Dakka dakka dakka.... vrooooow

During my recent rules purchasing frenzy I came across these rules:


I also got these with my first big order to TFL but not knowing much about them I left them alone. A bit of research through my friend Google found the rules to be pretty much what I was after. They have enough detail to have decent 1 on 1 dogfights but they easily allow for games of 10-20 planes, maybe even more. What sold me was how cheap 1/600 scale miniature planes are. Tumbling Dice have some of the nicest and cheapest planes I've seen.

A quick email to TFL and before I knew I had the rules sitting in my inbox, thank you Mr Clarke. My first few games consisted of coins for planes flying across some old Battletech maps. Before I played TFL games I had a pretty bad impression of card based initiative systems, I thought they wouldn't work. But I was wrong, very wrong indeed. Making the cards is a pain but there are plenty on the Yahoo site and some of them look quite professional.

Anyway I'm addicted, I have an order for 120+ planes on the way and they can't come soon enough. Until then my 5 cent piece fighters will have to keep trying to shoot down my 20 cent piece bombers.

And I hear there is a 2nd edition in the works... can't wait.

It's been a while between drinks

Well it's been a while since I updated this blog, family life and work have been the main reason for lack of updates... well that and I'm lazy.

I've managed to base most of my Black Tree order, there's about a dozen or so figures that are damaged or miscast to the point of being unusable so I might try to make casualty markers out of them. I'm on holidays for the next week with the kids so I'm hoping to get myself geared up to finish a platoon or two and maybe even have an actual game in a fortnight.

Things haven't been entirely quiet on the hobby front though I've made some progress on the model kits and I'll try to get some photos up over during the week.

I just love how publishers are now releasing so many books in PDF format. Cheaper prices (printing costs aside) and being searchable make them my now preferred format.


First up I bought two of the Vehicle Compendium books for World at War. Around $18 each for 60ish pages of vehicles raginf from soft top trucks right up the German Maus. New rules allow for AFV only armies and you can also play using captured vehicles, which is great news for my German KV-2 kit.


I've hearing good things about a company called Too Fat Lardies and after reading a review of their WW2 scenario book called "All American" I just had to take a closer look at their stuff. All I can say is WOW. Most scenario books I've seen have been simply here's a map and a list of two forces, now have at it. These books give you a map (generally in both topographical and gaming table formats), a detailed list of forces (right down to the names of the leaders, big men as they're called in I Ain't Been Shot Mum) but what really impressed me is the detailed histroical account that comes with each scenario. The Anzio book for example is 21 scenarios and 201 pages long! If you play any non-points based WW2 games (IABSM, Nuts etc) then you need these books.


Well after being so impressed with the scenario books I just had to have a look at the rules. The card activation system seems to have most reviews split 50/50 for love hate but really this doesn't worry me (maybe after a few games I'll have a better opinion). What I do like is the use of blinds or tokens to represent units on the table. When a blind is spotted by an enemy unit then the token is removed from the table and replaced with the miniatures representing that unit. What makes things interesting is that there are generally more blinds on the table than there are units in the game. This represents the fog of war, conflicting intelligence reports and the ability of some troops to use stealth tactics. The rest of the rules look good from a cursory read though but I'll comment more after I've played a game or two


While in my purchasing frenzy I also grabbed Through the Mud and the Blood, a set rules for the Great War. I'm so keen to play these but the lack of any miniatures is a bit of a stumbling block. I'm thinking of using 10-20mm minis for this one. It should keep the price down but also allow me to field large forces. I mean how can you play trench warfare without being able to mow down row after row of charging infantry with machine gun fire?

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.

Pssshhh... pssshhhh.

I finally stopped procrastinating and bought an air compressor for my airbrush.

Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.

And by airbrush I mean this. I know it's not all shiny like the ones all the cool kids have but it has served me well over the last year and a bit.


Tonight was really just a run through to make sure everything connected and worked. I ran some paint thinners through the brush and it al came out with a nice crisp hiss. I had a bit of thinners left when I thought what the heck and threw in some NATO Brown. The results don't look like much but I'm pretty happy.


I'll do some more tests this weekend and when I'm confident I'll put some paint on the tanks. Hmmm speaking of tanks I really should get back the StuG.

StuG III

I bought another tank. Since the British and the Americans have a tendency to team up against the Germans I felt it only fair to even things up a little. Remember to click on the images for a bigger version.


Again the kit is pretty much what you would expect from Tamiya with detailed parts and clean mold lines.


I bought some more air (canned) for my airbrush. Yes I know it's cheap and nasty, but it's better than painting them with a brush... right? I will eventually buy a real-life airbrush and compressor but right now that's $300 odd that I can use to buy a Russian force. Then I can buy all those cool Russian tank kits. Anyway when I've got this kit finished I'll spray all three kits together.

More photos as the build progresses.