First weeks of August 2016

Hello again folks,

I have been working away at my WW2 models, starting with my Stuh 42, which whilst has been virtually finished in terms of painting, I have decided after opinions from friends that my WW2 German vehicles look too "new" and "factory fresh". To solve this I have decided to add in some details such as camouflage nets and dirt washes to make the vehicles look dirty and used out in the battlefields of WW2.
Thus is my now completed Stuh 42 - much more battle-ready!

I have also been painting some more of early WW2 British forces, including my Matilda II. The work on it so far is shown below:

July 2016 - New WW2 Bits

Hello again folks,

I have been busy lately painting and assembling more models, I have painted a new Waffen SS soldier in Pea Dot camouflage, this is due to a good performance during a game of Muzzle Flash. Here is a picture of the nearly finished model:

Additionally I have been painting more of my Germans as they are seeing more games at the moment.

I have also assembled and started to paint another Automated British Infantry from Clockwork Goblin Miniatures, I have several but was put off when I first got them by having trouble gluing the arms and weapon together whilst making sure it all fitted to the body. The first finished one was a gift at the start of the year at Dice and Decks as part of the annual miniature swap.

My latest major model is a Stuh 42 for my WW2 German forces, a 105mm howitzer mounted on a Stug III chassis. I am very pleased with how this vehicle has turned out, but I don't think of it as fully completed yet. I intend to add some camouflage netting to the gun and hull in small amounts to add some extra detail, the tank is shown in the picture above along with a painted squad of Germans.

As a friend commented during a game, my tanks look too "clean" and straight out off the production line for front-line vehicles.So I may start experimenting on some camouflage nets to help add a more gritty feel to the tanks and vehicles.

That's all for now folks...
 

New game, new forces and more fun

Hello again folks, as you may or may not have spotted their is a new page on here about a game called Muzzle Flash, which is being developed by a good friend of mine. I'm very keen on it. It is for any post 1870 setting, and features action based gameplay. The page on this blog gives more information.

November 2015 - 2nd Post

Hello again folks,

I've been painting a mixture of different models this week. I've been continuing to paint a Colonial Marine from Prodos Games' Alien vs Predator game. I've modelled the base to look like a vent in the floor of a spaceship, as this is where the game is based. I've also attempted some graffiti on his armour. I've been rather sparing with the graffiti but might attempt more on the next few colonial marines.
I've also prepared and started assembling one of the three Predators that come in the boxed set. This one has been based in an attempt to look like the Predators have forced their way onto the spaceship, so debris as well as metal flooring litters the base. I have started painting the first, poised to be throwing the smart disc.

As another game of Bolt Action loomed for Friday (20th November), I spent alot of the week painting more of my German army, including two of my troops in winter uniform. I've always been rather pleased with the conversions of the winter uniform troops. I'm tempted to convert at least one of my German troopers to be in full winter uniform, all this involves apart from a specific paint scheme is a conversion of the tunic to include a hood so that it represents the winter jacket worn by some German soldiers during the Second World War. 

This week has also led to a future project coming more into possibility - I've wanted to play Napoleonic games for ages, but 28mm is really too big for any games of any real size with the force sizes common to the Napoleonic Wars. So following the footsteps of a friend and fellow wargamer, I've opted for 10mm British for Napoleonic era warfare, as this can then come up against my friend's French force. Before anything else I need to work out what rule set we're  using and thus what basing needs to be used for the miniatures.

I've also assembled and started to paint one of my Eisenkern Stormtroopers, in the styling of the Brotherhood of Steel from the Fallout video game series. So metal coloured armour with red or white details. Although if I like the colour scheme on these troopers, I will assemble a sci-fi force using it, but with my own insignia for units.

I played another game of Bolt Action this past Friday (20th November) , and resoundly defeated my opponent. We decided on a mainly Infantry game, with a few non-vehicle support units, so I found my 150mm Howitzer, which as luck would have it, failed to provide the support it should have. However, my unlucky opponent's own artillery strike scattered and hit more of his own units (and more destructively). Which turned the battle much in my favour, and my opponent's best paratrooper unit being pinned until it fled the table finished the job as the second unit of paratroopers lost nearly half it's men to machine gun fire from my SS unit that had reached the maximum range to assist the units already blocking the enemy advance across the table. In-game pictures below show how this game looked.

My right flank - my most heavily armed and numbered side of the board

A view across the table

My infantry face a paratrooper unit supported by regular infantry

My officers take on the remnants of a infantry unit hiding in the crater in the centre of the board.

A smaller unit of veterans guards the left flank against some sneakiness!

My Italian infantry guarding the middle of the board.

My Howitzer at the back centre of my deployment zone, where it stayed providing ineffective support for the whole game.

My final point for these post is a slight annoyance I have for some Bolt Action players/tournaments which state "The main rulebook plus all FAQs and Theatre books are allowed" and then further down state "No vehicle flamethrowers and No tank platoons". This annoys me as a keen Bolt Action player for two reasons. As a player this annoys me as it limits what can be taken, purely because it is quite a powerful unit/platoon which isn't the fault of people who may like a particular style in their force, additionally this annoys me again in that it cannot follow all rules, theatre books and FAQs if it disallows certain things. Let me give an example, Tank platoons are a main feature of the Tank War theatre book, so if disallowed, you are effectively disallowing an entire theatre book in one fell swoop!

Anyway, that's all for this time folks! Hopefully more news to come soon....

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...

June and July 2014

Hello again Folks,

I've been busy rolling along with more Bolt Action related stuff, a few more Germans have been assembled or painted, and the Church mentioned in my last post has also been assembled more completely, but it is not finished yet and so has not been completely glued, but the front is looking more stone coloured than before.

 I have also played three more Bolt Action Games since my May post was written (I apologise it was alot later published than planned, so these two posts are very close together). The first game was my Late War germans vs Late War British, and was a great game, my church was the centre piece of the game, and really changed the way the game was played, as the forces split around it and so two battles took place on the same board! Plus despite being an eventual loss, it was a game with a decidingly amusing circumstance, my troops are awful when it comes to rolling hits and wounds on a dice, so I was shocked when my Lieutenant and his bodyguard blasted away 4 enemies in one round of shooting (they both have SMGs, so 2 shots each, both hit and both wounded!), then even more so (not as much as my opponent, whose shocked expression was priceless at this next bit), my Colonel and his bodyguard, who are similarly armed with SMGs, rolled 2 hits out of 2 shots each, and wounded on all 4 as well! 8 kills for 8 shots from my officer units was an amusing and defiant way to end a game full of bad luck.

The second game was my Late War British and US force vs a Late War German Panzergrenadier force,  I lost, but some great moments were had. My highlight was a squad of Commandos, all armed with SMGs and 1 with an LMG, assaulted a Half-track carrying the German commander, and destroyed it. leaving the officer to walk, although he was stuck there until the Commandos were killed. I realised after the game he should have jumped out and defended the half-track according to the rules, but this wasn't realistic anyway as he was alone and would have been outnumbered 8 to 1!

My third game (two days ago) and is pictureless, was my Late War Germans vs the Russians, who won without a second thought about it. My dice rolls were a disgrace to wargaming, misses and failed morale rolls all around! The Tiger was destroyed before it could do anything, and the Panzer IV was destroyed shortly after in Turn 2 before it could destory the Russian tank that terrorised my army for the rest of the game.

In other news, the main British player at Dice and Decks made an interesting suggestion - as I have a desert coloured Realm of Battle gameboard - of which 4' by 4' of it is finished, why not collect another new Bolt Action force each for the Desert campaign! I agreed, and we've decided to be a bit more organised as these forces will be specific for a board and opponent, which means we won't be going overboard straight off the bat! He chose the British 8th Army, and I will be collecting the Afrika Korps. I have ordered the Perry Miniatures Afrika Korps set (these arrived last week), and am also using a few extra men from the Early War German sprues I ordered to make up correct sized units (I was intending to use Late War models, but they are big when compared to the Perry Miniatures Afrika Korps models). This force will represent my Late War German army from earlier in the war, so I have already built some models - a representation of the Lieutenant from my 1st platoon, in the Desert, so the pose is similar, but with a slight alteration , his MP40 is being held down and he is using binoculars rather than holding an MP40 in one hand as he points with the other. Another is a Artillery/Air observer with a radio, who looks good so far. I am very excited about this force as it is such a different kettle of fish from the Late War. Although I intend to get one British thing for the desert - the M3 Grant, as this is my favourite WW2 tank due to a book I read when I was 11. We between us, stated the end of July as the original date for our first desert game, but due to the fact we've both flown through the buying stage and are now building our armies, we've decided to try and get a game on the desert board this Friday!!! So I have got some vehicles on the way as my opponent has been sneaky and got his already! A Sherman II and a Dingo scout car are the enemy's big toys! I have a Hanomag and Sdk Fz 7 for transport, and a Panzer III Ausf L for my big puncher!

The Perry Miniatures DAK box

A new Hanomag from my June purchases

A few of the DAK models assembled and started to be painted

My converted officer (mentioned below) with my DAK Lieutenant

Most of my DAK force so far

In more good news, my Flak 2.0cm 38 on wheeled trailor has finally arrived over 4 weeks later than planned, but it is also swapping into the Afrika Korps force as it came with free crew! One of whom is wearing shorts, so can only be Afrika Korps, one is now my Major for the Afrika Korps force (a slight error, as the seated 3rd crewman doesn't fit so I need to make a new 3rd crewman for the weapon). It is assembled as shown below and I am very chuffed so far (if a bit weary of the thin barrel of the gun!). Also shown is the Major, with his conversion - an MP40 slung over the right soldier, the sling is comprised of pieces of sling taken from other rifle slings on varous sprues.

Crew of the 20mm Flak Gun

The assembled 20mm Flak gun on its wheeled trailer, something I've always wanted for this game for a while

I've also had a proper game of Bolt Action using this Afrika Korps force against a British 8th Army force on my Games Workshop Realm of Battle Desert Board, the game went well, being a game of attrition with an additional objective to take and hold on the top of the hill to the right of the board in the pictures shown below. All of my DAK infantry squads carry anti-tank grenades and this was used to great effect on the enemy Sherman (and destroying it that same turn) that had taken out my Panzer Ausf III Ausf L early in the game, my troops also fought to the last man on top of the hill holding the objective, as large numbers of British troopers assaulted it, althought the British Command Squad was obliterated by my Forward Observer landing a heavy howitzer direct hit on it, doing huge amounts of damage to the three man squad.

The desert board, showing the hill on the right of the board that had the objective on it

My Afrika Korps force for it's first game; Hanomag, Sdk Fz 8, Panzer III Ausf L, two infantry squads, anti-tank team, Lieutenant, Forward Observer and 20mm Flak Gun

Panzer III gone!

Taken out by that Sherman, about to be attacked by the infantry squad in the Hanomag which drove out in front of it

The rest of the force takes the hill, on the top left you can see British 8th Army troops charging the hill

British Veteran Infantry skirt round the bottom of the hill, watched by the DAK Lieutenant, Infantry and Sdk Fz 8

Infantry Squad destroys the Sherman

Since these occurences I have also been back Airsofting, and now have my own gun and gear for this, after a bit of time spent thinking, and using my Digital Woodland pattern USMC uniform, I have decided to try and go down the route of a US Vietnam War loadout, so my airsoft gun is an M16 from the start of the Vietnam War, with three-pronged flash suppressor and no forward assist device on the receiver. I also have soem new webbing and a helmet on the way as well. Thus why I haven't been doing many wargaming things this last month.

I have also tried using Bolt Action for the Vietnam War, shown in the pictures above, however, this isn't a massive change, using squads of around 7 men and still using assault rifles as 2 shot 24" range weapons, but using alot of cover. However, more men and equipment/vehicles might alter the way it plays.

 This last game was a British and American force against my German Late War force (which is expecting a new toy) boosted by the Anti-tank rifle team, forward observer, Hanomag and Panzer III. A great game, although it didn't finish, it did get going, and my Tiger I actually did something and destroyed a Universal Carrier first shot of the game, and had a crack at a Churchill, but only stalled it at game's end. Bad dice rolling once again cost my infantry dearly, few casualties by my shooting dice rolls, and good dice rolling by my opponents saw my infantry dissappear.

The field from last Friday's game (25.7.14)

My force in the deployment zone, viewed from the left flank (sorry for the skewed view)

View from the Anti-tank team's position across the board

This week I am going to be playing Batman: The Miniatures Game, so I've been painting miniatures for this as well. I am very pleased with how my Batman from The Dark Knight Rises film, he has the right colour on the armour and the cape is a suitably different shade from the rest of the model.

Batman and the Ninjas of the League of Shadows, the unpainted model in front is an NVA from The Assault Group.

I'll give a report of how this game played next week hopefully! I'm also starting yet again to paint my Late War Germans, including some variant colour schemes, and the Afrika Korps, with reinforcements coming as well.

So until next time folks!