Painting and first Flames of War game for the year

I've still got some painting to do for Craig, which he's been very patient about. He let me finish off my Seven Years War project in order to get my painting mojo back (lost because I was painting so much for others that I think I lost interest). So now I am getting through his figures - starting with these 15mm Battelfront 15mm howitzers:

The commissions start again. Craig will finish off the bases.

I also played a Flames of War game a week or so ago. We planned to do a big 3000 point Kursk based game. The idea was to set up a scenario based on Prokhorovka, where the SS panzergrenadiers need to break through the Soviet line and the 5th Guards Tank army counter-attacks. It went well, except that the Soviets (I was their commander) failed to get their armoured reserves on before the defending infantry company failed it's morale.

Start of the game and the dug in Soviets face the SS Leibstandarte coming against them.The preliminary bombardment made some serious dents in the defences.

On the left flank the Soviet anti-tank command team are left alone to observe proceedings.

On the right flank the Soviets start causing casualties, but can they hold on.

The left flank begins to collapse.

Frontal assault with the low-armoured vehicles goes poorly for the Germans.

One set of reserves arrive from 5th Guards Tank Army - a heavy platoon of Churchills, who do a good job of taking out the Panzer IVs.

The anti-tank defences on the hill in the centre of the position remain pinned for the entire game, severely hampering their influence.

And eventually they are destroyed, meaning the only thing the Soviets have left that can win the game are the 20 T-34s in reserve...

...which don't show up. At the end of turn six both villages are taken and the Soviets fail their company morale.

On the painting tray at the moment are some more SS infantry for Craig. Pictures when complete.

Nate

My Wargaming Week 9

This week has not featured any new packages arriving on the doorstep, unfortunately. It has involved some solid painting, a bad bug, and the first play of Clobberin' Time with Delta Wave.

The bug at the beginning of the week was awful, and I am not alone in having contracted it. It seems to have passed now, and I was able to catch up on my painting (by and large thanks to ignoring my job). Craig needs these figures and guns for NICon, so I was in a hurry to get them complete for him:

I enjoyed painting that lot.
Today I found a few minutes of garage time and put together some 1/144 planes that geoff sent me for my Pacific War project:

I haven't put all the decals on yet. I have to say, I've always loved the look of the P-38. Now, where is Yamamoto?
I also took advantage of some blue skies this morning to undercoat the 1588 figures. yes, 1588 - remember that from late last year? It started with a hiss and a roar, but fizzled when I decided that this would be accumulation year. Still, there might be a week when I just feel like something different to paint...

Finally, a shot of the painting tray for the upcoming week. I have a dozen Renegade German cavalry to do for john, and if I get the chance, I'm going to slip the last unit of Great Nortehrn War Russian infantry in there somewhere.

After that, I have some WWI British to paint for Geoff that will be interrupted by some mortars that Craig also needs painted, before painting some more Samurai for Geoff. And somewhere in there I will have to mark mid-year exams. Well, it keeps the winter's evenings busy!

Nate

Welcome to the jungle

With the arrival of the Pacific theatre in Flames of War, it is time to seriously embark on a project I've been toying with for a while - Burma! I have to say that I am quite partial to the idea of island hopping the Pacific, but when it comes down to it I have a bit of a fascination with the Forgotten Army battling its way through the 'Green Hell'. And to make that hell a bit greener, I've deprived some poor fish of their furnishings and put together some jungle bases:

25 pdr stuck in a clearing somewhere.

All the jungle bases together on a 1' (30cm for the enlightened) square.

• ASIDE:Actually, it is a funny thing that inches still dominate wargames measurements. The Irregulars use cm when we play FoW, and this can be a bit awkward when playing others from outside our bubble who use inches. I'd be interested to know what people who read the blog prefer to use.

The New Zealanders are going to double as 14th Army troops, and apparently we are going to get digital lists from Wayne Turner to make this official. I just need to build the Japanese to face them. I have a couple of lists already sorted out, now I just need to buy the figures and paint them. The former much easier to do than the latter!

Nate

Time to party like it's 1985

The first boxes arrive for the Cold War:

Some infantry and some tanks. Pretty straight forward. The infantry are going to need transports, the tanks are going to need more tanks.

When the boxes are opened we are confronted with 10 sprues for the T-72s, along with some decals and the unit cards. I like the cards. They contain all of the info needed to play with that unit.

The infantry come with lots of infantry, cards and stands. One thing I had somehow missed when reading through the book was that the gremlin AA and MG stands are actually large bases, That is a bit different.

The long term plan is to mount the infantry in BMPs, get some Gophers for AA and Carnations for heavy support, as well as more T-72s. By that time hopefully the West Germans will be out and I can begin accumulating some Leopard/Marder/Panzergrenadier goodness.

Time to go listen to some Wham...

Nate

2 more HG platoons complete

This time an infantry platoon and a pioneer platoon for this company of the Herman Goering Division.

3 stands of HG infantry. I used a lot of Luftwaffe blue with this platoon, because I love the colour, and it makes the HG a little more unique.

The light wasn't good for taking photos this afternoon, but you get the idea.

Pioneers - a few more camo smocks with this lot

The last three stands of pioneers.

So I have one more platoon and the artillery crew to finish. They should all be ready to post down to Craig in anticipation of the next lot of arrivals by Monday.

Nate

More for the HG army

About half way through now. Here are the fallshirmjager platoon and the machine guns that are part of the company:

The FJ command stand.

Fallshirmjager

More fallshirmjager

Even more fallshirmjager!

The machine guns for the Herman Goering heavy weapons platoon.

Close up of the MGs

I have another HG infantry platoon and a pioneer platoon on the painting tray now. 

Nate

Starting the HG

So I finally stopped getting distracted and got into the latest commission - a Flames of War company from the Herman Goering Division.
I've started by painting up the HQ elements and a couple of mortars.

Lots of command - and a Goliath!

Panzershrecks

Two mortars for the heavy weapons platoon

The figures are nice to paint and I really like the Luftwaffe blue uniform. I've started the Fallshirmjager platoon and the MGs for the rest of the Heavy Weapons platoon. Hopefully they will be up by mid next week.

Nate

Desert set-up

Today I finished off some desert buildings for the Arab Israeli Wars.

A close up of the village

Panoramic shot with a MiG lurking over some Israeli Shermans.

The first buildings that I made I gave to John when I sold him the Arab-Israeli stuff last year. They weren't part of the swap back so I needed to make some more. These have been on the go over the last few weekends, and the final coat of paint went on today. The last thing I need for the set up is a well (makes no sense having a village in the desert without one), so I'll be thinking about how I'm going to put that one together.

Other triumphs this weekend are cleaning and basing all of my Pakistani infantry, the Indian recoiless rifles and gluing together two Pakistani M48s and two anti-tank jeeps. The Crimean War Russian hussars and artillery arrived on Thursday and they are all now based and undercoated. I also glued together 6 Warg riders to complete my Dragon Rampant armies for Lord of the Rings. All very productive forms of procrastination before I get the Herman Goering Divison figures painted for Craig. But from here it feels like I've been getting the house in order before embarking on this commission. Now I'm set and it will be into the first 40 figures tomorrow night!

Nate

Meine Panzergrenadiere

The last week has been a pretty hectic one work wise, but I have found time to do a little painting, for myself this time. I have assembled a small, basic 1750 point mid-war Panzerkompanie for Flames of War to oppose my Soviets that are growing gradually as I paint for Craig and in return he sends reinforcements. These guys are from one of the armoured companies of the 64th Shutzen Regiment, 16th Division, 1st Panzer Armee, and will support the 2nd Panzer Regiment in its sweep across Russian in Summer 1942 (I've been doing some research...).

Platoon HQ and light mortar.

1st gruppe

Second gruppe

Third gruppe

Another close up of the boss.

I haven't added any rank insignia yet. To be honest, I forgot all about it until I just put these photos up. I'll try and get that done over the next little while, but first I want to get all of the vehicles finished.

I undercoated 24 zombies for Geoff this afternoon. so back to commission painting for now.

Nate

First Indian armour

The fallshirmjager are painted and dipped and while I'm waiting for them to dry I thought I might paint an Indian tank.

I accidentally added a bit of water to the pigment that I was using, and got some fairly heavy muck happening.

The base colour is bronze green highlighted with a bit of medium olive mixed into the base colour.

This side the weathering was even heavier. 

Now I have an issue. The plan was that I would be able to use the Indian army to represent Burma 1945 or Punjab 1965. But in 1945 the tanks have big stars on the sides which they don't have in 1965. Not only that, but the Deccan horse had great big blue unit markings in 1945. I have no idea about 1965, but I'd bet they weren't there. So I have to decide. Do I put markings on for '45 or leave them plain for '65? Dilemmas. Help appreciated.

Nate