I completed the first of two Stegadons! This one being the base model with Skystreak bow:
I am very pleased with how this came out. Being painted to a "table ready" or in my words "good enough" level I think I am happy to call it done.
Here are some more beauty shots:
I am still trying to figure out the coloring for the next one as its the Engine of the Gods so I feel it should have a more unique coloring for its skin and armor plates. Stick around and I will post some wip shot next week of the next one!
This weekend saw Brett and myself take on Sauron's evil minions in an attempt to learn how to play Lord of the Rings LCG. I'm a little late once again to the party of what's good and what isn't in the realm of newer games. It normally takes a lot of research and a little bit of risk when it comes to buying board games or card games these days. A lot of what's out there is very expensive and a lot of the time, not very good.
We've been busy as of late and managed to sit down to discuss Game Summit and Geek Market here in Ottawa. We also dive into Flames of War lists, upcoming tournaments and the future of printed books vs. the new digital age being entered by Battlefront. Our own resident expert talks about some of the changes to World of Tanks!! As usual, drop us an email or comment on our newest podcast. We really do appreciate you listening and wanting more!
Listen to Episode 2 here or download it from the Podcast page.
Figured I'd get an infantry unit painted, now that I have decent models. QRF models are 'ok' but Battlefront is better, and with the recent release of the Egyptian infantry for Fate of a Nation, I decided to get a blister to get my 3rd Inf platoon. I mean, good sculpts of guys with AK's and the right helmets? Heck Yes!
I'll let the picture dump speak for itself below:
As you can see, the BF infantry mixes in very nicely with the QRF stuff. In the background are the BTR's they would drive around in. Models on the right are the 9K11 'Malyutka' TOW missile, that used the outer casing of the suitcase it comes in as the launch base! Counts as the Recoiless gun in FAON.
Close up of the Malyutka (AKA AT-3 'Sagger') and shoulder mounted missile team.
Each BTR would carry 2 fire-teams armed with AK-47s, and one fireteam had a RPG-7 guy (left stand, back guy kneeling) and the other fire-team had a machine gunner (right stand, front guy has the PKM with folded bi-pod)
I went with a 3 tone scheme for the camo, Flat Earth, Reflective Green and Green Grey.
Zvezda T-72 (center) and 2 QRF T-72s. WW2 T-34 crew by Battlefront. The ERA blocks (explosive reactive armor) are the main visual cues on the Zvezda model's turret. It's their new plastic, which is 1000 times better than their old stuff.
Front view. The Zvezda sits higher and has a different front end. I think this might actually be a T-80 (turbine engine not piston plus a few other differences) but I am no expert.
As you can see, the Zvezda tank is larger, though not by enough of a margin to be a big deal. If you want cheap tanks, and have crew from another manufacturer, I can heartily recommend the Zvezda. Note, that with the new plastic formula, this was $12.00 CDN though, far cry from the $4.95 T-34s
Side view, Zvezda on the right. Wheels are different, as well as the skirting. In a nice touch, Zvezda made the skirting optional, so it isn't one piece with the track.
How bout a quick battle? 1500 points of Fate of a Nation, I used Egyptian list, Duane was proxying Israeli's.. with nazi tanks... He had ten vehicles, I had 30, plus 3 platoons of infantry.
I moved up to engage at long range his tanks, and my Spearheading PT-76s moved into the water.. because they could! (also to try and take out the AMX-13s)
Soviet Naval Ensign markings.. in a shallow pond!
Duane's gigantic Centurion model. They look fantastic, it was a shame to blow them up on lucky 6's to hit (10 shots from 10 T-55s... got 3 hits!)
"Tiger"s were Magach's. They took so much firepower, bailed out for most of the game.. it would take marching infantry up to them on the large hill (see below) plus Malyutka's to press the objective for the win.. would they hold up?
The dead-on accuracy of the Israeli tanks on the move plus storm-trooper plus Hens and Chicks meant this battle went to the wire. Every time he fired I was losing 4 or 5 tanks.
Quick post here guys, I have some plans ahead (as I always do) and I want to make sure I follow through (as I always say) but never do haha.
Our Resolution? Land somewhere we can't be seen for 40 miles next time!
Last year I had a crazy dream to not 'buy' any new models all year and to work on stuff that had been languishing on the painting station. For the most part it worked, but then I started making some crazy trades and actually ended up with MORE unpainted models than I started! A crazy thing I read about this year is a method to have small but continuous progress, and it was popularized by none other than Jerry Seinfeld: http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret
What I want to do then is set myself for a small amount of painting, but every night where possible. I have my Soviet Moderns which are up first (hence the Seinfeld/Red Dawn pics) and then my DAK which I've been working on for next Historicon. Its still not 100% sure if its EW or MW. After that, I have a small unit of Free French to finish off, 3 M7 Priests and some 105s. My LW 21 Pzr has a recce unit of halftracks and some Pumas so I can field more than the 2 lists I am known for.
Lets not even get into the unpainted Brit Para army I have, or the 12 Grants and 9 Crusaders I have for my MW British!!
I say old boy, get cracking so we can punt Jerry into the Mediterranean!
So we had a Moderns game, with Mark playing West Germans allied with Rob playing (what else) Canadians vs my Soviet Guard Tanks. The ruleset and army lists are derived from Flames of War version 3, and can be found here: http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/ We were running about 2400 points. You will note that all models aren't painted yet, but at least they are basecoated for the most part. Rob of course, all his stuff was painted. As usual, I'll let the videos do the talking (I've included our first Moderns test game video as well..)
Mark's Marders w/ MILAN launchers, and carrying a squad of Panzergrenadiers (somethigns just don't ever change!)
Mark's TOW equipped Jaguars
My 1 infantry platoon (3 BTRs) plus 2IC Command BTR, and Reserve Reluctant Conscript T-55s
Overview of Rob's awesome table. Opposed corner deployments, 3 objectives.
HQ T-80 (behind tree) and platoon of T-80s hull down on the make sure the enemy armor does not advance untouched.
Marder's dismount troops to claim the gasthaus objective...
..as my own troops advance (top left of pic) as I realize TOW launchers have a TONNE of range!
Rob's Battlefront M113s with QRF TOWs. Note the correct license plates for West Germany!!
These vehicles would get popped by: Reluctant Conscript T-55s who needed 3 sixes to hit out of 5 shots, and got all 3!
Game 2
Our game, brought to you by the word Mitigate. We were playtesting a new variant of the Soviet Command structure. In short, now, when your CO is killed, the 2IC tries to take command, but every unit on the board counts as being pinned (armor included) as the 2IC slowly takes command, units unpin. If both command teams are dead, the entire force counts as being pinned, but can still try and leave the board, or shoot to get some platoon kills in. The previous method was: If the CO dies, and the 2IC does not pass a morale, its game over. This way there is more confusion, and the Soviet player can still "play for something" rather than pack his models up.
Bought myself two boxes of the Battlefront Vietnam M113s at Historicon for my mid 80's Cold War Canadian (what else) army that I'm putting together. The models are fantastic and come with lots of extra bits and pieces. I was quite keen to get them together and painted before hockey starts, so I devoted the past long weekend to them. Here is a shot of them before weathering, stowage and a few more guys sticking out of the "family hatch" checking out the frauleins. I used my airbrush, but as its not a very good one (for 15mm) I used the blue tac method of camouflage painting. I should have taken a photo of that. After the last colour is done all you see is a model with a ton of blue tac on it with lots of green paint. You don't know if it worked out until you peel it all away. Fortunately, they came out pretty good. For infantry I'm again using the Battlefront US infantry in Vietnam. In 15mm they look fine as long as I paint on the Canadian flags on the shoulders. I'll update this post when I get a few stands of infantry done. I also want to add "skis" to my QRF Leopards as they are a bit small compared to the BF M113s and skis might make them a bit taller. There was no way I was going to use QRF M113s as they are such a poor model. I did use the QRF TOW missile launchers however. The excellent decals, which really make the Canadian look are from TL Modelbau in Germany. http://www.tl-modellbau.de/
Hey guys, long time no see! Hard to believe its been since end of April since I last posted, but I've been busy. Historicon is very soon, and I have been busting my ass putting in extra details on my 21. Pzrs (but thats for another post) but in the interim, I was lucky enough to receive some Vietnam stuff to review for WWPD.net in the form of PT-76 and T-54/55's http://www.wwpd.net/2013/05/product-review-battlefront-t-54s.html As my main Modern Warfare opponent, Rob, is also going to Historicon, we have only got one game in so far, but here it is!
The ruleset we are using is from http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/ as well as the army lists. Whats nice about Cold War gaming in 15mm in western Europe is that 90% of Flames of War scenery works, and the other 10% you can get from model train stores, as you can see with the shipping containers.
PT-76 Recce light tanks, still in use today. (Wasn't in our game though, but these pre-painted shipping containers are ace)
Rob's Canadian Leopards roll past having dispatched this BTR-80 and T-80M
Close up of Rob's M113 on the left, and Lynx Recce vehicle on the right. He even found decals. Very nice
Prior to them getting blown up, my Command BTR80. In this ruleset, all transports are crewed, so can move about with no one in them much like german halftracks in FOW. I found this very useful for killing Lynx's.
I took some shots of Matt Varnish and my test vehicles and sent them to the guy in Wales who has put together a FOW modified ruleset and lists for re-fighting the Cold War.
Been working on some test models.. for some future Cold Wars Gone Hot. We have a T-72 Late model and a BTR-80. Models are by QRF, and while the molds are from the late 80s it feels like, there is a tonne of detail, which is why I picked these over say the BTR-70 model, which was terrible (I have one, a BTR-70PK command, horrible)
I used a 3 tone scheme, as I want to be able to run these as any "OPFOR" be it Russians, East Germans, Syrians, Egyptians, etc etc
I love the boat front. This sucker had hydrajet in the back, and would raise snorkels for the engines!
Colors used was black spray, Russian Green 894, German Grey 995 and Khaki Grey 880, then washed, Drybrushed with Bleached Bone.
That Soviet Army badge on the optics cover was a biiiiiiitch!
Rear quarter view.
I am super happy with these, and how they turned out. I am sure Rob Kelly can be persuaded to post his Cdns, I saw some pics and they are Gorgeous! Certainly brings back the memories of living in Baden as a kid, I had forgotten the maple leaf was black and all the license plates were in green!
Well, I made a weird New Years Gaming Resolution, and that is to not buy a single model in 2013. So just my luck that on Dec 27, 2012, my gigantic 15mm Modern Soviets army shows up! A few guys and I decided that we should branch out into the Cold War what-ifs, and when deciding on scale, 15mm had a number of benefits, chiefly that we already had western european and desert terrain in this scale, and when I laid eyes on that pic WWPD Steve took of the NVA tanks, I was sold. I decided to run generic Soviets, which can be used as Syrians, Egyptians, basically any Communist country from late sixties to the 2000's, so long as you don't rivet count, as BTR60/70/80 its really only the turret that differs, and the T-54-T90 pretty much look similar. The actual models I got represent mid 80s Warsaw Pact stuff.
First test models, left is Red Dawn style Spetznaz, right is more generic 3 tone camo. I picked the one on the right. The spackle when wet is pink, white when dry, so you can tell these are "fresh" pics!
Here is a comparison shot of a brit jeep, T34, BTR-80 and the infamous Mi-24 Krokodil (aka Hind-D)
Battlefront WW2 russian test models in 3 tone, based on pennies, in front of their ride (QRF Miniatures' BTR-80A). Force on Force is a very loose ruleset, where the individual guys can be based like this or in fire teams of 3 or 4 (BMP squads are 2 fireteams of 4, BTR squads 2 of 3 men each, 3 others man the BTR) After seeing many folks using the Flames of War style bases, and even the FoF rules, individual model facing doesnt matter, you add up the fireteam firepower and roll dice, I think I will go with 4 man fireteams per base. In my case, QRF miniatures sells a Motor Rifle Squad as Lead, PKM machinegunner, RPG7 AT guy, and 5 AK74 guys.
RKelly is doing Canadians, and QRF Miniatrures is the only way to get a few Cdn vehicles, while Mark is doing West Germans. Yes, they kept WW2-sounding names, like Luchs PanzerSpah vehicles, Marders, but have moved up the feline tank name tree to Leopards!
Below is a little video I made just before Christmas (and before all this loot got here) of my test models.
For those that like to know these things, here is the full list of what I got (weighs almost 3 kilos)
Command BTR, Company Command squad, 3 x AT Guided Missile teams.
BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams
BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams
BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams
Command T-72
T-72 Platoon (5 tanks)
T-72 Platoon (5 tanks) My order was expensive compared to the other guys' because I wanted to be able to run either full armored, full Motor, or a mix.
BRDM scout car with Anti tank missiles x 4. Not going to lie, its weird seeing your anti tank assets mounted on such a flimsy vehicle! I am used to beefy ISU-122s.
ZSU-23-4 quad AA vehicles x 3. This is more for show, as I love the models, and I wanted something to go with..
"Straight Flush" mobile Anti Aircraft Radar station (my objective piece)
And the Mi-24, probably the second objective, though some rulesets (Cold War Commander) allow them. Again, badass looking vehicle and was a must-have.
So there we go, my football pool winnings blown on Soviets :)
