Progress update May 2023

Varied progress over the bank holiday weekend.

Nine of the Perry 28mm Afrika Korps figures painted and based, photographed here drying in the sunshine.  As an added bonus, I was rummaging through the stash and came across a sprue of Warlord DAK figures - I think from a copy of Wargames Illustrated.  Bonus additional 6 figures, which I've assembled and started to paint (no photos as yet).

With the 3D printer behaving itself at the moment, I scaled up some Bergmann jeeps from 15mm to 20mm and added some SHQ crews.  Two US recce jeeps with .50 cals.  One British para recce jeep and a para transport jeep.  Still have another para recce jeep and regular British jeep crew to work on.

Started back before Christmas, these 15mm M151 jeeps from QRF just needed varnish and basing.  Dried in a matter of minutes in the afternoon sun and simple static grass on base.  Two recoilless rifles and two TOW armed jeeps.  Suitable for 60's through 80's.  I just need some M151s with a recce HMG variant.  They might even make it on the table in AK47 games, or as Indo-Pak or Arab-Israeli wars forces.

Finally, for now, I got around to finishing the batch of 20mm figures I ordered at Christmas during the Elhiem sale.  These are a pack of random Middle Eastern insurgents and a pack of RPG armed insurgents.

 I finished these pretty much as my Not Going to Salute sale order from Elhiem arrived on the doorstep.

As ever, thanks for looking.

28mm Afrika Korps test figure

 DAK Attack has become very popular at the club at the moment with people assembling vast quantities of 28mm LRDG vehicles and figures.  I thought I might build up a DAK force to provide some opposition.  I enjoyed painting the 20mm DAK figures that I have, so decided to give it a go with some Perry infantry and Warlord support pack.  While perusing the table top sales at Hammerhead, I spotted a pack of sentry figures, one DAK, one 8th Army and a WW1 Tommy or Doughboy.  I got the two figures for N Africa mounted and painted them up.  Tommy is taking a crafty drag from a cigarette, while Fritz is lighting his own.  Both these figures were marked Warlord Games on the base, but no sign of them on the current Warlord website.

Tommy's greatcoat is khaki, shorts, shirt and helmet are Iraqi Sand.  Fritz greatcoat is US Tan and helmet desert yellow.  Figures were washed in Agrax Earthshade, base colours touched up and highlighted with base colour with a little Iraqi Sand or pale sand.  Faces are light brown with pale flesh highlights washed with Reikland flesh wash.

Nice figures, should do the job of sentries quite nicely.  Now on with assembling and painting the Perry DAK infantry.

Thanks for looking.

28mm Late War German Infantry

Since last summer, we've been playing WW2 Chain of Command, mainly pitting Owain's US paratroopers against Late War German panzergrenadiers.  I've steadily worked through boxes of Warlord panzergrenadiers and support weapons, as well as picking up some unpainted figures at various bring and buys.  These metal Warlord Volksturm were picked up at the Penkridge table top sale back in September, a pack of 16 figures, just 4 missing from a complete box.

First up a unit of 5 tank hunter types armed with panzerfausts and mainly dressed as Hitler Youth or DBM.

Next, a group of 6 factory workers or similar with various small arms, a panzerfaust and an improvised Molotov cocktail.

The remainder of the set, 4 tough looking veterans and a "Golden Pheasant" SA officer.

Sniper with bendy barrel for shooting round corners - not seen any rules for this particular weapon, so probably just use him as a sniper or rifleman.

Three veterans, the guy on the left has put on a little weight since his last physical and carries a mine and panzerfaust.  Centre guy wears a reed green tunic and carries a late war improvised SMG, while the guy on the right, in addition to an assault rifle, carries a fliegerfaust hand held AA rocket launcher.  I'm not sure the Volksturm would have been issued with this wonder weapon, but I guess anything could happen in the last days of the Reich.  Wiki suggests a photo from Berlin in 1945 shows several of these weapons expended and lying in the street.

The SA officer or "Golden Pheasant" if I remember correctly from extensive reading of Sven Hassel novels in my youth.

Nice castings, very little to clean up and they have lots of detail that rewards some painting time.  I'm not sure when/where I'll be able to get them on the tabletop, but I did enjoy painting them.

Thanks for looking! 

15mm Cold War Special Forces

 Battlegroup Northag and the Centag supplement both have roles for small special forces detachments.  I painted up a pack of Peterpig SAS from their modern African Wars range and a pack of Spetsnaz from Quickreactionforce.

Below are the QRF Spetsnaz in their Sun Bunny all in one hooded suits in faded green with sand coloured blebs.  Variously armed with AKs, RPGs and PKMs, they look the part when painted up.

I'm not sure what the chap rear right is doing, but his comrades are using their AK, PKM and sniper rifle.

More AKs, PKMs and an RPG.

Then from Peterpig, some western special forces.  I've painted these as SAS, although they work fine as Marine Force Recon, Green Berets, or any other NATO recce unit.  Difficult to be sure at this scale, but they look to be armed with M16s for the most part with assorted UGLs

I have some 3D printed Volkswagen camper vans and assorted Gaz jeeps or minibuses to carry the Spetsnaz into battle or Landrovers for the SAS, Hum-Vees or M151s for the US, assuming they arrive by road - airdropped and they have to hike into position.

Thanks for looking.

Elhiem Miniatures additions

 I took advantage of the Elhiem Xmas sale to pick up a few packs to complete some projects.  These guys, with the exception of the Kurt Russel look alike, are insurgent leaders (westerners) or apocalypse survivors.  The Kurt Russel wannabe was a freebie in the package, which was nice.  I guess he will be suitable as Jake Pigskin in the Cold War supplement.

I also wanted some downed helicopter crewmen suitable for my USMC, so ordered a set of armed helicopter crew and a single unarmed figure trying to evade capture.  I figure there are a few scenarios I can create around these for Force on Force or Black Ops.

I still have some Middle Eastern insurgent RPG gunners and assorted infantry to complete.  I'm also bringing two big projects to a conclusion, with c. 100 20mm SHQ Vietnam War US infantry and special forces virtually complete and a 28mm Late War mainly SS infantry force also in the final stages, with a full platoon of SS panzergrenadiers and assorted sections of veteran SS, Heer and Volksturm infantry in support, plus some crewed weapons, ready for Chain of Command and Battlegroup.  More on these shortly.

Thanks for looking.

Hammerhead 2023

 Took a road trip last Friday to Newark with Will and we spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening boardgaming with Si G, Si H, Paddy and Garry over a bite to eat and a few drinks.  Saturday, we all went to Newark Showground for the Hammerhead event.

Got to say, the show was excellent, witha good selection of traders - more than I was expecting from the list of traders published beforehand.  There was also an excellent set of pre-loved seller tables, which changed several times during the day.  Many of the traders were asking very reasonable prices.

During the course of the day I picked up some SHQ figures from their Vietnam range, specifically packs of their Navy Seals, LRRPs and Green Berets, plus a .50 cal tripod MG for the regular US infantry.  I also picked up some Warbases Old West buildings and stagecoach, plus a couple of horses to pull the stage and a pack of Chain of Command markers.  Col Bill's provided a couple of pioneer wagons to use as Old West street scatter.  Grubby had some lovely 28mm resin prints of German WW2 motorcycles and sidecar versions, which will make their way into Dak Attack games as DAK Schutzen, as well as a very reasonably priced pair of Schwimwagens with late war crews (KG Peiper style).  I also rounded off my Late Romans with a box of Cataphracts from Gripping Beast.  Pendraken provided some 20mm pigs for my Red Vectors pig sty and a pack of 28mm sheep for Saga games.

Pre-loved purchases included a squad box of veteran SS Charlemagne metal figures and a box of plastic Fallschirmjager, as well as a bag with three sentry figures, one German and one Brit in greatcoat smoking a cigarette and one what looks to be a WW1 US sentry figure.  I also used my last £10 plus £2 in change to pick up an Old West Saloon, which cleaned me out of cash.

Some great looking games, some of those that caught my eye are shown below. 

All in all a good show.  Was very cramped and congested during the morning, but was much easier to move around after lunch.

Thanks for looking.

Epic scale Sci-Fi using 3D prints. 

VBCW canal/river crossing.

Really nice looking games using Old West terrain tweaked slightly to give it a 1920's setting.  Think Bonnie and Clyde, Paper Moon, etc.  Old abandoned stage coach in one of the back lots was an inspired idea.

A 1980's NATO vs Warpact game in 3mm scale, run by a couple of people including my good friend Mark Julian.  Nice looking terrain, which was stackable with lift off built up areas etc.  I didn't get a chance to see the game mechanism in action but it looked to be working well, even with the use of nuclear demolitions.

28mm Cowboy additions

 At the Penkridge tabletop sale I picked up some 28mm metal castings of Old West figures to add to my Dead Man's Hand posses.  Most are from Wargames Foundry, but not sure on the manufacturer for a couple of them.

Shotgun toting dudes in long coats.

Old timer with what looks to be a muzzle loading musket and a pistol toting desperado, both in long coats.

Pistol armed cowboy in chaps and a Billy the Kid wannabe toting a pistol.

Repeating rifleman sharpshooter and rawhide clad ranger, armed with what appears to be a muzzle loading musket.

Rather well dressed gunslinger/card sharp type - could be a lawman, but tin star not on show.

Warbases 2 storey building - I'm going to have to do a sign with "Ma's Flophouse" or similar.

Another Warbases building, this time a bank with barred windows and stone built sides and rear.

I'll probably add another couple of buildings, maybe a saloon and a general stores, enough to do a street intersection on a 3ft square table.  With some scatter terrain (carts, boxes and crates, hitching posts, etc.) should do quite nicely for pick-up games of DMH.  I might even work on a Zombicide Undead or Alive version using actual terrain.

Thanks for looking.