In the Very British Civil war rules, “Went The Day Well?”, a platoon can have one special unit choice with the agreement of your opponent. These can be various tank and armoured car options, a cavalry troop of 5 cavalrymen, or a specialist infantry assault section.

I have chosen the armoured car option. These could be standard military armoured cars available in 1938 but I want to use a more “makeshift” option.

‘Malcolm Campbell’ armoured car

In 1940, only about one family in five owned a car; most people relied on the well-developed public transport system. Most civilian cars were decommissioned during the war as petrol was at first rationed then eventually denied to civilians altogether.

Petrol coupons could still be had for essential war service, so some private cars were used both as troop transports and for towing the Smith Gun (still to come).

The ‘Malcolm Campbell’ armoured car was intended for use by the Home Guard. When Sir Malcolm Campbell was the provost company commander of the 56th London Division, Home Defence Force, he designed and then built the prototype of the Dodge armoured car which was unofficially known as the “Malcolm Campbell” car. Seventy of these were built by Briggs Motor Bodies of Dagenham and were ready by the end of August 1940. This vehicle sports an armoured radiator and windows, with firing ports for Lee Enfield rifles.

I still remember his son Donald Campbell breaking the land speed world record in Australia in 1964 at Kati Thanda, Lake Eyre in South Australia, reaching a speed of 403mph in the “Blue Bird”. Can’t remember what happened yesterday but that I remember!

Armadillo improvised armoured vehicle

Armadillos were produced during the invasion crisis of 1940–1941, and were improvised armoured self-propelled guns based on any available lorry chassis for airfield and other forms of defence. The ‘armour’ consisted of wood and/or steel plates lined with gravel. The Mark I and II were armed with two Lewis Guns mounted in an open-topped ‘fort’, plonked onto a flatbed lorry that itself lacked even an armoured cab.

This finishes of this project of the 1st Bath Battalion. Below is the complete platoon and supports.

I am pleased that I have finally finished this “little” project and now have my first VBCW unit out of the way. Needless to say that this also makes an excellent partisan force or British Local Defence Force Volunteers (LDV) as well for WW2 games.

Seeing my side the Mighty Western Bulldogs were not that mighty, being overrun in the third quarter I decided to turn up the TV and listen from the games room while I put together the dungeon doors and installed them.

Passageway door closed.

Passageway door open.

Chamber entrance door and doors to the Chronicle Chamber (Library) and the Vault of Mighty Men.

Door (top) into the Burial Chamber and bottom entrance to the Costume Chamber. The door cut outs in the main frame are an excellent shape to use as the burial top stones. Although there should be 44 burials there for the 22 phantoms and their wives, I will represent this with about eight.

The six doors that I have to date in place. You can see in the centre top the cut outs used as top stones for the burial chamber. Viv from Knights of Dice is making up the others for me and I will pick them up next week. Time to go back to the skull cave and start the foliage and painting work.

I am glad I had saved several used breakfast cereal boxes as I used all three!

You can see the different colours of the cardboard in the three brands!

In terms of building the bulk of the chambers section is now complete. I need to add the doors and then I can start painting. I have chosen to use the Knights of Dice dungeon doors.

The advantage of these is that Viv is just 20 minutes away for pick up, and the room doors open so you know in game terms exactly when they are open or not. I will start the first six tomorrow.

Did not get much done last night as I was not sure if people were going to turn up for a game or not. I started cutting out the dungeon tiles from a cereal packet and gluing them on to the base board. It is time consuming but looks great when finished. I have used several methods in the past see here for some used for floor boards but could equally apply to tiles.

I started at the entrance to the chambers from the skull cave.

You need to check after a while to make sure you have all of the floor that is seen covered.

As I said this is time consuming and will take a few nights. I plan on getting some more done tonight during the breaks in the “footy” or more likely when my team is so far behind that it is not worth watching!

Our world faces many challenges, crises and forces of division — such as poverty, violence, and human rights abuses — among many others — that undermine peace, security, development and social harmony among the world’s peoples.

To confront those crises and challenges, their root causes must be addressed by promoting and defending a shared spirit of human solidarity that takes many forms — the simplest of which is friendship.

Through friendship — by accumulating bonds of camaraderie and developing strong ties of trust — we can contribute to the fundamental shifts that are urgently needed to achieve lasting stability, weave a safety net that will protect us all, and generate passion for a better world where all are united for the greater good. (United Nations website)

Whilst friendship may be to strong a term for our little blogging group it is great to see that although we are a weird, eclectic, and opinionated bunch we have a shared hobby and are only to happy to help each other out, and provide advice and support when needed.

I remember the positive and supportive posts I received when I was trolled for a post on my 20mm Jackson’s Army of the Valley. Others have lost “fur and feather” family members and the group has reached out to them.

We have posted on, and spoken out on world events (Roger still has the Ukrainian Flag on his masthead), and I hope we will continue to do so.

It is good to know that while we may be typing away by ourselves in our little part of the world, today on World Friendship Day, that we are not alone.

I have completed the command squad for the “Cheery Tarts” and command options for when using them as British militia during the German “Sea Lion” invasion.

Cherry Tarts on the right and British Militia on the left.

The “Major”, a veteran in the Great War, was a drummer that survived the fall of Khartoum thanks to some kind locals who hid him from the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad’s troops until the river gunboats of Lord Charles Beresford, arrived two days later.

Now in his late sixties (that ain’t old!) the “Major” commands the third platoon of the 1st Bath Battalion.

The command squads subaltern (2IC), and NCO, both armed with sub machine guns.

The platoons medic also forms part of the command squad. He is unarmed and cannot initiate any combats.

I know the green cross was not introduced until 1977, however it makes him instantly recognisable on the tabletop for opponents.

The Anglican Leagues standard bearer has been posted before but is shown again for completeness. He makes up the fifth member of the command squad.

WW2 Militia additions for mixing and matching.

Militia Commander in standard military kit.

Command squad member with rifle.

Third squad member is the standard bearer carrying “jack”. He has also been posted before.

Next will be the final episode on the establishment of the “Cherry Tarts” – the Specialist Units.

I have only had a couple of hours this afternoon for hobbies and worked on the “residential” chambers of the phantom. The were quite difficult to cut out without breaking the foam but I finally achieved it.

The astute among you will notice the change in colour of the foam. Unfortunately the high density foam is no ,longer available for my normal supplier. If you are in Oz and are interested please follow the to’s and fro’s between IRO and myself on Season of Scenery Update 3. Hopefully IRO has an alternative supplier as the yellow high density foam is far more durable and provides a better finish.

All of the room outlined in my sketch of yesterday have appeared although some are in slightly different positions.

The door at the back of the skull cave fits in quite nicely.

How the two fit together.

The idea is the game will begin on the table top with the bad guys trying to get to the Skull Cave in the corner. When they have entered the “dungeon” section will be added.

Gurus says “Even amongst superheroes gratitude is the rarest of virtues”!

With the last three items of this project all under way (skull cave, skull mountain, skull cave chambers) there is a chance that it might actually be completed. There is still some work to do on the Pygmy village, but that can be used right now. The village is still waiting for the figures and scatter terrain to reach the front of the painting queue and a palisade wall needs to be built (I know that Pygmy villages were not defensive structures but it looks cool for gaming). Although the current terrain building has meant that no painting has been done in the last few days.

The Bandar Village

The Bandar is a pygmy tribe in the Deep Woods of the Bangalla jungle. They are also known as the poison people. The current chief is Guran.

The Bandar people were once held as slaves by the Wasaka tribe, but were liberated by the 1st Phantom who managed to make a very deadly poison of the Banga berries that they could use as an arrow poison.The Bandar occasionally use their amnesia powder to help the Phantom protect his secrets.

The nickname the “Cherry Tarts” was given to the 1st Bath Battalion Anglican League (The Bishop’s Guard) by the British Union of Fascists because of their red beret.

This is the Third squad of the Bishop’s Guard and the platoons support weapon choices.

Leader with SMG

Bren Gun Team

Bren Gun Team

Seven riflemen

A Very British Civil War platoon is allowed one support. This can be a Heavy Machine Gun, or a Mortar, or an anti-tank weapon, or a sniper. I have two options, a mortar or a heavy machine gun both from Irregular Miniatures.

This finishes off the platoons three squads.

Just a quick post to give you an update on the skull cave. These posts are really just to keep me on track so if they are bugging you just ignore them. They will be in addition to my regular posts.

I cut out the mouth but did not take it down to the “ground” because I thought it would look odd. I will put some rocks there to climb on for access.

I had been hunting around for a few of the plastic toy soldier packets that have tanks artillery etc rather than just infantry for the Rug Rats who wanted a game with more than just tanks.

This tank that the youngest Rug Rat put together has already met its demise, falling out of the car and being run over. Hence the cheap and nasty stuff for the moment.
The reason I mention this was because I hadn’t yet solved the problem of access from the skull cave to the Phantoms various chambers below. I needed a suitable door like structure and one came with each packet of toy soldiers along with a great “watch tower”.

The door was ideal.

As you would have noticed I have glued an mdf base to the skull cave to create some robustness.

Originally I had decided to put some mdf sides on the cave as well but have since decided against it and opted for a hot wire cutter look like the rest of the cave.

I have also created the templates to cut out the mdf bases for the jungle terrain on the hill.

Finding the door was important because the skull cave hill is only part of the project.

If I can get another full sheet of the thick foam I plan to cut out the chambers from it as well. Creating a dungeon like rough cut wall set of chambers in one piece with cobblestone floor. I think I have enough furniture to at least be representative but am not sure I will be able to get it painted but I am going to give it a go.

So there you have the complete project laid out with progress to date. No more work has been done on the skull hill.

I have now finally finished all of the survivors from Zombicide Season 1, almost two years after the zombies!

These were the three outstanding figures.

All of the survivors now completed.

With this box set completed, I am now working on the “Angry Neighbours” Survivors, Zombivors, and Companions (trainee survivors). As always these will be completed alongside other projects and will be finished when they are.

As a Guru far wiser than I once said: