M-5A1s

Hey folks,

Sorry I've been out of it for about a week now with this virus that's going around here in California.  Just posting some older pictures of my Stuarts that I use for my US Airborne guys.

Enjoy!

Updated Pak 38s

I didn't leave well enough alone...

Short Update

Russ from the NORCALFOW group and I putt together a Total War scenario (Cassino) that is scheduled for Jan 2nd at Endgame in Oakland, CA.

Well I'm going to have a BUSY BUSY two weeks if I want to get this done in time.  I need to:

1- Start painting my 3rd FJ Platoon (Battleworn wearing, gulp, water tan and tropicals)

2- Finish my Pak 38s and one last "proxy" RSO

3- Finish 1 STUG 10.5cm

4 - Paint the JR Miniatures "Cassino" Building and RR station.

5- Make a ton of hills.

Yeah I got my hands full.  And the last 3 days the commander (aka wife) and Short Round (aka the 4 1/2 year old) have been out of it with the flu.

So I got some stuff done in the weee hours.

First off is my first FJ wearing water-tan smock.  I think  it came out pretty good.



The next project, which I did tonight, was to finish the Platoon Command Team for  my 3 Pak 38 unit. 

I also decided to go all out and rebase my two Pak 38s.... go tone done but I'm 99% happy with the rebase.


Made huge leaps with the destroyed building.....

Not completed.... 90% done.

And finally got these Little arty markers done...

Need to make three times what is shown...



Fallschirmjager Company Command and RSO Objective

Worked on an objective I've been wanting to do for a while. 

When I was young my dad used to subscribe to "Military Modeller Magazine".  There was a great diorama of a RSO resupplying a Type 166.  Well I've always like the RSO so I decided to make an objective similar to that diorama.  Its almost done just  wanted to show you guys what I have so far.  All that is really missing is the resupplies which will be glued on later.

Working on some mid war FJ command stands.  The first I'm not too happy with as the color of the grey green smocks aren't doing it for me.  im using Vallejo 866 and I think I'm going to switch to 886.  The figures are old school Battlefront from the early FJ kit.  The two in the type-two smocks are radio crewmen.  the castings are.... well... inferiror to what they have now but I dig the poses.  The second command stand is a group of three wearing tropical pants.  These are modelled to be used in mid war and late war Italy.

The figure to the right is also old school Battlefront FJs. 

 

!Bienvenido! (International Welcome)

! Hola mis amigos latinos y europeos! Por favor, si usted tiene alguna pregunta o comentario que me haga saber. Puedo hablar, leer y escribir español con fluidez. Nací en Argentina y emigró a los EE.UU. cuando era joven, pero todavía lo hablan a diario. Yo soy un modelador primero y luego un wargamer. Estoy mirando adelante a oír de usted.


(Hi my latino and European friends! Please if you have any questions or comments let me know. I speak, read, and write fluent Spanish. I was born in Argentina and immigrated to the U.S. when I was young but still speak it on a daily basis. I am a modeler first then a wargamer. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.)




Max

10.5cm LG40, FJ Mortar crew finished, and guess a new project.

Hey folks,

Lazy day off here enjoying some free time.  Hope you're enjoying the pictures and projects.  Make sure you check out News From the Front podcast on WWPD blog.  Great interview with Wayne from FOW, covering some great rules, and good chat from the guys.

Today I've been putting some 10.5cm LG40s together, finished off a 8cm mortar crew, and started a new FJ project.  The boards and bocage have been put aside due to weather.  Enjoy a few pictures.

Haven't picked up "Cross of Iron" but I'm writing up two more book reviews for WWPD blog.

Destroyed Building, Bocage, and no time.....

Hey folks,

I've been kinda busy with life and the holidays this past week and haven't made much progress on my projects.  If you follow the What Would Patton Do blog you'll notice I did one book review and there's one more to be posted.  Please check them out and let Steven over there know if it's a good addition or not.

Thanksgiving week was a loss as far as modelling but I did get to hang out with the "Unofficial East Bay Wargamers" at Steve's house.  I did get some dry brushing in and took a few photos of Steve and Josh's game.

And one last thing.  Since I recently found a copy of "Flames of War" in Spanish I gave it to my dad.  I immigrated here from South America when I was seven and my dad, who pretty much got me into WWII history and modelling, and I will try to get a game in next tiem I'm down.  If any international followers out there know of any players in Spanish speaking countries point them to this blog and I might start doing a blog in Spanish!


Steve and Josh setting up for a 1500 point Late War US Legs vs. German Landsers!



Cross of Iron Update:  70 pages into the book.  Very good so far and the translation from German to English is pretty good.  The characters have depth and the friction between Steiner and Stransky can already be seen building and the characters have not even met yet!!







As Shawn Morris would say, "You GODDA have cows!!"





Steve's Germans dug in waiting for the assault.

 

 One of Steve's two sniper teams.  These are Josh's.  Sorry abotu the poor quality of the photo.

Just some more random pics.  They aren't very good I took them with my  $Phone.  These show Josh's leg infanty on the move.  Josh is a phenominal painter.





Some more of Josh's US legs.  I think these were his Chemical Mortar Plt.  Nice to see my terrain being used.

I continued working on my second ever demolished building.  I'm using a Game Craft Miniatures model and demo-ing it for the "Ville de Mort" board.

This is a 5.5"x6" base two story building I'm workng on.  Its getting there.  This one will be both bombed out and burnt crisp.

And finally a prototype Bocage idea I've been working on.  Took ideas from Shawn Morris and two more ideas I found on teh web and added them into the recipe.  Since I have storage issues I have to make my terrain modular.  Taking Shawn Morris' technique but using smalled diameter rocks (this may change to adding larger rocks into the mix), I'm using 1"x1" green foam onto 2" wide 3mm board and building them as Shawn does.  I used cut straw (thanks Shawn!) to mount the 2"-3" tall trees onto the Bocage.

The prototype is not done yet and I will post more pictures later this week.I'd love to hear what you guys have to say.  Tips and critiques welcomed!!!!

WWPD #6, More FJ Pak 38, and Heer MG-34 crew.... oh and a few buildings.

Well I got do catch up a bit today (my first day off) as the wife and little guy went to do some bonding with her horse.

Pulled out the old buildings projects and started the base colors and such. I was re-listening to WWPD and patiently awaiting Episode #6 to hear the interview with Shawn Morris.

About 8pm or so I logged on and downloaded the episode and to my surprise Steve and Joe mentioned me and the blog in the podcast!! Thank you guys!


I picked up a copy of Willi Heinrich's "Cross of Iron". This is a fictional book about a platoon of Heer grenadiers (supposedly mountain troops) in the Eastern Front. I'll write a full review of it when I finish it.

Also, just finished reading two sets of rules cover to cover. Too Fat Lardies "I ain't been shot, Mum" and Old Dominion Games Works' "Mein Panzer". Two very different yet very good sets of rules. Review to follow.

Here's the pic of the Heer lMG team from earlier this week. Still not done a bit more highlighting and a coat of Magiic Wash. I'm slowly getting the hang of "leg" infantry work.

I pulled out the buildings for "Ville de Mort" today and started with base colors. Not even close to being finished but I'm one to show pictures of stages just to show you guys what I do. The small two story is the "Cafe de Mort" and the one to the right is what I call the general store.

This is two of three residential buildings for the board. The roofs are all removable. The base colors are down I need to go back retouch a few things, magic wash and dry brush.

Here's a picture of the 5 buildings still in various stages of completion.

And finally a few more pictures of the Pak 38 from earlier this week. Unfortunately the pictures did not come out well.

The crew is from the artillery pack with no modifications. Two were painted wearing tropical pants, the other two continentals (wool). Just a note, originally FJ leather gear was brown and an order in I think 1940 stated all leather gear was to be died black. Well FJ tried not to do this and attempted to hold off converting as long as possible. The "Alte Lehr" troops kept their old brown boots, belts, cavalry Y-straps (as opposed to the regular Y-straps) to show the new troops coming in they were veterans.

On the other crew I'll probably paint one crew members in a step in grey green jump smock.

The Pak 38 model is from Old Glory/Quality Castings. Its a multi-piece kit (they sell them in 3s). The detail is much crisper than the Battelfront kit. The ammo box and ammo are from the BF "German Ammo Pack". I cut the box down to size and cut the rounds down by about 1/3rd.

Enjoy!!

Brought to you by Pak 38.....

I always liked the Pak 38 5cm AT gun. Don't know why but I think it looks kinda cool. Anyways, the pak 38 I think is under rated in FOW. With ROF of 3 and an AT of 9 nine it won't do much to Shermans but it will wreck havoc againts Stuarts and half-tracks.

I've never played a Afrika or Italian front battle and I've been meaning to do either an Italian armored force or continue with my fallschirm. Well with Christmas coming money is a littel tight to go out and buy Italians so I decided to paint up a Pak 38 with FJ crew.

See what you think.

Sitting bored in court....

Yet more Fallschimjagers.....


I was sitting in court all day today (on overtime thank you very much) and was looking thru my photobucket pictures and thought I would share some pics of some omre FJ stuff. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet I'm a nut for Fallschirm stuff. I guess re-enacting in an FJ unit for 15+ years will do that to ya.



A pair of my late war FLAK 36 Fallschirm guns.

Sentinel Miniature Painting's awesome MG bunker with Fallschirm sMG.

These are a few Fallschirmjager conversions I've done. The one pointing anf the one with the MP-44 will be for a late war platoon. The one holding the MG-42 and the last figure will be for a mid war Italian Front platoon.

I was looking forward to getting a game in tomorow night with the fellas but unfortunately Steve had to move our regular game night from Weds to Thurs this week. So looks like I won't be able to move lead around for a few weeks due to my works schedule.