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Since I have virtually nothing else to paint (for certain definitions of virtually and nothing, with rounding and margin of error.....). The FLGS recently (like Wednesday) got in their first order of Bolt Action. There hasn't been anything historic being played in the area that I'm aware of (at least none of the local stores carried anything) so hopefully this is an untapped market. Early interest seems pretty high at least. I've been interested in playing something like this for, oh, a while, but there has never been anyone playing it where I was. So I was quick to jump right int. Picked up some Germans (someone has to play the bad guys, plus I have a number of German tanks and things from West Wind in this scale....) and today started on some Grenadiers. Well then, this isn't going to be as straightforward as Legion figs..... There are 6 bodies, 11 heads, a number of different weapons, some with arms, so with arms you attach, and a whole bunch of kit. I'm building 10, since that is the maximum build out for a squad, and following a video I watched for the weapons load out (3 assault rifles, 6 rifles (including the loader) and a light machine gun). Bases and bodies, and I decided I'd use the LMG over the shoulder arm. And where I ended up after about 3 hours. All the arms and heads are on, but only the NCO is fully kitted. So just because the gun looked cool, The first German finished is using an "acquired" Russian PPSh sub-machine gun (it counts as an assault rifle for the Grenadiers).

It is never a good idea to play a alternate history video game when you own a 3d printer and love history. My first mini off the the printer is the T95 tank destroyer It was an American prototype. This is in 1/100 scale and it is big for that scale. It will need to be cured tomorrow and cleaned up for assembly. Here it is mock assembled next to a Flames of war 76mm Sherman. Currently working on tiger 2, 105 Pershing and E-100 Turrets. The hulls will come after that. Now to find a good looking Maus Stl .

ENDS 8PM BST 14TH APRIL Hi Chums! Sorry I left it so late to post, I have been ill the whole Kickstarter! Just scrambling now in the last few hours - despite this though it's going brilliantly! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/badsquiddogames/women-of-ww2-soviet-russia-28mm-miniatures We are close to the last stretch goal now - an adoring fan for our guitar player! Yes you heard that right! Unlocks have been: Winter Tank Riders Pack A Winter Tank Riders Pack B Winter Tank Command Winter Tank Hunters Dzhulbars the Mine Hunting German Shepherd with handler Kneeling Sniper Team in snow suits Lyudmila Pavlichenko Anti Tank Rifle Team Traffic Controllers Winter Advancing Command Dancers Guitarist The Eastern Front is obviously a very grim setting, and whilst fascinating to research, it can get very heavy! This range has a much less jolly feel than the last load of Home Front British miniatures, for obvious reasons (being more front line based) but I wanted to add some endearment in there to make people smile. And when I research these projects, the people definitely make their way into my heart through the memoirs and photographs. So I'd like them to be having a bit of fun. So far we have the accordion player and dancers, and these will fit brilliantly with them to make a nice camp fire diorama (check out our camp fires too!). Cheers all! Annie Bad Squiddo Games Bosslady

Just throwing this out there for anyone interested (yes I did back and no, I don't know them)... I did back their last KS as well and was happy with the results. They did a great in keeping people up to date and got all of the files out quickly. The figures look "funny" in the pictures due to them using the print-ready 3D files. I think that at the smaller scales especially, they are enhanced just enough so they will keep their detail and make them easier to paint IMO. Anyway take a look if you are interested! http://kck.st/322b1bO

My son's girlfriend stayed with us a week in the middle of May and I ran a Savage World WW2 horror one-shot. These two american soldiers here was choices for one of the pre-generated characters I had ready, but he was not picked by any of the 3 players (my husband, my son and girlfriend). American Sniper, Reaper SKU 37008, also available in the multi-pack of American Soldiers SKU 50075. Pvt Tim Hernandez, Reaper SKU 37016

Sorry for the late yell, been the busiest month of life...ever! TooFatLardies collaboration - last few hours of my KS for British Home Front. They're working on a FREE supplement with rules and scenarios for all the minis, not just for the women, rules that will fit with your male and existing figures too for Chain of Command. But of course there are many games and eras you can use em in. As well as women there's hero dogs, pigeons and other critters! Bad Squiddo is just me and I've been working my arrrrse off getting this off the ground, so even a cheeky peek and share would be amazing. And thank you everyone who has backed so far, we've made some really incredible things happen. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/badsquiddogames/women-of-ww2-british-home-front-28mm-miniatures

So, Hi there, first post, there might be an introduction sub forum that I missed. I'm Relatively new to mini painting, I've painted Blood Rage, and some Pathfinder Bones, and some other stuff. At the moment, I'm working on Fireteam Zero, from Emergent games. Amazing game, btw. I am working on the Infested faction at the moment and I have 1 finished, and 2 with the torso; I think; finished, and 3 more basecoated with some rough highlights. So I would like some input, feedback, criticism, whatever, for things to do different on the next 5 minis. Color scheme for torso is basecoating green, red for intestines and parasite, drybrush light green, wash dark green (or dark purple, done one of each so far), then blend in some decayed skin with yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and black. Tell me if I'm doing this in a feasible order, this is the first time I'm asking for feedback from someone who is not a friend. The first 2 pics are with just the base green, highlights and purple wash. The second 2 have the decayed skin blending. I have larger pics if the res on these is too small, I wasn't sure if the 150k limit was still in effect. Any help/criticism is appreciated! P.S. PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE SWORDS AND THE PANTS. (WIP)

So the guy who runs a local gaming convention called DieCon occasionally plays in out little Bolt Action group and was asking for someone to run a tournament this weekend. No one else was going to be in town so I got volunteered in army sense of the word. This led to a frenzy of terrain making in the last couple of weeks, However, not much of what I made was actually needed (in these pics only the Ethiopian table and a couple huts are mine) but it should come in handy now that I have it. In addition there was a frenzy of actually trying to read the rulebook. Shocking... In any case Friday evening was a learn to play event. We started with 4 people who split up my Italian and Ethiopian forces. Later on a couple other guys came and watched us go through the game. An Ethiopian officer leads an outflanking maneuver. The Bersaglieri take what ends up being an over exposed position on top of a hill. In the foreground the askaris move through a false banana plantation. In the background the Italian armored car is having a tough time after being hit by Ethiopian artillery. In the end the Ethiopians won in a landslide, which I found to be gratifying. While we were playing a young kid stopped for a minute to look on. I asked if he wanted to stop by later and he gave us what sounded like a sarcastic "yeah, I will". However he did drop by! It was his first miniatures game so we just threw a few units onto the table and had at it. Since he had eaten spaghetti but never any injera, he took on the Italians. This time there was no artillery.... He had a good time and dropped by to have a look at our tourney battles a few times on Saturday. Speaking of the tourney. We had 5 players so I brought out my Italians so no one had to sit out games. Armies that people brought were French, Australians, US Marines and two German forces. Just a side note: Some tourneys have a Hanomag Award for the player that brings stuff that fits the historical theme of their army even if it isn't very good in Bolt Action. I have no idea how we would have decided who to give that to. I think the Germans brought 6 Hanomags 251s between them. Some Askari move forward while the arty observers try to get into a decent position. The main group of players only have one friend that brings an observer and apparently he never rolls well enough to bring the hurt in when and where he needs it. In a couple turns, my opponent was quite surprised when his forces were decimated for being too tightly grouped around the white building close to the center of the pic. After trudging through a board filled with jungle. Bersaglieri and Askari look on at the results of another arty strike. My armored car was hit but not destroyed by the artillery and heroically run up and onto the bridge to try and stop the Germans from stealing the cattle. It was promptly destroyed by the captured armored car next to hut. Some marines moving across Ethiopia and getting ready to win the tournament. They also got the best painted army award. I did not win the best able to focus his phone camera award. Overall, it was a great experience. Everyone brought cool, well painted armies and I don't think there was any rules arguments and certainly no one asked for me make any rulings. Even when I showed off the true power of rolling 6's while bringing in off board artillery, everyone was having a good time.

I love this miniature of a Russian Sniper sculpted by Gene Van Horne. I had it on my To Paint very soon list since I bought her, finally got around to finishing her up. I did not attempt to make the uniform historically accurate. Talking real history, in 1943, Russia had 2000 female snipers. The most famous of them was Liudmyla Mykhailivna Pavlychenko (July 12, 1916 – October 10, 1974). Credited with 309 kills, she is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history.

This is the first of my units for my 1/72 WW2 wargame. It's 1/76 scale, but that's close enough to do okay. This kit had very crisp moldings, so it was probably a pretty early run. I'd guess it was made about 1980. I painted the camouflage with a base of old reaper pro paint Griffon Tan, with old pro paint olive and shield brown for the pattern. The little skirt near the bottom is old reaper chestnut brown. I then gave the whole thing a wash in Coat D'Arms brown ink wash, which I thinned an extra 50% to make it flow better. You can see it still caught in some surface places and looks like brown staining, but since it's a tank the dirtier the better. Raised details were then highlighted with a very light drybrush of old pro paint stone grey. The kit itself was rather nice, and has been re-released occassionally by Revell. Fit was overall good and not extremely fiddly. This is my first Char B1 in any scale, and I enjoyed it so much I'm looking for an excuse to get another one. It's a pretty heavy tank for its day so the in-game numbers have to be fairly low or it will be too strong. In most scenarios one of these with a handful of smaller escort tanks will be enough. I didn't apply any markings, partly because the decals are 35 years old and probably useless and partly because I don't know how game markings will work yet. Generic markings may be as well as no markings at all if multiple units are present. For tank types which multiple countries employed, an absence of markings may allow me to have a more useful force without a lot of expense. This tank may re-appear in 1944 as one employed against D-Day landings under the control of occupying german forces as a Pzkpfw B1 (f). The tracks are "rubber band" style, all one piece that snap together and fit on like, well, a rubber band. So they're a little warped. I drybrushed their dark grey color with a bit of reaper gunmetal to add a bit of wear. The kit also includes an FT-17 tank I will probably show later, and also some road, figures, and walls to make a little diorama. Those parts aren't a priority right now, but if I do them then I'll probably share a picture of the whole scene. Additional views: And one with Sir Forescale to give an idea of the size of the tank:

These were painted over this past weekend's painting binge - see that thread for WIPs and such. The figures are predominantly plastic WW2 figures from Wargames Factory, but with arms, heads, weapons and kit all mixed around. The idea was to represent a well trained but spottily-supplied standing army for a frontier world contested by two other alien powers in the endless war between the Nathi and Silmn.. Painting was as follows: -white prime -brown ink all over -red ink on the helmets and kit -black ink on everything but the trousers -black on weapons and boots -light drybrush white on the black bits.

So, this afternoon, I been paintin' Martians. I love me some Mars Attacks. First heard about Mars Attacks back in the seventies. Found a magazine at the drugstore devoted to science fiction. These didn't turn up as often as I would have liked, being as I lived out in the distant reaches of south Texas (I loved Famous Monsters, but they only turned up about every second or third month), so when they DID turn up, you bought them. Fast, before someone noticed a flicker of color and creativity on the magazine rack, and disposed of it in favor of Rancher's Monthly, Quilting Today, or Dull Periodicals. And this particular magazine, some small press thing I can't remember the name of, had an article on Mars Attacks, the infamous 1962 trading card set. They included illustrations of several of the cards, and talked about how due to the rarity of the cards and the weird chord they struck with kids of the early sixties, these cards were now worth a zillion dollars each, and that an art production outfit out of New York was reproducing the art as poster sized prints for way too much money. I devoured the article with avid interest. I was a sucker for fifties style science fiction, I admit it. Still am. Hell, I can still watch and enjoy Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, and one of the great pleasures of last Halloween was finding Robinson Crusoe On Mars showing on TV that evening. And I still get a kick out of giant bug movies. Because when I was a kid, I soaked this stuff up with abandon. The Black Scorpion. Invasion Of The Saucer Men. Invaders From Mars. Earth Vs. The Spider. Mars Needs Women! And now I was reading about this so-called series of trading cards that seemed like they were MADE of this stuff... albeit, a tad on the gory side. These were not your Ray Bradbury crystal spires and toga Martians. THESE Martians did NOT mess around. None of this "Peace In Our Time" nonsense. And they were PROPER equipped. They had death rays, heat rays, disintegrator rays, shrink rays, and freeze rays, as well as the growth ray, which they used on Earth bugs in order to make about a third of the card set be about gigantic bugs eatin' civilians and snackin' on soldiers and tearing up the Eiffel Tower, among other things. They had flying saucers, they had giant stompy robots, they had everything you'd expect Martians to bring to a gunfight. It was ON! Washington burns! Panic in Parliament! Moscow is gone! China is attacked! And that humungous caterpillar can't be doing Paris any good, even after he's full from eatin' the Eiffel Tower! And best of all, they didn't have to do any of this "mind control" or "possess Earth bodies" silliness to save money on costumes, makeup, and special effects. No, WE don't need no steekin' MIND CONTROL and endless talky dialogue! We just bring out the DISINTEGRATOR RAYS! I was downright disappointed. This stuff had actually existed, and here I was finding out about it fourteen years too late! The article went on to explain how the card set never got national distribution, and was yanked from shelves on the East Coast after the local parents and moral guardians found out about it, adding to its rarity... which had added to its popularity... which had led to the insane prices collectors were willing to pay for the original cards. Finally, Topps, the company who'd printed them originally, did a reprint set in the early eighties, which apparently totally went nuts at the card and comic shops, leading Topps to actually publish a line of Mars Attacks! comics, which would eventually lead to MORE card sets, and finally, a Tim Burton movie. I dunno what it is. I mean, these cards were printed before I was born, but there's something about them that completely awakens my inner ten year old and makes me wanna play toy soldiers and giant bugs and big stompy robods with Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers on the DVD player in the background. What IS it about these evil, green, brain headed, skull faced sadists from the Red Planet that has this effect on me? And apparently a lot of other people, for that matter? My fondness for bad science fiction movies has led me to study the matter. The fifties was a heck of a time. The psyche of most of the human race was still recovering from the horror and insanity of WWII, and since PTSD hadn't been invented yet, all the sol'jers who were suffering from it were just expected to suck it up and get over it and get on with getting a job, buying a house, and raising the kids, bringing it all back to normal. And a lot of those kids... my own parents included... were old enough by the 1950s to start spending money. What could we sell kids and teenagers in the fifties? Well, movies were a big thing... and cheap, lurid films were in big demand as drive-in movie product... and, then, there's our old friend, the Atomic Bomb, the great symbol of science as savior, ender of war... as well as a pandora's box that might have some pretty scary stuff in it. The film THEM!, which was about giant mutant ants caused by the original A-bomb tests, is laughable nowadays... but was nominated for an Academy Award in its time. It was vurra serious stuff, and gave birth to the entire giant bug genre. And what about those flying saucers that Col. Mantell supposedly saw scooting around the southwest, where all those secret airbases are? There was plenty of real stuff to be scared of; the Soviets had the bomb, and they had Nikita Khruschev, and they had better missiles than we did at the time. What better way to forget about real terrors than by going to the movies and immersing in the fake ones? By 1962, this was all the stuff of cliche, a bunch of established tropes... ready for assembly and use. And Topps did exactly that. They assembled every old hackneyed trope and cliche into a cohesive whole, and launched it as a set of bubble gum cards. And oh my, did they start something. I discovered this stuff back around 1976, and I've had it with me ever since, part and parcel of alien invasion movies, giant bug films, and the great and wonderful and chaotic world of the really awfullest science fiction of the fifties and sixties. We're well into the new millenium now, but weirdly enough, the horrors of giant spiders and the evil of brain-headed invaders remains with me, a set of villains to be fought that remains far more appealing to the child within than Nazis or stormtroopers or the terrorists of COBRA... living relics of the pulp sci fi of the fifties. Reaper and Gene Van Horne aren't immune. They did a lovely line of Alien Invaders a few years back. Snagged every one of them, some in multiples. Still regret the lack of bubble helmets for them. Mantic did this when they released their Mars Attacks! miniatures game earlier this year; bubble helmets packaged separately, to be carefully glued into place after painting. Anyone else have memories and/or reminiscences of the Martians and their spawn? Bad movies? Giant bugs? I'm curious to see who else on the forums gets charged up with the flipping of this particular switch...