Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

I finished off these figures at the end of May.  Four are painted as ALN fellaghas for the Algerian War and one is a Viet-Minh - I'm sure you can guess which.  Apologies for the photos I just couldn't seem to get them right.   They are actually US Marine Raiders Command from Battlezone Miniatures , Sgt Major Miniatures sculpts.  I picked up this pack and some German Panzer-Grenadiers from Steve at Salute.  Whether in person or over email Steve's service is second to none.  Top bloke.   The US Marine Raiders range has proved invaluable and I've used all of the packs in my ALN force.  Those figures in this range that are sculpted as Filipinos with obvious Asian features or clothing I've finished as Viet-Minh for my First Indo-China War project.  As no one makes any specific figures for the  ALN (or for the Algerian War at all come to that) I've had to really look into things and improvise throughout this project.  I think th...

Here's the summary of my hobby activity for the last full week of February: Gaming I played a solo game of Ambush Alley in the French Indo-China War.  Read about it here Painting/modelling   Quite busy with a lot of different bits going on: Completed the Battlezone Native raiders detailed here . Completed the old Blitz Miniatures figures that I'd swapped the heads on to make them more suitable for ALN fighters.  Reworked the bases on my old Blitz Miniatures WW2 goumier figures that I'm using for ALN fighters. Completed an old Battlefield Miniatures WW2 French para.  I also reworked the bases on the existing painted  Battlefield Miniatures WW2 French paras  Painted up and based a Battlezone Marine who'll do perfectly as a French officer in Algeria. Nearly completed a Battlezone MG team with just the base to do.  I cleaned up another seven Battlezone US Marines and took their heads off ready for a swap.  I cleaned up the pac...

I've had the the original Ambush Alley and then the Osprey Force on Force rules since they were first released.  Although I like them and have been meaning to use them I never have - which is like many of the rules I own.   For this first game I amended the Contracting Trouble scenario which appears in both the old AA rules and the pretty Osprey FoF.  You can download the full scenario details here . Mission Brief A team of French Groupement de commandos mixtes aéroportés (GCMA) have been attacked while visiting a contact at a village.  The villagers have since disappeared leaving them pinned down by Viet Minh.  A squad of the 8e BPC (battalion parachutiste de choc) are in the vicinity and hearing the gunfire make for the village. French (Regular) Mission Objective  The paras must locate the GCMA team and escort them off the south table edge. The GCMA are wounded and out of ammunition by the time the paras arrive on the table and may not fire on t...

I completed the Battlezone Miniatures Native Resistance Fighters this week.  I originally bought them for the Algerian War project, but on close inspection upon arrival, the Oriental features and dress meant they're far more suitable for the French Indo-China War.  Therefore, I painted them up as some  indigenous irregulars fighting for the French such as the Hmong/Mong peoples. They're also sculpted in a very different style to the USMC Raiders .  They're much chunkier and taller and they fit better with the Liberation Miniatures figures which make up nearly all my Indo-China collection.  The pack of seven contained one figure with a bush hat who makes a very good Groupement de commandos mixtes aéroportés soldier working with the irregulars as many bravely did.  I also added in the USMC Raider figure that I felt didn't work as an ALN fighter for the Algerian War. The irregulars skin was painted first with Citadel Tallarn Flesh and then washed with AP Dark ...

Third week of Feb and here's the summary of my hobby activity: Painting/modelling   I finished off the Battlezone Miniatures USMC raiders which I'm using as ALN fighters for the Algerian War project.  Have a look here I did some surgery on  a few old Battlefield Miniatures figures and swapped their heads to make them more suitable for ALN.  I cleaned up a pack of Battlezone Native raiders.  These are much bigger figures than the USMC Raiders in a very different style and must have been done by a different sculptor.  Due to the oriental features and clothing I decided to do them for Indo-China rather than Algeria which was their intended purpose. I cleaned up a Battlezone MG team which will do as French conscripts in Algeria. I found an old Battlefield Miniatures WW2 French para which works as well for Indo-China or Algeria so added him to the table while I was in the zone. I cleaned up another few Battlezone US Marines and took their hea...

This is what I've been working on this week. Painting/modelling   I made a few batches of different shades of clump foliage out of old dish scourers.  I really like doing this sort of thing as they would have ended up in landfill.  They took no time and little effort to do.  Each scourer made a small bag of material.  When I've honed the technique and make more I'll do a post on it. I made some more jungle terrain to act as a link between my Vietnamese village and the jungle - more pics here . I cleaned up and started to paint a squad of Battlezone Miniatures USMC raiders to be used as ALN fighters for the Algerian War project. Research I'm well into A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne now.  What a great book it is. I'm still researching the French Algerian and Indo-China Wars as and when time allows.   Purchases Very restrained this week with only a few things coming in: I ordered a couple of packets of Swamp Green Tall Wild Tufts from S...

On the back of making a base for my Indo-China/Vietnamese buildings I decided to make some additional scatter bases to extend the village into the surrounding jungle. The techniques used have been mainly covered in the jungle terrain posts I did last year.  However, as these pieces were more a part of the village than the deep jungle, I used the village red-earth tones rather than the darker jungle tones.  If you want to read what I did please have a look at these posts.  Otherwise the rest of this post is photos!  Judging by the positive comments I've received people should like these too.  

This is what I've been working on in the first week of Feb. Painting/modelling   I finished revamping the bases of my French Indo-China War figures so they fit in better with the terrain.  They got a dark wash and then I added a mix of static grass and lichen (which I'd put through an old blender) and then various grass tufts.  Finally I added a few more earth tones. They look a lot better now. I made a base for my Indo-China village buildings detailed  here . I did some more to my jungle scatter terrain, adding a few more earth tones to the bases.  I really need to stop fiddling about with these.   Painted a load of corrugated cardboard in preparation for making yet more jungle terrain and started to make some more.  You can't have enough. Village surround in progress I've been experimenting with making my own scatter material.  I'll probably do a post on this later. Research I started to read A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne aga...

I painted these Vietnamese buildings from SHQ donkey's years ago but they've never made it to the table top.  With my interest in the French Wars of Decolonisation reinvigorated it was time to change that.  But first they needed a home. I've been playing about with EVA foam for a couple of weeks or so.  I did some tests to see how it would take different types of paint (emulsion, cheap craft acrylics, hobby acrylics) and how sand and filler would adhere to it.  It fared well with all of these tests.  Now was the time to actually do something with it. After looking at a plethora of photos of Vietnamese buildings and villages (both real and model) I positioned the buildings and drew round them to mark their footprints.   Then the fun bit.  I used cheap household filler from Amazon to add a layer of texture to the whole of the base.  This was simpler than I anticipated when going around the buildings footprints.  The whole lot was left to d...

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'...

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 ...

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 So...