My Modelling Space

I have been really fortunate that recently I’ve been able to get my own dedicated hobby space. It’s a room in the roof space above a building I own as part of my business. I persuaded my wife to let me convert it. This may have taken some time.

To convert the room I needed to remove a stud wall and level a floor, remove a built in cupboard, improve the lighting and redecorate. I’m pretty handy and so I was able to do everything apart from the electrics myself.

This gives me a working floor space of 12ft by 15ft, or 3.6m by 4.5m. There’s a bit of a corridor that I have been able to put an ikea storage system and which will hold most of my minis.

The lighting is provided by 8 x 1m long LED strips with 6000 daylight output. I have them on two separate switches and the room is very brightly lit. The only downside to these lights is the interference it causes in photos and video. I am looking at how to mitigate this, but at the moment it’s a minor issue.

I spent a lot of time planning what was going to go into the room and how I wanted it to function. This involved looking around the web and YouTube for ideas and how to guides and it took a while, however, it was really valuable research and well worth it.

I laid laminate floor because it’s easier to keep clean and mop up the inevitable spills and splashes.

I needed workbenches, so I spent a bit of time watching YouTube videos and then planned and built them myself. I used 47 by 89mm timber to make the legs and frame for each workbench. Once the carcass was built I topped it with 18mm plywood and put in a bottom shelf of 12mm ply. Then I added lockable caster wheels to enable me to move them around the main workspace. Finally I painted them, with the tops and shelves getting multiple coats of a polyurethane floor paint to make it tough and durable.

I built two workbenches with a surface of 600mm by 1200mm. The second though, has an additional shelf and a removable top section. This allows me to operate a table saw using the other workbench as an outfeed table.

However, my main workbench, is 1200mm by 2400mm and has the lower shelf indented by 300mm so I can move a chair into position if needed without catching my feet against anything. This workbench on its own will be big enough to handle most of my terrain building plans but by joining the workbenches together I can create a tabletop of 1800 by 2400mm or even 1200 by 3600mm. This gives me quite a lot of flexibility and a lot of tabletop space.

Then I put some thought into organising my tools and modelling supplies. I tend to paint my minis at home in a spare room so I don’t currently need a painting space. But I still have a lot of tools to manage and keep tidy. Again YouTube was my inspiration and I very quickly decided that French cleats were the way to go.

French cleats are a neat, flexible storage system. Essentially battens are fixed to the wall, usually about 18mm thick and about 50 - 75 mm high. These are cut length ways at a 45 degree angle, creating a top lip that stands proud from the wall. Attach another piece of the batten with the lip reversed to a shelf or rack and you slot that over the batten on the wall and hey presto you have a movable shelving solution. I used lots of wood left over from building various things to create custom racks, shelves and holders. I can add more if I need to and rearrange everything quite easily when the mood strikes.

With everything having a place it makes keeping track of tools easier and helps push me to keep things organised and tidy.

Next post should be about the beginning of my Battle of Scarif build. It’s progressing well and will be epic when finished.

Till then keep your dice rolling 

Charles the Modeller

Plans for 2023

In my last post I reviewed 2022, this post will cover my plans and hopes for the year ahead.

This year I’ve created an Ovelist. An Ovelist is a simple collage of images, each one representing a task, job or activity I intend to do. It is named after its creator Andy Ovel from the Hobby Support Group podcast and is an excellent way of tracking progress and focussing activity. It’s a living document and can be added to, removed from or amended throughout the year. It is not intended that it should become a mill stone around your neck. As you progress, ticks can be added to tasks completed and it should help visualise the progress and achievements that can get all to easily lost in the ether.

Battle of Scarif Board

My big build for the year is going to be creating a board to refight the battle of Scarif, the final battle at the end of Rogue One. I’ve been intending to do this for a couple of years but having just watched the outstanding Andor TV series on Disney+ I have an added impetus now.

The board will be 1800mm by 1200mm and will comprise the many islands and atolls that surround Scarif Tower. I will also incorporate the planetary shield into the game. The key terrain challenges are the enormous number of palm trees required and the modelling of the sea bed around the islands. The board needs to be ready for the Joy of Six wargame show on July 2nd in Sheffield.

Scarif Tower

The main focus on the board, and in the battle, is the huge Scarif Tower. I intend to model the entire complex including landing pads, hydro systems, cooling pipes and the tower itself with the huge communication  dish. I’ve never done anything like this before so it’s a big challenge. The tower will be at least 60cm high.

Scarif figures

I have sourced and am in the middle of painting all the various 6mm figures that I need to represent the rebel marauders as well as the Imperial stormtroopers, shoretroopers and deathtroopers I need to refight the ground battle.

Scarif Vehicles

An odd title but this covers the AT-ACTs, the X wings, TIE fighters, the Imperial Star Destroyers and the rebel fleet. I also intend to build a diorama of the Hammerhead driving the Star Destroyers into the planetary gate.

3D printer

I’ve been wanting to get, and learn how to use, a 3D printer for over a year. I have decided now that I have a permanent hobby space I will take the plunge and buy one.

WW1 Figures 

I backed Henry Turners Europe Asunder: The Great War kickstarter last year. I have access to pretty much the entire figure library for the Great War. They really are beautiful figures and I hope my 3D printing skills progress well enough for me to be able to print out lots of the figures and I have enough time to paint them.

WW1 Rules

I hope David and I can continue our excellent progress on testing the rules for All Hell Let Loose: Great War. With luck this year should see the development complete and then it’s just about distilling it into something coherent.

Gloster Event

The final outing of my Imjin River Korea board will hopefully be a 3 day event at the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. I am intending to refight the three days of the battle in the Museum itself with visitors taking on the roles of the Glosters and the Chinese. The board will then stay at the Museum in the museum’s Korean room.

Modelling Space

I have recently finished refurbishing some roof space for use as a permanent modelling space. This needs developing and customising so that I can build models and wargame in it. I’m making excellent progress and will post on it shortly. This should make a huge difference to my hobbying giving me the space to really expand my output.

Gaming with the kids

I hope that over the year I’ll be able to get my two sons to play some games with me and hopefully they’ll catch the wargaming bug.

Gaming with my mates

Now I have the space I hope to spend much more time gaming with my mates. I’m setting a target of 20 nights/ days of wargaming and 10 of roleplaying during the year at mine and 10 nights/ days at friends.

YouTube 

Hopefully this year I will make more content for YouTube. I’d like to produce some content on modelling techniques and the models I’ve built.

All in all quite a list, but plenty to keep me going.

Charles the Modeller 

2022 Year in Review

The year 2022 is over and so it’s time to take stock and look back at the year. Just like last year it turns out I had a really busy time hobbywise and got a tremendous amount of things done.

Imjin River Korean War board

I finished the build of my Korean War Imjin River board, painted all the troops and designed the scenario for the three days of battle. This was the focus of so much of my activity across the year and resulted in some of my biggest highlights.

• I joined Tom Katzy on Episode 58 of the Hobby Support Group Podcast to talk about building the board and refighting the battle. Tom and Ed were able to play a few turns of the battle at Warfare where Tom’s legendarily poor dice rolling caused the Chinese to fall behind schedule.
• I got to meet quite a few of the guys from Little Wars TV at Joy of Six including Greg, Steve, Tom and Miles.
• I have lost count of the number of people who have told me that fathers, uncles and relatives fought in Korea. Almost all say that the veterans wouldn’t talk about it.
• A significant number of readers of this blog have said hello - thank you for reading and for introducing yourselves it means a great deal to me.
• The guys at Wargames Illustrated were kind enough to publish two articles on the board fulfilling a long term ambition I’ve had for 30 years
• The board won best participation game at Partizan and best in show at Phalanx. The Hobby Support Group podcast awarded it Best terrain project for 2022 and I was voted the favourite guest on the podcast.
• Refighting the battle at Fiasco in Leeds the Glosters were reduced to just 5 stands, from their original 31, at the start of the penultimate turn. Each of those stands were on 4 disorder, where a 5^th destroyed them. The Glosters were literally hanging on by the skin of their teeth, just as their historical counterparts had done.
• The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum have agreed to take the board on long term loan- I will talk more about that in a future blog post.

 

Permanent Hobby Space

I have managed to persuade the wife to let me have a permanent hobby space. I have completely refurbished a largish room to create a space to be able to build more models and wargame in. I will post shortly with more details on this as I am now finalising the organisation of my tool walls.

 

Hobby Highlights 

• I got to game in Dan Hodgson’s war room again! This time David Wasilewski and I got to play test Dan’s Khartoum game on his fabulous 14ft by 7ft table. Over the weekend we played the game twice alternating between controlling Gordon and the defenders or the Mahdist forces. The Mahdists won both times. David defeated my forces 1 day earlier than I was able to defeat his, however I am certain that without my goading he would have waited several more days before attacking. I therefore claim a Moral victory! It was an awesome experience and a brilliant weekend. I believe Dan will be taking this to Hammerhead so make sure you check it out if you are there. A really big thanks to Dan and his wife Julia for their hospitality, and I’m looking forward to welcoming Dan to my wargames room shortly.
• I got to wargame on my Arnhem board, in Arnhem, on the Arnhem anniversary weekend. I caught some of the re-enactments and the parachute drop on Ginkel Heath.
• Whilst I haven’t posted much on the blog I have passed 50000 page views.
• Work on the WW1 version of the rules, All Hell Let Loose Great War, is progressing well with a host of core mechanics created, tested and approved.

 

Passing Regrets

• Neither of my kids are showing any interest in wargaming. I taken my kids with me to a number of shows this year, and whilst generally they both have a good time at shows they have no interest other than that. Both of them are still into Dungeons and Dragons and the eldest has now started painting his D&D minis, so I still have hope, but currently, I consider my job as a Dad only part done.
• I didn’t blog as frequently as I could have done
•  I didn’t produce any YouTube content at all.
• Other than shows and events I didn’t get much wargaming in, but it was still much more than I managed in 2021.

 

All in all I think 2022 was an excellent year. I am really excited about the future but I will cover my plans for the great things I want to do in 2023 in another post shortly.

 

Keep your dice rolling!

Charles the Modeller

 

Hobby Roundup

 

I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front for the last few months but this is just because I’ve been too busy doing a whole range of stuff in the hobby. I haven’t been able to build or paint much but boy have I been busy!

Wargames Shows

I’ve taken the Imjin board to Phalanx in St Helens, the Joy of Six in Sheffield, Claymore up in Edinburgh and the Other Partizan.

At Phalanx I continued the Imjin battle from Partizan refighting the second night and daytime action with a number of different gamers. I was really pleased to receive the award for best in show. Phalanx is the first show I ever exhibited at almost 30 years ago so it was good to go back to it.

Yours truly at Phalanx

At the Joy of Six I refought the last day of the Imjin battle but ran out of time to complete the game with just a few turns remaining. The show was absolutely fantastic with some amazing tables and games put on. I got to meet Per Broden and the guys from Little Wars TV. Peter Berry as always put on a great day.

It was my first time up at Claymore in Edinburgh and was really grateful for the chance to go up after a last minute change of plans meant I had the weekend free. The guys at Southeast Scotland Wargames Club generously allowed me to attend. I was then able to restart the battle on the first night and begin another play through. 

The refight continued through the second night of the battle at the Other Partizan in early October with the players choosing to push on with the relief column. All is nicely set up for the refight of the last night at Fiasco in Leeds on Sunday 30th October.

I’m booked in for Warfare at Farnborough in mid November, may be at Recon in Pudsey in December. I’ll be at Vapnartak in February and Hammerhead in March. I will take the board on its last outing to Salute in April.

Magazine Articles

I have fulfilled a bit of a personal ambition by having a couple of articles published. The people at Wargames Illustrated we’re kind enough to publish two articles about the Imjin board with one detailing the build and the other talking about the game design and approach.

The first article in issue 416 covered the background on the build whilst the second part in issue 417 covered the scenario, rule adjustments and other elements supporting running a game on the board.

Podcast

I was very kindly invited onto the excellent Hobby Support Group podcast to talk about the Imjin board. Tom, the host, and I had quite an in depth chat about the battle and the Korean War. I’m listening to all their back catalogue of episodes and it’s now my go to wargames podcast. They also have an active Facebook presence so please add it to your playlists.

Sadly Sean Clark of the God’s Own Scale podcast has decided to call it a day due to health reasons. His podcast remains the gold standard for wargames podcasts. His friendly, relaxed interview style brought out the best in guests. Appearing on it is one of my hobby highlights. Thanks to Sean for all of his work on the podcast and supporting the hobby in general.

Arnhem Wargames weekend

I was able to travel to Arnhem to take part in a small wargames weekend run by Arnhem author Chris Brown and his Special Projects In Twenty-eight mm (SPIT for short). We were located in a hotel by the Rhine about a mile from Arnhem bridge and it took place on the anniversary weekend. During the day I was able to visit the Oosterbeek museums, the bridge, catch several re-enactments and watch the parachute drop. 

In the evenings we wargamed! Whilst most of the games were larger scale bolt action or rapid fire games I took along my Arnhem board and my 6mm figures. I played in most of the games and had a tremendous time. Big thanks to Chris and his wife Pat for organising and running the event nd to all the other attendees for being such great sports, particularly those who dropped down the scales to give my game a go!

Save Gordon

Dan Hodgson of Reveille painting studio invited David and I down to his fabulous War Room to play a first run through of his amazing Khartoum game. Using hundreds of 6mm figures, dozens of beautiful buildings, his amazing hexon tile collection and numerous ships and boats Dan has recreated the famous siege. Dave and I were his test guinea pigs and over an amazing weekend we were able to have two run throughs allowing us to swap roles on the second day. We both had an absolute blast. Dan and his partner Julia were very gracious hosts and we got to meet his new dogs into the bargain.

Dan Hodgson on the left and David Wasilewski with Dan’s fabulous table

Dan is perfecting the set up and will be running it at Hammerhead in March. I can thoroughly recommend his game!

Dedicated Hobby Space

I have been working away over the last few months creating some space that I can pretty much dedicate as a modelling and wargaming space. I have managed to convert a room into a workshop and am in the final stages of decorating it. By mid November it should be complete. 

I’ve built a number of workbenches which can double as wargames tables and intend to spend the next few months kitting it out and organising it. Then I will be free to start my next major project.

Gaming 

My main focus other the last few months has been on the Great War. David Wasilewski and I have begun work on creating a Great War version of the All Hell Let Loose rules. I have been reading voraciously, watching the excellent lectures by the Western Front Association and working through all different kinds of rules mechanisms. We feel we are making pretty good progress although these things always progress at glacial speeds. Most of the core concepts and mechanics have been created so now it’s a matter of stress testing them. I’ll post much more about this next year.

So that’s it for my update, hopefully I’ll be back to a more regular posting schedule shortly.

Keep the dice rolling!

Charles the Modeller 

Imjin at Partizan

Partizan at the Newark Showground was the first wargame show I was able to take my River Imjin board to. It’s a show I am pretty familiar with as it’s the same location for Hammerhead and the Other Partizan. The building used is a large and airy hall with plenty of natural and artificial light. It’s very professionally run by the Newark Irregulars who do an outstanding job. It’s also just over two hours drive for me so it was up very early to be there to set up.

I brought my two boys with me partly for company, partly to get them into the hobby and partly to act as assistants with the game. A quick stop at MacDonalds half a mile from the show set us up for the day. The kids were brilliant in helping carry all the gear and boards into the show and helping me set it all up. About 9:30 I was all set up and took the opportunity to wander the hall to look at all the other games and traders as I don’t usually have any time when running a game.

There were some absolutely fantastic games at the show. In particular I loved the small scale Medway Anglo-Dutch naval board for a superb recreation of the Dutch raid. The Cold War Commanders had a fabulous river crossing game allowing players to attempt a 1985 river crossing in a Cold War gone hot game. It was another 6mm game and had some amazing scenery including a very long bridge.

I was able to say hi to some people and met Leon from Adler for the first time. I’ve been buying his figures for 30 years so it was something of a personal pilgrimage.

At 10am the doors opened and people began flooding in. Before long I was chatting to a man whose father had fought at Imjin. It was emotional for us both.

It was not long before I persuaded somebody to give the game a go and the dice were rolling as British artillery took an appalling toll on Chinese troops crossing the Imjin. There then followed more and more players, some staying for a few turns, others for several hours as the Chinese surged forward. The game stayed on track and progressed very quickly. I had hoped to get through 12 turns - essentially 24 hours of game time but we were able to complete 19 turns despite no-one ever having played the rules before. I had a great time and I think all my players did too.

I was alert enough to spot Mel Bose, the Terrain Tutor, as he explored the show and grabbed the chance to say hello and get a photo! He made some very kind comments about my board on his fantastic Partizan show YouTube video.

To cap and outstanding day I was absolutely delighted to be given the award for best participation game by the judges including the editor of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. It’s going to take pride of place on my modelling desk and will be a reminder of a fantastic day at Partizan.

I will be taking the game to the following shows over the next year or so. Please pop over and say hello and maybe give the game a go.

Phalanx in St Helens. 18th June

Joy of Six in Sheffield. 3rd July 

The Other Partizan in Newark     10th October 

Fiasco in Leeds 27th October 

Warfare in Reading 12th and 13th November 

Keep the dice rolling!

Charles the Modeller 

Imjin River - the figures, vehicles and aircraft

 

Chinese troops ford the River Imjin 

Having completed the build of the Imjin model I switched into figure painting mode and have feverishly been painting away. I have now completed the painting of all the elements I need for the full refight.

For the Chinese I have used Adler’s WW2 6mm Russian range, predominantly S4 Soviet infantry in winter jacket and SS11 Soviet infantry winter jacket LMG. These troops all wear the quilted suit and the trapper style hat and are armed with a mix of rifles and burp SMGs. I’ve painted them in a mustardy yellow and I think they are perfect for this purpose.

The mortar and HMG teams are regular soviet figures as Adler doesn’t do a winter range. They still look the part though!

Chinese mortar team centre foreground 

I’ve had to paint a whole host of Chinese for the game. However the Chinese have so many troops that each stand gets recycled 3 or 4 times across the 3 days and 4 nights of the battle!

130 stands of Chinese, or what the Glosters have to go through each day!

For the Glosters I went with Adler’s WW2 6mm B4 British Royal Marines and BS4A Marine Bren Teams. I was hoping some of these figures would be depicted with the wool comforter hat but alas this was not to be. However they did all come with berets so I could paint the famous Black Gloster beret. I placed the Glosters in trenches using AKs light earth basing texture. Finally I used a different basing scheme to allow for easy visual differentiation between the Glosters and Chinese. 

Chinese on the left and bottom on dull green bases, Glosters on the upper right on brighter green bases.

Glosters based individually for a mini game segment of the battle

Again mortar, HMG and gun crews are from a mixture of the 8th Army and regular British army codes.

The soldiers of the Filipino 10th Infantry Combat Team are Adler WW2 US infantry.

The vehicles are by GHQ and are 1:285 scale. Again some proxies are required.

Firstly we have a Centurion Mk5 masquerading as a Centurion Mk3.

Next are some T16 universal carriers depicting the Oxford universal carrier.

The 25pdr guns of 45 Regt RA are actually 25pdr guns.

The M24 Chaffee is also an actual Chaffee.

And lastly the aircraft. Here I have used 1:600 aircraft from Tumbling Dice.

Firstly the F80 Shooting Stars.

The L4 Stinson Sentinel.

A single C119 Flying Boxcar

And finishing everything off are a couple of OH13 Sioux helicopters from Oddzial Osmy.

Next time I hope to be able to start presenting some AARs from the refight. If you want to look at or even game on this board it will be at Partizan in Newark on the 22nd May, Phalanx in St Helen’s on th 18th June and at the Joy of Six on the 3rd July.

Until then keep your dice rolling!

Charles the Modeller