US Airborne, Roads and some Tanks

I haven't posted in a while, how unusual I can hear you all say, well I have been busy.  I've managed to get quite a lot done in between games of Bolt Action over the last few weeks.

US Airborne

Painting the Fallschirmjagers has slowed right down as I'm yet to figure out how to paint a good looking splinter camo so like all good wargamers I switched to another (easier) project.

A couple squads of US Airborne laying around in the sun.

So far I've managed to finish:

• HQ Squad including (Lieutenant, Medic, Radioman and Forward Observer).
• 2 Squads of 10 men including NCO, 2 Bar and a mix of SMG, Rifles and Carbines.
• 30 Cal LMG team.
• 50 Cal HMG team.
• Sniper team (upright and prone).
• Light Mortar team.

There's probably another 30 miniatures in various stages of completion which I'll probably get done this weekend (maybe *crosses fingers*).

Terrain

Roads, I cut these out of 5mm MDF and glued sand onto them and then painted them with a latex paint.  Nice and easy, maybe and hours work all up.

 

I've got some "wobbly" river pieces cut out just waiting for some attention but I'm just trying to find and easy way of building the banks up a little so they don't look so flat.

Tanks and Vehicles

Just a teaser shot of the tanks I've finished: Sherman M4 Sherman, M4 Sherman 76mm, Stug III Ausf.B, Tiger I and a Warlord Sd.Kfz 250/1 Neu Halftrack.

 

I'll get some more photos of these up in the next couple days, but I must warn you now that the decals may not be accurate for a vehicle operating in North West Europe and the camouflage has been completely made up.

Anyway I'm off to go play another game of Bolt Action.

A Crazy Thing Happened This Morning

A crazy thing happened this morning: I sat down to put together one of the model kits I've had laying around for a few years now and I just kept building.  Sure there were interruptions and I even had to shuttle my wife around for a few errands bet every time I came back to the kitchen I picked the glue back up and continued to stick stuff to other pieces of stuff.

This almost never happens but I'm glad it did. 

L to R: M4A3, M4 and the Pz. Kpfw K-V2

Both the M4 and M4A3 kits came with options for alternative turrets but the M4A3 came with enough parts to actually build both.   I haven't looked into what the differences between the two are (if any) but it never hurts to have options even if they are purely cosmetic.

I don't have any Bolt Action stats for the KV-2 but it shouldn't be too hard to translate something from Disposable Heroes or Victory Decision.

I've put quite a bit of paint on the Warlord minis and have even built some terrain pieces but haven't managed to take any photos of them, I'll try to get that corrected some time tomorrow.

Up next a Jagdpanther and a pair of Fw190's.

28mm 101st Airborne Decals

I've been busy working on my Fallschirmjager minis and with a little luck and even less sleep I should have most of them finished by the end of the week.  So like all good wargamers I'm already thinking ahead to my next project: the US Airborne.

They're a much simpler model to paint so I'm hoping to get them finished in the first week of the holidays.  While reading some posts on the Warlord forums I noticed a few posts talking about 28mm insignia and rank decals.  I had thought about painting this stuff onto the minis in the past but it's a lot of very fiddly work and my brush skills just aren't up to scratch so I wandered over to Company B and bought a sheet of these for $6.40US including postage.  They can't be much more painful than putting 1.5mm roundels onto 1/600 aircraft... can they?  Well time will tell.

If these go well I think I'll have to grab a sheet each for the Germans and British minis.

Look... Up in the Sky



It's a bird, it's a plane... no it's paratroopers, lots and lots of paratroopers...

I just placed my Xmas order with Zepnix Wargames.  Sadly these guys and a lot of support units and vehicles will be squirreled away until Xmas morning where I'll have to "pretend" to be excited when I unwrap them...


WW2 + Rick Priestley + Alessio Cavatore + Osprey = AWESOME!!!!

 

I also grabbed a copy of Bolt Action, which I wasn't too interested in until I found out it was written by Rick "Warmaster" Priestley and Alessio Cavatore.  The reviews I've read sounded promising so I thought I'd give it a go.  One of the best aspects of historical wargaming is that you can, for the most part, change your rules without invalidating any of your miniatures. 

I wasn't too pleased about how expensive the action dice were, about $18.00 a set, but hey it's only a once off pain in the wallet.  They do look great and drawing a die out of the bag to see whose unit activates is a very unique twist on the old staple activation cards concept.

It's going to be a hard task to knock Disposable Heroes off it's current throne but then again if anyone can do it I guess it's Mr Preistly and company.

So there'll be no photos or reviews of any of this stuff until some time in the new year, trust me folks no one is more dissapointed than I am :)

The fences have been stuck to their MDF bases and are currently drying beside my as I type this.  I'll get some photos up tomorrow night after I've had a chance to get the bases flocked and maybe a coat of paint.

28mm Platoon in a Day - The Theory

I have this theory, and it goes like this: if one had 30 odd miniatures already prepped, cleaned and based.  And one also had the paint scheme sorted, with sufficient paints and brushes handy.  Then one could, in theory, with the use of the Army Painter product could paint 30 odd miniatures to completion in a single day.

They'd be no Golden Daemon award winners for sure but they'd have to look a whole lot better than this:

I have a day home next week and I'm planning to put this theory to the test.  So I need to decide, do the US Paras or Fallschirmjagers?

Black Tree Getting Closer

Some more of my Black Tree arrived today, all I'm waiting on now is the Flak38 and the crew for the Pak40. So I can add these to the silver mountain:

• Fallschirmjager Platoon (30)
• Fallschirmjager with MG42s (4)
• Fallschirmjager with MP44s II (4)
• Wehrmacht Officers (2)
• German le IG18 75mm Infantry Support Gun
• 2 x British 6lb Cannon & Crew (1)
• U.S. Para Bazooka Team (2)

*sigh* Three more guns to work out how to build, they really should come with instructions.



Now I really need to get painting.

Black Tree Wins... Almost

Some of my order from Black Tree Designs arrived today, part shipment from the US, more to come from the UK soon.

Only four packs:
WW2192 - Fallschirmjager Characters (4)
WW2058 - P.A.K. 40 & Crew (1 & 3 Crew)
WW2066 - U.S. Para HMG Team
WW9028 - U.S. Para Snipers (2)

The PAK-40 that arrived was actually WW2173 - Afrika Korps PAK 40 with Crew but the crew from WW2058 should be arriving witht the rest of order from the UK.

I'm building the PAK now so I'll get some photos up when it's done. To help distinguish the weapon types on the table I've decided on the following basing sizes:

40mm round - LMG/MMG and Light/Medium Mortats
60mm round - HMG and Heavy Mortars
95mm round - Guns and Artillery.

The larger sized bases for the guns and artillery has plenty of room for the larger minis and also allows me to stretch those diorama muscles. Photos to come.

Bag the Hun Scenarios - Operation Bodenplatte

Finally found some time to get back to Bag the Hun, and by "found some time" I meant I have a head cold and cough that makes painting almost impossible... unless I want the minis to look like a Picasso revival.

I've put together a couple scenarios based on the Luftwaffe offensive Operation Bodenplatte which occured during the Battle of the Bulge on January 1st 1945. It's been slow going but I've done three scenarios and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. The real tricky part has been trying to make them something more than "you have 8 aircraft and he has 6... have at it!".

I've dressed the first one up in publisher and I'm almost happy with how it looks. I'll post the pdf's here later this evening but right now I've been up for almost 40 hours straight and I think I'm finally tired enough to sleep through the coughing and any noise the kids could (and will) make... hopefully.

A New Order To Black Tree

No you read that correctly, I placed another order with Black Tree Designs even after all the hassles with my orders in the past. Why? Three reasons really:

The first is price, discounted prices compunded with free international postage is hard to pass up.

Secondly, in the past I've been kind of eager to get the minis into my excited mature age gamer hands. This time, putting the excitement factor aside, I don't need this stuff right now to play a game, I can wait.

Just on the amazing off-chance that my wife is reading this: no seriously I can wait, and by "I don't need this" I meant I'm happy to play games without all the miniatures I need to fully appreciate the... OK I'll stop, I'd probably just be getting *that look* right about now anway.

Thirdly is that I love their minis. The sculps are great and they have the widest range I've seen and some of them have around 20 individual poses. What more could you ask for from a mini?

Anyway getting back to the point of the post, here what I ended up ordering:

1 x WW2291 - Fallschirmjager Platoon (30)
1 x WW2192 - Fallschirmjager Characters (4)
1 x WW2133 - Fallschirmjager with MG42s (4)
1 x WW2208 - Fallschirmjager with MP44s II (4)

1 x WW9034 - Wehrmacht Officers (2)
1 x WW2058 - P.A.K. 40 & Crew (1 & 3 Crew)
1 x WW2138 - German le IG18 75mm Infantry Support Gun
1 x WW2197 - 20mm Flakvierling 38

2 x WW2103 - British 6lb Cannon & Crew (1)

1 x WW2066 - U.S. Para HMG Team
1 x WW9028 - U.S. Para Snipers (2)
1 x WW9027 - U.S. Para Bazooka Team (2)

I'll put up photos when they arrive. This may just be the incentive I need to get the minis I already have painted.

Well You Ain't Got No Legs Lieutenant Dan...

My last order to Black Tree Design was a pretty big one, the only problem is that the box wasn't so big. Figures were densley packed and most were bent, few like the two below were so bent that they broke when attempting to straighten them out. Thankfully (?) the ankles were thin so the break was clean with virtually no distortion to the legs or feet.



Step 1 was to take my pin vice and a 1.0mm drill bit and carefully drill holes into the calf of each leg. I went in about 3-4mm deep which should give a nice surface for the superglue to cling to. You have to be careful when starting the holes, I slipped a few times starting each leg and once the drill bit slid up under my thumbnail! No blood or tearsbut there was more than a little bit of cursing.

Insert some 0.9mm wire, I find it easier to glue in pieces of wire around 1-1.5cm in length as they're a lot easier to handle.

Drilling on the second mini

The two completed stilt-men. Now onto the bases. Drill one leg first, fit the mini and find where the last big of wire wants to go. You need to be close but not exact, you can alway bend the wire to fit.

Test fitting the holes. I guffed this one up when drilling and the side of the hole tore away. Once glued in place I'll cover it over with a bit of green stuff.

Here they are glued and free standing on their own two legs.

I'm really happy with the result, especially since most of my hobby project have a tendancy to turn out not as expected.

Some days are better than others

Some days it's just so awesome being a wargamer and today is one of those days. First off I sorted out payment for an auction I won on eBay, a German Focke Wulfe Fw190. I'm so looking forward to putting this one together.

Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.

Then at lunch I head down to the local game store to use the rest of a gift voucher I got for my birthday. There wasn't a lot of 1/48 armour kits its left in stock and I was having a hard time picking something that would play well and look cool on the table. I was about to give up when I was directed to a huge shiny pile of new kits that hadn't been put on the shelves yet. I grabbed two of the kits when I thought to ask the prices, $20 per kit I was told, so I promptly grabbed another two. I was so close to picking up a couple more but thought against it (see Vicki I can control myself).

US M4A3 & M4, German KV-2 754 and a Russian T34. The T-34 was a especially sweet deal as the interior of the tank is modelled as well. It's huge kit with 372 parts over 13 sprues.


Here's a shot of the pile of unbuilt or unpainted kits. I really have to say that I'm so impressed with the Hobby Boss kits. They're not as detailed as the AFV kits but they're way ahead of the Tamiya ones. What's also nice is that the kits come with alternate parts, including complete alternate turrets for one of the M4's.


Pleased as I was with my purchases of the day, I came home to find my order from Black Tree Design waiting for me. I may have looked calm and collected but on the inside I was giggling like a madman. Everything was there except for the LMG teams for the US Paratroopers. At least all the Germans are there because you kind of need them for any WW2 game. Besides I'm more interested in playing the British than the Yanks anyway.


I am so glad I have the airbrush setup now. Painting these all by hand would take me forever, no actually I'd probably never finish as I'd loose focus and just end up playing with unpainted minis for the next decade. No, I will say focused and I will finish these. I'll just have to get myself more organamasized.

Another order to Black Tree Design

Thanks to a combination of an impending Birthday, my wife and my mother in law I was able to place another order for some WW2 miniatures from Black Tree Design. To be honest I was a little torn about placing another order with these guys as I'd read a lot of rumblings about them on the net. My experiences with them in the past have been pretty positive so I decided to go with what I know not what I've heard. I don't doubt that any of these people have had issues with Black Tree and I'm sure their reasons to complain are very real but any problems I've had with orders were quickly resolved by John Olsen who was very helpful and very prompt. Thanks again John.

Anyway back to the topic in question, the order. All up it comes very close to $200 but the great thing is that (for the moment at least) any order over 50 pounds is shipped for free.

So the breakdown of the order is:

British Squad (10)
British Infantry Snipers (4)
British Vickers Team II
British Mortar Team
British Infantry with Piats (4)
British Infantry with SMGs (4)
British Infantry with Stens (4)
British Infantry Officers (4)

German Platoon (30)
German Squad (10)
Wehrmacht Mortar Team I (3 + Mortar)
Waffen SS MG42 (1 Team)
Wehrmacht with SMGs V (4)
Wehrmacht Panzerschreck Teams I (4)
Wehrmacht Flamethrowers (2)

U.S. Para Platoon (30)
U.S. Paras with SMGs I (4)
U.S. Para with Rifles II (4)

I had to order a Waffen SS MG42 as Black Tree only had MG34s for the Wehrmacht range. All in all I'm pretty happy with the selection, I don't think I've ever procrastinated so much over a single order. I think I've got it worked to that there are very few left over or unused miniatures from any of the packs. Why on earth Black Tree insist on selling 10 man squads when there should be 12 (for the US) and only 1 SMG when there should be 2 (the Germans). I guess it's a price point thing but or maybe it's an eary war vs late war thing, I don't know.

All I can do now is wait...

Ahhh Nuts!

You know what its like: you have a carefully planned schedule and you're making great progress when... what? you don't? Nah neither do I.

The day that I actually finish something, actually two somethings, the BloodBowl Imps and my display base for my BloodBowl Goblins, the one thing that could derail my entire painting shcedule happens: my order of 28mm WW2 minis from Black Tree Miniatures arrives.

Actually it happended something like this:

My wife and I were discussing the state of the kitchen table since I took over with my paints and other tools when she asks "So how long is all that stuff going to be there for?"
I respond with "oh not long... unless my WW2 stuff turns up which in that case it could be another week or two". I pretend not to notice the raised eyebrow and look of dissatisfaction on here face when a knock at the door saves me. "I'll get it" I say running down the hallway. It's Australia Post with these:

A Black Tree Miniature 28mm British platoon with a pack of Flamethrower infantry.

Old Glory 25mm German SS. Already based and undercoated, I just love eBay.

Old Glory 25mm US 101st Airborne Pathfinders (mohawk guys) with some US Paras and HMG. From the same eBay deal as above.

"I'm in trouble now" I think to myself.