GothCon status

My Desert Rats for GothCon are nearing completion... All are assembled, converted and painted, just about half need their bases done. And if there's time they need to get a coat of matt varnish, as some are a bit glossy (due to the Pledge ;-)).

1 full platoon with:
Platoon HQ: 1 officer, 1 NCO, 1 AT team (2), 1 2" mortar team (2)
3 Sections, each @ 1 NCO, 1 Bren team (3), 6 riflemen

In support:
1 FOO team (2) - conversions from the standard plastics Perry box
1 Vickers MMG (5)
1 Universal carrier (3)
1 medical orderly
3 engineer teams: demolition team (3), mine clearing team (3) and wire clearing team (3) - all conversions from the standard plastics Perry box
1 company commander w radio operator
2 jump-off points for CoC

I have a Crusader Mk I, a Morris CS9 armoured car and a Dingo scout car on the way... Hopefully they get here soon, so I can complete them in time.
!Update: they arrived today (16 March) :)

My oasis is also getting along. I built it at our terrain day, but started painting it today. Dark brown basecoat. Once dry, it'll get drybrushed in several layers of ever lightening sand colour. Then it needs green flock, and some bushes, maybe even some reeds. Then the water pool in the middle will get a green-grey wash, and after that I'll fill it with 2 or 3 layers of Vallejo still water.

And finally, I have my first Germans ready painted, as we discovered we were a bit short on German infantry. About half a section of DAK and a platoon commander.

Where there's rats...

Look what's all of a sudden, as if by miracle, appeared on my painting table...

MG firing from the shoulder, inspired by Laffe ;-)

Desert Update

Basecoated the remaining desert rats tonight, and I've started the basing process on the others. They should be all done by the end of the week. Then for some Germans ;-)

Some quick (bad) pictures:

Hugh Jarce, the 2" and AT gun teams, as well as the MMG main base (2 loose figures are in the pic below), the FOO team and the Company commander's base.

Senior and junior leaders (on hex bases), the medic (the one with the red cross armband ;-)) and some troopers (on round bases - actually 5 eurocents)

The TFL jump off points.

Bases are a mixture of various decorative sand and stones that IKEA used to sell. Stuck to the bases with diluted wood glue (white glue). When dry, they will be wetbrushed with cheap sand coloured artist acrylics, then drybrushed after adding white to the same. Depending on how they look after the first wetbrushing, I might add a wash (soft or strong tone) and a drybrush with sand in between.

Oh, and I watched Arsenal beat Utd in the FA Cup 1/4 final while painting :-)

Penguin Terrain Day

We got together last weekend to build some terrain for our demo/participation game at GothCon. We found out we have very little desert terrain (although we discovered Jocke's 20mm houses are very useable).

So we set out and managed the following:

• 6 HE/smoke markers. Thomas glued these together with his brand new glue gun (and burnt his fingers in the progress), I then took them home and spray painted them.

• 4 sand dunes that I bought from Amera and that we painted
• a temple ruin, also from Amera, that just needs some finishing touches
• plenty of sangars and sangar walls
• an oasis of cork, caulk, sand and stones, that needs painting now
• based 13 palm trees (I'm now washing and drybrushing them)
• plenty of rocks and cliffs and loose rocks
• our battle mat - we had high ambitions to make one with caulk and sand and paint it. but we lowered our ambitions and just painted a beige bed sheet ;-)
• No pictures of most of the stuff, but I have some action pictures, from left to right
• Henrik painting sangar walls
• Jocke cutting cork for more sangars for the MMG and AT teams
• Thomas glueing smoke markers (and his fingers). Note his brand new glue gun! ;-)

Progress ;-)

Been a while but I've been busy. Busy painting that is, and building terrain.

First the carrier. It's ready , apart from basing (which I'll do when I do all my desert bases in one go, to ensure they're uniform). Painted, washed, highlighted, weathered. Crew and stowage added and weathered again. Some pictures below. Sadly I think that it looks much better IRL than on pictures, I have bad lighting on my paint table (a continuous discussion with SWMBO) and my painting style doesn't really show up will, I feel, on enlarged close-ups. But I'll leave you to judge that ;-)

Then I also started on my desert rats. First the Perry MMG team and company command I mentioned earlier. I also painted TFL special figure Hugh Jarce, but my pictures of him all turned out overexposed. I'll see if I can do better this week.

Then I started assembling the plastics, and I did some minor conversions: made a medic from an extra radio operator (simple head swap and giving him different arms), used the bits I swapped from the radio operator on a kneeling figure to make a kneeling radio operator, to go together with another kneeling figure who got an arm with binoculars from a German para officer and the arm with the pistol from the desert rat officer. Together they make up an FOO team. I also played a bit with the arms of the prone Bren gunner and created a kneeling Bren team. Not entirely happy with it, but it'll do.

All of these conversions and just over half a platoon of infantry are now painted. No pictures yet, I'll have to add some tonight or tomorrow.

I also assembled the rest of the platoon (finishing the first box and starting on the second) and did some engineer conversions (as I couldn't find enough desert engineers poses I liked). These are now assembled and waiting undercoating. Some pictures:

From left to right:

• Demolition team (3): 2 running with a box of explosives, 1 kneeling with a detonator
• Mine clearing team (3): 1 with a mine sweeper, 1 with a bayonet, ready to dig up a mine, 1 with a spade sitting back and waiting
• Wire clearing team (3): 1 kneeling with clippers (they did't turn out that well, but they'll do), 1 lying with Bangalore torpedoes, 1 with a rifle grenade. I might do another with Bangalores or something else, and use the guy with the rifle grenade as an ordinary soldier.

I was also thinking about a flamethrower team, but got some conflicting info on the "Life buoy" flamethrower that perhaps wasn't in use prior to 1943 or even D-Day. Anyone can shed light on that? I might still do an ft team later.

Some vehicles on the way (a Crusader tank, a Dingo scout car and a Morris CS9 armoured car. And then some DAK, as we see to have more British than Germans on the way for GothCon.