I got carried away again, in summary this time:

• A few ideas on some wargaming projects – Samurai, Black and White, Seasons, and I conclude that I am a sucker for 1980s nostalgia and fell for yet another diversion.
• An interesting Kickstarter if you need some forest for your wargames table
• Some progress on the Towards Moscow Project – Russian Infantry and Dragoons

Great Eastern War?

“For twenty years, Peter had been playing with soldiers; first toys, then boys, then grown men. His games had grown from drills involving a few hundred idle stable boys and falconers to 30,000 men involved in the assault and defense of the river fort of Pressburg. Now, seeking the excitement of real combat, he looked for a fortress to besiege, and Azov, isolated at the bottom of the Ukrainian steppe, suited admirably.”

From the book Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie

Like most of us, I suppose, I end up on small virtual journeys when I am on the net with no special destination in mind. This weekend somehow I ended up on this blog posting I really enjoyed (see here) – it is about the death of Charles XII.   In the post was a picture from a Japanese 1905 print of Peter the Great and King Charles XII dressed more like Samurai warlords than 18th century Monarchs – I really liked it and it made me think about a imagination Samurai like campaign with a series of great battles between the Green/Red against the Blue army, with nicely lacquered armour and flying banners.  I wonder if you go to Henry Hyde’s Dahlia and travel east you come across Chang Lee the keeper of the 12th Key of Swedsuma fighting his doomed campaign against the gigantic Gurēto Piri and his horde of undead Samurai raised after the devastating battle at Nariwa?  Baccus will sell you everything you need to make this spectacle in 6mm (here is their Samurai ranges) or perhaps making a Swedish or Russian inspired warband for Warlords Test of Honour (see here), if you are more into 28mm and skirmish.  But to date my excitement has not (yet!) lead to any lead being bought.

World War 2 in Black and White

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”
― Ted Grant

I have previously reflected on doing a WW2 table using black and white painted miniatures and terrain.  The talbe would look like all those clips we have seen on History Channel and the documentaries.  Not sure if it already has been done, but I think it would look really interesting if it was done correctly and with the right level of passion.  But on the other hand not sure how fun it would be to do, using a palette of fifty shades of grey, and also to experience when the final novelty has worn off.

Quattro Stagioni – All year round battles and Forests

I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.

– Edna St Vincent Millay

Another idea that I thought about was a participation game with 4 No.  small battles going on at the same time. Each of the battles taking place at a different seasons.

Perhaps participants would be offered some Pizza and Vivaldis amazing Violin Concerti would play in the background.  I could do this with the Great Northern War Stuff I already have as I have a large number of wintery bases and could pimp some Summer ones to look like Autumn and Spring.

On a related subject I would like to direct you to a kick-starter that is up and running (and has already achieved its the funding goal) that is being being run by a friend of mine, Les Hammond.  Les will be producing terrain pieces to represent forests that can be used for a number of scales including from 2 to 15mm. They work on the canopy principle as opposed to individual trees.  I think it is well worth a look and when you do it make sure you check the update from 1st November showing the new, and I believe improved, design for the foliage effect.  There are several different sets covering different type of trees and all the seasons.  Check it out here!

We don’t need another Project – 1980s nostalgia hits again

Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time
We are the children
The last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains

We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome  ….

“We don’t need another hero”, from the Movie Thunderdome, sung by the phenomenal Tina Turner.  Link to the Music video here.

It was more difficult to resist the next impulse that came in the form of some new vehicles and miniatures being released by Microworld for the their Micro wasteland range (link here) – these are 6mm vehicles and figures.  I really enjoyed the Mad Max movies and it got me thinking what could be done with these.  If you have followed this blog you know that I am a sucker for 1980s nostalgia, like the Terminator and Mutant 1984 stuff I did earlier (see here and here) and the out-of-control mode quickly kicked in,

I recalled some good times with Combat Cars and Car Wars many years ago.  There was a Swedish version/translation of the Combat Car rules that a good friend had and we used to play it many times.

I found a set of on-line rules called Road Wolf (see link here).  What is interesting, and I have seen a similar game at Salute a  few years ago doing the same, is that in these rules the terrain is moving and not the cars (more than relative to each other).  After having tried it out with some of the Little Ones Hot Wheels  collection we decided to give this a go.  It simulates a frantic forward moving battle that I think is essential for these kind of games instead of some kind of Scalectrix-like track setup.  This means that the game board, especially in 6mm, is relatively small as it basically is representing a stretch of random highway.  Apart from motorbike, cars and trucks the game includes rules for obstacles appearing on the road like slippery part, wrecks, tunnels, etc.

So I ordered a bunch of vehicles and I suppose with that started another little diversion. Should not be too time consuming to get into pole position on this one.

I also got myself the “Mad Ron” set of cars from Irregular Miniatures (see here) and also got the set of normal cars.  One of the scenarios for the Road Wolf rules needs a train in the middle so I got an American Diesel train set from Irregular as well.  In addition I also needed some railway tracks that I got from Leven miniatures (see here).

I have not mentioned the 6mm wargames page (see here) before but it has been a fantastic inspiration for me over the years.  Kieran who runs it has an amazing collection of 6mm goodies worth more than a look.  I checked out his guide on civilian vehicles (see more here), which led me to do a small order from Heroics & Ros.  I got some WW2 BMWs motorcycles with sidecars, a few (12 No.!) Bushmasters APCs variants,  a pair of Toyota Pick-ups, a pair of GMC Pick-up trucks, a pair of Foden Cargo Trucks, Honda Motorcycles, a WW2 Opel Blitz Bus, a Land Rover and WW2 Mercedes staff car. I intend to use the Bushmasters (see link here) as near future Police/Law enforcement vehicles and the others as car wrecks and civilian cars (but some of them may be pimped up to road warrior status).  That should be (more than) enough vehicles to make this into a proper project over the Christmas Period.  The Little one is ready to press the pedal to the lead!

So that is the vehicles sorted and on their way! (I hope they will mix reasonably well! – otherwise I will know next time around).

In anticipation I did a piece of road required using a 20cm by 40cm block of blue foam, a strip of N Gauge Asphalt road 4omm wide that I bought from eBay for a few pounds in a 1 metre length (you could also go to a pound shop, or a hardware store,  a buy some wet and dry  paper, that is similar to sand paper but comes in black.  You would then have to paint the markings and, unless you got a roll, you would not be able to do a sufficient continuous length without some patching up).

After having put the road in the middle I painted the sides on the top with a mixture of brown paint and pva glue, and applied some different coloured sands, then added some different coloured static grasses and a few tufts. I then painted the sides brown. Looks like a road with some uncontrolled but relatively flat vegetation around it – Good enough to start with.

I will do another board, slightly wider with a railroad track in the middle and two road sections on the sides, but that is not a priority right now.

I also need the following terrain, these are items that are being generated by a card deck as part of the road’s turn to have a go (I go, you go, and then the road goes – however I may introduce some random activation element between the players):

• Slide – this is a part of the road being broken/damage, overgrown, etc. It basically creates off-road conditions.
• Slick – road is slippery, most likely an oil spill.
• Debris – smaller obstacles in the road, e.g. scattered rubbish,
• Wreck – bigger obstacles in the road, e.g. burned out cars.
• Bridge and Tunnel – these are safe places to go on the road, but instead problematic to go on the side (i.e. off-road), I plan to make these as wide as the road (20cm).
• Supplies – this is like a level up item in a computer game, not sure how I treat this or if I exclude it.

If we get into this proper I may get the Warlands (here) or the Outrider rules (here), both can be downloaded from Wargames Vault.  You could also pick up some of the classic ones like Car Wars (here), Dark Future (link to living rule book here) or try to find Combat Cars (here) on eBay – to name a few.  I will stick to the Road Wolf rules as I really like the concept of the game. I will do an update once we have done some road vehicles and perhaps a scratch built gyrocopter (unless someone knows where to find one).

“I am the Nightrider. I’m a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller! “

– The Nightrider, from Mad Max 1979

Current Projects

Ok, I know I have other stuff to do than inventing new ones.  This week I made some progress on one of the ongoing projects and here are some completed Russians that I need for the Horka project (more on this project here and here).  All are from the Baccus Great Northern War range (here).

Infantry

 

 

Dragoons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/Keep on toy soldiering!