Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 22 - Simon Miller, The Big Red Bat

 

We are back on our Big Game quest today with my guest Simon Miller. 

LINK TO THE EPISODE BELOW

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-22-simon-miller-the-big-red-bat/

Simon is probably best known for his two rule sets To the Strongest, which covers the Ancient and Medieval Periods along with For King and Parliament for the English Civil War, however he is also a proponent of the Big Game player and has put on some spectacular huge games at various shows throughout the UK over the years.

I talk to Simon about his own gaming in the first part of the show including the popular Venn Diagram of Wargaming. We then have a great Big Game chat, talking about those epic battles Simon has recreated over the years.

Its then onto the show favourites, The Yarkshire Gamer Quiz in which Simon a born and bred Londoner does extremely well before he adds the latest Wargaming Horror to Wargames Room 101.

We end the show with our Big Topic chatting about Simons Rules, how he got into rule writing and his philosophy around the games he has published and the ones he plans to publish in the future too.

Simons main blog The Big Red Bat Cave can be found here

The BigRedBatCave

Whilst his rules and other products can be found here

BigRedBat's Shop (bigredbatshop.co.uk)

All in all another fun episode to put together, I hope you enjoy it.

Coming up next month will be another of my Catch Up episodes when I talk to some of my previous guests and try and find out what they have been up to since we last spoke. April is a 5 week month so look out for a second episode which I have lined up for after Easter.

The last episode with Gerry Elliott is now available on the Utubes 

Until then, Sithee 

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer 

 

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 21 - Gerry Elliott - Wargames Holiday Centre and The Situation Room

Welcome to the first show of what I can now say is a "Caesar Award Nominated" Podcast show !

Here is the link to Episode 21

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-21-gerry-elliott-whc-and-the-situation-room/

Yes thanks to all you lovely people I was lucky enough to be one of those chosen to go forward in the Podcast category to the Awards Show in late March.

Thanks to everyone who nominated me, I am so pleased to have made the last 3, its a real achievement. Especially as this week the Podcast is 1 Year Old so its Happy Birthday as well.

Todays guest is one of the main proponents of the Big Game, Gerry Elliott. He was a regular the Wargames Holiday Centre meeting Peter Gilder there. As the old advert says, he liked it that much he bought the company.

Gerry was the co owner of the Holiday Centre with Mike Ingham for 17 years and we chat about his time at the centre as well as his love for the Big Game.

Following his time at WHC he built his own version, next door to the old one. But this time it was a different kettle of fish. This was no longer a commercial enterprise but a place for Gerry to game with his friends and likewise minded individuals.

Added to that he went for a different scale, 10mm !

But he didn't go small, oh no, he kept the same footprint as a 28mm unit but filled it with 10mm figures, Napoleonic units have up to 200 figures in them and the huge battles look spectacular, Gerry has over 100,000 figures and growing.

If you haven't seen Gerrys collection then have a look round the Situation Room Blog which has loads of pictures of his amazing set up.

https://gerryjelliottsituation.blogspot.com/

All pictures on this page are credited to Gerry and the above website.

Thanks again for listening and I will see you again next month when I hope to be speaking with Simon Miller from To the Strongest and Big Game fame.

If you missed it, here is the Utubes version  of the last episode with Ken and Dom from the Plastic Crack Podcast 

Until then, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-21-gerry-elliott-whc-and-the-situation-room/

Troops on Parade - 28mm WW1 Turkish Army

 

Welcome to another Troops on Parade feature here at Yarkshire Gamer, regulars will know that the TOP prefix to a post means that you are about to see one of the many of collections in its full glory. At the end of the day this is just an excuse to get a load of figures on the table 😁

This collection represents the Turkish Army of WW1 and is a regular on the table here in our regular Mesopotamia games (see the WW1 in the East tab at the side of the blog).

Our scale is 28mm (of course), the vast majority of the figures are from Woodbine Design Company, a part of Gripping Beast, links to the figures are below.

For rules we use the wonderful If the Lord Spares Us by Toofatlardies 

This post contains lots of still photos of the figures, if you prefer a video version, then the link to that is below.

First up with the Photos is the Artillery, 2 bases from Woodbine and 2 from Tiger Miniatures, all 75mm Krupp Guns

After that we move onto a unit of 24 Lancers from the rather obscure if lovely East Ablaze range from Minifigs (yes that Minifigs !), link to the range below

http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=15&CategoryID=51&SubCategoryID=253

And a unit of regular Turkish Cavalry this time from Tiger Miniatures slightly earlier Balkans War range.

https://www.tigerminiatures.co.uk/balkan-war-turks

The remainder of the Army is Infantry, consisting of 8 battalions.

There is a selection of High Command Figures

The regular Turkish Infantry, these units have 2 Command Figures and 4 companies of 8 figures.

Then there are 3 Arab Turkish Infantry Battalions, these have 4 x 6 figure companies, again with 2 Command Figures.

And to finish off a unit of Stormtroopers which have 8 figure companies, each unit has an attached Machine Gun base. The figures are all from Woodbine Design and can be found on the link below.

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/WW1_The_Woodbine_Design_Company--category--222.html

Hope you have enjoyed that little trip round my WW1 Turkish Army. Hopefully it will be on the table soon for our delayed Christmas Game. If you missed it first time round the video of the opposing British and Empire force is below.

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast 20 - Half a Plastic Crack with Dom and Ken

Welcome back and a Happy New Year to you all.

The first episode of 2022 features the two original members of the Plastic Crack Podcast, a live Monday Night stream of general gaming chat which is growing and growing in popularity.

Link to the episode on Podbean Below 👇👇

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-20-half-a-plastic-crack-with-ken-and-don/

Also available on other Podcast hosts like, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Tune In and more, just search for Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast.

Please leave a like or review wherever you listen, it helps to make the Podcast more visible and more importantly thanks for listening.

Starting in March 2020 with my guests the show has featured a number of Hobby Glitterati as guests but is probably best known in its current format as 4 gamers chewing the fat over the most important and quite often least important topics in the hobby.

The show features all our usual features and as always we drift off onto important topics like "should you have gravy on chips". We have another couple of entrants into Wargames Room 101 as well as another fun trip round the Yarkshire Gamer Quiz.

The Podcast circulates round the four channels of the guys involved,

Dom runs Boots on the table and his channel is below,

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVZHHEgIzNmQwCzZ-UHRhA

And Ken runs Miniature Wargaming Warriors, link below

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaDBpS2gxvtD4Om8yX-o3-g

The new release schedule of 2nd and 5th weeks of the month means that there will be just one Episode per month for Feb and March. So I will see you next month when I hope to be speaking with Gerry Elliot of Wargames Holiday Centre fame.

And finally if you didn't know already the Xmas Brews in the Binyard Special with Alex from Storm of Steel is avaliable on the Utubes 

Until next time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

 

28mm Papal Zouaves for the Risorgimento

I've been neglecting the blog recently, with so many other things competing for time with Podcasts, Videos and Paint Challenge, there just haven't been enough hours in the day.

I have been talking about my Risorgimento Project or more specifically my attempt to recreate the Battle of Mentana in 28mm for a while in other places but I haven't really covered it here yet.

There are quite a few Garibaldi units already finished and I'll get round to doing a post on those soon. First up from this project though is my Papal Zouaves, something I did a test base for back in the summer, which I posted up in various places.

I've been looking forward to doing this unit for some time and I'm glad to say I'm really happy with the result. So here is my representation of one of the two Battalions of Papal Zouaves which fought at the Battle of Mentana. These formations were 750 men strong so I've made them 36 figure units as opposed to the earlier Garibaldi Infantry which are 24 figures representing  350 to 400 men.

The unit was truly international and was made up of volunteers from all over the world. Large contingents came from Holland, France and Belgium but most European countries had some representation in the unit along with smaller groups from the Americas, Africa, India and China. Initially a single Battalion in 1861, it increased in strength to 4 Battalions in 1867-8.

The figures are 28mm (of course, I have a reputation to keep 😁). The bodies are from the plastic Perrys ACW Zouave box set, which I had lying around from a previous projects whilst the heads were bought separately from Steve Barber Models. There are some minor variations in the sources I have about the uniform so I picked a version and went for it. The flags are a research project in themselves and for the moment I've just used a generic Papal States flag,

As is pretty much the norm with all my stuff now I've extended the depth if the bases, I love the sculpting of the weapons on the Perry Plastics and its to perfect scale, it is however a touch fragile and as these figures will be gamed with and most likely go to a few shows as a display game I want to protect them.

Simply by extending the depth so the whole of the weapon stays within the boundary of the base gives a much greater level of protection, its something I've been doing for a pretty long time now, harping back to my first plastic AWI figures.

I don't have a plan for rules yet, I have had a look around but nothing has grabbed my fancy yet. There are some Italian Language rules specifically for the period (and I love that in a rule set) however I've not been able to get hold of a copy.

So I've done my usual thing of basing before deciding on rules and gone for 60 x 60 bases six figures to a base. I've also used my staggered ranks technique to make the unit look "fuller".

Most of the photos have been done with the white background I've been practicing with, it definitely gives a very different look to my usual "terrain" background and is particularly hard to light but it's growing on me.

Next up I will be back with another episode of the Podcast (number 20 !)

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 19 - Xmas Brews in the Binyard

Its Christmas Time, there's no need to be afraid, or maybe there is as Brews in the Binyard returns for a Xmas Special.

Sadly there is just me and Alex as the third 6 from the unholy trinity Sean Clark couldn't make the recording.

You can tune into the episode on any major Podcast Host (search for Yarkshire Gamer)  or through Podbean on the link below, if you enjoy the Episode and can spare the time, leave a review on whatever Host you are on,

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-19-brews-in-the-binyard-xmas-special/

My 2021 28mm Roman Legion 

Its a typical end of year episode with a review of 2021 and a look forward to 2022, as usual there are 14 swear words in the episode so please don't play aloud near children or nervous goldfish.

My short lived 28mm Wars of the Roses dabble

Which is better, Worcestershire Sauce or Henderson Relish, Yazoo or The Flying Pickets and what we are having for Xmas Dinner. Stories of tape measure duels and Big Games abound in a lengthy 2 hrs and 40 minutes.

Another Project this year 15mm Arab Israeli 

Also included are some more of Yarkshire Gamers Rules for Life, what are yours ?

Many of my previous guests have been kind enough to record special Xmas messages throughout.

My 28mm Swiss Pike Block 

Its been a brilliant 2021 and I want to thank all my guests and especially you, the listeners. You have made this Podcast worthwhile with your support, likes, comments and follows, thank you one and all.

We will be back with new episodes in 2022, have a great Xmas and a Happy New Year.

Until next time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

Alex can be found at Storm of Steel Storm of Steel Wargaming - YouTube

Finally the last episode can be found on the Utubes 

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 18 - Curt Campbell Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge

Welcome to Episode 18 and today we have saved on jet fuel and stayed in North America for todays guest who is Curt Campbell. There is an embedded player at the bottom of the page to listen to the episode, or you can subscribe to me on Podbean (or any other major host) it's FREE 👍

Curt lives in Canada and has an excellent Hobby Blog called Analogue Hobbies.

Analogue Hobbies (analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com)

Each year for the last 12 years Curt has run a Painting Challenge over the Northern Hemisphere Winter Months (20 Dec to 20 Mar). Painters from all over the world have gathered together in a virtual Art Studio every year to encourage each other to make an bighole in their Lead (and plastic) mountains. The web page for the Challenge is below.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com)

As always the chat is full of the usual features, the Big Game chat, the Quiz and the new feature Wargames Room 101 gets a new entry.

If you enjoy these Podcasts then why not nominate it for the Little Wars TV Caesar Awards, it would be great to grab a nomination in the Podcasts first year. Link to nominations is below.

Caesar Awards - Home

I hope to have a couple of episodes out in December so stay tuned, this episode has been released a week early to coincide with the announcement of the Challenge, the Utubes version of Episode 17 will be on YouTube next week, until then

Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast Episode 17 - Jason Weiser - Military Miniature Magazine

 

Back to the usual single guest format for this episode and I am very pleased to be speaking with Jason Weiser who is the Editor in Chief of a new, yes I said NEW Wargames Magazine, based in the USA.

As usual I speak to Jason about his own Wargames story in the first part of the Episode, before moving onto our usual Big Game Chat.

Then after Sean and Alex tried to destroy the Yarkshire Gamer Quiz in the last episode we get into further problems with translation and somehow manage to upset the State of Texas in the process !

The final section of the Episode (starts 1hr 14 mins in) is all about Military Miniature Magazine. How it started, how its going and what its plans are for the future.

The main website for the magazine is at

Home - Military Miniature

Jasons own personal website is at

It's 500 Miles to the German Border! - A Twilight 2000 miniature wargaming blog (500twilight2000.blogspot.com)

I didn't realise that the US didn't have a currently in print Magazine for Wargaming at the moment and I wish Jason and the Magazine every success in the future.

I will be back in two weeks time speaking with Curt Campbell on the eve of yet another Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge.

If you missed the last episode, or just fancy listening to it again (and who wouldn't !) then its available now on the Utubes, link below.

Hope you enjoy these episodes, until next time,

Sithee 

Regards Ken 

The Yarkshire Gamer