Cruel Seas: Armed Trawler

The fleet boxes for Cruel Seas really provide a nice selection of models. The Royal Navy for example come with the mandarory Vospers, some Fairmile MTB and an Armed Trawler. After rushing through the Vospers and E-boats I took the trawler as a more special model and painted it during the last days:

It's a large ship (though 'large' in 1/300) that comes in resin with metal parts. Overall the parts fit very well. Only the masts needed some deeper holes to fit in the hull proberly. A really nice add-on is the metal crew. They come in strips of three seamen but can be cut into single crewmembers or pairs easily. Since there were more then enough seamen for the trawler I transfered two of them to one of my Vospers to man the bridge appropriately.

The flag is again from the generic Royal Navy flag sheet by Warlord Games. But this time I used the Red Ensign instead of the White Ensign. Although I know that the Red Ensign is appropriate for British merchantmen I didn't check it on historial material. I just followed Warlord Games example...

Anyway, the ship comes with two 3" guns and appears properly armed to scare some E-boats. The guns are nice metal pieces as well and have crew figures on them. Very nice little bits. I'd wish to see them available individually to have them available for the plastic boats. Making the guns available individually would - by the way - solve the problem with the missing 37mm gun in the German E-boat sprue...

As usual I used mostly my trustworthy Vallejo paints. Starting with a basecoat of Uniform Grey spray primer (by Armypainter) I applied VMC 70.924 Russian Uniform WWII. It's a rather light greyish green because I wanted to try a different colour scheme on the trawler. On some Warlord Games pictures their trawler looks slightly greenish so I chose this colour. Anyway the result looks even greener then desired but I'm happy with it anyway. After the colour was dry I applied some of the AK washes to get some shadows. Then drybrushing with VMC 70.821 German Camoflage Beige and VMC 70.884 Stone Grey. Finally some more AK washing for weathering especially on the lower parts of the hull.

That's it for now. I hope you like it.

Cheers

Stefan

Star Wars Legion: AT-ST Walker

It was about a year ago when Star Wars - Legion caught my attention. First I was annoyd because Fantasy Flight Games chose another scale than their Imperial Assault game has. But afterall I wasn't able to resist the seduction of airspeeders and full-scale Imperial walkers. So I acquired the starter box as well as an AT-ST. Although I assembled it a while ago it sat on my to-do-shelf for a pretty long time. Now with the first bonus round of the AHPC themed 'Reconnaissance' what could be more obvious than a vehicle bearing 'scout' in his name?

This interpretation of the well-known All-Terrain-Scout-Transport is a huge beast. Therefor some 32mm stormtroopers for size comparison. It has a hight of over 20 centimeters with slightly bent legs. It has more or less the same size as the good old 1/48 kit by Bandai.

For painting I used my airbrush gun to apply a medium grey base colour and light grey highlights. Afterwards I applied a selection of washes: Nuln Oil by Citadel and several of the thinner based washes by AK. As a finish I added some rusty brown and charcoal black pigments at several places. E.g. the feet (dust) and the shoulder gun (grime).

For the basing I wasn't able to decide which theatre of war I'd use the walker for. Star Wars has so many interesting places which reach from the icy planet Hoth to woody planets like Endor or desert worlds like Tatoine. So how to base a model properly to suit all these different requirements? For me it became crystal clear when I checked some aftermarket articles and stumbled over some clear acrylic bases offered by Sarissa. So I ordered enough for a small Imperial invasion force and some appropriate heavy armour.

Well that's it for now. I'm lucky to have contributed something to this first bonus round between the bunch of ACW and Cruel Seas stuff I'm working on. Hope you like my humble contibution.

Cheers

Stefan

Cruel Seas: Vospers and eels

Ahoi Jack Tars and Landlubbers,

finally my first entry for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Vospers and eels

Shortly before Christmas Warlord released their new WWII naval skirmish game Cruel Seas. Frankly for a long time their wasn't a release that I was so much looking forward to. Anyway my pre-order didn't arrive in time and more than two weeks of desperate wainting overshadowed my december. Anyway shortly before Christmas the starter set arrived and I couldn't resist painting enough boats for the first couple of scenarios. So here we go with the Vospers first.

Actually the basic games comes with six Vospers but until now I've painted only four of them. They are all in 1/300 (6mm) scale but very detailed. Due to the thick plastic they appear a bit bulky but nevertheless really nice models.

9th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.... I'm in!

Nearly a years has passed with no noticebly activity on this blog. So actually there are two possible ways for 2019:

Monty, get off your backside and bring up content again!

or

Desert your colours and delete the whole thing!

To be hontest I've been really undecided what to do. But when I visited Crisis last month I met a couple of the finest wargaming fellows again and was reminded of the circumstances of our acqaintance namely the bloggo-sphere. Thus I realised that I'm not able and willing to throw this all away. 2019 I'll give it another go and try to get back on track.

To support that I decided to throw my hat in the ring of Curt's ingenious yearly painting challenge again:

Last year I skipped the challenge but this time I was lucky enough that Curt reserved a slot for me and welcomed prodigal son with open arms. I enroled with my usual 500 pts and I'm curious whether I'll be able to fulfill that goal. Currently my plans are as follows:

1. Bring forth my ACW project for Tactica 2019 in Hamburg
2. Paint the ships from the Cruel Seas starter set
3. Pass as many bonus rounds as possible

So #1 is already running of course but several pieces of artillery and a couple of command vignettes are to be painted during the AHPC season.

#2 must take its place behind #1 but is seductive beyond comparison. Currently I'm still waiting for my set to arrive but I'm confidant that the postman will drop it on my dorstep today or tomorrow. Additionally the play through video by Warlord Games looks stunning and I cannot wait to lay my hands on those nice little ships and lead them into battle. But our ACW presentation in Hamburg must stay at top priority.

#3 will depend on my progress with #1 and #2. For some topics I'm on a good way but for some I have no idea what to contribute. The ideas:

1. Reconnaissance -- No real idea yet. Maybe a pair of AT-RT-Walker for Star Wars Legion
2. Sport -- Perhaps a six man team for Blitz Bowl
3. Mercenary -- No real idea yet.
4. Water Feature -- Cruel Seas
5. Fellowship -- I have a couple of Holmes/Watson-Sets. Maybe one of those.

That's it for now. I'm looking forward to the AHPC. If you haven't taken notice of it yet please have a look at Curt's page. It's packed with sublime contribution from former years and it'll get lots of new input as soon as the next challenge starts. On midnight of December 21st it's time!

Last but not least the link to the Cruel Seas video I mentioned earlier:

 

It's nearly 80 minutes with designer Richard Carlisle and Warlord Charlie Monaghan playing one of the default scenarios from the basic rulebook. It's packed with explanations and inshore action. Frankly I cannot wait to get my copy.

This blog needs a doctor... John Watson at your service!

It's far too long since I posted some lines here. Maybe a last attempt to bring this blog to live again...

At Tactica 2018 some fellows and me presented a participation game featuring the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War. To decorate the battlefield we wanted some vignette which lead me to the humble piece.

Since I've already added a detachment of the 66th Regiment of Foot (the unlucky Berkshire regiment) it was a no-brainer that I had to add Dr Watson as well (in the introduction of "A Study in Scarlet" it's mentioned that Watson served with the 66th and was wounded during the battle of Maiwand).

The vignette is based on the excellent hospital set which Perry Miniatures have in their Sudan range. After consulting a couple of reference books and an interesting conversation with sculptor Michael Perry who is very studied regarding the mentioned conflict I realized that the only real hindrance might be the helmets and the characteristic puggree. Luckily in their NWF plastic set there is an officer’s head with a cap bearing a 66 (for the 66th Regiment) which I put on Watson’s body after removing the given pit helmet. Although the neck looks a bit strange I’m rather satisfied with my humble conversion work.

The stretcher bearer who's standing by had the puggree just grinded away slightly. Then I painted it khaki to resemble the helmets with the iconic covers.

As usual I employed mostly Vallejo Model colours as well as the splendid set of skin colours Wargames Foundry is offering. Finally I added a coat of matt varnish and a couple of grass tufts and a couple of pieces of clump foliage.

Cheers
Stefan