Modified Vintage 20mil Naps Complete

At last, my 2nd Burgos Regiment is finished, this was quite a long job given the amount of modifications made as covered in earlier posts.  That said I'm rather chuffed with how they turned out so now it's time for their curtain call:

First, the regiment in line, accompanied by a previously painted Major General.

Then some drill practise in formations less used by my Spanish troops, such as attack column[1] ...

... and square (I have a habit of relying on musketry to stop cavalry).

And, finally a close up of the command group.

Notes:

[1.]  In this photo an interloper can be seen behind the general - this was the test figure I did first just to be sure I could pull off the conversions before beheading an entire unit's worth of figures.  When I did the unit's rank and file, I did an entire unit's worth in case one of the conversions failed - they all worked so he's now a handy spare.

Figure Mods - another WiP Update

While the rank and file were held up waiting for new drill bits the trial figure was finished and the command figures painted, only their gloss varnish to do now.

First, the trial figure.

The Officer (not my favourite).

The Drummer (my favourite).

And finally, the standard bearer - you'll be able to see how 'impressionistic' (messy?) the painting is in gory detail in the close up if you click on the photo.

The rank and file have all now been re-headed and are being painted, so hopefully not too long now.

Figure Mods - a WiP Update

The last post which outlined some ambitious figure conversions to make a round-hatted unit of 20mil Napoleonic Spanish Fusiliers seemed to spark some interest.  So, while progress is slow, I thought I'd post an update, mainly to try and keep my conversion mojo ticking along.

First, the test figure, which has now been blocked in with the intended paint scheme.

Getting some paint on him has shown I need to be a little less generous with the 5SecondFix for the trousers and do a better job smoothing them off.  Also, I think a quick bit of greenstuff around the neck to make a more prominent collar will help.  That said, I'm pleased with the colours, the first blue (Humbrol 89) was too light so I gave it a wash of thinned down mid-blue (Humbrol 25) and got exactly the colour I was looking for to match based on an illustration in an Osprey[1].  I will probably highlight with the original light blue colour but I need to attend to the black lining first.

The rest of the figures, head donors and recipients, have all now been through the bleach-bath and had their paint cleaned off and the British revolutionary grenadiers (BRGs for short) have been cleaned up and had their 'wings' removed.  

Today has focussed on the command figures; officer, ensign and drummer.  These are all being worked up from HH (recasts?) BRG command figures.  

First the drummer.  I have no BRG drummer, so have used a sergeant figure and removed his head and arms, the latter in order to fit the arms and drum from a Napoleonic British fusilier drummer - see below.

You will notice his loins have been hollowed out to fit the drum which will be glued in once the greenstuff repairs to the drum and shoulder strap added to the figure (no photo) have cured.  The arms will them be soldered in place at the shoulders for a strong joint, he will also a round-hatted head like the rank and file.

The officers are BRG officer figures, one waving his sword being converted to a standard bearer and the other will be marching as is with his sword at the shoulder, as shown below.

The ensign has had a blob of solder added that will be filed down to create the 'bucket' that the flagstaff is placed in; the shoulder belt from which it is suspended will be added with greenstuff.

As officers I don't want these figures in round hats, so I took one of the spare BRG heads and cut the bearskin down before adding a cocked hat from solder - shown between the two figures in the photo above.  This took several attempts before I could get the solder blob to vaguely resemble the over-sized cocked hats favoured by the Spanish.  This was then followed by lots, and lots, of careful filing, a real chore but the end result is worth it (IMO).  I intend using this head for the commanding officer but haven't yet decided what to do for the ensign ...

... watch this space.

Notes:

[1.]  Man at Arms 332, Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars Part 2 1808-1812, Plate G1.  I would put in a picture but again I'm not about the copyright position for doing this. 

Old-School Ancients Top-Up Complete

I managed a bit of a push last week and today I finished off the last of the figures needed to bring some very old, old-school, units up to strength i.e., enough to occupy a 6" grid square.  In this case it was a couple of units of Successor pike.  I only had 16 in each unit plus 11 spare painted figures (5 of one unit and 6 of the other) so I needed another 21 to bring the two units up to 32 figures each.

And here they are, with the newly painted-to-match figures based up with the painted spares.

I am rather pleased with how difficult it is to tell the new from the old.  The best way to tell is to look at the hands grasping the pikes, if both hands completely enclose the pike, then it's a newly painted figure (I like to make the figures' weapons really secure).

Posed together with the old based-up figures, they make much better-looking units - bigger is always better with pike blocks. 

If anyone is interested the older bases are on the outer flank of each block.  I had trouble sorting them when taking the photos but finally realised I just needed to look underneath; the older bases have white steel paper underneath whereas those just based have black ferro-sheet.

Conington Contraband

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.2014!]

The shocking age of this article explains the appalling photographs and the rather basic terrain on show with chalk roads and outlines to the woods.

This Table-top Teaser was designed give my new scratch-built houses a baptism of fire under Brig. Young’s CHARGE! rules.  It was also an experiment on adding in the roll-of-shot stick and templates for canister and howitzer shells from C S Grant’s ‘The Wargame’. 

The Scenario: involves a government force dispatched by the Elector to locate and seize contraband defended by a rebel militia supported by a small expeditionary force from a foreign, ‘francophone’, power.  Spies in the service of the Elector have reported that the rebel war-chest and records have been moved to Conington; their capture would deny the rebellion badly needed funds and provide the Electoral forces with an intelligence wind-fall.  Scouting patrols indicate the location is not well guarded and a rapid strike by a small force could get in and out before the main rebel army could respond.   To this end the Elector commanded Oberst Franz Schmidt to take a brigade of infantry, with attached cavalry and artillery, and seize any, and all, contraband in Conington, but with strict orders to return to camp before nightfall (i.e. a time limit of 15 moves within which to find the contraband – the return march is not played).  The contraband is in Conington but its precise location is unknown, therefore each house must be entered and searched.   To search a house, after any enemy have been ejected, requires 4 figures and takes a full turn.  A D6 is thrown to determine if the contraband is found; a ’6’ is required for success in the first house searched and the score reduces by one for each subsequent house searched (a house can only be searched once).  Because there are only five houses in Conington (see map below) there is a small chance that it will never be found; in which case, it was either never there or was conveyed to safety by the rebels.   

Oberst Schmidt’s brigade (organised for CHARGE!) can deploy anywhere within the area marked ‘A’ on the map (8x5 ft) and takes the first move and consists of:

• 4 Coy.s Arberg Inf. Regt. (80 fig.s)
• 4 Coy.s Diesbach Inf. Regt. (80 fig.s)
• 2 Sqn.s Hohenzollern Dragoons (20 fig.s)
• 1 Artillery btty, (2 x 6 pdrs; 1 x 5” howitzer)

The rebel force, under Chevalier Pierre Réverie, may deploy anywhere in or north of the southernmost woods and consists of:

• 2 Coy.s of Rebel Militia (33 fig.s)
• 2 Coy.s of French Militia (33 fig.s)
• 2 Coy.s Grassins Light Inf. (33 fig.s)
• ½ Sqn. Fischer Chasseurs Cav. (5 fig.s)
• 1 Foreign Cannon (6 pdr)

The rebel force is actually weaker than the Electoral forces believe as one of the foot companies only exists in their imagination.  The rebel player secretly determines which company is only a decoy by rolling a D6: 1= Rebel Militia; 2-3 = French Militia; 4-6 = Grassins.   The decoy unit is deployed like any other but is removed once it would be visible to Electoral troops. 

Special rules: the rebel militia are allowed to skirmish like light troops but at half effect, i.e. only every second figure can fire.  Also, on each turn the rebels throw a D6 and if a ‘6’ is rolled any dead rebel militia figures may enter as a new unit through one of the zones labelled ‘X’ on the map.  To re-enter the militia casualties must include an officer or NCO to lead them.

The Game: started with rebel militia occupying the farmhouse at Dawes Lot and the wood immediately south of it (1 on map) while the wood to the north held a Grassins company (2).  The Fischer chasseurs waited further north (3) with the Grassins in the wood behind them (4).  The Chevalier posted the French militia companies in the town of Conington (no doubt to show off my new houses)...

...and set up his artillery piece to fire down the road approaching Conington (5).

The Chevalier's deployment was bold, but risky, as the Grassins in the wood by Prescott House (2) were only a decoy leaving the approach through woods to west of the Conington road unguarded.  However, the gamble paid off as the Electoral forces massed their forces along the road and against the militia in and around Dawes Lot (see photo, NB: house shell has been placed alongside the internal ruins to show the garrison within).  

To cut, what could be, a very long story short, the Electoral forces after taking Dawes Lot realised advancing on such a narrow front would take too long. Instead, orders were issued to advance on a wide front through woods on both sides of the road to exploit their superior numbers and swamp the defenders.  

In the preceding photo, the furthest wood on the left can now be seen to be occupied by local militia.  The approach on a wide front by Herr Oberst's men meant that they had clocked that the rumour of Grassins in the that wood was just that, a rumour, as the figures were removed.  The rebels were then lucky enough to roll a '6' and 'resurrect' the militia lost at Dawes Lot to oppose this line of approach.  

The change in approach by the Electoral troops proved the turning point as each line of defence was overwhelmed in turn.  Despite this, time was running short when the Electoral troops reached Conington and started storming the houses in search of contraband.  As the fifteenth move arrived a fourth house had just been seized but the church remained untaken (again house 'shells' have been placed next to their internal 'ruin' in the photo).  

Then, as the recall was sounded, Schmidt heaved a sigh of relief as the last house search ‘located’ the contraband.  Success had been snatched from the jaws of failure and the lack of progress in the early turns would go unnoticed in the warm glow of victory.

The game turned out to be a nail-biter and the houses proved functional and looked the part.  The artillery experiment was not a success, as we both found the devices too unwieldy despite the entertainment afforded by a randomised howitzer shell landing on friendly troops.  

PS: I never took any photos of the round shot bounce stick during the game, but it can be seen in the final photo of an earlier post entitled 'Tool Time'.  It is the stick at the top of the photo and alongside it can be seen the die with faces coloured to match the white, yellow and green bounce zones that determines where casualties will be inflicted.

Old-School Ancients - limping along

Still not at my best but managed to make myself base up the figures I had painted before.  This time it's more mounted figures:

An extra base of Hincliffe Companions with shield (plus a head-swap from the Macedonian Pikeman in the same range).  The new base is on the right in the photos.

An extra base of Persian (Cappadocians?) extra-heavy cavalry; the new base is again on the right and easily identified by the 'leader' figure (a Hinchliffe Belisarius figure with a head-swap from another Persian cavalryman).

And finally, the camels.  I had a bit of a senior moment here as looking at the DBM rules for troop types I saw there was no light camelry type so I intended to make them all ordinary Camelry.  Then, after painting enough figures (3) to bring the numbers up to be enough for four 3-figure bases, I found light, scouting, camels are actually listed under Light Horse...     D'oh!

What's more, I forgot when basing them to put them at angles that allowed the heads, which project beyond the base, of a second rank to go between the camels of a front rank.  I guess that's what comes of doing it when under the weather but I doubt they'll be in more than one rank very often and certainly it won't matter if fighting on a grid which was the main reason for this whole topping up exercise (see the earlier post). 

As I thought I was going to have to re-base all my camels I had removed them from their bases, so in the photos, the newer figures are mixed in with some of the old so I've marked them with arrows.

As with the Persian cavalry I added a leader figure - a Palmyran Heavy Camelman with some additional, green-stuff, hair.

PS: My shielded Companions already had a leader figure which is why they didn't get one added in this batch.

Stringbags vs Bismarck - a Fletcher-Pratt Game

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.2017.]

Again, a bit of ill-health has killed my painting mojo, meaning that topping up the Old-School 25mm Ancients has temporarily come to a halt.  So, taking a leaf from last time I thought I'd knock up a quick post on the next fight in the Bismarck campaign; Ark Royal's strike.  

Unfortunately for this game I was captaining Bismarck and forgot to take photos so I only have a few small thumbnail images that one of the Swordfish players took on their phone.  

As I didn't like the rules for aircraft in Fletcher-Pratt (F-P) I made up my own.  First was the Swordfish movement, the options being shown in the grey box at the top of the play-sheet.

The planes move three times each turn and write their orders by drawing three arrows picked from the options at the top of the sheet.  Essentially, each move segment is a straight line of about 15" (NB: scale is ½" per knot) using one of the arrows with an optional 90° turn to left or right at the beginning, or end, of the move.   This was done to stop the aircraft outmanoeuvring Bismarck too easily.  I made cardboard templates for these move segments to speed play.

The torpedoes were played as per F-P, as was Bismarck except its movement (in only two segments) and its anti-aircraft fire.  For the latter I pinched the approach used in Wings of War as follows:

1). At the beginning of each Swordfish move segment, Bismarck places a number of small flak bursts, about 2" in diameter for its smaller calibre rapid firing guns.  If any Swordfish ends its move with its base overlapping a burst it tests for damage.

2). Bismarck also places a number of much larger, heavier, flak bursts, about 5" in diameter, that remain in place for all three Swordfish move segments but are only active in the second two segments.

So, with these simple rules in place the game cracked on at quite a good pace.  At first, I found avoiding the torpedoes, which were not much faster than Bismarck, quite easy to avoid and no doubt started to get a bit cocky.

But then I got confused about how my own move sequence worked and thought I could quickly cut across the path of some incoming torpedoes.  This was a catastrophic mistake!

What was more, the torpedo struck the stern while I was turning to port.

A quick die roll was called for to test for damage, and the result?  You guessed it, the rudder jammed - just like the real thing.  So, for the rest of the campaign Bismarck would have to perform a port turn at the start of its move and another free turn at the mid-way point.      

And, to rub it in, only one Swordfish got damaged; none were shot down.

So, the next action will be Vian's night attack with the Destroyers, HMS Cossack, Sikh, Zulu and Maori, and the ORP Piorun (Polish).

Old-School 25mm Ancients - WiP

The next batch of 25mm Ancients in my topping off process is complete, and are presented here for the record.

These hoplites were all based, repaired and touched up, including a flesh-wash.  These give me enough, when deployed in two ranks, to occupy three 6" squares, and thus give me three more units.  The lefthand 'green unit' were, like the bowmen in the previous post, inherited from a friend but were one figure short of four bases worth.  I only had to paint one extra to match in, the newbie is in the rear rank of the photo below.

Of the other 32 Hoplites, the rank and file, were recently bought ready-painted from eBay during this 'topping-off' process as I thought their painting style was a good match for the 'green unit.  I must stop calling them the 'green unit' as they were clearly intended to be Thebans with their shield emblazoned with the club of Herakles.

What the dolphin on the shields of the hoplites bought on eBay implies is unknown (to me anyway).  This eBay lot had enough hoplites for two units when I added some my friend's command figures - they were in his phalanx units but I don't like the array of pikes broken up by command figures so had been sitting around unused for some time.  The painting styles were a good match and, apart from re-touching, I only added black lining and dolphins to the command figures for them to blend in rather well.

So next, are one base worth's of figures each for Persian armoured cavalry, Companion cavalry (with shields) and Arab camelry ... but I have been distracted down a rabbit-hole so these might not be done as soon as I'd like - see the next post to find out more on this.

Topping Up Old Ancients - WiP

Been a bit unwell lately, nothing serious, so progress has been slow.  Nonetheless, there has been some progress on rounding off my old (1970s), 25mm ancient army - the oldest wargame figures I have retained from my earlier years.  This is an overwhelmingly Hinchliffe collection that started off as Alexandrian but very quickly got bent to a Seleucid force.  After all, who can resist war elephants, scythed chariots and camels!  

The first in the batch were some Syrian / Babylonian bowmen.

These were already painted and based as inherited from an old friend.  Back in the day they were useful for rounding out WRG armies as they were Irregular D and only cost a point each.  All I had to do with these, was add ferro sheet under the bases so they would be secure in my magnetised transit boxes and then texture and paint the bases to match the rest of my collection.  I've kept the figures gloss in memory of my friend whose army was a nice shiny one, but I did just do a quick brown wash on their faces.

While the bowmen above were done to complete the refurbishment of my friend's figures the rest of the batch was all about rounding out existing units to better match the rules I use.  My figures have been used with WRG (5th Ed. IIRC) through to DBM while also stepping outside the 'WRG' world with sets ranging from Ian Beck's 'Shock of Impact' to Simon Miller's 'To the Strongest'.  While I like the simplicity of the DBx rules I have always found the movement frustratingly pernickety.  In contrast I like the grid movement in 'TtS' but find the combat fairly bland.  Clearly, it's possible to have the best of both worlds - DBx on a grid and now I have some nice battle mats with 6" crosshairs on which to do my gridded games.

Using a 6" gird means having even numbers of bases in a unit it requires two DBx bases (6cm wide) to fill the square.  Needless to say, I have odd numbers of many troop types in my armies!  Hence the desire to knock up an extra base for some of these BUT ... being a bit OCD, the issue is making sure the additional elements match my painting from many decades ago.  

First, some Thracian cavalry, both new and old (three of each) - hopefully it's not too easy to spot the differences.

The leading base of figures are easily identified as new as I couldn't resist a quick head-swap and added shield to create a 'leader' for the group.  The reason there are not one, but three, new bases of Thracian cavalry is simply because I had eight of these already cleaned and primed in my spares box.  They were also already attached to their horses, so I painted them while mounted, not something I usually do and will try to avoid in future.

Next, a base of Numidian cavalry, with an old one for comparison - again a pretty good match (IMO).

Others in this current batch are an element each of some Cappadocian extra-heavy cavalry, Companion cavalry with shields, Arab camelry and the retouching and rebasing of 48 Successor phalangites and 36 Hoplites.  I shall be busy for a little while yet - the scale of the challenge can be seen by all the bases awaiting their figures in this photo.

Atlantic Breakout ... a Fletcher-Pratt Wargame

[Pre-Cabinette Archives c.2017.]

Fighting the naval battles of World War 2 has a certain nostalgia as one of my first wargames, using rules rather than marbles, was the Battle of the Java Sea.  I fought this out many times on my bedroom floor about half a century ago using ship-shaped pieces of balsa wood painted grey for the fleets and rules by Arthur Taylor.  

The rules used some simple calculations to determine the number of hits and playing cards to determine the effect.  As far as I can recall at this distance in time, the games were dominated by the Japanese Long Lance torpedo for which I tweaked the rules as all torpedoes were treated equally.  Clearly, I’ve always felt the need to tinker with other people’s rules to match my perception of how a battle should play out.

The inspiration for the choice of battle, and the efficacy of Japanese torpedoes, was my cherished copy of the Pan paperback on the battle.

However, since those days I’ve tended to wargame earlier periods with shorter range weapons to avoid using either, vanishingly small ship models or, massively out of scale gunnery ranges.  Nowadays, I have lots more books to inspire my rule-tinkering, and among them was one that rekindled those distant memories of naval actions fought out on my hands and knees.  The book in question is the John Curry re-print of the Fletcher-Pratt naval wargame rules.  A fun read was all I thought it would ever be as I lacked the requisite ‘ballroom’ to recreate the original style of play.  

About nine years ago this all changed when, seeking to play more games, I joined a local modelling club that also included a couple of keen wargamers.  One club night, when getting a cuppa from the kitchen behind the local Baptist church where we met, I realised that at the end of the corridor was a church hall!  A quick enquiry confirmed we were allowed to use it.  So, seizing the moment I bought several 1:1200 warship kits from eBay and set about painting up sufficient for the Battle of Denmark Strait.  The choice of scale was influenced by the size of the hall and cost; the choice of engagement by kit availability in 1:1200 and the number of ships required, i.e. only four: Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, Hood and Prince of Wales (you'll see Norfolk and Suffolk have also sneaked in as I enjoyed making the kits so much I couldn't resistthem).  

With only a few hours available during an evening club session I decided I would streamline the rules and act umpire; umpires are an integral part of the original Fletcher-Pratt games.  I chose to ignore secondary armament as largely irrelevant during this action and only allowed the Prinz Eugen to use torpedoes as capital ship torpedo action was such a rarity, although ironically Bismarck is the only battleship hit by a torpedo from another battleship (HMS Rodney).  To speed the game, I prepared quick-play and record sheets, including a look-up chart of damage inflicted by up to four hits, penetrating and non-penetrating, to save on the mental maths required.

To suit the floor-space available, a scale of 1 inch equals 120 yard was selected and all movement, ranges, etc. on the QPS were converted into inches.  This scale means that shooting ranges are only 3.6 times shorter than the true scale distance for 1:1200 ships.  Now for the inevitable rule tinkering; a special rule was added to allow the Hood to be blown up as the rules do not allow for critical hits.  The rule was that if Bismarck scored a hit directly over the main magazines at range where the fire is plunging (greater than 13ft 6”, ~19,400yds) then the magazines would explode.  The main magazines, for game purposes, were ruled to extend as far as the main turrets but exclude the turrets themselves, i.e. the area outlined in red in the accompanying photo. 

The photo shows the Hood’s rear turrets but a similar area applied around the forward turrets.  The area is only 2.5cm long by 1.5–2cm wide, with cut-outs for the turrets, so is not easy to hit by guessing ranges from more than 13 feet away (Fletcher-Pratt gunnery rules require players to estimate the range to the target with the umpire measuring and marking fall of shot using golf tees).  

Another rule was introduced to represent the problems the Prince of Wales experienced with her main armament that resulted in her firing around half the number of rounds that she should have.  To represent this a random list of which guns jammed on which turn was used by the umpire to discount hits from ‘jammed’ rounds.

The game was set up to represent the historical engagement at the point just before the ships came within effective range (max. range was limited to 26,000 yards).  The rough plan below which I used for the game shows the hall floor area as a rectangle (broken line).

The players quickly got the hang of the simplified rules after a couple of turns: ½” per knot and a turn of up to 45° at the start and half-way point of the move, and firing by guessing the range.  The battle played out well and realistically or at least in agreement with the history books.  The British, after opening fire when out of range, steered towards the Germans to rapidly close the range so the Hood could avoid the risk from long range plunging fire against her weak deck armour.  This meant that only the forward guns of the British ships could bear on the enemy while both sides tried find the correct range; I ruled that ships must fire ranging ladder salvoes (with half their guns) until they achieved a straddle at which point they could switch to firing full broadsides.  Bizarrely, exactly as in 1941, the British ships initially concentrated their fire on Prinz Eugen for several turns before switching to Bismarck; why, I didn’t ask, not wanting to spoil the historical coincidence.  Then disaster struck, a ranging ladder from Bismarck plunged into Hood’s rear magazine and she was engulfed in a massive explosion. 

This was a shocking fluke as Bismarck hadn’t even found the range yet, and never landed another hit for the rest of the engagement.  The British were stunned but undeterred Prince of Wales gallantly pressed on and manoeuvred to open her arcs to bring her rear turret to bear.

She also started to dramatically vary her speed and course to throw off the aim of the German ships.  This worked well against Bismarck who consistently failed to land a hit, but Prinz Eugen coped better and at one point landed the best salvo of the game (3 hits).  

The radical changes in course and speed by the Prince of Wales also threw her own gunnery off to some extent but she still registered several hits on Bismarck and was lucky in having none of the ‘hits’ discounted as coming from one of her randomly jammed guns.

Time finally brought the combat to close as the club session ended and it was decided that the engagement was broken off at this point with Prince of Wales withdrawing while the Germans pressed on into the Atlantic.  All in all, a satisfactory refight, with all ships suffering the fate of their historical counterparts; the exception being the Prince of Wales who escaped lightly as Prinz Eugen’s guns could not fully make up for Bismarck’s appalling gunnery.  

So, with the Bismarck on the loose in the Atlantic other games were planned for the rest of Unternehmen Rheinübung: the night attack by Commodore Vian’s destroyer flotilla; the Ark Royal Swordfish strike; and, the final showdown with the King George V and Rodney (bodged up from a KGV and Iowa kit).  But those stories are for another day.