Bus Fleet Arrives

These have been sitting around for a couple of weeks, but recently I picked up some buses off of Ebay for 15mm gaming.  Can't remember off the top of my head if they're true 15mm (1:100) or HO now, I think HO, but they look pretty good with my standard spare figure.

They'll be used in my Monster Hunter International (Horror) project, and any modern gaming I do.  Three are airport buses, the fourth is a police one, perfect for driving around prisoners that are being busted out by their buddies, or when you need to escape the zombie apocalypse by driving over the zombies.

Grass Huts Progress

Following some advice on the 3mm Yahoo group, I tried using some Polyfilla to create some grass hut-like texture on my Monopoly building village huts, and here are the results:

These are the regular village huts. I have some round huts I did a while ago from wooden plugs and things, but didn't texture - I think I might need to revisit them now, these look pretty good! Hopefully the turn out ok after sanding a bit and painting.

 
Some of the bigger buildings, and the chieftain's hut from the Montagnard village on stilts. In the background are buildings that will be used for cities and towns in Vietnam.


More from the Montagnard village. I just did the roofs, since from my pictures, it doesn't look like the walls were as obviously grassy, so I'll paint those gray-brown to represent flat wooden walls.

However, now I'm hungry, since all that texturing just makes me think of...

More Vietnam

A quick photo of my Vietnam NVA dug-out bunkers (WIP), termite mounds, foxholes, and US sandbagged bunkers. The one US bunker (centre-left) has a rader dish on it (from a Shapeways bits pack), and I'll try some pins for regular radio antennae. Clicking on the pic for a close-up is probably the best way to see things.
 

3mm Vietnam Terrain

I'm not quite sure where the last two months have gone since my last post here, but I have been pretty productive at some 2-3mm terrain-building projects over the last while. I finally have some photos though, so I'm going to spread these out over a few days, starting with some 3mm Vietnam pieces.

Some concertina wire rolls, waiting to be primed, with a demo project of 3 rubber trees, which I'll eventually expand into a whole plantation. Also in the picture, the metal thing on the wood thing, is a 3mm pagoda!

The concertina wire is the same sink scrubber thingy I used way back for my 2mm African village's bush fence. The rubber trees are little pompoms with a small pin inserted, based on some wooden craft sticks. After this trial, I started putting a bit of glue where the pin meets the pompom on the underside of what will eventually be the tree's foliage (basically, where the pin is sticking out). This was to make the whole thing more secure when I attached it to the base. The pagoda is a "finding" from a craft store, in the DIY jewellry section, plus a wooden plug.

In the background are some ex-Monopoly houses and hotels being modified into Vietnamese rectangular huts and city buildings.


These are some foxholes and dirt bunkers for Vietnam. The bunkers are meant more for the VC and NVA, the foxholes for the US. The bunkers will eventually be based and have tree trunks and foliage put around them. All are made of Sculpey. Not pictured, but I made some sandbagged bunkers out of Sculpey too, they aren't pretty, but will do for attacks on US bases. My last Sculpey project was some giant termite mounds, which sometimes factored in as ground cover in Vietnam.


Some Picoarmor ex-Monopoly houses on staples for a Montagnard village. I've since added some texturing to the bases. Oddly enough the pictures I have show the villages to generally be on dusty plains, not water, but that may just be when the photos were taken and the fields were flooded at other times.


These proto-bamboo stands have been taking the longest time, first cutting the bases, then texturing the sides, then sticking in a billion pins.


Another shot of my eventual bamboo forest. Next up are some Dollar store finds and scratchbuilt 2mm city pieces.

Hotleaded

Last weekend was the Hotlead convention in Stratford, Ontario, and I made my second pilgramage there and once again had a great time. I stayed at a brother's in Kitchener, about 40 minutes away, and travelled over daily (which problem helps keep me out of trouble). Several other members of my Toronto gaming group were there, particularly Saturday morning, when Glenn and Ron ran the Guilford Courthouse battle again in 6mm using a pending Polemos rule set. I seemed to be the only 3 day attendee from our group though.

Once again I played in all five time slots, and again one objective was to play either rules or periods I was interested in. I wasn't able to get into the Friday night game I had as a first choice (Skopje 1912, using Triumph of the Will rules), but I had a backup game in mind and was glad I did.

That game was Coastal Patrol, found in Too Fat Lardie's Summer 2011 Special, and is a set of rules for WWII coastal actions. This game was the Royal Navy vs. Kriegsmarine, and saw seven of us go at it. When the game started (a night action), we were all on blinds, and only a couple of players knew who their teammates were. I was one of the ones in the dark (figuratively and literally), having to escort a slow as molasses German tanker from one end of the table to the other, with a converted trawler and a well-armed R-Boat to do it.

The game got off to a fast and furious start at the other end of the table, at my end I played peekaboo with what turned out to be a comrade - a U-Boat unable to submerge. After various adventures that didn't involve me, I used my R-Boat to beat down a British Fairmile that had shot up the U-Boat, eventually driving it back off the table. However, as I was doing that a British MTB that I'd thought my comrades at the end of the table had dealt with scooted into the open and launched two torpedoes at the tanker. On my activation I blew him out of the water, but had to wait a turn for those torpedoes to intersect with the tanker...and miss! Each needed an 8 or less to hit on 2d6, and both times the player rolled 9s. That pretty much wrapped up the game as a German victory. The rules were fun and I'm going to have to round up my few 1/600 coastal ships soon.

Saturday morning I played a game of Cold War Commander in 6mm. I was the Poles in a mishmash Warsaw Pact assault on a mishmash of NATO forces. Basically Poles, Russian Naval Infantry and Airborne Assault units vs. US Marines, Danish Home Guard, and Canadians. As the least capable force, I was to be the anvil, but just getting into position left me open to a hammering (my ranges were such that I couldn't fight back with most of my battalion). I did divert the Marines to me, tying up both them and the bulk of the Danes. Unfortunately our other flank bogged down and was stopped by the Canadians, who'd beat us into town.

I struggled coming in relatively cold to the CWC rules, though I do have them and have plans for them in 3mm. Figuring out units/forces, etc. was tough, and my teammates were little Napoleons, which doesn't help.

Saturday afternoon I played in Mike M. and Nick's Poltava 1709 game, using Might of Arms rules. Yes, MoA is an ancients-medieval ruleset, but Mike has made a few tweeks and the rules work well for early gunpowder. I had an easier time with MoA this year, probably because the unit types were fewer, and the situation simpler (straight ahead charge for us Swedes). We were winning, but barely, when on the last turn one of my units fired on Peter the Great's bodyguard and killed him!

Saturday night was a game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum, which of course is the set of rules I plan on using with my 6mm forces. I commanded a German platoon, with another player controlled a second platoon, and a third player being in overall command and controlling two small SPG/TD units. We were charged with defending the bridge and ford in a Russian village from a Soviet assault, which could come from any table edge. We were up against five Soviet players, who controlled what turned out to be a Soviet infantry company bulked up with a tank platoon.

We set up what we hoped was an all-round defence, only to have the Russians come out right on top of me! I had one squad hidden in the woods, intending to use them as an ambush in one direction, only to have a Soviet platoon charge straight into me. My surprise attack hurt them, but on the next turn they were able to launch a human wave attack on me with two platoons that essentially wiped out two of my squads. I fought back for a while, but took most of the Soviet heat for the first half of the game and eventually succumbed. When all was said and done, the Soviets won a marginal victory - they got the river crossings but didn't have much left.

Sunday morning saw me in a game of the preview version of Maurice, fighting a general SYW battle of Russians vs. Prussians. I was one of two Russian commanders. The rules were fun and convinced me to pre-order them. I'm happy with King of the Battlefield for SYW etc., but I'll be looking to these for WSS gaming; I haven't really found rules that satisfy me for that period. We lost the game, but like I said, it was fun.

I'm sure you're asking if I did any shopping, and while I'm going to try to hide the damage done - yes, some things were bought. RAFM had brought me an order of 15mm sci-fi (their Traveller line) and 28mm Space 1889. I also picked up some more pulp figures from Artizan - French Foreign Legionaires, British detectives, and cossacks. I also picked up an ECW Osprey, a painted 15mm government building that will work for Solomon Kane, pirates, and pretty much any other period.

I also picked up a 1/72 Sherman for my smaller scale WWII gaming, and a pack of wooden fortifications for colonial North America.

Here are some other blogs/photos from the convention:
Friday
Saturday 1
Saturday 2
Sunday
Overview

Decal Day

I know things may seem a bit crazy, what with two blog posts in one day, but last night I got caught up* on decalling (or is it decaling?), and here are the results:
The Halberstadt CL.IV is from CinC, the other two are Goblintooth's.

Close-ups of some:

My patrol boats for Vietnam got their stars:

And some of my 25mm foot knights got aligned (kind of randomly, I liked the decals):
* I didn't do any Vietnam helicopter decals, as I realized I don't have the low-viz decals some helicopters need, and nobody makes "UNITED STATES ARMY" decals in 1/600. I've put in an ask to Dom's Decals, hopefully they can be made, otherwise I'll have to just go ahead and pretend they're there. They were pretty low-viz anyway (black on olive drab), so maybe no one will notice, specially once the rotors are in place.

Now Charlie Can Surf

A blitz over the weekend got my NVA base forces done. Now the NVA, VC, and Americans all have companies ready, and I can live without mortars and a few other bits and pieces for a while. Once they're sealed I'm at the next stage - actually playing with them! This is the first real project I've gotten to the gaming stage.

The whole company as seen from above (can you hear the Wagner?):
The company head on:
The company HQ (left) and Commissar (right). As the biggest Big Men in the company, I added the little red badge to their sun helmets. But no more!

A bunch of views of the various squads/fire teams:



And some views of the MG teams (one blurrier than the others):


Snipers and a two-man base (another Big Man or to turn the LMG into a HMG):
The rocket teams:

Sneak Peak:Still a work-in-progress, but the first Indian artillery piece is underway. The gunners need to be painted, and the dirt needs a wash in brown. The redoubt is meant to be portrayed as a hasty redoubt, made of dirt and wood. The redoubt as Irregular makes it is better suited for a permanent (stone) position, but I don't really see that for 18th century India.

Hey Joe, Me Paint You Long Time

After a ridiculous period of being ignored on my painting table, I finally finished my 3mm American forces for Vietnam (for eventual use with Too Fat Lardies' Charlie Don't Surf). All I had to do was their webbing, gear, grass highlights, and then shrubberies, but that took a year. Well, it only took about 6 hours, but it took me a year to get to those 6 hours.

Anyway, here's the outcome. As always, you can click on the image to see a bigger version, although be forewarned, like other small scales, these don't necessarily look better when viewed unnnaturally close up.

First up is an overview of my US company. It's still missing its mortars some additions for the Marines - an additional fire team per squad and bazookas. I have them, borrowing from O8's WWII US packs, but they are only prepped at this point, not mounted. So here they are on parade:
Here's the command unit, lead by Captain "Duke" Spaulding with his black hat and swagger stick, along with a FAC team (big base), sniper (lone fig. on small base, pointing his rifle at you), and FO (small base):
Next are the MG teams, five in firing positions, three on the move. If you look closely, you should be able to see the brass of the ammo belt sticking out here and there:
One shot of the medic teams. Each platoon gets its own base, and when representing the Marines, they get a company level medic (big base). As I mentioned long ago in a Work-in-Progress update on them, I've painted them as a bit of a diorama, each soldier is wounded a bit differently.
Although I wonder a bit if I didn't go too far and make them a bit bloody.
Here's the 2nd Platoon, from the helicopter view:
2nd Platoon head on:
1st Platoon:

1st Platoon showing the coding system I use on the back of the bases. 1st Platoon is "white" and then a second colour for each squad. Each squad consists of two bases.
Additional forces - spare two-man teams to turn the MG bases in to HMG's or squads, a spare squad, and three more Big Men.
Last year I ordered some civilians from Microform Models. As they're used in architectural modelling, they came with a peg in the bottom that was about as big as these figures themselves. That works for architects, but I needed to cut off the pegs, and ended up using them as figures! These are two views of the same three bases:
I painted them differently than my VC units, just to distinguish them a bit, although I realize in reality the VC deliberately dressed like civilians.
My first, and still only, O8 palm tree, designed as the "Lone Palm Tree" to play some role in the "Affair of the Lone Palm Tree" someday. More terrain bits are coming when the figures are done.
And for a change of pace, before clearing the decks for Vietnam, I did a first coat for my 2mm Cathedral:

What's up next? Well, I started on the NVA last night, got their flesh added, and figured out which paints work best as their uniform colours. I hope to do them in less than a year!

I also have to add to the three main forces - VC need a couple Big Men, NVA need Big Men, mortars, HMG's, D-30 howitzers, and the US needs the aforementioned bazookas, mortars, and some vehicles (already based).

Then I need to get into terrain, finish up my jungles and bamboo forests. I'm also hoping for some more Vietnam pieces from O8 - gun trucks, bunkers (American sandbags, VC/NVC dug outs).

I also have enough pieces to do a ARVN company, and a CIDG/A-Team unit, although but there's no rush on them right now. I actually feel like figuring out my 3mm Civil War plans...

Yay Pictures!

I finally took some pictures of what's on the painting table, as I've again skipped resuming work on my 3mm Vietnam project in favour of more scenics and terrain. As always, you can click on the photos for a larger image.

First up is an overview of 2mm and 3mm scenics, the 2mm bits in front are being prepped for SYW India in the northwest frontier (or double duty in the Middle East), and the 3mm pieces at the back are for Middle East tank battles.The 2mm pieces are from left to right: Irregular's castle, being done Crusader castle or Afghan fort style; Middle East town; Middle East village. The 3mm bits are the resin buildings by a company I can't remember (and is out of business) available from Picoarmor (NOT the SPC Wargames Scenery stuff). They aren't very good, but servicable for a battle-scarred landscape. I have some of their Vietnam boats and F-106 (or was it the 102), and the resin is pretty poorly cast, with lots of work needed. Picoarmor was good with this though, and some items were so bad they eventually refused to sell them when they couldn't get good casts.

Everything has been given a couple coats for the "sand" and at least one coat for the roads and town centres. The sand will be drybrushed later with the lighter coat used for the roads. I've also given the windows a quick hit with grey so I remember where they are once I start painting the buildings.

Here's another view of the 3mm pieces:
And here are some bridges from SPC Wargames Scenery (or whatever they call themselves now, they used to be Simply 6):I'm not quite happy yet with the paler grey used to paint the tops of the railings, I need to darken that a bit. The road on the grey bridge got a bit messed up when i tried a wash, so it needs some help too. The red brick bridge will be for 3mm ACW, the other one will be for ACW or Europe, as needed.

In the background you can see my first 2mm castle, still awaiting final touches. I have a third, to be painted in an Indian Red Fort of Agra style. I also have a couple of Irregular's Vauban fortresses mounted and primed, one to be done for India (red stone), the other for Europe (grey stone). You can see one of them in the back right in the first picture above.

The church on the left you've seen before, but it's now done. It's shiny because it's had a coat of Future Floor Polish, but not Dullcote yet.The ruins are a work in progress still, hence why the church hasn't had a final Dullcoting. I have a bunch more individual ruins or intact houses primed, they're just awaiting space on the table.

And finally for today, some Afghan mercenaries for my 2mm SYW in India project (seen the last time I posted pictures). They've had the sand coat, and are awaiting dirt and grass.