I'm Still Here

Hi Everyone, I'm still here.
Didn't post much over the Christmas period and New-year as I had a decline in my Mental Health, Meds are now helping...Mwahhahahahhahaha.

Well What had I been doing, well not much until lockdown that is, As I have mentioned previously I have a 3D printer. It has allowed me to expand armies in ways I could not imagine and print vehicles that are not available for my chosen scale 15mm.

Polish WW2 that was on the back burner suddenly became viable as files to print the soft skins appeared like magic on Thingiverse along with files for the different tanks. I started thinking I would get my Poles up to Flames of War Standard but no, I have decided to go with Battlegroup Kursk Rules. I had a few games before Christmas and I liked what I saw, and my Friend gave me back my books that I had lent to him a few years previous...LOL

SO what of Flames of War and my Armies. Well in the main the British Tunisia Army and my Germans will still exist but with a few additional troops and units for BGK. I was originally going to go down the TFL Chain of Command route but not many play it in my area and I liked the freedom that BGK gave. Don't get me wrong FOW is a good system but it was geared for tournaments and fast play, so it is now moved in to my Fast play section.  BGK gives you more flexibility in the troops you select and how you use them. The Order system is a laugh and when you don't get the orders can hinder you but I do not find that distracting from the game and is a challenge. The down side are some of the rules especially for artillery is complicated, but the more games you play the better and easier the rules become. I seem to pick complicated lists and scenarios.

Flames of War Armies are now: British which is able to do EW through to Late War, as I purchased a Sherman Squadron and a Churchill Squadron off Evilbay at good prices. My Germans again can do and have always been able to do Early war right through to late war. I have decided mainly to concentrate on 1939 to 1943. With Two exceptions,

Polish: No longer will be FOW but BGK, so infantry will be rebased and spare artillery sold off
British: Early War, Tunisia, Italy, and Caen, I may go to a Bridge too far, so really All war.
Germans: Every where they went although they are not really set up for Desert combat but I have enough assets to do so.
I also want to do 21st Panzer as I love the modified French vehicles, again this will be mainly 3d Printed around November time for use only with BGK.
Russians: I have through an accidental Evilbay purchase as a side bonus acquired a Rifle Company, This is for use with BGK only and will only be up to 1943 Kursk. I have almost completed the 1941 list, and will work on the Kursk lists around September. There are no plans to use this with FOW.
Americans: Originally these were for Tunisia but they will be repurposed as to do Ardennes. As I have just ordered the BGK Ardennes supplement. I used to have under Command Decision in 1/300th scale both Germans and Americans organised for the Battle of the Bulge Campaign. I had these forces from when I was 16 until around 25 years later I had to sell them due to lack of income as I was on a low wage. It was a sad moment for me.
French: I have a substantial French EW Army for FOW and I will keep it that way but also add extra figures and vehicles to use under BGK. The Infantry will also double up as Belgium's.
Belgium: A BGK Blitzkrieg army, using my French Infantry with some additional printed vehicles.

So I've been busy with painting and basing armies. And I got two lockdown games in of  BGK using the Internet. The first scenario was Orliks Cockroaches from the BG Blitzkrieg book and the second longer game over 8 hours was the battle of Hondeghem, which has featured previously on my blog.
This time the game was more entertaining and defently gave a good feel to the battle. And is under development as a BGK scenario.

Well that's all for now I will bring you the picture of the armies later.
Cio Jon

3D Printing and the Slow Death of Battlefront Games - updated

3D Printing and the Slow Death of Battlefront Games

I thought that would get your attention. So what has been happening I hear you say? Well I know it has been a very very long time since I last posted something, in fact the Necromunda post was drafted in May.   Mental tiredness and fatigue due to some medication I am/was on had an undesired numerous side effects that was put down to several other disorders until I did a bit of internet research (although I always say never Google ones illnesses as you will regret it, this time it was spot on).  Good news is that I am getting the better of it, so on with the post.

3D printing and the slow death of Battlefront; what's all this about? Well the first thing is I purchased a 3D printer... a Anycubic I3 Mega S for those wishing to know.

This baby is a result of a friend carrying out some trial Printing for me and I decided to buy one, the biggest factor that came into play was Battlefronts Marketing strategy. Hmm... what's he on about I hear some say? How does a 3D printer come into play due to BF? Well more on this later on..

Printing is not that straight forward as it is with paper. Some hit and misses will occur but over time you will sort these out. If you can not make your own models to print there is a plethora on a site called Thingiverse and a site called Yegi (although the latter steals heavily from the Former). Most files are Free to download but you need to have the correct software to interpretate  the files, and once again luckily this was free.

Suffice to say if you can put up with the low quality of the printed models which all, as some may say  pass the 3 foot rule, then you are on to a winner. Good quality models take twice as long to print and if you want fast bulk printing you will have to sacrifice the quality option and some degree of supervision may be required.

What do they look like? Quick Answer, no worse than models from the 1980s. I will do some pictures later on as my WW2 15mm collection has increased somewhat and needs some time to catch up on the painting as I have basically missed out the whole summer. Oh look I managed to do some painting.

Some of the stuff I have 3D printed, looks like the paint need matting down more, rushed them a bit but I am really happy how they came out.

 

Onto the next subject, The Slow Death of Battle Front miniatures.
Over the years Battlefront miniatures that first appeared in the mid 1990's has slowly built it self up to the monster it is today, with the introduction of Flames of War, 15mm WW2 took to mainstream  gaming and  to many introduced a new period and scale.

Over the years BF expanded their miniature range into one of the most comprehensive ranges in the whole gaming world, no GW don't count as they are gits and not historical. You could buy virtually any thing you need for your multitude of available army lists, then v4 FOW reared its ugly head, (I am a child of v2 FOW) and a new marketing strategy that seemed at the time good news for independent stockists. 
Boxed sets, selling not individual models but a platoon in plastic. Sounds good until you realise what's happening to the rest of the range. BF seem to be following in the footsteps of Plastic Soldier Company where they offer plastic models by the platoon. Down side is the assembly time, the upside was the cost compared to BF resin and metal models.

From what I have seen the new models are of a good quality (Desert Infantry aside) but the cost has not reduced either, still making them slightly more costly then PSC. Now I buy from various companied the models I need, Skytrex, Peterpig, Defunct SDD, PSC, and BF. Most of my armies are resin and metal miniatures, with a sprinkling of plastic.
Battlefront have taken the decision to discontinue a lot of their range as they introduce the boxed sets, and slowly the models you need are disappearing.

I am slow to build armies and as most of us older players have numerous periods and collections which we suddenly get an urge to tinker with and expand over a random period of time.
I found that the models that was required to expand and finish my v2/3 armies are now defunct. For me this is bad news, for BF this is bad news also, as a 3D printer has sorted the supply problems and opened up further possibilities for my collections.

The simple resin and metal models which took novices a few minutes to assemble, that also includes unsticking their fingers due to the superglue exploding to making them make Airfix style models although in some cases a lot simpler to put together, but time consuming non the less.

So no more quick army assemblies for kids but hours of annoying assembly that could have spent better playing on the Xbox. Now that BF has destroyed its most comprehensive range that people purchased not only for FOW but other reasons (Hey I just thought maybe that's the plan, you cant buy your models to play other rules, you have to buy our platoons for our rules, one step closer to their beloved GW marketing plan), but you take a look and see what I mean, make your mind up, but why sell Loose Artillery guns but not the crews?

Personally I may be a bit cynical about this, but instead of discontinuing the most comprehensive range in the world, why could they not just offer the now old range as direct sales only, to allow us oldies to carry on expanding our armies. So has BF signed their death warrant only time will tell....

Some rubbing down is required and I missed  one by looks of it, but that's the worse one I have done.  I like the 3D printing aspect as it gives you access to models that are not normally produced like the Radio truck.

What has a £200 printer done? so far:
1 MkViB
1 Dorchester ACV
2 CMP Radio trucks
1 Char B
1 SDKFZ 253
4 5.5" Howitzers (Crews from Peterpig)
4 CMP 20mm SPAA
4 2pdr Portees
3 Marmon Herington AC
4 M3 Scout Cars
1 articulated slug
and
1 articulated Octopus

Close up you can see some flaws of printing but from normal distance the flaws are not that noticeable.

The MkVI suffers from print lines but that may be more down to the angle I printed it at, But I am happy, as this was a tester for a larger planned desert army and will be used as part of my desert raiding force heavy section. Also seen is the stepping at the back of the MH armoured cars, but again I can live with that.

24 vehicles (And counting) at £8, the printer has almost paid for its self, and as these are what I call second line units I can live with the lower quality.

Sorry BF your loss is in many ways my gain, I was quite willing to buy from you. Overall I am happy with the 3D prints and it has given me access to new army possibilities, I will still be buying infantry although not the new plastic types , I prefer metal in 15mm. And to be honest I will still be buying some BF stuff in the future as not all the vehicles are available for printing.

Caliver books visit...Ooops

Caliver Books

I decided that over the weekend I would make a detour and visit Caliver Books ( http://caliverbooks.com/ ). It was a quick visit and I wish I had set aside more time for the visit. I also wish that I had taken along with me my camera.
If you have not visited them before, I suggest that you do so. Its an Aladdin's cave of Books, Rules and Miniatures.

It was mind boggling experience and I should have taken my reading glasses along with me, as I struggled to read the titles on some of the spines. I came across numerous books in French on the Napoleonic wars and some really nice books on the various armies of World War 1 at £62 each.  The latter I think will be on my 'to buy' list if I ever get round to doing that period.

I had gone for one purpose only, that was to get a General De Brigade set of rules and look at the Minifigs. Unfortunately I was unable rummage through the Minifigs as they are made to order and us mere mortals are not allowed in to the casting room for safety reasons.

At the end of very short visit, I was a lot of money missing, but  had a carrier bag full of rule books.

General de Brigade and two of the Scenario books.

 My first purchases was the 'General de Brigade' rule book and I also ended up buying two of the Scenario books, which after flicking through I may play using Lasalle to see what the differences are.

In The Grand Manner & Westphalian Guard of the Napoleonic wars

 It has taken me nearly 25 years to purchase a copy of 'In the Grand Manner'. My previously copy had been a photocopied version from my poorer days. In my defence I did not have a lot of money back when these rules came out, they were quite expensive at the time. Now its common to ask £20 to £40 a rule book, back then I was buying £3 rule books. I think 'In the Grand Manner' was in the region of £25.
 The other book I found at the last second was 'Westphalian Guard of the Napoleonic War'. This was a Oh yes moment as we had been discussing the Westphalian Minifigs figures minutes before. It was just what I was looking for and a must if you want to paint up Westphalians. The author also promises a book on the line infantry and cavalry as well.

Blitzkreig 1939 1941

I purchased the 'Blitzkrieg' book on a whim. It has some interesting scenarios in and a quick play set of rules. Once I have had a good read of it, I will do a more in-depth report about this book at a later date.

So that's all for now, I have lots to read and another visit in a month or two is now in the planning.
Jon

15mm Falklands QRF Purchases

Falklands War Project new additions

Here are my new purchases from QRF models for my 15mm Falklands project have just arrived. I have received from there new Postwar range 2 packs of SLR armed infantry, a pack of each of the GPMG armed, Carl Gustav, 2" Mortar and Blowpipe.

Packs PBI02.01,08,09,03 and 04, all out of order as usual.

Top to Bottom, Packs PBI01, 02, 03, 04, 08, 09

I purchased packs PBI01 x8 SLR armed rifleman, PBI02 x8 SLR armed riflemen, PBI03 x8 GPMG armed infantrymen, PBI04 x8 Carl Gustav's, PBI08 x4 2" mortar teams, and finally PBI09 x4 Blowpipe teams.

Top to Bottom: PBI01, 02 and 03

PBI01 and PBI02 contains 8  infantrymen wearing beret's in 3 poses all armed with the famous L1A1 SLR rifle.   PBI03 has 8 infantrymen wearing beret's in 2 different poses armed with the General Purpose Machine Gun.

The main reason for my purchases was the platoon support weapons. PPBI04 contains 8 infantry men wearing beret's armed withe the infamous Carl Gustav in 3 poses.  PBI08 contains again 8 beret wearing infantry men in 3 poses, 4 of the figures are armed with the 2" mortar whilst the other 4 are split between 2 poses as spotters giving 4 tams.  PBI09 makes up 4 Blowpipe teams, again all wearing beret's, 4 figures are armed with the Blowpipe and 4 figures split between two poses are the spotters.

Top to Bottom: PBI04, 08 and 09

These few purchases gives my British forces the much needed support weapons that Old Glory and MJ Figures have neglected to do. The overall quality of these figures are quite good and inlike the Old Glory figures, very little if any flash and if any, no mold lines.  I think these will fit in with my MJ figures quite well.  I do think MJ figures missed the boat a little by not producing these much needed weapons.

QRF also have within there new postwar infantry range L4 LMG armed infantry. The pack consists of 8 figures armed with the famed L4. Unlike the packs that I purchased the L4 gunners are all wearing the Mk5 turtle helmet, so some head swaps may be needed.

QRF and TSS have joined forces and have merged the websites. The site compared to the old QRF website is unfriendly, but here is a shortcut to the relevant infantry page:
QRF postwar infantry


Considering that the Falklands wars 30th anniversary war in 2012 several figure manufacturers dropped the ball on this, 15mm wise.
If I decided to do this project in 10mm, 20mm and even 28mm I can purchases virtually every thing I need  to fight the Falklands war.

MJ figures released in the 1990's, the Falkland figures, and it seem to have never had the ambition to expand the original range which is a shame; as I think he is now missing out. Old Glory which has always produced good quality figures (A lot of their 15mm WW2 range make up my collections) but really messed up this time with their range of Falklands figures to such a degree that after the conversation I had with their head guy, I am boycotting them. The casting quality is poor and the detail on some of the figures are vague at best, poor research has produced the wrong type of British mortar, Wrong type of .50cal facing the wrong way on its tripod and Milan gunners about to loose their legs to back blasts. Its up to you, but avoid this range, although one of the command packs have been superbly posed and make a good vignette.  QRF have always made cheaper alternatives to some other manufacturers, whilst their scale and detail may be dubious in some cases, they do make models no one else do. These new figures have filled a much needed gap and I look forward to see whats next. They also do an LVTP7 which is needed if you are doing the 2nd April Argentine invasion.

All we need now are some more Argentine support weapons, 105mm British guns, 155mm French Howitzers, AA guns and BV202's, the last is a must have.

J

Update on where we are up to...

Well I was going to go to Allumwell Wargames show today, but being my life at the moment things don't run that way and a hospital appointment has scuppered me from going.

Since January I have been a little bit ill, nothing serious or life threatening, just very very inconvenient, that has prevented me from working and driving.

So what does this mean for my games. Well I can't concentrate on things too long and I suppose a type of lethargy has set in. I am currently assembling my Drop zone commander forces, I am planning a Russian HOTT army to appose my US Army.  I need to work on the opposition to my ORC HOTT army.

2 solo games will probably take place over the next few weeks, One will be a WW2 scenario, which will be a replay of a previous played game (Name is escaping me at the moment), and a Modern CWC game.
I need to work on my Falklands 15mm project and may also do a 10mm Falklands CWC. Also need to redo my Napoleonic bases and flat varnish them. SO lots of things, plenty of time, just a lack of get up and go.

So as you can see I am flitting quite a lot as my concentration slips and I am inspired by another project. Not going to Allumwell has well, upset me a little but the appointment is far too important, to risk getting stuck in traffic in trying to race back from Birmingham to get to the hospital on time.

I have on the other hand spent some of my future wages on some new terrain off E(vil)bay, so watch this space as they say.

Another set off rules has landed in my lap due to my evil friend....
Chain of Command by Two Fat Lardies. 
My friend who is currently in the States will be returning for a month soon and this is his plan for us to play a 1941 Desert campaign using these rules.
The initial read through is quite promising and it looks like it may be adaptable for the Falklands Games.






Muskets and Tomahawks is now another set of rules looming on my gaming scene, as another gaming friend wants me to do a period he actually likes. well I have told him he can buy the Rules and the Armies and Paint them this time and I will play them, seems a fair deal as my shed is full off stuff and much is gathering dust.

We will wait and see as they say.
Jon

The Death of my forray into WW1

A cursed friend led me astray and I entered the world of 28mm Warhammer historical "The Great War".

My army grew rapidly with a fast approaching games day. It ended much as I said it would at the start of the day.. "Viva Le...ArrrrggghhH!!"

So the time has come for me to part with my army, so on E(Vil)bay it has gone...
or you can buy it from me for £225 plus postage

The Death of Warhammer, New Beginnings

Sat in my shed for years was an army, Not quite the size it used to be, but an army never the less.
Many moons ago a friend and I shared the contents of a Warhammer Starter set, ME getting the Goblins and him the High Elves, thus started an on off relationship with Warhammer.
Since then my army grew into biblical proportions. My Uncle got the Warhammer bug also and started his own High Elf army and an Arms race started. AT the height of the battles on a 8 foot by 6 foot table we fielded units the size you would never do nowadays, Elven regiments were in 32's, my Goblins went to 72 figure strong with 16 Regiments, 8 spears and 6 Bow armed in the army, the Black Orcs were fielded at over 40 figs a unit. It was the height of Battle magic and we maxed out on the magic items and wizards and shamans. A battle would take us nearly a week to play with over 1500 figures on the table, but then came the decline and fall of my obsession with Warhammer.

Warhammer 40k took over briefly and also went out of control, but that, is another story.

Over the years my Orc and Goblin army slowly was thinned out and was sold off to pay the bills. And a smaller army was kept in reserve, this is again going to be curtailed and rebased for use with the HOTT set of rules.

So Warhammer...Fare well, Look to E(Vil)bay for my surplus, I am leaving Warhammer for the probably the last time.

But below are some pics of my small Orc and Goblin Army before it exits the gaming stage forever...

 Night Goblin Bow armed Regiment

Night Goblin Bow armed Regiment

 

 Stone Trolls

River Trolls 



Orc Regiment 

 Arrow Boyz Orc Regiment

Black Orc champion, Shaman, Goblin Champion 

Night Goblin Champion and Fanatics 

Old school Orc Bolt Thrower 

Night Goblins

 

Ta
Jon

Next Year Game Plans

Happy Christmas to those that read this.

Gaming plans for the new-year with each Game system given a Two month Gaming slot which should equate to around 8 games of each minimum:

• Cold War Commander 1/300th scale
• AK-47 15mm Scale
• Black Powder 15mm Scale
• Dystopian Wars
• Warhammer 40k.
• Zulu
• HOTT

Quick Games to be played are as follows:

• Zombicide - just got the new version for Xmas.
• Dead Mans Hand - New Building to be purchased along with 2 new gangs
• Paragons Gladiator Combat - First printed in 1977!!!
• Star Wars - Need some new ships for the Dark side.

Armies to be updated/Painted:

• AK-47 African armies to be completed.
• Falklands Armies to be based to AK-47 or Cold War Commander, the later needing Pendraken figs. - URGENT Job
• Napoleonic's to be rebased and re-flocked.
• Cold War Armies to be rebased, repainted and reorganised with excess units disposed off.
• Warhammer 40k.
• Zulu Armies to be finished and rebased.

Armies to be sorted and disposed off:

• Excess 1/300th moderns
• A reduction of 15mm WW2 Flames OF War Armies, to core army units only.
• Thinning of Warhammer 40k Armies.
• WW1 Early War French Army in 28mm.

Many will notice that FOW has dropped off my list of games along with Battlegroup Kursk. These are under review this year and as noted above under reorganisation. This disillusionment has been festering for the last year. Partly down to the way  Battlefronts business plans have gone , Certain opponents at competitions that sapped the fun out of gaming and v3 late war madness.

These games may resurrect them selves but for this year I doubt I will Play WW2 15mm. No fault of Battlegroup that I won't be playing these rule.s just I am all FOW tuckered out.

Any one interested in anything, please ask.
Thanks
Jon

Christmas gifts

This is what I got for Christmas...Yay!!!!!!!!

From my Daddy..

Zombicide Prison Outbreak

Zombicide Dogs..Grr, Woof, Bite...

 

Thanks Daddy.

My Friend Richard sent me some Apache's in 28mm for my Dead Mans Hand game, just need the stats for them.
Thanks Richard

My Xmas present to my self was part of an AK47 Army of  E(Vil)bay.

Yay thanks me.

 

OH Dear!

What have I just done, I just went on MJ figures web site and raided their 15mm Falklands range....OH DEAR!

In the pipeline.

Coming Soon:

Dead Man's hand.
Falklands 1982
AK-47

All Quiet on the Martian Front - Thanks a Lot WWPD.net another Game I want....

Followed a link on WWPD.net and now I am wanting this game system....Grrrrrrr...Curse you Jeff Wayne for War of the Worlds....

check it out http://www.martianfront.com/

Great Product Lists Guys...But what do they look like?

One thing that bemuses me nowadays is that Miniature companies that rely mainly upon Shows and to a greater extent the Internet, and who have web sites with lists of their figures and vehicles, including prices etc. but have NO images or half of the range shown and not the rest.

I mean they take all that time to produce a separate box for each Item but No image. Some companies just do lists as per their price lists you can pick up at shows but that's great if you are at a show and can see the product.

But what if they do not go to the shows you do? or you can not get to a show?
How can you tell the quality of the model or what it even looks like?
I recently contacted one company to ask if they had a photo of their version of a tank and they told be to look up the actual tank on the internet and that there model would look just like it... WTF??????
I tried that and got 3 different versions.

So these companies are doing so well that they obviously don't need my custom or yours and they assume greatly to a large degree that we the customer are mind readers that know exactly what the product looks like.

Well all I can say is, No picture, No purchase.

Come on guys get your act together, you are letting your selves and your products down, if you take the time to do a web site why not put a picture of your product up as well or are the sculpts actually That BAD!? you don't want any one to see them before purchasing.

At the end of the day it is not hard to take a photograph and put it up on the web site.
Rant over, well... 'ish

Just some new toys

A friend visited me and gave me some new toys:

500 point Space Marine Army:

 A 40k Desert raider vehicle:

 Some Cowboys:

And an new e(VIL)bay purchase, one 40k Grey Nights Forge World Dreadnought