Zomtober 2014 Part 5! (The Finale!) & 6MMRPC 2-Month roundup!!!

It's 50 minutes into the Day of the Dead, but this will still count by my reckoning as my last post for Zomtober. So lots of pics, an AAR and a few other things. Here we go!

I'll start off with an AAR for a game of Flames of War I played on Saturday against Densmol to get some practice in with my Canadian Armoured list for the D-Day tournament on the 22nd of November.
We played at 1500 points with Densmol fielding a Mechanised Panzergrenadier list out of the Atlantik Wall book.
We rolled for Mission and came up with Breakthrough, which was a good one to practice on as it seems to come up more often than not at tournaments.

Me: 4th Canadian Armoured
CT
HQ - 1iC and 2iC Shermans with .50cal MG's +1 Extra Sherman
Armoured Platoon - 3x Shermans and a Firefly
Armoured Platoon - 3x Shermans and a Firefly
Armoured Car Platoon - 2x Staghound, 1x Daimler Dingo
Self Propelled Anti-Tank Platoon - 4x M10 Achilles 17pdr
Full Lorried Infantry Platoon (With no lorries....)
AA Gun Platoon - Cmdr, 2x 40mm Bofors AA guns
Artillery Platoon - 2x Cmdr, Staff team, OP, 4x 25pdr Guns

Densmol: Panzergrenadier Company who's name I can't remember
CV
HQ - 1iC & 2iC infantry command stands (Think they got half-tracks too?) and I think 2 Panzerschreck Anti-tank teams too.
Panzergrenadier Platoon - Cmdr with Panzerfaust, 6x MG Infantry, 4x half-tracks
Panzergrenadier Platoon - Cmdr with Panzerfaust, 6x MG Infantry, 4x half-tracks
Light Armour Platoon - 3x Panzer ii Luchs
Light Armour Platoon - 3x Panzer ii Luchs
Self Propelled Artillery Platoon - Cmdr, 3x Hummels, OP
Heavy AA Platoon - Cmd, 2x 8.8" Guns
Panzergrenadier Heavy Platoon - 2x HMG's, 2x Mortars + OP


Pictures are shady, but the lighting in the garage is suspect at the best of times.

Setup: I was heading into the opposite diagonal corner, to the far church. I held the M10's, infantry and Anti-Air guns in reserve. I placed an objective pretty close to the corner where they would come on and so wasn't worried about having to travel far to be able to contest later in the game if need be.
I stuck the Artillery in a well protected corner and loaded up my tank platoons for an armoured strike toward to the opposite corner using the buildings and smoke as cover.

Densmol was annoyed as this mission used the Mobile Reserves rule and so was left having only his 88's, one platoon of Luchs and an Infantry platoon to deploy (Minus it's halftracks.). He also combat attached out his mortars and HMG's to the infantry.
The infantry hugged the tree line along the long straight road that followed the river, had his 88's sat with good fields of fire in the opposite corner and a lone platoon of wee (SO CUTE) Luchs to defend the objectives my boys were going after.

Turn 1: The 2iC and his sherman pal decided to move off to provide covering fire as the rest of the shermans headed off toward the objectives, hugging the buildings for cover against 88 shots.

That git Densmol got his Hummels like Turn 2 to start horrible bombardments far too early in my humble opinion.

Tanks are ready to roll across the ford. Please take note of the lack of 88's in this picture - they died horribly to a withering hail of MG fire.

The poor brave Luchs start taking fire. It's only my typical poor dice rolls that leave them down only one tank though.

Densmol starts getting a little frustrated as I get reserves and roll on my M10 Achilles tank destroyers to help secure one objective.

That little black tank next to the bridge is the Hummel battery's OP. It sees all of my poor advancing shermans. :(

Densmol gets reserves (2nd Luchs platoon and another infantry platoon in 1/2 tracks.)! My poor Armoured Car recce lads take it in the bum with the last car buggering orf. Wisely.

Shermans at long range typically kill what they aim at. Good bye krauts.

And we'll take this objective too, though these jammy gits didn't run away even though they had one dead and the other two bailed.

Infantry and Luchs toddle over to try to take out my 25 pounders. Sadly he had his half-tracks go through the slow going of the plowed field..... 4" a turn is grueling at the best of times...

Whilst the Shermans and Firefly send shots down to try to take out the Hummels, the M10's finish off those stubborn Luchs. The 2nd objective is mine!

You see that tank on the left, next to that building? Yeah, that the 1iC. He finished off stuff very valiantly.

With me holding the objectives safely and Densmol managing to take out my poor Recce platoon, I won 5-2. Not bad. Made some mistakes, but otherwise I feel that this list can do exceedingly well against a Mechanised infantry force. Now, if he had brought a King Tiger or some silliness.... I think it might have been a different story.

Things I learnt:

1. Trained Artillery is shite. Horribly so. I tried to range in/hit on five different occasions andonly got one barrage (Smoke or otherwise.) ONCE! 4-guns only for me.

2. Playing aggressively is not typically my forte, but this game I tried to step out of my comfortable Defensive-playing slippers and it paid off. Mostly. Some better placing and remembering where the opponent's reserves deploy and this may well have ended 6-1 instead.

3. Semi-Indirect fire is super fun. :)

After this, we got in a second game, this time with Densmol playing the actual list he plans to take to the tournament. 13 Luchs!!!! (And two Tigers and 3 Jagdpanzer iv's and some other stuff.) It was a good game and a lot closer than the first. In the end I think he won 4-3. I think. No pics though as by then the wine was flowing freely.

On to hobby stuff.

I put together these!

One resin and 5 plastic German 1/2-tracks from the latest Panzergrenadier boxed set. The Plastic models went together really well with only a little clean up. Not sure when I'll get to painting them, but at least they are ready for primer and paint. Speaking of my Germans project - I decided I didn't like my airbrush jobs on my Panzer iv's and so stuck them all in a bath of Simple Green. We'll see what different scheme takes my fancy in the near future.

The post title says it and so it must be true, Zombtober is over. (Officially it ended last weekend, but I felt that with Friday (Yesterday) being the last day of October, that I could squeak in a last post before I call it quits. So the final 2 zombies of my collection got some paint slapped on. I hope you like.

The fellow on the left brought a snack it seems, whilst his erstwhile companion on the right may well perform an impressive nosedive from a standing position any time now...

A family pic. Say.... "Brains!"

Thought I'd add in this fun pic of the brave Paladin of Greyskull, defending holy ground against the vile necromancer and his summoned deathless horde!

Lastly, I'd like to babble a bit on the whole 6 Month challenge I've been stumbling down. I've been doing rather well I feel, having still not spent any funds on new minis to add to my unpainted mountain. I will admit though to using a birthday giftcard to picking up a Serpent Priestess for my Relic Knights Noh Empire faction; but I think that keeps me good. 2 months now almost done and I'm feeling rather proud of what I've gotten painted. Tanks, zombies, roleplay minis - not bad really.
Now Zomtober is over I aim to get some more Flames of War Desert Brits done and get working also on my Germans project. Then there's also some Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers that have been grabbing my attention... Lots to do still. Too much.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween - Happy Day of the Dead!

Zomtober 2014 Part 4! (Birthday Edition!)

Yesterday was my birthday, where I turned a balmy 25. Again.

I had a lovely weekend with a massive long Robotech rpg session, Sunday with my son to see the Oakland Raiders lose versus the Arizona Cardinals, saw Fury with a good mate (Amazing flick!) and then yesterday spent almost all of my waking hours painting. Can't ask for more really.

When in Oakland Colosseum, do as the Raider Faithful do. 

Paint-wise I finally got a little tutelage from Densmol on how best to start using my airbrush - and you know what, I did. And it wasn't as hard as I feared. I'm still no good by any means, but at least it's not the big scary thing to avoid any longer.

Panzer iv H platoon for my German SS list. My first time attempting German camo of any sort and not a crap effort I think. This is them with a brown wash on - Densmol thinks they look too dark, but I kind of like their sinister look. Lots of work still to do on these.

Also base coated my Pak40 Anti-tank guns and Nebelwerfers so their ready for weathering. Still on the fence as to whether I'll add camo to these...

 Also on the Flames of War front, I put together my Jagdpanzer iv platoon! Had some fun messing up their Schurzen too. Had some fun with these.

Commander (Front left) mini is from the new plastic Panzer iv kit.

And last but not least, a couple more zombies! 6 down, 2 to go. Until next time!

I like to think the one on the left has lost his spectacles. 

Group shot keeps getting getting each time more bodies are added!

Zombtober 2014 Part 3!

Early post this week. Doubt I'll get another post in before Monday due to having plans for my birthday weekend.

Two more Zedheads meaning I've gotten half done. These chaps have severe facial damage, so were nice and bloody from the head down!

The four I've completed so far.

Zombtober 2014!

A day of misses.

Missed that my physio appointment today was cancelled and drove half way across town for nothing. >_<

Missed that this blog turned 3 on the 1st. Am rather impressed that it's still going and seemingly stronger than ever.

Missed the deadline for posting this by 20-odd hours, but a little late is better than not at all.

Regardless, it's here and it's my first piece for Zomtober 2014. 

First zombie is done. Bit of a test piece for the rest of my small band of merry rotters. Black hands and feet cos that's where blood drains too. Fluids leaking out of orifices above the shoulders cos my wife (Who works with the carcasses of the recently expired.) says is what happens and apparently far too frequently.
All my Zombies are a mix of parts from both the Zombie and Ghoul kits made by Mantic. Can't say I'm overly impressed with a majority of Mantic's stuff, but their Zombies are in my opinion the best fantasy zed-heads out there. The Ghouls just help add some variance to poses.
Painting was mostly just a base coat then washes galore. Simple and quick and dirty as ever, but effective I think for zombies. Just need to touch up his fingers as the black wasn't evenly applied at the ends.

No idea why this one came out so dark?

One down, seven to go!

Also managed to finish up one of the Relic Knights Kyojin Beserkers. Cruddy pics, though they hide a lot of the lazy painting I ended up doing to get this off my table. :) Still, I think he'll be more than good enough for gaming. I wanted to make his club look like it's carved from a bone of a large creature.

I'll get cracking on his team mate soon.

*I've also since added a couple of dried grass style tufts to make his base look a little more interesting. And he's also gotten a flat coat spray too.

*edit* Decided to take a couple extra pics with my wife's new phone which has a better camera.

Berserker and Mr Zed for scale. I think the club toting fellow has the upper hand, eh?

I think from here on I'll ditch the white backgrounds. Seems to bleach out detail horribly. This paint desk view is way better.