Peace for Galilee 1982

I've been collecting stuff for Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 since the original Dave Alsop figures came out, about 1989 I think! It'll be in 20mm using my available 20mm Afghan terrain as a starter but with some specific scenery as well. I've got a fair stash of the "Peace for Galilee" range and its still available through Combat Miniatures although some of the castings are a bit ropey now they are still excellent figures, I've also managed to get one of the awesome Cromwell 1982 Centurions which is a super model but like the majority of the Cromwell stuff its a pain to get a hold of! The photo below is a front and back view of a test figure I've painted as an Israeli Para, complete with Glilon assault rifle/M203 combo, the item on his back is a folding stretcher. Dougie

Blog update

It's been quite a while since I updated the blog, mainly due to my retirement from work and the number and frequency of holidays I've had to take with my good lady and the boys!
Any hoo major building work has commenced at Casa Robinson and it won't be finished till the new year so I'm hopeful of getting more posts on. On the gaming front I've not done a whole lot but picked up a very nice 28mm Norman Warband for Saga and a unit of Late Roman Cataphracts for my Dux Bellorum stuff, the 28mm Modern Afghan Brits are progressing as well.
To kick off with the Normans are very tidily painted but they were on winter snow bases which were nice but wouldn't go with my Vikings so they've been removed. I got sufficient forces to cover a warlord base, 3 units of mounted hearthguards and a unit of levy bowman.
I very very rarely paint mounted figures and I've knocked a couple of Perry Norman Knights up from their First Crusade range, I followed my normal super matt varnish procedure and I'm thinking the horses look quite dull and lifeless, the ones I bought have a bit of a sheen and I'm thinking I like that look better. There's 2 photos below and I'd be interested to know what you folks think looks the best?
First off is my super matt version

Below is the bought version with horse flesh sheen!

Please post your thoughts but I'm heading toward a satin sheen! Dougie

28mm Taliban Radio Dish Dash Figures

Check out the new 28mm Taliban from Radio Dish Dash, very very nice !

The guys at Radio Dish Dash also have a competition running, link below;
http://skirmishsangin.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/taliban-available-now-and-competition.html
The Talibs, as well as their excellent Kiwis and all other Skirmish Sangin goodness, are available from Empress Miniatures in the UK.
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page100.htm
If you're gaming Modern Afghanistan and you're not using this system, give yourself a shake and check out the Skirmish Sangin posts here and their cracking blog, link below.  Dougie
http://skirmishsangin.blogspot.co.nz/

Top Malo House 31st May 1982 Refight using Arc of Fire

Me and my son, Alex, have done our first refight of the raid on Top Malo House in 20mm scale using "TAC-Skirmish: Arc of Fire". The engagement will be well known to students of the Falklands War, but for the uninitiated it was a raid by 19 members of the Royal Marines Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre on Top Malo House which contained 17 members of Argentine Commando 602.
I've played AoF on and off since it came out in 2002 and I've always quite liked it, the Tactical Ability levels and the Tactical modes particularly, I think it's still available, link below
http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com/aof/index.htm

I'll not go into the details of the rules, they do play nice, skirmish level, card initiative, and the majority of stats are covered for troops and vehicles from 1900-2000. Included are scenarios from the Boxer Rebellion, WW1, WW2, Vietnam and a particularly good one for the SADF fighting Angolans and Cubans in 1987.

Here are my orbats

The terrain as set up

 Top Malo House in the centre the ground rises towards the right of the board where the UK forces will start. The engagement was small the terrain measures 50cm x 100cm.
Below, Top Malo House, target of the raid.

The view from the UK position, the attack took place just after first light and the low sun is casting its shadow!

  Deployment, all of 602 are in the structure, no sentries posted! The UKSF have deployed at the right are the 2 Fire Teams of the Fire Support Group and to the left are the Assault Group consisting of Fire Team 1 Alpha and Fire Team 1 Bravo forward with the HQ element commanded by Capt Boswell at the rear.

Alex had the Brits and initiated the engagement by unleashing a barrage of fire against the house, consisting of 4 66mm LAWs, the GPMG gunner letting rip, and the remaining members of the FSG putting down rounds from their SLRs and M16s. For myself in command of 602 the results were horrendous, Capt Verseci (CO) was wounded, the Pl Sgt (2IC) was killed, 2 other soldiers wounded and 2 more broken! At the same time the Assault group elements were skirmishing forward.
When my troops were activated, 2 of my Fire Teams were out and took cover in the stream at the rear of the house, Fire Team 1 Charlie stayed put to try and hold up the British advance.

The initial Argentine burst of fire from the house was painful, killing 1 and wounding another of Fire Team 1 Alpha, the high morale and Tactical ability of the Marines coming to the fore here, however this resulted in a swift British response with the FSG again putting a fearful amount of fire into the house causing it to catch fire and eliminating the threat posed by the 602 members there.
The situation for me was now rapidly falling apart, a Fire Team in the stream completely broke and my last gallant hurrah were 2 members of Fire Team 1 Alpha spurring themselves forward in a forlorn charge against the Brits.

  As luck would have it the FSG were activated as opportunity fire and the sniper ended the charge with his L42!

This was the last straw and the remnants of 602 surrendered to the Royal Marines, the Brits had performed wonderfully and with luck had ended the engagement with 1 killed and 1 wounded, both from Fire Team 1 Alpha, 602 on the other hand had a butchers bill to pay with 8 killed and 6 wounded of their 17 men present! No sentries - To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

Conclusion: I think the rules performed well and a similar result was obtained as to what actually happened, we intend to replay this engagement using other rule systems, perhaps Force on Force and Cold War 1983.
Comments always welcome and appreciated!
Dougie

Renedra 1/56th scale 28mm Mud Brick House continued

I've ordered some 28mm scenic items from Black Cat Bases, farm implements, tools etc, to liven the house up a bit, they havent arrived yet so in the meantime I've added a couple of pots and an AK.
Dougie

A couple of close ups

The Lambaste Family transport and some walkers

More Walking Dead stuff, nearly bought a resin 28mm pickup for a silly amount of cash when my son suggested looking in toy shops. The Land Rover is by Burago who make toy cars, its a bit over scale at 1/43rd but it looks ok. Oh is cost 99p !!! Dougie
The Family Transport, the diecast's been tarted up a little, I went for the worn post zombie apocalypse look.

Some walkers, I'm up to 15 now, a mixture of Studio and Heresy, couldn't resist Mr. Jackson!

28mm Afghanistan - Skirmish Sangin

As regular readers will know I have quite a sizable 20mm Afghan collection, since the advent of "Skirmish Sangin" I wanted to start a collection in 28mm using the wonderful Empress and Eureka Miniatures. The system is very low level and you don't need a large collection.
In relation to terrain I've used my 20mm stuff with the obvious exception of buildings, the crops arn't as high as I'd like but you can't have everything! If your interested in this system check out their blog below
http://skirmishsangin.blogspot.co.nz/
First off are a couple of Photos of my first Empress figures, out of interest there's a full tutorial on the skirmish sangin blog on how I painted the Brits and the joy that is 28mm MultiCam!

3PARA fireteam

Taliban Fighters

Next up are the figures in theatre, the whole board is only 3 feet square and you can have quite a good engagement of something of this size.

Some views around the table

The Brits have occupied the building while the insurgents skirmish forward

And lastly some Taliban level views! Dougie