I get by with a little help from my friends…

July 21st, 2010 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, The Troubles, Urban Operations Comments Off

First off, I want to apologize to Mr. Ringo Starr for stealing his work for the title to this blog entry...but I could not resist it!

OK, why the interesting title for this blog entry...well, I need some help from my friends on the other side of the pond to explain to me the various road markings on the English road systems for my up coming Great Britain games. I might have future mundane questions like road signs and parking as well. Also, do all of this road markings work for the 1940's and the 1970's - '80's?

But before I go into that, just some quick notes about the pictures below. The roads are from a download PDF file from Scalecenes.com (http://www.scalescenes.com/). They have some really nice PDF buildings and accessories, like this British road set. They even have a couple of free PDFs!

The next thing is I want to apologize for the really bad photos. I had to take them inside since there is a thunderstorm outside. When I tried to use the flash, the details were whited out. So I had to use no flash, which caused most of the pictures to be blurry. Sorry...

Now, on to the questions...

1. What is that marking for on the left? I am thinking it is to yield, but it is not in the right side of the same lane, so I am not sure.


2. What does the ZZ mean? Also, does the double white line mean no passing zone?


3. What does the yellow checkerboard mean? I know the other marking is for a cross walk.


4. What does the red strips mean and what does the yellow strips on both sides of the lane mean?


Just a quick lay out of the road with a couple of OO scale (1/76) vehicles on it to give it a size comparison.

Thanks in advance for anyone's help!


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Metcalfe buildings and OO scale vehicles

July 11th, 2010 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, BW Models, Hotspur, The Troubles, Urban Operations Comments Off


As promised, some pictures of Metcalfe Model's OO scale cardboard buildings compared to 20mm Hotspurs miniatures and some 1/76 scale UK model diecast cars and trucks. I really like the Metcalfe Models and find them to be a complete treat to work with. They are mostly complete, but I need to add a few minor details, like chimney pots.



Above is bottom and top shot of the Manor Farm's barn. It is the only model that has a removable roof to my knowledge. But what it does show is all of the additional support & bracing that these models have to maintain their structure unlike most paper models.

Below are pictures of the two structures that come in the Manor Farm Barn set, a barn & tractor shed. Also in the picture are a BW Model Hummer Pig, some 20mm Hotspur / Stonewall miniatures, and 1/76 scale diecast vehicles from the UK. As you can see, everything fits to scale. Also a nice touch to the Manor Farm sets is that all of them are based off real buildings that the owner of Metcalfe Models, Nick Metcalfe, grew up around as a child.




Below to the left is the Manor Farm House set, which has the Manor house and a worker's cottage. To the right is the Manor Farm Buildings set, which has a silo pit, a modern barn, a small hen house, and a large hen house.



Next is a front and side view of the Coaching Inn kit.



Finally is the Village School set, which includes the school and outbuilding for toilets and storage. This kit is also based on Nick Metcalfe's childhood school.



Finally, a picture that has some foreshadowing meaning...hmmm....(side note, after taking this picture, I accidentally broke the front landing gear and lost the wheels...sigh...I am going to have to make some crappy replacements now.)



Until later...
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I have been very bad

July 7th, 2010 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, BW Models, The Troubles Comments Off

I just realized that I have not posted anything in two months! Sorry!

I really have not been working on anything, but last night I assembled two Metcalfe OO scale (1/76 or close to 20mm) cardboard buildings. Both are from the Manor Farm House set. They are a real treat to assemble! Tonight, I will be working on the farm building and maybe the tractor shed from the other Metcalfe's set, Manor Farm Barn. I am hoping to get these done before the weekend. As soon as I complete them, and have time, I will work on the third Metcalfe's Manor Farm's sets, Manor Farms Buildings. Hopefully, I will take some pictures over the weekend to show what the completed kits look like. They are very nice and I honestly can't say enough good things about them.

I also got the first of my OO scale British civilian cars and trucks. I want proper English cars for my game. I got about a dozen now, so I get some pictures of them, the buildings, the BW Models, and the Hotspur's miniatures in the pictures for size comparisons. I think that they all go very nicely together.

Maybe, I might actually pull out a paint brush this weekend too! It only has been four months!

Finally, I am hoping to run a very small Force on Force game in the next few weeks. The main problem is I can't find out if I have to work on a Sat. yet or not. They keep changing their minds...grr...Be on the look out for the AAR on that, hopefully soon.

Oh, one last thing...I added the device to show who is following my blog (Thank you!) and I added some more links to various other blogs (keep up the good work!) and gaming forums. If you have not looked at them earlier, give them a look over.

Ta!
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Work in Progress and Personal News

March 11th, 2010 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, BW Models, Falklands, Hotspur, Irish, Liberation Miniatures, Malvinas, Penguins, The Troubles, TwoFatLardies, Urban Operations Comments Off


First off, my current employment project is ending tomorrow and I am to drive back from South Carolina to finally go back home after 14 months of working here. So, this weekend is my packing up and cleaning up the apartment to end my lease for Monday morning. As of now, I am drive back on Monday and Tuesday and charge my time to this job, but I have no word to where I am to report on Wednesday or where and when is my next project...if there is one. Since I my employment and relocation is up in the air, this maybe the last entry for a while. I will not unpack most of my stuff when I get home as I might be told to leave at the end of weekend to lord knows here, or if I am required to use up some of my vacation time while waiting for an assignment, or the other option. Ah, the life of a migrant worker!

I will probably not be doing much painting unless I know for a fact that I will have down time to unpack my miniatures will have time to repack them. So I figure I would get a "Work in Progress" collection up before packing everything up. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, the camera that I was using does not have a good macro setting. I left my good camera back home the last time I was there.

L and R: British infantry from Hotspur for the Falklands / Malvinas mainly, but most can double for Northern Ireland. The ones on the right are fairly close to being finished.

L: My PIRA's Active Service Unit squad for Northern Ireland. most of the figures are from Liberation with the exception of the figure in the front setting explosives. I don't know where I got him from 10+ years ago. I actually like that figure. It is a nice sculpture.
R: Hotspur's rioters and armed thugs to make the "PBI" squaddies have a rough go at things in N.I.
L: US Rangers!?!?!? Yes, US Rangers from Hotspur's Grenadia line. I like these figures and just want to paint them up.
R: More Hotspur's British soldiers for N.I. When I am done, I hope to have a section for the Paras, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (which are done and can be see in an earlier thread), and section of a regular line unit from the Army. If I feel really up to it, I might order a couple of more packs from Stonewall and do a section for the Royal Marines.
Above: British weapon teams for the Falklands. The figures in the back are from Liberation with two Carl Gustav recoilless rifle teams flanking a soldier with a 52mm mortar. The machine gun team in the front is from FAA and was originally sculpted to be a match with the Hotspur's (I believe the sculpter worked for both companies.)
L and R: More armoured cars for the British to police N.I. To the left is a Ferret MK II/III armoured car from Liberation Miniatures. To the right is three Humber Pigs, one Hotspur armoured patrol truck for the RUC, and one Saxon Patrol, a modified Saxon armoured troop carrier for Northern Ireland duty. All of these vehicles are the BW Models.

L and R: PENGUINS!!!! How could you have a Falklands / Malvinas game without penguins! The penguins are from the defunct MJ Figures. They were suppose to be for 15mm figures, but they were very tall penguins for 15mm. This is all that I have of this miniature...pity, as I want more. The penguins are not finished as I still have more work to finish to make them look like Gentoo penguins (my personal favorites...and they have colonies on the Falklands / Malvinas and South Georgia Islands too!) The picture to the right gives a comparsion for height to the 20mm Hotspur figures.
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“Armoured cars and tanks and guns..Came to take away our sons…”

February 22nd, 2010 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, BW Models, Irish, The Troubles Comments Off


"Armoured cars and tanks and guns
Came to take away our sons
But every man must stand behind
The men behind the wire"

- The Wolfe Tones, "The Men Behind the Wire"

Well, I am back after a long dry spell. First off, much apologies to the Wolfe Tones for stealing their lyrics for the title of this posting. As the title sort of infers to is what I have been working on for my 20mm Northern Ireland Ambush Alley game...armored vehicles for the Crown forces. They are not complete, but far enough along that I feel that I am getting somewhere.

First up is the iconic symbol of the British Army policing during 'The Troubles," the Humber FV 1611 MK II. But it is more commoning refered to as the "Pig." This is a 1/76 scale white metal casting kit by BW Models. As you can see, I still have to fix the front ram as one side broke off while trying to cut it loose from the casting. After I reviewed the photos, I see a few other things I want to correct as well.




The next vehicle is the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Shorland Armoured Patrol Car. Sixteen of these served with the RUC from June of 1966 to January of 1970. They served in the RUC's Reserve Force Platoons, an organization carried out normal police duties, and in additon to handling crowd or riot control, as well as military / para-military operations. When the RUC was instructed to stand down their armored vehicles, these vehicles went to mothballs for a short period and then turned over to the Ulster Defence Force. This specific model is painted up to be Fleet number 273, from the No. 3 Platoon (Glenravel Street), Belfast, RUC. I am not happy with the color of the tires, so I will touching those up later. I plan to get another one and paint it up for the UDR. Again, this is model from BW Models.




Now, the following is the Shorland SB301 armored personnel carrier. Three of these served with the RUC, (and where commonly refered to as "The Three Amigos'.) The SB301 entered service in August of 1975 and were withdrawn from operational service in 1979. There were still used as part of the reserve fleet until late 1990. Since all of my military vehicles will be green and most of my RUC vehicles will be grey, I thought that it would be different to paint this one up when the SB301's were painted blue. This specific vehicle is painted to be Fleet number 3131 and was attached to the explosives escort unit at Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in 1976. Again, this is a model from BW Models.



Finally, I am putting this up as sort of a warning to anyone who is considering of buying a 1/72 plastic kit from the Ukranian modelling company, ACE. The are a pain to assemble; there are no pins to hold the parts together and you can see the Grand Canyon size holes that need to be putty filled. This will be (if I can ever finish it) a Panhard M3 APC with a TL-2i turret for the Irish Defence Force. It (might) will show up with a section of Irish infantry that will be patrolling the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and trying to stop the flow of weapons for the IRA from the Republic of Ireland and supporting British operations...or are they preparing for 'Doomsday' scenario of crossing over the border and taking military action to support the IRA and drive the British out!



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20mm Hotspur - Urban Operations

October 3rd, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, Hotspur, Irish, Urban Operations Comments Off

Finally, here are the selection of figures from Hotspur's Urban Operations line
Anti-Terrorist Team
British Army in Internal Security uniform

Armed Criminals or Terrorist


Innocent Bystanders: Note that there are 6 figures instead of 5 like the other packs


Plain Clothes Detectives


Riot Police


Rioters


SAS for Operation Nimrod (Storming the Iranian Embassy, 1980)
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20mm Hotspur Miniatures - Operation Corporate - Argentine

October 3rd, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, Falklands, Hotspur, Malvinas, TwoFatLardies Comments Off

Here are picks of what you get in the Hotspur 20mm Argentine sets for the 1982 Falklands / Malvinas Conflict.
Argentine Command
Argentine Infantry Firing: The one prone figure with the bipod has the Argentine Fusil Automatico Pesado, or their heavy barrelled FN FAL assault rifle.
Argentine Infantry Moving
Argentine Marines: They can also work for the Army Commandos

Argentine Special Forces
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Hotspur 20mm figures - Operation Corporate - British

October 3rd, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, Falklands, Hotspur, Malvinas, TwoFatLardies Comments Off

Hello! Well, I thought I would put up some images of what I am working on. This post is what the old Hotspur 20mm miniatures look like for their Operation Corporate (Falklands / Malvinas Conflict) in 1982. This unfinished figures grouped in what comes in each different pack. I thought it might be nice to see the different miniatures. I also found out this week that they are now available again through Stonewall Miniatures in the UK. This is a great news!
British Command: (note the figure in the back has a separate arm that has not been cut off the base and glued on to the body yet.)
British Infantry Firing: A nice selection of support weapons
British Infantry Advancing
Special Air Service: Just want you need to storm Pebble Island
Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfarce Cadre: mostly armed with M16 rifles
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Some say the Devil is Dead…but more say he rose again and joined the British Army!

September 6th, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Ambush Alley, Black and Tan War, Irish Comments Off

"Some say the Devil is dead...but more say he rose again and joined the British Army" - The Wolfe Tones

Well...this is another new project that I am working on...again, one of too many started, but hopefully, I will finish this one.

Combat Colours and Tim! are really getting into Ambush Alley/Force on Force (www.ambushalleygames.com) in 20mm for various time periods. I had some old Hotspur 20mm figures from both their Urban Troubles and Falklands lines and some vehicles for the 1970's and 1980's Northern Ireland. Plus, I have enough Argentine figures that I should be able to do some Falklands games as well. So, there you have it. This is what I have done for now.


The 'Paras' on strench of road outside of the "No-Go Zone" in Londonderry or Free Derry.


A section of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (RRF) and an unarmed Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) searcher setting up an inspection post with the green fields of South Armagh behind them.


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It has been a while…

September 6th, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Black and Tan War, Interwar Period, Irish Comments Off

Well, work has been a drag and I have not had much free time. But this is some stuff that I have got done a couple of months ago and just have not been posted.

This is another figure for my 1920's Ireland. This is a 20mm Liberation miniature from the British Army set. So far this is the only one that I have finish.

This is a wonderful little charity figure for the gaming blog, "Matakishi's Tea House". I love the figure and bought one. It is site worth visiting: www.matakishi.com . I did notice after taking the photograph of the little bit of build up of the putty at the bottom of the belly, that will be some that I will clean off later and re touch-up with paint.
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20mm Black & Tan War Miniatures

May 27th, 2009 Sapper Joe Posted in 20mm, Black and Tan War, Interwar Period, Irish, TwoFatLardies, pulp Comments Off

Just a quick posting of my latest items that I got painted. These are Liberation Miniatures' 20mm "Black & Tan / Auxies with Tam O'Shanters" and one of there Irish Republican miniatures as well. I painted the British up for "Auxies" with their later issued blue uniforms.

The first picture was taken outside in the natural sunlight. Shortly after taking it, it started to rain. So the rest of the pictures were taken with a flash and light indoors, that is why they look different.





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The Bunker: Third Step: Wood to Paint

December 31st, 2007 gunbird Posted in 20mm, 28mm, Uncategorized, WW2, Wargaming, modern, pulp, wargame, wargames terrain Comments Off


Sure, having a 150+ blocks lying around the house and parts for another 100 is fun…and disheartening at the same time, so I stored the lot in several big boxes and focussed on other things (more about that later)

A few weeks ago though, I walked past the local home improvent store, and noticed a big sign with “Closing sale - 30-50% discount” on it. Never one to pass a bargain I went in and came out with, amongst other things, a overly large bucket of grey wood primer/basecoat/ you know what I mean. And that weekend, I opened one of the boxes, dragged the lot back upstairs and sanded and cleaned the parts in preparation for an evening of nothing but basing. One box, lot of wood, nothing better to do equals a lot of pre-finished tiles.

So you’ve got yourself a stack of grey painted modules….then grab your pencil and put down a grid on each module, and repreat that proces on the walls and underneath most of the parts as well. Again, a lot of work, and not every position was easy to reach, but I did manage to get the first 25 blocks done this way, so I can now sit down after dinnertime to relax for an hour or so painting concrete. Jay…..

In order to speed up that process a bit but still get convincing concrete I looked at….concrete :). Do you have any idea how much that stuff varies? As it will be the inside of a bunker mostly I went with a white-blue-grey -ish mix of colours, settling on the following colours, namely : VMC 164 Dark Bluegrey for the basewash and VMC 153 Pale Greyblue or VMC 156 US Bluegrey Pale for the whitish look. No mixing whatsoever, all the diff in colour you see is done by changing the amount of water in the paint mix and leaving it on the board for anything as short as 5 seconds to a minute. The longer u wait the more pronounced the white lines will be. VMC 164 Dark Bluegrey was used to accentuate some of the lines between the concrete, but not everywhere. I’ll propably do a Tutorial for this at a late date.

Here are a few examples:
Example with 2 20mm figs on 20mm washers

A single 5 wall section on a 20 block

The block in the rear can be used upside down as well

The same block from another angle

I have plenty of variation in the concrete, depending on my mood and time the concrete can look anything from pristine to sloppy….but it all ties in together just as I had hoped, and paints up rather quickly…thank God.

Johan

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The Bunker: Second step: Paper to wood

December 30th, 2007 gunbird Posted in 20mm, 28mm, Uncategorized, WW2, Wargaming, modern, pulp, wargame, wargames terrain Comments Off


With all of the parts I then wanted cut and glued together I ended up with these boxes and variations thereof:Samples

The 10×20 block is one I made to save myself the time to make 2 smaller 10×10 blocks. Not included in this shot are 10×10 filler blocks with no walls whatsoever as a sheet of wood looks like…a sheet of wood :lol:

Johan

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The Bunker: First step: Thoughts to paper

December 30th, 2007 gunbird Posted in 20mm, 28mm, Uncategorized, WW2, Wargaming, modern, pulp, wargame Comments Off


The first step went sort of like this…..a quick sketch on a piece of paper, nothing more….
An idea in my head put to paper, left on my fridge so that the idea would stick and remembered. My first idea was, and is, to make a area suitable to represent a U-boat bunker. That means concrete, high walls, a area for a sub, room for tools, torpedoes and a big old armoured door. That is what the drawing you see represents, the start of the U-boat bunker.

But, this is a big piece. Modular, yes, but big. My basic goal is an area for 20mm models, 2nd choice is 28mm.

So I scaled it down into components, dabbled a bit with sizes and decided to go with a 10×10 cm square sheet of 6mm MDF as a base for everything else. This I used for making the next set of drawings.

Detailed sketch

These drawings used 10×20 tiles mostly, single back wall or corner, to create the idea of a pen. No doors, no details, no nothing yet.

Hey, it’s a start! :)

Johan

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First post

December 30th, 2007 gunbird Posted in 20mm, 28mm, Gaming, Uncategorized, WW2, Wargaming, modern, pulp Comments Off


Well, it is a first post. I’m not quite sure yet if I actually need a blog but I think this is a perfect way to keep me going on this project, one that is quite dear to me and I really want to see finished….but I’m not in a hurry, and I doubt it will ever be really finished. My mind is creative enough (too creative?) to keep adding new stuff for a long time to come….
Anyway, what is the bunker about?

It’s an idea I had since the last century when I started gaming and noticed how most people used wide open spaces to do battle in. For some reason this didn’t, and still doens’t, work for me. I like to see battles in confined spaces, with debris and what not. And to make it really woth my time and effort, it had to be multi-period and multi-scale. Well, time passed, and an idea became a sketch, and then anotyher, and another, but I quickly realised money, my eternal problem, doens’t grow on trees so I would have to make due with cheaper solutions. So no buying of resin dungeons or moulds to cast my own bricks from plaster. Both are too heavy and fragile anyway IMHO.

So we ended up with a lot of notes, a few sketches and a trip to the lumber mill for loads of 6mm MDF. I started 2007 with boxes full of precut bit, and spent quite a few evenings glueing the bits together till I had about 150 pieces. Then April came, that part of the project was shelved and I started making bits and bobs to fill it when someday I would restart my work on it again.

Time flies they say. How right they are.

Johan

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