A Small 15mm Moderns Batch (T-72, BTR-80A, BTR-80 and Modern Soviets)

The last couple of painting sessions was for a small mixed batch of moderns, consisting of:

• A Battlefront T-72 painted in Indian United Nations colours (Somalia, Congo and Sri Lanka),
• Two Zvezda BTR-80s converted to BTR-80As in generic camo (but based on what the Hungarian army used in the Balkans in the 90s),
• A Zvezda BTR-80 in generic Soviet green, and
• Some Eureka Miniatures modern Russians as Serbian police in Kosovo in 1999 that needed touching up after I dropped them about a year ago.

The BTR-80As were easy to convert, using some spare 2cm WWII German AA guns, some plastic sprue cut to size and greenstuff.

A slow burn project is Haiti in 2004 when the UN (mainly Brazilians) went hard into a shanty town to get a drug lord, but the reporting on the event has conflicting accounts - shooting innocent bystanders, etc. I find it interesting in that respect. That and white vehicles and blue helmets. So I’m just adding random stuff to that now.

For the Balkan theme I just started collecting for the conflict, but realised no one really is interested in it so my modern Americans will be an OpFor the Serbs. There’s a great Hollywood film with Owen Wilson, 'Behind Enemy Lines', that shows off some nice kit and has a great antagonist (Sasha the sniper) - he's the guy in front.

I sort of imagine these for an infantry-heavy company level game (originally Flames of War, but I guess Team Yankee with minimal tanks/AFVs, etc). Or a skirmish game like Ambush Alley on a grander scale.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Board Game Round Two

With restrictions lifted to allow us to go to other people's homes again, both Mark and I were keen to play something and another scenario from Cthulhu: Death May Die seemed perfect, following on from our gaming session in June (has it been that long?!).

We played season 1, episode 6: "Unspeakable Hour" with the one himself, Cthulhu. I played Borden and Alex, while Mark played Sister Beth and Scarlett Hayes.

After last time of multiple long range weapons, we went for females that didn't mind getting their hands dirty with monsters.

Playing it safe, but more fearful of last time that were weren't going to complete the mission in time, we managed to win without losing anyone. That's a double win.

It feels good to be gaming again. Really good.

Last Game I Played - Among Us

The screaming and scheming. Kept a lot of us sane in lock down.

A Shattered Union - Civil War in the USA in 2021

I think everyone in the world is watching the US election results. It has spawned a fair few memes, like this one:

This has led to me pondering wargaming a conflict (too soon?), a modern take on a Very British Civil War (VBCW) and its Australian counterpart A Right Bloody Mess (ARBM). Considering the country faced a bloody civil war only 150 years ago it's not too hard to imagine.

There's been plenty of fiction over the last 20 years to imagine what this would look like, including the 2005 video game 'Shattered Nation':

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beYDa8B82tA

The Reddit user VengefulMigit has created these lovely detailed maps:

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/jl823q/a_shattered_union_the_pacific_northwest_theater/

There's enough there to imagine a platoon of Abrams tanks flying red Anitfa flags or American pick up trucks with black and yellow trim with a whole lot of hunters on the back. Plus the lovely flags. With the work my Balkan / Kosovo / Jakalistan imagination gathering pace, I can see myself getting distracted.

Wargaming Table

After years of having terrain, but never really being able to play a game on a 4x6 foot table at home I decided to build one. I started of with one 4x8 foot sheet of 6mm MDF (this size comes in Imperial measurements at Bunnings), cut at the store into two 3x4 feet sheets and a 2x4 foot sheet (to use for BBDBA at a later date with a sheet of static grass glued to the top surface), along with some battens and four bolts with wings nuts (went with 3/16” for the most economical option).

Drilled four holes (including counter sinks), spaced so the battens would hold the two halves together and also act to stop the board sliding on the fold out table.

 Pretty happy with the result - cheap, sturdy, practical and easy to store.

Christmas Goblins Conversions

Some simple conversions of Games Workshop's Night Goblins with some greenstuff to make them Christmas Goblins. (I needed to make an extra body to create a 10-man unit anyway). Legend has it they hunt peasants in Europe to replenish the "elves" they die of exhaustion each year making toys or mining for coal.

Things are heating up in the North Pole.

Start of a 28mm English Civil War Montrose Scots Army

Painted my first unit of 28mm pike & shot (well I still need to print the flag I designed). The miniatures are from Warlord Games and I got them for a beer. The bases will be done when I complete the next instalment: a command stand and two artillery pieces. That will give me a core for a division I can build off of.

This is the first "test" unit for a 28mm Montrose Scots army I have, in particular to represent a lowland unit of Captain William Innes of Tipperty’s, and Captain William Seton of Scethin’s (Shethin's), companies of foot. I discovered the (few) details of these units on the British Civil War (BCW) Project Regimental Wiki:
http://wiki.bcw-project.org/

Similar to the excellent Kronoskaf site that covers the uniforms of the Seven Years' War, the BCW Project site has details on units during the wars that ravaged the British Isles during the mid-seventeenth century. A worthy resource.

Reading about the Seton family also made it easy to design a flag for the unit, based on the Seton of Pitmedden family coat of arms. I chose this cadet branch as it's close to former site of Shethin Castle.

And because the family coat of arms is cool.

The uniform for the drummer was copied off this illustration (as it matched the colours I wanted in at least half the unit):

Which I discovered when I was reading on the origin of the Montero hunting cap:
https://the1642tailor.com/2014/03/30/montero-caps/

While painting these I was watching 'Rise of Empires: Ottoman' on Netflix, about the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Best quote so far:

"...pretty much for all of history, you will find a random British person involved in pretty much every war. And it’s always, well, more often than not, Scots. Because they just, for some reason, have that martial gene, I don’t know."

And the artillery is also coming along:

On the left is a Turkish pirate mortar from Eureka Miniatures and a Scots 9 pound Falcon cannon from Perry Miniatures.

Perry Miniatures' Farmhouse and Vegetable Garden

Finally finished the Perry Miniatures' farmhouse that I bought when it first came out. It’s such a lovely kit (only needing a little bit of filling between the chimney and the roof).

I used part of the fence that’s included to create a vegetable garden (cabbages from paper roses from Kaisercraft with some green ink to add depth). I'm currently building a pig pen and chicken coop to go with this, and will populate them with Eureka Miniatures’ farm animals.

I also finished two of 4Ground’s shotgun houses - but will take photos of everything in the sun as they are too big to photo under the desk lamp.

15mm Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

One of my favourite films is Okiura’s anime 'Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade', and the reason I bought an army of Eureka Miniatures' 15mm sci-fi Germans.

The tank is a 1/144 Leopard 2 with a Panzer III barrel and storage locker, while the scout car is from a Kinder Surprise egg.

I've got no game planned for them - they were a "just because" choice. Basing to use with Flames of War, Crossfire, Gruntz and even 15mm Bolt Action if that ever becomes a thing. Opponents could be mid-century civilians (e.g. WWII partisans) or Eureka's WWI Bulgarians as police.

Syldavian Foreign Legion Part 1

In the lead pile I have some 28mm 1890 Greek Evzone from Eureka Miniatures. They probably haven't been painted as they're not the nicest of sculpts (faces are all the same and a little cartoony). I originally bought them to make a Metaxas-inspired unit for a Very British Civil War (VBCW) project that didn't get off the ground. They have been in a pile for a long time.

Revisiting them this year as I go through my extensive lead pile, made me realise the Thompsons in the Tintin universe adopted this national costume in 'King Ottokar's Sceptre'.

Right - that has me interested. A little conversion work to make the officer look the part and I have something I would want to paint this 10-man unit.

They only needed a suitable flag, and a brief background. The flag was designed in Photoshop, using suitable elements from the books.

In order to get maximum use out of them, their background has them as the Syldavian Foreign Legion - fighting in games set from ~1750 to ~1950. Huzzah!

Pig Tickler with 1920s Victoria Police

I finally finished my Pig Tickler set from Eureka Miniatures that I got around 14 years ago(!). I painted them as 1920s Victoria mounted police to give them an Australian flavour.

I replaced the lances and shovel handle with brass rod and added paper pennants to differentiate the players.

The game is available here:
https://www.eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_126_153_163&sort=3a

Note that since I bought set, Eureka have remastered the miniatures to very nice Crimean War inspired uniforms, as seen on Dr Mathia's lovely blog:
http://miniatureextravaganza.blogspot.com/2018/05/lead-painters-league-2018-round-1-pig.html

You'll need to let Nic (or the agents for the UK and US websites) know you want the newer or older set.

And as I imagine the game is played on a cricket oval here in Victoria in winter, I built some sight screens as added terrain.

I have yet to play a game, but it feels good to get another thing done!

28mm Power Poles / Utility Poles Terrain

Since lock down started in mid-March I've had no time to paint or make terrain. That changed when I had Vietnamese takeaway and thought I could easily make some 28mm power poles / utility poles with them. I also remembered that I had saved some glass beads in the terrain bits collection that would be useful.

Each pole needed:

• 1 chopstick
• 1 matchstick (from craft store)
• Some plasticard / styrene / card (I used an old Ikea gift card)
• 4 glass beads (from craft store / old jewellery)
• 1 plastic tube (from a finished pet poop bag roll)
• Superglue
• 30mm round base
• Steel washers (for weight)

Relatively easy to put together, and I would recommend distressing each pole with a hobby knife to get it looking as non-uniform as possible.

One of the poles got a distribution transformer by adding a cylinder to the side (capping the tube at each end with a circle of plasticard). The bases had the steel washers glued to them, then covered in plaster (use whatever basing finish you prefer).

Painting-wise I first spray painted them black, then undercoated in raw umber, followed by a heavy light grey dry brush (as old timber is grey and not brown). The insulators were painted white and the distribution transformer gunmetal with a brown wash. I wanted these to suit any setting in the 20th and 21st century.

To make these six power poles I think it was two one hour sessions, one building, the other painting. Very easy and very quick to make. They were finished off with some static grass and tufts to add some much needed colour. I am very happy with how these turned out.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Board Game

Apart from the PBEM River Plate WWII naval game, I haven't wargamed or painted since working from home due to Covid-19 in March.

This would change when Mark R invited some of us over for a game of CMON's Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative board game for 1 to 5 players where you take on the creatures of the Cthulhu mythos. The basic premise is that cultists are summoning one of the Elder Ones and it is up to a ragtag group of investigators to disrupt the ritual long enough to make the Elder One vulnerable allowing it to be killed.

Mark had painted the miniatures over the Christmas break and was keen to show off the game. For the first game we played the 'Tomes of Madness' episode with Hastur as the Elder One that needed to be sent back into the shadows. The Episode provides the map layout, the ritual you are trying to disrupt (and how to disrupt it), as well as the abilities of the monsters in the game. Each Elder One provides the big boss to be defeated, with its own challenges, along with its special minions.

Unfortunately David T and Jono T didn't make it (and I haven't heard from them since...) as David wasn't feeling well.

This meant only Ernest Hemingway (Mark) and Ariele Venturi (myself) were able to stop the cultists and disciples in the catacombs. Below is my character sheet that tracks my character's sanity, stress, health and skills (your skills increase as your insanity increases). During the game you turn over Mythos cards providing new challenges (and acting as tracker for the progression of the ritual) and Discovery cards (providing followers and equipment). Like many games in recent times, these details make a good game great (there's also a QRS on the left hand side).

Our mission was to find tokens (on the bodies of dead cultists) and match pairs up to find a tome. Initially Ernest and Ariele split up, but when the Cthonian passed me, I decided there was safety in numbers.

The whole time I was conscious of my 'Recurring Trauma' that would potentially be triggered as my sanity eroded away. But this was not time for weakness, Ernest was dealing with cultists, disciples and ghouls by himself. Defeating all with some ease, but all the time your balancing your Stress and Health levels - it got close at times.

It was inevitable that Hastur would join us. The tracker means that he jumps around the board. By this time Mark and I were working together and using our skills and equipment to would Hastur as much as possible. The grenades Ernest had helped too.

It's worth pointing out again how nice those miniatures are - absolutely gorgeous. This is however the moment I lost control of my Sanity management and Ariele went insane. Ernest would therefore have to take on Hastur alone in the last stage of the game.

It seemed easy though, and the grenade finished off the room he was in with an absolute plethora of followers.

We that was fun - so we had another game. The episode would be 'Danse Macabre' with The Goat of the Black Woods be the one the cultists were attempting to bring into this world. Following on from the skills I had with Ariele, I decided to take a character that had a slight variation (no Stealth, but Arcane Knowledge) to test what difference this would make - Walter was also a hunter that preferred to attack at range. Mark took Albert Einstein. Yes, that Albert - who apparently loved hunting the evils of the unknown.

Along with the cultists, the Black Goat would be accompanied by Dark Youngs, Hunting Horrors and Deep Ones. From the very beginning we were assaulted by the monsters, and Albert being a lot more skilled in both flipping over the ball goer tokens to find the four Cthulhu worshippers in the crowd and then prodding them to the wharf. Eventually (with the help of picking up the Stealth skill) Walter got into the action.

We picked up a lot of animal companions (Walter got a gorilla with three extra wounds and the apt description of "RAWR" on the card! Albert had a peacock... as you do). We also dealt with the monster and cultists that streamed from upstairs - this assisted in managing them and our Stress and Health.

This time team work was a lot smoother and we defeated the Black Goat, both alive and both sane.

I love this game - it looks beautiful, plays well and is a lot of fun. Definitely one to play again.