Tag Archives: WW2

The Gurkha Museum

Along with my recent visit to the Royal Green Jacket Museum I also got the opportunity to explore the Gurkha Museum which is located at the same site just around the corner.

As I mentioned before this is a great site to visit as it has 5 military museums all located within half a mile of each other with easy parking and a small cafe near by.

The Gurkha Museum is a fantastic resource for researching details about these interesting troops.

There are a lot of small dioramas and vignettes from the Gurkha military history as well as an array of full sized mannequins in uniforms from throughout.

Incident during Indian Mutiny – Delhi 18572014-10-02 11.14.35

Assault on Delhi 1857

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A Close up of the assault on the Gates2014-10-02 14.14.54

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Mannequins between protagonists during the Mutiny 1857/82014-10-02 10.58.49

I believe this was a diorama of the Chin attacking somewhere on the Northwest Frontier (but happy to be corrected)2014-10-02 12.04.10

There is a great shop which has a selection of books as well as an excellent series of amateur pamphlets which have some fantastic information on some more obscure campaigns – well worth having a look through.  If they aren’t immediately visible on the shelves do ask one of the staff who will probably be able to find extras behind the counter.

For further details check out their website;

http://www.thegurkhamuseum.co.uk

The Royal Green Jackets Museum

I took a day out lat last year and visited the Royal Green Jacket Museum in Winchester.  The Museum is situated in the old depot for the Regiment along with 4 other regimental museums and makes an excellent day (or two days) out.

Unfortunately for me significant elements of the museum were closed last the time as it is being refurbished for the Waterloo anniversary, but the ticket does give you free visits back within a year, so I’ll be heading back after the 25th March when the refurbished parts re-open.

Of particular note for the Napoleonic buffs (and those who just like lots of toy soldiers) they have a fabulous Waterloo diorama which is part of the refurbishment program.  Here’s a sneak little picture to whet your appetite, but please appreciate that this is fairly poor picture and doesn’t do it any justice.  Diorama is 24.5 square metres in size and isn’t all captured in this photo.  Visit their site to find out more about the restoration of this large diorama.

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I recommend visiting the museum as it includes the history of the three main regiments which went onto form the Green Jackets, from their formations, through to the various campaigns which they were involved in.  So if you are interested in the

  • The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
  • The King’s Royal Rifle Corps
  • The Rifle Brigade

this is a great place to start.  If you are looking to do research on these regiments then you should approach the Museum for help.  Taken from their website . . “The Museum also has a substantial collection of archival material – letters, diaries, maps, documents and photographs – which may be viewed by appointment. Museum personnel are sometimes able to undertake research on behalf of those unable to visit.”

If you’d like to find out more or even visit then check out their website for more information.  The staff their are very friendly,and some are incredibly knowledgeable about their regimental history.  There is also a shop where you can stock up on books and memorabilia.

http://www.rgjmuseum.co.uk/home.asp

 

..and now for something completely different!

Now that I’ve got the WW2 Americans and Germans to a decent enough point to play with without being too embarrassed I can have a look at other projects, hooray!

I pulled out my Judge Dredd stuff just to ensure that I have my figures ready for the campaign next week.  So far I have Judges, Apes, Robots, Mobsters and Street Gangs ready which should be sufficient for loaners to those without figures.  This means I can look at something quite different.

So I’ve pulled out my Indian Mutiny stuff and started sticking together three units of cavalry.  My figures are based on the pill shaped mdf bases from Warbases which look good for skirmishes but can also be put onto unit trays easily.  Hopefully I’ll have them cleaned up and undercoated within the next day or so.  there isn’t a lot of uniform detail to these figures so hopefully I’ll finish them relatively quickly and be able to start on my outstanding chariots for the Fathers Day event later in the year. (I have somewhere around 30 chariots still to do for my Hittites & their allies, as well as some Egyptians.)

More on Andy’s Nissen Huts – part 2

Well I just received a few more details about Andy’s Nissen Huts.  In addition to the hut which I referenced in the last posts pictures Andy has already designed 2 further types which I have included the 3D images for.

Each of the huts is a single piece resin casting,

  • Length 136mm,
  • Height 37mm
  • width 77mm

Price: £7.50/each, or three for £20

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The are two more designed

  • one has industrial doors one end and large skylight windows down one side,
  • the other is more a hospital/barracks building as it has 4 windows down each side and doors/windows each end.

Dimensions are same for all models (nissen was a kit build after all, and only the ends and windows etc vary)

You can buy them from The Scene (http://thesceneuk.com)

Direct link to shop:  http://thesceneuk.com/product-category/buildings/15mm-nissen-huts/

Mike at The Scene is a very pleasant chap and will be able to answer any questions which you might have.

More on Andy’s Nissen Huts

I mentioned the great 15mm/18mm Nissen Huts from Andy and I’ve now got some pictures and more details.

He has a few different models going into production, but the first one available.  Here are just a few examples from a recent All Quiet on the Martian Front game held at Andy’s house.

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15mm/18mm Nissen Huts

I’ve just seen some fantastic nissen huts from the capable hands of Andy Cummings suitable for most things from FOW 15mm WW2 back to All Quiet on the Martian Front up to more recent conflicts.

The models are made of resin and are gorgeous.  I’m unsure of the measurements but from my poor memory would say around 6 inches long and 3 inches wide (happy to be corrected).  They come in various formats with door and window combinations.

They will be available for sale through Mike at The Scene.  I think that they will get their first showing at Penarth tomorrow (31st January).  I would imagine that these will go fast because they are such a versatile model.  For an early view check out the background scenery on this post for the All Quiet on the Martian Front game…

http://www.sadwargamers.com/aqotmf-game-saturday-24th-jan/

Hopefully I’ll be able to pick some up for myself.

… and back onto the WW2 Americans

Now that the Germans are in hand I’ve gone back to trying to finish off my American Armoured Rifle platoon.

I need to get the MMGs finished for the Machine Gun section, as well as a few additional riflemen and BARs just in case I was to use the force as an American Rifle platoon.

The figures are all based and base coats applied, so now I need to add the detail and shading (likely to be the old faithful Wilko Dark Oak Quick Dry Acrylic Varnish).  After that I’ll just need to unify the various sections through making the base dressing more consistent. I probably ought to make it look similar to the German infantry as well since they’ll likely be used against each other.

Hopefully I’ll get these finished this week, especially since this Friday evening is a painting session.

Photos to follow

Finally Getting the Germans finished

I spent a couple of evenings during the week trying to get my WW2 Germans looking decent for the table.  I have used them over the last couple of weeks but really let the side down by not having them painted up.

I’m reasonably happy with the end result and they pass the 2 foot wargaming inspection though I may have gone slightly overboard on the tufts and scenic basing.

This should give me at least three sections for my German Rifle platoon with a few heavy weapon options.  I’ll need to finish a few more light machine gun teams to be able to consider using them for Panzer Grenadiers.

On the vehicle front I recently experimented with some old Corgi Stuka Hanomags by removing the missile boxes from the side of the vehicle to convert them back to the standard Sdkfz 251Halftrack as the infantry carrier for the infantry.  The first attempt was reasonably successful so I’ll probably continue with the remaining three to finish the platoon.

Pictures to follow.

Chain of Command

Had an excellent game of Chain of Command at the club last night introducing Rob to the rules.

We played the basic patrol scenario to get the hand of the rules.  The battle was a densely ‘hedged’ (is that a word?) using all of my new hedges.  I’ve now discovered that I don’t have enough hedges so will be making a batch more over the weekend to cover this shortfall.  As such I raided the clubs supply of walls to finish the table.

Rob took American Rifles and I took the German Rifle Platoon.  I took the HMG as my extra whilst Rob had a mortar team.

I’ll upload the maps shortly.

It proved to be a fairly lively game but it will be sufficient to say at this moment that Rob dominated the game on both flanks and before long I had lost my two flanking sections and my force moral had collapsed.

All in all a very enjoyable game.

More Germans

I’ve just started basing up and painting some more 28mm WW2 Germans to finish off my Chain of Command platoon.  These rules have a fairly prescriptive force structure which is actually quite refreshing as it stops a lot of the maxi-min activities which I have previously experienced in other rules sets.

So 4 ‘drop-off’ points are underway as well as the multitude of lmgs the Germans have.  No penguins though, so I’ll have to find a use for the multitude of those I have left over from the Weird War 2 experience from a few years ago.