New purchases!

Hi, I've recently started school again what result in a major decrease of posts! However much has happened on the wargame front as I'm steadily painting up some more figures of my "The Three Musketeers" project. I'm hoping to finish the street rubble bunch of 9 figures this weekend! I've also bought a lot of Foundry, Copplestone, Bob Olley miniatures which contained the follow miniatures.

• 9 Copplestone or HLBC inuits with both bow and harpoons (I've always wanted some of these miniatures) some were already painted but I will touch them a bit up when I finish the unpainted ones.
• 3 Bob Olley gangsta's though they were bigger but I will use them as youngsters.
• 5 Foundry cowboys, the first recruits for a LOTW posse.
• 1 Foundry gentleman to be used in my VBCW militia (now counting 4 members)

Pictures will follow soon as I already undercoated most of the miniatures!

Greets,

Wargame news from Mantic Games, Wayland Games, ...

Hi, it's time for some wargame news! Well, quite a lot of news as much has happened last weeks. First of all we have some news from Mantic Games as the release date for the Warpath armies in coming near! Finally we will have the opportunity to game a non expensive scifi game with a whole new line of supporting miniatures and free rules! There will be two different forces available for preorder "the forge fathers" and "the marauders", these forces will exist out of grunts, officers and supporting vehicles! Next we have some exciting news from Warlord Games as they are currently offering the remaining stock of BEF miniatures vehicles for sale. This maybe the last chance for you to order some vehicles before the initial stock runs out as Warlord Games will be only releasing these vehicles as they are remodelled which can take some time as the range is quite big! There's also the possiblity of a price increase as remodelling and making new molds can be quite expensive, so order now to prevent disappointement! Please note that they are only selling the remaining stock, so not all vehicles are up for sale.

Not so new, but I've recently stumbled upon a new range of Blue Moon Manufacturing! The 15/18 mm range is called Deep Dark Africa and features all you need for some darkest Africa adventures ranging from porters to explorers and everything in between! The entire range contains more than 15 different packs and is extremely well-priced!

Other news is that Wayland Games is currenly offering a 25% discount of "The Uncharted Seas" of Spartan Games! This is a temporarily discount so if you want to order do it quick before the stock runs out or the deadline expires! These ships could be used with "The Uncharted Seas" rules or can easily be used for all sorts of other rulesets involving naval forces.

Following is the possibility to preorder Wargames Factory's Spanish war of Succession cavalry a sets which is awaited by wargamers for some months now! The set will include 12 horses and riders for which you have 50 torsos?

Mutineer Miniatures is also releasing severql new exciting sets for their Indian Mutiny range. My personal favorite is the civilian pack which is generic enough to use in lots of different settings and era's. The sculpts seem to be of excellent quality as is the casting, as with the entire range!

Empress Miniatures has also released several news sets in preparation of the release of the plastic zulu and british sets for the Anglo Zulu wars.

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed this post!

Greets,

Japanese Imperial Army officers and pow's

Hi, here are another bunch of pictures of some new additions for my Imperial Japanese Army. This time, the officer corps which will boost the soldiers moral and lead them into battle and the eventual Banzai charges! The first officer is mounted on a horse and represent him leading a fierce charge or leading his troops into the heat of the battle. All miniatures shown in these post are made by "Esci" except for the horse which is made by "Atlantic".

I also managed to finish an officer on foot and two bases of surrendering Japanese soldiers quit a rare sight as they often prefered an attempt to blow themselves up (maybe that can be incorporated in a game when US soldiers must capture Japanese soldiers for intelligence and you must role a D6, 3+ equals success and the Japanese are captured and on 1, 2 or 3 the Japanese had a hidden grenade killed all figures within a 7 cm radius).

I hope I will be able to finish the two infantry battalion before another project turns up!

Greets,

Japanese Imperial Army infantry AT rifles

Hi, here are some new additions ofrmy Japanese Imperial Army! This time in the form of two AT rifle bases, these figures are made by Waterloo 1815 and are excellent quality as they are good sculpts and made out of hard plastic. The weapons are 20mm type 97 AT rifles which were quite effective when they were initially developped in the late 1930's but as the war turned against Japan and the Americans shipped Shermans and other heavier weapons to the Pacific, these weapons weren't able to penetrate them. As they were expensive to make, they still saw service in the Imperial Japanese Army probably just as anti-infantry weapons. Up to the pictures.

The two bases ready to destroy some Stuarts or some Shermans if they are lucky!

A Close up of one of the bases.

Greets,

Japanese Imperial Army infantry support weaponry

Hi, here are the promised infantry support weapons for my Imperial Japanese Army! As I was in a painting spree I managed to paint up three LMG's, three HMG's and three knee mortar teams. These bases will give enough support for at least two Japanese battalions which are currently on the painting desk. Today I've also solo played a small invasion of US marines on a Japanese hold atoll by using the rapid fire rookie ruleset. The US marines existed out of 4 companies of 8 men with 2 HMG's and a 75mm sherman, the Japanese force existed out 5 HMG's, 3 LMG's, one knee mortar and one type 92 support gun which were all heavily entrenched. The result, the marines were totally whiped out as soon as they hit the beaches! All by all a great way to learn the 2 pages of rules. Enough talking up to the miniatures!

Firt of all the three LMG bases, all miniatures were made by "Esci" and were painted using the same method as the artillery crew.

A close up of the LMG base, there are two compositions of bases just to add some variation.

The knee mortar sections, with a modest range of 18 inch in the rapid fire rookie rules.

And last but certainly not least, the HMG teams which will create havoc on the landing beaches.

Greets,

Japanese Imperial Army artillery support!

Hi, I've finally managed to finish my first elements for my Imperial Japanese Army! Normally I start with the ordinary infantry first but now I've started with some artillery support in the form of two type 92 battalion guns which can both be used for direct and indirect fire! The guns and their crews are made by Waterloo 1815 and were a joy to assemble and paint. The box with the guns also comes with other support weaponry such as AT rifles, bomb sticks and grenade rifles, these will be shown in later posts about the project. Now enough talking some pictures!

Both guns in action, as with most of my light guns I only added three crewmembers as it's easier to fit them on the base and easier to finish. For the guns paintjob I only used two paints, humbrol matt 86 (not sure on the number) and the GW wash ogryn flesh. The paintjob looks really good and was done in less than 10 minutes for both guns without the drying time of course. The infantry was painted using the same basecoat but was washed with Devlan Mud, A bit too dark but it doesn't bother me too much.

As I had some miniatures left and some horses I decided to make two tow teams for the guns are they were designed for that purpose. Normally one horse would be able to pull the light gun but in the theatre of war, two or three were mostly used. I went for the one horse tow team as I had only two spare horses from the "Esci" russian set. The tow teams will be attached to the guns when they are moving and so can't fire.

And as the last picture a close up of the battery, ready to counter a marine beach assault or support the Japanese assault on the island of Singapore. The next post will include some infantry support in the form of mortars and machineguns!

Greets,

Dark age village!

Hi, as some may have noticed there was a slight delay in posts as I enjoyed a great holiday in Salou in the past week! Now back in Belgium adjusting to the rather modest weather, I've decided to share some terrain pieces I've made earlier this holiday. I decided to make these pieces as I wanted some generic dark age houses for historical and fantasy skirmishes. First of all I made some dead easy A-framed houses based around a cartonboard core. The thatching was done by using my flax and PVA glue method which is easy but really messy. The planking was made out of stirring sticks which were extremly easy to cut as I've recently bought a really good multi-cutter.

I've also made a smaller granary using the same technics as in the previous buildings. The granary is elevated from the ground by poles.

Another shot of the granary.

I've also made some bush bases by using some fake plastic grass mat pieces based on a 3mm hardboard base.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures!

Part 1: Scratchbuild pirate ship

Hi, here are some pictures of a new scratchbuild! This time I'm doing an attempt to make a sturdy pirate ship. I was inspired to scratchbuild my own ship when I was going through some old pirate books. The hull of this ship was made out of a a mix of thick and thin cartonboard as is the upper structure. After I made the basic shape I decorated the hull and upper structure with scraps of thin wood and pieces of wood for the bow! The next step in the build is to decorate the cabin with small statues and all that sort of stuff. I'm also intending to make a railing out of push pins and pieces of wood.

A close-up of the cabin and the back of the ship. I've also started to build some small rowing boats which are each able to carry 8 sailors or soldiers. These boats are almost finished and will appear on the blog this month.

I hope you enjoyed this small side project!

Greets,