Hammerhead 2019

Off down the M6 and across the A50 to Newark Showground, for the first show of the year (for me). Last year's show was cancelled because of a blizzard on the day, and I missed 2017 because of some clash of diaries, so this was the first time I have attended since the show has been split across two halls. This seemed to work well, with plenty of room for the games and traders but no gaping holes. As usual at this show every game was designated as a participation event (apart from those in the DBA tournament). I didn't try out any of these, so I can't comment on their quality, but there seemed to be a fair amount of activity around most of the tables.

I had some specific targets, mostly around the game Rangers of Shadow Deep, which I have recently picked up. This is by Joe McCullough, the creator of Frostgrave and Ghost Archipelago. I find those settings rather specific, whereas RoSD allows you to use much more generic fantasy characters - rangers obviously, and knights, conjurors, rogues and so on. It's main strength is the scenarios which are put out, each with interesting challenges and different mechanics.

My first purchase was a bunch of dungeon dressing - treasure piles, tables, rubble and so on. These came from a vendor called Miniature Vault, which means, according to the packaging, that they are bulk purchased from Reaper Bones and repackaged for sale at conventions.

After a turn around the first haul, and a bit of lunch (pie and chips) I walked over to the George Stephenson Hall, which is the hall where the show used to be held in total. I got some more dungeon stuff from Ainsty - more substantial items like walls, pillars and doors. From 4Ground I picked up a couple of Dark Ages Anglo-Danish houses/huts - they should fit into the generic fantasy background. I also got a couple of packs of clear plastic circular bases (25mm diameter) which I now use for all my 28mm figures.

The final purchase was the biggest, a board game. I had hoped to find Pavlov's House, a solo game of defending a building over many days during the Stalingrad battle. However the only vendor there, Magister Militum, didn't have it with them, and I was quite happy to pick up one of the COIN (Counterinsurgency) series. I dithered between A Distant Plain (Afghanistan modern) and Cuba Libre (Castro's revolution) - in the endI opted for the latter, and I am looking forward to seeing how it plays - like all the COIN series it is designed from the outset for full solitaire play (though you can have up to three other players).

Back to the North West, the trip only spoiled slightly by Blackpool's progressive collapse to a 4-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers. Quite a bit of painting to do now, but also some rules reading.

The booty

Union Zouaves

Painted some more of the Baccus ACW, this time the Union Zouaves. I wanted to make them look a little different from their Confederate equivalents, though they could quite justifiably look very similar. Anyway for these I chose to model them on the New York Fire Zouaves, with red shirts and dark blue trousers. For the base I used AK Terrains acrylic textured paint, an alternative to Basetex. It is slightly easier to apply and "paint", though it seems to be death to brushes. But the colour choice is odd - there is a very deep chocolate brown, which I used on the Confederate Zouaves, and a Dry Earth which I used here. That, however is a very pale sand colour - they don't seem to do a mid-earth tone. I brushed it over with an earth shade and it looks fine flocked, but still rather arid. It would be nice to have one with a more temperate feel.

Salute 2017

Off down to t'Smoke for my annual trip to Salute. I stayed in a hotel close to the venue - it costs a little more but it avoids a long trail across London in the morning. The hotel also allows a checkout at 14:00 which means you can go back at lunchtime and dump the morning's booty, and leave your luggage with the concierge. Saves a lot of lugging during the afternoon. My daughter is working there at the moment so I went down by train, and had dinner with her, all very relaxed and a good way to prepare for a hard day spending.

Up betimes, and a bacon butty in the cafe opposite (much cheaper and better than eating inside the venue). I walked up to the show, the length of ExCel which makes quite a trek. Salute is always held on the same weekend as the London Marathon, and ExCel is where they have the checkin process for all the runners. So down at the west end the place is full of lean lithe runners in tracksuits and Lycra. As you walk down the length of the halls the average weight of the attendees roughly doubles, as does the average blood pressure, and you have arrived at Salute.

Plenty has been written about this show so I won't say too much. I spent the morning walking round and doing a bit of reconnaissance. My main theme for the day was my plan to get into Black Powder (the period and the rule set) using 6mm of course. I bought a couple of supplements from Warlords - the ACW and AWI books - and returned to the hotel to pack. Lunch was fish and chips at the "Airline Cafe" - again far nicer, far cheaper and far quicker than eating in ExCel.

Back to the show, and some serious figure purchasing. Baccus had their new Fallschirmjager on display, which led to the following conversation. Me: "Is that what i think it is, a Nebelwerfer?" Baccus: "Yes". "It's not in the catalogue". "No". "It's not on the list here on the stand". "No". "But it is available?" "Yes". "So I can buy some?" "We've sold out". (Collapse of stout party).

After recovering, I bought one each of the rest of the Fallschirmjager packs - Advancing and Firing troops, plus LMGs and Panzerschrecks. I also bought two ACW armies, Confederate and Eastern Union, as well as flags for both. I headed over to H&R to see what they had on offer. There were some nice looking new ranges - East German 1980s, and LRDG and Paras for WW2. However I struggled to get served so I decided to leave those and buy on the web, having seen how nice they looked. I bought a bunch of steel bases in various sizes, ready for the ACW troops, and some paints, and that was it. I left at about four, and with a good trip across London I caught an earlier train and was back home soon after seven.

Magnetic Tows

Most GHQ guns - artillery and anti-tank guns - come packed in a standard way. There are two guns modeled in firing position, two in towing mode and two towing vehicles. This makes sense, but it has always left me with a problem of how to base everything. I want to have the vehicle towing the guns for transit mode, but also have them available alongside or near the guns when firing.
My recent discovery of small cheap powerful magnets has given me an idea which I have put into action with some Italian guns - 75mm Cannone (artillery) and 45mm anti-tank guns. I painted up the guns and tows, but before doing so I glued a magnet under each of the vehicles. One type was wide enough that the magnets are entirely out of sight, with a little drilling to make a recess underneath. On the other vehicle the magnet is visible, but it's not a problem for me - they are not very prominent, and could easily be taken for a spare wheel under the chassis.
Once painted I based the guns - on steel bases, as are all my 6mm models. The firing models were on landscaped bases with crews as normal, though I tried to make sure there was a bit of flat space available. The guns in towed format I put on longer thinner bases, landscaped as rough tracks, and the guns were glued on their wheels, so that the towhooks are at the height of the towbars on the vehicles. I left plenty of space ahead of the guns for the vehicles to sit in place.
The magnets hold the tows very securely on the bases - I can easily pick up the whole thing by lifting the vehicle, though it comes off simply enough when you need to separate them. So now I put the towing vehicle on the transit base while the guns are moving around in my battle. When they un-limber I substitute the firing base, and I can pop to vehicle on there as well if I wish, to show it is available to move the gun again if needed. In practie I probably wouldn't do that with the ATGs, as it looks odd to have a truck so close to a gun which is presumably about to come into action against enemy armour, or is supposed to be hidden in ambush.
The pictures should give the idea - four images for each gun. First in traveling mode, and then a shot with the tow removed to show how the gun is glued to the base. Then the gun in action, and finally the same but with the tow on the base as if about to hitch up.

Base metal

A couple of weeks ago I received a model I had ordered on eBay, a GHQ Nashorn, nicely painted. It came in an old metal cigarette case, along with a couple of free 3mm tanks. All three had magnets mounted underneath, which held them to the case. It occurred to me that this was an idea I could use, given that I already mount all my 6mm troops and vehicles on 1" square steel bases. If I put a magnet under a tank, then I can put it onto a base for games where I want that, but I can also remove it for games in which unbased vehicles are preferred. 

I tried this out on some GHQ Pz IVH which I had painted but not based, and some magnets I had lying around - I think from Flames of War days. I used Das air-drying putty to fill in the cavity under the tank, and then embedded a magnet in it, at ground level as it were. As it turned out the Das isn't all that sticky once dried - most if the carcasses dropped out of the tanks, and most of the magnets popped out of their holes when I offered them to a steel base. However that was not a big problem - I glued the magnets back in with superglue, and the carcasses into the hulls with Uhu or similar. The first picture here show how it works.

I then modelled some bases in my normal way - green Basetex to give some shape and texture, a bit of Flat Earth paint and then a variety of flocks and other bits. The difference was that instead of gluing a model I simply left a fairly flat area in the centre. The tanks then sit nicely on the bases - the magnets hold them securely, but come off easily enough when needed. The next few pictures show the effect - I later did the same with some Chieftains which can be seen in the last two pics, with and without bases.

This opens up several other possibilities. I can use the same bases for different tanks, so I do not need to have a base for every vehicle, just enough for the biggest battle I am likely to fight. And I can use different bases for the same model - so a Tiger could have a desert sand base to fight in Tunisia, and then switch to a temperate base for Italy, or even a snow scene in Russia. All in all, I think a successful experiment.

The magnets, by the way, turn out to be very cheap, only about 12p each for the size I used, and there is a huge range and choice.

 

Basing Instinct

A small but weighty parcel from Hampshire tells me that Ian Carbutt of Precision Wargame Supplies has come through with more supplies, a hundred more 1" square steel bases. I use these to base all my 6mm troops, and I had run out, so I had to pause on the 6mm painting (and did some Wild West, a topic for a different post). For now, with the new bases I was able to finish a few units, two bases of German motorcycle troops, and a single command stand representing Rommel - all these figures are Heroics and Ross. Next up in this scale I have some British desert tanks already sprayed in Portland Stone and ready to finish, but for now I am heading West.