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.

Butterfly

Flapping about like a butterfly just now, going from item to item and not completing much, but there is a theme to the madness: desert rats...

All the figures I assembled and fixed are now undercoated and some even have some real paint on them, but I'm going back and forth a bit how I want to paint them (how many layers and how, and how I can simplify things by using a wash and which wash, and which colours I should use). Nearly decided on that, but want to get that clear in my head before I start painting 2 boxes worth of desert rats. And I have all sorts of ideas for conversions (e.g. engineers etc...).

But while thinking and deciding I picked up on something else, my universal carrier. Wanted to do a Caunter scheme on it and have researched that a bit and decided on the colours. Undercoated black first, then wetbrushed Dark Sand. After that set the scheme in Dark Sea Green and Green-Grey. Washed with Devlan Mud (not entirely happy how that came out), then painted again, in Dark Sand, Green-Grey and Basalt Grey. I'm reasonably happy with how it's come out. Will do some more detailing tonight, then will do the tracks, then drybrush Pale Sand or Bonewhite. And do the figures that come with it.

Some pics from before the wash and repainting. Will try and add some more tonight. The Basalt Grey I've repained with is a couple of shades lighter than the Dark Sea Green and a better fit, I believe.

Not done a thing on the tracks yet, so they're just black now...

Desert Rats

For our demo/participation game at GothCon, we've chosen the desert theme, and what better figures than Perry Miniatures to do that. So after "Jultomten" (aka Leif and Thomas) gave me a Perry universal carrier for Christmas (read: dragged me in to their plans...), I got some Desert Rats, the box of plastics (38 figs) and the Vickers MMG with 4 crew.

I've started assembling some tonight and did the MMG and crew. Little flash and nicely cast and sculpted figures. I also opened the big box tonight, and I noticed I had an extra command sprue :) So I decided to assemble the officer with cap and pistol, and use him as a more senior officer (company commander), to be used for Big CoC, and base him together with the radio operator. I can then use the bonus sprue for a platoon officer, with helmet and pistol or SMG (not decided yet). The second radio operator will go into the bits box for later use with a suitable figure for an FOO (once I get my second box there will be plenty suitable figures for that).

I also drafted one of the figures from the plastic box in a suitable posture to become the 5th crew member for the MMG (CoC lists have 5 crew members for an MMG). He can be easily recognised in the picture below.

I need to do some undercoating tomorrow, as I've now lots of assembled bits on the go, and need to start painting them. There's also an undercoated group of 8 Valiant Fallschirmjaeger waiting for some licks of paint and I need to finish those sometime soon, so I can start basing them (16 are already painted and waiting for varnishing and basing, something I prefer doing in bigger batches so they look uniform).

Jump Off Points

Started on some jump off points (JoP) for Chain of Command (CoC) tonight.

From left to right:

1. Generic JoP for 20mm games - these are from Sgts' Mess, targeted as loads for trucks. The ones I get are 4 bases of six milk churns and 3 crates. They will need some work, inspired on the ones that Rich at Toofatlardies had made (see below). I plan to use some rectangular bits of white glue soaked tissue paper to represent tarps or Zeltbahn thrown over the loads, and add some guns and/or other bits of equipment. I was going to do that tonight, but forgot the white glue in the garage. Doh!

2. Toofatlardies specially created CoC 28mm JoPs. These will be used as is, and will be based as desert, for our CoC demo/participation game at GothCon in April.

3. Some Warmodelling (ex-Fantassin) Finnish ski troops, to be used as JoPs (or patrol markers, or both) for our 20mm wintergames. I also plan to use their reindeerdrawn sled as a JoP, but was a base short tonight. It's lying next to the white glue...

Next steps - base the reindeer and the sled, and pimp the bits from Sgts' Mess. Then undercoat all black with thinned Humbrol Matt Black. Then paint and base. Hopefully these should be done (apart from the basing) this weekend. If my wife doesn't send me on an expedition to IKEA again.

Toofatlardies Christmas Special

... is out now. Speed along and get it now ;-)

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=3466

/K

Back to painting again!

Jay! Back to painting again.

For Flemcon Thomas and I had to come up with a scenario and game last minute as others had become ill. So I quickly painted some German armour for a France 1940 game.

That kind of kickstarted me, and I've been painting more regularly since, completing some of my Warmodelling winterwar Finnish and some Valiant Fallschirmjäger. They still need basing and varnishing, but that should be done as soon as I have a bit of a batch so I can do them in 1 sitting.

Some pictures underneath (not the best of pictures, the lighting wasn't too good...).

2 PzIII, a PzII, a Pz38(t) and an Sdkfz222. The PzIII are HAT/Armourfast, the rest is SHQ. All 20mm.

Valiant German Paratroopers

This and the picture above are Warmodelling (ex-Fantassing) Winterwar Finnish.

Figure fanatic's giveaway...

One of the guys in our Scandinavian Lardies' wargames group (aka the Penguins) is organising a giveway to celebrate his 200th blogpost...

http://figurfanatikern.blogspot.se/2013/12/200th-post-giveaway.html

Spartans!

Here are some Spartans I did a year or 2 ago. 15mm Xyston figures, based for DBA. I also did a loose general, so they could be used for other rulesets as well. I still have 6 more stands lying about somewhere (probably neatly packed away in the attic), that I may do someday...