A Grand Redoubt

Well I squeezed a few moments in at the painting table recently and painted up the resin redoubt I picked up at Hotlead this past year. It's an Imex 1/72nd scale piece. I think I got it for a reduced price at $25. I don't know if that's a great deal or not. But it is a nice piece and I think it fits my 15mm SYW figures even better than the plastic 1/72nd figures it was designed for.



Painted redoubt, front view

It came cast in a terracotta colour. Some of the sculpting seemed a bit crude, with earth slopping over the duck boards and the tree stumps seem a bit primitive.

I gave it a wash in soapy water and then an all over coating of pretty runny burnt umber. Dirt was dry brushed "Mississippi Mud" (my favourite dirt colour). Logs and planking were dry brushed grey and then the wicker work on the gabions was dry brushed a golden brown. The ruts of the wagon track were given some dilute chocolate brown to make them stand out more. The stacks of stores were painted khaki. The broken wheels were given the ochre colour I paint my Austrian artillery carriages.

Back view

My mix of flock was then glued on in a rather patchy way since I figure the ground would be heavily trampled (especially between the wheel ruts) and scored by round shot. But I also know from my back garden that weeds will start popping up within a week or two, so I even have some patches on top of the gabions and the earth fill between them and the log walls.

Austrian artillery train tries out the new digs.

I'm quite pleased with the results and now just need to find time for a game. Perhaps it can cover a bridge that the Austrian baggage train must retreat over? Or the Prussians must break a siege?

I've also read the two Ospreys I picked up for a couple of songs at the Hotlead Bring and Buy, so I have now actually dealt with all of the small amount of stuff I got at the show. Within 2 months too, I think that's a record of sorts.

Happy VE Day!

Momentous day today; VE day and my birthday.


So to celebrate, from today until D-Day (6 June) my gift to you is 15% off any purchases in my webstore.

Just use the coupon code Happybirthday2013! on page 2 of the check out.
Don't let the WW2 theme fool you, everything else, even the ancients are included.

Vpered Na Berlin!

I treated myself to the latest I Ain't Been Shot Mum supplement to come from Too Fat Lardies last month when Richard Clarke ran a sale. I finally printed off the relevant pages the other night. For your 10 pounds you get 111 (yes ONE HUNDRED and ELEVEN!) pages of PDF detailing forces for the Eastern Front from 1943 to 1945. I didn't print off all 111, just most of the German lists and the Russians.
The lists follow the format used in Battle for Liberation. For each company there are core platoons and then a selection of options from battalion and divisional supports. Colour coding tells you which ones are off table and the text will tell you which ones are rare or limited. Which tanks would be typical in each platoon by year is also noted. The scenario design tells you how many platoons you may select from your list. Obviously some armies such as German panzer and panzer grenadier forces will get a dizzying array of possible supporting options and the Kampfgruppe rule pretty much lets you throw together whatever you think is appropriate. Other forces such as Volksturm, Yugoslavian Partisans or Finnish Border Jagers are much more limited for choice. Each national section is then rounded out with tables for rating your infantry, armour and weapon stats, plus card suggestions for putting your game deck together and adding extra Big Men.
The German lists from Battle for Liberation are expanded to include Cavalry and Cossack units plus anti-partisan Schuma battalions in addition to AFVs that only saw action on the Eastern Front. The Soviet lists are pretty straight forward, although I find myself drawn to the allure of fielding an entire Guards Heavy Tank Regiment (I mean it's ONLY 25 tanks...)
The book isn't just limited to the Germans and Russians. The Finns for the Continuation War are present driving their captured Soviet tanks. There are Hungarians and Romanians. Yugoslavian Partisans are also listed and the book includes rules for generating forces for anti-partisan games and a selection of scenarios.
The lay out and graphics are well done and the format is very easy to use. Another must have for IABSM players.
Of course I don't even have any WW2 Soviets.... yet...

Rabbitman on Parade!

Well I haven't posted anything in a while.
My brushes are untouched.
I've played one game since Hotlead, and only because Patrick had some armies completed (1/72nd scale Chinese Civil War forces) and wanted to give the World In Flames rules by Osprey a try.
Many of the loose ends from Hotlead are still untied.
What I have been doing is a lot of cadet stuff.
A week before Hotlead I got an email telling me I was loaded onto the Intermediate Officer's Training Course and the Distance Learning segment started pretty much that evening. This has been an amusing 6 week course with almost daily deadlines covering diverse subjects like policies and procedures, enforcement of regulations, supervision of subordinates (as a Lieutenant now it's assumed I will have 2nd Lieutenants and Officer Cadets to keep an eye on), more adolescent development and group dynamics, environmental impact assessments for training exercises, safety and emergency response plans, correspondence and warning orders. Fun stuff.
Good professional development, but pretty time consuming.
I was also preoccupied developing my magnum opus; a lesson for M420.02 The History of the Canadian Army. The official lesson plan had a lot of bureaucratic details like Militia Acts and the various reorganizations the Army went through. Do some 17 year olds really need to know how the CF was organized back in the 1980s? I threw that out and started with some First Nations warriors hiding in the bushes and worked my through the siege of Quebec, the War of 1812, the Fenian Raids and North West Rebellion of 1885, WW1, WW2, Korea and Afghanistan to try and tell a story. It also happened to be Vimy Ridge Day. I had 90 minutes, elaborated too much sometimes and ran out of time. But they were quiet and paid attention and they even learned about a few Militia Acts.
Another distraction was that my Cadet unit went through a change of command. My friend Chris took over as CO mid-year (and a couple of years early) due to our old CO having a change in her situation. So we had to step up the ceremonial review practice for the cadets.
Usually the cadets do the parades and we officers just watch from the edge of the parade square.
But this time the CIC officers had to fall in.
I hadn't been in command of a formation on a ceremonial parade for 30 plus years!

Lt. Rabbitman on parade!

 But it all went well. The muscle memory kicked in and I actually enjoyed myself.

Taking the Reviewing Officer through the inspection

 It was also good to meet my Boss, the Western Ontario Area Commander, Maj. Sainsbury.

March past

Above you have my friend Chris leading us in a March Past as the new CO. As the sr. subaltern I'm right behind him leading 1 Platoon. Chris and I have been friends since we were 10, joined cadets together and for our last two years he was the RSM and I was the Cdt Lt. Colonel (there were cadet officer ranks back then).


Advance in Review Order


Here we've just finished the Advance in Review Order, the climax of the parade. For a bunch of kids their dressing is really quite good (and they all halted at the same time!). The observant among you will notice the flight of Air Cadets in their sky blue on the left of our line. We've developed a pretty cordial relationship with the local Air Cadet Squadron, mostly based upon a standing invitation from their officers to join them for drinks at a local bar at the end of cadet nights. Their facility has more elbow room for march pasts, so they were our hosts for the evening. It would have been rude not to let them parade with us.
As soon as Chris was made acting CO he made me his Training Officer (TrgO). It will now be my responsibility to generate all the Warning Orders, Operations Orders, RSS, MOARs, Emergency Response Plans, Briefings and O Groups. Plus devise the training plan for the next training year.
I have also been stepping up my efforts to find better employment. So resumes, finding my footing with the TrgO position and my DL have been absorbing all of my spare time lately.
But the course is done this weekend, so I hope next week to find some time to pick up my paint brushes again.


Medieval artillery

I had these done before Hotlead, just haven't had time to blog about them.

So after last month's musing and list writing I put brush to figure and finished off these 12 Old Glory crew for my medieval field guns, and added a third Old Glory gun to the order of battle!

I decided to keep the liveries fairly generic. One crew in blue, one in red and one in yellow. Gunners, being highly paid specialists, could afford the bright colours. I had an ammunition box (from a RAFM ACW artillery limber) and a sponge in my bits box to dress one of the bases.

The gun in the middle is from Old Glory, the other two with the mantlets, I cannot remember who makes those now. I got them many years ago for Christmas when I still worked in the bookstore.

You'll also notice I'm also experimenting with some Army Painter meadow flower tufts to dress things up a bit. I rather like them. They add some nice variety to the ground work.

The bases are bit bigger to give the crew some elbow room; 50mm x 75mm. The guns aren't glued down in case they need to be abandoned.

Of course, now my armies will be unevenly matched in artillery, so to balance things out I will just have to get one of the Perry Wars of the Roses guns.

Next up are 5 stands each of some Old Glory levy bills and levy bows.

The Hormones...

I haven't said much about my bunnies in a while.
Of course it's not like their daily adventures in sniffing, eating, sleeping and chewing on their boxes aren't extremely important to them. But they are much the same day to day.
Now our bunnies are 7 years old, which is pretty old for a bunny. The boys have been fixed since they were about 6 months old, and to avoid fights no one gets out at the same time anyway (except the mother and daughter who are room-mates).
So there is no worry about little bunnies.
But every once in a while, the hormones strike and one of the does will get all broody and make a nest and sit in it all day until the mood passes.
Mrs. Rabbitman came down stairs just before Hotlead to find this, with our caramel coloured doe happily nesting in it.

She may have been pleased with herself for getting most of the fur from her grey furred mother. Although Nigella didn't seem to mind (or be missing much of anything).
The hormones, they are not your friends.

Hotlead 2013: Initial AAR

Well, Mrs. Rabbitman and I are home and mostly unpacked and settled after another weekend managing the chaos at Hotlead. My lips are a bit cracked and my throat is sore, but that's from too much talking with everyone and then some very loud shouting and laughing last night with my friends, a beer and some dice, playing Peter and Keith's very nice Battle of Ridgeway game.

I've been quite busy this past month, feeling like one of those chaps spinning the plates in a Chinese circus, (or maybe juggling flaming alligators and chainsaws) so Hotlead wasn't quite as organized this year as usual. I almost had a hair ripping melt down on Thursday as I discovered a major SNAFU, but my lovely helpmate calmly got it all sorted and kept the wheels on the wagon and the ducks back in a row. Fortunately the Game Masters were all very good natured and understanding and rolled with my field improvisations.

My partner Martin was also able to get back to Canada in time to run a booth for J&M Miniatures, so Thursday night (and Friday after leaving the convention!) I was busily packing stuff into boxes and trying to make some paper price lists (with an online store you get used to not price tagging everything and not needing paper lists to refer too). What to bring? What to bring? A little of everything just in case. We sold a lot of 4Ground and PSC and Renedra as I thought we would, but even managed to shift some of the older Wargmes Factory and Warlord Pike and Shotte stuff too. The Maurice line did well too (we're now the Canadian distributor for Sam Mustafa rules). Too bad my big order (mostly Renedra, 4Ground and PSC of course!) for the show got hung up in customs.... But there are some satisfyingly empty spots on the shelves now and some cash to order some new things with. I only needed one lift in the car to get it home instead of the two to get it there (you can pack a surprising amount in an Echo).

The convention however, rolled along quite well. I booked more space for Friday night and that was successful with more games and gamers. Plus Saturday night was quite busy too with more games and gamers than last year as well. The spirit of generosity was present as a Waterloo area gamer loaned out his hex map to a GM from Michigan, with a "I'm going home, just give it to James when you're done and he can mail it back to me."

I haven't counted the tallies yet but we had more than 50 games and around 300 people there. The 10% cut we take from the Bring and Buy which we give to charity came to $830+. Mrs. Rabbitman and I noticed a lot more junior gamers getting to come for the first time with dad this year. So a THIRD generation of Hotlead attendees has begun (since some of the Jr. Gamers we had at the first Hotlead's are now adults and GMing for us!).

All very gratifying.

I also got a bit of a deal on a nice 1/72nd scale resin redoubt from Imex which I can see being occupied by some 15mm Prussian heavy guns and picked up some Osprey's in the Bring and Buy for a paltry $20; Campaign # 107 "Poland 1939" and one of their compendium books "Into the Reich, Battles on Germany's Western Frontier 1944-45".

And I did get to play a game this year! Keith and Peter had been working on a refight of the small, but significant Battle of Ridgeway (2 June 1866). The Canadian Militia fought their first battle against an invasion by the Fenian Brotherhood; a group of Irish-American Civil War veterans, who being drunk and having nothing better to do, decided to take a punch at the hated British by invading Canada. The Canadians, being inexperienced militia performed rather embarrassingly against the veteran Fenians.

Our game, using the Black Powder rules went true to history. Despite really appalling command rolls, we were pressing the Fenians hard and had almost turned their flank when some mounted Fenian scouts appeared and half of my command formed square and it all went pear-shaped. Still, loads of fun and some lovely figures and terrain.

Once I get some links to other folk's pictures I'll post some more.