Vertical Envelopment, or "I can't believe it's not an Osprey!"

Back in September of 2012 I made a post about my small collection of Aircraft Carriers (Click here for that post), and the glacial speed at that I was progressing with that particular project.

Some Not-Ospreys.

In around 2006/2007 I found that Matchbox had released some large cartoon scaled aircraft as part of their Sky Busters range. These were the "Sky Busters: Missions" sets that seemed to have some potential for wargaming. The Rescue Ranger set (click here for a link containing product information) was snapped up by me when I saw some on sale at The Warehouse. It also has cool lights and sounds....

Esci Modern NATO German for comparsion

A closer look.

Group shot with figure for size comparison

Another set in the collection "Coast Patrol" provided another usable aircraft - that I was originally going to convert to use as a Dune style Carry-All, but will use as a more conventional Sky-Hook style heavy helicopter.

Side by side with figure for size comparison.

It is rather a big beast.

 Of course the reason I got them was to allow for vertical envelopment during the moderns amphibious game, which requires them to to be put on one of the toy carriers that will be converted to an amphibious warfare vessel of some type.

Not Ospreys on the not  LPH 

Another view.

Looking down the deck.

 The current plan is to finish bogging the various screw holes, remove the stickers on the aircraft, and then spray them a base grey and then paint on additional detail, such as cockpit windows With luck, I might be able to do this after Christmas Day. Once that's done I will continue slowly working towards doing more on this project.....

Blue Box Trucks

A while back I made a post about some items i picked up from Glenn. Amongst the various kits were some very nice Blue box vehicles - a number of the Bedford RL trucks (for more information on Blue Box RL Bedfords look at this post over at Small Scale World), and an Austin Champ (click here for more information from Small Scale World)  that could pass as a  type of "Beep" (A nickname for the Dodge 3/4 ton truck because it looked like a 'Big Jeep') While the Champ was only 1/4 ton, this over scale model looks  like it could be suitable as a bigger vehicle.

Small Scale World is no doubt known to many of you, as it is an excellent reference guide to all manner of plastic goodness. It is one of my "Go To' sites when I am trying to identify unknown plastic.

A rather useful light truck.

The general look of the vehicles is perfect for use in my imagination moderns campaigns, as they won't look out of place in most pre-1980s Third World  style settings. I also passed a couple on to the Archduke (click here for his initial take)

Troop carrier and Ambulance

A missing door - not replacing it would fit with the general feel of my setting!

In addition to the two above trucks, I also have four trucks missing their original weapons mix, but will either get new weapons - I do like technicals! - or be tuned into cargo or troop trucks.

Four pieces of potential!

Close of the rather detailed control box on the back and the rather nice weapons mount .

Also included were these two jeeps that were in the same style as the Blue Box trucks, but I don't now if these are Blue Box or another companies product. Regardless of origin, they too shall be used to expand the pool of transport vehicles used in CD Moderns games.

Blue box Jeeps - maybe?

 Right, now back to enjoying the slackness of summer!

Lucky Products Hessians

I have recently finished the first Hessian stand for Volley and Bayonet using the Lucky products figures I purchased some time ago (Click here for more details). While these are not the most detailed figures available, they do have a certain charm to them. I have painted them as Grenadiers of the Hesse-Cassel Regiment Von Rall. While their breeches were white, many ended up with ones made of red and white striped mattress ticking.

Hessians occupy an unfinished BUA.

The model building in the background is an experimental design by Fitz from Shouting into the Void. He kindly designed a basic building for use on the school laser cutter. Hopefully I should be able to show him an example within the next few days.

A close up of the stand.

For the Brandywine scenario I need to base up another stand of Hessians to complete the Grenadier brigade. I will probably use the same format, but perhaps adding on a few more figures with mitres. I have toyed with trimming the trumpet like instrument back to a more fife like size, but I feel this would defeat the purpose of using these figures, by removing some of their quirkiness.

Angled for the camera.

Oddly enough, the fifer has what appears to be a regular sized fife case sculpted on the figure. Still I think that my Hessians will fight better for having a war trumpet rather than a fife!

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!

Wagons Ho!

Since I have been tidying unfinished bits and pieces of my Volley and Bayonet AWI project, I thought I might do a quick post about some of the wagons that I am doing up for use as logistics elements. V&B doesn't require logistics elements on the tabletop, but I like having logistics elements available for my toy armies.

My drivers are mounted on the wrong horse! they should be on the left rear horse!

The two big Conestoga wagons come from the Imex Conestoga Wagon set (PSR link here), which is currently available bundled with the Imex  American Pioneers set (PSR review here) as the Billy V toys American Western Settlers set that retails at around US$10. The Billy V sets are very good value and seem to be the cheapest way of getting Imex sets.

It is a very long model!

The Conestoga wagons were first used in the early part of the 18th Century in Pennsylvania, so I might even be able to use them for Braddock's campaign during the French and Indian Wars. The other wagon I have painted up is one from the BUM Far West Town sets I purchased earlier this year (for more details see this post) I have removed the driver of the wagon, and added a running Airfix soldier to try and catch up with the horse!

Another logistics element completed.

The final picture for this post is my set of eight completed Esci Gabions. These come two at a time from the Esci Battlefield Accessory kit (PSR review here). While I don't have four of these sets, I do have enough bits and bobs from them to make using parts of them a serious proposition.

Not the easiest item to assemble.

 I have been slowly acquiring these items, so when I found I had accrued a reasonable number I assembled them, and mounted them on 5 cent coins then filled them up with artists medium.These should prove useful in denoting that a stand is in a prepared position.

Blue Roofed BUAs

Real life has been interfering with the hobby of late, but I have been quietly ticking away at a few projects. one of these is making up BUAs (Built Up Areas) for Volley and Bayonet, and continuing with the refurbishment of painted Airfix figures in order to quickly make up stands of V&B troops.

A V&B BUA - complete with white picket fences.

The lift out section of the BUA next to the main portion. The building from my friend is the big one on the main section.

The rules call for BUAs to be 4 inches by 6 inches with a 3 inch by inch  space in the template to allow for the placement of occupying troops. The idea of having a lift out building which is then replaced by the occupying stands is one that I have stolen from Robin (from Wargamingnz) and Adrian (whose V&B colonial BUAs are amazing)

As I am currently trawling through my wargaming terrain, I discovered a building that had been given to me by a friend before he left to live in the UK sometime in the mid to late 1990s. While it is scaled to 15mm, I figured that it was perfect for use in V&B - all it needed was roofing, painting, and basing - tasks I had put off doing for some time!

It has a rather nice style of construction that I will attempt to copy. 

My friend built it out of heavy construction cardboard, which has proven to be very durable.

 Naturally I have to include a photo of the BUA occupied by a couple of stands of my refurbished Airfix troops. These figures are part of a large number that I acquired from Mr Airfix recently. Glenn and Geoff also kindly supplied me with some of their old painted AWI Airfix figures that I am currently refurbishing the American figures from (Hopefully I will get two stands worth!).

Occupied or liberated? US troops hold the BUA.

The construction of the BUA allows for alternate building configurations.

I have also manged to refurbish another stand of infantry form figures supplied by Glenn. These figures had the majority of their paintwork flaked off, but since the uniform was mainly white, I figured it was worth making an attempt to save them. After all, someone went to a great deal of effort putting toothbrush mustaches on all of them!

Another stand of refurbished Airfix figures. These fellows are probably French - but let me know if you know better!

Refurbished AWI Britsh. The figures were kindly given to me from Geoff and Glenn's collection of old painted figures.

The refurbishment project has been generating a number of AWI stands, but I am slowly painting up some figures from scratch. The priority at the moment is to finish off a number of terrain projects so I can safely store all my terrain, and also dispose of some of the "useful bits for terrain making" that I have been holding on to for too long.

Another V&B BUA awaits the final finishing touches.

My current plan is to finish up the BUAs for V&B, then move on to during some final bits and pieces for Harad, and then do some WW2 terrain. Like all plans this one may be subject to change!

Airfix Pseudo Spanish and Almost Continentals.

Not the best of  paint jobs,  but a fine basis for refurbishment!

The school I work at recently got a laser cutter, so offered to have it cut some V&B mdf bases as way of testing it was working properly! Naturally since I now had a pile of bases I had to get some troops on them. I wasn't wanting to do any major effort, just wanting to get figures on bases in order to swell the V&B ranks quickly. Fortunately I was able to acquire from Glenn a number of preloved and prepainted Airfix figures from the Washington's Army set (click here for the PSR review) that I was able to refurbish, wash, and base.

More painted figures - more stands of troops!

 Now I have already gone through this process with my AWI French (click here for that post), and my AWI Americans (click here for details), but with those figures had been very nicely painted by the original owner. I wanted to see if I could get useable stands using figures that weren't as well painted.

Spacing out the figures - these look like they might be painted as Hessians of some type? Or are they Americans?

A well painted example found amongst the less well painted.

 Now using prepainted figures does mean that I am guessing as to the intent of the original owner as to what they were meaning to represent. Given that for the longest time this set was the only source of 18th century line infantry, the possibilities are rather large - more so if I add in the strong likelihood that they may have been painted to represent an imaginary or generic regiment, or merely painted using information that was incorrect.

Pseudo Spanish! I can't find a Spanish unit that has that exact colour scheme. 

 First off are the white coated fellows that I am choosing to believe are some type of Spanish troops. The red breeches and black boots are similar to a Spanish soldier depicted here, and another here. A table giving the uniform colours used by Spanish units in the Seven Years War can be found here, but it doesn't give the colour of breeches, leggings or boots worn. So given that they don't fit a known colour scheme I will use them as Spanish until I learn that they aren't.

But still they look nice and can be used as generic Pseudo Spanish

 And incidentally, should you know what these fellows could be, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

The colour scheme is rather nice though.

I am quite pleased with how well these three stands turned out given the state of the source material.

 The other two stands that I have finished also lack a colour scheme that I can definitively say is one thing or another. They could be meant to represent american forces, either state or even Continental troops, but equally they may be meant to represent German troops of some type - assuming that they are meant to represent troops from the AWI!

Two stands of blue coated rebels - again the colour scheme doesn't seem to match anything I can find.

 Still the end result is quite pleasing, and I know that I will be able to find use for them, either as Americans or Germans!

Again I am rather pleased with them, although I am tempted to put a small amount of Fall leaves on the bases.

The wash brings out the detail in the figure extremely well. Airfix did a good job designing these figures!

So far I have finished five stands, with six more ready to go. I am finding the process of recycling these figures quite fun, and a good way to ease me into painting up the legions of bare plastic AWI figures that I have waiting for me.