BEARWOODMAN'S BARRICADE - AND MORE !

As preparations intensify for the forthcoming Big Game ("Return to Little Hereford"), LAF Bearwoodman has laid down the gauntlet in the Modelling Challenge 2024 (Ladies! To the Barricades!). Not content with just one strike, our intergalactic plastic fiend has settled down to some proper (fully illustrated) barricade modelling:

Rumour has it that LAF Bearwoodman has only one VBCW figure. If true, almost as
remarkable as starting a barricade model from this piece of plastic...

Infinitely cunning cardboard modelling, plus some resin pieces, brought together with 
wooden offcuts (love the upturned bath)

painted and completed......

and the reverse, with some nifty VBCW signage...

close up......

He's back! "The Leader" never could resist a photo-opportunity...

and some discreet graffiti left by LAF Bearwoodman, no doubt
in memory of the Modelling Challenge 2023....

But there's more! This years Modelling Challenge is titled "Ladies! To the Barricades!", and Bearwoodman has produced a chunky curvaceous lovely lady in the substantial shape of Miss Gertrude Tunns ("the Weobley Valkyrie"):

Introducing Miss Gertrude Tunns.......

...with her Boyes AT Rifle.

Bearwoodman's backstory for Miss Tunns:

"A powerfully-voiced soprano noted across the County for her dominating presence (on and off stage) she was progressing steadily up the rankings of Herefordshire opera singers when war rudely interrupted her rise to international fame and fortune. Deeming her art above the grubby business of politics, she initially avoided taking a side in what would become the VBCW as constitutional crisis led seemingly inexorably to armed conflict. She was, however, unable to avoid getting entangled in the growing conflagration when her much anticipated performance of Wagner's Gotterdammerung at Weobley Village Hall was threatened by the approach of a marauding mechanised column. According to her agent, while at first her singing was able to drown out the desperate shouts and crackle of gunfire outside, mid-way through Act II a tank shell passed through the wall and shattered the ceiling mounted spotlight that was illuminating her. Incensed at the interruption, but without stopping singing and in full costume, she strode off stage, out the side door reserved for members of the cast and straight to the barricades, pausing only to relieve a gaping militiaman of his anti-tank rifle. There, firing the weapon from her shoulder, she emptied its magazine in to the impertinent tank while her voice soared to a shattering crescendo. Her intervention turned the tide of the action and the remaining attackers retreated, dazed and deafened, back down Gadbridge Road...."

And thus Miss Tunns strode into Hereford VBCW history (and folklore!). 

Note: full details of Bearwoodman's barricade build and more photos of Miss Tunns can be found HERE. Well worth a read!

MODELLING CHALLENGE 2024 - SPIRIT OF SUMMER

Well, it appears from the recent weather that the summer is finally here, and while everybody is beavering away at the Modelling Challenge 2024 (demonstrating the typical wargamer's sensible priorities by producing mostly "barricades", rather than 28mm "ladies"), along sashays an inspirational seasonal figure:

"Spirit of Summer" by Reaper (Dark Heaven Legends).

Nicely painted and based. A bit of greenstuff and sculpting
might well be needed to make the dress more 1930s, but the hat
is splendid...unknown painter and inspirational figure!

In a small but timely illustration of the difficulty that the contestants will have in pleasing all of our distinguished Judging Panel, however, at least one of the Judges thinks Miss Summer is quite perfect just as she is....

I say! Mr Terence Thomas suggests that "the greenstuff" should be left well alone.

MODELLING CHALLENGE 2024 - BEARWOODMAN STRIKES !

After Major-General Everard's incredibly early entry to the Modelling Challenge 2024 ("Ladies ! To the Barricades !), it might have been thought that a period of calm and reflection could be expected - but this was to reckon without the intergalactic CEO of Shoddy Enterprises (40K) and all round (cheep!) Chinese plastic and (stout!) British cardboard-guru, LAF Bearwoodman!

Now, give a wargamer/modeller the prospect of 28mm soft curves, bright eyes and glowing flesh tones (the Ladies !) or 28mm collections of damaged urban junk arranged into some kind of disorderly obstacle (the Barricades !), and there was always little doubt that LAF Bearwoodman would start with  - a Shoddy Tank !

The Shoddy Tank Mk.1. Notwithstanding its appalling tendency to break down and/or blow itself up, the same basic design has seen service from 1938 to the 41st Millennium.

The cardboard guru strikes ! LAF Bearwoodman's initial modifications....

a close up of the cardboard work. Hatches opened, main gun centred, MG added etc...

initial conversion works done, black undercoating....

Going for a rusty paint scheme on this one.......

....rusty and broken down, suitable for "a barricade"...

Rear view. Detailed conversion work (and lots of rivets)....

On second thoughts, change of plan....the Shoddy in British green...

...and then "burnt out and rusted". A great paint job as ever.

...but somebody doesn't appreciate it. Remind us - who is that black clad dictator waving
his clenched fist, clearly in an early episode of "road rage" ?

LAF Bearwoodman's full (and lavishly illustrated) build thread is on the Lead Adventure Forum HERE, with the start (at the moment) of a further "junk" barricade and even the hint of a future female personality figure. Appalled at the prospect that LAF Bearwoodman might just produce a competition compliant entry on this occasion, rules lawyers everywhere are simply covering their faces in despair:

A typical rules lawer responds to LAF Bearwoodman's potentially competition compliant entry.
Happy landings....

Nonetheless, LAF Bearwoodman's build thread leaves certain critical questions unanswered. Who was commanding the destroyed Shoddy Mk.1, and what brought it to a burning halt ? Reminding ourselves that Shoddy Tanks should always finish up as burning wrecks, some tentative answers can be ventured, courtesy of our courageous campaign camera crews:

"General" Patton, Senior Armoured Adviser to the "Bromyard Armoured Brigade" in the
Hereford VBCW, disconsolate at a roadside, wreathed in smoke. Could it be from the remains
 of his destroyed "Command Shoddy" ? See more about Patton's involvement in the
Hereford VBCW HERE.

And as for the destructive culprits, the finger of outright suspicion is firmly pointed at LAF Bearwoodman's old, historically slightly squashed, foe (and enthusiastic experimental Anti-Tank gunners), the Irish Lilliputian Legion:

Begorrah ! The Irish Lilliputian Legion's experimental anti- tank rifle.
A clearly fearsome weapon to rank alongside the previously featured
 American crotch mortar and the by now notorious Brassiere Auto - Gun.

More blogposts follow with further news of the Modelling Challenge 2024 as and when our fearless investigative reporters have any latest developments....

Note: for the development of the Shoddy Tank in to the 41st Century, together with all of LAF Bearwoodman's "Shoddy" conversions (and other modelling enterprises), enter "Bearwoodman" in the "Search this Blog" box at the top right of this page....

BARRICADES - SUGGESTIONS (1)

Some random thoughts on (commercially produced) "barricades", part of the Modelling Challenge 2024:

One of a series of barricades offered by Alternative Armies - see HERE - tables,
beds, library shelves etc. etc.

Oshiro Models carry a few barricades, clearly designed for Boxer Rebellion era games,
but generally useful. See HERE

Chopped Wood Piles. The least elaborate of barricades, but quite effective.
These are from "Dreamholme Scenices" on Ebay, but are perfect for scratchbuilding

Anyscale Models desk, sandbag barricade and extras. An HQ set for the below..

Anyscale Models again, with a wide variety of barricades.
See the full range HERE

These are produced more as inspiration for scratchbuilding, rather than a positive encouragement to buy - for nobody yet has been known to be able to buy their way to the Modelling Challenge Cup - that would be most Un-British! No doubt more "barricade" posts to come in due course.....

MODELLING CHALLENGE 2024 (FIRST ENTRY ! )

Delivered at the Spring Big Game 2024 (back in March), the very first entries for the Modelling Challenge 2024 ("Ladies! To the Barricades!), all of them (with full biographical commentary!) from Alan (aka Major-General Everard):

Lady Rita Talbot-Ponsonby

"Lady Rita Talbot-Ponsonby. Renowned heroine of the battle of Aconbury, who assumed command after the mental collapse of her brother, the Reverend Cyril Talbot-Ponsonby, in charge of the Anglican League force, and successfully rallied the wavering troops. Since retired to her country estate to care for her dogs, horses and brother."

Lydia Warming-Knightley

"Lydia Warming-Knightley. Captain of the Cheltenham Ladies College hockey team and veteran of battles at Bredwardine and Whitney Bridge. Since attended Somerville College, Oxford where she obtained a First in Biology."

Mrs Cecily Farthingale

"Mrs.Cecily Farthingale. Habituee of the City and County Dining and Refreshment Rooms in Hereford, and well-informed on county and court rumour. Her outward appearance of a flippant feather-brained gossip belies an inner steel, as she is well capable of maintaining and using the various weapons in her husband's gun cabinet."

Old Mother Clackett

"Old Mother Clackett. Renowned locally throughout North Herefordshire as a ‘Wise Woman’, Mother Clackett dispenses advice and medical assistance of various kinds to local folk, especially unmarried young girls in need of certain services. Although non-aligned (‘no time for all these pompous idiots who think they can run the country’) she did act as a First Aider for the Anglican League at the battle at Winforton."

Rose

"Rose. A stunning beauty always in popular demand at the Bordel de Campagne where she offers ‘comfort with extras’ to government troops."

Many thanks to Alan for his entries, which we can confirm were accompanied by a "Big Box of Barricades" as per the rules for the Modelling Challenge 2024. It is impossible to predict how all may be received by the renowned Judging Panel, but if nothing else (given the fantastically early timing of Alan's entry) they look a shoo-in for at least a "Greased Lightning Award - with Extra Flashes".....

Note: Ladies are required for the Autumn Big Game 2024, and the barricades (which should nevertheless accompany the Ladies) for the Autumn Big Game 2025. Just in case anyone should have been confused........

MODELLING CHALLENGE 2024 - LADIES ! TO THE BARRICADES !

Well, it's that time of year again - when we preview the chosen piece of cruddy vintage plastic that is to be the subject of the annual Modelling Challenge, collectable in person at the Spring Big Game and playable FREE by it's painter/converter/bodger/new owner at the Autumn Big Game !

Over the years, we've gleefully handed out vintage plastic boat hulls, cheep scale-free Chinese mini-planes, old Hong Kong tanks, Chinese manufactured "Shoddy" Tanks, etc. etc. It's only occasionally that cheep toy supplies have inexplicably failed, and we've been reduced to handing out a "high value concept" for players to conjure with...for the historical records of the Modelling Challenges, see the Modelling Challenge blogpost labels in the column to the right.

This year is different. Not because toy supplies have failed (we've still got a goodly few 1960s plastics stuffed down the back of the sofa for future Modelling Challenges), but because the Campaign Co-Ordinators/Umpires need your help.

Hence the title of the Modelling Challenge 2024 - "Ladies ! To the Barricades !" [note 1]

As already announced in the Gamers' Notes to this blogpost, the Autumn Big Game 2024 ("Springtime for Stokkies?") will set the scene for a daring escape attempt by that lecherous  lascivious South African lothario darling of Royalist boudoirs drawing rooms, the rootin' tootin' shootin' commander of the notoriously boisterous King's Colonials, Stokkies Joubert. And a game involving Stokkies, as any fule kno', must involve lots of ladies.

Happy memories - a group of Royalist ladies note Stokkies' entrance to a Herefordshire garden party.

So the first part of the Modelling Challenge 2024 is to provide a lady - or ladies - for the Autumn Big Game 2024. Quite how such a lady - or ladies - will form part of Stokkies' escape attempt is yet to be determined (but will be by Autumn, in time honoured fashion, with a variety of barely legible scratchings on the back of an old envelope) - but that's rather beside the point. "Ladies provided" will not confer any competitive advantage upon the relevant player - we're going for pure aestheticism this year, and the opportunity for you to provide the best painted female 28mm figure(s) that you possibly can.

Miss Universe 1935. See [note 2] below.

So what kind of ladies and what are the rules of the Modelling Challenge 2024? Well, as to 'rules', they've always been rather loose - guidelines might be a better description - and as to ladies, well any kind, really, as long as they can plausibly fit into the 1930s world of the Hereford VBCW. We're not stuck on glamour girls - the grimly efficient "females of war" are equally welcome:

1930s Royal Glamour Girl - the Duchess of Kent. I say !

Grim Efficiency - Mrs Ada Bracegirdle, testing machine
guns at the Rotherwas Firing Range, VBCW Herefordshire, 1938.
Don't shoot! We surrender!

Nor are we stuck on faction, for Stokkies' tastes are notoriously indiscriminate. So your lady (or ladies) could be, say, a hard-line Communist pilot, or a Nazi Hell - Bitch female member of the BUF, of any faction or none:

Red Pilot (aka Janet Leigh, 1957). Golly !

Oh, no - you just know that someone is going to do this in 28mm....
.....the effect on Stokkies is "yet to be determined"
(but, come to think of it,  Ilsa may have had something to do
with the notorious disappearance of Captain Arrowsmith).

And finally, to indicate our complete relaxation (to the point of being practically horizontal, a la Stokkies) as to eligibility criteria, nor are we too troubled about the "historical period of origin" of your 28mm lady(ies). For example, if you are truly determined to resuscitate a 1970s D&D "Chick in a Chainmail Bikini" for your entry, so be it - provided always she has got a "plausible backstory" placing her in Hereford in 1938 !

No chainmail, and not much bikini - but this nicely painted Hasslefree "Libby"
will still need a "plausible backstory" for the Modelling Challenge 2024, as
bikinis weren't invented until the 1950s. The Celebrity Judging Panel cares
 about these historical details, obviously. [note 3]

Whether you want to produce a section of ladies, or simply an individual figure, as long as your entry is female (with a back story as necessary) and painted, you're in the competition to win the Autumn Modelling Challenge 2024 ! Hurrah !

Hang on, there's a catch ......... let's think ........ what was it again ? Hmmm............ah yes, now we remember! Something about the Challenge Title ! The second part of the Modelling Challenge 2024 !

[THE SUBSEQUENT PARAGRAPHS DO NOT APPLY TO INTERNATIONAL (OR INTERGALACTIC) ENTRANTS TO THE MODELLING CHALLENGE 2024. SEE NOTE 4.

AND HELLO LAF BEARWOODMAN !]

Again, your Campaign Co-Ordinators/Umpires need your help. One of our Big Games in 2025 (hey, we like to think ahead) needs lots of very familiar urban buildings, and the Umpires are already hard at work on all these pieces. But a recent "forward planning review" has disclosed that we need/must have at least 60 - 80 feet (that's right, sixty to eighty feet) of "Urban Barricades" for the very same game. Sandbags (lots of sandbags), upturned domestic furniture, burnt out cars, tumbledown walls - we need lots and lots of it, preferably arranged on, say, 1 inch wide and 6 or 12 inch long bases, some of them "corner" bases.

Barricades by Warlord. It's this kind of thing the Umpires
need (but more 1930s and imaginatively put together)

Battlefield Debris by Warlord Games (other wargames manufacturers are available).
Some nice 1930s pieces here - eg. the sofas and the furniture barricade.
(But the price of £59 (!!) is not in the Hereford VBCW league)

As the Umpires are already busy making buildings, this time we're asking everyone in the campaign to come to the aid of the party. Being believers in sticks as well as carrots, female entries for the Modelling Challenge 2024 will only be eligible if accompanied by a deb's delight barricade (or, preferably, lots of barricades) of whatever description, usable in the 2025 Big Game. That ok ? We'll be putting up some blogposts in the next few months with cheep barricade ideas, for in the spirit of Hereford VBCW, more kudos attaches to barricades built from household bits and bobs with some imagination, rather than expensively purchased 'store products' (whether from Warlord or elsewhere.....) Oh, and chances are, if you attend the Big Game in 2025, you'll find your troops sheltering behind the very same barricade(s)....

So there we have it, VBCW Chaps, the Modelling Challenge 2024 - "Ladies ! To the Barricades !"

Notes:

(1). Previous (but discarded) titles included "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and "Dude! We want your women!". We do have some standards.

(2). "The title 'Miss Universe' was first used by the International Pageant of Pulchritude in 1926. This contest was held annually until 1935, when the Great Depression and the events preceding World War II led to its demise." See HERE.

(3). The Celebrity Judging Panel is yet to be announced, but is known to include the anthropomorphic Mr Wolf, Tank Commander Oddball, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, and a Mr Terry Thomas. Make of that what you will...stand by for further announcements.....and note the further guidance below!

(4). International or Intergalactic Entries - the 2023 Modelling Challenge was enlivened by an entry, for the very first time, from a modeller not (a physical) part of the Hereford VBCW Campaign - LAF Bearwoodman ! (see his entry HERE and the results HERE). As the 2024 Modelling Challenge doesn't involve a FREE GIVEAWAY provided to players at the Spring Big Game, but requires chaps to fall back on their own resources, we thought we would throw this year's Competition open to anybody (international or intergalactic) who wanted to enter a painted 1930s Female Figure - all that's necessary is a nice photograph of your entry sent to "Leadboy" on the Lead Adventure Forum ("LAF"). No requirement for "a barricade" from international or intergalactic competitors. "Golden Demon" standard painting not required - VBCW sense of place/humour mandatory.  Entries no later than 1st October 2024 - heat up the Modelling Challenge this year with your entry !

(5). Additional Guidance (GIF category) -

Miss Bren Gun, 1938. An entry likely to gain the favour of the Judging Panel -
cinematic violence "capable of enthusiastic boyish imitation" and
 historical authenticity all rolled into one.

Oh, do grow up.........whatever her back story, "Miss Brassiere Auto - Gun" is more likely to give
some of the Celebrity Judging Panel an instant coronary than provide a prospect of success.
Think of the effect on the Dowager Countess of Downton...and the hot shame of receiving
 only the "Ian Fleming Scroll for Ridiculous Implausibility" rather than the "Winner's Cup".
[Still, from an armourer's point of view only, a more successful weapons system than
the fondly remembered American "crotch mortar" featured IN THIS BLOGPOST]

GOOD LUCK WITH THE 2024 COMPETITION, VBCW CHAPS !