Bolt Action FJ

This weekend was a busy weekend for me.  First up I finished a project that has been sitting on my paint desk for the last few months.  Last fall I bought a few Fallshirmjager blisters and one box.  I've slowly been working on them as time permits, which isn't a whole lot when you're training a unit for deployment and have three young kids in the house.  I found motivation in the new Muskets and Tomahawks rules.  I have set on order and I now have a pile of lead from Eureka USA, Conquest, and Brigade Games that needs some attention.  With the pressure building up, I finished the last 10 FJs and the Stug III so I can begin my French and Indian War project.

Here is a shot of the total force.  All the miniatures are Bolt Action.  I have a 5 man command squad and two 8 man infantry sections with a Panzerschrek, Medium Mortar, and a Pak 40. 

 A close up of the first infantry section.  I'm not thrilled with the camo pattern, but over all I really like the sculpts.  They have to be my favorite sculpts from WWII.

 This is the command team.  There are two officers in caps, a radioman, medic, and spare rifleman.

 This is the second of the two infantry squads.  I love the sculpts in this squad, from the NCO with the grenade to the rifleman with the soft caps on.

 The medium mortar came out pretty well.  It was the first time I used the Highland Tuffs from Army Painter.  I used two different types of flock on this base.  The base itself was painted with Steel Legion Drab from GW then highlighted with a buff color.

 The Panzerschrek team.  I was looking for something to dress up the base with on this one and found a stick while cleaning the yard.  I snapped part of it off and made it into a down tree for the team to hide behind.

 I wish I could have gotten a better shot of the PAK 40.  Next time I'll take one from behind the crew.  There's a lot of action in that crew and it's a shame that you can't really make it out from this angle.

 Infantry section two in front of the Stug III

 The Stug III.  I'm not happy with how it came out.  It's a Bolt Action vehicle and it's one of the best resin vehicles I've worked with (which isn't many).  I'm not real good with vehicles to begin with, I hardly paint them but of all the sections in this platoon this vehicle is the weakest.  I did learn a few things about painting vehicles, so the next one should be better.

 Here's the last guy.  I was at the local brick and mortar last week and he had a British Bolt Action 1000pt army on the shelf.  Which is out of place for the shop considering that 40K, Hordes, and anything from Spartan Games are the main games there.  I bought it on a whim.  I figure the Fallschirmjager need a solid opponent for WWII and no one fits the bill better than the Tommies. 

I hope you enjoyed the miniatures.  I hope to post up some of my finished work with the French and Indian War soon.

25mm Battletech

While waiting for my next load of pirates to come in, I wanted to see what else I could build out of balsa and cardboard. I built a few ships, like the one posted below and I wanted to do something like that, but yet not along the lines of pirate stuff. As it happens, my pirates share a carry case with my old Battletroops miniatures. So then it hit me: I need a mech for these guys.

It didn't take long for me to pick one, the Locust was the only way to go. Not only were the legs and feet easier to build, but you can get a lot of the unseens as Robotech model kits. You can get a 1/32 scale Locust as a Crusher Joe kit, but it only stands like 4 or 5 inches tall and to be in scale with the other mechs it should be about 5-6 inches tall.

The hull was made from 4mm thick balsa. I built a box roughly shaped like the hull and sanded down the rough parts. I used mounting board to do details like the cockpit and to detail the hull with. I also used some thinner card off of a snack cake box to do some details. The mech was then dropped onto an old CD-ROM as a base. There's a 25mm Stiener laser rifleman and an Elemental for scale comparisons right next to the base. Both are from Ral Partha's old battletech line. I know you can still get the elemental from Iron Wind Metals, but I have no clue about the other guy. I'd say E-bay it and hope for the best.

I think the next step from here is to base it with GW rough coat and possible use a lot of ink washes to dirty it down. I don't want to pait it for a particular unit; I want to be able to use it for a lot of battles. I have both Kurtia infantry and Stiener one for Battletroops. Hell, it might never see a game as an actual Locust. There's some talk of doing Weird War II so it may become an Allied or German walker.

Yaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!

Back from deployment with a thirst to paint, I set upon my pirate collection again. I managed to paint a few more of them. All told, I have about 25 or so pirates painted with a few captains and two banners. When I clean off this heap of balsa and cardstock I have three pirates with boarding pikes to paint up yet. I get to posting some shots of the new pirates soon.

Over the weekend I did an internet search for Garry Chalk's instructions on how to build a pirate ship out of cardstock and balsa wood. Having Monday off, I raided the local Micheal's art supply store for the need materials. I spent about 5 hours Monday afternoon and another 4 hours or so today. I'm just about done with the ship. I have a few things to add yet, like windows on the stern and some detailing to the hull sides before I paint it.

I will say this about the plans: they're pretty close. I did find that I need to make adjustments to the parts now and again. I'd say they were about 90% accurate. I had to make a different hull template that was a bit longer and wider, along with some of the dressing parts. All in all, it's been a blast to put together. I have one other ship plan that I'd like to try. I'm not sure if I will build another one of these or not, but it sure was fun.

Ahhhhhrrrrrrrrrr!

Drink up me hearties!

So I was digging around my 'lost projects bin' the other day for something to paint. You know the lost bin, it has all the half finished projects that you never got around to doing in it. From the bin I grabbed a bag of foundry pirates left over from a project I did about 9 years ago when I was playing Flagship Games' 'Pirates' game. Somewhere deep in my collection is a pirate crew for that game. Having just finished watching the latest instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean, I grabbed the bag and retreated to the warmth of my old Kentucky home.

While on a computer break, I found that Warhammer Historicals is going to release a set of pirate rules sometime this year. That's cool by me, as it will be based of the Legends of the Old West rules. Even better.

First up is Mad Molly Howard and here crew. The banner is hand painted and converted from a pirate armed with a boarding pike. The other two scallywags are armed with a musket and knife followed by a guy who's seen better days with his pistol and cutlass.

Another converted pikeman in this crew. I really like the red flag thing. From what I gather, Henry Every had red banner with a skull on it. If Osprey Books is right, it was the same skull as below with crossed bones under it. Regardless, I pirated it for my own, dropped the bones and add a cannon and some cannon balls. I think it looks catchy. I like the black banner from above, but it doesn't strike me as well as the red one does.

Rounding out this little batch is an officer in a coat, a scallywag with a musket again, and Scotsman with a short barrelled blunderbus. At least I think he's supposed to be a Scot. Last we have three figures that aren't really pirates but were fun to paint all the same. We have civilian types and every one's favorite: the corporate downsizer. I can't wait to use the civi's as hostages and maybe even run a game where the pirates have to free their buddies in the dungeon from the evil headsman

Another Mike's Mechs Post

Here's the latest batch of mechs that I paint for Mike. This time we have an up-gunned Atlas (center) an up-gunned Jupiter (left as you view them), and the something with two large guns. Mike's told me about a dozen times what the names are, but I keep forgetting. I think that I have done about 20 or so of these mechs. I'm pretty sure that mike has about 16 of them so far. It's a pretty easy pattern, so long as the highlight works out well on the black. The black and red make them look pretty sharp. I need to ask him to line them all up in a large group shot, and maybe I can post it up on here. That might be cool.

Gotta New Look

I didn't like the old look, so now here's the new one. For now.....

Whitmann Lives

Just finished this guy. I got the Tiger Marsch box set for Flames of War. There's a few issues with it, namely the Whitmann figure is the same as some of the other Panzer tank commander's you get. Battlefront is slippin' just a bit. No matter. I went and grabbed a TC that looked more fitting for the Panzer ace than the one BF put in the box. I think it came out ok. If I had it to do over, I would skip the kill rings. My hand is not that steady.