The Lure of Warhammer

A long time ago, in a mall far far away.... I walked by a gamestore and first saw a tabletop war game being played.  It was Warhammer Fantasy and I was hooked on the idea of doing something that combined my then boyish love of toy soldiers and board games.  Well a few years have gone by and I still don't have the High Elf army I fell in love with way back then although I do have the basis for it in a storage box somewhere.  With all the rules changes and the high cost of miniatures I drifted away from Warhammer.  This was propelled along by finding a great group of historical wargamers, which precipitated a foray into Napoleonics (still in progress), and then a massive digression into Flames of War (still without a full sized game being played.)  Anyways now I have moved again and the local gaming community is Warhammer and Warmahordes based, and the siren song of Warhammer is tempting back into its fell clutches.  I don't think I will be able to resist....      

Flames of War in Plastic

So I have "finished" my project for two Flames of War armies done using the Plastic Soldier Company range. Neither of them fits too well inside a force organization chart but they both give me lots of options.  The Soviets, which I have already shown close ups of, have: one 23 stand Rifle/Mg platoon, 15 stand Rifle/MG platoon, 15 stand SMG platoon, 10 T-34 76/85, Shturmovik air support, and 4 unfinished Katyushas and some trucks. So not fully done, but done enough to play with.

Full Army

Battlefront Flamethrowers, the only metal.

Full size Strelk Platoon

SMG's

Never mind those unpainted Katyushas I snuck in there.

Tank Support

The Germans are really the core of two company's Grenadiers and Panzer IV's but can draw on each other and the rest of my collection for support.  

Battlefront 8-rads only metal german models

Grenadier Platoon

Pioneer Platoon

Panzer IV's with Decals!

Full German Army

Gepanzeret Panzer Grenadiers

Opposing Forces

Close up of MG team

 

Space Ork Cowboy, Tuff Git

     

Back to the Bases

Managed to Dullcote the dipped infantry without getting the dreaded frosting that people talked about.  I was a bit worried since it was colder outside than the optimal conditions but I did a couple test stands and when they were all right I went ahead and did all the Germans and Soviets. 

A group shot of all the bases being Dull-Coted some based some not.  Bit worried about the cold, note the snow on the ground, but no problems.  

Rifle/Mg Bases

SMG Bases

For the soviets I ended up with 35 Rifle/MG bases, 5 Rifle bases to be used as Pioneers and 14 SMG bases. I think that should cover most of my infantry needs. I'm also planning on ordering a couple of the heavy weapons boxes which should give me an ample number of mortars, HMGs and AT Rifles and should pretty much finish off the Soviets.

The Germans also were based but I will have to get some pictures of them up later.

Dipping PSC Infantry

So for the sake of mass production I decided early on that I would do a Flames of War Strelkovy battalion with PSC miniatures and by dipping them to speed painting time.  Somewhere along the way I got the idea that if I was already doing a ton of Strelkovy I might as well do some Grenadiers to oppose them.

Now the Strelkovy I sprayed with Army Painter bleached bone and when dipped I think it came out the right shade of tan for their uniforms.  For the Grenadiers I painted them using Vallejo Field Grey and the impulse decision to dip them lead to them looking a little dark.  So I think the Strelkovy turned out well and I regret dipping the Grenadiers but you can see for yourself.  Hopefully I will start basing them up today.

MG Team

Rifle Team

Advancing MG Team

Command Team I tried actually "dipping" rather than brushing on.  They looked like they went swimming in an oil spill.

Battlefront Flamethrowers the only metal figs in the Soviet Army

MG Team

SMG Team

Rifle Team

Command Team

 

Ork Outlaw and a French Chateau

I have finished my model for the DeathSquads Prisoner Exchange 2012.  The bounty hunter Bruiser Crotchburner is ready to go out an get his man (or alien).  This is the most time I have ever but into a single model and while I think it shows in the end result I think I am going to stick to tabletop quality until I have chipped away at more of the Plastic and Lead mountain.    

I also assembled a french chateau I purchased as a souvenir from the War Museum in Paris.  It is probably too small to be used as 15mm terrain but would work for 10mm and might make good background for 15's.  

Dipping some PSC Germans

A nice place for a dip.

Taking advantage of the sun and some warmer weather. 

So after finishing my Soviet and German PSC infantry around Christmas I had to wait for the weather to warm up before I could get outside and give dipping them a try.  I have never dipped before so hopefully all my work painting doesn't get ruined.  That is why I decided to dip the Germans first since there is only half as many of them.  And of course there was no way I was just going to do one test stand to see if it works....

I brushed the dip (which was Minwax Poly Shade: Antique Walnut Satin) on rather than actually dipping it.  I did try dipping one stand and they looked like baby seals after the Exxon Valdez spill so I quickly daubed it off with a brush.  I am a little worried that the lighter details on the PSC infantry might get covered up by the heavy stain.  If all is good tomorrow I might have a go at dullcoting them (that I will do a test stand first.)  I brushed the dip on the 130 figs in about half an hour.

German Light Armour and Stuka.

Painted up my Zvezda Stuka for Flames of War I tried to go with a generic scheme that could be used across multiple periods.  I placed some decals on just to add to the over all look and they are not historically accurate.  I have very little experience with decals so I just wanted to try them out.

I also have "completed" 5 Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 251 Halftracks.  I didn't paint the tools and such because I just don't feel it is worth the effort at this scale and I am working to get through my backlog of painting. I also need to add the decals to them so I might be having a decaling party with myself these guys and my Panzer 4's.  These means I can now run one of my Grenadier platoons as Armoured Panzer Gren's as support for those Panzer 4's.  If I order a box of the PSC Panthers I will probably get another box or two of these Halftracks as well.

And lastly some 8-rad reconnisance armoured cars these models are from battlefront and after the PSC kits I found the metal and resin not very nice to work with. However the wheels seem to be sticking now (all 8 of them) and they sure are cool looking little blighter's.

Back to the brush: CowOrk

Despite my last two posts I have actually been painting a bit and have made some progress on my Deathsquads prisoner (pictures here) as well as some PSC half-tracks and some Battlefront 8-rads, hopefully I will have pictures up for them within a day or two.  I'm not sure why I made the choice to have them transporting crew but they are proving a pain to paint and will probably end up being done to a fairly low standard.  Any ways pictures of the Outlaw Tough Git, now with washes and highlights.  I was at first really disappointed with how the highlighting on the poncho turned out since I thought it looked overdone and clumsy but it actually looks ok in the picture so maybe I am being overly hard on myself.  The jeans however really improved with a wash of devlan mud and now look like a pair of faded grimy Levi's if I do say so myself.  

     

My Favourite Video Games Part 2

I’ve already lost interest in this diversion, so back to painting!  But first I will quickly run through my favourite games for the XBOX 360.  I like real time strategy games on PC so for 360 I mostly play cooperative shooters.  I really feel that playing with a friend is the most fun on an X360 and I wish there were more co-op games, I have been lucky to have played a lot with my ex-girlfriend and my brother.  These are the games I have played and liked, mostly co-ops with a couple strays.  

Gears of War

Excellently done Co-Op campaign and a good cover system make this a fun game to play with a friend.  Chainsawing Locust in half is always a good time as well.   

HALO

Not my favourite and would be downright boring if played solo in my opinion.  It does have great visuals and driving the warthog with one person shooting can lead to some “discussions” with your partner.

Mass Effect

This in my opinion is the alternative to Co-Op the fact that you feel like you are a character in an epic movie.  Mass Effect and its sequels are so engrossing that they are fun to play solo. 

Skyrim

Also has excellent visuals and an open but interesting storyline.  I had fun but didn’t play it much beyond the main storyline.

Borderlands

This is probably my favourite game for the 360.   I really like the RPG shooter style where you both develop your character as well as collecting more and better guns.  This is a great game to play Co-Op the rpg interface is light enough that it doesn’t slow the game down and it’s fun competing for kills. My only complaint is the cartoony style, if this game looked like Mass Effect it would be almost flawless.

Honourable Mention

Rainbow 6: Vegas 2

Again a well done co-op campaign, but while rappelling in through windows is fun it starts to get repetitive.