New Year's Recap

For the last couple of years I've taped to my shelves, in view of where I paint, James' painting line up for the coming year, so I can keep track of projects and commissions and get a small sense of accomplishment when I cross something off.

I guess it's a plan, sort of.

This year I haven't managed to cross off a lot of things. I didn't get any progress on my 28mm ancient Romans. No new 28mm Colonial units figures painted either. No Medievals except for finishing the three witches (who weren't on my list). I did get some paint on some 28mm Russians, but then got distracted. And the less said about my piles of 15mm ancients, the better.

But I think the things I did cross off are pretty significant. Plus my focus on terrain has paid some dividends.

My Medieval village is looking pretty good now:

And finally getting a Pathan hill fort built after many years dreaming about it, was gratifying:

This even featured in some games as I start trying to learn Sharp Practice and apply it to the North West Frontier.

The blown bridge for my WW2 games was simple but dramatic and gave a nice focal point for a fun game:

The singly based orchard trees were time consuming to produce, but have filled an important gap in my terrain (seen here in a game):

The only major things left on my terrain list are getting some white fleece for winter terrain, some teddy bear fur to make wheat fields and churches; 15mm Italian, plus Norman and central European churches for WW2 and the SYW. A 28mm parish church for my Medieval figures would be nice too.

Figure wise I did make some good strides on my 15mm Fallschirmjaeger with a second rifle platoon, Company HQ platoon and some supports.

Totally unplanned was the expansion and upgrading of my 15mm WW2 Canadian armour from 2 troops to a full squadron:

Building up my SYW baggage trains was also fun:

Now I just need to get my Sherman squadron and SYW baggage into some games. I suppose getting some more Austrians painted up will help with that. But the Fallschirmjaeger have been played with and I did get a good game of Hail Caesar in during the summer with Dan.

 

Hotlead was pleasantly successful and I see it's time to start planning for Hotlead 2013.

 

Starting up J&M Miniatures was serendipitous and not part of any plan. It has taken up time but it has been a fun learning experience, and getting some toys wholesale has been nice too.

 

I was feeling rather down about this year, mainly because the past few months have been a bust gaming wise, but I see looking back over last year's blog posts that I did do a lot, even if it wasn't to a plan.

 

So I'm just going to change the date on James' Painting Line-Up and carry on trying to paint and play more. I'll keep pushing forward on the WW2 and SYW. I've got loads of SYW Austrians, plus a few more platoons of WW2 Germans and Canadians in the box. I'll try and get some Napoleonics and War of the Roses figures done as well and maybe build myself some churches.

 

I think that's enough ambition for one year.

 

 



Kangaroos

While painting up the PSC Shermans I also worked on the conversions to the now demobbed Sherman Ic models. As suggested earlier, they were converted into Grizzly Kangaroos.

The conversion job was a simple of matter of using some card and gluing it between the tracks to close off the hull and make the open ring into a troop compartment. The sides of the compartment aren't perfect (you can see the tops of the tracks in places if you stare in), but I gave everything a light grey paint job and then painted up some standing Canadian infantry from my spares box (mostly extra Old Glory Bren gunners). With the squaddies in there you can't really tell.

What I'd like to know is how you were supposed to fit an entire rifle section into one of those?

But I've split a bag of Old Glory 17 pdr AT guns  with Brian and am waiting the arrival of some Peter Pig crew before I paint them. The Kangaroos will be used to tow these.

Another support asset I've just added is a section of Battlefront Wasp IIc flamethrower carriers. These are nice little resin casts with two crew. Since reading Zuehlke's books on the campaign in Northwest Europe (Breakout from Juno, Terrible Victory and On To Victory) I've been wanting some. By July 1944 one or two sections in the carrier platoon were equipped with them and it seems that every company attack was supported by these useful little vehicles. The mere appearance of them would often make the Germans surrender.

The cardboard flame template from Warhammer is a bit naff, but I'm not sure how to make a 12" jet of flame and smoke just yet.

Christmas Deals!

It's Christmas! For the entire month of December the J&M Miniatures shop rabbits are helping Santa out with FREE SHIPPING! Just put the coupon code 'Christmas' into the box on page 2 when you check out. Effective from 1 December 2012 to 31 December 2012.
And when you add that to the many items I've already marked down in the 'Clearance' section, the savings are pretty darn good!

I'd Like to Thank the Members of the Academy...

My old and distant wargaming friend, the Mad Padre, has put Rabbit's in my Basement up for a highly coveted "Liebster Award".

Here are the Liebster rules as I got them from The Mad Padre's blog:

Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.

Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!

First up I have to nominate Je Lay Emprins. This fellow's painting and terrain building is absolutely top quality and features some brilliant conversions to make dynamic vignettes and interesting characters. He does this all in a period I've always been attracted too: the Swiss-Burgundian Wars of the late 15th century. Everytime I read his blog I think I should get back to my own Cantonal troops and Ordonnance Companies.

I don't know if this totally kosher, but I'm also going to nominate the same fellow's other blog Harness and Array. In which he brings the same high quality work and attention to details to the Hundred Year's War.

Dougie's Wargaming Blog is a really good foray into 20th century gaming. Africa, Afghanistan, the Falklands, Ulster ... Dougie is painting it and painting it well. His terrain is also amazing.

Lead Gardens is a delightful Old School gaming blog. The figures are nice and the terrain is stylish in a simple aesthetic. I dunno, I like the way he approaches things. Some good game writes up too.

Keith's Wargaming Blog has more Old School SYW and some nostalgia inducing 20mm WW2. I also like his no nonsense approach and he has some good scenario ideas in his game reports.

Timurilak's 18th Century Sojurn is a gold mine of information for SYW gaming and terrain building. And he does it in 15mm like me, which is rare. Most SYW gaming in the blogosphere seems to be in 25mm.

So I'd like to thank the members of the Blogspot Academy, my Director, my Coach and most of all my lovely Wife, Mrs. Rabbitman, for being at my side through all of this. Thank you blogosphere! You've been great!

Steel Hussars

Here's the latest off my painting bench; two boxes of PSC Shermans (reviewed here) and some other bits to reinforce, refurbish and upgrade my Canadian armoured support to a full squadron. (click on pictures to embiggen...)

Full squadron

While I was painting and gluing I replaced one of my troop commanders in an Old Glory tank with an extra Battlefront commander Mike B. passed along from his rather expansive North Africa collection. The old troop commander was a cut down figure wearing a tin hat, which I later learned would never ever be worn by a tanker, as the brim would catch on the hatch ring. So I'd been looking for a chance to replace him for a while. The new troop commander is wearing a black beret like everyone else and he no longer feels left out.

Old Glory Sherman with new Battlefront troop commander

I added some metal stowage to the PSC Shermans. Not as much as I'd like, but I only had so much left in my bits box. I also added radio antennae. These were a simple matter of drilling out a hole with my pin vise and then using epoxy to glue in a bristle from a cheap dollar store snow bush.

Squadron Advance!

Since the 1st Hussars are a local Reserve unit to which I have a few connections via friends, and they were part of the assault force on D-Day, I switched the troop commanders cap badges to silver. A small detail I know, but it stands out better against the black armoured corps berets. My tanks are just as likely to be playing the part of the 8th (Princess Louise's ) New Brunswick Hussars in Italy or the Three Rivers Regiment or even the Governor General's Foot Guards (who drove tanks during WW2)as they are to be 1H. But I always associate my figures with a particular unit, even if I play different scenarios.

PSC Shermans in front and HQ troops, BF and OG Shermans in the rear troops.

Finished PSC Sherman and Firefly

Painting was simple. Black undercoat.  Then a heavy dry brushing of Vallejo "Bronze Green".  I then went over that with the Bronze Green mixed half and half with some Americana "True Ochre". Stowage was picked out in Vallejo "Khaki Grey" and Americana "Pewter" for the welded on track pieces. Finally I gave the tracks and road wheels and lower hull a heavy dry brushing of Americana "Mississippi Mud"  and carried a lighter dusting of that over top of the upper hull, stowage and turret to help highlight the details and give them a slightly dusty look.

Dateline: July 1944. Somewhere in Normandy Canadian tankers advance to give the Nazis a good hiding.

Rabbitman and the Beliebers

Trying to be a savvy 21st century web entrepeneur (and maybe shift some boxes of toys out of the dining room) I've got a Facebook page for J&M Miniatures. It's an easy way to promote new stuff and chat about gaming. Of course, I'm only promoting the new stuff to those who have 'Liked' my page.

As the page administrator I get all kinds of nifty stats thrown at me; how many people have seen a post, how many have shared a post and made it 'go viral' (I don't think two 'shares' really counts as being viral) and new 'Likes'.

A lot of my new 'Likes' will be teen aged girls with suspicously foreign names, who's own posts (yes, I creep their walls out of curiosity) seem to be is a foreign language (often possibly Spanish or sometimes some Eastern European lingo). But often they list their residence as Stratford ON.

I know my town pretty well... there isn't a huge ghetto of Hispanic or Slavic speaking folks hiding behind the Festival Theatre or the hockey rink.

All I can think is that these youngsters have "liked" my business because it is from the same town as their current pop idol, Justin Bieber. Perhaps they're hoping that I know the Biebs and can connect them? Or he will make a sudden random post on the J&M Miniatures FB Wall? Or they just try to 'like' as many Stratford online presences as possible to try and collect the complete set?

Show you're the BIGGEST of fans! 'Like' all of Stratford!

Wierd. But basically harmless.

And Stratford is a pretty likeable town.

But the Fall training is slowing down and I didn't get loaded onto the "Training Officer's Course" I had hoped to be on (they decided after it was too late for me to apply for the fall session to make an 'Intermediate Officer's Course" a prerequisite to the TOC), so hopefully there will be more painting and gaming in the coming months. I've got a squadron and a half of Shermans to paint up! (Among other things).

Remembrance Day

This past week we were supposed to have a guest speaker talk to the cadets.
He cancelled.
The CO asked me to give my War Memorials lesson to the whole cadet corps.
So I brushed up my Powerpoint slides and started talking about cenotaphs and memorials and tried to weave some history into it.
With the big Vimy Ridge Canadian National Monument I talked about 1st Canadian Corps fighting together for the first time on a freezing rainy Easter Sunday in 1917. For regimental monuments I showed the Royal Newfoundland Regiment's haunting memorial at Beaumont-Hamel and told them about the death of an island's best and brightest and along with them, hopes for independence. For more local examples we looked at the Sherman tank preserved in a nearby park as a monument to the 1st Hussars armoured regiment and I told them about Black Sunday and la Mesnil-Patry.
Then I told them about La Place Gerard Dore and a boy, who could have been a cadet in my class every Tuesday night, who joined Les Fusiliers Montreal and went to France in 1944 to die at Verrieres Ridge before his 17th birthday. I always get choked up with that one.
I had lots of time to fill so I launched into an expanded version of my Royal Canadian Regiment history; a young nation's birth pains and the First Nations brief defiance, Imperial adventure on hot South African plains, the death struggles of Empires in the trenches of the Western Front, the heat and dust of Sicily and the mud and cold of the Moro River and Ortona. Korea and the Cold War and Afghanistan.
I don't know if the cadets were thinking of any of this during the silence at today's parade, but it gave me something to think about.

This first video I just saw this year, and I like the parallels it draws between WW1, WW2, Korea and Afgahanistan. The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems.



And I've always liked this song by one of my favourite bands, honouring the "Blue Puttees" (The Royal Newfoundland Regiment).