Puma!

Finished off the Puma for the German Bolt Action force this evening.

This is the resin and whitemetal Warlord  kit. I might add a little camo netting or shrubbery but for now it's ready to roll.. I know the pedants may criticise the camo or markings, as I am no expert, but it struck me how much variation there seemed to be when I was looking for source pictures.

It actually had it's first outing in a game against Scrivs on Tuesday, in a half painted state. The crew were clearly unimpressed with their ride and rolled 1's all night. Hopefully now they will be inspired to greater deeds. 

(I only got some slightly crap phone pics so not sure if they are worth posting)

We generally play with around 800 points and usually there isn't any armour on the table, however, I thought I'd try swapping my Artillery Foo (very expensive!) and mortar team for the Puma. Too early to say if it's a wise option. Anyway - I like it :-)

German reinforcements

A little bit of painting this weekend. Finished off some Napoleonic Prussian Fusiliers and then moved to more recent Teutons.. an MG team for my Bolt Action army. (I'll get around to taking some pics of the Napoleonic army so far at some point)

I started off not particularly liking my German force. Bolt Action is one of the few games I can get my son to play, so I needed to build two armies. The Soviets needed an opponent. However, as I play a few games with them, I guess I'm starting to 'bond' with my little army. (I say little as I always seem to be outnumbered!)

I've had a slight re-shuffle for the 800 point list for our upcoming league games, and thought I'd pick up a sniper and and MMG team to give me some options. (I don't like gimmicky armies and don't like the idea of fielding all veterans with Assault rifles, but I think these two options 'feel' right)

The sniper is a bit of a conversion - a Russian body with German bits added. I'll post a pic next week*.

The Germans so far are a core of Warlord minis, with a Veteran section of mostly Artizan figs. This MMG team was ordered from The Assault Group (TAG) I wasn't familiar with their stuff but I'm impressed. Nice chunky but well proportioned and detailed figures. There were four figures in the pack, I only need 3 for the MMG team, but have painted up the fourth as a 'spare' . I'm sure he'll find a role. All my usual 'arms length' painting.. Block colours and dip. Nothing clever but quite effective.

*The MG team have yet to join their comrades, as they were diverted to fight a small campaign elsewhere (see Tom's Blog here). Hopefully they will meet up in time for a game this week.

Half a Bolt Action Game

Played a couple of very enjoyable games of Bolt Action recently with Phil down at the club.

The first game we played, we used 800 points, I used my massively outnumbered Germans against Phils' US troops. (Which was interesting for me anyway, as I hadn't played against these movers and shooters before.)
We decided to pick a scenario randomly and rolled for the 'Top Secret' mission. Neither of us had played this before and it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable see-saw of a game, with the US grabbing a victory in the last turn. No pictures sadly.

Last week we scheduled a re-match and I grabbed a couple of pics on my phone. Same points and pretty much the same forces. This time we rolled for 'Envelopment'. I chose to attack, figuring that the numbers of troops I had available would make things difficult if I defended and Phil chose to attack across a wide front. For the same reason, I decided to launch my attack all down the left hand side, using the cover that the hedgerows provided. 

View from the German Left

Things didn't start too well for me as I threw a 1 straight away, meaning that the potentially damaging Preparatory Bombardment failed to appear. Never mind, we must attack anyway!

As it turned out, those hedgerows slowed me down where I really should have focussed on getting across the table as quickly as possible. Phil moved quickly to re-position his defenders, which opened up a new route for me too, but I was unable to capitalise on this too much as my Heer got bogged down under persistent fire from the defending US. (Pins mounting, despite not many causalties)

Heer get pinned in the lane

I was worried about an impending US airstrike, but true to form, the Yank pilots unloaded their full ordnance on the woods where many of the US footsloggers were massed. I'm sad to say that I took some pleasure in watching the PIN markers build up here.

We reached a point of balance now. If Phil pressed a counter attack, my infantry were in for a rough time of it. On the other hand, I had an opportunity to make a dash across on the right where he had left the door open. 

The table from the German Right

We'll never know what happened next. On the way to the club my car starting making some terrible noises and we cut the game short at this point so I could leave early, in case of any pending roadside abandonment. A real shame as this was shaping up to be a great game.

I'm afraid I didn't make a note of Phil's organisation, but the Germans were:
(798 points and all Regular except where noted)

• 2nd Ltnt with two men. (1 SMG, 1 Assault rifle)
• Artillery FOO +1 man
• Heer Grenadier Squad (10 men with 1 LMG and 2 Assault rifles) with Hanomag
• Heer Grenadier Squad (10 men with 1 LMG and 2 SMGs)
• Veteran Grenadier squad (9 men with 1 LMG and 2 SMGs)
• MMG team
• Medium mortar team

By the way, the 'mat' is an old green blanket that has been knocking about for at least 30 years. In the summer I hung it on the washing line and attacked it with a couple of spray cans. Quite pleased with it, although I might do some more spraying when the weather picks up.

Perry Desert Rats Ready!

Well, these didn't take as long as I thought they would. I didn't entirely stick to the plan.. had a bit of a crisis with the flesh colours half way through but pushed through the 'wall' with the belief that they would turn out alright in the end.

Something I learned from railway modelling actually, when building a layout or diorama, there's often a moment where it all looks to have gone wrong and it's so tempting to bin it all and start again. Leaving it for a day or two and then cracking on, trusting in your methods, will often get you through. (Not always!)

Anyway.. one diversion from the plan was to try using the Strong Tone ink rather than the dip. Much more subtle, but clearly without the varnish properties. I also brushed on the Army Painter Matt varnish. I was worried I might get some clouding, but they seemed to have turned out alright.

Right, cruel close up photos.. I prefer to view my figures at arms length on the table!

Perry Desert Rats

Better late than never.. I actually picked up a box of the Perry 8th Army figures at Partizan back in June when I was helping Scrivs with his spiffing Bolt Action demo game..

I got them assembled and sprayed with Army Painter 'Desert Yellow' ages ago and then got sidetracked painting Soviets and Germans.

Initially I thought I'd get these painted and based before the Perry Afrika Corps came out. doh!

Yesterday morning I thought I ought to make a proper start.

I have James Morris' article from WS&S magazine on painting these figures and I've been lucky enough to play with both his and Scrivs painted figures. I don't think it's wise for me to try to copy their styles at all, but I have made an effort to organise myself to paint these so that they will at least be 'compatible' should they ever share a table

My plan is..

Desert Yellow basecoat.
Mix of Vallejo Iraq Sand, Khaki and Coat d'arms Roan for uniforms
Black for boots, rifles and bayonets
Coat d'arms  Wood brown for the skin areas
I'm following James suggestion and leaving the webbing etc in the base coat.

Once I have these basic colours blocked in, the next step will be to use the Army Painter Strong tone.
I'm going to experiment here and try using the ink rather than the dip. (Might try a couple and see how it goes first)

After that it will be a case of highlights, picking out the wood on the rifles, the flesh colours and a few details like rifle straps.

Bases will be essentially a Yellow Ochre, with sand and some tufts etc 

Finally a light drybrush with Iraqi Sand.

As I say, that's the plan! We'll see how it turns out.

More Firepower for the Germans

A new job has meant very little time or mental energy for gaming or even painting over the last few weeks. I'm hoping that will change soon as things settle.

Last week it was my birthday and I can always rely upon my brother to send me cool wargamey presents ( he helped in the muster of my Prussian Napoleonic army).. this time it was a Warlord 28mm Sdkfz 234/2.. otherwise known as the Puma.

I reckon this little beastie is going to be just the thing to help my Germans trying to hold back the Soviet horde, they currently have a Stug but no other Anti-tank guns.

Haven't had a good look at it yet, but basically it is a resin body and turret (with quite nice moulded detail), and a bag of whitemetal bits which include the wheels and the gun. This was quite bent, but I'm hoping I can gently tease it back to shape without breaking or kinking it.

I'll take pictures and update as I build and badly paint the Puma.

Veteran German Heer squad?

As most of my Bolt Action games have been with my son, I've needed to provide two armies. The Soviets are definitely a favourite, and the obvious thing to do was to field a German force to play against (and of course they will be handy for many other games). I did consider Japanese instead, as we borrowed a force from Scrivs for one of our games .. but I digress..

The German force is currently smaller than the Soviets. A couple of Heer squads with mortar and MG support and a Stug III.. surely you HAVE to have a Stug?? I started with the Warlord 500 point starter army.

Recently I was looking at how best to bolster the force. Instead of just throwing extra infantry squads at it, I reckon I'll go for small and Elite to counter the Soviet horde. I think a 'Puma' armoured car is probably on the cards too.

Anyway, coincidentally, on ebay, I came across some groups of 28mm WW2 Germans being sold and I picked a 'squad' quite cheaply. I think these may be Artizan mostly (apart from one square-headed chap). One figure is now carrying a LMG from the Warlord sprues. Although I imagine Elite veteran types would probably be less uniform and I picture them in more camouflage, these will stand in a veteran squad for now, which will add around 140 points to the force.

Odd squarehead figure

Painting was by the same block and dip method as I've described for the Soviet figures and I just need to finish off the bases.

I actually really like these figures, I was a little disappointed with the Warlord plastic German infantry.

Painting the Soviets - the last stage

In the last post I had applied the Army Painter 'Strong Tone' dip to the figures. They were left to dry off for a good 24 hours and then given a coating of the Matt varnish. Again I use the Army Painter product. I've tried others but had problems with misting and poor coverage, so I don't mind paying out a bit more and joining the masses by using a 'label' in this instance!

This step makes a huge difference, I see the appeal of shiny old fashioned toy soldiers, but it's not the effect I'm after here.

Once the varnish has had time to dry, I move on to the bases.

Confession - I meant to take pictures here but carried away and got the figures done.

Bases are first coated with PVA and dipped into a old biscuit tin which I have filled with Woodland Scenics Fine brown ballast. The excess is tapped off and then they are left to dry again.

Next up - more PVA in patches and a mix of static grass is applied on top of the ballast. (It's mostly GW at the moment but does vary according to what I have at the time to add to the pot.)

Again - drying time of a few hours and I finish off with some tuft material - this is Army Painter again (I didn't realise I used so much of their stuff!) but there are loads of alernatives. I've used a 'Meadow Flower' mix and applied it to the whole army, and their German counterparts, which helps to tie-in all the figures into a whole.

finished figures

And, apart from a little tidying-up around the base edges, that's it.

It's entirely sensible now to perhaps go back over the flesh, and pick out some other details.. but for me, this is an army that I've painted incredibly quickly and are ready for a game. I think they look great at arms length, which is 'normal' viewing distance for most wargames figures anyway.

Finally a pretty impressive figure courtesy of Tim at Warlord.. he will either be backing up my CO, or perhaps acting as a Commissar in our games of Bolt Action.. An interesting rule where shooting your own troops can force a re-roll of failed command dice!

Painting WW2 Soviets - the 'dip'

TIP: I have found that a box of cheap 'disposable' latex gloves is very handy for this next step.. avoids much sticky messy cursing later.

The Army Painter 'dip' is now applied to the figures which have been given a basic coat of colours (last blog post). The first time I used this stuff, I actually 'dipped' the figures.. gripped the base with a pair of old pliers, dipped the figure head first into the tin and flicked and shook it to get the excess off. It probably works for some applications, but I prefer to brush it on now.

Using the 'Strong Tone' dip and an old brush that I keep for the job, a pretty liberal splash of the dip is applied to each figure in turn. I work in batches of around a dozen, allowing the dip to settle and gravity do some work, before going over each figure in turn with a smaller, dry brush (again one I keep specifically for this job) to 'pull' off any nasty pools of dip that are forming. With these figures, I find that the 'apron', the lower front part of the tunic is an area to pay attention to. I'm not overly fastidious about this part of the process.. overall consistency is the key for me here.

At this point the figures have gone from pale and slightly crappy-looking, to shiny and messy looking! But I have faith.. now going to let the dip dry for at least 24 hours before the next stage.

Painting WW2 Soviets - basic colours

Having assembled and based the Warlord plastic Soviets, they were sprayed with Army Painter Dark Green (see last blog post)

The next step is to 'colour in' - choosing the basic colours required (I go for slightly lighter shades that I want to end up with) and blocking in all the relevant areas as neatly as I can. Yesterday I managed to get this next stage completed for around 20 figures.

At this point they look pretty awful and it's so tempting to get shading and highlighting.. but I have faith that the dip will transform them.

Basically I've used a limited palette of Vallejo Khaki and Coat d'Arms Tan Earth and Roan, along with the undercoat green, as the main uniform colours. These have been applied fairy randomly across the tunics and trousers, but as there are only these 4 main colours, (mostly the first three), there is a sense of uniformity across the units.

Helmets have all been painted Olive, and then all the strapping and equipment given random attention too - mostly using Vallejo Stone Grey and Coat d'arms Wood Brown.

I know the guns shouldn't be shiny - a black or dark gunmetal grey would be more accurate - but using a chainmail to highlight the black undercoated metalwork helps them to stand out.

Next time - the messy bit, slapping on the 'dip' :-)

Bolt Action Russians

I mentioned before that I really quite like the Warlord plastic 28mm WW2 Soviet infantry. I have already painted up a small force, but recently picked up some reinforcements - basically another box. 

It occurred to me to paint these 'online' - show progress on this blog.

This isn't because I want to show off my painting skills.. rather to show how effective some very simple techniques can be. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I am using the 'Army Painter' methods to paint these. Undercoat, block colours, brushed on 'dip' and matt varnish. really quick. For me it's about getting the figures painted to a good standard and on the table as soon as possible. (I can't play with unpainted figures.. just can't do it!). The figures don't actually look as dark as they do in these pictures. I need to sort out my lighting.

So.. I've already assembled a couple of sections and some extra figures which I intend to use as Artillery observers. I used the Army Painter green spray to undercoat. (I normally use Auto primers or Plasticote and I reckon that the Army Painter sprays are better - certainly seem to cover well and have fast drying times).

Some pictures..

A finished LMG.. and a newly undercoated figure

Army Painter Green undercoat.. they look like 'Army Men'

A Zis3 gun.. made by the Plastic Model Soldier company

Some SMG infantry

Sniper

Sniper

Anti Tank Rifle

Anti Tank Rifle 

Spotter

A game of two halves

Last night Fred (Mog junior) and I had a game of Bolt Action. It is very much our joint game of choice of late. 

We had forces of around 790 points for this game - Russian and German, both based on the 1944 lists found in the respective army books.

Figures are nearly all Warlord and mostly plastic. I really like the Russians in particular, I'll post more on them soon. 

Scenery is a little makeshift, but I recently scratch-built the buildings and the fields and this was their first outing.

We played the 'Point Defence' scenario. Russians (Fred) opted to defend. His force consisted of;

HQ - Regular 2nd Lt

One Inexperienced Rifle section (Green)

One Regular LMG section (an infantry team with 2 LMGs)

One Regular SMG section

Supports came in the form of a Mortar, MMG, a sniper and a T34/85. Off table in reserve was an AntiTank Rifle team.

In attack, the Germans fielded;

HQ - Regular 2nd Lt with two men

Artillery Forward observer (two men)

One infantry section with Hanomag - Regular Heer

One infantry section 'zu fuss'

Supported by MMG, Med Mortar team and a STUGIII held in reserve.

The game started off fairly well for the Germans (me). The preparatory artillery bombardment put some pin markers on most teams and wiped out the HQ straight away. Then in the first few turns, a confident advance and fairly effective fire took care of the Green rifle section. On the Russian right, FOO directed artillery fire took out their mortar team, but the SMG section bravely moved forward, avoiding most of the barrage.

By the end of turn 3, Fred had started to lose faith and I could tell he was feeling that he'd lost already. Some fatherly advice about not giving up was about to prove right, although I'm not sure that being able to say 'I told you so' was much comfort!

The Russians finally managed to get the LMG team moving (they had been struggling to shake of the effects of the initial artillery bombardment), and some very effective fire cleared the woods of the Heer section in front of them.  The sniper on the hill also found his aim, crippling the MMG team which had so far done very little in the fields in front of the Russian left.

With slow progress being made on the German left, and no hope of capturing the central objective, much hinged upon the arrival and effectiveness of the Stug. Finally on turn 5, the Stug arrived - perfectly positioned at the foot of the hill behind the sniper. At this point, the T34 which had been on 'Ambush' orders, turned his turret and fired off one perfect shot, hitting and destroying the German armour before it could do anything.

An enjoyable battle which definitely illustrated how fates can turn within a game. Things to look up - transports. I need to understand how to better use the Hanomag. At the moment it's an expensive bus.