Tuesday, June 18, 2019

6mm Winter WWII and a Caen Update

All,

Got some more 6mm WWII work done this weekend.  One of the advantages of leaving your vehicles unbased is that you can use those same vehicles for summer, winter, desert, mountains, urban, etc...  However, the same is not true of infantry (and how I do guns), so I needed some WWII infantry and guns specially done up for wintertime.  I had some GHQ Soviet 57mm ATGs lying around, and I picked up a few packs of GHQ WWII US Marines, and...

Voila!  I now have winter infantry and guns.  I really hope I'm not offending anyone's miniatures sensibilities, but I'm not bothered in the least by using WWII Marines as winter Allies, Soviets, and Germans.  In any case, here's what I've got: each side has six guns and 28 infantry stands, consisting of rifle teams, light MGs, and light mortars.  Technically, I still need some winter HQ elements and winter towed artillery, but I figure, in a pinch, I could use singleton tanks or trucks as HQ elements and only SP arty to play a game.

The Allied guns.  The only difference between the Allies and Germans in these photos is going to be the color the men's uniforms are painted.

German guns.

Light mortars, of the Allied (left) and German (right) varieties.

Rifle teams with LMGs.

Some combat engineers with flamethrowers.

Some officers or forward observers.

From the front.

Some bazookas (Panzerschrecks).

Again.

Some tripod mounted MGs.

And then an update on my Caen stuff.

Got some more M7 Priests.

Got some M8 Gun Motor Carriages (center left), with short 75mm.  Only used by the Americans, but I suppose I'll be playing more than just Caen ;)

Got some more Bren carriers (next to the staghounds, M-10s, and Cromwells).

Got some more M8 armored cars.

Picked up some Fireflies (center).

Picked up some more M5 Stuarts.

Over on the German side, picked up some more Tiger Is, and some Stummels (bottom center).

I know these pics were in the last post, but everyone loves 88s and prime movers.

Got some German trucks.

And some various SP AA guns.

Another shot of the Stummels (top left), with some more Wespes.

Picked up some SiG33 SP guns.

And some Sdkfz 250s for reconnaissance.

And some more Sdkfz 222s.

Not sure if I really showed all the Panthers last time.

Still working on my Typhoon.

So, getting some work done.  I played some skirmish games for Cuba Libre, kinda dinky though, so I'll probably combine them all into one batrep, working on getting it posted.

Oh, and once again I've identified that I have absolutely too much stuff, so I'm about to have a massive sale, lots stuff that's going cheap.  I'll ship anywhere, but that can get quite expensive for outside the Continental US.  I'll be posting here soon.

As always, thanks for looking, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

V/R,
Jack

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Getting Closer to Caen

All,

Yes, I'm still alive.  Real life has been a real bastard, not much time for wargame-related stuff, but I am making progress.  Ever so slowly...   I've been re-doing infantry, arty, ATGs, buying and painting new stuff from Heroics and Ros to get into some brigade-level WWII action around Caen between Brits/Canadians/Poles and Germans.  Here's what things are looking like these days.

Everything I've got so far.  Allied vehicles on the right, Allied infantry on the bottom center, German vehicles on the left, German infantry at top center.  Everything is very simply block painted and given a wash, the infantry are based on pennies and flocked.

The Allies.  I'd previously based my vehicles a few different ways, finally resolving to leave them without bases.

The Germans.

From left to right: Allied halftracks, Shermans, Sherman 76s, M-36s, and M-10s, Stuarts, various armored cars, and Bren carriers, Allied HQ elements at top right, and Allied towed arty at bottom right.

Closeups of halftracks and Shermans.

More Shermans and self-propelled AT guns.

Recce.

The HQ elements.

Towed arty.

Towed ATGs.  Yes, they're difficult to tell apart from the towed arty...

Allied infantry, various rifle teams, mortars, and machine guns.

Closeups.

Again.

Ahh, some new stuff.  Allied motor transport, prime movers, SP arty, a bunch of Churchills, and a bunch of Cromwells.

M7 Priests.

Cromwells.  I pray I can figure out which scenarios to work them in to properly ;)

Churchills.  Ditto...

How 'bout some German heavies?  Jagdpanthers, Tiger IIs, and Tiger Is.

Pz IIIs, Marders, and a Panther in the bottom right corner.

Buncha Panthers and Pz Mk IV (both G and H models, without and with schurzen).

Better shot of the Pz Mk IVs, some Stugs, and three Wespe SP arty.

More than a couple Stug IIIs.

German recce, HQ elements, and towed arty.

German HQ elements.

German towed Arty.

German ATGs.

Five of the dreaded '88' dual-purpose guns, prime movers, and halftracks.

All the halftracks, including a few engineer variants.

German motorcycle troops.

Closeup.

German infantry, various rifle teams, MGs, mortars, etc...

Closeup.

Another.

Again.

Wow, a bit excessive there, eh? ;)

Anyway, I've still got some unpainted (or primed) lead lying about as I continue to marshal my forces for some massive battles.  Still reading and doing scenario research, but I'm looking to fight from the afternoon of D-Day all the way through Falaise.  No matter how long it takes!

Predictably, I still have too many wargaming ideas kicking around in my pea brain.  In sort of order of precedence:

1.  Finish up my modern tiny aircraft (from Thomaston) so I can keep my Cuba Libre campaign moving along).
2.  Get some new troops to get my Sword of Gideon campaign moving again.
3.  Get back to my WWII tiny dogfighting so I can get my Marines in the Pacific campaign moving again.
4.  I've been reading and it's really given me a jonesing for a bunch of Vietnam: French vs Viet Minh, ARVN throughout the entire war, SOG and Hatchet Force ops into Laos and Cambodia, and Marines in Hue.
5.  I bought "Rebels and Patriots" and I'm really getting bit by American Civil War in particular, but finding myself looking at everything from FIW to AWI to War of 1812 to MAW to ACW...
6.  Oh, and Caen, of course ;)

V/R,
Jack