Friday photo - "made an opening".

Join Dan on his first delve -long awaited!- into the Chain of Command ruleset from Too Fat Lardies...with expert tuition from none other than; Lardy Rich himself!!

Thanks to Richs most generous offer, Dan joined him at Lard island for a game, some beers and a lot of laughs and thoroughly enjoyed himself...for the first of our many future CoC games. Thanks for watching, please check out our other content and please like, subscribe and give us feedback regarding what you'd like to see in the future.

Historical background:*
Despite the losses it suffered in the defensive phase of the battle of Kursk, the Red Army managed to go over to a very successful offensive within two weeks, pushing the Germans back to the Dnieper and towards western Ukraine, overall Kursk campaign was a disaster for the Germans.

The Kursk campaign was a decisive Soviet success. For the first time, a major German offensive had been stopped prior to achieving a breakthrough.

In the morning of 3 Nov 1943, German 4th Panzer Army stationed in Kiev, Ukraine was surprised by a massive artillery and aerial bombardment, followed by advancing Soviet troops. After two days of action, Soviet troops entered a city not yet recovered from the battle in the previous year, and now further damaged by both the intense Soviet invasion and the scorched-earth German retreat. Kiev suffered 7,000 buildings, which included about 1,000 factories, plundered or destroyed at the hands of the Germans. 200,000 civilians were killed during the course of the war. 100,000 civilians were sent to concentration camps during the occupation. What resulted was a city with only 80,000 survivors, a mere 20% of its pre-war size.

Erich von Manstein of German 4th Panzer Army was able to convince Adolf Hitler to release German 48th Panzer Corps to conduct a counter attack, though his request for the inclusion of German 40th Panzer Corps was rejected. German troops drove forward, but they were halted by Soviet 7th Guards Tank Corps near Fastov. Similar scenarios played out all around Kiev with German troops fighting fiercely but unable to halt the Soviet juggernaut. The Germans caught their break with the arrival of German 48th Panzer Corps containing the elite 1st SS Panzer Division, retaking Brusilov and Zhitomir, two towns that the Soviets had recently captured. Large scale tank engagements ensued with heavy casualties on both sides over the course of the following month.

Outcome:
Although the Soviets emerged victorious, they failed to achieve the important objective of enveloping German Army Group South. Nevertheless, they were able to deal heavy damage to German 4th Panzer Army, and the morale boost for gaining Ukraine was substantial.

*According to some guys on the internet...

I have realized that I don't have a picture of my 8th army here. This is a side project, I have only completed one squad plus a few guys but here you go. or click here to see the image full sized

Note also that my paint guide is located here

 Italian Coastal Div. vs. British Airborne in the battle for the " Johnny 1" feature, in order to capture and hold Primosole Bridge in Sicily, 1943. 

Thanks for watching! If you like it please remember to subscribe, like it and share it around to others. Dan & Rex.

Link

 Join Dan as he assembles and reviews the Med. Town Hall from Things From the Basement. available here;

https://www.thingsfromthebasement.com

This vid contains a tutorial of applying stucco texture to buildings and painting to a high standard for your tabletop- all suitable for a range of periods, scales and games.
We hope you enjoy this; if you do please "Like" , Subscribe and share this with others. Dan & Rex.

​I found these images hiding away and wanted to share them so you could compare the corgi SDKFZ 7 with the warlord games resin.

I think youll agree those look more than comfortable sitting next to each other on the table top..but how about when we add the infantry next to them? Perry? Warlord? Artizan? Offensive? Hmmmm......

So ; heres my point for us. And a challenge to Rex for the next WIP podcast;

Scale. In particular the challenges of 28mm 'scale' wargaming.  

Why cant we have nice things? why do we fight like cats in a bag over the size of models -especially vehicles and armour - to use?

I have a lot to say on the subject, and hopefully some of it might not even bore you! 

We have the next episode 'In the Can' and almost ready to go, but this ones 'stood in the door' as our topic for the following podcast. 

Have a great weekend team and get some games in!! 

Dan

Rest In Peace. 

Private "Bobby" Johns, The Parachute Regiment. Joined up to fight when aged only 14 years old. 

K.I.A in Normandy, aged 16, 75 Years ago. 

Utrinque Paratus.

I have uploaded my Soviet winter paint recipe here. I'm not the best painter in the world but if this helps someone then great.

The face of war? Or is it? This popular photo depicts a young solider overcome with fear in the trenches but is it for real or not? Its black & white so it must be real...

I understand that this is a scene from a movie called "The Bridge" (a 1959 film made in West Germany), its been used a few times to demonstrate the horror of war but only once have I seen reference to it being from a movie and not a real historical photo.

Regardless, it's chilling image.

Rex's Fortress Budapest Day photos, yes I may have overdone it a bit with the photos perhaps quantity makes up for the quality, tricky in a dark room. A couple I "borrowed" from the bolt action Aust/NZ web page also where mine weren't great quality. 

Set 1 is my game 1, set 2 is my game 2 and the final set is general terrain and other peoples games.

[Click on the thumbnail images below to display the higher resolution images in a slideshow kind of format]

Set 1:  (my game 1)

[Click on the thumbnail images below to display the higher resolution images in a slideshow kind of format] 

Set 2: (My game 2)

[Click on the thumbnail images below to display the higher resolution images in a slideshow kind of format] 

Set 3: (General photos and terrain)

[Click on the thumbnail images below to display the higher resolution images in a slideshow kind of format] 

 Rex's winter Soviets; Hobby update #3 Deep snow plus bonus indirect fire... still not there yet but close. Click on the image for the full sized version.

WWII Kreigsfischkutter 28mm/1:56 by Titan Terrain NZ (for Bolt Action?)

Join Dan as he reviews and shows off one of his current projects, and we compare it for scale vs. some Kriegsmarine minis. Find Titan Terrain NZ here; https://www.titanterrain.nz/category/... Highly Recommended product and company to deal with! If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask below.

The "next" D-Day campaign book is listed for pre-order on at least one online book store, release date 23 Jun 2020. 

Its apparently titled as "Campaign: D-Day: US Sector". With the first book already out and covering the first 24 hours only, we knew that there would be *an* additional book coming. However based on the title it looks like there will be multiple campaign books coming breaking things down it to LOT'S of detail and hopefully meaning that you wont miss out on the history of your favorite nation. That's my guess based on an early pre-release listing which can be notoriously unreliable. Adding to a huge list of supplements already available, I will have enough gaming for a lifetime of WWII and I'm loving it.
 

During World War II, an orphaned brown bear went from being a cuddly pet to an officially enlisted soldier in the Polish army, and reportedly saw fierce combat in Italy. Decades after the war and his death, "Wojtek" continues to be honored.

Friday photo: Red Ball Highway.

Just so you know, I often post these images without any description or with just some teaser text. The idea is if you don't know what its all about go and check it out do a web search read a book, a lot of times, fact really is stranger than fiction.
 

 Here is a quick video showing my current project, winter Soviets. I point out a couple of things related to how I model up my guys. 3 weeks now till I go on my Fortress Budapest campaign day. For details on that check out the podcast EP7

So Here are my British Airborne after the additional models I added as my "Reasonable Hobby Challenge" goal...and YES ! They were ready ( two days before the 6 June deadline!) and descended from the skies by parachute and glider in our D Day 75th club game 8-9 June 2019. Hope you enjoy getting a good look at them, and look forward to the video being published of the D Day anniversary weekend event. Thanks for watching!

 Bolt Action D Day 75th Battle Prep; Update 3- Almost there!

The latest update, including the finished work so far! Join me as i talk you through some more tips & how i finish off my British Airborne in 28mm or 1/56 scale. Thanks for watching! As usual please Like, share and subscribe and leave your feedback. Thanks! Dan

Rex's May "reasonable hobby goal" challenge... done. See the images below and click on the image for the full sized version.

Special edition www.offensiveminiatures.com Fallschirmjäger with drop canister. A Christmas gift to me from Dan, thanks Dan.

This is my best work so far I think and I'm very happy with how they turned out. My eyes must be a bit blurry from the challenge, I have just spotted some chips on the rim of the base. Don't worry I will fix that before I meet you on the table top!