Jasper goes to war!

[Standifer]

Nice work so far! 
what kind of tanks did you get? 

[Jasper_the_2nd]

1 hour ago, Standifer said:

Nice work so far! 
what kind of tanks did you get? 

From the BA line, I picked up the Jagdtiger (because I like big stompy things, even though I'll almost never play it....sooo expensive, points-wise) and Tiger I ausf. E, since they were the two that came in on the initial order.
From West Wind I've had a Panzer IV and Wirbelwind partially assembled for a couple of years that I'll be digging out soon.  

I've also got STLs for most of the German armour from 3D Breed Miniature's two March to Hell Kickstarters.  I've had a Panzer IV sitting on my desk for a year or so, but I need to compare it again to at least the West Wind one as I seem to recall it seeming a little small.  Might have to scale when I print more...

The next order (coming in next week maybe) I didn't specifically order any tanks ....but I have a feeling there will be some new tank boxes showing up to go on the rack, since the store owners know me pretty well.

I did order a Puma, but it fits in the armored car slot.

 

[Heisler]

There are some really nice alternatives to Warlord metal sculpts if you end up looking for some variety; Artizan Designs, 1st Corps. Company B (primarily for vehicles), Rubicon Models (primarily vehicles but some infantry), Trenchworx (vehicles only), Perry Brothers and Brigade Games are a few that come to mind. Rubicon and Warlord vehicles are good match to each other as they actually use the same scale 1/56th. Perry Brothers are also 1/56th scale and have both metal and plastic miniatures. I like their plastics quite a bit.

[buglips*the*goblin]

17 hours ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

And then I started on some troops with Panzerfaust. (You can have up to 4 panzerfaust in a squad.  They suggest you put a fig with one in your unit for each one.  Since they are one shot weapons, once you fire one off, replace the mini with a same equipped model with no panzerfaust.

 

I couldn't be bothered making extra figs to swap out and in any case didn't have enough bodies to do it at the time anyway.  My solution was to clip the loose panzerfausts off (there should be one per sprue), paint em up, and just lay them on the bases between their feet.  Once fired, simply remove the piece.  You could do it with toothpicks if you were of a mind to, or needed a lot of them for a big army.  Something to consider if you don't really want to make and paint the extra figs.  Doing it this way also gave me the ability later to not only re-use them to give to late war soviets as captured equipment without having to source more bespoke panzerfaust, but also gave me the opportunity to make a house rule where dropped panzerfaust are capturable weapons.  I kept the points the same since doing that allows the rest of the squad to simply pick up the panzerfaust rather than lose it in the case of a catastrophic kill (which usually deletes any carried weapons), a reasonably significant bonus, but I figure this is balanced out because it means an enemy squad that destroys a panzerfaust-equipped squad can also loot and use them.   None of that is to suggest making bespoke extra figures isn't worth it, it's just some options worth noting are available if desired.  

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by buglips*the*goblin

[Jasper_the_2nd]

3 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

I couldn't be bothered making extra figs to swap out and in any case didn't have enough bodies to do it at the time anyway.  My solution was to clip the loose panzerfausts off (there should be one per sprue), paint em up, and just lay them on the bases between their feet.  Once fired, simply remove the piece.  You could do it with toothpicks if you were of a mind to, or needed a lot of them for a big army.  Something to consider if you don't really want to make and paint the extra figs.  Doing it this way also gave me the ability later to not only re-use them to give to late war soviets as captured equipment without having to source more bespoke panzerfaust, but also gave me the opportunity to make a house rule where dropped panzerfaust are capturable weapons.  I kept the points the same since doing that allows the rest of the squad to simply pick up the panzerfaust rather than lose it in the case of a catastrophic kill (which usually deletes any carried weapons), a reasonably significant bonus, but I figure this is balanced out because it means an enemy squad that destroys a panzerfaust-equipped squad can also loot and use them.   None of that is to suggest making bespoke extra figures isn't worth it, it's just some options worth noting are available if desired.  

 

 

 

That was my initial plan, until  I managed to lose one of the 2 I cut off the sprue while they were laying on my desk.....

Now the plan is to do 4 or so actually modeled ones, and then have a small stash of loose ones in case I need more.  I just need to find a nice small container to store them in......

 

[Jasper_the_2nd]

Trying to get ready for Monday's demo/game.

So that is everyone armed and headed.  I made a point of putting kit on the guy going with the commander as I definitely want to get him primed.

If I can get the kit on the two units I'm planning to use I'll prime them too, but we'll see how much time I get.

Once these guys are kitted out I'll probably assemble a tank or something before getting back to finishing painting the first squad, because tanks......

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

Tanks are love, tanks are life

 

[Standifer]

2 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

Tanks are love, tanks are life

 

Oooo I see a couple tiger 2s, a tiger some panthers, Shermans a 76mm Sherman, are those Cromwells and a KV-1 turret?

[buglips*the*goblin]

3 hours ago, Standifer said:

Oooo I see a couple tiger 2s, a tiger some panthers, Shermans a 76mm Sherman, are those Cromwells and a KV-1 turret?

 

Yes, there's a KV-2 in the shadows behind it.  Warlord rather thoughtfully made it so all you have to do is swap the turrets for either version.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

Mmmm, tanks.....

 

Got one unit kitted up tonight.

I included an 11th man, with panzerfurst.  I realized that my list was 495 points, and a panzerfurst is +5 points, so.....

Plan is to kit the other until tomorrow morning and the get the airbrush fired up and get some primer and maybe a base coat on everything needed for Monday.

 

[Standifer]

1 hour ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

Yes, there's a KV-2 in the shadows behind it.  Warlord rather thoughtfully made it so all you have to do is swap the turrets for either version.

Ahh the KV-2 very ugly tank with a big honking gun. 
 

9 minutes ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

Mmmm, tanks.....

who needs infantry right? Just some heavy Armor! 
I love WW2 armor, both active and prototypes. 

[Jasper_the_2nd]

Managed to get all the kit attached, everything primed and even a base coat on everything.

The officer I'm going to aim for the dark greyish uniform look, so base coated some AP Uniform Grey Air.  The rest were base coated in AP Field Grey, like the first batch.  Should probably see if they have that in the Air range.....

The half-track was primed in grey (like the others) then I primed anywhere underneath or in the tracks or wheels with an AK red primer (which is a pretty close match to the Scale 75 War Front red primer colour that comes with the German vehicle set.  Unfortunately it was a bit thin for the pressures I'm running so didn't apply overly well.  It then got a good two coats of War Front Dunkelgleb.  The first batch didn't think well with Army Painter's Airbrush Medium, so I mixed the second batch with Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver and that worked much better.  Hopefully since I wrote it here I'll remember that for next time.

Tomorrow I have to reattach the big gun (Pak 38 maybe) to the gun shield as it seems to  have come loose.  And then figure out how to pack this up to take to the store.

 

[Standifer]

Are the vehicles in a smaller scale than the figures?

[Jasper_the_2nd]

1 hour ago, Standifer said:

Are the vehicles in a smaller scale than the figures?

They are nominally the same scale, "28mm" and 1/56 scale are generally called the same, but since we all know 28mm is "whatever" it's all kind of *shrug*...

And as we'll see 28mm =1/56 scale isn't even always the same.

 

Tonight I decided to start assembling the Panzer IV-X   (stop twitching WW2 history folks, I know that isn't a real unit, I'm getting to that) from the Konflikt '47 German starter box.  Konflikt '47 is the Weird World War II edition of Bolt Action (more or less).. 

So the kit comes with a standard Panzer IV (with parts for any of F1, G or H) plus the alternate turret for the fictious X (featuring the Schwerefeld Projektor aka Gravity Pulse Cannon).

Hull top and bottom aren't attached yet, as I want to decide if I'm magnetizing or just leaving it with peg and hole.....

Lots more to do on it, but getting late.

 

I did decide to dig put my West Wind Panzer IV hulls (one is for a Wirbelwind) to compare, and grabbed the 3d printed one I've had on my desk for a year (from 3D Breed's March to Hell Kickstarter) all for size comparisons.

So, as expected there are some differences (oh, that's the X weapon turret popped on there).

West Wind's Berlin or Bust! line is also 28mm, but their vehicles are 1/60 scale.  So these are a bit smaller than Warlord Games' 1/56 scale one.

And as I'd heard from a friend, at least some of the vehicles from that KS need to be scaled down a bit. (quick check on the cutting mat looks like it is around 12 cm long while the BA one is around 10 cm. I'll do more accurate measuring before doing a test print).

 

So in closing... TANKS!  🙂 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Jasper_the_2nd

[Standifer]

22 hours ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

They are nominally the same scale, "28mm" and 1/56 scale are generally called the same, but since we all know 28mm is "whatever" it's all kind of *shrug*...

And as we'll see 28mm =1/56 scale isn't even always the same.

Was wondering because the seats in that half track look a tad small for those soldiers.