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No I’m going to use No End in Sight.
There’s a squad level variant that would work well with the Sandbox system and/or I will just do multiple squad / platoon level scenario based games, using the NEiS scenario generation and campaign system as it is.
I think.
I’ve now finished the fields, although one went in the bin after the Matt varnish ended up gloss. It looked a bit like a frozen pool of mud, which is fine were it not destined for an imaginary desert somewhere near the Arabian Gulf.
The various crops are made from artificial wire wool pads cut in half and glued down with PVA, which is taking ages to set despite use of my daughter’s hair dryer and much expletive Anglo Saxon encouragement. Mental note to self…get a glue gun.
The crops are a bit overscale for 15mm but that’s so I can use them for 20mm Mexican Revolution games too. I’m not sure what they’re growing but it will be a right bugger to harvest, whatever it is.
Looks like a bumper crop though, so the rebel tax collectors will be happy.
Or, should I just crack on with painting the British infantry platoon and its transport?
I’m quite tempted to do this, rather than do more terrain bits, as I’m finding that they take up a lot of time for not much of a result, if you see what I mean?
The British platoon is already undercoated, so I could start on that straight away, but I’m waiting for some Humber Pigs, Landrovers, a Ferret and a Stalwart to arrive from QRF (still), before I can get all of the vehicles sorted.
Incidentally, I usually paint up from a black undercoat on both figures and vehicles, as you can see from these AK47 units:
However, I’m not sure this would work with the British vehicles as they are going to be in sand and green camouflage, which will be really dulled down by the black undercoat, even if I use a three layer approach.
I’d use a white or sand /khaki undercoat but that would be a pain to have to shade and pin wash to bring out the details?
Any suggestions about the best way to go about this (and the figures too, although I think I’ll stick with a khaki basecoat for those now, as that’s how they’ve been undercoated).
I think the deciding question would be, “Do you have enough terrain for a game?”
If the answer is “Yes”, then crack on with the figures as that’s what you want to do – so do that to keep your enthusiasm up
If it’s “No”, then do enough for a game and then start the figures.
As to terrain, how about some vehicles for your urban scatter? a tractor, lorry, etc.; either wrecks or runners and you could use them for AK47 as well?
And on the painting – I use Halfords grey for everything, so probably not well qualified to answer
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Seconding Mr Nash here: would agree that moving on to some figs would be a good way to go – sounds to me like the terrain might be adequate for some initial skirmishes, and you don’t want to get bogged down on boring buildings when you can be doing cool minis – besides, we get to see the pretty photos of them then, too
Scenics-wise, maybe some ditches, gullies, wadi-type thingies might be needed eventually, as well as some rubble walls as field boundaries….. Perhaps the odd picturesque donkey or two…. Also maybe a road junction with checkpoint type affair? – need somewhere for those arms-smuggling camels to be looked over…..
The odd ‘Roman’ ruin could even put in an appearance – (the hideout of the rebels?) – plenty of ancient rubble littering the Near and Middle East – Leptis Magna and all that…..
For painting, I’m no expert, but would agree with a khaki base coat- maybe followed with a wash and then dry brush before painting in block colours over the top? – Deffo the black would be too much, IMO…..
The basic village set up looks a bit like this at the moment…
…definitely needs some more scatter and stuff.
I may well make a pond or well, some haystacks and a grain store of some sort, having heard tales from my grandad about blowing them up in 1937-38 with old WW1 vintage Cooper bombs, assuming they didn’t drop off and self arm when he was taxiing across the airstrip to take off
Yes they do look nice, especially the oven and market wares. Pay day tomorrow too
In other news my QRF Humber Pigs and SWB Land rover have finally turned up. Very nice too.
This is Cyprus but very much the look that I’m after for the Sandbox Skirmish project, complete with my new QRF Humber Pigs.
Have you got any of the Crom’s Anvil scatter bits? I’ve got them and think that they are pretty good – probably exactly the sort of thing that you’re looking for …
Cheers dude!
Oh and if you do place an order I have some desert plants I can throw in for free. Sort of scrub type stuff.
Loads of bits and bobs arrived in the post today, much to the annoyance of SWMBO, who has now banned any more toys until after Xmas.
Bah Humbug!
These included some road and terrain templates from Supreme Littleness Designs…which are excellent!
Even more excellent than that, Michael has resized and laser cut a 15mm version of his amazing desert fort ruin for me, for which I am very grateful, as it looks super cool! (it’s actually an 18/20mm version but scales really well with the Peter Pig figures)
There’s also a diecast Westland Wessex but one of the rotor blades has snapped off, so I’ll have to fix it.
Loads to do now but the figures still need painting!
More on the blog: https://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/Sandbox%20Skirmish
Michael has now sent me the instructions for assembling the ruined fort kit, so I will hopefully put it together tomorrow, if I get all the DIY done first
…and don’t get told off for ‘playing with my toys’
Reading this now…really interesting and obviously right up my street for this project.
I’ve been thinking of the possible scenarios that I could set up for this project, which is focussed on a post colonial, retreat from empire, counter insurgency operation, in an as yet indeterminate ‘imagi-nations’ location, not unlike East Africa or South Arabia.
So far the list looks a bit like this, with all missions being set for the British platoon but with matching objectives, victory conditions etc for the rebels:
-Setting an Ambush.
-Intercepting supply lines.
-Capturing arms caches.
-Hearts and Minds.
-Escorting a supply column.
-Night patrol.
-Night raid on rebel camp.
-Rescue the downed pilot.
-Blow up the downed aircraft.
– Recover the mined AFV
-Mine / IED clearance.
-Escort the visiting politician / journalists.
-Rescue the ex-pat oil workers / missionaries / journalists.
-Helo Air assault on rebel held village.
-Find the rebel leader.
-Protect the civilians villagers from rebels attack.
-Road block traffic search.
-Punitive raid to confiscate livestock / crops.
-Stop rebel infiltration across border line.
-Link up with / insert / extract Special Forces.
-Infiltrate across border to set traps / mines.
-Blow up a bridge / railway / road in rebel area (not sure why but why not?)
– as above but repair.
-Capture prisoners for interrogation.
-Defend supply dump, forward base, polling station, oil refinery, radio station or whatever.
-Amphibious raid on rebel coastal strip.
-Field test the new bit of kit (..Scorpion tanks!)
-Find that camel!
…and whatever else you can think of to fill in any gaps that I’ve missed.
Any ideas would be very welcome.
Thanks.
Jim
https://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/11/setting-scene-scenarios.html
I’ve been really busy but have had a fiddle about with the excellent Supreme Littleness Designs road templates to see what I can do with them, apart from just sections of dirt track which I’m doing anyway. I’m hoping to find time to blitz a load of dirt track sections asap.
Started on the straight and curved road sections, using the Supreme Littleness Designs templates, which are brilliant!
As I will soon have some roads (fingers crossed) and a road block checkpoint as well, I thought I needed to have a rebel vehicle for the squaddies to stop and search.
Eh Voila!
A Peter Pig WW2 French lorry with a retro fitted Skytrex truck load of barrels, no doubt concealing an entire rebel squad!
I’m liking that idea. Loads of chaos and a big headache in the making for the British.
I can see that being a lot of fun to play out and with loads of replay potential.
Thanks
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