Saturday 6 February 2021

From MartinC Chambers of Challenge, Hall of the Ancestors - Joseph Harold Cooke, RM (35pts)

 My Grandad Harold was a Royal Marine Commando during WW2. He was in 7th Battalion which was assigned to port guard duties. In September 1942 his battalion sailed for South Africa to guard the ports but weren't needed so they sailed for Egypt. Whilst in Egypt his war diary, not very complete and mainly in morse said that while in Egypt he met with a large party of Yugoslavia refugees and was taken to their camp for dinner. He said they were very nice people. I know you are interested in the morse code and we have deciphered it. it mainly says things like "18th August 1942 STOP practicing my morse code STOP weather very nice STOP"

Whilst in Egypt he caught malaria and was shipped back to England where he spent the rest of the war. He was afflicted with malaria all his life and it would occasionally be stricken down with it when I was child. He died over 25 years ago and only ever talked abou thte war once. His battalion was reassigned as 48 commando and many of his friends we assigned to other commandos. These friends took part in the Raid in St Nazaire and he lost many friends there. 48 commando was part of the special service brigade and took part in D-Day. A letter from a friend 3 days later described the loss of more friends.

My family is lucky, we exist because my Grandad got malaria, the most deadly of all diseases, otherwise there was a significant probability that he wouldn't have made it and my father wouldn't have been born after the war.

Enough reflection on if and whats and maybes. We know for a fact that he was in South Africa because of this photo


My grandad, front row centre, having his photo taken with a Zulu warrior in December 1942. I don't think he'd travelled more than 30miles from home before joining the marines

So obviously I planned to reproduce this image

The figures are Empress drivers with head swaps etc. I didn't have any unpainted Zulus but in a previous challenge the marvellous Michael Awdry gave me a wonderfully painted Zulu in a side challenge. 

I'm really delighted with this ensemble. Think my Grandad would have been, he was one of the people who took me model soldier shopping on Saturdays.

3x28mm and 20 pts and loads of nice memories











From MartinC Chambers of Challenge, The Armoury (35pts)

 With the teleport done time for some Knights Templar


4th Crusade Templars from Crusader

Forgot i had these, so would have worked for the Oubliette. Not my best work, been a mad week. Also not very verbose, need to channel my inner Noel

3x28mm = 15
The armoury = 20pts

total = 35pts



From MartinC Chambers of Challenge Lobster Girl and Sidekick (30pts)

 Time for a return to the Chambers and a teleport post from the Adventures Landing and ACW Marines to the Armoury.

I'm afraid that Lobster Girl isn't a superhero and her sidekick isn't a sidekick


These 2 Chinese girls are from Tsuba Miniatures

I don't expect the girl with the basket of lobsters would really have abasket of cooked lobsters but blue grey ones wouldn't have stood out.

10 points for the figs and 20 for the teleport - 30pts. 


From NoelW: Outnumbered in the Oubliette (1159 points)

 [INTRO: This is a longish post with quite a few photos, so I’ve only given one or two photos for each item, and I’ve scored the probable points as I go along. ]

But first…

***

“Stop shoving!”

“Where are we? I can’t see a thing.”

“More to the point, who are we?”

“Well, I don’t know who you are. But I know I’m – definitely – someone.”

“Or something, judging by the smell. And you’re holding a big shiny stick.”

“I am, aren’t I? I wonder why.”

“Oy! Keep the witty conversation down, will you? There’s a legion trying to get a bit of shuteye in here.”

“There must be a way out. Stands to reason. We got in somewhere. Just find that place and reverse the process.”
“Hey! Watch where you’re treading!”

“Sorry – if only there was a light.”

“Get your foot out of my mouth!”

“Must be an elf, if it’s foot in the mouth time.”

“Who you calling an elf? You take that back this minute!”

“If we had a couple of sticks we could rub together, we could make a fire. Or at least a spark. Like a boy scout.”

“No thanks. I’ve just eaten.”

“Ok, that’s an ogre, or I’m a person who identifies as man from the Netherlands.”

“You got something against ogres?”

“No! No. Apart from my chin, that is.”

“I wish I could remember – something…”

“I think I’ve found a couple of long knotty sticks. Possibly elven legs. I could rub them together, see what happens.”

“What have we got to lose?”

“Let go of my ankles. I’ve a great deal to lose.”
There’s a grating sound, like sandpaper rubbing against grandma’s stubble. Nothing happens.

“If there was a sorceress or a cleric, they could shed some light on the situation. Even a halfling with a bright idea.”

“Unlikely.”

“Hang on. Maybe one of these sleeping people is a magician. I’ll have a look. Let me just light this torch so I can see better.”

For a moment the oubliette – for such it is – is as thick with silence as it is with darkness, a silence broken only by the snores and whimpers of thousand bodies, suddenly illuminated by the blaze of Titchy’s torch. Rows and rows of sleeping warriors.

“Ah! Tread softly, or we’ll tread on their screams.”

“There’s a lever over there, by that small wooden wall.”

“If only we had someone who could pull a lever…”

***

I thought Oubliette was a character in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, because I’d forgotten what it actually meant. I read French as part of my degree, tutored by a very French lady called Mme Grillet (which is French for ‘grill’, which she frequently did to me). I learned one thing: that parapluie meant ‘butterfly’, so that on my very first trip to France I could declare, brightly, to demonstrate my erudition, “Voila les parapluies dans la jardin”. Highlight of my polyglottism.

At my age I forget many things but, fortunately, one of them is how many things I forget. There was a time, almost forgotten now, when I thought 10mm was the answer to every wargaming need. 10mm figures weren’t too expensive, didn’t need lots of storage, could fit on the smallest of gaming tables and enabled massive battles, yet weren’t so small they could not carry detail worth painting. I planned several massive setups: Borodino, Leipzig, ever battle in Tolkien.

Well, of course, you know what’s coming next. I acquired drawers full of 10mm figures, only to decide that 28mm was where I really wanted to be. The 10mm figures were assigned to miscellaneous receptacles, languishing for years in forgotten corners of the parallel world that is my attic.

Until last year I sorted out some of the figures for the Joshua Project, and was reminded of how much unpainted 10mm I had. These days, with my declining faculties (no comments, please) I find it hard to see the detail on 10mm, and get bored with painting them. So this time round I decided I’d do some bulk 10mm painting between working on posts for the Chambers before it's too late, and post whatever I’d managed when I reached the Oubliette, focusing on two of the unfinished projects: Borodino and fantasy.

Eh, voila!

Borodino

All Old Glory figures.

For the Russians: 90 infantry, 90 points



For the French I’m working towards nominal units to represent each of the Corps:

90 Poles (Duchy of Warsaw): V Corps (90 points)



30 Westphalian Garde-Grenadiere: VIII Corps (30 points)


(There are 9 hand painted flags in these units, but they’re such poor quality, I’m not asking any bonus for them).

TOTAL: 210 points

[So that's also 210 points for the Napoleonic Challenge, and I guess three armies gives me 3 Squirrel points.]

Tolkienic Fantasy

Most of these figures are 10mm plastic from GW's Battle of the Five Armies set, comprising humans, dwarves, elves and goblins, including wolf riders. The individual figures are from various sources, and of various sizes. 

Elf archers: 84

Elf spears: 210 


Dwarves: 210


Humans: 42

Goblins: 252


Wolfriders: 12 figures, 24 points


Unicorns (unknown manufacturer, possibly Pendraken): 3


Trolls: (The trolls and Black Riders are from Lord of the Rings Risk. The trolls are 25, whilst the Riders are really 15mm rather than 10mm, but as they’re supernatural creatures, I think they look fine and as the painting is simply black with a drybrush, I'm scoring them as 10mm):
3 x 25mm Trolls: 15 points

Black Riders: 9 cavalry: 18 points


Ghosts: (I think these are Kallistra)

9 x 20mm figures: 36 points

Sea monsters: These are from GW's old Man O' War game. I regret getting rid of the ships from this game, which were lovely models, but I did keep hold of these four monsters. The range in size from 25mm to 50mm, but I'm scoring them all as 25mm.





4 x 25mm figures: 20 points

TOTAL: 929 points
[Not sure how to compute the Squirrels here: maybe 4 for the main races, and another one for all the “Specials”?]

20 points for The Oubliette

Grand Total: (210+929+20) = 1159 points

From BenitoM: The Hatchery - FieldGrey Birds (50 points)

As I mentioned in previous posts, this year's Pianting Challnege is becoming specially challenging for those of us more inclined to the historical dimension of the hobby. I was facing a real conundrum with my entry for the next Island's chamber: The Hatchery. Something that flies and is coming from a hatch?

 


As you see I finally found an answer... unless señor Snowlord have a different opinion. But what best that a paratrooper as something that flies and emerges from a Junkers ( = a 3-engine hatch)?


 

These are more leftovers from my late war Fallschirmjaeger project of three years ago, reinfoced with a another box to build an entire new early war unit. 

 



I think I explained in a previous post that they will be eventually used in a crazy project of playing an Operation Mercury campaign using Advanced Squad Leader. If that fails, they will still make a good show in some Blitzkrieg 40 games using Chain of Command 

The models are 28mm Warlord's plastics and have a phenomenal sculpting. In a previous post I also mentioned a mistake I made during my research: the models wear the gasmask tin; however in airborne operations this was too burdenson and contemporary photos in Crete show the FJs noy using them. These were acrually added to the kit much later, when the German paratroopers were deployed as traditional infantry units.

 


If this entry is valid to score as The Hatch theme,  I should be earning 50 points, 

6 x 28mm models @ 5 points each = 30 points

Bonus =   20 points

KenR : The Larder : Bantams Burgers - 40 points

 

This entry will bring the end to my journey through Level 1 of the Chambers and also to my Bradford City theme, which I have had great fun with over five posts including this one.

There is nothing like a greasy burger to line the stomach before a few pints on the way home from the match and your genial hosts Pat and Terry will serve you a fine burger containing at least 0.5% meat, a compot of caramelised onions & Wakefield salad all on a freshly defrosted bread cake. All followed up by a mug of Yarkshire Tea with 10 sugars.

The Burger Van is in 28mm and comes from Ainsty Castings who do a wide range of stuff that you didn't know you needed. Points wise there are 20 for the Chamber, 2 x 28mm figs at 5 points each plus 10 points for the van, I don't think its terrain, it could be a 28mm vehicle (?) so I went for the middle ground of a crew served weapon, which to be honest is what one of Pats over cooked eggs could be classed as !

I'll use this in my 28mm Sweeney Cops and Robbers games, it fits in quite nicely on the forecourt of Daleys Motors. Normal service will resume next week when Principes 2 hit the table. UP THE CHICKENS 🐔 



From BruceR Chamber of Challenges The Orcs Pit (25 pts)

 The Orcs Pit challenge had me thinking ahead and to some very old "lead" orcs I had somewhere from the 80's.  Well life got busy and I saw this GW plastic Savage Orc NIB on the shelf and thought there is my mission.  It's been 7-8 years since a greenskin has come under the brush.  I've dabbled in miniatures since the 70's and came into contact with Warhammer (thanks to tanker Charlie Clay) at Fort Carson in 1989.  Back in the dakotas in the 2000s the local crew began to travel first to Winnipeg and than to Minneapolis for Warhammer tournaments.  Armies were painted and slaughtered along the way.  Wood Elves, Empire, Orcs and Goblins. We have moved back to historical and the fantasy armies sit in boxes.  

This little beast was on the shelf and appears to be from GW's plastic heroes, maybe just before the old world exploded.  


    I spent a couple of nights this week and cranked him out.  Photographed him this morning.  









Well, we have official entered the deep freeze here in N Dakota.  -15  and looks to be around for at least a week.  So sitting in the hobby cave (with the furnace roaring) feeling nostalgic.  So opened the boxes and broke out the Orcs.  

So here is a stroll down memory lane.  Hope I don't offend anybody for posting past paint in sharing. 

DA'BOYZ  



Metal Boar Boyz

Metal Savage Orcs during the time of the Slann
Biguns
Metal Citadel
Ruglands Armored Orcs Regiment of Renown
Chariots
Metal Savage Orc Archers 
Savage Orc Boar Boyz

Da' Savages
Old boyz meal and white plastic
Da BlackOrcs
Hope you enjoy.  Stay well and stay safe.
Now "the Hessians are coming"
BruceR