Hi All, I have organised "Blood Upon the Risers", a free, one-day introductory BA Event for new or returning ( learning again!) players. 

The event is at Burnham, Christchurch, New Zealand on December 23rd. We have a capacity for the venue and have TWO player spots left! Details can be found in the event pack below, as can my contact details. 

Pre-registration before 9 Dec is required, and details can be found in the document below.

Regards, Dan.

Hi all, so I have been very busy painting and doing work to recover from my total knee replacement for my left knee...hence the additional time for hobby!! 

While doom- scrolling in hospital and throughout my recovery this far it has become apparent there are many more budget 1/56- 1/50 ish vehicle options becoming highlighted on cheap trading sites such as Ali express. 

One of the areas in which I need a lot of models and are definitely worth a punt are bulk transport vehicles such as trucks. Seeing someone post a link to some absolute bargain models that looked great, i followed the link and for the first time braved my laptops health and sanity by going on the site. As I'd never ordered before not only was it crazy cheap but they offered me free postage also! so...for $2.17 NZD, i ordered a pack of TEN (!!) trucks.

I have to say not only was the communication professional, accurate and timely but the postage ( from god knows where...Palau Islands?!? lol) was prompt despite being free, and they arrived 10 days later despite having given an online ETA of 23 December! 

So...I opened them and here they are in their glory!

​Here is one out of the bag (centre), which is perfectly sized next to the 1/56 rubicon Studebaker ( Left- excusing the dust from sitting on my shelves, lol!) and the Warlord Opel Blitz (Right).

You can see from the below the detail on the outside is very good...a blurry-line-straddling stand-in for studebaker/opel/citroen -ish vehicles! 

​As you can see, the 'weakest' point of the moulding is the negative-image-type tyres, where the 'low' points of the tread have become the high points...snow chains anyone?! lol. But seriously- i dont care...i think its really really good...and for 21 cents NZ each- bloody hell thats a steal! Ill be ordering another bag of them! 

Interestingly, even from a low point of view the detail looks good, but underneath heres what there is; 

​...its hollow! Talk about saving weight in your army carry case! :) Again- I'm happy with the product- extremely happy and will be ordering more. I had sat there and trembled at the thought of another 20 Opel/Citroen and other mixed brand trucks for my Germans at Arnhem alone, yet alone other big games and other armies! 

21 Cents!....TWENTY ONE CENTS!!!! Take my money! Im off to combine another order with some other items listed as 1/72 to give them a try...i might be able to buy more Pumas than were made haha.

Heres a size comparison from above;

​and one last shot of my bag of joy:

 Running repairs, all 8 wheels broke off my Jeeps at the last event ????. That's the disadvantage of having perfection in scaling. Those little parts don't work when wargamers go brumm brumm 

 Bolt Action third edition eBook and PDF now available.

If anyone's considering the Bolt Action third edition eBook version here is a screenshot of what it looks like on the PC. It's fully searchable nicely laid out and generally just a fantastic presentation of what will hopefully be a great rule set. If you have ever experienced a GW fixed layout eBook this is NOT that!!

It's also available as PDF 'eBook' version so make sure you get the one you want.

Ebook (Mobi and Epub)
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/bolt-action-third-edition-9781472863805/

PDF (sort-of-an-ebook, but fixed pages. Does not re-flow on a smaller device but looks exactly like the printed rules… I assume)
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/bolt-action-third-edition-9781472863829/

If you're like me and you don't enjoy reading books with small text or if you just like to read on the run or have your eBook reader speak the text aloud while you're driving or mowing the lawn then this is a great choice. I got mine direct from the osprey web store for US$35, and after a couple of hour delay of error messages (something about watermarking) I have now successfully downloaded and transferred to my phone.

Finished my last V2 game 48 hours ago and now tooled up for Version 3 with 2 hard cover rulebooks, one softcover and an eBook (yeah don't ask…!), bring it Bolt action V3!

Its hyperlinked as well...

Soviet Gaz jeeps, 3d Printed and painted by me (work in process) love the appropriate passengers, also being able to print them out at the exact 1/56 size is soothes me as well.

Just purchased a restock of various Vallejo paints, imagine how cranky I was when 70.922 is now 'a completely different colour'...

However the difference is the new actual bottle by the looks of things. See below the 2 colours (sorry one not mixed fully). They look pretty similar to me. Thanks the paint gods. Go back to your seats nothing to see. :-) 

First successful attempt at contrast paint. In fantasy for Warhammer: the old world Thanks Ian for the modified slapchop method

...

​Well it seems like ages since the lost time I updated my goals, and yet time has flown by! That is the side effect of my profession I guess- blocks of time go by where I am totally immersed in the job. so much so that everything is put to one side throughout each course....I really do apologise to my friends and family as I know I don't really speak to them for up to six weeks at a time!! I hope you all feel a like you are communicated to a bit better than that.....?!

  So heres the progress for the last months spare time around courses; Soviet Naval Infantry. You can see above 29 Painted, and ive just tonight based two more - the twin officers you can see just to the rear right of the painted squads! They received basing and a final layer and varnish in order to get over 30 and make up for the missing 3rd man from the MMG crew that Rex is printing up for me in the near future.

  Once again I have enjoyed painting these units in their distinctive uniforms, and it was a timely change of colour palette from German Field Grey 'A change is as good as a break' they say, and so it was with these. only five of these figures were 3D printed, the rest were Warlord Games' metal figures. I really like most of the poses, but they are probably due for a re-vamp, such as a re-sculpt or something. Quite ragged castings in some parts, some short-shots in the casting, and a few faces that look like Voldemort....but with some love and some ears painted in that didnt have sculpted detail (and half a nose on one!) the majority of the detail is pronounced and lovely to paint, especially in the shirts...

​...However, it also reminded me of how great the definition is on the Flank March Miniatures 3D figures! I'm happy to have the mix and I'm looking forward to getting some more Flank March figures in my hot little hands in the near future.

So; where does that put me vs. my hobby goals? Well speaking of the Naval Infantry I have a heap on this list that I dont even have yet so we shall see if they stay on the list or not...remembering why I was doing this in the first place ( to get the stuff on my shelves in the wargames room painted!) id predicted I would get those onto the shelves, but maybe not and I will certainly have plenty of other stuff to concentrate on! I wont post the progress report on here as Ive only ticked a few things off recently...I shall wait until I have more stuff in Green as "DONE" before I post it up next! 

One thing I have noticed- such as moving the 29 to 31 finished in this Batch of painting- I now feel like if ive not painted a batch of at least 30 at a time I feel a bit like id wasted an opportunity....weird but that seems to be my mental default for batches now. 

Hope everyone elses hobby is going well. Let us know what you are up to in the comments.

Regards,

Dan 

We just had a long weekend and I wanted to do something completely frivolous. Here it is, my forest base version 2. Just needs some anti shine clear coat and its done.

Video to follow (...eventually)

Another bunch of Waffen SS onto my 'finished' shelves ! 

 For these figures I deliberately mixed up different types of cam on their clothing and helmet covers, as many of the ones I have on my shelves at present are way too orderly in their wear compared to many photos I have seen, so I wanted to mix it up a bit ( See?! evidence I'm not just photographing the same squads over again haha!). 

2024 HOBBY GOALS

Updated; 3 June 2024

Colour/ Key;

Completed = DONE

In progress= WIP

EW= Early War

LW= Late War

Historical WW2

German;

EW Krupp Protze  WIP

Sdkfz 234 with variant parts

Marder III WIP

Sdkfz 251 D x3

Sdkfz 251 C Pioneerwagon

Lorraine Shlepper WIP

UNIC P107 WIP

EW Pak 36- removable crew

EW Leig 38 & winter crew variants – removable crew

EW Opel Blitz WIP

EW Pz III F WIP

Pz Lehr MMG WIP 

Pz Lehr Sniper team DONE

Winter dismounted Pz Crew WIP

Sdkfz 232

EW MG34 MMG removable crew DONE

EW infantry x 21 DONE

EW infantry x 11 DONE

EW infantry x 5 DONE

Detail 112 x EW infantry DONE

LW Heer Grenadiers x 70 WIP

LW Heer Grenadiers x 50 WIP

DAK infantry x 50

Pz Lehr infantry x25 WIP

Luftwaffe 88 crew x 7 WIP

Waffen SS inf x 65 DONE

Waffen SS inf x 30 WIP

" " Nebelwerfer – removable crew

"" Pak 40 – removable crew

"" MMG x2

Waffen SS med mortar x 1 DONE

""MMG x 1 DONE

" " Med Mortar – removable crew

Heer pak 40 with summer and winter crews -removable

Heer pak 40 with removable crew

Last levy infantry ( Berlin) x 20

Luftwaffe tropical ground crew x 5 WIP

Mike's Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew ( basing and detailing only) DONE

Stuka x1

Fallshirmjager infantry x 70

''Med Mortar removable crew

" Pz shrek team

" Sniper team

" Flamethrower team

" mule handler and mule x1

Opel blitz fuel bowser truck

Heer weapons teams

British Airborne;

Vehicle crew x 30

Polsten guns x 9

6 pounders and crew x 3

6 pounders limbered x 4

Med mortars x 3

MMG teams x 3

Light Mortars x 3

Piat teams x 2

Tow jeeps x 4

17 Pounders and removable crew x 2

Infantry x 150

British/commonwealth;

Sherman V x3

Sherman VC Firefly x1

Infantry inB/dress x 22

8th Army inf x 4

Bedford QLT truck

8^th Army Lee tank

Cromwell with Burlap camo

Soviet Army;

Infantry x 100

Detail /repaint soviet infantry x 100

Rebase soviet infantry x 150

45 mm AT gun with removable & alternate ( SNI )crews x 2

MMG team

HMG team

Dog mines x 3 teams

M3 White scout car

ATK rifle

Amplumet

FT team

L Mortar team

Peoples militia x 12

Jeepsand crew x2

T34/85

T34/76 (warlord)

T34/76 ( Rubicon)

GAZ AA/AAA trucks x 2

Soviet Naval Infantry;

Bronekator patrol boat

Infantry (Warlord) x 44 WIP

Infantry (3D prints) x 30

MMG team WIP

HMG team

45mm AT gun and crew -removable

FT team

Standard bearers x2

ZiS 3 and crew -removable

Heavy Mortar and crew- removable

Light mortar and crew

Pzfaust infantry x3

Medic

Photographer- Yevgeny Khaldei

Naval political officer x 2

SMG squad

Terrain;

2x collapsed parachute canopies

Urban barricades x6

Eastern Front log houses x 2

Eastern front village base

3D printed buildings x7

Additional berlin apartment building floors x2

Stalingrad tank factory & Base

Stalingrad Barmaley fountain x2

Destroyed European buildings (MDF) x2

Dock buildings and scatter-qty

IJA Tank emplacement

Dock crane

Lowest priority "Nice to do" list;

IJA/IJN;

150 Infantry (incl teams)

Repair/paint med tank

Rebase Infantry x 100

IJA LMG relocating

Italian;

6 infantry

Replace heads on 5 Coastal Div infantry

Arditi squad x2

MMG team for coastal div

WW2 Character models;

Mussolini

Otto Skorzeny

Charles Upham

We have ways characters x 2

Berlin soviet flag characters

Vasily Zaitsev

Desmond Doss & casualty

David Stirling

Jock Lewes

BA 'Stalingrad' set soviet sniper team

USMC Cappy the devil dog & Handler

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army;

Huntsmen x 10

Helstorm Rocket battery

Outriders x 5

Head replacement on militiaman

Bear Musician model

As you can see, I have knocked out several 'high quantity' elements to the list. 

My next goal is to hit a few smaller items and pick them off as a nit of a palette cleanser, and then back into the bigger volumes again, probably with a 50 figure batch of Soviet Naval Infantry, getting them done before Rex prints and sends reinforcements to me ( ie the rest of the list I've shown!).

I hope whatever you've been up to on the hobby front has been productive, let us know below!)

Regards, Dan  

With everything I have half finished makes sense to... start a whole new theater of operations.

Armed with my book Painting War 3: WWII Japan & USA Armies i'm looking forward to just painting rather then spending weeks on the research phase.

I will post the hobby progress spreadsheet below, but in a nutshell I repainted 30 Waffen SS figures, 5 Early war German Infantry  and detailed 30 of my '41 German Infantry. I'm pretty happy with that figure since that represents 4 weeks of spare time/decompressing while away for work. Here's a (workbench only quality!-sorry!) pic of some of the finished infantry sitting on my shelf;

 (Ignore the pre-work toy tanks and the Sdkfz 7 in the background, the subject of future work...)

Obviously, by the count above I've done many more than this, Ill do a quick video for the channel showing some close ups of them before putting them on the shelves in the wargames room as reinforcements! Keep an eye on the channel for a closer look, and also check out the latest review of the great Wargames Atlantic BEF Set Rex and I posted up there a couple of days prior to the time of me posting this.

I would like to mention that I didnt start these from scratch. If you check out my workbench update for March you will see the state of these as I received them 2nd-hand, so you will begin to understand the amount of work i put into them...BUT i didnt have to start from scratch. these guys were already painted in waffen SS autumn pattern camo helmet covers etc, so I stuck with that, it was especially useful as I hadn't had any SS in zeltbahn ponchos before, so now that is sorted. I put national eagles on their sleeves and cuff titles except for those without helmet covers etc which i left as generic looking German Infantry that can double up between the SS forces and Heer. I had another discussion with a fantasy player during the week with a completely valid point of view that he didnt like people getting excited by playing Waffen SS, and his values regarding that. I explained to him my point of view I have expressed on our podcast previously which is that to represent historical forces for battles in Normandy and for Market Garden one needs to have such forces. It was good to have a sensible discussion on the topic with someone again and explain the reason why someone would collect such a force - without being unhealthily obsessed by them, and hear their point of view why it puts them off- in this case, encounters with rather over-enthusiastic and passionate SS players. 

 I think a few years ago I started displaying a talent of finding 2nd hand armies at a cheap price that were capable of producing great results if repainted...with maybe a few modelling issues that need sorting out also, but are fixable. Exhibit A is the finished result, but B is the image below of some assembly issues that are the type I normally get in these types of second-hand deals:

​So, a healthy bits box is always good to bring these poses back to realistic ones im happy with....a bit of a shame for the MG number two second from right,  as he would have been a cool pose if the German MGs were fed belts from that side, never mind. 

As you can see , this latest lot of about 50 models are primed rather than painted, so its starting from 'scratch' but again a great deal and the majority of the assembly is very good, only needing mostly minor repairs, mould lines removed and the odd poses as above needing re-modelling. I have added them onto the list below, and as they are sitting on the bench now, may as well crack on with them! 

 2024 HOBBY GOALS

Updated; 2 May 2024

Colour/ Key;

Completed

In progress

EW= Early War

LW= Late War

Historical WW2

German;

EW Krupp Protze- WIP

Sdkfz 234 with variant parts

Marder III- WIP

Sdkfz 251 D x3

Sdkfz 251 C Pioneerwagon WIP

Lorraine Shlepper WIP

UNIC P107 WIP

EW Pak 36- removable crew

EW Leig 38 & winter crew variants – removable crew

EW Opel Blitz 

EW Pz III F

Pz Lehr MMG DONE

Winter dismounted Pz Crew WIP

Sdkfz 232

EW MG34 MMG removable crew DONE

EW infantry x 21 DONE

EW infantry x 11 DONE

EW infantry x 5 DONE

Detail 112 x EW infantry

LW Heer Grenadiers x 70 WIP

LW Heer Grenadiers x 50 WIP

DAK infantry x 50

Pz Lehr infantry x25

Luftwaffe 88 crew x 7

Waffen SS inf x 65

Waffen SS inf x 30 DONE

" " Nebelwerfer – removable crew

"" Pak 40 – removable crew

"" MMG x2

Waffen SS med mortar x 1 WIP

""MMG x 1 WIP

" " Med Mortar – removable crew

Heer pak 40 with summer and winter crews -removable

Heer pak 40 with removable crew WIP

Last levy infantry ( Berlin) x 20

Luftwaffe tropical ground crew x 5 WIP

Mike's Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew ( basing and detailing only) DONE

Stuka x1

Fallshirmjager infantry x 70

''Med Mortar removable crew

" Pz shrek team

" Sniper team

" Flamethrower team

" mule handler and mule x1

Opel blitz fuel bowser truck

Heer weapons teams

British Airborne;

Vehicle crew x 30

Polsten guns x 9

6 pounders and crew x 3

6 pounders limbered x 4

Med mortars x 3

MMG teams x 3

Light Mortars x 3

Piat teams x 2

Tow jeeps x 4

17 Pounders and removable crew x 2

Infantry x 150

British/commonwealth;

Sherman V x3

Sherman VC Firefly x1

Infantry inB/dress x 22

8th Army inf x 4

Bedford QLT truck

8^th Army Lee tank

Cromwell with Burlap camo

Soviet Army;

Infantry x 100

Detail /repaint soviet infantry x 100

Rebase soviet infantry x 150

45 mm AT gun with removable & alternate ( SNI )crews x 2

MMG team

HMG team

Dog mines x 3 teams

M3 White scout car

ATK rifle

Amplumet

FT team

L Mortar team

Peoples militia x 12

Jeepsand crew x2

T34/85

T34/76 (warlord)

T34/76 ( Rubicon)

GAZ AA/AAA trucks x 2

Soviet Naval Infantry;

Bronekator patrol boat

Infantry (Warlord) x 44

Infantry (3D prints) x 30

MMG team

HMG team

45mm AT gun and crew -removable

FT team

Standard bearers x2

ZiS 3 and crew -removable

Heavy Mortar and crew- removable

Light mortar and crew

Pzfaust infantry x3

Medic

Photographer- Yevgeny Khaldei

Naval political officer x 2

SMG squad

Terrain;

2x collapsed parachute canopies

Urban barricades x6

Eastern Front log houses x 2

Eastern front village base

3D printed buildings x7

Additional berlin apartment building floors x2

Stalingrad tank factory & Base

Stalingrad Barmaley fountain x2

Destroyed European buildings (MDF) x2

Dock buildings and scatter-qty

IJA Tank emplacement

Dock crane

Lowest priority "Nice to do" list;

IJA/IJN;

150 Infantry (incl teams)

Repair/paint med tank

Rebase Infantry x 100

IJA LMG relocating

Italian;

6 infantry

Replace heads on 5 Coastal Div infantry

Arditi squad x2

MMG team for coastal div

WW2 Character models;

Mussolini

Otto Skorzeny

Charles Upham

We have ways characters x 2

Berlin soviet flag characters

Vasily Zaitsev

Desmond Doss & casualty

David Stirling

Jock Lewes

BA 'Stalingrad' set soviet sniper team

USMC Cappy the devil dog & Handler

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army;

Huntsmen x 10

Helstorm Rocket battery

Outriders x 5

Head replacement on militiaman

Bear Musician model

So there we have it, some good progress i think! Im happy with it anyway. Keep an eye out for the videos on our valhalla games' Youtube page hope you enjoy seeing them. 

Do you like to shop around for 2nd hand armies? what is it you look for in a good deal? what are your dealbreakers? Let us know! 

Dan 

It's Official! Bolt Action: Third Edition Lands September 2024:

https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/bolt-action-third-edition-september-2024/

As a build up to me rewatching A Bridge Too Far movie (which really is a true story) with mates in a few weeks time I thought I would post a few interesting facts about the movie (no spoilers). Comment below (and chose "Subscribe to this blog post") and I will update the chat with interesting titbits over the next few weeks.

​A Bridge Too Far is a classic war film that was released in 1977. Directed by Richard Attenborough, the movie depicts the Allied attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands during World War II. Based on Cornelius Ryan's best-selling book of the same name, A Bridge Too Far features an ensemble cast of talented actors, including Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Anthony Hopkins.

This gripping film not only provides a thrilling account of a major military operation, but also offers a deeper exploration of the human cost and sacrifices made during wartime. With its powerful storytelling, intense battle sequences, and rich characterization, A Bridge Too Far has become a beloved war movie that continues to captivate audiences to this day. (content borrowed from https://facts.net, I'm sure they won't mind... :-/ )

"The Eagle has landed" one of my all time favourite war movies (and books) is 100% true after all... After so much wanting this to be a 'based on fact' story for so long I'm pleased to announce that on the strength of this book cover I consider this irrefutable proof that it is in fact a true story and Jack Higgins had inside information all along.

... at least I'm 40% sure.

So, as per my list below and our latest YouTube video, My list of stuff the year is massive...PLUS I acquired Mikes awesome terrain and stuff as seen in our latest YouTube vid, and so I decided that although I was in the field and on duty during the week, it was time to move from assembly line work onto finishing some figures. 

What better to choose then than the only figures I acquired from the sale of the wargames items that belonged to the late Mike (RIP); the Wargames Foundry downed German aircrew.  

So I really want to say I cant take any credit for these figures except for basing and a few details. Apart from that, this is how they were when I got them- and I wanted to keep it that way so they are Mikes figures. 

I touched up dings, rebased and did the few details to make them look fresh and give them longevity. The bright, decaying leaves are a bit bright on these figures, but that does match them with all my other NW Europe basing for coherency. The leaves are a godsend to add some colour to bases for German and Soviet field uniforms and avoid them looking washed out. 

​These are quite clearly not the greatest photos in the world, as per the 'workbench pics' principle we use on blogposts and sometimes Instagram, but I threw them down on a piece of Scenery I also got that was Mikes and snapped a few pics in some crazy light- I thought it actually matched that of dappled light coming through the canopy of the copse of trees they are navigating through.

​I confess that I also got some lighter colour onto the head bandage as highlights, but I figured Mike would've ended up doing that anyway, so I gave myself a pass there!

​So there you go, Hope you've enjoyed seeing some pics of them and feel like I finished them off in a way that would have done Mike proud. Easiest 'tick' off the list ever...but Ill take the win, and add these guys to my shelves of German WW2 for a future scenario! 

Dan

Hope you had a chance to check out the video on YouTube showing shelves full of work needing to be done! if not, check it out here:

2024 HOBBY GOALS

Colour/ Key;

Completed

In progress

EW= Early War

LW= Late War

LAST UPDATED 23/2/24

Historical WW2

German;

EW Krupp Protze  IN PROGRESS- Assembled, base coated 

Sdkfz 234 with variant parts AS ABOVE

Marder III AS ABOVE 

Sdkfz 251 D x3 AS ABOVE 

Sdkfz 251 C Pioneerwagon 

Lorraine Shlepper AS ABOVE 

UNIC P107 AS ABOVE 

EW Pak 36- & Crew  IN PROGRESS- base coated

EW Leig 38 & winter crew variants – removable crew

EW Opel Blitz  ASSEMBLED 

EW Pz III F ASSEMBLED

Pz Lehr MMG

Pz Lehr Sniper team

Winter dismounted Pz Crew

Sdkfz 232

EW MG34 MMG removable crew IN PROGRESS 

EW infantry x 32 IN PROGRESS

Detail 112 x EW infantry 

LW Grenadiers x 70

DAK infantry x 50

Pz Lehr infantry x25

Luftwaffe 88 crew x 7 IN PROGRESS

Waffen SS inf x 65

" " Nebelwerfer – removable crew

"" Pak 40 – removable crew

"" MMG x2

" " Med Mortar – removable crew

Heer pak 40 with summer and winter crews -removable

Last levy infantry ( Berlin) x 20

Luftwaffe tropical ground crew x 5

Mike's Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew ( basing and detailing only) COMPLETED

Stuka x1

Fallshirmjager infantry x 70

''Med Mortar removable crew

" Pz shrek team

" Sniper team

" Flamethrower team

" mule handler and mule x1

Opel blitz fuel bowser truck-  In process of assembly

Heer weapons teams

British Airborne;

Vehicle crew x 30

Polsten guns x 9

6 pounders and crew x 3

6 pounders limbered x 4

Med mortars x 3

MMG teams x 3

Light Mortars x 3

Piat teams x 2

Tow jeeps x 4

17 Pounders and removable crew x 2

Infantry x 150

British/commonwealth;

Sherman V x3

Sherman VC Firefly x1

Infantry in B/dress x 22

8th Army inf x 4

Bedford QLT truck ASSEMBLED 

8^th Army Lee tank

Cromwell with Burlap camo ASSEMBLED 

Soviet Army;

Infantry x 100

Detail /repaint soviet infantry x 100

Rebase soviet infantry x 150

45 mm AT gun with removable & alternate ( SNI )crews x 2

MMG team

HMG team

Dog mines x 3 teams

M3 White scout car

ATK rifle

Amplumet

FT team

L Mortar team

Peoples militia x 12

Jeeps and crew x2

T34/85

T34/76 (warlord)

T34/76 ( Rubicon)

GAZ AA/AAA trucks x 2

Soviet Naval Infantry;

Bronekator patrol boat

Infantry (Warlord) x 44

Infantry (3D prints) x 30

MMG team

HMG team

45mm AT gun and crew -removable

FT team

Standard bearers x2

ZiS 3 and crew -removable

Heavy Mortar and crew- removable

Light mortar and crew

Pz faust infantry x3

Medic

Photographer- Yevgeny Khaldei

Naval political officer x 2

SMG squad

Terrain;

2x collapsed parachute canopies

Urban barricades x6

Eastern Front log houses x 2

Eastern front village base

3D printed buildings x7

Additional berlin apartment building floors x2

Stalingrad tank factory & Base

Stalingrad Barmaley fountain x2

Destroyed European buildings (MDF) x2

Dock buildings and scatter-qty

IJA Tank emplacement- IN PROGRESS 

Dock crane

Lowest priority "Nice to do" list;

IJA/IJN;

150 Infantry (incl teams)

Repair/paint med tank

Rebase Infantry x 100

IJA LMG relocating

Italian;

6 infantry

Replace heads on 5 Coastal Div infantry

Arditi squad

MMG team for coastal div

WW2 Character models;

Mussolini

Otto Skorzeny

Charles Upham

We have ways characters x 2

Berlin soviet flag characters

Vasily Zaitsev

Desmond Doss & casualty

David Stirling

Jock Lewes

BA 'Stalingrad' set soviet sniper team

USMC Cappy the devil dog & Handler

Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army;

Huntsmen x 10

Helstorm Rocket battery

Outriders x 5

Head replacement on militiaman

Bear Musician model 

So on Saturday, I headed over to Craigs house for a game of Bolt Action. I was really looking forward to it as Craig not only has produced a great looking table, but has also just finished painting an entire 8th Army force, based around the 2nd New Zealand Division and some special guest stars ( some might say 'rogue heroes' ..) with their ill gotten gains from a certain Mr Stirlings night out in Cairo...

The reality is that I very possibly set myself up to fail right at that fateful decision. I normally play my own game anyway, so I really didnt need to see what Craig was doing with his deployment. I would've been better off choosing and denying him the high ground. His Medium mortar and 25 pounder -both without spotters if I remember correctly- would possibly had a harder time seeing my units. Although, the palm bases counting as rough ground, no penalty to hit firing across them, meant that the table was deceptively open in regards to shooting!

Both forces tried to dominate the centre of the battlefield from the start. I wouldnt normally try to capture the objectives so early if they were in the relative open, but on this battelefield the two flank central ones were in the wadi (hard cover) and at the ford in the centre that was hard cover by virtue of it being a destroyed bridge, with the remnants providing hard cover from the sides. With that in mind i pushed my Green FJ squad up on my left flank,  initially behind the StuH that was providing hard cover from fire. 

​Come Turn 2 however, Craigs FAO called in fire for effect with an artillery barrage, which- well placed by craig- put pins on several units and devastatingly rolled a six for the StuH, then setting it on fire and the crew running for the hills (wadi's?!) and its knocked out! (Below) The Green FJ scarpered into the wadi and took cover behind some scrub while checking out what was inside the ammo case the DAK casualty was clinging to as his life slipped away 

( Sidebar: see the objective above- not my best painted but hurriedly knocked up and painted the water to try to match Craigs stream from a photo. I was actually quite happy with it, one day ill go back and detail and highlight them!)  

Not only did the bombardment play havoc, but the 25 pounder and mortar turned into sharpshooters to pay me back for my gift of high ground to Craig! with successive sixes to range in, my medium mortar and sniper team were reduced to offal over the first two turns! Craigs target and order dice allocation priorities were excellent, and swinging the order dice advantage way in his favour.

In order to rebalance the centre of the board somewhat I ran the officer on to get within range of the much- diminished FJ squads so he could balance out the pins and motivate them into action the next turn! the truck attempted to do a road-assisted long advance move and disgorge its 10 man & SMG heavy FJ squad within shooting range of the bad guys (good guys?!?) advancing on my units at the ford.

Unfortunately, after an abysmal roll on the pothole environmental effect check, the pothole spotter was clearly fighting Indiana Jones or something and the truck bumbled forward, leaving them out of position for where I wanted them...Aaaaaargh! 

Heres the view down the road from Craigs side, one can see the pressure hes kept up in the centre and turn three he brought his Blitz buggy in from his right flank. Hosing down the Green FJ squad, they took a single casualty, in addition some more shooting whittled them down to two men, who rather inconveniently had stayed inexperienced. However, they got their sweet sweet revenge when they assaulted the blitz buggy at the start of turn 4, and the buggy failed its recce escape move. Being the spiteful man I am I stalled it right where it was and the FJ proceeded to slice and dice and drop a grenade in the now empty vehicle, destroying it...a solitary victorious moment for the last couple of turns for me!

​Meanwhile back in the centre of the table, Craigs dice advantage and sheer number of shots in his shooting order was paying dividends. I had to try and get some momentum and swing some dice back in my favour, so I snapped to with my officer. the three man brit squad just heading into the rough ground had to go as Id unloaded into them last turn and failed to cause a morale check with less than 50% casualties. this turn I knew I had to charge them as they were sticking provocatively out into the open ground. 

In addition, the large regular squad that Craig had disembarked from the truck had failed to do much damage to my large FJ squad on the ford, so they too needed to be assaulted while i would strike first on the charge. 

As it turned out, I won both CQ assaults, which was great but i then had a poor regroup move roll by my smaller squad which had three men left. I was sure i couldnt reach the observer squad if i charged them because I was in the bushes at the side of the road thanks to the poor roll- bugger! However- i COULD reach his truck- until it failed an order check and reversed out of charge range...damn! What DID go well was assaulting with my (formerly) large FJ sqd vs his universal carrier with the 2nd Lt in the back, forcing him to disembark and fight and resulting in him being diced up somewhat.

But in return Craigs Veteran squad ( shown below to the left of the carrier) finally surged forward- advancing out of their cover and shot the FJ squad to bits, wiping them out!! Craig ranged in on another 6 on the officer squad in the hard cover in the wadi by the bridge, wiping them out also. 

Surveying the battlefield I decided there was little I could do to stop Craig from holding the Centre and objective closest to his side. His vehicles were likely to contest at least one of the flank central objectives i held, and he had done a great job earning so many dice for kills off me, each three providing him with a VP. I did what any good opponent would do and extended the hand to shake that of the victor- Craig played an excellent game and thoroughly deserved the win! 

A fantastic game on a fantastic board, thanks Craig! the amount he has achieved in such a short time in having a  fully painted army and a great looking table of terrain is inspiring- keep it up! 

Hi Everyone. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing this Christmas, Rex and I hope you have a happy and safe Xmas and New Years. I'm away on my honeymoon at the moment ( there is an obvious clue to my whereabouts in the images below!) but Im sure Rex might drop an update also in the coming fortnight or so.

about 10 weeks or so ago, Rex and I put out our podcast updating our hobby goals we set at the start of the year. In that episode I was really happy with my hobby output for the year against my goals I had set- with one notable exception; I had committed to painting 100 German Grenadier infantry, and hadnt painted a single one, and despite my having finished dozens of Waffen SS and Panzer Lehr It rankled me that this goal was unfulfilled. 

BUT, with Rex coming over for the wedding, we had a big game planned. It was going to be based during Op. Barbarossa in 1941- and I hadnt a single early war German painted...but the answer was simple; Paint the early war version of the grenadier- the German Infantryman- over a hundred of them!!  

 So anyways, Im VERY pleased to report that I made my 100 German 'grenadiers' ( they werent called grenadiers yet, but ill give myself a break!)...in fact 111 of them, in 3 months, while working and prepping for the wedding and the honeymoon...I think I shall rather unusually give myself a wee pat on the back ;)

I shall look forward to formulating and sharing next years hobby goals with you. probably something to do with all the figures in my luggage from our trip already! 

Talk soon, stay safe and Happy Xmas to you and your families!!

Regards,

Dan

The beginnings of a new early war German army for Rex, thanks Dan for the colours you know colour research isn't my favourite thing.

Still a couple of more things to do.