British infantry & making rice paddies

 I finished converting my British/kiwi infantry for the Italian campaign and had lots of figures left over so accidently started, or should I say returned to, another project- 14th Army in Burma. I converted a section of Sikh troops and as with the Italian themed force used a mixture of the 8th Army and Late War British sets from Warlord games so there is a mix of shorts, battledress trousers and jackets as well as short sleeves. They turned out pretty good and I've painted them up in the jungle green uniform of 1943 onwards- no photos as of yet. 

British/Commonwealth infantry for the Italian front

Anyhow, so that got me thinking about suitable terrain and how I need some (probably in time a lot) of rice paddies for games in Burma. So, tonight I have done a few test pieces using MDF, foamcore for the berms as well as polyurathane for the water effect. Once dry I'll add blobs of static grass as the rice growing. 

The three stages of making the basic paddies. Once I'd cut out the MDF with a jigsaw I added foamcore berms and then used permafilla to create the banks. 

Once this was dry I textured with some local beach sand, sealed it with another layer of watered down PVA (a critical step to seal the sand so it doesn't chip or flake off over time) and then spray painted a dark brown followed by a drybrush of a light brown colour. 

Once that had dried it was time to add static grass and finally I poured some polyurathane I had lying around as the water effect.

Once it has completed dried I'll probaby add rows of static grass as clumps of rice. But I'm happy enough with progress so far. 

Craig

Kiwi's/British infantry for Italy

My latest little project... yet another version of British/ NZ Infantry for the Italian campaign. I wanted the infantry to be in trousers and with earlier war equipment than is on the Bolt Action LW British/Canadian infantry sprues so have combined the 8th Army and the LW boxes and mashed them up so that most infantry have trousers and rolled up shirt sleeves but a few have battle dress and a couple more still in shorts.

The two boxes mix together really well and makes for a great, very easy to do, project. 

• 3x Sections: LMG, SMG + 7 rifles
• 1x 9 man Royal engeinner sectrion-= making use of the figre sowth picks ot differntiate them on the table top
• Specialist teams- Light mortar, PIAT, Sniper

Specialist teams

And what aobut the spare infantry in shoerts from the 8th Army box? They are going to be mashed up with the wepaons from both boxed sets so that some are in shorts with battle dress tops, stens etc and will be added to my British Forgotten 14th Army in Burma forces.  

This week's update

A productive week in the wargaming hobby. 

Frist up a Warlord Games/ Italeri Panther A with Zimmerit. Can't remmber when I got it but it's been lying round made up but unpainted for far too long. Was very happy with how it turned out. 

Project #2- new barded wire entanglements for Bolt Action games.  Pretty simple- the key as far as I am concerned- is to use tile spacers from the local DIY store for the supports. 

This morning I painted up another squad of US infantry in Greatcoats- again these are the lovely Artizan Designs range. I can't recommend them enough. They have great details that paints up easily and look great. 

I repainted a couple of buildings to match the new Warlord Games ones I've painted up. 

Finally, last week I build three of the Warord games Ruined farms/hamlets whch I enjoyed painting up. 

Craig

Cassino Campaign- Game 4

 A few random updates for the week

Cassino Campign Game #4- Crossing the Garigliano

The forth game in my campaign is completed. the Royal Scots Fusiliers Cross the Garigliano river, Janaury 19, 1944. Cassino Campaign- Game #4- Crossing the Garigliano. to prepare for the game I "needed" some extra British infantry. 

British Infantry reinforcements

I have a platoon of the lovely Perry Miniatures metal  WWII range for the Italian campaign but they are true 28mm and quite slight compared to Artizan Designs and Warlord games figures as well as being a few mms shorter so as a result don't fit that well together so I spent a few days contemplating upgrading hem. II was goinmg ot use Artzan Miniatures but after a bit of online research decided to take a punt and get some of the plastic Warlord Games LW British/ Canadian infantry to add to the ranks.

A video of the figures I painted can be found here: 

I must admit I have been no fan of the Warlord games plastic figures. The first ones I bought a decade ago were crap and a pain in the arse to put together so I gave up on them and stuck mainly to metals- and have not been overly impressed by the Warlord Games metals either.

Although mainly designed for the European Campaign for 1944-45 the kit includes the earlier model helmets and so has potential and truth be told I was pleasantly surprised then they arrived. I had a bit of a two night mission to paint up a box (30 figs) to get them to a table ready standard but got them done in time for the Garigliano river crossing game. I have done one section in Tam o shanters to represent the Scots.

The newer box sets are much better than the old original ones and so I can definitey see me adding some Warlord plastics to my collection. I was so pleasantry surprised that I’ve ordered another box and a box of the 8^th army to kit-bash some kiwi sections for Italy in long trousers- and with thompson SMGs. 

Speaking of which yesterday I popped down to Dunedin for a game of Warmaster and my mate Richard who now has a gaming store down there was kind enough to give me a sprue of 8^th army (I was after some of the aforementioned Thompson submachine guns) so I decided to add some trousers to the figures with greenstuff last night and painted the first batch up. I am very happy with the result and am looking forward to completing the rest of this project soon. 

Fortifictions 

I’ve also completed some fortifications of the games in Italy- barbed wire, minefields, pillboxes and entrenched/dug in markers. A short video of  them can be found here: 

Finally, yesterday as I said earlier I popped down to Dunedin yesterday and had a couple of games of Warmaster with Tiff and Jonanthon which were very enjoyable. Warmaster games look fantastic on table.  

Unti next time

Craig

Solo gaming the battles for Monte Cassino

 I’ve always had an interest in the Battles of Monte Cassino, partly due to the involvement of the 2^nd NZ Division in the battles.  My first two games of getting back into Bolt Action were themed on the Free French trying to outflank the Gustav line just prior to the start of the Battles for Monte Cassino so I’ve decided to continue this theme into a solo wargaming campaign.

I’ve some excellent books on the campaign including John Ellis’ Hollow Victory and Plowman & Rowe’s Battles for Monte Cassino then and now which is an amazing resource for the battles.

So what I am thinking of doing, at least until I run out of interest and move on to my next shiny game/idea, is to fight a series of solo battles using the Bolt Action rules to fight games  inspired by some of the actual engagements. Bolt Action is a small scale (typically reinforced platoon) and may not obviously lend itself to such an approach but my thoughts are to run a series of games inspired by an actual engagement during the battle and refight aspects of the campaign.

This idea came about the other day when thinking about locating my first Free French vs Germans battle within the Italian campaign context and so chose the Free French attempts to outflank the Gustav in early January 194 as a starting point. That led me to considering running a larger narrative campaign and this is what I think I will do.

How I think I will do this is work my way though the campaign in chronological order and recreate small scale table top battles which could be part of the larger engagements using Ellis’s book to guide the various battles.

Using my initial games as a starting point I will continue with the Free French attempts to capture Monte San Croce and so bypass Cassino and the major defensive lines.

This is the outline of the various games in the first battle of Monte Cassino (Jan 11- Feb 9 1944) that I will enevour to game: 

 

• The French Expeditionary Corps drive for the Gustav line: 11-24 Jan
• X British Corps on the Garigliano: 17 Jan- 9 Feb
• 36 US Division attempts to cross the Rapido River: Jan 20-22
• II US Corps on the Cassino Mastiff: 24 Jan- 12 Feb
• French Expeditionary Corps on Colle Belvedere: 25 Jan- 3 Feb

 For each of the different attacks I will play a series of three battles, forces of which will be based on my research into that particular battle.  

 

The games so far:

French Expeditionary Corps drive on the Gustav line

Game 1- Having secured their initial objectives Consta San Piedro the Free French advance towards the Rapido and try to secure crossing points on the Rapido River and capture Monte San Croce beyond. This was a successful assault and lead to game 2.

 

Game 2-  German counter attack of the newly established Free French Bridgehead- the Germans  launch a fierce counter attack against the newly established French Bridgehead and drive the French troops back across the Rapido river.

 

Final game:

Game 3- January 19^th 1944, having taken heavy casualties and lacking reserves and with German resistance stiffening General Juin makes one last attempt to capture Monte San Croce and bounce the Gustav line. 

 

Craig

Some more reinforcements

 Today I built a second MMG pillbox and also a larger blockhouse which can house 8 men for my Italian Campaign for Bolt Action. I am prettty happy with how they turned out. 

I also made a nother Rubicon Sherman V for my Free French so now I can field a troop of three shermans. 

Craig

Rubicon Shermans for Bolt Action

 Rubicon Models- M4A3 and M4A4 Shermans

 A few years back I bought a Rubicon M4A3 Sherman which I made as a close support (105mm) Sherman. Last week I picked up three more of the M4A4 Rubicon model which can be made as the M4A4, Sherman V, firefly VC Version A or B- so lots of options. The new models will become part of my Free French force for Bolt Action. 

Today I made up the first of the Shermans and was very happy with the kit. Rubicon have excellent detail on their models, clear instructions and the models are easy to put together.

I’ve modelled my Shermans to support my Free French which I will use for both the war in Italy 43-45 or also for the North West Europe campaign and have added French markings to them. 

I can highly recommend both models, my only gripe, and it is minor is that with the M4A4/Firefly version providing two turrets (high bustle and low bustle) and options for the Sherman M4A4, Mk V or firefly why, oh why didn’t they provide the three pieces of plastic required to have the applique armour added to the tank? Instead they give you a template and instructions to use .5mm styrene sheet to reproduce this armour. WTF? Sure I could drive to the nearest hobby store to get some styrene sheet (at least a 200km round trip) or order some online but why, with all the options and pieces included in the kit, couldn’t they squeee in these three pieces? I assume it would require retooling the moulds used on other Sherman models but it seems a rather silly oversight.

Anyway apart from that minor grumble I am very happy with the kits an look forward to fielding them both on the tabletop very, very soon.

Craig