A niche within a niche

Okay so I was googling “cats that look like Hitler”* the other day…hey, I am retired… when God knows how I got there but I ended up watching a stop motion video of the battle of the bulge - all done in LEGO.

It’s fair to say I spent many a long hour when both my two lads were little playing with their LEGO…and sometimes, if they were good, they got to join in too. Our best builds were forts, or siege weapons that used elastic bands to catapult marbles at the defenders, (I like to think they were brought up proper like). Anywhoo we constantly struggled to create warlike things with what was in those days a very non military toy. 

If only we’d waited for twenty odd years!

Now, I’m kind of used to having a hobby (regular wargaming) that’s considered “niche”, but it seems I’m now totally out nerded  by a group inhabiting a niche within my niche.

Here for your delight and delectation are a whole load of screenshots of WW2 LEGO tanks and infantry - that they apparently use Bolt Action to play games with!

I’m kind of in awe.

I think.

* totally a thing…Google it, it’s hilarious.

Mud blood and STEAL

Yup, not an original idea in my head.

Cursed as I am, with clumsy hands of death, I usually spend 30 seconds moving a unit into a wood and five minutes standing all the trees up again, so it was a bit of a boon when I came across this tree basing system used by the guys over at LittlewarsTV.

Two packs of rubber slot together kids play tiles (which sit snug in the base of my new table) and a box of pins later and… voila.

Kids rubber play mats, which the trees are pinned into.

The extra tiles I’ve had left over now serve as contoured terrain under the game mat with the advantage that I can pin trees upright, even on slopes.

A unit of Gallowglass in the woods…looking for the teddy bears pique-nique no doubt.

Not only without an original thought in my head, but also happy to jump on the « everybody else seems to be doing it » bandwagon. Here’s a quick piccie of my painting desk.

Where the « magic » happens. Lol. For those with an inquiring mind we have from left to right… a regiment of Continental infantry on bottle tops undercoated grey and inked with nuln oil, a tray of pre chosen paints for the continentals (which get moved out of the tray as they are used), reproduction Anglo Saxon beaker holding my dwindling supply of crappy brushes, operation tree pin, and a small bronze statue of Ing. Or as we call him, Ing and his Thing (Pre Christian pan European deity). The troughs you can see through the window are former cattle feeders that’ll soon be planters when the weather improves.

Okay that’s quite enough show and tell for one day. Catch you on the flip side dudes.

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!

Not dead, just resting

Had a few problems with the old noggin of late and gaming interest has been virtually zero. In the space of the last four weeks I’ve only managed to produce the twenty four figures shown below - which is about as many as Lee would do in an afternoon I reckon. Lol. 

Penda, centre of right front stand and Raedwald centre of middle left hand stand. Only another 15 stands to go to complete the two armies. Should be done by mid 2025 at this rate.

Being nuts is not easy but as a musical representation of the condition I’ve gone from this…(don’t click on it, it contains cuss words!)

…to this in just three weeks! 

Apart from being full time bonkers I’ve been dabbling in Victorian submarine warfare a bit, (possibly more on that when I’ve finished the models) and looking to using Norm’s Tigers at Minsk rules for my own VBCW project set in a post general strike Britain, circa 1926. (With Pendraken 10mm forces). It’s been interesting researching the pre Mosley fascist groups from the 20´s and how they managed to infiltrate the governments volunteer strike breaking force. This « lady » and her group were certainly new to me.

Rotha Linton-Orman, leader of the British Fascisti…

…when Oswald was still pretending to be a socialist.

I like the published AVBCW thirties stuff a lot, but I’m not keen on some of the more outlandish factions or its general « war’s a bit of a lark » theme. I’ll be pitching it as a straight up communist / fascist struggle I think. Again more on that when the models arrive.

Since I’ve labelled this post as «blether » it’s probably about time I swerved off on a tangent, so here goes.

On a visit last summer one of my grandchildren remarked that the sign for the nearby Preseli hills actually looked like it said the Presley hills. Naturally I’ve been attempting to exploit their naïveté (I’m a very bad Grampa) and I’ve been trying to convince them since that Elvis (who was actually Welsh and not from Memphis) is still alive and scampering around up on the high moorland as a sort of feral character clad only in a rhinestone encrusted loin cloth. I’ve now got pictorial proof that he’s also been secretly canonised… as per this sign on the Pembrokeshire coastal path.

If you squint a bit at the sign you’ll see it’s not a stairway to heaven but a pathway to St Elvis. The truth is out there! Follow the money…erm…and so on. 

On the old blog I documented my very own « operation dynamo » in which the wife and I packed up and moved back from France - for a more certain post Brexit life. I’ve now given it two years in Wales but there’s not a day goes by that I don’t regret the move and so the initial planning has now begun on our version of « Overlord ». 

Even as I type The Current Mrs Broom is busy crocheting a massive net for us to go house hunting in Finistère, Cote d’Amor or Manche. We’ve booked a ferry etc for mid September so we’ll see what happens. Thank God for her Irish roots (and passport). Hopefully at some point next year, or even the one after, I’ll be wading ashore on Gold beach with all our worldly goods. Lol.

Wales eh?!

I’m not saying it’s backward out here…but we’ve still got a Spud U Like. 

Case closed.

Toodle ooh

An itch I keep on having to scratch

No, no not that itch, I’ve got an ointment for that.

I’m referring of course to my continual Dark Age and ECW fixations. 

I’ve owned and built ECW armies in 2, 6, 15, 18 and 28mm over the years, from bendy 6mm pikes to Wofun flats and everything in between. Despite my general (and perhaps unfair) dislike of Warlord Games I’m pretty sure I’ll be elbowing my way to the front of the queue if they ever do the period in their new Epic range. 

The other genre on which I seem fixated is the dark ages in Britain. The number of armies I’ve owned in  this era is smaller but I think it’s fair to say they’ve seen the most action. Eventually, as part of “operation generate more hobby cash” I flogged the last of them on eBay recently and resolved never to go there again. 

Of course within a week of shipping them off I discovered these...

Age of Penda - Wiglaf Miniatures. 18mm. Get ‘em from Northstar.

...and I came all over weak at the knees. 

I posted about them a while back but Northstar have finally begun stocking them and my initial order arrived on Friday. 

Now I hate painting, but these minis are so lovely that I jumped right in and had a go. They’re not up to Lee’s standard of course but I’m fairly pleased with the outcome. 

Penda and a couple of nobles from the leaders pack

Same lads - from the back

Helping to ease me into a painting vibe was this jolly “anarcho folk” tune favourite which I've decided to share, cos I'm good like that. If your feet don't tap - you might want to check you've still got a pulse.

I’ve spared you my recent discovery of the Cherokee Death Cats (best band name ever) since I think it’ll be too rich for your blood (with the possible exception of nundanket and Elenderil) mayhap.

Toodle ooh.

Crossroads motel… In spaaaaaace!

I’m not sure if Crossroads was a  “thing” outside of the West Midlands ATV region but it formed an unfortunately essential part of late evening viewing in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s. Famed for its wooden acting, frequently forgotten lines and most importantly it’s wobbly sets it is still fondly remembered in some quarters as the only show where Brummies were able to hear themselves on TV. It brought us memorable characters like Benny the woolly hat wearing simpleton and the gorgeous Miss Diane. 

I’ve just discovered there was even a board game - though I think bored game would be a better term.

Anywhoo the thing to focus on here is the wobbly sets aspect because a few nights ago I knocked up a few of my own. The Trekhulk test game I conducted recently has been quite a success but I felt a bit restricted by its parent Space Hulks single width corridors and overall lack of a 3D feel. 

While getting ready to set up my next VSF game I noticed I had a large amount of foam board in stock, some wide blue masking tape and a lot of unused mdf bases in various shapes and sizes. A little light bulb went on in my head and by 2am in the morning I’d mocked up this load of cobblers  - VSF game totally forgotten.

Rear of the bridge with turbo lift access. Foam board sticky blue tape and some unused mdf bases. The doors were made out of MS Word shapes and the LCARS terminals were resized off the inter web and printed out.

Front view of the bridge showing helm, navigation and the ships viewscreen. I’d been wondering what to do with that big oval base for ages!

Main engineering with its upturned yoghurt pot and doohickey warp core. The corridors and rooms are all separate and can be repositioned into different layouts.

Transporter room 1.

You can never have enough corridors going nowhere!

Same stuff - different angle

Now it ain’t pretty and to be honest it’s as rough as a bears arse, but as semi disposable 3D Star Trek terrain it’ll do for test purposes. I took the decision from the off that new rules without hexes or squares would be required, placing my new Tactical Trek in proper skirmish territory. 

I’ll let you know how I get on, when I’ve finished the shuttle bay and run a game.

Toodle ooh.

Broomtown or bust

Just thought I’d post a couple of pictures from my recent play testing of Elenderil’s new rules. It didn’t really require the scenery to be out but I thought I’d do a quick review of things at the same time.

As you can see the roads need lining with foliage and the edges of almost everything need to be darker green to match the mat. The river needs toning down too while I’m at it. I’ll be creating some hedged enclosures next and cutting up the duplicate mouse mat to make the contoured hills. You can’t see them in the pictures but there are a couple of Broomtown residents dotted around the place as well. Lol.

TTFN

2 mill ville

First off - an apology. I’ve become aware that a number of my comments are failing to register on other folks blogs, I’m not sure why this should exactly so my strategy, (since I’m notoriously tech averse) is to wait the bugger out in the hopes that it gives in and fixes itself - like my broken toe did the one time.  

Anywhoo… despite being in the doldrums I thought I’d post a quick update on the 2mm front as a sort of progress report. The old black dogs been hanging around for the last few weeks but despite that I’ve ploughed through half a dozen Cogs, finished the 2mm armies, tinkered with a couple of my own rule sets, play tested Twilight of the Divine Right…mmmm… and set too on the terrain I need.

I’ve a lot of buildings to complete and that’s before I get on to castles and fortifications. I thought this scale’d be easy and quick…lol.

The buildings are from Brigade and are lovely despite my cacky painting.

The rivers are blue masking tape on plastic card, with a heavily pva’d garnish of fringe foliage. I’ve done enough sections to cover twists and turns over a 3ft length which should be enough. The woods and the roads are on the way.

I shall be cutting up a new 3mm thick mousepad game mat (sacrilege) to make contoured hills in the same colour and texture as the base game mat. I hope that’ll look okay.