Sunday 11 March 2012

Project Update

Having pretty much completed the first phase of Mahdist War project and with my Indian Mutiny project nearing a similar state I thought I would take a look at how things are shaping up. My major project for this year will be my 15mm Marlburians with a couple of other minor ones on the side (budget permitting); however, Lenin decided to get his DPM paints out and so a couple of "modern" projects have jumped the queue. I say "modern" but given both of these are really 1980's I wonder whether we need an alternative term given we're talking about 30 years ago! As someone pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago, if they filmed Back to the Future now Marty McFly would be going back to 1982 (now that's scary - it only seems like last week to me...). Anyway, onto the update:

28mm Falklands War

With this year being the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, I thought it would be appropriate to expand my collection to include it - with a view to being able to use some of the British troops for other things (see below).

Initially I wondered about doing this at 15mm (and that still has its advantages); however, I had a chance to get some 28mm Royal Marines from a friend of mine so that rather decided things.  The figures are from the Gripping Beast Mo-Fo moderns range, so I have acquired a few more figures from the same range to bulk out the Marines and add some opposition.  This will give me around a weak platoon for each side which should be plenty for my table.

As to rules, there is a scenario covering the encounter at Top Malo house in the Force on Force book so that's clearly a possibility; however, I may drop down to using Chain Reaction/Nuts!

28mm Cold War Gone Hot

I had been interested in doing something in this genre for quite a while before the Force on Force supplement came out.

Indeed we have already played a couple of games based on this previously (for the latest see here) using some of my existing figures and Lenin's Soviet paras.

The germ of the idea came when I started collecting the rather lovely Mongrel modern British (originally for Northern Ireland - see here for photos) followed by some of their Soviets for Afghanistan.  World War 3 was a chance to get these figures to the table a little more often.  As I didn't have enough British Infantry nor were a number of the Afghanistan invasion Soviets suitable for Europe I decided to pick up a few more figures.  I have the Soviets on the workbench being based up at the moment.

As to rules, once again this is a toss up between Force on Force and Chain Reaction/Nuts!

Lenin is hoping to have some more figures ready for Salute so I should be able to get some photos up around then.

With these side projects queue jumping I suspect I will have to limit what else I am able to start this year but I do have a couple of part finished projects that I can progress without too much more "investment".

5 comments:

  1. The Back to the Future analogy is truly frightening! Very interested in the Falklands project and just been to have a sneaky peak over at the Gripping Beast site. They do look superb; although plenty of head variants would just want perhaps one more british body pack, perhaps with all the kit for the yomp. Either way very excited to see what you do with them.

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    1. I thought so! I must admit it is a shame that there isn't more available for the Falklands but we need to work with what we've got. My main gap at the moment is suitable terrain - which is one thing I will be working on next.

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  2. Your comments regarding "time" are quite chilling. Yep 1980's somehow does not qualify for the term "Modern" anymore more "Retro-Modern".

    I was hoping Navwar might put out a 30th anniversary Falklands fleet pack (as in I was hoping they would go chasing down the bulk of the merchant ships for me)

    You have started me off on something Al!

    On the land side of it I would go 1/300

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  3. Have to admit al, FoF/AAG or THW/Nuts! are the only two sets I play at the moment and I suppose it depends whether you want a skirmish or squad-based game; I am undecided at present myself, so good luck, mate ;)

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    1. I suspect I will end up playing games with both sets depending on the size of game I'm trying to do and how long I have. Nuts can work up to platoon level at a push but only if you have the same Rep for the individual troops within a section.

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