Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Spring in to painting II...

okay got most of the models assembled and broke out the airbrush today. Got a good base of colors on many of the models.

Now for the detail work!

A mixed bag of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company models (and a few Zvezda trucks!) went under the brush today.  I was attempting to model the 'ambush' style camo. Some of it worked, some of it, well, lets just say the crew understood the idea, but not the execution...

By 1944, application of camouflage varied with availability of paint paste and the appropriate gas to mix with the pigment. Results varied from one tank to the next. 

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Terrain for my 15mm inner brown coat.

While at the Game Haven (just one of my FLGS) for a Wings of Glory event, I spied a copy of Yahtzee on the shelves.  While I am a fan of most dice games (I'm a gamer for Pete's sake) I'm not normally a fan of Yahtzee. But this one was different....



That's right...Firefly Yahtzee. Now I couldn't care less about the dice in the game. What I wanted was the cool 'collectible' dice holder and rolling cup that just so happened to be a nice plastic version of the freighter Serenity from the old Joss Whedon series "Firefly".  My first thought was, meh, nice, but too expensive. Then I noticed it was 'on sale' for 40% off.

SOLD!

went home, took it out of the box and dragged out some of the 15mm stuff to see how well it scales with the model.  I think it'll work fine.

Here we are parked next to a Matchbox 'Russian' interceptor that is intended to be rebranded as an aerospace defense fighter.

Same as above, but with the Ground Zero Games high tech grav tank added to the mix.

A Vargr (right) argues with two civilians while a port security officer tries to sort things out without resorting to violence.  Air car is from the Laserburn range offered by Alternative Armies

Traffic at the local startport changes a lot. Here's a "Doe" gunship from Khurusan Miniatures. It's just had a base coat of desert tan applied. 

And with a 15mm Battlefront Jagdpanther, again for scale.


Assorted ground vehicles including a 'not-air raft' from Laserbun and a light recon grav AFV from Ground Zero Games. 

More activity at the downport. Another small freighter arrives - bigger than the Firefly class, but with a similar configuration.  (This is a kit-bashed Hunter-Killer toy from the Terminator:Salvation movie. It usually serves as a drop boat for the Mobile Infantry in my Starship Troopers games, but can pull double duty as a ship for 15mm games).

So the Firefly model should work well as a gaming piece. It's clearly on the 'terrain' end of the scale, so if it's a little small that's okay. It'll serve as a nice objective or spice up the downport setting for the table top game.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Spring into model building!

Well it's spring 2017. And that means break out the airbrush and start painting models. And then...


...oh...yeah.

Okay, so let's start with BUILDING all the models acquired over the winter and THEN get to the painting. Yeah. that's the ticket! So what's up first. Halftracks and Panthers? And oh, the Panthers have the options to build JagdPanthers? Well...that's different.

So off we go.

First up are these two Battlefront JgdPzer V models. Nice details and an easy build. Should look good on the table.

The same two models from the front end. The big ol' 88 is nicely modeled. 

I got cheap. I had a spare Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 251D and spare parts from Battlefront's Puma box set, so I thought - time to scratch build another Stummel. 

An Old Glory dedicated 251/10 in front with the Battlefront model behind. Both are nominally 15mm, but the Old Glory model is showing the effects of about 20 years of scale creep - the Battlefront model is clearly larger. 

While I mounted the 75L24 and the side armor skirting, there's a bit of work left for filling and sanding to get a better look. Still though - good enough for the tabletop!

In the next installment, the models get painted! 

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

ALARM!!!


Type VIIB U-Boat


From the archives of the patrol logs of U-72

May ‘40

Dear Willy,
You’ll be happy to know that I’ve returned from the sea once again. Unlike the events in my last letter, I’ve much happier news to report this time. BdU again assigned us a patrol mission around the British home isles. While the army’s panzers were rolling across France, we were busy carrying the war right to the beaches of the British.

After safely crossing the North Sea we encountered a small freighter the SS Sagadahoc (6300 tonnes). Given our limited supply of torpedo, I ordered the firing of two of the old steam torpedoes from a close range surface attack at night. While one torpedo did hit, the other either missed or was a dud. This left the damaged freighter still afloat. I elected to continue the attack, but first a British patrol plane flew overhead. Fortunately, our small size allowed us to hide in the water and avoid the plane. We turned back to the freighter and finished her off with our deck gun. Success in our first engagement!

Our luck would hold – a few days later we caught sight of a convoy of merchant ships with escort. Through careful maneuvering, we were able to trail the convoy until nightfall, then move in to attack. I took a big risk in pressing to close range before attacking. We successfully avoided the escorts and launched a full salvo at all four ships in range. One ship – the tanker SS Duffield (8500 tonnes) – was hit and broke in half, sinking below the waves. The largest freighter SS Brazza (10,500 tonnes) suffered two torpedo hits and rolled over and sank.  The smaller ships survived this salvo either being missed or the torpedo failing to detonate (Editors Note: SS Treverbyn was hit by a G7e that failed to explode.)

Avoiding the escort, we continued the attack and successfully pursued the convoy. Poseidon was with us that night as we finished off another freighter though it too four torpedoes to do so. Either the torpedoes are defective or we need to sharpen our attack drills over the current refit.
Things quieted down for us, as they were heating up back on land. We’d almost made it back to Wilhelmshaven before another British patrol plane dove in at us. I tell you – getting back to base was the most dangerous part of this trip! Fortunately, our lookouts spied the Jabo in time and we were able to crash dive the boat beneath the waves to safety.

- X

*****

I've been playing the old Con Sim Press board game "The Hunters", which is now available from GMT Games. The game emulates the experience of a German U-boat crew from the start of the WWII through mid- '43. These were the "Happy Times" when escorts were weak and convoy not rigously enforced. While the game may start off happy, it becomes progressively more difficult as the Royal Navy and it's many allied naval elements gain proficiency in anti-submarine warfare. 

This is a solitaire game that really is best played solitaire. It's you and your boat against the enemy and the sea. A series of tables and die rolls simulate your mission and the success or failure of various actions. I've been playing in small sessions focused around a single patrol. It's a great way to get in some gaming when you don't have a lot of time or even an opponent to face.  The game was succesful enough to warrant a sequel ("The Hunted") and a variant for the Pacific War titled "Silent Victory". Good games if you are looking for a suitable solitaire title!

The patrol log - in the form of letters home to a younger brother have been consolidated into a separate page. This was done to preserve a cohesive narrative and allow images to be incorporated into the story.