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 

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

Chain of Command - Under Strength German Infantry Platoon

It has been radio silent for a little bit, but for good reason. I've been working away at my 15mm German infantry platoon for "Chain of Command" and finally got them done!  Now, I must have miscounted when I was assembling this platoon as I'm short about 6 riflemen, but this seems rather true to form for the German army circa late 1943-45 so, I'm just going to use it as an under strength platoon until I find suitable figures to round them out.

These are all Plastic Soldier Company Late War German plastics, and while they painted up nice enough, they're a tad spindly and a pain to put together.  The Panzerschrek team is from the PSC Heavy Weapons box, and they seem "chunky'er" so I wonder if PSC is maybe adjusting they're ranges to more fit in with the likes of Battlefront?  I'm quite happy with this base platoon, and am looking forward to extending my WW2 collection further in 15mm and also in 20mm.

I've also finished these three scatter bases of mines.  They're 28mm and were super easy to paint.

Rather productive couple of weeks.  Now on to painting these -

Absolutely awesome kits from Red Vectors. Very simple and quick to put together.

Oh, and I also had a Lord of the Rings themed game of "Song of Blades and Heroes" with a wargaming newbie/friend that was a lot of fun and was very well received by said friend!

 

2019 Finished Figures - 37
2019 Finished Terrain - 3
2019 Games Played - 1

6MMRPC - A Start on WW2 Japanese and ???

Well, you can definitely tell I've been parenting vs hobbying. My son is here for my month with him (that happens every other month), and the Thanksgiving holiday so my hobby time has been limited to maybe an hour or two at night after he's in bed. 

Hence why it's taken me so long to finish this update. But, it's worth it. This post will showcase 12 finished figures, AND, 2 small terrain items!

First up, the beginning of my 1/72 or 20mm plastic Japanese platoon for Chain of Command by the Lardies -

Platoon Leader and Sergeant. (The Japanese titles escape me atm.) 

Next we have a mortar section, the gent with the rifle over his head is the corporal in charge of the section - 

These are a mix of Revell and ESCI Japanese Infantry sets...the quality of the Revell figures is much higher than the ESCI ones, though they were all a pain in the anatomy to clean up mold lines on. I'm happy with the game quality paint job, and look forward to finishing the platoon, and their ANZAC and USMC opponents. My one main concern with this project is the amount of same pose figures there are in each set...may have to do some searching for other manufacturers because as these next three pics show; I need a lot of bloody men - 

Moving on. Ok, so these next figures started painting life way back in late 2011 when I first got back into wargaming, and had hardly any paints. They were meant to be US Long Range Recon Patrol troopers for Vietnam, but I personally thing they're too dark green to match up. Soooo I'll either have to fudge on historical painting accuracy, or, use them as something else. I haven't decided yet. Maybe both.

They're also 1/72 plastic figures...no idea the manufacturer. Terribly detailed. Actually had to hand paint on some of the rucksack straps. 

Lastly, I finished two quick bases for single trees. I'm pretty happy with them and they definitely have some weight to them which should help with preventing the trees from being knocked over by the errant arm sweep - 

Anyways, it feels really good to knock out another 12 figures, and my paint desk is still quite full. My next post will probably be my first finished gang for Across the Dead Earth. 

Stay tuned.