Unknown episode of WW2 (part 2)

Last Friday night history of World War II took another surprising turn and had a pleasure to re-enact another unknown episode of war: battle between US and Italian forces against Soviet and French menace. It's another game we had to play at Rilian's place - last time it was Italian vs US and since then we were still kinda hungry got more WW2 gaming.

Since the last game Rilian also found 2 more commanders willing to start Bolt Action adventure, so we had 4 armies on the table - each 1250 pts worth. Must say no matter how much I like the game, the size of battle was just too big: the battle started about 20:30 and the last bullet was fired after 2:00 a.m.
My side clearly lost but we didn't manage to bring game to the 6th turn.

Any post-battle conclusions?
Not realy: it's Bolt Action so no matter what brilliant plan you prepare the dice drawing and rolling is true god of war. Because all other armies were early war, I also had to adjust my force to this period. Sadly that made my unit choice very limited but still it was fun.

Also I tried to upgrade some photos with AI so make the report more eyecatching but I'm not really sure it was good idea. I got feeling the upgraded photos look like taken from WH40000 battle of video game 🤔 Here's the material anyway - judge for yourself:

Below: brave G.I.s defending crucial supplies...

And here: Rilian's seld made aerosans:

That's it. Hope the next time I get opportunity to field proper mid/late war stuff 😎

Unknown episode of WW2

Last weekend I had a pleasure to re-enact one of unknown episodes of World War 2:
deadly struggle of my trusty (winter) Americans against Rilian's supercool (desert) Italians...

The idea to face our armies was spawned quite a long time ago actually, but sadly until now we couldn't synchronize the calendars to make thing happen. 

War is mostly logistics after all... 🙄

Since we decided to sactifice whole evening for the match decision was made to prepare larger then standard armies: 1500 points each side. Italian force was early war period army, so I did my best to keep Americans on similar level. Sadly I don't have any vehicles strictly from early war - maybe it's the sign straight from mighty Cosmos to start assembling another force 🤔

The battle was fun - we were playing Key Positions scenario, so once again I was really glad I decided to field solid squads of trusty G.I.s: now tese are double cool thank to Fire and Manoeuvre special rule. During the game we were trying to take some photos, but sadly it's pretty hard to take nice battle report quality pictures in heat of battle and without dedicated lighting. Hammering beers to make crucial strategic decisions easier didn't help much either... 🤪

This was our playground - the buildings were designed by Rilian:

Swarm of saracens advancing towards US positions:

Some supercool Italian toys:

Italian damn scorcher crawling to obliterate squad of G.I.s. with a single, deadly strike... 😖

And war-rugby match: US tanks attacking Italian assault squads at point blank range!

Hope next time I can provide better quality material. But until then - over and out!  

Carnifex (Warhammer 40000)

Apparently I must be really fed up with winter, COVID and life in general, because my painting got pretty weird and colorful recently. 

And if pink Autoblinda was weird even for my standards, that Carnifex is just acid! 🤪

Acid or not - I like the final result: good acid... 

So is the model: it's true eyecatcher in my mostly monotone display case. 

In fact I wanted to paint this model for quite a long time. In my opinion it's one of the coolest piece from old Tyranids line:

massive, menacing, fu#king badass! Not even mentioning that cutie-cutie mouth! 🤗

I had some ideas for painting the thing but after spotting some rainbow crabs photos decision was made to follow the path of Slaanesh. Which actually brought the model pretty close to the official paintwork from the 90's.

The model is big and colorful so I gave it bright, beach base for stronger contrast. 

To present the scale I added tank turret from M4 Sherman tank (parts from proper 40k vehicles run out long time ago - most of them were used for Dagon,  Mjolner and Beast 666). Fluffwise I imagine if leaving the nest / den / whatever is where these bastards live, to examine what emerged from the ocean of sand: 

there still might be some meaty snack inside after all! Told you it's cute! 🥰

The base is pretty large, but the model definitely deserves it. Not mentioning the fact it prevents if from falling, during the heat of battle (I really hate fixing chipped paint). I got the base with M2A1 howitzer - it was too large for medium  artillery piece (didn't fit ruins and buildings) but it's perfect for self-respecting alien creature.

So here it is, hope you like it:

After uploading the pics I see the bone parts are way too clean and flat - they are getting additional layer of wash and pigments for stronger contrast. I also realised I run out of gloss varnish / water effect - it should be used on underbelly and mouth - crabs (and cosmic crabs in particular!) should these areas  seem to be wet. 
Added to the list...

Upgrading Sherman with Calliope set

Heyah,

As mentioned a while back my US armoured forced has been reinforced by T34 Calliope missle launcher. Must say it's been already tested in the field and results are promising:
the turn it moved onto battlefield it blew away Zee German Wirbelwind and spread terror among units around.
Next turn the game was over.
 
Yeah, yeah... It was nothing but the matter of luck but still model looks damn cool and brings lots of fun (mostly for US player) so I hope to include it in army lists frequently.

Sadly I don't have enough space to keep all models I've ever got so instead of purchasing another Sherman decision was made to upgrade model I've already had finished with Warlord's Calliope missle launcher set. While working on the model some pics were taken about both assembling and painting, which hopefully might be useful for fellow hobbyists.

So the operation started with M4 Sherman tank. Model you see below has been painted and sealed with matt varnish, therefore there was no need to undercoat it again before repainting:

Wasn't sure how well airbrushed paint would stick to varnished surface, so just for sure model was treated with very fine sandpaper. Don't think it was necessary but the surface become more porous:

Missle launcher assembly.

T34 set contains like 5 parts which could be assembled and attached with greenstuff and superglue, but since it's gaming model (often transportation) I decided to pin it to the turret. Just to minimalize risk of damage while getting to battlefield.

Assembled - still without glue.
As you can see heavy machine gun and antenna were removed from the turret:

Primed black:

And now something new for me: 

instead of painting model with airbrush and then working on shading, dark areas were painted before base color. Idea was to simply leave these "natural" shadows, making model look more realistic.
Don't care is sounds stupid - it works:

Base color:

Highlight:

Further highlight.

It was actually supposed to be much brighter but nozzle in my airbrush got fucked and is started spitting paints. Visible especially on the turret. 

Decision was made to finish this step before more severe damage is done to the patient:

After paint dried decals were applied: 

And some extra junk on sides and in the back:

Boring part: 

tracks and machine guns were painted silver:

And another new thing for me: oil paints.

I've heared lots about this stuff and recently got few colors to see what's all about. Using oils is way different that standard acrylics but works great on vehicles.

Below - model was shaded with black and brown oil wash:

More washes - reddish brown this time:

And more washing - brown, yellow. Also front / back lights were painted: 

And final details: tools, streaks, mud effect on the tracks.

The model is done: me likey.
It's always good idea to test new things, especially in the hobby. I'll surely use oil paints again on M7 Priest waiting patiently on my desk. I feel sick thinking there're still like 20 infantry models waiting for paintjob...
Anyway - hope you like the final result: