Challenge Entries; The Final Straight

Another motley collection of Challenge Entries for you. First up, two Willys jeeps from West Wind. The will serve as transport for my commandos or objectives for WWII skirmish games. I based them on plastic bases leftover from Perry boxes, as they are a bit small. The bases raise them up a bit and stop you putting troops too close, hopefully making them look like they scale better.

Next up, my entry fee, Ronin #33, a particularly colourful samurai. I tried a new yellow recipe around Vallejo Flat Yellow (in preparation for the stalled Dragoons project). It came out really well but is very unforgiving of mistakes. Not ideal when doing a freehand design! But he came out well and I hope he has good service with Curt's other Ronin.

Last up, some artillery support for my Napoleonic Spanish. I was pleased with how the gun came out, but the gunners are a bit chunky.

Apologies that I've not posted much up recently, I've not had much time to blog as well as paint and even the painting is going pretty slowly. I'm on to the final straight of Curt's challenge, which finishes in just over two weeks. I'm just over halfway to my points target, which I'm almost certain to miss. I also have a few AARs for Pulp Alley to post from a couple of weeks back.

I also recently went to the Cavalier show in Tonbridge, with Samulus keeping me company. Cavalier is a small show but a nice primer for the year. I didn't buy much, just a few bits and pieces as well as the vehicles expansion for Operation Squad (it was reasonably priced!). I think I need a few more games before I'm ready to use them though. Seeing some other bloggers' pics of the show, I think I missed a whole room of it somehow!

One final note: Dux Homonculorum is running a great giveaway, worth swinging by.

Second Challenge Entry: Odds and Sods

I submitted a mixed bag to Curt as my second Challenge entry. First up, a man known as 'Herr Doktor' whose real name may, or may not be Doctor Graumann. A sharply dressed gentleman who claims to be a travelling doctor from Austria, but may in fact be an officer of the German Abwehr. An excellent Artizan sculpt with more than a hint of 'Herr Flick', I am pleased with the result of the grey colour scheme, pinstripe suit and flash of salmon pink.

I also submitted a West Wind French Partisan, as some muscle for a Pulp gang. A quick an inoffesive paint job on him. Finally, three riderless horses.  In the last, unfinished adventure, the Prof escaped on a stolen mount, though I had forgotten to bring, or paint (!) the horses for that session.These are some I had spare from the Perry ACW Cavalry set that was the basis for my mounted Guerilleros last year. They can liven up the board or serve as objectives (or an escape route!). Standing horses would be better for it, but I had these lying around so I can't complain.

 

Next up are more Pulp bits, a few of which I've already finished and are awaiting more completed figures for basing. I have also finished prepping most of the miniatures that I got for Christmas, including WWII Germans and a couple of Sudan packs. I think they will be on the workbench next.

WWWII AAR: The Assault on Facility 621

Operation TESTUDO, Stage 2. 

Initial report of Father Jonathan Harkness 25 October 1944

Myself and a small party from the 1st Assault Infantry Brigade entered the facility through Entrance Alpha. At first all that we encountered was a chemical stench. Dark and grimy, the facility unsettled the men.

 

Windows offered a vantage point overlooking the facility, we noted our objectives below: almost certainly the pump room directly below and a storehouse across the corridor. We started to trade shots with defending German infantry.

Rounding the corner, the lead SteelSuit encountered two Nazi abominations. A burst of purifying flames followed by hot steel put paid to both.

Fwoooosh!

Meanwhile, reports came in that out staging post was under heavy assault from German battlesuits - the Panzerkampfsoldaten.  

 After a firefight lasting around an hour, the attackers were repulsed with minimal losses.

Sniped by Herr Flick!

 In Facility 621, with a burst of heroism worthy of merit, Corporal Wojeck clambered through the shattered window and jumped down to the lower level. We offered covering fire as be began laying the charges. But we were unable to prevent German infantryman shrugging off our fire, rounding the corner and gunning Wojeck down.

To add to our misfortune, a Panzerfaust scored a direct hit on the SteelSuit overlooking the facility, killing the pilot Jenkins and showering us with rubble. With both British casualties and German resistance mounting, the assault was paused in order to to bring up our reserves. To be continued...?



Direct hit!

To be continued...?

(This and Part 1 were the three WWWII games Gharak and I got in over Christmas. The miniatures are msotly West Wind or Artizan with a few other manufacturers thrown in for good measure. The Terrain is all from Gharak's collection. Markers were gems for an action allocated to a miniature and numbered poker chips with flags stuck on for Blinds or objectives, depending on the scenario.

The story is left hanging slightly, there is another level of the facility to explore, if the British have any men left to do so!

The makeshift explosion was idly constructed as we were playing out of the wrappers from a box of chocolates. Not a bad effort - that Gharak is quite brilliant at bulding things 'out' of 'stuff'!

We used the Brink of Battle rules which we agreed made it quite easy to set up a balanced and fun game and were perfectly servicable for this size of skirmish. We wrote a few extra skills to account for the Weird, including a basic multiple wound system to cover the armoured battlesuits. I do wonder if we had made our men too tough, I seemed to have a devil of a time actually taking any Germans out, hence the less than impressive British progress through the attack missions. I also find the wound system often comes up with an odd result  - if hit, you get no effect, 'shocked' or killed outright depending on damage score compared to defense score, but if a model has already taken their action 'shocked'  doesn't do anything. And to kill something outright you seem to need to roll average or well on D10s on hit and wound rolls and your opponent needs to roll poorly on both too. But we did have a lot of cover on the board which seems to makes things more survivable.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the writeup. Finally, a Happy New Year to you all.

EDIT: turns out we were playing the shocked rules wrong, there is a CBT penalty for becoming shocked and if you incur a second, the model is removed from play. SWhich makes quite a bit more sense. Apologies! 

More Weird World War Two (not a Challenge entry)

I had a few Weird War British to paint before Christmas, which was my last effort before the Challenge starts proper. Unfortunately I've been really busy recently, so I didn't get these infantry finished until a day into the challenge.

The miniatures are from West Wind's Secrets of the Third Reich range. I converted one to have a long-barrelled Bren when I first bought them many moons ago. I particularly like the officer miniature.

I've found the main 'Weird War' providers are a bit lacking in inspiration for the British and found I haven't been able to do much better. While Nazis usually get all sorts of weird science and occult offerings, the British are a bit of a mish-mash of science and the mythological with no solid theme. I might go down a quasi-religious route with mine, you'll see why I mean when my first challenge entry is done.

With their more Stompy suits offering support. 

I've also knocked these barbed wire barricades up, courtesy of 4Ground. Really quick paint job on these - just some brown ink to make the wood more uniform.

Finall, I received my bloggers Secret Santa this week. Two packages - how exciting! After a good poke and shake, I've identified that one rattles a bit but isn't Lego (longstanding family joke). I think I know what might be inside each but must leave it wrapped for now!

Some Weird World War Two

Having dug out the WWWII for a little Christmas Pulpy goodness, I've a few bits to finish over the next week. First up was one of these 'British Steel' suits from West Wind's SOTR range. They aren't the most inspiring sculpts (compared the Incursion American ones, say), but they have quite a cute styling. Pity about the static poses, though.

I finished the left hand one a couple of years ago but think I've managed to colour-match the second, equipped with a flamethrower. You will note the new one is shinier, but I should be able to fix that with some Dullcote.

My camera also seems to have developed a Black Blob of Doom, more prevalent in this second photo. Probably some dust in the lens - it has had had a milder blob before but it went away. It's back with a vengeance, not good timing!