Show and tell

Greetings pop pickers…

I’ve been doubling up on shifts at the dairy for the last few weeks in an attempt to add to the moving house fund. Sadly two 12 hour shifts a week hauling 30 tons of Mozzarella tends to leave me in a semi comatose state. Instead of beavering away each evening, brush in hand, I’m more likely to be found propped up on the sofa, staring blankly at the idiot lantern, while dribble runs down my chin. 

However…

In a few spare hours of relative lucidity, (when I’ve not been in traction) I have managed to make some progress with my British revolution / 1926 General Strike project, so I thought I’d share a few piccies on the blog. 

I’ve long been an admirer of Norms Tigers at Minsk rules and was considering using them for some WW2 hexed terrain stuff when I decided to co opt them for my version of A Very British Civil War instead. 

Set in 1926 rather than 1938, the catalyst for conflict becomes the General Strike rather than the abdication crisis and consequently late First World War figures and vehicles fit the bill nicely. Scale was dictated by figure variety,  availability, and cost, with Pendraken’s excellent First World War and interwar ranges in 10mm providing everything I’m ever going to need. 

The units are all six figure “sections / squads” in a broadly 1:2 ratio with vehicles represented at 1:1. 

Up first are this bunch from the OMS.

In 1925 the British Government had its first confrontation with the Unions when Miners working hours were increased and their wages cut. Realising they were not ready for the threatened industrial action a time limited pay off allowed the Government to make preparations for further trouble. That year an advert in the conservative press called for volunteers to enable the maintenance of essential supplies in the event of nationwide strikes. The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supply was duly born. The almost exclusively white collar middle class volunteers would be expected to drive busses unload ship’s cargo etc and generally fill the gaps left by workers who’d withdrawn their labour. Given the social demographic from which the OMS members were drawn it’s not unsurprising that  some admirers of the newly emerging Italian influenced Fascist movement soon sought to infiltrate it. Though members of organisations like the British Fascisti (see the earlier “not dead just resting post”) were required to formally renounce their membership before joining the OMS several notable figures still ended up in control of OMS regional branches. In my timeline, clashes between striking workers and the OMS cause both sides to quickly, and illegally, arm themselves. The fellows depicted above are OMS civilians sporting their distinctive (and totally made up) white armbands as an identifier.

Then of course there’s the Rozzers.

The dear old British Bobby was often placed in the invidious position of attempting to maintain law and order in a none partisan fashion. Churchill actually wanted to arm both the police and soldiers if called on to guard essential supplies but was overruled on the matter by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. In my timeline both forces were armed when trouble from riotous mobs began to escalate.

The British Governments most reliable strike breakers were expected to be the military. With organisation, manpower and discipline they would be expected to step in if and when things threatened to spiral out of control.

A platoon of regulars, primed for action with the Lewis gun section top left. I plan to give bases armed with that weapon the higher firepower “panzer grenadier” stats from TaM.

During the breakdown of normal law and order the chaps below might well have appeared on either side:

Sailors from HMS Drummond docked in Liverpool. Depending on the scenario they could easily represent Government forces or mutinous matelots put ashore by worried officers. 

In my alternate timeline, escalating violence around the London Docks sees soldiers deployed and orders given to shoot at rioters. Some units refuse to comply with this command and the men involved are duly arrested. Suspecting there might be further instances like this soldiers sailors and airmen begin to desert their posts in droves.

Effectively finding themselves on the run many deserters band together, receiving food and lodging from strike committees in exchange for protection. Later formalised and reorganised as the Workers Defence Force, the chaps below are shown wearing their distinctive red armbands.

A WDF platoon with Lewis gun section on the left. The majority of WDF forces wear greatcoats and caps in the field.

Finally (for the moment) we have the provisional wing of the Revolutionary Workers Collective - small groups of non hierarchical unionised militia tasked with the defence of their parent factory and its immediate surroundings. 

British Small Arms factory comrades from Smallheath in Birmingham readying themselves to give the OMS fascists what for.

I still have a large number of units to paint up, but since they get done surprisingly quickly, I’m hopeful of playing a few games with them in the not too distant future. Units still to come include yeomanry cavalry, forward observers, commanders, motorcycle and side car scouts, mortars, field guns, Vickers MG’s, armoured lorries, London busses, a traction engined steam roller, Mark V tank, Whippet tank, Vickers Mk2 tank, birch gun, AA truck etc etc. 

Originally I’d intended to do a structured campaign but I’m now leaning towards a series of smaller vignette type scenarios that just tell bits of the story in this imaginary clash between the left and right. I suspect it’ll end up as a bit of a mash up between back of beyond and a very British civil war. 

Special thanks must go to Norm for kindly coming up with stats for the main armoured vehicles I’ll be using.

And finally…

Apropos of absolutely nothing here’s a picture of something else I’ve been working on recently while fiddling around with Victorian submarine warfare rules. It’s amazing what you can make from a load of old crap isn’t it?!

The Plongeur…still under construction. 

Toodleooh for now!