QUICK FIRE!What projects have your fellow hobbyists been working on this month? OBSERVATION POSTFrom new figure releases for The Silver Bayonet to Anglo-Dutch Wars ships, with several stops in-between, this month’s OP fills you in on loads of new products for wargames and collectors. RELEASE RADARDom Sore mans the Release Radar and uses it to locate interesting hobby releases you may have missed, along with a bonus look at animal miniatures – tying in with this month’s theme. FULL PAPER JACKETOur resident bookworm Neil Smith presents his regular preview of recently published wargamer-friendly military history books. THEME:BEASTS OF WAR!Pete Brown introduces this month’s theme, taking us on a wargamers’ tour of our animal friends in military service and how they are employed in our games. THE ARMY PAINTER SPEEDPAINTSWe put The Army Painter’s new Speedpaints to the test. THEME:INTO THE WOODS WE GOAramiha Harwood draws on Lon Teal and Adam Gehling’s rules in the Tribal supplement Primeval and presents some fun ideas for animals and hunting on the tabletop. THEME:PROFESSOR WILLOUGHBY CRUTCHIN’S HUNTING EXPEDITIONFollowing on from his earlier Into the Woods article, Ara Harwood provides us with a ‘rules-agnostic’ dinosaur hunting scenario. DRINK THY BLOOD. THY THIRST WILL PASS … THE COMBAT OF THE THIRTYKarim Van Overmeire tells us how to get this showpiece medieval fight, between knights and squires, onto the tabletop. THEME:CAMELS, BEASTS OF BURDEN, OR CHIPS OF THE DESERTJim Graham explores these lumpy beasts and their use in warfare through the centuries. NEVER MIND THE BILLHOOKS – THE SHED BATTLESGiles Shapley, aka Eric the Shed, tells us about a chronological campaign in which himself and his friends refought all the battles of the War of the Roses, using the Never Mind the Billhooks rules. THEME:CHASSEURS DEL REY – CUBAN WAR DOGSInspired by dark yet intriguing tales of War Dogs in the Caribbean, Steve Wood shares some research on the 18th Century Cuban Chasseurs and their hounds. DREYSE OF THUNDERColonel (Retired) Bill Gray looks at the seemingly anomalous impact of the Dreyse Needle-gun – a weapon that managed to win the day by inflicting far fewer casualties on the battlefield. THEME:PAINTING PACHYDERMS 90Wi’s painters take on elephants of assorted types and sizes and explain the techniques they use. RETHINKING SENGOKU JIDAI ARMY ORGANISATIONGareth Beamish touched on the Sengoku Jidai army organisation in his article in Wi407 but here he focuses on the formation of a sonae.
