Monday, 1 June 2026

Post-Partizan Progress

There is always a bit of an uplift with regards to inspiration post a wargames show, and the recent visit to Partizan was no exception. A flurry of activity resulted, but was brought to a shuddering halt by the record breaking heatwave of the last week or so. With the weather having broken and some very welcome rain (not often you want to say that!), I thought I'd do a bit of catch up on what's been going on the gaming front.

Commission Figurines
After the last Honours of War game a month or so ago, I realised I really needed to push on and finish off some units to more or less complete my core Red and Blue forces. At the same time so long overdue units were added to the 'to-do' pile, which can be seen below.

Guard-cum-Grenadier units in greatcoats, to make them stand out from the rank-and-file ones once on the table. In the background is a unit of the latter to help balance out the Blue force.

My very basic toy soldier style painting with gloss lacquer which just works well once on the table top. 


Some in progress units in the form of 4 units of heavy artillery, 2 units of howitzers and 6 units of engineers. With these I should have everything I need for most games and scenarios.


Vulture Squadron
The superb game put on by The League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers at Partizan got my creative juices flowing to the point of wanting to add to the aircraft I already have for my AVBCW games. First off a new purchase and then some long overdue toys moved up the painting queue.

A lovely Tiger Moth diecast plane at about 1:87 scale.

I'm not sure which side, if any, it will fight for yet.

Awaiting their turn to be painted, which hopefully will start this week not it's cooled down. All but one are Zvezda kits. The metal one (top left) will form the basis for a future ABVCW campaign.


Operation Sealion
I bought this book to add to my knowledge of what might have happened had the Germans actually been able to mount some form of invasion in the Summer of 1940. Some really interesting information so far that I wasn't aware of, which will be useful for when I undoubtedly run another campaign for this perennial 'what if?' that has always held a fascination for many a wargamer I'm sure.




Nuns On The Run
With regards to the above book, I treated myself to some monks and nuns for some 5th Column-cum-Fallschirmjager shenanigans during Operation Sealion. Of course they can also be used for general Dark Ages and Middle Ages games. Alongside these I also ordered a small Cossack force for use with my 19thC ImagiNations games, either in Europe of for another theatre of operations that I've had my eye on for some time. More on this in due course, but don't hold your breath;)!

Industrial Buildings
I had wanted to order some of these some time ago, but the Leven Miniatures went out of production, so that plan was shelved. Recently Battlescale bought the moulds and have slowly been adding the old items to their online store. So I need to make a list of what I want that will suit planned games of BKCII, whether for the AVBCW or right through to Berlin 1945 and beyond. Frankly far too much temptation but as we all know, very hard to resist!

What Next?
Ideally I'd like to get those Commission Figurines painted so that I can park this for the meantime and come back to it as and when the mood takes me, as I'd like to add some more limbers and scratch build some carts too. Then of course painting some aeroplanes would be nice, but often the hardest thing is deciding upon which camouflage scheme to go with. First World problems and all that!

As always thanks for reading and any comments grealty appreciated, assuming thes post appears in your feed...

TTFN.

26 comments:

  1. Nice stuff Steve - last time anyone in the UK was happy to see rain would have been back in 1976! LOL
    Like all the Seelowe ideas - you are right, a perennial temptation, if nothing else, to me - ever since seeing articles about it in Airfix Magazine - and thanks to the magic of AI , this is when it was - Airfix Magazine published a multi-part series on Operation Sealion (the planned German invasion of Britain in 1940) during 1975, primarily written by Terry Wise. The series ran across several consecutive issues June 1975 - Jan 1976.

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    1. Thanks Keith and nice to know my post has sort of appeared, well at least in your part of the World! It's been an incredibly dry Spring after a very, very wet Winter, so the poor old farmers are getting in from both ends, with crops rotting or simply wilting and dieing:(.

      I have some of those Airfix articles courtesy of an old Blog, but not all of them. Very dated now in terms of the look of the games, but still a joy to look at. The Eagle Has Landed and A Bridge Too Far films really cemented Sealion and Market-Garden in our psyches I'm sure!

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  2. Hi Steve, your post turned up on my feed before 1 PM. Totally agree that a show does enthuse. I like the idea of seeing a table and then going straight to the manufacturer to buy the project, but these days it is only the bigger shows that you can do this at as the small - medium shows are missing those ‘A’ listers!

    Good work on the Commission Figures, lucky to have had a small usable gap between Partizan and the heat wave.

    I was in Waterstones last week and noticed two titles on Sealion, so a resurgence in interest perhaps! My game shop is down to their last two copies of the Sealion boardgame - I was tempted, but the complexity level is higher than I wanted …….. hmmn after typing this …. I am tempted again! :-)

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    1. I was certainly glad I did make the effort to go to Partizan, as it did rejuvenate my hobby mojo:). The small window before the heatwave was a bit lucky on my part, as the figures had sat there for weeks awaiting painting etc.

      Sealion does seem to have had a bit of a surge on the ppublications front. Certainly the book I'm reading has added to my knowledge re: how we prepared our defence in depth etc. I've yet to get to the naval and air aspect, but certainly looking forward to these as they are rarely covered in depth. I have a feeling you will succumb to the board game, but always tricky to get the right balance after your last outing IIRC?

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  3. Your MDF warriors look great, looking forward to seeing how they perform when they get their chance on the table. Be interesting to see what you do with the planes, nice collection there.

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    1. Thanks Donnie and let's hope they live up to their status once on the table;)! A nice mix of planes for sure and look forward to picking up the brush once I've decided upon colours schemes etc.

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  4. Great stuff Steve busy indeed….i think everything stopped when it hit 34 degrees ! Hit 30 even up here. operation Sealion don’t think you can go far wrong with that 😀

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    1. Thanks Matt and really unusual for the heat to stop play right across the board, as Tuesday was a real killer here. Yep, anything sealion related is always fun to play for sure:).

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  5. Steve, I have a couple of buddies who recently returned from a show. They both came back re-energized to picking up both brush and gaming. We will see how long this euphoria lasts!

    Nice looking additions to your collections. Especially like the look of your airplane.

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    1. I think we have to ride that wave of post show enthusiasm whilst we can, as I know I can struggle to maintain the momentum. I've pondered on getting a Tiger Moth for years, so when I saw this, it was a no-brainer for me!

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  6. I do like Comission Figurines, Reject Richard has loads Revolutionary Wars figures and they look great. Keep up the great work.

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    1. Thanks Ray and I do love what Richard has done with his figures:).

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  7. Very nice! How will you do the carts and limbers? (do Commission do limbers?)

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    1. Thanks John:)! They do do limbers, so my plan is to use some spare wheels and horses to make very simple wooden blocks for the carts, then add either tissue or tin foil to the tops to represent the canvas covering. Should be simple in theory!

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  8. Those mdf figures look great Steve. I like the toy soldier look but I bet at gaming distance they look more like ‘serious’ models. I originally tried painting my 6mils more ‘realistically’ but they came out looking in distinct and you have to keep it really simple and bold.
    Is the Sealion book about the Auxiliary Units? That would make a great skirmish‘campaign’ scenario along the lines the Jolly Broom Man did with his AVBCW models recently.
    Chris/Nundanket

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    1. Thanks Chris:) Once on the table, they look fine as you need that bright cartoonish look to make them pop at arms length etc. I did try them with matt lacquer but they just looked as dull as ditchwater! Certainly smaller scales need brighter colours and a bolder approach.

      When I started reading the Home Guard Guerrillas, the Auxiliary Units etc, I did immediately think of Mark and his recent AVBCW games. I didn't know that factories and other places such as newspaper offices set up their own units to guard the premises, this releasing the Regulars and Home Guards for other duties. Already I've lots of ideas on how to use this info for my BKCII games:).

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  9. Hi Steve.
    A good burst of reinvigoration there….shows are real boosters.
    Always good to see the mdf Commission figures.Super-impressive 2D=3D models - love it! The paint job is very effective, especially en masse.
    (Can’t help of the ‘feed’ front - I check in on the blog most days ‘manually’, rather than be told by the electronic reminders - so I spot new posts without a prompt).
    Good luck progressing the projects, and thanks for showing us the finished and WIP items 👍🏼.
    Martin

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    1. Thanks Martin:)! Most gamers are surprised when they see them up close, as they don't look 2D once on the table. They look even better en masse, as Richard (below) has shown with his figures and games.

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  10. Great to see you adding to your MDF armies, Steve. You've got plenty of things on the go. I look forward to seeing your exciting output.

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    1. Thanks Richard and I too like to see how you've gone about using your own mdf figures. Always plenty of ideas on the go for sure, it's just finding the time and trying to maintain focus is the hard part!

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  11. Those MDF figures do look very good. :-) And what's not to like about biplanes? I could be very tempted to collect some 1914-1930s biplanes but I'm not sure what I would do with them, to be honest! As always, you have a lot of interesting projects on the go. Good luck with them all and I shall enjoy watching your progress.

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    1. Thanks David:)! So much temptation with biplanes and some of the early Inter-War designs, but as you say, what to do with them, except display them? Hopefully some painting progress today as the weather is dreadful at the minute, but thankfully it's much needed rain.

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  12. Nicely done with your MDF recruits 👏👏 I trust they will prove to be Mighty Diminutive Fighters indeed 😉
    Cheers,
    Geoff

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    1. Thanks Geoff and love the new meaning of the MDF acronym:)!!!

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  13. You are correct about the post Partizan boost. A bit like the new manager bounce in football though real life soon wears it down I've found...

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    1. A good analogy there David re: football. I always get a boost post-Colours as Autumn begins to make its presence felt and less effort is needed on the garden.

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