2 game based on Operation Barbarossa in 1941 with not only a cracking looking starter set but also the supporting models available separately. Not only does the game hardware look very nice - I was taken with the choice of 1/100th for the vehicles and the fact that they have concentrated on the early war rather than the usual late fascination with Tigers, JS 2s and such like. The booster packs of infantry are available at Modelzone for £2.75 a pack and contain 10 infantry (two squads) or 2 machine guns and crew together with all the bases and game cards etc. They are made from what seems like a hard plastic; or rather a harder plastic than the usual soft plastic used for 20mm figures. Interestingly the infantry are scaled at what looks like 20mm although I could be wrong. The game uses a hex grid (hurrah) and judging by the website advert uses handfuls of dice for combat resolution.

I must confess that the Russian Front early war has not really ever been my period (despite taking part in a really enjoyable Barbarossa based campaign many years ago using Command Decision) but I would be willing to have a stab at it using such a game set up. The vehicles look particularly appealing - especially the T26 tank. The website is http://art-of-tactic.com/archives/101 so have a look and see what you think.

Long distance information, get me Memphis, Tennessee....

The Battle of Memphis depicted above was the second of two naval battles fought on the Mississippi and it saw the destruction of the Confederate River Defence Fleet by a combined Union squadron of gunboats and rams. The thing that caught my about this picture was the fact that the Confederate ram in the foreground has a gun mounted on the bow and the stern. As yet, my models do not and so I shall need to retroactively add some deck mounted artillery. The two General Price models I am working on (progress on which has been delayed simply due to work) are nearing completion and would have had a pair of deck guns mounted in any event but I am on the horns of a dilemma with this. Should I order some deck guns from Peter Pig from their Hammerin' Iron range or should I scratch build them? I have an idea of how to make these and will experiment over the next few days, failing that, an order to Peter Pig will swiftly follow.

We shall see....

A Tale of Two Ships

I freely admit that I have cheated somewhat in my choice of this particular ship for my ACW naval scratch building project. The reason is quite simple - she started life as a Confederate ship, was sunk and then salvaged and then became a Union ship! I like the design and the two models of her I am making are slightly up scaled versions of the three side wheelers I have already built for the Union rams.

The top picture shows her as the USS General Price whilst the bottom shows her as the CSS General Sterling Price. The models are nearly finished in respect of the construction (and will be pictured and posted in due course) and all I will need to do in the future is to ensure that they don't line up on opposite sides in the same action!

Mango and Minnie - the new additions

We have been and gone and done it and yesterday acquired a mother and daughter feline combo as new additions to the household. Our remaining cat, Maisy, has been pining dreadfully since she lost her partner in crime Misty, a short while ago. Originally we had three cats but lost Marmite to old age a couple of years ago and Misty of course, last year. Originally the plan was just to get one cat to keep Maisy company but these two were inseparable so we took them both on from our local cat rescue service. Mango (18 months old in the lower picture) is the mother and and is very nervous although has already found her preferred spot in the office whilst Minnie (6 months old and in a rare moment of repose in the top picture) is totally fearless and is very keen to explore her surroundings (including behind the books on my bookshelves!).

Needless to say that the two of them took up most of the weekend so any thoughts about building ships went out of the window although I was able to acquire another 'Town in a bag' from Past Times in their sale.

I will be building during the week though so will hope to have something ready for next weekend.

'Conquer or Die!' - A South American Diversion?

Well this one came out of nowhere and no mistake! You may recall I had mentioned that I had received a £20 gift card for use at Waterstones for Christmas from my son. I have looked in all three of the branches nearest to where I work and to be honest I was not hugely impressed at any the sale stock. Succumbing I suppose to the inevitable 'judging a book by its cover' or my insatiable appetite for obscure conflicts I spotted the above title. Written by Ben Hughes and published by Osprey the book is concerned with the British involvement in the wars of liberation in South America just after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. In particular, the aid given to Simon Bolivar and his campaigns to liberate Gran Columbia from Spain.

I must confess that the subtitle of 'A tale of defiance, courage, disasters and man-eating crocodiles' had certainly pricked my curiosity and the scale of the operations depicted appear to lend themself to gaming quite nicely - there is even a naval perspective for aficionados of the wind and water variety. In short then, it would appear to be ideal gaming material and I will report back when I have read it.

At this stage I cannot in all honesty see myself acquiring any kit for the period although given the huge amount of Napoleonic 20mm plastics available it would probably not be too difficult to cobble up something - I am almost certain that Hat Industrie produce Spanish Guerillas and many of the other uniforms could probably be 'painted over' existing figures. I will investigate this further but very much on a low priority basis.

As a postscript I should perhaps point out that the seed of an interest in this era (I am also sure there is a Sharpe novel set in the period) began back in 1979 when Eric Knowles managed to sell me (and some other equally wide eyed and naive gamers!) some 25mm Minifigs Napoleonic Spanish irregular lancers (complete with the customary wide bottomed horses) from some old stock from his shop - The New Model Army Limited in Manor Park, East London. As I recall the figures were wearing broad brimmed hats and as to what became of them I cannot recall. The plan to game the South American Wars of Liberation never progressed further than that despite the astute piece of salesmanship from Eric in clearing some old stock!

Hexon Part 2 - with added Tubing

Hurrah!! I at last took delivery of my set of Hexon Green Flocked terrain tiles last night and very nice they are as well. As with the blue set I acquired earlier I ordered a set of 10 single tiles to go with the boxed set so that I can 'fine tune' the set up where needed. Initially I shall be using some of the tiles with the blue set for my ACW river based activities but I also have a number of other ideas for later in the year. Memoir 44 in 20mm springs to mind - not that I need an excuse for raiding the range of 20mm kits from Armourfast....;-) The picture above represents what can be achieved using this system with, for me anyway, the added advantage of being hexed!

My order of plastic tubing from The Model Dockyard http://www.model-dockyard.com/ arrived this morning produced by the well known supplier of plastic card etc Evergreen. I opted for three sizes - 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" diameter - and this will give me sufficient variety in terms of turret production. I will be tackling the monitors for the ACW project but not until I have managed to complete the next 9 models giving me 24 in all.

I have a timetable for this project in that I want to be painting the first 24 models by the end of the month with a view to play testing the rules (which exist as a number of hastily scribbled notes and post-its) during February.

Thats the plan anyway....

'I Saw Three (More) Ships come Sailing by....'

I realise that the Christmas Carol type title may not now be wholly appropriate but given that we are still in the 12 days of Christmas I thought it would suffice for the subject in hand! The next three models for my scratch built ACW project have now been constructed and they are typical of the small river steamers converted into rams by the Confederates in their famous 'River Defence Fleet'. The basic plan with a ram was of course, to steam at full speed into an enemy ship and use the bulk of the vessel and its velocity to cause fatal damage. As such then, ships classed as rams usually had reinforced hulls (often with additional timber or, in the Confederates case, bales of compressed cotton) and a occasionally a large metal weight/spur/beak fixed to the bow to punch through the enemy hull. In a confined space such as a winding river a ram could be an effective weapon especially given the slow rates of fire of much of the shipboard weaponry in use. Both sides used the ram and indeed, had 'fleets' of such vessels - well squadron sized formations to be accurate!

I have now built 15 vessels for this project and have decided to start painting when I have finished 12 ships for each side - 24 models in total. The rationale for this is simply because having built a usable variety of types for each side will give me greater flexibility when it comes to play testing the rules I eventually use. I have another 9 models currently under construction and want to finish these before the end of the month in order to start using them. Alongside the construction and research for such an undertaking is also the rules question - more of which to follow in a later post.