Paras sent to liberate France

Hello,

This time there're only fresh photos of old stuff.
Last week my patatroopers found new home in France so before they were packed I took keepsake family photo of the squad.
All in all they are cool and reliable unit (and my first purchase from Bolt Action range if I remember correctly) but after year or so of playing I realised they just don't fit my vision of US force. I simply like ordinary troopers better.

Good news is the buyer already has solid paratroopers force so I am quite sure the guys will get along in no time.

What else?
Oh yeah, more pictures.

After sending paratroopers there was inspection of rest of my Bolt Action toys and it looks like there are two more pieces which I don't use too often, which could actually be changed into something fitting ground force better.

First one is M3A1 halftrack:
solid combat taxi, big enough to cary full squad of infantry:

The next one - M3A1 Stuart:
nasty piece, really: pretty cheap in points and armed with deadly flamer: 12" of range + 9" advance makes it just terrifying:

And mentioned before these were painted a while ago but in my opinion both look way better on printed background, than just standing on my messy hobby desk.

If you are interested in any of these from me a message or visit FB Bot Action buy/sell group for M3A1 halftrack and for M3A1 Stuart.

And finally paratroopers - good luck in France!

US storm

Heyah,

I've been cooking this post for a while so it's high time for painter's katharsis - no more hiding pics on hard drive! Pics of painted models that is...

 

The top picture is group shot of my paratroopers - whole team has finally been painted!
Those were my entry for local contest so couldn've posted them earlier yet it's still better now than never. The guys didn't perform as nice as I was hoping for but screw this:

the deadline was effective motivator to get them done by the end of January.

In the meantime I've managed to bring them to the field and they are very solid and reliable unit. Last week they survived 2 rounds of direct fire from treachous Churchill tank. The fact is - placing them on top of the hill might not have been my smartest strategic move, but it only proves how badass paratroopers are. And some more shots - painted units always look nice:

We've also been testing some terrain features and I decided to build a test brick wall.

Test, because what we have doesn't provide enough cover for infantry units. I wanted to see wall tall enough to hide whole standing model behind.

Below you can see the first attempt - piece of wall made of clay casted bricks. All in all it's quick and easy, hard to f*ck job. The biggest problem is waiting for clay to dry - bricks run out quite fast.

What do you think?
I am considering molding some larger sections so building more massive and complex constructions is easier and simply - faster.

And here's some recent paintjob to support regular infantry:
from left to right badass NCO for the second squad of regular infantry, medic and another annonymous rifle-carrier. All models were painted using the very same color palette to keep my force as coherent and unified as I can provide. I've just thought there're like 6 models left and I my US army is ~1000pts painted!
Well maybe not exactly all units is what I want to see but it's still solid start.

And sniper team: mostly useless but there's nothing worse than loosing light machine gun or commander just by leaving these two operating freely...



The wall:
clay can be painted with no problem, hitting it with dry pigments and spray sealer also works. On the next one I'll try to apply stronger drybrush so whole piece is more striking and contrasting.

And last but not least - heavy support.
Abour Monday mailmand delivered freshly casted set or infantry from Black Tree Designs.
I chose them because they provide metal range of minis, the selection is pretty wide and I don't want to see any doubles in my army and there was really sweet promotion for WW2 stuff recently.

Models require some cleaning but it's really nothing I cannot deal with. And thank to this investment US army got 16 fresh recruits and medium mortar - just to keep enemy infantry slightly more insecure on the battlefield...

So that's it for now,
thanks for reading!
\m/

Even more Bolt Action + some summary

Hey again,

I should've published this post like 2 days ago but I was kinda distracted by playing Civilisation IV...
Beware if you ever decide to give this game a try - it's just f#%king addictive!

But since I managed to turn off that time waster it's high time for some hobby report from my painting station. This time: more Bolt Action (yup - again!) and annual summary.

Let's start with the boring part - miniatures are dessert.
2016 has just passed so I checked the hobby chart and looks like I've been about as much productive as in a year before: I managed to paint 49 models and play 24 games while in 2015 these were 53 and 20.
Sure it's not enough but all in all it's still decent result for fully employed family guy. Bravo!
What's most optimistic is the fact the result is slowly getting  better and better since 2011 (when ye blazing comet was spotted in the sky and shortly after my kid was born).
I regret so much I haven't started such a statistics earlier - I've been wondering many times how many models left my painting station since the day I got sucked into the hobby abyss.

As for overall conclusion - it was busy year, VERY busy, mostly by real life. I am glad I managed to finish most of started project and that I haven't put hobby bar too high: big painting plans usually mean big disappointment.
I am very glad one more 100% oldschool gang was finished (EM4 Scavengers aka Necromunda Orlock proxies) and that we gave a try to Bolt Action game - it's such a breath of fresh, battlefield air!
Even my brother dediced to join the gaming ring as der deutch Heerfuhrer.
Which reminds me I have to order some more US infantry to repel those nazi pests...

And some solid numbers: summary on the bottom relates to the period since 2011.

And the promised candy.
Since the last time I managed to practice Bolt Action game rules a bit, add some terrain and of course - slap paint on some models.

We're still building the battlefield so in order to make games more demanding (and our soliders' fate even more f&*ked up) I built 4 more hedges sections. These are just tall enough to provide cover for sneaking  infantry but I am also considering building some really tall hedges, tall enough to hide tank or scout car behind. It's a bocage setting after all!

Building such obstacles is very easy and quick (except for waiting for pva and base color to dry) and you can probably find most of needed materials at yout place:
pcv sheets left-overs, sand, white glue, some sponge, steel wool or seat filling, hobby paints, hairspray.

 

 

And miniatures:

since the last time my US force has been reinforced by 2 BAR assault rifle operators, forward air observer and some paratroopers veterans.

Painting Artizan Designs' stuff is just great - models are well scaled and simple. They remind me EM4 models a bit. With no usless gear hanging on models painting single trooper takes like 2 evenings and that is while still keeping decent painting quality. 

Decent for gaming purposes to be clear.

For BAR guys (for whole regular infantry actually) I chose convincing color scheme but to make gaming more clear, I decided to paint the helmets black. It turns out sometimes in the very heat of the battle player may forget weather there is or not BAR operating in the squad.

Forward Air Observer is the first painted officer in my army.
It's quite expensive but since it can call 2 air strikes instead of one (US special rule) I try not to leave the base without it: at this point I found whole pinning effect it might cause slightly overestimated, but on the other hand the final attack is able to rip tank apart. Just like during last game - my brother, I mean: der Bruder, didn't know that painted models fight better (MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HAAA...!!!)

And the guy who cause the mess above himself:

And for the final - paratroopers.
These guys were my first Bolt Action investment and I am really satisfied about them: both sculptures and combat performance.
Thank to special gear and slightly different paintjob this team is pretty eyecatching amont other US units. I have to consider mounting them on half-track or some truck to bring light machine gun fast closer the action.
Anyway since the last time I managed to paint 2 more paratroopers, 4 models more and I can concentrate on cannon fodder. Regular infantry that is...

Thats it for starters.
Thanks for reading and seeya in 2017!

Warzone Biogiant + US paratroopers

Hey again,

It's been a while since the last post but this time I had serious reason: 

since February I've been preparing for the exam which was last on Saturday 24.09.2016 - and I passed it!!!
I still cannot believe my head can be used for anything more than wearing bike helmet. 

And hair.

Lots of minis wanted me to slap some paint on them this year so since there's bit spare time I'll try to make my pile ov shame bit lighter. So for starters 3 models which I've been woring on since the last spamming.

First one is huge and totally useless support for my Dark Legion army:
Algeroth's very own biogiant.
During golden age of Warzone I didn't like this model enough to purchase it. Frankly - don't think many gamers did. But I got it recently from friend who is running Mishima and this big guy was part of some large bundle of second hand model. Or something. Important thing is biogiant was no use for him.

Model came painted but required new colors. I am far from praising my paintjob, but original colors were basecoat at best. Most of spikes were missing too so I had to sculpt some.
I was trying to keep close to the artwork so there's dark armour and clothes contrasting with pale flesh (also now I see more necrotic tone whould be better).
Even though painting is simple this model took lots of time and effort - like some fucking energetic vampire. Which makes me even more happy to see it away from painting station.

As for testing new things I was trying to add static grass with an applicator. Results are not as spectacular as doing it on flat sheet of pcv but I still might use if for basing my Bolt Action troopers.

Too bad fielding this piece is just waste of points:
it's so huge it can be targeted from almost any point of battlefield and for that cost I can get a nepharite pimped with necrobionics and some spells. Oh well. So - the piccies:

And the scale shot for those unfamiliar to old Warzone range:

I wrote there are 3 new models. Lucky for me remaining ones were not as time, paint and life force consuming: Bolt Action US paratrooper.

These two are my very first painted infantry models from BA. My first impression about sculpts wasn't too optimistic, but all in all I must admit these models definitely have some charm and character.

And they keep the scale to the vehicles!

Color scheme was based on what I saw on the box, but I do not care much about recreating original uniforms, weather they were carrying olive backpacks and black helmets or not. I like them as they are so hope to finish rest of the squad similar way. Hope you like them: 

And one more scale shot. My invading force is growing like well fed yeast!
(Which reminds me - there's new photo album dedicated to Bolt Action miniatures - check the right panel).

That's it for now.
There's lots of minis I'd love to see painted fast but after hard struggle with biogiant - cannot decide which will be first. I should probably make some poll about it.

Ok, see ya next time!