LVT-4 Buffalo #1 - Scheldt Campaign 1944

 Today's offering is a nice piece of kit for my WW2 Late War Bolt Action Canadians, an LVT-4 Buffalo armoured transport. Nice plastic model produced by Rubicon Models that went together pretty well aside from some ambiguous instructions regarding the rear mooring ties (I should have done some research online for images prior to glueing... But an emergency snip and re-glue saved the day.

Paint recipe was my typical Commonwealth NW Europe armour - Vallejo Russian Uniform green, GW Agrax Earthshade wash all over, then base green again, with lightened green for highlights. I still need to finish the tracks with more weathering, but I think as is, it's good enough right now to drop on the tabletop. (It also needs a quick spray of flatcote, but I'll do that after I finish the tracks.)

Markings were a bit tricky to research and photo evidence online seemed a bit all over the place, so I just went with what seemed closest to a "generic" markings system, using what decals I actually owned to drive my choices LOL! (It's supposed to represent a transport for the Canadian 2nd Division. Supposed...)

With a pair of .50cal MG's on sponsons and a hull-mounted .30cal, this thing can provide some great supporting firepower for it's debussing passengers.

Now I look at it in this pic, that Canadian unit marking needs to be gone over with blue as it looks black from here...

These things are huge vehicles! Nice juicy targets for German AT guns... 

No markings on the rear cos I ran out of decals. I guess the troops can attribute that to the ramp being lowered and maybe they scraped off altogether?

This pic was supposed to show the painstaking weathering I attempted on the inside of the transport, but the glare from my desk lamp seems to have ruined that effort. Boo... Also, that Allied Star is wonky, I know - it just wouldn't set "right" and my patience ran out in the end. 

I have a second LVT to paint up along with a Universal Carrier and some Canadian Royal Engineers in the queue, but those are for a future time. Next up - who knows? Maybe some Greeks, maybe some anthro critters, maybe some anime style stuff? 

Hope all are well and safe out there,

- Dai

Another game before the end of February

This weekend saw the opportunity to play a second game of Bolt Action in the month of February, albeit on the very last day of the month. (Imagine that, two games in one month!)

Densmol and his lovely wife came over to our place for the weekend and after the obligatory co-ed socializing period was over, he and I got the game table set up and started rolling dice. Sadly, a little alcohol had been consumed by that point of the day and our "best gaming heads" weren't exactly in place and so our playing pace was somewhat slower than typical. This led to our better halves dropping by about 2/3's through turn 4 of 6 to complain they were bored and required us to "finish up already". A disappointment for sure. Still, the four turns we had managed to get through were lots of fun and really, the game result could've ended up swinging either way. 

The scenario I set out was inspired from the Bolt Action 2nd Edition campaign book: Road to Berlin. The table is set out where control of three objectives are needed for victory conditions (Bridge, and two foam pieces representing fording areas.). The remainder of the table aside from the road is considered Rough ground - the book describes this due to snow, but in our game, these areas are flooded (Ala areas of Holland in 1944). This meant the only part of the table that wheeled vehicles could move on are just the road. Tricky. 

My force consisted of something like: an officer with adjutant, a 10-man squad of regular infantry, two 6-man squads of commandos armed with SMG's all in an LVT-4 Buffalo; a pair of 5-man engineer squads armed with a flame thrower in Bren carriers, a Sherman tank and a pair of WASP flamethrower carriers. 

Densmol's force had (I think) two ten man Heer squads, two 6-man Fallschirmjager squads, a Panzer 2 Luchs, StuG assault gun, sdkfz222 armoured car, a trio of Opel blitz trucks and a pair of Hanomag halftracks all to transport the infantry. 

*Pictures taken were not the best and not frequent, so apologies and we had unpainted (Shock-horror!) models on the table. 

My Canadians heading north in this picture. The LVT4 unloaded it's commando teams (One got shot up almost immediately.), the Sherman tank starts shooting at the StuG and the second of my WASPSmoves up in support, using that copse of trees ahead of it as cover. On the right flank, the engineer squads in their carriers drive up only to see one of their number take some well taken shots by the German Luchs which destroyed the carrier and slew a couple of the engineer passengers.

More movement and the Germans bring on more infantry, the Sherman and StuG continue popping off shots at eachother with miserable results and my Commandos and Regulars take the Western Ford, whilst my Engineers take the Eastern Ford too. Looking good so far. 

On the 3rd turn, my second WASP flamethrowing carrier comes on from reserve and BBQ's the Panzer Luchs with a close-ranged burst of combustible. I love the smell of roasting German Kitties!

A bit more movement. Mostly long range firefights on the left with German infantry getting whittled down and the Sherman FINALLY does some damage, Immobilizing the StuG and pinning it beyond usefulness. 

A lucky (out-of-photo) Armoured Car shot takes out my Buffalo transport! Losing the fire-support of those HMG sponsons will hurt.

And this is where we left off. Truth be told, Densmol still had plenty of infantry to disgorge from his transports, so things weren't written in stone on the outcome of this game. Although we only got 4 turns in, it was lots of fun.   

And that's it. I managed a short session of painting (The officer team and the Buffalo) but niether were finished so they'll feature in a later post once I get another moment to add paint. 

Hope all are well and safe out there in this increasingly violent world we find ourselves in. 

- Dai

A Game, More Assembly and Painting!

 The Fates alligned and I ended up getting in that game I mentioned from my last post! Turned out that the host, Stephen asked for 1250 point Bolt Action lists and sadly only me and another local chap, Luigi were able to make it. Stephen elected to umpire and so Luigi brought out his Japanese against the Canadians I had prepared. 

My list had prerequisite officer and pal, 3 small 6-man Vet Commando squads and one 10-man Regular infantry squad, a PIAT team, Light Mortar team, Medic, Sniper team and both a Churchill Mk iv and Churchill Mk i in support. 

Luigi's list was something like, officer plus pal, 4 Gernadier squads full of knee mortars, a couple of Suicide AT Lunge Mine troops, FOO, two armoured transports, a trio of light tanks with howitzers and a third light tank with a medium anti tank gun.

The mission was predetermined from a planned event coming up this weekend (3rd Annual Operation Sweetheart in Sacramento, CA) and was an objective grab meeting engagement. As the game was last Thursday, details are a little spotty, but the following photos should describe the action appropriately. All I do know is that the table layout favoured me greatly and forced Luigi to have to come at me as I had 3 objectives on my side and he only 2. Unfortunately my tanks held down both roadways and did awfully well with ambush fire and Luigi's own conservative play didn't really give him much chance at getting across the table by the end of the game's turn 6 resulting in a win for me.

Really fun game, gorgeous set up and great to play against the Japanese which was only my second time doing so since I started playing Bolt Action.

Stephen had laid out the table prior to our arrival. Those pre-painted mdf buildings are so good. 

both armies declared to start deploying everything in their lists, no reserves. I made sure to take advantage of the firing lines down those roads early with my Churchills.

Commandos moving up with Japanese infantry in transports trying to come down the road but scared to get into the gunsights of that tank at the bottom of this photo.

Light Mortar drops a lucky round first try on that Japanese transport causing all the troops to bail out. They did not survive the return fire.

Commando squad hugs the cover of the building whilst the Churchill provides long range fire support against Japanese armour WAY back down that road. My dice rolling was garbage though and that tiny tank somehow managed to survive.

Churchill Mki with wading gear helping stall the Japanese advance whilst my PIAT team skulks along the wall line.

After a furious trading of fire, my tank finally takes out the Japanese Command tank. 

Host Stephen officiating and probably questioning our generalship. 

Commandos take advantage of their armoured support and move up to claim the objective aheaed (A rock. Very important rock at that,  apparently)

The Sniper team in the woods to the right had taken out the FOO early on in game, so the regulars and Medic that had been in the woods to the lower left head up to support the Comando advance.

Commando squad uses the Churchill's support to move up unmolested.

End game and the Japanese make a mad dash toward one of the objectives, only to come face to face with Commandos armed with two Bren guns. It didn't end well for the brave men of Nippon.

Also late game shot of the second Japanese armoured transport making a mad dash down the road in an effort to get it's sole occupant, a suicide AT nutter, up close and personal with my brave Churchill Mki. The inevitable happend though and that silly suicide fellow perished along with the transport.

My PIAT team crept up to the treeline here to attempt to take out the pictured arnoured transport with a point blank side-shot and missed. Of course. The Japanese Officer in turn charged the PIAT team and cut down both unfortunate PBI's with his katana. Nasty.

It's end game and the Japanese just can't get across the map in time to claim objectives. As the pictures squad rounds the shed here, my regulars mow them down mercilessly.

I included this final shot of my Churchill Mkiv which inspired the next part of this post.

 Playing a whole game with this unpainted beast was just rubbish!

I've had this model tank for a few years now. It's by Warlord Games and is in Plastic. Nice enough detail and simple to build. The included plastic Commander figure was a bit... meh, so I substituted him for a metal Commander sculpt I'd had in my bits box for a long time now. The stowage are mostly metal pieces and the "trophy-MG42" is a spare from an old long-abandoned German Grenadiers project. Simple paint job and marked up as one of the 34th Tank Brigade that I believe would have been present supporting the Canadian push to take the Schedlt Estuary in 1944 during Operation Vitality. There'll be more vehicles to be added to my collection to represent forces used during Operation Vitality at a later date.

Pics were taken hastily so please excuse the quality and lack of effort. 

I'm also hoping to get a little more painting done before my vacation is over, so hoping to have something else to post up on before the end of the month.

I also managed to get the remainder of the German Grenadier squad assembled and yes, crumbled and added their gear cos they just didn't look right without. Yay... complicated painting ahoy. :)

These nine plus their planned metal sergeant fig conclude the infantry I need for my Winter German list. Just need to get the pair of Flak 37 8.8 guns and crew (7-men each!) put together and they'll be ready for paint. 

Next week also allows me another chance at gaming with my good friend, Densmol dropping by so hopefully we'll have a good game to post up about here early March. (Imagine that, two games in one month!) I'm also hoping to attend a mini-gaming-con in Oakdale on the 7th March, so if plans work out for that, I'll have perhaps 3 more games to post up on. Crazy start to 2026 after quite the gaming drought this handful of years.

As always, hope all are safe and healthy out there. 

- Dai

It's all Greek to me! (Part 8 - Infantry Squad #3 Complete! And a whole lot more.)

**Settle down, grab a beverage and some reading glasses - this post is going to be a long one. **

Well, as in most cases, "best laid plans" tend to end up floundering and so my plans in fine form for this project followed suit in short order. I managed to get the 3rd squad of Greek infantry I mentioned in my last post finished but could only find time to slap on a couple of base colours onto the 4th squad and so had to attend the event on Saturday 7th February with only 95% of my force fully painted. Not bad, but not what I wanted. 

The 3rd squad though does look rather splendid and fits in nicely with the others I've painted up so far. Once again, these are metal sculpts by Great Escape Games and were fun to paint.

Infantry Squad #3 - lots of tasty 'tache's in this group.

Also painted up this fun little Orthodox priest who I add to my FAO team who'll ask the big feller above for extra luck getting those off-table artillery strikes on target for once. (With my dice rolling, I need all the help I can get!)

This little fellow has since been given a coat of flat varnish. 

The whole Greek WW2 collection as it stands - best pics I could get with the time, space and lighting available. Just a pair of trucks to paint up and then they'll be done, "Fully Painted" if we want to be specific and add titles. For now. (I'd like to pick up a few more pieces of armour and another pair of Bren Carriers, but those are purchases for next year.)

On February 8th I attended the 2nd annual Operation Sweetheart event at GameKastle Sacramento. It was the first 3rd edition event in the area, and I played my first three games of the new edition, winning one and losing the following two. Not a bad result, especially considering as I brought my Greeks and they had little to no anti-armour options. A fun day and great to see both locals and travelling players from the Reno community. There was a good turn-out including some new players and also a young-blood (13 I think?). Being that the event was 4 months ago I don't recall hard fast details, but my first game (A win vs late war Germans) was highlighted by my rolling immensely well, the second (A loss vs an all over the place german list) marred by my opponent bringing an almost all unpainted army who also proxied about half his force, and the third and last game (A loss vs late war Brits) where my dice and lack of ability to hurt the multiple armoured options of my opponent caused a little frustration. Regardless of the result, a good time was had and it was fun to take my Greeks to an event.

Pics are in no particular order and included here just so you have pretty things to look at. 

Sideways? Poor editing on  my part.

Now that the event is done and long past, that 4th infantry squad will get done.... sometime. Moments for hobby are back to being few and far between - curse you real life!

I also managed to get in a game with my gaming pal Densmol whilst our respective wives sat on the lawn and drank alcoholic seltzers and chatted about whatever it is women discuss when menfolk are elsewhere. As you can see in the pictures, this was my test run also for my WW2 Airfield terrain setup. Still more to add and plenty to paint up, especially that Heinkel, (The large building is not part of the set along with some of the scatter terrain - I just needed to fill the table moreso) but I like the direction it's headed.

I provided forces for both sides - Densmol played my Winter Germans and I faced off against them with my Winter Soviets. It was a fun learning game for both of us using the now not-new 3rd Edition of Bolt Action. Densmol ended up winning, lots of new rules were forgotten or plain mis-played, but we both had fun. 

Blanket as a game mat. Not bad, but not great. Needs some variation in shades of green and a jolly good iron!

One drunken evening I found myself trawling online stores and made some purchases. I only found this out the following morning when I saw the order confirmation emails in my inbox. (Don't tell the wife.)

Water Buffalos for my Late War Canadians

Fuel Truck for my Airfield terrain, BA-10 for my Winter Soviets and a pair of sd.kfz 10/4's for my Germans. 

Also some "not Beakie Space Marines" by another Etsy store that I had the seller upscale a little to the same size as Primaris cos I like my mutant human warriors huge. (Poor Greek soldier included for scale)

The Beakies came in a squad of 5 cool individual sculpts. I also stupidly jumped on the chance to pick up an in scale classic style Space Marine Dreadnought by Hybrid Miniatures on Facebook. I have a buying problem, it's true.

It's always nice to have new things, even if you really don't have time to paint them.

Last year I put a (very) small amount of cash into a Kickstarter for some 3D print stl files for some East Front terrain. I then found out my co-worker has a printer at her home and she offered to print all the files out if I provided the filament. So here are some of the prints - very crisp and well detailed and currently in the queue for primer, paint and snow effects, hopefully getting done this Summer. Am hoping joining Dave Stone's "Summer of Scenery" challenge at his blog, will help motivate me.

Soviet Schoolhouse and a tin-roof'd barn

Some cool scatter terrain to add extra flavour

Log cabins

A small Orthodox chapel. I also have some benches to place inside. 

Back to painting progress - I managed to get in some painting time this last week whilst my wife was away on a trip to Oregon to visit her grandparents. 

First off a pair of Anti-Tank Rifle teams for my Greeks, bringing the total of these I can drop on the table to 3.

More metals sculpts by Great Escape Games

And then a pair of furry faced warriors for anthropomorphic skirmish game Burrows and Badgers. Both leaders of their respective warbands. These are the first painted for a campaign me and my pal J are going to play through when opportunity arises in the future.

Sir Rowland Othyr, Otter Lansknecht

And Ylvis Sez, leader of the Freebeasts

 And lastly, on the 24th of June, I got in a game of Bolt Action at my mate Stephen's place. 1000 points each side, I took my Greeks again and he faced off with some cool Early War Germans (A mix of Fallschirmjager veterans and Regular Heer.). My dice were hot this game and once again, even though I really should have struggled to deal with his German armour, somehow I managed to drop mortar rounds in the right places and blew them up and then proceeded to grind down his support assets to win 10-9. Beautiful table to play on and a great host. 

My Greeks

Stephen's Germans

And some pics in no particular order - just here to look cool. Stephen's setup was great looking and made for a very narrative gameplay.

A very pinned out sd.kfz 222 armoured car. Crazy what VB and Light mortars can do!

The man himself - Stephen is also the Official Warlord Raider for Northern California and Nevada and origanises all the events and tournaments.

Okay done now. If you managed to read this far down, apologies for the lengthy silence. Am hoping I'll have time and enough content to post again before the blog's 14th birthday on 1st October, but I make no promises as this summer is super busy with famikly stuff. 

Hope all are well and happy out there,

- Dai