Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Missed the bus

I missed this from yesterday's post; in days of yore I painted this bus up as an informal troop-transport.  It may see duty evacuating planters and French-sympathisers from under the nose of the advancing Viet Minh menace.


And below, the destination!

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Looks like we got us a convoy...

I've excavated my 1980's collection of French Indochina stuff, and here are around half of the vehicles, displayed as a supply convoy.  They aren't too bad...  not brilliant, like Troop of Shrew's, but playable until I get better stuff.  


Above, an M8 armoured car patrols cautiously ahead of the convoy.  It is in the wrong shade of green (not olive drab), but with broadly correct markings. 
    

Above is the front section of the convoy.  The tanks are a slightly unfortunate hybrid of M3 and M5 (I converted from the former to the latter; perhaps it was hard to find M5's in the '80s).  But they are nicely weathered, and the Airfix M3 half track has the correct tent-like canopy.


Above is the body of the convoy; a US tanker and GMC trucks, and a rather lost-looking Matador that I bought around 1975, presumablly left behind by the Brits in WW2.  A third "M5" is in overwatch.


And to conclude (above) a closeup of one of the M5s.

I have around another half-a-dozen vehicles that need painting.  My plan is to supplement these with some of the new 1/72 Italeri and Pegasus fast-assembly kits, especially their GMC trucks, M3 half tracks and jeeps, and make up a GM100-like mobile column.

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Street Without Joy

...is an excellent book written by Bernard Fall about the war in French Indo China in the late 1940's/early 1950's.

I read this in the mid 1980s and got very interested in this very interesting but little-gamed war, which culminated in a huge defeat for the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.    I collected and painted a few hundred Platoon 20 minis, which in those days were made from a rather brittle metal.  Unfortunately, I carefully  stored all the minis at the top of a high cupboard, and one day accidently dropped all the boxes from a height of 8'.  Almost to a man, they snapped off at the ankles (and many of the rifles broke).  See Exhibit A, below, for one of the four boxes. 


More feet without joy than Street without Joy!

It has taken me around 20 years to overcome the pain and return to the period, but this week I've started to repaint the surviving minis, and I'm going to order a few dozen more (well perhaps a hundred or so...).  I'll either use an adapted Memoir '44 ruleset, or write a simple set myself.  The battlefield of Zama, with some added hills and vegetation, is going to become Route Coloniale 19. 

Several things are a lot better in 2010 than 1990; firstly I'm a somewhat better painter now, and have a lot more nice terrain.  Secondly, the 1/72 diecast vehicles that one can buy these days look outstanding; the French transport pool is consequently going to be a whole lot bigger than it was 20 years ago!  Finally there is a lot of great material on the war that wasn't around in 1990, especially this excellent site on the war which has OOB's, which was information I could only dream of, twenty years ago.  En avant!

Monday, 25 October 2010

Another hobby

My eldest has got a place to read Ancient History at Kings College.  As part of this he will be learning Latin, and this made me nostalgic for the period form 1974-1976 when I did GCSE Latin (my efforts were ultimately blessed with an A!)

The same course I studied (Cambridge Latin), is still in use, and I bought the updated version of the books I used to use way back, when.  I have been thrilling to the old phrases, such as "Caecilius est pater", "Metella est mater" and "Cerberus est canem".


I've been making good progress and am now on book 4; my ultimate ambition is to be able to read the great Latin classics in their original language, such as:

Sunday, 24 October 2010

'Arfur Legion II

I've made good, if slow, progress with this project.  The first half of the legion (below, clickable) is painted and based.  I still need to add tufts, tonight, and do a little snagging work; then they will be finished.
.

Around half of the second half (not shown) are also stuck onto their bases.  Nick is furiously painting away on a draft of reinforcements, in Essex, which will complete the legion (at 1:20 scale).  

In other news, I have been inspired by these stunning photos to dig out a project I last worked on around 20 years ago... more anon.

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Ancient Horse Miniatures Size Comparison Shot

Mike of Relic and Keith at Aventine have recently each sent me some of their Tarantine cavalry figures, and I thought it an opportune moment to take a picture of some of the various ancient horses I've been accumulating.  I'd also like the thank Hank at Gorgon, A&A and 1st Corps who sent horses, previously. The below pic is clickable.


Regarding the two latest arrivals, I'd heard tfrom Mike that the Relic horse (which is I believe is on an eBob master) was smallish, but am pleasently surprised to find that it isn't much smaller than the Aventine Tarentine horse, to the extent that I think one could probably get away with mixing them within a unit.  Which I may do.  It is interesting to note that all the horses are smaller than the Foundry WotG horse, which is now looking very leggy, and I'm thinking that, in the future, I'll reserve those for heavy cavalry. 

In terms of style, the Aventine horse has bigger hooves and a slightly larger head than the Relic and 1stCorps steeds.  I rather like this look.  OTOH the Gorgon and Relic horses are bigger in the chest than the others, which feels right to me.

Depending on how fussy one is, several of the horses "breeds" could be mixed within a unit.  In particular  I think that the 1st Corps and Relic would be a fine match for size, and the Gorgon and Aventine would also pair up nicely. 

I also have some of the larger Relic Horses that come with Mike's leader figures; these are very nice and I'll take some shots of them, later. 

In other news I am dusting off (literally!) some 1980's Platoon20 miniatures with a view to restoring/expanding my old French Indochina units; more anon.  Oh, and I've started a Twitter feed.

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Memoir '14 update

This is a link to Greg's site, where he has uploaded his WW1 Adaptation of Memoir '44. 

The pdf on the site is a large one (19MB), and in French.  There will be an English translation in a few days.

Recently I messed around with Memoir '44 for my Western Desert variant, which gave a great game.  Greg has got me thinking about writing a variant for the French Indo-China War...