Painting a Tank

I've slowly painted my L6/40 light tank over the course of a few weeks. I don't tend to spend long periods painting - I distract easily and so long as I can get one step done in a day I'm satisfied. I still see progress, even if slow. But when I do manage, rarely, to complete a project, it's the best feeling in the world.

Basecoat: The Fang and Plate Mail Metal.

Shade: Strong Tone Quickshade. Obvious staining, but 
why not, on a well-used vehicle?

Highlight: Wolf Grey.

Fascist "lightning-flash" decal added.

This is the first time I've ever tried a waterslide transfer. You'd think I'd have used them for 40K, but I didn't have a conventional Space Marine chapter. Problem - both color and orientation are incorrect. But as they say in Britain, "this is your VBCW," and I'm already using a 1940 tank in 1939, so claiming that this is a variant marking is a minor offense (or offence).

I finished the tank while watching a Games Workshop "hang out and paint" video. It may sound trite, but I find it encouraging to paint "alongside" others, even if virtually and out of sync. I have great difficulty concentrating on one thing alone, so sound and sight in the background keep me from getting bored.

Crewman in Wolf Grey and Strong Tone. Barbarian Flesh;
Flag in Matt White, The Fang and Fleshtearers Red.

I found it interesting to do the flag. I decided to start with white all over, then drew blue edges to each side with a little jiggling to have the lightning flash within. Then I painted red from the outside in.

The finished vehicle, with an extra decal for aerial recognition.

In between waiting for the crewman to dry, I started on the 75mm:

Speedpaint Camo Cloak, Plate Mail Metal, and Matt Black.

The crew figures will come next. One of the VBCW fluff books suggests drab colors - brown, blue, black, etc - for civilian clothes.

Here's hoping your painting projects are going as successfully!

If interested, here is a registration link to the veteran interview I'll be doing next week: https://www.mdpls.org/event/10418513

Space Weirdos and Other Stuff

Today I actually made it to Das Krieg Haus for a game. A member taught us Space Weirdos, a minis-agnostic skirmish game with shades of Necromunda - at least the way we played it.

Here, a Deathwatch team takes on Infinity figures.

John, who was running the games, had brought lots of minis - mostly Infinity with a smattering of old 40K - 2x2foot mats and some lovely sci-fi "Battle Systems" terrain. This was heavy card with plastic connectors, so pretty customizable, but also came with cool little "scatter" like chairs, tables and signs. I've seen a lot of this type of terrain recently and am leaning toward trying Tenfold Dungeons, which are simply stackable boxes with printing both inside and out. So it was nice to play on for a try-out.

Closeup on the furniture - good for a barfight.

Space Weirdos is a "ganger" sort of game, point-based such that about four figures make up the smaller group of 75 points. I got in one round - Infinity soldiers vs. ancient metal 40K Orks.

My squad: A leader with energy pistol, a sniper, and troopers
with autorifle and energy rifle. Two figures also had stealthsuits,
which make you impossible to target at longer than close range
so long as you're touching terrain.

The rules are simple enough that even I got the hang of them quickly. Figures have defense, shooting and melee statistics measured in die types - typical is 2D8. You always roll two dice - defender rolls defense vs. opponent's attack - but the type can rise or fall, anywhere from D4 to D12, if there are relevant advantages and disadvantages like cover, long range, or the defender having moved (hence the "footprint" tokens you can see. When hit, the victim rolls on a chart - low scores mean he may get to make a snap shot or blow back at his opponent, while higher scores result in "down," "staggered" or "out of action" results. Armor or special equipment can modify results on this table.

Every figure can make three actions, after which an opposing figure can take three actions. An initiative roll determines who goes first. Movement and range are in five-inch increments, easier than rulers if you have measuring sticks of the right length, but ranged weapons have effectively infinite range. Psychic powers typically have "one-stick length" range, which in my game neutered the opponent a bit, though one of his powers was teleportation. And some weapons, like my sniper rifle, cannot be fired at short range.

Each side also gets a number of tokens per turn (two at the size we were playing) that can be used for "interrupt" actions like dodging or recovering injury. At the end of the turn, used tokens are removed from the board and morale tests are taken.

The one game I played went quickly; I rolled high a lot, though positioning made a difference too. Terrain is key in this game since it makes it harder to hit and easier to dodge a shot, but movement is relatively high and any figure can cross the board in two turns if he focuses on it. We didn't have objectives; this was a straight-up bash.

Here I tackle a staggered (ie stunned) Ork.

This psyker Ork has moved once; he has three
actions, so has two more. Unfortunately his
psychic attacks have quite short range.

This figure has moved twice, so could shoot once.

Ultimately, I managed to take out two of my opponent's four figures, including his leader, and the penalties were such that he "bottled out."

The QRS for the game was clear and easy to use, and there are many customization options. The simplicity reminded me of Minceheim. I'd happily try it again, and it has solo mechanisms so quite tempting (there are signs of this in the "reaction" tables with the chances to shoot back if hit). There is a fantasy version, and with a little modifications I could see historicals working as well.

On my own account, I finished Gardeners of Salonika, added a second basecoat to my Italian tank, and undercoated my civilian 75mm gun crew. Not sure what color to paint the gun, but at least I'm making progress. More tomorrow, I hope.

Weekend Achievements

 There was a round - two rounds - of Tactical Combat at the club yesterday, but I got away from work 20 minutes later than expected and arrived as they were cleaning up, rather than being able to catch the last turns as I'd hoped.

On the other hand, I did get a good look at the new layout.

Feels empty. Probably just the walls.

Plenty of new books, which I get to organize. Also
about ten smallish folding tables, which will enable
pickup-game nights in future.

A card catalog turns out handy to hold minis.

The deeper drawers get the command bases.

One of the new-old things is a 1st Ed. WFRP set with all maps and handouts.

Some of the WWI stuff from the day. Both 1914 and 1918.

Lovely houses for the Belgian village in which both games were set.

What did I accomplish on my own account? Superglued together this Warlord Games partisan 75mm, getting a bit on myself and the desk in the process.

And a Paperboys 60mm mortar team to go with the glider.
My upcoming interview subject was a mortar ammo carrier.

Step by step, the longest march...

Friday achievements

 Basecoated - mostly - the Ansaldo L6/40 I picked up last year at Recon.

I'll do a second coat, partly to neaten but also because I suspect the model wasn't undercoated from its original 3D print. I found this:

Between the track wheels you can see some flash I'll have to cut away somehow. (My files are at my old branch, donated to help with their 3D printer.)

The grey color is Citadel's The Fang. Space Wolf greys are really a shade of blue, but I color-matched online to find something vaguely Feldgrau, The Fang came up, and I had a bottle.

Why Feldgrau? I intend to make this part of my Very British Civil War collection. It's not quite in period, as the story has only gone as far as the New Year of 1939, but a) this tank was designed for export, and b) it started production in 1939 even though it's tagged 1940 by the Italian nomenclature. So I imagine that Mussolini's government sent the British Fascists a few early test samples. Since I think they'd most likely go to Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF), I'm using a dark scheme. I intend to shade with black shade, highlight with the next lightest Citadel color (Russ Grey), use some silver metal for the wheel edges, tracks and gun, and find a lightning decal for markings. An online suggestion was to use White Scars space marine decals, though those are more than lightning marks and will have to be cut away. So this is the project I'll try and finish in the next week or so.

I've mentioned an upcoming talk with a US glider infantry veteran. Entirely coincidentally, I found a book of paper airplanes in the library's donation pile last week, and in it was a CG-4 model:

A fair likeness, around 1/80 as it's 7" long and the actual vehicle was 48'. I'll have to pick up some Paperboys airborne troops to go with. Not sure how to color it; felt-tip markers may work. What I'd really like is something similar for the DFS-230, as there's an interesting solo scenario for Eben Emael in Featherstone's Complete Wargaming. I've found several paper models, but all are 3D rather than 2.5.

It flies, too, though overbalanced in the nose. But that might be realistic - the videos I'm finding of it online show pretty steep landing approaches.

1:30 in the morning here, and I've got work. But at least I got a post done, for once. See you again soon.

Jutland in Miniature...

 ... in more ways than one.

I finished The Sleepwalkers and am now waiting on a copy of The Gardeners of Salonika, the latter chosen because Serbia is a huge part of the former. Looking forward to reading it.

Today's achievement, minor though it is, is basing my half-strength Jutland battleship squadrons. This was necessary since time left in a car in Florida has warped several of the bases and models. The warping is unfortunately retained on the new bases, but mostly not too obvious:

I'm not positive about using plastic glue on paper-and-card bases. The glue doesn't stay stuck, or maybe that's because of the flexible bases "popping" away too easily. Maybe sticky-tack would work? I do like the ease of labeling. Clear labels go on nicely. I had to replace a couple misspelled German names, but I learned a little history by looking up a few of the more curious ones, like Prinzregent Luitpold, who turns out to be the guy who imprisoned Mad King Ludwig.

A mini Grand Review.

I've slightly modified the Junior General rules to account for
differing battlecruisers. The German ones have the same hitpoints
as a battleship, but less firepower; the British ones have the same
firepower as a battleship, but fewer hit points.

In other news, I had twenty 54mm Apollo astronauts 3d printed. Depending on when I use them, I have between four and sixteen days to prep them for painting (three different space-program-related events coming up). This will require undercoating, basing, possibly basecoating, and finding enough paint and brushes. The figures are black, and all I have at present for basecoating is Wraithbone spray, a sort of creamy-white. I'll experiment on Monday. In the past, I've used grey undercoat and a heavy drybrush of white to start.

Other crafts/activities that can be used sometime in the next month include the usual coloring sheets, cut-and-stick activities, make-your-own astronaut helmets, "stomp rockets" and Kerbal Space Program, which I've managed to make work on a presentation laptop at work. Project it onto a screen and I can either recreate an actual mission (surprisingly difficult even with an autopilot add-on), or have the kids instruct me how to build a rocket. ("Oh, it crashed. What do we need to add? Yes, a parachute sounds like a good idea.")

I also have something more specifically military - a 99-year-old (!) WWII veteran who rode a glider across the Rhine and also fought at the Bulge. I'm working up an interview and presentation that we plan to have both live and streaming to several other branches next month. So I'm idly messing with paper paratroopers and trying to talk downtown into getting a temporary movie license so I can drop in the Pegasus Bridge scene from The Longest Day.

So that's what I've been up to when I'm not posting...

On the Home Front

Experimenting with base replacement for my 3D printed Jutland collection. These are 70x20mm bases, using base paper from the Paperboys Trafalgar book, clear labels, and a little plastic glue, which seems to stick the models down just fine. Certainly looks better than the original plastic "rafts."

Finished Reed Browning's excellent history of the Austrian Succession; now working on one about the origins of WWI. Some very interesting stuff about Serbian history and its culture of martyrdom in the beginning. I look forward to reading the rest.

What else is up? Work, mostly - which is where I picked up this book. Handy things, libraries. Anyway, I have three programs coming up - two on space and one on WWII. Two are craft programs centered around space, women's history (so basically Sally Ride, since Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya are understandably persona non grata in the last couple years) and the upcoming eclipse. I've been scrambling for crafts. So far we're looking at:

• Baking-soda-and-vinegar rockets
• 3D-printed spaceships to paint (must get over to my former workplace to see if the teen tech lab can help with that)
• Paper planes
• Astronaut helmet-masks
• Pinhole cameras made from foil and card.

The other project is a prospective hybrid live-and-online interview with a 99-year-old (!) veteran who approached us. He was in the 17th Airborne Division and rode a glider across the Rhine. Pretty impressive stuff. I've always been interested in glider troops, which were a blip in history that few people remember these days, so I'm eager to educate people about them. The program is quickly burgeoning to be livestreamed to several other libraries, though the gentleman is also eager to talk to kids so we might contact schools, too.

So I'm busy and not doing much gaming at home, though I've gotten away with dropping Paperboys into some of our book displays:

Happy Ides of March to all.

New stuff

 Ordered this book after hearing about it on the VWC group:

A good and lively book; I'm just past Dettingen. The author makes the characters and maneuvers surprisingly comprehensible, even though there's a lot of people and places to track. He points out specifically that there are four important Charleses alone. But the clarity is surprising, despite sparse maps. The major battles are at least given several pages each - which you don't always see in large-scale histories. There were three or four major theatres, and with all the German and Italian city-states there is fodder for Imagi-nation campaigning. Very enjoyable - recommended.

This morning I also received a shipment from a fellow on Facebook who was selling his old TSATF supplements. Now I have:

An extra, less worn copy of the rules.

The "big battles" variant, 800 Fighting Englishmen.

Varying action decks (taking the place of playing cards for 
turn and casualty determination; and "special event" decks
for adding variant elements to scenarios (reinforcements, delays, etc).

Two dozen scenarios.

Sample scenario and map.

Unexpected: Card QRS sheets and unit cards.
No need to copy them from the book now!

A bit more reading material - variant rules, tactical tips,
a French North Africa variant, and my favorite - 
material from the Major General's club that,
to my recollection, isn't on the site!

So while I may not be gaming this weekend, rest assured I won't be idle!

The local club has also had a massive donation of minis, terrain and books, so I will really have to get over there one of these weekends to have a look (and help organize). Hope you too are enjoying yourselves. Til next time -