Home Forums General General Your most obscure project?

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  • #16452
    Avatar photoShandy
    Participant

    Hi!

    All yesterday evening, I’ve been researching figures for a small side project I’m contemplating and the result was very disappointing. This is no wonder because the topic is rather obscure, but it got me thinking about my love for obscure periods and conflicts. Are others suffering from the same affliction? What’s the most obscure project you have ever collected or played?

    Also, if you didn’t find the historical correct figures, would you use others that might just work or would you drop the project?

    Cheers

    Shandy

    P.S.: Ok, I know that ‘obscure’ is rather subjective, but let’s define it as conflicts where 1. figures and 2. references concerning equipment, clothing etc. are hard to get and your pals just have a blank look on their faces when you tell them about it 🙂

    #16505
    Avatar photoRobey Jenkins
    Participant

    Re-painting Moshlings from the MoshiMonsters children’s toy range. That’s probably the most obscure thing I’ve tried.

     

    seriously, though, I’m working on a Border Reivers project. There is one good 28mm range, but I only stumbled upon it by chance.

     

    R.

    #19123
    Avatar photoEdzard
    Participant

    Being busy with Dutch for Flames of War, some guys took it over and actually made it a real and accepted for play pdf download. I even painted some Romanians to look like Dutch, but the project petered out with the lack of playing any Flames of War games.

    #19133
    Avatar photoJohn
    Participant

    1/2400 Pre Dreadnoughts. Ordered tow whole navies from the US, had moved onto Chain of command by the time they arrived (4 months!) and they are still sitting in a box in their undercoats.

    To model the effect of Nuclear weapons on the wargaming table, apply jerry can of fuel to board, light match and stand well back.

    #19140
    Avatar photoRules Junkie Jim
    Participant

    Shandy, what was your obscure project?  Have you given up on it?

    I occasionally hanker after definite data on 17th Century Sailing vessels for Ottoman and Venetian navies, but I’ve warmed to the mystery.

    #19143
    Avatar photoNick the Lemming
    Participant

    My obscure projects are pretty mainstream – Spanish Civil War, Sudan, French Indian Wars, and VBCW. They’re more obscure than my other projects though – ECW / TYW, ACW, Ancients (Punic wars, Successors, Early Medieval, HYW), 7YW, Napoleonics, WW2, and 1980s Cold War.

    #19145
    Avatar photoJohn D Salt
    Participant

    I don’t really go in for weird stuff myself, so the obscurest game I’ve ever put on was probably the one about the air defence of the UK in October 1962, assuming that the Cuban thing might have got out of hand. Consequently I have what I think are some pretty good orbats for RAF fighter and bomber commands and the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish air forces for that time. I was quite pleased when an article published in RUSI Journal some years later agreed quite closely with my estimate of the UK’s nuclear weapons inventory at the time (I think we must have read the same public records).

    This was hardly a suitable subject for miniatures, but I did make up a set of counters for the game; my avatar is the counter for 266 Squadron, based at Rattlesden.

    As a regular attender at COW, I have of course participated in games dealing with such things as giant Japanese aircraft-carrying submarines attempting to raid the US West Coast in 1945, the fortification of Alderney during the German occupation, the suppression of the Cathars, the 1979 assault on the Mosque of the Ka’aba, FARC-EP’s capture of three US military contractors in Feb 2003 (later released in Op Jacque), and the Soviet use of dog-mines against the panzers. Only the last two of these involved miniatures, though.

    I have in idle moments thought that it might be fun to get some of HaT’s 25mm plastic khaki drill infantry in pith helmets, and perhaps some indans from the same period, hack about some other figures to produce a few Waziri bandits, and try a few skirmish games based on the Pursuit of the Faqir of Ipi (always my favourite scenario title in SPI’s “Patrol!” boardgame).

    All the best,

    John.

    #19146
    Avatar photoirishserb
    Participant

    Some years back, I put together a late Victorian era adventure and piracy game that I called “Ponape”.  A 28mm colonial adventure set in the Pacific that pulled various bits from history and Hollywood manifesting as a miniatures game with some role playing and some shoot-em-ups.  Players would run a faction that could be military or civilian, and try to achieve various objectives that could include slave trading , gun running, protecting missions, stealing treasure, protecting natives, gaining treaties for coaling stations, stealing (or sinking) ships, etc.  Very tongue in cheek and made a great convention game.

    #19159
    Avatar photoShandy
    Participant

    Shandy, what was your obscure project? Have you given up on it?

    No, I’m running full steam ahead! The project is the Haitian Revolution in 15mm… I’ve now got figures (using all kinds that look ok) and also some information on how to paint them 

    I’ll put something up on the blog some time soon.

    #19160
    Avatar photoEtranger
    Participant

    Probably the most obscure thing I’ve done is the French Indochina War in 15mm. It’s not that obscure, but provides for some interesting and odd pieces of kit. Where else can you find Japanese troops attached to a Gurkha company? Or M29 Weasels used as assault craft?

    #19165
    Avatar photoRules Junkie Jim
    Participant

    The project is the Haitian Revolution in 15mm…

    Excellent! Can’t wait to see what you’re going to do there. In the Fire As She Bears Caribbean Compendium there’s a map for running a Haitian Revolution campaign (predominantly from a naval POV) that I found very intriguing. It struck me as being an excellent choice for running a manageable campaign with unusual forces and a range of tactics/engagements.

    #19176
    Avatar photoShandy
    Participant

    Jim, thanks for pointing me towards the Fire As She Bears Caribbean Compendium – I just downloaded it, this is a great resource for naval scenarios (I’ve also been thinking of combining my project with some naval actions, Kiss Me Hardy being my favorite ruleset in this regard).

    I’ve written some preliminary stuff about the project (which period, armies and figures) last week on my blog: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/napoleonics-but-not-as-you-know-it/

    I’ve really been captivated by the period and have already spent more money on books than on figures 

    #19205
    Avatar photoRules Junkie Jim
    Participant

    All part of the fun, Shandy! I’ve been taking a look at Sharp Practice reviews after reading your blog, and of course now I want them. The small boat action possibilities has set my mind racing, and besides, I like TFL rules anyway.

    #19518
    Avatar photoGuy Farrish
    Participant

    As the Swedish Government in one of John Salt’s nuclear threshold games I can say it was obscure and brilliantly done. I particularly liked getting poker chips as a reward for not shooting down passing Bears and triggering a nuclear holocaust. (deja vu at the moment).

    I suppose my most obscure game would be the Campaign in Togoland in 1914 – using Peter Laing figures racing for the HF transmitter in Kamina (against the French- with the Germans as interesting obstacles, although they proved rather more of a hurdle than envisaged).

     

    #19536
    Avatar photoIvan Sorensen
    Participant

    Russian Civil War I guess. Nothing terribly obscure.

    #19539
    Avatar photoMcLaddie
    Participant

    Does the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49 rank as ‘obscure’?   Done a lot of research on that. My son lived in Germany for a while as was able to bet to Hungary at times.

    Hungarian Artillery and 3rd d’Estes Hussars.  Large armies. The Hungarians infantry  and artillery dressed like Hussars and all the cavalry were Hussars and Lancers.

    Hungarian Artillery3rd d'Estes Hussars

    #19540
    Avatar photoIvan Sorensen
    Participant

    Black powder revolutionary street fighting? I’d be all over that.

    #19832
    Avatar photoBrigadier General
    Participant

    1995 Alto Cenepa War.

    formerly known as "wargamer1972"

    #19842
    Avatar photoSteve Johnson
    Participant

    The British invasion of Madagascar in 1942 is planned at some point and is pretty left field I think. A current one is the 1st Schleswig-Holstein War that is a work in progress.

    #20148
    Avatar photoHoward Whitehouse
    Participant

    I always manage to do obscure things before an actual manufacturer makes figures for them.

    Mahratta wars, converted from any Indian figures I could find. 6mm Belgians in King Leopold’s Congo.

    British Napoleonic marines converted from Swedes, and sailors from Confederates. Why yes, of course you can buy them now.

    Anyone know what C1st Cantabrians and Asturians looked like?

    I do all my own stunts.

    #20268
    Avatar photoAltius
    Participant

    I seem to be drawn to the more obscure conflicts more than the big, universally familiar wars.

    Let’s see… I’ve invested pretty heavily in the Mexican-American War in 28mm. I’ve got about two division’s worth of both Mexicans and Americans, enough to do almost any battle in the war. But that’s merely uncommon, not obscure, since there are a couple of other guys around here that play it.

    The Portuguese Colonial Wars of the 1960s-1970s in 15mm. As far as I can tell, no one else I know is doing that period, so it’s pretty obscure.

    Where there is fire, we will carry gasoline

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