Up In Flames

I just posted the first vehicle painting video in the Char Bis tank platoon box set from Warlord Games, which was so much fun to paint!!  Here's a link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce_sOQ2KCUQ

As you can see, I did this video with my standard acrylics, with a few twists.  I took some of those acrylic paints and combined them with weathering powders and water effects to create some fresh mud!  I needed this to dry in a hurry, since I needed it for a battle report just a few hours later.

Having painted a few of the Char Bi Bis in the typical French camo schemes, it was a bit jarring to paint this in Dunklegrau.  However, it is also interesting to see things in a whole new light.  It definitely made a familiar shape look far less so.

As usual, my Secret Weapon weathering paints and Reaper Liner paints led the way.  Those make glazing so simple and easy, and they can be mixed or thinned with nearly any amount of water and still maintain their color integrity.

It did quite well in that game by the way, halting a massive Soviet advance in its tracks and saving the Germans from being overrun!

There will be two more videos in this series (such as Bilotte's Char Bi Bis), which will end up on the Patreon Page for the $5 level:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The Second Front

The deadly battle for the outskirts of Nouvion continues!  When we last saw the intrepid defenders, they were attempting to push forward into the German line of advance to blunt their progress.

Despite the presence of the Panzer 38T and the anti tank rifle, the Lorraine transport drove right into the teeth of enemy fire and dropped off the veteran squad into the nearest building, obviously at the direction of the officer nearby!

The German forces now saw the convoy of Laffly transports coming up behind the Lorraine, and the deadly machine gun mounts on each of them...

Each of the transports had to canter to the right in order to take cover behind the buildings and reposition to outflank the tank, Hanomag with its own passengers.  They could only go so far at this point, since the light howitzer had still not been dealt with!

You can see what was waiting for the French troops here.  Not only was there a squad in the half track, another one was waiting in the Opel Blitz.

The howitzer had moved a bit to get out of the line of sight of the heavy French artillery.  This also gave it an improved line of sight to the street, preventing an easy advance by the Laffly transports.

As the light began to fade in Nouvion, the French officer decided that he must gamble anyway, and drove the trucks into the street to pour fire into the waiting howitzer.  Even if it could not be destroyed, they could at least keep the crew cowering behind their gun shield!

The Germans saw their opportunity to counter strike, and attempted to blast the Laffly WTC15 from point blank range!  Apparently auto cannons are designed to be used at much longer ranges, because each shot flew past the very relieved crew of the anti tank truck...

The Panzer 38T and the Opel Blitz moved well into one of the neutral sectors to score victory points and to machine gun the exposed French veteran unit.  A few managed to survive this barrage of fire, however.

The Opel Blitz drove as fast as it could to get past this maelstrom.

PinaPalooza continued, with the French units getting hit multiple times.  However, they were now well ensconced in both the neutral sector and even the German deployment sector.  

The enemy would be forced to kill them outright to tip the balance...

Even the mortar observer joined the march forward!  He could not see past all the advancing French units, so he almost had to move past them.

It was a very unusual method of spotting, as he essentially pointed to the howitzer just yards away and said, "laisse tomber ici, les gars!".

That's "drop it right here, lads!" to you Anglophiles.

As darkness began to fall, deadly hand to hand combat ensued as the Wehrmacht forces attempted to drive the French back.

But there were simply too many targets to remove all at once!  As night fell, the action fell silent, and both sides slipped away to regroup and recover.  For now, Nouvion remains in French hands.  Will it remain so?

Perhaps as daylight returns, new reinforcements on both sides will be thrown into the battle!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are hoping to make more regular "paint and play" trips to Grognard Games.  We think it will be a mid week thing, where we arrive early to play a game and then paint afterwards.

Once we get that settled, we will announce that on Facebook, etc

First, we have to do Reapercon, which is very close!  We will have Fort Wappel up and running, with plenty of live demos and mayhem!!

A New Battlefield

It's been a very long time since we have been to a game store.  A very long time in fact, close to 2 years!  There are many reasons for that, not the least of which the closest location is at least 45 minutes away in zero traffic.

That's not to say that there are not some very nice locations, such as Games Plus and Draxtar.  Since Cathy needed some new cards for Warhammer AoS Champions, we thought we would make a spontaneous trip to Grognard Games, and pick those up in person!

Lo and behold, a familiar face greeted us at the door, and it was a little like being back at the old GW Battle Bunker!

The layout was even more expansive than the last time we were here, with plenty of tables laid out with a great variety of terrain types.

I had brought along the French and German Bolt Action armies, along with the new buildings for Nouvion, which are still in the process of being finished.  It was really different to be setting up a table for us in a location that wasn't the basement!!

We thought this might be the appropriate time for Cathy's first genuine game of Bolt Action, with a real scenario, and an official army list.  She would take the German forces, since there were so many unfamiliar French units and rules to worry about.

The mission was Sectors, and right away the fixed artillery pieces set up across from one another.  The French seemed particularly interested in the grounded Stuka!

The French deployed an observer in the top floor of one of the buildings.  After so many games set in the Ardennes forest, it was quite different to be working with terrain this "tall".  Also, I had to start getting used to windows again, and just how many things can 'see' out of them.

It didn't take very long for people to start showing up.  In fact, by 6pm, every table had one game system or another in action.  The store remained full until we left not long before close at 10pm.  

It was kinda nice to see that much activity on a regular Wednesday evening that was not Magic related!

While the French had brought in a lot of artillery to guard the 'neutral' sectors, it would really be the German mortar team that would get off the most shots during the game.  Most howitzers and anti-tank rifles spent several turns in Ambush guarding key corridors of advance.

Knowing the Germans had the only tank in the field, the Laffly WTC15 Tank Destroyer waited patiently for its quarry...

However, the Germans did not oblige, and kept the armored car and Panzer 38T well hidden.

The Lorraine transport with its deadly cargo strode right up to the waiting anti-tank rifle and Panzer 38T, dropping them off into a freshly wallpapered building right on the edge of the Axis deployment zone and 3 points!  

It was still quite early yet, so time will tell if they will survive to claim that sector.

I have a how to article on the way to show how I created the wallpaper, so stay tuned for that!

Speaking of staying tuned, the second episode of this first Battle for Nouvion is coming up.  Can the French drive the German invaders from this village?  

Cutting off the Retreat!

Among the many pieces of recording that I am editing at the moment is the newest Bolt Action Battle Report... The Bridge to Nouvion!

This will feature several new elements, not the least of which are the new terrain features that you saw in a recent tutorial series here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/06/building-bridge-phase-1.html

I also tried out a few new vehicles that were painted, the SDK 232 armored car and the new plastic 38T kit from Warlord.  I painted that in a you tube live session here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Z-eAAb1lI

I sculpted a few rubber boats for the German forces to use in order to effect some river crossings.  You will be seeing these in future battle reports with much wider rivers. I wanted to give them a test first to see how I would have to arrange a rule set for them.

This battle had a lot of interwoven objectives on both sides, which is something I injected into the previous battle report, moving beyond just the basic scenarios.  The idea is to have mission goals for both sides that are so disparate that there is no way they can completely deny objectives to the other side.

In other words, you have to complete your own missions, as opposed to simply sitting back and preventing the other side from accomplishing theirs.

I was also trying to create a very chaotic battlefield in order to simulate the start of the Allied withdrawal from the northeast front.  The notion that the German forces are advancing from all sides, and about to cut off the retreat permanently before it can even get started!

The skies are not friendly over northern Europe either!  Who knows what kind of effect a strafing and bombing run might have on the Allied columns...

Results of this action will also be carried into the following report, and I am working very hard on that terrain.  You got a peek at some of it in the last battle report, Blood at Arras (already on YouTube here:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN4D64zH1k

Somua Strike

This was the first AFV that I painted for my original French Flames of War army, and then once again for my Bolt Action version.  It led to a lot of research, which continues to this day years later!

There were a number of very interesting Camo schemes for these vehicles, and I could not resist trying out this one. Here's a link to the first Facebook live session where it was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209905678852713/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Here is a link to the follow up episode:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209914909323469/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I have a lot of fun with the French vehicle color schemes, since the later war Allied vehicles are essentially one color.  While utilizing various weathering techniques to make those have more depth is also very interesting, the challenge of making something like this work is quite a test!

Many more tutorials are on the way, covering every era and theatre of the war.  You will be seeing many more videos on how I am approaching my Winter Soviets, so stay tuned!

You can see this tank in action in my Bolt Action battle report "Blood At Arras":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN4D64zH1k

Secret Weapon: Top Secret

During another great hangout on the Styrene Syndicate, I was working on a vast number of projects all at once, which is pretty much normal!  I was also trying to get a few more units ready for the next battle report, and this ambulance was one of them.

There was not much time, so I had to do this one quickly.  I brought out a few key paints, such as the Vallejo washes that I save for painting greenish vehicles in a hurry, along with the Reaper Liner paints and Secret Weapon Weathering paints.

I employed my usual system of placing the washes and wiping away the excess with the sponges and my larger brushes.  You can see this process under way on the cab.

Mixing in Blue and Brown liner every so often to darken or alter the color temps a bit, I worked towards the back of the Citroen truck (a resin and metal figure from Warlord Games).

On the canopy, I used a little more of the sepia wash, and made sure to scrub quite hard as I wiped it away from the recently painted ambulance markings.  The idea was to try and wipe some of those away, as markings on cloth/canvas can fade and crack away more rapidly because of the flexible surface, etc.

Then it was time to do a bit of dust and fading with the Secret Weapon Weathering paints!  This worked in reverse of the darker shading washes.  I wanted the lighter 'dust colors' to stay in the crevices where the canvas was stretched over the frames.

Again, this all had to be done very rapidly, so I could not employ the oil paints as I normally would.

I also made sure to have these glazes go over the top of the ambulance markings, which would give me a second type of weathering and wear on them.

I also did this on some of the stowage too...

Once that was completed, I needed to quickly apply some dirt and dust to the wheels and undercarriage.  There are dozens of Secret Weapon weathering paints now, and this one is quite perfect for that... and it just so happens to be called "Light Dust".

As before, this was applied mostly as a wash, and wiped away.  There were plenty of crevices and crannies to leave some behind!  The Secret Weapon paints are designed to 'flow' a bit like oils, and they are also meant to dry extremely flat, or matte.  

This gives them the extra bit of realism, as they match the kinds of textures you see in dust, rust and so on.

One more substitute... this time adding the dust paint with some weathering powders.  I just wanted to apply a few quick blotches of this here and there.  Again, normally I would use a set of mud products for this phase, but I only had about an hour for the entire painting process!

I went back over some parts of the tires with (you guessed it) Tire Black and a few other colors designed to use on tires.  They just think of everything...

After some spatter and a few other quick details, this was all set for the next battle report, The Bridge to Nouvion!!