Fall/Winter 2013 Planning

I’ve been flailing around for a few months with out a plan or direction so I thought it might be a good ides to sit down and make some sort of plan to give myself some forcus for the rest of the year and into the new year.

Looking back on my Plans for 2013…

For the Birthday Bash I ended up playing a game of Bolt Action on the Satruday and the Top Malo House Scenario for Force on Force. I’m already starting to plan for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash next year.

After that I didn’t really organize any other weekend games or campaigns… I did play a bit of Force on Force and Ambush Z… and played a few games of Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 over at John Bertolini’s. I also organized and ran a few games at ToonCon 2013.

I did finish painting up a LOT of Modern 28mm stuff (and a fair bit of Great War stuff too)! Here's that list I made…

Modern & WW2

FOOT

Modern

30x Modern USMC – DONE!

45x Modern US Rangers, etc. – Still to do…

30x Modern SAS – Still to do…

20x Modern RM – Still to do…

30x Modern Germans – DONE!

15x Astd. Russians/Soviets _DONE! and DONE!

20x Cold War British – DONE!

30x Modern Africans – DONE! and DONE!

40x Central/South Americans – Still to do

65x Zombies –DONE! (well…mostly…) unfortunately I don’t have a post with pictures of the whole Horde… (I should do that…)

20-30x Modern Civilians – I think I’ve finished most of these… but then acquired more! Again, no pics of the lot and they were done in bits.

8 x SWAT – DONE!? (I think…?)

20x MegaMinis SWAT – Still to do…

30x Vietnam Americans – DONE!

20x Vietnam Anzacs – DONE!

WW2

24x Soviets – I may have done a few but mostly “still to do…”

20x Paras - – Still to do…

I have a lot of others to do as well. but these were the only ones I’d PLANNED to do. I also finshed a bunch of First Special Service Force.

Vehicles

2x M1 Tank – Still to do…

2x LAV-25 – Still to do…

2x Warrior MCV – one DONE!, one still to do…

3x Challenger - two DONE!, one still to do…

3x BTR-60 – DONE!

3x T-72 – Still to do… (but I didn’t paint a T-55!)

3x Marder – Still to do…

4x Hummers – Still to do…

1x Modern Pick up Truck – Still to do…

1x M113 – DONE!

1x M48 - DONE!

I didn’t do any of the planned WW2 vehicles…

Great War, Etc.

Foot

30x ANZACS – still to do…

50x EW French – a few Infantry, More Infantry, and Machine-guns DONE! But one more infantry unit still to do…

30x Belgians I gone a few Carabiniers DONE! – But still have a few to do…

60x Turks – still to do…

30x EW British (Scots, actually) – still to do…

20x Germans DONE! (mostly)

180+ Canadians – Still to do… ( I think I painted a few, here and there…)

80x Boers – Still to do…

40x French Foreign Legion -  DONE!

Mounted

10x ANZACs – Still to do…

10x French – Still to do…

8x EW British (Indians, actually) - DONE!

10x Germans DONE!

10 x Canadians – Still to do…

20x Boers – Still to do…

That is a fair bit I got done so far... and looking at the Painted vs. Acquired I'm doing not so bad - I'll have painted more than I bought by the end of the year... I won't have painted TWICE as much as I bought (which I'd secretly hoped), but maybe next year...

So what to do for the rest of this year…?

The Kids

I got playing a lot of Board Games and card games with the kids (mostly munchkin variants – Supers, Cthulhu, Conan) and I’d like to keep doing that.

I started out the year playing a lot of Ambush Z with them, that’s fallen by the wayside, but I’d like to get going on that again – especially now that Keira’s painted all her own zombies! I’ve also played a few Force on Force games with them and should do more of that too.

They’ve really been wanting to play another Savage Worlds campaign, and I’ve been promising I would for a long time, but just haven’t gotten to that. A week or so ago we made characters for a new Fantasy campaign, but that’s as far as we’ve gotten. I’m hoping when the renovation dust settles (literally), and things are less chaotic we will get on with that. It’d also be fun to include some other friends (CHRISTIAN! I’m looking at YOU!) (and Aaron... and Bruce...) (All gaming pals I know with kids around my kids age that like playing games) 

Vietnam

For the longest time I’ve run role-playing games on Saturday nights. For a good few years now it’s been Savage Worlds (Savage Saturday Nights) and thos campaigns (as well as the ones with the kids have been chronicles at Savage Timmy’s Playhouse. At the end of last year the campaign fizzled and we started playing Ambush Z. Over the summer even that died off – with ramping up for the renovations and people just generally being busy doing other stuff…

Somehow, probably because I got motivated to finish up my 28mm Vietnam stuff, I got it in my head that I’d be fun to run a Savage Worlds   Tour of Darkness campaign… except using Force on Force/Ambush Valley to play out the skirmishes (you can see the AAR from the first mission here: In Country.

Hobby-wise this won’t be much work as I have pretty much all the miniatures I need to play painted… I would like to build some new terrain – fox-holes, sand-bag bunkers and other perimeter defences for an air base and/or fire support base, gun emplacements, log bunkers, new Vietnamese buildings, better rice paddies, more jungle, streams, tunnel entrances/Hot Spot markers, etc… I’m sure there’s a few figures I might pick up and paint at some point… maybe a few more vehicles (additional M113s, M113ACAVs, a few Huey Slicks…). But nothing that’s going to hold me back from playing.

28mm Modern

I do still have a few modern things I’d like to finish up… the Generic US-backed Central or South Americans, some Modern Americans and British (RM and SAS) and a bunch of vehicles – 2xM1 tanks, 3xT-72 tanks, 2x Leopard 2 Tanks, 3x Marder IFV, 1x Warrior IFV, and a bunch of assorted cars and trucks… I also have a handful of modern zombies and civilians to finish up and a bunch of Geezers (I got the “one of everything” special deal… lots to still do!)

I also have a handful of Zombies left to do… I should get those done… It might be nice to make a few more buildings too.

20mm Modern!?

I have a bunch of 20mm stuff I’m not sure what to do with… Most of it was based on multi-figure bases and I used it for Cold War Commander. I have since taken all the 1970s/80s Cold war stuff off those based and based them individually for playing Force on Force… (I figured If ever I was going to play CWC again I’d just build new forces with 6mm micro armour). Of course I have a lot of those same things in 28mm, but I have a lot MORE in 20mm… It seems sill having them in both scales… maybe I could sell off the 20mm stuff to fund picking up more 28mm stuff – tanks and IFVs in particular - mind you a LOT of the 20mm tanks and IFVs I have aren’t even assembled or painted, so I wouldn’t get much at all for them… and some you just can’t get in 28mm… Anyway, whether I selll them off or just USE them, I'd like to finish up a few of those forces.

 I have even more Vietnam stuff in 20mm still on the multi-figure bases. Maybe I’ll keep them that way and use them for larger engagements using CWC – there aren’t so many tanks and vehicles to clog up the table (that was the real downside of using 20mm stuff for CWC)…

40mm Great War

I started sculpting a few 40mm Great War British a while back, but haven’t had time or space (both in reality and in my head) to do much work on them since the renovations began… I’d like to finish them up over the winter and be able to play some 1914 battle with John (I painted a Unit of his 40mm French a while back…). He’s got pretty much everyone BUT the British sculpted and ready to cast and paint… We’re planning to use our own variant of Neil Thomas’ Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878.


28mm Great War

I did get a lot of that stuff done in the summer... and 2014 approaches... maybe that'll be a spring/summer project next year...? 

40K!?

NO I’m not about to start playing 40K… but I did read a few novels over the summer and got inspired by all their fluff and had it in my head to run an Only War campaign (except using Savage Worlds for character creation and role-playing aspects and using Tomorrow’s War for playing out the firefights… and maybe Future War Commander! with Epic minis for playing out the REALLY BIG battles!) (Wow… how many gaming heresies did I commit in that last statement!?). I painted a bunch of my imperial guard and picked up some more and a few Orks… But that moment may have passed…. For the moment… but it’ll be back…

Hordes of the Things

I’ve been feeling the urge to bust out the armies and start playing again. The kids and I used to play a lot of this – it was probably the first miniatures game I ever played with them. It might be handy to get some practice in as I might be running a campaign for the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash! Playing might motivate me to finsh up a few new armies or at least finish up the remaining elements needed for a few armies…

WW2…?

There are a number of forces that would only take a week or two to totally finish up… and part of me wants to (because I sould use them for Force on Force, or could have another go at Bolt Action - with a few tweaks…). But, as I think I mentioned earlier, I’m sick to death of World War Two…

Other Stuff

I have a few items that I promised to paint for others that I am determined to get done before the end of this year! I have a few Aurora Monsters I’m painting for Rick – I may not actually get ALL of those done, but I am going to get The Mummy done, and hopefully one of the others (King Ghidorah and a Robot and some other creature from Lost in Space). I also have a package of Watchmen miniatures (from Grenadier Miniatures for the the old DC RPG) and a few cars and bikes and pedestrians for Dark Future that I’m painting for John Burt.

Blog

One thing I’ve really been wanting to do for a while is update my pages – all those galleries listed over there on the top left… Once the renos are done I’d like to get out in some natural light (if it’s not too cold!) and get some proper pictures of my existing collection – and maybe take stock of painted vs unpainted again while I’m at it…

Um… I think that’s about it for now… Is that too much? Probably... 

10th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

As soon as ToonCon was over, during a few moments that dealing with the renovations weren’t completely overwhelming, I started thinking about what to do this fall/winter game-wise (and there’ll be another post about that shortly) and that, ultimately, got me thinking about next year’s Wargaming Birthday Bash. This year will be the 10^th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash – so I’ve been thinking it ought to be something big… but what?

Here’s what I’ve done over the previous years:

(I wish I could have dug out some pictures of the eariler ones - as I'm sure i have them somewhere... but that was a previous computer and they're all stored on CDRs and burried in boxes under many, many more boxes somewhere in one of the rooms with less renovating going on... maybe I'll do a "Looking Back" post in February and be able to dig them out then...) 

2005 – Operation Biting: the Bruneval Raid – I think we used Flames of War – with 20mm figures - we had just heard of Flames of War and hadn’t even been able to track down a copy of the rules and so played it with the Quick Reference Sheet I downloaded of Battlefront’s website!

2006 – France 1940 – Flames of War

2007 - Mask of Amenakken IV – Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure

2008 – MiniCon - John’s Horse and Musket game, North Africa – Blitzkrieg Commander, Savage Worlds Sailing Ship Battle, Rippers Werewolf Hunt, and Read Dawn: Northern Alberta – Cold War Commander

2009 - Hordes of the Things

2010 – Mini Con with Hordes of the Things  and THREE Savage Worlds games!

2011 - East Africa – Contemptible Little Armies and Warrior Knights

2012 – Dark Age DBA Campaign and Very British Civil War – Contemptible Little Armies

2013 – Force on Force – Top Malo House and East Front - Bolt Action

I’m kind of tempted to run a Hordes of the Things or De Bellis Antiquitatis campaign… though a skirmish campaign of sorts also seems appealing (to me at least…) or just another Mini Con with a half dozen assorted different games (miniatures and board games) played over a weekend…?

Here are some of the possibilities:

HOTT/DBA Campaign

The campaigns are always fun and draw out a lot of folks. I’m kind of leaning towards HOTT because the state of DBA seems a bit up in the air at the moment. Part of me wants to go nuts and finish up a pile of Greek Hoplite armies and run a Greek Myth inspired campaign... Or there’s always the good old Dark Ages…

Skirmish Campaign

This would be a series of linked scenarios using Force on Force or Ambush Z or Tomorrow’s War (or even Savage Worlds, but probably not). Players would control a couple of teams of… whatever… and a “hero” or team leader? And have limited reinforcements over the campaign. Could be head to head  or co-operative. I think I’ve floated this idea before but no one seems to really be willing to commit to show up like they do for the DBA/HOTT campaigns. 

Mini Cons

So many games so little time… Why not play a bunch I haven’t gotten to play in forever over the space of a weekend… I could dig out Contemptible Little Armies for some Great War Action and/or Ever Victorious Armies for some Colonial Action…. A HOTT mega-battle… Something Horse and Musketty - or get John to bring out his 40mm 1850s toy soldiers for Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe… a game of Force on Force and/or Ambush Z… a couple of those board games I’ve been dying to play for a while (Age or Conan, etc)?

One Big Board Game?

I have Axis and Allies 1940 (Europe and Pacific). It looks like it might take a whole weekend to play…

I guess I need to settle on a weekend as well…. 22-23 February or 1-2 March…? 

In Country

Some of those new Vietnam War Americans saw some action this weekend. As I was using a mash-up of Savage Worlds and Force on Force, the after action report ended up over on Savage Timmy's Playhouse. 

We made some characters for a new campaign and played a quick trial action. You can read the report and see the rest of the pictures here:

In Country 

Two New Blogs!

No, not mine...

Within an hour of each other, two of my friends sent me links to new blogs they've started yesterday!?

First is Gary's (a local gaming pal):

http://saskatoonminiwargamer.blogspot.ca/

Note that "Tim M." mentioned in his post is not me. This is the person often referred to, on my blog, as "Other Tim". I would be "Tim B." Hopefully one of these days I'll get over to Gary's for a game and show up in one of his game reports (though I have to admit I'm sick to death of WW2 at the moment and as WW2 is Gary's true passion - wargaming wise - it may be a while).

The other is my globe-trotting friend Will - who currently resides in Victoria, BC, Canada:

http://willstoysoldiers.blogspot.ca/

Though the first post is Napoleonic, Will's done a lot of cool Colonial and Great War gaming. Hopefully he'll be showing off some of those collections at some point!

Last of the Vietnam War Americans

I’ve had a hankering to play some Ambush Valley and/or Tour of Darkness (or some evil mash-up of the two!?) and since I finished up the Australians… I thought I might as well finish up the last of the Americans…

I actually tried taking these pictures in my new super deep window sill/boxes – which actually get a fair bit of natural light – Not a big enough area to do big unit pictures, but I could fit a terrain square in there for a small group shot – and I think it turned out pretty well – which bodes well for those -40°C days when I’ve finished up som new figures I no longer have to freeze my fingers off to go outside and take pics – or have to wait a week for the weather to warm up a tad (to, say, -30°C…).

I am told the bulk of the workers will be off site and the yard cleaned up in less than a week (I’m not holding my breath or anything, but things do seem to be wrapping up!). When everyone’s gone I should be able to get out in the yard to take some better pics of the whole collection and update the 28mm Vietnam Gallery

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

The last of the American minis (well.. almost… I realized after I finished these up I have one more downed pilot somewhere that still has to be painted!?). These are a mix of figures from The Assault Group, and Baker Company. AS I also have a lot of West Wind Productions Vietnam figures, I’d kind of like to, at some point, pick up some of the 25mm Vietnam figures from Battle Honors, and (if I could track them down!) some from Force of Arms… Is there anyone else that makes Vietnam figures in 25/28mm?

I also happen to finish up this M113 from The Assault Group…

…and this tank that sort of looks like an M48 Patton (at least I think it does – less the search light). I picked it up as part of a pack of plastic toy soldiers at a dollar store years back thinking it looked close to 28mm… I guess I should have put a figure in there for scale. I should have picked up a few more packs so I could have had a whole platoon. I have a feeling the packs were closer to $5 and I threw out all the other stuff that came in the pack… I can’t remember if it was spending $20 on tanks that I may or may not ever use or disgust at the fact that I’d have to throw out so much extraneous plastic soldiers… (actually I may not have thrown them out… they’re probably in a  box somewhere… I am a horrible pack rat!!)

While this is the last of the Vietnam American soldiers I have, I think (somewhere in a box) a few more Viet cong and a bag of West Wind Productions “Montagnards” (which don’t look at all like any Montagnards I’ve seen on pictures, they look more like Col Kurtz’s troops from Apocalypse Now – Were they supposed to be montagnards?). I also have a few vehicles to finish up…

Huey Gunship that is very nearly complete (these are the deep window boxes I was mentioning. Nice, eh?)…

And a Revell 1/48 Navy Swift Boat. I think I might tackle this over the next week. I know… I know… If I’m tackling any model kits I should REALLY be doing the Aurora Mosnter Model kits I promised I’d do for my friend Rick (oh… almost a YEAR ago!)… Maybe if I’ve got the modeling stuff out I could do them concurrently…? That seems like a good idea…

AT some point I wouldn’t mind picking up a few more M113s (and maybe some M113 Armoured Cavalry vehicles…? Maybe even the ones from The Assault Group - if they ever get around to making a crew pack for those!!) and a couple Huey Slicks… (and the aforementioned additional figures from the other manufacturers…) but I’m pretty happy with just finishing up what I’ve got for the time being!

I think after I finish up the Swift Boat and the Gunship it’ll be time to make some more Vietnam terrain – most of which could be used for other places… I’m thinking some rifle pits and log bunkers… some perimeter wire and sandbag bunkers for American bases… gun pits for the mortar crews…. Maybe even a landing pad for the gunship? And a bunch of “Hot Spot” markers for Ambush Valley (which will mostly be tunnel entrances).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Huey Gunship… Navy Swift Boat… The Mummy!

(and maybe that last downed pilot – if I can find him!) 

More Australians (and Americans) for the Vietnam War

This batch finishes up all the Vietnam War Australians I have… and took a chunck out of the few remaining Americans…

A lot of work going on around the house this weekend – so I wasn’t able to get around to taking these outside to take pictures during the limited daylight hours (and it’d be the same story tomorrow) so I tried taking pictures indoors. It didn’t work out so well… But I don’t know when I’m going to get a chance to take any better photos, so this is what you get for now…

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

The latest batch. All the Australians are from The Assault Group, and the Americans are from Baker Company.

The Americans from Baker Company.

The complete Australian Platoon (plus a few extras) All the Australians are from The Assault Group.

Platoon Command – Platoon Leader (lieutenant – with Owen carbine), 2IC (Sergeant - SLR), 2 runners (Privates - one with Radio – both with SLR)

First Section – Section Commander (Corporal- SLR), Section 2IC (Lance Corporal?), two Scouts (Owen Carbines), one Gunner (M60), and four Riflemen (SLR)

Second Section  – Section Commander (Corporal- SLR), Section 2IC (Lance Corporal?), two Scouts (Owen Carbines), one Gunner (M60), four Riflemen (SLR), and one Grenadier (M79)

Third Section – Section Commander (Corporal- SLR), Section 2IC (Lance Corporal?), one Scout (Owen Carbine), one Gunner (M60), and five Riflemen (SLR)

Extra guys with M16s to replace all the Scouts armed with Owen carbines for a later war Australian platoon.

A reinforced patrol from the Australian Special Air Service Regiment.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have such a small number of remaining things for Vietnam, I should really finish them up. I t would be the sensible thing… but then… when have I EVER done the sensible thing!? 

Vietnam Aussies and Americans

As I mentioned in the previous post I recently tracked down a copy of The Odd Angry Shot - one of my all-time favourite war movies. Watching it again after… oh… 20 years… has inspired me to finish up some of my Vietnam Aussies (and other stuff). I have about a platoon of Australians plus an SAS patrol.

I also happened to finish up a few extra Americans I acquired recently - like, within the last year or so – I had, at one point, more or less finished up all my Vietnam figures… but then picked up a few more from another fellow blogger off the AAG Forum… I think it was Xander…?

I had done a post a few years pack showcasing the collection - Vietnam in 28mm - since then I have finished the PAVN and a few of the other things that were still unpainted at the time (and rebased some of the heavy weapon teams). One of these days I should update the 28mm Vietnam Gallery Page. I don’t have a whole lot to finish up to call this collection complete – so maybe I should push to get this all finished up before I lose impetus.

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

A platoon command section for the Australians. The Platoon Commander (a Lieutenant) is carrying the Owen Carbine, The Platoon Sergeant and Runner carry SLRs, and signaler doesn’t seem to have anything…? Darn it, I just remembered I’d ordered a pack of spare SLRs at one point I could have one lying beside him on the ground – perhaps I’ll have to go find them and add one now… (Figures are from  The Assault Group).

Three more Australian SAS patrolmen – also from from  The Assault Group.

A few American LRRP types Again the figures are all from  The Assault Group.

Finally, some Americans with M-79 Grenade Launchers from, I think, Baker Company (these are figures I got off the forum…). I really like the poses of the figures, I have a few more to paint up. If I didn’t already have a whole damn platoon of Americans, I’d be tempted to pick a few more up… maybe I’ll pick up some “characters” at some point…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Perhaps some more Vietnam stuff… and maybe a bit of planning for the winter and next year…

A Weekend of Painting

It’s a long weekend here in Saskatchewan (and most of Canada) and I’ve been painting all weekend… Unfortunately it’s not the sort of painting I usually post about on this blog. (It’s not even the sort of painting I post about on the other blog!). No, dear friends, I was house painting.

If you’ve been reading a while you may remember back in the spring me making dire predictions about how my productivity was about to drop sharply due to immanent renovations that were to occur at my abode. We has talked to a couple of younger fellows about a year about about taking on the project and they were not only willing to do it, they seemed rather keen to take on this sort of project – which is in sharp contrast to the attitude of most builders in this town who would all tell us to tear down our house and build a new one… They originally said they would like to start as early as they could. May, perhaps April if the snow was gone…

Well, things got held up… and they didn’t end up STARTING until the end of July – when they’d originally told us they’d be DONE! (which would have given me most of August to do the few things I was going to do on my own – painting, flooring, some finish work…). When they started in July they told us they’d be done and gone in 6 weeks. It’s now mid October and there’s still a LOT of work to be done – and this is causing me some anxiety as they still need to finish getting the exterior insulation up, roofing, and stucco done and winter is fast approaching – it is dropping well below 0°C at night which is going to make stuccoing a bit of a challenge!

Anyway, here’s some pics of what’s been going on…

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

This is what our house looked like at the end of July.

Three pics of the upstairs all cleared out ready to go – keep an eye on that stairwell and the low ceiling and chimney beside it (that any adult would have to duck and walk hunched over past to get into our room upstairs).

Here’s what the house is currently looking like from the outside.

Essentially we needed a new roof and some insulation. The existing walls are brick with wood-chips inbetween – completely inadequate for a region that gets to -40°C (and below!) in winter. While we were at it we figured it might be nice to build a dormer upstairs and replace all the ancient windows that had long since been painted shut.

It turned out easier to just tear the whole roof off than cut holes for some dormers and so we’ve essentially gotten a whole second story where there was previously just a half-story-loft-like room…

So this weekend we packed the kids off to their grandparents and Amanda and I have been painting the walls upstairs all day for the last few days….

That’s me way up there perched precariously over the stairwell cutting the white for the ceiling. This is one of those time where having such a hobby has really come to bite me in the ass. Amanda reasoned that because I have such a steady hand and keen eye (painting all those wee miniatures and all!) that I should do all of the cutting. I tried to point out that I don’t often paint miniatures while perched on a rickety ladder and have to reach my brushed out so far to paint miniatures… This was even less fun the next day when I had to paint a straight line around those fiddley bits between the wall and ceiling…

Amanda rolling the ceiling.

By Sunday we were on to the walls.

Amanda rolling the first coat of purple.

First coat on the walls done.

Me again, cutting the second coat of purple on the walls.

Last night, starting the red in the bathroom.

Today we’re just finishing  up the red in the bathroom and dark purple in the little alcove-like-area in the front dormer… We’ve got a bit of a wait between coats so Amanda’s off to a yoga class and I thought I’d update the blog(s).

Last week they were starting on the new windows in all the rooms – here are the new windows that went into the Hobby Dungeon/War Room.

As I predicted, my productivity has dropped sharply since they began. At the end of June I was sitting at 600 28mm foot painted so far this year – averaging 100 per month… Now, at mid October, I’m sitting at 755… less than 50 per month since all this began. This is largely due to having to shift all the stuff from upstairs to the main floor or basement. Which has meant we are constantly working around boxes of stuff and I can’t really maintain a semi-permanent workstation that I can just sit down and paint at for a few minutes here and there when I have an idle moment… I actually have to tidy up a space, get stuff out, paint for a bit, then clear it all away…

This weekend hasn’t been a total loss hobby-wise. I’ve been finishing up a few Americans and Australians for the Vietnam war – I recently tracked down a copy of The Odd Angry Shot - one of my all time favourite war movies – which I haven’t seen in probably 20 years because I’ve never been able to, before now, find a Region 1 DVD of it! Strangely it’s been released by a company that seems to mostly do asian-cult-horror-erotic movies…? Whatever, it’s still a good flick and has inspired me to finish up my Vietnam Aussies!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Said Vitenam figures; Aussies, LRRPs, Grenadiers with M79s… 

Maybe it's time to do some thinking ahead and planning for the winter and next year... 

More of Those Jungle Fighters

I’ve been pushing to try and finish up things. I have a LOT of things to finish up… but I’ve been trying to find things I have that are currently of interest enough for me to stick to it and small enough that I can feasibly finish up before running out of steam…. This week it’s been my GW40K Catachan Jungle Fighters….

All of the figures presented below (except where otherwise noted) are from Games Workshop (© and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission).

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

The lot of what I’ve been working on over the last week or so…

These two are some older “Rogue Trader Era” 40K figures. I think they might have been pirates rather than Guard, but I figured I could pass them off as Catachan Guardsmen.

Two more “Rogue Trader Era” 40K figures. These, I’m pretty sure, were sold as Guardsmen, but weren’t carrying any equipment that looked anything like what other Guardsmen of the era were carrying… I’ve added back packs to them (that I got in an ebay auction) and will call them a medic and… I don’t know… some other kind of specialist…?

The Guard with the rocket launcher is a GW figure and the “loader” is from Hasslefree Miniatures. I’d picked him  up a while back when making a Hasslefree order… just… because… but then couldn’t really think of anything to use him for… I suppose I could have painted him in bright colours and called him a superhero or something… But then decided to paint him in the jungle camo and make him a crewman for one of my heavy weapon teams.



Some regular old Catachan Guardsmen....

Two demolition specialists from GW.

A Heavy Bolter team for some heavy support.

Here’s the entire Jungle fighter force so far. I actually only have three or four figures to finish up – two regular guys and two Ogryn (oh, and a couple of sentinels!). As I mentioned before I started picked up these “Catachans” a few years back to use in a Savage Worlds Sci-fi Campaign –to be members of a rival Mercenary unit the Players were often coming up against called “Morgan’s Marauders”.  In the immediate future they may actually be used as Catachans as I’m planning on running an Only War campaign for the kids some time. (Well… a campaign using the Only War/40K setting but using Savage Worlds for character creation and Tomorrow’s War for combat resolution… because that’s the kind of maniac I am…

I'll never say "never" but it's unlikely I'd ever use these for an actual game of 40K... I mean, I don't think I actually even have enough stuff here to field a legit 40K Imperial Guard force. I picked up a used copy of (what I think is) the current codex for giggles - to see how a guard unit is theoretically supposed to be organized.  While this could be padded out to almost 1000 points (once I get the Ogryn and sentinels finished) and if I took a bunch of "Regimental Advisors" and stuff... I actually only have one of the two "troops" requirements - I'd need a whole second platoon (or at least another platoon command - and split the four squads I have into two smaller platoons...?).

I also happened to finish up a few more 40K Imperial things that weren’t Catachans…

A Cadian officer and Medic from The Officer is a newer one, the Medic is an older “Rogue Trader era” figure.

As second Tech priest from Games Workshop (© and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission). Actually I bought this one first… at my friendly local game store… for the full retail price…. And when I got him home and went to assemble him I realized he was missing his backpack!? Well… as you can see he’s fully useable without it, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to pay what I paid for this single figure and NOT have all the pieces so I phoned up Games Workshop and without question they very quickly sent me out a replacement… except instead of just sending the backpack, they sent me a whole darn new figure!? So I painted up this original Say what you will about GW – that was some pretty darn good customer service.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have no idea… I’m feeling a bit scattered… maybe it’s time to do some planning and scheduling to keep me focused on… SOMEHTHING!?