Acme Games

This weekend I had the pleasure of a random visit to Llandudno in North Wales. Thankfully the Memsahib took pity and took me to visit Acme Games as a birthday treat (she is a keeper).

My heart sank when I saw the 'Speeesh Marine' in the window. Thankfully the inside of the shop was a revelation.

The inside is a very large and well stocked shop with somthing for everybody, be that RPGs, board games and war games. This includes G Dubz 40k and Warhammer ranges aa well as infinity and a plethora of SciFi and fantasy systems.

Historical gamers are also catered for, with the shop carrying 28mm and 20mm plastic kits for most periods as well as the whole range if 15mm Flames of War. Paints and modelling supplies are in abundance.

To cap it off, the first floor of the shop hosts a club and regular gaming events; we observed a regional final for X Wing whilst there.

Overall a very rare well stocked bricks and mortar store with friendly staff. Worth a visit!

The birthday haul, told you she is a keeper. Warlord plastic Fire Fly VC tank, Albion Triumphant vol2 for BP and some modelling supplies.

Armies on Parade 2 - The Continental Army

Part 2 of Armies on Parade is the other major protagonist of the American War of Independence, the Continental Army and Militia.

The collection as with the British/Loyalist force was started on the release of the Perry Twins AWI range whilst at the Foundry. These figures offered a respite from the endless regiments of scarlet being churned out with a proliferation of many uniform styles and color combinations. As you can see from the photo above, the army is much smaller that the British collection, this is now a focus to build up line Regiments as well as skirmishers to match.

The Spirit of '76 by Fife & Drum miniatures

Philadelphia Light horseman vignette converted from Eureka Miniatures French Revolutionary Range.

Continental Artillery, a mixture of Perry and Foundry miniatures.

24 Pdr Cannon siege train by Perry Miniatures. These can also be used with the British forces dependent on the scenario thankfully as the uniforms are 'undress' and generic. 

The Philadelphia Light Horse, possibly my most favorite unit for a number of reasons; chiefly due to ancestral founder member of the unit who served in the AWI and the fact the unit still survives and maintains its elite qualities and traditions to this present day as part of the National Guard. Figures by Foundry.

George Washington himself, alongside the Colours of the Continental Army. Figures by Foundry and Wargames Illustrated from the 'Moments in History' range. The beagles are based on a pair that a good friend of mine maintains!

New York Regiment, figures by Foundry.

The Pennsylvania Line.

 Webbs Additional Regiment. Built from a chance find from the flea market at Historicon in 2011. Figures by Old Glory and Foundry.

Militia Minutemen, by Foundry.

Armies on Parade 1 - AWI British Army

Despite a very tough time in the day job, recent weeks have been very productive:

1. Basing of a colossal cohort of 28mm miniatures.

2. Painting of the 24th Prussian infantry Regiment for Waterloo, Foundry.

3. Molly Pitcher and Cannon with crew, Eureka Miniatures

4. The A Team, Foundry.

A rare rest day with a light hangover proved a great opportunity to dust off the boxes of completed troops and hold a review of the Armies. 

The first article for Armies on Parade, is my 28mm British Army for the American War of Independence. 

This Army has been in the collecting since Wargames Foundry released the first packs of the Perrys AWI range back in 2000. I believe this range alongside their Napoleonic Russians to the be their finest works whilst at Foundry. Back then I was an impoverished student living in Nottingham and regularly squandered by student loan at the St Marks street factory in particularly on this range.

This range was responsible for me getting into the AWI, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of the earlier part of the war with the British Army's more formal style of uniform and first experimental steps to the employment of Light Troops, preceding the way later in the war for formed units of Light Infantry, loose ranks of soldiers and more spartan uniforms without lace and equipment. Over the years I have continued to collect and add new units to this collection. Focus is now on getting colors for several units, and fleshing out the Cavalry, Hessian contingent and building up Loyalist forces to compliment larger regular army contingent. I have also made some inroads into starting on troops with the later types of uniforms as seen in the Sarratoga and Southern Campaigns. 

For the best part the Army is Wargames Foundry with later additions from Perry Miniatures and some Kings Mountain Miniatures.

17th Regiment followed by the 44th. Giles Allison's 'Tarleton's Quarter' blog has been an inspiration for the painting of this army during its long life! Figures by Foundry, Colours by Flag Dude.

33rd Foot, red facings. A mixed bunch of leftover figures saved to become a unit! Foundry and Flag Dude.

The Fusiliers, converted from Foundry Grenadiers with green stuff sculpted black knee gaiters. Colour party by Front Rank. This Regiment has to be my favorite of the British Units from the early part of the war purely due to the Grenadier style head dress. 

17th Light Dragroons from Perry Miniatures. Shown here in their red coatees, prior to the deprivations of the Southern Campaign. 

The Royal Artillery with 6 Pdr Cannon with block trails and a Howitzer. Figures by Foundry. 

Royal Artillery siege mortar. Figures by Foundry and mortar by Front Rank. This model was something whimsical, having not noted the use of a British siege train during the AWI. 

5th Regiment Light Infantry. This basing style was inspired by Dave Taylor's basing of his Napoleonic Rifles. Figures by Foundry. 

A loyalist Regiment. Depicted here in the earlier green coats and laced hats. Still requiring some colors. Figures by Foundry and Perry Plastics. 

Queens Rangers, again awaiting some Colours. Figures by Perry Miniatures.

Regiment Von Ditfurth, these figures are actually the Foundry SYW Prussian Range sculpted by Mark Copplestone if memory serves. 

Fusilier Regiment Erbrinz, again Foundry SYW Prussian Range.

Hessian Jaegars by Perry Miniatures. This is my favorite unit in the whole army, as woodsmen and hunters these light troops look like they are stalking their way through tough going woodland terrain.

The Hills are alive with the sound of swearing...

As a break from the ever tedious painting of  Napoleonic Prussians, I took the drastic step of updating a number of terrain pieces as well as a ramble through some nostalgia.

This motley collection comprised of scavenged 'prop painted' plastic GW hills from Ebay, some polystyrene GW hills and a cliff slope that I built when I was a student at Nottingham Trent uni. The cliff slope was built from mainly cardboard, masking tape and cork bark that was built circa 2000 when as a student I invested most of my loan into Wargames Foundry's factory shop outlet in Nottingham! With limited funds, salvaging waste to build terrain was an inexpensive way cover a battlefield. Some of the inspiration came from GW's amazing book; Wargames Terrain. The cork was bought from the now defunct PoP Enterprises of Nottingham and their now sadly departed wily owner, Fraser.

All the hills had their rock formations undercoated in raw umber and were dry brushed up in GW snakebite leather, light browns and finished with GW bleached bone to give the rock a limestone outcrop appearance to match my castle stonework and basing.

The plastic hills were flocked in Javis static grass. All the hills were detailed with static grass and Woodland Scenics clump foliage.

Whilst updating these hills, I was reminded of Army navigation lessons where we would learn the shape of a re-entrant, saddle, spur, convex and concave slope. Not that I ever heard a soldier describe a hill in real life in those terms!

 GW Plastic Hill

GW Plastic Hill

Hand lovingly hand bodged cardboard and cork slope and cliff. 28mm Perry Prussian Mounted Officer for scale.

GW plastic hill

 What was a rather dreary rock outcrop until painted up. GW Polystyrene Hill set.

Wespe 1/48 Bailey Bridge

Having amassed a sizable collection of WW2 late war British Army, I am now seeking to model the supporting engineering and logistic support element of the army not just the usual teeth arms. The most iconic of the British Army's engineering kit next to Hobarts Funnies, was the Bailey Panel bridge system. To my knowledge no 1/56 or 28mm scale Bailey bridge models exist, so a search on Ebay threw out the 1/48 scale Wespe Stok Foundation plastic kit.

Box art.

 The kit comes with four of these frames with the panels, braces, bearings and pads. The panels are quite flimsy and need care when cutting out.

 Seven of these brown plastic deck panels also come with the kit. 

Assembly of the panels with the cross girders. This is a fiddly process and actually feels like assembling a real bailey bridge! 

 The assembled kit. 

The assembled kit with the bridge crossing a gap. The Churchill Tank is by Madbob Miniatures and is of resin. The bridge actually behaves structurally like a real bridge with flexure at mid span and some torsional buckling when overloaded! For wargaming, the bearings will be on scenic base to raise it over my terrain river sections. 

My sole gripe with the kit is that the deck panels when laid out along the length do not reach the end. Some modelling will be required here.

1st Corps Medium Mark A Whippet Tank

This model was a recent buy at Salute 2017 from the boys at 1st Corps. Their WW1 range of vehicles is full of character, having previously bought their Thornycroft Truck.  The Medium Mark A Whippet tank is no different, showing the 1st Corps unique sculpting style. The resin casting required no cleaning up and the Hotchkiss Machine guns were easy to fit to the drilled out recesses in the ball mounts. 

The tank was painted in Vallejo 'Soviet Uniform' green, washed in Army Painter 'Strong Tone' and dry brushed with some minor rust streaks added to some rivet heads. The tracks were painted in GW 'Bolt Gun Grey' silver and weathered with Tamiya vehicle mud. 

Assembled and painted kit

 Front End

 Side

 Rear

Top

HLBSC Armoured Train

For a long while I have been after the Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company's WW1 Austro Hungarian Armoured Train which came on the market in the early 00's when playing 1920s Back of Beyond was a fashionable thing to do.

Long since out of production, last year I was lucky to be able to pick up the locomotive and an infantry/maxim car off ebay. Some email correspondence with the ever helpful Richard at the HLSBC whilst purchasing some re-releases of the HLSBC WW1 German Storm Troop range, meant he agreed to cast up some artillery cars and another infantry/maxim cars!

The Wagons are for the best part single part resin castings for the superstructure and chassis, with little preparation needed. The wheels and buffers are cast pewter alloy and require a little cleaning up before fitting. The Artillery car comes with a pose-able turret and choice of field gun barrels, I opted for the Russian 76mm M1902 gun. The locomotive has a slightly more complex wheel arrangement and the chimney and boiler dome are resin.

The train is accurate to it the real life version and compares favorably (Landships Website), although it looks to be 25mm scale vs 28mm, although I am not that fussy. The kits could be improved a little with the addition of some metal maxim gun barrels and couplings for the wagons (as per Company B's trains) as well as connecting rods for the locomotive, although this would be rather irritating to assemble! The kit is value for money and HLBSC are by far the best company to deal with in the business, being very receptive, helpful and dispatch very quickly. A very good product delivered by an excellent service.

My train was painted in Vallejo 'London Grey', washed in Army painter 'Strong tone' with rust streaks added to rivet heads and cantrel lines. The train was dry brushed to weather it. Buffers were finished in GW 'Chain Mail' silver.

76mm 1902 Model Field gun artillery car.

Infantry / Maxim Car

Armoured Locomotive

The completed Armoured Train

Mad Bob Churchill Tank MkI

Doing anything hobby recently has been rather limited and haphazard due to the ramping up of my new job. This weeks installment is a review of the Mad Bob miniatures resin 1/56 scale Churchill Infantry Tank MkI/II.

'Mad' Bob Emerson makes a range of left of field resin models covering the more obscure or unpopular Armies of WW2.

The complete hit laid out. The majority of the smaller components are molded onto large resin sprues. The kit comes with both a hull mounted 3inch howitzer for the MkI and a besa machine gun for the MkII. The surface of the components is slightly rough from what I can guess was the surface of the master post digital print. 

    Comparison between the Warlord Games plastic Churchill kit and Mad Bobs resin. The resin hull is about 8mm shorter than that of the plastic kit. A little further apart and the difference is not noticable. 

 The real thing on exercise on Salisbury plain.

Side by side with Warlord Games plastic Churchill.

The completed kit painted and washed awaiting decals and weathering.