Imperial War Museum

After I finished at HMS Belfast the other day I then headed over to the Imperial War Museum, probaly the only big museum in London that I've not been to before.  So does a museum on British warefare from 1914 to the present have anything of interest to the wargamer/painter/history enthusiast?  Yes of course its full of interesting & relevent (to this blog) things.  The entrance itself is impressive with its two 15" guns (taken from the battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Resolution), having just come from HMS Belfast and being impressed with its 6" guns the sheer scale of this was quite awe inspiring.

Going inside you walk into the large exhibits hall which is full of tanks, feild guns, rockets and planes.  This is the best bit of the museum, I'll be honest I went to see the tanks really.  For me the highlights of this main hall were:

A British WWI Mark V tank

A Grant tank used by Monty as a command tank in north Africa.

A Sopwith Camel (see my airfix version here)

A Polaris Missile, for years the source of the UK's nuclear deterrent.

The basement has the galleries on British warefare from 1914 to the present, understandably focusing on the two world wars, but it does cover all the conflicts upto gulf war one.  The history itself is a very general overview and to be honest I didn't learn that much, but the galleries are stuffed full of artifacts, loads of uniforms, models and weapons amongst over things.  It was all very dark though so made photography a pain.  It's an interesting place to mill around though and there are some impressive large scale ship models.

A model of HMS Warspite.

The other thing that impressed me was the Lord Ashcroft gallery at the top of the museum housing 210 Victoria Crosses.  Each medal is presented with the story of why it was award, I didn't read all of them, but there were some truly astounding acts of bravery.  I got all the way to the end of the gallery (the Chard VC awarded for Rorkes Drift actually) before realising I'd not actually looked at a single medal yet and had been captivated by the stories.

Like most big state run museums in the UK the Imperial War museum is free to visit, if your near London you really should go pay a visit, I'm not sure why its taken me this long to go.

Salute 2009 Zulu War Collectors Model

I've never actually been to salute (or any large convention for that matter, something I hope to remedy next year), but the other day I picked up a bargin on ebay, two salute collectors models.  The '09 Zulu War one featured below and the '06 Arthur vs Mordred (only assembled and undercoated so far).  The Zulu War one in particular is a fantastic little model.  I've painted the British soldier with the green facings of the 2/24th and imagine that the action is from Rorkes Drift, even though it doesn't specifically say so.

A Visit to HMS Belfast

As part of my week off not going away but still doing things I spent a day in the big scary capital (I live in a small village and even living in manchester for 7 years I never got the hang of cities), first stop was HMS Belfast on the thames by the Tower of London.  I've been wanting to visit ever since my current naval obsession that started with my trip to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard earlier in the year.  This interest has been expanded with our recent constant playing of victory at sea.

HMS Belfast is a large light cruiser (it kept saying on the info boards that she was the RN's most powerful cruiser of WW2) that saw service in WW2 and the Korean war, its most notable action was probaly the battle of the north cape which saw the sinking of the German battlecruiser Scharnost.  You can wander around the ship at leisure although there is a suggested route.  Its mostly set up to try and show what life aboard was like in WW2 (very cramped by all accounts, 27 men in one of those turrets for example) but there is also a couple of museum galleries aboard.  One the galleries had a bunch of model ships including this one of the monitor HMS Erebus.

I really like monitors a lot, i think its the ginat out of proportion turret on what is essentially a small ship.

Several parts on the tour had to do with firing and aiming the guns, and with all the complications the main guns could still fire at a rate of 8 shells per minute.

This is a mechanical computer hidden deep in the ship that worked out evevation and direction so as to hit the enemy.

A&B turrets from the deck 

At the end of the visit I had the impression of a powerful and technically complicated ship (the engine room was a massive tangle of pipes and gauges which would have been increadily cramped and hot to work in).  I only we had had the foresight to save one of our battleships for the nation, not just this cruiser.

It cost me £13.50 for enterance and I spent a good couple of hours looking round.  The price also includes free use of an audio guide.  I enjoyed it and  was well worth it I reckon.

A Few Camels for the Sudan

Some more 1:72 scale colonials today this time from HaT's colonial range.  Most of the figures are from the Egyptian Camel Corps boxed set with a British handler that I had spare from the Zulu war British Mounted Infantry set. 

The Second Batch of Italeri French Foriegn Legion

Well the title says it all really today I've finished of a few more French Foriegn Legion in 1:72 scale from Italeri (you can see the first batch here).

St Albans - The Roman City of Verulamium

I've got a week off, but I'm not going away, but rather than sit around all week I've decided that a couple of day trips are in order, the first of these was to the city of St. Albans a quick 30mins train ride away for me, theres a lot there for a small city and I crammed quite a lot in to my day out.

First stop was the famous St. Albans Cathedral containing the shrine of St. Alban himself.  I'm not a religious man but the art and architecture in English cathedrals never ceases to amaze me.  It was a lot bigger than expected and started life as the Abbey church for St. Albans Abbey (which for 300 years was the most important abbey in the kingdom), only achieving its cathedral status much later.

One of the highlights of the cathedral were these flags which are the colours of the local Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment.  It also had a small museum section with the history of the cathedral, with some artifacts and silver from the cathedrals treasury.

Just outside the cathedral is this building which was once the gateway to the abbey grounds and is now part of St. Albans school.

Next I headed to Verulamium park which is a big green space where the Roman city once stood, most of it is gone now (the stone was robbed by the saxons and normans), but does contain a small section of Roman wall and a big long one (which is now lined by trees and is a nice walk).

I'm always impressed by the sheer thickness of Roman walls.  I also noticed the same layered construction techniques that I saw in the Roman walls at Porchester castle earlier in the year.  Verulamium park also contains a mosiac/hypercaust now covered by a small building.  It's a really rather wonderful civic space actually, it has history, sports facilities and a duck pond.  After all the troubles across England last week it was really nice to see a comunity enjoying itself on a sunny day.

In the corner of the park is the Verulamium museaum which houses finds from around the old city.  Its mainly about how the Romano-British lived their lives, and there's a lot of pots.  The highlights of the museum are the spectacular mosaics.

 

 

There were also some Roman dice (which were basically the same as our dice), and bronzes of various gods that would have been used in peoples private shrines, but I'll be honest to me they looked a lot like miniatures (it's an obsession I know).

The Hermes 'miniature'

Next up was the ruins of a house built on the site of the Sopwell Nunnery

It's just a ruined house in a green space, and unfortunately theres no information there at all, not one information board, there was some information in the museum of st. albans about the man who built it though.

The final destination of the day was the museum of St. Albans which tells the history of the city after the Romans up to the 20th century.  Its a typical local museum really, very similar to my local Bedford museum (although smaller) to me all the most interesting stuff was in this one cabinet.

The jacket in the centre is from the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, on the left there is a chinese sword with an ornate ivory handle and a gurhka's knife, and hidden away at the bottom where these toy soilders made in Germany in the late 19th century.

The conclusion then, if you have an interest in history you could do a lot worse than a day out in St. Albans.  It was cheap too, of the places I visited only the Verulamium museum had an entry fee, which was only £3.80 for an adult.

The Great God Pan

I've gone and ordered something I've had my eye on for a while, a limited edition resin Pan from studio mcvey.

It comes in a blister in 6 parts, with a base and a certificate saying it is a limited edition of 750, mine is 371, the certificate isn't much use for anything, but its a nice touch.

The casting is fantastic, its easily the highest quality miniature I've ever bought (makes a mockery of GW's claim that finecast are the worlds greatest minis, although of course they are mass produced whereas these are not) no bubbles, hardly a mould line and fantastic detail.  The price isn't bad either, Pan comes in at a couple of quid more than a single finecast model, but is bigger and comes with a scenic base.  These aren't really designed as gaming pieces though and are fragile.  The resin itself is similar to the forgeworld stuff, though without the bubbles

I'm really chuffed with this model, and its taking pride of place in my collection, I'm going to be keeping a closer eye on studio mcvey from now on.

A New Fleet - The United States Navy

I've bought yet more 1:3000 scale WW2 ships from Navwar, this time the USN late war starter set.  Like all the Navwar sets its really good value for money, for a tenner (plus a pound postage) you get 4 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers and 8 destroyers.  Theres not many games out there that you can get a playable force for a new faction for that kind of money.

These are the two Iowa class battleships USS Iowa and USS Missouri, the second largest battleships ever built, behind the Japanese Yamato class.

The two South Dakota class battleships USS Alabama and USS Massachusetts

The two carriers included in the set, on the left the very large USS Essex and on the right the much smaller USS Independence.

Now for the cruisers on the left we have two Baltimore class heavy cruisers and on the right two Cleveland class light cruisers.

The destroyers thsi time, at the front we have 4 Gearing class destroyers and at the back 4 Fletcher class.

And finally heres the whole set.

One thing that really struck me with this pack compared to the British was that I can see the same design philosophy on the various battleships/cruisers, you can tell they're from the same faction (reminds me of the design links in the spartan games starter packs), whereas the British ships seem a bit of a hodge poge with several design evolutions going on.  It may also be that this is a late war pack so the ships were designed later.

Why Do I Struggle To Finish Anything?

Reviewing my blog, noticed the main projects I was embarking on at the time I started my blog have all fallen by the wayside and remain unfinished several months later.

As I started my blog I was nearing the completion of my 3000pt High Elf army for Warhammer, I had 2 units of reavers and a unit of sea guard to go to have a fully painted functioning army, and since then I've finished no more Elves and they're all still sat on my table.  I'm now waiting for Dwarf Kings Hold: Green Menace to be dispatched from maelstrom games (not very patiently it has to be said, damnit I want it now), but the Revenants from Dwarf Kings Hold: Dead Rising remain undercoated and unstarted (admittedly this is partly due to the fact I already have some Mantic Revenants painted).  The worst case is that of the two rat ogres featured early on that still haven't got their handler painted (or even started for that matter).  These are only recentish examples, I have literally hundreds of unpainted minis (In one case a whole Napoleonic French army not even started).

I have painted a lot of minis in that last few months (including a lot 1:3000 scale WW2 ships), but I'm looking at the last batch of Boers sat on my table as well as all the stuff above, but I don't want to paint them, I want to go and buy one of those new GW chimeras as a project for my week off that is coming up.

So what I'm really wondering is wether this is something that just affects me or if its a common curse to most gamers and collectors, or is it simply the fact I buy too many models and have a tendency to fall for 'oh shiny' syndrome.  And how do I solve this, I need to be more disciplinced I think, but I'm disciplinced at work and this is my relaxation, and being regimented about it may sap out all the fun.  And thats essentially what its all about, fun, I might just have to face up to the fact that nothing will ever be finished properly, but on the plus side I will at least always have something to paint.

The Seventh Wave & My First New Ship Rules

Today we have the latest couple of additions to my WW2 Royal Navy fleet in 1:3000 for the Victory at Sea game, but also my first ever houserules that I'm putting up on the web.

I'll start with my new minis.

First up the Revenge class battleship HMS Ramillies, they were very much second rate by the time of WW2 and the rules reflect that, but we're trying to conciously use some of the lesser ships in our fleets as you rarely get everything you want in war.

Here we have HMS Smiter, an Ameer class escort carrier, and HMAS Perth, a modified Leander class light cruiser.  The Perth is the first Commonwealth ship to find its way into my fleet.

 And finally the two Abdiel class minelayers HMS Abdiel and HMS Manxman. 

The Abdiel class above and the French Pluton minelayer (that I featured here) don't have rules in victory at sea, so I found some rules for minelaying by David Manley and then worked out what I think that stats should be based on the real life characteristics and what stats they correponded to on other ships.  The link will remain in the sidebar (or click here).  Although its only a small thing this is the first time that I've ever put any rules out on the web, which makes me kind of pleased and nervous at the same time, if anybody does use them please drop me a comment even if you think they suck (I won't learn otherwise). 

A Few More Boers

A few more Stretlets Boers in 1:72 scale today

A couple of officer types

Three 'standard' Boers

A couple of the interesting peices from the set, the one on the left looks like a doctor possibly and on the right a rare woamn in 1:72 sclae plastic.

Free French Naval Forces - Part 3

A few more ships for my Free French fleet in victory at sea today.  As ususl all in 1:3000 scale from Navwar.

First the Bretanage class battleship Lorraine.  The Lorraine is the second most powerful ship in the Free French fleet and will add some much needed punch.

Next the light cruiser Duguay-Trouin, one of three ships of her class but the only one to join the Free French

And finally the two Bourrasque class destroyers Mistral & Ouragon

A Great Afternoon's Gaming

It's been a lovely sunny day and It's been my day off (two things that don't normally coincide), but instead of spending the day strolling over the countryside a couple of friends came over for a few games.  We started off playing the new Dwarf Kings Hold scenario from Mantic Journal 4.  I like Dwarf Kings Hold a lot and am eagerly awaiting delivery of the second installment, and this extra scenario didn't disappoint.  It's a big scenario and took us around an hour to play, and what really got me was how close it was, the dwarfs started well, but then got bogged down, started to break out and then got cut down due to a couple of mistakes right near the end.  This balancing is the true strength of DKH, and just because the undead won this time, there is nothing to say that they will again.  It introduces a couple of new ideas as well in linked secret passageways and the recovery of a dwarf 'playing dead'.  I've got a few ideas for a scenario of my own, which I might even get around to writting and testing one day.

After that we moved on and played three games of Victory at Sea.  We started off with a fantasy battle between of the Yamato facing off the Bismarck and the Tirpitz, the Yamato kicked but and sank both ships with ease, we plan to do this again adding more ships until the Yamato finally sinks.  We then moved on to the historical scenario for the Battle of the River Plate, we've played this 3 times before but had a new player and have found its a good introduction to the game, but as ususal the British won.  Finally we moved on to a convoy scenario between the Germans and the Free French, the Germans lost horredously again, which seems to be a common theme from all our games, I'm wondering if the list is really that weak or if we need to develop different tactics.