Eye For View Games Evils War Army fantasy

First H&R Germans Painted

2012-07-19T22:42:00.002-07:00

Quickly based and threw some paint on the Heroics and Ros German Infantry

The macro focus on my phone kept focusing on the back row, so I might need to switch back to the real camera.

I'm hoping to base some more this week if time allows.

2012-07-19T22:41:00.003-07:00

Force on Force Arrives...Early!

2012-07-19T22:31:00.004-07:00

My colleague who sits next to me just came back from the mail area with two packages.
Inside was this:

The books look very nice and are more compact than the A4 printouts I had of the original rules.
More details after I get a chance to have a flick through over lunch.
But for now.....Back to Work!!!

Conundrum

2012-07-19T22:31:00.003-07:00

Okay folks, I have a bit of a problem.
I've gotten some more Heroics and Ros 6mm figures. This time it's their modern US, that I plan to use for my 6mm vietnam project. That's all well and good, but I need some opponents for them.
H&R don't make any VC figures. I could try to convert their Warsaw Pact range, but that's likely to be a fair bit of work.
As far as I can tell, there are a few manufacturers who make VC and NVA in this scale:

Mainforce - too big
GHQ - too big and too expensive
Irregular - my usual choice, but big against the H&R.

Below is a comparison shot between H&R US infantry and some Irregular VC. I've lifted the H&R to account for the base on the VC, and they aren't too bad:

The problem really arises with the comparison against the NVA (really Main Force VC for the most part) range from Irregular:

Not as close....
Every time I look at the second picture, my response ranges from "That's not too bad..." to "that's awful".
My budget appears to have backed me into a corner on this.

6mm Moderns begins in earnest

2012-07-19T22:27:00.002-07:00

The new Force on Force and Road to Baghdad have pulled me away from my Vietnam project.
It's now on hold until later this year.
I picked up some mid east buildings form ebay before easter.

I'm inspired.......

Monday, 18 April 2011

Quick "Road to Baghdad" Review

I'm going to cheat and post a quick review I knocked up for Book Depository. After I've had a chance to read through RtB more thorough over the Easter break I'll post more detailed thoughts:

The Road to Baghdad is a return to roots for Ambush Alley Games (AAG). Their original game "Ambush Alley" was firmly rooted in the events of the 2003 invasion of Iraq - Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As the first offering from their new partnership with Osprey, AAG have served up a wargamer's treasure for this conflict. The book is 104 pages, soft cover, and full of colour art and photos as you would expect from an Osprey publication.

After a brief introduction, 11 pages are devoted to the an overview of the war, with the timescale stepped out.

After this comes the real "meat in the sandwich"; 19 scenarios for the conflict spanning 83 full colour pages with maps, force lists, suggestions for alternate and augmented forces, and the all important historical outcome. These scenarios are design for use with the Force on Force ruleset, but could equally be used with any ruleset focusing on about a platoon per side.

Finally there is an overall listing for US, British and Iraqi forces to enable further scenario creation, as well as a bibliography of further reading.

If I have one immediate criticism of Road to Baghdad, it is that there is so much information crammed into the 104 pages. Skimming the book it can be difficult to pick individual scenarios immediately, as there is very little whitespace (camouflage space??) free in this book to delimit the individual scenarios and they often run on into each other. The Table of Contents obviously helps here, but this is a lot of content in a compact form.

6mm Fedayeen

2012-07-19T06:37:00.002-07:00

Last night I had a crack at sculpting some "Darth Vader" helmets on some H&R Soviets to create Fedayeen Saddam figures.

I'm finding that the "greenstuff" is drying out to much as I'm working with it - I'll need to look online for solutions. Looking at the line-up you can tell that the figures in the middle are the ones I started with, and the I moved to the ones on the edge of the sprue. As the putty dries out, I'm finding it becomes harder and stickier, resulting in worse sculpting.

My plan is to mix Darth helmets with balaclava'd figures (next conversion job!) to create my fedayeen for Road to Baghdad.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, here is a google image search for "Fedayeen Helmets" : link

I couldn't find any images I could satisfy myself about ownership/copyright in the short time available to re-post here.

6mm AK47 Game

2012-07-19T06:35:00.003-07:00

I had a quick game of AK47 Republic with by brother, Thomas, on Sunday night.

Full After Action Report has been posted to the Angel Barracks forum as part of a competition Michael was running.
Check it out there!

Quick Review : FoF Enduring Freedom

2012-07-19T06:34:00.003-07:00

A while back I received my copy of the Enduring Freedom sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley. This is Force-on-Force's book on Afghanistan from the commencement of hostilities in 2001 to the current day. It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages. Some comment has abounded regarding the cover art. Earlier placeholder art was in my view better, but Osprey / Ambush Alley have obviously decided to go with this one in the final release. It wouldn't have been my choice.

From my perspective this book is "more of the same" when compared with the earlier Iraq book (Road to Baghdad). There are 20 scenarios in this book, most of them seem to trend towards the larger size of game (Full platoons with support on both sides), rather than the earlier small forces we saw in the initial Ambush Alley product.

The format of the book roughly follows the same approach taken in "Road to Baghdad". An overview of the conflict is followed by explanations of the specific rule elements for Force-on-Force that apply to the current conflict in Afghanistan.

After that we have the 20 scenarios, followed by details of organisation and vehicles for the various ISAF and Afghan forces. A quite nice part of this book is a guide to uniforms, painting and model selection for the conflict. It desn't suit my predeliction for 6mm all that well, but it's nice to see in what is essentially a hooby book.

If you've been a follower of Ambush Alley Games and modern wargaming for a while, there may not be a whole heap for you in this book, apart from the scenarios. I had a vague feeling of "samey-ness" leafing through the book, but to be honest I have not found the time to invest in a cover-to-cover in-depth read.

If you're interested in Afghanistan, it's obviously a must have. If not, then I'd leave it.
Maybe it's because it's Australian focused, but I think the older Operation Uruzghan book that AA Games issued before the Osprey partnership was a better book, with scenarios more suited to what I'd like to game in the Afghan conflict.

Quick Review: FoF Ambush Valley

2012-07-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

A day or so ago I received my copy of the Ambush Valley sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games / Osprey. This is the revision of the earlier AAG Ambush Valley offering, to fit into the new Osprey mould. Despite what it says on the cover (1965-1975) it covers the Vietnam conflict from the advisory period (1963 onwards) and could probably be used through to the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages, and quite thick (176 pages plus Fog of War Cards).

Unlike the "Enduring Freedom" book, which felt a bit "samey" compared with "Road to Baghdad", "Ambush Valley" is a different beast entirely. The majority of the book in this case is detailed information on organisation and equipment of all of the various forces involved in Vietnam, Laos, Combodia and Thailand throughout this period.
After a quick introduction, the book launches into specific rules for Force-on-Force for this period. As well as the usual complement of terrain, civilians etc. the book has a section on boats that enables a riverine game straight out of the box; a nice inclusion.

Then we begin the detailed TO&E info, which runs for most of the book. There is a lot of meat here, however if you are an experienced Vietnam gamer, there may be very little for you here. For me, the non-Vietnam stuff (Laos, Combodia, etc.) stuff was new and interesting, but the rest was not new. As I say, it will depend on your pre-existing knowledge of the Vietnam conflict.

Once the TO&E section is done, there is space for a paltry six scenarios, a page or two on solo play, and then it's "roll credits" time.

To be honest I was disappointed by the number of scenarios, as that is one of the primary reasons I have for buying these books. The TO&E stuff I can read and find, but the ability to have a ready-to-go scenario to play through is very valuable for me.

This book has expanded the scope from the original Ambush Valley and substantially beefed up the organisational data included. However this has come at the expense of removing the campaign system that was present in the earlier version, and there are still only 6 scenarios as there was in the first book. This was a major shock, with this book following on from "Enduring Freedom" with its 20 scenarios.
I will still certainly use this book as it pulls together TO&E data that I have scattered over half-a-dozen sources into a single handy volume, and it brings the rules up-to-date with the new FoF.
I do regret the small number of scenarios, and the removal of the campaign system. For those I'll be keeping by version one copy of Ambush Valley close to hand.

If you're new to wargaming Vietnam, this is a must-have.
If you're looking to game Vietnam with Force-on-Force this is a must-have.
If you are looking for an excellent Platoon-level TO&E guide for the US involvement in Indochina, this is a must-have.

If you are already a Vietnam conflict wargamer, or own the original Ambush Valley, there may be much less for you here than you may expect.

2mm Moderns

2012-07-19T06:32:00.001-07:00

2mm Moderns

Recently, on a whim, I spent the last of my pocket money for this year on a 2mm Modern Battlepack from Irregular Miniatures. These are packs with two opposing forces, plus a set of rules.
I wanted to match Brits up against Warsaw Pact in the 1983 timeframe, so Ian from Irregular was very helpful in ensuring that my future BAOR (British Army of the Rhine for the uninitiated) forces were equipped with FV432 and mainly Chieftain tanks (just a couple of Challengers) rather than the Challengers and Warrior IFVs of later years.
Below is a quick comparison picture I took of some of my 6mm Irregular NVA (painted for my AK47 games) against BAOR mechanised section with their FV432 APC.

As you can see, these are tiny figures, but they create a real glee in me. I can't help but smile when I pick them up and look at them.
The infantry section comes in a single long strip with 8 figures, but a pair of side cutters very quickly gave me two groups to provide more variety for basing.

Painting will be the trick; I'm hoping to give that a go some time this week.
I also have a conundrum on whether to pursue 2mm or 3mm - more on than later....
Hobby time has been very short over the last few months as we prepare for the arrival of our second child next week.
I'm not going to fool myself that I'll have a wealth of time available after number two arrives.....

British Army in Ulster Vol 3

2012-07-19T06:30:00.003-07:00

Found the following book at a local market and picked it up.

It looks like quite an interesting read.
Essentially its a bit like a diary of events in Northern Ireland from late 1975 to early 1978.
It details units deployed over that period and significant events in more detail.
It's going to have to go on the pile for after the Falklands material, but it looks like a good reference for Northern Ireland during this period, or if you are looking to game an alternate timeline ala Winter of 79.
On the subject of the Falklands reading list, I've started "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. I'm finding the early chapters very interesting, but it is a little heavy going on my current sleep levels. Good detail on what happened that lead to the conflict over the islands. Still to get to the actual conflict itself at this point.

The Battle for the Falklands - a Quick Review

2012-07-19T06:29:00.002-07:00

Last night on the train home I finished reading "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. I thought I'd put down a few quick words on my thoughts on the book. I hope to do this with all of the books in my Falklands Reading List this year.

First an admission is necessary; this is the first book on my Falklands Reading List, so I really have nothing to compare it with. This claimed by many to be the standard reference work, so I thought I'd start with it. Future reviews of other books will obviously contain comparisons where appropriate.

I read a 1983 paperback version of the book, 448 pages (although only about 380 of these are the meat of the book), with 16 pages of black and white photos and 8 pages of maps. In addition to the the text, maps and photos, the book contains a chronology of political and military events, a glossary of terms, a list of british decorations (both civil and military) and an interesting section outlining the ships, men and aircraft of the taskforce. Excerpts from the "Franks Report" which was the official government report into the Falklands conflict are also presented at the end of the book, to enable the reader to compare and contrast the official findings with those presented by the authors. A full index is also included.
Max Hastings was a journalist who accompanied the task force to the South Atlantic and appears to have a fair bit of experience reporting military matters. Simon Jenkins was the political editor of the Economist, and so had access to many sources in Whitehall. In the text, Jenkins covers what was happening in the UK, Argentina and the US, whilst Hastings covers the progress of the task force and the conflict "on the ground" in the Falklands.
The first point I feel I need to make here is that this is a history book rather than military war story. The authors have done an excellent job tracing the cause of the 1982 war from the original discovery of the islands, through the various claims and occupations of the islands through to the failures of diplomacy that lead to the war. In fact, the actual Argentine invasion does not occur until more than 90 pages into the book!
There is a lot of material on the actions of the Foreign Office in negotiating with Argentina over the future of the islands, and also decisions by Defence that lead to some of the materiel issues faced by the task force.
I found some of this early material difficult to read, paricularly keeping straight in my head the revolving door of ministers and secretaries working on the negotiations. This did however contribute to the point that the text was trying to make that continuity of office was a big contributor to the issues with the dicsussions over the islands.
The narrative of the naval battles and then the land campaign is quite good. There is some detail on Goose Green and also the battles for Stanley as 3 Commando Brigade and 5 Brigade advanced over the mountains, although obviously a book of this size and scope cannot provide infinitesmal detail on these military actions. Some good overview maps are provided for Goose Green and the approach to Stanley, which helped to cement things in my mind.
The book is (of necessity I think) anglo-centric, although the authors appear to have attempted where possible to use Argentinian sources. Quotes from Argentine politicians and soldiers appear throughout, but deep analysis of Argentine actions is not possible from these. This appears to be a more general problem with Falklands texts (at least those in English) as access to Argentine sources appears to be difficult.
Overall the book provides a very good overview of the actual conflict and has enabled me to lay out in my mind what happened where and when. This has given me a great start in working out what to read next and I also now have some good ideas for actions to bring to the table top.

I would recommend this book. It doesn't have a lot of nitty-gritty detail on the military actions, but there is enough to give you a good overview and steer you in the direction of more detailed accounts. It is, however, an excellent analysis of the conditions that lead to the two nations facing off over a tiny spec of land in the South Atlantic and a record of how that played out.

More Grist for the Falklands Mill

2012-07-19T05:22:00.002-07:00

Two more books for the Falklands/Malvinas reading list arrived today:

Hopefully Bicheno's book will provide more Argentine insight.

Falklands/Malvinas Update 2

2012-07-19T05:21:00.003-07:00

I've been off sick for the past week or so. We believe that number one daughter brought the offending bug home from childcare.
I've been too out of it to get much reading done, but I have almost finished Bicheno's book and hope to post some first thoughts on that this weekend.
Back at work again today, and my copy of the "The Fight for the Malvinas" by Martin Middlebrook, and also my initial sampler of figures from Heroics and Ros were waiting for me on my desk!

I think I'll be going through this book next, after the Bicheno, as it looks (after the first flick through) like another good overview book.

On the figures front, I picked up a range of the codes to get a sample of the figures and vehicles that will make up the respective forces. I'll be posting some pics and reviews over the coming weeks.

Now for some bad news. My original intent with this project was to actually get some games in during the April/May/June timeframe of the actual conflict. Unfortunately I've overspent my budget on the "Falklands Reading Pile", so it's probably going to be the second half of the year before I can field the full company-plus forces I need for many of the key battles such as Goose Green and the various mountains west of Stanley. Disappointing, but the current reality.

I'm not planning on stopping though. I should have enough with this initial purchase to game some of the smaller special forces actions, and probably the combat on South Georgia. I may also have enough (certainly on the British side) to put together some scenarios for the initial Argentine landings in and around Stanley.

Stay tuned for more bulletins as events warrant....

Razor's Edge - Initial Thoughts

2012-07-19T05:20:00.002-07:00

I've just finished reading "Razor's Edge" By Hugh Bicheno.

I'm just going to offer some initial thoughts at the moment, as there is a lot of criticism surrounding this book and its accuracy. I need to read more to fully understand those arguments, so I will refrain from a full review at this time.

I found the book an easy read, but I think part of this is because I already had much of the political background from slogging through Hastings & Jenkins "The Battle for the Falklands".

Bicheno is quite outspoken in his views on the British Public Service and also on the Argentine regime. In addition, he is highly critical of 5 Brigade command and of "H" Jones.

The book contains a wealth of maps and details of the battles, which appears to make it an invaluable reference for those planning table-top scenarios, but it is this very information which is called into question by some commentators, so until my research is more complete, I won't offer a full recommendation either way at this time.

My next target is Martin Middlebrook's "The Fight for the Malvinas", to try to cement more Argentine information before I focus on more accounts from the British side.

6mm Falklands British Infantry

2012-07-19T05:19:00.004-07:00

Last week I received my order from Heroics and Ros which included samples of most of the items I will be using in my Falklands/Malvinas games this year.
I haven't put a brush to any of these yet, I've barely had time to take the photos!
I'll be using two main codes for the British infantry sections:

M5 - British Infantry
M14 - Royal Marines

First up,the M5 - British Infantry. (you should be able to click the image for a larger view)

These consist of seven strips, each one an eight-man section as above. There are a 4 patrolling figures, one figure patrolling with a GPMG, a section commander and two figures crouching, one with a Carl Gustav or similar. All wear scrimmed helmets and webbing. One of the patrolling figures has a pack or section radio. All in all, these are good figures, although some of the barrels are a bit droopy at the moment.

Next up is the M14 - Royal Marines. As Andy from H&R described them to me in an email, these are your classic yomping/tabbing pose. Ten heavily laden infantry wearing berets, per strip, five (5) strips per code. Again, one figure has the GPMG and another is crouching with a Carl Gustav.

The figures look like they will be equally at home with green berets for the commandos or maroon for the paras.
My plan is to use a mix of the M5 and M14 figures (interspersed) to comprise my British companies.

Finally, a quick snap of the M14 - Royal Marines accompanied by the BM32 1/2 ton Land Rover and the BM33 3/4 ton Land Rover.

6mm Falklands British Support Weapons

2012-07-19T05:19:00.001-07:00

Next up for the Falklands games are British Support Weapons.
For these I have purchased M6 - British Infantry Support.
The pack consists of 8 strips with three different variations:

2 x Sustained Fire GPMG and light mortar team strips

3 x Engineers / Blowpipe team / Mortar team strips (front and back images)

3 x Milan strips

Once again, these are quite good and I'm quite happy with them.

My only criticism is the fact that the pack provides 9 Milan teams (3 strips with 3 teams each), but only 2 sustained fire MGs (one each on two strips).
With one pack I have more Milans than I'm likely to ever need for a company-sized engagement, but I'm well short on the SFMG quota. On that front, I think the pack could be a little better balanced.

6mm Argentine Infantry

2012-07-19T05:18:00.002-07:00

As far as I am aware, no one makes a 6mm Argentine infantry figure, so I was always destined to be substituting and converting figures for these.
I figure that at this scale, the most important thing was to get the head gear about right, which meant figures with the US M1 helmet.
To kick things off, I picked up a pack of USR1 - WW2 US Infantry, as pictured below.

There are five of these strips per code.
To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with these figures, as they lack the animation of the modern UK figures I showed a couple of days ago.
I think I'm going to have to insert some M1 - Modern US Infantry figures that I have from my Vietnam project, to get some battlefield variety.

The only issue here is the packs. Based on my reading to date, only Argentine special forces had packs, the regular infantry regiments were mainly using kit bags for transport of equipment.
We'll see how it goes.....

6mm Argentine Heavy Weapons

2012-07-19T05:16:00.003-07:00

Today its the Heroics and Ros USR2 - WW2 US Heavy Weapons code. I picked up a bag of these looking for heavy weapons for my Argentine forces, with the same reasoning that lead me to select USR1 - WW2 US Infantry as a possible option for infantry forces. Don't forget to click the pictures for larger versions.

First up, the command strip. It seems that most of the H&R WW2 "weapons" codes includes the ubiquitous command strip. These consist of two three-man command teams as below, inclusive of radio operators. Certainly workable for my purposes, but there is a little flash around the second operator from the left.

Next, the Mortar/Bazooka Strip.

This is the real reason I picked selected USR2 - WW2 US Heavy Weapons: Bazookas!
Quite a useful strip:

One figure with flamethrower (not useful for this conflict, but he can be put away for other duties)
Two-man Bazooka team (note that there is some sprue connecting the rear of the bazooka to the Assistant for casting purposes that needs to be trimmed - it's not some massive oversized bazooka!)
Three-man Heavy Mortar team
Two-man Light Mortar team

And finally, the MG Strip.

This strip is less useful. Many of the MGs are obviously older WW2-era models which are unsuitable for the Argentine inventory of MAG MGs and US 0.50cal's. The MG in the middle is an obvious water-cooled model. Maybe with some judicious filing? The final AA MG is useful "straight out of the box", as is the engineer/mine sweeper.

And there you have it.
The crucial item I am missing is 105mm Recoiless Rifles....more on those another day.
Tomorrow : some Argentine vehicles...

6mm Argentine Vehicles

2012-07-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

I picked up a number of helicopters (and a Pucara) as part of the recent order from Heroics and Ros, but these really need to be assembled to be appreciated, so I'l be putting up some pics of those when I get that done.
Also for the Argentines I picked up a few vehicles. Because of the soft peat that constitues about 80% of the islands, most vehicles had to stick to the few roads, or risk getting heavily bogged down.
First up FM06 - AML H 90. (click the pics for a larger image)

This is a nice model. The body and turret are separate pieces. The Argentines had a number of these landed at Stanley, but they apparently never left the town. I'm still going to pick up a few for some what-if scenarios, and they are useful for a range of post-WW2 conflicts.

Next we have USM13 - LVTP-7 and US38 - Jeep.
These are nice, single part casts. The one issue with the single cast approach is that there is a large piece of flash/sprue beneath the gun on the LVTP to enable it to be cast. I'm uncertain whether to paint it out, or attempt to cut. Further investigation required...

The LVTP's obviously were involved in the original landing, so I'll be using them to game those, and maybe some what-if scenarios as well.

6mm Temperate DPM - better pics

2012-07-19T05:15:00.002-07:00

Some better pics of the first attempt to do 6mm DPM for my Falklands UK forces. Clicking on the pics should give you a larger image.
Here is the half section I've done to date. The figures are a mix of Heroics and Ros M5-British Infantry (helmets) and M14 Royal Marines (berets). I've given the beret figures a green beret as I suspect my early games will be Royal Marine Commandos rather than the Paras or the Guards.

I'm very happy with my experiment using scatter to scrim the helmets. I've done it here as an experiment, but in future I'll only be doing it as the final precursor to sealing the figures with a flat varnish (after the bases are all done).
Probably needs some further experimentation with colour and technique, but overall I'm pretty happy. The flesh colour I used was too runny, which created issues, particularly with the marine on the left.

I have three more bases to do that have only had the base uniform colour at the moment. The four bases you see below are the product of mixing one strip each of the two codes (M5 and M14), with two figures firing Carl Gustav or similar put into a bag for later.

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

6mm temperate DPM roughly

I have been drowned under a wave of work of late, so no further progress on the Reading List, as all of my communiting time is currently spent emailing and writing proposals.
My cable internet has failed the last couple of nights, so while I've been sitting on hold for an hour each night, I put together a couple of infantry bases and have started to play with painting DPM.
Here is a blurry picture of last night's effort, as the SD card for my main camera has given up the ghost and I had to take this with my phone.

More pics soon as my wife just called to say the internet is dead again, so I have another hour on-hold to tech support planned for this evening.....

Left-over Tile Adhesive Hills

2012-07-19T05:14:00.001-07:00

Things have been busy at work, so I haven't been able to do any more figure painting.
However this weekend I had to re-tile the toilet at home. When I was done adhering the tiles, I had some of the tile adhesive left over, so I grabbed a couple of old CDs and built some terrain with the leftovers.

Turned out pretty well. The vehicles above are from a lot that I purchased on eBay last year. (It's a pretty sad indictment that the only painted vehicles I can quickly lay my hands on are some that I bought painted!!) The figures in the back are the single base of UK Marines that I've painted to date for the Falklands project.
Two hills and the wadi below.

Terrain Cloth

2012-07-19T05:13:00.002-07:00

Over the weekend I picked up a length of cheap green artic/polar fleece from a habadashery to trial as an overlay for draping over obstacles to create terrain.
Here are some pics of it draped over the CD-based hills I created earlier. You can click them for larger images.

With some buildings and my ever ready eBay WW2 Americans. I really need to properly paint these guys!

With the still-no-progress-as-yet Royal Marines for the Falklands.

I recckon it needs some light overspray with a brown and probably another, lighter green.
I do like the way that the "fuzziness" (there's probably a proper technical term for this) fits in well against the 6mm figures for grassy ground cover.

What are your thoughts?

Nice Terrain

Check out the Afghan game boards that Allen from Gamecraft Miniatures has been working on:
http://gamecraftminiatures.com/tac2game/microarmor/blog/?p=246
These look magnificent!
Definite ambush country.....

Sunday, 29 April 2012

Update

Well, work and home have stepped in, in their usual fashion, over the last few months resulting in not a lot of progress on anything related to the hobby.
I did manage to put a bit of a push on over the last couple of days to get some hobby stuff done, and made a few discoveries, which should be the subject of some future posts over the next month.
The big result from this weekend was getting my Falklands War British forces moving along again.

The above picture (click for larger image) shows the four test bases that have progressed no further from this post in February, along with the rest of the Royal Marine company, which (as of this weekend) are now based and ready for the brush.
I'm still note sure what to do with the bases yet in terms of paint (and what colours?) vs. flock.

I'm still don't have any Argentine figures I like. I will be ordering some more sample packs from H&R later this week in an attempt to locate something in about the right kit but a bit more dynamic than the WW2 US sculpts (ie, like the UK sculpts above).

H&R Scorpion and Scimitar

2012-07-19T05:11:00.001-07:00

Undercoated Scorpion (BM05) and Scimitar (BM06) from Heroics and Ros that will be used to represent the Blues and Royals in my Falklands games. Seen here with (STILL) the only painted base of my UK Falklands infantry. (larger image when clicked)

Friday, 4 May 2012

Heroics and Ros Soviet Airborne

Here's a pack I had hidden in the cupboard since last year; the M7 Soviet Airborne Troops code from Heroics and Ros.
Upon opening it, I've found some great figures which open up a number of "paint" conversion options.
This is also an interesting pack of figures as, unlike most of the rest of the H&R moderns lines, it includes heavy weapons with regular infantry.
But enough of that! What's in the pack? (click the pics for a bigger image)

Infantry - All sporting the padded cloth helmet. Four strips of these.

Heavy Weapons - DShK and SPG-9 with associated crews. 2 strips of these.

Heavy Weapons - Mortar and Sniper. 2 strips of these.

Heavy Weapons - ATGM teams (AT-4 maybe?) 1 strip of these.

It's a nice balanced pack in my view and a number of the figures (especially the sniper) in my view have utility as a range of different troops in different conflicts. Hopefully more on that in the coming weeks as I experiment with them....

Update and some Argentine Aircraft

2012-07-19T05:07:00.001-07:00

Well folks it's been quite a while since my last post.
Things have been pretty hectic with work and around home so I haven't had much chance to post.
On hte hobby front things have slowed down, but not quite as much as the blog posting!
Teh main thing that has been holding me up was getting some figures for my argentine infantry that had more animation than the somewhat parade ground posing of the H&R WW2 US figures. A batch bits and pieces arrived from merry old england a couple of weeks ago, and so we're back up and running again. I've done some simple conversions that I want to complete painting before I post them, and I now have an understrength Argentine company based and undercoated.
So more updates hopefully in the month of July.
In the interim I'll leave you with some pics of the Pucara and the Puma models from Heroics and Ros (click on them for enlarged versions)
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I haven't done any aircraft modelling since I was a kid, and based on my experience with these two and the Wasp and Wessex for the Brits, I think I have a lot to learn.

First the Pucara. The horizontal tail planes come as a separate piece to be attached at the top of a stub tail cast to the body. In the front-on pic you can see the kink where they join.

The model doesn't come with any stores for under the wings, so I think I'll need to pick up some suitable rockets and bombs from somewhere.

Next the Puma. Not sure whether to put the blades on as provided or replace with transparent plastic disks for that "blades rotating fast" look. I have a lot of helicopters to do for this project and I probably need to select one method or the other....
Keen for any advice.