November 2015

My apologies for a long hiatus from blogging. Been a busy few months with many changes, which I'm not going to go into, I'll just add in content that's new.

The end of November 2015 marks the release of Team Yankee - a cold war gone hot game from Flames of War - using 15mm models. I already have 15mm Americans and Chinese from an aborted run at the end of last year at modern wargames in that scale. So I am painting my T72 battle tank, M1 Abrams tank and building and assembling T54/55 tanks and M113s in readiness for the Team Yankee release at the end of the month. I now have Flames of War bases to enable me to use previews to attempt to build the teams of Americans ready for the game as well!

A couple of the example unit cards for Battlefront's Team Yankee - as featured on their Breakthrough Assault blog page.

I have also bought the Flames of War main rulebook in the time since my last post and now, and today I also got the Fate of a Nation book and Tour of Duty book - both add-ons for Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli conflict in the early 1960s for Flames of War. 
This evening I also played a World War 1 Flames of War at Pegasus Hobbies and Games in Monmouth. This is the first time I've ever played Flames of War properly - and I enjoyed it greatly - I can't wait to see what vehicles do to the gameplay - as this WW1 game was infantry only, supported by machine gun teams and artillery.

In Airsoft news I have a new loadout; Soviet Russian from 1980s Afghanistan, using the video game Metal Gear Solid V as a reference, due to the variations in uniform, which enable a more interesting choice of equipment. This also means a new airsoft rifle - an ICS AK74, due to arrive shortly.

Lastly, I have the Aliens vs Predator game from Prodos Games, and am thoroughly pleased with the quality and detail I have seen so far - a gameplay review will be posted next weekend.

Bear with me readers, I'm back again, and need to work out what to post once more.

December 2014 and January 2015

Hello again folks,

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas (if you celebrate said holiday).I offer apologies for such a long wait since my last post.

I have been doing a mixture of painting some of my 15mm modern Americans, and assembling and painting my Warzone Resurrection Imperials, which I am enjoying, except for a broken banner on one of my officers and a broken bayonet on one of the rifles for the Trenchers. Which is annoying as I will have to try and remove the remaining part of the bayonet from the rifle without causing further damage, for the officer, I will have to smooth the flag and hand area and make a pin to replace the broken top half of the flag-pole. However, I can show you my results so far on one of the Officers and also on one of the Trenchers.

I have also purchased and painted an Orc Banner Bearer for Kings of War to be the model I use for the Dice and Decks Gaming Club Christmas Miniatures Swap, a sort of secret style event where you fill out a form with a few armies and games you collect, what force you collect for the game, and in what colours you roughly paint them in, then this is swapped and you go out and have a £12 budget to purchase a model for that person. The results of the Orc Banner Bearer are shown below.

I also have been given two models kits by my work, an Airfix 1/72 scale Harrier Jet, and a Revel 1/1200 of a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier. I have started assembling the carrier, and it seems to be relatively straight-forward.

For Christmas I got an addition to my 15mm Americans for the currently test stage game of 3rd Generation Warfare, an Abrams tank from Quick Reaction Force miniatures, the thing is enormous in comparison to the other vehicles I have so far! Dwarfing the M113A3s and the Stryker APC that it will be supporting! I also got a T-80 for the Russians, but for now until I get some Russian Infantry to support the vehicle, I will be using it as part of my Chinese force. On a related note, I have finished my Medical M113A3 Armoured Personnel Carrier. The pictures shown below show these vehicles and the finished Medical APC:

I have also painted a 15mm US miniature as a US Army trooper in ACU camouflage, well, as near as I could manage given the size of the miniature. Results shown below:

In Airsoft news, I'm re-designing the kit I take with me, so it matches the USMC uniform I wear (as in the UK, it's not a particularly common camouflage scheme), which means I need to find webbing etc and a plate carrier in Cayote Brown and not the Olive Green I have started off with for the last few months. I chose a suitable plate carrier, a Cayote Brown Condor Exo Plate Carrier, which arrived in the wrong colour, but this was negotiated so I would get the right colour delivered and the incorrect one picked up, and a free pouch would also be delivered as an apology for the mistake. I also bought more Condor pouches, which has all had a test run a few weeks ago, and other than the need for one extra pouch and a re-sort of where they are, all is well.

I am also having a big Bolt Action sort out now, at the end of January, having been given a bag o 4Ground scenery for Dice and Decks Gaming Club, which I have been asked to build. So I have started on the Cookhouse, whilst repairing my own 4Ground house, which has slowly been getting damage from travelling to and from my club. I also painted the front door and window sills blue to stand out away from club scenery.

I have a new army for Bolt Action - Italians. As they are quite a characterful force, and I had a relative that was part of the British force that landed in Italy in WW2. So these provide a nice addition to my collection, I have the 500 point stater force - two squads of 10, an officer and his attendent, a forward artillery observer and attendent, medium mortar team, medium machine gun team, and as an addition, a Semovente 75/18 assault gun.

I also, due to a visit from Square Orange Games visit to Dice and Decks in late January, now own a copy of Star Wars Imperial Assault. 

My final game before posting this was last night (Friday 30th January), and was a game of Bolt Action, my British vs a German Panzergrenadier company. I won, I'm thankful to say, as some lucky rolls of the dice at the start of the game put my opponent on the back foot before we got really into the game. 

Mid-Late September

Hello again folks,

So, what have I been up to since my last post?

I've built, labelled and used my Afrika Korps for Bolt Action, bar about 5/6 models. All squads are assembled, so perhaps I can make a small unit of Veterans to accompany the regulars.

The game was last Friday (Friday 19th September), and was played on my Desert board, and resulted in me losing! A slight disaster of a game, starting with a Dingo ramming my 20mm AA Gun and destroying it, bad dice rolls cost me this, and my Panzer III, which had failed to take out an enemy Sherman II. My Major and his accompanying officer were both killed by a small unit of British Veterans in a Bren Carrier, and my other Lieutenant and a squad were killed by a large unit of British regular soldiers, although they had taken out 60% of the Brits before their eventual demise!

In Airsoft related news, I also have new American early style replica MICH helmet, more like a PASGT and not so high on the sides than on some models. I also have a MARPAT cover, but it is a slightly different version of the pattern compared to that on the fatigues I wear, but this will have to be tolerated for now. I have a game this Saturday and another Sunday!

I have also been painting some Deadzone stuff, as I've neglected this stuff for far too long - and I'm really enjoying painting the Plague Stage 1A.  On a related note, also from Mantic Games, I have also ordered the Mars Attacks: Attack on Greenville set, which contains the boxed set, and a few extras! I really like the heavy narrative theme, but still enough space for random skirmishes and games of my own design.

The Attack on Greenville set (courtesy of Mantic Games site). The top left is the averga boxed set, and the other items are extras included in the deal.

I have plans for colour schemes on the US troops included in the game  - USMC MARPAT camouflage, the same as my airsoft outfit. As this is a) approriate (if you allow a slight alteration in narrative from army to USMC) and b) it's an incredible painting challenge for me to try.

This Friday just passed, which I have no pictures for due to no battery on my phone, so apologies, I played two games of Deadzone, by Mantic Games. Partially because of Mars Attacks and also because I've gone on a bit of painting spree with the Deadzone kit and nearly painted my Stage 1 Plague and another Enforcer. These do have pictures (well, the plague does anyway) and are shown below: 

This shows how I painted the "skin" over the muscle beneath, using Scab Red I went over the black undercoat, except for the area near the eyes, and then used Vajello Iraqi Sand for the skin - which I interpret as having morphed into a tough carapace, thus why it is cracked and pitted.

So there we have it for now folks, until next time...

Mid-August 2014 - Storming ahead into the Gates of Antares!

Hello again folks,

I have some interesting stuff to mention!

I didn't manage to have a game last week at Dice and Decks Gaming Club, much to my dissappointment, as my new Bolt Action book, the Tank War supplement, which I ordered earlier in the week arrived, along with, my playtester exclusive Algoryn AI Squad for Beyond the Gates of Antares, which is also currently in production and development by Warlord Games, it consists of 5 models, a squad leader, two troopers with different weapons and two regular armed troops. They are fairly big, much bigger than any Infantry seen in Bolt Action, and are very well cast.

I have also been working on 1 of 3 Cromwell tanks for Bolt Action: Tank War, which combined with my Sherman Firefly will form my basic platoon for any Tank War games in Bolt Action.

The first Cromwell is nearly assembled and ready for painting

However, after another day of Airsoft at C3 Tactical, I have had a game of Hail Caesar organised at Pegasus Hobbies and Games in Monmouth, using my Caesar's Legions Roman Army, which I spent a few days between Sunday and Thursday building as many extra troops as I could manage in time for the game. The invitation for a game of Hail Caesar came as a pleasant surprise as I've been waiting for a chance to throw my in progress legion onto a table and have a game! It plays in quite a similar fashion to Kings of War, I managed to play through 2 games, losing both! I didn't have enough infantry to hold off flank and rear charges, although I got my charging hits in first in the 1st game, before waiting for an advance in the 2nd game.

Archer Unit 1

Archers 2

My Light Artillery - Roman Scorpions!

My first game of Hail Caesar - Romans vs Romans, this shows the battle lines meeting each other.

Cohort matches Cohort blow for blow!

Veteran Cohort vs Veteran Cohort

My end game in the 1st match, a single cohort vs two warbands of Celts and a cohort of romans (on the left)

My battleline ready for game 2

During my time at Pegasus Hobbies and Games in Monmouth for the Hail Caesar game, I also got myself a box of Warlord Games Napoleonic Penisular War British Line Infantry, so I'm assembling these for the future, as Black Powder, if anywhere near Hail Caesar, will be something I fancy playing! Although in both Hail Caesar and Black Powder, I use whole boxed sets for 1 unit (well, I decided to use 32 men for a standard unit in Black Powder), so it'll be some time before my force is useable for this, unless I motivate myself to assemble them.

I have also assembled and painted a Sergeant made from the Eisenkern Stormtroopers I bought off Ebay, made by Dreamforge Games, this was for a Dice and Decks Painting Competition, and is painted as an Imperial Stormtrooper Sandtrooper Sergeant from Star Wars, the below pictures show work from assembly through to fully painted (fully painted picture in my next post):

2 of my other Stormtroopers, an officer and another Sergeant, this picture shows up the armour plates well

Nearly finished, as each plate was blacklined this process of painting each armour plate white took its time!

The finished product - one battle damaged Sergeant of Stormtroopers

Rear view of the finished Stromtrooper

I have also had another game of Bolt Action last Friday (29th August), which ended with three models on my opponent's side left, and me with two, a 20mm AA gun and 1 Panzer IV. So it was a very brutal and very close run game! Germans vs Germans, most of my infantry was lost in close combat with enemy infantry squads attacking my transports, which forces the transported unit to disembark and fight, which meant they were attacked by my opponent first, so I lost attacks, which combined with bad dice rolls led to me barely landing a hit back. This led to me losing the combats, which lost the squad. This meant my only successes were by unusual combats, my favourites being a Hanomag belonging to the enemy being assaulted by my two-man sniper team, only to find a single Lieutenant in it, who was promptly killed! Even more amusing was the 5 man assault-rifle armed squad that was in the same transport but had disembarked previously, assaulted my 5 man heavy howitzer crew, and somehow lost, without scoring a hit on the crew! All in all, one of my more memorable games of Bolt Action.

Panzer IV, Spotter for the Howitzer and 20mm AA Gun. The squad behind is a destroyed unit, due to an assault on their Hanomag transport.

Middle of the table, a sort of No-Man's Land, where any unit that entered was destroyed by its opposition

My Artillery, and Sniper Team, next to an enemy Hanomag, which was carrying an Assault Rifle armed 5-man squad, and an SMG Lieutenant, both destroyed by the crew and the sniper team respectively

This Friday just passed, I played another game of Bolt Action, but we only succeeded in getting through around two turns, but it was a large points scale game. Germans vs British. We still managed to have some great moments, which the game allows, a Dingo Scout Car tried to ram my Howitzer, but we interpreted the rules to allow a reaction shot from said Artillery piece, which fired a direct shot which landed a huge number of hits and destroyed the vehicle just shy of hitting the artillery unit!

My Left flank, a 150mm Howitzer, Tiger I and 20mm AA Gun.

Tanks take aim at each other, the destroyed Churchill took a direct massive damage hit off my Tiger I, which is just to the left of the picture!

Mechanised Germans (my force) advance

In Airsoft news, my new boots arrived, but I'm not sure they fit or not, I can wear them, but they aren't at present, the most comfortable things around. I have also got a rubber bayonet knife for my loadout, and a new M16A3 from G+P, which was tested yesterday at C3 tactical airsoft. Here's some pictures of my new kit before I leave you till next time!

My boots, based on Vietnam era jungle boots!

Rubber bayonet attached to my older M16VN

My new Airsoft M16A3 - I like this one, although it did seem a bit iffy at first test, although this was with one of my grey 20 round BB magazines, not the metal 130 round magazine that came with the Airsoft gun.  

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...