Bocage appreciation

After 2 hours of hacking at this juniper "bush" with a Jaw Saw, I have a new appreciation for what it must have been like to try to get through a bocage. It was not fun.

Here is a picture of a jawsaw.

Battle Report: Bolt Action Sunday, April 21, 2013

Jon L. and I got in a game of Bolt Action on two Sundays ago. It was Germans vs. Americans for a "Control the Crossroads" scenario. We rolled for table edge, we ended up ignoring one half of Jon's table.

At the end of turn 1, I had deployed on the southern road into the town. I had an armored car make it all the way across the crossroads and start executing a K-turn. My goal was complete fields of fire on that road. My PAK team was set up on the right house in the foreground. I had placed the motorcycle with sidecar to block anything coming out of the fields/bocage to its left.

And Jon had come in from the western road. Notice Jon's Stuart in the middle of the road. He has mortar and machine guns on the hills looking down into the town.

Turn 2: I continue deploying. I have a squad in the house on the left with a panzerfaust thinking about that tank in the front yard. Armored car is right where I want him. MG team in the middle of the road controls that side. Infantry next to the MG is going to sprint across the crossroads next turn and get into the house on the far left. This all starts to unravel when the mortar team at the bottom of the page and the squad in front of it start taking fire.

Jon moves up. He pushes his infantry forward on both sides of the road. The Stuart and supporting teams open up and start dishing out pins and deaths.

I pull a squad back to defend the rear. You can see the pins stacking up on the one squad. Mortar team is almost dead. The squad with the pins was funny, the kept successfully promoting new leaders. It lent itself to funny jokes in bad German accents. :)

Jon has two squads in the foreground. They are causing a lot of trouble. The motorcycle with sidecar is dead. Such a cool model but I find that the jeeps and the motorcycle are quick to die. Jon has also moved into the house on the top of the picture. 

Only one picture for this next round. Armored car starts hitting the Stuart. That's it really.

Pak is KIA. Every one of my units has a pin marker. Not good. Plus side is that the MG in the road is just waiting for the unit in the far house to pop out.

Stuart taking hits. One stinking pin marker on one of the two units in the woods to my rear. 

The armored car destroyed the Stuart. This was the one bright spot of the battle. There was also a point where the Stuart FUBARed and killed one of Jon's infantry. That effectively DOUBLED my kill count. :(

Jon broke from the woods and just tore me up. I pulled the armored car down to try to help. It didn't. The rout was on. Americans take the crossroads. 

All in all, I do like this game. I like the rule set. Not overly complicated. I think I had a decent plan. I left the motorcycle exposed. That was a mistake. I maybe should have brought the Pak up instead of leaving it behind. Hard to tell. Bad die rolls and a couple of pins and it starts to go bad in a hurry.

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans for DBA Part II

The Spartans started getting their shield decals today! While I was at it, I started to base them. I realized that I did not have enough transfers. This is mostly because I mangled a good half dozen of them before I figured out that I needed to remove the plastic covering.

Yes. I am an idiot. So - an order has been placed with Little Big Men Studios for resupply. I sent a note asking if there is a way to get some lambdas in bronze. I rather like the black shields. I think they really grunge these guys up. I saw someone else do these and it appealed to me. I like a warrior that doesn't Armour All his shield. I want the dirty scrappers. I am also toying with the idea of applying some weathering to these guys. I have some pigment. I'm nervous.

Completed Bolt Action Box Set Buildings

The damaged buildings in this post come from a Bolt Action box set that Santa brought me. I didn't get a chance to do a WIP post because they went together and painted so quickly!This is a rear view of the house. I am pretty proud of myself. I got some plascard "flooring" from Dan's Crafts and Things. I think it came out rather well for a first time n00b. :) Next time, I will be a bit more brave and carve out some damage in the middle of the floor.

 Here is a front view of the house. Normally, I would paint the rocks black and dry brush them grey but I left the stone as-is. I thought it matched the stone of the house pretty well.






I did get more brave with the flooring in this one. Now that I look at it, next time I am just going to snap it off to get a more realistic break. Still...I think this came out rather well.

WIP: 28mm Modern MRAP

I can't remember where I bought this mini. But I thought I would update from a Humvee since the MRAP is currently the replacement in Afghanistan for the Humvee. The model is not the greatest. I am not sure if it was a bad mold or what. But I am not that good of a modeller to correct the imperfections.

I am, once again, using Sgt. Scream's method/color scheme. The shot on the left shows a primed, sepia washed and then dry brushed with the Vallejo's DESERT YELLOW (70977) with two parts Vallejo's BEIGE (70917) mix that Chris recommends.

Over on the right, you see the MRAP primed with The Armypainters' primer called DESERT YELLOW and washed with Vallejo's Sepia Wash. I am not brave enough for Chris' oil based wash. The sepia seems to do the trick.

The place that I got this from put the gunner in for free for me. As I look at these pictures, I may have to carve him out of there. He looks too futuristic to me.

WIP: 15mm Essex Spartans for DBA

I've been doing a bad job of tracking the work on my Spartan army.

I am in the home stretch. I've tried to keep the colors both simple and historically accurate. Armor is mostly bronze with some leather mixed in. Tunics are either white or red. Shields are mostly bronze again with a mix of all black.

I need to touch up the arms, legs and faces. I also need to tip the spears. Then apply lambda decals and base 'em up. It has taken me a long time to do these. I also worked on some Warlord buildings during this time. I need to put pictures up of those too.