War Sigil Mat

 All,

So I've been showing off my 15mm stuff, and part of it is a new mat I bought from War Sigil.  This is the third mat I've gotten from them, and they are fantastic, very good quality, nice size, decent price, and great texture.  Please understand that what you're about to see is probably going to throw you for a bit of a loop, and it may not work out as well as I'd hoped it would...

So, here's the mat, 6' x 4'.  I know what you're thinking: what the hell is Jack doing on Mars?

Another look.  Yes, it does bear some resemblance to Mars, and I'm sure that's what it's made for, but that's not, of course, what I intend on using it for.  If you look at this picture, you can see it's not as orange as it showed in the first picture.  But it definitely still is orange ;)

A closeup of the texture.  So, what do I plan on doing with it, then?  Stick with me here; I'm not sure if it works or not, but here's my plan.

How about bombed out cities in World War Two?

As you see, the closer you get, the less orange-y it is.  How is it looking now with some building laid on it?  Could it pass as a bombed-out city?

Another look.  Here's the kicker: I've got forces (which I'm scheduled to show you coming up after this post) that are based to go with this mat.  They don't match perfectly, of course (none of my stuff ever does), but they are based for some bricked out, bombed out city fighting.  Hell, even the buildings I've bought/painted myself don't match the mat perfectly. I'd looked at a gray mat and basing scheme, but it was kinda washing out, looked more like snow than rubble.

Another pic.  So having said all that, the mat is here to stay I guess, I've already got it and I've already made three forces for it (with another on the way).

One more look.  When I get to the forces I'll show you what they look like on the mat.

Yeah, an interesting concept with less than perfect execution, but I think that once I throw in some terrain undulation and add in some rubble piles and get the troops on the table it will work.  At least I certainly hope so, I don't know how many "why are the Germans and Russkis fighting on Mars?" jokes I can handle ;)

V/R,
Jack

Gearing Up for Osprey's Black Ops

All,

Yes, this is late, I've already played some games of Black Ops and posted them, but I figured some of you still may want to have a look at the new toys, so here we are.  I've completely become a slave to the Khurasan 15mm DevGru operators, currently owning five teams of them, with another on the way, and so I'd like to show them off.  I'd owned and been playing with some 15mm Taliban from Flytrap Factory and finally finished them off, so I figured I'd show them, too, and I bought a new terrain mat from War Sigil, so you'll get a peak of that here as well.

Here's all the new stuff I got ready.

Here's a look at the first Khurasan team, eight operators in Multi-Cam with painted rifles.  I call these guys my "SEAL" team.

Next team up is my "MARSOC" team, which is wearing Woodland-camo pattern uniforms with Coyote Brown flaks and packs.

Then we have my "SAS" team, in black with olive drab helmets and gear.

Lastly there is my "Delta" team, with each guy dressed however he wants, in a mixture of different military and civilian gear.

Each team is the same: eight dudes, including a leader with an HK416, a designated marksman with accurized M-14 (and I play Black Ops with him having a suppressed rifle, too), a machine gunner with Mk-48, two grenadiers with M320s, and three more riflemen with HK-416s.

Here is the SEAL team leader.

One of the SEAL grenadiers.

The SEAL machine gunner.

The other SEAL grenadier.

The SEAL Designated Marksman (DM).

A SEAL rifleman.

Another.

And the last one.

The MARSOC team leader.

MARSOC grenadier.

Other MARSOC grenadier.

MARSOC machine gunner.

MARSOC DM.

MARSOC rifleman.

Another.

And the last one.

SAS team leader.

SAS grenadier.

SAS machine gunner.

Other SAS grenadier.

SAS DM.

SAS rifleman.

Another.

Another SAS rifleman.

Delta team leader.

Delta grenadier.

Delta machine gunner.

Other Delta grenadier.

Delta DM.

Delta rifleman.

Another.

And last Delta rifleman.

Some shots from other perspectives; Delta team leader.

Delta grenadier.

Delta machine gunner.

Delta's other grenadier.

Delta DM.

Delta rifleman.

Different Delta rifleman.

Another Delta rifleman.

Great figures, waiting on one more team, which I'm going to paint up in desert MARPAT.

My recently painted up Flytrap Factory Taliban, to go with the ten I already had.

Another look.

Some unarmed dudes to serve as villagers, lookouts, village elders, high value targets, informants, whatever...

Some more.

Got a suicide bomber, a sniper, and a PK machine gunner.

A closeup of the suicide bomber.  Perhaps a bit cartoony, but very effective in terms of being able to pick him out on the tabletop, I think.

The Eureka sniper team.

Again.

One more time.

And my new map, which featured in the first Black Ops game.  It's absolutely gorgeous, and very resilient.  It's almost a 50-50 between water and land, maybe 40 water - 60 land.  It's a 6' x 4' mat, and I wish only about 18" of it was waterline, but that's my fault, I didn't specify with the manufacturer.  In any case, it's gorgeous and I love it, and have put in an order for two more mats, one desert (will look like the land portion above) and one snow.

Another look.

More.

Closeup of the water.

And a closeup of the land.

Some cool stuff that I'm very happy to have, with more batreps coming your way ASAP.  My boys and I are hoping to get two more games in of Black Ops this weekend.

V/R,
Jack