Tall brick walls

This week I painted & based some tall brick walls for 28mm-scale Russian Civil War.  These are resin castings from Fenris Games, & they have incredible detail/texture.  If I was being really picky I'd say the individual bricks are fractionally too small for 28mm scale, but you wouldn't notice unless you compared a figure to the walls closely.  The cap tiles are an optional second piece.  The 'snow' is ready-mix filler & Gale Force Nine Snow flock, & I mounted the walls on large lolly sticks (bought from a craft store).  I snapped one section of wall to create a piece that has been blasted through by a field gun.  The paint scheme was inspired by the strong red bricks & colourful tiles that I have seen in photos of impressive Russian buildings.

Russian Civil War characters

I painted a few figures for my 28mm-scale Russian Civil War collection this week.  Here is Katya & Semyon, both from the Artizan Designs 'Thrilling Tales' range.  Their poses are old-school & quite static, but nicely detailed nonetheless.  I see Katya as a 'White' - perhaps the daughter of an aristocrat who has lost his property & power in the revolution; whilst Semyon looks like a no-nonsense Bolshevik hard man to me.  Katya could be used as a White partisan leader or even a VIP... (I'm considering adding a pistol holster to her belt using Green Stuff, as she is sculpted unarmed, but the 'bandolier' pockets of her coat suggest that she knows how to use a gun).  Semyon could be a Red partisan leader or Red Army NCO I think.

I'm very pleased with how the tones came out on Semyon, especially his quilted jacket, but I'm not entirely happy with my painting of Katya - I think her coat needs some darker grey shading in the recesses, & I'm not entirely convinced that her 'imperial purple' hair ribbon fits the overall scheme.  Maybe it will work once her coat has some darker shading, or perhaps the ribbon should simply be black.

Ruined building 2

I stuck with 28mm-scale Russian Civil War this weekend - here is my 2nd ruined building for this collection.  This is a pre-made, pre-painted wargaming ruin (I can't remember the manufacturer) that I bought quite a few years ago.  The painting is basic but effective, & all I have done is add snow cover using ready-mix filler from a tube, painted white & then flocked using Gale Force Nine snow.  Like the first RCW ruin that I added snow to, this one has a removable floor area for figure placement in the less damaged section.

Fences

I made these 28mm-scale fences a few years ago out of BBQ skewers & matchsticks, mounted on strips of plywood.  This weekend I rebased them for my revised winter-themed Russian Civil War project. This involved scraping-off as much of the static grass as possible, & then texturing the bases & upper-surfaces of the fences with paint thickener (readymix filler from a tube).  I then painted these areas bright white, before flocking with Gale Force Nine Snow.  I took the opportunity to add a few stones to the bases too.

Fourth game of Crossfire

Following on from my last post, here's a brief AAR on my fourth game of Crossfire, against my friend Tim.  Setting was the same (IDF platoon clearing a Lebanese town of Syrian commandos), but we switched forces (Tim playing the IDF role), & used different sides of the board from the previous game.  I deployed my commandos Hidden in 2 groups, one on each flank in the buildings that appeared to offer the widest avenues of fire.

Third game of Crossfire

My friend Tim & I played some more 'Lebanon 1982' Crossfire last weekend, & enjoyed it even more than first time.  Same terrain but different layout, with a very built-up central area this time. For our third game, I took on the role of an IDF mechanised infantry platoon trying to clear a town of Syrian commandos.  The mission was 'Bridgehead' from the main rulebook again, but this time we allowed the defenders to deploy Hidden.  Ofiicially the defenders should receive some free defences (e.g. a bunker, wire, & mines), but as I haven't modelled these yet, & Hidden deployment is quite advantageous, we left these out.

Crossfire terrain markers

I've painted-up some more markers for Crossfire - this time terrain markers.  These will be very useful for assigning a number to each terrain feature in scenarios involving Hidden units (when Crossfire is an it's best, apparently), but also simply for marking the rough centre of each building section (larger buildings need to be divided into 2 or more sections for rules purposes).  I used a draughting stencil to pencil-in numbers & then hand-paint them, whilst leaving the reverse sides of the markers the plain arid colour.  The current plan is that the markers can be turned over to 'blank' to keep track of which buildings have been cleared, if I write some special building-to-building clearance scenarios.

First games of Crossfire

I recently played my first games of Crossfire against my long-time wargaming comrade, Tim.  As newbies to the game, we experienced the initial double-checking the rules, but Crossfire didn't disappoint.  The system is very straightforward, & unlike some rule sets, very intuitive once you grasp the basic principles.  The total absence of measuring was a real eye-opener, & as enthusiastic Crossfire fans claim, it really does capture the feel of fire-&-manoeuvre, focusing on the tactics rather than intricate stats & movement allowances.  As such, there is a degree of abstraction, but I didn't feel that it detracted from the game (& I'm a bit of a fan of granular detail!).  The games flowed quickly, with a brisk passing back-&-forth of Initiative (other than a couple extended but largely ineffective fusillades).  I'm looking forward to playing many more games of Crossfire.

The scenario we played was 'Bridgehead' from the main rules.  In our case this was a platoon of IDF infantry moving into the outskirts of a town on the road to Beirut, during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.  An IDF airstrike had hit a PLO position in the centre of the area, & the infantry were moving in to mop-up any remaining opposition.  However, Syrian commandos had now taken-up position in the town, so the IDF would have a challenge on their hands.

Crossfire markers

I've painted-up some markers for 15mm-scale Crossfire.  These are Ø15mm laser-cut ply bases from Fenris Games - the perfect size given the small scale of my Crossfire figures, but still easy enough to handle.  I painted & drybrushed them to match the arid bases of my 'Lebanon 1982' forces, so that they blend nicely with the tabletop scenery. I've produced 26 Pinned/Suppressed markers - one blood splat for Pinned, & 2 blood splats on the reverse side for Suppressed (I gloss-varnished the blood for extra visual effect); & 8 No Fire/Ground Hugging markers (a single line for Ground Hugging, & a cross on the reverse side for No Fire).

The Pinned/Suppressed markers will be much more convenient than my original plan to use casualty figures based on 1p coins (1 for Pinned, 2 for Suppressed), as they are smaller & double-sided.  I'm planning to rebase my casualty figures 3 to a fireteam base, & use them purely for scenic purposes when a unit is killed/rendered combat-ineffective.