Downsizing for 2015

The little metal men are getting a little bit smaller for 2015

WIP (FOW): Americans in a winter wonderland

Rifle and Engineering Companies on Parade on their new winter mat

SAGA: Beginning of the Saga

Game one: deployment

Yea, I get to pop my Saga cherry.

Sitrep(FOW): Tanksgiving in Portland USA

Oh my

PiP (FOW): Rockets away.

German armoured rocket battery 

PiP (FOW) US support platoons

US AA platoon clearing the sky of the Krauts

hmm, I think I may have too many projects on the go

Getting back to bases

Saga Going Welsh part 2

4 point Saga warband ready to walk into legend

WIP (FOW): masking putty

Jagdtiger and friends

40K (WIP) Wyerns and Punishers

Wyerns ready for a fire mission.

PiP (FOW): Jumbo's and Easy Eights

Jumbos on the roll

PiP (Saga): Going Welsh

The start of a Saga

40K Prag and back

Breakfast in Prag for the Ogre cup

FoW in Leipzig

40K in Leipzig

IG getting ready to face off aganist Necrons

NWG2014 T-21

Ready for take off

PIP (FOW): Deuce and half trucks for the Combat engieers

Deuce and half trucks roll through a village somewhere in France.

FoW ETC experiance

Team Ireland at the FOW ETC

PiP (40K): Mordian Iron Gaurd

A section, 1st platoon, A company, 391st Mordian Guards (aka the middle guard)

ETC2014 summary

ETC  2014

Lets play RED WINTER

What no figures??*

The ETC and why I am begin to dislike Russian Green

21 Matildas from Zveda courtesy of Plastic soldier company

Yikes, ETC 2014 is nearly here and there is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind.  This year I am helping out as a Chairman, a ref for the 40K ESC and a player for Ireland FoW.

Chain of Command: Cutting the jessami track

The Jessami Track

FoW (PiP): German eyes and ears Sd Kfz 250/9 (2cm) (alte)

recon patrol on the eastern front

Battles in leipzig

Tiger hunting in Leipzig

FoW (PiP): German eye and ears Sd.Kfz.234/4

On the look out on the eastern front

PIP (FOW) lend lease Stuarts

Lend lease Stuarts beat a tactical retreat from a King Kiger

Lets play: with Anarchy models stencils kits

Back at Salute this year I was able to pick up some of Anarchy models stencil kits.  Sod laws says to marginally better modelers :) in the form of Heresy Brush and Massive Voodoo also decide to posts about stencils around the same time. I am going with the great minds think alike approach on this one.

left over upper decks from Battlefronts Tank killer company. 1st coat sprayed and stencils applied.

Anyway 9 pounds gets you 2 A5 sheets of stencils. The stencils are aimed mostly at the 28mm scale.   I tried them on both 28mm and 15mm. The 28s and the 15s with large flat surfaces were fine but on some of the smaller 15mm items it was difficult to get the stencils to cover some of the area and paint was able to get under the mask and damage the effects.

Over all the stencils are worth the money if time and convenience is an issue. Otherwise. it might be better to make your own using masking tape or getting silly putty.  I am hoping they release some more complex camo patterns which would something you could not easily get with the other methods.

2nd cost applied 

The finished stencil. It worked well on the large flat surfaces of the Russian tanks. (I kepth the tank killers upper and lower hulls sperate so they can be switched  between games).

288mm tank. The Stencils worked much better on the bigger scale

WiP stencil tanks Vs his soft camo big brother

Finished Su-85s roll out

Hmm, I think made a mistake here by being to heavy with the basing layers. The tanks a pre-hilghted but getting two spray of paint seems to weaken the effect.

I used the sane shade of pigment as one of the base colors. I am not sure is this adds or tales away from the effect.

top down view of the stencils

Thats is all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

PiP (FoW) Tank killer company

Cat killers on the prowl

WiP (FoW) Winter American Mortars and weapons platoons

Mortar team getting ready

Some photo of my in progress winter American mortar and heavy weapons. Modelling wise I really like the opportunity Flames of war gives you to go to town on the bases.  The only new method tried this time was using plastic card to create  ammo boxes and mortar casings. I really liked how they turned out.

Lets play chain of command

Setting up for Some Chain of Command

Continuing the trend of trying out new games I got to have my frist game of  chain of Command (CoC) on a recent trip back home. CoC is a ww2 squad size game published by Two Far Lardies. WW2 wise I seem to be regressing through the ranks. In FOW the player is a captain/major controlling multiple platoons. In Bolt Action the player is Lieutenant/Captain with a platoon strength battlegroup. In CoC the player is 2nd lieutenant with a platoon with very limited support

Ladies night with Freebooters Fate

Big Jenny will look after you for a price

So after much delay and procrastination from Tino and myself. we finally got around to my second game of freebooters fate.

Salute 2014

Last year was a trip to adepticon. This year saw me heading to Salute. For those who do not know Salut is the main trade event for most of the UK based wargames companies. I was at salute before with the Dublin Games Guild and had blast. I still have found memories of playing War on Terror into the wee hours, of browsing the bring and buy while checking all the new releases and different products from the UK manufacturers.  I really going to shows and getting the opportunity to see the figures and games in the flesh and also to get exposure to games outside of my comfort zone.  This year I tied the trip in with a visit to see the bro, now based in London, so I would have a cover story for the non gaming people.

FoW(WiP): No half measure with some German halftracks.

Flak platoon in progress

FoW (PiP): The AK Interactive experiance

Lately, I have been playing around with some the AK interactive products in my bid to reproduce the WW2 German army in 15mm on a one to one scale.

(FOW): Desperate Pleasures

Flames of War main strength, for me, is tanks, dozens of them, whizzing around the table blast crap of things.

Battling on a 6'x6' table

FOW (WiP): Those damn engineers

Able company 291st combat engineers December 1944

PiP: Bolt action American and Japanese reinforcements

American observer team on the look out for the basing guy.

Fow (Pip): Ooh shiny panzers

Some rather shiny (post varnish) Panzers on routes for a pin wash and weathering)

Hamburg tactica 2014

It is Tactica time again. Tactica 2014 was my second time attending the event in Hamburg. It was a busy weekend with Saturday spent battling FOW in Leipzig before hopping on the train to Hamburg.

FOW Sitrep: breakout

The battlefeild.
The British bridging group is trying breakout through the village at the top of the picture.

(FOW PIP): Polish 1st armoured division

Polish Cromwell's roll of the painting table