Okay, This is Getting Out of Hand...

All,

Well, I've got great news, and not so great news.  Bad news first: I still haven't played a damn game!  Last games were the Cuba Libre "Tears of the Sun" fights, need to get my butt back in the saddle and play some games.  It's not for lack of projects/ideas, maybe paralysis from too many...  In any case, the good news is, I've finished off (well, almost) my 10mm Modern Forces.  Previously I showed you a bunch of desert forces; here I've got one more desert force, a couple that can go desert or temperate, and then some temperate forces.  I do have a couple winter forces I want to do; got the troops (just US and USSR), but haven't done anything with them yet.  Anyway, let's get to the pics.

Here's all the stuff I just finished off.

More vehicles, some Cold War British: a Chieftain, two Scimitars, two FV-432s, and two Land Rovers.  These are all plastics from Butler's Printed Models; it's a good thing BPM doesn't have a hobby shop anywhere near my house.  If I had the ability to walk in a shop and just pick up a bunch of these whenever I felt like it, I'd probably lose my house ;)

Another look, this time with a little better light as the sun came out for a minute.  It's actually been raining here in Texas!

All the troops, from top: British (desert), US (both), Soviet (both), British (temperate), French (temperate), Special Operations (temperate), and insurgents (temperate).  All these troops are 12mm from Minifigs UK.

The desert Brit command stand.

Some desert British rifle stands.

British heavy weapons, from right: 81mm mortar, Rapier SAM, GPMG, Carl Gustav, and Milan ATGM.

The US Command stand (with desert Brits above and Soviets below).  The US and Soviet forces are designed to be used in both desert and temperate climates.  So, for example, all desert bases were painted desert sand and given a brown wash.  All temperate bases were painted dark tan and given a dark wash.  My two 'dual' bases were painted dark tan but given a brown wash.  It's very subtle, but good enough for me; and really it just comes down to me being too lazy to do up two more forces.

Okay, that's not totally true.  I am lazy, but part of the issue was I only ordered enough troops to do two forces each for US and Soviet.  Initially that was to be desert and temperate, but then I decided I wanted to have winter forces (for some reason.  Not sure why, I've bought lots of stuff but still haven't actually played a winter game).  So that helped play into the decision to make 'dual' forces.  Another issue was uniforms: I kinda wanted to do the US Army's cool new universal cam, and the point of universal cam is that it works in both desert and temperate environments.  Plus the Soviet desert uniforms, well, nothing special there, so I just stuck with their normal field drab uniforms.

Anyway, here are some US rifle stands.  I tried about eight different techniques for universal cam on these guys, and I couldn't get anything to look right.  I think I kinda nailed it in 15mm, but I just couldn't get 10mm looking right.  Ultimately I simply painted them olive drab and then drybrushed desert sand on them.  Looks okay I guess...

US heavy weapons.

The Soviet command stand.  Sorry for the lighting; the beret looks a strange color to me here.  In real life it's a baby blue.

Soviet rifle stands (with temperate Brits below them).

Soviet heavy weapons; ah, I forgot, I did throw some Pendraken troops in here!  Minifigs doesn't have any machine guns for their Soviets, so I took a .50 cal HMG team from Pendraken's Argentinians and cut it down to look like a 30mm AGL (ASG-17).

The temperate Brit command stand, in DPM.  Ugh, sorry about the lighting...

Brit rifle teams, with temperate French below them.

Brit heavy weapons.

La Legion Etrangere, with Special Operations below them.  Damn but doesn't that lighting suck...

French infantry stands.  It's really hard to see here, but I feel like I overdid their camo here, tried to put too many colors into them at 10mm.

French heavy weapons.

Special Operations types of the Direct Action variety.

A sniper team (right center) and the Direct Action boss (center).

Special Operations types of the Reconnaissance and Surveillance variety, with their boss at far left.

The temperate insurgent command stand.

Insurgent rifle stands.

Some more...

And finally, an insurgent weapons stand, a recoiless rifle!  The figures are Minifigs (standing guy is a desert insurgent, kneeling is a Technical crewman) and the weapon itself is from Pendraken.

Try to get some closeups with some better light.  Here's the Brits in desert DPM.

The Americans in universal cam.

The Soviets, finally with a decent shot of their commander.

Another look.

Brits in DPM.

The French command stand.

Special Forces shooters.

Special Forces recon dudes.

And the temperate insurgents.

Alright, for any of you wondering why I haven't played any games for awhile, you can take a look below.

First, we took a vacation.  We had some stuff going on in the local area so we didn't take our normal trip down to the coast, just stayed at home.  So we hit up various local attractions: zoos, aquariums, various museums, and we even went to a Texas Rangers ball game...

The family had a great time, and the Rangers actually knocked out the Mariners, 11-7!

But vacation's not the only thing keeping us busy...  Immediately after vacation the kids went straight into school, starting last Thursday, and the older boy had a tryout for our league's Select baseball team... and made it!  So we're back in the 'normal' swing of things, homework and ball practice.  But there's one more thing...

We added a new member to the family: meet Rusty, an Australian shepherd of the Red Heeler variety.  He's a cuties, lotsa fun for my sweet monkeys.

But one thing about being in a Marine household, even the puppy's gotta be hard!   That's right, he's chewing on a frag! ;)

Anyway, we're back to being pretty damn busy, but that's not reason to not get some games in.  I need to knuckle down and play: in the short term I'm looking at getting all these lovely 10mm troops I've been posting into action on the Cuba Libre blog, re-taking the capital of South Leon from the Communists from the north.

Long term I've found a new project that I'm dying to get into.  I've always had a keen interest in the fighting around Caen during the Normandy campaign, June to August 1944, between (mostly) the Commonwealth forces (throw some Poles in at the end) and the German SS (thrown in a couple Wehrmacht formations and the odd Luftwaffe unit).  I've played half a dozen fights in 10mm from Operation Jupiter, but I've always wanted to play out the campaign from beginning to end, and now I've resolved to do it.  I was inspired by this blog:

http://wargamesinthedungeon.blogspot.com/search/label/Blitzkrieg%20Commander

Please head on over to my new buddy Matt Crump's blog.  Lots of cool stuff going on, but what got me was all his 6mm Blitzkrieg Commander games.  There are several Caen battle reports, and an absolute boatload of East Front games.  I already had a bunch of 6mm WWII from Heroics and Ros; I'm currently re-basing them, and I put in a new order for a bunch of stuff I was missing (Churchills and Cromwells, in particular), so I'm working on getting all that taken care of, and I'm doing a bit of research.  So far, here's what I'm looking at:

-Operation Overlord, 6 June: not the landings, but the initial push by 3rd Canadian Infantry Division towards Caen, halted by 12th SS

-Operation Perch, 10-14 June: 50th ID, 51st HD, and 7th AD strike Tilly Sur-Seulles, Cagny, and Villers-Bocage against 25nd ID, Panzer Lehr, 12th SS, and 101st Hvy Pz Bn

-Operation Martlet, 25 June: 49th and 50th ID attack Rauray against 12th SS

-Operation Epsom, 26-30 June: 15th and 43rd ID, 11th AD attack west of Caen (Cheaux area), cross Odon, take (mostly) Hill 112 against 12th SS, counterattacked by 1st, 2nd, 9th, and 10th SS

-Operation Windsor, 4-5 July: 2nd Canadian ID attacks Carpiquet versus 12th SS

-Operation Charnwood, 8-11 July: 3rd and 59th ID attack Caen against 12th SS and 16th Luftwaffe

-**Fighting around Hottot, can't find a named operation associated, 8-18 July: 50th ID vs Panzer Lehr (read about Pz Lehr counterattack, not sure what/if other German units involved)

-Operation Jupiter, 10-11 July: 15th and 43rd ID, 4th Arm Bde Hill 112, Maltot, south towards River Orne, versus 9th and 10th SS, 102nd Hvy Pz Bn

-Operation Greenline, 15-17 July: 15th, 43rd, and 53rd ID attack Hill 112, Evrecy, attack 12th SS, 102nd Hvy Pz Bn

-Operation Pomegranate, 16-17 July: 49th and 59th ID attack Noyers-Bocage against 9th SS

-Operation Goodwood, 18-20 July: 7th, 11th, and Guards AD, plus 3rd ID and 51st HD attack through Caen towards Bourgebus Ridge versus 16th Luftwaffe, 1st and 12th SS, and 21st Panzer Div

-Operation Atlantic, 18-21 July: 2nd and 3rd Canadian ID attack Colombelles, Verriere Ridge, against 272nd ID and 1st and 12th SS

-Operation Spring, 25-27 July: 2nd and 3rd Canadian ID, 4th Canadian AD attack Verrier Ridge against 272nd ID and 9th and 12th SS

-Operation Bluecoat, 30 Jul-7 Aug:  15th, 43rd, and 50th ID, 7th and 11th AD attack vire and Mont Pincon from Caumont versus 326th Inf Div, 654th Hvy PzJgr Bn

-Operation Totalize, 8-9 Aug: 2nd and 3rd Canadian ID, 2nd and 4th Canadian AD, 51st HD, 49th ID, 33rd Canadian Armd Bde, 1st Polish AD attack Verriere Ridge and through towards Falaise, against 85th, 89th, and 272nd Gren Div, 12th SS, and 102nd Hvy Pz Bn

-Operation Grouse, 10-13 Aug: 3rd ID and Guards AD, 6th Guards Tk Bde pursuit in vicinity Mount de Cerisi versus 9th SS and 3rd FJ Div

-Operation Tractable, 14-21 Aug: 2nd and 3rd Canadian ID, 2nd and 4th Canadian AD, 51st HD, 49th ID, 33rd Canadian Armd Bde, 1st Polish AD attempt to close Falaise Gap versus 1st and 12th SS, 102nd Hvy Pz Bn

If you've got any insight into the Normandy fighting around Caen, please take a look and let me know if I'm missing any named operations, if there are any significant (Division-sized) actions that are not named but that I'm missing  (like Hottot, above), or if I've got any details above (dates, units involved) incorrect.  I'd greatly appreciate any help!

V/R,
Jack

A Painting Update

All,

After last weekend's painting fest, I've been able to get some more stuff done.  In this edition, I grassed the 15mm Aussies and Italians and the 10mm FFL project troops, I completed all my jungle and village stuff from Flashpoint Minis, I got some more 10mm Modern troops prepped, and I'd like to introduce some fine looking 3D prints from Butlers Printed Models.  Oh, and I bought some more read-painted terrain from Battlefront!

The Italians (left) and the Aussies (right) from Battlefront, now with grass.

The Aussies.

Their mustachioed, Tommy-Gun carrying Platoon Sergeant.

A couple Section Leaders.

And Leftenant Paul Hogan.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin-loving Italians for North Africa and Sicily.

Again.

And one more.

And then I grassed all the 10mm Modern troops I'd finished up the other day.

Left to right is Israelis, Insurgents, and French SOF.

Some more.  I think the grass really livens things up a bit.

The French line infantry and Arab civilians.

Side shot of the whole mess.

Close up of French weapons and rifle stands.

More of the same.

And let's get to those 10mm Butlers Printed models: truly fantastic!!!  I went in for four HMMWVs, two with Ma Deuce, one with TOW, and one with Mk19.  The TOW is actually from Minifigs Modern US, as is the figure in the cupola for one of the .50-cal gun trucks.

A .50-cal gun truck with Minifigs dude.

The TOW truck.

The Mk19 automatic grenade launcher gun truck.

And the other HMG truck.

Some more BPM heavy metal (or light plastic, as it were): a pair of LAV-25s, and, with all this talk of NATO, I went in for some old fashioned panzertruppen.  I almost painted them some camo-scheme based on dunkelgelb, but figured that could have folks coming out of the woodwork to accuse me of being a closet Nazi, so I went with a simple olive drab.  I'm only sort of joking; such is the state of affairs on some 'wargaming' forums.  Anyway, I digress, and I apologize, from here on out, let's stick purely to wargaming.

The LAVs.

The Marder IFVs (with hand-painted crosses, no less!).

And a Leopard II, one of my favorite tanks, based purely on aesthetics.  And not the (relatively) new, redesigned, Transformers-looking monstrosity, but this one, this model, whichever one it is.

And let's get some Russkies: a ZSU-23-4 and a BRDM scout car, primed medium green and heavily dry-brushed.

Again.

Sorry, not sure why these pics are in here.  Did I not finish them last time?  Last time may been simply finished painting, but not washed.  I dunno…

The Technicals.

I finished all my jungle stuff from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis!  Absolutely loving the bamboo!

Closer look.

Another.

Again.

More?

Yes, more.  A closeup of the flocking I put on the tree and bamboo bases.  Not beautiful, but passes muster in my book.

All the jungle village stuff I have.  Everything is from Flashpoint Minis, except the goat, that's from Kyote.

You can see the huts I just did (on right) are a bit darker than the ones I did previously.

A look at the two new shrines.

And the original (bottom left, next to the well, with the other two at top/top right).

The old stuff.

All the rest of my jungle trees.  The darker green is all from Flashpoint, the bright green is cheap trees off of Ebay.

This shows how they mix in color with the stuff I just bought.

Again.

I prepped some more 10mm Modern troops.  Need to sand them, prime them, paint them, wash them, and grass them.  But then they're ready ;)  Put the Peter Pig US Marines on pennies, need to grass them.  Put Jimmi's Montagnards on popsicle sticks.  Still have the hotel and train station to paint.  Also found some roadblocks that are primed and ready for paint (bottom center).

A closer look.

Oh, and I forgot something (right)!!!

Some more 10mm from Butlers Printed Models: two Land Rovers, two Scimitars, two FV432s, and a Chieftain.

The new stuff from Battlefront.  I ordered their craters and their 'shattered battlefield.'  This is really awesome, stuff I badly need, and I didn't have to do any work!!!!

The craters.

The shattered battlefield, with four bases of craters/tree stumps.

And four bases of water-filled craters.  Awesome!!!

Well, thanks for looking, and I'm stoked for some games this weekend.  Just gotta figure out what those will be...

V/R,
Jack