Bolt-Action Ruined Hamlet Part 2

Some time ago I posted about the Warlord Games Bolt-Action Ruined Hamlet I had acquired; well, finally, here is the update. However, I have - in true fashion - only completed one, so far; due to my wandering attention and unfocused approach to all things wargaming.

  

The box contains three sets of these components, which allow the construction of a ruined farm-type house and/or two smaller ruined structures; depending how you decide to utilise them. There does appear, upon closer inspection, to be a discrepancy between the two doorway sizes of each set, in that one appears to be 1/56 scale and the other, closer to 1/72; although, to be honest, I didn't find this to be a major issue once construction had taken place. 

The older, rural nature of the buildings these kits are depicting, would probably lend itself to irregularities in construction (that's my take on it, anyway).

Here is one of the finished products, which I mounted on some stiff card - please excuse the poor photography (I used my phone under the kitchen lighting, as usual).

I added some additional 'rubble' using sand and cat litter and employed some old coffee stirrers to act as battered, floor boarding  for the interiors.

As you would expect, there was a fair amount of filling and cleaning up of join lines during construction; but, overall the model was very clean and flash free.

To keep costs down I used black car primer to undercoat and Dulux match pots to paint the building , along with some commercial matte varnish, all of which, I think, achieved their respective aims for a fraction of the cost of 'dedicated' wargaming products.

I plan to use all three buildings as part of small-scale Normandy-type skirmish games and have recently got hold of some Bolt-Action plastic British and German infantry to use for these - more of which later.  Although, as a brief insight, here are a few 'Tommies' to illustrate how the structure fits scale-wise.

To sum up, for those into 28mm gaming from Pike and Shotte to modern, you really can't go wrong with these as an addition to your table top; just do what I did and shop around for the best price beforehand.

That's it for now,

Monty

Black Friday Late Night Purchase

I now realise that having returned from a night out meeting up with friends, I enthusistically took advantage of the Black Friday sale offer at Plastic Soldier Company and ordered some 15mm US Infantry. Quite why, I'm not sure; I don't do WW2 in that scale :-S but the delayed recall was impressive...ho hum...

I'm sure they're very nice...

That's it for now...

Monty

Close Combat - Panthers in the Fog

I've been playing the Close Combat series of real-time, tactical wargames since 1997 and after a little deliberation, dived back in and grabbed the latest incarnation, Panthers in the Fog.

A host of improvements, including higher resolutions, graphical effects and additional command screens, to name a few, have resulted in the most polished version of this classic veteran to date.

The combat remains the same, tense, top-down squad by squad affair; although the new(er) maps with their additional detail add greater clarity and compliment the enhanced effects, such as the smoke and explosion effects.

The pre-battle operational screens give welcome depth and context to the ensuing tactical duels, although they are limited somewhat in scope.

Despite the influx of 3D, action strategy titles such as Company of Heroes and Combat Mission, it is Close Combat - for me, at least - that remains unsurpassed. Of course, it's now showing its age a little and some of the old issues remain, such as the occasional spinning tank and poor pathfinding; but the tense, unforgiving combat remains the best available.

That's it for now,

Monty

Classic War Films Upgrade

I'm very aware of my lack of posting lately - there is painting (of sorts) going on in the background - but life has been soooo busy recently.

I will put some stuff up soon, but in the meantime, I though I would quickly highlight my latest classic war film upgrading to blu-ray from DVD (yes, extravagant, I know - but necessary...)

All are fantastic conversions with excellent full HD picture quality and Dolby 5.1 sound which breathes new life into them all round.

More to follow, including The Dambusters, which should have arrived with these, but has been delayed - drat!

That's it for now,

Monty

Combat Mission Normandy Tactics Episode I

Been playing this a lot lately and this Armchair General video gives a good introduction to the game's tactical depth (annoying - fire superiority - voice aside) and comparative realism.

Having played many WW2 computer simulations over the years, this series, since its inception in 2000, stands out as an engrossing and accurate interpretation of Second World War combat.

Bizarrely,  playing it has got me back into a Crossfire mood again and I'm drifting towards yet another project; this time 15mm PSC armies for use with these classic Arty Conliffe rules...although time will tell...hey ho...

That's it for now,

Monty

Secrets of the Third Reich

Thought I should probably post some painting stuff as it's been a while; so here are some Westwind German  Mech Grenadiers from their Secrets of the Third Reich range. Typically, I've had these lying around for a considerable time awaiting painting, as I considered moving into this 'period' for a while before dropping the idea, in the usual fashion.

Must say, I was impressed by the sculpts which are nicely heroic in proportions, which suits the subject matter. 

The officer, who I initially thought to paint in SS-like  black, but decided to make him a field officer.

Respirator woes, or maybe an unfortunate chemical sentry conducting a 'sniff test' for persistent  gas vapour prior to giving the 'all-clear'. Maybe.

'Achtung! Zombies - open fire!' etc...

I really like this range, but like so many others, it has been shelved in favour of other things, like Warlord's 28mm 'Boadicea Triumphant' and Peter Pig's 15mm Colonial range British infantry - my preferred new project, for now - the confusion continues...

That's it for now,

Monty

1/72 Panzer 4

Here is my latest re-vamped freebie I acquired from the recently published Combat Tanks magazine - a Panzer Mk. 4 in the markings of the 19th Panzer Division. The models are die- cast and plastic and are fairly basic, but detailed and robust enough for war gaming. Apologies for the quality of the photos - I used my phone.

They are pristine and need a bit of prep to get them realistic enough for the hell of the table top. However, being a Muppet, I never took a 'before' photo of the model to contrast;  suffice to say it was distinctly virginal and toy-like.

Anyway, enough waffle, I gave the model a series of washes using Citadel sepia, mud and black. Plenty of Vallejo dark earth and over the tracks and running gear to give it a suitably filthy, battle-worn look (sort-of). Finally, plenty of dry brushing using mainly grey and dark sand before mounting on a base - still got a small amount of static Steppe grass to apply - and it's ready to defend western civilisation in Mother Russia...

A couple of PSC Late War German Infantry for scale...

That's it for now,

Monty

Valiant Minatures 1/72 American GIs

I've just finished off four more of the freebie Valiant WW2 GIs I got hold of on a distant (pre-FOW) Wargames Illustrated. I really like these figures as they offer great value for money, with over 60 figures in a box, including HMGs, mortars and anti-tank weapons.

There is also a selection of additional heads, personal weapons and equipment, with a number of figures having separate arms to allow a lot of customisation. 

The figures are well made in hard plastic with crisp detail and very little flash throughout.

Here they are in front one of the Dave Graffam's excellent card buildings, whose range I'm increasingly using in games.

There is one fairly major downside to Valiant's range however, regarding their scale. While they are marketed as 1/72 scale, they are in reality quite bulky and closer to 28mm as seen below when compared to Plastic Soldier Company . This inevitably causes problems with scale compatibility and  limits you to using them solely in infantry-only encounters against other Valiant counterparts.

If this isn't a problem to you though, I would say the Valiant troops are among the best hard plastic troops currently available and would recommend them to anyone looking to field a cost-effective and well-equipped force,

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

Close Combat

Of all the video games I've wasted my life on, without doubt, the Close Combat series of Real-Time Strategy titles remains the best; despite its 15-year vintage. Developed by Atomic Games back in '96, its top-down  World War 2 action set during Operation Market Garden, remain largely unsurpassed in their ingenuity and tension.

A true tactical strategy challenge, it is still my favourite online game, despite the arrival of newer, more technically advanced rivals. 

The original box art following the game's original launch back in '97 when it was published by Microsoft.

The action is viewed via a rudimentary non-scalable screen, with units - squads, tanks and artillery etc. handled by sprites. Morale, unit cohesion and experience levels are all modelled and play an integral part in the battle.

The deployment screen where the player can select reinforcements and force composition prior to, and after, battle where surviving units are carried over with increased experience levels. 

   

The game is now published by Matrix Games, but still retains its fundamental mechanics, despite various tweaks and is laptop -friendly, so can go anywhere - perfect. It has now moved into the modern area of conflict, but has never been better than when slugging it out against the Hun.

So, if you've never had a blast on this classic, give it a go and see how compelling it (still) is...

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