Waltzing Matilda (2)

 

It's been a while, certainly. Rather than dwell on that though, I have a new model for you: the Airfix Matilda 2 kit from the 70s in its original packaging. A wonderful Christmas present, thank you, family.

I was a little tempted to leave it pristine in its packaging, but the entire purpose of a toy is to be played with.

What I've let myself in for

A whole 5 models complete! 4 of them weren't painted before lockdown!

 

I'm sure like many of you, my initial optimism about the effect of lockdown on my plastic pile has faded. Not only does painting time still seem hard to make, but self-medicating my mental health by buying models has made things even worse. So, some months before the publication of this update, I found myself needing to paint a dozen knights and two cannon in time for the Clash of Kings in October.

Catching Up with the Painting

As I write this paragraph, five more Italian infantry (for the surprise bonus extra squad in Chain of Command) are out in the garden being spray-varnished. Having already added the Bushwhacker and Churchill tank (see below dear reader), I realised that I really needed to hurry up and get this post out of the door before my painting progress made it longer than an undergraduate dissertation.

The last two plastic 'Mechs from my Lance Pack (of four)

Lockdown Labours

"Oh yes," I thought, "spending all my free time indoors I'll get plenty of painting and blogging done!" Har har har. Not only have I been dabbling in the videoed-games, the family clear-out of the lego (it's not like there's much else to do round here...) has occupied rather a lot of "model time". 

About half the lego in our mysterious boxes is now clogging up the dining room table. We didn't originally own the pirate ship, it came in bits in a box of lego some acquaintances were giving away.

Buon Natale!

5 minutes research online informs me that this is the Italian version of "Merry Christmas" and thus a fitting opener for the following battle report. Apologies for the appalling photo quality.

Billy surveys his Jump-off Points (in a triangle on the left) and plans how best to approach mine (spread along the opposite table edge). 

Achtung Bagpiper!

20 mm Bagpiper (Britannia miniatures, sadly lacking kilt) with some fine brushwork on the tartan.

I wanted to get a figure, rather than a counter, to indicate force morale on the Chain-of-Command tracker (The Afrika Korps already have some surrendering chaps for this purpose) so I have a bagpiper. It only really works for Scottish units, but as the 51st Highland were at El-Alamein and the 15th Scots were in Normandy, that's the two theatres I have campaign packs for covered.

Some of these aren't technically tanks

Universal carriers: Spot the difference.

Note: universal carriers, not having a turret, are not tanks and therefore part of a balanced model painting diet. Which means the tanks and armoured cars to follow are entirely justified.

Tanks Again!

My mental health hasn't been great lately. This means plenty of models have been bought as retail therapy and painted in my secluded underground lair so there is plenty of content for the blog. Every cloud eh?

Airfix 1/76 T-34, assembled by my uncle, painted by me. During painting I gummed up the joint so unfortunately the gun doesn't elevate any more.

Tank Politics

Local miniature painter saves £££ time with this one simple trick! Don't bother painting camouflage on tanks, just do one colour. In all seriousness though, the Caunter Stuart has been in the "to do" draw for months and I've only just finished it, but the Valentines I bought last month have had the final layer of varnish on within weeks.

Non-binary pride Stuart (left, Plastic Soldier Company) and asexual pride Valentine (Right, Armourfast).

Warning: Small Pics Ahead

My current camera setup (mobile phone camera and sun/room light), while delightfully cheap, certainly has limitations when trying to capture smaller models or group shots. It doesn't help that I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, I have recently discovered *new features* on the phone cam which will grace future updates...

The 2 mm tanks now based on 20 mm round washers. Not done much else in this scale, but I have the models, just need to get the paint on them.

In Which Suzanne is Over-Agressive

I absolutely promise that this battle report will not contain any crowing about my tactical genius, charismatic leadership, coolness under fire etc. Nor will it include any cheap shots at Suzanne's gaming skills.

Well, maybe just a few....

Slaves to Dorkness

I think my favourite strategy for getting stuff painted is to have four or five projects on the painting table at once, so that the desire to avoid painting one of them spurs you to paint another. Here is a case in point, I've started re-painting my chaos warriors (the first models I ever owned) for use in a future Kings of War army.

Re-painted Chaos warriors, now back in bold, bright colours with little regard for artistic coherence. Just as they should be. Flash used.

Cretan Holiday

I recently received a fan-mail from mrs_trellis@northwales.com asking me when my coverage of the Four Foot Snake Thing will be uploaded here. This post is something of a reply.

I've been  getting very CoC-ky with my posts lately.

Unusually Timely Update

Some of you on social media will already have seen the new tank, unless I've been buried in the algorithms.

Another example of my unusual vehicle marking conventions: British white-red-white vertical stripes square converted into trans pride flag.

Scenary and Storage Solutions

Preparation for my Easter gaming sesh continue apace. By the time I started writing this update, I will had already finished some of the models shown in progress here.

Various British support options arranged amongst scratch-built houses. L-R: Vickers machine gun, 2" mortar , barbed wire and sniper team.

Not Everything is Finished

I recently realised that most of my posts lately have featured fully painted and based models, so today's update is all about the things I have on the go. To start this off I present my finished British infantry platoon for North Africa. Wait a moment...

British infantry platoon for Chain of Command, airfix (old H0-00 and newer 1/72) Desert Rats and Grubby Tanks (both 20 mm ranges). The scale isn't perfect but it does allow variety in the poses.

CoK Loot and Plans for Next Year

A morose air hung over the camp after the tournament. Two figures sat by a campfire, one a human with both arms in enormous plaster casts and the other a great beast-man with a bandaged lump on his head as large as an extra horn. One turned to the other and said: 

"It's no good. Next time we're going to have bring a competitive army list."

Gaming paraphernalia freebies. Tape measure not included as I'd lost it down the sofa by this point. 

Chain of Command Part 2: The Best of Times, The Wurst of Times

Again, no apologies will be made for the pun.

Game 1 ends, for details read below!

I started my summer hols on Saturday with a CoC wargaming weekend with Suzanne, where we finished our last game and had time for another, both of which are recorded here. I never take that many photos when playing, I get too caught up in the excitement.

We left off last time at an exciting juncture,with my platoon sergeant holed up in the woods on his last command initiative accompanied by the remains of first section and the rest of the men sitting tight in a field after a very successful round of hand-to-hand combat. The Germans were down to two effective squads, with one boldly leaving cover to get into a close range firefight and the other working their way around the hill near the British Jump Off Point.

StuG Life

Markings are entirely fictitious to remind people that wargaming isn't real.

I didn't chose the StuG life etc. etc.

Biege for the Biege God!

Today's blog post is brought to you by Bad Squiddo Games, purveyors of fine teas and witticisms. Oh yeah, the models aren't bad either.

Recently ordered some dry-looking tufts to adorn my Western Desert bases.