Thursday, October 11, 2012

Wow, Summer ate my brain!

Soooo it's been a while.   Summer took us by storm and I had basically no time to do any gaming or painting.

I did manage to do some trading and selling via game forums.  My 15mm sci-fi forces expanded to a good degree.

I'll take some pics an put up some lists of what I picked up for my Federal and Tigrid forces.

Suffice to say I can put some decent forces together to play Gruntz with now.

My Weird War 2 stuff expanded a bit also.  The Germans and US Paras got backup in the form of infantry and mecha. 

Here is a quick pic of my Tigrid infantry for 15mm Gruntz sci-fi gaming.
I have one commander, 1x 10 full armor squad, and 2x10 unhelmeted squads.
They should form a decent base for Gruntz, with their armor support to follow.

I'll be working on some other stuff soon.  Right after I take care of the major mess with my wife's car being totaled.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Migraines suck. And I got new stuff..

So, I had to fight with a migraine over most of my time off from work this last time around. 

I had wanted to get some painting on my FJ squad done but that didn't really happen. They did have some paint applied, but only some skin tone. I'm working on my meager paint skills, and my skin tones generally suck.
I noticed the US Paras had a very light, almost undead pale looking tone.  Using the Vallejo Bronze Flesh for my FJ's, I'm hoping to give them a bit more life to their look.

I did pick up a few things recently for my renewed gaming interest.

SoTR 1949 saw a squad of US Crow Dogs from Wayland Games arrive in the mail finally. They will add some needed infantry bodies, and bring some more Weird to my tabletop. 

Heavy Gear Blitz saw the addition of a Southern League strike cadre.  An FLGS in my area is going out of business and is having a sale on everything (including fixtures and terrain) in their store.  This was the only HGB thing they had, and it was cheaper than even Ebay so I snatched it up.

General modelling saw the addition of 350!!! rare earth magnets to my supply hoard.  I think I'll be set for a while with those. They're mainly for weapon swap options for my Heavy Gear Blitz models, although I'm sure they will find usage in my other models for turret swaps etc.

The store mentioned above also supplied me with some new Vallejo paints and glazes, some GF9 Arid land and Dried Straw static grass mix, some Litko systems skull markers (for SoTR and Gruntz usage) and a bottle of GW Gryphonne Sepia wash to try out.

I think I might go back and try to pick up some terrain on the cheap.  If I can get it cheaper that the cost of making it, and save time also....  I think I'd rather do that with my limited time to game/paint/build terrain.

On the Boo! Hiss! side of things, the USPS appears to have lost a Long Fang Naga model I bought off Ebay for my HGB force. :(  Waiting to see if it comes in by Saturday, otherwise I'll be getting a refund from the seller. 

Til next time when I hopefully have some progress to show.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Massive German reinforcement!

So, I managed to snag something this past weekend that will be doing double or triple duty for me in different games.
Dream Forge Games released a limited run of their Crusader Leviathan models in 15mm.  I managed to snag one along with some options to change up my model.

It is a huge model for 15mm, and will make a great German/Alien hybrid tech walker for Secrets of the Third Reich 1949 in 28mm.

The following pic is copyright and comes from the DreamForge Games website (used without permission here) so go see their website for more badass pictures of this model! That is a 28mm Sturmtruppen model compared to the 15mm Leviathan!


I'll try to keep a picture log as I build my copy of this massive beast.  I'm hoping it looks good in late war Ambush Camo ;)


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Got my paint on today.

Some progress is being made on my SoTR stuff.
I managed to get the boots and pants done on my FJ squad today.

The squad is 12 men, which can be split up into 2x 6 man fire teams in the SoTR rules.

So, I divided the squad into a ranged support and an assault team consisting of the following:
#1 Squad leader w/SMG, 2 riflemen, 1 FG42,  LMG+loader w/rifle
#2 Corporal w/SMG, assaultman w/SMG +grenade, FG42, 2 riflemen, 1 Panzerfaust w/rifle

#1 I did their pants in the Luftwaffe blue of early FJ units

#2 I did their pants in FeldGrau (field green) another Werhmacht/FJ pant color.

All will have the same splinter camo scheme as the Panzerschreck team I already posted.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

FJ test

Ok, I managed to slap some paint on a couple of FJ figs to test out my splinter pattern camo.

I think they turned out decent, so I'm going to proceed with them and finish out the squad they will be attached to.  I'm hoping to get them all done in the next week or 2.
Here they are...









Sunday, April 15, 2012

FJs! And other stuff

More on the table. I primed/based my first Fallschirmjager squad with a panzerschrek team for backup.
Once I get them done I'll have enough figures to start doing demo's of SoTR and/or teaching my friend the game.
I also picked up some 101'st Airborne and US Walker decals from Company B Games.

The 101st set came in yesterday after an apparent wormhole opened between here and Washington state. It only took one day to get halfway across the USA!

I'm going to make best use of them, but it appears a few of them got scratched or nicked in transit.
I'm hoping the walker decals I ordered get to me intact.

In other news I am getting into 15mm SciFi gaming. I never realized the plethora of 15mm sci-fi manufacturers that are around these days.  You can find just about anything you could want to play in 15mm on the web now.

  An order from Khurasan Miniatures started my infantry forces off with Federal medium infantry, and their Felid antagonists.

I plan on supplementing my Federal forces with Heavy Gear Blitz Southern Gears as light mecha and power armor, along with more Khurasan minis Grav tanks, APCs and Dropships.

My Felid forces will get some support from Critical Mass Games in the form of Protolene walkers, and jetbikes from Khurasan.


 No gaming projects would be complete without terrain. For 28mm  I have plenty of burnt out European looking buildings from an inherited set of Mordheim cardstock buildings.  Plus with some generic hills and such I can put down enough terrain now to get by.

I willl be adding some bocage and tree copses to help break things up, then get into some more buildings at some point for 28mm.

For my 15mm setup I just bought some excellent Bridge/Road terrain from Game Craft Miniatures.
I bought 2 highway approaches for their excellent Arnhem bridge set, along with their generic steel bridge.  I plan to use these in various ways on the table:  Passthrough terrain with no access aside from Jumping/flying units, high vantage points, and objectives.

I was pointed to Ebay for some interesting 15mm compatible building auctions.  Seems that in the 1960's there was a company making a line of toys called Children's Guidance.  One set was for a clip together plastic building.  I managed to score a large collection and I should be able to put together quite a few single and multi story buildings with it.

I'm still not quite sure if I want to go ahead and glue together single levels to make multi level buildings on the fly, or just make some large buildings and call it a day.

We'll see how things go. I'm getting a little more support from my wife with my hobby lately, especially since I've financed everything by selling off old Epic 40k stuff.   I guess if it doesn't come out of my wallet, she doesn't mind  ;)




Thursday, April 5, 2012

US Light Mecha

Ok, I finished painting and basing my US Airborne light mecha support. They need some decals, so I will probably hit up Company B for some of their excellent Weird War walker decals.

Here's a quick pic, and I'll get something better when I add decals to them all.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Kriegsmarine command squad

So I got the command squad of my new Drop Trooper substitutes out of their plastic for the most part.


 Forgive the sideways picture, I'll see if I can get it fixed.

 For now you can see what comes with the 5 man command squad:

 5 Torsos
 6 Leg sections
 7 Heads (5 helmeted, 2 not)
 accessory sprue,
 and weapons in the plastic baggie

 There aren't any extra weapon choices at this point.  What you see is what you get when ordering.

 But it seems that DreamForge Games will be opening a
bits service for their mini line soon, for extra and alternate weapon loads.

I hope to have paint on these sometime this year, we'll see though.

Friday, March 23, 2012

There's Germans falling fom the sky!!

Woo!  More reinforcements for my fledgling Secrets of the Third Reich armies.

I ordered a command squad and two 5 man squads of Kreigsmarine from Dreamforge Games to use as my FJ heavy armor drop troops.

They finally came in yesterday. 
They are just a jumble of parts in plastic envelopes right now, but soon they will be assembled and painted!

These are excellently designed and produced miniatures.

Though not as bulky as the Westwind Productions German Droptroops, these will work very well.

They are futuristic, yet retain a very WW2 Wehrmacht feel.

The armor is enough to give them a heavier than regular troop look while still being the fast moving airborne troops they are supposed to be.

I'll have some more pics out of the plastic soon.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Fallshirmjager reinforcements coming!

Well, I haven't even started on my FJ's for SoTR, and I have more reinforcements coming.
Mark over at Dream Forge Games is taking pre-orders for his excellent Iron Core Sturmtruppen and Kriegsmarine units.

I ordered a command section and a full squad of Kriegsmarines.  That should give me enough troops for an FJ Drop trooper platoon OOB, MechaGrenadiers OOB, or even the FJ OOB from Bella Europa with Drop Troop support.

Can't wait to get them in my grubby mitts!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Tin Cans: US mecha support

I managed to start work on some of my light mecha support for my US Paras in SoTR.

I have 4 AT-43 Red Blok Kolossus suits to use for my light mecha support, with a medium and heavy mech to follow.

It's been a while since I have painted any vehicles, so I'm trying to work out the rusty skills and bring my airbrushing skills up at the same time.

Here are a few I have managed to get some work done on.  I am not happy with the very dark green suit, so I'll be going back over that one with a coat of US Dark Green again.

I need to work on my washing steps to pick out the armor plating, and then highlighting and weathering.
These suits may just end up as test beds for new painting techniques.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Finally! Airborne squad finished.

I finally managed to get my US Airborne squad for Secrets of the Third Reich finished today.  There is a never ending list of things to do when you have children.

I had hoped to get to their mecha support, but that may have to wait until later in the evening or tomorrow.  At least they should go fast, with the majority of their paint job utilizing my airbrush.

First up is the squad Sergeant, and to his right the corporal leading the fireteam.


Next is a shot of the whole squad including mortar support.

This should give me enough of a start to have some demo games opposing my next project:
a German Fallshirmjager squad.

Both demo forces will get backup in the form of Mecha to start expanding into Weird War 2.

I do also have the US Sentinels that will provide some strength to this force.


 The squad has some firepower support with the M1919 LMG team, plus the attached mortar team show below.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

US Airborne!

So, I managed to get a US Airborne squad with mortar support nearly finished. I just have to finish the basing sometime this week.
A few pics of the squad, MG team and squad leader.


I will have better pics of the finished squad soon.



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Progress!

Well, I have news!

As I type, my first squad of Bolt Action US Airborne are on their bases awaiting the dip!

As soon as their basing dries they will be off to the dip process, then a final paint pass and landscaping.

I hope to have pics up soon of the full squad with their mecha support which will be up next on the paint table.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Progress of a minor note...

So it's been a while. Real Life is still kicking my ass on a regular basis.
I did finally manage to get my airbrush set up and tested it out a little bit.

I am getting familiar with it and already I can see the need for a better gravity feed version.

The siphon feed cheapy I have works, and I should be able to get a decent amount of use out of it, but it's a bit sloppy. I don't know if it's just crappy fitting of the cup, or I just need to work on positioning while painting.

We'll see.

After I get a couple things painted with it I'll post pics.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Life is full of....

Well, life seems to keep my away from gaming. I haven't been able to get any play time in for anything lately. Mainly the holidays, with lots of watching the kids in between.

Things are looking better, as I received more reinforcements for my SoTR 1949 forces.
My US force now has backup in the form of Mecha! I traded with a friend for some AT-43 walkers: 4 Kolossus suits, a Medium and a Heavy mech.

This should give me the ability to vary my support options, or use some models as objectives in games.

Now I need to get back to painting. I did get an airbrush for Xmas, and I'm almost finished picking up doodads and accessories so I can put it to use.

I'm hoping to start familiarizing myself with it next weekend.
We'll see...