My Own Game Table

W00t! My own game table. I cleared out the spare room in our basement. You can still see the remnants of clutter. It is a 6' by 4' table. The table is just a piece of plywood on top of a folding table. The "grass" is green felt from Joann's. On sale. I have a mix of terrain features that I have been collecting over the last couple of years. Now...I just need to game!

WIP: Normandy Farmhouse and Barn

I finished up the Normandy Farmhouse and Barn. I think they turned out pretty good. Here they are on my table! That's right MY table. In MY basement.

I had some trouble with the roof of the house. As you can see, it doesn't sit perfectly. I left the roofs off the structures so the little mens can get in. Neither building has a second floor. I am thinking of correcting that with a little bit of plasticard and balsa wood.

WIP: Normandy Farm House and Barn.

I picked up the Normandy Farm House and Barn from Najewitz Modellbau. 

I am so excited. I have also cleaned out a space in the basement and set up a 6' x 4' table!

Above is a shot of the house. You can see a little Green Stuff on both the bottom corners. This was my first attempt at green stuff. I have used green putty before. Green stuff was great.

The corners had broken off. Not sure when. But I shaped a small brick together and stuck it in the bottom corner. Worked like a charm. I need to sand this a little but it worked out great.

Here is the barn. The windows and doors were not perfect fits. A little more green stuff and I had the cracks sealed up.

This is the roof of the barn. This needed a large amount of green stuff to fill in the gaps. I probably should have used putty here but it was good practice. I am also going to flip this over and lay in a coating of putty on the reverse side of the roof join. Just to strengthen it up. I want to leave the roofs separate so we can lift them off if any of our metal mans need to duck in for some cover.

The roof of the house had some join problems too. I haven't puttied it yet. But I will. Hope to have these done by the new year.

(Soon to be) On the Bench

Or on Brian's bench at least.

I joined in another Baueda kickstarter. Because I love Claudio's work. I picked up a DBA Army of Norse Irish (III/46). I need to base them and get them to Brian.

Jon L. was putting in an order for some WWII. I jumped in to get a Berlin or Bust Pak 40 and crew along with a deuce and a half. This will give my germans some needed artillery and my Americans a truck to pull their AT gun around. 

Lastly, some additional US Navy SEALS. These will complement my original Seal Team 6. These guys are awesome. One of them has bolt cutters and a sledge hammer on his back for breaching. Love it. Can't wait to see these. 

Comparison: 1:48 Jadgpanther vs. 28mm Halftrack

Thought I would show the size differential between the jadgpanther and the half-track.

It is pretty big. But again, I like the bigger size on the tanks. That thing will show up on a table. The half-track can get lost.

WIP: Sd.kfz 251/1 Ausf C Hanomag (Complete)

Jeff at Pair-A-Dice started carrying Bolt Action figures! W00t! I went down and picked up this halftrack.

I really tried to muddy this thing up. Front view is just about all mud. 

Green camo only. No red on this one. Just for some variety.

The machine gun mount in the back already broke off. I intend to just lay the MG in the open bed so we know it is there. I also need to paint the MG gunner.

This is 28mm. I just think it is too small. It holds up against the figures just fine. I probably should have taken a picture next to a mini. Sorry.

WIP: Jadgpanther! (Complete)

Around this time of year, it gets a little crazy around the Legion. Our daughter is involved in a million different activities. I spend a LOT of time sitting in our car, waiting to pick her up. She is almost 13. I keep trying to get her to drive herself. :) Anyway, I have been remiss in posting. I HAVE been slowly but surely working on various projects.

I have always loved the Jadgpanter. This is a 1:48 scale model from Bandai/Tamiya. This is all hand painted. No airbrush. I am really pleased with how it came out. I have been working on my weathering skills with pigment.  Click for larger pictures.

 Front view.

 Other side view.

 I can't wait to use this in a battle. Although, I have not been having good luck with tanks lately. I like the 1:48 scale for vehicles. 28mm feels too small as you will see in the next couple of posts.

Way Cool Late War German 'Mech

 This deserved its own post. I wanted to show some pictures on this Japanese Anime 'mech I had painted up to be a Secret Nazi Experiment. My painter, and all around good dude, Brian, did an AWESOME job on this guy. I had him use a "Sparkle" pattern that was seen on many warships during the war. It just rang true to me. Think of this thing as a "land battleship" and it will begin to make sense. 

Brian had painted on a German identifier. I didn't take a picture of it. :( I added the one to the top and the numerals. This is the 73 prototype.

My plan is to use this as an objective marker. I suppose I could write up some rules for it. But my vision is to just really have this thing sitting in a warehouse that the opposing force needs to go blow up. :)

Completed Terrain

I've been working on terrain lately. I made some great ebay finds on some O scale fences and telephone poles.

The fences have only been primed. And this is only one batch. I have about 5 or 6 more sections.

I also started working on some felt road pieces. I saw roads done nicely at the This Very Blog site. I decided to copy the method. Brown felt, these are 2 foot strips. Spray paint the felt with a textured paint. $6 for a can, $6 for the felt. Then I took some sandy brown craft store paint and drybrushed the sides and middle to create "tracks". My 12 year old daughter was impressed. :)

When I bought the sandbag Indiegogo from Baueda, Claudio included 2 extra "bases" and also some free miscellaneous pieces. I created a third base with the pieces. I will use these as terrain or objective markers. By the way, I officially started using Army Painter Strong Tone ink on these. It works.

I love the detail on this one. Different types of crates. Tarps, bags, and the rifle laying on top.

This is the one I put together. Some of these pieces might actually be from the Verlinden set I got for the Sherman. They look good together. Baueda is the big pallet of tarp covered crates and the barrels. I tried to paint the bucket on top so it looked like it was full of water. I think it came out ok.

 Trying to work out using the Rust pigments. I still need some practice. I like that these bases have a spot in the middle to insert a 28mm figure. To meet the objective, you need to have one little mans in the circle. :)

Sherman Finished!

 I put some muddy weathering and the dull coat on the Sherman this morning. I am really very happy with how it came out overall. Prime, basecoat, wash, highlight, weather. Those are the steps. I wish I had a bigger decal to lay over the engine vents in the back. But I don't and I am not going to worry about it. I cannot wait to get this thing on the field.

In the picture on the right, I see a tiny problem. There is a vent on the turret that is showing the primer I used. I finished up a can of Army Painter Desert Yellow and you can see it. I will not make that mistake again. I always have primed black. I will start doing that again.

Last note. After I put the decals on, I applied a wash to dirty them up. I left some spotty areas. Those, I think, were quickly fixed by the mud spray effect.

Let me know your thoughts!

Sherman WIP +1

I just finished putting a wash on the Sherman.

Next step is a highlight with a mix of Violet Brown and Desert Yellow on the hull and turret. OOO....I can see some spots on the wheels and tracks that I need to touch up. Son of a biscuit! The wash is drying as I type. I think it looks good. I am going to wash the tracks in a more muddy color - sepia.

I really like the sandbags and other small bits of stowage I have.

WIP: 1:48 scale Sherman

It took me awhile to put together, but I put the treads on over the weekend and primed this 1/48 scale Sherman Tank from Hobby Boss.

The stowage is from a kit by Verlinden. If you look inside the hull in the top picture, you can see the washers I added to make the model a little heavier. I like the size of the 1/48 models for 28mm games. The lightness of the plastic just worries me a little. So I like to weight them down.

I am still on disability from having a blood clot so I will start applying the base coat today. I am waiting on some Army Painter Strong Tone ink to be delivered for the wash.

The Verlinden kit was great. I have a ton of parts left over. The sandbags were easy to manipulate. I love the spare tank tread. I should have taken a rear view...the back has a couple of gas cans and a bucket. But the best part from the kit may have been the antenna. Because the kit asks you to heat up some plastic. Pfft - no way.

WIP: Baueda Ruined Building and Sandbag Emplacement

 The sandbag emplacement is coming along. I've done most of the base colors. I still need to do some ammo boxes. But the wood and oil barrels are done. Next is drybrush highlighting and then hitting the sandbags.

The ruined building finally got assembled. I had to use some putty. It is not exactly square but I am not too worried about it. After reading The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, I am not too worried but everything was completely blown to hell anyway. A little putty will look authentic. I primed in Vallejo Desert Yellow (almost out!) and then started painting everything in Iraqui Sand. Going to use that as my mortar color. Will drybrush a brick color over the top, hopefully letting the joints show through. There will be some gray on some of the decorative pieces like over the windows and the ledges.

WIP: Baueda Sandbag Emplacement

Claudio, over at Baueda, put together a Kickstarter campaign for a sandbag emplacement. It came in the mail Monday. Claudio, as always, included a bunch of extras.

If you click on the picture, you can see the first two steps. I primed in the desert yellow color on the left. It was either that or black. I went with the color closest to sandbag. I should have done the barrels black but I am clearly not thinking things all the way through.

On the right, I used a vallejo wash on the whole thing. These should be pretty easy to paint up. Prime, wash, main, highlight, done. Will only have to use a few colors. One step at a time. :)

WIP Part 3: Baueda 1:48 Ruined Building

I am making a mess of this. I should probably leave it alone. You can see the styrene pieces I cut to the right. I didn't like the way they were working out. I decided I would just glue the walls together and then putty it to the base.

It looks great here but 10 seconds after I took this picture the back wall fell off. Grrr. I think I am going to stick with my plan anyway and putty it to the base. I am going to need some putty on that wall.

I trimmed too much off the bottom of the two long walls. The one that fell off, I can see that I de-stabilized the wall. It is starting to bend. Pfftt. It is my own fault. Doing something I should not be doing.

WIP: Part II Baueda 1:48 Ruined Building

Well, I took a pass at the flash on all 3 sides and the floor of the building. I need to go back and hit the two on the left - the ones with doorways. I got a little aggressive on the right-most section.

The two on the left have molding left. I don't know if I will trim it all. I might use the drum sander and then build up the window piece with some putty. I am worried that if I cut away the molding under the doors that I will lose stability on those pieces and they will flex.

WIP: Baueda 1:48 Ruined Building 481FN1

I probably should not be doing this, but I am taking it nice and slow. Two weeks ago, I had a blood clot removed from my head. I am doing ok but just not completely recovered. I am going a bit stir crazy. There is only so much TV I can watch.

I started putting together the 481FN1 ruined building model from Baueda.  I sawed off some mold flashing on the base plate and the short wall. It wasn't too terrible. I just needed to be slow about cutting in a guide to the pieces. Then you just let the knife/saw do the work.

I honestly shouldn't be sawing. I will go slower. Not two pieces in a day. There are two pieces left. Then I will need to use the sander drums on the drill to smooth some rough pieces out. So far so good.

DBA at Dave's June 15, 2013

Dave A. had his annual DBA at Dave's tournament. Dennis, our game master of ceremonies picked Book I armies this year. With a twist! Everyone would need an ally! I teamed up with none other than Dave, himself! I brought I/52b Early Hoplite Greek - Spartans and Dave brought I/52d Early Hoplite Greek - Theban. We opted for the (limited) flexibility the Cv and Ps from Dave's army gave us. In hindsight, I probably should have taken the Horde option. We had the phalax thing covered.

Our first match was against Gary and Pete's doubled up I/26 Achains. Lots of chariots. There is not much you can do with 20 elements of Spears. We tried to cut the game board as much as possible. We lined up against the gentle hill to the right.

Pete split off his chariots and Psiloi, trying to flank our left. Dave ran his Cav out of our middle. It served to distract their other flanking move.

These guys were having dice trouble. Which is hilarious when Pete and Gary get going. Pete kept getting 1's. His chariots and Ps were stuck in place. We slowly marched across the field.

 We tied up the right for awhile. Pete was still stuck on the left. We edged closer. Die rolls were favoring us. It let us made that loonnnnggg march at 200 paces a shot. For some reason, I don't have a shot of the end of the game. They one. They got in our camp. They flanked us on both sides. It gave us ideas for the next battle though.

 The next game was against Mike and Ron. Mike had I/19 Mitanni and Ron had I/52f - Athenians. More Greek on Greek fighting. We tried to embrace a modified "turtle". We basically had the same board layout. We set up like this:

x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x x x x x

The plan was to stay small and see what they did. And then expand out.

Mike's Mitanni's goes for the flanks. We continue to spread the phalanx. Dave sends his Cav out to their flank, again, to distract.

I break off a couple of stands to protect our camp. Dave's Cav starts pushing back a chariot. I can see now that we should have put the camp in the middle of the board. Mike's line is fractured. 

 The chariots and psiloi come in. The Spartans hold and they start to gain ground on the flank. Always watching out for the pushback kill. Dangerously enough in a double line.

The battle for the camp starts here. That side of the board quickly devolved into a hot mess. Pushing and shoving with Dave's General. In the camp, out of the camp, zone of control of the camp. 

The Spartans split. Main line deals with the Chariots. Small group on the Psiloi. We push Ps back. Hard to kill. 

Spartans are doing what they do. Kicking butt. I press the chariots. I am doing well against them and decide to re-form the line.

 We ended up losing this one but it was CLOSE. I took out 6 of Mike's Mittani. They had our camp and took out Dave's General finally.

The team battle was interesting. I liked the learning experience. Spartans our tough. I think the next time I play them, I am just going to string them out and forgo the double rank (only against Kn and Sp). That seems to be the only way to protect the flank. I need to learn to use terrain better.