Bash Day 2020 - 13 June - NOW POSTPONED :-(

It is with deep sadness that I've decided to postpone the BBB Bash Day, 13 June 2020.  I was really looking forward to a fun day of gaming and banter!

My hope is that I can run it in September, or later, once the summer holidays are over and life returns to "normal".

More news can be found here, or on Chris Pringle's website Bloody Big Battles

Thank you to all of you who have supported this event by promising to come or host games.

I trust that you all keep well.

Warm regards

Colin

Aspern Essling BBB refight 02 Mar 2020 (21 & 22 May 1809)

Some of my war-games buddies have, in the past, mentioned that I don't post as much about gaming as I do about modelling.

So here, to redress the lack of gaming posts, is last night's epic Aspern Essling game, using the BBB (Bloody Big Battles) ruleset.

The players were:

Mark S - scenario writer & umpire

The French ~
Mark J - The Emperor Napoleon
Dave W
Crispin M

The Austrians ~
Bruce M - The Archduke Charles (& the other two Austrian Generals deemed worthy to have figures on the table)
John M
Chris P - the creator of BBB - see his blog here - Bloody Big Battles blog
Colin W

We set up in about half an hour and got playing around 6.30 pm.  There were 9 turns, 3 on 21st & 6 on 22nd May, with a night interval inbetween.  We finished around 9 pm, with enough time to head to the local for refreshment and more banter.

The following photos will give a flavour of the game.  I took these as play took place and in the infrequent times when I wasn't doing anything!

Firstly, above, one of my half timbered houses (see previous posts) in situ as an objective.

Below, the Austrians, on the right, move towards Aspern (on the left, near the stream).  The French wait for them to get in range....

My command is in the foreground, lined up behind the marker that tells me not to move till turn 2.  More of this later.

Slightly later the French, holding Aspern, begin to feel the pressure, whilst Napoleon wonders how to get his bridges across the Danube operational again (as the French failed their rolls to keep the bridges open, thus delaying the build up of their troops).  

To the left of the picture, my troops close in on Essling and its Granary.

A little later - in the foreground the Austrian reserves and 1.5 of my 2 forces pressure Essling.

Here is the other 0.5 of Dedovich's IV Korps.  All Austrians were passive, there were also almost no Generals represented, so getting troops to move was.......... slow.  These troops formed a column and spent most of the game taking their time to stroll towards Essling.  Never fired their guns.  Never got shot at.  Possibly got a little dusty.....

The fight for Essling - foreground.  Bruce (Charles & the reserves) and I teamed up to take on Essling and it's Granary.  Here the IV Korps, reserve Cavalry & the Grenadiers all pile in.  

At the other end of the table John M & Chris, as the Austrians, have taken Aspern and the woods, now heading for the bridgehead.

Turn 8 - the END.  Napoleon, pushed out of Aspern and it's woods, decides that he will withdraw from Essling and retire to Lobau Island to think again.  

All in all, a most enjoyable game - nice to get the buildings into use as well!

I hope that this has given you a flavour of BBB Napoleonics and how you can play some of the biggest battles in history on a 6x4 foot table in an evening.  Then go to the pub! 

Figures - French - Mark S, Austrian - me

Half Timbered Buildings - 2

The next two half timbered buildings are done.

The left hand building (in the front shot) is slightly higher as it is raised on a plinth.

These four shots are of fully painted but not weathered buildings.

The next photos are of these two buildings once they have been very lightly dry-brushed with white.  A tiny bit of dry brushing makes the detail pop out, gives a slightly weathered & toned down look and ties the colours together....

Still alive, 1/300 Buildings for NE Europe - half timbered

Firstly, I am still alive.  I've been quite busy making things and gaming, never quite getting round to a blog.

So, here's some pictures of a recent project:

My friend Mark and I are recreating 16 battles from 1805 - 1815.  We need some "NE European Buildings".  A search of the Internet found lots of reference material, so having got the style of building determined, I set to work.  I also had a series of photos from central Germany taken in a village whilst at a friend's wedding - lots of reference material as well.

The houses were a simple carcase, with half timbering to be added on the top floor.  I made the overhangs quite thick, cutting very thin card strips for the timbering.  The end walls were faced with more strips pasted onto a piece of ex-greetings card.

They looked like this, with the right hand ones almost completed:

The roof took a bit of working out.  I had looked (on the internet) at 28, 15 & 10mm buildings, all of these were using model railway roof plastic in OO & N gauge.  I could not find a Z gauge roof that I thought would work, I was also on holiday in France so options for looking at roofs were limited!  After a bit of experimentation I devised a way of creating my own roof tiles in a speedy fashion.

Here is what they look like finished - roofs & chimneys added:

Here's the first one painted - it went to Mark yesterday, but I thought I'd record what it looked like....  The paint pot gives some idea of scale.  It will be "christened" ?  "blooded"? tomorrow at the OWS Aspern Essling game.

Finally, my work bench with the making mess over and the painting mess about to begin.  Table, models, paint, light, brushes and freshly brewed coffee!  Let the painting commence!  It won't look this neat from now on....

Gallery 3

This was a further post from last year that never got finished - so here it is!

Jg 26 were one of two Jagd Geshwader tasked with defending the Reich against first the RAF (& Allies) and the the USAAF.  They sported a stylised eagle marking over the fuselage - here's my go at it.....

Port side view.  The yellow noses and tails were standard recognition 

Still alive

It has been a very busy year for me - an upgrade in responsibility at work has meant a lot less free time.

The good news is that we moved in April, two of my fellow warmers are just over 10 minutes walk away.

This has meant a lot of wargaming.  It has also meant a lot less (none, actually) blogging.  One of my problems is that I forget to take photos.  Another issue is the sub-optimal nature of my phone camera.

Another plus is that my current residence has a garage, which we are keeping free of household clutter.  This has meant a get a dedicated area to spray troops - Hurrah!

I have also changed emphasis in the last year, in that my fellow gamers in Oxford do mainly land battles, mostly using the excellent BBB rules by Chris Pringle.

So, I've been concentrating on getting my French and Austrian Baccus Napoleonics figures "match fit".  See April 2017 This has meant learning about basing sand and static grass, amongst other things.

I therefore plan to make some posts about these, stay tuned.

The plane projects are on a back burner, but having our own place will mean that they get done.

Keep gaming & modelling!

It has been a while

I last posted in August as my job in Jakarta ended.  I had expected to do more posting, but my elderly mother-in-law had an accident whilst Sarah (wife) and were in Mongolia, so we sped back to the UK.

M-i-L recovered from her fall, which is good. 😃 Not so helpful is the fact that a lot of our stuff, including models in various stages of completion, is still in Jakarta....😟

So, several half finished planes & modelling projects have yet to be completed.

A return to the UK has been good in several ways.

I've been able to visit the war-games club in Oxford and have enjoyed a number of games as both winner and loser.  This year's Christmas game was based in Java, 1811, in honour of my return to Blighty from Indonesia - featuring Xmas hats and dice rolls modified by Xmas crackers.  The game also had sealed orders, with one Dutch player following his, sallying forth from the fort with 1/4 of the troops and defecting to the Brits!

Looking North.  The Franco-Dutch defend Fort Cornelius against the EIC

A suitably festive look, as the EIC break in to the fort.  Mark, 2nd left, made us pull crackers to determine several special events, such as blowing up captured bastions, etc.  A lot of fun!

2mm BBB ECW.  Bruce has been working on rules & figures.  I recreated history and lost for the Scots against the Sassenach Cromwell.

I went to Warfare, Reading, in November, as I discovered that I only had 1 ton of unpainted troops in the UK, so might need a few more....

I've been wargaming regularly with my friend (& worthy opponent) Mark, BBB Sikh wars, Indian Mutiny/1st war of Liberation (delete as appropriate) & French versus Spanish, 1811.

Mark's daughter Sarah is a keen WW1 planes fan, so wisely used her University holidays to help me playtest some suitable "fast & furious" rules.

I've been painting my Baccus 1809 Austrians, which has been a really enjoyable process.  More of this in a later post.

The new workbench.  I used the previous day's Oxford Mail wisely.

6 mm Baccus Austrians.  Note the use of coffee stirring sticks as troop holding bases and the highly effective re-cycling of coffee cup lids as palettes.  

On the workbench - July part 3

When I got my TD Ju52s, at the bottom of the bag I discovered a float, which quickly proved to be designed to fit the big holes that I had earlier spent a lot of time filling in.  That got me thinking....

A quick blitz on the internet provided some nice pictures of Ju52 floatplanes, so at Salute I picked up 3 packs.  I also ordered some 1/600 photo-etch ladders, as pictures of these planes shows a permanent ladder attached from the left float to the passenger cabin door.

I then set about working out how to attach the floats with a more intricate structure than the original model.  The TD model as supplied is quite sturdy (always a positive attribute for war-games kit) and as the floats & undercarriage are under the plane, you won't see the attachment much.

But, what the heck!

Here are photos of the project so far - this is my "Mark 1", the ladder is not attached but otherwise it is finished......

The TD Ju52 Floatplane, what you get.....

I only "push-fit" attached the floats - they hold up well without glue

The "Mark 1" Ju 52 FP, which has all the add-ons from previous blogs plus detailed landing gear, which of course is invisible in this photo !

Not the best photo, but you can see that the gear consists of four struts per float.  There is a cross-wise brace that may be added to the "Mark II" model.  No ladder, as I was worried whether it would survive transport back to the UK for undercoating.

The Ju52 Floatplane was used by the Luftwaffe in all theatres of war (yes, in N Africa too, as it could load/unload in harbours or the beach).  There are some nice colour schemes to experiment with.

On the workbench - July part 2

Here's a quick addition to the Heroics & Ros 1/300 Dw D520.  I like to add small details to planes to give them a bit of individuality or to correct details that the manufacturer has missed.

The real plane has a radiator intake (? OK, I'm guessing) that is either side of the engine and parallel to and below the exhausts.  It is pretty prominent (check the internet) so I added mine from plastic rod, filed to the correct profile.  It seems to be round at the spinner end of the plane and almost flat at the tail end.  Here's what mine looks like:

On the workbench - July part 1

Here are a couple of modifications to the 1/600 B-17 G from Tumbling Dice

TD B17Gs (and I have a lot of these) sometimes have the top turret MG missing.  Here's an easy fix that also adds a little variety to your bomber stream....

USAAF B17 Gs had a defensive weapons upgrade over earlier models.  They got a chin turret and two armoured gun positions in the Navigator/Bombadier compartment, either side of the nose.  It is easy to model these two positions using a bit of plastic rod, cut to shape and sanded down....