Model expo = models

This morning I took a break from playing World of Tanks to take Lizardking and the lads to the SA Plastic Modellers' Associations' annual expo. We got there about 11:30 and spent maybe an hour and a half on site (a large school hall in the heart of Adelaide). There seemed to be lot more viewers present as we left than when we arrived, and the vast empty table spaces between displayed models were filling up. So, we might have missed some of the treasures but we managed to savour what we saw without the disadvantage of crowds jostling us or anxious model owners snapping back against the tide of people.

Instead, we had a cool hour or so checking out the various display categories, and about half an hour at various of the stalls selecting our own wares to purchase.

My favorite individual model was a Dragon T34-85 (1:35), followed closely by a 1:72 Pfalz monoplane. Most impressive exhibition in my mind were the ships of Task Force 72, including a 3m long (!) work in progress of the HMS Hood and a 2m long jap sub. Besides being impressive scratch built models, these were WORKING ships, full R/C and working turrets, etc. The subs even submersed. The nice man said that the group meet at the boat lake in Bonython Park in the parklands, the last Sunday afternoon of each month, so I might head down there next Month (or even tomorrow, but they might have their ships all at the expo so I'll have to think about that one).

So, what goodies did we leave with? Lad #2 decided on a glossy book of American Supercars, and a three pack of 1:72 personnel transport models (Ketengrad, Kubelwagen and Jeep). Lad #1 settled on a 1:72 medieval bombard and crew, together with a 'Sheriff of Nottingham' 1:72 infantry pack. The Lizardking went for a Dragon (?) M4A3E8. And me? A Maquette 1:35 T34-85 and a Dragon kit of four 1:35 german infantry with their ambush equipment. Maybe I have some vague idea of streetfight diorama? I've never built a 1:35 kit before, nor have I constructed human figures before , so when I finally get both time and space to get to work on them I'm sure it'll be quite an adventure.

Needless to say, a good day was had by all. For me now, it's back to the grind of World of Tanks.

Interbellum Imagi-Nations?

This picture is of the last occasion that my combined 6mm Spanish Civil War armies paraded before their commanding officer. You'll know that they've been at peace ever since and are presently ensconced in their 'barracks', still awaiting the call to duty. I was beginning to despair when that day might come, or how it might come about, as every time I felt the urge, something in 'real life' seemed to intervene. It was getting very frustrating and, grumble as they might, the troops remained at peace. That might be about to change.

"How is that so?", the reader may well ask. Well, I'll come to that, but please first bear with me as I work my way from then to now.

Miniatures wargaming was not the only thing that took a hit as I lived my life over the past few years. Adelaide Gamer, for instance, took on a torpor often associated with death in the blogosphere. East Front and Renaissance Kingdoms were put into minimalist mode. Hardly even any boardgames and, even then, none of the hardcore ones. Something has changed recently (moved through the midlife crisis?) and I now find that Adelaide Gamer has more and more to talk about - I have probably a month's worth of posting materials lined up with more materiel arriving almost daily.

"All very good," the reader might rightly say, "but what's the relevance to the mustered 6mm armies?"

An bonus side effect of my prolonged absence from the scene was that there were lots of nice surprises when I returned, including the growth of the gaming blogosphere and many of the amazing blogs that I have since found. A 'new' subspecies of gaming blogs are those of the 'Imagi-Nations', a concept which I immediately found fascinating, if obscure in its meaning.

For several weeks I was looking around the web for a definitive guide to what this whole concept of Imagi-Nations is, and was beginning to get frustrated when I couldn't find any location. Eventually, it dawned on me that the whole concept was one whose philosophy and 'rules', such as they are, is actually contained in the accretion of sites forming the imagi-nations network of blogs and related activities. In a sense, a non hierarchical and non centralised game of games. Very philosophical, but it did make a lot of sense to me then.

After this realisation, I went back and had a look at two 'hubs' of imagi-nations with fresher eyes, Emporer v Elector and Interbullum. Now I think I get it. I like what I see. I am thinking that my armies might find their place again in my active gaming universe if I become an active player.

I love the worlds and spaces and writings created for the EvE set of Imagi-Nations, even though 17th century is not really my scene. So, when I came across Interbellum it didn't take long for the thought bubble to form, why not create my own imagi-nation set in between the two world wars? Afterall, I love a bit of history and role playing and I have a set of armies of the period, and the creative bug has been attacking me quite strongly recently...

So, I've written off to the Interbellum mob and asked if its worth the investment of time and emotion that a worthwhile imagi-nation will deserve. I think the answer will be 'yes'. If so, I'll set about creating my own imagi-nation (probably on its own separate blog) and working out some sort of campaign / battle system to take advantage of the online tools I've come across over the last few years, just in case it takes a while to sort out some space and time for the 6mm panoply.

So. Another project beckons. I'll of course keep you informed how it goes.

I think my diary is getting full!

Have added four more sites to my followed blogs:
Interbellum - hub site for interbellum imagi-nations
New Byzantium - a gamer/imagi-nation blog of interest
Battle Game of the Month - imagi-nations active, classic wargamer, philosopher
Mort's 1938 Scrapbook - a great imagi-nationesqe campaign set in a 'fictitious' English Civil War in 1938. The history of the Anglican League in particular is an interesting thread!

Table Top Teasers

Steve the Wargamer has reproduced the wonderful series of articles published by 'Military Modelling' and 'Battle' in times past by the legendary wargames god, Charles Grant (CS Grant wrote the book that introduced me, at the tender age of ten, to wargaming). I remember as a youngster being huddled up in public libraries studying past copies of the aforesaid magazines, reading some of the very articles that are now reproduced on THIS SITE.

Steve the Wargamer keeps a number of blogs and resources out there. Good on you Steve.

I've added the 'Table Top Teasers' site to my wargames resources links.

Another Roman gamer blog

I came across Bigredbat recently, a newish blog with a pretty serious miniatures ancients gamer behind it, judging by the armies to be seen on it.

Awsome figures

I've just added a link to Jason's Historical Miniatures to the sidebar. Absolutely awsome sculpted figures of american revolutionary and civil wars!

I've recently come across some 1/32 scale figures which I'm thinking of painting up and came across the above site while looking for ideas. I bought some Russian WWII infantry figures, and some relatively high quality french napoleonic gun team models at a garage sale. I'll post up a little photo essay of the experience when I do.

SCW miniatures gallery

In case you forgot, or never knew, I'm also occasionally into miniatures wargaming and have over the years slowly worked on my Spanish Civil War project. About a year ago I posted pictures on this blog of some of my efforts.

I recently came across this site of 28mm miniatures of the period. I think this is both amazing in its own right, as well as a resource for future efforts of my own. Worth a bit of a browse.

New miniatures

I went to Melbourne over the weekend, and managed to pick up a few more miniatures for my 6mm Spanish Civil War armies. I'm not sure when I'll get around to painting them (nor the remaining five battalions of infantry I already have) but, when I do, I will be able to field armies representing any of the main forces of the conflict in a battle up to regimental size. That will be good, as I have located another potential player. The number of interested parties is now seven.

For the record, the following is what I purchased:

1 each of BA10 soviet armoured car (will use as BA3), French Laffly-White armoured car (WWI surplus), half tracked Austin-Pulitov armoured car, early WWII lorry, horsed 'Tachanka' wagon mounted with machine gun (from russian civil war range), BT7 soviet medium tank, and a Il 16 soviet monoplane fighter.

I also purchased a company of FT17 WWI french tanks (used by both sides), and another company of PZ Is (will make these Spanish identification rather than Kondor Legion).

I will keep you updated.

Castle Model

As long time readers of this blog may recall, my youthful miniature wargamer bug was revived when I helped my stepdaughter construct a castle model for a school project. We were both very proud that our castle received the best mark the teacher had given for this standard project in nearly 30 years. It was a quite imposing castle.

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Her teacher gave her a list of features (eg. Keep, chapel, curtain wall, portcullis) to include in her model, and we then built a design around these requirements. The stars visible on the board connected these features on the model to the legend (white section near the drawbridge).

The model took about 20 person hours to create from our plans, its scale can be seen from the pen lying alongside the rear wall (above). A surprising comment from her teacher was that we had built it close to scale (which we had). We used about $20 of materials plus paint. We made it from balsa wood, on a cloth covered wooden base. Here's an aerial view...

We recently had to move house, and I have deconstructed our castle to its component bits. Before I did so, I took these photos. It had already suffered damage over the last 18 months, it now lies in wait in pieces for a medieval army to form and fight over its battlements.

Site of Interest - Iron Mitten

I might start putting up the odd link to sites which for some reason grab my gaming fancy. First amongst them should be TMP, but I'll put up a separate entry on that some other time. For now, let me recommend Iron Mitten. It's a beautiful and growing blog, kept by a fellow who has multiple passions for history, drawing, cartoons, writing, collecting and painting beautiful figures, photography. Seems to be all about Ancients, which is fine by me.

Photos - 6mm Republican Armour

Russia supplied the Republic with the vast majority of its armoured (and air) force. From late '37 (?) this included what was then the quickest most versatile tank in general use, the BT models. Irregular miniatures makes a BT 7 model. Here are a couple of them creeping over the lower crest of my new hills...



A lot more T26s were supplied, initially T26A's, with 37mm cannon, but then T26Bs with thicker frontal armour and a 47mm gun. Here's a column of them working the way down a slope with a BT7 (second last vehicle)...

Here's the whole column, with T26s advancing up the valley, BT7s drawing up on the slope above, and a (out of focus) Pulitov armoured car on the near rise...

I think that the Russians provided BA3s as armoured cars to the Republic, which also produced its own models in various collectivised factories (and then under centralised control in the central and sourthern regions of the Republic). However, at the time I bought these models I didn't know this, and thus used some WWI Pulitovs on the assumption that Stalin would have offloaded various of his old gear on his 'allies'. In game terms, it doesn't make much difference and I like their exotic look (two turrets).

Photos - 6mm T26s and Hills

Here's a couple of my Republican T26s crossing my newly constructed hills ...

And here they are entering a valley between two hilly formations...

Terrain - Hill construction

I was lacking hills in my terrain. A bit of a lack when you think of the topgraphy of Spain. So I used a $5 voucher from a model railway show my grandkids had been to recently and got some 'Plaster Cloth', and then some 3mm board, borrowed a jigsaw, and went to work.

The basic idea was to build up countours with wads of paper, tape them down, cover them with plaster cloth, and then paint and decorate as appropriate. I considered using foam countours, but too messy and too angular (as you will see) ...

Here's a view of my terraforming a larger ridgeline (base is about 2' long and upto 1' wide) ...

The idea is to then cut off pieces of plaster cloth, soak them in water, and drape them over the terraformed base. Here's a pretty neat photo of the two smaller bases with their plaster skin...

I then sprayed the plastered bases with Tamya primer spray...

After that had dried, I sprayed with a base colour to match my felt tabletop. In the store, Tamya 'Racing Green' looked the bill. I wasn't so sure after spraying. This shot of a small hill shows the 'two tone' effect which occurred to no noticeable pattern I could see...

I needn't have worried. After drybrushing the surface with rich brown and pale green (Humbrol 120 and 186) and waiting for that to dry, I painted the surface with a 60/40 mix of water and white/PVA glue, covering it all with a scatter of Woodland Scenic's 'grass' flock. Looks good ...

I don't think I'll do it the same way in future though, at least not for the bigger sized hill. The reason? There's too much flex in a base that size for the plaster to keep its grip. You can see where it is separating on the last photo above. The smaller bases seem to be fine.

Total cost: $17 for the plaster cloth, about $2.50 for the base wood, $9 for the Green and about $5 for the undercoat, about $3 for the the flock.

Total time: about 4 hours over 5 days.

To see the whole of my gaming blog, click here.

Photos - 6mm Milita (cavalry)

Many of Spain's horses were privately owned at the outbreak of the Civil War. Thus, they often ended up being used by their owners in assorted milita cavalry units (for the nationalists) and by those who 'liberated' them for the same purpose in the Republican side. Here's a view from the full roster of Falange 'modernist' cavalry being closely followed by lorry mounted troops.

Here's a more posed view...

You'll note with the variety of appearances I can mix up a company of Requettes, Falange or socialists from the various bases. There are three more bases presently unpainted which will eventually make up a the equivalent of a full battalion if required.

Photos - 6mm Militia (Generic)

Both sides in the Spanish Civil War 'regularised' as much of their militia organisations as they could once the 'early war period' was over. Thus, Falange and Carlist were merged and placed under officers whose prime loyalty lay with the Franco regime, and the numerous socialist and communist militias were 'regularised' through means of supply of armaments and purge. The Basque militia always were relatively 'regular' in their own regional way.

To reflect this, I have a battalion of 'regular' looking militia. Here they are under an Italian militia flag, perhaps representing some of the tens of thousands of conscript 'volunteer' militia sent by Mussolini.

And here they are in the full roster, this time representing nationalist cannon fodder.

Of the three battalions I have still to paint of militia, I reckon one will be painted to represent the Falange, and the other two will be uniformed similar to the figures in the above two photos.

Photos - 6mm Artillery Park

Much of the fighting in the Spanish Civil War bore more a resemblance to that of WWI rather than WWII. Both sides used extensive artillery barrages. Probably the most common gun on both sides was the French 75/17. Hence the medium artillery batteries pictured here are primarily composed of this model.

Here's a view of the artillery park in my full roster photo.

Note the German 37mm A/T guns to the far left.

Photos - 6mm Nationalist Batteries

The Nationalists were strongly supported by armaments sent them by Europe's most powerful fascist dictatorships, Germany and Italy. Here they are in the full roster.

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The heavy artillery of the Condor Legion was probably that part of it which was most continuously in battle.

Less famous than their German counterparts, Italian artillery was also used in large amounts by Franco. Here are Italian light batteries (I think they are models of Italian 47mm from WWII Irregular range, but I count them as 60mm pieces).

Photo - 6mm Republican Guns

Against Franco's artillery the Republicans used what they could. Of some importance, Russian imports. Here are a couple of 47mm guns from Irregular's WWII range.

Photo - 6mm Mounted Regulars

The horse was not uncommon in Spain, as indeed in both WWI and WWII. Besides transport and food, they were used to mount infantry, improving operational mobility. Here is a picture of (almost) a battalion of mounted regulars.

Here's a picture from the full roster ...

You'll see that there are only eleven platoon elements. Of all my troops, I am only aware of having lost one, the twelfth mounted platoon. Oh well ...

Photo - 6mm Regular Infantry

The regular army of pre Civil War Spain divided at the outbreak of the conflict, and 'regular' troops fought on both sides. Here are a couple battalions flying the Nationalist flag ...

Here they are in the full roster ...

Photo - 6mm full troop roster

I recently finished painting up my Spanish Civil War armies*. I couldn't resist the temptation of lining them all up and recording the achievement. Here they are ...

Here's a detail, recording something of the 'suppressed action' which they make concrete ...

* Being a wargamer, I still have unpainted troops. Not too many however ... two battalions of militia, three of regulars, six elements of militia 'cavalry', about half a dozen 'flag stands', a bus and a horse and cart. I'll wait until I get the urge before painting them. I still have to (matt) varnish my standing armies.