WWWII characters, last of the 10mm WWII

I sent my first Challenge entry to Curt well before Christmas, but my own posting has had to wait s few days. I managed to get two more Weird World War II characters finished just in time for a couple of games over Christmas. Last year, I went away for the holidays before even picking up a brush, only to be left watching others rack up points for a week. Not this time! 

On the left is a British army Chaplain taking up arms to confront the German monstrosities. A really characterful, if slight, Warlord Games miniature. I've named him Padre Jonathan Harkness. On the right, 'Mad' Ross of Erracht,  an Infinity miniature that I though would serve perfectly well as a furious claymore-wielding Scot from centuries earlier.

I couldn't resist adding a little Saltire on his backpack and decided on a simplified 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan, as the green base echoes my Commandos' berets and the flash of red that also features elsewhere in the WWWII force.

Full dress of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1940, 
wearing Cameron of Erracht tartan. Courtesy of Wikipedia

I supplemented these two with a few 10mm WWII from Pendraken, which pretty much finish my British force for Blitzkrieg Commander.  Two stands of mortars and two of  Commandos. 

I haven't decided if I will blog all of my entries, in a way it is a repeat of what Curt puts up, but also gives me a chance to ramble a little more and preserve my entries on my own corner on the blogosphere. I suspect it will come down to whether I have time to or am back at the painting table!

Wall Art for the Hobbyist

I've continued to work up some 10mm WWII, here we have some more punch for the poor bloody infantry - two 6pdr AT guns and one 25pdr Field Gun. A quick job as I only painted and based the guns themselves - the crew were already finished (mostly borrowed from a 17pdr actually). Note there is space on the back of the 25pdr base for a Morris Quad to drag it around. I've since noticed that the late war Europe list in BKC doesn't allow 25pdrs as on-table support, which is a bit annoying. So I've painted a pretty paperweight (or useful reminder of my off-table guns).






I mentioned the Capitan painting competition some months ago and as the deadline looms realised I haven't even started. Seeing Curt's lovely entry here, I've primed my entry and turned him around in no time. Looks like i wont evem need their recently-announced extension. I'll post a pic up in the morning. It was a welcome change to do just one Napoleonic - it seems like an age since I painted some!

I've also been doing quite a bit of sightseeing and thought this might interest in one of the room of Hampton Court Palace:

Can you tell what it is yet?

A closer look at one wall

Yup, this is wall art made of pikes, muskets, pistols, armour and so on, covering four walls with thousands of pieces. It was in fact was the first formal room of the Royal court of William III (1689 - 1702), a Guard room and something of a display of England's military power for the dignitaries visiting court. All of them were working firearms and were cleaned annually. Interesting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.

More progress

With a very real chance of getting a game or two of Blitzkrieg Commander in at CLWC, I thought I'd finish off the few bits I bought at earlier in the year, at Salute and before. To support my Late War British, more armoured might: three Shermans including a Firefly, an Achilles Tank Destroyer and a pair of Staghound armoured cars. Bring on the German Armour - plenty of 17pdrs here!

I'm starting to really like 10mm as a scale for WWII, the tanks look really dinky. These are mostly Pendraken, though the Staghounds are from Pithead miniatures. I didn't realise how massive Staghounds were, nearly as big as a Sherman. And its not that classic issue of different manufacturers - they really were nearly as big! The tank commander was converted from a Pendraken radio operator, that will serve as a command tank as required.

They didn't photograph particular well, but they are mostly a dull green/brown colour so not that interesting! I also used plenty weathering powder to grubby them up nicely. You may note the lack of markings, I may add some later, or just leave them as they are.

Oh, look, another switch of era and scale.

I've also finished the second batch (of four) of the secret project. So some considerable painting progress in a week!

Just a little snap

To keep my post to picture ratio up, the aforementioned Churchill, Daimlers and Pulp Toff. On the latter's base you can find a new discovery to me - mininatur tufts. Layering them with flock can create really dramatic effects, perhaps pricey but I think it is worth it.

Triples, belatedly

Thought I'd post my thoughts on a long Saturday spent at Triples. Firstly, love the new venue - easy to get to, with a nice, airy, well-lit hall which most traders and games fit into. I was fond of the old Triples venue, but mostly as I knew if from being a Sheffield Student. Really, Triples was a bit of a rabbit warren of rooms full of dimly lit stands and games. Endearing, but not ideal for a hobby which is becoming increasingly well-presented and professional. The new location is a great improvement.

There were some impressive demo games, as much from the number of figures on show as the themes. None really inspired us to dive into a new subject though. A great blog, Too Much Lead, has a good few pics of the highlights:


http://toomuchlead.blogspot.com/2011/05/sheffield-triples-2011.html


The purchases were a mixed success, as I had a long list of hopeful items. We're often tempted on the spur of the moment to undertake a new project, but not this year. The best contenders were Anglo-Dutch wars naval, or 10mm medieval/ancients. Neither got us excited enough to purchase. At the end of a good 4 hours browsing, the haul was:
-Two desert hills to texture up for Napoleonic Peninsular war
-pack of Redoubt defenses, again for Peninsular
-Renedra plastic fencing
-three packs of MiniNatur tufts to detail up a whole host of bases and terrain
-a few final (honest!) bits from Pendraken to bulk the Tommy platoon out
-an impulse purchase of some Gripping Beast/Woodbine British Countryside Hunt minis, probably to be used as Pulp characters

This came in at only half the budget,so spare money to splash out this month!

Gaming weekend, Battle Report

Just back from a long weekend with my brother, where we itnended to get some solid gaming in while the womenfolk knitted and gossipped. Unfortunately, fate was against us, with a two hour delay on the trains on Friday writing off any gaming then, and my brother coming down with something which although mild, was an unwanted distraction.

Still, we rolled out the 10mm WWII for two games using Baptism of Fire. Mostly, we were chuffed to both be using fully painted forces of the first time in an age. And they did both look mighty spiffing, if I do say so myself. I've added a few photos of the first game below - British attackers aiming to break through the German position.

The assault begins

The markers are for defensive hidden deployment of troops and defenses, as well as D6 dummy markers. Smoke and flames is for morale statue (one for suppressed, two for pinned) - these were from my initial bombardment.

Shermans crest the hill

The terrain is mostly scratch built, with Hovels Ltd farm buildings, which painted up nicely. Note the table has moved - kicked out for dinner to be served! A substantial benefit to being able to play on 2' by 4'.

Panzer IV knocks out the Firefly's turret

Enough said really - the Brit armour is in a fix, having lost their main firepower.

Endgame

We called it a wrap, with by brother unable to stop the start of a tide of Tommies flooding past his right flank. Although the Brits were losing the tank battle, they had succeeded at holding back the German centre for long enough to start acheiving their objective in numbers.


Lessons learned:
- The rules play well, but a turn takes 30 - 40 minutes or so and are very interactive so require a lot of attention.
- As we've only played a few times, and the rulebook design does leave quite a lot to be desired, there is a lot of rulebook flicking to slow things down.
- Bring plenty of transport - infantry is slow to maneuver on such a large board.
-Never underestimate the panic a single 2" mortar can cause with a good barrage.
- Armour is strong, but goes down fast to the heaviest guns, or is impossible to beat from others. We may need to tweak the armour rules to prevent armoured one-upmanship forcing us both to always bring some major AT firepower at the expense of everything else. The next game highlighted this perfectly, when the Tiger I showed itself...
- Fully painted figs and terrain are hughely rewarding

We also made a short trip to Triples on Saturday, to stock on on supplies and inspiration. More on that later!

A Little Progress

As mentioned previously, I've been working on some 10mm WWII, a pet project of my brother. Below are the first finished models, a platoon of Tommies and a couple of Vickers MGs They are Pendraken models, magnetically based onto custom-made metal bases, which should make them hugely adaptable.

They will be used for skirmish rules, so we tried magnetic basing so we could remove casualties.

Phone pic on the dining table once again, I'll update with a proper picture once I've painted up their transport and armour!

Over the weekend I also finished my second unit of 95th Rifles skirmishers, maintaining my Napoleonics output. No pics at the moment, though I did post the original unit the other week.