Update!

Sorry I've been so quiet, I have  been writing writing blog post for a game's night which was cancelled but other things have been happening. My friend had acquired the osprey book Chosen Men. Which gives me a great excuse to scratch my Napolenic war itch!
He helped me plan out a little force. From what I gather chosen men is on the smaller scale of battle not full lines of soldiers firing volleys at each other but smaller sections.  As I'm a massive Sharpe fan I predictably went for British.  I had some riflemen (95th obviously!) from Warlord games as a Valentine's present from the the wife. This box contains 16 metal miniatures and a metal dog as well to follow the riflemen.  Also managed to pick up a box of  British Line Infantry as well. This box contains 20 plastic regular infantry and 4 metal command models, though I had six in the box which was nice (Captain, 2 standard bearers, drummer, sergeant and a dude with an axe not sure on his role). The standard bearers really tested me as I had to drill through their hands to slide the standard pole through but in the box are cardboard flags so I haven't got to faff with making a flags. My chosen man force requires only 10 models from this box set so plenty of potential. The last unit is some light dragoons so I need to buy them at some point.

95th rifles from Warlord games

These are really nice sculpts

British Line Infantry

I also picked up a box of bolt action regular late war British troops. Looking at my army lists and the vague historic background I had chosen (I best write a blog up about that! But basically I've chosen Operation Clipper. An allied attack into Germany, part of that attack were the Worcestershire regiment possibly supported by the SAS on anti sniper duties though this may not be true.) , looking at my forces I only have 2 regular squads of infantry so about 20 regular Tommies. Currently I have 2 squads of airbourne as well so am capable of putting out a force already but I've been listening to a lot of bolt action podcasts recently where lots of people have been getting a historic slant on their forces so I decided I needed more regular Tommies. The box contains enough miniatures to make a small first platoon (great purchase for some one starting out. I got an officer, light mortar team, PIAT team and 2 8 man squads from my first box.) But I wanted just soldiers to add no officers or special teams. I made up 2 bren gunners with their loaders, a couple of Sten carrying soldiers and the rest were riflemen.

My SMG man charging into melee spade swinging

I tried my best to vary the poses of the soldiers. I think I did ok glued my fingers together several times though! My favourite is the man swinging his spade in melee.  I hope the pose works
So thats what I've been upto now after snowmeggedon has gone away I'll get undercoating and painting. H
Stay safe!

Objective Markers

While having a sort out of my terrain bits box I found some 60mm round mdf bases that I had no use for and also some resin crates.  Coincidently the day before I had been reading the Dinoproof rule book as we have decided to play it at our next games night.  In the game you get crates scattered around the board. Now instead of tokens I decided to make some objective markers using the round bases and resin crates.  Hopefully they will be suitable for multiple game systems.  After checking how many crates against how many mdf bases I had  I ground I had a few bases left over so I raided my bits box for any other ideas that I could use as objective marker. I found another crate and some machinery bits I thought would make some kind of crashed vehicle with secret tech that both sides want. I also found some weapons that I could add.

Photo not the best.

The above photo is the first market I attempted I added the rifles to make it look a bit like an weapons stash (with my day fingers getting them like that was a nightmare ).

In the above photo is the next marker.  I found a cool little looking tech unit in my bits and had the idea that this could be some kind of secret power core data bank etc which I would surround with broken bits of machinery so it looked like it came from a destroyed mech or vehicle.

Here are the first 2 markers

Now you can see I've added some machinery bits to the marker and a PIAT and ammo to the other marker plus both based.

Last 2 markers

These markers are more simple and are mainly just crates. I did add some rockets to create another ammo stash feel to the one marker.  Again all based as well.

The above photos are the finished article.  I quite like them!  Have a good one people!

More painting.

Another set of models painted! This time round it was my  SAS squad and anti tank team.  First up the I decided to attempt decals on the Bren Carrier I had previous painted. I'm very nervous with water slide decals as I have fat uncoordinated fingers but since I've been listening to a Bolt Action podcast I've wanted to add a more real unit feel to my army. I did a bit of searching where the SAS worked with regular army units and came up with Operation Clipper. The Worcester regiment had SAS  support clearing snipers in area it seems (There is not a lot of info on SAS but that gives me a touch of creative license). After asking for advice on the Bolt Action Facebook group (a brilliant group!) I located the correct decals needed. I didn't have enough to to both Bren Carriers all around so applied all the decals i had to both fronts.

They were quite fiddly but withbthe aid of my craft night and some tweezers I did it.  Now they need weathering to make them look not so new.
Onto the infantry. The SAS  squad picture on the internet had a camo pattern on which i didn't think i could replicate so I went for a plain green jacket with airbourne trousers  (well as close as I can make it).

Lastly was the Anti Tank rifle team. These guys were in standard British uniform with gas masks. The loader didn't cone with anything for his arms so I bodged him carrying an ammo box.

I think the layers makes the jumper look more realistic

I'm quite happy with the jackets. I applied more layers than I normally do and they seem to have a good effect? I could be wrong though.

These don't look to bad and hopefully will go Nazi horror and mech hunting soon!
Have a great day folks

Been Painting!

Managed to get a few free evenings so got on with some painting. I had Konflict 47 British Armoured infantry, Automatons, Bren Carrier and my new Lieutenant.
British Armoured Infantry first.  These are nice solid models and I like them a lot.

Went with the standard allied green. Each one of these guys is packing an LMG so a squad can throw out a lot of shots. Next up were the British Automatons. These models were horrible to put together but look really good now.  The joins are really small to try and glue so it took me a while ( I need to practice pinning ).
The automatons are the Brits answer to manpower in the on going conflict.  Using rift technology Alan Turing has created a basic AI which enables this robots to provide fire support for troops. Each one carries an MMG so plenty of fire support  available

Next up was the Lieutenant. Technically it's Major Turntadust from Warlord games but I'm gonna use him as my Konflict 47 HQ option 

Last of all was the Bren Carrier. Not quite finished this, I have to add some decals and a wash over those.

I love the bren carrier model (plus it's easy to build), now i have 2 they will be zipping up and Down the table causing mischief ☺

Got the SAS and anti tank rifle team all primed so will start on those soon. Have a good one guys!

Christmas loot

Happy New year guys! Hope you all had a good Christmas and new year. Mine was chaos, I was working night shifts and I have 2 boys (2 and 4) so now my house is full of toys!
I was actually struggling to decide on any miniatures to ask for as Christmas gifts. I picked a couple of things and a board game off the family.
The family bought me Zpocalsype.

The game looks great fun (if a bit brutal!  But zombie slaying is no picnic), it's all about your team of survivors scavenging, fortifying their base and fighting off hordes of zombies at night. All the copponents feel great quality, the board's for tracking your squad have little wheeled dials to keep track of various stats which is really cool and one I haven't seen before. Can't wait to give it a go!
On the miniature front I got an NW Europe SAS squad from warlord miniatures.  Wanted these for ages to supplement my Bolt action British army. After listening a lot to the Down Order podcast I decided to try and loosely base my force on an actual ww2 unit  after some research looking for where the british regular army worked with the SAS and I located several instances. I chose Operation Clipper, this was a battle in Germany where the Worcestershire regiment as part of the 43rd Wessex brigade was tasked with taking several villages. There are reports that the SAS helped with anti sniper operations.

SAS jeep during operation Clipper

There is sufficiently very little SAS info which allows me to use a bit of creative license when adding SAS  to my force. I also got from the WestWind productions Secrets of the Third Reich a British anti mech rifle team  I liked the miniatures and wanted to use these in my konflict 47 force as an anti tank  (and mech and  nazi horror) rifle.  These have all been made up and based.

SAS squad

Anti tank rifle team

Now to crack on painting everything I have accumulated in the last few months.
On an slightly unrelated note.  I have recently got into podcasts.  Particularly Rift Tech Radio for Konflict 47 and Down Order for regular bolt action  really good and Infornative plus a entertaining. Check them out with a podcast app (I use podcast addict) or somewhere in iTunes I believe.
Have a great day folks!

Ghost of Gaia 2 Kickstarter

A while back I backed a Kickstarter from Bad Squiddo games. Their Ghosts of Gaia 2 Kickstarter. They had some awesome models to back and choose but when I saw the gunny bunnies I fell in love. Now I have received my kickstarter pledge! The work that has gone into this is brilliant. Along with the models I have temporary tattoos and badges. What a brilliant free extra.  There was plenty of more free stuff for the higher pledges also.

Temporary tattoos (my sons are after these!)

Badges!!

The whole parcel

Gunny Bunnies!!

The gunny bunny models are great. They are quite small (i really should have guessed this lol) so a bit worried about ruining them with paint but we shall see. Lots of work has gone into this parcel. Shows a great level of dedication from Bad Squddio games. Hopefully at some point I'll get to a wargaming show and be able to say hello and thank you in person.

New Toys ☺

Did a big sell on eBay last month so got to order more konflict 47 reinforcements and they've arrived!! Also had a belated birthday present so ordered and got another bren carrier (one of the nicest models to fit together).

This came at a great time as I was getting the modelling itch but had no models to make.  Its a lovely lot and most bits slide and click into place then with a dab of glue they stick. I love the bren carrier gives you a nice little run around with 2 lmgs  (if passengers are on board). Also on this kit you got a stat card,  which is great! ! No more scouring the rulebook or flicking through the easy army list.  Plus smoke and on fire markers,  this is a lovely touch and a nice addition (another reason Warlord continues to impress).

Stat card and smoke markers

Next arrived a nice box from Rkstudiostore containing my konflict 47 force. I had ordered a Mudskipper walker (in the main rulebook this was U.S. only but in the new book Resurgance they U.S. have allowed the British access to this walker for their airborne forces.  This walker can jump,  had 2 HMGs and 2 light automatic cannons. I'm thinking this might be a potent totenkorps killer... well re killer. The walker is quite easy to build and looks impressive. A squad of British heavy infantry were also in box. Equipped with Galahad armour and LMGs.  These boys can put out a nice chunk of dice when shooting and have tough and resilient I believe so hard to kill by small arms fire. Also these are lovely models, solid and plenty of detail.  Up next is the British only exclusive the Automatons. These robots developed by Alan Turing (in the fictional konflict 47 world) have a rudimentary AI and carry mmgs onto the battle field. These are notoriously hard to put together so they are not built yet as want an evening to attempt just them.  Lastly I felt my konflict 47 needed a new leader with a bit of weird war flair to him. For this I found Major Turntadust (though I'll be running hin as a lieutenant) from warlord. With his cross and Tommy gun he is ready for anything.

Galahad Infantry

Mudskipper Walker

Major Turntadust I believe he is called my platoon HQ now

I'll get some photos of the automatons up when I'm brave enough to attempt them  (and when I'm not working)

Have a great day