Monday 31 December 2012

SS Panzergrenadiers - Battlegroup Kursk

 
I have finished my first platoon for Battlegroup Kursk at the same time I have attempted to paint SS camouflage.  I employed several different methods and none were better or worse to do.  They have come out ok but whether it is worth the effort for 15mm I am still undecided.  Up close they look quite nice but at arms length they look like anything else at this scale.  I will listen to comments from the chaps and decide what to do with the next unit.

It is also the first time I have painted Plastic Soldier Company 15mm figures.  I like the true scale over the more usual heroic scale of Battlefront, Peter Pig etc but they are more challenging to paint.  I have plenty of figures left so will continue with them, although from the box i do not have anymore of the prone LMG teams. I like them to be deployed in any scale which is why an MMG is standing in for the moment.

It's safe to say that this is the last hobby item I will have finished this year.  Not the last item to be started though :o).  Ah well back to work on Wednesday

Happy New Year.

Sunday 30 December 2012

Chaos Cultist Clone Wars

2012 is almost over, and to round off a good year of painting for me, here are some Chaos Cultists for my 40k Chaos Marine Army

Having bought two of the Dark Vengeance Limited Edition 40k starter sets (selling all the Dark Angels to cover the cost of the boxes), I have enough to field two decent sized units units.

One with Autoguns.
















And the other with Auto Pistols and Close Combat weapons.

















Up next is a converted Helbrute.

Hope to get these guys on the board for some 2013 40k action very soon.

Friday 28 December 2012

Battlegroup Kursk Progress

Whilst it has been a very busy Christmas holiday so far, I have managed to finish off a SdKfz 251 Recce troop and call signs 412 and 414 of my Panzer IV platoon.



I will leave the vehicles for the moment and do some work on the infantry platoon.  I am going to have a dabble at some SS camouflage patterns.  At 15mm it will have to be an approximation but hopefully it will be good enough

Wednesday 26 December 2012

New Year Resolution Time

Its that time of the year again, time to make those hobby related new years resolutions.

I have a good idea of what I would like to achieve next year, but first, lets see, and analyse, what I said last year...

2011 has been very successful for me in the painting department, and I plan to continue this through 2012. I hope to finish what I've already got and limit purchases to filling the gaps in my current armies rather than starting new ones. Ok, I have almost painted what I already had, My Warhammer Savage Orcs and Vampire Counts are fully painted, my Lizardmen still have a dozen cold one riders and a carnosaur to do. 40k wise, my Necrons and Dark Eldar are finished, and my Chaos would have been, had the new 40k and new Chaos Codex not come out; only a few cultists and a Helbrute to finish. As for purchases, less said about that the better!

2012 has come a little early for me, but not as early as some, so I hope to play more FoW and WW28mm games. I'd like to attend some local tournaments ( hopefully not on my own) and am looking forward to our Warhammer campaign, the eventual appearance to 40k 6th edition and the continued fun of Wednesdays nights. I have played some Flames of War, but no where near enough, I do have a fully painted 2000pt American army though. WW28mm (Bolt Action) has taken off and again I have an almost full painted 1500 points of Germans. Elliot and I did attend a tournament, and although 6th edition 40k did arrive, it didnt have the impact most of us would have predicted.


This brings us to 2013, and my resolutions, so here goes...

1: Finish painting stuff I have; in this order: 40k Chaos, Bolt Action Germans and then Saga Skraeling. After that I hope to start on my Nurgle Blood Bowl team, before starting anything else.

2: Start some skirmish games and get small forces for these rules systems; namely: Musket And Tomahawk, Dystopian Legions and Force on Force.

3: Play at least one game of 40k and one game of Warhammer every month, leaving the other Wednesdays for other games. I still like playing these GW games and dont want them to slip away, after all I've spent a lot of money on them over the years.This may see smaller games being played, maybe 1000pt games, who knows might even fit two games in a night, if we get a move on.

4: Would like to play more campaigns, even if they are just between me and one other person doing a simple campaign tree over a number of months. Something to spice up the gaming night, a step away from the 'one off' games.

I'll leave it at just those four, otherwise its going to get messy when I read these back this time next year.

So what have you got planned for 2013, what are you going to hope to play or collect? Let us know in the comments section.

Anyway have a good new year and see you on the other side....


Wednesday 19 December 2012

The Good Life


The Gaming Good Life


If you are old enough you will remember a BBC TV programme called the Good Life.  If you aren’t it was British situational comedy.

The show centres on Tom Good and his wife Barbara and their Neighbours Jerry and Margo Leadbetter.  On his 40th birthday, Tom is no longer able to take his job seriously and gives up work; their house, in Surbiton Surrey, is paid for so he and his wife Barbara adopt a self-sufficient lifestyle.  They turn their front and back gardens into allotments growing fruit and vegetables. They introduce chickens, pigs (Pinky and Perky) a goat (Geraldine) and a cockerel (Lenin). They generate their own electricity, using methane from animal waste, and attempt to make their own clothes. They sell or barter surplus crops for essentials they cannot make themselves. They cut their monetary requirements to the minimum...
 

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Say Hello to Tom


1: How and when did you start wargaming?
 
Was a gradual progression. At school when i was 7 years old we read The Hobbit and i loved it. I loved board games like Advanced HeroQuest and Risk. My older sister went to university when i was 11 and started Roleplaying a lot with her friends. Traveller mostly from what i recall. Her then boyfriend was GM and during visits we’d play games of Call of Cthulu and others. I had already started painting old lord of the rings models and others and was having White Dwarf delivered to my local hobby shop. This was long before the days of GW having a store in every town and city in the land! After graduating my sister and her boyfriend moved back to my home city. It was then that i really started wargaming. So i was 13 or 14 years old. I collected a WFB army and also a couple of Space Marine (6mm now called Epic) armies and my brother and i used to go to my sister’s flat then house to wargame. After my sister and her boyfriend parted company i continued painting the occasional model but didn’t game for quite a while due to lack of space and opponents.

2: What was your 1st wargaming purchase?
 
My first purchase of pure wargaming wouldn’t have been the Space Marine boxed set as i’m sure i got that for Christmas or my birthday. My first purchase would have been with gift money from Christmas or my birthday and i’m sure it would have been 6mm imperial guard sprues.

3: Do you remember you 1st painted models? How bad/good were they and do you still have any examples?

Sunday 16 December 2012

Hey, You, Get Offa my Kursk...

Firstly, all hail!!
The camera charger has been found. It somehow got buried under a pile of Christmas presents......
Yes, really.

Anyway
Following the Zedmeisters's post I thought I'd follow up with my own Battlegroup progress with some badly shot pics!

Here's the whole recce company awaiting paint etc. This includes weapon/support teams that have been based for FOW that will translate into BGK just fine (with the odd "wound" counter")
 And then a progress pic.
One squad done (a second is close behind) and the AT gun.
I think I've over weathered my BA10.....

Saturday 15 December 2012

Battlegroup Kursk - Clash of Reconnaissance




Getting ready for our first, delayed, game with Lordy so rather than paint everything as a batch as intended that I would concentrate on finishing the vehicles I will need for the mission Clash of reconnaissance.

I still need to do a tiny bit of correction and a coat of varnish but these are essentially done

Tuesday 11 December 2012

2012 Year in Review

Its not quite the end of the year yet, but here's a quick review of what The Lone Wolves got up to in 2012.

What will it be remembered for most?
I would say it was the year we really embraced war games outside of the confines of the worlds of Games Workshop. We have dabbled in Saga, Warmachine, Flames of War, Bolt Action, Wings of War to name but a few and have already started looking at Battlegroup Kursk, Dystopian Legions and Muskets and Tomahawks... will we ever learn!

So here we go, kicking off with...

January

January saw us all hastily finishing off 2011's projects, I finished my Necrons and my Savage Orcs, Elliot finished his Ogre Thundertusk.
We were getting ready for version 3 of Flames of War, and Simon was building, well, buildings.

February

February saw us begin the short lived Blood in the Badlands Warhammer campaign, with many of us painting up new units and characters especially for it.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Preparing for Battlegroup Kursk


Myself, Dave and Lordy have the new Battlegroup Kursk (BGK) book and a wonderful rule set it appears to be.  I say appears because we have not yet played a game.  Lordy and I were set for Clash of Reconnaissance last Wednesday but a family priority delayed our opening game.  Next week hopefully.  It has allowed us a little more time to work on our Battlegroups.  Why the delay when rules came out in October and so many people across the globe had to wait a number of weeks to get their copy?  We decided that with a significant commitment in 15mm Flames of War (FoW) figures and generous amount of in scale scenery and terrain that it made economic sense to reuse these figures rather than go to 20mm; tempting as it was.

However, it wasn't as quick or as economical as expected.  A decision to use some spare 15mm figures and to base them, more appropriately, for BGK was sensible.  We could have used wound dice or counters but my habit of 'clearing' the battlefield to keep it aesthetically pleasing has caused issues in the past.  Then a few extra tanks were needed; unfortunately our preparation coincided with a trip to the Warfare show at Reading and all the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) deals mean I now have enough tanks for North Africa as well as the Eastern front and my painting queue has once again increased. 

Lordy finally realised that his ever so cheap Gamodls T70's weren't actually what he desired in a miniature tank and replaced them with newly released and ever so splendid PSC version and topped up his T34 strength.  I think he has plans to replace his KV 1's in a similar manner. 

I did manage to keep the spending at a more respectable level by purchasing Zvezda Sd Kfz 222's rather that go for more expensive versions.  The snap together kit needed a bit of glue and some swearing but for £2.50 vehicle it is worth it.

So where is the pay off, the punchline to this post?  There isn't one yet.  Just a picture of some progress I have made on my vehicles.  The camouflage is done, next will be the pin washes, the decals and then the weathering.  I am undecided if I should 'chip' at this scale.

Stay tuned.

I would just like to say for the record,  for a change it was not me that 'encouraged' someone into a new set of rules but Lordy himself.  Just sayin'.

Friday 7 December 2012

Say Hello to Cortez


1: How and when did you start wargaming?
Started when I was about 13 so 25 yrs ago, best friend Tim had an older brother who was into 40k and both of us looked at the marines he had built from RTB01 and were amazed about the whole idea.

2: What was your 1st wargaming purchase?
Surprisingly nothing to do with 40k it was the Warhammer metal Orc bolt thrower. 

3: Do you remember you 1st painted models? How bad/good were they and do you still have any examples?
See above, absolutely shocking although for a 13yr old I thought it looked great.
 
4: How long have you known the other Lonewolves/how did you meet?
How long....umm not sure really, all started with Neil (Lordy) getting me back into gaming at Cribbs with a quick game of BB back in 98/99, then started working with him in GW in 99, I guess both of us then met Zed, Cyrus, Jonno, Dave around the same time in Zed's garage with a single 6x4 table after being dragged along by Neil some time in 2000/01 maybe. Chris (Binx) moved from being a regular at Cribbs to working and was introduced to the fold, there was a few yrs before the next which was Tom and lastly Ball Boy Elliot.
 
5: Do you have a game that sticks in your memory (for good or bad reasons) that you'd like to recall?
For some reason my mid normally goes blank after games (being blonde doesn't help) but I reckon the 2 week game with Zed is my favourite due to the constant back and forth of who may win.

6: What’s your all time favourite games system?
Don't have a favourite, although 40k has taken a dip with the new set of rules....

7: Any wargaming regrets/ things you would have done differently with hindsight?
The amount of stuff I purchased when working for GW.....still looking at it thinking "I'll paint that next......" never happens though.

8: Any wargaming experience/ army/ model/ story that you are most proud of/ like to brag about?
Crimson Fist Landraider (only one painted)....Got it before release due to working at GW at the time, the model came in a bag with no instructions, had it built and painted within a week then it went into the Cribbs cabinet.

9: What do you see happening to your wargaming wise over the next 5 years?
Bolt Action and FOW being purchased, possibly painting a complete army.........you can all stop laughing now!!!
10: Any final thoughts?
Umm.........Nah!!
Bonus section, for those that have worked at GW
A: How long did you work for GW?
About 3 yrs
B: Which Stores?
Cribbs Causeway and Bristol.
C: Fondest memory
The occasional pre release free stuff inc the Lord of the Rings book set. Although the Sunday big games were great.....maybe the night before helped :-)
D: Least fondest memory
The money.
E: If the money was good enough, would you go back? and why?
If the money was good defo, you get paid for doing your hobby why wouldn't you.

Sunday 2 December 2012

Most Prolific Year Ever!

Just spotted that Zed's post the other day made it 137 posts for the year 2012 beating our best post total of 136 in 2009.
Well done to all Lone Wolves that participated!
Still a few weeks to go and we can set the target for 2013



Sunday 25 November 2012

Laager

I have not mistyped, this is not a fizzy alcoholic drink.  If you want to know a Laager is a defensive encampment encircled by armored vehicles or wagons.

I have struggled to get any good images of anything I have being doing or completed of late.  Not that I have completed much in truth but I thought I would just take a snap of my paint station.  I am about half way with my Battle Group Kursk force.  I discounted starting 20mm because "I don't want to start from scratch, I'll just use my Flames of War stuff and tweak it a bit"  I honestly believed it at the time.  Anyway the PSC tanks are joy to put together, the Zvezda armoured cars not so much.

Monday 19 November 2012

Double Trouble

Warning! This post is very long, but has lots of nice pictures.....

This weekend myself and Elliot travelled to Nottingham to take part in the Warhammer Doubles Tournament held at Games Workshop HQ.
Unsure what to expect, we arrived Saturday morning and got ready for a weekend of 5 games, of what we hoped would be enjoyable games of Warhammer. We collected our gaming pack which included scoring sheet and special bonus objective cards and headed for our first, randomly selected table, where we met our first opponents 'The big green eating machine'.

This Orc and Ogre combination had a similar composition to our force, but also included 2 Mangler Squigs, our first game was not going to be easy, and was made even more difficult as the first mission randomly rolled for was The Watchtower.

Game 1 Deployment begins

Sunday 18 November 2012

Big and Small

So I've been working on my 1/48 scale KV1 for Bolt action.

Nearly done!
I've gone for a different shade of green and style of weathering than on my Flames of War tanks and I think it looks a lot better.
I tried it out on a 15mm KV1 I happened to have lying around (as you do) and the upshot is I now want to re paint my FOW tanks!
Its not as bad as it sounds as it will only really be 5 T34s and 3 IS2s and as I have a new bulk load coming in (thank you, Fraze) it seems a good time to switch.
Both still need weathering powders on their tracks but are otherwise done


Some words about how the colours are washed out by the sun (I really need to get some decent tips on how to photograph!)

Saturday 17 November 2012

Sunday 11 November 2012

Light the Torches and Fetch my Pitchfork!!


"OFFICIAL NOTICE
Maelstrom Games Ltd. has ceased trading and will enter liquidation at some point over the next few months. "

So it's finally official, Maelstrom are going belly up! I've an outstanding order that I've entered for a "non received goods" dispute but I'm not expecting much off that any time soon.
They've also started a new (VERY SIMILAR LOOKING!) company called Eye of the Storm. How they expect anyone to trust or support that I really don't know.
It also seems the owner of "Mierce Miniatures" was the owner of Maelstrom and some are saying the money pumped into this venture is the money that SHOULD have been going to their suppliers.

I just need to figure out my campaign of hate or if anyone knows of a good hate bandwagon I can jump on, let me know!

The Monster is dead, lets make sure it stays that way!

Monday 5 November 2012

Hello Big Papa

Once again its that time, so please say hello to Big Papa


1: How and when did you start wargaming?
 
Actual gaming would have kicked off for me around 1989/1990 with a few games of rogue trader era 40k against my a couple of my friends from school.  Collecting/painting models started back in 1987 with grandiose ideas of using models in D&D games that never came to fruition.  I remember someone brought a couple of minis into school, and they really captured my imagination.  Twenty-five years on, I still find myself mesmerised by nice new models.


 

Thursday 25 October 2012

Warlord Panzer IV - Finished

Came out alright.  A Churchill next and then back to paratroopers

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Say hello to Lordybloke


1: How and when did you start wargaming?

Way back in the mists of time!
I can trace it back to getting some book tokens (do they still exist!?) one Christmas as a young lad in the mid 80's and buying some fighting fantasy books (Deathtrap Dungeon and Island of the Lizard King!). I was hooked on those books and picked up Warlock magazine (dedicated to FF) which opened a world where I could buy miniatures of the beasts I'd been fighting in the books along with floor plans to fight these battles out in 3D. Terribly exciting stuff!
About the same time I was reading Lord of the Rings which added massively to the whole fantasy melting pot.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Germans on Parade

Woop, my Germans are done. Has taken about 6 weeks in all to get this lot painted, and it comes to about 1100pts.

I am planning to finish these guys off with another infantry squad and a Panzer IV, which will get me to about 1500; and although we may not play that size of game, it will give me plenty of chance to play around with my list for each game.

Friday 12 October 2012

British Airborne Pack Howitzer WiP

I was pressed for time all weekend so have assembled and based this support option this evening.  I hope to get it undercoated and spray the base colours tomorrow

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Accepting New Members


The Lone Wolves table top war gaming club, established in 1997, are now accepting applications for membership. Situated in the North East of Bristol a sizeable but draughty venue with easy access and a fine tradition of fantasy and historical1 gaming

The successful applicant will should meet the following criteria

Thursday 4 October 2012

Say hello to Cyrus

Hi!

Anyway, as some of you may know, I started doing Q&As for the members of the Lone Wolves, so we could learn a little more about them, it started well, and then I forgot...

Anyway, after a bit of prodding from Lordybloke, they are back, and to fit them all in before the end of the year, I'll post one every few weeks in the order I get them back via email...

So here we go...

East is восток

4Ground are currently churning out a lot of terrain.
Recently released were Eastern Front style log cabins in 15mm scale and I was lucky enough to assemble the ones we got for the Wolves (not that there was much fighting!)
We got the village which is 4 buildings for £25, with a 10% discount for being newsletter subscribers. Nice! Zed has the 4th to do.

These things flew together very easily. The pieces came out of the wooden sprues with no problems, in fact most just fell out!
If you've ever done any scratch building or kit building these will cause no problems at all. Excluding drying times for the glue I probably took less than an hour to assemble all 3. The roofs are removable to allow placement of troops. You can get one standard flames of war base in each.
Only real criticism I have is the "lugs" that help put the roof together are clearly visible once stuck together. You could paint these out with the right colour match but I didn't want to risk it!
I quite fancy making a village base for them to bring them together and add a bit of life but that can wait!
Highly recommended for some Eastern front feel to your table top.


score:
Четыре из пяти степняков


(4 out of 5 steppe dwellers)

Wednesday 3 October 2012

British Airborne PIAT and friends

Finished the PIAT team, a medic, another officer and the light mortar.

Whilst getting ready to paint on the airborne wings I decided to read the internet and found that Company B decals are available from the Command Post so ordered them to improve upon my efforts and make things a little easier

Saturday 29 September 2012

Bolt Action: British Airborne

I am making some progress with my British Paratroops, I have my Officer and two sections for my required units and a Vickers MMG as my first support choice.

I am starting on a medic and a PIAT team next.  Whether to do a third section or go straight for a 3" mortar is the dilemma.

Friday 28 September 2012

Tea Hee

Well it looks like tea mugs are the winner!
Doesn't mean we can't do the other ideas later......

Thursday 27 September 2012

Tiger 131 Schwere Abteilung 504


Last Saturday Dave and I went to Bovington Tank Museum for the second of two Tiger days.  This event is for the famous Tiger 131 of Schwere Abteilung 504 captured in Tunisia.  As we had VIP tickets we were able to climb on the Tiger and other Panzers to inspect the interior.  There were a series of lectures and a demonstration in the arena of Tiger 131 – yes it runs – as well as a number of tanks from WWII and beyond.
It was an excellent day and can thoroughly recommend a trip to anyone that has an interest in the origins of the tank and its evolution through to the modern day.

I only had my phone for pictures but have selected the best that I took on the day.  Once Dave has been through his I may add a few more of Tiger 131 to the blog. 

Sunday 23 September 2012

Oi, Packet Inn

I have completed another of the Cortez built Mordheim buildings.
This one being the White Wolf Inn.

I tarted it up by adding a flagstone floor and some cobbles outside using filler.

The paint job could have plenty more detail added but it will do for now. Better to get all the buildings painted and see how it goes from there!
I believe Cortez has some barrels and "stuff" to add a bit more flavour

Side shot


Some Friday night regulars upset at the loss of their boozer...



Friday 21 September 2012

It's War.....Jack!

As you all know, i have bought the two player starter pack for War Machine, and have actually surprised myself with how quick i have assembled both armies.
I have also sprayed all of the Khador faction, and wait for it......even painted one!
My original plan was not to dip it....not sure why, as i bloody love it! But i thought that the gloss would give the WarJack a nice roboty look...and i took zed's advice and actually brushed the dip on.....i think its come out really nice, and made the red look less bright and blended the colours in well!

What do you think?

fur....nice!

Its a model that i have liked for a long time, and i am happy that i have finally done it. I've only played it once, and it got chopped down by one very angry Dwarf with a very large axe.....thanks Simon! :-)

Anyway, i hope you like it, im happy with how it has turned out overall....



Tuesday 18 September 2012

Warning Order - Bolt action

Stand by Stand by Bolt action rules arrived at the weekend and our first intro game tomorrow. Soviets v germans probably

Sunday 16 September 2012

Ja, More Germans..

9 more Germans done and dusted.

And good news, my Bolt Action rules have arrived, have been read ( well most of it) and I'm ready for some WW28mm, just need to paint some more blokes

The next nine are on the paint station and are under way...


4Ground 15mm Terrace House Review

With all our games the look of the table is one of the important components of a satisfying game.  We have been dabbling with various manufacturers of 15mm terrain and will no doubt continue to do so but with our latest purchase we have found something rather special in the 4Ground product.

We all range in abilities and interest when it comes to scenery, I for one quite enjoy building and painting scenery but just can't fit it into my schedule, but we are all feeling the pinch especially with our time so we have tried a couple of prepainted buildings.

For £20 the three house terrace comes flat packed. You need to remove each component from the frame; this is easy to do by hand and whilst there is a small amount of cleaning up to do it is easily achieved with a sharp knife or a piece of sandpaper.  Assembly is simple and, as long as you read the instructions and look at the picture, easy to follow each stage.  The only section I found tricky was the two dormer windows in the roof which I used a dab of hot glue to fix, for the rest of the model I used PVA or white glue.  I recommend leaving some time between stages to allow the glue to dry.  Overall it took a hour to complete not including drying time.

Below are a few pictures of the completed project, the doors are supplied brown but I chose to paint and gloss these myself.  The posters on the building are supplied as part of the instructions and I fixed them to the building with some thinned PVA.  My only comment is that I would have liked some prepainted floors for the interior but this is really nitpicking.

Score: 10 out of 10 maison d'hôtes

Sunday 9 September 2012

Nein Germans

Following on from my 15mm WW2 Americans, I have now moved to painting 28mm WW2 Germans...

Here is the first of my infantry units, including 2 SMG's and 1 LMG.

With Bolt Action still not dispatched from Amazon, there is still time to crack on with some more before the games being.


Tuesday 4 September 2012

Teeny Tiny.....

The Pontipines are friends of mine, although they're very small......


The Teeny Tiny Pontipines, I love em! I could watch those little red fellas mucking about for hours. Waving at their neighbours, the Wottingers or eating their tea on the Ninkynonk or losing their children and not even worrying.
All Brilliant!
I won't go into the sub text of the Pontipines acting out the Soviet oppression of Poland (the Wottingers) through dance and hide and seek I'll let you draw your own conclusions (its all there....)

Anyway this nonsense diatribe is simply a device to make further use of the words "teeny tiny".
From teeny tiny Pontipines to teeny tiny tanks!
Another day and another game/venture. I'm not sure who's to blame for this one but certainly Zed hasn't helped!
Somewhere along the line a great idea was born to play some WW2 games in 6mm. Kursk being mentioned as a back drop.
Zed bought a few 6mm German testers from GHQ (very nice) then Skytrex sent out a 20% off mailer and my goose was cooked (mongo was baked?)!

My order arrived today. Here's what I have, from left to right; T34/85s, SU100s, sturmovik, IS2s, T34/76 (2 turret variants. The differences really show up at this scale!)

Army shot

Sunday 2 September 2012

Fünfzig Graustufen

Not used Army Painter spray before, but it does an awesome job.

Have sprayed all my WW28mm Germans, ready for their trip to my paint station.

Was hoping to have them done in time for the release of Bolt Action,  but Warlord went and released it early, just hope Amazon get mine dispatched soon....


Saturday 1 September 2012

View from the Paint Station

Encouraged by the success of finishing the MMG team for the platoon, I have base coated the remaining Paratroopers. Once I have the Bolt Action rules I will decide what else I want to add for platoon support.

Oh and that is a pint of Gem from Bath Ales brewery

Friday 31 August 2012

British Airborne Medium Machine Gun

As both Bolt Action and Battlegroup Kursk rules start to loom large against their respective release dates my interests and limited hobby time are switching to WW28mm as we have designated it.  Aiming for the Bolt Action rule set I have started, once again, with the Brit Paras.  The SS and US Rangers will have to wait a bit longer

Here she is the stalwart of machine guns; one was fired continuously only stopping to reload for 7 days.

Thursday 30 August 2012

It's all about the terrain

A lot of games we play utilise WYSIWYG = what you see is what you get; the effects are often WYSILOB = what you see is lots of bickering
Within our regular gaming group terrain and how it is handled is not a subject of constant discussion but it is the subject of constant commentary.   Often containing one or more of the following words – What!? - Rubbish! - Really? - Pointless! - Wanker!  Depending on which rules are being used terrain or scenery can either be as depicted by the ‘piece’ or it may confer an effect.  A wood is a good example of this; does a wood on a base mean that the whole base is wooded or just where the trees are located on the base?  This will lead to either or both of these statements “I can see across the base but don’t have line of sight? That’s a load of shi…”, “I can shoot across the base (WYSIWYG) as I have line of sight, and you are not in cover Ha! In your face!”


Wednesday 29 August 2012

New Venture

We at the lonewovles over the last 2 years have really expanded the the games we play, when i first started gaming with the gang 3 years ago (wow, time goes fast!) we would only play GW produced games.
Now we play a range of games, from FOW, SAGA, the up and coming bolt action WW2 game, and there is talk of even more.

One game I came across early on in my hobby was War Machine, it was a game however that i never heard any of the guys mention, so I assumed they had tried it and not liked it like LOTR.
It turns out however I  was wrong and in fact binx was interested in playing too, so for my birthday i decided to purchase the starter set.

Hobby progress

Hi! 
It's been a while since I posted, so I though I would share what I have been up to.
Been painting nothing but Skaven at the moment, 40 Plague monks all done and dipped, my catapult is finished too. Just coming to the end of my 4 weapons teams too! Quite happy with the speed i am getting though them....i suppose i should be with with all the *ahem* time off work!

Tiger 313 Painted

I was due to go camping this week but as the British summer has excelled itself this year in imitating a monsoon I have found myself at home.  So between day trips I have been finishing the Tiger I started some months back.  I bought 3 from eBay and have stripped one back to try repainting.  A little darker than I hoped and some weathering issues to correct but it has come out ok.  I'll attempt the rest at a later date.
 

Tuesday 28 August 2012

I've got Mortar show you...

A mixed bank holiday here in the good ol' UK meant that I had more time than expected to paint little Americans.

First up are the remaining MGs and a couple of mortars

 Then come all the other bits and bobs found on the smaller bases, this lot contains mainly command bases and bazookas. I'll be adding a map or something to the table for artillery guys at a later date.













I've ordered the last of the decals I need to finish off my initial 2000pts of armoured Americans, and once they are here and on my remaining vehicles I'll do an army wide shot for you all.

Next on the painting table will be some 28mm Germans, ready for a bit of Bolt Action...

Monday 27 August 2012

Mordheim, Normandy.....

Bank Holiday weekend.
That extra day to get stuff done and really enjoy yourself!
Or just an extra day of chores.

I managed to get a bit of hit and run hobby in this weekend with some terrain painting.

Cortez has knocked up some ruined houses with an eye on a Mordheim campaign at some point, which I'm all for.
He didn't want to paint them though so I've volunteered to have a go at least at some.

First a quick hobby tip:
Painting scenery can use a lot of paint. Over the years I've taken to using tester pots from DIY superstores. The range of colours these days is vast and can easily match your chosen model paint range (I wouldn't advocate painting your models with them though!).
I recently restocked from Wickes as they're testers were on buy one get one free.

This little lot for a tenner

Some great names in there, Grizzly is going to be pretty useful as a dark brown base. A great place to start for most terrain.

Here's what I've produced this weekend. A bit rough and ready (photo too!) but they'll do the job


And as they are likely to pull double duty for WW28mm games here they are with a squad of soviets in position


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Sunday 19 August 2012

Oh, MG's

This morning when I posted the pictures of my completed rifles, I hadn't even started painting any LMG/HMG's, but now here I am posting a picture of them finished.

Ten bases of MG's some for my HMG platoon and some for use if I dismount them off my half tracks, I've got 8 more bases of these to do, they'll be next on my paint station.


Oh, and just for the sake of it, here's one of my guinea pigs, Didymus, having a nice stretched out

Objective: Rifles

Well, after a little delay in getting hold of some US Armor spray, I am back painting little Americans.

The vehicles are all done, well they will be once they get their decals, so I have moved on to the infantry.

First batch done, I present to you, 10 bases of rifles; once the whole force is done I may go back and a few tufts to give the ground some height.