(Moderns Month) Modern Warfare 3

My enjoyment of this evening's Champion's League Final was disturbed at half-time with the "world premiere" of an advert for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which Saul insisted we watch (though I banned rewinding it in Sky+ as the second half was about to start). Whilst I am no great fan of computer games it did pique my "modern wargamer" interest so if you haven't seen it...



Some interesting background ideas and although I haven't managed to get as much painted this month as I'd hoped the "moderns bug" has bitten and I can see myself ordering piles of S&S Models resin and Elheim figures...

Back to MW3 I also came across this wonderful video that did make me laugh - and post on Saul's FB page! :-)

Dark Eldar Test Pieces

I took an early lunch break to finish off these Dark Eldar test pieces that I found sat in the same drawer as the Dick Garrison miniatures. I have a pile of Dark Eldar sat around from when the particular 40K edition came out with them in it and I haven't done anything much with them despite quite liking the plastics (not so much the old metals).

I decided to see if I could come up with a quick to paint drybrush over black undercoat scheme to go with the Eldar and Space Marines already painted. After some thought I decided to paint the bodies Dark Angel Green and the helmets and shoulder pad things Liche Purple. Weapons are a blue-black, progressively lightened on the spikey blades. Quick and quite effective they make a nice contrast to the black and white Eldar, not sure when I'll get time to do some more for a while...

League of Nations Space Navy Troopers

With the imminent publication of Dick Garrison Rapid Launch!! I needed to get some of the "good guys" painted as well as the hero himself. Having painted the Khang Troopers red, the Silvenians green and the Ingians blue I decided to go for a more conservative dark grey and white scheme. I have added splashes of colour with gold/copper badges, blue 'power cells' on the weapons etc, so they don't appear too monochrome and am pleased with the overall effect.

The Bob Olley sculpted figures are from Wargames Supply Dump but I'm not sure of their availability as the WSD website has disappeared (I'll drop Roger an email and let you know). Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch as I'd forgotten what fun these figures were to paint and have Khang the Compassionless and some hawkmen undercoated on the workbench to work on alongside some more moderns...

(Moderns Month) US Mechanized Infantry

I finished the first squad of US Mechanized Infantry during my lunch break today, I must say I'm really pleased with the end result. As with the Soviets I have published a stage by stage guide on the Whirarwistan blog.

The squad is a mix of Esci and Revell plastics. I like both but if revisiting the project I would probably go with the Revell miniatures which have a slightly more realistic baggy look, that said the Esci models are finely sculpted and paint up nicely. The colours are slightly exaggerated from what they should be, but I think this is necessary to ensure they look correct on the tabletop and maintain the distinctive look of the US desert choc-chip camo.

I need to crack on with the remaining two squads for the Soviets and Americans this week but have slightly side-tracked myself by a commitment to get Dick Garrison Rapid Launch out in May, then realising I hadn't painted up any League of Nations Space Navy troops for the PDF cover. I have been working on a section in rotation with the US infantry (and the Orcs) and they shouldn't take long too finish or stop me getting back on track with the moderns.

Unfortunately I have shelved plans to paint up some 28mm England Prevails 2ECW figures this month. Looking at what I have I want to do some conversions to fit them in the background (I've got to have one trade union militiaman in a donkey jacket!) so they've been put back in the draw fttb...

Orcs v Tactical Nuclear Penguins

'Moderns Month' is slowly progressing and I've almost finished a US Mechanized Infantry Squad which you can see here, hopefully finished tomorrow...

As the dip was drying I decided to  stick together a couple of the sprues of Mantic Orcs we picked up at Salute - and I decided to slap a bit of paint on them.

These are by far the best models Mantic have released and a good mix of possibilities tempered with not too many pieces to stick together. I am so impressed with them I've ordered a box of thirty from Wayland Games which at £22.49 means they're only 75p each. What I really like is that they'll fit in with my old Citadel Orcs and don't look too comic. Ok, I'd prefer they were armed with scimitars and I'm not 100% taken with the shields but I do like them...

Painting was a doddle, black undercoat, drybrushed with Tin Bitz then Boltgun Metal. Repaint the non-metal areas black, then Dark Flesh, then Bestial Brown or Terracotta over that. For Orc flesh I mix yellow with black which makes a swarthy green, eyes are dotted Blood Red and teeth painted in with Bleached Bone.

I also finished off these two 'Tactical Nuclear Penguins' from the Critter Commandoes packs I painted Saul for Christmas, which had been 95% finished since January...

(Moderns Month) Soviet Naval Infantry

It may have appeared that it was all quiet on the moderns front but I have been working on my first section of Esci 20mm Soviet Naval Infantry. They haven't take too long in between real world commitments and I used the Army Painter dip over a camo pattern which was something of an experiment but has come up really nice. I have published a full step by step guide on my Whirarwistan blog here.

My Bradley IFV's have turned up along with a bargain buy M1A1HA Abrams tank so I need to get on with weathering them and painting up the US infantry to go with them. My Soviet APC's are still in transit from Hong Kong! :-)

On the scenery front I dug out some of the old Ian Weekly models I commissioned many moons ago which will be great for both this project plus my 20mm C19th North-West Frontier when I get around to that. Here's one with the Naval Infantry section on it...

There's A Game In That...

Some of you may have seen Tas' post on The Man Cave about Cyborg Seals and Zombie Penguins and The Lad's idea that it would make a cool wargame. Clearly if you add Commando Polar Bears to the mix he might be on to something...

(painting by Tyler Edlin) 

This would be sooo freaking cool at Salute 2012... ;-)

By Crom!

Feeling more hopeful after seeing the trailer (apart from the obvious 3D gimmicks ):

Adding Impetus?

Not managed to get a great deal done as I've been away and am waiting for my AFV's and Revell US Moderns to arrive but I have decided to paint the Russkis as Naval Infantry and have based up a nine man section only to find I don't have any white undercoat to hand so I plan to pop into town before I pick Saul up from school this afternoon.

One thing that did come to my attention in my rummage in the attic was the number of weird and wonderful boxes of plastics I have in the attic for a wide variety of periods including a diverse selection of 20mm ancients and medievals (Egyptians, Seas Peoples, Macedonians, Romans, Barbarians etc). I have been giving some thought as to if there is anything I can do with them. The first thought was DBA but I don't like HOTT too much so that kind of knocked that on the head so I'm considering Impetus, or more specifically Basic Impetus as it's small (see photo from Bill's blog), free and the website has a host of army lists for the game online as well.

Whilst I'm still planning on using Clash of Empires for "normal" wargames with my 28mm Romans and Celts and the Peloponnesian Wars project (and am so pleased with my read through of the rules that I am considering using them for fantasy!), Basic Impetus may well be a practical solution to use the boxes of 20mm plastics I have...

May Is... Moderns Month

Unfortunately April was pretty pathetic on the wargames front, the games room is still lost under piles of this and that and I didn't manage to paint very much either. I did ponder extending rescuing the games room month into May as it is a pretty important project but decided it will just have to be BAU as I focus painting efforts on something else.

With the Force on Force bug having bitten I've decided to have a 'Moderns Month' concentrating on two projects, my Cold War in a hot country Whirarwistan and the somewhat stalled England Prevails modern English Civil War. Be a change to paint some camo...

On the subject of moderns Shaun at S&S Models sent me a copy of their up to date lists which is a treasure trove for moderns gamers. There are a lot of very tempting models and figures in both the WW2 and moderns ranges and I am am trying to find reasons NOT to buy the 20mm Stryker MGS...
:-)