Entry for December 29, 2006

My Marines got ignored today...I am sure there will be a penalty to pay here...not sure what it will be.

Mark and Larry came buy for a painting and whining. Mark got a lot of work done on his Brit's.

Mark is working on a Western Desert force of British lorried motor company troops (lousy sentence structure, I know, but what the hell, this is a blog for Pete's sake). He has the basics of the force and has ordered some supporting tanks from War Web (we're waiting...waiting...waiting).

Due to my ADD reguarding my Marines, I spent some time on my SS Aufklarungs (recon) company. It is coming along nicely and I am very pleased with it. I hit a block with the Sd.Kfz.7/2's (37mm AA on an armored halftrack). I bought the models from War Web (Command Decision again). They had the correct armored cabs, but no gun shields. I didn't want to play without the gunshields on the model (and loose the "Gunshield" benefit or cause an argument) so I decided to fashion my own.

German Gunshields have all sorts of difficult angles and bracing, especially at 15mm. I took three shots at it before I got one I was happy with. In the course of fitting it, I decided the gun barrel was too weak. The German 3.7cm FlaK 36 L98 has a long barrel. Command Decision miniatures are made of a soft metal and the barrel would bend if you breathed heavly near it. I ended up replacing it with some brass rod and sanding down some plastic tubing into a cone shape to represent the flash hider. I finally got everything to where I was happy about it and finished off the painting and weathering on the Sd.Kfz.7/2's. They are sitting on the end of my games table/work space waiting for varnish. I have been thinking about adding the convoy markings to the trailers ("Abstand 100m" - Stay back 100 meters). I will let them sit another week or two be for I varnish them to be sure I am really happy with them.

I think Mark got a lot out of the day. One thing that FoW has done for me was re-kindle my interest and pleasure of building models. Larry and I had a head start on Mark as far as building the FoW mini's goes and saved him a lot of time and frustration. All in all it was a good day. I think Larry was working on his British Colonials (or was it his dusky skinned oasis skulkers?). Odd, I don't recall. ADD again...oh wait...look at the bright shiny thing...

Tim, they call him...

Entry for December 27, 2006

So Christmas has passed...I don't know about you, but it seems like it was a "driveby" Christmas. Maybe I have too much to do to notice these things. Note to self, increase lithium dosage.

Tonight I rummaged around in my garage and found some FoW bases. I decided to get ambitious and clean up the scouts and Hmg teams and base them. Two episodes of "House" later and I have the scouts & mg's cleaned up; their bases filed flat; stands scored and everything glued where it should be (not counting my fingers).

I wasn't too happy with the look of the fig's at first (I have to admit I am picky about that). But the more I look at them, the more I like them. I think with the right paint job and basing they will look nice. Now I just have to find someone who can do that...I wonder what Bruce would charge?

Tim, they call him

Entry for December 24, 2006

Yeah I know it's Christmas Eve (have to sacrifice to the baby Jesus) and I am thinking about gaming. I wonder if there is a twelve step program for this?

Some time back I bought some Command Decision (Old Glory) US Marines on spec. Good news! I sorted through them and found I had 85% of the fig's I needed for my Marine Rifle Company. So far so good. I also have a pack of US Paratroopers w/ Support, which gives me the heavy and light mortars I need. I had a couple of M3 75mm GMCs (the US Army's design of the M3 75mm SPM).

So mostly the only thing missing are the 37mm A/T guns and associated trucks and crew. A quick trip to the War Web (www.warweb.com/) and they are on their way. A quick note about the War Web. They are an easy site to use; have great prices; but, they take a long time to ship and the site has very few pics of the 15mm Command Decision mini's.

Tim, they call him...

Entry for December 23, 2006

Larry and I decided to go ahead and build our Pacific war forces for Flames of War (FoW). I am not sure why we did this, but I am sure some major lapse of critical thinking is involved.

The deal is he will build a Japanese (Jap) infantry company and I will do the good guys (USMC). So far so good...My basic list includes:

3 x Marine Rifle Platoons w/Cmd (39 fig's each)
1 x Weapons Platoon w/Cmd(LMG's & Mortars - 21 fig's)
1 x HMG Weapons Platoon w/Cmd (15 fig's + 4 x HMG's)
1 x Mortar Platoon w/Obs & Cmd(2 Ssctions; 19 fig's & 4 x 81mm mortars)
1 x Scout/Sniper Platoon w/Cmd (2 squads, 27 fig's)
4 x A/T gun Sections w/Cmd (19 fig's; 4 x 37mm A/T guns; 4 x 1 ton trucks)
1 x Cannon Platoon w/Cmd (3 Cmd fig's & 2 x M3 75mm SPMs)

A very reasonable list if I do say so myself. The down side? Approximately 220 infantry figures and 10 or so assorted models to paint. Should I mention I hate painting infantry? Time to pull some speed painting techniques out of the closet. Ok lets see how long I can keep writing here...

Tim, they call him