Pre Christmas Hobbying

Finally trying to get a more "up to date" update schedule going to fit in with the fact that with all the crap going on in the world - I am desperately trying to enforce my standard rule of at least 15 minutes of hobbying/painting a day to help de-stress. It really does help. So, without further ado - 

Completed 4 more Gripping Beast 54mm Gladiators, giving me a total of 6 done. More than enough for a game, so will hopefully be able to make that happen soon. 

Assembled a 4Ground 28mm Wagon that'll be very useful in a variety of games and periods!

Finished this 15mm garage/workshop/back garden shed in a continuation of expanding my European buildings for Chain of Command etc. Really need to get on with further terrain building for this as I need pretty much everything for a battlefield - roads, hedges, streams, rivers, farm fields etc.

First five 20mm Insurgents finished, going to need to get these forces built up to a minimum of 45 figures eventually for various historical and "what if" scenarios.

Finished another "28mm" Bob Olley Steampunk Dwarf. I put 28mm in "" because while they are lovely sculpts and a LOT of fun to paint...they are bloody huge chunky figures and I'm not sure what to use them for as they don't match up with anything else I have.

Finished these two Pulp Figures - Gun Mollie and a gold Statue. Love them both. They're sculpted by Bob Murch up in Canada at Pulp Figures. I highly recommend all of his ranges!

So, that's what I've been working on since my last update. Further posts coming soon on several subjects to include Naval Wargaming, Mental Health, virtual wargaming, and various other projects and subjects. Also need to do my plan for next year post. Stay Safe and Merry Christmas!

2020 Painted Figures - 231 

2020 Finished Terrain - 14 

2020 Games Played - 6 

D Coy, 6RAR

I've now finished everything I HAVE to get done figure wise for Lard Summit.

These 76 Aussies bring D Coy up to strength. Mix of Battlefront, Peter Pig, and Flashpoint miniatures.  The best part of all is - I FINISHED 76 figures in ONE (1) day. In betwixt mowing the yard and doing other household chores. Hurrah!

Primed with Army Painter: Army Green Spray primer.

Blocking in done.

After the Ink Wash

After Ink Wash

Finished

Finished

The whole of D Company

In the above picture - Back row is 10 Plt, 11 Plt, and 12 Plt. Front Row is - HQ Plt.

I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Now on to the terrain. Spent about an hour today doing table layout and cut out 25 area terrain bases to make a representative Rubber Plantation. Balancing maneuverability of bases of troops with pleasing aesthetic and historical accuracy. I've got a lot to do in the next two weeks. I sure do hope I have enough trees. 

2019 Finished Figures - 299

2019 Finished Terrain - 19

2019 Games Played - 3  

Viet Cong D445 Battalion

Progress continues apace for the Recruits Convention in Lee Summit, Missouri at the end of this month, Sept. 27-29.  On the 28th I, along with Jay Arnold of the Veteran Wargamer podcast and some of his mates will be running "Lard Summit"; a Toofatlardies event of all day Lardie games.  My submission will be the aforementioned in other blog updates "Battle of Long Tan".

To that end, my hobby and painting time has been stress-fully trying to get everything done that's needed for the game.  In the last couple days, I've finally finished off a company of the D445 Local Force Battalion for the Viet Cong. Follows is some WIP photos and then at the very end, the finished company.

This was when I was borderline panicking because I had sooo much to do.

Batch painting once you get into the swing of things isn't actually that bad.

A finished Plt. with bases tarted up.

A pic to show the effectiveness of the "bamboo tufts".

Another finished Plt.

My third and final attempt at freehanding a star onto their flag.

The full company, plus sniper team.

Batch painting is not as bad as I originally thought once I got into the swing of things.  Now, I just have 2 Platoons of Australians of D Coy, 6RAR and a Platoon of M113's from A Coy, 6RAR. Oh; and all the terrain. So no big deal. I have 18 days. Better get cracking.

2019 Finished Figures - 223

2019 Finished Terrain - 19

2019 Games Played - 3

275th Regiment - Peoples Army of North Vietnam

A quick update today as I'm cracking on with prepping for "LARD SUMMIT"; a gathering of Lardie gamers playing Toofatlardies games at the Recruits gaming convention in Lee Summit, MO on the 28th of Sept. 2019.

The game I'm going to be putting on is part of The Battle of Long Tan between the NVA/VC against D Coy, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment - using "Charlie Don't Surf".

To that end, I've just finished off a Company of NVA regulars of the 275th Regiment -

These figures are from Battlefront and were bloody awful. Tons of flash, odd scaled weapons...just terrible.  If I had it to do over again, I'd buy all Peter Pig. I hope they turned out ok, and the bamboo/underbrush tufts really help I think.

Now to get on with Viet Cong, more Aussies, terrain, supports etc. Till next time!

2019 Finished Figures - 150
2019 Finished Terrain - 19
2019 Games Played - 3

More Terrain Progress and an Update -

Past couple weeks have been busy with various things, mostly yard/garden work and continuing on with preparation for the TooFatLardies games day at Recruits Gaming Convention. Nothing finished for that as of this writing but I have finished some other stuff detailed below - 

First up is a copse of young trees.  One thing of note with trees is that pretty much any size tree will work for 15/20mm but not every size tree will work for 28mm +.  

Next we have a couple generic shell craters and a emplacement.  These are OLD vacu-formed plastic from "probably" the late '70s early 80's.  I added bases, basing paste to add texture and then painted and flocked them.  They'll work for any period to be honest. Scale wise I think they'll do for 15mm and 20mm.

Next is an old Micro Machine prepainted German Fokker from WW1.  It scales "ok" for 6mm so I based it up to add to my 6mm WW1 collection.

Here we see four HO scale telegraph poles that will serve for 15mm and 20mm gaming. I have more, but these are the only ones done.

Then we have what I assume is an old HO scale horse barn/stable. No idea where it came from as it was in a grab box of old model railroad stuff I saw at a garage sale for like $0.10 apiece.  Based and Painted it, added a WW2 German Poster and bobs your uncle. 

Next up is a 15mm European pig sty.  This is part of the "Russian Village" set from I believe Blotz or Minibits.  Went together super easy and painted up well. Yes the joint points on the roof annoy me but I couldn't be bothered to do something about them. May go back and fix it some day.  The pig is from an unknown manufacturer.

So that's all the painting/modeling done in the last couple weeks.  I received my latest TooFatLardies order of Dice and Blitzkrieg 1940 for Chain of Command. Richard kindly threw in a TFL bottle opener which I must admit has already seen action and may I say, won.

Also had a rummage through my Dads "To Get Rid of Pile" and added a nice selection of books to my collection.  Tons of inspirational history here -

Sadly, I did not get any pictures of the game of Chain of Command played a couple nights ago, but suffice it to say, my Soviets got their asses whipped.

2019 Finished Figures - 72
2019 Finished Terrain - 16
2019 Games Played - 2