New Progress - Terrain & Miniatures

As I mentioned before I've been working away on things and have had my painters also keeping busy.  Posting a mix of things here from new terrain to new miniatures.

First up, 28mm shipping containers.  I had six of the plastic AT-43 shipping containers laying about in my collection along with five of the new plastic shipping containers from Reaper Miniatures.  I downloaded a bunch of logos and used my decal sheets to print off custom decals for this project.  I wanted them to look properly weathered for use in Iraq or Afghanistan (or even Europe or elsewhere).  I think they came out great.  I order the clear decal sheets (for a laserjet printer) from Amazon (link).  This is the same approach I used for making the modern markings for my vehicles.  With the ribbing in the side of the containers you need to use a 50/50 mix vinegar and water to soften up the decals before applying.

I also did up some boxes of produce that I've had for a while from Ainsty Castings.  I can use these for all sorts of periods from French & Indian War, WW2 and modern.

AT-43 shipping containers repainted for modern.

AT-43 shipping containers repainted for modern.

Reaper Miniatures plastic storage containers.
$8.29 each - not a bad deal.
(link)

Boxes of produce from Ainsty Castings.

I've not forgotten about my WW2 Omaha Beach project at all and there is progress on that front.  The beach landing scene would not be complete without casualties.  Therefore, that is what I have here - 40 x US infantry casualties that can show the terrible losses suffered by those first waves of brave troops.

US Casualties from West Wind Productions
(Berlin or Bust range:  link)

In general I'd like to add British and German casualties to my collection (in smaller numbers, probably do 15 or so for each).  Placing casualties on the table during a game adds another layer to the visual depth of the game.

Next up is some new modern stuff.  Iraqi civilians and more insurgents.  I also have a British officer now (using two models on a base for officers, one for a squad leader).

Painted By:  Steve Dake

28mm Iraqi Civilians from Eureka Miniatures

28mm Iraqi Civilians from Eureka Miniatures

Insurgent Leader from Spectre Miniatures

Insurgent Cell from Empress Miniatures
(LMG is from Spectre Miniatures)

Insurgent Cell from Empress Miniatures

British Officer

Last but not least in my Cobra helicopter.  I've actually finished making the bases for all three of my helicopters (Apache, Blackhawk and the Cobra).  When I was young and played modern micro armour, we would use small round plastic circles for the rotor blades of the helicopters.  Something about an airborne helicopter with a static set of rotor blades just bugs me so I thought I would apply that same principle to 28mm.  I went down to Tap Plastics here in Fremont and had them cut me three 12" diameter circles of clear plastic 1/8" sheet (the thinnest they had).  I also had three 2.5" diameter circles cut for the rear blades.  I then used magnets to attach both the main and rear rotor blades to the helicopter - and I kept the blades I cut off - that way I can remove the plastic circles, put the helicopter of the ground as a "crashed" terrain element - using the cut blades as scatter terrain for the downed helicopter.  Photographing the result was a bit tough but you can see it below.

1/48th scale Cobra attack helicopter
with 1/8" plastic rotor blades attached by magnets.

1/48th scale Cobra attack helicopter
with 1/8" plastic rotor blades attached by magnets.

That's it for today -- I have some excellent stuff arriving in the post today (desert mat, snow mat and a large order from Crescent Root ... hooray!).  I'll be posting some more pictures of that stuff over the weekend.

A Blog'in Update

To blog or not to blog?  That is the question.  I recently read a blog post that discussed the move of these types of communication mediums to Facebook (or Google+ or whatever social media startup has opened up this afternoon) - that blogs are starting to decline in usage and favour and perhaps we should just throw the towel in and post to Facebook instead.

An interesting argument (except that I hate Facebook).  This got me thinking as to why I blog at all though ... highlighted for me in the last two weeks as I've seen my followers go from 228 to 221 (at least for the moment).  Now, who knows why that is ... nor should I really care at the end of the day ... gamers are as fickle as any other hobbyists as I'm sure you all know (lol) ... but the timing was interesting given the other blogger's post I read.

Update:  Apparently there has been some change to Google+ and/or Blogger that has cause a general dip in blog following ... a big sarcastic thank you goes to Google!

For me, I blog because I'm terrible at photo albums and record keeping.  Even if I didn't have any followers it provides a cool journal of my wargames and hobby life over a long period of time - a modern and easy to do photo album (ironically my Dad was good about taking pictures and making gaming photo albums).

That all being said, I'm truly honoured that anyone reads my musings (including this one).  So thank you all who continue to follow me through history.  I know I've been on a modern kick the last couple of months but you've seen the plan for the year and I've already made some great progress on my new projects ... so if you are a bit tired of modern, fear not ... other stuff is coming very soon.

I'm going to keep on blogging ... like I said, even if it is just me, but I'm curious to hear what you all think on the topic?  Please do comment.

That all aside ... DundraCon approaches in a couple of weeks and I've been busy working on preparations ... so more pictures coming soon of new stuff.

Thanks everyone!

28mm Desert Terrain

Hello everyone.

I managed to finish up a bunch of desert terrain I've had for some time now.  These items will be used for North Africa and the middle east (rural/open desert).  All of the terrain is from Architects of War - which apparently is now out of business due to well, I'm not 100% sure but I think it has something to do with Kickstarter nonsense (no more Kickstarters for me!).

Anyways, I have a desert well, oasis and several tree plates.  I had purposefully over order palm trees from Crescent Root knowing I wanted to use those palm trees for this terrain.  Those trees come with bases that I reused for conifer trees that will go with my revised WW2 Normandie layout (more on that very soon).

Pictures below.

Desert Well

Desert Well

Oasis

Oasis

Large Tree Plate

Large Tree Plate

Large Tree Plate

Small Tree Plate #1

Small Tree Plate #1

Small Tree Plate #1

Small Tree Plate #2

Small Tree Plate #2

Small Tree Plate #2

I'm very happy to finally have this done.

28mm Modern Iraq - Saddam Statue

Just a quick update today.  I've been busy working on several projects and will have several new posts up over the next week or so to show off some new stuff.

My 1:35 statue of Saddam arrived from Verlinden last week and I painted it up and took a couple of pictures.  Although the scale is 1:35 it works great for 28mm games - providing an impressive statue.  You can see the pictures below with some 28mm USMC and an M1 Abrams that give you an idea of the scale.

An impressive sight.

The Abrams should hook him up and tear him down.

Armour and troops advance past the statue.

The statue was actually fairly easy to paint.  I used long copper wire to pin the statue to the base so it is removable for easier storage.  I primed the statue black and used a drybrush of GW Leadbelcher that I had added a lot of black to make it a very dark metallic colour.  After that I watered down some GW Ushapti bone and applied it to the details while using a paper towel to wipe the excess off in a downward direction.  The effect I think works well for weathering.

For the base I sprayed it a light grey colour (Armory Grey Primer).  I washed it with a GW black wash then stippled a lighter grey for the final colour.  I did the plate in a standard metallic with a brown wash.  Once that was all done I used Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray to weather the whole base (spraying at a distance, working the spray cloud into the model as needed to weather it).

There you have it ... another addition to the modern layout.

Bolt Action Modern AAR - Another Day In Basra

Pulled out the British today to play a Basra themed game.  This was my first game playing the coalition forces ... I've been playing the bad guys in every game so far.  Ironically that bit me in the but for the first two turns while I remembered how to play with decent troops and equipment (and how painful it is to take any casualties).

The objective for the British today was to clear the area of enemy resistance.  The two Martyr cells recycled from a compound adjoining the park and the 3 regular Insurgent cells recycled from a rear building in the Mosque.  You can see this in the picture below.

Roy Scaife played the Iraqi's today and took a very different initial strategy.  He used the buildings almost exclusively for his units (very WW2 Bolt Action).  This was great because I wanted to see how the rules played out in this way.  By default, the Insurgents that recycle are better left outside of buildings as that way the deadly weapons of the coalition can't get LOS to them (behind a building, no LOS ... in the building, LOS).  Recent adjustments also made it easier and more deadly for the coalition heavy weapons firing on the buildings.  As expected, Roy moved his guys out of the buildings for "wait and strike" attacks that proved effective.  If you pop out a recycling squad a kill 1-2 coalition troops, that is 2 x VP ... and if you're squad is wiped out as a result than you've only given up 1/2 a VP.  By games end I was very happy with how the game turned out ... the rules are really working well IMO.  For the next battle I'll be adding in helicopters (transport and assault) to make sure we give those a good run through.

British Order of Battle

• 1 x Challenger 2 MBT
• 1 x FV510 Warrior IFV
• 1 x Squad Leader
• 4 x Fireteams (each with 2 x assault rifles, 1 x AR with UGL and 1 x SAW)
• 1 x HUMVEE with HMG
• 1 x SAS Team (2 x assault rifles, 1 x AR with UGL and 1 x SAW)

Iraqi Order of Battle

• 1 x Martyr Leader (assault rifle)
• *1 x Martyr Cell (2 x assault rifles and 2 x LMGs)
• *1 x Martyr Cell (3 x assault rifles and 1 x LMG)
• 1 x Insurgent Leader (assault rifle)
• *2 x Insurgent Cells (each with 4 x assault rifles, 1 x LMG and 1 x RPG)
• *1 x Insurgent Cell (3 x assault rifles, 1 x LMG and 1 x RPG)
• 1 x MTLB
• 1 x Republican Guard Squad (4 x assault rifles, 1 x LMG and 1 x RPG)
• 1 x Insurgent Recoilless Rifle Team

The units above with the * are units that recycled being worth 1/2 VP each time they are eliminated.  The other units do not recycle and are a full VP when eliminated.

The Game

This was the first Iraqi/Insurgent victory.  The final VPs were 8 for the coalition and 10 for the Insurgents.  I did a really stupid thing and entered a building in front of several Insurgent cells that were in ambush.  Roy rolled really well and I didn't make any medic saves.  This was in turn 2 and I lost a whole fireteam (4 x VPs) ... ouch!!!  After that I pulled back and used my armoured vehicles for cover while moving up the main road.  I left two squads in the large compound ready to move once I made enough progress down the main road.  The FV510 Warrior deployed its smoke dischargers (one shot weapon) right at a critical intersection and that broke the whole thing wide open as it close down many of the firing lanes for the insurgent cells.  That being said, I wasted two turns playing like an "insurgent" and didn't get my act together until turn 3.  After losing that entire fireteam I was too far behind in VPs and attempting to play catch up for the rest of the game.  We played to turn 7 and I rolled for a turn 8 but didn't make it so the game ended with an Iraqi minor victory.  In other notes, one of Roy's RPGs failed a amateur hour roll and blew up.  Another caused a pin marker on my Challenger ... which I promptly failed two order tests in a row (turn 6 and 7) ... an big swing for Roy there ... I think the crew had tea for two turns ... man I really could have used that tank for both of those turns.  Oh well, the dynamics of modern warfare ... still a very fun and entertaining game.  In fact, every game we've played so far has been really good.  Ok, enough talk, on to the pictures ... 

Managed to take a few pictures with my phone as well ...

After the game I took a few "staged" pictures of the British entering and clearing the market area.

That's all for now ... back to getting my Dead Man's Hand stuff ready for DundraCon 2016 ... whoot!