HOTT; BarnHott 2015

January 18th 2015 and Colin and I are on our way to Bristol, and the Lincombe Barn Wargames Club's annual HOTT competition.

(Colin chooses his army)

Both us relative newbies to the rules, we thought what better way to learn how to play them than by embarrassing ourselves amongst experts!

(Taking on the Russian Hordes)

We were instantly made very welcome and assured that the competition would be light hearted.....which I have to say it was throughout.

(Facing up to the Undead)

I cost us £6 including unlimited coffee, lunch (Mmmm....pies) and four games over the course of the day.

(Here they come!!)

All armies had to be 15mm and you kept the same 24AP army throughout. I provided both Dwarf armies (due to Colin's paint aversion).

(Got them on the ropes.)

Mine consisted of;

1 x hero general (4ap)

1 x magician (4ap)

8 x blades (16ap)

(Snowbound Space Marine behemoths are rather "hard")

Colin's was more adventurous!

1 x hero general (4ap)

1 x cleric (3ap)

1 x behemoth (4ap)

1 x Artillery (3ap)

1 x flyer (2ap)

2 x blades (4ap)

2 x spears (4ap)

(Colin facing the Stampede!)

My Opponents consisted of medieval Russians, Undead, Space Marine and Reptilian armies and I managed 2 victories & 2 defeats.

(Fighting  the ECW army to a standstill - draw!)

Colin's opponents were Wizard of Oz, Reptilian, Stampede (cows!) and ECW armies. He managed 3 defeats and a draw.

(Third Prize!)

Both of us had a fantastic time, learnt a lot about HOTT and can't wait for next year. And no one was more surprised than me at my coming in at third place overall!! 

HOTT, New Army Teaser Post

Last weekend, Colin and I attended BarnHott at the Lincombe Barn Wargames Club in Bristol. We had a fantastic time and when I can get my photos from phone to my ipad, I'll give you a flavour of the day.

Suffice to say, this has spurred me on to create yet more HOTT armies and whilst looking through my lead like for those 15mm Naploeonics I knew were there somewhere, I stumbled on an old, unfinished and unloved Imai model of Tracy Island I obtained from a charity shop probably 15 years earlier.

This gave me an idea.....what about a Thunderbirds army for HOTT? I know it's not new, I've seen one on the web, but it would be great fun and rude not to!

The plan was born.

Stronghold = Tracy Island (of course!)

1 x Airboat General - Thunderbird 5 (3AP)

1 x Behemoth  - the mole tunnelling machine (4AP)

1 x Lurker - Thunderbird 4 (1AP)

3 x Flyers - Thunderbirds 1, 2 & 3 (6 AP)

5 x Shooters - US Troops (10AP)

See below my work in progress.

Tracy Island made up of mdf base with foam board to create elevation and using two of the buildings from the Imai set. There are a couple of Palm trees to go on here when it's finished, too. Thunderbirds 1 & 3 are mounted on paper clips secured to mdf bases.

Another view of Tracy Island together with Thunderbirds 2 & 5.

Here's the scratch built Mole. Using an old Epic missile launcher vehicle with a scratch built tunnelling pod from the end of an old biro. The screw thread was masking tape cut very thinly and wound around  the point and the wheels were cut from p,attic tube and stuck to the sides.

The figures are a mixture of 10mm Wild Geese and Skytrex modern US infantry.

All are now under coated in matt White and ready for painting....I'll keep you updated as I go.

Warlord's 28mm M3 Halftrack

At the same time I finished the Bren Gun Carrier, I finished the plastic M3 halftrack kit from a Warlords too.

Easy to put together and nicely detailed, it's a shame it's only intended to be built as an US machine.

I re-helmeted the driver with a spare Perry British helmet and painted him to look like he's wearing battle dress. British decals were some of the many spares from the Bren Carrier kit.

The kit comes with plenty of US storage (helmets, packs etc) which I left off. As I did the three additional .30" Browning MGs that come with the kit. 

I kept the .50" MG but replace the barrel with some steel wire for strength.

Another nice model. And at about £15 not bad value for money. A good complement to the Bren Carrier for a Bolt Action Allied Army.

Warlord's 28mm Bren Gun Carrier

Well I must apologise, but it's been a while since I found time to post on the blog.

I've finally got around to finishing off the 28mm Bren Gun Carrier from Warlord Games.

It's a lovely little model now it's done. All the better for some nice crew figures.

Single piece bodies with seperate heads they reward careful painting as the detail isn't quite what you'd get if they were multipart.

But they're naturally posed and look the part. As you can see I built them as they came, but I think I should have replaced the beret with a spare helmet on the driver figure.

Other than that I'm very pleased with the results.