Diving into Dystopian Wars

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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.

 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

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.