6MMRPC Week Sixteen: Animated Weapons WiP

This week I mostly worked on continuing projects, cleaning mold lines from the Great War British, and masking the Ki-45 in preparation for airbrushing.  I also was able to get a few easy minis for my 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign painted up, just need to do the bases still.

First up was the Animated Weapons.  These are a Challenge Rating 1/4 Construct and I simply used some spare plastic weapons from a sprue of skeletons I built up previously.  Mounted on some push-pins and quickly painted and washed.

Two Short Swords and a pair or Hand-Axes.  These will be used to ambush unwary adventurers!

I also painted up a cloak that can be used for several different monsters, but will first be used as a Shadow, a Challenge Rating 1/2 Undead.  Also made from spare bits and painted quickly.  The final mini is a plastic Orc from Mantic, I think.  I wanted some orcs on the cheap and couldn't source the Reaper bones at the time I ordered these.  Orcs are Challenge Rating 1/2 Humanoids and are commonly found raiding the lands of more civilized races.

The orc is armed with two hand-axes and is the first of a small warparty I have planned for the campaign.

That's it for this week!  Hopefully I can get these finished up by next time and even get some paint on the Ki-45.

6MMRPC Week Fifteen: A Little Bit of Everything

This week I dabbled a bit into several projects.  My paint finally arrived for my Ki-45 and I was able to get some work done on it.  I continued working on Sam's Great War British, priming the landships and getting some infantry and guns cleaned up.  I made a decision on my Shifting Sands list, and I also dug out my Kensei figures and worked on them a little.

This particular color of paint for the Ki-45 took way too long to arrive, was back-ordered or something.  I should've just mixed something I already had, oh well.  I airbrushed the interior areas and then finished up all of the details before putting a basic wash on it.  Once that was dry I assembled the body and wings, and moved on to masking the canopies.  I've never done that before and it was tedious for sure.  Next up is camo.

The cockpit assembly came together pretty well.  Fit on the wings left a gap I'll need to fill.

Canopy masking in this scale is a pain...

The landships got a coat of primer but the male sponsons all need to have some uneven spots filled on the top.  I also got most of the guns cleaned up and some infantry too.

I almost forgot to put the front MGs on the Mark IVs.  I was wondering why I had so many extras!

The Kensei stuff I bought on a whim from Bartertown several months ago.  Some of them were already assembled and primed but I need to go back and clean up a few mold lines.  They also got beat up pretty bad and I'll need to do some repair work on the sashimono banners and yaris.  Date Masamune also seems to have lost his trademark crescent moon helmet crest.

Such good sculpts!  I also got mounted samurai, nodachi samurai and a few other single figs, like a geisha, ninja, and a few monks.  Also ended up with some mythological monsters.

Shifting Sands is in January and it is an Early War Blitzkreig event.  I've requsted that they add a few more lists that historically fought in the theatre but we will see if they allow them.  So far I'll be taking the Liechte Pionier list from the Blitzkrieg book, seven platoons of Confident Veteran Mechanized infantry for 1500 points.  One platoon of pioniers will be mounted in armored half-tracks, one in trucks, I have motorcycle reconnaissance, the ubiquitous 3.7cm PaK36s, a pair of 10.5cm howitzers for smoke and pinning, a pair of Panzer IV Ds, and three Panzer Is with demolition charges.  The Company Commander also gets a Panzer I.  It's not the most competetive list for sure, but I think it will be fun to build and play.  I need to buy several models still, so that'll cost me another joker. 

What I have so far.  Need to buy four tanks, five half-tracks, the howitzers, three trucks, and the motorcycle troops.

I also burned my second joker this week, bought a lot of Gebirgsjäger from a friend.  

Müncheberg Panzers vs. 1. Fallschirmjäger

I was able to get a game in today vs. Alex down in El Paso.  Alex wsa trying out the new digital Müncheberg Panzerdivision list from the Berlin releases and I brought my old 1. Fallschimjäger Divison army I built a few years back.  We played Hold the Line at 1900 points with me defending against the panzers at night.

Alex had two platoons of IR Panthers, an IR Panzersturm, Wirbelwinds, recon, and a battery of 10.5cm artillery.  We rolled for time of night and got Dusk.  The first three turns would still be light out, but then we roll for nightfall.  The sun would go down on turn four for us.  

Both objectives were close to one another and I was able to deploy both of my FJ platoons and the PaK40 platoon to defend them.  The Marder IIs would be in Ambush.

By Turn Three I had most of my Reserves in, including the StuG platoon.  I was able to hold off an assault by the Panzersturm on my front line but one of the FJ platoons was now at half-strength.  

Darkness falls on Turn Four and Alex had made a push down my left flank with a pair of Panthers.  The remains of his Panzersturm platoon was also creeping back up to my front FJs.  I'm able to bag his recon with a lucky shot which allows me to assault his Sturm first, destroying the final three teams for a loss of one of mine.  It puts me under half, but all I need is a 2+ to stay, which I make.

By Turn Five I had fallen back from the building, but was still contesting.

I dared to bring out my StuGs to take shots at the Wirbelwinds, which I Bail Out both.  The return fire from Alex would destroy one.

With the FlaK threat at least mitigated somewhat I'm able to deploy the Ambush on my Turn Six, destroying a Panther and a Wirbelwind.

Turn Seven would see the remaining Panther surrounded by Marders and StuGs, it would get knocked-out on Turn Eight.

Alex's last chance at a point would see the other Panthers destroy a team of FJs, but the two teams remaining make their 2+ check.  Alex's company breaks on his next turn.

It was nice to get a game in after a two-month break!  Alex is a great opponent who has a love for interesting German lists.  The IR-equipped Panthers are really cool.  6-1 win for the stubborn Fallschirmjäger from Cassino.

6MMRPC Week Fourteen: Midway Report

Now that August has wrapped up we have reached the halfway mark of the challenge.  When we started out in June this is what I hoped to get accomplished at the end of six months:
     - Assemble and paint a Great War British army for a commission. (Flames of War)
     - Assemble and paint units to finish my Early War German army for Historicon. (Flames of War)
     - Assemble and paint two entries for the Iron Cross Competition at Historicon. (Flames of War)
     - Start a 1945 Late War German Volksgrendier army. (Flames of War)
     - Paint some minis for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. (D & D)
     - Paint some samurai minis just because. (Kensei)
     - Paint some custom ships for homebrew X-Wing Miniatures. (X-Wing)

What I actually accomplished:
     - Assembled about a platoon of infantry and three tanks for the Great War British. (FoW)
     - Finished four platoons plus more that I needed for my Historicon army. (FoW)
     - Finished two entries for the Iron Cross Competition and won! (FoW)
     - Thought about maybe someday painting a Volksgrenadier army... (FoW)
     - Run my D&D campaign about two times in three months, didn't paint anything for it. (D&D)
     - Forgot I even had the samurai stuff. (Kensei)
     - Painted four ships and a terrain piece for X-Wing. (X-Wing)
     - Started building a scale model of a Kawasaki Ki-45. (1/72)

Everything I finished, minus the bridge diorama.  It's been shipped to my friend Josh, winner of the painting contest at a tournament I ran last year.

Wehrmacht and Galactic Empire, together again for the first time.

My two favorites, the T-34 and the YT-1300 mod.

Not terrible!  I've also been really good about not buying anything, having only spent one Joker on a pile of swap-meet stuff at a convention, and purchased a single tank to finish an army.  I've also made all of my weekly blog-posts, even adding a few extras!  I placed twice out of three entries at the Historicon Painting Competition, played nine great games of Flames of War, and even dusted off a scale model for practice.  My blog even got a shout-out on the Battlefront Miniatures webpage!

I've really enjoyed this challenge so far and I think I may extend it out after it wraps up in December.