Bag the Hun 2

I just submitted a campaign for North Africa to Rich for BTH2. I am going to play this out for Operation Battleaxe tonight. This is a nice short operation of only a couple days long. I will be playing a single Squadriglia of 9 G.50s against a Squadron of 9 Hurricanes.

Bag the Hun 2 and other things

Well, I have just seen a copy of Bag the Hun 2. It looks great. In celebration of this, I have purchased some 1/600 scale aircraft from Tumbling Dice. I will use this for a North African campaign I have been working on. The campaign is about 80% complete. I have 12 BF 109s, 8 Ju87s, 12 P40Es and 12 Hurricanes. Now while I am waiting on these to arrive, anyone have some suggestions for painting guides.

On other fronts, I am still working on a campaign for TW&T based on the 38th Infantry Regiment's attack on Hill 192 on July 11th, 1944.

Lastly, I am still kicking around another AWI supplement for Sharp Practice.

Now if I can only get a game in.....

WWII Campaign

I am thinking of doing a "Platoon Forward" style TW&T campaign. I am looking into the Actions of Easy Company, 38th Infantry Regiment US Army on July 11th, 1944. They were part of the attack on Hill 192.

Opposing "E" Company was elements of the III Battalion, Falschrimjager Regiment 9. A half company occupied a farmstead known as Kraut Corner. They were further supported by some armor elements in the town of Cloville. Depending on the sources, the armor was a Panzer IV and some form of self propelled gun. One marked this as an 88mm gun on a Panzer III chassis. In my thinking, this was likely a StuG III or similar vehicle. "E" Company was supported by tanks from B Company, 741st Tank Battalion. One was a dozer tank and the other had a cullins device.

I just picked up a FOW Sherman Dozer tank and a StuGIII & PZ IV just for this. I am still thinking how to make the campaign work.

A New Year - Old Projects

Well to start off 2010, I finally put some paint on the Lancashire Southern Loyalists I bought. I am painting them with the colors for the New York Volunteers. I took the color guide from the old dauphinehotel web site. They have removed the webpage but thanks to the magic of archive.org, we can pull it back.

I will paint up Loyalist groups for the New York Volunteers, the Royal NC Regiment, South Carolina Royalists, the British Legion and possibly some of Delancey's 3rd Battalion.

So far the figures have not gotten much attention other than a red coat. If my son will go to sleep at a decent hour tonight, I might make some progress on the rest of the uniform.

Note: Updated on 3/18/2016 with web address for site.

Another OOHHH, Shiny moment.

Having heard a rumor about a set of Dark Age Skirmish rules from the Land of Lard, I reached back into my cabinet and reexamined my 10mm Dark Age figures. I have a Norman and Anglo-Danish army that I have started to paint and base for "This One's Split." I was wondering if they could server double duty but quickly dismissed the idea. Sticking with my main scale I decided to jump into this in 15mm. Cruising the internet I found a miniature company that is local to me! Splintered Light Miniatures (http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/).

They produce 3 Dark Ages lines: Post Romano-British, Early Saxons and Early Scots/Irish. Having read the Cornwall Arthur series, I was entranced by the Early Saxons. I wanted to create a Saxon raiding party. I contacted SLM and told the owner about what I was looking for. He made a custom skirmish pack for me and allowed me to specify the contents. For $20.00 I received over 25 miniatures. 2 bowmen, 2 with javelins, 11 medium infantry with spears, 4 armored spearmen, 3 armored men with swords, 1 armored musician, 1 armored standard bearer, and one armored guy with a big axe.

Since Armor and swords were marks of wealthy men, I figured that they would be fairly rare. I will be treating the fellows with swords as Big Men. One has a Sutton Hoo type helmet which was nice to see. I wanted a group that was mostly unarmored spearmen. With SLM's help, that is exactly what I got. I am very pleased. This will definitely derail my painting plans over the holidays.

I will be spending some more at SLM in the future to be sure. One thing I really like is the Personality packs that they have. The Saxon pack contains a giant of a man and some shamans/wizard types. It looks like the Sutton Hoo helmet fellow was from this pack so that was a nice bonus. It also has some other infantry poses that are not in the other packs. Great variety all around. Perfect for skirmish armies. The standard bearers for the Saxons have some sort of dead animal skull on a stick to wave about and inspire the troops with. Another bonus pack that they have that I did not get was some War Dogs. They might end up on a future wish list.

My plans are to create two Saxon Raiding parties. One that is completely unarmored and this one. Then once those are painted up, I will get a Post Romano-British infantry only force. (Can't assume Arthur and his knights are everywhere after all.)

SLM also has some Dark Ages buildings for your skirmishers to defend or attack. Very nice miniatures and worth checking out.