A successor to JP's original Hereford1938 wargame campaign blog (http://hereford1938.blogspot.co.uk/).
A continuation narrative of the VBCW Hereford1938 campaign - from The "Original Series" to The "Next Generation" ("TNG")
The Peony Wars Project will clearly require a lot of horse painting. Here's a couple of very helpful photo-illustrations of the classic Gilder method of painting horses quickly, but using acrylics rather than old school enamels and oils:
It's also worth looking at the One Man and his Brushes Blog, where there is an illustrated walk through of how to paint brown/chestnut horses with enamels and oils, starting with an enamel undercoat in yellow (Humbrol 74 Sand or Humbrol 83 Ochre) followed by Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna oil paint "laid on" and then "wiped off", plus invaluable notes on how to paint a white horse using Vallejo acrylics.
Add Edit :THIS WEBPAGE has a very useful - and fully illustrated - guide to painting horses "in the GW style" using GW acrylics.
As a post-script to the last post on Oswald Mosley uniform details, here is full detail, front and back, of the Warlord figure (from the Warlord site): a revolving Oswald Mosley!
The orator in full flow. This is the Warlord figure stance, but Mosley is in his "fencing jacket" fatigues rather than full uniform. Behind Mosley and to his right, Neil Frances Hawkins, "Director General" of the BUF.
The same public meeting, different rhetorical pose. Mosley is surrounded his personal protection guards, known as "The I Squad" or "The Biff Boys".
Different meeting, different uniform. This is the full uniform as modelled by the Warlord figure.
The same uniform, now in colour. The (half cut off) figure to the left is William Joyce, then the BUF's "Director of Propaganda" (and for a short while, until 1937, Deputy Leader) later to achieve notoriety as Lord Haw-Haw and to be hanged for treason.
A close up portrait. The cap has both the BUF Flash and the Italian Fasces symbol. Tie and collar, officer style jacket, brightly polished buttons.
The Bolt Action Mosley as painted by Warlord. The dark grey trousers/breeches seem, from most of the photo references, to be historically accurate.
The Bolt Action Mosley painted by No Man's Land Studio. Black breeches this time, another historical option - but the pistol holster is an alt history invention (and surely should be black leather, rather than brown).
A close up reference for the facial detail - and a front cover that the Editor of Tatler will no doubt be keen to forget!
There seems to be a surprising lack of photographs of 1930s VBCW Leominster. This may be due to the locals desire to forget the traumatic events of 1938, when the town was surrounded and besieged by opposition factions - triumphant Anglicans from the north, rampaging Social Democratic Republicans from the west and hard line (very hard line) Communists from the east. The early battles on the outskirts had resulted only in a thinning of HM Government's defensive lines around the town:
The Leominster street plan, unchanged from the days of the VBCW. However, the modern day visitor will find the Tourist Information Centre strangely devoid of information about the infamous "Battle of Leominster 1938". A map showing Leominster's place within the County can be found HERE
Thus, the best we can do is a couple of photographs of the Leominster market square from the 1960s, when the VBCW was slowly fading into memory:
Corn Square in the 1960s - Bedford and Commer vans, stalls with plastic sheeting, local produce. Many of these local shoppers will have had private memories of the fierce fighting of 1938.
Another day, another 1960s view. For those who do care to remember, the new housing development on one side of Corn Square is a special reminder of times gone by...
In 1938, Corn Square was dominated by the local BUF "Black House". Quite how it came to be demolished, whether by explosion or post VBCW redevelopment, is inevitably a story for a later blogpost. But it no longer dominates the skyline of the Square, nor strikes fear into the hearts of local shoppers, having been replaced by a somewhat (perhaps deliberately) anonymous block of flats.
That is not all. The "supersized" statue of the notorious BUF Captain Arrowsmith, which once stood proudly in the centre of Corn Square, has now given way to nothing but blank tarmac and a temporary fruit stall ........... a victim of commerce over ideology? Corporate amnesia over collective memory? Only time will tell....
[Note One] The Arrowsmith statue was one of a number erected around the County by the BUF during his "days of pomp" as the County's most significant Fascist commander, well before his notorious disappearance (see blogposts passim) In 1938, it bore the inscription "ARROWSMITH - HERO - Once and Future". What could such an inscription have meant?
All these questions (and more) can only be answered by attendance at the Hereford 1938 AVBCW Spring Big Game 2022, at Burley Gate Village Hall on Saturday 26th March 2022 (10am - 5pm)!!
One way or another, we've done quite a few posts on 1930s Aviation (check the "Aircraft and Anti-Everything" label to the right to bring up all the relevant posts), yet the vast airfleets created for the Modelling Challenge 2020 have so far remained in their respective hangars.
RAF "Gloster Gladiators" and "Vickers Venoms" - grounded.
BUF Air Squadron - idling at Hereford Racecourse Air Field.
This has been partly due to the Covid-cancellation of the Spring Big Game 2020 ("Assault on Newquay"), which "Big Game" was intended to produce lots of ground strafing action in accordance with the WTDW rules (as amended) - but also partly due to an absence of truly satisfactory rules for air-aircombat between competing VBCW squadrons.
Now, a couple of the contenders for "VBCW aerial combat rules" came from the Too Fat Lardies stable - "Bag the Hun" (their WW2 variant) and "Algernon Pulls it Off!" (their WW1 variant) - a blend of the two might be just right for the VBCW. Both, however, were hex based games, rather more usable for 1/144 planes (or the like) on specialised bases, rather than our "somewhere around 1/55ish (maybe)" cheep Chinese plastic variants (mounted on salvaged round Tesco coffee jar lids, pretty much as expensive as the planes themselves). And to cap it all, while the Lardies were rumoured to be working on a "hexless version of Algy" some (in fact, many) years ago, nothing subsequently appeared, and then - for reasons unexplained and unfathomable - even the hex version of "Algy" disappeared from the Lardies webstore!
The front cover of the original Algernon rules - now very OOP.
But never fear! The aim is to restore the ground strafing "Assault on Newquay" game to the VBCW calendar as the Autumn Big Game 2022 - and, wonder of wonders for an air/air game, "Algernon Pulls it Off!" has finally been re-published!
Well, not re-published exactly. But, with the permission of the Lardies, and the good offices of the "Storm of Steel" podcast, certainly once more made available and downloadable:
This YouTube video, as posted at Storm of Steel, contains a link to the full set of "Algy Rules" plus QRFs and other helpful material. And if you want to compare and contrast with the WW2 variant, "Bag the Hun", another extensive video will talk you through the gameplay:
A big thanks, therefore, to the Storm of Steel podcast for reviving the "Algy" rules, and to the Lardies for allowing them to be made available free, gratis and for nothing. If you're feeling as grateful, you could always visit the Two Fat Lardies webstore and buy a copy of "Bag the Hun", or quite as useful, a copy of Squadron Forward, a squadron based campaign system ideal for VBCW action. Both are supported by a Lardies message forum, and an 'official' list of Algernon supplements and scenarios, to be found HERE.
While all this is great fun, it still leave us with the "HEX" problem. However, rules (or rather hints for rules) for playing "Hexless Algy" can be found HERE, part of Fat Wally's (sadly no longer updated) Blog, which also contains a lot of WW1 "Algernon" material. It might not be too difficult to build on Fat Wally's "hexless" work......
Or it might be better to default to a hexless system in the first place, and try out Warlord's "Blood Red Skies" rules:
"Blood Red Skies" (BRS) is designed for Warlord's own 1/200 scale aircraft, again considerably smaller than our VBCW types. While the system is hexless, and the rules have received praise (especially fulsome from Umpire Roo, who has actually played it) BRS nevertheless seems to require lots of specialist Warlord made stuff, like calipers and measuring sticks, action cards, theatre cards, trait cards etc. etc. - the costs are bound to mount up......
Or so you would have thought. However, in an interesting commercial move, Warlord have recently tied up with Airfix to produce a 1/72 "Battle of Britain" variant of BRS:
2 x 1/72nd scale Spitfires, 2 x 1/72nd Messerschmitt 109s, BRS rules and all the additional "gubbins" necessary to play "straight out of the box" (well, once you've got the glue and paint out and made up the planes) - all for a RRP of .................... £69!
With the 1/72nd scale kits retailing at £10 a pop, the official price of Airfix's "BRS" Battle of Britain box might be understandable to a company accountant, but its got to be doubtful whether they will sell that many at that kind of cost. Thankfully, however, we don't have to worry about the RRP, as precisely the same boxed set is presently selling on Ebay for £19 only (with free postage, too). At that price, what's not to like? And that's not an individual seller, either, but, in a curious twist, "Warlordgamesofficial" themselves!
More on VBCW air action when the "warlordgamesofficial" boxed set arrives at Campaign HQ.....
The Spring Big Game 2022 is the HerefordVBCW campaign's Tenth Anniversary. Yes, it really has been all of ten years since JP and Giles organised the very first Big Game ("The Battle of Ledbury") in February 2012. Although JP's blog suffered a few years ago by reason of the Great Photobucket Debacle, Rob B's blog still has a few photos of the action, including the only known shots of "those fighting Abyssinians" in Herefordshire (apparently Hailie Selassie was living in exile in Malvern at the time)...
Well, we had to mark the forthcoming occasion somehow. It's been fashionable over the last few years for every wargames show (Salute, Partisan, Hammerhead, etc. etc.) to issue an exclusive, limited edition figure to guests, so we thought we'd do a variant of that - given our campaign resources, it's not exclusive, it's not even a limited edition, but it is a FREE FIGURE for everyone coming along to the Hereford Spring Big Game 2022 (well, the first TEN through the door, anyway)....
It's that central VBCW personality, Oswald Mosley himself!
TEN Oswald Mosleys from Warlord Games - the HerefordVBCW 10th Anniversary Free Figure
It's not too hard to work out where the Warlord sculptor took his inspiration from:
and those accustomed to playing HMG Forces may be only too pleased to paint up their free figure in the traditional colour of black - very black, with a wash and highlight of black........but what of everyone else?
Well, given that at least one 28mm representation of Stalin has finished up as an "ice cream man" in the VBCW, the field is pretty much open - Mosley impersonators, Mosley as a figure of a fun for Anglican war bond drives, Mosley's uniform painted anything but black (green/khaki as a general, or shocking pink?). As ever with the VBCW, it's all up to you....
The usual caveats apply. First come, first served. When they're gone, they're gone. The Burley Gate Village Hall will be open around 9am-ish on Saturday 26th March 2022, so now there's even more incentive than usual to come along early to help with the set-up of terrain.....
Additional Note: the (sadly now defunct) Gentleman's Wargames Parlour post action thread on "The Battle of Ledbury" can still be found HERE.
You wait for ages for a vintage German "War Toys" catalogue to come along, and then....
Following on from this post showcasing the 1938/1939 Lineol catalogue, now the 1939/1940 catalogue from their great competitor, Hausser Elastolin:
Heavy Artillery on the front cover
Interesting infantry poses (sword waving officer, flag waver, bugler, AA range finder) together with LMGs and HMGs - all rather VBCW!
Personalities - no less than four poses of the Fuhrer himself, plus a figurine of the late Generalfeldmarschall (and last President of the Weimar Republic), von Hindenberg
The artillery promised by the front cover, from heavy howitzers to infantry guns and an 88mm. Note the searchlights (with real working bulbs!)
A competitor hits back - an atmospheric shot of friction powered Pz Mk1s in rapid advance from the even earlier 1937/1938 Lineol catalogue - probably, just to show that nothing is truly original, with cotton wool "dust clouds" behind them..
Artillery and mortar observers are vital in the VBCW, but just like medics, suitable figures can be difficult to come by. If you're tired of using unidentifiable "finger pointers" or "that guy with the binoculars" as "spotters", the excellent First Corps Home Front range now has just the thing:
First Corps Home Guard Observation Team - £6
It's worth checking out not just the "Home Front" range, but also the funtastic "C20th Follies" figures and the website as a whole - including WW1 and WW2 ranges. The sculptor, Mark Fuller, posts as "Tin Shed Gamer" on the LAF, and this thread is not only full of inspirational photos, but also gives early notice of upcoming releases...
First Corps Fire Pump and Crew - just what Lord de Braose, Governor of Hereford and Lord of the Marches, needs to invest in to quell the growing criticism of Hereford's lamentable anti aircraft precautions.
With the special 10th Anniversary Spring Big Game 2022 fast approaching, its time for the Modelling Challenge 2022!
Past Modelling Challenges have covered VBCW boats, tanks, planes and morale raising vehicles, mostly based on "(very) cheep Chinese plastic" toys sourced over time from Ebay and given away free by the Umpires to players at the Spring Big Game - just to see what imaginative conversions and paintjobs result. The results (usually playable as a free bonus at the Autumn Big Game) have varied, of course, mostly tending towards giganticism - entire armoured brigades, landing fleets, air squadrons - or veering into the specialist sub-genre of 1930s outre; whether Heath-Robinson flame throwing tanks or Hereford's very first mobile "bordel"....
So the 2022 Challenge is intended to bring us all back to the individual and concentrate upon creating a VBCW campaign character - an "Armoured Legend" !
Well, it wouldn't be a Modelling Challenge without a piece of (really, really) cheep Chinese plastic! This time we have to be grateful not to the modern CCP, but to the manufacturing industry (and graphic artists) of that freedom loving and entrepeneurial enclave of the late British Empire, 1960's Hong Kong:
Yes! A complete (if somewhat battered) toy department display box of respectable vintage, complete with characterful artwork, containing twelve (12) plastic "war toys" of "roughly the right scale" and completely dubious historical authenticity - just right for a HerefordVBCW Modelling Challenge!
The interior of the display box - double packed rows of VBCW potential tanks!
The luminescent red bell-end muzzle brake has to go - but the barrel is already too long for a 1930s tank, so it wouldn't be a loss....
...in fact, the whole barrel (a separate part) could go, leaving something like an M8 armoured howitzer configuration...
..the all-important "scale shots" - behind, an example of the notorious "Shoddy Tank" from the 2019 Modelling Challenge. The 2022 variant is slightly smaller and slightly less "bulked up". If anything, however, that makes it even more suitable for "28mm scale" VBCW gaming...
...the BUF clearly have their eyes on the new tank variant. Here a small section of infantry demonstrate "scale height" against the tank.
Now, this is usually where we insert a suitable VBCW "back story" - which can admittedly tend towards the over-elaborate - in order to explain the presence of somewhat a-historical vehicles in Hereford 1938. But there's no need to do so this time, as the 2022 Modelling Challenge isn't all about the tank. The tank is only a backdrop to whoever you choose to command it - your new campaign character - the "Armoured Legend".
So. pick up a tank at the Spring Big Game 2022 ! You then have six months to scour the internet/check in the leadpile/look behind the back of the couch for a suitable commander ready to attain "legendary status" in the Hereford VBCW campaign.....
Although the judging system is entirely arbitrary, and conversion, modelling and painting of course the key, special points will be awarded for:
snazzy 1930s three colour camouflage schemes (any three colours);
eccentricity;
Herefordshire connections;
a fun backstory to the character;
producing both a "half figure" to fit in the turret and an identically-painted "full height" figure fit to run around dizzily (once your tank meets the deadly crowbar wielding Communist A/T Team);
independence from established factions;
anything that makes the Umpires quietly giggle.
And remember the watchword - if you paint it, you can play it - as your Umpire's free bonus in the Autumn Big Game 2022!
An unhappy BUF Storm Commander, Desmond Dastardly - he has yet to fight a battle in the Hereford VBCW (let alone achieve legendary status, or even have his binoculars finished), and soon there will be all this competition. Umpires!
In 1938, while British soldier manufacturers like "Britains" were mostly still churning out scarlet coated Guardsmen and various "Types of the Indian Army" on parade, German toy manufacturers were on a more modern and aggressive trajectory - preparing in miniature for a forthcoming blitzkrieg. This fascinating Lineol catalogue for 1938/1939 turned up on Ebay a while back:
Contemporaneous catalogues - quite as much as cigarette cards - can be a great VBCW inspiration. Even more so the surviving war toys from the 1938 period:
Motorised Infantry Transport - in German Grey
The same type of vehicle and passengers in a snazzy three colour camouflage scheme
It is somewhat of a curiosity that the German war toy industry seems to have adopted three colour camouflage schemes (at least as an option) for scale Wehrmacht vehicles, well in advance of the actual German war industry for real vehicles. And (in true VBCW style) even the German manufacturers seem to have dreamed up somewhat "imaginary" armoured cars:
Not a Lineol product, but an armoured car manufactured in three colour camouflage scheme by Marklin.
Being an occasional series on converting the classic convention game, "Pony Wars", to a VBCW variant...
There seems to be a shortage of 28mm "Red Cavalry". Not just in Herefordshire, as Comrade Colonel Knokisblokov is only too aware, but generally. True, there are a variety of "Bolshevik" horsemen in Copplestone's "Back of Beyond" range, but these are from a slightly earlier period than the 1930s, are sold in random variants (grrr!) and cost £3.30 each (plus P&P). For a true late 1930s/early 1940s look, the only option seems to be Westwind's "Berlin or Bust" range, which has three cavalrymen in helmets:
Westwind's Berlin or Bust Red Cavalry
The problem with the Westwind offering is that there are only 3 poses (for 600 figures!) and, having been produced for years and years, the figures are rather "elderly" in sculpting style. Plus, at £5.00 a figure (plus P&P)(!!) they clearly disqualified themselves from any further "Pony Wars" enquiries on economic grounds alone.
Against this dismal canvas of general non-availability, it seemed to the Communist planning staff that plugging away at converting Perry ACW Cavalry (c.£1.75 each) with a suitable headswap (and lots of vodka..) was the only realistic (?) way forward...
Thankfully, Comrade Colonel Knokisblov's Intelligence Unit has been covertly listening in to the chatter on the Pony Wars Facebook Group, which yielded this priceless nugget of information:
Q: "Just a quick question - what's the average number of mounted [Sioux] braves that a typical game requires? I know the [Pony Wars] rules specify 600 but what can I get away with - anyone played a few games with any insight?"
A1. "...We have about three hundred at our club but we very rarely have them all on the table at the same time. Best thing is you can recycle them when they become casualties..." [Nigel Perks]
A2. "...I probably have just over 300 15mm and have coped for several years. Once, when the drums were beating, hundreds [of Sioux] built up waiting to strike, but I just counted each figure as 10 actuals until numbers had dropped or a US withdrawal happened!" [Paul Jeune]
"Recycling"/"Counting as..." - jolly useful wargamers' tricks of the trade. Comrade Colonel Knokisblokov has accordingly pencilled in 300 cavalry as his "Minimum Requirement Stat" for Peony Wars....
