Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Miniature Wargames

So: Issue 507: what’s in it for me? (you may well ask). Conrad Kinch takes a good look at the Lardies’ Chain of Command. We have a Command Decision covering the Russo Japanese conflict; a Band of Brothers kind of scenario; an introduction to some Skirmish Western Gunfight Games using Tales of Derring Do; an ACW tribute to Don Featherstone; a trip to Partizan; a thorough work through of the new Historical Paints from Army Painter; an eclectic scratchbuild plus all of the usual reviews. So, as Steely Dan proffered “All the cowboys and your neighbours, can you swallow up your pride, take your guns off it you’re willin’ and you know we’re on your side, if you want to get through the years it’s high time you played your…

I love a good pun. And I love a bad one even more. It may be because I used to work for a tabloid newspaper or because I essentially have the sense of humour of a schoolboy, but I’ve always loved the Two Fat Lardies gift for ridiculous names. I ain’t been shot Mum is good, but Somme enchanted evening is better. How can you not like the men who brought us scenario featuring Captains Hugh Jarce and Captain Fellatio Lawnmoer RN? But to be fair, despite being the wargaming answer to Sid James and Frankie Howerd (answers on a postcard to the Editor please as to which is which), there’s a lot more to the TFL than silly names. Their games are always crafted with an eye to the…

GERMAN PLATOON ◗ victrixlimited.com ◗ £45 Victrix have sent in a bag of their new 28mm Late war German WWII Infantry. The bag contains five sprues (four common ones with ten infantry each and a single four-man, heavy weapons sprue) and they build up into 44, 30mm (to the top of the head) models. And they are superb. Each figure is quite a model kit in itself with separate arms and heads plus the odd extra leg to fit on (and some split bodies). Those bodies (and external webbing kit) come with location pins where needed (which helps) and positions are usefully varied. The ten basic bodies have a couple in prone positions (for snipers and MG teams); a kneeling figure (good for rifle aiming or Panzerfaust use); an advancing…

This is the first of a number of articles where Paul paints some Wargames Atlantic models using the new Army Painter Historical Fanatic boxed sets which are theme appropriate. Ed. THE PREMISE The Editor sent me The Army Painter’s Historical sets to try out, so that I can paint some minis and to offer my thoughts on this release. I was also given the brief to paint the minis only using the paints in each set (I nearly did John). I will do a more general review of what I think of the release in the final part of this three part series. In part two, I will paint some standard German Field Grey dressed troops and in part three, I will tackle American Rangers. However, it would be remiss of me to not give…

DEATH VECTOR More Stargrave but with AI This new supplement for Stargrave explores the ideas of artificial intelligence run amok: soulless cyborg killers, cyberpunk hacking… that sort of fun stuff. Set in the Outlaw Technology Sector (a vast region of space cut off from the rest of the Ravaged Galaxy). The Sector was once a haven for criminals, political dissidents, and rogue scientists, but was overrun by an artificial intelligence intent on wiping out all organic life (which probably sorted out the first problem…). However, the Sector is now a dead nightmarish place: navigational systems refuse to chart a course there but the independent crews survive by going where others fear to tread locating new tech… Death Vector has eight new scenarios and – instead of the usual pirate fleets…

Between May and September 1939 an undeclared war raged on the Manchurian-Mongolian border between the Japanese and Soviet Russia. The conflict would draw in over 100,000 men and hundreds of tanks, armoured cars, artillery pieces and aircraft. Directly, the nonaggression pact that was signed in the aftermath meant that Russia was able to deploy its vast Far East reserves against the Germans from 1941, safe in the knowledge that the Japanese would not open a second front. LIGHTING THE TOUCH PAPER By 1939 Manchuria had been occupied by the Japanese for eight years (they called it Manchukuo). Bordering the region was the Mongolian People’s Republic, an allied state of the Soviets. Ill-defined borders saw the Japanese claiming that the line ran along the Khalkin Gol (River) and into Lake Buir.…

INTRODUCTION As a young boy, I was privileged enough to be taken to the local Library on a regular basis. There I would feast my energies on all sorts of books, especially wargaming ones. My favourite one was Don Featherstone’s Wargame Campaigns which I would avidly read and re-read. My favourite chapters were the 7 Years War Campaign, The Boer War and of course, Jackson in the Valley. I had always thought about refighting this particular Campaign – and years later, when members of the reenactment group, of which I used to be a member (Earl of Loudoun’s Regiment of Foote) suddenly became “born again” wargamers – here was the chance to do just that. As I had literally hundreds of old Airfix figures lying around, it was agreed that…

I took a trip to the first of the two Partizans of the year and saw that the organisers had made some changes, and all for the better. The venue (which is shared with the Hammerhead show) is – inevitably – limited in space (as all are, I guess) and, in previous years – though not recently – this had been addressed by the Hammerhead event hiring an additional, outlying building. This year, Partizan took a different route: it extended the floor space by adding a tented area onto the front of the building which – I think – was a great success: moving the registration, the tabletop sales and half a dozen traders into a sort of entrance ‘gazebo’ gave more space inside for games and vendors. That was a…

THE SETTING The American West was filled with famous and infamous families who were involved in crime or shoot outs. There was of course the James brothers, Jesse and Frank and their cousins the Younger Brothers, then there were the Daltons whose outlaw days ended in their disastrous raid on Coffeyville, and of course the Earps and their primary opponents the Clanton and Mclaury brothers. However, there is one family which in its day were considered as famous or infamous as all the others – the Horrells of Texas, who some referred to as ‘lawless Horrell boys.’ This is their tale and it gives an opportunity for a few western shootouts along the way. THE HORRELL BROTHERS The Horrell family arrived in Texas 1857 from Arkansas and settled on land…

OSTFRONT! ◗ microartstudio.com◗ 21.89€ - 369€ Micro Art Studio operate from Poland and make a huge range of support material for wargamers in lots of sizes, with different themes and styles. They offer scenery for Kill Team (probably…) other sci-fi, Discworld, bases (in resin, as far as I can see) plus historical stuff (Waterloo and WWII in 15mm) and Bolt Action approved 1/56th scale WWII and most of those buildings are in gloriously pre-printed HDF. It’s the latest releases in the latter category that they sent for us to look at. They posted a whole bundle of their new Ostfront dwellings and there’s quite a range with nine buildings (houses, workshops, a windmill and a ‘Tserkov’ which looks like a small chapel) and a low fence pack. The buildings themselves range…

I can sometimes find it difficult to find inspiration for building new wargame terrain and would start this particular article with a plea for suggestions as to what I should build next. If you have a recommendation, please contact me at dampfpanzerwagon@yahoo.co.uk or via the magazine. However – that aside – these two scratch built pieces of terrain came quite easily to me. The first is based on a ceramic money box in the shape of Hellboy’s fist – in fact the money box is labelled as Hellboy – Right Hand of Doom Ceramic Bank! and I picked it up at a local charity shop for just £1.00. As soon as I saw it I knew that I would be building a Hellboy/Crimson Fist inspired statue using the money box as…