Operation Sealion

Hi, here's a post about one of my more recent attempts to begin a new subdivision in my larger 20mm World War Two project. This time I will try to gather enough German and British troops to recreate some parts of the fictional invasion of Great-Britain in 1940-1941. I have been fascinated by this plan for several months now as I really love the way the Germans intented to invade England. Their invasion fleet nothing more than a gathering of Belgian, French and Dutch barges strenghten by some prototype vessels. Most of these barges were already gathered in major European ports such as Ostend, Boulogne, Cherbourg and Calais and the invasion force would mainly exist out of infantry supported by some panzer elements for swift actions and a small-scale Blitzkrieg. Before the initial invasion the RAF would have to be destroyed or heavily damaged in order to safeley transport the thousands of German soldiers across the Channel. When this was done, the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine would be able to control the Channel and eventually destroy the Royal Navy as they attempted to attack the German supply convoys. Before the invasion, thousands of highly trained and equiped fallschirmjager would be dropped above the major objectives such as airfields and large ports such as Dover. These elite units would only be counter by British Home Guard and Army units as most of the regular army was destroyed at Dunkirk leaving most of their heavy equipment. As the airfields and ports were secured, the main german invasion force would land and establish a beachhead before pushing further inland.

As part of this project I've started to build some barges, not historical correct ones but who cares in a fictional invasion. The barges are 85% ready and will be shown in a short tutorial on how to build a simple barge. As for the forces involved I've already finished the German paratroopers and bought the German infantry. All I need for the Germans are some armor, trucks and guns. For the British I need to buy some Airfix infantry, light tanks, Homeguard units(?), improvised armored cars and some AT support. But as most of my projects this will be one that will last forever!

Greets,

Japanese Imperial Army started

Hi, I've finally started to paint my Imperial Japanese army! The army has been based some months ago if not years in an attempt to paint some enemies for my USMC battalions. The army consists mainly out of infantry supported by mortars, heavy machineguns and some horse drawn artillery. The miniatures have now received their first layer of uniform color and are ready to get a second!

Most of the army, including HMG bases, gun crewmembers, POW's, ...

The second battalion, I'm playing with the idea of motorizing 1 battalion with three of Raventhorpe's Japanese Isuzu type 97 trucks and adding an other small battalion equipped with bicycles for a Japanese style blitzkrieg. Raventhorpe's truck is made out of resin and has a resin base, I had hoped to find some affordable plastic kits of Japanese trucks but I wasn't able to find some. I also hope to score some cheap Airfix Ha-Go tanks for a light tank company but this also seems hopeless as they are OOP.

Greets,

Some basing

Hi, I've just managed to base my miniatures for my ongoing "Chaos on the Red Planet" project! The miniatures are all metal and are made by Kallistra, Gamesworkshop (I bought them secondhand!) and some others. The miniatures are based on 25mm slotta bases which are textured using my own methode of filler followed by some PVA and fine sand (texturing isn't done yet)

Here's a close up of the bunch of marauders and renegade officers.

Here's a view of the entire bunch with the inclusion of an armoured battle suit which is based on a cavalry base.

Close up of the battle drone and a sole painted figure!

Greets,

Perry French and Mantic Ghouls almost finished!

Hi, here's another post about my recent painting activity. The last weeks however I haven't painted so much but here are some picture of what I've managed to paint. First of all some miniatures which showed up on my paintingdesk but won't receive a lick of paint as they will be batch painted later with some other goblins for my small fantasy goblin army. The miniatures are from an old game called "Space Crusade" and will be used as Tirrailleurs Goblinaise!

The second miniature is a GW rohan horse which I painted to see if the color scheme is fit for an entire unit of them. This was also my first 28mm horse I've painted since I started to wargame.

Other miniatures I've started to paint are some French Napoleonics for my ongoing French Army project. The miniatures aren't my best painted Napoleonics but they will receive a place in the second row of a base (where they aren't so visible).

Here are some Foundry miniatures for my ongoing conquering the unkown project. The miniatures aren't finished but are almost ready. I especially love the packmule!

At last I have some Mantic Games ghouls which I received for free when they were releasing the new miniatures! These miniatures are also almost finished except for some details such as their eyes, ... These miniatures were first blockpainted and afterwards painted with several GW inkts such as Devlan mud and the new black inkt. (They look much better without an extravaganza of light!)

I hope you enjoyed this small update!

Greets,

Plastic madness from Warlord Games, Empress miniatures and Perry miniatures

Hi, here's a short but very interesting newsflash about new releases of 28mm plastic miniatures by Perry Miniatures, Warlord Games and even Empress miniatures! First of all during Salute, the biggest wargame convention in Europe, The Perry Brothers have shown the greens of 6 new boxes of plastic soldiers! One of the boxes is the long awaited War of the Roses cavalry and which you can see on the left. Other boxes were American War of Independence redcoats, American Civil War Confederate infantry(?) and Prussian, Austrian and Russian Napoleonics. There are also rumors that Empress Miniatures, the company which is welknown for it splendid sculpts in metal for the Anglo-Zulu Wars, the Spanish Civil War and their most recent range the New Zealand Wars, also will release 2 boxes containing both Zulus and their British adversaries! As this wasn't enough Warlord games also announced the releases of plastic World War two British commandos and even a plastic Macedonian phalanx! Imagen the clash of Persian infantry (plastics from Wargames Factory of course!) with the Macedonian pikemen at Gaugamela! Who speaks of high lead mountains if there can be plastic mountains twice the size at the same price!

Greets,

German paratrooper battalion support

Hi, here are some pictures of my Pak36 support unit for my Fallschirmjaeger battalions. Both gun and the crewmembers are made by Hät in an annoying soft plastic which makes it difficult to construct the Pak36. However the price of these guns and crewmembers are low, the soft plastic is a real disadvantage compared with Italeri gun sets such as the Pak40 and Soviet Zis gun.

A picture of the gun and crew based on the usual hardboard base.

If the gun would be used against a British Crusader Tank MK I's hull during the fictional invasion of Great-britain. The Pak36 would be capable of penetrating the hull with relative ease in the red areas! These sorts of results can be calculated by using the following online calculator: http://www.wwiiequipment.com/pencalc/

Greets,

German paratrooper battalions finished!

Hi, here are my finished German paratroopers ready to jump above Great-Britain during operation Sealion or to defend the dense bocages of Normandy! All the miniatures are Airfix or cheap reproduction of these.

The basing is done as always,

1) Base the miniatures on a harboard base.

2) Smear some filler on the base for some texture.

3) Add some sand for a fine structure, with PVA.

4) Paint the base in a brown tone.

5) Drybrush the first layer with a lighter brown tone.

6) Add some static grass with PVA.

Here are the pictures,

The two battalions with their commanders on the left side, next to the commanders you can see the three american snipers for my AA battalion.

A close up, they won't win any contests but they're ready for some gaming.

Greets,

German paratrooper battalions

Hi, here are some pictures of my newly based German fallschirmjaeger. Today I managed to base up the two German paratrooper battalions which I painted some months ago. The bases are still drying as I speak and are waiting for a final drybrush and some static grass. I've also managed to base the Pak36 crewmembers which are now waiting for their Pak36 to be attached to the base.

The two battalions plus the Pak36 crewmembers and three bases for my American Airborne Troops.

A close up of some bases.

Greets,

Wargame news from Wayland Games, Battlefront miniatures, ...

Hi, here's the first post about the news in the wargame industry! It took my a while to start with this kind of posts because I simlpy forgot it! The news will include all sorts of new miniatures from metals to plastics and from 28mm to 15mm. It will also include the releases of new rulebooks and other wargame materials such as terrain, paints, etc. Well here we go!

First of all we have the release of Gamesworkshop' s new "Tomb Kings" miniatures! The new miniatures include the all plastic Tomb Guards, the Warsphinx and the Necropolis Knights. The use of all plastic kits allows the manufacturer to include dozens of extra parts which allows the ordinary wargamer to create his own unique army! The miniatures will also be supported by the release of a new "Tomb Kings" rulebook which will contain lots of new rules and stats for assembling for own skeleton army! Both the rulebook and miniatures will be released on the 7th of May and are avaible to pre order on the Gamesworkshop website. Here's the direct link!

As second we have the new Force on Force rulebook published by Osprey publishing in cooperation with Ambush Alley. Which can only mean lots of fun in a nice an sturdy book! The rulebook will treat all the aspects of modern warfare from supply lines to airstrikes. But the most interesting bit is the incorporation of guerilla warfare element which will add a nice touch to the wargaming experience. The book is already avaible from Osprey publishing at a price of £25. Here's a direct link. The release of the rulebook will also be supported by a supplement "The road to Baghdad" which will allow you to recreate the Second Gulf War as both Allied or Iraqi commander! This book is also avaible at Osprey Publishing at a price of £14.99. Here's a direct link.

Other news on the wargame front are the sneak peaks of the new "Orcs and Goblins" range of Mantic Games! This range exists out of plastic warriors and metal specialists such as standard bearers, captain, ... The range will include the heavy armored Orcs armed with crude axes but will also include the fierce Orc Gore Riders and the awesome goblin handlers! Their site also contains photos of an assembled Orc unit and they look ace! Here's a direct link to the blogpost. This awesome range of affordable miniatures will be released in April of 2011! So where are you waiting for, order your Orc Army now! Here's the direct link toward their online shop.

The last news is that from Battlefront! Battlefront has finally released it's new tropic lightning Vietnam range! This range is all metal or partially resin for vehicles and is in scale 15mm. The range included both factions of the Vietnam War, the Vietcong and American Armed forces. The Americans are back upped with their famous Huey helicopters and their trusty APC's! These miniatures are avaible from the Battlefronts online store or the Wayland Games online store. If you use the second online store you will receive free shipping on all Battlefront miniatures! I hope you enjoyed this post dedicated to the new wargame stuff! (Sorry about the complete lack of photographs because I simply messed up the posts lay-out and wasn't able to add them again)

Greets and don't forget to answer the poll!

Just couldn't resist ...

Hi, today I'm showing you another purchase I did on the LAF forum, this time some 4th edition Warhammer Fantasy goblins! I never thought that I would buy Warhammer miniatures but I really loved their one posed old plastic miniatures and especially the goblins! The deal included 27 goblin archers, 24 goblin spearmen and 4 old goblins armed with thunderbuss from an old game called "Space Crusades".

The purchase of this lot doesn't mean that I will start to play Warhammer Fantasy but I will probably play some games with the new "Kings of War" ruleset from Mantic Games. But as I'm not a fast painter, this lot will probably be banned to the darkest corners of the cupboards because the painting line is way too long ...

The archers ready to fire some volleys!

A nice looking goblin phalanx!

Greets and many thanks to all of my followers but especially the new ones!

- mork6969 from http://mork6969.blogspot.com/

- Figz from http://www.figz.nl/en/

- James Brewerton from http://sywbpsmoke.blogspot.com/

The Three Musketeers!

Why another project?

Yes, I have enough projects but this rather small project wasn't planned at all! It all started when I was browsing on the most fun and interesting miniature forum: Lead Adventure Forum. There I saw a topic in which the friendly Comsquare was offering some free blisters from Gladiator Miniatures and because it was free I immediatly contacted him. The offer consisted out of 9 blisters from Gladiator Miniatures' Three Musketeer range! I've visited their website and was sold, really nice 25mm miniatures. So I asked to Comsquare what the cost would be to ship them from Norway to Belgium, not willing to mention the price I can tell you it was less than the costprice of 1 blister (€11.50)! So I quickly accepted the offer and now I have the miniatures and yet another project.

The plan

The plan is to paint these miniatures up so "fast" as possible as there are only 27 miniatures to paint. The primary aim is to game some three musketeer adventures with these guys such as pub brawls, protect mss X, ... But the secundary aim is to paint the civilians so they can be used throughout a serie of era's and projects such as my "England invaded" and "Conquering the unknown" projects (stretching the historical limits with no remorse).

The miniatures

As I told before the miniatures were manufactured by Gladiator miniatures but are now produced by Black Hat Miniatures. The miniatures are made out of lead and are 25mm scale, not my prefered scale but for a sideproject it really doesn't matter! The offer consisted out of 27 miniatures which included the three musketeers in costume and in civilian dress, six musketeers, a bunch of armed civilians (they can be used from pub brawl to the French Revolution I guess) and some others.

Here's a picture of the lot

And here's a picture of Athos, Porthos and Aramis in civilian dress. Nice chunky miniatures, I really like them!

Here's another picture, this time of some armed women, just love the pistol handling women!

So stay tuned for some more news about this of some of my other projects which can be found by using the labels! I also want to thank Comsquare for this marvelous gift!

Greets,