Troops on Parade - British Desert Force 1941

My name is Ken, I am a Gamer, it's been 4 days since I last bought any figures.

Troops on Parade is an excuse for me to get one of the collections at Yarkshire Gamer on the table, these have been the feature army on TOP before but I finished off the painting on all the remaining vehicles in the to do pile so this is it..... Although I could have a Dorchester ACV 🤔

Below is a video of the Army, in which I ramble on about various things whilst looking at the figures and models.

If you can't be bothered with the Video here's some photos 

An over view of the entire army, 50 Tanks, 9 Armoured Cars, 18 Transports and 180 figures.

The 6 Mk VI Light Tanks, 3 from Blitzkrieg Miniatures and sporting original colour Caunter, 3 more from Warlord sporting later "faded" Caunter.

The early tanks, 4 x A9 Cruiser Tanks and 5 A10 Cruiser Tanks, one a CS version, all vehicles Warlord sadly no sand skirts, the Warlord models don't have them.

Seven A13 tanks, these are from Blitzkrieg, 2 different turret versions.

6 Matildas, all Warlord Games models, the names have a Wind in Willows theme.

9 Crusader Tanks, 6 from Blitzkrieg in plain colour nearest the camera, 3 in Caunter FRO M Warlord at the end. Although I believe the first batch of Crusaders that arrived in the Desert had Caunter applied I have never found a picture of one.

12 Stuart / Honey Tanks, all Blitzkrieg.

A couple of Perrys wonderful 2pdr Portee models and 3 Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars from Company B.

Some of the Infantry Figures, all Perry Miniatures plastics. 

Three Bren Gun carriers in the service of the York and Lancaster Regt.

Eight trucks, 4 CMP and 4 Bedfords all from Anyscale Models.

More Infantry each company has 3 command figures and 3 Platoons of 10 figures each plus a 3 inch mortar and an Anti Tank Rifle in support.

Another 3 Bren Gun Carriers, this time South African.

3 Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars aka "Monkeys" with 3 Morris CS9 Armoured Cars in the background.

A lone Valentine Tank.

And finally a couple of lovely Rolls Royce Armoured Cars.

There we go, hope you have enjoyed this little journey through the 28mm British Desert Collection, there is a similar post on the Italian Army if you look back on the blog. Next post will be a review of the Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusades Force.

Kingdom of Jerusalem - Mounted Knights

It's always nice to finish a Project, even if it's a mini Project 😉 This unit of Mounted Knights rounds off my little 28mm Crusades Kingdom of Jerusalem Project and I'm looking forward to getting the mass of light blue and white together for a team J shot in a week or two when my King Baldwin command stand is done.

A unit of 12 Fireforge Games Mounted Knights, these are the Templar Cavalry Box Set which is more fitting to the 3rd Crusade / Outremer era I'm looking at, only 6 of the horses have carparisons which saves a bit of painting !

 

I've said this before but I love the look of motion you can get with these Fireforge figures you get a real impression of a charging unit, I'm biased but I love the top photograph it looks like the unit is charging towards you, time to drop sticks and run !

The shields are decals from a Company called Battle Flag and they do a really good range specifically for the Fireforge figures, they do most sets in two versions, a clean set and a battle worn set, I've used the latter.

I've used lowered Lances on the front rank and upright lance on the rear, this has allowed me to further brighten up the unit with 2 Kingdom of Jerusalem flags from Flags of War.

It's even worth looking at the back of the unit, which is after all the view I will get the most when commanding them on the table. I've used decals on the cloaks of the Knights, some are plain but others have been done with a half blue half white paint job to give some individuality.

Each Carparison has been done in a different pattern with decals on the front and rear, each blended into the surrounding paint work. It was a bit of a labour of love this unit at times and took quite a bit of effort to get them done, but the results were worth it.

The above shows the different cloaks and Carparisons off nicely.

A close up shows the detail on the figures.

Next up, in fact already painted are a unit of WW1 Turkish Cavalry and a post of them should appear towards the end of the week. I'm currently working on some Crusades command stands before I move onto some WW1 Arab Cavalry. See you soon.

Victrix 28mm Rome's Italian Legions Project Start

I always like to document the start of a new project, mostly because the embarrassment of not completing it once its public spurs me on 😂 Having nearly reached the end of my Kingdom of Jerusalem mini Project, I cast my eyes round the warehouse for some new project inspiration.

The above box stood out a mile. Regulars will have seen my recent posts regarding Mortem et Gloriam, the new set of Ancient Rules for da house and that has enthused me to get my Rome / Carthage project of the sidings and onto the main line again.

I bought a box of these, many years ago from Wonderland Models in Edinburgh (my favourite shop in the whole world) and they have been sat in the to do box for a long time. Below is a quick video regarding the contents.

I already have a Roman Legion of the time with 32 Velites, 64 Hastati, 64 Principles, 32 Triari, 15 cavalry and a couple of officers (about 20:1) so my plan for this mini Project is to produce an Allied Italian Legion to the same strength (plus an extra Cavalry Unit as per the orbats).

As a sidebar whilst slogging through the Kingdom of Jerusalem Knights I painted one of each of the main types as a tester, pretty pleased with the results. These are the first Victrix figures I've ever had so I am quite impressed with the quality. 

I have a lot of Cavalry for various projects prepped so most likely I will build and prep all the figures and use it as my project for the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge.

See you all soon with some Kingdom of Jerusalem Knights.

28mm Modern Roads for The Sweeney and beyond

A quick look at some new additions for my Sweeney inspired Cops and Robbers mini Project, mostly an excuse to share the little fun video above, don't forget to turn the sound up before playing.

I've a decent collection of both figures and vehicles now, I'm looking at building up my terrain for the games which is quite intensive as most scenarios take place in built up areas. I discovered a source of buildings a couple of months ago and they feature in the action pics in this post, link to the post on the buildings below,

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2020/06/o-gauge-model-buildings-for-modern-28mm.html 

After a search on the tinterwebnet I located a potential source of roads at Sally Forth, a company I was aware of but had never purchased from before. A couple of clicks and the said items were on the way to YG HQ.

The road sections are made of MDF and are supplied unpainted. There are a number of selections avaliable to make up whatever road combination you want. All the different sections are avaliable in UK markings or for those who drive on the wrong side of the road alternatives are avaliable.

I painted the road very simply, covered them with Grey model primer first and then oversprayed them with Matt Black spray. The black was sprayed over the roads from a distance to give a uneven tarmac type effect which worked quite well.

The pavements come seperately and once painted up (I just sprayed them grey and washed them with black ink to pick out the pavement slabs) you glue them onto the MDF roads.

Rather cleverly the pavements cover over the holes which are used to join the roads up neatly hiding the tabs from the other road sections.

I think they look great and with the buildings the backdrop for the Sweeney stuff is looking good. There's a link to purchase the roads below.

https://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/epages/950003459.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950003459/Categories/"Buildings%2C Castles %26 Bridges and Roads"/Photorealistic_Wargames_Terrain/UK_Style_Roads

For a visual look at the roads there is a short review on this months update video.

July 2020 Yarkshire Gamer Video Update

That's another month of no gaming at Yarkshire Gamer ! So my monthly Utubes video is once again covering the new painted units, terrain and rules that have arrived here in Gods Own over the last month.

Top picture above is my new 28mm WW1 Mesopotamia Cavalry Unit whilst below are the newly painter Arab Spearmen.

Also new is my Sweeney Car and modern roads.

And a new set of rules.

Hope you enjoy the video.