Gurkhas!

I spotted these on eBay yesterday and decided to add them to my Chain of Command / Bolt Action project as mid to late war opposition for my Japanese in Burma. These will be separate from my early war Malaya British project, which is using the smaller Perry figures, although I'd like to have a Gurkha contingent for that too, if they ever produce some suitable bits to convert the plastic 8th Army figures. Anyway, I will now have a couple of Gurkha rifle sections and a Vickers MMG team to start with but will add another rifle section and some more support elements, when I can find some  more good deals on the Bolt Action figure sets.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [19]

 

This is crawling along slowly but surely although I'd like to get more done each day. I've done the dry brushing over the basecoat and wash using Foundry Base Sand today. I've also painted the helmets in a basecoat of 50:50 Vallejo 921 English Uniform and 887 Brown Violet, as this looked closer to the actual colour than just the latter, which I thought looked too green.

 

The camouflage netting will get a dry brush with something lighter later on and the whole lot will then be re-washed in Army Painter Soft Tone. The parents in law are visiting for lunch tomorrow so I doubt I'll get anything done but, if I do, I'll focus on blocking in the rifles and water bottles in Vallejo 983 Flat Earth followed by the bread bags and water bottle straps in Vallejo 880 Khaki Grey.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [18]

 

The Japanese infantry have now been given an overall brushed wash of Army Painter Soft Tone and will be dry brushed with Foundry Base Sand tomorrow morning, once they've dried properly overnight. They don't look like much at the moment but I'm sure they'll start to come together once I begin painting in the individual elements like the helmets, boots and webbing equipment. I'm thinking of working from top to bottom, or vice versa, completing each bit with a blocked in colour and leaving the highlights to the end. This production  line approach might be a bit tedious but at least I can fit it in around the visiting relatives, who are now leaving to be replaced with another lot tomorrow!

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [17]

I was going to start painting the Japanese today but having sorted out the platoon HQ, three rifle sections and the grenade launcher section, it was clear that my quality control had been sadly lacking. A number of the figures had nasty joints and flash lines that I had missed before and several had patchy areas where the basecoat spray hadn't reached. I put it down to the stygian gloom of my garage workbench compared to the full-on summer light from a floor to ceiling picture window overlooking a beach in Brittany. Either that or I'm just getting sloppy?

 

 

Anyway, the evening has been spent trimming, sanding and filling followed by a wet brush basecoat 'top up' with Army Painter Desert Yellow. I've also experimented on one figure with an all over wash of Army Painter soft tone, followed by a dry brush with Foundry Base Sand in an attempt to define the details and soften the shiny monotone yellow of the uniforms. I think this looks promising, so will wash and dry brush the rest of the figures tomorrow, leaving them to dry thoroughly before I start on the helmets, webbing, rifles, boots and so on.

Chain of Command Japanese Platoon [16]

We've been out and about all day visiting places with the relatives, so there's been no peace and quiet, let alone any time for other things. However, now that we're back and the kids are about to go off to bed, I've been googling painting techniques and colours for the Japanese infantry platoon.

The best guide that I've found is from the Flames of War site which is obviously gauged toward 15mm but should also work in 28mm. I've packed a wide selection of Army Painter and Vallejo colours so should have most, if not all of the shades required. I also have a selection of the Army Painter dips to try out. 

I thought I'd try an experimental approach to fast painting too. I will set myself a time limit to paint up a squad sized unit of figures, from start to finish bar the tidying up and detailing. I was thinking of making this an hour to keep it simple, although I'm a bit worried that the various colours might run into each other if I'm not careful.

It's worth a try and, if it works, it will definitely speed up my output and avoid too much farting about trying to over complicate the whole thing. It would also stop my habit of wandering off half way through to do something else, which ends up with half finished figures and the inevitable mission creep. 

The aim will be to get the whole platoon, including the support elements but minus the tanks, painted up to a workmanlike wargames standard by the end of the month. I'm not too bothered if that means they look OK rather than amazing, as it's all about getting them ready for  base texturing as soon as possible, then onto the table for a game shortly thereafter!

Dragon Rampant Revealed

I'm really looking forward to this and love the final cover art that's been revealed over on Dan Mersey's blog. I'm sure I can rebase my 15mm HOTT skeleton army to create a fantasy retinue or perhaps I could do something more impressive in 28mm plastic?

I have a Mantic elf army that I bought at a bargain price for my now disinterested teenager a few years ago, along with a large stash of GW Lord of the Rings figures, so plenty of scope for a quick project next year after the rules are published. I also have my eye on those EM4 dwarves..?

Anyway, back down to earth it reminds me that I really should get on with the two War of the Roses retinues for Lion Rampant that I started to organise earlier in the year. I decided to go for 15mm as I already had the figures and it would be quicker to get off the ground, but I haven't even started yet!

Achtung Commando [8]

I've now finished the basing for the commando project with a FOO team, a second sub-section and a three man demolition team, ready for painting either at the end of the holidays or at some point over the Autumn. In total the force adds up to about 500 to 600 points in Bolt Action, so a good small starter force. It's ideal for the sort of skirmish gaming that I have in mind for this project, especially as I can spend some time painting them up to a decent standard.

I have a resin LCA landing craft to complete the raiding force but have also been thinking of getting another one or perhaps two of the new Sarissa Precision mdf and card versions, which are half the price of the Grand Manner resin model and look like really nice kits. I could also add a third sub-section of ten commandos to act as an extra support option in Chain of Command but this isn't really necessary if I stick with Bolt Action or the Five Core Skirmish rules.

The relatives are arriving today so I'm going to have to juggle that with the next part of the Summer wargaming 'to do' list, which will either be painting up my Japanese platoon for Chain of Command or painting up some of the Peter Pig 1/450th pirate ships for Galleys and Galleons. I need to get cracking on the Japs because there are loads of them but the pirate ships might be a more practical option, given that there will be loads of over-excited kids running about all over the place!

The Small Scale Raiding Force

I've nearly finished Commando Tactics, which was very interesting and full of useful information, so now I'm about to start The Small Scale Raiding Force by Brian Lett. This should give me a slightly different angle on the whole Achtung Commando project.

The SSRF was one of the early variants of the commando concept but, as the name suggests, was dedicated to low level 'cloak and dagger' operations rather than full scale raids, primarily operating in the Channel Islands. These weren't always very successful but did help to develop the commando concept.

This would definitely lend itself to detailed squad level games and scenarios, perhaps using the Fivecore skirmish level system, which I'm going to investigate further following a suggestion for commando raiding rules on a TMP thread.

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/144009/FiveCore-2nd-edition-Skirmish-Gaming-Evolved

Achtung Commando [7]

I had one of these when I was a kid and spent many happy hours playing D-Day games on the carpet with my Airfix British commandos and German mountain troop figures. I wonder how many middle aged wargamers did the same? Anyway, the gun emplacement set has recently been reissued by Airfix, which has given me a cunning plan.

I reckon that with a bit of modification and the removal of the obviously 1/72nd scale bits, this could be converted into a 28mm version of a small coastal bunker, ready to be sabotaged by my Foundry commandos. The drop in pillbox and radio bunker would be left off, along with the heavy gun, which could be replaced by a flak mounting or the relocated searchlight.

This wouldn't be difficult and would look very effective, especially if I added some 28mm scale features like sandbags, ammunition lockers and barbed wire. I was also inspired by what some scale modelers have done with the Airfix coastal defence fort, which wouldn't be as easy to re-scale but does give you a good idea about what can be achieved with some skill and imagination.

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/Airfix_1_72_Coastal_Defence_Fort_06706__about10271.html#p103995

Anyway, I think this is a good plan, so will see what I can find on eBay, where I'm sure I can get hold of a second hand gun emplacement set for a few quid. I also wondered if the mdf radar that Sarissa Precision have in their WW2 catalogue could be used in place of the gun, but I think I'll just try to use what comes in the original set, give or take a few 28mm bits and bobs.

Achtung Commando [6]

The weather has been really good and the kids more annoying than usual, so I haven't made much progress with the commandos, spending a lot of the time keeping the sprogs occupied. I have based up the first sub-section of ten men including a Bren team, the command unit of an officer, NCO, 2" mortar team and Bren team, and a two man sniper team which I can attach as required. I particularly like the sniper figure with his camouflage netting, which should be fun to paint up.

I've based everything on smaller round bases than I normally use, as the figures have quite small footprints and it looks better. I also ran out of the 25mm bases that I usually use, so the smaller 20mm bases are an ideal alternative. I'm hoping to get the second sub-section, a forward observer team and a three man demolition team based up today. Next week we have some relatives to stay so I don't expect to get much done but I am going to start painting the Japanese units for Chain of Command.