In the quest to play something different and offer a chance for my regulat gaming buddy Dave to get a game with his Pike & Shotte , we moved from my FJ playing his IJA in bolt action last week to Me playing Royalists in a game of English Civil War ( ECW) Pike & Shotte this week. It was fun to be doing something different and learning ( well-sort of , despite Dave being a good teacher haha!) A new game. 

It was good to find out that P&S is  very similar to Black Powder , a game i intend on purchasing and playing properly in the future...but a little disconcerting that i played it as poorly as a drunk stick insect conducting the 'Last night of the proms"!! 

  However; another positive thing was how great Daves armies looked ranked up..made me long for that Warhammer Empire army on the table...it certainly whet the appetite and nice that my suspicion i missed ranked unit movements and bonuses such as  flank attacks etc having gravitas in regards to combat, etc etc. Bodes well for my Black Powder purchase in the future. 

  Thanks Dave, Thanks for having two armies ready to go, and bringing all the gear to play including period scenery of your own!! It felt great to help someone play a ruleset no one has helped him play before..a good feeling for any of us to have that reciprocal social contract fulfilled for sure.

Terrain making 1945, not much different to my garage this weekend. Perhaps less pipe smoke and more polystyrene. (...also I can't convince my wife to help)

Podcast EP8: "A new hope"

It is a period of total war; Allied armies, landing in hidden locations in Normandy on D Day attempt to win their first Western European battles against the evil Nazi empire... A short time later, Soviet forces strike through Romania and into Hungary, and advance onto Fortress Budapest...

If this was scrolling up the screen and had a princess escaping stormtroopers and Vader this couldn't get any more exciting!!

Join both Dan and Rex as we look back on the D Day 75th and Fortress Budapest Events respectively. We also do a hobby round up and our usual segments.

We hope you enjoy this and remind you to check out both our blog and Youtube channel.

Thanks for listening check out the show notes here.

Subscribe by searching for valhallagames (one word) in your podcast app or click on the link below for the web player.

 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.

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Set 1:  (my game 1)

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Set 2: (My game 2)

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Set 3: (General photos and terrain)

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 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.
 

Fortress Budapest Campaign day, was had, still need to process the photos but here are my soviets in full flight running across the cemetery.

Full sized image click here
 

Urban test model finished, first time I have ever done a test model only 1 or 2 steps ahead of the rest of the army. OK, no time for talking I have to paint!
 

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.
 

Are we there yet?... i'm finding this both exhausting and rewarding. This test model is my all time best miniature so far (still work in progress).

The scary thing that I realized when I recommended what paints to buy for a mate who is new to the hobby is that this it's AU$100 worth of paint for this one guy! EXCLUDING the face and base!
 

 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!

Friday photo: D-Day 75 years ago, enough said.