Nev's Wargaming

  David Stirling's L Detachment SAS were formed in 1941 after Layforce a commando unit, of which Stirling was a member, was disbanded. Stirling believed a small covert unit of men could parachute behind enemy lines and sow chaos and mayhem amongst the German and Italian supply lines and airbases and along with Jock Lewes, who invented the Lewes bomb that the SAS would go on to use to great effect and Paddy Mayne who had a reputation for being a mad man and a violent temper after a few drinks, the SAS was formed. During November 1941 the SAS parachuted behind German and Italian lines, this turned out disastrous for L Detachment as both the weather and the enemy being on high alert conspired against them, of the 66 men that made up the SAS half of them lost their lives or were captured. The SAS changed tactics and began using the LRDG to transport them around instead, eventually Stirling secured armed Jeeps for the SAS, reducing reliance on LRDG vehicles. The SAS used the jeeps to de...

  An unboxing of yet another order this time from October 2023.  The parcel was, as always, well packed and with a free sprue, this time winter Germans. The first thing out of the box was Warlord's soldier of fortune for October, SAS hero Paddy Mayne, completing the set of the three founders of the SAS. Paddy Mayne would go onto be the commanding officer of the SAS after Major David Stirling was captured by the Afrika Korps at Gabes Gap, where he was attempting to link up with US forces. This blister contains: 1x SAS hero Paddy Mayne (metal) Pin markers are the next thing, designed to look like explosions and in a stand out red colou. The only downside to them is that it is hard to see what number the pin marker points at, I am going to have to find a way to make them stand out. Overall though they are a nice way to demonstrate pins. This set contains: 12x pin markers (plastic) Finally we have templates and effect tokens representing a number of in game effects, these are: art...

As I have not posted in a couple of years I thought I would start off with an unboxing of an order I recieved from Warlord Games in September 2023. I originally posted it on Tumblr but thought I would do a review on here also. The post is picture heavy.  The parcel arrived well packed and secure with a free sprue of Italian Bersaglieri (I hope I spelt that right) as a gift from Warlord Games  The first model in the package was Warlord's soldier of fortune for September, Jock Lewes. Jock Lewes was one of the founding members of the SAS and inventor of the Lewes bomb which they used to great effect in the Western Desert against German and Italian planes.  The blister pack contained the following: SAS hero Jock Lewes (metal) The second item I unpacked was an 8th Army HQ blister. I rather like these models, they're fun and full of character, particularly the officer who is standing there with his mug of tea and pipe, the other model I like is the radio...

I have been continued work on my SAGA warband and have completed two and a half hearthguard. The going is slow, mostly because I hate painting metal surfaces such mail jackets and weapons and I much prefer painting cloth and wood. I found the models to be painted to an adequate tabletop standard, they're certainly up there with my better models. I am halfway there to one point of SAGA forces.  I had a go at using proper highlighting methods rather than the drybrush method I normally use, I used one of the Gripping Beast models to try the method out; it has been too long since I have added to my painting skills. The highlighting was a success and it added depth to the model and brought it to life. As I practice, I am confident I will get better at it with time (kind of obvious really).

Abandoned Gripping Beast Hearthguard  The weekend started off well. I was happily painted some Gripping Beast Anglo-Dane Hearthguard. They went okay, took me surprisingly little time to paint. I painted them production line style, the way I used to paint Warhammer Skaven. This really sped the process up, they felt like they took no time at all. I tried my hardest to make each one an individual and not too uniform. The end result was okay, I was not excessively pleased by them nor was I disappointed with them. The construction process of them had been problematic to say the least. The Dane axes were spindly and the metal bent easily, the hand and arms lined up poorly and once assembled they did not look quite right. I was willing to over look this if it was just those models. I was wrong, I began preparing some warriors to be assembled, it soon became clear that the hands were not going to be able to hold their tree trunk spears, no amount of bending of the hand or drilling was goin...

 Some of this years models, in no particular order. I have mostly been painting Anglo-Saxons so far this year but I have begun a few other projects, I have started work on the Romans and Celts from the  Hail Caesar starter set, some 1:200 scale planes for  Blood Red Skies and finally an Anglo-Dane warlord for Saga. Hail Caesar Roman General and Celt Warlord Anglo-Saxon detachment for Hail Caesar Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxon Earl Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Anglo-Saxons Blood Red Skies Supermarine Spitfire (Blood Red Skies) Saga Anglo-Saxon Warlord (Saga) Objective markers for Hail Caesar/Saga Early Medieval Civilians Early Medieval Monks Early medieval Civilians outside a house