Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Mission Brief On a mission in the djebel a company from the 1er Régiment Etranger de Parachutistes (1er REP) have taken casualties, including their beloved commander Capitaine Charbonnier.  Having requested a helicopter medical evacuation a small unit of paras are trying to get the Capitaine to the landing zone.  Can they get the Capitaine to safety before the  Algerian Nationalist Armée de libération nationale (ALN) close in? Table Set up The game is played on a 3ft x 3ft game mat.  The area is hilly and undulating with rocky outcrops and scrubby vegetation which provide cover and potential ambush points.  There is one flatter area of ground which has been identified as a possible landing zone for the helicopter.  Six numbered hotspots have been placed on the table from which any insurgents will generate from.  Roll to see where the initial ALN forces will deploy.   Starting positions Game length The length of the game is 10 turns.  The...

On the hobby front May has been a mix of finishing and fiddling about trying things.  At first I thought I hadn’t done much but on review I have, so this is a long one! Completed I started the month making some scatter terrain for swamp/marsh areas:    I then spent some time looking at micro armour, painting up some Heroics & Ros and Butlers' Printed Models samples I've had for years.  I wrote up a comparison which you can see here . Going up a notch in scale to 10mm I painted up the two Pendraken M24s that I bought at Salute.  Lovely little models.  Not sure what I'll do with them though.  And going up to 1/72nd scale I finished off painting the H-21 and H-34 helicopters for the Algerian War project.  I also painted up the 6 helicopter pilots from Elhiem to go in them.    You can see more of them here .  Completing the 'copters got me back into the Algerian War mind set so I knocked out 4 more ALN fighters.  These were act...

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...

I finished off the two 1/72nd scale French helicopters last week, a Piasecki  H-21 and a Sikorsky H-34.   These are both Amercom Collection diecast and plastic pre-built models from the Helicopters magazine series.  I got these off  eBay at the start of 2022 from a local seller, we did a deal on the pair and I picked them up which saved a lot on postage which was nice. First off the Piasecki H-21C.  These helicopters made a real difference when they became available to the French in Algeria.  Their capability to take 20 men meant whole platoons could be transported quickly.   My favourite is the Sikorsky H-34.  These were used in a variety of roles.  Most famously they were armed with various machine guns and light cannons and used as gunships.  The French in Algeria were the true pioneers of helicopter warfare.   When I got them, the H-21 was in USAF camouflage and the H-34 in French Marine colours. I ...