Happy Easter

A very Happy Easter to everyone, hope you're all over indulging on chocolate and enjoying the four day weekend! I've spent the last couple of days working on my Volksgrenadier when I've got the time. I've been painting like a madman unfortunately it's been on the lounge, stairs and landing walls as me and the girlfriend give the house a bit of a freshen up.

Shutzen Platoon

I have finished my Shutzen Platoon though! The greenstuff was still setting so need to finish off the bases which doesn't take too long. I've also started the HQ unit with the iC, 2iC and three Panzerschreck teams. I'm going to have all the men in these units in white winter uniforms, the feeling is the HQ would be much better prepped for battle in the winter conditions than the troops who were a mix of veterans and fresh conscripts.

May 4th is when me and Jim have organised our Bolt Action game, I'm really looking forward to this and after reading through the rulebook again I think we'll be having the rules nailed down by the first game. We've decided with the 500pt forces we've got we're going to play Maximum Attrition basically kill everyone to start and learn the rules. After that we're going to play one of the scenarios from the rulebook. I've also ordered the bits I need for my 1,000pts army. I was going to wait but Jim has ordered his and I took that as an excuse to order mine. Thankfully the new tyre for the car didn't cost as much as I thought it would.

My Imperial Japan army book also arrived from the book depository not bad for £8. I love the national rules for them and even though I won't have it until May 4th (after payday) I've got the Banzai 1,000pts Japan Starter Force on order from our local supplier - Blyth Models. Looking forward to starting this army and it'll give me a great starting point before adding a couple of extra bits (hello flamethrowers/snipers). I'm off on holiday mid-May but get back for the May Bank Holiday, the mrs is actually off on a hen-do the same day we get back from Morroco (crazy I know) but it means I have the whole bank holiday weekend to build. Think I could get the whole Japan force built and possibly primed in the three days.

Anyway that's not for another month. This month I'm going to be focusing on getting my Volksgrenadier troops finished so I can then make a start on the Pak 40s and Flak43s. Hopefully my Soviet additions arrive too though I know Warlord Games are a little slow on getting orders out. Anyway back to painting the lounge, Happy Easter!

Soviets and Germans

Well I finally think Summer is here! The sun has been shining all weekend, there’s not a cloud in the sky but the weather is still only just heating up. It’s still warm enough to get some priming done outside in the shed but it’s then a rush to get it back inside before the coldness of the wind gets to the box. But hey I’ll take that to pouring rain and no chances to get anything primed which has been the case the past few weeks. Once the summer properly hits I’m going to plan to “stockpile” models for the winter months and get everything that I can primed and ready for painting. This way I’m not sat twiddling my thumbs looking at a cabinet full of grey plastic rather than a cabinet full of canvases ready for colour.

I've had a bit of a rejig in my two cabinets as alot of the Gaunts from my Nids had taken over a second shelf and it was all looking rather messy. I've decided my shelf for the Nids will only have the big creatures which are going to be a focal point of my army. Lets be honest for a minute I don't really want to see hundreds of gaunts filling up my cabinet looking over-crowded and messy. I've relegated these to a padded box to keep them safe and out of way. I think this week I'll spend quite a bit of time getting the Skeleton Bone spray on all of them so they're all ready for the red, green and dipping.

Bolt Action Soviets

So what's gone on my other shelf that I've got clear? Well I thought it was finally time to dust off the Bolt Action Soviets and get them out of the packed container and onto a shelf so I can base them in the next couple of days. I was planning on getting these done over the weekend but other things (explain in a bit) took up alot of my time and when I did have some painting time I made a start on my newly primed Schutzen platoon.

So Thursday I managed to get the remainder of my Volksgrenadier company primed! Rather than trimming down the bases now to fit in my Kerr&King bases I've decided to stick all the men on lollipop sticks with PVA glue (who knew that Metal would stick to wood with PVA) and then prime them. After painting I can them trim down the bases to get them fitting rather than wasting a lot of time now getting them trimmed before priming.

Command (Back) and Schutzen (Rifles)

I've got three different batches of painting in the upcoming weeks, the remainder of my Schutzen (rifle) platoon which consists of four stands. My command team which consists of my Company Command stand, 2iC stand and three Panzerschreck team stands (got to love that Anti-Tank). I've also primed up the special warrior character Major Siegfried Moldenhauer, I won't be using him at all but for a two character stand seemed a waste to keep him in a box never to see the light of day.

Sturm with a few Urban Bases

 Finally I've got my Sturm (Assault Rifles) platoon which is going to be the biggest project to do. I'm going to keep these seven stands until last. I want to get my Schutzen finished off and then the command which shouldn't take too long. Once they're all done and based the Sturm will be focused on and then all my infantry will be completed! After that I want to build my Pak40s and Flak43s however I've yet to order the relevant Kerr&King bases for them so I'll need to get them sorted in the next few days. After that's finished I'll decided whether the Plastic Soldier Company Heavy Weapon teams can be used for my Volksgrenadiers. In the list I've created I need the HMGs but I'll also be making the mortar teams just incase I need to change things around. If they don't look right against the rest of the army I'll be ordering the GE944 HMG Platoon in Winter Uniforms. The Mortars can wait until everything else is bought and painted which looking at my list will only be the Light Artillery Battery and the Infantry Guns! Not too bad when I look at everything.

Anyway the other things which took my time away this weekend, my fricking car. I ended up getting a puncture just as I was coming home on Thursday night, I thought I'd leave it until Friday morning when it was light before work. Got the nuts off fine but then there was a different sized nut that was circular. After looking on the internet I found out it was a Wheel Lock Nut to deter thiefs, apparently the car should have the special key somewhere, looked in every knook and cranny and could I find it? So looking on Youtube I found out how to remove it with a socket and hammer. Though just as I got the socket on the lock the collar of the Lock started rotating meaning I couldn't get it off. Thankfully the socket came off and after numerous calls to garages I've got a mobile tyre guy who can remove these types of locks coming tomorrow morning to remove it and fit a new tyre. It's an expense and a faff which I didn't really need this weekend, it also meant I couldn't make it down the club which was really annoying as I had a 4-Player game of Triumph and Treachery planned and had to cancel on Saturday when I got in from swearing at the car.

So yeah an expense I didn't really need, no models are being bought this month unfortunately but hey it's probably for the best, time to get my paint on!

FOW and Bolt Action

Ah-Hoy-Hoy fellow readers, this busy period of work seems to be relentless and I'll be honest I've hardly done anything recently painting-wise. I've got a few of the Nids that are on the production line painted up ready for dipping. I ended up doing the one Warrior and Carnifex that I had basecoated to test the dripping on larger models and they're looking great.

I'll be working on the basecoating to get big squads done at once and then go and dip them, otherwise I'm switching between painting and dipping and not really achieveing anything of substance. The Anti-Shine Matt Varnish is going to be applied right at the end once everything is finished, granted by the end of it I'll be sick of adding Matt Varnish but it needs to be done because the Nids are way too shiny at the moment.

With the weather being so crappy recently the plan on doing a lot of spraying has gone out the window, thankfully the rain and fog that has plagued the last week seems to have surrendered for the time being and I think on Thursday when the girlfriend is away I'll be doing alot of priming throughout the night, I might even get a couple of spray boxes on the go at once so I'm not waiting between spraying for the next lot of models to get primed.

So what have I done this week? Well if the title of this post hasn't given it away I've been doing my Volksgrenadier Flames of War army, or what was paintable at the time. So I've finally finished 5 stands of Infantry and 3 of the StuG Gs. Hopefully if I get prepped I can get the rest of the Infantry and the last remaining Stug G primed on Thursday night in one go, I might just need alot of Blu Tac to keep them upright!

The Volks So Far (Greenstuff has been painted and covered)

I've also dusted off my Soviet Union Bolt Action army that I bought and painted in a couple of weeks for NAG back in June/July of last year. A couple of the guys (Neil - who taught me Flames of War and Jim - who I've played Fantasy against a few times) at the club have decided to start up the game both with British forces and I thought this would be a great time to dust them all off and pick up the rules again. I've been reading up on the rules the past week and remembered it being pretty simple and straight forward so should be easy to get back into the swing of things.

The one thing I didn't get done last time around was basing the models, so far I've got a full 500pts + of Soviets, fully painted but without a single bit of basing material on them! I think I'll be doing a pretty simple sand and flock job on these with a couple of extra bits on the MMG and Mortar teams who already have a couple of rocks on the bases. I've been looking at expanding the army to 1,000pts as that's the aim for the others, I can see it being pretty simple and straight forward to do with a couple of Zis-3 Anti-Tank guns, a HMG and a Flamethrower team plus a couple of extra bits. I wanted to add a T34 mainly because I love the tank and wanted one in the army but to be honest at almost 200pts for a Regular tank it's 1/5th of my force which could be used on other bits.

I won't be purchasing anything at the moment though as I'm going to be focusing on getting the Flames of War army units primed and painted, the Nids basecoated and the Soviets all based. It'll probably be May before I drop the money on the extra bits for Bolt Action and the remainder of my Flames of War army.

In other news I was voted in as the new NAG secretary. Going to be a busy year and I'll be firing across some advertising to numerous forums I use to get people knowing that there is a great club up in the North East. Hell who knows we could even have the first proper North East Wargames tourne?

Hopefully they'll be more of an update on Friday once I get everything all primed and sorted, now watch it rain for 24 hours on Thursday!

What a Week!

Well that was unexpected, everything went tits up at work with deadlines popping up everywhere meaning most of my social life for this week has gone out of the window (boo!). It also means I've made no progress with my Nids and at the moment sits with a cabinet full of grey plastic waiting for the moment to prime everything with the Skeleton Bone Spray!

I did manage to test one Gaunt with the Army Painter Strong Tone and after drying for 24 hours it looks to have dried pretty darn good. As expected I need to use the Anti-Shine Matt Varnish over the top as it's rather bright and shiny at the moment. I think my plan this week, as the mrs is working nights again, is to get alot of the Gaunts and Warriors that are primed all painted up and ready for painting on dip.

Then I can do another batch of dipping in one night and have the starts of a finished army already. I've still got to base all the models after painting but I think, especially for the smaller troops, I'll be doing a very basic base and paint scheme while focusing on the larger models for details on the models/more detailed basing.

Now the clocks have gone forward and the nights are lighter I can do quite a bit of priming in the evening, hooray! Well once the weather has decided whether it wants to be dry or raining/foggy. Once I get the majority of the troops done I can get them packed away in a carry case so I can focus on building/painting the larger monsters to fill the display cabinet.

I did participate in the NAG Fantasy Tournament a couple of Sundays back now. I didn't fare the greatest (3rd from last) but it was such a fun day. First game I played James in a Beastmen vs Wood Elves affair, I won the roll and chose to use the Beastmen however I didn't realise the shooting prowess of the Wood Elves and those pesky bowmen of the forest had shot the majority of my Combat-orientated army off the table before I could get across. Also who's idea was it not to give the Ghorgon no armour save what so ever?

Second game I got to try out the new Dwarves against a Skaven list manned by Martin which I was really looking forward to. I absolutely loved this army and the new units including the Gyrobomber that in one turn almost wiped out the Hell Pit Abomination in one turn. I used the Gyrocopter to great use too flying right up to a Stormvermin unit and almost covering the whole thing with a Flame Template. There were a lot of crispy-fried Skaven after the template lifted. I did win but after initial thoughts by both of us of a 20-0 win my inability to completely wipe out a unit meant it was a 16-4 victory instead. Not too bad for the new Dwarves but I'm holding off any urge I have for a stuntie army.

Finally it was Daemons vs Lizardmen against another James. I wasn't fussed on which army I got to use having both of these sitting in a cabinet at home and yet to be able to field them. James won the roll and chose the Daemons so I finally got to try the Lizardmen. My first turn the Salamanders moved forward and both flame breaths rolled a 8 on the distance and covered the Plaguebearers Units. 26 hits, 20 wounds and 16 dead on the first turn....that was an amazing thing from the Salamanders who then spent the rest of the game in close combat with the Beasts of Nurgle. Unfortunately the Salamanders were really only the one thing which did well as the Bloodcrushers one hit killing blowed by Scar Vet on Cold One and my Skinks were wiped out before they even got to hit back by Chariots with a ridiculous amount of impact hits.

So yeah not the greatest in games across the board but some very enjoyable games none-the-less. There is talk of a 4-Player Triumph and Treachery game a week on Sunday which I've been invited for. I think I'll give either my Lizardmen or Empire a run out for that game which should be a great laugh for the day.

Stayed tuned later in the week for more updates on the Nids.