Timecast Terrain 10mm - Return to the AWI.

After a brief detour to the New World, back to the last AWI and a concerted effort to clear the last of the AWI elements to crack the project before the of the month...

I felt the AWI battlefield lacked a little bit of colonial structure tucked in box was a bunch of trees from the guys at Time Cast perhaps some of the best trees on the market in this scale if you don't foliage shedding over years of gaming.

I opted for nice tidy rows so they could be used as an orchard or to line the roads on the approaches to towns or farm lands.

Also some poplar trees on make up sticks with some rounded edges to mirror the troop bases. 

Not really sure why it's taken so long to get them on the table but in the spirit of getting Sh*t done. On to the next unit.

10mm American Colonial Buildings - 1776 Lexington & Concorde.

Limited game time but an opportunity to get some additional buildings on to the gaming table, a mix of Pendraken and Timecast Models.

The stone walls are from Timecast and will be useful for walling a few of the properties on the approaches to Lexington and Concorde.

Next up Hancock - Clarke House, the guys at Things from the Basement in the US have released a range of 15mm MDF models, which come with an historical reference for each. I have borrowed their paint design for my variants and their descriptions.

Based on The parsonage, located in Lexington, MA, was originally built for John Hancock I, the grandfather of the patriot John Hancock in 1737. Subsequently, the house was occupied by Jonas Clarke and his family. It was built on what later became Hancock Street. On April 19, 1775, just after midnight, Paul Revere arrived on horseback to inform John Hancock and Sam Adams that “the Regulars are out,” not the commonly known phrase, “The British are coming.” John Hancock and Sam Adams, leaders of the colonials, were guests at the Hancock-Clarke house at this time.

Hancock's House and Barn in the background. Next up Jacob Whittlemore House.

Located on the Bay Road in Lexington, in 1775 this house was home to Jacob and Elizabeth Whittemore as well as their daughter, Sarah, her husband Moses Reed, and their three small children. Neither Jacob nor Moses fought with the Lexington militia on April 19th, although Jacob had trained with it and Moses would volunteer for other Revolutionary War campaigns. Instead, Jacob and Moses carried Sarah Whittemore Reed, who was still recovering from the birth of her third child 18 days earlier, and her children to the relative safety of a nearby woodlot just before the battle reached their home. To the west of the house, Captain John Parker led the Lexington militia in engaging the retreating British Regulars. The Whittemore family lived in the house from the time of its construction in 1716-1718 by Jacob’s father, Nathaniel, until 1780 when it was sold by the family.

A selection of smaller huts and out houses, these were from the Pendraken Russian range but will be a useful addition to bulk out the table.

Next up AWI Woodland Indians.

10mm Terrain - Time Cast Models

It's terrain week, I had hoped to get a game in for Lexington and Concorde back in April but needed some more fields, walls and buildings to flesh out the table. But real life has conspired of late seriously hindering both game and painting time, so some quick wins sprucing up some of the Time Cast latex fields and marshes to day.

First up another obstacle for the British to cross a light bridge surrounded by swamps.

I had a bunch of static grass which when added to the swamp pieces gave them some density to the terrain piece.

US militia cross the bridge, by pure coincidence the basing for the units for Rebels and Patriots are fit the width of the bridge.

Next up a whole bunch of fields, two packs from Time Cast, some of them have plough rows whilst others are plain, I picked up some super sticky crops/grass from Geek Gaming Scenics these bring the fields to life a little and are not to high when compared to the figures. 

Not a bad afternoon's effort and some good extra's to bulk out the table and the extra buildings currently being undercoated.

A few more weeks and I should be game ready.

Red Pheonix - The wheels of Industry.

Having completed and upgraded the rural buildings several weeks ago. I needed to complete the warehouses and factories. I had started them several years go but they needed basing up to fit in with the rest of the buildings.

All pieces from the team at Time Cast.

Somewhere in the storage box I have some civilian lorries and vehicles which I will add to the base at another time. I walled off the compound and added some clutter such as crates and barrels.

These will be useful as a complex which will needed to be captured or defended.

Also completed and refreshed are a couple of larger buildings, a small apartment block large house, perhaps a regional command post or factory owner?

All of these come from Time Casts Russian East European Range. I will need to pick up couple of additional items to complete the terrain in the form of some roads and perhaps some more field works.

The storage box still contains around 20 MBT's to paint up, I never got round to them originally when I first started the project as they looked to have been GHQ rip offs, I wondered why they were cheap on e-bay but they are the *last models for this project. I should get to these before the end of the month.

*Well I might be tempted by some air elements.

I have a couple of games lined up for when we are released and also fancied rolling the games into a wider campaign having just picked up a copy of an old classic - Tactics II.

So many ideas so few opponents.....

Idle hands...... The Woods get a make over.....

I should have got round to posting this several weeks ago, all of a sudden I seem to have plenty of time on my hands....

Over the past 20 years the woods below have seen plenty of action, but have become a little battered and battle scarred and contain a mixture of types, manufacturers and basing techniques together with a few single trees.

Basetex now there's a thing gamers don't seem to use any more but was a real thing in the 80's.

I picked up a number of 'pond' bases from the chaps at Warbases the extended base sizes will allow the troops to fit a little easier for vehicles and infantry but also increase the woodland area covered.

I added filler and sharp sand before a dry brush and static grass and here are the results.
Not bad at all and with the extras found in a box managed to bolster the woodland with 4 more bases and cleared a few more items from the left over pile, clearing another drawn and shoe box.
Result......

The bases match those of the modern Korean's for the Red Phoenix project and those of my 15mm WW2 collection.

Meanwhile as the flock dries I gave some old hedges a make over, the original colours were rather to 'green' these feel so much better. Cast in plaster from the guys at Time Cast they are suitable for both 6mm and 15mm.

Plenty more in the painting queue to keep me going in the coming weeks.

Next up 'Fillers' for the Red Phoenix project.

Red Phoenix Project - 6mm Korean Village

Back in the summer I kicked off the Red Phoenix Project, the fictitious invasion of South Korea in the mid 1980's based on the novel by Larry Bond.

I rebased the infantry and armour to be able to use them with the Seven Days of the Rhine Rules but languishing in the box of shame was a whole bunch of buildings from my first attempt to crack this project a mere 10 years ago. Back then I had painted up perhaps 5 or 6 buildings which left quite a few to get through.

The buildings are a mix of Irregular and Timecast from their Asia and Russian Range. The Irregular buildings are cast in metal which is a rarity these days, they are a little rough around the edges but they do some unusual stuff in their numerous ranges. 

I based each of the buildings on an MDF base and added some textured wall paper to create the occasional tarmac area, I added a number of trees which were lying around to give the buildings more of a rural look.

The Irregular Temple makes a great centre piece and bolting on a couple of extra buildings makes it quite a complex to fight over. A BTR 70 and HQ section are tucked away in the grounds for scale.

A couple of more rural buildings for use on the table.

Wooden buildings are not great when it comes to HE as the above ruins prove.

I tried to mix the buildings into both rural and urban, creating a couple of farm community farms and some buildings based quite close together to create shop fronts or a more urban area.
With over 20 buildings making up the village that should be more than enough for the various force to fight over.

I have a wish list of additional items needed to fill the gaps in this project largely for the South Koreans or US forces and then on the terrain front  perhaps some industrial items, pylons, paddy fields and vehicles to flesh out the table.

Now all I need is some game time to try the rules and new terrain.

Seven Days to the Rhine - South Korean Formations..

On to the South Korean's.
So it turns out I had not painted anywhere near enough of these, time to check the spares box or a quick order to GHQ to flesh out the ranks in the coming weeks for some SP Guns, AA vehicles and recon elements.

Once again based and formated for Seven Days to the Rhine.

South Korean Mechanized Regiment

Regimental Headquarters

1 Infantry Regiment
Artillery Battery
Reconnaissance Company
Tank Company

Infantry Battalion

Battalion Headquarters	33 Points	1 Infantry Stand	Jeep
A Company Infantry	73 Points	2 Infantry Stands	M113
B Company Infantry	73 Points	2 Infantry Stands	M113
C Company Infantry	73 Points	2 Infantry Stands	M113
D Company Machine Gun Company	73 Points	2 MG Stands	M113
E Company Support Company	104 Points	2 81mm Mortar & 2 Dragon Stands	M113

Regimental Heavy Weapons Company

Regimental Heavy Weapons Company

104 Points

2 120 mm Mortar & 2 Dragon Stands

M113

Regimental Air Defence Company

Regimental Air Defence Company

46 Points

2 M163 Vulcan

Artillery Battalion

A Company

?? Points

4 110A2 SP 8” Howitzers

Tank Company                                                         

Tank Company

128 Points

4 M60 A1’s

Reconnaissance Company

Recon Company

72 Points

4 Fox Armoured Cars

Armour Battalion

Battalion Headquarters	32 Points	1 M60 A1
A Company	128 Points	4 M60 A1’s
B Company	128 Points	4 M60 A1’s
C Company	128 Points	4 M60 A1’s
D Company Infantry	73 Points	2 Infantry Stands and 1 M113
E Company Infantry	73 Points	2 Infantry Stands and 1 M113
F Company AT Company	80 Points	2 HMMWV + TOW

So with a scratch force of South Koreans and their numerically superior neighbours complete, on to the buildings to give them something to fight over.

I have a batch of Time Cast south asian buildings to base up and some other earlier efforts in need of improvement. But should be able to bring these to the table by August.

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop - Red Phoenix Project

Whilst working my notice I suddenly found that I had more gaming time than I would normally have. Bad news when you start thinking about new projects or those mothballed from years back even before this blog existed.

Whilst clicking through the numerous wargames items on e-bay I end up back at the fictional invasion of South Korea by the North, a couple of days later I find myself the owner of the new rules by Great Escape Games and Larry Bonds book plus a second hand copy of Korea 1995 by GMT Games more eye candy and inspiration than a desire to play the board game itself.

Somewhere in the loft is a North Korean and South Korean Battle group packed away. One of those projects that I could not quite bring myself to sell off. Good job as with a few tweaks they can make a fresh reappearance on the table top. I did find a box of shame, all the unfinished troops, vehicles and buildings mostly Time Cast Buildings and GHQ Micro Armour from the first time around.

Plenty to do in the weeks ahead without laying out a single penny..... Result.

Whilst I dig out the old collection, rebase the infantry and complete the unfinished buildings, some light reading and turning the US and Soviet forces into forces for the Korean Peninsula. 

 Coming soon Project Red Phoenix....