Parcels, Pikes, and Planes

Life has been somewhat eventful of late, but I have managed to get a few gaming related things done. recently I was generously sent a parcel of goodies by Paul (from Plastic Warriors) that contained some more Esci gabions, some more pieces from the Esci Battlefield Accessory set, and a Matchbox Saracen armoured car.

The parcel from Paul. Cheers Paul!

 I have been continuing to try and improve my BUAs by varying the size of the gables and walls, but also by trying to create a brick effect. The next step will be trying to get windows and doors cut. With the aid of someone else's very clever work I may have a solution to show in the next post.

Bigger walls and gables.

Brickwork walls and gables!

 I also attended Conquest last weekend. While there Rodger (from Rebel Barracks) kindly gave me some more gabions, some more bits of the Esci accessory set, and two sets of the Imex AWI artillery in 1/72.

More stuff for AWI V&B kindly provided by Rodger.

I also took part in a demonstration game of "Pike and Shotte" that I thoroughly enjoyed, and managed to make a few small purchases. A number of 1/144 scale jets that I plan to use for Harad games.

Four  J-35s awaiting construction.

A rather nice Sabre kit.

A pretty smart looking Saudi Lightning.

 Afterwards I went and saw Glenn and acquired a vast haul of vehicles and figures. The vehicles were in various states of disarray, but will prove a source of fun through refurbishment and use on the tabletop. Some of what I acquired I have passed on to Archduke Piccolo (click here for link), but I have greedily kept a great deal for myself! I was also meant to see Glenn on Wednesday, but events conspired against me - with luck I might be able to catch up this weekend with him?

Lots of nice bits!

Some very useful vehicles.

Figures for the WW1 project.

Some Tigers for the Archduke.

Glenn also gave me a B-17 kit to pass on to Mr K. - who is quite delighted with the addition to his air fleet!

Classic Airfix box art!

Complete with bonus 57mm gun!

ANZAC DAY.

Unknown Kiwi Soldiers sightseeing in Egypt during WW1.

The photograph was found during restoration work on photographs in the University of Canterbury Students' Association (UCSA) archive during the late 1990s. It had been used as a backing board for another, much later, photograph. This was evidently quite a common practice during the early 1930s. Regardless of the reasons, this photograph was lost from view, and was absent any information when it was rediscovered.  I have always imagined them to have had a connection to the UCSA, an organisation I had spent much time involved with, and thus feel a connection to these unknown soldiers, unknown but not forgotten.

My thoughts often turn to this photo on ANZAC day, for so many reasons, reasons that I have tried so many times to put into words, but none seem to be satisfactory. Today is is day we remember those who serve, those who have served, and those who have fallen, in order to defend our country and our way of life. to them all I say thank you, and that we will remember them.

A Trench Too Far Pt. 1

About ten years ago I ran a large WW1 game called a 'Trench too Far'. the game was set on the western front in around 1917 and had around 3-4 players a side. The venue was the University of Canterbury Students' Association's boardroom, which had a huge boardroom table which was perfect for running large games on. Of course a big WW1 game needs lots of trenches. So I had to figure out a simple way of building trenches that would be easy to make, easy to store, easy to transport, and able to be reconfigured for other games. Fortunately, my good friend Adrian had previously made some trenches based on the instructions in the GDW Book 'The Soldier's Companion' - which is the miniatures rules system  for Space 1889. Naturally, I adapted this idea, and Adrian's well crafted trenches, into something that could be mass produced by undergraduates.

The trench box, with 20mm Italeri  (Esci reissue) US Vietnam War Infantryman for scale.

The lid is removed.

Standard trench section.

Cross section view.

 Essentially, the basic design was to make a standard footprint of cardboard, run two sections of 20mm high cardboard, 22-25mm apart, down the middle of the section, and put foam, plaster,or other material, on either side to build up the trench sides. While a wider trench footprint would have allowed for a much gentler slope and looked much better, storing and moving them would have been a hassle. A larger footprint would have been more difficult to deploy on the tabletop in large numbers. given these factors, and the need to churn them out in numbers, compromises in realism were made to increase playability.

Angled sections created kinks and zags in the line.

Cross section of a late production trench.

 Towards the end of the production run  angled cardboard was used to build up the trench sides.

Top of a T section, to allow communication trenches between trench lines.

The sections were sprayed before flocking, some with base back, others with base brown, with generally another coat of brown sprayed over top. My plan is to refurbish these sometime this year, by respraying and flocking, and adding in some duckboards and other bits to each trench. I might even get organised and put an inventory label on the box. I am rather fond of these trenches, and have used them as a teaching aid, when teaching Year 10s about Trench Warfare. At the same time I built up sections of barbed wire and I will put up pictures of that at some stage.