Female cleric and squirrel

Another female, this time “Muriel the Just” sculpted by Sandra Garrity and number 2176 in Reapers’ Dark Heaven Legends series. Fighter or cleric, it's your choice.

Paints used: armour: Vallejo 053 Chainmail Silver with 057 Bright Bronze highlights, trousers: 971 Green Grey, shirt 881 Yellow Green, shoulder bag: Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather, boots: 876 Brown Sand and hair 981 Orange Brown.

The usual coat of Army Painter Strong Tone and matte varnish over that.

The squirrel comes from Reapers’ Familiar Pack IV, no 2756. Painted with 981 Orange Brown and a wash of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia and matte varnish.

Die evil rodent!

Halflings from Reaper and GW

The first halfling/hobbit is “Pip Thistletoe”, no 2057 from Reapers’ Dark Heaven Legends series, and he is sculpted by Sandra Garrity. A lovely little figure I bought a couple of years ago. It’s got one weak spot, namely the sling, which broke off from the hand, so I had to pin it.

Paints used. Trousers: Vallejo 886 Green Grey, shirt: 971 Green grey, jerkin: 876 Brown Sand, belt: 875 Beige Brown, hair: 818 Red Leather. Coated with Army Painter Strong Tone and a final coat of Vallejo matte varnish.

Next in line is a halfling from, I think, Games Workshop’s Mordheim line. I bought it a long time ago, and it ended up half painted in the tin-mountain. As it is GW it is probably impossible to get now, outside the second hand market, that is.

It’s a neat little figure with full adventuring gear. Paints: Jacket: Formula P3 Traitor Green, helmet: Vallejo 054 Gunmetal Metal, belt/bag/quiver: 875 Beige Brown, hair: 981 Orange Brown, blanket: 991 Dark Sea Grey, trousers: 884 Stone Grey, fish: 052 Silver with a wash of 936 Transparent Green. Coated with Army Painter Strong Tone and a final coat of Vallejo matte varnish.

Battlegames issue 27!

During the autumn we got the unfortunate news that the excellent magazine Battlegames was dying. As this is my absolute favourite printed magazine that was very sad news indeed.

I bought one of the earlier issues a couple of years ago, and wasn’t terribly impressed with it. But after a very nice interview with the editor Henry Hyde in the Meeples & Miniatures podcast I gave it a new try, and was fully hooked. It is very good. It is usually full of articles that interest me, and then there are the other ones. The ones where I look at the heading and think- nah, not for me. But I often end up reading them anyway and are usually pleasantly surprised. So, it is a very nice magazine. I have since bought every issue.

So, anyway, Henry announced a while ago that Battlegames was saved! There was much rejoicing in Mälarhöjden. Atlantic Publishers would take over and the Battlegames would still look the same, feel the same and still have Henry as editor. Good!

Anyway, on the 22^nd I got issue 27, the first under new management, and it was, as usual, a very good issue. A very informative article by Rich Clarke, from Too Fat Lardies, on his new I Ain’t Been Shot Mum WWII-rules, describing a scenario and the thinking behind it. Diane Sutherland describes a new terrain-building project, Lee Clapham has an article on painting 1/72 plastics and there is very interesting article on wargaming when you’re blind – fascinating! Neil Shuck, Mr. Meeples & Miniatures, is the new Forward Observer, i.e. presenting the news in the hobby. That is just the articles I have read so far, and there is a bunch more, to be read in the next couple of days.

So, with that I just want to say – go buy an issue now! Or even better, subscribe. This is a magazine we want to live on, it is just that good. It is “The spirit of wargaming”.

28mm gravestones from Renedra

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More Renedra stuff, this time gravestones in 28 mm. Painted with assorted beige and grey colours. Coated with Armypainter dip strong tone and a coat of matte varnish over that.
I based them on FOW-bases and sculpted mounds with filler. The usual brown sand/paint mix as earth and static grass on top. Got myself a grave yard.
The first zombie has risen, a local nun fed up with cricket (not to mention shotguns). Hero from Hasslefree and nun from Cold War Miniatures.
The solar clock, left in front, is from Black Scorpion.

Statue

I found this figure in a bargain bin a while ago, and figured it would make a decent statue. It had a large square base, belonged to some sort of miniatures game and was prepainted. I removed the base and painted it with Vallejo Brassy Brass, Citadel Snot Green in all crevices and a heavy drybrush of brass.

Book review – England’s Last War Against France

The Napoleonic Wars? Nope, later than that. The full title says it all England’s Last War Against France – Fighting Vichy 1940 – 1942. Colin Smith, 2009, 490 pages.

I’m most interested in early war, and I have read a lot about the lesser known campaigns the last couple of year, for example the East African campaign, Iraq, Norway, the Winter War in Finland and Operation Compass.

I have seen some information about Mers-el-Kébir, Syria and Madagascar also, but didn’t know more than rudimentary things about that. The solution to this gap in knowledge is this book. It is a very detailed description of Vichy and British politics and the fighting that took place between Great Britain and Vichy France.

You will find chapters about the slaughter of the French fleet in Mers-el-Kébir, the failed seaborne invasion of French West Africa, the invasion of Syria and the seaborne landing on Madagascar with the prolonged fighting there. Operation Torch is detailed and also the last days of Vichy France and the aftermath for the top brass of the Vichy regime.

The book gives detailed description of the fighting, and individual battles. There is a lot of very useful information if you want to wargame some of the battles, and I found several that would be great to game. The seaborne landings in the defended harbours of Antsirane, Madagascar (British success) and Oran in Algeria (catastrophic for the American/British force) could be fantastic to try out as a wargame and small scale, as it involves large vessels.

All in all a very interesting book about an almost forgotten part of WWII. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in these more obscure campaigns, and worth a read if you have a general interest in WWII.

I give England’s Last War against France a 4 out of 5 rating.

On the painting table

Painting table and killer rabbit

First of all, my painting space has expanded. Got a bookshelf close by now, so I have more space for some of my terrain materials, tools, balsa wood, wires and other stuff. Also up is a large shelf where I put a bits-box and paints (army painter dips, bigger paint pots etc). In picture you see ‘Puffe’, the rabbit with killer teeth. He is rather nice and lives in our converted garage, now storage and hobby room. But I have to keep stuff (especially electric- and phone-cables) out of his way, or snip-snap… He is soon reaching ace-status on cables…

On the table is, by the way, a telephone with an amputated cable (to be fixed by me, they say)... and some paper-figures I build with my daughter.

As usual quite a lot on the table. Need a bigger one I guess.

LRDG-heroes in the making

20mm. We, i.e. Scandinavian Lardies, have decided to go to North Africa at next years’ convention-games, and specifically a LRDG/SAS-raid on an Italian airfield. For that I just bought the Revell LRDG/SAS kit, and I’m looking at several other manufacturers, to find more vehicles. Also looking at ebay for suitable (=cheap) Italian planes to be blown up. It will be the first time in 35 years or so that I build and paint a plane…

I plan to start building the Revell kit as soon as the current batch of 28mm figures are finished. For once we’re out in good time, so we will hopefully avoid the traditional panic-builds from earlier cons J

Will have another go at ‘cloth’ camouflage for my Finnish Bofors gun, I guess my blood pressure is back to normal. I have a couple of more ideas, and want the gun finished this year. Got an idea for Finnish crew also, but that will come later.

Lots of early war English stuff waiting for me to mix the correct colours. I must do that during the holidays.

Paint me, Master! No me first!

In 28 mm I have mined a couple of figures from the tin-mountain, some females (hmm, I wonder why there seems to be an abundance of those…?) and two hobbits/halflings. They will hopefully be finished soon.

Still working on familiars, and finding some now and then in different boxes.

Giant pain in the...

The GW giant still looks at everything happening on the table, and he gets a blotch of paint now and then. I have promised myself that he will be finished within the next five years or so. Seriously, I want him off the table, another project for the holidays. Why did I buy him in the first place? Oh, a sale…

Digging a Renedra graveyard 

I bought some 28mm grave-stones from Renedra a while ago, they are in the process of being put on suitable bases, and will soon be painted. There are also some other grave-stones from the bits box. There will be a lot of them, a whole grave yard… usable in multiple settings.

Soon to meet the paintbrush

Also some odd figures more or less started - modern zombies, a centaur, skeleton, lovely Echo and more.

In 6mm I have a lot of finished Italian artillery pieces waiting for crew. These are bought and just waiting for the paintbrush. After that a lot of Italian infantry to be made for Operation Compass.

Enough writing, back to the painting table.