Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Monday 29 April 2019

Gaming, Wings of Glory BoB , game 9

Today saw a further instalment on the campaign ladder. 

Game 9 - Bomb the radar site 

2 Me109, 2 Ju87 v 3 Spitfire

P.O. Cooke led his vic with P.O. Walker , and squadron new boy fresh from training P.O. Widdowson , they had been vectored onto a raid on a Chain Home radar site.


German escortst attempt to interfere with the Spitfires - and do!

On first pass the two Me109 escorts hammered PO Widdowsons Spitfire , sending it spiralling to the ground..the pilot himself was seen to bale out , and was reported safe and well at local anti -aricraft battery...  Damn British fighter advantage had gone on the first shots 

P.O. Walker tails a Stuka
Again the Spitfires tight turning circle enabled them to get back round and into the Stukas before the Me109 returned .. PO Walker tailed a Ju87 to destruction before it dropped its bombs... the crew baled out and were captured.


PO Walker was after the 2nd Stuka too , which was getting ready to dive bomb its targets , the Stuka gunner was having a good day, and all of a sudden the Spitfire erupted in a ball of flame . kaboom , killing the pilot instantly . to add insult to further injury the Stukas bombs landed close to target inflicting some minor damage to radar site too..

This left the more experienced PO Cooke on his own with a Stuka and  2  Me109s - the germans were now intent on getting home and celebrating a great victory... PO Cooke was out for vengeance! he had already dove down low in anticipation of catching the Stuka after its bomb run , and despite trading blows while manoeuvring at low level ..the Spitfire soon shot down the 2nd Stuka ... the Ju87 crash landed , severely wounding and blinding the pilot ,. The rear gunner was only lightly injured .. and regaled his fellow prisoners in the POW camp of how he had shot down a Spitfire.

Meanwhile the 2 Me109s were still too high and making toward the home .. , but one was a bit too close to one edge and not taking a straight flight path..  .. and PO Cooke was climbing to get him, a quick burst unsettled the ME109 pilot and maybe damaged the rudder, or the sun was in his eyes,,,  , the Me109 exited the game area to the side ,not the home direction ... gifting VPs to the Brits ...just enough 6 vps to the Brits , 5 to the Germans

British Victory

PO Widdowson, shot down , unwounded.. but 1 xp gained
PO Walker - dead 
PO Cooke claims his 4 aircraft shot down.. one more he will be an ace ... still no sign of promotion or medals ..

German Stuka crews both captured 
German fighter crews both landed home safe , claiming 1/2 a spitfire each... - though I suspect they are in for a grilling by the staffel commander

Campaign  , British 5 , German 4 , draws 0 









Monday 22 April 2019

Normandy 44 - Utah Beach progress - part 2

just a quick update on progress over the last few days. its been ideal weather to get some messy jobs done outside , so I have been working on terrain bits and basing for the recently painted stuff.

I have the table set up to just drop stuff on while I get a feel for how I want it look.

 Items completed :-

6 foot of beach obstacles , the ramp part being made from cocktail sticks ..I have some more tetrahedrons to drop on - they are based on large bases from Simon Millers Big Red bat bases

vac form shells holes painted up .

3 new LCVPs completed

4 more assault platoons completed

I have also based up a para company for the inland game - more on that another time

the start of the barbed wire sections

the engineers platoons are cleaned and undercoated , ready to paint , as are more Paras




Things still to do  - I am waiting some material stuff for these :-
tetrahedrons / hedgehogs 
6 - 8 belgian gate obstacles - scratch building those. 
6 feet of sea wall section to complete 
complete gun pit, entrenchments and a couple of barrack block pieces
paint engineers
finish another 3 assault platoons
finish 3 LCMs


I have recently sourced a decent hot wire cutter , and it is being used to create bits from extruded polystyrene (XPS) - making quick and easy work too

octagonal gun pit entrenchment cut from 10mm XPS in a couple of minutes. 
moving onto the inland part of the game - things to :-

flooded area terrain pieces
causeway section
entrenchment and barbed wire for resistance nest WN7 
more heavy duty flight stands 




Thursday 18 April 2019

Normandy 44. Utah beach game progress.

I have a D Day game booked in with the guys for early June. We are going to be doing a large game covering the Utah beach landings and the earlier para drops to secure villages , landing grounds, and the beach exit causeways . The table will be 16 x 6. I still have a fair bit of work to complete but its getting there.

I had Deepcut studios make a bespoke mat for the beach area, this will have some shaped expanded polystyrene under it to make the Grand Dune area around WN5 .

Hit the beach!

I have 3 more LCVP and 3 LCMs to finish up yet ...we will also be using James LST .. large slow target!

Full size the mat is 8x4 ..planning to only use 6 foot of the width .. this mat then will join onto another 12x6 ... leading in land 


First assault platoon basing finished , pretty happy with the result.

Lots more beach obstacles in the works... 

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