Monday 28 March 2016

Some bits and pieces



There's been a bit of a lull in my blogging with nothing of note since Cavalier last month.  In the last few weeks I've played another game of Bolt Action VBCW at Eric's Shed which was great fun but little else.

At Cavalier I hummed and hawed about buying the very nice Ironclad Miniatures Armed Miners and eventually decided not to.  Of course as soon as I got home I immediately regretted that decision and ordered them online!  The whole VBCW setting has always been really appealing but I've always felt a bit daunted by collecting enough for a game. It doesn't seem to have made any impression at all at Guildford and although it does regularly crop up at the Shed (I've very lucky to have 2 excellent opportunities for regular gaming!!) there are always plenty of very nice figures there to play with so there's no incentive to get my arse into gear and get painting.

I had a bit of a revelation though after I ordered the Miners...maybe I don't need to worry about collecting enough for a game...maybe I should just buy and paint them because I want to!  That may seem fairly obvious to some of you but I've always tended to work to a plan and focus on building forces. For the VBCW I've decided to slowly (very slowly I suspect!) pull together some slightly random forces...not so random that they couldn't be fielded together, but not working to an army list or trying to get enough together for both sides of a game.

I think the VBCW setting works best when it's based around something local.  I could have gone with a local Surrey/London force but instead decided to go back to my roots, so the Miners will form the first part of a People's Lanarkshire Battalion!  I can already think of some more related units to field at some point.
Lewis gun team...the figure in the right is either carrying spare
 ammo or his sandwiches in his piece box




I can already see some tensions in the platoon...the foreman appears
 to be a Hamilton Accies fan while the rifleman is wearing a Celtic Scarf!
 
The Miners still need their bases sorted and hopefully a Coal Lorry is on it's way from EBay to turn them into a motorised platoon.
 
I also recently bought a Demon-type thing for Frostgrave...this is a Gargoyle figure from the Reaper Bones range which looked suitable.... again, part of my new approach of buying stuff just because....
 
I've never really looked at these before and while the figures are very nice I was surprised how soft the plastic was...very nice to paint though.

 





12 comments:

  1. A piece, haven't heard that for years, all gentrified now and I have sangwiches. I was back in Carluke last week, Lanarkshire is a shadow of former glories. And yes, I have discovered we should simply paint because we want to, and if it brings in a new period, even better, hence my Bolt Action.

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  2. Cheers George, I suspect these are destined to be the 1st Cambuslang Mining Battalion. If it was set a few years later it could have been named after a local boy as the Mick McGahey Battalion but he was only a boy in the 30s!

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  3. http://vbcf.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=4282

    The above link is to my Lanarkshire miners including their gallant leader with his Hamilton Accies scarf.

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  4. Great minds Evans!!! I spotted Irregular Miniatures do armed footballers so maybe the Accies could lead the charge!

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    1. Do they now, I will have to investigate and maybe get a teams worth.
      Thinking of getting another batch of figures and have them in cloth caps with the leader in a Motherwell scarf and have them represent the workers from the steelworks.
      There is plenty of opportunity for getting various Lanarkshire factions on the battlefield.

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    2. I can see a whole SPL of armed militias...sounds excellent!

      I figure VBCW works best when you can hang it on something familiar and, as I'm originally from Rutherglen, Lanarkshire seemed like a good bet. The Cameronians were based there in the Interwar period too so you can always add some regulars to bolster the militias.

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    3. Like my Lanarkshire Volunteer Rifles who are based on The Cameronians

      http://vbcf.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=4101

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  5. Recommend the Irregular VBCW figs, I'm slowly working my way through a load of them myself. (a couple of painted ones of mine on Irreg's website, by the way).

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. They look excellent...having said I was going to approach this slowly I can already see lots of ideas forming!!

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  6. And now they've got wheels!!!

    http://wargaminggallimaufry.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/fire-up-crossley.html

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  7. Painting things just because you want to ?? It'll never catch on!

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