Further Book Purchases

Hello There! Whenever I visit a Wargaming show I usually find David Lanchester Books in attendance.

This year at Vapnartak was no different and I made a couple of purchases.

I have heard others talk about this first book. I contentious subject but after reading Nosworthy and his work about the Napoleonic Wars I am open to reconsidering my assumptions about the subject matter.

My first thought is that if a massive array of rifled muskets go off at once, the smoke created is not going to make any further aimed firing possible, unless it is a very windy day, of course. After all smokeless powder had not been invented yet.

I have a much older and decrepit version of these much newer copies and in three volumes are much easier to handle than a big hardback book.

Vapnartak Show Spoils

Hello There! Well another quick post with some pictures of new and forthcoming painting work.

First up, I have a few Allied tanks and other vehicles planned for North West Europe. I have done some research into the colours used and after experimenting with a few Vallejo paint mixes and browsing the AK website, I have taken the plunge and bought the above.

The paint sets cover Normandy and Late North Africa with a spare SCC15 as I feel I may need a lot of that!

The weathering powders are for the next group of tanks as after using some other shades on the Waterloo building recently I have decided to try them out on a few other things.

The tufts do make coving figure bases a lot quicker and add to the realism. I have used static grass manually placed into a dab of PVA glue, coconut fibre from a broom, sweet chestnut cases made to look like clumps of flowers and various items from the Woodland Scenics range of products in the past, and still do to add a variation to the foliage seen, but the above do save a lot of time as well. 

Although rather expensive, I also use the range of triad paints from Wargames Foundry. I purchased two different Confederate blues and greys, Prussian blue and a butternut, again for the Confederates.

ABC Brushes were also in attendance and I replaced some brushes previously purchased from them, which only started to give out after a long period of use. 

I also wanted to give the larger white handled brushes a go for dry brushing. I keep hearing reference to borrowing the girlfriends wake up brushes for this so will see how they perform.

Another pack of AB Miniatures, WW II desert Sikh troops. These are the usual very high standard from AB. I also caught a glimpse of Tony Barton on the stand. I was diverted to another stand and did not get back in time before he had departed. Shame as I would have loved to have a chat!

Wargames Foundry WW II desert DAK. I have used a couple of these packs in the past and wanted to recruit a few more German troops. I am still keeping the bulk of my Axis desert forces in the same proportions, nationality wise as the Italians made up to 80% of the Axis forces in that theatre.

And some Italians in the Colonial helmets. These are to go with the Mirleton troops I already have. 

To save getting a phase of the 'OOhhh Shiny@ syndrome I also went to the show with a list of what I needed and had preordered what I really needed to complete existing things and resisted and careless spur of the moment purchase decisions.

The day was very productive and we even left just after one pm after doing everything we wanted to, photographed some games and felt like we had been there a lot longer! 

Paints Table and Paint Storage

Hello There! I have seen how a number of painters keep 'control' of their painting table, (or not!), and thought I would post what I have done with mine.

These would all sit on a large lipped plastic tray. When the number of colours I had became unmanageable I separated the rows using strips of plywood. This then grew some more and the tray was not large enough!

I saw this laser cut MDF tray, which for the life of me I cannot remember where I purchased them from!, and clipped the standing ones together with bulldog clips on the back.

The Vallejo paints are in number order and I have become accustomed to the order they are in, although from another view the colours and shades of the same colours are spread through the entire range! 

The other products I use for painting are equally messy and I found some small boxes for sale in 'The Works' They are only in lightweight wood, (probably balsa), with a small clip on the front.

I used some different colours paints for each one and when I still could not find what I wanted quickly I then printed some labels off and encapsulated them and glued them to the boxes.

It took a little time but had saved far more time searching since.

Minster Gate Book Shop, York

Hello There! I have visited York a few times in the past and have always tried to visit the Minster Gate Bookshop.

The stock has varied considerable from year to year but always seems to have something of interest on their shelves. This year was a very good year!

I found that they had a number of plates and pictures on offer. After flicking through a number of trays I found this. As I am painting Front Rank French Napoleonic Legere at the moment, I took that as a good omen and rescued this plate. 

I have a couple of publications by James Holland so this was a nice surprise to find. Especially as his style of writing is easy to read.

I have seen this book used as a reference on a number of occasions, by other authoritative publications. This is the first time I have seen one available. Although I am not greatly interested in the sieges of this period I have listened to a few podcasts about them so thought I would pick this one up.

I have a few books on the Marshals of France and Marshal Ney has always been of interest to me.

I have heard that this has been a bit of a contentious volume in the past so I thought I would read this. So much of this battle and campaign has been related in a very Anglo centric way that I would like to see what this has to say.

My Grand father missed this debacle but was out in this theatre afterwards.

This is that last volume from Adkins that I wanted to purchase having already obtained Waterloo and Gettysburg.

This bookshop is certainly worth visiting if you are in the area.

Vapnartak 2025

Hello There! I have just returned from Vapnartak and had a lovely weekend out and about in York with my partner.

I was a great weekend and here are some quick posts about the weekend and some of the sites, and buys, there,

First the show. Unlike Partizan the show has some demonstration games and some for display. While the game quality is not up to Partizans standard there were a number of games that had been at The Other Partizan, from last year and looked splendid.

This 'Wings of War' games had a nice base mat for the ground which went well with the game. The players were also very welcoming.

This game was very well attended and had a number of players which did seem to move along quiet well. I liked the castle walls, which appeared to be foam board with block work etched into it.

I have a few large 28mm ships sitting in my store cupboards and this game reminded me I need to get them sorted!

Here is a close up of the castle walls. The cannon was obviously manhandled from the ship!

This 28mm game was certainly a different period of history for me but looked good on the table.

Close up it was possible t see these were 28mm Perrys plastic ACW cavalry, converted.

The Yarkshire Gamer also bought this magnificent set up from The Other Partizan.

This game, set in a snowy waste, looked good and there were some nice snow effects used.

I have been experimenting with different foliage for trees recently and I thought these trees could have benefitted from the seafoam I have been using recently.

Tucked in the corner of one of the sub floors was this 28mm AWI game which while it was good was in a position in the building with poor lighting making it difficult to get some good photos of it.

Another way of making trees for scenery can be seen here.

Lastly this spectacular D Day game in a very small scale.

This view reminded me of a feature in one of the very old wargames magazines from the '90's where 1/300th Normandy bocage scenery had been made for a large table. I must dig up that edition!

The water effect was very well modelled.

Overall a very nice day. We arrived at 10 am and while there was a long queue that went down very quickly indeed and was well stewarded.

I left at 1.30pm and felt like I had been there for hours!

Total Battle Miniatures: La Haye Sainte & Papelotte

Hello There! I have recently completed some 10mm scale building from the Total Battle Miniatures range. Their web site is here.

Having completed Fichermont and La Belle Alliance I have now moved on to La Haye Sainte and Papelotte.

The buildings from this range and quite exceptional and is is easy to make the most of showing the detail up on these models.

I received a book about using pigments, for my Christmas present, and decided to try some of them out. I would normally have used a number of washed to get the brickwork effect seen here. The pigments were more versatile and quicker to use. 

I used Woodland Scenics Burnt Grass fine flock for the surrounds and Mid Green Clump Foliage on one side.

 

The building was placed on a base as the model was in two parts.

These two pictures show the pigment effects off very well. I also use a piece of clump foliage to 'hide the join'!

Next Papelotte, which was again in two pieces. I used the pictures from the suppliers website as a guide.

I tried to get away from the usual grey monotone roof by adding some different shades to it.

This wall had three different shades of pigment on it and the effect was very realistic.

Here is a comparison with a one pence piece to give you an idea of the size of these buildings.

Last up, Hougoumont!