2008

This is my final post for 2008.
This year I painted :
46 15mm figures
81 28mm figures
14 28mm cavalry
32 1/3000 ships
48 1/600 aircraft
Bring on 2009.

My award for the best ruleset of 2008 "The Great War" by Warhammer Historical.
Best figures of 2008 "Diggers in the Pacific" from Brigade Games

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a have a safe New Year. See you again on 2009.

Australian Militia

These boys are my final painting effort of 2008. Presenting a company of 15mm Australian Militia to be used with the Battlefront WWII ruleset. You may just notice some figures based up as singles on round bases at the back of the pack. These will be leaders for the Crossfire ruleset. Figures are by Battlefront and Peter Pig. And I think I am starting to take better pictures. I will master the camera yet.

1/3000 Ships

I finished painting 8 more 1/3000 WWII ships for use with Victory at Sea rules. US Battleship Iowa and 6 Farrgut Class Destroyers, and the Jap Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku. All ships are made by Navwar. With exception of Iowa, the remaining ships contribute towards my obsession to paint all ships in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Shelldrake's Wargaming Bunker

http://www.freewebs.com/shelldrake/pacificwar.htm

I highly recommend you visit Shelldrakes Wargaming Bunker blog-website if your interested in gaming the pacific war. Shelldrake has similar tastes to my own and it's a shame he lives on the wrong side of Australia. Shelldrake has created the fictional South Pacific Island of Ranawe. Ranawe is a hell hole infested with Japs. Ranawe is remote and as such the Hero of Batan, aka General Douglas MacArthur, is not interested in sending in the American Infantry. "There will be no headlines" he was overheard saying to a staff arse licker as he sipped a shandy on the balcony of his plush Brisbane hotel room. The dirty job of clearing the island falls on the AIF. And the rest of the story will be continued by Shelldrake.

Army General and Standard

Army General and Army Standard completed.

Romano-British Commanipulares

I just finished a unit of 12 mounted Commanipulares for WAB Age of Arthur. If you laugh at my horses I will have to find you and kill you. This is the first time I have painted 28mm horses. It was mind numbing. 15mm horses are easy. Not these babies. I had an accident with the standard bearers flag. I stuck it on upside down, I then had to take it off with a hobby knife and glue it the right side up. There was no way I was throwing it out. All the bases have been magnetised by Litko magnetic bases. I tried to stick a figure on the fridge but he slid down. I am going to transport these lads to games in a metal tool box. The magnetic bases should stop them sliding around. Fingers crossed. Figures are Gripping Beast and as always, a pleasure to paint.

Digger Killed in Afganistan

I would like to pay my respects to Lt Michael Fussell, 25 years, of the 4th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, killed on Thursday 27/11/2008 by a booby trap in Oruzgan Province Afghanistan. Rest in peace Digger.

Crossfire Command Figures

I was a wee bit bored today so I dug through the unused lead pile, which is horrifically large, and selected some 15mm late war British and Germans to use as platoon and company leaders for Crossfire. A quick paint and base and these are the results. A real variety of figures in this lot, Command Decision, Peter Pig, FOW and pre FOW Battlefront figures. All my figures are based up for Battlefront WWII for some serious gaming. Crossfire is a good, quick, easy game. I am going to use my current basing for Crossfire and just add these fellows in as Commanders. Now I just need to talk some of my gaming buddies into having a game.

Another Platoon Done

Ten more 28mm Great War Miniatures finished. Well, not really. I still have to dry brush the bases but that's a 2 minute job. Ten men = a platoon in The Great War rule book.

Painting Update

It's been a hectic month. My bride, aka the ball and chain, has forced me to paint the en suit, put in new fixings, mulch the garden, clean the pond, clean the shed, and god knows what other future projects lay in store for my tired body. Even despite this awful distraction I have managed to get some painting in. I have nearly finished my heavy Romano-British Cavalry unit, Army General and standard barer. I finished the Battleship Iowa and 6 Farragut class Destroyers, but they still need basing. And I finished 10 more WW1 Western Front Aussies, but they still need basing. And I have started on my 15mm Peter Pig 8th Army figures for Crossfire & Battlefront WWII. They will be early pacific Aussies in Malaya and Timor. I have asked the ball and chain to buy me a 28mm Whippet Tank for Christmas. Please.........

Gripping Beast part 4

Well, my missing figures finally arrived. Yay. And the Beasties gave me a free pack of Late Roman Command. Yay.

Diggers in the Pacific

Brigade Games are releasing two new packs for the Diggers in the Pacific range. This range of figures are my favourite. Sculpted by Mike Broadbent. I can't wait.....

Remembrance Day

Take a minute at 11.00am and remember.

Big Game Saturday night

I was involved in a huge 28mm WWII skirmish game on Saturday. Six players, Yankies (Youngy), Poms (Guido) and Frenchies (Skulls) fighting it out with the Hun (Me, Godders and Jonesy) somewhere in Europe 1944. Rules used were Disposable Heroes by Iron Ivan Games. We played out a draw over 8 hours of gaming on a 16x8 battlefield. A big highlight was the barbecue put on by Guido halfway through the game. Excellent. Most note worthy unit of the game were a section of French infantry with bolt action rifles who decimated the German centre.

SS HMG

Just finished a three man SS MG42 team. 28mm figures by Bolt Action Miniatures.

Gripping Beast part 3

Well, its now been three weeks since Gripping Beast told me they would post out the missing figures from my Romano-British unit. They have not turned up. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. Especially since I placed a new order a week ago. New email sent. sigh

Peter Pig 8th Army

More figures have arrived in the post. My wife is giving me evil looks....

This time I bought some packs of the re-sculpted 15mm Peter Pig 8th Army figures. I have dug out my old copy of Crossfire from the late 90's. So I need some singles to uses as command figures to bulk out my Aussies. My hat goes off to Martin Goddard, aka Mr Pig. You have excelled yourself. Big painting session over the next month to get these boys painted and pics posted.

Australian Desert Infantry

28mm Batle Honors WWII Australians in the desert. I mixed in a pack of Poms with helmets.

Afrika Korp Platoon

An Afrika Korp platoon I have been working on. Figures are 28mm Battle Honors (Yankie Spelling). Based up for the skirmish rules Disposable Heroes.

This Week in Wargaming

I just finished listening to the "This Week in Wargaming" roundtable 1 show. I do like this show but I really think it should be renamed "This Week in WarHammer". This was highlighted when big Troy read out an email from Neil from the "Meeples and Miniatures" podcast. Neil took exception, and rightly so, to comments made by big Troy that 40K was the only game in town if you wanted to play sci-fi 28mm tank battles. Neil pointed out other game systems and models. Big Troy then asked the roundtable if they had heard of said games and models. Surprise, surprise, the roundtable are GW fanboys and of course they had not heard of said items. GW is wargaming. Nothing else is out there. That's equal to asking a bunch of yank Grid Iron fans, have you heard of Rugby? Most Yanks will go, whats that? Never heard of it, can't get a game of it around here. I'm not playing it. If they opened their eyes they would proably find a local Rugby club down the street. Message to roundtable. Pull your heads out of GW's arse and start googling. It's a big world and GW is just a small part of it.

TWIW weekly show is superb but get some variety on roundtable or run the risk of being know as TWIGW.

Gripping Beast part 2

Email received from Gripping Beast. Missing figures are in the mail. That's what I call customer service. What a great miniatures company.

Gripping Beast

Latest Romano-British unit arrived in the post from Gripping Beast, my number 1 favourite figure company. I ordered a unit of 24 Milities. Very nice figures indeed.

Now, I have had my first ever GB problem. They forgot to put four figures in the pack. So what? Well at about $15.00 for four figures it's a big deal. Email sent to GB. Let's see how we go? I am not worried because they have a good rep in the industry but I will let you know.

Blondie

Sorry to divulge off topic but something good happened at work today. A hot Blondie flashed a nice pair of boobs at my partner and I. Nothing like a nice pair of boobs to brighten your Sunday.
Thank you anonymous Blondie.

Great War Miniatures

My latest batch of Great War Miniatures arrived today from North Star in the UK. I ordered three packs, being the HMG, High Command and Signals packs. I really like these figures. They do however, have their problems. And that is way too much flash. I have been wargaming for 8 years now and I would say that they are the worst cast figures I have ever seen, even worse than Old Glory. These figures are not cheap and would say they are the product of a very lazy caster. They clean up well after a lot of hard work. Anyway, being the lead addicted wargamer I am. I will keep buying them until I complete my army.

Red Sun, Red Death

Good news today. My copy of "Red Sun, Red Death arrived in the post. For the philistines amongst you, this is the pacific war supplement for Disposable Heroes and Coffin for Seven Brothers. This is my favourite WW2 28mm skirmish game.

First impressions, nice pic on the cover. But shock and horror that the book has ring binding. No other other DH book comes like this and I really hate ring binding. I am going to have a big cry. As usual the contents are superb. I know a fair bit about Japanese Pacific TO&E and Chalfant has put together a very well research publication. Armies covered are the Japs, USMC and Chinese. No Aussies. Typical. But we do get a mention on the timeline featuring New Guinea and the Kokoda Track. You will be pleased to know that American leadership and support saved our Aussie bacons. And the New Guinea campaign was won on the track. DH boys, please! Kokoda was in a country called Paupa. Dutch New Guinea was it's own entity and a separate campaign sucking in 100 000 Japs that lasted until 1945. Bitching aside, this is a really good book with a lot of good information. Highly recommended.

Painting

I have three painting projects on the go at this present time, although there really should be a lot more. I'm afraid my house might sink based on my lead pile that gets bigger and bigger. But only slightly bigger than my rule book collection. You all know where I'm coming from.
1, 28mm Romano British for WAB and the excellent Age of Arthur book. I am working on a 12 horse cav unit as we speak. (I really hate painting horses).
2, 28mm WW1 Western Front Australians for Warhammer Historicals The Great War. Half way through my 1000 point list. Once the infantry is out of the way is all gravy with support weapons and the grand prize at the end, a Whippet Tank.
3, 1/3000 WW2 naval and 1/600 aircraft for Victory at Sea. I have an obsession to paint every ship and aircraft squadron involved in the Battle of the Coral. I am nearly finished but I will have to find a new obsession.
I hope to post some pics soon of my work in progress. The wifey & rugrat have gone to her mothers house, 400kms away, for the school break and have taken the camera. But I will get it back!!!
Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
Cheers
Paul

Beyond Kokoda

The new war documentary Beyond Kokoda screened on the History channel last week. The exciting thing about this particular documentary is the focus on Japanese veterans giving us their perspective for the first time. Here's a link to u-tube for a preview. Highly recommended.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc1G2pEzLl8&feature=user

Day 1 as a Blogger

Well, here I am. Day one, first post. Talking to no-one in the vastness of the web. Why did I set up this blog? I don't really know. Maybe to use as motivation to help me paint more figures, maybe to heap praise on my favourite rules and manufactures, maybe because I don't have anything better to do on a Sunday night. We will see how this goes. Wish me luck if you happen to be reading this.
Cheers
Paul