US Forces Get Some Bods

Time for a quick post to catch up on some recently completed for my Konflikt '47 US Army. It's too late on a Sunday night to go into these in depth so I'll let the pics do the talking...

50 cal HMG and crew

Mudskipper Medium Jump Walker with Bazooka upgrade

And so you can get a sense of the size of the Mudskipper, here's a comparison shot with "Junior", my Coyote Light Walker from the US Starter Set. Disconcertingly, Junior is about twice as heavy as he has metal arms and legs as opposed to his big brother who is all resin.

That's enough show and tell for one night. Back to the AHPC IX prep!

Cheers,
Millsy

A Mudskipper and Walk

Some more goodness arrived in the post this week for my US Konflikt '47 force. Having already completed the starter set plus extras I'm now adding some flexibility and shininess to build things out to 1500 pts. Today I finished the painting on my Mudskipper Medium Walker, armed with a pair of light autocannons, a 30cal MG and a brace of bazookas. Another lovely kit and a joy to paint.

I've also got a 50cal MG team assembled and undercoated, plus a unit of ten Firefly Jump Infantry in the same state. This week should see those most completed I hope.

Given the weather is absolutely stunning at the moment (drought notwithstanding) I managed to convince myself to go for a decent walk just after lunch. It's been some time since I have been round the Shaw's Ridge / Blue Gum Swamp loop track near home so I tackled that, going clockwise which means I climbed up Shaw's Ridge instead of the easier downhill route. It's about a 10km loop and took me roughly 90 minutes with the odd stop for photos.

Eggs and bacon in full bloom

50m+ blue gum

Sydney sandstone slowly eroding away

Cheers,
Millsy

Konflikt '47 US Starter Set Part II

This week I have been plugging away at the twenty plastic infantry infantry that come in the US starter set plus a blister of metal command figures. Happy to say they are all done which means I have completely finished my first 1000pts!

Here are some quick snaps of the doughboys...

2nd Lt, offsider and medic

Bazooka team

Sniper team

1st Squad

2nd Squad

I have a unit of Firefly jump infantry, a .50cal MMG team and a medium walker in the post right now which will expand the force to 1500pts. Apart from an LMG, a flamethrower and a mortar that'll be it I reckon.

Cheers,
Millsy

Paint Table Saturday

Just a quick post tonight to prove I'm making progress with the US infantry...

Fiddly as all buggery to assemble but very nice minis once that's done. Painting is a breeze and with the block painting + tinted varnish method I'm planning to use they should be done in double quick time which I'm rather pleased about.

Enjoying this stuff so much there is every chance another force is on the imminent horizon. :-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Konflikt '47 US Starter Set Part I

Following on from my last post about starting a new Konflikt '47 project I have been beavering away at the contents of the US Starter Set (plus upgrades). I'm pleased to say I've made really significant progress and have finished about 60% of the material currently on hand.

The finished units are a Sherman-T (T for "Tesla"), Coyote Light Walker, Heavy Infantry and Heavy Bazooka team. I am super impressed by the models which are great fun to paint and very characterful. Anyway, that's enough blather... time to let the pics do the talking!

M4A9 Sherman-T, with additional historical turret option

Coyote Light Walker

Heavy Infantry platoon and Heavy Bazooka team

And finally some shots of the whole lot together

I'm currently in the midst of assembling my HQ, medic, sniper team, regular bazooka team and two historical infantry units which will round out my initial force. The starter set really is amazing value and with just two extra blisters got me to 1000pts! Hopefully I will have some progress pics of the infantry next weekend but they are VERY fiddly to assemble and are taking a load of time.

Finally, a point about the photos. These are close to the best photos I've ever managed to get of my minis. I'm not the best photographer anyway and always rush my pics. Not having a decent camera also meant things were much less than optimal. BUT I have a new Google Pixel 2 XL phone and the camera is unbelievably good. These pics were taken outside in natural light on a very grey afternoon. When my new light box arrives soon the sky is the limit.

Cheers,
Millsy

New Project: Konflikt '47 Weird War II

OK, so mistakes were made. The "no new projects until I've finished some existing projects" resolution kind of got lost in the shiny madness of new toys and interesting fluff. I'm blaming my mate Pete. Yeah, that's it. It's HIS fault.

I've always been pretty interested in the whole Weird War II thing but never had a sufficient reason to pursue it until Pete mentioned he'd been looking at Konflikt '47. That's Warlord Games' take on the the whole "What if things are not what they seem and WWII goes off the historical rails?" idea. A couple of days of reading and pondering and a US Starter Set plus a couple of upgrade blister were in the post. They arrived this week and today I finished painting up my Heavy Infantry, Heavy Bazooka Team (both in powered armour) and also a Light Walker mech thingy.

The models are absolutely lovely! Wonderfully sculpted, very characterful and they go together very nicely indeed. Painting is a breeze and great fun to boot.

So my first three units are done and next up is my M4A9 Sherman-T (the T is for Telsa! Woot!) which is already assembled and primed. It comes with a normal turret too so you can do proper WWII which is pretty nifty. Following that there will be some Doughboys and I will be done with my starter army.

Stay tuned for more goodness...

Cheers,
Millsy

"Nothing Ventured" Pulp Bonus Round Entry

So having achieved a podium place in all five previous AHPC bonus rounds (woot!) I'm hanging on the last round now to "collect the whole set" as it where.

This time around I've entered a tribute of sorts to The Lord of The Vignettes, Sir Michael Awdry.
Along the way I've managed to have a friendly dig at some fellow bloggers as well.

There's loads of other inspired entries so please head over and throw in a vote or three for your favourites.

Cheers,
Millsy

My Steamy Little Tramp

I'd like to introduce to a steamy little tramp called Jennifer Dee. We've been spending a lot of time together recently and I've really come to appreciate her fine lines...

OK, that's enough hinting and silly innuendo. The "Jennifer Dee" is a 1:56 scale model of a tramp steamer for use in Pulp / VBCW gaming and is also my entry in the Nautical Bonus Round of the 6th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Most of her is put scratch built using a range of materials, most notably blue insulation foam, various thicknesses of card and foamcore, timber and plasticard. The only commercial components are the anchors, bollards, life preservers and ventilators. These are all difficult to model quickly because of the compound curves so I elected to spend my time elsewhere because I knew she'd be a bit effort anyway.

Do go and have a look at all the wonderful entries and vote for your favourites while you're at it!

Cheers,
Millsy

The Challenge (Day 70); The Importance of Maintaining Focus (and the Concept of Escalation)

70 days into my first Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and while I'm not exactly hitting sixes with my output, I'm doing better than I expected (if not as well as I'd hoped!).

When last I posted, I'd just thrown my hat into the ring with my Nostalgia Bonus Round entry, Mark Copplestone's excellent 'Captain Spaulding' miniature. I flatter myself that I've been a little more productive since then.

So let's recap;

My second figure for the Challenge was the price of my admission, or 'Curtgeld' - each Challenger has been asked to submit a figure representing a risk-taker or gambler, and the wily Odysseus fits the bill perfectly. He's a Foundry casting by Alan Perry, and is part of their Mycenaeans & Trojans range.

Next off the table were two Pulp adventurers, again courtesy of Copplestone Castings.

The pulp adventure theme continued with my next submission, Bob Murch's characterful fundraiser for Movember, "Captain Krustache of Kashgar". The good captain has been pressed into service to represent a character in our regular Pulp RPG campaign.

Well, all this artisan-level derring-do is all very well, but it doesn't exactly help me reach my target of 200 points! So I decided to switch to painting a unit of troops instead.

These are Agema plastic Roman Velites, based with a North African theme for the Punic Wars. Lots of detail on these very fine plastics, and I hope I've done them justice.

That's all for the moment; it would be nice to try and produce another unit before the Challenge ends, but there are several skirmish-level gangs, warbands and characters competing for my attention as well, so who knows what will be next out of the box?

Stay tuned!

Ev