US Forces Get Some Bods

Time for a quick post to catch up on some recently completed for my Konflikt '47 US Army. It's too late on a Sunday night to go into these in depth so I'll let the pics do the talking...

50 cal HMG and crew

Mudskipper Medium Jump Walker with Bazooka upgrade

And so you can get a sense of the size of the Mudskipper, here's a comparison shot with "Junior", my Coyote Light Walker from the US Starter Set. Disconcertingly, Junior is about twice as heavy as he has metal arms and legs as opposed to his big brother who is all resin.

That's enough show and tell for one night. Back to the AHPC IX prep!

Cheers,
Millsy

A Mudskipper and Walk

Some more goodness arrived in the post this week for my US Konflikt '47 force. Having already completed the starter set plus extras I'm now adding some flexibility and shininess to build things out to 1500 pts. Today I finished the painting on my Mudskipper Medium Walker, armed with a pair of light autocannons, a 30cal MG and a brace of bazookas. Another lovely kit and a joy to paint.

I've also got a 50cal MG team assembled and undercoated, plus a unit of ten Firefly Jump Infantry in the same state. This week should see those most completed I hope.

Given the weather is absolutely stunning at the moment (drought notwithstanding) I managed to convince myself to go for a decent walk just after lunch. It's been some time since I have been round the Shaw's Ridge / Blue Gum Swamp loop track near home so I tackled that, going clockwise which means I climbed up Shaw's Ridge instead of the easier downhill route. It's about a 10km loop and took me roughly 90 minutes with the odd stop for photos.

Eggs and bacon in full bloom

50m+ blue gum

Sydney sandstone slowly eroding away

Cheers,
Millsy

Konflikt '47 US Starter Set Part II

This week I have been plugging away at the twenty plastic infantry infantry that come in the US starter set plus a blister of metal command figures. Happy to say they are all done which means I have completely finished my first 1000pts!

Here are some quick snaps of the doughboys...

2nd Lt, offsider and medic

Bazooka team

Sniper team

1st Squad

2nd Squad

I have a unit of Firefly jump infantry, a .50cal MMG team and a medium walker in the post right now which will expand the force to 1500pts. Apart from an LMG, a flamethrower and a mortar that'll be it I reckon.

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday

Just a quick post tonight to prove I'm making progress with the US infantry...

Fiddly as all buggery to assemble but very nice minis once that's done. Painting is a breeze and with the block painting + tinted varnish method I'm planning to use they should be done in double quick time which I'm rather pleased about.

Enjoying this stuff so much there is every chance another force is on the imminent horizon. :-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Konflikt '47 US Starter Set Part I

Following on from my last post about starting a new Konflikt '47 project I have been beavering away at the contents of the US Starter Set (plus upgrades). I'm pleased to say I've made really significant progress and have finished about 60% of the material currently on hand.

The finished units are a Sherman-T (T for "Tesla"), Coyote Light Walker, Heavy Infantry and Heavy Bazooka team. I am super impressed by the models which are great fun to paint and very characterful. Anyway, that's enough blather... time to let the pics do the talking!

M4A9 Sherman-T, with additional historical turret option

Coyote Light Walker

Heavy Infantry platoon and Heavy Bazooka team

And finally some shots of the whole lot together

I'm currently in the midst of assembling my HQ, medic, sniper team, regular bazooka team and two historical infantry units which will round out my initial force. The starter set really is amazing value and with just two extra blisters got me to 1000pts! Hopefully I will have some progress pics of the infantry next weekend but they are VERY fiddly to assemble and are taking a load of time.

Finally, a point about the photos. These are close to the best photos I've ever managed to get of my minis. I'm not the best photographer anyway and always rush my pics. Not having a decent camera also meant things were much less than optimal. BUT I have a new Google Pixel 2 XL phone and the camera is unbelievably good. These pics were taken outside in natural light on a very grey afternoon. When my new light box arrives soon the sky is the limit.

Cheers,
Millsy

New Project: Konflikt '47 Weird War II

OK, so mistakes were made. The "no new projects until I've finished some existing projects" resolution kind of got lost in the shiny madness of new toys and interesting fluff. I'm blaming my mate Pete. Yeah, that's it. It's HIS fault.

I've always been pretty interested in the whole Weird War II thing but never had a sufficient reason to pursue it until Pete mentioned he'd been looking at Konflikt '47. That's Warlord Games' take on the the whole "What if things are not what they seem and WWII goes off the historical rails?" idea. A couple of days of reading and pondering and a US Starter Set plus a couple of upgrade blister were in the post. They arrived this week and today I finished painting up my Heavy Infantry, Heavy Bazooka Team (both in powered armour) and also a Light Walker mech thingy.

The models are absolutely lovely! Wonderfully sculpted, very characterful and they go together very nicely indeed. Painting is a breeze and great fun to boot.

So my first three units are done and next up is my M4A9 Sherman-T (the T is for Telsa! Woot!) which is already assembled and primed. It comes with a normal turret too so you can do proper WWII which is pretty nifty. Following that there will be some Doughboys and I will be done with my starter army.

Stay tuned for more goodness...

Cheers,
Millsy

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VII - Day 27, or Doomed to Repeat the Mistakes of the Past

Yes, it's that time of year again, when painters from the four corners of the circular globe gather together to honour their shadowy master, the Snowlord, who resides in his icy fastness in the Frozen North, awaiting the tribute of his followers. 

Translation; proud Canadian and all-round top bloke Curt Campbell of the Analogue Hobbies blog is once more running the annual Painting Challenge, and both Millsy and myself have thrown our hats into the ring. And naturally, my own output is languishing in the doldrums.

Well, no excuses; I'm on 28 points while others have already passed the 1K mark, so I'll just have to pick up the pace!

First out of his box was this handsome fellow;

This is Scibor Miniatures' Santa Snowman Slayer, a dwarven maniac in festive guise. He will fill the Barbarian slot in my Frostgrave warband led by Vaino the Enchanter (as seen here) and his well-meaning Apprentice Ilmar. So he also counts as a useful start in my Frostgrave Duel with Millsy, though I think I can expect a swift counterattack, since young Michael has never been one to let the grass grow under his feet...

Next up was this little vignette, Delenda Est...

My meditation on the human condition in the form of the ghosts of the past confronting the warriors of the modern age; the spirit of a departed Carthaginian soldier awoken by the tumult of war in 1943.

This was to have been my entry for the first Bonus Round, 'Armour', but exactly as happened last year, the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley. Oh well, live and learn (hopefully).

I've had a lot of encouraging comments on the piece, and as this is the first WWII tank I've painted in over three decades, I'm gratified at the response. I might have to rustle up some more down the track!

So that's the story so far - I've cleared the decks to try and remedy the options paralysis I've been experiencing, and hope that this will enable me to focus properly on the task at hand.

Stay tuned...

Ev

Bolt Action AAR

Played on the weekend and had a major win, major loss and a draw.   All against Germans and my opponents were Rob, Neil and Jason in that order so you can check their lists.  Attached are photos from my first game and the table from the ill fated second game from the German side of the table. 

First game was on the yellow desert terrain with lots of building and I managed to go really well with my sniper, mortar and just general shooting.  Rob did not have any AT so my churchill went well killing his infantry gun early and then also killed his panzershreck team.  He advanced with his 3 infantry platoon on the left flank but I had troops on place to hold him and did some damage.  I won the sniper war killing his and ending up killing 5 of his units and got 4 of my units in his table half for a 17-4 win.

Next game was a top of the table clash against Neil and it was on the other desert table which had three hills on one side and not much cover on the rest.  I lost which side to deploy on and as a consequence everything I had was pretty much visible.  My mortar could not deploy out of sight, the palm trees in front of me provided only light cover and none of the buildings were in my deployment zone unlike all three of his hills.  I called in my bombardment at the end of the first turn and again it miscalculated.  I was running 3 miscalculations out of 4 games so far rather than 1 in 6 and it was redirected onto my forward centre section which had just got into a building and on my MMG and HQ.  All went up in a cloud of HE and so rather than landing on his unit in the open in his centre it blew apart mine.  That unit of Neil's went on to take the centre objective untouched.  My mortar was pinned by his mortar fire, my Churchill got off a couple of shots only for some pins on his StuH and then between the StuH and AT rifle I fluctuated between 1-2 pins but failed my morale tests 3 time so it was effectively out of the game.  I had a section in a position on my right and was attempting to storm out of a building but failed my morale with 2 pins in place and in the subsequent turn the StuH smashed the section with HE.

On my left I had advanced a section into the palm trees to position myself for a dash to the objective but I got pinned from fire from two of his squads, Sdkfz 222 and Pak 40 over the remaining turns and just spent the entire time collecting pins and casualties and not passining any morale tests so go wasted away.  It was a game where almost nothing went right and the only small highlights was I won the sniper war and my PIAT actually did something but dashing up to the 222 and rolled 2 successive 6s to kill it.  In the end I lost about 8 of my units for something like a 19-3 loss.  Not that balanced a table in my view and terrible luck.

Last game was on the Stalingrad table against Jason's Waffen SS.  Big squads of 10 with generally 3 SMGs, 5-6 Assault rifles and one squad had 3 panzerfausts.  Jason also fielded a half track and the mission was to get troops within 6" of the opponents table edge and you had half your force in reserve (after the 2nd turn you rolled morale dice to enter from the back and FUBAR rolls don't count sadly.  Jason had loaded his HQ, MMG, Medic and something else in his so 5 scoring units and Rolled a FUBAR -12 on 2 D6 - this was deemed not to count which is a shame as it was these that scooted to my table edge in turn 5! - even so they only just turned up on turn 4 because if they hadn't turned up then I would have got the won the victory points for them)  Jason advanced with his 3 squads down the left flank and had his Pak 40 on his right.  I had my mortar, sniper, Churchill, MMG and two section on and pretty much form the start I started to inflict pins and a few casualties on him.

However the SS are pretty tough and when they did get stalled they were only about 18" away from my table edge.  Loaded with SMGs and Assault rifles I wasn't going to try and mix it up with my basic rifle sections so I stayed in place and fired doing some good damage when combined with MMG, Mortar, Churchill and section fire.  Jason came to the edge of one building and I had advanced my Churchill within 12" so he launched an assault out of the building with his squad that had 3 panzerfausts - the AT weapons mean they didn't have to pass a tank fear test and Jason had an unerring ability to pass morale tests even with 3-4 pins on his units!  Tank assault was interesting and I shot at him with my 8 MMG weapons and managed to kill 4 of the 8 assaulting troops.  There appears however that there is no morale test at this stage although perhaps there should have been as I had inflicted 50% casualties but in the heat of battle you can miss these things.  He went into the assault and got a couple of pins on me and that that that.  Seeing as he was down to 4 men I launched an assault with section of 8 and inflicted 2 casualties on him but in return I lost 3.  Having lost the combat I was wiped out and his sodding squad was still in play albeit with 2 men left.  Following turn the Churchill killed them with MMG fire but it was a nasty fight for me.  Jason's other 3 squads came under fire and I eventually killed them with my combined fire which also included a good bombardment.

On my far left I had sent my PIAT team forward to see if they could steal into his deployment zone and the half track gave some quick fire killing my loader but then continued past.  I managed to get my PIAT into his deployment zone in the final turn and Jason then had his 4 Pak 40 crew move across to try and kill him but only inflicted a pin.  As he had left the gun I tried to drop my mortar on them and hit with a 6, got 6 hits and then killed all 4 so that was very nice.  My sniper did little other than pin his Pak 40 at various stages.  I had killed some 4 of his units and lost my MMG and a section of infantry and Jason had lost 3 squads and his Pak 40 but had 5 scoring units to my 1 in the deployment zone.   Something like a 11-9 down for me as a result which meant a draw.  I queried Jason on why he didn't bother with a mortar as they seem to be a must have in any army and he responding that he likes an army to keep moving.  Makes sense as you need a 6 to range in on moving units.

Tournament had some great tables and every army was painted nicely with some great pieces of kit. Good mix of armies too. There were some $700 worth of prizes!  Sponsorship was provided my Bolt Action and a couple of other and first prize, won my Neil, was an entire 100 point US army plus trophy.  14 players in all and umpire involvement was pretty minimal so the rules generally go well.  Interestingly the organiser, Paul, sent out a list of what everybody was taking, attached, so you had a good idea of potential opponents.  I hadn't seen that before but liked it.  Japanese player took out best painted army.  

Rick U - British Airborne – 9 Activations

• HQ -103pts
• Artillery FO - Free
• Airborne Squad – 165pts
• Airborne Squad – 165pts
• Airborne Squad – 136pts
• Light Mortar Team – 46pts
• Light Howitzer – 60pts
• Bren Carrier – 84pts
• Cromwell – 234pts

Adam S - British Army – 11 Activations

• HQ – 85pts
• Artillery FO - Free
• Infantry Squad – 110pts
• Infantry Squad – 107pts
• Infantry Squad – 94pts
• Infantry Squad – 110pts
• Vickers MMG – 50pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• PIAT Team – 52pts
• Churchill – 265pts

Peter G - British Royal Marines – 9 Activations

• HQ – 116pts
• Artillery FO + 1 Man – Free/10pts
• Marine Squad – 176pts
• Marine Squad – 156pts
• Marine Squad – 156pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Vickers MMG – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Centaur CS – 195pts

Steve B - British Infantry – 11 Activations

• HQ – 75pts
• Artillery FO + 1 Man – Free/10pts
• Forward AO – 103pts
• Infantry Squad – 84pts
• Infantry Squad – 88pts
• Infantry Squad – 66pts
• Infantry Squad – 73pts
• PIAT Team – 40pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• 6pdr AT Gun – 90pts
• Crocodile – 305pts

Sam Y - US Airborne – 11 Activations

• HQ – 91pts
• Forward AO – 90pts
• Airborne Squad – 117pts
• Airborne Squad – 117pts
• Airborne Squad – 113pts
• Airborne Squad – 113pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• 57mm AT Gun – 75pts

Sean P - US Rangers – 9 Activations

• HQ – 103pts
• Forward AO – 75pts
• Ranger Squad – 168pts
• Ranger Squad – 168pts
• Engineer Squad – 108pts
• Sniper Team – 69pts
• Flame Thrower Team – 50pts
• M3A1 Halftrack – 99pts
• M24 Chaffe – 160pts

Chris K - US Army – 13 Activations

• HQ – 95pts
• Forward AO – 85pts
• Infantry Squad – 111pts
• Infantry Squad – 111pts
• Infantry Squad – 75pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 50pts
• Bazooka Team – 60pts
• Jeep – 21pts
• M24 Chaffe – 180pts

Jake G - Soviet Army – 11 Activations

• HQ – 95pts
• Infantry Squad – Free
• Infantry Squad - 142pts
• Infantry Squad - 142pts
• Infantry Squad – 142pts
• Infantry Squad – 176pts
• 2nd LT + 2Men – 70pts
• MMG Team – 55pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Flame Thrower Team – 50pts

Godfrey H - Finland Army – 8 Activations

• HQ - 116pts
• Forward AO – 103pts
• Infantry Squad – 146pts
• Infantry Squad – 126pts
• MMG Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 75pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Stug III – 291pts

Paul Y - Imperial Japanese Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 91pts
• Infantry Squad – 158pts
• Infantry Squad – 158pts
• Infantry Squad – 155pts
• Infantry Squad – 131pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• MMG Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 45pts
• 70mm Howitzer – 40pts
• HaGo Tank – 90pts

Jason C - Waffen SS (Normandy) – 10 Activations

• HQ – 50pts
• Medic – 30pts
• SS Squad – 163pts
• SS Squad – 175pts
• SS Squad – 134pts
• SS Squad – 139pts
• MG42 Team – 50pts
• MG42 Team – 50pts
• Pak 40 AT Gun – 110pts
• Hanomag – 89pts

Neil T - German Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 78pts
• Heer Squad – 123pts
• Heer Squad – 123pts
• Pioneer Squad – 110pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 75pts
• AT Rifle Team – 30pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Pak 40 AT Gun – 110pts
• Sd.Kfz 222 – 95pts
• STUH 42 – 190pts

Rob Y - German Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 116prs
• Heer Squad – 157pts
• Heer Squad – 140pts
• Heer Squad – 139pts
• Heer Squad – 119pts
• MG42 Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 45pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Panzerschreck Team – 104pts
• Light Artillery – 50pts

Iian M - Fallschirmjager (Late War) – 10 Activations

• HQ – 113pts
• Medic 30pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 101pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 112pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 109pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 111pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 75pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• LG40/1 Gun – 84pts
• Sd.Kfz 222 – 114pts
• Kettenkrad – 31pts
• Truck – 47pts

Cheers,
Adam

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