Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Arnhem The Game at Last

The End State.

How we got there....
The first phase of the game was played over email and run by Steve(who is working on the official AAR). The British and German forces had to determine how they would defend, or attack Arnhem. As players, we did not know the outcome of the email portion of the game until the powerpoint presentation at the beginning of the tabletop game. The German players provided a historically accurate defense, while the British commander deviated from history and managed to get two battalions to Arnhem. However Frost's battalion got held up west of the city and did not make it in time for the fight. I guess there will be no Frost bridge! In a twist, the British team, which had successfully attacked Arnhem, became the Germans for the tabletop fight. As Germans, we decided to place machine guns on the causeway, and use infantry to clear houses in order to protect our tanks as we advanced on the western edge of the board through the housing subdivision. No forces were deployed on the easter side of the board. This concentration of forces should have aided us as we cleared buildings and advanced towards the bridge. 

German 9th panzer recon advance half tracks on the causeway to provide king of the hill machine gun fire.


Infantry and tanks advance on both sides of the western edge row houses. Rather spectacularly, two of Richard's squads are decimated clearing the first two row houses. Sixteen Germans die on the first turn.

I advance my forces along with Mike and Drew's HQ along what appears to be a safer route.







The tanks push forward to the intersection as houses are finally cleared at great cost to the Germans. Many red devils die in the process.

Red Devil's attempt to redeploy from the empty right flank, but are caught by MG fire from the German halftracks on the causeway.



Owen's Red Devils hid behind the causeway pillars and statue.



Panzer IV tanks being firing their machine guns on the western most buildings adjacent to the bridge.

The panzer supporting my squad makes it to the boardwalk and begins firing at the western buildings as well.


Thursday, September 22, 2016

Wargames Table Almost Complete




































Our club game is only three days away, and at this point I think I can rest from relentlessly pushing forward on this table. What you see in these photos is a table built entirely from scratch. There are some commercial plastic details, such as the lamp posts, and park fencing, but by and large this table was designed and cast in dental plaster. There are so many unfinished buildings, and half painted details, but I think the table works. Now if I could only get that tape off of the rim of the table!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Building Arnhem For Bolt Action







I started this project ages ago, and with our coming coming up next week, am finally in the home stretch. The table has had sidewalks added, and the boardwalk is starting to actually look right. I think that once the buildings are weathered to match the table it will finally start looking the way I imagined it would. That's the part that made this table such a herculean effort. It has taken months of work to get to this part, and only now is it starting to look right. I'm really looking forward to having this done and getting some games in.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

WWI British Female Mark IV 28MM







Richard over at Warpstone Pile painted a really nice A7V German tank for NOVA(which has been subsequently saved from lacquer frosting). I figured that since I had a Trenchworx Mark IV sitting in my closet that I might as well paint it up to provide his tank some company.

There are many nice features to this model, including magnets included for easy weapon sponson swaps, but there were also significant mold registration issues. The tracks and machine guns on this tank suffer from what looks like a mold mold slip. Regardless, I enjoyed painting the model and decided that I would not cover the bad tracks with mud as would be my standard approach to correcting poor tracks. I think the tracks are important on the vehicle, and despite flaws in the kit, these style tracks form the basis for what Games Workshop would eventually use for their archaic-future aesthetic.

So this is not a Renault, but it is from the great war. Bonus points for that?

Monday, August 29, 2016

Tiger Based


Today I based a Bolt Action tiger. I am beginning to think that all the models I enter into painting competitions need bases. Even a simple all black plinth is enough to make a model stand out more. I'm happy to at least have another entry for the NOVA Open capitol pallet.