More tiny tanks...

With too many photos to post in one go, here are the rest of the 1/300th scale moderns - none of which still thankfully smell of Dettol either!

This lot is mostly Arab armies - a mix of T72, T64 and T55s 

The tanks are mostly on 40x20 bases, with other AFVs on 30x20 and 20x20 for the small ones 

I'm not sure if this Desert MERDC scheme was actually used, but it does look cool! 

I seem to have a full set of M60s, AAV7's, M1's, Bradleys and other toys - probably far too many to actually use in CWC!

The M60's have had the most work done in terms of removing the old paint and metal rot

There were also some random French and other vehicles, apparently from a French Recce force that there is no real list for in CWC at the moment as it may be a bit too modern,

The T55's are I think rather ropey Skytrex models. For all of the tanks they are Army Painter desert sand spray, with Army Painter diluted soft tone wash on the upper surfaces and Dark Tone on the wheels and tracks.  

My attempts to paint the tracks themselves are a partial; success (aka a bit rubbish) but at tabletop distances they are OK (honestly...)

I suspect everyone in the world owns 30+ of these H&R models...

T64 eport version - again I think Skytrex

A full collection of AFVs, as well as PT76's round out the collection

Refurbished 1/300th scale tanks

A couple of months ago I was gifted a huge collection of 1/300th scale tanks by brother, most of which I'd actually painted and some of which I'd owned way back when we were both still at school.

Other than the sheer amazement as to just how dammned many of the blighters there actually were (and being mind-boggled that we managed to even play a single turn either of the old WRG modern rules, or the even more complex and marker-tastic Battlegroup moderns with quite so many AFVs on table..), it was also a challenge to see how easily it would be to upgrade some of them to a full set of CWC Middle Eastern forces.

None of them were based, and more concerningly a significant proportion of them were suffering from some sort of evil metal rot/fungal plague as well.  The internet provided some help, and I ended up buying a large amount of Dettol to act as a paint stripper - and smelling out the house in the process with a rather different, more medicinal small than I usually do (with paint...)!

The end result is four full A4 trays worth of based 1/300th AFVs, and at least as much again that will go for sale to clubmates or on eBay in the new year.

Here are pictures of the Israelis, and also some of the Brits as well:

Israelis and some extras for other forces in the storage tray. This is an A4 plastic paper storage box from Paperchase lined with steel paper for the magnabased AFVs top stick to. 

A layer of bubble wrap will sit on top of them and hold them all in place when the lid is shut, allowing them to be stored upright alongside the rules in a bookcase. 

British command stand

Israeli command stands

British Challenger AFV's, command and Warrior IFV's. 

The basing is magnabased card, with sand glued onto it, stained with Rustins woodstain and then drybrished in pale grey and the old standard of Bleached Bone 

The metal rot!  I guess I could have just left them as-is and used them for FWC ...

Dettol, an old toothbrish head, and a bad smell ... 

M60's post-soaking

 

British recce units

Skytrex (I think) Centurions

Set of three Israeli tanks

The Russian-supplied kit, and a USMC desert-MERDC battlegroup will be posted soon..

Oooh-err Missus! It's a B.I.G. Abona !

Way back in the mists of time in a far flung corner of this sceptred isle a band of well-muscled 25mm army-carrying wargamers gathered together to celebrate the Roman era of British history (and, more pertinently, how it was portrayed in Carry On films - of course).

The end result was the BIG Abona Festival, a 2-day, 4-game 25mm ADLG event with a theme of all armies valid at any date during the Roman presence in Britain.

To this esteemed gathering I elected to take the Vikings, who just about squeaked in with a dateline before the end of the Sub Roman British list. Just.

Many months later the four reports of the Viking's exploits are finally published for your delight and delectation, as the Norseen take on the Mongols, Ancient British and two very different sets of Roman soldiery in full widescreen technicolour.

Read on for the usual mix of poor puns, comedy captions and expert analysis - this time with added rubbish rhymes!
 

Avignon ADLG Lists - more than half the top 10 !

Having just returned from a weekend in the South of France taking part in a 1-list, 200 AP tournament at Villeneuve Les Avignon, I'm pleased to be able to post the lists from the players who finished in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th.  Or, put another way, my list, and the lists of my opponents all of whom finished above me in a 30+ strong field!

• 1st- Kushan
• 3rd - Ugarit
• 5th - Alexander  
• 7th - Galatian 
• 9th - Carthaginian
• 10th (My) Assyrian and Sargonid

As usual, match reports to follow at some unspecified point in future...

(Update 5/11/19 : 4th place Mycenean list (minimal chariots!) now also added to the Wiki)

10mm Downsizing : WW2 Americans on eBay

With space running out in the Madaxeman bunker, a small effort to pretend to downsize sees a 10mm BKC force make it's way onto eBay: See them on eBay now!

Infantry

• 12 x Infantry bases (48 men)
• 2 x Engineers (10 figures)
• 5 x HMG / LMG bases (10 men)
• 1 x Observer base (artillery or air support) 

Armour and Vehicles

• 1 x M10 Wolverine
• 5 Shermans (including 1 x Jumbo)
• 4 M3 Half tracks (including quad AA mount)

Air Support

• 1 x P47 Thunderbolt (drilled for wire flight stand) 

All painted and magnabased, perfect for BKC or other WW2 Company / platoon scale rules. The models are a mix of manufacturers including Minifigs & Pendraken - the P47 is a plastic kit.

It's worth over £50 in unpainted lead, based on current Pendraken prices, but starts here at just £5.
10% of all bids also go to SSAFA, the UK Armed Forces charity

See them on eBay now!

More New Malifaux

A few more "wargaming standard" Malifaux models have made it through the painting pile. They are OK on table, but these close-ups are a tad unforgiving. 

First up are Joshua Fitzsimmons and his Saboteurs - M&SU agents who focus on the Union's more, ahem, "destructive" goals and are in the Backdraft box set thats now been sort of replaced in M3e. 

Joshua has a long scarf and a bit of a mad look about him, so a Tom Baker-style Dr Who colourscheme seemed about right. 

The pair of Saboteurs could easily have been quite dark, but I went with a green khaki coat to give them a bit of the "1984" about them. One is modelled with long flowing hair, so she's ended up with some radical anarchist style purple locks as well to keep the theme going.

Fitzsimmonds has a placard too - mine borrows the placard imagery from the seminal 1986 Billy Bragg "difficult third album" Talking with the Taxman about Poetry, drawing obvious parallels between Fitzimmons ideologically indistinct place in the Malifaux MS&U pantheon and the 1920's radical Russian Poet Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky's equally ambiguous and troubled relationship with the emerging Soviet state. Or something. 

Ferdinand Vogel and the Beast Within round out the set.

Unambiguously a rip-off of the Jeckyll and Hyde classic pairing, but with Wyrd Games own IP.

Newline 28mm Assyrians - the test batch

Lacking a 28mm Biblical army, I've been dithering about picking up an Assyrian army for some time now, on the basis that it is a decent list which I've used in 15mm with some degree of success, and more importantly that it's small, so hopefully not too expensive.

With multiple hoverings over the Foundry website failing to convince me I wanted the army enough to spend Foundry prices (£22 for a chariot! Ouch!), whilst browsing the traders at at the recent Attack! show in Devizes I stumbled across Newline Designs, who I'd mostly associated with 20mm ranges in the past but who also have a substantial range of 25/8mm figures as well.

They had a great value Assyrian Army pack (2 chariots, 9 Cavalry, 80-odd foot for about £75 from memory), with a special show offer of 20% off as well on the pack and any extras.. so a sub-£100 Assyrian Army was immediately bought!

So far I've only painted up a few figures just to see how they come out (the whole army will be a more production-line project), and I've also taken the "same army, different scales" principle to it's logical extreme by painting them up exactly the same as my 15mm Assyrians !

And here they are, next to the Museum 15mm Assyrians, and also some Foundry Commanders that I use in my 15mm army.

They are still a WiP project - I've not even done a full MF base of 6 infantry

The Newline figures come with figure-metal spears which I plan to replace with wire ones - like this guy. The sword is also from the bits box - all the Newline guys come with spears.

Here they are with the Museum 15mm figures

Same shield patterns - not too difficult to be honest...

The Armoured Slingers are over-supplied for ADLG armies in the Newline army pack, but the handful of spares will fill in as back rank figures in bigger units of Line Infantry

A generous three poses of bowmen - here's two of them.

This is the Newline chaps next to some Foundry Officers - a great match on size and body mass as well. The Newline guys look a bit shorter here, but their bases are lacking in magnabase so they are a little shorter due to that reason, not figure height.

Here are the Newline slingers and some more Foundry officers with equal height basing. A near perfect match - apart from on price!

Once the spears arrive I'll get cracking on the Assyrian production line - even these 28mm Chariots will end up with scaled-up versions of the same "wallpaper" I used on the earlier, smaller 15mm versions.