October 2014 - Mars Attacks! Star Trek, and 15mm Modern

Hello again folks,

I have finally got my hands on my Attack on Greenville Mars Attacks set from Mantic Games, and have started preparing this for games, undercoating and starting to paint the US troops as Marines in MARPAT camouflage.

Mars Attacks - Attack on Greenville pre-order set

I will say that the models are not made out of 'traditional' wargaming miniatures plastic, but a more boardgame style plastic, although the US troopers seem to be better than the rest in terms of feel. The two Martian commanders that came in my box both have extremely flexing weapons, capable of being bent in both directions and returning to shape, which is also an issue of some of the normal Martian's weapons. Which means if bent before unboxing they will return to their bent position if moved to a straighter shape.

I've played two small games, on Friday 10th October, and enjoyed it, the game playing very similiarly to Deadzone. A visit from Square Orange Games on the same day also led to me purchasing some more bits and pieces for Deadzone, including a Strider for my Enforcers (being built solely for them as I haven't the skills at present to assemble it so it can be changed out for Enforcers, Rebels or Plague), and a starter box for The Marauders, which rather than being the disorganised Orks of Warhammer 40k, these are greenskins, but organised, well armed mercenaries, and so I intend to paint them to resemble such, although I might use various camoufalge patterns to give them a more mercenary appearance  rather than a true army.
Below are some pictures of the Strider and the Marauders so far: 

Enforcer Strider

Enforcers

On Friday 17th October, I played a quick game of Star Trek Attack wing, using my "currently repainting" ships from the starter set, and enjoyed it. So a week later I ordered another ship to add to this growing collection - a Nova Class starship - small and quick.

Two of my starships being repainted

I have also received the beta rules to 3rd Generation Warfare, a set of modern wargame rules I am keen to try out. And having had a nose through the rules, I ordered some 15mm Moderns in order to play it, as the rules utilise large numbers of troops and vehicles, such as a tank company etc, so a smaller scale from 28mm has been chosen by myself as 28mm is too expensive and large for multi-vehicle games. I have found Quick Reaction Force, a 15mm modern miniatures retailer, and ordered my two first 15mm forces. I have based my introduction to this set of rules and 15mm moderns on the video game Battlefield 4, using the fictional War of 2020 between the USA, Russia and China as my background, although I will end up slightly altering to fiction to suit the purpose. So to that end I have so far ordered 40 US Army infantrymen, 1 Stryker IFV, 40 Chinese PLA Infantry and 1 Type 63 APC for these. These arrived yesterday morning (Saturday 1st November) and I have built the Stryker:

The 15mm scale Stryker IFV - hull is one piece, each wheel is seperate and so is the remote controlled 0.50cal machine gun.

 

Chinese Type 63 APC

In a trip to Hereford, I also bought a boxed set of 4 plastic M113 Armoured Carriers, intended for the Arab-Israeli War period of Flames of War 15mm miniatures range. I have decided these will suit my modern war collection of 15mm models, as extra transport and some specialist vehicles - I intend to use the first of the 4 models as a medical vehicle. First I intend to use the instructions in the October 2014 issue of Wargames Illustrated to upgrade the M113s to M113A3s - the modern upgraded version of the original APC. Pictures of some elements of progress are going well:

The bottom hull of the M113

The card I intend to use to build the fuel tank extensions on the rear flanks of the M113A3.

Two days ago, on Friday 31st October, I tried the 3rd Generation Warfare rules, using the Scenario 2 - A scenario based on Wireless ridge during the Falklands War in 1982. It features an Infantry platoon of Argentinians versus an Infantry platoon of British with a support element of a Scorpion and Scimitar. We used a mixture of Assault Group 28mm Moderns and Bolt Action miniatures to play the game, we didn't get very far, but started to get an idea of the rules, but the firing system is a bit complicated at the moment, with reference to various pages in the rules. I'll post how well gaming with these rules goes.

I also entered my Deadzone Plague Stage 1A as an entry to Dice and Decks Gaming Club Iron Painter competition.
 

My Deadzone Plague Stage 1A

Until next time folks.....

May 2014.

This is a mixture of wargaming and a little bit of information on a major event in my life.

As of 23rd April I was taken into hospital with severe abdominal pain, which once an ambulance dropped me off at A+E full of painkiller, for which I bless the person who invented liquid IV paracetamol, as this was all that could stop me being in agony for the trip, as morphine was useless in my case. It was discovered that I had appendicitis, and so at quarter to one in the morning on Thursday 24th April, I was in theatre having my appendix removed, except, it wasn't that simple - the appendix wasn't there any more, it had died, having already burst, and was just a rotten black thing floating in my abdomen filling me with poisonous pus and endangering my life, which according to the doctor was a couple of days at most at this point, but luckily it was removed along with the majority of the pus. So then I spent 10 days in hospital on intravenous anti-biotics and suffering with a wound infection, which was sorted by the return of the surgeon who spotted it within seconds and involved him re-opening a few centi-metres of the wound to drain the infection. So now I am at home recovering off work for a few weeks. Which means I have had a few weeks in which to do nothing but play video-games, and assemble and paint my wargaming miniatures! Which leads us on to the rest of this post....


I have started assembling the remaining half of my Bolt Action German late war infantry, which are my veteran grenadier squads, who are the more heavily armed part of my force. I have also painted and finished the spotter for my sniper team, whose wearing splinter camouflage just like the sniper himself. 
I have also carried on painting my Tiger, and assembling and priming my two Sdk.fz 251/1 Ausf Cs. Which I regretted trying to do having already assembled one as I am having trouble getting paint under the lip of the armour by the driver's seat. Although this is extrememly difficult to spot if your looking at the vehicle, and will be further hidden when the MG42 gunner is glued in position at the front. 

I have also thanks to the Warlord Games forums, found out after years of postulating, what the 20mm autocannon used by the German forces at the end of Saving Private Ryan is. It is a 2.0cm Flak 38 anti-aircraft gun on its wheeled trailer just on a low elevation so it can hit ground targets, in honour of the film, which is one my favourite WW2 films, I have ordered a Flak 38 for my German forces in Bolt Action, ordered from The Wargames Command Store and it is made by the modelling manufacturer Company B. This will arrive next week (well, it was due to arrive last week but has been delayed due to stock problems) and will be a small but welcome addition to my force, as it is small enough to be potentially ignored by an opponent in favour of my tank/s and so it can be used to take out infantry all the way up to lightly armoured vehicles, and any future aircraft my opponents may get (as that is what it is really for, but I'll ignore it in favour of attacking infantry with it like in the film).

Anyhoo, last night (16th May), after a 3 week gap I returned to Dice and Decks, and took part in a massive game of Bolt Action, and did some shopping for my X-Wing miniatures game collection thanks to a visit from Square Orange Games. In terms of X-Wing, I expanded my Imperial force with a Lambda class shuttle, whilst the Rebel Alliance gained the transport used to evacuate Hoth at the start of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lambda Class Shuttle for the Imperials

 

The Transport for the Rebel Alliance, half scale compared to the other ships, but still a nice model.

The Bolt Action game was a 2 v 2 game, consisting of me and another German player vs British and Russians combined. We never really got going, we managed one and a half full turns, but plenty of action occured with so many models on the table, which I have realised I didn't manage to photograph at any point during the night (Doh!). I can say that we had 3 tanks, 2 Panzer IV Ausf H and a Tiger 1, and 4 Sdk Fz 251/1s, along with around 60 men, and most importantly, my newly finished German Medic, converted from the basic plastics and whom I'm very happy with how it looks. He managed to survive the battle (our Russian player likes to take shots at Medics in game to prevent them saving casualties), much to an opponents annoyance. However, the enemy had 3 MMG teams, around 80+ infantry, a 17pdr Anti-tank gun, a Churchill Tank and a Josef Stalin 2 tank, which managed to take the Tiger out (so now 2 games into it being my army it still hasn't managed to do anything but blow up). 

Some pictures of my new additions to my Bolt Action Germans are below as well as pictures of my assembled force so far;

One of my Veteran Grenadier squads and it's transport.

1st Platoon Lieutenant and his guard.

My heavy-hitters, well, "hitters" is a bit of an exaggeration as the Tiger never does alot, misses every shot and dies very quickly in most games.

My most complete squad so far - with an NCO and a Grenadier both finished, with another two well on the way.

The Sniper team, as mentioned above, both are now finished, and wearing splinter camouflage tunics and the spotter's helmet is also in the same camouflage scheme.

My Colonel (who counts as a major in games) and his Bodyguard

My converted medic - a tempting target for the Russian Snipers (my Russian opponent hates Medics and prioritises them as targets for his snipers, so a bright white helmet might not have been the best choice on my part!).

My half-painted MMG Team

My completed force so far, there is another half to put on the table yet so it will be even more formidable yet!

Which leads onto another game at Dice and Decks on the 23rd May, another Bolt Action game, a 3 player game (due to the adsence of our fourth Bolt Action gamer). So it was my Germans vs Russians vs another army of Germans. As seems to becoming worringly often, the Tiger failed again to do anything useful, but at least wasn't destroyed this time. The other German force took out one of my Half-tracks, with a Panzerfaust, which is a first in our club. But this didn't end well, it set the Half-track on fire, resulting in it being destroyed, and the squad of Veteran Grenadiers bailing the vehicle, and losing only one man in the process. This led to a tense wait for the next turn's order dice, which I got, and so the surviving squad from the Half-track fired and caused four deaths on the squad that took out their transport. The Russians, as usual, were virtually invincible to all fire directed at them. A problem that needs to be sorted, some artillery might be needed in the future.

However, Warlord Games has had a half price sale on their individual sprues of plastic troops, so I ordered 3 sprues of Late War Germans and 3 sprues of Early War Germans (adding 30 more men to my force, the early war Germans will add variety to my force) and some extra weapons, and finally a squad of newly released Late War Germans with Stg44s equipped with early Infra-red night sights on them, which look interesting and so were ordered, giving me a unique looking squad of Veterans in my now company sized force, since I have 2 platoons now with these additions, 2 officers to lead them and an overall Officer in charge. 

My latest game of Bolt Action on the 30th May didn't give me a chance to field my new German reinforcements however. My regular opponent had also taken advantage of the Warlord sprue sale and managed to get a decent sized Japanese army! In the interests of a slightly more historical match-up, I decided to use my USMC, and lost resoundly, although I have a suspicion that the national rules may have been over-exaggerated. Next week, June 6th (70th anniversary of the D-day landings) I am having another game of Bolt Action using my Germans against another member of Dice and Decks Gaming Club member's British force. This will be a more close-run thing (I hope!), as our forces are more balanced and both of us are aware of each others special rules for the two forces.

I have also bought a new terrain piece of terrain for Bolt Action games, a 28mm scale church, which I have started assembling and have termporarily fitted together for use in games whilst I'm painting it, as I find it easier to paint it in pieces rather than glue it together and try to paint it all at once.

The main body of the Church, with the rest of the pieces lying in it.

The Church's front entrance, the door isn't present as it is being painted seperately.

And that's all for now folks!

Recent project updates, and newer items.

Hello again folks,

I haven't posted in a while but I have actually finished some models in the meantime.

First off I have been working on some models for Westwind Productions Empire of the Dead 28mm game set in the Gothic Victorian Horror world of their own design. I have had the rulebook for several months but until recently never got around to actually having any models to go with it. A recent visit to Dice and Decks Gaming Club by Square Orange Games solved this issue, me coming away with a models; Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson, Cedric Hyde, and a Demon Butcher, along with the Gentlemen starter faction pack. I have painted several of these models so far, except bases, the Butcher (dressed, as shown in the picture below, as a rather bloody chef), Sherlock Holmes, and a few of the Gentlemen. The first Gentlemen has officer's trousers on, showing he is an ex-military officer and hopefully, as future games may prove, an affinity for fighting. As my Gentlemen faction is based around a ex-military veteran's club full of old eccentric soldiers.

The first of the Gentlemen I finished

My faction  President at the back, with another of the Gentlemen at the front

Mr.Holmes

My demon-butcher - as a Chef!

I have also started painting Dr.Watson to accompany Mr.Holmes onto the dim streets of Victorian Britain.

I have started some more of these gentlemen, and so I hope to show a few more off in my next post.
In other painting related news, I have also painted some two more Vietnam era US soldiers for playing Force on Force in Vietnam. 

Additionally, I have re-varnished all of my finished Aghanistan/modern Force on Force models so they don't shine as much now as they originally did.

On Friday I travelled to Firestorm Games in Cardiff and yet again, purchased yet more models for my collection; the Vampire faction boxed set for Empire of the Dead, as a potential opposition faction to my Gentlemen. I also purchased a box of 44 28mm Vikings so I can actually start work on a faction for Saga, which I bought the rulebook for last month. Having played a proxy game at the start of February, I am very excited to actually have a faction for yet more games, as it seems to be a very interesting game. I have assembled six models out of the 44 available so far, 1 is my Warlord, and has been completely painted over the weekend, 4 are his Hirdmen, the elite troops for each warband in Saga, and the final is a spear armed warrior, as I have decided for ease of identification to arm each type of soldier differently to the other. I have started painting two more of the Vikings as shown in the pictures below.

My first Viking and Saga Warlord

When Square Orange also last visited, I bought the boxed game for Dreadball by Mantic Games, and having played a game with Neal at Dice and Decks back in early January when it was snowing, I am quite keen to have another go with my own team/s. The boxed game contains two teams; Orcs/Goblins and Humans, two balls, and a referee in terms of models, a book of team roster sheets, dice and counters, along with a pitch, deck of game cards and a rulebook. I have started work on a Orc (the larger and thus more dangerous players from the Orc side), and a Human, both teams have red, but the Humans have black suits and Orcs where metal coloured armour. The pictures below show my painting/assembling progress so far, both teams are assembled, but neither has been painted really, except for the two mentioned earlier.

My first match with own Dreadball set, approximately half-way through.

I have also played a game of Dreadball and won, so hopefully the potents are good for this game...

And after a fortnight of university, I went home and did some more work on the Judicator for my Warmachine Menoth faction, such as finishing the assembling of the legs and hips, and nearly having finished painting it, I have begun doing more towards the top half, and in particular the torso, which I'm having trouble getting a smooth white paint scheme on for some reason. I have also attached the right arm to the shoulder.
I also cleverly maanged to flock the base without the model being on it, leaving space for the feet due to a template I made of the Judicator's feet, alas the plan didn't quite work, and I was slightly off with where the feet would be on the base, but not by far, and this will need to be rectified when I go home again next weekend.

The right arm attached to the shoulder. One less task to do later in building the model

 My final addition to this post in terms of progress is a bit of work I did on my Realm of Battle Gameboard, which long time followers will know I have had for a while, and am painting in a desert colour scheme, and thus why a few of my models have desert colour schemes for their armour or bases.
I did a bit of detailing on the cracked ground which I made by converting the uncovered skulls into patches of dried ponds or cracked ground. Further to this I painted more of the cliff/rock areas brown and then went over them with watered down sand to make it seem more worn and sand weathered.

I am very happy with the way this board is going so far, and I'm planning on cracking on with it once the weather improves from british winter to something approximating dry/warm.

I have two new projects coming - Dropzone Commander from Hawk Wargames, which I got the rulebook for when I went to Firestorm games and have a potential fellow collector for it already, and in this game I am intending on collecting the UCM, due to their very Halo-esque appeareance. And a secret-ish project I plan to unveil truly once I have gotten close to finishing it - but I shall leave you with a line which will probably give you an idea of what I am going for: "Citizens! This is the Law, disperse immediatly or we shall be forced to use lethal force to do so!"...

Until next time then readers!

Some Recent Updates.

Well, it's been two weeks since I last updated, and so what has happened?

Well, I have been working on a miniature for Dice and Decks "secret santa" style swap. Which I cannot name or provide pictures for until after the 21st of December.
I have however, got pictures of a Sniper for Secrets of the Third Reich that I finished last week, I just need to varnish it and it's completely finished.

Front View

Back View

I used a Forge-World Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy Great Crusade Army list in a game against a fellow Dice and Decks gaming club member and lost, due to 6th Edition's killpoint system, but I did have the joy of deploying my Warhound Titan for the first time since I bought it nearly a year ago. It ended the game with some damage, but did cause mayhem amongst my opponents troops when it did get them, as it spent the first few turns sniping his tanks. He did try assaulting the Titan with his Chaos Lord and a squad of Chaos Marines, but they failed to do anything but hold it still for a turn or so...

The Titan with a squad of Chaos Marines attacking it.

The Chaos Lord tries to strike something important....

On Friday Square Orange Games once again honored Dice and Decks Club with it's presence, and I managed to get my hands on the box-set of Mantic Zombie Marines, which I have built a few of already, and have nearly managed to finish one of them;

One nearly-finished Zombie, ready to terrorise the table-top.

My birthday has passed, and one gift was a Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Infantry Section, which enabled me to have a proper look at the models for the first time. I am very impressed, the models are closer to 32mm Bushido models than they are 28mm models, and are highly detailed. There are 6 such models in the box, and I am highly anticipating this coming Friday when Square Orange once again visits to provide an order of the Firestorm Armada rulebook and a Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Starter Set and a set of Kingdom of Brittania Musicians.

The Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Infantry Section as it comes out of the box.

And for now this concludes my updates, but I imagine by the end of this coming weekend there will be more to post about, such as some 28mm Vietnam US Army Models I have finally got my hands on, but have not unboxed yet. Till next week readers....