Busy, Busy, Bolt Action Busy

Is it really almost two weeks since I've updated here? Wow time's been flying by. A combination of work and lots of modelling has left me with little time to keep you all informed what I'm up to. So here's a mega post to keep you all updated. Sitting comfortably? Got a cuppa? Ready for lots of text? What do you mean NO!?! Well here we go anyway.

Well to start with I was voted in as the new secretary of the Northumbrian Adventurers Guild, my local (about 15-miles away) wargaming club that I've been going to pretty regularly on Sundays. It's a great group and everyone's pretty friendly. Lots of different games and tournaments throughout the year ranging from 40K Leagues, Fantasy Tournaments, Flames of War, Bolt Action and Infinity. Got some good plans for this year with the club just need to get advertising and get a few more people from the North East up playing games.

I've made a concentrated effort on my Volksgrendier after Easter and now all the command are finished, the HMGs are based ready from priming, the Sturm platoon is almost finished and then it's all about the guns! I've ordered my 10.5cm LeFH18 Artillery battery and the IG37 Anti-Infantry guns. It wasn't until they arrived I realised I'd only ordered 2 x IG37 when I needed 4! Sods law is they've out of stock everywhere at the moment so I'm trying to source them. Once they've arrived it's going to be a case of building the PAK40s, Flak 43s, Artillery and IG37s and get a weekend of priming, painting and hopefully have them finished. Once they're completed the Volks will be finished!....well for now. Every wargamer knows you're never finished with an army, I'm already looking at additional units to add for the future if I want to switch around my army list. But firstly I need to learn the rules!

Volks So Far. Sturm not pictured but half-painted

So as you can probably guess I've been busy busy with Bolt Action recently. On Sunday I've got a couple of 500pts starter games with Jim at the club. Jim has been busy building and painting a British army recently and after he helped me through Fantasy for a bit I thought it was only fair I helped him into Bolt Action. To be honest I need the games to get back into the swing of things again so it'll be good relearning with someone else who is learning. We're hoping for one game of Maximum Attrition to get the shooting aspects nailed down and then if we've got time we're going to be going into a scenario.


To get prepared for this I've spent the past week basing my Soviets getting them all up to scratch. They look so much better with basing, giving the models so much more character. I've added the GW Mordheim Turf tufts to some of the bases the dead-grass look gives each of the models a little bit extra.

Soviet Horde Based

Me and Jim are aiming to get a 1,000pt battle sorted after we nail down the rules on Sunday. Both ordering from Warlord they've been swamped by the popularity of the Bolt Action game recently and unfortunately both our orders took a good couple of weeks to be shipped. It's understandable as Warlord are such a small company with a rather fast growing game. My reinforcements as mentioned in my April 20th post, arrived yesterday and included 2 x ZIS-3 Guns, 1 x Plastic T34 Kit, 1 x Soviet Command Blister, 1 x Light Mortar/Flamethrower Blister. These additions will bring me up to 1,000pts and I cannot wait to try them out in full force, I'm going to have a busy building and painting period soon! Probably Bank Holiday Monday while the girlfriend is at work.

Soviet Reinforcements

Well I've always loved the T34 for some reason, I think it's just being a Soviet player and the tank being such an iconic vehicle for them in World War 2. I couldn't wait to get the Tank built, so much so, that I spent last night prepping and building it to completion! It's a rather straight forward kit to build and didn't have any problems working out what went where. I love the addition of the Tank commander, I didn't even realise you got one in the box as no picture has one at all.

T34-Love!

 After reading through the Imperial Japan army book I was dead set on getting my force sorted sooner rather than later. Blyth Models managed to pull a blinder and I ended up picking up the kit on Sunday 27th a good week before I was expecting it. I've already gone through the box and worked out what I'll be building. Despite being a 1,000pts starter force I'll be adding some of my own options to make it a 1K Army that I'm happy with. I'll be wanting to get in a couple of guns and also get in Sniper and Flamethrower teams. At the moment I'll build what I've got with the options I want and then go from there.

BANZAI!!!

The Chi Ha tank was easier than the T34 to built, the tracks x 2, hull and turret were four solid pieces and were easy to assemble together. The only fiddly bits were the small metal MMGs to attach to the hull and back of the turret. The radio antenna (big round thing on the turret) was a ball-ache to fix properly and had to bend into shape two or three times just to get it to properly glue down. I'm still stuck with the two extra bits, that you can see in the picture, I know they're meant to go on the back but I've not a clue where they go. If anyone can help then you'll definitely get a cookie from me....*please note cookies may not be handed out.

Japanese Chi Ha Medium Tank

So yeah a busy busy couple of weeks and I'm really getting back into Bolt Action and cannot wait for Sunday's game. I've even ended up signing up for a tournament in October in Cardiff of all places. The Welsh Open is being held at Firestorm Games and it's going to include a 650pts Armoured Platoon game, looking forward to 650pts of Tanks as a throwaway fun game. I've mainly signed up for this tournament to give myself a goal to get all the rules nailed down and army finished by then which will easily be done. I've just got to decide whether to run Soviets or Japanese!

I'll try and get some photos from Sunday, though they'll be on my iPhone like all my others, don't think the Mrs will be happy if I took her expensive Digital SLR down to the club! 

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!

Sunday's - Not So Much Of a Game - Report

So Sunday I was meant to be facing Dave's Daemons in helping sorting out little battles for a Campaign with a Wargames club in Swindon. I had a pretty standard 1,000pts of my Ogres lined up on the table ready for battle. My list looked like this;

• Level 1 Firebelly
• 5 x Ironguts
• 6 x Ogres (w/ Ironfists)
• 4 x Leadbelchers
• 2 x Mournfang (Heavy Armour, Ironfists)
• 1 x Ironblaster

My objective for this small mission was to get at least one unit off the opposite short table while the Daemons ambushed on a randomly selected side of the board. Unfortunately though Dave had injured himself before the game and he had to head home, completely understandable because let's be honest your health is more important that a few toy soldiers...

So James (who I faced in the Tourney a few weeks back) took over but the game was pretty much over before it began. The Mournfang deployed completely away from the Daemons and basically marched all the way down the table without any of the Daemons having a chance of catching them. We knew the game was going to be over pretty quickly but it was a bit dissapointing it finished that quick.

My bad-luck with cannons in Fantasy continued as my Ironblaster decided to explode and destroy itself in the first shooting phase! I cannont remember ever landing a decent shot with any of my cannons (Ogres or Empire).

So my trip out to Blyth was pretty short on Sunday, it wasn't all too bad though as I ended up picking up a box of Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) Germany Heavy Weapons for my Volksgrenadier list and a lone PSC StuG G to fill out my StuG G platoon. Having my day cut short I spent Sunday assembling the StuG G, it was a little more fiddly to the Open Fire StuGs but for the cost it's definitely worth it.

This week and hopefully most of the weekend I'm going to continue to power through the rest of my Volksgrenadier Company infantry and then I can make a start on the Pak 40s and Flak43s, once they're all built and made the next purchases can be made and I'm hoping by the end of March the whole of my Volks army will be finished and fully painted! That's the plan anyway.

Also it was awesome to be mentioned in the BlogExchange at Faeit 212! It's a great blog with the latest GW News and Rumours but I'm sure most of you know who they are anyway.

Until next time, keep on reading!

Chalmers

StuG G Finished

So last night I stayed up and finished all three StuG Gs, I took a risk and instead of finding the Vallejo Brown/Sepia Wash I used the GW Agrax Earthshade and it worked wonders. Once I got into a swing of painting all three it really worked wonders and just as I finished one step on the last tank the first tank was ready for the next step.

I'm not too sure how to make them more wintery though for the Volksgrenadiers. Was going to try Winter Foliage but cannot think of how I'd do it. Maybe some lichen with snow glued on top? I also love the use of Typhus Corrosion on the tracks to make them instantly muddy, I picked up a pot of this when it first came out but never really had a chance of using it until last night properly. After watching Band of Brothers last night and watching the Bulge battle of Foy I noticed how muddy the roads and tracks were so thought the Stugs would look good with the muddy tracks.

I just need one more StuG G for my Volks Tank-Hunter Platoon and I should be getting it on Sunday with one of the Plastic Soldier Company reinforcement single StuG models. Hopefully against the Battlefront trio it should look fine. I'll also be getting the Plastic Solider Company German Heavy Weapon box set too. I'm not sure whether they'll be useable for the Winter Volks I'll have to see the uniforms. Hopefully I'll be able to use the Winter Jackets/Splinter Camo Leggings or visa-versa and they'll look ok. If not I'm sure I'll be able to find some use for them!

StuG G Heaven!

First Volks Completed

Good morning fellow wargamers! Hope you're all going well and having a grand week? The first base for my Volksgrenadier is completed and another just needs the greenstuff covering and painted! With the scale being so small I'm finding it pretty quick to paint bases of five men, these two bases have been done over about three nights of on-off painting so I'm pretty pleased. I think with the week to myself as the girlfriend is on nights I might be able to rattle through quite a few of the squads.

I'm really pleased with this squad, including the ability to do splinter camo at such a small scale. Last night I basecoated the tree Stugs that came with my Open Fire box set. I worked on one yesterday which got a full layer of Middlestone and then added some camo patterns with the Vallejo German Cam Medium Brown and Luftwaffe Cam Green. I'm pleased with how it came out but I need to work out what wash to give it to bring out some of the shading, I think I'll need a Vallejo Brown Wash but I've not got one yet so will need to pick it up soon.

Tonight I'm hoping to do the other two Stugs up to a pre-wash state. Then I'll cover the greenstuff on the second base and prep and basecoat the next three stands worth of men. I'm really enjoying these all and even at a smaller scale, which worried me at first, I'm enjoying painting the guys.

I've still got the Flak43 Blister to build at some point, I also ordered the Winter Themed Pak40s last week which arrived yesterday. They'll be the next things to do after the infantry and Stugs and after that it'll be the HMG, Artillery Battery and the Anti-Infantry guns and that'll be the whole army sorted ready for battle.

It's definitely worthwhile doing the purchasing, building and painting in batches. I was worried I would do what I normally do and get a huge army and then get bogged down by painting and soon become bored. I'm already looking at my next FOW army and it'll either be an easy to build and paint Russian T34 Tank Horde or a Early War Japanese army.

But before then it's going to be focusing on the Volks and then learning the rules!

Volks Update

So the last couple of nights I've been working on my Volksgrenadier. Unfortunately having been away the weekend all the bases and figures have sat on my desk upstairs awaiting my return. All the bases went straight into the sink to be washed, I've decided it would be easier to paint the bases and models individually and then assemble the final painted sections together.

I've trimmed all the flash off the Volks, and believe me there was alot, and they're now ready to be washed and then they'll be attached in groups of five, basically in groups for each base, onto ice-lolly sticks so they can be batched painted with ease.

So the bases are a joy to paint, with the weather being so shite at the moment - hell we even had snow last night, and having nowhere to spray undercoat I've been using the GW Imperial Primer which has been a dream for such a small scale. It means I can easily coat the models and not apply too much at the same time. It's a little more time consuming but if I waited for time to spray them I think I would be waiting until summer for that. So I've finished the first five bases and tonight I'll make a start on the five squads that will go on each base.

One thing I have noticed and Kerr&King did warn about is that the Battlefront Flames of War models are a little too big for the bases. It's a pain and a little time consuming but I can trim down the bases and make sure they fit. I'll then need to fill in the gaps with some PVA and sand, I have seen some people suggest Vallejo Pumice but I've never tried it before, it might be a future purchase down the line of it's really a struggle for the PVA and Sand on the bases.

Hopefully tonight I'll have the first five squads, washed, trimmed down and basecoated. I'll get some pictures up soon!

 

Finally Starting Flames of War

What's this? You're waiting for a blog post for ages and two come along in the same day. So the past week I've been putting the finishing touches to my first Flames of War list. With the help of the historical guys at NAG I've chopped and changed to finally decide on the 12th Volksgrenadierkompanie from the NUTS! Book. A big decision of this was the winter Germans, I love all the models that have been released and cannot wait to get painting the winter uniforms and snow effects.

First Purchases Are Made!

I'll be splitting the purchases up over the next couple of months, so far the Volksgrenadier Company box set and Flak43s have been ordered and arrived yesterday. Last night I took the plunge and ordered all the paints I need for the Volks, mainly winter camo and splinter camo which at 15mm is going to be putting me right to the test. I've decided to base all of my models on Urban ruins from Kerr&King hopefully I can get some really good looking pieces with Pak40s hiding in the ruins of a building. At the moment I've ordered bases which will be enough for the whole Volks Company and FlaK43 unit.

Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Infantry Goodness

With the weather being miserable at the moment I've had a bit of a tough time priming anything, I've got 40 Saurus Warriors that have been prepped in my spraying box for the past fortnight and they're still plastic and hidden away in the wardrobe. Though I used the GW Imperial Black Primer Pot on a Pak40 from the Open Fire! Box Set to see what the results were. Thankfully with the size of the models it's alot easier to paint on and prime the models like this so I can see getting some of the Volks primed and painted like that while the weather is bad.

Here's the list I've got sorted, thanks to the Historical guys from NAG who gave me a helping hand.

Confident    Veteran	Volksgrenadierkompanie (12.) People's Grenadier Company	German Late-War
Infantry Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Volksgrenadierkompanie HQ (12.)  p.47	2 3	Cmd Panzerfaust Assault Rifle team Panzerschreck team	155
Combat Platoons
Volksgrenadier Sturm Platoon (12.)  p.47	1 4 2 1	Cmd Panzerfaust Assault Rifle team Panzerfaust Assault Rifle team Panzerfaust MG team Panzerschreck team	295
Volksgrenadier Schützen Platoon (12.)  p.47	1 6 1	Cmd Panzerfaust Rifle/MG team Panzerfaust Rifle/MG team Panzerschreck team	245
Weapons Platoons
Volks Infantry Gun Platoon (12.)  p.48	1 1 4	Cmd SMG team Observer Rifle team 7.5cm IG37 gun	120
Volks Machine-gun Platoon (12.)  p.49	1 4	Cmd Panzerfaust SMG team MG42 HMG	145
Divisional Support
Volks Tank-hunter Platoon (12.)  p.50	4	StuG G or StuG IV	380
Volks Anti-tank Gun Platoon (12.)  p.50	1 3	Cmd SMG team 7.5cm PaK40 gun	155
Volks Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon (12.)  p.51	1 3	Cmd SMG team 3.7cm Flak43 gun	100
Volks Light Artillery Battery (12.)  p.52	1 1 1 3	Cmd SMG team Staff team Observer Rifle team 10.5cm leFH18/40 howitzer	155
Company Points:			1750

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Source document: Nuts Book