Boxer Rebellion German and Russian Imperial Forces

Just a quick (re)post of my first entry into AHPCVIII - German Seebatallion and Russian Marines for my Boxer Rebellion project. See the full set of photos and write up here.

Cheers,
Millsy

Flames of War DAK Project finished!

Phew! This one has really taken some time to get over the line, a solid three weeks of effort in fact. When I think about it I've basically painted the entire infantry and support formations for a solid 2000 point Tunisian army so maybe not so bad after all. Excuse the photos, it's well past bedtime and I just wanted to get this posted.

First up, HQ and a 10.5cm battery...

Two full strength Panzergrenadier battalions (all the transport is already done)...

And finally a full heavy platoon as well...

I've still got to add a few bushes to the bases but otherwise this project is done and dusted. In total I've got something like 4,000 points of DAK so stay tuned for better photos in the shape of another army gallery page sooner rather than later.

What's next? A breather I think and then perhaps a boat load of Dystopiand Wars Kingdom of Britannia if I can muster the energy.

Cheers,
Millsy

Next Major Project Push... Flames of War DAK Panzergrenadiers

Having successfully pushed a couple of major projects through to completion recently I've moved onto the next one that has been sitting idle for goodness knows how long - Desert Afrika Korps Panzergrenadiers (Tunisia) for Flames of War.

I need to finish the following to put this one to bed:

1 x HQ
2 x Combat Platoons
1 x HW Platoon
1 x 10.5cm Artillery Battery

This weekend I've made a solid start, completing all the crew for the 10.5cm battery.

I've also cleaned up, primed and started blocking in the HQ and HW platoon.

This is likely to take me 2-3 weeks to complete if not longer. Despite the fact they look quite monotonal there are in fact something like 12 colours plus ink to apply. My basing scheme is also quite complex and adds something like 30% extra time to each unit too.

I'll be pleased to have these out of the way. It will leave me with next to nothing left for Flames of War, a situation I've never been in, not even once, since I picked the game up about 6 months after version one was released. I might have to pinch myself when this one gets over the line!

Cheers,
Millsy

German Ostfront Grenadiers Complete

This is officially the Year of Finishing Unfinished Projects here at Chez Millsy. Thus far things are well and truly on track and the following is proof - my completed Flames of War 2000pt Eastern Front German Grenadier army for Mid/Late War.

Over the last few weeks I've finished the following:

Full grenadier platoon one

Full grenadier platoon two

120mm heavy mortars

Machine guns

That gives me a really solid force when combined with all the completed support and weapons platoons. All up the force consists of the following:

• HQ plus attachments
• Full grenadiers
• Full grenadiers
• MGs
• 120mm heavy mortars
• Light infantry guns
• Heavy infantry guns
• PaK 36s (4)
• PaK 36(r)s (4)
• 1/2 battery of nebelwefers (3)
• Full black pioneers with goliath
• StuG Gs (3)
• Marder Is (2)

I've gone for a sort of Spring/Summer woodland theme on the bases with plenty of exposed earth and some weeds/flowers/grass tufts amongst all the rock and broken trees.

When laid out it takes up a fair bit of space as you can see from the following (which is sans armour and a few transports as well).

I'm well chuffed to have this finished. The grenadiers were horribly miscast to the tune of about one in five miniatures and required significant work to get them up to something like usable. They are the main reason it took so long to get this army complete. They're quite nice sculpts but the end product was of such inferior quality I won't be buying Forged in Battle miniatures again. A shame really as they are much better value than Battlefront.

Cheers,

Millsy

Bolt Action German vs. British AAR

Played first game of BA tonight and had a really good game. Very simple to pick up and the game flowed nicely. I had got my list slightly wrong and Neil's list was very strong but I blew away his centre with an outstanding artillery bombardment (I killed his AT rifle team, blew up his 222 and killed 5 of his 6 pioneers) and some excellent mortar fire. MMGs don't seem that effective and having veteran troops is very much a good thing. Snipers are really deadly and I did not enjoy getting one of my sections behind a hedge getting cut to pieces by him. Neil had small squads of 6 but they were veterans with 3 assault guns with them and a LMG which was a good and tough combination. Very much better than my Regular class sections of 8 & 9 with one SMG and LMG.

Our centres got wasted and Neil's right flank was far too strong for me to attack with a section of infantry, mortar, sniper and Pak 40 defending it. I managed to kill Neil's left flank infantry on the right and my Churchill managed to kill his Stug only after losing 2 squads of infantry and a PIAT team on my right flank into the bargain. At the end of the bloodbath I had a winning draw. If my bombardment hadn't have killed the 222 I might have been in trouble and the PIATs 12" range leaves you wanting a bazooka or two!

Overall an excellent and very cost effective game that I highly recommend. Thought something was missing and realised it was some hills. Still looked pretty good though and I got to use all my new terrain.

Neil had:

• Lieutenant and 1 man
• 1 x StuH 42
• 1 x Pioneer Vet Platoon with 3 Assault Rifles and Flamethrower
• 2 x Vet Infantry Platoonwith 3 Assault Rifles and LMG
• 1 x Reg Sdkfz 222
• 1 x Vet Pak 40 4 crew
• 1 x Vet Sniper Team
• 1 x Vet 81mm Mortar with Observer

I had:

• Capt and 2 men
• 3 x Reg Platoon with 8 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg Platoon with 9 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg MMG
• 1 x Reg 3" mortar
• 1 x Reg Churchill
• 1 x Vet Medic with extra man
• 1 x Reg PIAT Team
• 1 x Reg Artillery Observer

I should have taken a 2nd Leut as my HQ as the Capt apparently is additional. Changes I will make will be dropping HQ to 2nd Leut and 1 extra man and making my troops veterans although having fewer of them. I found the medic not that useful but it is hard to say based on one game.

Cheers,
Adam

HQ Transports for FoW MW Grenadierkompanie

Last post for today! This is a couple of wagons for lugging about the mortar section from the HQ of my Eastern Front MW German Grenadierkompanie for Flames of War.

They've been lurking in my odds and sods box until a reason came along to paint them up.
The horses are a bit oddly sculpted by comparison to other vendors but they look OK from a distance.

Cheers,
Millsy

Springtime for Hitler - FoW MW Grenadierkompanie Part II

Hi All,

I'm still plugging away at my MW German Grenadier company for Flames of War. Since my last post I've finished some infantry and more support weapons.

You know the drill about clicking for bigger pics. Here they are...

HQ with 8cm mortars are light support weapons

Heavy infantry guns with command and observer teams

Full black pioneers with goliath and flame throwers

Another view of the pioneers

I won't ever use the AT rifles in the HQ so along with some ordinary grenadiers I mixed them into the pioneers to bulk them out to the full ten bases. I think they look cool in there

So that's all the support units complete now along with the HQ. I'm told it will be at least another two weeks til I get my combat and weapons platoons so I'll be painting other stuff for a while I guess.

For those who have found their way here from the Battlefront forums there won't be any more posts over there. I've decided to go with Forged in Battle miniatures for the combat and weapons platoons so I'll be showcasing them here only.

Cheers,
Millsy

Howdy Blogonians,

Well after telling myself that I would use these holidays to finish off my US forces for Flames of War I decided instead to start my Grenadier army. Now this army has been 'seasoning' in a drawer for almost a couple of years - so its ripe and ready for getting some desk time.

All of the vehicles have already been undercoated and about half have been base-coated. After seeing Millsy and Cory's efforts with the new FOW Vehicle Paint sprays - I'm waiting til I get my hands on the late war german one before moving forward with those. Millsy showed me a neat trick using blue-tac and Tamiya spray paint to do three colour camouflage. So I'll hopefully be blogging the results of that in the coming days.

So whilst I wait for the local hobby shop to get stock I've been prepping the reminaing units. So far I have three platoons of grenadiers (one being pioneer), HQ, pak40s, artillery, 88s & all assorted crews.

Tomorrow weather permitting I'll start undercoating all of that as well as finishing off the MG, Mortar and Infantry guns squads.

Then onto the painting!

Seeya,

Russ