What have(n’t) I done? (Part I)

 Unlike the last few years this current one has been pretty stressful (who’d have thought it) and I haven’t achieved as much with my hobby as I’d intended and still haven’t played any games in real life.

I participated in a training game for the Fighting Wings system which I enjoyed but came with some issues:

# The other players weren’t always very punctual, dropping in and out which made the flow difficult. This was a play by email game with players from around the world. It wasn’t always their fault necessarily but my own worries about slowing the game made me prioritise my move (above most things) making sure I responded quickly. I would spend the next evening (from it being announced as my turn) getting my move ready and sending it in (you had 24hrs from prompt). It came down from 2-3hrs of prep per turn in the first few turns to 30-45mins by turn 20.

# I spotted an issue with the rules and when I asked about this to the learning game teacher he stated “because” and thought I should accept it - this probably would have been better if I’d been in a learning game with the designer not just an experienced player. The problem involves tailing and a series of tests to see if you qualify - a simple then an advanced one. If you failed one you could see if the latter could be used but as they both had the same set of conditions: if you couldn’t meet the first you could never meet the second. Something I will have to address with the author (He is the system and I’m sure he’ll have a practical and straightforward solution) if I am to play online again.

 It isn’t really an issue with the rules that has potentially stymied my pursuit of the game but rather my own feelings about the level of commitment needed (spread over weeks at a time) if others will simply drop out. If I had a local face to face opponent I think I’d be fine. It’s definitely me but the worse I get, the less energy I have to cope with simple things. Unhelpfully the online system uses io.groups or something similarly archaic and it is nowhere near straightforward or user friendly, so simple things like trying to join a game group left me feeling bemused and frustrated - whilst everyone who already knows how to use it can’t see any issues.

I felt that I grasped the basics of flying and found the system to be relatively straightforward and enjoyable. I ended the game by purposefully straightening out and flying straight across my wingman’s nose. Until this point I’d been evading merrily and trying to stay on the wing of my leader but was being tailed tenaciously by a player (who it turned out wasn’t a beginner at all) throughout and had managed to keep the attention away from my wingman to my satisfaction. I suddenly realised the 20 turns were nearly up and I hadn’t learned about firing so I made myself a target hoping that the attackers greed at an easy tailing kill would leave my wingman with the advantage and set up to respond in kind. Well I died in a hail of bullets (very serious and deadly - which I liked) but the shooting phase was somewhat rushed past (emails of numbers and dice rolls but no step by step explanation - that said none of the other people seemed to think my stated move and thus sudden total change of behaviour was anything out of the ordinary: for some reason I’d suddenly thought that slowing down and flying straight would lose my attacker?) and I didn’t really learn anything. My flight leader positioned badly and missed the easy kill I’d sacrificed myself for………

I have since seen training game transcripts of game run by the designer and they seem incredibly thorough and more what I had expected. Fighting Wings is a thorough (some would say complicated) but understandable system (and weirdly), as it’s just cardboard counters, you really feel like you’re flying a plane (at least more so than any non computer game I’ve ever played). I would advise anyone interested in gaming aerial combat to give the FW system a try as long as they’re not put off by having to commit to learning and practicing the system to play (something not everyone enjoys) it’s not just picked up (although with the right teacher…?). It’s not cheap but if you have a dedicated opponent (or cope better online than I do) I’d say buy it (Wings over the Motherland or Buffalo Wings) as there’s enough provided to game happily for the rest of your days (It would/will work solo but the onus will be on you to learn the rules alone which is a reasonable task and you lose the unknown factor). 

I did enjoy my introduction to the Fighting Wings system and would really like to have another learning game or two but I’m not sure I’m well enough to actually achieve it. There is a WW1 version that I’m more interested in so maybe when I can afford it (it’s not much $30?) I’ll have a look at that as I have lots of Wings of Glory planes and old school kites are a bit slower and (hopefully) easier to game. I chose Fighting Wings (and now own all of it) so I could play online, with others, even when I wasn’t well enough to get up or do anything as taxing as play face to face. I haven’t given up on it but I’m not currently in a position to commit to more online games so I’ll keep looking for other possible solutions. There is another local club which I intend to investigate if I can work out which alternate Sunday they meet!

Stay safe,

Balm

15mm AT-ST for Star Wars Chain of Command

    

 One of the first things that comes to my mind when you say Star Wars is the AT-ST or chicken walker. It’s not practical or particularly well armed but it’s quintessentially Empire and as such would be vital for any SW themed tabletop game I’d want to play. The biggest draw to playing Legion was the AT-ST and how much it reminded me of my childhood toy, but the cost (and scale) helped push me into investigating any possibility in a near enough scale for 15mm. 

     Most manufacturers use 1:100 for their accompanying 15mm vehicle scales but as I didn’t intend to have too many recognisable/real world vehicles on the tabletop (who says how big this speeder is in real life) I could accept some variance around this, probably from 1:90 to 1:110 depending on the subject. Luckily all of the work had already been done for me by the previously mentioned, and frankly excellent, Rebel Scale website which has lists for all the Star Wars toys or models that are or have been available. On it I was overjoyed to find that the Micro Galaxy Squadron toys by Jazwares produced an AT-ST in 1:100 exactly. Being, accordingly, a collectors item they can go for ridiculous prices (that I don’t understand but words like chase are bandied with much reverence in the hallowed circles of fandom) but I managed to pick up two for £13 each which was reasonable.

     The plastic is hard(ish) but not brittle and comes with a weird dirty wash on them (rebelscale recommends removing this with isopropyl alcohol which worked well enough for my purposes). The details are sometimes a little soft but perfectly acceptable apart from (in my opinion) the front blasters. These are the main chin mounted weapons and had plastic filler between the two barrels (to add strength). I cut off the guns and replaced them with a plastic set (from a WW2 Flames of War American early AA Halftrack), whilst not exact and missing the barrel detail of the originals I like the look of these replacements and feel when painted they’ll fit well enough for me (field modifications if anyone quibbles).

The toy actually stands up on its own but I decided to make them a base for added stability. Luckily with a little aggressive scraping with a scalpel I managed to enlarge the gaps on the underside of the feet to perfectly fit two 5mm neodymium magnets that were partnered by a pair mounted into a 50mm Renedra round base. Hey presto a stable model that can be posed and repositioned on its base or removed entirely if needed.

I’m really happy with how it looks next to a Highlander Studios Stormtrooper and need to start the second and work out a plan for paint scheme (in classic Empire grey). I’m tempted to add some stowage and bits but I’m not sure it fits the SW look.

Thank you for taking the time to check this out I have a lot of plans for my Chain of Command Star Wars chaps and just received another two Jazwares vehicles today for scenery; which I’ll spend a few weeks getting them out of their carbonite packaging (how kids are supposed to get anything out of this packaging without breaking them is baffling - it’s almost vac-formed around it!) and get them into the production line.

Balm 

My 15mm Star Wars project

 So as briefly mentioned before I’m intending to use Star Wars miniatures to lure unsuspecting friends into playing Chain of Command (or literally anything at this point) and then if they bite try and convert them to historicals.

So I’m currently busy watching various bits of the films or series and trying to get an idea for the setting and rebel composition for my vision. My rebels are GZG RANG and I’ve started trying to add some variation by removing heads and re sculpting them.

My first efforts are a Twi’lek platoon commander, a Sullustan RPG operator and a Mon Calamari driver for the lovely GZG skimmer.

I’m quite pleased with the results, although the eyes are maybe too far forward ( a thorough scouring of MC pictures however does show variance so maybe it’s okay). I now just have to decide what colour: blue or red? Cold water or warm? I’m thinking red for this one and I’ll do a couple more infantry for variety. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I apologise for the lack of pictures, I intend to get a few more done and I’ll paint up some infantry to try and rough out my colour scheme.

Stay safe,

BeneathALeadMountain 

My forces for Operation Torch - or what have I been doing during COVID?

 Greetings all, I hope you are still coping with the unusual times we’re currently experiencing. Previously I’ve mentioned that my actual progress in my hobby is not very well represented by my blog posts - a mixture of frustration at computers (blogger is very hard to use on iPad recently - as I type this I cannot actually see what I’m writing and when I try and put pictures in a minute there will be swearing) and a feeling that it just isn’t that interesting. Well recently I’ve decided to give in and bore any poor reader who found their way here because if nothing else it’s a small distraction from the real world. 

Since just before Christmas I’ve been taking random boxes of 15mm tanks and vehicles I have stockpiled and trying to at least move them forward by sticking them together and basing them. I haven’t progressed to painting partly as I’ve lost my painting mojo and I was also stuck trying to match my basing colours with my chosen gaming mat (Cigar Box battle mats Arid region - it has a ground colour of a beige and pink flesh tone in it and sparse foliage scattered across it) but I think I’ve solved that problem.

For Operation Torch I wanted to collect Italians and Germans with British and Americans opposing them. My American platoon is already based along with a few vehicles like an M8 Scott, M1 Scout car as they were originally for Normandy but I decided to repurpose them and build a new platoon for Overlord at some point in the future. Not everything is finished and in some cases there a few more waiting to be built but this gives a good example of what I’m intending to have as a final force. So we have M3 Lees, early M4 Shermans, halftracks (only 1 but more to come), trucks, T30 halftracks (75mm howitzer), M1 scout car, various jeeps (spotters and a radio version) and Beeps, Portee’d anti tank guns and M3 Stuart’s. So still a number of vehicles to finish or tart up with sculpted details and crew but definite progress.

The British are the least completed (maybe started is a better term) force but if you look carefully at the pictures of the drawers I keep my WIP models in you can see 6 pounders and a couple of scout cars (you can also see some of my limited armour for VBCW including a T1 cavalry tank and some Konflikt ‘47 walkers in their original, and honestly much better, scale). I will get back to the Brits but as I had my American infantry re-headed and based it seemed sensible to focus on them to get a working allied force done.

For the Axis I have Germans and Italians. The Italians are represented by a Bersaglieri platoon (half done and charming in their pith style sun helmets and ostrich feathers) and a range of vehicles from M41 tanks and semoventes, dovunque 35 lorries and Lancia 3RO 6-ton trucks including two (one pictured) with 90mm guns mounted on them, TL-37 artillery tractors and a section of motor cycle based rifleman for a bit of mobile reserve. I could still do with some Sahariana vehicles to act as a mobile elite force but there’s easily enough for Chain of command, Bolt Action or small games of Battlegroup (the Germans will bolster their forces in bigger games). I also made a Carro commando M41 command vehicle out of one of the FoW plastic M41s. Ive also got a number of infantry guns and support weapons to base up to help give the troops a bit more punch.

For the Germans I have a good range of vehicles to support my intended two platoons of infantry. I’ve based and re-headed one platoon in trench coats (Tunisia was cold at night and very different to the sweltering deserts of ‘41)  and they will have a kradschutzen platoon added to them soon (I have the bikes but not the chaps yet) as I felt they would be very different to the other forces and give a highly mobile but fragile fighting force. The vehicles for the Germans range from Panzer III (mainly J’s) and Panzer IV’s (newly arrived in the desert and a dangerous foe), a Bison (daft and pretty unique but cheap from eBay), sdkfz 6 Diana SPG, various artillery tows (sdkfz 7 and 10’s) and scout cars and the utterly weird SdKfz 254 (minus its aerial frame at the moment as it’s thick and clunky and I think I can do better). There is also  some captured and converted Lorraine schleppers and a Tiger. For command vehicles or particular individuals I’ve sculpted crew members using Peter Pig heads to make them a little bit more ‘mine’ (the panzer commander has a cigarette if you squint at my awful photos). Where turrets aren’t attached that is because on taking them out of storage one of the magnets has become detached and they’re waiting for the glue to dry.

So that’s a pretty good overview of some of what I’ve actually done recently. There are quite a few more vehicles to build, base and in a lot of cases add some sculpted details to in order to make them a bit different. I’ve also got to finish the infantry (and buy my kradschutzen troops on foot) but I feel like I’m actually making some progress and hopefully by the time the COVID problem has become more manageable and I’m allowed to mingle again I should be able to start playing some Chain of Command, Bolt Action and Battlegroup in Tunisia. Hopefully I can also use some of the scenery and as much of the forces as possible to play the conflict in Italy (with some key scenic additions like olive groves and Italian style houses) in the future. Apologies for the picture quality and the lack of captions on the pictures but writing this up has probably taken longer than it does to build most of the forces and as I may have mentioned blogger is very hard to use at the moment (I know it’s not just me and that many other bloggers are struggling as well).

Thank you for taking the time to read this, please get in touch and ask any questions or tell me about your own forces for this theatre.

Stay safe and well

BALM