Soviet 152mm Howitzer

Recently added to lower the tone of my 20mm Soviet forces were this 152mm howitzer and it's tractor.  The gun is a Matchbox toy with some minor modifications, and the tractor a lightly hacked about Majorette bulldozer.  Simple and effective. 

A few self-styled 'proper' wargamers may be annoyed by such things.  Good!

Vouture nouvelle pour Le General

Now that I have pretty much completed the Forbodian Army, I clearly need another Funny Little Wars army. When I get round to building it, this will be the French-style 'Army Horizon Blue' from the well known West European country of Fromagia.  So far all I have managed to complete is a staff car for the general (Le Grande Fromage...)  This car, a 1907 Renault, is an old (really old) Revell kit and I think it looks rather imposing.  I decided to finish it in a pale grey - roughly the same as most French kit of the period.  As can be seen, I was unable to resist painting the 'bling' fittings in an appropriate brass colour.
I need hardly add that since completing this model I have been distracted by an entirely different FLW project...

The completed Renault - the 1cm grid on my cutting mat give a good idea of it's size.

The beast under construction.  For such an old kit it went together easily enough.

The General's driver - 'Crazy Claude'

Qatari AMX-30

I needed these for a game (based on the Battle of Khafji, 1991) a few years ago to represent a rather under-strength tank battalion.  The models are rather splendid GHQ castings but have been rather let down by my painting and photography.

By the way, in the game (which I ran three times but sadly have no photos of), the unit lived up to it's 1991 nickname - 'Panzer Group Qatar'.

The things wargamers say...

A couple of amusing comments overheard during a recent Fletcher Pratt game prompted a post-game discussion of such things.  Here are a few of the best I can recall from naval wargames....

The first two are from the Fletcher-Pratt naval wargame at the Sheffield club in January 2012:

"Hey that's a German ship!"
Uttered in shock by Bish when realising that the ship which had strayed quite close to his had opened fire....

"Keep on t'big lad."
Gunter, on being consulted about gunnery target priorities - suggesting that fire be concentrated on the larger of the enemy warships present.

ACW naval game at the Perth club in the '80s:
"I don't know, but it's big and it's got guns!"
Paul J showing a firm grasp of ship recognition.

And of course my personal favourite, said by our very own Martin R during a fictional 1930s naval game a few years ago:

"Bloody Hell - it's the Graf Spee!" 
Said when the vessel named had been on the table for about an hour...