Yearly totals 2023

Yearly Totals 2023

Not a vintage year by any stretch of the imagination. but overall I`m happy with what I`ve done.

The loss of internet except for patchy wifi through my phone since November 26th has totally screwed up my plan to play one more game this year, I simply can`t upload photos and have eventually just run out of time 😞

Small terrain batches - 9

Building - 2

Boat - 1

20mm Mounted figures - 10

20mm Foot figures - 83

Wagons & horses - 2

20mm Vehicles - 3

28mm figures - 5

Of course my main plan for the year was to write and play games which I`ve managed to do. 13 games all year 😁 which is more than I`ve done in years.

NWE - 2

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/01/green-hell.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/04/von-martins-last-stand.html

Syria/Lebanon - 3

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/01/zaharani-river.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/05/mouadammiye-syria-18th-june-1941.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/07/palmyra-syria-1941.html

Tunisia - 1

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/02/gare-de-sened.html

Western Desert - 1

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/08/not-bir-hakeim.html

Mexican Revolution - 5

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/02/reinforcing-conejos.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-hills-outside-zacatecas.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/09/starring-pancho-villa.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/10/veracruz.html

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/11/veracruz-redux.html

 Riff War - 1

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2023/06/ain-mediourma-airbase.html

Tinned Fruit Buildings (photo review) windmil added 23/12/23

 Colonial Buildings

As you all know I`m not very good at doing terrain, I just don`t have the skillset or patience 😭 I do try my best, but struggle to do anything but a basic paint job on a resin or cast building. Anyway I found I have several scenarios set in cities and towns for my Mexican Revolution era games, these needed more colonial looking buildings with pantiled rooves for these more urban (less rural) settings. Of course these could also then be used for Spain (SCW) and Italy/Sicily or even Southern France (WW2) and even more civilized parts of North Africa (Rif War or WW2 Tunisia/Operation Torch) during my varied periods of wargaming interest.

I asked on various web forums and on FB groups as to where I could locate such buildings, but frankly the options were limited. Some guys however did point me towards Tinned Fruit Buildings off Facebook the business run by that stalwart guy Philip Taylor.

Getting hold of Phil via Fb messenger was dead easy, he showed me photos of what he produces and the prices and ordering was dead easy with a 50% deposit upon ordering. Phil was terrific and kept me updated throughout the process, sending me photos of the WIP and asking advice and questions - the service was superb.

When the building were complete, Phil asked for the balance plus postage and done and dusted, the parcel arrived at me son`s place in Swansea a few days later, carefully packed and 100% correct and perfect.

To say the least I`m totally happy with the buildings and the service and I highly recommend Tinned Fruit Buildings to anyone who wants great buildings and terrain but lacks the skills (like me).

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=tinned%20fruit%20buildings

The buildings themselves are made from foamcore or board, the pantile rooves are plastic, everything is butressed and well constructed and as you can see from the photos they are nicely painted and have a good level of detail. Buildings with more then one story have internal floors which can be removed if needed.

Small casitas

Larger single storried casita

Larger two storied houses

Two story building with balcony and covered walkway

Two storied building with barn

A few shots of these new buildings substituted onto the table of my last game so you can see how they would look in situ.

Windmill

Along with the buildings above I also ordered this windmill, which I finally retrieved from my son`s house in Swansea a week or so ago.

As with the buildings the model is just superb, it was packed carefully and so survived the trip in the hold back to Spain with no damage and can go straight onto the table.

A couple of pics with figures for scale 

 

  

Malnazidos (film review)

Malnazidos

 First off be warned this isn`t the sort of film I write reviews about on here. Malnazidos is a Spanish zombie movie but it is set in 1938 towards the end of the Spanish Civil War, so has an historic base and people do play zombie games.

 The film opens with a group of German SS arriving at a small Spanish village where a wedding is taking place. The scar-faced officer is given a glass of the local spirit to toast the wedding but upon drinking he coughs and sputters causing the locals to laugh at him! He immediately orders his men to open fire, killing everyone! Once the massacre is complete the SS put on gas masks and open canisters releasing a strange blue gas….

 The scene shifts to Nationalist base where a young Captain Lozano is saved from execution by his uncle a senior officer, who orders him to take a message to another Nationalist unit in a dangerous sector of the front, his only companion a young deserter (also saved from the firing squad for this mission). We also see the scar-faced German officer at the base and Captain Lozano sees an injured soldado he knows being loaded aboard a train carriage – the carriage bears a strange symbol which we`ve already seen on the gas canisters earlier!

 The two men drive along the rough roads until they come to a roadblock manned by German SS, after a few minutes argument they are allowed to pass (the SS officer seems to laugh at some private joke letting them pass). Lozano notices the roadblock is flanked by new high fencing, as the truck goes out of sight we see fencing close the road behind it.

 As the two drive along aircraft engines are heard Private Decruz (Lozano`s driver) excitedly identifies an Italian aircraft and then a Republican I-16 “Rata”. They stop the truck and watch the dog-fight, the Italian gets shot down, but they see a parachute open and drift down into the trees, Lozano decides they have to try and save their Italian comrade. After a long walk they find the crash site the plane and surrounding area is covered in a blue substance (tanks under the wing have the same strange symbol we`ve seen earlier). They find the pilot hanging in a tree, but he has lost both legs and is obviously dead, suddenly they are surrounded by Republican militia/partisans and captured! Whilst they are being interrogated (during which a miliciana Matacuras finds the hidden message carried by Lozano), an American photographer with the group goes close to the Italian pilot to take a photo only to be attacked by the “dead” man and has his throat torn out. The others react, but the zombie Italian keeps on coming until shot through the head! Next the “dead” photographer gets back up and also starts attacking them, this is dealt with by the biggest and strongest of the group “Brodsky” who simply breaks its neck.

The survivors and their prisoners head for their secret camp, but before they get there, they witness aircraft sweep over and bomb the area, Private Decruz is quick to identify the aircraft as “Pedros” a nickname given by the Spanish to the Heinkel He-111. When the group arrives at the camp they find it bombed out and everyone dead, however after a few moments the bodies start to rise, one of the militia dies killed by the zombie who was once his own father! The rest of the group fire in all directions and eventually make their way to the river and get away on a boat.

At this point I`ll stop giving the plot away and just say the group have a few more close encounters with the undead, add a couple more survivors from different factions to their rag tag team and the whole thing ends with a fantastic, chaotic battle back at the base where we first met Captain Lozano.

 The plot is well thought out, the zombies are the result of a Nazi military experiment! The uniforms and equipment on the whole really good and we see silhouettes of He-111s plus some interesting steam trains (only a few picky gripes – several partisans had MP40s and the girl Matacuras had a Thompson – none of which were in Spain to my knowledge and the photographer appears to be wearing a US style late WW2 helmet). I found the acting to be good throughout, the horror combined with the need to stick together (safety in numbers) over factional/political differences during a war.

 Highly Recommended.