Hot dice and lucky cards...

...is how you win at CCN. Or it helps anyhow. Bruce hosted me Tuesday night for a French v Russians match up. The French have some traffic issues and the Russians are in reasonable defensive positions. A fairly quick Russian win in game one so we switched sides.

I was worried about playing the French. But I needn't have. I moved into position and then jumped forward at double time on the right.

Yes Bruce, that is the hill I'm going to take with no losses on a single roll. It pretty much went downhill after that for the Russians as the French mopped up the right flank and managed to grind away on the left.

Continued unbelievable dice rolling made up for a card hand that started to crap up. Cavalry charge? But I've got no horses left?!? Bruce was a pretty good sport about a pretty awful and unfair evening.

Up next: I have some more 15mm WW2 French finished and more on the way. And then it is the club on Tuesday.

15mm late war French armour

A commission came in on Thursday--three WW2 armies in 15mm. I started on the late-war French at the owner's request. There is a mix of tanks and infantry and guns. Since the tanks arrived built--I painted them immediately.

There were three Shermans with 75mm guns. The owner had tricked them out with stowage and two had air recognition panels to paint.  There were also a pair of the Easy Eight Shermans with 76mm guns.

Although I find it hard to believe, I actually ran across a tank I have not painted before. These are four M18 Hellcats. These were nice models with crew in the open turrets.

There were also a pair of armoured cars. I think these are M-20 utility cars (I always get these mixed up with the Greyhounds).

Up next: Some gaming on Tuesday and onto some 15mm late-war French infantry.

Some scifi troops and fantasy ships

I've just received a fairly large painting commission for some 15mm WW2 troops so I have pushed a few things out the past few nights to clear off the table.

First up are the last of the 10mm Dropship Commander troops for Craig. These guys are the Scourge infantry in brass and green. I even painted the goggle lenses green, although these may be hard to see in the photo.

I also painted up a long-standing fleet from Spartan Games Uncharted Seas range. I'm not sure exactly where these came from (trade for painting?) but they are iron dwarves.

There are two big ships. I believe this is a chain mail class battleship. I adapted the existing paint scheme and aimed for a blue French look.

The one below is an unnamed battleships. I also have the rule book and will post the lot for sale shortly.

There are three cruisers. I decided to add some decals (numbers, bow names, a fleet insignia) to all of them.

There is also a pair of frigates and a heavy cruiser. I think the heavy cruiser is supposed to have a ram but it was not in the box when I opened it (looked broken off maybe) so I would treat it as having a pair of torpedo launchers on the bow.

Up next: Some 15mm WW2 late-war French, by the looks of things! Then onto some Germans.

Record attendance!

We had 21 (and at on point 22) guys out at the club last night, shattering the old attendance record of 18. It was quite show.

There were a number of board games, including Twilight Struggle and C&C Napoleonics. Dave ran something with Swords and Spears in 1/72 and there was also Warmachine.

A new game was Clay-o-rama which looked bizarre but the guys seemed to have a great time. It was from an old Dragon magazine, of all places.

Up next: Some 10mm scifi then onto some 1/1200-scae fantasy ships and I am expecting a large commission of 15mm WW2. Should be a busy autumn!

More 54mm AWI

Over the weekend, I finished painting up the lot of 54mm All the King's Men figures I picked up on TMP. These included a Washington general figure. It was hard to find a base big enough for his pose!

I also painted a cannon and four crew. The crew turned out nicely, I think. I quite like the subtle differences you get painting the American troops. No standard dye lots with homespun!

The cannon was a pre-assembled six pounder. I left the barrel brass colours (as I liked it) and painted the rest to match. I see many of the other pictures of this piece has it painted as iron. Oh well!

I also painted four command figures. These are identical figures but you can get a bit of mileage out of slight colour changes as well as slight variations in their orientation on the base. I need to find some 54mm flags for these guys. Had to fashion the poles from skewers.

Up next: I ma finishing basing Craig's scifi infantry and it is games night tomorrow!

More 10mm sci-fi

I've almost finished a 10mm Dropship Commander commission for Craig. These units are for the Scourge faction. Craig asked me to mirror a "brass" paint scheme in the rule book. That is a tall order as the craft paints I use do a crap job at metals.

After some dithering, I found a nice primer+spray copper. After a quick coat, I started detailing with a dry brush of gold. Then some sliver detailing with green eyes. Then the dip. Of course, the reflective properties of the metallic paint make it a bitch to get a good picture!

Anyhow, these look nicer in the end than the pictures suggest. There is some nice shading and highlighting.

The drop ships have flight stands but I have not put these one--the clear plastic will doubtlessly break in transit so Craig can roll the dice with that sprue when these get to him!

Up next: I am still working on six bases of infantry to complete the source force.I also have a bunch of 54mm artillery that is almost done. And the club is Tuesday.

Some 6mm moderns

Bruce had me over Tuesday to beat the hell out of me play some 6mm moderns using the Nations at War rules. A Soviet attack into West Germany in 1985 was the scenario and the Russian objective was the bridge in the top right corner. The bridge is small in this photo because it is a bloody long way away!

I rolled on to the board and lit up a bunch of German units in a small town. I was feeling good until the Leopards( with CO present) started to shake off hits and then methodically chop up my unit. What the hell?!?

Over on the left, the infantry rolled up a hill with some tanks and ran into more German armour. This held me up for a long time--those Leopards are hard to kill!

Eventually I broke through on the right flank, rolled up the road and... got smoked by TOWs and more Leopards.

Back to the left and the infantry dismounted to assault. I came close to cleaning out the Germans but wasn't able to break them. The double NATO activations were just brutal to watch. The good news was the next wave would soon turn these decadent capitalists into borscht-eating collectivists.

Up next: I have some 10mm sic-fi almost finished (just detailing and basing) as well as some 54mm AWI guys. And the club is Tuesday so I look forward to hearing about Fallcon!