Warlord Games Gurkas

Gurkas, like these models from Warlord Games, served in the Second World War recruited from the sovereign state of Nepal. These tough allies to the British royal crown can really pack a punch.

They fought in Syria, North Africa, Italy, Greece, as well as in Burma against the Japanese.

Each Gurka carries a traditional Nepalese knife known as a Khukuri or Kukri. 

This heavy, curved blade is a fearsome close-combat weapon, as well as being useful for more mundane tasks such as clearing a path through dense jungle terrain.

Metal box set contains a 10 man rifle section, 3 man command group and 8 man charging section.

These guys are the completed charging section with NCO.

Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow

Sarissa World War Europe and Warlord Games Reinforcements for Bolt Action

We picked up these Sarissa World War Europe LCVP and LCM to try out for an eventual landing assault on the Atlantic wall.

There will be a need to fill those landing craft so we also started to build reinforcements from Warlord Games. A British Cromwell medium tank and a Daimler Mk1 armored car are in the process.

Additional infantry in the form of two Ghurka squads and an officer are being prepared too. The Warlord box set has a static firing squad and a squad charging into the fray! They are great miniatures and powerful troops on the tabletop.

The LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) or Higgins boat went together very quickly as did the Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM). That is a consistent plus to the Sarissa kits, ease of assembly.

The vehicles need some stowage and will be ready to prime.

Here are the landing craft primed grey. We have US Machine Gun Crews on order from Warlord Games...

and finally the first Ghurka squad and officer have been primed and received a base coat.

Have a Great Battle!!
The Old Crow

Reader Built Trebuchet, Siege Tower and Battering Ram!

At Battleground Hobbies we enjoy sharing our love of designing, building and collecting scale models for table top war games. Sometimes we even get great feedback. Among our top posts are "How to Build a Siege Tower" and "Battering Ram" We recently received a comment on one of these. 

A reader from Moscow left this: "Thank you. It's great! My son used your ideas for historical school project. Something was difficult and I helped him. He did this nice siege tower and trebuchet".

We thanked her and asked for some finished photos to share with everyone. We received this reply along with some photos: "I've sent you some photos of our siege engines. We also did a battering ram. There are plastic knights from my childhood on the photos. They were made in the mid 1970s."  

Here they are!!

Her son shows perseverance and determination!!

And he built a very nice trebuchet!!

Here's our post they refer too: "How To Build A Trebuchet"

and his Ram!! Keep modelling mate!!

If you have completed a project inspired by one of our posts, please share it with us!!

Have A Great Battle!!

The Old Crow

How To: Make Impassable Terrain for Bolt Action or Warhammer, Historical or Fantasy War Games

Having Impassable Terrain on your table top battleground gives you distinct advantages and equal disadvantages. It can cover your armors flank or block line of site for your casters fireball. No matter which you are befitting from, it makes your table look great.

We started with a hardboard base and a can of spray foam insulation. When using the insulation foam, there is always a little left in the can and you can't save it! So, spray the remainder on a piece of old cardboard and let it harden. Once it dries you can peel it off and place it on your hardboard.

You can use White PVA glue or a hot glue gun. We added bits of foam, rock and debris to fill in gaps and add texture

Once you have everything glued and its dry, add a base coat of paint. We always advocate checking mis-tinted paint at your local hardware store, Home Depot or Lowes. We found this ugly dark green which works great for terrain projects. We then used light green and grey to drybrush on highlights.

Then glue flocking and ground cover into the recesses and add any foliage. We used an eclectic mix of HO scale pine trees and bushes plus a few oddball pieces clipped from plastic floral arrangements.

We diod two pieces at once. That helps you keep working on one while the other is drying.

And there you have it, instant gracious cover or pain in the rear site blockers!

Enjoy

4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling Model Kit, The Eastern Front

4Ground produces great model kits and this Polish Rural Dwelling kit is another grand example. We showed you the Two Story Terrace and Ox Wagon, and now we'll move on to models we're planning on using on the Eastern front!

The kit seen here contains many swell components.

One of the interesting features on this particular kit is the cracked missing daub portions along the lower sections of the walls. The dwellings were built using woven sticks like wattle fences and then covered with a mixture of materials usually made of a combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw.

Here the mud daub pieces are removed and wattle pieces placed inside.

The interior is divided into two spaces. in the main area there is a fireplace made of the hearth and stone back wall.

Two additional layers build the depth and then a face and side plate go over top of them to finish it. A second stone hearth for cooking is added for a final touch.

Doors and windows have a nice blue trim and a variety of shutters are included.

The porch and roof have a nice wood grain finish and blue accents again finish off the roof.

For thatch, fur is included in three pieces. One for each side and a third for the ridge line.

Here they are in place.

Using PVA glue watered down, you can brush it on to give the thatch a more natural appearance. A stone and wood capped chimney adds the final touch.

Here are a few parting shots of this jolly good 4Ground  kit.

We continue to be impressed with the attention to detail 4Ground gives these model kits.

Have a great battle!
The Old Crow

WW2 D-Day Reenactment at Conneaut Ohio!

The largest  D-Day (1944) living history reenactment in the country takes place in Conneaut Ohio. Featuring over 1,500 reenactors from across the US and Canada perform a living tribute to the veterans of WWII through dress, mock battles, and living history displays. We had the opportunity to be there this year!

There were many demonstrations over the weekend and the mock battles were superb, especially the beach landing!

Encampments for Allied and Axis forces were filled with relics the reenactors brought to display.

And loved showing how these weapons were used in the day.

You could meet the real men and women that lived through those times too. Last year the Conneaut D-Day hosted over 150 WWII veterans.

Reenacting the capture of the bridge at La Fiére, the Americans gained control of the key crossing of the Merderet River.

Here German light armor advances on the bridge.

And is incapacitated as it nears.

After the battle, a column of German soldiers head back to camp.

There were several "Big Guns" including the feared German 88

and several armored vehicles including a Panzer III, Stug (seen here), M4 and an M4A1.

Also three variants of the M5 Stuart.

Georgie's Gal, a B-25 Mitchell, twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation took part this year. It made several passes over the beach on bombing runs. 

The B-25 was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, although the majority of B-25s in American service were used in the Pacific. The B-25 was named in honor of General Billy Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation.

The Polish contingent brought an artillery piece..

jeep to deploy it...

and a nice sampling of arms.

The US camp held many jeeps, trucks, motorcycles and this M3 Half-track.

There were a couple more participating in the actual landing. One hauling a howitzer.

The German encampment contained its share of armored cars,

transport vehicles of every size...

and many motocycles.

Watch the D-Day Cooneaut site for next years event!!

You can see additional images from this year on Cleveland.com 

Have A Great Battle!!

The Old Crow