The Greatest Little Dudes

Hey,

So in January, some of the guys down at the store started playing Chain of Command, a platoon-sized WW2 skirmish game. People had sort of settled on Bolt Action as their go-to ruleset for this (and indeed, I painted up a bunch of 28mm Soviets), but Chain of Command really blew me away. There's a real focus on good tactics and the fog of war. There's also a short pre-game "patrol phase" where both sides maneuver to set up "jump-off" points where their forces will enter during the actual game. This eliminates a lot of the tedious early maneuvering most games have and basically sets your forces up within shooting distance of the enemy.

A fun game and the guy championing this stuff has mostly 15mm figures. That's good, 15mm is sort of my preferred scale (since my bad paint jobs aren't as noticeable) so I figured I'd paint up a platoon.

In the past two months I've done 4. So I've painted over 120 figures and can field a platoon for every major combatant of WW2 in Europe. So...I think I'm into this game. At any rate, here's a dump of photos showing off everything:

 First up, the Americans:


Here's the full platoon in all it's glory. The Americans have lots of guys and a smattering of support. The large squads can soak losses pretty well and remain functional.


Each squad has a leader, a BAR team and 9 grunts. The BAR was a pretty sub-par squad support weapon, but it was easy to fire on the move.


Finally, the Platoon HQ with the Platoon Leader and Platoon Sgt. (the pack I bought didn't have one, but it did have a spare rifleman so he's the new top NCO). The HQ also has the squad's anti-armor support with a two man bazooka team. I thought the bazooka itself was a little small, but some internet research suggests it's about right. Anyway, the HQ provides some much-needed flexibility.

 Next up are the Soviets. And now I have the same basic troops in two different scales (15mm and 28mm)...I'm becoming a true wargamer!


Here's the whole platoon. Actually, the pack of figures I bought comes with a whole bunch of extra guys. I had enough dudes left over to make a fourth squad of guys and a small SMG team. With a couple more support weapons and a tank, I could replicate my 28mm Bolt Action Soviets and run the game in 15mm if I chose. 

But for Chain of Command, you get a platoon leader and three big squads. Like the Americans, they take a lot of hits before they break. Their LMG team is a bit better than the BAR the Americans use, but there are no support units of any sort. To make up for that, the Soviets will usually get a nice pick of support options to bulk out their forces before the game starts.


Here's a single Soviet quad and the platoon leader (there's really no one else in the platoon HQ). You get a leader, an LMG team and 8 troopers. The squad has some flexibility to detach scout teams, but mostly it just wants to roll over the opposition. Again, the Soviets hope for a mass of support options to beef up their firepower.

 And now for something completely different...


A group shot of the British platoon. The British platoons are a sort of jack-of-all trades. The platoons have a little fire, a little movement, a little artillery and a little anti-tank. The squads can take a few hits, but they won't take a real pounding and have to use everything at their disposal to win. I'm curious to give these guys a go since I think they need a delicate touch to be used well, but once you understand how to use them, they'll be a real menace in the field.


So the rifle squad is very firmly centered on a fire and movement doctrine. The Bren team set up a very accurate base of fire while the rest of the squad moves around to flank and close with the enemy. The only question is where do you place the squad leader? Ideally, he should be with the maneuver unit ready for the final charge, but keeping him back with the Bren to direct fire is a good idea too.


The British Platoon HQ is where the Brits keep the good stuff. The Platoon leader also has a Platoon sergeant who gives the force a lot more command and control options than other forces. There's also a PIAT team who can take their spring-loaded mayhem machines and try for a flank shot on a panzer. The HQ also has a 2" mortar team (only the British platoon have organic artillery pieces). The mortar can fire explosive rounds but is probably better employed in dropping smoke to cover the advance of other members of the platoon. Again, how the British makes use of all his toys will probably determine victory or defeat.

And finally, some Germans for all those other guys to fight.


For the Germans, I put together a Panzergrenadier platoon. This formation has proven to be an interesting opponent. Although the platoon is smaller that the other forces described above, each squad comes with two LMG teams. This means that when a squad fires, it's rolling buckets of d6s and putting a serious hurt on opponents.


And here you can see the platoon. Two LMG teams but only five troopers. If you can get a few hits on this squad it starts breaking down pretty fast, but getting those hits is a real challenge. On the attack, the squad can make effective use of bounding fire to approach a target. Dug-in on the defense, they're almost impossible to shift. They're always an interesting problem to solve.


The Platoon HQ for the Panzergrenadiers is a little thin. There's no Platoon Sgt. like the Americans and Brits have so the Germans can run into Command and Control problems. The HQ also contains the platoons anti-armor support in the form of a panzershrek team. Alas, I couldn't find the right figure pack for that, so two panzerfaust-wielding troopers are standing in.

Like I said, that's some 120+ little dudes in two months and now I can field a basic force for pretty much any ETO game. Although my photos continue to be crappy, I'm really happy with how these guys came out. I tried a few new things and I think my painting has really improved in this batch of figures. The improvements basically boil down to two things.

One: I used a bigger brush. Until now, when I paint 15mm the idea was "smaller figures, smaller brushes" and it works ok, but after watching a few videos I did all of these with a larger brush. I say "larger" but it's still pretty small (a size 0 brush instead of a size 3/0 brush -- apparently you can divide by 0 when you're doing art). In the past, I found this larger brush to be too big, but apparently my brush control has improved to the point where I can effectively use the larger brush. This has made things go faster and the brushes have lasted longer than the smaller ones.

Two: I did a lot more highlighting this time around. Normally I block out the basic colors, brush on the shade and that's about it, but this time I really added some serious highlights. This has made the figures really pop. They look a bit funky up close but on the table they look really good.

So I'm happy to see that practice does make perfect.

So that's how I've been spending my free time the past couple of months. I need to paint up some vehicles for each of these groups (and maybe add a few more support troops), but I'm ready to give this a rest for a bit. The next item on my docket is the last of the RAFM Shadows and Steel boxed sets I've been working at on and off the past couple of years -- The Conquistador Dwarves! Should be a fun project.

Stopping the Hun

Hey,

 So back in the Spring of last year, I painted up a mess of Soviet troops in 28mm for Bolt Action games. Since then, they've never made it to the table and I've fallen in love with Chain of Command for small action WWII games...and the scale of choice for the guys who play that is 15mm.

 BUT! Last Saturday my gaming group had their belated Holiday party and ran Bolt Action games all day. In the morning, my Soviet soldiers made their tabletop debut... We rolled up a scenario and my job was to defend a set of three objectives spread out over my side of the table. My opponents would be trying to wrest away as many as they could in six turns. I had the pleasure of setting up first:


Here you've got a long shot of my line at set-up with my left flank at bottom and my right flank at the top. We were spread out over a long ridge that overlooked a small town and some forrest area. The Germans have to push up the hill and take as many of the objective markers as they can.


In Bolt Action, the Soviets get a free squad of Inexperienced troops to bulk out their forces. I placed that squad on my left flank along with a 2nd Lieutenant and his flag bearer to help rally the troops. I also gave them some confidence by placing my T-34/76 tank. It was also the only place with a break in the hedge line that would allow the tank to get out onto the road before it and move where it needed to be. Those barrels mark the position of an objective.


In the center of my set-up area, I placed a regular infantry squad and the mortar team. The tank in back isn't functional and acts as another objective point.


On the right, I looked out over a small town. This provided the most cover for an approaching enemy so I bulked up on this side. There are two squads of infantry, a machine gun team, a sniper and a Captain to help provide morale and activation bonuses to the various groups. The crate on a silvered disk marks the final objective.

 The game began with an artillery bombardment. This kind of artillery bombardment can be deadly, but most of the time it's just an annoyance. It puts a few points of shock on your groups and this can make it harder for them to activate (or you can waste a turn trying to rally it all off of them). Considering how far the attackers have to run to get at you, it's mostly a nuisance. The only real effect the barrage had was to kill the sniper. A small bit of irony there. The loud booms also scared the tankers who botched their activation test and froze up for a turn.

 For most of the turn I just put people on overwatch. I did send the machine gun team down the hill to take up positions behind some crates near the crossroads in town. I also started feeding a squad in from the far right into the building next to it and got the mortar team's forward observer into a building to try and direct some fire.

 The Germans had small squads of Veteran troopers with lots of machine guns and almost all of them started moving into the town with one squad on my left moving behind some woods to approach the town from that direction.

 The also sent a Stug down the street right towards the MG team.

 By the end of turn 2, things looked like this:


The tank was finally rolling forward, but I was worried about the German squad swinging in wide from my left. The machine gun team was drawing a lot of fire, but hanging in there. The squad in the house next to it kept growing as its members dashed down the hill to jump in. They exchanged a lot of fire with the German squad just up the street from it. And still the Stug closes....


On Turn 3, the machine gun team finally succumbed. The Germans sent a squad around the right side of the town and tried to bring down the forward squad in a withering hail of fire. They did catch a few brave soldiers trying to reach the safety of the building but the squad (in the building with the blue dice next to it) was largely intact. They returned fire and crippled their assailants. Up on the ridge, the whole Soviet line began to shift over to the right in order to gain a better angle on those Germans in the open and get some reserves ready for the inevitable losses that are soon to come.


Near the start of Turn 4 things are looking a little better. Continued fire on the open German squad has whittled it down pretty sharply. My Forward Observer was driven out of his post by a German rush, although he did manage to kill a couple of guys on his way out (doing more damage than the mortar team ever did). Still, there's that Stug to deal with, my tank is out of position and the Germans are prepared to rush behind it and take my positions.


But my brave Soviet troopers have a nasty surprise for the Stug. Every man carries anti-tank grenades for just this purpose. The squad rushes from their house, swarms the tank flinging grenades at it, and then retreats back into the house leaving the Stug shocked and immobilized for the turn. This is exactly why I purchased the anti-tank grenades for the troops and I'm so very pleased I got to use them to such effect on the first game. I suspect future opponents won't drive up so close to me, but making them worry about every knot of dug-in infantry will almost always be to my benefit.


  By Turn 5, the fight's gone out of the Germans. That open German squad on the right was wiped out to a man, the Stug either has to retreat or get brutalized by the troops in the house and if it goes forward, my T-35/76 will get a nice shot into its side. In the meantime, it can spray the Germans in the nearby buildings with machine gun fire. If all the Germans rush forward, they'll be cut down rushing up the hill and the survivors are not likely to overpower the large Soviet squads (Close Combat in Bolt Action is pretty decisive). They don't believe they'll be able to get one of the objectives so we call the game there. Victory to the People!

 So, I'm quite pleased that in their first battle, my little dudes acquitted themselves so well. They were pretty well set-up for the defender role. Although my casualties were light (eight men total), I had plenty of extra guys to soak up losses. I was just able to spread pretty thinly across the width of the table, but once the Germans committed, I was able to shift guys over to where they needed to be. If I had been on the attacking side, I'd like to think I could rush a mass over the top of the defenders, but it's always a gamble.

 The only thing that really didn't work out for me was the mortar team. The way mortars work in Bolt Action, you want to attack the same target over multiple rounds (because your odds of hitting get better as you "dial-in" the range). It's designed to make people shift out of their positions as the fire gets more and more effective. Here, the Germans were almost always on the move so you could zero in on them. The mortars would be great if I were on the attack since defenders usually want to stay close to one position. I should look to see if I can swap out the mortar for something else (another machine gun would be nice but I'd also take a small squad of SMG-equipped maniacs).

 So it was a fun game and although I'm shifting away to another system/scale, I think those Soviets will hit the table again in the future.

Slightly Larger Dudes of the Far Past

Hi,

 So in the late 80's RAFM put out a series of boxed sets of miniatures under their "Shadows and Steel" line. The idea is that you'd get an adventuring party with a backstory and adventure good to go. Collect all four boxed sets and you'd have a mini-campaign. I picked up a couple of these two years ago and through some ebay action have managed to snag the other two. Last week, I finished the antagonists of the series.

 Behold! The Vampyres of Tandaloor!


The terrible overlords of their hidden valley, these Vampyres and their associates are a menace to all living things. Note that we say "vampyres" -- the background text makes it clear that these aren't vampires although they are very similar. In particular, sunlight weakens, but does not destroy them and they have a range of small bonus powers the "canonical" vampire wouldn't have.

 And what fuels their unholy power?


  The coffin -- pardon me -- the "communing bed" of Tandaloor. The large vampyre bloodstone above the gem acts as a focus allowing the vampyre to connect to the Negative Plane and draw strength. Naturally, stealing or smashing the stone will render the vampyre powerless. This is the only piece of "scenery" in the Shadows and Steel set and it's a nice piece. It painted up well, the "gemstone" was a very nice touch, and any fight involving the vampyres is almost certain to revolve around one of these communing beds so it's nice to have one on hand.

 This piece also highlights a new technique I was trying out for this round of figures. The stone paving the coffin sits upon wasn't part of the kit. Instead, I used paper clay to cover a metal base and then scored lines into it in a brickwork fashion. Then I painted and drybrushed it up and got the result you see here. I did this for all the figures but you can most clearly see the results here and I rather like it. I think it has some possibilities outside of simple stonework, but it did take a while to dry out completely so I'm not sure how soon I'll repeat the process.

 Now that they've got a place to lay their head, let's meet the vampyres. Starting with their fearsome leader:


  This is Tandaloor, High King of the Vampyres. A creature beyond the petty concerns of mere mortals...and fashion. Interestingly, I discovered that what I thought was mauve, wasn't. I envisioned mauve as a kind of dark, reddish-purple-y color. So I was surprised at how pink the paints all were. Still, when I looked at the box art, it was that same bright pink and I think it's actually not too bad after some shading and highlights. The wings were a little tougher. I'm still not super happy with the way the yellow came out although I did undercoat with a dark-yellow to help get the bright yellow to pop out some more and that worked ok.

 In any event, Tandaloor has a +1 magic sword, but honestly, his unarmed attack is 3d8 so he's better off just ripping you to pieces in most cases. He's presented as a cautious, careful opponent which gives an opening to impulsive attackers, but they'd better get the job done fast.

 Then there's Tandaloor's family:


  That's Tandaloor's main squeeze Lady Elvira (because it's the 80's of course she is -- I'm a little surprised they didn't try for more of a resemblance). She has a reputation as a deadly practical joker since she's immortal and bored. The fellow next to her is Count Nosferatu a long-time ally of Tandaloor whose gem got a little cracked during a move and now he's playing his vampire role to the hilt. If there's one thing worse than a vampyre, it's a crazy vampyre. He vants to suck your bluud!

 Naturally, someone needs to keep these jokers in line:


The guy on the left is Veratu Mikto and despite appearances, he's actually a Vampyre too. He just can't be arsed to maintain a passable human form. As Tandaloor's majordomo, the look help keeps the peasants in line. Again, he's got a +2 magic axe, but his hands do 2d12 so taking away his toys might make you worse off.

 The guy next to him isn't actually part of this box set. It's a figure from Reaper listed as Iks, Overlord Sergeant. He was a random giveaway from Reaper one Gencon long ago and I figured as long as I'm painting up armored skeletons, I might as well do him too. That's why he's on a different base.

 For inclusion in this set, I've renamed him to Gorte and declared that he's a Revenant created by Veratu Mikto to help offset his workload. Mostly Gorte's duties consist of hanging around Count Nosferatu and making sure he doesn't go on a blood-sucking rampage through the valley.

 I really like the way both of these guys came out. I tried out some new shadings on Gorte's magical sword that came out well and I like the splashes of red against the dark metallics.

 But it's not all vampyres and the undead here at Castle Tandaloor:


  You'll also find a pair of Gargoyles. Here we have Nagy (on the left) and Glatu (on the right). Yeah, their boss is Vertu Mikto -- look it's no dumber than naming them after New York boroughs. Anyway, these two guys just lurk around the communing beds until some unwary adventurer passes them by and then Whammo! They were dirt easy to paint up (since I basically painted them the same way I painted the flooring) and I think they came out pretty well.

 So that's the whole necrotic bunch. There's just one more set of guys to paint up and then the whole set will be finished. I might actually try putting them on the table in the actual adventure written up for them. Although players will have to control an entire team...or maybe it'll be more of an ensamble game where people play different members of each group. We'll see.

Little Dudes of the Far Future

Hey,

 I've been pretty busy with a number of things the past couple of months but I haven't stopped painting up little dudes. I realized that I didn't show off the end of the New Vistula Legion (NVL) sci-fi forces I was painting up.

 So let's fix that. First up, some much needed heavy support:


  You've got a pair of Heavy Machine Gun teams, a pair of Railgun Teams and two Mortar teams in the back. Considering the lack of vehicles for this group, they'll be depending on these guys for some time until I get a few toys for their motor pool.

  Finally, the big boss might drop by along with his retinue:


  So you've got the overall commander, the staff sergeant, a communications officer, a couple of grunts and a driver/pilot. Although you can't see it really in this photo, the guy on the far right has a green mohawk. That was fun to do up.

  There was one more pack in the lot I picked up and that was a set of TV reporters. These guys seemed useful in both a futuristic and a modern day setting so I painted them up and gave them more of a desert base since I figure they'll probably see more modern-day Middle East/Africa action than far future stuff.


  Two reporters, two cameramen and two photo-journalists. It'll be nice to have these guys around mucking up the works and reporting on atrocities far and wide.

 Anyway, I'm happy to have these guys finished up. I can now play small battles with the sci-fi stuff I have so hopefully those guys will be hitting the table later this year.

One LIttle Dude, One Kill

More little dudes that I've been painting up. Once again, these are all from Odzial Osmy's New Vistula Legion, a 15mm sci-fi range. These are all mostly groups of one type of specialist so there's not a whole bunch to say about them, though the last group is pretty interesting.

 First up, a batch of snipers to lend some long-range support for our brave boys in red:

Well...they blend into the ground pretty well. My photography was really crap this time around.

Speaking of blending in, how about some scouts/forward observers:

I might pair these up with the snipers from time to time but they can also go out on their own.

 Finally, the most interesting group in this batch, the Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol:

A small six-man team to operate deep behind enemy lines. They got a little bit of everything. All kinds of heavy weapons and technical/commo gear. They even have a drone, but I'm looking to get some wire to mount them on a separate base.

 So that lot is finished. Next up are the heavy weapon teams. I'm hoping these should go up rather quickly and then this project will almost be finished.

Garish Little Dudes

  So I did more than paint buildings this summer.  I also painted (and am still painting) some little dudes.

  There's a company out of Poland called Assault Publishing that puts out wargame rules and miniatures.  They do a line of 15mm sci fi and the human faction is called the New Vistula Legion.  A fellow gamer was selling off a huge lot of them at discount prices so I snapped it up.  I figure they'll be good opponents for my professionally painted group and just good sci-fi figures in general.

  I've gone though about half the figures and have enough of them organized that I can show them off.  So let's see what I've done so far...

So here's a group shot:




 I've gone with a red color scheme for these guys.  In part because it will contrast well with the blue forces I have and mostly because I got tired of painting drab camouflage schemes on modern armies.  You're looking at about 60 figures here.  Two platoons made up of three six-man fireteams headed up by a six-man HQ squad.  On the left are the Anti-Air support teams and the Anti-Armor teams are on the right.

Let's break it down a little:





This is the basic fireteam.  A six-man squad consisting of a leader, a SAW gunner, a LAW trooper and 3 riflemen.  It's a bit larger than most force-on-force squads but they'll probably have less armor/support gear to compensate.

Three of these squads form a platoon lead by:





...the platoon HQ squad.  There's the leader, a medic, a technical officer and three grenadiers bearing rifle/grenade luachers.  The technical officer is great.  It's hard to make out in this picture but he's kneeling and is working on a laptop.  It's nice to see dedicated IT support trooper in a sci-fi model range.

Then come the support squads:





An anti-air squad.  There's a spotter/leader, the MANPAC AA-missile trooper and a two man security detail.  The extra trooper can be siphoned off to help the anti-armor teams or fill in as needed, but I put them here for now.  Actually, now that I think about it, I might make them all three man teams rather than four so that the anti-armor teams can also be three-man units.  The third guy is security/ammo bearer.

Speaking of anti-armor:





The anti-tank hunter killer team is a spotter/leader and a guided missile trooper.  As I mentioned above, I'll probably add a rileman from the Anti-Air squads to act as security/ammo bearer.

Anyway, that's all the figures so far.  Next up are the snipers/scouts/LRRP teams, then the support weapon teams and finally the company HQ and a set of TV crews.  Should be a lot of fun.

Tiny Construction Work

  So I've been remiss in not updating my various miniature gaming projects.  So let's take stock of what I've been doing this summer.  There's two parts so there's going to be two posts.  First up, more terrain.

So I wanted more Middle Eastern urban terrain both for Force on Force and just any general modern day/near future fight.  I ordered up a batch of stuff from Game Craft Miniatures.  They have a wide selection of stuff in 15mm and I had fun putting together a previous building of theirs.  So I put in an order and soon the smell of laser-cut wood filled the house.

First up are these modular buildings:





There are two types of buildings here, the smaller square ones are 4.5"x4" and the larger, rectangular ones are 6.5"x4".  The best part is that each of the floors is a separate, detachable piece.  So I can adjust the heights of the buildings up and down as needed.  In fact, I made a bit of a mistake.  I forgot that both the ground floor section and the top floor section also count as buildings.  So all of my buildings are 2 stories higher than I planned on.  I plan to go back and order a couple more ground/top floor pieces for both sets so that I can have up to 4 shorter buildings of both types -- I can put up a real city block in a hurry.

After that come these two:





These are smaller, one-piece buildings made of MDF, but I really like the Middle Eastern look and feel to them.  The modular buildings are pretty generic, but the detailing on these guys lends a sense of place.

But nothing says authority like slab-sided construction:





This is an educational or administrative building based off an actual design in Baghdad.  This was a model I'd been hoping to have for a previous game, but didn't have the time to get it put together.  Now it's ready to go and I really like it.

Finally:





It's not the Middle East without a mosque.  This model, unlike the others, was made of foam-board and I'm not as happy with it's construction as I am the rest of them.  The others were all made of MDF and it was pretty easy to work with, but the foam-board was a lot more finicky to handle.  I will admit, the spackle I used to cover up the joins produces a nice stucco look, but the dome on top is styrofoam and not given to taking paint well.  Plus, I should've applied it after I built the rest of the structure, but didn't.  Still, I now have a mosque with courtyard and a place for cowardly insurgents to flee to when things get hot.

So I've greatly expanded the range of buildings and urban terrain I have available for my games.  I can probably do some of the denser urban scenarios which should be a lot of fun.  Hopefully this will all get to the table soon.

Housing Little Dudes and Plans for the Future

 So with the WWII Soviets out of the way, I decided to finish up a long-delayed project. Behold:


These are a pair of 15mm Middle Eastern buildings from JR Miniatures. They're made out of resin. I picked these up at a sale at Hobby Bunker last July and I primed them up thinking this would be a quick job. For some reason, the white spray primer I was using didn't really want to adhere to the resin very well and it started sloughing off almost immediately. I asked around for advice and then forgot about them for a while.

 I recently finished up the Soviets and I was tired of looking at those shabby buildings so I decided to knock them out. My buddies recommended automobile primer so I picked up a can of that and it worked like a charm. It put down a nice even coat I was able to paint right over. While you can't see it easily, the roofs are all removable and there are "wooden floors" on the second story of each building. However, I didn't do enough prior test fitting and one they're in, they're really tricky to get out. I think they're pretty much going to stay assembled like that.

 With those buildings finished, I don't have anything new to hand. I do have some left-over Soviet figures but not enough to put together any real sort of unit unless I pull from that bin of plastic soldiers I have and I'm loathe to do that. The warlord plastics are just too fiddly. Maybe one of the guys at the shop will take pity on me, but I haven't really hit the table with what I have so I don't know that I want more guys until I can see where the gaps are ("mostly in your generalship", yes, yes).

 In a vague order of importance here's what I'm thinking about next:

• Terrain: So yeah, I just finished up the two buildings, but I really need some more stuff if I want to do urban games (Fallujah, Sadr City, etc.). I'm thinking about getting some more stuff from Game Craft Miniautres. They've got some great modern Middle Eastern buildings in 15mm and they use laser cut MDF which is generally cheaper than the resin stuff. I'd also need some walls, roads and ground cover and I'd be pretty much set to go. It'd be a quick project, but it's a little unglamorous.
• Transport: I need some additional boxes to carry around my figures, especially my 15mm vehicles. For those, I'll need something like those battle bags that Warhammer guys carry around. Those bags of cut foam are surprisingly pricey and while I want them for transport/storage, it's pretty much the most unglamorous thing ever.
• 15mm Sci-Fi: I have one professionally painted force but I need someone for them to fight against. Ideally I'd like at least one other human force and one other alien force. I'm kind of interested in the stuff being put out by Critical Mass Games. I'm probably going to kick myself for not getting behind their Kickstarter, but I'm more interested in their aliens than their new mercenary force.
• 15mm Africa: I also need to flesh out my paltry modern-day Africa troops. Again, I need both Government troops and rebels (although they're often one and the same). The go-to company here is Peter Pig.
• 28mm WWII Marines: Yup, I've already got a force for Bolt Action WWII games. Nope, I haven't even used them yet. Yup, I'm trying to stick to 15mm as my preferred scale. I still want some Marines. What I really want is to get them professionally done up and kit-bashed a bit so that all the marines are wearing Hawaiian shirts, the .50 cal MG team has surfboards sticking up behind them, the Captain is holding a tiki mug -- sort of "McHale's Navy" batch of Marines. A screwball bunch who you can't feel proud about beating but feel humiliated when they beat you. The problem here is that there aren't many people making figures (a big surprise to me). Warlord Games is, and they're even making them in metal, but they're treating them like plastic so heads/arms/gear is all separated out and you have to glue it all together and give me a break. Plus, to really do it up like I want I'd have to send them out and that's more money on top of it all.
• Flying Monkeys! So I have enjoyed painting up some 25mm fantasy figures and there's a charming bunch out for Fantacide by Alien Dungeon. In this case, it's flying Monkeys. Who could resist an army of flying monkeys all wearing little fezes? Not I. However, going through the Alien Dungeon website, I got alerted to a new project they'll be Kickstarting soon...
• All Quiet on the Martian Front: This is basically War of the Worlds II where the Martians re-invade Earth in the early 1900's. The tripods range fast and furious until the humans can fight back with clunky tanks and big guns. The rules (from what I've seen so far) are a little iffy but the models are in 15mm and they're just delightful. The real problem here is that the campaign hasn't started so I don't know what to budget (and it'll be in UK pounds not good cheap US dollars) and then it'll be a year before they show up...so it's not something to really keep me going...but I am really attracted to project.

All of this assumes I shouldn't save my money for more utilitarian needs. Or maybe I should play more with the stuff I've already got...although that argues for the Terrain and the Transport items listed above. Ah well, we'll see.

Quantity and some quality

So I've finished up the WWII Soviet project for the Bolt Action games down at the store. And the best is saved for last:

A T34-85 tank to provide some armored support and put those Panzers on the run. Actually, it's going to have to sub in as a T34-76 since that it keeps me just under 1000 points. This was another one of the few good pieces from the Warlords boxed Soviet Set. The model is mostly resin except for the commander and the front hatch and co-axial MG. The turret didn't fit into the body very well, but a friend down at the shop took a dremel to it and got it into shape. It was a fast paint-up and now I'm ready to roll.

The Tiny Human Wave

So I painted up some more little dudes:


This is another batch of WWII Soviet infantry (plus a mortar team). I'm just about done with this project. Once I finish up the T-34-85 tank, I'll have a solid 1000 point army to play Bolt Action with the guys down at the store (who will be completely burnt out on Bolt Action as soon as I bring it to play).

With the exception of the Mortar Crew (which comes from Warlord Games), all these figures are by Black Tree Design. I really liked the figures. A bit of flash to clean off but nothing terrible and they painted up like a charm. They mix well with the Warlord figures I have and there's a good set of poses. I have a batch of figures left over, mostly SMG-equipped troopers and I might paint them up as assault troops to swap in for some games.