British Airborne Platoon for Battlegroup Overlord

Finished up a platoon of 20mm British Airborne for Battlegroup Overlord.

These miniatures are a mix of AB, Battlemodels, Blitz, and Drew's Militia (OOP but on eBay every now and then...), and all play really nice together.

I have two more platoons to paint, along with jeeps, crews, AT guns, and a lot more.

~iPaint

Historicon 2015 Battlegroup Demo Recap

I ran 4 or 5 demo games of Battlegroup Kursk at Historicon this year. I think everyone had a good time, and picked up on the rules fairly quickly.

Here's some pics!

Saturday night's demo had a smaller set of tables, so I was forced to improvise and setup a bit smaller engagement.

~iPaint

Battlegroup Kursk Game at GenghisCon 2015

Just had a quick set up and demo game with 2 platoons of infantry a side, some tanks and tank riders, and a sniper for the Germans. Goal was to show off the rules to some of the local club members. Lots of pinning all around, and several bloodied squads near the center of the table.

I'll just post the pics since there's really not a whole lot to go off of for the AAR. I think the Russians had 15 BR and the Germans 9 BR in morale chits by the time we called it too late to continue playing.

Pics:

Soviet infantry advances towards the middle of the village...

and the cover of the nearby railway embankment.

While the Germans follow suit:

Panzer IVs arrive to knock out a T-34 on the German left flank, causing the tank riders to scatter and be cut down by the nearby MG34 teams.

T-34s push up on the Russian left flank.

Soviet forward headquarters arrives to survey the carnage.

End of game positions. I think we made it through 4 turns in about an hour of play. Was just too late to get any more in.

It's a good bet I'll be setting about making up some templates for QRS, vehicle data cards, and movement measuring sticks to speed things along. The movement trays really helped improve the process of moving all that infantry.

Still thinking about good intro game sized forces, and what rules to really highlight and which to leave out for sake of speed/ease of learning to play. I think for demo games, keeping track of ammo could be dropped to allow people to roll more dice in combat, and I think trimming the morale chits a bit will allow for some less-painful counters being pulled. Still not sure on how much artillery to introduce, maybe just offboard mortars.

I think these are great rules, but for intro games I like to get everyone rolling dice and using orders to get a feel for how the mechanics flow, while hinting that rules exist for the more in-depth things you can do (charging bunkers with demo charges was brought up, as well as medics running about on the beaches during D-Day).

The Germans made particularly good use of Ambush Fire with their sniper, preventing a few Russian squads from shooting back in return. The Russians learned quickly that burning T-34s aren't the best place for their tank riders to hang around. Everyone was picking up on the Area-Fire-then-Aimed-Fire techniques for pinning infantry, then causing wounds and morale checks.

By the end of the night, everyone was fairly familiar with the basics of the rules for moving, shooting, morale, and order management, and I was mostly keeping track of remaining orders and helping measure. Fun times, but I need to get some more terrain done up - notably fences and some more details on my train tracks.

Lots of passers-by commented on liking the 20mm scale.

Hitting the Beach

Some way OOP Battlefield Miniatures Omaha Assault Teams came in this week, and I'm super excited that I was able to get them.

They're great sculpts. They show their age compared to Battlefield's latest offerings (the several packs I have from their Blitz range is stellar), but the character and motion for each model is brilliant.

Really holding out for a new, updated line from Battlefield for D-Day landings.

Several .30 cal LMG teams, some Boat Team leaders, Bangalore carriers, wounded and medics, and a couple 60mm mortar and flamethrower teams. Bunch of light-kit figures as well, which I might try adding some extra gear to to bring them more in line with the others.

~iPaint

Some WIP for WWII

More kit being close to wrapped up.

Roden SdKfz 232. Just needs some (better this time) pigments and basing finished.

Dragon Ferdinand. Base and pigments.

Really satisfied with the Badger Sotar 20/20 I used to get the finer spray patterns.

Plastic Soldier Company StuG III ausf Gs.
This has to be the third or fourth time I've painted these tanks. 

And it really shows on these little guys:

S-Model Hotchkiss H38s.

Also snapped some better pics of the SS platoon I finished up a while ago:

AB Figures, Warmodeling, and one lone Blitz

On closer inspection, it appears I forgot to paint up the last batch's smock ties. May also go back and try and paint in collar tabs (probably black squares with some white dots) to give the impression.

And finally, a few more test figures for ETO US infantry (poor lighting and still a bit shiny from a recent dull coat that hadn't dried). Quite pleased with how they turned out.

AB Figures

~iPaint

Panzers and Shermans

Had some time to work on camo.

1 Pz III N (Forces of Valor)
3 Pz IV F2s (PSC with RB barrels)
3 Pz IV Hs (PSC)
1 Panther Ausf D (Zvezda)
2 Tigers (MRC diecasts)
1 Beutepanzer KV-2 (Hobby Master diecast)

Also repainted some Tigers and Pz IVs, since I wasn't happy with how dark the green camo was on them.

And some PSC Shermans with ValueGear stowage and AB Figures crew.

Planning on getting the first game of Battlegroup Kursk in this weekend.

~iPaint

Winter Madness!

Had some time to work on a lot of things over the past few weeks. Let's get right to it then.

Zombicide:

Worked on some of the new Berserker Zombies from Prison Outbreak.

Berserker Zombies - immune to ranged weapons in Zombicide. LITKO bases.

Really pleased with the results. Here's the process for anyone seeking to replicate the look:

Primed with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh
Citadel Foundation Solar Macharius Orange on clothing
Citadel Bugman's Glow thinned with Vallejo Thinner Medium and washed over skin
Drybrush Army Painter Necrotic Flesh over skin
Any combination of dark brown and sand yellow for hair and boots, then drybrushed by adding an off-white
Brush-dipped using Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut stain
Matte sealer to remove glossiness
2:1:1 mix Reaper MSP Brown Ink, Vallejo Transparent Red, and Reaper MSP Black Ink for blood/gore effects
Citadel Devlan Mud washed into eye sockets for added depth
Eyes painted pure white
Final Matte sealing
Vallejo Gloss Varnish applied to blood/gore, focusing mostly on the skin areas, leaving clothes alone for most part

Dwarven Forge:

Work continues on the Game Tiles. I have maybe 70% of the tiles painted, and have been slowly working on the rest. After the tiles are done, it will be time to move on to all of the small accessory pieces such as chests, beds, gold piles, traps, etc.

WW2:

Had an itch to work on some 20mm stuff, and spent a couple evenings working on some Plastic Soldier Company M4A1 75mm Sherman tanks and some AB Figures US infantry for Northwest Europe and Battlegroup Overlord.

PSC 1/72 M4A1 75mm Shermans with AB Figures crew

I tried a new filter on these - Winton Oil Colors Yellow Ochre #44, followed by the usual Burnt Umber. I haven't decided if I want to pin wash them yet. They're still a bit glossy from the oil paints. I have some stowage coming from Value Gear, which looks excellent and will really give the tanks a lived-in look once I'm done.

US Infantry by AB Figures

 I have some more AB coming in the mail this weekend since Eureka Miniatures is now stocking the range and distributing from the US - which means I'm gonna have to be careful or I wont have anything left to pay rent! Seriously, it's really great that the range is able to be given new molds. Also, the prices are much more in line with what I want to pay and don't include a hefty shipping and VAT fee from the UK. Oh, and Eureka even did 2-day express shipping, which is terrific. I should have enough GIs when all's said and done to do 3 full platoons, with options to do Armored Infantry. I have some PSC M3 Halftracks and a box of M5 Stuarts coming as well to round everything out.

Nice break from painting German kit, though now I'm wanting to redo some of my German tanks and work some more color modulation into them.

~iPaint