28mm Desert Arab Revolt

Hello There! Here are a few pictures of another game at the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers. Peter brought his collection along, which is also painted by him, complete with various vehicles. I was unable to stay so cannot provide and AAR but the figures and vehicles are great to look at.

This view is of some scratch built trenches I use for my 'Bir Hacheim' game. Equally suitable for 28mm figures they were the reason I started to make a range of resin trenches. E mail me for details if you are interested, (Stephen.tunmore@hotmail.co.uk).

Peters collection really is splendid and further pictures can be found here.

28mm Spanish Napoleonic Forces

Hello There! As mentioned in other posts I have been photographing some club members 28mm Spanish Napoleonic collections. This has led to me accumulating a large collection of photos, many of which may well not see the light of day in the WSS feature.

I will show you a few of them here then add more when the feature is published and it is clearer what has not been used.

Here is a mixture of units from the collection of Steve Mesmer and painted by Lee Abbott.

Windmill

Hello There! On a short visit to the wargames club I spotted a windmill I had completed for the club as a commission. I had not seen it for a while so took some snaps for this blog.

All scratchbuilt using plasticard for the roof and walls and the sails came from Warbases after I provided some dimensions. I found this company very helpful and reasonable on price for a bespoke item. The rest of the sails are covered with tissue soaked in thinned PVA and tied in place with thread.

Medieval Bash

Hello there! While taking photos for a forthcoming feature in WSS magazine I took a few pictures of the game also going on that night.

I am not personally into this period but I did like the Bombard and the array of flags marching across the table really caught the eye.

The club member who owns this collection does not make the club often but after seeing these we wish he could make it more often!

Further pictures are on the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers facebook page here

The Other Partizan 2019

Hello There! After illness and Summer holidays I have now returned to wargaming and this blog.

I have had the photographs from the Other Partizan sitting on my camera for a while now and here they are! There seems to be a mad rush from bloggers to get their pictures from shows out as quickly a possible. Indeed I have seem pictures out on the same evening, which takes some doing!

Here I have tried to improve the depth of field of these photographs so the original pics are taken from more of a distance and then crop in close for some detailed shots. I hope that has worked out! 

The Gothenburg Gamers had a slightly different subject in the Bay of Pigs. The abortive raid on Cuba concerning the USSR's attempt to station ICBMs close to the American shore. This was not tolerated by the Americans as it reduced the time they had to react to any launches and they then entered into a game of bluff with the Russians as to how they were going to deal with this. The Bay of Pigs was abortive but the Russians backed down as they removed the missiles.

The figures were of a basic wargames level but the aircraft were a refreshing change. The scenery used a gaming mat which is a triumph of practicality, (and business success)  judging by the number I have seen used recently! They have something to offer in the world of scenery but I feel that you cannot beat three dimensional terrain boards, however the practicality of storage afterwards obviously beat three dimensional terrain!

Next up the Claymore Castings offering in 28mm. This represented the battle of Harlaw in 1411. A  very good description of the background of the battle is given here on YouTube.

It was a game in 28mm and again used a gaming mat. The figures were very well done and although this period is dominated by chain mail and armour it still looked very good.

The thing that drew my eye was the dwelling shown here. It was a multipart building. It had a good representation of thatch and appeared to be in resin. The stone work was also particularly well done.

This picture of  one small unit is typical of tyhe figures that covered the whole table.

Here is a game which I believe I have taken a number of pictures before The Phat Cats are based in Leicester and as far as I can remember they put on a smaller game than usual.

Next up is a game of Cruel Seas which has swept many wargames clubs across the country, including New Buckenham Historical Wargames Club. I found the rules suitable for  an evening game which involved a large number of club members and considering that only one person knew the rules they were easy to pick up.

I liked the ground based models whichgame the ships something to avoid!

Next up the  Battle of Madonna Dell Olmo, in Italy 1744.

With signs on the board to show viewers who was who.

The figures were very well painted considering some of them are 20 years old.

Next is Steve Jones putting on an AWI game. His blog is here. I have checked out Steves blog regularly and have always wanted to get into the AWI but have never had the time.

Good buildings always get my attention and here are some civilians and fields  to give a good setting to the game.

The pictures speak for themselves and show the high quality that Steve produces.

The Spilsbury Clubmen produced a 28mm 'Torbruk' game based on the film of the same name. The game consisted of a number of small vignettes which made the game fun to look at closely.

The game overall had an almost pulp games theme with a number of missions being carried out. The scenery had a similar flavour.

I have a number of sdkfz 221, 222 and 223 variants in my 20mm collection. I liked seeing one of those here.

This small attack made a nice vignette.

Getting down to figure eye level gave you a good impression of the overall game.

The Boondock Sayntes  had a pulp theme game with a mixture of individually based well painted figures. With a number of 'missions' going on This Afghan Wars 1920's game had a lot to look at.

The rock outcrops were large furniture cushions plucked to shape. I feel a little more could have been done with these to make them more realistic and even produces clear pathways for figures.

Here is a closer look at the characters at the top of the building.

A better view of some of the vehicles that took part.

A close up of one of the speciality vehicles with a good use of 'super trees' from the model railway world. A very good choice for the desert.

The De Havilland aircraft was a shot down 'leafletter' warning the tribesmen that they were going to get bombed tomorrow. Very sporting us British!

I have followed 'Like a Stone Wall' on their facebook page and the turn out consistently visually appealing games. This is their latest game, the Peleliu operation. Using a lot of fishtank plants and a number of hidden Japanese bunkers this was a fine game.

The Ancient British figures were lovely to look at on this game. There were many variations, as you can see and they stood up well to close ups as well.

I enjoyed the Roman fort as well which had some nice touches as well.

Using the 'Carry on up the Nile' rules Mahdist War. This is a fictitious battle but has a number of vignettes to look at. Lovely figures with a number of buildings which grab the attention, even from a distance.

I cannot remember who put this game on but I suspect that not many people will be putting this game on their blog due to the lack of visual WOW factor. Set in the Pacific the game was set on two separate boards as the two carrier groups did not otherwise meet.

This is a game set during 1798 during the Irish Rebellion. Called Wilson's Hospital

This was a very visually appealing game with plenty of well painted figures. I was able to take some photos from a distance which has allowed me to get some close cropped photos.

Here are some further AWI figures, some of which I was able to get some close pictures of.

The last here are Simon Millers offering. The table had a steep tilt to the board which was a different way to portray a hill. It also gave the photographer some chance to get some goods shots without have to crawl around the floor!