Seasons greetings and a very Merry Christmas 2022

 Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! 

 

Cheers

Matt

13th Analogue Painting challenge - cunning plans

 

The annual Winter Analogue Painting Challenge is almost upon us again. This year I am trying to complete 800 points as my painting target.

Points are awarded painting figures, artillery, vehicles, ships and terrain. As usual I will be concentrating on historical 20mm and 28mm miniatures with a few pieces thrown in for amusement. 

Scores are awarded thus

20mm
Foot 4 points
Mounted and guns 8 points
Vehicles 15points

28mm 

Foot figure 5 points

Mounted or artillery 10 points

Vehicle 20 points

Cunning Plans

My plan is to complete a number of projects, as I tend to squirrel and swap and change a bit to prevent boredom I have gone for a broad approach across several projects.

1. My plan this year is 1000 points in total, I plan to complete a few personal projects (British Airborne & Volkssturm) plus add armies for our wargames holiday business relating to local battles and sieges. 

• 18mm AB Napoleonic French
• 28mm ancient Greeks 
• 28mm ancient Germans
• 20mm American airborne, artillery, jeeps etc plus three Waco gliders 70+odd figures + 3 fighters for air support 
• 20mm Ww2 British Para - additions to my British para brigade, a supply section and drop area, complete three specific 1/72 horsa gliders for operation Tonga, plus my Hamilcar and tank, plus some jeeps and trailers transports. 
• 20mm Volkssturm fall of Berlin 3 battalions, artillery and bits. 70 odd figs plus artillery and AA bits 
• 20mm panzer Lehr - 70 odd figures plus half tracks, panzers etc for Normandy. 
• 20mm Cold War Warpac and Nato vehicles, plus VDV infantry regiment 100 figures  + 20-30 odd vehicles and 5 aircraft. 
• Terrain :- paint my growing pile of 28mm ancient, medieval and 20mm ww2 3d printed buildings 
• A few 28mm Napoleonic odds and sods Prussians, Austrians and French infantry and cavalry  60-180 figs planned and undercoated.
• Random 20mm kit, ww2 Dutch, Belgian, Allied and German bits ( I have a lot of built aircraft that need paint….) 

I will also try to do a few pieces for the side adventures, mostly at a whim and if it involves aircraft (which I love building), naval or space ships.

Hopefully get as much as I can completed in the 90 day period permitted. 

Cheers

Matt

Republican Roman casualty markers

 Roman casualties 

This week I finally sat down and completed some bits on my painting desk, so a lot will come off the desk this long weekend in France. 

First up some Warlord Caesarian Roman casualty markers for Impetus, nice and quick, base colour, wash and simple highlights on the skin etc.  I actually run out of basing materiel after these three, as I completed 12 in total…… sorted by the end of the weekend though! 

Next up tribal Germans, than some more Roman’s 

Cheers

Matt

Terrain Tuesday - Civilian car

  Terrain Tuesday returns

Since I now have some evenings to return to painting minis I thought it was a good idea to kick off my terrain Tuesdays again (as my 3d filament printer has been going most of summer and autumn! )

 I like to add civilian pieces to my tables and often will have a look in the charity shops for suitable pieces, this is late 20s early 1930s car for my ww2 or SCW table. I am thinking of adding luggage etc as though it is a refugee vehicle, but may just leave it to park next to terrain. This piece has been on my painting table for some time so I thought I would just complete it today. Quite happy with the results. 

Cheers

Matt

French 75mm Artillery

 

 French 75mm Artillery

Work on the renovations of the house is coming along nicely but hogging all of my time at the moment as we rush towards Christmas. We are up to the final plumbing and painting stage so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the top floor although finishing touches will possibly not be complete until mid January. I can then move all of my figures and books back into my storage room in preparation for my winter painting offensive! 

This week I finally managed to sit down and get some time on the painting table to complete some pieces and catch up on some painting projects. First off was to take off the drop sheets protecting everything then dust everything off before commencement (as the bathroom renovation is directly above my current painting room). then I decided to complete part of a ancients commission order before taking a break from 28mm and painting of my 20mm ww2 figs. 

Nice detail in the HAT caisson

Really nice piece for composition, now I need to revisit my other guns

This 75mm artillery miniature is from the 1/72 HAT soft plastic range, two come in the set both with caissons and can be open or closed. The crew are from Battlefield /Blitz range (currently unavailable). They will join one of my French infantry regiments at this stage, I also need to complete the horse limber and other plastic artillery miniature as a towed set. 

I plan to complete another 1940 Infantry regiment this year also, as I have picked up some of Simons Soldiers to complete the HQ and add some support weapons. I also picked up some Foundry bits while I was in the UK.

more coming this week, but for my Dutch. 

cheers

Matt

FOW Club game at Le Squigs à lunettes (Laval Wargames club)

 FOW Club Game

On Friday night my French mate Philippe invited me to join him down at the local wargames club Le Squigs à lunettes,  in Laval (our regional capital 25klm away). I have not been to the club since before the pandemic. It was enlightening to see four female gamers and a lot of youth playing at the club, which bides well for wargaming in our area and region in general. 

British objective marker

 Philippe had just completed his new desert Italian 15mm Flames of War army and we played against his “roast beef” English 8th army troops. We had four players in total plus Philippe acting as umpire, two English and two Italians, (or one Australian and three Frenchmen!). It has been at least 16 years since I have played FOW, so we spent a lot of time flicking through the rules, but all in all a great night out, with a few beers lots of laughs and some badly pronounced French and English across the table. The Italians were on the attack most of the night and it looked like a minor points win until the last turn the Brit’s successfully charged one of the victory points, I rolled three 1s (I needed 4s) with the defending units in the final turn to lose the game for the Italians ……… oh well lots of nice pictures at least of Philippe’s excellent kit! 

Philippe explaining the rules

The table layout

Italian setup

British set up

looking good first turn two crusaders burning on the right flank

and two stuarts on the left flank

First move

Lat turn charge by the Bren carriers three 6s not good

but my reply of three 1s not good either......

One of the skirmish games, Rangers if the Deep I think, ideal for club nights, I think they got through three games for the evening.

Not seen this game before, fast and furious with a turn timer.... looked good though and four female gamers, great stuff! 

Another of Philippe's objective markers.... bloody lovely 

Looking forward to get back to the club again this year, maybe next Friday 

Cheers

Matt