We Are Coming Father Abraham - Part 2

Since I was taking photos of my 20mm UK Falklands stuff, I thought I should do a teaser of my next big project, 15mm/18mm ACW.  All of the figures are from Blue Moon.  This is about half of my Union infantry for late '62 and on, in other words, generic dark blue coats and sky blue pants.  I do plan to eventual do the more colorful '61 / early '62 Union forces for Wilson's Creek and operations in Missouri & Arkansas, but right now, I am doing uniform / flag research.  I am also planning to for my Rebels, the Missouri State Guard & CS forces for Wilson's Creek & Pea Ridge specifically.

I almost missed it today - 75th Anniversary of Cable Street

In keeping with my theme of "Anarchy in the UK" which is my one of my side projects, I am adding these two YouTube videos on the Battle of Cable Street on to my blog.  Here is a link to the Wiki description to the Battle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cable_Street 

Period news footage of the Battle

Just a great music video done with a song by "The Men They Couldn't Hang", called "The Ghosts of Cable Street"

"The Ghosts Of Cable Street "

Lyrics

England, 1936
The grip of the Sabbath day
In London town the only sound
Is a whisper in an alleyway
Men put on their gloves and boots
Have a smoke before they go
From the west there is a warning of
A wind about to blow

Like Caesar marching to the East
Marches Mosley with his men
Dressed in their clothes of deepest black
Like a gathering hurricane
This is the British Union
With its flag of black and red
A flag that casts a shadow in
Berlin and in Madrid

So listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

So mile by mile they come on down
To a place called Cable Street
And other men are waiting there
Preparations are complete
Mosley comes so close
They now can see his outstretched arm
A hand raised up that way
Never took the future in its palm

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

The battle broke as the fists and the batons fell
Through the barricades came the sound of the wounded yells
Jack Spot burst through with a chair leg made of lead
Brought down a crashing blow on Mosley's head

And so we learn from history generations have to fight
And those who crave for mastery
Must be faced down on sight
And if that means by words, by fists, by stones or by the gun

Remember those who stood up for
Their daughters and their sons

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

20mm Falklands Conflict - Argentine Army

Well, finally I am getting around to posting pics of my 20mm Falklands figures.  Due to my work schedule, I was forced to use a painting service.  So, this blog entry is also a review of the painting service that I used.  

So first things, first - the painting service:  I am using Northumbrian Painting Services in the UK.  I have been going through Robert Anderson with Reiver Castings.  I don't have nothing to say, but good things about them.  As you can see below, this is their quality.  I also had them do most of a UK platoon (I was missing a few figures at that time that I sent them off).  I was so happy with them that I sent another batch of figures to work on.  I highly recommend them.

Next, the figures - most of these figures are the old original Hotspurs' miniatures (but the molds are currently owned by Stonewall Miniatures) that I bought probably 20 years ago.  The only figures that are not Hotspurs are the two surrendering figures, which are from Platoon 20, and the mortar and Sustained Firing machine gun teams which are from FAA.  Unfortunately, these are the only three companies that make 20mm Argentine figures.  Also, sadly, other then these, no one else makes Argentine figures for the Falklands, expect for Mo-Fo which are 28mm (I don't own any, but from the pictures that I have seen, they are very nice.)  The only other company that I am aware of that did Argentines for the Falklands was MJ Figures in 15mm.  But they have since went out of business.  I never saw any of their 15mm Falklands stuff with the exception of their penguin pack, which I was lucky to obtain one for my 20mm games.

Before I start up with the pictures, I have added a few blogs to my 'Blogs that I follow' list over on the left side of my blog.  One of them is call "Hurry Up And Wait!", which is a blog about gaming the Falklands.  It is still fairly new, but it a good read so far, so check it out!

My Argentine army platoon with support.  This is the bulk of my Argentine force.  I will also have a small Army commando force and a small Naval commando force as well.  I plan to also pick up a Platoon 20's UK Wombat Recoilless Rifle and convert the crew to pass for Argentine soldiers.  I am also going to have to search for something that will pass for an Argentine .50 cal HMG team.  Finally, S&S Models has a 20mm AML 90 armored car that I will need to pick up one for some armor support for this platoon (assuming the armor cars ever decided to adventure out of Port Stanley!)

Another view of the platoon

The Argentine headquarters

Originally, I didn't like the figure walking with his rifle slung over his shoulder, but I really like it now.  I think that it has some great character

I really like the rifle grenade figure

The figure to right is firing a Fusil Automático Pesado, which is a Argentine manufactured heavy barreled version of the FN FAL rifle.

A couple of Platoon 20's Argentine surrendering figures

One of the two FAA's Sustain Fire machine gun teams.  I accidentally damaged the machine gun, but just need to re-glue it back on

One of the two FAA's mortar teams

Ghosts From My Past - Part 6 (15mm Road Kill Rally)

Here is the last of my "Ghosts From My Past" series.  This was built, converted, and painted by me.  It was never finished, but I got a lot done on it.  Years back, I was involved in playtesting a game called "Road Kill Rally", which is now in print by Z-man Games, but it has changed in several ways since my playtesting days.  The owners of the now defunct St. Louis game shop, "The Underground", was doing the playtesting at their store and was also running a campaign with the rules.  I had the racing philosophy of "Whatever is behind me, does not matter...all that matters is what is in front of me."  It was a good philosophy and got me first place for most of the races that I made it to play in.  I went very light, with little armor or weapons, and always pushed the envelope on speed.  I am also the playtester that became "famous" for using the Rocket-Assist pack at the start of the race.  All would have been good if I had thought to bought the parachute pack or the minesweeping brushes...it sort of looked like the scene of the end of the chase of the "Nightrider" in the first "Mad Max" movie, but I was not Mel Gibson...8)

This is my display stand.  The three cheerleaders are Peter Pig's naked women that I putty up with uniforms and pom-poms.  I had the cheerleaders on my display stand, because in the playtest, you could have "slutty cheerleaders" that distracted the judges so you could do something "dirty" on the first turn.  The car is a Porsche 911 from the Micro Machine line.  The base is a GW 40mm square base.

Another view of the car.  I really wanted to get a Ferrari Testarossa for my car, but could never find one.  The "wings" on the doors and the bumper were blades.  There was a needle gun mounted on the hood and mine sweeping brushes under the bumper.  One the back, I had added two discharging tubes for my smoke screen.  The car is mounted on a small metal base.

Here is the front of the display base.  The concrete wall was built with green putty.

The back side of the display base where you can see were two of the concrete walls meet up.

Finally, the road surface of the display base is a magnetic sheet!  So my car or cheerleaders don't easily fall off of the display base as I show here while holding my base vertically.

Ghosts From My Past - Part 5 (20mm Post-Apocalyptic)

Even more rare unearthed goodies!  I painted the old Games Workshop's 20mm Dark Future figures.  They are not finished, but I would through them up on the blog.  I have got a lot more of them that are not painted yet.  The armored police van in the back is an old Matchbox that has been converted to be a post-apocalyptic vehicle done by Stan Johansen Miniatures many years ago.

Ghosts From My Past - Part 4 (WWII 15mm Vehicles)

More 15mm WWII goodness that was unearthed that was painted by me!

A box of Detroit's finest!

Old Glory's DUKW

Old Glory's jeep and crew

Battlefront's M3 halftrack

Battlefront's M4A3 tank with dozer blade and deep wading kit

Battlefront's M4A3 tanks with wading kits

Battlefront's M4A3 tanks with sandbags

Battlefront's M4A3 (105) tank

Battlefront's M4A1 tanks

Just to prove how "anal" I was with my 15mm WWII US stuff.  Each US vehicle has it's only different serial number with I did research on to make sure that I did not use the wrong numbers for the wrong piece of equipment.  In other words, none of  my M4 tanks have halftrack or tank destroyer's numbers and the flip side is the same.  If I was able to find the vehicle serial numbers for the platoon's that I was doing, I would have made sure to even have that correct!

Ghosts From My Past - Part 3 (15mm WWII Infantry)

Another  installment of "Look what I found in my basement!"  This is 15mm WWII figures that I had based with either one or two figures per base for Platoon / Company size skirmishes.  When I had using these, our gaming "group" was using Larry Freeman's "Combat Command" rules.  Again, all were painted by me.

A Tub of 15mm WWII goodness!

Old Glory's Germans...it was not until after I was editing the pictures that I noticed that the two figures are the same pose!

Old Glory Germans and Peter Pig French Resistance

The four figures to the left of the Peter Pig French Resistance are also Peter Pig's, but they are converted figures from their French Motorized Infantry.  They were converted and painted up to be French rural police.  I left off the FFI armbands so I can use them as either FFI or anti-Resistance operations.

Battlefront US Paratroopers painted up for the 82nd Airborne Division

More 82nd Airborne

US line infantry from Old Glory.  The one figured was converted to have a rifle grenade by Combatcolours.

Mostly Old Glory with some Peter Pig US troops in the mix

Ghosts From My Past - Part 2 (25mm Figures)

Here is some more stuff that I had unearthed in my cleaning up the basement.  They were all painted by me.

The figure to the left was a mini that I used in a RPG game to represent my character in a modern supernatural detective type game.  It is from Foundry's Street Level Violence line.  The figure to the right is one of my favorites!  It was from the long Out of Production line, Macho Women With Guns line for the RPG with the same name.  It was one of the monsters from the game called "The Congressional Subcommittee".  Somewhere, I hope that I still have my other favorite miniature from that line, a crow with bowler hat, cigar, and a M60 machine gun!

Here is another RPG miniature that I used from many, many moons ago.  It is a Games Workshop dwarf miner.

This figure was to used for Pulp Action or Gangster games.  It is from Brigade Games.  I really like the pose of this figure.  The lonely deck hand tries to keep warm with a cigarette on a deck of a Black Ship while watching for pirates, rival rumrunners, or the Coast Guard with his slung Tommy gun.

"Who knows the evil that lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!"  He is from Pulp Figures.  I was really happy with the eyes, but after taking this photo, I noticed some red on his cape that I am going to have to fix.

Ghosts From My Past - Pt 1 (The Fenians)

Well, I have been on holiday for a week and have been cleaning up the basement.  As part of that, I also have been bagging up miniatures to sell off and reorganizing my storage of my stuff to keep.  While doing that, I have unearthed some of my older projects and decided to add them up on the blog for review.  First is my Battle of Ridgeway, 1866.  I only got the Fenians finished, but I have figures to do the Canadians.  Originally they were all mounted on individual bases, I have since decided to based them three to an 1"x1" base.  That is why you will notice that they have flocking around their feet, but the base is not done.  I am planning to revisit my Fenian Raids, 1866, project using Regimental Fire & Fury.

The storage case with the Fenian forces

General O'Neill and the standard bearer carrying the flag presented to Thomas Meager in 1848

The IRA Regt'l command stands - since then, I found descriptions of the actual flags used at Ridgeway and plan to replace these with them

More Irish Volunteers

Even more Irish Volunteers!

Paddy and Sean expressing themselves towards the English Crown!

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Wilson's Creek, MO, and more!

Hello!


I have been working some really long hours at work and have been neglecting my blog and my travel website. 


I went to the 150th Anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Wilson's Creek last month with my friend Steve.  We also visited the Wilson's Creek National Park, the National WWI Museum in Kansas City, MO; the Battle of Lexington State Park and Visitor Center, and finally stopping at the Missouri Confederate Memorial and Cemetery.  It was pretty much a full weekend of activities.


I have photos from the reenactment and the other sites up soon after I do some cropping and resizing. I will place some up on this blog, but all of the pictures for Wilson's Creek, Lexington, and the cemetery will be placed on my ACW website.  The WWI museum pictures will be placed on my travels' website.


Since then, I also visited several more ACW sites or museums.  I visited in the Atlanta area the Atlanta Cyclorama which is a mural painting and display of the battle of Atlanta that was commissioned by the former Union general John Logan after the war.  Also located there is one of the two locomotive engines involved in the 'Great Locomotive Chase', the Texas.  There is also a Medal of Honor medal located there.  Just outside of Atlanta, I also visited the Southern History and Locomotive Museum.  At this museum is the other locomotive engine involved in the 'Great Locomotive Chase', the General.  There is also one of the raider's Medal of Honor medals is also located there.  Finally, also in the Atlanta area, I visited the Kerrshaw Mountain battlefield, but my camera's battery died shortly after getting there.  I also visited three more Civil War sites in Tennessee, Fort Donelson, Stones River, and Lookout Mountain.

I also finally finished several books, but still have to do write up for them.  The first book was "Nine Battles To Stanley" by Nicholas van der Bijl.   I had a hard time finding the free time to read it, but enjoyed it. While it did not add much to description of battles for the Falklands, it did cover a lot of "extra" details that I found very useful for my future Falklands games. The next book was, "Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History" by Yunte Huang.  It is about how the real life Honolulu detective, Chang Apana, became the role model for the character, Charlie Chan.  Also it covers how the novels, movies, and radio shows came about to become one of America's great icons of the 20th Century and how the character influenced America and Chinese relations. The last book was "The Lost Patrol: The Mounties' Yukon Tragedy" by Dick North.  It is the about the 1903 RNWMP overland dog patrol from Dawson City to Fort McPherson by Inspector Francis Fitzgerald and two other Mounties and one former Mountie that got lost and eventually perished in the wilderness.  


I got to go for now, but be expecting the travel photographs soon.


Cheers