A quiet day at home

For the first time in a long time I actually had a day when there was nothing that I actually HAD to do; instead I was able to CHOOSE what I wanted to do. So what did I choose to do?

Firstly I began work on the next batch of hill to go with my 'new' terrain boards. These are going to be twice the size of the hills I have just completed, and will be 15cm x 7.5cm. Some of them may even have two levels to them as this will give me lots of different permutations of hills that I can use.

Secondly I have been continuing the general tidy up of my toy/wargames room. Other than discovering another box of ASDA Jenga blocks that I did not remember buying (which means that I have the raw materials to make even more hills, should I need them) I have not found anything of particular interest ... other than a copy of RISK!

The version of RISK that I own is the one that has plastic 10mm-scale Napoleonic figures. On seeing them, I suddenly thought that I had the potential for a small-sized version of PW2 (a sort of 'Travel PW2'), but what really caught my eye was the map that is used to play the game.

I had forgotten that it was divided into areas, some of which correspond to individual countries or regions within countries and some that represent several countries grouped together. I have been trying to develop a map for my nineteenth century imagi-world, but so far my attempts have been fraught with problems and have – to be frank – not gone very well. The RISK map is very close to the sort of map that I envisaged for my imagi-world, and I have decided to use it as the basis for my map.

As a result, the third thing I have done today is to scan a copy of the RISK map on to my computer, and then begin the process of tidying up the image so that I can use it for my imagi-world map. This is proceeding quite well at present, and it looks like I should be able to start adding details to the map in the very near future.

Zvezda vehicle and aircraft models: What I have so far acquired

After my recent purchase, I decided that it might be a good idea if I made an inventory of the Zvezda ART OF TACTIC 1:100th-scale vehicle and 1:144th-scale aircraft models that I have so far acquired:

German

2 x Bf109F Fighters
2 x Ju87 Stuka Dive Bombers
3 x Pzkpfw IIIG Tanks
3 x Pzkpfw II Tanks
2 x Pzkpfw IVD Tanks
3 x Pzkpfw 38(t) Tanks
3 x Opel Blitz Trucks
1 x SdKfz 251/1 Armoured Half track

Soviet

1 x LAGG-3 Fighter
2 x IL-2 Ground-attack Aircraft
2 x T-34/76 Tanks
3 x T-26M Tanks
4 x Zis-5 Trucks

It immediately strikes me that the Russians need some more tanks to even up the balance, and both sides are going to need more trucks.

I do have some 1:100th-scale vehicles from other manufacturers that I can use alongside the Zvezda models. These include:

HASBRO Axis & Allies Miniatures (All of these have soft plastic turrets and/or guns that may have to be replaced. Alternately some of them could be converted into self-propelled artillery.)

3 x Pzkpfw III Tanks
1 x Pzkpfw 38(t) Tank
1 x StuG III Assault Gun
1 x SdKfz 138 Marder III
3 x T34/76 Tanks
3 x Sherman Tanks

HASBRO Indiana Jones Titanium Series

5 x Mercedes-Benz LG3000 Trucks (These are approximately 1:100th-scale)

I am sure that I probably have other suitable vehicles and aircraft stored somewhere in my toy/wargames room or the garden shed. It is just a matter of finding them!

Colonial Wargaming website updated ... at long last!

After over a year of inactivity – thirteen months to be precise! – I finally managed to update my Colonial Wargaming website today.

Most of the updates I made today related to the Books pages of the Inspiration section of the website, but I have plans to expand various other sections (including those that cover wargames rules and modelling) and to extend the scope of the website to include some of the non-colonial conflicts that took place between 1850 and 1920. In time I may also add some pages that cover any FUNNY LITTLE WARS battles I take part in that are set during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

How to make hills for my ‘new’ gridded terrain board

Once I had realised that the Jenga-like blocks of wood that were included in ASDA’s ‘Jumbling Tower’ game could be used to make hills for my ‘new’ gridded terrain board, I set to work to make some.

First I glued three of the blocks together side-by-side.

Once the glue was dry, I then glued pieces of thin (1/32nd of an inch thick) basswood to the top of my blocks, and after leaving them for a day to ensure that the glue had properly ‘set’, I trimmed off the excess basswood.

I then repeated the process on the bottom of the blocks.

This was done to ensure that both the top and bottom of my hills would be flat.

Once the basswood on the bottom of the hills had been trimmed, I painted the edges with undiluted PVA glue to seal the edges. In the past I have found that this not only protects the wood but also serves as a ‘key’ for any paint that is applied.

Once the PVA had dried, I then painted the top and sides of the hills with a neutral shade of paint. In this case I used a water-based emulsion paint in a shade called ‘Pebble’. I applied two coats of paint to ensure that the coverage was both smooth and consistent.

The final stage was to apply the static grass flock to the hills. In turn, each top and side of the hills was given a coat of undiluted PVA and then it was dipped into a tub of static grass flock. Each hill was then put to one side whilst the PVA dried. Any loose flock was then removed by gently knocking each hill over the tub of static grass flock … et voila … when the tops and sides of all the hills were covered in static grass flock, the hills were completed!

I have been to ... Skirmish in Sidcup

This local twice-yearly show has now become something that I try not to miss. I have a chance to meet and talk to people, spend time looking at what is on sale ... without having to push and shove through a crowd ... and look at an interesting range of wargames.

Amongst the people I was able to talk to were Kenny Smith (a member of the 'Old Guard Wargames Club'), Alan Abbey (one of my ex-pupils from a long time ago and now a leading member of the 'Milton Hundred Wargames Club' wargames group), and Professor Phil Sabin (who is a leading member of the War Studies Department at King's College, London). The latter informed me that his LOST BATTLES wargame has been released ... and is already almost sold out!

There were a number of different wargames on view at the show. There were one or two participation games but most were demonstration games.

Skirmish Wargames: Boxer Rebellion skirmish using 54mm-scale figures

South East London Wargames Group (SELWG): 'March on Munchburg' (American Civil War) battle using 28mm-scale figures

Hornchurch Heroes Gaming Club: 'Flames of War' battle using 15mm-scale figures

South London Warlords: 'The Battle of Ayacucho' (South American Wars of Independence) using 20mm-scale figures

North London Wargames Club (NLWG): 'Operation Bodenplatte'

This was an excellent show, supported by lots of traders who seemed to be doing a reasonably brisk trade. As usual I enjoyed my visit, and only wish that I had more time (and money!) to spend there.

I was able to buy quite a few more Zvezda ART OF TACTIC models to add to my growing collection including:

• 2 x Bf109F2 Fighters
• 1 x Lagg-3 Fighter
• 2 x Il-2 Ground-attack Aircraft
• 2 x Pzkpfw IVD Tanks
• 3 x Pzkpfw 38(t) Tanks
• 1 x Sdkfz 251/1B Armoured Half track
• 3 x T-26M Tanks
• 2 x Zis-5 Trucks

The dates for next year's shows are:

• Sunday 11th March 2012
• Sunday 23rd September 2012

I have been to ... Rochester Games & Models

During the latter part of this morning my wife announced that we needed to do some shopping … some serious (i.e. quite a lot) of shopping. It was time for our monthly ‘top up’ of all those domestic consumables that need to be replenished ever few months.

After some discussion we decided to go out for lunch first, and then go on to the large supermarket where the ‘serious’ shopping would take place. I suggested that we had lunch in an Italian restaurant in Chatham that we both like, and asked if it would be possible to stop off in Rochester on the way so that I could visit the model shop that was located there. As my wife quite likes Rochester, she agreed to this suggestion and I managed to make my first visit to ROCHESTER GAMES & MODELS.

I was very impressed by this small model shop. It had a reasonable range of different types of models on sale, and a very good selection of model paints. In the end I bought some 1:100th-scale Zvezda vehicles from their ART OF TACTIC range.

I bought:

• A Pzkpfw II Tank.
• A Pzkpfw III Tank.
• An Opel Blitz Truck.

I found the owner very helpful and I will certainly pay further visits to the shop as and when I can.

The Portable Wargame Website: Latest update

Whilst I have been waiting for the PVA glue to dry so that I can move on to the next stage of making the hills to go with my 'new' terrain board, I have updated THE PORTABLE WARGAME website.

Downloads of all the drafts of my PORTABLE WARGAME 2 rules are now available in .pdf format.

Read and enjoy!

Them thar hills

Today has been one of those days when I have done lots of little chores around the house, interspersed with work on the hills I am making to go with my 'new' terrain boards.

The hills are now at the stage of where I am painting the top and sides, and the next stage will be to flock them with static grass flock. Once the PVA I will be using to glue the static grass flock to the hills is dry – and any loose flock is removed – all that will remain to be done is to fix non-slip felt pads on the bottom of each hill so that they will not move during battles.

If these hills are a success I will probably build some double-sized ones (i.e. 15cm x 7.5cm) and possibly one of two with some additional terrain features – such as a rocky outcrop or cliff face – fixed to them.

I also intend to write a short ‘how to’ blog entry that will explain – with suitable illustrations – how I made these hills.

The first coat of paint should now be dry and so I am now going off to give each hill a second coat.

A long day in Essex

For a variety of reasons relating to my father, I have spent most of today in Essex; South Essex to be precise ... the home of Richard Sharpe's Regiment.

My first port-of-call was to visit my father in the care home where he now lives. When I got there I discovered that earlier today he had been found on the floor of his room. He claimed that the reason why he was there was that he had decided to lay down on the floor, but it was obvious that he had fallen over and the home had asked the doctor to pay a visit to check him over.

I spoke to my father before the doctor arrived ... and he was almost incoherent. What he was saying did not make any sense, and I suspected that the fall was very likely due to yet another urinary infection. This was confirmed by the doctor after he had examined my father, and my father is now on a course of anti-biotics. It also transpired that a long-term problem with his prostate had flared up, and that this had contributed to the cause of the infection.

After leaving my father I paid a visit to his house to make absolutely sure that everything that could be cleared had been, and that nothing of sentimental or fiscal value remained. I had arranged to meet representatives of the local hospice at the house as they are going to clear the remaining contents (e.g. furniture, books). They charge for providing this service, but their charges are offset against the value of anything that they can renovate and sell on … so the hospice – which is a charity – benefits financially from the service they provide.

I then moved on to speak to the estate agent who is selling my father’s house to find out how matters were progressing. It appears that the purchaser may be having problems raising the necessary funds for the purchase, and so I decide that the estate agent should contact them to inform them that we were putting the property back on the market. If the purchaser can get the necessary finance together before another offer is made, then we shall sell to them, otherwise it will be sold to someone else. This may sound rather harsh, but most of the money raised from the sale is going to be needed to pay for my father’s care … and that must be my first consideration.

By this time it was the middle of the afternoon and I had not had any lunch. I therefore decided to kill two birds with one stone, and drove to the nearby retail park where I new that there was a selection of fast-food outlets. I also knew that the store that sells the Jenga blocks I have used as the basis of the hills I am making also has a branch there … and so I managed to get both a late lunch and two further boxes of Jenga blocks!

I managed to get caught in the early part of the homeward bound rush-hour on the M25 motorways on my way home, and by the time I finally walked back through my front door it was early evening … and I felt mentally exhausted.

With a bit of luck I might be able to do a bit more work on my hills this evening, and if I do I should be able to begin to paint them tomorrow, with a mind to flocking them on Saturday or Sunday.

Naval gazing

Over the past few days I have had a series of online discussions with some of my wargaming companions about Naval Wargaming. One of the reasons why this topic came to the fore was last night’s screening on Channel 5 of a TV programme entitled AMERICA'S PLANNED WAR ON BRITAIN: REVEALED. This was a documentary about the USA’s War Plan Red, which envisaged a possible war with the British Empire during the 1930s.

This led on to a general discussion about the possibility of wargaming the naval actions that might have taken place, which in turn looked at the merits (and failings) of things such as Fletcher Pratt’s Naval War Game. The general feeling seemed to be that we would all like the opportunity to fight some naval battles using model ships on a suitably sized (and covered) floor.

This discussion reminded me of two things. Firstly that somewhere in my wargames collection I have quite a few 1:1200th-scale model ships that would be ideal for such a game. Secondly that some thirty years ago I built a number of hybrid ‘cartoon’ 1930s warships so that my students could try our naval wargaming. The battles were fought on the carpeted floor of the drama studio in the school I was working in (the carpet was a lovely shade of blue if my memory serves me correctly) and that after the first battle the students began to bring their own ship models to the battles.

The only rule about the models was that each ship type was not to exceed certain dimensions (I seem to remember that battleships were to be no longer than 8” [20cms] and no wider than 2” [5cms}), and that the parts used had to come from 1:600th or 1:700th-scale model ships. I cannot remember what happened to the models; they may be amongst the overflow storage of my wargames collection that is housed in the garden shed or they may have been thrown away.

To give some idea what they looked like, I have produced a silhouette of a typical battleship. Mine were all constructed using plastic sheet for the hull and parts of the Airfix HMS Iron Duke for the superstructure and armament.

The central turret was put to one side, and there was some shortening of the superstructure. The hull was much shorter than on the original Airfix model (about 50% of the original length), but its width was similar.

From what I can remember, my ‘fleet’ contained eight battleships, a similar number of cruisers, about a dozen destroyers, and a couple of aircraft carriers. The latter looked somewhat similar to HMS Eagle, and used parts from Airfix’s HMS Hood model.

I hope that they survived and are somewhere in my store of wargames bits and pieces. If they are, I will certainly photograph them; if not, I might actually try to recreate one or two of the ships for old time’s sake.