See you in Hell, Billy Yank...

Thomas and I decided to start a project for SP2, playing ACW. He'd started painting Confederates a while back, and I'd do Union. So I picked up some heavily discounted boxes of Perry plastics (these are from the new Union Infantry in Sack Coats box) and started painting. Here are my first Union units: 20 infantrymen (2,5 units in SP2), 2 leaders (an officer and a sergeant) and a drummer.

Up next, another dozen infantrymen (I paint by groups of 12, usually), and probably the dozen Union cavalry skirmishers I got in the Secret Santa scheme.

2016 to date update

Real life put some spanners in the works this year, but I still managed to get some painting and even gaming done. But not much time to post any progress posts, so you all will just have to be happy with this compilation posts with some (horrible) pictures of what I've been up to...

First my French paras for Indochina - we're doing a series of participation games at GothCon (a big game convention in Göteborg) for a forthcoming CoC supplement for the First Indochina War (1946-1954). Figures are a mix of FNG Miniatures (ex Red Star Miniatures, available through Empress Miniatures), and converted Warlord US Marines (the French used lots of US equipment), with some Berlin or Bust heads thrown in for the conversions. I also used some Warlord British commando heads to get figures with the para berets.

1. French Colonial Para platoon (1953 organisation)

2. An additional understrength section of same.

3. Supports and scenery: a Buddha statue (to be used as JoP or simple scenery), an asian water buffalo (we always have some thematical animals in our games, last year it was our epical dead camel, this year it's a water buffalo). A medic (the base with medic and casualty), a .30 Cal MMG team (3 crew + team leader) and a flame thrower team. 

And then for something completely different... I started to paint some fantasy stuff for Frostgrave. Some you'll recognise as GW LotR figures. Some of these will also double as figures for a planned Dux Gondorum campaign, Dux Britaniarum in a Middle Earth setting. Sometime after Easter (when I've finished some remaining French paras, I'll start painting up a lot of GW Rohirrim and Uruk Hai I bough 2nd hand.

1. Two Wraith Knights from North Star's Frostgrave range and Gandalf and Aragorn from GW's LotR range.

2. Twelve skeletons from North Star's (Mantic's really...) Undead Frostgrave pack

Then some stuff I sent out for the Santa Clause...

1. Ten Kriegsmarine troopers, 28mm Warlord (2 different Santa Clause presents)

2. Six British commandos, 28mm Warlord

3. Seven Home Guard characters, Wargames Foundry 28mm

4. Sovjet Maxim w 3 crew, Warlord 28mm

5. Nine Imperial Stormtroopers, Imperial Assault 35mm (actually not a Santa Clause item, but stuff I'm painting for a friend of a friend ;-))

And finally some mixed 20mm items:

1. British paras, 2 sections, 21 figures, AB figures 20mm

2. Four 20mm JoPs for CoC (I think Sgt's Mess truck loads, with tarps added with tissue paper soaked in thinned white glue)

That's it for now, hopefully back soon with more. I have some WW2 desert stuff to complete, some more French paras, more 20mm British paras and the LoTR and Frotsgrave stuff. So no time to get bored ;-)

2 pdr Portee

More desert ;-)

Here's the answer to yesterday's question: it's a 2 pdr portee on a Morris. It's Company B's model, ordered through The Wargames Command Post, which gave me a nice personal service (Bob is a fellow Lardie, it turned out).

I've assembled it, and glued the 2 pdr on, although that is maybe a mistake and I might have to pry it off again. We'll see. The crew is loose, and Company B as well (the gun crew isn't included in the set, although the truck driver is).

My WIP has been growing the last 2 weeks, 6 vehicles (including this one), 5 guns (including this one) and 42 figures. Time to get painting, I guess...

???

Anyone recognise what this will become once assembled?

More tonight, perhaps some pictures of my latest converted infantry and the rest of my WIP line-up...

More WIP

Got my Mathilda II from Warlordgames this week, and put it together. Seems to be a nice enough model, but I really like the new plastics that are appearing more and more over resin - the plastics fit together nice usually. Warlord and especially Rubicon are doing good work.

Oh, and I added a second plastic (Warlord) Pz IV to the WIP box as well :-)

And soon my Morris Portee and crew will be here and be added to the queue as well. High time I started painting again (this week has been most about making pictures, cleaning up and assembling stuff).

The state of my desert campaign

Tonight I gathered my gear together to make some (still not very good) pictures, so I could send them off for the TooFatLardies painting contest, hosted by the aimiable Robert Avery. This gives me a good idea where I am with my troops for the desert - and that is pretty close to completion. I'll finish the WIP items, add maybe an additional section of DAK, convert some DAK engineers and a medic, and perhaps snipers for both sides.

Below are the pictures and some info.

DAK Platoon (43 figures)

• 2 officers and 1 NCO 
• 3 sections @ 12 men each 
• AT rifle team (2 crew) 
• Extra LMG team (2 crew) 

DAK supports (1 tank, 1 motorcycle, 1 AT gun, 12 figures)

• Panzer III 
• MC combo w 2 crew 
• FOO team (2 crew) 
• PAK 38 and 3 crew 
• AT rifle team (2 crew) 
• 50mm mortar team (2 crew) 

British reinforced platoon (46 figures)

• Platoon HQ: 1 officer, 1 NCO, AT rifle team (2 crew), 2" mortar team (2 crew) 
• 4 sections @ 10 men each 

British supports A (1 weapon and 11 figures, 1 converted)

• MMG w 5 crew 
• Company officer w radio operator 
• FOO team (2 crew) 
• Extra officer 
• Medic (converted: headswap and some other minor stuff) 

British engineer section (10 figures, 4 converted)

• NCO 
• 3 teams of 3 men (4 have medium conversions done, e.g. scratch built mine sweeper or wire cutters etc...) 

British supports B (4 vehicles, 4 crew)

• Crusader tank 
• Universal carrier w 3 crew 
• Dingo scout car 
• Morris CS9 w 1 added crew (minor conversion from a standard infantry figure) 

4 Jump off Points

I also have a piece of terrain, an oasis, which I wrote about earliler on http://dalemunk.blogspot.se/2015/04/oasis.html

I have a total of 126 figures (not counting vehicle crews where they are only halves), 5 or 6 have medium conversions done. 2 tanks, 3 armoured cars/carriers, 1 motorcycle w sidecar, 1 weapon, 1 AT gun.

All vehicles have added stowage (the Pz III is getting it right now, it arrived yesterday). All are 28mm, most figures are Perry miniatures (mainly plastics with some metal sets thrown in). One of the British officers is TFL's own Hugh Jarce. Most of the vehicles and the AT gun are Warlord Games, apart from the carrier which is Perry again, and the MC combo which is Offensive Miniatures. The Jump off Points are TFL.

Pz IV

A small addition to the WIP box...

Warlordgames plastic Panzer IV, done as the F1 (there are options for G and H in the box as well). Assembled, waiting for the paint brush... Considering buying a spray can of dark yellow or dark sand to see how that works. 

The Pz III and the MC combo are now ready (apart from the decals and stowage that should arrive this week). Pictures of these later this week, when they are done.

Work in progress - still Desert focused

Just a quick update, pictures to follow...

On the painting table right now (all 28mm):

• Warlord Games Pz III (only needs some dirtying up and some highlights, plus stowage and decals which are underway) (note, I cut down the barrel to represent an earlier version than the J)
• Offensive miniatures DAK MC combo w 2 riders and MG34 (only needs some drybrush on the base, as well as decals and some stowage)
• Warlord Games Pz II (undercoated black)
• Warlord Games Sdkfz 222 (undercoated and got his first layers of Vallejo Dark Sand)
• Offensive miniatures British Breda AA gun w 3 crew (assembled)
• Perry Miniatures DAK MG34 in MMG role w 4 crew (assembled, crew undercoated black)
• Perry Miniatures DAK PAK36 w 3 crew (need to convert 2 more crew and a JL) (assembled, crew undercoated black)
• Perry Miniatures British 2 pdr AT gun w 3 crew (need to convert some additional crew) (assembled, crew undercoated black)

Next:

• Warlord Games Mathilda 2
• 60 pcs of stowage from Debris of War
• Warlord Pz IV Zug (3 tanks), I'll do them as F1s for the DAK
• Some 28mm buildings from Gripping Beast for our Dux Gondorum project and some 20mm tanks and AT guns (see my previous post on this)
• There is also a Morris 2pdr Portee on the way from Company B/The Wargames Command Post, with some additional crew. Company B seems to be the only ones that do the 2pdr portee, unless I wanted to convert, but that would probably involve a lot of carving in the truck... 

New painting projects

Now that my desert stuff is running towards completion (for now), with only some DAK engineers and loose bits to convert, and some German vehicles to paint (a Pz II, a Pz III and and Sdkfz 222), as well as a Zug of Pz IV to assemble and paint, I'm looking at other stuff again.

One club project is Dux Gondorium, a Middle Earth variant of Dux Brittaniarum. I'm going to assemble some Conquest Norman Knights as Rohirrim cavalry , probably later to be followed by some other suitable Dark Ages infantry (looking at Saxon Miniatures, probably their Arthurians or some Saxons...), and/or some Gripping Beast plastics. I've also recovered some Gripping Beast Dark Age houses and a church that I bought ages ago (probabaly last century...), and that I'll paint as scenery for our project.

I've also a while ago assembled some PSC 20mm Universal Carriers, and years ago an SHQ Stug as well as a Pz III and even 2 Armourfast Stug IIIs. These have now been sprayprimed, together with some 20mm SHQ AT guns, and I plan to start painting these, as well as som PSC Late War British. And a lot of 20mm Late War Germans I have (SHQ, Platoon20, Shellhole scenics). And I'll probably paint some more of those Valiant fallschirmjäger that I started on before Christmas. I've still not decided whether I'm going to use those for 20mm or 25/28mm games. Perhaps both ;-)

Anyway, here's a quick picture of the sprayprimed stuff...

Oasis

I forget to take further pictures while working on my oasis, so can only show the final result here now. But construction went like this:

• I cut out a rough shape from cork matting (IKEA used to sell this as placemats, but have stopped carrying them, although I'm sure other shops still do)
• I smeared out beige caulking all over the cork, also built up the rim where the water would be, I let it sit for a couple of minutes, then spread sand all over it and pushed it in (a messy job)
• I then let that dry for several days before painting it dark brown
  
• I wetbrushed with sandcoloured acrylics, then drybrushed with the same with added white. A final drybrush with almost pure white (just a touch of sand in it).
• I let that dry a couple of days again, then washed with Army Painter Soft or Strong Tone (I can't remember...).
• I then poured in Vallejo Still Water, and added more after 24 hours. It then sat a couple of days in our spare room and all looked well.
• As we were having guests (my dad) over for a week, I took it out to the garage (heated and dry), where it then sat for a week, When I was going to take it in again, most of the Still Water had become cloudy/white. Luckily after a couple of days in the house, and pricking a few tiny holes in the top layer, it all became clear again. My guess is that the bottom layer wasn't fully dry when I added the second layer and that that condensed when I put it in the garage. It then dried out completely when taken into the house again and the couple of small holes helped with that process

This is what it looked like at GothCon, with palm trees and some bushes added

I feel it turned out well in the end, but I would do some things differently now...

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.