Commission Work: Orwell's Soviet Cavalry

I was contacted by one of my long-time clients to do a platoon of Soviet cavalry for Flames of War...but with a little twist. As an homage to Orwell's Animal Farm, he wanted to include some pigs on the stands - a clever in-joke and something right up my alley.

The cavalry itself is straightforward. Uniforms are Vallejo Russian Uniform, highlighted with a 50/50 Russian Uniform/Antique White mix, then washed with GW Green wash. Off-white/White isn't something I normally mix to lighten colors, as it tends to dull the base color. However, used sparingly, in a heavily worn military uniform it actually adds to the faded appearance. Skin is Vallejo Flat Flesh washed with GW Ogryn Flesh, kit is Burnt Umber, boots are Pure Black, sword hilts are Granite Grey with a highlight of 50/50 Granite Grey/Pure White, rifles are Vallejo Dark Brown with Pavement barrels.

The horses themselves are all ever so slightly different mixtures of browns, red-browns, tans, and greys. As I do more work painting horses, it's actually very interesting to learn just how different their coats really are, so I try to reflect that by painting each a little differently. Tack is a base of Pure Black, overcoated in certain place with Moss Green, then washed with Vallejo Olive Green wash. For the pigs, I attempted to do a dappled coat of a mid-tone grey mixed with patches of grey/pink, then washed with Vallejo Grey wash. 15mm pigs are hard to paint.

The client also asked for an upgraded IL-2 Shturmovik M to be painted identically to its basic cousin which I did here.

Luftwaffe 88mm Battery

This unit probably takes highest honors for "amount of time sitting on my workbench half-complete". I've been working on it in sporadically since before our move, something like building it around August of 2014 or so. It's long overdue, considering I've needed this unit in various incarnations from my Early War Mittlere Panzer Kompanie right up through my Late War StuG Batterie, so that's at least a couple of years' time.

Minis are Battlefront mounted on special lengthened plasticard bases to accommodate the unlimbered Flak37s. After reading Erhard Raus' excellent book Panzer Operations, I wanted these guns to look like they had been quickly brought up to the front to deal with heavy Allied AFVs, like the KV-1. 

These are painted using my usual Testors Acryl Panzershweregrau with a little bit of Royal Blue craft paint added. I know this is a little too blue for some modelers but I really like how this color pops at this scale. I wouldn't use this same ratio in 28mm. The Flak37s are soft-edged camouflaged using Testors Lichtolive. Details are painted using Vallejo acrylics.

Adepticon 2015 Recap - FOW Early War Combat Patrol

In addition to running both my annual Necromunda tournaments (which none of the pictures I took turned out of!), I decided to take on one more event and branch out into something completely different for myself. This year's Adepticon was the inaugural FOW Combat Patrol tournament on Sunday. Mostly this event was an excuse for me to expand my collection of 15mm terrain, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised with both the players and the support I received from Battlefront.

FOW Combat Patrol is meant for new players to get experience playing Flames of War  in a tournament setting and for veteran players to get a chance to play in a time period that is less widespread than Mid and Late War. Players choose a 1000pt force, with only 1 HQ platoon and 1 Combat Platoon mandatory, and take them through a series of four linked scenarios. The spirit of these scenarios are geared towards fast play and limited objectives.

I had four players for this event (that's actually more than the first year I ran Necromunda!) - 1 German Czech Panzer Company, 2 French Combat Squadrons, & 1 Greek Infantry Company. I had five table set up, each representing a different country involved in the Early War battles - France, Greece/Albania, Finland, Byelorussia, & Egypt/Libya. When the dust had settled, the Greeks emerged the overall victors! However, all the players walked away with an award and some great prizes.

Though I undertook this event with the awesome assistance of the Adepticon crew, I was lucky enough to be approached by members of the Battlefront staff on the day of the event who provided even more prize support and guidance. More than likely this event will return in some form or another (with the news of the upcoming Cold War Gone Hot expansion - "Red Dawn" anyone?) at future Adepticons.....stay tuned!

Big thanks to the Adepticon staff (Hank, Matt, Rich, & Jamie), David Griffin at Battlefront, and everyone who signed up to play! 

French and Vichy AFVs duke it out for control of the chateau's wine cellars

Stukas divebomb a Greek artillery position

German Pz38(t)'s move to outflank defending Greek infantry

French AFVs take on Greek infantry in Finland (?)

Greek CV33s enter the table behind a decimated French AMD platoon

German Recce vehicles push hard on the French left flank

French tanks attempt to outmaneuver the steel rain of Greek artillery

Heavy French artillery ideally placed to engage the wily Germans

Stukas dive-bomb the surrounded Greek infantry 

A wall of Czech steel

Free & Vichy French tank forces fight one last bitter battle in Algeria

Yugoslavian House Conversion

So I'm sure the first question is "why Yugoslavia?"....and the simple answer is because it was an easy conversion. Crescent Root's (now out of production) resin buildings were the first 15mm buildings I had purchased years ago and, while they're nice, straight out of the box they're rather odd-looking - as if they don't really fit any particular nation or architectural style. Looking to convert them and knowing I didn't have any northern Mediterranean terrain as of yet, I briefly considered entirely eliminating the stock roofs and re-doing them as typical hip-roofed Italian houses....which would have been time consuming.

So I looked at traditional architecture of other nations and here it is...the traditional house in the Balkans, particularly the Dalmation Coast. It still has the high-pitched roof like the CR buildings, but with the Mediterranean styles of Spanish roof tiles and stone walls, sometimes with a stucco overlay. 

Here's a pic of the buildings before conversion, which turned out to be fairly simple. I sculpted on spanish tile roofing using Milliput with a plasticard tube and then added window shutters made out of plasticard. 

Here they are complete and ready for the 1939 Balkans Campaign! Enjoy!

Road to Adepticon 2015: 15mm Lumber Camp - 100% Complete!

The lumber camp is finally complete and I'm pretty pleased with the results considering the amount of time it took (work being done mostly on weeknights or during my son's naptimes over this past month). The entire complex, if not spread out, occupies around 2 sq. ft. - somewhere between a 1/4" and 1/3" of a table space. Considering it really only needs some roads and large tracts of woods, the size is "just right" for FOW.

I weathered the exterior wood surfaces using artist's inks in cool grey, sepia, and some very watered-down india ink black. I then drybrushed vertically (in most cases, perpendicular to the woodgrain) with pure white, with the dual outcome of the wood looking "streaked" and making the edges "pop". The tin roofs were basepainted a dark brown, then got multiple washes of rust red, and finally received a liberal dose of dry pigments.

The broken down truck behind the maintenance shed is a Zvezda ZIS-5 model with the wheels and cargo bed left off. The lumber mill's saw track is N gauge track with the ties removed, the attendant log cart is made from basswood and an N gauge riail "truck" with the actual wheels removed (it rests on the plastic hubcaps - for lack of a better term). The wooden barrels scattered throughout are available from Khurasan Miniatures. Timber piles were made by collecting sticks of various diameters and species, cutting them in roughly 1.5" lengths, and then stacking them haphazardly. I made the lumber stacks with basswood offcuts.

This lumber camp will be used to represent the Karelia Region of Finland/Russia in the FOW: Recon In Force tournament for Adepticon 2015. I should have used my Russians for size comparisons but instead grabbed some Early War Krauts!

15mm North Africa Terrain - Cyrenaica

A quick post for today following up on the previous North African terrain post. This time it's a collection of wadi (dry seasonal riverbed) banks and a small Greco-Roman ruin complex. The wadi banks are just 1/2" pink foamboard textured with sand. I made them in sections to be somewhat modular and they are just high enough for a 15mm figure to peek over and will conceal the hulls of most smaller tanks.

The Greco-Roman ruins are intended to portray ruins scattered around the Mediterranean coastline, much like Leptus Magna in Libya; though they could easily fill in for ruins in Greece or Crete as well. They're assembled using wood, foamboard, and a leftover 28mm Roman General mini.

15mm North Africa Terrain

I was lucky enough to find the awesome, sadly out of production, Crescent Root Studios "Adobe" buildings on Evilbay a few weeks back. I really liked this series - they had an awesome texture to the "stucco" finish and the cracks really show well when sponge painted. To match the CR buildings, I repainted the FOW Small Desert Buildings I already had to match.

Unfortunately, that still wasn't a very big village, so I scratchbuilt a few burnt and shelled buildings from 2mm MDF. After assembling I added the uncovered brick texture using my Dremel cutter tool and used layers of plaster and gesso for the "stuccoed" portions. While they aren't perfect, they match well with the other buildings from afar.

While using Google to search for paint colors, I came across some inspirational pics - a few showing cactus "hedges" in Libya and Tunisia and another showing the Air Raid sign just outside Tobruk. For the hedges, I used popsicle sticks for the base, some large gravel for boulders (and to add weight), and Pegasus Hobbies Small Cactus set. The Air Raid sign was made from basswood.

Early War StuG Platoon

My second to last German AFV unit for the foreseeable future - an Early War StuG platoon consisting of 2 Zvezda StuG Ausf. As and a BF SdKfz 253 command halftrack. These minis are basically stock with lots of stowage added here and there, painted in my usual Testors Acryl Panzer Grey with 25% Royal Blue added. Decals are GW IG numbers and I-94 Balkankreuz.

The Zvezda StuGs are actually really nice models. Having assembled the PSC StuGs, I actually prefer the detailing on the Zvezda brand, since tools and molded-on stowage are raised higher and the tracks and road wheels are one-piece castings.

Panzergruppe Guderian - Complete!

Finally able to post up some pics of my completed Early/Mid-War Mittlere Panzer Company, based on General Heinz Guderian's Panzergruppe. The majority of the tanks included here are Zvezda, with a smattering of Plastic Soldier Co. and Battlefront miniatures. Panzer camouflage schemes are the two-tone Early War blend of Panzer Grey and Deep Brown, with excellent decals from i-94 Enterprises.  

My shading is rather heavy due to running out of GW Black Wash right when they were transitioning to the new colors and having to substitute P3 Armor Wash instead. Weathering is done with Testors Acryl Rust washes and pigment-based "mud".

Panzer IV Ausf. D Platoon

Panzer III Ausf. G Platoon

Panzer II (Early) Platoons

StuG 33B Assault Tank Platoon

"Freida und Helga" - 8.8cm Sfl Bunkerflaks

"Husslin' Heinz" Objective - Gen. Guderian's Sdkfz 251 Command

Motorised Artillery Battery