Bob’s Going ‘Nuts’

Well having done something old as in forgotten WI sprues and Tanks , I got a free morning so started something new.

I wanted my British Force to be a recon based force , I like liked the look of Rubicon range but hadnt really dabbled. On reading a review realised one of the M5 Stuart kits had the unforced version minus the turret and was sold, so purchased two one with and one without ( This will give me a troop as I already have a Warlord resin Stuart) One of the upside of purchase was it gave US decals which I can used on my two US Shermans.

Fairly easy builds.

I wanted to make my Infantry full squads , but didn’t want to buy full boxes of figures , so looked at ebay to see if they had single sprues, which it has, but whilst looking spotted they had sprues of Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lear, so got a couple of them.

Sundancer was a bit confused how this was a Spring Clean.. as their was a battle report..

Basically my Spring Clean is to not only go back to paint some forgotten minis but also rules , in this case Two Hour Wargames ‘Nuts’. ,and this was helped by the weekend game (and report) were I got to remember and re read the original Chain Reaction rules on which Nuts are based.

Any way I’ve now started , mainly American to start with, firstly I dug out the models I had assembled some time ago .

Above is a Warlord Resin Hellcat, there is also a M4A1 Sherman and Oddballs Sherman which are sitting on priming table.

Having built Half a squad of Americans, Germans and British from my collection of Wargames Illustrated Freebies. I started o  the Americans.

The above have been primed GW Skeleton Bone as thought it a good base for the -Day U.S Infantry Uniform

PWill do a step by step later, but this initial half squad was a bit trial and error.

After a few modifications I’m quite pleased with them.

It was as very much a suprise that I got a practice session of the rules system at the weekend. Keith had invited me over for a weekend for a Sharps Practice game…. but on reading the rules the night before suddenly realised that they were set at higher level than the Skirmish level game he wanted…plus he couldn’t find another set in his collection that might cover it…. I rembered that Two Hour Wargames had a freebie version of their Chain Reactio system, so downloaded it and adapted it on the fly to cover the game.

And boy did it… luckily my force of Royal Navy Matelots wasn’t due to come on till later, which left me free to run the rules whilst Keith ran the scenario and run the French. All the other players playing the Allies.

Apologies for no in action photos, but generally I was busy running the rules or laughing at what was a very funny game.

The scenario was a Spanish ‘Lady’ disguised as a French Cantinari , had been travelling the area mapping and plotting all the Frech deployments. She was willing to give this to Wellington  who had dispatched a squad of Light Infantry in disguise to pick it up. They had only a vague description of who the spy was and the officer who was fluent in French (very alo alo French) and Spanish would endeavour to find. In his pick of men was a certain Sgt who was not adverse to permanently borrowing anything that wasn’t nailed down. Wellington had also contacted the Local Spanish Guerilla leader and asked him to set up a diversion in the town, to cover the approach of a Royal Navy Skiff ( my command) who would pick up the Light Infantry at 10am that morning. They though had no idea of the British presence or what they were up to.

What followed eleas a often liberious series of events as the British officer approached various civilians in the town to find out who the spy was, not helped by the fact that the Inn was having a Fiesta and half the town was,  shall we say merry.

The Guerilla’s leader had decided that the best diversion would be to blow up the nearby French hospital ( no pesky Geneva Convention) and had dispatched his best man to that task.

Chain reaction ran most of the combat situations really well, so much so that I got fair no of congratulations for running them so well, plus all liked the system, and we got a conclusion of the game easily within the day

For those wondering what happened . The Spy was eventually after some fairly hilarious incidents with the British Officer,  the Hospital blew up , but a good few minutes after it was fused for, the French Garrison was pretty much wiped out in the ensuing chaos , quite a lot of the local found much of the Town valuables had gone missing. They had watched a Britisg warship arrive on town and pick up a party of brewery delivery men and bugger off, leaving one of the number dead ofrom a firefight with a French Sentry.

Over the years I’ve A few of ‘Two Wargames Rule’s based on their Chain reaction system, although I was originally anti its concept I have developed a real liking for how it works when you get used to it. One of the biggest gripes had been the rules layout and sometimes appalling editing. A quick glance at the latest copy seems to have most of my gripes covered.

On addition I don’t intend to overtax the system and play very much Infantry Squad level games with the occasional vehicle.

I do already have a fair amount of 28mm  figures and Vehicles  painted (mainly British and German) and a small collection of American shame, tanks built but not painted including the Warlord Oddballs Sherman, so this little project hopefully see them completed.

The whole idea sprang into being when last week I found a single Sprue of Warlords latest British and Commonwealth Infantry for late War. I remembered I had a Sprue of American GI’s if I can find it.

Anyway digging today I found the GIs , a Sprue of late Germans and a Sprue of Winter Germans. I also found the partly painted Half Track Maultier Armoured Car from the Bolt Action Desert War bootcamp, and the Unbuilt 233 armoured car. Which with the American Vehicle finds should keep me busy.

And just  after I started this project was begun, Warren announces the Spring Clean Hobby Challenge…. and as this is bringing life to old , but very forgotten figures and models ( with the W.I. freebies more didn’t even know what I had got) and some odd new additions why not add it to that challenge.

As my initial inspiration my British Infantry Squad will be based round a motorised Infantry squad from my old Favourites the 11th Armoured Division , in this case The 8th Regiment the Rifle Brigade.

Why?

A few years ago Corgi did some really nice painted M5 halftracks, which although maybe slightly out of scale were close enough. The base paint job was nicely painted and weathered , they only needed a crew, and the stowage shaded which I did way back. So my base squad already has its vehicle.

My 1st German Squad won’t be quite so elegantly equipped, but wiil be using the very Forgotten Maultier Half Track that I built at the Bolt Action Desert War.Boot camp.

Still need a lot of work , but at least it’s a start.