Happy Birthday Rebellious Colonials!

 

So to commemorate the Cousin's independence we had a little game of Sharp Practice. The scenario was very loosely based on the events of 19th April 1775, you know, "the British Are Coming!" and all that.

In the wholly fictional town of Danvers Mass, news has reached Colonel Whateley that the Redcoats were marching down the Boston Pike. He quickly called out his Militia and takes up position on the Common and blocked the bridge. However he does not want to be the man who goes down in history as starting a war so his men are strictly under orders not to shoot  unless shot at.

Sure enough, the Redcoats approach down the Pike. They too are concerned not to be seen as the instigators, but are firm in their mission, to search Danvers for contraband arms and powder. 

We had a system to determine if the fragile peace would hold. Whenever a unit did something the other side could think of as provocative, both sides rolled a D6 - if they scored doubles, someone shoots and .....

The Redcoats advanced. Major Bartlett (Rob) in charge moved up to the bridge and ordered the leading troops to clear the obstruction. This had been decided as a task with a target of 18 - each action spent trying to clear it would score 2d6 points, and would be completed when the total reached 18. 

Before he reached the obstacle however he was waylaid by Miss Campion, a local Lady. Politeness (and perhaps a desire to get better acquainted with the young lady delayed him however while he paid his respects. She appeared unimpressed. 

Meanwhile, his Light Company flanked left to secure the woods, "just in case" , and his second Company moved right.

And then a shot rang out! noone was sure where it came from - was it the house next to the bridge?

Suddenly the tense situation turned deadly. The British fired a volley at the Militia, men fell, and then some previously unseen Colonials hiding in the woods started shooting at the Redcoats trying to clear the barricade.

Major Bartlett ordered the obstacle cleared as a fight broke out with more Militia hiding in he woods on the other side of the road. A Redcoat fell. He would not be the last....

Colonel Whateley was horrified, but he knew his duty. He ordered his Minutemen to wheel and deliver a volley at the Redcoats on the bridge. Due to the targets being concentrated on the narrow bridge we agreed to treat them as a closed column, which at least helped the Militia hit something. No kills, but shock started to build. 

The problem for the Colonials was the Minutemen were brave, but were otherwise almost totally undrilled. As soon as they fired their first ragged volley they simply blazed away as fast as they could fire into the cloud of smoke they created, whether Whateley wanted them to or not. On the British side the well drilled Redcoats were delivering controlled volleys (using their "Sharp Practice" trait) and it was starting to hit hard.

On the bridge the lead Redcoats finally cleared the obstacle. Then disaster struck the Colonials. A good volley killed some Redcoats on the bridge, then a random event was triggered by a third consecutive Command Flag card, and the Minutemen, drunk with their success, surged forward uncontrolled. 

Major Bartlett seized the moment. He rallied some shock and then triggered his "Thin Red Line" trait using his command cards. The troops on the bridge fired a volley and then fixed bayonets and charged the Minutemen. The regulars ploughed into the shocked Militia, who broke and ran. Whately was wounded in the melee but fell back with his men. The victorious Redcoats called out to the fleeing Yankees. Just to make the situation worse, the British Light Company shot the riflemen in the woods, injuring their leader.

It was too much for the Colonials. Force morale plummeted. Whateley ordered a withdrawal to regroup and await reinforcements, and Bartlett advanced to Danvers.

It was a great game, which mirrored the historical events at Lexington \ Concord nicely. The Redcoats would complete their search. The problem was, they now needed to get back to Boston through a county buzzing with armed militia swarming towards them.

Is that the sound of Duelling Banjo's?? Quar Gloamers

I really like This Quar's War - check out the previous posts. However I got my car stolen about a year ago, and in the boot was my Quar collection. The car was found wrecked, and the Quar were gone and my heart was somewhat broken.

This was quite traumatic to say the least, and I just couldn't find the energy and motivation to go back to TQW.

Until now. I've printed and painted my first squad of Gloam Hynn Ryflers. Gloamers are (I think) supposed to be something like backwoods bayou types, misunderstood as clannish and backwards country yokels. They're famous as trappers and backwoodsquar who use the local critters to help hunt and scout. 

Their uniforms are supposed to be purple, but as soon as I looked at them, I thought, "they look quite VC" (not the medal, Victor Charles, Viet Cong etc)

So I went for a dark purple, almost black, and plenty of undergrowth to hide in. To be honest theyre not as nice as the original crusaders, I spent a lot of time on them and these guys, not so much, but they're dome now so.....

Milwer (corporal) and his team

Yawdril (Sgt) and his team

Tracker and Scarf-cyn beasties

I also have a Tractor - the Gloamers use the ridiculously cute "Squeedle" light tractor, which is nimble and sturdy enough to be able to operate in the swamps of their homeland.  

The Sqeedle and Squad trapper

The Gloamers are a Royalists faction, so when I finally reconstitute my Crusaders I will have troops from both sides.   

I think I've laid that ghost. Still got some specialists to paint up - musician etc, but that's my Gloamer squad.

Hola Muchachos again - getting there (100 Hour War)

So my little side project has now pretty much blossomed to the point I may have to put it on a table!

While I work out how that is going to work, here are the Dramatis Personae . 

Honduras

Corsairs

These are the real stars of the conflict in that the single squadron provided both air superiority and ground attack functions - and scored the only kills of the war. Honduras had eleven in theory, though probably something like half that were airworthy.

T-28 Trojans

Honduras had two armed Trojans along with a handful of unarmed trainers. The armed versions flew CAP and close support missions, one managed to damage an enemy Corsair and lived to tell the tale.

El Salvador

Corsairs

Like their neighbour the FAS used "vintage" Corsairs, mostly the Goodyear variants, for escort and ground attack duties. They theoretically had several dozen on the books, but maintenance and storage issues meant they only had about six that were operational 

Mustangs

This gets complicated. El Salvador has a mixed collection of Mustangs. Most were Trans-Florida F51s - basically a standard P51 but with some tweaks to make them a viable ground attack fighter. There were five planes,  new, and the pilots thought them "hot" to handle. They also had one re militarised P51D provided by a private individual said to be in superb condition, and a small number of commercially bought civilian P51s - they actually sent representatives with a suitcase full of $$$ and offered to buy any they could find in the US , then shipped them back to El Salvador to be rearmed. These last P51s only were only operational for the last few hours of the conflict. There was also a dual control F51 which was deliberately flown to Guatemala and interned, to keep it safe as it was the only one available.   

Cessnas,  C47s and Texans

Both sides used light aircraft and transports as makeshift bombers and light attack planes. For my cunning plan I'm planning on using Cessna 172s and DC3 \ C47s to stand in for both sides. Similarly unarmed T-6 trainers were used as recce and liaison.

Ordnance

The makeshift nature of the aircraft was also reflected in the weapons available. El Salvador was restricted to 100lb (one hundred) GP bombs which they carried on hardpoints on the fighter bombers or rolled out of the door on their C47s. Cessna's carried boxes of 60mm & 81mm mortar bombs on the passenger seat that could be thrown out the door \ window WW1 style. Honduras seems to have been slightly better equipped, with napalm bombs, home made cluster bombs and home made rockets with 81mm mortar warheads, along with 100lb bombs, again carried on hardpoints or rolled out of the cargo door of the C47s.

One particular issue that came up was with the 20mm cannon on the Honduran Corsairs. These were the American copies of the Hispano Mk V beloved of the RAF. In combat they had regular jams, which it was discovered to be caused by trying to fire British surplus 20mm ammunition in US guns. They seemed to work fine in older guns due to barrel wear! This issue was resolved by some ground crew using a lathe to grind down the UK rounds by a mm or so - given these were high explosive incendiary shells the guys doing this must have had balls of steel!  

 

February Blues

Not sure why but I feel at a bit of a gap moment between projects. I've been encouraged into trying Bolt Action, so went about turning my Chain of Command units into something I can use in BA. There's a  whole series of posts about how those rules compare but maybe another time...

So I've been painting WW2 Germans, and backfilling WW2 Soviets, and all that is good. Problem is those projects are hovering around the "good enough" mark. 

As I've got older I've realised that having a project is very good for my mental health, and gives me something to distract from the shitshow that is existence :-) , so I'm looking at options.

First up - Flint & Feather \ Contact 

I came to this by roundabout routes. I saw some YouTube vids by Atun-Shei films https://www.youtube.com/@AtunSheiFilms about King Phillip's War, and I got a bit interested. BTW Atun-Shei does a fantastic series on the ACW which I would highly recommend.

I've picked up Flint & Feather and am slowly building up some small forces. I'm going to need a LOT of trees to get this on the table. 

Other project options - I feel the need for some naval gazing - not sure what exactly, and I have a Napoleonic Spanish Army to start, though as that has not been on the shelf for the obligatory year I dont think it counts towards my "pile of shame" :-)

The traditional "What I didn't achieve in 2025" post

I've noticed if you compare the traditional "what I plan to do in the new year" post with what actually happened, well, it's different :-)

On the other hand 2025 was quite productive. I painted a French Napoleonic Army for Sharpe Practice, A German VolksGrenadier for Chain of Command, a couple of Squadrons for Blood Red Skies and a Greek force for Mortal Gods. Not too bad really.

Looking forward into 2026 I'm hoping to :

a) Survive

b) Round out my Soviets for Chain of Command \ Bolt Action. Yes I hope to be playing Bolt Action this year. I'm not abandoning Chain of Command, but the local group is interested in BA so I am "tooling up" by rummaging around in my spares box to see what is needed to make a viable Soviet mid-late war list. I had some female AA troops which was a side project from the old Stalingrad games (1077th AA Regt) so I think if I add some prints and plastics from the spares box I should get a viable list.

c) Back to Quar - my old and much loved Quar got stolen (sob) and I've been waiting for the release of the new hard back rules due "soon" before getting back into that.

d) Spanish Napoleonics. I want to paint a Spanish Napoleonic force for Sharp Practice. I already have the models.

e) WW2 Brits if I get around to them

So there you go - hopefully, conditional on a) I may get the others done or started, but then again based on previous years. probably not

Cheers, hope everyone has a better 2026 than last year! 

 

Welcome Back Muchachos!

Last year I was invited to do a demo at the Warlord Games Open Day. I'd done this for several years now and I was a bit "Midway Fatigued" so I decided to do something different. Almost simultaneously one of my favourite Youtube Channels - Showtime 112 did a couple of episodes on the "100 Hour War" and coincidentally Blue Falcon Hobbies sent me some decals as part of their Patreon scheme - so , why not?

I painted up some models, scratched together a scenario and took it to the Open Day, and it seemed to be well received. I took the scenario to a couple of other events, and it was fun, if a bit unbalanced. Then I put it away for a rainy day.

I'm aware I'm probably "on the spectrum" (no offence to those with a diagnosis, but anyone who goes into this hobby for anything more than a couple of years is ticking a box) . Part of my little problem is that I like to get custom foam cut storage and transport trays from Just Lasered. At some time a few years ago I had a bit of a moment when I started to plan my collection around the trays I would need so they would all be "right". I didn't have foam to store my 100 Hour War planes, but as I only had 8 this wasn't a problem. OK it irked me but .....

Then Spitting Image did "The Rest is Bulls*t" presented by a rubberised Harry Windsor and "Pads" - their version of Paddington Bear - except he's a coke addled South American drugs dealer. For some reason this got me thinking about the 100 Hour War again...  

So then the stars started to align, Rob started to paint jets for the Indo - Pak war, and asked me where I got my trays from and could I get some for him?  Roman Troyan (Planeprinter) also dropped a T-28 Trojan stl which happily filled a gap, so I printed a pair. Something went "click" and it was time to expand the 100 Hour War collection to something a bit more than a one scenario gig, and also to justify a foam tray. 

Sigh. I dived into the spares box and found a Corsair and Mustang. The Corsair wasn't quite right but what the hell, and the Mustang was a straight port over.

My plan is to do a "bathtub" campaign using some of the squadron rules from Wing Commander, with a bit of Flat Tops thrown in. Here are the two proposed sides

FAS El Salvador

2 TF F51 Mustang IIs

1 P51 Mustang

3 FD1 Corsairs

Facing them will be:

FAH Honduran

4 F4U Corsairs

2 T-28 Trojans

I'll also add a pair of Cessnas and DC3\C47s that can be used in scenarios by both sides as bombers etc.

I should add that my lighthearted approach to this should not be seen as derogatory of the real people involved. 

The Last German

Meet Hans

Hans is in theory the last German figure for my Volksgrenadiers for Chain of Command \ Bolt Action. I say last, because of course at some point I will "need" more, but this is the last of the planned additions. Hans is part of my Recce team - three guys with an MG42 and a Junior leader. They're an add on to an add on in that I can take a Sdkfz 250 /1 as a general transport or use it to carry a recce team. All is good.

Hans and his team

Unlike the bulk of the force these are from the Victrix Late War German Infantry set, rather than the Warlord Winter Germans. I thought as these guys were going to be attached from another unit a different style of model would be nice, and also it gave me a chance to try out the Victrix models in the flesh. I bought a single sprue from The Sprue Shop as I was only needing four guys.

On that note they're very nice models. Less "heroic" in proportion to the Warlord models, but still very nice and I'd certainly get more if I needed them, which I must keep reminding myself, I don't :-) . If I decide to do PanzerGrenadiers I'll use Victrix.

So another project "completed". Taking a break from WW2 painting before launching into the British who will be a matched army for the Volksgrenadiers, and there are still 28mm Napoleonic French and Austrians to finish, plus a Spanish Napoleonic army to start, so I'm not short of projects, but before I launch into those I have another little side project to finish involving football, or should I say Soccer? 

Hopefully next time Muchachos!