Infantry Aces Campaign and catching up on Painting

Two weekends ago, the local gaming store started up an Infantry Aces campaign for Flames of War. I saw it as the perfect time to crack into my painting goal of getting through some of my back log, choosing to paint up a US Boat company for the campaign. This will represent the 1st Infantry Division when it stormed ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

My 500 point force for turn one

It is a very cool list, for Turn One I ran...
-HQ
-2 Boat Sections
-A&P Platoon with 2 Squads and 2 Bazooka teams

At 700 points (which I have totally missed the round, oops!)
-HQ
- 3 Boat Sections
-A&P Platoon with 2 Squads
-Cannon Platoon with 2 Light 105mm guns

Cannon Platoon just stormed ashore!

Close up on an LMG team

Close up on a Rifle team, showing a Medic trying to do his work under fire

The final list, the 900 points is..
-HQ
-3 Boat Platoons
-A&P Platoon with 1 bazooka
-Cannon Platoon with 2 guns
-Armoured Field Artillery Battery with 3 Priests!

My Sherman OP Tank- About the right historical number of DD tanks that made it ashore!

So that is my army, how has the campaign been? I managed 3 games at the 500 points level, winning all three with max points for my ace (ooh ra!). I haven't managed to get any in the 700 points level, so I might have to skip right up to the 900 points, which is fine, but my ace will be slightly behind!

As to other painting, here are some more FOW figures...

Artillery Commander's Jeep- Simple headswap to keep him in line with my other Infantry

1 Section of 25pdr guns, with command

More Sherman Tanks- can you tell I like the Sherman?

All the Transport a young artillery battery needs to grow up!

So there is some more stuff for my North West Europe British Infantry, hopefully will get the chance to get some more of these chaps done. There are some more infantry, more Heavy Mortars, a few more miscellaneous things which I would like to get done for them.

I have achieved next to no painting since Valleycon- have only undercoated the next project. It's a long weekend this weekend, hopefully will get time to get some good painting in!

CP

Flamescon 2011 Day 2

Following on from my first entry about Flamescon, this is the story of how my second day went!

Game 4: Surrounded against Paul Mounsey

This game is one of the new missions we played, essentially there is one comapny in the middle, and the other two companies are on the outer sides of them, making them surrounded on two flanks! Cool idea, and played like a pretty cool mission actually.

Paul was running his Commandos of death (trademark pending), which was 4 platoons of commandos, 2 sets of Naval Gunfire Support (he had two companies), Typhoons and a smattering of Mortars. The Guards naturally were attacking (being mechanised sometimes sucks hard), so there was nothing to it but to show these beret clad show ponies what real British soldiers look like! Well that was the intention.

The guards ready to go! The sunlight really ruined any later photos unfortunatly...

His immediate ambush viciously claimed most of my Sherman platoon- having flamethrowers then hitting on a 2+ is pretty damn rude! Typhoons and Naval Gunfire attempted to wipe my M10s from the face of the earth, top armour 0 is just not good at all when AT 5 and 6 starts dropping on you!

The key moment in the game was when a full commando platoon with CiC, piats and The Lord Lovatt assaulted out of their positions to run off to kill one of my Guards platoons, only to not pin them and get beaten back by defensive fire! That meant that they were left cripplingly in the open, to get MG'd by Daimlers and then assaulted by my unscathed armoured platoon.

Meanwhile on the other flank, my shermans had finally run out of steam, but not before killing a platoon of commandos and gutting another, leaving me to finish that platoon off, forcing Paul to fail company morale, as I had killed all 3 of his commanders!

A vicious, vicious 4-3 win. Paul is a guy who takes ridiculous lists, simply for the reason that they are ridiculous. While I appreciate that its fair enough to do it, man do I ever not like to play them! They make me think too hard. Good guy to play, which makes it darn hard to begrudge him.

So, 4 wins from 4 games leading in to the last round- not a bad effort at all!

Game 5: Hold the Line against Andrew Oates

This mission marked the return of the old Hold the Line mission, which was the predecessor to No Retreat. Simple changes from NR are that the defender has delayed reserves, but he does also get 2 ambushes.

To be blunt, this game was unsatisfying.

Andrew had a British Rifle Company from Fortress Europe, with 2 platoons of infantry, some 6pdrs, some heavy mortars, carriers, 40mm bofors SP, Typhoons and 6 Churchill Crocodiles. So, being an infantry company, he was defending. The table itself had little terrain, what terrain there was; was based around large hills, covered by impassable cliffs. Which meant that there was exactly 2 routes towards an objective. He deployed 1 platoon of Crocodiles and 1 rifle platoon, with his 6 6pdrs and second croc platoon in ambush.

With no concealment, no night attack and no ability to go toe to toe with Crocodiles, this game boiled down to me having to go all out to try and press him hard enough that I might, might keep an objective.

To stand any chance, I really needed him to roll poorly. When crocodiles came in flamethrowing, I needed them to fail some hits, I needed the typhoons to not appear, I needed him to get no reserves. But, it was not to be. Andrew cruelly rolled average dice, which sunk me. His crocodiles flamethrowered my infantry when they got close, gutting each platoon as it got anywhere near his objective.

Shermans were annihilated by Typhoon strikes, and M10s decided to miss flank shots onto Crocodiles with their 17pdrs. Infantry became pinned and stayed pinned, 6 pdrs couldn't hit a barn door (9 shots, hitting on a 4+ for nothing over a 2....). Also his 3 morale tests he had to make to keep platoons in the game were successful, denying me a point.

The only highlight for me was when I attempted a super sneaky zoom with the Daimlers trying to capture the rear objective before reserves arrived there, only to be met by ambushing Crocodiles, who simply rolled forward from concealment and annihilated the top armour 0 vehicles. Thus did my best chance to win the game disappear.

In effect, all that could go wrong, did go wrong. It is a gamblers adage that you should never chase luck, and I got stuck chasing it in this game, I had to have it to stand a remote chance. It was unsatisfying, but good on my opponent, he took a list specific to win, and he beat me. I can't begrudge him for that, he was a nice guy to play, but the combination of his "gamey" list, an impassable terrained table and a brutal mission meant that the game itself just was not actually that fun, I don't enjoy sending troops into mindless slaughter.

Final Thoughts....

So, 5 games played. I played one person I had played before, the other 4 were people I had not played before. I really enjoyed a couple of my games, I was really happy with the game I played against the Commandos- tactically I think I played it right. The game which was the most fun had to be against the Fallschrimjager, a wonderful guy to play against on a wonderful table, with plenty of cool stuff happening. HE was close to having a really, really cool list too!

With the exception of the last game, I enjoyed the game themselves. The second game I was annoyed at his list, but at no point did I feel as helpless in the situation as I did in that last game, there quite simply was no way I could see that I could knock out 6 crocodiles before they released their 30 dice of instant killing flamethower dice. Even at range, I can't kill them but they can kill me with impunity. So, sorry Andrew, I didn't enjoy our game much, but that was nothing to do with you, more the situation itself!

Daimlers were quite simply the funnest thing ever. Zooming around machinegunning, or trying to littlejohn things, or assaulting nebelwerfers, these guys were great. So great in fact that they will be back, and in greater numbers!

Cheers to BF for running it, and to all my opponents. Simply great to chat to all you guys over the weekend, was fantastic.

Next up? Who knows!

CP

Flamescon 2011 Day 1

Well, I figure I should split up my Flamescon blog posts- otherwise it will take far to long to read let alone write!

As previously mentioned, I took my Guards Rifle Company to Flamescon over the weekend, coming a respectable 12th place. I won 4 games, losing only the last match. I tied for best sport with a few others, and got an average army presentation mark. But anyway, here is the rundown of Day One.

Game 1: Dust Up against Andrew Agutters

Andrew was playing an SS Tiger Company- led by none other than Michael Wittmann! The mission really, really did not suit him. Half your platoons off table? having to both defend and take objectives? Not ideal.

My deployment was typical of my overarching strategy against tanks- assault them! Tanks (especially with minimal platoon size) suffer greatly at covering multiple objectives and getting rid of lethal Guards assaults. I basically charged two full platoons of guards riflemen towards the near objective, with the third adopting a defensive position. I killed his 4 SS scouts quickly and cheaply, forcing his tiger platoon to come to contest the objective controlled by the 2 platoons of infantry.

In this pic Wittmann stands alone against a brown horde....

With only one objective covered by the 2 tigers, it was a simple means of having my reserve Daimlers sneak up and place themselves on the other objective. 2 tigers simply could not cover the whole area.

One thing I really regretted in this game is that he was a really nice guy to play against, but the game was over much to soon for me to truly enjoy the game! One win and 6 game points to me....

Game 2: Breakthrough against Rob Torrance

We were playing a modified Breakthrough, the only change being that the defender gets a minimum of 2 platoons. Which in Rob's case, mattered a whole lot! He was running a Panzerspah company, with 7 Luchs, 1 platoon of 250/9's, 2 Elefants AND 2 Kingtigers. Awesomesauce.

Naturally his deployment was 2 elefants, 2 kingtigers. Double Awesomesauce. So my flank march was the 6pdrs and the Daimlers, while the 3 platoons of infantry with the big stuff (17pdrs!) tried to deal with the big kitties across the board. The plan was simple, smoke and charge with the infantry, try and flank with the 17pdrs, all the while waiting and hoping that the other stuff saves the day!

The M10's attempted to seize an opportunity and recieved their punishment for getting it wrong! One managed to survive and kill a Kingtiger; but was later brutally cut down by Elefants.

Just in the right of that shot, the prow of an M10 lurks! But on the left is the real hunters- Piats are lethal in assault!

With the 2 Kingtigers and the Company HQ dead, and my reserves duelling with Luchs (and winning) the only thing that Rob had left at the end of the game was his 2 elefants, who in spite of everything just would not die!

So, 2 games down, and I have played against 9 heavy german tanks. Awesome. The breakthrough was just an ok game, sure I won the game, but why would you take the list in the first place? You take Panzerspah because they are light fluffy and cool, not because they are the only list you can still have Kingtigers and Elefants in? I don't know really, just doesn't seem fun? At any rate, 4 game points and a win.

Game 3: Free For All against Eddie Ching

This game was really, really fun. Eddie won my best sports vote by far, he was an absolute blast to play. Who can fault another infantry player for attacking in a Free for All?? He had some nasty Cassino Fallschrimjager, running something that I am sure Craig would like- Marders, Panzer IV's, nebelwerfers. His only real fault was that he had 3 small platoons rather than 2 big ones (in my opinion)

Here is the gallant (and foolhardy) last stand of the poor 6 pdrs! They got viciously attacked by Panzers, without a chance to dig in or really fire at all- We did kill one, but that was not enough!

 

The infantry did get a bit of revenge at least, the panzers were finally killed by the M10 Achillies.

 

The late game run by my infantry to finally dig out some pioneers who had been causing me no end of strife! Behind those two burning Marders (killed by Shermans and Daimlers) is the objective. The Daimlers were fantastic this game, they shot up no less than 2 88's with MG's, then mowed down some infantry, assaulted a Nebelwerfer platoon off the table, killed 2 Marders with gunfire and best of all, didn't die! Absolute brilliance from the Household Cavalry!

This shot sums up my day really, here is the last of my 4 tank sherman platoon at the end of the game. In the background you can see the rest of his platoon, turretless and destitute. Ahead of him lies the wreck of a Marder, with another inside the ruined monastary. In the distance, the Guards Rifles prepare to assault and finish off the last of the FJ on the objective!

A 4-3 win, and a damn fun one too.

So, to sum up day one, I had some good games. The free for all was easily my pick of the three! I was left on 14 points, which curiously was the score for everyone staying with us (except Bede, dirty gerrrrman that he is being on 13). Most exciting for me was that I had not played any of those 3 guys before, new opponents are even cooler than wins! But there was alot to like, and two more games to go....

Further updates soon, dinner now

CP

Flamescon 2011

Well, Flamescon is all of a day away, and my Guards Rifles from the 5th are rearing to go!

 The list is more or less the same as what I took to Conquest, with a few minor changes.

Company HQ

 

Guards Rifle Platoon- Three of these

Anti Tank Platoon- 4 6pdr guns with Lloyd Carriers

Heavy Mortar Platoon- 2 4.2" Heavy Mortars, Lloyd Carriers

Guards Armoured Platoon- 2 Sherman V, 2 Sherman VC (Firefly) Tanks, one with a .50cal AA

Self Propelled Anti Tank- 4 M10c Achillies

Armoured Car Patrol- 2 Daimler 1, 2 Daimler Dingo

Objectives

So, thats the army! I thought I would try to see what a few close ups looked like on the different elements, I am pretty happy with how they look overall really, they are certainly a cohesive force if nothing else!

As for the tournament, well... I am not sure what to expect. I am guessing an excess of tank armies, with a smattering of tough infantry companies. I know that Bob and Nick will be there, with their super tough infantry armies, so I really hope I dont have to face them (again)!

Will have an update for you Monday, here is hoping the dice are on my side. Failing that, brew more tea!

CP

Conquistador!

Well, it was a week ago but Conquest 2011 has now passed. It was the 9th time Conquest has run, I have played in 8 of them (I think..?), with the only one I have missed was when I was trekking in Nepal. It was 9 years ago that I first started playing FOW, I bought an army from Comics Compulsion 3 weeks before the tournament after a practice game or two with Stephen and Tim there, I took them to a tournament!

The first tournament was an eye opener as to what a fun game it could be- I met a few of my long time adversaries, it was the first time I met and gamed against Craig, Nick and Dale, who I now have long standing rivalries with. The army I took? That was US Armoured Rifles. The painting on them was absolutely awful! They are still in a box somewhere, deep down hidden from the world. I can't bring myself to get rid of them, but equally I don't want to see them!

Other tournaments have been pretty noteworthy, the year Craig and I did game about was enjoyable, there was certainly alot of banter between us as to which was the "correct" way of doing things! Always, the competition has been enjoyable and well run.

This year, it made a great step forward in that regard. I thought that the terrain was exceptional, I enjoyed playing all of my games and there was a great variety of missions, which made it damn challenging at times, but also a lot of fun!

Game One was against Dave Evans' Spveerband in a No Retreat on Craig's wonderful Cassino table. This game the Guards really put in the effort. Attacking a list which is designed to defend is always going to be tricky! Semi-Indirect Fire vs StuGs using 17pdrs was satisfying, but not as satisfying as killing an 88mm gun with a Bren Gun Carrier! Max points for me, the Coldstreamers stormed the objective successfully.

Game Two was against Rob Shirley. An old nemesis from Hamiltron, fighting in a Roadblock. He was running Kampfgruppe Kastner, so I was the one blocking his road. At night. Poor choice of ambush chaps.... And how poor an ambush location was proved when my ambuscade rolled a 1 and couldn't see anything to ambuscade! Luckily, the Guards Rifle platoon was made of strong stuff, and could fall back relativly unscathed to the other 2 rifle platoons who were rollicking through the fields trying to capture the road. A pure infantry/armour combined assault onto the right flank (away from PaK 40s) secured me the game, with minor casualties. Max points again, but being at the top has it's problems!

Game Three was against Bob Pearce. Now, here is where things got dicey. Bob is a lovely chap, but unfortunatly for me also a damn good FOW player.and when I was attacking his horde of British Paras in Fighting Withdrawl, I was up the proverbial creek. Things got worse when in my turn one, my carriers decided to fluff themselves in an assault (one dead to a piat, 2 bailed out to rifle fire), followed by my M10s dissolving in a 6pdr ambush. My shermans were making every attempt to run into ever tree root on a hill, and my infantry refused to move. Not ideal. When 3 cromwells came rocking around, machinegunning infantry with gleeful abandon, it was looking like the deal was sealed. However, some stellar gunnery from a duo of 6pdrs (their other buddies and carriers had problems of the 75mm kind) combined with a cheeky assault by a Piat allowed me to get rid of that threat, and allowed my infantry to get stuck into his paras on the objective. Guards rifles vs Paratroopers was never going to be pretty, but the Coldstreamers came out on top. Certainly not max points, but a win!

And so ended day one, with only myself out in the from with a grand total of 3 wins! There were many, many other players snapping at my heels with 2 wins, and nothing is assured when there are good players around!

Game Four was against Craig Courtis in a Free for All. Now, this game is well documented, so I don't really need to say too much. It was a traditional affair between Craig and I; essentially everything died and we both had a great shot of winning, at the same time and it was only through a random course of events that the final result was decided! He was running tough as nails FJ with bunkers and 2+ morale. We each made a good attempt to attack, but after all our tanks had died and our infantry had worn themselves down assaulting each other, tragically my CO had a run in with a MG42, and so was unable to prevent my army failing company morale. Man of the match for me had to be one of my 6pdrs, his carrier got shot out from underneath him, so he proceeded to wheel the gun around looking for targets of opportunity including Marders and 4 different bunkers! Sadly the crew met their end at the hands of a large FJ platoon, the VC has been sent to the widows. A tight loss, putting Craig and I level at the top of the table.

Game Five was against Nick Garden. Nick is another player like Bob, in short someone who is fantastic to play, but is problematic in that he knows what he is doing and how to win! We were playing Breakthrough, the Guards were attempting to show Nick's colonials just what good British steel meant! Perhaps avenging the Maori wars? Unsure. At any rate, Nick's Kiwis made me pay dearly for any piece of land I took. I pushed hard against one of his flanks with 2 platoons of infantry, in an attempt to press him back and force his reserves into one corner (and thus not on the objective), but it didn't really work out that way! Our 6pdrs traded shots for a few turns (yay for HE in late war!) and unfortunatly his M10's and Shermans arriving from reserve did a real number on my M10s, and would have wreaked some havoc onto my rifle platoons, were it not for the infantry getting a bit lucky and finishing off 3 platoons in one assault step, thus putting Nick under half strength, and failing Company Morale. One platoon destroyed (M10s), but had it run another turn, my army would have capitulated also! A very fine run thing!

So, at the end of 2 days I had 4 wins and 1 loss, amassing 24 BF points. Craig by the end of day 2 had done exactly the same! So, honours are shared between us, despite the overall win being given to him as he was the victor in the game.

What did I learn? Rerolled morale saves my bacon. Numerous, numerous times. Apparently I am really bad at rolling a 4+ on one dice, but on 2 dice, it is no problem at all! Guards Rifle platoons are great at basically everything. They were fantastic assault troops with their large size (9 stands) could do some AT (Piat) and were able to do basically everything I wanted them to, without dying! I really enjoyed the three armoured platoons (carriers, shermans, M10s), which given I was attacking in 4 of the 5 games (the other was a Free for All), being able to choose the point of attack was essential to my ability to win. Equally the large amounts of 17pdrs enabled me to get rid of opposition tanks in such a way that my infantry could do the business unmolested by armour.

In fact, the Guards were so much fun, that they are heading up to Flamescon 2011 in Auckland in 2 weeks time! The only changes being I drop my light mortars, in favour of 2 4.2" heavy mortars, and my carriers are replaced by an Armoured Car Patrol from the Household Cavalry regiment. Because Daimlers are awesome! Now I just have to get painting them....

First game of Dystopian Wars tonight, the Southern Fleet is out on patrol in the Coral Sea....

CP

Conquest and excuses

Well, you may have noticed a lack in blog posts of late. It pains me to say it but I have been struck down by that terrible curse- Real Life. It has been impeding my wargaming, sapping my time and generally preventing me from doing anything.

But, some occasions stir me from lethargy. Today marks the anniversary of the famous charge at Baklava- the Charge of the Light Brigade. Where poor orders and gallant men collided to be forever immortalized in verse.

With that in mind, Conquest is this weekend.

I am running British Guards (the ones from the Snow Challenge) and dream of being a better general than the officers in the Crimea.

The 5th Brigade Coldstream Guards are as follows...

HQ
Rifle Platoon
Rifle Platoon
Rifle Platoon
Carrier Patrol- 3 Carriers, 1 50 cal
Anti-Tank Platoon- 4 6pdrs, Carriers
Mortar Platoon- 4 3" mortars
Self Propelled Anti-Tank- 4 M10c
Tank Platoon- 2 Sherman V, 2 Firefly VC

I will put up some pictures when I have actually finished painting!

CP

Things that go zoom

Well, the Lasalle game at Conquest has become a bit of a no go. People couldn't make the trip down, and it was becoming more of a hassle than anything else! So, instead we (Nick, Craig and I) are going to play FOW. In addition to that, I am going to head up to the BF Grand Tournament in Auckland, and I have decided to play the same army both times.

So with plenty of speculation of lists for Conquest going on in various places on various blogs, I suppose I had better throw my hat in too!

I am planning on my Coldstream Guards Rifles, taken from Hells Highway. Now remember that these guys were half finished at the end of the Snow Challenge, so there is a fair bit more painting I need to do to get them tournament ready....

So, this is the start of the "Second Wave" of my Coldstreamers, the first things being some support from the Royal Air Force!

My flight of Typhoons, looking like they really need a coat of paint! That is the weekend's job.

Showing how my typhoons are attached to their bases. I was unsatisfied with how my other BF aircraft tended to get scratched or otherwise damaged when I put them onto their bases, so from now they will all use the magnets from boxes of tanks, one on the aircraft, one on the base. It makes a brilliant connection, and will stop me scratching the Tiffies when I game with them!

So, these are the start of the 2nd Wave, more pics of the rest of the wave tommorow, plus some paint on my RAF. And maybe even a list?

CP

Moving forward and sorting out projects

Well, firstly here are the better close up pictures of my 6pdrs, which were painted as part of the Snow Challenge.

The battery of 4 guns.

And a close up of one gun. They are nowhere near as shiny in real life- it was the angle of the sun that did it! They are a little shiny due to ink washes, but definitly not that much. The poor gunner is loading a normal AT round, I bet he is wishing he had APDS!

The Guards Rifles have a need for more support. M10's, 25pdrs, tank support and of course air support will all be on the way for them, hopefully sooner rather than later, so I can start gaming with them. There is a Late War GT in November, which I think I will try to take my Coldstreamers to; so expect to see more of them!

Now, onto Napoleonics. My British Guards force is still short two infantry units, as well as the crewmen for my second artillery battery. Now I own it all, so it is just a matter of assembling and painting. Plus everything needs to be based. It would be good to get them done as soon as too- just so they are done! Here is where they are at right now.

So, coming along very well! There is a tournament in Wellington on the 25th; so I think I will take the Guards to that. Right now, I am thinking of using the smallest possible army in Lasalle, British Guards with Heavy Cavalry support! That should be small enough that I can get it on a plane (hopefully).

Now, there is more for the Napoleonic Period. So I decided a while back that having only one army of Napoleonics was a bit silly, especially when no other locals play Lasalle (yet). So, I made the call to buy a French Army too (tough decision...not). So, as of Thursday, my French have arrived!

So, in that pile of plastics is 4 boxes of Perry Infantry, 3 boxes of Perry Dragoons, 1 box of Perry Heavy Cavalry, 1 box of Victrix Old Guard. The boxes at the front are metal Perry Infantry commands, as well as some Perry mounted officers. And of course, the big (little) man himself is there too!

So, the plan is to get at least some of these guys painted for Conquest, where we are going to run a big Lasalle demo game of Waterloo, but more on that soon!

So, there are my 3 projects for the forseeable future, hoping to have more FOW done by the end of the week, and some test figures up for the Frenchies. My British Napoleonics are a little on hold until I can restock my painting supplies.

CP

Snow Challenge 7- The End

Well, today marks the end of the Snow Challenge. So, without any adieu; here is the army now....

I managed to get it all done! I have officially run out of British things to paint. I will need to go for a hunt, or go shopping to manage to find some more things to paint for a painting evening on Tuesday night.

So, what have I finished?

Company HQ (2 infantry stands)
JOE Vanderleur and Forward Air Controller (2 Armoured Cars)
Rifle Platoon x3 (27 infantry stands)
Heavy Machinegun Platoon (6 infantry stands, 1 Universal Carrier)
Anti-Tank Platoon (1 infantry stand, 4 6pdr guns)
Carrier Patrol (3 Universal Carriers)
Sherman OP Tank
2 25pdr Guns with Limbers
1 spare Piat Team

So, in one week, I finished off 37 Infantry stands, 4 Universal Carriers, 4 Gun teams, 2 guns without crew, 1 sherman tank and 2 limbers. All in all, a pretty darn productive week! As for the army as a whole? Well, it really, really needs some support choices. M10's, more 25pdrs and Typhoons all need to be added to the army, so they will be coming soon!

The light is terrible right now, so I will try to get some good shots of the units, including those freshly painted 6pdrs up tommorow.

Well, it was a damn productive week, and the snow has basically gone now. It seems like setting myself random challenges works pretty well, I will have to look into doing a few more!

CP

Snow Challenge 6- Getting there!

So, the snow stopped falling a couple of days ago, and I have decided to wrap up the Snow Challenge on Sunday, so I have 2 more days left to go!

This is the situation with the snow, here is what is left of Frank the Snowman....

 Lets be honest, he has seen better days.....

But, in spite of the warming weather I have managed to get some painting done! Firstly I managed to paint JOE Vandeleur, sitting atop a Humber Scout Car. Joe was the commander of the Irish Guards on their race to Arnhem; ably leading them to as close as 1 mile away from the town! Plus, he was played by Michael Caine (one of my favouritest actors) in a Bridge too Far, so he had to be in the army!

Driving along side Joe, will be my Forward Air Controller- The Fat Controller! His job is making sure my RAF Tiffies' rockets hit the Jerry tanks dead centre!

So, that is the armour. Now what about some infantry? I managed to finish off my 2nd Guards Rifle platoon; but I don't have a close up picture of them, because they basically look the same as the other Rifle platoon! So, now I have a legal Guards Rifle force, since I now have an HQ and 2 Combat platoons. Along with my 2nd Rifle platoon, I have also finished my HMGs. These chaps will get carriers (soon) but for now they can be foot slogging! They have acquired the spare PIAT that I painted earlier in the challenge, but I will paint another so I still have one spare.

So, with those done, all that leaves me left to do is the 3rd Rifle platoon, plus one PIAT stand. And I have 2 days to do it. Perhaps I need to add some more things to get done over those 2 days?

The army as it stands right now, tonight those guys on white bases will get primed, ready for paint tommorow.

How did other peoples snow painting go?

Models Painted: 25 Infantry, 2 25pdrs and Limbers, 6 Tank Teams
Models Remaining: 10 Infantry

CP

Snow Challenge 5- Any progress is good progress?

Any progress is good progress right? There is still plenty of snow on the ground, but it wont be here for long I don't think! Which is probably good actually, it is about time the town got back to normal!

Now, onto progress. I have one very important tip for young players. When trying to do a challenge (such as this one) it is a really good idea to not buy more things to add to the painting pile!

So... what did I paint today? I got a few layers onto my 2nd rifle platoon, but also I managed to get my OP Sherman painted too. And then what did I add to the list? An HMG platoon, plus JOE Vanderleur and the Forward Air Controller (Fat Controller from now on!)

So, here is the whole army, in its semi-painted state.

And here are two (average) pictures of my Sherman OP

So what painted tommorow? JOE, the fat controller, finish the 2nd rifle platoon and I reckon I can get the HMGs done. Which will leave me with just one rifle platoon to go- so long as I don't go shopping again!

Figures Painted: 16 Infantry, 3 Carriers, 2 25pdrs and Limbers, 1 Sherman V
Unpainted: 19 Infantry, 1 FAC, JOE Vandeleur.

So.... suddenly I am back to being under halfway through....

And so the painting continues....

CP

Snow Challenge 4= Progress!

So, the Snow Challenge continues. There is still a heck of alot of snow outside, so more than enough to keep me from having to work this week so far! More importantly, the challenge has spread to Jason and Craig, with Jason's panzers especially embracing the winter aspect of the the challenge! I managed to have a game against him last night too- as it turns out we live around the corner from each other, so it was a (relativly) easy walk to have a game!

So, the title says progress, so that means I need pictures! First off, this is where the army is as a whole.

So, while out for a walk today I was met by Jason, who generously provided me with the paint needed to get my armour done, which meant I could finish my Universal Carriers....

And also my 25pdrs.

But not only that, but I also managed to get some infantry painted. Firstly, my Company HQ (with random PIAT)

As well as the first of my three Guards Rifle Platoons.

You will notice in the army picture that I have a few more infantry done from the 2nd platoon, but I just don't have a photo of them. I have also painted the limbers for the 25pdrs, but apparently they are shy, since none of the photos of them turned out at all!

I have also added a Sherman to the painting mix, I acquired him in a trade with Jason, he needed a Panzer IV, and I needed a Sherman OP! So that will go up on the painting block tommorow too, along with the remanants of the 2nd platoon. Plus I should get the bases done on the last platoon, so they will be ready to go on Thursday when I get around to painting them!

Models Painted- 16 Infantry, 3 Carriers, 2 25pdrs and Limbers
Models Remaining- 14 Infantry, 1 Sherman

My oh my, what a productive day! Any encouragement glady appreciated for tommorow!

CP