Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics. US 6mm

 Here are a few more vehicles, that I finished over the course of this week. If you paid any attention to my previous post then you will see my musings on paint jobs. I went with US Dark Green. The soft tops and tilts are British Uniform - a generic canvas sort of colour. 

I like the cartoony look of having blue windows at this scale. With the jeeps and trucks I worried about how they have no doors and are open sided, but due to molding needs they are filled in. How would I paint them then? I think it worked decently to be honest. 

These Chaffees are the new mold. They are pretty gorgeous. I had fun painting them and look forward to them dying quickly to some Panthers...

Painting up some 6mm WW2 British infantry and armour.

 After allowing myself to dilly-dally and not bother doing much, I finally have a platoon plus some support of British infantry. I also have some armour. I was basically unsure about what colour to paint the armour and exactly what to paint on the infantry because I felt like the soldiers would just blend in with their bases, which is kind of what happened. 

I found this link from A Bridge to War blog which gave some interesting tips on painting 6mm WW2 infantry and armour. It goes very much down the "it can all look the same when looking down at a table" route and does enough to make the figures look different while also being simple to paint. 

Infantry

The infantry were essentially primed in a light grey. This differs from that link, but it is all I have for now. I then used all Vallejo paints and painted them in the following order:

Flesh - Light flesh.

Uniform - British Uniform

Helmets - US Dark Green

Weapons - Beige Brown, then Black

Washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade

Gear - Russian Green (I only painted canteens and a pouch or two)

Light drybrush of Sand.

The original link just paints weapons black. It also primed with brown, which made the need for British Uniform paint layer unnecessary. 

I am pleased with how they turned out. I should have probably painted boots also, but couldn't be bothered. I would have painted them black if I had thought about it.

Armour

I convinced myself I needed Bronze Green to paint my armour, but ended up just painting them US Dark Green, washing with Citadel Nuln Oil, drybrush with Desert Yellow. They look fine to be honest. I have painted up some KV1s and a KV2 using Russian Green, which is noticeably lighter, but after washing with Nuln Oil I literally can't tell the difference between the two colours! 

The link above has inspired me to paint up some Waffen SS though. I had always thought they were too difficult to paint up in 6mm and was just never going to play them. 

Next up, some US logistical vehicles. Then some German trucks and half tracks - they are just waiting for some more colours and a flocking. 

Slow progress - WW2 Brits, US gaps filled, Wehrmacht gaps filled

 Finally putting paint to these German softskins. I want my infantry to be motorised, so need to get these off the bench!

I also want trucks. Trucks to use for goodness knows what. Convoy objectives, supply columns for tanks that carry low ammo. There is also the M20 command vehicle which looks pretty cool.

I have put flesh onto the Brits. I hope to get them painted as quick as I can now that I am painting again. I don't have the correct colours for my British armour to be honest. 

February Game Night

 Hi all,

Another month goes by with little movement on my miniature painting. I don't have "Bronze Green" so feel I can't make progress on my British armour. The US, Soviet and German armour can all be finished, I just can't be bothered. My British infantry are languishing unpainted, even though I have the colours for them. I feel like I have played games with people and need to figure out the next step for playing Battlegroup with another person again. I love this game. 

I also got distracted with painting of another kind. My lounge was in desperate need of a paint. So we spent a few evenings sorting that out...which took hobby time away.

Anyhow, I went to the February meet up of the game group and it was great. I messaged ahead to try and make sure I could play Cascadia and someone said they had it and would play it with me. I won, although kept forgetting to take photos of my setup. 

Another game was Quacks of Quedlinburg. It was a hilarious game of making potions, trying not to let them explode on me. I lost soundly, but it was really fun. A great theme, and it actually felt thematic.

January Game Night

 Game Night.

I met two nice guys in the same line of work. We played three games together. The first game was Nidavellir - a fantasy dwarf themed game where you are going around taverns hiring up mercenary dwarves. The theme was kind of cool but to be honest it had very little impact on the game. There was no big battle at the end, there was no impending doom that we were scrabbling to prepare against. Each round we just blind bid on dwarf cards in order to maximise scoring potential. I managed to win by about 30 points and was pretty chuffed as I feel like I haven't won a boardgame in quite a while. I was pleased with my victory. The guys said I was doing pretty well and felt I was going to run away with it, even though I was concerned. There is a mechanic where you can trade in one of your coins to get a higher value coin and thus guarantee yourself first pick of the three dwarves on offer. I was consistently lagging behind in this, but managed to get two good heroes who helped, and then I got three heroes who acted like the train stations on Monopoly where having more of them multiply their value significantly. 

In conclusion - fun game. Dwarf theme was cool, but not super relevant. I had a really good time with it though. Downside - setup was kind of a PITA, and the rules seemed really complex at first.

Two other games were played - my traditional game of Citadels where I lost again; then we played Forbidden Island. I had played Forbidden Desert years ago, so it was nice to revisit this subset of games. We ended up not finishing but were pretty much two turns away from winning by the skin of our teeth but the night was ending and everyone around us was packing away. 

Neither game made me immediately want to go out and buy it, unlike Cascadia from last month (still not purchased, but I keep coming back to it). Cascadia has remained in my head and I am doing the boardgame equivalent of the tattoo 5 year test with it. If you still want the tattoo after five years then get it - with boardgames I am giving it a few months. I don't really buy them and think I can probably get a copy over at UK Games Expo probably...

I didn't win the raffle, but was going to take the Citadel Age of Sigmar painting set if I had won.

The guy I played with last month won a second time in a row. That guy is lucky. 

Here is to February - that is in halfterm so I can see my leaving during a film night in order to get there. 

I had to park up the road it was so rammed.

Christmas Haul - The ground sloggers have arrived!

 I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the following purchases:

1x late war German infantry (new casts)

1x 1944 British infantry (new casts)

1x 1944 British infantry support weapons (new casts)

1x US infantry (new casts)

1x Soviet infantry (new casts)

a few Achilles TDs, GMC trucks, M20 car, Whites scout car, KV1s and a KV2. 

This was to fill a few holes in terms of vehicles, and having transport for command units etc. 

The quality and poses of all of the infantry are top notch. They really are gorgeous. Some flash, but not much. They are also easy to clip off from the sprues. Now, having begun the process of attaching British figures to bases for painting - I immediately regret this decision. I should have painted them on the strips and clipped them off for basing. Oh well. It has been a few years since I have really painted any H&R infantry en masse. 

I also had the following situation - the British infantry (and all other nations) are in strips of 5. The infantry pack came with 10 strips. There are no indentifiable Bren guns on these strips, whereas in the old US infantry packs there is definitely a BAR armed figure. I panicked! How was I going to properly equip my infantry sections? I have soviet infantry who are armed with generic looking small guns which I am happy to fudge into rifles. But in reality I want the Bren guns to be featured. Then I opened the support weapons pack and there are a few teams that I thought were sniper teams...but maybe the scope is actually a top feeding magazine? So I decided that these are my Bren teams and that will be that.

I also have one large mortar, a few 2" mortars, six PIAT teams, some men who look like they are throwing grenades? There is a strip of men lying down with binoculars - one of whom I have already enlisted as a sniper spotter. Flame throwers, mine sweepers, and a strip of figures holding long, thin explosives perhaps? Bangalores? I have honestly no idea what they are meant to be. 

I wish there were some command strip thrown in. I will remember this for my next order. As it stands I can make things work with infantry stands and hoping I can remember what stand is what when on the table.  

Christmas Haul - British armour and support. German transport.

 I recieved a large lot of British armour and other support vehicles for Christmas this year. I also got some Chaffee tanks, some Opel Blitzes, Sdkfz 250s, an Sdkfz 222 and a few Kubelwagen. The idea was to get my already existing German infantry more mobile - they can now be Panzergrenadiers or just infantry in trucks. The trucks can also count as supply columns for my Tiger II. The 222 is specifically for recon for Battle of the Bulge. Chaffees are just because they look nice, but also for some more US light tank options. 

The idea behind the British vehicles was to go with the infantry I was hoping to get from my secret santa. Turns out they bought me some Lego instead. That will be fun to build, but now I need some British infantry. I will have to put an order in for some more I guess. 

You can see a couple of Sherman Firelies here, and then three each of Churchills and Comets. Plus a Challenger for funsies. I also got a Humber and a Staghound for recon. The Quad is to go with the 25Pdr that I haven't put together yet. The other vehicle, I can't remember what it is called is to tow things.

Here I have three Cromwells, a 95mm armed Centaur, a 17pdr and two 6pdrs. You can also see unbased Kubelwagens and Jeeps. I intend to base some of those with infantry in order to make some command stands. 

All of these are Heroics and Ros. I am largely impressed by the sculpts. The 17pdr looks absolutely beastly.