Motivation, and A Call To Arms

Sharing from a different hobby, prompted, apparently, by a number of very petty forum squabbles, but nonetheless a challenge:

And as for time, what on earth are people doing with their days? By the time the computer is loaded up, the internet connected to and your first post typed out you could [have] easily stuck some brake shoes down on a Dundas chassis.

So this is a call to arms. Stop typing, find those old models, take 10 minutes out of the day, cut a bit off, stick something on. Modelling is our hobby. Please try it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Part of my aim with this blog is to try and post every day, and I try and do that by setting aside a time to post when I get in from work or club, or during my lunch break or before I start in the morning (depending on when in the day I know what it is I'm posting). Some days, if I'm on a roll, I'll draft posts several days ahead.

But I'll freely admit, I do spend far far far too long trawling the Interwebs to read what, to be blunt, is a whole pile of completely random crap that doesn't enhance my life or knowledge one jot, and often has sweet Fanny Adams to do with any of my hobbies or interests (which are many and varied). Last week, I made a point of spending at least an hour every day when I got back from work in the workshop: result? I got six terrain tiles, a hill, and a company of 15mm Germans finished in time, and almost all the junk on my work desks tidied onto the new shelving. I'd have like to have done some hedges and roads as well, but my experiments on those were a failure, and I'm starting to really like the looks of the Terra Firma 15mm offerings (AND he's just dropped his prices!)

Personally, as should be obvious by now to regular readers, I work best to deadlines. Preferably the kind that come looming up, horns blaring, with far too little time to go! :D So, this weekend, I have another couple of German sections, a British company and some Shermans to do in 15mm. Let's see how I get on!

How do you motivate yourself?

Battle Report - 10 Jun 2013 - Dux Britanniarum

A new year, as I said in the previous post. With the capture of Linnius by (my) Saxons, the British have moved their capital to Caer Lerion, and the Saxons are raiding from Linnius into Cavsennae - not least because they're broke, having built a new Hall!

(As an aside, for those new to Dux Britanniarum, do check out Rich Clarke of Too Fat Lardies' introductory video on YouTube.)

We forgot to roll the end-of-year 'who dies' rolls, so hopefully no-one has! We did though use my terrain rules from the 2013 TFL Summer Special, and then rolled up the Border Tower scenario, which immediately resulted in us removing the stone circle from the top of my nice new hill and replacing it with Andy's lovely Grand Manner watch tower.

The Saxons' mission is to capture a British noble, before he can reach the safety of the tower: deployment for the Saxons is random, and just my luck, involved entering in the middle of a thick wood.

I managed to get my hearthguard out on the first turn (we forgot the British watchtower rules AGAIN, which meant I should have been a turn later), and on turn two had a glorious hand (Bounding Move, Carpe Diem, Aggressive Charge, Goad) with which to smack into Andy's levy (this time out commanded by Geraint, as Maximus Minimus was out on patrol with the warriors).

It was nasty (if you were British), although my Gehdriht took a fair amount of shock. Meanwhile, my warriors under Ecgwine burst out of the wood in an attempt to chase down Maximus Minimus, who was skirting warily around in an attempt to get to the tower.

I blew my first movement roll, with one of the last moves of a turn, and wound up 5" away. The next run through the deck got me a few more good Fate cards, and it actually came down to two cards left in the activation deck: British Lord 2 (Maximus) and Saxon Lord 2 (Ecgwine). Tense, since victory was going to whichever activated first, as we both had decent hands... except that Andy didn't know I was holding a Step Forth, which meant the turn was mine, come what may.

As it turned out, I didn't need to use it, as Ecgwine's card came up and he and his warriors laid into the British. Rather too well, actually, as the unit Maximus was with (we're trying to capture him, remember), lost its amphora, taking Maximus with it and fleeting back out of range.

Bother!

The problem at this point for me is threefold:

First, it's now Maximus' turn, so he can extract himself from the wreck of his unit and run for safety. And a lone Lord is almost impossible to catch.

Second, I'm out of good cards, so I can't easily chase Andy's levy and hearthguard back up the hill.

Third, Andy's hearthguard are behind Ecgwine's flank, and it's time to reshuffle the activation deck.

I have to blow the Step Forth to avoid being hit in the flank, and from then on it's all a bit meh from the Saxon viewpoint: we're not outnumbered, but Andy has all the good cards, and all he has to do to win now Maximus has gained the safety of the hill and the British hearthguard is leg it off the board by the nearest table edge. Which happens to be his.

I have, pretty much, one chance, which is to hope he rolls badly and I can get what's now a formation of four groups up the hill after him now he's with the hearthguard.

So. Time to roll an 18.

Or not.

A couple of turns of retreat and drawing Fate cards later, Andy wins, as he's denied me my objective.

Cracking game, and once again an illustration of how cool the Dux B raid system is - compare this to the last time we fought this scenario and see just how different it is!

"To Britain's Shores" - Chapter 9 - A new year

"They got away." Ecgwine was, clearly, annoyed, tossing his shield into a corner of the new Hall with a clatter. "Cowards."

I couldn't resist a chuckle. "Not for want of trying. You and yours were too good."

He snorted. "Never seen their little man run that fast."

I grinned at the memory of him fleeing for the safety of their hearthguard after his own warriors had been routed. "Aye. And it was a good plan."

Ecgwine brightened, his mood lifting visibly. "Really? You think so?"

At times like this I'm reminded he's still a youngster, that one. "Aye. That patrol was slowed up by the swamp, and you got through the woods to them before the rest could come off the hill and help. Was well done." I chuckled. "Almost too well. If they'd stuck around for the fight, we'd have had him."

He actually smiled. "I guess. Still annoying that they got away."

I couldn't argue with him there. "Truth. But they were lucky. And they'll know it."

"Mm." He paused. "Did I hear right. Cormac's leaving?"

"Aye. Says he and his have earned enough off us, and 'sides, they got a fair amount of hurt in that raid."

Lavinia, who'd been listening, and for once leaving her man to fight his own battles, sighed. "That's a shame. I liked their music."

I laughed. "Not at all sure some of it was fit for a lass's ears, mind."

RIP Fred Panton

[Again, not the post I was planning to make.]

It should be pretty obvious to most of you by now that I have a soft spot for that big four-Merlin engined beast, the Lancaster bomber, and a heck of a lot of respect for the men of RAF Bomber Command.

I'm therefore saddened to note the passing of Fed Panton, one of the two brothers who set up the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre, home of "Just Jane", one of the few surviving Lancaster bombers in the world. The centre was set up as a tribute to Fred's brother Chris, who was killed during the Nuremberg raid (30-31/3/44) while Flight Engineer aboard a Halifax of 433 squadron. He was only 19. (And it's a trifle ironic that this comes up the day after my previous post.)

There are plans afoot to return "Just Jane" to flight. I will be contributing, by joining the supporters' association: as a tribute to Fred's determination, Chris' sacrifice and that of 55,000 others, and a means to get a grand old lady in the air again for the enjoyment of many people, I can't think of a better one.

In the meantime, here's a video I shot a few years ago of "Just Jane" taxying. I recommend a good pair of headphones, or speakers with lots of bass, and turn it up.

The Nuremberg raid - 30-31 March 1944

Completely random digression, prompted by my lunchtime reading.

Apparently (via a link on Facebook from someone involved in the production) there's a new documentary coming out:

...Timeline Productions, of New York, USA, are at present well advanced with the pre-production stages of a 90-minute documentary which will at last dispel the many myths surrounding this night...

The Nuremberg raid was the worst single night of losses for the RAF in WW2 - 96 aircraft shot down - and it would appear that with the desclassifying of the WW2 Ultra crypto efforts, there were theories afoot that, in the same way as is claimed for the German raid on Coventry, it went ahead despite being compromised, so as not to reveal what Bletchley Park knew.

Judging by the 'source' material they appear to be drawing from, and the fact that the person promoting it seems to want to challenge the research in Martin Middlebrook's excellent and impartial book on the subject, and run with the Ultra angle, I'm a little wary of this one. There's a bit of the 'my theory is right, the burden of proof is on you' attitude, as well.

However? See what you think.

This document contains a 'first person' account of the raid, which (and I quote):

...[seems to have] originated in Australia, it was in fact given to me by a British airman, then serving with RAF Germany, and its route from Down Under to Deutschland remains a mystery to this day. 

Hrm. Mysterious. Having read it, and being something of a writer myself, it feels wrong. The crew it's attributed to did exist, and did fly on that mission (aircraft DV407), though. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but even if the writer is Australian, the writing feels... contrived. Too much verbatim dialogue, too much slang.

Thoughts? I'm quite surprised at my own reaction, which is... actually... annoyance.

Battle Report - 9 Jun 2013 - IABSM3

You're probably wondering what the all-fired hurry was with those terrain tiles.

Let me explain, (No. Is too complicated. Let me sum up.) Today was a club all-day game, and Carl and I thought we'd try and get a good long game of IABSM in, since from experience the rulebook scenarios don't usually fit in an evening. This is partly because we don't play often enough, but also because most of the scenarios are very much two phases of operation, and it's a shame to miss out on this.

We went with scenario two from the rule book  - basically the Americans have to capture the road off the southwest corner of the map (past the house on the hill, top centre). [The roads, BTW, are the club's Battlefront roads, which I don't like, and will be replacing with someone else's flexible roads.]

For me, fighting as the Germans, things started well - Carl's first American blind waltzed down the road, got spotted by the MG42 and big man in the house, and got one squad ripped to shreds, and then close-assaulted to heck and back, Needless to say, he was a bit more circumspect with the rest!

After a few runs through the activation deck, I had the river bridge (which with hindsight was a dumb and stupid place to deploy a section), Carl had a platoon in the walled courtyard by the house at the junction and most of the rest of his forces in the woods, and I was trying desperately to find cover along the road back towards the hill.

In short? Not a long term tenable position,. With hindsight, I should have deployed at most one platoon and an MG42 where I could give his advance blinds a bloody nose, and set the remained up in and around the hill.

As it was, I wound up hightailing it back to the hill with the surviving forces, which was a trifle hairy. The platoon on the bridge got caught trying to cross the river, and the rest fetched up (under some woefully inaccurate mortar support from the FOO in the big house) in the scrub on the hill.

For a couple of runs through the deck, I got the upper hand - I'd have done better if one of my MG sections wasn't clinging on to life by a thread, but the other did get a blistering enfilade shot or two on one of the American sections, helped by the mortars finally landing a stonk in roughly the right place.

 Unfortunately, weight of numbers and firepower told, and the Americans basically blasted away at the remains of the Germans and that was, as they say, all she wrote.

Great game, with an excellent opponent - my thanks to Carl. Hopefully we can get another game in a bit sooner.

But... tomorrow - more of the Linnius campaign! If you missed it, Andy's report on the Battle of Linnius is finally up.

Terrain tiles

Just working on the last of the batch of six terrain tiles.

The basic structure is 3mm hardboard, one 25mm sheet of blue Craft Foam (held on with No More Nails), and then the river is cut out of a second sheet of 25mm blue Craft Foam using a Hot Wire Foam Factory hot knife.

The river ends are centred 150mm in from one corner on a 600mm tile, and are 50mm wide at the bottom and 100mm at the top. At least in theory, this means any river tiles should join up! I've also filled the river to a depth of about 1cm with lightweight filler (you can use Woodland Scenics Foam Filler  if you're made of money, but B&Q or Homebase will do a much cheaper and identical version for much less). As yet, I haven't added water effect - still working on that!

I've also taken a 1mm deep x 8mm wide nick out of each end of all four sides of the underlying hardboard, centred 75mm in from the edge, into which I will (eventually) superglue a small neodymium magnet.

As I mentioned before the tiles are painted with cheap Warm Tan emulsion, and the river beds with Army Painter Angel Green and a finer mist of PSC Warpaints English Uniform.

You'll notice I need to vacuum!

Time to start gluing grass. The base grass, and the one I ensure is on all the edges, if nothing else, is my favourite Javis Summer mix. One £1.75 pack will pretty much do a whole tile if you reuse everything that drops off. The glue is EvoStik Super PVA in a 1L tub - no sense at ALL in buying 'modellers PVA' when you have 24 square feet to cover. It DOES dry transparent, but you may have to be patient if you've been over generous.

I'll admit that I cheated - two of the plain tiles, at least for now, have Javis grass sheet (which comes in a 600mm x 1200mm roll) affixed to it with No More Nails, 'cause I'm lazy.

Partway done - you can see the grass I've tapped off the tile (by standing it on end, tapping the edge of the tile on the table, and then rapping the back with my knuckles) in the bottom left corner. The dark green is Woodland Scenics Underbrush - basically minced green foam. This I've spread on, pushed quite hard into the coat of PVA, and then sprayed liberally with unscented hairspray to add extra stick.

At this point we're almost done - just a few patches of different colour grasses along the riverbank for variation.

Next stage is to let it dry until last thing tonight, and spray liberally with matt varnish/sealant. I'm using GW Purity Seal as Hobbycraft had two cans left they were flogging off! (Yes, yes, I know... I wasn't buying any more GW!)