Pinkertons

Rumours of my (gaming) demise have been greatly exaggerated. I am very much still going and (just about) painting a few bits and pieces, in no particular order.

I will get round to posting stuff soon; it's just that I simply have had too much on of late; a familiar cry, I hear you say, but true, nonetheless (boo, hoo).

What I have been tinkering around with, however, is Great Escape Games' excellent Dead Man's Hand range of Wild West figures for my planned western skirmish game.

The first batch was a present from my long-suffering woman; Pinkertons - which I have almost finished and have enjoyed painting.

 "And they're off!" The first batch cleaned up and mounted, I picked these four out as my initial favourites and have been impressed with the detail generally on the Great Escape stuff; bags of detail and character evident in the sculpts.

Here they are finished up in my usual style; my painting skills are limited, so I opt for the 'well-worn' grubby look - which I feel is more realistic and in keeping with the period than the 'cleaner' -but, admittedly, far more skilled - approach. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

Finally, the obligatory 'in scene' shot; I appreciate the quality of the picture is poor; it was taken last night in poor light after a couple of sherbets...whoops!

I am determined to actually achieve something after a prolonged period of inactivity and return to some semblance of gaming, with the small and hopefully achievable  skirmish approach the method of getting there.

Rules set to use? Well, as always my favourite - THW and their freebie Chain Reaction; which, in my opinion is a cracking approach to small-scale battles with bags of options to tweak and adapt to your needs - excellent solo option too.

That's it, for now.

Monty

4Ground Medieval Dwelling

I'm very conscious there has been very little blogging of late; my work/life schedule has taken a massive bite into my free time in recent months, although I have been (sort of) productive during this time; no reports have made it online.  

Having said all that, the academic year is grinding to a close and with it, most of my current commitments; which should allow more blogging again...

Anyway, enough of my blubbing and on with the update! During a great visit to Salute recently, what stood out for me was the very prominent 4Ground kit that seemed to dominate a lot of the display games. I always had an open mind about laser cut buildings and their inherent qualities, but having seen them firsthand I have been sold; yes, they probably don't look as convincing as resin/plastic etc, but given the time saved, flexibility and so on, they are hard to beat. Not only that, they do look impressive 'in the flesh'.

I decided to take the plunge and try one out, hence the Saxon/Medieval dwelling here,which I picked up for £14, which is fairly reasonable. For those who haven't encountered the model before, I found it very straight forward to build. The only 'dodgy' bit, I think, is the so-called 'teddy bear fur' used for the thatch. However, once it is treated with a PVA/water mix as outlined in the instructions, it isn't too bad. I may yet wash and dry brush it to give it a little more depth.

The interior, out of the box is a little sparse, so I painted and dry brushed the floor before adding some brown static grass as 'straw', along with some firewood and 'ashes' in the fire box.

I intend to base the dwelling and add some wattle fencing, currently on order from Northstar to create a centre piece for a bit of Dark Age skirmishing - probably using THW's Swordplay rules.

Finally, the obligatory scale shot, using a couple of Conquest Games' Norman Infantry; as you can see, they fit very nicely. To sum up, I think 4Ground are the way ahead and ideal for skirmish-type games and intend to order a few more.

That's it for now,

Monty 

The Butt of all Jokes...

My usual slow plod has come to a temporary halt due to me being laid up following a minor operation on the old Farmer Giles; with the post-op convalescence of which I don't recommend to anyone, proving a considerable pain in the arse - boom,boom.

Suffice to say, I am unable to sit comfortably ('ooh, er, missus') for any length of time to paint, and in any case, my modelling stuff lives at my work flat in London; so I am separated from it for at least another week  - doh!

However, prior to this unfortunate occurence, I was cracking on (no pun intended) in two unrelated directions - nothing new there - primarily on...Warlord Games excellent 28mm 'Boadicea Triumphant!' model, which the little woman kindly bought me for my birthday.

As you can see, the chariot remains distinctly unoccupied at present, although both Boudica and her faithful charioteer are prepped, primed and ready to go; I decided to approach this project as three separate parts; horses, chariot and figures to maintain impetus. This is probably the single most ambitious  model I have attempted, despite 'wargaming' on and off since 1996; therein belies the extent of my achievements and vision in this great hobby to date! In fairness, I tend to concentrate on smaller scales primarily, so perhaps I am being a little harsh on myself...ho,hum.

I had intended the horses to be both white (cliché, I know, but who cares?), but after a couple of cock-ups with the washes I was using - I tend to overdo them - they ended up like this, which I quite like. My aim is to complete the model by Christmas - I know, my ambitions know no bounds!

...and secondly, some Colonial British infantry from my favourite 15mm manufacturer, Peter Pig, and their excellent 'Patrols in the Sudan' range. Those that have read my sporadic posts in the past may recall my liking of Two Hour Wargames (THW) and these troops  are the first finished for use with their Colonial Adventures rules set. All of THW's products are designed to use any basing systems you may already have, so I decided to base my rank and file on multiple stands -  to allow flexibility for use in other rules sets -  and the NCOs on separate bases as originally intended.

THW games can be as big or small as you like - the latter of which suits me perfectly - and still give a dynamic, entertaining experience. They are equally suited to head to head, same side or solo play and are designed with all three in mind.

I will post more progress reports once I get up and running again; my apologies to those of a reserved or squeamish disposition regarding the introduction of this post; but I believe in spreading my self-pitying misery to as many unsuspecting recipients as possible in a vain attempt at sympathy; and we all know where that can be found in the dictionary... :)

That's it for now,

Monty





Random Painting Part 2

The summer with its fleeting sunshine, along with the usual work constraints and relocating, continue to prevent me producing reams of stuff for the present; however, I have managed a few bits and pieces. 

Here are a few shots of a couple of things I've been doing lately - not much admittedly - as I  have to decide with the limited time I have available whether to concentrate on smaller scale stuff, as I have done up now, or maybe branch out into something larger...hmmm.

Pendraken 10mm Confederate infantry - I've had these knocking about for a while and ACW is a definite for a new period, but which scale...? I intend to use THW's Rebels and Rifles rules set which I've recently acquired and like a lot.

Essex 15mm Early Imperial Legionaries for DBA or RRtK.

I've moved on in my painting approach now and prefer the less uniformed, grubbier approach compared with my earlier attempts at 15mm Romans, which were all clean and identical...

My latest prezzie and next job courtesy of my other half, who is determined to add to my metal and plastic mountain - bless 'er! I will have to dust off and finish my Warlord Romans, which I enjoyed first time round.

Having thought about it, the priority I think, is to concentrate on focus - easier said than done for me, anyway - and just get back to painting stuff -  however little - regularly; while I game at skirmish level, before moving onto to greater things...

That's it for now,

Monty

Peter Pig 15mm US Humvee

I bought this 15mm US Marine Humvee from Salute last year, but such is my pathetic industry I have only now got round to painting it.

This is intended for use in my Ambush Alley and Chain Reaction 3.0 games and I went for the Browning HMG version, although there are others available such as the TOW ATGM.

Here it is, prior to the addition of static grass and looking suitably 'desert-worn', which I prefer and try to achieve with my efforts. I opted for the 3-colour camouflage temperate scheme when painting the model, as opposed to the usual desert yellow finish.

Finished off, with a requisitioned nylon bristle used as a radio antenna...

I am a big fan of Peter Pig and hope they expand their US Marine inventory in particular, by adding additional vehicles such as the M1 Abrams tank and Bradley IFV, which would be nice...

That's it for now,

Monty

1/72 Scale T-34/76

In a previous post I mentioned that I had acquired a number of 1/72 scale tanks and AFVs that had originally been offered with Combat Tanks magazine; some of these would be suitable for my Nuts! WW2 skirmishing games.

Here it is, as found on the magazine and prior to new paint job; all very nice, but there were a number of issues that needed resolving. Firstly, I felt the camouflage scheme had to go, to be replaced with a battle-worn, 'rough-and-ready' appearance; it had, after all, been slugging it out on the eastern front. The radio antenna, too, needed to be removed as my Red tanks would have no electronic comms...

Here it is, following its various priming, washes, highlighting and basing etc; I had a go at re-painting (badly) Soviet propaganda slogans  on the turret which I'd lifted off the 'net, but, which I think adds to the vehicle's crude appearance; the effect I was after.

I'm happy with the overall result and the scale too, which fits in well with my PSC troops - not bad for a freebie - just got hold of a Panzer Mk4, so that will get a similar treatment in time...eventually ;)

That's it for now,

Monty

Two Hour Wargames

Everyone has their favourite set of rules that they usually spend most of their time on in one way or another and for me it is, far and away, those offered by Two Hour Wargames or THW. 

Created and developed  by Ed Teixeira, they are constantly expanding their range and cover everything from fantasy, gladiatorial combat, WW2, pulp, zombies and colonials - to name but a few!   For those that haven't tried them, here is a brief resume from their website:

'Welcome to Two Hour Wargames makers of entertaining games playable in two hours or less. All THW games can be played solo or same side (cooperatively) as well as head-to-head. With THW you can play with your friends as well as against them. Customer satisfaction and support is our goal and our 4800 member Yahoo Group is available to answer all questions'

Just a few of the titles on offer, giving an indication of the range available.

There are a number of things that stand out that for me, make THW the system of choice:

Firstly, and not least, the system is intuitive, flexible and lends itself to real-world tactics, rather than 'gamey' mechanics. Players can use any figures they already have and it doesn't rely on specific basing or scale conventions.

THW's ethos is unpretentious, friendly and open to user input at every level, with Ed on hand to answer questions daily via the enthusiastic Yahoo Group.

But, for me it is the unorthodox and ingenious 'chain reaction' system used by all THW games that allows solo, co-op and multi-player games with equal ease that set it apart. Quite unlike any other on the market it offers a challenging and unpredictable game every time you play.

When I returned to the hobby 3 years ago, my playing habits and the time available to me had changed since my last incursion back in the 90's; I now don't have the time or inclination to learn multiple rules sets or paint endless specific figures for each game system and quite often play solo due to work constraints. Therefore, THW is perfect - once you learn the core system, you know 90% of all games within its range - perfect.

The core system 'Chain Reaction 3.0' is available for free download from THW's site and are well worth a look, who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised...

That's it for now,

Monty

Plastic Soldier Company 'Cross of Iron'

Here is the latest of my Plastic Soldier Company stuff that I have (slowly) churned out since Christmas. The plan is to use them with my Nuts! rules and upon reflection I suppose I should have based them separately, however, they wouldn't have looked as effective IMHO. 

The MG42 team with 1 in 1 tracer loaded, I try to make my troops look suitably grubby and 'battle-worn'.

The Soviet DP-28 troops, my only real criticism with the PSC figures are their similarity of poses across all ranges, which I suppose keeps costs down on moulds etc... 

...and now, following a couple of head swaps, we have Sgt Steiner and Cpl Kruger from the classic 'Cross of Iron' film. These figures aren't finished yet, but I thought it was high time I posted something constructive...

I wanted to give Steiner a smock and tried to mould one with some Green Stuff, but wasn't skilled enough, so he he had to keep his M43 tunic, as worn at the start of the film...

Private Maag calls for reinforcements... the bases are yet to be (very sparsely) flocked as I intend these troops to be used in an urban, multi-level setting - due primarily to my lack of board space - and the fact that 'Cross of Iron' is mainly mud, mud, mud...

'Demarcation! Steiner coming in! Demarcation! Steiner!' Love that film...

That's it for now - more to follow...eventually,

Monty