Northwest Frontier update #1

Over the last couple of weeks I've made a start on my new Northwest Frontier project, tackling a few of the British and Afghan figures.  These are all from the Armies in Plastic 54mm range and my thoughts on how I ended up starting yet another project are here.


I've never tackled any figures in this scale since I randomly daubed some khaki paint over my Airfix Afrika Korps when I was about 8...hopefully there's a slight improvement!  I decided working on 4 at a time seemed like a nice number...not too many that I feel overwhelmed and fairly quickly getting the figures completed.


These are a couple of unpainted figures...they've had a wash with detergent to remove any grease.  I'm never sure if this is really necessary but worry that if I don't do it all the paint will fall off!



And here are a couple more, this time undercoated with a PVA/water mix.  I've never done this with plastic figures before. I usually just undercoat directly but all the online advice seemed to suggest this was a good thing.  It's slightly terrifying watching your nice figure disappear under large blobs of white glue but it does all dry clear and should help protect against paint flaking

A couple of undercoated figures.  The British are undercoated with Army Painter British Khaki and the Afghans in black but I may stick to Khaki for all of them in future.

 

Some completed figures.  They all had a basic paint job, dipped in Army Painter Shade and then highlighted and matt Varnished (Army Painter again)



 

 

 



 

 

...and with completed bases...

And the first batch of Afghans...



And Now For Something Completely Different...

Just like all good wargamers, I pride myself in my ability to remain focused and not to be distracted by the latest shiny idea that pops randomly into my head...usually after reading a book or watching a film and thinking, "I really need to start a new project based around xxxx...".  You can guess where this is going....

I've actually been sort of mulling this one over for some time for once and not simply plunging headlong into a frenzy of collecting figures.  I've always had an interest in Colonial Wargaming (doesn't always sit comfortably with my trendy lefty persona but I can always ensure the natives throw off the yoke of Imperialist oppression,etc).  I don't have much in the way of armies for this period... a 6mm British and Zulu collection and some Darkest Africa figures is about it... hold that thought for a moment...

Now, some time ago I came across some 54mm (1/32) figures and was smitten...these clearly struck a nostalgic note and reminded me of happy days maltreating Airfix WW2 figures when I was a wean.  I have been doing some digging on t'Internet and came across the Armies In Plastic range which is pretty extensive and look very nice... link

Although my childhood memories were all about Airfix Commandos, Eigth Army and Afrika Korps, I was drawn to the AiP Colonial range (see...it all comes together in the end!).  AiP have a wide range of figures ranging from Napoleonics through to modern with a pretty decent range of late 19th C figures...Sudan, Northwest Frontier, Boer War and Boxer.  I was particularly drawn to the Northwest Frontier range.  I'm guessing my inspiration comes from a variety of sources

In no particular order these include...Flashman, the films Northwest Frontier and The Man Who Would be King,  Peter Hopkirk's excellent book The Great Game, assorted bits by Kipling and, slightly out of period, the comic strip Wolf of Kabul...




I need to find a figure armed with a 'Clicky Ba'...

 and of course...

With that in mind I ordered a couple of boxes from Ebay and was immediately impressed...so much so that I ventured out on Saturday to Twickenham and the Plastic Warrior Show.  Now I know that wargaming is regarded as an 'unusual' hobby by those that we are brave enough to confide in, but the world of plastic toy soldiers seems a very strange place indeed.  The show was held in a large room adjoining a local pub near Twickenham (The Winning Post at Whitton) and consisted of lots of men rummaging through boxes of toy soldiers...so far not so different from a wargamers show I guess.  But the contents of the boxes were strange to say the least, ranging from what appeared to be broken Cowboys from my childhood for £1 or so, to even more chipped and broken figures selling for £10 and upwards!  People were frantically rummaging in the tubs, looking for that 'special' soldier, or cowboy, or cow...

 

To be fair our hobby must look equally baffling from the outside so I guess I'm the last person who should be pointing at others and mocking...

 

There were practically no traders selling new figures: almost everything was secondhand and pretty beat up, in fact the general rule seemed to be, the more beat up the figure, the higher the price: but luckily there was one stall... Steve Weston's Toy Soldiers... selling Armies in Plastic boxes.  I decided, somewhat rashly, that if I was going to dabble in a new project I may as well do it big time so I'm now the owner of several more boxes...some cavalry and a gun seemed like useful additions.  Finally I decided that if I'm going to take on the challenge of painting in a new scale, then I may as well throw in some Highlanders and tartan...how hard can it be!!

So there we have it...yet again I've blundered into a new period (and a new scale)!  More updates shortly as I make a start on painting.








Aztec update...

Last month I mentioned that I'd started working on sorting out the boxes of 1/72 plastic Aztecs that I'd rediscovered.  The figures themselves were painted well...they came from 2 lots on Ebay and while one set are noticeably better than the other, neither is too shabby at all.  But in both sets the figures were based in multiples...possibly for a DBx rule set and I really prefer to have them individually based so that I can use them for skirmish level games.

So I've been beavering away rebasing the first batch of Conquistadors.  Rebasing is one of those tasks that people seem to hate but I find it strangely therapeutic...it's pretty mindless but I can listen to some music and plod away until they are all completed.

I've been using bases from Minibits which I'd picked up at Salute.  The figures have also been dipped in some Army Painter dip and just need a matt varnishing which I'll give them tomorrow

The original figures are here...

 

 

 

...and the rebased figures are here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now on to the Aztecs...



The Great War

This week I played my first game of The Great War...the latest game from Richard Borg.

If you've played his other games (Memoir 44, Command & Colours, Battlecry, etc) the mechanics will be very familiar...card driven activation and special dice to determine hits or retreats.  Berg's skill seems to be in using the same format in each game but, by making a few tweaks, creating a game that really suits the specific period.  In this case the additional rules include HQ points which can be used to either call in off-table artillery or to play Combat cards which give additional bonuses or advantages.  HQ points quickly become a precious resource...they are regenerated by combat results or at the end of the turn and judging when to use them and when to let them stockpile is key.  As you'd expect from a WW1 game advancing out of your trench is likely to prove fatal without some softening up of the opposition first.


As you'd expect the game comes with excellent components including double sided boards reflecting the green fields of the early war or a sea of mud for later on.  There are a couple of sprues of figures from the Plastic Soldier Company which are very nice (although fiddly to get off the sprues intact)...these represent infantry, MGs, Mortars and Bombers.

                             

We played through the introductory scenario which is a straightforward slog with no specific objective other than killing the opposition.  Anthony quickly showed that he'd played the game before by concentrating on my 2  MGs which were both quickly knocked out.  We continued to exchange rifle and mortar fire across No Mans Land with the odd Artillery barrage coming in.  I managed to call in lots of these but with little real effect other than replenishing my HQ points...very handy but I'd rather they had knocked out some of the opposing units.  Anthony meanwhile was demonstrating the superiority of British rifle fire (or dice rolling) by whittling down my units.  I first refused my right flank, and then my left flank...apparently refusing the centre wasn't an option!  I had a bit of success in destroying a couple of units but too slowly and, after a hand to hand battle when British bomb armed troops stormed the German trenches, Anthony reached the target of knocking out 6 units and winning the day.

Great fun amidst the misery of the mud, blood and trenchfoot!