New Table Christened - a big VBCW engagement

On Monday night (28th July) the Shed hosted a massive VBCW game using the bolt action rules. I was delighted to report that Matt, Mark and Alastair along with the infamous Legatus Hedlius attended the proceedings.

Prior to boys arriving I decided that it would be classic defence game with the attackers (a motley crew of League and disaffected Royalist forces would attempt to secure a number of key objectives across a broad BUF front line.

To keep things simple in this report the attackers had a distinct numerical supremacy in both armour and infantry.

The following pictures hopefully give a flavour of the action...

The BUF commander inspects troops outside the as yet unfinished Manor

The Manor house was one of the key objectives...

Meanwhilst on the BUF left flank a platoon awaits in the ruins of the old abbey



You can see the abbey sits on the far left of the battlefield in the section bisected by the river and the rail embankment. This was also a key objective.

A view across the left hand side of the table

Sitting on top of the manor were an Artillery Observer and Sniper - both played roles in the battle


BUF forces await the attack - the School house is another 1/48 dolls house

BUF armoured support

The right of the BUF flank is the Village - the Railcrossing is another Key objective

The final objective was the Pub...the playing cards denoted the objectives. A red facing card illustrated that it had been taken by the league...black by the BUF

League Troops advance towards the town

Members of the Naval brigade cross the railway tracks

A unit of Sikhs seem to have got entangled in this very British affair

A choice shot from a League Armoured Car takes care of this artillery piece

The league tanks start to draw fire as their infantry advance

All hell breaks out in the village

The BUF AT gun gets mobbed by a light League tank - The Armoured Car powerless to stop the tank

Load...Fire...Shit...Run

No body will be crossing this bridge for a whilst

The League Commander investigates the pub...

The Blockage holds up vital League reinforcements

Suddenly a plane swoops into sight scattering the League forces...

Boom --- as its strafing fire takes out a League tank

A victory roll over the battle field...Add caption

The guys played out 10 turns of rapid play...the game was brisk, deadly and a great deal of fun...

Who won...well technically the BUF still held three objectives but had time permitted they would have lost the Village...so a marginal victory for the men in Black Shirts

Until next time

 

The Leopard is delivered

 

If you followed my last post on the Leopard in the Shed a couple of weeks ago you will know that I volunteered to take the beast up to Absolute Radio Station to meet his new owner Christian O'Connell.

 

Christian is going to use him in his stage show at the Edinburgh fringe this week but I have no clue what Lofty the Leopard is going to do in the show.

 

Anyway at 7am we popped him into the back of the cart and drove the 10 miles through the London traffic to one golden square. As you can imagine the site of a stuffed leopard in the back of my convertible caused no end of rubber necking and big smiles. Even a few toots from fellow listeners as we gave a live travel report along the Kings Road !

 

 



Lofty got to meet the breakfast show gang and Christians sidekick Ritchie was non too pleased having the stuffed animal placed in his gaze.

There were of course the obligatory photos - took the opportunity to promote Shed wars on my T Shirt !

As you can see both my kids were chuffed to be there and my son even got to line up a few tracks with the man himself

So Lofty gone to a new home...and we are very pleased his stuffed life has been extended rather than visiting the local refuse tip.

Until next time

Refurbishing the Shed

Over the last couple of months  I have had the mind to sort out, clear out and refurb my man cave - the shed.

At first I thought I might build an extension in the space where the kids trampoline used to sit but I am still negotiating this with Mrs Shed !

The current table is 3m (10ft) x 1.5m (5ft) - a good size but sometimes you need something bigger !

In the picture below you can see my mobile worktop - rolls around on casters.

This I can push up against the existing table and extend by a further 1.5 metres with a board laid on top. But quite frankly there is a great deal of dead space not used.

 

This includes the wall that it the rolling table is pushed against when not used. So out came the tools and a trip to the Wood merchants.

 

New racking now houses many of my 28mm buildings and boats.

The rest of the table starts to get built.

Using my stuffed Leopard as a clamp to hold the new frame together. If you want to see why a stuffed Leopard is in my shed look at earlier post.

And the final build - a new table that is now 15ft long ! All one level and loads of new storage underneath.

I need to secure some more mdf tiles and flocked paper for the base boards but otherwise all done.

Just need to set up some games...

 

There is a Leopard in my Shed

As I have probably already mentioned I have a few weeks off between jobs so plenty of work has been going on in the garden but for the last two days I have been refurbishing the shed.

However I should tell you a small story.

Last Thursday whilst driving to the supermarket I was listening to the breakfast show on Absolute Radio and the DJ, Christian O'Connell was looking for a few props for his gig at the Edinburgh festival - one of these requirements was for a stuffed animal.

Just by chance my mother had asked me to empty her loft and in said loft was a stuffed Leopard ready to go to the tip...I hadn't seen it for 35 years ! God only knows what state it would be in...

Why might my folks have such a creature in their attic is a good question. Well my old man used to do a lot of panto and somewhere along the line he had acquired the beast as a prop.

I called the station and to my surprise got right through...

As you can expect the DJ was somewhat surprised to hear the tale and suffice to say they want the Leopard.

Tomorrow morning my kids and I are heading up into London with Lofty the Leopard. We'll go to town in my car with the roof down - after-all the weather is good and he does pong a bit !

I understand that we will be on the radio fore the big handover around 08.30 am if anybody wants to listen...

of course I will be wearing my Shed Wars t shirt !

As you can see my cats are fascinated by their very still big cousin

Lofty the Leopard getting in the way of construction work..

Hope everybody is enjoying the sun....

Next post - the Shed gets a refurb...

Explosions - Nice and Easy

For sometime now I have been keen to build some explosion markers. The following tutorial is nothing new but might help people to build their own.

The cost for 12 of these I reckon comes out less than a tenner and they look great.

These started off life as a tealight, you can pick up a dozen of these flashing battery power ones up on ebay for less than £3

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLAMELESS-CANDLES-FLICKERING-LED-TEA-LIGHT-CANDLES-BATTERY-TEALIGHTS-/131161797803?pt=UK_Candle_Holders&var=&hash=item1e89da34ab

Next up I had some old polyester cushion filler I was using as smoke in my games. These were cut into rectangles with one side the circumference of the tea light. Mine stand about 12 cm tall.

These were glued using an all purpose glue - messy job so recommend you war latex gloves.

Leave overnight to dry. Once dry tease out the filler into a plume shape. This is very easy.




Take a good old black spray and....spray. Once dry (can take some time)...spray again.

Pull out battery tab and bobs your uncle...

Here you can see my finished effort sitting on top of a Sherman tank (solido version)

Total time to build (excluding drying time) about an hour.