Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

I can't believe we're already at the end of the month.  Here's what I've been up to this week. Painting/modelling I started the week still mucking about trying to work out the colours to repaint the bases of the figures for the  Algerian War project.  I also spent a load of time online looking at terrain mats and how to make terrain mats.  I felt I was getting nowhere so have switched to the other side of the world and back to Indo-China.  I've been doing a bit more work on my jungle terrain that I made last year and also revamping the bases of my French Indo-China War figures so they fit in better with the terrain.   I've also been fiddling about with EVA foam.  I bought a pack and have been doing tests to see how viable it is for terrain making. Research I finished Black Earth by Timothy Snyder.  Superb book but glad to have finished it.  It doesn't do much for your thoughts of other nations and people reading a book like that. I'm continuing to dip in

If you've had the endurance to wade through my previous posts ( here and here ) you'll know I've wanted to game the Algerian War for a long, long time.  The main blocker has been that apart from the Elhiem French paras, there's no specific range of figures, particularly for the Armée de libération nationale (ALN). This year I'm committed to getting on with this project.  I reviewed my books, studied what's online and took a look through my existing 20mm collection and I was pleasantly surprised how much was usable.   First are these Liberation Miniatures Moroccans bought for the French in Indo-China.  They're perfect for ALN, dressed as they are in French M47 uniforms and armed with MAS36 rifles and Thompson M1A1 SMGs.  With their small North African style turbans they don't need any work apart from refinishing the bases. Next up are these Battlefield Miniatures WW2 Moroccan Goums.  These were bought long ago to use as French Moroccan troops for the Ind

Here's what I've been up to this week. Painting/modelling The first part of the week I was finishing off the regiment of 24 20mm EIC Sepoys from Newline Designs for my Sikh Wars project.  You can see about them in more detail here .   I've been trying to decide on the colours to repaint the bases of the figures I'm going to use as proxies for Algerian ALN fighters.  This will also determine how I paint the terrain I'm planning to build so it's important to spend time on it.  Research I've been reading Black Earth by Timothy Snyder.  I read Bloodlands years ago and it's one of the best and worst books I've ever read.  Best in that it's so well written, absorbing and interesting and worst in that it's about one of the bleakest periods of history.  Black Earth is similar.  It's not light reading.  However, if you don't read about these subjects I think that you are never going to understand the principle drivers of the Nazis and the Sovi

Part 1 of this rambling story told of how I had first become interested in the French Indo-China and Algerian Wars.  We'd left it where I had moved onto other periods specifically late World War 2 Eastern Front.   We're now into the early 2000's.  I'd been very focused on building up a collection of 1/76th WW2 figures.  True to form I went off on a tangent after discovering the splendid 1/6th action figures from Dragon and started collecting these.  It wasn't long before I started kitbashing FIC and Algerian figures using WW2 items.  Now the Internet proved useful and I was procuring from all over. This had given me an outlet for my interest but I still was yet to wargame the period.  Then a couple of things happened around the same time at the end of 2005.  A local hobby shop opened and I found a Matchbox 1/76th M24 and then I discovered Liberation Miniatures.  Praise be!  Liberation did a specific Indo-China range.  Not a Vietnam range a specific First/FRENCH Ind

Here's the first batch of painting of the year, a regiment of East India Company Sepoys for the First Anglo-Sikh War. As usual all figures are 20mm Newline Designs.  I hadn't painted any miniatures since October when I did a Sikh regiment.  When I started these I was full of enthusiasm but when I got to the beginning of the third week working on these they were pissing me right off.  I tend to do production line painting in blocks of no more than 12 and I decided to do all 24 of these in one go, so perhaps that was it.  Or possibly the weather has been dull and there's been little natural light.  Whatever it was by the time I was painting the 24th pair of backpack straps I was wondering how the hell do Napoleonic collectors keep at it unit after unit?  Better men than me. Moaning aside I'm pleased with how they turned out but I can't see myself doing anymore for a little while now.  I believe that there should be two standard bearers as in a British regiment, but Ne

First full week of work since the Xmas break so less hobby time but still made some good progress. Painting/modelling The majority of hobby time this week was spent painting a regiment of 24 20mm EIC Sepoys from Newline Designs for my Sikh Wars project.  When I left them last week they had been cleaned, primed, based and the bases textured.  I managed to do the majority of the painting this week. Just the final details, varnishing, bases and flag and they're done. Sepoys in progress.  I also dug out all my odd 20mm figures to see what might make suitable Algerian ALN proxies.  I'll be working on these once the Sepoys are done. Research Continued looking through all my French wars of decolonisation books and wrote a piece on my interest in these conflicts - read here .   Had a brief look into other modern wars with French influence such as the conflicts in Chad. Purchases My first purchases of the year arrived. A Savage War of Peace - with all those thoughts of Algeria I had to

I can pinpoint when my interest in the French/First Indo-China War and subsequently the Algerian War (of Independence) began.  It was in my pre/early teens and it was down to three books. I suspect like many boys of the late '70s and early '80s I'd been reading the Wotan series of pulp novels by Leo Kessler.  These told the story of a fictional SS unit and their involvement in every campaign of WW2, which bizarrely included the desert and Cassino.  The last few books followed Sergeant-Major Schulze the anti-hero of the series, as he survives WW2 to end up serving in the French Foreign Legion in Indo-China and then Algeria. At around the same time I was given Blandford Army Uniforms since 1945 as a Christmas present.  As well as showing uniforms from current (1980) armies the sections on the earlier conflicts were those that I found fascinating.  I think it's the mix of kit that appealed to me.  When I looked at the plates I thought the French paras and legionnaires look

As a bid to use the blog as my wargaming diary this year I'm going to try and do a weekly summary of what I've been doing.  I tend to only post completed items and then it doesn't look like I've done much.  So here we go for the first week of 2022. Gaming Got in a cracking game of Donnybrook set in The Old West - read about it here Painting/modelling Did all the prep for the last Newline Designs 20mm Sikh Wars unit which is a regiment of 24 EIC Sepoys. EIC Sepoys based, sand added and primed Managed to finish the fencing to go round my Old West farmhouse -read about it  here Research Had a good look through all my French wars of decolonisation books.   Organised some of my PDFs sorting out the Korean War titles particularly.  Had a brief look into Central and South American wars of the first half of the 20th Century (are we going down the rabbit hole?) A positive start to the year with plenty of hobby activity. 

Details of the scenario and forces can be found here . I'm not going to do a turn by turn round up but just focus on the main events.  The first couple of turns the Lewis clan were deploying around the homestead as Captain Pew's men closed in on the farmhouse. First blood was drawn by one of Captain Pew's unit of sailors.  The rabble were trying to outflank them and got caught in a musket volley.  It could have been worse but as they were skulking round the back of a building they got a saving roll. The other unit of sailors advanced past the barn and engaged in a firefight with the unit of henchmen. Meanwhile back on the other side of the farm the sailors and Sergeant Matthew Bonney were engaged in a fierce melee with the rabble of the Lewis clan. In their fruitless search for the Governor's missing son, Master of Hounds Charles Aldridge and his hapless mutts came into contact with Big Herc and then  William Lewis  himself.  Big Herc fell to a savage dog attack.  Seein

When getting ready for my Old West game I realised that I didn't have the right sort of fencing.  I had a lot of picket fencing but nothing rough enough for the homestead of a gang of moonshiners.  I had a quick look at what was commercially available but nothing looked that great and it was quite pricey for what it was.   It's not a massive architectural undertaking.  All you need is something for a base and something for the fencing.  A quick delve through the spares/trash bag and boxes soon furnished what I needed.  The bases were made out of foamcore.  I cut out the shape, roughly bevelled the edges and cut a seam down the centre.  Be careful not to cut too deeply.  You want to be able to press the fencing in firmly and if you make too much of a cut they won't hold well. The fencing was made out of stirrers.  I'd bought a load for pence from a market decades ago and I'd only used them before when making one of the Old West outhouses. It was good to use up some m

The scenario The South, 1850s.  There’s been strange things going on in Ellis County.  Michael Harvey, tearaway son of the local Governor John P Harvey has disappeared.  The locals suspect the Lewis clan, local moonshining miscreants.   The enraged Governor is forced to act.  He hires Captain Tracey Pew and his band of hardened veterans from the Mexican and Seminole Wars to search the Lewis farmstead and get to the bottom of the mystery.   The truth is more complex.  Michael Harvey is in fact a willing guest of the Lewis clan, being the best friend of Lewis's son Conway.  He would be more than happy to live with the Lewis clan and learn the family business.  The 'shine has fierce hold on him. The forces (2 pts per side) The Lewis Clan – (based on the Outlaws and Highlanders factions from the Donnybrook rulebook) 23 figures William Lewis (Hero D12) with pistol and hand weapons  Big Herk (character Chief’s champion D12) with hand weapons  1 unit of 8 trusted henchmen with muskets