Ogre Mournfangs

Steve very generously bought me these for my birthday.
Possibly last year, more realistically the year before.

Lovely models, massive and hard to photograph - but great.

I shall look forward to crushing my enemies (Steve) underfoot.

Dwarf Bolt Thrower

The crew of this have been finished for years.
But the lockdown has given me a bit of time to actually paint the all important war machine

Looks like the beard on the one waving the bolt around needs a bit of a touch up.

BEF for Chain of Command (1)

Martin and I were planning some Fall of France gaming to coincide with the 80th Anniversary in May.
Looks like the lurgy has put paid to those plans for the foreseeable, but that's no reason not to crack on with the painting.
So here's the first eight man section for my 1939 regulation platoon.

These are the splendid chunky models from Crusader miniatures available from Northstar.

Here's some individual shots

Corporal (junior leader) on slightly larger base.

Bren team

Riflemen

Already well on the way with the next section.

Hammerhead Goodies

I bought a few things at hammerhead, but as we enter lockdown I'm wishing I had bought more.

Here's the full haul

Some resin BEF casualties from Curteys - useful (with dice holders added) for marking shock in Chain of Command.

Some chickens from Warbases - to use as markers for shock or disorder in Napoleonic games

Several things from Empress. Support weapons for the BEF and engineers for my Yanks.

One of these was mispacked - I wanted a Boyes, but it contained a Lewis gun. I didn't check until Monday after the show, but fortunately a quick email to Empress and they sent me the correct model - excellent customer service.

And finally some Warbases bases - the big ones to make mine shafts for Grudge of Drong, the smaller ones for CoC weapon teams.

Other games at Hammerhead

I didn't do a lot of wandering about at Hammerhead, but I did take a few snaps

An ECW game:

Isandlwana using (I think) 6mm models.

Looked great, loved the scale of it - but the hexes don't work for me.

The Too Fat Lardies Infamy, Infamy  game.

I have quite a few Celts painted already...

Finally the huge Indian Mutiny siege game which looked amazing - beautiful castle and the smoke plumes looked great.

Third Age Middle Earth at Hammerhead

Alongside James' game from yesterday I staged an altogether more modest affair.
For a few years now this has been our pattern - one big eye catching game that takes a bit of time and commitment to play alongside a smaller, quick and dirty game that's aimed more at the younger gamers (and their dads) looking for a speedy 30 minutes or so.

So this used my Games Workshop lord of the Rings collection. I brought along my Saxon houses to stand in for Rohan - some simple scatter terrain and job done - a 4x4 game of Dragon Rampant.

We both quite liked the contrast between the two games - very much opposite ends of the hobby spectrum.

I chose two roughly 16 point forces and used the Sausages and mustard scenario from Lion Rampant with marauding Orcs attempting to burn down the village and the forces of order trying to stop them.

I ran the game through four times (I think) with the Orcs burning buildings to the ground twice and the good guys stopping them on the other occasions.
Its always good to see how competitive some Dads are to beat their offspring - which actually happened a couple of times - much to their delight and surprise.

Dragon rampant worked really well - at this level with games lasting 40 minutes or so - just enough for a taster before younger ones get bored.