The 198th save my painting ...

Stage 1 of my plan to rekindle the painting ethos, to get those 'painting juices' flowing again. I have finished the basing of the Cadians that I bought earlier this year. I bought them already painted from an up and coming 'gamer, enthusiast and all round nice guy who had moved on from Cadians to Vostroyans. He wasn't happy with the paint job he'd done on these but I thought they were just fine. They have already apeared in a game some months ago (with bases unpainted), and I saw these as an easy or early win in the drive to get some painting success under my belt again, and re-energise my painting plan (which, as with almost all 'gamers, has more lead than an Americas' Cup yacht keel - well, in the mono-hull days anyway!!).

So, meet the Cadian 198th, 'No job too dirty' (hence the ash waste style basing which is something of a departure for me).

Here's the 198th so far ...

And some close up views.

Now to paint a few more Heavy weapons, some troopers and a couple of special weapons (that all came with the original purchase). The big challege will be to use a similar painting style. Elliot used washes whereas I woud usually use layers, so I'll have to learn a few things here. Hopefully some photos in a few weeks time.

Cambrai 1917

Couldn't really let today pass without acknowledging that it's the anniversary of the Battle of Cambrai, 20 November 1917.

As an ex Black Hatter myself I always feel some degree of affinity with the day, although I don't know that I quite agree with the the view that it demonstrated that the tank was the secret weapon that would end the war. I've always thought that it was in fact the evolution of artillery tactics in particular, along with a huge number of lessons learned in so many other areas on how to conduct warfare (from secrecy, to infantry tactics, to simple exhaustion on the home and military fronts) that lay behind the breaking of the stalemate.

Food for thought anyway as we remember the role that the tank did play, especially on this day in 1917.

WoW... Wings of War

Jon and Keith last night introduced me to Wings of War (the rules set is available as a free download from this site, but you need the cards that come with the game to play). I'd bought an Albatross DVa quite some time ago to use in Great War Spearhead games, but hadn't played the WoW game itself. Here are a couple of write-ups from Keith's blog, the first of last night's game, and another of earlier games.

Here are a few shots of the game. My first game went well until I was hit by Jon with his Spad XIII.. and unceremomiously blew up!!! My DVa is the plane nearest the camera ...

Jon's DH4 successfully making a bombing run in one of our games.

Keith's Dr1 Fokker  Triplane.. these things turn 'on a dime' as they say!!!

The two albatrosses (albatrii???) scrabble to get to grips with DH4 .. Jon flew straight and totally confounded us.. a source of a lot of laughter and a thoroughly good fun game!!!!

Rekindling the painting bug ...

It's been a while since I painted anything really. I competed a couple of stands of GW Fell Bats as flyers for Lorraine's Evil HotT army, but that was pre sabbatical trip, and pre Earthquake (4 September). Having been back from the trip for 6 weeks I haven't actually picked up a paint brush yet. So, what was the best way to get back into the swing? Either a brand new project (sounded good) or finishing some existing projects. I opted for the latter, which still left an awful lot of possibilities. Just because they are there, I've decided to try to bring the 40K Imperial Guard/Daemonhunter allies a little closer to completion to get the juices flowing. These are figures I'd bought painted, but not based, several months ago, and it sounded easy finish the bases. This is one of those psychological 'quick reward for minimum effort' projects, specially chosen so that I can see the results of my labours quickly enough to get some momentum going.

Here are a couple of photos of the figures with no basing.

And here are a few photos of the first batch finished so far. I've opted for a wasteland basing style for this army, looking very dark and desolate.

I've quite a few more to base, and a number of figures (including some heavy weapons) to paint from scratch, so they have been undercoated ready to go too. I'll have to buy a few more heavy weapons, and I quite fancy adding some sentinels (walkers) and another couple of vehicles so the force can play as a stand alone IG army as well as an ally to the Daemonhunters. All looks relatively achievable at this stage. Only flaw in all this: I don't play a lot of 40K at the moment. However the miniatures are always very cool to paint. Might be what I need in preparation for the next DBA army, and that Pirate HotT army.

Eastern rumblings ...

Friday night games again.. and this week Adrian and I fought a couple of games of Armati using his 15mm armies.. this time with an eastern flavour: Moors versus Turks. Here is a selection of shots from the second of the two games we played. I was pretty comprehensively trounced in the first, but the second was very close.

Turkish spearmen supported by a Turkish gun.

Turkish heavy cavalry his the Moorish line of Militia. The Militia stood up pretty well.

An overview of the crunch point of the game when both sides pushed their cavalry left flanks into the opposing right flank of infantry.

Turkish spearmen, with Janissaries in the background of the shot, facing the Moorish knights.

Moorish militia taking the charge of the Turkish knights, supported by their own artillery.

Some more Crisbecq information...

I thought I'd dig out a little more information on the Crisbecq emplacements  that I visited during my recent Norman travels. Here are a couple of interesting links:

The Official site of The Batteries of Crisbecq, and a site dedicated to the memory of the Battle of Normandy

'Ivan's War'

Very good friend Pete recommended the book ‘Ivan’s War’, by Catherine Merridale to me some time ago.

If I were ever to be in a position to write history, this would be the type of history I’d like to write. Ms Merridale’s book followed on from her previous title ‘Night of stone: Death and memory in Russia’, and is the result of extensive research using primary archival material now accessible in Russia, and over 200 interviews with WW2 veterans still alive in Russia and other states of the Russian Confederation. I can only describe the book as remarkable.

From the back cover:

‘Ivan’s war’ is the first book to put the experience of the ordinary Russian soldier at the heart of a narrative of the war on the Eastern Front. Ivan, the archetypal Russian infantryman, emerges at last as a human figure in Catherine Merridale’s magnificent and widely acclaimed work.

Ms Merridale succeeds in cutting through 70 years of stereotypes to reveal the true nature of fighting on the Eastern Front, revealing the Russian infantryman as human rather than superhuman, a man (or woman) who suffered from starvation and cold, who responded to fear as any other human being will do, and a human being who was as susceptible to the excesses of human behaviour during and after the stresses of battle as any other man. She demonstrates the extent to which official reporting of the war covered up or ignored pillage and rape by the Russian soldier, without in any way demeaning those soldiers nor their experiences.

I could best describe the book as ‘profound’. I’d suggest that, with the new knowledge this book presents, ‘gamers with an interest in the eastern front 1941 to 1945 cannot claim anything like a reasonable knowledge of the history of that war if they have not read this book. For me this was an epiphany!!! It is a most amazing read. As I said in my opening paragraph, if I were ever to write history, this is exactly the sort of history I’d aspire to write.