All quiet on the western front?

Hello folks, 

Been a little busy with work and other real life stuff, but I've managed to squeeze in some hobby time and put together an update for your viewing pleasure.

First up, a wee update to my current Guard army.



WIP Stormtroopers; the helmets are blatantly ripped from Reach and ODST (I'm a Halo fanboy) and the colour scheme will likely be inspired by the same sources.

I've also been working something else I'm a little more excited about, a battlefield! 



Picked up a RoB set from a friend and already had the plastic hills from years and years ago. The first task, as you can probably tell, was to hide all the bloody skulls on the thing with a layer of stones, slate an sand and I've now painted the entire board and the hills. Next on the agenda will be to start bringing up the texture a little more and adding grass. After that, I'll be painting up this lot. . . 




Ferns and bushes to break up the battlefield and provide a little cover. Later on down the line I'll pick up some bigger trees and buildings, as well as more hills and cliffs, but for now this will have to suffice! 

Cheers for now.

Muster the troops!

Greetings readers.

Its been a month or so since my last update and I've been busy securing some more reinforcements for the Latarians, increasing the infantry count to triple figures and the vehicle count to double figures. 



Of particular importance are the second platoon, they will be armed with flamers, meltas and demo charges for some close assault action. I've also rearmed one of the veteran squads, dropping the three plasma guns and going for shotguns, flamers, a heavy flamer and a demo charge.

I haven't just got a lazy army shot to show off today, but also some close ups of the units I'm actually working on at the moment.



Stormtroopers; a direct homage to the excellent 3rd edition metal models, probably some of my favourite things from GW ever.







The Stormtroopers' ride; a converted Land Speeder Storm, this vehicle goes by the codename of Vixen within the inventory and will likely find itself replicated in the near future.



Shooty veterans; toting three grenade launchers and a heavy bolter, this squad is designed to compliment first platoon to provide a solid base of fire on the battlefield.



Assaulty veterans; the compliment unit to second platoon, this squad will provide a very powerful punch on the counter assault. Hopefully. . . 

As noted in a discussing with Mr Maelstrom the weather is terrible for painting at the moment, far too warm and humid and generally icky, so my grand plan is to use the next few weeks to prepare as many models as possible, along with some terrain, so when the weather turns a little cooler I can break out paints.

Thats all for now folks! 

Prepare to Drop!

Another quick update today folks, appologies for going quiet again. It's been a busy couple of weeks in real life land, and this has restricted my hobbling a little.

I fully intended to go straight into my German Heer force with all guns blazing, but after doing a couple if test teams I threw down my brushes with all of my nope as I needed to do something bigger and something that involved sculpting. On that note I return to 40K (dun dun duuuuuuuuuun!!!) and to my Latarian 1st Airborne.



This army consists of a modest infantry platoon, an HQ, a couple of veteran squads, a storm trooper squad, some sentinels, a single Tauros, a Vulture, a Vendetta, a couple of Valkyries and a Vixen (the small one). Infantry are converted Elysians, and stormies are heavilly converted Marine scout/Cadian hybrids, so I can flex my sculpting muscle a little! 

That's all for now folks, more to follow soon.

Green Light Means Jump!

Good afternoon folks,

It is once again time for a cheeky wee update from the desk of Dave, probably long overdue seeing as got these finished last week and just haven't had the time to upload photos!

Parachute 75mm Artillery Battery

First gun section

Second gun section

Command, staff and observer teams

Completing this final platoon now gives me something I've never had in over a decade of wargaming. . . A fully painted army! Quite pleased about that, to be honest.

The full 1750 points force

The astute amongst you (if he is here today) will note that I've rearranged the bazookas, moving them back to the company HQ. This is probably a more sensible idea as it means I can boost each rifle platoon with a second bazooka and double their tank killing powers. 

Well, thats it from me for now. Off to open the feldgrau now. Toodles! 

The Black Bull Rides

Afternoon folks, time for another update.

Finally got my tank troop painted up, and they are looking mighty fine. My original intention had been to paint the Shermans in this list as a troop from the 2nd Irish Guards, but after doing a little more research into Britain's armoured divisions I realised that it would be inappropriate to do so. Throughout the entire war, the Guards Armoured division were pretty strict about using their vehicles as they were supplied. They didn't up arm their half tracks with MGs, nor did they jalopy their light tanks or armoured cars; with this in mind, they certainly wouldn't have used cast/welded hybrid Firefly tanks. I needn't have worried, however, as the 11th Armoured division were certainly more than willing to add, remove and change things on their vehicles at the drop of a hat. So allow me to present to you No. 3 Troop, A Squadron, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment.

3 Troop, A Sqn, 3 RTR

Command Tank

A Tank

B Tank

C Tank

With the completion of the Sherman troop I've only got the parachute artillery battery to paint and then I can call this army done! And finally, before I sign off, I found this little gem on the intertubes the other day, and while its a couple of days late its fairly appropriate since Thursday was the 69th anniversary of the D Day landings. . .

Peace out folks!  

Picking Up From Before

Time for another update! 

Apologies for the last, very short, post. Was half way through writing it when I was summoned away so to pick up from where I left off, here is what I'm planning on for a 1750 points 85 Infantriedivision force.

• Company HQ with two panzerschreck teams and  panzerfaust command teams
• Three full rifle platoons with panzerfaust command teams
• Machine Gun platoon with two sections
• Mortar platoon with three sections
• Anti tank platoon with two PaK40 guns
• Fallschirmjager platoon with two squads 
• Schwere Panzerjager platoon with 3 StuG Gs 
• Artillery battery with 2 gun sections (using SS models)

The idea behind the force is that I'll be using a core of Heer from 85 division, with some mopped up units from KG Walther (artillery and FJ platoon) and 559 Schere Panzerjagerabtielung. Hoping to get started on this force fairly soon, once I've rounded off the 101st guys I'm working on just now. Speaking of which. . .

Mortar platoon

Airborne Anti Tank platoon

Also a WIP of the next unit on my bench,

Sherman troop. 

Peace out for now folks.

All Filler, No Killer

Good morrow, readers.

Quick and picture free update from me today; I've been away from my desk for the past few days currently house-sitting on the beautiful isle of Bute for the in-laws and due to the presence of a slightly deranged feline in the house all wargaming stuff had to stay in Glasgow. I was able to bring down both my source books, Market Garden and Bridge by Bridge, so I've been eagerly thumbing through those trying to decided on the 1,750 points force I'll be sticking up against the Allies. More than likely this will be a Grenadier force of some description, but we'll just have to wait and see. . . 

Bye for now!

Backshifts and Big Guns

Afternoon readers, time for another wee update from the desk of Dave.

This past week has been rather busy at work and, while the coming week is also busy, I've moved from business shift (9 a.m. starts) to backshift (2 p.m. starts) for this week. This means I've actually got a few hours to myself every morning and will be able to squeeze in a bit of painting before work. This morning was spent on my current platoon, taking them from the green base layer to what you will now see below.

Airborne anti tank platoon

At this rate of progress, I should get markings, metallics and washes done tomorrow, maybe even gritting and painting the bases (though no grass yet. . .). This, in turn, should clear the way to start on the mortars or howitzer battery this week, putting me on course to get the army finished by the end of the month.

Short and sweet one today, hopefully my next update will be a little more substantial. 

Bye for now!

Curahee!

Evening readers.

After about five, maybe six, minutes of agonising contemplation, I decided just to use the tufts I had left and get the third and final rifle platoon finished off.

Third rifle platoon

With third platoon done, I finally have the fighting core of the army, all three combat platoons and the HQ are now done, and I can finally move on to the fun (large calibre and high explosive) elements of the force. Now I'm really excited! 

Airborne anti-tank platoon

This platoon should be fairly easy to bash over the next couple of weeks, though at present I'll be unable to take them all the way to completion and put greenery onto their bases. Never mind. . . 

Another Day, Another Dolla'

Quick update tonight, folks. 

Back at work after my three week absence and, predictably, payroll have messed up and annihilated almost half of my wages rather than carrying the deductions over two pay periods (as they were meant to do). This means no new toys for Dave for the time being, which wouldn't be much of a problem if I didn't have half a teaspoon of Scorched Brown and less than two dozen grass tufts left. Chances are, then, that anything I finish over the next four or five weeks will be unbased, then I'll have a massive basing session in June. How exciting. . .

Speaking of the painting, I have almost finished the third rifle platoon, basing aside. No pictures for the moment though, as my camera cable has gone walkies. Will try and get something over the weekend, but in the meantime thanks for looking! 

FoW Goodness Sake. . .

A wise man once said "start as you mean to go on" but a slightly lazier man once said "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

I was planning to do this over the weekend but I've been talked into taking on some overtime at work so I figured I'd put an update on here today and actually give you lovely lot something to look at! As promised, today's update is the first of many that will involve Flames of War. This game is probably my game of the moment as it combines fairly simple rules and easily acquired models with my favourite period in history: the second world war. 

My previous efforts with Flames have been a little sporadic and over the years I've picked up a variety of models with little semblance of a plan, something which has resulted in an erratic and slightly incompatible collection of stuff. I an attempt to prevent that from happening in future, I've decided to limit myself to not just a single period or single theatre, but a single campaign. That campaign is Market Garden, and I'll be collecting and painting American, German and British forces for all the major units that took part. Additionally, I'll be putting together a large selection of terrain appropriate for battles in The Netherlands. All of that is to come in the future, and for now I'm just trying to do the impossible and paint a full and usable force (I've never once achieved this in over a decade of wargaming!). That force is as follows. . . 

101st Airborne Parachute Company

• Company HQ
• Three rifle platoons with three small squads each
• MG platoon with four MGs and one bazooka
• Mortar platoon with four tubes
• Airborne AT platoon with two guns, bazookas and jeeps
• Airborne artillery battery with four tubes 
• Irish Guards troop with two Shermans and two Fireflies

All in all this list comes in at 1750 points, though as I've only played two or three games of third edition I have no idea if this list will actually work. Guess I'll have to find out the hard way. A pre painted picture of the force is below, along with pictures of the platoons I have painted thus far.

1750 points list

HQ section with MG platoon's bazooka

MG platoon

First rifle platoon

Second rifle platoon

Currently have the third platoon work in progress just now, hoping to get them done within the next few days and then probably move on to some of the fun stuff.

Until next time folks!

Here. We. Go.

Again. . . 

I've had this blog up for longer than I can remember, maybe even longer than that, and in that whole time I've made a handful of updates, each one sporadic and unrelated to the the previous and often many months apart. In the main this has been due to my use of The Ammobunker as my creative soapbox, once I've updated something on there I can rarely be bothered to update again somewhere else. However, seeing as the interest in what I'm turning my hand to has waned on AB, and seeing as many of my favourite people just aren't posting on it any more, I decided to have another go at this blogging malarky to see if I could make it a little more of a regular thing. 

First, I suppose, I need to get the life updates out of the way. I moved house in December, from my old 2 bedroom flat to a larger 3 bedroom flat with its own loft. Pretty soon after the missus and I moved in it was decided that I should get my own dedicated space to work on my hobby; that space turned out to be the loft. At present I have a nice desk up there, along with more than enough space for two 6x4 gaming tables and sufficient headroom for Peter Dinklage as a regular gaming buddy (I'm 6ft 3, so this is a bit of an issue). On the hobby side of things I went through a phase of 40K at the end of last year and spent a fair amount on making my motley collection of Elysian models into a usable force but then I lost interest when bigger things, like walls, needed painting. For now, though, I'm very much getting back into Flames of War and I don't doubt that 15mm WW2 stuff will form the bulk of what I do over the coming months, possibly even the whole year. 

I'll be getting some proper posts up in the coming days and weeks, with pictures and sarcasm and whatever else my audience wants to see. For now, however, I'm buzzing out.

Dave.