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.

Pull the Udder One

A short post with some poor photos of the Warlord Games dead livestock which I enjoyed painting as the Ayrshire breed, spurred on by them re-releasing them while I still had an unopened blister packet from the original release.

When I first saw these I thought they were a must have. The first dead cattle I recall seeing in a war film were those in Saving Private Ryan during the radar station scene. I’m not certain that was a cinematic first, but it’s what they reminded me of, well that and how many animals get slaughtered during war without much notice.

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.

 

In the Navy

Recently I traded with the cosmopolitan  Akula for the remnants of his naval forces from his VBCW project. Some of you might recall how he built an eight foot long aircraft carrier, thankfully that wasn’t part of the deal. I originally thought it was just a few figures, but it turned out to be an entire navy plus a couple of Torpedo Boats by PMC games.

A few pieces have been added, namely a splash of brown paint to bring the decking to the fore, a ships wheel, decal numbers, a lifebelt, a cleat on the bow, and to gun them up a little with a rack of three depth charges. I did look into getting a couple more PMC nautical pieces but it proved fruitless.

Of course two boats do not a navy make, so I’ve started on a midget two man submarine, which can be seen in it’s current state below. I’m still sourcing torpedos for it but expect to see a post about it once finished. The base structure is a toy submarine, Micro Machines perhaps, with the main conning tower hacked off. The fore structure had enough room to cut a window in so expect a face to be peering out of it.

I’m also going to scratchbuild a Clyde Puffer having finally tracked down some basic plans which were free. All will be kept clean of flags and nation marks so they can be used in a variety of game not least both VBCW and WW2. Full steam ahead!

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.

 

Boiler Tank

I’ve had an eye on the Tobsen77 models for a while now, thinking how a good few pieces were well suited to VBCW, but wary of the postal involved. Luckily I’ve been doing some casting for Tobi and managed to wrangle the One Man Army model above. Knowing I was using it for VBCW and being a bit of an engel he not only supplied it with the futuristic gun which is part of the kit he also made me a more suitable gun out of plasti-tube.

.I left the small spotlight off, and added the vintage car bumper, but the best part was how fast it was to do. Assembled and painted in a leaf pattern over one single short evening.  I really like how it looks as if it could have been a conversion of a water boiler.

A cracking little kit and great fun to work on. I’m tempted to have a few more as they work well as a Wooster Dalek declaring “What Ho!” and “I Say!” at the enemy.

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.

 

Anarchy in the UK

Last week I set myself the task of painting as many figures as I could in a week and choose to hack a trail through my pile of figures for a Very British Civil War, as well as accidently buying some more. Here you can see how  far I got. Firstly my fabourite of the bunch is this trio from the Royal household; Edward VIII, Wallace Simpson and a lady waiting around – yes a lady-in-waiting. Delightful sculpts on and all, the ones of Eddie and that woman being freebies from the Newark Irregulars Partizan shows and quite difficult to get hold of if, like me, you can’t make it to the show.  A while back a pair of these were on Ebay for a whooping £8 a piece, but thankfully the wonderful Irregukar Tricks heard about a few folk seeking these figures and incredibly generously sent pairs out to those in need without even asking for postage. What a diamond gent. Three cheers for him!

The lady in waiting was very simple, leaving more intricate work for the Royals. Gave him a golden gun, very likely a gift from some foreign despot, while she has a Chanel looking two piece with matching shoes. Great fun to paint. I put only red, white and blue flowers on the King’s base, while Simpson got just scarlet.

The two Empress figures on the left are the cause of this painting fury inspired by another piece of gamer-on-gamer generosity. This time it was Ook with an offer of free figures over on VBCF. I’ve just finished reading Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” and aside from enjoying it a great deal it produced a desire to field some anarchists and those figures suited well I thought for Officers and NCOs, having slipped off economic restraint I bought both packs of Bolt Action’s partisans, which include the two on the right which fit perfectly. The Gods smile down eh?

Thankfully there’s a few armed women in the pack too. There’s really not enough fighting women miniatures around so I’m always happy to find more. It’s a myth to siggest they can’t fight, they fought furiously in the early days of the Spanish Civil War and many still do today even as terrorists.

Although I’ve given these a hint of their anarcho-syndacalist cause I have tried to keep them pretty generic, so they could form any militia for VBCW, SCW or even as partisans as intended.

Apologies for the blur on this one… they’re running.

The one on the left looks, yo me, like a Paul Hicks sculpt.

Talking of the maestro here are a pair of his on the left. The ever wonderful Mutton Chop miniatures are some of the most complicated I’ve ever seen, they could make you knees tremble with their details but a steady nerve and a steadier paintbrush really delivers a great finished figure. The pair on the right are meant for BUF militia but again I’ve kept them generically suitable for other games.

The Lewis gun is almost a holy relic or heathen fetish in the world of VBCW. We all really like them and want lots of them… so here’s some for the BUF using Gripping Beast figures. These come with loose heads so you can set them as you see fit and that’s handy if you want more than a pair of them.

The pair on the right are from Volksturm pack we picked up from where we don’t recall, they’re a trifle small and under detailed, especially compared to the brutes beside them.

Finally the most generic piece, a Vickers HMG. Akthough there’s some joy to be had in having HMG teams in every flavour you might ever play I thought it might make some small sense to just base one  all alone, and then a pair of figures can be set sadie it to show whose it is. Not exciting but practical. So in total I managed thirty-three figures and one HMG, which I’m chuffed with. This week I will be mainly talking to those strangers in my house called family.

A Very British Civil Forum

An interesting development for VBCW players has recently surfaced – the creation of a forum dedicated to the genre and very neat it is too. VBCW originated over at the Gentleman’s Wargaming Parlour but recently there’s been some issues with it’s performance, slugging out and sometimes not being available at all. A couple of eager players decided it might be best to find a space uniquely for the delightful what-if which is VBCW, and what a space they’ve created. There’s categories galore making everything easy to find, and its just the thing to create a whole new pile of interest. Well worth a visit, and you can do so here. Well done to all involved.