Con of the North, Day 2

I have to say, as the weekend went on I became less organized.  So often that I didn't know where my camera was.  These are the last pictures I took of my events from the weekend.  Again it was a lot of fun!  I love going to this Con!

Flying Lead, A Daring Rescue

Instead of using stealth the French partisans begin by opening fire and taking down the German sentries.

Partisans locate their comrade!

Fighting is fierce around the farmhouse.

Men are wounded all around the battlefield.

Flying Lead, Starship Troopers

Due to time constraints I ran the Starship Troopers game on the same table as the WWII scenario.  I just removed the 1/72 truck and houses.

Mobile Infantry advace to the wall for cover.

Flanked by the Tanker Bug.

M.I. move up the side to escape the tank.  A lone Warrior waits in ambush.

The trap is sprung!

Due to a snowstorm on Sunday many events were cancelled and a lot of people left early.  Plus I was not feeling well due to some excessive celebrating the night before.  I did not get any picures of my 2nd playthrough of The Vampire's Lair.

Con of the North is an absolute blast.  There are so many events going on, run by really great people.  Village Games did a great job hosting a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the events over the course of the weekend.  We are already planning our events for next year.  If you live in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN area, or will be there around February 2012, stop by and check out Con of the North!

Con of the North, Day 1 Part 2

More pictures of the weekend's fun.  Here are my 2nd, 3rd and 4th games of the day.  I learned a valuable lesson here:  If you're going to run 8 hours straight of games, don't make them 4 different games with different terrain requirements!  It was chaotic, but it was fun!

Flying Lead, A Daring Rescue

Partizans try to sneak into the German held farm.

Planning the best way to suprise the Germans

The French are spotted!  They let loose with their Molotov Cocktails, confusing the Germans as they scramble to respond.

Le Resistance battle towards the farmhouses in an effort to locate their friend.

 Fear and Faith, Stop... Zombie Time!

PBS,on the right, try to defend a house, while HEPA moves in to start fires on the left.

Zombies gather for a feast!

A dangerous little girl with and AT-4.

HEPA members defend their friends against the approaching horde!

Outnumbered but not outgunned!  Corporate chem gunners turn zombies to soup.

Flying Lead, Starship Troopers

Mobile Infantry move into firing position and lay waste to the Arachnids.

A long distance shot of the battle.

"Sir, I see a tanker bug!"

A Hopper swoops in for a quick kill.

Mobile Infantry regroup to defend against the final assault.



Sneak Peek- Flying Lead WWII Scenario

Todd and I playtested my WWII Flying Lead scenario last night.  I won't give a whole lot of detail, but I thought I'd share some pictures of the action.

The farmhouses and truck are from Pegasus Hobbies.  They have a very excellent range of terrain, vehicles and accessories at a good price.

German sentries watch the perimeter of the farm.  The scenario takes place on a moonless night.

Partisans prepare to sneak through the woods.

Partisans move in from three sides, hoping to catch the German off guard.

Sentries alert their brothers in arms of the attack!

An MG 34 is deployed to slow the attack from the north.

A French assassin sneaks around the woods, unseen by the Wermacht soldier.

The Partisans detonate explosives inside the Opel truck.

A damsel in distress!

A bird's eye view of the assault on the farmhouse.

"Little kraut, little kraut, let me in!"

Looking for a nice spot to lay down some flaming fuel.

The games were an absolute blast!  Thanks to Todd for helping me with some very valuable playtesting! 

1/72 WWII Germans

Here are some shots of the Germans that will be used in my Ganesha Games Flying Lead game at Con of the North in February.  I've done a lot more than this, but I will just be using a basic squad for the con game.

These are from an Esci set I picked up for a few dollars at a local hobby shop.  They are now available from Italeri as German Infantry.

MG 34 and assistant.  The assistant was a prone rifleman.  I removed the rifle, and created an ammo can and ammo belt from some green stuff and plasticard.

Commanders.  The "Sergeant" was holding a mine, but I clipped it off.

Standard riflemen.

These models are painted up in early war colors.  The paintjob is pretty basic.  No insignia were painted on this first go through.  Though one day if I feel ambitious enough I will do the helmets and jackets.

1/72 Crates

I'm just finishing up posting everything from my old website and found these pictures of some stowage.  I sold these on Ebay years ago.  The manufacturer is unknown, but they are cast in a hydrostone.  Painting is pretty straightforward base coats, washes and drybrushed highlights. 

The patches of ground cover are my typical mix.

I sure wish I still had these as they would be great objective markers now that I have started collecting 1/72 figures.

Two Story Fortifcation

The first thing I did is cut out the shape of the hill I wanted the bunker mounted into from a piece of 1" insulation foam. I then traced this shape onto a piece of cardboard. This acts as the floor of the bunker and keeps it connected to the hill.

I then cut out a notch from the foam to accomodate the bunker. In this case it is a 3"x3" square. This starts at the very edge of the hill and goes in. Once the bunker was cut out of the hill I glued the cardboard base in place. I forgot to cover the corrugations with carboard as you can see in the picture. Don't forget to do that!!

All of the corrugated steel is made from corrugated paper. You can buy it by the roll. I got mine at a dollar store.

A 3" x3" square was glued to the carboard base to serve as the floor for the bunker. White glue was used, and it soaked the paper backing off of the corrugated paper. Clamps had to be used to keep the paper down while drying. Two strips were cut and glued along the inside of the hill; one facing out and one facing in. These formed the walls of the lower story.

Chopsticks were cut to length and superglued into each corner to support the upper level.

A 3" x 3" square of cardboard was cut for the upper level. This was centered over the posts and glued into place. Glueing the upper floor in place was a huge mistake. Now it's nearly impossible to get models into the lower level.

Corrugated paper was glued to the base of the upper floor. A thin strip was also glued around the front three side of the upper level. This would give the upper wall something to be attached to.

The surrounding wall on the upper level is constructed the same way as the wall for the lower level. An HO scale model railroad trask was used for a ladder. The rails were pulled off with a plier and then it was cut to length.

The piece was primed black (the hill brushed, the rest sprayed.) The corrugated steel was drybrushed dark green to a lighter green. The ladder and posts were painted like wood; starting with a dark brown drybrush up to a light brown. The hill was drybrushed up from dark grey to white.

Static grass was glued to the top of the hill and the piece was complete.

Technobridge

I picked up this Armorcast piece for a song at a local hobby shop. It is cast in resin and is a very nice piece. There is lots of detail, and cleaning was quite simple. The piece was primed black and then painting began.

I started off by drybrushing the entire piece silver, but seing that is was going to end to way too plain, even after detailing, I decided to do the edges in hunter green. The wooden parts were painted a very dark brown. Areas that were damaged were left silver, and a thin line of black was painted where the silver meets the green to give the effect of chipped paint.

The entire piece was given a wash of a mix of black paint, water and Future Floor Finish.

Once this was dried the silver parts were gently drybrushed silver again. The wood was drybrushed dark grey, then light grey. The green was lightly drybrushed again with Hunter green, then a slighly light shade was applied by mixing white in the base color.

The rust effects were then added. Surface rust was added simply by stippling burnt sienna over areas of the bridge. The rust streaks were done by loading a brush, removing some of the paint, then gently working it down the slope in long strokes. Citadel Blazing Orange was then lightly stippled onto the flat areas of burnt sienne, and streaked the middle of the runs.

Tank Traps

Another important piece of terrain for wargames is the tank trap. They trap tanks. Or at least keep them from driving where ever they want, until the traps are destroyed. Click on pictures for a larger view.

A standard scenario calls for up to six sections of traps so I created six. These were based on 3" x 6" sections of foam core (no cardboard today, kids.)

The hedgehogs were created by glueing plastic "I" beam rods together in an "X" shape . I mounted three traps per base. After the traps were built, they were hot glued to the bases. I then primed them in a oxide red.

I used these traps hours after I had primed them, and three of them broke off the base during transport to the local gaming shop. two more broke off while we played. Hot glue was NOT the thing to use here. When I got back home, I tugged at each trap still attached to its base to see if it would come off. If it did, I superglued it back on. After making these repairs I covered the bases in the PVA mix and covered them in sand. As soon as the glue was dry, the pieces were basecoated black (I didn't care for the red oxide color.) Painting was done by drybrushing the traps silver, and drybrushing the bases in a medium brown and a tan. I was tired of looking at these things and just wanted them done.

All I need to do is seal them, which I will do with a spray sealant. I just hope the sand won't start breaking off. If it does, I'll coat the bases in PVA, just like my flocked pieces.

These dragon teeth style tank traps were made from plaster poured into an ice cube tray. Once the plaster cured they were knocked out of the tray and attached to strips of foamcore with white glue. They were then primed black and drybrushed dark grey to light grey to white. A sickly green static grass was mixed with some dried tea leaves and applied to the base with white glue.

Styrofoam and Wall Filler Buildings

These two pieces are some of my earliest attempts at making terrain. They use some pieces of styrofoam glued together and some wall filler material to create a quick and easy structure for wargaming. The first piece is a simple building. It was created by using two pieces of styrofoam used to package some kind of electronic device, but I can't remember what. The two halves were simply glued together with PVA and allowed to dry. The outside was then covered in some pre-mixed wall filler compound and slightly smoothed out.

Once the filler was dry, it was sanded down to get rid of any sharp edges or peaks that might be on the piece. A door was made in the front out of card and a handle was taken from a tank model. A thing was glued onto the piece and a couple of straws were also glued on as exhaust ports.

The building was brushed black and drybrushed a dark grey, light gray and finally white. The door, exhaust ports and thing were drybrushed silver. This piece is so stable and strong it wasn't even based.

The second piece is a small bunker I built from offcuts of styrofoam from making hills. It is based on a square of foamcore with masking tape around the edges to hide the foam in the foamcore. The bunker itself is made of "bricks" of styrofoam glued to the base with a removable roof.

The bunker was also coated in wall filler, but a brush was used after application to give the bunker a formed concrete look, much like that on the highways and interstates (at least here in Minnesota). Once the filler was dry, the bunker was painted black, and drybrushed from dark grey to white, just like the above piece.