The Spiders are roaming free...

...and the tumbleweed is rolling gently along here in GHQ! The reason for this lack of activity you might wonder? Well, Phil is poorly and Jon is busy, so I am in 'Billy No Mates' mode once more. And I can't even blame Boristhebastard this time either! To raise my spirits I thought I'd show you the Tales From GHQ calendar which I produce for my friends each year, John Aston has a full set and can tell me when this began. The theme for 2023 is the SYW featuring scenes from those games here in GHQ ~

While there's been no sniff of a game even I have been keeping morale up by sitting at the desk and painting as and when I can. My main effort is in the Red Dawn pre-release sphere. I've almost completed the Soviet Airborne troops, just a dozen left to finish off, and I've started basing those vehicles Phil was able to pass to me (thanks Diane!) before he keeled over! Our deadline for completing our task is very tight, but the text is almost written now and the in game photos are planned to our satisfaction, so the short promotional piece should all reach Dan in time. Sadly I can't post any pictures of the work, for obvious reasons.

I've also been fitting into the painting efforts a French SYW infantry regiment , Bouillon, again chosen because I liked the flags! I'm on the final four figures now so they might also be completed this month with a bit of luck!

A Slight Diversion

There I was, plodding along steadily painting SYW figures for the French regiment Bouillon, when the Postie rang the doorbell. 

I opened the door and was handed a large brown box! Now, I was expecting this, but not quite so soon, and its arrival would bring about both a sudden modification of the painting schedule and in the scale/size of subject for both Phil and me.

A part of the contents of this package from Dan at Wargames illustrated included this pre-release box from the new Red Dawn expansion of Battlefront's Team Yankee game, due for release in December and January according to their website. Phil and I have been volunteered/recruited/conscripted to paint up samples from the boxed set which will be used to illustrate a piece about the contents in an upcoming issue of the magazine, following on our piece in the November issue.

I did mention that the boxed set was only a part of the package's contents, so it would only be polite to reveal the other content as I'm sure some of you would want to know. I received the new De Luxe edition of Never Mind the Billhooks, in fact the note enclosed said it was the very first copy sent out so I feel more than privileged. It is available to buy now if you'd not already pre-ordered it.

The book is every bit the professional product that you'd expect from the hobby's leading magazine and I'm confident that it will prove very popular with devotees of the Wars of the Roses and the wider late medieval sweep of wars and conflicts. Of especial interest to me of course is a section on the Italian Wars which I hope might prove useful here in GHQ.

All this means that for now progress on the SYW expansion project, currently in the shape of the regiment Bouillon you recall, will be a tad slower than expected while I tackle 15mm Soviet Airborne troops, as well as basing up all the vehicles Phil manages to process. Worse still, tomorrow 's scheduled game is cancelled, so it's all a bit solitary here in GHQ, for the foreseeable future at least. So, KBO is the Order of the Day!

Hold it! Flash, Bang, Wallop! What a Picture! What a Photograph!

 On Wednesday Dan paid his first visit to GHQ since before the onset of 'The Plague' to take photographs of my 15mm Cold War Gone Hot project, which I hope will accompany the piece I've written about it in a late autumn edition of Wargames Illustrated. As Phil was away on a short break the sky holding, terrain fiddling and figure/vehicle/aircraft moving devolved solely on yours truly! I had quite forgotten how tiring this all was! A few pictures before he arrived ~

The whole sum of our efforts over the past few months. I must say it didn't look so much in the storage boxes!

Soviet hordes rushing to their doom? Well, I am in command so it's to be expected.

More sedate Soviet advance. Do these veterans know what is in-store for them I wonder.

B.A.O.R. Forward HQ protected by infantry, a Swingfire Troop and an overflying TOW-Lynx 

For the Soviets the Hind gunship provides cover for the armoured column's advance.

The Soviets attempt to flank the Chieftain MBT line along a wooded ridge.

Bikelberg and Bikelheim have already fallen beneath the heel of the Soviet aggressors.

From Russia With Love? Somehow I think probably not...

Chieftain MBTs await the Soviet onslaught taking advantage of the cover provided along a wooded ridge.

A second defensive line of Chieftain MBTs is formed on the flank of the B.A.O.R.'s Forward HQ located in the farmyard complex.

While Dan was going about his business we chatted as usual about this and that in the hobby universe of which I am a very small part. One topic we chewed over was how many pictures Dan has taken here over the years, in both versions of GHQ, since 2004! It must run into hundreds we decided! We only get to see just a few in the physical magazine, perhaps 10 out of maybe 100 taken on the day and maybe a few more on the Wargames Illustrated web pages. I think perhaps folk fail to appreciate the work he puts in to bring the 'Illustrated' element to the magazine. All that remains for me in the process is to write captions for the pictures he selects to illustrate the article. Meanwhile on Tuesday next week hostilities in the Bikelberg area will commence in earnest.

Meanwhile, somewhere on Lüneberg Heath

As my loyal reader must surely know, Phil and I have processed all we set out to achieve for this 'project outside my comfort zone'. We hope that Matthew is satisfied with our efforts. As I've mentioned I've written a piece about our struggles, warts and all, especially my efforts to love plaaastic! On Wednesday next week Dan from Wargames illustrated is due to visit GHQ, for the first time since the plague, to take photos for the article. With that in mind I thought that I'd have a play around at a possible table layout which would facilitate his needs in the confined area around my table.

My first attempt at a terrain layout. Two open spaces at front centre and back right should allow Dan 'wriggle room' to get closer to the 15mm vehicles, figures and such.

An alternative arrangement of the buildings, seeing more modern accommodation for the workers of the factory and extending the settlement of Bikelheim.

The older industrial centre of Bikelberg. My wife has pointed out that I need to flatten out the roads!

A view from the modern industrial centre of Bikelberg towards the more traditional town of Bikelheim.

"From Russia With Love" ~ a film revival perhaps? I could not resist this German film poster I found on the net!

Housing the workers C19th style! Robansahn Metal Fabrik knows how to treat the workers!

The bucolic country scene encapsulated by two farms, one ancient, one modern. I'm not sure how the Creatures Great and Small will take to the coming conflict...

German Black Angus beef steaks may be on the Russian menus it seems.

Bikelheim, a small village which will soon achieve notoriety in the world's press as the centre of NATO defence in the shape of the B.A.O.R. against Soviet aggression!

A different configuration of the buildings, traditional village extended by modern buildings into a small town?

The next task is to lay out possible figure, vehicle, aircraft and helicopter groups to find the best look of the collection in action. Tricky as I've little experience in photographing smaller scale stuff myself. Nevertheless I've tried just one or two layouts and would welcome any constructive comments ~

Soviet T55s move cautiously through Bikelberg, their advance covered by a Hind gunship.

On the distant wooded ridge a Rapier anti-aircraft missile defence system targets the Hind.

While to the Rapier's flank a Troop of Chieftain MBTs await the T55s from the cover of the forest, carefully choosing their moment to open fire.

Postscript

Finished did I say? Oops! I'd forgotten that I bought some farm animals from Pendraken at May's Partizan show to give a bit of life to my farm scenes. Old age at play I fear! Anyway, I was sorting through the Lead Pimple, sorry, Lump and found the two packets stowed away out of sight! Cleaned up and spray undercoated PDQ and on to the painting desk they went. I doubt they'll be much interest, but for completion's sake, here they are ~

Some pigs! German diet seems to have been big on pork from what I've found looking around. Sadly all searches threw up nothing more than the run of the mill pinkish piggies, so here they are. Base colour is Foundry Terracotta Light, washed with the same company's Rawhide Midshade. Bases are from Warbases and ground texture is Basetex applied thickly to crack on drying out for some suggestion of summer grazing.

I had more luck with German breeds of cattle. These are German Black Angus, a cross breed from the 1950's and fine for my second farm scene. They are painted with the Foundry Equipment Black triad and lightly dry brushed with the same's Slate Grey shade. The bases are two larger Plastic Soldier Company's plastic bases I'd left over, painted with Games Workshop's Steel Legion Drab and liberally covered in static grass and a few clumps of taller vegetation. 

I suppose I should source a few farm vehicles, equipment and suchlike, but...well, we shall see. Hardly a priority in GHQ I'd have to admit.

Up in the Air and Down on the Ground.

The final(?) pieces for our Cold War Gone Hot project are done and dusted. First a second view of the aircraft after Phil's titanic struggles with the transfers provided ~

The Battlefront kit of pointless parts, a Harrier VTOL Fighter-Bomber.

The SU-17 Fitter Fighter-Bomber also from Battlefront and thankfully sans pointless fiddly bits!

Secondly, five T55As for the Soviet force. Lovely little kits from Plastic Soldier Company which go together really well, bar fixing the spare fuel drums on the rear that is ~

A Command tank sporting one or two in the field modifications. Embellished with two spare Battlefront Soviet tank commanders naturally.

There was just one Tank Commander going spare so my Methodist genes told me not to be wasteful!

The remaining three T55As built straight from the box. As you know, Phil has painted all the vehicles while I have assembled the kits and done the basing and such. I've penned a piece for Wargames Illustrated about the project, warts and all, and hope it will appear sometime in the Autumn after Dan's visit to take the photographs to accompany it. Looks like I've been stood down now as Photographer 2nd Class! Oh Well....can't win 'em all. If nothing else it's a welcome back to pre pandemic normality.

Hello Helos!

 I am not seeking sympathy, I'd like to be very clear on this, but tiny rare earth magnets and my eyes and hands are not the best of combinations! Not withstanding these seemingly perennial issues I have managed to fix said magnets to the completed helicopter models and their stands! I thought you might like to see them...

The Soviet HIND gunship first. I've a second kit still to make up, but Phil has well deserved a rest so that must wait patiently for a while in its box ~

For the B.A.O.R. we have a TOW Lynx to provide air to ground close support. Similarly there is a second of these still in kit form awaiting assembly and processing ~

Both kits were from Battlefront in the two starter sets I bought from Caliver Books when I first started out on this project  With these two having been processed to completion there are just the magnets to fix to the two aircraft I've shown in an earlier post and it's all done, for now... We wargamers never say finished do we?

Der Weiße Bauernhof

 Just a short update on my Cold War Gone Hot 15mm project, another building finished. This is the Small German Postwar House from LaserCraftArt of course which I've used as the farmhouse, paired with the barn from Empires at War (which is also painted now but lacks a base as yet.) Together they can form Der Weiße Bauernhof, the White Farm, while they can also be used separately of course ~

I've another small order on the way from LaserCraftArt in the shape of another house, the Large German Postwar House, and two bases intended for terraced housing which I plan to repurpose as bases for the two Modern Apartment Blocks I've painted. The bases are large enough to accommodate the buildings and leave space to represent car parking or lawned recreational areas. 

While I wait for Phil to fit in the vehicles for the game around his commission work schedule I'm plodding on with the 76th Hindoostan Regiment for the Army of the Pendawar Presidency. I'm hoping to complete the 28 figures this month, a modest target I failed to achieve in January! So far I've finished 4 figures for the Light Co and have the first 4 figures for the first Centre Co underway. First though, two SYW games here in GHQ, with Jon today and with Phil tomorrow.

Plaaastic? Moi? Surely not?

This post may come as a bit of a surprise to some...

In the days before we knew of the novel coronavirus from China Matt challenged me to choose a new project outside my comfort zone! I think most readers will recall that I chose to venture into the, thankfully imaginary, Cold War Gone Hot in 15mm. I acquired a starting force of Battlefront's Team Yankee vehicles and figures and promptly got cold feet for the Cold War! I even tried unsuccessfully to sell them on via Jon's good efforts! So, having completed two 28mm projects in the 20 months or so since, I've finally bitten the bullet and assembled the vehicles for my B.A.O.R., and here  are the first I did resting on a 100x50x3mm base from Warbases ~

It will, I'm confident, amuse those gifted modellers amongst you to know that these quite basic kits are at the extreme limit of my limited modelling skills, but as an exercise in seeing if I could manage it has proved useful in that they appear to look as they should from the box art work!  (As an aside, my brother in law Vic served with R.E.M.E. and was based at Celle for several years. When we visited them on one occasion I was briefly detained at the base's checkpoint as some local was taking pot shots at it from the woods!) Back on track, I'm in negotiations with Phil to have the basic colours airbrushed on to the vehicles for me, as his WWII vehicles done that way are inspirational in my view. I can then do any necessary finishing for myself.

As to games, well, they are a good way off obviously so I've not settled on things like basing yet though I have bought Great Escape Games' Seven Days to the Rhine and downloaded the RF expansion Able Archer to give me something to think on. More on this and other related areas as and when as they say...