It's Here!

Too Fat Lardies Summer Special!

And yeah I have a piece in it!

Chain of Command Home Guard List Version 3

Some tweaks based on play tests and updates with the Coculator.  Still not perfect and overly complex but there we are ;)

Chain of Command Home Guard Version 3

A little painting

One of the groups I loiter around at ran a low pressure "contest" to paint up an infantry unit. The prize - motivation and a finished unit.

Last year a friend dropped by for some gaming and very kindly gave me a box of these:

 Spartan Games Dystopian LegionsFederated States of America Wilderness Section

And this is my take:

Unfortunately the point and shoot camera I have was acting up and of the dozen or so pictures I took these were the only two that worked and even then I had to tweak the brightness and contrast. The actual colours are not quite so toy like and the finish is not quite so shiny.

With the exception of the resin bear traps and the leaping figure, all were re-based onto the steel washers I use. I just don't like the big display bases.  On the whole the figures were very nicely detailed sculpts.  And as usual, my painting doesn't do them justice.

Unfortunately, Spartan's caster might be pushing their molds a little too hard.  There were  a couple of fiddly arm joints - more of a design problem - and some fairly serious gaps in the dogs' hind legs that needed to be filled. The axe head for the leaping figure was completely missing. The rounded end where is should have been suggests the mould  didn't fill properly. A couple of rifle barrels also came up a bit short. The leaping figure had a significantly arched back, so much so that his rifle is decidedly curved in ways it shouldn't be.

Overall I enjoyed painting these figures and will happily put them on the table - especially the dogs, Pepe - the skunk hatted hunter and of course those bear traps.

What did you do in the War Grandad?

June 6 has come and gone and the sacrifices of D-Day have been rightfully recognized.  However June 9th is more important to me because of this:

The Mulberry Harbours set into place 70 years ago today.  Grandad and his brothers came from a long line of ship builders.  Working out of Harlan and Wolf in Belfast and Cammel-Lairds Liverpool, they worked on many fighting ships and merchant vessels.When grandad shifted to working on the Mulberries, it had follow on effects felt up to this day (it is in part why I am Canadian and not Kenyan). He also served as an ARP.

I should also mention Pop, my other grandfather who was a foreman at a gas works for the duration.  Important but not very exciting work until you realize that part of his job was to pull incendiaries out of gas storage tanks. He was in the Home Guard and stood watch over one of the first V1s to land without exploding.  A great aunt worked putting together fuzes until she asked to be moved because she was getting lonely working all by herself in a little shed far away from the rest of the plant.  It wasn't the danger you see, she just wanted to chat with the other girls.

And then there is my father in law, a Malta Gunner before the war, he did not take well to military life.  He spent much of the war as an electrician working on Hurricanes and Spitfires on airfields around Malta. To give you an idea of what that was like, the whole island was given the George Cross.

So today, I raise a toast in memory of those who  served at home in whatever capacity to ensure the fight was brought to the enemy.