Battleground 2022

Hi folks,

A little late, given that the show was a week ago, but I thought I'd share some of the pics I took. These are mainly of DaveD's Vietnam game (more images can be found here). I did start going round other tables, but got distracted. 

We had a good show all in, nice to meet up with people and have a chat. More of an interesting mix of traders, but really still a struggle to find anything specific. I think a common discussion we have is that a lot of stalls seems to be re-sellers that are selling more or less the same stuff. 

Still, I managed to spend my limited funds on some Sci-Fi merc figures. These are a little smaller than my Necromunda figures, but I'm hoping they will do for civilians, etc. 

For the game, Dave had brought his 28mm Vietnam collection and was using a mish mash of rules he has been working on. The system is simple and quick, and uses a card activation system similar to Sands of Sudan. Effectively, the NVA/VC forces are there more to challenge and obstruct the players (who play the US). The game runs on a turn clock, and the US are time limited to achieve objectives while minimising casualties. So not so much a straight up 'versus' wargame. 

The basic premise was that a US Huey had been shot down, and the crew/passengers were in need of retrieval. A NVA snatch team had grabbed an injured officer and hauled him off to the village, while US and VC forces rushed to secure the chopper and evacuate the crew. Unfortunately, during the game the fist Huey to attempt a rescue was hit by an RPG and the US problems doubled.

Late game photo of US air support in action

One of Dave's Huey's on it's custom flight stand

Huey overflight of the village, looking for the NVA snatch team

Dave's impressive 28mm Chinook

Cobra in action

A Cobra and Chinook make an approach to provide support

US air support targeting NVA mortar positions in the village. 

The 3rd rescue chopper lands to evacuate the crew of the first...

US forces, with M113s advance on the village. 

A quick wonder round some of the other tables:

An impressive 20mm Sword beach game. I got distracted here talking to the owner about our own Normandy gaming, and afterwards forgot to get pics of others tables!

Cool flags...

An impressive built up game, with a castle!

Pony Wars - a game I'd played recently at the club

Necromunda Terrain project

Hi folks,

I had been trying to get into the habit of updating the blog regularly, but it hasn't happened. I think more frequent updates next year might be a small resolution, if only so I can track my own progress. 

Since the completion of my last Team Yankee Dutch unit, model painting has fallen by the wayside a bit. Instead, I was prompted by Amy's demand that I get a box of wargaming stuff out of the wee man's bedroom to paint some of the 28mm Necromunda terrain I'd bought in 2018. 

So far, this is where I'm at with it:

This turned into a bit of an epic project. The wall sections I'd purchased from 'Just lasered' were laser cut foam, designed to sit on the carboard tile sections of the more 2d game (as Necromunda was back then). 

However, Necromunda has evolved into a more 3d game and I wanted to replicate that. This meant adding walkways to the tops of the walls, getting more levels and finding a way to paint foam!

Thankfully, I discovered after a fair bit of trial and error that a coat of grey surface primer would work on the foam, and give a concrete appearance. Along with some black and brown washes and some green grey to more match the colours of the floor tiles, I found a quick solution. 

The foam walls came with greyboard details to be added onto them. These details I treated to a quick dapple of a mahogany and gunmetal paint, then a liberal coat of brown wash. These were then glued onto the foam.  

Using some MDF kit's I'd gotten a while back, I found parts to use as floor tiles for the tops of the walls, along with some 40x40mm bases. I also painted up the plastic terrain using the same simple 'mahogany brown' and 'gunmetal' scheme. Stairs from the MDF kits were a good height for the wall sections, and thankfully I've a lot of them as they work well and also provide cover, etc. 

I also added some plastic pipe sections I'd picked up from a cheap GW magazine. 

I picked up an industrial mat from DaveD, which matches in pretty well. Some home made bridges using MDF bases and purchased bridges from Pendraken, as well as some ladders from their Red Vector range, give a bit more of the old Necro feelings. 

I've also painted some of the doors from Just Lasered and picked up some 4ground ones cheap. However, I'm not happy with either solution so may buy some GW plastic ones in the future. 

I've a load of industrial barrels to paint, and some ammo/industrial crates for scatter terrain, along with a few other sci-fi bits. I've some more pipe sections as well, which have all been built to be placed against walls and provide more cover.

As part of the AHPC this year, I'm planning to get a couple of gangs painted, so have been building those models as well. My thinking is that if I have the terrain done, I'll be more motivated to paint figures!

I've tried to keep the terrain as stackable as possible, with things working well up to three levels. It becomes a mix of 'Sector Mortalis' and 'Sector Mechanicus' at that point I think. I do have some larger MDF bits to do, stacked cargo container dwellings, etc. I'm fairly happy with how it all looks at the moment, although I accept it's a bit basic!

My long term plan with this is to run a long, slow burn narrative style campaign with the figures I get painted. 

Finished: 15mm Team Yankee Dutch M106

Hi folks,

The third unit 'finished' from my recent batch of Team Yankee models. These take the form of a unit of three Battlefront 15mm plastic M106 self propelled heavy mortars. 

I believe that the Dutch only used the M106 armed with a 107mm heavy mortar as part of their recce units, whereas in Team Yankee the option exists to also use 120mm armed version instead of the towed 120mm mortars used by infantry formations. The justification being that as war approached the Dutch may have found a way to mount their 120mm mortars in these vehicles (or purchased the up-gunned version). But really Battlefront are just avoiding towed artillery in Team Yankee. 

While I have painted the mortars for this unit (the 107mm version), I've no issues with doing a 'counts as' if required. I do still have gun crew to paint, and the mortars to add into the vehicles. But the vehicles are tabletop ready at the moment, so I'm counting them as done. 

The Battlefront plastic M113 kit is pretty nice to build and paint. A cool and iconic looking vehicle that goes together nice and easily. I've another three of these in the APC configuration to paint for the recce troops transport.