British transports and a club visit

Yet again, these have taken me way longer than they should have. I initially wanted to get them finished before I went to Broadside but the best laid plans gang aft agley, eh?

First up are the two little universal carriers, and I mean little. I was surprised at quite how tiny these models are, and also at how damn long they take to paint. Part of that is the fact that they have 8 crew between them, so it's not just painting two vehicles, it's painting almost another entire squad
Not much of note here really, except the decision to make one of the carriers crew into Polish airborne. I was umming and ahhing over red or green berets, and then I spoke to a Polish colleague at work the other day, who told me about her father who escaped Poland to join the British army, and then couldn't go home until 1989 due to the communist regime there threatening his life. I had to include some Polish in my army after hearing that. Plus I really like the idea of some diversity in this army. Painting caucasian skin every single time starts to feel a bit samey after the 90th figure, so grey berets happened to salve my liberal bleeding heart.

Only one decent picture of these, unfortunately. I was taking the photos outside with my back to the sun, and I didn't consider my own shadow...

Next up is a warlord M5 half track. Bought because it's a little more historically accurate for a british army, but I must say it was a pig to put together and the tracks had so much flash you have to practically carve some shape back into them. If I was to make another, I'd go with the plastic m3 kit instead. For the sake of a battery box and a few other details it's not worth the hassle.
I wanted a lot of stowage on this and still might hang a few more bits on the side to break up the profile and the lines of stowage thing I've got going on, but it's serviceable for now and I want to get the damnable thing off my desk for a while. I also want to convert some passengers for it so it doesn't look so empty, and I have a spare sprue left over from the British starter box to do it with, but again that's a task for another time. The stowage is all from Warlord except the roll of camo net which I made myself from medical guaze.

Alongside actually getting stuff finished, I have also been out and played some games. I went to the Maidstone Wargames Society open day yesterday, and had a good game of Lion Rampant on a beautiful board depicting Sluys in the Netherlands during the hundred years war, all made by Stephen from the club. I was keen to play this game as the board and figures were awesome, but also because I have a copy of The Pikeman's Lament which I intend to use for ECW skirmishes in 28mm, and I wanted to give the rules a try as it is based on LR. It's a fantastic ruleset, really easy to pick up and easy to modify. Perfect, really.
The scenario was a fictitious one where the English had to burn the four thatched buildings in the centre of the table, and I as the French had to defend them. It was a close result despite a wobbly start that would probably have been less close if my rolling had been anything other than atrocious all game, especially with regards to reloading and firing the my cannon, but I made the English work for their victory so I was happy. I could also have used the boast element to my advantage a bit more, but I didn't know the system so I'll call it a good first game despite the loss.

The board at the start of the action, including a lot of lovely vignettes and peasant models.

Ignore my ugly ass and weird hand angle and look at the pretty ships. Credit for this photo goes to MWS.

I also played a little FoG, talked Badgers and Burrows (I think it was called) with a guy from the Milton Hundred, and chatted a bit about Gaslands (the rulebook for which has dropped through my letterbox as I have been typing this!). Overall, a great morning out and I'll definitely be going back as the club plays a lot of the games that I am currently interested in taking up.

Broadside 2018 show

I guess Broadside is my 'local' show, despite the journey there taking the best part of an hour, and despite the fact that I've never been before. I decided to go this time partly because I was interested, but also to try and drag myself out of the house and actually talk to people. I deliberately went on my Jack Jones, to force myself out of my comfort zone and make myself talk to strangers. It worked! Turns out historical wargamers are quite a nice bunch...

The first game I wanted to see was this Zeebrugge 1918 game from Maidstone Wargames Society (Who are having an open day in a few weeks that I fully intend to attend). It won a best historical game award at this years Salute, and the terrain itself was amazing. I can't talk to the gameplay, as the gent running the game was busy and I didn't get a chance to chat to him, but it was mighty impressive nonetheless.

Next was an interesting offering from Deal wargames society, entitled, 'The grass is always greener on the other side, or Survival of the Thickest'. The aim of the piece was to either maneuver a herd of gnu from one side of the board to other, avoiding hungry lions and lionesses, crocodiles and other predatory beasties on the way, or to maneuver your hungry lions, lionesses and crocodiles to eat as many gnus as you can without other wildlife interfering with your kill. A great idea, designed by a chap who is a trained zoologist no less. Didn't get a photo of this one, maybe because I was chatting. A shame as it has some nice scenery, and a great river with a bloody huge croc in it!

There was a Marne 1914 game in 6mm put on by Postie's Rejects. Had a good chat with one of the club (big lee, going by his t-shirt, a little checking shows he runs the Biglee's miniature adventures blog, which looks pretty good and which I shall peruse in depth later). He taught me all about the battle, which was very interesting as my knowledge of WW1 pretty much just runs to a few poems, and we had a talk about 6mm wargaming, which was helpful as I'm looking at trying out a new scale for an ECW project I have in mind. The Marne game was a demo, but looked good. Again, I seem to have buggered up the photos for this one as I didn't get a shot from the the French lines at the other end of the table where all the action was happening. What a billy sugger I am.

The East Essex Military Society had a nice looking battlefleet gothic game going, and a good five minutes was spent reminiscing with the chap there.

Don't know who put on this Chain of Command game as the table was deserted, but it looked good. A shame as I'm interested in the rules and would have liked to ask someone about them.

Also neglected to find out who was running this gaslands game. Quite a lot of hype around this ruleset, and I like the idea, but the terrain always seems to play second fiddle to the cars, and I think a good table makes or breaks a game. This table looked better than most I've seen, though.

I liked the look of this Mythos game, which I know nothing about, but assume it is Lovecraft based. I'm a huge Lovecraft fan, and was quite interested, but the table was either busy or deserted, and while the terrain looked good, it didn't scream New England to me. I'd love to know if it's a good game, though.

This Gangs of Rome game on the Sarissa / Footsore stand looked good, as you'd expect, but the prices of the gangs are pretty steep, so nothing I'm likely to buy into, especially as I can't multitask the buildings. I did buy a barn from Sarissa, but as they didn't have it in stock I got it posted for free and with 10% off. Not a bad discount for having to wait a few days at all.

There were other games, but I think these were the highlights. I didn't come away with a huge haul, a few Vallejo colours, and a timber framed mdf house from a company called blotz. Very reasonable prices and lots of detail. I'll post a review once I've put it together. There was also a publisher called Helion & Company which had a good range of books on the English Civil War which I might look into once I've finished my current read.

Overall, a great little show, and I spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around. Many thanks to the Milton Hundred for putting it on.