Cool Ruins – Batch 1 and 2 now complete

Crossfiregrad-202 Crossfiregrad - Banner

I think I obsess about ruins. I have lots of ruins already but that didn’t stop me Planning my Cool Ruins for Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Station. So one of my projects for 2021, 2022, and 2023 has been to “Buy, build, paint more 3″ x 3” sectors so I can play both Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Station solely with Cool Ruins” (Crossfire of course). Well, I don’t know about Ponyri Station, but now that my 75mm and 150mm sections have arrived I can definitely do Crossfiregrad.

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WW2 Painting Guide – Soviet Cossack Cavalry

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Okay, I’ve been obsessing about Cossacks in World War 2 lately, hence my post on Soviet Cavalry Regiments in Crossfire. So I went looking for 15mm Cossacks and found that the figures from Flames of War and from Peter Pig look totally different. I wanted to understand why and how to paint each appropriately. This post explains all about that and is a painting guide for both styles.

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Designing Modular Raised Roads sections for Burma

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Following on the previous success of my custom crests version 2 and the high rice paddy bunds for Burma, I’m now thinking of a set of raised roads. Raised roads were a common feature of Burma. They’ll be the same height as the previous features (1/4″ / 6mm). Otherwise they’d be, well, just roads. I’m hoping to convince Simon from S&A Scenics to make the base features then I’ll do the work to make them look like roads. This post is about my design for the roads, which was a project in itself.

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Jesús Dapenas paints a second Spanish FT-17 for service in the Rif

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Jesús Dapena is a long time collaborator of mine due to a shared interest in the Rif Wars. I previously posted his photos of Renault FT-17 Tanks in the Rif War (from his “Uncle Cipri”) and subsequently his 1/16th model of Uncle Cipri’s FT-17 with a Turtle mascot. Here is the second tank in the series: “INFANTERIA No. 4”, the one with the Elephant mascot. All words are by Jesús. You can see more images in his video: The Renault FT Tank in Spanish Army Service (Northern Morocco, ca. 1924) [YouTube].

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WW2 Japanese Flags – Free Rising Sun Wargaming Flags for 15mm Scale

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I’m in the process of basing my WW2 Japanese battalion for Crossfire. While I’m doing that I thought I’d sought out the flags. So I needed some Rising Sun flags in 15mm scale. A quick google revealed nothing so I made my own. I’m sharing them here so other folk can benefit.

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Making copses of 6mm scale trees using bumpy chenille pipe cleaners

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I found my 15mm trees are too big for my 4 inch hexes on a Deep Battle table. I figured the answer was trees scaled for 6mm (1/285th) or 5mm (1/300th) wargames. Although I had some trees for 6mm scale, I realised I needed to get a lot more, quickly and cheaply. The method I describe here got me over a 1,000 trees for £10 (more or less).

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Operational Terrain 8 – Monopoly Buildings to Fit 4 Inch Hexes

monopoly-107 Painted school building - Banner

I’ve been doing some more musing on Operational level wargaming for my draft Deep Battle rule set. My Experiment on a 4 Inch Hex Grid forced me to get Tiny Hills to Fit the 4 Inch Hexes. Now I’m doing the same thing with buildings. In fact I’m using Monopoly buildings which are more like … Read more

2023 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian

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So 2022 went okay. And now it is time to lay out my megalomaniac plans for 2023. I will try to tone them back a bit as, despite a lot of activity, I achieved depressingly few of my goals last year.

As usual I present this as a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. The list is then split into three parts: likely in 2023, unlikely, and background activity.

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Vallejo Triads – Three colour shading with Vallejo Model Color Paints

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Ilya asked me about Vallejo Triads which combine a base, mid tone, and highlight paint. Foundry made this triad painting style famous amongst wargamers with sets including a shade, main colour, and highlight. Reaper now do the same and probably others.

Unfortunately there is no official source of Vallejo triads and Google didn’t reveal a comprehensive Vallejo triad system. So I pulled a set together from what I could find. These triads use only the Vallejo Model Color range of paints – I think that makes life simpler, certainly for me since I don’t use other paints.

The triads are listed in Vallejo sequence order for the mid tone. Choose your desired mid tone then look up suitable base and high light colours.

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Cliffs for Crossfire in Italy and Burma

Cliffs for Crossfire in Italy and Burma - Banner

Hit the Dirt (HTD) introduces Cliffs to Crossfire. And with my re-found interest in the Italian Campaign, I figured I needed some. Particularly as the HTD scenario “Cassino Massif” (p. 17-18) has a bunch. I think they’ll also be useful for Burma. So this is my new / updated cliff collection.

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