I can see and I AM THE LAW!

 I have finally had my first cataract operation, following a screw up in May that resulted in the op being cancelled. While it was a totally weird sensation to have somebody poking about in my eye, the result is good so far. I can now see really clearly out of my right eye, while my left is still crap. Woohoo! I am happy that it is finally getting done and even happier that the result has been so good already. I now have 4 weeks of eyedrops and behaving so I don't put too much pressure on it but today is a damn good day.  Hopefully the wait for the left eye being done will not be too long.

Gaming wise I have not done much. I did play a game of Quartermaster General : Cold War with Stumpy, Andy and Zob. Andy and I were the neutrals, Nathan was the Soviets and Zob was NATO. We won, primarily because Zob concentrated on "beating" the Soviets, allowing us to concentrate on holding back Nathan's repeated incursions into our areas. It wasn't so much that we won as the other two lost, but I will take the win.

Painting has been limited due to my crap eyesight, although things are now better in that area obviously. My son has decided he wants to play Warlord Games new Judge Dredd game. I was brought up in the 2000AD period and JD was always good to read. So, a few shekels were parted with and he bought the base game. I then ordered Dredd and the Arch Villains box. I have painted the judges up so far, as you can see here. 

Dredd, Street Judge and Rookie

I like the figures, the detail is great and they paint up nicely. I am not a fan of the stupid little cast on bases but that is a minor niggle. I have to decide on a base style for them and it will either involve cutting off the cast base or building up the base to hide the cast base. Decisions will be made soon(ish). Junior is painting the gangers up.

The game itself is pretty good. Higher ranked judges are deadly, but weight of numbers and lucky dice can swing the game for the gangers. I managed to blow away a senior judge with a wounded juve ganger with a sawn off stub gun. I had great dice and he didn't(obviously) but it was a win for the gangers.

Anyway, that is it for now. Take care folks and I'll catch you next time.

Cold War British and a big cat.

 I can't believe its been nearly a month since I posted anything. My painting mojo did die after finishing the Wars of the Roses figures, but I should have posted something before now. 

So, here I am with another update on my meandering wargaming habit. I have finally painted up my 15mm Cold War British vehicles that were discussed way back in May/June last year. There is still no sign of the former Armies Army models appearing from Scotia-Grendel, so I have bitten the bullet and accepted that I will have to have various sizes of vehicles. So, after slapping some paint about I completed the mix of vehicles I had, adding more tanks and APCs, plus some AT and recce assets.

Team Yankee British Vehicles

All told I did 16 vehicles and a helicopter, more than doubling my British vehicle force.  This lot gives me enough to put on a decent sized game at some point, assuming we are ever allowed to get together again.

Gazelle AH1 scout

One thing I decided I wanted was a Gazelle helicopter as a recce element and annoyance for the Soviets. While it has no armament, it is a good scout and could spot the enemy advance, assuming it doesn't get shot down by a ZSU-23-4 or SA-9. The model is a French HOT Gazelle without the missiles and painted up as British.

Strikers, Fv432s and Chieftains

I needed some more basic elements as well, so 3 extra Chieftains and some additional Fv432s were added. One area I was sorely deficient in was anti-tank guided weapons, so I picked up a box of Spartans and made two up as Fv102 Stikers. These are small and fast, able to hopefully hit and then run before they get spotted and blown to smithereens. They are lovely little kits.

Fv438s

Another anti-tank option is the Fv438, an adaptation of a standard Fv432 APD with a twin Swingfire missile launcher. Nice enough models which at least gives me another option.

Chieftains

I only had a single squadron of 3 Chieftains, so added another. These are big targets that will attract a lot of fire, but they do look nice and pack a big punch.

Scorpions and Spartans

Reconnaissance is very important in Battlegroup games, as it is in reality. So I picked up a box of Scorpion/Scimitars as well. Two were made up as Fv101 Scorpions, with a short 76mm gun. These are lovely little models and will look the part on the table. I also made up a pair of Fv103 Spartan APCs to carry support teams such as Milan or Blowpipe teams.

Scimitars

Finally there is a pair of Fv107 Scimitar light tanks. these are identical to the Scorpions except they have a 30mm cannon instead of the short 76mm gun. 

So, there they are. All I have to do now is paint up a second platoon of British infantry and everything I have for the British will be done. Until I get some more that is, I want some AA support, either a static Rapier or a tracked Rapier system. Maybe a Lynx with TOW missiles too, just to use the gunship token if it ever comes out, maybe an AVRE Centurion too as an option.

Finally I got around to painting this wee beastie.

Warlord King Tiger

I have had this kit sitting on the shelf for about a year now so decided enough was enough, built it and painted it. I don't have any late war Germans so this will probably end up on ebay at some point soon, but it was a pleasant change to do something this big. It's a decent kit and comes with the options of both turret types, I just went with the Henschel turret as that was the most common.

That's the lot for now, stay safe and I'll catch you all later.

The French are here.

Another quick post as the varnish has dried on my WW2 French platoon. The figures were a Christmas present from my long suffering wife, which I bought and she promptly stole and wrapped up back in October. 

They are Bolt Action figures and, despite the lack of variety in poses, I reckon they look ok now they are painted up.

The Chain of Command French platoon has three squads of twelve men, each with an LMG and a rifle grenade(VB) launcher. The platoon HQ has two senior leaders, one junior leader and another VB launcher. The differ from other units as the VB launchers can all be gathered into a team under the HQ junior leader, thus giving the platoon its own inherent indirect fire support.

The only support team I have so far is a Hotchkiss tripod MG, although some more assets may arrive soon.

A closer look at the infantry. Not going to win any awards but at least they are all done.

I also picked up a couple of tanks, just because I liked them. First up is a Blitzkrieg Models Renault R35, one of the most numerous tanks in the French forces. It's small. it's slow and it has a pretty feeble 37mm short barreled gun, but it does have a decent level of armour protection.

Finally for now is a Warlord Char B1 heavy tank. It's a big beast and will use up a lot of support points, but it's a pretty model.

So there you go, some opposition for my early war Germans finally. I am off now to annoy the grand children as my daughter and her family couldn't get home last night due to asshats crashing in the 1/2" of snow we had and blocking the roads. At least I can still make a cuppa.

Early War Germans for a Operation Sealion game

I have fallen into the 25mm WW2 pit again. After selling all my late war bits a while ago I now find myself with a rapidly expanding Blitzkrieg German force. The platoon I posted last time has now been completed with the addition of a fourth squad, two commanders and some support options.

To start we have the additional squad. German platoons were reorganised from three squads of 13 men to four squads of 10 after the invasion of Poland, so that is what I have painted. Each squad has an MG34 and an NCO(Junior Leader) with an MP40, so there is plenty of firepower available.
The only dedicated support weapon inherent to the platoon was a 5cm Granatwerfer (mortar to you and me), a typically over engineered piece of kit that was of questionable worth. Compared to the British 2" mortar it was heavy(14kg vs 4.8kg), fired a similar weight of shell(0.9kg vs 0.96kg) to a similar range(510m to 460m). The 2" was more useful as it had HE, smoke and illumination shells while the 5cm only ever had HE.

The platoon command is made up of two senior leaders in Chain of Command, an Officer and a Senior NCO. They are joined by a tripod MG34 and its 5 man crew in this picture. Sustained fire MGs are awesome suppression weapons and are a vital addition to any force.

Some heavier firepower is brought by the le.IG 18 7.5cm infantry gun. A small and light weapon, this was used as direct support for the infantry with 6 being assigned to each infantry regiment. This has a 5 man crew and an NCO to command it.

To take out (hopefully) any enemy armour the Pak36 3.7cm anti-tank gun was used. This again has a 5 man crew with NCO in command and is a lovely little gun.


No German platoon is complete without some combat pioneers. These hardy souls were used for all sorts of dangerous tasks and were well trained and equipped. In CoC they come in 3 man "teams", either demolition, wire cutting, mine sweeping or flamethrower equipped. I have painted up enough to make 2 teams in total but with specialists to represent each of the types. Plus an NCO to lead them.

I also painted a deployment point or objective by using the Warlord German High Command pack to represent some senior officers discussing the battle. They are seen here with a forward observer figure to call in mortar or artillery support.



The final addition for the Germans(so far) is a pair of armoured vehicles. A mighty Panzer II and an Sdkfz 222 armoured car. Both are nice kits, the 222 is from Warlord while the cracking Panzer II is from Blitzkrieg Miniatures.

Just to keep it interesting I also bought a few bits of support for the British. From Footsore Miniatures I added a militia Vickers MG and Boys anti-tank rifle team. Cracking figures, these are the first VBCW I have painted for a long time.

Some transport has also been painted, a Humber 4x4 Heavy Car and Bedford OYD 3ton truck. These are from Anyscale Models and paint up quite nicely I think.


Armoured support comes from the Queen of the Desert, the A12 Matilda Infantry Tank. This is a heavily armoured monster in this period of the war. It's frontal armour was 76mm thick, more than double that of the contemporary German tanks (Panzer II/IV had 30mm) and more than the French "heavy" Char B(60mm). It even stands up quite well later on, the standard M4 Sherman only had 76mm thick armour. However it is slow, really slow. This one is another Blitzkrieg 1/56 model and looks great.

Finally there is the "secret weapon", a mighty Smith Gun! A real emergency weapon, the whole gun turned onto it's side to fire, the turntable and roof being wheels. It looks awesome and makes a nice change from the usual 2pdrs.

So, there it is. Most of these will be on the table today at the Devon Wargames meet. I'm off now to do something even less productive. Take care folks.