New and Old Toys, Part 1

Most of us have lots of toys that don't get any use for whatever the reason. In this case, my Al Qaeda and Soviet Paras in 28mm supplemented by a recent purchase from Millineumcon 2014 of some kit bashed technicals that are (alas) a different scale: 20mm.

Front Left to Right: Al Qaeda Fedayeen, Soviet Paras
Rear Left: Kit bashed Technicals
Rear Right: Starship Troopers (just in case you were wondering)

At this past Historicon, I wanted to remedy the neglect of some of my toys by being on the lookout for prepainted terrain. Eureka! (not the company but the exclamation) Miniature Building Authority (MBA) did not disappoint. Also there were plenty of homemade terrain by enterprising gamers being sold at the flea market. Here's some of my new acquisitions.

Front Center: Homemade rubble and metal junk pile
Rear L-R: Prepainted block buildings and shanties from MBA 

Front Center: Pre-painted block buildings and shanties
from MBA w/pre-painted oil drums from Pegasus Hobbies
Rear L-R: AT-43 prepainted shipping containers
plus 4 un-painted shipping containers also from MBA

Concrete barricades from AT-43 work well with
my Technicals albeit in a different scale

Freshly spray can painted MBA shipping containers that needs some weathering

Another Era Deviation: Skirmishing Black Powder

Back to some more wacky gaming, just to shake things up a bit. If truth be told, I'm just A.D.D. and easily distracted. 

(click on the pic to enlarge)

If dogs can be Saints then Dug from the movie UP
would be my patron saint of A.D.D. personalities (read: gamer)

So we decided to try skirmishing different eras with the toys we already have. 

First up: Black Powder era match-ups. After a recent Saga battle (3 way battle between Normans, Vikings and Steppe Tribes - which I'll be featuring in another post) we decided to use the terrain already set up. Willy brought out his Heroscape pre-painted minis: American colonials vs British Red Coats. I'm happy to report that the Patriots were able to successfully outflank the Red Coats and take them down like the invading dogs that they were!

A British patrol gets sniped on by some Colonials

Then some modern skirmishing amongst some recently acquired, excellent crates and barrels from War Torn Worlds (they come prepainted so what's not to like?).

Pitting my modern Soviet Paras (right) versus my Al Qaeda Fedayeen (left)

RPD and RPG gunners supporting the para with an AK47 AKM variant
taking cover among some ultra modern sci-fi crates

My Fedayeen around wooden crates and chests

New Kids on the Block, Part 2

I'm on a roll with the New Kids (Soviet Sailors and LMG Strelkovy teams from BDT; Al Qaeda shooters aka Durka-Durkas and Soviet Paras from DoW) and couldn't wait to continue. So after the black primer (hand painted) has dried it's time for some paintbrush bashing time!! (i.e. dry brushing.) 

Soviet Paras sporting the stylish Balaclavas typical of most elite units.

This step, IMHO, is critical because the right amount of paint is needed to give gradation to your figures. Thereby achieving really good depth as the base color is applied. I tend to use really cheap natural hair brushes because a) its inherent properties on how it applies paint to a figure and b) I literally tear up a brush doing so. WARNING: this is not for the faint of heart and be resigned to going thru a lot of brushes but the resultant effect is well worth it.


Just go down to your local hobby store and go to the clearance section for these brushes. Here in Houston I go to Texas Art Supply, Michael's and Hobby Lobby. And don't be afraid to cut them, either. They work better without a point and the brush length shouldn't be too long. Hence the modification. A flat, blunt edge is my preference as illustrated below.

Left: brush right outta the package and before cutting. Right: point cut off for that blunt edge with either sharp scissors or exacto blade. 

More Soviet Paras. Figure on the left is wearing a retro WW2 padded tanker helmet. 

More Durka-Durkas that you can shake a paintbrush at.

One of my favorite Soviet units were the sailors. Many were sent to help the Red Army and were very colorful units, indeed. These reassigned naval forces took part in every major action on the Eastern Front such the Leningrad siege and the defense of Sevastopol. 

Most of them kept they're signature striped shirts, if not their caps, as a unit and service identifier.

  

They were also featured in the movie 'Enemy at the Gates' in the scene when Khrushchev arrived via armored gun boat from across the Volga. 

Pretty cool!

So, of course, I gotta have at least a four man unit. Alas, these sculpts didn't come with the cross bandoleers and fixed bayonet rifles but they'll suffice.

And last, but not least, are the Strelkovy LMG teams because you can never have enough fire power especially against the Germans.

Coming up, color...

WIP: New Kids on the Block, literally.

Got some stuff in the mail today and then I picked up some additional figs at Montag's. Since I'm on a painting binge I've decided finish up these projects while I have the time.

First up are four Soviet Sailors by Black Tree Design that'll go nicely with my Strelkovy. I must say that BTD has some really excellent sculpts. They're so nice they practically paint themselves.

Here are two additional LMG totting Strelkovy to supplement my existing force, again by BTD.

Speaking of supplement I acquired a few more Dogs of War packs from Montag's. The cool thing about DoW figs are that the Paras come with head and arms with weapons assortment so you can customize your squads. Which I'll feature in an upcoming post I've been working on.

Soviet Paratroopers

Love those balaclavas. Modern Soviet Ninjas.

Then I saw these figs and had to have 'em. They're generic Forward Observers and can be used by most modern armies. I'll use 'em as scout for my Soviet Paras. 

Of course, let's not forget my Al Qaeda Fedayeen. They needed bolstering of their ranks since I only had four to start with. I picked up two more packs of four giving me a twelve man squad to fight all comers. Oooh, look, RPGs!!

Al Qaeda Fedayeen

When I first got these figs from Guy at Montag's (back in 2008) I couldn't wait to get started, hurry up and finish painting this unit. So being the crazy, fanatical and OCD-type painter that I am, I put these guys in front of line and finished them within days to get them entered into the upcoming OwlCon painted figures contest. I entered them in the Historical Unit category and voila!

This is the first painting prize I ever got. I was so proud - it brought tears to my eyes... Also notice the mis-spelling of my nickname. *sigh* But I digress... 


Now I know what you maybe thinking about these bad boys. "Yeah, they're pretty but can they fight?" And the answer to that is a resounding "Yes!" See my earlier blog entitled, "Al Qaeda Fedayeen in Action!" as this unit gets bloodied for the first time and prevails against the vaunted US Rangers in some light skirmishing.

For added flavor let me introduce the team: Mo (short for Mohammed) sporting an RPD support LMG.  He's done up in the latest in urban guerilla fashion.  His head dress is typical and indicative of his tribal association.  Muted colors of blue and brown are in vogue for this season.  Fabrics are wash and wear with, of course, breathable Egyptian cotton. Footwear is the standard Iraqi Army combat boots circa late '80s.

But all seriousness aside, here's the team sharp-shooter and all around bad a$$: Ali-bubba. Born and raised in the south, doncha know?

Ay Kay, the team's weapons expert is usually on point. He likes the AK47 like most of his ilk and is rarely leaves home without it.

Finally, the not so famous Al of the Saudi Bin Ladens. He's a cousin of an infamous Bin Laden. 

On maneuvers and spoiling for a fight. Practice, practice, practice...

For some recent action they were involved in see my recent blog post:

http://thehistoricalminiaturist.blogspot.com/search/label/DoW

Al Qaeda Fedayeen in Action!

A couple of years ago, I took a break from Flames of War (FoW) and dabbled in a modern skirmish game called Dogs of War (DoW) for small unit actions made up of 4 men per side.  I enjoy gaming this era b/c of all the cool weapons, situations, etc. Heck, I just love gaming, period! However, I found DoW to be a bit complex and somewhat slow w/ all the charts, record keeping, details and micro-management.  I wasn't going to learn this system b/c of what I just mentioned and I was still in the search for an easier and relatively smoother skirmish rules set.  Fortunately, Patrick, who owns the game, really knew how to run it. I've since had a couple of scenarios that I truly enjoyed playing. 

Prior to this battle, much hype and buzz was generated at the store for the type of miniatures available to paint.  DoW also features a fine catalog of units to choose from. So I ended up choosing units that are colorful, infamous and cool to paint hence Al Qaeda Fedayeen and Soviet Paras (now if you know me, you'll realize that I have this fascination with things Russian. It seems like I have a Russian unit for whatever era it is that I'm interested in.) At any rate, I'll be blogging about each unit separately in the upcoming days. 

I immediately got down to painting the Al Qaeda and here's some shots of them in action against US Rangers in an unnamed Middle Eastern town. The game was played at Montags'. Guy (the owner) really did a great job scratch building the roads and buildings for this table. 

On to the action...

Our skirmish started w/ a fierce fire fight because of the Rangers' (run by Hunter) infiltration with the vaunted Blackhawk (behind the building and in the background) was discovered by the diligent Fedayeen. We used a civilian style H2 Hummer model to simulate a Humvee.

The fire fight continued across the roof tops.  My ambush worked as can be seen with the green gems denoting hits on a figure.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, a die roll resulted in the recall of the Blackhawk, losing their air support and exposing them to additional dangers. "Haha... Unbeknownst to the infidels, our tank support is coming up on the Humvee." 

"Here comes my cousin, Abdul and our tank support." - Watch out Humvee!

Too late! Toast!

Well that was fun. Nowadays, I'm happy to report that I did find a quick and easy rules set for skirmishing from Two Hour Wargames (THW) called Nuts! It's actually a WW2 skirmish rules set but the system is so flexible that I've been using it for modern w/ my Al Qaeda and Soviet Paras.  Here's a link to a batrep of a recent fight that both units were in:

http://tacticalminiaturesgaming.blogspot.com/2010/03/nuts-batrep-hostage-rescue.html

Read all about it. Thanx Veloci (LTLDad) for the excellent batrep.