Carden Me?

Having a sort through the lead mountain is always a joy, forgotten pieces are revealled with all the excitement from buying them in the first place. This Carden Loyd universal carrier is made by Reiver Miniatures and I picked it up at Salute 2011 while having a natter with Red Rich who’d put on that year’s VBCW game.

It’s a crisp solid metal casting and surprisingly solid for such a small model.  It’s few pieces, the chassis, the lid, two tracks and a Vickers HMG. The chassis has a couple of notches so you physically can’t put the tracks on the wrong way around, a smart touch. The Vickers doesn’t have an ammo box, but it’s simple enough to add one and yes it really does go on at that jaunty angle. Not so with the tripod which usually goes on the driver’s side of the “bonnet”.  It would be a folded one and I don’t have any of those in my scraps box so I left it off.

I’d rather not base vehicles like this but I did think it’d get whalloped in game so a base was a must.  I used the ever wonderful milliput for the ground so I could press the models tracks into it and have trackmarks, if you’re doing this it’s best to do it with the bare metal piece, but if you only think of it after painting you need to get both pieces damp to avoid problems.

I wanted to put a few pieces in the stowage bins, so I used various pieces from the Warlord Games plastic British sprues plus a white metal petrol can.  I’m pleased with it, should I do another one I’d do it with the lid propped up and a full crew.

Leaf it out

The fourth 28mm horse I’ve painted is this British officer from Great War Miniatures who only on being based revealed himself to be crookedly mounted. This makes his nationally questionable and suggests he might be a fifth-columnist. It’s a one piece cast so the poor saddle skills aren’t of my making. Aside from from that it’s a pleasant figure which I wanted to make more of so I added a couple of hounds. I don’t remember whose dogs those are, but they suit well.

I also wanted to try the leaf scatter on the base rather than flock. I’ve rarely seen it used by gamers but it’s all the rage with military modellers. It’s quite difficult to use, the tub has plenty of woody surplus which has to be picked out before application, and being irregular is awkward to lay in any thickness.

Although suitable for both World Wars I’ll also be using this charactor in VBCW as Hercules Grytpype-Thynne  a caddish officer with an eye on villainy disguised by high rank and aided by a pocket full of gorillas.

Driller Killer

This beast of a machine was bought over a year ago as a secret weapon for VBCW, so wishing to keep it a well guarded secret I undercoated it and tucked it behind something on a shelf so no one would know about it until it appeared on the gaming table. During a inreasingly rare fit of tidying I recently found it and set about doing it justice, half from shamefully having forgotten about it and three-quarters from it being an impressive model.

This is a Ramshackle Games piece, who on their website rather unenthusiastically call this a Boring Machine. It has a distinctive VSF feel to it, rather than looking practical it suggests it would drill into the earth up to the hull and then briefly halt before the sharp ends locks solid and the body spins furiously around shaking the passengers to death. This makes it perfect for Very British Civil War.

I’m reasonably happy with the paintjob, although I do think it now needs a red band around it with a large “DANGER” decal. The secret is out now of course, so the idea of the ground trembling during a game is likely to bring forth realistic expectations, but at least it means it’s about to hit the table and no longer sit on a shelf.

 

Not a Tankless Task

A great weight has been lifted off the shoulders of the workers at Slug Industries seeing as we’ve finally got our latest, and hopefully greatest, model finished. Not a simple one this, with around forty hours on the build alone, seperate moulds for components, and the hot weather mucking up the paintjob on the first cast, but only after full highlighting. In other words a bit of a pain.

Here’s the first paintjob shortly before a lot of the surfaces simply started to crack. A few attempts at repair later and other cracks and flakes appeared. Casting another and painting that proved to be quicker.

The rear door which shows the riveting quite well.

The armoured radiator, which looks flat although it’s made of semi circular tubing, and the Dambuster style headlights. The idea being that they’re adjustable, so you could set a rang to them and when the merged lights lit up a target it’s at the predeterminde range. Probably worth a +1 on any dice roll – if it’s at night.

The first wheel layout. Ending up putting two extra pairs in after Orkdung over at VBCF quite rightly pointed out how it looked under powered. Figure gives a sense of scale.

 

Tanks for Everything

Biased I am, due to having cast these up,  but I think this is a lovely little tankette perfectly suited for VBCW even though it’s a yet to be released model for Akula’s Armies so meant for WW1 Fantasy.

It’s a seven piece resin kit inspired by French FT light tanks and built by Uncle Crouchie who was the man behind BEF miniatures.

I enjoyed both casting building and painting it but I’m not sure how many might be available so if you’d like one I’d suggest chasing Akula via the link above.

I’m going to have to scrounge another off him myself as I’d like one for my Anarchist band.

 

Trench Afoot

Gutted as I was to realise I’d already used the pun “Last Ditch Effort” I’m happy with this new secnic which I’ve just completed. It’s not only a handy piece but it proved to me how our humble Slug Industries sandbags and planking actually knock together to make a decent model without the hours I’d have spent in the past by hand making every single piece.

It also gave me an opportunity to use modrock, a bag of which I’d bought around a decade ago but never even opened. It’s a great material, gloriously messy with a hint of mudpies making the endeavour an even deeper recession into child-like joy. To start with I glued the sandbags in place, then used scrap foamboard to make formers for the ground. I wanted the look of earth which had been dug up and piled just a couple of months before, so quite smooth, howvere if you wanted more craggy a style that would be possible too. I overcoated it with Woodland Scenics plaster, or wotsit hydrocalifornia as they insist on calling it. It was great fun and I recommend it for that reason alone, anything more is a plus eh?

Then it was a bash of colour prior to flocking. I used three types, short dark for the undercoat, longer on top with a few added sprinkles of a flowery flock. The planking was stuck in place, plus a few crates, an oil drum and some single sandbages which we’ve not released yet and the piece was complete. It comes alive with a few figures, these all Uncle Crouchie’s BEF range now available from the ever regal Warlord Games.

Finally the hour spents cutting the seams on all those sandbags and the grain on the planking has proved itself worthwhile now on with the slaughter!

I’ve got a crusher on you

Without doubt this is one of the finest VBCW miniatures every produced and we’ve Mutton Chop to thank for it. Paul Hicks has a glowing reputation for his work and rightly so. Typically wholly impractical, packed with charactor and with facial expressions sited somewhere between gormless and mild retardation he encapsulates not only the feel of VBCW but also of a lot of it’s players.

Originally this was meant to make the “Siege of Canterbury” game at Legion, but didn’t as I wasn’t as organised as I’d have wished… not fielding the half dozen BUF cavalry still irritates me.  This piece is more than a match for any BUF unit really and I’m looking forward to seeing this speed into action.

Chance is a fine thing

Here’s both the turn and chance cards which we used for the Big Demo Game Kent. I really like turn cards because should a player get a few turns in a row it presents the opportunity for a player to manage something historic. I’m not sure anyone else agrees with me but they put up with it when I’m running a game. The Zulus at Islawana very much had a few turn cards in a row, while at Rorke’s Drift it was the British for whom the cards fell neatly. Having justified my position in the vacuum of the blog with no one to disagree on with the freebies.

Simply click on these images to take you to the high resolution version and save those to print out. I hope they might be of some use to you… bear in mind one of them involves buying me a pint, and I must insist that doea apply wherever you might be playing – probably best to put it in the wood for me, or buy a can so it doesn’t go flat.

Canterbury or Bust!

A quiet morning in Canterbury with the birds chirping unaware of the drama of the coming day.

Although some hushed activity is stirring at some pipe laying works down in the park.

A loudspeaker starts blaring out an over-dramatic speech barely masking the hum of several rowdy engines.

This brings forth brave volunteers to man the city edge against the coming attack.

Shop keepers, clerks, policemen and retired armour majors with a tank in their back garden rally to the cause.

With one disgusiing itself as a water feature in the park.

St Peter’s militia decide to rush the flank in a bid to thwart the BUF’s advance.

Meanwhile the Choir, a Belgian elite led by Tin Tin on a heavy machine gun form up on the centre.

Across the fields another group of BUF advance.

A strange 20th century siege tower follows behind a push down St. Dunstans Street.

Matched by the motorised speed of the other flank.

With the BUF making as much use of the cover available.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s the appearance of SuperFascist in his home made costume, his mum will be furious when she realises he’s used her new curtains for a cloak. Although effectively useless as a combatant his endless sloganeering at loud volume does give the BUF a serious boost to morale.

This boost speeds the advance to the river Stour under the destructive defensive fire of the Anglican League.

Tin Tin observes the massive attack with some trepidation and discusses it with Snowy.

Synchronised hedge breaching becomes the order of the day.

Suddenly the defenders open fire and start seriously damaging both armour and infantry. One light tank destroyed and an armoured car immobilised.

Meanwhile the siege tower is joined by what had appeared to be an old shed. Behind them a squad of FAF have become entangled in a clothes line.

The Anglican commanders feel confident. boosted not least by some medicinal treacle from Boots.

Uneffected by treacle the bridger gets into position and soaks the socks of the lone driver. Vehicles group for the crossing while the dithering AL militia are reduced to delivering condemantion from a damp vicar.

The BUF storm Westgate Tower and start shooting down below.

While Charlie and one of the Boys are severely damaged.

Suddenly Winston Churchill appears at a window with a Thompson machine gun he purchased from nearby Greenfields.  His appearance offers a much needed boost to the defenders.

Suddenly the mysterious pipeworks is revealed to be a fiendish fire throwing device invented by some chap called Levins. The result is massively damaging to the massed attack, and singes even the dampened militia.

A truly terrifying weapon to be at the wrong end of.

The BUF pushing up the centre get decimated by the grenading Choirboys, the rifle fire of the Belgians and Tin Tin on Hmg. the single man left has decided that now would be a great time for a cup of tea.

A long range tank shot silences the Mosley loudspeaker drone.

And confusion starts to slow down the BUF. For the second time today the elite FAF squad gets entangled in a washing line. Perhaps they should have stuck to the fields.

But the BUF on the tower send some firepower into the brave defenders…

…decimating them and even having time to change the flag on the tower, much to the dismay of the people of Canterbury.

They then take a defensive stance against all efforts to repel them.

A militia which has done very little thus far finds itself in position to pour fire at the politician Winston Churchill – killing him in a hail of bullets. A sad loss but it’s not like he’d ever be Prime Minister is it?

Having attrected a fair amount of damage the centre stills holds.

On the flank the BUF failed to get a single man across the bridge, so the AL use it to push back the stalled advance.

A scene of confusion settles over the battlefield as the day comes to an end, even if the play doesn’t.

A good day’s play was had by all. Left to right, Wobbly Steve,  Fascist Child Killer Tony, 6mil Phil, Slug, Daring Dan and front and centre Captain Stinky (proud commander of Tin Tin et al). The chance cards, complete with limited edition typos, from this battle are available here.

I Bike It

If you’ve been living under a motorway flyover you may have missed Warlord Games purchase of Uncle Crouchie’s BEF Miniatures. Aside from the pause in availability of the bulk of the BEF range while those cunning Northerners refiggle moulds and get it all ready for a massive relaunch, one thing has slipped out of near release. Namely it’s Crouchies long awaited motorcyle and side car for his early WW2 Belgians. With Antwerp’s Crisis show looming these would very likely have been launched there by the man himself as a follow up to last year’s wildly successful, if totally unexpected by the Belgi brussel sprout munchers, release of the Belgian miniatures.

Generous as Uncle Crouchie naturally is, just ask the boy Slug, he very kindly gave me a set of the prototypes which rather sadly have languished unpainted and only remembered when someone mentioned it in passing over at GWP.  Well here the bugger is, and rather delightful a model, although folk hoping to set it loose on British roads might notice the side car is set up for the continental way of driving. If you like it enormously why not email those top chaps at Warlord and beg them to get a move on.