I love a challenge me...

When chum Jamie sold me his "Open Fire" starter box set for £15 his comments of "I've taken the Stugs but everything else is there. Good luck with those Shermans though. they're absolutely awful. I couldn't face doing them" were as a red rag to a bull.

 

I've already painted and used most of the German Infantry in the Bénouville game (more of them at a later date). I've also added a second US Paras platoon of eBay for a fiver. That should provide enough variation for a CoC force for another project. I must say, the infantry are very nice.

 

So, on to those Shermans. You get eight in total. Two Firefly's & six bog standard mark V's for two troops. 

The sprues are in a softish plastic & don't exactly inspire.

They don't go together all that well. There's a little 'doctoring' needed on both sides of the hull and in the end, I decided to use superglue on the hull assembly to ensure the gaps didn't re-open.

First hull assembled and it's natty little magnet added (in the box!) for the turret.

The hull sides still left a bit of an unsightly gap that's when I had one of those 'lightbulb' moments. I decided to fill the gaps and wondered just what I hafd for the job?

The most disappointing substance known to man. Or is it?

Having bought a pot of Liquid Green stuff only to be very underwhelmed (how can a product really come about from the need to correct a known failing?), I thought I'd give it a go to see if there actually was ANYTHING it was good for before it went on a final journey.

looking a little rough. But I began to believe this plan might just work!



I added another and gave them both an undercoat with my fave trusted Halford's grey primer



Now it was beginning to take shape I decided it was worth pressing on with the others and not consigning them to eBay.


The rest of the troop with a coat of PSC's British armour Spray.

If I did all eight it would take my Sherman count to an unnecessary 22. So I could afford to go against previous thinking and give them decals to make them unit specific. I will be getting some DD's and marking them up as 13/18th Hussars to support the paras in their early battles so for these mark V's I wanted something for the follow on battles east of the Orne. BINGO! Operation Goodwood featured 11th Armoured Division and a quick check yielded that the same tanks could be used for part of Epsom too.

Full troop

I decaled them up as the senior regiment 23rd Hussars and will be adding the second troop very shortly. Considering That I got a German company, an American Airborne platoon, a rulebook (for eBay) & these eight tanks all for £15 I reckon I made off like a bandit!

The decals were 11th Armoured from http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=60_61_62_66&products_id=279 with the remainder from the excellent Dom's Decals http://www.domsdecals.com/shop/category_ecee596a242de13b779391cdaa2c528d/15mm-WW2-Markings.html?shop_param=cid%3D%26And considering you can pick these tanks up for 99p each I reckon I might be back for more.

Next, back to those A/T guns ;^)

They said I should be committed.....

....so I decided to show some commitment!

After OML2 I took a little time to reflect on where I was hobby-wise & decide which direction I wanted to head off into next. Like all wargamers I have too many periods of interest, scales, books to read and dreams of new shiny projects.

I actually concluded that I am enjoying Chain of Command so much at the moment that I'm staying with it for the foreseeable future (accompanied of course, where the megalomania takes hold, with a bit of IABSM!). While I accept that this may not thrill anyone who doesn't share my love for all things WW2, I do want to "ride the wave" of current enthusiasm and take advantage of making at least a small dent in my lead-pile. I'm sure it won't stay exclusive for too long and I'll endeavour to at least post some game reports on other topics, but for now at least, it's going to be a bit WW2tastic so hold onto your (tin)hats!



Not wanting to "let the cat out of the bag" I couldn't post these two photos prior to OML2. Above is the 20mm Flak auf P107(f) And below are the two 75mm PaK on S307(f) which were two of the supports for the panzergrenadiers.

In the right hand of these two vehicles is the figure representing Hans Holler who commanded the 75 platoon at Bénouville.

First project in line will be reading up, compiling and painting all the necessary items for both sides of my long awaited "East of the Orne" campaign for At the Sharp End. This is actually a bit of a cheat as I spent a lot of time last year painting Normandy buildings and also painted over a company's worth of British paras. Along with the newly made stuff for OML2 I'm already into a healthy start with just a few more panzergrenadier machine gun teams and some A/T guns to add for the Germans and paras to have enough kit to get a Chain of Command campaign up & running very soon. I'm sticking with 15mm as my scale for all things CoC and IABSM. The availability of kits and price are something that just can't be matched in 28mm as pretty as it is. CoC also plays quite differently (in a good way) in 15mm. The ground scale being correct, there's a definite feeling of more space and in my opinion you get a better appreciation of the tactics, especially covering fire and flanking manoeuvres. As you can see by these photos, you just couldn't do this in 28mm.

As part of the preparation it's my intention to compile a fairly comprehensive list of 21st Panzer Division support choices using the official "CoCulator". I'll hopefully be pinging the end product over to Rich for approval. This is something I'm really looking forward to, especially as my copy of The Combat History of 21st Panzer Division by Werner Kortenhaus http://www.amazon.co.uk/Combat-History-Panzer-Division-1943-45/dp/1907677712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404307995&sr=1-1&keywords=21st+panzer+division arrived only days after OML2 after an 18 month wait! It really is a superb book and surprisingly has it's very own little map book as an attached purchase.

The particular part of this campaign I'll be most concentrating my efforts on will be Kampfgruppe von Luck's assaults toward the allied bridgehead from the east. there are some fantastic battles, with as you'd expect from a kampfgruppe, plenty of mixed elements. Some armour (panzer IV's - covered), a lot of recce elements in the form of armoured cars (covered), half-tracks (covered) & soft skins (while not so applicable for CoC, still very much so for IABSM & in scenario ideas).

The intention is to run the campaign at the Wyvern Wargamers club (hopefully). Using the games as a testing bed to maybe compile a book of scenarios which maybe something I can tout to TFL once more for the specials like I did with Bénouville?

Over the coming weeks, at risk of being boring, I hope to post up progress of how the scenarios are shaping up, newly painted kit and of course some AAR's. These have all been painted, crewed, decalled & had stowage since OML2, representing (for me) quite an unusual feat. Hence keeping on at least for now.....


SdKfz250/9's from 1st company of Pz. Aufklrungs-Abteilung 21 (Armoured Reconnaissance

234/1's belonging to the 2nd (Heavy) Company of Pz-Aufklarungs-Abteilung 21

233's again from 2nd Company. Nifty HE support!

 

 




75mm PaK40 auf 39H(f) from Sturmgeschutz-Abteilung 200 (Assault Guns). I have a couple of the 10.5's to do later, but again more of an IABSM thing.

These are useful in CoC. Kubelwagens were EVERYWHERE and can offer a cheap (if fragile) option to speed troops across the table. These are Forged in Battle with crews from Battlefront and Peter Pig leftovers I had lying around. A little filing and they fitted a treat. I do think open-topped vehicles look much better for some crew.

75mm PaK auf Lorraine(f). Although strictly not belonging to 21st Panzer, a few of these turned up in the vicinity from 736 Division.



These are for later (when I start on the 12th SS & Panzer Lehr battles). They got caught up in my A/C enthusiasm.

 



These are some of Battlefront's new plastic panzergrenadier half-tracks. I'm really pleased how these went together (assembled by my 15 year old son). Crew are also Battlefront being a mixture from the plastic box set and the ones coming with their 250's

 Next up............anti-tank guns!

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.......AGAIN

Well, what a busy weekend that seemed to be! It started with the first play-test of the Benouville game on Friday (which went very well), took in the trek north to Triples in Sheffield on Saturday, painting some more 15mm paras on Sunday & ended with a trip to Wyvern Wargamers to get my arse royally kicked at Stu's Starship Troopers game. A night where I couldn't roll a single 6 all night until I didn't want any & they came along in doubles & trebles! DOH!

Anyway, onto the sinning, which mostly happened on Saturday. Despite my proud declaration that "no more new topics would be undertaken this year", I appear to have failed miserably coming away from Triples with not ONE but TWO seeds of evil planted firmly in my wargaming brain.

Here's the weekend swag. And the excuses which may or may not be necessary.....

First up was this haul for my Jason & the Argonauts project

Not strictly speaking a 'new' project as Paul Next Door & I had talked at length about doing it. I'd opted for Jason while Paul was for all things Arabian with Sinbad. The plan was to try out the 7TV rules '7th Voyage' from Crooked Dice, They've really captured the "Harryhausen" feel we were looking for. The slightly unforeseen part was buying the other set of rules pictured, but they're really pretty & contain LOTS of lovely pictures of the painted Foundry http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/ancients/world-greeks/argonauts-and-mythical-heroes-collection-bcwg016/  range which I'll find quite an inspiration. Watch this space.......

Addition to an existing game. No sin here.

I already own & play Dead Man's Hand which is a great game with an innovative mechanic that really suits the Wild West theme. Having missed it's debut at Salute I took the opportunity to catch up with top fellas Stu McQ & Mark from Great Escape Games http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/ & bag a copy of 'Legend'. Trips into Dry Gulch would now take on a whole new slant.


Cracking source material for CoC & IABSM
 

 Next up is a book I'd been looking at buying for probably the last two years from Dave Thomas. Written by Stephen Andrew & published by Landser Books, it covers German army uniforms in all theatres from 1944-45 with some corking colour plates. When Dave made such an attractive offer I couldn't refuse, even Paul Next Door grabbed 'one for the road'.

21st Panzer finally get their correct supports for Benouville

In through the door & straight to Stafford Games (who now have bags in the same livery as Harrods so I'm told by the lady serving - FoW sales must still be strong!), where I picked up the "must have" bits of the day. I felt so much better :^)

Difficult to tell because of the reflection, but this field is lovely!

 Last but by no means least are the flowers I told the wife I was getting (still don't understand why she's peeved) & a 'field' by some company in the Czech Republic, most probably for railways. Stu at GEG was telling me they'd sort of been bought in error so it was a case of getting them noticed. This one has the look of a rape-seed type crop. It's about A4 sized & when based will make a cracking little 'small-holding' in Normandy somewhere scaling at bout 30m x 19m.

The aforementioned 2nd new project hasn't ACTUALLY been purchased yet. but the thought alone is wrong as it will surely happen (just not probably until the end of this year). After picking up a parcel for Rich Clarke from Empress Miniatures, I stood gazing at the BEAUTIFUL Spanish Civil War range, something I'd been holding off on for a while (and cursing the many CoC Espana lists published around Christmas) . I cracked. I knew I would. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that was what Rich's parcel contained too!

I'm not from the Catholic side of our family. Just as well. I'd be mumbling "Hail Mary's" for the rest of my days.....

Pulling a "Nissvik" *

No sooner have I mentioned my intentions to run the gladiator project AS A SMALL AFFAIR, with no intentions to do anything stupid (like build an arena for example), than my first email message yesterday morning was from Paul Next Door (my neighbour, chum, lifelong gaming oppo) with a bloody Kickstater link to this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hurlbat/28mm-modular-gladiator-arena-and-accessories?ref=discovery

Doh!

 

At the moment it's quite rudimentary, but with the promise of it being embellished as stretch-goals & even the larger pledges weighing in favourably when compared to other laser cut MDF/ply vendors, there's a pretty good chance I may exhibit signs of "wargamer weakness" before the Kickstarter ends in 16 days time.

It's already funded. So I'll be keeping an eye on developments there I think.

I've been "Nissviked". Thomas, Your young padowan has struck  :(



*You may need to be on the TooFatLardies Yahoo Group to fully understand.

Projects for the year ahead 2014 (1) Gladiators

Salutant vos, qui morituris!

After a long, exhaustive search for the 'right' rules, I finally took the plunge and bought a set that I'd liked the look of after reading the reviews. The purchase was delayed somewhat as, after making my choice, they disappeared from sale at North Star http://northstarfigures.com/ & everywhere else! Still, watching out for them turned out to have been worthwhile & a set was duly secured on eBay for a tenner (RRP £17).....bargain!

I'm intending to keep this as a small "side-project" (low figure count etc. making that ideal) & don't have any plans to do daft things like build a 3D arena.....while, not yet anyhow ;)

I'll be using a bunch of 28mm figures I picked up from West Wind way back at Warfare show back in about 2002. I don't see them available anymore but I think they were part of the Gladiator Wars range also sold by Old Glory. I'll post some photos of how they're coming on when the project finally finds wings after OML2.

See, it's not ALL Lard ya know!