May: Dave's Parade....Part 2

Imperial mounted troops - from left to right I have 8, 20 and 8 plus an officer and a bugler. Note the chipping on the bases and the truly huge 40 mm square for the camel corps (and I am not sure about the camel furniture but it looks really nice!)!

I have spent some time today surveying the newly acquired WW1 Middle Eastern collection - and am even more delighted than when I collected it yesterday! I have counted the models in the collection and have come up with the following:

554 foot figures
6 artillery pieces
5 limbers and teams
77 horse mounted figures (cavalry and mounted officers)
50 Camel mounted figures
2 supply wagons and teams
1 mule train
2 armoured cars

This is a staggering collection in anybodies language but there are a few minor problems to be overcome. To begin with, roughly 60 percent of the collection is painted to a professional standard with the quality of the others ranging from a good gaming standard downwards. Now you could say that I am a fine one to talk having purchased the entire thing ready painted but the difference in quality is quite noticeable. I have a plan to help with this though. I shall be rebasing the entire collection - this will be a mammoth task for sure - so that it looks more uniform. The models at present are mostly on galvanised steel which is OK but it makes for a very thin base. I prefer mine with a little more depth as I routinely pick figures up by the base rather than touching the model so this is an important consideration as far as I ma concerned. The figures are currently on 20 or 40 mm frontage which I will stick to although for reasons that will become clear in time I will be looking to base the figures in multiples - probably 2 foot on a 40 by 20 or 2 mounted on a 40 mm square. I will having infantry units consisting of 4 bases and mounted of 3 - each base having two models on it. This has been designed around using Hexon tiles which will accommodate the units in the sizes described.

The ANZACs. The Lighthorseman at the top of the picture has some 20 companions and there are 102 foot figures with the two machine guns.

The Imperial forces - note the Indian machine gun (one of two - with the British also have a pair of Vickers finest)

The Turks - and there rather a lot of them. There are two types of cavalry and the gentleman sporting the red fez is the only such attired figure in the collection. He makes a great NCO though!

The troops of the Asia Korps. German infantry, artillery and machine guns used to bolster the Turks in Palestine.

Of the entire collection I would say that the Imperial infantry needs the most work. The Indian troops are fine but are not painted to the same style as the machine gun crew but I reckon this could be easily corrected. As you can see the bases have taken a bit of a bashing over the years but that could be easily rectified. the difficulty will be getting the models off the bases but I will give that some thought in due course.

I shall be aiming to get the rebasing finished for the first part of the collection by September so that I will be able to commence gaming with them during the autumn.

Conspicuous by their absence are the 30 mounted Arabs - 15 on horse and 15 on camels. This is due to them being pretty grim looking and I am planning on repainting these at the earliest opportunity.

May: Dave's Parade....Part 1

Not quite what I meant but this post was born in May and will feature a parade - well sort of, in due course that is....

The month of May was a very good one for me from a work perspective. As you may (or may not) know I am currently working within financial services recruitment and was delighted to have placed two and a quarter people (the quarter was my share from helping someone else with a particularly tricky role) in new positions - by that I mean jobs. The end result of all this was that my sales billing target for the month was smashed by a record-breaking margin. Anybody that works in a sales environment will be aware of the use of incentive schemes whereby when certain thresholds above your target are reached prizes are given out to a stipulated value. By virtue of my successful month I qualified for the top prize; specifically the cash equivalent.

I mention all this because it does have a direct bearing on this post as we (SWMBO and I) decided that whilst the main bulk of the prize monies (and this is separate and in addition to the commission earned) would be used for our forthcoming holiday a portion could be used by me for whatever I wanted in reconition of the amount of hard work I have put in. Naturally gaming bits and pieces figured prominently but I was also toying with the notion of acquiring a tablet to support my mobile computer needs. Then it happened - an 'Oooh shiny' moment of such earth-shattering, buying the winning lottery ticket, 'watcher-in-the-skies-when-a-new-planet-appears' proportions that everything in my gaming universe was been turned on its head. As an aside this will also the reason I will be missing Broadside.

So what exactly has caused this great conundrum? 

A taster of what is to come - and boy oh boy I am delighted with this little lot!

Essentially I have acquired a previously owned 3/4 professionally painted metal 20mm WW1 Middle Eastern collection consisting of horse, camels, foot, guns, machine guns, limbers, wagons, command, armoured cars and pack mules. There is nigh on 700 models in this collection - Tumbling Dice for the most part, with some Dixon draft horses used with the wagons - and are mostly (the 3/4 mentioned above) professionally painted in a early Dallimore style (black lining and bold shading) complete with textured bases. The figures are based for storage in six box files, all lined with magnetic paper so the entire collection stays in place when on the move. The figures are primarily based individually with machine guns and artillery on larger bases. Some of the earlier units are on multiple bases whilst the camelry are on massive bases which will certainly need changing. 

The forces represented are the Turks, Germans, Imperial, Indian and Australian with some camel and horse mounted Arabs. I will be holding a photo shoot of each force in due course. The significance of this collection for me is that in one fell swoop I shall be able to tackle all those games that had only existed in my imagination or had been fought using the blocks. If I am completely honest the likelihood of me ever acquiring a such collection using conventional methods - that is buying the bare metal and painting the same - is extremely unlikely and probably impossible. Having said that, there are a couple of units that will be repainted by yours truly - the Arabs and Indians to begin with.

To say that I am delighted with this collection would be putting it mildly. I now have the wargaming wherewithal to undertake not only one off battles in a period I am passionately interested in but also to realise, at long last, all those ideas kicking around for campaign ideas.

The models in the collection are probably around 30 years old and as a result there is a degree of routine maintenance required. the biggest issue is around the basing as some of the models are not based as per the bulk of the collection so some degree of rationalisation will be required. Some of the models will need to be rebased completely which will have the knock on effect of meaning that everything will need to be painted in a uniform fashion. I am not fussed by this, in fact it will help to tie in those models that are not painted in the main style. I often find that a uniform basing style can help units to blend in - even when they are painted using different techniques.

In the meantime though....

The current frenzy of warship painting will continue unabated with the only change being to the long term plan in respect of ship acquisitions. For reasons that will become obvious I will need to add some of the older kit to the two fleets - protected and armoured cruisers and pre-dreadnought battleships mainly - as the theatre the Middle Eastern collection will be used in will feature much in the way naval activity.

It may have been Confucius that said something about 'May you live in interesting times' - mine have certainly gotten a whole lot more so!

The State of the Union Address

The last of the German capital ships for the WW1 1/2400th scale are currently under the brush and I am planning on having these completed for Saturday. Sunday will then see me tackling the last of the Royal Navy for the current phase. Between the two sides there are 12 ships to paint with the 13th being the Goeben for the Turks. Panzerschiffe produce a number of models for the Turkish navy so I shall be adding these with my next order - possibly with some Black Sea Russians. In the fullness of time I will tackle some of the Mediterranean navies but there is no hurry at present.

The big news though is that due to a rather happy circumstance - which I shall unveil on Sunday - I will not be attending Broadside this year. I am really disappointed by this but the reason I am missing it will more than make up for it.

This will be, to (mis) quote E.E. 'Doc' Smith - awesomely awesome in its awesomeness....;-)

Bigger Guns and More of Them

I managed to finish the latest batch of RN capital ships over the weekend and also managed to make a start on the final batch of capital ships for this phase of the WW1 1/2400th collection. The models are of a missing battle cruiser - H.M.S. Queen Mary - and a further six ships from three further classes.

An unmodified H.M.S. Queen Mary - the centre funnel is untouched and she does not have a stern walk either. My conversion from the original Lion casting was not a great success!

Two of the Orion class - the first of the 13.5" armed battleships. This was least favourite casting from the Stonewall range due to the rear facing tripod around the fore funnel being horribly moulded. I had to remove it for this reason and it was a fairly tricky undertaking to do so.

A profile shot of the lead ship of the class.

Two of the R class battleships armed with eight 15" guns. These were intended as a cheaper version of the Queen Elizabeth class but were slightly better in terms of the armour layout. However, they were designed with coal fuel in mind and were only capable of around 21 knots meaning they were designed solely to operate with the battle fleet.

H.M.S. Revenge. This is not a bad casting but it did need a lot of cleaning up.

The magnificent Queen Elizabeth class. These were designed as fast battleships to support the battle cruisers and with eight 15" guns were able to lend critical supporting fire to Beatty's battle cruisers at Jutland. The class went on to serve with distinction during WW2 where H.M.S. Barham was sunk by submarine in the Mediterranean.

H.M.S. Warspite. I think it is safe to say that the Royal Navy and the tax payer certainly got their monies worth from this particular battleship although the view of her crew when circling out of control in front of the High Seas Fleet at Jutland may not have been quite so rosy!

The recent arrival of the twelve models from Panzerschiffe means that I am now very close to completing the dreadnought phase of the collection. I have some 5 German and 8 RN vessels based and undercoated with the Germans being tackled first of all. I am aiming to have these finished by the weekend so that I can then start the last of the RN ships.

There are of course still the 56 destroyers to tackle and the clock is ticking!

The Arrival of the Panzerschiffe Order

WW1 warships straight out of the box. The front four are the Germans (with the Seydlitz cast in very light grey epoxy resin) whilst he RN bring up the rear - battle cruisers on the left and battleships on the right - the largest of which being H.M.S. Agincourt

Hurrah! After a mere 17 days my order from Panzerschiffe has arrived. Overall the style and quality is as I expected with a basic level of detail but certainly more than adequate for my needs. They actually fit in very nicely with the Stonewall models so the collection can be completed in my chosen scale of 1/2400th without having to resort to GHQ and C in C for the extra models. This is just as well as they would work out rather more expensive!

S.M.S. Seydlitz - complete with, ahem, battle damage....The bow has not come out in the mould and the gun barrels on the rear turrets have broken on the left hand side. Replacements have been requested although I could, at a pinch, fix them myself.

A couple of the models have some mould issues so I will be acquiring replacements - I could probably fix the issues myself but is pressed but to be honest I would rather have the casting replaced. They are pretty good for gaming pieces and I will happily add to the collection in due course. Sharp eyed readers will have noticed that I have purchased two Moltke class battle cruisers - well I will need to rebadge one for the Turks!

H.M.S. Agincourt (left) and Erin - both of which were being built for the Turkish navy but requisitioned under Churchill's orders in 1914.

I now have everything I need for the first phase of this collection and have some 69 models left to paint over the next three weeks.

Best get a move on then!

Doing exactly what it says on the tin....

I managed to sneak in an hour or so with a paintbrush yesterday but it was fraught with peril! My trusty tin of Humbrol 'Mast Oak' has finally expired. This tin of enamel paint was probably around 30 years old and had been rescued with the application of some thinners on several occasions but when I opened it the mass of paint had finally turned into liquefied mess of granules with little covering capacity.

I had seen this coming and indeed, had discussed the same with Mr Fox who very kindly acquired some Vallejo paints in the appropriate shade to be collected in due course.

This did not resolve the immediate problem so I decided to have a rummage in my paint storage (the 'Old Tins home' if you like....) to see if I had another tin. As suspected, the search drew a blank BUT, I did manage to find another Humbrol Authenticolour that could feasibly be used - certainly the shade was close enough. The new tin (actually it had been opened which could have spelled disaster as I have no idea when I last used it!) is yet another Humbrol Authenticolour, this time from the Ancients set - 'Unbleached Linen'.

This is absolutely close enough to the original shade as not to present any problems and the paint merely needed a good stir to be ready for action. Panic over and so I was able to tackle the wooden decking for the next 7 ships for the Royal Navy with a view to finishing this bunch by the weekend.

A Funny and Thoughtful Old Weekend

Funny as in I was not able to get anything done that I planned to but I did manage to get some things tackled that I was not expecting to...

We had nothing specific planned for the weekend (with the exception of tomorrow so I was hoping to get some more work done on the 1/2400th scale ships. Sadly this was not to be but by way of compensation SWMBO and I were able to get to our local boot sale where the two titles above were acquired - each of which costed the paltry sum of 50p making my expenditure the princely amount of £1!

One for sheer inspiration value!

Redcoats and Richard Holmes need no introduction from me and so his overview of the period of the Red-coated British Soldier is a welcome addition to the library. The much maligned, usually despised but incomparable British 'other rank' forms the subject matter of the title - from the taking of the King's shilling, barrack life, active service, punishment and life under the colours. This is one I shall savour.

Something for a possible project in due course - I have always fancied using an Arab Conquest army ever since WRG 6th edition. As I recall you could field the entire army as Irregular A fanatics with the morale advantage of a sacred banner!

In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland is another kettle of fish entirely. The book provides an overview of the 'end of the ancient world' - more specifically the years following the withering of the Roman Empire (in the West) and the aftermath of the early Arab conquests. It is not a military history as such although naturally this features during those turbulent years. I have long been interested in the Arab Conquest so this will provide a welcome backdrop to the period.

The only other things of note this weekend is that I have decided to paint my 6 ft by 4 ft folding gaming table in the same shade as that which I am using for my 1/2400 th models - cobalt turquoise. It will not be gridded though. I have also come to a decision about the rules I shall be using as well....;-)