WiP - 105mm Artillery

No game reports this week. Just some progress on my Flames of War US list.

I opened my box of Battlefront 105mm artillery. There are lots of components to this unit! There are four guns with custom bases and five figures to go with each gun, a custom base for the artillery command team, one stand for the observer, one stand for the HQ team, and one jeep. My list includes a second jeep for some reason. Luckily, I have an extra jeep already base coated.

The guns are metal and in spite of the good packaging, they were badly bent and needed to be straightened into place. I stumbled on a good trick of placing the guns on the grid of my craft mat and using the grid as a reference. This helped tremendously.

I base coated the guns and jeeps with Vallejo Brown-Violet, the un-official "green" of the US Army. And I used the handy Testor's spray paint kit. This really saved some time.

The custom bases were resin. I had never worked with resin before so I primed it just to be sure. The bases are full of character and lots of boxes of the ammunition. I Googled a great WWII photo of two soldiers holding munitions with the label "Easter Eggs for Hitler" painted on them. I love the photo and will try to integrate that message on the models somehow.

The artillery HQ base included a makeshift table with an obvious space for maps to be placed on it. I found an typical terrain map on Wikipedia, shrunk it down to 1/100th scale, printed it, and glued it to the table. From two feet away, it makes a convincing little map.

Map from Wikipedia

Next step is to paint the troops, then jeeps, then paint the bases since the bases are actually modeled already.

Artillery after applying the wash

Comments

The Blog is going on a Permanent Vacation

Ok, I haven't had any comments on this blog on an post for many, many months. The only post that seems to get any traffic is my 2015 post about Star Fleet Battles. I don't fully understand why that post has generated so much interest, while the rest of my content has been mostly ignored. Clearly, this has not been an successful blog. I get much more traffic with my Facebook content and the YouTube channel is showing promise. Perhaps the subjects of my posts have been too random. I may need to focus on a specific game or subject. Maybe I didn't generate enough posts to keep the audience connected. Whatever the case, I am ending this blog with this final post. I'm calling it a 'permanent vacation' because the blog and posts will still be here, though I will not be adding any new content. I might continue to comment on the SFB post since that is still generating traffic 3 years after it was published. To anyone who might still be reading, I say 'Thank

Gulf Strike - Final Turns 26,27,28,29, and 30

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules. We have reached the final turns of the scenario. Turn 30 is the last turn, when we will count the number of cities captured by the Soviets and determine the margin of victory. The Soviets currently have 10 cities captured. The US is building a supply network in southern Iran. Can they reach the Iranian cities in time to help defend? Most of the air missions and ground assaults have been reduced due to decreasing supply for both sides. Turn 26 - US/Iran still have the initiative On Land: The last few Iranian infantry brigades move toward Esfahan. The Soviets assault the city of Kashan and capture it. This is the 11th city for the Soviets. This qualifies them for a 'marginal victory'. At Sea: The US LHA carrier with a compliment of AV-8 Harrier aircraft, moves northwest to the Iranian port city of Abadan. In the Air: Harriers launch air strikes against Soviet targets approaching Ahraz, but are ineffecti

Gulf Strike - Turns 18 and 19

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules . The Soviets are moving further south in Iran. The Americans now have supply chain problems. There are two points of failure. A Soviet heavy cruiser is bombarding the supply head at Diego Garcia The supply chain has been broken at Konark. Turn 18 - In Air; F-4s bomb a supply depot in Afghanistan, further weakening the Soviets there. Soviet Backfires make a conventional bombing attack on Iranian Militia in Hamadan, but the militia gets some incredibly lucky rolls and put a hit on the bombers. This forces the bombers to retreat. Su-24s provide close air support for the assault on Hamadan and Qom. On Land; SpecOps raids destroy a truck unit in Afghanistan. Soviets push out the remaining militia and capture the holy city of Qom. At Sea; The Soviet CA is finally sunk by an American SSN. This is the last Soviet naval unit in the Indian Ocean. US heavy transport ships reach the friendly port in Somalia.

The Painted Thumb

Search This Blog