Wednesday, February 26, 2014

28mm Italian Paratroopers - Bolt Action

Like my gaming, my painting has also been doing ok for the year.  Just today I completed my first force for Bolt Action - a 28mm Italian Paratrooper force.  Completing this puts me on a good path to getting more painting done this year than last; quite an accomplishment in my book since it's still February.  Though I've only played one real game of Bolt Action, and I've never used this force before, I'm going to use it in a 1000 point tournament this weekend.  I figure it will be a good way to learn.  I've painted up more than I can use at 1000 points, but it does give me flexibility to configure the army several ways.  I have a commander with 2 riflemen, a medic, a forward observer team, a sniper team, a flamethrower team, 5 squads of 8 men, a medium MG team, a 46mm mortar team, an 81mm mortar team, and a Semovente 75/18.  All of the infantry are from Warlord Games; these are metal figures that painted up quite nicely.  My only criticism is that a few suffered from mold lines down the middle of the face...that's something I never can understand, no matter who makes the figures.  I am modeling the force after the Italian Para's that stayed fighting with the Germans after the invasion of Italy.  The Semovente is a model I purchased years ago as part of a collection and sold to Drunken Samurai only to get it back recently in another trade.  It is a resin model from NZWM, and I believe it was a limited production run as it is numbered "6" on the bottom.  I believe the NZWM line was sold to Army Group North, but I could be wrong.  It is a nice model that was basic grey; I've added the camo and some more detailing.









Up next for me on the painting front is some more 15mm WWII along with some 28mm Ancients and Medievals.  I hope to keep my painting momentum going and posting more frequently here too!

Shifting Sands 2014 - Kursk

My posting has definitely been slow this year, but my game playing certainly hasn't.  I've been playing a ton of Flames of War, starting with "Shifting Sands 2014 - Kursk"  that was in January.  "Shifting Sands" is a great event put on by the Arizona Desert Rats Flames of War group and this year focused on Kursk.  It was fun playing in an event where it was Germans vs. Russians (no blue-on-blue) which isn't something you always see when it comes to Flames of War.  I took a balanced Russian force with two companies of T34s, a tank rider company and a battery of heavy mortars; I ended up finishing 2-3 and well out of the running but I still had fun.  One thing I noticed (sadly) is that with the exception of a couple of StuG companies and a few Panzer IIIN's supporting Tiger's, there weren't any forces based on Panzer IIIs or IVs for the Germans.  There were German forces with Panthers, Tigers, Ferdinands and Brumbars a plenty.  I did manage to kill a Tiger in I game...when my best AT can only bail it from the side/rear, I consider that a huge accomplishment.  Thanks to TJ and crew for running this year's event & I look forward to participating next year.

One of the tables I supplied...
 The other table I supplied...
 Robert's table (Drunken Samurai)
 Tim K's table (Cursed Treasures Blog)
 I think this is Cliff's table...
 I think this is Mark's table...
 The first army I faced...SS T34s!
 Nice large venue...
 Another shot of the venue...
 The rest of these are shots of some of the armies.  I took more pictures, but some didn't come out so well.


























A few weeks after Sands I participated in another themed FOW tournament, Market Garden, and used my 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade force.  I ran it as all infantry and hoped that the Night Attack rule would help me out; no such luck as I got swept...I have to stop bringing knives to gun fights!  Mercifully, I didn't take any pictures so I don't have to relive the drubbing I suffered.  Themed events are a fun way to get in some historical based games and I really enjoy them; the next one on my "to do" list is the D-Day event for Fortress Las Vegas that's happening in June...I love Vegas, so I'm definitely going to be there.