The Pagans are coming!

So recently, I have been uncontrollable obsessed with the History channels series Vikings. 

And this has opened new doors for me in Wargaming, and steered me towards the rule set SAGA. 

I've had a few games, and I really enjoy the rules. 

After giving grippingbeast.com 90% of its views for the last two months. I decided Salute 2014 (where I was helping out on the 4ground stall) was my best platform for some thouching, smelling and tasting before I parted with my hard erned cash. 

IMO it's always nicer to hand over cash, instead of typing in some number and clicking a button. 

Naturally Vikings where my warband of choice, I figure I can use both the Vikings and the Jomsvikings battle boards with the same warband, for a bit of variation. 

A few pounds sterling later I had my minitures, and I am happy with my lot. But I felt they needed I little bit of tinkering with, so that they capture the image of a band of a ravaged Nordic raiders. So a bit of greenstuff and some bit bashing from the Gripping beast plastic set, that a good friend had finished with. Here is the Resault.

From my haul at Salute, I picked up 2x dark age, Viking buildings and a brilliant little Viking Long Boat. More on these later. 

As always, thanks for looking. 

Villers bocage

Two Friends of mine, have embarked on a quest to write the perfect WWII vehicle heavy rule set. Being no strangers to writing rules, the task ahead of them is monumental. 

In conjunctions with the thoughruly nice chaps at 4ground.co.uk they have decided to use the rules for a massive Villers Bocage display game, at non only than the biggest Wargames show in the Uk, Salute 2014. 

Along with help from myself and many others the guys have put together over 100 of 4ground.co.uk beautiful buildings, to re-create the days, Micheal Vitmans names was on every 'Tommies' lips. 

 A monumental task, that has really taken shape over the last few weeks. 

And on Saturday, we got the chance to give it a dress rehearsal, it also have the 4ground guys a chance to pop over the bridge, and get an eye on it. 

The Board and the game will be on display at Salute 2014

The Smoldering Wrecks of British vehicles. 

British Infantry attempted an Assault on a Germans Heavy tank, through the hotel window. 

And the lovely chaps from 4ground surveying their own products being out to good use. 

Ok neck beards I know your thinking, there were no Panthers at Villers Bocage,

This was just a test game. The right formations and almost the right number of tanks will be present on the day at Salute. The beautiful Dai Waffenkammer tanks curtsy of Greatescapegames.co.uk

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**edit after Salute**

So Salute has been and gone, and all in all it was a great escape for the game, and the gents from 4ground. Loads of interest and loads of very kind comments. 

*sneek peek* 

Bottom right, is a farm house building. This one is a prototype, but they will hopfuly, be putting it into production later this year.

Thanks for reading,

Regards, 

Wiki Wiki Wild Wild West!

Last week I played one of my favourite games of the moment, Dead Mands Hand, by Great escape games. 

The sceen is the Deep South of America, in a distant town in the corner of a confederate state. The war is civil war is over, and the young fighting men of America have returned home to their lives and jobs. 

The gangs of young men meet in the modle of the town, to try and talk things through before the blood shead.

Shop keepers bolt their doors and hide in the back of their establishments before the shooting stops. 

The shooting starts!! 

Uncle Jim Vance and his trusty dog, take aim at unsuspected cowboy running up the street. 

 When the fighting starts, vendettas are payed. 

A stalemate insuews. 

It was a brilliantly fun game, I Won :-D! 

I love the game, it's constant fun, and easy enough to sit down and have a laugh at the same time. 

I highly recommend the game to anyone. 

It dosnt need a large buy in. 

And uses the D20 and D10 everyone has but never uses! 

As some of you Hatfield and McCoy fans might have noticed, my cowboy gang is loosely based on the Hatfields (highly recommend the series Hatfield and McCoy's. All my games I play atm I seem to get interested in with some Hollywood series on TV!). 

Left to right is William 'Cap' Hatfield, Judge Valantine 'Wall' Hatfield, Ellison Hatfeild and Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts. 

Left to Right Johnsee Hatfield and 'Uncle' Jim Vance with his dog (some say they are very close... If you know what I mean?) 

'Devil' Anse Hatfield is still on the painting table, I have been waiting for the right model. 

As always, thanks for looking

Regards, 

Three MMGs you say? .... Well then I simply must has two!!

"Honey I'm home".... Ah the Sturat light tank, an American tank adopted by the British who nicknamed it the "Honey", after a tank driver remarked "She's a honey".

Such a lovely looking tank, cool, small fast and agile, I was in no way swayed to buy two after I read the bolt actions stats for one. Because having 3 mmgs and a light AT gun is absolutely no use in mid war desert 8-). 

I bought these two stunning little models from Blitzkrieg miniture, through the Perry miniture website, and wow they are wonderful! 

The cast were lovely, a few little bits of cleaning up needed. 

Only one down side was I need to trim away where the turret sits in the hull, as it would not fit. 

But apart from that, AMAZING! 

The crewman, is from Perry Miniatures, their British tank crew set. Again as always from the perry brothers amazing sculpts. I have two dismounted models from the set, that I am making into a objective at the moment. More on that later. 

As always, thanks for looking.

Regards all, 

Back 2 Base-ix

So a short time ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and stumbled across and exciting little promotions deal. An Austrailian company called Back 2 base-ix (catchy and inventive 👍) were offering 50% off all ordered of their MDF storage range... 50%!!!

Now... I love storage! In all walks of life I love storage, just making things neat and tidy makes me happy (I'm such a nerd sometimes). Some would say I have OCD, infact most say I have OCD! 

I would just say I'm tidy, organised, clean and sometimes obsessive person 😐. 

And for a person like this, Back 2 Base-ix tick every box and then some! 

So a little review from my personal oppion. 

This wasn't everything, I got excited Nd opened the other before I though about pictures for this! 

The Customer service, good, I had a present message after I placed my order to ask a question, and say thank you for my order. The website, is quick and easy to use, and setting up an order is simple. 

My order took around a month, but that is understandable as a they were over run, Obviously with the amount of people taking advantage of the outrageously good offer. And it had all been freshly cut and of course shipped half way around the world! 9/10

The Product, exactly what it says on the tin. Easy to out together (it seems like all I have done this year is flat pack, if it's not Ikea or a shed, it's 4ground buildings and Back 2 base-ix!) instruction videos can be found on Thier YouTube channel (again I like this very good idea, stopping the video to catch up can be hard on your iphone though). Once you have put together one or two however, you get the idea, and they go together very easily. 10/10

One of the tool tidy racks going together. 

Two of the large paint racks with draws done. 

All in all I love this product. And I will 100% buy from this company again. 

And I highly recommend them and their product. 

This weekend once I finish work 😔, will be dedicated to rearranging the "man cave" and setting everything out. 

The finished artical, need to find the rest of my paints, and buy some new. 

Ahhh so tidy :-). 

When I get to a computer I will add in some handy links. 

But for now, here is their website:  www.back2base-ix.com

Thanks as always, 

Never leave home without your gun..

I hear all the time, people saying Bolt Action is a infantry based game. Squads this squads that. 

Well I am a fan of infantry, they more than play their part, but I'm the type of player that likes to put toys on the table. 

And a staple of my waffen SS army is The 10.5 cm leFH 18 German: leichte FeldHaubitze. 

The 10.5 cm leFH 18/40 supplemented the 10.5 cm leFH 18 and the 10.5 cm leFH 18M as the standard divisional field howitzer used during the Second World War. It was designed in an effort to lighten the weight of the 105 mm artillery piece and to make it easier to produce. Generally it did not equip independent artillery battalions until after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Some were also exported to Finland, where they were known as 105 H 33-40.

The model it self is from Warlord Games, goes together nicely and easy enough. The base is and old CD I use them for mostly all my big guns ect. And the basing material is just plane old polly filler. 

The wooden slats are made from pices of and old fashioned fruite and veg box. Is made from a type balsa wood. Ingest them from a friend. I will maby do a thread on them, as they have some many diffent cuts of wood, I use them for most terrain jobs. 

I will post more om my Waffen SS in the future (as they are my only finished army, well I say finished...)

Thanks for reading

Regards,  

One of your 5 A day...

I'm a keen believer in getting your five a day, and one of my 5 a day is big guns! 

Today on the menu is the Iconic QF 25pdr!

The Ordnance QF 25-pounder, or more simply, 25-pounder or 25-pdr, was introduced into service just before World War II, during which it served as the major dual-purpose British field gun/howitzer. 

Combining high rates of fire with a reasonably lethal shell in a highly mobile piece, it was the British Army's primary artillery field piece well into the 1960s, with smaller numbers serving in training units until the 1980s.

I purchased two of WestWind productions, 25pdrs from their Berlin or Bust range. To add to my 8th Army Bolt Action army. 

These came with a large crew of 28mm figures in western field dress. These have gone in a draw probably never to be used. But the guns were perfect for what I need, no muzzle brake, that was fitted to the gun later in the war. They come with a little limber (ammunition carnage). 

No instruction 😒, but not to hard to figure out. 

8/10 product IMO. 

Without further delay, here they are:

I held back a few of the plastic perry chaps, and with a bit of cutting shutting and general gluing. Here is the result. 

I green stuffed some beret on a couple to give some originality. 

A few arms are standard, a few arms are bren gun carrying arms with the gun cut away. 

One chap in each crew has a shell in his hand, made from a shaped bit of resin I had lying around. 

The putty on the base, is 4grounds base render, LOVE this stuff, it's pretty much just filler, but just seems to be easier to work with. 

The camo net, I picked up off a military modeller on eBay. 

Any question please ask, 

I will endeavour to answer any.

Regards,