Lead astray or a hike to the lead mountain – Part 1

On 04/12/201620/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Chain of Command rules, Painting, Western Front 1940Leave a comment

fullsizerender

Recently I have been rummaging around my various past projects and found a fair few forgotten ones – they all seemed like a good idea at the time. I felt myself obliged to consider whether I could reignite the fire/impulse that had trigger the start of these projects in the first place – if not I may as well get rid of them. These projects range from a number of unopened packs to being considerably started and with a few bases even being completed! I thought one way of going about this process was to paint a few models for each project and then see how I felt in taking them to the very end.

The World’s Smallest Wargame

The smallest unfinished project I found was a little vignette Peter Berry gave me at the Baccus open day a few years back. This is normally held the day before the Joy of Six and gives a chance to see how Peter and Igor produce the little soldiers. The model depicts two 6mm scale war gamers playing a war-game. I decided to give it some acrylic love and base it up. I thought it would be fun to plant it on the table for the next outing and see if someone spots it. I wish they were all that easy!

Note: I added the BIC pen with a diameter of 9mm to the picture as I occasionally are being contacted by people who wonder how tall these guys are. In general when we refer to scale in Xmm it is the measure of the height from the base of the miniature to the eye level or the top of the head. Baccus in general are between 6 to 7mm and the two gentlemen here are 7mm (the bearded bloke) and 6.5mm (the accountant) respectively.

In the next section I will be showing 15mm soldiers and these are of course about 15mm from the base of the miniature to the eye level. But remember that these scales are indicative and the actual size of a Xmm miniatures can vary significantly between different manufactures and sometimes even between their ranges.

I used a BIC pen as it is probably one of the most known items on the planet (I made that up!) and based on my extensive research has sold over 100 billion pens since the 1950s that is enough pens to stretch 40 times the distance from the earth to the moon if laid end to end.

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Western Front 1940

Another, and perhaps a better example, of these projects was to use the Skirmish campaign books and the Arc of Fire ruleset to do some early France 1940 WW2 platoon level scenarios. I had started painting a few of them but there was still some work to do.

I intend to put some effort into this and use the excellent Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies. I printed out the Chain of Command army list for the German 1940 platoon (you can download it here) and checked that I had the right amount of miniatures (these being 15mm and mainly from the excellent Peter Pig range) and realized I had most of what I needed and fairly quickly over the last few weeks got to a state of having them all block painted and based. This included some support options like anti-tank rifle, AT-guns, infantry gun, sniper team, heavy machine guns, flamethrower unit and a forward observer. What remains is some washing, highlighting and base detailing. They are individually based on 15mm washers (with a magnet in the hole) and prone LMGs, heavy machine guns, 50mm mortar and AT rifles on small flames of war bases. I base the AT and Infantry guns on medium flames of war bases. In addition I need to do some vehicles, but this should not be too difficult for early Germans!

no2 — Sniper in the middle, PAK 36 AT Gun to the right and a rifle section to the left.

I have also made good progress on the BEF 1940 Platoon using some old Skytrex and Peter Pig Miniatures. We should be able to wrap this project up in a not too distant future.

Joe Dever

I was saddened to hear that Joe Dever had died a few days ago. He was one of my childhood heroes who allowed me to become one as well every now and then in the fantastic world of Magnamund. I met Joe a few years ago at a gaming convention where he was busy taking pictures of the proceedings. We had a short but very enjoyable chat. Hats off to you Sir!

The picture is of the Swedish translation of his first game book “Flight from the Dark”.

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/ Have a good week

Kalisz 1706 at Salute 2017 – Prologue to the Towards Moscow Trilogy

On 25/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Great Northern War, Polemos GNW, Towards Moscow Triology, Twilight of the Sun King Rules2 Comments

Kalisz 1706 is a strange epilogue to the GNW Saxon Campaign or a prologue to the Russian Campaign. It will field a significant amount of bases with 6mm minatures (close to 200 bases counting leaders and artillery, a total of over 1,700 miniatures). It will have a large amount of Polish Pancerni and Hussars as well as a significant contingent of Russian Cossacks, Kalmucks and Dragoons supporting the Saxon cavalry force. A very small Swedish contingent (in relative terms) with an infantry section consisting of a large portion of prisoners of war from the Fraustadt Battle and with very few indelta regiments overall, supported by a Polish-Lithuanian contingent that historically were eager to fight but withdrew after the first enemy push.

This Battle (link to Wikipedia entry here) that was part of the Great Northern War is not very known as the outcome did not make a significant impact on the overall war. It is an interesting event in several ways:

Augustus the Strong (Electorate of Saxony) had agreed to a peace treaty with the Swedes following the decisive victory at Fraustadt 1706 followed by the Swedish crown army invading Saxony. But Augustus did not tell his Russian ally and instead tried to get the Swedish General Mardefelt to retreat to save his own face. The Battle was therefore unnecessary and considering an estimated 5,000 men died in the process it seems pointless.
The battle includes a lot of different fighting forces – Saxons, Russians, Swedish-Finnish, 2 Polish contingents (one on each side), Lithuanians, Kalmucks and Cossacks. It creates a very “colourful” table.
The Poles on the Swedish side fled the battle on the enemy side advancing although they had given assurances they would stay and fight to the last drop of blood. The Poles, whose country had been torn apart by the war, were perhaps not as motivated as those famous winged hussars who saved the day in Vienna 1683 or invigorated by the warrior spirit like the Polish soldiers who held back the Wehrmacht for 3 days at the Battle of Wizna 1939, when they were fighting 40-1 (Which incidentally is one of the best early Sabaton songs, you can find here), neither did they show the prowess nor resolve of the brave Poles of the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron that fought the Germans in the Battle of Britain 1940. There is no question about the quality of the Polish soldier throughout history – however during this conflict their heart was certainly not in it.

I presented this battle with Nick Dorrell and his merry men from the Wyre Forest Wargames Club at the Joy of Six in 2014. We applied to run it at Salute in 2017 and we got the acceptance letter this week. The Battle will be presented on a 8 by 4 feet table and there will be a lot of bases on it. Models by Baccus from the GNW codes apart from the Kalmucks that are made from the ancient/ rome’s enemies Hun range.

We got a positive mention by Neil Shuck (Famous for running Saga Games in 6mm at Joy of Six amongst other things and perhaps slightly more famous for the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast) in the Miniatures Wargames Magazine (September 2014) for the Kalisz Battle, who said “It’s a shame that it won’t be touring other UK shows, as this is a fantastic example of what can be achieved in this small scale. Not so much a war game as a work of art.”

[Note: However, he did not get the name of the battle or the year of the battle right in the article. 😉 ]

Salute, as you may know, is the biggest wargames show in the UK (you can read all about it here) and we have been “showing off” before as I and Nick presented a table with the Fraustadt 1706 battle in 2014. So if you are going there come and say hello. We will be presenting this as a Polemos (GNW)/Twilight of the Sun King Battle.

I will provide some more detailed photos of the various elements after I have found them and dusted them off.

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Kalisz Summary Forces

Swedish Force (excluding command bases and artillery)

Polish – 22 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Lithuanians – 11 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Swedish Infantry – 6 infantry bases (60X30mm bases, with 24 infantry models on each)

Swedish Cavalry – 15 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Saxon/Russian Force (excluding command bases and artillery)

Polish – 36 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Saxon – 22 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Russian – 36 cavalry bases (60X30mm bases, with 9 cavalry models on each)

Kalmucks – 22 light horse bases (60X60mm bases, with 8 cavalry models on each)

Cossacks – 14 light horse bases (60X60mm bases, with 8 cavalry models on each)

/ Take Care

Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) Part 2 – Moulding a Supply Column

On 19/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, Painting, Polemos GNW, Towards Moscow Triology4 Comments

For the first part of the TMT, the Lesnaya 1708 battle, I need a large number of bases to represent the Swedish Supply column.

I had seen the picture above in Pavel Konovaltjuks and Einar Lyths book “Vägen till Poltava” (The Road to Poltava) and wanted to have something similar for my Supply Column. I opted for Baccus ox wagons (from their equipment range). I felt these were a close enough match.

1073-equ11

However they do not come with a canopy and I did not want to miss a chance to see a splendid row of blue and yellow waggons. I had to do some sculpting and it was not too difficult to do a canopy, but I needed another 39! So I bought myself some Mould Making Silicone Putty from ebay and made a mould from my first creation. It cost me £6 and was very easy to do and very satisfying. I cast them using dental plaster – I made three moulds to speed up production.

I have ordered enough waggons from Baccus that are yet to arrive but I already had a few so I did a few test bases today – one waggon and two towed artillery pieces (one Field and one Siege gun and some limbers, again from the Baccus range). I think they turned out ok.

/ Take care

Note to self (as I will paint more of these) on colours used.

Remembrance Day, Chislehurst Caves and some more 6mm Great Northern War Norwegians

On 13/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, Historical Sites, Painting, Polemos GNWLeave a comment

The last few years we have spent Remembrance Sunday at our local Rugby club where the Little One plays. This Sunday was joint practice with the other local, and rival, club. But local rivalries were set aside and the children had a very good training session and what made my day was them standing shoulder to shoulder in remembrance! Rugby is a beautiful sport on and off the field and this day was a very strong manifestation supporting this.

shoulder-to-shoulder

“They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,…
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

-From the Ode of Remembrance by Laurence Binyon

We, I and the other Ones, also had some time to re-visit Chislehurst caves, on Saturday, that played a key role during WW2 as an air raid shelter and at its peak it had in excess of 15,000 people staying here over night. Interesting place and this is as close to Dungeons and Dragons you get but with no encounters – incidentally there is a live action roleplaying company running some stuff next door if that is your cup or tea – or perhaps pint of mead (they are called Labyrinthe, and here is a link. I think you have to pre-book). The caves are actually hand dug chalk and flint mines and have since been used to store explosives, grow mushrooms, host pop and rock concerts and as a backdrop for some movies and television series like Doctor Who. As with all of these kind of places there are stories of ghosts and mysterious events in the tunnels – it is worth a visit!

Norwegian GNW Infantry

I finalized some more Norwegians from the Great Northern War era – this time some infantry. Please see my previous post (last week here) for flag sheets, etc. I have decided to put this diversion on hold for a while and crack on with the main GNW project – but here are the bases I did get on with.

Trondhjemske – this regiment was over 2000 men strong so I made it 4 bases. The nice company colours really stands out and make the unit look really good. The white flag represents the Colonels (the head of the regiment) battalion.

trond

Gyldenløves Geworbne – this regiment was 2 battalions strong so I made it 2 bases.

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Hausmanns Geworbne – same as above. Colours of the flags are speculative (I made it up!).

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/ Have a good week

Vikings in Town and some 6mm Great Northern War Norwegians

On 07/11/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Great Northern War, Music, Painting, Polemos GNW1 Comment

Vikings in Town

We were blessed with the presence of Amon Amarth in London on Friday last week as part of their Jomsviking European Tour – it was a very good show and awoke those old Scandinavian rhythms inside. We, I and the Beautiful One, missed the first support band but managed to see most of Testament – a band from my youth who sounded as good as ever! – it was a fantastic evening. Thank you Amon Amarth!

Johan Hegg is a bloody brilliant front man for an impressively tight and talented band.

Mounted Norwegians for the Great Northern War

A while ago I re-read the eminent “Notes on the Norwegian Army 1700-1720” by Daniel A. Schorr and got inspired to do a few bases of Norwegian cavalry and infantry [the booklet, in PDF form, used to be available on-line in the past but I can not located it anymore]. I got about halfway in painting a fair few bases of dragoons and infantry a few months back so I thought it was time to get these finalised and completed a few of the bases. I used Baccus Russian GNW Dragoons for these mixed with a few WSS cavalry (not the latest re-sculpts). These are suppose to represent the units at around 1701. In addition to the Schorr piece I used “Tacitus” eminent page on Norwegian units as a painting guide (you can find it here). Notes from his page are included in italics below.

Fölckersamb Dragon regiment

1701 The national [skrevne] companies had blue coats with lining and trimming in white, and the enlisted [geworbne] companies had blue coats with lining and trimming in green. [I painted the saddle details etc. in blue with white/green trim].

Sehested Rytter regiment

1701 The regiment would continue to wear light grey coats with red lining after the reorganization to dragoons. [I painted the saddle details etc. in red with white trim. The regiment was re-organized in 1701 but I base them as if they were normal horse].

This week I will finish some of the infantry and tidy up these a little bit. Yes I know I ought to work on the big TMT project but I just needed to get these out of the way. I am tempted to do some dismounted dragoon bases as well to complement these – but let us get some overall progress on the other stuff first.

Here is a painting guide for Norwegian Infantry with some colours to use as well. I do the flags about 8mm high for my 6mm miniatures. Cut them out and stick them together with PVA glue around the flagpole, add some paint when dry if required – I suppose you know the drill.

norway2

/ All the best

Sharp Practice in 6mm Part 7 – Shock Markers done and some deliveries (TMT, Conan and X-wing miniatures)

On 30/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn French Indian War (FIW), Great Northern War, Painting, Sharp Practice, Towards Moscow Triology, X wing miniatures game1 Comment

This week the Sharp Practice shock markers were finalized for the two starting forces an also the first batch of painted miniatures arrived from Marching in Colour for The Moscow Trilogy Project (TMT). We also had some notable deliveries of (i) Conan the Boardgame and (ii) the Heroes of the Resistance Expansion pack for the X-wing miniatures games.

spcoll2 — The Growing Sharp Practice in 6mm box – not the box but the contents. I think I have to add another layer soon. I am toying with the idea of making a 2′ by 1.5′ box containing everything you would need (including miniatures, the support options, trees, hills, roads, houses, river sections, etc.) and when folded up becomes a 2′ by 3′ playing surface. That would make it truly portable and get the whole point of the project across in a very visual, and practical, way.

TMT – First Batch Arrives

The first batch of painted miniatures from Marching in Colour arrived this week but did not have time to get started on finishing them off. Absolutely brilliant stuff!. I wrote about Chris and his services in the last blog update (link here). I have already sent him the next batch. This will make the process, at this end, very quick!

fullsizerender — 15 bases worth of Russian Dragoons and 15 bases worth of Russian Infantry.

Sharp Practice in 6mm – Shock/Casualty Markers and some new “heroes”

… continued from last week.

Step 9 – prepare ground basing by applying sand and painting it chocolate brown.

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Step 10 – pick out the details of the unit the marker represents, e.g. in the middle the markers for the British Regulars and in the right upper corner the Rangers. I made two for every unit.

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Step 11 – Drybrush with three colours (light browns and a light yellowish colour).

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Step 12 – Apply static grass and tufts. This shows the French Canadian Militia. All ready to go!

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Conan the Board game – Finally Arrives

This week we got a big parcel with the Conan Board Game stuff from Monolith games. I have to admit that I and the little one were following the Kickstarter at the time with great excitement and we had been waiting and waiting. The little one used to say “When is Conan coming?”. When I finally told him that Conan had arrived, he asked me “What is that?”. Joke aside what arrived was an impressive set of two boxes fully package with all you could ever want for the game. It was a Carlsberg moment and worth waiting for.

boxes — *The Little One eagerly hacking his way into the Conan Stuff*

Conan is one of those boyhood heroes and I read several of the fantastic novels and of course watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. The scene, in “Conan the Barbarian” where the young Conan gets chained to the mill grinder (wheel of pain) and then turns into this enormous and muscular grown up man is a nice cinematic touch. I still find the books and the movies entertaining and, at least for me, the ex-California governor is truly etched as my mental image of the Cimmerian Warrior. One of the stretch goals during the Kickstarter campaign was a miniature depicting the Camel that Conan has some fisticuffs with in the “Conan the Barbarian” movie, another nice touch.

camel

Many miniatures to paint if I am going down that route – however for the moment I have decided to play it first and then worry about painting some other day. A thought occurred to me of doing it in 6mm – just joking – however there are a lot of stuff out there that would make this more than possible.

008c81848a2c02b67763ede42d01c660 — 6mm Barbarian from Perfect Six can be found here.

The Dragon Order and Adventure Set from Perfect Six we discussed last time and of course all the fantasy stuff from Microworld Games, Baccus (who does Camels as well!) and perhaps using some Pendragon 10mm for monsters – but I suppose I should never say never again!.

The Welsh Wizard, Mike Hobbs, has done a series of blogs posts showing what the boxes contain and even had time to play a game so teleport over there if you want to see/read more by starting here. By Crom!, we have been waiting for this to begin.

Heroes of the Resistance

We also got our pre-order of the Heroes of the Resistance for X-wing Miniatures game containing the new (perhaps “older” is the word to use) Millennium Falcon, with its Square Satellite dish, and Poe Cameron’s X-wing. Fantastic stuff and ready to go straight out of the Box. We will have to have a go at flying these this evening.

/ Take care and fly casual!

New 6mm Stuff, Painting Service and Shock Markers

On 24/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 6mm, Movies, Painting, Saga, Sharp Practice, Towards Moscow Triology5 Comments

Limited progress this week but an update of some new and upcoming 6mm ranges that caught my eye, some discussion on the TMT project and the enlistment of a painting service, a little diversion and reflection on 18th century warfare on TV & in movies, and some shock markers for Sharp Practice.

New/Upcoming 6mm Ranges – Landsknechts, TYW/ECW and the Order of the Dragon

landsknechte — *Landsknechts – picture from Wikipedia (link in the text below)*

I have to admit that a few new 6mm ranges have blown me away these last few weeks:

Microworld Games Landsknechts range – check them out here. I stumbled across these when I was ordering something for my Saga in 6mm project. I am planning on doing the Revenant Faction at some point and needed some ghoulish looking creatures. Microworld has a wide range of 6mm fantasy but these are, as far as I gather, looking pretty historical like the real Landsknecths. Splendid!, based in the US, flat rate international shipping at $12 (excluding Customs and Charges if you live outside the States, but if you can overcome that this would be an impressive and colourful force to field). I am very tempted to add a few of these to my next order even if I am not screaming for projects at the moment. The pictures are from Microworld’s webpage and they also have a few other new sets that may be of some interest.

Perfect Six Miniatures, that I have mentioned on several occasions on this blog, does not just sell fine scenic items but have a growing range of, mainly fantasy, miniatures. Their latest release is their Order of the Dragon Miniatures and they are really nice. They have just been released so I ordered a few packs. Again pictures from their webpage.

Baccus upcoming English Civil War (ECW) / Thirty Years War (TYW) range are presented here and here. Based on these snippets this, in my view, promises to be Baccus finest range yet. It is not just the detail but the poses are phenomenal and I am more than sure that at some point I will have to get into this period and make a Swedish Army led by the Lion from the North. The pictures are from the Baccus page. Baccus are also soon releasing more French Indian War stuff that I am very much looking forward too.

musketeers pike

Painting Service for my Great Northern War stuff

I decided to enlist some help in completing the Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT) project (see the long and winding presentation of it here, if you have not read it yet) and have asked Marching in Colour (Painting service, with a link here) to paint a lot of the miniatures that will be used in the 3 battles. I have opted for block painted units that I will finish by applying some nut-brown ink and then some highlighting and basing – this way they will nicely blend into the existing collection.

I have had a previous experience of using a painting service that was ok, but I have to admit that I really like the way Chris communicates and deals with you as a customer. I find his prices reasonable too. The problem I have is that I have more ideas than I have time and I think I have already proven to the world, or at least to myself, that I can paint 6mm Great Northern war miniatures en masse. This approach allows me to, in an IKEA like fashion, be directly involved in the production process and still have time to push on with all that other stuff.

With a little bit of luck I will be able to complete all the miniatures needed in the next year or so. This will give me time to do some of the things that are currently not being done like the 15mm miniatures for the Winter War of 1939 between Finland and Russia and perhaps more importantly the Little ones Halo Ships and Battles stuff.

So in summary, I will be outsourcing most of the Russians I have left to do and will also have some of the Swedish Infantry done by MiC. I have seen the first batch on photos and I am eagerly waiting for them to arrive.

TV and Movies

I have recently started watching the TV Series “Turn” that is set during the American Revolutionary War period. I was watching the 2nd series finale depicting the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse and although the number of men involved were reminiscent of the Battles in the Sharpe series, i.e. being very few men compared to the real deal, I really enjoyed it. It is not that often 18th century battles are depicted on the white or silver screen, with a few notable exceptions including Barry Lyndon, The Last of the Mohicans and the Sovereign’s Servant that incidentally is about the Battle of Poltava – the last breath of the Russian Campaign 1708-09.

I also had another go at the Northwest Passage movie with Spencer Tracy. Not as adventurous as my childhood memory had indicated. The portrayal of the Indians on both sides is not very flattering even for its time – it was made 1940 . I would still recommend it and it serves part of the my background “research” for my Sharp Practice in 6mm project. I have Drums along the Mohawk and an alternative version of the Last of the Mohicans to look forward to as well – when I have a few minutes spare. I also ordered the Broken Chain with Pierce Brosnan, based on a recommendation.

Sharp Practice Shock Markers

Talking about Sharp Practice, I did start making some shock markers for Sharp Practice in line with my discussion in an earlier post. The design concept is reproduced below.

parrot-markers

Here is a picture that may be useful as well, adjust to the size of your washers, I did mine with 15mm washers.

casulalty-markers

Step 1: Print out the sheet above with the right dimensions.

Step 2: Cut out the top parts and stick to the adhesive side of a Flexometal sheets (or any other sheet that is magnetic, i.e. contains some metal. I bought mine from Abel Magnets but you can also get them from other sources) – then cut them out carefully, as seen in the picture below.

Step 3: Glue on your shock/casualty markers – these are from the Baccus ECW and WSS range and will do fine for my purposes (as there are no specific ones for the period). It is difficult to see any detail at this stage. So trust me or come back next week and have a look at the painted ones.

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Step 4 – prime the shock markers and set aside to dry. As per usual I prime them in grey.

Step 5 – cut out the round dials (0 to 9) carefully

Step 6 – take your washers (these are of the flat/penny washer type with a hole in the middle) and stick a round label/sticker on top, turn it around and put a (Neodymium Disc) magnet inside, put another sticker on top, then glue on the dial (0 to 9) on the top using PVA glue. These steps are shown below. Put PVA glue on the top of the washer and on the top of the dial as well to seal the paper on using a brush. Do not be too aggressive and do not worry it will dry clear.

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Step 7 – let it dry and join together. As you may have guessed due to the ferrous sheet and the magnet the two parts stick together and the dial can be turned allowing you to set any value you want it to sm6 show.

Step 8 – They are now ready for basing and painting, but we did not get any further this weekend. I hope to be able to report on some more decorated markers next week.

/ All the very best

Battle of Hastings – Wargaming in 1800mm

On 17/10/201617/10/2016 By The OneIn Historical Sites1 Comment

I had some plans to use some of my miniatures to put up a little refight of Hastings this weekend but failed miserably. However instead we spent Friday watching the docudrama 1066 and then Saturday in Battle watching the re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings that took place 950 years ago. It was a fantastic spectacle put on by English Heritage and I hope that these pictures gives some kind of justice to the proceedings. So without any further ado, here we go. / Back with some miniatures stuff next week.

The Little One trying out some Norman equipment!

We visited both camps and, as always, with re-enactors it is not just about having the right sword and helmet but a much wider and deeper experience. I think I get it. The level of detail and care in the presentation of these camps were fantastic and, I dare to say, as impressive as the later Battle in presenting a close to genuine experience from a far-gone time.

There were also presentations of the various arms used in the Battle. Here a victorious Anglo-Saxon with the feared Dane Axe. We were also introduced to spears, swords, cavalry as well as the impressive shield wall.

Setting up the Anglo-Saxon shield wall. Getting ready to fight the real deal.

William with Harold’s Standard at the end of the Battle. Game over, I suppose!

FIW – Sharp Practice in 6mm – Part 6 Inspiration and Some Progress

On 09/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Buildings, French Indian War (FIW), Games played, Great Northern War, Historical Sites, Muskets and Tomahawks, Painting, Saga, Sharp Practice, Shows, Songs of Drums and TomahawksLeave a comment

Braddock’s Defeat

I just finished listening to Braddock’s Defeat on Audible and ended up buying the physical book as well from Amazon as a reference copy. This is an amazing piece of work by David Preston and I have not had so much enjoyment (reading a book on Military History) since I read Oskar Sjöström’s Fraustadt 1706: ett fält färgat rött. The Fraustadt book unfortunately, as is the case for a lot of Great Northern War literature, is not available in English. But I digress…

If you are familiar with the French Indian War period of history you will have heard about the British General Braddock leading a expeditionary force, in 1755, through Pennsylvania to attack the French Fort Duquesne on the forks of the Ohio River. A smaller French Canadian force, led by the French Captain Beaujeu and supported by native Indian Tribes, had decided to seek battle before the British arrived to the fort and encountered and attacked the British at Monongahela (about 10 miles from what is now Pittsburgh). It was the French Canadian resolve and ability to quickly get organised and use the terrain efficiently in applying woodland tactics that won the day.

“Historians have generally ignored French and Native perspectives on the 1755 campaign. The French were outnumbered, outgunned, and faced crippling supply problems in their Ohio Valley posts. They despaired of their inability to halt or slow Braddock’s relentless march. However, convoys of French reinforcements led by a veteran officer, Captain Beaujeu, came to Fort Duquesne after an epic 700-mile voyage from Montreal, arriving only a few days before the fateful battle at the Monongahela. …..

A newly discovered French account from the Archives du Calvados transforms our understanding of French and Native American leadership and tactics at the Battle of the Monongahela. The French commander, Captain Beaujeu, sent out Native scouts who brought him exact intelligence on the location and disposition of the British. Dividing his force into three parallel columns, Beaujeu organized a frontal attack on the British column with his Canadian troops. He instructed the Indians to spread out in the woods on the right and the left, and to withhold their fire until he had engaged the British. The Monongahela was neither a meeting engagement nor an ambush, but a well-planned and executed French and Indian attack on a vulnerable British column. “

Ten questions about Braddock’s Defeat by David L. Preston, accessible here.

9999001583-l — Painting showing a contingent of French and Indians attacking General Braddock, in the background, who is falling from his horse being assisted by Major George Washington, the future first president of the United States of America – one of many key characters of the American revolution that were involved in this expedition. (Painted by Edwin W. Deming, the painting forms part of the Wisconsin Historicial Society’s collection)

I really enjoy the story telling aspect of real history and to paraphrase Dan Carlin, “it has destroyed fiction for me” (go and listen to one of his Hardcore History Shows if you have not done so yet!, here is a link). However being factual, intellectual and educational does not need to be boring and can instead be truly inspirational and that is this book in a nutshell. If you have any interest in the period, or military history in general, I suggest you get hold of this one.

I think a lot can be done with the skirmish rules I have (i.e. Sharp Practice, Musket and Tomahawks and Songs of Drums and Tomahawks) but for the “larger” battles I am not sure what good rulesets are there that captures the flavour of not just the period but in the particular way the war was fought in this theatre. But then this was only a small diversion!

Crystal Palace and that very famous Battle

I was intending to spend the day at SELWG (South East London Wargames Group) show in Crystal Palace today, but the little one had his first rugby festival for the season and luckily, because I would be a really sad bastard otherwise, I actually prefer to see him play rather than going to a wargames show. As it is very close to where we live we ended up going for the last 45 minutes on our way home – but the last part of a wargames show is very often like drinking a pint of lager that was poured two hours ago. I did not take any pictures of the tables on offer, but there seemed to be a good collection – a nice ancient game with loads of pikes and a Doctor Who game caught my eye. Next weekend (on both Saturday and Sunday) is the big event at Battle with the 950th Anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings. We are looking forward to this.

Supporting Cast, Real Estate and Markers

I decided to spend the little time I had available for diversions this week finalising as much of the painting as I could for the initial Sharp Practice stuff – so I and the little one could play a proper game in a not too distant future. This, instead of getting diverted spending hours gluing small strips of spaghetti like last week (see my last blog entry here) I actually managed to get some of the more immediate and necessary stuff completed.

temp-out-of-ammo-markers — My temporary “Out of ammunition markers” using crates from Perfectsix – I did a few more. “Resthouse” by Leven Miniatures. The bases are 9mm in diameter.

cannister — Ammo markers for artillery (again made from PerfectSix materials).

barricades-2 — Barricades based on various items from PerfectSix

barricades — As above but from a different angle

breastworks-2 — Breastworks based on some old Irregular stuff I had lying around. Painted up really well!

breastworks — As above but from a different angle

docs-and-clergy — Holymen and Doctors for both sides – Pere Bleu, Docteur Bleu, Doctor Red and Father Red.

carts — Carts – Engineering, Water and Ammunition Carts

I was thinking about a scenario with the characters from a famous movie set during the French Indian War – and did the three little chaps below. / Until next

3-guys

FIW – Sharp Practice in 6mm – Part 5 Fort Al Dente!

On 03/10/201622/02/2017 By The OneIn French Indian War (FIW), Sharp Practice, Terrain3 Comments

In the last update I toyed with the idea of doing a fort –“wooden palisade type with some vaubanesque feel to the corner sections optimised for the scale and basing I have for the miniatures“.

fort-2

As the 6mm scale, rightfully, is primarily used for large scale battles where a small set of buildings represents a village or even a town, it is difficult to find commercial buildings that are appropriate to allow the full “6mm skirmish experience”. With this I mean the individual maneuvering around, on top of and inside buildings. In addition, as the models are based on relatively wide bases (in my case 9mm – in scale about 8 feet) there are difficult to fit in confined spaces if these are in true scale to the miniature. I set out to “design” the fort so that I could use palisade walking ramps and the interior of the buildings as part of the overall experience. This creates somewhat exaggerated features – but it works.

I used the footprint above and I stuck this on top of vinyl floor tiles and got on with it. Materials used are patience, thin Spaghetti, coffee stirrers, matches and a few 10mm by 1mm maples strips.

I then gave it a first coat of paint and some dry brushing. I still have to sort out some material for the roofs and an underlay for the fort courtyard – so almost done.