Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

I completed a few more 20mm Newline Designs British Infantry last week.  These will be skirmishers out in front of the rest of the regiment shown here .  I did the research and documented everything when I painted the main unit, so it was a straight forward job to do these. The thinking is always the hard part.  They look a bit shiny in the photos but they don't in real life.  As with all the Newline stuff I've had they've been enjoyable to paint with a good balance between enough detail and not too much. 

The real world impacted heavily on hobby time this week.  However, after a bit of time in the doldrums I rallied and got a few things done.  The blog is a year old today and I wrote a piece about it here .  Painting/modelling   I spent some more time on the Algerian/Mediterranean hills that I was working on last week, adding washes and highlights to improve the appearance.  I just can't get them to blend with the gaming cloth I bought last month so I put this batch to one side.  I think I need to take the cloth  down to Homebase and get some paint made up.   While I had the bag with all the polystyrene in it down from the loft, I cut and shaped more hills.  I also added texture and gave them a coat of emulsion to seal them.  I'm hoping once I get the right colour paint it'll be a quick job to finish them.  I have learnt that painting blocks of polystyrene is amazingly therapeutic.   Hot wire fun To get me ba...

It’s exactly a year since I started this blog.  I thought I’d do a little reminiscing on the 1st birthday.   When I started I didn’t have any vision or aspirations other than using it as a hobby diary.  It was a place to document my hobby activity and air my hobby ramblings.  I’ve stuck to that, only posting when I’ve completed a piece of work and there's only been an occasional rambling, thankfully any readers would say.  And I’m pleased to say there has been some readers.  OK I can’t tell if anyone has actually read anything, but at least they’ve looked and there’s been well over 12,500 visits which isn’t too bad.  I’m fully aware that most of my interests are “talk about niche" as someone on TMP pointed out.  Niche within a niche hobby - I’m happy with that.  My hobby world doesn’t currently include the perennial favourites of Napoleonics, American Civil War, anything Games Workshop related or the Normandy campaign of WW2.  And t...

Quite an unproductive week on the hobby front, too much going on in the rest of my world.  Gaming I had a couple of hours free and I didn't feel like working on anything so I had a game.  I played Ambush Alley set in Algeria, not as you might have expected in the 1950s/60s but in the 1880s.  Read about it here .   Painting/modelling   I did manage to get some hills cut out, textured and and a base coat done.  They will be used for Algeria and Mediterranean games.   I'll do a post on how I made these once they're complete.  It's early days and as seen in the photo I'm still trying to get the colour scheme right! Research The only benefit of having to commute again is more reading time.  This week I read "At the Edge of the World" about the French Foreign Legion from 1830 to 1930.  An enjoyable read, nowhere near as in-depth as Martin Windrow's marvellous "Our Friends Beneath the Sands", (which is double the size) but well w...

I enjoyed my first Ambush Alley game set in French Indo-China so much ( read here ) that I decided to quickly follow it up.  I also wanted to see how flexible the rules were, so I went back in time to the 1880s and the days of the Armée d'Afrique.  You can download the full scenario details and rules  amendments  here . Mission Brief A patrol from the Armée d'Afrique is returning to base after a fruitless search for Algerian bandits.  Having spent days chasing shadows and now thoroughly exhausted they are on the last few miles of their journey.  Is it at this point that the Algerians decide to show themselves.   French (Regular) Mission Objective  The French must exit the table from the north table edge. The French are exhausted, and morale is low in the Tirailleurs Algériens.  The Legion just want to wash the dust from their throats.  It is important to return to base in good order, keep losses to a minimum and leave no one behind!...

I've been back in the office this week and had a deadline to meet so hobby time has been a bit curtailed.  I have managed to finish some bits off though.   Painting/modelling   Completed the Battlezone US Marines with head swaps - see here .   Completed some Battlezone WW2 Red Army riflemen.   Redid the bases for my Elhiem French Paras for Algeria - see here .  This is the last of the existing figures that I've redone for the Algeria project.   I've been playing about with a hot wire cutter and polystyrene making some basic hill shapes. Research Finally finished A Savage War of Peace.  What a superb book it is.  It's a pity that due to my eye sight problems that I found it a bit of a strain.   I prepared an Algerian scenario for a game of Ambush Alley.  More on this next time, Incoming! Nowt! Waiting on a few orders to come in.

I redid the basing for my French paras for the Algerian War this week.  I followed the same formula for the ALN fighters I've been working on ( here and here ).   These were the first figures that I got for the Algerian War project back in 2012.  They are all by Elhiem and are hidden away in their Vietnam range.  I always found this a bit odd as they are classic Algerian era paras, with clothing and armament that you wouldn't have seen in Indo-China until the conflict was virtually over.   I really like these figures and are the only figures that I know of that are really perfect for the Algerian War.  As they are wearing berets the only option was to paint them as paras of La Legion, so they depict either the 1er REP or 2er REP.  The legion wore their berets to distinguish themselves from the other para units who tended to wear the "Bigeard" cap in the field. The legion paras, in particular the 1er REP, were considered to be among the best o...

I finished off another batch of ALN fighters for the Algerian War this week. They are all Battlezone (ex. Sgt, Major) Miniatures with 6 coming from the USMC 1943-44 Rifle Squad pack and the bazooka man from the US Airborne support pack. All have had their M1 helmeted heads replaced with heads kindly supplied by Steve at Battlezone.   I didn't do a couple of the heads that well but I don't have any spares and couldn't be arsed to take them off and redrill them etc. With the exception of the bazooka man the minimal kit that the USMC figures are wearing suits perfectly for ALN mujahedeen.  They fit very well with the  USMC raiders I used for the first batch ( see here ).  The ALN force is growing nicely now.   Apart from adding a few more khaki items of clothing, they were painted in exactly the same way as the first batch so check the above link for full details.   The bazooka man is well equipped.  Although I have given him the custo...

Blimey we're already into March where did that time go?  I've found the last week a genuine pain.  The detailed nature of the work I do, combined with the hobby and reading demands has meant that I've had some sight issues over the last couple of weeks.  I haven't been able to spend that much time on the hobby, but I have managed to get some bits done. Painting/modelling   Completed the base for the Battlezone Miniatures WW2 US Army MG team who'll be used as French troops in Algeria shown here . Painted up seven Battlezone US Marines all with head swaps.  I just need to complete the basing on these. Painted up five Battlezone WW2 Red Army riflemen.  These also just need the bases to be completed. Started to redo the bases for my Elhiem French Paras for Algeria.  This is the last of the existing figures that I've redone for the Algeria project.   Base reworking in progress with Dulux Research Nearly at the end of A Savage War of...

While my main focus has been preparing an ALN force, I have managed to do a few French figures over the last couple of weeks. First up is a Battlefield Miniatures WW2 Free French SAS figure repurposed as a French Air Commando for Algeria.  I bought this pack back 2006 but hadn't painted this figure, I think because I was looking for fighting poses.  He's actually a nice little sculpt.  I've painted him as wearing the earlier green M47 tenue de saut uniform and the distinctive black beret.  Such a shame that Battlefield Miniatures are no longer going even if they did reduce their offering over the years.  They did some really different and well researched figures.   Next is a Battlezone Miniatures (ex Sgt, Major Miniatures) USMC figure to be used as a French infantry NCO or officer in Algeria.  I think this is a lovely sculpt.  I used the rest of this pack as ALN and swapped the heads, but this pose meant I couldn't do that.  He work...

I reworked the bases of the Battlefield/Blitz Miniatures Moroccan Goumiers last week.  As explained here although these were WW2 era, they make very good ALN fighters for the Algerian War. Eight were painted up straight out the pack as it were (although that was some 15 years ago if I remember right).   Four had their heads swapped which was their second time, they're the Worzel Gummidge of wargames figures.  I replaced the original cast US M1917A1 helmet head with US M1s to make them suitable for fighting for the French in Indo-China.  They'll see more action as ALN in Algeria though.   The head swaps aren't that great.  I rushed into it a bit and a couple look oversized.  I'll put it down to them having strange genetics.  You can probably spot them in the photos.   All the bases were painted with patches of Dulux Sumatran Sunset dabbed onto the sand mix.  This was then drybrushed with my Dulux colour match of VMC Ir...