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.