The Crew of the Fenian Ram

 When I was but a lad of 12, I saw an ad for a new set of rules in Wargames Illustrated, by the name of "In Her Majesty's Name". A bit of research revealed that it was the type of game which really appealed to me. A narrative Victorian Sci-fi skirmish game? Yes please!

IHMN allows players to build "adventuring companies" of between 5 and 20 figures. The rules encourage narrative play, with many colourful characters. The factions in the core rules are varied and really interesting, ranging from London anarchists to the Prussian military's secret occult weapons department. The best part of the rules in my opinion is the ability to make entirely new factions. The rules provide points costs for every statistic, weapon and talent, so it's easy to modify existing companies or create entirely new ones!

This year saw the release of the second edition of IHMN. And it is good. Very good. The new rules provide even more customisation with the introduction of yet more talents, companies and weird science. My favourite of these additions must be the new vehicles. Ships and aircraft allow games to be played in the sky or on the sea.

I decided I wanted to make myself a new company. The late 19th century is a fantastic era for inspiration. I remembered a bit of fairly obscure Irish history that I thought would be perfect for an adventuring company.

The "Fenian Ram" was built in 1881 under the design of John Philip Holland, an Irish engineer. It was commissioned by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB, Fenians). Disputes over funding meant Holland refused to teach the Fenians how to pilot the Ram, and it never saw action against British ships.

What if the Ram had been built in a Victorian Science Fiction universe, though?? 

I thought it would be perfect for IHMN. 

In my alternate history, the Ram was built to sink British merchant vessels which were constantly exporting food from Ireland. This was a problem for Ireland, as in 1879 there were fears that famine could strike as it had in 1845. Armed with anger and funds from the Irish National Land League, the Fenians set to work on the Ram's construction... 

I've wanted to get some Lead Adventure steampunk miniatures for ages now. I love their style, every model looks like an individual with an interesting background. They're a little more expensive than some other 28mm figures, but they are really good value. The details are excellent, as is the casting.

This is the first crew member I finished. Like all the others, she doesn't have a name yet, but I have ideas for who she'll be. I've painted her with the "Irish" tartan pattern, indicative of the Celtic Revival romanticism of the era (Ireland doesn't actually have any tartan). This model took ages to finish (about 20 hours), mostly because of the tartan and the white shirt.

This character will probably be the engineer of the crew. She has some kind of steam powered hammer that could be for riveting metal onto the submarine. I painted it as copper with a heavy patina, as if it's been used underwater a lot. I do quite like painting copper, if you haven't noticed yet. 

I really like the weird bits of tech she's wearing. It's very hard to pick a favourite out of these models, but if I had to, this one would probably be it.

I think this guy will turn out to be some kind of explosives specialist. Maybe that rocket over his arm is a torpedo from the Ram. Again I really like the tech he's carrying, the cables are an opportunity to add some more colour. I like the gas mask and bowler hat, it's a bit quirky that someone would care so much about their appearance while wearing overalls and a breath preserver!

He has a little Gal Gréine ("sun banner") embroidered on his shoulder. This is a very old Irish flag. 

I painted this chap to look a little more gentlemanly. Maybe he's an aristocrat by day, undersea rebel by night. I think his face is full of character, and it was my favourite part to paint. I like the can of "CO2" on his belt which powers the hook-gun! 

I tried out a purple-yellow colour contrast (coincidentally the colours of my county). The purple took many tries. It's a very challenging colour to highlight without bleaching it or creating harsh transitions. I'm happy enough with the result, but still learning. 

His base was particularly fun to make. It features a gutter filled with some kind of greenish liquid. Yuck. 

The Ship's Boy. Very hard to photograph, because he's facing the ground. I think it adds a lot to his character though, it's as if he doesn't want to make eye contact with the viewer.

In IHMN he will probably accompany the captain, as two people are required to load and fire a flamethrower. 

The captain. A diver armed with a flamethrower. Not many things more VSF than that.

I think I'll make these into quite an elite company, with a lower than average number of figures. Every model in the Lead Adventure range is a character in itself. In addition, the crew of a submarine shouldn't be that large anyway, although I'm considering adding some local sympathisers to the company.

The company needs a Fenian Ram, of course. I'm definitely going to scratch build one! 

Big Spanish Civil War Project Part 3: Foreign Vehicles

 Another batch of things I finished a while ago. 

As in many other civil wars, foreign powers became involved in the Spanish conflict. This was in contravention of a Non Intervention Pact, largely a creation of Britain and France. This pact intended to avoid the coming Second World War, but it was powerless while Britain continued its policy of appeasement, as it could not be properly enforced.

The Soviet Union supplied the Republicans while Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy aided the Nationalists. This support was very valuable to both sides. German planes allowed the Nationalist Army of Africa to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, ignoring the threat posed by the Republican Navy. Soviet tanks and aircraft provided the Republicans with an advantage in both areas.

The first foreign aid to arrive in the Spanish Civil War was a shipment of T-26s in October 1936, early in the war. Germany responded by sending Panzer I tanks several days later.

This is a T-26. It's 1/100 scale, made from a Zvezda kit. I really like how it turned out, although the painting the markings was the cause of much cursing!

I painted it with the colour modulation style. It's quite "cartoony" and is based on idealised lighting conditions. But I think it matches well with the way most figures are painted. 

I recently got an airbrush, but I'm still not very confident in highlighting with it. I paint my tanks by brush. It isn't as hard as you might think. I used the layering technique and some simple blending on each panel. After the base colour and markings were finished, I gloss coated the whole tank and got out my oil paints. I used an "oil dot filter", a really fun and simple technique used by armour modellers. 

These are Panzer Is, the German response to the T-26s. They're both by Minairons Miniatures. The camouflaged one is a "Breda", modified with a more powerful gun to give it a better chance against the T-26. The standard Panzer I was not well equipped for fighting against other tanks.

These were painted in the same way as the T-26. The camouflage was done with Blu-Tac masking and an airbrush (though a brush could just as easily be used). To do this, I sprayed the model with a base colour, then masked the relevant areas with Blu Tac and repeating the process.

A bit of extra research after I was finished showed that all Panzers had some kind of camouflage in Spain. Silly me. But I still like the grey model, I don't think I'll repaint it.

Edit: further research seems to show that some Nationalist Panzer Is may actually have been grey! 

A Polikarpov I-15, in 1/72 scale, from ICM. Most people use smaller scale aeroplanes with their ground troops, but I've gone for 1/72 for its lower prices, range of choice and greater detail. I'd love to have had 1/100 scale planes, but there aren't really any being produced. 

I suppose planes should be larger than troops because of perspective. If the players are looking at the battle from high above, planes would be closer to them and would thus appear larger. If that even makes any sense! 

Sometimes I feel like Dougal when I'm trying to understand wargame scales 

Anyway ... This kit wasn't amazing. It had a few problems with parts not fitting correctly, and very few of the parts were keyed. It's made of a funny plastic that wasn't very easy to sand. The detail is quite good though. 

I didn't make the build any easier by adding a flying stand. I drilled a hole into the bottom of the plane and glued a magnet onto the inside of the fuselage. I put a corresponding magnet into an acrylic rod on a big base. It's a very sturdy way to mount the plane, because both the hole in the underside and the magnet hold it in place. The only issue is that the plane is a little bit close to the ground for my liking, but it's fine for wargames, especially when the plane is at low altitude. I might make more flying stands of different heights to show the plane's altitude in games. 

Big Spanish Civil War Project Part 2: Dinamiteros

I finished these off ages ago, but only got around to writing them up now. They're very characterful figures from Peter Pig. 

Dinamiteros were militia who fought using nothing but homemade explosives and slings, the most simple of all ranged weapons. I have had trouble finding many primary sources, but this article provides a lot of information. Time Article

I've read secondary sources which claim Dinamiteros were also used by the Nationalist faction, but can't find any evidence to support this.

The claim that captured Dinamiteros were executed immediately by the Nationalists does not seem particularly unusual to me. This level of aggression towards captured Republicans seems to be fairly universal. Hugh Thomas argues that both leaders and rank and file Republicans were executed without much thought in "The Spanish Civil War", (1986). He uses an acvount in which Franco was said to have ordered three ordinary militiawomen to be shot as an example of this brutality. 

Many sources I've read strongly associate Dinamiteros with Asturias, a region notable in this period for its mines and unionised workers. The mines were a ready source of explosives.

However, they seem to have been more widespread than just Asturias. At the 30 second mark of this footage, you can see a group of Dinamiteros fighting at the siege of the Alcazar in Toledo: Footage

In this photo, the banner identifies the Dinamiteros as "Vascos" (Basques). Some appear to be wearing slings tied around their necks. Image here

This photo (and others) by Gerda Taro show Dinamiteros during the Siege of Madrid. Image

Since "dinamitero" means simply "dynamiter", I don't think slings were used by everyone in the above sources. There's no denying that explosive slingers make great gaming units though. 

Enough historical nonsense! On to the models themselves 😊

The whole group. Four bases of two-man teams. 

Some close ups

Big Spanish Civil War Project Part 1: International Brigade

 For several years, I've been really interested in the Spanish Civil War. It's a really interesting era of history, with so many different ideologies and personalities clashing. It's perfect for wargamers, both for these reasons and because of the range of unusual troops players can use.

A few months back, I decided I'd make a Spanish Republican army for Hordes of the Things, as it's my major ruleset. It wasn't long before I had another idea, though. I decided I was going to paint both sides of the war. I'll probably use them for solo games, but not exclusively. The models I'm using are 15mm Peter Pig. 

As a goal, I've decided to paint enough models to fight the example scenario at the end of the Osprey rulebook "A World Aflame". This is the Battle of Jarama, in February 1937. 

The first batch of models I painted was a company of International Brigade troops. These were people who came from all over the world to fight for the Second Spanish Republic against the Nationalist rebellion. They were organised by the Soviet Communist Party, something which would make France and Britain view the Republic in a negative light. They're particularly interesting to me because they represent the British Battalion at the Jarama, which contained many volunteers from my own country, Ireland.

A group picture of the whole company

 

Each group of figures is on a 3cm square base. It's a fairly generic basing scheme, as I'd like to try different rulesets. They are based in the same way as the Balagan Blog recommends for Crossfire. I've also made labels for each base in a style similar to his. Thank you for these ideas 😊

Individually based figures

Since A World Aflame is the ruleset I'm going to try out first, I based some models individually. These are message runners, medics, forward observers (for Crossfire) and squad leaders. 

Company Commander and HMG

Like most of my stuff, I painted the flag on the command stand. I first made the structure of the flag from an aluminium drink can. Then I printed the flag I wanted to replicate, and painted over it to give it a "scale lighting" effect.

Three squads / platoons.

Not much to say about these really. I'm really happy with them.

At the start, I wasn't mad about Peter Pig figures, but as I've painted them I've started to really like them. They are quite small, even for 15mm, but they have excellent detail. The faces are especially good, and are even better on the batch of Nationalists I've just started working on.

In relation to the Spanish Civil War, today is the anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica (Gernika). This was an outrage which was unfortunately only the first of many of its kind. 

Blood Bowl Pitch Case Part 2

Following on from the construction of the case, I started building the pitch and dugouts. This was an interesting change from the first section of the build, because it allowed me to be more creative.

The first thing I did was to undercoat the entire outside of the case. I think I gave it three coats before moving on to black Rustoleum All Purpose Gloss. Then I gave it a few coats of satin yacht varnish for protection. The finish isn't perfect because of the texture on the plywood, but I'm still very happy with it. 

The next step was to make the pitch and lay out the markings. I started off with a sheet of static grass mat, the kind used by railway modellers. Using a ruler and paintbrush I measured out the squares and painted them in. This took a lot of time and patience! The result was far from perfect, with many of the squares being a few mm too small or big, but it's almost impossible to be completely accurate. Mistakes were easy enough to fix, I just used some PVA and static grass to cover them up. 

I made quite a few corrections to the pitch after this photo was taken! I then used a knife to cut along the Line of Scrimmage, and glued the two halves into the case. 

With the pitch completed, I could start on the dugouts, score counter and turn trackers.  I decided that the half of the case to the right of each player would contain dugouts, while the left would be taken up by turn and reroll tracks. 

I cut squares from a thin sheet of plywood (I think I got it from the back of an abandoned bedside locker!) and glued them in to make the turn and reroll tracks. I decided to only include one turn track per player to save space. After each half of the game they can simply be reset. 

   Numbers were painted into each track. 

I left some empty space on either side of the board so that I could make a scatter template and score tracker. I wanted the scatter template to look more interesting than just a few numbers, so I decided to sculpt it from Milliput. I rolled out a thin layer of Milliput onto greaseproof paper and sculpted the numbers 1 to 8, them I made a Blood Bowl ball. 

I decided that there would be four rooms in each dugout; Reserves, Knocked Out, Dead and Injured, and a Dungeon for players who have been sent off. Using some 3mm MDF and a sharp knife, I carved out some walls and doors to go between each room. 

     The bars in this one were made from           paperclip wire. 

I wasn't sure at first how to make the floors of the dugouts. I decided eventually to use coffee stirrers to imitate stone blocks! I cut them into different lengths and used PVA to glue them in. 

I started to furnish each room. I made a ladder from matchsticks for one reserves box, and a flight of stairs for the other. The steps were made by gluing bits of sprue together, then sculpting stone details with Milliput. 

I made "Home" and "Away" signs using old metal sprues. These were easy to make, I just cut them to be rectangular and painted them. 

I painted a beer barrel from an old Ogre kit for one reserves box. I filled it with some clear resin. 

 I made a stretcher for the Knocked Out box using two lengths of paperclip wire and Milliput. Again I sculpted this on a sheet of baking paper (used wet pallet paper actually!) to stop it sticking. 

I made some coffins for the Dead and Injured rooms using small pieces of thin plywood covered in Milliput. 

Some benches were made for the dugouts using matchsticks. Once all the furniture was finished, I painted the floors and walls of the dugouts and glued everything in. 

Here is the completed pitch! 

In each left hand corner, I made extra sections, to be used as dice trays.

I'm really happy with how the case turned out!