Monday Workbench 28 May

It's been a bank holiday weekend here in the UK and I have taken advantage of the extra day off to get a decent amount of hobby stuff done. You might think that with all those Australians to paint that I'd have finished the batch I had started on Monday and cranked out another batch.

Well, you'd be wrong. I got a bit distracted by thoughts of Gaslands and decided to prep some cars for teams to run some games at the club. This involved working out some small teams, selecting suitable vehicles for them, disassembling them, stripping the paint jobs, and then adding mesh in the windows and various weapons. And here they are:

That'll be five 40-can teams. I'll get them primed at some point this week and then I'll probably paint them next weekend.

I also finished off adding basing texture to the Sarissa huts:

Now I just need to do some additional washes to the woodwork.


However, today I managed to do all the highlighting, final washes/glazes and adding a Klear coat to the current batch of Aussies. I'll need to spray them with matt varnish at some point this week and then do the basing.

Later on tonight I'll make a start on the next batch. Hopefully I'll make quicker progress with this one and the remainder.

Thursday Workbench 24 May

Quite predictably, I've got a reasonable amount going on at the moment.

On Monday evening I somehow managed to get all of the base colours painted on the next batch of Aussies and the initial shading washes:

I went with a different colour (Beige Red) for the base flesh tone, just to see how it comes out. It should give them a slightly ruddier look hopefully.

Looking at the figures at this stage, it does make me wonder whether I could have got away with painting slightly lighter base colours and then using the Strong Tone. That would have saved me a lot of time and effort. But you lot wouldn't have let me get away with that of course.


Last night I started work on the two Sarissa village huts. I'd primed them white and was going to paint and then shade them but thought I'd see how they'd look just using washes.

I think they've actually come out rather nicely. I'll probably use some more washes (greens and dark browns) to introduce some different shades in areas.

As you can see, I have glued down the base frames to some EPVC bases and painted the basing texture that has been applied so far. Once I've finished shading the wood, I'll glue the steps into place and add basing texture to the rest of the larger base. The huts can then be glued onto the frames once the painting and drybrushing is done. Later on I'll add some foliage bits, probably at the same time as I do that for the figures.

Musing on Australian Expansion

I've been thinking a bit about expanding the Australians and looking at what figures I'd need and what is available.


Papuans

At the moment I've got six riflemen, a 2 man Bren team and three with Owen guns. As the Owen guns weren't issued until 1943, that leaves me with a short section for 1942 actions.

The obvious solution is to buy the Warlord section pack (9 rifles and 1 Owen gun). I expect Eureka will be adding to the range, so I might be able to get some more from them at some point. I should also add an officer and senior NCO (who would be Aussies) - I'll probably buy some Eureka figures for these.


Kokoda Trail Campaign

The main units involved in the fighting withdrawal were the 39th Battalion (Militia) and the 21st Brigade of AIF 7th Division. They were later joined and/or relieved by 25th Brigade. 53rd Militia Battalion were also sent forward as reinforcements.

Militia

In 1942 the Militia would mostly have been in shorts and socks, so the obvious choice is to use 8th Army figures. Strangely, there don't seem to be many 28mm metal figures available - just some from Artizan and Perry (Vickers and 3" mortar teams). Warlord's Militia section looks much more suitable for the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles, which would be an interesting unit to have anyway.

That probably means going with the Perry plastics (with their metal Aussie slouch hat heads) for the Militia, plus a few Artizan and the Perry support weapons. Unless anyone can point me in the direction of some other 28mm metal 8th Army I haven't spotted.

Weapons-wise they were rather poorly equipped at the start of the campaign - mostly rifles, a few Tommy guns and a few Brens. I'm not sure if they had anything heavier than that (the 53rd certainly don't seem to have had anything more than Brens, which were only issued with some minimal training after they had moved up the trail). I guess I can do without the heavier stuff for them.

21st Brigade

The 21st arrived at Port Moresby in khaki drill and headed straight up the trail to reinforce the 39th. They would have been in long trousers (although some switched to shorts during the campaign) and would likely have been in a mix of helmets and slouch hats during the fighting.

I've got more options for these - Artizan's 8th Army rifle, Bren and command packs have figures in long trousers. The Perry metal range has rifle, command and Bren teams in battle dress trousers. There are also the Eureka figures (which come as helmet or slough hat). I'll probably go with a mix and could also use any left over plastics for some men in shorts.

25th Brigade

The 25th arrived at Port Moresby slightly later and had been issued with (hastily dyed) jungle green uniforms. That's a relief - I can use the figures I'm currently painting for them. Minus the Owen guns as they wouldn't be issued until the next year. That does leave them a little short on SMGs though - just two figures with Tommy guns.(one Warlord, one Artizan). I suppose the solution to that is to get a pack of Chindits with Tommy guns from Wargames Foundry. Hmmm, they're at Broadside in a few weeks time...


Independent Companies

These chaps had some rather interesting campaigns, which would be fun to fight out. In Timor, one of the companies (and I should note that they were large companies - nearly 300 officers and men) occupied the attention of an entire Japanese division for a year (having been thought missing in action for three months until a signaler rigged together a working radio from various other sets).

I've just finished painting the Warlord section, so that's a start. I could sub in some of the jungle division troops to make up numbers (and maybe some of the Warlord Militia section?), but it would be nice to bulk the force out with some other figures. Some of Artizan's North Africa/Mediterranean commandos might fit, but I'd need to do head swaps, although the lack of any swap heads with berets could be an issue. This may need some more thought.


Vehicles and Artillery

Vehicles

Obviously not for the Kokoda Trail campaign, but in later campaigns there were various vehicles involved - the ubiquitous Jeep, Universal Carriers, Stuart light tanks, Matilda II infantry tanks, Grant tanks and the LVT4 Buffalo.

It might be nice to add a couple of tanks - a Stuart and a Matilda - for bunker clearing scenarios.

Artillery

This would normally be off table for Chain of Command, but it could form an objective for a Japanese raid or counter attack. The Aussies used a short 25lb field gun in New Guinea, which I think Warlord do. Maybe I'll get one at some point.


Phew, that sounds like quite a lot of stuff to expand the force. I guess this will be a rather long term project. Don't forget - I've still got all the terrain to produce, so extra figures (except perhaps the Foundry Chindits with Tommy guns) will just have to wait.

(Not Quite) Finished - 28mm WW2 Australian Independent Company

As with the Papuans, these are finished apart from foliage on the basing. So they count as finished.I'll be adding all the foliage when they are all done.

Anyway, on with the pics:

That just leaves me with 53 figures to paint. I'll be doing those in five batches of nine and one of eight. That should take me through to the end of June. I've decided against adding basing texture before painting them.

Saturday Workbench 19 May

What's this? Another workbench post?

Yep, well, I got a reasonable amount done today so I thought I'd show you where I've got to.


Gaslands Hazard Tokens:

I did the yellow airbrushing this morning, then used a black Sharpie to do the exclamation marks. I'll be giving them a coat of gloss varnish tomorrow.


Aussie Independent Company:

These chaps got a coat of matt varnish this morning. I'll be ddry-brushing the bases (along with the Papuans) tomorrow.


Gaslands Gates:

Original type

New type

I used the airbrush to lay down the metal base coats on these today. I'll do the weathering later this week or maybe next weekend.


Sarissa Far East Huts:

I cut some strips of white card to resemble roof shingles last night, then stuck them on today. I think they look much better. Here's a before and after comparison pic:

This evening I've added Vallejo dark earth to the bases:

Tomorrow the huts will get primed, although I will need to buy another can of white primer first.


The Battlebus:

I did some zenithal pre-shading on the bus this morning, then laid down the main base colours with the airbrush this afternoon. Looking at the photo I realise that I forgot to do the blue on the horizontal strips. I'll have to do that tomorrow. I might also go over the armour plates with a different colour, maybe a dark grey.

I'll carry on working on it during the week.

Friday Workbench 18 May

I've actually been at home sick for the last three days. I thought I was getting better yesterday, but got worse overnight and was grotty again today. That throws a bit of a spanner in the works for my plans to go to Partizan on Sunday as I know I'll need to rest up and getting up early to get the train to Newark isn't going to help with that.

Despite illness, I have managed to finish highlighting the Aussies and given them a wash to tone them down a little. For some reason I decided to use an equal mix of Strong tone and Vallejo green wash which I used on the green and khaki parts, then used straight Strong Tone on the rest of the figure (not the flesh). I think I prefer the straight strong tone as with the test figure. I've given them a Klear coat, added basing texture (Vallejo dark earth) and then painted that when it was dry.

Tomorrow I'll hit them with a spray of matt varnish before dry-brushing the base. I also repainted the bases of the Papuans and will dry-brush those tomorrow.

I think I'm going to add the basing texture to the rest of the figures before painting them. Once that's done, I'll go over them with primer as there were a few thin/missed patches last time.


As I wasn't up to doing much more on the painting front, and with time to fill, I decided yesterday to put together some of the MDF kits I bought at Campaign. I got them primed today:

The hazard tokens will get airbrushed yellow tomorrow. Then I can add the black markings and varnish them.

I also assembled the two Sarissa far East village huts:

I had an accident (well, two) with the lifted one:

but as you can see I have sorted out one of them and found a workaround for the other. I think I will reinforce the inside corners on the raised one to help protect it during transport.

I'm considering putting these huts on scenic bases to protect the steps. I'll cut a base tomorrow and see what I think. I'll also prime the various sections. For the roof, I think I need to do something - the flat shingles (and gap at apex) just look wrong. I'll probably cut some strips of card and glue those over the top. I might do that before priming the roofs.

I also got the battle-bus primed:

I might start work on painting that tomorrow while I have the airbrush station set up. Or at least get some black and white (and maybe dark grey) pre-shading done. If I have time, I might also get some base colours done. I can then work on the detailing in the evenings next week.

Wednesday Workbench 16 May

I've been making slow but steady progress on highlighting the Aussies.

I've got the flesh, uniforms and hats/berets done so far. That leaves the hair, webbing (plus gaiters and hat bands), boots, wood and metal still to do.

The highlights might look a bit bright right now, but they will be toned down when I give the figures a final coat of Strong Tone wash.

I'll be glazing the flesh with a mix of flesh, red and sepia washes.

In case you're wondering about the letters on the bases, they were to indicate which greens I used for base coats for when it came time to do the highlights.

Show Report - Campaign 2018

I have been to Campaign before, but previously it has been as a participant in the team tournaments. I wasn't in a team this year, so I just went up for today as a punter.

Campaign is a small show (a handful of traders about 20 demo and participation games. Plus the team tournaments of course. The venue is a little bit unusual - in one of the halls in the middle of Milton Keynes shopping centre. It's free to enter and for the public to wander through (and join in the participation games if they wish - quite a few do).

The team tournaments this year (that i saw) were Art de la Guerre (ADLG - ancients & medievals), DBMM (also ancients & medievals), Field of Glory (FoG - another ancients & medievals), FoGR (renaissance; individuals rather than teams), Mortem et Gloriam (yet another ancients & medievals), and Sharpe Practice (Peninsular War). There was meant to be a Bolt Action tournament as well, but it seems they didn't get enough entrants.

I got there about 10.30am and had a wander round, taking pics of the participation and demo games before doing a spot of shopping and popping over the the ADLG tables to see how our club's teams were getting on. Our club made up three of the six teams, so I found that two of them were at that point in the club's second civil war of the weekend (later on there was a third club civil war).

The demo and participation games:

I forgot to take a pic of their table?

The tournaments (well, some of them)

DBMM in 6mm

I thing this was Saga of Sharpe Practice in the Congo as well

 

 

 

CLWC Second Civil War 

With pic-taking, shopping and nattering done, I headed back over to the Gaslands table to watch a demo game which was close to finishing. When that was over, I went for another mooch around and natter, then wound my way back just in time to jump in on a Gaslands demo. Some pics from the game:

My buggy doesn't even reach the first gate!

Wiped out and facing the wrong way; carnage among the other buggies

Sneaky reverse and slide to face the right way

Not as classy as my reverse and slide

Beaten through gate 2, but my MG does the biz

Having shot the leader out of the game and with my other opponent so far behind I was judged the winner. It was good fun and there was much carnage.

CLWC Third Civil War

The Loot:

Two foam trays for 28mm figures; two original pattern gates for Gaslands and a 3-pack (I think) of the new pattern gates; A bottle of Khaki Grey and one of Strong Tone wash.


Since getting home (and having resized all the pics) I didn't fancy starting to highlight the Aussies, so I opted for cutting out and beveling the edges of some scatter bases for the rusted cars to go on:

the next step will be sanding the edges. With the longer longer ones I'll also need to add something to help prevent them warping when I add basing texture, probably lengths of BBQ skewer.