Works in Progress

 Lots going on at my hobby station of late! Nothing actually completed, but work progresses on a number of projects per the pictures to follow. 

These are 3D printed Universal Carriers for my 2023 WW2 Greeks project. I found them on Etsy for a steal. What arrived were nice crisp sculpts, though of two different types of Carrier, but I can work with that. They were crew-less though, so I found some spare Soviet infantry and started hacking away and whilst the end result looks somewhat crude up close-and-unpainted (Crew's helmets look close enough to those worn by the Greeks to me.), I think they'll do just fine on the tabletop from 3 feet! I also needed "pintle-mounted Bren Guns" on them so sourced some nice metal bren guns from The Assault Group in the UK, trimmed a paper clip down to stick them upon and drilled holes for the pintle mounts to settle into on the Carriers. Finished result I think looks good enough for gaming! 

*More on said Greeks in a future post.

Sticking with the vehicles theme here's a German Panzer IV Ausf-H that is primed and ready for paint. I plan to add this as an alternative tank option to my Late War Winter Germans collection featured previously. "Where's the era appropriate Schurtzen?" I hear you ask in my addled schizoid brain, well dear reader those are going to be built and painted separately for ease of assembly and painting. 

Along with the tank, featured here are three Soviet riflemen that I had bits left over to build after crafting the Carrier crews shown above. Thought it would be good to have a few spares in squads where I didn't include a Light Machine Gun toting fellow. They need some basing pumice adding then priming prior to being ready for paint.

A less exciting option - these are some mdf tree bases I found on Etsy. After our last game in my previous post, I realised that I need not only more fencing and trees themselves, but also some better defined bases for the trees I do have so they stand out more for gaming purposes. (Line of sight, etc) So far these have been assembled, gritted with sand from a Monterrey area beach, sprayed dark brown then highlighted with a lighter brown craft paint. All that's left is to apply snow, though I'm trying to figure out how best to go about this step in an effort not to use up all of my Woodland Scenics  snow flock but still applying enough for the bases to look good on my Winter table set-up? I'll see what I can come up with.

Last up is a second batch of mdf fencing for much talked about Winter setup. (I did not feature the first set, for some reason, though honestly they are not really exciting enough to feature in their own post, right?) Simple 2-piece kits that I found in an online sale years ago. They have been primed the same dark brown as the tree bases and given a light dusting of white spray paint. Next step will be to pick out the vertical posts with dark brown and then apply snow effects and the odd grass tuft. Densmol was right, one needs far more than just one set of fencing on a 6x4 foot table!

No progress made on my Dieppe Canadians as I've not been in much of a mindset for painting lately, but I feel that'll change next week, so hope to have something new and actually "finished" to show off soon!

Stay well out there.

The bride and groom

In my continuing effort to get enough painted for the Stalingrad event this Saturday at my LGS Ogre's Den in Orange Vale I got this pair finished up last night.

The bloke is the handler from the Warlord Games Soviet Bomb Dog blister and the gal next to him in the winter onesie is a lovely sculpt by Bad Squiddo Games. Both of these will help bolster up my SMG squads a little.

Next up is a large piece, a KV1 heavy tank. I'll actually be running it as a KV8 which is the version that sports a Flame Thrower as well as it's AT Gun. I figured that flame throwers would do a better job of shifting annoying Germans from behind rubble or on buildings. Wish me luck on getting this beast done on time!

A Squeaker and a Pair of Soviets walk into a Bar

This Timorous mini is from the line of anthropormorfic sculpts produced by UK-based miniatures company Oathsworn Miniatures for their excellent Burrows and Badgers skirmish game.

I’ve utilized this mouse burglar as my Rogues team's (The Red Toothe) resident light-fingered thief, Fenton Fishlegs. He’s the free mini they give you for ordering their lovely hardback rulebook directly from their webstore. He's painted up well enough for gaming. I've recently realised that my eyes aren't quite what they used to be after a rubbish trip to the opticians and I can't abide trying to paint with those magnifying apparatus, so a lowering in quality will have to be endured from here on. Not all bad though as this means I should be able to get stuff done far quicker and so work through my backlog more swiftly!  

Fenton is a bit of a dim-witted young mouse, but his skills as a cat burglar (A mouse cat burglar???) go far beyond what a normal mouse his age could hope for. Cruel Ma’ Tuppence the leader of the team, tends to push Fenton into more and more perilous jobs for bigger rewards of loot fully expecting the lad to fall foul of some watch-mole or canny fox, but somehow he seems to make out with the loot and return like some addled pup back to Ma’ for his meager reward.

This weekend I am attending a Bolt Action Stalingrad event (Astute readers will recall I attended last year's event also) at the Ogre's Den in Orange Vale, CA. The organiser Drew had all 12 participants (6 playing Soviets, 6 Germans) draw up lists and we'll all be positioned on certain areas of his fantastic gaming boards, each section representing one major talking point of the Stalingrad conflict (Factory, Pavlov's House and Volga Crossing). Whilst I have a sizable collection of Soviets as any follower of this blog can attest to, I found I still needed some more pieces painted up to have enough done so I could field a fully painted force for the day.

Gunner and Ammo bloke, face down in the snow. Poor buggers. I know, the bipod is glued in the wrong spot on the gun, but it's too late to change now.

Starting off, these are a two-man Anti-tank rifle team produced by Black Tree Studios. (There'll be two in my list.) Whilst I am not anticipating much in the way of armour in those cramped city streets, these long guns do provide double duty as a nice pseudo-sniper to help add more pins and perhaps pop an armoured transport or armoured car. Easy to paint and they fit in well enough with my collection. The snow is a new product I was gifted at Xmas made by Games Workshop. Not bad and I'll use it for sake of ease as I won't have to mix ingredients up like my usual method, but goodness it's pricey! (Shock horror.... it's GW afterall.)

Next up on the table are a pair of SMG toting troops and perhaps this second mouse. Last to get some paint on it will be a new toy, but I'll preview that in my next post. :)

A Return to Blogging and the Hobby in General in 2019

Those who'll read this and that have followed my blog for a while will have noticed that I've been a bit absent from the blogging community for over 4 months. This is due in part to utter and complete hobby burnout, learning to live and feel comfortable in new digs and also the inclusion of a new special person in my life (Lady-loves tend to take up quite a bit of one's time during the initial stages of a burgeoning relationship.).

But, I return! As well as the hobby content within this, my first post of 2019, I've also played a couple games with the Estimable Stew (Write-ups from these games can be found here and here at Stew's blog, A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth.) which were excellent fun and it seems slowly but surely my hobby mojo is returning.

On to the stuff you actually want to read and see:

If you remember those WW2 Kriegsmarines I had begun painting for my good friend Densmol, then I commend you. If not, then it doesn’t matter cos there they are and in all their finery. The sculpts are by Warlord games and come packed with detail and character. I did a bit of research into WW2 German Kriegsmarine uniforms and so forth and it seems they varied quite a bit with some wearing their classic dark blue sailors uniforms, others the grey wet weather gear, whilst others have what I think are darker grey jackets. Even the inclusion of some combat helmets in their iconic naval light green/grey is a fun addition on these sculpts.  My fav of the bunch by far though was the squad officer with his bearded features and sporting a pipe!

They painted up rather swiftly and were enjoyable to boot – painting soldiers who are not uniform in dress is far more fun than trying to do a unit of repetitively-uniformed soldiers. Densmol requested some sort of urban effects on the bases as well (Due to the Kriegs’ featuring in iconic city-fighting accounts.) so I attempted to make fallen brick walls out of discarded sprue frames and poured some sand and tiny rocks here and there. Not perfect as the bricks are too big to realistically be masonry for this scale, but at arm’s length or on the tabletop it’ll do. Regardless, Densmol seemed very pleased with his German sailors, so that in the end means job done, right?

Once in hand, Densmol was then eager to get a game of Bolt Action in with his new unit, so we both drew up quick 1000 point lists, rolled up a mission (Manhunt in this case) and got playing. Didn’t get too many pics as we were enjoying a beer or two and some tasty Irish whiskey, but in the end the game ended on turn 2 as a draw due to Densmol forgetting that he had to “capture” my senior officer and not riddle him with umpteen assault rifle shots. *facepalm* Regardless, we had fun and the evening was enlivened further with a trip to my local bar.

My wee "horde" of Winter Soviet Regulars. 2 platoons so I could surprise Densmol with TWO T34/85 tanks! (Forgive the shamefully unpainted one on the right, it had been assembled about 10 mins prior to Densmol's arrival especially for this game!)

Densmol in reply brought an infantry horde of his own. A hodge-podge of inexperienced Kriegs and Luftwaffe troops along with a Kfz222 Armoured car, flame thrower (That missed at point blank range!?) and a crack elite SS squad (Last squad at the back of this pic) ALL armed with Panzerfausts.

The table set-up. Wish lighting in my place was better, but o well. This is a sneak peak of what my Winter display is going to look like. I still have snowy coniferous trees to base up and another small shack to paint. I also plan to buy or make some fencing for the roads and perhaps add a small pond and some blasted tree trunks for placing around those artillery craters at the back. Also, those felt roads... Think I'll be replacing them with some sturdier options in the future cos they were just annoyingly sticking to bases, etc.

The one pic that managed to get taken of the actual game. :)
Densmol's Medium Machine Gun team takes a heavy Anti-Tank gun shot and is obliterated. :)

Next up, something else I started painting in December. Until then…

Comrade! (Part 27 - KV Wip and something ancient-y)

Only a little hobbying to show since last post.

I built the KV-1/2 kit I get as part of my prize from the Stalingrad event  I went to on the 21st. It was a relatively simple model to put together and I really love the fact that it comes with two distinct different turrets for the chassis so you can make either the standard KV-1, or the crazy top-heavy looking KV-2. (Differences between the two - the KV-1 mounted a medium anti-tank gun, whilst the KV-2 had a scary arsed Heavy Howitzer!)

Just a pic of the build so far. The only real fiddly bits were the two tiny machinegun barrels (One on the hull as pictured and another on the rear of each turret) that were hard to handle without getting one's fingers glued up.

Silly design really - these things could potentially tip backwards if they were set up on an incline!

I also was excited to see this new shiny thing arrive in my postbox on Saturday! This is a new game put out by Andy Hobday, who seems a jolly nice bloke. Along with this new starter set, the Gangs of War game in general seems to be very well supported with lots of free to download scenarios that can take new players beyond the one in the box. I really like how it's a really small scale game (So only a handful of minis each that need to be painted!) and after a quick scan through the rules, seems very straight forward to learn. This set also was a steal as it includes a beautiful Temple to Apollo in mid-construction (By Sarissa Design.). I've begun gluing it together, though there's not much to look at so far, so instead, here is a derpy picture of me and my acquisition from the weekend.

Ladies, this hunk is avail... oh feck, who am I kidding. There're no ladies following my blog!

In my last post, I briefly described a very funny (At the time) moment during the Stalingrad event where my team-mate, Tony sent in from reserve his Ampulet team up a sewerage canal on an inflatable dingy. Well, here's a pic he took of said team! Bloody ridiculous and we all (German player aside) had a good laugh over it!

Last night I had a wee bit of time to slap a little paint on a couple of my zombie collection to cleanse the pallet sotospeak after painting so much WW2 uniforms, so next post they should be finished and ready to show off - watch this space!

Stalingrad Event

The Volga Crossing where I played

Pavlov's House in the center of the long table

The Tractor Factory. The lavender yarn was used to mark deployment zones. Those diagonal deployment zones made for an interesting setup.

My view up the table.

In my last post I described an event that I have been very much looking forward to, the first I've been able to attend this year. The area's main hub for Bolt Action, Ogre's Den in Orangevale graciously opened doors and allowed the group to set up a 4'x18' table to represent three of the most iconic parts of the Battle for Stalingrad in World War 2 - The Tractor Factory, Pavlov's House and the Volga Crossings. The table(s) looked simply breathtaking, easily rivaling anything I've seen posted online. Andrew Bergthold was the on-the-day organiser and was also celebrating his birthday (So we all got free BBQ'd burgers, kindly provided by his father.) and had designed the overall scenario and specific conditions that each section of the table had to abide by. Each table section had a pair of players for each side playing 5 turns over two connected games. The 1st game we could not affect what was happening on the tables next to us, but in the 2nd game (After we were provided reinforcements, we could, which made for some really fun matchups.). It all made for a very fun and thematic day of gaming, with the overall winner who had the most kills, taken objectives and also managed to get their troops into their enemy's deployment area.


My list for the day had a few restrictions in the players packet, seeing as Tony and I were "Crossing the Volga river". No vehicles (In the initial crossing, though any taken could come on as reserves, no
gun teams larger than a light AT/Howitzer and to reflect the constant peppering those poor sods had to endure on those wooden boats all units that arrive in the "1st Wave" (A turn 1 mechanism in Bolt Action) arrive already having a pin on them.

My force on the day.
1st Lt.
2x 12-man Regulars each with 2x LMG's - Fantatics
2x 7-man Regulars all with SMG's - Fanatics
1x (free) 12-man Inexperienced Squad - Fantatics
Regular Sniper team - Fantatics
Regular Flame Thrower team
Regular Anti-Tank Rifle team (Ended up just taking the one) - Fanatics
A Forward Artillery Observer
Medium Mortar Team - Fanatics

And here are some of the other armies present at the event - some really nicely painted forces I think!

The following are just the pictures I took of the day's gaming; that is, when I remembered to take them. Our main objective was to have more troops on the wooden square just past the beach then the Germans by the end of the 1st round. I will say, #1 highlight of the day was my mates Gregg and Frank from my rpg group turning up to check out the game and my old Flames of War pal Rich (Of Flames of Nerd blog fame likewise dropping by and feeling so inspired he went and picked up a whole new Japanese army later that day! Woo, a new opponent!) who stuck around for the early stages. 

That crashed aircraft terrain piece was lovely. Have since bought a 1/48 Spitfire to make something similar myself!

This StuG did a good job of scaring the Soviets on the beach to keep their heads down, but in the end would end up immobilised and thereafter, ignored. 

Forward you dogs!

When you aim to be killingest general of the day, this is how one should roll. (A rare day where my dice and I loved eachother.)

So close!

There had been a Kraut Flame Thrower team at the crest of that rise for a second there.... wonder where they went? 

Getting a bit packed on this beach.

Meanwhile, over behind Pavlov's House.

Action shot of Travis Hiett's Assault Engineers stomping through some rubble

Wait, there can't possibly be more troops coming from across the river???

That's right Nazi pigs!

Sudden breakthrough on the left flank! Soviets assault the German sniper who had set up in the left side ruins.

The Tractor Factory was incredibly hard fought. 

Well, somehow, that person was me. My first #1 placing at any sort of event. :)

Highlights of the game:

1.  One of my fine opponents, Aaron brought on his Flame Thrower team from reserve a mere 6" from a squad of my own poor troops who had just managed to crawl off the beach and take their first step on dry land. Aaron gleefully throws his to-hit dice to spread fiery death upon them and rolls.... a "one", thoroughly missing his shot! Next he rolls to see if his Flamethrower still had fuel left and rolls.... another "one"! Seems the silly buggers forgot to fuel up before leaving for the front lines! (Free kill point for me.)

2. My Soviet partner, Tony (Who's company made the day even more fun), brought along a T-34 tank, which seemed to cause our German playing opponents some concern (Even though, throughout the game, the tank shot and hit NOTHING). So both Aaron and Kat called in an Airstrike by the Luftwaffe Stukas to take it out. Both roll to see if/how the strike was coming in and.... both rolled a "one" at the same time! In Bolt Action, that means the incoming aircraft mistake their own forces as targets and the opposing player(s) (In this case Tony and I) got to pick their targets instead! Whilst the ensuing airstrikes didn't kill all that much (Mostly due to both German forces being Veteran skill level throughout for the most part), they caused enough pins on the German units to be really annoying.

3. Kat's lone remaining Veteran Grenadier that had been withstanding a withering hail of small arms fire and yet surviving all of it, was eventually charged by Tony's 6-man Naval squad and forced to defend himself in close combat! Of course, Tony rolled not one dice enough to take the bugger out and Kat in turn did just enough to win the combat, wiping out all 6 sailors with a cheeky grin on her face. (She now has a reputation for this sort of shenanigan after doing similarly against me in my previous matchup against her)

4. My Medium Mortar team refused to come in from reserves 3 turns in a row.... Then when it finally set up for a shot, ranged in first time and annihilated the remainder of a 5-man Veteran Grenadiers squad. (The Commissar had just brought out his pistol to execute traitors to the Motherland as well...)

5. The last two turns of the day saw a KV-1 tank (Borrowed from Jason, a very nice chap) brought on from my post-game reserves come on over on the Factory table to tackle some nasty stubborn German StuG (that had a heavy howitzer!?), but it couldn't penetrate the makeshift tankhunter's extra-thick armour; and Tony's Ampulet team come on on the same board, paddling an inflatable raft up a sewerage canal and try to lob globes of firey death at the StuG (Also to no effect.). This in turn caused Craig (The StuG's owner) to angrily pick up his tank and claim "It wouldn't stick around". Needless to say, he didn't enjoy the game. LOL.

In the end the day was an emphatic overall Soviet victory and called off early, with the Commies holding all three main objectives and really piling the hurt on the poor Germans. Also, it seems the Luftwaffe were on drugs or something that day because as well as the two fouled-up airstrikes on our table, a 3rd was called in and also fouled up (Destroying it's own German gun team I think) on the Tractor Factory table too, along with a general strafing of the whole board after the 1st round that hit absolutely nothing. (!?)

The winner of the event was... me, with 11 kills for the day, 3 of my own units in my opponent's deployment zone and our main objective taken (And had the game gone on one more turn I would have grabbed one of the German secondary objectives too.).  My first time winning a gaming event too. With my in-store credit that I received as reward, I quickly spent it prior to heading home, leaving with a new Warlord plastic KV-1/2 tank kit, a Soviet Anti-tank Dogs team, Soviet Heavy Mortar team, a 2nd red orders dice set (So I can play armies larger than 12 units total.) and the below Rubicon Models Soviet Studebaker truck (That I glued together last night.). A fine haul!

If you got down to this part, then congrats, didn't realise this was going to end up so wordy!

The paint table is a little cluttered right now with many project on the go at the same time. I think a little non-WW2 is in order to clean off my hobby palette?