Menorcan 'Martello' towers

For years now my family and I have spent summer holidays in Menorca. I was delighted to discover on my first visit ten years ago that the island is dotted with old military installations. These range from 18th century up to the Spanish Civil War. Over the years I have made a point of visiting and photographing the sites (and breaking my ankle at one!)

The British built 12 Martello Towers between 1798 and 1802 and then made use of three towers built by the Spanish earlier. The photos below show two of the Spanish built towers, constructed by Captain Francisco Ferdenandez de Angulo in 1781.

The Tower at Alcufar

My wife Elizabeth and our girls Grace and Tilly sitting in the shade of the tower at Alcufar, halfway through a 6km midday, 37 degree hike.

The view from Alcufar towards Fort Marlborough near Mahon.

San Del Xanso tower in Punta Prima.

Another view of San Del Xanso.

If this post was of interest, you should check out my earlier posts from last years expedition. Right, time to crack on with the Vikings I started before the hols!

More Gipping Beast Vikings

Another batch of Gripping beast plastic Vikings - once again painted with Citadel and Vallejo paints and washes. It has to be said that Little Big Man Studios transfers are fantastic! But enough gushing - here are the pics...

Halfway there... another 22 to go!

Gripping Beast Plastic Vikings

Well all it took was a chance comment at Evesham Wargames club that I'd be teaching year 5 children about Vikings next school year; followed by Paul letting me know that Gripping Beast were about to launch a new set of dark ages skirmish rules and before too long I had a box of Gripping Beast's new plastic Vikings.

£17 on Ebay gets you 44 multi pose plastic models. The range of poses and weapons available gives you a good range of completed figures, all of which are well moulded and highly detailed.
I decided to give myself an easier paint job by leaving off a lot of the tiny add ons - belt pouches and daggers, but I don't think it detracts from the finished model.

The pictures below shop the first 11 off the paint bench, they have been painted using a mix of Citadel and Vallejo paints and finished off with shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios.

Only 33 more to go....

British 14th Army in Burma (2)

Following on from my last post, here are the photographs of my next six forgoten 14th. The figures are from The Assault group and the paint scheme is as per the first batch.

More of these to follow in the future, but for now i'm heading back ino the dark ages to paint some Gripping Beast Vikings.

British 14th Army in Burma

Since I started wargaming, I have always wanted to recreate the Burma Campaign of World War 2 (My Grandfather fought in the 1942 retreat - more about him in a later entry). Sadly no-one produces suitable miniatures to represent the British troops from the early campaign, so I finally opted for troops from the later campaign and Chindit operations.

My first set of figures are from the Assault Group ( http://www.theassaultgroup.com/ ) - lovely figures, but their delivery is bloody poor!

The pictures below show the first six of the paint table.

Paint Scheme:

Uniform - Vallejo Bronze Green; washed with Citadel Devlan mud; dry brushed with two progressively lighter dry brush coats of a Vallejo Bronze Green and Citadel Skull white.

Webbing and Bush hat - Vallejo English uniform; washed with Citadel Devlan mud; dry brushed with Vallejo Khaki.

Puggaree - Vallejo Khaki; washed with Citadel Devlan mud and dry brushed with Vallejo Khaki.

Rifle - Citadel Scorched Brown; highlighted with Citadel Vermin Brown; Citadel Boltgun Metal; washed with Citadel Badam Black.

Face and Arms - Citadel Bronzed Flesh; washed with Citadel Ogryn Flesh; Highlighted with Vallejo Basic Skintone and washed again with Ogryn flesh.

I have six more from The Assault group primed on the paint tray, but I think I will be going to Warlord Games (http://www.warlordgames.co.uk/) for reinforcements!

New Pig Iron Heavy Infantry

Following their first outing on the games table, where their commander led them to glorious annihilation against an inferior force of Kolony conscripts (well done Stu!), I decided to add another SAW. I ordered a packet of Pig Iron assault troops that contains the SAW and, in order to give a little figure variation, a packet of backpacks and belt gear. When the packaged arrived, only two days later, Pig Iron had mistakenly dispatched the HQ pack instead. To their credit, after contacting them by email, the correct packet arrived free of charge two days later.

The heads are not separate heads in the Assault troopers packet so to increase variation I chopped the head off the SAW gunner, replacing it with a helmetless head off an alternative head sprue.

I used the same paint scheme as before (see earlier post) but with one difference. Having spent a little time playing the PS3 game Killzone 3, I noticed that the uniform lights and optics of the ISA troops are light blue. Dutifully I painted the optics on these figures in Citadel Regal Navy followed by a smaller dot of Ice blue... now I've got to go back and repaint the others!

The optional backpacks make the figures stand out from the original group and give them a real 'on campaign' look.

The poor SAW gunner now has to contend with male pattern baldness and a ruddy great backpack, as well as his cumbersome firearm!

I used three of the figures from the command pack; I swapped the heads of the sniper and the officer and added backpacks for further variation.

New Kolony Militia Squad

Now the SATs exams are out of the way, I have been able to put brush to figure! Below are the results, a second squad of Pig Iron Kolony Militia.

To distinguish them from my existing squad, I opted for the winter headgear alternative head sprue. Basically the figures are wearing Soviet style, fur Ushankas and side caps.

The pictures below show the squad defending a heavily bomb damaged factory unit (an old Snapdragon miniatures piece).

On Sunday I will be trying them out for the first time using a set of free rules I downloaded called FAD - Fast And Dangerous. A battle report will follow.