Charlie Starts Surfing

Some of my stands for Charlie Don't Surf are finally coming along, so I thought I'd post the current state of affairs as a Work In Progress. The US vehicles are done except for sealing, the VC units need to be touched up then drybrushed on the base, then some shrubberies added.

I've thrown some other scenic bases I've been working on into the photos as well, they'll be used on top of felt to either identify terrain (e.g. open fields) or exceptions to the underlying terrain (e.g. an opening in the jungle).

As always, clicking on the photo brings up a bigger image. It was tough getting good shots, so you'll have to excuse some fuzziness.

The US vehicles en masse, 5 Bulldogs, 5 Sheridans, 3 M577's, one done up as a first aid vehicle.

The Sheridans and M577's closer up.

The Bulldogs closer up, also doubling as ARVN vehicles.

The VC forces en masse - one company of 3 platoons, plus MG's, RPG's, snipers, and commanders.

The nefarious VC Captain So Wat, showing off the spiffy grey Mao jacket he picked up on his last trip up north. I'll be the only one who ever sees this, but I painted him clasping his hands behind his back (manical giggling couldn't be portrayed).

One VC platoon, and a bit of another. The Dullcote seal should take off some of the shininess from their weapons.

Somewhat fuzzy RPG teams, peering through the brush.

VC LMG's, with a HMG denoted by the extra two men attached. At least until O8 makes some proper heavy AA MG's.

A rear shot of the VC, showing off their webbing and rucksacks.

Another angle of the US vehicles, plus what's up next. More US vehicles, plus some PT-76's for the NVA. The grey bases are those vehicles that will be gamed on pavement.

Another shot of the to-do collection.

Vietnam Palette

Back in the winter I collected public domain pictures and maps of Vietnam in preparation for making terrain for Charlie Don't Surf, and I'm posting here my collection as a couple of PDF's for others in the same, um, sampan:

Vietnam Palette

Hopefully they turn out ok in Google Docs, I'd suggest downloading the file, I think you get better images. (edit: had to switch to the original Powerpoint file, the pdf's looked lousy after being converted to pdf then to Google's version of a pdf - sorry for the large file size).

Tank Saturday

Over the Victoria Day weekend I learned Oshawa (Ontario, Canada) has the Ontario Regiment's museum, which includes a decent number of tanks and other vehicles. Better yet, during the fair seasons, on the first Saturday of the month it hosts "Tank Saturday" and runs one of its vehicles for our viewing pleasure.

Yesterday was one such Saturday (the second of the year) and for me anyway promised to be a treat, as they were running their M4A3E8 Sherman. So I drove the hour or so down to Oshawa and caught the day's second running of the Sherman as well as purusing the rest of their vehcile collection and their static displays.

The museum is very much a labour of love and a working restoration facility; it ain't what you'll see in Ottawa, but in some ways is the better for it. The staff are all volunteers, many of the older ones are vets (the day's MC was a post-war Sherman tank commander), but we also saw younger volunteer mechanics working on some of the other tanks - Saturdays are the museum's main work day. For the 90 minutes or so that I was there I'd estimate there were 50-60 visitors, including a lot of children, and the volunteers seemed very pleased with the numbers.

The museum could use a gift shop or something else to help support it, I think everyone visiting would have been willing to pick up something, I know my wallet was loaded for bear.

Some of the highlights of the static displays are an impressive collection of medals, dating back to the late 18th century and including one from Waterloo. There is also a good amount of weaponry, including German war booty from both WWI and WWII. The vehicles include about everything Canada has used from WWII onwards, excepting a Ram Kangaroo (or a regular old Ram for that matter, but I doubt any exist anyways) and Leopards.

Here's a selection of snapshots from my tour, strictly of the outside tanks and other AFVs. I took more pics, but they were for painting purposes.

The running Sherman, before the festivities.

Side shot of the running Sherman.



It was quieter than I thought. Or perhaps, "not as loud as I thought" is a better way to phrase it.

The museum's other Sherman, more of a gate guardian now. Took this pic to remember the rear markings.

The museum's Centurion - man is this a big tank.

One of the M60's.

The other M60. Different camo pattern with four colours to it.

Abbott Self-Propelled Gun.

Lynx with interesting colours, that's an actual white with green.

Ferret from the front.

Ferret from the side.

Sheridan, the funkiest tank.

Silent Death Stats for Original Battlestar Galactica

There was some discussion last weekend on The Miniatures Page about BSG stats for Silent Death, and while some exist online for the new series, I never could find much for the old series, which I prefer. So I used my dusty collection of BSG notes to start statting up the ships while on a space kick last December. I also started Star Wars at the same time. Both are about 2/3 done, mainly the larger (Warhound-sized) ships are left to do.

So for those interested, here are Silent Death stats for the old school BSG fighters:


Cylon Raider
Template: Lt. TPAC
400t
30 Slots
3 Crew
36 Hits
Drive: 12
DV: 12
DR: 0
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
1 x Mk. 30 Torpedo Launcher, Fwd Arc, 10 Ammo
Poor Structural Integrity
Poor Reactor Design
Critical Design Flaw
Cargo: 2 Units (10 slots)
Cost: 33

Cylon Scout Raider
Template: Mdm. TPAC
600t
50 Slots
3 Crew
54 Hits
Drive: 16
DV: 12
DR: 0
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Poor Structural Integrity
Poor Reactor Design
Critical Design Flaw
Cargo: 2 Units (10 slots)
FTL (5 slots)
Cost: 29

Cylon Control Raider
Template: Lt. TPAC
400t
30 Slots
3 Crew
36 Hits
Drive: 12
DV: 12
DR: 0
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
1 x Mk. 30 Torpedo Launcher, Fwd Arc, 10 Ammo
Poor Structural Integrity
Poor Reactor Design
Critical Design Flaw
Cargo: 1 Unit (5 slots)
Control Unit (Cost 20, 5 Slots): Can’t fight while controlling shell fighters, can only evade; also requires 2 crew (1 per 3 shell fighters) to operate a 6 shell fighter flight. Control unit counts as two weapons for damage tracks.
Cost: 45

Cylon Shell Fighter
Template: Lt. TPAC
400t
30 Slots
0 Crew (crew hits count as ability loss) Pilot 1, Gunner 1
36 Hits
Drive: 12
DV: 12
DR: 0
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Poor Structural Integrity
Poor Reactor Design
Critical Design Flaw
Receiver Unit (Cost 5, 5 Slots): Counts as one weapon for damage tracks.
Cost: 18

(later) Cylon Heavy Raider
Template: |Mdm. TPAC
600t
50 Slots
3 Crew
54 Hits
Drive: 12
DV: 12
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
1 x Mk. 30 Torpedo Launcher, Fwd Arc, 10 Ammo
2 x Mk. 50 Torpedo Launcher, Fwd Arc, 6 Ammo (each)
Poor Structural Integrity
Poor Reactor Design
Critical Design Flaw
Cargo: 1 Unit (5 slots)
Cost: 76

Colonial Viper
Template: Lt. SPAC
100t
9 Slots
1 Crew
10 Hits
Drive: 16
DV: 14
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-3
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Armored Cockpit
Poorly Shielded Drive
Cost: 14

Colonial Viper (Improvised)
Template: Lt. SPAC
100t
9 Slots
1 Crew
10 Hits
Drive: 16
DV: 14
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-3
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Armored Cockpit
Poorly Shielded Drive
Poor Mechanical Reliability
Cost: 12

Colonial Asp
Template: Lt. SPAC
100t
9 Slots
1 Crew
10 Hits
Drive: 19
DV: 15
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-3
Armored Cockpit
Poorly Shielded Drive
Cost: 13

Colonial Azure Viper (later)
Template: Lt. SPAC
100t
9 Slots
1 Crew
10 Hits
Drive: 17
DV: 14
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-4
Twin Splatterguns (lasers), Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Armored Cockpit
Cost: 14

Colonial Scarlet Viper (later still)
Template: Lt. SPAC
100t
9 Slots
1 Crew
10 Hits
Drive: 17
DV: 15
DR: 0
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-4
Twin Impulse Guns, Fwd Arc, Infinite Ammo
Armored Cockpit
Well-Shielded Drive
Shielded Weapons
Cost: 15

Colonial Shuttle
Template: Shuttle
400t
15 Slots
2 Crew
40 Hits
Drive: 10
DV: 10
DR: 1
PD: n/a
Decoys: n/a
DC: 1-2
Cargo: 6 units (1 bay)
Cost: 19

- torpedoes are strictly air-ground or anti-ship in nature, not anti-fighter

Back on the Table Again

Had a good night last night working on 3mm Vietnam bases, the first time in about 6 weeks I'd been at the table, due to the previously mentioned work overload and sleep underload, and a bit of lack of focus. Finally broke open the DAS bag to model some terrain on the heavy weapons bases; the figures look a bit lonely kneeling in trenches or behind trees that end in the middle of nowhere. So I used the clay to extend the trees and trenches/berms, or convert the trees to trenches. I even managed to simulate tall grass with one base, matching the figure.

Less scary and time-consuming than I'd thought, although I had to break open two bags of DAS, as the one I think I bought in the late 1990's had gone bad, the newer one was fine.

I got so far along I even started up some more terrain bases on pennies. Since most of the Vietnam scenarios will feature large stretches of similar terrain (e.g. jungles), I'll use felt to delineate the terrain, then small terrain pieces to give the felt some feel. However, when I want to show something other than the background terrain, I'm working on small terrain pieces on pennies. So for example, a clearing in the jungle would be some yellow grass on the penny. Or as I worked on last night, some huts and a lone palm tree.

Pics to come later.

Berry Berry Quiet on the Front

Well it's been six weeks since I last posted, and in one sense things have been pretty quiet on the miniature's front, as April and May are my busiest periods for work. I don't spend much time at home and I'm usually about 10 minutes away from nap-time when I am, plus this year I had the added pleasure of breaking a finger (a pinky finger, so no threat to painting etc.!).

I've also been slowed down as I've had a slew of Vietnam stuff on the table, and I hit a bit of a wall in terms of maintaining momentum when it's the same old stuff to do every night. In this case, doing a bit of sculpting on some bases where figures are in dugouts or behind fallen trees. However, in my first bit of news, Charlie Don't Surf has now been released by Too Fat Lardies, along with a scenario supplement (Surf's Up), so I should get moving again.

And while things have been slow on the painting table, that hasn't stopped me from spending money like a drunken sailor on new mini's. Some birthday money helped on that front, and I had two large orders filled by Dom from Dom's Decals (a fine purveyor of Tumbling Dice mini's). I finished Vietnam both tactically with helicopters and aerially with North and South Vietnamese aircraft, as well as the USAF, USN, and USMC.

I also got the 1960's/70's Indian and Pakistani starter packs, and a ton of modern Warsaw Pact stuff. Of course now that I have it, I'm trying to remember what my plan was! I think it was to work on a modern Chinese air force, as that's a future conflict I'm most interested in trying out on the table.

Going further back in time, I also got some early WWII aircraft, France, RAF, Luftwaffe, Poland, Finland, and Russia. I also got some early war FAA aircraft and extra German aircraft to play out some naval aerial action under the alt-history that the Graf Zeppelin was completed. I've been picking up some Axis and Allies' 1/1850 ships to serve as targets, and with the GZ available, I wanted to be able to defend her. So some Ju-87's will serve as the two proposed naval equivalents, Bf-109E's will play 109T's, and then the poor Fairey Fox will defect to serve as Fi-167 torpedo bombers. I'll probably use some 109G's to act as Bf-155's (or whatever it was), although they don't really look alike; but then nothing does.

I also got some late war RAF to go with my late war American and Soviet forces, as part of my hypothetical East-West war in 1945+.

I should be done painting everything sometime in 2150.

Still on my airforces, I made my first order with Heroic & Ros, under the new ownership of Andy Kirk (I'd never placed an order with the old ownership so I don't have a comparison). Everything just arrived yesterday and looks good, it took only 10 days or so to get here from the UK. This order was for the basics of WWI aerial gaming, I'd been buying a lot of stuff unique to CinC during their sales this winter (including a STUPID amount of Nieuport 11's - so every nation could have their allotment). Now, I have all the classics, as well as a good representation of heavy bombers. Future orders with Irregular and H&R should round me out shortly, I'd like to have everything in hand by the end of the year.

But since there is the well known axiom that once you have finished buying or painting all your miniatures your lifespan is measured in mere seconds, I have started on some new fronts.

• 15mm Freikorps (QRF) "History of India" figures for skirmish gaming using Songs of Drums and Shakos by Ganesha Games. I ordered through a nice new US company, Miniature Armies. I've begun rating the figures in the SDS system, just working on fine tuning them.
• I've been on a space kick lately, and while I have avoided buying new mini's, including some of the nice new ones available in plastic via Shapeways, I have started on notes for a campaign using Starmada and Victory By Any Means. I figure I'll use my billion Starfire counters to start, and have actually made some good progress in converting Starfire's (3rd Ed.) tropes to Starmada; I always liked a lot about Starfire's background and tech levels, just not the mess of rules.
• I also almost got into Star Trek (TOS) gaming, but the apparently terrible state of ADB molds has put me off. Of course, I also have a billion Starfleet Battles counters from my one purchase of the Captain's Edition rules, so I could use Starmada and the counters. There is an authorized Starmada conversion (Klingon Armada, Romulan Armada), but I figure I can do it my way easier.

There are also some great new Splintered Lands miniatures out or on their way to production, so that may occupy a summer purchase, but a multi-project Irregular purchase is next on the list.

Doing my best, doing what I can, I get them ready for Vietnam

With apologies to the Ramones (and while a catchy tune, I'm still not sure what "Commando's" about - and I'm a Ramones fan). So the last few weeks have been busy getting 3mm forces ready for "Charlie Don't Surf". I had most figures already on hand, but needed more infantry and some vehicles. The reinforcements just arrived Friday and many are now in progress.

I've based a company of US forces (at this scale interchangeably Army and USMC, as well as ANZACs), one of NVA and one VC. I've also got most vehicles based, and most helicopters are primed. Next up is finishing the few remaining vehicle bases, and then texturing all the bases. A few that are going to be really muddy (M109's in position) or on pavement (some jeeps and M48 tanks) were textured before mounting the vehicles.

So, while still a work in progress, I thought I'd show off what's been going on in the couple of weeks since my last post.

An overview of everything on the table, all 3 companies and vehicles.

Half of the US forces. M109 self-propelled artillery, M60A3 tanks, LVTP5 carriers for the marines (I have another 10 but need to think about basing them for beaches and/or in-water), M113 (couple types), M577 command track, M106/M125 mortar carriers, jeeps (with and without weapons), M60 LMG's, and infantry. On the fly I decided to put the M113's on smaller bases, as they looked lost on the pennies (and base size doesn't matter); I kept the mortar versions on pennies as they'd be likely dug in with a small base around them. Two of my M577's were like this too for the same reason.

The other half of the US's forces. Trucks, some based for dirt roads (left) and some for pavement (right), also M48 tanks, also based for both on- and off-road. Also some medic stations, more jeeps, more infantry, and command stands.

A North Vietnamese Army company, including RPG's and MG's; plus some spares and 5 T-55's.

VC company.

Most of my US helicopters - Huey Slicks, Hogs, and Heavy Frogs, AH-1 Cobra's, OH-6's and OH-58's. Chinooks and some Huey 1B's that I'll use for medevac and command helicopters are on their way from Dom of Dom's Decals. Click on the picture for a full-sized version with better detail.

Marine CH-46 transport and supply helicopters. These guys have been primed for a while and finally have some brethren to sit with on the painting table.

Recently arrived OH-13's, very early observation helicopters in Vietnam, famous for their role in MASH (so I guess I'll save some for Korea then).

What's on the table to be filed and then soaked (I use vinegar for a couple of hours) - PT-76's for the north, in between Sheridans (left) and Walker Bulldogs (right).