Slow Progress

So, I totally blame Ghost Recon Wildlands for my slow progress. I finally caved in to buy it when it hit the 1/2 price mark, and it was actually quite enjoyable to play (once you just accepted that it is everything but a military tactical shooter...).

Anyway, you are not here to read my ramblings about video game!

I did some more work on the Magach:

And I also finally put together Natalya Federici and the Protos Avatar, to be painted for a Femme Fatale challenge on the German forums:

And I prepared the 6mm Sd Kfz 251/1 and some vehicles for a CO base for painting:

Last, but not least, and to prove that the name of this blog is accurate, I joined a facebook group of local Epic 40K players. I don't have a proper Epic army, but I know that there is a lot of excellent miniatures out there!
My favorite idea so far is an Emperor's Children army (NetEA rules) using Onslaught Miniatures' Hellborn Fallen Sisters.

Marines

Raptors

Havocs

Terminators

Noise Marines

Demons

For vehicles, I prefer Vanguard Miniatures' Novan Elites range (although I would have to convert them to the dark side).

Rhinos

Land Raider

Well, that's all for today.
(And did I mention that I just bought Horizon Zero Dawn?)

New Beginnings

Hello,
as you might know I recently moved to a new place. That was the main reason why I haven't done a lot of hobby stuff lately, but now that we are settled in to our new home I have to sort out my hobby room!

(Well, I have to share it with the wife's sewing machine and knitting supplies, but that's a small price to pay, isn't it?)

I thought that would be a good opportunity to show some of my collection, although very little of it is actually finished.

Let's start with some 6mm Cold War Commander armies, i.e. Syrians, British Army of the Rhine and IDF:

Next, most of my Bolt Action armies: 8th Army, Early War Soviets, Hungarians and Late War Germans

 As you can see there is a lot to do, I need to paint/repair a lot of the 8th Army vehicles, and the Soviets should get some reinforcements soon since we are going to have a big Bolt Action battle again at the start of December. In the background you can just make out a GAZ AA, Komsomolet and some Black Tree Design infantry.
Well, and the Hungarians and Germans are not even half painted... One day I will finish the 44M TAS and Rohamloeveg in the fictitious ambush camo pattern I want.

I also plan to venture into 1/35th territory:

I love IDF armor, and the Meng Production figures are awesome! I hope I won't get too annoyed by the tracks with multiple pieces per link...

I also decided to expand my 6mm Germans for Blitzkrieg Commander:

I guess a fine drill and some steel wire are in demand to fix these barrels... Anyway, I am planning to paint those units and some infantry as part of a P500 on the German Tabletopwelt forum. This is a nifty little event they have every year in which you pledge to paint a full army with each 500 points block being finished in 6 weeks. It's a great way to get feedback and motivation, and I think this kind of "pressure" is very good to get me doing something. And since one of those Jagdtigers is already worth 280 points, I also decided to double the points per block to 1000. More about this project soon, it starts on November 1st!

Tanks and Dogs

A couple of days ago the last block of the summer project ended, so I was busy painting tiny tanks.

In addition to the Tiger IIs I painted a whole lot of other vehicles, too. Most of them were planned as bonus miniatures for previous blocks, but I didn't got around to take car of them:

Front: Sd Kfz 234/2 Puma, Tiger II (Prosche turret), Kübelwagen, 2x Sd Kfz 251/7 and a Sd Kfz 251/16
Middle: spare Porsche turret, 3x Tiger II (Henschel), 3x fuel trucks
Back: 3x Tiger II (Henschel), 3x Whirlwind AA SPG

The Tiger II with the broken barrel is the one I tried to fix... Maybe some two-component glue will help.

This weekend we are going to have a "bring & buy" event at our local club. I was rummaging thorugh my hobby cabinet to figure out what can go (bye, bye, Bolt Action Italians...) when I found quite a few things I can use for Frostgrave.

For example Hamlet from Hasslefree Miniatures, who will be a very good War Dog:

I also found a whole lot of Wreck Age miniatures, including a pack of dogs:

Those are much smaller than Hamlet, but I think if I put two of them on one base it schould work out quite fine.

Last, but not least, a Reaper Miniatures Genie.

This one will be useful as a summoneed demon or for the magical lamp scenario from the rulebook.

There is a bunch of stuff from Harwood Hobbies' Sinbad range, too.
Some pictures of the actual miniatures in the next post. I promise ;)

Summer Project - 6mm Late War Germans

My forum of choice is the german-language Tabletop Welt, although it started to struggle about year ago after a sub-optimal software update and a change of ownership which came with a new staff of admins and moderators, too.

Anyway, some of my favorite things about this forum are the Project 500 and the Summer Project.

Both are friendly painting competitions aiming at motivating gamers to finish a project within a given timeframe. The Project 500 usually runs from November to April and includes 4 "blocks". Each block is 6 weeks long and participants are supposed to paint at least 500 points of miniatures within each period. So after 4 blocks you'll have painted 2000 points. There are slightly different point limits for different systems, but over all the 500 points work for most games.

There is nothing at stake, you just do it for fame and glory and the motivation.

The Summer Project is a "Project 500 light" and only runs from June to August with three blocks of one month each. And because people are less likely to spend a lot of time painting when it is 35°C outside, you only have to paint any 6 miniatures to pass a block.

My summer project for this year is 6mm late war german armor for Blitzkrieg Commander (or Spearhead, which seems to be more popular around here). More precisely Kampfgruppe Peiper of Battle of the Bulge "fame".
The local wargaming club bought a huge collection of 6mm WW2 miniatures from somebody and sold it to the members for very little money, so I was able to get around 120 vehicles for 25 US-$. And they still made a bit of profit from that! The quality ranges from GHQ and CinC to things somebody might have carved out of a block of lead with his bare hands.
But after some sorting and paint-stripping I am very happy with this purchase ;)

So painting six 6mm vehicles in a month isn't much of a challenge, especially when it is not 35°C outside (I live in the southern hemisphere and rather have the problem that I can't go outside to use spray cans due to rain and/or frost). Anyway, it is a nice motivation to sit down with a brush at least every other week and get some painting done.

My project is roughly based on the marching order of Kampfgruppe Peiper. It was lead by the 1. Abteilung SS Panzerregiment 1 with Panthers and Panzer IVs, followed by the SS Panzergrenadierregiment 2 and all the way at the end, the Tiger IIs of Schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501 (Peiper didn't believe that these massive tanks could navigate the narrow forest tracks with sufficient speed and was actually not too enthusiastic about having them in his force).

The first two blocks are finished by now:

Block 1 consists of a CO element (Panther and Sd Kfz 251), three Panthers and six Panther IV H/J.

Block 2 has a HQ element (Sd Kfz 250 and Schwimmwagen), 3 Sd Kfz 251, 3 Maultier halftracks and 3 Grille SPGs.

The final block will be another HQ element (Tiger II and Kubelwagen) and 6 Tiger IIs.

I quite enjoy painting those tiny miniatures. In the past I painted modern Syrians and IDF as well as some 1980s BAOR in 6mm, and it is much more fun than one expects!
Another interesting part is that late war german vehicles offer quite a lot of variety in color. Base color can be sand, olive green or oxide red, depending on production date. Most vehicles show a simple striped camouflage or the rather elaborate "ambush" pattern, but mixing in some less often used schemes is a nice way to make painting more interesting and challenging (all patterns shown are "authentic", although some have been borrowed from Eastern Front units).

Half way through the final block I only managed to put base color on the Tiger IIs, partly because I spent some time trying to replace the rather "bendy" gun barrels (don't try it. It is a horrible idea and you will curse yourself for even trying...).

Also shown are three Wirbelwind AA tanks and a Kettenkrad. The turrets are not primed yet, but I will paint seven Krupp-turrets and three additional Porsche-turrets for variety.