Early August 2014 - There's no business like snow business!

Hello again folks!

So I've had a game of Batman; The Miniatures Games, me using Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Shadows, my opponent used Batman from the Arkham video games, Catwoman and two police. We only really had a basic go, but Ra's Al Ghul got an early charge on Catwoman, but spent almost the entire game dealing with her, eventually critically injuring her, before being engaged by Batman for 2 turns, and then was virtually defeated. The Ninjas tried to melee and shoot Batman (Lotus, who was then engaged by Police and Yang) but failed and both were knocked out! Ying tried to take on the cops, but also was knocked out! So a technical fail, losing the Ninjas and nearly Ra's Al Ghul himself. But killing Catwoman was 66 reputation, compared to only 61 yielded by the defeated ninjas, so I technically won, but lost more of the crew. I also apologise as I was playing I forgot to take any pictures for this particular game!

My reinforcements for my Bolt Action Late War German army have also arrived, a 150mm Heavy Howitzer with crew, ready to add some serious indirect fire support, I have also made a spotter so that targets the Howitzer cannot see can be targeted by the weapon. I have been waiting for the late war 150mm Howitzer model to be released by Warlord Games, as it is a superb sounding weapon in the rules for the game, and this is compounded by the Forward Artillery Observer using the 3D6 High Explosive Howitzer shots when it hits a unit, and it has worked well for me! Hopefully on the board artillery will prove more useful.

The Howitzer just after assembly

The Howitzer after it's main coat of paint, I haven't made any more progress since this picture, but need to check on how they looked during the war before I do!

In big news, my rebasing of the German Bolt Action force is progressing - I have started adding Gale Force 9 snow to my originally finished models and have finished a few more, as well as sculpted more hoods to the jackets of some of the plastic models. I decided to change this to suit a more Eastern front, but will also work for winter/spring 44/45 on the Western as well as Eastern front. So it's normal uniforms, mixed with winter jackets and outfits. although so far lacking in great coat equipped troops. The snow is being used to try and get a tundra/thawing look, but some have got more on the base than others.

A Nachtjager and one of my German Infantry with a converted hooded winter jacket

My Tiger 1 is also done now. Below is some pictures from a game of Bolt Action I had on the 8th August, using my Germans with some of the pictures showing the rebasing in progress on some figures and the Tiger 1 in it's now finished state (well, except the turret as by the time I took the pictures it was mid-game and the Tiger had suffered a minor mishap fighting the Russians).

The main area of the table where my force was congregating, you can see a winter jacket-ed German in the middle of the infantry on the top left, as well as some of my snow bases so far!

The Tiger, post taking a hit off a Russian tank and so destroyed in-game, represented by this fire token in place of the turret  temporarily, but this is the finished tank, the base is representing thawing snow, rather than deep winter snow.

My Nachtjager squad with Infra-red Assault Rifles, one of these, as shown, is now finished, and with one of the more dense covered bases, these guys count as veteran grenadiers with assault rifles during normal Bolt Action games.

Infantry massing behind a wall, in various states of work in progress, to finished, such as the NCO in the centre with the snowy base.

The Howitzer and crew, as is normal for my new German Bolt Action kit, it missed all shots all game!

I also have a slightly random project I have just started, I bought a box of 20 Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers, and the accompanying accessory sprue. I am using these to make an sci-fi army for any system  at the moment, as they are to look as close to Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers as possible, which isn't too far off, bar a few details and the helmets. I decided to accept the deviations and leave the troopers as they are rather than convert the models and risk mucking them up or ending up with an even more obscure look to them. So look out fir these in future posts as I love the models and will probably end up with more of them.

My first Stormtrooper NCO, these are likely to see use during Beyong the Gates of Antares playtesting, I'm unsure if I want to on future models change the magazine on the SMG to look more like a Star Wars blaster. This model has been undercoated and I have started on the white armour plates since this picture.

I also had a game of X-Wing The Miniatures Game this evening (15th August), a full game using all rules (although there were no points spare on either side for modifications). I was going to use 4 of my TIE Fighters and a Lambda Class Shuttle, but this changed once my opponent showed up with alot more choices, so I ended up with 4 TIE Fighters (Howl-Runner, , and an Obsidian Squadron Pilot) and a TIE Defender.  These pictures were taken during the squad building/altering before the game started, but as stated above, the squadron changed from my original plan to a completely different fighters only squadron by the time we started!

My original squadron's character cards.

The originally planned squadron

My second idea for the squadron I wanted to field, since the game, I've taken a real liking to the TIE Defender, which is top right in this picture.

The character I chose as pilot of the TIE Defender I borrowed for the game.

Character Cards for the final squadron I actually fielded.

The squadron, 4 normal TIEs and a TIE Defender.

TIE Defender

Other options I could have picked, a TIE Advanced, TIE Phantom or TIE Bomber.

And in Airsoft news, I have some Vietnam era US Jungle boots for my next game, well, they're on their way, somewhere, and I have played my 6th game of Airsoft. Slowly , I am getting the right kit for a Vietnam loadout, for something a bit different. Here's a preview of the boots in question:

And that's all for now folks, so until next time, have fun...