Household Cavalry and Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museums London

By Robert Kelly

The Household Cavalry Museum

Judging by YouTube and videos and photos from any tourist site, everyone who visits London seems to end up at Horse Guards to take a photo of the mounted troops on guard there. The reason there are so many tourists is because it is so centrally located.  It’s not far from any of London’s attractions like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. So do what I did. 

Walk past the crowds, through the gate, and go around the corner to the Household Cavalry Museum (orange arrow).  Or if you are walking up the Mall or through St. James Park from Buckingham Palace, cross the Horse Guards Parade directly to the museum (fuchsia arrow). Other nearby sites are circled in purple, such as the Mall, Churchill War Rooms, and 10 Downing Street. 

Painting Waffen SS Oak Leaf Camouflage

By Kreighton Long

The German Eichenlaubmuster, also known as Oak Leaf, camouflage pattern began being issued in 1941 and was used by the Waffen SS until the end of the war.  Below are the steps I take when I paint Oak Leaf camouflage.  The paints I used are Vallejo’s German Cam. Pale Brown (825), German Cam. Black Brown (822), German Cam. Dark Green (979), and German Cam. Bright Green (833).

Painting Sidewalk Terrain Casts

By Kreighton Long

In my previous article, I described my first foray into mold making.  In this article, I’ll share how I took the cured casts and painted them to look like generic cobblestone sidewalks.  I spent some time looking at different cobblestone sidewalks on Google Images to try to find out how to paint mine.  In the end, I decided to go with a basic grey color as a safe neutral to fit most settings.

Creating Sidewalk Terrain Molds

By Kreighton Long

Over the years I’ve slowly been building up my collection of urban terrain and as my tables experience urbanization I’ve come to realize that the next step is to include sidewalks. Adding sidewalks to my terrain collection will help to fill in some void space in my town, and will help the town become a more aesthetically pleasing, lived-in, setting.

At first, I looked for simpler options such as printing cobblestones onto card stock or buying mousepad cobblestone rolls and cutting to size but none of those gave me the modeler look I desired.  Eventually, I rolled up my sleeves and declared, “Fine.  I’ll do it myself”, with my best Thanos impression.

Basing Artillery in Bolt Action

By Kreighton Long

What is a Bolt Action army project without some big guns?  Even partisans have access to lighter howitzers and anti-tank guns.  There’s probably at least one army that can’t take artillery options but I can’t think of one on my own.  As fun and good-looking as the big guns can be it can be challenging to paint and base the finicky things.  Speaking for myself, I struggled for a while on how best to turn these pieces of pewter, plastic, and resin into gaming pieces that were as aesthetically pleasing on the table as they were influential on the outcome of the game.

Canadian Tabletop Championships: Bolt Action Tournament

by Dennis ‘MATT VARNISH’ Campbell

The second Canadian Tabletop Championships (CTC) was held over the Mother’s Day Weekend here in Ottawa, ON, Canada, after a 4-year hiatus thanks to Covid 19.  I attended the first CTC in 2019 where I was the ringer for Flames of War on Day One and wound up winning the Team Yankee event with my Syrians on Day Two.  I would have participated in the two-day Bolt Action event this year were it not on Mother’s Day and my wife’s birthday weekend, but I am assured next year will be earlier in the month, the first weekend of May.

 

Unboxing: Pike & Shotte Epic Battles by Warlord Games

By Troy A Hill

I put my preorder in for Warlord Games new Pike & Shotte Epic Battles Push of Pike boxed set, and it arrived this past weekend. Warlord continues their epic streak of 14-ish mm Epic Battles scale releases.

Special shoutout to Morgan, who packed my set. Everything looks spot on, and I couldn’t be happier with the set.

That said, I’m totally confused now. Growing up in ‘Muricah! and only getting to study the American Civil War (ACW), one can imagine my surprise to find out that our British cousins had their own civil war (English Civil War, or ECW) a couple of centuries before ours. So, now I’m wondering who the English versions of Lee and Grant were?

Hail Caesar Battle Report: Beware the Ides of March, Pyrrhic Greeks vs Romans

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Fresh off our earlier review of the updated Hail Caesar book, Scott Roach and I have played our first game of the new rules.

We decided to run three Divisions for around 500pts each side, and are opting for the classic orders procedure and not the simplified procedures.

Scott had this lovely table set up (above) with a sweet Roman Fort that I would be defending in front of the main gate, whilst his Pyrrhic Greeks would be marching from the Sicilian beaches after debarking from their galleys.

The fort and occupants are just for show.

New ‘Hail Caesar’ Book Overview

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Here we are, at last, with a new version of ‘Hail Caesar‘ by Warlord Games. I hesitate to say ‘Hail Caesar 2‘ or call this book a sequel since even though this is an update to the original book, the main rules remain pretty much the same.

The original Hail Caesar book came out in 2014, and while it’s certainly time for a refresh, you can easily still play Hail Caesar with either book, though the newer one opens up Sieges and Late Medieval, clarifies diagrams, and includes generic scenarios.  Let’s dive right in.

Painting World War Two Italian Camouflage

photo by Kreighton Long

By Kreighton Long

A sample of M1929 telo mimetico provided by fellow geek and co-conspirator of the author, Mr. Jeffrey Whitlock.

The Italian Army, or Regio Esercito, was the first military in the world to mass-produce camouflage equipment for their soldiers. The M1929 telo mimetico was utilized by Italian soldiers and paratroopers as well as by Italy’s German ally during the course of World War Two.

For my Italian paratrooper army project I knew I needed to commit hard to the camouflage pattern and after a few trial runs incorporating feedback I reached a scheme that was close to accurate while still being doable.