Friday, November 26, 2010

T-34s Assembled


Assembled five T-34s this last night. I’ll paint them up within the week

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These models are from West Wind Productions. Simple enough. A bit wonky. Whatever – I’ve got FIVE of them! Take that, Fascists!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

PAINTED T-34s (and the end of painting Soviets!)

Canadian Sherman Troop (Last of the Canucks!)


I finally finished up my Sherman Troop. And that pretty much finishes up the Canadians (well... except for the universal carrier…)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The Shermans are all from West Wind Productions. The Firefly I had finished up previously. These chaps are painted as a troop from B Squadron of the 1st Canadian Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment, 2nd Independent Canadian Armoured Brigade) who were in direct support of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade on D-Day.

I had originally planned on doing these as a step-by-step… but I just don’t have the time right now…


I also happen to finally finish up the 6-Pounder AT gun. The crew I had finished some time ago. Crew and gun are all from Artizan Designs.

The whole Canadian force so far…


There’s a mix of Artizan Designs, Bolt Action Miniatures, Black Tree Design, West Wind Productions, Crusader Miniatures, and First Corps. They have been painted with the shoulder titles of the Regina Rifle Regiment (7th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division).

I’m six riflemen shy of two full-strength rifle platoons. It’ll probably be a while before I pick them up because when would they have ever gone into action with nine – let alone a full ten!?

Supporting the Rifle platoons are two tubes of 3” mortars and their crews from the battalion’s Mortar Platoon, a six-pounder from the Anti-Tank Platoon, a couple sappers from the Pioneer Platoon, moving and firing Vickers teams from the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (the divisional MG Battalion), a scout car from the 7th Reconnaissance Regiment (17th Duke of Yorks Royal Canadian Hussars – the Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment), and the aforementioned troop of Shermans from the 1st Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment, 2nd Independent Canadian Armoured Brigade – who were in direct support of the 7th Brigade on D-Day).

Oh and a bunch of casualties… and the Battalion Chaplain (complete with silver cross and brace of sharpened wooden stakes – in case things get a little… weird…)

The only outstanding Canadian item is a Universal Carrier. I guess I could use it to tow the AT gun around… but I’m not feeling really motivated to get it done any time soon. It’s a Tamiya plastic 1/48 model I picked up to see how close it might be in scale. It’s not too far off… but if I were to want any more carriers at some point I’d just buy a whole new lot and replace it as I’m sure it wouldn’t be anything close to a resin cast 28mm model…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Maybe some T-34s… maybe something Sci-fi-ish or pulpy… WE shall see…. I would like to finish up the T-34s because it’s the last of the Soviet stuff I have. I’ve actually got the East Front Campaigngoing again too so they’d potentially be handy in the short term – although the only opponents I have for them are the Pzkw38t and the StugD… (oh, and the doorknocker Pak36 AT gun).

Thursday, November 18, 2010

More Dead Commies


The last of the Soviet casualty figures…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Like the last batch these are all from West Wind Productions.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

On to some tanks… when I get some time to paint again…

Monday, November 15, 2010

28mm WW2 – To Do

I sat down and figured out how many 28mm WW2 things I have to finish up this evening (because I apparently have nothing better to do!?)… All part of the planning process, I guess.

Soviet Infantry & Guns: 187 painted, 9 to do, 196 total, 95.4% complete
Soviet Vehicles: 6 painted, 5 to do, 11 total, 55% complete
Canadian Infantry & Guns: 109 painted, 1 to do, 110 total, 99% complete
Canadian Vehicles: 2 painted, 4 to do, 6 total, 33% complete
SAS/LRDG: 28painted, 28 total, 100% complete
British/Canadian Paras: 58 painted, 30 to do, 88 total, 66% complete
British Commandos: 46 painted, 32 to do, 78 total, 58% complete
French Foreign Legion: 30 painted, 30 total, 100% complete
Armed Civilians: 46 painted, 33 to do, 79 total, 58% complete
Italians: 0 painted, 53 to do, 53 total, 0% complete
USA – ETO: 15 painted, 42 to do, 57 total, 26% complete
USA – PTO: 10 painted, 10 total, 100% complete
ANZAC: 28 painted, 5 to do, 33 total, 85% complete
Japanese: 38 painted, 38 to do, 76 total, 50% complete
German Heer (European) Infantry & Guns: 64 painted, 79 to do, 143 total, 49% complete
German Heer (European) Vehicles: 6 painted, 10 to do, 16 total, 38% complete
DAK Infantry & Guns: 34 painted, 22 to do, 56 total, 60% complete
DAK Vehicles: 0 painted, 3 to do, 3 total, 0% complete
Uboat Crew: 16 painted, 16 total, 100% complete
Fallshirmjägers: 12 painted, 35 to do, 47 total, 25% complete
Gebirgsjägers: 15painted, 15 total, 100% complete
SS: 36 painted, 24 to do, 60 total, 60% complete

Total Infantry & Guns: 772 painted, 403 to do, 1211 total, 63% complete
Total Vehicles: 14 painted, 22 to do, 36 total, 39% complete

The Soviet infantry will be done in an evening’s work – they’re all casualties and are primed and most of the bases are gooped. Next up will be the Canadian Shermans (and that 6 Pdr AT gun!). After that the Soviet T-34s. Then all the Canadians and Soviets will be complete…

After those I’ll probably pluck away at assorted Germans (Heer and SS) and maybe quickly finish up the ANZACs in my possession and maybe even the Japanese…

British Commandos and Paras will work there way in there at some point, as well as the Fallschirmjägers and Armed Civilians…

The Italians and DAK are pretty low priority at the moment. They should be higher as I’ve got great terrain… But there’s only so many times Desert Commandos can storm a desert village…

The Americans are pretty low too… (Sorry, John… maybe if you came out and played WW2 games with us I’d get motivated…). Once I get some Normandy terrain built I’ll get more excited about them…

Looking at the rate I’ve been painting (which has been dropping lately), it’s still take another SIX MONTHS to finish all of this!?

Ugh…

I don’t even want to think about all the other stuff I have now…

Commies and Jerries


Well I got a whole lot of the 20mm modern stuff rebased and even painted up a few new things and was all ready to try out AK-47 again and maybe get back to some Cold War Commander. But the moment passed and now I’m back to painting WW2 stuff and gearing up for another round of East Front Savage Worlds skirmishin’…

I’m so close to finishing up so many of those 28mm WW2 forces I’ve decided to just carry on with them and get them FINISHED! First the rest of the Soviet dead, then the Canadian Sherman troop, then the T-34s… then…? Not sure… but I’ll probably mix it up doing a bit of this and a bit of that to keep things interesting.

After that…? I’m not sure. I’ve been thinking about the Great War again and getting back to the Vimy Project - fixing/finishing up the section of the ridge already completed. It’s been sitting in a closet gathering dust for the last couple years and been banged about a bit, and I never did get to finishing all the trench details.

I think over the next month, as the collection is in a bit of a static state (not painting a lot, not buying any new stuff), I think I might do another big stocktaking (like I did last year) to get a sense of where I’m at and figure out what to do next.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of running a mini-con the last weekend of February (7th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash)… but not sure what sort of format it will take…

All the figures pictured below are from West Wind Productions. I picked them up during the 40% off sale this summer…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


German tanker.


Soviet Tankers (the figures are actually from the German Tank Crew pack… but since they were wearing overalls and wedge caps that all look similar… I thought I’d paint a couple as Russians…)


DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA!! Dead Germans….

I’ve been picking up some casualties for my various WW2 forces. I’d rather put an actual wounded marker out on the table than just leave figures toppled over where they were knocked out of action. This pack is, unfortunately, mostly later war (in smocks) and about half are “action” casualties (in the act of getting shot/etc – which are really cool looking and might make for some fun game reports… but not so great for leaving on the table to mark where casualties fell..

Two of these guys above actually have exit wounds blowing out the back of their smocks!


This is kind of what I prefer. Static casualties. I bought two bags of the Soviets….


Soviet Mortar Teams.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

As I mentioned earlier it’ll probably be the rest of the Soviet casualties first. Then I’ll probably finish the Canadian Sherman troop (though I probably won’t bother with the step-by-step that I had originally planned to do) and that should finish off the Canadians. After that I’ll probably get to work on the T-34s as that should finish off the Russians … after that…? Not sure… might make a slight deviation and paint up a few Great War types… or just plough on ahead with the WW2 stuff… I have a few British/Canadians Paras to finish up, British Commandos, some SS, DAK and Fallschirmjägers, a few armed civilian types, and some Japanese (including some casualties!). Then I’ll have to get on to the rest of the Germans (there’s quite a bit – about a full platoon of infantry and five tanks), The Americans (again, full platoon or more, and an SP AT gun), and the Italians (full platoon and then some).

Gosh by the time I’m finished all of that it’ll be the new year… maybe I’ll treat myself to a couple Italian and Japanese tanks… and some jeep-mounted SAS…

Oh wait… did I say something about not buying any toys for a full year...

hmmmmmm…

Friday, November 12, 2010

Tallarn Commander


A commander for my nonexistent Tallarn force (or to-be-painted Tallarn force)


The figure is a Tallarn Imperial Guardsman from Games Workshop (pictured here entirely without their permission).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmmm… not sure. So many fun things to paint… so little time…

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Trouble’s a-Brewing


Mr. Miller was over to paint last night and I finished up the remaining three stands of African Mercenaries/Nobongoan Special Air Service…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are a mix of manufacturers/ranges/eras… most are Platoon 20 Vietnam Special forces… but there’s a couple Aussies in there too… and some others…

I also painted up a Tallarn Scout:


(I’m calling him a “scout” because he’s the only one I’ve painted so far and is thus “scouting ahead” of the rest of the [unpainted] squad)

The figure is a Tallarn Imperial Guardsman from Games Workshop (pictured here entirely without their permission). I kind of like the figures. They’re hideously expensive so I’ve been picking up a few here and there off ebay. I like the idea of fielding HORDES of these as an Imperial Guard force… y’know… if I was actually remotely interested in playing 40K… I’ll probably just put together a squad or two for some Savage Sci-fi Skimishin’.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A Border Skirmish in Timbogo!!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

More New Stuff for AK-47 Republic

Trouble brewing in Africa…


These are an odd assortment of 20mm metal figures from a variety of companies (I think some might be Platoon 20…?)

I have another three stands worth of these – just a bunch of odd modern 20mm figures I had lying around and figured I could use them as African Mercenaries (or maybe Nobongoan Special Air Service…?). The other three stands are partly finished – expect them in the next few days…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More 20mm stuff, apparently…?

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Lions Reinforced


The “Lions of Timshasa” are the elite of the Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo (F.A.R.T.). I have been re-basing some modern stuff and in the process realized I’d need to paint up some extra troops to be able to field a couple of forces for AK-47 Republic. I have a few more to paint up to finsh on force. Some other moderns will likely be pressed into service as a “Colonial Power” or “Superpower–backed Client State”.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The new “Lions” – These are 1/72 plastic figures from a variety of manufacturers… mostly old Esci Nato and Warsaw pact forces.

The newer forces are in the darker fatigues (they’re fresh from the factory and haven’t faded… and perhaps they’re from a different dye-lot… I guess that’s what happens when you buy factory direct “seconds” from China…)


I also painted a couple new stands for the Regulars… well… the mortar stand in completely new and a couple odd figures on some of the other stands…

The Command stands aren’t for AK-47 Republic. They’re for when (if) I use these guys in Cold War Commander

Hopefully at some point this month I’ll be able to get them into the field…

I’ve been thinking up new faction names (in addition to The Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo (F.A.R.T.) and the Peoples Revolutionary Army of Timbogo (P.R.A.T.) I’ve already used)…

Timbogan Union for Real Democracy (T.U.R.D.)
Jihad for an Independent Liberal Timbogo (J.I.L.T.)
Timbogan Workers Army of Terror (T.W.A.T.)
Congress of Unity for Northern Timbogo (taking it a bit too far…)

I’ve also been thinking about some neighboring countires; Nobongo, Kobongo, and Gobongo… and all the possibilities there…

Jihandic Union for Nobongo-Kobongo (J.U.N.K.)
Nobogan Army Reserve Division (N.A.R.D. – Which is part of the Nobongan Army Reserve Corp…)
Workers Alliance for Northern Gobongo (W.A.N.G.)
Workers Alliance for Northern Kobongo (W.A.N.K.)
Democratic Independence Crusade for Kobongo (D.I.C.K.) or maybe…
Democratic Independent Nationalists of Kobongo (D.I.N.K.) (Splitters!!)
Central Union of Nobongan Tribes (taking it a bit too far again…)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably some more moderns (African or European?) hard to say… Probably a few more African Regulars…

I have a pile of 1/72 plastic modern Germans. I bought the packs for the Milan ATGW teams (which I used for my modern British forces...) and have no great desire to do modern Germans... I thought I might use them as Future War troops (for Future War Commander!) and just paint them up with some funky fun camo... something similar to the Timashek Legion... but maybe in blues and greens...?