BROADSIDE SHOW REPORT

An enjoyable visit to Broadside in Sittingbourne in deepest darkest Kent today, as I said in my previous post this is a friendly local show which fills a leisure centre hall with club games and traders plus a very lucrative bring and buy room on a floor above. Luckily it wasn't a hot day and the leisure centre doors were open to aid ventilation!

The winning show game was Deal Wargaming Associations 'The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side' As the blurb said 'This wargame is set in the millenia-old war between predator and prey fought out over generations against the backdrop of the African Plains' The cast included gnu, Lions, Rhino's, Elephants, Warthogs, Giraffes, Crocs, Hippos Zebras and other herbivores. The rules were generated by a club member and games could take 30-45 minutes. It looked good, was different and attracted many players. Well done to Adrian and the other club members present.

My next favourite game really made me think hard about 6mm scale ....not something in figure terms that usually appeals but the Posties Rejects Marchais-en-Brie 8th September 1914 , Turning the German Flank in the First Battle of the Marne really was food for thought. It was well put together with a good basic playing board and effective scale scenary and that scale really gives you a proper eagles eye view of proper formations of troops.

The figures were Baccus 6mm  as were the buildings used. Hedges mounted on ice lolly sticks, there was even a captured French hot air balloon in play! I also chatted for the first time to Big Lee of the Blog Big Lees Miniature Adventures primarily about his visit to the Tiger exhibition at Bovington Tank Museum. Great to meet you Lee and the other Posties.

Next up on my 'favourite game of the day category was the Spanish Civil War aviation game, a photo of an early Heinkel He 111 from the game graces the header to this piece. I really liked the models Heroics and Ros and Scotia mostly with a few rare 'Amiots' thrown in from a 3D printing company. This was put on by the Spanish Civil Wargames Facebook group .

The chap dressed in Spanish Civil War uniform (I presume!) was very knowledgable and helpful, what really caught the eye were the miniature aircraft (always a sucker for wingy things) and they were quite well painted in this small 1/300 scale.

That 'Camo' and 'them markings' hard work in this scale well done to the brushman

The Milton Hundreds Group who put on Broadside are a very friendly bunch and I received an excellent briefing and the rules systems used on their British/Maori Wars game which also looked good mostly using the superb Empress Miniatures figures.

The games system uses cards not dice which are only used as damage counters. I received a complimentary Milton Hundreds Yellow dice and limited edition for the show Leofwine Wargamerson Purgatory card .....whatever that is, but very nice all the same!

The above was the games system used published by Eureka Miniatures/Mana Press

Skirmish Wargames had proof you dont need to spend all your wages on figures and scenary with a fun looking Conan Game using items purchased from Charity Shops ! It was called by Crom the Legend of Conan the Barbarian. This reminded me of the campaign rules written by Tony Bath many years ago using the Conan World as a Geographic setting.

Of course there qas the visually captivating Zeebrugge Game by Maidstone Wargames society pictures of which have appeared in the Wargames press already, but one more wont hurt, that ship is a masterpiece in its own right and nice to see in the centenary year of the actual raid.

Shepway Wargames Club took along a small version of their WW2 Ardennes game which I saw in its entirity at Trucks and Tracks show earlier in the year. They were using Chain if Command rules and the scenary was superb, I felt a chill just looking at it!

Sneaky Tiger

Below is some kind of Sci Fi 'miss the meteorite game' ...yes not my cup of tea but in to keep a balanced report!

Also of note was a Star Wars game 

Thats the games I took pictures of there was more besides, mostly board games but sometimes displays on stands and 'goodies for sale' also catch your eye. 

 I do love the covers of the books for  sale on the Helion stand  and many of the English Civil War titles were quite enticing.

Commission Figurines 'Ruins with Distinction' MDF buildings were rather nice and I purchased CBP1 15mm Berlin Strasse for Team Yankee 

Commission also make a range of MDF 6mm Figures for the Napoleonic period and actually they wern't bad !

The other 'real estate' specialist at the show is Blotz who again produce the ever popular MDF buildings. Resin has definitly declined in popularity. They produce some nice stuff and I will be ordering their 15mm fast food chain building for team yankee which they had run out of on the day.

Well thats it, a really enjoyable 3 hours spent in excellent company. Did I make purchases , well a few select additions but only a few stalls were discounting and no stall was selling rule sets which seemed amazing. I would have liked to purchase 'What a Tanker' and  'Chain of Command' but will have to get those direct from the 'lardies' there was also a lack of any other rules to whet my appetite and surprisingly no 'Saga'. I did have a good chat with the lady on the Foundry stand about what there is to see in their part of the world around Newark and the Battle of Stoke Field. They did not have any packs of Yeomanry Boer War cavalry so will have to order those or visit that area of the country during the summer holidays. 

 Above the Gravesend Gamers Guild Lego Game

The best value was to be found in the Flea Market...where there were few fleas but loads of 1/100th scale cold war aircraft kits and a couple of painted diecasts including a lovly RAF Jaguar. These cost £1 - £1.50 each, amazing value and I hoovered them up to give extra support in team yankee. A few Battlefront Tanks game sets were purchased and the superb Victrix new Gallic Warriors from PE2 Collectables who do give excellent discounts at shows.

Well I have rattled on far to long , but well done to The Milton Hundreds Wargames Club another triumph of organisation and I am looking forward to the 2019 show already!! 

Attending Broadside Wargames Show Tomorrow & Shepway Modelling show 2017

Yipee the one Wargames Show I was determined to visit again after enjoying last years experience is tomorrow. I have not attended Salute since it was in Chelsea Town Hall and Colours in Reading many years ago. I used to treck to Cavalier (Tonbridge) in February until recently but now Broadside put on by the Milton Hundreds Wargames Club is the one 'must visit' in my Calender. It is close to where I live, well lit in a Leisure Centre, friendly and put on by a local club featuring other local clubs demonstration games and traders, although it does also attract traders from far and wide as well. See the link for full info. I am sure I had photos from last years bash but can I find them? so I will post some from tomorrows visit soon.

This makes up for the loss this year of the Shepway Modelling show which was due to be held today at Hawkinge Community Centre BUT the centre had double booked the show with a wedding!! 'Numpties' so my most local model show other than those held in the Lees at Folkestone and the bi annual event in Faversham was cancelled. Bad luck for Shepway modelling club who put a lot of effort into it on an annual basis.

So to make up for the cancelled show here are some photos of the superb models from the 2017 show entered into the competition and on display on exhibitors stands.

These were taken with my old Fujfilm Finepix before last years Nikon SLR purchase so probably not as good as hopefully future pictures will be, but these will give you a taste of a local model shows standard.

A Fine 1/48th Folland Gnat

 Zulu Action!

This was a small diorama in 1/72 I think re created from a photo from the 1940 Blitzkrieg of German troops on a knocked out Matilda

A Nice colourful P51 Mustang

Rumanian WW2 IAR 80 Fighter , a rare bird

Late Victorian Royal Navy Sailor 

British Napoleonic Infantry

 

 A bust of a bust!

WW2 German SPG, a Hummel I think

Nicely displayed 'Spit & Hurri'

Your guess is as good as mine!

A modern military 'Dozer'

Western Showgirl

Unusual French armoured car from 1940

A touch of 'sci fi'

Fairchild Flying Boxcar ..aweome beastie

 Its always a varied display at the show

 A great rendition of a 'Spad'

'Stug'

 Far East 'Spotter'

A Lady Lancer

'I'm Turning Japanese'

Superb D Day Thunderbolt

Very nice tank interior which for once you can see

View of one end of the competition tables

Well thats it , great shame there was no show this year but I am sure 2019 will be even better and I hope a run through of some of the items on display show what a variety of modelling skills are on display at a small local event, please attend them or they will be lost in this day of escalating costs.....or weddings!

Tanks at Summer Half Term !

Well the obligatory school holiday wargaming session with Mark took place today and we concentrated on playing 'Tanks' by Battlefront for the first time. Both of us have the starter set and although we have many 1/76 scale tanks between us we did op for 1/100 scale (15mm) to learn the rules with a 50 pointish skirmish game as recommended.

As usual I plumped for the allies and selected a Firefly and two Sherman V's , Mark had a Panther and two Stug Assault Guns. My troop was valued at 51 points against the German 63 points although building a crew and extra equipment adjusted the points value of both troops.

The game was played on half a table tennis table with a few token bits of scenary, next time at Marks we will have proper landscaped wargaming boards or printed mats to make it more appealing to the eye. Set up is shared to place scenary, and the attacking player (yours truly) deployed first then turns follow movement, shooting and command phases dependant on tank initiative and attack values. Lowest initiative moved first giving the highest initiative tank (Panther) the best picture of what the opposition was up to. The highest attack value tank fired first. The Panther held all the cards!!!

The Dice rolling was something to behold, this was supposed to be a half hour duration game hahahaha.....getting used to the rules and special cards took a little time and then our attack and defence dice cancelled each other out and kept hits at one all ( 1 damage each on a Stug and the Firefly) well into the game. This made us question if we had read the rules right about cover, movement and ammunition bonus dice....surely someone would brew up soon!!

Well suddenly within the village there was carnage, the Germans suddenly understood the 'Bitzkrieg movement rule in the command phase and were amongst the allies in the ruined buildings. The British should have kept moving, a lesson learnt! Suddenly two Shermans were 'kaput' knocked out by Panther and Stug for the loss of one German assault gun, the Firefly mortaly wounded and a crewman down was cornered in a ruined house and was knocked out in a last stand ....the Panther didn't sustain a scratch!

The above picture tells the British tankers story of their first outing in the game, back to the mess for tea and reading the training manual ....next time it will be your tanks ammunition exploding Jerry!

Easter Holiday Wargames Day

Well I met up with Mark this week even though I was going down with 'C in C Home Commands' cold to see where we were with our Team Yankee project. It has become a bit of an arms race and sadly 'cold war going hot' seems to be in the foreground of current word news with a return to chilled relations with the Great Russian Bear.

Basically I've always wanted to develop a 70's/80's British Army and always thought this would be in 'Micro Tank' scale until Battlefront developed Team Yankee in 15mm.  Initial releases were for American and Russian Forces but the British Iron Maiden supplement soon followed as did my immediate purchase of 'Charlie Chieftains' British Starter set. Now thankfully Mark nearly always likes playing the Germans in WW2 (I prefer the Brits being a jolly wizard chap) and likewise he was happy to collect Russian Forces for this game. Trouble is he makes and paints faster than me!! So while i've trotted out 5 Chieftains, 4 Scimitar/Scorpions, an Abbot and a Fox he's painted twice that number and a whole host of infantry to boot!

Predomonantly he's made T72 and T64 tanks with Acacia Heavy Howitzers that are a lot meatier than Abbot spg's , BTR's of some variety, Shilka's for air defence (how many guns do you need on a turret!) and some nasty looking Gecko SAM jobbies.

Also he's doing an excellent job on the infantry which in 15mm is always my dread! Mine will be in DPM uniform oh joy!

While I was playing catchup by completing the construction stage of my Scimitars and Scorpions on the day he was up to no good building Mig 21's (Tamiya 1/100 scale) and painting Hind Helicopters!

An important element of any get together is to look at various wargames purchases over the last few weeks/months plan visits to any wargame shows (Broadside at Sittingbourne) trips to Deal Wargames Club (i've only manged 1 visit so far) and any new projects that may divert our attention or dusting off old projects. This is done over a brew or two which I think aids construction and painting.

Old Dairy brewery is one of the new breweries in recent years to be set up here in Kent and are now based in leafy Tenterden near the wonderful Kent and East Sussex preserved Railway  which runs between Tenterden and Bodium Castle just over the border in East Sussex a lovely day out in itself. Their beers are named after milk bottle tops so you can get red top, gold top etc and is a very quaffable pint whether from a pump in the local or out of a bottle highly recommended especially when building models.

We finished off by placing vehicles and some scenary on a Tiny Wargames Team Yankee Battlemat , the above shows a Fox armoured car primed in Halfords grey primer and two chieftains waiting for their camo and shading....I am a slow painter!!

For those not into late 20th Century wargaming etc have no fear other stuff is on the go as my previous post describes and I can't concentrate for too long on one subject! Now who mentioned the Franco Prissian War recently? PS the better photos are Marks (thought better credit them!)

A List of Current Wargaming Projects

So the usual long gap in posting! This time due to loosing my little book of passwords ! I couldn't log into the google account that I use to write this blog. Lesson learnt I hope. Well a lot ....and I mean a lot of purchasing has been going on in the past couple of years and as usual sadly little painting or modelling time. At what point does one just become a collector?  I have a friend who is now a regularish (school holiday's both in teaching profession) opponant and is a bad influence on the latest glitzy wargames trend. This has meant that I have dusted off old WW2 armies and bought loads more games and toys.

Above are some mortal remains of old WW2 stuff from 30 years ago, thankfully the Russians were in a better state of repair. 

This article is a useful theraputic aide memoire as i'm making more time to engage with my hobby and I definitly need to look at where I am at;

Team Yankee 15mm (Cold War) - British , West German, East German. An active project I am really enjoying I do love a Chieftain Tank! It also seems very close to home as it's a period from my history. Status: Collected all the army books building and painting British army first aiming to game by the summer school holiday.

Flames of War 15mm (Desert Campaign) - Not got into WW2 Western Theatre Flames at War as I have loads of 20mm models as I have for the desert campaign but the models and forces guides looked superb and attracted by starter boxed sets - British 8th Army & Italian Avanti. Status : recent acquisition yet to begin.

Saga - 28mm Dark Ages - Painted 10 saxons a couple of years ago never purchased the rules just the toys (Saxon & Viking) but have now obtained Saga 2 ruleset and Age of Vikings supplement . Status: looked at the pretty pictures and will paint some mini's to give a break from painting tanks!

Dead Mans Hand - Western Gunfight Game 28mm - Have rules and a few packs of Artizan/Wargames Foundry Cowboys . Status - Undercoated figures and painted flesh tones plus built half a westren town shop in MDF. Only needs 5 figures to get a game going !

Wings of War/Wings of Glory - 1/144th WW1 & 1/200th Scale WW2  aerial combat - Have rules and aircraft (prepainted yipeeee) and won my first game shooting the red baron down with my Spad

Tanks - World War 2 Tank Skirmish Game battlefront miniatures (they are getting a lot of my wages!) Status : bought a few tanks and ruleset simple game to learn, first game at Deal Wargaming Club hopefully soon.

Airfix Waterloo Project - Have collected plastic waterloo figures in 20mm for years, started painting some 'jocks' after stripping paint off them using Dettol. Status: Stalled project although still buying latest Napoleonic releases from various companies.

Belgian Army WW1 Project - What really started this blog still fascinated by Belgian involvement in the early years of The Great War. Status : Stalled although added some Hat 20mm figures of Infantry & Machine Gun Dog Carts recently.

Bolt Action 28mm WW2 - I am easily suckered into a good sales marketing approach and have amassed tanks and figures for all nations plus recently Farm Animals and a barn!Status:  yet to build anything.

Black Powder 28mm Napoleonic - see above! lovely figures regular sales at Warlord , large collection resulted of 1815 British and French. Status: plastic insulation currently!

Pike & Shotte - I refer you to Bolt Action & Black Powder!! Enough said!

Tumbling Dice 1/600 Aerial Combat - Starter set purchased of B17's and Me 262's etc should be easy to paint and get a game up and running. status yet to begin.

Naval Wargaming - WW2 1/3000 Navwar ships bought of e bay inspired by a visit to Chatham Wargames club. Painted the mighty HMS Hood and came to a halt undecided on rules but should be easy to get a game going quickly

World War 2 20mm projects - Interested in all nations and armies currently building Russian, German and Italian Tanks. Have purchased Italian and Japanese figures and armour recently. Status: always have something on the go in this area of the hobby as much from a modelling viewpoint as a wargaming one. Have played 1 hour wargame rules using 20mm tanks and figures in past couple of years.

Phew a scary list demonstrating a total lack of will or focus that some hobbyists have on one era or project at a time. The trouble is I have always been fascinated by all eras and genres of the hobby apart from one, Samurai games and figures which have never influenced me at all. On top of all this I am an aviation buff and collect and build aircraft models (as often as the wargaming ones!) and have a good and expanding collection of early Airfix boxed figures and playsets. I posted pictures of some of the 1/72 HO OO figures a few years ago but will add articles soon on playsets and buildings. how many of you have similar habits to the above list? how many sell before they buy?