Valentine MK II Infantry Tank.

Now then,

I have recently finished off my Valentine tank for the western desert.

Add caption

I have continued with the Caunter scheme as I really like how it looks.

For markings I have taken a bit of artistic license once again, but after spending a few hours online and looking through my books, it seems almost haphazard how tanks were marked up in the desert.

So I went with what looked cool.

This is a resin model from blitzkrieg miniatures,  but purchased from the Perry miniatures website.

A solid chunk of resin, and minimal clean up meant that this tank was completed in a single evening.

Highly recommended!

Cheers for now,
Stig.

Marmon Herrington Armoured Car MK III.

Now then,

Continuing with my ongoing western desert force, I've now painted up my Marmon Herrington armoured car.

I've always liked this vehicle, very old  fashioned looking, but looks quite sturdy at the same time.

Apparently it was very well liked by the crews, as it was reliable and easy to maintain.

This is an excellent model from Perry miniatures.

Again I have painted it up in the earlier caunter scheme, and taken a bit of artistic license with the markings.

So there we go, another step closer to finishing my 8th army project for bolt action.

Thanks for stopping by,

Stig.

Test game Bolt action in the western desert 1942.

Now then,

We recently played our first game of Bolt Action V2 at the Old Guard wargames club. We played a test game at around 600 points per side.

Set in North Africa in 1942, the British forces of the 8th army took on Rommels Afrika korps. I wont go into too much detail here as I have forgotten what happened when etc, but.....

The not great....

The only problem we really encountered was the difficulty in taking on vehicles. It seemed that you really had to be very lucky to damage one, and we beside trying to take one out in close combat. I managed to destroy the SDKFZ251c in the end but it was a lucky shot and only after trying for turn after turn. My Bren carrier was a terror on the battlefield zipping about and machine gunning anyone foolish enough to be caught in its line of sight..... very frustrating for my opponent....

The good stuff.

Overall we really enjoyed the game, the dice activation meant that both players are constantly active and engaged in the game. The rules are simple enough to pick up fairly quickly but have enough depth to make for an interesting game, while not massively historical, still great fun.

Bolt action is certainly a game we will be playing more of in the future, hopefully the club will get on board and it will become a club joint effort, who knows we may put on a display game at some of the northern games shows.....

Thanks for taking a look,

Cheers,

Stig.

Bolt Action V2. THE WESTERN DESERT.

Now then,

Unfortunately I accidentally deleted my earlier post on my bolt action project, the hazards of touch screen tablets.... or just being a numpty.

Anyway...

At the Old Guard wargames club, we have mostly decided to do bolt action in the western desert, zooming in and looking at the battle of Gazala.  With 8 club members getting involved already it may well be a demo/display game in the future.

My contribution will be a reinforced platoon of the 4th East Yorkshire Regiment, part of 150 brigade.

Heres what I've got done so far.

Heres the basic platoon.

Platoon commander and radio op.
Boyes anti tank rifle team.
2 inch mortar team.
3 sections of 8 men, including LMG.

I also have an artillery observer team and a senior officer.

 Bren carrier.

I've painted this in the earlier caunter camouflage scheme.

Its marked up as belonging to th anti tank regiment (artillery).

It will be used to tow my 6 pounder Anti tank gun.

 I have taken a bit of artistic licence with the markings on the 6 pounder.

I'm not sure if the guns were marked up in this way in the desert, but rule of cool won.

Another look at the bren carrier. I'm experimenting with weathering and chipping effects,  just using very basic techniques.... basically a sponge!

That it for now, thanks for having a look.

Stig.

Panther G and Puma Fixed!

Now then,

I have spent a bit of time over the last day or so going through my WW2 collection, and my Panther and Puma were still sticky from the varnish that was applied in 2014!!

I fixed the problem by putting on  a fresh coat of matt varnish, A simple fix....Thank god for that...

 The Battlefront model comes with 2 turrets, so depending on what you want in your force, you can have either the:

Sdkfz 234/1 Armed with a 20mm cannon, and a coaxial MG.

or

Sdkfz 234/2 PUMA.
An up armoured version, with a fully enclosed turret, armed with a 50mm AT gun

Loads more to come!!

Cheers for looking,
Steve

First Bolt Action Game

Now then,

The Youth surprised me this morning, when as he was going out the door to school, he asked if I could set up a game for when he gets in!!!  He wants to be the Soviets, which is fine by me.

Gaming with non gamer's or young uns!

Here's my take on it. The most important thing is preparation. To that end I have made some bits and bobs, to make things as easy as possible. Obviously the armies are sorted out, points worked out and reference sheets all done and ready.

Pin markers. These are actually blast markers that I made for epic, but they will serve nicely I think.

Dice cup. I couldn't find anything else, so my "Dads Army" teacup will have to do!

 The cup easily hold about 20 of my homemade BA dice.

German platoon, Pl HQ, 3 squads Grenadiers, MMG team, and a sniper team.

Soviet forces. Pl HQ, Free 12 man conscript squad, 2 LMG squads, 1 10 man SMG squad, MMG squad Light Mortar team and a sniper team!

The massive stone Die, turn marker!.

The mission we will play will be Scenario 2 from the rulebook, Maximum attrition. This one sounds like it will provide suitable carnage. The game needs to as straightforward as possible, so no extra rules etc.

In this mission, no forces are set up initially, half your troops are in reserve and the other half are in the first wave. When troops receive an order, they move onto the table, with either an advance or run.

The beginning of the game saw both sides running into position, The German platoon commander ordered his MG42 team over to his left, to cover that side and the remaining forces moved into the center. The Soviets hastily moved their support weapons into position, with the Soviet sniper taking up a position ready to threaten the MG42 next turn.

The Soviet sniper got the first shot off, and shot one of the MG42 team,  placing a pin marker on it. The return fire was way off its mark. The rest of the troops on both sides moved onto the table, or moved into
position ready for next turn.

The MG42 team took another casualty from sniper fire, before the remaining gunner went to ground. It was to stay that way for the rest of the game, all the while harassed by the sniper. On the soviet side, combined rifle fire and a little bit of help from the light mortar pinned down and hampered the Grenadiers.

The game turned into a long range exchange of fire with the Soviet forces taking heavy casualties, but in the end Soviet manpower overwhelmed the Germans and by games end the German platoon was in a desperate position and withdrew.

Thoughts

The game flowed along at a good pace, despite it being our first game, and trying to teach it to the lad, however he still beat me in the end, the little git. We got a few of the rules wrong, such as order tests for pinned troops etc, but it was good to push some figures about and roll some dice!

He wants another game tomorrow too, we have decided on a Spartan vs Athenian battle using basic impetus.

Cheers
Steve

Cant see the wood for the trees?

Now then,

This weekend has seen me in a frenzy of terrain making (or just making a mess, if my wife is to be believed). To be fair I did drop my flock tub no less than 3 times, once spectacularly covering myself and everything else in the stuff....

Being clumsy aside, I managed to get this lot done:

First of all, I reinforced the edges of the boards with Green tape to protect them.

6mm Scale Trees

These are cheap trees bought via Amazon from China, a few quid for 50... Cant go wrong really. I should have toned down the green a bit, but they are done now.

15mm Scale trees

These are homemade trees, made out of wire and clump foliage, then dunked in watered down PVA and then the (for some reason hard to keep hold of) Flock.

The end result here is that I reckon both sets of trees, now that they are done will work fine for both scales, what do you think?

Hedges.

These are homemade, out of scouring pads, cut to shape then dunked in the PVA and then flocked. They work really quite well for 6mm, and at a push 15mm too. Thats good because I just don't have the space to store loads of terrain in different scales.... I'm pushing my luck already...

Here is my Terrain setup so far.

Whats next?

Well, for my 6mm I have these that need painting up.

Models - Total Battle Miniatures

For my 15mm, i'm going to order some pre-painted MDF buildings from 4Ground. I'm thinking the timber village set, and maybe a few fences and walls.

The inspiration for this board comes from my favorite Osprey book, Aspern and Wagram 1809. These pictures here....

Cheers for looking,

Steve