Warmachine at Village Games

I took a few shots of the Warmachine action last night at Village Games in Anoka, MN.  There were quite a few people playing, and I think a total of 7 games were played.  It was a great turnout.

I was only able to take pictures of one game as it was the only one with fully painted minis.  Casey's Menoth squared off against Grover's Mercenaries.  I have to be honest, that's about all I know about the units.  I've been out of the Warmachine loop for so many years I just can't remember all of the names!

I hope you enjoy the pictures anyway!

A shot of the battlefield

Uneven looking matchup...

A whole buncha' warjacks!

Three on one?  That's not fair!

Oh wait.  It's only two on one.

Incoming pain.

The line is drawn, forces prepare to clash!

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! 

WWII Using Tactical Assault: Combat Cards

The past few months I have been helping a friend (and owner of Village Games in Anoka, MN) playtest a card driven ruleset for miniature wargaming.  The rules are designed to handle anything from WWII to sci- fi, and are quite excellent.  The game is called Tactical Assault: Combat Cards, and will soon be available for purchase online.

I introduced my friend Todd to this incarnation of the rules last night.  We ran a WWII game in 15mm; Todd's Americans versus my freshly painted Germans. 

Here are some shots of the action:

The start of the battle.  German forces took up positions from the south to the west, with a lone Stug III infiltrating the American position.  Americans approached from the north to east, with an emphasis on taking the village from the Germans.

German infantry, command, machine gun, mortar and Stug III taking cover on the south end of the map.

Americans take cover in a small field to the east of the village.

German forces are pinned down by a dug in and concealed Sherman.  A lone Stug tries to pinpoint it's location and sneak in for the kill.

Americans zero in on the Stug with an antitank gun.

A Tiger I watches the north end of the battlefield.

A German Stug tries to flank the American infantry hiding in the woods.  The machine gun valiantly fires to slow the armor down.

The American towed gun is victorious!  The sneaking Stug is destroyed!  On the west end the Tiger pops a Sherman as it tries to cross the battlefield.

The Americans suffer heavy casualties under a constant barrage of weapons fire.

The concealed Sherman pounds away at the Germans, slowing or destroying all that attempt to reach it's position!

The Germans pulled off a victory today, but I think we have a convert to the new Tactical Assault: Combat Cards anyway.  The game was a blast!

All models on both sides are either Battlefront or Command Decision.  Info on the terrain can be found in this blog.



Fear and Faith HEPA Members, Part 2

And here are the last of my Fear and Faith HEPA members for Con of the North.  For some reason these models were quite resisant to being photographed, and the pictures just didn't turn out well. 

Bunny Boiler Alice from Hasslefree Miniatures

Alyx from Hasslefree Miniatures

Suzi from Hasslefree Miniatures

Ray from Hasslefree Miniatures.

My brother volunteered to tackle this one for me, so I let him.  Thanks, Casey!

Horrorclix Prepaints for CotN Fear and Faith

I've finally finished all of the models and terrain for my Fear and Faith and Flying Lead games I'm running at Con of the North.

I will admit, I cheated a bit.  A majority of the figures in the zombie game are Horroclix prepaints.  They are decent looking figures, and there is a great variety.

SWAT zombie, hospital patient zombie, construction zombie, and a police zombie.

Corporate response: Responder, flamethrower and cleaner.

The figures have not been retouched at all.  They were simply removed from their bases, attached to new 25mm bases (either Likto wooden bases or plastic slotted bases) and then based in black ballast.  I choose black ballast for basing as most of my zombie games take place in urban environments and the ballast represents asphalt fairly well. 

Don't worry, the next pictures will be of "real" minis...



Fear and Faith HEPA Members

Here are some pictures of some of the figs making up my HEPA team for the Fear and Faith zombie game I'm running at Con of the North.

Ashlee Campbell from Hasslefree Miniatures

Sadie from Hasslefree Miniatures

Amoy from Hasslefree Miniatures

Mortis from Team Frog Studios

I've added some firepower in the form of two machine pistols from the Warzone line of miniatures.

The pictures of the other HEPA members didn't turn out.  I'll be adding those later.

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.

Vampires and Vampire Hunters

Here are some pictures of the vampires and vampire hunters I've painted for my Fear and Faith game for Con of the North this February. 

All models are by Blue Moon Manufacturing.  The sculpts are OK.  There are some bad mold lines, and the detail isn't very crisp.  Some of the faces are strange, with little definition and bulging eyes.  That being said I don't know of many manufacturers that make models for this, and they come in nice box sets that give you both sides of a skirmish.  You also get 12 figures for $30 USD or 20 for $40 USD, which to me isn't bad at all.  The figures also come with their own decorative, 25mm bases, which is a nice touch.

Models are from the "You're Such a Pain in the Neck" and "Romanian Civilians" box sets.

I added a pistol from a Games Workshop dwarf sprue to the civilian.

A wicked dagger from a Games Workshop Kroot sprue was added to the woman in the blue dress.

The drunkard was also given a GW dwarf pistol.

The civilian on the left originally held a broom.  It was replaced by an oversized axe from a GW skeleton.

I didn't get horribly creative here.  I'm not too familiar with the dress of the period, so I basically followed the example on the box cover for painting. 

1/72 WWII French

In preparation for Con of the North I've snapped some rough pictures of my 1/72 French partisans.  I absolutely love the soft plastic 1/72 figures for one main reason:  Price. 

These things are cheap. Boxes usually contain around 50 models and can range anywhere from $5.00- $20.00.  It's more figures than you'd even need.  If there's an army or period you'd like to try out but don't want to dump a bunch of money on lead, try out 1/72 first.  The low cost makes you feel better for not spending more time on cleaning, assembling and painting the models.  I don't even bother with mold lines and just give them a base coat and a wash.

The downside is they are soft.  Gun barrels are easily bent, which means paint can chip.  Plus you can't file and trim the mold lines and flash as easily as you can a regular plastic or metal model.  Some people coat them in glue to stiffen them, and use heat and steel wool to clean them, but I don't bother. 

Another downside is a lack of variety.  Some infantry is hard to get in 1/72.  Fortunately every piece of armor and aircraft variant ever made is produced in 1/72 scale.

Here are some pictures of the Caesar 1/72 French partisans I've painted:

An assassin and a demolitions expert.

Guys armed with the MAS 36.

A prisoner and a sailor type with a Sten.

Another sailor and a wounded man in an argyle vest.

A couple of "hoods" with MP 40's.

A hunter/ tracker and French soldier.

A man in fatigues and a farm girl.

Another lovely lady and a man with a Molotov.

Three more Molotov throwers, because you can't have enough.

Most of my 1/72 are based on 1" fender washers.  The first batch I picked up had very large holes and I had to glue discarded tokens and such over the holes to have somewhere to glue the figures to.  My later batches have had very small holes and are thinner to make mounting easier.

I like using the washers because they add needed weight and stability to the figures, plus I can put magnetic sheets in the bottom of my transport boxes for easy, secure storage.

All of these figures were simply primed white, basecoated and given a wash of Citadel Devlen Mud.

The bases were painted black and a layer of tea from bags was glued down.  A flock mix was applied over that.

Somua S35

And again...

And another

The Somua S35 is a Heller 1/72 kit.  I assembled the kit in a normal fashion, cleaning mold lines, flash, etc.  The hull was actually filled with sand and superglue to add some weight to the model. 

Painting is pretty standard stuff, and then another Citadel Mud wash was applied.  A little drybrushed highlight was applied, then some heavy application of weathering pigments were used.  MiG is a prominant brand, but I use something else.