Rescued From Freezer Burn

I recently described my hobby organization as a kitchen. Projects that are active are on the stove top. There is the project on the front burner; I'm all excited about it and busy assembling and painting and planning games. Then there's the projects on the back burners. I've still got them close to hand. They're in various states of production. Projects will cycle to the back burner when I hit a creative wall or wait on a required component and something on the back burner will get pulled forward to be worked on just to keep things moving along. Quar are obviously on the front burner right now and Austrians are on the back burner.

Then there's the stuff on the prep table. Waiting to be assembled or primed or moved into the painting queue. Dwarves and Napoleonic Prussians and Russians for example.

Then there's the pantry and fridge. Those projects I'll get back to, someday when something reignites my enthusiasm. But I've probably painted all I need for it, or am looking for better rules to re-excite me. Samurai are a fine example of this. I've also got a platoon of 15mmFallscirmjaeger half painted too.

Then there's stuff at the bottom of the freezer. I've pretty much abandoned it. Lost enthusiasm for the period or project. Once I notice something is getting freezer burnt I'll put it out on the Bring & Buy or give to friends.

A lot of my colonial stash is sitting at the bottom of my wargaming freezer.

But I remembered this South African War 1 pounder pom-pom gun from my abandoned Boer War pile and pulled it out. I gave it some First World War French inspired modernist camouflage to go into my Royalist order of battle. I have some ideas for other artillery as well for my idea to do Brecort Manor, so I'm going to need a whole box of Royalists just to convert into gunners at this rate!

This seems like a piece to accompany cavalry or tractor units. 

Royalist Supports

The next batch of Quar off the painting desk are some support options for the Royalists. An officer (is-Caerten Geuff Vargnarh), a cook with pigs, a sniper, and a heavy machine gun team. 

The Is-Caerten (Lieutenant), with lots of gold buttons and braid and a gold badge on his helmet.

The cook, with his herd of pigs. The pigs are useful for snuffling out truffles and insect nests. Or eating. Whichever is required. I could add a rhyfler and make this into a 5 figure unit.

The sniper. The Royalist snipers come in a two pack. I was briefly tempted by the irony of a bright pink or blue skinned Quar being a stealthy sniper, but a pale, deathly looking figure seemed more menacing.

Heavy machine gun team. I've decided that in the Royal Army any crew served weapons are part of the artillery branch and thus have red arm bands. This way I can use the extra chaps to crew a field gun if required.

I like the Quar helpfully pointing. "Shoot that chap. The one over there!"

If I break the 10 quar section into two 5 figure teams of veteran rhyflers, then my Royalist force is up to 22 points now! I've still got a heavy shotgun, a second sniper and 6 more rhyflers to go. 

But some Crusaders are up next, then I can reward myself with a small game.

Quar-22

Is-Caerten Dongal  jumped down from the truck. His worn boots crunching on the gravel in front of the supply warehouse. "Wait here, Pod." he said to the driver, trying to sound authoritative and cover the insecurity brought on by his sudden awareness of just how shabby he looked.

But three months on the Fidwog front will do that to you.

He entered the Quartermaster's office, clutching his papers like an offering at the Shrine of the Ancestors.

An old quar emerged from an inner sanctum. This quar, like a priest at a shrine, radiated power. Perhaps it was his well fed belly. Or the cleanliness of his comfortable fatigue duty uniform. If knowledge and wealth grant power, than this quar, the Quarter-Master Yawdryl, had great power indeed. Power given to him by his control over the wealth in the gloomy cavern of supplies behind him, kept safe from unworthy hands by a stout counter. The greying at his snout and wrinkles around his cunning eyes indicated great knowledge as well. Knowledge of the regulations and how to twist them. Knowledge of who was connected to who, who owed who favours, who could get him access to things an important senior officer might require. Hidden, arcane knowledge, like the Sacred Scrolls.

The old eyes flicked over Dongal's worn uniform, from cracking boots to faded woolen cap (cap, field, knit. Ryfhler for use of. Uniform Regulations section 243 subsection 5: "The knit field cap is NOT to be worn in garrison. It is only to be worn on active duty while under field conditions."). The Supply Depot certainly counted as being "in garrison", but Dongal's officer's cap had been shredded by shrapnel from a Royalist shell.

"Can I help you" the slightest pause, to indicate a senior NCO's disdain for a junior officer, "sir?"

"My regiment has been pulled out of the line for resupply and to incorporate replacements. Here is my supply request." He handed over a sheaf of dirty paperwork.

The Quarter-Master Yawdryl did not deign to pick it up. He scanned the top sheet. His snout curled in disgust.

"This needs to be filled out in triplicate." He pushed the forms back.

"Our box of carbon paper was blown up by a Royalist barrage." Dongal pushed the forms back. "You will notice item 6 on the Headquarters supply page: carbon paper, box, quantity (1)."

The Quarter Master looked again. "Is this your signature?" Dongal nodded. He pushed it back. "It needs to be counter-signed by your Smyrnol." 

"I am acting Smyrnol of the 22nd Tokish Ryhflers!"

The QMY snorted. "You? An is-Caerten, barely old enough to leave the nest? Acting-Smyrnol? You're having me on, kit."

Dongal bristled. "Smyrnol Baengen was standing beside the box of carbon paper when it was blown up."

"No Caertens to take command?"

"They were all killed in the following weeks. I am all that is left. Me, one Yawdryl and 23 ragged, dirty rhyflers who all need new uniforms. Boots, socks, everything."

The Quarter Master adopted a conciliatory tone. "Look sir. This here is Quarter Master Stores. If we just gave gear to every Quar and their ancestor who walked in, well then, we wouldn't have anything to store, would we?"

Dongal sighed and reached into his satchel. He had feared that he would be stonewalled by bureaucratic obstinance. Fortunately, he'd listened to his uncle Maevik's tales of rear echelon hijinks around the dinner table when he was a kit. "How about a trade?" 

The Quarter-Master looked at his hand emerging from the satchel curiously. "Oh, aye?"

Dongal plopped a heavy paper sack on the counter. It writhed slightly. The QMY opened it and looked inside. His eyes widened. "Are these...?"

"Yes. Maggots. Fat and juicy too. Harvested before we left the line this morning."

"Corpse fed?" the Quarter-Master whispered.

"Yes." The shelling was so bad at the front that it was almost impossible to recover one's own dead. Enemy dead weren't even bothered with. Consequently, the repeatedly churned up mud was alive with maggots. It felt bad eating a maggot that may have been feeding on a comrade, but when the rations couldn't get through the barrage, needs must. You just hoped it had been feeding on an enemy corpse.

They had a unique flavour that one just couldn't get in the rear areas.

The Quarter-Master swept the bag out of sight before anyone else saw it. "Right, sir. I'll get Milwer Nobyn here to retype your Stores Request out all proper in triplicate so everything's all official like."

He called a passing Storesquar over and gave him Dongal's form. "Get these pulled right away. This here officer has been at the front for months now and his fine quar need to be kitted out. You can type it out proper when you're done, hear me?"

As Milwer Nobyn slouched sullenly away, dreaming of when he'd get the back handed bribes while delegating the hard work, the Quarter-Master Yawdryl turned back to Dongal. "Righto then sir, just bring your truck around to the loading bay at the side and we'll get you sorted out."

This truck started out as an RCA Victor promotional die cast with the old Victrola logo and signage on it. It was too big to fit comfortably with my gangster vehicles so I rarely used it. But it certainly fits the WW1 aesthetic for the Quar and I do like to have a rear echelon component in every army. Colourized photos and photos of reconstructed WW1 era trucks show a great variety of colours used. A lot were a vague greenish-greyish-khaki-ish colour, so after a matt black spray I painted it Vallejo 70886 Green-Grey so it could fit into either army.

Royal Croftyran Rhyflers

Attack! For King and Clan!

Yeah, I know.

I said I'd finish those Austrians first, but I didn't. I lied, ok?

Good intentions and all that. 

Instead, I finished my first 10-Quar section of Royalists. In the "official" fluff, the Royalists are blue. Their helmet reminds me of the French Adrian helmet as well. Add in reading about the battle of Verdun recently and we're attempting "horizon blue". Which fits in with my whole Weird War 1 aesthetic.

The section includes this automatic rifle to augment their firepower

After my runny brown undercoat, the uniforms got Americana French Grey Blue and then a dry brushed highlight of Americana Light French Blue. Bed rolls are grey. Webbing and equipment are Cashmere Tan with a thinned sepia ink wash to pick out creases and folds. Boots initially were cleaned up with cashmere tan while painting the equipment, then neat sepia ink. With the next (coming soon, hopefully later this week!) batch I used the thinned sepia instead.

There is no obvious Yawdryl (NCO) figure. But the plastic set has light submachine gun type weapons and pointing arms, so I'll make section leaders when I get the plastics.

Posed glory shot with their tractor

Piping around the collar, cuffs and plackets is Cermacoat Empire Gold. Buttons and belt buckles are Vallejo Bronze, because the Royal Croftyran Army is a traditional army full of square bashing and button polishing. I'm still thinking about making the collar piping and/or arm band colours branch specific. I'm repurposing some artillery, and I'm thinking the crews may have red piping. For an idea I have to reskin Brecourt Manor, but with Quar, I'd need a couple of artillery crews. The plastic set will help with that.

Perhaps the Royal Croftyran Army keeps the heavy shotguns in the artillery branch, instead of organic to rhyfler cawtrads (battalions)? Must ponder.

Fitting their war tractor in front of my backdrop was problematic

As another nod in this project to Canadian Army history and our senior Permanent Force infantry regiment, I'm calling them the R.C.R. Royal Croftyran Rhyflers. 

I've Got Squirrels!

I haven't obsessively checked the tracking on a package like this ever before. I had hoped  that my order from Zombiesmith would arrive in time for my four day, Canada Day holiday, long weekend mini-vacation. But it showed up on the Tuesday after. Ho hum.

I decided not to wait for the plastic release and got a head start with some support weapons, specialty figures and characters that won't be in the plastic set, plus just a few rhyflers to get me started.

I've spent the week cleaning and assembling soooo many Quar!

Royalist cook with pigs. Good for snuffling out truffles and termites, or eating. Whichever.

Cook's back pack

                                                

Royalist heavy shotgun.

Royalist ryhflers

Nice details, like this drum magazine pouch for the Royalist machine gun

So many bits! Crusaders seem to have even more pieces!

Squirrels! Messenger squirrels with handler

Crusader heavy shotgun. This was a complicated assembly. Lots of superglue accelerator. Let each join bond then do the next bit. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey.

Each support weapon came with gunner, two assistants and 3 extra ryhflers, which has bulked the troops out considerably. My Crusader Support Weapons section was two LMG teams and 8 ryhflers, So the Crusaders have lots of troops really.

For the Royalists, assembly was straight forward; clean flash, drill out neck hole to ensure a good fit, glue on head and pack.

The Crusaders were much the same except for the greater variety of pack options and some head variety. I noticed that these ryhflers, being later production than my first pack, were all one piece castings without the separate arms and rifles to line up. Some figures like the sapper, with his shovel and mines, or the No. 2 for the LMG teams. came with separate arms though.

The weekend saw them all primed and the first batches for both sides given my runny brown undercoat. This was something I could easily do while finally watching The Duelists Sunday morning. I generally don't watch anything while painting, it takes too much attention, but undercoating is simple enough.

But some Austrian chevauxleger are within a hair of being finished, so I shall get them done before I begin on the Quar.

A Fistful of Games

Thinking back, I realize that I have actually managed to play a few games these past months

I've played twice with Dan's Xenos Rampant project, featuring heavily converted GW dwarfs and night goblins on a desert planet.

Space Marine landspeeder converted into a recce vehicle 

Night Goblins with rayguns and a rocket launcher 

Bren Carrier turned into a Night Goblin light recce vehicle 

He's got both sides up to around 80 points now. We noticed all the vehicles became bullet magnets. I played dwarfs first time out snd goblins second time. The goblins have won both times. 

On Canada Day,  Scott came over and we pitted my Bavarians against his Austrians in some General d'Armee. But between checking on each other's health, discussing the world and life, and looking up the rules because we haven't played since last year, it was mostly a visit with moving a few figures around. 

My musketry drove back one of his Fusilier battalions,  but in the last turn, his artillery fire dispersed one of my Fusilier battalions, so I guess he won.

Then on the rainy Sunday afternoon after Canada Day, I went over to Dick's to join some good chaps for a big, old school, game of Rapid Fire Reloaded in 1/72nd scale. 

I haven't been to Dick's play room since before Covid. So here are some pictures to remind you. Dick is from the toy soldier end of the hobby. He has 1000s of big plastic figures set up on shelves in very busy set piece vignettes all around the room.

Several hundreds of Romans and Greeks face off. We played our game at the far end 

 Couches and an audio visual system for movie nights 

The scenario that we played was the German airborne assault on  Maleme airfield in Crete, 1941.

Dick and I had to defend the airfield on the left and the big hill (Hill 107) on the right. 2nd New Zealand battalion was on the hill back right. 1st NZ had Bn HQ and A Coy on Hill 107. C Coy in the town center.  B and D Coy in the olive groves covering the bridge. The Germans landed one battalion by glider in the dry river foreground and a battalion by parachute back left corner 

Shots of Ray's set up

Lots of walled olive groves

2nd NZ Bn dug in

My Bn HQ and 3" mortars among the vinyards on Hill 107

Glider assault lands reasonably well, but runs into fire from two infantry coys and the airfield defense detachment 

C Coy with tank support moves out to attack the DZ

Cretan Partisans size German weapons

Slaughtering German paratroopers trying to get to their weapons canisters 

Squeezing the German paratroopers covering in the olive grove and orchard 

The Bofors gun at the corner of the airfield put down a lot of fire on the glider battalion. We also shot down a Stuka!

I do love a bit of caunter 

It was a pretty decisive Allied victory. The glider battalion was shot to ribbons with about 75% casualties. The parachute battalion was trying to extract itself from the crossfire it was in, suffering 75% casualties as well as being surrounded on 3 sides. Allied reinforcements were coming in on the side they could retreat to. A third German battalion had arrived at the bridge but was stalled in the dry river, facing barbed wire and relatively untouched New Zealanders, supported by a troop of Matilda tanks. Dick and I had only lost two stands of infantry. So Crete was saved and the war probably shortened by a year.

Rapid Fire Reloaded is an interesting rule set. I've never played Rapid Fire! before. It gave me a wonderful nostalgic experience. I wish I'd found these rules when I was younger and still had all my Airfix figures.

So a pretty decent holiday weekend; saw some friends, played two games, and knocked out a couple of units from the painting pile.

Hard to complain, really.