Pages

Wednesday 27 August 2014

URAL 4.5 ton truck (FoF)

This week I've been putting together vehicles for 15mm scale Force on Force.  First off the production line is this URAL 4.5 ton truck (although I still need to add weathering & scuffs to it).  This is an excellent 11-piece model from Peter Pig's AK-47 Republic range, with minimal mould lines & nice detail.

I initially bought it to represent a UN food truck in Day of the Rangers (early '90s Somalia) scenarios, but it could equally be used as a transport for my Syrian PLA or Iraqi Republican Guard troops, or as a stand-in for US M939 transport trucks until I can source some 15mm models of those.

Sunday 17 August 2014

USMC vs. Republican Guard (FoF)

This weekend I played a game of Force on Force with my friend Tim. It was a simple scenario that we threw together, on a 4' x 4' table, with 3 objective buildings. Tim took on the role of the US Marine Corps, who were over-running the defences of a town on the road to Baghdad. A unit of Delta Force was with them, tasked with capturing or killing a Ba'athist Party official identified by intel.  I played as the Republican Guard, supported by a 76mm recoilless rifle, & 3 Saddam Fedayeen technicals, with the Ba'athist official having a small bodyguard of Fedayeen. Tim's Victory Points were based on capturing the objectives & the Ba'athist official, whilst mine were simpler - stop the US advance, & kill as many marines as possible.

My Republican Guard began behind buildings on the far side of the town square from the highway that the US were advancing along. The Ba'athist & his bodyguard were directing the defence from the courtyard at the bottom of the photo.

Tim had some poor dice rolls to begin with, with his unit that occupied the bunker on the outskirts of town suffering from a hail of incoming fire, although they knocked-out the weapon on one of my technicals that I rushed to engage them.


Tim's Delta Force unit, supported by a USMC fireteam, advanced quickly towards my left flank whilst we fought over the bunker & adjacent objective building on my right flank near Tim's side of the battlefield.

Friday 8 August 2014

Light cover (TW)

I'm still on a terrain-making binge at the moment, but I will be getting back to figure painting soon.  Today I finished four pieces of light cover for 15mm-scale Tomorrow's War.  These are mounted on 'organically shaped' ice lolly sticks, & are simply little chunks of polystyrene blended in with paint thickener (essentially ready-mixed all-purpose filler from a tube), with tiny stones for rocks.  Again, I used Gale Force Nine flock & static grass, & bits of plastic aquarium plants for the foliage.

I painted & drybrushed the stones to match the cliffs.  In Tomorrow's War rules terms, I'm thinking these pieces won't actually provide a cover bonus, but nearby figures can avoid the 'Exposed' penalty of being in open areas.  Visually they will be useful for breaking-up the look of empty areas of tabletop.

Monday 4 August 2014

Jungle hills (TW)

This evening I finished off a second, larger hill for the colony world Gondwana.  Here are some photos of it alongside the smaller hill from my post yesterday, with some (15mm) Combat Androids for scale:

Sunday 3 August 2014

Small hill & jungle bases (TW)

This weekend I've been painting & flocking bases & finishing off a couple of hills for the colony world Gondwana.  Finished so far are a pair of bases for grouping scatter foliage (the idea is that trees/plants can be removed to help with miniature placement, whilst still retaining a defined boundary for the foliage, so it's clear who is in the jungle):


I saved myself a lot of time & effort with these jungle bases by buying ready-made (laser-cut ply) ones from Fenris Games.  All I had to do was clip them off the A4 'sprue'-sheet, & as a personal preference sand down the upper edges to blend them in with 'ground level' a bit.  The circular tree bases are also from Fenris Games, & I've been very impressed with their quality.

Also this weekend I finished detailing a small hill, which has a lot more grass as it's outside the jungle.  The hill is based on a hand-sawn ply shape, & made up of layers of foamboard, bulked & smoothed-out using all-purpose filler.  All the flock I have used is Gale Force Nine product.  I added a few small plastic (aquarium) plants to the hill, to help tie-it in with the vivid look of other terrain pieces: