Test Model - 15mm Panzer III

A German Panzer IIIL, awainting assignment to the Eastern Front

While I continue to get slaughtered in Curt's Painting Challenge, to try and salvage some pride I have been doing some historical odds and ends from the painting pile in between strings of Napoleonic infantry.  It hasn't helped me too much points wise (I think I am languishing it seventh or eighth or something like that) but getting the entries in regularly at least lets me pretend I'm in the game.

One such project was this 15mm Panzer III from Battlefront. I think this particular mark was the "L", a late version, with a long-barrelled 50mm gun and extra layers of armour bolted on to the front of the turret (which I think is properly known as the "mantlet" or something like that) and the front of the hull (the "glacis"?).  These tanks fought in the North African desert and on the Eastern Front. 

I should probably add some tactical numbers to the turret - will do that after I finish the other two tanks

I have three-tank platoon of these sitting in my "pending" box already primed - hence their usefulness in the painting challenge.  I have a collection of 15mm WW2 for North Africa, and likely that is the source of these primed but-unpainted models.  I have an itch to get into some Kursk stuff in 15mm, so I thought I would experiment and see if I could paint one of these for 1943 on the steppe, in particularly trying to get that strange-but-cool yellow colour the Germans used on their tanks to look right.

I find that yellow ("Dunkelgelb", I think) very tricky to pull off, but I love how it looks when it's done well (by other people, pretty much).  For my attempt at it, I used black primer (of course), then GW Snakebite Leather as a base colour, and GW Desert Yellow as the main colour. 

I've heard a lot of feedback from folks saying the Battlefront Spray Paints are the way to go.  I'm not big spraying anything other than primer, but that's probably just me being stubborn.  At some point I might invest in one of those sprays - especially if I decide to dive in an do a real project on this...at the end of the day, though, I just enjoy the painting.  The sprays kind of take that away...

In this shot you get a good view of the extra armour bolted ont the front of the turret and hull 

With this test model out of the way, I will probably finish off the other two tanks, and will throw some tactical numbers on the turrets. My project list for the early winter of 2012 is already packed with fun stuff, so it will be a while before I come back to 15mm WW2 after that, but hopefully I will start a 15mm Kursk New-Insane-Project in time for the summer - maybe Prairiecon?

Hey Krylon - Get Bent - It's Not Me, It's You

Victrix 28mm plastic Austrians all f*cked up courtesy of Krylon black spray

Late last year I ran into a little problem with some Krylon primer while working on a plastic model kit - a GW Predator tank.  I was quite angry, and vented on the blog.  Readers provided a number of helpful tips to avoid future repeats - clean the sprues first, make sure you don't spray in the cold etc.  All very sensible.

Many, many years ago, I used to use Krylon seal on my models, until it wrecked a set of painted figs. I have never gone back (it's Dullcote or GW 'Purity Seal' for me now).  But the Krylon black spray, with its elegant fan-style spray and much-less-awful odour, seemed like a real treat.  While I categorically refuse to use Krylon seal to this day, I figured there was no reason to avoid the black undercoat.

Then the incident with the Predator happened - probably a fluke, right?

Well, it happened again, this time with some Victrix 28mm plastic Austrians.  I cleaned the sprues, I sprayed indoors, so temperature wasn't an issue. And it still f*cked up the figures.  So I figured it was a bum can. I switched to a second, brand new can.  Cleaned the sprues. Sprayed indoors, so temperature would not be an issue, etc. etc. SAME THING - the photo above is the result.

So just a short post to Krylon - it's not me, it's you. Get bent!

I now remember why I refuse to touch your products. And I recommend to anyone else that extreme caution be exercised when using Krylon spray on plastic models.

Battle Report - 15mm Sci Fi

15mm Sci-Fi action during our game this week

Yesterday we assembled at Dallas' place to play some 15mm sci-fi.  Previously we have been using the Future War Commander rules to play these games, but this week Dallas and the gang politely indulged my drive to fiddle with rules and play the game using a home-baked variant of the Epic 40,000 rules engine.

Dallas' beautiful Earth Force troops from Rebel Minis



Dallas' very cool UNE Superfortress Colossus - see this link for more on this model

 The scenario pitted my "Federal Forces" (Khurasan Federal Army and Control Battalion with vehicles from Khurasan and Old Crow) against Dallas' "Earth Force" faction (with infantry and vehicles from Rebel Minis, and one monster walker that I believe is now OOP...).

Control Battalion and tanks wait in reserve for the Federals

The Federals had occupied a settlement, and Earth Force was determined to re-capture it.  The Federals started with an army detachment dug into the buildings, and the rest of their detachments in reserve. Earth Force came in on the first turn, and the Federals would have to roll for reserves...whoever had the settlement at the end of 10 turns, or broke the other side first, would win!

Dallas and Mike F took control of the Earth Force, while Brian and Mike A went with the Federals.

Federal troops occupy the objective buildings - models from Khurasan

The game was hard fought.  Over the first couple of turns, the Earth Force guys pounded on the Federal troops holed up in the settlement.  Mike A and Brian managed to damage some Earth Force APCs with AT fire.  Dallas and Mike F then sent the lads in for a massive close assault.  It worked - the Federal Army detachment was broken and driven out the objective.

Mike F's mechanized detachment hits some AT SNAFUs early in the game

Overheard shot of the first Earth Force assault - the Federals were overwhelmed

After this happened, the Federal Reserves arrived - a mechanized Control Battalion platoon, two medium tanks and a pair of super-heavy "Siler" tanks. Mike A and Brian launched a bold assault with the fearsome Control Battalion.  It was a success, but was something of a phyrric victory, as the margin of defeat for the Earth Force detachments was very narrow.  Dallas and Mike F's detachments were tossed out of the objective, but they inflicted heavy losses on the Control Battalion units.

Control Battalion leads a fierce counter-attack against the Earth Force troops

At this point, Dallas was bitten by some bad rolling, and a mechanized infantry detachment that "should" have rallied quite easily opted to continue retreating instead.

The Control Battalion remnants continue to battle for control - APCs are models from Old Crow

Despite the setback, the remaining Earth Force troops found their nerve, reorganized, and counter-attacked, as the massive UNE Colossus Walker continued to close in on the objective.   The game became a series of closely fought firefights and assaults.  Mike A and Brian won nearly all of these with some hot rolling, allowing their Control Battalion remnants to cling to the objective.

Another close-up of the heavy fighting - this would have gone better for Earth Force if that one detachment had not chickened out....

Meanwhile, the Siler tanks exchanged hits with the giant Colossus Walker.  Eventually the weight of fire from the Federal Side took out the shields and knocked out the walker.  The loss of the vehicle was the final straw, and the army morale of the Earth Force side broke.  It should be noted, however, that at that time, they were still contesting the objective, allowing Mike F and Dallas to claim a Thorpian Moral Victory. The battle was very, very close, going down to practically the last turn.

Siler tanks concentrate on the massive UNE walker

The Colossus is wreathed in the "smoke of victory" after knock-out hits from the Siler tanks

Full credit to all players for pursuing the objective with great gusto - in nine turns, I think there were like three close assaults and four more firefights.  The objective buildings changed hands several times during the game. It sort of became necessary to destroy the settlement in order to save it...

Thanks to Dallas for hosting, and to everyone who came out to play. Thanks also to all for showing patience while we worked through the adaptation of the Epic 40,000 rules.

IR #27 - 28mm Austrian Napoleonics

IR #27 prepares to face Napoleon and his cronies

Over the Christmas Holidays I was able to finish another Austrian line battalion - IR #27, from Styria.  These are based for the "Food for Powder" system used by Regina Conscript Curt C, which takes a very "grand manner" style approach to the game.  That means huge units for the Austrians, and these fellows are no exception - 39 infantry and one mounted officer.

The "sticks" on the assembly line - by this point with any unit, I'm pretty fired up as the end is in sight!

The models are all Wargames Foundry, and they are based on 30mm x 50mm bases, with the exception of the command in the centre, who are based on a 60mm x 50mm base - giving a "frontage" of 15mm per casting. The flags are from Brian H.

Drying into place on the metal bases from Wargames Accessories

I started these guys late in 2011, and managed to get the balance finished and get it all based up in time for the New Year.

Close-up of the command showing Brian's excellent banners

The left flank of the unit - I still need to practice with the long grass....it looks like a cannon is hitting, instead of anything natural...oh well

Right flank of the unit, with an officer urging the lads forward as they approach some more of that strange grass...

View from the top

Curt and I are getting together in late January for a game, so I am working hard to add reinforcements to my Austrian column in time.  This will make a third "German" line battalion for the column, joining a "Hungarian" battalion and a battalion of Grezner infantry.  These also gave me a few points for Curt's Painting Challenge (where I am getting creamed, but am at least ahead of Dallas - I think there is a gift certificate for that).

My map table at home - a big pile of Austrian lead!

The OB for our scenario calls for six Austrian line units (at reduced strength), a large artillery battery to be represented by six guns, and a pair of cavalry units.  That means three more infantry units and four more gun teams in time for late January.  It will be a real stretch.  Too bad I can't paint like this guy.  But the reduced strenght of the units gives me a bit of an "in" (32 figures instead of 40), and I have already finished two more guns - watch for another post on that soon.

New ATGW for the Chemical Commies

"NATO tanks sighted dead ahead.."

I find miniature companies fascinating and baffling all at once.  Fascinating, because the skill of the sculptors and casters is amazing (or, amazing at most companies) and they create awesome stuff that we enjoy painting (or at least saying we'll paint) and gaming with.  And baffling for the way in which they will casually miss the mark with make-up of their collections. 

Trusty AK on hand for back-up use against NATO infantry.

Eureka is a company like this - home to all sorts of amazing products, but companion ranges that don't always mesh, exactly.  The Soviets in NBC gear are a great example - you would imagine they would be a perfect OPFOR to the West Germans, and now US, in NBC gear as well.  And yet their special weapons are bafflingly out of date - old Sagger missile systems going up against the MILANs and automatic grenade launchers of the West Germans.

The base is a 60mm round weapon team base from GW.  I never have enough of those...

Fortunately, one easy conversion gives my commies a bit of an up-gun on the ATGW side.  The modern ATGW systems used by the Soviet Union/Russia looked very similar to the MILAN (I'm sure there are key difference in components, switches etc. but at 28mm scale, I don't think it matters).  Eureka kindly sells the MILAN launchers as separate pieces, so I hacked up a Chemical Commie Sagger crewman and gave him a MILAN instead.

Top view of the figure.

The end result is a reasonable representation of a Soviet trooper in NBC gear using (or more likely, trying to use) a modern ATGW system, like an AT-4 or AT-5 launcher.  I doubt those things are easy to use in the best of conditions, much less through an NBC suit made by a Belorussian collective farm, but at least we have a serious AT missile to fling at the NATO lackeys.

The original Sagger model is on the right - I couldn't quite match the groundwork, but it's not too far off.

This didn't do much to help me in Curt's painting competition, where some fellow with the handle "KentG" is obliterating all of us by painting like 300 28mm Romans just for starters.  But the Commies are always pleased to see the efforts of the motherland yield new weapons systems for their use.

I have some other conversions in the hopper to up-gun the Chemical Commies and get them on par with their Bundeswehr and US counterparts. 

Plans for 2012

Well, another year is here - hopefully one with less chaos at work and no moving to new homes! I've actually managed some progress on my fall 2011 project pile, and seeing as how the Black Powder countdown is now way out of date, it was time to ditch it from the blog, and move on to other projects.   Here are a few things sitting in the priming/painting hopper at home that I'm hoping will be reasonably/mostly done by the time the snow melts...

More 28mm Austrians

I will never paint enough to come even close to making a dent in the leader board of Curt's formidable Painting Challenge. Be sure to visit the Analogue Hobbies blog - the quality and diversity of the entries is stunning, and just when you think you paint a lot, you realize there are others that crush you. Oh well.

Curt and I are getting together at the end of January for some gaming, and the 28mm Austrians will make another appearance.  I'm hoping to reinforce my current force with three new infantry battalions and four new artillery sections. So far I have added one of the infantry units, and two of the gun pieces.  Not quite half-way there, but I'm bearing down to try and finish before I leave for Regina by the end of January. 

15mm Sci-Fi

I was a late-commer to the 15mm sci-fi madness, but it was still fun.  The spectacular quality of the miniatures is really something - Khurasan, in particular stands out here, with 15mm castings that really blow away the competition.  So far we have been basing the 15mm infantry in groups on Flames-of-War style bases.  That works fine for the games, and I like it a lot, but the Khurasan stuff is just so nice that I want to do some guys up on individual bases.

I have finished a few of them already, but have run out of bases so the project is stalled for now (I called this project state the "Litko Condition").  Watch the blog for some pictures of new figures with this project.

Rogue Trader

Our gaming group has some good fun with Rogue Trader. I am going to add some more components to my Imperial Guardsmen, including an Assault Squad, a Support Squad, and a squad of Penal troops.

I have also cobbled together the bits to do an homage to Pedro Cantor's detachment of survivors from the Battle At The Farm Scenario.  These are not original RT-era figs, but I'm doing my bit with the current models to try and get them to resemble the RT era look.

Finally, I have a secret RT project...just waiting for some stuff to come from E-bay, and waiting until my Austrians are finished - but hopefully we'll be able to have more RT fun in 2012!

Blood Bowl

I've never played the game, but it seems like a hoot. Dallas has his rats ready.  I have a Khemri team - just need to paint them up for Dallas...

Other Odds & Ends

Some other small plans include...

Chemical Commie Upgrade - my 28mm Chemical Commies are starting to get a bit out-gunned by the Bundeswehr, and now US troops, in their MOPP suits.  I have done a minor conversion to get my chemical guys some modern ATGWs, and have some other plans to increase their firepower, using bits from Eureka...

More Spearhead stuff - there is never a bad time to add more stuff for Spearhead...

So that's what I'm working on for now...as we go along, I'm sure new things will pop up to distract me. In particular I keep hearing rumours of new Imperial Guard plastics, which would be cool, because the current ones just don't inspire me...

Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks again to Dallas and Pam for an amazing New Years Day game!

Berlin '85 - Chemwar! New Year's Battle Report

In accordance with ancient custom, once more this year I hosted a New Year's Day game. This year we went with tried and tested themes - World War III and zombies. The (admittedly thin) backstory is that World War III started in 1985, and the ensuing nuclear, biological and chemical exchange has created "chem-zombies" - lurching, half-dissolved horrors that crave nought but the flesh of the living.

Into this fairly bleak setting, behind Soviet lines, we drop a downed Blackhawk helicopter bearing some secret item (upper centre of photo), which the Americans (centre at right) must recover or die in the attempt. Add chem zombies, and Robert's your mother's brother, you have a game.

View from the US table edge

Factory buildings containing barrels of "fun sauce"

chem zombies in fun sauce barrels

Scattered liberally around the table were chem zombie spawning points, represented by Eureka's excellent barrels-with-zombies models. These barrels became known as "fun sauce" containers for obvious reasons.

Some of these barrels are not like the others...

Since this is essentially a skirmish game, we use a tried-and-tested variant of our favourite simple skirmish set, GW's "Lord of the Rings". It gives a straightforward, fun game, and with the state of some of the boys' noggins on New Year's Day, we like to keep it simple.

Downed chopper is a very nice "toy" model

Soviets suited for the occasion

All of the models used in the game were sculpted by Kosta Herastinides for Eureka Miniatures. We used his excellent zombies, Soviets in NBC gear, and my newly-painted US infantry in MOPP suits.

 

Conscript Brian tried a flank march along the table edge...

...but couldn't avoid the chem zombies!

 

 

Conscripts clockwise from left: Kevin, Mike A., Greg, Dallas, Frederick, Brian, Dave V.  Mike F. and Cam showed up later

As it turned out, the Americans failed to achieve their objective, so the nude photos of Nancy Reagan or whatever was so important in the Blackhawk remained unrecovered. But we had a fun time all the same.

I owe special thanks to my wife Pam for whipping up a spectacular German lunch for us, and to Conscripts Mike A. and Dave V. for bringing snacks.  Thanks lads!