Last one before Christmas

At this time of year it seems to be usual to look back at what has happened over the year, but I'm not going to do that.  It's not been the best year, so I'm drawing a line under it now and looking forward.  In two days it's Christmas, a time for families, happiness and good cheer etc.  More importantly(at least to me!) it's my birthday as well.  The less said about the number of years the better, the scariest thing is that I am the youngest member of the Monday Night Group and I am beyond the age that I considered "Old" when I was a teenager.

Speaking of Christmas, I believe that my Secret Santa arrived this morning.  Postie gave me a box from Germany that was promptly whipped away by my wife and hidden before I could get any more details than that.  So, whoever you are that sent it, thank you in advance.

Ah well, looking forward to things I want to do/start/finish next year.  I have decided that I have enough platoons for Chain of Command now, so that has been put on the back burner of the painting table.  I am still going to get some more for Fighting Season, but not immediately.  I am also planning to get my ever expanding lead mountain/plastic pile reduced, so planned purchases are limited.

Projects I plan to do are
1 - 28mm Crusader period.  I already have some Fireforge figures purchased for this, additional units will be needed but not until I have painted the ones I have here already.
2 - Dragon Rampant.  I am getting the rules for my birthday and aim to recycle some of the Lord of the Rings figures to play it.  Little or no purchases needed for this.
3 - 28mm Fighting Season.  I have a British platoon(Airfix figures) and some unpainted Americans(Empress).  The plan is to get the rest of the American platoon and then look at getting some insurgent types.  Also I have several Airfix vehicles to make up as well.
4 - Kings of War.  I have been put onto this set by an old friend in Plymouth who has started playing them at the Plymouth Wargames club.  I have so far only had one game and that was using historical figures with no magic, but it was an enjoyable game.  I have dug out my old Warhammer figures now and am looking at dusting them off and having a go in the new year.  Again, little in the way of purchases are needed although, as you will see, I have bought a few figures and painted some of my lead mountain for it already.

So, that's the plan.  Shows that I intend to go too are Penarth, PAW, Legionary and Partizan, plus at least two Lardy Games Days.  That's health and finances allowing of course.

So that's the plan.  The last of this years painting has also now been done.  I am planning a major reorganisation of my painting pitroom between Christmas and the New Year, so painting time will be severely limited.  What I have got painted up are 20 of my old GW Dwarves plus 4 new Reaper figures from eBay.

 First up are 10 old GW dwarf warriors, 6 with spears.  If I ever see any cheap I will get some more of the spear figures as a unit of them would be useful in Kings of War.  I did used to have over 30 of them many years ago, but when Warhammer was rewritten and Dwarves had no spears anymore I (stupidly) sold them. 

 
Next up are ten more Dwarves, but armed with rifles this time.  Lovely figures, I really enjoyed painting these up.














First of the Reaper figures is an Earth Elemental.
 This is a big figure, the base he is on is 50mm square and he is wider than it as you can see.  I have painted it up in a style that I saw online, I think the mixed rocks look is nicer than just plain grey or brown.  This is the "new" addition for my old Dwarf army, the Stone Priests can summon elementals to fight for them and they are pretty tough.








 

Finally, 3 Reaper werewolves to join my Vampire Counts army.  They will make a change from the usual skeletons and offer a fast moving and hard hitting unit.  I have attempted to paint them up in three different wolf-like colours.  From the left we have a black one, a grey one and a brown one.  I am fairly happy with them, so they will do.

So, there it is.  I am off now so it just remains to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I'll see you after Hangover Boxing Day.  Hope you all have a good one.

Pre-Christmas Painting

Part 2 and the figures I have painted.  I have struggled to concentrate on anything really so it's been a case of doing whatever took my fancy.

GW Character figures

I have had most of these figures for years and have finally slapped some paint onto them.  Back row on the left is the Witch Hunter from Warhammer Quest, the other two are from the Mordheim range I think.  The front two are Bretonnian "Not Little John or Friar Tuck".

Ogre

This is an Ogre figure that I have had so long he's gone bald.  Nice details on the figure, he has obviously been in his share of fights and not come out unscathed. He will join my Ogre Mercenaries to make them 6 strong.

Pegasus, with BIG wings

 A Pegasus that I got from somewhere.  It's GW again and should have some sort of rider I think, but if it did he is long gone.   The wings are painted up to look something like those of a red kite, because I like them.

Big Unicorn

Another "horse" creature, no wings but a big sharp horn instead.  Again, it should have an elf rider but I don't remember ever having him/her.

Thrud, strong of arm and thick of head

A figure that needs no introduction to gamers of my age(old!).  Thrud the Barbarian has finally been painted and may well fill in as another Ogre.

Ripper Blgrot, Star Player Troll

An old Blood Bowl Troll that I have repainted.  It was green and really badly painted, it's now blue and hopefully looks better.

Minotaur, GW 1991

Another monster, this time it's the only Minotaur I have with a head.  I have another 8 bodies without heads......

Small, grumpy.......they are all called Nathan!

Four old Dwarves, just a small selection of the masses of unpainted Dwarves I have.

Stone thrower Roman device

Historical stuff finally.  A Roman stone thrower type thing that came from Gus.  No idea what it's called or who makes it, but it's a nice addition to the Roman force I haven't painted yet. 

Slithery warrior of Chaos

A 1980s Chaos snakeman.  I just liked this figure when it first came out and bought it.  It's only taken me over 30 years to paint it.

RB leader, finally painted to a fair standard

A Romano-British leader type.  Can't remember where I got him from or when, but a nice figure and a welcome addition to the warband.  Not a complete paintjob, more of a touch up and refurb.

 

Finally some more Romano-British.  These are Wargames Foundry figures that I have painted up for Nathan.  They have Gripping Beast shields as their originals were misplaced.  

All in all I have done alright.  there is another photo that I could put up, but it's for somebody else as a "Secret Santa" present, so pictures will appear after they have received them.  

Take care, I'm off now to do something less creative.

Ramblings and a BIG ACW game

I've been a bit lax updating here, so this update includes an eclectic mix.  Gaming has been rather lax of late, primarily because I am still feeling like a zombie half the time.  Sadly the rest of the time I am feeling worse. :(

Anyway, I am staying upbeat as much as I can(although I'm getting fed up waiting for news from the hospital now) and so I have been managing to pop along to the Monday night games.  I don't last too long there, but it's nice to get out for a bit.  Mostly we have been continuing an ongoing Twilight 2000 roleplay that we do for about 4 session each year.  They started this game long before I joined the group (about 20 years ago) and we are still running about trying to get back to NATO lines.  It's a laugh to get back to it though.  Last week we did another game of Blood age as Zob had a meeting to go too.  I left before it finished and was winning at that time so, despite the results once Zob came back and took over for me, I am claiming it as a win. ;)

I was taken out for a day last weekend as Nathan and Panjo took me up to Reveille in Bristol.  A pleasant local show, although the set up is a bit "old school" in lots of small rooms as opposed to the usual "everything in one big hall".  I picked up some tufts(to replace the ones my wife threw away accidentally), some Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors and some Perrys light cavalry.  We were only there a couple of hours but it was a pleasant trip and we had a good day.  I bought something else but can't remember what it was right now??????  Comments about age, senility and other such abuse will be ignored!

Union troops mass on the table

Back over the bridge boys!

 Yesterday was the Christmas game at the Devon Wargames Groups monthly meeting.  This year Chas had set up an ACW game using Regimental Fire & Fury in 25mm.  The various members pulled their collections together and set too on a large T shaped table.  I only stayed for about 2 hours but saw the masses gather and the game was just heating up as I left.  Over 2000 figures were on the table and each player had a characteristic that had some some of effect on the game.  As an example, Nathan's men hated him and got a bonus if he wasn't attached!  Bit like real life really. I'm sure that JJ is organising a post on there as I type this, so keep an eye out for better pictures and a more detailed report.

"Them dang Rebs is here sarge!"

The rest of the players

Devons mostleast wanted gather

Devons own Jon "David Bailey" Jones in action

Right, that's it for this post.  I will put up another one in a  minute with the painting efforts on it.  Back in a sec.

WW2 in 25mm! WHY????? and other things

First thing, I'm still here so prepare for more pointless updates and ramblings about assorted crap.  After the best part of a week in hospital I am now waiting for the consultant in Chelmsford to decide on a course of action.  Hopefully sooner rather than later, but at least things are moving on.

Wargaming is still suffering due to my health, but I have managed to get a few games in and even finished off some figures that I have had for a while.  Gaming has been mostly Blood Rage, another kickstarter that we went in for.  The game is pretty good with some nice nuances to make each game different.  The best thing about it is the miniatures though, they are truly lovely and I hope that I can do them justice when we start to paint them.

I have finally finished off some of the Perrys DAK figures I picked up on the Bring and Buy at the Bovington Wargames Show back in July.  My original plan was to paint them up to sell, but things have changed a bit.  I was impressed with the look of the figures, more realistic than I expected and a joy to paint up.  I am not overly impressed with the selection of figures in 15mm for North Africa, so I have decided to keep a platoon of these for any future games of Chain of Command. 

DAK Infantry Platoon in 25mm

Instead of just doing the basic platoon structure I decided to add a few bits to the platoon.  The basic structure is one senior leader, three squads of ten men each with two LMGs, a two man AT rifle team and a three man light mortar team.  I have decided to use mine as a standard infantry platoon as opposed to an MG laden Panzergrenadier platoon, so only needed one LMG per squad.  I added a second senior leader, a two man FAO team and moving figures for the mortar and AT teams.  All told it comes to 44 figures.  The plan is eventually add a few (very few) additions such as a tripod MG, Pak gun and maybe a Panzer II.  I also ordered a box of the British figures to give them something to fight against, but they will take a while to get painted.  

Another DAK platoon

 My purchase at Bovington included the contents of several boxes of DAK figures, so I organised and painted up a standard rifle platoon as well, these are to go on eBay to recoup my initial costs.  So another 36 figures joined the painted list.

Dark Ages Saxons by Gripping Beast

The last bit of painting I have managed was to finish off the last figures I needed to complete a Saxon force for Dux Britanniarum games.  I have had a Romano-British force completed for some time, but never got around to finishing off the Saxons.  Now I have and just in time for Nathan to use them tomorrow at the Devon Wargames November meeting. 

Ten Gripping Beast plastic figures, all painted and based ready to pillage the lands of the British tribes.  The shields are LBMS transfers as I'm too old and lazy to paint shields. 

I have also decided on my long term plan for next year.  I like Lion Rampant as a game and have decided to get together some more figures in order to use the rules a bit more often.  After a bit of looking about and pondering I have settled on a new period for me.  I am going to get forces to play Crusade period games, specifically based on the events very loosely portrayed in "Kingdom of Heaven", where Legolas Balien does his best to hold off the forces of Saladin.  I know it's Hollywood at it's best but I like the film and it has got my interested in the period, so it's all good.  Fireforge games and Gripping Beast will be providing the majority of the figures, with transfers by Battle Flag and Gripping Beast being used. 

So that's it for now.  I will try to take some pictures of the game tomorrow, just like I will try to last more than a couple of hours.  Catch you all later.

Blood Rage, insomnia, it's all go here.

It'a 01:23 and I should be trying to sleep.  However, as usual my body has decided that it's not up to me and so I am sat here wide awake again.  I remember being able to sleep for 8 hours, but it's been a long time since I got anything close to that.  Ho hum, it could be worse, at least I'm not Craig Joubert! It's bad enough that he so obviously screwed Scotland over, but to then be told by World Rugby that he screwed it up...........

Bear and Raven clan figures

Serpent and Wolf clan figures

Anyway, I managed another couple of hours of gaming this week.  Four of our group decided to go in for the Blood Rage kickstarter and it arrived a few weeks ago.  Last night we gave it a go, well the other three did while I checked the rules and adjudicated on any fights"disagreements" over the actions/events/cards etc.  The game is good, it's easy to learn the rules but there are a lot of things to make it interesting and entertaining.  Highlight for me though is the figures.  They are beautiful and I can't wait to get started on painting some of them.

Mountain Giant (Huge figure)

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the miniatures.  The sculpting is awesome and I just hope I can do them justice when I finally get to slap some paint on them.

All told there are over 80 figures in the set, including the 7 large monsters. 


We have also just gone in on the Urban Apocolypse Terrain kickstarter from Battlesystems.  We are getting enough to do a 4' square area, so a nice big table for any sort of modern/post apocolypse game.  It's going to be great to play all sorts of games on and I may finally find a use for some of these modern figures I have here.

Finally, I now have a date for my visit to the hospital.  Next Tuesday will see my freedom curtailed as I go in to have a longer tube fitted.  Annoyingly the duration of my visit has extended from the overnight visit the doc casually mentioned to a 4 day/3 night stay minimum, more if there are any "complications".  Not impressed but I am glad that something is finally happening.  Here's wishing for a lack of complications and an early release for good behaviour.

Well, that's it.  I am trying to paint some Perry Miniatures Afrika Korp figures but the mojo just isn't there.  I'll probably end up playing World of Warships instead.  Catch you all later

Finally did some painting and things are moving ahead

Sadly not much gaming has gone on lately.  I popped in to see the Devon Wargames meet last Saturday but didn't stay long as I felt rough.  Some nice games again, 28mm French Indian Wars, 15mm WW2 and Star Wars X-Wing were all played.  More info on the blog link above.

I also managed about an hour and a half at the Monday night game.  Zob and Colin were playtesting Fighting Season while Panjo and Andy were killing zombies again.  Shame I couldn't stay longer but yet again I felt like crap.

I have finally finished some figures though, so it's not been a total wipeout.  Yes, they have taken me a couple of weeks instead of a couple of days, but at least I got them done finally.  So, here they are.  Yes, it's more Warlord WW2 Germans, but these are the last of them that I have here.  I will probably get some of the new Falschirmjagers to play about with, but not just yet as finances are a bit tight.

 These 32 figures amount to a platoon for Chain of Command or a reasonable base force for Bolt Action.  Organised into 3 squads of 10 men plus a couple of officer types to lead them, these are the early war figures as opposed to the later war Grenadiers.

Speaking of Too Fat Lardies Chain of Command rules, there is a new release out in their "Pint Sized Campaigns" series.  Operation Martlet covers the actions of the British 49th Division against the German 12th SS "Hitlet Jugend" prior to Operation Epsom in Normandy 1944.  All the previous campaigns have been great to play and/or run, so I am looking forward to this one.

Right, leaving wargames now to less pleasant things.  My ongoing medical problems are hopefully coming to a crucial point.  In a few weeks time I will be going back to hospital to have a ryles tube placed from my nose down into my small bowel.  If it works then it's good news as it means they can do something to fix it, if it doesn't then I'm stuck like this.  Here's hoping that the tube works then.

Anyway, off now to do stuff.  Hope your all having more fun than I am. ;) 

Quick medical update, no wargaming included

So I am back from deepest darkest Chelmsford and the prognosis is more positive.  New consultant reckons he can help me and has a plan of attack to deal with my stomach/intestinal problems.  Hope has reappeared and it's nice to feel a bit positive for once.  I may end up under the knife and with a gastric pacemaker, but if it helps then it will definately be worth it. 

The only other bit of good news is that Wales have got out of the group stages of the Rugby World Cup.  Still have to play the Aussies tomorrow, so fingers crossed for a win for the Welsh.

Man of the Match Dan Biggar

I will update again when I have done something wargames wise, but for now that's all folks.

Zombicide, a few tanks and off we go

Sorry but I'm here again, just when you thought you were safe.

I have done little in terms of gaming or painting since I was last here, hence the lack of updates.  I have played a couple of games of Zombicide with the lads on Monday nights and last week we had a bash at Lion Rampant again, but that's been it.  I don't have any plans for anything major either.  I am missing this Monday and probably the following one too, so gaming is going to be really light for the next few weeks.

I have managed a small(very small) amount of painting so here are some dodgy looking pictures of some averagely painted figures and vehicles.

First up is some Zombicide figures, 15 assorted zombies that I needed to get finished. There are 9 walkers, 4 runners and 2 fatties, which finishes my share of the group purchase for seasons 1 and 2 of Zombicide.  I now have season 3's zombies to do, but that's going to take a while.

 Then we have a few of the survivor figures.  I painted them to look like they do on their cards, at least as closely as I could anyway.  They are based on (left to right)
Steven Seagal in Machete, Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead, John Goodman in The Big Lebowski, John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, Simon Peg in Shaun of the Dead and, at the back, Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Nice enough figures as usual, my favourite is John Goodman. 


The rest of my efforts have been aimed at my ever expanding 15mm WW2 collection.  The recently finished Russians have some reinforcements in the shape of 3 BT-5's and a massive KV-2, all made by Zvezda and easy little kits to make and paint.  That is it for the Barbarossa Russians now, I don't need anything else for them.

Finally I painted up a Plastic Soldier Company Tiger tank that I ordered in a sale they had.  I usually prefer the more common Panzers but it is nice to have some options available for the Germans.  I need to add some more weathering to it but I am happy with it at the moment.  I need to get a new pot of MiG powder to dirty it up so it'll have to wait until I get into town.


So that's it for wargaming over the last month.  Not much to report and it's looking pretty rocky for October too. 


I am off to Chelmsford tomorrow to see a consultant surgeon in the upper GI department.  Quietly hopeful that he may be able to at least alleviate my problems if he can't cure it.  Appointment is on Monday, but we are staying up there as travelling wipes me out.  Most things wipe me out at the moment, so I hope he can do something about it.

Well, that's it.  I'm off now to prepare for the England-Australia game.  Not saying who I'm supporting but I won't be too upset if Australia win.

Not much to see here

Hello again, it's time for another rambling post of no interest whatsoever.

I have done very little gaming over the last month, but still managed to do a little here and there. Chain of Command is still the favourite game here, so this post by Trailape is worth checking out if you are undecided about which way to go for a WW2 small action set of rules.  I have tried out both sets of rules and my preference is also for CoC.  That's not saying Bolt Action is bad, it's just a bit too much like Warhamster 40k for me.  Trailapes post also brought about a special offer from TFL, so if you are considering getting CoC, now is the time.

Purchases of lead and/or plastic have been limited by a serious lack of funds, being sick for so long has really hit the finances and belts have been tightened.  So I have bought nothing lately, but the lead mountain has grown somewhat significantly due the the amazing generosity of Gaz Amos (top bloke even if he still has a pornstar moustache).  After my previous post about Fighting Season he was kind enough to offer me some Mongrel Miniatures Arab and Syrian figures.  Assuming it was a pack or two I gratefully accepted.  A box duly arrived from deepest darkest Salford, but it was much bigger and heavier than I expected.  Opening it was like Christmas as a kid, I knew what I was expecting but what else was there.  Arab and Syrians but more of them than I expected, plus some Israelis and Congo figures from Mongrel, some US infantry from TAG and some Cold War Russians and Yanks to top it all off.  Thanks Gaz, you have restored my mojo a bit and paint has been slapped on lead for a change.

Painting has been a mixed bag, with several long delayed projects finally getting some work done to them.

 I ordered a 15mm factory from Sarissa Precision as all my buildings are residential so I wanted a change.  It came in a big bag and was a pleasure to build.  Unlike 4Ground it comes unpainted, so is a blank canvas and open to a wide range of paint schemes.  I sort of followed one that I saw on their website, except I added windows of plastic and printed off some roof tiles.  Paint was mostly from B&Q in tester pots with a few craft paints added.  All in all I think it came out pretty well and I am looking forward to seeing it dominate the table as it is 180mm square.

 The roof is removable and there is a walkway that the outside stairs lead up too.  I have some fencing arrived now so will be making up a yard for it, just to tie in with the other buildings I have based.

Following on from my German platoon for the Barbarossa period, I picked up a box of Battlefronts new plastic Russian infantry when we visited Battlegroup Souths show at Bovington tank museum.  They are nice figures and the box includes Maxim mg teams too, so plenty of firepower to support the Russian horde.  I did get the metal command pack as well to provide the 50mm mortar and flag bearer.   A quick check of the list for the Russian force in 1941 and the platoon was painted up.  CO(with a flag), 2IC, Commissar, 50mm mortar team and four squads of 13 men makes it a large platoon, but quite tactically rigid as the squads are not broken up into teams.  They will make a change from the Germans though, more a blunt instrument than a scalpel I think 

 I also picked up some support for the Russians, with some Zvezda T-26s and Plastic Soldier Company artillery.  The Maxims are from the infantry box, so the platoon is almost 100% plastic (7 metal figures out of 98).  The five T-26s are more than I will ever need for CoC, but a nice force for Battlegroup games.  Two Maxims, two 45mm AT guns and two 76mm infantry guns also gives a reasonable spread of support too.

Finally I purchased a Warbases Mark I tank (just because I could) a while ago and have finally got it put together and painted up.  It will be used for my VBCW force, based on the fact that many were sent out to towns as displays after WW1 and Newton Abbot was a major train depot so had plenty of engineer types to get it up and running again.  I have tarted it up a bit from the original.  I didn't really like the square gun barrels or exhaust pipe so I replaced them with some brass tube and I also added some Lewis guns to the sponsons and in the bow, courtesy of Colonel Bills supply store.  I am happy with how it has turned out and it is a much cheaper alternative than the others out there while still making a decent replica of the original. 

A final note about hospitals and such.  I am still p****d off with UCLH for the way they cancelled at the last minute, leaving us over £100 out of pocket in hotel costs.  I have now been referred to Mid Essex hospital in Chelmsford(getting further away every time) and should be there early next month to see a top man in the gastroparesis field apparently.  Fingers crossed and all that.

Catch you all later, I am off to do something less constructive for a bit.

Well FML!

Today is supposed to be the day I go to University College Hospital London to see a professor of gastroenterology.  Except they cancelled.  The day before I was due to go there! 

Apparently the appointment was booked with the wrong doctor, so basically it was "sod off tube boy".  How exactly can they book it with the wrong frigging doctor, his bloody name is on the referral letter for f***s sake.  Pissed off does not begin to cover it and we are now waiting to hear from them to see who I am seeing and when.  After all, it's only my life they are messing about with, it's only been three and a half years now.  

I am seriously fed up with it all at the moment, so planned posts are on hold or scrapped altogether.  When I get my head together again I will return, but it may take a week or two.

And it's raining outside, typical British summer.

Down, but not out.........

I'm still here, unluckily for some.  Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been struggling for a while with being ill for so long and it all got on top of me for a few days weeks months.  Still not back to normal, but things are better than they have been for a while.  Still being sick, still got stomach ache, still feel like crap, but I am off to University College Hospital in London on Thursday to see a new specialist so hopefully things will start to get sorted sooner rather than later.

Right, enough of the miserable crap and on to the important things.  Wargames!

I have struggled to get much of anything done since my last post back in June.  My concentration is sorely lacking and my patience has left the building.  I have "made" myself do some painting, but really not felt like it to be honest.  I managed to finish off a Warlord German Grenadier platoon that I had started back in June. These are nice figures and paint up easily, even with my level of skill.

I also got an engineer squad and attendant Sd251 Hanomag done.  The figures are Warlord again, but from the early war set with metal "pioneer" bits added.  They look the part and the extra bits do make them different from the usual infantry figures.  The Hanomag is by Rubicon and is a cracking model.  The kit comes with parts to make the engineers Sd251/7, the ambulance variant (Sd251/8) or the command Sd251/10 with a 3.7cm PaK gun.  I can't recommend this kit highly enough, it's a beauty. 



 Then it was onto something new.  The bunch of reprobates fine upstanding chaps that I game with on a Monday night are play-testing the forthcoming "Fighting Season" rules by Too Fat Lardies.  These are designed to cover the more modern insurgency(post 2000) conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan and are based on the Chain of Command system, but with many differences to allow for the less rigid style of combat.  So, I have been looking at getting some figures to play it and it worked out damn expensive.  I did plan to do it all in 15mm, but the lads all moaned about it being "too small for their ageing eyes to see" and "28's look better" and so on.  So 28's it is and, in my humble opinion  the best figures out there are Empress Miniatures and Eureka Miniatures.  Sadly both are a bit out of my price range at the moment.  So I looked about and came up with a cunning plan, at least for me it's cunning!  As I like to have enough forces to play the game at home I didn't need to worry about matching in with other peoples stuff so much.  I came across this blog and saw the 1/48 models from Airfix's "Operation Herrick" range and was sold.  A quick scout on eBay and a few models were winging their way to me. 
The initial purchase was an infantry patrol box and a Landrover Patrol box, which gave me 16 figures and a Snatch Landrover.  The figures are more realistically proportioned than wargames figures, but are close enough to the Empress figures that they will do.  Then a bargain appeared on eBay and I ended up ordering two more boxes, a bit larger but a lot cheaper.  These boxes gave me the extra figures I needed to make a full platoon, so here they are.  Three sections of 8 men, plus a command group of 6 and 3 "extras".  Not too bad and I am pretty happy with how they have come out.

The other bits in the bigger boxes included a pair of Landrover WMIKs, so I put one of those together as well.

Here are the 2 Landies, ready for action.  I had picked up the vehicle crew box as well, which gave me the crew for the WMIK and a spare figure for the Snatch.  Airfix models have certainly improved from my youth, the level of detail on these kits in amazing, even down to the mesh in the glass being replicated with decals.  I have some stowage to add to these from Red Zebra Models.  Very quickly delivered and beautifully cast, they will add that "lived in" look.

The final part of the boxes contents is a Lynx helicopter!  I was a bit concerned about this model as it is rated as a "5" for difficulty and it's been a few years since I have made anything approaching that level of complexity.  The instructions and parts are great though and it went together really well I think.  The WMIK was quite a complex model with 57 steps and 80+ parts, but the Lynx blew it out of the water.  There are 100 steps in the instructions and over 200 parts, plus over 150 decals.  I have modelled it as landed and with one door mounted GPMG.  It was quite a job to get it done, but I am fairly happy with it and hope it will be off use as an objective or something in the game at some point.  And yes, I do have another one to make at a (much) later date.  The price was too good to turn down, each box (8 men, 1 WMIK and 1 Lynx) cost £15!  An Infantry Patrol box(8 men) is about £10, so the price was definitely right.

Still to be made is the 2nd Lynx, another WMIK and I also have a Jackal to do.  And I would like a Warrior at some point....or maybe two. ;-) 

So there it is.  I will post again soon with a few pictures from the little bit of gaming I have managed over the last few months, but that's your lot for now.  Catch you all later.

Latest Chain of Command Platoon

I have finished them, so here they are for all to see and wonder!

Wonder, that is, why they hell I decided to do this force.  Basically, because I just love the little Sdkfz 250 series of vehicles.  Tiny little armoured personnel carriers, enough space to carry half a squad of men but costing practically the same to build as a full size Sdkfz 251 Hanomag.

But they are pretty little things.

 So here is the platoon in all it's panzer grey glory.  Seven Sd250/1 carriers with a single Sd250/10 3.7cm Pak carrier as support.  Seems that this is the full strength of a Panzer-Aufklarungsplatoon (gepanzert).  The actual platoon structure was identical to the standard panzergrenadier squads, 12 men per squad with two MG34s.  Where it differs is that two men were designated drivers for the Sd250's in each squad.  This only left 10 men and, by the time you take out a squad leader and six men to man the MG's, there are only 3 riflemen left.  Sustained combat is not going to be their strongpoint.  Fast assaults to seize objectives or exploit a weakness in the lines however, that they will excel at. 

The figures and vehicles are all Plastic Soldier Company.  In fact the figures are the same models I used for my Blitzkrieg Germans, just painted in fieldgrey trousers instead of light grey.  The vehicles are beautiful little models.  They come five to a box with a variety of options, APC version(250/1), mortar carrier(250/7), recce (250/9), Pak(250/10) and Panzerbusche(250/11).   The last one also includes the ground mount for the sPzB41 2.8cm squeezebore gun, which is going to be useful for my Falschirmjagers! 

So, here is my attempt at a Chain of Command list for a Reconnaissance Panzer-Grenadier platoon.  It has been checked over by the rules author, so is sort of TFL approved.  I'm going to give it a try anyway, just need to get some Russians as opposition.

 To support my new platoon I also purchased some additional Zvezda armour, four Panzer 38ts and a single Sdkfz 222.This gives me enough Pz38's to field a full strength platoon of 5 vehicles and a pair of Sd222's for scouting.

I also have another additional pair of Sd250/1's finished, to transport any support options such as engineer or MG teams.  So here are the ten Sdkfz 250's all together.  Look impressive, but I have a feeling that they are going to blow up easily.

So there it is, my latest addition to my Chain of Command forces.  Catch you later.