Essential ingredients of skirmish wargaming rules

After playing many different rules and games, and reading about infantry warfare, here are several mechanics that I consider to be essential if a game is to approximate real combat. I will also take a look at how these are treated by a number of skirmish rule sets that I’m […]


Driving a ’66 Mustang

For my 42nd birthday my wife surprised me with a day of driving a 1966 Ford Mustang rented from Nostalgico. The car was a Nightmist Blue C-code coupé with power steering and automatic transmission. We took the car on a 90km trip through the forests of the Northern Veluwe in […]


Four classic cars with all parts available

When choosing a classic car to buy, drive, and work on, an important consideration to make is the availability of spare parts. Working on a car can be very frustrating when it is difficult or even impossible to find spare parts. Rare parts also tend to be expensive. Here are […]


The five ages of BMW

Beginnings (1918-1961) BMW started out as engine builder, hence the name Bayerische Motorenwerke. Automobile production didn’t start until the acquisition of the Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which built the Dixi, a licensed version of the Austin Seven. The pre-war focus was on sports cars, culminating in the Mille Miglia-winning BMW 328. Production […]


The other Shelby Mustang

The most famous version of the first Mustang iteration (1964 1/2 to 1966) is undoubtedly the Shelby GT350R, built for SCCA sports car racing, and its GT350H Hertz rent a racer brethren. But when the SCCA announced the Trans-Am sedan championship for the 1966 season, Ford faced a dilemma: the […]


Alfa Romeo Giulia/GT

History The Giulia (type 105) was introduced in 1962 as successor to the Giulietta. The initial engine offering was a 1.6l, with a 1.3l added in 1964. Technically, the four-door Giulia was ahead of its competitors. It featured twin-cam engines, disc brakes on all four wheels, a five-speed manual transmission […]


28mm buildings for Hué

Most Vietnam wargaming focuses on fighting in the countryside, usually jungle or rice paddies. This means that there is a very limited number of buildings for sale that is suitable for Hué. But what is a suitable building? Many buildings, especially in the part south of the Perfume river, where […]


28mm Vietnam miniatures

I’m once again in the planning stages of a Vietnam wargaming project. After previous attempts in 10mm and 20mm, I’ve now decided to go for 28mm. There’s just so much more detail on the miniatures that for Skirmish games, I now consider 28mm the way to go. It’s thus time […]


Mazda MX-5 Miata

History The Mazda MX-5 (known as Miata in the United States) can be credited with starting the rebirth of the classic small two-seat roadster. By the time of its introduction in 1989, the British roadsters by brands such as MG and Triumph were no longer in production. The Mercedes-Benz R129 […]


BMW 02

History The success of the Neue Klasse saved BMW, but after the production stop of the now outdated BMW 700, BMW lacked an entry-level model. BMW hence developed a slightly smaller two-door version, which was introduced in 1966 as BMW 1600-2. The styling is very similar to the Neue Klasse, […]


Playing chords on three strings

Beginners usually start learning chords with open strings, i.e. at the first couple of frets, and covering all strings. Most important of these are the E and A chord forms, as they can be played as barré chords and thus moved up the neck to get other chords. The first […]


Two BMWs that you might be too late for

BMW CS Coupé (E9) After the success of the Neue Klasse, BMW branched out by adding two more upmarket models, the E3 sedan (which would father the 7 series), and the E9 coupé. Production of the latter started late in 1968, at Karmann, most famous for the VW Beetle based […]