Rain, Rain Go Away!

When it rains it pours... Why should rain bother a run of the mill wargamer/painter? This weekend gave me an opportunity to start work on my Panther Company (my girl friend buggered off shopping with her friend, her words). However, like the Germans advancing through Russia in 1943 the weather has slowed down my progress to a grinding crawl. The rain has an effect on just about every aspect of painting and can ruin plans for getting things done. How so I hear you cry? Let me Explain:

• Spraying in damp conditions is a nightmare. The spray can clump, dry misty and ruin the look of the models. Luckily I have a spray shed but I can assure you that running between my house and my shed in the pouring rain is not fun. It was also a huge de-motivator.
• Secondly, drying times. I don't know if any of you have this issue but in the cold and damp paint, inks and sprays seem to take decades to dry. This meant I have been jumping from project to project. In the long term this will be great as it means that I have continued with a lot of different projects but it does feel like I haven't done anything.
• Finally, light. The clouds have shaded my house all weekend and the gloom has distorted the colours. (I really need a daylight lamp).

Even through these difficult times (hose pipe bans are very traumatic). I did manage to finish one platoon of Panthers and a small farm cottage. Other projects I have flitered to were... Blood Angel Tactical squad, British Para Mortar Platoon and a Fortified Manor 15mm Pics soon!

Before I leave to set sail to hopefully sunnier climates a product review. I have brought some of the new GW paints to test them out. They are great! The new bases and layers work well together and GW has produced some wonderful painting guides to show which paints layer well to create blends. The coverage is good and if you select the correct colours the highlights can be made to look very subtle. The texture paints for basing are good quality but to me are not going to be a replacement for good old sand and flock. The do come in a variety of colours but I think they would be better for using as mud on tank treads.

Right I'm off brolly in hand into the deluge of  painting seeya.

SALUTE 2012

This is the voice of the Mysterons

Ahoy there. Welcome to another post aboard the Folly of War. This week I set sail for SALUTE 2012 for the first time ever. All I can say is wargame heaven. There was an astounding amount of different companies, games and miniatures out there. Highlights of this year was the giant game of Captain Scarlet which, brought me back to the days of youth watching the program with my dad on a Friday evening. I couldn't believe the detail of the scenery!

  

Dystopian Wars was also present and again the tables that Spartan games has were really inspirational. One table used all three elements of the game (Land, sea and air). It displayed a battle involving a beach landing on a central island.

Here comes the clowns. (EDEN)

New games that caught my eye were EDEN and Dropzone. EDEN (a french game) is another post apocalyptic skirmish game. The reason I took this game was the miniatures in particular the gang of psychopathic clowns and circus freaks (watch this space I may be getting some soon). The other game of note was Dropzone (released later this year). Now, I came to SALUTE having just completed Mass Effect 3 then I saw the miniatures of the ships for one of the alien races and my jaw dropped. I am not saying that Hawk Miniatures have ripped of EA but make your decision here (naughty). However I will be ordering as many of those minis as I can.

Knees not included

Finally a product review. Many readers will know I am a HUGE fan of Flames of War and SALUTE gave me the chance of buying a new Axis army as I only have Allies. Blood, Guts, and Glory has just hit the shelves and I really wanted to paint some tanks. Scouring the trade stands I came across the Plastic Toy Soldier Company (check them out here). An issue that many wargamers have is budget and Flames can be a little pricey when it comes to buying tanks. The Plastic Toy Soldier Company solves this problem. Money in hand I purchased two boxes of plastic Panther Gs for the same price as one of battlefront's resin boxes. The quality of these models is very good to high but as they are plastic lack certain details, such as anti mine paste and stowage. The sprue gives you options to make three variants of panther and crew. I have started to work on them using liquid green stuff for the anti mine paste and adding twigs and sponge for added camouflage. Overall, I feel that this company have got it spot on with the cost to detail ratio. These are perfect for any Flames game and with a growing product list (the Panthers have only just come out), this company will be making more of an appearance in my Flames purchases.

My Panther G with added camo.

There were so many wonderful things at SALUTE this year and I could have spent all weekend at the EXCEL centre. I recommend anyone to go as I will definitely be going next year. I leave you with a picture of one other small purchase all fear the mighty knitted Cthulu!

Fear his mighty button eyes!!!



Arnhem September 17th-25th 1944



The John Frost Bridge Arnhem



Back in Blighty and time for another inspiration post. My time in the Netherlands was short but I learnt so much. The main point of this trip was to see Arnhem and tour the Airborne Museum around Oosterbeck. For those of who are not familiar with this part of Dutch history it was the stage for one of the greatest military disasters in British history. During 1944 the 1st British Airborne were dropped 8 miles from what is now the John Frost Bridge. A brave few managed to avoid the German lines and work their way towards the bridge. These men (John Frost included) held the bridge for 3 days and 9 hours, only surrendering due to lack of ammunition. Meanwhile, back in Oosterbeck the remainder of the 1st Battalion became pinned down in an ever decreasing pocket of resistance. Finally, the paras were given the order to pull out. Battered and bruised the British (with the help of the Polish) retreated back across the river Rhine. Many soldiers were captured and hundreds more were killed.

British 1st Airborne Paras



Now, some of you maybe thinking what has this got to do with painting. Well those of you who have read early posts will know that I am collecting the 1st British Airborne. This trip for me was a fantastic opportunity to research the history behind the force that I am collecting. The museum had a fascinating collection of weapons and uniforms which, has given me a better understanding of what the uniforms should look like when it comes to painting them. Seeing the equipment has made me want to expand my 1500 point Flames Army to 1750 points (possibly 2000). Its amazing how an experience, picture or place can motivate you to start or continue a project. I've just ordered some 17 pdr guns to give me a bit more anti-tank power and also some mortars to lay smoke screens for my infantry advances. I have also managed to make a full Royal Engineers Platoon from a couple of mispacked Vickers blisters (they contained 2 pioneer carts!?!) and some spare paras.



17 Pdr gun



Arnhem itself was also an eye opener as it allowed me to see the lay of the land from a 1st person perspective and not just a table top view. It really makes you think about how those bog down tests and lines of sight come into play in the game and how they compare to the real place. Unfortunately most of the old Arnhem was destroyed during the war including the bridge (it was rebuilt and renamed much later). Now Arnhem is very modern but I still recommend a visit.

For me, hearing the first hand experiences of the soldiers during my museum trip really hit home and made me realise why I love Flames so much. It's not the game, the social aspect or the miniatures I enjoy the most even tough they are a big part of it. What makes Flames so special is that it gives me a chance to remember those brave few who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms that we take for granted today. Lest we forget.

Secret Diaries of a Zombie Call Girl.

Hello mid week gamers. I thought I'd do an early post this week as I'm off to Arnhem to see the streets for myself. I am very excited and expect to see many a photo and inspiration for another Flames Army. Anyhoo to the real reason I'm posting. My Malifaux crew of 25 points is complete. This has been a wonderful project and I have really enjoyed thinking about how I could make the links to Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Firstly, I would like to thank my girlfriend for the choice of colours that these ladies of the night are adorned with. I recommend that if you ever find yourself thinking about the colour of uniforms or clothing go ask your partners. Women's innate ability to choose the correct shoes to match their outfit seems to work in the miniature world too! Never before did I think that I world hear the words "I wouldn't be seen dead in that!" (pun intended) Followed by an argument about how a pink dress should be accessorised. Taking fashion advice for your models is worth doing as I am sure you will agree. So again, thanks Joolz!

I am very pleased with how Madame Sybelle has turned out. Based on the Queen of Hearts I spent a lot of time free hand painting extra hearts on the bodice and the fan. The flesh of these zombie ladies used a mixture of tallarn flesh and rotting flesh in varying amounts. This is blended with purple wash to give a translucent appearance to the skin. The skin was then given a liberal brushing of a mixture of the old GW paints chestnut and red inks. Their glossy finish gives the blood splatter a suitably wet finish.

Finally, I painted Alice using the Bete Noir model from the range. This gave me a chance to practise painting white in a different way to my usual method. Using the same technique of base, shade, base, highlight I managed to achieve the desired result. This model is very simple as there are not to many accessories on it. To give the model that extra something I added some extra blood splatter across the dress (you can't have enough blood!)

Well I'm off to explore the Dutch countryside hopefully 30 corp will make it to reinforce my position and bring me back in time for tea... Or maybe it'll be a Bridge too Far!

Wraiths, Paints and...Bicarbonate of Soda?!?

Gribbly Green Menace

This week has been a very exciting week for me in the world of miniature painting. I got my very first (proper) commission and its for a model I have been dying to paint for a while. I often find that there are models out there that I would really like to get my paws on but have no need for them in the armies I do. The reason for this project came about after a conversation with a colleague at work. I was talking about how I had started this blog and showed her some of the pictures of stuff I had put up. She asked me if there were any "Grim Reaper" models, as her boyfriend likes to collect them. At this point my eyes lit up and I immediately showed her the Cairn Wraith GW model. Impressed, she asked me to paint one for his birthday and low and behold here we are!! This is one of my favourite miniatures available at the moment and for a plastic (yes I thought it was finecast too) model the quality is outstanding. I've gone with an unearthly green colour scheme to give it a supernatural glow. This has been one of my more easier projects as the majority of the model is robe.

Woot!!!!!!

In addition to this exciting personal news something else has caught my eye with the up and coming release of the new paints from GW. I can't wait to get the mega paint set of these as they have increased the range to also include glazes and powders, its like Christmas, Easter and New Year in one! I asked a GW staff member why the change and he told me that: one, the company that will now produce the paints could increase the range and two (more importantly) the paints will now be manufactured in the U.K. Why is this a big deal? Well, in my mind U.K. manufacture needs all the help it can get at the moment especially in the current economic climate so all I can say is bravo GW.

Weapons of choice: Super Glue and Bicarb.

Finally, a strange one. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking to a chap about super glue (bare with me on this). I mentioned to him that I couldn't stand using the G9 spray rapid cure, which is very good but leaves a horrible smell making me feel ill. He said to me have you ever tried Bicarbonate of Soda.... At this point as I looked at him blankly thinking had I accidently walked into aa cookery and baking class. Many days past and the conversation was filed in the back of my mind. I forgot about it until yesterday. After, purchasing the latest Wargames Illustrated I read to my amazement that one of the articles in it suggested the same idea and that I give it ago.

Upside down Bete! 30 seconds after
Bicarb application.

So, I did. Having just bought Bete Noire for my Malifaux crew I set about the difficult task of basing her on the Wyrd Metal bases ( a nightmarish task). Wandering into the kitchen and rummaging around my girlfriends baking cupboard (she makes exceedingly good cakes) I found some Bicarb. Massively sceptical, I gave it ago and could not believe the results. Bete Noire was instantly stuck! Who would have thought it Bicarb the Rapid Cure. Try it out and you will be amazed. That's it for this week, I have almost finished my 20 point crew and will have pictures up soon.  I also plan to play a couple more beginner games with Animatronica, but if your ever down Heroes and Legends I play almost everything (except Fantasy, what the hell is a square base?) The new episode of Failhammer is out too, which are always worth a listen. I often find myself painting with it in the background. Right I'm off to super glue more stuff. Bye.

  

Tea, Medals and Wargaming!

The battlelines are drawn.

Friday night gaming comes round so fast these days. Another day another game of Flames of War. This time with a chap called Gez using his Nomandy Hitler Youth painted by Animatronica. So this time I decided to record the valent efforts of the brave men of the 6th British Airbourne. My last game against a New Zealander called Bob (a very common New Zealand name I'm told) went very well. So with my men's morale high we waited for the German army to strike.

June 1944 Somewhere over mainland Europe Major Tathem Walter waited in his fox hole knowing that somewhere just past the crest of the trees German infantry were poised to strike...

The sound of enemy artillery flew overhead slamming into the 6 pdrs position. Luckly they were too well dug in for the shells to do any real damage.
"Report in, Sir", saluted the runner.

"What is it Jeffrey, can't you see I'm busy, some of C company has just bowled their last over and they're out for a duck!", Exclaim the Major.

"Sir, reports of some of Barkmann's infantry are trying to take our flank!"
Grabbing his binoculars the Major surveyed the field of battle. Sure enough the enemy were making a break for it. "Well thats just not cricket. Artillery maximum effect on my command."

The German Infantry are destroyed. 

The light canverse offered little or no protection from the bombardment. The survivors stagered out only to be torn apart by the machine gun fire from the recon platoon that had just made it back from a routeen patrol of the area and had arrived in the nick of time.

Waving his brolly in the air in approval at their destruction, the Major now turned his attention to the tanks and the platoon the he knew were some where in the thick undergrowth of the treeline.

Pathers Attack!

With a roar, the Panthers had decided that enough was enough and moved towards the left flank look ingto create another German breakthough. This attack was led by none other than Barkmann himself. The Major watch the lead Panther drive head long into the cornfield...

Silence...

The driver had stalled.

"Thats a spot of luck", said Jeffery.

Barkmann Stalls

Unfortunately, for the Paras the 6pdrs were still reeling from the pounding they were recieving and were unable to capitalize on the driver's error. Realizing that the tanks were trying to create a gap in the British line the Major ordered his lads to move double smart and take out the armour before it was to late. Meanwhile, the recon jeeps were closing in on the objective but needed more time to make it secure. Artillary and machine gun fire were traded time and time again but both sides were to well dug in for it to make any real lasting effect.

"Get those guns back into position", screamed the Major.

With that the gun teams plucked up the courage and moved to their firing positions.

"FIRE!"

Barkmann's tank exploded in a gout of smoke and flame.

ATTACK!

"Howzat!" cheered the Major, failing to notice Barkmann and two of his crew escaping from a side hatch and disappearing into the corn field. With the main thrust of the German army in disarray and Barkmann heading back to his repair HQ to request another Panther, it looked like the battle was won. The Recon team making it to their objective cutting off any escape route that may have been possible. The Germans were surrounded 

"Well", said the Major, "Tea and Medals anyone?"



To late for the German Armour.

Overall, a really fun game. I did feel that Jez was a little unlucky as he rolled badly for a bog down check on Barkmann leaving him stranded and vunerable. This allowed me to sweep in and take both objectives. In hindside Jez says he won't be taking Barkmann in small pointed games again as he comes in at a whooping 300 pts for this army. I feel like I am getting the hang of the mechanics of this game and I can now look at working on the tactics. The scenarios are what makes flames such a tactical game. I can't wait to try out the others.So, don't just sit there get stuck in choose a force, theatre and theme and give it a go!

Its All in the Cards

Well all in all a busy week for gaming. My Malifaux Crew arrived and I got to learn the rules (a bit) at my local club run by the Heroes and Legends guys. What an interesting game! Its nothing like I've played before as it uses cards not dice. The idea being that you get the same amount of good luck to bad. You just have to know when to use it. Each player takes it in turn to activate a model, which makes the games very tactical. I was using Seamus and his Rotten Belles whilst Animatronica was using his guild force (Criid's Witch Hunters). Malifaux is not the easiest of games and I've learnt that I'm gonna have to play many more games to understand more of the possible combinations and effective tactics. However, both games that I played were incredibly enjoyable and I can't wait to play other Crews.

Seamus, himself is finished and was a joy to paint. As I mentioned in a previous post I wanted to him resemble the Batman Mad Hatter and I feel I have achieved this. I added a bow tie and a 6/10 card using green stuff and then used pictures from the game as reference. The base is from the Wyrds Graveyard base pack. A word of warning these models are a nightmare to put together and are very fiddly. When painting the skin I used the Eavy Metal Painting guides. If you can still get them they are brilliant and it amazes me why they stopped doing them in White Dwarf. Now for those of you who are squeamish stop reading now..........

OK.
Still there?

Well Seamus is known in the game for being very overly "friendly" with his zombie friends. I wanted to give a very subtle hint of this in the model. Using the old chestnut and red inks from workshop I painted a bloody hand print onto his chest. I felt that the model needed this as his stomach is very bare. Originally the plan was going to go to be a tattoo but reading Seamus' background I thought it needed to be a little more grim...

Now I'm going to finish the rest of the Crew and raise hell in the streets of Malifaux. Madame Sybelle is staring at me from my painting table (I've never been more creeped out by a model). She is going to be based of the Queen of Hearts so I will be free hand painting lots of little heart shapes...wooo. I'm also going to look for some dolls tea sets that I can add to the bases further reinforcing the theme of Alice in Wonderland. Well off I go for another week into the warp to do battle against countless enemies (or as some people may call it work).
Seeya.