Adventures in Miniature Gaming

A taste of things to come...

2012-05-27T16:49:00.003-04:00

I finally started assembling this:


17 inches of awesomeness

there are 2 complete sets, so Stay tuned.

the Austrian Commission

2012-05-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

about 5 years ago a friend of mine decided he wanted an Austrian army, and he wanted me to paint it.

He got the bulk of the army(all Old Glory done over the course of 4 months(10 infantry battalions, 2 cuirassier units, 2 artillery batteries). not bad considering over the same period I painted my Russian infantry corps, half my cavalry corps, a division of Confederation of the Rhine and misc British and french brigades here and there for others.

after that the pace slowed a little ,with him giving me maybe 1 unit to paint every few months. i painted an additional 1 grenadier battalion, 3 skirmish battalions(1 jager 2 grenzer) and a jager line battalion. not long after i finished, napoleonics died off he still had more units to bet painted (1 grenzer line battalion, 2 chevauleger units 2 more grenadier units, and 1 more foot battery and a wurst gun battery) but with the waning interest in napoleonics, we decided to hold off.

well now that I'm getting back into it and I'm getting a new group of guys into Napoleonic with Black Powder, he is having me finish off what he has in his Austrian army, and he's doing a similar sized Perry french army(which I'm painting over the summer). this will also help me French my rebuilding of my former old Glory Russian infantry corps, only with perry/warlord plastic Russians. I never sold the cavalry corps, or my guard and militia, so it's just line infantry, jagers and grenadiers I need to rebuild.

anyway, so over the last 3 days I've painted 2 foot batteries and 1 Chevauleger regiment for the Austrians. My friend opted to use Old Glory guns, with sash and saber artillerymen(i believe there was a S&S sale at the time). i also talked him into avoiding old glory cavalry(which I'm not a fan of) and he bought Sash & Saber Chevauleger.

Sash & Saber Chevauleger of the Hohenzollern regiment

Austrian artillery, Wurst battery on the left, Foot battery on the right.

As i mentioned I'm not a big fan of Old Glory Cavalry. the never fit on the horses right, and they seem tiny compared to the infantry. I wasn't a huge fan of the Russian or British infantry either. however, i was pleasantly surprised by the Austrian infantry. the sculpting seemed to be of better quality across the board, and the infamous awkward or downright anatomically impossible poses were almost entirely non-existant. the only real complaint I had with them was that some of the officers were rather undetailed.

It looks like this maybe the summer of napoleonics! stay tuned for more Austrians!

Baden Hussars finally Finished.

2012-05-16T17:19:00.001-04:00

So after almost 2 years of kicking around my desk, I finally finished the 1st unit of Baden Hussars. these are Perry french hussars , just painted a little differently.

I still have 8 more hussars to paint, but I have a small commission to finish for a friend first.

Cutting one Project to Fund Another...

2012-05-14T16:14:00.000-04:00

the first time i saw Zvezda undead Romans, i fell in love with them. I had to buy them, and make an army. unfortunately i only was able to find 2 boxes, so after painting and assembling one of them, i put the project by the wayside.

Then a few years ago at a Convention in my area, i ran into a guy i have known for several years, and i happened to mention the idea, and he happened to know a store in London, Ontario that had several boxes, and the dream was reborn for a time.

I rethought the project. now, it was a combination of humans and undead. the humans formed the recruit/inexperienced cohorts. if they survived to become veterans, they went to the first cohort. if the died, they were resurrected and put into on of the other cohorts. i had some old Glory Romans kicking around from years ago to use as the recruit cohorts, and i bought some of the then new Warlord Hardened veterans to form the first cohort, and a box of the resin and metal roman artillery to supplement the dead artillery I had acquired.

then I got into Napoleonics, and the project once again fell by the wayside. then Napoleonics gave way into the current projects(WW2, FIW, Imaginations) and then my gaming group unofficially dissolved and i went back to school.

Now i find myself with all these figures, and i don't think the project will ever get finished. my interest in fantasy is waned over the years, and although I think this army would be really cool to have, i just can't seem to ever find the time or the will(or the space) to actually DO anything with them.

As such, Ive decided to sell them to someone who might actually do something with them.

I would like to try and sell them in two groups first, but if there are no takers, I'll consider splitting them up.

Here is a list

1x Cursed Legion Boxed set(assembled, painted, 20 legionaires , 4 archers)
4x Cursed legion Boxed Set(4 command assembled, everything else on sprue)
1x Cavalry of the Cursed Legion(2 figures assembled, rest on sprue)
1x artillery of the Cursed Legion( 5 figures on sprue, everything else assembled)
Price $120 USD

1x warlord Roman Artillery boxed set (resin assembled)
1x Warlord Plastic Roman hardened Veterans(assembled)
1x Roman command(6 metal, to do command stands for the old glory units)
2x Old Glory Roman cohorts(16 figs each)
1x Roman Mounted Tribune
2x other foot command figures.
Price: $85 USD

Buyer Pays shipping from Canada. I'd suggest a service with delivery confirmation, but if you want to go cheap, I'm not responsible for things going missing(it's not happened to anything I've shipped, but you never know).

the assembled skeletons are fragile so I cannot guarantee they will survive shipping completely intact. you can email me at

crucible_orc *AT* sympatico *DOT* ca (so the spam bots can't get a hold of my address)

and now the pics:

Artillery of the Cursed Legion. 5 additional crew on sprue

Painted Cursed Legion Boxed set(you'll get the necromancer free)

Remaining Cursed legion boxed sets & Sprues

Old Glory Romans

Warlord Romans stuff.
there are 3 or 4 additional unassembled plastic veterans in a bag

Baden Artillery

2012-05-14T11:48:00.000-04:00

I've finally gotten around to starting the last of my Napoleonic Baden army. in this case it is a 2-stand artillery battery. I used Front rank Bavarian Artillerymen. I also have them with Sash & saber Austrian guns.

Baden artillery battery.
Front rank figures with Sash & Saber guns

When I had bought this stuff a couple of years ago, the only source I could find that mentioned Baden artillery equipment at all said that they most likely used captured Austrian cannons. Now there is a source mentioned on TMP that show that their cannons were all cast in Bavaria, which I presume means they were french(since that is what the Bavarians used to my knowledge). But i already spent the money, so I'm not changing them now.

the Bavarian artillerymen are not a perfect match for Baden artillerymen though. the helmet should not have the plume on the side. however this is too much work to cut off a metal figure(and would require re-sculpting the side of the helmet) so I just left it black. also, the metal work on the front is slightly different. the helmet should lack the medallion, and in it's place have a peak rising into the same point from the metal band at the base of the helmet.

I should perhaps also mention that some sources say that the facings and labels were edged in red. I was using the histofig.com plates for my Baden army, and they do not show this. the histofig.com plates are the only source for Baden uniforms that I found that gives you ALL of them in one place, so i stuck with his interpretation. plus they are free.

Of Cannons and Houses

2012-05-08T12:59:00.004-04:00

Sunday and Monday, I painted up another of the buildings o got at Hotlead 2 years ago. This was the same lot I got my church and Farm with. also in the picture is the first of 3 Royal Artillery teams from plastic the Victrix boxed set.

H.G.Walls house based, with Victrix Royal Artillery team.

with the exception of the church, all the buildings I had had cast-on roofs. I cut the roof off the building, and in this case added an internal floor(with a block in the middle for ease of removal).

View of the inside of the house

the cannon teams are a nice addition. the infantry are not as frustrating to assemble as some of the Victrix sets are, and they paint up nicely. Each figure in the set comes with 2 or 3 choices of arms and equipment to keep the poses fresh. you can probably make 12 or so different poses from the 15 crew in the boxed set. the cannon is many pieces, including the chains on the underside of the carriage. There are 2 issues i have with this set. the first is the lack of horses for the limber(which is not painted up yet due to this fact) this was a disappointing revelation. I would much rather sacrifice the 3rd team sprue for the 12 horses to complete the 1st 2 limber teams. the 2nd issue is the lack of wood grain on the surfaces that should have a wood grain.

Closeup of Victrix artillery team

Fortunately Perry makes a British 6-horse team available by itself(for a large wagon I'll probably get a pair of these later this summer to complete the limber teams.

Diving into Dystopian Wars

2012-04-23T21:27:00.002-04:00

a little over a year ago I was given a copy of Dsytopian Wars 1.1 rulebook for helping a friend take merchandise to a convention. then last October at Council fires, I finally bit the bullet and bought a Blazing sun fleet at a pretty decent discount. I had initially really like the Prussians, but since 3 other guys I knew had bought Prussian fleets, i decided against it. I bought a naval boxed set, a dreadnought a pack of destroyers and a pack of escorts. A month or so later the Covenant of Antarctica fleet was released, and I immediately bought a matching set of ships to fight my Blazing Sun fleet. somewhere along the line I also picked up a pair of medium flyers for both nations(inari scout ships and Icarus flyers)

Over Christmas break I had painted both battleships and cruisers for each fleet. but heading back to school took up most of my time so I once again put the project on the back burner. finally, I had my last exam on Thursday last week. so over the weekend, I was (apparently) anxious to get pack to painting, so I painted everything but the escorts, and 3 covenant frigates, and flyers.

Covenant of Antarctica Fleet

Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet.

I have to say that i *really* like the Covenant ships. especially the cruisers and armoured cruisers. I also cannot wait for the Russians to be released.

I have not bought into the ground combat portion of the game yet, because generally speaking, I think the ground combat stuff is terrible looking. the only ones that look decent so far are the British and the french. That being said, the little I`ve seen of the Russian ground forces have me a bit excited to see the rest of them.

now all I need to do is find someone to play with.

Stay tuned, I should have some more 28mm Napoleonic pics by the end of the week.

It's Alive....... almost!

2012-04-10T20:11:00.000-04:00

After a nearly 8 month hiatus due to school and lack of gaming group, I've returned!(at least for the summer). I still have a week and a half left in exams, but after that I plan to get back to gaming with a vengeance!

back at the beginning of last October I began doing test schemes on my Napoleonic plastics for a Peninsular War skirmish project. I never got around to photographing them. Recently my friend Jon has expressed an inters in getting back to his gaming roots, which was Napoleonics. so i decided nest time i photograph something to grab a few pics of them.:

Peninsular British line infantry
Victrix miniatures

Dismounted Dragoons of the 27th regiment.

on to more recent things. the Easter weekend gave me a much needed breather from school. i too good Friday to get back to painting. I've had an AGNM soviet T28 kicking around since last august. this is the one Vince at AGNM graciously donated to me after my original T-28 was pilfered from my gaming club. i finally painted it. it looks better then the original, and I took the liberty to test out some waethering powders on it as well.

AGNM Soviet T-28

And then i pained a couple of JTFM tanks i picked up at HOTLEAD. the Neubaufehrzeug 4 is also a replacement of a pilfered tank. I decided to go with a 2-tone grey and brown camo scheme I found on the interwebs. it's a nice departure from the endless grey of early war Germans.

JTFM German Neubaufehrzeug 4

JTFM french 'Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939'

the other is one of Jeff's new tanks, the Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 (or more commonly known as R-40). this is a neat little kit, and it comes with a trench rail, which is really cool! I may need to ask him if i can get a trio by themselves to put on my H39s. Both of these tanks have bases attached so they fit in with the rest of my collection.

Hopefully I'll be a little more active over the summer.

2 Posts in 1 Week, Holy Crap!

2011-09-21T21:05:00.000-04:00

Yes, 2 posts in one week. I'm finally getting back to painting.

This time I've painted up the remaining 8 grenadiers(the grenadier company of the Kurprinz regiment, which i have yet to buy). this served as the true test platform for the new colour scheme, which i think is actually the nicer looking of the 2 regimental uniforms.

Grenadier company of the Kurprinz Regiment,
with the converged battalion command.

and with that, my Converged Grenadier Battalion is complete.

Complete converged Grenadier Battalion

and with that I'll be able to start working on the 16 troopers, standard and trumpeter of the Metzger Kurassier.

the other thing I've been working on jsut this evening is modifying Old glory horses to look like draft horses to go with ammunition carts for my FIW collection. Gaming friend Mark Degner and I will be running a large FIW scenario using a modified version of Sharp Practice. I had thought i had enough old Glory draft horses left, but it trusn out i only have one. I do have a box full of extra horses, so i used some putty to modify them. I'll post those once I get them painted as well.

It's Alive!

2011-09-14T22:20:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am still alive. over the last 2 months I experienced more gaming 'funk'. Along the way I also painted a few commissions started school, and sold my French truck master to Army Group North Miniatures after i was plagued in the later stages of getting it cast. I had gotten a few trucks out ok, but then the problems started, and they did not stop until i decided to sell it.

anyway, over the last week or two I painted up some Imagination stuff, specifically the first 2 groups of the Köztársaság Pandour regiment.

Köztársaság Pandour infantryman (Crusader miniatures)

Köztársaság Pandour officers and hornist (Crusader miniatures)

I had ordered some Eagle miniatures kneeling pandours to convert into an Amusette team, but they really won't fit in at all with the crusader. they are larger, and the sculpting is not particularly complimentary either. If anyone has any kneeling Austrian Grenz from Old Glory, let me know.


Köztársaság Pandours engaging Tufecis raiders from Asarya

I will expand the pandour regiment with another unit of 8 infantry, and i think I'm going to add a troop of 6 mounted pandours, using Front rank figures. I'll be using the pose with the severed head as a character naturally!

I also did a bit of test painting on some other figures i had, specifically some Grenadier Officers. my grenadier formation will be the grenadier "companies" from each of the 2 infantry regiments i will eventually have. it also doubled as a viability test of the Kurprinz regiment uniform colours. I think they tuned out well.

Converged Grenadier NCO, Officer, and Drummer.
The Blue is the Kurprinz Regimental uniform.

Also, I'll be running a big-ish FIW Sharp Practice game at Council Fires on October 1st, so stop by and say Hi!

MIA? and a few new things

2011-07-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

I have been missing in action for almost a month now. the first 2 weeks were taken up by a deep painting funk. the 3rd week I was laid up in bed sick with a chest infection. not normally a big deal, but i have asthma, so when something gets into my chest it knocks me off m feet for a few days.

then last week i was finishing up a 28mm SYW painting commission for one of the guys at AGNM. I was down At the AGNM workshop on Saturday dropping off the figures, so I picked up the other French vehicle that is soon t be released, the AMR-35 ZT-3 tank destroyer. this is a lovely Casting. It's one resin piece with 2 metal fittings(gun barrel and Exhaust system at the back). Casting was nearly flawless. there was one small bubble on the bottom of the cast on base. Since it absolutely does not impact the look of the vehicles, who cares!


French ARM-35 ZT3, soon to be released from AGNM

I have also been working on my French truck over the last month. I picked up the resin and RTV rubber form Toronto, and then had to wait a week to get back down there to grab the mold release which i had forgotten. the mold turned out well, although i probably made the walls a little thick. I have been having a bit of trouble getting the bits out of the mold.I think i have it fixed, but it's still a pain. and since they are resin, they are also fragile.

I was thinking about returning to my old way of resin ccasting with Alumilite for 3 reasons: Alumilite has a bit more tensile strength, it cures faster(cure in 5-8 minutes which is a big deal when you get about 2-3 in 10 casts don't turn out, and they take 25 minutes each with Smooth cast) and the old way of casting, i end up with a bit of thin flash, which ever so slightly thickns th parts, making them slightly less fragile. I haven't yet decided. I suppose the other option would be to get them metal cast, but i by no means have the money to contract out the casting. Anyway, on to the pictures.

First casting of the French S-20 truckFront view

French S-20 Truck rear view


S-20 Truck between a Panhard 178 Armoured Car and an S-35 Somua tank, both from AGNM.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. there are a few minor things. in 1 or 2 places i missed the rapid prototyping texture left behind. there are actually more places, but on the seat backs it almost looks deliberate, kind of like a texture for the fabric covering. given that it is my first attempt, I'm pretty happy. Now all i have to do is get a bunch of complete kits ready fro sale. when i am ready to sell them(probably starting in a week or two) I'll be charging actual shipping costs.

AGNM AMR-35

2011-06-07T13:13:00.001-04:00

the last french tank I have is an AGNM AMR-35. this is the 2nd vehicle I picked up that has not been released yet (though it will be available soon).

Vince slipped both turrets into the bag, so the vehicle is pictured with the 13.2mm MG turret on and the 7.5mm MG turret separately. I decided I needed a little variety in the camo, so I went for the Vertical stripe camo, using a red-brown and a more yellowish tan. Vince also has a 3rd variant, the turretless 25mm Tank hunter variant(ZT3) in the works as well. I'll have to grab one of those next time I make an order.

I also touched up the R-35s using the new techniques i used on the Char B1. it's not a big change(only the Tan was redone), but i think they look better.

Before touch-ups. Taken with the old Camera 7 months ago.

After Touch-ups. Taken with new camera yesterday.

French Reinforcements

2011-06-05T13:38:00.001-04:00

Well the AGNM Char-B1 Bis took a little longer then expected, but the result is pretty good looking. I also finished up my Panhard 178 Armoured car. I haven't finished the AMR-35, but i have not decided how to paint it yet.


Finished Panhard AC and Char B1 with Crusader Sgt

The camo on the Char B1 is similar to the scheme i did on the R-39s, although i think it turned out better. I may go back and touch up the R-39 platoon using the same techniques.

Now all i have left from the trip down to AGNM last week is the T-28 and the AMR-35. Hopefully I'll get to htem this week

New WW2 Tanks

2011-06-01T14:36:00.001-04:00

I've been a bit unproductive for the last 2 weeks.. other then a bit of painting for commissions, I've done pretty much nothing.

Anyway, last weekend I make a trip to Toronto to pick up rubber and resin to mold and cast my Laffly s-20 truck. on the way back I stopped in at the Army Group North Miniatures workshop and talked to Vince and Andy. They gave me some tips and pointers on resin casting which was most appreciated.

I Also picked up a few tanks. I grabbed a 3rd 38(t), a Panhard 178 Armoured car, a Char B1 Bis, an AMR-35(with 7.5 and 13.2mm turrets) and a PanzerJager 1. the last 2 have not been released yet, but they are well on their way.

I also picked up a complimentary T-28, and an extra 38(t) hull Machine gun bit that was missing from one of teh tanks i bought at hotlead in march. so now i can paint that one too.

Anyway, last night i painted the 3 German tanks.

the remaining 2 38(t)s of my platoon.
38(t)s are a perfect match for H39s in DH&C7B.

"experimental" AGNM Panzerjager I.

As usual the AGNM models are fantastic. the Panzerjager I goes together nicely, although the gun compartment is a bit cramped. still the finished model looks fantastic. I decided to paint the little shield on the gun shield, and the German crosses on the sides and rear. my hand isn't steady enough to do nice quality numbers on the sides.

Anyway, I'm hoping to have th french tanks completed for tomorrow, so I'll get those posted then.

Laffly S-20 arrived.

2011-05-16T14:22:00.000-04:00

My 1:56th laffly S-20 truck arrived today from Shapeways in the Netherlands. I decided to try out a new material that they are doing an 8 week test run on, Frosted detail. it`s capable higher detail then the material I used last time for the test wheels, and it has a smoother finish. Unfortunately, the material is semi see-through so it is hard to see details in any photo i take.

From my computer...

To a physical model!

All in all the truck cost about $70 CDN( $62 for model & shipping, $8 for UPS COD at the door). the spikes on the engine block are designed to fit into little slots on the cap section, and the wheel covers also slide into slots on the side of the cab. I was initially a little worried about these not fitting but they fit perfectly! I was also a little worried about unwanted surface texture, but there is only minor texture on the right side of the truck bed. a Dremel buffing wheel should probably take care of that nicely.

It is also nice that it arrived today as tomorrow is my Birthday.

Quick Update: More Progress on the Spanish Church

2011-05-09T14:29:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update.

Yesterday I worked on the Graveyard around the back, and also started adding some of the finer details(window sills etc)

Unlike Gary Chalks, I made the Graveyard a little bigger, and instead of topping the wall with balsa stripes I used some 1/72nd Spanish tile roofing to make it look a little more "Spanish" instead of Carribean(which Gary Chalk's was designed for). Like Mr Chalk's church, I made the graveyard raised, using 1" insulation foam. this makes it an excellent vantage point to defend from. Totally by accident, the area between the wall and church on the tower-side of the church is also big enough to fit 50mmx50mm bases, which is a Fairly common basing scheme in my area for large Napoleonic collections.

Main Cemetery entry way with arch
defended by Electorate Fusiliers


Secondary cemetery entrance, also defended by Electorate fusiliers.

I was thinking of putting Spanish tile(same as the main roof) on the transition from the tower main section to the 2nd level when i built it i think i made it the 2nd level a little too small, and now the "ridge" is too large. Thoughts? opinions?

I'll probably be spending the rest of the day assembling the new desk(which is an early birthday present). I also have a few other items I have to finish this week so it might be a few days before i get back to this project.

Beginning of a new project.

2011-05-08T07:02:00.000-04:00

At Hotlead i picked up 3 Boxes of Victrix Figures: 1 box of 1807-1812 french(60 figs), 1 box of Peninsular British Flank companies, and 1 box of British artillery. thus far i have only assembled about half a box of French infantry.

I decided to switch gears. I don't really have any Spanish-suitable terrain, but a few weeks ago a fellow Gamer & once upon a time mentor, Derek Watson, gave me a big Ziploc bag full of Foamcore. it turns out it was the pieces to a pair Spanish churches that he had started to cut out. Most of the basic pieces had been cut out. I had to cut a few windows here and there, and i re-cut a few pieces from some Foamcore I have in the back room. I also added a roof made from Sheet Styrene and a sheet of MBS 1/50th Clay tile roofing.

Church WIP

Church in it's constituent pieces

He was following an old Gary Chalk pattern that had been published in an unknown magazine many years ago.

Spanish Church by Gary Chalk, which the above
church has been based on

Like the photo the church will have a walled, raised cemetery around back and when it is done, the whole thing will be approximately 12" x 20". I'm still a little confused as to how to texture teh church. If you have any ideas, by all means let me know.

In other news, earlier this week, Vince Conners at Army Group North Miniatures emailed me, and Let me know that next time i place an order he will include a replacement T-28, free of charge.

Once again I am astonished by the good will of the miniatures industry. The kind of response I have gotten from Conquest and AGNM will easily make me(and hopefully many others) a loyal customer for years to come. If you get a chance, reward these kind souls for their kindness with a purchase. I know I will.

ARR: First Platoon Forward Action.

2011-04-30T12:29:00.000-04:00

Last night my friend Jon and I had the inaugural game at my house. As mentioned previously, we had decided to play Disposable heroes WW2 using the TFL Platoon Forward campaign system. the game was set in 1940 during the invasion of France.

Before hand, I had decided that i was going to track 2 Platoons, one German and one French. They won't always be playing against each other. I decided that wen one rolled up a defensive role and one rolled up an offensive role, there would be a 50/50 chance of the 2 platoon meeting. this means the overall odds of them fighting in the same game are about 33%. well last night it happened.

the scenario was an exploitation scenario, with the french on the defensive and Germans on the offensive. there german Platoon( had been held in reserve during a company or battalion wide attack. When a hole opened up in the Germans were sent into hte hole and advance to take position in a church behind the french lines. the french, being in somewhat disarray only start with a single squad of infantry, an MG and the platoon NCO on the board.

Forces:

German Platoon
Platoon command ( LT, Sgt, 3 privates)
3 infantry squads(6 man Rifle section, 4 man LMG section each)
1 5cm Mortar

German Support
1 PaK 38
1 80mm Mortar
1 MG-34 MMG
1 Panzer IV D

French Reinforcements
Platoon command(Lt, 2 Privates, 1 VB grenadier)
2 Squads( 8 man rifle section with VB, 4 man LMG section each)

81mm Mortar team
H-39 light tank( entered Turn 3)
Somua S-35( entered Turn 4)

we rolled up pre-game events and Jon's platoon was in high morale(+1), while my troops were well rested(+1 Movement)

As usual, I forgot to take pics for the first half of the game. but here it is in ha nutshell. Jon started his forces in the middle third of the table. I deployed the rifle section in the graveyard(NCO attached), the MG on main floor of the Church and the LMG section in the 2nd floor in the tower window. His first turn of fire pinned the reifle section immediately. by the end of the turn only the Squad Sgt, VB grenadier, and NCO remained. The LMG section had lost one of it's members, and the MG had LOS blocked by smoke after it fired. the rest of the platoon entered on the German far right at the roadway.

2nd turn Jon Killed the remainder of the rifle squad and pinned the LMG section.the HMG section retreats to the far end of the church in preparation for an assault. hte NCO survived and under covering fire from long range of the LMG(which pinned a German rifle section entering the graveyard). he retreated to the gate of the graveyard. Jon's MG-34 succumbed to superb rifle fire from a section french riflemen.

3rd turn the french advanced a little more taking fire and giving it. the H-39 arrived at the far end of the table from the infantry(German far left), behind a significant amount of cover. Jon piled more infantry into the church and Jon's P IV having lost it's only recently acquired target(the MG section) moved up the street a little more in preparation for attack of the H-39. the NCO in spectacular fashion, steadied his rifle on the graveyard wall and proceeded to do more damage to the German rifle section in the graveyard the 2 squads of french down the road could do over the next two turns.

End of 3rd turn.

In the 4th turn, Jon continued to pile infantry into the Church while i was slowly beginning to realize that retaking the church was no longer possible in the time remaining ( 6-turn game length) . the Somua entered the table, albeit to late to have a real effect on the game. it took a potshot at the infantry in the graveyard but had no real effect. the NCo continued having the most effect on the game. the H-39 pulled out to take a shot at the Panzer IV but the shot went wide. Luckily, so did the Panzer's shot. a few moves into the 5th turn i gave up and retreated, as i could not make it to the church in the time allotted.

End of 4th turn

During the free-form events that followed the game, the french NCO who miraculously survived increased in moral ability, as he held his post against overwhelming odds(in full view of the rest of teh platoon and at least 1 tank) and only retreated when he was ordered to. the German squad leader who was in hte graveyard also increased his gut score due to his bravery and keeping his squad together in the face of overwhelming fire( 2 full french squads, a mortar, the NCO and a Somua tank). a the fixed effects yeilded no changes fr the french, but teh Germans get to have an extra Mortar or MG-34 MMG team next scenario, and try were asked by Battalion HQ to deliver a new radio to company HQ since they are out of contact (next scenario for them)

Part way through 5th turn, end of game.

All in all i like the system. my only grip is that the +1 morale is far better then the +1 movement. I may adjust to to +2 because +1 jut don't have much impact. the rules do not specify the actual increase, rather leaving it up to the players to decide since it is a non-rules-specific set. and now for some cool pics:

Somua takes a potshot at some German infantry

H-39 Begins it's attack

End of game.

More WW2 and a Surprise!

2011-04-29T15:15:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I painted a few more WW2 support teams. THis time it was 1 Crusader French 25mm AT gun, a pair of Crusader German ATR teams, and an AGNM PaK 36. picked up this stuff at Hotlead to add som much-needed AT ability to my 1940 french project. my Germans were originally built as an early Eastern front platoon(and light on at with only a PaK 38), so one of my planned purchases at the Con was AT weapons. the french also had no proper AT( 75mm mle 1897 not withstanding) so i picked up 2 Hotchkiss 25mm Anti-tank guns. The other one is still in the back room with the hull MG-less 38(t).

AGNM PaK-36 flanked by 2 crusader ATR teams.


Crusader 25mm Hotchkiss Anti-tank gun

Also, This morning i received an email that quite surprised me! Eric Roof of Conquest Miniatures has offered to replace the stolen longhouse free of charge!

I've been a fan of Eric and Conquest since I discovered them while beginning my FIW project. I've been to 2 Historicons and both times I spent more money at his booth that at any other one(usually about 1/3rd to 1/2 of my expenditures). I also usually spend a while talking to him. in fact of all the poeple I talk to at Historicon, Eric is one of 3 I always remember( Nick and Rob of Eureka are the others).

Eric is a pretty busy guy, so it really means a lot to me for him to take the time out of his busy day and offer to do this. If Both of us make it down to Historicon this year, I'm going to have to shake his hand, and probably pick up 2 regiment packs(1 British, 1 French) if I make enough money selling things. Eric even coincidentally put together his marching regiment packs to fit perfectly with how I've already structured my units for sharp practice( i do mine as 24 infantry, plus 1 drummer, 1 standard, and 2-3 officers/ncos)!

anyway, Eric is a stand up guy, and excellent to deal with. Everyone should buy their FIW stuff from him!

More WW2 tanks

2011-04-27T14:25:00.001-04:00

A month ago at hotlead i picked up 2 38(t)s and an Somua S-35 from ATGM( via the Five Arrows booth). one of teh 38(t)s was missing a machine gun bit, which will soon be rectified.

Anyway, My friend Jon and I are going to have our inaugural game at my house on Friday. I decided to make it the first game in a campaign using Too Fat Lardies Platoon Forward rules. The actual game rules will be Disposable Heroes, of course. Dave Hoyt had played a few games with us at the club using his campaign platoon, so I'm already familiar with how Platoon Forward works.

Anyway, we will be setting the campaign in France 1940. I decided i needed to paint up a few more vehicles to add to the variety. Up to this point, I only had 3 H-39s for the French, and a Stug, Pkmpfw I and Pkmpfw II usable for the Germans. So I sat down last night and painted the S-35 and the complete 38(t).

AGNM Somua S-35.


AGNM Panzer 38(t)

Next up will be a PaK 36 for the Germans and a Hotchkiss 25mm AT gun for the French.

more HG Walls

2011-04-24T15:42:00.000-04:00

I've finished another H.G. Walls building I bought at Hotlead. This time it is a German barn:

H.G. Walls German barn with hand-made hurdle fencing.
Show with 28mm LE TAG drunken Cossack

this peice actually took more preparation then the church did. For starters, it was a hollow one peice casting, so I went about cutting off the roof. Since i play predominantly skirmish systems these days, I want to be able to put figures into it. this took the better part of 2 hours as I like to use a hobby knife. a dremel tool would do it much faster but also cuts away more of the actual model.i find a well-handeled hobby knife leaves a less obvious seam.

Hurdle fencing before painting.

The next step was the hurdle fencing i used cut-down match sticks for the posts and weaved steel wire until i had the right height. then i glued the wire to the matchsticks. then i made the gate the same way as i did for the church, using split match sticks. this would have only taken 45 minutes, but the first time i tried a larger gauge of wire, and although i liked it, i only got about 75% of the height i wanted before i ran out. So i unwove it and started over with a smaller gauge wire, and it took another hour(because i needed to weave more of the smaller gauge stuff)

Hopefully with my involvement in the cub winding down all the recent turmoil, and having been sick, i can get back to a more productive painting schedule. in the next week or 2. I guess only time will tell.

Items Stolen

2011-04-23T16:31:00.000-04:00

At my (soon to be former) gaming club, there were a rash of breaking and thefts over the last little while. Last week I lost 4 items pictured below:

AGNM T-28.
One of the MG turrets fell off so i still have that

JTFM German Neubaufehrzeug NbFz IV
Not normally on a base, I mounted it on one to match my AGNM collection.

Conquest miniatures pre-painted small longhouse, Unbased

One of the rock outcroppings pictured here.
I don't have a specific picture of the one stolen,
but it is one of the vaguely triangular outcroppings.

If anyone happens to see any of these around the internet, sound the alarm and let me know. Along with 1 or 2 other items stolen , it creates a rather random set of items. I suspect it's a rather strange mix of items so i suspect the culprit was grabbing things to sell. I've been looking around on Ebay, TMP marketplace & exchange, Bartertown and Kijiji for my city(Hamilton, Ontario, Canada).

I can't really afford to replace most of this stuff right now, so I would really like to catch this bastard red-handed. Any help anyone can give to that end would be greatly appreciated.

Of Grenadiers and Orchards...

2011-04-15T16:46:00.000-04:00

We had family staying from out west(alberta) this week so despite being out of my figure-painting rut, my output this week was fairly low.

Wednesday night I painted up the Kurfurst regiment's Grenadier company. the Electorate forces use combined grenadier battalions in the field, so these will be fielded in a formation with the Kurprinz grenadiers when I get around to ordering that 2nd infantry regiment.


Kurfurst Grenadiers defending a wall

I also finally got around to assembling and finishing an orchard I've had kicking around my back room since the beginning of last December. it is 16"x16" and has 9 removable trees, and a hand-made front gate. I cut matchsticks in half and then split them lengthwise to get the right thickness. I glued them open so that I can get a 25mm-30mm base through. I got lazy and decided not to put a gate on the back. Despite the trees being removeable, I decided to leave enough space between the wall and the tree bases to fit a 60mm movement trays or a 50mm base(which our Napoleonics are on).

Orchard being guarded by the Kurfurst Grenadiers

Shot of a removable tree and the and-made gate

Having previously scrounged or bought all the materials needed, I assembled and painted the orchard(and re-flocked the trees) in about 8 hours(with glue & sand drying over night).

Church time!

2011-04-12T15:37:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to getting the church i bought at Hotlead done this past weekend. I managed to snag this OOP H.G. Walls church in the Bring & Buy for only $20!! I decided to incorporate one of GW's old Urethane foam Graveyards onto the church's base I sanded down the bottom of the graveyard so that be base was not so thick, and then glued it down. I built a simple wall on the front of the church, and i added a wooden gate at the back between the church and the graveyard wall. I then cut off a few skulls(surprisingly few for GW!) and repainted the graveyard to match the church,

H.G. Walls church along with some Electorate defenders

the Church in pieces

a close up of the graveyard

Eventually when I have more money I'll finish the inside of the church.

Laffly S-20 WIP Test render

2011-04-11T18:39:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update on my CGI model of the Laffly S-20 truck

Last night a did about 6 hours work on the Laffly S-20. It's not done, as I need to add axles and most of the undercarriage. The truck bed is separate(you can see the seam if you look closely) this is how the truck was manufactured. I'll be able to ordere one tab/undercarriage and the 2 differnt back, and cast up the 2 common versions of the truck. I'll also be able to take the 47mm SA-34 AT gun and mod it to the back for the uncommon tank hunter variant of the truck.

1/56th Laffly S-20 Troop Transport


A quick screen capture of WIP SA-34 47mm at gun back at the beginning of January

I'm quite happy with how the truck is looking. I need to touch up the back wheel well and add the small runner wheels(after the undercarriage is in place)