Accepting the Challenge

Although the assembly of hte Pegasus Bridge brought me some sleepless nights, it will be finished this week I presume. Of course it needs to be painted afterwards but probably not before March, because I'm in Curts annual painting challenge this year (more information here) !

For me it's the first time to join Curt's challenge and I'm a rather slow painter. So I have to plan my tasks very carefully. Of course I have nothing to loose but I want to take the challenge rather realistically. Anyway my main goal is to pass all seven bonus rounds:

22nd December 2013 "Non-Combatants"
→ AWI Camp Scene (28mm)

05th January 2014 "Villain"
→ Warhammer 40K Genestealer Broodlord

19th January 2014 "Vehicle"
→ 20mm Tank, probably Panzer III or Panzer IV

02nd February 2014 "Hero or Heroic Group"
→ 2nd Light Btl KGL at La Haye Sainte (28mm)

16th February 2014 "Casualties"
→ Death of Col. von Ompteda near La Haye Sainte (28mm)

02nd March 2014 "Favourite Character"
→ Field Marshall Montghomery (28mm)

16th March 2014 "Last Stand"
→ Old Guard at Plancenoit (28mm)

In summary I hope to reach between 450 and 500 pounts thereby. Of course there are some other project running simultaneously but I'm not sure how much they'll add to the calculation. Most important there is the unit of redcoats for "Bloggers for Charity" which must be painted until February.

However I'll take the next two weeks to prepare as much of my lead mountain as possible to be ready for the challenge. Maybe I'll succeed in making all the figures for the bonus rounds ready. I don't want to waste too much precious challenge time for deflashing or priming the figures...

Cafe Gondrée and pillbox assembled

Last weekend I didn't paint anything but I took the time to examine the contentes of the Pegasus Bridge set a bit more carefully. In other words I started to assemble the kits.

Since those were my first MDF kits I decided to start with the presumably easier buildings: The Café Gondrée and the pillbox.

The instructions proved to be short but absolutely adequate and I finished both buildings after about three hours. What really elated me was the excellent accuracy of fit which the laser cut parts have. In both kits there was only one part which needs some further treatment but anything else is absolutely fine.

But now for the two buildings in detail:

Cafée Gondrée

The Café Gondrée was and is near the western bank of the Caen Canal just near the approach of the Pegasus Bridge. Supposedly it was the firstly liberated, French house in June 1944 and temporarily it served as sick bay after the success of Operation Overlord. It's still operated by the Gondrée family and one of the major places to go for visitors who are interested in the events of June 1944.

The kit consists of three or four sheets of MDF parts and one sheet of laser cut cardboard for the window shutters. It is well detailed and represents all features of the building as it is conseerved today as well as it is pictured on coeval photographs. Although I haven't checked the dimensions yet the model seems to be rather good in scale. The assembly went well and without major problems. All parts fit very well together. Singly with the shutter of the lower right window you have to be careful since it's smaller than those of the other windows at the front. Actually the windows on the side have that narrow shutters as well. The only point where parts didn't fit perfectly is the side gablet on the right hand side of the front. Probably the roof framework got slightly out of place when I glued it together. Therfor a gap of about 1.5mm formed between the slanted part of the roof and the straight one. So be careful there. I'll have to fill this gap with greenstuff or Miliput.

The Pillbox

This fortified building stood near the eastern approach of the Pegasus Bridge. Actually it was the cellar or basement of a larger building which was pulled down earlier during the war and then converted into a fortified position. Likewiese the parts of this kit fit together perfectly and it was a pleasure to assemble it. Although it seems to be well in scale - as far as judgeble from the only photo I know (here) - the ceiling is too low to place standing models inside. I presume the real basement would dig deeper but the kit is obviously limited by the baseplate. Anyway I left the top unglued to enable access to the insight. Probably I'll install some sandbags on to of the building to create another position there inspired by the coeval photograph mentioned above. Unfortunately there's nothing left of the building today.

Well... Those were the first two buildings of the set and assembly was great fund. I hope to procede equally good when painting them. 

The bridge itself is much more complex. I started with the kit on saturday and finished several parts of it but nothing coherent yet. I'll present it as soon as possible. Anyhow it's the very next project to be finished on my workbench. I want to have that done before Curt's Painting Challenge starts. Luckily I got one of the last entries for it and I don't want to be sidetracks during that quarter of the year. But more on this later...

Pegasus Bridge unboxed

Lately I received my copy of Warlord Games' huge Pegasus Bridge set. It was a bit like Christmas when I got the large, heavy parcel and I was really curious what the boys from Nottingham boxed.

But first of all I weighted the box and with about 4.6 kg or more than 10 lbs you get a lot of bang for your buck:

After opening the box my expectations were completely fulfilled. There are four bundles of laser-cut MDF parts for the bridge itself, the Café Gondrée and the pillbox near the bridge approach. Additionally there are the appropriate construction manuals, some resin parts and a couple of figures:

More precisely there are enough sprues to build up twenty German soldiers, a 55mm gun, a MG-42 team and thirteen twelve British paras and the exclusive Major Howard miniatures which is only available with the Pegasus Bridge battle sets:

The figures are from Warlord Games' usual range and have the well known quality. Especially the metal miniatures are excellently detailed, slender and depict lively poses. The casting quality is appropriate. There is little flash and no major faults. In fine: I like those Red Devils a lot.

The Germans look very well too. The metal miniatures bear the same qualities as their British counterparts and are as good as these. The plastic reinforcements are multi-part miniatures. That make them very flexible on the one hand but requires some additional work for cleaning several parts and glueing them together. Although I'm about to turn away generally from platics for this reason, the late war Germans from Warlord Games look very well. A lot of interesting head and weapon options and the advantage of easy conversions.

Additionally there are some resin parts for entrenchments. A gunpit for the 55mm gun and two sandbag pieces for the MG-42 nest. All three in excellent quality but unfortunately the gunpit has a large sprue bush on the bottom side. It'll cost some work to remove this...

One thing I waited for excitedly was the special figure for Major John Howard. Besides Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Johnny Frost and Major General Roy Urquhart he was kind of hero of my younger days since I first watched "The Longest Day" where Richard Todd re-enacted him. All too well I remember the heroic assault on the bridge and his "Hold until relieved" order.

Anyway Warlord Games made a really nice figure of him. At first glance I was a bit disappointed because I irrevocably envisioned him with a beret but after a closer look on the painted model I like the dynamic pose more than I dislike the helmet:

All in all an excellent set which promised to become a real eye catcher when well assembled and painted. I have no idea how large the bridge will or how long it'll take to build and paint it. My goal is to have it finished for June 2014. I'll start with the pillbox rather soon because it seems to be the easiest of the three kits. Hoepfully a good chance to gain some experience with mdf kits since it's the first one for me.

Some 60th Rifles painted

These days I'm starting to work on a couple of 2nd Light Bataillon KGL figures for a Waterloo / La Haye Sainte project some THS fellows and me are preparing. Therefor I bought a bucket full of Alan and Michael Perry's excellent figures but I felt in need of some practice with green uniforms after so many redcoats. So I dug out the four riflemen which were part of their plastic British infantry set and used them as test subjects. But since each and every collector of British Napoleonic miniatures seems to have a set of 95th Rifles I decided to depict their sister unit the 60th Regiment of Foot. Although these men didn't fight in the Waterloo campaign the earned honour some years ago during Wellington's Peninsular Campaign and during the War of 1812. Additionally they're somehow a bit special and so I liked the idea to start a unit of them with those plastic figures.

With no more ado here is the result:

My first four riflemen on a reconnaissance mission.

This photo was kind of an experiment with my SLR and the Gimp image editing software. Next time I've got to use a tripod for the camera to get a picture with more depth of focus but actually it didn't turn out too bad.

Anyway back to the riflemen. As usual I used Vallejo Model Colours for painting them but this time I primed the figures black instead of white. The Vallejo colours are excellently pigmented and look really good to me on the dark primer. At least for this kind of uniform I'll stay with black. I'm a bit double-minded for redcoats...

Here are two close-up views of the boys which turned out a bit sharper:

Those men shall represent some guys of the 5th battalion. To be honest for no special reason except that I remembered it from Bernhard Cromwell's Sharpe novels. Some day I'll complete this unit with "Sweet William" Frederickson... However once again C. E. Franklin's uniform guide was my primary source for the uniform details.

Because I read that during the Peninsular Campaign different trousers and overalls were worn I painted two of the with the usual rifle green trousers, one with the later grey one and one with a pair of brown overalls. I wanted to have the a bit look campaign hardened and not completely equipped in mind condition.

I hope you like those figures. Actually I do so I'll proceed with some KGL men with similar colours but some other details of course.

By the way this evening I read Curd's appeal to his 4th yearly painting contest. Unfortunately all places are assigned already so again I'll be unable to join this illustrious round of painters. It's dangerous to be unobservant for a weekend... Whatever I wish all entrants good luck, good results and a lot of fun!

Keeping Quickshade fresh - Start of a long-term project

A lot of people appreciate the advantages of Armypainter Quickshade and so do I. It's an excellent shading fluid, protects the miniatures as kind of varnish and makes it much easier and faster to paint numerous miniatures in a reasonable ammount of time.

Nevertheless Quickshade has its downsides. It's not water based so you need a certain solvent to clean the brushes, it smells unpleasently and probably anhealthy but worst of all it tends to clod after a rather short time. I've read a lot of repords from people whose Quickshade clodded although they tried seal the can as good as possible. I presume it's just impossible to seal it hermetically after it was opened once and some paint was spilled over its rim. Unfortunately all my attempts to re-thin Quickshade were in vain. White Spirit didn't work although it was mentioned in the directions for use...

Before and after...

Anyway a friend of mine gave me the hint to decant the Quickshade into small plastic bottles. Those are cheap, rather easy to acquire and should be more or less air-tight. So I bought a package of small liqueur bottles, emptyed them into a larger bottle and removed the labels. Finally I bought a new tin and was well prepared for the last step. Yesterday evening I took a large syringe anddecanted the whole content of the freshly opened Quickshade can into eleven tiny bottles.

It woked better than I feared. The tin contained fresh and fluid paint. The pigments were easy to stir and the syringe took the Quickshade very well. Nothing was spilled over my workspace, no blothes on my clothes or hands. Actually a bit too perfect...

Anway I hope Holger will be right after all and the portions will stay fresh until I need them. From time to time I'll give you a short updaten here when I open a new bottle.

50K raffle winners drawn !

Finally a week after the raffle was closed I'm happy to announce that the draw was performed yesterday. All participants got their entries and were put into standardised lottery buckets:

In a sharply monitored drawing process two winners were determined:

The first raffle...

... Italeri 1/72 M4 Sherman and Airfix 1/76 Tank Transporter...

... goes to...

* DRUM ROLL *

Sean

from Sean's Wargames Corner

The second raffle...

... Italeri 1/72 Horsa Glider...

... goes to...

* DRUM ROLL *

Peter

from Peter's Cave

 

 Congratulations chaps !

And thank to everyone for sharing the 50K step with me !

Sean and Peter please contact me concerning the shipping details. You could use Google+ or the new contact form just below my profile (right hand side).

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2013 survived ! - Part 2

After I presented our own game in part one of my Crisis report (here) I want to show you some of the excellent table other groups from around Europe presented at Crisis. Unfortunately only a small part of the pictures I took turned out to be of satisfying quality. I decided to take my wife's handy digital camera with me instead of my own SLR which turned to be a bit light-headed. Somehow the camera didn't master the lighting conditions and didn't focus very well. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until the very end...

So I strongly recommend that you visit some of the other blogs where Crisis 2013 is covered. Those fellows present some far better pics then mine and do justice to the extraordinary work of the other groups:

• Peter's Cave
• DHC Wargames
• Sofie's Paint Blog
• Making miniatures with Mario
• GW Hobby Forum
• Tomsche
• Pijlie
• Mini Wargamers Blog
• Alde Garde
• Modus Reg Magni Momenti
• Roundwoods World
• Crush the Kaiser
• The Dice Warrior: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
• Rear Guard Action
• Painting Armies in Tin (and Plastic)
• Little Lions: Parts 1 and 2

Just to name some of them...

Anyway let me present my few shots: 

A large gaming board which represented Operation Market Garden in 15mm. I think they used the Flames of War ruleset:

I'm not sure which conflict this table represented but I like the look of it very much:

Stronghold Terrain presented their awesome terrain pieces and an excellent gaming space for Saga. Mirco and Elmar are real masters of their trade:

In the rearmost part of the hangar a couple of guys presented an unique Bloodbowl board. Unfortunately my detail shots are too blurry to present them but maybe you get an idea how much work the put in the minutest details:

The battle of Culloden in small scale. I think it was 15mm. Anyway it was a large table with excellent miniatures. You really got a feeling of the battle which is difficult to create with larger miniatures because of the large space such a table would need:

This table looked like a kind of pulp scenario. I don't know which it was exactly but the desert board with the plane above was very well made:

One centerpiece of the entrance hall was of course Joe Dever's and Ron Ringrose's Quatre Bras table. It was part of the promotion they made for their Megawargames book and wasn't made for gaming actually. But the mere number of figures was very pleasing. The table had a lot of very nice vignettes and diorama pieces like a field bakery, some British squares, artillery limbers and such stuff and invited to investigate it foot by foot:

Napoleon turns away from the battlefield. Maybe he foreboding what he'll face two days later...

Just besides our very own table the SELWG presented their new Valhalla ruleset for skirmish games in the Dark Ages. Unfortunately I didn't have the time for a friendly game but the table looked excellent:

Just around the corner a battle in a galaxy far far away took place. A large squadron of TIE-fighters battled a small rebel force which was lead by an enormous Corellian corvette. I think it was a repainted model from Hasbro / Kenner. Anyway it looked excellent surrounded by all those tiny fighters:

Last but not least a very nice ACW table. I think from the T. S. A. themselves but I'm not completely sure. Anyway they did an good job with a terrain carpet, flock and some excellent miniatures and scenic pieces:

Well that's it. To my regrets I cannot show you more pictures of Crisis 2013. If you're interested in more eye candy then visit some of the blogs I mentioned earlier.

In the end here's a special picture for the blogger who asked for it and for those who didn't dare to:

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2013 survived ! - Part 2

After I presented our own game in part one of my Crisis report (here) I want to show you some of the excellent table other groups from around Europe presented at Crisis. Unfortunately only a small part of the pictures I took turned out to be of satisfying quality. I decided to take my wife's handy digital camera with me instead of my own SLR which turned to be a bit light-headed. Somehow the camera didn't master the lighting conditions and didn't focus very well. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until the very end...

So I strongly recommend that you visit some of the other blogs where Crisis 2013 is covered. Those fellows present some far better pics then mine and do justice to the extraordinary work of the other groups:

• Peter's Cave
• DHC Wargames
• Sofie's Paint Blog
• Making miniatures with Mario
• GW Hobby Forum
• Tomsche
• Pijlie
• Mini Wargamers Blog
• Alde Garde
• Modus Reg Magni Momenti
• Roundwoods World
• Crush the Kaiser
• The Dice Warrior: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
• Rear Guard Action
• Painting Armies in Tin (and Plastic)
• Little Lions: Parts 1 and 2

Just to name some of them...

Anyway let me present my few shots: 

A large gaming board which represented Operation Market Garden in 15mm. I think they used the Flames of War ruleset:

I'm not sure which conflict this table represented but I like the look of it very much:

Stronghold Terrain presented their awesome terrain pieces and an excellent gaming space for Saga. Mirco and Elmar are real masters of their trade:

In the rearmost part of the hangar a couple of guys presented an unique Bloodbowl board. Unfortunately my detail shots are too blurry to present them but maybe you get an idea how much work the put in the minutest details:

The battle of Culloden in small scale. I think it was 15mm. Anyway it was a large table with excellent miniatures. You really got a feeling of the battle which is difficult to create with larger miniatures because of the large space such a table would need:

This table looked like a kind of pulp scenario. I don't know which it was exactly but the desert board with the plane above was very well made:

One centerpiece of the entrance hall was of course Joe Dever's and Ron Ringrose's Quatre Bras table. It was part of the promotion they made for their Megawargames book and wasn't made for gaming actually. But the mere number of figures was very pleasing. The table had a lot of very nice vignettes and diorama pieces like a field bakery, some British squares, artillery limbers and such stuff and invited to investigate it foot by foot:

Napoleon turns away from the battlefield. Maybe he foreboding what he'll face two days later...

Just besides our very own table the SELWG presented their new Valhalla ruleset for skirmish games in the Dark Ages. Unfortunately I didn't have the time for a friendly game but the table looked excellent:

Just around the corner a battle in a galaxy far far away took place. A large squadron of TIE-fighters battled a small rebel force which was lead by an enormous Corellian corvette. I think it was a repainted model from Hasbro / Kenner. Anyway it looked excellent surrounded by all those tiny fighters:

Last but not least a very nice ACW table. I think from the T. S. A. themselves but I'm not completely sure. Anyway they did an good job with a terrain carpet, flock and some excellent miniatures and scenic pieces:

Well that's it. To my regrets I cannot show you more pictures of Crisis 2013. If you're interested in more eye candy then visit some of the blogs I mentioned earlier.

In the end here's a special picture for the blogger who asked for it and for those who didn't dare to:

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2013 survived ! - Part 1

Thirtysix hours, about 600 kilometres to drive, an overnight stay, a stressful game to manage, lots of interesting traders and excellent presentations to view, some nice people to meet and a price to take home...

Crisis 2013 was brilliant !

But first things first... As last year I want to present you the event in a two part coverage. First part will be mostly about my trip and our game and in part two I'll show you some of the gorgeous games other groups presented on Crisis.

To begin with our trip started about 10.30 on friday. My mate Robert picked me up and we headed to Marl to pick up Michael as well. After having achieved this first task we headed to Antwerp and were rather lucky with little traffic. Fortunately we didn't cross the way of too many holiday shoppers. Since All Saints' Day is a public holiday in Belgium and Germany but not in the Netherlands a lot of people seemed to be heading there to do some shopping. I don't think that it was too relaxed...

Anyway we arrived in Antwerp about two o'clock and checked in at the hotel. The nicely renovated Antwerp Harbour Hotel provided some proper rooms for a good rest. At least for some of us...

Our comfotable hotel room. Much more comfortable than the houseboat last year...

Afterwards we went to the hall were Crisis should take place the next day. Some nice guys of the T. S. A. ("Tin Soldiers of Antwerp" - the organisers of Crisis) showed us the place for our tables and we started arranging everything for our AWI presentation game:

The tables prepared, hight leveled and terrain tiles laid out.

The board comes to live under Bernhard's watchful eyes.

Everything prepared and hidden for the great day...

Time for a break, a beer, a burger, a bed...

Well satisfied with the progress of friday afternoon and evening we headed to the hotel and the cinema center nearby to have dinner. Not an easy task with nine people who want to be seated together. Fortunately we found a table in some kind of American bar whose menu looked surprising. Although food wasn't bad there I wasn't too delighted either. Maybe Schnitzel is just something too un-Belgian to order in Antwerp. Anyway we satisfied our hunger and most of the fellows were lucky with their burgers and fries. Although the music was a bit loud in the bar we stayed there for a few drinks since our hotel didn't maintain a bar by itself. Major fault! Afterwards we returned to the hotel and most of us spent a good, recreative night there.

On saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel early and left for the hangar soon. Fortunately we found everything as we left it and were able to let the board come to live without any delay:

Maybe the Hessian commander in Fort George is a bit too relaxed...

... since the French are preparing their attack rather early...

... while the Hessian relief force is still having breakfast.

Even the continentals look rather adventurous...

So with the gates opening for the croud we took a short walk through the halls while Kalle and Bernhard finished the last preparations. When we returned a little earlier everything was sorted for us and we started to play a few turns to entertain the visitors and give them a chance to get in impression of how our scenario worked.
An excellent chance to get in touch with a lot of nice and interested people. Luckily several people took the chance and had some nice chats there. Anyway the game turned rather the same way as it did when we really played it during our summer event (report here and here).

The British storm the continental fortifications with all their power...

... and send further reinforcements by sea.

Heinz's cavalry is able to go round the entrenchment and heckles the rebels.

The Scots are coming !

And Hessian Jägers are protecting the flanks.

Although the French and continentals manage to capture Fort George by sending out a force of bloodthirsty Indians who were able to fight their way into the heavily besieged fortress, the British and Hessian relief forces overrun the American blocking position finally.

The American position is taken and the Scottish brigade advances under the sound of their bagpipes.

Meanwhile the leading British forces march strait towards the fort to release their comrades.

Although we weren't able to bring the game to its ultimate clash it was rather likely that the British would be able to re-conquer Fort George. But for which price...

Mischief makers on the rebel side have their own opinion who might have lead to the final British victory:

Your name is what? Benedict who? Arnold?

Anyway it was great fun to play our very own Penobscot scenario once more and meet so many interested people. It was unforgettable to meet Dave Bodley from Grand Manner who is a great guy and have a chat with him about the game we played with the excellent scenery he designed. It was awesome to meet people from Belgium, Germany, England and althrough Europe who liked the stuff we presented and it felt good to get such a positive feedback.

And in the end the T. S. A. jury elected our game the best presentation game of Crisis 2013. Not the most important thing on this extraordinary day but a perfect crowning of course:

Our team with the cup.

But that's really enough about us and our game. In my next post I'll present some pictures of the unique table other groups resented. So stay tuned !