Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tiffy Incoming!!!!!

"Shoot the purple...Shoot the Purple"

A smoke shell is fired at the wood line where German small arms and Anti-gun fire was coming from.

A low growling noise is heard behind the British troops...steadily getting louder as it approaches.

"Here comes Tiffy!!!!!"

A British Royal Air Force Typhoon ground Attack airplane comes swooping in at the enemy position where the purple marking smoke still burns...with guns and rockets blazing.  The enemy fire stops.

The plane flies past what was once an enemy strong does a victory roll and flies off into the distance.

The British Typhoon...what more can be said.  One of the ...if not THE best ground attack plane from the war.  And here is my version:





Its a beautiful model from Battlefront...but OH MY GOD did it give me fits to paint.  There is something about the resin where it is too smooth and that makes it not want to hold paint easily.  Even after a nice soapy bath before painting to remove any mold residue, it didn't take to holding paint.  How do I know this?  Because I basically painted her twice.  The first time I used my new airbrush for the primer and botoom base coat and then masked off the bottom so I wouldn't mess that up.  I then painted the top base coat and masked off a section and painted the second camo color.  Paint was coming off all over the place when I remove the mask....I have used this process on other Battlefront resin models (Polish Tanks) to great effect without any problems.

Second go around I did not use any masks and did all the painting freehand with an airbrush and touched up areas and added detail with a normal brush.  The Invasion stripes were done freehand with a normal brush.

Final product turned out pretty good in my opinion...and this bird and her 2 mates are circling overhead waiting to pound anyone foolish enough to tangle with my Brit Paras.

Tally-ho!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Raiding Aces Turn 1

My FLGS is hosting a Raiding Aces campaign and we have 12-15 players starting out on Turn 1.  I am running the Autosahariana with the beautiful AS42 trucks.

Game one

500 point game versus a brand new player running US Rangers.  He was so new it wasn’t just his first game he had only just bought his army an hour or so earlier…based them and gave them a quick basecoat (looked like Toy Story’s Green Army Men on the table…only with a bigger punch). We rolled Breakthrough and I was the Attacker fighting for Kufra.  The Rangers set up in between some hills guarding the objective with fire.  I ran 2 AS42 platoons each with the 47mm, 20mm, .5 MG and extra MGs and the HQ section had extra MGs.  This came in at 410 points.  Had  planned to have the Falcos in support…but cant have support in the first turn…oh well.

Game was pretty much lining up the AS42s and shooting his platoons while using terrain to minimize his return fire.  Slowly killed his platoons and Company Commander…and when forced to take an Army Morale Test he couldn’t... so I won.  Good opponent and he was picking up little tricks VERY quickly.  He is going to be deadly in the future

 He used his 60mm mortars quite well and I kept getting hit by a 1 gun bombardment every turn.  Thank God for the 3+ raider Save!

Axis is up 2-0 in Kufra and my Ace earned 4 skill points

Game two.  Axis and Allies are tied in Muzark and the Allies are up by one win in Kufra now.

500 point game versus OSS.  This time I ran 3 platoons of plain Jane AS42s…only 1 MG each.  The HQs section had an extra MG in each vehicle.
 
We rolled up No retreat and I was the Attacker….fighting in Kufra.  Have to win to tie up control. 
OSS deploys a Partisan platoon with 2 ea HMGs, 2 ea 37mm  AT Gun, 2 ea 60mmMortars.  The Will of the Sahara has us in a Khamsin…Night Rules are in effect until either of us rolls a 5 in our Starting Step.  All my platoons are on the board.
 
There is a good bit of terrain I can hide behind as I move into position.  I send 2 platoons to the far objective from his one board platoon.  This objective has the HMGs staring it.  I send the 3rd platoon and HQs towards the center of the board towards the other objective and try to screen them from his AT guns. On his first turn the Khamsin lifts and he can see me…at least part of me.  He also gets another Partisan platoon with Rifle/MG  to arrive closest to the objective I am sending 2 platoons at. His AT Guns, mortars and HMGs hit, but I save.  I move the center units into position and dismount the 3rd platoon.  I sent one of the 2 platoons on the right to support the center.  I light up his dug-in HMGs & mortars with 2 mounted platoons MG fire for a few turns and one platoon lights up his Rifle /MG Platoon.  The Rifle/MG Partisans take 7 hits and he fails 5 saves.  The dug in HMG/Mortar/AT platoon stay pinned for a few turns and slowly my MG fire score enough hits where he fails saves and I make firepower checks....even killing his Ace who joined te platoon to help stedy it.  It boils down to the dismounted platoon assaulting his remaining AT Gun and winning only to be assaulted by his SMG OSS platoon.  I have obe team left in the dismounted platoon and decide to breakoff the attack (cant risk giving him  a VP for killing a platoon).  Then on the last turn I kill the remaining Rifle/MG platoon stands and he cant make his Army Morale (lost 2/3 platoons) on the next turn.  He had a lot of bad rolls at critical times and it was hard for the dice to balance out…and my dice were hot.  Only lost one AS42 and 3 dismounts…but no platoons. 


This returned the balance in Kufra…so we are back to being tied at all locations in Turn One.

Turn two starts this Saturday (28 Jan 12) and if I am lucky I might be able to get another game in before then.  I hit my first skill target and am going to take Custom Ride which gives my Ace a Twin MG in his vehcile and next turn I can have an HMG in each Platoon which will dismount as a HMG team.  This will be useful versus the Sudan Force ahich I have heard have been tearing it up wwith their HMGs...Their range exceeds the vehicle MGs range and can striek from longer range.  On Turn two I can also get my Falcos or 75mm Arty...this will help out against those nasty garrsion forces.

On the painting table:  Brit Para Enginners finished painting and waiting to be vased.  Will get that done this week...also Have my Typhoons about 90% completed too.  More to follow on that this weekend!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Autosahariana

As I said earlier I am in a Raiding Aces campaign and sadly that has put my Paras on a bit of a hold I as rush to paint up my Raiding force.

But Fear not!  I have pictures of my first Autosahariana AS42 Platoon!  I did these guys as up as having been in the desert for a while...dirty and paint worn of the equipment in places.

The entire Platoon.  All AS42s...Platoon Leader has extra MG, One AS42 has the extra .5 in MG, the 47mm and the 20mm.


Platoon Leader




.5 in Team




47mm Team




20mm Team



Spitfires BEWARE!!!

More to follow as I finish the force and post BatReps!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Brit Para R&R ==> change to Raiding Aces

Right smack dab in the middle of my Royal Engineer platoon I got bite...by the Italian Autosahariana bug.  My Friendly Local Gaming Store is holding a 15 man Raiding Aces Campaign and I am one of the 15....so I have to get my Autosahariana painted up first.  The campaign maxes out at 900 points so I will only have a few platoons to paint up...and I will be maxing out the use of the airbrush for priming and the base colors for the vehicles and infantry.

Then I will be getting back to the Paras. Going to try and post Battle reports of the Raiding Aces games and keep y'all up to date on my forces progress.

Played a few missions and the Raiders are exciting and the games capture the feel of those Special Ops missions.  Kudos to Battlefront!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Brit Para Glider Pilot Platoon

Just finished the Glider Pilot Platoon...and I have to say that these were some of my favorite sculps to paint.  Nice detail and some very nice poses.

The entire Platoon:



Platoon Headquarters:









 1st Squad:




2nd Squad:





3rd Squad:




Some of my favorite sculps:


I love the kneeling rifleman and the Sten Gunner shooting


The running Sten Gunner is real close to a pose from a picture I have seen from the Arnhem battle

Gotta love an M1 Carbine


Some of my favorite figures so far in this army.  Working on the Para Royal Engineers now and about half done with them and could be very close to finishing by next weekend...crossing my fingers!

Also with any luck, I should be able to get a game in this Friday...crossing toes (as my fingers were already crossed).

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Brit Para 75mm Artillery Battery

What a way to start a new year!!!!  Just put the finishing touches on my Para Artillery Battery.  Quite pleased ....and..there is a little special twist I did on the Staff Team.

The whole battery...8 guns, Leaders, Observers and Staff Team


Battery Commander and Staff Team:


The Battery Commander:



The Staff Team:




The twist was that I took the Lieutenant Colonel "Pine " Coffin Hero  (Chap in the beret) and cut him down to be pointing on the map.  Took his helmet and placed it onto the table.

 First Platoon:







Second Platoon:






Nest on the table are the Glider Pilots Platoon....about 25% done with these now.  MIGHT be done by next weekend if I can keep the pace up.  Have to love long weekends! 

Again best wished to you all for the new year.