Tuesday 25 August 2015

The protagonists.




In July, one of the comedians on the LAW forum (http://thelaofwargamers.prophpbb.com/) asked if anyone wanted to take part in a painting challenge over the month of  August; no prizes, just the opportunity to promise (?) to get some paint on something. I said that I would paint a 15mm Viking DBA sized army that had been lurking in my unpainted pile for a while. Then, just before the beginning of August I got stuck into the British which had been bought from a very nice from Yorkshire for my 6mm campaign. So of course, after undercoating the Vikings the rest of the painting them went out of the window.
   But I have not been idle, oh no. The fruits of my August painting and constructing are shown below in glorious technicolour, apart from nearly all of the Germans which had been painted about twenty years ago. All the rest has been done this month. Additionally, I have 3 blocks of buildings constructed but not painted, a set of Irregular vines painted but not based and 3 new lengths of lolly stick hedge with small trees on made but not based or painted.
Above is a picture of nearly all the terrain I have made. The only completed items missing are the two orchards that I have only just remembered making. The road is made as per my last post, just drybrused with a couple of shades of grey to take the shine off the wet and dry paper. The green hedges behind the road are clump foliage and static grass on lolly sticks (sold as gardening labels from Poundland) and two of these fit nicely alongside each piece of road.  
The picture above is my simplified version of three aircraft hangers, British 'J' Type to be exact and in front is a small civilian car I made from a piece of basswood.
 As noted above, the Germans haven't been part of this months paintathon apart from the five DFS 230 gliders at the rear of the shot. I bought these because I might have a para drop on one of the airfields -hence the aircraft hangers. From l-r: on the far left are three AA 88's plus prime movers, next to them are the two tank battalions, the first of Panthers, the second -and slightly larger- of Mk IVs. To the right of the Mk IVs is the attached Schwere Panzer Abteilung (heavy tank battalion) consisting of 5 Tigers, 2 Jagdtigers,  3 King Tigers and various others. Behind the Panthers and Mk IVs is the SP Artillery with the regular mix of Hummels and Wespes and to the right is the pioneer battalion with all kinds of wonderful pieces of equipment including 2 flammpanzer and a bergetiger recovery vehicle. At the front on the left is the divisional Aufklarungs (Reconnaissance) unit with its mix of Pumas, 222s and a couple of 251s for the infantry contingent. On the right at the front is the single motorised infantry battalion I have. I decided to only paint the one because in 6mm they tend to get lost in amongst all the action and any more would slow the game down too much. So, wherever infantry are involved, if it's less than a battalion I'm okay, more and I'm bu**ered. Finally, in column on the far right is the werfer batallion of five nebelwerfer and prime movers. From memory, everything is either Heroics & Ros or Irregular. 



 Above are two views of the British, all -bar 7 Shermans- painted this month. Again from l-r: 3 regiments of Shermans with attached Fireflys, then a regiment of Cromwells and Challengers. In the front is the Armoured Reconnaissance regiment with its mix of Staghounds, Dingos, Stuarts and half-tracks. There are four battalions of  artillery -three towed and one of Sexton SPs. The 6pdr AT with the Universal Carriers are on the left behind the Sextons, next to them are the 25pdrs plus Quads and the right hand unit is of 17pdr AT. Again, all the models are either Heroics & Ros or Irregular.

So now it's just all of the buildings to make and I can start my campaign!


 

Thursday 6 August 2015

The campaign is evolving.

Well, I have definitely been bitten by the WW II campaign bug. The dearth of British has been resolved and I now have the equivalent of a British Armoured Division...apart from some infantry, but that will be sorted out soon.
  Currently I am painting the British and have three Sherman and Firefly tank regiments (14 models each), 1 x SP Artillery battalion (7 models), 1 x 6pdr AT Battalion (13 models), a 25pdr FA Battalion (9 models) and a Recce Regiment (20 models including Dingos, Daimler ACs, Staghounds, Stuart light tanks and a couple of M3 GMCs). As I already have the German Aufklarungs Abteilung I think before I go much further I will have a little solo set-to to work out any glitches in my solo opposition rules, (or even throwing them out and starting again).
  As a wargaming magpie -probably like most wargamers- I was lucky enough to keep a set of Modern Campaign Rules that I wrote about fifteen years ago. Unfortunately they were typed so I have been typing them up as a Word File and adapting them as I go for WWII.
  In line with the project I have made more scenery. I recently re-read Big Lee's blog entry about roads at

http://www.blmablog.com/2015/07/desert-roads-revisitedyet-again.html

and decided to give it a go myself. So far, using the foam and wet and dry paper method, I have made about 25 feet of 30mm wide macadamised road which is perfect for rural Kent. I can definitely recommend the idea. I've also made about a dozen pieces of hedge line using the clump foliage glued to painted lolly stick system. Once it's all dry dot some PVA along base where there are gaps and sprinkle with static grass. (As I'm writing this at 11 o'clock at night I'll have to post some pictures next time.) I've also started on a lot more buildings using the local photo's I have taken over the last couple of years as inspiration. Again photo's at a later date.
  That's about all that's happened here, I will post more when there is more to post.

MickS.