Books, and other things.

It has been a while since I posted something here. Well, work and family have kept me busy and away from my queue of painting. The Frigate is on the shelf waiting out my indecision on what to do for sails. I think I have resolved that issues and I will attempt a furled main sail in the next couple of days. In terms of writing, the Prequel to the Desert campaign is coming along rather nicely. I have found a couple of great books that have greatly helped resolve the orders of battle and what units transferred in and out of theater and when. My current favorite is "Courage Alone" by Chris Dunning. This has proven to be quite helpful, especially where non-fighter units are concerned. Lots of other places have details on fighter units. Very few have anything on bomber and reconnaissance units. Even better, it covers every theater that the Italians fought in. Not much detail on individual actions but that is not what this book is about. Two books on my inter library loan list are "Desert Prelude: Early Clashes" and "Desert Prelude: Operation Compass." Both of these are by Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo. Håkan Gustavsson is the author of the fantastic Håkans aviation page web page. It is a must visit if you have any interest what so ever in biplanes in WWII - for any front. It is pure gold when it comes to getting good information on how biplanes were used in the war. Since the Gloster Gladiator and the CR.42 are two of my favorite all time airplanes, this is a perfect place for me. I have spent countless hours pouring over this site. Lastly, I have looked at working more on a follow up to "With Fire and Sword" for Sharp Practice. It seems about time now and I really want to get in some more Sharp Practice games in. "With Fire and Sword" Left off after Musgrove's Mill and Fishing Creek in Mid August. The next one would cover Kings Mountain and the Cowpens Campaign. I am not sure how far to go with it. I want to cover Col Elijah Clake's South Carolina actions but not his Savannah adventure. I don't think I will cover any of Francis Marion's actions and instead stick with those of Sumter.

6mm AWI Sale!

Update 3-15-2012 - These have been sold. ========================================= Well I have been sorting through the lead pile and decided to sell some of my miniatures. I have been trying to get the motivation to finish these for years now and it just is not happening. About 10 or so years ago, I was looking for a set of AWI rules. I decided that 6mm miniatures was what I wanted. I discovered the Red Coats and Rebels rules on the web and thought they would fit the bill. Adler had just started to release their AWI lines and I jumped right in. I quickly painted a couple of stands and then, they went on a shelf. A few years later, the TooFatLardies published a special with Taxes, Tea and Tories (2006 Christmas Special). Back out the miniatures came. Another unit got painted and some Baccus AWI figures were added to the pile. Then they went back in the drawer.

I have reevaluated and decided that mass battles are not really what I was looking for. Sharp Practice skirmishes are really what I have been looking to do. As such, I am selling off these figures, hopefully to a happy new home.

Rebel Forces:
Adler Minis (4 miniatures per strip)
5 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, Virginia Continentals (Firing pose)
5 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, GA Continentals (Marching and Charging Poses)
7 bases of six figures each (7 on the command base) - Painted, MD Continentals (Marching and Charging Poses)
3 bases of six figures each - Painted but basing work needed. Blue coated Continentals
1 foot officer painted and based carrying a sword (converted figure)
2 loose painted unbased figures
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123 miniatures

11 strips of Tricorne Infantry in Marching pose on painting sticks - some primed black.
2 strips of Tricorne infantry command on painting sticks - primed black
5 strips of Slouch hat infantry in marching pose on painting sticks - some primed black
1 strip of slouch hat command on painting sticks - primed black
6 strips of slouch hat infantry in firing pose on painting sticks - some primed black.
4 strips of tricorne hat infantry charging on painting sticks - some primed black.
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96 Miniatures

2 individual flag bearers in tricorne hat.
1 individual slouch hat officer with sword
6 individual Tricorne hat infantry firing
4 individual slouch hat infantry firing
2 individual slouch hat command figures
15 individual tricorne hat infantry charging pose
A few other odd assorted figures as well.
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> 30 Miniatures

Adler sells new at £1.95 for 8 strips of 4 (or 32 figures).

Baccus Rebels
10 Strips of Dragoons (3 figures per strip)
5 strips of Dragoon Command (3 figures per strip)
2 strips of Mounted Officers (3 figures per strip)
2 guns and crew (4 crew per gun)
1 painted baggage mule
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62 miniatures - All unpainted and unprimed

Baccus sells the dragoons at £5.50 for the 10 strips plus 5 command strips

For the all of the figures above I am asking for $45.00 US plus whatever the shipping and handling is to your location.

British Forces
Baccus AWI
1 unopened pack of SBR6 - British Artillery (4 guns and 4 crew per gun)
4 guns with 4 crew each on painting sticks - unprimed.
3 command strips of light dragoons on painting sticks - unprimed. (3 figures per strip)
6 strips of light dragoon command on painting sticks - unprimed (3 figures per strip)
44 strips of Infantry on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip)
8 command strips of infantry on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip)
6 strips of Grenadiers on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip)
5 strips of highlanders on painting sticks - unprimed. (4 figures per strip)
1 strip of highlander command on painting sticks - unprimed (4 figures per strip)
6 strips of Light Infantry on painting sticks - unprimed. (4 figures per strip)
3 strips of mounted officers on painting sticks - unprimed. (3 figures per strip)
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356 figures - All unpainted and unprimed

Baccus is selling these in an army pack for £17.08. I am looking to get $20.00 US plus shipping to your location.

If you are interested in any of these, please send me an e-mail - cstoesen@corecard.com to make an offer.

Scenario Background

I have figured out the scenario for my next Sharp Practice game and how I will incorporate the Frigate into it. Now I just have to get time to finish the Frigate and play the scenario. For the write up, read here: http://platoonforwardstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/captains-courageous-or-light-company.html

IABSM3: The waiting is almost over

Well Rich has now put up the order form to buy the latest and greatest version of IABSM. I am looking forward to getting my hands on this. Here is the question I have for everyone. Is it worth my time to update the older supplements I have written for it, mainly the Greek Supplement (1941), the East Africa Supplement - "Call this a Bloody Picnic" (1940-1941) and Rock the Casbah (1982)? Since I wrote the Greek supplement, I have come across a book on the Australians in Greece and Crete. I think it is the official history of the campaign. It was among my Dad's effects that has been sitting in a box in my garage for nearly 11 years. I was thinking of including a few new scenarios to round out the changes.

Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

Well I started work revising the original Western Desert Campaign and it morphed quickly into its own stand along supplement covering June 1940 to February 14th 1941. I have plotted out no less than 30 individual historical scenarios on top of the campaign system. It is sitting at about 60% complete at the moment. The scenarios are quite expanded from those in the original and include information to run both Bag the Hun and Check Your Six games with them. I have added Altitude, a map of the board with notes on entry, cloud cover information and cards needed for scenarios (BTH) to each scenario. In all, it is a great improvement over the original. Eventually, the original will get this treatment too. Original purchasers will get the upgrade of the original for free once it is done. Oh, Look! Shiny! Then I read a post on Ray's Don't Throw a 1 blog and am now distracted to a new period entirely. I am looking at making a skirmish army in 15mm for the 3rd Prussian Regiment - Anhalt-Dessau. I have some figures from another project that went no where that it seems would fit the bill. It would be a small force to start off with. Now I am off and looking for drill information for the period with reckless abandon leaving other project to collect virtual dust. According to the some spots I found on the internet, I can use the Peter Pig Govt Figures from their pirate range for these soldiers. Which is a good thing as I have some laying around collecting real dust. I was going to do a pirate game and that never materialized. Now I have a project to use these for. Never did buy pirate figures was part of the problem. So I have the basis of an infantry unit. Now rules..... Hmmmm.... Since I have Sharp Practice, that seems a good starting point. Beyond the information on the Wikipedia page covering the Nine Years War, I really know nothing about the period. Colorful clothing. That is about it. I gather that it was pretty much the world against France for much of the fighting of this period. (Here my ignorance stands as a shining beacon of non-illumination) Oh well. Back to Google to see what I can find.

Rigging is Complete! The scenario is coming together.

Well a few hours of work and the rigging is complete. The wire has received a coat of black paint and looks the part. The mesh stays do not look as bad as I had feared they would. I wish I could have gotten them tighter but that just was not going to happen.

I started cutting sails from the cloth provided. I was starting with the fore mast sails when I realized that the look I was going for would require me to gather the sail in to represent them furled. The cloth was very heavy and just did not look right nor would it take the right shape. I think I need to get an old handkerchief and use that for the sail material. I checked around the internet to see what other manufacturers are doing for sails. Sail Power and Old Glory do not seem to use them. Thoroughbred Miniatures uses paper. I think I will try the handkerchief.

This view shows the difference in the sizes between the thread and the wire for the rigging. I took one more shot but it was blurry, so I will put it at the bottom.

Now, what on earth am I going to use this for? Well, the scenario is coming together quite nicely and will be the fourth installment of Captain Beesley and the Light Company - my Platoon Forward campaign. Stay tuned. This is getting close to being done.