Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I went to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Tuesday. The sequel to 2011's excellent Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel picks up the story a few years after Simian Flu has devastated humanity and chronicles the first contact between the genetically evolved apes and the human pandemic survivors. It will be no surprise that this does not go well...

A hugely enjoyable film with some great combat sequences and nods to the original films, such as the ape cavalry, it is well worth making the effort to watch it at the cinema on the big screen if you can. The apes would make a great alternative enemy for any zombie survivors you have in your miniature collection...

iAlamein

Back in February you may recall I got rather excited over Shenandoah Studio's WW2 Strategy iOS games Battle of the the Bulge and Drive in Moscow. I hadn't played them recently but having to sit on a hot train to and from London today I decided to chill out in a virtual snowy Ardennes!

Much fun was had which reminded me that Shenandoah had released the third game in the series, Desert Fox: The Battle of El Alamein so a visit to the App Store was called for when I got home this evening.

I've just downloaded the game and may be gone some time!

AirWar C21: HMS Fearless (L10)

No attempt to game the Falklands War would be right without any ships, after all the defence of the fleet was paramount to the RAF/FAA. Having decided to use 1/300th models for the planes, the issue was what to do about the ships. In the end I decided to adopt an element of forced perspective and use 1/600th ships with 1/300th planes, which seems to work quite nicely.

The first ship I have painted is HMS Fearless (L10), one of two Landing Platform Dock (LPD) class vessels to serve in the conflict taking part in the landings at San Carlos.

The model is the venerable old Airfx model, which I have 'waterlined'. From my research I understand that the model is not 100% accurate for the Falklands conflict, being based on what she looked like in the sixties when first commissioned. But if it looks like a duck etc.

I couldn't find a definitive painting guide for her in the Falklands either but from what I have found I understand she had grey decks in 1982, not the green on the Airfix instruction sheet, although my grey may be a litle too dark.

I understand that the serial and funnel markings were painted out when in service, so I have done this using a slightly lighter tone of grey to give the effect (from the photos I have found you can't really see this but I liked the idea).

Further I weathered the model with some rust and dirt smudging to reinforce the fact that it was winter in the South Atlantic and the fleet did not look pristine in action. The deck markings are hand painted but again I am not 100% sure of the accuracy for 1982.

I must say that after some trepidation (the model has sat undercoated for about three years now), I did enjoy painting Fearless and like the end result.

Painting Target: 448/1000

AirWar C21: 800 NAS Sea Harrier FRS.1's

Following on from yesterday's RAF Harrier GR.3's, I finished of four Heroics & Ros Sea Harrier FRS.1's that have been sat around half-painted for a while. One had a slightly moulding defect, which I have painted up as some battle damage...

The Sea Harrier served with 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadron's during the Falklands campaign, off HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible respectively.

Now where did I put those Argie Skyhawks and Mirages?

Painting Target: 447/1000

AirWar C21: No. 1 Squadron Harrier GR.3's

Having decided I wanted to theme the bases on the ArcWorlde miniatures, that project has come to a grinding halt whilst a supply of resin bases and basing effects materials arrive. Looking around for something to paint, I spotted a batch of 1/300th modern aircraft which have lain in various half-painted states for a while now.

The models (Heroics & Ros I believe) had been purchased for a AirWar: C21 Falklands project using 1/300th aircraft and 1/600th ships but for some reason got pushed to the back of the painting table and subsequently onto a shelf.

First to be finished are these four Harrier GR.3's of No.1 Squadron RAF, which flew off HMS Hermes and later Port San Carlos during the war.

Painting Target: 443/1000

ArcWorlde: Hobgoblins of the Gaulag Wastes III

I finished the final ArcWorlde Hobgoblin this afternoon, the Mounted Hobgoblin Honcho...

This is a lovely model mounted on some sort of Temple Dog type beast. The mount actually caused some problems painting as I decided I didn't my first brown paint job and repainted it in this more red brown look, which contrasts nicely with the base and the Hobgoblin flesh.

I'm thinking of painting the Jungle Gremlins of Chaq-Itza next, but might hold off if I can source some nice looking resin jungle bases for them. Having based the Hobgoblins on Gaulag Waste bases, I like the idea of themed bases for these small warbands and am now off to eBay to find suitable base designs.

Painting Target: 439/1000

ArcWorlde: Hobgoblins of the Gaulag Wastes II

More ArcWorlde Hobgoblins today, this time the three Hobgoblin Bruisers...

I must say I do love this miniatures, great fun to paint and such wonderful sculpts, they put me in mind of the Brian Froud goblins.

Painting Target: 438/1000

ArcWorlde: Hobgoblins of the Gaulag Wastes I

Despite having two 6mm projects on the go, the urge to paint some of the ArcWorlde minis was too much, so I dug out one of the warbands to paint up - the Hobgoblins of the Gaulag Wastes.

These spear armed miniatures are Hobgoblin Runts and undoubtedly are the cannon fodder of the warband. I went with a simple basic look to them, using a swarthy green made from mixing and yellow and black together for the skin, as it provides a great contrast colour.

I'm not sure what  the Gaulag Wastes look like but I decided to try something different inspired by the volcanic black sand on the beaches of Sorrento using cat litter. I wasn't the easiest material to get to stick to the base as it was very absorbent and necessitated a wash of watered down PVA to ensure it remained where I wanted it. That said, I do like the end result.

Painting Target: 435/1000

Arcworlde Arrives...

You may recall last year I contracted a case of Ohhshinyitis with the Arcworlde Kickstarter. Despite the best efforts of UPS to lose the goodies ("your parcel has be left at... S") a big box of resin and white metal has now arrived in Bristol and I spent a good hour unpacking it going "ooh, oooh and ooooh!" :-)

Some really lovely models here and the great thing is Alex Huntley's sculpting style has its own uniqueness and character, rather than the more common clone GW or Copplestone school look. With a ton of beautiful miniatures to paint up, including an Undead Leviathan and absolutely huge giant, I've decided to start small with the Hobgoblin warband comprising of seven infantry and one mounted warrior, which I have based up this lunchtime (experimenting with the cat litter to portray their Gaulag Waste homeland).

More soon...

The SOTCW World War One Compendium

The Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers have moved into the 21st century with the release of a PDF compendium of the Great War articles that have appeared in their society magazine The Journal over the years.

The SOTCW World War One Compendium is available in a number of e-formats including PDF, mobi and ePub, so readable on Kindles, iPads as well as PC. At 131 pages for 43p (yes 43 pence) it is an absolute bargain and can be bought at Wargame Vault here.

Hopefully this proves successful and the SOTCW look at making previous compendiums available electronically.

Ps. my White Fokker scenario is in it too!

WW3: East German SA14 Support Platoon BMP-2's

One of the Regimental Support options is a SA14 Platoon equipped with BMP-2's. 'Lead Mountain' had enough BMP-2's for a future Soviet Tank or Motor Rifle Regiment with spare for the National Volksarmee.

All I need do now is source some suitable infantry for these and the Motor Rifle Companies as Heroics & Ros only produce modern Soviet infantry. Perhaps a blob of Liquid Green Stuff on the helmets?

Painting Target: 431/1000

WW3: East German Motor Rifle Regiment BMP-1's Companies

Whilst I painted up three companies of BTR-60's for my NVA East German Motor Rifle Regiment I decided to paint up a couple of BMP-1 companies as well as well as two BMP-1's for the Regiment HQ.

Painting Target: 428/1000

WW3: East German 2S3 Battery

No WarPac army can have too much artillery, so I decided to add a second artillery battery my East German Motor Rifle Regiment.

As previously the models are GHQ 1/285th, painted in Vallejo Reflective Green.

Painting Target: 420/1000

WW3: East German BTR-60 Motor Rifle Companies

I painted up the BTR-60's for the three companies of my NVA Motor Rifle Regiment. Nothing says WarPac like the BTR-60!

Painting Target: 417/1000

WW3: East German Motor Rifle Regiment HQ

The bulk of my Motor Rifle Regiment's APC's will be BTR-60''s, my favourite Soviet vehicle. Consequently I needed two for the Regiment HQ.

To be honest I'm not quite sure if these are accurate as I added the radio aerials to these GHQ models many, many moons ago. I must have based them on something, I just can't recall exactly what. Never mind, they look the part!

Painting Target: 408/1000

WW3: East German BDRM-2 Scout Platoon

Continuing with the East Germans I painted up three GHQ BDRM-2's to form a Scout Platoon.

A wonderful little model, I'm tempted to buy a few more to create a Grenztruppen (Border Troops) regiment.

Painting Target: 406/1000

WW3: East German 2S3 Battery

I'm not quite sure why I have so many GHQ Soviet 2S3 SPG's in 'Lead Mountain' but I do so I have added a battery to East German Motor Rifle Regiment.

Painting Target: 403/1000

WW3: East German NVA T-72 Tank Company

As a break from the deserts of the Sinai, I have dug out some GHQ MicroArmour from 'Lead Mountain' and worked out what I could make up using Mike Edward's Flames of War WarPac lists. As some of what I found is not state of the art by mid-eighties standards I have decided to start the ball rolling by raising an East German National Volksarmee (NVA) Motor Rifle Regiment (MMR).

To kick things off I painted up two T-72's I found, I really need three to complete the MMR support company but couldn't find another (I know there are quite a few T-72's still in their Minifigs bags from when I started this idea decades ago).

The paint scheme is straight forward overall Reflective Green and will work for any WarPac nation equipped with these MBT's. I decided not to try and paint numbers on the turrets as my varifocals aren't that good and you can't see them on the tabletop anyway.

Painting Target: 400/1000

Land Ironclads: Sprue Fortress II

A bit of progress on the sprue fortress, building up the ground work with filler and Green Stuff...

Not a lot of activity at Blease Central today after last night's gig - it went well, here's a bit of footage...

October War: Arab Trucks

It's been a bit hectic in Blease Towers today as we get stuff ready for Saul's gig tonight. As you can see I will be appropriately clothed!

I did managed to grab five minutes to finish these four trucks for the Egyptians or Syrians. I'm not 100% sure what they are or who makes them (Heroics & Ros I guess) but they will give me a useful logistics tail when added to those already painted...

Painting Target: 398/1000

Land Ironclads: Sprue Fortress I

A little break from 6mm - here's some 2mm! :-)

Busy day today with work and trying to get Saul's stuff ready for his first gig tomorrow evening (7.30pm Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham if you are free) so just a work in progress shot of my latest effort playing around with sprue...

October War: Israeli M109 Rochevs

Continuing with the Israeli artillery I painted the two GHQ M109's I recently acquired.

In 1973 the Israelis had two battalions of M109's (known by the Israelis as the Rochev). Serving on the Golan front, the M109's equipped the 405th Namer Battalion (whose entire B Battery was lost in the early days of the war) and the 899th Battalion.

The M109 is one of those irritating models in the GHQ line where they only give you two turrets in the pack of five for this model, and five turrets for the M109A1 with the longer barrel. I really don't understand the logic behind this, they do it with the M48A5 as well only giving two of the useful 90mm gun turrets and five less useful 105mm ones. I'd like to make the M109's up to a full four SPG battery but I don't want anymore M109A1's so I am not sure what to do...

Painting Target: 394/1000

October War: Israeli M-50 155 mm Battery

A few more Israeli artillery models, a battery of Israeli M-50 155 mm's. Produced by the Israelis with French assistance (the 155mm is the French Obusier de 155 mm Modèle 50), it saw service in the War of Attrition and October War.

I think the models are 1/300th Heroics & Ros, quite nicely detailed, I like the crew being modelled on the miniature rather than the open topped piece being crewless as is quite common (I need to buy some crew to finish my Makmats).

Painting Target: 392/1000