Derek's Wee Toys

Derek's Wee Toys is moving

2010-01-15T11:31:00.001Z

I've moved this blog off to its own domain at http://dereksweetoys.com/

Basing Samurai for Skirmish and for Impetus

2009-12-14T09:20:00.014Z

I recently came across "Song of Blades and Heroes" by Ganesha Games and having played a couple of games I have been inspired to dig out and all sorts of old figures that have not seen the light in years. Song of Blades is a fantastic system for skirmishing and you only need about eight to twelve figures a side for a good game.

Among the figures that I've unearthed are these Dixon Samurai. They have been sitting in a box for somewhere near twenty years while I tried to find a decent set of samurai skirmish rules to use with them. The Song of Ninja and Katana variation found on the songofblades Yahoo Group fills the bill and I have played one game so far. Fantastic fun.

The foot figures are based on two pence pieces while the mounted figures are based on 25mm x 50mm ovals of 2mm mdf I had custom-made for me by Martin of Warbases.co.uk . Warbases don't advertise the fact on their web site, but they'll custom cut just about any base you want.

I also want to use these Samurai to play the excellent Impetus, from Dadi & Piombo so I got Martin of Warbases to make me some custom sabots.

The sabots are 12cm x 6cm and the holes for the figures are 26.5mm - that's 0.5mm bigger than the two pence pieces I'm using for the bases. This leaves enough room for me to paint the edge of the bases. Here is one of the sabots once I've finished it.

I have had similar sabots made for the cavalry, again the holes in the sabot are 0.5mm bigger than the bases.

The custom sabots cost me £1.20 a go with 60p for postage and packing. That's the same price as Warbases charge for the various stock movement trays they make. A bargain as far as I'm concerned.

I seem to be on an Italian kick at the moment, both Song of Blades and Heroes and Impetus come from Italian publishers.

Credits: Most of these figures were painted by Jack Glanville of Pioneer Professional Painting, though some were (badly) painted by myself many years ago and then extensively touched up by Jack. I did all the bases myself.

More Burma

2009-10-29T11:08:00.002Z

I've been playing quite a few games of Battlegroup Panzergrenadier based in Burma, 1944.

These pictures can also be seen in a Picassa album here.

Star Wars fighter battles.

2009-10-09T16:20:00.010Z

Models from Studio Bergstrom and Star Wars Starship Battles miniatures from Wizards of the Coast, a mat from Hotz Artworks and my own modification of the Bag the Jedi rules featured in the 2008 Summer Special from Toofatlardies.

Bergstrom's "Spilt Wing Fighter". As I see things the pins that make up the laser cannons are too long as supplied so I pull them out of the model, cut them down a bit and then glue them back in.

I'm using Y-Wing Fighters from Star Wars Starship Battles range - available reasonably cheaply on Ebay.

To my mind the Bergstrom Y-Wing equivalents, wedge bombers (top right) are just too small compared to the X-Wings. And the Y-Wings are the only Star Wars Starship Battles models that aren't hopelessley warped.

Tie Fighters

Tie Bombers

Tie Interceptors

Burma, 1944

2009-08-29T17:00:00.007Z

No postings here for almost a year, but that doesn't mean I've not been doing any wargaming.

One of the projects I've had in the pipeline for a while is a Japanese infantry battalion to fight in Burma. They've been finished for a few months now and last Thursday they got their first outing on this fantastic table put together by Kevan Gunn, who also provided the British. Pictures by Colin Jack.

Edit: Models are all 15mm - mostly from Peter Pig, though there are some QRF guns somewhere on the table.

Jasta Boelcke

2008-10-29T21:04:00.016Z

Just finished off six doing repaint jobs on six planes of the Wings of War Fokker DR I Fritz Kempf models to represent six different planes from Jasta 2 (Boelcke) in February/March 1918. Information for the repaint jobs came from the Osprey book Jagdstaffel 2 'Boelcke' in their Aviation Elite Units series.

All the planes have been modified by having their rear fuselages painted white on the port side and black on the starboard, a feature of Jasta 2 DR1s that's strangely absent from the WoW model. My white paint failed to match that on the white squares around the Maltese Crosses on the prepaints so I overpainted these markings and replaced them with crosses from Dom's Decals. The Kempf markings on the wings were overpainted with Knarlock Green from the Citadel Foundation Paints range, a colour that almost perfectly matches the green on the original model.

I've cut of the pegs on the underside of the models and replaced them with 1/8" rare earth magnets also available from Dom. I can now use the models with Wings of War stands that I've modified with matching magnets and also with the Litko stands shown in the picture above which I use for playing Algernon Pulls it Off from Too Fat Lardies.

All the planes have been given pilots from Peter Pig's Range 6, Odds and Ends. These look about a hundred times better than the mishapen blobs that made an appearance on the Wings of War Series 2 models.

Kempf

Baumer - the Bs are white decals that have been overpainted in red. It worked better than any of my attempts to handpaint Bs

Loffler - handpainted stripes round the fuselage.

Papenmyer. I wish I was better at painting stripes.

Plange - A white stripe edged in black with Maltese Crosses from Dom's Decals on the sides and top of the fuselage.

Vallendor - letter V decals with hand painted serifs. Not quite the proper shape of V, but good enough for me.

I'm quite happy with them, but I'm not at all convinced that the base shade of green is historical. I much prefer the finish on the Wings of War Fokker DR I (Arthur Rahn) model which looks much more like what I see in the Osprey prints and photographs. But I'm too lazy to change all that and what I've done will do for now.

Stuart Jalopies from QRF

2008-09-07T17:10:00.006Z

New from QRF are these Stuart Jalopies (aka sawn off Stuarts) which were used in many British and Candian armoured regiments in 1944 and 1945. They were first used towards the end of the Desert War and came about when armoured commanders realised that the 37mm gun mounted in the Stuart's turret was all but useless in combat and that if the turret were removed the tank would have a lower profile and that the crew inside would have a better view. These were useful characteristics in what was used mainly as a recce vehicle - though the jalopies were apparently also used as general purpose runabouts, for carrying supplies around the battlefield or even as ambulances.

As far as I can make out 11th Armoured Division removed the turrets on their Stuarts after Operation Epsom and all the Stuarts that went into action in Operation Goodwood had been converted. To give the vehicle a bit more firepower they were usually equipped with .30 or .50 cal machine guns which were welded on to the hull. I've been waiting for models of these things for years.

The QRF models are nice enough, but they're not without their problems. The details on the models' running gear is not particularly well defined and the MGs supplied with the model are very thin and didn't look like they'd last more than five minutes on a wargames table. Also they don't come with any crew, though they do come with a canvas cover for the opening in the top of the vehicle (seen on the righthand tank in the picture above)

I've replaced all the HMGs supplied by QRF with some more substantial ones taken from some Peter Pig Shermans that are currently sitting in my pile of unpained lead. Quite appropriate really as this is where the troops got the machine guns used in real life (their Shermans came from the US rather than Peter Pig).

I cobbled together crews for two of the vehicles from Peter Pig tank commanders and troops with berets from their AK47 range. The markings come from Dom's Decals.

I find it really annoying that manufacturers making open topped vehicles like this don't supply crews as part of the model - the things just don't look right without them ! The only manufacturer 0f 1/100th WWII models that I've come across who do supply crews is Battlefront, whose Flames of War models usually (always?) come with crew when it is appropriate.

Hats off to Battlefront for that, though it is annoying that they seem to have finished with Normandy without making these handy little vehicles which were found throughout 21st Army Group.

Albatros Jasta

2008-08-28T16:19:00.006Z

Looking to get a coherent Jasta look for my six Albatros I spent a load of time looking round the Interwebs to find a historical Jasta for which I could find six planes that would be easy to paint based on the Wings of War prepainted Albatros DVa of Ernst Udet. I was unsuccesful so I decided to make up a colour scheme that was fictitious - but at least historically plausible.

Well here it is - lozenge pattern wings, black fuselage with personal insignia on the side and individually coloured tails. The Jasta leader, a bit of a show off if you ask me, has purple coloured wing top-surfaces and a white chevron on the front of his fuselage. The personal insignia were hand painted (white tail) taken from the Dom's Decals Jasta 19 sheet (green, purple, yellow) taken from a sheet of model railway letters (blue) or from the Warhammer 40K Space Marine decals sheet (red).

Again I've replaced the pegs on these aircraft with rare earth magnets so that I can easily use them on different types of flying stand.

Silly, but fun.

2008-08-24T19:57:00.006Z

My son won a two of these Eureka Cowboy Teddy Bears at the "Toy Story" demo game put on by the RAF Leuchars Wargames Club at Carronade earlier this year.

There's now about twenty of them sitting on my painting table. First four finished. They're available in the UK from Fighting 15s.

Jasta 15 decals from Dom's decals

2008-08-19T19:58:00.006Z

Just back from my holidays and I've got my hands on some of the Jasta 15 decals from Dom's Decals.

The decals are specifically designed for modifying the Wings of War prepainted Schafer model (WW08b) and the sheet contains all the decals you need to put eight individually marked Fokker DVIIs in the air. The instruction sheet is first class, even covering the different colours individual pilots had on their wheels and struts.

(Left to Right) Veltjens, Klein and von Beaulieu-Marconnay.

Dom's even provided snake decals for Schafer, which look much better than what's on the Wings of War original, and this means you can use your own shade of blue for repainting the WoW models rather than having to mix paints to mach the colour already on them.

There's actually markings for ten planes on the sheet, including that of Berthold, commander of JG.2, who flew a plane in his old Jasta's colours. But to do all ten planes properly you need to get your hands on some decals of German crosses in the appropriate style. These are also available from Dom (sheet no 144-GE-4)

I've only got six of the Wings of War prepainted Fokker DVIIs at the moment and, as you can see in the pictures, I've chopped off the pegs on the bottom of the planes and replaced them with some of the rare earth magnets which are also available from Dom.

This allows me to use the planes with both modified Wings of War bases and with some of the rather nice hex based flight stands available from Litko which I intend to use to play the hex-based "Algernon Pulls it Off" rules from Too Fat Lardies.

The background to the pictures is one of the European Field mats available from Hotz Mats. I bought a double sided mat, plain on one side and with 2"hexes on the other which will give me flexibity in the games I can play on it.

(Left to Right) Hantlemann, von Zeisgar & Klaudat

I'll be getting a few more Fokkers to round of my Jasta 15 soon.

Wings of War Series 2: British repaints

2008-04-01T19:08:00.008Z

To convert the Sopwith Snipe (Barker) to 266 Squadron, I've painted out two of the white bands on the fuselage using Humbrol 117 (Matt US Light Green) and added letter transfers to the wings.

Below is the De Haviland DH4 (Atkey) as bought.

To expand my squadron I scraped of the number 5s using an modelling knife, touched up the paint using Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown and added number 3 decals. Easiest conversion yet.

The transfers I have been using are Fox Transfers pack FRH 4009 (BR British Railways Early Diesel & Electric Headcode Box Train Reporting Numbers) and came from Harburn Hobbies in Edinburgh. Fox make an extensive range of letters and numbers in various typefaces, colours and sizes and also do linings which look as though they could be very useful for people like me who can't paint straight lines. All their products are avialable through mail order.

Converting WoW Prepaints (4) Jasta 15 Fokker DVIIs

2008-03-31T18:08:00.012Z

My starting point here is the WoW prepainted Fokker DVII (Schäfer) pictured below

To my mind this model needs quite a lot of work done on it before it is acceptable on a table. That big red line where the lozenge pattern transfers don't meet along the leading edge of the wings just has to go and I don't really like the look of those light grey tyres. So it's out with a paint brush.

I have painted the leading edges of the wings brown and then tried to continue some of the lozenges over the leading edge. I think it looks a lot better. I've also repainted the wheels dark grey and painted over the rear of the fuselage with Citadel Ultramarine Blue paint.

Here's my flight of three.

As far as I can make out all Jasta 15 Fokker D VIIs had the front of their fuselages painted red and the rear of the fuselage painted blue. All the emblems for individual pilots I've found on the web have been white. I've found images of the following pilots planes featured in a painting by Russel Smith

Hugo Schafer: the winged serpent as featured on the prepaint
Josef Veltjens: A rather strange arrow/crescent moon combination. (Picture of a model Albatros with the emblem here)
Rudolph Berthold: A winged sword. (Also here on the rear cover of an Osprey book)
Oliver von Beaulieu-Marconnay: The 4D brand used by his original regiment, the 4th Dragoons (also here)
Gustav Klaudat: A Uhlan's lance (Image from a computer game here)

On the front cover of Osprey's Fokker D VII Aces of WWI there's

Joachim von Zeigesar: Three feathers
Georg von Hantelmann: Skull and crossbones emblem based on the cap badge of the Death's Head Hussars. (Another image here)

So having done some research and identified seven sets of historical markings what do I do? That's right I make up some emblems for fictitious pilots using transfers I've got in my collection.

Why? Well it's simply because I'm just not good enough with a paintbrush to do those historical emblems. I'm hoping that Dom of Dom's Decals will do some as he's starting work on some sheets of decals specifically designed to be used with the WoW prepaints. These ones would certainly make D VII conversions easily and if you think this is a good idea you could email Dom and promise to buy some of these decals if he makes them.

So what have I put on my planes? A Maltese Cross (from Veni, Vidi, Vici transfers), a chevron and an omega (both from games Workshop Space Marine transfer sheets). I think they look OK but if I could get historical decals I change over to them in an instant.

Nice planes - but that blob of a pilot is just awful

Wings of War Miniatures wave two: My first impressions

2008-03-21T17:20:00.008Z

Jules from Figures in Comfort brought the full range of the second wave Wings of War miniatures along to the club last night so I just had to buy a few - eight to be exact.

First up is the Sopwith Snipe (Barker) a good looking model. The three of these I bought will be getting the 266 squadron treatment when I put some letters on the wings.

Here's a De Haviland DH4 (Atkey) which will do fine as it is for the moment. I'm going to get another one of these so I'll have to work out a way of making it look different.

The LFG Roland CII (Seibert & Pfleger) which again will do just as it is for recce and spotting missions. Of the models available I prefer the all over pale blue of the Richthofen variant of this model, but that one doesn't have the forward firing machine gun so I bought this one instead.

Last but not least the Fokker DVII (Schäfer) of which I bought three to make what will be a quite formidable flight - the DVII is quite the best plane in Wings of War with 16 damage points and some absolutely outrageous turns. The three of these I bought will all be converted to different planes from Jasta 15 in which were all painted with red front and blue rear fuselages - individual pilots having personal markings in the blue section. I'll probably just make up some markings for fictitious pilots but If I can convince Dom, of Dom's Decals, to do some historical ones for Jasta 15 then I'll change to them. I'm going to repaint the rear of the fuselage as the blue they have used in this model looks just a bit too purple for my tastes (though it doesn't really show up in the photo above).

I have one major problem with this model and that's the horrid looking lines of red that show up on the edges of the wings where the transfers used for the lozenge pattern don't cover up the red paint. But that's easily fixed with some paint as I have done on the plane on the right below.

Converting Wings of War Prepaints. (3) Albatros DVa

2008-03-10T21:16:00.009Z

For my Albatros flight I decied to use Wings of War Ernst Udet prepaints as a base. Well they've got the lozenge pattern on the wings, which I like a lot, and the other Albatros with lozenges available, Ludvig Weber, has got a dirty great big number 1 on top of the wing. I didn't want a whole flight with that numbered 1 (though I suppose it could be 1 for the first flight) , so Udet it was.

I looked around the Internet to see if I could find details of any planes from the same Jasta that had similar colour schemes (I was full of optimism after my success with the DrIs) but I found nothing. Time to start making things up.

Looking at pics online it looked like some squadrons had aircraft with similarly painted fuselages but tails painted with either different colours or the same colours in different styles. So that's what I did and the results can be seen above. Each plane also has a different symbol on the side of the fuselage.
The original Wings of War painted model for Ernst Udet.

Repainted tail and two stripes on the fuselage. This model is based on the image I found here.

Repainted tail and a rather gothic looking number 3 transfer from a Citadel Miniatures Space Marine decal sheet.

Converting Wings of War Prepaints. (2) Sopwith Camels

2008-03-08T20:38:00.010Z

As discussed in a previous post I am trying to make up flights of aircraft from the same squadron by converting the Wings of War prepainted miniatures - but without doing a complete repainting job.

I tried to do some research on the British but all that happened was I got confused. There were all sorts of combinations of letter, numbers and stripes that changed several times through the course of the war. The solution, I decided was to make up a fictitious squadron.

Biggles, Algy and Ginger set out to bag some Huns.

These models are based on the Wings of War model of William Barker's Sopwith Camel. To convert it to Biggle's Squadron colours I painted out some of the stripes on the rear fuselage and the heart painted on the tailfin using Humbrol 75, Bronze Green.

Then I added some large recognition letters on the upper surface of the wing using waterslide transfers I found in my local model railway shop, Harburn Hobbies in Edinburgh. It was quite hard to find transfers that were both the right size and not too modern looking so many thanks to the assistant who spent about fifteen minutes searching through their extensive stock of transfers before finding these ones, originally meant for British diesel locomotives in the 1950s and early 60s.

Those models may have completely made up markings, but look like they could be a real squadron and that's good enough for the likes of me.

Notes (added 10th March, 2008): Thanks to Tim who, in a comment on this blog, reminded me that Captain James Bigglesworth (Biggles) was said by his creator, W.E Johns, to be in the fictitious 266 Squadron RFC. Looking around the numerous Biggles sites on the Internet I find that while Algy fought alongside Biggles in the Great War, he did not meet up with the famous Ginger until after the war. That must be another carrot-top flying with him in the picture above.

My rather limited reference books for this period and the numerous web sites devoted to WWI aviation suggest that most British planes carried identifying letters on the sides of the fuselage rather than on the top of the wing. Indeed I have not yet found a single example of this being done by a squadron equipped with Camels. All I can say is that some squadrons put letters on their wings, that 266 Squadron are unusual and that it works better that way when you're playing a game.

Converting Wings of War Prepaints. (1) Fokker DrIs from Jasta 2

2008-03-08T19:24:00.012Z

I'm not sure that converting is the right word here, as it's all done with a paintbrush. Anyway, I've been playing Wings of War a lot recently, with my son and his friends and at the wargames club. I don't like using planes from several different squadrons in my games and that's what is provided in the WoW prepaints. Similarly I don't like using planes that are all the same. So I set out to convert some of the prepaints to represent different planes from the same squadron.

First up a kette (flight) of Fokker DrIs from Jagdstaffel 2. Fritz Kempf leads Otto Löffler (back) and Wilhelm Papenmeyer (right).

Looking round the Internet I found that the WoW Kempf prepaint was an ideal candidate for conversion. On the FokkerDr1.com website I found a page with a whole series of pictures of Jasta 2 DrIs from March 1918. All of these are the same base colour as Kempf's plane but with slightly different details. Those of Löffler and Papenmeyer were basically all green planes with different coloured stripes round the fuselage. These planes are also illustrated in Jagstaffel 2 "Boelcke" in Osprey's Aviation Elite Units series.

Looking through my paint collection I found that the Citadel "Knarlock Green" foundation paint is an almost perfect matcjh for the colour of the WoW prepaint. Paint out the details for Kempf, paint in bands of colour for Löffler and Papenmeyer and I was sorted.

But reading the Osprey book and studying the pictures in it leads me to believe that the WoW Kempf prepaints aren't very accurate.

The decals on the WoW prepaints are not positioned properly or carefully, at least on some (probably most) models. In real life the rear end of the white square which surrounded the German cross seems to have been positioned in line with the front end of the tailplane. On the WoW prepaints they seem to be all over the place and are usually in different positions on the left and right sides of the model. This makes painting stripes round the fuselage a bit difficult.
The DrIs of Jasta 2 are described as being in "the usual Fokker streaky camouflage finish on upper surfaces". From the pictures I've seen it looks like that was what is represented on the WoW model DRI for Arthur Rahn rather than the green that comes with Kempf.
The planes of Jasta 2 carried the black and white scheme of their tailplanes down onto the sides of the fuselage, the pictures in the Osprey book show the rears of the fuselage under the tailplane matching the colours on the tailplane, black on the right, white on the right for Kempf, this is not done on the WoW prepaint. Other planes in the Jasta seem to have reversed the colours on the tail and rear fuselage.

All in all it seems that the Kempf prepaint is not particularly accurate models - though I'm quite happy to use the three models I've got for gaming.

World of Warcrack

2008-02-27T05:39:00.007Z

Over a year since I last blogged and it's mostly down to the time I've been spending in Azeroth, the setting of the Masssively Multplayer Online Game World of Warcraft. I've been playing the game a lot, mostly in the company of my son Duncan. Here's my warrior Minimax (left) pictured in Nagrand with Duncan's hunter Vomo and his pet Paws (right).

I've enjoyed playing WoW a lot, and it can be a very sociable activity as Duncan and I can sit at adjacent computers on the home network.

All this 0nline activity has led to a huge reduction in the amount of time I've been spending with my other toys so my New Year's resolution was to do more miniatures wargaming in 2008. I've had some success in this, largely thanks to another WoW, Wings of War from Fantasy Flight Games.

This simple WWI aeroplane game has taken off big style at the South East Scotland Wargames Club and is very popular with Duncan and his friends.

The prepainted miniatures for this game are amazing value, especially with the club discount we get from Jules at Figures in Comfort, and some of them are easily "converted" with minor brush work, to give flights of different planes from the same squadron. I'll post some pictures of my planes soon.

Wargames Through the Looking Glass

2007-02-07T07:38:00.000Z

I've finally cracked how the Flames of War flexible groundscale works. With a bit of help from Lewis Carroll.

'When I make a measurement playing Flames of War,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it represents just what distance I choose it to in real life, neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make similar measurements on the table represent so many different distances in real life.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master – that's all.'

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them – particularly weapon ranges, they're the proudest – movement rates you can do anything with, but not frontages – however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

Dom's Decals

2006-12-23T19:01:00.000Z

I ordered up some of the new 15mm World War II decals from Dom's Decals last month but it's taken me until now to actually get round the using the things.

What is there to say? Well they're decals, there's a big range of them and they look about one hundred times better than anything I've ever managed to paint on a vehicle.

Being true 1/100th scale the decals are quite small and can be a bit of a fiddle to work into place on the model and, as the designs are all printed on a single sheet, you have to cut fairly closely round them before use .

Here's a picture of some of them in use on a Cromwell from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry of 11th Armoured Division fighting in the Normandy campaign of 1944. The model comes from Battlefront Miniatures and is one of the late war British range they withdrew from production a couple of years ago.

Dom's started his range with markings for the British forces fighting in Western Europe in 1944 and 45. So far he's done divisional markings for 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, Guards Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division (the Black Bull on the Cromwell above) and 79th Armoured Division. He's also done tactical signs (the coloured circles, diamonds, squares and triangles seen on some British vehicles) as well as unit serial numbers (like the 45 on a blue and green background above) and bridging signs (numbers in a yellow circle)

Here's a Humber Scout Car belonging to the 3rd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment, also in 11th Armoured Division. The model comes from Peter Pig.

2 Universal Carriers from the same battalion. The models are from the Skytrex Command Decision range.

At £1 for a sheet of over a hundred divisional badges or £2 a large selection of serial numbers and bridging signs I cannot recommend this range of decals highly enough.

New US Paras from Battlefront: A Brief Review

2006-12-07T08:42:00.000Z

Seriously folks, these things are badly deformed. They've got their arms just about fully extended to wave the rest of the platoon forward. And their hands are only just making it above the top of their helmets.

This picture comes from Battlefront Miniature's website here, though I added the commentary. It shows two figures from their US Paratroopers Parachute Rifle Platoon. Their website also has pictures of the accompanying machine gun platoon and mortar platoon. All of these figures are proportioned similarly.

Olmec-Head Derision Society

2006-12-02T11:00:00.000Z

Another week and more big headed miniatures from Battlefront Miniatures. Some people on TMP think they're taking their inspiration from giant monuments made by the Olmec civilisation of Mexico while others are blaming the Simpsons

German 88mm gun team. Most are under 4 helmetted heads high. I've been told that these are conversions and that their heads have been swapped. Well you'd think he could have found some 15mm ones rather than the 20mm ones he seems to have used there.

British infantry. About four helmetted heads high. I'm not sure how old these figures are, but it looks like they've got bigger heads than the old style British Engineers I have in my collection.

Here's one of those old style Engineers. About four and three quarter helmetted heads high.

This real life British infantryman is between six and a half and seven helmetted heads high.

More fun with Photoshop

More on Battlefront

2006-11-24T16:09:00.000Z

Much discussion on The Miniatures Page (TMP) as to whether or nor the new Battlefront Miniatures' paratroop figures are as distorted as I claim. Someone questions whether its the result of British Paratroop helmets being really big in real life. Well here's my answer. They are big, but they're not that big.

A reenactor dressed in British Paratrooper uniform. Note he is just over six helmetted heads tall.

Here's his Battlefront counterpart. Four heads tall. Live with it folks, their heads are massively oversized.

Some people have said that the new Panzergrenadiers are less distorted than than the paratroopers but that's just not true. Take a look below, that Panzergrenadieron the left is under 3.5 helmetted heads high. The one on the right isn't quite as bad, he's four helmetted heads high.

For comparison here's an older style German from Battlefront nearer five heads tall than four (4 2/3rds) and looking a lot better to me.

And just for a laugh here's something I knocked up in Photoshop last week. Not the best Photoshop job in the world, but I had fun doing it.

The guy on the right is four and a half heads high. His head size is less distorted than the Battlefront models.

Fanboys Only at Battlefront Forums?

2006-11-24T08:08:00.000Z

Seems the people at Battlefront Miniatures can't take a bit of criticism. In a recent thread on their General Discussion Forum entitiled "Evans 600pt US Paras" I posted "Big heads, but not as bad as the Brits", a comment which was deleted within eight hours. That's the third time I've had postings deleted without a word of explanation from anyone at Battlefront.

It will be intersting to find out if this is a general policy or a personal honour. In the same thread someone else has posted "Beautifully finished minis, but the huge heads have me unïmpressed. Please BF, go back to more human size heads! The paras look like dolls compared to the panzergrenadiers on the same page." Fight the good fight brother.

But the fanboys know how to behave and some of them are talking about selling off their old style figures and replacing them with the new ones.

Welcome to the world of marketing everyone.

Big headed US paras from Battlefront

2006-11-17T09:35:00.000Z

The trend towards big headed "heroic" 15s continues at Battlefront Miniatures

One of the pictures in the preview of their D Minus 1 supplement that has recently been posted on their website quite clearly shows the changes that are going on with the style of their infantry figures. Take a look at the picture second from bottom here link (Direct link to picture)

Look at the Germans who are runing away from the new US paras. Compare and contrast the size of the heads, equipment and their body proportions. The new paras are quite different - to my mind incompatable.

But don't go pointing this out on their forums or you could find yourself being personally attacked by moderators before having your posts deleted. That's what happened to me.

How long can it be until Battlefront feel the need to remodel all their older ranges in this new "heroic" style. No doubt telling us that they're doing it to bring them up to the standard of their latest figures.

That's the logical conclusion to the road they're travelling and would fit right in with a marketing model that looks like it was borrowed from the Evil Empire.

Would they dare to do the same thing with their vehicles?

British Paras: Peter Pig and Battlefront compared

2006-11-12T12:11:00.000Z

Amidst the discussion arising from my previous post on Battlefront Miniatures' newly released British Paratroopers someone posting on The Miniatures Page pointed out that the para figures from Peter Pig, my personal favourites, have similarly proportioned heads to the Battlefront figures that I've described as grotesquely malformed. Well I didn't really believe him, but in the interests of fairness I decided to have a look.

Well it's almost true. As you can see below the Piggies are about four and a half heads high, slightly less distorted than the Battlefront ones, which are about four heads high, but still well outside the normal human range of six to eight.

So how come the Piggies manage to look vaguely human while the Battlefront ones look like apes?

Well the small difference in head height seems to make a significant difference to the overall look and the Battlefront figures are considerably chunkier than the Piggies. The weapons and detailing are also more exaggerated on the Battlefront figures while the Piggies have traces of a neck.

Just look at the size of the equipment on the Battlefront figure below left. The chinstrap on his helmet is enormous, blocking out half his face, while he appears to have a fridge rather than a radio set.

To my eyes the Piggy Paras look human while the Battlefront ones have gone over the top into the realms of the grotesque. But the differences between them are certainly not as great as I initially thought.

And I don't think I've ever seen quite as bad a case of malformation as the para pictured below. He looks like close relative of the WWII styled orcs made by Wessex Games

Battlefront's new British Paratroopers

2006-11-10T11:39:00.000Z

I've already posted here about Battlefront Miniatures and how I feel that their new releases are changing style, becoming bulkier and gaining oversized heads and oversized equipment. Well this trend has reached a new low with the company's latest releases, British Paratroopers. Battlefront are producing the 15mm equivalent of heroic scale 28s - grotesque parodies of the human form, carrying huge weapons and massively oversized equipment.

Now some people like this style but I agree with Tim Marshall, who on his website Tims Toys describes heroic scale 28s thus:

"The big heads, too short limbs, gaping maws, over exaggerated features, personal weapons as thick as telephone poles and personal equipment not sculpted to any discernible scale all contribute to something that I personally feel looks absolutely awful. Indeed, I find it embarrassing to show non wargamers pictures of such figures on line and in print (Wargames Illustrated, for example, seems to really push articles with photos of these types of figures). Why and how, I often ask myself (and others), can so many gifted artists overlook these awful characteristics, the beautiful painting they do on these figs, notwithstanding? How can such wargamers reconcile wartime photographs, paintings and illustrations of troops with figures that look like small overweight and stumpy children wearing military costumes?"

Tim tops off this rant with a lovely photoshopped picture which shows what a Sherman Firefly would look like if it was given this "heroic scale" treatment.

Well I'm with Tim on this one and do not welcome the move by Battlefront to start producing their 15mm infantry in this style. It's such a shame, they used to make really good figures that fitted in well with other ranges on the market.

Just take a look at the size of the head on this guy below. It's over a quarter of the total height of the figure . Normally proportioned human beings have heads that take up between one sixth and one eighth of their height so that para's head is somewhere between one and a half and two times the size it should be.

LtCol Pine-Coffin. Here again the figure is four heads tall.

For comparison this reenactor is about six and a half heads tall. On the right I've made him heroic scale - 150% sized head, hands and feet. He's still not as out of proportion as many of the Battlefront figures.

He looks a bit like this guy who is carrying a rifle that looks to be double scale width and has helmet straps oversized about the same amount.

And take a look at this guy below. It looks like the paras have been recruiting from the cast of the opening scene of 2001 a Space Odyssey. That's not a para, it's an ape in a denison smock. Hands like shovels and a jaw to match.

Some posters on the FoW forums have tried to defend the realism of these models on the grounds that in real life people come in different shapes and sizes. Well they don't come in those shapes.

Still the fanboys love these models and, thanks to Battlefronts marketing muscle, I'm sure they'll outsell the more realistic offerings available elsewhere. I just hope other 15mm manufacturers don't follow Ballefront's lead in this.

Warhammer 40K - cheap and cheerful.

2006-10-23T18:49:00.000Z

I've been very busy at work recently and what painting and gaming time I've had has been dominated by Warhammer 40K, which I play with my ten year old son Duncan. It's a long way from being my favourite game, I much prefer almost anything historical, but Duncan likes it a lot and I want to get him into wargames. Over the years we have built up two painted armies, Space Marines for him (4,000 + points) and Tyranids (2,000 + points for myself with the same again waiting painting).

We manage to keep the financial investment within reasonable limits by buying stuff second hand on Ebay and limiting new purchases as far as possible. My wife's ability to find useful models at jumble sales and car boot sales also helps here. I aim to get things for under a third of retail price though Duncan sometimes saves up his money and buys full-price models from GW.

We started on these armies about three years ago when I thought Duncan was too young rom Space Crusade. to paint and I'm still doing them now.

Fortunately I had the foresight to choose colour schemes that are extremely easy to do, what one of Duncan's friends father calls Echo Papas or Easy Paints. He's taking the piss but I don't care as he's spending hours painting Tau for his son and Space Marines for himself while 90% of the painting I do comes straight out a spray can and the things are completed in minutes.

Here's how I do it.

Space Marines (Dark Templars a variation on the approved Black Templars) - spray black, base neatly, paint a few details add transfers from GW or Veni Vidi Vici.

Tyranids - Spray white, wash with a mixture of Water, Citadel brown ink and Johnson's Klear floor polish then base nicely. I've spent only a few minutes per figure, assembling and painting, and they're now quite usable on a wargames table. Go back later paint on some red bits and then add another wash as above.

Major bargains - Over the years my wife has bought a couple of second hand copies of the old MB Games Space Crusade at jumble sales. These have given us two marine tactical squads and two rather strange looking Dreadnaughts for £2. Sitting unpainted in the cupboard we have squads of Orcs, Gretchin, Androids and Chaos Space Marines.

A jumblie copy of Space Hulk, bought for 50p, is an excellent game in itself and supplied twenty Genestealers and ten Terminators all of whom have given good service.

Duncan wants to paint his next army himself and I'm trying to get him to do Necrons as they can be put on the table after a coat of black spray, a silver drybrush and some basing. The first squad will be formed by the androids from Space Crusade.

More Wee Samurai

2006-09-15T16:58:00.000Z

More of the Bacchus 6mm samurai from the talented Jim Louttit. Some more infantry, generals and cavalry.

I've got this lot sitting in my study at home so I hope to be taking some better pics over the weekend. In the meantime feast your eyes on these.

General in Maku. Click on the thumnail to look at a larger pic and you'll be able to see the faces on the severed heads on the viewing platform at the back. Awesome work from Jim.

Generals with their retinues. These are based on 2" squares rather than the 3" squares used for everyone else.

A cavalry stand.

Jim's whole army deployed for battle.

Jim's Wee Samurai

2006-08-18T14:38:00.000Z

Jim Louttit, one of my mates from the South East Scotland Wargames Club, brought these 6mm Samurai along to Show and Tell at the club last night.

Jim and I first started this samurai project in the summer of 2005 when we both bought some of these lovely figures from Pete Berry at Baccus Miniatures. Originally we intended to use them for Warmaster Ancients, after a lot of reading, Jim decided that Warmaster would not give a game that would accurately reflect the way they fought. So he's now working on writing his own set of rules, based on Sam Mustapha's Fast Play Grande Armee Napoleonic Rules, which will use these 3" square bases to represent around a thousand men.

I'm looking forward to playing this game immensely, but I'm not looking forward to having my figures compared to these beauties of Jim's.

Only these five stands done so far but Jim's promised Cavalry and a General in his Maku are next. I'll post some pictures as soon as he's got them done.

Scenic Stuff

2006-07-29T21:27:00.000Z

After a recent discussion on The Miniatures Page about sand and other texturing materials that people use on their bases and terrain I took a look at my shelf and found the following.

1 & 2: Builders sand. My wife bought me a burst bag of Sharp Sand out of B&Qs reject pile for 10p. I split it into two by putting it through a kitchen seive to get fine sand (1) and larger gravel (2). Field trials are underway - it's hard to argue at that price. The only cheaper stuff comes from the beach, but it smells a bit and is full of small bits of organic material like seaweed and dead fish.

3: A mix of Woodland Scenics ballast Fine Brown and Coarse Brown. This was attempt to emulate Games Workshops Modelling Sand as detailed here and it works quite well at about one third the price.

4: Superfine Bird Sand from the Pet Supermarket. Being superfine this stuff works really well for basing 5mm troops.

5: Games Workshop Modelling Gravel: £4 for a small tub. Now why did I buy this stuff?

6 & 7: Two grades of Woodland Scenics Talus

8: Woodland Scenics Ballast Fine Brown.

9: Woodland Scenics Ballast Coarse Brown.

10: Unknown Model Railway Ballast

11: Woodland Scenics Ballast Fine Buff.

12: Woodland Scenics Ballast Coarse Buff

13: Games Workshop Modelling Sand. Again £4 for a tub. Why? Well it's an excellent mix of sizes that makes really rather good bases. But it is far too expensive.

Sad, isn't it?

Desert War 7: A game at last

2006-07-29T15:44:00.000Z

Finally got to play with my desert toys last Thursday and the weekly meeting of the South East Scotland Wargames Club. Kevan Gunn had been busy over the past couple of weeks putting together some really rather nice Desert terrain, including a small town made up from some rather nice models from Kerr and King.

As usual we were using the Battlegoup Panzer Grenadier by Dave Brown. Each square infantry stand represents a section and there's a command stand of two figures on a circular base for every platoon. Vehicle models represent two or three vehicles.

British Infantry, supported by Matildas attack the town.

Another view of the British attack.

Buildings by Kerr and King.

An Italian Saharina scout car (Kevan Gunn).

Two saharinas and an Autoblinda (Kevan Gunn)

Italian paratroopers (Kevan Gunn)

Italian Paratroop mortar team.

2 pounder Portees (Derek Hodge)

Matilda (Jim Louttit)

Carrier platoon (Jim Louttit)

Desert War 6: Carrier Platoon

2006-07-02T19:45:00.000Z

The wife's been away for the weekend so I've had the chance to do some painting in between looking after the children. Much of my time was taken up painting Warhammer 40K stuff for my son who had a game organised today, but I also finally managed to put the crews in eight universal carriers and base them up. The Carrier Platoon of my 8th Army infantry battalion is now complete.

Four carriers with three crew in each. The crew are a mixture of Peter Pig Range 8 British drivers and 28 British seated and the figures Battlefront provide with their universal carriers. The carriers themselves are from the Skytrex Command Decision range. I'm going to get some of the Battlefront special order Bren AA machine guns to mount on these carriers.

The platoon dismounted for action. Peter Pig 8th Army Brens and Command figures.

All that I need to do to finish the Battalion is paint up a couple of 2pdr Portees and some carriers for the mortar platoon.

Desert War 5: Rebased Armour

2006-06-29T13:29:00.000Z

Well I've been rebasing my 8th Army armour this week, but I'm not really very happy with it. I think I can paint better now than I could eight years ago when those models were first done and the Internet postings of one Mike Starmer have convinced me that the sky blue I used on the Caunter pattern camouflage on these vehicles is in fact wrong. So what I'm going to do is rebase a few vehicles so I can play games with my toys right now, but completely repaint them all, this time with a sand colour and two shades of grey, over time. More work.

A Marmon-Herrington armoured car from SDD

A Vickers Mark VI from Peter Pig.

An A13 Mark II, also from Peter Pig

Cheaper basing.

2006-06-12T20:38:00.000Z

In an earlier posting I showed the current method I'm using to base my troops, a method which gives a look of which I'm rather proud, but which only takes a few minutes to do.

To texture my bases I have been using Games Workshop Modelling Sand which has recently gone up in price to £4 for a small tub. Well that was the final straw and I've been experimenting with mixing my own base texture using a mixture of ballasts from Woodland Scenics. What I've found works best for me is a mixture of their Fine Brown Ballast and Dark Brown Course Ballast.

These pictures show bases being made with the Games Workshop Modelling sand on the left and my own Woodland Scenics mixture on the right. There's not a lot of difference I'm sure you'll agree and it's much, much cheaper.

I get my Woodland Scenics ballast from my local model railway shop or over the Web from EC Scenics where they charge £2.55 for a 10 oz bag containing over twice the weight of the GW £4 tub. 32 oz shakers come in at £7.70 and EC charge postage at cost.

Desert War 4: Afrika Korps

2006-06-12T19:17:00.000Z

Just finished rebasing my small force of Afrika Korps. That's a Kapfgruppe based round an infantry company for Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier, or a platoon with lots of heavy support for PBI 2. Lots of sand colours painted on models from either Peter Pig or the Skytrex Command Decision range.

The complete force

Commanding Officer - all models from the Skytrex .

Infantry platoon - again Skytrex.

Infantry gun and command stand - gun and gunners from Peter Pig, rest Skytrex.

Engineers, one stand with flamethrower - Flamethrower is Peter Pig, rest Skytrex.

HMG and command stand - Skytrex.

Anti-tank gun - gunners Peter Pig, gun Skytrex.

Desert War 3: British Engineers

2006-05-30T20:26:00.000Z

Well they may well not fit in terribly well with the Peter Pig figures that make up the majority of my 8th Army forces, but they do look good on their own.

Flames of War BR766 Royal Engineers (Italy) painted up for the desert.

Flames of War scalecreep

2006-05-29T19:53:00.000Z

A few years back, when I was making up some 15mm forces for the Normandy campaign of 1944, I chose to use mainly Command Decision figures, mixed in with some Peter Pig when I didn't want to buy 50 of something. Then I saw some pictures of some rather nice British Engineers from what was a new company to me, Battlefront Miniatures - who have since gone on to produce the game Flames of War which seems rather popular at the moment. Well these Engineers fitted in quite nicely as can be seen in the photo, the left hand stand are Battlefront while the right hand stand are Command Decision. The Battlefront miniatures are perhaps slightly larger but nothing too noticeable.

Well all that seems to have changed and the new models from Flames of War have changed in style and now do not fit in with other manufacturers stuff at all well. Left to right we have Peter Pig, Command Decision and Flames of War. At first glance at these new figures I thought, he's huge, but a comment below and discussions on The Miniatures Page made me take a closer look. That Flames of War infantryman is actually not much taller than the others if you consider that he is mounted on a base that's considerably thicker than the PP or CD models. What is different is that he is a bit bulkier, has a rather large head and his rifle and bayonet are considerably oversized. All this makes him look bigger.

I won't be buying many of them anyway, they are really quite nice, in a cartooney fashion, but I've got far too much invested in CD and PP stuff that's just not compatible.

Desert War 2: Rebasing

2006-05-28T16:20:00.000Z

My WWII Desert War project advanced this week as I manged to rebase all my 8th Army and Afrika Korps infantry, artillery and anti-tank gun stands. That's over one hundred and thirty stands rebased. Why rebase? Well the rules I'm intending to use the toys for, Battlegroup Panzer-Grenadier and Poor Bloody Infantry, can be played using the three infantry on 1 1/4" square bases that we were using for Command Decision all those years ago. But I've decided to use different command stands and my PBI command stands are now all three models on a 1 1/4" circle and my command stands for BPG are 2 figures on a 25mm circle (that's a 2p piece) for platoon commanders, a 1 1/4" (30mm) circle for company commanders and multiple figures on larger irregular bases for higher level commanders. So I had to do some rebasing.

And because my new bases (above) look so much better than my old bases (left) I decided just to rebase everything.

Here's how I do it.
1) I glue the painted figures onto a base made out of 2mm MDF, in this case a 2" square. I buy these bases precut from Tony at East Riding Miniatures. They're available in custom sizes and unlike cardboard they don't warp. The base has been prepainted using Dulux Trade Emulsion, Tawny Crest1. This paint is available from B&Q in 250ml sampler pots for about £2.

2) Then I glue my texturing material onto the base using thinned down wood glue. At the moment I am using Games Workshop's Modelling Sand but they've just put the price up to £4 for a small tub and I'm investigating cheaper alternatives.

3) I then cover the base with a thinned down mix of wood glue.

4) When the gravel mix has set solid it looks like this.

5) Then I drybrush the base white.

6) Finally I glue on some static grass, again using thinned down woodglue. In this case the static grass is Harvest Gold from Woodland Scenics .

7) The finished article

Photo Kit

2006-05-26T14:31:00.000Z

A couple of people have asked me what I'm using to take the pictures on this blog. Well that's the answer over there on the left. It's a Nikon D70 teamed up with a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight and a Lumiquest Promax Pocket Bouncer. A lovely set of kit.

It may not look like much but that's really quite a powerful flashgun (38/125 (ISO 100, m/ft)) and it allows me to take wargames pictures using the very small apertures which give a decent depth of field. The pics below were mostly taken at 1/60th of a second at f29.

The exposure control with this flashgun/camera combination is just fantastic. The flash sends out a preflash which is picked up by around a thousand sensors in the camera, which uses the data to work out just how much power is needed in the main flash. The system gives fantastically consistent results, a slight underexposure which can easily be compensated for using the camera's controls. All I have to do is set the camera up in Aperture priority mode, dial in a +1/3 exposure compensation, set the Aperture to f29 and use the camera as a point and shoot. This is ideal for taking pictures at the club or at wargames shows.

The Pocket Bouncer does a good job of diffusing the light from the flashgun, minimising the harsh shadows that can be a big problem when taking pics with flash. The flash can also be operated remotely and wirelessley and I intend to try this out using an umbrella flash for some studio shots. Just as soon as I find the umbrella flash clamp that's hiding somewhere in my study.

Battle in the Snow

2006-05-26T09:18:00.001Z

Fun night at the South East Scotland Wargames Club last night when Kevan Gunn brought along his new snow themed terrain. He's also painted and based a load of German troops to fit in with the snow while Angus Konstam has done the same thing with some of his Americans.

So it was off to the Bulge for a fun game of Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier with the Germans givings the Yanks a right hammering. From the pics below you can see just what a good job Kevan has done of building this terrain. I feel cold just looking at it.

Another Weekend and Another Show

2006-05-22T19:23:00.000Z

I had a very good day out with my son yesterday at Conflict Scotland, a Games Workshop competion in Glasgow.

Neither Duncan nor I play competition games but there were enough participation games and hobby activities (scenery making, diorama making and speed painting) to keep two nine year olds entertained for seven and a half hours. And they still didn't want to leave at the end.

Some spectacular games. Thirteen giants on a table anyone? Or around five hundred Space Marines in two linked games? And there was some amazing scenery on show.

I didn't play anything (historical stuff is more to my taste these days), but I did join in one of their scenery making sessions, getting a couple of sprues of their new Cityscape stuff for my efforts. I made these up into something my son will be able to use for 40K, LoTR, Warhammer Fantasy or even Mordheim.

Scenery making

Speed Painting

Dioramas under construction

My freebies from the scenery workshop

GW certainly know how to treat their young customers and give them a good time, but the prices they charge for some things still bring me out in palpitations.

Rat Patrol Radio

2006-05-20T16:09:00.000Z

Whilst browsing round the web looking for stuff about the Desert War in WWII I came across an internet radio station called Rat Patrol Radio which broadcasts music from the 1940's interspersed with the occasional news piece from wartime radio. Great stuff for inspiration.

It's available here and is just the thing to listen to while painting your WWII Allied figures.

Desert War 1

2006-05-20T08:53:00.000Z

A chance remark by Kevan Gunn last week, combined with a general increase in my level of enthusiasm for wargaming brought about largely by Cannonade 2006 (see below), has got me all excited about the Desert War of WWII.

Along with other members of the South East Scotland Wargames Club I first got involved in doing this period in 15mm about eight or nine years ago, but our enthusiasm died the death when we couldn't find a set of rules that we really liked. Command Decision proved to be too complicated for our tastes, and we never managed to finish games off in the time available at a club night, while Spearhead was disliked by British players who all felt their troops were badly treated by the combat system.

At the moment there's several WWII rules systems that I enjoy playing, all of which can use troops based identically. Most played at the club at the moment are the Battlegroup Panzergrenadier rules from Caliver Books (review here) and we sometimes still play the PBI II rules from Peter Pig which were very much a craze last year. Personally I am extremely fond ofthe Blitzkrieg Commander rules and I have played and enjoyed Battlefront WWII on occcasion.

Over the past year or two I've been mainly concentrating on the Normandy campaign of 1944, a favourite of mine as I have spent several long summer holidays in the area. I have forces for this period from 11th Armoured Division and 6th Airbourne. These forces are not yet complete of course and I've just placed an order for over £100 of stuff (mainly Para Jeeps and Shermans) with Peter Pig which should be ariving next week. What a sensible time to revive the desert stuff.

I didn't really need to buy anything new for the desert, though I did splash out on a couple of the rather lovely 2pdr Portees from Flames of War at Cannonade and since then I've bought some of their Engineers to add to my force.

I did decide to rebase my entire desert collection of about fifty vehicles and around a hundred infantry/artillery stands. Not that I'm putting them on different sized bases or anything, it's just that the way I'm doing bases nowadays just looks so much better than the way I did back when I started this project.

Anyway here's some pictures of the stuff I finished off this week. The infantry and 2pdr are from Peter Pig, the small staff car from SDD. The terrain board was made by Kevan Gunn.

Currently sitting on my painting table getting rebased is a small force of Afrika Korps and I will put up some pictures of them next week sometime.

Cannonade 2006

2006-05-16T08:23:00.000Z

Had a fun day on Saturday visiting Cannonade 2006, a wargames show run by Falkirk District Wargames Club. A new show this year it got off to an excellent start with a good range of display games, eight public participation games and over twenty trade stands laid out in two spacious halls at Forth Valley College in Falkirk. As you can see from my pictures below there was a wide range of historical games on show and, much less important as far as I am concerned, a smattering of fantasy and science fiction.

Panoply of Glory: Display game from Phil's Wargames Cabinet.

The Alamo: Demo game by Dingwall Wargames Club.

Back of Beyond: Demo game from Kirriemuir Wargames Club

Lord of the Rings: Games Workshop presented a public participation game featuring the White Council attacking the Necromancer at Dol Gulder. It kept my son Duncan (front in green and white shirt) busy for just over three hours giving me plenty of time to wander round the show, look at the games and trade stands and meet old friends. Duncan was most pleased that one his characters, Glorfindel, manged to kill the Necromancer and win the game for the forces of good.

Ben Hur: Public participation chariot racing from the South East Scotland Wargames Club. This game has being doing the rtounds of the shows for about as long as I can remember, but it still always manages to draw a crowd.

Bannockburn: Display game by Dunfermline Wargames Club.

Operation Flax, April 1943: With the Mediterranean Sea firmly under Allied control the Germans attempt to keep Panzer Armee Afrika supplied by air. A public participation game by the Blue Bears.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles: A huge demonstration game from DWARF (Dunfermline Wargames and Roleplaying Fellowship). There must be several thousand pounds of lead and plastic on that table.

Maori Wars: British troops storm a Maori Pa. Participation game by Angus Wargames Club.

Belgrade 1717: Turks fight Austrians in this Demo game by Glasgow and District Wargames Club.

Mordheim: Participation game by Stirling Wargamers.

Battle of Worcester: Demo game from Dumfries Wargaming Club.

Bloody Omaha; A participation game by RAF Leuchars Wargames Club based on the opening scenes of the film Saving Private Ryan.

Welcome to France

Up the beach

Through the Wire

And on to the target bunker

Both Duncan and I were awarded medals for destroying the bunker. Job well done! Shame the chocolate was two years old and came with an official health warning.

All in all a grand day out and it certainly rekindled my enthusiasm for all things wargaming. It's good to see another big show here in Scotland and it was just fantastic for an event in its first year. Claymore had better look to its laurels as "Scotland's premier wargames show".

Many thanks to all the organisers.