Shermans in progress. Woo Hoo!

Hey hey! I’m managing more than one post in a week.

Got some snaps on Tuesday night of the Shemans in progress but didn’t quite have the time yesterday to post.

To start off, I have the M4A1’s that just have their base coat.

These came along swimmingly.

Next are a couple of comparison shots of the shermans before I do the highlights and after.

They will still get yet more highlights when I do the details and finally the bases and associated dirt and mud that gets on tanks.

Next are the remaining tanks to be done. Going to try to get at least half done this evening so I can get them mostly done by the end of the weekend.

On a side note, on the side (snicker) of this, and, in fact, every page on this site is a small list of pages that I have set up to document where I am on other projects that run around in my scattered brain instead of trying to always make a post here on the main page. I’m still not keen on calling them WIP pages, but for the moment, that’s what they are.

Thanks,

Charles

List for Historicon

Taking Mike’s suggestion that I go with the USA for the FoW tourney at Historicon, here is my initial list of what I can go with:

HQ – 2x M4 – 140

1st Platoon – 4 x M4 – 275

2nd Platoon – 4 x M4A1(76) – 355

The above is the base of the list and what is already assured to be in the army.

Below are all the options I could do.

Full Battery of M7 Priests (6 guns)- 325

Tank Destroyers (2 sections) – 335

Armoured Rifle Platoon (Full Strength) – 240

3 x M4 (105) – 215

This all totals 1885 points so some of the support needs reworking. The tournament is at 1750 points so I don’t need to trim that much. The list, as it is, is a good all around list, able to deal with armour or infantry effectively. It is really a matter of what I think I will be facing when deciding what to cut.  I could use air or some recon elements to really balance it out against all-comers but that will come at the expense of something else.

Thoughts?

I had hoped to put up some pics of the Shermans as they progress but last evening the time did not present itself. Hopefully tonight.

More Lists and what I am starting with.

Well, I didn’t quite make it to a post yesterday. But today is the day. Or I could have made an April Fool’s joke early…

Here is the hobby area in the garage:

This is not the initial pic I wanted to show as I have already mounted a good, sturdy shelf to the wall to support the shelf units. I did have to take this arrangement down to make the shelf sturdier with some 2 x 4. The idea behind this is to keep most of my terrain making materials and tools in here until my boys move out to places of their own.

This pic:

is of the bench with the shelf remounted and some of the organisation started. I will probably have to move the bench over towards the left to afford some storage for other things.

Now is the real reason for the reorg: lists. What follows are Mike terms ‘Forgotten Projects’ or ‘On Hold Projects’.

These are variety of different things: French and Dutch for Bob’s 1585 DBA extension( good stuff but sadly lacking anybody with interest to play)(In fact, I wouldn’t mind another ruleset that would make for slightly bigger armies. Something beside DBM or DBMM.)

A pile of Swiss for WAB. (Though a sampling of these have been pulled for SFC.)

Cases of (mostly) fantasy figs for Mordheim. (which I wouldn’t mind doing, but, again, a lack of interest in other parties.)

The above is a sampling of the Normans I bought for WAB. As Bob has pointed out – Who am I going to play around here? As an aside, Bob, what about using oval bases for cav in SFC? To be honest, 50 or 60mm rounds are pretty big. Nice for mini dioramas, but a little unwieldy for games especially if we’re going to crowd it with terrain.

And, lastly for today:

These are actually in the pipeline for getting done. these are some of the ‘Swiss fuggers’ that Bob mentioned. Also are some GB Vikings/Huscarls that I want to base up for SFC. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

See, this is just a small portion of the list I have to deal with to just reorg the hobby bench. The painting bench is another story.

Speaking of the painting bench:

This pic is relatively current, I think two or three days ago.

The Shermans on the top right are getting highlights done. The Tigers on the bottom right have had their magic wash applied are awaiting details and highlights. The Panthers will get their final basecoats before I move on theTigers his evening. The various finished models on the bench are there to get their magnets applied to their bases so I can put them in the new cases I showed earlier.

Another list item of note before I sign off for today is: what army to take to Historicon in July? Germans? Though not enough late war stuff. Americans? Workable and probably best option for not having as much to paint. Or British? I do have almost all the models for a workable Normandy Tank Company, but not a lick is painted….

Opinions?

Charles

List, Lists, and More Lists

One of the things I love about wargaming is the army list. That is because the army list represents so many things. It can represent the pinnacle of your gaming prowess in a list that you have never lost with; it can also represent your worst game in a list that was better off fighting for space in the bottom of your trashcan.

The list can also represent some of your finest or favorite painting work in a list that you created and specifically bought and painted models for. One of my favorites is the 1352 Stug list that grace these pages. That list and those models represent something of a rarity for me; a finished project. Though there is no pic of the grenadier platoon, they are finished.

While lists can be a good thing, they can also be a burden. They are burden for me in that they represent unfinished projects and unrealised ideas. The reason for that is that I have too many lists. And not just army lists. Mike Hobbs had the good idea, of which I have yet to nick, of listing the projects he wanted to accomplish this year and placing them on his front page. This is supposed to give one focus. Apparently, I am missing this.

Today is the recommitment of getting back my focus. I will start with a list that contains, among other things, lists of armies I want to do, along with other gaming related projects. Today I commit to getting pics along with my words. (And I would have had some of those today if this PC would have read my memory card…)

1. Re Setup the hobby area in the garage. (See, this would have had pics…)

2. Rearrange desk for keeping up with the blog. (Wife redecorated the room…’nuf said.)

3. Finish US Armour company

4. Finish first Tiger company

5. Finish miscellaneous models on paint desk.

6. Finish Panther company.

7. Swiss fuggers for SFC.

8. Viking fuggers for SFC.

9. Terrain pieces for Italian theatre for FOW. Hill bases already cut.

10. Terrain for NW Europe for FOW.

11. Finish up buildings and terrain for SFC. I have a number of half-finished buildings that I had originally started for Morheim.

This should work for now. Pics of Item 1 and, maybe, 2 for tomorrow.

Still Working…

The Shermans are moving along.

These are, in fact, further along than what I show. They have had their bases painted and had a magic wash applied. Hopefully I’ll get a pic later this evening since I thought I had one in the camera already.

Next are the M4A1 (76)’s. They, too, are further along than the picture shows. Also in this view is the Tiger company.

These are not the tigers from the tigers marsch box. Those will see the light of day probably by the end of the summer. These tigers are a mish-mash of different tigers from throughout the Batllefront line. There are two Kursk tigers, one Tunisia tiger, and two late tigers with zimmerit. I’ll run them as a company when the opportunity presents itself, but they will probably be used as support for various forces.

My long awaited transition to more pics and different sections of the site may bear fruit this week as I am off work while the daughter is on spring break. I, at the very least, intend on getting some more pics of other things not just FOW. This will include my dwarf army for WFB and a full accounting of the actual FOW armies I currently have and I intend to pursue.

Until then,

Charles

Forward Observer

In addition to the usual cast of dodgy persons whose links you see to the right, I do, on occasion, peruse other parts of the ‘interweb’, as Dave Dubya has termed it. More often than not, these other sites are FOW or WWII related. But not all. I do like the look of a well set up game no matter the period and this applies to well made and painted figures, as well.

I thought I would share these on occasion, as I should find them.

First up is one the more well known hobby types, Phil Olley. I was checking his site today and discovered he has a page of miniatures from an older, bygone era.

 http://www.warcabinet.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/miniatures_museum.htm

Next up is Soapy, whose blog is a regular perusal of mine. Mainly to get the other side of story when Bill says that he has lost Musketeer Miniatures to Lord S of Gripping Beast.

http://soapyvision.blogspot.com/index.html

An occasional look in on The Lead Adventure Forum always gets my head swimming with new projects:

http://forum.backofbeyond.de/index.php

Another good site is fromthe Battlebarn Gamers from Wiliamsburg, Virginia. They have a nice bit of Flames of War action, plus some other historicals that they. Good Stuff.

http://battlebarn.webs.com/index.htm

Last but not least for today are the Southend-On-Sea Wargames Group.  They do a good mix of stuff and their terrain is top-notch. I prefer 15mm WWII but their 20mm stuff is quite nice!

 http://www.sswg.org/

That’s it for today. Maybe some pics of almost finished Shermans tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that…

Charles

Working Away…

…on some different things. Not all of them models.

I got a burr under my saddle (which is something we say out west, here) about figure storage and transport. Most of the figure cases I see that I like are expensive or inadequate. Or both. So I found some regular storage cases at the local Home Depot, some steel flashing, and some rivets.

I did this:

 I cut the steel to fit the compartments and rivet them in and I get this:

I have two of these cases done and I figue two more to do in order to hold most of my FOW stuff that is done and what is on the paint table.

Speaking of the paint table:

I have been taking a bit of break; in protest, due to being rather busy at work and at the house. However, I have been getting some little bits done here and there. I finished up assembling a Panther platoon and 4 more Tigers. I also got the base painting in on my Shermans:

 There is also a platoon of 76mm Shermans, but I don’t have the base paint on those yet.  Need to get a platoon of Priests out together by Friday for a game. Maybe.

Work continues on the secret project front; Bob, I’m about halfway through, been tough getting in any time. Looks good so far. Oh, and ‘the chair is against the wall.’

Charles

An Update (of sorts…)

Howdy!

It would seem I have been remiss in my blogging responsibilities. Just ask Mike!

I have not been idle. Well, mostly.

In the IT world, in my industry, resort-casinos, January to about March/April is the time for getting projects done and moving forward with the things that we can’t do when business is really happening. That is when we are busy avoiding making changes before holiday weekends.  That is one reason you heard more from me during the holidays and over the summer. Anyway, our last real ‘holiday’ weekend is approaching and that is the Super Bowl. For those over the pond that don’t follow American football, think ‘World Cup Final’ and you’ll get the idea. After that weekend, I have a whole slew of network projects to implement, the biggest of which is our WAN link switchover and the implementation of a new SAN and some server relocations. These all involve working nights which makes gaming take a bit of a back seat.

Not entirely in the back seat, as I tend to pick my way through some projects, model by model.

This leads me to the updated bits of the site. As will be mentioned in the new pages I am about to put up, I rather liked the pipeline concept I have here, but, unfortunately, with the way things have unfolded I have found it hard to keep up with as it does not motivate me the way it was intended.

All is not lost, however. The closing of the shop has brought myself and my little band of gamer refugees from there an opportunity from the self same person who closed it. We have been able to get involved on an introductory level of helping develop the game we all love and play. I’m excited to be part of it.

I would also be remiss if I did not mention another grand opportunity in being able to serve the same function for my friend Bob in an endeavor of his.

I can not give details of either project, but they will be good fun and they lead me to the new bits of the site, though they are really just expansions of armies I already have going.

Charles

Open source parade continues…

Today I come to you from yet another operating system. This time it is Kubuntu. During the past week at work, I had been messing about with Ubuntu. On that I got MyDNS to work properly so I think I am well on the way to getting the hang of this. Granted I just followed some instructions but I did have an initial problem so I had to muck about in VI to fix it. But, fix it, I did. With this in mind, I am going to commit to attempting to use this OS for most of my work and goofing about at home. It will be a challenge as number of things from work are Microsoft based and I don;t think there is a VPN client for Ubuntu for Cisco. I’ll have to check it out.

I missed the game this week due to family activities. This week I’ll be going, though. We are still on a late-war kick. Due to the generosity of one Barry Hilton of LOA, I was able to obtain his ‘Hill 91′ scenario. I will pose this to the guys to see if they would like to have a go at it.

I have not done much in the way of painting as Christmas and hanging about with the family has taken up most of the week.  I have been doing some work on an update to the site and a refocusing on particular projects that I really want to get done. I should be able to show those towards the end of either this week or next.

Till next time,

Charles

So, I got in a game on Wednesday…

It turns out to be a large German on Russians bash…

I took the 1352 as featured on these very pages. My compatriots were of a mind to take a few big tanks…I think it was a mistake against the commies. Oh, we were also playing the Fighting withdrawal scenario….We were supposed to withdraw.

Below we have the initial setup:

On the bottom left, just out of the frame are some of my Stug’s. You should notice the 4, yes, 4, Elephants on our left flank. In retrospect, they should have probably been more in the center…

Here the sturmoviks descend on my poor stugs. They popped one and bailed another. And, for good measure, they also took out one of my 10.5’s and pinned the platoon which I failed to unpin the entire game.

The next shot is the end of turn one:

As you can see, we didn’t do too badly. The elephants took out two of the SU-85’s over on the commies right right flank. But they only managed to bail one of the three IS-2’s. Our tigers showed up from ambush to help my stugs shoot up some T-34’s. This was the highlight of the game for us. The commies and their ‘Allies’, the Americans, continually bombarded us with mortars, heavy mortars, and howitzers.

The following pic is of what I think is the fourth turn:

As you can see, stugs are burning, tigers are burning, there are craters where my 3.7 FlaK43’s and right flank stugs use to be….

On the upside, we killed a platoon of SU-85’s and T-70’s. Plus we got a good bit of one the T-34 companies, but not enough of the one that was on the objective…

Below is a pic of the objective about to be taken:

On this side of the board the SU-152 was the objective. It’s not very clear but my stugs were the ones that managed to pop all of the T-34’s from that company. Unfortunately, it was not enough firepower, and the stugs paid with incoming fire from more heavy mortars and two T-34 companies. That would be two of them on left, burning…

Here we have the rotten commie winners. Joe, on the left, is Zukov, reincarnated, and the one with the hat is the ‘American’ player, Brandon. The German players didn’t want their pictures taken for obvious reasons.

What’s really sad, is that this picture was taken before the game and they are already this smug.

I told my dog, Dobbs, the outcome of the game and he was suitably unimpressed.

That’s it for this post.

To everyone out there, have a Merry Christmas!

Charles