My Painting Table Update....

Okay so I'm clearing my Painting Table for a reason I will detail below...

 Finally my half finished Brits & some Soviets....

Oh and a prize to the first person who spots how I completely ***ked up the 2S3's (Really embarrassed about this but it's glued and painted now.....might change it in future.)

IRISHSERB

I'm trying to order some AAV7's and HMWWV's from IRISH SERB and will stick up and if possible paint them up before the Move. 

The Future - I'm Expanding!

I'm not talking about my waistline here (although it is time to do more Phys and get out doing some running), my wife and I have decided to move house. This is great in the long term, bad for the blog in the short term.

Disadvantages

1. I'm putting away alot of my stuff ready for the Move.
2. I won't be doing anywhere near as much painting.
3. The Blog might go quiet for a few weeks at a time.

Advantages

1. I will keep buying stuff and posting reviews.
2. I will keep updating the Blog.
3. Alot of other people will be invited to contribute to keep the content ticking over (RKelly, Fjodin etc)
4. I'M GETTING A GAMING BASEMENT!!!!!!

We are having a house Built (should be finished in Jan 14 but we are moving into Rented Accom for 6 months so we can sell our current house), which means she's getting the house she always wanted and I'm getting a full on Gaming Basement!!! And I mean a Basement....9 metres by 6 metres. So I will be able to build a little Studio, several 6x4ft tables, a couch and a Bar....

I will be moving more towards Private Invitational Gaming, with my Friends. It means I can build full on Tables like Berlin, or Fulda, or Tutenbergerwald, Hanover etc.

Big Update

A few quiet weeks, but I have been slowly amassing alot of vehicles and items to be finished...Here are the latest additions to my Army.

2 x UH-60 Blackhawks (QRF)

5 x MH-6 Little Birds (QRF)

4 x M113 (QRF)

2 x ZSU Shilka (QRF)

3 x 2S3  (QRF)

1 x FV103 SPARTAN (QRF) (sorry for not putting this in Original post!)

1 x FV105  SULTAN (QRF) (sorry for not putting this in Original post!)

So here they are, ready for priming and painting.

ADDITIONS TO THE SOVIET FORCES

Russian Artillery Section, I intend to get an MTLB and 3 Ural Ammo Trucks to finish this Platoon off.

Some Air Defence to try and fend off A-10's and NATO Attack Helicopters

With my Soviet forces I'm pretty happy, I have Tanks, IFV's, Artillery, AAA and Infantry. To round out this Battlegroup I might pick up some BDRM's to act a further scout unit and maybe some MRLS. I might even consider expanding the BMP's so I can field a Battalion though this would require a minimum of another 20 BMP's so I might just leave it as is, and spend the difference on other models. 

ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH FORCES

Two new British Vehicles to act as my HQ and FAO for the British Forces, I intend to add some more Spartan MCT with MILAN Launchers and some Tracked Rapiers in the future.

The Helicopters are for my US forces.

I was little bit disappointed by the QRF M113's, however I have a plan and intend to invest in Battlefronts new M113's (I will use the .50cal Turrets for HMMWV's so I will buy Peter Pig TOW HMMWV's and magnetise them). Here is the Sprue they are releasing this month and it comes with lots of options so will be a great buy for anyone who is playing as NATO.

 The ability to make 0.50cal M113's, Mortar Carriers or Convert them to other's like the M577 Command vehicles, or even make the Vehicle Plain.

My Motor Rifle Company is almost finished. 

Question of the Week, any takers what the two Vehicles behind the BTR-70's are?

As you can see I now have 3 Platoons of BMP's and a single HQ BMP plus the two BTR-70's acting as Recce (will get some BDRM's eventually). I am working through the Infantry currently, as well as doing my WWII British Para's (a full painting desk is happy painting Desk!).

So I can finally run this Battlegroup

The next addition will be a 122mm gun Battery based on QRF's 122mm 2S1.

Using this Platoon Structure:-

I will only buy one firing Platoon of 3 Artillery pieces, with an MLTB and three ural trucks. 

More to follow this week, and hopefully some updates from some of the other Force Commanders! 

Soviet Motor Rifle out of Spray shop

Painting WIP 

Okay inspired by COLDWARGAMER and TACOBAT, I've smashed through the old Motor-Rifle Company. They have been primed Black and then Airbrushed Vallejo Reflective Green, washed in my own Wash mixture (1:8 Black Acrylic to Water with a few drops of Vallejo Glaze Medium). The Blue on the Vision blocks is a nod & a wink to TACOBAT's style.

Now I need to drybrush, weather and put on Soviet Decals.

Based on the Orbat below:-

I will be doing these FO Scale ORBAT's just so everyone is clear how the force will work.

Once I get 2 more BMP's I will re-organise the force into 3 Platoons of 3 BMP's with a  BMP's as a Company Command Element like so :-

So I will have a full 1986 Motor Rifle Company, then I will add in a 122mm Battery to them and some AAA but all of this can be added £30 here and there. But I will have the core of a strong 2000 point force which can be added to in the future.

These will be "Gucci as" when finished and they will be my personal force, the BAOR is my "lend out Army", as once upon a time I imagined I would struggle to get opponents but as it has transpired this mini-project at our Wargaming Club has grown.

CANUCK UPDATE

Colonel Rusty has sent over some more pics of his forces preparing for Operations.

Beautiful and Badass at the same time....

I have also been able to have a look at "Oberst Fischer's Panzer Grenadiers" they are shaping up nicely, as are "Colonel Tempest's Cav" Pictures will follow as I am hounding them constantly for pics for this blog ! (Everybody loves pictures.)

Some Shots from a Test Game last week 

Some gratuitous BAOR war porn, although the scenery is somewhat "Northern France" soon to be changed to more of a German Plains look (cannot get the staff these days).

"COLONEL RUSTY'S BOYS"

A quick visual update of the CMBG being painted up by Rusty of "Hurry Up and Wait" Fame.

http://falklandsctg317.blogspot.co.uk/

I think you will all agree that these look Ace! This is an Infantry fire team and a GPMG/MAG of the Royal 22nd Regiment R22eR "Vandoos".

BRAVO ZULU.

I have to say these put my efforts with my British DPM to shame, time for me to man up and up my game as Rusty has raised the bar with the quality of these miniatures (even the little Canadian Flags in the Corners makes me Jealous....)

This project is rapidly snowballing, I'm pleased with it and working hard to keep it on track.

MOTOR RIFLE CONTINUES:-

Almost ready to paint my Motor Rifle units, still putting off the Infantry struggling to raise the enthusiasm to tackle 16 odd Stands of infantry including basing them and priming them....Hey ho, to borrow that wonderful British Military saying "Head down, arse up, just keep going".

Works on going

Continuing to weather and base the Infantry, now looking pretty good. A few more steps and they will all be ready for final sealing and to fight the WARPAC Hordes.

SOVIETS MOTOR RIFLE COMPANY:-

Is now assembled and ready for colour priming. It really gets across the scale of things NATO had to deal with, all the Armour here has to be dealt with by 4 Chieftains and a MILAN Platoon. I haven't even started the Soviet Motor-Rifle Infantry (16 Bases in total!). 

 So now it's a case of knuckle down to the Infantry and I can spray all the Units ready for painting.

6 HOURS LATER - BAOR FORCE

These models are very nice indeed. (1 done another 5 to do)

The FV432 is very nice indeed, it comes with alternate hatches so you can mount a Mortar inside the Vehicle which is very nice. The Tracks and wheels are very crisp, and detailed much better than my experience with Battlefronts Flames of War versions in with White metal tracks. 

The model comes in 5 major pieces, these pieces go together well, but you will need to use some Green Stuff or that Games Work shop Liquid Greenstuff to smooth our some of the slight gaps that always occur on metal models. This is not a major job and neither is it due to bad casting, it's just par for course when working with Metal models.

The Chieftain Platoon was very enjoyable to build, and they are much larger than even I expected. The heft in the model is considerable, these are not fragile miniatures and even the barrels are firmer and stiffer than others I have used. I am unsure if QRF use a slightly firmer alloy, but it certain feels that way, there was of course some filing / filling and cleaning but these are very good quality Casts. 

A minor point, is that the Mantlett (where the Barrel meets the turret) wasn't a great look, but I Green stuffed some detail there to make it look better and based it on some Chieftain pictures.

Just to give a sense of perspective and scale, I grabbed one of the PAVN Units I am converting to Motor-Rifle Infantry as a comparison. I will also dig out some FOW Tanks just to get that sense of scale across. 

I've used a Battle Front Tiger from Flames of War (also 15mm) it's a very good illustration of the size and shape of a modern Battle tank Compared to even the largest of battle tanks in WWII. As you can see the size Comparison is pretty accurate, with reclined drivers modern MBT's have a much lower profile and are somewhat squatter (is that a word?) and broader with a larger flatter turret.  You can also see the detailing between them is very good, I cannot wait to get some paint on these Chieftains, although I am toying with the idea of Camo Netting (using open weave bandages), so they look more like this:-

I have actually modelled some of this Camo netting on now, once painted it should look alot better.

THE BATTLE GROUP

So here is the Force, more will be added over the next 12months, but it's 1500 points worth. 

Chieftain Mk5 x 4 = 800points

FV432 Mech Infantry Platoon = 400 points

FV432 MILAN Platoon = 300 points

So it will be good for the opening few months of the campaign and I will add to it over the next 12 months (Probably another Platoon of Chieftains or Mech Infantry, then some specialist pieces such as Scimitars and Tracked Rapiers).

Now to finish them off, and then prime then ready for a nice paint Job!

SOVIET MOTOR RIFLE

A quick Picture, of the vehicles, I will do a completely seperate post on these:-

THE OTHER FORCES

The US and particular the BUNDESWEHR forces were extremely nice models (more than a little jealous) however the Campaign members who bought these forces can review them and I will "Copy & paste" it into this Blog. Onwards and Upwards.

RESOURCES

This Website is great for Camo Patterns and Decals (have a little explore there are Gems galore in this)

http://www.armouredacorn.com/campatterns.html

Also this Website is good for Decals they are 1/87 rather than 1/100 however they should work well and nothing comparible is available in 1/100 (unless someone can show me otherwise?).

http://www.tl-modellbau.de/en/TL-Decals-1-87/Military-Decals/Military/Int-Armed-forces/