This Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) was printed for me by Billy B and thanks certainly go to him.
Churchill AVRE in France
The Petard 29mm Spigot Mortar was chosen for the main armament of the Churchill AVRE. The bomb contains a hollow tube that fits over a 29mm diameter rod, known as the spigot. There is a propelling charge and cartridge at the end of the tube and a firing pin within the spigot. When the charge is detonated the bomb is fired off, with the propellant gas expanding between the spigot and the hollow tube.
Wounded soldiers taking shelter behind a Churchill AVRE on Juno beach.
Originally designed as a Pill Box busting tank, the vehicle was used in any situation where a heavy shell was required to dislodge enemy from a fortified position.
I was wanting a tank to support my Bolt Action British Commando that could deliver a punch against enemy tanks or infantry in heavy cover such as stone buildings. It needed to be able to have line of sight to its target so needed to be heavily armoured to withstand punishment from enemy tanks as well. The idea is to also have it protected by a flame thrower against anti tank grenade attack from enemy infantry.
Petard tube and mortar shell
The Churchill IV, although expensive in points, would fit the task nicely.
Petard Mortar Shell
Churchill tank with its extra armour leads a group of Sherman tanks through the French Bocage.
I need a section and a half of infantry and some transport trucks painted to finish off this army.
“Magawa”, the rat, will leave a lasting legacy In2020, he became the first rat to be awarded the PDSA (People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) Gold Medal, the animal equivalent of the George Cross which recognises acts of heroism by British animal “citizens” and military personnel.
Magawa the rat, who was awarded the gold medal for his heroism, retired from his job detecting landmines in June last year. In a five-year career, the rodent sniffed out 71 landmines and dozens more unexploded items in Cambodia.
But his handler Malen says the seven-year-old African giant pouched rat is “slowing down” as he reaches old age, and she wants to “respect his needs”.
Unfortunately he died of old age in January this year. only six months into his retirement.
Fortunately these “Rats” have decided to come out of retirement because of the danger of:
I have found one advantage of retirement and that is that your secrets are safe with your friends because tomorrow they won’t remember what you told them anyway.
Ratskin “Sanctioned Psycher” or Shaman.
Ratskin with shotgun
Ratskins with Lasgun
Ratskin with autogun.
Ratskin Braves with assorted weapons.
This is the last of my Ratskins. I still have about another forty figures to complete my old school Necromunda figures, mainly Redemptionists, with some hired guns, a Wyrd, a few more Spyrers, and some mutant slaves.
Some more Australians tomorrow.
PS. “Three old guys went out walking. The first one said “its windy isn’t”. The second said “no its Thursday” The third said “so am I let’s go to the pub”!
We all know that James Cagney’s most famous line from his sixty-eight motion pictures was “You dirty rat! You’re the guy that killed my brother!” Alas, like so many other – quote – “famous lines” – unquote – this most famous of famous lines was never delivered.
What Cagney actually said is, “The dirty rat kills Danny and you help him get away with it!” The film Taxi is the source of the “you dirty rat” legend however, as a few scenes later, as Cagney exclaims to the killer, “Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat or I’ll give it to ya through the door!” It is true that very early in the film, Cagney mumbles something that sounds a little like “dirty rat” but it definitely is not “YOU dirty rat.
Incidently, James Cagney had to be taught how to drive for the movie Taxi! Since he was a New Yorker without much need to drive in the 1930s, he had not learned to drive up until that point!
Anyway when it comes to the Underhive everything and everyone is dirty, except may be for those high born Spyrer scum! Ratskins are no exception. Here is the second lot of “dirty Ratskins”!
Thanks guys and gals for being an integral part of my daily diatribe (from the Greek διατριβή) meaning a lengthy oration, often employing humor, and sarcasm!
In many places around the globe, rat provides much-needed sustenance. You might be surprised to learn that as long as it isn’t diseased, rat isn’t the worst thing you could put in your body (from a nutrition standpoint). When we visited Vietnam for our son’s Vietnam wedding (they had already been married here), SWMBO and the Vietnamese family in-laws went out to the local market to by live rats for dinner.
There are actually dozens of rat species, and Vietnamese mostly eat two common ones: The rice field rat (pictured above), which weighs up to half a pound, and the bandicoot rat, which can grow up to two pounds. Despite many sellers the relatives would only buy from one because they had a reputation for feeding their rats the right type of food to make them suitable for eating that day.
Needles to say it was with some trepidation that we sat down to dinner that night. Rat flesh is quite tasty if a bit difficult to eat because of the small fine bones, a bit like quail.
This post is not about these type of rats or the “tunnel rats” that were also famous in Vietnam. The tunnel rats were Australian soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions in the many tunnel complexes during the Vietnam War.
No this post is more mundane, or should I say Necromundane in fact.
The original Ratskins I painted when Necromunda first came out, and before the Outlanders supplement gave them official gang status – I think.
Most of the Ratskins are from GW but there are a few which I cannot find in the old catalogues and have no idea where they came from.
The Ratskin people have lived in the ruins of Underhive for as long as time itself, and Ratskins regard the place as their ancestral home. They know almost nothing about the world that lies above their heads or beyond the hive. Ratskins have lived apart for so long that they have developed their own language, and only the few who visit Underhive settlements to trade bother to learn the common tongue of the hive.
The first group of thirty new Ratskins recently painted.
Ratskins possess senses uniquely adapted to the conditions of the Underhive. Their sight is incredibly keen and it is commonly supposed they can see in pitch darkness. A Ratskin can smell out tiny differences in air quality, and can track other hivers or hive creatures by scent. Their hearing is also finely attuned to the hive. The slightest sounds tell them where others might be, whether a tunnel is safe, or if dangerous creatures lurk nearby.
Ratskins care nothing for Hive City or the hivers that come from above. They do not understand the hivers’ insane lust for scrap metals and glittering stones. Most of all they are baffled by the foolish manner in which settlers eat toxic fungus, fall down holes, blunder into roof falls, and generally act in a senseless and dangerous fashion.
Ratskin with shotgun
Although the outsiders puzzle and often anger them, the Ratskins are content to leave hivers alone so long as they leave the Ratskins in peace. Adventurous Ratskins trade with the hivers and sometimes hire themselves out as guides or trackers, but they are a self-sufficient and proud people who neither need nor want much from anyone.
Ratskin Shaman
Ratskins know their way around Underhive better than anyone else. They know about the main tunnels, the small crawlholes, and the shifting drains and sumps of the effluvial flows. They know ways into and through Underhive which the hivers are utterly ignorant of. They can find paths into domes which remain undiscovered and buried to ordinary men. Ratskins move through the hive effortlessly and mysteriously, disappearing almost magically, appearing as if from nowhere.
Ratskin Leader
The Spirit of the Hive
To the Ratskins, Underhive is a living place inhabited by sacred spirits. It is a place with which they feel a natural harmony, a place which is great and beautiful in their eyes. Ratskins respect the hive as a mighty god, generous in its bounty and merciless in its vengeance. In their eyes, the Underhivers often anger the hive by causing rock falls or caving in tunnels with their clumsy excavations. Sometimes hivers go too far, trespassing into sacred places or poisoning the native pools.
Ratskins with Lasgun
Ratskin Settlements
Ratskins live in small communities that are hidden from settlers and explorers. They cultivate cane spore, which provides food as well as reed-like building material, and they hunt the rat herds that infest the hive. For the most part they avoid the foolish intruders whose heathen ways often offend the spirits of the hive. Most settlers soon succumb to predators, toxic fungi, roof falls or some other inherent danger, which all goes to show that the hive is intolerant of those who fail to show the spirits proper respect.
Ratskin with autogun
Ratskins and Hivers
Some Ratskins hire out as guides or trackers and a few become semi-civilised as a result of contact with hivers. They can be found and hired in the larger settlements such as Dust Falls, Glory Hole and Dead End Pass. There are few expeditions that would venture into unknown wastezones without the expert aid of a Ratskin tracker.
Ratskin Braves (Juves in other gangs) with assorted weapons.
Sadly, some Ratskins are attracted to the strange ways of the hivers, and acquire a taste for intoxicants, gambling and riotous living. These troublesome individuals hang around the settlements until the inhabitants lose patience and throw them out into the wastes. Bands of Ratskin renegades are a nuisance to settlers and their own kin, and have a well deserved reputation for savagery.
These are great figures for any Post Apocalyptic game. Tomorrow more figures named “Ben”.
The role of religion, religious leaders and religious communities in war and peace-making as well as associated and contested notions of a just war and religion as a cause of war are huge topics as is the assessment of war from a religious perspective. Military chaplaincy has always been surrounded by ambiguity, not least because of the nature and extent of religiosity (or its lack) among soldiers, sailors and air force personnel and the twin tension-filled role of the chaplain in relation to his or her own religious authorities and to his or her armed force authorities. There is the additional tension in being the representative of a religious founder such as the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad who are perceived as peace-bearers and peace-makers.
During WW2 three chaplains were awarded VCs for their actions in the war. Many more were decorated, often for bringing in wounded men. Overall, 179 chaplains died during the conflict.
"He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease
And the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man"
He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them it's all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Altogether in the Australian armed forces there are just over 100 army chaplains, and another 100 air force and naval chaplains serving the 58,751 permanent ADF (Australian Defence Force) members, the 16,816 active Reservists and the 20,138 APS administrative support persons according to the 2015 ADF census. In Victoria, there are few military chaplains because Australia’s military bases are concentrated in the north of Australia.
HMAS Cerberus has had one full-time Catholic chaplain. Air force chaplaincy is focused on the bases as Laverton, Point Cook and Sale while the army has its bases such as at Bandiana, Macleod and Puckapunyal. Of course there are reservists but the role of chaplains in the reservist units is unclear.
He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he'll stay behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage
In the words that he said
The Army Chaplain is a member of the Commander’s personnel support team. Free from the responsibilities of command and privileged in insight into personnel attitudes, the chaplain stands in a unique position to exercise independent judgement and to give expression to that judgement as a staff adviser.
You're soldiers of God, you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell
Chaplains are expected to provide timely, accurate and relevant advice to Commanders and staff on matters relating to spiritual, religious and pastoral wellbeing, personal morality, ethics, character formation and morale.
In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill."
There is an option for players of certain armies to field a chaplain within their reinforced platoon. This was first introduced in the Battle of the Bulge supplement (and repeated in others) as a definitive option for the Armies of the U.S., Germany, the British Commonwealth and Partisans.
The figure is the first completed in my Australian Bolt Action Militia Platoon in New Guinea.
I went through seminary college with a John Coldicott whose objective following graduation was to become an Australian Army Chaplain. I have not seen him since, but sincerely hope he succeeded in this endeavour.
Sky pilot
Sky pilot
How high can you fly?
You'll never, never, never reach the sky
Apocalypse Earth is a 2014 science fiction film about a group of space refugees who land on a planet inhabited by ruthless aliens – so they must fight for their survival. The movie is a mockbuster of both After Earth and Oblivion.
The cast consisting of Adrian Paul (Lieutenant Frank Baum), Bali Rodriguez (Lea), Richard Grieco (Captain Sam Crowe), Gary Hawks (TIM), Daniel Ross Mix (Colin), Jay Cardell (Sergeant Peebles), Michelle Jones (Hannah), Erika Hidalgo (Victoria), Jessica Russo (Cassie) does a reasonably job with Adrian Paul’s performance excellent.
Written and directed by Thunder Levin (apparently that is his real name) and produced by David Michael Latt and Paul Bales Apocalypse Earth is one of those extreme wastes of time where you regret you decided to flick through what to watch. With credits such as “Sharknado”, “Pacific Rim”, and “Megaladon” I should have known better!
Apocalypse Earth seems like Thunder Levin has slung together a movie script by beg, borrowing, and stealing, scenes and plot elements from every film he has ever watched. The bulk of Apocalypse Earth has been taken from Avatar where we see the hero (Adrian Paul) go native, engage in a romance with a native girl, and together they inspire her people to an uprising against their oppressors. There is also aliens hunting people from behind invisibility shields (Predator); the crash of the ship from orbit just as people are coming out of hypersleep from Pitch Black; the alien invasion in the opening scenes looks like a cheaper version of the one in Skyline; and there is the android TIM and his emotionless delivery (Star Trek: The Next Generation). The plot also has similarities with the 1968 Planet of the Apes!
The weirdest thing however was the constant references throughout to The Wizard of Oz which I should have seen coming when the hero was named Frank Baum. The android TIM is given to come out with lines like “You are right. I have no heart,” while Adrian Paul even gets to deliver “There’s no place like home” as the last line of the film.
The story in a nutshell: Spaceship ‘arks’ are loading civilians for transplant to other worlds. Lt. Frank Baum is one of the military officers in charge of overseeing the loading of the transports. Owing to a bombing run of the city by Earth’s alien attackers and riots on the ground by scared people he and a few of his people get shoved into the ship along with the last people boarding and are removed from Earth along with the regular evacuees. He reluctantly submits to cryostorage when he finds he can’t get back to his post on Earth.
Earth is under attack by an alien invasion. Humanity flees in spaceships. Military commander Frank Baum wants to go back and fight but is overruled by the ship’s captain Sam Crowe who insists that the only option left is for humanity to find another planet to live. They all go into cryo-sleep but are abruptly woken as the ship makes a crashlanding on an Earth-like world. Frank, Sam and a handful of others emerge from the wreckage to immediately find themselves in the midst of combat as survivors from another ship are hunted by Chameleons, aliens that hide behind invisibility cloaks. Killing several of the Chameleons, Frank takes command. He befriends and later becomes lovers with Lea, a humanoid alien girl of this new world, and makes plans to unite her people together to bring down their Chameleon masters.
What can I say? Apocalypse Earth is cheap………..and nasty! The effects vary between just OK and downright amateurish and unconvincing. The battles scenes and giant bug and lizard combats were trying to depict epic conflicts with a handful of people and have failed. Unfortunately I should have given this one a miss and suggest you do the same!
These are some more of the unpainted figures I have from the Estate of Lyle Damond. I am told that these were the only non-historical figures he had and must have been some samples he was given with one of his many purchases.
True or not they fit well with the rest of the pulp figures I have, and will no doubt feature in many a game down the track.
Victory in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) established Rome as the dominant power in the Western Mediterranean. Since Philip V of Macedon had allied with Hannibal during that war, Rome had a score to settle. Rome used complaints from Rhodes and Pergamum about Macedonian aggression as a pretext to invade. The Senate sent Flamininus with two legions and some Greek allies for a showdown with Philip in 197 BC. This would be the first contest between the Roman legion and a true Macedonian phalanx (Pyrrhus’ phalanx had been composed of Epirotes, and Hannibal’s of many nationalities). The two armies were nearly identical in size, with around 23,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry each. The battle would be won by the superior tactical system, not weight of numbers. Still, the hilly Greek terrain at Cynoscephalae did favor the legion. The two armies were marching on opposite sides of a ridgeline and met unexpectedly in the early morning mist. A skirmish began between light troops, and Philip decided to commit his entire army. Philip took command of the right wing and successfully attacked the Roman left. Flaminius seized the initiative and launched an attack spearheaded by elephants on the left flank phalanx, breaking it before it was fully deployed. Each army’s right wing was now victorious. An unknown Roman tribune, ‘seeing what ought to be done’ detached some maniples from the Roman right to strike the flank of the victorious Macedonian right wing phalanx. Philip’s pha- Cynoscephalae – 197 BC lanx was shattered in a textbook example of flexibility versus rigidity. Philip’s hopes to unite the Greeks under Macedonian hegemony ended with his defeat.“:
As normal, the re-fight was using the Command and Colors game system on a hex mat with 15mm figures. The game was laid out as per the map below.
We had progressed a fair way into the game before I remembered to take some quick photos which suffered in quality as a result.
The deployment at the start of the game. Geoff and I were playing the Romans and given our Command cards decided to hold our right flank as the Macedonians already had the ridge line to our front, and attack in the centre. Unfortunately Bill and Steve’s command cards meant they had trouble coordinating a suitable plan.
The Roman centre advances to the ridge line with their light infantry skirmishers.
Legionnaires advance to the hills in force ready to disperse the Macedonian phalanx.
The legions have broken through and are now only facing light troops.
The Macedonian left is intact but the battle is almost over.
The Macedonian King seeking refuge with his light troops as the legions forge forward.
The Macedonians in full retreat with the battle over.
For those not used to the Command and Colors game you are dealt a number of command cards that allow you to move certain troops in one or more sectors of the battlefield. The trick is to try and keep some cards in your hand that can allow you to respond in any threatened sector. The Macedonians were unable to do this because the cards did not allow them to respond adequately to the main threat in their centre (the general and his sub commanders were having a bad day).
Players swapped sides and I retired and Blake took my place.
This time the Macedonians followed their historical counterparts and tried to move their left flank to respond to the threat in their centre.
It was a near run thing but this time Bill and Steve had their first win in three outings together making it two nil to the Romans.
Command and Colors is not my preferred set of rules for the Pyrrhic Wars, but it is a great simple system to play in a few hours on a Friday night after a tough week at work.
The other day the first wave of the Marvel Zombies game arrived.
Marvel Zombies is based on a five-issue limited series of comics published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and was set in an alternate universe where the world’s superhero population has been infected with a virus which turned them into zombies.
The figures are pretty good (not fantastic but OK), but are nowhere near the size of the “Marvel Crisis Protocol” figures, which is disappointing but not unexpected. Here is my “Zombie Zulk” conversion and the one that comes with the box set.
The Hulk is about the same size of one of the standard Zombicide Abomination.
There is the usual game paraphernalia:
Plenty of tiles, cards, and the like.
Regular readers will know that the game is not what attracts me to Zombicide, but the figures. If you want a review on that you will need to wait for someone who is a regular player.
The marvel Zombies game has a different twist than other versions, with this time the players playing the zombified heroes that are trying to spread the infection to the rest of the heroes and Agents of Shield. The player characters consist of Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Deadpool.
You are fighting against 6 Super Heroes, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ms Marvel, Thor, Scarlet Witch, and Eric will be pleased to hear Spider Man!
To aid the Super Heroes are 63 Agents of Shield and 12 bystanders. These figurers are all up to their usual standard. A Zombicide game with only 6 zombies in the box……….heresy I say……..HERESY!
Given this is just the first wave of this Kickstarter I am prepared to hold my final judgement but compared with their recent release “Undead or Alive”, at this stage I am a little underwhelmed”!
