Lost in Space...

a 'Batrep' - of sorts!

Goodness me, where does the time go?  Blessed with a small 'mini-break' from work, I find my beloved '28mm Victorian Warfare' in desperate need of a Spring clean; or at least a post or two!  It has occurred to me that I had not made mention of a game I recently attended; finally I hear you all cry!  Not so very long ago, I had been following a series of posts by the 'The Dark Templar'  charting his progress and pitched battles with his good friend, Bull (of 'Bull's Waaagghhh!' fame) in the murky backwaters of a galaxy known as Warhammer 40K.  Apart from the usual incredibly high standard of modelling and painting Master Templar was also engaging in a bout or two of trash talking, with a certain amount of justification given the ferociousness of his recently revamped Plague Marines.

Looks great, but not powerful enough to penetrate the armour!

Having left a comment or two on the relevant posts you can imagine my surprise when I received an email inviting me to the next game!  There was no pressure to bring any models or learn the rues just turn up and roll some dice.  Now having said that I hoped to play some games this year the invitation was just too good an opportunity to miss out on, not least because it would be a wonderful opportunity to catch up with Mike who I had last met at the conclusion of the 'Tale of the Three Painters'.

Wow!  The Templar's big boys rip into the Dark Angels.

And so it was that I found myself on 'Bull's' threshold, armed with camera and chocolate digestives ready to do battle.  Now I won't commit to a full 'Batrep' as these can be found here (The Dark Templar's) and here (Bull's), but I will share some of my own thoughts and observations as appropriate.  On arrival the board was already set up with the terrain awaiting the positioning of models, this would prove problematic for the The Dark Templar as it transpired that he had inadvertently left his miniatures at home - how could this be possible?  How could you turn up to a prearranged game without your models?  Now there was a perfectly good reason for this but let us just say that The Dark Templar was already on the back foot and the recipient of one or two salvos of playful banter.  All was not lost as substitutes were press-ganged into service from 'Bull's' huge collection and he had managed to remember his Nurgle Heldrake and Forgefiend - two splendidly converted and painted demonic monstrosities.  

Apparently these were zombies!  

Once the game was underway I have to confess that there were times when the combatants may as well have been talking in gibberish; a sci-fi fan at heart I could keep up with 'Laz-cans', 'Pulse-cans' and 'Flamers', but when it came to the more specific game dynamics, I was lost.  I was amazed just how much reference material was at hand, partly because the codex been used were new to both, but also the amount of intricacies they contained.  It was clear that these were two seasoned gamers, veterans of many a campaign and yet there was still so much to learn - what hope was there for me?  Perhaps sensing my apprehension at been on the periphery of this pitched battle the 'Dark Templar' handed me a set a dice with the clear instruction, "anything higher than a 3".  As the 'cubes of chaos' came to a standstill, many with 6s face up, I was hooked!  

The relic is captured!

As the game progressed, I was able to get a better handle of the systems that made up a turn and started to appreciate the strategies that were been employed in front of me.  I remember been horrified though at just how much physical punishment the models were taking.  They were picked up and repositioned with gay abandon, occasionally knocked and all the time I thinking, "oh no, is he all right?", "please don't let his paint be chipped!"  I think it was at this point that I started to understand just how far I had to go to become a gamer!

Challenge accepted; the shy Typhus's played by an Ogre!

The game came to a natural conclusion, a win for the Templar's Chaos forces, but what a splendid afternoon's entertainment it had been.  I can't thank the chaps enough for their very kind offer and of course, Mrs. Bull for the splendid hospitality - wonderful bacon sandwiches and lashings of tea and coffee.  Now whilst I appreciate that I have a while to go before hosting a simialr battle it has confirmed my desire to persist with this most wholesome of hobbies, but is it wrong that I want to go out and buy some Warhammer 40K models?

Normal Service will resume...

Shortly!

 

 

 

My apologies to one and all, but we seem to experiencing a rather determined patch of 'real worldness'!  Rest assured we have our best technicians on the case and we hope to have the hamster back in his wheel and the ship righted before too long. 

 

Your patience in this matter is greatly appreciated.

 

and now some music...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plastic Fantastic

Before even the first stroke of paint had been applied in the '3rd Annual Painting Challenge' some may recall my initial exploits with a box of 'Perry Miniatures' plastic Mahdists.  My lack of experience led to a mostly humerous episode -  it wasn't that funny at the time! - that saw me scrabbling along on hands and knees trying to find the sword wielding limb that had just 'pinged' across the dining room!  

With a little persevernace I managed to assembly these ferocious warriors to something resembling a human being and decided that they would form a jolly good foundation from which to launch my personal challenge of achieveing my 500 point par score.

So to my latest entry that saw two more stands of five tribesmen.  The first, very much in the vein of what has gone before, but the last are armed with muskets and wearing a distinctive red fez.  I have no doubt that I will be admonished by the Wargames Police for this gross historical inaccuracy, but I just couldn't resist - perhaps they could go on to be Turkish Slavers!  

To finish, I've included a couple of shots with the entire collection to date.  Now I appreciate that this may not look like much to the hardened Wargamers out there, but to me it represents a something of a breakthrough.  I've long suffered with the attention span of a goldfish so to actually complete something that approaches a unit of troops is a bit of an achievement!

100,000 page views!

At some point in the early hours of this morning '28mm Victorian Warfare' clocked up 100,000 page views!

I have to confess that I'm somewhat flabbergasted at this for not only have I managed to stick at something for any length of time, but also that my humble offerings and inane drivel, which have been displayed since its inaugural post, are of interest to enough people to chalk up the aforementioned milestone!

It goes without saying that I am absolutely thrilled and just want to thank all of those that peruse the pages and leave the occasional comment; it really does help to keep one going.  Now although I've not planned any celebrations for this achievement, I am happy to divulge that we are considering a small giveaway to mark the second anniversary of the blog on March 14th 2013; more details to follow!

Once again a huge Thank You!

 

Gardner Gun Updates...

...spent cases!

Just the briefest of posts to display the minor upgrade the recently completed 'Perry Miniatures' Naval Brigade Gardner Gun has received.  On its completion I was delighted to read the many kind and supportive comments that were left, but one in particular struck a chord.

David D, of 'One Man and his Brushes' left the following:

"lovely work as ever - , now you missed a little trick - or maybe it jammed early - a pile of spent casings!!!!"

Now this rose the pulse rate, I can tell you, not because it had angered me, but simply because I wish I had thought of it first!  So having polished off the latest entry for the challenge, I decided to have a little fun and implement Dave's suggestion.  Horrendously out of scale, but a nice little finishing touch - thank you Dave for the suggestion.  

 

 

Below are a couple of illustrations from the original handbook of the five barrelled Gardner Gun c. 1882 by Dangerfield Lithographers of Covent Garden, London; indispensable when it came to establishing just where the spent cases might be building up - provided that the wretched thing hadn't jammed again!

 

 

 

The illustrations of the Gardner were scanned from my personal copy of Military Modelling Magazine, Autumn 1996, so please be wary of reposting.

Mahdist for it!

The arrival of the much forecasted snow meant a nice quiet Sunday keeping warm by painting furiously!  As a result I managed to finish off a little stand of five Mahdists with an additional 3 individually based.  I was playing with the idea of mixing up the plastics with a couple of additional metal miniatures, for no other reason than to add a little variety into the mix.  

On the whole I was pretty pleased with the overall effect, but felt that there were some of the metal miniatures that were just too relaxed to be included on the stand.   As a result these were based individually and I'm sure could be use as dressing or entry markers at a later date.

There are still a couple more stands to get done as part of the '3rd Annual Painting Challenge' and with a bit of luck these should be finished at the weekend - goodness knows I need the points!

Naval Brigade Gardner Gun

My most recent entry in the '3rd Annual Painting Challenge' saw more from the wonderful 'Perry Miniatures' Sudan range, this time the Gardner Gun crewed by the Naval Brigade.  Now overshadowed by the Gatling gun the Gardner was adopted by the British forces in a variety of forms including shipboard versions.    

The Gardner was used by the Naval Brigade in the Sudan at various battles including El Teb and Tamai although in both actions the guns jammed.  Crucially this happened again at the battle of Abu Klea, where the gun jammed almost immediately resulting in all its crew, except Captain Beresford being killed.  It is this moment that is referred to in Newbolt's poem 'Vitaï Lampada', only he mistakingly mentions a Gatling!

The sand of the desert is sodden red —

Red with the wreck of a square that broke;

The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,

And the Regiment blind with dust and smoke. 

When looking for reference for the uniforms I stumbled across the above illustration by Melton Prior for the Illustrated London News, this combined with the wonderful example of the same piece by Mark Hargreaves over at his outstanding, 'Over Open Sights' blog really helped to get job done.