From Tangiers to Harad - Forthcoming Plastic Excitement!

I'm cursing the fact I won't be at Salute this year now - look what Gripping Beast are releasing at the show...

Yes, plastic Arab spearmen and archers, 40 warriors per box... I can see uses for Donnybrook, LoTR and who knows, maybe even Deus Vult! :-)

H.M.S. Nightshade Sails Again!

Just a little progress on Watch Am Escargot today, making up and undercoating three Hotchkiss tanks and four Laffly trucks, so nothing to photograph, but kind Mr.Postman delivered a copy of Garth Ennis Presents - Battle Classics. As you probably know I grew up with Battle comic and love the wonderful Titan reprints (Charley's War, Major Eazy, Darkie's Mob, Johnny Red etc).

Garth Ennis Presents - Battle Classics is an anthology volume but in the main is a reprint of the excellent H.M.S. Nightshade story (192 pages of the 256), with the addition of the General Dies At Dawn and three short stories notable for the artwork by Cam Kennedy.

H.M.S. Nightshade is the story of a Royal Navy corvette, recounted by veteran George Dunn and is beautifully drawn by Mike Western (who also drew Darkie's Mob and The Sarge, two of my other favourites).

Naval stories never really work in comics, Battle had not had a good track record and even the naval stories in Charley's War had been stopped after the Falklands one, however, John Wagner and Mike Western clicked and for the year it ran, the gritty story of H.M.S. Nightshade was one of my favourites in Battle - I always harboured the dream of one day getting old of the Matchbox 1/76th Flower Class corvette kit and painting her as H.M.S. Nightshade!

It's great to read the story again, hopefully it won't be long before the Major Eazy North African campaign stories are released, and hopefully The Sarge.

Watch Am Escargot: French Infantry III

The final (for the time being) French infantry for Watch Am Escargot are a couple of bases of Bold Captains (or Command Rifle Teams in FoW speak...)

Here is the Bold Captain card:

I also painted up a Staff Team (FoW term) for the Artillery Divisional support should I want to use the French with FoW (my forces should make up a 1400 point Escardon de Combat when finished).

In an attempt to use the Peter Pig miniatures I had rather than buy any more (well apart from the Grenadiers I intend to order later this week) I used an infantryman, a surrendering German and two French officers to create a little vignette.

2014 Painting Target: 132/1000

Watch Am Escargot: French Infantry II

I managed to finish off the remaining three Watch Am Escargot 1940 French Rifle/LMG bases today...

As previously, they are 15mm Peter Pig figures bought many moons ago for a long forgotten project, based on FoW bases.

And here are all four of the bases together...

And their Axis & Allies card...

2014 Painting Target: 122/1000

Watch Am Escargot: French Infantry I

I have just finished a couple of test pieces of French infantry for my Watch Am Escargot 1940 Axis & Allies project. They are based for FoW but can be used for a number of systems.

French LMG Team

It is a long time since I painted any 15mm and it is not my favourite scale from a painting point of view. Not small enough for micro techniques, too small for larger scale ones. Consequently I decided dip was the way.

French LMG Team

The figures are Peter Pig, bought many Fiasco's ago, and are nice miniatures, the dip does a good job in picking out the detail. I went with the block paint, dip and some drybrushed highlights technique and think it has worked quite well.

French Observation Team

The remaining French are currently dipped and drying for 24 hours, so hopefully there will be a load more done this week. Next should be the French AFV's...

2014 Painting Target: 110/1000

Aquanef: The Nautilus

As I have promised to run a cross-over Aeronef/Aquanef game at Blast-tastic I have been getting back into the "VSF zone" so to speak and whilst the dip was drying on Rogue and his friends I decided to do some paint work on this model of The Nautilus.

The model is actually a Christmas Tree decoration from Hallmark (eBay is your friend here) based on the 1954 film version rather  the Verne's description. It is an excellent model, some 13cm in length, and could be used just by removing the hanging hook, but I decided I want my underwater models to be slightly muted compared to the sea level (and above) craft so I repainted it in a grey-brown concoction I mixed up.

2014 Painting Target: 104/1000

Rogue Trooper: Nort Infantryman

The "bad guys" in Rogue Trooper are the Norts, a human power bloc with a heavy Soviet concept influence. Accordingly I used a Russian palette when painting the Nort, block painting, dipping then highlighting as previous.

I was not sure on the boots and gauntlets and had originally planned to do then a dark brown, but re-reading the first Rogue Trooper stories, whilst the art is black and white, they appear to be a black leather. Whatever, they provide a better contrast to the main brown uniform.

I did tweak the base this time, I've kept the groundwork the same, Black Grey drybrushed Buff, but painted the base edge London Grey which seems to work better than Black Grey.

2014 Painting Target: 103/1000

Rogue Trooper: Souther Infantryman

The radioactive and chemical wasteland of Nu-Earth requires all troops (other than the modified Genetic Infantrymen) to wear full protection on the battlefield and this Souther trooper is equipped accordingly.

Uniform colour schemes for Nu-Earth are very few and far between so I decided to use the same Vallejo Reflective Green I used on Rogue's helmet and backpack for the Souther NBC suit. As with the GI he was block painted, dipped and then highlighted. I painted the visor the same Dark Sky Blue as Rogue's flesh to provide some additional themed link.

I'm quite happy with the end result, the scheme is very quick and simple to paint so when Mongoose start shipping the Southers, they shouldn't take long to get ready for some tabletop action...

2014 Painting Target: 102/1000

Rogue Trooper

Last year I pledged towards Mongoose's Rogue Trooper Kickstarter, I have always loved the Nu-Earth stories and thought it would make for a great skirmish game. Unfortunately the Kickstarter has been bedevilled with problems and Mongoose are getting a kicking for it. In retrospect they may have been a bit optimistic launching this so soon after the Dredd one which they had not finished shipping stuff out on and to be fair they have been let down by the same sculptor who let me down with the Geheimkrieg miniatures.

However things appear to be moving, photos of greens have been seen so fingers crossed 2014 will be the Year of the Rogue!

Ironically the Dredd Kickstarter included a set of Rogue Trooper miniatures comprising of Rogue, a Souther Trooper and a Nort and these arrived recently. I'm not sure how compatible these will be with the eventual releases but I decided to slap some paint on the three figures starting with the blue-skinned Genetic Infantryman himself.

I tried the block paint, dip, then highlight paint approach to speed things up and think the result is reasonably good. I'm not sure on the base effect, I want to do something different for the radioactive wasteland of Nu-Earth and have drybrushed Buff over Black Grey. Not sure on this but it will do until something better suggests itself.

2014 Painting Target: 101/1000

Generic Inter-War Tankette

A few months back I picked up a generic 28mm resin tankette of eBay for no other reason than it was cute looking and very cheap (IIRC about £3). Since then it has been sat on the workbench as I did not have a clue what I was going to use it for. I still don't, but somehow inspired by the Orinoco Miniatures Chaco War range of infantry I decided a generic tankette warranted a generic paintjob...

As you can see it has painted up well and for the price is an absolute bargain (even if it is not historically anything). The Rif miniature is to give some idea of scale...

The tankette brings up the century of painted models this year, 10% of the painting target, however any celebrations are on hold as we are now 15% of the way into 2014 so I need to up my game (and dig out the dip!)

2014 Painting Target: 100/1000

Whirarwistan: US Mechanized Infantry II

I managed to finish the third and final squad for my US Mechanized Platoon last night. I realised when painting them that I had painted the first squad up all as Caucasian which hardly reflects the diversity of the US Army. Squads two and three are a mix of Afro-American and Latin/Oriental and I'll reorganise the squads to be a racial mix.

Just the Bradley IFV's to do now and then to get on with the Soviets!

2014 Painting Target: 99/1000

Whirarwistan: US Mechanized Infantry I

Strange how the brain works, a night of insomnia the other day led me to pondering digging out the Whirarwistan US and Soviet infantry and cracking on with them. Having dipped a load of Zulus I was in the "dip zone" so I got on with the remaining two US Mechanized Infantry Squads, finishing the first this lunchtime...

The figures are a mix of Esci and Revell plastics and painted up using the techniques detailed here. The final squad just needs the basing finishing and that will be the infantry for the Mechanized Platoon complete.

2014 Painting Target: 90/1000

Warhammer: Black Troll

Last month I painted up a couple of old Heartbreaker trolls I found in Lead Mountain and mentioned I had found a third, a Sedge Troll from their Magic: The Gathering line, which shared the same body and would end up joining his two companions. Here he is...

Even though he has hair, I went with the same black skin paintjob...

And here are all three together, off to rape the livestock, pillage the womenfolk and eat the buildings...

2014 Painting Target: 81/1000

Flames of War: An Un-PzIV-tunate Mistake...

You may have seen that Battlefront's new plastic Panzer IV Ausf H has a bit of a quality control issue or as stated on John's Toy Soldiers a "cock up"! For non-rivet counters out there, there should be five schürzen plates not four. Unfortunately it is rather obvious when you notice it...

However from adversity and all that, Battlefront come out with some credit. Rather than hide, stick their fingers in their ears and pretend that all is ok in the "Flames of War hobby", they have held there hands up, admitted their mistake on their website and offered replacement parts to anyone who has the gammy four plate schürzen. In a world where I can't get a reply from Dell, let alone anything approximating customer service regarding a PC order, hats off to Battlefront for the way they have dealt with this...

Lone Survivor

As it is half-term we take the opportunity to get to the cinema as much as possible so following Robocop we decided to watch Lone Survivor. This film is based around the failed US SEAL mission Operation Red Wings, where a four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team was tasked to track Taliban leader Ahmad Shah but ended up surrounded by the Taliban and out of comms with their base.

It is a very powerful movie, at times extremely violent and certainly very moving. Some reviewers have said it lacks character development and one described it as "war porn" but that is certainly not the case. The SEALs are not some faceless grunts, no time is wasted in establishing that they are all friends and that they have families they miss back home, I'm not sure what any more "character development" would add, you are certainly moved by the deaths of characters when it happens and in a poignant photo montage at the end. The action is intense and does go on for some time but calling it "war porn" misses the point that the film is showing just what these men went through - it is unrelenting, it is violent, it is shocking, but it is realistic.

Overall, the film tells a story in a powerful way, it is neither a pro or anti-war film, it "just" is a war film but one well worth seeing at the cinema...

Zulu War: The Leopard's Lair

It has been far too long since I finished the uMbonambi regiment for my Zulu army, but at long last there are some reinforcements in the form of the iNdluyengwe (the Leopard's Lair or Den).

Another thirty strong regiment of unmarried Zulus, the  iNdluyengwe were raised in 1866 and fought at Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift, Kambala, Gingidlovo and Ulundi.

The miniatures are Warlord plastics with a metal Empress inDuna to lead them, base painted and then "dipped" in Army Painter Strong Tone. They won't win any prizes but en masse they look pretty good...

Zulu Army painted running total: 60/288 infantry

2014 Painting Target: 80/1000

The Future of American Justice...

I went to see the Robocop remake yesterday. Hollywood does not have a good track record on remaking classic genre films and I only went as Saul had heard good things about it and insisted we did. There were a number of things that should have turned me off this version - Murphy not dying, no female police partner, the prominent inclusion of Murphy's family, that it's only a 12A(!), but...

Yes, despite all the things I thought would annoy the hell out of me this is a very good film and well worth going to see. From the ED209's patrolling the streets of Tehran to a great training session sequence in a disused warehouse (with Focus' Hocus Pocus as the music) to a classic Samuel Jackson performance to the "Dead or alive. You're coming with me..." line, it's a great movie and well worth going to see at the cinema (and it is pushing the boundary between 12A and 15 IMHO).

Grands Chapeaux: Ogre of the Cardinal's Guard I

As any student of Dwarven history knows, the main rivals of the King's Dwarf Musketeers were the Ogre Musketeers, who followed the orders of the infamous Dwarf Cardinal...

This is one of the Ogre Musketeers released by Iron Mask Miniatures as part of their Kickstarter. I have painted it up is a vaguely historical way and he provides a nice contrast to the blue surcoated Dwarf musketeers.

Like the Dwarf, the Ogre comes with separate head and hands allowing for a lot of customisation. Around 35mm tall, they owe much in appearance to the old Maruader Ogres of the eighties.

As a comparison here is the Ogre up against the Dwarf I painted earlier this month - one for all!

En garde!

2014 Painting Target: 50/1000

Project Arbiter - Weird War Two...

I came across this excellent short (20 minute) Weird War Two film on You Tube. Well worth watching if you like this kind of thing...

Battle Academy - War on the iPad...

Following on from my "discovery" of the excellent iPad strategic level games from Shenandoah Studios, I've now been hooked by another iPad game, Slitherine Studio's Battle Academy. Whereas the Shenandoah games are computerised boardgames, Battle Academy is like playing a 1/300th wargame on the iPad.

Units are individual AFV's, light weapon teams and infantry sections and the basic game covers a selection of theatres including the Western Desert (above), Normandy and the Ardennes. There is extra downloadable content covering other theatres such as 1940, Sicily etc. (which you pay for) and also quite a bit of free stuff designed by fans of the game which includes the Pacific, Crete and WWI. I actually started with the WWI stuff and must say the Cambrai campaign was superb and extremely challenging, especially the canal bridges battle (below).

At £13.99 is its a premium price product but it is exceptionally good value for money for the amount of entertainment provided. The game can also be synchronised across other platforms such as PC and MacBook and played against players on those platforms if desired.

All in all, if you have an iPad and are interested in WWII (or WWI) this should be a must have game.