Mistakes Were Made........

That old question of how to keep the mojo flowing has been bugging me recently, do I decided to do a quick blog about the mental block I have been suffering from recently. 

The first thing that people often forget is that this is a hobby for most of us, not work. That means it's optional! So you shouldn't beat yourself up too much if you don't feel like doing anything or if you fancy a night off. Sometimes a break is good and it's always nice to do other things like spend time with the family etc. The downside to it being a hobby is that as a result, it has to be down the list of priorities. There have been times over the last few weeks when I had a real strong urge to sit down and paint, but the need to go shopping, do the chores, look after the little one or invest some quality time with the wife (this is crucial in the long run people!), has all a come first and by the time these things were done, the hobby bug had left me. It can also be hard convincing others that you want to play with toy soldiers over the important things! 

Another reason I took a hit was I messed up. I was working on my first squad of the new grenadiers and I messed up their camo. No big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it hit the mojo for a few days, then real life I've got in the way, I started putting some overtime in at work for various reasons and it all combined together to keep me away. A couple of times I walked in to the man cave and saw the messed up grenadiers and just walked back out. This has happened to me before. Most notably when I spent an age on an imperial guard command squad and then ruined them with hasty varnishing. They stared at me from the shelf for a long time before I got the courage to strip them and do them again. 

All of these things take time. Summer is coming, which for me always hit my hobby time. BBQ's, family, holidays and work getting busier all come together to hurt the time I get to myself. I suppose I might just have to make the effort to fit a little time in here and there. 

So in short, it's a hobby and best not to get too stressed about it. I've found it to be a balancing act - some days jut putting the brush down and walking away is the right thing to do, but on other occasions forcing yourself to paint can be a help. For me, I feel like I'm getting back into the groove so will hopefully have something to show for it later this week. 

Hail Caesar Battle Report

I have been playing a fair bit of Hail Caesar of late, and thoroughly enjoying it. A friend of mine, Tim, who I have met through attending several of the large games put on by Like a Stone Wall wargames group, has the most extensive mini collection I know of. He is the one who has introudced me to this game and the anicent period in general and in this game he very kindly lent both myself and my friend Chris the armies we used and acted as umpire.

So I plumped for Dacians. I had three divisions in total. Two of these consisted of three warbands and an archer unit, with the warbands split evenly in terms of Flax armed or not. The third division was my cavalry division, consisting of three light cavalry units and a unit of Sarmatian Cataphracts. There was also a looted bolt thrower that eventually did nothing.

Chris was fielding Alexanders Macedonians. He had opted for crack troops, giving him just two divisions, one of heavy cavalry (including Alexander and his companions) and a infantry division containing 3 heavy phalanxs of pike and some skirmishers. 

Here is my battle line:

I deployed the two infantry divisions in the centre and on the right flank with my cavalry on my left. My rought plan was for the cavalry to hold their ground to give my infantry time to use their superior numbers to outflank the pike blocks, two of which can be seen here:

For the first few turns the infantry advanced towards each other slowly, with my misreading of the terrain causing my right flank to bunch up (later with fatal results). It was the cavalry that stole the show in this early stage.

Chris threw his companions and other heavy cavalry unit head on into my cataphracts. In the first round of combat I was pushed back, but then in the second round my cavalry began to push back, driving the Macdonian cavalry back. Another of my light cavalry units wiped out one of Chris' and things were initially looking rosy.

In the mean time the infantry closed:

I got lucky at this point. As you can see in this picture, the very top block of pike engaged a warband. However, the middle block took some fire from an archer unit and was forced to back, creating a gap. I was then able to use on warband to pin the third block in place, whilst another outflanked it:

We discovered at this point that pike blocks don't like being flanked, and in a single round of combat they were wiped out with minimal loss to me.

It was around now things went wrong. The cavalary combat that had ground on on the flank finally went the Macedonians way, and my cavalry collapsed very quickly. Along with this, some pesky peltasts pinned my most flankward warband, preventing it turning to block the cavalry. They held just long enough to allow the cavalry to start rolling up the infantrys flank:

At the same time, my flanking warband was in turn hit in the flank by the previously pushed back pike block after the archers I had hoped to block it failed:

At the same time, on the extreme flank the griding combat of pike-v-warband went on. The warband were gradually losing and were pushed back into a second warband, dragging them into the combat as a direct result of the earlier bunching.

Then came the coup-de-grace. With my cavalary divsion already broken, in one turn the two flanked warbands went down, and the extreme fight on the flank resolved itself when the first warband lost. Unfortunatley, this took the supporting, untouched warband behind them with it, breaking a second divsion and handing Chris the game.

Overall, it was a really great game that see-sawed back and forth more than the end result suggested. Had a few rolls gone the other way I think the Dacians could have taken it. Hail Caeasr is a game I would highly recommend. I will certainly be building an army for it soon, I just can't decided which one!

As always, please like my facebook page for more updates: The Cardboard Fortress

Current Works in Progress

 Somehow, it has been over two weeks since my last post. I would say I am not quite sure how that happened, but as is the way, real life has managed to get in the way of the hobby. To be fair, a major reason is that I had a few days away with the family, and I managed to bag a visit to the Tank Museum in Dorset, so I can't moan too much.

I figured I would chuck up an update about where my current projects stand. The only thing I have managed to do in the last few days is to finish the three guys who will crew my Hanomags:

The Hanomags themselves haven't progressed at all. They are awaiting a layer of gloss varnish before weathering commences, but all being well they are on course to be done by the end of next week.

Asidew from that, I have started the base coats on the first squad of assault rilfe equipped grenadiers:

Not much to look at, but it is progress. Again, I think there is a reasonable chance of these being done within a week.

So not a great deal to report but things are moving forward! Hopefully, the next week or two might bring several updates.

Heaven is a Halftrack Part 1

When I got back into the hobby many years ago, I remember being worried about painting vehicles more than anything. It was around the time Forge World was really taking off and all these awesome vehicles were popping up everywhere, weathered and beaten and ultra realistic. What's more, people kept talking about this fabled thing called an airbrush, so I bought one. And then it pretty much stayed in the gararge, unused and unloved.

I decided not long after getting into Bolt Action that this would have to change. I wanted my German vehicles to have decent looking camo and an airbrush seemed the only real way to do it. So I dug it out and dusted it down and when I had finished the infantry I decided it was all or nothing.

First step was to stowage up the vehicles (can't go wrong with a little stowage) and give them an undercoat. I don't know why but I find this stage very appealing as the undercoat really ties all the different materials used together by giving it a uniform caller.

When that was done, I got on with the airbrush. I used vallejo air paints, which didn't require thinning and speeded things up. Here you can see one with the base colour on and the first colour applied.

 By the time I had done with the airbrush, the three of them looked like this:

I learnt many things from using the airbrush. Some mistakes were made that I just about managed to cover up and I think I spent more time cleaning the airbrush down (especially at the end) than using it but I hope that this is something that will speed up with practice. I already have four more vehicles of my own to do and have volunteered to do three of a friends so should get plenty of practice in.

Once the airbrush was away it was an evening with the good old brush. I put the decals on first, weathered them in a bit and then chipped the hull down with some sponge work before doing the stowage. A few more bits and all three currently sit at this stage:

I am reasonably happy so far. The tracks need doing before I seal them with gloss varnish and then use some oils to weather them, before appplying pigment. All stuff that is new to me.

So, in summary things I have learned so far is patience with the airbrush and some rough techniques. I also need to get some Microsol and Microset for decal work. But other than that, what progresss! In my 40k days, using normal paints and brushes, a Chimera would have taken me about two weeks. This took my maybe 2 hours in the afternoon and three hours in the evening. So at least I am speeding things up!

Review: Warlord German Grenadiers

For my first review, I have chosen the much anticipated Warlord German Grenadiers. I imagine a lot of Bolt Action players were waiting for these - I managed to obtain my for free through a cracking offer to subscribe to Wargames Illustrated.

So first of all, value for money. You get enough parts to make 30 figures in box set that Warlord sells for £27. I imagine if you shop around you can get that down to under £25, if not further. So at well under a pound a model, I don't think you can grumble. 

In the box you get five of the above sprues. As you can see, there are 6 bodies on each sprue. Two of these are wearing the Zeltbahn ponchos. Used as tents they also provided valuable camo to wear in combat and are a distinctive feature of the late war. Weapons wise you get rifles, MG42's, plenty of panzerfausts and also several options for loaders. This is nice because the other late war German box set misses these extras so you can struggle to make good loaders of of it. There are of course loads of other extras, from heads all the way down to an Iron Cross. 

Of course the one thing everyone was waiting for is the assault rifles! Not overly common in real life but a staple of many a Bolt Action army, you get 15 in total, three on each sprue. Two are built onto arms and there is one free one to use as you please. 

Assembly wise they are fairly straight forward. I did find the ones with Zeltbahn were the hardest to attach the arms too, as the ponchos seem to push them forward a bit. The bodies also attach to the sprue by the collar so you have to cut carefully. I also found heads struggled to stay on (more than normal), but that could be me. 

Overall I woud give this kit a solid thumbs up. I was disappointed at the ratio of Zeltbahn as I think I would have liked half and half, and the posing can be a tad awkward. That being said the value of this box set I is awesome. You could easily buy just this box and squeeze a 500pt force out of it. 

I have so far put together one of them, but in the near future there will be two squads of five vets with assault rifles joining my little version of the Heer, and I hope to have them done in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, here is the one I have put together. 

In other news, please like my face book page for more frequent updates. If I can ever figure out how, I shall link the blog to the page! But for now, here you go:

https://www.facebook.com/Thecardboardfortress

German Footsloggers

As mentioned in my previous post, my current main focus is Bolt Action gaming. I decided quite early on that I wanted to do Germans to start with as the story of their military antics during the war always fascinated me. The less said about their politics the better, but their armies (and mainly there tanks I suspect), have a lasting hold on many wargames.

I decided after some casting about to base my force on the Panzer Lehr division. The reason for this was because it was a very well equipped division at the start of the Normandy campaign and had the latest kit so it naturally drew my attention.

Enough talking about my army, lets have some pics. These are the three squads:

Each squad is 8 veterans; an NCO with an SMG, two MG42's and two panzerfausts. It's based off a lot of historical research I did, which indicated the paper strength of a half track mounted Panzergrenadier squad was ten men, a driver, a gunner and 8 dismounts. It's worth noting two things. First, I wrote this list before I knew the rules for Bolt Action, hence why each of these squads will get half tracks (depsite them being a bit useless), and second, that I know they aren't wearing the correct Panzer Lehr short tunic, but no one makes multi pose plastic Panzer Lehr to my knowledge!

They have the support of a mortar, a medium machine gun and a Panzer Schreck team:

Finally, here is the officer. He and his escort are the most "gamey" part of my arm, as I took the chance to give them both assault rifles.

Next up I shall be tackling the vehicles. That will be three Hanomags, a Panzer IV and a Puma armoured car. Should be interesting as I intend to try out airbrushing the first time! Wish me luck.

A Warm Welcome!

Welcome to my brand new hobby blog. I have decided to start this to chart my meandering journey through the hobby that is war gaming.

I suppose I should tell you a little something about my good self. I started this all in autumn of 1990.  A friend of mine bought White Dwarf issue 129 to school and it captured my imagination totally. A few weeks later I got hold of issue 130 and that was it. I raided the local GW that Christmas and my journey began. I developed a passion for fantasy, sci-fi and military history which all fed into my hobby. I got into 40k, fantasy, epic (my favourite!) and all the other games released around then.

This continued until I went into full time employment at 19. I pretty much stopped then, although the monthly purchase of White Dwarf continued, and I was always aware of what was happening in the hobby. I kept in touch throughout my early and mid 20's as my first house was bought, women were dated and much, much beer was drunk. Actual model purchases were rare and few, and games none, but I never really lost interest.

Fast forward to moving in with the woman I now call wife. Settled down and with a bit of disposable income, I decided to get back into the hobby. I started with all the GW stuff, mainly 40k, but also Blood Bowl and BFG. I amassed a large collection which took me through to a few years ago, when the arrival of a mini me slowed the hobby a little.

That takes me to now. I have, for reasons I can't truly put my finger on, gone a bit cold on GW. I find myself currently transitioning over to historical gaming. My current project is a late war German army for the excellent Bolt Action. This is about halfway done and is likely to feature heavily in my first few blog posts. But I am also toying with other systems, and as with us all I am trying to avoid the temptation to buy more stuff!

So that's me. I aim to try to post regularly, but we shall see what real life says about that. In the mean time, have some pics of my painted models (mainly GW at the moment).