Mad About Gaming

Gaelcon 09

2009-10-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

I will be running a participation game of Ambush Alley over this weekend at Gaelcon at the D4 Hotel in Dublin if anyone fancies a game. I will be there on Saturday and Sunday.
I am nearly finished my bathroom in the house I am doing up here in sunny old Ireland and when that is done I am starting to make a mountain range for Afghanistan type games.
I plan to photograph the whole project as it unfolds as a tutorial. It will be for 15mm games on a 12ft by 6ft table, with a cave complex hidden somewhere on the table.
I'll post some photos of Gaelcon next week.

Bongadishu goes bang

2009-10-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of a game of Force on Force I have set up in the games room at the moment.

Myself and fellow Cavan wargamer Mike Grainger are playing a big game of Force on Force week by week to learn the rules inside out.

The Coalition Forces are attempting to seize a part of the city that leads to a gap through the Bongan Heights and give them access to the plains beyond before the main Umbongan forces can regroup after initial Airstrikes.

This is only into the 3rd turn and it is mainly a tank fight as the Umbongans have so many support weapons it will be a turkey shoot if the coalition infantry get into the open at all.

So the coalition armor is attempting to nuetralise the Umbongan Armor and support weapons before heading for the gap with infantry support.

Confess 09

2009-10-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not posting in a while.

I put on a participation game of Ambush Alley at confess 09 in Sligo Northwest Ireland.

It was the last ever confess which is a great shame as it was a good show.

The game went down well and ended in a draw. The objective was a rescue mission. Although the prisoners were rescued a Fog of war card was drawn changing the main mission to capturing a POI and this failed.

Unfortunatley I was to busy umpiring to remember to take any photos doh!

The AA game was followed by an excellent game of legends of the old west, put on by Sligo wargamer Darren Birt.

How to make Middle Eastern/North African Buildings

2009-07-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hi here is a quick tutorial of how I make my 15mm buildings for Middle Eastern and North African based wargames.
Firstly I start with a large sheet of foamcore, you can buy large sheets of these from a picture framers or Art shop.
I mark out about 10 or so structures in one go marking where I want windows and doors.
Next I cut out all the windows and doors and cut out each section of the structure.

After cutting all the peices out I glue them together using superglue, I find the best way to do this is to glue three walls together then add the roof and glue on the last wall.

When I have enough structure assembled I decide what size buildings I want to make from them and glue them together to make larger buildings or a complex of buildings. Then I stick these onto thin MDF board, I get this courtesy of the picture framer where I buy the foamcore as he has more offcuts than he knows what to do with and he's a decent bloke. Allow enough room on the boards for adding walls of compounds or garden walls afterward.

Add stairs at this stage also.

Next I mix up some Milliput and make a few add on's like wells or sofas etc, also I make piles of hay or thatched roofs out of milliput at the same time.

To add on roofs just glue some more foamcore to the building, in the photo's below with the tiled roof the foamcore was glued on flat and a small strip added to give the roof some pitch, then moulded plasticard was glued on. With the thatched roof the foamcore was cut at an angle and glued on to building at an angle, before applying the milliput.

Next matchsticks where added as support for the roofs.

After all the assembly was carried out I plastered the building with some pre made joint filler plaster used in dry walling, you can by this stuff in large tubs and it will last for years and years!

Clear around windows and doors when the plaster is dry.

After the plastering comes the sanding after any trees are added good old PVA and sand is the order of the day, finer sand is applied on the roof and rougher sand on the ground.

Ten add roof hatches where needed, I use moulded plasticard for this.

When all this is dry it's time to paint, I used a large tub of household paint for this, Seashell I think it was, golden brown was used for the ground, then everything was drybrushed with white.

After this I added static grass sparingling in small clumps.

Then some clump foliage was added as small bushes, to give my shithole that nice unkempt look. Lastly add insurgents and away you go.

So there you go a fairly simple way of making terrain cheaply.

Questions or suggestions are always welcome

VIETNAM IN 15MM

2009-07-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of my latest project, I should have Vietcong and Nva painted by the end of next week, so hopefully will be playing Ambush Valley before too long. This is about two thirds of the jungle terrain that I have made so far, I plan to make about another 12 elephant grass stands that will give me 20 or so. I have about 15 forest/palm tree stands and plan to make another 10 or so.

I will be making more buildings when my local supplier restocks on milliput, hopefully fairly soon.

Sorry the pics aren't to great but it was either those or a toddler eating the lichen!!!

Ambush Alley All Ireland Day 2009

2009-06-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the 1st (hopefully of many) Ambush Alley All Ireland Day.

The event was held in Kildare courtesy of the Green Machine Gamers and Mat o War.

Thanks alot for a good day out lads.

I had the best and the worst of dice rolls, lucky it was Kildare and not Vegas!

Well I left feeling inspired and have been feverishly working on Terrain to use for Vietnam as the figures are in the post from Peter Pig.I liked the Ambush Valley game so much I even offered to paint some VC for a friend of mine to get him playing!

I'll post pictures of the new terrain in the next few days.

Bongo goes Bang

2009-06-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos of a recent game of Force on Force set in fictional Umbongo during the 98 US led invasion to rid the country of the evil Mahanja al farid.

Village Mud Hut

2009-05-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Here is an African style mud hut that I built the other day. It is the first model of a village for the troubled land of Umbongo.
I had planned to make it using electrical wire as a weave for the walls, but that didn't work out, so I used putty on the walls and roof.

Umbongan River Boat

2009-05-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hi , I haven't done much modelling lately, due to getting the veggies going in the garden, but now it's all planted and here is the latest addition to the Umbongo collection.

ULF on the offensive

2009-04-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

Umbongo liberation front forces are reported to be on the move in Northwestern Umbongo, they have taken the town of Killgazza unopposed, although National Army forces of Dictator Big Eidi are said to be converging on the town. International aid agencies say they fear heavy fighting is imminent (just as soon as I have finished reading Force on Force from Ambush Alley Games).

Figures are by Peter Pig and vehicles are by Old Glory.

Cannon Fodder Afghani Tribesmen

2009-04-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of some cannon Fodder Afghanis to compare with the old glory ones. I think they are top class figures, with a great variety of poses in the pack.

15mm Old Glory Moderns

2009-04-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some Photos of Old Glory Modern British and Afghanis as requested.

The vehicles are by QRF.

The old glory british are quiet chunky figures which personally I like. The Afghanis didn't impress me at first glance but looked great with a bit of paint on them. The Challenger 2 and warrior are lovely models. The landrover was a bit miscast as one side of the window screen was shorter than the other, but it's not a bad model.

Trouble in Umbongo

2009-04-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of a recent game of Ambush Alley played at Omagh wargames Club.

The scale was in 15mm. The game was a hostage rescue scenario involving a platoon of Royal Marines and shit loads of Umbongan Pirates.

Umbongo is fictional country in East Africa Sandwiched between Somalia and Kenya, it is the invention of fellow wargamer Glenn, the idea behind using a fictional country for modern wargaming was that we could use any models we had as there are no historical restrictions on any scenarios we decide to do.

The figures were all Old Glory and the Terrain was all scratch built.

Hello

2009-04-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Dave Bruce I am a forty something Wargamer living in Northwest Ireland.
I am currently playing a variety of wargames including Ambush Alley, Arthur's Eagles (my own Napoleonics ruleset, BKC and CWC.
Lots of photos and terrain tutorials will follow, welcome all to the blog.