More Romans - SPQR Maybe?

I've kind of got into painting Romans, there's something to be said for factory painting, especially when you get into a groove.

These are the same as previous, I think I must have about 60 of these from one of those Warlord Games Roman starter sets, I've also got some cavalry to do too along with a batch of Celts, which may just end up being some local auxiliaries or I may have to do a full ancient celtic force. Those Victrix chariots are just lovely!

Westwind Opel Blitz

I’m sure that many of you, like me have a number of projects on the go at any one time (unless you are Grant who is busy pursuing the life of a minimalist wargamer over on his blog), and thus often find it hard to finish them to any satisfiable degree. Like some of you I enjoy a deadline as it makes complete a project, or at the very least bring it to a conclusion.

I’ve had my Afrika Korps sat in my lead pile (plastic) for some time and recently agreed to enter into a friendly one day Bolt Action Tournament on the 2nd of February. So now I have my deadline I’m busy beavering away on my figures as I hate fielding half painted armies (although I do on occasion).

Now one of the important things to bear in mind is that I am not a “Tournament Player”. I don’t make uber competitive armies nor do I ever make it into the top 5 (or top 20 to be honest). My whole aim in entering tournaments is to cram a good days gaming in and see some nice armies (and thus get inpired!).

Anyway to cut a long story short I decided on a DAK patrol on the basis that it will look cool. So everyone mounted. Damn, that means buying vehicles which aren’t cheap. Perusing the available models there was the Warlord Games options (trucks a-go-go and half tracks in plastic), 1/48 Italeri Opel Blitz, eBob Opel Blitz from their Stalag Luft game and Westwinds Berlin or Bust Range.

I opted for the Westwind for a couple of reasons;

1. I missed out on the Warlord Xmas sale and as such all their trucks were (and still are) out of stock.
2. The 1/48 is probably a little large in comparison to my Perry DAK
3. The eBob model is lovely however I’ve heard reports its fiddly and I’m short on time
4. Westwind had a sale (25% off) and I’m a cheapskate!

So my trucks arrived the other day and I promptly began assembly. They were nicely boxed in blister packs and laid everything out to make sure I had all the bits (which I did). Luckily they’re a mix of metal and resin so not many bits to put together.

There are a couple of niggles that may annoy an inexperienced hobbyist. There’s a couple of significant air bubbles in the canvas cover just behind the drivers cab.

This seems to be on all three trucks. Also there’s a big resin lug on both the cab and the trailer body that need filing/sawing/chipping to get the truck to fit together.

And the rear wheels are a little tall for the fitting and as consequence all the mud guards needed filing across the top to fit under the truck body.

That being said once built up they look nice alongside the Perry plastics and scale up well. The blisters states that they’re 28mm models however the website refers to them as 1/60 and therefore they may look small compared to the more chunky Warlord, Artizan or Black Tree ranges. They would definitely look a little weird along side 1/48 kits from Tamiya etc.

I’ve included a comparison pic of one them with a Perry DAK and a Warlord Sdkfz 222 which all look fine together.

And here's a couple of pics of actual Opel Blitz trucks to give an idea of how they compare to troopers.

Next up are the Kubelwagens!

Historical Wargaming - Where do you get your supporting info?

I play a range of historical war-games that date from antiquity through to World War two. My war-gaming background, much like quite a few of you good people (and if you’re not a war-gamer you have weird reading tastes) is primarily Games Workshop. I started out on the now hallowed 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles (which is now revived by the Oldhammer movement) and continued on through to the current 8th edition (pfffft, yuck, argh!!!) so there was always a well delivered and tailored amount of “fluff” or background. As this was all created by GW it was easily accessible (for a price) and was only limited by the imaginings of the company.

However then along comes maturity and historical wargaming and the “fluff” aspect gets blown apart. You see there is no such thing as “fluff” when it comes to playing a WW2 war game or other period. These things actually happened, there are huge amounts of literature written about them, with many divergent themes and interpretations therefore it is not as though the game authors can control the story driven aspect of war-gaming for these periods.

So what’s the point of this post, well I thought I’d share some of my current sources of background information. The titles are all clickable links if you think they sound interesting, and I'd be interested in any recommendations you all may have.

The History of WWII Podcast - by Ray Harris Jr

Great podcast on the history of WW2 starting with the political shenanigans and going on to the battles as they happened. Episodes range in length from 30 mins to over an hour.

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major DickWinters

Gives so much more background to E Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne than Stephen Ambrose's book, covering the wider Normandy campaign that Easy company was involved in.

Osprey BattleOrders 25: US Airborne Divisions in the ETO 1944-45

Useful companion book for historic structure of the divisions and equipment. A little dry and sterile though.

Together We Stand - James Holland

The history of the war in North Africa 1942-43. It’s a great read and I’m currently three quarters of the way through it. Great if you want an insight into the weirdness that was the desert war in North Africa and some of the politics that went into it. Its not just politics though as it cleared up some of my misconceptions of both Rommel and Monty.

  

H.G.Wells - War of the Worlds

Tricky to read as the pacing and language is a little odd, although it was written some time ago. It does get me into the mood with my Victorian Science Fiction gaming and its a free download from Amazon, which is always nice

The Civil War in Yorkshire: FairfaxVersus Newcastle (Battlefield Britain)

Thoroughly interesting read and as it covers the English Civil War in the region around my home town it was easy to visualise events. Sadly it is very Parliamentarian in focus and I would prefer a more balanced viewpoint

The History of RomePodcast by Mike Duncan

The Grandaddy of all history podcasts this covers the full history starting from the founding of Rome. Well worth it, especially if you play anything from 600BC to 500AD

Xenophon - The Persian Expedition

First hand account of the March of the Ten Thousand that occurred between 401 B.C. and March 399 B.C. An interesting account of Greek warfare translated from the original text. I’m just dipping into this one now so am not sure whether it will help my burgeoning Greek project. I have an old paper copy although it is free over on project gutenberg.