Chitty Chitty Bus Bus!

A month or two ago I was lucky enough to pick up this Corgi Transport Through The Ages collectors set from a wargamer in Australia. It is a Limited Edition Military Transport Set consisting of an A.E.C. Omnibus and a Model-T Ford Ambulance. They are nominally about 1/56th scale so in theory ideal for 28mm figures and will be ideal for use with my World War I forces in the Middle East & Africa (ANZACs & Colonial British) and the Ambulance should be useful for the Eastern Front too (for my Russians). The bus is actually from Flanders 1914 and the BEF but I’m sure I can fudge it into some scenarios in other theatres somewhere! Perhaps the Russians had omnibuses?

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Fantastic 1879 Anglo-Zulu War Photos

The following link was posted by one of the chaps on the Colonial Wars Yahoo!Group and features lots of staged photos using the Britains, Conte, and similar 54mm Plastic Figure “Play Sets” and such like – some of the photos are amazing and it’s a wonderful effort – check out the British & Zulus at the The Play Set Addict’s 2011 Zulu Page. And there’s more great stuff (including Romans & Barbarians, Medieval Knights, ACW, Wild West, WW2) you can get to from The Play Set Addict’s Homepage. Highly recommended (and will bring out a few memories of the kid in most of us too)! Continue reading “Fantastic 1879 Anglo-Zulu War Photos”

Empress 1840’s New Zealand Wars Māori and Colonial Figures

Roly over at “Dressing The Lines” has got his first batch of NZ Wars figures done, and I must say they are looking pretty smashing! He’s done a great job of them and also of giving the bases a New Zealand touch with ferns and tussock-like grass! Roly is planning to experiment with using a suitably modified “Sharp Practice” for his games, however this requires a reasonable number of figures (i.e. dozens to 100+), and Roly has the luxury of another gamer at hand doing the same period. I have been rather procrastinating over ordering some of the Empress Miniatures figures as I’ve been undecided about what rules to use – however I’ve pretty much decided on initially trying SDS (“Song of Drums & Shakos” – a variant of “Song of Blades & Heroes“), which will allow interesting games with just 6-30 figures a side… Needless to say Roly’s efforts are a much needed prompt to get organised and order some figures! The photo is a small lower resolution one of some of his figures – Make sure you check out the full set of photos at Roly’s Dressing The Lines blog… Continue reading “Empress 1840’s New Zealand Wars Māori and Colonial Figures”

Still More TSATF At BattleCry 2011

I previously posted accounts of the 3 TSATF Colonial Games with images that we played at Auckland’s BattleCry 2011 Convention – As mentioned Gerry & Carolyn Webb of Castaway Arts were there and they also took photos of the games – so here’s an additional gallery of a selection of their photos of the games… Continue reading “Still More TSATF At BattleCry 2011”

Empress Miniatures new Maori Wars Range

Joy, oh Joy! The ether has been alive with chatter of the announcement of this new range for a couple of weeks now – and they really do look like some lovely figures with nice clean casts and great sculpting. I have been wanting to get into Maori Wars in 28mm for sometime – but to be honest there just hasn’t been the figures available to inspire me, only Eureka having anything reasonable – except they are later period (2nd & 3rd Maori Wars) and while their British chaps look quite nice their Maori just don’t get me excited (perhaps they are not animated enough). However now that Empress have released their range everything has changed, as it were, and now there seems little reason not to do some Maori Wars gaming (and hopefully the Empress and Eureka guys will be a close match size wise to allow use of both)? Continue reading “Empress Miniatures new Maori Wars Range”

An Aquarium of Thorn Thickets

Dervish Jihadiyya fight from an 'Aquarium Thorn Thicket'!
Dervish Jihadiyya fight from an 'Aquarium Thorn Thicket'!

When BattleCry 2011 in Auckland was looming earlier this year I had promised Gerry from Castaway Arts to help with some Colonial TSATF demo & participation games (and provide the troops & terrain to save Gerry bringing it over from Cairns, Australia), and as part of that I wanted to try and have some new troops and terrain on table to add something fresh to the appearance. The troops were covered by the presence of the first of my Gunboats (which had just been completed for me by Kieran of 6mm Wargaming) and the inaugural outing of my British Infantry in Grey Uniforms (See the report of our third BattleCry 2011 TSATF Game). However terrain was a different story – as always I was leeching off Kieran for his Palm Trees – I do have my own, around 400 of them actually (and about 10 different types and sizes), but getting to basing and finishing them is a different story – but anyway, it otherwise was pretty much all standard stuff (well illustrated on this blog over the past few years). I needed something quick, easy, and cheap, to churn out a piece of quick new terrain…

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An Old Friend Thought Lost

In the last week the Major General Tremorden Rederring’s Colonial-era Wargames Page has been inaccessible across the ether – and the concern that it may have been lost for good! However as events have transpired it is just temporarily down due to technical issues and David Helber (the Major-General himself of Ouargistan) has reported that he hopes to have the site back up and running before the end of April [2011]. Meanwhile if you are looking for something from the site it’s accessible on the Way-Back Machine” archive. Continue reading “An Old Friend Thought Lost”

TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [3]

Having successfully returned to their base (game 2) Valentine Baker Pasha’s forces weren’t able to rest – a delayed communiqué arrived advising a steamer was coming down the Nile to rendezvous with them at the village of al-Ġardaqaḧ as-Sūdān and it included more civilians! Baker Pasha would have to assemble another, reasonably strong column, and rapidly march the 2 days across the desert to the Nile, through the territory teeming with Dervishes, to reach the village in anticipation of the steamer’s arrival. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [3]”

TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [2]

Following the disastrous battle of the expedition to locate the missing European Civilians (TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]), Baker Pasha and a handful of survivors had managed to evade the victorious Dervishes and rejoin the balance of the local Anglo-Egyptian forces. With the entire countryside now up in arms and no hope of a second attempt to locate the civilians Baker pulled his remaining force from its isolated position and immediately began a rapid withdrawal to their regional capital and barracks town, hotly pursued by the Dervish forces. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [2]”

TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]

February regularly sees the BattleCry Convention in Auckland, one of the larger NZ Wargaming events that is usually well run and encompasses more than just miniatures gaming (i.e. board gaming, card gaming, LARPing, etc). This year Gerry & Carolyn Webb of Castaway Arts (from Cairns, Queensland, Australia) decided to attend with a trade stand and some TSATF (The Sword And The Flame) demo games – as I’m a big TSATF fan I organised with Gerry to help him with the games, and provide all the troops and terrain – thereby saving Gerry & Carolyn having to cart their own from across the Tasman! The games were run as Public Participation & Demonstration games; although the former is a fairly rare concept in New Zealand so not overly familiar to many local gamers. Continue reading “TSATF at BattleCry 2011 [1]”

TSATF Colonial Games at BattleCry 2011

Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts (in Australia) will be at the BattleCry 2011 Convention, here in Auckland on the 19-20 February, with his ranges of Figures and running some The Sword And The Flame participation demonstration games. And I’ll there with Gerry giving him a hand with the games. If you are in Auckland that weekend and interested in Colonials, or just Wargaming in general, pop along for a look at Auckland’s largest regular annual convention (expected to have over 300 gamers participating) at the ASB Stadium in Kohimarama – full details are at the BattleCry website. Continue reading “TSATF Colonial Games at BattleCry 2011”

Some Exceptional Sudan Inspiration

If anyone ever needed inspiration to game the Sudan, most especially with the Perry’s range of figures then this is it – Frank & Björn have absolutely set an amazing benchmark for figure painting & terrain – the image here is but a low resolution version of just one of the many images. Make sure you check out their stunning (and ongoing) thread at the Lead Adventure Forum – there are images on every page of the thread and new images periodically added… Continue reading “Some Exceptional Sudan Inspiration”