Thursday 24 May 2018

Partizan Goodies

Apart from the chatting about the Crete game and taking pictures of other games I also did some shopping at Partizan

Here's the full haul...


Some animals. Wolves from Warbases for Frostgrave and a Gorilla from Bad Squiddo, probably for Jimland but possibly for painting white for Frostgrave.


Perry miniatures. Three more Scots Greys (so I can have a unit of 8 for our BP games. A cannon. Because I wanted one, but also for BP.
And some British Sudan infantry. Time I started that project back up.


Two little resin pieces from Coritani. Just some set dressing really. Well for Sudan/NWF most likely. Trough for generic European.


Crew for my 57mm AT gun from WestWind. Bought the gun years ago, but when I came to assemble it realised the crew were the British models. So these will mean I can finish the gun off (and take out Stugs).


The freebie pilot model from the show.


Paint from the Tree Fellas. These are good value at £1 a pot (or six for a fiver) and I think have pretty good coverage.


Static grass and some tufts from Great Escape Games.


A reasonable haul.

Wednesday 23 May 2018

Harpies

Moved this one over here. Just to make our TMP chumps life more fun.


Five Wargames Foundry harpies to add to the OGAM forces.



Some single shots





As I was finishing this last one I realised that I was subconsciously painting a tribute, or more properly un homage, to flame haired Gallic screen siren (!), star of  Engrenages (Spiral) and future Mrs Tom's Toys Soldiers* Audrey Fleurot.



These were odd models to paint. They have a Heavy Metal Album Cover vibe about them, a whiff of Kerrang circa 1983, as if the sculptor's knowledge of female anatomy came from the extensive study of Pat Benatar fan art.
I'm not sure what 12 year old me getting in to the hobby of toy soldiers would have thought about 40 something me painting nipples on 28mm breasts and applying washes to miniature pubic hair. 40 something year old me certainly feels distinctly weird about it.

I realise there's a sub set of gamers who think there's nothing wrong with collecting "erotic" female miniatures, but it's not my version of the hobby.

Over on TMP there used to be (and possibly still is) a board called something like "Needs More Boobies" or an equally puerile title. I once ventured in, in the interests of research you understand, to discover that the vast majority of content came from the man name-checked in the header of this page - Tango01. So apparently when he's not stealing content from other gamers he spends his time glopping off to 54mm anime French Maid sculptures.

On the other hand they're the nicest Greek style harpy models out there and arguably pretty representative of the mythical creatures so I'm happy to have them in the force, though I'm not sure I'll be rushing off to buy any more.



*Madame Audrey Toy-Soldiers has a ring to it I think.

La Gorgue Airfield at Partizan

Aly Morrison and Dave Andrews had the most gorgeous WW1 table.
featuring powder blue Portuguese (including Soldier Millions), lods of biplanes and a fallen Madonna.
Lovely attention to detail. Great scenery modelling from the legend (and lovely man) that is Dave Andrews. Soldiers and explanations from the irrepressible Aly. Dave probably did some of the soldiers too.













My favourite game (by a distance) among what felt like a very strong field this year.
Made me want to make another start on the 28mm WW1 soldirs.

Loads more pictures to be found over on Aly's blog

Tuesday 22 May 2018

Steve Jones AWI at Partizan

Chum Steve Jones had his lovely AWI collection out on his all new fleece gaming mat (all the cool kids are doing fleece, man).






No idea what was going on. Redcoats handing it out to militia I expect. That's pretty much the entire AWI isn't it?

Anyway it looked lovely.
You can see Steve's prep and progress over on his blog.

Monday 21 May 2018

Back of Beyond at Partizan

Lovely looking game staged by the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers





Armoured trains, biplanes, camels, lovely range of Copplestone models. What's not to love about BoB?
(Must. Not. Start. New. Period)

Sunday 20 May 2018

Tavronitis bridge, Crete at Partizan 2018

On the 77th anniversary of the start of the battle of Crete I was lucky enough to be invited by James to help out with his game showcasing the fighting around Tavronitis bridge  at the start of the battle.

My only contribution to the game were to paint some goats, some oil barrels and a Stuka.
All the rest of the terrain and models were by James, Sam and Mike.

Not much else to say really, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

These first few are of the set-up of the table, so not with everything yet in place.






Pictures of the finished table (and some gaming shots) start here:



In the village of Tavronitis Greek Partizans have already begun capturing paratroopers.






Worst. Boyband. Ever.


The full table



I painted the Stuka with the yellow nose.








These are shots of the game in progress in the morning. We used Chain of Command. I say "we" I left it to the people who know how to play (Sam and Mike) and instead spent the morning chatting and shopping. Play to your strengths I reckon.






The final (successful) assault of the paratroops on the New Zealand defences around the RAF camp.


Unfortunately due to a breakdown in communications at Tom's Toy Soldiers Towers I had to leave at lunchtime, so couldn't stay and see the arrival of the Matildas.

A really great morning out. Partizan is a great, great show very lucky to have it so close, and to be invited to help stage games like this.

More pics from other games to follow....