A Little Bit of Light Reading......

Wargamers, specifically figure gamers, as opposed to the couch potato crew, with their rapid digits and computerised gizmology.
You've gotta love us, we come in all shapes and sizes, with regards to how we approach our rather strange little hobby, grown men, playing with little toy soldiers, freaks, geeks, nerds, you name it we're called it!!
But, do you realise, that in amongst the hobby, there are some incredibly talented painters, and model makers, and, some incredibly intelligent writers, and thinkers.  We all take a different approach to our gaming hobby, for some folks, its the simple joy of turning up at a club night, or gathering a group of like minded mates together, setting up a table, deploying two armies, and throwing a few dice, its a chance to relax, have a laugh, and enjoy a bit of socialising with like minded mates.
For others, it can become an obession, you get transfixed on a particular period of history, or a famous general, or perhaps you just have to recreate Waterloo in 28mm ( Yes Chris Cope, I a looking at you here!!)
For me, its a mix of the two, I love to get together with the New Buckenham gang, after a stressful week at work, and just chill, throw some dice, and listen to the banter that does the rounds, but I have this obsession you see, that one particular dark period of a certain country's history, that still echoes on today, for me its..............

The Spanish Civil War 1936-39

Its a common misunderstanding, that this war was between the Fascists, and the Communists, and if you boil it down to that simple conclusion, then you are completely wrong. This war is so much more than that, and to try and understand its complexity requires a bit of reading.
You can of course, just paint up two opposing forces, and find a suitable set of rules, then get on with a game or two, or you could immerse yourself, and read, yes thats right read, and I am not talking about a google search, I mean real paper books.
As this blog is probably going to be very orientated towards this conflict over the course of this year, I thought hey why not throw a few options onto the table, for folks to have  a look at. Now the books I'm going to suggest, are not Ospreys, or a quick whip through the salient points, but more in-depth, and not all of them are dry military tomes either.

So, good starting point

Beevor's book is a great start, it covers the causes that build up to the conflict, the war itself, and the aftermath. Some people say it has a left-wing slant, but I did not feel that at all. This is the one book in my collection, that gets referred back to on a number of occasions.

Ok, I will admit, its not an easy read, being a more scholarly and serious book, but it does cover the war in a great depth.

Ok, so there's a nice intro to the war itself, but what about the country? Good old Spain, favourite tourist destination for the Great British sun seeker, with its high rise hotels, endless beaches, and geared towards keeping us happy, a little taste of England on a foreign shore, where the sun burnt examples of your average moronic Brit abroad can be seen, shambling about looking for "egg and Chips" pointing at the beer taps in the "English Pub" shouting Oi Pedro Uno bigo beero poor favor. Sadly this tends to be the only taste of Spain that most of us have experienced, and it is so far removed from the reality. 

So here are three books, that will give you some idea about Spain, its people its customs and its turbulent history

All three books have been written by people, who have lived, and worked in Spain for a number of years, and if you are seriously interested in trying to understand the Spanish Civil War, then I whole heartedly recommend picking up these three books, and having a good read. Because Spain goes a whole lot deeper, and to understand what made a nation split itself in two, pick up guns, and kill each other, requires that you peel away the surface layers, the gloss that hides the ugly truth lying beneath, and get to the rotten heart of the subject.

I coud list a plethora of titles that are worth reading, and maybe along the way I shall touch on a few other titles worth looking into, but for now, start with Beevor, and I would say the Giles Tremlett book as a companion read

I would love to hear what other SCW gamers think on the subject.

I have a Cunning Plan...........

So, projects, those ideas that randomly pop into ones head, usually after you have been to New Buckenham Historical Wargamers  https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Buckenham-Historical-Wargamers/302874659765417  (please feell free to pop over and like us), or when you have been perusing the selection of forums and blogs that we all seem to have bookmarked in our favourites folders.

Well I have narrowed my choices, down to just two, yes really just the two!!
Both projects have littered my desk at various stages over the past few years, and as I am now at the stage, where hobby spending is very limited, I have to tighten my belt, and concentrate on the things I have the most stuff for.

2015, will be the year of Pyrrhus, I have the best part of a Basic Impetus in 28mm nearly finished, and that little project has its own shiny little blog  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1942964967327946473#overview/src=dashboard
This one has trundled along, jumping on and off the desk, when it should have been done, and dusted about, ooohhhhh about 2 years ago!!

The other project, my long suffering Spanish Civil War in 28mm, once again. Been backwards, and forwards with this one, and have left it stuffed in a box, under the desk on a number of occasions, so now its time to show it the love and respect it deserves.

This time round, I will update the two blogs, on a regular basis, and may even include some "shock,Horror" VIDEOS of me, doing things, you know flocking, scratching, a bit of converting.

So here goes

2015,  GAME ON

2015- And So It Begins

New year, new resolutions, or so they say.
I never make resolutions, I cannot stand the crushing disappointment, when after two weeks of trying, it all goes to bits, so, I make plans instead, elaborate, in depth, grandiose, and suffer the same crushing disappointment when they don't reach their dizzying heights, but its fun trying :-)
   I am always harping on, about my grand Spanish Civl War scheme, the impressive game that will appear at a show near you, one day soon. Well this time round I have scaled down the operation, and instead have decided to complete a couple of forces for this, so what follows will be a series of postings abut the journey, to put together the two starting forces.

For those of you in the know, so to speak, "Chain of Command" are a WW2 based platoon level set of rules, from the TooFatLardies, an organisation which seems to be the Marmite of wargaming, you either love what they do, or hate them, as I am putting together forces for the rules, you can obviously see, I am a Marmite fan!! I like what they do, I find the rules a refreshing breath of fresh air, that I find is sorely needed in gaming circles. The people behind the rules are very supportive, and any questions are answered through their active Yahoo group, or through their own forum, they also have some very good instructional videos on YouTube, running through the rules, so you can see them in action.

Chain of Command Espana, is a series of articles from Rolf Grien and Jim Hales, that enable you to build forces for the Spanish Civil War, and pit them against each other using the CofC rules, with the added bonus, that they are FREE, yes, all you need is a set of CofC rules, then get your butt over to here 

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2187

and grab all the bits you need, now how generous is that!!!

Jim, and Rolf have done a fantastic job with these additional rules, and they are an excellent starting point, for gamers to enjoy platoon level SCW games, in fact, you really don't need to do anything else, as they are quite comprehensive. I will of course, add my own touch, because I'm a tosser like that, and just have to tinker, and will include any little bits I have added on here.

So there's the basics, now lets start building the first force

Moroccan Regulares

If you want to play along at home, you will need to pop over to here

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2261

and download the PDF

So lets get cracking

Dodgy looking bunch? they certainly are, and  rightly feared by the Spanish people , the Regulares came across as part of the Army of Africa, well trained, ruthless and efficiently deadly, they proved to be a very important asset for the Nationalist army. I will cover organisation and tactics in future articles, as this first little taster, is just around collecting some suitable figures, for the game.

Right kids, get that PDF I mentioned earlier, and lets have a dekko at the starting force required, to build ourselves a Moroccan platoon for CofC

Basic starting point, and we are going to require

4 command type figs, two LMG teams, and 34 Regulares with rifles etc

So far I have

Hmmmmm, not enough for even a basic platoon :-(

Not too far short though, which is good, so just a few additions to make up the numbers. Now most of my boys are from the good old days, when I ran Anglian Miniatures, and these lovely figures are part of the Empress Miniatures range, a great starting point for any budding SCW gamer.

I have a handful of conversions, using Artisan Goumiers, with suitable headswaps using Turban and Fez heads from Empress.

Of course I will want to add some more, I would use more Empress figures, but I like a challenge, and a bit of variety in my units, so its off a surfing I went, to find some more suitable figures (victims) to add to the force

Northstar Miniatures have Moroccans, they also have some of  the worst pictures around,

I cannot tell if the figures are nice, or horrible, but they look useable, so I shall get a pack.

Artizan have some stuff in their March or Die range, which may suit purpose

I can get away with these boys too, and no headswaps required here.

These two packs will make up the numbers, and give me a few extras to "experiment" with.

Basics, sorted, well sort of sorted, I will have to scratch a M22 Hotchkiss LMG to give to one figure, so i get the two required LMG teams, easy peasy really.

Now part of the fun with CofC, is the chance to add some support units to your force, so back to the PDF and. lets play about

Loads of cool stuff to pick from, of course its not a simple matter of "ooohhhhhh I'll have one of them, and one of them, and four of those" and I won't get into support choices, and how they work right now.

Some of these support options need litle more than a note on your force organisation, to say they have them, but others, well they will require a bit of lateral thinking, and a lot of lovely converting to get sorted.

Now I have a few of these options already, but want to add a few little bits of my own creativity to my force, and here is what I have planned.

On the left, "The Caid", he is simply an old Anglian/Empress figure I had laying about, I married him up with an eBob horse, and will add some more horse funiture to give him a more exotic look.

Next man along, the loader from the LMG team, the ammo will get removed, and replaced with a rifle, hey presto, instant sniper,  the third figure, well he is an old Mongrel Minis Afghan, he of course will lose his AK47, and instead will have an open hand to replace it, lying next to him, will be a wounded figure (conversion) and he will act as the medic, signalling for a stretcher team to come over to collect the wounded man.

A couple of the rifle armed figures will get scratchbuilt V-B launchers added

A little bit of brass tubing will suffice for this.

and lastly, well I want some Mounted Moroccan scouts, and this is proving to be a bit difficult

My solution? I am going to use these!!! From Footsore Miniatures, mounted BUF.

Yes, seriously, they will of course get executed, and have some suitably Moroccan looking heads added, and I will mess about with the rifles, and horse furniture, but I think they will look ok.

So, there we go, the build up begins, and next time, we shall have a look at uniforms, and a bit of advice on the paints to use.

until next time, keep painting 

Guess What? .............28mm is Not a Scale!!

Seriously, its not, and I am being perfectly honest here.
28mm, this is 28 millimetres, or 2.8 centimetres, odd as it may seem, this is a measurement depicted in the decimal, where 10millimetres make up one centimetre, and 100 centimetres equal one metre. Scale you see, is normally depicted as a percentage, or a fraction, where you reduce the original, down by the percentage, or fraction, to give you a scale, so where you see 1/72nd as a scale, what this tells you is 1  scale inch = 72 real inches, if its depicted as 50%, then its the original size divided by two.
Now, lets get picky, because picky is the theme for 2015 ( Happy New Year BTW)
gaming figures, 28mm to the eye!!!! to the what? Oh yes, to the eye, because thats the way we measure the height of a person, Hmmmmmmm not when I was measured at the hospital last year, they seemed to think that height meant measuring me from the soles of my feet, to the top of my head, they even had this natty gadget to do that!! ( I'm 5ft11in)
So in reality 28mm figures, to the eye, or more like 30mm tall to the tops of their shiny little heads.

Unless of course, you have A sculpt by Mr Hicks ( on the right) then you do have 28mm, top of the head. The other chap is from Fenris, and he shows the 28mm to the eye quite well.

Now, lets confuse the issue, because you can also get "Heroic Scale" figures, WTF does this mean?, well it seems that heroic means taller than 28mm, perhaps up to 32mm, (TOTH) and muscular, in a body building, big fucker kinda way.

So, lets now go completely fucking mental,and look at scales, because my biggest bugbear, and its the scale modeller in me that makes me this way, is the fact that, no one has a clue what they are talking about when it comes to what scale works with 28mm, 30mm, 32mm Heroic, normal, whatever figures!!!!

Its 1/56th, no its 1/48th, no your are all wrong its O Gauge, no its 28mm scale. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, FFS

Lets go here

http://scalecalculator.appspot.com

Its a thingamabob, that calculates scales, ohhhhh how handy.

so we chuck in 72inches, thats 6ft in real life, and the scale comes out at 1/65th, for a 28mm height,

So. lets try 1/56th scale

Hmmmmm, 32.6mm

Now, I have a very handy bit of desk top kit, a cutting mat, that has scale measurement rulers printed on it, and one of these just happens to be 1/48th, the scale that a lot of gamers tell me is the right one for 28mm figures.

oh look, my 28mm (TOTH) measures out at a tad under 5ft scale height, using the 1/48th ruler, bit of a shrimp then.

Now, lets use an Airfix 1/48th scale figure as comparison, he's a nice 6ft scale height, and a fair bit taller than his little mate.

Ahhhhhhhh, now we can cure this problem, because we can use...........A FUCKING SLOTTABASE

No NO NO NO NO NO, I don't care how often people tell me this is the right approach, bunging figures on a slottabase, then standing them next to a comparable vehicle, with no base at all, proves fuck all, apart from the fact that you are stupid

Look at this picture, the slottabase adds a scale 6 inches to the figure's height, and he creeps to just over 5ft, now how often do you go standing on a 6 inch block of wood, to compare your height to a vehicle? Strange as it sounds, you tend to be standing on the ground, unless of course you are into wearing stilleto heels.

So lets recap, 28mm is not a scale, its also not an accurate indicator of figure height, if used in conjunction with the phrase 'to the eye"

1/56th is not the right scale, neither is 1/48th, if you apply an element of scale modelling common sense, then the correct scale is

1/61 

Of course, all of this is academic, as the gaming figures we use, are not in scale, in  fact the only thing we can use to calculate the scale, is the quoted figure height, converted to the relevant scale. Figures are varying in scale, from heads, to hands, to heft, to height, there is nothing consistent about them at all

So after all of this ranting, what is the conclusion?

IF IT LOOKS RIGHT, USE IT

Dear god, no wonder us plasticard scale model butchers despair

Until next time folks.

Italian Cv3 Tankettes, Perry v Empress Review

Back again
Is that a good, or bad thing? :-)
Well what better way to return to the pond, but with another no hold barred review, and the victims this time, are the two Cv3 Italian tankettes, released by Perry Miniatures, and Empress Miniatures.
Now, before this review goes any further, I have to declare an interest, and what could be a possible bias. You see, the Empress Miniatures model, is one of my vehicle masters, I made the model when I had Anglian Miniatures, and it went along with everything else, when I sold Anglian to the Empress folks.
Here's the original plasticard master, ooohhhhhhh the nostalgia

Enough of that nonsense, lets offer our critique to these models

Take your pick, its Tankette Time

So, you have some pennies burning a hole in your pocket, and your Italians, they could be CTV fighting in Spain, or the Italian army fighting in the desert in WW2, are in need of armoured support!!

Cv3 tankettes, yep the terror weapon of the Italian army, whats not to like about them, apart from the obvious of course

So, you have a choice, you can pay out £16.00 for the Empress Miniatures version, or you can pick up the Perry Miniatures one for £9.00, bit of a difference there folks!!

Ok, so here they both are, and the first thing that becomes apparent,

For the same scale models, they appear to be different sizes!!

The Empress model is the top one of the two, and as you can see

its a fair bit bigger than the Perry model.

I built my original master at 1:55th scale, as it was my preferred scale to match the lovely sculpts that Paul Hicks did for Anglian. Now I could have buggered up, and unfortunately I don't have my original plans to hand, to check my measurements. I do believe that the Perry vehicles are scaled at 1:56th, but there should not be that much of a difference!!

So one of us has cocked up, bet its me :-(

Both models are cast in white metal, and on first appearances, they seem to be well cast.

Empress Miniatures

So lets get into it, and first off, lets have a look at the  Empress offering , and see what your £16 gets you

One main body, two track units ( detailed front and back)

Two hatches, a half figure commander/gunner , and a partial figure driver, (Paul Hicks sculpts)

twin Breda LMG, and a jack and pickaxe that go on the rear of the vehicle.

The parts are well cast, they do require a little clean up, and straightening here and there.

The model goes together well, and its not that difficult to assemble. It has a good level of detail, and will look pretty decent with a good paint job

All in all, a neat little model. At £16 its not cheap, and you have to ask yourself whether the extra cash is worth forking out for, well read on, because I am going to do something terrible next!!!

Perry Miniatures

Ok, Perry Miniatures, for some people, the very top of the figure league, and untouchable, if you feel that way, then please read no further, because I am about to savage them, and it won't be pretty.

The Perry version will set you back £9.00, thats a whole £7.00 cheaper than the Empress offering, so is it worth going for the bargain version, well folks lets see

One main body, two track units ( detailed on one side only),

two hatches, a half figure commander, and a partial driver, two gun options, the twin Breda, and the 20mm Solothurn.

Now, here is where it gets a bit nasty, because, and I am being totally honest here, this model is not very good, in fact, its incredibly poor.

There are issues, and I think just by looking at the above picture, you can see what I mean.

The model is covered in tiny lines!!!, In fact they are quite bad in some areas

To remedy these lines, will require a fair bit of sanding, in some areas the sanding itself, will destroy other detail, mainly rivets, which will require redoing. Not that is really a problem, as the lack of detail on this model, means that I would have to add my own to get the model even close to the Empress one.

Its not very good, and I dislike having to say that, or be critical about other model makers, but the fact remains. This vehicle is quite frankly, rubbish.

The Perry model is on the left, and the lines are quite obvious.

they are all over the model!!

I had to go and look at some pictures of the actual vehicle, just in case I had messed up when I built my master, and the  real vehicle has these lines, and I missed them.

Nope, no lines, the plate is completely smooth.

So, bit of research, and it seems that when you print a master, rather than rely on the skill of a model maker, you get these striations, caused when the printer builds up the 3D image. They should of course have been cleaned up, and I cannot for the life of me understand, why this was not done. Perhaps because to clean them off such a tiny model, would destroy the other detail, thus requiring an element of modelling to replace the sanded off detail, perhaps they just thought, oh well gamers don't really care, it looks like a Cv3, and its cheap, actually no, because I wasted £9.00 buying this sub standard model, and I won't use it, I may get some use out of the crew figures, but that is it.

Computer design and 3D printing, its all well and good, but when the end result is as poor as this, then you can keep it, and I shall continue to make my own stuff from scratch.

So Perry gents, please get a modeller to make your vehicles, we may be miserable old bastards, but we still do a better job than a bloody printer.

In fact, how about combining the two principles, and have the core of the model printed, then get the detail added by a decent pattern/master maker.

My verdict, well if quality does not matter, and you prefer cheap and cheerful, then get the Perry model, but if you like well detailed, well cast models, that will look rather nice with a decent paint job, then pay up, and go Empress, because to be frank, that model is most definitely £7 better that the Perry one.

As a footnote, I will add, you may see this review as biased, because of my connection to the Empress model, I can assure you its not. One of the things I tried very hard to do when I ran Anglian Minatures, was to provide well detailed models, to the highest standard that we were able to produce. I am by no means an exceptional model maker, but I can work to a good standard, I was fortunate enough to have Paul Hicks sculpting for the company, and Ian Crouch provided some of our vehicles too. There is an element in gaming circles, where cheapness is seen to be the overriding factor, and sub standard models are accepted, of course there is no problem with this, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and their right to voice them too.

I felt it important to point out the flaws in the Perry version, as like me, other gamers will buy it as it has the Perry name attached to it, and we all expect a high standard when buying their stuff, only to be disappointed when they open the pack, and find what I did.

forewarned, is forearmed, so they say :-)

The End Of............B.S.T

Maybe now I will get something bloody well done!!
As the clocks go back, and the shorter nights begin, maybe, just maybe.......

Following weeks of inactivity, as the malaise set in, I've sat back in the grubby old leather chair, and cast a weary eye over the vacant space, that was my work area.
 One of the problems of suffering from Depression, is that the slightest stupid thing, can set you off on a downward spiral, and once you start, its difficult to pull yourself back up again.

I cleared my desk,the constant image of piled up crap, everytime I went into The Pit, a reminder of the things I could not do. The last thing I finished, was a figure as a gift, for my good friend Juliette"s birthday,way back in July, and since then, I just cannot find it in myself to lift a paintbrush, let alone anything else :-(

Today, I did this

Opened a box, and dug these out, because I need to inspire myself to do some more work. if I can get one hobby back, then I can build on the other things I like to do.

Right now, gaming  is beyond me, I can't get an army finished to save my life, but by finishing just one model, I prove to myself that I can do this, I can build something that other gamers might be interested in, and the snowball effect might just begin to roll!!!!

Lets hope so eh gang :-)

Not Painting, but Hacking

Ok
Yes, I know, how long did it last?
As any budding gaming type person knows, us folks have the attention span of Goldfish.
I've put various projects on hold again (in boxes under the desk) as I have a new role to play.

Post Apoc, MadMax type pursuit game

Yes thats it, I'm building cars,bikes and other assorted vehicle masters, plus I get some input on how the rules will play out.

Can't say too much right now, as its in its very, very ,very early stages, but a sneaky peek is always in order

So here we go,the first model, a bike, from daft idea, to where it is now.

Its a slow old process, I can make stuff, but I take an age to do so

Anyway, I think this has legs, and will continue to take some "in progress" pics, so you folks can see how my tortured mind moves this model forwards

                            Gentlemen, Start your Engines