Chindits Special Force

There seems to be a fair bit of interest in the campaigns in Burma waged by the Chindits; certainly there are a few figure ranges being pushed at present. My late uncle was in the Royal Signals firstly in N Africa and then in Burma where he was attached to the Chindits, specifically the Royal West African Field Force, a Nigerian Brigade which formed a substantial proportion of the entire Chindit force. My uncle was captured by the Japanese but made it through the war and when I was going through his effects recently I found some of his insignia, including his Chindit shoulder badge and RS/RWAFF shoulder tapes. He never spoke about his experiences in Burma ( he did, a bit, about N. Africa and Tobruk) but did have good words to say for the Nigerians of the RWAFF. Perhaps one of the manufacturers of figures for this campaign might like to add some to their range of figures, or at least suitable separate heads?

Big change afoot

Well, last nightafter much umming and arr'ing I finally decided to go back down to the Durham Wargames Group with a view to rejoining after an absence of what must be ten years. I had been a member at Durham since 1972 but the demands of working away and balancing a family life  and lately being a single dad, not to mention living about an hour from Durham meant that regular gaming was kicked into touch. I have had some great games with Rob and John over the years, but that opportunity for future gaming appears to be on pause, for whatever reasons. It is a shame but life must go on. Nevertheless, that door is open should the very welcome opportunity arise.

I've not had a wargame (with a live opponent, although not sure a dead one would much fun, despite being a Walking Dead fan)for quite some time and whilst I have got through an imense amount of lead in terms of painting, e.g. my Thirty Years War armies (ok, many of them are plastic but...), I reckoned it was time to take the plunge and jump back over the hedge to the original and still green grass.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I received a warm welcome from those DWG members who I know from the past and I am glad I made the trip. I hope it won't see the end of any regular use of my own games setup; we shall see, and I am looking forward to next week as I think there is a  Seven Years War game on.

On a final note, I received my copy of Miniature Wargames (with Battlegames) last week and to be honest I was enormously underwhelmed. In my  humble opinion it can only get better, please.

A slight diversion - Polish Winged Hussars

A while ago a picked up a couple, ok, four boxes, of Warlord Winged Hussars. Here is the (almost) finished result as I need to add lance pennons to the majority of the figures. If I say so myself they look pretty good and I am sure my Swedes will be quivering in their plastic boots at the thought of this lot thundering down on them!

TYW Imperial Dragoons

Featured here are two units of Imperial dragoons. I decided to base them in skirmish order because they are classed as such in the rules but mainly so I could do something with the basing. I quite like the finished result.  The figures are from Warlord Games and it got me wondering. In their Pike and Shotte rules, dragoons are not permitted to fire from horseback, so why are half the figures in the set firing? No big deal really but momentarily puzzling.

The end of the journey. TYW armies completed (except for a few odds and ends)

 Above, the Swedes and Saxons, below the Imperial forces.

Above, Imperial grand battery. Below Imperial Cuirassiers and Harquesbusiers.

Above Saxon and Swedish Foot. Below Swedish Yellow and Blue brigades. 

 

Imperial cuirassiers, including wallenstein's Lifeguard - not sure about a flag for these.

Above, Imperial commanded musketeers occupying the cemetary. Below, the King's Lifeguard Company - brigaded with the Yellow 'Court' regiment.

Well, as the title suggests, I've just about (95%) completed my Swedish and Imperial forces for my TYW project, so here are some photos of both armies arrayed for battle. Not that they will be able to get at each other over my new scratch-built river. I pinched the idea off another blog and am very pleased with the end result. Clearly I've  gone OTT again but not a bad result for the last 9-10 months. I have promised myself I won't start anything new until the summer, but that won't stop me from adding to existing projects and getting stuff finished.......

Battle for Warsaw (in Polish)

I picked this DVD off Amazon recently. It tells the story of the Russo-Polish war in 1919-20, in particular the campaign leading up to the defence of Warsaw. It's in Polish but has English sub-titles and instructions and is rather good. It has lots of quite realistic i.e. gory, action, cavalry charges, aeroplanes bombing Marshal Budeny's 1st Cavalry Army, fatalistic White Cossacks, bullying Commissars, Bolsheviks with bad teeth (or no teeth), FT17 tanks, silly armoured cars, and mass bayonet charges into the face of machine guns (by both sides but the Poles have an heroic priest to urge them on, cross in hand, till he gets killed). The main female lead is quite hot too! I enjoyed it and it got me thinking about adding to my Russian Civil War armies with a Polish contingent. We shall see.

More Swedes

After quite a spell of not being very productive I have suddenly finished several more Swedish units. Pictured above a four bases of commanded shot (mainly TAG with a few 1st Corps and Empress thrown in) and a full brigade/regiment/whatever of Swedish foot TAG and 1st Corps). The flags are on their way stuck in the post somewhere but I plan to do this unit as a native Swedish regiment rather than a German one. I really do need to stop and take stock of exactly what I have produced over the last nine months, for example I now have six 'Swedish' brigades and two of Saxons, 5 squadrons of Saxon/Hessian horse, 9 squadrons of Swedish/Finnish horse, plus commanded shot and about eight light guns. Enough for anyone I am sure..........?