Third Saturday - Death from Above and 15mm WWII

The CMPA is currently meeting on the third Saturday of the month at Total Escape Games so I packed up my painting bag and head north. I was a bit concerned when I got to the store and there was a line outside. I didn't know it was free RPG day. Fortunately I didn't have to wait in line to get in and was able to go straight in and setup. From our perspective the RPG players are our crowd, they are the group most likely to be considering getting into painting as they have already been introduced to miniatures, either through friends that paint, or the pre-painted miniatures produced by WoTC and Reaper. We gave out some of the club business cards and talked to a number of people who wandered by and I think we will be seeing some of them next month.

At the store I worked on the flesh tones for 54mm Death from Above piece from Hanger 18. After about 3 hours I was totally unsatisfied with the results and I'm going to strip her back down to the resin. I did manage to take a picture before I got started though. She will be displayed on one of my three sided displays although not the one she is pictured in. I'll have to build one slightly larger to really accommodate her.

I have decided that my distraction work will be done in 15mm WWII so I can try out the techniques in the "Painting Wargame Tanks" books that I received from Ammo on Friday. Rather than just pull out some tanks I decided that I would start work on my US Army and just to be different I thought it would be fun to work on a Tank Destroyer Company. I'm moving away from Flames of War though, I just find way to many things that irritate me about that game, so I'll be basing these for Test of Battle which is the 4th Edition of Command Decision. That means that I'm going to be missing some vehicles that are included in the Command Decision version of that organization that aren't included in the FOW organization.

Working from the second edition Armies of the World the TD Battalion is broken into an HQ Company, a Recon Company and three Tank Destroyer (SP) Companies.

For the HQ I need:
Command Stand
Jeep
Light Truck
Support Stand w/ Bazooka
Medium Ammo truck w/trailer and AAMG
ARV

Recon Company
Bazooka Stand
M20 Armored Car (CMD)
M8 Armored Car (RCN)
3 Jeeps w/ MG (RCN)
Jeep w/ AAMG (RCN)
Light Truck

Tank Destroyer Company (x3)
M20 Armored Car (CMD)
M8 Armored Car (RCN)
3 SP 76mm Guns (M10 or M18)

I have most of the components for the Tank Destroyer Company. I'm missing M8 (which I don't think had been released at the time I was accumulating vehicles for this). I'm also missing an M10 as I only have 2. If I wanted to build the full battalion I would use either M10s or M18s they weren't mixed within the battalion as far as I know. I'm modeling the 4th Armored Division so I'll have to figure out which vehicles they had in their TD battalion. But in the meantime I think I'll go ahead and try and acquire one more M10, 3 M8s and a Lt Truck to round out the TD Companies and the Recon Company.

I was able to get most of the assembly done last night. I still need to do the jeeps, which appear to be the most complicated models of the bunch, and then I'll get them primed. After that I can move on to seeing how well the book is actually written.

Elements of the Tank Destroyer and Recon Companies washed, scrubbed, dried and ready for assembly.

Parts for the M18 Hellcats. I was missing a piece, but was able to form a replacement for it from wire. Its the odd bar that extends across the top of the hull from front to back over the gun.

I must have got these in transition from one resin to another. I think the darker hulls are older. You can see the replacement wire on the turret of the light grey resin M18.

M10 Wolverines ready to go. At the time these were the new versions with the plastic tracks and gun barrels. Hopefully the current version will still match in size. Battlefront has a nasty habit of changing the size of the models when they make a new version.

M20s ready to go. I add the crews and MGs after the bulk of the paint work is finished. Its easier to paint the crews outside of the vehicle and it avoids breaking the MGs.

It was late and I called a halt to assembly when I got to the jeeps. I'm not sure why the smallest vehicle seems to have the most parts but I was to tired to finish them last night. They will be first on the list to do today.

Review 4Ground 15mm Europe at War Buildings

While I try to figure out a way to create deeper woodgrain patterns (new tools on the way) on my Battle Flag 28mm Western buildings I thought I would go to work on some other buildings that arrived about the same time. These are 15mm WWII buildings from 4Ground. I have been admiring their buildings for quite a while and I needed some new buildings for my FOW games at the house so I finally broke down and made an order. Rather than review them one at a time I figured I would do the whole lot at once. They don't make the building I really want, a corner building. Essentially an L shape with one corner cut at a 45 degree angle. Some sidewalks would be a welcome addition to the line as well.

I ordered and received five buildings and some stone fencing.

15-EAW-301 – North West European Hotel/Apartments with Coach Arch

15-EAW-302 – North West European Semi-Detached House Type 1

15-EAW-303 – North West European Semi-Detached House Type 2

15S-EAW-103 – Pre-painted North West European Terrace Houses Type 1

15S-EAW-107 – North West European Pre-Painted Shops Type 1

15P-TAO-202 – 1.5m of Stone Walling for 15mm Scale

I took construction photos of my progress but that’s a lot of pictures so I’m just going to post some example shots rather than all 60-70 pictures I managed to take during the process. Essentially the assembly sequence for each building is the same. There are only a couple of minor variations, mostly depending on the roof style.

Instructions, for the most part are pretty clear. You receive a black and white set for the unpainted versions and a color set (with posters!) for the pre-painted versions. Each set of instructions is written specifically for the kit you are building, so you don’t have to do any interpretations or search for the sequence that pertains to your kit. I love this! However, there are a few errors on the instructions as far as part IDs. If you are paying attention though you should be just fine, the parts are laid out on the frames in a logical pattern and the pictures on the instructions are pretty clear. The instructions rate a solid 4 out 5.

Components, well it’s a laser kit on MDF, there isn’t much to go wrong here. There are some very delicate parts though. I’m very impressed with the level of detail that has been included. In particular the shop window for the 15S-EAW-107 is simply amazing. I’m going for a full 5 out of 5 on the components.

The pre-painted buildings go together a bit differently from the unpainted buildings that let my really go to town on the clamps! Essentially the pre-painted components are mounted to the building carcass which gives you a lot of depth around the windows and doors. It also makes for a wall that’s twice as thick. That depth is added to the outside of the building so you don’t lose any room on the inside. It also means that the pre-painted buildings have “pin” locators for the upper floors rather than the little squares that have to be added to the bottoms of those floors in the unpainted versions. Still I prefer to paint my own so I’m probably going to buy more of the unpainted than the pre-painted versions.

Like the Battle Flag buildings the ones from 4 Ground are only engraved on one side so all the parts have a back and a front, take your time and make sure that you have the engraved side facing outward so you can see the detail! This is especially true on the pre-painted buildings the interior carcass contains the detail for the doors and windows so you need to pay attention to what you are doing. Also for what ever reason I didn't have any rubber bands in the house and this would have made assembly much easier. I didn't have enough corner clamps to get everything together so I improvised a lot. A small supply of rubber bands would have made everything go quicker. So for these kits my clamps didn't help out nearly as much as a few rubber bands would have.

The stone walls are pretty cool little kits as well. They are a bit fiddly and you do need to pay attention on the 60mm lengths as there are a couple of different bases to accommodate the gate sections. A few clamps to get a good bond are invaluable. Although these came pre-painted I’m going to repaint them anyway. Mostly because of the dark laser mark on the top edge which is very noticeable and at least on mine it feels like the color is a bit washed out and I would like a grayer wall (or maybe brown).

These are great kits and I highly recommend them. I’m looking forward to getting some paint on them. My airbrush is going to get a lot of use in the next few weeks as I work my way through the backlog of buildings that are accumulating on my desk. 

 

Backlogs and New Projects

As most of you have been able to tell from watching the horde of miniatures coming in to my house I sometimes  have a hard time focusing on just a single project. Currently on the list are:

1) WWI US Marines - I have everything for this army but only 1 platoon of 15 is painted.
2) Modern US Marines - I have almost everything for this army either in hand or on the way. I may need a few more troops and I definitely need more HMMWVs and probably MRAPs (a 6x6 Cougar and a 4x4 Cougar are on the way).
3) ACW Union - Infantry and artillery are all finished, I need to get to the cavalry but that's a low priority for this army. Currently all my Generals are old Stone Mountain minis or Old Glory, I'm planning on replacing them with some from Peter Pig painted up to a much higher standard. The only other thing I would like to do is finish the Fire and Fury game markers that I also acquired from Peter Pig.
4) Napoleonic British - I may go through a re-basing exercise for this army. Currently mounted for LaSalle which I have now decided I don't like very much. I may go back to Napoleon's Battles basing or perhaps the Napoleon at War basing, actually for the British infantry it should work out to be the same, just the cavalry is mounted differently I think. So most likely the infantry component is finished, I need to work on artillery and cavalry at this point.
5) Flames of War DAK - This army is basically finished, there are a few odds an ends that need to be completed but it is a playable army. I am considering going back and stripping down vehicles and re-painting them with some new techniques that I have learned since I painted that one.
6) LoTR - I have one army based around the Knights of Dol Amroth that is about 1/2 done, but I'm unhappy with it. I may go ahead and just go with the Grey Company, or make a left turn and do Rohan. How can I pass up vikings on horseback?
7) SAGA - Still up in the air on this one but I already have a bunch of vikings painted up so really all I would need are a few leaders painted up and I would be done. I need to dig the miniatures out and see what I really have. Certainly more than what SAGA requires. My biggest issue is that these rules are irremediably expensive for being a paperback set. I have hardbound rules with considerably more content that cost less than SAGA.

So those are the armies that I have currently. I am contemplating an TYW army (Danes) and maybe a Confederate army for ACW.

Tons of Fantasy and Science Fiction stuff floating around the desk. This stuff is primarily intended for competition painting. I do need to pick out a piece or two to get ready for ReaperCon in May

NEWEST project. My Dad called last night and he has decided that he wants me to paint another one of his carvings. This one is not a carousel animal but more of a statue type piece that would be a decoration on a carousel. It was one I had considered painting when they went to Europe in 2011 but I painted the Hippocampus instead. Sounds like I made a good choice because he has something pretty definite in mind for this one. Its also small enough (about 2' tall) that I can bring it home and work on it rather than having to drive up to the shop. Since its for my dad everything else will probably come to a stop while I work on that. I think its time to break-out the airbrush and get used to using it again. Airbrushing is going to make this go much faster than working it with a brush.

Charity FOW Tournament

One of the members of LEG (my gaming club) has a daughter that was diagnosed with leukemia. The club decided to hold a charity FOW tournament to raise some funds to help with the medical bills. This was probably the first time I had played FOW in two years or so. The tournament was late war and of course the only army I have is my DAK mid war army. For the tournament they had to masquerade as the Aufklarungs unit of the Hermann Goering division. Three games later  I managed to get completely crushed once, a narrow victory and a narrow defeat. Here are some pictures from the game:

Attacker against the Russians

 Defending against the British 7th Armored (Steve would go on to win the tournament)

 

 One of those mutual attack/defend games against the Americans. This is one of the 16 game boards I painted for a La Salle tournament in 2010. Unroll and add buildings and hills and you are good to go.

A quick view of my Hermann Goerring Aufklarungs disguised as DAK troops. There are a couple of proxies in there because no store in the area had the last Wespe I needed and I had to sacrifice a pack of Panzer Lehr troops to get the Panzerschrecks I needed.