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Season’s greetings to you all. As Yuletide approaches. our minds turn to the year

that is now passing and the new year yet to come. For my part, I simply wish for twelve straight months of health that don’t remind me that I’m entering the minefield of middle age! In danger of becoming the archetypal Grumpy Old Man, I find myself muttering about

the litany of ranging shots that the Artillery of Life has been sending my way since this time last year. The best thing I can do is avoid the signalled barrage altogether so, be warned, 2010 will see this Editor on something of a major health drive. I quit smoking about 15 years ago, but the waistline has remained stubbornly entrenched, and the offensives I have launched against it have taken withering defensive fire and retreated with poor morale. Fear not, I have plans in place to achieve total victory, as well as to put this extended metaphor out of its misery.

So what’s been good about 2009? If we ignore the real-world gloom (and what is a hobby for if not to escape from those things beyond our control from time to time?), then we must surely celebrate the continuing creativity and output of those driving the hobby forward. Makers of miniatures, scenery and paint all continue to dazzle us with their astounding products. Sometimes, it really is worth looking back over our shoulders to remember what a struggle it used to be, not so long ago, to assemble the miniature armies we wanted, on the terrain we wanted, and for the right price. Nowadays, we catch ourselves whingeing about the embarras de richesse that the hobby provides. Lucky us, and long may it continue.

The output of superlative books and magazines should also be cause for celebration. Houses such as Osprey, Pen and Sword, Casemate, Ken Trotman and Partizan Press, as well as smaller ventures such as John Curry Events and 18thcenturypress.com, provide us with a wealth of superb reference works with which to stock our wargaming libraries. And finally, I salute the editors of Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames, Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, Dadi e Piombo, Vae Victis and the mighty White Dwarf, together with those who labour as unsung heroes compiling countless club and society magazines, websites and podcasts – without them all, our hobby would be the poorer.

My sincere best wishes for Christmas and 2010 to you all.

Editorial Contents

Cover: A fort for Northwest Frontier games created by husband and wife team Diane and Jon Sutherland from recycled food packaging, as described in the continuing tales of our wargames widow. It’s amazing what you can do with a little dedicated scoffing and some imagination! Photo by Jon Sutherland.

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A brush with Mr Kipling 4Diane Sutherland, UK

Forward Observer 7Mike Siggins, UK

Gaming the balance 9Gary Mitchell, UK

Talking wargaming: invincible squares? 13Chris Scott, UK

Table top teaser 15C. S. Grant, UK

If it ain’t broke: WRG 5th Edition 20Robin Miles, UK

A visit to Osprey Publishing 26Henry Hyde, UK

Trapped in the Birdcage: Salonika 1915-17 31Barry Lee, UK

Recce 35New goodies reviewed by our team

The Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal: update 45Our campaign to help support ex-service personnel continues

Events November/December 2009 46Richard Tyndall, UK

Competition and classified ads 47Win a Minden Miniatures battalion!

The Battlegames shop 48The place to order your subscription and much more

More than 50 episodes!M

In-depth interviews with hobby personalities and reviews of miniatures, strategy boardgames and wargaming rules

M“View from the Veranda” specials with Henry Hyde

M

Available direct fromwww.meeplesandminiatures.co.uk

or subscribe via iTunes

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A brush with Mr KiplingThe continuing tales of a wargames widow

by Diane Sutherland

I expect the more literary-minded of you flicked straight to this page in the eager anticipation of finding a compelling article on one of Britain’s

greatest poets and wits. Perhaps how his prose could be used to fashion scenarios for the tabletop?

I apologise for having misled you, but to offset the disappointment let me begin with my own words, in the style of the great man:

You can keep your ’eathen cakes,Them Panettones are too flighty,Tasty Bakewell or mincemeat tarts,Remind you of good old Blighty!You may have now gathered that this article does

not concern colonial period poetry; there’s no mention of Tommy Atkins or Fuzzy Wuzzies either. I had been tempted to entitle this piece “Let Them Eat Cake”, but I’m not sure how many of you would have been drawn in by Marie Antoinette. Therein lays the connection and why a wargame widow’s diet can be influenced by terrain and building projects. I kid you not.

Imagine the scene. Be honest. You are a wargamer and an honourable one too. Every visit to a supermarket with a wargamer in tow involves the said wargamer looking at the packaging of products in an unfamiliar way. The wargamer has little interest in the marketing messages on the packaging; he cares not a jot for the bright colours or the fact that the packaging is a hazard to future generations. No, he is interested in the shape, the structure and the sturdiness of the packaging. In short, its alternative uses as a tower, a gateway, a structure or a linear obstacle. To be frank, he’s not that interested in the contents of the packaging either.

Now I’m the sort of girl that, if asked, “What type of cake do you like?” will simply answer “I don’t care, I just like cake.” Any size, flavour, ingredients or origin is fine with me. I do draw the line at having my cake choice restricted by the wargamer’s desire to obtain four identical cake boxes. These are needed, apparently, to make four towers for a walled city. Mercifully, I have an obliging mother-in-law with an even more serious cake addiction than my own.

bA strangely shaped cake box attracted our attention on

the supermarket shelf. Mr Kipling Bitesize Cakes, to be precise. The great thing about this masterpiece of marketing is the fact that (upside down at least) it looks like a tower, a perfect bastion for a walled city or a fort. Not content with a simple tower, we wanted a ten-foot set of walls to stretch across the entire length of the wargames table.

So-called ‘white goods’ are a fantastic source of high density polystyrene; they are designed to protect the edges of the fridge or washing machine in transit. We cut down the polystyrene, making sure that we retain the lumps and bumps. There’s no need to worry about having gaps at the bottom of the walls; these can be dealt

with later using wall filler. The cake boxes are 5" across; to make them multi-functional, we based them on a 5" square of MDF. That way, they could be used as corners and as straight walling. The wall sections are 18" long; each is different. Two are basic straight walling; one has the gate section with cardboard tube towers, the final one utilises four empty tins of Greek vine leaves for towers.

For the wall tops, we found some sheets of small wall tiles left over from the redecorated kitchen, and these were stuck onto the tops of the walling and the towers. Buildings were added to the inside of the walls using 5mm Floormaster polystyrene, balsa wood doors and shaped plastic windows.

Now, we turned our attention to the ‘buttering’ of the

walls and towers. This is an odd technique. To be honest, it looks dreadful when it’s finished, but have faith; once you have sanded it down and knocked out all the major lumps, it looks the part. Use wall filler or plaster that you have to mix yourself. Normally, we use the ready mixed variety, but for this you want a runny, soft butter or thick cream consistency. You can either paint it on with a 1" brush or use a freebie coffee stirrer from Starbucks.

Don’t worry too much about going over features; you want a nice thick coat. Reapply where necessary, sand down where

This is the basic structure of the fort. Lengths of polystyrene from a freezer delivery, Mr Kipling cake boxes; Greek vine leaf tins and cardboard tubes.

This is one of the straight walling sections with wall tiles fixed in place. The gaps have been filled with blocks of wood (from a mini-Jenga game), half cardboard tubing used for magazines and laminate flooring underlay for

the building fronts. Roofs are made from plaited grass place mats.

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the coverage is patchy. For the roofs of the buildings, we used plaited grass table place mats. Cut them roughly to size and fix with wood glue. You can trim them when they are dry.

To make the walling complete, we added a simple square tower. It sports a section of cardboard tubing with half a plastic ball, a Christmas bell and a cheap golf tee.

Everything is now given a liberal coat of Sandtex Bitter Chocolate. When this is dry, give everything except the roofs of the buildings a heavy wet brush of Sandtex Mid Stone. We gave the roofs a wet brush of Sandtex Brick Red, then the Mid Stone. Again, allow to dry. Now give everything a thorough, heavy, dry brush of Sandtex Cornish Cream, finishing off with a brilliant white. Any white will do – we use basic craft paint. You can make this a heavy covering of white and the recessed detail will still show through.

The next job is to pick out the detailing. Since none of the buildings are designed to put figures inside, the windows were painted black. At this stage, we gave the doors a covering of Brick Red, Mid Stone and then Cornish Cream. The tower on the extra building was given a thick coat of bronze, and then dry brushed with gold.

To blend in with our terrain tiles, we use a mix of brown paint and sand. Two wet coats are usually better than one thick one. It was at this point that we realised that we had forgotten the gates! We had some large metal washers lying around from another project and we made three sets of gates: one closed set, one open set and another

broken pair. To achieve this, we temporarily stuck a pair of the washers in the gate opening and applied the ground texture around them. The sets of gates were made from balsawood and were painted in the same way as the doors.

Using exterior paints means that the whole construction is somewhat tougher and more resilient. It is also matte, so there is no need to varnish the walling or the towers.

Once the groundwork is dry, give it a dry brush with white then add some patches of static grass and Woodland Scenics Clump foliage to taste.

This building project is a long one. Ideally, it needs to be done in stages to allow for drying time. The net result is that you can construct a fortification that will run across the whole length of the table, or you can use it as a corner or centrepiece.

Obviously there are alternatives for smaller scales or if you cannot get your hands on big lumps of polystyrene. Cardboard tubes and tin cans make wonderful towers; they will not be recognisable once you have finished.

Also consider making the basic carcass of the walls out of foamcore or flooring underlay. All you need to do is to make a basic “h” shape the length you need. Once this is based, it will be surprisingly strong. Always think modular too – not only does this give you more options

This is the whole stretch of walling and towers after basic construction. The additional tower in the centre was added so that the walling covered the

ten feet length of the wargames table.

Here is a roughly ‘buttered’ Mr Kipling cake box, which has been stuck to a 5” square of MDF and has a balsawood door and a plastic window. The

structure has been partially sanded.

This one is a Mr Kipling cake box and the large square tower, both with a thorough coat of Sandtex Bitter Chocolate. The paint dries very quickly and

allows you to press on with the project.

These are the wall sections after three layers of paint, but the last coat of white has not been added. By sanding down the filler before the paint is

applied you can get a good rough surface that will respond well to wet and dry brushing.

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when you use it, but it is a darn sight easier to store.The other option to consider is the more Western-style

castle or walling. Similar techniques will work just as well, although the key difference will be scribing the surface of

the polystyrene first and giving it a more watery filler coat.Another final point to bear in mind is to continually

check that what you are making is in scale. The height of the crenellations on the walling should not be too tall for a standing firing figure, and you should think about the sizes of the doors, the heights of the windows and the steepness of any steps.

bSo, the next time you take a trip to the supermarket

with a wargamer, be aware of sudden changes in eating habits. You can never quite tell if the wargamer has a genuine desire to try something new, or it may just be that it’s not the contents the wargamer is interested in.

I leave you as I began; with a ditty Rudyard Kipling might have been proud of himself:

Old ’enry ’yde wants more subscribers,’E wants your bleedin’ names,’E wants your ’earts and souls too,Signed up to Battlegames.

Hang on, why is my cake slice covered in Polyfilla?

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The finished walling now occupied by defenders. The ladders were made from cut sections of roller blinds and could benefit from a three-layer paint

coating used for the wood work.

This is the open version of the gate section; a simple balsawood gate has been stuck to each of the large metal washers. Note that the gates can be

removed and replaced with shut or destroyed versions.

An attacker’s eye view of the walls. Small stones were stuck at the base of the walling to cover gaps. The gate section has been fitted with the closed gates.