A Friday Hobby Check In

Just a quick post to show the things I’ve been working on over the past month.

Soviets

Motivated by my then upcoming game the other week, I painted some new additions to my Soviets for Bolt Action. I did a much better job of assembling a Zis this time round, so the barrel is actually straight. The gun shield is in the wrong spot though I think, but it looks fine to me. Third time’ll be a charm I’m sure.

I also got my light mortar and flamethrower teams done. I undercoated these quite some time ago, so it was good to finally get them done. I’m not sure the light mortar will see use, but I’m sure I’ll field the flamethrower at some point.

Finally, I painted up my T-34/85. Warlord’s vehicles kits are nice, although they don’t have the detail of Rubicon kits. My one issue with this model is that the turret is not removable (the T-34/76 model’s turret is though).

Through painting all of these I was reminded what I like most about Bolt Action, or 28mm WWII in general: it’s really easy to paint. If you want you can go all out with fancy techniques, but basic techniques of solid colour, washes, and only small amounts of highlighting on key areas (e.g. skin) come out great. Especially for someone like me who is vision impaired, it means I can still get a good looking tabletop army out in good time.

Marshes

Next up, here are some shots of the marshes I made the other week. These were really easy to make. The base is 3mm MDF on which I’ve applied a heavier amount of PVA than usual to glue sand. I made sure to leave areas glue free for where I’d be applying Vallejo Still Water.

Paint them up as usual (base of dark brown, dry brush lighter brown, very light dry brush of bone if desired), flock, and seal. Then mix up Vallejo Still Water with some light brown acrylic paint. Pour that into the sections without sand, wait for it to dry, then put some grass tufts about the play. Very quick and easy.

American Civil War Infantry – 2^nd Battalion

Before all the above, however, I had just finished my second battalion of American Civil War Union infantry – well, painting the men at least. I’m two short, so I still need a couple of extra guys for the officer’s base, but otherwise I just need to base the unit. I also got my Union general done too. Again, he just needs basing.

I don’t really have a time frame on my Union force. It’s been work in progress for quite some time now (closing in on two years I think). I need another box of Union infantry to finish my second battalion and make a third, a couple of extra Zouaves, an artillery box, then to assemble, paint, and base it all (including my cavalry battalion). It’s quite a bit of work when put like that, and without an opponent I don’t really have any motivation to get it all done in quick time.

Hoplites

Finally, here’s a unit of hoplites. I bought a box each of Greek hoplites and Spartan hoplites from Warlord last year for a Kings of War project I came up with (a mythological Greek army).

It’s another long term project, although if my brother does get around to getting his undead together I might focus more on it. The idea is to have a mix of human units alongside units of mythological creatures like minotaurs, centaurs, and so on. No official list exists for such an army, it’s just a cool thematic idea for friendly games with whoever is willing to play.

Next Up

I’ve decided my next Bolt Action army will be American GIs on the Western Front (France, Holland, and Germany). American infantry I have from the old Normandy box and the M8 I bought at the same time had a lot to do with my choice (I also have the downed US airman figure, I can’t remember what that came with). So I’ll be finishing off the undercoated Bolt Action things I’ve not gotten to (Puma, Tiger, another Stug G, and German officers and medic) and then working on some late war German and American forces. I’ll also be doing some new terrain, including hedgerows and houses.

I’m not sure on a timeframe, but I’m sure I’ll have a Western Front battle before the end of the year.

In the meantime I’ll be working on other things when I can or feel inclined to.

Addendum: I forgot to mention, you may have noticed from my last AARs that I got more roads painted. Well they’re now all done, including some new pieces (short sections, crossroads, and more bends). I might see about hitting them with some matte varnish though to take the sheen off the road surface in certain light.

 

Something Different – American Civil War Union Infantry

You might recall a mate and I went halves on Perry Miniature’s Battle in a Box American Civil War deal.

Union Infantry

Having done so much Guild Ball stuff recently, I decided I’d finally get around to basing my first unit of Union American Civil War infantry. I painted them up about September or October last year, and they’ve just been sitting on my desk waiting for me to finishing basing them.

So I finally did.

There’s not really much to say about them. The flag was grabbed off the net and doubled up for folding purposes. I printed two pages of 8 a page, so I should be set for Union flags for ever.

I’ll have to motivate myself to get the rest done at some point. I’m annoyed that I lost one of my cannons though – crew is all there, but the gun (which I know I assembled because it was infuriating) has gone AWOL.

I might see about doing some other random things to break up the deluge of Guild Ball – like finally finishing my ISU-152. I’m hoping for a game of Bolt Action sometime next month too. And maybe SAGA. It’d be awesome if I could get both in. I really need more historical fans round my area…

 

Prussian Landwehr

Things have been rather quiet recently and I haven’t been playing many games of anything. Being the middle of winter undercoating anything is difficult, but I have been doing some work on things that I was able to undercoat before the nice weather ended. As a result, I’ve finally finished my box of Prussian Landwehr from Warlord Games.

Prussian Landwehr

The models are single piece plastic, with the exception of the command figures which are metal. I’ve never been perturbed by Warlord’s use of large proportions so I quite like the models. The command did take a bit of cleaning though – the flag pole was particularly annoying to get through the hands. I’ve not sorted out a flag for the unit yet so that is still on the to do list, but otherwise they are complete. I like how they have turned out but I’m not sure when I will be getting more things to build my force from.

I recently stumbled across this site however with a breakdown of the Army of the Lower Rhine. It has given me a lot of inspiration when planning what I want to get next and the elements that I’d like them to represent. I’m not so pedantic that I want eveyr accurately represented though, so I shan’t be bothering with any sort of craziness like uniform variations and things.

American Civil War

When I can undercoat things again my force will be the American Civil War. Sometime about the end of May or start of June our order for the Battle in a Box American Civil War set produced by Perry Miniatures came through. My mate and I have split the forces with him doing Confederate and myself Union. I’ve assembled my infantry, general and one gun but still have my cavalry (of which we bought an extra box so we each have 12 models instead of six) and the second gun to assemble.

The product is pretty fantastic. It’s good value and gives you two forces straight out the box to start playing games with. It doesn’t quite breakdown properly if you are basing four men on 40mm bases (they are depicted with six on 60mm bases with 18 men to a unit). So if you want to base your models that way you’ll also want to grab another box of cavalry, infantry and Zouvaes.

It would have been good to have had a breakdown of what was actually in the box for those of us unfamiliar with the product’s composite parts. I was able to find a list on a forum somewhere which outlines the contents (correctly) as follows:

• 2 generals (which can both look unique and are unique to the box set I believe)
• 13 sprues of Confederate infantry (five men a sprue, these are the same as Perry’s Confederate infantry 1861-65 box)
• 4 sprues of Confederate command options (eight men, a model for an officer and a model for a drummer or standard bearer. The models on the infantry sprues can also be used for a standard bearer)
• 4 sprues of ACW Infantry (48 men, can be painted as either side, use for the Union troops. These are the same as Perry’s ACW Infantry box and include an officer on each sprue plus a model that can either be a standard bearer or drummer)
• 4 sprues of Zouvaes (20 men, same as Perry’s Zouvaes box)
• 2 sprues of Zouvaes command options (four men, one officer and a standard bearer/drummer model on each sprue)
• 3 sprues of ACW cavalry (same as Perry’s ACW cavalry box set)
• 4 guns (options for various sizes)
• 3 sprues of artillery crew (18 men total)
• Bases
• Farmhouse
• Rail fencing galore
• Firepower A5 rulebook (quick play ACW rules)

Overall the Battle in a Box American Civil War product is very good and if you are looking to get into gaming in the period I highly recommend picking it up.

That’s all for now, hopefully my next update won’t be so long coming. Happy wargaming.