Bergonzoli's Caravan

I approve of this conversion.

Well, here we all are then. Going on with my minor obsession with the North African Campaign at the moment, I went a bit mad on eBay and bought (at outrageous prices) both "Monty's Caravan" in it's original Matchbox box and the insanely pricey Italeri 90mm dual purpose gun on the Lancia 3RO Chassis.

The raw materials.

The idea is to create a command vehicle for my Italians. It's mentioned in the Matchbox instructions that the caravan body originally belonged to Annibale "barba elettrica" Bergonzoli, but was captured by a flying column of 7th Armoured Division in February 1941 after Beda Fromm. From (no pun) there it went to an HQ ordanance depot in Egypt where it was demounted from it's Lancia 3R0 chassis and popped onto a Leyland Retreiver 4x6.

I intend to reverse that conversion with one of my own!

Having, as I said before, spent a huge sum on these two kits I was more than a little nervous at the prospect of fit.

Gingerly mating the chassis with the floor. Easy, easy does it...

But all's well so far.

Here's one I prepared earlier.

You may note that the van body test fitted has a spider web in the rear window. It's another I meant as a straight out-of-the-box build that got set aside "some time ago".

Mock not the mock-up.

And here we are in full mock-up mode with all the major bits test-fitted. I might change out those rear mud-flapd for fully round mud-guards from one of the Airfix RAF sets. As I build the new caravan body, I will blank off the windows which gives a better look than just the bare, undetailed interior. I suppose for the sake of consistency that I ought to do the same to the cab.
 

Rapid Fire French Light Tank Battalion

I've just been doing a bit of back-of-the-envelope RF! figuring to stick together a battalion of French Renault FT tanks mostly just because I like the HaT kits. So without further ado:

French Light Tank Battalion 1918, for Rapid Fire
Bn HQ:

1 Radio Tank*

3 Companies, with:

2 Gun Tanks and 1 MG Tank

Battalion Reserve:

5 MG Tanks **

*May replace with Gun Tank as the Radio Tanks did not seem to last very long!

** If desired, add an extra MG Tank to each Company. An earlier organisation decentralised the reserve to the company level.
This organisation represents a full strength battalion. Attrition rates were high due to mechanical and terrain issues. It was not unisual for a Battalion to lose 50% of it's strength within a day or so of going into action. In this case, replace two companies' complement with MG Tanks and delete the

Reserve Company.

Source is Zaloga's book on WW1 French tanks. The errors of interpretation remain entirely my own!
Queries criticisms or comments?

Italian Artillery

I just finished painting the crews for some of my Italian Artillery. The guns themselves are Italeri 149mm - only a dozen made it to North Africa, but...
The gunners are those which came with the kit - only a few so far, but the rest are ready to go. In the background are another half-dozen by Mirliton to man in turn with some Eritrean Ascarii a 65mm infantry gun which I bought recently.

More news as it comes to hand... Afrika Korps recce vehilcles in production...

Rose Prestige Libyan Spearman

Glorious.

Just a small nod of appreciatuion to Garrison Miniatures for keeping some lovely old figure lines going. 30mm high, beautifully proportioned and extremely well-hung.

What more could you want?

 These will be joining my Eureka Myceneans as a 24-figure-strong unit of allied skirmishers.

Painting Challenge

As has been said elsewhere, there is nothing quite like a little challenge (no pressure) among friends to get the motor running. Here is the part where I confess all. Here is the part where I show the depth of my straying.

Mirliton Italian infantry. Almost two companies' worth for Rapid Fire.

I had committed. Committed. Yes, committed. Committed to painting two regiments of Spencer Smith foot and another two of horse.

47mm ATG and crew - yet to be based, Fiat Revelli MMG and a command group. Ought that be "Gruppo"? O dio mio.

Enjoy the pictures...

Ready To Roll Italian Fiat Trucks

Oh the shame.

Italeri quick build Semovente and slow-build(!) M13/40

The shame of it all.

From the left - Airfix PzKw IV F1, Armourfast PzKw III J and an elderly Matchbox PzKw II

Hanging my head here, people.

Airfix Opels - the one on the left will be a 20mm FLAK38 carrier. Sort of a 1942 Technical. They are in Africa after all...

Quite embarrassed.

Eureka Mycenean Charioteers

Nothing more to say really, is there.

Spearmen - first file of the phalanx!

Nup.

The rest of the gang. All by Eureka.

What I did on the Long weekend

 The lads put on our "55 Days" test game at WinterCon in Canberra.

 The Hanlin Library is taken (then later lost) by the Boxers.

 The British Legation.

 Boxers attempt an assault on the wall of the British Legation.

 US Marines man the outer defenses. Civilians at the barricades.

 The crew. I'm the one drining coffee for the camera.

 The Tigermen spring into action!

Targets!

The miracle that is Photoshop.

Spencer Smith Normans

Meant as an accompaniment to their recent "Robin Hood" releases are Spencer Smiths new Normans.

So far they have released a half-dozen cavalry, numerous armoured infantry and a couple of unarmoured bowmen. I bought four cavalry for the purposes of this review.

All are in the classic Norman war-gear of knee-length, short-sleeved byrnie and conical helm with nasal. The figures are 30mm - just the same as the Franco-Prussian War French I own which are also from the greater "Classic" range. The figures are multi-part insofar as both arms need to be glued to the body. To this end they are provided with a substantial pin-and-hole arrangement. The arms are poseable and completely interchangeable with those of other figures in the range. One could use some of the spear being thrust overarm limbs from the infantry to vary the cavalry even further.

Indeed, this latter point is the reason there are so very many variants of the infantry at least. there is not a body dolly (of which there seem to be only four) that has not had each arm swapped for it's alternate to make up the plethora of codes available. The cavalry are in the same boat with only two or three body poses that are used to make up the five available codes.

So, what are the pros and cons?

I'll start with the cons. I'm honestly not sure on how I feel about the two seperate arms. It seems that a design decision was made for economic rather than aesthetic reasons so as to maximise the number of figure variations that could be got off a limited number of body dollies. I experienced a fair amount of frustration in getting the arms into the poses I wanted as the fit of the pegs in the requisite holes was loose and getting the limb to stay still was tricky whilst the glue set. I am sure that cleverer people than I will use a superglue accelerator or even one of the gel variants of cyanoacrylate adhesive. I'm not entirely happy how the joint looks when the arms are glued on.

Moving onto the pros, the figures and horses are exquisitely well-proportioned. Their hands and weapons are normally sized. A design feature that I like especially with these figures is that detail has been kept to the minimum. The figures look like Normans (or Crusaders or...) without having to be lugging around an apothecary's workshop of superfluous detail that will never be noticed on the wargames table anyway. Thus they are quick to paint - a personal plus. The chainmail is very subdued and this will either turn people on or off depending on how they prefer to paint this sort of item. The folds of the mail are very nice but the "rows of dots" that are the generally accepted sculpting shorthand for mail are replaced by a light pebbling which to my mind might best be painted with a dark metallic coat overall (Boltgun metal as was) and a quick drybrush of something brighter - Chainmail perhaps?

I've left the shields plain as I intend to add some VVV shield decals at a future date.

Recommended. Mine will be scaling the walls of Jerusalem sometime soon.

The price is right at 95p  for foot or GBP2.35 for cavalry.

UPDATE: For Ross - a comparison shot with my Willie "Saracens for all the Ages (qv!)"

Castle walls by Games Workshop

Shields hand-painted by me. Banner courtesy of Amy.

Shewing a method for ye Construction of ye Fortificationes.

 Moslem and Christian assail each other. It was always thus between the two. So the culture warriors tell us, anyway.

 Oh, for a Kingom of Heaven. Especially one with Eva Green in it. Ahem.

Painting Challenge

Spencer Smith "Classic" Franco-Prussian War French

 It does one's painting genie good to subject it on an irregular basis to the gentle rigours of a painting challenge. A challenge between friends with no pressure other than a deadline and one's own commitment to meet it.

Imperial Regiment Saxe-Coburg Gotha

 On that basis I present the photographs here as proof that I have dismally failed in my aim of two brigades of SSM Infantry and Cavalry and an admission that I am indeed a hopeless butterfly.

French Marines defend a cardboard box to the last man and the last round

Funny Little Wars

The Field Artillery. Not quite "75s" but not too bad either.

 I have recently been bitten by the "Funny Little Wars" bug and have started a small collection of 54mm toy soldiers.

"Grande Berthe"

 But which army? Army Red? Oh, everyone does one of them. Army Black then? Oh, spare me the cliche.

The Flying Artillery? Deadly with a matchstick at six feet.

 Army Light Green? What? Montenegro? Never!

Musketry practice for the men in the red trousers.

 Army Horizon Bleu. What else could it be?

The new experimental uniform with the shrapnel-proof helmet. Will it ever catch on?

 More as I continue the build up.

"I note that the back lawn is exceedingly well-mown at the moment", says Amy. "Any reason for that?"

Me: "Oh, no, just one of those little jobs that needed doing, dear."

The Shape of Things to Come

Water Sports

 I've spent a little time this evening making watery terrain for some projected games here at the Duchy of Alzheim. Above is my swamp and below a picture of the full collection of ponds. Both are cur with my jigsaw from 3mm MDF before being painted. the painting was largely wet-on-wet to allow a degree of blending. the swamp/marsh/wetland was basically black with some stippling of green while the ponds pretty much speal for themselves.


Erin gets in on the act: "What you doin' daddy?"



I feel as though they sit pretty well on my table insofar as they are relatively heavy for their size and dead flat. I've chamfered the edges with a sanding block to blend them "down" to the table surface. At worst I think this only looks as artificial as the riverbank that is like a little speed-bump at the edge of a water-feature and a good deal easier to blend away with a few strategically-placed model trees to soften the transition.

It might be nice to make a great big lake.

Bits and bobs

 Just a few bits and bobs today. As you can see from the picture above, I've taken delivery of some Amera vac-formed terrain. In my case, five straight and two curved sections as well as a nice little bridge and a forked section. They all butt up neatly against each other so, so far so good. All the work will be in the painting I'd think, so I'll see how I go. I've probably got something like two metres of river - surely enough?

Side-note - I wonder how they'd paint as roads?

 In painting news, I'e finished glossing the heck out of these Spencer Smith "Classic" Franco-Prussian War French. The coats are a bit darker in reality - blame the flash photographer! I have decided to paint the rifle-toting arms seperately before fixing them to the torso in future.

Apart from that they were lovely to paint - surprisinly unencumbered by extraneous detail and a nice subject. I used a semi-washed style with these on a white undercoat again, but was unable to resist doing some highlighting. Some habits are very hard to break. I felt the black lining worked quite well to firm up the definition of the figure.

The Demise of the Jaeger

Newsflash, Zichenau Central:

Caught in the open, a company of ineptly led Stollen Jaeger was caught by our brave hussars and slaughtered almost to a man and, we are glad to report, without suffering a single loss in reply.

The lone survivor was last seen scuttling back to the Village of Eispicke. Little safety there, however as our brave Artillery reportedly caused a couple of casualties among those Stollens who chose to cower within.

Not for nothing is Stollen known as "A Piece of Cake".

With basecoat and acrylic wash...

 Just an early experiment with some Stadden Zulu Wars British converted with paint to represent French Marines.

 I'm quite pleased with them the unifors are nice and bright and the black equipment makes for a strong contrast.

French Marines defending the Legation from "Boxers, mon Capitaine, 'ordes of zem!"

Eyes Only - de Latte's Inner Life

Or, A Day At Sittangbad

Stokes - do not read the following. Otherwise I will creep into your house at 2 AM and re-arrange your troops to my advantage.

General de Latte sipped his favoured coffee with hot milk and surveyed the sketch map one of his disgracefully sweaty roaming aides had slapped with grubby hands onto his portable campaign table. Mistress Ophelia* stirred resentfully among the disordered sheets and bolsters of his campaign four-post bed and mumbled something about the annoying cannon fire.

Ignoring her he smoothed the paper and glared at it in his best military fashion.

*Thinks*

I can either launch the Hussars into von Tschatschke's**  gunners before he can deploy to fire, OR thow them into the flank of those Leib Grenadiers. I could take the light company of the Mittau infantry, put them in open order and discomfort the gunners anyway whilst throwing the remainder of them at the Leib Grenadiers after they have been disordered by the cavalry melee.

Hm.

Or, radical thought, send them through the gunners, and have them make for the bridge. The rest of the army could pin the Stollens frontally. Mittau could follow in support.

And what of O'Malley's Irish Grenze? A target-rich environment for them, as they say. At the least they could cause the enemy cavalry casualties. At best, who knows? Once all the Zichenauer Infantry get stuck in, we could in potential see a double-envelopment of the Stollen main force.

Note to self - must preserve sufficient force to break into Sittangbad proper.

*More of her anon.
** How on Earth do you pronounce that name? Shats-key? Germans, eh?

Alzheimer Artillery

 Artyillery has always been a bit neglected in  my armies. I can't explain why. I like cannons. They're good. I like painting them - I have a large collection. I think it's because I don't really like painting gunners. Easy enough to see why as the Spencer Smith gunner is easily the most misbegotten, flat, flash-encrusted, two-dimensional creature ever to roam a war games table.And why is the bloke with the rammer carrying a hanky? Anwer me that!

Still, I was pleased with how the guns came up. They are Battery 'C' (Howizers) of the Royal, Loyal and Efficient Train of Alzheimer Artilery. I will now embark (cursing no doubt) upon Battery 'B'.

Now, in other news, the recent sad attempts of certain bloggers to drum up interest in their paltry blogs* has made me do a little counting and I have realised that, with another couple of gun crews and some infantry subbing for engineers/ponooniers that perhaps I might just be able to put on something similar. Perhaps this weekend. I may need to use the odd house brick instead of some bulildings, though. How Old School is that?

*What? :^)

Another Flag

I thought it might be nice to have a more generic "French" flag for my French Marines to bear whilst defending the Legations in Peking.

Amy stripped the detail out of the FPW flag for me.

A Good Impression

I'm currently building a small force for French for a Franco-Prussian War demo game at CanCon in January of 2013 and was casting around for some flags for the two Infantry Regiments (times three batalions each) which are to be my contribution.

I'd just about decided on these from Warflag:

http://www.warflag.com/flags/fp/fpf1corp1d.shtml

which are a very nice offering. Then I found myself remembering these from the Vintage Wargaming blog:

http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com.au/search/label/flags

I turned to Amy, source of many of my flags, and asked her to re-do the former in the style of the latter.

She's good, my missus is.