Unboxing

So I ordered some Dragon Armor pre-builds, on sale from Milsims in Melbourne, and they arrived yesterday.

The Box!

Tiger 1

A pair of Jeeps

Lovely models, cheaper than plastic kits, extremely detailed and well painted. They still have Maus, E100, Stug, Tiger, Jagdtiger, Sturmtiger, Jeeps, LVT etc..  go have a look. A great bargain.

Done - 20mm WW2 & 28mm Explorers

So I shall let the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately, camera phone only.

WIP - 20mm WW2 & 28mm Adventurers

Some WIP shots of the various 20mm Chain of Command and some advenurers I will probably use mainly for Ganesha Games Fear & Faith.




US Artillery Crew, the shells are too big for the 37mm model I have, so will try and source a different gun.  

Front view 

German Fallschirmjaeger Artillery Crew, ideal for the Pak 40 I have 

 Rear view showing attempted splinter camo

 Front, close-up

 Adventurers, lead by Professor Plum it would seem.

Plum, Chamberlain and assorted minions and tough guys

The Cap'n and Teddy Roosevelt

Gauls or Fallback Option

So, now the Gauls have been blooded, and very bloody it was for them...  I decided I would create a fallback option for Wintercon.

I have had an Alexandrian Macedonian lead pile since Tin Soldier UK had their sale last year. I really like the Tin Soldier figures, they have heaps of character and I have seen really great painted examples.

So - a serious amount of cleanup later, the figures themselves have very little flash, but the bases and mould lines need attention. Not to mention the 200+ shields.

The untreated lead pile

The officer and standard bearer

Trumpeters - after replacement

Some massed pike

So the lead is now stuck to a bunch of tongue depressors - undercoated black..   and ready for paint.A big job.

Fear & Faith starting a party in 28mm

So in the last little while, I have done some 15mm Ancients for DBMM, some 6mm for FWC, some 20mm for Chain of Command, not to mention 1/300 British etc..

Well, rummaging through the lead pile today (as you do), and came across a Wargames Foundry blister pack :
http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/darkest-africa/explorers

So these guys... actually DA012 were beckoning to me for some reason. Quickly cleaned up, stuck down, and I will start some actual painting tomorrow.

And the game system?  I reckon these will be added to the various guys I have for Fear & Faith from Ganesha Games.

I have a feeling it might have something to do with re-reading the free H.P. Lovecraft collection on my Kindle...  (also for Nook).

I don't do much painting of 28mm, so this will be interesting.

Gauls and Others done over...

I had a fun game at the club tonight. Dave brought along his Syracusan Greeks - in my case, Vitalstatistix, Orthopaedix and Heuvos y Bacon lined up for the good guys. Clearly, the magic potion was not in evidence despite Getafix, Botanix, and Psychoanalytix being there in the baggage..

Nice and neat

 

 

 

 

Facing off. Spot the elementary deployment mistake...   for example, on my right, I thought that 24 Wb(O) plus a couple of Cv could deal with 5 Cv, 2 LH, 4 Sp(I), 3 Ax(S) & 3 Ps.  Turns out I was wrong.

Loads of warband - but no luck

Chariots (8 of them in all) plus Spanish Auxilia and Gallic Psiloi face off the light weight Syracusan left

On my left, I had a column of cavalry chariots plus Auxilia and Psiloi versus a very light weight Syracusan right. I hoped to roll up the Syracusan right and get into their rear.

Except they rolled an average of <2 for that command for the entire game..  oops.
 

The Spaniards face a heavier weight

The Spanish held the centre, I actually anticipated that Ax(S) with Psiloi and Cavalry support would lose slowly to Spear. I was half right (about the losing), and half wrong (about slowly).. they got massacred.

I draw a veil over proceedings.

Oh well, things can only get better....  I learned a few lessons.

Gauls & Others done

Reasonably happy with how these turned out, though matching the bases on some of my more elderly Essex warband wasn't entirely successful. Close enough though.

The 'sinew' helmets, or whatever they are (second right and left above), I opted to paint a very pale tan colour. Not sure what the best colour choice might have been, grey perhaps. But it might have been a bit dull.

More work, such as reins, and some highlights for the horses would probably be worth doing, although, I have run out of time for the game tonight. I have seen dental tape recommended, so I may have a go at that in due course.

And the rest of the chariots, a mix of Corvus Belli and Warmodelling. The latter are a bit bigger, but the Corvus Belli ones especially, mix well with my existing Essex chariots.

So now I have 240 points of Gauls for DBMM (Book II/11), suitable for Wintercon in July, although I shall see how they go, perhaps Alexandrian Macedonian would have been a better choice. I certainly don't want to face a load of Knights or Elephants, which would slaughter my Warbands.

Plans Change

So some spoilsport pointed out that in DBMM 200 (240) you can't use 4 generals. There goes my plan for CinC, Sub, Ligurian and Gaesati allies.

So Plan 'B'..    and 'ze little paint-brush' has been busy tonight.

 

No prizes for guessing Plan 'B' :-)

Washes, some initial basing, and detail work such as shield highlights tomorrow... 

And some basing this a.m.   ready for some serious brushwork tonight.. 

Could it be 'Fulliautomatix?

Chariots, Druids, and what looks suspiciously like some Spaniards...

 

Wintercon - early thoughts

So this year, Wintercon will be in July in Canberra, and the thought is to run a DBMM Themed competition using 240 points a side.

So the eligible armies list is:

I/6        Early Bedouin
I/7         Early Libyan
I/36        Italian Hill Tribes
I/43        Kymmerian, Skythian, Early Hu (just Skythians and Messagetai)
I/47        Illyrian
I/48        Thracian
I/52        Early Hoplite Greek
I/54        Early Macedonian
I/55        Latin, Early Roman etc
I/56        Kyrenean Greek
I/57        Etruscan League
I/59        Tullian Roman
I/60        Early Archaemenid Persian
I/61        Early Carthaginian
I/62        Lykian
II/2        Mountain Indian
II/3        Classical Indian
II/5        Later Hoplite Greek
II/7        Later Achemenid Persian
II/8        Campanian etc
II/9        Syracusan
II/10       Camillan Roman
II/11       Gallic
II/8        Campanians Lucanians and Brutians
II/12       Alexander Macedonian
II/14       Ariarthid Kappadokian
II/15       Alexander Imperial
II/16       Asiatic Early Successors
II/17       Lysimachid
II/18       Macedonian Early Successors
II/19       Seleucid
II/20       Ptolemaic
II/22       Arabo Aramean
II/27       Pyrric
II/30       Galatian
II/31       Hellenistic Greeks
II/32       Later Carthaginian
II/33       Polybian Roman
II/34       Attalid Pergamene
II/35       Later Macedonian
II/37       Parthian
II/39       Ancient Spanish
II/40       Numidian or Early Moorish
II/44       Commagene
II/45       Sicilian and Italian Slave Revolts

And I have figures to do at least these:

I/48        Thracian
I/52        Early Hoplite Greek
II/3        Classical Indian
II/5        Later Hoplite Greek
II/7        Later Achmaenid Persian
II/11       Gallic
II/12       Alexander Macedonian
II/15       Alexander Imperial
II/16       Asiatic Early Successors
II/17       Lysimachid
II/18       Macedonian Early Successors
II/31       Hellenistic Greeks
II/32       Later Carthaginian
II/33       Polybian Roman
II/39       Ancient Spanish
II/40       Numidian or Early Moorish

So given what I assembled and stuck to painting bases today.. guess what I am considering?

Day 1

12 hours later...  Undercoated, flesh painted, Citadel Flesh Wash applied

NAAS first Action

Tim was kind enough to offer to play on Thursday night, so I grabbed a bag of GW cardboard buildings, and the NAAS troopers for a Future War Commander (FWC) game.

I had decided to run them as a small elite force, and so took 10 stands of troopers, 3 stands of heavy missiles, 3 stands of heavy blasters, 2 walker stands, a couple of recce units, and a dropship capable of carrying 5 stands. All up 3000 points, and as I didn't want to just run them as another 'vanilla' force, I equipped them with adaptive camouflage, stabilisation (which I suspect isn't actually permitted for infantry) plus the recce units had target designators, and the heavy missiles were auto linked.

Tim's force was his Red Guard walkers. Some big brutes supported by smaller walkers and some power armoured troopers. (p114 in the FWC rulebook.)

The first dice roll was for air superiority, and I lucked out, winning the roll, and managing to bring on my drop ship and land the grav equipped troopers on the roofs of the town, immediately grabbing cover. Under the CinC, my troops advanced on my right, and the third group started to advance into the town.

Dropship deposits its load on the rooftops.

The NAAS advance, no real sign of opposition as yet.

Here come the Reds, and the superior command of the NAAS lets them get plenty of shots in

This command roll helped too!

Red Guard walkers that didn't get to deploy

Knocking out the big walker, the Power Armour troopers were next to be targeted

He's a big sucker!

Tim took a lot of hits as my command rolls were pretty good, conversely, one of his groups didn't even manage to come on to the table. His forward artillery observer had a good day though, with orbital strikes knocking out three of my units, including one unit of walkers. In the end though, he decided he had lost enough and pulled back, leaving the NAAS holding the field.

EyeCandy, 28mm model steamer!

Some eye candy, Dave & Peter were playing some sort of kung fu horror story, which gave Pete a chance to bring along his gorgeous steamer model. All the roofs and deck come off so you can play right down into the engine room and hold. She's a beauty!

Battlegroups 5 & 6 Reporting for Action

And so, the marines fight on a lava planet, and the aliens (yet to be named) - on a sulphur moon.

Dropship and some bad-ass troopers - walkers in hiding

Aliens on a sulphur moon!

 That's armies 5 & 6 for my FWC forces. The roster so far:

1. South African Confederation - Brigade Games
2. Eurofed - Brigade Games
3. 'Bugs' - GW
4. Pax Arcadia - Dark Realm Miniatures
5. 'Marines' - CAV dropship conversion, and GZG infantry
6. Aliens - Baccus IFV, Brigade infantry and power armour, EM4 walkers

Might take a break now, having done three (small'ish) battlegroups in the last couple of weeks. Back to some historicals now I think...