Thursday, June 28, 2012

Some Hedges and How I Made Them

I wanted to make some hedges for the NOVA terrain out of pluck foam. I don't know why I chose to use pluck foam, but I was set in my mind of doing it that way. Many people choose to use foam, balsa, or even Scotch-Bright (as suggested by one local friend!), but I wanted to make use the pluck foam scraps. So here is what I came up with. They are a little on the short side for my tastes, but they were very easy to crank out. I did them in batches of 10ish, and they take about 20 minutes of effort divided over four, separated 5 minute chunks throughout the day (to allow for drying time). Best of all, they were made with stuff I had lying around from other hobby projects, and only required the donation of pluck foam scraps from a friend. (I despise pluck foam myself, and avoid it all costs)



Here is the finished product with some tanks


Here with some FoW infantry figures (Note that they are on the Litko bases, so it does add a good amount of height)


And just for scale, heres a 28mm figure

Step by Step on how I made them


Pluck foam scraps, popscicle sticks, and trusty Aleene's Tacky Glue.




Pluck foam fragments glued to popscicle stick. 2.5 fragments per stick. Let dry for a couple hours here.



Spray paint green. This is mostly for the popscicle stick base, but some of the foam will show through the flock, so good to have that green too. Let dry for a couple hours here.



For the next step, I have some mixed fine turf flock and a bottle of scenic glue from Woodland Scenics. I really like this glue for gluing flock - the consistency is, in my opinion, different than normal PVA.



Apply a thin coat of glue to the foam. Try not to let it build up anywhere - a very thin coat will suffice.



Pour flock generously over the hedge. Apply pressure to push it down into the glue. Let dry for a couple hours here.



More Woodland Scenics plugs. Scenic Cement is just super watered down PVA glue. I'm too lazy to water down and store, so I buy this. It might be different than doing it myself, it might not. I'm lazy.



Liberally soak the flock in the Scenic Cement. I use a brush for this. This step is VERY messy if you go quickly. Let dry for several hours afterwards.

The final step is to spray the whole thing with a matte varnish. This is the finally protecting coat.

I'm sure if you just wanted to make the terrain for yourself, and it wouldn't be taking a beating, you could skip the whole messy Scenic Cement phase and go straight from flock-gluing to varnish. The Scenic Cement just gives it that extra durability I want, as these hedges will be seeing the road for tournament terrain and FLGS use.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Some Quickly Painted Germans

I don't do a lot of German stuff, but was tempted to do the new RT Panzerkompanie since it could be done all in the new PSC Plastics. I did end up using the new Battlefront Panther box mainly due to a supply shortage, however. They are fairly nice as one of Battlefronts first foray into plastics, but the lack of individual sculpts on the hulls is disheartening.


The new Battlefront Panthers. The tracks look a lot cleaner in the pics than they do in real life.




Plastic Soldier Company Stug


Plastic Soldier Company PZ4s



Plastic Soldier Company Halftracks





Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Circle Orboros Starter Box

Some pictures of the Circle Orboros starter box. Its pretty meh in quality, but I spent a total of 40 minutes from primer to done, and 10 minutes on the basing. So I'm pleased. The new PP plastics are a great quality and very simple to put together.

I'll get back to posting some FoW stuff in the near future!







Thursday, June 7, 2012

Operation Sea Lion - 1500ish points!

For more information on Operation Sea Lion, visit Operation Sea Lion!
This was a game for the Operation Sea Lion Campaign being put on by the WWPD guys. We kinda missed the early weeks of it and didn't get a chance to do the initial beach assaults, so we did one now anyway (and plan to do another in a few days!) Mission was a haphazardly tossed together 1500ish to 800ish game of "Hit the Beach". Chris built his list based loosely on a MW Eastern Front list, using the added assault platoons from the campaign book, whereas I made my Paras from Turning Tide. I ended up dropping a piat from each squad to make it more "mid-war"ish, but I still had 17 pdrs so....


Chris's Beachlanding Germans
  • HQ Boots
  • Full boots platoon
  • Full boots platoon
  • Half boots platoon
  • 3x DD Panzer 4s
Scott's British Paras
  • HQ boots
  • Full boots w/ 1 piat
  • Half boots w/ 1 piat
  • Half boots w/ 1 piat
  • 4x Airlanding 75mm pack howitzers
  • 2x barbed wires



SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

Pack Howitzers in the woods

Bunker on the beach with some paras hiding nearby

These may just look like ordinary houses, but they house death and destruction inside! (Or maybe just some paras)

Preliminary bombardment kills one para...

and THREE pack howitzers!

The Germans awaiting in the surf

UNITS IN RESERVE
Chris's Beachlanding Germans
  • 2x squads of boots in boats
Scott's British Paras
  • 2x short squads of boots


DEPLOYMENT SUMMARY
Chris's Beachlanding Germans: DD Tanks and one boat in the water. Preliminary bombardment kills 3 pack howitzers and one pair of boots
Scott's British Paras: Full boots and the pack arty on the board. Two short boots platoons in reserve.

TURN 1

COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • 1x boots


    TURN 1 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: A single PZ4 comes ashore...everything else drifts away. For a lack of better targets, the PZ4 shoots at the bunker, but misses.
    Scott's British Paras: 17 pdr misses the only PZ4 on the board!

    TURN 2

    More boots and 2 more PZ4s arrive!

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 1x PZ4
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • 1x boots


    TURN 2 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: A platoon of boots and more more PZ4s come ashore.
    Scott's British Paras: 17 pdr bunker kills a PZ4

    TURN 3

    Flamer melts some boots and sets the tone for the assault

    This is what assaults look like when they are done

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 1x PZ4
    • 5x boots
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • 6x boots


    TURN 3 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Infantry move up and kill a para with a flamethrower. They assault and kill three more pairs of boots in total before falling back.
    Scott's British Paras: Paras fail to hit anything in counterattack the first round of combat, and get two Germans in the second. On my turn, the para scharge out and kill another 3 Germans before dying in assault.

    TURN 4

    More boots land, but the boat gets stuck!

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • 1x platoon of boots, that went back into floating reserves
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • 6x boots


    TURN 4 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: More boots come ashore.
    Scott's British Paras: Bunker kills a 2nd Pz4.

    TURN 5

    Two stands of boots were hiding in a building (leaderless) after the rest died in the forest assault. More Germans boots come and flame one para, leaving a sole survivor. Who runs away.

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • 1x platoon of boots, that went back into floating reserves
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon


    TURN 5 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Moves up and finishes off the rest of the large para platoon.
    Scott's British Paras: The single pack howitzer kills a pair of boots! A squad of paras arrives and double times up behind the trees.

    TURN 6

    Some paras got splashed by German naval gunfire support

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • 5x boots
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 6 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Naval gunfire support flattens two paras.
    Scott's British Paras: Last platoon of paras arrives and double times up, while the paras that arrived the previous turn moved into the woods to protect the objective.

    TURN 7

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • 5x boots
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 7 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Stuff moves up, but nothing really happens.
    Scott's British Paras: Nothing to see here.

    TURN 8

    The PZ4 bogs on the assault attempt, but thanks to new V3 rules instant unbogs and sittings right in front of some hungry paras in cover. I'll get to assault it without taking defense fire on my turn!

    ...unless I fail tank terror.

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • 5x boots
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 8 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: PZ4 attempts to assault the last pack howitzer, but bogs on the way in.
    Scott's British Paras: Paras fail tank terror on the "free tank kill here" assault.

    TURN 9

    Another horribly bloody assault kills off one of my para squads, but the assaulting platoon is also wiped out on morale

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • More boots that go back into floating reserves.
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 9 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: The germans assault and kill off a para squad, but the pack howizer lives. The assaulting Germans are wiped out and go back into floating reserves.
    Scott's British Paras: Paras do not unpin, so they dig in.

    TURN 10

    PZ4 runs over the staff team, and bogs on the consolidation


    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    • More boots that go back into floating reserves.
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 10 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: PZ4 kills the staff team in assault, but bogs on the consoliation.
    Scott's British Paras: Paras kill the bogged PZ4.

    TURN 11

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 11 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Germans assault into and wipe out the remaining paras, however they are also reduced below half and run as well!
    Scott's British Paras: I have zero models left on the board.

    TURN 12

    COMBAT CASUALTY SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans
    • 2x PZ4
    Scott's British Paras
    • 3x pack howitzers
    • Full para platoon
    • 2x boots from another para platoon


    TURN 12 SUMMARY
    Chris's Beachlanding Germans: Turn 12 starts, and nobody controls the British objective, while the Germans have the German-placed objective.
    Scott's British Paras:
    A 4-3 victory for the British, despite having no models left on the table! We held the last objective to the last possible turn, slowing down the German advance until reinforcements can arrive!




    Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

    Monday, June 4, 2012

    June 2 Game Vault LW 1750


    So this past Saturday I attended a 1750 LW event at Game Vault in Fredericksburg hosted by the I95 folks. It was a good time. Saw some old faces, met some new folks, and as usual, played a lot of Germans. It really dawned on me this weekend that when you are an Allied player in a Red vs Blue event, you don’t get a lot of variety in who you play against – just Germans, Germans, and more Germans. At least in EW/MW you get the occasional Italian opponent. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I think I’d rather see less Red vs Blue events. Adds more variety to the games you play, and requires you to be a little more flexible. Everyone’s all up in arms about the new TD stuff, but if I’m playing Allies in Red vs Blue, I know I don’t even have to think about it.

    Quick recap of the event. I played a somewhat subpar Tankovy list – kinda decided on it last minute. 21x 85s, 3x ISU-122s, and the AA trucks. Overall I went 2-1 win/loss for a total of 13 VP. I didn't take good enough notes for a detailed bat rep, so have some summaries followed by random and terrible pictures.

    Round one I played Eric Turner. He played a PZ4 company. This was actually the one round I lost, yet was probably my most favorable matchup. Shows how well he played his list (and/or how terribly I played mine!). Mission was Encounter. I front loaded with the 85s on the board. One platoon was deployed pretty poorly- they wiped out a PZ4 platoon, but then did nothing for the rest of the game. One flank collapsed, and his Pumas came in to take the objective before my reserves could get there. Well played by Eric. Lost 2-5.

    Round two I played against Kurt Reese. Kurt played a boots list with Tigers and Otto Carius. Mission was Fighting Withdraw (my favorite by far). I pushed objectives on one side and got stuck in against some boots, while 10x 85s on the opposite flank snuck in and stole the objective from Carius and his merry men. More German players should take this Otto Carius guy – free VPs for me! Won 5-2 turned into a 6-1 from Otto.

    Round three I played against Ted (don’t know the last name). Ted played that nasty boots list where everybody has a Panzerfaust. Yeah, my Tankovy wasn’t going to get stuck in against that. One thing I’ve discovered playing Tankovy is that 10x 85s should be able to win a shootout against Pak40s, but never do. ISUs one-shot Tigers…that was amusing. Yet I continue to try nonetheless. After about two hours of ducking around and avoiding the Faust-wielding boots and picking off all the support, I pulled through on company morale. 5-2 win.