Cyclops - monsters for the Greeks

For the Greek Kings of War/Dragon Rampant army I picked up some Dark Alliance Cyclops - soft plastic miniatures. So with a little slap-chop I have got them painted. 

Overall they have come out fairly well - i think. But i perhaps should have dry brushed a little more before applying the speed paints. These will be classed as ogres for game purposes - hopefully they will get the table soon … but probably won’t. 

Morts

Stugs

I have repainted some STUGs for the WW2 games I might play in the future (I real need a room that has a table set up in it, so I could play games over a couple of weeks … but that really needs a lottery win, so isn’t likely to happen). 

I think they look pretty good - but I have to decide if am going to numbers on them. The ones I have are on the sheets in the picture, which look a little big for them to be honest. They are BPM 15mm numbers, but I don’t think they will look right. Perhaps I will look to see if Victrix 1/144 will fit better. Then they will need varnishing and some weathering. 

Morts 

A couple of games

On Friday the BND invited Steedo, DK and myself over for a game. After a brief discussion Colditz was chosen. This is an old seventy’s game that Osprey have reissued - with very nice production quality. 

BND was the guards, Steedo the US POWs, DK the British POWs and I was the Dutch POWs - we had 42 turns to escape - well get 2 POWs out of the castle… they might have had to be of the same colour, but I can’t remember. 

The game has quite clean mechanics - collect stuff needed for an escape and avoid the guards. It plays fairly quickly and is pretty enjoyable, and I would play again. But the BND with the guards won - he did some very good placement of his operatives, but I felt it was too easy for guards to come back into play - so possibly we were playing there return rule incorrectly (in fact I’m sure we were - as they should be able to return on the turn they arrest a POW). Also the rules for POWs getting out of solitary although simple can be frustrating - you just had to roll a double … for a number of turns all of my operatives were in solitary and I could roll a double, so not much to do - possibly a house rule is needed for that situation. It didn’t help that BND had positioned guards so you basically got arrested as soon as you got out of solitary.  Anyway a cracking evening of fun - “this time the war was over for you Tommy” (well DK got one Brit out). 

On Saturday, I met up with an old university friend - MickyT, to watch the mighty Grecians play Charlton. MickyT had managed to snag hospitality tickets which was very nice. Lunch and interviews with the manager and a player. 

It was a good game - the first half saw Exe with the best of the possession and territory, but unable to take advantage. Charlton had the best chance, but it was well saved by the keeper. So 0-0, was fair, although Exe did shade it. The second half saw Charlton come out with more intent - however Exe managed to score (in one of their few visits to the Charlton penalty box), this was quite early in the half. This obviously made Charlton push harder for an equaliser - they certainly tried hard, and put a number of shots just wide of the uprights … had a shot cleared off the line. Exe rode their luck as they couldn’t put together any consistent possession of the ball - 1-1 would probably have been a fair result, but football isn’t always fair and Exe held on for the win. 

A cracking game, with the bonus of a free lunch, cake, coffee and pasty … and padded seat -  I like hospitality. 

Morts

Shermans finished - at last

The decals arrived from Bulters Printed Models - nice they are too - although each you have to cut each individual symbol out as they are printed on one sheet, probably why they were cheaper than the FOW ones - but I do have lots of choices. I haven’t used the divisional markings - I was hopping the 4th or 8th Armoured Brigade - but they weren’t on the sheet. 

The 4 British tanks - pretty pleased with these. Put stars in circles on the rear deck - which is generally how the British displayed the allied star. 

The US tanks with stars on the turret - put on the weight symbols - I only did light weathering on the tracks and hull. 

Better paint some Germans next - probably stugs (as I have 3 to repaint from dark grey to the classic Normandy/late war scheme). 

Morts

Shermans Painted

I have finished painting the Sherman tanks I put together at the weekend. Two British and two American - just waiting for the decals to arrive (should be tomorrow).

The darker green British M4A1 Shermans with sand guards. The jerry cans are stuck on the front guard, as I saw this on pictures from Normandy when I was checking if the British used the cast hull M4A1 model. These are probably a bit too dark … but nevermind - I might have to get a Churchill tank.

I think these M4A3 Shermans have come out rather well - so hopefully that bodes well for the other 6 or so tanks I have to paint - I am looking forward to finishing these off with the decals and some light weathering. 

Morts 

Sherman tanks

So I have been struggling with Sherman tanks - especially with having painted the 3D printed Firefly and Cromwell. In the Hit the Beach Set you get 8 Sherman tanks - all with cast hulls M4A1s, which the British didn’t use that much … I also had 2 M4A3 hulls from the Tanks set I picked up - So I was thinking of using the M4A3’s as the basis of a couple of British Shermans - again the British didn’t use that version very much either. 

However, I did find this https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=6634  

So I decided to make 2 British M4A1- with sand-guards for the 8th (or 4th) armoured brigade. Top picture. The US Sherman tanks won’t have sand-guards when I build them.

While I was building the British Sherman I thought would tidy up the M4A3 Shermans which came with the tanks. The bottom picture shows an up armoured Easy8 (like Fury) on the right and a standard M4A3. 

Morts 

Voidscarred Corsairs - Completed

I have finished the last 5 of the Voidscarred Corsairs.

The leader - called a Felarch. 

A Corsair warrior (another head swap on a guardian) and the sniper - Fate Dealer.

The Starstorm Duelist (2 pistols) and a Kurnite Hunter (has a Faolchu bird thing - which allows the corsairs be able to see a concealed enemy). 

Mainly done with speed/contrast paints - which are pretty useful, still trying to get the best out of them. I plan to paint my Celt/barbarian army with them. 

As to 40k stuff - there is the 3rd edition of kill team out - but at the rate I have been playing games, I will probably stick with 1st and 2nd editions - I do plan to have a play with the One Play Rules for Kill Tram and 40k. I have the space marine captain in terminator armour to do (and possibly some more skitari to do - I picked up some bodies cheap off LAF and have some spares from previous purchases - might just be a squad of 5 vanguard). 

Morts