Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Well February has come and gone.  Apart from a week where I'd picked up a nasty cold (from having to sit with daft people at work that shouldn't have been in), it's been quite a good month with more hobby progress. Completed I've completed: A trio of Victrix Ancient Germans that I did as generic Dark Age warriors.  More of these here . Seven 20mm Second World War Red Army Assault Engineers.  These were really great Sgt.Major Miniatures figures that I completed quite quickly  Four 20mm Second World War German Grenadiers.  More Sgt.Major Miniatures sculpts you can see more of these and the Red Army here .  That's all my 20mm completed. Two 28mm Burrows & Badgers squirrels.  A lovely pair of miniatures, you can see more of them here . As I did in January, once I'd completed some figures I turned to terrain: I completed a couple of wooded areas for smaller scale games.  I'll post a step by step guide for these next month. In progress On the table ...

Introduction We return to the ruined streets of Grozniansk.  Senior Sergeant Orlov and Corporal Pekarsky (veterans of the Federal Special Forces), are on a mission to locate a bag of classified government files that were stashed at the base of the War Memorial in Victory Square.  The square is in the territory of the self styled Lord of the Dead, Betaevski and his undead minions.  Will the soldiers be able to complete their mission without ending up on the menu?  The stats for both forces can be found here . The Soldiers Betaevski and the dead Round 1 Start positions, Soldiers (red), Undead (blue) Strangely as Senior Sergeant Orlov is a tactician, Betaevski and his zombies gain the initiative.  Betaevski uses two actions to Move to the corner of the War Memorial.  This brings him into LoS of the Soldiers so he Shoots at Orlov who is leading his unit.  He hits him and straightaway the leader of the Soldiers is Down . Orlov activates next and takes ...

As part of clearing last year's Salute acquisitions before this year's show and inevitable acquisitions, I've completed this pair of squirrels from the marvellous Burrows and Badgers range by Oathsworn Miniatures.  As with all the Burrows and Badgers miniatures they are a joy to paint.  Once I start I finish them relatively quickly and I'm not a quick painter by any means. I've been collecting and painting these miniatures since 2016 and thought a lot about them over the years.  There's something deceptively clever about them.  They're chunky, quite simple but they're really elegantly designed.  I find them really therapeutic to paint, like colouring in.  And I mean that as the greatest compliment to Michael Lovejoy. One of my Salute rituals is to buy a handful of B&B figures that I'll paint over the rest of the year.  I use them as a little treat or break between other projects.   I'm looking forward to picking up some more at this year'...

Introduction Budapest February 1945.  After a 100-day siege and three failed relief attempt, Obergruppenfuhrer Pfeffer-Wildenbruch of the IX. SS-Gebirgs Corps finally gives the order for the garrison to breakout.  It’s far too late and the breakout is an uncoordinated disaster with small pockets of men cut to pieces by the Red Army.  This is an action of one such group made up of nine survivors from the 22. SS-Freiwilligen Kavallerie-Division. Set up The game is played on a 3ft x 2ft game mat.  The area is full of rubble and debris created during the siege.  Six numbered hotspots have been placed on the table from which the Red Army forces will deploy.  The length of the game is 8 turns.   Full details of the forces, including the Insurgency Table used for the game can be found here . Starting position, SS at the bottom Turn 1 The SS cavalry move cautiously up, aware of the need not to attract any Red Army attention.  The SS cautiously m...

I read Douglas Nash’s excellent "From the Realm of a Dying Sun" volume II in January and it inspired me to play a couple of games of Battlegroup.  Late Second World War Eastern Front is my favourite period.  I started playing Battlegroup last year, and only got two games in.  I'm determined to get more familiar with the system this year. Game One The first game involved the combat of Kampfgruppe Huppert, formed from elements of the 1st Panzer Division, SS-Regiment Ney (comprised of Hungarian volunteers) and Panzer-Jager Battalion 37.  This was a squad level game of around 350 points a side using the Attack/Counter-attack scenario from the Battlegroup rulebook.  The forces were taken from the Fall of the Reich and Spring Awakening supplements. The Red Army started quickly using their scout team and a platoon of T-34/85s to capture two of the objectives, a hill and a wood.  The German/Hungarian force responded strongly and some good shooting from the Heer Pz-...