More Painted Goodies

Yes, my painting is rather eclectic. For several years I have been more of a painter than I have a gamer. That is changing, slowly but surely. However, I still have plenty of odds and ends, that will come up from time to time. I am getting more project based once again, and that will be reflected in not only this post, but, future posts as well. I will from time to time throw in the odd figures just because I want to paint them. As for this installment, we will start with some Goths from Footsore in 28mm.

If you have never bought figures from them, they are definitely worth looking into. Beautiful, easy to paint sculpts with plenty of animation. Shields are by Little Big Men Studios, again a top notch product. Footsore does not provide spears, but the great wire spears from Northstar do the job! They are very pointy though...

Next up are some Dark Age Saxons that I assembled quite some time ago, and just got painted the last few weeks. I had gotten some advice from a guy on TMP to have them looking over the top of the shield, that they tend to look better that way. I would agree with that, but, I still need to work on the assembly some. I will admit, some amount of laziness when it comes to putting this stuff together so, i will take some of the blame. These guys do end up with some odd poses. I have three more boxes of Saxons and Vikings to do, so maybe, I'll have a good technique developed sometime soon. 

So, these are 28mm Saxon Fyrd by Wargames Factory, one of the innovators of multi part plastic miniatures. The figures have decent detail, and they paint up reasonably well. I had to paint my own shield because LBMS does not make transfers for these. That's ok though, it can be fun to paint them. I enjoyed painting these dudes, and look forward to getting them on the table in a game of SAGA or Lion Rampant. The only real issue with them is the length of the necks. They really require a bit of work for the necks and head positioning to look right.

And while we are on the subject of Wargames Factory plastics, here are some Zulu War Brits.

These are quite simple to assemble since it is just the head, helmet, and arms with weapon. They are very basic, and so is the detail on these. Again I need to work on my assembly technique to get the poses how I want them. I did these quite some time ago, so I may have put the heads on before the arms. Next time I'll do the arms then get the heads where I want them. When I had finished applying the paint, I was not in love with them at all. In fact I hated them. The detail was just not molded well enough to stand out. I really gave them a good coat of Secret Weapon Dark Sepia wash, to get the details to stand out better. And they did. Though I need to be careful with the wash as it collected on the back of the helmets.

This next group falls under the category of painting for the fun of it. This next group is from Pulp Figures, and it is called Dangerous Dames II.

These are probably not something I would have normally purchased. I received them as part of a Model Box in 2018 that had the theme Lost. It was a Pulp/Ghost Archipelago themed box. If you have never heard of Model Box, it is a subscription service that sends you a box of miniature related goodies each month based on a theme. It's a pretty cool idea, and the guy who runs it is a super dude! You can check it out if you like at yourmodelbox.com Ok, back to the dames. Man they are well sculpted and an absolute joy to paint. .

The last of the real odds and ends are these Mexican generals and the beginning of the 1st Line Rgt. for the Mexican American War.

These are 15mm Musket Miniatures. I love the sculpts, and I am glad I have some more, because these are no longer available. This is a project I'll get back into this summer.

And now, we delve into an actual project. My 20mm War in the Pacific. These are most of my Marine contingent, the others were in a previous post, and I still have some supports to paint up (mortars, AT guns, a Jeep, and some LVTs & LCMs), those will come a bit later.

These guys are from FAA Miniatures. I really like this company. The sculpts are really fun to paint, they are animated, and have great detail. They are really going to look fantastic, storming the beaches of some island in the Pacific. Well, that's all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my handiwork, such as it is. Feel free to leave a comment or ask questions if you like.

Eastern Front With Chain of Command

So, I went to game at Tabletop Game & Hobby in Kansas City this last Tuesday (yesterday as I write this) looking forward to the scheduled ACW Fire and Fury game. Unfortunately life stepped in and that was cancelled (a few guys did bring some stuff and start a smaller game a little later). One of the guys stepped up and put together a 28mm WW2 Chain of Command game. I have been wanting to play this set of rules for some time. I bought them when they came out but had yet to play, or even read them. So we threw a table together with the shop terrain, and set up a quick scenario with Germans attacking a Russian defended town, the winner just needing to capture a jump off point. I was excited to learn the game and really didn't care what we did I just wanted to learn. Here is a shot of the table we set up, during the Patrol Phase.

 The Germans went first bringing on a recon halftrack at the top left road entry, and a Panzer Grenadier squad into the woods, center left in the above picture.

The first Soviet turn saw us bringing on a medium machine gun and a rifle squad on the wooded hill at the top right, and a squad of infantry in the small building to the left of the church.

The squad in the building fired on the Germans in the woods to their front, killing two and adding three shock to the two teams. Our next turn saw limited action as we rolled a pile of 4s. The troops on the wooded hill consolidated their position, while the Germans brought on troops around that flank.

At the same time the Germans decided to make a dash for the three story building at the lower center of the table. There was a jump off point of ours there and they had a mind to take it. Unfortunately for them our next roll enabled us to bring in our last squad, as well as the AT rifle team.

A hail of gunfire stopped the Germans in their tracks, as they fell back to the woods and returned fire.

Casualties and shock occurred on both sides, but the Russians held tight.

Meanwhile the Halftrack fired on the medium machine gun causing it to seek cover in the church after losing two crewmen.

The final German assault was shaping up on out far right. They had built up a strong force and started firing away at the Russian squad protecting that right side jump off point.

Sadly, this is where our tale ends, because I had to leave. The Germans were in pretty bad shape, and we had one squad with no losses at all. along with the squad on the far right that lost two men in the firing prior to the assualt. 

Overall, I really liked these rules. It gives a great game with plenty of decision making involved. I am definitely looking forward to getting in more games of it. I am now motivated to get my Japanese, and Chinese done ASAP. Oh, and I am actually reading my rules! I should be able to have more detailed AARs once I get a better handle on the rules.

I should be able to post my latest painted creations in the next week. So please come back and take a look at that. You can also find me on Instagram @kevin_rounsaville