My research on Contested river crossings in the Seventeenth Century has convinced me I need some fords. Actually I need more river crossings in general, but I have some bridges and no fords. So I felt I had to correct that.
Modelling
The hobby aspect of my interesting in wargaming. Sub-categories: Making Stuff, Painting Guide.
Making copses of 6mm scale trees using bumpy chenille pipe cleaners
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).
DYMO Labels for Really Useful Boxes
I couldn’t find my box of sabots. Chris had turned up with his Picts based for DBx but I use Big Bases so I needed my big base sabots. Where were they? Or that Russian Church I know I have? Or the Goumier? Every time the guys turn up I found I’ve lost something. In one of hundreds of boxes that all look very similar. The answer: labels using my DYMO LabelManager Wireless Label Printer.
Operational Terrain 8 – Monopoly Buildings to Fit 4 Inch Hexes
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
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.
Vallejo Triads – Three colour shading with Vallejo Model Color Paints
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.
Painting haystacks for Crossfire fields
I wanted some 15mm haystacks to enhance my carpet fields. So I purchased and painted some. I’m not Monet, but they’ll do for a game of Crossfire.
Cliffs for Crossfire in Italy and Burma
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.
2022 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian
I am pretty happy with my efforts in 2021 and now it is time to lay out my plans for 2022. As always they are crazy megalomaniac plans. 2021 proved that even pumped I can’t achieve all my annual goals. But I’ll try.
I start with a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. The list is split into three parts: likely in 2022, unlikely, and background activity.
2021 Reflections of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian
My Confessions of a Megalomaniac were my 2021 aspirations. How did I do? I started the year with huge ambitions, and didn’t achieve them all, but it wasn’t a bad run.
Crossfire Terrain Cards
When I created my Terrain Cards – Random terrain placement for pick up wargames, Dick Bryant asked “When are we going to see the Crossfire version?” And then recently tiberius asked whether I had “considered creating a ‘modular tiles’ type map for Crossfire” (this was in the context of Mac’s Missions v3 – Revised Pick Up Games for Crossfire, although his comment was on v2). So here they are: modular terrain cards for Crossfire.
WW2 Painting Guide: 14th Army in Burma
In my pile of lead I have two, count them, two battalions for the 14th Army in the Burma Campaign. One Welsh. One Gurkha. So I figured I needed a painting guide. Luckily most of the troops in the 14th army wore the same kit. Same with the Chindits. Whether the early redyed Khaki Drill (KD) or custom Jungle Green (JG) the troops in 1943-45 wore “grey-green” which was, once in combat, far more grey than green. Recommendations are for Vallejo Model Color although I occasionally mention alternatives using Humbrol paints.
I’m indebted to the various wargamers that have gone done this journey of exploration before me, particularly Mark Davies (aka Jemima Fawr), Doms Decals, Mick in Switzerland, and Paul Scrivens-Smith (AKA scrivs).
Making ravines and depressions for Crossfire
I’ve had a go at gullies and depressions before. But they look too much like hills. So I decided to have another go modelling just the edge of the depression. Then I took this concept further and modelled a modular ravine system. I featured both of these when I asked, How does my Burmese battlefield look? In this post I share a bit more about how I make these features.
How does my Burmese battlefield look?
I am always impressed by Brett Simpson’s Pacific War tables for Crossfire. He inspired me to improve my jungle terrain. More jungle will be useful for Burma, Portuguese Colonial Africa, and Vietnam. I made some steps before we played the Pick up game in Burma, but I wanted to make my tables even better. So I’ve been bolstering my crossfire terrain and now have Pagodas, rice paddies, Bamboo groves, boulder fields, rock fields, palm trees, ravines, depressions, Burmese houses, jungle undergrowth (not featured here), crests (not featured here) and cliffs (not featured here). Some of these I’ve posted about previously, and some are yet to come. Now, after all that effort, I wanted to know two things. Do I have enough jungle terrain to fill a table? Does my jungle terrain look good enough? So I got it all out and threw it on a 6’x4′ table. I can definitely fill a table. And I reckon the table looks good enough, not perfect, but good enough.
Planning my Cool Ruins for Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Station
I have lots of ruins already, but I’ve mentioned “cool ruins” a couple of times over the last couple of years. Most recently in my 2021 Confessions of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian where I planned to “Buy, build, paint more 3″ x 3″ sectors so I can play both Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Station solely with cool ruins”. So what do I mean by “cool” Ruins? Well Ruins that look the best in my collection (i.e. commercial MDF structures that I’ve enhanced) and that are 3″ sectors. I don’t have enough. I want more of them, lots more of them. Here is my plan.