Frozen

My daughters (aged 5) have been looking at Daddy's figures for a while now, so I thought it was time they got some figures of their own. For display, mainly, maybe a bit too soon to get them playing, I guess. As they like/love the Disney movie Frozen, I looked around for some figures matching that. Annie, the ever lovely Dice Bag Lady @ Bad Squiddo Games has some North Star figures called Two young Fire Elementalists that would be a nice match for Anna and Elsa, if painted in the right colours. Olaf was a bit more difficult, but a bit of a search in Thingyverse and help from a colleague at work who is a 3D printer fanatic got me figures for them as well. Now I guess I'll have to go source some Kristoffers and reindeer as well ;)

Some progress pictures:

Annas and Elsas blockpainted and ready for wash, Olafs primed grey

Annas and Elsas closer up

First set as good as done, some details left on the girls and forgot Olafs eyes

Second set at the same stage, set in the background. 

All figures were primed light grey with Vallejo Surface Primer. The girls were then blockpainted with thinned down paint and washed. All the blues were washed with Drakenhof Nightshade, thinned down in various degrees for the light colours, almost straight for the dark blue on Anna. Faces, red cape, fur (on the cape) and hair were washed with (somewhat thinned down) Army Painter Strong Tone wash. After that, all the colours were highlighted to various degrees, the blues on Elsa with several shades, the other colours just with the basecolour again. Thinned down paint, so the application of one or more layers gives different hues and shades.
Olaf was just wetbrushed several times, then the nose, "hair" and arms painted and highlighted. Some white highlights on the body, and the eyes and buttons painted black. Now I just have to paint in the eyes and eyebrows.

Varnishing and basing left to do, pondering whether to have one large base for each set, or individual bases per figure...

Secret Santas

I'm quite pleased with the stuff I got from my Secret Santas :)

This year I participated in 3 of these, one was Chris Stoesen's, where you paint something for your "target". The other is the original Secret Santa by Ian and Catherine Wiley where you send your target something wargames related worth around £15. Finally we had our own little Penguin Santa thingy between Jocke, Thomas, Laffe and me, with some meddling (errr... help) by Chris ;-)

I've received 2 presents to date, and have been told the 3rd is on it's way. I opened them on Christmas Day, together with my daughters (well, I let them open the presents, there good at it, having had loads of practice again this year ;-))

Out came these two nice presents:

2 packs of Perry dismounted Union cavalry

Perry British 6pdr for North Africa

Both of these were on my wishlist, and will come in very handy. The first as skirmishers for our SP2 ACW project, the other for our ongoing CoC North Africa project. I'm planning on getting both painted soon ;-)

Thanks very much to my Secret Santas ;-)

Bad Squiddo Games kickstarter

Wednesday 16 November 20:00 CET, Annie at Bad Squiddo Games / The Dice Bag Lady is launching her first ever kickstarter, Ghosts of Gaia. 6 kick-ass post-apocalyptic ladies, hopefully stretching to 10 if all the stretch goals are met. And laser armed guinea pigs if we get even further! ;-)

Get in there and support her!

In Annie's own words:

"TOMORROW! I am launching TOMORROW! Ghosts of Gaia, 28mm post apocalyptic badass ladies. There are 6 in the opening pledge, but with another 4 to be unlocked - and if we get that far, a nice deal for em all. 

If we get that far.....then.............. guinea pigs with fricken laserbeams?

Full line up shots and more to come before launch,

Start spreading the news (if you haven't been already), I've been a bit rubbish at my usual "tell the whole internets!" of late because of just having so much to do, so any help is appreciated so much!

Woo!

Cheers
Annie

Bad Squiddo Games"

Check her Facebook page for more info

2017 wish list (for all sorts of secret santas ;-))

My wishlist for 2017 ;-)

• Perry Confederate Infantry
• Perry ACW dismounted cavalry and horse holder
• Perry ACW camp set 1 or camp set 2 (for SP2 deployment points)
• Renedra fences or fences on low stone wall
• GW Son of Eorl
• Perry tropical FJ riflemen
• Perry tropical FJ MG42 teams
• Perry tropical FJ support teams
• Perry Desert 6 pdr AT gun

Look ahead at 2017

Long time no update and I'll have to sort that out soon, I have done quite some painting this summer.

Now however, I want to take a quick look ahead to next year and my projects. But first a little reflection on what I had planned for this year...

1. Desert 28mm (mostly Perry miniatures)...

Nope, nothing of this happened. Maybe next year ;-)

2. Our Dux Gondorum project, Dux Brittaniorun in a Middle Earth setting...

YES! I got some LotR stuff in one of my Secret Santas, which enabled me to sell off my Normans to Thomas. I painted up quite a lot of the second hand stuff I grabbed last year, mainly Uruk Hai, more than enough to play Dux G, and actually managed to get a couple of games in against Thomas and Jocke. They even saw action in Open Combat (less succesfully...). I seem to have all I need for this project, though, so nothing extra planned - just more painting and playing.

3. Extending my AB miniatures British paras...

Bought some extras from Battlefield miniatures and got more than a platoon's worth of AB and SHQ figures for free from Thomas and Laffe. I painted 2 platoons with supports and a recce jeep squadron of these, and hopefully can get the rest done this winter. Nothing more is planned for these, as with the stuff I still have to paint, I can field a well supported company! We need to get our Normandy or Arnhem campaigns started for these!!!

4. Frostgrave

Managed to get a warband or two together, and played one or two games. Hope to paint some of the extras and monsters I have, and get some more games in, but will not get anything extra for this.

5. Perhaps start Norwegians, Dutch or Belgians for CoC for WWII in 20mm

Didn't happen either, although I am supporting May 40 Figures's new 28mm Dutch figures startup. So this may mean this happens in 28mm next year instead...

6. Our French in Indochina project...

We had a series of very successful demos at GothCon using/testing an as-yet unpublished supplement to CoC, and I have about 2 sections worth of infantry and some support (including a Bison tank) to paint.

So, then, onto next year's projects... And yes, this is a nice wish list for the various Secret Santas I'm in ;-)

1. Sharp Practice. Thomas and I are keen to get into ACW with SP2. I'll probably get one or two of the cheap-ish plastic Perry boxes (probably the new Union infantry box and the Confederates box, to have some for both sides, or even some Cavalry). I could also do with some dismounted cavalry or other skirmishers (e.g. these or these). Should be a relatively quick and cheap project, although we may also want some terrain (houses or fences or more fences).

2. Dux Gondorum. I'll continue painting most of the second hand figures I grabbed last year, but nothing additional is needed, perhaps a "Son of Eorl" to use as a mounted leader for my Rohirrim. Hopefully we can get some extra games in, as this was fun and my Uruk Hai seem to be on a roll.

3. WWII Desert 28mm. As I haven't done anything with it this year, the situation is unchanged: "most of the stuff is done for this, but I may need a British 6-pdr, as we saw in our last games, when the German armour comes on, that the Boys rifles and 2 pdrs can't cut it. I also want to extend my German FJ för the Ramcke Brigade (that can also extend to Sicily, Italy and at a pinch even Normandy) with some extra troops, e.g. more riflemen, support, even MG42s, and the cool LG40 75mm RCL, or the sPzB AT gun"

4. Frostgrave. I have some loose figures and some monsters left to paint, and I hope we can play a bit more, but I won't get any extras for this. 

5. WWII 28mm. I've supported a friend's startup, which should get me some 28mm Dutch for 1940. I might get some early Germans or FJ to go against these. Foundry has some nice ones, and obviously Warlord has the Blitzkrieg plastic box. I've also got some of Annie Norman's (The Dice Bag Lady) Russian Women of the Red Army that I'll paint up this year and maybe add some other Russians to. Laffe has plenty of Germans he says ;-)

6. Indochina - I feel I have all I need for this project for the French side (and about 20 figures still to paint)

A summarised wishlist can be found here

These are not the droids you're looking for

Sometime last year I promised a friend of a friend to paint the figures that came with his Imperial Assault base set, and I did some storm troopers earlier 

Fire away, they won't hit anything anyway...

A lot of other things got ahead of painting more Star Wars in the meantime (Indochina, Paras, even some Frostgrave...), but now I felt it was time to paint some more of these. Here they come...

The 3 droids from the set. I used 3 different metallics as base (bronze, silver and gun metal), with appropriate washes and drybrushes, The gun metal one even has some patches of rust). Different colours for the leds/lenses as well.

e-Web engineers with heavy lasercannon (or whatever it is); 3 Imperial Navy officers (in 3 different uniforms); 4 Royal Guardsmen

 From the Imperial side, there's only Lord Vader left, as well as the 4 bounty hunters and 3 ferocious animals. Oh, and the AT-ST. And then there's all the rebels of course... I got them all undercoated, will try and finish them soonish.

Back to the Paras...

It's been a while, but here's another para update... Thanks to the box I got from Laffe and Thomas, and which contained more than a platoon's worth of figures plus some supports, I can now complete a full company, with bataljon and brigade level supports.

So, what have I been doing since the last update:

Company CO, mix of Blitz and SHQ

A bunch of 12 paras from Blitz

Another batch of paras from Blitz (11 of them, 4 NCOs, 2 snipers, an ammo bearer for the PIAT and some riflemen)

A PIAT gunner from the Blitz PIAT pack

The Kubelwagen and the Jeep are from Academy, the crew is all SHQ
(Jeep and its crew were in the box from Laffe and Thomas)

A flamethrower team, all SHQ figures (kindly donated by Laffe and Thomas)

3 JoPs for CoC - all from Blitz's "Para supplies pack"

Another JoP for CoC. The models are TQD (actually Polish paras, but the difference is minimal)

75mm pack howitzer (Airfix) and crew (Blitz)

More paras on the painting table now:

• 4 more jeeps (another Academy one, the Airfix one, with the trailer, and the two from S-models), with around 18 SHQ crew
• Airborne Morris (SHQ) and 17lb AT gun w crew (Blitz)
• 2 more JoPs: 2 paras w trolley and an HQ set (4 officers and a radio operator around a table) (both from SHQ) 

Toofatlardies' Summer Special

Just a quick message that TooFatLardies Summer Special is out. Read all about it on their blog:

Filled with all sort of goodies:

Introduction
The usual waffle from the less-than-dynamic duo.

Death Road to Corunna
Alfredo Vitaller & chums from Club dragon in Madridpresent a chilly Napoleonic campaign for Sharp Practice

A Fast & Dirty Guide to Tactics
Playing Sharp Practice and looking for top tactical tips?  Look no further.

Let’s All Get Equally Confused
Two Operation Torch scenarios for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum from Charles Eckart in the USA

Team Desobry
Men of the midlands, Ade and Al, head for the Ardennes as Team Desobry defend Noville in December 1944 with Chain of Command

109 Beat It
Jim Jackaman takes on the Hun over northern France with Bag the Hun

George Washington’s Indian War
Simon Walker applied his war-paint and looks at this little known but rather spiffing war for Sharp Practice.

On the Trail of Fort Jefferson
A scenario for the above conflict.

Our Moccasins Trickled Blood
Another Indian War scenario.  You know that they say, red moccasins…

At the Sharp End…of the Runway
Some campaign ideas for Bag the Hun from James Crate in the US of A.

Binky Faversham’s Guide to Banter
Tally Ho chaps, Caribou nibbling on the croquet hoops, Scramble!  Binky makes sense of banter from his high security psychiatric institution

The Company Commander in Big Chain of Command
Len Tracey suggests uses for the main man in large games of CoC.

Matching Scale and Wargames
La Roundwood introduces us to fine are and even finer figures for the Thirty Years War

The Japanese Army 1936-42
A guide to Japanese tactics from Len Tracey in Australia.

George of the Jungle
An IABSM scenario set in Burma in 1945 and starring George Macdonald Fraser.

A Fighting Withdrawal
A Dunkirk perimeter campaign for Chain of Command.  Can you save the BEF?

Itching to Mix It
The Hun are raiding Swanage.  It was the last time anyone went there out of choice.

America’s First D-Day
Charles Eckart presents a US-Mexican War amphibious landing.

Kernow’s Corner
A last-ditch fight for the DCLI as they stand up to the German Spring Offensive of 1918.  A Muddy CoC scenario.

Tanks in the Wire
The NVA attack a US Special Forces camp in 1968  A scenario for Charlie Don’t Surf from Ross Bowrage.

It was just my Imagi-Nation…
An introduction to Big Rich’s Seven Years War project.

The Khazi is Revolting
An Indian Mutiny Scenario from the Deep Fried Lard Games Day.  Can you get the Major Piles Relief Column through in time?

Saving the Honourable “Tootles” Ash
A cinematic adventure into WWII with a  rescue mission for Chain of Command.

The Roundwood Report
Sidney discusses firing mechanisms and much else with Big Rich.

Creating Facts on the Ground
Fighting the Six Day War Lardy Style with Robert Avery

Vadavoom.... (well, sort of...)

Some pictures of jeeps I've been doing for my British Airborn...

Comparison shot of Laffe's jeep and the new Airfix one

The new Airfix "Airborn" jeep - it comes with a trailer and a 75mm pack
howitzer. Plus some stowage. I've added an undocumented option that's on the sprues
Vickers LMG.

The new Airfix "Airborn" jeep package

I've now completed the jeep I got off Thomas, who got it off Laffe. Probably it's the Academy one

I've also almost completed another 24 paras, some quick pictures here, better (hopefully) pictures when they're all done. That's over 100 paras now, plus the jeep, the 6lb and the Vickers.

Blitz minis

Blitz minis

Still more paras

Jepp, you've guessed it... Another batch of a dozen paras completed. More crew for the guns, including some junior leaders. A padre. A 2" mortar team. And finally a Forward Observer team. Mix of AB and SHQ figures.

This gives me a total of 80 paras now, a full platoon, and parts of a second platoon. Plus supports, a.o. a 6lb AT gun and a Vickers MMG. 

Next: even more paras - just over 30 Blitz figures. These are the remainder of my 2nd platoon, some extra supports and some extra crew. And I've primed the jeep that was in the box I got off Thomas and Laffe.

More paras

Still working on my paras, even if I haven't been able to do much lately. At least I've managed to complete my Vickers MMG team and a 6pdr AT gun with crew.

I've got my hands on some Battlefield / Blitz paras to flesh out my 2nd platoon, and they are very nice and well researched figures. Hopefully I'll be able to get some shots of them once I complete my last batch of my original AB/SHQ/TQD lot.

Thomas has kindly donated me a box of AB and SHQ paras that he had lying about (I think he got them off Leif originally), and another jeep, and they will be used to create a 3rd platoon, which will take me to full company strength. The jeep will do nicely to complete a full recce squadron. 

SHQ Airborne 6pdr and mixed crew of SHQ and AB. SHQ Vickers w crew.

The 6 pdr from above. I've added some ammo boxes. I've also embedded a dice frame for the shock dice into the base.

The same from a slightly different angle

Padre in progress. I think this is an SHQ crew member (AT or howitzer), to which I've added a scarf stole with tissue and white glue.

Johnny Frost

Apart from painting my Frostgrave warband, I've also completed some more paras this week: 

SL (double based) for the 2nd platoon, crew for a Vickers MMG and 6lb AT gun. These are a mix of AB, SHQ and TQD

And some more supports in progress (they're actually almost finished, but I haven't made more recent pictures of them):

6lb AT gun with crew in progress (I tend to base some crew with my guns). The gun is SHQ; the crew AB and SHQ

6lb and Vickers in progress. On the base for the Vickers you can see the slots I left for the crew. Both Vickers and 6lb are SHQ

Into the cold at Felstad

I pushed on last night and completed the last 5 figures of the Fellowshi... errr my warband for Frostgrave. A Knight, a Halfling Aprentice and 3 Halfling Thieves should do nicely. 

Game night tonight, and after that it's back to my paras. Not too much left now - the bases on my 6pdr and Vickers, and then a couple more batches to complete my 2 platoons and supports.

Frostgrave

Tomorrow night I will finally get my introduction into Frostgrave. Something I've been planning for a while, and I'ev selected quite some figures for it from my 2nd hand stash. I'll be playing with Thomas, Joachim and his son. Of course, that posed a small problem as I've been painting other things than my Frostgrave warband recently (Johnny Frost took precedence on Frostgrave, you could say ;-)).

So, last night I got going (after finishing the bases on some more British paras) and painted up a couple of extras for my band. I'm halfway now, 5 are done, and 5 to go tonight. It'll be tight, but isn't that how it's supposed to be? 


Any similarities to know and popular characters are completely wanted ;-)

Here's some pictures:

A warhound ;)

Ranger or archer and Templar

Ranger on the right and Wizard to his left. The other 2 figures are baddies, Wraight Knights, also for Frostgrave

And here's the rest of the gang, an Apprentice, 3 Thieves and a Knight

More paras for Arnhem...

Been painting steadily on my paras for Arnhem and Normandy (we are planning to play TFL's Von Luck campaign soon). Finished another section and a sniper, platoon HQ and some supports (flamethrower team, two extra PIAT teams), as well as  some more riflemen.

Figures are a mix of AB, TQD and SHQ,

A rifle section and a sniper

Various supports (flamethrower team, 2 PIAT teams), some extra riflemen and half the SL for the 2nd platoon

Platoon HQ (Lieutenat w radio operator, platoon sergeant, 2" mortar team, PIAT team), and some riflemen

For sale - 20mm WW2

Friend or Foe / Shell Hole Scenics 20mm WW2 - €15 for the lot (normal price is £3 per pack, there are 12 packs)

German Infantry 43-45
GER4: Tank Hunters: 2 man Panzerschreck team, 1 with Panzerfaust, 1 throwing Panzerwurfmine

German Gebirgsjäger (suitable for normal infantry 43-45):
GERM-9: Tripod mounted M.M.G. with 3 crew

British infantry:
BR6: 2" mortar teams (1 team firing, 1 team advancing) (2 man per team)
BR5: Bren teams (1 team advancing, 1 team firing) (2 man per team)
BR8: Vickers machine gun with crew of 3 firing
BR7: Boys AT-rifle teams (1 team firing, 1 team advancing) (2 man per team)

British Airborne:
BP3: 4 para's advancing with Lee Enfield rifles
BP1: Frost, Carlyle & Urquhart
BP7: Bren teams (1 team advancing, 1 team firing) (2 man per team)
BP8: Vickers machine gun with crew of 3 firing
BP10: 2 para's carrying cannister with 3rd kneeling by an open cannister
BP11: 4 open & 4 closed cannisters

British Airborne: BP8, BP7, BP1

British Airborne 2: BP11, BP10. BP3

British Infantry: BR7, BR8, BR6

More British Infantry and some Germans: BR5, GER4, GERM9

Size comparison: FoF - Valiant - SHQ - Platoon 20 - AB

For more details and pictures: https://goo.gl/fEtcT7 (click on the individual pictures for pack details)

For sale - 15mm ancients

I'm considering selling off some stuff that I'm unlikely going to be using in the foreseeable future. Both painted and unpainted items, and even some basing materials.

All prices are without postage. If you buy several items, we can discuss a discount. I've marked what is already sold.

Painted, all 15mm:

1. Half a Classical Spartan DBA Army, €10 (includes the unpainted figures to complete it).
Contains 5 bases of spear, 1 base of spear command, and a singly based commander. I also include the other half of the army, but they are still unpainted (some more spear, 3 cavalry figures, some psiloi). The figures are all Xyston, They are painted to a good wargames standard, but only glued to a piece of cardboard, not built up or flocked. See http://dalemunk.blogspot.se/2010/02/spartans.html or picture below.

2. A Pict DBA army, €10
Contains 12 bases, all figures from Essex. Painted (simplistically, this is one of my older armies) and the bases simply painted green and flocked. General in Light Chariot, Light Chariot, 2 LH, 2 Ps, 6 Wb.

3. An Early German extended DBA army, €20
Contains 17 bases (all options): 1 Cv Gen, 1 Wb Gen, 5 Ps, 9 Wb. 1 Bd (can be used as Wb). Painted and based to a decent wargames standard. Most figures are Donnington, some are Essex.

4. A Sarmatian army, €20
Contains 12 bases, all figures are TTG (Table Top Games). Painted and based to a good wargames standard. 10 bases of Kn, 1 base of Kn Gen. 1 LH. See http://dalemunk.blogspot.se/2009/01/dba-15mm-sarmatians.html or pictures below

5. Large Early to Middle Imperial Roman army, suitable for DBA, DBM, or any other ancient ruleset, €130

Contains 82 stands: 

* 2 Roman Cavalry command bases @ 3 figs

* 7 Roman Cavalry bases @ 3 figs

* 3 Numidian Light Horse bases @ 2 figs

* 2 smaller and 1 large ballista

* 6 bases with 4 archers (Bow in DBA terms, auxiliary archers)

* 6 bases with 2 archers (Psiloi in DBA terms, or skirmishers)

* 4 bases with 2 slingers (psiloi, skirmishers)

* 3 foot command bases @ 4 figures

* 29 legionary bases @ 4 figures (blades in DBA terms, heavy infantry)

* 19 spear armed auxiliary bases @ 3 figures (Aux in DBA terms, auxiliaries. medium infantry)

Mix of various manufacturers, mainly Essex, Lancaster games, Peter Pig. Most stands painted and based to a decent to good wargaming standard. 

Well painted Corvus Belli in the front, normally painted other suppliers in the back.

However, 2 stands of legion infantry, the large ballista, 2 stands of auxiliary infantry and 1 stand of mounted command are Corvus Belli and painted and based to a better standard (incl. hand painted shield designs). Separate pictures of these below, also some legionaries in the picture above.

Unpainted, all 15mm:

Corvus Belli / Xyston Celts: €2 euros per pack, or €20 for all 11 packs (normal price for Xyston or Corvus Belli is around €4 per pack)

Ref.	Description	# figs
150101-0001 150116-0043	Mixed pack of Infantry command group & Victory and defeat	8
150102-0002 & 150103-0003	Warriors with sword 1 & 2 (1 full pack of pack 2, plus a mixed pack)	20
150104-0004 & 150105-0005	Warriors with spear 1 & 2 (mixed pack)	12
150106-0006	Slingers	8
150112-0011	Cavalry command group (with an additional figure)	4
150113-0012	Chariot (w 2 horses and 2 crew)	10
150115-0041	Queen Boudicca in chariot (w 2 horses and 2 crew)	5
Xyston 18250 & 18251	Gauls w sword & Gauls w spears, mixed pack	8