9/3/12 – Aerotech Clan OmniFighters

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I took some time during this Labor Day weekend to put together a few Iron Wind Metals Clan Omnifighters for Aerotech.  I recently had a chance to play Aerotech for the first time at Gencon Indy 2012 during Catalyst Game Labs’ Aerotech Flight School demo.  My buddy, Chris, over at RMI Gaming Blog decided to go with some Inner Sphere Aerospace fighters while I went with Clan Aerospace Omnifighters.  I’ve always been partial to Clan Ghost Bear so I also picked up some Fighting Pirannha Graphics decals.

Fighting Pirannha Graphics Clan Ghost Bear Decals

The three Omnifighters I went with were the Jengiz, Turk and Batu:

Left to Right: Jengiz, Turk, Batu Clan OmniFighters

The Clans have Omni Pod technology which basically boils down to having modular hardpoints on their Mechs/vehicles which gives them the ability to swap weapon load outs while out in the field.  At the time of the Clan Invasion, Inner Sphere Aerospace Fighters lacked this swapping technology and thus, due to time constraints, had to stick with the weapons load out they were given at the factory.

It’s going to be interesting balancing Battle Value points between Inner Sphere and Clan Aerospace fighters.  Clan OmniFighters easily double the BV of their Inner Sphere counterparts.  I guess for every single fighter I field, Chris will get two.  We plan on playing an Aerotech game during SoCal Smackdown at the end of the month.  Check back here for a battle report!

Where Have I Been?!

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Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog.  I know in my last entry I talked about how I had just finished a season on the television show I work on and was ready to get a whole ton of painting and gaming in.  Let me see if I can recap off the top of my head what gaming related things I have been up to:

  • Painted more Flames of War models.  I’ll get some photos on here at a future date.
  • Got into SAGA and started a Jomsviking and Anglo-Danish army.
  • Got into Bolt Action and started working on my Winter German Panzergrenadiers.
  • Went to Gencon!  Managed to snag a copy of Android:Netrunner and played some Battletech/Aerotech.

Doesn’t seem like much in terms of gaming, but the 2 months I had off from work flew by real quick!  Work has definitely been crazy since I started back in early July.  It’s hard to find time for my hobbies when I sometimes have to work 7 days a week.

Hopefully this coming Labor day weekend I can get a full three days off and get some games in.  Stay tuned!

Television Season is Over!

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It’s been a couple months since I’ve updated my painting blog.  However, with hiatus coming up and three months of free time, I plan on updating this blog more frequently.  Even though I haven’t been updating this blog lately, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been painting or doing some sort of model building.  In fact, I’ve started to get back into Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  My main army is Skaven, but I’m currently picking up figures for The Empire and Warrior of Chaos.

On the Flames of War front, my copy of Blood Guts and Glory should be arriving soon and I’m looking forward to making a U.S. Tank Destroyer army as well as a few of the German lists out of that book.  I’ve also got a few models painted up for Flames of War, so stick around for an update later when I’ve adjusted to having some free time.  Thanks for reading!

3/8/12 Painting Pledge Update: The Miniature Stand is Getting Full!

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Work has been calming down these past few days as Friday draws near.  I’m still working this Sunday, but hopefully can get some serious painting done on Saturday before I have some familial obligations to take care of.  So, without further ado, here’s the update for today:

StuGs, Halftracks and PaK40s!

So my StuGs are still pretty much where I left them.  They’re definitely going to take longer to paint than anything else I have on my painting stand right now, so I’ll just let them sit awhile longer.  I’ll probably do another layer of Middlestone to give it a more even coat then it’s off to the 3-color camo scheme I do for all my German Vehicles.

Battlefront Panzergrenadier Headquarters Boxset

Also, I picked up another Battlefront Panzergrenadier Headquarters boxset so I would have some transports for my PaK40s.  I like the individual sculpts that the halftracks have and the extra command figures and panzerschreck stand will come in handy someday.

Panzergrenadier Headquarter Figures

So here we have the figures that came with the Panzergrenadier Headquarters boxset.  I actually have another set of the figures in my miniatures drawer from a previous PzGren HQ box I purchased.  Now I can make either Panzerknacker Command stands or Panzerfaust Command stands.

Nebs and Schurzen

I realized now that I could probably have glued a pair of schurzen to each golf tee and saved some slots.  I will probably take them off the golf tees and do that when I’m ready to give my StuGs another coat of Middlestone.  It’ll also give me a chance to paint over the semi-circles the schurzen will no doubt have due to the golf tees.  Sitting amongst the schurzen are the Nebelwerfers.  I have yet to primer them since I use a polyurethane based primer and need to spray them outside during the daytime.  Again, hoping I’ll take care of that this saturday.

Neb Crew with Black boots/belts and German Camo Brown Gaiters

Finally, we have the Nebelwerfer crew.  I painted their boots/belts black and painted the gaiters on some of the figures Vallejo German Camo. Brown.  I’m thinking I’ll do the flesh tones next since that will probably be the most tedious part of painting these figures.

So as you can see, my miniatures painting stand is pretty much packed.  Which is a good thing, because I would just keep adding stuff to  my painting queue if there was more room.  Once the Neb crew is done, their spots will be taken up by PaK40 crew!

3/6/12 Painting Pledge Update

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Here’s a quick update for my March painting pledge:

Neb Crew Basecoated with Vallejo German Field Grey

StuG G Schurzen with Vallejo Model Air Middlestone

Plastic Soldier Company StuG Gs with Vallejo Model Air Middlestone

Work has been quite hectic these past few days since I have to deliver an episode this week.  Today, I managed to get home at 8pm and had some time to put basecoats on the above models.  I still have to prime up the actual Nebelwerfer guns.  I’m hoping to be able to do that this weekend before I go into work for both days.  After that I’ll probably paint all the boots on the crew.

3/4/12 Painting Pledge Update

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Here’s an update for my March painting pledge.  First off, I want to thank my buddy Daniel Abratte and Lil Cypress Workshop for making me this awesome miniature painting stand:

Miniature Painting Stand by Daniel Abratte and Lil Cypress Workshop

 

Miniature Painting Stand by Daniel Abratte and Lil Cypress Workshop

In the past, I would glue my figures to strips of card board and paint them that way.  I mainly wanted to get my infantry done as soon as possible so I could start playing some games.  Now, since I have enough infantry for either a Grenadier or Panzergrenadier list, I want to take the time to paint my infantry well.  I feel by having the individual figures separated from each other, I’ll be able to give each figure the painting time it deserves:

Now, here’s what I’ve been working on:

Battlefront Nebewerfer 41s and 42s

So, my main project for this month is 3-tubes of Nebelwerfer 41s and 42s.  Since I figured out that the extra piece on the ammo sprue was a stabilization stand for the guns, I went ahead and attached those.  On the bottom of each of those pieces is a small 1mm disc magnet.  Now the guns should have no problem staying upright when they are on their bases.

 

Nebelwerfer Crew and a few miscellaneous figures

Next up, we have the Nebelwerfer crew.  Included is a left over figure I had painted when I did the crew for my Panzerwerfer 42 platoon.  Also in the lower right hand corner is a CHQ figure that came with my Panzergrenadier Headquarters boxset.  These figures were primed with Vallejo Grey Airbrush Primer.  Once the primer fully cures overnight, I’ll go ahead and airbrush these figures German Field Grey.

Plastic Soldier Company StuG Gs

Also on my painting stand I have some Plastic Soldier Company StuG Gs.  Since these are plastic kits, I’m really loving the detail that they’re able to put into these.  I’m already looking forward to upgrading my BF Panzer IV Hs to PSC Panzer IV Hs.

Other than glueing the figures to the golf tees and priming today, I was able to get a 1750 point game of Flames of War in with my friend, Derek, at The Game Empire Pasadena.  I ran a German Panzergrenadier Lehr army and he ran a U.S. 2nd A.D. Medium Tank Company.

Panzergrenadier Lehr List generated using EasyArmy.com

U.S. 2nd A.D. Medium Tank Company list generated using EasyArmy.com

I’m not 100% converted over to V3 rules of Flames of War yet, so until then I won’t do a full battle report.  Here’s just a small summary of our game.  The mission we ended up rolling was Encounter.  Basically two armies meet on the battlefield and attack each other.  The special rules involved were Delayed Reserves and Scattered Reserves.  I was the Defender since I ran a mechanised list and my opponent was running an Armoured list.  Our table was populated by a town in the center of the board containing roughly 7-8 houses and a church in the center of town.  The town was surrounded by fields and hedgerows:

Photo Courtesy of Derek Bidus

The battle was going in Derek’s favor for the first three turns since his air support and AOP were reliably hitting my guys and forcing me to stay in woods.  I had five PzIV Hs holding down one flank but having to move those guys through woods was severely slowing down my push towards one of the objectives.  One PzIV spent the entire game bogged down.  I would roll to unbog and then immediately bog down again trying to move out of the forest.  However, the MVP of the game for me has got to be the two PaK40s I took and their 251/1D halftrack transports.  I’ve never used PaK40s before and found them a little hard to maneuver into position, but once I had them set up in a forest, they were able to snipe Derek’s oncoming Sherman tanks and were successfully able to halt their advance after my Panzers were all destroyed.  Also the halftracks they came with were great at rushing forward and harassing his Rifle Platoons trying to advance. So much so, that Derek turned his Shermans towards them to silence them which, in turn, allowed my Panzergrenadier Lehr Tank Hunter teams to drive up, dismount and assault his tanks in the subsequent turns.

By turn 7, the game had swung in my favor.  I had all but destroyed his tank platoons and had also whittled down his infantry support.  We shook hands and called it a game by turn 8.  I’m definitely pledging 3x Guns of PaK40s and 4x 251/1D half tracks next month as my painting pledge so I can field those guys all the time.

03/02/12 Painting Pledge Update

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Here’s a quick update of where I am with my March painting pledge.  I know that I decided I should not be so ambitious this time but I couldn’t help myself.  In Flames of War, there are two types of Nebelwerfers: NW41s and NW42s.  NW42s are a heavier version of NW41s.  In game terms, the difference is that the NW41s have a FP rating of 4+ while the NW42s have a FP of 3+ and the NW42s also shoot farther.  I had ordered a blister of the NW42s and they arrived today.  After cleaning up the contents of the blister, I noticed that the size of the NW42s were pretty much the same as the NW41s:

Since I don’t want to have to paint twice the number of crew, I decided that I would magnetize the NWs and just switch them out from the figure bases as I needed them.  So here’s a quick walkthrough of how I magnetized them:

1. First, I glued a metal plate to the large FoW base.  The metal base is from Wargames Accessories.

2. Next I glued two disc magnets to the bottom of the NW.  Make sure after you glue one of the magnets on you check to see if you have contact between the metal plate and the magnet.  Also check to see if the angle of how the NW is sitting on the plate is how you like it.

3. And that’s about it.  Now I don’t have to paint as many crew figures!

Here are the magnetized NW41s:

And here are the magnetized NW42s:

Anyway, I should probably go to bed now.  Too bad I have to work this entire weekend.  I’m really looking forward to figuring out how to model the bases.

2/29/12 Painting Pledge Update

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Well, the month of February is coming to a close and it’s time to see how I did on my painting pledge. I pledged that I would have 21 T-34/85s put together by now. Sadly, I only managed to get 7 of the 21 put together. However I did get a lot of other Flames of War figures either assembled or base coated. Tonight I put 5 Plastic Soldier Company StuG Gs together:

 

They were really easy to put together and the detail on them is great.  I left the schurzen off so I could paint the side details before I glue the schurzen on.  I also stuck some pinewood derby car weights in them to give a little more heft to the light plastic models.

So, after this first attempt at a painting pledge, I’ve discovered that I need to start out less ambitious in order to reach my goal, otherwise I tend to work on a lot of different things.  For the month of March, I’m pledging to have 3 guns worth of Nebelwerfers+Crew painted.  I’ve been hearing great things about Nebelwerfers in Flames of War and am curious to see how they work:

While I’m very happy with how my Panzerwerfer 42 Platoon turned out, they cost 405 points for a full 8 gun battery with extra crew which makes each gun count as two.  With a 16 gun battery, it affords me a Devastating Bombardment template with re-rolls to hit.  However, with 8 guns, my deployment zone gets a little crowded and they definitely stand out as aircraft targets: 

I think I have some left over crew from my Panzerwerfer 42 platoon that are already painted.  I just need to paint some red Waffenfarbe on them and they are good to go.  I’d love to be able to do a wooded scenic base on the Nebelwerfers like the ones above.  I’ll have to keep my eyes open for some twigs while I’m out!

 

 

2/24/12 Painting Pledge Update

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Well, it’s been a very busy week for me at work.  Only a few more months and then the television show I’m on will wrap and I will get some free time to really concentrate on painting!  For today’s update, I have 7 of the 21 T-34/85s put together as well as some Battlefront Tiger 1E tanks with a basecoat of Middlestone and airbrushed Reflective Green and Chocolate Brown camouflage:

I’m meeting my friend, Derek, tomorrow for a 1575 point game of Flames of War at The Game Empire in Pasadena.  I’m going to try my hand at writing down a battle report.  We’ll see how that goes!

Plastic Soldier Company T-34/85 Tank Rider and Turret Magnetizing Tutorial

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Here’s a quick tutorial on how to magnetize the turret and Tank Rider for the Plastic Soldier Company T-34/85 Tank:

1. Here are some materials you’ll need before starting.  The plastic styrene, plastic sprue bits and Metal plate are used to build a base inside the tank for the turret to magnetize to.  The magnets I got from Magcraft.com

2. First, I start by drilling out two holes in the upper hull piece of the tank.  Here I drop in and glue two of the 1.5mm X 3.2mm magnets.  From here I’d make note of the polarity and make sure I have the corresponding polarities on the 1mm X 3.2mm magnets.

3. Next drill out two corresponding holes in the bottom of the tank rider figure.  Test fit the 1mm X 3.2mm magnets for polarity before you glue them in.  Now, when you glue the panel piece over the magnets on the chassis, your tank riders should sit nicely magnetized on top.

4.  The next step will be to build a platform inside the hull so the turret can be magnetized. The above photo shows the 3 stages of what I did to make the platform.  First, cut from the PSC tank sprue two pieces that have the mold nubs and glue them inside the chassis.  Second, cut and glue a small rectangle of 1mm thick plastic styrene to bridge the two sprue bits.  Lastly, glue the .5″x.5″ metal base (Wargames Accessories makes these in 20 count bags) on top.  This should be just tall enough to slightly clear the top of the bottom hull piece.

5.  Just glue a 3.2mm X 3.2mm magnet to the bottom of the tank turret…

…And there you have it.  A magnetized T-34/85 tank!  Hope this was useful!