Merry Christmas

The last few months have been hectic, so I am more than happy that things are getting quiet now.

But I really hope that your Christmas is both merry and peaceful! Have a great time with the people you love!

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Crisis Antwerp 2018 picture report

Today saw this years Crisis in Antwerp. And without much further ado… here are some pictures of the games that were hosted:

And last but not least our very own Operation Cobra using the Battlegroup Overlord rules in 28mm (more pictures to come over the next few days):

 

Run out the guns

For some time I have been a fan of artillery in our Battlegroup games. This was only enhanced last year when I tried out something new during a game set during Kursk when my heavy soviet artillery annihilated the German tanks virtually on its own. Unfortunately heavy artillery is hard to find for 28mm minis so my best option was the Schweres Infanteriegeschütz 33 (SiG 33) from Warlord which will have to stand in for other heavy guns.

SiG33 battery

The models are essentially out of the box, but I replaced some of the crew (at least those not holding the shells and charges, with those from the Warlord 105mm guns to add some extra variety to the bases.

SiG33

SiG33

There is also some AT-guns I did recently and those are a pair of 3,7cm PaK 36s. I was at first sceptical of the PaK 36 having played only mid to late war games over the past decade where the 3,7cm is not exactly the big start. But Martin wanted to give his French Army a game last year and I have to say I was more impressed by their performance than by the short barreled PzKw IVs. So while I had originally planned to do just one and use it as an AT-gun option for the infantry platoon, I now plan to use them both as a tank hunter unit of their own. Only need to finish their Krupp Protze tows.

One is the current Warlord offering, the other a vintage Bolt Action gun that was still sold by Bolt Action until about a year or two ago. With the later, you can clearly see that this is one of Paul Hicks earlier offerings, as the poses are more wooden and the faces less detailed than what he sculpts these days, but none the less, once based and on the table it looks just as nice as the new one.

PaK 36

PaK 36

And up last some fire support for the infantry platoon by means of a 8cm mortar. Again the minis are by Warlord. Not sure how good it will be in the game. Having to pay a n order to spot for just one mortar seems excessive, but maybe it plays out well.

8cm mortar team

 

Dear Facebook followers….

… I know there are some readers out there following this blog via Facebook by linking to my personal account (which is more or less my hobby account anyway). As some of you may have noticed, Facebook has recently had some problem due to the way they (ab)used their users data.

As a result of this many sites, like this blog, will no longer be allowed to share to personal accounts as of next wednesday. But they will be allowed to share to pages on Facebook, which is more or less a company or club version of a personal account.

As a result, I have created a page for our club on Facebook which can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/DHCWargamesClub/

So if yo would like to keep following this blog via Facebook, I would kindly ask you to go there and like the page.

I think this might also have a positive side effect. I have always tended to post just finished work here, to kind of keep this blog neat. Now I am contemplating using the Facebook page to add some work in progress pictures from time to time, or maybe some photos from games when I know I will not have the time to write a proper report anyway. So maybe this can also enhance the experience for some of you.

(Just to underline this… if you are following this blog via Facebook, this will probably be your final warning, as this should be the final post shared on my personal account!)

 

8,8cm PaK 43 auf Kreuzlafette

Playing late war games in a World War II setting, especially on the eastern front large-caliber Panzerabwehrkanonen (PaK / anti-tank gun) are a must to give you some edge over the heavily armoured tanks like the JS-2. The long-barreled PaK 43, both on a Spreiz- and Kreuzlafette are perfect for this.

8,8cm PaK 43 (Kreuzlafette)

Playing in 1:48th scale, the later is not too easy to get. But some years ago, I had the good luck to get my hands on the, now long OOP, Verlinden model. It is a very nice model, but even by modeling standards it is not an easy model to build. So I had to make some modifications to the connections between the gun and the shield to make it work out and stand the rigors of game play. But even that way, it will better be picked up by its base and not the model itself. Fortunately I have decided to base all my future AT-guns and indeed put all my old ones on bases for Battlegroup, so that will not be much of a problem.

8,8cm PaK 43 (Kreuzlafette)

Like the Jagdpanther, this was a testbed for the new weathering methods and I have to say… I feel it turned out exceptionally well on this model.

The crew itself is the 8,8cm FlaK crew by Warlord. It is a bit small even for their own 1:56th scale models, but I feel it still looks OK. While the gun was painted this winter, the crew was done about 15 years ago. I only redid the skin on the minis. I think that is where my technique changed the most during that time and I wanted them to blend in with my current models.

8,8cm PaK 43 (Kreuzlafette)

 

A tale of three Jagdpanther (Part one)

Some time ago I wanted to try some new weathering techniques. Namely special washes, filters and oil paints. I had three Jadgpanther models at home. Two from Tamiya, one unpainted build as an early model and one build as a late model. I had started painting the later in a 1945 pattern, but never was too happy with that, since my airbrush had acted up that day. So it needed a repaint anyway. The last was a Bandai model, but in a late version. I had bought that one used 15+ years ago with a very sloppy brush paint job. Repainted it back then, but I had gotten the colours wrong. Tried to salvage it by doing a winter camo, but that came out badly as well. So another repaint was required.

I had initially planned to form these three into one unit. That is until I realised, that under the Battlegroup rules a Jagdpanther is too rare and expensive to actually form a unit. So I decided to paint them up one each for three different settings… Normandy to Market Garden, winter 1944-45 and spring 1945.

Jagdpanther (1944)

Jagdpanther (1944)

The one above is the Tamiya early version and meant for Normandy to Market Garden.. The paint job resembles those often seen in 1944 that tries to simulate the sunlight hitting tank through a leaf cover. Not sure why there is fogging with the decals, since there is none in real life.

Jagdpanther (winter)

Jagdpanther (winter)

This is the Bandai one meant for the winter of 1944-45. It sports a very similar camo to the one above. But this time with a winter whitewash applied over the tank. I used  AK washable white for this. Which was great to achieve a look of the whitewash already starting to wear off. Since the previous owner had messed up the tracks, I had applied a mix of sand, white glue and brown paint back when I repainted it. Airbrushing the model anew had messed that look up. SomI applied two different mud pastes from Vallejo and Mig over that that. This created a nice effect like the tank had driven through wet fields at the end of winter during the thawing season.

And the third Jagdpanther.. Well that still is not finished, but it will be in a few weeks. So stay tuned.

 

 

Additions to my Combined Army

I am still in the process of learning how to play Infinity. The game has a tough learning curve and not getting to play that often does not help either, but I am getting better. Lately games have been getting closer and I even managed a win. What I found most helpful was concentrating on playing with the units I knew well and than adding a new one every now and then to see how it works for me. I found changing many units at once overtaxed me, since I had to keep too many new units in mind.

Anyway, since I only play with painted minis, this has resulted in a constant influx of painted minis.

 

 

Combined Army Fractaas

Combined Army Ikadrons

Combined Army Makreep Tracker

Combined Army Raktorak Morat Sergeant Major

Combined Army Unidrons

Combined Army Yaogat with multi sniper rifle

(I am trying out some new settings here, so please feel free to click on any of the tiles for larger versions here.)

As previously shown, I went with a Havana Brown base and sandy yellow markings. But the more minis I painted that way, the more I felt something was lacking. So I added red markings from here on. And I liked that. So I went back to the old minis and added red markings to those as well (no worries… not going to bore you with photos of those).

As far as I understood the Infinity background for the Combined Army, especially the Morats, they go with a base colour for the environment they are fighting in. In this case brown for the muddy ground of the jungles on Paradiso. Over this they often apply the colours of the fighting unit, in this case red and yellow.

For the Morat units not completely covered in armoured suits (like Rodoks or Suryats) I also added camouflage clothing. With all the bright colours on the minis, camouflage does not completely make sense, but I felt it added some extra character.

 

 

Combined Army Sphinx

Combined Army Shasvastii noctifier with rocket launcher

Combined Army Malignos sniper

Now for the Shasvastii based units I went a slightly different route. The infantry has brown armour, to tie them in with the others. But I felt they were more interested in not standing out. So no brightly coloured markings and rather camouflage clothing or capes.

And I went the same route with the Sphinx TAG.

 

Combined Army drones

Combined Army Pneumarch

The only units to which this colouring idea does not apply are the TAGs and drones. Those are done in a dark grey. Why… I always liked that look on the official minis.

I had always been a bit annoyed at the fact, that this meant they did not really match the rest of the army. When they released the Pneumarch of the Ur Negemony as the HVT for the Combined Army, I decided to use that mini to tie them all together. He has the dark grey armour of the TAGs and drones and combined them with the unit colours.

All these minis were painted over the course of the last 1 1/2 years.

 

Painting Tartan

I know Inhave been extremely quiet for about 3 months (ouch!). I have not been idle, but frankly except for a hiking trip to Scotland I have been stuck in Germany. And the weather has been appalling. Either very wet or very cold, but never good enough to spry on some varnish. So there is a backlog that I need to show to you now that things have gone better. It has actually been like early summer for a week now. So what is up first?

Some Wolfbane Commandos for Warzone. I wanted each an every one of them to be an idividual, so I chose to paint part of their attire in a tartan pattern. I will later paint squads to go with them, so far these have been my test pieces.

Why test pieces? Well as we all know, painting tartan patterns can be a huge pain in the behind. But late last year I stumbled over a new range of paints from Humbrol. They are Emanel paints, which I have not used in well over a decade due to the fumes, I decided to give them a try anyway. They need some getting used to. First of all you need to let the pots rest for at least a week and not shake or stirr them before use (apparently the nano-particles need that time to settle into pattern). And you need to apply it all in one broad stroke. That needs a couple of attempts to get used to. But once you do, the results are great. I found it works best with a. Road dry brushing brush with long bristles (so you can really load the brush). So far they only have 4 patterns, but Imguess once this makes the rounds they are sure going to expand!

Anyway this is it for today. More to come over the next few days. Until then, I wish you a very happy start into this month! 😚

 

Happy New Year

Usually I know well in advance what I want to write for this message, but this year I am writing this last-minute. It has been a very strange year. On a personal front it has been good. My self employment had not been going well last year, so I was happy to find a new job in March, even though it meant less time for my hobbies and this blog. But on the other hand this year felt like it was constantly kicking us in the private parts. No matter what kind of music, movies or art you like, each of us will have lost at least one artist that we liked if not a dozen. There was the Brexit vote, there was the US election. And there has been a huge rise in fascism around the western world. So should I really look back at 2016 as something positive? And then I came across this meme on Facebook yesterday and for me it put things into perspective.

 

So in this sense… 2016 might not have been great, but lets just hope, that things do not get worse. Most of us can still call ourselves lucky!

In this sense, I wish you and your families all a very safe and healthy 2017 and lets hope it all gets better!

 

Merry Christmas

Merry ChristmasWell… I will keep things short today. In that sense a very merry Christmas to you and the people close to you. Hope that you have quiet and above all healthy holiday, wherever you are and whatever you believe in! 

And do not fear… Santa is on his way!

[picture courtesy of the Royal Air Force]