Royal Armouries Visit

Went to the Royal Armouries in Leeds yesterday with a posse from our Harrogate club.  In return for a favour the Armouries were hosting a special day for those clubs who had supported their Waterloo celebrations earlier in the year.  In the morning we had a guided tour of a couple of the floors, and in the afternoon we got to have a touchy-feely experience with some hardware in their education center.  This was followed by a fascinating talk from the terrain designer of the Agincourt display David Marshall (currently in the Tower of London) and also by the Perry Brothers, Alan and Michael (Perry Miniatures). 

Here's a selection of photos from day.
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Comment:  A pole axe,  A fierce-some piece of kit.
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Comment:  Gavin in front of a collection of Roman weapons.
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Comment: Jousting armour.
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Comment: Jousting armour (rear).
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Comment: Set of jousting armour made for Henry VIII.
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Comment: Helmet made for Henry VIII.
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Comment:  Back row, left to to right, Alan Perry, John Savage, Michael Perry.  From row, John Elwen, and myself.
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Valentine Tank

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Comment:  Worth a watch :)
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New Blog - 'A Life In Miniature'

I would like to introduce a new blog called 'A Life In Miniature'.  This a blog is authored by John Savage, a long-time wargaming friend of mine from the Harrogate Wargames Club who I have known and gamed with for over 30 years.  John is very gifted painter and his figures/models always look fantastic.  I look forward to seeing how he develops his site over the coming years. 

I highly recommend you drop by for a look :) Link.

Good Colour Footage of the Battle for Caen 1944

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Comment:  Some good footage in here.
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Picture Of The Week - No 48 - Remembrance Day

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Comment: Seems an appropriate photo for today.
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World Of Warships

My brother-in-law (Mike) recently introduced myself and Alex (son) to the online game 'World of Warships'.  Must confess we are both quite impressed and have been having quite a few games of recent.
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Here's a vid off U-Tube showing a game being played.
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Here's a screen picture below of one of my current ships, a US Destroyer called the Clemson.
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Marston Moor English Civil War Memorial

Took the truck out with the family for a drive earlier this week to the Marston Moor Battlefield, which is only about 5 miles from our house. This was a site of one of the major (if not decisive) battles of the English Civil war in 1644.
There is a memorial which has been erected by the Cromwell Association to commemorate the event.
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Managed to prise my son Alex off his X-Box long enough to come along :)
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This is the view looking back from the memorial to 'Cromwells clump' where he watched the battle unfold.  The highest spot for miles around this would have given the best view of the battle as it unfolded.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer (Official)

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Comment: Awesomesomeness personified !  :)
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Onboard VULCAN XH558 during the Saturday RIAT Display - 2015

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Comment:  Nice piece of footage of the Vulcan from inside and outside the cockpit.
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Picture Of The Week - No 47 - Leopard 2

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Comment:
Simply fabulous camo scheme on this Leopard 2.
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Vulcan Aircraft Display

Went to the GreatYorkshire Airshow on Saturday at the Church Fenton airfield.  The Vulcan put on a great display, one of a final handful before it is sadly permanently retired from flying.  Turn the speakers up and enjoy the sound of those four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines :)
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WW2 - Automatic Weapons: American vs German

For those with an interest in WW2 this quite an interesting video I came across on U-Tube.
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Spotted a flaw in the argument at the end regards to the manning though on the MGs, and the rate of fire vs accuracy argument.  

Picture Of The Week - No 46 - Shermans

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Comment:  This weeks picture shows a couple of WW2 British Shermans.  The one on the left being a Firefly, the one of the right being armed with a 105mm.  Main points of interest in the picture are:
a)   Track extenders fitted to assist with mobility over soft ground, and
b)   All the extra track hanging off the vehicles for extra protection.

Ancients Game

For no particular reason I've been lax in posting updates to this Blog, need to give myself a talking to a I feel ! LOL  Been doing lots of gaming, just lacked the writing inspiration to burst into print about them.  Anyway, at the club on Thursday six of us had a game of 28mm ancients using the Hail Caesar rules.  The scenario (devised by John Savage) was a Roman baggage train in Britain being ambushed by the oppressed populace.  Our group is still very much learning this rule-set, but found overall that it gave quite an acceptable result on the table-top.   I've been sufficiently inspired to order the rule book from Warlord and am just waiting on it turning up.

Here's a few pics from the game (all the beautifully painted figures are Johns).

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Yorkshire Wartime Experience - 2015

Went to the Yorkshire Wartime Experience on Saturday.  Took the truck over arriving around mid morning.  With over 450 vehicles on-site, 40 plus trade stands and the same number of re-enactment groups, there was lots to see :)
Here's a few photos from the day, and a some video footage (not all mine):
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My CCKW 352.
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I was fascinated to have a close look at an Opel Blitz, the German equivalent to my CCKW.
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More headroom in the back than in mine.
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Interesting twin spring arrangement.  Cable brakes though, not good !
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Myself and a genuine Marder III.
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This MACK truck is huge, and makes the CCKW look small.  They were used for towing large artillery pieces like the Long Tom.  This particular example was used by the British army post-war and had an engine conversion to a 12 litre diesel engine and power steering added.


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Battle of Waterloo – Summary, Analysis and Assessment for the 200th Anniversary

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Came across a good article about the battle on the Armchair General site - Link.  Certainly worth a read.
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Shocking Visualization of World War II Fatalities

Comment:  This makes for thought provoking viewing...
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The Fallen of World War II from Neil Halloran on Vimeo.

Orc Can Can

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Comment: Quite fun bit of video :)
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The trains that saved soldiers in WW1

The mass casualties of World War One called for evacuation of the wounded on a scale never seen before. It could never have been managed without ambulance trains. York's National Railway Museum is currently transforming a railway carriage of the time into an ambulance, ahead of an exhibition in summer 2016 marking the centenary of the busiest day of ambulance train traffic - during the Battle of the Somme. Watch how moving these mobile hospitals - up to a third of a mile long - saved soldiers' lives.  Link
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Play By E-Mail Games (PBeM) - LORDS Of CONQUEST

For those interested in PBeM games, LORDS Of CONQUEST is an interesting site to check out: Link
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War Thunder - Trailer

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Comment:  A good trailer for the 'War Thunder' PC game.
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Picture Of The Week - No 45 - Window

During WW2 to confuse the German radar during bombing raids we used to drop an early form of chaff, code named 'Window' - basically it's shredded tinfoil.  I'd read about this, but never seen any until a couple of weeks back at the old Melbourne Airfield.
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Military Vehicle Events - 'Crank Up' and 'Battlegroup North'

April and May have seen two military vehicle events in this part of the world.  Firstly there was the 'Crank Up' event staged by the Yorkshire Group of the Military Vehicle Trust which is when we all meet  up at Cliffords Tower in York for the first meet up of the year.  Fortunately the weather gods were reasonably kind to us, and it didn't rain.  Best turn-out ever with over 90 vehicles in attendance.
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It was after this event that I started with this strange noise from the trucks off-side front wheel.  Going to have the wheel off next month to investigate what it might be.  Ideas at the moment range from a stretched wheel nut, to a broken spring, it's very strange...

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On the 9/10th May I went along to a second event, this time at Elvington Airfield for the 'Battlegroup North' event.  A Sherman tank was along for the event, and I managed to get the truck and it together for a pic.
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I was helping crew a British 25pdr field gun, and did two shoots with it, myself in charge of the ammo box.
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Here's a pic below I took of the gun in action crewed by my old friend Chris Jenkins and his two sons, Graham and Gareth.
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28mm Napoleonics At The Harrogate Wargames Club

Its been a little while since I've posted on the Blog, so this is the first of a few posts (not necessarily in chronological order) to bring things up to date.
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Last night at the club we played 28mm Napoleonics using the Black Powder rules.  We've been kind of caught up in the enthusiasm for the 200th anniversary of Waterloo and several of our group (namely Theo and John S) have been painting away furiously.  We've also been invited by the Royal Armouries at Leeds to put on a demonstration game on 13/14th June, so that has brought into sharp focus the need to get some more painting done.

Last night was meant to recreate part of the battle with the iconic La Haye Sainte as the centre-piece.  It was the largest number of figures we have fielded to date and certainly gave a great feel to the game.  We ran out of time before reaching a conclusion, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Here's a selection of photos.  None of the figures photo'd close up are mine I have to admit, I think most are John Savages.  As normal his painting standard makes the rest of us lesser mortals feel inadequate...  LOL
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The Allied forces line up for battle.
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The French...
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French line infantry up close.
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Part of 'The Thin Red Line' :)
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British Riflemen.
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Kings German Legion.
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French Cavalry make their presence felt early on.
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The battle in the centre.  Gavin aggressively moved a British cannon up ahead of the main, where it did nothing (bad dice rolls) and was promptly overrun by the French Infantry.
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Main battle on the left flank (of the Allied line)
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200,000 Views

The counter clicked over today, and recorded that there had been over 200,000 page views of the Blog since I started it in 2007.  Thanks to all those who have visited and also posted contributions.
Keep well everyone
Ian