The Pay's Alright (Part 1 - 1st Platoon Command WIP)

***WARNING - LONG POST AHEAD!!!***

Burnout krept up on me like an evil little virus and so that's why you've seen little of my hobby exploits here of late.

But I've managed to motivate myself some to get a few things done; read on if you dare......

After seeing Victoria Lamb's awesome squad deals (And shamefully putting in an order for one as well - don't tell the wife), Guard fever has struck once more and I've been slowly painting up the remaining members of the Command Squad for the 1st Platoon.
Here in painting progress are the Squad Standard Bearer, Weapons Specialists, and Voxman in various stages of painting. It's nice to get back in the saddle again with this project as there's still an enormous amount to get done, but I think in the end it'll be more than worth it, as once arrayed together, this army will be at least interesting to look at to say the least. No arms as yet and since this pic was taken I've highlighted the armours some. Am thinking that I'll not spend so much time on these so I can get through them a little quicker.

I've also been making enquiries around multiple manufacturers regarding purchasing some appropriately beefy wheels for my 4 Chimera counts-as, so 16 wheels total. So far though I've not had much luck aside from Secret Weapon Miniatures who've quoted a whopping $45! I'm not so sure my budget can handle that kind of pricing just for wheels when part of the reason I was making my own vehicles was to cut costs. I've been half tempted to look into attempting to sculpt up some of my own and push molding the rest, but I've seen people's attempts at this kind of production and it only seems to look at all good on smaller scale stuff like emblems, etc. I've also filled in all the windows and viewing ports on the vehicles with white glue (which worked out just loverly) and started fixing Multi-lasers to their turrets and random left-over-from-other-projects Heavy Flamers to their hulls. All they'll need from here is some cheeky stowage (And the aforementioned wheels) and they'll be ready for paint! No pics though as there's really little to see from the last time I showcased them.
My Flames of War stuff has suffered the most from this recent bout of burn. I think putting so much effort into that one infantry platoon really snuffed my desire to work on anything, especially 15mm uniforms.... But, I've started on my Universal Carrier patrol. Only 3 and only primed thus far. (The bases have been painted since I originally wrote this.) After playing some and getting some good advice, I've also taken a PIAT wielding trooper and shaved away his base and bent him at the waist so he can sit in one of them. This is so I won't have to buy a whole pack of PIAT Carriers - turns out that it's rather handy to have a sneaky anti-tank option in this recce unit incase the inevitable armour appears.

I also got in my second game of Flames of War against my mate Sam and his Heavy Nazi armour where once again my dice betrayed me horribly, only this time right from the very beginning of the game. No seriously, it was utter toss. I surrendered around turn 4 after it seemed that I couldn't hit anything or even roll more than a 2 on almost every occassion. I think that if I weren't laughing so hard at the irony, I'd have been quite angry. One thing I will say, I need more anti-tank units (Have already ordered a platoon of 6 pdr guns) - if what I've heard from the rumours are anything to go by, then I'll be fast buying up some Archer tank hunters when the new Market Garden book is released next year.

Here's some pics of the game, apologies for the quality, my phone camera is old and well, old.



Nazi armoured column advance down the left flank to assault the brave Tommies dug in on the objective in the trees.



After losing some half-tracks to shots from my ambushing Shermans, the Nazis assault into the woods and force my troops to withdraw.

Meanwhile on the right flank my Crocodiles are facing off against a nasty Panther platoon that had just taken out the aforementioned Sherman platoon.

Even after unloading shot after shot and spewing fire, my dice failed my miserably every time and so the panthers just had to face the terror of my smoke shots instead to try to mitigate damage. :(

A second infantry platoon runs on from reserve to try to help out the beleaguered boys in the woods.

Sadly, they arrive just in time to see 'said boys run over by Tigers and then find themselves machin-gunned to pieces by halftracks.

Lastly, apologies if I have not offered Christmas warm wishes on your blogs, there were so many festive posts that I just got overwhelmed and well, felt that it'd be easier to just offer my belated well wishes here instead. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a safe time with your respective families. Me and my wee family had a lovely time.

I'm the devilishly handsome fellow in the red by the way. ;)

My cat on the other hand, did not see the humour in the season.

What the Dickens!?

+++STOP PRESS+++

Victoria miniatures has offered up two more full 10-man squad deals of her amazing Imperial Guard style line of miniatures and conversion bits. I think she still has free shipping worldwide too.

Have been looking at these Highlanders for a long time as a cool addition to my Rogue Trader's Guard. So much character..... Now. How do I drum up a spare $60 for the order I'd need to put together for a cool unit?

Direct Link to the limited offer - http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/product/highland-moss-guard-complete-10-man-squad

[I know, what a rubbish update after quite a while of neglecting this blog. I'll be sure to have something new soon, promise.]

Pretty Maids All in a Row (Part 3 - 1st Platoon Finished!)

The 1^st Platoon and Command HQ are done to an okay tabletop standard. I intend to go back and add some highlights at a later date and pick out some details like helmet straps, etc, but otherwise am happy with how they turned out. Last minute, I decided to add red unit markings to each of the soldier’s upper left shoulder for a little extra detail. It made “that much more” difference strangely.

 

 

The Company Commanding Officer (left) and the 2iC (2nd in Command - right). Tried to make these bases a little interesting. The CO is pointing off with a trooper looking on as the radio operator NCO is trying to get his attention. The 2iC is about to order the men forward, but his NCO is holding up his hand to stop the advance because he's seen something.

 

This is the Rifle Platoon Commander, most likely a Lieutenant. He about to draw out his Webley revolver, whilst his supporting NCO and Private heft a grenade and advance respectively.

 

 

Their bases are done with spackle (wall filler) and in some cases, a raised area was created using a piece of sprue cut to shape and the spackle spread over that. I felt that not all the ground would be flat and it created some interesting modeling opportunities, especially with the one half section containing the prone shooters.

 

 

 

Minwax was used as a cheap shade option and it turned out very nice, though took a damned age to dry and a hazard to my basing materials application thereafter (Imagine furry green soldiers due to being covered in flock…..). I have read somewhere that spraying with a gloss varnish over this will give a dry finish that will offer a more conducive surface for my basing efforts and I’ll then spray on top of that a layer of flat.

 

The rears of the bases in 1st platoon were also marked with a stripe so that they will be easily identifiable on the table top. Any further platoons will receive markings in a similar fashion – two stripes for 2^nd platoon and so forth. I think I’ll only use this method for infantry though. The HQ stands also received a marking – red stripe for the CO and blue for the 2iC, again to spot them easier when I play.

 



 

 

O and also scrubbed, sanded and stuck this flyer together.

 



 

Speaking of playing – I got my first game in! That’s right, (I think) this blog’s first battle report, a teaching experience for me to start to actually learn the rules to this new game. I am lucky in that I have the expertise of my mate Eric to aid me in my efforts to get into Flame of War. Eric has lots of tournament experience and so I feel I’ll get some fine tutoring.

 

Last Saturday, whilst the sky decided to fall on California’s head, we played a little intro game - me playing 11^th Armour Late War Brits versus his Generic Late War German Infantry Company. Sadly I neglected to take pics, so I’ll try to illustrate in a vague fashion (As silly me forgot to take notes) how the game went.

First off, we played to small 12-1300 point lists, so that we could concentrate more on HOW to play the game.

So saying that, my force consisted of:

 

Sherman tank HQ and 2iC

2 Platoons of 3 Sherman tank + Firefly tank each.

1 Platoon of 3 Universal Carriers (One with a PIAT launcher for any nasty armoured surprises.)

1 Infantry platoon (HQ, 3 sections, 2” mortar and PIAT Launcher)

Limited availability RAF Hawker Typhoon

 

Eric’s Germans were:

 

Grenadierkompanie HQ and 2iC

2 Platoons of Grenadiers

1 Platoon of 4 StuG G tanks (I think)

1 Platoon of 4 Marder Tank Destroyers

1 Heavy Mortar Platoon

1 4 gun Howitzer Platoon (memory fuzzy on which though.)

Am sure there was some other German stuff, but don't think it came into play.

 

We played the Free for All mission and I tried to use my air support to take out both his artillery and Marders. This went okay for the 1st two turns (the final 3 saw my stupid plane not return at all.), but he knows what he was doing and so spaced them out well enough that casualties were minimal. At the same time, the Marder's were doing well bailing out and destroying Shermans on that left flank. By the time we called it quits, the Shermans were all gone, tho so too were all the Marders and all but one of the artillery.  

In the middle, my 2nd tank platoon, spearheaded by my carriers recce squad tried to head toward the center. The Recce squad I have to say, did pretty much nothing all game. Which was sucky. The tanks faired only a little better, eventually ending in an assault on one of the Grenadier platoons which was dug in. It was at this point in the game that my dice rolls went to pot (See below) and so my poor tanks ended up getting Panzerknackered and 'fausted badly.

On the right, my brave dug-in infantry had the right most german objective safe, or so I thought. The StuG platoon were making a careful advance down that flank, and at one point 3 out of the 4 tanks were bailed out. "Great!" I thought, "I'll assault the remaining tank with my infantry and should hopefully be able to rout the unit!". Statistically speaking, this should have been a certainty. Of course, the dice had other ideas. My lead PIAT shot missed in the shooting phase. Then my troops failed their tank terror test and stood stark still, quivering in their stupid boots. So bang went that idea. Eric's next turn all but one of his tanks remounted and turned their machine guns onto my now not-dug-in troops and wow, he rolled 8 out of 9 hits and chewed up my boys something rotten. The remainder ran away after my failing two morale checks in a row, poor sods.

The final turn saw all my tanks but one destroyed which pretty much called an end to the game. If my dice hadn't been so bad with my own tank assault and his being so good in his tank assault and mine been so bad rolling otherwise, it might have been a different story. Either way, I had a great time and Eric was a splendid host. Next time I'll hopefully have enough painted miniatures to get some worthy pics in too and I'll be sure to take notes.

 

If you read this far, then I thank you!