It's All Greek to Me! (Part 3 - Bren Carriers done!)

 

As described in my previous post, I was indeed fortunate enough to get time to myself free from family responsibility this weekend and so I managed to get on with some more hobby.

 

The result? A pair of Bren Carriers for my Greek force painted up and ready for a little weathering, that will be done once all the vehicles in the force are done.

 

With their big/little brother, the FT-17. 

Prior to the Italian invasion of Greece in 1940, the Greek government seeing the crumbling political situation in the Balkans with Italy on their doorstep after taking over Albania petitioned many countries for arms and armour to prepare for a possible invasion. The UK promised to send over a large amount of tanks and munitions, but only came through (For many reasons, lack of time being one of the main ones along with having to supply their conflict in North Africa.) with a limited supply of extremely light pieces, including the excellent Bren Carrier. (I intend to add a Vickers mkVI light tank to this collection at a later date.)

 

That’s a brief history on these things. I found these 3D-printed models for a very reasonable price on Etsy. They came crew-less and “Bren-gun-less” though so I cut up some spare Soviet infantry as driver and gunner (Soviet helmets are close enough in style to Greek ones imo) and added the pintle mounted Bren-guns using a paperclip and metal casted gun by The Assault Group. (Looking at the models now, I realise I could have added a little stowage too – maybe something I’ll attempt at a later date.)

 

Like the FT-17, I went with a straight forward “green” scheme as that is likely the one they received them in upon delivery. I found this reference image online (The ONLY one I found) for markings, etc – simple stuff. Used the designation number in the pic on one and then a made up one on the second. Free hand is wobbly as usual, I think that’s more due to the expected degeneration of my eyesight (Darn you old age). LOL

You might notice that these two carrier models don't match! Thats because I didn't realise that the "great deal" I found was for a mk1 carrier and a mk2, not two mk1's as would have been delivered to Greece. No matter. They basically do the same thing. 

I'm pretty happy with how they came out and with these two done, I'm able to get on with the final vehicle in my planned Greek army - a captured Italian CV33 tankette. Although the following pic doesn't show it (As I took it prior to getting some paint on) there actually has been some paint applied, along with a wash. No idea when I'll get more time for hobby what with holidays impending though. 

Such a tiny tank, but so cool for it!

And with the Carriers done my Draxian Painting Chart gets a little more green! Encouraging stuff. 

No idea when the next update will be, or if that will be before the end of year. Regardless, I hope all reading this are well out there!

- Dai

It's All Greek to Me! (Part 2 - FT-17 tank done! Almost.)

 A three-day weekend just past to commemorate Veteran's Day here in the US and Armistice Day in the UK. I like to raise a glass to the men in my family who served and fought for their countries:

• My Grandfather David, who joined the RAF during WW2, serving in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Then after the war as a Chaplain in her majesty's Royal Navy.
• My other Grandfather Wilson, who joined the US Army Air Corps prior to the US entering WW2 and then went on to serve in the Pacific.
• My God Father John, who also served in the British military during WW2 (Branch unknown) and who served as Principle Chaplain of her Majesty's Royal Navy after the war.
• And my Dad, who, in an effort to avoid the draft and being thrown into the awful meatgrinder that was the Vietnam conflict, enlisted in the US Navy instead. (And detested every minute of it.)

If not for the bravery of these men and others like them, our lives in here in the States and UK would not be what they are now. Sadly, not a one of the listed men here are still alive, but their memory remains and the stories I've been told over the years will hopefully be passed down to my own children so they and their sacrifices won't be forgotten.

Image stolen from some site or another.

On to the actual topic of this post. My wife was called away to spend time (Shopping or nail appointment - whatever women do with their free time!) with her sister who's birthday falls on November 11th so I had a few hours to myself. This provided me with a few hours for hobby which meant I managed to give all of the pieces an undercoat in Rustoleum Flat Grey primer and almost finish the FT-17 tank for my WW2 Greek force. ("Almost" because I plan to add a little mud effects at a later date, once all of the vehicles for this army are completed.)

I'm still having a little trouble actually finding any evidence online that the Royal Hellenic army even using this model of tank during WW2, but the official Warlord army lists have them as an option so I went with it, if only because it is a cool looking model and it's in-game rules make it the cheapest Medium Machinegun option out there.

There is very little in the way of pictures or references for vehicle markings for WW2 Greek armour. They had so few vehicles in general prior to the Italian invasion (Mainly Bren Carriers and a smattering of Vickers Mk vi tanks.) and captured a number of Italian tankettes during the conflict, but it's tricky to find many clear images online. So I went for a simple Hellenic Royal cross on the hulls, horribly hand painted, and I can add other markings later on as I find evidence.

For hull colour I queried the appropriate colour from a professor of Balkan history. He too said there wasn't much out there but that they'd likely be in the same colour they were provided in, or just plain dark green. (In this case, Vallejo's "Brown Violet".)

In-game, this little lumbering thing is pretty lightly armoured, incredibly slow and suffers from a rule whereby an order test has to be taken if one wishes to both move AND shoot in a turn! Sounds awful, but also fun!

With this done, my path to "Fully Painted" on this project is begun! (Though there is a LOT left to get on with. First steps first though...) I've been fortunate enough to be told I am to have another free Saturday this weekend (Hoorah!) whilst my wife is off at a craft faire with her grandmother so I hope to have the two Bren Carriers done and perhaps something else if time allows.

For any who is keeping track, here's the Draxian Painting chart now updated to show all parts of this army now primed, the FT-17 painted and "Painting in Progress" for the Bren Carriers.

No red boxes - this is a good thing! :) (I should probably include the key to this chart in the next stallment.)

Hope all are well out there and I should have another post up next Monday!

It's All Greek to Me! (Part 1 - Force composition)

Found this cool art online to be good reference for Greek uniforms. No idea who the artist is though.

For my 400th post I thought I'd preview my main project (That admittedly should have begun earlier this year, but life happened.) that I plan to work on. In February the local Bolt Action Facebook group plans to hold a small tourney and I am hoping to be able to attend, and when I do, I want to be able to bring a new army to play with!

And so "Greeks?" you might ask. Why yes, WW2 1940-41 Greeks are going to be my next Bolt Action project and here are the main reasons:

1. Firstly, I wanted to have and be able to play an army that represented a minor nation and something that is rarely seen on the tabletops (Mainly due to their army lists and national rules being considered pretty awful). I also wanted a force from the Early years of WW2. (My Soviets represent 1944-45 and my Canadians Mid War 1942 so a 1940-1941 era force seemed appropriate.)

2. My grandmother was Greek and suffered the brutal Nazi occupation of her home country during the war. By researching and collecting together this force I felt I was connecting to her memory and my own of the stories she would tell me of her experiences during those years. At least in a small way. 

3. My Bolt Action gaming pal, Densmol, decided he too wanted to stray from his primary faction (Germans) and so chose Italians(!). So what better adversary than a bunch of Retsina and Ouzo drinking, heavily moustachio'd mountain fighters to face them!? *Who also historically kicked them back into Albania! (To date, Densmol has yet to confirm which part of the war he's going to paint his Italians up for though.) 

4. As mentioned in my brief year review post for 2022, I had found on Facebook a digital sculptor who's sculpts were simply sublime. Studio Historia actually work out of Greece and their main creators are passionate about their source material, so I felt that their 3D printed sculpts would be some of the best out there and, once they arrived, I was not disappointed. Add in some lovely metal Great Escape Games "Evzones" (Tough Greek mountain troops) and some 3rd party 3D printed vehicles I found on Etsy and I had an army for a relatively affordable financial investment.

The make up of the basic 1000 point force is as follows (All are rated as "Regulars", for those who know Bolt Action.):

KEY: Red = Unassembled, Orange = Assembled and Primed, Yellow = Painting in Progress & Green = Completed.

This is the Draxian organizational painting chart/excel sheet I'll be using and updating as this project progresses until it's all "fully painted green" in the many posts to come. 

Here are pics of the unpainted mini's glued to their bases, ready for primer so you can get an idea of just how nice these 3d printed minis are. I've become more and more impressed with the quality of 3D printed miniatures in resin as the tech just gets better and better and can see me purchasing more in the future:

2nd Lieutenant #1 & Adjutant (An Adjutant sounding a bugle!? Sign me up!)

Regular Infantry Squad #1 (11-man squad with Rifles, 1x LMG & 1x VB Launcher. The resin fellow front-right will get a flagpole in his left hand.)

 

Regular Infantry Squad #2 (11-man squad with Rifles, 1x LMG & 1x VB Launcher)

Medium Mortar Team (There is another crew member, but I left him out as Bolt Action only calls for 3 crew to a mortar. With Spotter - Not pictured)

Sniper Team (What it says on the tin.)

Anti-Tank Rifle Team (Although the Greeks had a few Boys AT rifles supplied by the Brits, they were few and far between and I don't think they even had much ammo for them, so the Greek troops procured Italian Solothern AT Rifles when they were able to liberate them. The base was a freebie I got from an Etsy 3D print order. I've also since added basing texture to match the rest of the force. )

Medium Howitzer (An old Schneider 85mm artillery piece from the Interwar period. There are far too many crew on this gun per the Bolt Action rules, but the whole scene just looked too darn cool to leave out anyone. Also with Spotter - not pictured)

L3/35 Tankette (Captured from the Italians. This little terror takes up the Armoured Car slot in the list.) 

Renault FT-17 Tank (Still researching IF the Greeks actually had these. So far, online evidence says "no", but the Bolt Action list includes the option so until that changes I'll keep this ugly little thing in. Absolutely lovely 3D print found on Etsy. ) 

2nd Lieutenant #2 & Adjutant (Who is actually an Orthodox Priest - flippin love this sculpt! Both Great Escape Games minis.)

Oof! That’s an awful mold line on the officer’s helmet! 

Evzones Mountain Brigade Squad #1 (5x Rifles and all Tough Fighters. Metal minis by Great Escape Games)

Evzones Mountain Brigade Squad #2 (5x Rifles and all Tough Fighters. Also Metal minis by Great Escape Games)

Mk 1 Bren Carrier #1 (Another 3D printed model found on Etsy. Had to add crew made from spare Soviet bits ((Soviet helmets are close enough to Greek I feel.)) and a pintle-mounted Bren Gun made up from a paper clip and loose Bren gun produced by The Assault Group in the UK.)

Mk 1 Bren Carrier #2 (As above but this one I think is actually a Mk 2? I don't care though, it'll do as far as I'm concerned.)

*The Bren Carriers have actually had painting started so I need to change the painting chart to reflect this, but I’ll do that next post.

Playing-wise, this force should be pretty balanced. The small Evzones squads, mounted in their Bren Carriers will be reactionary options to come in on outflank and a hammer to slam down if they can get in the charge. Two full sized infantry squads can be used for objective holding but also large enough to endure a little punishment if they have to hoof it across the battlefield or open fire on a target. Everything else is pretty much in support of these four infantry squads. This army isn't going to win many games, especially against armies that have tough armour, but Bolt Action is an infantry game and if I can defeat my opponent's infantry, then I should have free reign to take objectives. At least that's the theory.

So there you go, my main project for the remainder of 2023 and beginning of 2024. Hope I can get all this completed by the beginning of February! *gulp* 

- Dai

12 years and 400 posts (Well, almost)

 A swift post as it would seem I missed being on time to celebrate my 12th Blog-Anniversary on the 1st of the this month!

I know things around these parts aren't quite as lively as they used to be and that's lots to do with "life responsibilities" getting in the way of fool-proof hobby planning. But hey ho, at least I'm able to hop on from time to time and push out maybe a post a month and in turn leave comments on your own blogs. 

Many thanks to any and all who frequent this humble blog. As always, it's your kind words of critique and encouragement that truly helps to keep me enthused and on track with my projects. My next post even will be my 400th as well (!!!). Another milestone. 

Here's to lucky year 13!

Cheers,

- Dai

You are Cleared for Landing (part 2 - Airfield Barracks, done)

 Found myself with a little time for hobby this past weekend so I constructed the final pair of Airfield Barracks buildings (See last post) in my collection and slapped some paint on the foursome. Simple paint jobs just so they are ready to be put down on the game table, but from 3 feet they look good enough to me.

Again, these are mdf kits produced by Father and Son Gaming out of Wisconsin, USA and I think they look very nice once done. Just like the initial two, construction was simple with decent instructions as reference from their website.

I find that I can only muster energy enough for "ample" painting effort for terrain pieces, though I may come back at a later date to add some weathering to these things as time allows.

The two newest prior to painting their greys and wooden areas.

All four for your perusal. They'll provide a nice bunch of blocking terrain on the tabletop.

Allied Bombadier's Eye-View prior to unleashing explosive hell.

A small post. Not sure when I'll be able to get more painting in, but I've also constructed the airtraffic control building as well as a small out building from the same Airfield terrain set so they'll get some paint after I get the aforementioned Guard Hut done (Crazy lines have begun to be penciled in.). I still have two radar dishes to put together for this terrain set as well as to fix a Freya radar that was very flimsy and difficult to construct without breaking pieces. 

Once all these efforts with terrain are over with, I'll be redirecting my hobby efforts back to miniature-painting. Which minis will be dependent on what details come out for a future WW2 Bolt Action event that is being organised in my area for the new year. 

Hope all are well out there!

- Dai

You are Cleared for Landing (part 1 - Halt! - a Review)

 A quick last terrain post before the end of Dave Stone's Summer of Scenery challenge and a bit of a cheating affair as it's not strictly "Finished", but I'll throw it in there regardless as any hobby progress on my end is better than none at all.

I recently started work on yet another project that brewed up in my addled head all of a sudden and I went on a deep dive into the internets to get the pieces to make it happen. (One day I will finish a project... promise.) Currently, I only have one terrain setup for my 28mm WW2 games and as my regular reader will know, that's my Winter table. I now have (I think) enough terrain completed to set up a nice looking, modular and relatively full setup for my games of Bolt Action (and Chain of Command whenever Luke and I eventually try to learning that rules set). But that's it, just Winter theme and I really wanted another option to play on, something more suited to a Spring or Summer theme, but something you don't see too often - a German airfield!

Airfield Barracks. Nice little buildings and I have two more to construct along with an air-traffic control building, radar installations and another small building from their airfield set.

So enter Father and Son Gaming, an affordable MDF terrain store that is stateside (Wisconsin I think?), meaning postage rates aren't atrocious (Free S&H for orders over $75). I'd heard of these guys from the SNAFU Bolt Action Wargaming podcast and they seemed pleased with what they'd gotten so I took the plunge and ordered a number of kits. My order arrived swiftly considering Father and Son say they cut each order as they receive them, and in nicely shrink-wrapped parcels within the postage box. Communication from the vendor was great as well, with quick responses to my emailed queries.

In glorious black and white, a photo of a WW2 German sentry hut. Those stripes are actually red, black & white and applying that pattern to the side of my own sentry hut is going to be a right pig I bet.

So far I've put together four of their kits using white glue which has been just fine to stick them together. Their quality has been decent with sharp simple detailing and the finished models seem robust enough for regular gaming and also for transport to and from gaming venues. Instructions are provided through their website via links showing step-by-step construction processes for the more complex kits or short videos via their Youtube channel. Construction went smoothly for the most part on the kits I've put together so far with only a little trimming down to make pieces fit better here and there (As I've found with other mdf kit makers), but otherwise I found little trouble making these models which is great for this medium-skilled hobbyist.

This Crossing Barrier kit was simple to put together and came with three signs with "Stop" in German (As above), Russian or English - pretty cool. Here the barrier has it's base coat on and attending Sentry Hut in the rear, primed and ready for crazy zigzag pattern. The smoking German Guard fig is a kind donation from best gaming pal, Luke, who applied the basic colours of a Luftwaffe trooper for the project - I'll be basing and detailing him up a little more as time allows.
(Please ignore the intrusion of Ninja Turtles, Conan O'Brian and Charmander - there's definitely too much crap on my hobby workspace.)

I have always liked mdf terrain models, having constructed multiple from different manufacturers during my years as a gamer (4Ground, Sarissa Precision, etc). Father and Son Gaming kits so far seem more hardy than others that I've encountered, but more simple in design and lacking in detail of pricier alternatives. This is fine by me as these kits look good regardless of their lack of complexity and will be fine for tabletop wargaming whilst still looking great on the table. I still have to apply paint to the ones I've put together and will post pics once done. 

Hope all enjoyed this little review/preview post of my new terrain project for my games. I also have more of their range to construct and I'll post my experiences with those kits here at a later date along with my other planned terrain features for my Airfield project.

- Dai

選択してください

( For those not versed in reading Japanese Kanji, like me, the title translates as "Please make your selection" - thank you Google Translate.)

These are another entry for Dave Stone's Summer of Scenery Challenge. Four scifi/near future vending machines from the now discontinued Antenocitis Workshop cyberpunk-esque range. Simple resin sculpts, they depict snack and soda vending machines of a style commonly found in Japan. 

Comrade Yeltsin and a creepy.... "thing" for scale. Looks like these sculpts are more in line with 32mm or 1/48 sized figs than 28mm?

Online searches for examples of vending machines like these in existence on the streets of Tokyo and other large Japanese cities show that they typically are white in colour so I went with the clinical look from real life rather than branch out and get all silly and neon about it. 

So many choices!

Old lady about to break her diet

The printed details are just cut from thin card sheets provided with the set. They were a pain to cut to size properly, but I'm glad I put in the effort as they look great glued on. 

Sodas and snacks and I think even a row of cigarettes?

Side adds are repeated on the other side. Fun anime-esque stuff.

The rear sides also have adds - futuristic cars, fights and cyber arms. 

Whilst I haven't played any scifi games in a long while, these will find use eventually (Maybe once the weather returns back to "Not Depths-of-Hell-like"?) in a planned solo scifi scrap I have brewing in my head.

This creature must choose wisely, tho I wonder how it'll open a can or bottle of soda with that point spike hand?

Still more on the hobby desk to add to my tally for this Summer of Scenery, so hopefully I'll have at least another two posts to put up before the end of the month. 

Thanks for stopping by and for commenting, if indeed you do!

- Dai

Amelia Pond - that was a great name!

 Now I have your attention, you'll swiftly realise that this post has nothing to do with Dr Who** as the title might have otherwise lead you to believe and is infact just a post about a pond. Yup, that's it, a piece of terrain that represents .a. .pond. A frozen pond at that.

This particular sculpt is a lovely resin cast designed and sculpted by Dave Stone over at the Wargamesculptors Blog and purchased directly from his webstore. If you've been following my blog for a bit, you'll know I have a snowy Winter terrain set up for my WW2 games and I felt the little farm/settlement I've already put together was direly in need of a natural water source. Knowing Dave puts out a quality product through his blog posts I decided to click "purchase" and this lovely thing arrived in swift order from across the pond shortly thereafter. 

The sculpt was poured in opaque green resin and the details very crisp. Dave suggested I paint the underside in dark colours (Which I did - prussian blue then black and sealed in with Modge Podge) to show depth beneath the ice. I then liberally slapped on a grey wash over the ice areas and once dried a very watered-down white wash to fill in the cracks and show the definition in the piece (This part didn't work exactly as planned, but it'll do.). The surrounding areas got a quick light grey base coat then successive lighter grey and white drybrush to look like snow. Once dry I glued on a few frosty grass clumps and called it a day. This weekend I'll give it a blast with some Dulcoat to seal the paint job.

Not sure how or if this piece will affect gameplay, but I'm very happy with the result and my table has a little more interest added to it.

Dave is also running a Season of Scenery challenge and I'm trying to get at least a couple more entries before the challenge is over at the end of this month so hopefully I'll have a post or two more for August to share before the challenge is over.

Hope all are well out there,

- Dai

** Amelia Pond is actually my all time fav Doctor's Companion from Doctor Who (And Ms Gillan is rather easy on the eye - obviously!), even more so than Ace, Sylvester McCoy's fun companion from when I was a lad.

Big Kats rule the day

Earlier this month, I was able to actually meet up with Stew (His fab blog should be a must follow) whilst my wife was away in Oregon with her sister, visiting family. It's been a few years (And Stew had added two new children to his family) since he and I had managed to hang out and play a face-to-face game so I was eager to travel up to his home and see what he had set up. Stew's old gaming pal, Paul was also invited and upon arrival I was pleased to see a typically well laid out table to represent "somewhere" in the French countryside, circa 1944. 

"What a Tanker" by Too Fat Lardies was chosen as game of the day (15mm scale), where Paul and I would take control of the Americans against Stew and his dastardly German Panther tanks.

We played for a goodly time, with many hilarious moments of crappy dice for us American players and consistently good dice rolled by Stew controlling his heavy German tanks. 

In the end, the day ended as a German victory with the Allies well and truly stumped, even though they had greater numbers. The pictures that follow illustrate how the game fared:

The table set up, using Stew's lovely 15mm terrain on his home made gaming mat. The multi-coloured slides at the back I'm sure were where the Big Kats played when not destroying Allied armour. 

Initial American set up. Paul and I each took identical teams of 2x Sherman and 1x M10 Tank Hunter

Stew had command of 4x Panthers. Somehow in the rules this was a force equal to our own, but as the game progressed Paul and I did not agree!

Early game Panther shot took out Paul's M10.

Hiding in the town, this is the Big Kat responsible.

Stew sent two Panthers down the lane, I moved my M10 to the West in an effort to support Paul's solo Sherman mid-left in the field.

Not much has changed about us since the last time we hung out. Well, aside from Stew getting greyer and I got better looking - of course!

Paul's Sherman sits, waiting at the hedgeline for a good shot at those panthers in the lane. He and I wasted a lot of our shots trying and failing to penetrate the Panther's thick front armour in lieu of using our mobility to try and get side shots. Hindsight...

A Sherman (Mine? I forget) pays for crappy dice rolls and an inability to move away

Darn it, there goes another!

That Panther Commander is going to get a medal for this.

Panthers in the middle and right menacingly moving on the American positions while Paul moves his Left most tank using the woods to shield him from that 4th Panther in the wheat field. It was at this point that Stew felt sorry for us and brought on some reinforcements for us to add to the mix. I couldn't count how many times Paul and I would manage to hit our targets and fail to do any damage up until that point and with 3 allied tanks brewed up the game was in effect over without these reinforcements. and so we carried on!

M10 & Sherman trundle up the lane, whilst a 2nd M10 comes in from the east 

Newly arrived M10 and sherman both sight their targets and.... again fail to damage. Yikes.

But somehow the German tanks also begin to suffer poor luck and Stew's dicerolls get everso suddenly cold!

My M10 has outflanked the Panther in the wheatfield. The Panther at this point is pretty much a bunker with a turret after a couple lucky shots during the game have affected it's mobility. Can  the Allies manage to get their first kill of the game!?

Paul's Sherman offers support on this shot from a safe distance. This Sherman was Paul's mvp - it didn't kill anything as his shooting rolls were awful, but the poor crew managed to see Panther shot after Panther shot "ding" off it's hull due to Paul's wonder defensive rolling. I believe they survived to game to it's end.

Still more missed shots 

Panther at the bottom goes to hunt Paul's mvp sherman. And misses. Lots.

My M10 in the trees missed it's killshot and Stew only needed to roll a 4 to be able to shoot back BUT, he rolled 4x 2's instead. The M10 is given another chance to try and brew up that Big Kat

Completely against the grain, Paul's Easternmost M10 finally manages to pop a Panther! 

With Paul destroying a Panther (See last pic) and my M10 finally managing to kill the Panther in teh Wheatfield we called it a day. In the end, Stew won really. 

This was my first time playing What a Tanker and I really liked the simplicity of the rules set. We had a good discussion on how the game might play in 28mm and ended up agreeing that really, there'd be so little room to manuever at that scale so 15mm was the right choice. The convo then moved on to the new Too Fat Lardies Western rules, What a Cowboy and how both Paul and Stew had Western projects outstanding so maybe in the near future, there might be another meet up where we can see dusty streets, tumbleweeds and hear the sounds of six-shooters?

Lastly, there actually has been a little hobby done recently! No pics as yet, but images of very small, very light pieces of armour might be gracing the  blog in a post in the near future.... Watch this space!

Stay well all, 

- Dai