Lumberjill in 28mm

Last year you may remember that I had a bunch of Bad Squiddo Games Women of WW2 that I used to transport myself about Challenge Island.  Well I'll be racking up the frequent flyer miles this year using the same range as I got into Annie's Kickstarter.  The figures arrived in the Spring and they were saved for the Challenge.  They are all wonderful.

First up is a Lumberjill with an axe, and I love this figure.  This is a girl that would be a lot of fun to hang to with.  But a fella better not do her wrong.  The Women's Lumber Corps or Lumberjills was part of the Land Army, see the link here for the history.  I had a lot of fun researching this figure and there is some great social history available on the Corps.

This is an Alan Marsh sculpt and he has absolutely nailed it.  I was a little unsure of the shorteralls, appearing at first more in line with a Vargas or Elvgren pinup than for chopping wood.  However, photos confirm this was what they wore in the field, at least some of the time.

Axes, shorts, big grins, seriously bad hair days.

In just about any picture that I can find of the Lumberjills, they are smiling.  It must have been back breaking work, but likely a heck of an improvement over factory work.  One one thing Jerry wasn’t bombing you and for another you got to be outside in the fresh air.

So here’s my first submission for the Trio of Sorceress, I hope that she meets with approval.  If so that should be 25 points and a trip to the Hall of Traps please.  I also need to ask if I can use another female figure on the same level without the extra 20 points, just like the balloon rides last year?

Ships in Grey Scale

Next up is for a theme chamber based on painting in Greyscale...

Ships ahead - are they Ours or Theirs?

Sailing on from the aquifer, we sense shadowy shapes in the Chamber of Darkness but it's difficult to tell if they are friend or foe.

After a 6 year hiatus I have set getting my WW2 Naval project back in business as a goal for 2021.  I do my games in the Med theatre and have narrowed my focus to late 1941- early 1942 looking at historical squadrons and the actions that they fought.  Many of these actions were fought at night with identification (or lack of) playing a key role.

These four tokens were painted to represent potential sightings which have not been firmly identified.  My own experiences (Warning - Old Fart Moment Ahead) of night time Channel crossings with my dad showed me that recognizing shapes, sizes, directions and speed is very difficult.   I figured this would be a good opportunity to meet the greyscale challenge.  

The ships are 4 CinC 1:2400 scale destroyers which were deemed surplus to my needs.  There are 3 supposed British "L" class destroyers which turned out not to have the right feature plus a Spica class TB.  I will relay the full L class saga another times, but for now will note that I am odd and get persnickety abut fielding the correct destroyers.

These were quick to paint up but I am pretty pleased with the end result.

These were painted using mostly Paynes' Grey with Carbon Black shading and Titanium White mixed in to get lighter shades.   Paynes' Grey is actually a very dark blue, but I'm hoping the name will let me slide it through.  Tables include a radar blip image and Capital Greek letters for identification.  I spelled out the letter names for benefit of gamers who speak neither Greek nor Mathematics.

Points wise that 4 1/2400 ships @ 2 points plus 20 for the chamber = 28 points.  A whopping 8 of these go towards my death by a thousand paper cuts total in the Naval Side Duel.

Initial post from the Challenge

I am going back through my post on the Challenge blog from this year.

 

Lupo and Cassiopia

First post from me this year and I think the first entry in the Naval Side Duel.  I have two Italian Spica Class torpedo boats (equivalent to a Destroyer Escort in USN speak) from WW2.  The models are in 1/2400 scale and are by CinC, now sold by Legions IV Hire slightly to our east in Winnipeg.  They are sailing up the Aquifer to get me not our dungeon's first level.

Lupo had the reputation of the luckiest ship in the Navy. 

A series of Naval Treaties limited nations' ship building in most categories, but placed no limits on torpedo boats under 1000 tons displacement.  The Germans built the Elbing class that gavee Allied Light Forces a headache in the Channel, the French built the almost useless Melpomene class and the Italians built these very successful and hard worked ships.  They carried three 4" guns, a light torpedo armament pus AA and ASW weapons.  They carried out the bulk of the escort work on the Convoys to North Africa.  Most importantly for the Regina Marina they were much more economical on fuel than larger ships, with oil reserves being the biggest factor restricting operations as the war dragged on.

There were 30 in the class, plus two sold to Sweden, and more in two similar classes.  Many of them put up impressive battle records. After the Italian Armistace many were taken over by the Kriegsmarine while others served with honour alongside the allies.  

These are the first pictures taken in my new light box picked up over the summer.

In the past 1/2400 scale ships have been worth 2 points a piece, meaning that I've got to put out a lot of hulls to keep pace with my opponents in the duel.  Add in the 20 points for the location and it's 24 points for the entry.

 

Painting Challenge Wrap Up

I've been off this blog for 4 months now, but not silent from either gaming or blogging.  I was in the Analogue Hobbies Challenge XI this year.  My wrap up photos are below.  I'll try and get some of my posts copied over in the next month.

 I am of course late out of the gate on this one.  But here are my wrap up photos of everything that I painted for the Challenge.

Naval Stuff

All the ships were from WW2.  I had planned to add some Anglo Dutch Wars ships which only got part painted and some from the War of the Pacific which only got primer.  I gave Adam a reasonable chase in the early going of there Naval Duel but got left in everyone's wake at the end.  For some reason I decided that I needed every destroyer that fought in the Med in 1941-2, but I had fun researching the various classes, modifications and camouflage patterns applied.

Land based stuff

A true variety pack -  a new 10mm NYW project, Dorky Orky tanks, Women of WW2 and Beowulf!

Dooffus in charge with my Meadhall background from our Beowulf DnD sessions

January through March is a busy time for me.  I basically end up working 60% of each of two jobs so the challenge is a sanity break for me.  It's great to see everyone work and looking forward to next year.

Merry Christmas

 

My last exam are graded and the marks entered into the system.  So I’ve shifted from working from home to relaxing at home.  It’s a subtle shift!

The Angel is new this year. The starfish is a gift from my Grandmother from many years ago.

I’ve signed up for this year’s Painting Challenge and have already started work on various projects for it.  But no final results yet.

However, Christmas came  two days early with splendid chap Iain W gifting me his Curtgeld in the form on a wonderful Landschneckt commander for my Italian Wars project.  Now I have to dust off that project and see what needs to be added on it.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/12/iain-w-landsknecht-command-30-points.html

War of the Pacific AAR pt 2

Continuing on from part one in my prior post....

Panorama view note the brightly coloured arcs of fire templates!

Jeremey's blockaders fire at my Peruvian torpedo boats and attempt evasive Hanover's

Getting down to business

Running through the QRS, the rule swerve very quick to pick up.

The tbs strike home while Curt's squadron comes near.  The near tb had a near miss with it's spar torpedo while the far one struck home for a kill!

Skipping ahead one of Jeremey's ships splits Curt's line

Things settle down to a general melee

At this point we wound things up with the following summary

• The Chileans sank one monitor, with Stacy nobly heaving too to save the crew.
• The wooden ships got bashed around with a Chilean sunk by spar torpedo and a Peruvian sunk by ramming.
• The sea going ironclads largely cancelled these serve out.  
• We reckoned that the Peruvians would sail into Iquiqui and be blockaded by the Chileans. 

Everyone had fun and enjoyed the game.  The rules worked well and were easy to pick up.  There was room for one or two tweaks but nothing major.  It was noted that the sequenced movement worked well and it was much easier to figure and execute orders than a recent GQIII game.

 

AAR War of the Pacific Pt 1

  A few weeks back, before we had more COVID restrictions in place, I GMed an actual naval game.  I took me a while to get my AAR together so I don't remember the turn by turn details but the basic situation is as follows.

• Ships are 1/2400 from Tumbling Dice painted by me during last year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X.
• Rule were Dahlgren and Columbiad a fast play set by noted nail game David Manley available from Wargames Vault.  These were a new set to all of us.
• Curt hosted, so it's his sea mat (looks very spiffy), arid hills representing the coast of the Atacampa desert and a Spanish town masquerading as Iquiqui.
• Instead of a historical scenario I put everything on table but in a historical setting.  Basically I wanted to test the various ship types and the rules, and figure that this might be a one shot game using the toys.
• Jeremey had a squadron of Chilean cruising (unarmored) ships and was blockading the Peruvian port.  I took the local Peruvian forces, two ex-ACW monitors and two spar torpedo boats.
• Curt had a Peruvian relief force of two sea going Ironclads and a well armed but unarmoured corvette.  Stacy had a Chilean force also of two sea going ironclads and a well armed but unarmoured corvette.

Game set up.

The Peruvian relief force, Huascar, Indepencia and Union

Jeremy's blockaders, the sacrificial offerings.

Close up of Jeremy's ships.

I pretend to know what I'm doing.  Actually after a couple turns everyone had the rule mechanics down pat.

Long range shot.  Curt's ships in foreground.  My ships are attacking Jeremy in the middle distance and Stacy approaches in the distance.