Friday, March 22, 2024

More 28mm Japanese

 I've just painted up another squad of Warlord Games Japanese. i've now 3x squads of 11 men and today added some lone snipers as well. I'm not relaly a fan of prone figures so converted three of the prone figures to snipers in spider holes ready to snipe and unsuspecting enemy and am quite happy how they turned out. I've also given each squad a flag, simply as the look cool and IMO rule of cool always prevails. 


Three anti-tank teams.




A very quick paint job- block paint and wash and not even bothered with highlighting. They'll do on the table. 

Craig


Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Burma playtest

 I have painted up a couple of squads of Warlord Games plastic Japanese for Bolt Action so decided to have a little playtest game last night to try out the two armies. I decided to modify the Flames of War hold the line mission for the game and it worked fairly well. 

I only played a few turns and didn't get a result but enjoyed the process and hope to get a full game in one weekend soon using these two forces.

Briish and Indian infantry begin to advance supported my a carrier and Stuart. 


The Japanese lie in wait. 

On the right flank the other tow infantry secions advance though the jungle. 

a bofors gun provides support. Interesting fact at Kohima, the British workshops were being harassed at night by Japanese snipers. Someone suggested using horse blankets which were wet placed to proect from the snipers and these seemed to work. An officer decided this was not effective/efficient so ordered up a bofors gun and they used that to fire at the muzzle flashes and ended the sniper menace. 

The objectives are the two ammo dumps by the road.

A banzai charge vs the Indian infantry. The Japanese were killed. 

End of turn 2 the British approaching the two fords. 

An infantry assualt vs the medium MG covering the left ford. 

Another banzai charge is defeated. 

A view where I called it at the end of turn 3 as it was getting late. 

So there we have it, a fun little game to get the new terrain and mini's out. 

Craig



Monday, March 11, 2024

Terrain for gaming in Burma

 In the last couple of weeks I've been explerimenting with making rice paddies for games set in Burma and he Far East. Quite happy wih how hey have urned out so far, bu ened o make a few more when i get time. 

I also took the opporuniy to tidy up my jungle terrain that had got a bit chipped in the past few years. Someone needs to wrie  abook, 101 uses for plastic aquarium plants :) 








Until next time

Craig 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Warlord Games British infantry kitbashing

 I've been chipping away at my British & Commonwealth armies for the Italian Campaign and also for the 14th Army in Burma. Both forces are built around a combination of the Warlord Games Late War British/Canadian infantry and the 8th Army infantry boxes.



The Forgotten 14th Army in Burma- again a kitbash from the various ranges. Most are in trosusers but there are a few in shorts as well and I've added plenty of bushhats. These guys are painted in a tropical  green uniform. 

Last nights addition- a section of commandos. 


I must say I am really quite impressed with this generation of Warlord plastics- you can combine the arious sets and they hae lots of kitbashing possibilities. There are 6 core bodies but you are able to build a force so that no two figures look the same, for more variety I have also added some greenstuff to a few of the 8th army figures giving them trousers to mix things up even more. 

All up I've painted four boxes (120 figures) in the past few weeks and am planning on getting another couple of sets...  

Craig

Monday, February 26, 2024

British infantry & making rice paddies

 I finished converting my British/kiwi infantry for the Italian campaign and had lots of figures left over so accidently started, or should I say returned to, another project- 14th Army in Burma. I converted a section of Sikh troops and as with the Italian themed force used a mixture of the 8th Army and Late War British sets from Warlord games so there is a mix of shorts, battledress trousers and jackets as well as short sleeves. They turned out pretty good and I've painted them up in the jungle green uniform of 1943 onwards- no photos as of yet. 

British/Commonwealth infantry for the Italian front




Anyhow, so that got me thinking about suitable terrain and how I need some (probably in time a lot) of rice paddies for games in Burma. So, tonight I have done a few test pieces using MDF, foamcore for the berms as well as polyurathane for the water effect. Once dry I'll add blobs of static grass as the rice growing. 

The three stages of making the basic paddies. Once I'd cut out the MDF with a jigsaw I added foamcore berms and then used permafilla to create the banks. 
Once this was dry I textured with some local beach sand, sealed it with another layer of watered down PVA (a critical step to seal the sand so it doesn't chip or flake off over time) and then spray painted a dark brown followed by a drybrush of a light brown colour. 

Once that had dried it was time to add static grass and finally I poured some polyurathane I had lying around as the water effect.

Once it has completed dried I'll probaby add rows of static grass as clumps of rice. But I'm happy enough with progress so far. 

Craig


Friday, February 23, 2024

Kiwi's/British infantry for Italy

My latest little project... yet another version of British/ NZ Infantry for the Italian campaign. I wanted the infantry to be in trousers and with earlier war equipment than is on the Bolt Action LW British/Canadian infantry sprues so have combined the 8th Army and the LW boxes and mashed them up so that most infantry have trousers and rolled up shirt sleeves but a few have battle dress and a couple more still in shorts.

The two boxes mix together really well and makes for a great, very easy to do, project. 

  • 3x Sections: LMG, SMG + 7 rifles
  • 1x 9 man Royal engeinner sectrion-= making use of the figre sowth picks ot differntiate them on the table top
  • Specialist teams- Light mortar, PIAT, Sniper


Specialist teams





And what aobut the spare infantry in shoerts from the 8th Army box? They are going to be mashed up with the wepaons from both boxed sets so that some are in shorts with battle dress tops, stens etc and will be added to my British Forgotten 14th Army in Burma forces.  


Sunday, February 11, 2024

This week's update

A productive week in the wargaming hobby. 

Frist up a Warlord Games/ Italeri Panther A with Zimmerit. Can't remmber when I got it but it's been lying round made up but unpainted for far too long. Was very happy with how it turned out. 


Project #2- new barded wire entanglements for Bolt Action games.  Pretty simple- the key as far as I am concerned- is to use tile spacers from the local DIY store for the supports. 





This morning I painted up another squad of US infantry in Greatcoats- again these are the lovely Artizan Designs range. I can't recommend them enough. They have great details that paints up easily and look great. 

I repainted a couple of buildings to match the new Warlord Games ones I've painted up. 

Finally, last week I build three of the Warord games Ruined farms/hamlets whch I enjoyed painting up. 



Craig