German Artillery

Last May when I was at Campaign 2015, getting beaten around the MK Centre in the FOG AM competition, which was great fun. I made an impromptu purchase, a German 77mm Krupp field gun in 28 mm. This was my first in 28mm and I was interested to see what it was like. I guess I have been inspired by all the great larger scale displays I have seen at various shows. Particularly with regard to First World War  and the Exhibition games  of Crush the Kaiser.

Nearly a year later I’ve got around to painting it  up and I am quite  pleased with the result. 

The crew had their uniforms painted with a series of washes in different  shades of field grey then   shadows picked out with black ink washes. Finally I have finished the off  a couple of coats of dry brushing, The faces were  blocked out in various shades of flesh, which was then washed over with  a Games Workshop fleshshade wash which sunk into the recesses nicely  following this a touch of dry brushing  over the hand and face finished them off.  Their kit and boots were treated in more or less the  same way with blocking followed by washes and a little dry brushing.  

The field gun was brush painted although I think I will get the airbrush out and spray artillery pieces in the future. Next up will be to tidy up any rubs add some flock and give the a coat of matt varnish  to seal them.

Campaign 2015

Earlier this month I went to the Milton Keynes to attend Campaign the local club's annual show which is held in the massive MK shopping centre.  I participated in the Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval Competition over the weekend. It is always good fun to some of games under competition conditions to improve as a player. 

I found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of the competition and this allowed myself to become tentative and hesitant.  This is not a sound strategy when you are face with more experienced better players. Nevertheless, by the final game on the Sunday afternoon I managed to avoid a fourth route and being satisfied with a narrow loss.  It was good to score some points over the weekend. I was fielding Mid-Republican Romans, for three of the battles I faced Successor armies and the fourth battle was a civil war against a Mid Republican Roman army. 

Campaign is a great sceptical and the guys at Milton Keynes Wargames Club do a fantastic job to put on a wargames show in such a great venue. Along with the competitions  there were also a fair few traders and exhibitors,  One of  my  favourites  was   the  early First World War  Exhibition  battle  by the creators  of Crush the Kaiser  rules.  Here are some snaps showing a German advance on  the British lines.

I took the time to pop back to the game over the weekend to see the game unfold. The pictures illustrate the Germans closing in on the British positions, and taking some serious damage in the process. Although, their artillery did manage to get force its British counterpart to retreat.  It was interesting and informative to see the authors play their own rules. In my limited  experience of these rules I have enjoyed  and find  them  nice and  simple  and representative of the period playing  them.