Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Introduction Belarus early June 1944.  As the Red Army prepares to launch Operation Bagration, partisan activity increases.  In retaliation the Germans launch a series of anti-partisan operations.  As part of a much wider action, a German Police unit moves into some woodland to check on an old logging camp which is suspected of being used to store partisan supplies.  At the same time a reinforced partisan force are there to secure their supplies for future operations.  Who will be the victors in this no-quarter given battle? This game of Battlegroup uses forces chosen from the Partisan Battlegroup and German Security Battlegroup from the Bagration supplement.   German Security Division Battlegroup:  One Police platoon of: Command team ( 5 men); three  squads each consisting of one rifle team (each 5 men) and one LMG team (each 3 men, upgraded to MG34s); one Alarm squad (SS) of 1 rifle team (5men) and I MG34 LMG team (3 men); one Fe...

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all have a marvellous 2024.  I'm doing something a bit different this year.  Usually I split the year into three sections of four months with Salute in April being the first key point to work towards.  For 2024 I'm trying out the Ovelist approach of The Hobby Support Group.  I've chosen  nine things to work on for the whole year.  I'm still going to take those check points at April and August and revise if needed. The starting numbers for the year are: 128 28mm; 10 20mm and 152 15mm.  I started 2023 with 321 unpainted figures made up of 108 28mm, 53 15mm and 163 10mm so broadly similar, just replacing the 10mm for 15mm really.    New projects I've currently got one brand new project to work on: 1st Century. A.D Imperial Rome.  I've had the Infamy, Infamy rules for well over a year now, but could never find figures I liked as I wanted to do it in smaller scale.  I really liked Cromarty Forges' 10mm...

Here we are for the last monthly update of 2023.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas time and I wish you all the best for the New Year.  May your brushes always keep their points and may your dice roll the numbers you need.  This is quite a long update, as I've had a bit of time off and managed to crack on.  Completed I completed the following this month: I finally drilled the holes and attached the magnets for the bases of the 28mm Second World War Feldgendarmerie that I completed in the summer.  While I had the Dremel out I drilled the magnet holes for all the 25mm MDF bases that I had and also managed to get the collet well and truly stuck!   Copplestone Castings Partisans.  Sold as part of the Back of Beyond Russian Civil War range, these are great figures that I'll be using for Second World War games.  You can see more here . On the back of this I also added some new heads and weapons to two Warlord Games plastic Red Army infantryman ...

I picked up a packet of Copplestone Castings Russian Civil War Partisans at the end of November.  I'm always on the lookout for more Partisans to add to my Second World War Partisan force and these are perfect being clothed and armed just as appropriately for the later conflict. You get ten figures in the pack.  I got seven unique figures and three duplicates in the pack.  I don't like duplicates in any scale, but particularly for skirmish games so I swapped the heads on three figures.  Two of the duplicates got heads from the plastic Warlord Games Red Army Infantry set, with the third getting a head from one of the Victrix Dark Ages sets (I'm not sure which one).  There's something very tactile when painting metals, more so than with a plastic figure.  Perhaps it's the details are cut different or just they weigh more and feel better in the hand.  Certain elements are chunkier, such as the weapons but I found these to be very well proportioned.  ...

Background Belarus 1943.  After the failure of the inept Sonderkommando Dirlewanger’s attempt at eliminating Kapitan Deyna’s Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) partisans ( read here ), the German command turn to a regular Heer unit to try and destroy the partisans.   Table Set up The game is played on a 3ft x 2.5 ft game mat.  The area is heavily wooded, closed forest which provide cover and potential ambush points.  The terrain hampers movement, reducing all movement to Cautious movement of 6 inches.  One side of the table also consists of a boggy area and is even more difficult to traverse.   Six numbered hotspots have been placed on the table from which the German forces will deploy.  The reinforcement level is 5, therefore German units will deploy on anything other than a 6 being rolled on a d6.  Roll d6 and consult the reinforcement table to see which German unit deploys and roll d6 to determine which Hotspot they deploy at.  The...

Background Belarus 1943.  During an anti-partisan operation (Bandenbekämpfung) an Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) unit is trying to escape encirclement.  They have managed to escape their pursuers, but now elements of the infamous Sonderkommando Dirlewanger are closing in.  Can they escape as the cordon tightens? Table Set up The game is played on a 3ft x 2.5 ft game mat.  The area is heavily wooded, closed forest which provide cover and potential ambush points.  The terrain also hampers movement, reducing all movement to Cautious movement of 6 inches.   There are no German units on the table as the game begins.  Six numbered hotspots have been placed on the table from which the German forces will deploy.  The reinforcement level is 5, therefore German units will deploy on anything other than a 6 being rolled on a D6.  Roll on the reinforcement table to see which German unit deploys and roll D6 to see which Hotspot they deploy at. ...