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John D Salt wrote:

was the statement that the training standards of British airborne forces required them to run 200 yards in 16 seconds in full kit. If you would care to engage in a modest amount of calculation, that turns out to be 11.43 m/s, or a bit over 41 km/h, faster than Usain Bolt over a similar distance.

I knew the paras were fit, but that would be seriously impressive, especially whilst carrying the baseplate for a 3″ mortar.

Mistakes in writing/copying occur, especially when using secondary or foreign language sources, which multiply the opportunities for error. Editors & proof readers usually weed the worst out, but may lack the specialist knowledge needed. Sometimes though it can just be carelessness. It happens in professional journals too, at least in Medicine.

The former Mdm Etranger once put in an advertisement for candidates to perform research into ‘Gender Bias in Law’.  Unfortunately the published advert was for ‘Genre Bias…’, which got past the Law Society and it’s secretary, copywriters, the advertising manager and the type-setters at the newspaper too.

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Bee hives can be quite devastating https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/the-battle-of-the-bees/

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Not for Ogre, but I do – the rationale being that it reduces at least the chance of visual/optical identification. There are currently experiments in ‘mimetic’ and ‘kinetic’ camouflage going on, so I can justify it. Of course if your terrain is pink and purple, then those are the colours that would be suitable for cammo.

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I’ve got two. The cheapie occasionally gets an outing for scenery but the ‘proper’ one has lived unused in it’s box for many years. Nice to have but by no means essential.

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I’d bet that it’s continued existence in some sort of electronic Purgatory pisses Bill right off though…

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“The section consists of a leader and six men, which is, generally speaking, as large a number of men as can effectively handle their weapons under the direction of one commander in the fight.”

Thinking back historically that ratio of ‘leaders’ to ‘men’ has been fairly constant. right back to antiquity – eg an 8 deep file of pikemen in a phalanx, a ‘lance’ of 4-6 men at arms, archers etc &  down to USMC fireteams.

John (and others), do you think that the advent of modern communications and monitoring (eg drones, personal radios, body cameras etc) has made any difference to this, or is C & C at small unit level always going to be dependent on a similar ratio?

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MartinR wrote:

… The book organisation of the Rumanian army would make them one of the most heavily equipped in WW2, but I suspect these infantry heavy orgs either weren’t up to strength or just provided lots of targets.

Given their casualty lists, the latter is quite possible!

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I must rejoin! I dropped off with the last reboot.

 

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The figures are nice, I’ve got the initial release – straight into the painting pile of course.

 

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As to what a tank is, sometimes even the manufacturers don’t know! Behold the Guy Wheeled tank….

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/gb/Guy-Armoured-Car.php

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Deleted User wrote:

@Mike Headden You’re right, its based on the Mk VI. No idea about the Pz III conversion, I’m a WWII tank noob. From the stress on the front suspension though those guns must be real heavy. On the other hand I found a tankette for the US, Marmon-Herrington CTLS.

The MH came in 2 versions, with R or L handed turrets…

 

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Deleted User wrote:

I googled “German Bren Carrier” This is officially my favorite tank of WWII.

Major Becker’s first conversion, using the chassis of the Mark VI light tank (not a carrier) , to produce a battery of 12 SP 105 mm howitzers for his artillery regiment, part of the 227th Infantry division. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10.5_cm_leFH_16_Gesch%C3%BCtzwagen_Mk_VI_736_(e)

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Very nice ships.

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Minifigs spears are infamously bendy & spaghetti is definitely the right word for them. I’ve cut them off many a 15mm Minifigs ECW pikeman to replace them with florists’s wire. Piano wire is far too hard to cut – it’s completely buggered up my Xuron cutters. You can still draw blood with florist’s wire though!

My approach is to cut away all the spear/pike & then drill out the hand using a hand chuck and appropriately sized microdrill. Done carefully, with good illumination and patience then I haven’t had a problem. Occasionally there is a need to glue a spear across an ‘open hand’. I find that using a razor saw or file to put a shallow groove into the hand helps.

Pendraken are releasing spears/pikes in a variety of lengths, which look like they should work for pikes etc. The sizes look reasonable for 15-28mm figures. I’ll pick some up to try at some point. https://www.pendraken.co.uk/weapons-1094-c.asp

To return to the original topic. I haven’t done this systematically, but a thin coating of superglue does seem to provide some strengthening to weakened swords etc.

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Tracks on vehicles in use tend to not get rusty apart from a bit of surface oxidation, since the constant movement and maintenance prevents it developing. If anything, there’d be a metallic sheen on the ‘V’ which was constantly abraded by the road surface. That said, a lot of track was made of manganese steel, which was a brownish colour anyway. So the colour works anyway, even if for a different reason! Dust and mud hide a lot too.

Some Shermans & other US armour had rubber block tracks, which were naturally gray & didn’t rust anyway. That doesn’t apply to the tracks on your model though.

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‘The Scene’ also have suitable figures, if they’re currently trading. https://thesceneuk.com/?utm_source=Website%20Customers&utm_campaign=56ef7c5057-TEst3_25_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c51e7a1944-56ef7c5057-1444249 Nice figures although a little bit bigger than the Rebel ones. https://thesceneuk.com/product-category/15mm-figures/the-authorities/ Two do bear a resemblance to a pair of well known FBI Agents.

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We use GQ3 or one of Mal Wright’s various rule sets. David’s various coastal forces rules are also good.

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Having spent some time in the back of Bell 412’s (basically civilianised Hueys), flown by ex-military pilots on cas-evac flights, you get a great view in good weather conditions.  if the sun is in the right place. If you’re staring into the sun, that cuts it down a lot, add mist, rain, cloud or low light levels & visibility goes down a lot. Add in evasive actions and it gets a whole lot trickier.

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Not with orcs, but barbarians. It went about as well as expected. Of course next time the Seven Paladins had arrived to help…

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Not Connard Sage wrote:

BTW, the Sherman was just iffy. One of those ‘it’s Sherman-like so it’ll do’ models that Airfix were wont to produce – see also their Tiger and Panther, or…just about any military vehicle they punted out.

Apparently they measured up bits of various Shermans, not realising that there were different versions, which explains that and a lot of the other Frankentanks that they produced. Their later kits eg the Crusader were much more accurate. Did Airfix listen to their customers?

FWIW I never used banana oil either, just the ordinary model glue. There was one brand of those which did have a strong ‘orangy’ smell, which was a bit offputting.

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Not Connard Sage wrote:

…..

When I read questions like “what glue do I use to stick a plastic model together?” I always smile. Obviously a younger chap asking. A generation of gamers grew up with Airfix. I bought my first metal figures in 1971. Everything before that was Airfix, including the military vehicles. That Sherman was a bit iffy…:0

To which the answer is of course Banana oil…

I happily remember those ‘how to convert’ articles in Airfix Magazine & even tried a couple – Foreign Legion into ACW Zouaves & AWI British grenadiers into Napoleonic Austrians. I think there’s a couple still knocking around in the depths of the ‘junk box’.

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A bit tricky painting the sashes though!

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There are ECW figures in just about every size, so perhaps pick one that goes with what you already have for scenery etc.  This is not an all inclusive list. There are wide ranges of figures in 15/18mm (Peter Pig, QRF, Eureka, Matchlock (from Caliver) & Museum ) and 25/28/30mm (Foundry, Eureka (Montrose Scots), TAG, Perry, Warlord (plastic & metal),  Redoubt), to name but a few, in roughly ascending size of figure. Museum and Redoubt are monsters compared to the other ranges! There’s a 20mm range (?Tumbling Dice?) & some of the 20mm plastic 30YW figures also suit. Pendraken have a 10mm range & Baccus and Heroics/Ros have 6mm ranges.

Troop types are foote – pike & shot, in varying ratios, depending upon army and date; cavalry, , which were common and usually unarmoured (Buff coat) with a few more heavily armoured types; dragoons, which were less common & still largely functioning as mounted infantry in the era; and artillery, which was often present, but had a limited effect on the battlefield (sieges were a different matter). Montrose Scots also had highlanders and Irish ‘kerns’, although the latter were probably conventionally equipped.

It is possible to raise both sides relatively easily;  the armies were usually small & there were often few distinctions between  the different armies; sash colour on officers (red for Royalist, tawny (orange) for Essex, green, blue and yellow for other Roundhead commanders), blue bonnets on Scots & sometimes distinctive flags. A regiment can swap sides very easily if you have additional command stands. There’s a useful primer on the Baccus website. https://www.baccus6mm.com/_paintingguides/ECW_Coats.pdf & this is an old but still useful thread on LA https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=44053.0

Best of all, a lot of the information doesn’t even exist for many regiments, particularly in the earlier years, so no one can tell you that you’re wrong!

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deephorse wrote:

What date have you set for your Armored Division? Things changed over time.

There were also a couple of different patterns – the ‘heavy AD’ which had a different composition & the light pattern, which was much commoner.

There are some useful T, O & E here. http://www.fireandfury.com/extra/ordersofbattle.shtml from memory the vehicle ratio is 1:2 real vehicles.

R Mark Davies work rightly features prominently in the NW Europe tables!

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shaun holdsworth wrote:

Peter Pig does some in the AK range

One with a chainsaw, one with a TV & I can’t remember the third one.

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Andrew’s given you the common scales. That said, US O Gauge is 1/48, (& the rare European O is 1/45). O gauge tends to be expensive, as is S (1/64).

HO is far too small for 28mm – it’s 1/87, so between 15mm (1/100) & 20mm (1/72-1/76).

28mm, which is usually regarded as 1/56 these days, falls between O (1/48) and S (1/64) gauges.

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MartinR wrote:

No. I’ll only make notes if I’m researching something specific for a particular set of rules or a scenario. I can usually remember which books have interesting things in.

Pretty much my approach too. I’ve got a good memory & a reasonably extensive library these days so it’s usually only the work of a few minutes to look something up if  I can’t remember it.

 

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It may be worth asking the Australian War Memorial, as they’ve got one (& a half) in their collection. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RELAWM07849 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C212181

Presumably you’ve caught up with this thread?  https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/183243-the-garland-mortar-enigma/

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John, although I don’t have that book (yet), the reviews on the SRY book are positive, although it looks to be an anecdotal account rather than a detailed history.

Based on the books I’ve read of his, Holland seems to be a good narrative historian, although like a lot of popular historians he sometimes misses nuances and may not get all the exact details so beloved of grognards.

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Drilling too deep is a common problem with white-metal as it’s soft and very easy to do. You’ve already found the fix.

As to stands, I’d probably either just paint them, or add a small, round sub-base and add putty (eg spakfilla) & scenic material to turn it into a scenic feature. That also adds weight to the base and makes it less likely to topple over.

Clear bases are nice too but I’ve got no idea where you’ll be able to pick them up.

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The use of illustrations is probably defined by what is already in the public domain – no copyright or reproduction issues, both of which cost time and money. The alternative is to either pay for copyrighted images, or to produce them specifically for the book, which is also expensive unless the author is also, or knows, a gifted illustrator.

The other issue is one of cost, time & effort too. Without knowing anything of the specific context of which you write, it’s likely that the ‘prehistory’ of the topic is a combination of the unknown, unresearched, unavailable, undocumented or untranslated (into English).

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You aren’t alone in having this happen Jonathon. The Admiral makes a valid point.

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Has it been that long? Well done!

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The Priestesses that Mike used to carry, now with CP Models, have something Jedilike about them, albeit smaller than you may be looking for. (Insert ” Aren’t you a little short for a Jedi?” joke here…)

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I was (& am) a fan of the old Minifigs Valley of the Four Winds range, now available via Caliver. http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=3&CategoryID=35&SubCategoryID=268

They may need more Skullz (TM) for GW but they had a Hieronymous Bosch/Bruegel vibe to them.

 

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John D Salt wrote:

Andrew Beasley wrote:

Yes – the majority of the list makes Star Wars Pulp but I’m OK with that.

Star Wars is Space Opera.

Mike wrote:

The science does not even have to pretend to make sense?

That would fit nicely with John Campbell’s classic distinction between SF and Sci Fi, and give us: SF: The science is sufficiently well thought out to be believable with someone who studied science to high school level Sci Fi: The science is not so convincing. Pulp: The science isn’t even trying. All the best, John.

Star Wars has been called Space Fantasy too. It possesses more than the average amount of Handwavium found in most science fiction.

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Not enough…

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We regarded character creation as a sub-game in itself. Any casualties during the process were either handled as Ruarigh’s group did; or were put aside for further use as NPC’s.

Some of the rules were clunky and the technology (especially for computers) now looks rather quaint, but we managed a number of campaigns, including a Blakes Seven campaign more or less made up from scratch.

The major issue was making the Liberator superior to the Federation ships but not so good as to be totally invulnerable. The rule of thumb was to make it Tech +1 or 2 above the Fed, and equal in combat power to 3 or 4 patrol ships; so, as in the series, a couple of patrol ships were fair game, but it was best to run away from larger numbers.

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Sand, with a few weeds & grasses growing unless it’s a desert setting. Weeds get everywhere…

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The painting of vehicles and buildings looks great!

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