The Waving Flag

15 mm Naffatun

2012-01-25T12:01:00.001Z

Here’s some of my recent work. They are CRU51 from Essex Miniatures who list them as Naffatun Hand Gunners as part of their Crusades range:

Typical figures from Essex: a joy to paint but a little static. I bought these on a whim as I’m working my way through the infantry options for the various Mongol medieval armies.

The Field of Glory Tatar list contains a battle group of 4 Naffatun with grenades so I knew I wouldn’t be using these but still couldn’t resist.

The figure design is a direct lift from Ian Heath’s WRG book on the Crusades. It is figure 60 on page 93 listed as a Mamluk Engineer with Midfa (1280-1290).

As an aside I checked to see if Ian’s book was available on Amazon. It is, but only as a paperback with the cheapest copy costing £50.00! Heaven knows how much my pristine hardback copy is worth.

Life’s Been Busy

2012-01-23T11:11:00.001Z

You may have noticed this blog has been a bit quiet of late; then again you may not. The reasons for this are many fold but not all bad. I have meant to write the odd post on numerous occasions but things kept getting in the way.

To give you an idea both the washing machine and the hot water ceased working ten days before Christmas. All were fixed but I could have done without the hassle.

After Christmas I had a car accident when, during the high winds, I collided with a tree which had blown across the road. Thankfully no one was hurt but the car was a “write off”. I’ve since bought a new car and had to deal with the loss adjusters.

Just as I sorted this out, my wife discovered a small water leak in the spare bedroom ceiling caused by a problem with the dormer style roof. Sadly, this is not going to be covered by our insurance. Thankfully, the roofer has identified the cause and put a temporary fix in place but the roof needs a lot of remedial work and a full repair is scheduled for late February when the weather improves.

It is not all bad news. In late October I made resolution to clear all the bits of projects from my painting desk by Christmas and this I have done. So far I have finished the fourth Timurid elephant and the Acies Edizioni samples for my business which had been there for months. Spurred on I have since completed an allied contingent for my FOG Mongol army ready for this year’s Northern League: I’ve now got so much stuff I can’t fit it into my tool box!

In the grand scheme of things this litany of travails is nothing really but I do hope that things calm down a bit. If they do I’ll get some photos taken of my new figures and get this blog back on track.

For Sale - UK Annuals

2012-01-02T14:28:00.001Z

I have the following for sale.

The pricing is £3.00 each unless marked. Deduct £0.50 each when buying six or more and £1.00 each when buying ten or more. Postage will be added at cost. PayPal possible.

The condition is good to like new. The older Fleetway annuals have the page colour you'd expect after twenty plus years

2010 - Dennis and Gnasher
2008 - Dennis the Menace and Gnasher
2007 - Dandy
2006 - Dandy
2005 - Dennis the Menace (2 copies)
1998 - Dandy
1997 - Dandy
1991 - Eagle
1990 - Eagle
1990 - 2000AD
1989 - 2000AD
1986 - Dandy
1986 - Topper
1984 - COR!!
1984 - Whizzer and Chips
1984 - Beano
1983 - Krazy
1983 - Whizzer and Chips
1982 - Buster
1982 - Dandy
1981 - Beryl the Peril
1981 - Valiant
1980 - Valiant
1978 - Shiver and Shake
~~1969 - POW!~~

Reading Posts

2012-01-02T13:25:00.001Z

I’ve recently discovered a great extension for Firefox from Evernote. Their Clearly extension makes blog posts, articles and web pages clean and easy to read.

For more details visit the Evernote Clearly web page.

Old School 25 mm Napoleonics For Sale

2011-12-24T18:55:00.001Z

Here’s a blast from the past; my collection of 25 mm Minifigs Napoleonic French which I have decided to sell. I’m sad to see them go but I’d rather they went to a good home than be melted down.

There’s lots of line infantry, some dismounted dragoons and some Old Guard. I make it 175 painted pieces plus a dozen unpainted weighing just over 3kg. I can hand deliver to UK shows north of Birmingham otherwise it’s ParcelForce.

If you are interested have a look at the photos below and get in touch.

The Mystified On Tour :: Annual Review

2011-11-24T11:00:00.001Z

The Northern League is over for another year so I thought I’d look back over the year and compare the 2011 season with our first Field of Glory season in 2010:

Year	Position	Points	Rounds	Wins/Games	Av. Pts/Game
2010	25/26	24	2	1/4	6
2011	20/26	53	3	2/6	9

On the face of it we’ve made some progress. However, the pattern remains the same.

We have had one terrible round every year where we scored really, really badly. This year it was with the Italian Condotta (5 points) and last year it was the Late Russians ( 1 point). For the remaining rounds we have tended to have a large win and a large defeat scoring 22-26 points in total.

The plan for next year in somewhat obvious. We need to ditch the habit of doing really badly in one round and see if we can inflict more damage whilst playing to draw games where we are badly matched or being out played. Easily said: doing it will be the hard part.

Finally, I like to thank all our opponents in the Northern League for helping us whilst we struggled on.

The Mystified On Tour :: Manchester 2011

2011-11-24T10:30:00.001Z

Graham & I took my Mongol Conquest army out for the day to the final round of the 2011 Northern League Field of Glory competition at Walkden. After our last outing I was anxious. before the games we discussed how important it would be to at least compete.

Having fielded class 2 & 3 armies earlier in the year, the Mongol army was a true Conquest army. Everything was superior and there were even some elite troops: a true class 1 army. It did however have one weakness: no shock troops. This means that it’s all down to shooting manoeuvre and spotting the decisive strike.

We didn’t do too badly considering so let’s see what happened.

Game #1 against HYW English (25-5 loss)

Steve (Spike) Clarke & Martin Buxton fielded HYW English! As the picture above just about shows it was almost wall to wall bow armed foot; probably the worst opponent for a cavalry army. Plus the design of the army was very clever with an Inspired Commander and some heavy foot deployed as rear support. All this made it a lot easier for their battle groups to pass cohesion tests and therefore a lot harder to break.

We had two chances during the game. The first on our left when we nearly routed one battle group but failed when it passed a post shooting cohesion test to remain fragmented and then passing a second test to rally from fragmented. Had this not happened our charge would have stood a good chance of breaking the unit and starting a cascade of routs in nearby units. This effectively ended our threat on the left. On the right we failed to bring our greater numbers too bear quickly enough and attacked in a somewhat piecemeal manner.

Needless to say, we suffered continuous losses to bow fire throughout resulting in our eventual demise.

Game #2 against Castilian (17-8 win)

Graham and I played Dave Finnegan & Chris Proudfoot before in September 2010 when we were all learning FOG. As before they were great opponents although I was disappointed that Chris and retired his underpants.

This time Dave & Chris fielded a Castilian army with Almughavars in an ally command. I didn’t note down whether this was the Feudal or Medieval version. All I know is they had lots of superior knights with some in battle groups of sixes.

It would be fair to say that this game was far closer than the score suggests: we were two points away from breaking when we destroyed the final battle group to win the game.

Dave & Chris got off to a really great start causing us no end of problems all along the line. Graham held the left and prevented a mass breakthrough but on the right I was struggling against the superior knights. However, after some Mongol losses the flexibility of the Mongol cavalry prevailed and Chris lost two battle groups of superior knights amongst others.

Still Dave pressed on and we lost our camp to some medium foot and their medium foot crossbow reached our baseline before turning towards the flank. However, all the pressing cost Dave & Chris quite a few battle groups including the battle group that looted the camp!

By this time the game was really getting tense as this picture shows:

During the last few moves we were both two points (or one destroyed battle group) away from breaking. As the moves unfolded it became clear that Dave & Chris had but one realistic chance to break the Mongols: would a a knightly charge have enough reach to savage our light horse or make them flee off table?

Bravely the Mongol light horse didn’t evade and Dave needed to roll a 6 to get the extended charge move and create havoc. Anything less would fall short and the Mongols would finish their frontal opponents. Dave didn’t throw a six and the Mongols completed their deadly work.

Overall, an absorbing, and very close, game played in a great spirit. The frequent swings in fortune really added to the enjoyment and tension. In the end game the Castilians just didn’t have the right troops in the right place to chase down the Mongol units once the initial battle lines had fragmented. Phew!

15 mm Timurid Elephant - Part 4

2011-11-04T12:11:00.001Z

Back in March 2009, yes two and a half years ago, I posted the pictures of my first Timurid elephant. At that time it was part of my Islamic Persian project for DBA. Since then things have changed and I’m looking to field a FOG army. For this I need a total of four elephants. Yesterday I finished basing the final element:

The model is the same as the second one I painted in Mach 2009 (must have been keen). As usual click the picture above for the warts and all shot. Here’s a few shots of the group:

What other have said about these:

The Mystified On Tour :: Halifax 2011

2011-10-07T13:58:00.001+01:00

It would be fair to say that this round of the Northern League was a struggle. Graham and I take turns in choosing the armies we field and Graham picked Italian Condotta which, under the League gradings, is a class 2 army. This was helpful as we don’t have a great deal of choice when it comes to class 3 armies.

Having said that, we both knew that all the Italian Condotta armies have a handicap in the large number of compulsory average knights. We practiced hard and often with varying results. In the end we placed the knights in two battle groups of sixes and one of four. We also spent some points on a battle group of four superior knights for real punch.

Even so, the plan was to deploy in depth in one quadrant and expand out quickly using the knights and the heavy foot to force the pace. Ideally, we wanted to choose the terrain or have some rough or difficult terrain to help us hold a flank. So let’s see what happened.

Game #1 against Greco-Bactrian (22-3 loss)

Our first opponent was Andy Ellis who normally plays with his brother but he couldn’t make it that Sunday. I think it was lack of brownie points!

Anyway, Andy’s army contained lots of light horse, cataphracts and elephants. More importantly he won the initiative and we played on the Steppe.

We deployed to our right as planned but the left flank always looked very vulnerable. The right flank did OK and the left held for longer than I thought but the centre was beset my highly manoeuvrable groups right from the off.

The pike block was dispatched very quickly and so was one of battle groups of knights. These looses created panic in our deep formation and it was soon obvious that Andy would only have to play steadily to break the Condotta.

We did manage to break two of Andy’s battle groups, one of elephants and one of knights, much to Andy’s surprise but it was too little too late.

Game #2 against Later Lithuanian (23-2 loss)

After lunch we faced the two Daves: Andy and Hutchby with a Later Lithuanian army. We thought we had a chance as Graham had played my Later Lithuanians quite a few times; that was until we lost the initiative without rolling a dice and prepared to invade the Steppe again.

As it turned out we again left the left flank open and deployed in depth. As far as the Condotta was concerned this was a rerun of game one.

The one difference was that the troops holding the left were much weaker that in game one and as a result the left flank was in trouble from the second or third move.

During the game is became clear that our opponents were a touch wary about the knights but they relaxed a bit when the Condotta knight's cohesion crumbled in contact.

One high spot was Dave Hutchby’s excellently painted figures. After the game we chatted and it turns out that Dave has recently set up a commercial painting service: Feronia Figure Painting. If you are in the market for a painting service I can certainly recommend Dave’s work.

Summary

The Italian Condotta army is below average in the FOG world rankings and I understand why.

The army is especially vulnerable if fighting on the Steppe as there’s no chance to channel your opponent and the list restrictions means it’s very hard to hold both flanks for long

The compulsory knights really have to be in battle groups of sixes for improved robustness but I’m afraid that even this doesn’t guarantee their effectiveness as this study in concentration shows:

We encountered real problems with the deep deployment. For this to work the front has to hold as any breaks can create havoc in the second line. If we use this army again then a wider deployment is a must if only to create more problems for our opponents. Refusing a flank totally just invites your opponent to attack on two sides.

Having said all this I don’t think we played particularly well and, as always with FOG, you have to play exceptionally well to recover from pivotal losses which we certainly didn’t do.

Miscellaneous

Whilst I was cropping the original photo of Graham I realised that there was a least four other members of MAWS in the background:

Painting Tips #5a - Matting Acrylics With Talc

2011-09-19T18:53:00.001+01:00

Back in May I wrote about my discovery that cosmetic talc could be used as an effective matting agent for acrylic paint. After using it for three months I thought I would comment on what I’ve learnt.

I’ve settled into a pattern of filling one of my palette wells with dry talc. This is so much more convenient than opening a bottle every time.
I use a wet brush to pick up some talc and mix it with the paint. I’ve also found that it’s not necessary to clean the brush beforehand. The talc sticks to the paint and the talc left in the well stays clean. This is a very useful property
I’ve also found that the easiest way to matt a portion of paint is to add two or three “dipped brushfuls” of talc. I stop adding talc just as the paint starts to look like a paste. I then thin the mix with just enough water to make the paint flow again.

This method has worked with paints from Vallejo, Rackham, Miniature Paints, Coat d’Arms and various craft paints. I’m so used to doing this, that I curse myself when I forget (and end up with a shiny layer of paint).

It’s really far too early to tell if this affects the adhesion properties of the paint in use but I haven't experienced even the slightest issue so far.

Finally, I’ve have treated whole bottles of paints but I’ve been careful not to add too much talc. I tend to add just enough talc so that I only have to add a final touch extra when the paint is on the palette. I’ve also erred on the side of caution and added some matt medium after the talc just to maintain the fluidity of the paint in the bottle. By the way the matt medium does not flatten the paint on it’s own: I tried that first!

15 mm Medieval Polish Camp Element

2011-09-14T19:20:00.001+01:00

Originally posted in the Vexillia Limited gallery but I thought it would also interest a general audience.

Claudio Berni’s painting of his Baueda baggage models has always been exceptional. In the early days of Vexillia I always wanted to paint camps like the ones in Claudio’s advertising flyer.

Over the summer I finally got my paint brush out and tried to match the master:

This camp combines a Baueda tent with some of the Vexillia Medieval Polish infantry and some Essex horse holders.

The tent design is based on the banner of Sandomierz taken from the now out of print book on Polish Heraldry at Grunwald, 1410:

Here’s a full, all angles, montage which is linked to a much larger image for those of you who like to study painting styles in detail:

There’s another camp to come: I’ve only one horse left to paint.

Painting Tips #6 - Stripping Paint

2011-08-08T10:47:00.001+01:00

In twenty plus years of painting figures I’ve seldom had call to strip painted figures. However I recently needed to strip some 15 mm metal horses as buying replacements or over painting weren’t viable options.

I’d read on the internet that Dettol was an effective paint stripper for acrylic paints and this seemed really straightforward so I thought I’d have a go but being a little loath to use a high quality, branded product like Dettol I tried a different approach:

This stuff is a lot cheaper than Dettol: in fact it’s less than a tenth of the price! A 1 litre bottle currently costs £0.32 compared to a 0.75l bottle of Dettol at £3.00 (£4.00 a litre!).

Despite the low price it worked well stripping of the first layers of paint in 2-3 hours; the layers just fell away when I scrubbed lightly with a toothbrush. As with all stripping, the paint in the creases took longer (24-48 hours) and a little work with a scalpel.

It seems this product isn’t doing much more than softening the paint and weakening the bond between the paint and the metal; hence the scrubbing part is vital. It certainly doesn’t dissolve the paint and I think this is why it doesn’t turn into a “gloopy” mess during use. This product also seems to tolerate small amounts of water from a damp toothbrush.

For safety’s sake I wore safety glasses whilst scrubbing the figures and so should you. I found I didn’t need gloves but I recommend you wear them as a precaution.

I suspect that the figures I stripped hadn’t been varnished with anything other than an acrylic varnish and hadn’t been primed either; just black undercoated. So I can’t say how this product will perform against a decent primer and spirit varnished figures but I’ll update this post when I find out.

Let me know if you too find this product useful.

Mid Summer Update

2011-07-24T15:02:00.001+01:00

I’ve just realised that I’ve not added anything here for nearly a month. This has been because work has got in the way to a significant extent.

My day job is running Vexillia Limited and in the last three weeks I have had deliveries from six different suppliers. Annoyingly, this has left me unable to leave the house as I wait for one parcel after another to arrive; it’s a good job the weather’s been awful

As far as I’m concerned, the biggest thing to happen lately is Vexillia Limited’s purchase of an extensive range of 15 mm Ottoman Napoleonics from One Tree Miniatures. This involves a significant amount of stock and there’s a lot of “sorting out” required. A big reorganisation of the stock room (or garage) proved necessary.

I just about managed to find time to tweet let alone write for this blog. Luckily, things have calmed down and I managed to pick up a paint brush today and tackle some Donnington Mongols; I’m painting three additional elements to enable me to field a battle group of eight.

One thing that I have managed is find time for is a wargame every other weekend. I’ve been playing lots of FOG at 650 points and getting two games in a touch over four hours. Both Graham and I are getting quicker and we are trying more difficult tactical moves. However, I don’t think we’ll know if we’ve really improved until our next doubles match which isn’t until 18th September at Halifax.

Flames of War - 8th Army Mortar Platoon

2011-06-28T10:56:00.001+01:00

In March I post the test base of my first attempt at some 15 mm WWII figures from Peter Pig. Speedy as ever, I’ve now finished the whole mortar platoon so it’s time to post another photo:

Over size photo. Click for enlarged, “warts and all”, photo.

I’m please with with both the new painting technique and the basing scheme on these figures. I was worried that the uniform and base would not contrast but things worked well.

One thing that really surprised me was how much research I had to do! It took a while to get the colour scheme for the radio set, the mortar round and the carrying case. Far more than I imagined would be required. As I normally paint medieval figures I’d become used to the relative freedom of the period.

I accidentally uploaded a black and white version and I quite like the resulting period feel:

Anyway the next step is to try an paint a few universal carriers to go with the mortar team. Then I have to decide whether to paint and army or sell these.

I’ve Joined The Tufty Club

2011-06-21T15:01:00.001+01:00

Whilst at Phalanx I decided to buy some painted 15 mm Russian figures from the bring and buy. I bought painted figures because I want to experiment with my basing technique and use some Stilfor tufts as I’d read so much about them.

So I bought 25 figures and some 2 & 4 mm plain spring tufts. After a few hours work this is a sample of what I’d achieved:

Not the best picture in the world but you get the idea. Of course it’s never that simple so the rest of this post covers what I leant.

Groundwork

The texturing went well using my new “almost no paint” method:

Coat base with PVA.
Add a few pieces of aquarium gravel.
Cover remainder with sand and leave to dry for 1 hour.
Second coat of PVA.
Sprinkle with medium talus (5 to 10% coverage).
Cover remainder with sand and leave to dry overnight.
Paint gravel dark grey and dry bush with light grey then white.
Wash sand with burnt sienna watercolour wash.
Leave to dry for at least 2 hours.
Dry brush sand with VMC 843 Cork Brown.
Touch up the base edge where necessary.

The two thin coats of sand are necessary because the bases on the Battlefront figures are very thick. The watercolour wash is much easier to apply than paint as capillary action wicks the solution into the sand and it always dries flat.

Watercolour Wash

If you want to make your own wash it’s really easy. Just mix tube watercolour and water in a small jar with some stirring beads. This produces a great wash but it needs to to shaken well before use.

Flora

So far so good. The next bit was adding the tufts etc. As I was experimenting I started with a few tufts and small patches of scatter as it’s always easier to add than it is to remove.

Adding tufts using tweezers and PVA was very straight forward; no wonder people like using them. I started with 2 or 3, 4 mm tufts per base. Aesthetically, this wasn’t enough so I added some 2 mm tufts. This looked better but still artificial. Then I added some patches of regular static grass to roughen the edges of the clumps.

At this point I had plain green tufts and a mixed green/yellow static grass. The contrast was too stark so I dry brushed the tufts with VMC 953 Flat Yellow to tie everything together. The tufts dry brushed really easily. At first I tried dry brushing with a pale cream first but that looked wrong.

I put the bases away and returned to them the next day. With “fresh eyes” I felt the varying heights worked well but the, now consistent, colour of the tufts and static grass looked bland and therefore artificial.

To resolve this I added patches of dark green foam scatter (I can’t remember where I got it from) to provide some contrast. As before the initial contrast was too strong so I dry brushed the darker patches with VMC 891 Intermediate Green (to add depth) and VMC 015 to tie everything together.

This shows both the resulting variation in both height and colour:

In future I should be able to do this much more quickly as there’ll be a lot less experimentation. I think the method will be:

4 mm spring green tufts (2-3 per base)
2 mm tufts (but only because I need to use them up).
Dark green foam scatter.
Regular static grass.
Leave to dry.
Dry brush dark green scatter with VMC 891.
Dry brush all foliage with VMC 015.

Finally, if you wondered about the title of this post it’s a pun based on a cartoon character used to promote road safety in the UK from 1953 onwards. If you got the joke then you too are of a certain age.

15 mm T34 - Work In Progress

2011-06-15T11:39:00.001+01:00

In early February I bought a box of 5 Plastic Soldier Company 15 mm T34s. They looked great and stirred memories of the Airfix kits of my youth. The plan was to use them to see if I could, and enjoyed, painted tanks.

Needless to say they’ve sat on my shelf until this week when I decided it was time to build and paint a test kit. Here’s a work in progress shot. The base isn’t quite finished and I need to get some transfers for the turret but otherwise it’s done.

Overall I’m pleased with the end result. I aimed for a cartoon representation of a tank that will stand out on the table. As always the build didn’t go according to plan.

What went well:

Sticking this together with superglue was relatively painless and the finished model seems reasonably solid and stable.
I put some metal nuts inside the body of the tank to give the model some weight.
I’m pleased with the colour scheme I ended up with. It’s only two colours and a wash made with Burnt Sienna watercolour. It’s useful that Russian tanks could be almost any colour green.
The hand painted red star stands out really well and it was really easy to get the detail on the model to “pop”.
I also tried a new basing scheme: sand washed with Burnt Sienna watercolour and one colour dry brush. This was really quick and effective. I’ll be using scheme this a lot more.

What didn’t do well:

The tracks! After I built the model I realised that the tracks have and inside and outside edges. Now I know what I’m looking for I’ll get in right on the other four.
The reserve tanks. These should have been placed a little higher up and not resting on the track guard. Not a major issue but it highlights the lack of any instructions with the kits. At least they will be a lot more secure.
The command figure. This is very small for 15 mm. The detail is there it just takes a while to paint but it doesn’t really fit in the left hand hatch as there’s not split hatch cover in the kit.
Compared to my usual medieval and renaissance subjects there’s a lot of research in a basic model. The internet makes it easier but I’m concerned I’ll get drawn into “rivet counting” territory.

Finally, here’s a couple of more photos with different light settings:

Painting Tips #5 - Matting Acrylics With Talc

2011-05-30T13:21:00.001+01:00

I’ve run into a problem varnishing my figures. Certain acrylic paints, mainly Vallejo reds and browns, dry satin or slightly gloss and no varnish, or combination of finishes, will produce a matt finish.

There is clearly some reaction between the paint surface and the varnish. I don’t know what it is but it is preventing the matting agent in the varnish migrating to the surface and disrupting the surface for a matt finish.

However, all is not lost as this week I stumbled across a really simple solution.

Whilst surfing the web I read an article on the Kings Miniatures blog on converting artists acrylics into miniature paints and I noticed this comment:

“Next add a small amount of industrial talc. Adding talc gives a solidity and glow to the paint you may find familiar. Back in the 1990s, a white dwarf article mentioned that talc is used in citadel paints, so having talc on your models was not going to effect the paint job much- this clued me into trying it out, and it makes a big difference to some mixes.”

So I wondered if the talc would also act as a matting agent. In the past I have used fumed silica to improve the matting properties of Humbrol Matt Cote. The fumed silica was provided by a neighbour who worked in a paint laboratory but as he’s now retired I only have access to standard cosmetic talc.

I bought a life times supply of colour and perfume free talc from the local Chemists and experimented with adding small amounts to samples of the problematic paints. I started adding very small amounts but quickly realised that the paint will take quite a lot of talc before refusing to flow. It’s easy to do on a palette so experiment for yourself to get the quantities right.

I’m pleased to report that it works really well producing a very flat finish. There was little change in colour and any change is solely due to the lack of any surface sheen.

I’m going to continue adding talc to paints on my palette for while. I have added talc to some dropper bottles but I’m certain I’ve not yet added enough. I think I’ll get used to the technique first before attempting to fix a whole bottle.

Follow up article after some months experience.

Wargaming Is Meant To Be Fun

2011-04-26T09:47:00.001+01:00

There are a few constant threads that run through internet discussions about wargaming and one of them is the thorny subject of where the next generation of players will come from. Usually the debate is sterile, argumentative and seldom gives rise to much of value. Therefore I was pleased to see the following piece from Kim R Young:

Two young boys were playing in a sandbox when they were approached by an older man that appeared to the boys as being about the age of their grandparents. "What ya playing there boys?" spoke the gray-haired heavy set man. "Playing Army Men!" replied the younger looking of the two. The older boy brushed back his stringy blonde hair as he looked down on his group of green plastic soldiers he was arranging next to plastic model tank "Yea, we’re playing Army Men".

"Now you know that's not the proper way to be playing a game about the Second World War" the old man decried. The boys looked up with a bewildered expression, "Look here ..." the old gent went on, "your soldiers are just plain green, they should be painted with a realistic looking uniforms, you know like in Saving Private Ryan." The young boys now stopped playing as the eyed the older man while both sifted sand through their fingers. "And you also know your tanks are way out of scale with the men, you either need bigger tanks or smaller men". The man reached down to where the boys had built a fort with a flag sticking up on top of it, "And that American Flag, well that's a 50 star flag, there were only 48 states during World War Two, you need to get the right flag for the time period."

The boys were now totally perplexed, and the older blond haired boy began to dig a hole in the sand and started filling it in with is green toy soldiers. "Now if you really want to play a historical game, you boys are going to have to spend some time in the library and start doing some studying so you can learn how to organize your soldiers correctly. You got too many men with bazookas, your squads don't have any support weapons, you don't have any mortars. Also those figures with the mine sweepers, they need to be organized in with engineer units, not combat teams."

"And you know you boys are going to have to get some real rules to play with including charts, tables, markers and of course lots of dice. You can't just say bang bang and knock them down" spoke the old man in a somewhat berating manner. "Tell you what, I'll come by tomorrow and show some of my painted figures and show you some good reference material that you can use to get you playing for real, see you then".

As the grey haired man walked away, the blonde haired boy was finishing up burying sand over the last of his green army men in the hole he dug. "Well? What you want to do?" he said to his younger playmate. The younger boy stood up, dropped his tank on top the fort toppling the 50 star flag and said: "Let's go over to my house and play with my Star Wars stuff!"

A nice reminder that wargaming is, and should remain, a broad church with room for all sorts of games at all sorts of levels.

Reproduced with permission of the author.

Dynamic Views Now Available

2011-04-07T16:06:00.001+01:00

In their infinite wisdom Google have released a new feature that allows you you view this blog in lots of different ways. They call them “dynamic views”.

In one of the views the blog looks like this:

You can easily switch views using the button in the top right hand corner:

Once you’ve found one you prefer you simply bookmark the view. To try using the new views use the “Views” item in the menu bar at the top of any regular page.

Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

The Mystified On Tour :: Manchester

2011-03-28T20:38:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday Graham and I played Field of Glory in the second round of the 2011 Northern League at Walkden. These events always involve an early start but this time the clocks went forward so we all lost an hours sleep as well. At least I didn’t have too far to travel!

We took a 900 point Later Lithuanian army and scored 26 points out of a possible 50; not a bad start to 2011 and our best performance since our first outing in September 2010.

Game #1 against Later Minoan or Early Mycenaean (23-2 win)

Alan Cole & Paul Carter proved very sporting and pleasant opposition with their army of light foot, defensive spear and heavy chariots. The open terrain did them no favours and neither did the dice.

The first really unlucky event occurred when my armoured cavalry charged some light foot protecting the flank of a large block of spear. The light foot evaded as you’d expect. However, I rolled a 6 for pursuit allowing me to reach the now unprotected flank of the spear block which never really recovered.

They were tough opponents and we had to be patient. It took us the full three and a half hours to break their army. They deserved better. An absorbing game against very nice blokes.

Game #2 against Late Hungarian (22-3 loss)

After a quick lunch we faced Paul Longmore and Phil Powell in an all MAWS clash.

The game was never going to be subtle with three battle groups of superior, heavily armoured knights on each side. The crunch came when all six battle groups of knights clashed head to head over two or three bounds.

Phil’s dice in these combats were very good whilst mine were decidedly below average. Twice I lost a base as Phil had rolled six hits with 8 dice! There may even have been a third base lost this way but I stopped counting.

Under this onslaught all three of our battle groups of Superior knights slowly, but inexorably, evaporated. Meanwhile on our left Graham wasn’t faring any better and the Lithuanians were broken in under two hours play.

I think we could replay this game and do better more times than not. So much so I’m currently trying to arrange a rematch.

Summary

I was pleased with the performance of the Later Lithuanians and will probably use this army again.

This was our third entry in a FOG competition and the first time we had a big win in round one. This placed us against experienced players in round two and, although we were well beaten, we didn’t lose because we played badly. So I think we’ve made progress.

However, we still struggled to remember the finer details of FOG and, on a few occasions, some of the more basic elements. The former tended to arise because we were attempting complex attacks with multiple battle groups so I suppose it’s another sign of progress. Even so, the latter is clearly something we will have to work on.

Overall, I’d say that the rules haven’t yet clicked and we certainly can’t play from memory. We’ll have to see if we do better in this respect in the fourth round at Halifax in September.

Miscellaneous

This time around I managed to take some general photos. I tried to take a good shot of Bill Amey to make up for the photo I took at Vapnartak but it didn’t come out well; the lighting in the hall is terrible for photography. I did however get a great shot of Bill Skinner in DBMM action with his Ottoman Turks:

Another one for the family album Bill?

Flames of War - 8th Army

2011-03-14T11:36:00.001Z

After years of painting medieval figures for DBx and now FOG I thought I’d try something a bit different. So here we have my first attempt at some 15 mm WWII figures from Peter Pig.

Over size photo. Click for enlarged, “warts and all”, photo.

“Life size” photo

At Vapnartak I bought a 8th army mortar platoon and some T34s so I could try a range of different colour schemes. I’ve not touched the tanks yet but I have stared the mortar platoon.

I tried a very different approach to these figures mainly because I was shocked at both the detail and small size of the Peter Pig figures. They are a true 15 mm not the 17 or 18 mm that has become standard in the major medieval ranges.

I was surprised at how much research I needed to do. I used the Artizan Designs guide in the beginning and later I found the Flames of War guide which helped with a few of the smaller details.

As a colour trial, out went the black undercoat! I used a burnt umber wash over my usual dark grey primer. I then painted the uniform and webbing leaving only the deeper shadows remaining. I then washed with Vallejo smoke diluted with matt medium. The figures really did take the wash very well. This was followed by a painted highlight in the original base colour. Finally, I painted the flesh, weapons and boots.

I tried something different with the basing scheme and I’m pleased with how it turned out so I’ll probably stick with this scheme black edge and all. One thing I found that helped was dry brushing the static grass very lightly with the final base highlight; it really helped blend the elements of the basing scheme together.

Of course the true test will come when I try and replicate this standard when painting in batches. The plan is to do the half a dozen observer figures in one batch before tackling the six mortar teams in one final batch.

Cilician Armenian Redux

2011-03-02T15:26:00.001Z

A long time ago I had a Cilician Armenian ally for my Mongol Conquest DBM army. I even wrote a Slingshot article about it. Of course, the lists changed and the ally was no longer allowed. So I sold off all of the infantry and all bar a few of the knights.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed the other day, that the Armenians can act as allies under FOG. So I looked at the three elements I’d kept and decided I need to get my paint brush out again. Here are the results.

I had nine figures already painted so I only needed to buy and paint three to complete a small FOG battle group. Or so I thought; if only life was so straightforward.

Once I’d painted the four new figures I decided I didn’t like some of the colours I’d used on the old figures. So I repainted some surcoats. Then I decided to add another layered highlight to the older horses.

Then I decide to add some flags. The flags are based on the set of speculative flags and banners for Cilician Armenia provided by Chris Brantley and are all hand painted.

I won’t mention the problems I had with the varnishing except to say that a bit more re-painting took place.

Needless to say a quick job turned into a frustrating and much longer project. In some ways it reminded me of a horrible DIY task. In the end I’m pleased with the battle group. Now I’ve got to do some infantry.

Rules War :: GB Rankings 1997 to 2010

2011-02-17T14:14:00.001Z

As regular readers will have twigged by now, I’m interested in how the demise of DBM, and the advent of Field of Glory and DBMM, has affected the wargaming scene in the UK in general and in the Northern League in particular.

I started doing this whilst I still played DBMM; I now play Field of Glory. I really wanted to provide some hard data to inform the rules debate rather than the soft, opinion based data that you find so often on lists and forums. So far I’ve used two sets of player registration data: the Northern League figures and registrations at the big four UK competitions.

Last week I posted the data for 2010 for the big four competitions here and on a couple of lists. On one list John Graham-Leigh commented that this didn’t best represent the UK scene as it under-estimated the strength of DBM (especially in the South West) and suggested using the UK ranking data. So I did some digging and came up with this:

Before going any further there’s a couple of points that need to be made about the data:

There’s no data for 2004 because the ranking system underwent a one-year change that skewed the figures for that year.
The figures for 2007 are affected by the desertion of DBM for the FOG beta programme competitions which weren’t included in the rankings.
Post 2007 it’s perfectly possible for a player to have a ranking in all three rule sets. So from 2007 on the totals have to be treated with some care.

That said, the picture from this data is essentially the same as that gleaned from the big four UK competitions but also offers some new insights:

DBM was in decline from its peak in 2002, five years before the advent of DBMM.
The decline was hastened by the launch of Field of Glory in 2008.
Field of Glory’s popularity was quickly established; far quicker than DBMM which launched first.
Even FOG’s 2007 beta programme had an effect on DBM rankings.
Since 2008, Field of Glory has been by far the most popular rule set for ranking competitions but it has yet to match DBM.

Perhaps more importantly the data set offers some longer term insights into total competition player numbers:

The average number of GB competition players is 470 for the period 1999-2010. I estimate the average figure would be 6-10 higher if there were any rankings for the 2007 FOG beta programme.
1997 - 2002 saw a steady increase in participation peaking at 574 players: up 34% from 1997. This was followed by a sharper decline in 2003 - 05 to 463 players: a fall of 20%.
2006 saw some improvement and since then, excluding 2007, the numbers have remained relatively stable at around the 450 to 470 mark.
The advent of FOG in 2007 does appear to have arrested the decline in total numbers. However, neither DBMM, FOG or the two combined has proved popular enough to attract sufficient players to match the peak of 574 ranking players seen with DBM in 2002.

I think this data set adds to the overall picture of the GB scene. Moreover it neatly documents how DBM strengthened the GB competition circuit in the late 90s and shows the size of the challenge still facing DBMM and Field of Glory in attracting players to ranking competitions.

It will interesting to see what 2011 brings.

Rules War :: Four Years On (National)

2011-02-12T14:15:00.003Z

In November 2009 I analysed the player registrations for the three main competitions in the UK; Warfare, Roll Call & Britcon. I later added Challenge to the analysis. I’ve had the time to repeat the exercise for 2010 and the results are interesting:

The figures cover both 15 & 25 mm singles competitions. They don’t include 24 player registrations for the newly released FOG Renaissance rules. The figures for Roll Call are mainly based on registrations; all the others are based on actual games played.

If you read an earlier version of this post you’ll notice that the table above now has 8 DBM registrations in 2010 rather than none. It turns out that Roll Call included a small DBM competition this year. It was omitted because nothing was listed along with the registration information for all the other competitions.

Once I’d been made aware I managed to find the DBM results, and therefore the number of players, via the South West DBM Doubles League pages. It doesn’t change things much.

In 2009 I wrote that:

Competition registrations were down 3.4% in 2009 vs. 2008.
FOG continues to grow whilst DBMM registrations were static.
DBM’s decline is nearly complete; the 8 players were all at Britcon.
FOG has reached a dominant position.
DBMM has retained its niche position.

In 2010 it seems that:

Competition registrations were down 5.5% in 2010 vs. 2009.
FOG Ancient & Medieval registrations fell for the first time.
DBM’s continues its slow, lingering decline.
FOG has improved its dominant position (up 2% to 77%).
DBMM is both stable and static despite the absence of DBM.

Since 2008 the overall number of registrations shows a clear downward trend. However, I don’t think it’s a simple picture because the 2010 figures are adversely affected by two unique factors:

The absence of a viable DBM national competition scene; not all former DBM players will have switched to DBMM or FOG.
The introduction of FOGR to the competition scene enticing some FOG players to switch periods.

On balance if this year’s figures show a similar decline then I think the trend will have been confirmed.

Finally, it is worthwhile comparing the national picture with that for the Northern League I published last year:

The overall pool of League players has remained steady since 2008.
FOG had 79% of the 2010 player registrations, up from 54% in 2009.
DBMM 2010 player numbers declined but then 2009 looks exceptional.
There’s no longer any demand for DBM in the north of England.

Overall, this is a very similar situation to the national picture with the exception that FOGR is not tempting players in the Northern League where player numbers are more stable as a result.

Paint Mixer - Aldi Bargain

2011-02-10T17:41:00.001Z

I’ve found a solution to a common hobby problem that I’d like to pass on. The problem is paint separation with age or storage.

Over time the pigments in hobby paints settle out leaving a thin liquor of acrylic medium. Whilst the paint is new, vigorous shaking usually works fine. However, as the paint is used it gets harder to remix and I got fed up of shaking bottles and getting variable results.

There had to be a better way. I first thought of buying a laboratory roller mixer but they are far too expensive. Then I found this in my local Aldi:

It’s a ultrasound cleaner and it’s ideal for remixing suspensions of solid particles; or paint pigments to you and me. For the theory behind how it works I recommend this Wikipedia article.

I bought mine for £19.99. It’s sold as a jewellery cleaner but will easily take hobby paint pots in many sizes. The top is purely cosmetic and doesn’t need to be closed for it to work. It’s already proved invaluable in lots of small ways like:

Diluting part-used and desiccated craft paints with water.
Reviving part-used Vallejo and Rackham paints with matt medium.
Re-suspending my favourite spirit based varnish (Humbrol Matt Cote).

However, the biggest successes so far have been:

Resurrecting an old jar of Plaka red brown which had a lot of gloppy casein in the bottom. This took four 8 minute sessions in the cleaner with some serious stirring between the first three sessions. It’s now as good as new, flowing well and drying that perfect Plaka matt.
Reviving some Vallejo Scarlet. This had poor coverage and had been drying with a satin sheen. After two 8 minute sessions in the cleaner the paint now flows and covers really well. The improved pigment and medium distribution means it is drying perfectly matt once again.

I think the Aldi stock has all gone but the same model is currently on special offer at Maplins in the UK for £29.99 and is available from Amazon for £28.00. I’m glad I bought mine when I did and it has also been a hit with my wife who’s been busy cleaning all her jewellery.