Category: news

Tanking in the Last Crusade

Tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Though we know it wasn’t real, and though we know that there was no actual historical version of it; I am sure most of us who have thought about recreating the Indiana Jones films on the table have wanted to use that tank.

Yes the tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Tank from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

It appears at first glance to be a Mark VIII with a turret, the reality was that it was built specially for the film and was built up from an excavator.

Mechanical effects supervisor George Gibbs said this movie was the most difficult one of his career. He visited a museum to negotiate renting a small French World War I tank, but decided he wanted to make one. The tank was based on the tank Mark VIII, which was thirty-six feet (eleven meters) long, and weighed twenty-five tons. Gibbs built the tank over the framework of a twenty-five ton excavator, and added 6.4 ton tracks, that were driven by two automatic hydraulic pumps, each connected to a Range Rover V8 engine. Gibbs built the tank from steel, rather than aluminum or fiberglass, because it would allow the realistically suspensionless vehicle to endure the rocky surfaces. Unlike its historical counterpart, which had only the two side guns, the tank had a turret gun added as well. It took four months to build, and was transported to Almería on a Short Belfast plane, and then a low loader truck.

Now regular readers of my blog may remember this photo.

The Talisman Archaeologist from Talisman Timescape

The Talisman Archaeologist from Talisman Timescape is very much an Indy lookalike and many years ago I started to formulate a series of rules and background for creating games in an Indiana Jones style universe that was called Tally Ho!

I always wanted to get a World War One era tank to fit into the game and recreate that battle with the tank from the Last Crusade film.

Well now I can get a 28mm tank just like that one from the film. Copplestone Castings have released the K64 Mark IX Beast Super-Heavy Tank and Accessory Pack.

Mark IX Beast

This is an almost perfect replica of that tank from that film.

Really impressed with the look and quality, might get one. As for rules, well I will probably mash up the rules from The Great War with the Old West. Or even just the Great War rules.

Flames of War M24 Chaffee in full view

Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees and sometimes you need to have something smacked in front of you to see it.

In my previous post on the new Battle of the Bulge release for Flames of War I made the comment.

Will we see allied forces? Don’t know, but I would like to see a Comet and the M24 Chaffee.

Well, Simon, right as usual, pointed to me to this page on the Flames of War website and right at the bottom is a photograph of ten M24 Chaffee tanks.

M24 Chaffee Tanks
Yay!

Flames of War – Battle of the Bulge, coming soon…

Back in February 2011 in a blog post I discussed what we might see if Battlefront released a Battle of the Bulge supplement for Flames of War.
In the July issue of Wargames Illustrated we shall see news of “Devil’s Charge” the Flames of War supplement covering the Battle of the Bulge. No news yet on possible model releases but just from the cover I suspect we might see a Schwimmwagen and a King Tiger.

Will we see allied forces? Don’t know, but I would like to see a Comet and the M24 Chaffee.

Finally, finally, finally…

Yes, yes and yes again. Battlefront are (finally) releasing some 15mm buildings for Normandy.

In my look at the Rural Church which was released in May I did ask…

What I have noticed is a distinct lack of building releases for Normandy, there are quite a few buildings in the many photographs you see in the rule books and the two source books for the battle for Normandy. I wonder if the reason is that there are already a fair few companies out there already manufacturing nice resin 15mm buildings already? Having said that a fair few are also making Russian houses and churches too.

So are we going to see any terrain for Western Europe for Flames of War from Battlefront? What do you think?

So here we are some six weeks later and in the latest Wargames Illustrated the new buildings were advertised. What is interesting is how they are going to be released. The buildings will be released on a monthly basis, rotated between the four styles. Battlefront will also rotate the colour scheme. Once a production run has been completed then Battlefront will move onto the next house and paint scheme. The idea is that you will be able to build a gaming board with a variety of houses and paint schemes without any duplication.

The first four releases are as follows.

Normandy Houses from Battlefront for Flames of War

Normandy Houses from Battlefront for Flames of War

Normandy Houses from Battlefront for Flames of War

Normandy Houses from Battlefront for Flames of War

To follow these releases will be larger houses and some shops and outhouses.

Very pleased to see these forthcoming releases and looking forward to seeing what else is planned.

No More Warhammer Historical

It would appear that Games Workshop have closed down Warhammer Historical.

I have bought many of their publications in the past, really liked the production values, though I know many hard-core gamers looked down on the rules, I always thought that they were simple yet fun.

I should have guessed something was in the air when they did their relatively recent half-price sale. Then I got the new Great War supplement, the hardbacked Waterloo rules and the Old West expansion.

New Ork Bommer

Oh yes…

https://youtu.be/Ir1uXjErq9k

The 2nd of June sees the release of the new plastic Ork Bommer.

Ever since an Ork aircraft first took flight and achieved supersonic speed, prospective flyboyz have been trying to outdo each other with their invenshuns. The most popular configurations of the Ork Bommer are the Dakkajet, the Burna-Bommer and the Blitza-Bommer.

It looks like a really nice plastic kit and you can make one of three variants. My favourite is this one.

It reminds me both of the Boulton Paul Defiant and one of the original Epic Ork Flyers.

With the price of Forge World kits as they are, it seems quite cheap at £27.50. Sometimes I need to remember that this is a plastic kit and Airfix usually sell something like this for £10!

Really nice concept and pleased to see it as a plastic kit. Time to rekindle that Ork Airfield idea that I had a few years back. Back then I bought the Ork Aircraft Traktor and Launch Trolley and repainted my Ork Fighter Bomma from Forge World.

Rural Church

Rural Church

Battlefront will be releasing a rural church in their scenery range for Flames of War on the 26th May 2012. As you can see from the photograph this is for the Eastern Front. Looks very nice and goes well with the recent rural houses for the same geographical and historical era.

What I have noticed is a distinct lack of building releases for Normandy, there are quite a few buildings in the many photographs you see in the rule books and the two source books for the battle for Normandy. I wonder if the reason is that there are already a fair few companies out there already manufacturing nice resin 15mm buildings already? Having said that a fair few are also making Russian houses and churches too.

So are we going to see any terrain for Western Europe for Flames of War from Battlefront?

What do you think?

The Dark Knight Rises

I have quite enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s reboot of Batman with the first two films, The Dark Knight and Batman Begins. As a result I am looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises the conclusion of the trilogy.

As you can see in the trailer there is a fair bit of hardware in the film and lots of ideas for gaming.