The Canadian Wargamer Podcast is Live!

 

Exciting news to pass on to you, gentle readers.   For some time now, my dear friend James and I have been kicking about the idea of a podcast focusing on the Canadian wargaming scene.   Friends and wargaming twitter encouraged us to proceed, and so we committed to the project and the debut podcast is now available for download from Podbean.  The technical aspects of podcasting are a bit of a learning curve that we have not fully mastered, but we are getting there.   It was great fun to partner with my oldest friend in the hobby, and we have some exciting guests lined up for future episodes.    

We’d be be grateful if you would give us a listen, give us some feedback, follow the podcast and spread the word.    

Here are the show notes that we posted on Podbean:

In this inaugural episode of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast, hosts and BFFs Mike (@MarshalLuigi) and James (@JamesManto4) introduce one another and address the crucial question: does the world need another miniature wargames podcast in which two (youngish) granddads natter on?  Spoiler alert - yes, it does.

We explain our Concept of Operations for the podcast:

1. Tell stories about the Canadian wargaming scene, a small scene in a BIG country. 

2. Introduce Canadian hobby leaders - figure sculptors and producers, bloggers, local linchpins - and hear their stories;

and

3. Explore connections between Canadian military history and wargaming.  Of course, we may also talk about our goblin wolf riders and Prussian grenadiers, but we are particularly interested in representing Canadian battles and soldiers on the tabletop.

We talk about what's keeping us busy for the next month:  

James - lots of decidedly non-Canadian Napoleonics.

Mike - might get to those 15mm Canadians in Sicily this month.

We also shamelessly steal Andy Clarke's virtual library schtick from his Joy of Six podcast.  We intend to ask each guest to "donate" one or two books with a Canadian military connection. In this issue, we each put two books on the digital shelves.

James' choices:

Mark Zuehlke, Brave Battalion: the Remarkable Story of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the First World War (2008). https://www.amazon.ca/Brave-Battalion-Remarkable-Canadian-Scottish/dp/0470154160

Chris Wattie, Contact Charlie: the Canadian Army, the Taliban, and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan (2008).

https://www.amazon.ca/Contact-Charlie-Canadian-Taliban-Afghanistan/dp/1554700841

Mike's choices:

Frederick George Scott, The Great War as I Saw It (1922).

https://www.amazon.ca/Great-War-Frederick-George-Scott/dp/0978465253

https://archive.org/details/greatwarasi00scotuoft

Farley Mowat, The Regiment (1974).

https://www.amazon.ca/Regiment-Farley-Mowat/dp/1551251221

 

Let us know what you thought of the podcast and tell your friends!   Also, check out our blogs:

James: http://rabbitsinmybasement.blogspot.com

Mike: http://madpadrewargames.blogspot.com

 

Terrain Tuesday: In Praise of Backdrops

Hello friends and welcome to another Terrain Tuesday feature, which today looks at how model railroad backdrops can enhance your gaming table.

If you’ve followed some of my recent AARs since I moved the painting table into a strategic corner of the basement, you will have noticed that the walls are painted a bright orangey-red of the hue beloved of interior decorators in the 1990s.   Sometimes that gave the photos from my games a bit of an SF vibe, as if they were being fought on some planet with a reddish atmosphere, like the sets in the original Star Trek.  This effect may not matter to those of a philosophical frame of mind, who think, “So what, they’re just toy soldiers, right, who really cares?” but I think you’ll agree that we do this hobby for its aesthetics; otherwise, why not just play paper and counter wargames?

For my self-selected Christmas present last year, I decided to try some model railroad backdrops (back scenes as they seem to be known in the UK), and I ordered them from an English company called New Modeller’s Shop, which gave quite good service.  I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but settled on to OO (1/76 scale) rural/village back scenes, here and here - which I felt would do for generic rural settings in the Eastern US (ACW), as well as western Europe (WW2, SYW).  The two codes I ordered each gave me two rolls printed on touch heavyweight paper - each backdrop set consists of two 5 foot long rolls, each 15” high - the rolls in each code are designed to be put together.  Here’s what I got.

To mount them I bought four large sheets of white foamcore board and used duct tape to glue the two halves together to get the requisite ten feet length.    The first one I mounted (second from bottom above) taught me that glue is a terrible way to proceed, as despite my best efforts I got wrinkles and bubbles.  They aren’t visible from a distance, as the camera generally focuses on the figures, but they annoyed me, so I went to an artists’ supply sore and purchased a roll of white mounting tape, which proved surprisingly tough and strong.  Working very carefully, I applied the bottom of the tape to cover the white border printed on the backdrops, and had enough width of tape remaining to secure the backdrops to the foam core board.   The end result was much neater and didn’t buckle the foam core exceedingly.

@MarshalLuigi highly approves, as you can see.  The camera focuses on the figures, so the backdrop is just a pleasant visual effect, but not distractingly so.   The OO scale seems to work with 20mm and 28mm figures.   I haven’t tried it yet with smaller scales.

The next problem was how to effectively keep the backdrops in place.   Butting the long table edge against a wall and propping the backdrop leaning slightly against the wall mostly worked, except that the white bottom edge of the backdrop was distracting in the photos, though I could cover it if I scrunched the table mat up against it like so:

The other problem I faced was the weight of the backing board causing the backdrop to slip down behind the table, which happened with annoying frequency.   I wracked my brains, and ended up using small metal angle brackets drilled and screwed into the side of table, about one foot in from either long end, at a height sufficient to hide the white edging on the bottom of the backdrop.

Then another angle bracket, to be bolted and taped (because extra duct tape never hurts) to securely hold the backdrop in place.

I’ll finish securing the angle brackets tonight, and I think that will solve the problem neatly.  Of course, if I want to use the backdrops, one long table edge has to be against the wall, making it somewhat problematic for reach if I want to use a second table, but I think that’s a small price to pay for the visual enhancement in the edited and cropped photos, and really, isn’t that what’s terrain is for in our hobby?

Cheers and thanks for looking,

MP+

Nasty Nazgul, or, Mordor's Mounted Minions

Missed the Fantasy Friday deadline, but here are two dangerous Nazgul types for my LOTR collection to terrify both the legions of Mordor and their foes.   Both are Games Workshop figures.  The one on the left is the King of the Nazgul when GW used to make metal figures.    On the right is a plastic alternative rider for the Fell Beast that came in the Pelennor Fields boxed set I mentioned here recently.   I decided to keep him, and found a caparisoned medieval horse in the lead mountain that promised to work well when painted black.

 

\Painting black is an art form that greatly intimidates me.  I started with a Citadel Chaos Black spray undercoat, then highlighted in Vallejo German Gray, then added Folkart craft store indigo highlights, and finally some dry brushing as I finished the bases to suggest dust and dirt on the fabric.   I think they’re reasonably spooky and unpleasant and should add some biting power to the hordes of Mordor.

I really think I should start work on that mounted Gandalf figure i have tucked away - I think he’ll be needed!

Cheers and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Napoleonic Thursday: WIP 6mm Baccus Austrian Uhlans

Good day friends:

Napoleonic Thursday has rolled around once again and this week I have som 6mm Baccus Austrian Uhlans that I am calling finished, ready to be taken off the painting sticks, cut and bunged (a technical term I’ve learned from the (slightly) mad author of the Service Ration Distribution blog) onto bases.   I followed my usual recipe of a black undercoat and batch painting all 45ish figures (!), which gives me enough for three different regiments (1st, 2nd and 3rd) in their distinctive cloth czapka colours.  My source is Haythornthwaite and Fosten’s Osprey book, Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars (2).

 

 Once I get these done, I can finally tackle my Battle of Wertingen project, as the Austrians had at least one regiment of Uhlans there, I believe.    Not sure about you, but lancers give me the willies, and if I had to face any type of Napoleonic cavalry in battle, I think I would fear lancers the most.   I am sure that there are drawbacks in combat once your lance gets broken or caught and some brute with a dragoon sabre gets inside your reach, but it would be terribly intimidating to be charged by lancers, I would think.

 

In other Napoleonic news, I’m currently dipping into the Memoirs of Marshal MacDonald (trans. Simeon, Leonaur 2011), the Marshal of whom Napoleon once said that it would be dangerous to let him hear bagpipes on the battlefield.   MacDonald’s memoir is at times self-serving, as one would expect, but the accounts of how he survived his service in the Revolutionary army during the Terror, of being chased and chasing up and down Italy, and keeping his small corps intact during the Russian campaign are all entertaining.  

I had a look at the Front Rank website, once I learned that the owner is retiring and has the company up for sale.  My dear friend James has a huge head of steam up with his 28mm Napoleonics project, and I am sometimes tempted into joining him, but to my credit I closed my browser without buying an Front Rank figures.  James and I have agreed that after Covid restrictions ease, he can visit me to game with my 6mm Naps kit, and I can visit him and play with his big 28mm figures.   Thus my willpower and my wallet live to fight another day.

Finally, in the books received department, two very interesting books arrived in the post from David Ensteness’ The Wargaming Company, the new edition of his Et Sans Resultat rules and his guidebook to 1808 Peninsular campaign.  If I’m to be tempted to buy more Napoleonic figures, it will be for Spain, I think.  Comments on these books in the weeks ahead, I hope.

Cheers and thanks for reading.  What Napoleonics stuff are you working on?

MP+

"Herbie": The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Mascot Figure

On his blog recently, Dai, a good friend of this blog and a good mate, was lamenting the tedium of batch painting.   Having almost finished 42(!) 6mm Napoleonic cavalry, I can well relate.  Sometimes it’s a welcome break to focus on one figure and lavish it with attention and with all one’s meagre talent (speaking purely for myself).  Hence, I present “Herbie”, a WW2 Canadian infantryman, named for the wartime cartoon drawn by Bing Coughlin and published in the Canadian Army newspaper The Maple Leaf.  I don’t think there was ever a widely adopted nickname for the Canuck soldier in that war, comparable to “Tommy” or “GI Joe”, but “Herbie”, Coughlin’s bewildered and misfit hero, seems to fit.

 

This figure is perhaps too martial and competent looking to be a “Herbie”, but I think that’s the name that stuck when my mate James got Canadian sculptor Bob Murch to design him as a registration gift for the 25th anniversary of the SW Ontario miniature gaming event, Hot Lead.  Here he is enjoying a brew (tea, hot, sweet, with a dollop of evaporated milk), his foot propped on a German helmet, in the ruins of some unfortunate city.  He wears the light blue shoulder patch of 3 Division and the “turtle” helmet issued before the Normandy campaign.

 Herbie will not be a gaming piece, but he’ll grace a bookshelf and perhaps be the image of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast, which James and I are dreaming up and which may see it’s inaugural episode recorded tonight.   Stay tuned for more.

 

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

 

Terrain Tuesday: WIP Timecast 6mm Napoleonic Buildings

 

I’m ridiculously happy that this is the SIXTH!!!! consecutive week I’ve done a Terrain Tuesday post here.    HOORAY! <waves hands in the air like Kermit the Frog on the Muppet Show>.   Making this a blogging goal and a painting goal has been good for my productivity, and I’m also happy that it’s lead to a few other semi-regular features (Fantasy Friday, Napoleonics Thursday) starting to appear on this blog.  So hurrah for me and thanks to YOU for reading.   Have a drink.

What have I to show you today?  Not much in the shop window, a semi-gestated terrain project for my 15mm Sicily 1943 project that needs more work before I can show it off, but <looks around wildly>  yes, these two things on the painting bench will do!

Timecast (I think!) resin 6mm Napoleonic style buildings, almost finished the painting.  Still have to do the timbering on one and think of some imaginative colour to paint the doors (other than wood - were people in the early 1800s whimsical about door painting?   Green?  Blue?  Well, they're my buildings, and if the Home Owners’ Association complains, I’ll give them a whiff of grapeshot.

Will probably base these together to suggest a Built Up Area.   I have some more trees and scenic things on order from Timecast, so the finished stand will have to wait until they arrive.

What terrain are you working on?

Cheers and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Napoleonics Thursday: Books Recently Arrived

Napoleonic wargaming seems to require vast quantities of books, which is probably not different from any gaming any other period, but even when it comes to uniform guides, it seems to help to be a bit of a bibliophile.

I found Hayornthwaite’s Osprey book on Napoleon’s Line Infantry (1983) on a used book site and was happy to buy it because it several years ago when I started in 6mm Naps I found the colour plates online, downloaded them, and happily used them as a painting guide.   I have always felt guilty about that little digital theft (mea maxima culpa!) and so jumped at the chance to atone for my sins.

Re-reading it, I was struck by how dark the blue of these uniforms appears in the plates, as dark as the Indigo worn by Union troops in the American Civil War.   Painting 6mm, I usually go a share brighter, just for visual effect.

 

Another OOP Osprey title arrived all the way from a used bookstore in France!  A quick rant on Osprey - I’m puzzled why all of their OOP titles are not available digitally, and why of those that are, some can be found in Kindle format via Amazon, while those digital versions sold directly from the Osprey website are not Kindle-compatible and have to be read with another application (in my case, the Books app on my Mac Book).   Very perplexing.

At any rate, I have several bags of lovely 6mm Bavarians from Baccus awaiting my brush, and wanted something more reliable than just my vague memory of cornflower blue uniforms and black hats.  Bavarians are a great force because they make useful allies for the French up to 1813 (the Austrians hated them) and then switch sides, so a useful force.

This Osprey book is quite good, and the plates by Richard Hook are full of animation and humour - a soldier cuddling a liberated piglet, a dragoon on horseback having an animated conversation with a young woman in a window, and a cheerful Colonel with a glass of schnapps.    All very different from the stark realism and mannequin postures of Bryan Fosten’s please in the above book.

Speaking of Bavarians, the painted 28mm army on the VonPeter Himself website are simply luscious, and really, the entire site is worth regular visits for Napoleonics done well in the big scale.

 

 

Finally in the book roundup, this arrived in the post from the UK recently in a remarkable display of generosity, a good illustration of what young Conrad Kinch likes to call “the Freemasonry of the hobby”.   Someone in the UK, one of my Twitter mutual follows, knew that I was looking for a copy of this book, Hayornthwaite’s one-stop shop for all things Napoleonic, which has been sadly missing for my library.   The owner was quite happy to mail it to me free of charge as long as I gave it a good home, so I am happy to pay the favour forward and am also painting two figures for this person’s collection.   Such a grand hobby that it inspires so many friendships, most of which are between people who have not yet met in the flesh!

As proof of this book’s usefulness, in the entry on Bavaria, we learn that the American-born Benjamin Thompson, the Graf von Mumford, after  serving the Elector of Bavaria as War Minister, “retired to pursue a brief marriage with the wife of the guillotined chemist Lavoisier and two live in seclusion in Paris, where his lasting achievement was the invention of the coffee percolator!”  Feel free to drop this tidbit when you return to the post-Covid cocktail party circuit, and don’t thank me, thank Hayornthwaite.

My next Napoleonic projects are to finish some 6mm Baccus Austrian Uhlans, draw up the unit labels for the Battle of Wertingen, and get that fight on the table as a way of visiting the Dave Brown General d’Armee rules.  What in the way of Napoleonics are you working on?

Cheers and blessings,

MP+