Religious Psychics? Harrassment And Interdiction Fire!

A potentially confusing title now I'm writing the post to go with it, but hey ho. Last night I finally finished the Grey Knight Terminator Squad I've been sitting on for a while, despite a moment of gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, scream-into-your-pillow frustration. The very last figure, fully painted, was about to be based. I had begun to apply brown paint to the base to take the sand. Then I dropped him. The back banner snapped off! ARGH! Then when I picked him up, I forgot I had the brush in my mouth, and smeared brown paint all over his silver left arm.

Much rage was had. But despite my worst fears, the damage was easily repairable! Hurrah! And you can see the fruits of my labours below:

So that takes care of the religious psychics. This lot - led by a Justicar with a Nemesis Daemon Hammer and equipped with storm bolters, Nemesis Force Halberds and an Incinerator - are available here on my eBay shop for £48 including P&P.

But what on earth do I mean by harrassment and interdiction fire? Well, H&I fire missions were widely used during the Vietnam war to attack the Ho Chi Minh trail and known areas of VC/NVA activity, and such missions were carried out by batteries of 105mm howitzers located in firebases all over the country. Batteries like this one:

This battery of Peter Pig 105s is available here on my eBay shop for £23 including P&P.

In addition to those, I also put all my North Vietnamese Army and various VC-related units up for sale:

Civilian casualties (something for the Free World Forces to avoid, probably) and objective markers - including tunnel entrances - available for £15 here on my eBay shop.

The infamous NVA platoon, with the two scratch-built hidden bunkers typical of the log-and-undergrowth construction found throughout the jungles of Vietnam. Available for £30 here on my eBay shop.

You've seen them before, but now you can buy them: VC porters carrying supplies for the revolution! Available here on my eBay shop for £10.

And that's it - Force Generica's 1 Squad and vehicles are still waiting attention, sadly, and I am currently building up some Plastic Soldier Company 28mm Red Army figures for Bolt Action. Still, at least I got paint to figure!

Painting Points: 4
2013 Total: 122 (82x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

Charlie's In The Trees!

A fairly brief, but picture-heavy, update for the moment (I hope to get more of Force Generica done today, but we will see how that goes). I have been organising my Vietnam stuff to enable me to sell it on more effectively, and so here - by platoon - is the main body of my Peter Pig 15mm American Infantry Company:

Company HQ - the command group, Forward Air Control, Forward Artillery Observation, Company Aid Post medics, and a group of porters carrying supplies on foot. Available for £30 here on eBay.

First Platoon - LT, SGT, RTO, medic, 24 infantrymen in three squads of 8 with shotguns, M79s and M16s, a weapons squad of two M60s and a 90mm recoilless rifle, and two LAW teams. Available for £30 here on eBay.

Second Platoon - LT, SGT, RTO, medic, 24 infantrymen in three squads of 8 with shotguns, M79s and M16s, a weapons squad of two M60s and a 90mm recoilless rifle, and two LAW teams. Available for £30 here on eBay.

Third Platoon - LT, SGT, RTO, medic, 24 infantrymen in three squads of 8 with shotguns, M79s and M16s, a weapons squad of two M60s and a 90mm recoilless rifle, and two LAW teams. Available for £30 here on eBay.

Weapons Platoon - LT, SGT, RTO, mortar forward observer, three mortar teams and two 105mm recoilless rifles. Available for £30 here on eBay.

Special Forces - LRRP patrol (sniper heavy), Rambo (yes), and two groups of Tunnel Rats. Available for £30 here on eBay.

Miscellaneous Chaps - two groups of downed aircrew, a stand of MPs, and four lots of reporters ready to win the war for the commies. Available for £20 here on eBay.

Casevac Cases - pinned markers, casualty markers, or just objectives! Available for £15 here on eBay.

They are all available at my eBay shop along with the Vietnamese village, and the villagers for it.

In terms of paint-to-figures, the last few days have been dreadful. I've been fairly productive businesswise and even jobwise, but I just haven't felt up to sitting down and painting. I haven't even had a chance to get on with my Close Combat 2 campaign! So I'm hoping to at least finish the last infantry squad for Force Generica tonight, and maybe a Grey Knight or two for ATP Painting Studio.

Right, I'm off to take my wee lad swimming again!

Macro Function, And Victory In The Morning

For a long time I have heard much about the semi-fabled 'Macro' function on digital cameras, enabling close-up detailed photographs to be taken of small things. Like toy soldiers. Until yesterday, I didn't think I had a Macro function on my current imaging device (a mobile phone). Then my partner, S, told me that it did, in fact, have that... so after kicking myself, I enabled it, and took some photos of some things.

First of all, I dug out my decade-old 15mm Vietnam collection. When I was a teenager, my then wargaming partner (even more of a butterfly than I am) decided we should game Vietnam in 15mm. So, thanks to Mr Pig of Peter Pig, and the now sadly deceased Mike Ruffle's utterly amazing website Grunt! Online (since renamed Eleven-Bravo and now no longer online), I got stuck in. Fairly quickly I had amassed a Vietnamese village, a full-strength reinforced US Infantry Company, a UH-1D slick, an M-48, a platoon's worth of M113s, and some Brown Water Navy assets. Even more amazingly, for me, the whole thing got painted! Meanwhile, my friend painted (but didn't base) the NVA platoon that... I... bought... for... him.

Yes.

So, anyway, they did see one game, but for over ten years they have sat, neglected and alone, in a shoebox and I have decided - now that Flames of War are doing the American War, as the Vietnamese know it - to sell it on. So have some photos of Vietnamese villagers and US hardware:

A US Mechanised Platoon's vehicles - an M113 'ACAV' for the platoon commander's track, and then four basic M113s supported by an M-48 tank. Available here on my eBay shop for £25!

LVTP 'AMTRAC' 'Big Momma' in both overland and waterline versions, with a PBR - immortalised in 'Apocalypse Now'. Available here on my eBay shop for £20!

A Vietnamese village - complete with paddy fields, hooches, VC porters, a tiger, pigs, and two Buddhist monks. Available soon from my eBay shop.

And then I rummaged around in my 25mm EuroFed police v rioters tray and discovered that I had five of Ground Zero Game's New Swabian League troopers which I have been using for, well, the European Federation Defence Force in my Tomorrow's War project. I put them side by side to see how I could integrate them into the short platoon I already have (and experiment further with Macro):

Then I thought it'd be fun to see how my painting style had changed in the rough decade or so since I painted up the urban EF troopers, by comparing two of the same figure side by side:

I prefer the figure on the left - although the scheme on the right makes a great one for urban civil pacification/suppression units!

And, finally, although this probably doesn't count towards my Painting Points, this is what I've been working on of late:

Distractions

Last night I went over to the Leamington Games Club to hang out, chew the fat, and watch people playing games (as well as try to drum up business for Dragon's Hoard). It was good to see the usual crowd again after quite a long absence, and I watched a few good games, too. I also decided to throw my hat in the ring for a Dark Heresy pen-and-paper roleplaying game campaign that one of the club members is going to run.

So I have been perusing my rulebook and have decided to play a Hive World Scummer - Darling of the HellBitches, no less! Armed with a shotgun, autopistol, and her underhive smarts, she'll be more than a match for the effete fops and dandies of the rarified investigations of the Inquisition... I hope. Watch this space for more on her and her story later.

Massively unforgiving close-up of Darling.

Ah, I'm going to have fun blasting heretics, mutants and aliens with her and her shotgun!

In addition, I recently found Old-Games.com, a website that has almost 7,000 computer games from the 1980s to early 2000s which can be downloaded for a ridiculously nominal fee. I paid £4.03 and got Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Populous: The Beginning, and Dracula: Reign of Terror. These were all games that I played endlessly in my youth (along with such gems as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Age of Wonders), and which I haven't played - for one reason or another - for years.

Suffice it to say that Operation Market Garden is taking up much of my time at the moment...

...oh yes, and I am painting Al Front's allotment shed for him.

Angry Eggs, Blue Space Elves, And St George

Happy St George's Day!

Today and yesterday were actually quite productive. Well, sort of. I am tantalisingly close to making my first order as a retailer of toy soldiers (wahoo!) and have an idea of the sort of website I want for Dragon's Hoard. I also posted the Nemesis Dreadknight to its new owner.

In terms of actual painting...

This is the Powered Armour squad from Force Generica: four of Ground Zero Games' Oceanic Union 'eggs on legs' PA suits, and their 6x6 wheeled APC's driver. The squad contains two troopers with rotary support MGs and manipulator hands, one trooper with 9 one-shot guided AT rockets, and a squad leader with C3/EW package and two standard high-powered large caliber semi-automatic weapons.

Which now means that Squad 1 and the four troopers of the Command/Recon Squad on their hover bikes are all that's left of the infantry component of Force Generica - then it's on to the command jeep, the APC, and the two remaining trucks.

In other news...

Biel-Tan Eldar: Dire Avenger Aspect Warriors! £15 for five! Buy 'em now at my eBay shop!

Painting Points: 5

2013 Total: 118 (78x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

Star Wars!

Today I spent some quality time with my wee lad, T, and (thanks to a tax rebate) I took him to get some toys. We ummed and ahhed about the various options available but then he spotted these:

6" tall - I think - action figures that come with their own little skirmish-type wargame! The supermarket in question had them on offer (two for the price of one) so he chose Darth Vader, "The Stormtrooper!" and 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' (actually Qui-Gon Jinn but he looks, to a four-year old's eye, close enough to Alec Guinness to make no difference). I liked the look of Darth Maul, so I picked him for myself, and when we got them back to my parents' house (home of Al Front) we opened them up.

The main excitement came from the fact that Darth Vader and Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsabers actually light up when you press their belt buckles, but the Clone Trooper with his flight pack was a big hit too.

Personally, however, I was more interested in this:

Each figure comes with a dice and a little card that slots into their base. The base hides or exposes certain bonus factors, which becomes useful in the roll-off. It's a bit like Top Trumps with dice and figures, really. Hopefully I'll be able to get T (or even Al Front) to engage in a bit of Star Wars silliness soon.

Nothing painted today, but Qui-Gon did lose a hand in some ferocious back-garden skirmishing, so I think a cunning trip back to the shop to pick up a replacement (and perhaps another figure too) may be in order at some point soon.

Market Forces

The invisible hand of the market has decreed that the items for sale on my eBay shop:

Genestealers! Were £50, NOW £25!

Plastic Spore Mines! Still only £15!

Termagants! Were £50, NOW £30!

Death Company! Were £50, NOW £40!

...needed their prices reviewed! The Grey Knight Nemesis Dreadknight sold today, and on Monday it shall be packed up into a little box and sent on its merry way to its new owner!

So - check out my eBay shop and grab yourself a bargain - and watch for new stuff! Coming Soon: 15mm Vietnam for Flames of War! Grey Knight Terminators! Black Legion! AND MORE!

Lieutenant Generic

In between snatching sleep and trying to ignore the pain in my gums from a infection around one of my wisdom teeth, I painted up the command group for Force Generica:

As you can see, the Lt's left boot wasn't quite finished when I took this; so I have touched that up (I blame the sleepiness). L-R they are; Platoon Sergeant with SMG, Lieutenant (in snazzy tigerstripe style camo fatigues!) with cigar and style points, er, pistol; and a corporal with a grenade launcher. Note the corporal has his visor down to provide him with accurate targeting information.

Painting Points: 3
2013 Total: 113 (73x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)