Loser Shed Make-Over

 After talking about it for probably 5 years, I have finally got around to getting a new laminate floor laid in the loser shed. Together with a space-age insulation underlay, I'm hoping this will make things a little more warm through the winter.

Tilly the terrier seems to approve!

 I've also treated the Loser Shed to some posh draught excluder around the door and a super-efficient ceramic fan heater which allegedly only costs 15pence an hour to run ..... we will see.

All this has led to a delay in progress with the 15mm pirates and their ships. All the figures are now finished, but there's still a bunch of cannon to paint and four resin ships.

The ship at the very rear was picked up at a Bristol Bring & buy some years ago and in storage until now. The two in the centre are Peter Pig ships bought at the IPMS show and the painted example is Colin's ship from those original starter sets.

Here's my original ship bought from Peter Pig many years ago.

The remaining ships require the addition of the small metal details that came with them (Cannon sticking out of gun-ports, ships-wheels and the like) before I prime them and finish them with speed paints of one type or another.

15mm Peter Pig Pirates

 About 20-25 years ago, my late friend, Colin, and I put on a demo game at the Shrewsbury Wargames club show. Whilst we were there, we were fascinated by a new manufacturer who was selling his 15mm Pirate figures range. 

The last batch on the bench - painted exclusively with Contrast Paints

Not only did he have 15mm pirates he also had resin pirate ships to match (I later discovered these were made for them by another manufacturer. Originally "SDD Models" and then latterly, "Stronghold Miniatures" neither of whom I believe are still trading?). These were lovely models with customisable white metal parts (ship's wheel, cannons, balustrades etc) and had soldered steel masts with optional vacuum formed sails.

As a show special, they were offering a small pirate force, matching ship & a set of the first issue of "Pieces of Eight" rules for £10 (I think).

3D printed base designed to protect the oars

We were smitten and bought a set each together with an additional rowing boat + crew and some spare cannons!

The bases were then textured with artists acrylic paste before painting

Roll on a couple of decades - My figures were painted (badly) and in a box. We never got around to playing the game with them for all the usual reasons and when Colin passed away, I inherited his equally badly painted figures and ship!

Finished figures in their magnetised RUBs

Then along came the IPMS show at Thornbury and what did I see on the B&B stall? A box with two Peter Pig pirate galleons & 10 packs of figures for £25.

Needless to say I had no cash and they didn't take cards😏 So a quick bit of wheeler dealing with the guys on the door (repaying my wife and I's entry with a card in return for some cash) and I was back to the stall. It was meant to be, it was still there and off I went into the sunset with a very nostalgic package!

Some experimental 3D printed furled sails in the box as there were no vacuum formed ones with these

Over the last few weeks I've been painting these up (together with repainting our original figures) and basing them on 15mm diameter bases. Some were on MDF, others on 3D printed ones that would accommodate a self-adhesive 12.5mm magnet so I could store them in magnetised  Really Useful Boxes.

I'm not sure exactly, but I think there are around 150 figures + 30 or so cannon. I now have 4 galleons in total and will paint these up next. What rules to use I'm not sure....maybe home-written? We'll see.

AK47 Republic - Peter Pig - Part Two

 As opposition for my first AK47 Republic Army, which was roughly based on the European Settler type of force, I looked to my lead mountain.

Some years ago, I’d bid on and won a job lot of Peter Pig Israeli infantry figures. This was unexpected but at the price I won them, not to be refused!

However, at the time I had no immediate plans for them and into the pile they went.

Whilst looking into ideas for my other AK47 force, I took a look at the Osprey Modern African Wars No. 3 – Southwest Africa and realised that the modern South African Defence force used the Galil assault rifle and wore a uniform that wasn’t a million miles away from looking like that of the IDF.

So, the decision was made – a Professional Army of loosely South African appearance would be created!

For vehicles this presents some interesting options which gave me quite a challenge to find them on the internet as 3D printable files.

To start with I had my two left over landrovers with RCLs from my first army. These were simply recrewed with seated Peter Pig figures and painted a different colour. In fact all my professional army vehicles were painted the same base colour – Battle Front Miniatures Cobra Drab.

To transport the troops I opted for a mixture of Rafel wheeled IFVs with a 20mm Turreted support version, and a couple of MPVs (Mine Protected Vehicles) that loosely resembled the SA Casspir IFV.

This model was actually a cut down Buffalo Mine Removal Vehicle I found on the 3D Wargaming Facebook Page.

Before I had found suitable indigenous AFVs I printed off a Cadillac Gage Commando Armoured Car and a M113 APC so I added them to the mix as extras.

Finally, I printed off some 120mm mortars and crewed them with spare Peter Pig figures.

I realised then that I hadn't got enough firepower in the army. I could have added an Oliphant MBT but already had a Centurion painted up for my first force. It was then that I found the South African 8 x 8  Rooikat 105mm Armoured Car. 

No suitable 3D files could be found, but I did discover one of Captain Ahab's  files for a Chinese ZTL-11 105mm 8×8 Armoured Car. 

At 15mm scale the resemblance between the two A/C's is such that one would easily pass for the other, so I've printed one of these as my counter to the opposition's Centurion!

Now I need to print off a few native huts for African terrain and I’m ready to give it all a run out.

AK47 Republic - Peter Pig - Part One

 I've owned these rules for years but (like so many sets!) done nothing with them. I even bought the much more complicated re-booted set, but still no joy.

Is it me or do RFCM rules from Peter Pig seem to go through fairly regular updates for no good reason? The original AK47 rules are simple to learn, well thought through and well loved by players - if a little shabbily produced. The revamped version seem to have lost that elegance for no real gain?

Anyway, enough of that. I was looking at Team Yankee figures on Firestorm Games' website and I suddenly had an idea. Could the Australian Infantry be used for AK47?

At a mere £7.20 for 30+ figures I thought I'd give it a go and took the plunge. In fact I spent another £14.50 and bought a pack of 4 x Recoiless Rifle armed Landrovers too!

While the Aussies would make good white mercenary/local landowner types, I wanted to have an indiginous element to my army, so I bought the Team Yankee Iraqi Infantry set too .... another £7.20.

Now I'd seen on the Derek's Wee Toys blog page a very clever idea of using two figures on circular bases, rather than the three on square bases as recommended by Peter Pig. This makes your figures go much further and (i think) look better too!

To base my figures I printed up a batch of 30mm diameter circles (3mm high) with a slight raised lip the same depth as the figure's base thickness. Then when the painted figures were super-glued in place the base was filled up level with their cast in bases using Vallejo White Pumice.

While I was at it, I hit upon the idea of using "Embellishment" storage boxes from Hobbycraft to keep the figures safe. They are the perfect depth for 15mm figures, but they will slide around inside in transit. To stop this I printed some simple locator boards to hold the 30mm bases in place. Happy days!

The figures were painted using  amixture of Scale 75 Instant paints (very similar in concept and feel to Citadel Contrast, but much less in cost!) and Contrast Paints - the Battlefront sculpts taking the paint very well, and looking good when completed.

For vehicle support I had the landrovers, but needed more. I decided to keep 2 Landrovers back to arm the opposition army that was yet to be planned, and started scouring Thingiverse for ideas.

I decided to go with a 1960-80's ex-British feel and sourced some interesting vehicles to match.

Not all of these would be fielded at once but it would give this army some variation in play.

They consisted of;

• 1 x Centurion Mk5 - without side skirts
• 3 x Humber Pig armoured trucks - with soft top cargo holds
• 4 x AT105 Saxon APCs
• 1 x Saladin Armoured Car
• 2 x Landrover SWB with Recoiless Rifles

These were also finished in a mixture of Instant & Contrast paint. And look like they need another coat of matt varnish as they're shining a bit in the pictures!

Well that's one army completed. What for the opposition?

10mm MoCB Figure painting - Citadel Contrast Paints

My 3d Printer developed a fault on Saturday 😞, and while I wait for a replacement part from the supplier I thought I'd better get on with something else.

Matt White Primed

I finished off my 10mm ACW horse holder bases which had been hovering on the bench for a few weeks and then rather than get into some more of the ACW figures, I thought I'd make a start on the figures for MoCB.

Flesh areas picked out with Guilliman Flesh

I bought these from Pendraken at Colours in 2019. I've bought sufficient figures for the "NVA" game;-

1. An Average US Marine/Infantry unit
2. Vietnamese Army unit 
3. Villagers/Peasants 

The forces for the Viet Cong version of the game differ significantly and I thought that if I get into MoCB sufficiently,  I might invest in these later on.

Weapons picked out with Black Templar & Snakebite Leather

To start off with I based the army figures, these were based on mdf, two figures per circular base. The bulk were on 20mm dia. bases, with the company/platoon commanders on 25mm dia. bases. I will do the civilian villagers later.

Uniform colours blocked in. NVA in Militarum Green and US in Creed Camo

To texture the bases I applied Vallejo White Pumice with a palette knife. Great basing material!

NVA webbing picked out in Snakebite Leather and US boots painted in Cygor Brown

After this had dried, the figures were all primed with Wilko's matt white primer before painting them with Contrast paints.

Base painted overall in Skeleton Horde

The pictures within the text will take you through the process. 

The only non Contrast paint I used was a touch of Vallejo Russian Uniform to highlight the US figure's webbing

I just painted one of each base to start off with to test the colours out. Now I know they look OK, I will use this technique to paint up the rest.

To finish these off I will varnish and then add some flock and grass tufts to the bases.

10mm MoCB Terrain Pieces - Villages

Due to 3D printing obsessively, I have neglected my Men of Company B terrain building!

Buildings for the villages were selected at random from those available to download on Thingiverse, as were the fences. These were rescaled to suit 10mm use in the slicing software before printing. They were then superglued onto scrap mdf appprox. 100x200mm

However, here's a quick update on progress so far.

THe base surface was then coated in diluted PVA before scattering with bird cage sand. When dry this was painted using cheap brown craft acrylic paint ("Plaid")

As I'm building both sides and all the terrain the game requires, there's quite a lot to do.

The building walls were painted using Army Painter mid-brown, the thatched rooves in Vallejo Midstone and the corrugated roofing in Vallejo Dark Grey.

Just a reminder, in 10mm you will need the following 100x200mm templates; -

• 6 x Village templates
• 1-3 x Paddy Fields
• 3-4 Jungle pieces
• 0-1 Rocky hill
• 1-3 Bamboo pieces
• A single road that will run the length of the table (1000mm long)

Once this was all dry, the buildings and fences were given a brown wash. Then when dry, the entire model was dry-brushed with a sand coloured test-pot paint

Thus far I have completed the village pieces, so there is still a long way to go.

Green flock was attached with diluted PVA to areas where I thought there would be less foot traffic

Vehicles can be tabled as part of the game, and are used in pairs. To provide for this I've printed pairs of M48A1's, M113 APCs and M113 ACAVs.

As a final touch, I added half a dozen or so dark green grass tufts. Here are the two ACAVs (Both Marco Bergman models 3D printed)

Getting there slowly but surely.....

And here are the M48A1's

It occured to me while reading the Peter Pig AK47 Republic rules that these would do just as well as African Villages. Maybe that could be another future project in 10mm?

10mm Update....ACW & MoCB

A quick update on recent activities.

My ACW 10mm project is ticking along nicely. I finished a unit of Rebel Infantry to use my last 25x25mm mdf bases and moved on to the artillery limbers & teams as these would use 25x50mm bases (of which I have loads).

On completing these my mdf order from Products for wargamers arrived! So I'm now good to go with the rest.

My first subjects will be the artillery pieces & crews together with the divisional & Corps commander bases. After this I can return to finishing my infantry and cavalry figures.

My first two village templates for 10mm MoCB are now finished and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. I've a new 3D printer arriving today so will use that very soon to print of some more buildings and fences to allow me to complete the other four.

The M113 APCs are also finished and look the part. I will add some more vehicles (and hopefully helicopters) to the game as time allows.

RFCM Men of Company B (MoCB) - in 10mm Part One

I'm starting to gain some momentum with my 10mm Vietnam project and thought I'd post an update.

This set of rules first came to my attention 10 years ago when I bought the original version (The old crappy photocopied and comb bound version,  on random coloured paper!).

The hardest thing I've always found with Peter Pig rules (RFCM) is to get beyond the presentation.....hopefully one day, someone will have the balls to tell them they need the services of a professional graphic designer!

Once you are over that, and start to read through you generally find a very innovative and workable set of rules.

Recently they've gone through a re-vamping exercise. Re-writing the rules and expanding them as well as printing them on glossy paper and using spiral binding!!

Many are all the better for it, some are not (i,e Regiment of Foote!) and there is a noticeable increased move towards grid based gaming. If you are OK with this, all well and good, if not you're doomed.

The original MoCB was a good game, the new version I've yet to try. However it has been expanded over the original to cover pilot rescue, fire-base attack and straight Red on Blue combat.

One of the requirements of the original search & destroy game is the "Cache Loop". This decides what you find following your searches and like many features of RFCM rules appears to be an excuse to have you buy yet more items from their range!! I guess it's a business model that worked well for GW so why reinvent the wheel?

Now as I'm going to be using 10mm figures I thought a scaled down version would be in order. I'd seen a rather nice mdf version of the Cache Loop both on the PP site and Warbases and I thought "how hard can this be?".

I bought myself 4 x Four Penny sabot bases from Products for Wargamers and glued them together. I then glued this assembly to a sheet of mdf left from another project and there you are.

The notes in the centre are double sided and laminated, so suit either the search and destroy or the White Star scenarios. All I need to do now is produce some little markers (ambush, arms caches etc.) on pennies to place in the sabot slots.

Meanwhile I've almost completed the first village templates (I need six in total) built on scrap mdf (that came with my son's baby's self-assembly furniture packaging - never waste anything eh?) using entirely 3D printed terrain pieces - huts and fences.

The base was then coated with bird cage sand on top of PVA and painted up with cheap craft paints.

Just some greenery to add - a bit of flock and some grass tufts I think - and they will be finished.

In total I will need 20 terrain templates (each 200x100mm approx.) for the game of which the 6 villages are just a part. Still a fair deal of work to do.....