Extra Life – Glory for Rome

Last weekend, Watts and I, participated in Extra Life. It is a 24
hour gaming charity to fundraiser for (in our case) Sickkids  Hospital.

First thing In the morning I start with this.

Took me about 5 hours to paint this unit (though I later went back to touch up a few things) – After that I forgot to take more progress photos.

Here is what I finish with.

Malifaux – The Guild

I haven’t posted in a while – with no valid excuse – but here are some Malifaux Guild models I pained this week. This is the Elite Division box set.

Camo Netting

I bought some first aid gauze a while ago to make camo netting. I decied to dress up the Jadgpanther and here are the results.

First I cut a big piece off, then I sized up where I want the netting to go and cut it into small pieces.  When I cut the smaller pieces I cut them a little smaller then needed, since,  I end up stretching them making them bigger. (by the way I bought the mini first aid kit at the dollar store so its not an expensive experiment)

• Then I used a green colour of choice (in this case Vallejo Luftwaffe Camo Green) and watered it down heavily.
• Then dabbed it onto the gauze – the dabbing is important, if you try brushing the paint on the gauze may pull apart.
• Then I tried to add some more camo colours by dabbing lightly some other colours (German Camo Medium Brown and German Camo Orange Ochre).

I then left the gauze to dry but (as per usual) got impatient –  so I took some paper towel and folded it up. I placed the wet, painted gauze in the middle and pressed out the water. I took a couple of presses to get it dry but it was great little trick. The down side was I had some colour changes occur and I lost the colour blends I put on top.

After the Gauze was completely dry, I carefully started pulling it apart. This step is optional but I found the gauze weaving too tight to look good for the scale

Here is one dry after I pulled it apart.

You can see there is come brown in there still.

The colour variation I was fine with but if you want consistent colouring, don’t be me, just be patient and let them dry.

On the bright side – What I did to fix the colour layering turned out well. Once I attached the netting to the model, I just took the colours I wanted and gave the netting a light dry-brushing.

Here is the Jadgpanther netted up.

This picture is two pieces. I just used a bit of glue on the corners to attach it – I want some section to be loose.

The only other thing I would want to do with the netting is add some small features like, small branches or leaves, but I dont have an available right now but its an additional easy step that really enhances the model.

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Before I tried doing the camo netting this is what I ended up doing with the panthers and some clump foliage.

The netting was really easy to make and is easy to do in any colour needed. I would highly recommended anyone try this, its a cheap easy way to add some “awesome factor” to your army.

Next week I may try making overhead camo stands to go with the special character, Oberst Ferdinand Gosewisch, from the Dogs and Devils book. I am trying out a list with him tomorrow at the Mini’s Day tournament, in Burlington – it would be great to model the camo netting.

Panther Platoon

I’ve had three panthers sitting on my shelf for about 8 months now, built, primed, and based coated. Well now that I am getting ready for Hobby Kingdom’s, Mini’s Day  Flames Tournament, I decided I am going to use the Panthers. (also since I’ve now got and SS-Panzer grenadier company Ive been looking at the SS list in River of heros, which require a Panzer Platoon and I dont have any Pv IV yet (crazy but true) it means I need the Panthers for those list too.)

Also about two weeks ago, I was eying a Jadgpanther and picked it up – cause they look cool and come with the ruined building.

Here are the pictures

I went with a hard edge camo effect and used the light dry-brush to really dirty up the camo and tone down the darkness of the brown. In retrospect I wish I had used a darker colour to do the dry-brushing with but these are very table top ready.

Now I am looking into the tactical markings – I know the basic numbering (from doing the 1th Panzer Division) but I’m going to do a little research and see if I can remember which Panzer division I wanted to reflect in LW (think it was 2nd Panzer division)

Also, I am going to play around with some clump foliage to add to the camo effect but I am always extremely cautious about  gluing things onto fully painted models.

More Infinity

Here are some more Yu Jing

Hacker

 

Infinity

A couple of guys have been talking about Infinity lately and after playing a demo game while at Adepticon we stopped at a local store in Chicago and I pick up some minis.  . . .  and here they are. 

Adepticon Follow Up

I’m now back from Chicago and I had quite the weekend.

Thursday

• was just the registration and a chance to check out the vendor area.

Friday

- Friday was the EW tournament with my 1st Panzer Division

• My first game was against a French Fusiliers company and I was attacking in Encounter. I rushed 9 tanks down the left flank and pumped a lot of MG fire into the infantry and gun teams before they had an opportunity to dig in or see reserves show up. I let my trucked Pioneers get hit by some mortar fire and lost that platoon, making the final results 5-2.

• The second game was tough, I attacked in fighting Withdrawal against a British rifle company ( with one rifle platoon, 1 Matilda Platoon, a French tank platoon, and a nasty 2 pdr platoon.  With the 2 pdr platoon in ambush I took a nasty two turns of shooting and decided flip to the other side of the table until the 2pdrs were pulled off the table. I did manage to take out the three French tanks with my Panzer II’s before having to hide with my remaining tanks. As my infantry moved up closer I and began to draw close to the infantry platoon but I failed a Storm trooper to force the Matilda’s to be within 10″ next turn and left me vulnerable to assault by his infantry. His next turn he did assault me with his infantry but only managed 1 hit, with my pioneers counter assaulting I managed significantly more hits, I would eventually fail a motivate but the assault but us both below half. I managed to pass my moral check but he failed his – choosing not to us his Company commander.  This lead to a turn 8 company moral check that he would fail resulting in a 4-3 win for me (the Matildas would eventually break my pioneers).

• My last game of the day was cauldron, against a French Recce Tank company (which is mechanized and had no infantry). The table we played on had a massive cathedral in the center of the table – I had mentioned to Watts  that I hope I dont play on that table – anyway he was pissed off about but put the objectives inside the building (again remember he has no infantry). He put his only platoon on one side of the building and I was luck to roll 5 and 6 – now because the size of the building I was deployed on the otherside of the building out of LOS and 4 inches already contesting the objectives. Also my deployment was such that his immediate ambush was totally out of LOS of me. He was really unhappy about the situation and was very vocal about it. His first 3 turns he did nothing, not even shoot me as I pilled in cathedral with my Pioneers. I spent my first two turns getting the pioneers into the building then on my turn three assault with out moving ( I managed to make contact with all but 2 tanks (I think it was 6 of 8 in two platoons).  The results basically were, I killed all but his company command tank at which point he packed up and left, 6 – 1 for me.  This one was unfortunate and was a soured win but the opponent was offered a chance for us to move to another table and he declined.

The Final Resuls were:

And I ended up winning a $100 gift card from Battle Foam (who make the FoW bag that I have) First place won a painted French Tank company. I used the gift card to pick up some extra inserts for my bag as well as a new small case (PACK MINI) which is great.

• I also picked up some Imperial Roman Auxillary Cavalry and commanders, which I’ll post pictures of on their own.
• I picked up the FoW tokens for my 1SSF.
• I bought the starting pieces of my new Bloodbowl team.

Saturday

- This was the MW 900 point tournament which I used a Panzer Grenadier company.

• My first Games was against an American rifle company in Encounter. This game came down too me using my mobility and heavy armor to control both flanks and slowly control my opponents deployment zones and not allowing his reserves to get a chance to dig in.  I made a platoon moral (need to use my CC) and managed to pull a 6-1 via company break.

• My second game was against a massive Soviet tank company, and the winner of the previous days tournament, I knew this would be a tough game. The Soviet force had 4 platoons – 8ish T-70s, 6ish Matildas, 4 BA-10s and 3 Kv-1e – mostly fearless conscript .  Two of the objectives ended up in forests and one in a river. I had my infantry holed up in the woods and my Kv-1e contesting an objective, with he two Brumbars in Ambush. Was a tight game and really enjoyable. He came right after my infantry on two flanks and kept the Matildas in the middle trying to scare the flanks my Brums. I managed to ward him off enough combined with enough bogs to hold on Dispite the KV’s assaulting me repeatedly the fact that he was only hitting me on 5′s saved a lot of infantry stands. By the time it was all done I managed to keep it to another 6-1. Ian found a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPqUHXs6jOc&feature=channel_video_title in the middle of the video you can see the table I had played on (and a bit of me discussing the game with my opponent)
• My third and last game was against my second opponent from the day before. This time he had an American rifle company and I was defending in Cauldron. It was an Urban table and the match was extremely hard fought. I essential spent my turns doing next to nothing just going to ground and doing my best to keep my men alive and trying not to get pinned. There was little exciting moments but the game went 12 turns on the last turn I had set up to prevent a last dangerous assault and then we called because we were 15minutes over time at that point. I had lost my recce and the brumms making the final a 4-3.

The final results were

!!! I managed to hang on for the tournament win (and  my opponent in the last game won second place) they way they do prizes is starting with best overall, the play comes up ans selects their prize. I my case there was another painted army as a prize and I knew it would be crazy to select anything but the army (even though I wanted some T-34s) it is and SS Panzer Grenadier Company box, including a Tiger, two Sturm tigers, and a 150mm Battery. I’ll post some pictures later.

After the tournament a couple of us sat down and played some Infinity a relatively new skirmish sci-fi game.

Later that night Watts wanted to cram some more Bloodbowl in so I slapped together my new Khemri team and the dice gods were with me.

My weekend results were 7-0 – hard not to say I had a great weekend.

Adepticon

I am leaving tomorrow morning for Chicago to attend Adepticon 2011. I’m excited to put the work from the last month or so to finally be used.

While I’m there I will have my eye on a few things.

Trafagar, BattleTech, and Infinity Demos

Warlord Games booth

- there is a wide rage of mini’s on my list from these guys –   28mm Romans and 28mm ww2 (Blot action)

Battlefront sneak peaks of the new books maybe

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Battle Foam some new trays

- I have the FoW case and it would be nice to pick some more infantry trays.

also going to attempt to do some sight seeing in Chicago – though I may be pressed for time

 

I’m going to try to remember to take lots of pictures and show anything cool I see.

 

Display Board for Adepticon – Part 2

Here are the finished pictures.

 

 

 

Display Board for Adepticon – part 1

With the amount of progress on my 900 pt armies and free time I’ve have in until the road trip I started thinking about auxiliary things I’ll need. Last year,at Historicon, I forgot to bring a tray to transport my (large) Canadian Rifle company. This proved to give me quite the head ache – this time around I won’t make the same mistake. So I started looking around and found the
extra pink foam I still had from building a Blood bowl Pitch (which I’ll post about later). I started brain storming ideas and layout. The main features I wanted were:

- had to be big enough to be use able for more the 900 points but smaller then the 8 sq. foot board I already have. (picture)

- had to have more the two levels so that it didn’t feel flat and static – I wanted the slopes to be
smoother and more realistic

- I wanted a road like area

- later decided  “I have to have a tunnel!” Here are some in progress pictures

The size ended up roughly 22 X 16

above you can see I started with a 1 inch thick base.

for the hill slopes I used 1/2 inch pieces

On the left outside walls I started with 1 inch base and where I wanted higher section I added another 1/2 inch but on the right side (where the tunnel is) I added another 1 inch thick section.

below – recently I’ve been using wood filler as my primary ground texture, however , I found two tubs of tile adhesive and thought this would be a good cheap alternative.

the appliation was easy – I started with paint plastic paint scarpers to apply it but quickly decided i need to get my hand dirty.

as you can see below – after the adhesive had dried there were a number of significant cracks. I was a little disappointed, fearing that i had ruined the progress but I realized I could use the wood filler I normally use it fix the problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be applying paint later tonight in the next test of the adhesive.